Chapter III
The morning ran frenetically, the minutes slipping like water between her fingers, lost between letters and the harsh words of her teachers. Something about poems, something about history and math, a mountain of facts but nothing that was really worth listening to, at least for Mabel whose favorite hour of the day arrived only a little after lunch when she pulled out her canvas and was about to take her art class. The teacher, Mr. Goya – whom she called only Kevin – was in fact one of her favorite instructors, who despite not having the most optimistic view of life profoundly loved art and had always motivated Mabel to take command in her projects and not be discouraged if others said otherwise. It was he who had given her the white notebook and the charcoal pencils that she guarded jealously and took out at least 20 times a day to make tiny portraits or draw whatever came into her head.
The bell rang, indicating the lunch hour which broke as quickly and mechanically as always, small groups gathering in the cafeteria to catch up with rumors and unimportant gossip. Eyes met, laughter began to ring, and the impression of a noisy family reunion filled the nooks and fields of Solid Ale. Mabel Pines, sitting in the shadow of a tree near the central building where the cafeteria was housed, waited for the arrival of her twin, who was in calc class. With some distraction, she took out her sketchbook as always, stroking the cover and flipping through some of her old work. She gracefully rolled a pencil between her thin and generously-decorated fingers.
The image of Pacifica had been chasing her all morning, appearing every time she stopped paying attention to one of her teachers, something that (as they suspected) occurred more often than was necessary. Her book now held a pair of sketches trying to capture some of the blonde's features: her eyes, the curve of her jaw, her hair, her lips, and her smile. She didn't remember having seen her smile before, not in that way. The majority of her laughter, at least as far as Mabel could remember, came after she had made a cruel comment or some sarcastic observation about someone, being how she usually – or rather, how she used to be with everyone. But that morning had been completely different. It had even been nice to share the car with her. She raised her gaze, bored, to contemplate the groups that strolled here and there, resting the weight of her head on her hand.
Dipper was already taking too long and her stomach was starting to make bothersome noises when she saw Pacifica. She was seated a few meters away, sharing laughs with a small group of girls while drinking a strawberry soda, stopping every so often to answer a text on her cellphone. The blonde looked around without any pretense and their eyes met. Pacifica just smiled, waving her hand in a warm greeting, which Mabel returned almost incredulously. The moment didn't last long; she soon turned to face one of her friends, a redhead with a face covered in freckles who watched her with some intrigue. Mabel looked down at her notebook, making some modifications to her sketches, when her cell vibrated inside her pocket. With an awkward movement she took it out, expecting an apology message from her brother, but that wasn't what the text said.
Hey you, Daisy gave me your number hope you don't mind.
The brunette looked up towards Pacifica's group. The girl gave her a wide smile, holding up her phone to emphasize the origin of the message.
of course not, Mabel responded, fingers moving rapidly. you might need a ride one of these days ;) she joked, feeling an almost imperceptible blush start to grow on her cheeks. Only a few seconds passed before the response.
Anytime would be a pleasure, have you eaten? This was going too fast, thought Mabel, looking with cautious skepticism at the touchscreen of her phone.
i'm waiting for my slow brother. :(
One of the girls knows a good place around here, you can come if you want ;)
The Pines girl looked around, gauging the possibility of finding her twin in the crowd. Seeing that it was useless, she sent a message to Dipper saying that something had come up and that he could eat with one of his friend groups. Then she ran over to Pacifica, who looked at her expectantly.
"You abandoned your brother," she quickly observed, giving a look of playful disapproval.
"He'll understand," Mabel responded, rolling her eyes and waving to the redhead who returned the greeting without saying much. "And…where are we going?"
"I know a sushi place around here, it's really good," Daisy explained, jumping between them.
"Sushi…? Do you mean little dead fish?" Mabel protested with a somewhat annoying but not unfriendly tone. Mabel had stopped eating meat of any kind once she understood the meat/animals connection – or to be more specific, the bacon/Waddles connection.
"I have, like, the same problem," Pacifica replied, "But we've gone to eat there before and they've got a great vegetarian menu."
"The same problem?" Mabel asked, raising an eyebrow. "Gasp – you're a vegetarian?"
"Like anyone who has a heart or really cares about her figure," she said in a proud tone of voice. "I think I'm the second thing," she added with a giggle.
Mabel's face lit up knowing that this was not a problem for the girl and that in fact it was something they had in common.
"Like, let's go," said the Northwest girl, pulling out her jingling car keys while the other girls followed.
The trip was probably the most fun part; they went the whole way singing old songs, making jokes about the teachers (who Mabel could imitate to perfection), and commenting on some of the rumors about the so-called popular girls of Solid Ale, before arriving at a small restaurant decorated in a very modern and almost juvenile way. Behind the bar was a blond boy with gauges who gave them a bored look.
"How goes it, Alan?" asked the redhead in a friendly manner.
"Boring, given that this place doesn't get going until after four. I dunno why my dad makes us open so early," he complained, rolling his eyes.
"To feed us, duh," Pacifica said, sitting on a loveseat placed in front of a bright red table, in the center of which sat the menu. She stretched out and grabbed it, then leafed through while Daisy chatted with the owner's son. Mabel, for her part, just sat next to Pacifica, curiously observing the little ornaments and lights arranged throughout the place. Then she scooched closer to the other girl so she could see the menu more clearly.
This feeling of sudden closeness sent a shiver down Pacifica's spine, who felt a flush escape onto her cheeks when the chewing-gum scent of Mabel's hair slipped through her nose. Their fingers brushed. Physical contact had never been something common for her; it wasn't as though her parents hadn't hugged her when she was small, and a little as she grew older, but they had taught her to keep her distance as a matter of etiquette. And now feeling a girl (and not just any girl, one who she had once considered her enemy) so close to her made her shiver with a strong sense of panic. A part of her wanted to tell Mabel to get away so that she would stop feeling so strangely, but another wanted her to stay close no matter how uncomfortable it was or how inappropriate it would look.
"Uh…Mabel," she finally said without looking away from the menu so that the girl wouldn't notice her now-flagrant blush, "There are a lot of menus on this table."
"Honestly, I was waiting for you to tell me to get off," she responded, gaze still fixed on the paper Pacifica held. "Uh, are you okay, Pacifica?" she asked, noticing the nervous expression on the girl's face.
"Yes!" she exclaimed with a bit more force than necessary, letting some of the tension escape through the single word. This made the other two teens, who still hadn't stopped arguing about some band's new album, turn their heads to give her a puzzled look.
"You guys order," she said, feigning complete naturalness despite what had happened. "I have to go to the bathroom."
A quick few steps took her into the restroom, and she closed the doors behind her just as quickly. She looked into the mirror and gritted her teeth with anger, asking herself why it had even occurred to her to invite Mabel Pines to eat with her. "What's happening to me?" she whispered, feeling her jaw tense again with frustration. There was something about that girl that made her feel insecure and confused. When she was a child she had always interpreted the feeling as hatred, but now the emotion was more intense than what she remembered. Would she continue to hate her? Was it even hatred? These were the questions that ricocheted within her consciousness while a confused tear escaped the corner of her eye. Was it really hatred?