Gravity Falls, Oregon

August 24th, 2013

A year after the "Weirdmaggedon" incident

A week before Dipper and Mabel's 14th birthday

Gravity Falls Lake

"Hehe, not that I don't like this, but why exactly are we here Wendy?"

"Just comon, it'll be fun."

"Alright..."

It was a sunny, cloudless day. Gravity Falls lake was pretty much deserted, and most of the community was starting to go back to work after their long summer break. Mabel and I didn't go back to California for another week, so Wendy had decided that we needed a "fun day" together. She had driven me, blindfolded, down to the Gravity Falls lake, and was currently dragging me (still blindfolded) to a spot she claimed: "no one could get to".

I was a bit apprehensive at first, but Wendy had assured me that it was fine. She was Wendy, after all. My ex-crush. Nothing would go wrong. Right?

Well, the blindfold certainly didn't help. Not being able to see made me more paranoid than ever. There are ghosts,... ghouls,... zombies,... that Gobblewonker might actually still be living in the lake...

Oh boy.

Finally, at long last, Wendy's grip on me loosened and I heaved a sigh. "Are we here?" My voice cracked a little, and I cringed. Oh, how I hope she didn't hear that...

"Yup. You can take off your blindfold, doofus." She chuckled lightly as I tenderly lifted the corner of my blindfold up.

I gasped.

It was gorgeous. A perfect place. There was no one there, and it was a very secluded area. The sunlight filtering through the trees, and the greenery and foliage surrounding the area, provided the perfect amount of both warm sunlight and shade. The shore was clean and unused, and the lake sparkled in the afternoon sun. It was still, no ripples intruding on it, and no boats or jet-skis or loud motors disrupted the silence.

Beautiful.

"Wendy, gosh..."

"Like it?"

"No."

"Wha-"

"I love it! How'd you find it? It's perfect!"

"Thanks, dude! You know me, I have my ways..." She trailed off, and her eyes became a bit misty. I almost went to comfort her, but she quickly snapped out of it.

"Over here, look, let's sit on the dock..."

There was a small, broken down, wooden dock a little to the left of us, and we went over and sat down on it together.

"Dude. Dude. Watch this." Wendy grabs a stray stone and chucks it across the water, making it skip 3 times before sinking into the lake. I gasp and she chuckles at my expression.

"Woah. You are literally so cool, Wendy. Teach me to do that!"

So she picks up two stones, places one in my hand (I blush), and shows me how to accurately throw the stone in the water precisely so it hits the water a certain way and skips. The first time I try it, it sinks (of course), so it takes a while, but after a couple more tries I kind of get the hang of it and get two or three skips each time. By the time we've run out of stones, we're both on the ground, rolling with laughter. Wendy's laughing because my attempts are pitiful. I'm laughing because she's laughing. Her laugh is bright and cheery, but when I look closer I realize she's holding something back. She reminiscing about something, I can tell. Wendy does that a lot. Usually, when it's something bad, like a particularly gloomy memory, and she doesn't want to talk about it, she laughs it off and changes the subject.

This is one of those times.

So as we get up and dust ourselves off, I ask her.

"Wendy, something's wrong. What's on your mind?"

She sighs, then laughs lightly again. "You know me too well."

"You're like a book to me sometimes."

"You read books pretty well then."

"I'm a nerd, Wendy. It's our job."

She outright laughs out loud then and then turns to me seriously. "Ok, I'll tell you. But please don't tell anyone I told you this. My dad doesn't like me talking about my mom, he would rather forget her. She...she did something that he couldn't forgive. But I was thinking of a memory of her, back when I was really little. You reminded me of it, actually."

My eyebrows raise. "Really?"

"Yea. Come here, I'll tell you. Sit down."

So I do, and she begins.

"Ok, so let's see...back when I was around 7 or 8, on my birthday, my mom took me blast-fishing, right at this very spot. My mom was fairly young, I think. She was tall and rather skinny and petite. She had very long, hippie-length, brown-red hair, lots of freckles, bright blue eyes, and wore a pair of glasses and a lot of heavy makeup. My mom would usually wear a plaid shirt or jacket and a matching skirt or dress. She was also the original owner of my trapper hat." Wendy tapped her hat fondly, positioned a little crookedly on her head, as she said this.

"She'd usually be seen with a big fat cigar in her smiling mouth, and she'd use it to light dynamite and other explosives. She was a demolition expert, blowing up stuff like trees, rocks, and old buildings. My mom was a part-time guitarist in a small band as well, which I found odd but I never brought it up."

So that's why she took a liking to Robbie. Huh. Who would've guessed?

She continued. "It was the first time I had ever gone blast-fishing, so my mom taught me by taking out some dynamite sticks, lighting them using a cigar she had in her mouth, and chucking it into the water. And, oh my word, those fish went everywhere! It was impressive. When the fish would fall out of the air, she caught them in a large, tin bucket she had tied to her belt around her waist. She let me try it too, and I blew up a few fish myself. We never got caught because no one ever comes down this way.

But as we were getting ready to pack up and head back home, a bunch of wild mermaid pirate hooligans came out of the lake and captured us in a fishing net! They said we had been trespassing on their territory, and all of our blastings had made a ruckus in their kingdom. We had disturbed their peace or something, so they dragged us under the lake and stuffed us into a large, black, pirate-y-looking cannon. My mom had tried to tell me something, it had sounded a bit like "not again, this has happened to me before..." but I couldn't really hear her mainly due to the fact that we were underwater and every time we tried to breathe it sounded like air bubbles.

Anyway, eventually we got fired off into the sky, and we soared high above the town and over the horizon, barely missing the water tower, and dived out of control into the parking lot of Greasy's Diner. But we just brushed ourselves off, looked at each other, and couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity of it all."

I stare at her in open-mouthed wonder.

Was she making this up? That couldn't be possible. That as extraordinary. I was so jealous, how the heck had she gotten the attention of wild lake pirates?!

No, she had to be making it up. I shook my head a little as Wendy continued with her flashback.

"It was the best time I had ever had with my mom. We came home that night, hand-in-hand, her big fat cigar burnt to a crisp, and with a bucketful of toasted, fresh fish. Salmon, Trout, Perch, all different kinds. My dad then cooked them up on the grill properly, and we feasted on fish and crackers. It was heavenly, and I loved having that time with my mom."

Wendy's voice had dropped to a whisper by the end of it. She was crying a bit, softly, and I almost didn't notice, but when the wind blew I got a full face of salty tears.

"Oh, Wendy..."

"No. It's fine." Her voice was hard and firm, but soft, and even though she didn't want me to, I still put my hand on hers and my other hand around her shoulders. She leaned into me then, still crying quietly, and I sighed and hugged her into me.

"I'm sorry Wendy."

"No, it's alright I told you. It's better to talk about it anyways."

"That's true."

We sat like that for a little while, just watching the lake in silence and listening to the tiny chirping of nearby crickets and other insects. Then, very suddenly, Wendy's face lit up.

"Idea." She said and perked up immediately.

"What?"

"I've got the best idea ever. When's your birthday again?"

"A week from now, why?"

"Just wondering. Ok, come here, to this exact place, at 5:00 on your birthday. Oh, and don't bring anyone else! Just the two of us."

"Why?"

"You'll find out then. It's a surprise, doi!"

And she skipped away, her trapper hat swinging from her hand, her red hair tied in a loose ponytail swinging side to side with her hips, and a spring in her step. Man, she could move on quickly.

Well, that was Wendy for you.

"Happy birthday to you!"

The song ended with Mabel diving into the cake, spewing the candles all over and coming up with a grinning mouthful of chocolate and vanilla frosting.

"Best birthday ever!" She shouted, her words slightly muffled by the cake in her mouth.

I just grinned at her and proceeded to pick up the candles off of the floor. The Grunkles stood off to the side, deep in conversation, and Mabel's friends, Candy and Grenda, were joining Mabel at the cake. All three of them had big, cake and frosting mustaches. It would've been cute, except for the fact that I had wanted to eat it. I hadn't invited anyone, but Soos, his girlfriend, Melody, Robbie, Lee, Nate, Tambry, and Thompson had all come anyways. Lee and Nate were sitting on the counter, throwing candy at Thompson who was trying to catch it in his mouth. Tambry sat off to the side, taking pictures of it with her phone absentmindedly while making goo-goo eyes at Robbie. It was all very pleasant.

Suddenly, the phone on the counter rang, and everyone jumped. Thompson screamed like a girl and ran under a clothing rack, making clothing spill all over in his haste. Lee and Nate fell off the counter from this, rolling across the floor giggling. Tambry hid behind her phone. Mabel, Candy, and Grenda just sat on the floor, a little punch-drunk from eating so much cake, their eyes far away and misty. Grunkle Stan got behind Great-Uncle Ford, who had pulled out his laser gun and was aiming it at anything that moved. I, however, just calmly walked over to the phone and picked it up. Once everyone realized that it was only the phone, they all visibly relaxed and resumed what they had been doing. I answered the phone,

"Yello? This is The Mystery Shack, employee Dipper speaking."

"Dipper, it's Wendy."

"Wendy?" My voice squeaked and cracked.

"Yea. Dude, you have to come down to the lake. I have a surprise for you."

"Oh, yea! I totally forgot. I'll be right down!"

"Sure." She hung up and the line went dead.

So I ran out the door, yelling that Wendy had called me down to the lake, and got into the truck with Soos and headed down there.

Hi there! So, I know this isn't like my usual writing, but this was a prompt I received from Barbacar which I agreed to write. There will be some more chapters, as the ending of this one implies. I hope you guys like it so far!

If anyone has any prompts they would like to share with me, feel free! Just please don't be mad with me or anything if I decline it, sometimes I have a hard time writing certain stories or I just don't have the time to write that much, that's all.

Wendy: Wow, a fic with me in it? Since when do you do that?

Me: Since now...I guess?

Dipper: *voice cracks every other word* Wow, Wendy and me in a fic? How cool!

Wendy and I: *can't take Dipper seriously, burst out laughing* BWAHAHAHAHA HOW DO YOU VOICE CRACK THAT MANY TIMES?!