Victory is sweet, p.6
Victory is Sweet, page 6
“Molly,” came Vanellope’s urgent whisper from the tablet. Her head popped out from behind the icon for Road Race Wrecker on the home screen. “What are you gonna do?”
“What can I do, Vanellope?!” Molly whispered back. “The race is about to start, Rio’s not even looking at me, and I’m stuck next to the Tongue Twins!”
Taffyta’s head popped out from behind the icon for Marie Kart. “Don’t do anything! Rio’s a bad FF and it’s his own fault if his wheel isn’t on tightly enough! I say let it fall off and let him crash into Gumball Gorge!”
“Taff, are you trippin’? Rio and Molly are just having a hiccup in their friendship, not a hurricane!” Snowanna’s head popped up from behind Motor Mama. “And he’s not just gonna crush into gumballs! This isn’t Sugar Race, this is the real world!”
Taffyta made a pffft sound. “So, he’ll crash into real gumballs. What’s the biggie?!”
Rancis’s peanut butter cup hat slid up from behind Cars 3: Drive to Win. “The ‘biggie’ is that everything in a real world race is dangerous, Taffyta, even gumballs!”
“Did you go to the bathroom?” Minty’s face popped out from behind the Settings icon.
“For the love of all the toilet paper in Timbuktu, Minty, we’ve got more important issues than if Molly peed!!” Vanellope roared. Minty shrugged and disappeared back behind the icon.
“TWO MINUTES, RACERS!”
Molly’s teeth started to chatter. She gripped her Chocolate Mint Starlight Candy steering wheel until her knuckles went white. “Vanellope, help me think!”
Vanellope did a side vault gymnastics leap from behind the Road Race Wrecker icon and stuck the landing right on the Wreck. “Molly, I’ve got it! Remember what your dad said? You can be a friend even if your friend isn’t being one!”
Molly gasped, her face brightening. “That’s it! Both!”
Vanellope squinted, confused. “Both what?”
“ONE MINUTE!” Mayor Davis dabbed at her perspiring forehead with a tissue and stepped up to the starting line with a big green flag that would signal the beginning of the race.
“Both solutions!” Molly jumped out of her car and copied Vanellope’s side vault leap over the hood of Tommy Lang’s go-kart, then reversed the direction of her legs and vaulted over the hood of Timmy Lang’s (and, yeah, maybe came a little too close to Timmy’s nose with her sneakers, but some danger is necessary when you’re trying to save a friend). The twins yelled “HEY!” (separately!), but Molly was too busy sticking the landing next to Rio’s go-kart to pay attention to this strange occurrence. Rio looked up, shocked and confused.
“Rio, there’s something wrong with your wheel!” Molly yelled, trying to top the cheering of the crowd. “It might fall off during the race!”
“Huh?” Rio yelled, putting his hand to his ear.
Molly saw Mayor Davis lifting the flag. She was just about to attempt a desperate somersault over Rio’s hood to stop him from driving, but luckily Mr. Harrod had noticed the unscheduled gymnastics meet that had snuck into the go-kart race. He yelled, “Time out!” The mayor looked bummed that her big moment was interrupted, but she nodded, and Mr. Harrod ran to Rio’s go-kart. “What’s going on, Molly?!”
“I saw Rio’s left front wheel wobbling when he moved his kart up, Mr. Harrod!” Molly shouted. “I think there’s something wrong!”
Mr. Harrod quickly leaned over and examined the wheel closely. “Looks like a rock got wedged up in here and loosened the bolts!” he shouted. “Good thing you spotted it! I’m gonna get a wrench from my tool box!”
As Mr. Harrod dashed away, Mayor Davis grumpily announced the delay over the loudspeaker and the crowd quieted enough that you could hear Tommy and Timmy trying to get their “HEY!” back in sync, and Rio and Molly start a totally uncomfortable conversation.
“Thanks, Molly,” Rio mumbled, then cleared his throat. “I guess it could have been pretty dangerous if my wheel came off during the race.”
“I guess.” Molly looked at him, then looked away. Then she looked back, with just the trace of a smile. “But not as dangerous as a coatrack full of lunch boxes falling on your head.”
This lightened the mood and they both kind of, sort of, almost, laughed.
“Listen…” Rio cleared his throat a second time and rubbed his scrub-brush hair. “I’m sorry I was a jerk when you told me you were gonna race on your own. And then I was a double jerk at your first troop meeting. Are you mad?”
Molly shook her head. “I was more sad than mad,” she said. “But it made me kind of wonder if you…”
“If I what?”
Molly took a deep breath. “Why were you looking at the go-kart plans on my tablet?”
Rio’s eyebrows squished together. “Huh? How did you know I was looking—” Then it hit him. “The Racers…”
“Yeah, they’re very protective of me.” A faint yell came from the tablet—“Dang straight!”—as Molly nervously poked at the number on the front of Rio’s kart. “You weren’t trying to steal them, right?” she said.
“What?! NO!” Rio nearly shouted this and the quieted crowd looked over at them curiously. “I would never!”
Molly’s head shot up. “That’s what I said! You would never ever!”
“Never ever ever!” Rio got so emotional, he tried to jump out of his go-kart seat and banged his knees on the steering wheel. “Um…ouch.”
Molly had to giggle. “Sweet mother of monkey milk,” she said. “I believe you, dude.” She patted Rio on the shoulder.
He smiled and rubbed his knees, settling back down. “The truth is, I was just a little worried, Moll. You’d never designed a go-kart before and I’ve done it a couple of times, so I wanted to check and make sure you were going to be safe.”
“Aw, that’s really sweet,” Molly patted his shoulder again, only this time it was a lot firmer. “But Rio, I’m a scout now, just like you. I’m not the little kid you have to save anymore. I can take care of myself.”
Rio nodded sheepishly. “You’re right. In fact”—he pointed to Mr. Harrod, who was dashing back to them with his wrench—“you saved me this time.”
Molly hooked her thumbs under her armpits and puffed up her chest, doing her best Vanellope Von Schweetz impression. “My pleasure, Chumbo.”
Mr. Harrod leaned down to tinker with the go-kart wheel. “This will only take a sec, so you’d better get back to your car, Molly.” He tilted his head up and smiled his kind smile. “And I’m expecting great things from you, Outdoor Scout.”
Molly and Rio only had time for a quick hug and a genuine “May the best racer win!” And sure, she could have walked around Tommy and Timmy Lang’s karts to get back to hers, but it was just too much fun to vault over their hoods and hear them still trying to yell “HEY!” at the exact same time.
For as long as they could remember, Molly and Rio had stood side by side. Like when Kindergartener Molly hugged Kindergartener Rio for saving her from the evil lunch boxes. And when they got sent to the principal’s office in first grade for doing a special friendship handshake during Circle Time. And when they sang a duet, “You’ve Got a Friend,” with their own made-up lyrics (“Winter, Spring, Summer, or Halloween, you can always ride in my limousine”) in the Sweet River Elementary School talent show. And, of course, when they stood on people’s porches to trick-or-treat dressed as Daytona 500 zombie race car drivers.
And today, they were doing it again—standing side by side on the winners’ platform for the Sweet River Outdoor Scout Go-Kart Race!
Mayor Davis proudly presented Molly with the first-place trophy as the crowd’s cheers thankfully covered the excited screaming coming from a game tablet under the winner’s arm. Rio accepted his second-place trophy happily, seeming much more excited about Molly’s success than his own. Timmy and Tommy Lang had recovered from their earlier “HEY!” problems, and they tied for third place by driving over the finish line at the exact same time. And then having the exact same embarrassed faces when their mother made them apologize to Molly after the ceremony.
“Sorry,” they mumbled together.
Mrs. Lang smiled at Molly with the same big shiny teeth that Timmy and Tommy had. Except hers were super straight, which was obviously what their even shinier braces were trying to accomplish. “Let’s try that again, boys,” she said firmly. “One at a time, please.”
Timmy and Tommy looked like they were in pain.
“Sorry, Molly,” said Timmy, twisting in anguish.
“Sorry, Molly,” said Tommy, turning pale with the effort.
“And welcome to the Outdoor Scouts troop, Molly,” Mrs. Lang said. She leaned in, grinning with her pretty teeth. “Keep that crown on, queen,” she whispered.
“THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” came Vanellope’s voice from the tablet, but luckily Mrs. Lang and her sons had moved away, so they missed both Vanellope’s yelp and the sheepish voice that followed: “Sorry too, Molly.”
Molly snuck a glance at the tablet to see Taffyta waving what looked like a little white flag of surrender. “I was wrong about Rio and when I’m wrong, I always say I’m wrong,” Taffyta said with great feeling.
“Sometimes,” mumbled Vanellope.
“Always admit when you’re wrong, people, like I do!” Taffyta continued, waving her flag dramatically. “Your friends will appreciate it! That’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my time here in Molly’s tablet—”
“Wait a minute, Taff,” Snowanna cut her off. “Where’d you get that flag?”
“HEY!” Rancis yelled, snatching back his undershorts.
Molly did some quick shushing as the rest of the troop was lining up to congratulate her and say their own sorrys for not being nice. The last was Jordan Jones, who looked quite happy and relaxed, considering that his go-kart had broken down as soon as Mayor Davis waved the green flag.
“I’m not surprised at all!” he said, giving her a fist bump.
“Thanks, Jordan,” Molly said. “Sorry about your kart.”
“Yeah, a real shocker, huh?” Jordan laughed. “But it’s all good because I just got asked to be in the girls’ scout troop. They heard me singing ‘Part of Your World’ while I was trying to fix my go-kart and asked me to be in their production of The Little Mermaid.”
“That is awesome!” Molly was delighted.
Jordan pointed past Molly with a smile. “Hey, I think somebody’s bestie is waiting to walk the winner home.”
Molly turned to see Rio approaching, his second-place trophy in one hand and a brand-new box of Honey Crunchy Munchies in the other. A warm feeling in her heart bloomed out until her whole body felt toasty.
As they headed home together in happy, tired silence, an annoyed voice came from the direction of her armpit. “I gotta ask, why does Ariel always get to be the star? I sang a heart song with all the Disney Princesses and lemme tell you, I’ve got mad pipes!”
“The Princesses again…” came a different, equally annoyed voice.
Of course, Molly and Rio had chanted the chant—“The Crunch turns to Crud and the Munch turns to Mush!”—and had raced down the basement steps without a drop of milk spilled. Now they were sitting on the farty leather couch, marveling over how much better cereal tastes when the people eating it are friends. The game tablet was propped up on the glass table between Molly and Rio, and five small bodies were relaxing on a beach in sunny Flo Rida in the game Race Around the Earth.
“Now this is the life!” Snowanna sighed, leaning back on her lounge chair, her furry purple boots kicked off into the sand.
“Aren’t you worried that your hair is going to melt?” Minty asked.
Snowanna patted her hair. “I’ve got so much Häagen-Dazs spray on this ’do—you couldn’t melt it with a forest fire.”
Rancis wasn’t as certain his peanut butter cup hat would survive the heat, so he was sitting underneath a shady palm tree, sipping a cold drink (and occasionally rubbing his hat with one of the ice cubes, just to make sure). Taffyta and Minty were building a sand castle, although Minty was doing most of the work because Taffyta was not about to suck a sandy lollipop. And Vanellope was pacing back and forth along the water, preaching loudly about all the Sugar Rush Racers had learned about friendship during their time stuck in a game tablet with a purple kid-proof case.
“…And sure, I knew a lot about friendship before, duh, I mean Ralph jumped into the Diet Cola Hot Springs to save my life—”
“Trying to get some sun here, V,” Snowanna complained as Vanellope was pacing right in front of her and casting shadows.
Vanellope didn’t seem to hear this. “And the Disney Princesses taught me a buttload about ‘girl power’ friendship—”
Taffyta collapsed onto the sand with a moan (holding her lollipop up in the air, of course). “The Princesses again…”
“‘Buttload,’” Minty repeated, considering. “That’s a lot.”
Vanellope paused directly in front of Snowanna’s lounge chair, ignoring the dirty look Snow gave her. “But friendship in the real world is a candy of a different color, know what I mean?”
“Mmmmmm,” Rancis mmmed, taking a long, slurpy sip of his drink.
“I just think we have a lot more to learn, don’t you, guys? And that might take some time! Sweet mother of monkey milk, we only got kidnapped a couple of days ago!” Now Vanellope was waving her arms and Snowanna moved her lounge chair out of the fast-moving shade.
Molly thought it was time to interrupt. “Um, ‘kidnapped’ might be a little strong—”
“I call ’em like I see ’em, McGinty,” Vanellope muttered.
“—But I’m glad you brought this up, because…” Molly looked at Rio. He nodded in an encouraging way, and she forged on. “After the race, my mom said she might have to go to Litwak’s this week for some architect-y stuff. She wasn’t totally sure, but if she does…you guys wouldn’t have to wait a whole month. I could maybe ask to go with her and maybe plug you back into Game Central Station.…” This was supposed to be good news, but Molly didn’t look all that happy about it. In fact, she looked rather miserable.
And the Racers looked all kinds of ways, too—surprised, thoughtful, confused (Minty), sunburned (Snowanna)—but strangely enough, none of them looked happy, either. Rancis tried to smile, but he really only stretched his lips sideways. Minty tried to clap in excitement, but her hands just sort of crumpled along the way. Taffyta tried to force out a few tears of relief, but her mascara stayed put. Snowanna couldn’t seem to muster the energy to get up from her lounge chair to do a blissful boogie. And Vanellope started to crow “Sweet mother of monkey milk!” but only got as far as “Sweet muhhh…” before her tongue flopped inside her mouth.
Molly was watching them closely, forgetting about her Honey Crunchy Munchies long enough that mush and crud were right around the corner. “Unless…” she continued, “maybe…you’d like to, I don’t know…stick around for a while and…I don’t know…maybe…learn more about friendship and have some more adventures?”
Well, now the Sugar Rush Racers looked happy! Real smiles! Hands making noise! Boogies of bliss! Mascara flowing (from tears of joy)!
“I think I’m coming up with a new saying, right here on the spot!” Vanellope crowed. “Yep, feeling it in my code!”
“What? What?!” Taffyta cried, dropping her lollipop in the sand and not even noticing.
“Say it!” Rancis ran out into the sun, melting chocolate peanut butter cup hat and all.
“Don’t keep us in suspense!” Snowanna paused doing the Bump with Minty, who nearly toppled over. “What is it?!”
Vanellope grinned mischievously. “Sweet Munchies of Molly McGinty, you guys are impatient!”
Rio and Molly fell backward onto the farty couch, laughing. The Racers gave Vanellope high fives. Then Vanellope put her tiny hand against the inside of the tablet screen and Molly gave her a high one (fingertip to palm). The Racers stood in a line, beaming up at Molly.
Molly smiled back. “You guys are amazing, you know that?”
“Oh, for the love of Molly,” Vanellope grinned, rolling her eyes.
“My favorite expression…” Molly said, with a wink.
SHARI SIMPSON is an author and screenwriter who wrote the middle-grade novel Sam Saves the Night and cowrote the Disney Channel film The Swap and Hallmark Channel film Color My World with Love with longtime partner Charlie Shahnaian. Shari is also a pug fanatic who runs the Instagram account @PugPeopleTales and tries to sneak a pug character into all of her work. She lives with her husband, teenagers, and of course, two pugs, in Hoboken, NJ.
SAOIRSE LOU is a children’s illustrator known for books such as the Naughtiest Pixie series.
Shari Simpson, Victory is Sweet
