One of the many downsides of spending your time locked away in a secluded world like Wonka's chocolate factory was the fact that Charlie did not really have anyone he could speak to about all the things that had happened to him in his youth. Sure, he could tell his parents or Willy Wonka himself, but telling a person on the outside, especially someone of his generation, about his childhood experiences with things like bullying felt better because of the knowledge they had built over time. Despite the vast differences in their lifestyles, Charlie and Veruca would have experienced more or less the same cultural shifts and thus they could bond on how their experiences growing up reflected on the culture they shared. Growing up destitute amongst those living paycheck by paycheck was not as comforting as it sounded, because for Charlie growing up, his neighbors and classmates looked on him and his family more as something to pity than as their brothers who too were struggling in this unjust world. Adults took the approach of at least we are not as poor as the Buckets, but their children, the ones Charlie saw everyday at school were not that sympathetic. Children are no strangers to being cruel, and they are particularly known to lash out at the weakest among them, and who was the weakest child around than the one who ate nothing but cabbage soup every night for dinner. Veruca might not have known what it was like going to school with an empty stomach, but she must have known what it was like to have been harassed by students at one point in her life, all the while the culture around her shifted to one where institutions and the adults who had power over children actively began to call out any child who harassed another child and punish them for their misdeeds. But, unlike Charlie who was more open with his feelings, Veruca kept these feeling to herself, at least until they helped her get something she wanted. And something that should not be that surprising to anyone with knowledge about how the little brute operates, she was not as emotionally supportive as Charlie would have hoped for in this situation.

In fact, the more detailed look into Charlie's childhood she got from him actually made Veruca chuckle, but, not out of sadistic joy as one might expect from this brat, but because she couldn't get the bizarre mental image she constructed out of her head, and joked, "With all this talk about a childhood marred by bullies, it sounds like you grew up to be an emo teen, then."

Perhaps Veruca's ability to read people was not as good as Charlie thought because he did not agree with the little brute's conclusion. There was no way he could have been emo during his teenage years, primarily because Wonka would have whacked him upside the head with his cane because he thought the sad energy Charlie would bring with him would make the candies they were making taste sad and thus hurt their sales. But regardless of the reasoning behind why the little brute was wrong, the Good Boy knew he had to clarify this incorrect assessment, to which he responded, "No, I could never pull off the look. Well, I guess I kind of had the hair. And, at least I tried not to let teenage angst get the best of me, I was too respectful, too nice, to fit the emo stereotype."

The two then settled down for a bit before Charlie turned the table of discussion around, and asked his former Golden Ticket winner, "What about you, Veruca, did you ever deal with bullies?"

Unlike Charlie, the little brute was not about to tell someone else of the times someone teased her as a kid, but she was okay with going over a list of grievances specifically from her days as a schoolgirl, and thus replying, "I guess I had one bully, Allison Watkins. She always got good marks and she narked off a lot of the pupils and I when she'd ask to see our assignments to compare marks, trying to make us feel stupid, or whatever. So, what me and some of the other girls did to get even was tell her that one of the boys, Gareth Brougham, liked her but he was too shy to say anything. Now, there was no way this bloke could be shy, let alone ever like her, I mean, he was fit. I went out with him for a bit, actually, but that's another story. So, anyways, Allison says she finds him attractive as well, and we convince her to approach him after school and profess her feelings for him. Me and the girls watched from a distance as she approached Gareth while he was with his mates, so, when Allison tells him she heard he liked her and she likes him, Gareth just comes out and tells her that he doesn't like her, and he doesn't know where she got such an idea. Now, Gareth had a girlfriend at the time, Devona Covert was her name, and we tell her he wants to talk to her after school, as well, and once she gets there, she sees Allison looking all distraught, and after Gareth explained what happened, Devona starts berating her even more about how she is not pretty enough to be with someone like Gareth. Needless to say, Allison ran away, crying, while me and the girls were going mad with laughter around the corner. Now, that was a great way to start off the weekend!"

While Veruca felt relaxed and joyful retelling a story from her youth, Charlie responded with nothing shorter than a look of pure fear on his face. If the events had transpired exactly as Veruca recounted them, he felt he had more in common with Allison than his fellow Golden Ticket winner, and he said such, stammering in response, "That...that sounds like you were the bully, Veruca."

If there was one thing that Veruca craved, it was the admiration of others, thus she was not going to allow the insinuation that she was what society seemed to hate the most, a bully, to percolate in the ether, especially not when the words of condemnations originated from a meekly boy like Charlie. In her mind, every decision she had ever made was the most perfect one, like herself, it was everyone else who messed up, and she had to make sure the rest of the world knew that, so she proclaimed, "No, no, shut up, you're wrong! Wanna know why?! Because no matter how much I stuck around and listened to their little twat problems, those tarts all eventually betrayed me! Fake friends, it's what they were! I gave them the honour to be a part of my social circle, and they threw it all away by leaving me all alone in the end!"

It took Charlie some time to realize that Veruca was no longer talking about the victims of her bullying but her school friends as she was seeming to pin all the bullying Allison experienced on them, thus framing herself as a mere observer. But, regardless or her obvious complicities, let alone downright involvement in the bullying she detailed only a few seconds prior, Charlie watched in fear as the little brute began to calm down after being reminded of her school friends and them not wanting to associate with her after some time, and then said as it seemed she was trying to find her inner peace, "But that was okay, because whenever he got home and I told him what happened, Daddy would always remind me that 'I'm pretty and the world loves a pretty girl.'"

Just as Charlie had given Veruca a window into his childhood, The Bad Nut had just given one of her own to The Lucky Boy, and just like his, the picture she painted was not a happy one. The suspicions he raised at the banquet concerning Veruca's friend situation seemed to have been confirmed, the reason she lacked closed companionship was because they did not want to deal with her less than desirable attitude, and now he knew this problem stretched all the way back to when she was still in school. While he could not be certain if her friends really were backstabbers like Veruca claimed they were, it seemed more likely that Veruca drove them so crazy that whoever she befriended eventually cut ties with her when they grew tired of her personality. And it only seemed to Veruca that her former friends separating themselves from her were, in fact, betraying her because the other option would be to admit that she did something wrong to send them running away, and admitting such a thing was something she could not do. And, beyond her relationship with her peers, her messed up relationship with her father was on full display once again. Whenever something that even minorly displeased her came up, instead of sitting her down and explaining that the world was a rough place and that not everyone would agree with her, let alone like her, Mr. Salt fed her the same toxic positivity bile he had done since the day she was born. Instead of telling her to reflect on her interactions with former friends to realize how her bratty attitude drove most people away and to then to learn from her experiences in order to become a more attractive person to spend time with, he told her that none of the fallout was her fault and that she did not have to worry about what others said because she was destined to always be the best and most beloved person around. And, as terrible as that piece of advice from a parental figure was, the negative effects were only kept at bay because of the Salt's incredible wealth and the illusion of security it created for the little brute. In short, Veruca was lucky her family had money for her to fall back on, because had the little brute grown up poor, or even middle class, she most likely would have grown up with a series of issues that she could have only danced her way through.

Regardless of whatever problems Veruca had, Charlie continued to stick around because he thought he could be of help to her by remaining a part of her life and just marched through whatever overblown reaction the little brute had whenever something upset her. There was also the fact that Charlie, as weird as it sounded, did somehow enjoy his excursions with Veruca, because even when he soiled his pants out of fear, he did like the fact that he had someone to do stuff with outside the confines of the factory. Perhaps if Wonka were not so reclusive and ventured outside his factory more than once every couple of years, then maybe he would have given up on Veruca after the sofa fiasco. But Wonka rarely left his perfect world and that terrifying dream and vision of Veruca he had was enough to compel Charlie to keep pushing forward whenever the brat got even more difficult to handle.

But, speaking of something terrifying, all the talking the two Golden Ticket winners engaged in was enough to help them pass the time waiting in line. It was now their turn to get on board the Zipper, more specifically, an average-sized rickety cage with a bench for two the riders got into for the experience, an average-sized cage where surprisingly these two taller-than-average people fit well enough that the door could close, albeit it was far from enough space to be truly comfortable. The selling point of this attraction were all the rapid spins the cages made alongside the topsy-turvy movements the main structure which said cages were attached to made, it was the crown jewel of rides amongst the adult crowd at the carnival, but also incredibly dizzying for those who were not accustomed to it. Charlie was just that kind of person; as the ride spun crazily about, he noticed Veruca's facial expression jump back and forward from sheer enjoyment to a strange, distorted look that overcame her face. It almost appeared as if she was literally surrendering to the motions of the ride, quite the opposite of what the Good Boy was doing.

As panic overcame him, Charlie clenched his jaw, and every other part of his body he could clench, for that matter, as well for the duration of the ride, something that most likely would have annoyed Veruca if she had not been too distracted enjoying herself. When the ride came to a stop and the riders stepped off, Charlie reemerged sore all over from being thrown around inside the spinning cage, and most notably, a strained neck from having to crouch to even fit inside the compact cage. Whereas Veruca came out of the ride not feeling any kind of discomfort, especially in her neck like her fellow Golden Ticket winner, the reason for that being her years of studying ballet had strengthened the muscles all over her body to be able to withstand stress for a prolonged period of time. Years of dancing with her head literally held up high made having to crouch for five minutes feel like a cakewalk, whereas the most neck muscle exercises Charlie have ever done involved restraining his body as he maneuvered through the factory tunnels on his Areoscoot. The two continued the same process of waiting in line to get on a ride, chatting to pass the time and getting thrown around like ragdolls in the end for a couple more hours, taking a few breaks in between for Charlie to rest and even grabbing a bite to eat from the fair's wide selection of eating establishments before heading back home. After such a long day out and about and the drive back to the city center to drop Veruca off, Charlie then drove back to the factory and headed directly to his room in the attic space once he got back, only for him to go to bed earlier than usual that night. But as exhausted as he felt, Charlie still did not regret going to the fair, and while he would have preferred to not have been scared in the mystery house or having to deal with the little brute's brattiness, just being able to spend time outside the factory with someone else was enough for him to look the other way. It was never a boring day when he was out with Veruca, and part of the reason why he enjoyed it so much was because, even though she would hate the comparison, Veruca really was as wild and crazy as Willy Wonka himself, the Good Boy thought.