Hey y'all! Sorry I haven't updated for awhile. I've been busy with school and then I was kind of depressed for a short time, but all is well now. This is another long chapter, so I hope that makes up for the huge gap in updating. I'm EXTREMELY happy that you guys have been reviewing, they really make my day and encourage me to get updated faster. I'm also happy that people have been putting this story on story alert because I lost a lot of my readers when I deleted the story (I shouldn't have been on the computer at the time due to the fact that I was on the brink of exhaustion and had no idea what I was doing). Anywho, I'd like to thank those who have reviewed and let me know what you're thinking and how I'm doing with this story. A big thank you goes out to Desi-Pari Always for being an amazing friend and giving me strange ideas to use for my stories. Enough of my ranting! Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all rights go to Roald Dahl and Tim Burton. Lyrics belong to Roald Dahl.
Ava's POV
Mr. Wonka led the entire group down towards a ledge of the chocolate river and stopped as if he were waiting for something. In the distance I could hear a beating drum followed by humming. Mr. Wonka looked to his left, everyone following his example. My eyes widened as an enormous pink boat crafted to look like a seahorse came into view. There were about fifty Oompa Loompas rowing in perfect synchronization with silver oars to the beat of the drum that was being conducted by another Oompa Loompa. Once the boat reached us, the Oompa Loompa ceased his drumming, informing the others to stop. The Oompa Loompas observed the group standing before them and started chuckling to themselves. I have to admit that I had to hold back a few giggles that seemed to be contagious.
"What's so funny?" Violet sneered at the Oompa Loompas, still chewing that infernal piece of gum.
"I think it's from all those dog-gone cocoa beans." Mr. Wonka bent down to explain so the Oompa Loompas wouldn't hear. "By the way did you guys know that chocolate contains a property that triggers the release of endorphins, gives one the feeling of being in love?"
"You don't say!" Mrs. Beauregarde replied, attempting to look seductive.
I don't know what came over me, but when I noticed the uncomfortable look on Mr. Wonka's face, something made my blood boil.
"SLEAZE!" I faked a sneeze into my arm.
"Bless you!" Mr. Wonka smiled at me, breaking the awkwardness.
"Thank you!" I smiled back, eying Mrs. Beauregarde who was staring daggers at me.
"All aboard!" Willy gestured towards the boat.
"Sleazes first." I muttered loud enough for Mrs. Beauregarde to hear.
If looks could kill!
I stepped into the boat, avoiding the seat where Mrs. Beauregarde was sitting in case she wanted to shove me into the river, and headed towards the back seat. I sat down, Charlie taking the seat next to me. I giggled as Mr. Wonka avoided Mrs. Beauregarde as well, placing the end of his cane on her seat and stepping onto the one behind her. Mr. Wonka decided to sit in the back with us, probably thinking it was much safer.
"Onward!" Mr. Wonka shouted at the conductor of the boat.
The conductor began beating the drum again, the others rowing in tune to the rhythm. As the boat slowly made progress down the river, Mr. Wonka grabbed a ladle that was hanging on the side of the boat, dipping it into the river.
"Here, try some of this, it will do you good. You look starved to death!" Mr. Wonka handed Charlie the ladle, who gladly accepted it.
"It's great!" Charlie exclaimed, after taking a sip of the melted chocolate, handing the ladle to me.
I put the ladle up to my lips, letting the velvety chocolate run down my throat. "One word: Wow!" I handed the ladle back to Charlie.
"That's because it's mixed by waterfall. The waterfall is most important mixes the chocolate, churns it up, makes it light and frothy. By the way, no other factory in the world m-"
"You already said that!" Veruca rudely interrupted.
Mr. Wonka stared at the group before him with a blank stare, clenching his gloved hand which emitted a squeak.
"You're all quite short aren't you?" Mr. Wonka retorted.
"Well yeah, we're children!" Violet answered in a snotty tone.
"Well, that's not excuse. I was never as short as you!" Mr. Wonka backfired.
"You were once!" Mike rolled his eyes.
"Was not! Know why, because I distinctly remember putting a hat on top of my head. Look at your short little arms, you could never reach!" Mr. Wonka ended the conversation, victory present in his expression.
The fact that Mr. Wonka just debated with a bunch of ten year olds, not including Charlie, made me smile on the inside.
"Do you even remember what it was like being a kid?" Charlie broke the tension between Mr. Wonka and the brats.
"Oh boy, do I!" Mr. Wonka smiled, before his face contorted into a dazed look. "Do I?"
"Now you've done it!" I whispered in Charlie's ear, giggling at Mr. Wonka's far-off gaze.
"All I asked was if he remembered anything from being a kid." Charlie shrugged.
I shrugged as well, having no clue about Mr. Wonka's little episodes. Everyone else was sitting quietly enjoying the scenery as we passed by. It wasn't long until the boat started moving towards a tunnel, a big, dark, scary looking tunnel.
"Mr. Wonka? Mr. Wonka! We're headed for a tunnel!" Charlie stated, snapping Mr. Wonka out of his stupor.
"Oh yeah, full speed ahead!" Mr. Wonka ordered.
The conductor drummed faster, the others now rowing at a faster speed.
"How can they see where they're going?" Violet smacked her gum, as the boat got closer to the intimidating tunnel.
"They can't, there's no knowing where they're going. Switch on the lights!" Mr. Wonka shouted.
"Thank goodness, because I'm afraid of my imagination in the…"
I didn't get to finish my sentence when the boat tipped downward, riding out a steep slide. I grabbed the edge of my seat for fear of being thrown out of it. I'm pretty sure I could feel my stomach in my throat by the time we reached the end of the slide. I let out a breath that I was holding, looking at the other's reactions. I burst out laughing when I saw Mrs. Beauregarde's hair sticking out every which way. She turned around, giving me a death glare.
"Bad hair day?" I asked with an innocent smile, once I contained my laughter.
She ignored the question and turned back around in her seat.
"People, keep an eye out we're passing some very important rooms here." Mr. Wonka gestured to the vault-like doors that were lit up with different colors. Looking to the right, I scanned some of the names of the rooms: clotted cream, coffee cream, and hair cream?
"What do you use hair cream for?" Mrs. Beauregarde turned in her seat facing Mr. Wonka.
"To lock in moisture." Mr. Wonka primped his hair, giggling lightly.
Mrs. Beauregarde had a look on her complexion like he was nuts and turned back around. I'm thinking that was a total turn off for her. I on the other hand thought it was simply adorable and had to bite my lip from laughing out loud. I heard a cracking sound coming from my left and glanced to see a cow being whipped by a few Oompa Loompas standing on ladders.
"Whipped cream!" Charlie smiled.
"Precisely!" Mr. Wonka smiled back at Charlie, seemingly happy for Charlie's brilliance.
"That doesn't make sense!" Veruca turned in her seat, challenging Mr. Wonka.
"How does that not make sense?" I furrowed my brows.
"For your information little girl, whipped cream isn't whipped cream at all unless it's been whipped with whips. Everybody knows that!" Mr. Wonka remarked, shooting Veruca a 'neener-neener' look.
Over the rhythm of the drum that just started going faster again, I could hear the faint sound of rushing chocolate. The boat made a turn into the rapids, dodging various columns along the way. The ride was very jerky compared to the slide and at one point the boat was spinning. I wasn't grabbing the edge of my seat as much as last time and enjoyed this part of the boat ride overall. We reached a calm part of the river again and looked up at this very bright light that was randomly placed in the middle of the ceiling.
"Stop the boat! I want to show you guys something!" Mr. Wonka bounced in his seat.
The boat stopped at a door that had the title 'Inventing Room' in purple lights. We all got out of the boat with little trouble and walked into the very busy room. All around there were all kinds of machines whirling and making funny sounds. At a table there were a ton of beakers with different substances in them and some of them were bubbling. I held back a laugh when my mind wandered to the fish on Finding Nemo who was obsessed with bubbles. Mr. Wonka stood in the middle of the room facing our group.
"Now this is the most important room in the entire factory. Now everyone enjoy yourselves, but just don't touch anything 'kay?"
The whole group scattered around the room to observe the many machines that were in action doing various tasks. One machine caught my eye in particular. The machine was shooting out multicolored spheres into a round tank filled with water, making splashing sounds. I looked through one of the circular windows on the tank and saw an Oompa Loompa scuba diving for the spheres. I wasn't the only one who was interested in this machine because Violet, Mike, and Mr. Teavee came over and took a quick peek as well.
"Hey Mr. Wonka, what's this?" Violet turned from the machine, catching Mr. Wonka's attention.
"Oh, let me show you!" Mr. Wonka replied.
Mr. Wonka reached into the tank, taking a red sphere from the Oompa Loompa thanking him afterwards.
"These are Everlasting Gobstoppers. They're for children who are given very little allowance money. You can suck on it all year and it will never get any smaller. Isn't that neat?" Mr. Wonka smiled.
"It's like gum." Violet claimed, gnashing her gum obnoxiously loud.
"I don't think you can chew on that from the looks of it. It would probably break all your teeth off into millions of tiny little pieces, which I wouldn't mind because your chewing is getting on my last nerve!" I blurted out.
"She's right! Gum is for chewing and if you chewed one of these Gobstoppers you'd break all your little teeth off. They sure do taste terrific!" Mr. Wonka winked at me so fast I almost didn't catch it.
"And this is Hair Toffee!" Mr. Wonka set down the Everlasting Gobstopper and picked up a square piece of candy. "You suck down one of these little boogers and in exactly half an hour a brand new crop of hair will start growing out on top of your little noggin and a mustache and a beard!"
"You have no idea how many bald people will love you for that." I stated.
"Seriously, who wants a beard?" Mike challenged.
"Well, beatniks for one, folk singers and motorbike riders. You know all those hip, jazzy, super-cool, neat, keen and groovy cats. It's in the fridge daddy-o? Are you hep to the jive? Can you dig what I'm lying down? I knew that you could. Slide me some skin soul brother." Mr. Wonka held his hand out for Mike to give him a five.
"How about a soul sister?" I gave Mr. Wonka a five.
When I stepped back, Charlie was giving me a weird look.
"What? I couldn't leave him hangin' like that." I shrugged, Charlie rolling his eyes.
"Unfortunately, the mixture isn't quite right because an Oompa Loompa tried some yesterday and well…"
All of a sudden, what was supposed to be an Oompa Loompa came out of nowhere, his hair hiding his body from view, it even reached the floor. To tell you the truth he looked like a mini Cousin It from The Adams Family.
"How are you today?" Mr. Wonka asked the Oompa Loompa out of sympathy.
The mass of hair lifted up both arms and gave Mr. Wonka two thumbs up.
"You look great." Mr. Wonka laughed awkwardly.
As soon as the mini Cousin It left, Mr. Wonka led us over to a different machine. An Oompa Loompa was on a platform above it emptying some contents from a wheelbarrow into the machine. Mr. Wonka walked over to lever with an anxious look on his face.
"Watch this!" Mr. Wonka grinned with fascination as he pulled down the lever.
Immediately the machine before us lit up, letting out bursts of steam and making a sound like it was about to explode. Mr. Wonka ran over to the side of the machine, while the rest of us moved to the front of it. Suddenly, the arm of the machine extended out towards us, spitting out a stick of gum which Violet took without hesitation.
"You mean that's it?" Mike asked in disbelief.
"Do you even know what 'it' is?" Mr. Wonka retorted.
"It's gum." Violet answered.
"Yeah, it's a stick of the most amazing and sensational gum in the whole universe. Know why? Know why? Because this gum is a full three-course dinner all by itself." Mr. Wonka clarified with excitement.
"Why would anyone want that?" Mr. Salt asked.
Mr. Wonka's smile disappeared as he reached into his coat pocket and took out the speech cards from before.
"It will be the end of all kitchens and all cooking. Just a little strip of Wonka's magic chewing gum and that is all you will ever need at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This piece of gum happens to be tomato soup, roast beef, and blueberry pie." Mr. Wonka recited.
"It sounds great!" I exclaimed.
"It sounds weird." Veruca added.
"It sounds like my kind of gum!" Violet stated, taking out the piece of gum she had already and put it behind her ear.
"I'd rather you didn't. There are still one or two things that are a little…"
"I'm the world-record holder in chewing gum. I'm not afraid of anything!" Violet cut in, shoving the piece of gum in her mouth.
"How is it honey?" Mrs. Beauregarde asked after Violet chewed for a moment.
"It's amazing! Tomato soup, I can feel it running down my throat!"
"Yeah, spit it out!" Mr. Wonka warned.
"If I were you I'd listen to Mr. Wonka!" I advised.
"It's changing! Roast beef with baked potato, crispy skin and butter." Violet ignored us both.
All Mr. Wonka could do was nod with a worried expression present.
"Keep chewing kiddo. My little girl's going to be the first person in the world to have a chewing gum meal." Mrs. Beauregarde bragged.
"Do they have an award for that?" I muttered, receiving a glare from Mrs. Beauregarde.
"Yeah, I'm just a little concerned about the…"
"Blueberry pie and ice cream!" Violet exclaimed.
"That part." Mr. Wonka nodded towards Violet.
"What's happening to her nose?" Veruca asked, Violet sneering at her question.
"It's turning blue." Mr. Salt replied.
Mrs. Beauregarde grabbed Violet by the shoulder, to get a better look. "Your whole nose has gone purple!"
"What do you mean?" Violet rubbed her nose with a confused demeanor.
"Violet, you're turning violet! What's happening?" Mrs. Beauregarde panicked.
"Well, I told you I hadn't quite got it right. It always goes funny when it gets to the dessert. It's the blueberry pie that does it. I'm terribly sorry." Mr. Wonka cringed before ducking behind the gum machine.
Violet watched as the color spread across her entire being. Yet, she's still chewing the piece of gum!
"Mother, what's happening to me?" Violet looked at her mother with wide eyes.
After her entire body turned blue, Violet began to swell from her legs. The swelling got so bad that she was bigger than Augustus and we had to start backing away from her.
"She's swelling up!" Mr. Teavee asserted.
"Like a blueberry." Charlie added.
The swelling didn't stop until she was practically towering over us and you couldn't see her hands or feet. I don't see how her clothes survived the bloating, although her gut was sticking out quite a bit.
Mr. Wonka came up from behind Mrs. Beauregarde, startling her when he started talking. "I've tried it only like twenty Oompa Loompas and each one ended up as a blueberry, it's just weird."
"I can't have a blueberry for a daughter. How is she supposed to compete?" Mrs. Beauregarde asked out of frustration.
"You can put her in the county fair." Veruca suggested.
"Or you can put her in that one American show Biggest Loser!" I added with a smirk.
Mr. Wonka laughed at both suggestions until he saw the look on Mrs. Beauregarde's face that once again spelled 'death'.
In the background, the machines started clinking and clanking to a certain tune. Before we knew it all these Oompa Loompas with weird goggles came from the shadows. I had to suppress a giggle because they were walking like thugs.
Yeah, yeah
Yeah
Listen close and listen hard
To the tale of Violet Beauregarde
This gentle girl, she sees no wrong
In chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Yeah
She goes on chewing till at last
Her chewing muscles grow so fast
And from her face her giant chin
Sticks out just like a violin
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
As a couple of Oompa Loompas were rolling Violet towards the entrance, a few more jumped off from the platforms from above us and formed a pyramid on top of her.
For years and years she chews away
Her jaw gets stronger every day
And with one great, tremendous chew
They bite the poor girl's tongue in two
And that is why we try so hard
To save Miss Violet Beauregarde
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
I didn't realize that I was dancing along with Mr. Wonka when Mrs. Beauregarde came over and gave us a dirty look. We both ceased our dancing as Mr. Wonka gave out orders to a waiting Oompa Loompa.
"I want you to roll Miss Beauregarde into the boat and take her down to the Juicing Room at once 'kay?" The Oompa Loompa bowed, while Mr. Wonka turned to Mrs. Beauregarde.
"The Juicing Room? What are they gonna do to her there?" Mrs. Beauregarde asked.
"They're going to squeeze her, like a little pimple."
"Ew, did you have to use that analogy?" My face contorted into disgust, even Mrs. Beauregarde had a disgusted expression.
"They gotta squeeze all that juice out of her immediately." Mr. Wonka gave Mrs. Beauregarde a serious look.
Mrs. Beauregarde jogged over to Violet, helping the struggling Oompa Loompas push her out the entrance. Mr. Wonka then turned to the rest of us.
"Come on. Let's boogey!"
"We just did!" I stated, causing him to giggle.
The group followed Mr. Wonka, unaware of what would happen next. This tour was getting better and better by the minute, even if there were kids disappearing like rabbits.
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