Chapter Two: A Helping Hand

The mystery girl stood by the tram entrance, awkwardly waiting for her friend to return. She was just glad to be back. It meant she was safe. She was feeling extremely bored, however. It was half the reason why she was on that bridge in the first place. Exploring a game world was meant to be a natural part of a new character's function.

She took a seat on a nearby jawbreaker and sighed. After several minutes, she got even more bored and tried to make her "glitching" (as Vanellope put it) work. Nothing she tried would change her dress into something else. It was frustrating. What that Sergeant had said to her struck something inside. She knew that her function was to change her appearance, but then why wouldn't it work for her? Oddly enough, it was more frustrating than not having a name.

It felt quite tingly when Vanellope had used her power on her skin. First, she tried thinking of any of the new outfits that she had. Nothing worked. Then, she tried concentrating harder on them out of desperation but, again, nothing. Boredom took her over once more.

She spotted a sour candy on the ground and was soon sucking on it after a quick pick up. To her surprise, the candy actually tasted quite good. Deep down in her code, something was informing her that sour candy was often ignored by the racers in the game.

"Are you sure that Pac Man will even listen to us?" She heard a voice which clearly did not belong to the president of the game.

"Ehh…fifty-fifty shot. He is an older character, after all." A second voice, similar to Vanellope's, but not exactly hers, answered. The voices were heading in her direction, which caused the girl to freeze up.

"I kind of like those ghost friends of his…What?" She assumed another girl was getting dirty looks of some kind. The girls who were approaching did not seem that nice.

"Well…Huh?" Three girls now stood before the new racer. The one who had just spoken wore pink all over. Her helmet consisted of a half-slice of pink candy that covered her blonde hair. Her jacket consisted solely of the color pink and was unzipped. She seemed to be still dressed in her racing gear, wearing white gloves. Candy-cane striped socks and pink shoes completed her outfit. "Uh….Hi?" she said to the newcomer. The other girls were too flustered to speak. The newcomer took no notice of them.

"Hello," she simply answered. The girl had no name to give, after all.

"Are you a new racer?" A simple nod was all she got in response. "Okay, are you going to tell us your name?"

"Well, I don't know your names," she shot back, hoping it would stall for time. She was starting to feel silly for not having one of her own.

"Name's Taffyta, though I'm sure you already—oh, wait. New character. Right." Her spunky attitude was forgotten, remembering that the strange girl was new.

One of the other girls finally spoke up. "I'm Snowanna." Turning to her, the newcomer noticed that she seemed to have a rainbow-colored theme going on. Her hairstyle almost looked like a virtual snowcone. She had a purple dress with a pink skirt, and purple socks and shoes.

"Crumbelina," the third girl replied. She seemed slightly more outgoing in her style of clothes. She wore a white racing hat and a golden dress and skirt. She had brown hair, along with brown socks and shoes. "So, name?"

"Don't have one," the girl admitted, slightly ashamed.

"That makes no sense!" the others blurted.

"They said I was a changing character." The concept was brand new to her and, judging by their perplexed looks, new to them as well. Everything, however, even in her own game, seemed new to the slowly-growing consciousness that waited inside the new character.

"A wha?! Never heard of that!" Taffyta took a step forward and, without warning, grabbed the girl to spin her around and examine her clothes. "And why's your dress so plain? What the heck?"

"Uh…I can-"

"Seriously, are you a glitch or something? No name? And that dress really does stink!" Crumbelina joined their insults, adding to the slowly-growing laughter. The mystery racer did not like them. At least the president had apologized when she was purposefully rude.

"Yeah, well…Glitches are cool!" She was almost entirely unsure of her own statement, but her one and only friend did tell her that they were cool. She was also starting to really miss that gun from before. It would have helped. The others all paused at this for a moment.

"Listen up, glitch, if you are one, that is. We already have that Vanellope on the track glitching up the place, cheating to win each race. She may be our leader, but that doesn't mean we have to like her that much!" Taffyta snapped, though she wasn't all that sure of her little speech.

"Y-yeah! We don't need another glitch on the track making things unfair for us!" Crumbelina had always thought of herself as a bad girl, but she was feeling exceptionally bad for saying that. She didn't hate Vanellope, but they all did feel it was unfair what she could do on the track when compared to what they could do. They each had their own unique ability, but glitching was not something any of them could do.

The girl fumbled, "Look, I just-"

"What? Spit it out!" Snowanna felt like she was just going along with the crowd. She wanted nothing to do with the new girl. She didn't hate her, but she just wanted to leave. Their unofficial leader was always Taffyta, and peer pressure was her game.

"Can we just be friends?" the nameless girl blurted. Friendship felt good with Vanellope, so why wouldn't it work with them? She assumed they were being rude because she hadn't asked yet. Perhaps she was being rude herself?

"Friends?! Ha!" Taffyta scoffed and laughed, soon joined by the uneasy laughter of the other two. "We don't need friends out on the courses. Just leave, you glitch!"

That did it. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing to try, but anger was now swelling through the new racer. She was mad and wanted to hit something. Unbeknownst to her, when she had copied the Sergeant's code, she kept something, something mean.

"Oh, I'm a glitch, am I?! You pansy-butt, candy-sucking excuse for a racer!" The new girl stepped forward, making Taffyta flinch. "Why, I've seen better racers down in the Candy Kid Village!" She slapped both of her hands over her mouth in shock. She had no clue where any of what she just said was coming from, or how she even knew about a village.

Slowly looking down, she spotted the outfit from before, now fully-equipped. Black metal armor had enveloped her. Near her knees, she saw two red lights and, around her neck, more lights flickered (for show, she assumed). The gun had also returned, along with metal boots. She was speechless and in shock. Sure, she was angry, but she never meant to yell like that.

"Freak!" Taffyta spat out as the three gunned it for the tram into Game Central Station. The nameless girl was in such a state of shock that she did not notice the approaching newcomers from the tram or their conversation with the racers. Snapping out of it, she took a few deep breaths. After relaxing, she found that the costume and gun were slowly disappearing, leaving behind the brown dress from before.

"But-"

"We're back! Seriously, what's up with them? Did ya scare them off or something?" Vanellope asked.

What was meant as a joke instead hurt the girl deep down. She had indeed scared them off. "Yes, I guess I did."

"Oh?" She slowly turned around and paused. Vanellope was standing in front of her, still dressed in the green jacket from before. Mint-colored clothes seemed to be her thing, with mint candy-cane socks as well. Vanellope had brought a friend. "Well, whatever. I'd like you to meet my friend Ralph!"

"Hey, kid." Standing before her was the largest game character she had ever seen. Granted, she had only seen a few in her short life, but he was simply huge. Red suspenders seemed to be his clothing style. His hands looked bigger than her. He was smiling but it failed to put her at ease. "So, you need a name, huh?"

"Yes, I do. If it isn't too much trouble," she blurted, her words seeming to come out of nowhere. Then, the tingling sensation returned. All three of them gasped. She looked down and she was wearing the poofy princess dress from before. "I don't…this happened before!"

"Um yeah, I know it did. I was there, remember?"

"No, I got mad at those racers after they made fun of me-"

"They what?!" Vanellope spat. Apparently, making fun of another racer was not the right thing to do at all.

"Yeah, but when I got mad at them I got that gun back and the armor…"

"Hmm, try getting mad again!" Vanellope suggested. Ralph stood off to the side, at a loss for words.

The girl asked, "Why would I get mad at you? You're my friend..."

"Hey, Ralph and I get mad at each other all the time and we're friends! Isn't that right, snot for brains?"

"Can it, pencil neck!" Ralph shot back.

"Huh?" the girl muttered. Basic knowledge was something that all game characters were born with. Logic was what drove them to seek out their secondary purposes. That, or their emotions and ways of thinking. Logic was telling her that fighting with one another did not make sense for a friendship. "I don't get it. Why would you fight if you're friends?"

"'Cause it's fun! Now, c'mon, get angry! I want to see that gun again. It's gotta be anger that makes you change!"

Ralph began, "Uh, Vanellope, maybe it's not-"

Vanellope interrupted, "I'm onto something. Now, get angry, girl!"

"No."

"Do it!" Vanellope urged.

"No!"

"DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!" Vanellope jumped up and down after each iteration of the phrase.

"Can it, you annoying barf brain!" the girl screamed. Her clothes did not change into that of a Cy-Bug killing soldier, but into the president's garb. They almost looked like clones. "Why do I keep… Grrrrr!" She hit her hand on the ground and a blue light enveloped her. When the light disappeared, she was ten pixels in distance away from the two. She had teleported or glitched.

"How?!" Vanellope blurted. She was starting to understand her new friend more and more, but she assumed that she got the Sergeant's gun because she had her costume.

"Like I was trying to tell you, kid…" Ralph paused as he waited for the two to listen up. "I think her changing thing is controlled by emotions. She was angry when she turned into mini Calhoun there. She was bratty when she just turned into you, and she was shy when she turned back just like she is now."

Vanellope tilted her head to the side, focusing entirely on Ralph, before turning back to notice that the green jacket was now replaced with the brown dress. She exclaimed, "That's it! You change because of your emotions! Quick, change into Ralph!"

"I don't—" Her hand was whipped back as Vanellope grabbed her and glitched the nameless girl after touching Ralph. Now, she wore his clothes and her hands had tripled in size. Several seconds later, she turned back into her original form.

"This is so cool! You're awesome, you know that? Isn't she awesome?" the president gushed.

Ralph chuckled. "What happened to 'snot for brains'?"

"Oh, shut up."

"So, I can change into anything?" The girl's emotions were long forgotten. She stood there, still in the brown dress but believing her sentence entirely.

"I guess. Oh, that's right! Ralph! Name her!"

Ralph replied, "Uh…no?"

"I can't name her! Seriously, just think of something already. This is getting old."

"Okay, um, 'Changer'? Nah, that's dumb. 'Changelina'?" Ralph offered. Vanellope was not amused.

"Um," the girl mumbled, not knowing exactly what to say.

"What is it? Do you like that name?" Vanellope asked.

"…Yes."

Vanellope nodded and smiled. "Then, nice to meet ya, Changelina!"

Ralph agreed, "Yep! Alright, I'm gonna head back to my own game if that's all you needed-"

Vanellope grabbed his right hand and pulled for all she was worth. "Oh, no you don't! You promised to help me show… Changelina here the ropes and hang out with us all day!"

"I did? Well, I don't think I did. I mean, probably not, and-"

"I'm not letting you mope around all day about the end or something like that. You're my friend and I want to hang out RIGHT NOW, even if you are a B.O. monster."

"Annoying twit," he muttered, causing her to smirk. "Alright, fine! But I'm not a racer and you know that!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not a teacher or a mommy, and Changelina is new."

Changelina asked, "Um, what are we doing exactly?"

Vanellope smirked at the meek girl's question. "First off, we need to get you some attitude! Controlling those emotions would be nice, so you can just glitch any clothes on at any time!"

"Attitude? How?" The new girl was certainly not feeling anything close to the attitude that the president wanted.

"That's where Ralph comes in. Oh, and we need to build you a racecar!"

Changelina nodded at this. A racecar was in the back of her mind. She knew if a player chose her that it would be handled automatically, but off the clock from players, she would need to figure out that kind of stuff herself.

They slowly started walking. Changelina took in the sights of her world for the first time. Her mind was finally somewhat eased and she was able to focus. The world they resided in was actually quite beautiful. Jawbreaker rocks, sour candies, chocolate-covered roads and rivers all captivated her. The world was vibrant and colorful, details even painted into rock surfaces. At least, it looked like paint from a close-up view. She ignored the sarcastic comments or rude nature of her new friends. She wanted to explore!

"What's that?!" Changelina asked, pointing to another rock surface, this one the fifth they had passed.

"That's just a pie crust hill…Oh that's lovely…" Vanellope exclaimed before realizing what her friend had just tried.

The new girl had jumped head first into it, devouring large amounts of chocolate pie.

"I know I used to hate chocolate, but I think she has the right idea…Huh," Ralph said.

When Changelina had finished her pie, she was wearing Ralph's uniform again. She giggled bashfully and instantly switched back to the shy-girl uniform that they had come to know.

"Food does it also…or, is there something we're missing, Vanellope?" Ralph questioned but Vanellope was worlds away at that point.

Changelina commented, "That was good…"

"Nope. Maybe food does it too. Or maybe she kept your emotions and hunger? You do kind of eat a lot, stink head."

"What's that?!" Changelina pointed to a candy-coated hill.

Vanellope groaned. "Alright, that's it! Enough sightseeing; we need to get to the mini-game to make a car for ya!"

"But, I'm hungry," Changelina whined.

"You're also wearing my clothes again! Quit it!" Vanellope scowled. The girl simply smirked and glitched away to the new candy hill.

"Well, I'd say she has some attitude, eh, kid?" Ralph smirked.

"I'd say she's stealing my gig," she muttered.

Ralph gently punched her. "Hey, you were new once, remember?"

She wanted to sigh or groan or punch him back, but she did remember. Even if she was meant to be the game's leader, it still felt odd being the new racer after their memories were restored. She would never admit it to even Ralph, but her own memories were never fixed. That was why she wanted to be president in the first place and not a princess.

She sighed as she realized that feeling jealous just made her feel not only stupid, but like a hypocrite to boot. When the game was restored, she got a chance to race. However, she had only been alive for around five years or so, making her feel way out of place on the track and with her racer friends. She knew what Changelina was going through and she shouldn't be scowling at her for trying to have a bit of fun.

"Yeah I do, I guess I should stop being like you, huh?" Vanellope asked.

Ralph raised an eyebrow. "Like me? Wha-"

"I meant a lame brain."

"Ahh. Yeah, stop being like that and just show her the way. Ehh…I'm out of insults for now."

"Like I said…lame brain." She giggled and ran up to join Changelina in her feast of a candy mountain. Ralph shrugged and grabbed some of his own for the road.

"Had your fill?" Vanellope asked the girl. She nodded and smiled as they picked up their pace. "Good, we can't have you eating your car. That's Ralph's job."

"That was one time, and it regenerated!"

Vanellope ignored him and beckoned the girl to follow again, this time to the edge of their game. The facility that housed the mini-game was also responsible for automatically regenerating their cars on the track. They soon found themselves inside of a rather dark building before the lights turned on, illuminating everything.

"Alright Changelina, pick your starting car!" Vanellope exclaimed while gesturing to several pictures of cars. Each car had a slightly different design, ranging from basic to larger designs that were more powerful, but far more difficult to control. She shrugged and picked the plainest-looking car she could find in the list. It was blue with no decorations, like her dress. Instantly on the conveyer belt in front of them, the car was spit out as the first mini-game sprung to life.

"C'mon Changelina, you need to pick the right decorations for your car!" Vanellope exclaimed.

The first mini-game was changed after Vanellope became annoyed with it. It was one of her first orders as president. Changelina looked over the first set of decorations and decided on exclusive choosing sour candy to line her car, much to the surprise of Vanellope. Changelina had very few likes and dislikes in her short life, but she knew she loved sour candy. Soon, her car was lined all around with round multi-colored pieces of it.

The next set of decorations focused on the bottom of the car. Two sour-candied strips lined around the entire vehicle. Everything in the game was automatic, with the exception of actually cooking the vehicle at the end.

The car moved forward on the platform inside a giant oven. Changelina watched, confused, and called back to Vanellope, "What do I do now?!"

"Just let Ralph do his thing!" Vanellope cheered.

"Thanks for coming to me…" he muttered, beginning to blow steadily into a tube. On the side of the massive oven, a light turned on, signifying that it was cooking Changelina's new car at the right temperature. Ralph continued to blow into the tube until he was blue in the face. Finally, the oven dinged, and the car came out the other side.

A spotlight shined directly above the car for the three to see. To Vanellope, it looked like a multi-colored mess. It wasn't unbalanced in physical design in the slightest, but the colors were all over the place with no clear cohesion.

Ralph scratched his head. The car reminded him of the first car he and Vanellope built together-only not as messy. Vanellope cringed a bit as she looked it over. Hesitantly, she turned to face Changelina and, in an instant, all her worries died down. Changelina was smiling from ear to ear.

"I take it you like your car there?" Vanellope asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah…" Changelina said breathlessly. Ralph, never one for subtlety, chuckled.

"Alright then, kid, let's take it for a spin on the practice race!" Ralph offered, while gesturing for her to enter the car.

Changelina frowned. "I, uh…"

"Don't know how to drive yet?" Vanellope asked. An embarrassed nod was all she got in return. Changelina knew that if a human player chose her, her actions would be automatic and she would not need to know a thing. Behind closed doors, she would need to learn. "No problem! We can use the practice track and I'll teach ya!" Vanellope proudly offered.

"Yep, that's what she does best, so," Ralph paused and scooped Changelina up, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the girl, and dumped her into the car, finishing, "let's get going!"

Changelina soon found herself on the practice track. Her car was on and humming very loudly with her body vibrating in her seat. She looked down at her control panel and frowned. She realized that she had absolutely no idea what to do. In most racers' code, they would normally have a basic understanding of a vehicle, but she barely knew what the steering wheel was. That, thankfully, did not confuse her that much.

Vanellope stood off on the other side of the track, cheering her on to just go. So she did. Changelina stepped on what she hoped was the gas pedal and her car rocketed straight onto the track. The other two winced as the girl got out of her car on shaking legs and collapsed on the ground, her hands barely holding her up.

Vanellope walked over and helped her stand up. "Okay, believe it or not that's pretty much the first thing I did when I first started my car." Changelina raised an eyebrow at this. Vanellope nodded. "We just got to take it slower, can you do that?"

"Yeah," Changelina grumbled, while walking back to her car. She then climbed in and, with instruction from Ralph, set the car in reverse. Not trusting her own feet, she used her right hand to push the gas down and gently backed up to the starting position. She hesitated and looked over at her friends, who were giving her the thumbs-up, though Vanellope faked a smile. "Here we go."

The first few attempts ended up with more crashing, thankfully not head-on. Eventually, she got the hang of driving around the track under ten miles per hour and, despite the slow speeds, Vanellope was still cheering her on like a madwoman. She felt silly doing it, but she knew it was important to encourage a new driver.

"C'mon, faster Changelina!" Vanellope cheered. Ralph looked skeptical, but egged her on too.

"'Kay!" she yelled over her engine and gunned the gas down. Her first loop around the track going thirty miles per hour felt amazing to her. Euphoria flooded into her system from the speed alone, but the turning and the wind blowing through her hair made her grin. Vanellope rolled her eyes, but was happy that her new friend got a taste of the road, even if it was incredibly slow by her standards.

"C'mon, ten more miles per hour, you can do it!" Vanellope screamed. The affect was instantaneous. Changelina set her car to forty and swerved on the first turn, almost hitting the side of the track. She quickly corrected her course and was soon going around and around.

Changelina stopped the car once bored and grinned. "Great job! Now you're ready for the real thing, a race with me!" Vanellope announced.

"Uh, squirt, don't you think that's a little soon?" Ralph nervously said.

"I know what I'm doing! She'll be fine!" Vanellope snapped in response.

Changelina and Ralph were not convinced, but the two girls soon found themselves on the regular track, waiting to race. Changelina gulped while Vanellope smirked.

"Okay girl, just take it easy on her and see what she's made of. No need to whoop her or anything," Vanellope said to herself.

Changelina looked stoic to Ralph but, on the inside, she was hyperventilating. She wasn't sure what would happen if she won or even lost; Vanellope had not been clear on that. If only she knew it was a friendly race. She assumed it was a real race.

"Ready?" Ralph asked, while holding a flag in his hand.

Changelina broke out of her thoughts and nodded.

"Set?"

She certainly seemed set to race.

"Go!"

Shocked by his scream, Changelina gunned the gas. Vanellope soon followed close behind.

The track went straight for a while, with only a few candied obstacles to avoid as both cars twisted around each and every one. Vanellope held back her glitching powers and instead did her best to study Changelina's driving style. It seemed like Changelina was simply going along for the ride and enjoying herself instead of trying to beat Vanellope.

Soon, they neared a spiraling hill. As they approached it, Vanellope unleashed her ace in the whole. Changelina's vehicle was faster and she was ahead of Vanellope as they swirled around and around up the hill, until Vanellope glitched ahead.

Changelina blinked. She hadn't realized that could even happen on the track. Could she do that? She was feeling shy as ever and certainly did not feel cocky or angry or bratty. But she was trying to feel that way in any sense of those words. She tried to get after Vanellope, actually enjoying the race for the first time. Vanellope noticed as she glitched ahead all over the place. Changelina grew frustrated, until…

"Stop glitching, you barf brain!" Suddenly, her car was not her own. Vanellope nearly crashed when she realized what happened. Changelina's car had changed into the president's own car and she was wearing Vanellope's jacket again. "Oh, it's on!" Changelina roared, and soon the two were in a glitching match around the track.

"Changelina, watch out! On this track, you can't just glitch that much without-" Vanellope tried to bark out a warning, but was silenced.

"Nice try slow poke, but-"

Changelina felt aggressive and, for some reason, she did not feel like losing or even listening to her friend. Her emotions felt foreign but she could not ignore them. Unfortunately, it was those emotions that blinded and deafened her from advice that she really needed. She simply continued to glitch ahead faster and faster, not noticing that Vanellope had stopped her car from teleporting.

Without warning, her car gave way and skidded all around, until it finally broke apart entirely and de-pixelated from the world. Changelina was knocked to the ground at full force from the speed. Though she felt pain, the track was programmed to never harm a racer, unlike how their world worked outside the track.

The girl looked down and noticed her outfit had changed back. "I don't-"

"You okay?" Changelina looked up and noticed Vanellope seemed concerned and reached out to her to help her up. The girl nodded. "I tried to warn ya! When you glitch like that, your car…or, my car? Well, whichever, your car starts to de-pixelate over time, and if you do it too much-"

"Oh, okay. But, why did I-"

"Why did your car change into mine? Probably your ability. It's like you get cooler every hour! Amazing, huh?"

"I didn't feel amazing! I yelled at you!" Changelina exclaimed, flustered.

"Yeah, what was up with that? Sounds like something I would say," Vanellope muttered.

"I, uh, I just felt like saying it?" the other girl offered sheepishly. Vanellope blinked a couple times, and then blinked some more.

Ralph then cleared his throat. "Maybe when you change you just get emotionally involved?"

"I guess…" Changelina replied in shame.

"I wonder what would happen if…Oh, this is gonna be good!" Vanellope cheered and laughed to herself, eliciting two very confused blank stares. "Changelina, how about I help you win a race against the other girls?"

"Uh…" Should she want to win a race? Vanellope was smiling enough for the very idea to seem like something she should be striving for, but winning or losing barely held any concept to her. Fun, on the other hand, did.

"Is it going to be fun?" Changelina asked in an excited tone.

"Oh," Vanellope paused, and draped her hand over her shoulder, adding, "loads of fun, you just wait!"