The young girl gazed out at the open nut room with the millions of squirrels working, her piercing blue eyes widened in delight, a huge smile upon her pasty, white face.
"Squirrels!" She exclaimed in a creepily chipper British accent.
"Yea, squirrels." Mr. Wonka replied. "These squirrels are specially trained to get the nuts out of shells."
Meanwhile, Cashew and Pecan continued to crack walnuts along with the others.
"Just don't make any eye contact..." Pecan mumbled.
"Why're you whispering?" Cashew asked. "It's not like they can understand us." His normal register could be heard only as squeaks by Wonka's guests.
While the girl's father continued to speak with Mr. Wonka, she found herself able to shimmy through the protective railings and onto the stairs leading to the nut-sorting mechanisms and the squirrels that shelled said nuts.
"Uh, fellas?" A squirrel at the very end of the nut-sorting machine squeaked. "She's getting closer!"
"Okay, okay like I said, NO EYE CONTACT!" Pecan squeaked, now feeling extremely frightened. "They can't see you if you don't move...right?! RIGHT?!"
The little girl continued to walk closer, her piercing blue eyes surveying every single one of the squirrels, her height giving off a Godzilla-like aura of intimidation and terror. All the squirrels calmly stopped working and turned around to face the tiny tyrant.
"Don't touch that squirrel's nuts!" Mr. Wonka warned her. "It'll make him crazy!"
The girl stopped at the edge of the seats which every squirrel was meticulously perched on, and stared, directly at Cashew.
"No!" Pecan quietly gasped.
Cashew was paralyzed with fear, simply staring at the young girl in her expensive fur coat.
"...I'll have you." She spoke.
Those three words made chills run down Cashew's tiny, furry back. The hairs on his tail, and the rest of his body stood on end, his pea-sized heart pounding in his chest violently.
Veruca reached her delicate, manicured hands out towards poor Cashew, and all things seemed relatively bleak in that moment, when--
"EVERYONE--GET HEEERRRR!!!" Pecan shouted at the top of her lungs.
Every single squirrel attacked Veruca, pushing her to the ground and carrying her closer to the trash chute as Wonka, her father, Mike, his father, Charlie, and Grandpa Joe watched on. They gripped her arms and legs, and held her down tightly while they ran.
"DADDYYYYY!!" Veruca screamed impudently.
"NOBODY THREATENS MY FRIENDS!" Pecan exclaimed. "NOBODY."
Once the squirrels stopped, Pecan emerged from the pile of her own coworkers, standing on her hind legs. The girl was shivering with fear, but one bite to her left leg fixed that.
"Okay everyone, let's see what we're working with." Pecan spoke, climbing up Veruca's torso until she reached her head.
"—They're testing to see if she's a bad nut!" Wonka commented.
Pecan knocked twice against Veruca's skull with a tiny fist, the impact producing a rather hollow sound. She placed an ear to the British girl's head, then moved back.
"YEP!!" Pecan shouted.
"Oh my goodness." Replied Wonka. "She is a bad nut."
And with that, the squirrels re-formed, pushing the girl down the chute, her manicured nails providing no grip whatsoever as her poor father watched on. Once she was gone, the squirrels immediately resumed their work, Cashew smiling at Pecan.
"Thanks for saving me." He spoke mid-walnut crack.
"Don't mention it." Pecan replied.
