Hello, everyone. Happy New Year!
This contains spoilers for Ralph Breaks The Internet.
It's a bit of short story, but I thought this story was a great way to bring in the New Year! I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Wreck It Ralph or Ralph Breaks The Internet or any of its characters/settings/plot. I do not claim ownership of anything in this story you recognize, nor do I make any profit off of this fanfiction.
A lot had changed in a few short months. Ralph and Vanellope had gone on a humongous adventure through the Internet, and Vanellope chose to stay in the Internet, becoming apart of a game called Slaughter Race, resulting in only one of the best friend duo returning to the arcade.
Sugar Rush was saved, and while it was still popular, it had changed a lot without Vanellope. Some of the gamers were disappointed by her disappearance, and the few that played Slaughter Race were shocked and more than a little confused when they saw a character identical to Vanellope in a completely different game. Ralph actually found it hilarious when the realization spread like a wildfire, and how so many gamers were discussing theories on how Vanellope could've ended up in another game. It was laughable seeing the gamers debate over the topic.
Meanwhile, Felix and Calhoun had adopted fifteen kids and were happier than ever. Ralph was Uncle Ralph to the fifteen racers, and while he loved his adopted nieces and nephews, it still made life at the arcade without Vanellope hard.
Ralph was dealing with it. He still used his Internet pager/hologram to call Vanellope every week. He still had fun with Felix, his brother in all by coding (or his brother in all but blood to use a 'worldly' phrase), and Ralph made more friends throughout the arcade, but sometimes he went to a game in the middle of the night to meet Vanellope until he realized that Vanellope wouldn't be there. He still ordered two Root Beers until he realized that his usual companion wouldn't be there to drink it. When Felix found out about this, he started meeting Ralph every night for a drink, and when they laughed and talked and when Felix sat beside him, Ralph could forget about the pain of an empty seat, the pain of a full glass of Root Beer, the pain of turning to tell Vanellope a joke, only to find nothing but air beside him.
He missed her. A lot. But he still got up every morning and did his job, still tried to have fun without her, and even if it hurt, Ralph was accepting it. Just because Vanellope wasn't always by his side didn't mean she wasn't his best friend. Because they would always be best pals. Something as simple as distance wouldn't tear them apart. Not in a million years.
Knowing that didn't make celebrating the New Year without her any easier.
2018 had been a wild year, and as it ended, the past was being left in the past in order to leave room for a new future. 2019 would certainly be different, and while it may or may not be better, maybe this past month could teach Ralph that an unchanging life may be a safe one, but it wasn't very exciting. Ralph had always viewed change as a bad thing, something that had to be avoided. His life as a hated bad guy had been so awful that when his life changed for the better, he was so afraid that even the smallest change to that new life could reset everything, and he would become an outsider once again.
This past month made him realize that change was inevitable, and change wasn't good nor bad. It all depends on how you view change. You can accept it and use whatever changes occurred to your advantage, use change to become a better you, or you can despise change, turn your back on it and live your life trapped in that mindset. Feeling like one change, one misstep, could bring your world crumbling down, the world you deemed as safe. But when a life is built on pillars of fear- fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of change- it's only a matter of time before that life falls apart.
On the other hand, if you choose to build a life on pillars of hope and courage and acceptance, not to mention reinforcing the walls of your life with a good attitude, your castle, your world, your life will stand strong through even the toughest of storms.
Felix was celebrating the New Year with his wife and kids, and while he invited Ralph to join the celebration, Ralph decided to use the evening to do some thinking, which led to him sitting at the bar alone.
Ralph sat at the bar with a glass of Root Beer in front of him, and he turned to the empty chair beside him, staring at the untouched glass of foaming soda sitting on the counter, and he raised his glass.
"To a new year and a new life," he said before taking a sip of his drink, his eyes closed as he thought back on the wonderful and painful and eventful year 2018 had been and thinking of the new year ahead of him.
"To a new year and a new life," a familiar voice repeated, and Ralph was so shocked by the sudden voice that he nearly choked on his Root Beer. Whirling around, his glass clinking as he dropped it to the table in surprise, he watched as a girl, almost laughably small compared to his large stature, sipped at her own glass. She placed the cup on the counter and smiled at him, a glitch rippling through her body, and Ralph realized how she had gotten to the chair so quickly without him noticing.
"Geesh, Stink Brain. You think I'd been gone for a year instead of a month with the look you're giving me," she chuckled.
Ralph shook himself out of his astonishment, and he smiled.
"It's felt like a year to me," he told Vanellope, and the black haired girl leaped up to give him a great hug. Ralph laughed as he wrapped his arms around his best friend.
"Now who's acting like they haven't seen me in a year?" he chortled. "I'm glad to see you, but what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Slaughter Race?"
"Ralph, you didn't seriously think I'd miss celebrating New Year's with my best friend?" She giggled.
Ralph shrugged. "Well, I am a notorious numbskull," he joked. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too," she told him. "Happy New Year, Ralph."
"Happy New Year, Vanellope," he responded.
Ralph had been trying to convince himself that this year wouldn't be so bad, but spending the holiday, the first day of 2019, with Vanellope, his brain finally realized that although so much change had occurred in a short amount of time, that didn't mean he couldn't make this year a good one.
As he clinked glasses with Vanellope, his best friend in the entire world, he knew that 2019 would be the best year yet.
Not the most exciting story, but heartfelt all the same.
2018 has been a rough year for me, so I have many New Year's resolutions that will hopefully help me to have a better attitude about life and get me on the path to being a better me. 2018 brought a lot of struggles for me, and I didn't always make the best choices. I've been mean and rude and selfish, and I've made mistakes, but I'm using 2019 to start over, to write a new story (metaphorically and literally. Ha ha. Bad joke, I know). To be the person I want to be.
Anyway, enough with the mushy, gushy stuff. One of my New Year's resolutions is to embrace change instead of rejecting it. I learned the hard way that rejecting change only makes things worse, so I hope that having a better attitude about change will help. That is the message of this story.
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the story, and thank you so much for reading it! Have a nice day!