Funmanji

"What are we going to do, Dipper?" Wendy wanted to know. Lions, zebras, ostriches and hyenas were making a mess in the Mystery Shack. The Mystery Shack was also completely destroyed due to an earthquake earlier.

"I don't know." I admitted. A lion then pounced at me.

"DIPPER, LOOK OUT!" Mabel shouted. She didn't need to say that, I was clearly looking out for it. I ducked.

"Whoa!" Robbie observed. "That was a close one; that lion nearly got you." I just glared at him.

Suddenly, an ostrich trotted over to me and took my hat in his mouth.

"Hey!" I shouted. "My hat!" The ostrich trotted outside in the huge, gaping hole.

You're probably wondering what's happening. How did ostriches, hyenas, lions, and zebras come into the Mystery Shack? Why are we in Africa? Why is there a board game open in the middle of all this chaos, completely unharmed? How was there an earthquake? Why is there a hunter here with us, polishing his gun? What's Robbie doing here? Good questions. Let's rewind a bit, shell we? It all started this morning.

I was sitting in the armchair while my sister was watching Middle School Musical with Waddles (I'm not a big fan of that movie but Mabel is and when she's happy, I just go with it.)

"We're going out!" Grunkle Stan announced. Our uncle was going to an auction to try to sell some of his stuff. Soos was going with him to see if he could get anything.

"Okay," I said, not taking my eyes off of my book. "You two have fun!"

"Hmmm," Grunkle Stan said out loud. "I keep debating rather or not I should call a sitter for you two. We'll be gone almost a whole day." I looked at him.

"Uh Grunkle Stan," I told him. "We're 12, practically teenagers. We don't need babysitters anymore. We can take care of ourselves." Grunkle Stan stared blankly at me.

"Really? Because I was going to get Wendy to do it, but if you think you don't need one, that's fine with me. Saves me some money." He turned to Soos. "Come on Soos, time to leave. Bye-bye kids." I quickly put down my book and jumped to the floor.

"Wait!" I shouted. I bolted to the door before Stan could open it. He and Soos looked at me, waiting to hear what I had to say. "Did you say 'Wendy'?"

"Uhhh… yes." Stan answered. "Yes, I did. But you just said you two don't need a babysitter. So Soos and I are just going to leave now." He made another attempt to open the door but I stopped him.

"On second thought, maybe my sister and I do still need a babysitter." My sister stopped watching TV. She came over to us.

"What are you talking about Dipper?" She asked. "No we don't. We're old enough. We can take care of ourselves." I pulled her close to me and shushed her. I gave Stan and Soos a nervous laugh and grin.

"What my sister is trying to say is that Waddles is still new to us. We may need someone extra to watch over him."

"I can watch over him." Mabel said, her voice muffled. I laughed nervously again. "So, what do you say?"

"Well, okay." Stan decided. "But only because you think you need one. I'll go and call Wendy." He then left.

"I'm going to go see if I didn't leave anything behind." Soos said. He left as well. I let go of Mabel, allowing her to breath. She looked at me when she caught her breath. She grinned, giving me an 'I know what you did' look.

"I see what you did there!" She said.

"Did what?" I asked, dumbly. She snickered.

"Don't pretend you don't know. We don't need a babysitter and Waddles doesn't need a pet sitter. You just want Wendy here." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah? So what?" She went back to the TV. "I can read you like a open book, brother."

"Whatever." I went back on the armchair and continued reading.

As soon as the doorbell rang, I sprang to my feet and ran to the door. I looked at my sister.

"Am I presentable?" I asked.

"What?" Mabel wanted to know.

"Am I presentable?" I asked again. "How's my appearance? Do I look okay?" Mabel was about to say something when Grunkle Stan spoke for her, coming to the door with a wagonful of stuff he was going to sell. Soos was by his side.

"Dipper!" My uncle said. "You are throwing this way out of proportion. You shouldn't worry about looks yet. Remember, Wendy is here to babysit you guys; you're not going out on a date." I chuckled lamely.

"Riigghht! But still, do I look okay?" Stan took a long look at me.

"I suppose so!" I sighed in relief.

"Good." I opened the door and bowed to her.

"Well, hello Wendy." I greeted. I then noticed Robbie next to her. "And…Robbie?" I stood up. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"Hey Dipper!" Wendy greeted. Mabel then popped up.

"Hi Wendy!" She greeted.

"Hi Mabel." Waddles waddled up to them and oinked. Mabel picked him up. "Say 'hi' Waddles!" Waddles oinked again.

"Well, well!" Wendy said, looking at Waddles. "I haven't seen you since Mabel won you at the Mystery Fair!" She shook one of Waddle's front hooves. "Pleased to see you again. How are you?"

"Waddles' doing great!" She looked at the pig. "Aren't you Waddles?" Waddles oinked a third time. Mabel hugged him. "Yeah, you're doing great" She put him down. Next, Wendy looked at Stan.

"Hi Mr. Pines. I hope you don't mind that I brought Robbie along." Stan looked at Robbie.

"Not a problem!" Our uncle answered. "The more, the merrier!" He then looked at us. "Right, kids?"

"Right!" Mabel answered immediately. I was mad! I clenched my fist. Stan must've been looking at me because of what he asked me.

"Right, Dipper?"

"Peachy." I told him under my breath.

"Yeah!" Robbie said, ruffling my hat. "Dipper and I are great friends! He just can't wait to spend time with me and Wendy." I glared at him when he withdrew his hand.

"Perfect! Since all of you are going to get along great, Soos and I are going to leave." He went out and waved at us. We went to the porch to finish our goodbyes. "Bye kids!" Soos waved too.

"You be nice now!" He added.

"Bye Stan; bye Soos!" Mabel said. "Don't worry; we'll be good!"

"Now don't you kids throw a wild party now, you hear?" Stan shouted back.

"Oh Stan, you big tease; we won't!"

"We'll be back at tomorrow afternoon at one!"

"Okay, tomorrow afternoon at one; see ya!"

"Yeah!" I shouted to them. "See ya!"

As soon as they left, Wendy, Mabel and Waddles went back in. I was about to go back in when Robbie stopped me.

"Hold it! Let's get something straight, little man." He bent down to me and looked at me straight in the eyes.

"Wendy is my girlfriend, okay? If you try anything, you'll be sorry." I scowled at him.

"Dipper; Robbie!" Wendy called us from inside. "What's the holdup? Are you two coming in or are you just going to stand out there!"

"No, we're coming!" He called back. He gave me a warning look. I scowled at him again. We then went inside.

"So, what should we do?" Wendy asked.

"We could play a game!" Mabel suggested.

"Okay. What should we play?" Mabel thought about this.

"There's plenty of games in the basement."

"Perfect! Why don't you and Dipper find a game that we could play. Robbie and I will wait here."

"Okay." Mabel looked at me. "Come on, Dipper!" I followed her towards the basement.

Once we got there, Mabel pulled on the cord to turn on the light bulb (I still wish that I was a millimeter taller than Mabel instead of the other way around). We looked on the shelves to see what games we could play.

"We could play Peaches to Peaches." My sister suggested. "That's always fun."

"Yeah." I agreed. "We could." My sister and I looked at more games.

"Ooh, ooh!" She grabbed a game. "Uno!" She looked at more games. "Or how about Apologize or The Life Game!" She picked out the games while she talked.

"Okay. Why don't you pick five games and when we get upstairs, we'll pick one to play first! You got four, we need one more." We looked and looked. Suddenly, my sister piped up.

"That one!"

"What?" I went over to where she was standing.

"That one!" She repeated, pointing. I looked where she was pointing. A game labeled 'Funmanji'.

"Funmanji?"

"Yeah, yeah! Funmanji!" I pulled up a nearby chair to get it down. I looked at it and blew the dust and wiped the spider webs off it. The cover had an African Serengeti with gazelles, giraffes, zebras and a hunter. "I never heard of this game."

"Me neither." I looked at her. "Are you sure you want to play this? We don't know the rules." She looked at the game in my hand then back at me.

"Yeah! It looks fun; we can learn how to play!"

"Okay." I decided. We picked up all of the games we chose and went to the stairs. Mabel turned off the lights and we went upstairs.

"Okay!" My sister announced once we were upstairs. "We picked five games!" Wendy, Robbie and Waddles went to us. Robbie groaned.

"Board games are for kids." He said. He then remembered that Wendy was there. "But I'll play." He shrugged. "Whatevs!"

"Okay." Wendy said. "Which game do you want to play first?"

"I don't know. Let's do 'eeany minee miny mo' to decide."

"Lay them down on the counter and let's do it." So we put the games and the counter and did 'eeny minee miny mo'. Funmanji was the winning game.

"Okay." Wendy spoke. "Funmanji it is then." We put all of the other games aside and opened the Funmanji game. "While you guys set it up; I'll get us some drinks. What do you want?"

"Strawberry FrigidAid!" Mabel piped up. "And a caramel apple. Waddles just love those." Wendy looked at me.

"I'll have apple juice." I told her. Next, she looked at Robbie.

"I'll just have a Cool-a-Cola." He said. So Wendy went into the kitchen while Mabel, Robbie and I figured out how to set up the game. There was the board, cards, a die and four game pieces: a giraffe, a warthog a rhino and a lion."

"All set!" Mabel spoke when Wendy showed up with our beverages.

"Just in time." Wendy said as she gave us our drinks. She gave the caramel apple to Mabel who gave it to Waddles.

"Here you go, Wads; eat right up." She told the pig. Waddles trotted right up to her and began eating out of her palm. Mabel laughed as she rubbed his head. "You love that, don't you Waddles!" Waddles oinked with pride and took it from her hand. He laid nearby to finish it. Mabel turned to face us.

"Okay!" She said. "I'm all ready to play. Who goes first?"

"It says here that the player with the highest number on the die goes first." Wendy told her as she read the instruction book. She picked up the die and rolled it; four. She handed it to Robbie. He got four too. I got three. Mabel got six.

"Yes!" She cheered. "I'm first."

"Hang on! Now we got to pick what game piece we want." We looked at the four game pieces.

"Warthog!" Mabel piped up. She looked at Waddles. "They're relatives to the pig."

"I pick lion." I said.

"Rhino." Robbie put in.

"Then I have giraffe." Wendy concluded. We all picked up our game pieces and moved them to the start. Wendy looked at Mabel.

"Okay Mabel," She told her. "You first." Mabel rolled the die. She got a six and moved six spaces. My turn was next. I got a four. There was also a blue dot on my space, informing that it was a card space.

"Dipper; you got a card space!" My sister informed me. "Pick a card." I picked a card from the stack and flipped it over.

"What does it say?" She asked.

"It says 'you will hear animals from outside."'

"Huh?" Mabel wanted to know. "Dipper, I don't get it. What animals?" I shrugged.

"Don't know." I told her.

"What, so it doesn't even say something like 'go back three spaces', or 'lose a turn'?" Wendy asked.

"Nope." I replied.

"Phht. That's dumb." Robbie sneered. Then we heard growls; chirps, grunts and even high pitched laughing.

"Guys?" Mabel asked us. "Why are you laughing?"

"I didn't laugh." I told her.

"I didn't laugh either." Wendy said. Robbie just shrugged.

"Don't have anything to laugh at." He answered. "So, why would I laugh?" My sister thought about this.

"Hmmm." She thought out loud. "Good point. But who was that? And what was that grunt?" She looked at her pet. "Waddles, it wasn't you, was it?" Waddles just looked at her, oinked and continued eating. Mabel looked back at the board again deep in thought.

"What was that?" She wanted to know.

"Just forget about it Mabel." Wendy told her. "And let's enjoy the rest of the game."

"Although it was a little strange," I told her. "Let Wendy take her turn."

"But, we're not near a zoo unless…" Mabel continued. She then brightened up. "They just started work building a zoo!"

"Uh Mabel…" I said to her. "I think we would know about it if a zoo was being built nearby." My sister then realized I was right.

"Oh, right." She sat back down. "Okay Wendy, take your turn."

"Well, it's about time." She said. She shook the die and got a three. She moved her piece three spaces.

Robbie got a card space. When he landed, he picked up a card and read it. He laughed to himself.

"What is it?" Mabel asked.

"What did it say?" Wendy questioned.

"It says a monkey is going to break in and steal something from whoever is in the room." Mabel snickered.

"What the heck is that suppose to mean?" She asked. "Steal what?"

"I know. This game is ridiculous." He put his card in the discard pile.

Suddenly, the windows shattered. We screamed.

"What was that?" Mabel questioned. I then saw a monkey on the windowsill.

"Look!" I exclaimed, pointing to the monkey. The others looked at it. Mabel gasped.

"There's a monkey in here! Oh my gosh!" She looked at me. "Dipper, why is there a monkey in Grunkle Stan's Mystery Shack?"

"How should I know, Mabel? Your guess is as good as mine." The monkey then scampered towards us. We all gasped.

"What does it want?" Robbie asked.

"Maybe it wants a banana!" Mabel suggested.

"But, we don't have any bananas!"

"Tell that to the monkey then!" The monkey sniffed the ground. It then looked at the caramel apple Waddles was eating. The monkey went over to it. Waddles noticed this and gave out a warning grunt like he was a dog protecting his bone. The monkey didn't give up through; it scampered and fought for the apple. Waddles gave out a frantic squeal and tried to fight back. The monkey took it, blew a raspberry at poor Waddles and scampered out the window. Waddles got up and tried to go after him, but the monkey was gone. The pig's ears drooped and snorted sadly.

"Poor Waddles." Mabel observed. "That monkey bully didn't have any right stealing Waddle's caramel apple." She looked at her sad pig and petted him. "Don't worry Waddles; I'll get you a new one." Waddles seemed to cheer up right away.

"Okay, that was weird." Robbie pointed out.

"Maybe it's some weirdo's pet and ran away or something." Wendy guessed. "And the card thing is just a nutty coincidence. Let's just ignore it and play the rest of the game. I really don't feel like cleaning up that glass right now." We all agreed and went back to the game, as it was Mabel's turn once again.

"The ground will shake as if it was an earthquake." Mabel read from her card. "You will open your door and discover more animals outside. Ngyak…" She tried to sound out the word. "Nygyak…" She gave up. "You're in Africa." She looked confused. "This game is confusing. What does it mean by…" Suddenly, the room seemed to move. We all screamed. Mabel grabbed ahold of Waddles and shielded for cover with the rest of us.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?" My sister shouted. Suddenly, the room stopped. We looked around. "It stopped."

"I wonder what that was." Wendy wondered out loud. She looked at us. "Is everyone all right?" We nodded. Suddenly, Mabel let out another scream.

"ELEPHANT!" She cried.

"Mabel!" I snapped. "Seriously, how can an elephant…." I screamed as I saw an elephant pass by from outside. I also saw a rhino, zebra and a gazelle.

"Maybe we are in Africa." My sister concluded. She looked at me and grinned. "Open the door. I dare you." I looked at her like she was crazy.

"What?" I questioned her. "Are you crazy? Why don't you open it?"

"Because I dared you. Please Dipper, if you don't open the door, how are we suppose to know if we're really in Africa?" She was right. I looked at Wendy and Robbie. They too had scared looks on their faces. I sighed and went towards the door. Slowly I turned the doorknob and opened it. We all looked out and gasped.

My sister was right. We were in Africa!