When it came time for Veruca's first day of school, she decided to wear her sparkly pink tie with shiny gold stripes. It stood out perfectly against her black and white attire. She was excited about going to show off the clothes that she designed all by herself. Although the morning could've went a little smoother. She wanted to bring her squirrel to school with her. Trying to argue with her father by saying that it would be in her black school bag all day, and it wouldn't bother anyone. Rupert told her that pets are not allowed at public schools any more than they are at private schools, and that she may get herself into trouble if she brings it. She started to throw a tantrum over this, but Julia quickly shut her down by saying that Squirrel won't be here when she comes back if she keeps it up.

Her mother hugs her goodbye as she went to leave, but Veruca did nothing to return the affection.

• • •

Before stepping into her new classroom, Veruca waits outside until her teacher, Ms. Brianna Tasko, signaled for her to come in. Behind the wooden door, she could hear her telling the class about a new student that will soon be joining them. Out steps a woman with red glasses and a friendly smile, motioning for Veruca to enter.

The first thing that Veruca noticed, was that boys sat on one side of the room, and girls sat on the other. Mixed reactions came from everyone who looked at her. Some looked excited to be sharing a room with one of the five golden ticket winners. Others sneered at her with jealousy for getting to meet the one and only Willy Wonka. Ms. Tasko stood at the front of the classroom with Veruca right beside her. Ms. Tasko's brown hair was neatly tied back into a bun. A long and colourful dress clothed her body. "Veruca, why don't you tell the class a few things about yourself?"

First, Veruca says that she designed her outfit herself. The other students reactions intensified. Amazed by her talent and envious of her creativity.

"And I have my own ballet room, and a pet squirrel." She could hear some of the whispers about her squirrel. Some saying it's such a cool or unique pet. Others saying it's weird or gross.

Ms. Tasko tells her to sit down anywhere there's a free seat on the left side of the room. There's three seats open at the two-seated desks. One has a girl with a braid of orange hair and a look that said "sit by me and i'll stab you with my pencil."

Another seat has a girl with wide grey eyes that looked as if she could see things that no human should be able to. Her pale hands stroked down her long, white hair as she smiled when Veruca looked at her.

Sitting in the final seat, was a blonde girl in a cobalt sweater and matching pants. She was wearing a necklace of blue stones in the shape of a heart. In the middle of the heart was the silver letter 'H'.

Seeming like the blonde girl was the safest option, Veruca takes the seat next to her. While Ms. Tasko got started on lessons, Veruca looks the girl up and down. "I like your necklace. I want one just like it."

"Thanks. You see these stones? They're my birthstones, and my name is Hanna." She says, pointing to the letter.

Hanna reaches into her pocket and pulls out two round lollipops. One was pink, and the other was pink with white around it. She hands them to Veruca. "You want one? They both taste like strawberry."

Veruca smiles at her. She loves strawberry! She takes the strawberry and cream one and watches as Hanna unwraps the other for herself. "Our teacher allows us to eat in class as long as we don't get into trouble." Hanna quietly tells her.

Veruca smiles to herself when noticing how Hanna looked all over her outfit. How her eyes sparkled along with the pink glitter on her tie. When Hanna asked how she made the outfit, Veruca says that she draws pictures of it, then has her body measured by servants who sew all the fabrics together.

"You really have servants for stuff? That's so cool! How many do you have?"

Veruca hesitates, then laughs. "There are a lot of servants."

"Too many to count, huh? That's awesome."

The two girls momentarily direct their attention to the teacher writing things on the board. Veruca turns to look Hanna up and down again. The teal-eyed girl smiles at Veruca with the strawberry lollipop still in her mouth. Smiling right back, Veruca thinks she's already found her first party guest.

• • •

When Veruca comes home, she tells everyone about the new friend she's made, and that she got a few compliments on her tie. Her parents are delighted to hear that her first day went well. Rupert informs her that Mr. Wonka is currently in the Inventing Room if she wishes to see him. After Veruca changes out of her school clothes, gets herself a small snack, and has Squirrel on her shoulder, she leaves to find her mentor.

Veruca still didn't entirely know her way around the factory, but it gets a little easier each day. Especially when she visits a new room, or gets to explore on her own. The girl freely giggled to herself during the elevator ride to her destination. She loved riding in the elevator and on the boat. Being by herself left her without worry that her giggling or being thrown around the box would make her look silly. It was more fun when she could let her body loose and move how the elevator caused her to. The best part is she couldn't bump into anybody. She just had to be careful not to press the buttons or hit the glass too hard.

Wonka, with his perfect teeth, smiled widely when he saw the girl in the sky blue dress and cloud colored sleeves. "Well hello there! Oh my. You have dresses in every color of the rainbow and yet the sleeves are always white. Hehe. How bout that? You certainly have your own style, don't you?"

Veruca briefs him on her day at school as she watches him put away his experimenting tools. The only thing that Wonka seemed concerned about was whether or not Hanna's strawberry lollipops were under his brand. Happy to hear that they were.

"Now, on we go. We're going to one of the rooms that you missed while you were laying in rotten garbage. Hehe."

Veruca glared at him. Suddenly more aware of the cotton candy scent that surrounded her.

• • •

When the elevator doors swooshed open, Veruca squealed and covered her eyes. Squirrel squeaked along with her. Tiny paws protecting its own vision. Wonka quickly grabs a pair of goggles and hands them to Veruca. "Hurry and put these on. This light is terribly dangerous."

She does as instructed and opens her eyes to see the chocolatier putting on his own pair. Frowning at him, she hates to think of how she herself probably looks right now. "You look weird."

Wonka's smile drops from his face. "Would you rather have your eyeballs burst into flames? Like you almost did inside of the incinerator?"

She scowls at him.

"I didn't think so."

He turns and begins walking along the blindingly white floors. "This room is for test--"

"Wait! What about Squirrel? I don't want them to have to cover their eyes the whole time."

Wonka briefly considers what to do. "Hmm. You'll have to send it to another room for now." He ululates to call over an oompa. His loud, high-pitched voice reverberating off the glowing walls of the Television Room. Veruca hated when he made that noise. She's been able to summon them herself just by shouting "Oompa loompa!" She doesn't understand why Wonka can't do the same. When the little man dressed in white arrives, Wonka looks expectantly at Veruca. He's been teaching her how to communicate better with the little workers. They primarily use sign language, and understand english much better than they speak it. Veruca still knows very little signs, but remembered that she can't talk too fast, use super fancy words, or talk to them like they're stupid.

Looking down at the tiny man in her white goggles, she takes Squirrel off her shoulder. It's small paws still held over it's eyes as she held it in her arms. "Take this squirrel to the Candy Creature Care Clinic and give it to Julia. Tell her that it's mine, and she has to babysit it for a while."

The oompa bows to her and takes the animal. Veruca watches them leave until the two are out of sight.

Wonka continues on. "As I was saying, this room is for testing something I call 'Television Chocolate'. It involves sending candy thru a television, so that people can grab it and eat it. You know how on television everything looks smaller than it actually is? That's why everything I put in it must be really big, so it can shrink down." Wonka stops walking. Staring off into space like he was having another one of those 'flashbacks'. He chuckles, and strolls around the room some more. "Remember that little boy who had jelly all over his shoes? Well he decided to test it out on himself and got shrunk down even shorter than he already was. We had to stretch him out extra far so he'd go back to normal. I'm sure he's as good as new by now. Maybe even a little taller."

Veruca smiles and almost laughs. "Is that why he looked that way when he left the factory?"

Wonka nods. "Uh-huh. I wanna make some adjustments today to see if it can make things grow, and not just shrink. Come on over here. I'll show you where the gears are."

Soon the two of them are by the control panel. Working for several hours until it was time for dinner.

• • •

In the clinic, Julia heard her boss and little cousin walking towards the door. As Wonka walked right in without knocking, Julia heard the two laughing and giggling about something involving blueberries and a county fair. Julia tried to keep a straight face when he smiled at her, but it was so hard to when he looked at her with those beautiful eyes.

Veruca pointed to the animal Julia was examining. Its wool matching the four walls that surrounded them. "Why is that sheep blue? I thought they were all pink."

"Because this one is a boy. Only the female sheep are pink."

A quick look around told Veruca that the sheep was the only animal in the room. She opens up the door and calls out into the hallways. "Squirrel!"

A moment later, the sound of skittering paws across the shiny white floors was heard in the distance. The furry little creature squeaked at Veruca, and jumped right up onto her shoulder. Veruca gasped and fell back into the door. Her eyes were wide as she sat panting on the ground. Julia ran over to her, asking if she was alright. Veruca slowly nodded her head, trying to catch her breath. "It still needs a bit more training."

Once she was calm, Veruca stands to her feet. Julia asks for a few minutes to get everything where it needs to be for the night, and then they can get back home.

On the elevator ride, Julia once again sat on the floor instead of standing like everyone else. Wonka almost asked about this again, but still thought it might not be that important.

Back at the house, Angina had made another delicious dinner. It seemed she might've realized a real talent that she has.

Once everyone was making casual conversation, it eventually leads to Wonka telling everyone about the Television Room. He tells them about how Veruca didn't really understand how the machine was supposed to work, but she was really helpful holding the tools.

Vivian harshly stabs her fork into a chunk of steak. "Girls shouldn't even be doing that sort of work. Building machines is a man's job. She should be learning about cooking, and baking, and cleaning. She'll become corrupted if this keeps up."

Wonka looks at her, and gives her this kind of fake look of mock disapproval. Then, to the shock of all but two members of the family, Wonka begins speaking to her in Rupert's voice. "Now, now, Aunt Vivian. My darling little Veruca may do whatever she likes."

Julia nearly choked on her glass of water with an outburst of laughter. She tried to cover her face, but couldn't contain her giggling. Veruca, however, did not find Wonka amusing. She glared at him. Not seeing the humour in his imitation. "I really don't like when you do that."

Wonka turns his head to her. Still speaking in her father's voice. "I'm sorry, darling. I plan on doing this quite often now."

Julia laughs even harder. Hearing what Veruca said told her that this isn't the first time he's done this. "How do you do that, Mr. Wonka?" She asks between giggles.

Wonka shrugs. "I don't know. I'm just super-duper talented like that. Heh."

Vivian stares at Wonka. It wasn't the hateful glare that she usually gives him. It was something much more thoughtful. She studies Julia with a similar gaze a few times before her grey eyes come back to him. This made Wonka nervous. There was something brewing in her mind that Wonka felt he wouldn't like. In an instant, her attitude changes to one more positive. Not quite upbeat, but much less uptight than usual.

"Julia..." She starts. "Your Aunt Angina was telling me about a handsome old friend you used to have. I'm sure he'd like to see you again."

Julia was a bit lost at first, but shortly realized who she was talking about. "You mean Anthony? Yes, it has been quite some time since I last saw him."

Anthony was someone that Julia met not long after Catherine, her mother, died from cancer. She had to admit that she missed him a bit. Not as much as she missed her best friend Leslie tho.

"How about giving him a call?" Vivian suggests. "Tell him you'd like to see him again soon. It's always nice to see an old friend. Don't you agree?"

"Yes." Julia replied.

Angina throws a quick look to her husband. With a silent sigh, she lifts up her wine glass from the table. Swallowing down the rest of it's remaining contents.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: To anyone who asks, I don't do commissions of any kind.

Reviews and favorites are appreciated. :3