"Dipper? Come on! You've been in there since yesterday night! And it's noon! Get up Broseph!" Mabel bangs on my door. I roll over and cover my face with my pillow and moan.

"Dipping Sauce! I will literally kick this door down! You'd better open up!" She screams out me from outside. I uncover my face to reason with her.

"Mabel, you already tried that in 3rd grade, and you broke your leg. There is no way you're going to break down that door! Do you even know what 'literally' means?" I ask.

"Yes, I do Dipper!" She kicks the door.

"What's it mean?" I ask her. There's a brief moment of silence.

"Maybe I don't have to know what 'literally' means to know you have to get out of that room and go do something!" I hear her jumping, to get the key from above the doorframe.

I get up and open the door, and limply walk back to my bed and collapse.

"Come on, bro-bro. You'll be fine." Mabel draws the curtains.

"AHH!" I hiss and crawl deeper into my mess of a bed and hide from the sunlight.

"Get out of there! You are going for a walk! With Waddles and I! Because you need to get back in the groove of LIFE!" She reaches for my book, grabs it off of me, and finally holds it high above her head.

I get out from under the covers, like she asked, and reach for my book.

"Give it back, Mabel. I need it to feel whole." I say unenthusiastically.

"No, you don't Dipper Pines. You need to get into real life again! I know you! Don't you want to see Steven? And do well, and fight to the death to be the best student in our class? Like you did last year?" Mabel nudges me. I do love to be the smartest kid in class.

"Fine. I'll go on a walk with you and Waddles. But if someone asks if the pig is mine, I'll lose it." I reluctantly get up, and Mabel laughs.

She hands me my vest, and I put on my shoes. And now I have to go outside and be social, with a pig. Could this day get any worse?

"Come on, let's get you some gourmet Mabel-food for breakfast." Mabel leads me down the stairs and sits me down at the table. I stare numbly at it.

"You'd better not be getting me some Mabel-juice. Because I won't drink it." I continue to stare at the table.

"I thought you loved my Toaster Strudel Amaze Maze. I lost all the plastic dinosaurs for Mabel-juice at the Shack, anyway. I think Soos might have stolen them, anyway." She rubs her chin suspiciously, and I smile. Not because the thought that Soos still plays with dinosaurs doesn't surprise me, but because I love her toaster strudels. Sure, they're really just toaster strudels arranged in large tower like Jenga. But I love it when Mabel makes me breakfast. It's so awesome. I don't have to cook myself anything. I'm lazy.

/

I finish the thunderous tower of natural and artificial strawberry goodness as Mabel grabs Waddles. She grabs my hand and drags me and my new pal, sadness, out the door.

"Isn't it a beautiful day?" She asks.

"No. I like Gravity Falls better. It's much more natural. And nothing's so artificial, like it is here. And I had a hard time sleeping on a mattress that wasn't filled with bed bugs last night." I state all this truth, and I feel a bit better.

"And I thought you'd lost your sense of humor with that serious case of depression!" Mabel smiles and nudges me. I smile weakly, missing the sunny days that Gravity Falls had. It was way more beautiful than this. The sun would shine in through the pine trees, and it always smelled earthy. Dirt earthy. Not marijuana earthy. And here, it smells like a bus farted in our neighborhood. It's disgusting.