The peaceful and quiet work day lagged by slowly as Wendy Corduroy stomped her dirt colored boots on the ground in frustration. With a groan, she tried reasoning with her skin-flint boss currently sitting in front of her for around the hundredth time, not hiding the exasperation in her voice.
"Listen, Mr. Pines, I really am sorry for totaling the golf cart, really! I can pay for the damage; I can even try to pay to have it fixed, but can you please just catch me a break this one time?"
The man in question gave the teenager a deep scowl. "You mean like all the other times I "caught you a break"? Wendy, that cart was the only mode of transportation for leading tour groups, and you destroyed it! By doing, what do you kids call it, da, do…"
"Donuts," the girl corrected with impatience boiling up inside her.
"Yes, exactly that! I'd like to see you even try to pay back for the damage you've done and even add in a new paint job while you're at it," Stan smirked and held his calloused hand out as if awaiting payment.
Wendy rolled her eyes, and, with fake gusto, looked down and stuffed her hands into her jean pockets. After a few seconds of rummaging around, she pulled out a hodgepodge of small items, crumpled up pieces of paper, and stupid knickknacks. She put her hand out and dropped the items onto the desk, watching her boss' expression dutifully.
A button, a guitar-shaped key chain, a crinkled up concert ticket to see Indie Fuzz, and a couple of coins occupied the center of the desk. Stan looked unamused and the teenager grinned sheepishly.
"Uh…just wait a second." She put her finger up and reached for the plaid pocket on her shirt. She pulled it open and withdrew a folded green bill, holding it out for her boss to see.
Stan blinked. "Five dollars? Really?"
"Well, I'm sorry I don't have a lot of money, but you don't even pay me for the work I do!" she exclaimed with a roll of her eyes. "This money was from my dad. In fact, you don't even pay any of us around here, and it's totally unfair. Soos does the most out of all of us and he gets nothing. Neither do the twins!"
"Don't even bring them into this, missy! The kids are family, so they don't count as ones I have to pay. Plus, the girl would probably go out and buy herself a hundred candy bars if I did, and that wouldn't end very sweet now, would it?" Stan asked as he gave the fuming teen a small knowing smile, but that was immediately thrown from existence as the matter at hand was brought back into play. "The point is, Wendy, that I'm getting tired of your reckless and lazy behavior. If you don't do what you're hired to do and keep breaking things…then I'm afraid that we're going to have to make some arrangements."
The girl was suddenly snapped out of stupor and a sickening feeling entered her stomach. "Arrangements?" she asked with sudden quaver in her normally smooth voice. "Y-you don't mean..?"
"I'm afraid so."
The girl's mindset immediately flipped and she did something very out-of-character. She got down on her knees in front of the desk and put her hands together, a pitiful look spreading across her face.
"Please, please don't fire me, Mr. Pines," she implored with not a hint of languid in her voice. "I need this job. It's the only way I can help support my family. My family depends on this job!"
The office was quiet for a few minutes as the decision was pondered over. All the while, the teenager held her breath, hoping and hoping it would not come to anything too rash. She watched Stan's expression cautiously as she did her best to put on a pout.
Stan narrowed his eyes at the teenager, letting out a long sigh. He knew of two people who tried that on him far too often.
"…I'm sorry, but this can't just go on any longer. I've let you off the hook too many times, and now I think it'd be best if you just leave for a while," Stan finally decided, calmly putting his hands together.
It was like a pile of bricks had suddenly came hurling at her. She released the breath she had been holding for what seemed like minutes and tried to calm her breathing as her boss finished. Jaw dropping, her skin became just a shade paler than it had been before and she put a hand to her mouth in disbelief. She was afraid that if she spoke, she might actually puke. "So, so you're saying, but, but-"
"No buts. I want you to leave my office. Now," Stan said sternly, "I'm going to busy making calls to my banker to try to get this paid off for the rest of the day, now, thanks to you."
Wendy shakily stood up from her position and straightened her body out. She felt hot anger boiling inside her, and instead of becoming paler, her face became as scarlet red as her hair and rage flew across her face.
"You know what? Fine, Mr. Pines. Fire me. See if I care," she said with a sudden change of attitude and turned in her tracks. She began to walk out of the room, fists clenched. Then, she turned back around again to add yet another two cents.
"This was a cheap job, anyway. I'll just leave you to your money, 'cause you just care about it so much!" She yelled and slammed her name tag down onto the desk. She cursed under her breath and stomped out of the office, trying her best not to break down right then and there.
Stan continued to sit calmly, legs crossed over one another, but there was no doubt that he was feeling something deep down. Instead, trying to ignore the feeling, he just leaned back in the chair and heaved a sigh, putting his hands to his temples.
"That girl just gives me a headache sometimes…" he grumbled to himself as he attempted to soothe his head.
Unbeknownst to Wendy, a pair of brown-eyed twins had been listening to the whole conversation between the old man and the redhead outside of the door, being extra careful not to make any noise. Both their faces were now pale with shock at what had just gone down. Even the normally happy Mabel was at a loss for words.
While the older twin put two sleeved arms to her face and whimpered, the younger twin did his best to keep himself together and awkwardly cleared his throat, searching for the right words to say to his crush after such a harsh event. "W-Wendy?"
The teenage girl did nothing more than turn around, acknowledge their presence, and begin to walk away. She wiped fiercely at her freckled face and both the twins were sure she was beginning to sniffle and snuff, even though she tried her best to mask it with her sleeve.
She tramped away from them and they both heard the gift shop exit open, then slam, causing some merchandise on shelves and racks to rattle around.
The siblings both looked at each other with numbness. Their favorite redhead had actually been fired. Fired as in: gone and never coming back?
Mabel turned to her brother. "Wendy was actually...fired?" she squeaked with panic as she pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked back and forth in a way to calm herself.
"I think so, Mabes," Dipper whispered as he looked off to the side, eyes downcast. It had come as such a shock to see their friend get fired. Imagining working without her there by their side in the Shack was unbearable. She made work fun and enjoyable, almost always finding some good way to go about doing their duties while being her cool and calm self.
While Dipper and Mabel sat trying to come up with a plan to help their redheaded friend, a familiar large figure was shown making its way into the gift shop where they were both sitting. The goofy handyman Soos sauntered in with a dusty broom and tool box in hand. He looked downwards at the twins, and seeing the looks on their faces, became concerned.
"Hey, little dudes, what's wrong?" he asked as he set the box and broom down on the checkout counter. "You guys look like you just witnessed something horrible. Is everything alright?"
They both exchanged glances, mentally discussing who would be the one to break the news to the man. Mabel sighed and looked up at him with gloomy eyes.
"You don't know what happened?" she asked sadly.
"All I know is that the golf cart is wrecked outside…I was gonna go and check it out, but did anything else happen?" he asked again, noting the gloom in her voice. He was completely unaware that their friend had been fired.
"Wendy's fired," Stan stated as he ambled out of his office, holding the girl's ex-name tag. "I had enough of her behavior, so I got rid of her."
Soos looked at him with skepticism and chuckled, an insecure chuckle. He clutched the sides of his stomach in a fit of humor. "You're lying, right? That was funny, Mr. Pines. She's not really fired, heh heh."
The twins looked at him sorrowfully, and not in a fake, playing-a-prank way. In that moment, he knew that Stan was indeed telling the truth. The handyman was speechless all at once.
"Mr. Pines, I can't believe you fired her," he finally said with astonishment, "I mean, I heard she destroyed the cart and all, but why would you even consider doing that?"
"Because she's not reliable, she doesn't do what she's supposed to, and she ruins the business," the old man said as he threw the name tag in a nearby trash can. "Hopefully things will start running a lot smoother with her gone."
All three of them, handyman and twins, looked at Stan with still mounting disbelief. The con man narrowed his eyes and looked about at each of their faces before speaking with undeniable irritation.
"Listen, I know you guys are all heartbroken over this, and trust me, I really didn't do this for the pleasure of firing, but hear me out, and this will work."
They continued to stare.
"I didn't do this to be some kinda demon, if you think I am. It was for the sake of the business and for the sake of us. The girl has a good heart on the inside…I mean, if you look through all that nonsense, but she's not work material," he explained.
"But she was a friend!" Mabel yelled as she crossed her arms. Stan ignored her and before he walked away again, turned to them and gave out one more piece of information.
"It was for the greater good. I'll be putting out some ads for new workers soon."
The spiteful con man left the three of them with a depressing mental image, and neither of them really knew what quite to say. They sure as heck weren't going to sit around and wait for a new employee to show up, but they would try to get their friend employed again no matter what it took. Even if it took a little elbow grease to do it.
"You guys know we have to get Wendy back, right?" Dipper suddenly asked as he looked around at his friends for agreement, pulling the brim of his hat up.
"Of course we gotta, it wouldn't be the same without her!" Mabel exclaimed. "This place would be majorly-cuckoo boring without her! We won't let Stan win this battle against freedom and liberty!"
"Yeah!" the males shouted as if they were at a political rally.
"And we don't want anyone else to start working here, right? We want our Wendy!" the girl cheered with newly found glee.
"C'mon, guys," Soos nudged the twins up from their sitting position and motioned to the gift shop door, "let's go check out the cart damage. I have a feeling I might know where Wendy is."
Dipper and Mabel both looked at him with hope. He smiled as they began to walk towards the door, on the way to get their friend back.
A/N: Part one of a two-part story. Stay tuned for more soon!