CHAPTER 4-Wooh! Happy Mardi Gras! I made a mask in French club, and it looks cool. Me and my friend were walking from school to our public library wearing them, and people in their cars were just like..."Huh?"
So, here is this chapter. By the way, to my guest reviewer Becca: You're getting somewhere...(;
I don't own Gravity Falls or Phineas and Ferb.
Again. In case you didn't already know.
One dilemma down. She wished she had an idea as to how many more there would be.
GENERAL POV
Showing the group the town took a lot longer than Dipper would have thought, only because Mabel decided to stop and have a conversation with everyone she saw, whether or not they wanted to participate in that conversation.
They had just exited the library when they ran into Wendy; quite literally.
Dipper winced and leaned over to pick up the books she had been carrying. "Sorry, Wendy," he said, handing the novels over with a faint blush on his cheeks, one that didn't go unnoticed by Candace.
She gave a small smile and cocked her head. "So this is Wendy?"
The reddish-brown haired girl looked up and pushed the sleeves of her plaid shirt a little farther up her arms, a smile on her face. "Hey. Yeah, I'm Wendy. You guys must be the Flynn-Fletchers. Mabel's been going on and on about you for the last week."
Everyone turned to look at the girl and she grinned and shrugged. "What?"
Wendy chuckled and held out her hand. "Wendy Corduroy, at your service."
Candace smiled and took her hand. "Candace. These are my brothers, Phineas and Ferb," she said, gesturing to each in turn.
Mabel darted over and mock whispered, "Ferb is British!"
Wendy snorted and glanced at the boy with a grin. The green haired boy rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Never really thought it was a big deal," he said with a smile.
Dipper laughed and looked up at Wendy. "Yeah, they're staying with us for a week or two in the Mystery Shack."
Wendy nodded. "Nice. Has Stan turned you into a tourist attraction yet?" she asked, directing her question at Phineas.
The entire group cracked up until a voice interrupted them. "What tourist attraction?"
Everyone spun to see Stan walking down the street, his trademark cap's tassel swinging. He stopped in front of the group and studied Phineas.
"Nah," he said finally, smiling. "Your mother might smack me. But kid, you could make some money off that head."
Phineas nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
"Where are Mom and Dad?" Candace asked curiously.
Stan glanced behind him and frowned. "Not sure. What are you punks doing?"
The kids shrugged. "We were showing them around the town," Mabel said.
Stan squinted an eye shut and looked at the kids curiously. "What is there to show them?"
"That's what I said!" Dipper cried, throwing his hands in the air.
Candace stifled a giggle and glanced behind Stan to see her parent's walking around the corner, holding bags in each hand.
"Oh, here they come!" Candace said, gesturing behind him with her hand. Stan turned around and smiled.
"Hi Linda," he said, "Lawrence. Did you find anything when you went shopping?"
Linda glanced down at the numerous bags clutched in their hands, then at Lawrence, then back at Stan. "Nope, not a thing."
Stan rolled his eyes. "Oh sure, be sarcastic."
Candace walked into the bedroom she was sharing with Mabel, practically falling over from laughter. She wiped the tears from her eyes and stumbled over to the bed, collapsing onto it and shaking so hard with laughter that the bed quivered.
Mabel walked in, giggling slightly, a bedazzling gun in her hand.
Perry waddled in behind her, glaring angrily at Candace. "Not funny, Candace."
Candace hiccupped and sat up, clutching her stomach. "Oh….oh my gosh, I can't breathe. I cannot believe you bedazzled Perry!"
Said platypus scowled at Candace before walking over to the edge of the bed and plucking off one gem at a time with his teeth. It was slow going, especially since they were everywhere. His face, his paws, his stomach, even his tail. He looked like a living disco ball.
"I didn't know it would go off like that," Mabel said sheepishly, looking down at the malfunctioning gun in her hand. "I only wanted to put a smiley face on my new sweater….I didn't mean to bedazzle the entire living room."
Perry looked up at Candace and spit a gem from his beak. "How come you didn't get hit with this thing?"
Candace chuckled and shook her head, her breathing slowly returning to normal. She flopped onto the floor next to Perry and started picking the gems off of him carefully.
Mabel sat next to her and started helping, staring sadly at her bedazzling gun. "You know," Candace commented, flicking a pink gem into the trash, "you could get Phineas and Ferb to fix it."
The girl glanced up, her eyes sparkling. "Do you really think they could?"
Candace snorted and tossed another gem over her shoulder, where it settled with a satisfying thump into the wastebasket. "Hey, you're talking about the boys who made a rollercoaster with rivets and peanut butter."
Mabel's head flew up. "They did what?"
Candace glanced up and chuckled. "Yeah. They didn't tell you? Let's see…"
She leaned back on one hand and tapped her chin. "They made a rollercoaster, a portal to Mars, tree house robots, a monster truck, travelled through time in a refurbished time machine, they-"
"Wait," Mabel said quickly, her eyes glimmering with curiosity. "You guys went back in time? That's crazy!"
"I mean, maybe, but when you actually-"
"No, I mean Dipper and I have gone back in time too!"
Candace looked over at the girl and started picking gems off of Perry again. "Really? How?"
Mabel shrugged. "There was this weirdo guy at this fair that Grunkle Stan set up, and he had a time machine tape measure thingy that Dipper needed to use to fix stuff. Things got a little crazy though. We almost got eaten by a t-rex."
Candace blinked in surprise. "Really? We did too. And I got electrocuted."
Mabel winced. "That sounds like it would hurt."
The girls were quiet for a moment. "So you really think they would fix my gun for me?" she asked, jutting a thumb at the device.
Candace nodded. "Oh yeah. So, my dad mentioned that this town has some strange things going on."
Mabel plucked the last gem off of Perry and tossed it into the trash, standing and dusting her hands before moving to her bed. Candace did the same, sitting cross legged and facing the girl, who reached over to the bookshelf next to her, where all of the books she had brought down from her room were. She plucked one off the top shelf and slid off of her bed, walking over to Candace's.
She sat down next to the girl and Perry hopped up next to Mabel, jumping slightly when she reached over, but her fingers only stroked his back lightly.
"Yeah, there are some pretty crazy things here," she said, removing her hand from Perry's back and flipping open the book-a scrapbook, Candace realized. "No vampires as of yet," she muttered, her face pouty, "but I'm keeping my fingers crossed."
Candace raised an eyebrow and glanced at Perry, who just gave a subtle shrug. Mabel flipped to the first page and Candace leaned over her shoulder to peer at the pictures and words.
"Are those….gnomes?" she asked in disbelief. Then again, she was a mermaid…she probably shouldn't judge.
Mabel nodded, her face twisting in a rare showing of disgust that usually only appeared around Robbie, Wendy's boyfriend, who Candace had met earlier that afternoon.
"Yeah. There leader's name was Jeff. He tried to get me to marry him."
Candace held back a snort of laughter at the look on the girl's face. It was obvious she wasn't making this up.
Mabel flipped to the next page and Candace cocked her head. "Is that...a giant lizard?" she asked.
Mabel shook her head. "Nope," she said, popping the 'p' in the word. "It's a giant metal sea monster."
Candace raised an eyebrow. Well that wouldn't be good if she went swimming. "And it's still in your lake?"
Mabel shook her head again. "No. The lifeguard and a bunch of guys fished it out almost a week or two ago."
Candace nodded and Mabel flipped yet another page. "Why is Dipper beating up Sherlock Holmes with a candlestick?"
"Oh, they were wax figures that came alive and tried to kill Grunkle Stan, me, and Dipper," Mabel said cheerfully.
Candace looked over at the girl and smiled. "And you were standing there taking pictures?"
Mabel quickly turned the page, her cheeks flushing slightly.
Candace couldn't believe how crazy some of the pictures were. One was of a couple of old ghosts and Dipper in a lamb suit (Candace decided she wouldn't say anything about that), one was of several Dippers, like clones, all gathered around a piece of paper, another was of Mabel and Dipper with tiny heads giving each other giant bunny ears.
Candace finally looked up, chuckling. "You're right. This is a strange town."
Mabel shrugged and put the scrapbook on the shelf again. "I kind of wish there were cooler things though."
Candace cocked her head. "Like what?"
The girl glanced down and traced a pattern over her bedspread. "I don't know, like pixies, or mermaids or something."
She looked up, her face red. "I know it's kind of stupid but-Candace? You ok?"
Candace quickly shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired. Ready for bed?"
Mabel glanced at the clock, which read 9:30, and shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Are you sure you're ok?"
Candace nodded and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door and leaning heavily on the sink. That was a little too close to home, even if Mabel didn't know that she actually was a mermaid.
Candace hesitated. She really needed to go swimming. The idea actually scared her a little, but she needed to do it.
In reality, she hadn't been swimming since the day she revealed herself in Isabella's pool. She'd just been too terrified to do it.
But now, as she leaned on the sink and tried not to read too much into what Mabel had said, she realized that she needed to get out and go swimming.
A creak from behind her made Candace spin, and she expected Mabel to walk in. Instead, Perry slipped inside the room, his hand lightly on the doorknob and his feet soundless on the floor. Candace glanced out into the room in confusion, but Mabel was sound asleep already.
The girl turned back to Perry, and the platypus let out a soft chatter. "Are you sure you're ok, Candace?"
She hesitated, and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, Perry. I'm going to go for a swim."
Perry raised an eyebrow. "Not alone, you're not. I'll go with you."
Candace paused, and then slowly sighed, knowing she wasn't going to deter the animal. "Fine. You can come. But what about Mabel? I don't want to leave her alone…not after what you said Waddles told you about Gideon."
Perry frowned. "I know. But we won't be gone too long, will we?"
Candace shook her head and slipped off her shoes, leaving them under the bed and setting a seashell on the nightstand.
Her brothers had come up with the idea before they left for Gravity Falls. Anytime she needed to get out and swim, she would leave a seashell somewhere, so that her parents or brothers would know she was ok.
Candace tiptoed out the door and shut it quietly, while Perry went upstairs to tell Waddles they were leaving. She re-joined him on the stairs and they had just gotten to the front door when a voice made Candace freeze.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Candace spun to see Grunkle Stan behind her, his arms crossed over his chest. She hesitated, hand on the doorknob as she searched for an answer.
"Out for a walk," she finally said.
Stanford raised an eyebrow. "In your socks?" he pointed out, motioning to her feet.
Candace gulped and glanced out the door. Stan frowned slightly and studied the girl carefully. "Fine. Go. Not like I'm in charge of you or anything. But be back before the crack of dawn or your parents will kill me."
Candace looked up in surprise. "Really?"
Stan nodded. "Yeah. Get out of here before I change my mind."
Candace paused, and as Stan walked out of the room, she turned and bolted out the front door before he could stop her.
Yay! Chapter four done!
BTW, it was really funny, because I was almost done with chapter 6 when I put up the first chapter, and a couple of people asked if I would make Mabel bedazzle Perry...and I had already written it! LOL
Please R and R!
