The Chocolatiers

Spoiled, Bad nut

*Grace's P.O.V.*
"Dad, I swear it! Her eyes changed to a glowing yellow, and her teeth sharpened." Mike said incredulously. "Mike, quit making things up." His father told him. His name doesn't suit him at all. Well. Maybe his last name, but not his first. Oh well. "Hey!" Mike said, jumping I front of me. I was still holding hands with Willy, while his other hand was used for his cane. "Admit it, your eyes changed colors." An idea struck me. "Well, I do admit that my eyes have changed colors," "See!" "But, never have I heard them changed into a glowing yellow color before, my eye color chamges depending on the lighting. Sometimes they are a light chocolate brown, sometimes a black, and sometimes a little of both. But I've never been told that my eyes have changed into a glowing yellow before." I said.
"Sorry, he has a very active imagination." Mike's father explained, pulling his son by his side. "It's quite alright. My father had quite an active imagination as well. I miss him and his random outbursts." I said, looking off into the distance, remembering. "Then why don't you go see him?" Asked the brown haired girl. "I would, but, you see, both him and my mother died in a mysterious fire, eight years ago. To the date." "So, they died eight years ago exactly? On your birthday?" Asked Mike's dad. "Yes."I said sadly. "You poor thing." Grandpa Joe said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I smiled at them. Willy squeezed my hand, looking at me with sad eyes. I smiled at him. He blushed a bit. I giggled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grandpa Joe and Charlie look at each other, smiling.
"I'm alright now." I said, looking at the others. "I found a place to stay, and pay off my stay by helping them. Even if they don't know it is me helping them." I said looking at the doors that we were passing by. I think, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Willy smirk. My eyes widened a bit. He knows. No. That's not possible. I told myself. I mentally shook my head at my silliness.
"Without the boat, we'll have to move double-time to keep up on schedule." Willy explained. I nodded, and sighed. That must be what he was smirking about. Wait... that makes no sense. Oh well. "There's far too much to see." "Mr. Wonka?" "Yeah?" "Why did you decide to let people in?" Charlie asked. That myself, I was curious about as well. "Well, so they could see the factory, of course." "But why now? And why only five?" He looked at me. "Six?"
"What's the special prize, and who gets it?" Mike interrupted. I gave him a look. He ignored me. "The best kind of prize is a sur-prise." Willy and I laughed a little. "Will Violet always be a blueberry?" The girl asked, pushing Mike out of the way. My eye twitched a little. Then I thought of Jack. "I hope not." If that rotten girl stays that way, then Jack and the others would stay that way too. "No. Maybe. I don't know." I looked at Willy. If he really does know that I am the one who has been in the factory, then he would know how upset I would be if they all stayed that way. He looked at me, and gave me an encouraging smile. I smiled back.
"But that's what you get from chewing gum all day. It's disgusting." Willy told them. I nodded. "If you hate gum so much, why do you make it?" Mike asked. "Public demand." I said, Willy nodded in agreement. "Once again, you really shouldn't mumble. It's starting to bum me out." I giggled. "Can you remember the first candy you ever ate?" Uh oh. Willy slowed to a stop. I stepped in front of him. He looked a little distressed, and had a far off look in his eyes. "No."he said. Then went into a flashback. I looked at Charlie. 'Sorry' he mouthed. 'It's fine.' I
Mouthed back.
"I'm sorry, I was having a flashback." He said suddenly. He looked at me, then at the others. I moved back to his side. "I see."the girl's father said, pulling her closer to him. "These flashbacks, they happen often?" Asked Mike's father. "Increasingly. Today."he said, and started walking again. "Are you okay, Mr. Wonka?" "Yes, I'm fine. But, how many times must I ask you to call me Willy?" "One more time. I've gotten quite used to calling you Mr. Wonka." I said, smiling. We looked at each other, a little while longer, until I looked away, blushing. His eyes were the color of melted chocolate. They were looking at me with some look. I don't know what he was feeling, but I know it's a good thing.
*Willy's P.O.V.*
She looked away and blushed. That was so cute. I smiled when I saw her blush, and looked forward. I felt someone touch my other arm, and looked to see that it was the boy, Charlie. He was smiling and made a hand movement that said to go on. I raised an eyebrow. He looked at Grace, then back at me. I was still confused. 'Talk to her' he mouthed. Oh. Right. I nodded and turned back to look at her. She looked back at me. Her eyes were shimmering a deep brown. They were so beautiful. "So, um, Grace?" "Hmm?" She asked, motioning with her other hand to continue. "What's your favorite candy?" I asked awkwardly. Out of my eye, I saw Charlie smack his forehead with his hand.
"Oh. That's a hard one! There's so many that I love!" She explained. "Really? Me too!" I said. "Licorice" "cotton candy." "Chocolate."we said together. We looked at each other, and we both blushed. I saw Charlie and his grandfather smiling, giving me a thumbs up. The others looked slightly disturbed. I don't know why.
*Grace's P.O.V.*
I really like Mr. Won- I mean Willy. He's very nice, and he likes almost everything I do. But, I don't think that he will like me very much, if he finds out what I can do, what I am. I mentally sighed. We reached the nut sorting room. Wait... oh boy. This is gonna be both fun and interesting. The girl's father turned to Willy "Ah, this is a room I know all about." He said very posh like. I rolled my eyes. I seemed to be doing that a lot today. "For you see, Mr. Wonka, I, myself, am in the nut business."he said, taking a business card from his jacket, and handing it to Willy, who, when the man wasn't looking, tossed it over his shoulder.
"Are you using the Havermax 4000 to do your sorting?" I snorted. He looked at me, along with Willy. Willy smiled. "No." He laughed. "You're really weird." Willy said and walked to open the door. He let go of my hand to open it. I looked at the man. He looked like he was told by his boss that he could only have his payment in nuts. I laughed at that. We went inside, and everyone was surprised to see squirrels sorting the nuts. "Squirrels." Said the girl. "Yeah. Squirrels. These squirrels are specially trained to get the nuts out of the shells." I nodded. "Why use squirrels? why not use Oompa-Loompas?" Asked the girl's father. "Because only squirrels can get the whole walnut out almost every single time." Willy said in a 'duh' tone. "See how they tap them with their knuckles to make sure it's not bad?" Willy explained, then looked out at them. "Oh, look. Look. I think that one has a bad nut." Which it did indeed. It tossed the walnut over its shoulder, and it rolled down, into the pit. Where it will goes where all the other trash goes. The furnace. "Definitely a bad nut." I said. At my voice, all the squirrels stopped, and looked at me. "Oops."i said. They know the sound of their trainer's voice when they hear it. The squirrels got excited at the sight of me. I quickly hid behind Willy. They started climbing off their seats and heading towards us.
"Oh. Great." I mumbled. "Excuse me, everyone." I said, walking from behind Willy, and went over the gate. They all squeaked excitedly. "Yeah, yeah. I'm here. Now get back to work. I'll talk to you guys later." I whispered to them. They looked sad. "Hey, don't worry. I will be back. But with less people." I explained. They hesitated, and finally obliged to get back to work. I sighed. "What was that about?" Mike asked when I got back up to them. "Um, well, you see," I stopped and sighed. "Alright." I searched my pockets, until I found what I was looking for. A small bag of assorted nuts, and a small silver whistle tied around the bag to keep it closed. "Can you hold this, Willy?" I asked. "Sure." As soon as the bag touched his hand, the squirrels all looked at him. As I have trained them to do so. Willy stiffened a little. "Don't be nervous," I said soothingly. "It's just that, whoever is holding the treats, gets their attention." The bag was snatched by the girl. The attention moved to her. I gave her a look. The squirrels saw this, and went back to their jobs. The girl looked confused. "How come you get the most attention from them?" "Well, you see, when I was little, I loved animals, still do. When I was six, I trained animals to do things for treats. Which they loved, my mom always
Complained about having skunks coming into the living room, searching for me. We had a doggy door, and always had a window open in the kitchen during the day for birds and other animals to come in." I laughed, remembering the exasperated look on my mother's face. Anyway, people liked how well I was doing with them, and asked me to train them. Actually, it was my dad they asked, he was the one who dealt with the adults. I remember this one time, dad had asked me that a man, by the name of Willy Wonka, who was our favorite candy maker, might I add." I said, looking over at Willy. "Had asked him, if I could train some squirrels for him, to sort nuts. At first, I was totally ecstatic. Because I love doing things with squirrels. But then, I was a little confused. Then I realized that he wanted them used to being around people. So, I graciously accepted." Willy was looking at me funnily. "Your father was Doctor Nicholas Jones?" I nodded. "No wonder why she is so smart." Grandpa Joe said, chuckling a bit. I blushed a little. "I'm not that smart." The others looked like they had no clue what was going on. "Everyone thought you had died in the fire with them. They couldn't find you, or your body. And neither of your parents' bones were found." Joe said. I nodded. "The fire was so hot, it melted their skin, and muscles instantly." I said, taking the bag, and putting it back into my pocket.
The girl turned to her father. "Daddy I want a squirrel. Get me one of those squirrels. I want one." She demanded. "Veruca, dear, you have many marvelous pets." Said her father. What an awful name. (Sorry for those who have this name. 😓) I looked at Willy. He had that look in his eyes again. So this is another one of the rotten kid traps. I sighed. Oh well. I just remembered something. I looked at the garbage chute. The incinerator has been down for the past week. I gotta fix that tomorrow. Another thing to add to my list. "All I've got at home is one pony, and two dogs, and four cats and six bunny rabbits. And two parakeets and three canaries, and a green parrot, and a turtle, and a silly old hamster. I want a squirrel!" We all knew that she was spoiled, but geez! Can't the man show a little discipline? Apparently not.
"All right pet. daddy will get you a squirrel as soon as he possibly can." He said. I rolled my eyes. "But I don't want any old squirrel. I want a trained squirrel." He looked like he was very tired of things like this. "Very well. Miss. Grace, how much do you want for one of those trained squirrels?" "Oh. Well, two things. First, I don't train for money, I train for fun." He looked at me incredulously. "Second. I only allow the animals I train to go to good homes. Where they will get attention, fed properly," he opened his mouth, but I placed a finger to my lips, and he closed his mouth again. Veruca was looking at me expectantly. "And where they won't be tossed aside when it gets boring, to go onto the next thing like all of the other poor souls that you have given your,oh so precious daughter." I said, giving him a look. Veruca was glaring at me, then turned to her father. I looked at Willy. "Daddy." She said. He looked so tired. "I'm sorry darling," Willy said, making a perfect impression of her father's voice. I stared at him in awe. "Miss. Grace is being unreasonable." I laughed. Her father looked surprised. She turned back to her father.
"If you won't get me a squirrel, I'll get one myself." She said, then went through the bars of the gate. "Um, I wouldn't do that if I were you!" I called to her. She just 'hmmphed' me. "Veruca."he father said sternly, but not sternly enough. "Little girl?" She ignored Willy. I sighed, getting out the bag. "Veruca, come back here at once." She looked around at my squirrels. "Veruca!" She finally went towards the one she wanted. Things were gonna go downhill for her fast. Or should I say very stinky, very fast. I smirked, and put the bag back. Willy looked at me. Looking at me with a question. 'Does she know?' I nodded. And he smiled. 'We need to talk later.' He mouthed. I nodded. I think I know what he is going to ask. And I'll tell him the whole truth. I smiled. I'll be just like Abe Lincoln. The one who tells no lies. Well, to at least a few people. Everyone else can just be mostly in the dark. My squirrels turned to see that she was approaching. One by one they turned.
"Little girl? Don't touch that squirrel's nuts. It'll make him crazy!" He called out to her, she ignored him. "She's the crazy one" I mumbled to him. He laughed. She stopped in front of the one at the corner of the room. All of them still, looking at her, each other, and the one in front of her looked at me. I nodded. Willy saw this, and smiled. "I'll have you." She said, reaching towards him. He leaped down, calling out to the others. Mike and her jumped. She was freaking out.
"Veruca!" Her father called, panicking. He shook the gate, trying to open it. He looked at Willy. Who pulled out a ring of keys. A very big ring of keys with thousands of keys for thousands of locks, most of them different shapes and sizes. I knew instantly which one it was, and so did Willy, but the others didn't know that. I mentally smirked. The squirrels were jumping on her, trying to knock her down. "Veruca!" Her father said again. She was panicking. Willy was still pretending. "Can't you do something?" He asked me. I looked at him. "Nope. I can't. They won't listen. They are doing what they were trained to do." He looked at me angrily. "Attack children?!?" "No! Oh heavens no, otherwise they would have attacked me. No, they are finding out if it is a good nut, or a bad nut." I explained. "And by the way she's been acting. Well, let's just hope they think they hear good nut." I told him. His eyes widened. Willy tried another key, nope. The more squirrels jumped on her.
"No!" She whined. She kept trying to get them off. She tripped, and fell on her back. "Veruca!" Her father still said. He rattled the gate. "Let's find the key." Willy said, trying one. "Nope. Not that one." "Daddy!" She called, desperately. "Veruca!"another one "no! It's not that one." Willy's smiled a bit. Then turned serious, looking for the key. Her father looked seriously worried. I feel bad for him. But he brought this upon himself. He spoiled his child a little too much. They started to pin her to the ground. They had to pin her, because she was struggling, and they couldn't do something like listen to a nut if it was too loud with its struggling. She looked at them, seeing that they had pinned her arms and legs down.
"There it is, "Willy said, placing the wrong key in. "There it isn't." He said. "Daddy, I want them to stop!" She called. Then, Swiddles, the one that she had 'chosen' got in her chest. She looked at him. He went up, and touched her face. She flinched, grunting. He knocked on her forehead, then listened. "What are they doing?" Charlie asked. I guess no one else heard me when I told her father. "They're testing to see if she's a bad nut." Swiddles made a gulping sound. I raised my eyebrows. I knew it.
"Oh, my goodness. She is a bad nut after all." Willy said. The other squirrels started lifting her up,and carrying her. Swiddles joined them. "Veruca!" Her father said again. "Daddy!" "Where are they taking her?" He asked Willy. "Where all the other bad nuts go. To the garbage chute." "Where does the chute go?" "To the incinerator."Willy said calmly. They looked at him. "But don't worry. We only light it on Tuesdays." He reassured. I looked at him. Her father's eyebrows went up, and he looked back down to her. "Today is Tuesday." Mike told him. Her father looked even more worried.
"Well, there's always the chance that they decided not to light it today." Willy said, smiling at him. I nodded in agreement. Even though i personally check things like that every time. Though, I was so busy preparing for today's events, that I totally forgot. Veruca whined again. She gasped, her fingernails dragging on the floor, making marks. Well, that's going to take me a while to fix. I thought sourly. They pushed her straight in, jumping out of her way, and avoiding falling in themselves. I feel like a proud mama bird. She screamed on the way down. Her father, yelling in fright for his daughter. My squirrels went back to work. Grandpa Joe looked in pain. I put a hand on his shoulder, in an apologetic manner.
"Now," Willy said, turning to her father. "She may be stuck in the chute, just below the top. If that's the case, all you have to do is just reach in, and pull her out."he said, with a simple hand movement. Her father, and Mr. Teavee looked at him like he's crazy. "It's true. While I was down there, I looked down the chute.there is a huge possibility that she's stuck, and that she needs some help from someone tall, and has good balance and strength." I said, noticing that Willy had put the correct key into the slot. "Yeah. Okay?" He nodded, and Willy turned the key, opening the gate for him. He went through, and Willy shut the gate, locking it behind him. Fully knowing that he won't be coming back up from this way. He climbed down, and was near the squirrels. Then I heard it. I smiled, and looked at Willy. He smiled back at me. The Oompa-Loompas saw the whole thing, and now are singing. They came out, in yellow suits. Willy and I swayed to the music that they were making. The Oompa-Loompas had made a full circle around the chute.
"Veruca Salt, the little brute. Has just gone down the garbage chute. And she will meet, as she descends, a rather different set of friends. A rather different set of friends, a rather different set of friends. A fish head, for example,cut this morning from a halibut. An ouster from an oyster stew. A steak that no one else would chew. And lots other things as well, each one with its rather horrid smell. Horrid smell. These are Veruca's newfound friends,that she will meet as she descends. These are Veruca's newfound friends." As her father descended, they turned to him, kneeling, and beckoning him closer. Willy leaned forward, looking forward to what will happen next. I smiled at him. "Who went and spoiled her, who indeed? Who pandered to her every need? Who turned into such a brat? Who are the culprits? Who did that? The guilty ones, and this is sad." Swiddles jumped down and ran towards him. "Are dear old mom, and loving," he pushed him in. Willy and I chuckled. "Dad!" I looked down, to find Kendal, an Oompa-Loompa, tugging on Willy's jacket. Willy knelt down, and Kendal whispered in his ear.
"Oh, really? Oh good."he said, and was about to stand up, when he tugged on Willy again. He was surprised, and leaned back down.
*Willy's P.O.V.*
I leaned back down, surprised to learn more. "The others were wondering, if that girl, Grace," he began. I looked at his, raising a hand. Kendal looked at me. I smiled and nodded. He cheered, and ran off to tell the others. I chuckled, and stood up, looking at Grace. She looked a little puzzled. I smiled at her, she blushed, and smiled back. How I love doing that.
""I've just been informed that the incinerator's broken. So there should be about three weeks of rotten garbage to break their fall." I told them. "Oh. Well, that's good news." Said Mr. Teavee. "Yeah." I said in agreement.
"What was that Oompa-Loompa so excited about?" Grace asked me, curiously. The others looked interested too. "I just agreed that on Saturday, we get to have a cocoa bean party." I smiled. She looked at me, knowingly. Ok. They always have a cocoa bean party on Saturday's. "Well, let's keep on trucking." I told them, grabbing Grace's hand, and leading them all out the door.
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Thank you for reading! Please tell me what you think, and I need a little help. Where should Willy and Grace talk privately, and should Charlie eavesdrop on them?
Thank you for everything! Don't forget to vote! 😎
~ GraceRi