Best Bet
The day went on smoothly. Vanellope was picked by the gamers countless times and won races many more times without even glitching during most of the races. When the arcade closed, the racers gathered at the starting line.
"You all remember the rules we discussed last night." Vanellope said. "But just to keep it interesting, how about we add something else?"
"Like what?" Taffyta questioned.
"I'm going to bet my rare nougat that I've been saving for a special occasion." Vanellope offered. "What do you guys got?"
"I have Tamasaburo." Oreanna said.
"I have imported sugar cuban lollipops." Taffyta said. She pulled out a box from her pocket and opened it. Inside were a dozen red lollipops. She pulled one out and put it in. Everyone looked at her. "These aren't them. I just haven't had one in a while."
"You've gotta lay off those." Rancis commented. "You're addicted and it's not healthy."
"Hey, I'm not addicted. I can stop any time I want." Taffyta snapped. Everyone shrugged it off and continued.
"I have two cases of rocky road ice cream." Candlehead said.
"Not valuable enough." Vanellope said.
"How about a case of chocolate malted crunch ice cream?" Candlehead asked. The others looked at each other and nodded, saying that it would do. Candlehead smiled.
"Anyone else in?" Oreanna asked no one in particular.
"I have mini flavorized sweet seeker pellets." Jubileena said. She pulled out a bag of glowing red-orange candies that resembled real sweet seekers. (someone correct me on the color of sweet seekers if I'm wrong) "All the destructive power of a sweet seekers turned into flavor." After everyone took a good look at the bag, they stared at Gloyd.
"What?" he asked.
"Gloyd, if there are two people in this kingdom we expect to have rare candy, it's you and Swizzle." Taffyta said. It was true. Gloyd made big risks to get candy that you couldn't find even in Sugar Rush. Swizzle had a whole collection of candy that didn't regenerate.
"I haven't gotten anything recently. I try to lay low." Gloyd said, taking off his hat with his left hand. His right foot lifted off the ground for a second then it was back on the ground. "But I do have a bag of Rare Candies." He pulled a bag of two hundred individually wrapped sweets out of his hat and put it back on his head.
"What kind?" Rancis asked.
"Rare Candies from Pokemon." Gloyd answered. Immediately every Sugar Rusher's eyes widened. Everyone did a quick glance around to make sure no one was listening.
"Those are impossible to get." Vanellope said. "Each one is worth Swizzle's whole collection of rare sweets." Contrary to popular belief, Rare Candies weren't for Pokemon. They only ate it to get stronger. Each one was rumored to have so much flavor that it would kill the consumer.
"Which is why I am only betting ten of them." Gloyd said. "When I find an occasion worth celebrating with these, I'm CELEBRATING."
"How did you even get those?" Adorabeezle asked.
"I am not at liberty to divulge that information." Gloyd said. Vanellope was about to question further but Gloyd stopped her. "I pleed the fifth!"
"What?" Jubileena asked.
"Nothing. I'm just not answering." Gloyd said. He turned to all the other racers. "Anyone else joining in?" Swizzle stepped up.
"I'm not missing out on a chance to obtain those." he said. "I'll bet ten cannoli."
"I thought you couldn't find those in Sugar Rush." Oreanna said.
"They only regenerate a year after they've been eaten." Swizzle said. "I have all ten of the available ones."
"Is that everyone?" Vanellope asked. "Remember, if you don't bet anything, then you don't win anything, even if you're the first to cross." No one moved. "I guess that's it. The race still costs one gold coin." She took out a gold coin and threw it onto the platform which threw it into the trophy on top of the finish line. She heard cheers from the crowd of candy citizens. One by one, the other racers put their coins in and got similar reactions. After everyone put their coins in, they lined up at the starting line.
"Your candy's mine, Gloyd!" Taffyta said, finishing her red lollipop and flicking it away. He looked at her and laughed.
"You really think so, Taffyta?" Gloyd asked sarcastically. She nodded with a confident look. "I'll get rid of some extra weight then." He took off his hat and threw it up and to the side of the road. "That should do it."
"How's that gonna help?" Taffyta said. "Getting rid of your hat won't do any-" She was interrupted by a loud crash. She looked toward the direction of the sound and saw Gloyd's hat in a huge crater on the ground.
"That hat weighs as much as my kart, if not more." Gloyd said. Taffyta had a look of pure shock on and Gloyd found it priceless.
"How can you lift that thing?" she asked, completely unbelieving what she just saw. Gloyd shrugged and said he didn't know. The shock that was evident in her face was replaced with determination. "I'm still gonna win!"
(3...2...1...GO!)
Gloyd, having the most speed regularly, coupled with the loss of his extremely heavy hat, immediately shot ahead of everyone else. Oreanna was next, almost a full mile behind Gloyd, Vanellope was quickly gaining on her.
"There's no way we can beat Gloyd, he's too fast!" Oreanna said.
"Yes, he's too fast." Vanellope said. "He's going to need really good reactions to turn that kart when he needs to." Vanellope stated. They came upon a row of power up boxes and received Sweet Seekers. She turned the gun and shot Oreanna. Oreanna spun around and came to a full stop. Vanellope looked in her rear view mirror and noticed Taffyta catching up. Vanellope turned her gun again and aimed it at the pink clad racer. The second shot was fired and Taffyta was also sent spinning away.
Vanellope didn't fire the last one yet. Instead, she tried her best to catch up as much as she could. She approached the gumball valley and saw Gloyd narrowly avoiding a gumball and then getting hot by another. He regenerated a second later and tried to regain his speed. Vanellope passed him and avoided giant gumballs the rest of the way out of the canyon and continued to Cake Mountain.
Jubileena approached Vanellope with a recently acquired ice cream cannon. Gloyd had regained his speed once he left the gumball valley and was quickly getting ahead, cruising by Jubileena and overtaking Vanellope. Vanellope aimed her last sweet seeker at Gloyd. Jubileena aimed her ice cream cannon at Vanellope and fired. Vanellope, noticing the glob of ice cream coming straight for her, repositioned the sweet seeker gun and shot it at the ice cream projectile. The sweet seeker hit the ice cream, which had stopped in midair and fell on Jubileena, and passed through the glob. It changed course and hit the next racer which was Rancis.
Vanellope had just made it to Cake Mountain and did her best to catch up to Gloyd, who had trouble turning. He was almost at the top when Vanellope approached. He was turning when Vanellope had come up alongside him and pushed him off the edge of the road, causing him to fall half way down the mountain. Oreanna approached from behind. Vanellope looked at her.
"Maybe that was a little over the top." she admitted. "Remind me to apologize for that later." Oreanna nodded and then the two hit a row of power up boxes. Oreanna gained a cherry bomb and Vanellope gained sugar rush. Vanellope used her upgrade as soon as they reached the tunnel at the top of the cake. Oreanna couldn't catch up so she used her cherry bomb at the tunnel entrance. Once they made it out of the tunnel and drove off the ramp, they landed on the next portion of road, Vanellope a little farther ahead.
Suddenly, Vanellope and Oreanna were both hit by sweet seekers. They looked up and saw Candlehead driving by them. She looked back and shot one last sweet seeker at Gloyd who was catching up, again. Vanellope drove slightly faster to get a power up box and got sticky syrup. She turned her kart in front of Gloyd and used the power up so that he was stuck. Oreanna passed him and the siblings drove miles ahead of him.
Eventually, he shook himself loose after Taffyta, Rancis, Jubileena, and Minty Zaki had all passed him. He was about to drive as fast as he could when he was hit by a sweet seeker from Adorabeezle and then the rest of the racers passed him. Frustrated, he accelerated to his top speed and made his way up to fourth place right after getting out of the rainbow cave.
He grabbed a power up box from the last set. He shot each one at the three leading racers: Candlehead, Vanellope, and Rancis. Each one hit it's mark perfectly and he passed by them. Smirking, he drove as fast as his kart would allow and approached the finish line. The grin on his face grew as he looked back and saw Vanellope half a mile behind him.
He was only ten seconds away from the finish line when something landed on his kart. Upon closer inspection, Gloyd realized that it was a boy, barely holding on to the hood. Instinctively, Gloyd hit the brakes and whoever fell on the Kernel was launched forward. He hit the ground and rolled over the finish line. Suddenly, in the middle spot of the roster screen, there was a red in the place of a picture of a racer. Vanellope crossed the finish line next, which made Gloyd snap back to reality and drive the last ten feet of the race. Gloyd grabbed his coin and drove over to Vanellope.
"Two questions." he said. "One, who is that? And two, why is it that when he crossed the finish line, the featured racer spot turned red?"
"I don't know." Vanellope said. "I've never seen him before. But the red spot I recognize."
"What is it?" Oreanna asked, pulling up next up the two.
"It means that it's my choice to give him the spot on the roster." Vanellope answered, pointing to the unknown boy who was assumed to be unconscious. "Let's get him to the castle." Vanellope drove her kart to the unknown boy. She jumped out of her kart and, with difficulty, put him on the back.
Gloyd, remembering his hat, ran over to where he threw it. He crouched down and grasped the rim of his hat. He pulled it up and lost balance, falling over. "I'm gonna have to get used to the weight again.