Chapter 4: The First Golden Ticket Winner
Author's Note: Hello, dear readers! As promised, the next chapter of Kind At Heart is finally here, where the first Golden Ticket winner will be revealed at last! I hope that you'll enjoy it, but first, it's time for me to respond to your reviews.
Matt, I'm glad you liked what I did with Chris and Jenna, as well as the original bratty children! Chris and Jenna knowing each other personally especially will come into play as the story progresses, so look forward to that.
emeraldphan, I'm glad that you enjoyed what I did with the four original children! Augustus being a fitness coach, as well as Violet Beauregarde becoming a dentist, were ideas created by MysteriousMaker1185 for Charlie's Chocolatey Adventure, and I liked them so much that I decided to carry the idea over. Their fates also weren't really elaborated on in the original "Next in Line", so I decided to correct that. I'm also glad that you enjoyed my version of Chris and Jenna. They'll certainly have more time in the spotlight as the story progresses. Now, on with the story, where the first Golden Ticket winner is finally revealed!
"After an entire suspenseful week of waiting," a newscaster said as the foursome watched the television carefully, "The first Golden Ticket has been found in Rome, Italy, by a boy named Antonio Ricci."
"No Gloops this time!" Mr. Wonka said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!"
"That's a great sign," Mrs. Bucket said. "I wonder if Antonio would make a good heir just like you, Charlie!"
"We'll just have to watch and find out for ourselves," Charlie smiled.
The interview was taking place on the tarmac of a military base. There were fighter jets constantly taking off and landing on it approximately every thirty seconds, and tiny drones were swarming around like flies as groups of children were piloting them through the air using wireless controllers.
The lucky winner, Antonio Ricci, was a well-built twelve-year old boy with spiky blond hair and olive-green eyes. He was wearing a pair of aviator goggles on his head, along with a navy blue wingsuit. He was holding his Golden Ticket in his left hand, and in his right, he was clutching three half-eaten Wonka Bars. Strangely enough, his parents were nowhere to be seen as he was standing in front of the wing of a camo-colored fighter jet.
"This is truly a momentous occasion," the newscaster shouted over the noise of the fighter jet engines. "A Golden Ticket found in Rome, of all places. The empire still reigns supreme. Would you mind telling our watchers a little bit about yourself, Antonio?"
"I certainly will!" grinned Antonio Ricci, talking in a strong Italian accent. "I love skydiving, for one. That's all I ever think about. As a matter of fact, when I was only four years old, I was jumping from the rooftops of four-story buildings!"
"Weren't your parents ever concerned about you?" the newscaster asked.
"My parents?" said Antonio Ricci in a disgusted tone. "Why should I listen to them, or any form of authority? All grown-ups do is whine about so-called safety, because they don't have an imagination! I mean, they used to be kids like us when they were our age, so I don't see a problem. Just to shut them up, I forced myself to use a parachute, as well as a soft landing pad. Adults just want to ruin our fun, and I'm not having any of that!"
"Now now, Antonio," a woman (presumably Antonio's mother) said soothingly, walking into frame. "You know that we just want you to be safe-"
"Safety?!" snapped Antonio Ricci. "Who cares about safety? It's all about the thrill! After all, if you do nothing in life, it gets boring, so why should I care about what you think? You're just trying to stop me from having fun! That's all you ever do! In fact, to prove you wrong, I'm going to go skydiving right now!"
"Antonio-?" the newscaster said, about to ask Antonio another question, but he was rushing off towards a fighter jet about to take off.
"I'll answer your questions once I get back," Antonio shouted as he was running, "but right now, it's thrill time!"
He rushed into the nearest fighter jet and closed the door, handing the woman the three Wonka Bars before rushing off. The jet itself was a shining grey color, and it had yellow-colored guns attached to its wings. A few seconds later, it took off with a loud roar, causing most people around to cover their ears, and their hair to blow around in the wind. A man looking nearly identical to Antonio (presumably his father) walked next to the woman. He was wearing an anti-g suit, and holding a large flight helmet underneath his left arm.
"Antonio, come back-!" the woman begged, but it was too late.
"He's doing it again?" the man sighed.
"Yup," the woman answered. "He's run off to the nearest fighter jet to practice."
"Well I was going to ask Antonio if he wanted to have some nice father-son skydiving time with me," he remarked in a disappointed tone, "but it looks like that's out of the question."
As the fighter jet was flying in the air, getting higher and higher in altitude, the newscaster walked over to Mr. and Mrs. Ricci.
"Is it true that you're overprotective of your son?" he asked them.
"We're not exactly overprotective," Mr. Ricci responded, "considering that he has such a daring hobby just like me, but I must admit that we sometimes prevent him from doing things that he wants to do. It's not that we don't want him to have fun, but we want him to stay safe. Nowadays, he's so skilled that he only uses parachutes. That's for sure impressive, considering that when I was his age it took me much longer to stop using landing pads, but he can become a bit of a handful at times."
"We do this because we care about him," Mrs. Ricci added. "We don't want him to end up in the hospital because of something small that could have easily been prevented."
Before the newscaster could have a chance to ask the parents another question, shouting was heard coming from high up in the sky. The three of them looked up, and Antonio Ricci was inside the fighter jet. The door to the jet was open. He was waving to the people below, and smiling mischievously at his parents.
"Hey, Mom!" he smiled. "Hey, Dad! Watch this!"
Lowering his aviator goggles over his eyes, Antonio Ricci jumped out of the fighter jet!
"Oh my word!" the newscaster gasped.
"He'll be fine," Mr. Ricci assured him. "At least, I think he will. I tried to teach him how to land safely, but he refused to listen."
"GERONIMO!" Antonio Ricci shouted excitedly as he was falling from the sky, grinning from ear to ear. "How do you like that, Mom and Dad?!"
A couple seconds later, as he was just about to hit the ground, his parachute, a navy blue colored object made out of special material in order to match his wingsuit, activated, sending him safely to the ground, where he walked right back to the newscaster as if nothing had happened. He then snatched the Wonka Bars out of his mother's hand.
"That was actually a pretty nice landing, son," Mr. Ricci complimented. "You're getting better and better!"
"No thanks to you!" Antonio snapped. "I learned how to do it all by myself!"
Mrs. Ricci sighed as the newscaster asked the boy another question.
"How did you find your Golden Ticket, Antonio?" he asked curiously.
"For starters, as you can see by the Wonka Bars that I'm holding," Antonio Ricci responded, "I love chocolate, but I prefer dark chocolate over milk or white chocolate, since it's the healthier option. I have a very fast metabolism, so I can pretty much eat anything I want and not gain so much as a pound. I even ate not one, but three of those large burgers that my local restaurant offered as a challenge, and I didn't feel any different one bit!"
"That sounds pretty interesting!" the newscaster complimented. "Does it have anything to do with how you found your Ticket?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," Antonio Ricci smiled mischievously once more. "It was pretty simple. I promised my Dad here that I would practice how to land correctly as you're falling out of the sky, but instead of doing that, I snuck over to the nearest candy store and bought about ten Wonka Bars as a snack. I must have been lucky, because the Golden Ticket was in the very first one!"
"Now, do you have anything that you'd like to say to Mr. Wonka and Charlie, who are undoubtedly watching this interview at this very moment, in order to close our little talk off?" the newscaster commented.
"Do I have anything to say?" Antonio said to himself. "I certainly do!" he shouted loudly, staring straight into the camera in front of him. "This may be a tour of their factory, but you can bet two hundred euros that I won't listen to a single one of their orders, especially if it's for 'safety' reasons! That's final!"
Charlie Bucket turned off the television as the four of them looked at each other in total shock.
"Wow!" gasped Mr. Wonka. "That kid certainly is feisty!"
"While he may have made some good points in his interview," Charlie remarked, "his recklessness certainly isn't a good trait to have, especially at the degree that he has it."
"I agree with Charlie," Mr. Bucket said. "While doing nothing in life is indeed boring, going too far could really get him in trouble."
"Not following orders is another thing," Mrs. Bucket added, "but Antonio takes it to a completely different level! While some orders that grown-ups may give are totally absurd, ones given in order to keep their children safe are another thing altogether. How could he possibly even get a proper tour of the factory if he claims he'll refuse to follow your orders?"
"Not only that," Mr. Wonka continued, "although he's certainly not quite like Augustus with the degree of his gluttonous eating, he does eat a lot more than the average person, but for a different reason. This makes me worried. What if the second winner resembles Veruca Salt?"
"I wouldn't be worried about that," Charlie responded, "although I do agree that Antonio wouldn't really be the best choice for a potential heir."
"That's my cue," Mr. Wonka smiled, standing up and beginning to walk out of their cottage.
"Where are you going, Mr. Wonka?" Charlie asked, turning towards his mentor.
"To the Music Conservatory, of course," Mr. Wonka responded, with the mere hint of a smile around the corners of his mouth. "I'm going to tell the Oompa-Loompas in advance about Antonio, unlike the last tour where they didn't know about Augustus, so that they will have time to think something up. Even if they don't, improvisation is a parlor trick, right Charlie?"
"Fair enough," smiled Charlie as he and his parents watched as Mr. Wonka walked towards the Great Glass Elevator, which was hidden in the secret panel like last time, and pressed a button that was labelled, "MUSIC CONSERVATORY." Mr. Wonka shyly waved to his heir, along with Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, and a few seconds later, he was completely out of view.
"I wonder what the second Ticket winner will be like?" said Mr. Bucket, putting his hands on his son's shoulders. "I sure hope that whoever he or she is better than Antonio."
"I hope so too, Father," Charlie smiled hopefully.
"Just like that, only six Tickets left," Mrs. Bucket remarked. "I hope that we'll find out who the next winner is soon."
Author's Note: Well well well, so Antonio is the first winner once again! For new readers, what did you think about him? For older readers that read the original, which version of him do you prefer- the original version of him, or this one? For the rewrote version, I felt that he wasn't bratty enough, so I wanted to use traits that connected to such a daring hobby like skydiving, and rebellion felt like a fitting choice. While that may resemble a certain other winner (no spoilers for newer readers) in the original "Next in Line", I assure you that I have plans in order to differentiate the two, whoever the other one may be. Older readers may also notice that certain quotes have also been carried over from the original. I thought that some of the dialogue in it was fine as is, so I kept it. After all, why fix what ain't broken?
In addition, older readers may notice that, unlike other Second Generation stories, the tour is no longer rigged in this version, so everyone can have a fair chance in the tour. This is because that I felt Willy, above all 2005 Willy, would dedicate neither the time nor the energy to writing the demise songs, especially considering the kind of eccentric person that he is, so I changed it to the Oompa-Loompas (erroneously spelled "Oompa Loompas" in the original) being involved with the songs as it should be.
Fun fact, the euro is actually the currency of Italy (formerly the lira), and I thought that it'd be a nice touch to mention that.
As usual, stay tuned for the next chapter!
Until then,
Gabe S. :)