I know it took a little bit, but here's the next chapter! I hope you guys have been enjoying my story, and once again, thanks for the reviews! I get lots of good ideas when I read them, and I really appreciate the feedback! Please enjoy this next chapter!
I don't own Wreck It Ralph, only Lemona Lime. But you guys already knew that, didn't you?
Chapter 9
Vanellope felt like something was wrong the moment Lemona came out of her room with most of her hair completely chopped off and her black cloak draped over her shoulders. Her jaw dropped at the sight, and words spilled out of her mouth like vomit before she even had time to think about them. "Jeez Lemona, what happened? Your hair looks like you got bubble gum stuck in it and you had to cut it out!"
Lemona didn't respond, though what looked to be a scowl started to appear on her face. But then she gave her head a quick shake and the expression was gone, though her mouth remained in a stiff line, like an old piece of liquorice. "Just felt like a change, that's all," Lemona muttered darkly, helping herself to a large pile of sour candy that was on a plate in front of her. "It was getting in my way."
Vanellope opened her mouth to make another quirky comment, but a glare from Ralph made her stop. Any jokes she tried to make would most likely go unappreciated by the grumpy glitch. So instead, Vanellope asked, "So, um…How are you feeling?"
"Never better," was Lemona's dry response. She chose that particular moment to pull her cloak's hood off of her head, revealing the bright red scar on her neck. Vanellope winced at the sight; she still felt bad about what had happened to her friend, and Lemona's strange attitude wasn't really helping the matter. If anything, it was making it worse.
Gathering up the courage to speak again, Vanellope provided a weak smile and jerked her thumb in the direction of the other characters at the table, Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun. "Well, I'm supposed to be racing today, and these three are planning on watching if you want to join us. Or if you'd like, I could ask Candlehead to take my place on the roster board and we could find something else to do."
"No thank you," was Lemona's emotionless response. "You do remember what happened yesterday when you suggested we do something different, don't you? It didn't work out so well."
Vanellope winced again as did everybody else in the room. But Lemona didn't seem to notice as she continued to speak, popping another sour candy into her mouth and swallowing it without shuddering. "I actually thought I'd take a little bit of time to practice driving again. I know it's not in my code, but I would like to see what it's like. From the amount of time you and the other racers spend talking about it, it seems like an absolutely breath-taking experience."
Vanellope's hazel eyes narrowed as she watched Lemona, and she almost asked if her friend was positive that she was feeling alright. The way that she had said the words 'breath-taking' almost sounded sinister and there seemed to be a glimmer of something unidentifiable in her eyes, though there was no way Vanellope was going to believe that her friend was acting that way intentionally. "She's most likely just a little bit angry about all the bad luck that's been thrown her way and maybe a little bit jealous," she thought. "Honestly, who could blame her?"
"Well, we moved your cart to the room beside your bedroom. If you'd like I could push it to the beginner's track before we leave for Vanellope's race," offered Ralph, watching the glowering girl carefully. He too sensed that there was something off about her, but didn't want to jump to any conclusions.
Lemona's eyes darted in Ralph's direction, though her face remained expressionless. "Thank you very much for your kind offer Ralph, but I think I'll be able to manage." She could feel everybody's eyes on her, and instantly knew that she had to change the way she was acting, otherwise they'd get even more suspicious. Forcing a smile onto her face, she made her tone a little bit lighter. Hopefully the next thing she said would make them forget all about their concerns. "I hope your race goes well Vanellope. I'll be rooting for you."
The compliment had its desired effect. Instantaneously a wide grin broke on Vanellope's face, and she bounced up so that she was standing on her chair. "Thanks Lemona! I'm not too concerned about the other racers though. None of them have glitching powers like me, so it's almost impossible for them to keep up!" To prove her point, Vanellope glitched a couple of times, disappearing and reappearing in numerous spots in the main hall before ending up back on her chair.
Fury raged through Lemona as she watched what she thought to be an incredibly supercilious display. It was so bad that she forgot to harness the energy and vibes and ended up glitching unexpectedly. Once it was over, she shoved another sour candy in her mouth and sucked on it furiously, trying to conceal her true emotions once more. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice her, too busy watching Vanellope show off. Just as she was about to glitch again, Ralph grabbed her by the back of her mint green hoodie. "Alright President Braggy-Pants, that's enough of that. We'd better get going. You don't want to be late."
"Oh yeah!" Vanellope's body quivered and she dissolved into a mess of blue pixels, only to have them reappear and transform into the eager little girl sitting in the seat of her cart, which was by the main hall's gigantic wafer cookie doors and ready to be driven. "I hope you enjoy your time on the track too Lemona. Maybe if you get really good on the easy one, we can take you to some of the more complicated ones later!"
The statement made Lemona picture the look of distraught that would appear on Vanellope's face as she beat Vanellope and took over the kingdom of Sugar Rush with Turbo, while Vanellope was exiled to another game. The picture was enough to make her smile, and it didn't worry her, as she knew that the others would contribute the action to the idea that she was imagining herself as a racer. "Oh Vanellope, that would be splendid," she all but hissed out through her marshmallow white teeth. The smile stayed on her face as the four characters all left the castle and Lemona dashed to the room where her cart was located, allowing some dark chuckles of pleasure to escape from her. Everything was going so perfectly!
Jiggling the M&M doorknob, Lemona opened the door to reveal her pride and joy sitting in front of her as though it had been waiting forever. There was a thin layer of icing sugar dust coating it from not being used, but it was fairly easy for Lemona to wipe it off before pushing the cart out of the castle and towards the gumdrop track. Excitement was building up in her system, and she froze up a couple of times from glitching as she pushed the cart. Luckily, none of her trip was uphill; otherwise it would have made it more difficult. She didn't find the cart very heavy, but Lemona was still thankful when she was finally able to stop pushing.
The gumdrop track looked exactly the same as it had the first time Lemona had been there, though she knew things would be very different when she placed herself on it this time. It took some time to move one of the gumdrops so she could roll her cart onto the track, but eventually she and her cart were sitting there ready to go. Lemona pulled her Sour Key out from a pocket on the inside of her black cloak and stuck it into the ignition. The roar of the engine echoed around her as there was no other noise in the area to mix with it. Lemona was completely alone with her cart.
Before she had even started moving, a powerful glitch wracked her body, causing her to cry out in agony. Gripping the steering wheel tightly, she tried to prepare herself for the next one by thinking about how angry she had been when she'd heard Vanellope bragging. She had known that this was going to be difficult, but it was something that had to be done.
Once she had the memory bouncing around her head, she wasn't sure exactly how to proceed. If she opened her eyes, she wouldn't be able to focus on her memories, and ferocious glitching would be the result. She had to try though.
Keeping her mind focussed on her memories, Lemona carefully opened up her eyes. Watching the track in front of her, she released the brake pedal slowly, allowing her cart to begin to inch slowly around the track. Unfortunately, her assumption was accurate, and because her attention was not fully on her memories, the kicking glitches were able to escape and reveal themselves on her skin, causing her body pain and her cart to fly into the gumdrop wall. Lemona took a few minutes to take a couple of deep breaths and calm herself down, but then she was right back at it. Her grip tightened on her steering wheel with every attempt, but no matter how hard she tried, driving with her eyes open just wasn't working. Finally she decided her only other option, even though it was absolutely ludicrous, was to try driving with her eyes closed.
"This is something experienced drivers would brag about being able to do," Lemona griped to herself, not finding the irony of her situation funny. "Yet here I am, the girl who's only driven twice with both times ending in failure, ready to attempt it. I must have a jelly bean for a brain."
It had to be done though. Knowing this, Lemona took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and released the brake pedal. Her cart slowly began to inch it's way forward, but Lemona didn't see any of it. "Black…Black…Black…Spots of color…Wait, what? Holy Lemon Hot Cakes!"
Even though Lemona knew it was dangerous to take her hands off of the steering wheel, she found herself releasing her grip with her right hand, which she used to deliver a painful pinch to her opposite side. "Ow!"
Okay, she wasn't dreaming. But if that was the case and her eyes were still closed…why were the blobs of color shape-shifting into the shapes of the various things surrounding her on the track?
Her confusion led to her crashing into another gum drop, and her entire body jerked with the impact. Her eyes flew open, and she saw there was no change in what she saw.
Having no idea what had just happened, Lemona calmed herself down before shifting her cart into reverse and putting herself back onto the track. She had to admit, the incident had been alarming, but a trickle of curiosity inside of her was starting to pour out like a river. What had just happened, and more importantly, would it happen again?
Lemona removed her foot from the brake again, closed her eyes, and sure enough, it wasn't long before she could suddenly see everything clear as day. It startled her, because she was sure that her eyes were not opening without her knowing. After she crashed a couple of more times, she shut her cart's engines off so she could think. Acting startled every time her strange power appeared was distracting her from her angry thoughts, allowing her to glitch. If she wanted to be able to actually drive, she had to just deal with what has happening, no matter how weird and confusing it was.
With that theory in her head, Lemona took a deep breath and shut her emerald orbs for what she hoped to be the last time. Taking hold of the steering wheel with a grip as tight as taffy, her cart backed up and aligned itself on the track. Then, with her hope burning inside of her as well as the same angry memory bouncing around in her brain, Lemona released the brake pedal again.
The cart's movement started off slow, but as the blackness before her turned into the track in front of her, Lemona slowly got more courageous, pushing down a little harder on the accelerator as time passed by. Keeping her mind on her thoughts, her glitches couldn't break through and cause her grief, and she was able to direct her cart without even thinking about what she was doing. Soon she was flying around the circular track, the wind hurling itself in her face, reddening her cheeks and making her shut eyes water. It was so strong that she could hardly feel the water trickling down her cheeks.
To say that driving was an incredible experience seemed like a horrible understatement to the delighted glitch. Objects blurred together into masses of color as she roared past, and Lemona could barely breath as she ripped around the track. Driving made her feel free for lack of a better word, and even as she concentrated on her angry thoughts to prevent herself from glitching, utter joy managed to leak out of her. A smile carved itself onto her face, and she let out a scream of pleasure, for once not caring whether anyone heard her or not. "Woohoo!" If she could have had it her way, she would have spent the entire day flying around that track, but the minute she crossed the finish line, she had an even better idea. Ripping through the hole she'd made in the wall previously, she steered her cart towards the white chocolate castle that she was currently calling home.
Once she arrived, she jumped out of her cart, almost forgetting to shut it off first in her excitement. Running as fast as she could, she started to head towards the fungeon before she got another brilliant idea. Turning around, she directed herself towards the room Vanellope Von Schweetz slept in. The door wasn't locked, so Lemona looked around to make sure nobody was around before opening it and slipping inside.
The walls were salmon colored like the rest of the inside of the castle, but the contents inside the room confirmed Lemona's suspicions; this was indeed Vanellope's sanctuary. The entire wall where the door stood was apparently where Vanellope kept her medals and trophies, and the little cavity had so many that you could hardly tell that there was a wall there. There was a designated area right beside her sponge cake bed where Lemona suspected her cart sat whenever it was not being used, and last but not least, photos of the little pest surrounded by her friends were stuck all over the other walls and the mirror on her dresser, stuck with extra-sticky taffy.
Gazing around, Lemona felt her heart come to a brief halt. How would she ever find what she was looking for with all of the cavity's stuff everywhere? She had no idea how long it would be before Vanellope and the others returned, and Lemona did not want to get caught doing what she was doing. So she gave her head a brief shake and set to work, rummaging through all of the dressers and drawers in search of what she wanted to find.
Just when she was about to give up and just go to the fungeon empty-handed, Lemona spotted the treasure she'd been searching for dangling on a Laffy Taffy string that was hanging on a milk chocolate bed post. She yanked on the string, snapping it, and tore out of Vanellope's room as quickly as she could, not even bothering to put the picture that had fallen down as a result back on the bed post. Her treasure clutched tightly in a sweaty palm, Lemona ran down the steps to the fungeon, only stopping once she'd reached Turbo's cell. Panting and struggling to catch her breath, she couldn't stop herself from letting out a giggle of pleasure as she gasped out, "Turbo…You'll never guess…what happened. I…I did it! I drove! And it was amazing! At first it seemed like I wasn't going to be able to. But then I tried it with my eyes closed, and something weird happened. I was actually able to see everything even though my eyes were closed!"
"Hoo hoo!" Turbo leapt for joy at the news, his silver chains rattling as he did. When he landed, he ran to the door of his cell, his fatherly pride evident on his face. "Oh Lemona! I'm so proud of you, my little lime filled chocolate cordial! Not only are you able to drive, but by doing so you must have strengthened one of the qualities that the programmers programmed you with! It's almost like a superpower!"
Lemona's smile only seemed to grow as she whipped out her treasure to show Turbo: the fungeon keys. "Come on. We can bake you a cart and drive around before the little cavity returns home from her day of racing. No one will even know you were gone."
Confident with her plan, Lemona stuck the correct key into the door's keyhole. Giving it a turn, the door unlocked and opened with an unearthly squeak that told Lemona that it was in desperate need of some syrup. Turbo stepped out of his prison and watched in wonder as Lemona stuck another key into the shackles and unlocked them. They fell to the floor with a clatter, and both watched them silently. Then Turbo's eyes darted up to meet Lemona's. "Lemona…why are you doing this?"
Lemona meet Turbo's gaze evenly. "Turbo, I am a glitch. Racing and driving are two things that aren't even built into my coding. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have been able to set foot in a cart. Now, not only can I drive, I can somewhat control my glitching! I actually feel in control of myself. You've done so much for me…I just need to thank you. You're going to make an incredible king."
Overwhelmed by her emotions, Lemona stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend, burying her face in his shoulder. There was a moment where Turbo did nothing out of shock, but soon his arms folded themselves around her as well. Though Turbo's body was quite cold, just like his hands, Lemona felt content in this position. Not even the fact that she was sour was enough to make her want to pull away. She almost wished that Turbo could take over her actions so that she wouldn't have to move. She had some black liquorice hidden inside of her cloak, so getting out of her predicament wouldn't have been a problem once they wanted to head out to drive. But for now, she was completely at peace.
Which is why her blood ran cold when she suddenly heard a squeaky, high-pitched, feminine voice behind her cry out, "Lemona?"
I really hope you guys like it. If there's any questions you have or things that are bothering you about the story, feel free to let me know. (Just be kind about it) You can also let me know what you like about the story! Remember to review, review, review! Thanks again guys! Until next time!
