A/N: Too much is happening at this party. I gotta split it into two parts.

Chapter 23: Rave, Part 1

Ralph was stressed. It wasn't easy to look like you were having a good time in a situation like this. The music was very loud, and the quality of it was debatable. The grand hall, which Vanellope had assured them would be plenty big enough, was officially standing room only. Ralph suspected that the entire arcade had shown up, whether or not they'd been invited. It wasn't easy being a large guy in a crowded room, and Ralph found he wasn't enjoying the experience. He felt too large most of the time anyway, actually being able to compare himself to everyone else in the arcade was just uncomfortable.

Vanellope had been spending most of her time playing hostess and pointing everyone in the direction of the 'fun stuff'. She'd all but demanded that Ralph stay by her side for most of it, but she'd just recently disappeared to places unknown. He thought she'd said something about the dance floor, but ALL of it was dance floor as far as he could tell.

Ralph was plastering a smile on his face, just in case Vanellope was looking his way like she had been so often lately. Unlike her, he was easily spotted in the crowd. So he was determined to look like he was having a good time, just in case. It was getting increasingly more difficult.

"It's really hot in here." Ralph mused. He wondered if there was a way to fix that. He looked around and spotted several hinged windows near the ceiling. Those could probably be opened, and the pillars looked fairly climbable. So...

Vanellope was, in fact, dancing. She'd told Ralph this with the idea that he should join her. But alas, it hadn't happened, because Ralph just didn't care for dancing. She'd kind of thought she'd cured him of that that first time they went dancing, plus it was less likely they'd be the center of attention in such a crowded place. But neither of those facts seemed to sway him. It was disappointing.

But there was no shortage of people wanting to dance, so Vanellope found someone readily enough.

"Ken!" Vanellope beamed. Great luck, she assumed, since she already knew that Ken was an excellent dancer.

"Hey there girly." Ken greeted.

"I was just looking for someone to dance with." Vanellope said, innocently enough.

"Oh? Well wheres your guy? Ralph?" Ken asked, scanning the immediate vicinity nervously. He knew Ralph was passive by nature, but he was still really big. He'd hate to get on that guy's bad side.

"Oh, he's hanging around somewhere. If I could get him to dance he'd be perfect." Vanellope jokingly complained with a wave of her hand.

"Uhh... well, I guess so then." Ken agreed hesitantly, letting Vanellope lead him to the dance floor.

Vanellope and Ken spent quite a while dancing. The dance floor was really crowded and Vanellope quickly noticed that the room was heating up a lot. Vanellope asked around the floor, wondering if it was just her. When other people agreed and she noticed everyone was starting to sweat she thought that maybe she should do something about it. But first she took off her hoodie, since she was starting to overheat.

She went to go find Sour Bill. He'd have some plan for this. He had a plan for everything. She found him hiding out in one of the antechambers, away from the crowd. He looked a little sticky, like he was somewhat melted. He'd been in the hall not too long ago judging by that. He was fanning himself with a paper fan.

"Bill, do you know what to do about that heat in the grand hall? It's really getting ridiculous in there." Vanellope asked.

"Wreck-it Ralph is already opening the windows." Sour Bill answered in his usual monotone.

"He is? Did you ask him to do that?" Vanellope asked in surprise.

"No." Sour Bill answered.

"Hmm. Will that help with the heat?" Vanellope asked.

"Yes, once enough of them are open. He's only just started." Sour Bill replied.

"Oh. Well... thanks, I guess." Vanellope said.

"Mmmhmmm." Bill mumbled.

Vanellope went back to the main hall. She looked up at the windows and noticed several of them were already open. The temperature was slowly starting to go down to a tolerable level. She scanned the walls and spotted Ralph. He was hanging on to one of the pillars and fiddling with another window. She sighed blissfully when she spotted him.

Ralph's muscles were all tensed as he clung to the pillar tight enough to be able to stretch out to the window latch. Vanellope was really enjoying the sight. It was terrible to be so... distracted when it was already really hot in here. She was about to go over to where he was about to come down, but someone stopped her.

"Vanellope!" Taffyta shouted, interrupting Vanellope's course of action.

"What?" Vanellope asked. She turned away from Ralph to look at Taffyta.

Taffyta was covered head to toe in sugar glitter.

"C'mon, you're the only one whose not ready!" Taffyta said.

"Ready for what?!" Vanellope shouted as Taffyta dragged her off.

A/N: Squee, I'm having giggle fits over what I'm thinking for the next chapter.

Review Response:

Reader - It comes with being a teenager I imagine. I thought that part was pretty good too.

malstar100 - Yes, but that really was just a coincidence. I was just figuring, Sugar Rush was 15 at the time of the movie, and I wanted Ralph and Vanellope to be friends for more than a year when the update happened, and in story time a few months would've passed maybe. So I just picked 17 based on that. Nothing to do with character appearances.

jeh-nee - You know, that review was so long that my email cut it off and said I had to read the rest on ffnet. I was amused. Anyway, I'm glad I've broken that particular mold. I was trying really hard to avoid it with this one. As for this chapter, or rather the next chapter, I will answer one of your questions. No, Ralph isn't going to sing. Ralph really hates being the center of attention, I think he'd rather die than sing karaoke. Of course Vanellope on the other hand...
That's the only thing you got really wrong enough for me to say anything though.