Chapter 1: The Contest & A Battle of Wills

"Just another publicity stunt, I'd wager." Sarah's father grumbled as he snapped his newspaper with irritation, which brushed against his coffee cup and sloshed a few drops onto the saucer below. "Sales were probably slumping so he figured he'd pull the same shim-sham as before. I don't even care to guess how his profit margin soared after that last contest of his."

Sarah was tempted to remind her father that Willy Wonka was a billionaire many times over and was hardly in a position to need to resort to such trickery, but decided it wasn't worth getting into an argument over. Her father was a very opinionated man, and tended to take anyone disagreeing with him as a personal affront, especially if it was a member of his own family. So she kept her thoughts to herself as she finished her cold cereal.

Flipping on the small tv at the end of the counter, Sarah wasn't at all surprised to see that all the major networks headline story was Wonka's new contest. Seven tickets had already been discovered around the world….Paris, Tokyo, Chicago, IL, London, San Francisco, CA, Cairo, and some obscure small town in the state of Arkansas in the Southern US. Sarah listened with half an ear as the pretty newscaster revealed details about the contest, and then with her full attention as pictures of the two men appeared.

"World famous candy making genius Willy Wonka stunned the world yesterday when he announced that he would be opening his factory gates to the public for an unprecedented second time in less than a decade. A birthday celebration is planned to honor Charlie Bucket, who outwitted and outmaneuvered four other contestants 9 years ago to win the coveted position as heir to Wonka's factory and fortune. Chocolate lovers everywhere are scrambling to candy stores for a chance at one of 100 silver tickets hidden in Wonka bars. The masquerade ball is scheduled for December 5th, leaving only 3 weeks for potential attendees to locate their silver tickets!" At that moment, a paper was handed to the announcer, and she turned back to the camera with a smile. "This just in, the 8th silver ticket was found in Seattle, WA by…."

Sarah tuned out the woman's too perky voice and turned her focus onto the two pictures on the left of the screen. The picture of Charlie was fairly recent, showing a cheerful young man with short brown hair, inquisitive blue eyes above rosy cheeks with just a hint of freckles, and an engaging smile. Footnotes below the picture stated that the photo had been taken at one of the half dozen charity events that Willy Wonka had deemed worthy of sending a representative to, rather than just an impersonal check. Charlie Bucket was indeed a rather handsome young man, but it was the photo below it that drew her eye.

The photo had been taken with a telephoto lens, and was much older than the photo of Charlie, but Sarah recognized the outfit he wore as the one he had been wearing the day the factor had opened for the 5 lucky contest winners. She herself had been fortunate enough to have a friend who lived near the factory, and had wrangled a sleepover invite the night before, so had been present for the great event. She sighed softly, her eyes becoming unfocused as she recalled her first sight of the famous candy man on that cold winter's day….

From the uppermost edge of his elegant black top hat to the soles of his shiny high heeled boots, Willy Wonka was colorful to say the least. Very little of his face could be seen beyond the huge, bug-eyes sunglasses he had worn, but what was visible was extremely pale. He had been smiling, or rather smirking, his strangely red lips bearing an almost "I know something you don't know" expression that had triggered a weird sensation in the pit of her stomach. His dark hair was cut in a smooth, chin length pageboy style, a look that on any other man would have been considered effeminate, but suited him perfectly. His clothing was remarkable in that they were not only made of sensuous fabrics in unusual colors---plum velvet, lavender leather, paisley silk, and rich brocade---but that they were of Victorian, turn of the century design. The combination had the dual effect of making him appear decidedly eccentric, while at the same time making those around him seem remarkably underdressed. Sarah smiled softly to herself at the memory….for some reason, the recollection of his appearance reminded her somewhat of the description of Lestat, the famously vain blood drinker and her favorite figure from Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire.

Sarah was pulled from her reverie by her father clearing his throat as he finally folded the paper, setting it aside and turning his attention toward his only child, home for the weekend from school.

"So, Sarah, everything going o.k. with your classes?" Sarah met her fathers eyes and smiled. She was a freshman at a small women's college on the outskirts of London, where she was majoring in Accounting. To her father's delight, she had proven to have a head for math in her regular school years, and had not protested with his plan for her to get a degree and join his accounting firm. Whether or not she would continue to follow that plan was still up in the air, but for now she was content to get her required credits out of the way while she made up her mind what to do with her life. After all, it's not as if she had any other outstanding marketable talents….except for making probably the best darn fudge on the planet, according to her friends anyway.

"Fine, dad….I haven't had any problems so far, and as of the end of term I was still maintaining my 3.8 GPA. I've been it a great deal of thought, and I've decided that I want to try out for the Volleyball team for next term…I need something to keep me fit before my backside gets too wide to fit into the desk."

Her father frowned at her, his voice expressing his disapproval of her plan. "I don't think you should be getting involved in activities that will distract you from your studies, Sarah….after all, there will be lots of practices and then the games and such. I'm not spending my hard earned money sending you to University just so you can play around…why not join a gym instead?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, leave off nagging the girl, Arthur!" Sarah's mother stepped lightly into the kitchen, plopping down a bag of groceries before shrugging off her coat and hanging it on the rack by the door. Leaning down, she smooched her daughter fondly on the cheek and noticed the slight bags and dark circles beneath her daughters slightly reddened eyes. "Morning sleepyhead…..rough night? You came in rather late last evening."

"Mm-hmm" Sarah grinned behind her raised coffee cup, deciding to have a little fun. "Jen invited me to go clubbing with her last night….sounded like loads of fun." At the look of horror on her father's face, she quickly continued. "Unfortunately I had to decline the invitation….I wound up spending the entire evening wrapped up with my latest squeeze…advanced calculus. Quite a thrilling Friday evening for a 19 year old."

Her father's face had turned an ugly shade of red, warning her that he was working up a head of steam for one of his famous tirades, and she silently cursed herself for opening her big mouth. As she suspected, the explosion was not long in coming.

"If I thought for one minute that you were serious and not taking advantage of this opportunity we've given you, you'd not find it such a laughing matter, missy! You'd find yourself hard pressed to make rent on fast food wages, Sarah, for you'd not receive anything more from us! You've got a promising future ahead of you in accounting, and no daughter of mine is going to waste her time going to clubs and tossing a ball around when she should be focusing on getting an education, and that's an end to the subject. Margie, more coffee, please." His wife complied, a pinched look on her face that her husband chose to ignore.

Sarah had her father's temper, although she had never had the courage to show it to the man himself, at least until now. "So that's it, then? You're telling me I'm not to try out for the team and that I'm to be chained to my books day and night?"

Her father looked surprised at her outburst, but answered her levelly. "I'm saying that you need to get your priorities straight, Sarah…..you're a bright girl but you act so like a child sometimes. It's time you took your future seriously and start acting like a grown up."

Sarah met his gaze with a solemn one of her own as she rose from her seat. "I graduated my levels with honors, I work part time while attending classes and still maintain a GPA in the top 5 of my class, Dad….how much more serious about my future do I have to be before you are satisfied?" With that she walked over and left a kiss on her mother's damp cheek before retrieving her sweater and purse as she went out the door, closing it quietly behind her.

Halfway to her car, she stopped up short as thoughts and emotions rampaged through her overwhelmed brain. Anger, fear, pain, sorrow, anger again, and finally indignation swept over her and it was then that something inside her clicked. Her father wanted her to take her life seriously….well, she would do the exact opposite. She would do something outrageous, something completely frivolous that would cause her father to realize that she was her own person, not some marionette he could control. She needed to do something that would make a statement, but not cause everyone to think she had completely lost her mind.

She could get a nose ring or tongue piercing…..(eeew…gross, not to mention mega painful!…nope, not gonna happen..)

She could cut her hair…(naah…not bold enough, plus she'd worked so hard to grow it..) or maybe add some color stripes…(ugh…too tacky and overdone)

She could quit school and join the Peace Corps…(hmmmph……a noble thought, but I don't think I could live in a third world country where flush toilets and telephones are considered major luxuries…uh-uh…sorry, try again…)

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off inside her head, and she laughed out loud. It was outrageous, it was permanent, it was the most un-serious and unlike her thing she could ever do, and there wouldn't be a darn thing her father could do to prevent it about it because she was of age. And it was all perfectly legal.

She was going to get a special tattoo on a certain part of her anatomy, and then send a picture of it along with a fantasy story into a popular men's magazine, using her real name…just for the hell of it. (Let Dad answer questions from his men friends about THAT particular Penthouse Forum entry!)

But first she was going hunting…….for a Wonka's Silver Ticket.