Hello friends! Wow am I late on the update this time! Quite a few big things have been happening in my life though, so they took precedence. But enough chitchat! Let's answer those lovely comments!
Dragonserpent18, thanks for your appreciation and also for being one of the ones who read the original version as well. I do hope to give this story the justice it deserves, though updates will be rather sporadic. I don't think the characters will make an appearance, but I can agree that the version of Violet I am using here is indeed hot.
RedHood001, thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying it!
JOHNHAMMOND1993, Adventure is out there! I am glad you're enjoying the story. The man in the profile pic is Clopin from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Linkwonka88, the original will be in my heart as well. I am glad you are enjoying it again! Here's the next dose for you!
Willyisbadathugs, I love your name. Also it is funny how fitting it is for something I have planned later on, but that goes into spoiler territory. Thanks for joining us on this ride! And as for the Brit, you'll just have to wait and see!
TheCrampReturns, Cheers to that, mate. Thank you for your continued support!
Lea Peacock, Done!
Carl Richards, thank you! Updates will be a bit of a nuisance to wait for, but I would rather face the torches and pitchforks after a long wait than rush to bring you all some second rate shite.
Without further ado, enjoy the next installment of An Unlikely Reunion!
Chapter 3: The Study Hall Gang
Violet stared at the clock. She had finished her classwork ten minutes ago. If only Mrs. Frogles was one of the teachers that allowed students to leave once they were done with their work… but, of course, she wasn't. Another five minutes before class was over.
Violet sighed and turned to look at Augustus, who was still scrawling on a piece of paper. He, too, had finished earlier, and he had decided to fill the time with drawing randomly in a notebook.
Violet, being curious, tried to look at what he was drawing. Augustus noticed, and quickly closed his book and threw it in his backpack. Violet took the hint and drew back.
Finally, after a long stretch of silence, the bell had rung, signaling the end of class. Violet and Augustus , having already put their things away, quickly snatched up their bags and made a dash for the door. Once they had escaped into the busy corridor, they took a moment to check their schedules.
"Study hall," Augustus read aloud. "Great. I'm going to have a fun time trying to find the damn room."
"Just follow me," Violet said as she quickly threw on her hoodie. "I'm having to go there too. Besides, we have a friend waiting there for us."
Augustus looked confused, but Violet just grabbed his hand and practically dragged him to the study hall.
The study hall was made like most people would think of as a college classroom. It had rows of desks, each one getting slightly lower than the one behind until it got to a small area where the teacher's desk stood. Violet quickly scanned the room and soon saw Charlie waving his arms for her attention about halfway down the sloping aisle. She saw him sitting next to a tall guy, whose back was turned, so she couldn't see who it was.
"Told you," Violet said as she pulled Augustus over to the desk in front of Charlie's. As they approached, the tall guy turned around, revealing to her that it was none other than Mike Teavee. Both she and Augustus were shocked, and their faces clearly showed it.
"Hey," Mike said with a short wave.
"Well, I'll be fucking damned!" Violet said, looking over Mike to make sure it was really him. "This is one big, awkward coincidence, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Augustus said as the two removed their packs and took their seats. "Who would have thought we all would end up in the same school, much less the same period?"
"It's the Force!" Mike said, raising his hand as if in reverence. "May the Force be with you!"
"Settle down there, Obi-Wan," Charlie said, hardly holding back laughter. Violet smiled at the bit of a joke, though Augustus looked a bit confused.
"Star Wars," Mike said, seeming to answer Augustus's unasked question.
"Ah. Still haven't seen them all. I wondered why that sounded familiar."
The friends then spent a few minutes relaying their stories to the others as to why they were in the area. After they had concluded, Violet asked "Who do you think our study mentor will be? It's usually a teacher who doesn't have a class this period."
"Don't know, don't care," Mike said. "Just as long as it's not-"
Mike cut short as Mr. Teavee walked into the room from the back door. He looked over all the students as he casually walked down the aisle.
"-my dad," Mike finished as he proceeded to bury his head under his backpack.
Mr. Teavee continued his walk, only stopping once he noticed the group. Recognition flashed across his face as he inspected each one of them.
"Why me?" Mike said, muffled through his backpack.
"Well, this is a surprise," Mr. Teavee said. "I never expected to be teaching any of you kids, or even see you again. My son, granted, being the exception."
"Well, tada! We're here!" Violet said in a sarcastic manner. Mr. Teavee just smiled and nodded before turning and proceeding down the aisle to the teacher's desk. Mike, not having noticed his father's departure, still had his head covered like an ostrich would have its head in the sand. The others shrugged at his behavior, and decided to converse idly until he came out of hiding.
As they were speaking, a girl appeared in the doorway, which Violet and Augustus noticed first as they were facing the door. The girl was wearing an outlandish amount of pink, including her shoes, skirt, shirt, and even a scarf that was the epitome of the color. She had long, brown, curly hair and a pale, flawless complexion. Many of the boys in the class took notice of her, and a few made wolf whistles at her, which she promptly ignored. Violet, having recognized the girl at a glance, narrowed her eyes in anger of the arrival.
"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Violet said, her voice practically dripping with venom.
Having heard her tone, Mike pulled his head out and turned to see who Violet was glaring at. Charlie, too, turned to see who she was talking of. The boys all gasped in shock when they recognized the arrival as Veruca Salt. Veruca was the last of the five children that had been on the tour.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Mike wondered aloud as Veruca looked around the room, seeming to be judging every group she noticed. By the look on her face and the way she appeared to be mumbling, it appeared she was displeased of what she saw.
"No way," she said as she turned away from the nerdy group.
"Nuh-uh," she said, overlooking the cheerleaders and jocks.
"Ew!" she exclaimed, averting her eyes from the emos.
That's when her eyes landed on Charlie. Her eyes widened with shock and recognition before darting to notice every other face in the group. She then almost yelled, "Oh, bloody hell!" and looked around as if trying to find a means of escape. Unfortunately for her, the only means of escape that didn't result in absence from class would involve sitting with any of the other cliques in the classroom, a thought she found even more horrendous than sitting with the only four people she knew. Reluctantly, Veruca slowly walked over to where her old "friends" were seated.
"What are you all doing here?" she asked, quickly slipping behind Charlie and Mike to sit at the empty chair there. Charlie was unsure, but he thought she was trying to avoid Violet in any way possible.
"We were actually wondering the same thing about you, Princess," Mike said, leaning onto the desk with his face in his hand, with a wide, slightly sinister smile displayed.
"I might as well tell you, as I'm sure you won't stop asking until I answer. Well, my daddy was pla-"
"Whoa, hey, hold up a moment!" Violet interrupted, seeming to be stifling a laugh. "You still call him "daddy?" What are you four?"
Veruca glared at Violet for a moment before continuing. "My father was planning on expanding the company, seeing as business was booming. He wanted to branch out, mainly thinking of a new branch here in America. He worked tirelessly for a while, trying to find the best land for the best price. Finally, once he had managed it, he got everything ready for construction. He wanted the new branch to be even bigger than the last one, and as such, decided we should move here to oversee the company from the new plant. He bought us a house here in town, even, mainly so I can get a decent education."
Violet smiled sinisterly as she asked, "Just a house here in town, huh? Not some stately manor out in the countryside?"
Charlie saw that Violet was trying to get under Veruca's skin. "Violet please," he said.
"What?" Violet said, not looking away from Veruca. "You really want me to play nice with her? I remember everything she said at the factory. Telling my mother to put me in a county fair? She's lucky I don't knock her teeth in for it right now."
"Oh just shut it, you overgrown blueberry!" Veruca spat at Violet.
"Is that all you got, brat? I'm really shaking in my boots! We got ourselves a feisty one over here, boys! Tell me, Veruca, what other mean, nasty things do you have to say to me." Violet asked sarcastically. "Well, I'm waiting."
Veruca just glared intently into Violet's eyes and remained silent. Violet took the moment to prod her by saying, "What's wrong, little miss trash bin? Run out of ammo? Squirrel got your tongue?"
Veruca's face turned red with fury at Violet's comments. She then responded in a way that Charlie and the others never expected. She reached back with her fist and punched Violet right in the face. The boys stared in shock as Violet's cheek grew a bit darker from the hit. Violet herself was stunned for a moment, but then stood and said, "Ok, play time's over, bitch." She then launched herself over the desk at her rival.
The commotion caught the attention of the other students nearby, who called out to the others in the hall. Soon everyone was running over to see what the noise was all about, and those who were close enough to see began to place bets on who would win. Charlie could only watch in amazement and terror as Violet and Veruca were pounding each other so fiercely that he could swear they were turning each other into ground beef. Constantly the two were throwing the other one off of themselves and jumping on top, not missing a punch. Charlie and Augustus winced as they saw each girl punch the other everywhere they could contact, face, arms, legs, and even groin.
Needless to say, the noises also caught the attention of Mr. Teavee, who had to force his way through the crowd to get to the source. "Girls, settle down!" he yelled over the noise as he continued to push his way through the students at the front of the crowd.
"Go for the jugular!" Mike yelled. He then noticed his father standing there, and he slightly cowered at the look his father gave him. Mr. Teavee got over to the girls and began to pull them apart. Even with them each at the end of his arm's length, the two were still doing what they could to strike the other, their anger at each other not abiding.
Mr. Teavee then let go of them, only to grab the backs of their heads. He then brought their heads together with a loud cracking sound. This action caused every jaw in the room to drop. No one had ever seen a teacher stop a fight with such a tactic.
"I said, knock it off!" he said after the two reached up to rub their foreheads. "If you two can't sit here and do your work without getting in a fight, I will have to separate you. I might even have to report what happened to the principal. Now get to work." He then headed back down to his desk as if nothing had happened.
Everyone got settled back into their seats, and Violet and Veruca both stared at each other for a minute. Veruca had a bruise under her left eye and a small split on her lower lip. Violet's nose was leaking a small stream of blood (which could only really be seen when you focused on it, as her blood was almost the same shade as her skin) and her eye seemed to be almost swollen shut and bruised.
"You look like shit," Violet said. "But you fought a lot better than I thought you would."
"Have you looked in a mirror?" Veruca asked sarcastically, but not in a harsh tone.
"Can't say I can tell which one of us would win in a fight. Shall we call it a draw and just be friends?" Veruca then held her hand out in case Violet took her up on it.
Violet smiled as she took Veruca's hand. "Friends. And I would have totally kicked your ass. I was holding back. Didn't want to completely break your porcelain face."
"Well then, I look forward to seeing your full strength, should we ever get ourselves into a real fight."
After the two let go of the other's hand, the guys looked at each other and shrugged. Mike mouthed what they all were thinking, Girls are crazy.
"And don't you forget it!" Violet said, looking directly at Mike.
After Mr. Teavee helped the girls with the small amount of medical treatment they needed, the group finally got themselves settled into doing their work, talking about small tidbits of it to the others and asking for help, as friends tend to do. Charlie knew the five of them had made a bond today, not thinking it would ever have happened. After all, none of them could have ever expected for the five of them to be reunited!
Halfway through the period, Violet looked at the clock before saying, "Damn, lunch is in two periods and I'm starving! Anyone got anything? Granola? Apple? Something?"
They all searched their bags, most of them revealing nothing but paper or various electronic devices. Charlie, however, found a small box in his pack that he hadn't packed. He looked at it quickly and knew that Willy had put it there just in case. He always did look out for his protege. Charlie then turned to Violet and said, "Hey, I have something, but you won't like it."
"I'm up for anything right now," Violet said.
"Trust me, you are not going to want this."
"Don't care. Food is food."
Charlie shrugged at Violet's persistence and pulled out the box. It was a box of Wonka's Three Course Meal chewing gum. A small note was on the side, but nobody noticed it other than Charlie as the others were too busy watching Violet's reaction: a look of pure terror.
"I told you you wouldn't like it," Charlie said as he took the note off of the box and read it. "Apparently, Willy did fix the bugs in it. This is the first box of the proper product."
"Fuck you, Charlie!" Violet said, completely turning around to so as to avoid seeing the box entirely.
Charlie sighed as he put the gum away. Then, he smiled at her and asked, "Is that an invitation? Or am I reading too much into it?"
All five broke into fits of laughter, which made most of the other students turn and look at them in disdain. They quickly finished their laughter and continued working on their studies, with Violet eyeing Charlie every now and then make sure he wouldn't take the box out of his bag again.