Author's Notes: Hey readers! Once again thanks for your positive feedback! :) I'm very sorry for the delay! Yep, Veruca's life definitely went south after the tour. You'll all find out what Veruca has in store and in Gene Wilder's words "The suspense is terrible, I hope it'll last!" Guest, I'm so glad you're really enjoying my fic! Now off we go! :)
Once the last of the RSVP cards arrived to the factory, Charlie, Willy, and Stacy all vigorously planned the much anticipated reunion tour and dinner. Even the intense planning and preparing failed to distract Willy. The thought of the runner-ups returning constantly plagued his mind. He was eager for the tour to end already. Before anyone realized it, the evening of September 30th arrived.
"Daddy? Can I come? Please? PLEASE?" Joey innocently begged as Charlie helped him put his peppermint-scented pajamas on.
"I'm afraid not Joey. You have to stay with mommy and Grandma in the residence rooms." Charlie replied with a yawn.
"Awe come on daddy! I don't want to stay in there all day! I wanna meet the bad kids! Maybe the cowboy guy will play with me!" Joey whined, only knowing the image of the runner-ups' childhood images from various newspaper articles and old news clips.
Willy anxiously observed Charlie and his son. He could not help but picture Veruca barking orders at her once weak-willed father during the original tour.
"Good heavens. I just hope he won't become like Veruca one day..." he quietly mumbled to himself.
"What's that?" Charlie asked his mentor.
Willy sharply turned towards his apprentice.
"Oh. Nothing. Nothing at all..." he lied.
"Willy. I promise you that Joey or the baby won't be brats, especially like her. I won't allow it and I know you certainly won't!" Charlie replied.
Willy let out a loud sigh.
"I know how nervous you are and you've been like this since the beginning. I can reassure you it'll be fine and they've long grown out of their terrible, old selves..."
"I do hope you're right. Especially the fact that Violet and Mike were able to be fixed, they should be much better people, I think..." Willy responded, scratching his frizzy greying hair.
"They will be. It'll be all over before you know it! Just one day! I know you can do it Willy!" Charlie piped up as he hugged his mentor.
Willy smiled and tightly hugged his heir.
The next morning, many vans belonging to news stations from all over the world were parked in front of the factory gates before the first ray of sun appeared in the sky. Within hours, a massive crowd of locals and tourists, quadrupled in size compared to the original crowd 20 years prior gathered around the gates.
Many people held tiny flags of the runner-ups' home countries and posters with encouraging messages. A group of tourists also held a large handmade poster dedicated to Augustus. It was adorned with small German flags, pink hearts, and a Wonka bar wrapper. Large black letters were the centerpiece which read:
IN LIEBEVOLLER ERINNERUNG AN AUGUSTUS GLOOP
The three surviving runner-ups all finally arrived roughly at the same time. They were onto rainbow chairs that were perched onto a large bandstand, in a very similar fashion years ago. None of the ticket finders expressed any interest talking to the anchormen and women, as they were all in their own bubbles and lost in thought.
Violet sat in her multicolored chair, looking around the media aggressively taking pictures and then looked down at her lap, stopping herself from biting her nails. She felt herself slightly sweating through her bright orange sweater and black leggings. Memories of herself rapidly transforming into the human blueberry flooded her mind.
Mike was seated between the two women, clad in a baggy blue and green plaid shirt and the only pair of paint-free jeans he owned. Like Violet, he felt himself nervously shuddering at the thought of Wonkavision and the taffy puller. His bones badly ached and the young artist hoped the effects of the pain pills would kick in soon.
Veruca sat upright with her arms folded and scowling at the media. She wore a tight, knee-length black dress and a bright pink jacket that perfectly matched the pink streaks in her hair. Black fishnet leggings hugged her long, tattooed legs. Most of the crowd, including Mike and Violet barely recognized Veruca due to her haggard appearance and the thick makeup that decorated her angry face. Unlike the others, she expressed no sign of anxiety and fear. She was eager to seek revenge against the candyman and his apprentice for her misfortunes over the years. Veruca let out a menacing smirk as she gently patted her jacket pocket which held her loyal handgun.
Violet began to shake furiously and accidentally kicked her chair's legs. This immediately grabbed Mike's attention.
"Hey. Are you okay Violet?" the baby-faced artist asked her with concern.
"Y-yeah. I'm just a bit nervous, that's all." She replied, slightly smiling at him.
"Tell me about it. I'm pretty nervous myself too. And wow, you look awesome by the way! No more blueberry juice in ya!" Mike replied with a smile.
Violet let out a snort-like laugh.
"Thanks! That was awful. I had to get blood transfusion therapy for a whole month! And you look great too! How'd you get back to normal size?"
Mike was still widely smiling.
"Long story. Wonka gave me a sucker that shrunk me back to normal size so no one else saw me when I was a thin giant!"
"Wow. You mean that one piece of candy just shrunk you back?" Violet asked in amazement.
Before Mike could reply, someone yelled: "And why didn't that asshat give me a piece of candy to get that bloody rubbish off of me?!"
The two Americans turned to see Veruca fuming with rage and smoking a cigarette.
"You two have no idea how much pain Wonka's caused me for the past two decades. You were far worse off than me after the tour ended and look at you, all bright and shiny, and bloody perfect!" she hissed in her harsh voice as she huffed the leftover smoke directly at Mike's face. He coughed and swatted the smoke away from him.
"Then why did you come in the first place you nit? There was a decline option you know!" Violet snapped.
Veruca furiously glared at Violet.
"Shut up bitch!" she yelled.
"Leave her alone!" Mike shouted, blocking Violet from the vengeful gang member.
"You stay out of this TV kid! Oh, I see you corrected that silly little lisp of yours and you finally know how to dress like a civilized human being..." Veruca purred as the factory bell rang.
The three ticket finders immediately stopped their fighting and silently sat back into their seats, silently listening to the bell. The sound of the bell brought the runner-ups back memories of the time when they first heard the same bell ring years ago with their parents.
Charlie and Willy stood next to each other in the factory foyer, prepared to reunite with the remaining ticket finders. Willy still wore the same trademark outfit he wore two decades prior and nervously fiddled his cane.
"Pst! It's gonna be okay, just take a deep breath..." Charlie whispered to his mentor.
Charlie was dressed in a nearly identical Wonka outfit with the exception of a bright cyan jacket and bowtie. The ringing of the bell was a thousand time louder inside, echoing the light grey walls.
"Ready?" Charlie asked.
"I'm ready Charlie." Willy replied with a gulp as he and his apprentice walked out of the foyer.
As soon as the duo walked out of the factory, loud cheering and clapping sounded, along with the intense flashes of the paparazzi's cameras. Willy's heart began to race upon seeing the three runner-ups, all staring at him as he managed to smile and wave at the crowd.
Once the pair stopped in front of the gates, Charlie suddenly tripped facedown onto the new red carpet. Instead of falling, he somersaulted upwards and bowed. The crowd cheered even louder. Willy looked at his apprentice with a smile, not expecting the somersault.
"Welcome back my friends. Welcome. Could you please come forward?" the chocolatier politely asked the ticket finders with no sign of tension or anxiety.
Within seconds, the trio all darted towards the gate. Willy and Charlie were both pleased to see Veruca not shoving Mike or Violet to go in first. They noticed that she was slower than the others, oblivious that she was making sure that her gun would not fall out of her pocket.
The chocolatiers both glanced at the runner-ups, who all stood in a single file line.
"Welcome back. We're so happy you can come. You'll enjoy our updated and improved factory on this special day, I hope you will..." Charlie greeted.
Violet was the first to approach the duo.
"How do you do Violet? It's so good to see that all of the blueberry juice is out of your system. Still chewing any gum my dear?" Willy politely told the former gum enthusiast as he lightly shook her hand.
"Nope. I've long traded that for sports and yoga." Violet nervously replied.
"Well excellent. I'm so glad that you've become wiser." the candyman replied as Violet moved on to shake Charlie's hand.
Mike was the next to step forward.
"Hello there Mike! How good to see you! Looks like all of that candy and my shrinking sucker did their jobs well! Did you bring one of your masterpieces?"
The baby-faced artist let out a huge smile, tightly shaking Willy's hand.
"I sure did Mr. Wonka! Wanna see it?" Mike nervously asked in an overly animated tone.
"After the tour..."
Mike moved towards Charlie and shook his hand even harder.
"I hope you realize how much you fixed my life! Thanks to you I found my true talent and tons of people love my art! Nice somersault by the way!" he commented in the same nervous, hyperactive voice, looking directly at Charlie's blue eyes.
Charlie's hand was sore from Mike's strong handshake.
"Thanks and you're very welcome!" Charlie cheerfully replied.
Lastly, Veruca stepped forward.
"My dear Veruca, uh, it's good to see you..." Willy replied with a worried smile, clearly shocked by her drastic new look.
Veruca did not reply, rather she snarled at the candyman and crudely shook his hand and did the same to Charlie.
"Everybody in? YES! On we go!" Willy declared as he led the group inside the factory.
One more thing, for those of you who don't know German, the English translation of Augustus' tribute poster is "In loving memory of Augustus Gloop".