A.N. Sooo sorry for the super late chapter! I just had writer's block for a while, and then finals happened, and Christmas and I really just didn't have enough time to work on this! But don't worry, I'm back and ready to keep writing now! Thanks for being so patient with me! ~BeccaFae


Vanellope glitched out into the hallway and halfway up the stairs before stopping to let us catch up. I giggled and shot one last teasing look at Spritza before running out and following the president. I heard my twin heave an exasperated sigh and then she came running after me. The president smirked and forged ahead, twisting through so many halls that I started getting dizzy. Finally, she stopped in front of an old, cracked door. Knocking out a quick pattern on the wood, she turned the knob to reveal... a closet. I bit back a laugh as Vanellope muttered something under her breath and closed the door again. She hastily knocked a new pattern and turned the knob again.

"Limes and lemons..." I heard my sister breath when she caught sight of the room. It was no longer a closet, but rather a dimly lit room, with dusty tapestries on the walls and furniture shoved haphazardly into the corners. A musty curtain blocked the sugary light outside from penetrating the room. In fact, about the only thing that didn't look old and rotted was a table that dominated the center of the floor. Vanellope smirked at Spritza's reaction and sauntered up to this piece of furniture, easily weaving around piles of sugar glass and pieces of splintered wood in her path. The surface of the table lit up and started glowing softly in various colors as the president neared it.

"Welcome to the map room." She said, spreading her hands and then tucking them into her hoodie pocket. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

Spritza glanced around nervously as we stepped into the room. "It's a bit..." She trailed off, evidently unsure how to phrase her comment.

"Broken? Old? Dangerous maybe?" Vanellope suggested, wrinkling her nose up at my twin, who nodded sheepishly.

"This is amazing!" I broke in, my excitement bubbling over, per the norm.

"That too." The president acknowledged, smirking again. "Okay, come check this out." She motioned us over and leaned against the table, waiting while my sister and I picked our way across the litter strewn floor. "This is a map of all of Sugar Rush." She explained when we finally made it over. She gestured to an area near the mountains that had a symbol for a waterfall. "This area is brand new. No prizes for guessing why." She chuckled and tapped the symbol twice, causing the map to zoom in on a huge, brown waterfall and the land around it. "This is where your houses will be." She waved a hand over the map and it beeped once before going black. She stepped away and crossed her arms. "The thing is, we don't have any plans for houses to put there."

"So, what are you gonna do?" I asked curiously, looking up at her. She smiled as if I had said something very wise.

"I'm not gonna do anything. But you're going to design your houses." She turned a knob on the side of the table and the screen came to life again, but this time it simply showed two blue grid sheets. She tapped a few buttons on the screen and then scooped the papers off of the table (don't ask me how she did that, I still don't know) and handed one to each of us.

"B-but, how?" Spritza spluttered as she took the paper.

The president raised an eyebrow and mimed out writing something in the air. "You draw it, and then my construction crew will build it."

"I know, but, we're racers not architects!"

"Uh huh. I see. Well, if you prefer, I can always ask Taffyta or Swizzle to do them for you."

"What? Why them?"

"Because Taffyta spends half of her free time working on her car, trying to get it better than all the rest of ours. She has honed her engineering skills over the past 15 years, and I believe it would be very easy for her to design a good, sturdy house. As for Swizzle, he's a daredevil. He's constantly designing new ramps or machines for his crazy stunts."

"Oh, we can do it Spritz." I nudged my twin and wrinkled up my nose. "It'll be fun!"

She sighed in defeat. "Okay, I'll give it a shot."

"Alright then! Hop to it!" Vanellope clapped her hands and shooed us out of the room, shutting the door behind us. Spritza sighed again, this time more for a dramatic flair, and trudged back to her borrowed room, probably to adjust her outfit again. I on the other hand, decided to get started right away.

Grabbing a red pencil from one of the castle servants as he walked past, I skipped to the nearest sitting room. I spread my paper out on a coffee table and plopped down on the couch behind it. "Okay..." I tapped the end of 'my' pencil on the table for a few moments. "Houses, houses..." I muttered to myself, suddenly at a loss as to what I might want in my house. I must have imagined having a place of my own hundreds of times before, at least in my 'memories'. But now that I had a chance to actually have one, and design it all as well, my mind was blank. So I stood up, walked around, listed things that I liked, but it was no use. I didn't even know where to start! Finally I sighed with frustration and snatched my stuff off the table. Muttering under my breath, I stomped up several flights of stairs, down a bunch of hallways, checked all the similar looking doors until I finally found the right one. "Ritta?" I called, poking my head into the room.

"Hmm? Coca?" My sister looked up from a desk, lucky duck somehow got all the cool stuff in her room. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh... How are you doing on the house thing?"

Spritza looked a bit surprised, yet she smiled and waved me over to her. "Pretty good, actually. I don't know why I was so worried, it's actually really easy!"

"Really?" I moved to stand beside her and peered at her blueprints. "How did you even do that? I can't think of anything!"

"After all the years of wishing you had your own place?" My twin asked incredulously, looking up at me.

"Well, those weren't real." I protested.

"Yeah, but we still have memories of it." Spritza argued. I opened my mouth to say something else but then found that I couldn't think of a thing to say. So instead I just stared down at my sister's design. I felt her curious eyes on me for several moments, and then her voice cut into my self pitiful thoughts.

"Do you want me to help?" I glanced at her and then back to the desk before nodding slowly. She chuckled and probably rolled her eyes before grabbing my empty paper. She spread it over her own and then took my hand. "Look, all you do is draw a line, and go from there." She guided my in a simple, sweeping motion just above the paper. She smiled at up me and let go, signaling for me to try. I glanced at her and then looked at my paper. Taking a deep breath, I carefully started sketching my new house. And somehow, this strange new world felt a little bit more like home.