Color Palette

Jazmine Carter was going to make her last Prom count. Period.

She had survived four years of high school; four years of unnecessary science and math; four years of gym class for this. After prom, she would get to move on and leave all of this behind her. She had been accepted into the art school of her dreams, and of course, had already taken the spot. Now all that was left was to go out with a bang. And that was the plan.

But Jazmine couldn't trust anybody else with this responsibility. Of course she had to be the Prom coordinator. She had been on the high school council for the last two years in anticipation for this event. It had been a no-brainer for the other members to elect her for this position. She was an artistic genius after all.

The only thing Jazmine hadn't predicted was all the hubbub that came with the planning. True, she had had a general idea of what she wanted the setup to look like for years. But actually executing that vision was something completely different. There was the budget, the itinerary, and delegations to manage. Every little detail needed a complete explanation so that other people could help as well. A score of volunteers were working under her, but Jazmine wasn't sure they were capable of making her the night of her high school dreams a reality.

That was why it was such a relief to see Mabel Pines' name on the list of volunteers.

For the past school year, all of her creative arts teachers had been ranting about what a prodigy she was. Mr. Paris, the woodworking teacher, had been raving about her project last fall: a pine wood chest engraved with variety of intricate symbols. The art teacher, Mrs. Robinson, had displayed a number of her works – paintings, sculptures, photography, etc – in the exhibition case near the school's front doors. Mabel had participated in the school's drama production as well, and Ms. Kim, the director, said that Mabel's supporting role practically stole the spotlight with her ingenuity. Not to mention, Jazmine had witnessed her handmade clothes and jewelry all year when they passed in the halls.

The week before Prom, decorating began in earnest.

Jazmine was pleasantly surprised to find that the rumors she'd heard of Mabel's prankster personality were extremely accurate. It served as a source of amusement that helped to calm Jazmine's rattling nerves. The only problem was that the other volunteers didn't seem find her jokes funny and it was starting to cause some tension.

"Jaz," a Junior named Bethany, if she remembered correctly, came to her as she laid out some supplies for the younger helpers. Bethany's voice was edged with exasperation (this wasn't the first time she'd had to make such an announcement), "Mabel planted glitter bombs on the scaffolds in the gym and now there is glitter all over the floor."

She schooled her face into something serious, but on the inside, Jazmine's guffaws were uncontrollable. It would have been great to see the looks on everyone's faces when those glitter bombs went off. Idly, she wondered what color glitter Mabel had used.

"Send that girl, what's her name," Jazmine snapped her fingers as she remembered, "Sarah to clean it up with the court sweeper. And then let Mabel know she'll be decorating the promenade with me. That should keep her away from everyone else for a few hours. You can oversee the hangings in the gym."

"Thanks, Jaz." Bethany sighed, her shoulders sagging with relief, "I didn't think I'd be able to manage her for much longer. Especially after the thing with the squirrels yesterday."

Jazmine shot her a conspiring smirk, "I've monopolized this entire event, so I'll take one for the team." Not that it was going to be much of a sacrifice; Mabel's quirky personality made some of the most time consuming jobs more interesting.

She finished up sorting through the supplies another ten minutes later, passed through the gym to issue more directions, and picked her way through the haphazard activity to the front hall where the promenade was set to happen.

This was the hardest part. She didn't want one institution standard-issue cinder block to be visible.

Mabel was already there, feverishly festooning the hallway with multicolored sheets, streamers, and ornaments. Her portion of the wall set a glaring contrast against the school's dingy atmosphere.

Speaking of contrast, Dipper Pines sat against the wall next to where Mabel was working. He had his head down and his nose in one of his ever present books, which wasn't a surprise. Ever since being introduced to them at the beginning of the Prom Prep Period, Jazmine had found it odd how much he seemed to be Mabel's polar opposite.

His often distracted absent mindedness was everything that Mabel's passionate enthusiasm wasn't. He had yet to lift a finger to help while Mabel needed to be kicked out after their time was up (though Jaz suspected that this was due to the fact that Dipper's name was in Mabel's handwriting on the sign-up sheet). He rarely spoke, possibly because he couldn't get a word in edgewise with Mabel rambling a million miles a minute. Simply, he seemed content to be dragged through the wake of Mabel's nonstop bustle.

Shaking her head, Jazmine focused instead on the task at hand.

"Do you wanna just decorate that side all the way to the gym and I'll do this one?" She asked Mabel.

The girl spun to give her a thousand watt smile, but the motion caused her long, chestnut hair to fly into her paint brush, staining the strands pastel pink. "Sounds good to me!" she chirped.

Jaz nodded, before pointing to her hair, "Um, you've got a little somethin' somethin'."

Mabel looked down and gasped when she noticed the paint, "Ooooo! I've always wanted pink hair! Dipper do you see this? Do I look like a mermaid yet?"

Without looking up, Dipper responded, "Mermaid's don't have pink hair, Mabel."

"Mermando's cousin does," she shot back without missing a beat.

"Then she probably dyed it."

Rolling her eyes at their nonsense conversation, Jazmine got to work. And while her focus was definitely on decorating, she couldn't help but hear the twins' low key conversation.

"Well, what does have pink hair, then?"

"Probably faeries, if the rest of their body is that color. They're kinda monochromatic."

"But I'd need more than pink hair to be a faery," Mabel sounded seriously contemplative, "I'd need wings too. Is there any magical thingamajig that could give me wings?"

"Not to my knowledge," Dipper sighed, turning a page in his book, "Why do you ask."

When Mabel didn't respond, Jaz peeked out of the corner of her eye to see Mabel deep in thought. Dipper too, glanced up from his book, saw her expression, and then went pale.

"Mabel. You are not thinking about our Summerween costumes already. Veto! I am not going to be a faery. Think of something else!" angrily, he shoved his face back into his book.

Jaz turned back to her project before either of them noticed her confused staring. Summerween? She had thought they were talking about some kind of fantasy video game.

"Fine." Mabel responded sullenly, not that it lasted for long, "What about mermaids?" She said wickedly.

"No."

"Then I'll be a mermaid and you can be a deertaur."

"What!? No!"

"You're boring."

"Am not."

"Fine." Mabel conceded, "You're not boring."

A beat of silence before Dipper mumbled with some trepidation, "Mabel, what do you want?"

"To not have to cart all the blue colored supplies up here." Mabel answered loftily, "You're technically supposed to be helping anyway."

Another span of silence began, stretching on so long that a buzz began to build up in her ears. Jaz thought that maybe she needed something to eat because her head was squeezing and her vision was tinted weird colors.

"I can get them for you." Jazmine turned to offer. It seemed Dipper had stonewalled his sister's request, and she could grab a snack out of her backpack on the way through the gym. But just as she said that, her dizzy spell ended and she was left with two Pines twins giving her matching, quizzical stares.

"It's fine." Mabel said, "Dip got it for me."

Jaz noticed that Dipper was still sitting on the floor, back against the wall, book in his hands. He didn't look like he had moved an inch. But sure enough, all of Mabel's art supplies were the school prom's thematic, pastel blue. And Dipper, for all the world, looked as innocent as could be.

A splash of pink in Mabel's hair reminded Jaz of the conundrum. And all she managed to squeak out, pointing to each twin in turn, was, "But… You had… and I coulda sworn you didn't…"

"Dip." Mabel interrupted, "Don't you think Jazmine looks kinda like Wendy?"

Dipper peered in her direction for a few seconds before returning to his book, but Jaz could see a hint of red on his cheeks, "If by redheaded and freckled, then yeah."

Mabel went back to her work as well, adding, "I agree. They're both really pretty, too."

After a few more moments of watching them, Jazmine hesitantly resumed her task. The Pines twins acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But that was the weirdest thing Jaz had ever witnessed. And with their continual casual conversation, she realized, she would never get a straight answer if she tried.

Regardless, Jazmine was delighted to have the twins, and everybody else on the Prom Prep Committee, as servers at the event that Saturday night. The underclassman of the committee were permitted to experience their hard work from the sidelines as long as they wore uniform, black formal wear. Of course, Mabel wouldn't have missed out on it for the world; and of course, she had dragged Dipper with her.

Now Jaz would never voice this to her date, but Dipper did look spiffy in that suit (in a cute kind of way) and Mabel's handmade dress was stunning as well (prettier even than some of the attendees). Taking a momentary break from dancing, Jazmine watched them for a while. She noted how comfortable they were in each other's presence, like siblings should be. When Mabel leaned over so that she could be heard over the loud music, Dipper listened and laughed.

And Jazmine realized, it was the first time she had seen Dipper smile.

So they weren't polar opposites as she'd initially thought. There were complements: each doing their best to make the other stand out as something extraordinary.

Disclaimer: I've never been to prom, so I hope none of the details are sloppy.

I have a personal headcanon that the twins don't mask their conversations about the supernatural, but that got me thinking "how do they get away with that?" And when I was writing the dialogue earlier I found my answer: they literally sound like they are just talking about a fantasy genre MMO. It kinda made me laugh because my brother and I do this a lot, where we talk about fandom stuff really fast and our parents don't have a clue what we're saying :D

I made a Monster Falls AU reference cause I love the idea and the art is adorable.

Thanks for reading!