((Chapter 4 is up, and I thank the people who has been following it so far~))

Chapter 4

Later that day, the sky turned dark—it was programmed to be nighttime and it only lasted a few hours, so the game doesn't have to be perpetual sunny all the time. Swizzle parked his kart into the garage of the castle, where the racers can keep their karts if they're not using it.

Sentient candy servants look after them and did a good job tuning them before a race starts. Swizzle, however, gave them special instructions not bother him if he wants to work on his kart alone and not undo his hard work after he's done with it. They're still allowed to clean and polish his kart.

As he was making adjustments under the hood of his kart with a few tools, he heard a familiar voice speaking to him. "Hey, Swizz."

"Huh?!" He jumped in surprise, his bumping the roof of the hood. "Ow!"

He rubbed the sore bruise and then closed the hood down on his kart. He saw Rancis and Gloyd walking towards him.

"Hey, Rancis, Gloyd," Swizzle said. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," Rancis replied. "Gloyd and I are going out to buy soda for the party. The girls sure finish them so fast."

Swizzle was confused. "What party?"

"The party Taffyta is throwing," Rancis explained, "to celebrate her greatest achievement: Hardcore Candy, getting the first place of the roster one hundred times in a row."

Meanwhile at Taffyta's room, it was set up with colorful lights and decorations, all strawberry pink. A fancy buffet table is laid out with all kinds of strawberry candies and desserts. A banner was hung in the middle of the room, which reads "Congrats on the Hardcore Candy Achievement". Racers and several of Taffyta's fans have been invited, and they were talking over the sugary pop music playing.

Taffyta herself was enjoying the attention, getting warm congratulations and compliments. She glanced at a long shelf cabinet full of her gold and silver trophy cups she won over the years.

"Girl, your party is so wickedly stylish!" Snowanna patted her back.

"Thank you, Sno," Taffyta smiled sweetly as she licked her lollipop. "Have you tried the berry punch yet?"

At this moment, the door flew open and Swizzle strides in, followed by a worried looking Rancis and Gloyd as though they've been trying to stop him from party-crashing.

"Hey guys! You can't start the party without The Swizz!" Swizzle greeted everyone with a huge smile.

The music suddenly stopped and the room went silent. The racer noticed a few faces cringed and saw Candlehead whispering to Taffyta, who has her arms crossed.

"Why are you here?" Taffyta demanded, her icy blue eyes narrowed.

Swizzle tried to look cool under Taffyta's frown. "I'm just here for a little visit. I heard from Rancis and Gloyd here that you, uh… are throwing a party and… I was wondering if you forgot to invite me."

"You weren't invited," Taffyta told him. "Only racers with talent and a good reputation are invited to my party. And you, Malarkey, have neither of those."

Swizzle is now glaring at her. "At least I'm not the second-best racer in all of Sugar Rush."

Everyone gasped in the room.

Taffyta stared at Swizzle angrily, flicking her lollipop away before marching right up on a face level with him.

"You think you're hot stuff, Malarkey," she hissed. "You may be an amazing racer, but that was years ago, and now you're just a shell of your former self. You say many things but your skills don't match to whatever your word comes out of your big mouth. It's no wonder no one likes you."

"Everyone likes The Swizz!" Swizzle shouted. "I'm a great racer like everyone else!"

"If you're such a great racer, then how come you haven't gotten more than three trophy cups?" Taffyta asked.

"Well, maybe I would have won more cups if you just give anyone a chance to win! I mean, you took first place one hundred times already!" Swizzle motioned to the banner above their heads. "I'm just as important to the game like everyone is!"

"What, and let low-tier racers like you take my thunder?" the platinum-blonde girl throws back her hair. Swizzle noticed for the first time that the recolor racers weren't invited as well. "In my opinion, those who don't have talent or slack off in their skills don't deserve to win gold coins or cups! It's a huge embarrassment just living in the same game with you! Only winners deserve all the glory and fame! You're just a playboy loser who loves pulling dangerous stunts that are just shows and a ticket to an accident!"

"I'M NOT A LOSER!" Swizzle screamed, finally losing his temper. His hands shot out and shoved Taffyta. The girl stumbled backwards and bumped against the buffet table; a punch bowl spilled all over her hair and clothes.

Everyone stared in shocked silence at what Swizzle had done. Taffyta began to cry, her mascara running.

"Milk my duds!" King Candy's familiar voice broke the silence. The king had just entered the room, with Sour Bill at his side. His eyes popped wide open and he placed a hand against his chest, as though he was going to have a heart attack.

"What's with all this shouting and fighting, my royal subjects?" he asked. "I thought I was invited to a party not a brawl!"

"KING CANDYYY!" Taffyta wailed as she ran to her king, burying her tear-stained into his chest. King Candy just stood there, looking awkward at first but then he gently patted her head.

"Oh, my poor, sweet Taffyta, what happened to you?" he asked her in a kind voice.

"S-Swizzle was p-p-picking one me, and he pushed me!" Taffyta replied, between each sobs. "He's a big meanie!"

"Hey! What gives? You started it first!" Swizzle cried.

"Swizzle Malarkey, I'm afraid I can't deal with you right now," King Candy spoke up. He looked serious and disappointed. "So, I order you to go to your room and stay there. You're grounded for the rest of the night and tomorrow, until the next Random Roster Race."

"You should be kicked off the roster race!" Candlehead shouted angrily at Swizzle.

"You're crazy, man," Gloyd shook his head.

"To think I once dated this sour loser," Crumbelina's voice trailed off.

Swizzle stared at everyone in the room, a few trying to avert their eyes away from him.

"You know what?" he began before he walked out the room. "I'm gonna take the 1st place on the roster list tomorrow and get me a trophy! The shiniest gold cup ever! I can prove it to you all that The Swizz is still a genius racer. You'll be begging me to sign your autographs and throw parties for me!"

Then with that, he slammed the door behind him. The impact caused Taffyta's banner to fall to the floor.

Swizzle flopped on his canopy bed of his room. The blankets and curtains were striped and colored in different shades of blue. The walls of his room were covered in posters he collected all over the years. He has few good furniture, and piles of old fanmail letters (half from girls) sitting on his desk, but all he's missing is a good number of trophy cups. He only won three bronze cups throughout his fifteen years of racing, but he takes good care of them; polishing them every now and then to make sure they retain their shine.

Next to his bed is a poster with a philosophy quote reading, "Live your life fast and to your last breath!" For some reason, the words seem to ring something familiar in his head. It's as though he had heard it all his life, or in a dream. He can't recall where he first heard it, but he likes keeping it close to his heart; it was a good philosophy to live by in his opinion.

He looks at them and sighed, rolling over to get some sleep. He fully realized for the first time, he is alone and friendless. He wants to keep his spirits up but he can't deny the fact that he has been getting rusty lately, followed by an extreme case of bad luck. However, that's going to change tomorrow once he wins the roster race. Then he will finally be a winner and everyone would look up to him. Heck, he can rub his victory into Taffyta's face!

He chuckled at this thought and finally closed his eyes.

Swizzle spent the whole following day, locked up in his room since he's grounded for pushing Taffyta into the punch bowl. He wished he had plenty of time to practice his driving skills but he knows he's talented enough.

Sour Bill opened the door of his room and peeked at him. "King Candy says you're no longer grounded. The Random Roster Race will begin soon."

"Thanks, Sour Bill!" Swizzle grinned, which the green sour candy didn't return it. Sour Bill then leaves him to get ready.

Swizzle hurries to his chest to pick a gold coin. He was expecting his hand to grab that familiar flat piece of solid. Instead, he felt only air. His frantically moved his hand around inside the chest, trying to find a coin but there is nothing.

Swizzle began to panic—his chest is empty, and empty means no coins, and no coins means…

He quickly hurried out the room, jumped on his Tongue-Twister and sped off to the stadium. To his luck, he found King Candy who was about climb up into his royal podium and announce the start of the roster race.

"Yo! King Candy!" Swizzle called after him, stopping his kart.

King Candy spun around when he heard someone calling his name. His jolly smile formed wider when he saw Swizzle.

"Ah, there you, Swizzle!" he said. "I'm so glad you can make it! I'm terribly sorry that I had to ground you all day, but as king, I have to do what's right. Don't worry, Taffyta has forgiven you—in her own way—and you two can continue be fellow racers."

"No, that isn't it!" Swizzle said. "Listen, when I tried to get my gold coin to pay my fee for this race, my chest is empty!"

King Candy looked at him, trying to understand his words.

"Your chest… is empty?" he chuckled. "But coin chests for racers are never empty! Surely you made a mistake."

"I wish I did, but it's true!" the young racer told him. "You gotta lend me coin so I can enter this race! I promise to pay it back once I win the cup! Please, Your Candyness!"

"Now, hold it, Swizzle," King Candy raised a hand to calm him down. "Listen, I can't explain why your chest is suddenly empty, but… I cannot just simply lend you a coin; it's more complicated than that."

"But you're our king! Surely you can make an exception," Swizzle insisted.

"I can't, my boy!" King Candy wrings his hands. "I'm telling you it's impossible! What if you didn't win the cup or make it to the roster today? Have you ever thought about that possibility? It'd be throwing away precious coins for nothing! Furthermore, since you don't have anything to pay the fee, then I'm afraid… you are no longer allowed to take part in the Random Roster Race. No pay, no play!"

Swizzle's mouth dropped and his face crushed. "But… racing is my life! You can't just take that away from me! I'm a racer! I need to be on the track!"

He paused, trying too hard not to cry. He disliked being vulnerable. "… What am I gonna do now?"

King Candy looks at him sadly and patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Swizzle... I don't make the rules of this game. Look, I have to go; the race can't start without me."

King Candy then climbed up to his podium without looking back. Swizzle glanced at the other racers and their karts all lined up at the starting line.

"But it can without me…" Swizzle sadly finished the king's last statement.

((Aww, looks like Swizzle is no longer allowed to enter the races anymore! How would he deal with this and can he survive being an outcast?))