send 🌼 for a happiness headcanon
Honestly just... being appreciated, being included, is enough to make Vanellope happy. She wouldn't say that's because she's a particularly easy to please girl, for she certainly can be picky when she feels like it; but after so long of being shunned and rejected and unwanted by literally everyone?
Even now that it's been several years since that was the case, still the easiest way to make her happy is just to invite her along to do something together, to include her as part of the group. She doesn't need special attention within that setting; but rather it just means so much to her to be made to feel like she's wanted; and while it honestly seems like the simplest little thing to anyone else, it absolutely means the world to her.
It's part of why I think she was so keen to jump ship to Slaughter Race. Sure, there was the excitement and change of pace there that she'd been craving; but also, and more than that, Shank and co. made her feel so welcome, so wanted. It must have been still weird sometimes around the Sugar Rush kids even after they started being nice to her; but here she was just accepted wholeheartedly, no questions asked, and made to feel like she was part of the group right from the word go - and that kind of acceptance is the thing that's sure to win her over, make her happiest.