Few people can claim to have mastered the art of people watching. Jubileena felt she was one of them. She saw her fellow racers moving about their daily agendas, each on his own, and thought she could put together what they were feeling. It was an inexact science, but Jubileena didn't much care for science anyway.
She saw Minty and Candlehead driving down to the factory. Minty's car had needed a tune-up ever since a crash the other day, but the green racer was in denial. The look of abject misery on her face was clue enough. On top of that, it wasn't as if her problem could be her company. Minty and Candlehead had been best friends since the day the game was installed. It was practically etched into their very code. They had saved each other's rears more time than Jubileena thought possible, considering the fact that the game had only been plugged in for about a week.
A ways away from the duo were Taffyta and Crumbelina having a picnic. Those two were something else. Everyone knew the two of them had gotten to be very close very fast, but no one knew just how close. Jubileena was tempted to say that even the girls in question didn't know. After all, they were just kids as well. They didn't really understand too much beyond what they were given. Still, there was something peculiar about them.
Of course, no discussion of peculiar could be complete without mentioning a certain teleporting, hoodie wearing racer that was tagging along with Adorabreezle. Somehow, the girl had gotten into her head that she needed a partner of some kind in order to fit into the dynamic the other racers all had, and chose Adorabreezle to buddy up with. The icy racer herself looked like she didn't much care for the newfound friendship. Adorabreezle was a loner. She had spent most of her very brief life going wherever she wanted whenever she wanted and not caring about who looked at her funny for it. Now, she had Vanellope around, constantly asking questions and making sarcastic comments. Jubileena was sure that those two hanging out would cause at least one of them to mature.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jubileena could see the three guys of Sugar Rush sneaking off to go hang out in some other game. Those three seemed to just love watching the fighting games practice. There was something about their eagerness that was both wholly innocent and evil at the same time. Gloyd in particular had an air of oddness to him. His friends were easy to figure out. Rancis was socially awkward and that manifested as vanity, and occasionally some lewdness. Swizzle was even easier, since he flat out told everyone what he thought. He was like a constant neutrality to everything else, just letting things stand where they were. He made it obvious that he was hiding something, but also that he didn't deem it important enough to fuss over. Gloyd though, he was a mystery.
Jubileena prided herself on her ability to figure people out, but she didn't understand Gloyd. He seemed to be motivated by two things: pride and vengeance. He wasn't very proud, not of himself anyway. Insult his precious car though, and you will be sorry. He sought out revenge for anything that he felt was a slight to him. Granted, his retribution was generally proportionate, but it still felt odd. Many of the racers were quick to say that he was just a jerk who couldn't stand having his ego bruised, but Jubileena felt like there was more. People didn't really act like that. There was always something more, something behind all the rest. She knew she would eventually figure it out. Jubileena's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of her housemate.
"Hey girl, how's it going?" Snowanna asked, sitting down next to the cherry themed racer.
"Great! The weather is just fantastic! I can practically feel the sun smiling at me." Jubileena said.
"Cool. So, what's going on out here?" Snowanna asked, gesturing to the field where the other racers were all entertaining themselves.
"Oh, a lot of things." Jubileena said as she took a drink.
"Sounds pretty dull. Hey, you wanna watch a movie?" Snowanna offered.
"What movie are you thinking of?" Jubileena asked.
"I've got the Godfather, Rocky, and Jaws all back at my place." Snowanna said. Jubileena was running down the white chocolate paved road by the time her friend had said Godfather.
"Whoa." Jubileena said once the pair had gotten to Snowanna's old house. The house that would have made even the best of bachelor pads cry out of inferiority had fallen into disrepair. Beside the army of demonic flamingos still standing in the lawn, the house was also covered in toilet paper, and had a letter taped to the door.
"Dear Snowanna, you haven't been around for a while, so I'll let you off easy on this one. There's a bucket of water that will fall on you if you open the door. Go in the window. From, Gloyd." Snowanna read. The snow cone themed girl set about pulling open a window and wriggling her way in. After Snowanna had fit her afro into the house, Jubileena opened the door. Nothing fell.
"Um, Snowanna?" Jubileena called as she walked into the house.
"In a minute, this is pretty hard." Snowanna responded from the window.
"I think you should hear this though." Jubileena said before walking over to her friend.
"Fine, what?" Snowanna said. Jubileena tapped her on the head and motioned toward the door.
"I believe the term is: Punk'd." Jubileena said. Snowanna scowled for a moment before chuckling. After she climbed out and simply walked in, the pair went up to Snowanna's bedroom. A bucket of water fell on Snowanna's head.
"Okay, we're postponing movies until after I've killed that little pumpkin headed narc." Snowanna said. Jubileena was too busy laughing to pay any heed to the threat against Gloyd.
"Lighten up, it could've been worse." Jubileena said.
"How?" Snowanna asked, pulling a box of VHS tapes off of her bookshelf.
"The flamingos could have taken the place over by now." Jubilenna replied, casting a wary eye out the window. Once Snowanna finished laughing her head off, the duo went back to Jubileena's for a movie marathon. Of course, it took a few hours for Jubileena to figure out how to work the old VHS player in her garage, but they eventually watched their movies.
