Dipper and Mabel entered the front seats of Soos' truck, with Dipper taking the wheel again. A brief moment after, Evan soon followed and got into the backseat of the truck, sitting in the middle. His face displayed nothing but a sheer lack of desire to be there.
Mabel turned her head to look at Evan in the backseat. "Alright, Evan. We're gonna give you the choice of what we do first. So, what do you want to do?"
"Go back inside and use my computer," Evan replied instantly.
Mabel sighed. "C'mon, Evan. I'm really trying here. Any place you want to go and I mean any place in town besides your house and room. Any fun place you desire. Where do you wanna go?"
Evan groaned as he crossed his arms annoyedly, looking over to the side in annoyance. He thought for a moment before looking back up at her. "Alright, fine. I know where we can go."
"Awesome!" Mabel said cheerfully. "Lay it on us!"
"The library," he replied with a daring look.
Mabel gazed at him for a moment, processing his response. Dipper even looked up from the wheel and looked over at her in surprise as well. Mabel then glanced at him as if she wasn't sure how to answer for a moment. Eventually, she just turned back to Evan.
"The library?" Mabel questioned, raising an eyebrow. She then gave a slightly hopeful look. "Is that, like, the name of a park or something?"
"What? No. I mean the Gravity Falls Public Library," Evan said. "Who names a park 'the library'?"
"Any fun place in town and you want to go to... the library?" Mabel asked, still incredibly put off by the suggestion.
"The library's fun," Evan insisted. "There are books and articles. Computers…"
"Yeesh. There's someone other than Dipper who thinks books are a source of fun?" Mabel asked, Dipper rolling his eyes in response. "Well, it's obvious that being stuck in that room of yours all day like your brother said has kept you unexposed to actual activities. So how about we go places where we can have some real fun!"
"Like you know anything about having real fun..." Evan said, stubbornly crossing his arms again.
"Excuse me?" Mabel asked, shocked by the assumption that she doesn't know how to have fun. "I am Mabel Pines! I am the master of fun."
"Yet playing board games was your first idea of 'having fun'," Evan reminded her.
Mabel glared at him for a good moment, her eye beginning to twitch aggravatedly. Part of her was getting really annoyed with how Evan continued to talk back, but another part of her knew he was right. Instead of retaliating, she just faced forward in her seat.
"You're contemplating between arguing and accepting that he's right, aren't you?" Dipper asked her, leaning his elbow against the car door.
"Yep," Mabel nodded.
"And now you're gonna try to prove a point that you're fun, aren't you?" Dipper asked.
"Yep."
The first stop was the Gravity Falls Bowling Alley. The three of them were inside beside their own lane, putting on their bowling shoes. Dipper sat down in a seat to the side while Mabel was beside Evan. While he didn't necessarily mind, he was well aware at that point that he wasn't really there for much besides being Mabel's driver for the day.
"Ah, the Gravity Falls Bowling Alley," Mabel stated as she finished tying her bowling shoes and stood up. She then nudged Evan. "Have you ever gone bowling before?"
"No," Evan said as he finished tying his own bowling shoes.
"Well, you'll know that there's no better way to start off a day of fun," Mabel told him as she picked up a bowling ball from the rack and handed it over to him.
Evan took the bowling ball in his hands and was caught off guard by how heavy it was at that moment. Once he got a grasp on the weight of it, he put his fingers in the three holes and walked over to the lane. He hadn't played before, although he obviously knew how it worked. However, he stared forward for a moment as if he wasn't quite sure he knew how to do that properly either.
"Go on!" Mabel cheered, clapping her hands together. "You got this!"
He then ran a few steps forward and rolled the ball down the lane. It was a clear miss, however, as it slowly rolled straight into the gutter and out of the way of the lane. The score screen counted the miss and Evan lost his first shot. He sighed disappointedly but was well aware he was to miss the shot from the start.
"Yeesh," Mabel said.
"I mean, I've never played before. What did you expect?" Evan said, turning toward her.
"Yeah, you're right," Mabel nodded understandingly. "I should've shown you a demonstration of how you roll." She walked over to the rack and grabbed a ball for herself, looking back at Evan as she walked over to the lane. "Here. Mabel will score one for you! You just watch me go."
Evan crossed his arms and sighed, still not gaining any interest in the activity. Nonetheless, he watched as she wished.
Mabel studied the complete set of pins at the end of the lane for a moment, holding the ball up in front of her. She then took a few steps straight forward and gave the ball a solid roll down the lane. The ball rolled straight down the middle, looking to be a perfect shot. It hit all of the middle pins, leaving the front leftmost and rightmost pins. A perfect split.
"Aw, dang it! So close!" Mabel shouted somewhat frustratedly. "Oh well. At least those points go to you. Now, do you know how to play?"
"Sure. With that demonstration, I may as well be a pro now," Evan said sarcastically as he walked back toward his seat.
"Dipper, it's your turn!" Mabel called out to him.
Dipper looked up at the screen and saw the scoreboard display the name 'DIP' on the screen.
"Alright, then," he said as he stood up from his seat and began walking over to the bowling ball rack. He picked up a ball and turned his head back toward Evan as he walked over to the lane. "Don't worry, Evan. I'm not really great at bowling either."
"True. It really doesn't take luck to be better than Dipper," Mabel jabbed, looking over at Evan, who didn't seem to care for her humor.
"Yeah, whatever. At least he'll know he's not alone here," Dipper told her.
He then took a step forward and lunged his arm forward, giving the ball a solid roll. Much to his luck and shock, the ball rolled straight down the middle and knocked all the pins down, resulting in a clean strike.
Dipper gasped and his mouth hung wide open, struck with utter disbelief at what just happened.
"WOO!" Mabel cheered, also surprised by Dipper's successful strike. "Go, bro!"
"I-I... strike!" Dipper stuttered through his disbelief before finally processing everything and putting on a smile. "STRIKE! I got a strike! HAHA!"
Dipper's cheers were starting to attract subtle attention from others throughout the rest of the alley. Mabel glanced around and noticed some of the odd looks they were paying him.
"Alright, bro. Bring it down a notch, would you?" Mabel said, gesturing for him to calm down a bit. "It's just a strike. Good job, but it's not that big of a deal."
"Yeah, especially since the scoreboard didn't even count it," Evan nodded, pointing up at the score screen.
"Wait, what?" Dipper asked, his excitement halting.
He ran over beside the two and looked up at the score screen. The screen displayed the strike as a gutter shot and claimed it to be his first try out of two.
"Oof, well that sucks," Mabel said as she examined the score, sympathetically looking over at Dipper. "Better luck next time, I guess."
"What?! No!" Dipper frustratedly refused. "That's so stupidly broken! I'm not taking that!"
He turned around behind him and saw a teenage worker in the alley walking by. He quickly ran up to him.
"Hey man," Dipper greeted. He then pointed back toward the scoreboard. "Look, I just scored a strike and the score didn't give me points for it."
"Um, that, like, never happens here," the teenage worker told him, raising an eyebrow.
"What? It just did!" Dipper exclaimed. "Right now! It did it to me!"
"Alright, well, what do you want me to do about it?" the teenage worker asked, completely disinterested in his problem.
"Uhh, fix it? Get me the points I was clearly robbed of?" Dipper asked.
The teenager facepalmed himself and dragged his hand down his face annoyedly. He then turned away and began walking off away from him. "Dude, just suck it up and get good at the game. If you got a strike once, doing it again shouldn't be hard."
"B-but, I'm not good at bowling! Or any sport! It was a lucky shot! I need the points!" Dipper tried to justify as the worker carelessly continued to walk off.
"Poor Dipper," Mabel said as she watched back from the lane.
Dipper walked back to the other two moodily, taking a seat down without a word. Mabel looked up at the screen and noticed it was still his turn.
"Sorry about what happened, Dipper," Mabel said. "But hey, it's still your turn! Maybe you'll get luck-"
"Forget it," Dipper refused, crossing his arms angrily. "I'm done playing."
"Seriously? You're quitting just because you didn't get points for a strike?" Mabel asked.
"Look, not to be a sore loser and all, but I prefer to play games that aren't broken," Dipper said as he stood up from his seat. "Can we just go do something else?"
"Dipper's right," Evan nodded, standing up as well. "Why play something that's obviously glitchy? You know what isn't glitchy? The library!"
"We're not going to the library," Mabel sighed. "But, fine. We can go somewhere else. I have a whole list of fun things to do in town besides bowling!"
"How exciting..." Evan said sarcastically as he narrowed his eyes.
"You bet it is!" Mabel said excitedly, putting her arm around Evan and suddenly pulling him to her. "Get ready! Because the Master of Fun's just getting started!"
From the bowling alley, the three moved on to Ye Royal Discount Putt Hutt, Mabel's most anticipated choice. Evan had been asked whether he had played before, to which he had answered no. Therefore, his performance in the games they played was not to be desired. Mabel, on the other hand, got first place in just about every game they played, no surprise due to her mini-golf skills.
Similarly to Evan, Dipper's mini golf performance left little to be desired, not to anyone's surprise. Although, he did have some surprising moments in some of the games they played. He had actually made three solid hole-in-ones, which each made him feel like a winner in his own right. He wanted to keep and frame his golf cards to have something to show for his successes, but a fan in the middle of the course had randomly activated and blown the cards out of his hands into the course's pond, drenching them. Understandably, this made him upset once again.
Feeling sorry for him, Mabel had decided to take him and Evan somewhere else, and a place that she thought they both might've found more in their strengths: the arcade. In an attempt to help alleviate his anger, Mabel convinced Dipper to give Fight Fighters a chance, despite one of his last times playing the game resulting in a video game character coming to life and beating him up. He gave in and played against her, to which she had let him win to make him feel a good sense of pride and accomplishment.
She switched out with Evan, who had no desire to play any game but was pushed to by her. He went up against Dipper, who felt like he had his victory streak secured. However, Dipper's controls suddenly malfunctioned mid-game and he was unable to move his character, and Evan easily came back and stole his victory. This only reignited Dipper's frustrations of things going wrong for him and without saying a word, he walked away from the two so he could clear his head and cool off on his own.
Mabel looked over at Evan, who shrugged as if he had no idea what had happened to his controls either. He once again suggested going to the library so they could all cool off and relax, to which Mabel continued to dismiss, much to his continued dismay.
Once Dipper had calmed down a bit, the three took on another one of Mabel's suggestions: laser tag. They made their way over to Big Gunz Laser Tag, where they were then prepared to go into the arena. Laser Tag was yet another activity that Evan had never played nor had any desire to play, being the only kid about to enter the arena who didn't look remotely excited.
The guns and gear were assigned. Dipper's player name was Rocketship, Mabel was Firefly, and Evan was Hunter. The doors had opened and everyone came rushing in, whereas Evan just walked inside disinterestedly. Mabel took the game very seriously and played as though she was in a real war zone, doing jumps and dives around walls, making her the ultimate point racker, as well as a difficult target. Dipper played the game fairly normally but was kind of into it as well. He wasn't doing particularly amazing, but he scored several shots and points and was actually enjoying himself. He knew that this time, there was no way he could get last place.
Throughout a whole game of people running around, blasting others with laser guns, and screaming, Evan simply stood in the center of the arena with a bored look on his face, not firing his gun once the whole game. Instead, he sighed as he just casually took shots from every player that crossed paths with him.
While Mabel was too into the game to even notice this behavior, Dipper spotted him and made note of his lack of enthusiasm. He felt as though he needed to approach him and check on him. Though, before he could act on this, a train of running kids ran straight into him and pushed him down to the floor. He attempted to get up but was almost immediately trampled by another bunch of running kids who paid no attention to his being, running right on top of his back without noticing him there.
The game of laser tag had ended and everyone started leaving the arena through the designated exits. Everyone returned their guns and gear to the assisting underpaid workers. Full of thrill, Mabel ran over to Evan as he returned his gear.
"Woohoo!" she cried out excitedly as she nudged him in the arm. "Now wasn't that something? C'mon! Tell me that wasn't fun!"
"That wasn't fun," Evan told her bluntly.
"Wow. I see someone needs to learn what a figure of speech is," Mabel said, excitement immediately dying down due to Evan's bitterness.
"I knew that was rhetorical. I still don't think what we did was fun," Evan said.
"Seriously? How are you still not having fun after all we've done today?" Mabel asked, starting to feel kind of desperate. "What does it take to make you happy?"
"Well, there's still-"
"Not the library!" Mabel cut off, crossing her arms frustratedly. The bitter face Evan gave right after implied that she was correct in her presumption of what he was about to say. "Look, let's just get Dipper and find something else to do instead!" She then glanced around the room and noticed Dipper wasn't around. "Where is Dipper, anyway?"
"Right here."
Mabel and Evan turned around to see Dipper being aided out of the arena by a worker. He looked bruised, his hoodie looked slightly torn on the edges, and he looked generally miserable. The worker then let him go, allowing him to stand freely on his own without support.
"Gosh, what happened to you this time?" Mabel asked as she scanned his appearance.
"I don't wanna talk about it," Dipper dismissed calmly as the worker started to take his laser tag gear off for him. Despite his pain, he put on a smile. "At the very least, I think I did pretty decent that game. There's no way I could've gotten last place."
To the right of them, a screen suddenly lit up displaying the scores of every player in the match. The three walked over to it for a closer look, as did a bunch of the other players from the game.
Mabel glanced at the very top and saw Firefly, the name of her assigned gear. She smiled. "Ha! Best not come against me in a real firefight!"
Dipper scanned the scores from the top to bottom, unable to spot his name immediately. He expected to find himself somewhere around the middle of the board but glanced down at the bottom to see that Rocketship had scored absolutely zero points and made last place after all.
"Zero points?!" Dipper questioned, growing upset again. "But that's not possible! I know for a fact that I got points!" He then looked in the middle of the screen and saw Evan's gear name, Hunter, with a fair amount of points. "And how did Evan get so high? I saw him and he wasn't even playing!"
Evan shrugged innocently at the question. However, the worker behind Dipper was examining the laser gun he had used.
"Huh, it looks like your gun was actually programmed for Hunter," the worker told Dipper, showing him the inside of the laser gun. Upon looking at the gun, he saw that it was, indeed, set to Hunter. The worker then grabbed Evan's old gun and opened it up. "Yep, and this one says Rocketship. You both must've grabbed the wrong guns by accident."
Dipper stared forward blankly for a moment, trying to process what was said and the general situation. An activity he thought he had finally found an edge in, only to find himself getting trampled by little kids and then learning he had supposedly grabbed the wrong gun. Despite the fact that Evan's score was actually representative of his, he still felt as though he had once again gotten screwed over by fate.
"Oh well," Mabel dismissed. "We could just play again! It's no big deal. Right, bro?"
She looked over to the side to look at him but saw him walking out the doors of the building, leaving her on her own with Evan.
"Oh boy..." she said, knowing he was upset again.
She quickly ran toward the door and outside the building to catch up to him, with Evan slowly trailing behind her. Outside, it was windy and the sky was hazy as the sun was close to setting. She looked around the parking lot and soon spotted Dipper walking toward a street corner.
"DIPPER!" Mabel called out to him as she continued running after him. He didn't look back at her, although she knew he had heard her. She picked up her speed a little bit and ran right in front of him, spreading her arms out to block him from going forward. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"I'm done, Mabel," he said calmly.
"Done? What do you mean done?" she questioned.
"Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but while you've been having the time of your life, there hasn't been a single thing we've done today that hasn't screwed me over."
"Trust me, I've noticed," she said as she rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "But c'mon, you're not seriously bailing on us because you can't win anything, right?"
"Mabel, I'm just not having fun with you guys," Dipper admitted, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets and turning around glumly. "If you still wanna do things with Evan, then do them without me. Just give me a call when you need a ride back."
Dipper started to walk away again, but Mabel wasn't going to let him walk around all night on his own. She ran in front of him and stopped him again. "Dipper, please. We're not just gonna go on without you."
"Honestly, Mabel, at this point, even I'm thinking we should just go to the library like Evan wants," Dipper said, gesturing over at Evan, who just caught up with the two. "Right now, that sounds about the most fun to me."
"You see?" Evan said, looking over at Mabel. "Even your brother thinks we should go to the library! That's two-to-one. C'mon, let's go have fun with knowledge!"
"No libraries!" Mabel scolded, glancing back and forth between the two.
She pulled out her phone and looked at the time. It was about to be 6 PM, and they had first left the Shack at about 8 AM. They had spent most of the day doing various different activities and they still hadn't managed to make Evan crack a single smile from excitement. She wasn't quite sure when Ryland was to return from his BMX event other than 'tonight'. It was early in the evening, however, and she figured she still had time to try to get Evan to have fun.
"Look, we still have time to do some other things that aren't games..." Mabel told Dipper looking over at Evan. "...and isn't going to the library! Something we can all enjoy that isn't competitive or boring."
"Well, what do you suggest?" Dipper asked with a sigh.
Mabel thought for a moment, not entirely sure herself. "Umm, we could do-"
Suddenly, the wind blew a piece of paper right into her face. She grabbed ahold of it and held it out in front of her eyes, reading it. It was a flyer advertising the new Gravity Falls Pier that had opened the night prior. The flyer had a shot of some people riding the Gravedigger rollercoaster while displaying focal points that included games, rides, and prizes.
At that moment, Mabel heard a series of very faint and distant screams. She held the flyer down and stared down the end of the road in front of her, where she saw the various rides of the pier in the distance over at Lake Gravity Falls, which included the Ferris wheel, a rocking boat ride, and, of course, the Gravedigger. At that same moment, the park and the colorful and luminous lights of its rides lit up to suit the darkening early evening sky.
Her eyes sparkled in awe of the pier. She smiled and pointed directly at it, prompting Dipper and Evan to look over as well.
"-that."
Dipper's heart sank at the sight of the pier. In the distance, the people riding the Gravedigger were going around on the ride's various loops. He soon began to hear the same faint screams of terror and it gave him haunting chills.
He clenched his shoulder nervously and looked over at Mabel. "Well, I mean, uh, I'm not so sure about-"
"C'mon!" Mabel said wrapping her arm around Dipper in a sisterly way. "This one will be fun for sure! Going on rides together! Playing games for prizes! Lots and lots of junk food! What could be better?" She glanced over at Evan. "What do you say, Evan?"
Evan stared at her with an unexcited look and just sighed, knowing that there was no way he was going to change her mind. "Okay," he said with a dismissive shrug.
"Yes! That's the spirit!" Mabel cheered, not quite detecting his continued lack of interest. She wrapped her other arm around him and pulled both him and Dipper to her, neither of them quite thrilled by it. "As the Master of Fun, trust me when I say that this is going to be one of the best nights of our lives!"
"Oh god," Dipper said fearfully, dreading the experience that he knew was soon to come.
The three soon arrived at the pier and walked past the entrance, taking a look around the place. As one would expect from a new pier that had just opened the night before, it was lively as people from all over town were thriving around the place. There were so many folks playing different games, eating at the various food stands, and just enjoying themselves.
"Man, this place is amazing!" Mabel said in awe and she looked around. "It's so modern, yet still so Gravity Falls!" She then pointed toward a nearby stand. "Look, they're giving away a cow!"
At the stand, there was a giveaway for a live cow that you could win by doing a perfect three-ring toss. At that same stand, Farmer Sprott was next in line to do the toss.
"C'mon, ya slowly becomin' good for nothin' hand!" Sprott scolded his hand as he warmed up to do the toss. "Clara needs a new friend and you're gonna get 'er one!" He took a deep breath before tossing the first ring, but instantly missed, meaning he was out. He dropped to his knees dramatically. "NOOOOO!" he cried out aloud as he started his hitting the ground with his fist. "YA LET ME DOWN AGAIN, YA STUPID HAND!"
Mabel spectated from the distance beside Dipper and Evan. "Man, a perfect three-ring toss is easy. I'd do it myself if I didn't already have Waddles."
"Except, where would you even put a cow as opposed to a pig?" Dipper asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"I have my ways," Mabel told him. As she turned away from the cow giveaway, another stand caught her eye and caused her to gasp. "Look, guys! They're selling churros on a stick!"
"Seriously?" Dipper questioned, glancing over where she was facing. The churros on a stick she described were literally multiple horizontal churros stacked amongst each other with a stick going through them. "That looks, like, ridiculously unhealthy. Even by your standards."
"Then you have no clue what my standards are," Mabel said as she eyeballed the stand.
Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland were both leaving the stand, each with their own churros on a stick. Sheriff Blubs took a large bite out of it and made a satisfied noise. "Gosh, Durly! These churros on a stick are sweet!"
"Not as sweet as you, my Blubs," Durland said tenderly.
"You always flatter me, Durland," Blubs said blushingly. "But seriously, you think we're too old to be eating this stuff? It ain't exactly good for us."
"Yeah, we could get pretty sick," Durland nodded, before immediately taking a bite himself.
The two looked at one another and smiled. "Worth it!" they exclaimed at the same time, before holding hands and laughing together as they walked off through the pier, each taking yet another bite out of the churros.
Mabel then turned around toward the Gravedigger rollercoaster. She glanced over at the ride's line and immediately noticed how short it was. "Guys, look! The line for the rollercoaster is short! We should ride it now before it gets too long!"
Dipper's heart skipped a beat at this suggestion. He smiled as he began rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Um, yeah, you guys should go and I'll just hang out down here. Still a bit sore from laser tag."
"What? C'mon!" Mabel pleaded. "It's the biggest ride here and you don't even wanna ride it with us?"
Dipper sighed. "Mabel, do you remember that one time as kids when we went to that one big theme park and rode The Rocket?"
"Yeah, the giant rollercoaster where you were screaming so loud before you puked all over the... ohh…" Mabel said, suddenly realizing his point.
"Yeah, I was kinda hoping you wouldn't mention that part out loud..." Dipper said, narrowing his eyes at her.
"You're right, my bad. But you're not seriously gonna let something that happened when we were kids affect how you feel about riding another rollercoaster, right?" Mabel asked.
"Um, yes? That's kinda how trauma works."
"Well, I bet it'll be different this time. I bet this time you'll be screaming... with joy!" Mabel told him before turning her head toward Evan. "Don't you think so, Evan?"
"I don't know," Evan shrugged. "I've never been on a rollercoaster before."
"You haven't?!" Mabel gasped horrifically at this revelation. "The Master of Fun needs to amend this situation immediately!"
She grabbed hold of Evan's arm and began running off toward the Gravedigger's line, dragging him along, much to his dismay. She turned her head back toward Dipper, who still stood behind in place without moving.
"C'mon, Dipper!" she called back out to him.
"Ugh..." Dipper groaned nervously as he began to slowly catch up to them.
As he walked toward the line, he looked up at the ride itself. The ride's first initial drop was really tall for a simple pier rollercoaster. The more he thought about it, he thought the ride's scale was just generally huge for a pier, which made him just a bit more nervous.
Suddenly, he looked over at the ride's exit and saw some people coming out shaking and holding terrified faces. He then saw someone who appeared to be an older Gorney, walking out from the exit with a large smile on his face.
"Welp, I've been twaumatized yet again," he said as he continued to casually walk off with a large smile.
Dipper's pupils shrunk in fear of the reactions and stopped walking toward the ride. He took one more look up at the ride and how at that moment, there were people on their way up the first drop. The ride slowed down a bit upon reaching the top, but as it began dipping down the other end, it quickly dropped right back down. The screams of the people on the ride began echoing through his head like the TV commercial from last night. Mabel said things would be different this time, but he had extreme doubts.
"Dipper!"
Dipper looked back down in the direction of the line, where he saw Mabel waving at him, gesturing for him to hurry up and join them.
"C'mon! What're you waiting for?" Mabel called out to him.
Despite his unwillingness to go on, he continued walking back over to her, glancing once more at the ride above him in fear.
While he was catching up, Mabel already stood in line with Evan. The people in front of them began walking over to the next set of seats, putting them at the front of the line once the rope gate was closed. The short length of the line was surprising, considering the ride was advertised as one of the biggest attractions of the whole pier.
"Man, I still can't believe how short this line is," Mabel said. "I thought there would be more people here wanting to ride this thing."
"Oh yeah. We thought so too," said one of the ride's engineers, who overheard her comment. "But I guess people think the ride looks too scary and so they try to avoid it."
"Um, if a ride looks scary, wouldn't that encourage more people to want to ride it rather than avoid it?" Mabel asked the engineer, not seeing the logic in his assumption.
The engineer stared at her blankly for a good moment and looked as though he had no idea how to respond. "Look, kid, just accept the fact that the line is short, and don't ask questions," he said before suddenly storming off.
Mabel was kinda put off by the engineer's sudden attitude for a second before she started snickering. "Well, somebody's moody."
"He's not the only one," Evan said bitterly, crossing his arms and looking away from her.
"Evan, you're about to ride a rollercoaster for the first time!" Mabel reminded him. "You should be excited!"
"Why? I don't see what's the big deal," he said just as Dipper slowly approached and caught up to the two right behind them.
Mabel kneeled down and got face-to-face with Evan. "Evan, I'm telling you. If you haven't been enjoying yourself today, then this rollercoaster will finally be the rush of excitement you've been needing your whole life."
"I seriously doubt it," Evan said candidly.
A ride engineer then approached the rope gate and opened it. "Next!"
Mabel looked over at the open gate, realizing they were up. She looked back at Evan and gave him a daring look. "I guess there's only one way to find out then."
She stood back up and walked through the entrance toward the rollercoaster. Evan sighed disappointedly as he followed behind her, while Dipper slowly walked behind the two of them, shivering fearfully.
They approached the front of the ride, with Mabel getting on the rightmost seat and Evan sitting in the center right next to her. Dipper watched as the two boarded and hesitated to sit right next to them.
"C'mon, do we have to sit in the front?" Dipper asked nervously. "We can't sit a seat back or something?"
"It'll be fiiiine, Dipper," Mabel assured him, as one of the engineers helped strap her into her seat. "Are you seriously more scared about riding a rollercoaster than a twelve-year-old is?"
"What?" Dipper questioned, knowing that she was testing him by comparing him to Evan. "Of course not!"
"Then hop on!" Mabel demanded him.
Dipper took a deep breath and stuck his chest out bravely. "Fine! I will!" he exclaimed as he walked over to the rollercoaster.
Before getting on, he snagged his hat off of his head and forcefully handed it to one of the engineers, not wanting it to fall off his head during the ride. He then stepped onto the ride and sat down right beside Evan in the leftmost seat. Once the other engineer finished helping strap in Evan, he moved on to Dipper.
"That's the spirit, Dipper!" Mabel cheered. "It's all about having fun! No competition. No scores. Just three pals having a good time riding a rollercoaster."
"Yeah," Dipper nodded, starting to warm up to the idea of the ride. "There isn't anything to worry about."
"Exactly!" Mabel agreed. "And you can't get screwed over here! Even if something bad were to happen, it would happen to all three of us since we're all in the same row."
"Right," Dipper nodded again as the engineer finished strapping him in, hopping off the ride.
With no one else in the back seats, it was just the three of them in the front row on the ride. Ready to go, one of the engineers then turned a key and pressed a button on the control panel, starting the ride. The ride began moving forward slowly, with the first big drop not too far ahead of them.
"WOOOHOOO!" Mabel cheered as they began moving. She glanced over at Evan. "Are you ready for this, Evan?"
"After this ride, can we please just go to the library?" Evan asked, ignoring her initial question.
"What?!" Mabel questioned, appalled by his sudden question. "We're about to go rushing up and down loops on a rollercoaster and you're still thinking about going to the library?!"
The ride then approached the start of the first drop and began climbing up slowly, the clicking as they ascended as loud as can be. Dipper wasn't paying attention to the dispute between Mabel and Evan and was focused on maintaining a positive and brave attitude on the ride.
"WOO! We're going up! Let's go!" he cheered.
"Yes, I am still thinking about the library!" Evan told Mabel. "I never wanted to come to the pier in the first place. I hate theme parks and loud, crowded places! Yet those are all you've taken us to today!"
"How can you hate them?" Mabel asked. "They're fun!"
"To you. All we've done today is go to places you want to go and do things you want to do," Evan scolded her. "You've never once considered what I want to do!"
Dipper continued to cheer and whoop excitedly for the rollercoaster right next to them. However, once he took a glance to the side and noticed how high they were, his heart dropped. He looked to the other side and back at the ride's many loops later on and started becoming nervous again. He then glanced straight ahead of them and noticed that they were nearing the top of the first drop and started to feel regretful of his decision to go on the ride.
"This was a mistake," he said to himself as he clenched his safety bars tightly, cringing in his seat.
Beside him, however, Mabel and Evan's argument resumed. "Well, you said 'okay' when I asked if you wanted to come here!" Mabel scolded back at Evan.
"And you really thought that after I didn't enjoy bowling, arcade games, or laser tag, an amusement park was really gonna be what finally makes me happy?" he asked, appalled by her lack of awareness. "An amusement park? When I've been wanting to go to the library?!"
"But amusement parks make everyone happy!" Mabel tried to defend. "I don't understand how you're still not happy to be here and still want to go to the library!"
"Because I am not 'everyone'!" he shouted frustratedly at her. "Is it seriously that hard for you to understand that not everyone enjoys the same things? Just because I've never been on a rollercoaster before doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy it when I do!"
"THIS WAS A MISTAKE!" Dipper shouted fearfully as he saw they were about to reach the top. He stuck his head out to the side and looked back behind him at the ride's entrance. "SOMEONE STOP THE RIDE! I CAN'T DO THIS! I WANNA GET OFF!"
Mabel looked ahead of them and noticed how they were coming up on the top. She grinned daringly at Evan. "We'll see about that."
Evan narrowed his eyes at her as he faced forward unexcitedly. Mabel raised her hands all the way up as they were riding over the top and about to drop and started cheering enthusiastically. Dipper cringed further into his seat, absolutely not prepared to make the drop. He shut his eyes tightly and turned his head to the side.
"I REGRET EVERYTHING!" he cried out as the ride began leaning forward to the other side of the drop.
Suddenly, the ride's speed picked up as it leaned forward and began rushing down the other side. Mabel was thrilled, cheering and screaming loudly as the exhilaration flowed through her. Dipper was screaming as well, but not from excitement or thrill. He had opened his eyes again upon the first drop and was staring forward as they sped amongst the tracks around the pier. His eyes darted around as they continually ascended and descended and looped round and round. And despite the fact he hadn't eaten in hours, he could feel his stomach starting to react negatively.
Dipper's terrified screams and Mabel's exhilarated cheering aside, Evan remained silent and unreactive. Through every loop and sharp turn, he remained completely bored and moody. He simply stared straight forward while he let the extreme screams of the twins to the left and right of him slowly destroy his eardrums. He couldn't care less for the ride. He barely even cared for the library at that point. He just wanted to go home. Mabel had the keys to the house, however, and so he knew convincing her to go back wasn't a probable option. So he just decided to sit there and wait until the ride was over.
A little over a solid minute later, the ride began to slow down as it slowly returned back to the entrance. Mabel found herself still laughing from the elation of the whole ride. Dipper took heavy breaths as they slowed down and felt as though his body was about to fall into shock. Evan's neutral and uninterested look just continued until the ride finally stopped.
Engineers hopped on and undid the straps and safety bars. Mabel hopped off happily, while Evan casually followed behind her. Dipper, on the other hand, threw himself on the ground after jumping off the ride. He continued to take deep breaths as he threw one of his arms around and clenched his stomach.
"You see, Dipper?" Mabel said as she approached him. She gave him a few light pats on his back while he kneeled on the floor. "That wasn't so bad, was it? You did great!"
The pats on his back were timed completely wrong and he was finally pushed to his limit. He gagged and placed his hand to cover his mouth. Noticing this, Mabel instantly backed off away from him and stood out of his way as he kicked himself off the ground and rushed to the nearest trash can. He stuffed his face inside and let himself go, with passing pier attendees walking away from him in disgust.
Suddenly, the engineer whom he had handed his hat before the ride approached him. He casually placed the hat right on top of his back as it was hunched over the trash. "There's your hat, kid," he said nonchalantly as he walked off.
"Thank you!" Dipper's sickly voice echoed from the inside of the trash can, having felt the hat being placed on his back.
"Well, he almost did great. Guess he really can't catch a break after all," Mabel said, also somewhat disgusted, but feeling bad for him as well. "What about you, Evan? Did you have fun?"
"Not really," Evan denied.
"Not really, eh?" Mabel questioned, raising an eyebrow. "So that means you had a little fun?"
"It means I didn't care for the ride and I wouldn't do it again," Evan told her bluntly, crossing his arms. "Now can we finally go to the library? Please?"
"No library!" Mabel exclaimed. "I already told you a hundred times! No. Library!" Mabel turned around and looked around the pier, unaware that Evan was beginning to clench his fists angrily. "There's a bunch of other things to do at the pier! There's the rocking boat! The Ferris wheel! Maybe we can go back and get some churros on sticks!"
"NO!" Evan finally snapped. "I've had it with you! We've been doing everything you wanted to do all day and nothing that I've wanted to do! How can you be so stubborn and selfish?"
"Stubborn? Selfish?" Mabel asked, somewhat offended. "You're the one who's been dead set on the library since we left your house!"
"And you're the one who thinks that I'm instantly going to have fun doing any of these side activities that I have no interest in! Look at how I'm dressed!" he shouted, gesturing to his regular formal attire. "Do I seriously look like the kind of person who wants to be running around playing laser tag and mini golf? No! I don't! But according to the so-called 'Master of Fun', these are activities that everyone is supposed to enjoy! Well, do I look like I'm enjoying myself? Maybe I sound selfish for ranting about not doing something I want to, but the truth is, you only care about having fun yourself. Not me. Not even your brother, who's standing at a trash can right now!" Evan scolded, pointing at Dipper. He then crossed his arms and looked down sadly. "You're just as bad as Ryland. Maybe even worse."
Mabel stared at him blankly for a good moment, trying to think of how to respond. She then smiled and kneeled down to come face-to-face with him. "Hey, it's alright. You're clearly upset. But I know what will make you feel better."
Evan looked at her with a somewhat hopeful face. "Going to the library?"
"Even better!" Mabel said as she stood up happily. "Some good ol' fashioned cotton candy!"
Evan stared back at her, his hopeful face disappearing. Suddenly, he gained a wide smile and jumped up and down excitedly. "Cotton candy?! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I LOOOOOVE cotton candy!"
"You see? There we go!" Mabel said, smiling at him, happy that she finally managed to get him excited about something. She glanced over at Dipper, who was still using the trash can. "Why don't you stay here with Dipper while I go and get some for all of us?"
"You bet!" Evan said in the most excited and childish way he's been all day.
Mabel walked off to go and get cotton candy, casually walking right past Dipper, who didn't even notice her leave with his face stuck in the trash can. As soon as she was gone, Evan's incredibly happy smile instantly faded back into his usual uninterested look. He walked over to Dipper while he was still using the garbage and looked over at him. He then proceeded to walk out through the Gravedigger's exit and began making his way toward the pier exit.
Within a few minutes, Evan exited the pier and began walking the dark, evening streets of Gravity Falls all on his own, with neither Dipper nor Mabel there to notice him slip away at that moment.
(Chapter updated as of December 17, 2022)