Chapter 5: Itching For Some Fun

Later on throughout the day, it began to rain so everyone was stuck indoors. This left Dipper, Mabel, Grunkle Stan, Wendy, and Soos all together in the living room watching boring day time shows. "Could it get any more boring than this?" Dipper rolled his eyes as yet another episode of 'Grandpa the kid' played. The young boy still had the faded words written on his forehead that reminded him of the vengeance he would get.

"Fraid not." Wendy answered back as Grunkle Stan shushed the two.

"Come on Grunkle Stan! Can't you change the channel to something enjoyable for all of us? Ooh! How about we ditch that idea and just watch one of my movies!" Mabel said pulling out one of her teenage love story movies.

"Let's not. The last time we watched one of your movies, we had to quit halfway because Grunkle Stan couldn't stop crying." Dipper brought up as the others all nodded their heads remembering it all. Grunkle Stan wasn't amused and was ready to defend himself. "Hey! I bet you all had tears in your eyes when Marley died! It was all just too much to handle!"

Everyone else shook their heads and mumbled a few things disagreeing to what he just said. "Whatever! I'm still not going to change the channel so go jump around in the rain if you're bored." Stan then put the remote in his pocket just to make sure no one would get any bright ideas.

'I'm no ordinary Grandpa...I'm Grandpa the kid!'

Right then and there the television cut out and the screen started glitching. "What?! No!" Grunkle Stan was the only one devastated about this. The other's were glad that they didn't have to sit and watch anymore of the horrible show. "Dipper! Fix the TV so we can watch the rest of the show." Grunkle Stan ordered Dipper who gasped and frowned in annoyance. "Why me?!"

"Because life ain't fair, that's why."

Dipper swallowed down some more protests and chose to just do as he was told. Sometimes there was no way to win an argument with Grunkle Stan. First Dipper tried re-adjusting the tv antennas in hopes that the picture on the screen would show again. "It's still not working! Try harder!" Grunkle Stan ordered as he continued to lounge on his chair doing absolutely nothing.

Dipper faced his Great uncle and gave him a peeved off expression. "I don't know...maybe if you helped out we would fix it sooner!" Grunkle Stan was super lazy and usually made everyone else other than him do things around the house. His excuses usually were of the following:

"I don't feel like it."

"I'm old, what do you expect?"

"I would probably have a stroke if I tried unclogging the toilet, so I'm making you do it."

In other words, his excuses were terrible and just plain sad. "Look kid if you're planning on being fed tonight, you'll probably want to fix that tv. I'm not going to have lazy kids under my roof." Grunkle Stan's words may have sounded rude but that was just his inner cheapskate talking. Of course the twins were always fed even if it wasn't considered food. Take last breakfast for example. Whatever was in that pan, was obviously an abomination.

Mabel, Soos, and Wendy were all witnessing everything unfold before them. Once again Grunkle Stan was forcing Dipper to do yet another task to 'toughen him up'. Most of the time it usually ended up with Dipper being extremely agitated with Stan.

Dipper's fists clenched but suddenly a irritable tingling sensation was felt on his leg where the snake bit him. That sensation quickly moved to his other leg and eventually the rest of his body. Dipper flinched before itching his leg losing his focus on his main task to fix the tv. "Kid you got fleas or something?" Grunkle Stan joked once he watched the boy itch all over his body feeling an indescribable itchiness.

Mabel's eyes widened as she watched her brother act strange again. It had to be something to do with that snake bite again; she was sure of it. "Mabel what's wrong with your brother?" Wendy nudged Mabel. The red head must have thought that the boy twin ran into poison ivy when they were on one of their monster hunts earlier. She was far from being right.

The symptoms just randomly became known out of no where. This did not look like a case of poison ivy. "I can't stop itching! Ugh everything itches!" Dipper complained not taking his mind off of the horrible itchiness he was experiencing. "Good thing the Mystery Shack is closed today. We don't want this to become contagious to my customers." Said Grunkle Stan noting that this condition would probably spread to another person easily.

It didn't take long for most of Dipper's body to be covered in blood red rashes. They were't your regular rashes either. Most rashes caused by bites don't spread all over the body, they just stay around the bite. This was definitely a special case that Mabel and the others had to try to fix.

Aiding Dipper to a chair in the kitchen, Mabel put some oven mitts over his hands. "Alright these little doodads will make you less contagious so we don't get your freaky rashes! They'll even help you stop scratching!" Mabel told Dipper still in her chipper tone. "Or it just makes me look more ridiculous." Dipper grumbled eyeing the giant mitts on his two hands. Ignoring what her brother said, Mabel went onto the next step to cease the irritation. "Now apparently you're supposed to keep the itchy areas cool and moist. Soos? cloths."

The handy man went to the sink and fetched a few cold cloths. The moist cloths were handed to Mabel who laid them on her brother's arms and legs. "And how does this help?" Dipper asked miserably as he still felt extremely itchy. "Hush bro bro. Don't question Mabel's work okay?" What she said seemed to silence Dipper a bit.

"Okay uh apparently oatmeal helps too!" Mabel read off of Wendy's phone once they searched up some treatments to reduce the itching. "Grunkle Stan do you have any organic oatmeal?" The sweater girl asked her Great uncle. This seemed to bother the old man since organic foods are way more expensive compared to regular foods. "Hey what do you think I'm made of money? You're just going to have to use the regular stuff!"

He pointed to the oatmeal in the cupboard that was most likely expired. "No organic food here. Just food mostly stored in cans." Stan added in talking to no one in particular as Mabel went to go fetch the oatmeal. The package was all torn and looked as if Stan had it before the twins were even born. Now that was nasty. But that didn't really matter since they weren't going to eat it.

"Wendy whats next?"

The teenager flinched at her name being called and went back to actually paying attention. "Uh right. It says here to add a bit of water to a bowl of plain, uncooked oatmeal and then let it sit for a few minutes until it reaches a paste-like consistency. Apply the paste to the itchy area as needed." She finished reading off of her phone to find Mabel already pouring the oatmeal into a bowl.

Finally the mixture was made up and it was time to apply it to Dipper's irritated skin once they removed the cloths. "Well this is a whole new level of awkwardness." Dipper said once Mabel began to coat the oatmeal mixture on his arms. "This isn't the most awkward thing that you've been through Dipper." Mabel laughed literally making Dipper's face turn pink.

"No comment."

Mabel covered one last rash coated leg with the remedy and sighed in relief. "That's the last of it. I hope this helps." Dipper glanced at his oatmeal covered limbs with wide eyes. "Wow it actually kind of does work. I mean sure I still want to itch like crazy but it's better than nothing. Thanks guys." Dipper was pretty grateful for the help that he received for his friends.

"Sure kid, but I'm expecting you to buy me new oatmeal."

Everyone laughed at Grunkle Stan's remark.

Everything seems to be sorta normal besides the itchy side effect of the bite.

Did you enjoy the new chapter? Tell me what you think!