Chapter 2

"You guys ready?" Vanellope asked the gang of racers behind her. Her, Taffyta, Rancis, Candlehead, Gloyd, Jubileena, and Swizzle were all in their karts, parked outside the Tapper's game outlet. The engines died down and the kids jumped out of their karts.

"As ready as we'll ever be." Candlehead replied.

"Good. Taffyta, did you bring the stuff?" Vanellope asked, turning to Taffyta expectantly. Taffyta held up a black garbage bag in her hand, and a sly smile spread across her face.

"Everything you asked for." She replied tossing the bag to Vanellope so she could open it. Vanellope spilled the contents all over the floor, and everyone gathered in a tight circle around them.

"Okay everyone, huddle up." Vanellope motioned with her hands for everyone to come closer. They all wrapped their arms around each other and put their heads together. "Okay, so we've only got one shot at this." She glanced at everyone giving them stern, serious looks, but barely able to contain her own excitement.

"What if something goes wrong?" Jubileena asked worriedly.

"It won't. Not as long as we stick to the plan." Vanellope said, giving her friend a reassuring smile. Jubileena returned her smile and nodded a little more confidently. "Alright, so. The second we pass through that doorway it's going to detect us as under-aged and alert the surge protectors. The only way we're getting in is if we do it without them knowing."

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Gloyd, and Vanellope smirked at him.

"It's called the art of distraction, my friend." She said simply. "Here's what we're gonna do." Vanellope discussed the plan with her gang and they all nodded their heads, bubbling with excitement but also a bit nervous that something might go wrong. "Everybody ready?"

There was a long pause of silence, until Taffyta took a deep breath and put her hand in the middle of the circle. "Ready."

"Ready." Swizzle joined Taffyta and put his hand on top of hers.

"Me too." Candlehead put her hand on top of Swizzle's, and soon everyone started doing the same.

Vanellope put her hand on the very top of the pile with a sly smile, ready to show Ralph and the others who's boss. "Let's get 'em."

Everyone ran to their positions, Vanellope standing just outside the Tapper's portal, and her friends all in their karts, ready to floor the pedal and make a mad dash. Her heart was racing; she never thought she could be this excited and this nervous at the same time. Although Vanellope was never the kind of person to really stop and think about the consequences, so she was more excited than anything else.

"Three, two, one, NOW!"

The karts zoomed by so fast she barely saw anything but a wide blur of colors fly by her straight into the outlet. Her friends were already halfway down the tunnel when the doorway bleeped and flashed blue. The same blue that flashed when the surge protector appeared out of nowhere, with his clipboard in his hand and a stern expression on his face. Vanellope had her hand through the doorway, making it look like she was the only one who was trying to get in.

"Name?" The surge protector asked in a monotone voice.

"Vanellope Von Schweetz." She replied cheerfully, knowing the plan was going perfectly.

"Vanellope Von Schweetz… Von Schweetz…" the surge protector mumbled as he flipped through the papers on his clipboard. He frowned at the clipboard and looked up at her. "You're not old enough to get in here, little miss."

Vanellope faked a shocked expression, trying to contain her giggles.

"I'm not? Oh! Well, I suppose I'll have to do something about that." She said, a smirk slowly spreading itself across her face against her will. The surge protector scrunched his eyebrows in confusion and slight suspicion.

"Do what?" he asked slowly, his head slightly leaning in towards her as if he was trying to read her thoughts and figure her out.

"This!" Vanellope flicked his clipboard out of his hand, sending papers flying everywhere and scattering them all over the floor. The surge protector looked around frantically, waving his arms and trying to catch some of the jumbled papers. Vanellope doubled over laughing because of course he was failing miserably. He directed his attention to Vanellope, glaring at her with hard, cold, electric blue eyes.

"You little brat!" he shouted, tossing the messed and mixed papers behind him and storming over to Vanellope. She only laughed again and dodged his arms when he reached for her. He advanced on her again, but she easily glitched out of his reach. "Come back here!"

"You have to catch me first!" Vanellope teased as she glitched to the other side of the station, quite enjoying the chase. Yep, this was perfect amount of excitement she was looking for.

The surge protector ran across the white marble floor of GCS, and when he finally caught up to her he was panting hard. Vanellope herself was a little out of breath, but she had an advantage over him. Youth. The one thing that was stopping her and her friends from even entering Tapper's. Something was definitely wrong with that picture.

"I…I've got…you…now." The surge protector said between breaths. Vanellope only smiled sweetly at him and shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. As much as I enjoyed this game of cat and mouse, there are places to go, people to see. Can't stick around playing with ya any longer chum. It's been fun! Toodles!" she snickered and glitched her way across GCS all the way to Tapper's and right through the portal. The alarm didn't even go off because she glitched through it, and it couldn't detect her.

The surge protector looked around, trying desperately to see where the child went. But he had no such luck. It was as if she had just disappeared into thin air. He wondered what that whole thing was about. He figured the kid didn't even want to go into Tapper's at all, she just wanted to mess with him. He'd been through that sort of thing before, and he certainly didn't appreciate it.

"Hmph. Kids these days." He said grumpily and vanished with a bright blue blip.