Wonka left the family alone for a few days to enjoy their home after it was built. During this time, Veruca was slowly beginning to become more and more comfortable with her squirrel. She was starting to pet it, let it sniff or nibble her fingers, and she even let it crawl and sit on her lap a few times.

At one point, Julia called Aunt Linda to tell her about her new job and home inside the factory. Also informing her that if things go as planned, and they all get to stay in the factory forever, Rupert planned on giving her and James everything they left behind.

After the few days, Wonka came to get Veruca and Julia for their first official day of work. They first go to the Candy Creature Care Clinic. All Julia has to do today is spend time bonding with the animals, so she can do that on her own for now. Next, Wonka takes Veruca to the Nut Sorting Room. A few feet away from the door, Veruca stops and refuses to go inside.

"Come on. You have to help repair the scratches you left on the floor. They certainly aren't gonna fix themselves, now are they?"

By her feet, was the only squirrel in the whole entire world that Veruca wasn't completely terrified of. Inside that blue and white room was all the little demons that caused her this terrible fear to begin with.

"I don't want to go in there!" Her voice quivers.

"Why not? You've been in here before. This is the Nut Sorting Room. Remember?"

Veruca pursed her lips. How is this man supposed to be a genius, yet forgets that in this room, she was attacked by a swarm of rodents in front of strangers and almost sent to a fiery death.

Crossing her arms with an irritated glare, Veruca stands her ground.

Wonka pokes his nose to the air. His mouth falling open in a frown while he looks down at her. "Okay then. Let's go to Peanut Butter Paint. We'll try this another day."

• • •

That night at dinner, Veruca lets her squirrel sit on her lap while she eats. Occasionally giving it tiny little pieces of her own food. A fierce scowl to her from directly across the table going unnoticed.

"You shouldn't have your dirty rat at the dinner table, Veruca."

Beside Vivian, Julia comes to Veruca's defence. "I already told you that her squirrel is healthy and well-behaved. You don't need to worry about it causing any trouble."

A deep, angry hiss was heard all around the room. Although Julia meant no disrespect by this, Vivian took it as such.

"Now you listen here, young woman. You must learn to respect your elders! If you don't behave like a proper young lady, you'll never find a husband!"

Julia was a bit confused by this. She does respect her elders as long as they deserve it, and she never gave any indication that she even wanted a husband. She wouldn't mind having one, but Vivian said it like she absolutely NEEDED one, or like she was actively looking for one.

When she voices this to Vivian, she gets even angrier. "What on Earth is wrong with you? What kind of woman doesn't want a husband? How will you ever have children?"

Julia is starting to get annoyed now. The whites of her eyes glowing in the firelight. "Not everyone wants to marry or have children. I wouldn't mind it for myself, nor would I mind if it didn't happen either."

Vivian sneers at her. "You're absolutely mad for thinking such a thing. Every woman should want to have her own family one day." She says this like it's a simple fact. Julia doesn't argue any further. Instead giving her the silent treatment. As she always did whenever she was angry at someone.

Right after this, before the air could grow uncomfortable from the weighing tension, Veruca starts a new subject. "Daddy, I want a wooden highchair for my squirrel. I want it to sit at the table like everyone else."

The old woman didn't even allow her nephew to respond to his daughter. "No! You certainly will not be having your dirty rat at the dinner table every single night!"

Veruca glares at the nasty old woman who glares right back at her. Looking back at her father, he smiles and nods his head at her. The girl's anger simmers down knowing this meant that she was gonna get what she asked for.

• • •

The next Morning, Wonka comes down to the house to get Julia and Veruca and take them to work again. First, he finds the parents. Who before greeting him, silently stare at him in a strange way that he didn't understand. Angina offers him to stay a while and have some tea, but Wonka says he doesn't have time. She goes to inform her daughter and niece that Mr. Wonka was here to collect them. When Veruca, along with Julia not too far behind her, comes out to the sun room with everyone, she stops and stares up at the chocolatier in front of her. It wasn't a confused stare like the one her parents gave him, but rather a fascinated one. "What happened to your hair?"

"Oh, this? It's from the hair toffee!" Wonka excitedly began to tell her about how he was up late last night working on one of the hair toffee recipes. This particular recipe didn't make any facial hair, but his silky brown hair was now flowing all the way down to his waist. "The other recipes aren't quite ready yet, but they will be eventually." He concludes.

Veruca cuts in to tell everyone that she had started training her squirrel last night. She demonstrates her teachings by turning to the squirrel behind her and sitting down on her knees. Extending her arm with her palm facing up, the squirrel crawls up her arm and on to her shoulder. She's noticeably tense while doing this. Clearly still not entirely used to her furry companion, but she's getting there. Standing to her feet, the squirrel seated on her shoulder, she smiles at Wonka and her family. Wonka excitedly claps for her. Proud that she's been able to bond with her squirrel and even began training it herself.

"Well done, my pet. You're doing a marvelous job." Rupert praised. "Mr. Wonka, Veruca has told me that she wishes for a highchair so that her squirrel may be properly seated at the dinner table."

Wonka looks back at Veruca, who gives him The Smile. The same smile she gave him in the Nut Sorting Room when trying to buy one of his squirrel workers during the tour.

Wonka raises his eyebrows at her. Spinning back around to address his fellow business man. "Okey dokey then. I'll have the oompa loompas build a highchair for her. She did a wonderful job in Peanut Butter Paint yesterday after all. Later this afternoon, I'll be back to discuss the proceedings of our business collaboration."

When he turns to leave, Angina stops him, glancing at her husband for support. "Our dear Veruca, she needs to have a proper education. It's important to us that she keeps up with her studies. She needs a good school, or to be taught by a good and licenced teacher."

The long-haired man looks back at Veruca, who quickly steps forward and loudly states "I want to go to school outside." Her voice reverberating off the tall walls of the sun room.

Speaking again to the parents, Wonka tells them that finding a good school for her will be their responsibility, and that he himself was not gonna do it.

Rupert agrees. "Very well, Mr. Wonka. I'll be certain to find a good place to put her."

Spinning around to face the two cousins, Wonka grins at them. "Well, is everyone ready to boogie?"

Julia nods her head with a strange kind of smile. A smile that Angina immediately knew the meaning of. She looks at her husband to see if he noticed it as well.

He didn't.

• • •

A little while later in the Chocolate Room, Veruca is helping Wonka set up a candy cane railing on the bridge that curved over the chocolate river. The delicious scent of melted chocolate with hints of minty grass flowed all around the beautiful candyland that they worked in. But that didn't help the fact that Wonka could still smell the overpowering perfume that his young student was wearing. He's been trying his very hardest to ignore it, but even the Chocolate Room couldn't drown out the assault on his nose. Finally speaking up, he gets Veruca's attention by calling her "little girl." Something that Veruca will soon learn is that Wonka calls her this when he's annoyed or angry.

Scrunching up his nose, he looks her up and down. "Why in heaven's name do you smell like a dusty old shoebox?"

Veruca is clearly offended by this. "I shouldn't smell bad. I'm wearing lots of Mummy's perfume." Veruca's worn perfume ever since she fell in that foul-smelling incinerator. She never wants to smell that bad and be made fun of at school so much ever again.

"Well then you need to find a kind that actually smells good. Your mother has terrible taste in smells."

• • •

Meanwhile, Angina stood in the sun room, staring out into the forest. Her mind stuck between the amazing beauty of its 'nature' and certain events of that morning. "Rupert? Have you happened to notice anything... different about Julia lately?"

Thinking for a moment, nothing came to mind. "No, darling. I can't say that I have." He says from behind a newspaper.

"Well, you see, I believe that Julia might be... well..." Her eyes dart over to another window. "romantically interested in... Mr. Wonka."

Rupert laughs at his wife's idea. "Come now, dearest. Don't you think that's a little absurd? I can't imagine a lady like Julia would ever fancy someone like him."

Gazing out the window, Angina shakes her head. "Don't you see the way she looks at him? It's just like myself in my younger days. When that boy from school would smile at me as I walked down the corridors to my lessons." Tilting her head, she dreamily sighs at the memory.

Rupert shifted uncomfortably in the white chair. Clearing his throat as he rolled the odd thought around in his mind. "Perhaps you may be right. I'm certain it'll pass. She can have her fun admiring him for now. Eventually she'll come to realize what a foolish fantasy she has herself in."

The air rested soundlessly around them.

"Of course..." Angina says faintly. "You're right. I'm sure it'll pass."

• • •

Later that day, sometime in the early evening, Wonka tells Veruca that he has a special surprise for her. They get into the elevator and he takes her to a rather large room decorated with red and white stripes like a candy cane. Instructing her to sit on the floor in the center, she obeys, and he sits on the floor behind her so that they're back to back.

"Ready?" He asks with a turn of his head.

She smiles and excitedly nods. Wonka loudly claps his hands two times to signal for the show to start. Then, a bunch of oompas wearing yellow slowly come singing and dancing into the room. They gather around them in a circle, and Veruca's smile soon disappears.

They gave the same exact performance as they did after Veruca fell down the garbage chute. Only this time, when they were throwing her 'friends' at them, they were fake replicas made from soft materials as not to hurt anyone or soil their clothing. Veruca's face grew red in anger when she hears the candy man giggling from behind her. She soon gets up and storms out of the room before the song was even over. The squirrel followed close behind the girl angrily muttering to herself in Swedish.

"Veruca? Where are you going!? The show's not over!" He calls out to an empty doorway.

Wonka didn't understand her reaction. He thought it'd be nice to let her hear her song since she didn't get to on the tour because she was too busy falling into the incinerator.

The oompas halt their performance to give questioning looks to the chocolatier. Receiving a pouting shrug in response. "I guess she doesn't like that song."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Fun Fact: Peanut Butter Paint is another canon room inside the factory.