Mabel, Robbie, and Wendy had decided to meet in front of the shack to assess and gather all the books and things they had gathered, since Dipper was too lazy to actually do anything for himself.
Mabel sorted through her stack again. "Let's see... a book from me, a book from Grenda, two books from Candy... Oh! And a cute little magazine I picked up from the store! Of course, that's for me, unless he's desperate..."
"Well, he's definitely desperate for SOMETHING." Robbie joked dryly. Wendy slapped him lately on the shoulder, frowning. Ignoring it, he stared at the cover of the magazine Mabel had picked up.
"You sure they even sell those magazines to kids your age?"
"I'm not a kid." Mabel furrowed her eyebrows. "It's just an assorted spread of shirtless teen hunks of Hollywood."
She said this all very casually.
"You know what? Give it to Dipper. I'm sure he'll enjoy it." He laughed and went inside before Wendy could punch him.
"I'm worried about that boy." she mentioned.
"Who, Dipper?"
"No, not Dipper, Robbie. You'd think they'd get along by now, but here they are making fun of each other's lack of obvious sexuality."
"Well, to put it this way, I was waiting to get older before I made decisions like that for him," Mabel told her. "Besides, I'd rather he didn't go opposite-gender-crazy like I did. Or-am doing. Wait, let's see... have i matured yet?..."
Wendy had already headed towards the door before the brunette had come up with a clear answer.
"Hm? Robbie?" Dipper snapped out of his thoughts when the other suddenly walked into his room. "Oh, you brought the books!"
Robbie had grabbed the books Wendy and Mabel were carrying before he had gone in. Saving them the trip. Though, he was pretty sure they didn't know he had taken them...
"Whatever. You see any ones you like?"
"Well, I'll read them all, starting with the first book on the stack..." he grabbed Wendy's book suggestion on top and then looked up at the older teen. "Um, Robbie?"
"What is it this time?"
Dipper reddened. "Can you please stay with me while I read these?"
"Why the hell would I do that?"
"For starters, I can read to you some books, which would make you less of a moron, and then if I don't like one, you can carry it out for me"
"I'm feeling the love."
Dipper examined the cover of Wendy's book. "To Kill A Mockingbird? Oh, I love this book! I didn't know she was in to these kinds of books. Too bad I've read it so many times..."
He figured it wouldn't be 'breaking the rules' if he didn't read a book because he had read it a million times back home. He moved on to the next book in the stack, Candy's books.
Or should we say, graphic novels.
To be polite, it was technically manga, but Dipper didn't know much about anything outside of Oregon.
"Robbie, you gave me a faulty book!" Dipper raised his voice. "It's printed backwards."
"Mabel said that was how it was SUPPOSED to be printed." Robbie told him. "Yeesh, not EVERYTHING's my fault."
The manga was called Danganronpa. Included with it was a little note from Candy that read:
Hey Dipper,
I know you like mysteries and things, so I'm letting you borrow this! I played the game, it was really good
-Candy
P.S. it's supposed to be backwards!
"And you call yourself a detective.." The older teen snorted.
"Hey, don't make fun of me!"
Since it was hard to read aloud, Dipper explained several plot points to Robbie. The one adorned with the pine tree hat seemed to really enjoy it.
"Wow, I really like this Kirigiri girl! She's a super-smart detective!" he exclaimed.
"I don't know, you kinda remind me more of Naegi."
"Why is that?"
"Well, on the back cover, it says Naegi is a 'clueless boy with no special talents'."
A pillow was promptly thrown at Robbie.
The manga was rather short and finished quickly, though it wasn't the whole series. The next book in the stack was a continuation of the volumes.
"I'll finish it later. I need to solve the mystery on my own, first." Dipper moved on to the next book in the stack, which was from Grenda.
"Please tell me that this is not a similar story from when I switched bodies with Mabel-"
"What the hell?!" Robbie was shocked.
"It's a long story." Dipper flipped the narrow book open and eyed the text. "Here in this grotto lies a mysteries merman. He hungers for excitement. He thirsts for adventure. But most of all..." Dipper's face turned bright red. He gulped. "He longed for passion."
Dipper had to read the next 194 pages of utter shamelessness, all because Robbie had forced him to, and Robbie enjoyed seeing Dipper all flustered and squeamish. He thought it was the cutest thing in the world.
"You said you'd read every book you haven't already read..." He singsonged, reminding Dipper of his promise.
"Robbie had never laughed harder in his life. Apparently the book was about a merman who has an awkward affair with a shell of a housewife.
"I hate you... so much..." Dipper teethed, slamming the book shut and hurling it across the room.
"Well, this is what you get for forcing me to be here. What's the next book"
"It's something of Mabel's, called The Little Prince. I think this was our bedtime story when we were kids, but I haven't heard it in forever." Dipper glanced up at Robbie. "Can you read this one to me?"
"You crazy? I'm not your maid!"
Dipper gave him obnoxious puppy-dog eyes until Robbie had no choice but to comply.
"The Little Prince- alright, I'm skipping the dedication, anything to quicken this up. Chapter 1..."
He continued to read to Dipper, who had a enchanting expression of interest, fascination, and slight exhaustion on his face.
As Robbie read the next line, the young brunette relaxed, contemplating the story just told to him.
"God, that was beautiful. Such a good message. And it's very... Mabel."
Robbie hated to admit that he sort of liked it too.
The next piece of paper he retrieved from the pile was Grunkle Stan's very own self-published guide to making money quickly by scamming suckers.
It never reached far beyond the shack.
"I don't think the stuff in this is legal..." Dipper remarked and tossed the pamphlet aside. "Soos gave me... a really short children's book."
It was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Another childhood classic.
"Oh god, I'm older now, I think I can take on this book without crying."
Bawlfest emitted itself not five minutes later.
"B-b-but Robbie," Dipper teared. "The tree,- th-the tree was HAPPY!"
Robbie felt kinda sorry for him. Crying over a book. That takes a lot of emotion.
"Alright, alright, calm down. Here, it's ok." A spurge of a spontaneous soft side emerged from him, and he patted Dipper's back to ease the trauma of a storybook tree.
"There's not even another book in the stack! Weren't you supposed to bring me one?"
"Don't be a pushy brat. Yeah, I brought one." Robbie pulled out of his hoodie pocket a small hardbound copy of The Outsiders.
"It's my favorite. The characters are all very real and cool and I can kinda connect with them."
On Robbie's face was an expression Dipper hadn't seen before. An expression of nostalgia and sadness.
"Read it to me."
"What?" Robbie asked. "Not again..."
"Please. It's your favorite book, and I want you to read it to me."
"As you wish." he mumbled, and proceeded reading.
Some time later, much later in the evening than before, Robbie had finished the book. Dipper relaxed soundly next to him.
"That was a really good book."
"Ya' think so, huh? I wasn't sure you were the type."
"No, I mean it!" Dipper told him sincerely. "You know... you reminded me a lot of Dally."
Robbie was about to protest, but listened to see where this was going.
"Not showing your feelings, acting all tough and cool and mean, but you really care about a person, and they might not know it, but you do," Dipper smiled.
"Don't get all sappy." Robbie remarked, folding his arms across his chest.
"I mean it."
And from the look on his face, Robbie could tell he wasn't lying.
Dipper had to leave afterwards, probably to get some popcorn or whatever he was hungry for at this hour. Wendy decided to walk in at this very moment.
"Aww, that was so cute." Wendy smirked. "You read him a favorite book, and then he complimented you. See, things are going along just fine with you two."
"You mean you heard the whole thing?"
"Hey, I'm a slacker, what else am I supposed to do?" the redhead laughed.
Pausing then, she grinned.
"You know, he's right about you being like that character."
"Where are you going with this-"
"Listen. You keep building up this wall between you and your emotions, only to be broken down by someone you care about. And if I'm not wrong, if you stay with someone long enough to read books with them for over 5 hours, you have to care about someone."
She left, and Robbie stared at the wall behind her.
Care about him?
He wondered if this was a possibilty.
"Robbie, want any popcorn? I think we're watching a detective movie tonight."
And from that stupid voice, he knew that maybe he would never confess to it, but maybe he did care a little.
Just a little.
Sorry about the long and unnecessary break. School can be a pain. But today was my last day! Yes! Onto summer, the months of procrastination.
Note that I have only played the Danganronpa game. I've never touched the manga, so forgive me, I don't know what I'm talking about. The merman story is not based off of anything particular, except those awful drugstore housewife novels. By the way, you should all definitely read The Little Prince, To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Outsiders. They're all fantastic books. Definitely worth your time.
Yours truly.
Love, me.