Mabel woke up the next morning, her sides aching from sobbing. She felt the same deep pit in her stomach she had felt last night, after what she had done to Dipper. For the first time in her life, she felt_ guilty.
She slid out of bed and trudged down the stairs. It felt like there were weights on her ankles. She reached the bottom and went to the living room, to check on Dipper. He was on the couch, asleep, his face stuck in a troubled expression. She kissed his forehead. "Dipper?"
He opened his eyes halfway, saw her, and rolled over. "C'mon, Dipper! Don't be a butt!" No answer. "Dipper! Listen to me! Please!" No answer. "Fine! I'll leave you alone!"
As she trudged to the kitchen, the weights seemed to get heavier. The pit in her stomach seemed to get deeper. She felt horrible. She wished she had never been so mean. Did I really need to get so mad? So what, he's going out with Pacifica? That doesn't mean I have to be her friend. Mabel thought. She realized how stupid she had been. How mean. How careless. She hated herself.
She sat in the kitchen with her head down on the table. After about 5 minutes, Grunkle Stan came downstairs. "Morning, Mabel." he said, opening the fridge. He then noticed that Mabel wasn't her usually happy, bouncy self.
"What's the matter, kid?" He closed the fridge and sat down next to his niece. "Nothing." "Don't sit there and tell me nothing. Now what's your deal?"
Mabel sighed. "Last night, I was a huge jerk to Dipper. I tried to apologize this morning, but he won't listen to me."
"Well_ why were you being a jerk?"
"Because I found out he was dating Pacifica."
"Pacifica? That rich, snobby Northwest girl? He deserved it!"
Mabel looked up at her great uncle, shocked that he could be so heartless in a situation like this. "Well! He did!" Mabel's bottom lip quivered, and she started to cry.
"Oh no, Mabel…hey..." Stan really wasn't sure what to do here. He never had kids, so he didn't know how to deal with these things. He decided to try and bribe her.
"Tell you what_ you and Dipper make up by 8:00 tonight, I'll take you out for that new ice cream special at Lazy Susan's. Alright?" She sniffed and looked up at him.
"Alright."
Later that day, Dipper was sitting out at the picnic table, reading 3. He was still mad at Mabel for being such a jerk last night. And to make matters worse, she planned to tell Candy. He was startled when he saw Mabel running across the yard, right toward him. She arrived at the table, panting like a dog.
"Hey, Dipper! Wanna play with me?" she asked excitedly. Dipper just turned away. "Come on! We can play whatever you want! We could play hide and seek, we could play Mother may I_" She gasped. "We could even get Wendy and her friends and play Red Rover! Or Duck Duck Goose!"
Dipper snapped around. "How about we play MABEL SHUTS UP AND LEAVES DIPPER ALONE?!"
Mabel's eyes filled with tears. "Fine. Don't play with me." She ran inside, sobbing.
Though Dipper was mad, he felt horrible about what he just did. He was being the jerk now. It was time to forgive Mabel. He went inside to find Wendy.
She was sitting at the desk, reading a magazine, drinking soda, the usual thing. "WENDY!" he said. "What's up, Dip? You look like you saw a ghost or something." "Never mind that. I have a question." "What's that?" He hesitated.
"Do you and the guys like playing Red Rover?"
Dipper went up to the room in the attic, finding Mabel on the dusty old couch. Man, she looks really depressed. Dipper thought.
"Hey, Mabel." he said.
"What do you want?" she said, grumpily. "I'm really sorry for being a jerk outside. Can you forgive me?"
She turned around to look at him. "I'm sorry for last night. I'll forgive you if you forgive me." "I forgive you. So…we're all good?" Mabel smiled. "Yeah. We're all good. Awkward sibling hug?" "Awkward sibling hug." He and Mabel gave each other a hug, both of them glad the madness was over.
"Hey, Wendy and the guys said they'd be happy to play Red Rover. Want to?" Dipper said. Mabel gave him a big, toothy smile. "Yeah!"
They ran out into the hallway and saw Wendy and her friends at the bottom of the stairs. Nate, Lee, Thompson, Tambry_ heck, even Robbie was there.
They were all chanting her name. "Mabel! Mabel! Mabel!"
"Hey guys! Ready for some Red Rover?"
"What? That's why we're here?" Robbie said in a disgusted tone. "That game's for babies. I'm not playing that. No way." "C'mon, Robbie" Lee said. "Think of it as a way to hurt Dipper and make it look like an accident." A huge smile spread across Robbie's face, only to have Wendy sock him in the arm. "Ow! Fine. I'll play."
They headed outside, and they played for quite a while. After being knocked over by Nate, Mabel and Dipper lay on the ground and looked at each other. Dipper reached over and grabbed Mabel's hand.
"I'm really sorry, sis."
Mabel smiled that big, toothy smile. She squeezed her brother's hand.
"It's OK, Dipper. It's OK."