I tip toe my way back to the center of the carnival, making sure I don't run into the twins, after speaking to Stan. My stomach grumbles and growls. I put my hand to my gut, cringing. I hunt around for a snack to chomp on. My emotions alternate, ranging from disgust, sickness, and running away screaming. 'All of these food items look horrendous!'
'Ughh.' My stomach roars again, more vicious this time. I finally decide to eat some corn dogs on a stick. I walk up to the stand, awkwardly standing there until someone notices me and takes my order. A young boy, maybe about 14, finally sees me, 'Stupid height..', and smiles, pulling up a notepad for my order 'What is this, a restaurant?'.
"Hey there! What can I get for you today!" he asks, super cheery and his grin looking strained. I look away shyly.
"Uh, could I get the, uh, hot dog?" 'It's a corn dog, stupid!' I internally smack my face, but keep a shy smile for the boy.
"Uh, a corn dog? Sure, no problem! That'll be $3.25!" I hand him the money, took the receipt and walked away from his point of view, nervously awaiting my food.
"Number 176?" I hear the same boy call the number from my receipt, so I walk back up to the counter. He smiles when he sees me walk up and hands me a plate for the odd shaped hot dog. He also hands me a napkin and a slip of paper, with a wink added in to the weirdness. 'Uh what...?'
"Th-thanks." I walk off holding the plate in one hand, and trying to read what the slip of paper had on it, in the other hand. I squint my eyes to try to find a table to sit at, the sun blazing down with no mercy, when I spot a lonely, one person table over by the porta-pottys. Sitting down with a huff, I get comfy 'Well, as comfy as I can get,' on the wooden bench.
I take a bite of my corn dog, shrugging at the neutral taste, 'Not good, but not bad..' and un-folded the slip of paper. I shield my eyes from the reflective brightness from the white paper.
'Hey, I think you're pretty cute. Do you want to hang out at the carnival after I get off?'
'Yes or No'
'P.S.'
'Please don't choose no :)'
'The guy who served your food; Matt.'
I choke on my question mark shaped weenie, punching my chest to help me breathe. 'What-ack-what is this? I've never been 'asked out' by a guy before! Is he asking me out? He just wants to hang out but I don't really wannaaaa, I don't like people...I best ask the twins, they're my best bet, but, I also don't wanna talk to them right now.' I whine and complain in my head to myself, my facial features featuring what I'm currently feeling. Thankfully I'm sitting at a loser table so no one can see me.
I sigh and stuff the note into my pocket. 'Guess I'll just have to ask Mabel, not sure about Dipper...' I finish my food and stand up, walking to throw the trash in its rightful place, longingly staring at the trashcan. 'Honestly it's where I should be right now...that darn slip up is going to be the death of me..'
Trotting over to where I hope Mabel is, the pig pen, I smile when I see her hugging Waddles. "MACIE!" She sees me and joyously skips over, holding onto Waddles nice and tight. She would have ran me over if I didn't side-step from her route. 'The Legend of Zelda series has got me prepared!'
She face plants into the ground, Waddles waddled over to her, 'Heh, waddled..' sniffing her face and oinking in concern.
"Owww, huh? Waddles? Is that you? Am I in Heaven?" Mabel groans on the mussy terrain, slowly getting up. "Oh, ok good, I thought if I was dead, 'Why would Waddles be here?', haha." She laughs at herself and rubs her head, turning to face me, grass blades stick out of her head.
Out of breath, she pants some more, leaning on Waddles for support. I stand by, not wanting her to exert herself anymore. "Well, not in Valhalla, Mabel, but you tried." I laugh and pat her down, shooing the grass from her tangled hair. 'Did I mention I liked How to Train Your Dragon?'
Mabel, standing up fully now, pops her back, "Val-what now?"
"Eh, don't worry 'bout it," I wave her off.
Mabel's confused frown instantly turns into a maniac grin, "Ok, well, LOOK! I won a pig!" She picks up Waddles and wiggles him in my face. I hold my breath, not wanting to embrace his pig smell. Unable to hold it any longer I, reluctantly, take in a heapin' helpin' of air. 'Uh, this isn't pig smell...Why does Waddles smell like lavender and soap?' I furrow my brows in internal confusion.
'STUPID FREAKING CARTOON LOGIC.'
"Yeah, he-he's really cute Mab-ugh, would you PLEASE stop waving him in my face, he's practically up my nostril!" She pulls him back, her smile not wavering in the slightest.
"Sorry...-" She darts off in the opposite direction, "not sorry!"
Before I can comprehend her leaving I stand still for a second. Then, and only then, do I get startled by her sudden moves. 'Why was that such a late reaction?' I start chasing after her and her pig, throwing my hand out to try to catch her. "W-wait! Mabel! I need help!" Not giving in, she runs faster, either ignoring my pleas or not hearing. I hope for the latter.
'Think, Macie! What would get Mabel to stop...le gasp!' I laugh at my stupidity, those darn memes. 'I have to stay off 'iFunny'...'
"Mabel! I need...RELATIONSHIP ADVICE!" She stops in her tracks, her feet skidding. 'Did I see some sparks?!'
"WHAT!" She runs back over to me, practically beaming with joy. "You need advice? OH MY GOSH YES! I've been waiting for this daaaaay!" Her voice goes low when she says day. She hugs the pig, twirling him around, causing him to oink fearfully.
"Woah, please calm down, it's not that big of a de-"
"Don't you finish that sentence, Macie! This is such a big deal! So who is it?" She gets all up in my face, her eyes glittering in...mischievousness!? 'That can't be good...' I can't help but look frightened. I start backing away slowly, deciding that my life is valued more than her help.
"Ok, ok," she takes deep breaths and calms herself down, seeing how scared I look at her spastic-ness. "So, who's the guy, how'd it happen?" she asks, still a little hyper, but only jumping a little this time.
"He's-what?-no, he's no one! I, he, just-UGH!" I throw my hands up into the air, 'why is this so hard to explain to Mabel?'. She nods her head, silently demanding me to continue, but in good nature. "Ok, well I was ordering some food and when he handed me my food, he slipped me a piece of paper with this," I take the note out of my pocket and hand it to her. She takes it and reads it eagerly, "written on it and I don't know what to do!"
"Eeeeeee!" she squeals, hopping up and down. "Macie this is amazing! He's totally asking you out to hang at the carnival!"
"Eh...I don't really care for boys at the moment." I look away, rubbing my left arm subconsciously.
Her eyes widen, slapping both hands to her cheeks in astonishment, "Whaaaaaaat? How could you not like boys! Please Macie, go on the date! For me!"
Unable to refuse her eyes, I unwilling agree, "Fine, but I'm not going for too long, got it?" I point at her, staring right in the eyes. She nods happily, giving a "Mhmph!" and running off again, no doubt, going to find Dipper. Begrudgingly circling the 'yes', I proceed to crumple the paper and throw it into the boy's food stand.
~~Time Skip brought to you by: A jerk in tight pants and has a guitar!~~
It's about 4:15 right now, so I wander around aimlessly, not looking forward to my date one bit. I see Dipper just getting off a ride, the corn dogs of love, to be exact. Realizing this is when Mabel freaks out about Waddles, I go and join them. Unprofessionally, I trip over just about anything and everything on the ground, trying to make it in time. Dipper and Mabel stop their banter when they see me run up beside them, doubling over in an attempt to regain my breath and strength.
"Don't-don't mind me, keep talking, I'll just-just, continue dying.." I put a hand up above me, still facing the ground. Dipper awkwardly pats my back and keeps listening to Mabel.
"We messed up the timeline! Pacifica saw the flyer and won Waddles before I did! She TOOK Waddles, Dipper!" Mabel latches onto Dipper, sobbing silently. I stand up and join in on their conversation.
"Oh, Mabel, I'm sorry." Dipper sincerely apologizes to Mabel. I give her a lop-sided smile for my condolences.
"It's okay, we just have to go back," she grabs the time machine out of Dipper's hand, 'It looks even cooler in person by the way...' "and do things differently." She starts unrolling the tape measure.
"Mabel! Wait." Dipper gently takes the tape measure back, "Look. I did the math. In any other timeline, Wendy ends up going out with Robbie. I can't mess up this day again!" he desperately tries to tell her, but she's too upset to listen.
"But if we don't go, I'll lose Waddles forever!" she pleads.
Standing there awkwardly, I get spooked when their heads both turn to face me at the same time. Mouth straight, I sit there for a second. "Uh, what?" I finally ask, shrugging innocently.
"Who's right!?" they both shout in unison.
"W-what! I can decide that!" I jump back, putting my hands up in a defensive position.
"I need Waddles, Macie! Tell Dipper to give me the time machine back! Oh also, this is a time machine we stole to fix Dipper's failures!" She jabs a thumb to the machine.
"Uh, yeah." Dipper smiles sheepishly, rubbing the nape of his neck.
Acting surprised, I jump back in and excitedly gawk over it. "Woah! A real time machine! Can I try it?" I try to get a hold of the tool, wanting to use it to bring me back before the show even starts. Maybe then I can wake up, or even go back to where I came from...
"N-no! It's dangerous if used incorrectly!" Dipper raises it out of my reach but it soon gets snatched by Mabel anyways. "Hey, Mabel! Give it back!" Dipper turns to Mabel, using all of his strength to get it back from the slightly taller girl. They both fight over it, until it drops and the measure gets dragged by a moving corn dog car.
They fall, still holding onto the main part, together, staring at the tape getting longer and longer. Gasping, I run over to the car to get the tape un-stuck. 'Crap, I'm touching it aren't I...' I look down to see that my hand is, indeed, touching the tape. Throwing my head back, I sigh, all the while we three disappear.
In a matter of seconds, we all fall flat on our faces, landing in some rich dirt. 'Yup, fresh...dirt is going to be in my teeth for weeks...' Getting up, we all pat ourselves down, sporadically.
"When are we?" I ask first, not giving Dipper the satisfaction this time!
"The real question is: when are we? Oh wait, did you already–" Mabel motions with her hands, wildly.
"Yeah, I already-"
"Alright."
"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Dipper breaks us out of our misunderstanding.
We all look down the dirt road we landed on, seeing hundreds of buffaloes heading straight towards us.
"AHHHHHHH!" we scream, running the opposite direction of the stampede, our arms thrown into the air. 'This would be fun, if I wasn't RUNNING FOR MY LIFE!'
I follow the two off a cliff, since that's what happens in the show, and we all land, miraculously, in a wagon, atop some flour bags. Getting up, we look around in confusion, "Where are we? The 70s?" Mabel asks, like it's normal to travel in time.
I land my hand onto my forehead.
"You sent us back 150 years, genius, it's pioneer times!" Dipper throws his hands up, carefully holding onto the time machine.
"By Trembley! Fertilia, it seems you've given birth to three more children!" the man driving the wagon exclaims, seeing us in the moving cart.
"It appears I have. More little hands to render the tallow," the monotonous voice comes out from the woman in the back, surrounded by several children.
"Tallow? What?" Mabel laughs awkwardly, not understanding the word.
One of the boys comes up to Mabel, seeing her braces, he points to them, "She has silver in her mouth, mother!"
"These are called braces!" Mabel smiles wider, giving the boy a better view of her teeth.
I grab Mabel by the shoulder, making sure I do so gently, and scold her how Dipper would, "Mabel, look, you can't mess with the timelines!" She just shrugs me off and glares at Dipper.
"Oh, so you're siding with the guy who messed with the past all day and cost me my pig?"she holds up a calculator, "I'll mess with the past all I want!" she turns back to the young boy in tattered clothing, showing him the calculator, "Check it out! A magic button machine!" Handing him the tool, she starts tapping her foot, "Shoes that blink!" All of the children and their mom bob their heads up and down following her foot.
Dipper angrily takes the calculator from the boy, so she runs over and talks to the mom. "Hey sister! Guess who can vote in the future! Ladies! Up top!" They high five, although the adult looked extremely confused, "That's called a high five! Teach it to your friends!" She smugly smiles and gives the people a finger gun.
Stomping over to end her madness, Dipper snatches the tape measure, "Gimme that! I'm gonna set the timeline right!" Dipper pulls the measure, but does so too far, making us teleport into the prehistoric ages.
I, being behind them, close my eyes, seeing that a T-Rex is about to eat us, and the two also scream, rapidly pressing all of the buttons they can push.
Opening my eyes, I look around and see a city in ruins, gunfire is heard all over, and rubble strewn about. "This future seems nice." Mabel stands there, watching the Time Baby float by. 'I will never get that girl...'
Dipper takes the machine and pulls it again. I just barely touch him to get into the teleportation. We land in the first three episodes, starting with 'Tourist Trapped' and passing through 'Legend of The Gobblewonker' and 'Head Hunters', finally ending up in an earlier time, seeing that it's snowing and the shack currently belongs to Ford. I call out to them, wanting to at least see Ford for little while in his early cameo.
"Guys! Wait up, I dropped something!" I yelled through cupped hands, causing them to stop for a moment to stand there and argue while I go up to the door, which should be opening any moment now. 'I didn't drop anything...heehee'
The door swings open, a confused man pokes his head out. 'Everyone who was watching the first time probably thought it was Stan but it's so cool that it was actually Ford!'
He looks to the left, probably missing the twins, who were hiding behind some trees, and then looks to the right. Finally, he looks down, jumping back in shock. "Wh-uh, hello?" He furrows his eyebrows. I giggle and run off.
"H-hey, wait!" He runs out the door, scratching his head when he sees that I'm already gone.
I giggle some more, turning to the twins, who were quietly arguing. "Hey, guys, let's go now!"
"Right, let's go." Dipper presses the button, flinching in pain when it gets hot.
"Ah! Ouch, it's really h-hoooot!" He draws out the 'o' seeing that the tool looks like it's about to explode. Disappearing one more time and reappearing, we land back in the present, well, in a smelly porta-potty.
"Where are we?" I can faintly hear Mabel whisper.
"There's nothing but inky blackness for miles! Mabel, don't you see? We've transported to the end of time!" Dipper explains, dramatically.
The two take turns screaming for a minute or two until I open the door with an un-amused look. They both sheepishly walk out, rubbing their necks, laughing awkwardly, "Look, we're back in the present!" Mabel points to the carnival.
"But which present?" I cross my arms, leaning against the toilet. 'Wait, what am i doing?' I recoil from the porta-potty, realizing what I was doing. 'Yuck! Oh my gosh, no no no, that's soooo gross! Where's my hand sanitizer when I need it!' I flail my hands around, ignoring the twins.
I suddenly get shoved by Mabel, who was too busy trying to get the time machine from Dipper, and fall to the ground, my face landing right next to a discarded pizza. 'Ugggggh, that's revolting...' I sulk on the ground, accepting my fate.
"Look, Mabel, it's over! Okay? Give it up! I've worked too hard to lose this!" I hear Dipper announce from my spot on the ground.
"But what about Waddles! He was my soulmate." Mabel cries right next to me. I can smell the rubber on her shoes.
All of a sudden, a set of new shoes show up in my line of sigh. Baffled, I lift my head to see the owner of said shoes. It's Matt. 'Ugh, I'm not in the mood.' I put on a smile as I grab his hand he offered to me.
"Hey, need a hand? Haha..." He tries to make me laugh but fails horribly. "Uh, well, I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you, then bam! There you are, haha.." He emphasizes on the 'bam', trying to make conversation that I am NOT up for.
"Uh, yeah?" I cringe.
We walk off, leaving the two stare at me with wide eyes. Mabel gushes, while Dipper just stands there. I look back one more time, about to give them the 'Please help me' eyes, when I see that they were back to bickering. Sighing, I slouch in my steps.
"Hey, you okay?" I hear Matt ask me with concern lacing his voice.
"Yup, just tired!" I give him a thumbs up. He frowns.
"Well, uh, why don't we do this a different day? There's always another day, so uh, here's my number, text me so I can get yours. But you should really get some rest, you look awful...N-no offense!" he puts his hands up quickly.
"K okay.." I yawn, covering my mouth to suppress the noise. He walks off, hands tucked in his pockets, after handing me another piece of paper.
I practically crawl into the shack. The mentally and physically draining day is taking its toll. I go to climb the stairs when a fat, pink, blur zooms past me, catching me off guard. "W-whu?"
Dipper follows up the stairs, nonchalantly shrugging and jabbing his thumb upwards. "Eh, I gave Mabel Waddles back, that was the pig, then of course she ran by, too. You probably didn't see her go by you when you got whiplash." I laugh, giving him a pat on the back.
"Good for you, being all selfless." He smiles while I continue, "You really are the best brother." I smirk at his blush, embarrassed by the praise.
"I'm goin' to sleep, night Dip." I yawn once more, finally making it up the stairs completely.
Walking into the room I hear a, "Night Mace," as my head hits the pillow, instantly falling asleep.