"Deck the halls with balls of holly…" the little girl sang in an off-key pitch while she played random notes on the piano.
"It's boughs of holly." her brother corrected her. She stuck her tongue out at him and continued her song.
"It's the season to be jolly…" she sang, pounding on a C and a G. Her brother covered his ears. "It's not MUSIC, Mabel!" he said.
"Santa's gonna get me a parrot name Polly…" she sang, now pushing her tiny hand on a D and an E.
"Oh no no no…Mabel, honey, let's do something else right now, okay? Mommy's going to make dinner and although your music is beautiful-"
"It is? Are you deaf?" Dipper called down the hallway.
"We're going to play with your dolls or something, okay?" Her mother picked her up off of the piano bench and set her down on the rug.
Mabel's sparkly brown eyes lit up. "Barbies! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey Dipperoni, you wanna play Barbies?" she said as she chased him down the hallway.
"No! You can't make me!" he cried out, but when he reached the end of the hallway, there was nowhere to go. She grabbed his small wrist with her hand and said, "Come on!"
They went into their room and she dumped out the toy box. She found her two favorite dolls in the mess she had made and passed one to her brother.
Dipper looked at the doll in his hand questioningly. It had no clothes on and it had a scary smile permanently plastered to its face. The doll's hair was cut a la Mabel Salon, so half of it was gone, and her feet were sloped at an uncomfortable angle.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Her name is Marmalade and she's a special pet doctor. She makes them get back alive." Mabel said.
"So she makes zombie pets?" Dipper asked. He really didn't understand.
"No, silly goose. She makes them get back alive when they fall into the toilet." Mabel explained, as if it were obvious.
Dipper dropped the doll. "You stuck it in the toilet?" he asked, backing away.
Mabel changed the subject. "And my doll's name is Gertrude. She's a fairy princess unicorn."
"What?" her brother questioned.
"A fairy princess unicorn. Don't you know anything?" she teased him.
Dipper looked at Gertrude. She wasn't in much better condition than Marmalade…except that she had hair. And probably wasn't stuck in the toilet.
"So how do you play?" he asked, holding up Marmalade by her foot.
"Well, first, they're gonna get dressed and then they're gonna go to the movies in their car." Mabel said. She grabbed a little pink suitcase out of the closet and dumped out the contents.
"No…no…nooo…I found my toothbrush! Yay!...noooo…found it!" she said, pulling out the ugliest dress her brother had ever seen. It was bright pink and had fluff and ruffles everywhere.
"Wait, they have a car?" he asked. Mabel's face lost some of its glow.
"Well, no, but I asked Santa for one, so when he comes tonight I'm gonna go meet him in person." Mabel said, as if she'd planned it all out. She pulled the pink fluffy dress over her head on top of her t-shirt and jeans. "There." she said. "Now I can play."
"Where did you even get that? It looks like you took a flamingo from the zoo." Dipper asked.
"I have my ways." she said, and winked. "Hi, I'm Gertrude. I'm a fairy princess unicorn!" she said, moving the doll closer to her brother.
"Hi, I'm Marmalade. I have no hair and I fell in the toilet." Dipper said, making his voice squeakier than it already was.
"Noooo." Mabel said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "You're playing it wrong. You're SUPPOSED to say what her job is and if they wanna be best friends." She moved her face closer to his and kissed his nose-big, wet and sloppy.
"EWWWWWW! Gross, Mabel! COOTIES!" he said. He tried again. "Hi, I'm Marmalade. I'm a pet doctor and I save them from the toilet whirlpool when they fall in there."
Mabel sighed. When was he gonna learn? Barbies don't talk like that…duh.
…
"Dare you to open it." she said, nudging her brother.
"No way. It's yours." he said, nudging her back.
"Fine. You owe me five bucks." she said. She lifted the lid on the toy box and poured out the contents.
"God, Mabel, what did you own as a kid?" Dipper asked, holding up a pink fluffy dress. It looked suspiciously like a flamingo.
"Would you care for me to list what YOU owned as a child, Mr. Tighty Whities?" she asked. He sat down on the floor next to her and dug through the miscellaneous pile of nonsense.
"Oh dear GOD." he said, and threw something across the room. His sister looked at him. "What was that?"
"Some cross between a goblin and Gollum." he said. She went into the closet and retrieved what he had thrown.
"It's a doll, stupid." she said, poking him with it. It only had half of its hair and even that part stuck straight out.
"It IS?" he asked. It didn't look like a doll. He picked it up from where his sister had dropped it.
It had something written on its back.
"Marmalade." he read. "Property of Mabel Pines. 7 years old, Mrs. Henson's second grade. If found call Mabel at the school lost and found." He laughed. "Oh my god. Seriously?"
"What? I thought that Marmalade was the prettiest name ever for a while. In third grade I actually tried to convince my friends that it was my real name, and that Mabel was a code name." she said, blushing a little.
"God, you were such a weird kid." her brother said. "A code name for what?"
"Oh, I dunno…I can't remember. Come on, bro, it was nine years ago that I was in third grade." she said, pulling up the strap of her tank top.
"You gonna take Marmalade to college with you?" he teased his sister.
"I think I actually will." she said, grabbing it from his hand and putting the doll in her bag.
"Seriously? Imagine emptying your bag and what your roommate's going to think." Dipper said, elbowing his sister.
"What can I say? I'm a quirky bucket o' nuts and you love it, despite how much you resist telling me." she said, poking his cheek.
"I can't believe that we didn't get into the same college." Dipper said, sighing. He was really going to miss having her around all the time, poking him in the face, tying his shoes together in the mornings…even when they were fourteen and she decided to spook him when he came in the bathroom to find a razor for the first time. He touched the spot on his cheek-the scar was still there.
"I know, you big nerd. Howd'ja think I was gonna get into Harvard when you applied, huh?" she said. She already felt memories fading of hearing scary sounds in the night and knowing that he'd protect her. Even as they got older and got separate rooms she could still snuggle with him during thunderstorms.
"And you thought I was going to get into art school? Seriously, Mabel? I can't draw a half-decent stick figure." he said.
Although they were joking, they were both going to miss each other more than they' admit. She grabbed his hand, and although he was surprised he didn't let go.
Her long multicolored nails were poking him but it was okay- it would hurt more when they weren't.