Chapter Two: Sidekick Planning- For Dummies

(Sorry it took me so long to update with other chapters lol I had bits and pieces of the chapter 2 and even chapter 3 here and there. I originally had Chapter 2 and 3 together, but I thought it was way too long, so I had cut it in half and fill in the gaps (though, this chapter still ended up pretty long). Chapter 2 focuses on the, at times, silliness of Ralph's and Vanellope's friendship (and contains more pool scenes) ;) I'll be releasing chapter 3 soon, too. Hope you guys enjoy Chapter 2! :D)

(@ Agent BM: Thank you and thanks for reviewing :) )

(@ Moises781: Thank you for the review! I'm glad that you find the two are in character...I felt worried I had really strayed from the Ralph and Vanellope we know from the movie. Hopefully I don't disappoint with this chapters (or the following ones)! ;D)

(@ I'm Reader-anon: I can see where someone could get kinda lost when it comes to the type friendship Ralph and Vanellope have here. Hopefully it becomes more clear for ya in this and later chapters what I personally view the relationship the two to be. Thanks for reviewing! :) )

After a much heated debate on whether she had to wear arm floaties or not, Ralph finally got Vanellope to cave in and she grudgingly put them on. And although it was much to her dislike when Ralph told her she had to stay in the shallow end of the pool until she at least learn how to doggy paddle, Vanellope still complied. At this point, the child was willing to do anything to get in that pool.

"Ok," Ralph began to tell a now exasperated Vanellope, "One more thing, Madam Booger Face." He shoke his massive finger at her. "And it's major requirement."

Vaneollpe sighed. Great, now what? she thought to herself as she looked longingly at the pool, where many of her friends from Sugar Rush were already playing. At this rate, she was never going to get to get in the beautiful, glistening pool.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked frantically.

"Go have a ton of fun, Fart Feathers." Ralph smiled playfully and good- heartedly punched her tiny shoulder extremely gently.

Vanellope eyes widened, too shocked to say anything at first.

Ralph laughed and gently nudged her towards the pool. "Go play already, kid."

Finally, it slowly began to sink in. Her eyes growing brighter, Vanellope's whole face lit up with an incredibly big smile.

"Yes!" she squealed extremely excitedly as she fist pumped the air. "Finally! I GET TO PLAY IN THE...POOL!"

The elated glitched around and squealed in pure happiness. Ralph just smiled at his petite friend's excitement as she took off for the shallow end of the pool.

After a moment, though, the little glitch sped to a stop- when not hearing (or feeling) her big friend's giant feet pounding the sidewalk behind her. Glancing behind her, Vanellope turned to see Ralph was digging in their beach bag, trying to find something.

"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed as he pulled out a book. The giant then leaned back in his chair, set and comfortable.

It took Vanellope a second to take in the sight.

"Uh, aren't ya gonna come play? " She asked him, sounding somewhat anxious.

"Nope, not at the moment, at least." Ralph told her nonchalantly as he looked for the last page he had read in his book.

"Wait..you came all the way to the Game Central Station Pool, just to read some stupid book?" Vanellope asked ridiculously.

"Not just any book, Madam Fart Breath," he smirked and showed her the cover.

" 'Toilet fixing- For Dummies'?" Vanellope read the cover out loud.

"Well, yeah." Ralph told her. "Felix and Calhoun are out of town today, so I have to actually fix my own things now. Which now includes a toilet...thanks to you," he growled at her as an after thought.

"For the last time already, I didn't know that you can't flush marshmallows from Sugar Rush down the toilet, OKAY?!" Vanellope screeched defensively. "How was I supposed ta know they soak up water and that they would clog up your toilet?"

Ralph just shoke his head.

"My question is, why did you do that in the first place...in MY bathroom, nonetheless?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Rancis dared me, ok?!" The child admitted, walking exasperatedly back over to Ralph. "He told me he'd give me two cherries if I'd do it. TWO cherries. From PAN-MAN." She then smirked at him as she came close to his chair. "C'mon, even you'd flush me down the toilet for some of those babies."

"You should've known better than to trust that Rancid fellow." He rolled his eyes mockingly. "And oh, I'd flush you down the toilet for alot of reasons." He slid on his sun glasses. "But I can't, 'cause now it's clogged because of you."

Vanellope ignored the digs.

"C'mon, Ralphie! Can't you just read how to fix it later?" She whined as she tugged at his arm. Ralph looked at her over his sun glasses and sighed.

"Listen, kid. I'm not just reading cause I need to fix the toilet," Ralph began, sounding tired. "It's been a looong week, too. With Felix going out of town, I've been helping him with some side jobs of his these past few days before he left. And, on top of that, we've been running around helping other game characters, fixing and wrecking things. Constantly." The wrecker rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. Seeing that Vanellope wasn't getting the point, he continued.

"So, you know, I've been busy. No real time to relax this week at all. I'm kinda exhausted now." He leaned back further into his beach chair and went limp to prove his point.

Knowing that she was about object (probably just to say that he was just "old" or "lazy" or "needed to work out more to not be so tired"), Ralph quickly added: "We all can't just sit behind a steering wheel all day like some people do."

Ralph couldn't but smirk, knowing that he'd get a rise out of the racing child for it.

Before Vanellope could interject that go- kart racing was just ( if not more so) as exhausting as wrecking things is and, not to forget, she was, on top of that, also the stinking president her game, Ralph cut the conversation short.

"I just need some down time, kid," he told her gently. "You go play with your friends right now, and I'll join ya here in the pool in a little bit, ok?" Ralph went back to his book.

"But...I want by best friend to play with me," Vanellope whimpered, making her eyes going full sad-puppy-dog size.

Ralph usually couldn't resist that look-and Vanellope knew it, too. She pulled this look often with him, just to get her way.

But Ralph had already stuck his nose somewhere inside his book.

"You've got other friends, kid," he told her flatly. "Now go play."

This 'rejection' was all a little too much for Vanellope to be able to handle.

"So, you're not going to play in the pool right now?" She asked annoyingly, double-checking in case Ralph decided to change his mind suddenly.

The wreckor peeked around his book to throw her a pointed look.

"Go get your butt in the pool before I have ta throw you in," he glared.

Vanellope wanted to object, but she could tell by his mumbling about not having "a stinkin' clue" about what "wax gaskets or closet bends in a toilet" are that there was no way he was getting up any time soon. So when he waved her off to prove his point further, she just narrowed her eyes, growled and stomped away.

Man, grown ups are SO weird sometimes, she thought to herself.

As she approached the pool, her fellow racers from Sugar Rush, Taffeta, Rancis, and Candlehead, were swimming and slashing around a bit. Taffeta smiled at Vanellope and called her over to where she was already swimming. Vanellope was slightly relieved to see they were wearing arm floaties, too.

As excited as she was, however, Vanellope was still a little scared to get into a real life pool. Sure, there was the small chocolate pool in Sugar Rush. But this was different.

This was water, in a large pool - and was outside her game as well. If she were to drown or something, she couldn't regenerate. She silently became relieved that Ralph made her wear those arm floaties and to stay in the shallow end for a while.

Vanellope stood cautiously at the edge of the pool before (literally) sticking her big toe in. The chilling touch of the cold water ran up through her whole body.

Okay, Vanellope. Just cause Ralph isn't right here beside ya doesn't mean you can do this on your own, she coaxed herself You got this.

Slowly, she slipped her full foot in, then her leg and so on.

C'mon, Vanellope! All your citizens are watchin' ya right now! She mentall reprimanded herself. Don't be such a chicken.

Before she knew it, she was fully in the shallow end of the pool, which still came up to about her shoulders. The cooling water felt amazing to the touch. She felt completely weightless, like she was floating effortlessly. Giggling, Vanellope relaized how silly she was to ever be afraid in the first place.

She quickly plugged her nose and dunked her head completely under the water. She popped up seconds later, loving the way the refreshing water felt on her face. It all felt like some sort of dream.

"Hey, Princess Vanellope!" Candlehead called to her leader, snapping Vanellope from her real life dream.

"Its President Vanellope, Candlehead," the glitch jokingly corrected her as she slowly swam over by pushing the water back with her arms and legs.

"Right, sorry," Candlehead blushed. "How do you like the Game Central Station Pool? Pretty cool, right?" she continued.

"Uh, heck yeah!" Vanellope gawked. "This place is awesome!" She watched as her own hair floated with her as she floated back and forth slowly.

Candlehead giggled. "You want to play with Taffeta's water toys with us?" she asked shyly.

"Of course!" Vanellope responded not-so- shyly. "Even the president deserves some fun every once and a while with her friends."

This made Candlehead smile as both girls made her way over to where their other friends were.

The Sugar Rush racers, along with some of the other game characters residing in the shallow in of the pool, all began a game of catch with Taffeta's beach ball. That game quickly faded away when Rancis started to playfully splash everyone, making everyone laugh and returned the favor to him, lead by Vanellope herself.

Vaneollpe found herself having was so much in the pool that she even had forgotten all about Ralph for a moment.

But then characters started to pair up as partners to play a game Candlehead made up. Everyone's partners, of course, turned up to be their best friends. They all quickly swam to meet their best friends and wait excitedly by their best friend's side.

All except for Vanellope.

She knew her best friend wasn't even in the pool.

"Hey, you, um, want to be my partner, President Vaneollpe?" Taffeta ask somewhat shyly as she swam up to Vanellope cautiouly.

Vaneollpe couldn't help but hesitate. The pain in her chest grew sharper and deeper. Sure, she loved Taffeta and her other friends from Sugar Rush.

But they were all just her friends.

Not her best friend. Her favorite friend. Her best buddy. Her hero. Who she was a true sidekick to forever.

At that moment, Vanellope wished more than anything that Ralph was in the pool, too- as her partner and best friend.

But no, Felix and that stupid marshmallow had ta go and changed all that fun we were gonna have, the sassy little girl hissed to herself as she glanced longingly over at where Ralph had been lounging- only to see he wasn't there.

Spying him over at the snack bar to get a cool drink, Vanellope saw her chance and decided to take it.

Now was her chance to make her hero pay for him chosing some stupid book over her.

"Uh, sorry, Taffeta," Vanellope quickly told the other racer, who had been waiting for an answer. "There's something I need to do real quick before I can keep playing."

Without waiting for a response, Vanellope quickly glitched out of the pool, onto the fairly dry pavement and raced over to Ralph's empty chair.

When he came back, Ralph found Vanellope had, not only stolen his book, but also his trailered-made sunglasses and his large beach chair. She was wrapped up in her towel, peering into Ralph's book with a mocked expression of deep interest on her face.

"Hmmm...float ball...flush value chain... Hero's Doodie..." she faked read out loud.

Ralph chuckled. "You look like you were having fun in the pool, Verminous Booger Face."

She snorted in reply. "Yeah, way more fun than you've been having."

The little smartie then peered up at him over the sun glasses, which were way too big for her face.

"See how stupid you've been looking this whole time, Stink Brain?" her snubbed at him.

Ralph forced himself not to laugh, knowing she was trying to prove a point and being serious. But instead of looking 'stupid', she looked absolutely adorable- as she always seemed to when she was trying to be serious.

"Yup, real stupid," he told the smartie as he scooped her up and set her in her own beach chair. "Now, if you'll excuse me," he added as he took his book and sunglasses back and sat back down again. "I'd like to go back to looking stupid now."

Ralph laid his back lazily up against the chair once more and took a sip of his smoothie.

Rats, Vanellope thought to herself with an angry huff, my brilliant plan didn't work.

She hastily grabbed their bag and got her own, much smaller sunglasses out. Sticking them on her face, Vanellope leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms defiantly and thought hard.

There's gotta be a way to get Stain Brain in that pool. I need another plan.

She silently watched for a moment as Taffeta, partnered with Rancis, were laughing as splashing Candlehead, who quickly grabbed a water shooter near by and squirted them both with a ton of water. Now it was Candlehead's turn to laugh victoriously.

Just then, Vanellope sat up suddenly so fast it knocked her sunglasses off.

An idea hit her like a ton of bricks. The idea quickly became a plan. Maybe a not well-thought-out plan, but a plan nonetheless.

A plan, Vaneollpe thought, that had to get her hero in the pool. Or, possibly, just get her killed.

Either way, it was a risk any sidekick was willing to take.