Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In Denver, Colorado, there lived a boy named Michael Richard Teavee, but he normally was just called Mike. He had brown hair and brown eyes, and he mostly wore clothes in black and red. (Red was his favorite color, after all.) He lived in a one-story yellow house with a red border along the bottom, a red garage door, and a gray roof. He lived in this house with his father, John Teavee, who used to be an accountant but was now a high school geography teacher; his stay-at-home mother, Lorraine Teavee; and his older sister, Miranda Teavee, who was fifteen years old.

Whenever Mike had any free time, which was most of the time, it would be used with some form of technology. He would either play video games, watch movies, watch TV shows, or go on the internet on his laptop. He used the TV so much that there was one in the living room for him and his whole family to use, and another one in his bedroom for personal use. Ever since he was a baby, it had been like this. Whenever he would start crying, his mother would just turn on the TV to distract him, and the crying stopped. When he was a toddler and a growing child, his mother would continue to plop him in front of the screen so she could do other things around the house like cook or clean without having to worry about little Mike. His dad was always busy with work, so he couldn’t do much with his boy, either. It’s not that his parents didn’t care about him—they certainly did. They loved him a lot, and he loved them back; it’s just that they were often too busy to properly raise him. And as Mike got older, he became more and more obsessed with technology as his parents became more and more behind the times, so he and his parents weren’t exactly on the same level anymore.

He tried reading books before, but he couldn’t get into them. He found the walls of text too boring to comprehend as a story. He only read when he had to for school. His dad tried to get him into playing chess, since he was particularly fond of the game himself; however, like reading, Mike found it to be too boring. But despite playing video games all day, he was probably the most intelligent person in a family already filled with intelligent people. Mike got mostly A’s in school and never struggled that much, especially in math class. He was also a computer genius, so he found hacking into computers to be a very simple thing to do.

Chapter Text

There was one day in Mike Teavee’s life that he would never be able to forget, and not in a good way. But before discussing that day, it is necessary to explain how he got there in the first place.

He was eleven years old when it began—when Willy Wonka, the world-famous chocolatier who had been secluded from the public for thirteen years, released five Golden Tickets underneath five Wonka Bars on January 4^th, 2005. If a child found one of these Golden Tickets, they were allowed a tour of Wonka’s factory for one day along with one guardian.

The first one had been found on January 9^th by a repulsive, obese boy named Augustus Glüp, who was twelve years old and from Rothenburg, Germany. He weighed about two hundred pounds, and he was always eating something. His dad owned a butcher shop with all of Augustus’s favorite meats, so it’s not hard to see why. The second ticket was then found the next day by a spoiled, rich, eleven-year-old girl from Iver, England named Veruca Salt.

Mike wasn’t very fond of chocolate. The reason for this wasn’t necessarily because he hated the taste of it, as he pretty much liked everything else sweet: candy, ice cream, cake, soda, et cetera. It was for the simple reason that chocolate didn’t agree well with his stomach. Every time he ate chocolate, he would get a most horrible stomachache that would last for hours. Because of this, he had no desire at all to find a Golden Ticket or see Wonka’s enormous chocolate factory. However, by that time, Mike realized that since the whole world had gone crazy trying to find the last three tickets, if he could somehow manage to get ahold of one of those Golden Tickets, he could sell it for tons of money. No matter what its price was, he knew someone out there would buy it from him, and he could become the richest kid at school. The only problem was actually finding a way to get one of the tickets. He certainly wouldn’t just keep buying and opening up Wonka Bar after Wonka Bar like the previous winners had. He was more clever than that. Then, suddenly, he figured out a way.

Mike tracked the manufacturing dates, hacked into the distribution flow rate data, and took the derivative of the costing formula offset by weather and the Nikkei index to find exactly where the last three Golden Tickets were located. One was in Atlanta, Georgia, another was in the same town the factory was located in—Gumpshire, Massachusetts—but the last one, by some strange coincidence, was in his home city, Denver.

On Saturday, January 29^th, Mike begged his mom to take him to the store to buy that candy bar with the Golden Ticket, which confused her, knowing how sick he got after eating chocolate. But she did so anyway. When they got there, Mike checked the manufacturing numbers on the bars and picked up one Wonka Bar from the shelf. A Triple Dazzle Caramel Wonka Bar.

“That’s it? Just one bar?” his mother asked.

“Yup. Just one,” Mike said.

The entire car ride home, Mike’s mom kept looking back at the chocolate bar. “Aren’t you gonna open it?”

“Nah,” Mike said. “I’ll open it when we get home. Just to let the tension build.”

“I thought you were certain this was the one with the Golden Ticket in it.”

“I am. I’m one hundred percent certain.”

When they got home, Mike opened up the wrapper and found the ticket sitting inside, just as he expected. His whole family started screaming excitedly at the reveal, but to him, it came as no surprise. He gave the bar to his sister, and soon after, the press arrived at the Teavee household to interview the lucky finder of the fourth Golden Ticket. (The third ticket had been found earlier that day by an over-competitive, gum-chewing girl from Atlanta, Georgia named Violet Beauregarde, who was eleven years old as well.) All throughout the interview, Mike played one of his first-person shooter games while in in his pajamas.

After all the interviewers left their house, Mike’s father told him, “All right, well, I guess I’ll be going with you to the factory, since this upcoming Tuesday, a guest speaker is coming to class to speak with the students, and I really can’t stand—"

“Wait, wait, wait,” Mike interrupted, “who said we were going to the factory?”

“What do you mean? What else were we going to do, throw the ticket away?”

“No, I was planning to sell it. You know, for a lot of money. I’m sure someone will buy it for an outrageous price.”

“Oh no, no, no, no. You and me are going to that factory tour on Tuesday, and that’s final,” Mr. Teavee said.

“But you know I don’t want to—"

“I know you don’t want to go, but you have to try stuff out in life. Some of the best things you discover can come from the places you’d least expect. Besides, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You can’t just pass it up to play video games like you always do. Now, come on, we have to start getting ready for Tuesday.”

“Dad, if you force me into these things, it’s just gonna make me hate the experience even more.”

“Michael Richard Teavee. I don’t force you to do a lot of things. So, please, just do this for the greater good of us all. Anyways, how bad could it possibly be? It’s gonna be a chocolate factory that the public hasn’t seen in fifteen years. Sounds pretty cool to me.”

“But I don’t like chocolate.”

“I know you don’t. But no one’s gonna force you to eat any. And Willy Wonka doesn’t only make chocolate; he makes all sorts of candy. Besides, you get to miss school.”

Mike groaned, “Fine.”

Chapter Text

The day of the factory tour had arrived, February 1^st. This was the day that had a permanent impact on Mike’s life. But not just his life—everyone else who had attended the tour as well. When the gates finally opened at ten o’clock a.m., the guests stepped forward into the empty lot in front of the towering, imperious factory. The aroma of melted chocolate enveloped all around them.

In front of them was a flight of stairs that led to a wall with three doors. The wall split open to reveal red curtains, which raised to reveal an animatronic puppet show. The whole thing seemed very out of place, confusing Mike and everyone else there watching it. After the puppets were done singing, sparks erupted everywhere on the stage, and the puppets eventually caught on fire and started melting. Mike could not believe what he was witnessing. It seemed far too creepy and disturbing to exist; it was like something out of a horror movie. But when he was finally introduced to the man who was responsible for the show, it somehow all made sense.

Mike heard clapping from the other side of the group, and someone speaking in a rather obnoxious voice, “Wasn’t that just magnificent? I was worried it was getting a little dodgy in the middle part, but then that finale! Wow!” It was a man with a funny-looking bob cut, a black top hat, and purple-rimmed sunglasses.

The man stepped up on the stage in front of the crowd, and Violet Beauregarde asked what everyone wanted to ask, “Who are you?”

Mike thought, this couldn’t possibly be Willy Wonka himself, could it? He seems far too ridiculous. Then, an old man, who was the grandfather of the fifth Golden Ticket winner, Charlie Bucket, answered the question, “He’s Willy Wonka!”

“Really?” his grandson responded. Mike had to agree with his response. Really? This is the guy we’ve all been waiting to meet?

“Good morning, starshine, the earth says, ‘Hello!’” Wonka shouted rather arbitrarily. He then pulled out cue cards to read from. “Dear guests, greetings! Welcome to the factory. I shake you warmly by the hand.” He stuck out one of his hands that wore stretchy, purple latex gloves. The guests just exchanged awkward stares with him, so he retrieved his hand, making a squeaking noise. “My name is Willy Wonka,” he continued, with a slight giggle at the end of his sentence.

After a short exchange with the guests, Wonka led the group inside the factory, and they entered a hallway that got smaller and smaller as it went on. They reached the end of the room, which was a tiny, little door that no one could physically fit through. Wonka told them, “An important room, this. This is the nerve center of the whole factory. The heart of the whole business.”

How could a door to such an important room be that small? Why would any door be that small? These were the questions Mike thought in his head, so he asked Mr. Wonka, “Then why is the door so small?”

“It’s to keep all the great, big, chocolatey flavor inside!” He giggled once again at the end of his reply. That response made absolutely no sense to Mike. How does the size of a door keep the flavors inside?

Mr. Wonka unlocked the tiny door, then he opened up the entire wall, which was the actual door. It was still quite small, but at least people could fit through it if they ducked.

Everyone entered a giant, expansive room where everything was eatable—the Chocolate Room. At the very back of the room was a fifty-foot chocolate waterfall, and a chocolate river ran through the entirety of the room. Willy Wonka gave everybody permission to “enjoy,” so they all went their separate ways.

Mike’s attention was grabbed by a plump, red candy pumpkin. He wasn’t sure how to eat it or open it up, so he just thought of the next fun thing to do with it: destroy it. He kicked the candy gourd open and started stomping on its gooey insides, pretending he was stomping on a zombie from one of his video games.

But before he could get any further in destroying the pumpkin, his dad came up behind him and said, “Son, please.”

Mike responded, “Dad, he said, ‘Enjoy!’” Which was true; Wonka never did say they couldn’t destroy any of his candy. He just said to enjoy it, and this was Mike’s way of enjoying it, so he continued stomping on what was now just a pile of mush.

A few minutes later, Veruca Salt noticed something across the chocolate river. “Daddy, look! What is it? It’s a little person! Over there, by the waterfall!” Sure enough, it was a little person, about thirty inches tall. He had dark skin and black hair, and he wore a red polyvinyl chloride suit. Then, everyone started noticing more of these strange, short men. Each one looked like an exact clone of each other.

Mike was creeped out by these things. They were smaller than any midget he had ever seen, and they had ugly, pug-like faces. Several questions about them were asked from the others; however, Willy Wonka just ignored them.

Mike asked Mr. Wonka something as well, “Are they real people?”

This was the only question that the candy connoisseur answered directly, “Course, they’re real people. They’re Oompa-Loompas.” Wonka must have made that name up, Mike thought to himself. There’s no way there was an actual group of people out there named “Oompa-Loompas.”

Mr. Salt, Veruca’s father, was also baffled by this, so he reiterated in a confused manner, “Oompa-Loompas?”

“Imported,” Wonka explained, “direct from Loompaland.”

“There’s no such place,” John Teavee immediately retorted. Mike felt especially proud of his father at this moment. If there was anyone who could prove Willy Wonka wrong about a country named Loompaland, it was his father. He was a geography teacher, after all.

“What?” Mr. Wonka seemed outraged.

“Mr. Wonka, I teach high school geography, and I’m here to tell you—"

“Well, then, you’ll know all about it and know what a terrible country it is,” Wonka interrupted. He then told the group his story of how he went to Loompaland and found the Oompa-Loompas. He took them back to his factory so they could work for him, and he paid them in cocoa beans, since that was the thing they treasured most.

Suddenly, Mrs. Glüp noticed that her son was on the other side of the chocolate river, drinking out of it with his hands. But it was too late; Augustus reached too far into the river and fell in. Augustus’ mom fell into a panic since he couldn’t swim. Willy Wonka ignored her cries for help and stared at an incoming pipe making its way toward Augustus, who was now hopelessly flailing around in the river. The pipe slowly lowered into the river and started sucking up the chocolate, creating a suction that pulled in Augustus. The fat boy got sucked up into the pipe headfirst, so he could at least still breathe. Tremendous pressure built up inside, pushing Augustus to rise higher up the tube until he came to a full stop near the top of the pipe.

The Oompa-Loompas quietly hummed a tune and slowly made their way toward the group. Mike felt uncomfortable with the tiny men creeping up on them. “Back off, you little freaks!” he shouted at them, trying to scare them away. Their singing grew into a huge musical number with synchronized singing and dancing to a song with Augustus Glüp’s name in it, and it was about how the Oompa-Loompas were going to turn him into fudge.

Once the song was done, Mr. Salt said to Mr. Wonka, “I do say, it all seemed rather rehearsed.”

“Like they knew it was gonna happen,” Mike said.

All Mr. Wonka had to say was, “Oh, poppycock.”

Mrs. Glüp was pulled by an Oompa-Loompa to the Strawberry-Flavored Chocolate-Coated Fudge Room, where her son was supposedly waiting.

“Mr. Wonka,” Charlie said, “why would Augustus’s name already be in the Oompa-Loompa song unless—"

“Improvisation is a parlor trick,” Willy Wonka interrupted. “Anyone can do it.” He looked toward Violet. “You, little girl, say something. Anything.”

“Chewing gum,” she replied.

“Chewing gum is really gross, chewing gum I hate the most. See, exactly the same.”

What? Mike thought. No. A two-line rhyme is not the same as a full song with multiple verses, full orchestration, and synchronized dancing. They had to have practiced that beforehand. “No, it isn’t,” is all he decided to say.

“Uh, you really shouldn’t mumble, because I can’t understand a word you’re saying,” Wonka said with a sleazy grin. “Now,” he continued, “on with the tour.”

Before, Mike had just been annoyed by Willy Wonka, but now, he was downright infuriated with him. When Augustus fell into the chocolate and got sucked up the pipe, he seemed like he didn’t care at all. Then, when the Oompa-Loompas sang their horrific song about him and how he’ll be boiled alive, he just danced along with it, enjoying the poor boy’s suffering within the pipe, almost like he was making fun of his stupidity for falling into the river. Not only that, but he also completely ignored Mike’s valid point and labeled it as “mumbling.”

Chapter Text

A pink Viking-like ship shaped as a seahorse peeked around the corner of the riverbank, rowed by fifty-two Oompa-Loompas holding massive oars. Everyone climbed into the boat, and Mike noticed, by its appearance and scent, that it was made of candy. Mr. Wonka had no problem with the guests eating his candy before, so he started to lick the boat, until Wonka told him otherwise, “Don’t lick my boat; you’re gonna make it all sticky.” It was like Wonka was trying to get on Mike’s nerves as much as possible and was enjoying every second of it. There was nothing consistent about this guy.

The boat brought everyone into the Inventing Room, where the guests were allowed to run free again so long as they didn’t touch anything. Mike followed Violet to some sort of water tank. Spheres of six varied colors were continuously shot into the tank from an overhanging machine. Violet asked the chocolatier, “Hey, Mr. Wonka, what’s this?”

“Oh, let me show ya!” An Oompa-Loompa inside the tank brought up one of the red-colored spheres to Willy Wonka. “Thank you!” he said as he took it. “These are Everlasting Gobstoppers. They’re for children who are given very little allowance money. You can suck on it all year, and it’ll never get any smaller!” He giggled once again. “Isn’t that neat?”

“It’s like gum,” Violet said.

“No,” Wonka responded. “Gum is for chewing. And if you tried chewing one of these gobstoppers, you’d break all your little teeth off. But they sure do taste terrific.”

After explaining another invention to the group, Hair Toffee, Wonka walked over to a huge machine with all sorts of pipes and tanks connected to it. Mike noticed an Oompa-Loompa walking along the catwalks above them, carrying a wheelbarrow that had tomatoes, potatoes, roast beef, and a blueberry pie inside it. The Oompa-Loompa dumped all the ingredients into a funnel at the top of the machine. "Watch this!" Wonka said as he pulled a lever. The machine began making loud whirring noises, the tanks began bubbling, and steam expelled from the pipes. The noises intensified as a mechanical arm started to unfold from the machine until it all finally stopped with a “ding” sound, and a small stick of gum was dispensed from a tiny slot on the arm.

Mike was extremely disappointed by this. “You mean that’s it?”

“Do you even know what ‘it’ is?” Wonka returned the question. Of course Mike knew what it was. It was just an ordinary stick of gum.

Violet even said it herself, “It’s gum.”

“Yeah!” Mr. Wonka said. He then went on to explain that it was a special kind of gum that tasted like a full three course dinner. That piece tasted like tomato soup, roast beef, and blueberry pie. Without thinking of the consequences, Violet stuffed the stick of gum into her mouth, even though Wonka warned her not to. She chewed her way through the appetizer and the entrée, but when she came to the dessert, the blueberry pie, something strange started to happen.

Violet’s nose started to turn blue, and it slowly spread throughout her face. Her hands and hair all turned blue. The whole group backed away from her slowly. Blue juices started oozing out of her, turning her clothes dark blue. She then started to bulge around her hips. She looked back and noticed that her rear end started to bulge out, too. Violet’s stomach, cheeks, and entire body started to inflate rapidly with blueberry juice until she reached to be a ten-foot-tall blueberry!

Suddenly, the Oompa-Loompas emerged from the steam in the corners of the Inventing Room and up on the catwalks. They all joined together to sing another song—this time about Violet Beauregarde and how she chews gum all day. Mike felt suspicious once again; the Oompa-Loompa dance numbers were far too complex to be improvised. And this was the second time something disastrous happened to one of the children, resulting in a song sung by the little men. Wonka also danced to the song again—this time, more elaborately than the last.

Once the song was done, the Oompa-Loompas rolled Violet out of the Inventing Room and into the pink sugar boat to take her to the Juicing Room. Her mother followed.

Mr. Wonka and the rest of the gang walked down a winding hallway through the factory. Charlie asked the crazed chocolatier why he sent out only five tickets, and why now, but Mike had a better question that he wanted an answer to, “What’s the special prize, and who gets it?” Mike didn’t want to waste any more time in this dreadful chocolate factory, so if he didn’t like the prize, or if Wonka already knew he wouldn’t win it, he could just leave.

Wonka, however, once again refused to answer, “The best kind of prize is a SUR-prise!” He laughed obnoxiously.

Then, Veruca rudely shoved Mike out of the way to ask, “Will Violet always be a blueberry?”

“No. Maybe. I dunno. But that’s what you get from chewing gum all day; it’s just disgusting!”

After Mike heard Wonka say this statement, he genuinely wanted to know something, “If you hate gum so much, why do you make it?”

Not that he expected Wonka to answer him, which he didn’t, “Once again, you really shouldn’t mumble, because it’s really starting to bum me out.”

Mr. Wonka showed the tour group some more rooms containing a few of his crazy confectioneries, like Lickable Wallpaper, Fizzy-Lifting Drinks, Square Candies That Look Round, and Butterscotch and Buttergin.

The group then entered the Nut Sorting Room—a round room with squirrels sitting on stools along the circumference and a white-and-blue swirl design on the floor leading to a giant hole in the center. Walnuts were transported through pipes from the top of the room directly to the squirrels, who then opened up the nuts if they were good inside and placed them on a conveyor belt, or threw them into the hole if they were bad.

Veruca wanted one of the squirrels, but after Wonka refused to allow her father to buy one for her, she slipped through the gate that overlooked the lower part of the room with the squirrels. She climbed down the stairs, and after several warnings from Mr. Wonka, she attempted to grab one of the squirrels when, suddenly, all of the little rodents leaped off from their stools and onto Veruca! She started to back up and tried swatting them off of her, but she ended up falling on the ground. The squirrels cumulatively pinned her down onto the floor, with one squirrel on her chest. It started to knock on her head, then it made a sound that signaled the rest of the squirrels to start carrying her into the pit. They dropped her in as she cried for help from her father, and Wonka revealed that the chute led to the incinerator!

Wonka is purely psychotic, Mike thought. He actually let one of the children on this tour die, and he didn’t do much to help! She might not be the only one either; there’s a good chance Augustus and Violet are also dead by now. But Wonka seemed like he specifically wanted Veruca to die, since he wouldn’t allow her father to go down to stop her by pretending he couldn’t find the correct key to unlock the gate. And Mike knew he was pretending, because he didn’t unlock the gate for Mr. Salt until the immediate moment after she got throw down. Not only that, but once Mr. Salt started climbing down the stairs to try to fetch Veruca out of the hole, Mr. Wonka locked the gate behind him.

Once again, the Oompa-Loompas came out and sang a song about the child that had just been dismissed from the tour, and Wonka danced along. It was becoming routine now, but it still freaked out Mike every time, knowing that he could possibly be next. But he was smarter than that.

After the song, an Oompa-Loompa crept behind Mike to talk to Mr. Wonka. Mike jolted at the Oompa-Loompa’s sudden appearance, and he felt pretty embarrassed that he was frightened by a man so small. They were informed that the incinerator was broken, which was good news, but that still didn’t excuse Mr. Wonka from being on Mike’s hate list.

Chapter Text

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier; the elevator is, by far, the most efficient way to get around the factory.” Wonka pushed a glass button on a wall, followed by glass doors sliding open, leading into a glass elevator. The Great Glass Elevator. However, Mike realized that the only reason why Mr. Wonka didn’t use the elevator beforehand was because there were too many people to fit inside. Now that he got rid of a few of the guests, the rest could finally ride it. Mike stepped inside the elevator along with everyone else and saw what looked like thousands of glass buttons along one of the walls inside the Great Glass Elevator. Each one had the name of the room they led to next to them.

“There can’t be this many floors,” Mike thought aloud.

Wonka responded, “How do you know, Mr. Smarty-Pants? And this isn’t just any ordinary up-and-down elevator, by the way. This elevator can go sideways, long ways, slantways, and any other ways you can think of! You just press any button and whoosh! You’re off! Ha ha!”

As soon as he pressed one of the buttons, the elevator shot out to the left, causing everyone inside except Willy Wonka to topple over. The elevator entered a room with an artificial freezing climate with artificial snow and a tall, snow-covered, brown mountain with Oompa-Loompas climbing up it and chipping off bits of the mountain with pickaxes. Everyone looked down at the mountain from the Great Glass Elevator, and Willy Wonka shouted, “Oh, look, look! Ladies and gentlemen,” even though there weren’t any ladies anymore, “welcome to Fudge Mountain!” Several Oompa-Loompas spotted the elevator and waved toward the group. Willy Wonka waved back.

The elevator entered a mine with millions and millions of crystals of all the colors of the rainbow. Mike noticed Oompa-Loompas wearing mining helmets and wielding pickaxes. They chipped away at the crystals, similarly to the fudge, and they rode in minecarts. “This is the Rock Candy Mine,” Mr. Wonka said.

Then the elevator went into a room with glass pipes twisting and curling all around, filled with pink fluff. Pitchfork-wielding Oompa-Loompas were shearing pink wool off of pink sheep and putting the pink wool into the pipes. “Oh,” Wonka began, but he then hesitated. “I rather not talk about this one.” Mike didn’t know why he didn’t want to talk about it, but he could only guess that the wool was cotton candy.

The elevator whizzed past a couple other rooms until it entered a giant room filled with Oompa-Loompas firing red-and-white-striped balls out from cannons, aiming at targets. The balls created fireworks upon impact with the targets. “And here, the Oompa-Loompas are testing Exploding Candy for your enemies,” Wonka said. The elevator then suddenly plummeted straight down in the center of the very tall room.

Mike started to reflect on all the strange things he encountered that day. A chocolate waterfall to mix chocolate? A mountain made of fudge? Cotton candy sheep? I have to admit, it’s all pretty amazing, but what’s the point of all this stuff? None of these things are practical or necessary to make candy! It’s just pointless nonsense for the sake of pointless nonsense. “Why is everything here completely pointless?” he asked, trying to be as polite as he possibly could while being infuriated with the loony candy man.

“Candy doesn’t have to have a point; that’s why it’s candy,” Charlie responded, like he was Wonka’s messenger or something.

But at this point, Mike was fed up with Willy Wonka, he was fed up with his factory, he was fed up with Oompa-Loompas, he was fed up with candy, and he was fed up with Charlie Bucket always being a goody two-shoes! He just wanted to go back home and watch TV. He let out all his anger in one statement, “It’s stupid! Candy is a waste of time!” This caused Wonka to go into “flashback mode” for the third time that day. After these words had left his mouth, Mike wondered if maybe he was a bit too harsh, even if he did hate Willy Wonka.

“Mike, please, calm down,” his father said.

Mike considered taking his father’s advice, but he was still furious at the chocolatier and was getting impatient standing in the cramped elevator, so he broke Wonka out of his flashback by demanding, “I wanna pick a room!”

“Go ahead,” Wonka responded. It was about time Mike finally started to get his way today. He turned around and searched through the plethora of rooms, wondering which one he should choose, until he spotted one that said, “TELEVISION ROOM.” It was the obvious choice, of course.

The elevator pulled up to two large, white, dome-shaped buildings that were connected to each other. The doors opened to a purely white room. Just about everything in the room was white, even the Oompa-Loompas’ suits. The room was so bright that Mike’s eyes hurt just staring at it. Mr. Wonka grabbed five sets of goggles and gave one to everyone, including one for himself.

“Here, put these on quick and don’t take them off, whatever you do. This light could burn your eyeballs right out of your skulls, and we certainly don’t want that, now do we?” Wonka stared at Mike with a grin as if he was tempting him to take his goggles off. Did he seriously think Mike was that stupid to do something like that?

Once everyone put on their goggles, Wonka lead the group down a ramp into the rest of the room, with a television set on the far end of it. “This is the testing room for my very latest and greatest invention—Television Chocolate,” he explained. “One day, it occurred to me, ‘Hey, if television can break up a photograph into millions and millions of tiny little pieces and send it whizzing through the air, then reassemble it on the other end, then why can’t I do the same with chocolate? Why can’t I send a real bar of chocolate through the television all ready to be eaten?”

“It sounds impossible,” Mike’s father said. His son had to agree with him; that idea would have to break several laws of physics, energy, and matter just for it to actually work.

“It is impossible,” Mike said to Wonka. “You don’t understand anything about science. First off, there’s a difference between waves and particles. Duh! Second, the amount of power it would take to convert energy into matter would be like nine atomic bombs!”

“MUMBLER!” Wonka shouted, purposely interrupting Mike Teavee for the third time that day. “Seriously, I cannot understand a single word you’re saying.”

Mike could not even describe how much he hated this man and all his “eccentricities.”

“Okey-dokey,” Wonka continued, “I shall now send a bar of chocolate from one end of the room to the other by television. Bring in the chocolate!”

Six Oompa-Loompas came in holding a massive bar of chocolate, carrying it up to a white podium. Mr. Wonka explained to them, “It’s gotta be real big, ‘cause you know how in TV, you can film a regular-sized man and he comes out looking this tall?” He measured a small height with his index finger and his thumb. “Same basic principle.” He pressed a big, red button, and the podium with the giant chocolate bar rose up. Then, the bar started rising off the podium and floated up into a glass tube. Mike was amazed; somehow, this bar of chocolate was breaking the laws of gravity, and he had no idea how. Two big, white video cameras hung down from the ceiling and were controlled by Oompa-Loompas. They pointed the cameras toward the bar of chocolate inside the tube. Then, two very bright lights flashed before them, and the chocolate vanished!

“It’s gone!” Charlie pointed out.

Wonka elaborated on the process, “Told ya! That bar of chocolate is now rushing through the air above our heads in a million tiny, little, pieces. Come over here. Come on, come on. Come on!” Wonka started running toward the TV, and Mike followed him quickly; he had to know how this turned out.

Once they reached the TV set, Wonka said, “Watch the screen! Here it comes…” They were currently watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the monolith slowly started to transform into a chocolate bar. However, it was a lot smaller than before; now it was just the size of a regular chocolate bar. “Oh, look. Take it.” Wonka nudged Mike. This is just a trick he’s playing on us. It’s obviously an edited video.

“It’s just a picture on a screen,” he said, debunking Wonka’s “invention.”

“Scaredy-cat.” Wonka turned to Charlie. “You take it. Go on, just reach out and grab it.”

Charlie reached his hand toward the screen. Mike couldn’t believe he was that gullible. But to everyone’s surprise, his hand actually went past the screen and into the movie! He picked up the chocolate bar and pulled it out.

“Holy Buckets!” Grandpa Joe exclaimed.

“Eat it,” Wonka told Charlie. “Go on. It’ll be delicious. It’s the same bar; it’s just gotten a little smaller on the journey, that’s all.”

Charlie took a minuscule bite from it and said, “It’s great!”

“It’s a miracle,” said Grandpa Joe.

Wonka began to explain his plan, “So, imagine, uh, you’re sitting at home watching television, and suddenly a commercial will flash onto the screen, and a voice will say, ‘Wonka’s chocolates are the best in the world. You don’t believe us, try one for yourself.’ Then you simply reach out and take it. How ‘bout that?”

Mr. Teavee asked a question, “So can you send other things, say, like, breakfast cereal?”

“Do you have any idea what breakfast cereal is made of? It’s those little, curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners,” Wonka said.

“But could you send it by television if you wanted to?” Charlie asked.

“Course you could.”

“What about people?” Mike asked.

“Well, why would I want to send a person? They don’t taste very good at all.”

Mike was irritated by this guy’s ignorance. “Don’t you realize what you’ve invented? It’s a teleporter! It’s the most important invention in the history of the world! And all you think about is chocolate.”

“Calm down, Mike. I think Mr. Wonka knows what he’s talking about,” Mr. Teavee said.

“No he doesn’t. He has no idea! You think he’s a genius, but he’s an idiot! But I’m not!” Mike jumped over an Oompa-Loompa sitting in a chair in front of the TV and started running toward the Television Chocolate machine.

"Mike, get back here this instant!" he heard his dad call out, but he didn't listen. He ran between two Oompa-Loompas and toward the ramp.

“Hey, little boy,” Wonka warned, “don’t push my button!” Mike ran up the ramp and did exactly that. Three Oompa-Loompas jumped out of his way, and Mike jumped onto the rising white podium.

"Mike, get down from there!" his father warned again. Eventually, the anti-gravity started affecting him, and he loved it! It was the most fun he had that day. He started doing dance moves, and he waved to his dad as he rose up the glass tube, until the cameras pointed toward him and the lights flashed.

Mike appeared right in front of a giant Oompa-Loompa who was holding some papers and was dressed as a news anchor. He started to sing a song,

“The most important thing that we’ve ever learned,”

Mike realized he was inside the television, and he had made a stupid mistake just like the other three children before him. The channel changed to an Oompa-Loompa dressed as a chef, pounding meat with a mallet.

“The most important thing we’ve learned

As far as children are concerned”

He then was sent to the middle of a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots ring with two Oompa-Loompas controlling each of the robots.

“Is never, never, never let

Them near a television set,

Or better still, just don’t install

The idiotic thing at all.”

Mike was then in black and white, along with everything else around him. He saw a pair of huge legs step behind him, and he looked up to see a shower head that started to spray water. He was inside the movie Psycho.

Immediately after, Mike was transported to the middle of an Oompa-Loompa rock concert, and he was standing on an enormous keyboard. He continued to listen to their song to hear what they had to say about him,

“It rots the senses in the head,

It keeps imagination dead,

It clogs and clutters up the mind,

It makes a child so dull and blind!

So dull and blind!

So dull and blind!

He can no longer understand

A fairytale, a fairyland!

A fairyland!

A fairyland!

He sits and stares and stares and sits"

As the Oompa-Loompa said that line, he brushed his hand along the keyboard and swept Mike off of it! He flew through the air, but luckily, he managed to grab onto one of the giant cymbals on the drum set before he hit the ground.

"Until he’s hypnotized by it,

Until he’s absolutely drunk

With all that shocking, ghastly junk!”

The drummer Oompa-Loompa hit the cymbals and launched Mike into the air. The channel was changed once more, and Mike gently drifted down along with bits of confetti, and during his descend, he noticed four Oompa-Loompas who were dressed similarly to The Beatles. They continued to sing,

“Regarding little Mike Teavee,

We very much regret that we,

Regret that we”

He switched back to the rock concert.

“Shall simply have to wait and see,”

An Oompa-Loompa was about to smash Mike with his electric guitar, but Mike switched to another channel just in the nick of time. He was back in Psycho, and an Oompa-Loompa pulled back the shower curtain and tried to stab Mike with a knife!

“We’ll wait and see,

We’ll wait and see,

We’ll wait and see,

We’ll wait and see,

We’ll wait and see,”

Mike dodged the knife’s movements, but he then got transported back into the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots ring.

“We very much regret that we

Shall simply have to wait and see

If we can get him back his height,”

He got punched by the red robot once, then twice, sending him flying in the air again, and he landed on the chef Oompa-Loompa's frying pan.

“But if we can’t,”

The chef tossed Mike up in the air, then launched him to the side. He rolled along the ground, then he got whacked with the set of papers the news anchor Oompa-Loompa was holding.

“It serves him right.”

 “Ew. Somebody grab him,” Wonka said.

The Oompa-Loompas were finally done with their song, and Mike felt incredibly traumatized, weak, and helpless. He cried out in desperation, “Help me! Help me!” Luckily, his dad reached through the screen, picked him up, and took him out. Why he didn’t just do that before, Mike didn’t know. He was now between the fingers of his dad, and he looked up at Mr. Wonka, who looked enormous from Mike’s point of view.

The top-hatted man seemed relieved, “Oh thank heavens; he’s completely unharmed.”

However, Mr. Teavee had to disagree, “Unharmed? What are you talking about?”

“Just put me back in the other way!” Mike told Wonka.

“There is no other way; it’s television, not telephone. There’s quite a difference.” Mike felt even more stupid than ever before. Why would there be a way to reverse the effect? Why would he even assume that? Wonka never mentioned any “other way.” Mike hated whenever his emotions took over his logic. More often than not, it led to him doing something he would immediately regret.

“Then what exactly do you propose to do about it?” his father asked.

“I don’t know. But young men are extremely springy; they stretch like mad.” Wonka gasped upon realization. “Let’s go put him in the taffy-puller!”

“Taffy-puller?!” John Teavee exclaimed. The idea sounded ridiculous to both him and his son.

“Hey, that was my idea.” Mr. Wonka looked down at Mike. “Boy, is he gonna be skinny. Yeah. Taffy-puller,” he said with a grin. He then looked to the Oompa-Loompa sitting in the chair behind them. “I want you to take Mr. Teavee and his… little boy… up to the taffy-puller. ‘Kay? Stretch him out.” The little man dressed in the white suit got up from his chair and led John and his now shrunken son to the Great Glass Elevator.

Chapter Text

Mr. Teavee, a miniature Mike, and the Oompa-Loompa dropped their goggles into a bin on their way out of the Television Room, and they stepped into the Great Glass Elevator. The Oompa-Loompa asked Mike’s father, “Could you please press the button that says ‘Taffy’? I can’t quite reach it.”

“Uh, okay,” he said as he searched for the button and pressed it. The elevator went zooming off once again. It stopped suddenly once it reached the destination, and the three of them stepped into a room with Oompa-Loompas stretching out taffy using giant taffy-pullers. The machines were continuously turning and twisting and winding. The Oompa-Loompa led Mr. Teavee to an empty taffy-puller.

“All right, you can put your son in here.”

“Wait, but if we put Mike in there, won’t it just rip him apart?” Mike’s dad asked with quivering fear in his voice.

“Your boy will be fine,” the Oompa-Loompa said. “I mean, we’ve never done this with an actual human being before, but Mr. Wonka has his special tricks at doing things, so just trust me when I say he’ll be all right.”

“Umm, okay…” John Teavee reluctantly passed over his son to the Oompa-Loompa. The little man walked over to the machine and fastened the tiny Mike into it.

“Hey, be careful with me!” Mike said in a high-pitched voice. “This better not hurt.”

“Like I said,” the Oompa-Loompa explained, “Mr. Wonka has especially designed these machines to work unlike any other. So hopefully it won’t hurt.” The Oompa-Loompa chuckled. This Oompa-Loompa better be telling the truth, Mike thought. He certainly didn’t want to die this way. While the Oompa-Loompas were making preparations for the machine, Mike thought of how illogical Wonka’s inventions were—something he did many times that day.

Why did Wonka have to shrink things with his machine in order to send them into the television? He said it’s because things always look smaller on TV, but that’s not always the case. You can show a closeup of an insect on TV, and that would be bigger than how it is in real life. Maybe it was just an error in the machine. It was never meant to shrink the chocolate, but there was a defect that made it do so. That’s it, Wonka just messed up, and he made up that whole “things always look smaller on television” excuse to cover up this mistake. Mike felt proud of himself for realizing that Wonka had actually made a mistake at something.

Finally, the Oompa-Loompas started up the taffy-puller, and Mike’s dad anxiously watched as the machine’s arms slowly started to stretch his son. Well, luckily for Mike, the Oompa-Loompas were right; it didn’t hurt, but it still felt very weird—as if he should have split in half at any moment, but never did. He didn’t know how this was scientifically possible, but after all he had seen that day, he learned to just not question things anymore. Mike reached his normal height again, but the little people were still running the machine.

“Uh, I think that’s good enough,” John said, but they let his son keep on stretching. “Stop! You’re making him too tall!”

“Stop it! Stop it!” Mike screamed at the pint-sized pygmies. Finally, they stopped the machine, and Mike was ten feet tall and as thin as paper. John froze in fear at the sight of what his son became. Mike stared at his thin hands, his lanky limbs, and his overstretched body. He crouched down on the floor and started crying—something he didn’t do very often, but he couldn’t hold it back this time. “Look what you did to me, you creeps!” he snarled at the workers, causing them to flinch back. “I’m a freak!”

One of them bravely approached Mike and said, “Calm down,” and he started to chuckle.

“You think this is funny? I’m gonna be like this for the rest of my life!”

“No, you won’t be. If everything goes according to plan, you’ll be back to your normal height and dimensions in a few days. You see, whenever you stretch something, it’ll always shrink back down a little over time. So in order to get you back to your normal height, we had to overstretch you. Does that make sense?”

Mike wiped his tears off, but he still had a shakiness to his voice, “Not really, but if it means I’ll go back to being normal, that’s all I care about.”

“You should be completely like the way you were before. That’s why we took so long to start the machine; we were measuring your height to make sure we stretched you out proportionally.”

Mike’s father sighed in relief. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“You better be right about me turning back to normal,” Mike said, “or else you’ll regret it!”

“Mike!” his father scolded. “This man just helped you from being the size of a bug, and you threaten him? Come on, you apologize right now!”

“Sorry,” Mike grumbled as he folded his arms.

“Well, I hope you learned a valuable lesson,” The Oompa-Loompa started to preach, “because living life with the people you love is infinitely better than sitting home all day in front of the TV.”

“Uh-huh,” Mike said, blocking out the Oompa-Loompa’s speech from his mind.

“Well, I guess we should be heading out now, don’t ya think, Mike?” John said.

“Yeah,” his son replied.

The Oompa-Loompa led them into the elevator to bring them back to the Chocolate Room.

Chapter Text

Mike and his dad exited the Great Glass Elevator and walked through the Chocolate Room to where the tiny door at the other end was. They got back to the Entrance Hallway, and John picked up his son’s coat, which was obviously too small for him to wear now. They exited the factory to see the huge crowd that was still there from when they entered the factory earlier that day.

Mike felt his whole face turn red. All these people watching, taking pictures to put in the newspaper—he knew he would become a laughingstock. He felt a little better when he saw the other kids who left before him, who were being bombarded with interviewers and people of the press. The fat boy, Augustus Glüp, was now covered completely in chocolate. Violet Beauregarde was back to her normal shape and size; however, she seemed extremely flexible and was entirely blue. Veruca Salt and her father were covered in garbage and had a putrid odor that kept everyone at least five feet away from them. But now, the people were coming for Mike, too. They asked him more questions than he could ever answer at once:

“What happened to you?”

“Why are you so tall?”

“Do you plan on having a career in basketball?”

“Is Mr. Willy Wonka truly an evil man like the others have said?”

“What was the inside of the factory like?”

“Who works there?”

“Are they slaves?”

“Do you regret ever winning a Golden Ticket?”

“What do you have to say about what happened to the other kids?”

He decided that he would ignore all of them to make things easier on himself. But that still didn’t stop people from taking plenty of photos of him. Even if he did go back to normal before he went back to school, everyone there would still know all about it from all the pictures taken.

A deliveryman pulled the Teavees off to the side to ask them something, “Okay, I got your first delivery of your lifetime supply of chocolate in the truck over there. Could you please write down your address information so we could send it to you as soon as possible?” He gave a clipboard and pencil to Mike’s dad.

“This is completely free, correct?” he asked.

“Yep. It’s all part of the prize for winning a Golden Ticket.”

Mr. Teavee looked toward Mike, who he knew wouldn’t want the lifetime supply, but he shrugged and took the pencil to write down his information anyway.

“Thank you, sir. Your first delivery of chocolate should arrive at your house in a couple days,” the deliveryman said. “We’ll be sending you additional deliveries every month.”

The deliveryman walked away, probably to meet with the other families, and Mike questioned his dad's decision, “Why did you sign up for that stuff? You know I hate chocolate.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t just for you,” John said. “I like chocolate, and so does your mom and your sister. Besides, it’s free, so what’s there to lose?” Mike didn't really respond; he just uttered a series of mumbles and grumbles.

Mike Teavee and his dad were guided through the huge crowds of people filling the streets of Gumpshire by a security guard back to the hotel they were staying at. Later that night, they started to pack up all their things, as they were going back home in the morning.

Once Mike had finally arrived back in Denver, Colorado, his mother and sister were very surprised by his appearance. He calmed them down by explaining everything that had happened, and that he’d eventually go back to normal.

Mike skipped the rest of the week from school after begging his parents, much to his pleasure, because he knew if he showed up to school as a paper-thin giant, he would never hear the end of it. His parents allowed him to stay home until he reverted back to his normal shape, and like the Oompa-Loompas said, he did so after five days. He went back to school the next Monday the same as he ever was; however, he was still bombarded by other students asking questions about what had happened within the factory. Eventually, after about a week, the chocolate factory hype had finally died out, and it seemed like his life would go back to being completely normal again.

Chapter Text

The day was June 8, 2005. Mike had just turned twelve years old the day before. It was the last full week of the school year, as he got off for summer vacation the following Monday. However, his father had to get to his classroom earlier than usual that day, so Mike's sister, Miranda, was responsible for waking her brother up.

Miranda walked up to a door with a sheet of paper taped to the front with a skull and crossbones drawn on it and "MIKE'S ROOM" written above. She opened the door and had to step over video game boxes, wires, socks, underwear, and pants left lying on the floor to reach her brother's bed. Sleeping in the bed was a boy who was slightly snoring, enveloped in a bed cover with a black-and-red plaid pattern.

"Mike," Miranda said. "Mike, wake up!" She repeatedly nudged her brother until he lifted his head from the pillow and groaned. "Come on, you have to get ready yourself; Dad left early. And why does your room smell so bad?"

"What are you talking about?" Mike said as he got up from his bed.

"Never mind, just go take a shower now so you're not late."

After Mike took a shower, he got dressed in a slightly-wrinkled, red T-shirt and a pair of jeans he had been wearing for a week straight. But that didn't matter much to him now that he was in a hurry. He combed his hair and gelled up the front part of it like he always did. His sister had left earlier than him since she had to walk to school, but after Mike hastily finished his bowl of cereal for breakfast, he got on his bike to make his way to school as well.

Mike rushed into his first period class as quickly as he could, but he still ended up being about ten minutes late. "Michael Teavee, you're tardy," his math teacher, Mr. Jones, said.

"I know," Mike responded.

"You do realize punctuality accounts for fifty percent of your participation grade. Do you plan on ending your sixth-grade year with a bad participation grade?"

"I didn't plan on it; it just happened that way."

"You'd think with a teacher as your father, you would be a little more punctual," Mr. Jones grumbled as he started grading homework. "Take a seat, Mr. Teavee," he said, not taking his eyes off from the papers.

As Mike was doing his classwork, he looked across the room and saw someone eerily familiar sitting in one of the seats; however, it was someone he had never seen in that class before, or even his entire school. Yet he still remembered them from somewhere before. It was a girl with a blonde bob cut, green eyes, and a blue track suit. That's when he realized it was Violet Beauregarde from the factory tour a few months ago! It seemed that the effects from the Three Course Meal Chewing Gum had worn off since that day, as her skin and hair colors were back to their original appearance. Mike now felt awkward about making a scene in front of the class, because Violet had to have noticed him then, and he had hoped he would never see any of those other kids that went with him to the factory ever again. Mike continued to stare at her until she lifted her head up and stared directly at him. He looked back down at his paper so they wouldn't make eye contact. Mike tried not to look up from his paper until the class ended. Perhaps she didn't notice me? he thought. Or at least didn't recognize who I was? He made sure not to speak or make himself noticeable in any way.

After first period, Mike went through three more periods without seeing Violet, thankfully, and he went to sit with his friends at lunch as usual. He only had two friends, but that's all he needed, really. One of his friends was someone he knew from all the way back in kindergarten, Jack, and they had been close friends ever since. Mike and Jack had a lot of similar interests, but they had slightly differing personalities. Jack was a little more extroverted and laid-back than Mike, and he wasn’t as highly intelligent as him, but he didn't mind. His other friend was someone he only met at the beginning of this school year, Rachel. When she was new to the school, she made an effort to become friends with everyone, but she eventually just stuck to hanging out with Mike and Jack. She was a little like a tomboy and enjoyed playing video games like her two friends.

While the three friends were talking with each other, Mike felt a sudden tap on his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw Violet staring back at him. "Hey, remember me, Mike Teavee?" she said.

"Y-yeah, of course I do. But you were a little bluer the last time I saw you," Mike said.

"And you were a little taller the last time I saw you." Violet smirked.

"Yeah," Mike said as he chuckled awkwardly.

"Well, do you mind if I sit with you guys?" Violet asked.

Mike looked at his friends, who both stared back at him and shrugged. "Uh, yeah, I guess so," he answered.

"Great." Violet sat herself right next to Mike at the table. She looked at Mike's friends and introduced herself with a massive, cheery, almost fake-looking grin, "Hi! I'm Violet."

Rachel asked, "So, are you an old friend of Mike's or something?"

"No, not exactly. I met him a few months ago at—"

Jack interrupted, "Oh, I think I remember you, aren't you that girl that went into Wonka's factory with Mike?"

"Yeah, that's me. Violet Beauregarde, Junior World Champion Gum Chewer."

"So, are you still chewing that same piece of gum?" Jack asked.

Violet groaned, "No. My stupid mom made me throw it out. She even banned me from gum altogether. But that didn't stop me. I have my own secret stash." Violet pulled out a pack of gum from her pocket.

"Didn't you turn blue or something like that?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah. A giant blueberry of all things. But after a few days, my skin and hair went back to normal."

"Okay, I have to ask, why are you suddenly going to school here in Denver? Didn't you used to live in the South?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, Atlanta, Georgia. But me and my mom are always moving around, since she's always looking for different jobs all across the country. I actually used to live in California before we moved to Atlanta."

"But why didn't you just wait another week for school to end before moving?" Mike said.

"I don't know! My mom's crazy like that. Kinda sucks I don't get to see my friends anymore. Anyways, what's with you? You still enjoying those video games, or have your parents banned you from the TV or something?"

"No," Mike answered.

"Lucky. Your parents treat you better than mine do. Especially my mom. She can get extremely frustrating!"

Mike noticed his friends staring blankly back at him and assumed they were getting bored, so he told Violet, "Ooookay. Well, I don't think we should get into family issues right now."

"Yeah, never mind." Violet started to get up from the table. "Well, it was good seeing you, Mike."

"Yeah, good seeing you, too." Mike put on an artificial smile as he waved goodbye toward the gum-chewing champ. Once she was out of hearing range, Mike discussed with his friends, "Something's going on with her. She was never this friendly the day I first met her."

Rachel said, "People change over time. Maybe she learned her lesson from turning into a blueberry."

"I don't think so," Mike said.

"I think she's just trying to be nice. I don't know why you always think people are hiding something."

"Because if you knew her like I do, then you would, too." Suddenly, the bell for fifth period rang, and the three friends went their separate ways to get to their classes.

Finally, after two more hours of boring classes, this crazy school day was done for Mike. He grabbed his bike off from the bike rack and rode back home. Once he got to his house, he left his bike out front on the driveway like he always did.

His mother was folding laundry in the living room, and she greeted him as usual when he came inside, “Hi, angel, how was school today?”

“All right,” Mike said as he dropped his backpack by the door and took off his Chuck Taylor shoes.

“Yeah? Do you have a lot of homework tonight?” his mom asked.

“No. It’s the last week of school; we barely get any homework.”

“Not even math?”

“I finished it.” Thinking about his math class reminded him of his rather unlikely reunion. “Although you’ll never guess who goes to my school now.”

“Who?”

“Do you remember that girl who won a Golden Ticket and bragged about all her trophies? Who had that mother that looked like a bigger version of herself?”

“Oh. Her?” His mother, Lorraine, sounded like she didn’t fully remember who she was, but she still sounded confused as to why that girl ended up at her son’s school.

“Yeah. Violet… Bowregal. Or something like that. She said she moved here because her mom found a job here.”

“But on the last week of school? Why not just wait?”

“That’s what I said! But she just said her mom was crazy.” The twelve-year-old boy sat down in front of the television set as he finished up his chat with his mom. He started playing his usual video games, blocking out everything else around him.

The front door opened a little while after, and Mike’s sister, Miranda, walked in. Her mother greeted her in a similar fashion to Mike, “Hi, sweetie. How was school?”

“Ugh, not so great,” Miranda said.

“How come?” Mrs. Teavee asked.

“Well, it mostly has to with Jennifer. I don’t want to get into it right now.”

“Okay, okay. That’s fine.”

“Not only that, but I got a B on my chemistry test. I can’t believe it. After all that studying I went through. I feel dirty.”

Mike scoffed, “Really, a B? That’s all you’re worried about?”

“Well, easy for you to say. I’ve never seen you study, and yet you always come out with A’s,” Miranda said.

Lorraine said, “That’s fine, sweetie. One B on a test isn’t going to hurt you. You really shouldn’t stress out that much about school.”

“Yeah, well, easier said than done.” Miranda walked over to her brother, who was still sitting on the carpet in front of the TV. “So, you excited that you’re almost done with school, Mike?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said as he continued shooting people in his game.

Miranda sat down next to him and asked, “Are you just gonna sit in front of the TV all summer?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh, no, you’re not,” their mother said. “You have to do something productive during the summer. And if you can’t think of anything, you’ll just go to a summer camp.”

Mike groaned, “I don’t wanna go to a summer camp.”

“Well then, you better think of something else. Anyways, I don’t see what’s so bad about summer camp.”

“I dunno, maybe the fact that you have to waste precious days of summer doing stupid activities with a bunch of kids you barely know.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad,” Mrs. Teavee said.

Chapter Text

“Mike! Miranda! Dinner’s ready!” Mrs. Teavee called as she set the meatloaf onto the dinner table. Mike and his sister got out of their rooms and took up two of the seats at the table. Their parents soon followed.

“Well, how was everyone’s day?” John said.

“I got a B on my chemistry test,” Miranda muttered.

“You’re still going on about that? Drop it already,” her irritated brother said.

“Mike, don’t be like that,” his mother scorned. “This is something your sister obviously takes seriously. Even though you really shouldn’t worry that much about it, dear.”

John patted Miranda’s back. “Yeah, a B once in a while isn’t bad. Just try to do better next time.” He looked at Mike. “So what’s going on with you? Your mother told me that you met up with that Violet girl again.”

“Yeah, that was really awkward,” Mike said, sinking his fork into his mashed potatoes.

“How come?” his mom asked.

“I dunno, it’s just that—"

“You know, you should ask her to come over here sometime. Get to know her better,” Mr. Teavee said.

Mike jumped up in his seat. “Are you crazy? Do you even remember who she was?”

“Calm down, Mike, of course I remember her. She was the one with the blonde hair and the blue track suit.”

“Yeah. But is that all you remember about her? You don’t remember the annoying, incessant gum chewing? Her bragging about all her trophies and awards? How she thinks she’s better than everyone else at everything?”

“Now that you mention it...” his dad pondered, “no. Actually, I don’t. But even if she did act like that, I think you should give her another chance.”

“Why is everyone telling me that?”

“Because,” his father continued, “you need to learn to be more social with people.”

“Again with being social.” Mike prepared to tune out of the same speech he’d heard from his parents time and time again. He continuously poked at his meatloaf with his fork as he wandered in his own thoughts and his dad went on his soapbox.

“…Were you listening to me, Mike?” His father scowled.

“Yeah.”

John looked at his son’s plate. “You’ve barely eaten any of your food.”

“I guess I’m just not hungry,” Mike said as he pushed his chair away from the table and got up to go back to his room.

“You know I don’t like you wasting food like that. Not to mention that you really should be eating more as a growing boy,” Mr. Teavee said.

Mike ignored him and shut himself in his room. But as the evening passed, he couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty about his behavior toward his father.

On the following day, once the final bell rang and a sea of preteens emerged from the classroom doors into the school hallways, Mike found Violet and reluctantly approached her. “Hey, Violet,” he said.

“Oh, hi, Mike.” She smiled.

“I heard from some people that you moved into a house on the same street as mine.”

“You live on Oak Street, too?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, wow! Looks like we’re even closer than we thought.”

“Yeah,” Mike let out a forced chuckle to try to make things a bit more casual, but he could tell it didn’t help. “Anyways, since we live so close to each other, do you think we could walk home together?” He felt uncomfortable just hearing those words leave his mouth, because he knew unintentional ideas could be implied from that question.

“Yeah. Of course. That’s okay with me.”

“Great.” As the two of them were walking, they reached the bicycle rack, and Mike unlocked his bike from it to carry it along with him.

“You know, Mike, you’re a lot nicer now than when I first met you on the day of the chocolate factory tour,” Violet said.

“What, did I act like a jerk or something?”

“No, no, not really. It’s just that you seemed like you didn’t want to talk to anyone. Like you didn’t want to be there at all.”

“Well, as amazing as the factory was, I didn’t want to be there at all. I don’t even like chocolate. And I guess I was kind of a jerk to Willy Wonka. But to be fair, he deserved it.”

“Yeah. That guy was weird.”

“Right? With his hair, and his voice, and that crazy puppet show that caught on fire,” Mike said. It was so satisfying to finally vent out all his bottled-up rants to someone who understood.

“That had to be the weirdest day of my life,” Violet said.

“It’s funny you should say I wasn’t nice, because you weren’t exactly an angel that day yourself,” Mike said snidely.

Violet said, “I know. Sometimes I think I can get way too obsessive about winning.” Mike was surprised by her honest response. “Especially when it came to competing against my best friend back in Georgia, Cornelia Prinzmetal. Lately I’ve been trying to break that behavior. It’s mostly my mom, though. She’s the one who’s always pushing me to win more and more. But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea; I don’t hate her for it. I still love her, of course. She’s my mom. And it’s not like I don’t like the feeling of winning, ‘cause I do.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think that’s something you should be ashamed of; I think everyone loves the feeling of winning.”

“That’s true."

“Oh, I just remembered!” Mike said. “My dad wanted me to ask you if you wanted to come to my house sometime.”

“What is all this? First you walk home with me, now you want me to come to your house?” Violet said.

“Well, I don’t know. It’s just my dad. He wanted—"

Violet started giggling, “I’m just joking. We live so close, why not? I’ll just have to ask my mom. You’ve met her. You know how she can be.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. He and Violet were approaching the Teavee household, so Mike bid his newly formed friend farewell as he walked up the driveway, “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

“See ya!” Violet waved goodbye.

Chapter Text

The next day, Mike walked home with Violet again and walked past the high school where his dad worked and his sister attended. He noticed Miranda approaching the two of them. She was a girl with brown eyes and long, brown hair. She had glistening braces in her smile, and she was wearing a white, button-up, collared shirt and a plaid, turquoise skirt. Mike felt embarrassed to see her, because he knew the conversation that would ensue when his sister saw him walking with a girl.

“Hey, Mike.” Miranda gazed at Violet for a second or two. “Who’s this, your new girlfriend or something?” she asked jokingly, just as Mike predicted.

“No.” He could feel his face turning red instantly. “She’s just a friend.”

“Wait, are you the Violet that he’s been going on about?” Miranda asked.

“Oh, so you’ve been talking about me with your family, huh?” Violet joined Miranda in teasing Mike.

“No. Well, I mean, a little bit. Just because, you know, we’ve met before at the factory,” Mike said.

Both girls started giggling.

Violet told Mike, “Oh, so I asked my mom, and she said I could come to your place on Saturday.”

“Jeez, we only live a couple houses apart from each other; don’t know why you have to wait until Saturday.”

“Well, I have soccer practice today and karate after school tomorrow, so yeah, I have a pretty busy schedule.”

“All right,” Mike said.

“Okay, I know you probably get this question a lot,” Miranda said to Violet, “but how did it feel being a giant blueberry?”

“Yes, I do get that question a lot, and it was the weirdest and scariest feeling of my life, and I never want to feel it again,” Violet said as she stuck a fresh stick of gum in her mouth.

“But yet you still chew gum?” Mike asked.

“Well, yeah. This gum doesn’t turn me blue.”

“I know. I would just think the act of chewing gum would scar you for life or something.”

“What do you think I have, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?” Violet said.

“Yeah, actually. If it was supposedly the ‘scariest feeling of your life’ and all,” Mike said.

“I dunno. Must be in my competitive instincts to not crack under the pressure.”

“How did it feel to get juiced?” Mike asked.

“Um, I’d rather not talk about that.”

“Why not?”

“No, really, I don’t,” Violet said.

“Fine.”

As the Teavee siblings approached their house, Miranda said, “Nice meeting you, Violet.”

“You, too, um… I don’t think I ever got your name.”

“Miranda.”

“Okay, bye, Miranda. You, too, Mike.”

“Bye.” Mike waved goodbye.

“Are you sure she’s not your girlfriend?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Now please, just stop asking me that.”

Miranda opened the front door and said, “Okay, sorry. Didn’t know you couldn’t take a joke. Well, actually, I did know.”

“Hey, I can take jokes!” Mike said as he dropped his backpack down.

“Doesn’t seem like it!” Miranda laughed.

Chapter Text

The doorbell at the Teavees’ front door rang on Saturday afternoon. Mr. Teavee opened it and saw Violet in a purple tracksuit. Her mother was behind her, also wearing a purple tracksuit.

“Hello, ladies. Please, come in,” John said.

“Oh, no, I have to attend to my usual Saturday afternoon jog,” Mrs. Beauregarde replied. “I just came along to make sure you were home. But I’ll come back to pick her up later.” She kissed her daughter on the forehead. “Have fun, sweetie!” she said as she started her jog. Violet walked inside the house.

Mr. Teavee guided her down the entrance hallway. “I think Mike is playing one of his games in the living room,” he said. Sure enough, Violet saw the twelve-year-old boy sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of a big TV set, playing a first-person shooter and muttering to himself. “Ahem!” Mike’s dad said. “Mike, Violet’s here.”

“Oh, hey.” Mike waved from his position, then continued playing. Mr. Teavee walked back to his room to leave the kids alone. “You can sit wherever you like,” Mike said.

“So is this what we’re gonna do all day? Just watch you play games?”

“No, don’t worry; we can play something together, just hold on a moment.”

Violet looked around the living room. She saw multiple photos of Mike and his family. Some of them were of Mike when he was younger. She also saw a globe on top of a book shelf.  Oh, yeah. Didn’t he mention once that his dad was a geography teacher? she thought to herself. She also noticed a baseball helmet and bat on the floor. “Do you play baseball?” Violet asked.

“Not anymore,” Mike said. “I used to a few years ago. I wasn’t too great at it, though. I only played because my parents wanted me to. They said I needed to be more active like my sister, since she plays volleyball. But I never paid attention whenever I was in the outfield, so one time I got hit in the head with the ball.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, didn’t feel too nice. After that, they realized sports weren’t my thing. But hey, at least I never break any bones if I don’t play any sports.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But nothing can beat that feeling of pure victory,” Violet said.

“Well, I get that feeling, too,” Mike said. “Only I get it when I play video games.”

“Nah, it’s not the same.”

“You do what you like, and I’ll do what I like.”

“Hey, what does your room look like?” Violet asked.

“Oh, uh, I guess we could go in.” Mike turned off the TV and lead Violet to his door, with the taped-on paper sign with a skull and crossbones drawn on it.

“Really?” Violet said, noticing the piece of paper.

“I don’t know, I thought it would be cool.” Mike opened the door, and the two of them walked inside. Violet saw dirty clothes littered on the carpet of the room.

“You didn’t even clean your room a little bit?” Violet said.

“Yeah, kinda slipped my mind.”

“And it smells a little weird.”

“Okay, can you stop criticizing my room now? You asked to see it, so here it is.”

“I know. I’m just joking with you.” Violet looked around more and saw a TV set with stacks of video games beside it. There was a desk with scattered pieces of math homework and a T-Rex figurine on it. Violet looked behind the desk and picked up a small rocket that was hidden behind there. “What’s this?” she asked.

“Huh?” Mike looked over. “Oh, yeah. I built that rocket a few years ago and launched it with my dad in the middle of this field. It was pretty fun.”

“Wow, you actually built something, Mike Teavee? And here I thought you were incapable of being creative.”

“Well, maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought you did, then.”

“Oh, I just remembered something I wanted to show you!” Violet pulled out a pack of gum. On it were the printed words, “Three Course Meal Chewing Gum.” It had the Wonka brand name printed next to it.

“What? Really?” Mike said, looking at the small box.

“I guess Wonka finally got the recipe right. And look, I even picked the same flavors: tomato soup, roast beef with baked potato, and blueberry pie and ice cream!”

“Oh,” Mike said. “But you’re not gonna, like… actually try it, right?”

“Why not?” Violet said.

“Why not? Do you not remember turning into a ten-foot-tall blueberry?”

“Of course I remember. How could I forget that? But you have to consider that Wonka wouldn’t put these on the shelves unless they’re completely safe.”

“I don’t know, that guy seemed like he might have, just for fun,” Mike said.

“If that were the case, we would have already heard news of thousands of people across the country turning into blueberries.”

“I guess so.”

Violet playfully pushed Mike. “Come on, the little risk in it is what makes it all the more exciting, anyways!” she said.

“Okay…”

Violet offered a stick to Mike. “Do you want to try it?”

“I dunno,” Mike said.

“I’m serious, it literally feels like you’re eating a meal. It even fills you up!”

“You try it first.”

“Fine.” Violet shoved the stick of gum into her mouth and started to chew it. “Mmm, I can taste the tomato soup already! Wait… here comes the roast beef and baked potato!”

“Doesn’t roast beef-flavored gum taste disgusting?” Mike asked.

“Nuh-uh. You have to try it.” Violet’s jaws were smacking up and down as she was talking. “It just tastes like you’re actually eating roast beef! It tastes so real. It’s unbelievable until you try it yourself.”

“Okay, okay, I will.”

“Wait! I’m starting to taste blueberry!”

“Oh, no,” Mike’s face turned paler than normal. “Just make sure you run out of the house if you start to turn blue; I don’t want any holes in the roof.”

“Calm down; I’ll show you nothing will happen.” She continued chewing. There was nothing but silence and the sound of chewing for a full minute. “Is anything happening to my face?” Violet asked.

“No.”

“See? Told ya. You started freaking out over nothing!” Violet laughed. She spat out the gum and threw it in the trash bin beside Mike’s bed. “It loses its flavor pretty quick, though.” She then noticed a glimmer of gold from underneath the trash bin. “Wait a minute, what’s this?” She picked it up. “It’s your Golden Ticket! I’m surprised you still have yours.”

“What, you don’t?”

“No, no, no, of course I still have mine,” Violet said. “It’s actually framed and hanging on my wall above my bed.”

“Seems like something you would do,” Mike said.

“But I wouldn’t think you still kept yours.”

“Well, yeah. Why not? It’s gold!”

“Have you ever wondered what the other kids we met on the tour are doing right now?”

“Not really. I sort of forgot about that day once I turned back to normal. That is, until I saw you again,” Mike said.

“Well, I have their phone numbers.”

“Really? How?”

“By having the type of mom that I have. That’s how,” Violet said.

“Even that Charlie kid that won the factory?”

“No! Of course not him! I’d be surprised if that kid even had a phone. Just Veruca and that fat kid Augustus.”

“Why did you never ask for my phone number?” Mike said.

“You left before I had the chance to ask you. But I can get it now.”

“Sure.”

After Mike gave Violet his phone number, he turned on his TV, which happened to be on a news channel. There was a reporter next to a pale boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes. “Oh my God. It’s Charlie What’s-his-face,” Mike said.

“Who?” Violet turned around toward the screen.

“You know, the guy who won the factory. Wait, I want to hear what he has to say.”

“Hello there. Very nice to have you, Marianne,” Charlie said. They were standing in the courtyard outside the factory.

“So, what’s this that you’re holding in your hand?” Marianne, the reporter, asked.

“Oh, well, this is an Everlasting Gobstopper. It’s like a regular gobstopper, but this one will never go away or get any smaller! No matter how much you suck it!”

“Wow, that’s amazing! But how will you make any profit from it if everybody only needs one?” Marianne asked.

“Well, these gobstoppers won’t be sold at stores like your regular gobstoppers,” Charlie said. “These ones will go to some child in poverty who can’t afford to buy any candy, like I used to be, every time you donate to the Willy Wonka Foundation.”

“Can you believe Wonka?” Mike said. “He makes this amazing breakthrough of everlasting food and only applies it to candy. I don’t think starving kids need candy! They need other priorities before that, like, I don’t know, actual food?”

“Calm down, will you?” Violet said. “I’m thinking about something.”

“Oh, sorry I interrupted your ‘super-important thinking time’ that needs my complete silence.”

“No, seriously. I’m thinking—both of us aren’t very fond of Wonka, right?”

“Right…”

“And Veruca and Augustus probably don’t like him either, right?” Violet said.

“Probably.”

“Good, because I’m sure we could use their help with this plan I have.”

“Where are you going with this?” Mike said.

“Think about it. If someone were to steal Wonka’s secret recipe for the Everlasting Gobstopper, they would know the greatest of all his secrets, and they could run down his entire business!”

“So you’re saying we’ll steal the Everlasting Gobstopper recipe?”

“Exactly!” Violet said. “We could sell it to one of his competitors, say, Slugworth.”

“Slugworth? That guy makes the worst candy I’ve ever tasted.”

“I know, right? But that just means he’d be even more willing to buy it from us—since he’s so desperate to get back in business.”

Mike seemed a little uneasy. “I don’t know, though. I mean, don’t you think ruining Wonka’s entire business is too much? Couldn’t we just, I don’t know, spray-paint graffiti on his wall or tee-pee the Chocolate Room or something?”

“Come on, you’re so lame. It won’t ruin his entire business; only a little. To teach him a lesson to not mess with us, right?”

“I guess? But this isn’t just a playful prank; it’s industrial espionage,” Mike said.

“Here you go again with all your ‘fancy tech talk.’” Violet stood up and started to walk toward the door. “I probably shouldn’t have even told you about this. It’s a shame, too, because I need you more than anyone else.”

“Me? Why?”

“Well, you’re so good with computers, I’m sure hacking into Wonka’s security system to get all the information we need would be like a walk in the park for you.”

“Probably… all right, I’ll do it.” Mike couldn’t refuse a challenge to his computer skills.

“You will?” Violet perked up immediately.

“Sure.”

“Great! I’ll get ahold of Veruca and convince her to join us,” Violet said. “I’m holding you responsible to get Augustus to come with us. I’ll give you his number.”

Chapter Text

Mike looked down at the number written on the tiny piece of paper that Violet left him with. He hesitantly picked up the phone and dialed the number.

“Hallo?” said a woman on the other line. Mike guessed it must’ve been Augustus’s mother.

“Hi, this is Mike Teavee. Can I speak to Augustus, please?”

“Mike… Mike…” she muttered over the phone. “No, I don’t know anybody named Mike.”

“From the chocolate factory?”

“Oh, you are vone of Augustus’s friends from zhe factory?”

“Yeah.”

“Hold on.” Mike could hear faint talking over the phone. “Liebchen, jemand ist am Telefon für dich.”

“Danke, Mutter.” Augustus picked up the phone. “Hallo?”

“Hey, it’s me, Mike Teavee, from the chocolate factory. Remember?”

“Mike? Oh, yes, hello!”

“Okay, listen. How do you feel about getting revenge on Wonka?”

“Revenge? Vhat do you mean, revenge?”

“We’re gonna sneak into his factory, steal the secret recipe for the Everlasting Gobstopper, and sell it to one of his competitors.”

“Ooh, sneaky! But vont you get caught?” Augustus said.

“I’ll hack into the factory security systems to shut them down.”

“Oh, I see.”

“So, are you with us?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know. It seems razher mean to do zhis to Herr Vonka. He sends us free chocolate every monzh, so he can’t be zhat bad.”

“But he is that bad! He and his workers deserve it! Remember when you got sucked up the pipe? Wonka didn’t even care about your safety. He only cared about the chocolate. And then his little workers. What did they do? They sang a song about how fat you were instead of trying to help you.”

“Zhat is true… I’m not sure, zhough,” Augustus said.

“He did that to all of us. He let Violet turn into a giant blueberry, Veruca got attacked by squirrels and fell down a hole to where she could have possibly been burned alive, and I got shrunk and then stretched out to ten feet tall. All while his midget worshippers brutally insulted us in song form. Doesn’t that justify revenge?”

“Yeah, I guess it does. He vas pretty mean to let zhat happen to us, vasn't he?”

“Exactly,” Mike said. “So, what do you say?”

“Okay, I am in.”

“Great.”

“But now vhat do ve do?” Augustus asked.

“All four of us are gonna meet in Gumpshire, Massachusetts on the 20^th at around noon.”

“Vhere do ve meet in Gumpshire?”

“We’ll all meet at the airport, then we’re gonna stay at Veruca’s vacation home there,” Mike said.

“Veruca has a vacation home zhere?”

“She does now; her dad just bought it for her so we can do this mission. At least, according to Violet.”

“Zhat man vill do anyzhing for his daughter.”

“I know, right? Well, anyways, I gotta go now. You know, long distance calls and everything. So, you got the plan?”

“Ja. June 20^th, Gumpshire, at zhe airport. Now I vill talk to my parents to see if I can go.”

“All right, you do that. And be sure to not tell them what you're actually going to do there. Otherwise, they probably won't let you go. If anything happens, just call me, okay?”

“Okay. Bye now.”

“Bye.” That reminded Mike, he had to ask his own parents if he could even go. This was the one decision the entire scheme was riding on, since if Mike couldn’t go, they’d be nothing.

Mike opened the door to his parents’ bedroom and saw them lying in bed—his dad reading a book on the geography of Europe, and his mom sleeping next to him.

“Oh, hey, Mike. Is there something you need?” his dad said, looking up from his book. His mom woke up and raised herself up a little bit in bed.

“Um, well, I know you wanted me to go out and do more things this summer,” Mike said.

“Yes,” his father answered.

“And I talked with Violet, and she’s taking a trip to Gumpshire in Massachusetts, and she wanted to know if I could come with her.”

“Oh, that’d be wonderful!” his mother said.

“Gumpshire… isn’t that where Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory is?” Mr. Teavee asked.

Great, Mike thought. I had to be honest, didn’t I? Hopefully he doesn’t suspect anything. “Yeah,” he said.

“She visiting family there or something?” John asked.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Oh. Do you know why she’s going there?”

“No. But does it really matter? You wanted me to get out more, and here’s my chance.”

“I know, I know. Just wanted to know why she was going there is all. How long is she gonna be staying there?”

“Five days.”

“Okay. And when are they leaving?” Mr. Teavee asked.

“June 20^th.”

John hesitated for a moment to think if he had anything planned on that date, then he responded with, “All right, that’s fine.”

“We can buy your plane ticket tomorrow,” Lorraine said, starting to doze off again.

“Great.” Mike made his way out of the room.

“Good night, son,” his father said.

“Night.” Mike closed the door behind him and walked back to his own bedroom with a big grin on his face, knowing that they actually had a chance at fulfilling their plan.

Chapter Text

“I’m gonna miss you, angel,” Lorraine said.

“I’m only gonna be gone for five days,” Mike responded.

“I know, but I’m still gonna miss you.” She kissed him on the forehead.

Miranda hugged her brother from behind, surprising him a bit. “Bye, Mikey. Hope you have fun.”

“Yeah, I will,” he said, squirming out of her arms.

“See ya, son!” Mr. Teavee waved as his son made his way toward the blue minivan parked in front of the house.

Mike turned around and waved back. “Bye!” He opened the car door and sat down inside. In the driver seat was Mrs. Beauregarde, wearing a bright pink tracksuit, gold hoop earrings, and a heavy amount of makeup. Next to her, in the passenger seat, was Violet, who was dressed nearly identically to her mother, except without the earrings and makeup.

“You ready, Mike?” Violet’s mom asked.

“For what?”

“For our trip, of course.”

“Oh, yeah,” Mike said.

“Alrighty! Well then, it’s off to the airport for us!”

Once the car started moving, Mike said to Violet’s mom, “Thank you for giving me a ride to the airport, Mrs. Beauregarde.”

“Oh, you don’t have to call me Mrs. Beauregarde; you can just call me Scarlett,” she said.

“Okay.”

“Hey, Mike, did Violet ever tell you how she got her name?” Scarlett asked.

“No,” Mike said.

“Well, it’s a pretty clever story. You know my name’s Scarlett, which is a shade of red, and Violet’s father is named Azure, which is a shade of blue. And when you mix together red and blue, you get violet, hence her name!”

“Oh, clever,” Mike said, although he thought it was kinda stupid more than anything.

“I know, right?” Scarlett said. She didn’t seem to sense the irony in Mike’s tone.

“Hey, Violet, where is your dad, anyways?” Mike asked.

“Oh, he got divorced from my mom a while ago.”

“Oh.”

Scarlett changed the subject. “So, Mike, Violet was telling me you like computers.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Mike said.

“Whatd’ya mean you ‘guess so’?”

“Well, I’m really good at computer programming, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah, okay. So then it would be pretty easy for you to hack into Wonka’s security system, huh?” Scarlett asked.

Mike was shocked to hear her say those words. His mouth gaped open like a trout. “Wait… you know what we’re gonna do?” he asked.

“Well, of course! Nobody goes to Gumpshire for an actual vacation! Besides, I’m all for taking down his business.” She started squeezing her daughter’s cheeks. “After what he did to you, he deserves to be reckoned with. I would’ve sued him right away, too, if you had stayed blue permanently. But the guy has enough money for at least twenty lawyers to defend his case, anyways; it wouldn't be worth it."

“Wait, taking down his business?” Mike said. “I thought we agreed we’d only be damaging his business, you know, partially.”

“Oh, well, only a slight exaggeration,” Scarlett said.

After a little while longer in the car, they reached the Denver International Airport, ready to start their journey to the East Coast. On the plane to Gumpshire, it started to hit Mike that they were actually going through with this crazy plan. This stupid plan he and Violet had thought up a week ago on a whim. It was now actually being put into action. Was he really going to do this? Did he have the courage to do this? Even if he didn’t, there was no way he was backing out of it now. It was a lot of pressure for a twelve-year-old boy on summer vacation to be dealing with.

Chapter Text

Gumpshire was a unique American town in that, even though they still used American currency and the United States Postal Service, and people still drove on the right side of the street, it very much seemed like a town one would find in England, even down to the fact that most people there spoke with an English accent.

It was a relatively unknown town to the rest of the world. The only thing it was known for was the Smilex Toothpaste Factory, which isn’t saying much. That is until Willy Wonka opened his first candy shop on Cherry Street in Gumpshire. His chocolates and sweets were so delicious and amazing that they caught the attention of the entire planet.

He soon started to open more shops in all the major cities of the world—New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo—but even that wasn’t enough. People wanted to buy Wonka bars off of any convenience store’s shelves from anywhere around the globe. In order for that to be done, Wonka had to build a proper chocolate factory. And he did so. The largest and most amazing chocolate factory ever to be built. Wonka was the man who put Gumpshire on the map.

He was so successful that he even inspired other candymakers to start up their own chocolate empires nearby—Freddy Fickelgruber, Petey Prodnose, and Sammy Slugworth—but of course, none of them could ever compare to Mr. Wonka, so they started sending in spies disguised as Wonka’s employees to steal his secret recipes for themselves. This angered Mr. Wonka so much that he fired all of his workers and closed his factory.

Since then, Gumpshire faded into obscurity again. Even when Willy Wonka’s factory started running again and he continued making candy, his sweets regained their popularity, but not his hometown. The Wonka contest brought short-lived fame back to Gumpshire, but it didn’t last long after the contest ended.

Chapter Text

Once Scarlett, Violet, and Mike landed in the Gumpshire airport, they headed straight to baggage claim, where they met a familiar face.

“Violet!” A British preteen girl wearing a mink coat screamed with joy.

“Veruca!” Violet screamed back as she ran toward her. The two girls instantly hugged each other. When did these two become best friends? Mike questioned in his head. Even I could tell there was some tension between them on the day of the tour. I don’t know, girls are weird sometimes. Actually, most of the time.

“Hello, Mike,” Veruca greeted.

“Hi,” Mike said.

“Nice to see you again, Mike,” Veruca’s father said as he shook hands with him. “Lovely Miss Violet, and lovely Mrs. Beauregarde.” He shook hands with both of them respectively. “As you know, I am Rupert, Veruca’s father, and this is my wife, Angina.” She was a slender woman with blonde hair, a pearl necklace, and a bright red dress. She looked as if she were attending a Hollywood gala in the 1940s. “Now, where are the other girls?” Rupert said, looking around. “Ah, here they come.”

Two girls—one a teenager with straight, blonde hair and the other a young adult with wavy, brown hair—joined the group. “Hello, you must be Mike and Violet, right?” the older one said.

“Yup,” Mike answered.

“I’m Veruca’s oldest sister, Tinea,” the girl with the brown hair said.

“And I’m her other older sister, Papiloma,” the blonde girl said.

“Well, I’m still waiting for two more bags,” Veruca said, “but after that, we can get going.” Mike noticed that Veruca already had three suitcases next to her. And he knew they were hers, because they were pink with white polka dots and pink, fluffy trimming.

“How many bags did you bring?” Mike asked.

“Just five.”

“Just five?”

“Yeah. How many did you bring?”

“One,” Mike said. “Why would anyone need more than two at most?”

“Well, I want a lot of options for what I can wear each day,” Veruca said.

Scarlett interrupted their discussion, “Hey, isn’t that that August kid?” There was a round boy wearing a striped shirt wandering aimlessly around the airport.

“Yeah, that’s him, all right,” Violet said. “I’ll go get him.”

Violet came back with the German boy in tow. “Hello, everybody!” he greeted.

“Hello, Augustus. So nice to meet you,” Mrs. Salt said. The other greetings soon followed.

The group waited around the luggage carousel until everyone had their bags. “Very well, everybody ready?” Mr. Salt asked. “Good. Follow me, we have arranged transportation.” Once they stepped out of the airport, their eyes were met with a white limousine parked right in front of them.

“That’s our ride?” Mike asked excitedly.

“Yes. It’s elegant, isn’t it?” Mr. Salt said.

“Yeah,” Mike replied in awe. Everyone save for the Salts were impressed by this feat. A chauffeur got out from the car and opened up the doors for the guests. Everyone eventually got settled into the leather seats of the limo, and they were on their way to the Salts’ vacation home in Gumpshire.

Veruca talked with the other three kids privately in the back of the limo. “Everyone, make sure you don’t say anything about our actual intentions here; none of my family knows.”

“They don’t?” Violet asked.

“No. If they knew why we’re really here, I’d probably be grounded until I’m eighteen!”

“Well, not me,” Violet said. “My mom is all on board for doing this.”

“Still, don’t say anything about it. They’ve gotten a lot stricter since the day at the factory.”

They’re apparently stricter, yet they buy her a vacation home on a whim? is what Mike thought and was about to ask, but he ended up deciding against it. He went with, “So, what exactly do they think you wanted to come here for?”

“I told them I wanted to go on vacation somewhere remote for a change, since we normally always have vacations at all the popular places.”

The limo pulled up to what was a fairly sizeable house to Mike, considering he had lived in a one-story house all his life, but a puny one to Veruca, given that she lived in a mansion on a day-to-day basis. The chauffeur pulled out all the luggage from the trunk and brought them into the house. Everyone followed him inside.

Mr. Salt gave a quick tour of the house to everyone, showing them where all their rooms were. Mr. and Mrs. Salt in one room; Mrs. Beauregarde in her own room; and Tinea, Papiloma, and Veruca in another. “And here is Augustus, Violet, and Mike’s room,” he said.

“You mean we’re all sleeping in the same room?” Mike asked.

“I’m afraid so; we don’t have enough rooms for each of you.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun, Mike,” Violet said. “Just think of it as a slumber party every night for the next four nights!”

Chapter Text

Later that night, once everyone was in bed, the door to Mike, Violet, and Augustus’s room opened. “Hey, do you mind if I sleep in here?” It was Veruca, standing in the doorway, holding a pillow and blanket.

“Like this room wasn’t crowded enough,” Mike murmured.

“Well, I don’t want to sleep with my sisters; I’m always with them. I’d rather be with you guys.”

“Sure, Veruca, it’s fine,” Violet said.

“Thanks.”

Mike groaned, but Veruca laid out her blanket and pillow anyway. The four of them tried to get some sleep, but that task would have been easier if it weren’t for the constant rustling noises coming from Mike’s bed.

“Mike, is zhere somezhing wrong?” Augustus asked.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s nothing,” Mike said.

“No, it’s something, all right,” Violet said. She turned on the lamp on her nightstand, and everyone sat up in their beds. “What is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Are any of you guys nervous about tomorrow night?”

“Yes, I am,” Augustus answered.

“I suppose,” Veruca said.

“What are you worried about?” Violet asked Mike.

“Well, what if we get caught? What if we get trapped inside? What if something weird happens to one of us? Or all of us, like the last time we went there?”

“Yeah. Any of those things could happen,” Violet said. “But you have to take risks all the time in life, or else you’ll never get anything accomplished. That’s what my mom always tells me.”

“But what are we really trying to accomplish here? To ruin Wonka’s life?” Mike said. “I mean, that guy did let horrible things happen to us—things we’ll probably never mentally heal from, even if we physically healed from them a while ago. But does that really mean we should ruin his life? I mean, wasn’t it kinda our faults to some degree as to why those things happened to us?”

“So, what now, Mike?” Veruca said. “We all came here for nothing? My dad rented this house for nothing? You just want to go back home and live your life like we hadn’t even planned this to begin with?”

“Well, kinda, yeah.”

“That’s just being a coward, Mike,” Violet said. “We’ve already come this far; we have to finish the job. Augustus, what do you think?”

“I kind of agree vizh Mike, actually.”

“Really? Come on, you guys. We can’t be backing out of this now,” Violet said. “There’s nothing to worry about; all of us will be in this together. We’ll make sure we won’t fail. All right? We can do this.”

“Right,” Veruca said.                                                                         

“All right,” Augustus said reluctantly.

“But it’s not just failing that I’m worried about,” Mike whispered to himself.

Violet turned off the lamp, and everyone in the room eventually fell asleep for the night.

Chapter Text

The next day, Mrs. Beauregarde drove Mike to the factory using her rental car. Once they got there, Mike inspected the factory’s exterior to further develop their plan. The first thing to figure out was how they would actually get past the gates and into the factory. The front doors were more than likely locked, so that was already not a possibility. The loading docks stayed shut whenever a delivery was not taking place, so that was out of the question as well. There didn’t seem to be any clear way to get in, but then Mike spotted a small vent on the bottom of a wall in one of the corners. I guess that’s our way in right there, he thought. Looks a little tight, but it’s the only option we have.

At midnight that night, Mike, Violet, Veruca, and Augustus quietly crept out of their bedroom and met up with Scarlett in the living room. They quietly opened the front door, quietly closed it, and quietly got into the car.

Mrs. Beauregarde pulled up right next to the factory wall. “Good luck, kids! Violet, make sure to call me on my cell phone around ten minutes before you need to be picked up, ‘kay?”

“’Kay,” Violet responded as they got out of the car. One at a time, each kid got on top of the car, then climbed on top of the factory wall. It wasn’t exactly a stealthy way to get in, but it did the job fine.

The four kids all sat on top of the wall, their legs hanging off the side facing the courtyard. “All right,” Mike said, “now we have to jump down.” Violet jumped first, then Mike, then Veruca, then Augustus.

They walked over to the corner of the wall that had the small vent on it. Mike pulled out a screwdriver from his backpack and unscrewed the screws on the grating. He pulled the grate off and stared into the deep darkness that lied inside. “So, who’s going first?” he asked.

After a second or two of no responses, Violet stepped forward. “Fine, I’ll go first if the rest of you are too scared.”

“Here,” Mike pulled a flashlight out of his backpack and gave it to Violet. “You’re gonna need this.” The girl crouched down and crawled inside the vent. Mike followed, then Veruca behind him, then,

“Wait!” Augustus called out. “Help me, I’m schtuck!”

“Ugh, really?” Veruca muttered.

Violet looked back and saw that only half of Augustus’ body fit through the vent. “Augustus, I don’t know how you’re gonna fit in here, no offense.”

“Wait, maybe I can squeeze zhrough.” He started fidgeting back and forth in the hole.

“We’re gonna need some grease to get him through,” Mike said.

“Mike, don’t be so mean,” Veruca said.

“What? I’m just trying to help,” he whispered back.

“Wait! I zhink I got it!” Augustus shouted. The bottom half of his body popped through. ”Yes!”

“You okay to keep moving?” Violet asked.

“It’s a little tight, but I zhink I can manage.”

As the kids continued navigating through the vents, Violet asked, “Okay Mike, where do we have to go?”

“We just need to find any room so we can use the elevator to get to the main security room,” he explained.

“Hold on,” Augustus said, “I zhink I hear somezhing.”

“Yeah, I hear something, too,” Veruca said.

Mike heard the noise as well. “It sounds like people talking.”

“It’s coming from over here.” Violet guided the others through the vents. “Come on, follow me.” The group came to another grate. Mike squeezed next to Violet. “Ow, what are you doing, Mike?”

“I wanna see what room this is. Now, keep quiet.” Mike peered through the grating and saw two Oompa-Loompas sitting at a control panel, watching hundreds and hundreds of screens.

“I’m telling you; I saw people in the courtyard on one of these screens,” one said to the other.

“Well, then, where are these people?” the other said. “Did they just vanish? They couldn’t have possibly gotten inside; all the doors are shut.”

“I don’t know, but I saw them.”

“Well, the point is, they’re not there anymore. And they’re not in any of these other rooms.”

“Hey,” Mike whispered to the others, “this is the security room! This makes things so much easier. Now all we have to do is somehow get rid of these two.”

“All right, Mike, stand back,” Violet said. “I’ll take care of them.”

“Wait, what do you mean you’ll ‘take care of them’?”

“Trust me, I’m a black belt in karate.” Violet kicked the grate off, and the two Oompa-Loompas whipped their heads around toward her. She crawled out and kicked both of them down with one swing of her leg, knocking them out. “Well… that was easy.”

The three other kids climbed out of the vent, and Mike immediately dashed to the factory’s computer system and started to work furiously. Opening files, typing in codes, and many other things the rest of the group couldn’t even comprehend. “Okay,” he said, “I think that should do it.”

“Do what?” Veruca asked.

“The factory’s security system should be shut down.” All the screens showing different rooms of the factory started flickering off, one by one.

“For how long?” Augustus asked.

“Until someone disables the effects,” Mike said.

“How long vill zhat take?”

“Enough time for us to find the Everlasting Gobstopper’s recipe.”

“We should get going now, then,” Violet said.

Chapter Text

Mike pushed a glass button on the wall, which caused the elevator doors to open up. Everyone crammed into the Great Glass Elevator, and Mike scanned his eyes across the giant array of buttons that lead to every room in the factory:

• Entrance Hallway
• Chocolate Room
• Milk
• Sugar
• Flour
• Eggs
• Yeast
• Honey
• Butter
• Clotted Cream
• Coffee Cream
• Hair Cream
• Shaving Cream
• Sour Cream
• Whipped Cream
• Cream Cheese
• Blue Cheese
• Brie Cheese
• Cheddar Cheese
• Cottage Cheese
• Feta Cheese
• Gouda Cheese
• Limburger Cheese
• Monterey Jack Cheese
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Muenster Cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Provolone Cheese
• Swiss Cheese
• Black Beans
• Cocoa Beans
• Coffee Beans
• Garbanzo Beans
• Green Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Lentil Beans
• Lima Beans
• Pinto Beans
• Soy Beans
• Almonds
• Cashews
• Chestnuts
• Hazelnuts
• Macadamia Nuts
• Peanuts
• Pine Nuts
• Pistachios
• Walnuts
• Apples
• Apricots
• Artichokes
• Arugula
• Asparagus
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Beets
• Bell Peppers
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Boysenberries
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbages
• Cantaloupe
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cherries
• Chili Peppers
• Coconuts
• Corn
• Cranberries
• Cucumbers
• Eggplants
• Figs
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Grapes
• Grapefruit
• Guavas
• Honeydew
• Huckleberries
• Kale
• Kiwis
• Lemons
• Lettuce
• Limes
• Mangoes
• Mint
• Mushrooms
• Papayas
• Passionfruit
• Peaches
• Pears
• Peas
• Pineapples
• Pixa Plants
• Plums
• Pomegranates
• Potatoes
• Pumpkins
• Onions
• Oranges
• Radishes
• Raspberries
• Rice
• Rutabagas
• Snozzberries
• Spinach
• Squash
• Strawberries
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Turnips
• Vanilla
• Watermelons
• Wintergreens
• Zucchini
• Salt
• Herbs
• Spices
• Condiments
• Cows
• Pigs
• Chickens
• Turkeys
• Clams
• Cod
• Crabs
• Halibut
• Lobsters
• Mackerel
• Mussels
• Oysters
• Salmon
• Scallops
• Shrimp
• Trout
• Tuna
• Inventing Room
• Testing Room
• Juicing Room
• Main Corridor
• Chocolate Fudge
• Vanilla Fudge
• Strawberry Fudge
• Butterscotch Fudge
• Peppermint Fudge
• Peanut Fudge
• Pistachio Fudge
• Walnut Fudge
• Strawberry-Flavored Chocolate-Coated Fudge
• Chocolate-Flavored Strawberry-Coated Fudge
• Chocolate Ice Cream
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Strawberry Ice Cream
• Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Cookies ’n’ Creme Ice Cream
• Rocky Road Ice Cream
• Never Melting Chocolate Ice Cream
• Never Melting Vanilla Ice Cream
• Never Melting Strawberry Ice Cream
• Never Melting Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Never Melting Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Never Melting Cookies ’n’ Creme Ice Cream
• Never Melting Rocky Road Ice Cream
• Hot Chocolate Ice Cream
• Hot Vanilla Ice Cream
• Hot Strawberry Ice Cream
• Hot Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Hot Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Hot Cookies ’n’ Creme Ice Cream
• Hot Rocky Road Ice Cream
• Peanut Brittle
• Jelly Beans
• Candy Canes
• Peppermints
• Licorice
• Candy Corn
• Rock Candy
• Cotton Candy
• Cotton Candy Sheep
• Candy Apples
• Nerds
• Sweet Tarts
• Taffy
• Laffy Taffy
• Gobstoppers
• Everlasting Gobstoppers
• Pixy Stix
• Marshmallows
• Marshmallow Pillows
• Lickable Wallpaper
• Chocolate Milk
• Chocolate Milk Cows
• Chocolate Golden Eggs
• Golden Geese
• Soda Pop
• Fizzy Lifting Drinks
• Square Candies That Look Round
• Butterscotch & Buttergin
• Chocolate Birds
• Chewing Gum
• Everlinger Chewing Gum
• Three Course Meal Chewing Gum
• Candy Balloons
• Exploding Candy
• Exploding Candy Testing Room
• Lollipops
• Luminous Lollipops
• Luminous Butterflies
• Caramels
• Cavity Filling Caramels
• Toffee
• Hair Toffee
• Wriggle-Sweets
• Feathery Sweets
• Candy-Coated Pencils
• Rainbow Drops
• Sluggles
• Whipped Wingers
• Sour Puckerooms
• Squishy Sploshberries
• Boxes of Chocolates
• Sweethearts
• Chocolate Bunnies
• Chocolate Easter Eggs
• Easter Chickens
• Gingerbread Men
• Nut Sorting
• Squirrels
• Bean Sorting
• Fudge Mountain
• Television Room
• Television Studio
• Milk Chocolate Wonka Bars
• Dark Chocolate Wonka Bars
• White Chocolate Wonka Bars
• Dark Milk Chocolate Wonka Bars
• White Milk Chocolate Wonka Bars
• Milk Dark Chocolate Wonka Bars
• White Dark Chocolate Wonka Bars
• Milk White Chocolate Wonka Bars
• Dark White Chocolate Wonka Bars
• Double Chocolate Delight Wonka Bars
• Triple Chocolate Treat Wonka Bars
• Cookies ‘n’ Creme Wonka Bars
• Fluffy Marshmallow Creme Wonka Bars
• Graham Cracker Crunch Wonka Bars
• Rockin’ Sockin’ S’mores Wonka Bars
• Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight Wonka Bars
• Scrumdiddlyumptious Wonka Bars
• Triple Dazzle Caramel Wonka Bars
• Sea Salt Caramel Wonka Bars
• Chilly Chocolate Creme Wonka Bars
• Sweet Vanilla Creme Wonka Bars
• Honeycomb Sweetness Wonka Bars
• Maple Madness Wonka Bars
• Swirly Cinnamon Crunch Wonka Bars
• Blissful Butterscotch Wonka Bars
• Triple Toffee Swirl Wonka Bars
• Creamy Coffee Confection Wonka Bars
• Sea Salt Surprise Wonka Bars
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Crunch Wonka Bars
• Creamy Fudge Brownie Wonka Bars
• Marvelous Mint Wonka Bars
• Peppermint Creme Wonka Bars
• Gingerbread Wonder Wonka Bars
• Tiramisu Treat Wonka Bars
• Holy Cannoli Delight Wonka Bars
• Boston Cream Pie Wonka Bars
• Citrus Orange Delight Wonka Bars
• Lemon Creme Wonder Wonka Bars
• Tangy Limey Lime Wonka Bars
• Great Grapefruit Surprise Wonka Bars
• Sweet Sweet Strawberry Wonka Bars
• Blueberry Bliss Wonka Bars
• Razzmatazz Raspberry Wonka Bars
• Blue Raspberry Jam Wonka Bars
• Blackberry Surprise Wonka Bars
• Huckleberry Delight Wonka Bars
• Succulent Snozzberry Wonka Bars
• Delicious Apple Jam Wonka Bars
• Banana Creme Blast Wonka Bars
• Cheery Cherry Treat Wonka Bars
• Mad Mad Mango Wonka Bars
• Groovy Grape Goodness Wonka Bars
• Peachy Keen Peach Wonka Bars
• Cuckoo Coconut Wonka Bars
• Tropical Pineapple Punch Wonka Bars
• Piña Colada Wonka Bars
• Juicy Pear Delight Wonka Bars
• Amazing Apricot Wonka Bars
• Delightful Plum Pudding Wonka Bars
• Krazy Kiwi Blast Wonka Bars
• Juicy Watermelon Blast Wonka Bars
• Pumpkin Spice Pizazz Wonka Bars
• Fiery Jalapeño Spice Wonka Bars
• Nutty Crunch Surprise Wonka Bars
• Crunchy Peanut Confection Wonka Bars
• Creamy Peanut Butter Bliss Wonka Bars
• Pistachio Pudding Wonka Bars
• Double Walnut Crunch Wonka Bars
• Delicious Almond Delight Wonka Bars
• Macadamia Madness Wonka Bars
• Crazy Cashew Crunch Wonka Bars
• Hazelnut Heaven Wonka Bars
• Peanut Butter & Grape Jelly Wonka Bars
• Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jam Wonka Bars
• Dark Double Chocolate Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Triple Chocolate Treat Wonka Bars
• Dark Cookies ‘n’ Creme Wonka Bars
• Dark Fluffy Marshmallow Creme Wonka Bars
• Dark Graham Cracker Crunch Wonka Bars
• Dark Rockin’ Sockin’ S’mores Wonka Bars
• Dark Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Scrumdiddlyumptious Wonka Bars
• Dark Triple Dazzle Caramel Wonka Bars
• Dark Sea Salt Caramel Wonka Bars
• Dark Chilly Chocolate Creme Wonka Bars
• Dark Sweet Vanilla Creme Wonka Bars
• Dark Honeycomb Sweetness Wonka Bars
• Dark Maple Madness Wonka Bars
• Dark Swirly Cinnamon Crunch Wonka Bars
• Dark Blissful Butterscotch Wonka Bars
• Dark Triple Toffee Swirl Wonka Bars
• Dark Creamy Coffee Confection Wonka Bars
• Dark Sea Salt Surprise Wonka Bars
• Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie Crunch Wonka Bars
• Dark Creamy Fudge Brownie Wonka Bars
• Dark Marvelous Mint Wonka Bars
• Dark Peppermint Creme Wonka Bars
• Dark Gingerbread Wonder Wonka Bars
• Dark Tiramisu Treat Wonka Bars
• Dark Holy Cannoli Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Boston Cream Pie Wonka Bars
• Dark Citrus Orange Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Lemon Creme Wonder Wonka Bars
• Dark Tangy Limey Lime Wonka Bars
• Dark Great Grapefruit Surprise Wonka Bars
• Dark Sweet Sweet Strawberry Creme Wonka Bars
• Dark Blueberry Bliss Wonka Bars
• Dark Razzmatazz Raspberry Wonka Bars
• Dark Blue Raspberry Jam Wonka Bars
• Dark Blackberry Surprise Wonka Bars
• Dark Huckleberry Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Succulent Snozzberry Wonka Bars
• Dark Delicious Apple Jam Wonka Bars
• Dark Banana Creme Blast Wonka Bars
• Dark Cheery Cherry Treat Wonka Bars
• Dark Mad Mad Mango Wonka Bars
• Dark Groovy Grape Goodness Wonka Bars
• Dark Peachy Keen Peach Wonka Bars
• Dark Cuckoo Coconut Wonka Bars
• Dark Tropical Pineapple Punch Wonka Bars
• Dark Piña Colada Wonka Bars
• Dark Juicy Pear Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Amazing Apricot Wonka Bars
• Dark Delightful Plum Pudding Wonka Bars
• Dark Krazy Kiwi Blast Wonka Bars
• Dark Juicy Watermelon Blast Wonka Bars
• Dark Pumpkin Spice Pizazz Wonka Bars
• Dark Fiery Jalapeño Spice Wonka Bars
• Dark Nutty Crunch Surprise Wonka Bars
• Dark Crunchy Peanut Confection Wonka Bars
• Dark Creamy Peanut Butter Bliss Wonka Bars
• Dark Pistachio Pudding Wonka Bars
• Dark Double Walnut Crunch Wonka Bars
• Dark Delicious Almond Delight Wonka Bars
• Dark Macadamia Madness Wonka Bars
• Dark Crazy Cashew Crunch Wonka Bars
• Dark Hazelnut Heaven Wonka Bars
• Dark Peanut Butter & Grape Jelly Wonka Bars
• Dark Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Wonka Bars
• White Double Chocolate Delight Wonka Bars
• White Triple Chocolate Treat Wonka Bars
• White Cookies ‘n’ Creme Wonka Bars
• White Fluffy Marshmallow Creme Wonka Bars
• White Graham Cracker Crunch Wonka Bars
• White Rockin’ Sockin’ S’mores Wonka Bars
• White Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight Wonka Bars
• White Scrumdiddlyumptious Wonka Bars
• White Triple Dazzle Caramel Wonka Bars
• White Sea Salt Caramel Wonka Bars
• White Chilly Chocolate Creme Wonka Bars
• White Sweet Vanilla Creme Wonka Bars
• White Honeycomb Sweetness Wonka Bars
• White Maple Madness Wonka Bars
• White Swirly Cinnamon Crunch Wonka Bars
• White Blissful Butterscotch Wonka Bars
• White Triple Toffee Swirl Wonka Bars
• White Creamy Coffee Confection Wonka Bars
• White Sea Salt Surprise Wonka Bars
• White Chocolate Chip Cookie Crunch Wonka Bars
• White Creamy Fudge Brownie Wonka Bars
• White Marvelous Mint Wonka Bars
• White Peppermint Creme Wonka Bars
• White Gingerbread Wonder Wonka Bars
• White Tiramisu Treat Wonka Bars
• White Holy Cannoli Delight Wonka Bars
• White Boston Cream Pie Wonka Bars
• White Citrus Orange Delight Wonka Bars
• White Lemon Creme Wonder Wonka Bars
• White Tangy Limey Lime Wonka Bars
• White Great Grapefruit Surprise Wonka Bars
• White Sweet Sweet Strawberry Wonka Bars
• White Blueberry Bliss Wonka Bars
• White Razzmatazz Raspberry Wonka Bars
• White Blue Raspberry Jam Wonka Bars
• White Blackberry Surprise Wonka Bars
• White Huckleberry Delight Wonka Bars
• White Succulent Snozzberry Wonka Bars
• White Delicious Apple Jam Wonka Bars
• White Banana Creme Blast Wonka Bars
• White Cheery Cherry Treat Wonka Bars
• White Mad Mad Mango Wonka Bars
• White Groovy Grape Goodness Wonka Bars
• White Peachy Keen Peach Wonka Bars
• White Cuckoo Coconut Wonka Bars
• White Tropical Pineapple Punch Wonka Bars
• White Piña Colada Wonka Bars
• White Juicy Pear Delight Wonka Bars
• White Amazing Apricot Wonka Bars
• White Delightful Plum Pudding Wonka Bars
• White Krazy Kiwi Blast Wonka Bars
• White Juicy Watermelon Blast Wonka Bars
• White Pumpkin Spice Pizazz Wonka Bars
• White Fiery Jalapeño Spice Wonka Bars
• White Nutty Crunch Surprise Wonka Bars
• White Crunchy Peanut Confection Wonka Bars
• White Creamy Peanut Butter Bliss Wonka Bars
• White Pistachio Pudding Wonka Bars
• White Double Walnut Crunch Wonka Bars
• White Delicious Almond Delight Wonka Bars
• White Macadamia Madness Wonka Bars
• White Crazy Cashew Crunch Wonka Bars
• White Hazelnut Heaven Wonka Bars
• White Peanut Butter & Grape Jelly Wonka Bars
• White Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Wonka Bars
• Administration Offices
• Board Room
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 1
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 2
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 3
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 4
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 5
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 6
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 7
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 8
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 9
• Oompa-Loompa Village Complex 10
• Oompa-Loompa Marketplace
• Oompa-Loompa School
• Hospital
• Therapy Hall
• Bakery
• Butcher Shop
• Malt Shop
• Barber Shop
• Restaurant
• Projection Room
• Film Vault
• Music Conservatory
• Theatre
• Disco Club
• Spa
• Swimming Pool
• Ice Skating Rink
• Baseball Field
• Football Field
• Soccer Field
• Basketball Court
• Volleyball Court
• Tennis Court
• Bowling Alley
• Billiards Room
• Miniature Golf Course
• Gym
• Library
• Willy Wonka’s Private Quarters
• Willy Wonka’s Bedroom
• Willy Wonka’s Closet
• Willy Wonka’s Bathroom
• Willy Wonka’s Aquarium
• Willy Wonka’s Gourmet Kitchen
• Willy Wonka’s Office
• Garage
• Clothing Department
• Laundry Room
• Packaging Department
• Shipping & Receiving
• Storage
• Maintenance Floor
• Incinerator
• Control Room
• Top Secret
• Autopilot
• Up and Out
• Rocket Jets

He found the one he wanted—Everlasting Gobstoppers (he guessed they must’ve moved out of the Inventing Room and into their own room after their recipe was perfected) —and pressed it. Nothing happened. He pushed it again. Nothing happened again. He started mashing the button over and over again impatiently, but still no response from the elevator. He started to panic, “What’s going on? Why isn’t this thing working? Wait,” Mike stopped to think, “okay, this must be a side effect of my disablement of the factory’s security system. Hopefully it’ll only be temporary, but for now, it looks like we’ll have to get there by foot.”

“But we have no idea where to go,” Veruca said.

“Well then, I guess it’s back into the vent for us,” Mike said.

There was a collective groan from the rest of the group.

Chapter Text

After several minutes of aimlessly wandering around the vents, Violet finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, quite literally. “Hey, guys, there’s another grate up ahead! We must be coming up to another room.”

“Finally! I’m sick of these vents,” Veruca complained. “They’re cramped, icky, smelly…”

“I think that’s just because of Mike!” Violet teased.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Mike said sarcastically.

Violet burst into giggles.

“Will you shut up?" Mike said. "The whole factory is gonna know we’re here.”

“Well, they’re gonna know we’re here anyways, because I’m gonna bust outta here!” Violet said as she kicked open the grate and crawled out of the vent.

“What are you doing?” Mike whispered angrily. “You’re not even trying to be stealthy!”

Violet turned back to Mike, “It’s fine; no one’s in here. At least, it doesn’t look like anyone’s in here. The room’s completely empty.”

Mike, Veruca, and Augustus crawled out of the vent one by one and gazed into the room they were now standing in. Bright green grass covered a ground made of chocolate. A giant chocolate waterfall crashed down and flowed into a chocolate river. Lollipop trees, candy cane trees, candy apple trees, candy pumpkins, marshmallow mushrooms, all of which were scattered throughout the room.

“Whoa,” Mike said, “this place looks even more amazing than I remember…” The other three stared back at Mike, confused, as if they didn’t expect those words to leave his mouth. “I-I mean… Ew! I hate this factory!”

“Zhis place looks even more delicious zhan I remember!” Augustus said to himself. He dropped down to his knees and started ripping the candy grass out from the ground and shoving it into his mouth.

“I don’t remember that being there, though,” Veruca pointed to a small, lopsided cottage sitting on the bank of the chocolate river.

“Yeah, what do you suppose that’s for?” Violet asked.

The door of the cottage started to open, causing everyone to duck behind one of the candy bushes. An old man walked out from the doorway. An old man that looked very familiar to Mike and to everyone else as well.

“Hey…” Mike whispered, “hey, isn’t that Charlie’s grandpa?”

“You’re right; it is. What’s he doing here?” Veruca said.

“Charlie must’ve moved his whole house here in the factory and brought his family with him,” Mike inferred.

“So, where do we go now?” Violet asked.

Mike looked around the room and spotted the bright pink candy boat sitting against the bank, right next to the Buckets’ house. “We’re gonna have to get in that boat.”

“But how?” Augustus asked. “Zhat man vill spot us, und ve vill get caught.” Right after Augustus said that though, Charlie’s Grandpa sat himself on a rocking chair in front of the house and started to doze off.

“That’s how,” Mike said. “Now we just have to make sure we don’t wake him up. Come on, let’s go.” The four kids walked across the candy meadow and across the bridge that arched over the chocolate river.

Once they reached the snoring old man, they crept as quietly as they could to make sure he wouldn’t wake up; however, right then, Augustus’s stomach started to growl very loudly. So much so that the old man started to wake up! The four kids quickly ran behind the house so he wouldn’t see them. “I’ve got to stop dozing off like that,” the old man muttered as he walked back into the house and closed the door behind him.

“Did you have to be so loud?” Violet whispered to Augustus.

“Sorry. All zhis candy is making me especially hungry,” Augustus said.

They all climbed aboard the candy boat, with Violet and Mike taking control of one of the left oars, and Veruca and Augustus taking one of the right oars. They rowed the boat down the river, and once they started to approach the tunnel at the end of the Chocolate Room, Violet said to Augustus, “You never got to experience this, did you, Augustus?”

“No,” he responded.

“Well, just you wait! It’s pretty crazy!” As they rowed ahead into the tunnel, Violet said, “Get ready…” They rowed farther into the tunnel. “Any moment now…” They rowed farther. “What’s going on? Wasn’t there supposed to be a drop here?”

“I could have sworn we dropped down as soon as we entered the tunnel last time,” Veruca said.

“This must be an alternate track,” Mike said. “I noticed the last time we were here, before we dropped, there was an alternate tunnel that continued straight ahead. The track must be switched to follow this path rather than the one we went through last time.”

“Well, I wish we could at least see in here,” Veruca complained.

“I think I see some light up ahead,” Violet said. The boat entered a lit section of the tunnel with many labeled round doors on both sides of the river. In this area of the factory, the river was very tranquil with almost no current. It was more like a lake of chocolate than a river.

“Wait!” Mike said. “Let’s pull up to that door.”

“But that’s not the one we’re looking for,” Violet said.

“I know. But who said we couldn’t have a little fun while we’re here?” Mike climbed out of the boat immediately and pushed open the large, round door. The others hesitantly followed through the door, which was labeled “PROJECTION ROOM.”

Chapter Text

The room they entered looked like a large movie theater, with a massive projection screen on the wall opposite from the door, and rows and rows of red velvet seats facing the screen.

“No vone in here, eizher,” Augustus said as the four of them walked down the aisle of the theater.

“Where do you suppose everyone is?” Veruca asked.

“Well, I suppose everyone’s sleeping, duh,” Violet said. “It’s past midnight, after all. The only people who should’ve been awake right now are the two guys I already knocked out.”

“Yeah, but they’re not going to be knocked out forever,” Veruca said. “They could have already woken up for all we know.”

“So?” Mike said. “Even if they are awake, it’ll take them hours to get the security system back online.”

“Are you sure?” Veruca asked.

“Trust me, it will,” he replied. “Hey, what’s in here?” The boy ran across the theater to a round door in the far corner labeled “FILM VAULT.” Mike pushed the door open with ease and walked into the room, which contained countless stacks of film reels. “You know, for a film vault, this thing is really easy to get into,” he said.

The two girls ran after him, with Augustus behind them trying to keep pace. “Vait!” he said, breathing heavily. “I’m not very gut at running.”

Violet searched through some of the film reel containers. “The Wizard of Oz? Singin’ in the Rain? All of these movies are so old,” she said.

“Hey, look at this!” Mike said, holding up a film reel that was labeled “Employee Introductory Video- 1990.”

“We’ve gotta see this!” Mike said as he dashed toward the projecting booth.

“Mike, is this really necessary?” Violet said. “Shouldn’t we be looking for the Everlasting Gobstopper Room?”

“We’ll have time for all of that! Come on, I’ve gotta see how Wonka looked like in the ‘90s!” He placed the reel in the projector and started it up. “And anyways, we could maybe learn more about how the factory is laid out by watching this.”

“I guess so.” Violet already gave in by sitting in one of the theater’s velvet seats. Veruca and Augustus soon followed, and Mike hurried to sit down next to them. “I don’t think I’ve seen you get so excited about Wonka before,” Violet said.

“Yeah, well, I’m just curious is all,” Mike said.

The video began with a song that everyone immediately recognized,

“Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka,

The amazing chocolatier!

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka,

Everybody give a cheer!

He’s modest, clever, and so smart,

He barely can restrain it.

With so much generosity,

there is nowhere to contain it,

To contain it,

To contain, to contain, to contain!”

It was the same song that played during the puppet show on the day of the factory tour. Except, instead of high, obnoxious voices singing it, it was a quartet of men. The song played while the film showed the Wonka Candy Company logo and all the credits.

“Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka,

He’s the one that you would love to meet!

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka,

He’s the genius who just can’t be beat!

The magician and the chocolate whiz,

The best darn guy who ever lived,

Willy Wonka, here he is!”

On the screen was a man with pale skin, short brown hair, and violet eyes who wore a purple top hat and a purple velvet frock coat. “Hello, I’m Willy Wonka.” He still talked with a high, flutey voice.

“Well, there he is,” Veruca said, “and he actually had a decent haircut back then.”

“I’m the man behind this entire place—the largest chocolate factory in the world. This whole place started as just a figment of my imagination, and now look at it. It’s all a reality now. And by watching this video, perhaps you, too, can learn to have just as vibrant an imagination as mine. Now, this room we’re standing in now is called the Chocolate Room. It’s the heart of the entire factory.” He pointed toward the chocolate waterfall. “The waterfall is most important. Mixes the chocolate. Churns it up. Makes it light and frothy. By the way, no other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall. And you can take that to the bank.” Wonka walked by several men harvesting candy from all the candy plants in the Chocolate Room. Not Oompa-Loompas, but regular, full-sized humans. “Here in the factory, we call our workers ‘Wonkateers.’ Wonkateers are hard workers. They are punctual, they are tenacious, they are honest, and they are loyal.”

Mike snickered. “That’s what he thinks.”

The film showed one of the contraptions that transported the chocolate. It lowered one of its pipes into the river and started sucking up the chocolate. “Here,” Willy Wonka continued, “is where our chocolate-making adventure begins. Those pipes suck up the chocolate and carry it away, all over the factory. Thousands of gallons an hour. Let’s go see where those pipes go to, shall we? I think we should take the boat.”

A small steamboat pulled up to the riverbank to pick up Willy. It was blue with a white gunwale, and on the front, there was a blue flag with a white “W” on it. One man was at the front of the boat, taking hold of the steering wheel. There was a red boiler engine in the middle of the boat with a red smokestack rising out of it. It had a red paddlewheel at the back with a white rudder behind it, and there was a blue-and-white-striped canopy over the entire boat. Willy Wonka sat in one of the red seats on the boat as it started its way down the chocolate river. “Now, this boat may appear to be steam-powered, but it is actually running on candy power. How does a boat run on candy power, you ask? Well, a magician can’t reveal all of his secrets, now, can he? Otherwise, he wouldn’t be a magician anymore.”

The next scene in the video took place in an enormous, darkly light room that held hundreds of conveyor belts with a different kind of Wonka Bar being manufactured on each one. “This is the main production room of the factory, where all two hundred and one flavors of Wonka Bars are produced. There are three levels to this room – the first floor is where all the milk chocolate bars are made, the second floor makes the dark chocolate bars, and the third floor makes the white chocolate bars. And each one is made with the chocolate from the river we saw earlier. But I know what you’re thinking now, ‘How can you make dark and white chocolate from a milk chocolate river?’ I had a feeling you’d ask that. Well, let’s go find out.”

Willy Wonka walked over to a large machine where a pipe from the Chocolate Room dumped its chocolate into a funnel at the top of it. Three large pipes channeled out from the machine and branched out between the three floors. “This state-of-the-art machine actually converts milk chocolate into dark and white chocolate. It extracts much of the milk in the chocolate in order to make it dark, and it extracts the cocoa solids in the chocolate in order to make it white. Ha ha, isn’t that neat?”

The next part of the video took place in an aviary with little brown birds flittering between birdhouses and branches. Willy Wonka was holding one in his hand. “These are Chocolate Birds. They’re an invention of my own, of course, ha ha. These little birds used to be central to the chocolate-making process back when I only owned one store on Cherry Street. We used to use their eggs as the main source for the chocolate, but now we have to use a more conventional way of making the chocolate—with cocoa beans and all that—because it’s much more efficient and there’s just no time anymore to do it the way like we used to. We still use these birds, though. We sell the eggs as candy, and when the Chocolate Birds’ lives fade away, we sell them as candy as well. No, don’t look so distraught; even though these birds appear very lifelike, they aren’t actually alive. They’re candy first and foremost. We use my top secret formula I like to call the ‘Essence of Life’ to give them that lifelike quality, so it’s merely an illusion.”

“I always wondered what made those Square Candies’ eyes move around,” Mike said. “He must’ve used the same formula.”

“Their ‘lives’ last for only a few days. Just enough time for them to lay about a dozen eggs. And what’s this ‘Essence of Life’ made of, you ask?”

“Yeah, what is it?” Mike shouted at the screen.

“Well, like I said, that’s a secret.”

“Aw, come on!”

“Did you really think he was going to reveal one of his deepest secrets on an introductory video made for people who just got hired?” Violet said.

“I guess not, but that’s the one thing I want to know most of all,” Mike said. “How does he make inanimate objects composed of milk and sugar appear so lifelike? How does he make chocolate able to lay eggs?”

“I don’t know; why do you care?” Veruca asked.

“Uh, because you have no idea how much that could contribute to the field of science! Imagine what you could do with that stuff! The guy would have a Nobel Prize already if he hadn’t wasted his entire career on stupid candy!”

“Well, Mike,” Violet said, attempting to alleviate the situation, “I think we should get going; we don’t want to spend too much time watching this.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Mike turned off the projector and put the reel back in its container and back in the film vault. “You know, I really think we should steal Wonka’s ‘Essence of Life’ instead of the Everlasting Gobstopper’s recipe.”

“Well, it’s too late now; we’re already planning to look for the Gobstopper’s,” Violet said.

“I know, but I really think that stealing the ‘Essence of Life’ recipe would be much more worth it than the Gobstopper’s.”

“Okay, Mike,” Violet said, “do you have any idea where to go to find this ‘Essence of Life’? Do you really think he’s gonna have his biggest secret to the world in an easy-to-find place?”

“No,” Mike said.

“Exactly. We have a much better chance of finding the Gobstopper Room. And since we’re pressed for time, that’s what we’re gonna have to go for.”

“Fine. But maybe if we happen to come across it, we can take it with us as well?”

“Whatever, sure. But that’s not gonna happen,” Violet said.

The four kids exited the Projection Room and entered the boat to continue their search for the Everlasting Gobstopper Room, much to Mike’s chagrin.

Chapter Text

As they kept rowing through the cavernous factory, the four kids continued to spot doors leading to other rooms, such as “SPA,” “BASKETBALL COURT,” and “MINIATURE GOLF COURSE.”

“Oooh, a spa! Please! Let’s take a quick stop there! I think we all need to wind down and relax, right?” Veruca pleaded.

“Ja, und miniature golf sounds fun!” Augustus said.

“No. We already had enough detours,” Violet said. “We’re concentrating on finding the Gobstopper Room.” Veruca and Augustus sighed in disappointment. Violet continued, “Trust me, I’m tempted by that basketball court myself, but we’ve got a mission to do.”

“Eh, we already saw what I wanted to see, and since there’s no sign of a video game room, I’m good,” Mike said.

“We don’t really care, Mike,” Violet responded.

They passed by more rooms, with not a single one being an Everlasting Gobstopper Room, or any sort of candy-making room. “Guys, I don’t think we’re in the right spot,” Mike said. “All of these are recreational rooms.”

“Mike’s right,” Violet said. “Where did we go to get to the Inventing Room on the day of the tour?”

“Well,” Veruca recollected, “we went into the pitch-black cave, then the lights switched on, and we dropped down some chocolate rapids, and—"

“Yeah, that’s right!” Violet interrupted. “So, now how do we get down there?”

“Like I said before,” Mike explained, “there should be a switch somewhere that switches the track to lead downwards instead of straight ahead. If we can find that, we should be good to go.”

“Well, that switch could be located literally anywhere, so that doesn’t help much,” Violet said.

“Vait, I zhink I see a svitch over zhere.” Augustus pointed to a small control panel located at the very end of the tunnel.

“It’s worth a shot,” Violet said.

The boat pulled up to the platform next to the panel, and Mike got out to flip the switch. There were several switches, actually, and the first one Mike tried ended up turning off all the lights in that section of the factory. “Whoops, wrong one, heh heh!” After turning the lights back on, he tried another switch, which seemingly did nothing.

“Vhat did zhat do?” Augustus asked.

“It might’ve switched the track, but I’m not completely sure. Let’s go back and check,” Mike said, jumping back into the boat. They turned the boat around and started rowing back the way they came. "Owww, my arms hurt from all this rowing!" Mike complained.

“That’s because you’re actually using your muscles for more than just pressing a few buttons for once. This is nothing,” Violet said.

“Easy for you to say; you’ve been in, like, five hundred karate competitions!”

“Mike, don’t exaggerate. I’ve only been in ninety-two karate competitions.”

“Ow, actually, Mike’s right. My arms are really sore, too,” Veruca said.

“Ja, I’m quite out of breazh myself,” Augustus said.

“Ugh, you guys are all such wimps. Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll come across the Gobstopper Room soon enough,” Violet said.

The boat entered the darkest part of the tunnel once again. “So, where’s the drop?” Veruca asked.

“I don’t know, really. I’m not even sure if that switch switched the traaaaaaaaaaa—” Mike was cut off by a sudden drop in the complete darkness, and it didn’t take long for all of them to realize that they were traveling down the chocolate rapids backwards… and in the dark, no less! Everybody joined in a chorus of screams for the entire way down until they reached the bottom, which was lit up once again. Even after it was over, Mike continued freaking out, repeatedly uttering, “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” Mike was shaking in fear, his eyes bulging open. Once Violet saw this, she burst out in laughter. “What? I hate roller coasters, all right?” Mike said. “And anyways, I heard you scream in there, too, so don’t act like I was the only one who was scared.”

“I only screamed to make you feel better. Trust me, I can handle anything,” Violet said.

“I’m wizh Mike, zhough. Let’s never do zhat again,” Augustus pleaded.

“Oh great, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Mike said.

“Oh no, please not now, Mike,” Violet said.

“Don’t puke in zhe precious chocolate!” Augustus said.

“Well, it’s either in the chocolate or on you,” Mike said.

They rested from the rapids to let Mike’s sickness pass. After about a minute, Mike said, “Okay, I think I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Violet asked.

“Yeah.”

“All right, let’s keep going.” The boat rowed past the rooms that stored all the different creams and started toward another set of rapids—even crazier than the ones before.

“Now I really am gonna be sick!” Mike screamed as they rushed down the chocolate river.

“Well, at least we’re going forward and can see this time,” Violet said.

They finally reached the lowest part of the river, where the current was calm once again. “I’m starting to remember why I hate this factory,” Mike uttered, out of breath.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Violet said.

But Mike was clearly getting impatient. “Let’s just find that Gobstopper recipe and get out of here,” he said. They rowed past the Inventing Room and stopped the boat in front of a door that was located behind the Inventing Room and across a bridge from it. This door was labeled “MAIN CORRIDOR.”

“The Everlasting Gobstopper Room should be somewhere in here,” Violet said, pushing open the giant, round door.

Chapter Text

After walking past a slew of doors down the corridor, the four kids came across one room that was labeled “NERDS.”

“Hey, look, Mike, you’d fit right in in that room,” Violet teased.

“Very funny,” he said. He was used to Violet’s constant teasing now.

Violet then stopped in her tracks and asked, “Do you hear something?”

“Yeah, I do,” Veruca said.

“It seems like it’s coming from the Nerds Room,” Mike said.

“Let’s take a peek!” Violet said.

“Wait a minute!” Mike said. “Just back there, you were saying we weren’t gonna get distracted any more. Now you wanna see what’s behind this door?”

“Yeah. Come on, it won’t take long.” Violet pushed open the big, round door, and the kids walked inside the room.

In the center of the room was a giant glass tube. Inside the tube were two slides spiraling around each other, forming a double helix. Riding down the slides were tiny, gray creatures with two round eyes and two little legs. The creatures were the ones who had been making the chittering noises they had heard from outside the room. Each of the tiny creatures jumped into a specific pool of color. There were seven colored pools: a red one, a green one, a blue one, an orange one, a yellow one, a purple one, and a pink one. Then, the little creatures, now colored, walked into a specific compartment corresponding with their color. The creatures of a specific color were then dumped into one half of a box, with creatures of a different color dumped into the other half. There were four boxes of two colors each: pink and purple, red and yellow, red and green, and blue and orange.

“So, this is how they make Nerds, huh?” Mike said, guiltily in awe. “I always thought the characters on the box were just cartoon versions of the candy, but I guess they’re real.”

“Are you really surprised at this point?” Veruca asked.

“I guess not. He’s probably using that ‘essence’ stuff on these things, too, huh?” Mike looked inside one of the boxes and realized that once the Nerds were dumped into the box, their eyes immediately faded away and their legs fused into their bodies. “These things have a much shorter ‘lifespan’ than the Chocolate Birds, though,” he said.

“Hey, why do you suppose Nerds are even being made at this hour?” Veruca asked. Right then, the door at the back of the room started to open slowly.

“Hurry, let’s get out of here!” Violet said as she rushed out of the room, the others following. Once everyone was out, Violet quickly shut the door behind them. “Wow, that was really close!”

“It must’ve been an Oompa-Loompa working overtime,” Mike said.

Suddenly, the door swung back open again and the kids quickly hid behind the door. They saw that it was an Oompa-Loompa, and he seemed to be on the lookout for anyone roaming the halls at this hour. After not noticing anyone, however, he went back inside and closed the door behind him.

“Now, that was really close!” Mike said.

“Yeah, well, the point is—wait, where’s Augustus?” Violet said.

“I don’t know,” Veruca said. “I don’t think he even came into the room with us to begin with.”

“Where’s that idiot gone to? It’s not like we aren’t already pressed for time!” Violet shouted.

“Whatever, let’s just continue to look for the Everlasting Gobstopper Room and look for Augustus along the way,” Mike suggested.

As they rounded the corner of the spiraling corridor, they finally spotted the room they had been searching for: the Everlasting Gobstoppers Room.

“There it is! Right there!” Veruca yelled.

“It’s about time,” Mike said. “I only wish Augustus were here so we could just leave after stealing the recipe.”

They opened the door to a somewhat small room with a machine hanging over a water tank. The machine periodically shot gobstoppers into the tank every second. It was the same contraption they saw in the Inventing Room on the day of the tour.

“Okay, so where’s the recipe?” Veruca asked.

“Don’t ask me,” Violet said. “Mike, you thought up most of this plan. Where’s the recipe?”

“I… don’t know.” Mike looked around the room, but the machine seemed to be the only thing in there.

“You what?” Violet shouted. “You mean we came all this way, and you didn’t even know for sure that the recipe was in this room?”

“Well… yeah?”

Violet groaned. “Mike, I’m really starting to realize that you’re not as smart as you want people to think you are.”

“Why are you putting all the blame on me?” Mike yelled. “You’re the one who came up with this retarded plan in the first place! I didn’t even want to do it! You made me! Both of you made me! I don’t care about getting revenge on Wonka at this point. I’ve moved on. You wanted this way more than I ever did!”

Violet and Veruca simply stood there, staring at each other in silence.

Mike continued, “I can’t believe I basically let you trick me into doing your bidding for you. Maybe I am stupider than I thought.”

“Mike, are you crying?” Violet asked.

“No! I’m not!” Mike responded with a quivery voice, wiping his face with his sleeve. “But if the recipe isn’t here, then let’s just take one of the gobstoppers.”

“Sure, that’s good enough,” Veruca said, not wanting to rile up Mike any more.

Mike grabbed a long net that was hanging on one of the walls that resembled a pool net. He fished out an Everlasting Gobstopper from the tank with it and then put it back on the wall. Mike put the gobstopper in his backpack for safekeeping. The gobstopper was bright red, just like the one Wonka had shown them on the tour. “All right, let’s find Augustus and get outta here.”

Violet could tell by the look on Mike’s face that he certainly wasn’t happy to continue carrying out their mission. She had to do something to make sure that Mike didn’t walk out on them now because, truth be told, their plan would be nothing without him. “Hey, Mike,” Violet said softly as they walked out of the room, “I’m sorry. About pressuring you to do this. I know it wasn’t right, and the way I’ve been treating you isn’t right, either. I guess I’ve been giving you a hard time because, well, I admire your intellect, and I guess I was kinda jealous. But we’re never gonna get out of here if we’re constantly working against each other, so let’s just work with each other from here on out. Okay?”

“Okay,” Mike responded. The three of them walked back out into the Main Corridor to start their search for Augustus.

Chapter Text

Mike, Violet, and Veruca started looking through the windows on every door they came across to see if they could spot Augustus inside. Luckily, the boy would be hard to miss.

The first room they looked in was labeled “PIXY STIX,” in which they saw an Oompa-Loompa carrying a crate labeled “PIXA LEAVES.” He opened the crate and grabbed a handful of magenta-and-white-striped leaves—those must’ve been the pixa leaves. He dropped the leaves into a funnel at the top of a huge machine, causing loud mechanical noises to ensue. There were four conveyor belts that came out from the machine at the bottom, with a powdery substance of a specific color coming out of each one. One emitted red powder, one emitted orange powder, one emitted blue powder, and one emitted purple powder. The conveyor belts then dropped the powder into funnels that funneled into thin, plastic tubes, which were then sealed and carried away for the next tubes to be filled up.

“Augustus isn’t in here, but why is there another Oompa-Loompa working at this hour?” Veruca asked.

“Hmm, I guess some Oompa-Loompas just work at different times than others?” Mike said. “I don’t know. Maybe they fell behind schedule, and now they’re catching up?”

“Who knows, but let’s keep looking,” Violet said.

The three kids looked through another door along the way labeled “LICKABLE WALLPAPER.” Mike and Veruca had been in this room on the tour with Charlie. Inside was an empty square room with a white floor and a white ceiling. The walls had a white wallpaper with images of fruit printed on it: pineapples, green apples, bananas, watermelons, oranges, lemons, limes, strawberries, red cherries, purple grapes, blue raspberries, and—what did Wonka say they were called, again? Oh, yeah, snozzberries. Each of the images tasted exactly like their respective fruits when licked, as Mike and Veruca had experienced on the tour. Mike cringed remembering how disgusting the snozzberry tasted. After clearly seeing that Augustus was not in that room, either, the kids moved along.

Veruca spotted a door that caught her attention. “Ooh, Chocolate Golden Eggs!” The other two caught up and looked through the window alongside her. It was a semicircle-shaped room with seven stations lined up along the wall of the room. At each of the stations, there was a ramp that led to a suspended plastic nest filled with straw and a giant white goose laying in it—about three times as big as a normal goose. Once one of the geese laid an egg, it would fall through a hole at the bottom of the nest, slide down a hanging, scoop-like platform, land between two spokes of a wheel, causing it to turn and drop the egg onto a teeter-totter, causing that to tilt and drop the egg onto a spiraling slide and drop perfectly onto a scale, which determined whether it was a good egg or a bad egg.

“Why have such a complicated device just to drop an egg onto a scale?” Mike asked.

“Because it’s Willy Wonka, that’s why,” Violet responded.

“I want a Golden Goose!” Veruca said as she was about to open the door.

“No!” Violet and Mike shouted in unison.

“Besides, Augustus isn’t in there, so let’s just move on,” Violet said.

“All right, all right. You didn’t have to shout,” Veruca said.

The next room they checked had “FIZZY LIFTING DRINKS” written on its door. They looked into the room and saw a massive machine with pipes running through it. Red, orange, green, blue, and purple bubbly liquids could be seen running through the glass pipes, and thousands of bubbles emanated from the machine. However, no Augustus.

“What do you think are Fizzy Lifting Drinks?” Violet asked.

“Mr. Wonka told us about them on the tour,” Veruca answered. “Once you drink them, they make you float about.”

“Oh, that’s cool! We should try it!” Violet said.

“I don’t know…” Veruca replied.

“Wait, how are you even supposed to get down?” Violet asked.

“You burp,” Mike said.

Violet’s face scrunched in disgust.

“What? I’m serious. That’s what he told us,” Mike said.

“Yeah, he did say that,” Veruca said.

“Ew. Okay, never mind, then,” Violet said as she walked past the door.

They soon came across another door, “SQUARE CANDIES THAT LOOK ROUND.”

“Square Candies That Look Round?” Violet said. “That doesn’t make sense at all.”

“Why don’t you take a look?” Mike asked her, remembering the punchline from when he saw them on the tour.

Violet peeked through the window and saw rows and rows of conveyor belts with a countertop at the end of each belt. On each of the counters were little cubes with eyes. “Yeah, I’m looking, I see them, and they don’t look round at all,” she said.

“Of course they do; watch them,” Mike said as he abruptly pushed open the door. As he did so, all of the eyes on the little cube candies looked toward Mike. After a few seconds, they continued to move their little black pupils around. “You see? They’re looking ‘round.”

“Ah ha ha. Oh, Wonka. You’re so clever,” Violet said, deadpan.

The Square Candies came in eleven colors with a different set of eyes for each color: cyan had big, round eyes; yellow had happy eyes; red had angry eyes; blue had sad eyes; orange was cross-eyed; chartreuse had scared eyes; green had tired eyes; black had bored eyes; pink had big, round eyes with eyelashes; purple had haughty eyes; and white had eyes with red swirls as pupils.

Mike picked up a red one and popped it in his mouth. “Mmm, chewy!”

Veruca gasped, “Mike, how could you?”

“What? They’re Square Candies. They’re made to be eaten.”

“I know, but they’re so cute.”

“They’re not actually alive, Veruca,” Mike said.

“I know, but they seem too alive for me to be comfortable eating them.”

“Whatever,” Mike said. “Augustus isn’t here, either, so we should probably leave before whichever Oompa-Loompa was making these comes back.”

“I can’t believe how far he’s gotten for being so fat,” Violet said as they walked out the room. Mike took one more Square Candy as he left.

Chapter Text

“What’s in here?” Veruca asked as she looked through the window on a door labeled “SLUGGLES.” There was a nice, little field inside made up of the same kind of grass found in the Chocolate Room and little candy flowers scattered around. “I don’t get it; there’s nothing inside but grass,” Veruca said.

“Which is obviously why we should just move on and find Augustus already,” Violet said.

“Wait, I want to check it out real quick,” Veruca said as she opened the door and walked inside.

Violet groaned, “Oh my God. Why do you guys get distracted after every turn? Do you have ADD or something?”

“Ooh, come here, quick!” Veruca said, crouched on the grass. Mike and Violet walked in and crouched next to her and saw a little orange worm. Actually, a lot of orange worms, all crawling around on the grass. And not only orange worms, but purple and red worms as well. And little yellow snails. The whole candy field was littered with gummy worms and snails.

“Okay, so Sluggles are just gummy worms. Big deal. Let’s go,” Mike said, rushing back into the corridor.

“But they’re so cute,” Veruca said. “I want to take some along with me.”

“Come on, Veruca, let’s go!” Violet said.

As they walked farther along the seemingly endless corridor, they passed by a door that was wide open. As Veruca walked past it, she saw that the room was filled with hamster tubes sprawling in every direction imaginable. She stopped dead in her tracks. “Ooh, I didn’t know Mr. Wonka had hamsters! I want to see them!” she said as she walked straight into the room.

Mike looked at the name of the room on the door. “Wait!” he said. “Veruca, those aren’t hamsters; those are—"

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!” Veruca screamed at the top of her lungs. Violet rushed in to cover her mouth with her hand, but her muffled scream could still be heard.

“Shut up, Veruca, someone’s going to hear you!” Violet said. Veruca pointed toward the hundreds of squirrels that were staring at her from inside the tubes. Violet had to walk her out of the room herself, all while she was still screaming.

Finally, after about half a minute more of screaming, Veruca started to calm down. “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!” she kept repeating to herself.

“Veruca, you’re fine! You’re out of there! Enough!” Violet said. “They’re just stupid squirrels. They’re not going to hurt you.”

“They hurt me the last time I was here!”

“Well, they’re not going to, now. We’re not going back in that room. You have nothing to be scared of now,” Violet said.

“Violet, I don’t think you understand how dangerous the situation was last time,” Veruca said as they started walking down the corridor again. “I was attacked by those fierce creatures!”

“Fierce creatures? I could stomp on all of them if I wanted to,” Violet said. “Veruca, you don’t even know what danger is. You know why? Because you’ll always have your little daddy by your side to help you.”

“Well… well, at least I don’t wear the same clothes as my mum! Ha!”

“Stop it!” Mike said. “Both of you! Violet, didn’t you just say that we’ll have to work together if we want to get out of here? Yet here you are, starting fights.”

“I did not start it. Veruca did by idiotically screaming for no reason.”

“I had a perfectly good reason,” Veruca said. “What would you do if you were faced with your biggest fear without any warning?”

“I wouldn’t know because I’m not afraid of anything!”

“STOP!” Mike interfered again. “Stop arguing with each other. It’s not helping anyone. If anything, it’s only going to reveal us to the entire factory.”

“Nobody’s going to hear us,” Violet said. “These Oompa-Loompas are as deaf as my grandpa.”

“Still, we can’t risk it,” Mike said. The three of them then realized that they had reached the end of the corridor. “Great. A dead end. And we couldn’t even find Augustus.” All that was left were two glass buttons on the wall for the Great Glass Elevator.

“Maybe he used the elevator,” Veruca suggested.

“Don’t be crazy,” Mike said. “Like I said before, the elevators went down when I shut off the security system.”

Veruca pressed one of the buttons, and the door opened.

“Yeah, well, it did that last time, too,” Mike said. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to work.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Veruca said, stepping inside the elevator. Mike and Violet climbed aboard, too. Veruca pressed the button labeled “AUTOPILOT,” causing the elevator to zip across to the side. “Well, it’s definitely working now!” she said as everyone toppled over.

“Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no!” Mike panicked.

“What? What?” Violet asked.

“The elevator’s working!”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Well, yes… and no,” Mike said. “Since the elevator is working, that must mean those security Oompa-Loompas have already started reactivating the security systems. We don’t have much time to find Augustus.”

“Well, that’s just great, because he could literally be anywhere at this point!” Violet said.

The elevator glided by Fudge Mountain. “Wow, what I wouldn’t give to have a fudge mountain like this at home!” Veruca said.

“Is Augustus anywhere on that mountain?” Violet asked, searching.

“I don’t see him,” Mike said.

The elevator then entered the Rock Candy Mine. “Oh, my goodness! This place is beautiful!” Veruca said.

“Wait! I see Augustus!” Violet pointed to a fat blob hanging on a rock candy crystal down in the mine. “He’s right there! Quick, how do we stop this thing?”

“I-I don’t know!” Mike said, scanning the buttons for a stop button. “Uh, maybe if we do this.” He pressed the button labeled “ROCK CANDY.” The elevator then launched out of the mine, dropped a few hundred feet, then zipped back into the mine, and opened its doors with the nice, little “ding” sound that it always makes.

Mike, Violet, and Veruca stepped out of the elevator and into a cavern filled with giant, glistening sugar crystals of every color of the rainbow. It was the most beautiful sight any one of them had ever seen. They followed a path to the left, which led them to the edge of a pit that went hundreds of feet farther down. “Whoa,” Mike said, suddenly halting at the edge. “Nobody go any farther.”

“So, where’s Augustus?” Veruca asked. “This mine is enormous; we’ll never find him in time.”

“No, wait!” Violet said. “He’s right there! Hey! Augustus!” Violet waved to the obese boy, who was gnawing on a giant crystal down below on one of the ledges across the pit. There was no response.

“Hey! Augustus!” Mike shouted. Still no response. “How can he not hear us?

“I don’t know, but I guess we just have to go get him ourselves,” Violet said.

“But how?” Mike asked. “It’s not like we can jump across the mine.”

Violet then noticed that they were standing right next to a minecart. She then saw that there was a track that ended right next to the ledge Augustus was on. “No,” she said, “but we can ride down there!” She jumped into the minecart. “Come on, let’s go!” Veruca hesitantly jumped in as well.

“Oh no,” Mike said, “I told you, I hate roller coasters. And I can tell that if I went in there, I would not like—hey!” Violet pulled Mike into the cart, and they started down the track and into a cavern.

The cart made a sharp turn to the left, then to the right, then to the left again. “I told you I wasn’t going to like this!” Mike said, retching.

“Oh, come on!” Violet said. “This is nothing! You’re just a wuss is all.”

The cart dipped down a sudden drop, then made another sharp turn to the right. “How do we stop this thing?” Mike screamed.

“We can’t. We just have to wait until it reaches the end of the track where Augustus is,” Violet said.

“Well, then don’t be surprised if I throw up all over you!”

Violet laughed.

“I’m serious!” Mike said.

“Whatever you do, don’t be sick on me!” Veruca said, scooting away from Mike as the cart made another sharp swerve. “I’ve only just bought this baby seal coat!”

The cart exited the cavern and rode down a ledge with nothing but a huge pit on the other side. “Oh no, I hate heights!” Veruca said. “Everyone, just keep very still.”

Violet of course then started to rock the cart back and forth. “STOP! STOP!” Veruca and Mike both shouted as they held Violet still from rocking it.

“Do you want to get us all killed?” Veruca said.

Finally, the cart had reached the end of the track, and they all stepped out. “Oh, thank God that’s over with,” Mike said dizzily.

Augustus was still hanging onto one of the crystals over the ledge. “Hey!” Violet shouted. “Augustus! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, hello guys. I’m just eating vone of zhese delicious rock candies!”

“But what were you thinking? Why did you split up from us?” Violet said.

“Vell, I vas valking down zhe hallvay, zhen I realized zhat you guys veren’t zhere anymore, so I decided to keep valking. I zhen found zhe elevator und decided to use it. I didn’t know vhere to go, but zhen I found zhe button zhat leads to here, und I pressed it. Zhen, I rode zhe cart all zhe vay down here und started to eat zhis candy. Ja, zhat’s about it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Violet was fuming. “How about, when you can’t find us, you just stay in place? Not keep walking! And why did you decide to use the elevator? That just makes us trying to find you even more difficult! You’re lucky we found you down here when we pressed the Autopilot button! Get down from that crystal right now! We just wasted so much time trying to find you! Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d have rather moved on without you.”

“Be careful, Augustus,” Veruca warned. “Don’t fall down!”

“I know, I know,” Augustus said as he carefully climbed down from the crystal and onto the ledge. “I’m sorry I caused so much trouble. I vill never do anyzhing stupid ever again. I promise.”

“We’ll see how long it takes before that promise is broken,” Violet mumbled to herself.

“Okay, so we’ve got him now,” Mike said. “Now, how do we get out? We can’t use the minecart. It only goes down the track, not up.”

“Right here!” Violet said, leading them into a small alcove. “There’s a mine lift here. This’ll take us back up.” Everyone stepped into the lift and were carried up a few levels.

After walking through a long mine shaft, the kids reached the Great Glass Elevator. “Finally!” Mike said as everyone quickly climbed aboard. “We’ve gotta hurry up and get out of here!” Mike scanned through the list of buttons to find the Entrance Hallway button, but as he was doing so, he found a button labeled “TOP SECRET.” “Hey, do you think that’s where Wonka keeps all his recipes?”

“Could be,” Violet said. “But like you said, we’ve gotta get out of here fast. And anyways, you said the security systems should be coming back on soon. There’s no way we’ll be able to get into that room with them on.”

“No, but they still might be partially down,” Mike said, pressing the button. “Come on, we’ll be in and out of that room like that,” he said as he snapped his fingers.

Chapter Text

“Well,” Violet said, “I guess I should call my mom now so she’s already outside by the time we get out.” She pulled out her cellphone and called her mom. “Hi. Yes, Mother, we’ll be ready soon, so come pick us up now, ‘kay? Thanks! Love you, too! Bye!” She hung up. “‘Kay, she’s on her way.”

The elevator doors opened to an austere hallway. At the end of the hallway was an open doorway with a pad next to it on the wall for fingerprint scanning, which was off. “You see?” Mike said. “I told you the security systems would still be down.”

The four kids walked through the doorway and into a room filled to the brim with file cabinets along every inch of every wall. “Yep,” Violet said. “This is where Wonka keeps all his secret recipes, all right. Let’s just be quick and get out.”

Mike quickly scanned the file cabinets, searching for the “E” section. Once he found it, though, he realized that all the “E” files were separated into multiple cabinets. He eventually found the one they needed, though—the cabinet labeled “ES-EX.” He opened the cabinet and frantically searched for the file labeled “Everlasting Gobstoppers,” but he found another one that made his furiously moving hands stop in their tracks. “Essence of Life,” it read on the file folder. He lifted it out of the cabinet and held it carefully in his hands.

“Mike, what are you doing?” Violet asked, panicking. “We need to find the Everlasting Gobstopper one.”

“I think we should take this one instead,” he replied softly.

“Why?”

“Don’t you realize what I’m holding in my hands right now?” Mike said. “It’s the answer to all of life’s questions! Imagine what the field of science could accomplish with the knowledge inside this folder. And I’m gonna find out what it is right now.” He opened the folder and started to read the document that stated its ingredients. But before he could read very much of it, the entire room was suddenly enveloped in a harsh, red light, and alarms started blaring.

“They caught us!” Violet yelled as she dashed toward the elevator. Veruca and Augustus ran right by her side. Mike didn’t know what to do, so he panicked and dropped the file and sprinted toward the elevator with the rest of them. Mike pushed Augustus past the doorway, and he ran through it himself just before it was sealed shut with a thick, metal door. “Hurry! Let’s get in the elevator!” Violet said as she pushed the button for the door to open and climbed aboard. Once everyone was inside, she pressed the button, “ENTRANCE HALLWAY.”

“Did you get the recipe?” Violet asked Mike.

“No.”

“Not even the Essence of Life?”

“No, I’m sorry. I-I panicked and I just—”

Violet groaned. “Mike, you really messed up our plan. You realize that, right?”

“I messed up our plan? I’m not the one who wandered off to some random room in the factory waiting for the others to find me.” He looked at Augustus.

“I said I vas sorry!” Augustus said.

“Sorry isn’t good enough, Weinerschnitzel,” Violet said.

“Violet, what’s wrong with you?” Veruca said.

“What’s wrong with me? How about what’s wrong with all of you? I’m the only one who didn’t do anything stupid tonight.”

“I knew your ‘niceness’ was fake all along,” Mike said. “I knew you were still the same jerk you were on the day of the tour.”

“Mike, I really don’t care what you think of me. All I want is to get out of this nightmare of a factory.”

“And I didn’t mess up completely; I still have an Everlasting Gobstopper in my backpack,” Mike said. “That’s sure to be worth something, right?”

“Yeah,” Violet said, a little less angry now, “but it still won’t be anywhere near as valuable as the actual recipe itself. But I guess it’s better than nothing.”

As soon as the elevator doors opened to the shrinking hallway, everyone started running toward the front door. As they were about halfway down the hallway, though, the small double doors on the opposite side that lead to the Chocolate Room slammed open, and there stood Willy Wonka himself. He wore no top hat, but he was wearing a purple robe with a black trim, purple gloves, and black slippers with golden W’s on them. He gasped and yelled, “It’s you guys! What a horrible thing to wake up to from my beauty sleep!”

Violet and Veruca didn’t even look back and pushed the front door open and ran out to the factory courtyard. Mike looked back at Wonka and tried to keep running, but his conscience was keeping him from doing so. He still kept running, but at a slower and slower rate until he stopped at the end of the hallway. Augustus caught up with him, stopped to catch his breath, then he looked behind to see Wonka walking toward them. Augustus looked at Mike with a guilty look on his face, then he looked outside toward the courtyard, then back at Mike, then he decided to run out the door with the girls. But Mike didn’t move one inch. His feet were kept planted on the ground, even with the imperious Wonka ever approaching.

Wonka stopped walking once he was about a foot away from Mike. He looked down into the boy’s intense, brown eyes. Mike looked up into the man’s deep, violet eyes. Neither of them moved a muscle. They kept their eyes locked onto each other’s eyes, staring.

Chapter Text

“Mr. Wonka,” Mike hesitantly spoke up, “I-I’m so sorry.” He pulled out the Everlasting Gobstopper from his backpack. “I-I stole this from you, and I don’t really know what I was thinking.” Mike then started crying again. What was it about this factory that brought out his emotional side? “I don’t even want it! Take it!” Mike put the gobstopper in Wonka’s gloved hand. “If it makes you feel any better, I saw none of your secret recipes, and none of the other kids did, either. And I didn’t steal any of them, I promise! Search me if you want! Just please don’t kill me, or torture me, or send me to Juvenile Hall! You can do anything else! I was just acting stupid and not thinking for myself. But I deserve any other punishment you give me,” Mike finished, on his knees, sobbing.

“Oh, don’t be such a drama queen,” Wonka said. “Get up on your feet. Wipe away those tears. Michael, I am very mad about what you’ve just done. But at the same time, I’m also proud of what you’ve just just done.” He put the gobstopper in one of the pockets on his robe. “Thank you for facing the consequences of your bad decision instead of running off like the others did. And you don’t have to worry about going to a juvenile prison; believe me, I don’t want to get the authorities involved any more than you do. Even though you not only committed breaking and entering, but also attempted theft. Those are two very big charges, you know. You should consider yourself very lucky.”

“Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Mr. Wonka!”

“All right, that’s enough; settle down.”

“What about the others?” Mike asked.

“Hmm.” Wonka looked out the front doorway and saw a car hurriedly drive away from the factory gates. “You said none of you took anything other than the gobstopper you just gave back?”

“I swear to God!”

“Hm. Perhaps I’ll let them go as well. If they decide not to change like you did, Mike, it’ll eventually bite them in the end,” Wonka said.

“You’re seriously letting us go scot-free?”

“Well, no; I’m going to personally tell everyone’s parents what you guys did, and if they’re wise, they’ll punish you in whatever way they feel best suits.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Mike said. “Mr. Wonka, you have no idea how grateful I am right now.”

“I think I have some idea.”

The small double doors at the end of the hallway slammed open once again—this time, it was Charlie and his family. All of them were in their pajamas. “Mr. Wonka, is everything all right?” Charlie asked worriedly.

Wonka looked down at Mike. “Yes. Yes, I suppose everything’s all right.”

“Mike, is that you?” Charlie said. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly.

“Hey, Charlie.” Mike waved.

“Mr. Wonka, what’s going on here?” Charlie asked.

“It’s nothing, Charlie. I’ve got everything under control. You can go back to bed.”

“Okay, whatever you say,” Charlie said as he and his family walked back into the Chocolate Room and shut the doors behind them.

“Now, come on. Let’s get in the Great Glass Elevator,” Wonka said.

“For what?” Mike asked.

“To tell all your parents what you guys did. But you’ll have to tell me where you’re currently staying.” The chocolatier pushed a glass button on the wall and walked into the elevator. Mike followed.

Mike was surprised to see Wonka like this. He was much more reserved now than he was on the tour. It was a side he had never seen in him before, and quite frankly, a side he didn’t think Wonka was capable of achieving.

Mr. Wonka pressed a button labeled “UP AND OUT,” which launched the elevator upward at an astounding and increasing velocity.

“Ugh, I hate this elevator!” Mike said as they rocketed up the factory’s main smokestack.

“Well, you really shouldn’t hate it, but you are lookin’ a little green around the gills,” Wonka said. “Whatever you do, don’t throw up in my beautiful elevator!”

“I’ll try not to! This is the fourth time I’ve felt like this tonight!” The elevator then derailed from the track and burst through a giant panel of glass at the top. The elevator got launched into the air for a few seconds before starting its plummet toward the ground. “YOU’RE GOING TO KILL US, WONKA!” Mike yelled.

“No, I’m not, ha ha!” Wonka said as he pressed another button, which activated rocket jets to keep the elevator hovering in the air.

“Whoa!” Mike said in astonishment, looking down at the tiny town beneath his feet.

“So, where are you currently residing here in town, Mike?” Wonka asked.

“Right there.” Mike pointed to the Salts’ vacation home. “It’s Veruca’s vacation home. Her parents and Violet’s mom are there, but Augustus’s parents and mine are back at our homes.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll tell the Salts and the Beauregardes now, and call Augustus’s parents and yours later.”

As the elevator made its descent toward the house, Wonka struck up a conversation with Mike, “You know, Mike, out of the four rotten children, I liked you the best on that day of the tour.”

“Really? Me?” Mike said. That’s one heck of a backhanded compliment there, Wonka, he thought.

“Yeah. But I didn’t appreciate it when you said, ‘Candy is a waste of time.’”

“Yeeaah, I guess I didn’t really mean that; I was just fed up with that whole day at that point.”

“It’s still not a very good thing to say to someone who’s life passion is candy,” Wonka said.

“I know. Sometimes I say things I don’t really mean when I’m angry.”

“I understand. But I did appreciate your intellect. And how you weren’t afraid to speak your mind. Those are very important qualities in a creative industry, you know. However, an equally important quality is one’s ability to compromise, and that’s still something you had to work on. You were very stubborn.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“But had you been less so, and had you had the same passion for candy that I do, you wouldn’t have been too bad of an heir,” Wonka said.

Once again with the backhanded compliments, Mike thought.

The elevator landed in front of the vacation home, and Wonka walked out as the glass doors slid open.

“You really think so?” Mike said as he stepped out as well.

“Yeah. Though, of course I’d never replace Charlie—never in a million years.” The candy man walked up to the front door and knocked.

The door slowly creaked open to reveal one of the Salts’ butlers behind it. “What do you want at this hour… Willy Wonka?” The butler was flabbergasted.

“That’s me.”

“What are you doing here?” the butler asked.

“I want you to wake everyone up and gather them all in the living room, ‘kay?”

“Very well, do come in, but they won’t be very happy about this.”

“Especially after they hear what I’m going to tell them,” Wonka said. He and Mike both walked into the house and went into the living room. Wonka sat down in one of the leather chairs as they waited for everyone to assemble.

“I guess I’m also sorry for the way I acted on the tour,” Mike said. “I was kind of a jerk to you.”

“You’re darn right, you were,” Wonka said. “You were quite arrogant. To be honest, sometimes you reminded me of myself when I was young.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. But I fully admit that I was a brat, so don’t take that as a compliment. All I’m saying is that there’s still hope for you.”

Mike heard Wonka quietly giggle. “What?” the boy asked.

“No, nothing, really. I was just remembering when you got sent into the television and how scared you were! Ha ha!”

“Hey, that wasn’t funny! I seriously thought one of those idio—er, Oompa-Loompas was going to kill me!”

“Oh, they would never do such a thing.”

“It seemed like they would,” Mike said.

“No.” Wonka snickered some more. “And then you were crying, ‘Help me! Help me!’ in a little high-pitched voice! Ha ha! You have no idea how funny that was!”

Mike glared back at him.

“Heh heh, well, funny in retrospect, I mean,” Wonka said.

Eventually, Rupert, Angina, Tinea, and Papiloma all came into the living room, wearing their pajamas and rubbing their tired eyes. Rupert yawned. “What is the meaning of thi… Willy Wonka?”

“Hi,” the chocolatier said as he stood up from the chair. Scarlett, Violet, Veruca, and Augustus then came into the living room as well. “Glad you could all be gathered here tonight. Mike would like to tell you where he’s been for the past couple of hours.”

“What?” Mike said, not expecting to be the one who had to break the news.

“Go on,” Wonka said.

“Um, well, it wasn’t just me. Violet, Augustus, Veruca, and I, um, went to the factory tonight while all of you were sleeping. We broke into the factory and tried to steal Mr. Wonka’s recipe for the Everlasting Gobstopper.”

There was a collective gasp from the Salts. “Veruca, how could you?” her father said.

“And we almost stole an Everlasting Gobstopper,” Mike continued, “but I ended up giving it back to Mr. Wonka.”

“Mike was the only one who didn’t run away from me,” Wonka said.

“Veruca, I’m so disappointed in you,” Mrs. Salt said.

“I-I know. I’m disappointed in myself, too,” Veruca replied.

“Then why did you do it?” Mrs. Salt asked.

“I don’t know, really. I got caught up in the moment,” Veruca said. “Looking back at it, it was a pretty stupid thing to do.”

“You’ve all continued to receive deliveries for your lifetime supply of chocolate, correct?” Wonka asked.

“Yes, once a month,” Mr. Salt said.

“Good. Now, as consequence for your children’s reckless behavior, I am revoking all of your lifetime supplies. From now on, there will be no further deliveries to any of your houses.”

“What?!” Violet said.

“You can’t do that, Wonka!” Mr. Salt said.

“Not zhe chocolate!” Augustus cried. “Anyzhing but zhe chocolate!”

“You promised on the back of the Golden Ticket that each of us would have a lifetime supply!” Scarlett said.

“Yeah, I did,” Wonka said. “But that was under the assumption that you wouldn’t break into my factory and try to steal my recipes. Hopefully this will make you all realize that what your children did was wrong. And I hope, for all your sakes, they’ll learn from this and become better people in the future.”

Everyone stood still, in sheepish silence.

“But I suppose I’ll just leave you all to it now, and… well, goodbye,” Wonka said abruptly as he walked out the door. The Great Glass Elevator could be heard blasting off from outside.

Mrs. Beauregarde started laughing. “I bet you he didn’t even know that I fully supported you guys the whole way through,” she said.

“Mrs. Beaurgarde,” Mr. Salt huffed, “I am quite disappointed by your behavior! You are supposed to act as a responsible adult, not join them in their childish pursuits! You are supposed to be the one who tells them that this behavior is wrong and discourage them from doing so! I only pray that Violet can still grow up to be a decent woman despite having you for a mother.”

Scarlett only stared back blankly with nothing to say.

“And as for this so-called ‘vacation,’” Mr. Salt continued, “my family and I will be leaving to go back to England tomorrow, so I suppose you’ll all have to go back home tomorrow as well, because I’m certainly not allowing thieves to stay in my vacation home when I’m not here. Goodnight.” Rupert, Angina, Tinea, and Papiloma all started walking back to their bedrooms. “Oh, and Veruca,” Mr. Salt said, “you’re sleeping with your sisters tonight, not those juvenile delinquents.”

“Well, goodnight,” Veruca said to the others as she walked back with her sisters.

Mike, Augustus, Violet, and Scarlett all stood there in the living room for about a minute—silent, staring at each other, taking in everything that had just happened. “I guess we should all go to bed, then,” Mrs. Beauregarde said. “Violet, Mike, we’re leaving to go back to Denver in the morning. Augustus, you’re going to have to fly back to Germany tomorrow, I guess. We can help you buy a ticket at the airport.” With that, everyone went to their bedrooms and went to sleep, not a word spoken.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Mr. Wonka contacted Augustus’s and Mike’s parents to tell them about the fiasco that had occurred at the factory. He kept to his word, and all of them stopped receiving deliveries of their lifetime supply of chocolate. Augustus was the most heartbroken about this, but Violet and Veruca were extremely devastated as well. Mike didn’t care at all, but the rest of his family was quite disappointed. The kids were additionally met with harsh punishments from their parents.

Augustus’s parents banned him from eating anything sweet for the rest of the summer and put him on a permanent diet consisting of less meat and more fruits and vegetables. He was also limited to only three meals a day with no snacks in between. Additionally, they also made him exercise every day so that he would get into better shape.

Veruca’s parents didn’t give her anything she wanted for the rest of the year, no matter how much she cried or screamed. They even made her give up half of her pets—one of her ponies, one of her dogs, two of her cats, three of her rabbits, her three canaries, and her silly, old hamster.

Violet’s parents… well, they didn’t do anything, actually. Violet didn’t live with her father at all, so he couldn’t do anything, and Violet’s mother fully supported the plan, so she didn’t think it was necessary to punish her. However, they did move from Denver, Colorado to Hartford, Connecticut, so Violet was a little sad that she couldn’t see Mike anymore.

Mike’s parents subjected him to the worst fate imaginable—summer camp. Two months of sleeping in a hot, sweaty cabin with kids he barely knew and doing activities meant to “build new friendships.” It was the most miserable he’d ever been in his life. If that weren’t enough, his parents also banned him from all technology for the rest of the year. At first, Mike was bored out of his mind without any video games or TV shows to entertain himself. But with nothing else to do, he finally decided to give books another try, and he actually began to enjoy reading. He even started writing stories of his own. Even once he was allowed to use the TV and computer again, he still made sure to make room in his schedule for a little reading and writing in addition to all the fun technology stuff.

When Mike came back from summer camp and started his eighth-grade year, his parents made him write a letter to Willy Wonka to apologize once again for what he did. After that, he and Wonka became pen pals of sorts. They started realizing that they had more in common with each other than they had previously thought. Additionally, Wonka ended up inspiring more imagination into Mike’s thoughts, and Mike ended up inspiring Wonka to think about the larger, scientific implications of his inventions more often. Not only that, but Mike also started writing to Charlie as well, and they both got to know each other a bit better. Turns out he’s not so bad, after all. They’ve even become somewhat of friends. And that’s when Mike Teavee realized that his life had not only finally gone back to normal, it had also become a bit better.