Sorry this took so long, you would not believe the shit I had to put up with while writing this. Mental note for the future though, one shots take longer to write than multi-chapters. Start the fic.
4
3
2
Summer had once again come to Gravity Falls, and for Pacifica Northwest that meant only one thing, the return of the Pines Twins. Yes the town heroes had come back to Gravity Falls at every opportunity in the past year. Every holiday, every season break, somehow they even managed singular day offs from school just to come back to this town. What was even more impressive was that their Great Uncles manage to come back for these days as well so Dipper and Mabel would have them to look after them, exactly how was a bit of mystery. When confronted on how they were able to pull any of this off, considering how they were supposed to be traveling the world, they would usually respond with 'It's a family secret'.
It didn't matter to Pacifica though, she always took advantage of any time they were back in town. The Pines twins, the younger ones, were very special friends to her. Mabel was fun and more emotionally understanding than her brother was, the golf courses she came up with were a lot of fun. Then of course there was Dipper Pines.
Ah yes, her emotionally grounding rock labeled Dipper Pines. The boy was blunt, straightforward, and made her knees weak whether he knew it or not. Yes Dipper had shown her a path which was different from the one her parents had picked out for her, a path in which she could develop herself in to her own person. A certain level of freedom came from associating with Dipper, Mabel too but on a different level, he was basically a worry free zone for her. Naturally she was still an elitist for everything she tried and a perfectionist for every goal she set but with Dipper she could explore areas of herself without fear of persecution or judgement.
The truth was that Pacifica wasn't sure what type of person she wanted to develop in to but whoever it was seemed to be leaning more in the 'nice girl' direction. Of course this could all be because of Dipper's influence on her, the boy somehow knew what it was like to be insecure and how awkward it can feel to venture in to new social areas. The boy knew how to give her 'the grins'... whether he was aware of it or not.
Yes Dipper's obliviousness was both a blessing and a curse at the same time for Pacifica. A blessing in that he wasn't on to her at all so she had no worries about embarrassing herself and a curse in which he probably wasn't going to make a move on her so long as he was in the dark.
Mabel on the other hand was completely on to her. And while she did promise not to tell Dipper about it herself, that didn't really stop her from trying to hook the two of them up. Doing things like sawing a leg off a bench they were sitting on so Dipper would end up sliding down close to her or when she rigged the Mystery Shack with hanging mistletoe all over the place. That created many awkward situations for many people visiting the tourist trap.
She liked to think that the thing she liked best about Dipper was that he believed in her. When he believed in her ability to change it felt like well founded optimism as opposed to the blind optimism she would have come to expect from your average thirteen year old. When he believed in her she found it easier to believe in herself, he created an aura of confidence for her.
So this was basically why she couldn't get enough of the guy, the more time with Dipper the better. One oddity she noticed however, was Dipper's hat. He no longer sported the trucker hat with the blue pine tree on it, instead he now had some brown hat with ear flaps. She wasn't sure what that was about, or why he would get embarrassed when she tried to talk to him about it. She guessed it didn't matter though, not as long as she could spend time with him.
Riding through town, Pacifica smiled lovingly as she thought of Dipper, but she became quickly grounded back to reality when she spotted the genuine article in the town square as she rode by.
"Stop the limo!"
Getting out of the limo, Pacifica found that it was more than just the Pines twins mulling about, the whole town seemed to be gathered. Which was odd. As a Northwest she was usually well versed in Gravity Falls events and celebrations. They even had the stage she stood on during Pioneer Day set up; how could she have missed this one? It was probable that her crush on Dipper was distracting her from the town's annual events. She tried to think what this one could be but for the life of her she couldn't bring it to mind, like she was suffering from some sort of mental block or something.
Cutting her way through the crowd she finally worked her way to Dipper.
"Hey Dipper, do you know what's going on here?"
"Oh! Hey Pacifica. Don't you know? I mean aren't you supposed to be all about the parties and celebrations of Gravity Falls?"
"Yes, but I've been a little... distracted as of late."
"It's the annual Gravity Falls Lumberjack Games. I have a friend competing so Mabel and I come out here to cheer her on!"
''Her'? Who is 'her'? Mabel and Candy don't seem like they would have the build for these type of games. Grenda? I guess she would but I doubt she could get Dipper this excited. Wait, is he staring? Shoot he is! Been quiet for too long! Quick! Say something!'
"Oh right, actually forgot about that one!" she admitted.
"I think she's here now. Would you mind hanging back here with Mabel while I try to get closer to the stage?"
"Of course not. Sure thing."
She stared at his retreating back as he cut through the crowd to the stage. She jumped when Mabel put her hand on her shoulder. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed her sooner. Mabel stood wearing a sweater with a picture of a rainbow pig on it. She had an inordinate amount of cotton candy in her right hand. The cone was covered in something sparkly but Pacifica couldn't be sure if it was supposed to be glitter or sugar. With Mabel it was impossible to tell.
"This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, huh?"
The Lumberjack Games was actually the one event her family didn't bother going to. It was something about her mother being afraid they would all end up with maple syrup in their hair or something. The townspeople never seemed to care about their absence to this event so Pacifica never gave it a second thought.
"Suuure does!"
Pacifica offered Mabel an awkward grin and while it did result in a raised eyebrow from the sweater girl it didn't stop Mabel from offering Pacifica some of her cotton candy.
"So who is this 'friend' Dipper wants to cheer for? Candy? Grenda?"
Pacifica grabbed a handful of the cotton candy offered and ate in an almost 'grumpy' way. Then she turned her attention back to the crowd and tried to spot Dipper.
"Oh my Gummy Koalas! You're jealous, aren't you?!"
Pacifica immediately blushed at Mabel's accusation. She could already feel Mabel staring at her with those 'matchmaker' eyes of her's.
"No! I am not!"
"EEEEEEE! So precious!"
"Get back to my question, Mabel! Who is the girl?!"
"Oh it's just Wendy, you know her."
"Oh." While Pacifica knew OF Wendy she didn't really KNOW Wendy. As far as she could tell, she was the red headed girl who worked at the Mystery Shack; she knew she was part of the weird hand holding circle thing, but outside of that she didn't really know anything.
The crowd cheered as Mayor Tyler made his way on to the stage toward the podium.
"Hello good friends of Gravity Falls. It is once again time for our yearly Gravity Falls Lumberjack Games, where we celebrate our wonderful lumber industry which keeps our town thriving. As usual our winner will be decided by the contestant with the most wins. Let's bring up our reigning champ, Wendy Corduroy!"
The crowd cheered in applause as the red head sprinted up on to stage. Pacifica couldn't help but scoff as Wendy waved to the audience.
"'Wendy' huh? Pfft. What's so great about... wait, is she wearing Dipper's hat?!"
"Oh yeah, didn't you know? At the end of our first summer they traded hats as sort of a goodbye thing."
Pacifica narrowed her eyes at the red head and grabbed a handful of Mabel's cotton candy and ate it noisily.
"Now I know Wendy has been our undefeated champion at these games but I still encourage any of you to get on up here and sign up."
The sign up sheet was actually just a canvas on a stand, but there was an array of different colored markers to make it more fun.
Wendy pulled out an air horn from her back pocket and blew it earning a few cries of protest from those in the front row.
"Come on people, I gotta have someone to beat!"
As the crowd laughed at Wendy's joke, Pacifica spotted Dipper being closer to the stage laughing with the crowd. However, something seemed off... there was a certain level of awkwardness with the way Dipper was laughing.
"So what? They're like hat-buddies or something?"
"Oh no. See she cares about him but in a platonic way so that made his crush on her..."
"HE HAD A WHAT ON HER?!"
(Insert Gravity Falls Opening Here)
"Yes Pacifica, Dipper always had a crush on Wendy but she was too old him for so it never worked."
"Oh yeah?! And what was it that did it?! Her stupid red hair?! Any girl with a BOTTLE could..."
"Calm down girl! If you gotta know it's because she's so awesome..."
"Awesome? I'm awesome! Wait, awesome how?"
"Okay, if you don't stop interrupting me like that then I'm going to start stuffing gummy worms up in to your nose!"
Pacifica held up her hands in alarmed surrender. "Whoa, okay!"
"Okay! We're calm?"
"We're calm."
"We're good?"
"We're good."
"T's'alright?"
"T's'alright."
"T's'alright?"
"T's'alright."
"Alriiiight! Dipper always liked Wendy because she always did this cool physical stuff like using pine trees to get down from the roof of the Mystery Shack, or climbing a tree using only a belt, stuff like that."
Pacifica winced. "Physical stuff?" The most 'physical' thing she liked to do was mini-golf, she was globally ranked at it but that didn't seem to impress Dipper all that much. It seemed to barely even register with him.
Mabel placed a supporting hand on Pacifica's shoulder. "But hey, you and Dipper still have great chemistry. And Wendy did let him down easy, telling him he was too young for her, and he has had a long time to try and get over her."
"Right." Pacifica gave a small smile. "Yeah! You're right! But if Dipper WAS over her, exactly how would a girl know?"
"Kiss him and find out!"
"Mabel!"
"Okay, okay! Well when he was crushing he would always say his feelings for her 'under his breath', or at least that's what he called it. We could all hear him! My bro-bro isn't quite as quiet as he likes to think; I suppose if he stopped doing that then that would mean he's moved on... Hey! Where are you going?"
"To find out if he's over her!"
The crowd was much more tightly knitted together than when she tried the first time to get to Dipper. She did shout out some insults at the people when she couldn't find a way to get around them but she managed to get to Dipper none the less. He was as close to the stage as he possibly could be, right in front of the stairs which lead up to it. While Pacifica was on her journey to Dipper, Mayor Tyler stopped a contestant from signing the canvas. He found the man's constant swaying and wobbling in his raincoat suspicious and decided to intervene. In one swift motion he opened the man's trench coat to reveal he was actually a bunch of gnomes stacked on top of one another. He stayed true to his 'Never Mind All That act' by shooing them all off the stage with a broom.
"Dipper!"
"Oh hey Pacifica! Are you here to help me cheer on Wendy?"
"Yes." She narrowed her eyes. "Wendy."
"Isn't she the greatest?"
"Well I don't think I'd go that far! I mean seriously, like, what's so great about her?"
"Are you kidding me?! She's so awesome that only three other people signed up to compete against her!"
Pacifica crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Well so what?! There can be more to a girl than just intimidation! You taught me that, remember?"
"Well that's not really the point I'm trying to make here. She's so awesome, that she's going to clean house at these games."
"Yeah?! Well uh..." She rubbed her arm and bit her bottom lip, struggling for something to say. She hated floundering like this but what he was saying was actually hard to argue with. Perhaps if she knew more about Wendy then she could find a flaw to exploit but that probably wouldn't help her in this case. "Well, what if another girl beats her?"
Pacifica almost slapped her hands over her mouth. She couldn't believe she had just said that, it sounded dumb even to her. She had a rough idea of what Wendy could do from based off of what Mabel told her, the odds were definitely in her favor. The look Dipper gave her made her feel nine inches tall, a look of confusion and disappointment, she never wanted to see him give her that look again.
"What girl could possibly beat Wendy in games for lumberjacks? She's practically bred for this stuff!"
"I know! Uh...Just hypothetically, if another girl could beat Wendy in these games, HER games, then she wouldn't seem so great anymore. Right? I mean, just hypothetically. You know?"
"Well... I guess so. But Wendy is the only girl competing this year, the only other people who have signed up are like big burly guys. So the chances of that are pretty slim, unless one of them happens to be a girl in disguise. Ha ha..."
Dipper and Pacifica shared a laugh at his little joke, but when Pacifica stopped laughing Dipper kept it going to the point of awkwardness.
"I-highly-doubt-that-there's-any-girl-who-could-even-compete-with-Wendy!"
(A/N: At first I wanted to jam all the words together to emphasize Dipper 'talking under his breath' but I have a feeling that'd be more trouble than it'd be worth.)
'Was that supposed to be him 'talking under his breath'? I guess he's not over her yet. Shoot!' thought Pacifica. 'Wait! He thinks NO girl could even COMPETE with Wendy?!'
"That does it!" Pacifica snapped.
Pacifica marched up the stairs to the stage but got stopped by Mayor Tyler. "Whoa there little Missy, I think you're a little too young for this competition!"
Pacifica only responded by slapping the man in the face with a stack of hundred dollar bills.
"And now you're not!"
"Uh Pacifica?" Dipper poked his head up above the stage. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm going to show Miss Redwood she's not unbeatable!"
Pacifica took a pink marker and wrote down her name on the canvas.
"Oh boy," Dipper deadpanned. "This doesn't look good..."
Dipper and Pacifica were going around town visiting shops and buying lumberjack supplies for the quick coming games. Dipper was following Pacifica around mostly to try and talk some sense in to her.
"But I don't understand! Why do you feel like you have to do ANY of this?!"
Since he was insisted on following her around, Pacifica had Dipper carry her bags as they walked from store to store.
"Someone like YOU wouldn't understand! You're too much of a..."
"A what? Lame-o? Peasant? Poor person?"
"No! A boy!"
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"
"You're a smart boy! A boy, but a smart boy none the less! Figure it out!"
Dipper rolled his eyes. "Whatever, but you do know you're outside of your element on this one, right?"
"Me? How so?"
"These are games for lumberjacks. The roughest, sturdiest, type of people in Gravity Falls."
"So?"
"So you're... Pacifica. You're practically a princess; you're not about mud and bark, you're about lavender perfumes and diamond earrings."
"Dipper, I think you'll find out today there's more to girl than just her interests."
"Yeah but..."
"No more buts, now help me find some functional boots that are still fashion forward."
In the forest area near the town square, everyone had gathered for the first event of the Lumberjack games. Pacifica was dressed in a hot pink flannel shirt, navy blue blue jeans, and a matching set of pink boots. And for good measure, she even bought a pair of novelty hatchet earrings. There was a number of stumps with a large wood pile next to each one accompanied by an axe.
"I don't get a podium this time?" asked Mayor Tyler. He seemed to be asking on of the event coordinators but they could only shrug helplessly at his complaint. "I mean it's fine, I just was under the impression... you know what? Never mind! Good citizens of Gravity Falls, welcome to our first event! Wood chopping! A personal favorite of mine because this one involves audience participation! Contestants, pick an assistant from the audience to hold your wood, and get'em! Get'em!"
Wendy walked out in to the audience and spotted Dipper. However, before she could say anything to him the boy was bowled over in a flying tackle to the ground by Pacifica with a shout of "MINE!"
"I call dibs on Dipper, Red! Wait, dibs...Dipper...He's my Dibsper!" With emphasis upon her new nickname for her crush she hugged his head protectively without even realizing it.
Wendy threw up her hands in a 'calm down' gesture. "Whoa! Okay, I'll just go get Thompson then!"
Pacifica dropped Dipper's head as Wendy backed away.
"What was that all about?!" Dipper snapped.
Pacifica stood up and cleared her throat. She pulled out a fifty dollar bill from her back pocket and hung it from her fingers in front of Dipper.
"Think I could pay you to pretend that didn't happen either?"
"Not before I get some answers! What was up with you back there?!"
Pacifica swallowed a lump in her throat and nervously averted her gaze from him.
"Uhhh...You're... the only one I can trust to help me chop wood! Yeah! That's it! You think I can trust my two REGULAR friends with this? Touching something as dirty as wood? As if!"
"Well that's no excuse for tackling me!"
"Oh! Hey, look! The challenge is starting! We'd better get to our stumps!"
"Alright, fine! But we're not done with this!"
Thankfully, Mayor Tyler hadn't started his speech up again so Dipper and Pacifica were able to get to a free stump with no problems.
"Now this challenge couldn't be any simpler. Our audience members hold the blocks of wood and splitter for our contestants while they chop. The team with the biggest pile of wood is the winner. You have exactly five minutes!" He pulled out a signal gun from his coat pocket and aimed it towards the sky. "Contestants!" *BANG!* "CHOP!"
Pacifica stared down at her axe embedded in her stump and cracked her knuckles by stretching her fingers. This was not an exercise she was used to doing however, so she was surprised when it ended up hurting her a little bit. "...Ow."
"Want me to help get that out for you?" Dipper offered.
"I can handle it!"
She grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled with all her might.
"Oh! They wedged it in there good!" She grunted trying to pull it out several more times. "They knew nothing could budge this out! It's a conspiracy against me!"
Pacifica let go of the handle to catch her breath, she didn't appreciate the eye roll Dipper gave her. He grabbed the handle with one hand and plucked it out effortlessly.
"... Oh sure! After I loosened it!"
Dipper gave her a sympathetic smile and handed her the axe.
"You don't have to take it like that! You know I used to bench press with a stick? I know what it's like to be not quite as strong as you'd like!"
Despite the circumstances, Pacifica found herself laughing at Dipper's little confession.
"Okay, enough fun! Now we gotta chop wood so I can..." Pacifica almost confessed her ulterior motive but thankfully caught herself. Dipper was giving her quite the stare at the moment so she had to think up something quick. "Um... have fun?"
"Right..."
'Great!' Pacifica mentally swore. 'Now he thinks I'm some kind of weirdo!'
"Uh let's just get chopping!" Dipper placed the splitter in the center of the log. "Just hit the center!"
Pacifica lifted the axe over her head and stumbled backwards from the weight of the blade. After regaining her footing Pacifica swung the axe down for all she was worth. The impact forced the splitter in to the wood a little but didn't break it.
"What?! I put everything I had in to that swing!"
"Hit it again, Pacifica! There's still time! Keep at it!"
Pacifica hit it again and again but the splitter went deeper at a very slow pace. She stopped so she could take a moment and wipe some sweat from her brow.
"Well, it is a little harder than I thought but I think I'm making at least some progress. Right Dipper? Dipper?"
Dipper was looking away giving his entire attention to something else.
"Dipper, what are you looking a..." She followed his gaze and dropped her axe at the sight. "Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!"
One stump over, Wendy Coduroy was effortlessly chopping through log after log while her friends cheered on her holder.
"I'm really scared you guys!" Thompson whimpered. "Wendy's really fast!"
"It's just an axe you big baby!" criticized Robby.
"You're doing great, Thompson!" noted Tambry.
"Wendy's going to win because of you!" cheered Nate.
"Thompson! Thompson!"
Their unified chanting made Pacifica grit her teeth in anger. "Dipper! Come on! Focus!"
"Huh? Oh! Sorry!"
Pacifica swung her axe down at the splitter like an angry child with a bat at a pinata party. Dipper was starting to get nervous but she had to stop once the log finally split!
"Quick! The next one! We gotta catch up!" Pacifica ordered.
"Right!"
*BANG!*
"Axes down! The challenge is over!" Mayor Tyler announced. "Everybody line up so your wood can be counted!"
One by one, he inspected everyone's wood pile until he got to Pacifica's.
"Hm. One log? Really? I mean I know you're not built for this stuff but I thought you'd at least have finished a row or something!"
Pacifica crossed her arms and looked away. "Whatever! Like I even care!"
"Okay, moving on then!"
Wendy's pile was so huge it was actually taller than Mayor Tyler. "Whoa-ho-ho! I think we have a winner!" He held up Wendy's arm in victory and the crowd cheered.
Pacifica scowled at the red head but a quick tap on the shoulder snapped her out of her rage. "Huh?"
"Hey Pacifica, I just want you to know that I'm proud you didn't try to buy your way to victory like you normally would."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know; like the singing contest with Mabel? McGucket told me about how you paid him to give you more applause."
Pacifica's eyes shot open in shock. "You know about that?!"
"Yeah, but you didn't try to use money to win this time and... well I guess I'm trying to say is that I'm proud you tried to win fair and square."
He placed his hand on her shoulder and she couldn't help but grin.
"Well it's not an 'I love you' but I guess I'll take it. It's not much but at least it's a little victory."
"Okay, everyone! It's time for the next challenge! Follow me!" announced Mayor Tyler.
As everyone followed their mayor, Wendy actually stopped when she spotted Pacifica's 'wood pile'. She let out a small laugh and smirked at the heiress.
"Don't have a lot of muscle mass on ya, huh? Don't sweat it! I've been chopping wood since I was six!"
With Wendy walking off, Pacifica's vicious rage of jealousy came back in full force.
"Oh yeah?! Well I've been winning competitions since I was four! This isn't over yet by a long shot!"
Dipper frowned as he watched Pacifica storm off with everyone else.
"This is going to get worse before it gets any better. Isn't it?"
The next challenge lead them out of the woods and back in to town at the Greasy's Diner. Fold up tables were placed next to each other out in front as a buffet of breakfast items were on display ranging from pancakes to waffles and everything in between.
Mayor Tyler stood on the steps to the front for the diner. It wasn't a podium but at least it was something he could work with. "Contestants I hope that last challenge worked up an appetite for you because this challenge is an eating contest! You will all five minutes to eat as much of this All American Lumberjack Breakfast Buffet as you possibly can!"
Pacifica sat down at the table with a fork and knife in hand staring uneasily at the smorgasbord before her. She didn't even feel hungry. There was no way she could eat as much as the others. She considered talking to Mabel about using her pig waddles to cheat or perhaps bribing the judges but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Especially not after how Dipper just told her that he was proud of her he was for not resorting to such tactics.
She was up the proverbial creek on this one.
When looking over the food on the table she found the majority of it to be vastly foreign to her. Naturally she knew WHAT the foods were but growing up on fancy foods for a living made her unaware of how tasty or filling each item was. Then there was the toppings which were a complete mystery to her. Like ketchup. Why was there ketchup? Exactly what was she supposed to use ketchup on? The waffles? The eggs? Any of those questions got thrown to the back of her mind when she spotted her inanimate enemy for life. The bane of her existence, the stain on her... well anything really. Blue berries.
Sitting in the center table on her right was a small mug full of blue berries with a spoon sticking out of it. So close. It was sitting so close to her. How had she not noticed it until now? Blue berries were the ultimate creators of stains for all clothing, for a girl as fashion forward as Pacifica they were the enemy to end all enemies.
"DIPPER!"
The boy raced over to her from the crowd. "Pacifica, what's wrong?!"
"The blue berries!"
Dipper looked at the blue berries and then at Pacifica.
"What about them?" he asked quizzically.
Then Pacifica whispered to Dipper in the quietest voice she could muster "Make them go away. Please?"
Pacifica was expecting Dipper to do any number of things here. Rolls his eyes at her, judge her, laugh at her, pretty much anything other than what he actually did. He nodded at her silently and then took the blue berries away and placed them on a different table far away from Pacifica.
Pacifica sighed lovingly at the sight. "I'm going to marry that boy one day." She quickly snapped out of her love daze when she saw Dipper running back to her.
However, before she could say anything to him, all the other contestants ran to their seats.
"Wait! Could we hold up for a second? I just want to..."
*BANG!*
"Hey! That's not fair! I just want a moment to tha..."
"PACIFICA!" Dipper shouted from the front of the crowd. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! JUST EAT!"
She frowned but used her fork to stab a stack of pancakes and drag it over to her plate. She knew she was on the clock so she didn't bother with toppings like whipped cream or the monster which is syrup, but whatever time she may have acquired was quickly lost by her technique. Instead of stuffing the pancakes into her mouth like the other contestants, she was cutting each slice individually in to little squares and eating said squares one at a time. And while she was cutting quickly, the fact that she was eating the pancakes 'raw' as it were caused her to take her time with each bite.
"Oh for the love of... PACIFICA!" Dipper shouted. "You don't have time to do this neatly! If you can't stuff the pancakes then move on to the sausages and bacon strips!"
"You mean the 'greasy' foods?! No way!"
The crowd watched the two bicker back and forth like an old married couple and slowly adoring smiles appeared on their faces.
"Okay, fine then!" Dipper growled. "Move on to the fruit!"
"It's imported right?"
"IMPORTED?!"
"Alright! Alright! I'll try!"
She grabbed a banana and quickly peeled it, it still had some skin on it but she knew she was against the clock so she just wolfed it down. She regretted this choice almost immediately. No more bananas! Not if she had to pluck the skin off!
A muffing had the promise of too many crumbs so she moved on to an orange. It was already peeled so she just sunk her teeth right in to it. As soon as she did though, juice shot up from the hole she made and hit her in the eye. Screaming in pain and surprise, Pacifica fell over backwards in her chair.
*BANG!*
"Forks down everyone! The challenge is over!"
Dipper raced over to Pacifica and propped her up. "Are you okay?"
She rubbed the back of her head as she let Dipper help her sit up. "Did I win?"
"I'm sorry but you didn't even place."
"Then who won?"
Dipper didn't say anything but instead pointed on top of the tables where Wendy stood triumphantly.
"Oh come on!"
Mayor Tyler pinned a blue ribbon to Wendy's multi-stained bib as Wendy threw her arms in to the air victoriously. Pacifica felt her jaw drop as the crowd continuously chanted Wendy's name.
"But how? She's as skinny as a tree!"
"Well Pacifica, some say she has a high metabolism while others say she just burns off all her fat with her extreme antics!"
"It was a rhetorical question, Dipper!" Pacifica snapped.
"I'm sorry. Are you gonna be okay?"
Pacifica stuck out her tongue to emphasize her bloated feeling. "I think I need an antacid. Bad."
"You hang tight. I'll see if I can find you one."
"What? Dipper, exactly where are you expecting to find..."
Pacifica's inquiries fell on deaf ears as Dipper was already asking people from the crowd if they had any antacid tablets on them. Pacifica sighed tiredly and watched Dipper with a loving smile. "What am I going to do with that boy?"
The next stop in the Lumberjack Games lead Dipper, Mabel, and even Pacifica to a place none of them had ever been to before, the Gravity Falls Lumber Mill. The mill itself was a large open aired warehouse but neither the Pines twins nor Pacifica had a chance to look inside since the challenge was set up outside in front of the building. Log posts stood in a row a few feet away from the building, nailed to these posts were wooden bullseye targets. The bullseye was made up of three rings, a green outer ring, a blue middle ring, and a red center ring. The red center was so small only a child's hand would be able to cover it, so Pacifica figured that would most likely be what she would have to aim for.
"Attention everyone! Our third challenge brings us to the Gravity Falls Lumber Mill where we create our chief export, the very life blood of our town, lumber. This challenge was created by the good workers of our mill to spice up our little games. The challenge itself is similar to a game of darts, but instead of actual darts our contestants will be using hatchets. The center ring is worth one hundred and fifty points, the middle ring is worth thirty points, and the outer ring is worth five. Everyone will have exactly five hatchets; that's five tries to build up as many points as you can. There are no retries, I cannot stress that enough!"
Pacifica dropped her antacid pill in to her cup of water and let it fizz for a moment. She stared intensely at the targets as she took a drink. She had been doing very poorly in these games, it was obvious for anyone to see, and it didn't look like that was going to change anytime soon. And then there was Dipper, the boy she was participating in these whole games for; his nagging for her to quit was really getting on her nerves.
'And here comes Dipper now.'
"Pacifica, you have to quit now! You remember how you did in the wood chopping challenge, and this time you're going to have to actually THROW the axe!"
"Hatchet."
"Same thing!"
"Not really. The hatchets are a lot smal..."
"Whatever! My point is you gotta quit NOW!"
"Oh you'd just loooooove that, wouldn't you?! Well too bad! I'm not quitting until I win!"
"Grrr! Why do you always have to be so stubborn?!"
"I don't know, why can't you look at what's right in fro..."
"Shiiiiiiiiiiii-ip!" The sound of Mabel's voice cut Pacifica off. It was then they noticed Mabel circling them crouched down, her tuft of hair poking above like a shark fin.
"Shiiiiiiiiiiii-ip! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship! Ship!"
"Dipper, why is your sister circling us and saying the word 'ship' to the theme of Jaws?"
"Because my sister isn't just a hopeless romantic, she's a dangerous one."
"Should we, like, run and hide or something?"
"No, just duck when I tell you."
"YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE!"
"NOW!"
Mabel soared over their heads as she tried to hug tackle the two of them only to be met with air. Unfortunately this lead her to crash on the ground; sliding on the dirt before coming to an eventual stop. Dipper and Pacifica quickly raced to her side.
"Whoa, sorry about that Mabel. I didn't think you'd get such a rough landing." Dipper apologized, helping his sister to her feet.
"Are you okay?"
"Oh don't worry about me you guys! It takes a lot more than a rough landing to keep THIS Mabel down!" Mabel boasted. Mabel had a coughing fit for a second but pounded her chest a couple of times forcing a twig to come flying out of her mouth. "That's nothing. Anyways, what I really wanted to point out is the two of you! It is so ADORABLE how you two are arguing like an old married couple!"
"What?! Uh no!"
"No we're not!"
"So precious!"
Pacifica stomped the ground in anger. "Ugh! I don't have time for this, I have to get to my spot or whatever."
Mabel let Pacifica walk off in a huff, content on savoring the blush on the heiress' face. She turned her attention to Dipper who was busy burying his face in to his palm.
"Mabel, could you just not play matchmaker today? Especially with me and Pacifica? She's acting weird enough as it is and I can't have you getting her angry on top of that!"
One of Mabel's famous ear to ear smiles raced across her face. "So she's acting 'weird' huh?"
"Stop smiling like that! And stop 'shipping' me!"
"NEVER!"
"But yes, she's acting weird. She won't duck out of these games but if she keeps going like this she's going to end up getting herself hurt! I try to tell her to quit while she's still in one piece but that only makes her mad for some reason!"
"Okay Goober, time for real talk. I don't think I should tell you why she's in the contest but do you know why she gets mad? Because everybody in this contest, you included, keeps telling her to quit! That she's not good enough! There is nobody who believes she can live up to these challenges. Don't you know what that's like, to have no one believe in you? That you're not up to snuff?"
A mental image of Dipper being inside the Greasy Diner and failing a manly test flashed in his mind for a second.
*BANG!*
"Oh no! The challenge started!"
As Dipper ran off he failed to notice the growing grin on Mabel's face.
"Yep! I'm still a master match maker!" With that being said she took a pair of pink sunglasses out of her pocket and placed if on her face. "Now get your princess, Bro Bro."
Pacifica Northwest was having the worst time yet. She had her turn first this time so none of the others had gone yet, which was bad since it meant all eyes were literally on her. She had thrown her other four axes and her throwing arm only made them go a couple of feet in front of her.
'How long are you going to let your feelings for Dipper embarrass yourself? You're a Northwest, you got a reputation to think of! And all because of a stupid boy who doesn't even believe in you, you might...'
"GO PACIFICA!"
"Huh?"
From the sidelines Pacifica spotted Dipper, and he was actually cheering for her.
"YOU CAN DO IT, PACIFICA! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
This changed everything for Pacifica. Her face blushed to the point where she thought it might catch on fire but she didn't care; she was beaming to the point where her face was actually starting to hurt.
'He believes in you! HE BELIEVES IN YOU! You can't stop now girl! He's watching AND cheering for you! You're never going to get a better opportunity than this to actually impress him! Don't blow it!'
She reeled her hatchet back, closed her eyes, and threw it with all her might.
*CHUNK!*
She slowly opened her eyes. The sound of metal striking wood was promising to her but she didn't want to get her hopes up. Eyes opened, she saw her hatchet was embedded in the very center of the bullseye.
"I hit it? I HIT IT! I ACTUALLY HIT IT! Dipper, did you see that?!"
"Way to go Pacifica!"
"Ha!" Pacifica pointed at Wendy. "A bullseye! Let's see you top that, BOOTSTRAP!"
Pacifica turned her attention back to Dipper who was facepalming now for some reason.
"Fine by me." Wendy shrugged. "It's my turn now anyways."
Wendy scooped up her hatchets and threw them at her target effortlessly one at a time. The first hit the center of the bullseye just like Pacifica's but the next one hit the first's handle and stuck out of it like a thorn. The third did the same to second which was done to the first, and the fourth and fifth followed the pattern which was set.
Pacifica's jaw dropped, the action Wendy just managed to pull off couldn't have been physically possible. It just couldn't. Even as the others took their turn Pacifica still stood in her stupor at the sight which she had just witnessed.
She was brought back to Earth when she noticed Dipper was inspecting Wendy's hatchets. He was careful not to actually touch any of them, especially when he went underneath it.
"Man, this is actually pretty cool!"
"Dipper!" Pacifica scolded.
Dipper stood at attention at the sudden call of his name. He had a nervous look on his face like when a child gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"I wasn't doing anything!"
This time the challenge lead everyone to the trees surrounding the back of the Mystery Shack. Since the Pines family had helped everyone in Gravity Falls, they Mystery Shack had become a cherished town landmark so Mayor Tyler was more than willing to pay to have the place involved with the games.
This next challenge was tree climbing, sounded simple enough but you needed special spiked boots to compete. Each boot had two large blades by the heel on each side. And Dipper, for reasons unknown to himself, was continuing to help Pacifica. Her constant complaining and criticism of the game was starting to work on his last nerves.
"Yuck! These boots are so ugly!"
"They don't have to be pretty, they just have to help you climb!"
Pacifica rolled her eyes. "These games are so dumb!"
"Then why do you want to be a part of them?! If it's so terrible then why don't you just quit?!"
"Ugh! You just wouldn't understand!"
"Then help me understand! Explain to me why you want to participate in challenges where you're only going to get frustrated and embarrassed?!"
Pacifica eyed him oddly for a moment. As if he had just said something shocking and hurtful to her, the glimmer of disbelief in her eyes shimmered visibly for a moment.
Before Dipper could say anything about it, Pacifica shook her head furiously shaking away anything remaining of those feelings.
She glared at Dipper in a way no other girl ever had before. There was a mix of insult and disappointment in it which made Dipper feel as if he were nine inches tall.
"Are you trying to say you don't think I can do it?!"
"Well... no, I'm not saying that exactly... but..."
"You know what?! I was finally feeling good about myself! Like I actually had someone in my corner! Just when I was finally feeling confident, like someone believed in me, you give me that cold splash of reality to remind me that I'm alone in this!"
"You're not alone!" Dipper snapped. "I HAVE been helping you! I've been helping you in every challenge you've been in! I held the logs for you, I got rid of the blue berries, I even cheered for you when you were throwing your hatchets!"
Dipper was expecting a lot of reactions for Pacifica to give him at snapping at her, but what she gave him was not one of them. Instead of getting angry at him or crying, she smiled at him much to his confusion.
"So what you're saying is that no matter what you're in this with me for the long haul?"
There was such a sparkle of hope in her eyes Dipper wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to it.
"Um... well...I do think you should quit but only because you don't seem to be good at these games and... listen, I just don't want to see you get hurt!"
"Well do you know what you're about to see?" Pacifica stood up, the blades sinking in to the ground. "Pacifica Northwest is a champion! I got my own trophy case for crying out loud! And I never back down from a challenge! Even if I have the odds against me! I'm coming out on top no matter what!"
She took two steps forward with her hiking boots and then fell flat on her face with a force which made Dipper wince.
"Would you like me to help walk you to the next event?"
Still flat on her face, she let out a helpless, muffled "Yes please!" to Dipper.
Mayor Tyler cleared his throat before speaking. "This next challenge is... Oh! What's this?"
The sight of Dipper and Pacifica walking together commanded the total attention of the crowd. Pacifica was leaning on Dipper for support and Dipper, just to make things less embarrassing for Pacifica, was moving his legs in time with Pacifica's making it fun for the both of them.
Finally making it to the front of the crowd, Dipper and Pacifica fell over and laughed together for a good two minutes. When the laughter finally died down, Pacifica felt the crowd's eyes on her and blushed in embarrassment.
"Ahem. Dipper was just, like, helping me walk to... here."
With everyone watching her she had never felt more exposed, and all the smiles on the crowd certainly didn't help matters.
"Well let's hear it for the little gentleman then!"
Upon the mayor's command, the whole crowd uproared in a cheer for the young Pines boy. Dipper blushed bashfully under the crowd's flattering approval and chuckled nervously.
"Alright, that's enough gushing everyone. Our next challenge is a little more difficult. Tree climbing! A flag is set at the goal height for each contestant's tree. Each contestant must climb to the goal height, retrieve their flag, and come back down. And no, you can't just jump down!"
For that last bit Mayor Tyler looked directly at Wendy who sheepishly chuckled under his gaze. "You each are assigned a tree, if you follow me I'll lead you right to them."
One by one he lead them each to their tree which collectively formed a semicircle. Wendy however, did not join in just yet, she wanted to have a word with Dipper first. She found the young teenager dusting himself down from the fall he had with Pacifica.
"Hey Captain Funtimes!"
"Wendy!"
Dipper immediately stood up straight as the redhead walked over to him.
"So what's this with you and Pacifica?"
"Pacifica?"
"Yeah, you seem to be helping her out a lot. Is she like your new girlfriend or something?"
It was an honest question but it made Dipper blush furiously almost immediately.
"Wh-What?! No! Of course not! How could you even think that?!"
"Are you sure dude? It wasn't me you were cheering for back there."
"What?! I could cheer for you! All you had to was ask!"
"No, you're missing the point! Dude, you chose to cheer for Pacifica and..."
"She needed it! I was only helping a friend, I'd do the same for anyone! I just want her to come out of this in one piece!"
Wendy frowned and gave him a curious look. "Alright dude, if you say so... I gotta get to my stump but you think about what I said."
Dipper watched Wendy's back as she walked away, he absentmindedly scratched his elbow as thoughts turned to Pacifica.
Wendy whistled a little tune as walked to her stump. Dipper was a good kid but in Wendy's opinion he needed to learn to be more honest with his own feelings.
Her stump was the last one on the right but to her surprise, the stump next to her belonged to the very girl she and Dipper were talking about.
Pacifica stretched her arms behind her back, it forced her to bend over but anything that could save her from looking up at the height of the tree was more than welcomed to her. She didn't even want to imagine how high the flag was.
"Hey Paz! Guess we're neighbors in this challenge." greeted Wendy.
Pacifica jumped a little at Wendy's voice, she honestly hadn't heard the girl approach. She shook off her stupor and glared at Wendy defiantly.
"Whatever! I'm gonna beat you!"
Wendy smirked at Pacifica's challenge. "Gutsy kid, but are you sure you can do this? You can't just have your butler climb FOR you, ya know?"
"I can do this! There are branches on the bottom for footholds so I can get a leg up!"
Wendy almost laughed at the heiress' naivety but managed to keep it to herself.
"Yeah but I don't think you have the muscles to get all the way up to the flag. Sure you don't want to bail out? I'm sure nobody would think less of you for it."
Pacifica shot her eye towards Dipper and saw he was giving the two of them his undivided attention.
"No way! Anything you can do, I can do better! And I'm going to prove it!"
Wendy's smirk grew. "You got moxy kid. More than I would have expected. Game on Princess!"
"Contestants get ready!" Mayor Tyler ordered.
Pacifica did some stretches on her stump while she waited. She didn't know what type of stretches were supposed to help her in this challenge but she made sure to stretch everything just to be safe. She made sure to focus on her arms since that was probably what she was going to be using those the most.
"Alright! Go Pacifica!" Dipper cheered.
Pacifica smiled as she posed herself to get a jumping start on her climb.
"And you know, go Wendy too or whatever!"
"Hey!" Pacifica snapped. "What the..."
*BANG!*
"CLIMB!"
Thanks to Dipper, Pacifica had lost her mind set and failed to remember her plan of a jump start. She stumbled a little in her charge towards the tree but hugged the trunk and steadied herself. This made her actual start very slow and awkward, it took her a moment just to get a good foothold.
"Need a little help there, Pacifica?" Dipper offered.
"After you just cheered for 'Wendy'? No way! Take a hike, I can do this without a backstabber like you!"
"Backstabber?!"
"That's right! I don't need your charity cheering!"
"But I... it wasn't..."
"Save it for somebody who cares! You've only been helping me because you feel sorry for me! Push comes to shove, it's clear whose side you're really on! I'm in this ALONE for the long haul! Go and talk to your uncles or something! I don't care what you do, just leave me alone!"
Dipper felt a fury from within rise to the surface, he had never felt a whirlwind of emotions like this. Outrage, shock, frustration, but most surprising of all was that there was good bit of sadness thrown in as well.
"Alright fine! Maybe I will!"
"Good! I don't need you anyways!"
If Dipper had only looked back just once while he was stomping off he would have seen Pacifica wipe away some tears from her face.
"Just climb girl. You can fix your makeup later!"
It took her a little longer than she would have liked to admit but she finally started to gain some ground in her climb. However, she could not find herself able to enjoy the progress she had made since she was still feeling upset with Dipper.
"Stupid Dipper!" she grumbled to herself. "If he's so smart why can't he figure out why I'm doing this? Why AM I doing this? I've crushes before but I never resorted to something as physical as climbing a tree. Sigh. What is wrong with me?"
"Well for starters your make up seems to be running."
Pacifica almost lost her grip at the new voice. Over on her left was Wendy, she was sitting on a branch with her back against the trunk and her legs resting on the branch.
"What do you doing here?! Shouldn't you have, like, already won this challenge or something?!"
"Eh I'm just hanging out here so I can give the others a fighting chance at winning. Can't make it too easy, you know?"
Pacifica fought back an eye roll. "Yeah. Sure. Great."
"Listen how about I help with your makeup there? This way when you come down it won't look like you've been crying."
"Why would you do that for me? Furthermore, why should I trust you?! You're the competition!"
"Well first off we do have some history together, we went through Weirdmageddon together at the end. Second, despite my reputation I do know how to fix makeup when it runs, been there. And finally third, I think we both know you don't want anyone to see you with smeared make up."
"Alright, fine! You've made your point! I don't know what you expect me to do though, I can't jump over to your tree or I'll be disqualified and junk."
"I'm not asking for much, just lean your head in my direction and I'll take care of the rest. After all, I'm the one 'out on a limb' for you."
"Is that supposed to be funny?"
"It's hilarious!"
Pacifica leaned her head over in Wendy's direction as the red head took a wash cloth from her pocket to Pacifica's face.
"Just hold still. I know you wouldn't want Dipper to see you with smeared makeup on."
Pacifica's face immediately started to blush.
"Yeah right, like I care! He's just a stupid lame-o nerd!"
"Uh duh! That's the point! That's who he is and something about that struck a chord with you."
Pacifica blush only intensified with this accusation. "I... you see..."
"Save it. I think we both know why you're still in this competition."
As hard as she thought, Pacifica couldn't come up with anything to say. There was no escape from this one, Wendy had her down pat. There was nothing; so she clung the to tree silently and let the flannel girl continue.
"Now I know he's a dweeb, and he isn't as quiet as he likes to think he is, especially when he's 'taking-under-his-breath'. And despite him being so smart he doesn't always realize the emotional impact he can have on his friends and family."
"I... wouldn't know anything about that."
Wendy rolled her eyes. "Yeah I'm so sure! Anyways, the point I'm trying to make here is that he doesn't really want to hurt anybody. If he does, then he's probably in the dark about it. Try to cut him a little slack. He is a boy after all."
Despite everything Pacifica went through she still let a small chuckle.
"Well your face is cleaned and I've said what I wanted to say. Anything you want to say?"
Pacifica knew Wendy was her competition, she knew she still had to face Dipper down on the ground about their little tiff, but despite all of this... Wendy still made her feel better about her whole ordeals. She felt... lighter now. Maybe Wendy wasn't so bad after all. She didn't know what she 'should' or rather 'could' say to Wendy so she just said the first thing that popped in to her mind.
"I will give you five hundred dollars for that hat!"
Wendy laughed at the offer before turning around and beginning her climb a new.
"Sorry, but it's not for sale. I'll see you on the ground, I think I've given these posers enough of a head start."
As Wendy climbed up past Pacifica, the struggling blonde shouted to her "I could always add some zeros to that price!"
With Wendy gone, Pacifica was left with two choices. Up or down. Victory or defeat. To try or quit.
She looked down and immediately regretted it, the crowd looked so small to her she let out a scared squeak, then she looked up. Wendy was speeding past the others but hadn't gotten her flag yet. The others were past Pacifica too but not by as much as she had feared.
"No! Not yet! I'm not done with these games yet! Win or lose! I'm not going to just quit! I refuse!"
With renewed vigor she threw her arm up and grabbed a new handhold of a branch. She hoisted herself up continued her climb with an ease she had not before.
'I can't believe I'm actually doing this. Not even five minutes ago I was ready to collapse and now I'm doing better than ever! Is this that 'second wind' thing everyone always talks about?'
Just as Pacifica was starting to pick up speed, Wendy slid down her own tree holding her flag but stopped when she reached Pacifica's level.
"You got your flag already?!"
"You might feel like a princess with all the big money you throw around but in these games I'm the queen sucker!"
Pacifica glared at Wendy as she slid her way down to the ground. 'And just like that, I hate her again!'
Down on the ground, Dipper was sitting on the porch steps of the Mystery Shack wearing an angry pout on his face. He could hear his great uncles talking about him inside the gift shop.
"I don't know, what's the proper great uncle protocol here? You've been at this job longer than I have.""
"The proper term is Grunkle."
"It's the same thing, Stanley!"
"I can hear you ya know!" Dipper shouted to them.
The Stan twins walked over to Dipper and sat down next to him.
"Hey kiddo, thinkin' about how Miss Bucks'a'Plenty gave ya the cold shoulder?"
"I just don't understand it. I thought me and her were good but when I cheered for Wendy she turned around and bit my head off."
Dipper's Great Uncles made a noise of understanding.
"Okay, I understand what you're going through. Girls can be crazy with their mood swings and their balls-targeting high heels!"
"Their what?"
"Never mind that!" Ford snapped with a glare at his brother. "Listen Dipper, when a woman is this mad at you there's only one thing to do. Apologize."
"What?! But I didn't do anything wrong!"
"You might want to listen to him, Dipper." Stanley agreed. "My know-it-all brother tends to know what he's talking about. Even if he does have less experience with the ladies then me."
"Hey! What's that supposed to... ugh, whatever! What it ultimately boils down to is a question. 'Do you want her mad at you?'"
Dipper thought about it for a moment and then hung his head.
"No... I guess not. It's just she keeps going at these games and I know if she doesn't quit something bad is going to happen to her! She says she's doing this because 'Northwest are the best' and 'Northwests never back down from a challenge' but no matter what she says I know that's not why she's really doing this!"
"Well how does that make you feel?" Ford asked.
Stanley rolled his eyes at his brother's therapist attempt.
"I don't know... scared she's going to hurt herself... confused as to why she's doing this in the first place, angry that she's pushing me away, sad I made her upset... but surprisingly, I also don't want to see her lose... which doesn't really make all that much sense. Why do girls got to be so confusing?!"
"You really seem to care about how she's doing in this." Stanley noted.
With a smirk Ford added "Ever thought as to why?"
For reasons unknown to himself he blushed as red as a tomato at the question.
"I... don't know. I guess I just know it's going to make her more upset which is probably going to make her more reckless! Which is going to get her hurt!" As Dipper droned on his Uncles shared a knowing look. "What's wrong with her?! What's wrong with ME? Why do I even care, it's none of my business really. I..."
A sudden gasp from the crowd rose some alarms from inside Dipper. "I gotta go help Pacifica!"
As Dipper raced off, the Stan twins each wiped away a tear.
"They grow up so fast!"
"Seems like just yesterday he was having a showdown with an alien security drone to keep me from being transported across the universe!"
"Yeah... wait! He was what?!"
Dipper ran to the front of the crowd and looked up at Pacifica's tree. He joined them in the shocked awe as he witnessed Pacifica hanging from a broken branch. The fresh green insides of the branch told of it's strong healthy connection to the tree. Pacifica held on to it with one hand, dangling in the air like a Christmas Tree ornament.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
"Mabel, go get the golf cart! The special one me, Soos, and Wendy tricked out that one time forcing Grunkle Stan to buy a new one!" Dipper ordered.
"The one you guys crashed in to the roof? Did Soos even finish repairing it?"
"Yes! He keeps it in the garage, now go get it!" As Mabel ran off Dipper turned his attention to Soos. "Soos, I need a ramp here and I need it yesterday!"
Soos held up his power drill and gave Dipper a salute. "Right, bring out yesterday's ramp! On it!"
"Wait, you made a ramp yester...forget it! Just go get it Soos! PACIFICA, IT'S DIPPER! I'M GOING TO SAVE YOU!" he yelled up to her.
"YOU'D BETTER!" Pacifica snapped
A sudden screeching told Dipper that Mabel had just arrived with the Soos-ified golf cart. She jumped out and pointed at it with her arms in a 'Ta-Da' gesture. Because Soos had decided to make 'As rad as possible' it had all types of bells and whistles on it. This included but was not limited to: Purple flames painted on the front, a spoiler on top of the canopy, a pirate ship steering wheel, and a space muro painted on the back.
"Great! SOOS, WHERE'S THAT RAMP?!"
"OVER HERE, DUDE!"
Behind the crowd was huge ramp made of wood, prompt up by a large barrel. "If you're ready to roll then it's ready to... be a ramp. Aw geez, I really need to work on my rhyming!" Soos shook his head in shame. "Dude, it's just getting sad now."
Dipper was about to comfort Soos on the matter when a scream from Pacifica alerted Dipper that the broken branch she was hanging to was about to give way.
"Work on it later, Soos!"
Dipper raced to the golf cart, thankfully Mabel had kept it running.
"EVERYONE LOOK OUT! COMING THROUGH!"
The crowd dodged out of the way as the golf cart came barreling through them. Thankfully nobody was hurt but Mayor Tylor did make a mental note to have the police investigate that golf cart. Making a sharp u-turn Dipper got his vehicle in front of the ramp, there was some distance between him and the incline.
"I wonder if this is a good idea?" Dipper pondered.
"AAAAGH!"
"No time to second guess it!"
The golf cart peeled out in place as Dipper floored the gas pedal before shooting forward. Dipper screamed as the cart rocketed up the ramp and in to the air. When Dipper saw Pacifica falling he knew there was only one way he could catch her in time.
"Time to hit the nitros boosters!"
Dipper slammed his hand down on a button in the center of the 'steering wheel' activating the illegal boosters hurdling the cart even faster. Pacifica landed on the canopy rougher than she would have appreciated; the speed of the golf cart forced her down through the canopy where she landed in the passenger seat next to Dipper. Normally she would have been delighted by such a position but with the cart hurtling towards the ground all she could do was scream.
As soon as the golf cart hit the ground Pacifica threw her arms around Dipper and hung on for dear life. The golf cart swerved left and right as Dipper did his best to steer them away from the trees. Screaming in unison, Pacifica finally let go of Dipper just in time for him to apply the breaks. He didn't slam down on it because he knew it would have sent them both flying out of the cart; instead he tried to gradually press on the break as he tried to steer them to a place with less trees.
Pacifica realized that she still had the broken branch she had been holding on to in her hand. In an attempt to slow down the golf cart she jammed the broken end of the branch down on the speeding ground but instead of slowing the vehicle down it broke in to pieces instead. She pulled her hand out right away, it felt like she had splinters now.
Things seemed utterly hopeless until much to both the passengers' surprise something long and white appeared ahead in the distance.
"What is that?"
"Looks like..." Dipper squinted his eyes as he tried to make it out. "Some type of banner? Banner! It's Mabel!"
"Mabel?!"
"It's one of Mabel's party banners, the type she does for her sleepover parties! She must have set it to catch us!"
"How'd she get all of that done so fast though?!"
"You'd be surprised what my sister can do with three shots Mabel Juice!"
Once again, they screamed in unison as the golf cart hurdled them towards the banner.
*FWOOMP!*
The golf cart had halted completely with Mable's banner covering the cart and it's passengers.
"Well..." Pacifica and Dipper both worked to get the banner off the cart and out of their faces. "That was absolutely terrifying!"
"'Absolutely terrifying'?!" Dipper echoed. "You want to know what was 'absolutely terrifying' for me?! Seeing you nearly fall to your death! Now do you see what I mean when I say that these games are too dangerous for you?! I mean seriously, do you have ANYTHING to defend your actions right now?!"
Pacifica said nothing, for she did not need to, instead held up the flag she was supposed to get. Dipper looked on with a face of disbelief which slowly turned in to a smile. "I don't believe it! You actually got the flag?"
"Yep. I was on my way down the branch broke."
Despite everything, Dipper actually started to laugh and before long Pacifica started to laugh too. None of them knew exactly why they were laughing or what was supposed to be so funny but it felt good all the same. The laughter came to an abrupt end when Pacifica suddenly winced in pain.
Pacifica held out her hand and revealed splinters sticking out of her palm. "Must have been from the branch I fell with. I kind of used to try and slow down the cart... didn't go so well and..."
A sigh from Dipper put an end to Pacifica's ramblings. "Let me see it."
He reached in to his hat's ear flap and pulled out a pair of tweezers.
"What? Where did that come from?" Pacifica asked.
"Sometimes," Dipper started as he began to pull out splinters "On my mystery solving adventures I'm little empty handed, so I had Mabel sew some pockets in to the hat so I would always have some bare essentials with me."
'So what, he always has a pair of tweezers hanging next to his head?' Pacifica let out a small chortle at such a thing. "Lame-o."
Dipper raised an eyebrow at her insult but when he saw she was smiling at him he guessed it was meant to be more of a playful jab if anything. So he shrugged it off and continued his work.
"I guess I don't need to worry about you anymore today. You didn't climb down so I guess you got disqualified."
"Technically I'm still in the game."
"Huh?"
"He said I couldn't 'jump' down, I fell. I didn't plan for it but the important thing is I still got my flag."
Dipper sighed in defeat and shook his head. "Fine. I haven't been able to convince you to drop out so far, so why would that change now? There! I'm finished, your hand is now splinter free. I guess we should head back now and let everyone know you're okay."
"Carry me."
"Excuse me?!"
"We've already established I can't walk in these boots and believe it or not there's a lot of mud surrounding us right now..." Dipper leaned over the side of the cart and saw the blades of grass were individually sticking up out of the mud ground.
"How did... wait, did Mabel take this in to account too? A precaution in case the banner didn't work? That's actually pretty smart for her." Dipper noted.
"Like I was saying; I can't walk in these boots on normal ground without your help so this mud is pretty much out of the question. So unless you can get the cart up and running..."
Dipper looked towards the hood of the engine; smoke was starting to rise from it. This thing wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, Soos would probably have to tow it back to the shack. He turned back to Pacifica who was smiling at him triumphantly.
"I'd suggest you'd start doing some stretches. Now then, I accept two forms of carrying me. I'll which one up to you. Now then, piggyback or bridal?"
A couple of seconds later, Dipper was carrying Pacifica bridal style although he didn't appear to be very happy about it. Perhaps it was because Pacifica weighed more than he would have guessed, making him move with slow calculated steps. The mud was deeper than it looked, he was already up to his ankles in it, and because of this his 'slow calculated steps' caused a splash for every step forward.
Pacifica on the other hand was enjoying it to no end, completely oblivious to Dipper's discomfort.
"Wow Dipper, I didn't expect you to actually pick bridal style! I'm flattered!"
"Don't be!"
"Huh?"
"I think we both know if I picked 'piggyback' you would've used the blades on your boots as spurs!"
"That's not true... I think!" Pacifica seemed to stare off in to space for a moment. "I hope!"
"I'm hoping that maybe NOW you want to tell me what you're trying to get out of all this?! Seriously, you almost died back there!"
"I..." Pacifica turned away. "All I can say is... thank you Dipper, for saving my life."
"You still don't want to tell me?!"
"...sorry... I can't..."
Dipper said nothing but started to walk faster.
The final challenge was taking place at Lake Gravity Falls for the most absurd lumberjack game Pacifica had ever heard of, log rolling. From what she understood, two contestants would stand on a log in the water and run in place rolling the log. The first one to fall off in to the water loses, the whole thing sounded pointless to Pacifica.
She sat on a log bench away from the shore and rolled her eyes. "Commoners..."
Pacifica spotted Wendy rolling three logs down the hill towards the lake. She was doing this by actually running backwards on top of one of the logs, how she managed to keep all three on the road was a mystery to Pacifica.
She knew Dipper was going to show up at some point to try and yet again talk her out of these crazy games. Pacifica wasn't stupid though, she knew exactly how terrible she was doing in these games. She got bruises which were going to hang around for the rest of the summer, most likely. However, she knew this was her last chance to beat Dipper's crush at her own game. She wasn't going to stop now!
She watched as Wendy rolled the logs to the dock and jumped off at the last moment, landing effortlessly on the ground.
"Show off..." Pacifica scoffed.
Soos rose up from behind Pacifica's log bench and got her attention with a little tap on her shoulder. She jumped a little and stared at Soos for a moment. When the surprise and awkwardness finally wore off, Soos finally spoke up.
"Dude, it's like you're the robot dude and Wendy is the air based robot which you just can't seem to defeat! We should totally sing a song about it!"
"...I don't understand a word of what you just said, so I'm just going to pretend you didn't say anything. See ya later Soos!"
Soos waved goodbye as Pacifica walked down the road (she got her regular boots back) towards the lake.
"Okay, maybe later then? I got to get Mabel in on this idea!"
Pacifica arrived at the docks just in time for Mayor Tyler to begin his speech. "And here we are at Lake Gravity Falls for the finale of our games. Log rolling is simplicity in itself; two contestants to a log where they both start running on the log trying to get their opponent to fall off the log and in to the water. You fall in the drink and you're out! Match ups are decided by lots and..."
What he said next Pacifica never got to hear as Dipper appeared and motioned for her to follow him. He lead her away from the crowd to the base of the hill, he did a quick look around to make sure nobody was around to butt in or eavesdrop. When it was clear that they were alone he let out a sigh of relief.
"Okay Pacifica, I've been thinking about this long and hard and you've got to pull out! Like now!"
"What?!"
"That last challenge was too close of a call for you! You need to drop out!"
"No!"
"Why not?! Exactly what are you trying to gain from this?!"
"Grrr! You're so stupid! If you were half the nerd you looked like then you would've been able to figure it out by now!"
"Then just tell me! If I'm so 'stupid' then why don't you give me a clue?! Huh?! You are giving me NOTHING to work with here other than guess work! I have done nothing but help you and in return you've given me NO answers to my questions!"
"That's because YOU'RE supposed to figure it out! YOU'RE the mystery hunter! YOU'RE the sleuth! YOU'RE the know it all! YOU'RE supposed to find the answers!"
"But not when you're fighting against me on it! I can't help you if you don't let me!"
"OH YEAH?! WELL I NEVER ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!"
"FINE THEN! DO THIS ALONE, SEE IF I CARE!"
"FINE!"
The two stormed off in different directions but Pacifica could have sworn she heard Mabel shoot out from the bushes and chase after her brother.
Pacifica rejoined the crowd just as it was starting to disperse. Thankfully she caught Mayor Tyler's eye, he had been waiting for her by the looks of it.
"I'm sorry Mayor Tyler, I had something... personal to take care of. You said that the match ups were going to be decided by 'lots'?"
"Yes I did, sweetie. But the thing is we've already drawn the lots without you. You're on log three, you're up against Wendy."
"Of course I am, I've been going up against her all day! Why would that change now?"
Log three had been easy enough to find, it had been right there in the water next to the dock. She was hesitant about boarding it though, the way it bobbed up and down in the water made her afraid that she would fall in to the water as soon as she TRIED to step on it.
"Hey there Princess, need some help?"
Pacifica jumped at the sound of Wendy's voice. Turning around, Pacifica found Wendy staring down at her as nonchalant as ever. Before Pacifica could offer a retort, Wendy picked her up by the back of her shirt. Then with a simple step, Wendy walked on to the log and placed Pacifica down in front of her.
"Don't expect a thank you or anything! I didn't ask you to do that for me!"
"I wasn't looking for one."
As other contestants got to their logs, Pacifica looked out to the audience to see if she could spot Dipper. There he was, in the front row. Their eyes met and then he turned his back to her. A small mixture of shame and guilt at making him feel like this but she shoved those thoughts away.
She looked up at Wendy and growled in frustration at her completely relaxed attitude. Pacifica would never adopt such a mannerism when it came to competition, especially now. She knew this was it, her last shot, her all-or-nothing gambit, she HAD to win this one!
"Contestant on your mark!" Mayor Tyler announced.
Pacifica started to do some deep breathing exercises for preparation.
"Get set!"
Pacifica stopped her deep breathing exercises and got in to a ready position.
*BANG!* "Roll!"
Wendy crossed her arms and started to roll the log forward by pacing backwards. To her surprise, Pacifica kept pace without a problem. Wendy went a little faster but Pacifica continued to keep up. Finally, Wendy decided to give her a real test and sped the log up to a pace she would've kept reserved for only major competitors. Pacifica was out of breath but she stayed on the log just as easily as any of the other competitors.
"Pretty good Princess! I'm actually impressed; I thought for sure you'd be in the water a few rolls ago!"
Pacifica ignored the compliment and just pointed at Wendy dramatically.
"You're going down!"
"Well I don't about that. I'm impressed you can keep up with me but it takes more than guts to take me down!"
Wendy sped up her rolling but to her surprise Pacifica was still keeping up.
Pacifica was running out of breath and she was pretty sure she had never sweated this much in her entire life but her little mantra she was chanting under her breath kept her going. "Not yet! Not done yet! I'm not beat yet! I can keep going!"
At first Wendy stared at her like she was some type of crazy person but when she stumbled a little from the log it all started to make sense. Pacifica was doing more than just keeping up, she was trying to speed up the log as well. To take advantage of Wendy underestimating her, Pacifica was starting to take control of the log.
Wendy almost fell in to the water when Pacifica sped up the log again but she quickly adjusted herself. 'Okay, no more kid gloves!'
"Ha! See that, Redwood? I can take anything you can dish out AND give it back!"
"I'm not so sure about that. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed you took control of the log from when my guard was down but..." Wendy jumped up and landed on the log, stopping it cold. "This competition's over!"
Pacifica screamed as she was hurdled through the air and in to the lake.
*SPLASH!*
"And Pacifica Northwest is the first to be eliminated from the log rolling challenge!" Mayor Tyler announced. "Better luck next time, Hon. Who will be next to fall in to the drink?"
Pacifica swam to shore silently, she could see Dipper in the front of the crowd waiting for her. She walked on the lake bed until she found herself in front of Dipper, she knew there was no way to avoid him after that challenge. She stood silently waiting for Dipper to say something, she wasn't even all the way out of the water yet, her feet still hadn't technically made it out of the water. Finally deciding she couldn't take the silence anymore she spoke up.
"So is this part where you say 'I told you so'?"
Dipper gave her a glare and crossed her arms.
"No, this is the part where you tell me why! Why did you want to do all this?! I'm sorry I can't just read your mind and automatically know why you did this but you chose not to tell me anything! Now tell me why! Why would you put yourself through so much?!"
"BECAUSE I LIKED YOU!"
With her shout she pushed Dipper down to the ground. "I'm sorry for ever thinking that I could get you to look at me the way you look at her! It's clear that the only girl you'll ever really care for is Wendy! Dipper Pines, I wish I never met you!"
With tears in her eyes, she ran out of the water and past Dipper in to the woods. Dipper reached a hand out to her in an attempt to grab her but it was too late.
A log in the woods sat on the ground with nothing special about it other than some grass growing on it's bark. This was where Pacifica Northwest found herself a seat to have a good cry. She had no idea how long she was there, all she knew was that she was still wet and she felt very cold. Crying felt good but she still knew it solved nothing. Dipper was still waiting for her, all of Gravity Falls had seen her fail each and every challenge, and she was probably going to have to explain to her parents why she bothered entering in the first place. None of which she was looking forward to.
"Here you are." Dipper's voice shot out from behind her. "You actually ran pretty far."
He walked over to the front of her, she could see some of his famous awkwardness plastered on his face as he tried to offer her a friendly smile. "You know this is the same log I told Wendy my feelings for her, only for her to shoot me down?"
Pacifica said nothing but started to hug her knees.
'Great! I found the Friend-Zone Log!' Pacifica thought bitterly.
Dipper sighed and scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. He sat down next to her and placed a comforting hand on her far shoulder.
"I was... a jerk. I'm sorry about that."
"I know a thing or two about being a jerk. I understand..."
"Yeah, but I still could have tried harder to pick up on your signals. You said it yourself, I'm the smart one."
"Yeah, but I can't expect you to be a mind reader. I couldn't flirt with you like I would with a normal boy because..." She looked at him with red cheeks and smeared makeup. It was probably one of the most vulnerable things she had ever allowed herself to do. And yet, through it all Dipper could see the sincerity in her eyes. "Because you're not like a normal boy, not to me. To me, you're...special."
Dipper blushed furiously, his awkwardness doubled over as he rubbed his arm. He was probably getting more sweaty too because he decided to wipe the hand he was rubbing with off on his pant's leg.
"Wow Pacifica. I don't know what to say."
"I get now that I can't compare to Wendy. And I will..." She visibly winced. "Get used to that, but you don't have to do anything Dipper. I'll get over it. So... friends?"
"I wouldn't say that."
"Huh?"
"Listen Wendy is awesome and everything but she pointed out to me that you're the one I've been focusing on all day. I didn't want to see you get hurt, almost to the point of a panic attack, but surprisingly I also didn't want to see you lose. Which didn't make ANY sense to me, but I decided to help you out anyways. It's true, you're not like Wendy, not at all. You're Pacifica Northwest, you can't be anybody else and you don't need to be. I got to admit though, even I didn't think you had that much guts."
Pacifica blushed lightly at the comment.
"I know what it's like to have everybody think you're going to fail before you even try, I should have been nicer about that and I'm sorry. What I'm trying to say here is that you really impressed me with your tenacity and I care a lot more about you than I thought I did. And, if you're still interested, I think I'd like to try to be something more than friends."
He scooted a little closer to her. Pacifica didn't seem to react in any way and it was making Dipper feel whole new levels of awkwardness. Pacifica's face was being hidden by her bangs and hung head, and in all honesty it was starting to drive Dipper nuts. He leaned down to try and get a look at her face, unfortunately he tried too hard and ended up falling over on to the ground. He accomplished what he set out to do though, looking up he saw Pacifica with very red face and a loving smile which was getting bigger by the second.
"Heh. Dipper Pines... No matter what I do, you always find a way to turn my whole world upside down."
She helped him up to his feet but didn't really move from the log. He shifted a little uncomfortably as she looked at him patiently, as if she were expecting something. At first he couldn't figure out what she wanted, then it hit him.
"I can't give you my hat because I already traded it with Wendy, and I doubt you would want her's."
"You got that right!"
"Since you still look cold how about you take my vest instead."
Dipper took off his vest and placed it on Pacifica's shoulders. "Unless you would rather I give you something else..."
"No! No!" She pulled it a little tighter around her body. "This is good! I like this!"
Dipper chuckled nervously. "So I guess this make us officially a couple now, right?"
"Wow! There is, like, no off switch to that awkwardness huh?"
"Um, no. Not really."
"Meh. I guess I'll take you anyways." she said with a flirtatious smile.
The two shared a laugh before Dipper sat down next to her.
"So instead of friend-zoning me, you hooked up with me." Pacifica said. "So I guess it would be safe to say we sort of defied the Friend-Zone Log."
"Friend-Zone Log?" Dipper echoed.
He stared down at their seat and let out of short laugh. "Hey I guess it is kind of the Friend-Zone Log." He got up and started to kick it. "Or at least it was!"
Normally Pacifica would chastise a boy for kicking a thing she was sitting on, but in this case she was on the exact same page as him. She got up and started kicking the log with him. "Ha ha! Yeah! Take that!"
They continued to kick the log, enjoying a feeling similar to that night when they destroyed the favorite rug of Pacifica's parents. Their good time came to a screeching halt however, when Mabel came out from behind the bushes.
"What is going on here?"
"What the... Mabel? How long were you hiding in those bushes?"
"I followed Dipper, I was content to let you have your moment but then you guys started kicking a log and I was like 'Whaaaaat?' So why ARE you guys kicking a log?"
Dipper and Pacifica shared an awkward stare before giving Mabel a sheepish grin.
"Well, Mabel, since it's the same log Wendy shot Dipper on we've been calling it the Friend-Zone Log. So because me and Dipper became more than friends on it we feel like we kind of defied it and are now defiling it." Pacifica explained awkwardly.
Dipper looked at Pacifica appreciatively. "So this is what awkwardness looks like from the outside in. Hm, not as bad as I feared."
She shot Dipper a playful glare which didn't go unnoticed by Mabel.
"The important thing is that you're doing stuff together as a couple now. So are you going to kiss now or what?"
Pacifica face palmed as Mabel bounced on her feet eagerly.
"Mabel listen, me and Pacifica..."
"No Dipper," Pacifica cut in. "I got this one."
Mabel looked between Pacifica and Dipper enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear.
"Got what? What're we talking about?"
"Okay Mabel, here's the deal. I need some more alone time with your brother right now, and in exchange for giving us this time... without you!" she added with emphasis. "I will make sure you and your two friends get free limo rides for a week!"
"DEAL! Enjoy the sunset you two!"
As Mabel ran off Pacifica just seemed to echo what she said in confusion. "Sunset?"
"Oh. Didn't you know?" Dipper asked. He pulled a bush out of the way and revealed a setting sun. "Sun's going down. Days' over."
"The sun is setting?! How long have I been doing these games?!"
"All day. I mean why do you think eating challenge was so big. That was both a lunch AND a dinner."
"But it had breakfast foods!"
"You can have those for other meals. But seriously, day's over."
Pacifica sat back down on the log. "Wow! I didn't even realize. I mean I know I can be goal oriented but..."
Dipper sat down next to her. "I know what you mean." He placed his arm around her. "I can be so focused on solving a mystery or cracking a code I end up missing sleep. It can get to the point where I start to chew on my own shirt."
Pacifica laughed and then placed her head on his shoulder.
"Sorry about your shoulder. My hair is still wet from the lake."
"It's okay, I've had worse. Still feels a lot better then when Candy was doing it."
Pacifica whipped her head off his shoulder. "CANDY?! Like, Mabel's friend?! I have to worry about her too?!"
"Oh! No! No! No! It was just like a one day crush, and it already came and left. We're just friends now I swear!"
"Oh..." She placed her head back on his shoulder. "Well that's okay then. Sure you don't mind having a damp shoulder?"
Dipper rested his own head on top of her's. "As long as you're mine then I will always have a shoulder for you to rest on. We should probably get back though, let everyone know you're okay."
"We'll go there in a little bit. I just want to watch the sunset a little longer with you."
"I'm not complaining. Take as much time as you need."
The End.
Roll Credits
A camera jostled left and right as it tried to focus on Pacifica.
"I can't believe you're making me do this!"
Pacifica was dressed up in a pink and cyan cardboard robot outfit standing in front of a camera. He had even managed to cut in a cardboard W neck for her. A cardboard helmet also rested under her arm
"Oh come on Pacifica, it's not that bad. It'll make Soos happy. Admit it; if you really hated this idea you wouldn't be here right now!" said Dipper.
"Yeah, it's all in good clean fun." added Mabel.
"I don't know, if my parents ever found out..."
"I'll throw in some pictures of Dipper doing his lamby dance!"
"What?! Mabel! She doesn't need to know about that!" Dipper protested.
"Lamby dance?" Pacifica smiled, looking a little more confident. "Tempting, but I think I need a little more."
"Oh geez, like what?"
"Well Dipper, I pick our next date night!"
"Well... okay..."
"And it's going to be a trip to the spa! Your friends and whatever can come too but they have to give us all the private time they can! Oh! I get to call the shots on it!"
"Okay! Fine!" Dipper rolled his eyes. "I swear, the more things change the more they... wait, what do you mean by 'call the shots'? Why are you smiling like that?!"
"And Action!"
"Wait! What?! Soos!"
3
2
1
The music of airman ga taosenai (A/N: If you don't know what that is then you are missing out. P.s. I don't own it.) started up as Pacifica suddenly ran on screen.
"It just occurred to me, that I've been doing these games again and again, and no matter how hard I try I repeatedly faaail!"
Pacifica, with complete cardboard costume on, acted as if she were knocked back by some enemy force 'crash' landing on the stump of a tree.
"I never will give up as I attempt to turn Dipper's head away from that annoying red head but again I just keep landing on my face instead!"
Dipper pretended to look off in one direction whiled Pacifica jumped around in the background flailing her arms trying to get his attention.
"If I only had Dipper's cheering from the third challenge, it would make it so much easier to compete in these games!"
Pacifica placed a megaphone and a 'Go Pacifica' picket sign in front of Dipper, but he just shrugged non-nonchalantly at the sight.
"But somehow every time, somehow every time, some how every time I lose!"
Out from behind a tree ran in Wendy with a turn table fan tapped to her cardboard chest.
"I can't defeat Wendy-Girl!"
Pacifica made some shooting motions with cardboard arm cannon but Wendy stood proud and undamaged. Pacifica looked to the camera and made a face of shocked awe.
"No matter how hard I try to upstage her she just beats again!"
Pacifica faked trying to pick up a hatchet wedged in a stump while Wendy threw a different one in to a tree.
"And even though I can get a head start on her it's no use. I try to win but I just get last place again!"
On a three stepped pedestal Wendy stood on the top labeled 1 while Pacifica stood on the last one labeled. On the step labeled 2 rested a hatchet.
"I try as hard as I can, but when I had to go head to head against her I was helpless again!"
Wendy got Pacifica in to a play-headlock and gave her cardboard helmet a fake noogie.
"I'll try again of course, but this is my plan: I'll keep my Mabel-Wing Woman in reserve as long as I can!"
Mabel ran out in front of the camera with a couple of cardboard cut out wings on her arms. Deciding she couldn't take it anymore, Pacifica fell to the ground laughing.
"Ha ha ha! That's not what I meant and you know it! Ha ha ha! Okay, that's it! I can't do anymore! This silliness is going to be burned in to my memory forever!"
"I told you you'd have fun!" beamed Mabel.
"Here, let me help you." Dipper laughed.
Pacifica took Dipper's hand... and pulled him down to the ground with her. The tumbled in a roll on the ground, laughing blissfully before stopping and sharing a peck on the lips.
"Cut! Print! That's a wrap dudes!"
Soos placed a cardboard sign in front of the camera which read 'Fin'.
Okay, that's it. No mos. No sequel, at least by me. Anybody else wants to bother with a sequel to this then all they have to do is get in touch with me. It's open to anyone and everyone. Sorry if the "End Credits Easter Egg" went over your head, it was just too silly to ignore. This one might sound a little odd but please don't upload anything of mine without my permission. With formalities out of the way, I hope you enjoyed the fic. If you had a favorite part please let me know in the reviews.