Taffyta rushed to the side of the deck and looked down at the fizzy water, searching for signs of Vanellope in the giant waters. At first she didn't see her and feared the worse that she had actually gone too deep for even Taffyta to reach. But then the girl saw a pair of hands emerge from the sea, followed by a head and a loud yelp. "Vanellope!" Taffyta cried and reached her hands out to grab the girl.
Unfortunately every time the girl went to reach out she nearly fell in trying to save Vanellope. The Princess was just out of hands reach and sinking quicker by the minute. Taffyta knew just simply reaching out for her and hoping to get to her in time wouldn't work, she needed a better plan. She turned to observe her surroundings, hoping for a rope or anything she could throw out to the girl but didn't spot one. Taffyta made a mad dash for the banana boat, climbing onto its side and falling in.
The boat had tons of rope and oars for the girl to use but when she went to pull them off of the boat, they were tightly tied down or locked in hinges. Taffyta yanked and yanked at the boating gear, using all her might to rip it off the banana but was unsuccessful. "Help!" Taffyta cried out and continued to pull, making her fingers scream with pain. "Help!" she yelled again and it echoed across the dock.
As if he was summoned with magic, Red suddenly appeared behind Taffyta and skillfully untied the rope that she was pulling on. They gave it one pull and the rope fell to the ground, Taffyta didn't even have a chance to process picking the rope up before Red grabbed it. He wasted no time and jumped off the boat towards the water and threw out the rope to sea. He tied the other end of the rope on the dock and jumped into the soda.
Vanellope was growing weaker by the second and felt herself going under, soda filling her mouth. She panicked remember the feeling of drowning, back when she had tried to rescue Marshmallow, and pushed with all her might to stay above the waves that were dragging her down and out into the sea. Suddenly, just before she completely went under, she felt someone grab onto her and pull her out of the soda. The arms around her were strong and lifted her head high above the waves as they pulled them back to the deck.
Looking up Vanellope first spotted Taffyta grabbing onto the rope and pulling herself and her rescuer onto the deck,then she spotted Red who collapsed next to her as they both fell onto the dock. Taffyta rushed towards Vanellope and wrapped her arms around the girl, kissing her on the cheek and crying into her. Vanellope was completely dazed and couldn't figure out what was happening. First she wondered why Red had been there to save her so quickly, then she wondered how she had managed to get off the dock and into the water so fast anyhow. Then Vanellope realized she had stumbled off when she saw Taffyta's copy in the distance.
Vanellope immediately pushed Taffyta away from her and stood up looking in the direction where she saw the ghost. But no matter how hard she squinted and tried looking for the girl, Vanellope didn't spot her anywhere. "Vanellope what is wrong with you?" Taffyta, who was on the ground after being knocked over, asked angrily standing up and moving closer to the girl. She felt absolutely angered by the girl's actions. First she tried to run away from Taffyta, only to be clumsy and fall into the sea and now she couldn't even let Taffyta hug her after saving her life?
Vanellope turned and looked to Taffyta and then to Red. Red seemed incredibly tired and didn't seem to even care that either girl was safe at the moment. But Taffyta looked as if Vanellope had slapped her right in the face, Vanellope couldn't even begin to try and understand the situation that had just taken place. "I'm sorry..I just….thank you guys, I'm sorry" Vanellope began to say but turned to look for the girl's copy, not understanding why she was suddenly there and then suddenly not. Taffyta looked honestly hurt, unsure what to think of this side of Vanellope. "I'll see you tomorrow Vanellope.." Taffyta said and went to leave, Vanellope turned and watched her go unsure if she should follow her or not.
Red sighed and shook the soda off of him as he walked past Vanellope giving her his usual glare, which seemed a tad bit softer that night, and bowed to her "Gnight Princess.." he said simply and wandered off. Vanellope nodded at him and turned back to stare at the place where Taffyta's copy had been. 'Could she still be alive?'
"That doesn't seem like Vanellope.." Ran said as he, Snowana, Candlehead, and Taffyta sat in the garden behind the castle. He was busy watering some of the lollipop flowers while Candlehead sat down on a bench off to the side of the garden. Both were asked by Vanellope to go water the plants that day but unfortunately for Ran he was doing most of the work.
Snowana had offered to come along, anything to be close to Ran, and Taffyta had seen the small group on her way to meet Vanellope that morning. The girl had come by to talk about the situation last night at the docks in hopes that they could make up again, but Vanellope had left early with some guards to explore the docks again. As to why she was doing that when she nearly had been deleted due to her clumsiness, Taffyta didn't know.
Instead she shared her troubles with her friends. "I agree with Ran, Vanellope just flipping out and falling off the docks?" Snowana said and shook her head, "It just doesn't sound like our Princess, plus why were you guys even there so late?" Snowana asked and Taffyta blushed, remembering their intense kissing session before the incident. "Nothing, just catching up!" she blurted out and folded her arms, the group noted that Taffyta was obviously doing more than just catching up but decided to let it go.
"She didn't even say thank you?" Ran asked again, still in disbelief. Taffyta nodded, playing with a leaf from a candy tree "It was the strangest thing..one minute we were fine and happy..the next she couldn't even focus on me or Red right in front of her!" . Candlehead who had been remaining quiet the whole time perked her ears up when she heard Red's name, "Wait Red was there?" she asked and smiled a coy smile. Snowana and Ran rolled their eyes and Taffyta sighed, "I swear I've said that a good three times Candlehead…"
Candlehead clapped her hands together, "I swear I bet he has a crush on you Taffyta!" she beamed and Taffyta shook her head, feeling annoyed. "Honestly, he saved our Princess Vanellope at your request and he has been hanging around with you a lot lately!" Candlehead said and used her fingers to count out the other different times he had approached Taffyta. "That doesn't prove anything.." Ran said under his breath and Candlehead shot him a dirty look.
"Besides Vanellope.." Taffyta started to say but silenced herself as soon as she met eyes with all three of her friends. She did want to tell them that they were involved, together, basically dating. But she felt embarrassed and after all of the craziness last night and their arguing beforehand, Taffyta wanted to make up for real with Vanellope before making such an announcement.
"What about Vanellope?" Candlehead laughed and leaned back on the bench, "Honestly if I were you I'd get together with Red, although he can be kind of a bully…he seems to have a soft spot for you!" Candlehead laughed. You could tell that Ran and Snowana disagreed with Candlehead, obviously realizing the relationship going on between Taffyta and Vanellope and rooting for the girls instead of Red.
"Look, have faith in Vanellope…whatever is going on with her..I'm sure she will snap out of it soon." Ran said and smiled at Taffyta. Snowana seemed proud of his answer and flashed him a smile as well. Taffyta sighed and sat down next to Candlehead on the bench unsure of what to do exactly. She liked Vanellope a lot but as the days went by she felt further and further away from the Princess and closer to Red, in the end she wasn't sure what she was going to do.
"So are you sure it was Vanellope's copy you saw?" Marshmallow asked and shuffled his little feet back and forth on the grass. Guards surrounded the deck and all the area surrounding it as well as the banana boat, which almost made it impossible to observe when every few steps you ran into another guard.
"Okay honestly do we need this many guards?" Vanellope asked, ignoring Marshmallow's question, and placing her hands in her hoodie. Marshmallow gave her a look that she knew the answer was going to be yes. "I'm just saying…" Vanellope mumbled and searched the ground for some more clues.
Marshmallow searched the ground as well, almost colliding with an Oreo guard, and tried to continue their discussion together. "But honestly Vanellope..you think it was her?" he asked and the girl nodded, snickering a little as the treat collided with another Oreo guard. "I saw her while I was out here with Taffyta…I'm not sure for how long but she was definitely here…" Vanellope said, sounding positive.
If it were true that she indeed had seen Taffyta's copy and she actually had survived the deleting than there was a chance that she could help them in figuring out why Vanellope had been seeing Nelly around here lately. The bad part about seeing the girl's ghostly figure was that if Taffyta's copy had survived than so had Nellys, meaning that Nelly would once again be a dire threat to the land of Sugar Rush.
"But Vanellope.." Marshmallow said trying to keep up with the girl, "How come you've been the only one to see the girls…Sticky, Nelly and now Taffyta's copy?". The girl scratched her head and truly wondered about that for a moment. It was true that whenever she did see them that either no one was around or it was in her dreams, maybe she was crazy? "I honestly don't know…" Vanellope said, standing there in silence. Marshmallow went to comfort her when screaming could be heard from a distance.
The two immediately looked over to see Minty rushing towards them and waving her arms dramatically in the air. "Princess!" Minty yelled, you could see tears that streaked her face as she approached, "Princess…Swizzle has gone missing..!" she cried and an Oreo guard had to hold the poor girl up as she looked exhausted from her running and crying.
Vanellope looked at Marshmallow who was giving a judgmental look, unintentionally. "Are you sure he hasn't been racing or something…have you checked all over Sugar Rush?" Marshmallow asked. Minty nodded saying, "I couldn't find him all day yesterday, I asked around to the other racers as well and they hadn't seen him in two days or so.". Vanellope seemed worried then, it wasn't like Swizzle to just up and disappear for a few days, she went to Minty's side and pat her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll send out guards to look for him."
But as the day went on the guards kept coming back empty handed, checking in all the places they had hoped to find the boy and even in places they knew the racers would never be in. They checked the docks, the entrance of Sugar Rush, the entire track of Sugar Rush speedway; they even dared going to the area around Diet Cola Mountain. Vanellope then had a message sent out to the other games at the arcade that a Sugar Rush racer had gone missing, hopefully something would come back.
"It's a good thing we have Mark tho.." Marshmallow said as the two of them were heading back to the castle for the day, "He can race for Swizzle..so no one playing our game suspects a thing.". Vanellope had to agree that it was indeed a good thing that Mark was here, but it still upset her that Swizzle was missing.
As if the discussion of racing had somehow triggered it, the alarm sound and Vanellope's face lit up with joy. "Yes!" she said jumping up and down, then taking off for the track. She stopped when she didn't hear the pitter patter of feet behind her, "Aren't you coming?" she asked Marshmallow as he started to ascend the steps. Marshmallow smiled and waved at her, "Honestly..I think I'll sit this one out, go have fun Princess Vanellope!" he said and Vanellope's heart burst as she took off towards the track. They were finally going to let her drive alone without a guard! Although the tragedy with Swizzle and the craziness with Taffyta's copy were going on, Vanellope couldn't help but smile.
