As rude as Veruca worded her advice that Charlie not eventuate his smile, it wasn't much of a lie, the Good Boy was not exactly the most photogenic person, but he wasn't so unattractive that a couple of tweaks wouldn't make a difference. Nevertheless, he took the attention hog's advice and manipulated his facial expression in order for it to line up with the little brute's recommendations, he squinted his eyes by pushing the skin from his cheeks up towards his eyes, thus making them less large. Unfortunately, with so much skin pulled up, the new expression caused his top lip to be pulled up as well, exposing the top row of his teeth even more, including a bit of gum, making him look a bit more weird than he typically looked, but, he guessed a big, bright smile was still better than the crazy eyes Veruca saw. What made his large smile even stranger to everyone else in the room was that it was not the local custom to express happiness through such a conspicuous gesture; Charlie almost felt like an American with a big, almost fake smile slapped on his face as he made his way through the tables of the mostly British attendees. Even worse, many of the banquet guests were stuffy, posh, old men who would not restrain themselves from scoffing at such a display of Yank mannerisms and go on to complain about how they seem to continue infecting the youth of Britain today.

Nevertheless, Charlie did as Veruca did every day of her life and ignored all of his detractors, smiling all the way as he approached the presenter who handed him his award, and then turned over to the podium, and declared, "Thank you, thank you all so much. I'll keep it short, I want to thank the Nominating Committee for this most prestigious award. I want to thank my family, every teacher I ever had, and most importantly, I want to thank all of you."

Charlie noticed as the entire crowd nodded their heads in unison to his compliment, everyone except for Veruca, who just sat still with her head rested on the palm of her right hand and focused solely on her inviter up on the podium. The two former Golden Ticket winners locked eyes once again, but unlike the rage he saw in her eyes when they initially ran into each other again at Fenston's or the sheer terror when she attempted to escape Wonka's squirrels, her current expression was a look of curiosity, wondering what he'd do next. However, the Good Boy just continued to stare into his guest's eyes and stammered his way through the rest of his short speech, adding, "All of you...for being here...tonight."

"Enjoy the rest of the banquet!" The heir pronounced as he snapped out of the trance he found himself in, then proceeded to rescind the podium and made his way back to his seat.

The music and the rounds of applause played him off, and Charlie returned to his seat triumphantly and still restraining the full range of his joyful expression by squinting his eyes, thus keeping them from shining bright and making a face that disturbed his guest. Veruca was immediately intrigued by the shiny object Charlie brought back to their table in victory, a diamond-shaped trophy made entirely out of glass, base and all. The jagged face of the trophy had the TABA logo engraved at the top, along with the subheading: "The Trans-Atlantic Business Association-London Chapter is honoured to bestow CHARLES J. BUCKET the award for the Most Successful Entrepreneur aged 18-29." Immediately and without asking, the little brute pulled the trophy out of Charlie's hands and began studying every detail of the prize. Its modern aesthetic looked like something she might keep on a shelf in her own home, not to mention the fact that the piece indicated some sort of achievement, something the brat more than believed she had accomplished several times before. However, there also was one part of the award that raised a question in Veruca's mind, and that was the inclusion of a middle initial where Charlie's name was etched.

"J? What does the 'J' stand for?" Veruca asked her inviter.

Charlie took the award from his guest's hands and began tapping the "J" with his right index finger, as he explained, "It stands for 'Joseph,' my middle name. I'm named after my grandfather, the one who accompanied me on the tour of Mr. Wonka's factory."

While the little brute was expecting some sort of elaborate story from the Good Boy who just couldn't stop sharing factoids about his life she didn't go out of her way to learn, so in response, she just let out a simple, "Oh."

An awkward silence overcame the two former Golden Ticket winners, a silence that was only broken after Veruca uttered something which seemed completely random and out of place at the moment, proclaiming as she pointed to herself, "Elvira."

"What is that?" Charlie quickly asked, as the name his fellow Golden Ticket winner had just said didn't mean anything to him, and so he would need her to clarify what she meant by it.

Fortunately, Veruca was in a mood to elaborate on the personal fact she had just said, and so she explained, "My middle name. You told me yours, so I'm telling you mine; Elvira. I'm named after my grandmother, kind of like you with your grandfather."

Having his fellow Golden Ticket winner open up and tell him about herself without him prodding her in the first place put another smile on Charlie's face, Veruca told him her middle name on her own accord. It was truly miraculous that both former Golden Ticket winners had middle names to commemorate their grandparents, something else they both had in common; however, as he pondered this new piece of information over, he realized something interesting about her name, and so he joked with her, "You know, you're lucky your name was not the other way around, or it would look like your given name was suing your surname, hehe!"

While his Wonka-esque cackle was surely not going to elicit a positive response from the little brute, Charlie was more distraught by the fact that she didn't respond to his joke at all, leading him to try and explain it, adding, "You get it? You see, your name is Veruca E. Salt, but if your first and middle names swapped positions, you'd be Elvira V. Salt. Your name sounds like a court case now."

While the Good Boy's explanation clicked inside the little brute's mind, this fact didn't affect the unimpressed expression on her face, she just stared back at him, and responded, "No, I mean, I get it. I just don't see how that's supposed to be funny."

She had him there, to be honest, Charlie didn't really think the joke was all that impressive and instead decided to unload on the people who invented it, replying, "I know, a Yank explained the joke to me. It's American humour, they live in a very litigious society. Did you know they really do air advertisements for solicitor advocates on the telly over there? Ah, such a silly country."

If there was something these two Brits could agree on, it was that, not to mention it would be the only thing about this excursion that Mr. Salt would actually approve of; these patriotic youth putting those crude, bombastic Americans and their unrefined culture in their place, well below the awesome might of Britannia.

For the next half hour, different presenters got up to the podium and continued dispersing the last of the awards and after the awards ceremony was over, the chapter chairman once again approached the podium and thanked everyone for coming before wrapping up the event. Soon after, all the guests filled out of the conference room and back into the larger waiting area where they could stretch their legs after two hours of sitting down and mingle with all the other guests before heading home. The winners were all asked to pose for a photograph with the chapter chairman, something that Veruca was not going to let Charlie pass up; they got in line and when it was their turn, Charlie stood proud, holding his trophy in his hands with the chairman on his right, and a camera-craving Veruca posing as usual on his left. Even after the photos were taken, Veruca continued to drag Charlie around the waiting room, inserting herself and Wonka's heir into people's conversations, especially conversations between Charlie's fellow award winners.