They were setting up a random party that Stan wanted to have for some reason. Wendy was blowing up balloons, Soos was carrying random boxes of stuff, and Camo was hanging streamers and stuff from the ceiling. The twins got to just sit on the couch and play around with silly string. Stan very clearly showed favoritism towards those two, and she didn't like it.
"Oh, no, Mabel. I—I don't feel so good! Bleeeeechhhh!" Dipper sprayed sprayed his twin with silly string and pretended to vomit.
"Oh! Grunkle Stan, what did you feed us? Bwaahhh!" She copied her brother, and the two started spraying each other with tons of silly string.
Wendy walked up, hiding her hand behind her back. "Guys, guys, stop! Something terrible just happened!" The twins froze, and then Wendy also pretended to vomit with her can of green silly string.
Camo grinned to herself, holding her own can of silly string. She had the upper hand in this game, as she was on a ladder behind the three of them and could very easily just do the same. "Aw, man, guys, there must be some kind of virus going around!" She pretended to vomit, copying all three of them, and sprayed the orange stringy stuff all over all three of them. Everyone dissolved into laughter, which Stan did not participate in.
"All right, all right, party supplies are now off limits," Stan said, taking away the silly string and the gold confetti Mabel had been throwing on him. Camo laughed at them down there—she was on a ladder, so Stan couldn't get her can of—
The ladder shook violently and she grabbed onto it for dear life, dropping her can into the hands of Stan in the process. "Aw, man," she said, still unwilling to let go of the ladder.
"Mr. Pines, whose birthday is it again?" Soos asked, hanging up one of those lines of triangles she could never remember the name of.
"Nobody's. Thought this party might be a good way to get kids to spend money at the Shack." He proudly unfurled a pin the tail on the donkey game. "The young people of this town want fun, I'll smother them with fun!"
"Maybe comments like that are why kids don't come to the Mystery Shack," Dipper said dryly. He was pouring a cup of soda for his sister, but Stan stopped them.
"Hey! Hey! How's about you make yourself useful and copy there flyers?"
Dipper looked at the sheet as his twin excitedly said, "Oh, boy! A trip to the copier store!"
"Calendars, mugs, t-shirts and more! They got it all at the copier store," Soos said in a way that made it sound like a little jingle. "That's not their slogan, I just really feel that way about the copier store."
"Save the trouble," Stan said, waving a hand. "You know that old copier in my office? I finally fixed the old girl up. Good as new!"
Camo highly doubted that. She also wasn't intervening with quite so many snarky comments because she was slowly regaining trust with the ladder while eavesdropping on her friends. It was fun. Well, not the regaining trust with the ladder part. Stan had really freaked her out when he shook it, and the unfortunate thing was, she didn't have insurance, so if she were to break a bone or crack her skull open on the floor, he wouldn't have to pay a dime.
Then the twins ran back to tell her about the magical properties of the old copier, and she rolled her eyes. Never a normal day at the Shack.
"All right, party people, and Dipper," Stan said, and Camo snorted. "Let's talk business. Soos, because you'll work for free . . . and you begged . . . I'm letting you be DJ."
"You won't regret it, Mr. Pines," the handyman replied. "I got this book that teached me how to DJ r-r-right." He held up a clearly cringe-worthy book and Camo winced. Hopefully, none of them would regret it, but the future wasn't looking particularly hopeful.
"Not encouraging," Stan deadpanned, and she couldn't help but agree. "Wendy, you and Mabel are working the ticket stand."
"What?! But Grunkle Stan, this party is my chance to make new friends!" Mabel complained.
"I—I could work with Wendy," Dipper suggested, and Camo rolled her eyes.
Stan looked at his great-nephew. "You realize if you do, you gotta commit to staying at the ticket stand with Wendy. No getting out of it, just the two of you, alone, all night."
That was exactly what Dipper wanted, so Camo helpfully added, "Well, not alone. You'll have the people you're ripping off, too."
Dipper ignored her, looked at Wendy, blushed, and said, "I promise."
"All right, fine. Mabel and Camo can be at the party while Dipper and Wendy work the ticket stand." Camo high-fived the other girl.
Later that night, she was getting ready at the motel room. She had decided on a little more subdued of an outfit, just in case she might scare everyone away with her confidence. Black-and-white flannel, movie shirt reference quote, jeans, sneakers . . . and an eyepatch and pirate hat. She couldn't help herself, it was really fun to be over the top and ridiculous. She'd also made sure that Jason knew about the party, so he would be showing up as well . . . oh, she was pretty excited. She wasn't especially looking forward to socializing with people she didn't care about, but a party. She'd never been at one before, so it should be pretty fun. She'd have to convince Soos to play at least one electric violin song, because those were epic.
She did bring a book, though, as an escape from the socialization aspect of the party. You never could be too careful.
She walked in and immediately was glad for that decision. It was loud, and there was colorful lights, and far too many people. She was glad she had helped set it up, because then she didn't have to pay to get in. Still, she decided to dance with Mabel for at least a little bit. They wandered over to the seats along the wall, and Camo spotted Jason sitting with two other girls.
"Oh, hey! Jason! Glad you could make it!"
Mabel, meanwhile, was fascinated on the lizard on one of the girl's shoulders. "Wow! You've got an animal on your body! I'm Mabel, and this is Camo."
"Hi, I'm Grenda," the girl with the lizard responded, and her voice was shockingly deep. "This is Candy and Jason." Candy waved at the two of them with forks taped to her fingers and Jason smiled sheepishly at Mabel.
"Why do you have forks taped to your fingers?" Mabel asked. The other girl proceeded to stab Grenda's popcorn and easily picked up a couple kernels.
"Improvement of human being."
"So . . . are these your friends?" Camo asked the only boy present and he nodded.
"Yeah, kinda."
"Wait, how do you two know each other?" Mabel asked, and Camo realized she never told the younger girl about him. Well, Mabel had been over-obsessed with making Stan perfect for matchmaking that day, so maybe it made sense.
"We met at the diner the other day," Jason answered.
Mabel got a familiar look on her face, and Camo narrowed her eyes and sent a silent message that they would talk about it later. Still, the preteen seemed excited at having found "her people".
"Remember, dudes, whoever, um, party hearties . . . what? . . . gets the party crown!" Soos said, clearly rather confused. Camo's eyes lit up—that crown was awesome and she wanted it. "Most applause at the end of the night wins!"
Mabel gasped, and the whole group seemed excited by that prospect. However, one of those obviously jerky girls walked up and said, "Party crown? I'll take that. Thank you very much."
"Wha—Pacifica?" Jason asked, confused.
"The most popular girl in town: Pacifica Northwest," Candy supplied.
Camo narrowed her eyes at the other girl. She hated popular kids. Popularity was dumb, overrated, and opinion-based, so she always consoled herself by thinking If I don't think they're cool, and nobody I know think's they're cool, then they must not be very popular. It usually cheered her up pretty well, as it did right now. "She looks like she needs to be taken down a peg."
Yeah, I always feel bad about myself around her," Grenda said.
"Uh, I can't just give you the crown," Soos was saying, trying to stop Pacifica's dictatorship. "It's sort of a competition thing."
"Honestly, who's gonna compete against me?" Pacifica laughed, and proceeded to mock everyone. "Fork Girl? Lizard Lady? The Tailor Dude?" She laughed some more, and Camo's blood practically boiled in her veins. Candy and Grenda hugged each other for support, and Jason just looked sad and uncomfortable. However, luckily for them, neither Mabel nor Candy was going to let this stand.
"Hey! I'll compete!" Mabel said happily, popping up next to Pacifica, who looked livid.
"And I'll help her compete!" Camo said, popping up next to the preteen.
The rich girl looked at the other two, and, when Mabel introduced herself, said, "That sounds like a fat old lady's name. And who're you?"
Camo smirked and looked her dead in the eyes. "I'm Camo HP, and I'm going to take you down a notch."
"May the better partier win," Pacifica said, clearly confident in her own partying skills. She and her sassy goons backed up into the shadows.
"Nice meeting you!" Mabel called, and then quieter, to their friend group, "She's going down."
"Oh, you know it," Camo said. "All right. We need strategy. If she really is the most popular girl in town, then we need to have a plan—"
"You sound like Dipper."
"Oh, shut up." She pulled off her pirate hat and smacked the other girl in the face with it before returning it to her head. "So. I've never been to a party before"—she elected to ignore the horrified gasps—"but I do know some things about getting people to like you. So, first off, I'm going to be gaining attention too, but, so that our team has a higher chance of winning, I'll divert it to Mabel. Concentrate our votes and whatnot. I suggest we all take a similar path, gaining some popularity and saying something to make them vote Mabel, okay?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Let the battle for the party crown begin!" Soos called. "Mabel comes out strong with Camo at her side. Watch out, Pacifica!" They danced like there was no tomorrow, busting out all the moves she knew, occasionally winking (she had forgotten she was wearing an eyepatch and it just looked like she was blinking) or throwing out finger guns to the crowd. They seemed to be loving it, but Mabel was already here, so she made her way to a different section of the room.
She danced, she joked, she oozed confidence and, when she was sure the crowd was enjoying it, she said: "If you like me, you'll love Mabel even more!" and gestured to her friend. The crowd was really getting into it, though she was almost thrown off her game when she saw Dipper and Wendy in the party. She threw out an excuse and a wink/blink and went over to the window. There, sitting at the ticket stand, was Dipper. And there, next to Wendy, was . . . Dipper.
What had the twins said about that copier? That it could copy human beings?!
She went over to the friend group. Jason looked over at her and furrowed his brows. "Wait, why aren't you partying? You seemed to be getting really into it before . . ."
"Yeah . . . uh, I need to talk to somebody, if you could, I don't know, whip out some more party skills?" she said. She was really nervous inside, but she feigned confidence and plunked her pirate hat on his head. "I'll be back in a couple minutes, just keep the crowd alive until I get back, okay?"
"I—I can't do that!" Jason said anxiously.
"I believe in you. You can do it." She gave him an encouraging smile and went over to talk with Dipper . . . the one in the party, not the one at the ticket stand. "Uh, Dipper?"
"Ye-yeah?!" Dipper tried to hide a walkie-talkie behind his back and she raised an eyebrow. He cleared his throat. "Uh, what—what's going on?"
"How are you here . . . and out there?"
Dipper froze. It was really, really obvious that he was freaking out inside. It was honestly hilarious, the face he was making. "Um, um, it's, uh, it's nothing good bye totally nothing suspicious going on!" He ran away and she just stood there, very confused.
"Karaoke contest!" Soos called out, and she jumped. She couldn't leave Jason to sing with Mabel!
She grabbed her hat from the helpless boy and watched as Pacifica sang a slow love song. They had to go with a different style, since otherwise it would seem like they were copying her. Something that would match their style . . .
The perfect song came to mind.
Pacifica ended her song, hitting the high note perfectly, and the two other girls made their way onstage after a couple mean comments from Pacifica. (She had checked with Mabel to make sure she knew the song she was planning to sing, she wasn't that impulsive, and the other girl had agreed.)
"Don't start un-believing!" Mabel started.
"Never don't not feel your feelings!" Camo continued. Mabel started doing chaotic dance moves as Camo continued the song, barely holding back laughter as she sang the ridiculous (yet completely awesome) song they'd chosen. Everyone cheered at their awesome job, but it was interrupted by Soos:
"Dudes, would the owner of a silver and red dirt bike please report outside? It is being stolen right now."
Even from her vantage point on the stage, through the window, Camo could see two identical preteen boys wearing a very familiar outfit riding away on it. She fumbled over the words but thankfully managed to catch it and didn't lose the crowd.
"Now we're going to bring it down for a minute," Soos said when they had finished their song. "Ladies, dudes, now's the time."
The song changed to a slow dance, and everyone searched for a partner. Candy and Grenda started dancing with each other, Mabel ran off to bother her brother (who at this point, Camo was pretty sure was doing very suspicious behaviors), and Camo glanced as Jason, who, as usual, looked shy and awkward.
"Care for a dance?" she offered, and she went into a deep bow, her hand on her hat to keep it in place. He went red but nodded, and they started to slow dance.
They were silent for a moment, but she figured now was as good a time as any to talk with him. "So . . . why are you so embarrassed?" She desperately hoped it wasn't because he had a crush on her, that would make their relationship a million times more awkward. She was not prepared to be in a relationship.
"Oh, it's just . . ." He sighed. "I'm not very confident, I'm not like you. I can't—I can't just walk up and start dancing, it—it just doesn't work that way."
"You don't have to be worried," she said.
"But, it's who I am. I'm awkward and shy, it's just who I am."
"Okay," she acquiesced, "maybe you're awkward. Maybe you're shy. But . . . everyone is sometimes. Even me. You know what I do when I feel like I'm not brave enough to do something?"
He shook his head.
"I pretend that I am. I replace myself with another version of me, I pretend that I'm braver than I am. And it works. Sure, it might be different for you, but all I'm trying to say is that you don't necessarily have to stay as Jason, the shy. You can always find a way to trick yourself into confidence."
They danced a little longer in comfortable silence, and then the song was replaced with one of a faster tempo and they changed their dance to match it. Candy, Grenda, and Mabel came over, and Camo said, "Well, guess we better get back to the competition, yeah?"
Mabel nodded and started breakdancing on the floor.
Soos called out, "One more song, dudes, and then it's time for the bestowing of the party crown! It's gonna be the . . ." He actually managed to hit the right key, making a bomb sound. "Nailed it."
"Pacifica, I just want to say that whoever wins, it's been a super fun party." Mabel held out her hand, but Pacifica ignored it.
She clicked her tongue. "Aw. It thinks it's gonna win. Hey, did you hear that? People clapping for the weird girls? Yeah. Me neither." She walked away.
"Come on. Weird is a term of endearment. At least, if you believe it is, then it will be," she clapped her hand on her friend's shoulder. "You did great tonight."
"Thanks, Camo."
The two main competitors (meaning, Mabel and Pacifica, since Camo was technically only helping out her friend) were up onstage with Soos, who called out, "Let the party crown voting commence! Applaud to vote for Mabel!" There was a good deal of applause, and Camo beamed at the support her friend got. "Let's check the applause-o-meter. Oh . . . oh . . . pretty good . . . And your next contestant, Pacifica!" Her applause was more scattered, which made Camo smirk. However, the glare the rich girl sent out convinced some more members of the crowd to cheer for her, if half-heartedly. "Uh-oh! A tie! This has, like, never happened before."
As Pacifica searched for someone to bribe, Camo had a better idea. She ran up in front of the stage. "Just remember that I was on team Mabel! Voting for Mabel is voting for Camo!"
Her applause increased, and she felt a lightness in her chest. Pacifica returned to the stage with a self-absorbed expression on her face, but it was wiped off when she heard Soos announce, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! The winner of the contest is Mabel Pines!"
Camo and Mabel cheered so loudly it drowned everyone else out. Mabel put on the crown and Camo did a victory dance. However, Pacifica kind of ruined it.
"Everyone come to the after-party at my parents' boat!"
Ugh. Rich girls. Naturally, Pacifica got their attention instead.
The two of them went over to the friend group, though Camo nearly tripped over a couple fallen cups of punch (she was wearing an eyepatch, which apparently screwed with your depth perception an awful lot). Mabel went over to the girls, and Camo stood next to Jason.
"Uh, thanks for your advice," he said shyly, rubbing his arms. "It was . . . really helpful. Thanks."
She hugged him. "No problem."
Mabel was watching them with that look in her eyes, and Camo turned on her defensive mode. "Mabel, this is purely platonic and if you so much as suggest otherwise I will find the forks Candy used for her popcorn and I will come to the Shack in the middle of the night and I will pull chunks of flesh from your body and will not stop at the sound of your screams. Understand?"
The preteen laughed. "Sure, sure." She waggled her eyebrows at Jason, who blushed, and Camo smacked her with her pirate hat, knocking the party crown onto the floor, where it broke into several pieces.
"Aw, what? It was just garbage plastic? All that effort for nothing," she pouted, and everyone else laughed.
"Soos! Play another song! This thing's going all night!" Mabel called.
"It better be electric violin!" Camo warned.
So, she wouldn't need her avoiding-social-interaction book after all.