#MakeADifference I am sure many of you have heard about the shooting in Dallas, and the incident in France. There have been a lot of shootings and terrorist attacks all over the world recently. Everyone says that it shouldn't be happening and that they want it to stop. I know it is upsetting and tragic but if we don't do something about it, nothing will change. I know sometimes it is hard to make a difference, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. It's just like in this chapter. Mabel doesn't like the way Stan does things. She knows he's not gonna change on his own, so she tries to make him change. It was hard and it didn't work as well as she thought, but she tried. If you want something to change, you have to MAKE it change.
Now that that rant is out of the way, I have a summer camp soon, so Deep End will not be released until August 3rd. I'll give you a status update again in that chapter. Also, my countdown says that there are EXACTLY 9 DAYS UNTIL THE REAL LIFE JOURNAL! We will finally get to know DIPPER'S REAL NAME! If you read it, let me know your favorite parts. Now then; SHOUT-OUTS!
Gamelover41592- Thanks a lot man. Semper fidelis.
MyFavLineIs- I love that part too. I also like when Soos said "I ate a man alive tonight" at the end.
MyNameIsFlame- Thanks for all your questions. I should be able to have all of them included. Send in as many as you want, and you can ask anybody. Only condition is no spoilers.
Lula Bear- Thanks a lot. I love writing this story, and I'm glad people like what I am doing with it. Enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: I only own Willow and her creepiness. Everything else belongs to Alex Hirsch and the Gravity Falls team.
Dipper's POV (July 1st)
Willow, Stan, Mabel and I were taking a break in the living room, watching Cash Wheel. You spun a wheel to get money or prizes, and when it was your turn, you would try to solve a hangman puzzle.
"We now return to Cash Wheel! Sponsored by Chipackers, the chip flavored crackers!" The announcer said, one of the contestants spinning the wheel.
"But they taste just like chips!" Mabel exclaimed, feeding one to Waddles and eating one herself.
"That's kinda the point," Willow said sarcastically as the wheel stopped on cash shower. Money started raining down on the middle contestant.
"I like that guy's style," Stan announced when the guy punched the other contestants for trying to take some of the money.
"Mr. Pines!" Soos yelled from the gift shop. "We got tourists at 9 o'clock! A whole bus load of 'em!" We went into the gift shop, Stan looking through the window in the door.
"Hot Belgian Waffels, it's a jackpot! Soos, Willow! Go get some new attractions!" Stan called. Willow ran to her workshop, and Soos glued a wolf head onto a chicken's body. "Wendy, mark up those prices! The higher the better!" Wendy added a zero to a $2 snow-globe, making it $20. "Higher! Bleed 'em dry!" She added another zero, making it $200.
"Yeesh Stan. It's like when you see tourists, all you see are wallets with legs," I told him. I know tourists carry a lot of money, but no one in their right mind would pay $200 for a snow-globe. Stan's lucky the people who come in here aren't in their right mind, I thought to myself. I was about to leave when there was a strange sound from outside.
"Clean-up on the front lawn!" Stan told me. I sighed and grabbed a bucket and a mop, starting outside. You would not believe the number of times Stan's made me clean up some car-sick kids' puke.
GFF
"Why do I have to do this?" I complainedto Willow. Stan had made me dress up in a wolf costume, and she was helping me get the ears on.
"Because Stan's a con artist," She replied, adjusting my headband. "And he's a jerk. I mean, I don't mind making attractions for him, but he expects me to be able to do with spare parts that are just lying around. If he wants good-quality attractions he had better get some new parts, otherwise I'm gonna put an arrow through him."
"…a horse riding another horse!" Stan announced. He would be coming to me next.
"Here's your teeth," Willow said, handing me a pair of wolf fangs. "Don't die from embarrassment. If you do I'll probably have to clean it up and get toxic chemicals all over me from your guts." She jumped off the platform and went out the back door into the hallway. I put in the wolf teeth and faced the curtain.
"Be astounded at the horrible, pre-teen wolf boy!" Stan said, pulling the curtain back. The tourists all started taking pictures and clapping. I felt the blush in my face.
"Stan, this is demeaning," I told him, pulling out the wolf teeth.
"What? I don't know 'de meaning' of that word!" Stan said, he and the tourists laughing. "If you throw money at him, he dances." The tourists threw money in the air, and I tried (and failed) to dance for them. While they took pictures, Stan waved a jar around, catching their money. Working for him is the worst, I thought. This has GOT to stop.
Mabel's POV
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Behold, Mystery Shack bumper stickers!" I told the people in the gift shop. Grunkle Stan had put me on register duty, and I was having fun with it. "You can stick them on your bumper, or over your husband's mouth. Am I right ladies? She knows what I'm talking about!" I pointed to an auburn-haired woman with glasses. She started laughing and looking through her purse.
"You are bad! How much?" I handed it to her.
"On the house. That's the Mabel difference!" I told her. Anyway, they only cost like five bucks a piece. "Thanks for visiting!" I called after her as she walked out the door.
"WHAT!?" Grunkle Stan walked out from behind a cardboard cutout of himself, glaring at me. "What do you think you're doing kid?"
"Business!" I told him, hitting random buttons on the cash register. He grabbed me and pulled me away from the register.
"Listen kid. You don't make money by giving stuff away. You're off register duty!" He pushed me towards the main part of the house.
"But… but-"
"No buts except for yours out the door. Now shut your yap and get to work!"
"Grunkle Stan, whatever happened to 'please' and 'thank you'? Oh wait, here they are!" I grabbed my bag of stickers and put ones that said 'please' and 'thank you' on his face. He growled and pulled them off.
"'Please' never made me any money, kid," he told me, smacking the 'please' sticker on the back of the register. He grabbed his chest, a weird look on his face. "Just saying the word is giving me a burning sensation," he growled, slapping the 'thank you' sticker on the back of Soos' neck. Dipper walked in without a shirt, wolf ears, and fuzzy pants.
"Stan, why do I have to wear this wolf costume? I think I'm getting hookworm," Dipper complained, messing with his pants.
"Yep, gluing dog hair to your body will do that to you," Stan said, laughing. Suddenly Willow barged in, a piece of paper in one hand and a hammer in the other. She was clearly pissed off, and for Stan's sake, he should be lucky she didn't have her crossbow. She walked right up to Stan, shoving the paper into his hands.
"I don't mind making attractions for you, but seriously, you have GOT to get me some better supplies. How do you expect me to make a centaur-taur out of that stuff?" Centaur-taur? I thought. I'll have to remember that one. "If you want good-quality attractions, you either get me some better supplies or-"
"OR!" Dipper interrupted. "We could hunt down a real supernatural being in the forest and you could use that as an attraction instead of lying to people for a living!"
"And you should be nicer to your employees too!" I added, the three of us high-fiving each other, then smirking cockily at Stan.
"Look, you kids got a problem with how I run my place, take it up with the complaints department," Stan told us, holding up a trash can.
"I'm going to write them such a letter," I said, pulling a piece of paper and pen out from under the counter. I started writing, covering my words with my arm.
"Mabel, don't bother; it's the trash can. He's not gonna read it. It'll just cause more trash for the world to deal with as we rot away slowly." Willow said. I just continued writing, wanting to get my feelings out, even if Stan wouldn't read them.
GFF
"And don't stop 'till you've covered that sign with glitter!" Stan yelled up to us. Soos, Wendy, Willow, Dipper and I were being forced to paint the Mystery Shack sign a bright, glittery pink to make it stand out more. "Glittery signs attract tourists! Also large birds," Stan added. As if on que, a bald eagle flew down and started attacking Soos. Luckily, he was able to fight it off without falling off the roof.
"Is it just me, or is having Stan as a boss seriously, the worst?" Dipper complained, putting down his paint roller.
"Not just you. It's the worst. Why do we even put up with it?" Wendy asked. Soos walked back over to us, giving us a piece of paper.
"I gave him a suggestion once; I had this idea where I could be the Mystery Shack mascot: Questiony the question mark. I'd ask people questions, do the question dance, stuff like that," he told us. The paper was a picture of him with his mascot costume on.
"That sounds amazing!" "Cool!" "Nice one!" "Totally!" We responded. Soos smiled, then it disappeared.
"Yeah, well… Stan said I couldn't handle it."
"HE SAID WHAT!?" I yelled. I put my paint roller down and climbed over to Wendy's secret roof entrance.
"Do you want my crossbow?" I heard Willow yell as I opened the hatch and started down the ladder.
"NO!" I yelled back, closing the hatch and entering the gift shop. Stan was outside saying goodbye to some tourists. I pressed myself against the wall by the door. Stan walked in, counting the money he had made.
"YOU!" I yelled at him. He jumped and turned around, but then kept walking when he realized it was just me. I started following him. "Stan, you've gone too far this time! Did you seriously tell Soos not to follow his hopes and dreams because he 'couldn't handle it?'"
"Look kid," Stan said, walking into his office and putting the money in his desk drawer. "I'm gonna break it down for ya. Being a boss is about commanding respect. If you give people everything they ask for, they'll walk all over ya."
"No way!" I said, standing on one of the chairs. "I bet you'd make way more money being nice than being a big grumpy grump to everyone all the time."
"HA! You think you know more about business than I do? You think you could wear this hat?" He pointed to his fez.
"Yeah! Cause I give people respect! And glittery stickers!" I put one on my cheek.
"HA! I'd make more on vacation then you would running this place!"
"Then why don't you go on vacation?" He closed his mouth and creased his brow.
"Interesting… All right. I'm a wagering man. 2 days. 48 hours." He pulled out and alarm and set it for 48 hours. "You run the Shack and I'll go on vacation. If you make more money than me, I guess you're right about how I run my business, and I'll start running it your way. But if you lose…" he grabbed a white t-shirt and wrote LOSER on it. "…you have to wear this LOSER shirt for the rest of the summer!"
"Fine! But if I win, I get to be the boss for the rest of the summer! Plus, you gotta sing an apology song with lyrics by me! Mabel!"
"Whoa ho oh! You got yourself a deal missy!"
"No you got yourself a deal!"
"Deal!"
"Deal!"
"DEAL!" He slammed his fist on the table.
"DEAL!" I did the same thing, then put a pink heart sticker on his nose. "Deal…"
GFF
Half an hour later, Stan was loading his bags into the trunk of his car. I was standing on the porch, a jar in my arms.
"See you in 48 hours! We'll see who makes more money," he said, closing the truck of his car. He took his fez off and threw it towards me, making it land on my head and slip down over my eyes. By the time I could see again, Stan was already speeding down the driveway.
"Mabel, did you just make a bet with a professional con man?" Dipper asked me, coming onto the porch.
"Oh come on. Being a better boss than Stan will be a cinch. Profit, here we come!" I announced, holding out the jar. It slipped out of my hands and shattered all over the porch.
"You broke the jar."
"We'll get a new one," I interrupted, starting to clean up the glass. Dipper bent down and started helping me.
"I guess we shouldn't be too worried. I mean, how much money could Stan even make on vacation?"
GFF (July 2nd)
It was the next morning, and Wendy and Soos had just come in. I had told all of them to meet me in Stan's office ASAP. I was sitting in Stan's chair, facing away from the door. I heard the door open.
"You wanted to see us Mr. Pines?" Soos asked. I turned the chair around and pulled myself towards the desk.
"Stan is no longer with us," I told them, adjusting the fake glasses I had put on. Soos started freaking out and crying.
"He's dead? NO! It should have been me!" He yelled, getting on his knees and making the sign of the cross.
"Whoa Soos! Chill out! Stan's not dead. We made a bet and he's on vacation until tomorrow," I told him. He stood up and held his hat in his fist, blushing.
"Thank you for that clarification," he mumbled, wiping away his tears and putting his hat back on.
"Anyway, Mabel's in charge now!" I announced, pointing at myself.
"Are those shoulder pads?" Dipper asked me. I nodded and started moving my shoulders up and down.
"It's just one of the up-to-date managerial tricks I learned from this book I found propping up the kitchen table," I told them, holding up the book and drinking from a mug.
"Three things," Willow started. "One, that book is from 30 years ago. Two, the kitchen table is now destroyed. And why does your mug say '#2?'"
"Because the real #1… is you!" I told them, holding up a mirror. They all started smiling and laughing, and I walked out from behind the desk. "Walk with me. With me as boss, you're gonna be noticing a few changes around here. My job is to help you be your best SELVES."
I had made SELVES into an acronym and written it on a chalkboard. "Satisfied, Every-day, Loving Life, Very much, Every-day, Satisfied. Great listening ears so far," I told them, giving each of them a thumbs-up sticker. "Waddles, hold my calls!" I called to Waddles, who I had hired as my secretary.
"I don't want to go to the hospital for eating poisonous stickers and nearly die." Willow said.
"No worries." I said to her as we walked into the gift shop and I jumped onto a chair, looking at the others. "Alright people, now rap with me. Wendy, how can I make your workspace more Wendy-friendly?"
"Umm, well, Stan never lets me hang out with friends at work," she said after a minute.
"Stan ain't here sister! Doors open! And Soos, I believe this is yours," I pulled out his Questiony the Question Mark costume and handed it to him. His face lit up excitedly.
"Questiony the Question Mark! I wish this was an exclamation point to show how excited I am!" He ran off excitedly, hugging the costume.
"As for you two…" I said to Dipper and Willow. I held up Dipper's wolf costume and Willow's attraction list, then threw them both in a shredder. "DIE! DIE! DIE! I want you two to head into the woods and don't come back until you found an amazing attraction!"
"Finally! It's time to show Stan how REAL mystery hunters do it!" Willow yelled, running to her workshop. Dipper grabbed a flail and jumped onto the window ledge.
"Dipper out!" He yelled, falling backwards out the window. Willow came back, quiver over her shoulders and crossbow ready. She threw it out the window, then dove out herself. She and Dipper took off, running into the woods.
"Okay then! It's time to prove that nice bosses finish first. In the next 36 hours, we're gonna fill this jar with six hundred billion dollars!" I yelled, drawing a red line on the new jar I had bought.
"Do you even know how money works?" Wendy asked me. I nodded and turned to Waddles.
"Of course. Waddles, run down to the shop and grab me a latte," I told him, giving him a bill. He ate it, so I gave him another one, which he also ate. "Whoa! You're a hungry little guy."
GFF
Today was amazing, and it was only lunch! Even with Willow and Dipper in the woods monster-hunting, there were no major problems. I honestly thought we had done really well so far, and we still had a day and a half. I knew this was going to be easy. Right now I had just finished a tour, and was outside with the jar. All of the tourists were putting money in.
"Thank you! See you soon! Tell 'em Mabel sent you!" I called after the tourists. I had already filled the jar about a third of the way. I was about to go back in when someone called my name.
"Mabel! We got something!" I went back outside and saw Dipper and Willow coming up with a very large, squirming bag being dragged behind them. They were both beaten up-Willow's quiver half empty and Dipper's flail nowhere to be seen-but they didn't look like it bothered them. "This is gonna blow those tourists away!" Dipper exclaimed, leaning against the bag. Whatever was in there grabbed his arm. He and Willow started punching the monster, making it let go.
"You'll have to put it in a cage or else it will kill everyone on every tour. Soon it'll be just the three of us left trying to save the entire human race. Whether we succeed, no one knows." Willow said, acting like we were in an action movie. I ignored her, only taking the first part into account.
"Marvelous work valued employees!" I told them, about to go inside again. I stopped when I noticed Soos peeking out from behind a port-a-potty. "Who's that? Is it Questiony the Question Mark?"
"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this Mabel. I keep forgetting my lines, and this costume is more…" he walked out from behind the port-a-potty, wearing only the costume and his underwear. "… revealing than I expected?"
"Soos, don't give up. Anything is possible when you…" I started looking through Stan's management book. "…Imaginize it!"
"But, I don't know what that means," he said. I put my finger on his lips, shushing him. He tried to talk, but I shushed him again, moving my finger around his face.
"Maybe he shouldn't…" Dipper started.
"Shh…" I told him and turned back to Soos. "Believe in yourself…" I told him, walking into the gift shop.
"How's my favorite- What the?" A soda can flew across the room and landed at my feet. The gift shop itself looked like a tornado had come through. Wendy and her friends were kicking around a shrunken head. Wendy kicked it too hard and it hit a little boy in the face, making him cry.
"BILLY! Your face is ruined!" A woman, most likely his mom, rushed over to him and started looking at his face. I walked over to them, taking some money out of the jar.
"I'm so sorry about that. Have a refund," I gave her the money. She reached into the jar and took more, then lead Billy out of the gift shop. I looked at the jar, which was now only a fourth full. I looked over at Wendy, who had wisely sent her friends out. "Wendy, you've got a lot of cleaning up to do. Please?" I poked the sticker that was on the back of the cash register.
"Whoa, all this rule stuff is starting to make you sound like Stan…" Wendy said, drinking from a pit cola can. Not good, I thought. I'm trying to prove that Stan's running his business wrong.
"NO way! I'm nothing like Stan! In fact, umm… take the rest of the day off?"
"With full pay?" Wendy clarified. I nodded and laughed nervously, messing with my suit jacket. Wendy gave me a thumbs up and left.
"Mabel Pines, you are the best boss ever," I said, patting myself on the back.
"I'M QUESTIONY THE QUESTION MARK!" Soos yelled to a woman outside. The woman screamed and sprayed him with pepper spray. "AH! Dude, it stings so bad!"
Willow's POV
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Dipper announced. It had taken us at least an hour to get our find set up to show, but the reactions on the tourists' faces would be worth the cuts and scrapes we had gotten capturing him. We had him in a cage covered with a tarp, and we were showing him to a couple. We were both on stage, but Dipper was doing most of the presenting, me with my crossbow ready to make sure he didn't get out of control AGAIN!
"My name is Honest Dipper, this is Truthful Willow, and unlike our cheating uncle, we have something to show you that isn't a hoax! It almost killed us getting him into the cage. Behold: part gremlin, part goblin, THE GREMLOBLIN!" We pulled the tarp off the cage, revealing the Gremloblin. He wasn't that tall, but his shoulders were huge. He had green skin and red eyes, with pointy bat ears and a severe under-bite, two large fangs pointing upwards. He growled and shook the cage, then coughed up the arm bone of a person. (No, we had nothing to do with that!)
"Well that's fun," The man said, taking a picture. His wife didn't look impressed.
"It's fake honey. You can see the strings," she said, pointing to his shoulder hair.
"Those aren't strings; that's body hair!" Dipper complained, looking at the people like they were crazy. The woman looked around at the other attractions.
"Look at this dear. The Six-Packalope," she said, walking over to it. It was just a jackalope with fake abs attached, but for some reason it was one of the most popular attractions.
"Wordplay!" The man said excitedly, laughing and taking a picture. I ran over to them and dragged them back to the Gremloblin cage.
"Everything else in here is fake. This is a real paranormal beast. Fun fact about this guy; if you look into his eyes, you can see your worst nightmare." I told them, not trying to be creepy for once. The Gremloblin's eyes turned a bright, radioactive yellow, letting us know that he was showing the couple their worst nightmares. "Amazing, right? We work for tips."
"Umm, Wills, I think we should call 911," Dipper told me, pulling out his phone and dialing.
"Why do you…ooohh," I looked at the couple. They were shaking, their eyes yellow and hair standing on end. I started to lead the woman outside.
"Ambulance is on the way," Dipper told me, leading the man outside after me. We got them onto the porch right when the ambulance pulled up. Four paramedics ran up with gurneys, laying the couple down on them and taking them into the ambulance.
"Thanks again for visiting!" We called after the ambulance, wishing things had gone better.
"Back into the woods?" Dipper asked me. I thought about it, then shook my head.
"We should probably check in with Mabel first," I said, walking into the gift shop. Let's just say, it was chaos in there. The check-out line had a major back-up, and it looked like a mess. Mabel was running around, trying to handle everything at once by herself. I fired a bolt into the ceiling, the noise making everyone jump and turn towards me.
"You all can stay, but if it gets out of control again, the next one goes through you!" I yelled at them, aiming the head of the crossbow at everyone. They all nodded and calmed down, glancing at me scared. We went behind the counter where Mabel had collapsed.
"Well, we just made two people go insane. What about you?" Dipper asked her, sitting down.
"I'm exhausted. I gave Wendy the rest of the day off so I had to do her job," she told us, closing her eyes.
"Maybe you need to start being a little tougher around here," I told her, sitting down myself. She shook her head.
"No way. That's what Stan would do. I just need to think positive, be friendly, and everything will work out fine," she said, her eyes still closed.
"Okay, well, you can't do much when your asleep on your feet. Go lay down for a few minutes. We can handle it in here." Dipper told her. She looked at us relieved.
"You guys sure?"
"Yeah, no problem," I told her, standing up. "It's not like it could- Do you hear that?" There was a very faint growling sound than was gradually getting louder. I didn't know what it was for sure, but I had a bad feeling, and if it was right…
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" I yelled, just in time. Thank god, everyone listened, ducking behind anything they could and covering their heads. The Gremloblin burst through the wall to the living room, wood going everywhere, most of the wall now missing. Everyone started running out of the gift shop, so I don't think anyone was hurt that bad. I jumped onto the counter, firing a bolt at the creature. He avoided it and it got stuck in the wall.
"How did he get out of his locked cage?!" Dipper yelled.
"Weeellll…" Mabel started. I rolled my eyes and fired again-nicked his ear-as Mabel explained. "I taped a key to the top of the cage for his 5-minute break!"
"YOU GAVE HIM A BREAK!?" I yelled at her, trying very hard not to put a bolt through her.
"He's an employee!... sort of," she defended herself. I sighed and fired again, this one slicing his bicep.
"We've gotta round him up. Where'd Soos go?" Dipper asked. He and Mabel were still hiding under the counter.
"He was stressed out so I told him to take a soothing nature walk," Mabel explained. I fired again, this one nicking his ankle before it landed by the TV that had gotten in here when he broke through the wall. I was loading another bolt when the static on the TV cleared, showing Cash Wheel.
"Guys, you might want to look at this," I told them. They poked their heads above the counter and looked at the TV. The host, Rich, was standing next to Stan, whose money counter showed $100,000.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Stan Pines is poised to become our grand champion! Anything to say to your fans out there?"
"See you tomorrow Mabel!" Stan said, holding up a white t-shirt with LOSER written on it.
"Not good. We have to-"
"GET DOWN!" I interrupted her, jumping off the counter and tackling them to the ground. The Gremloblin had thrown a Mayan calendar (no, we do not believe the world is going to end this year) at us. We had ducked just in time, the calendar getting lodged in the wall behind us. We ran out from behind the counter and into the living room. We hid behind the little bit of wall that was left and peered around the corner. The Gremloblin grabbed Mabel's sticker bag and started putting stickers on his face.
"What do we do? He's awarding himself stickers that he didn't even earn!" Mabel exclaimed. Dipper reached into his vest and pulled out the journal, turning to the right page.
"Umm, got it! 'When fighting a Gremloblin, use water…'" Mabel grabbed a cup of water and ran back into the gift shop, splashing it on his face. Dipper turned the page and continued reading. "'…only as a last resort as water will make him much, much scarier!' Who writes sentences like that!?"
"Mabel, get back here!" I yelled to her, making a mental note to shoot the author for his stupidity. Mabel ran back to us as the Gremloblin grew spikes out of his shoulders. The cuckoo clock rang 6:00 (normal closing time) and the Gremloblin opened his mouth, breathing fire and incinerating the clock. "Don't worry, he's gotta leave eventually!"
Mabel's POV (July 3rd)
Oh, how wrong Willow was. It was almost 8:00 the next morning, and the Gremloblin hadn't left yet. Around ten last night, we had realized that he wasn't going to be leaving soon, so we decided to take shifts sleeping and standing guard. Two would be up, while one would be asleep, and we switched out every two hours. Willow and Dipper were standing guard when I woke up. The Gremloblin was pushing the button of Stan's Singin' Salmon, and by the looks on their faces, he had been doing it for a while.
"Anything?" I asked them, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. They shook their heads, Willow slapping her face a few times. Even though we had decided to take shifts, Willow had stayed up most of the night, only taking a sleeping shift once.
"Not yet. He started messing with the salmon about an hour ago, and I would shoot it, but then he'll find us, and I don't want to waste my bolts," Willow explained, glancing over her shoulder. There were only five or six bolts left. The salmon started making noise again.
"Why hasn't he left yet?" I asked, rolling my eyes. He started sniffing the air, and looked at our profit jar. He grabbed it and started eating the money. "Our profits! Stop!" I yelled, running towards him. Dipper and Willow were telling me to stop, but I wasn't listening. The Gremloblin saw me and picked me up.
"Don't look into his evil eye! You'll see your worst nightmare!" Dipper yelled. I started trying to break free, but it wasn't working.
"I wish we had an evil eye to show him!" I yelled back, accidently looking at his face. I tried to resist, but it wasn't working very well. I saw a bus stop next to a sign that said WELCOME TO PIEDMONT, our parents sitting on a bench next to it. The bus stopped and the door opened, and out came-
"HEY MONSTER!" Dipper yelled, making us lose eye contact. We both looked at him. "Take a look at this!" He pulled out the mirror I had used yesterday and held it up to the Gremloblin's face. Whatever he saw made him freak out. He dropped me and ran out of the gift shop, making another hole in the wall.
"At least he didn't do that much damage," Willow said, walking up to us, putting down her crossbow for the first time since yesterday. Again, she spoke to soon. The Gremloblin jumped onto a car and grew wings, flying up and breaking the totem pole. "Never mind." I put what I had seen out of my mind and started examining the damage. I picked up the alarm clock and started panicking when I saw the time.
"Guys, Stan's going to be back soon! We've only got seven hours to earn back our profits, or I've got to wear that LOSER shirt the rest of the summer!" I told them, showing them the clock. Dipper pulled out his phone and was about to call someone when Soos and Wendy came up.
"Hey guys! Why does this place look different?" Wendy asked, the two of them walking in through the hole in the wall.
"Wendy, Soos! Am I glad to see you! We've got a lot of work to do, but if we hurry we can still beat Stan!" I told them excitedly, grabbing a clipboard and pen off the counter. Before I could tell them anything, Wendy shook her head.
"Sorry, but I got a little headache, so maybe I should like, not work today."
"And I actually just met this pack of wolves, and I think they're going to raise me as one of their own, so I should really be at the den right now," Soos added, pointing into the forest. The two of them started to walk out.
"But hey, I'll see ya tomorrow," Wendy called over her shoulder. Soos stopped and pointed to some popsicles that were on the ground.
"BT dubs, anyone gonna eat these?" Okay, that was it. I snapped the pen and started yelling at them.
"ENOUGH!" The others gasped, but when I get mad, I get MAD, and I was on a roll, so nothing would stop me until I got it out. "I have HAD IT! I fought a monster to save this business, and this is how you repay me?! I'm gonna get an ulcer from your lollygagging!"
"Lollygagging?" Wendy questioned.
"Ulcer? You're acting different…" Soos added. I didn't know where the last part had come from, but I was still mad and fired up.
"You shut your yaps! I've been doing everyone's job while you bums have been bleeding me dry!"
"But I-"
"NO buts except yours on the floor cleaning! Now quit loafing and get to work!"
"Yes Mabel," Wendy said, running off.
"That's yes BOSS!" I yelled after her, slamming my fist on the counter. Something fell and landed on my head. I looked at the mirror on the counter and saw that it was Stan's fez. Then I realized that I had just started acting like him. "What have I become?"
"What you had to Mabel. What you had to," Dipper told me. I nodded and grabbed the money jar.
"We've got seven hours to turn this around! Let's go people!" I held up the jar, then started shouting out orders. "Dipper, call a construction crew! Willow, get some new attractions set up! Soos, get as much cleaned up in here as possible! Wendy, mark up the prices!" They all started running around, doing anything they could to let us win.
GFF
"We put the fun in no refunds!" Dipper yelled to the last group of tourists. I was honestly surprised we had made it, but we did. The holes in the wall and totem pole had gotten fixed, the gift shop had gotten cleaned up, and with all of the raised prices and extra tours, plus people generously donating money to help with repairs, it had gone even better than I had expected.
"How'd we do?" Willow asked, her and Dipper walking back inside. They had taken over giving tours, Dipper even dressing up as a mini version of Stan.
"We filled the whole jar!" I announced proudly, all of us cheering. Soos entered dressed in his Questiony the Question Mark costume, one of those paper-printing calculators in his hand. He gave it to Dipper, then went into the bathroom to get changed. When he came back, Dipper was almost done crunching the numbers.
"Minus the money to replace all the furniture… supplies to fix the shack… that leaves us," he hit the enter button, the calculator printing some more paper.
"One dollar," I said, looking in the jar, sighing. The door opened and we looked up.
"Tick-tock! Time's up kids!" Stan announced, entering with a buzzing clock. "Nice to see you learned how to dress while I was gone," he added to Dipper. I have to admit; Dipper didn't look half-bad in a suit.
"How much did you beat us by?" I asked Stan, hoping it wasn't that much of a difference.
"I won $300,000!" Seriously? Dang man! "And then…"
"Stan, really?" Wendy asked, looking up from her phone. "It's all over the internet." She held out her phone, showing us the video of Stan in the final round of Cash Wheel.
"For a chance to double your money or lose it all; what is the six-letter word you use to ask for something politely? For example, 'May I _ have that?'" Rich asked Stan. Stan smiled cockily.
"Do I look like an idiot folks? The word is 'gimmee,' two E's," Stan guessed. There was a loud buzz, letting him know it was wrong.
"Oooh!" Rich said, looking at him sympathetically. "You know, because you've done so well, we're gonna give you one more chance. Let's try again. It's a 'P' word. Most people say it's the 'magic word.'"
"Pabracadabra! Final answer!" Stan guessed, the wrong buzz coming back.
"I'm sorry, Stan, but the word is-"
"PLEASE!" I sing-songed, pointing at the sticker on the cash register, Wendy taking her phone back.
"Apparently that word CAN make you money," Stan said to himself. Hindsight is killer. Dipper looked at the calculator, then back at Stan.
"So if you lost everything, then that means…Mabel! You won!" We all started celebrating, hugging and high-fiving each other.
"Well, according to our bet, I guess Mabel's the new boss…?" Stan tried, killing our good mood.
"No way!" "Not gonna happen!" "Bad idea!" We yelled, surrounding him.
"Huh? What?"
"Grunkle Stan, I had no idea how hard it was being boss. This place was cuckoo bananas until I started barking orders at people like you," I told him, giving him his fez back. He took it and put it back on his head.
"Yeah, well, gotta admit, it's kind of nice to be back, ya know?" He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, forgetting the whole thing ever happened. "Okay, okay, that's enough, get off me," he said after a minute. "And Soos, Wendy; Get to work! Umm, please. Ow, okay, still hurts," he muttered, grabbing his chest again. I was about to leave, but Willow called me back.
"Didn't your guys' agreement say something about Stan having to do some kind of apology dance if he lost?" She asked me. I grabbed my clipboard and started looking through my notes.
"Actually, yeah. I have it in my notes here," I said when I found the song.
"Your gonna die of embarrassment," Willow told him.
"That never happened!" Grunkle Stan tried. Wendy ran off to get the camera, but that would be nothing compared to what I had planned. "All right, okay. Let me just-" He exploded a smoke bomb and ran out the door.
"Grunkle Stan!" I yelled, running after him, glad something good had come out of this bet.
GFF
We had really gone all out with the song. The parking lot was practically the sound stage of a movie studio. I was in a director's chair, the others standing behind me. Grunkle Stan was in front of a backdrop, wearing the sparkly orange jump-suit I had forced him to put on.
"Look kid, I'm not gonna-"
"Do it!" I yelled at him. He sighed and started bending up and down, singing terribly.
"I'm Stan and I was wrong. I'm singing the Stan Wrong Song. I shouldn't have taken that chance. Now here's my remorseful dance."
"Do the kicks!" I yelled. He uncaringly kicked his legs out. "Jazzier!" His fez fell off, landing on the ground. Gompers walked over and started chewing on it. They started having a tug-of-war, Stan complaining about his back. "What do you think?" I asked Waddles, who I had hired as the Assistant Director. He oinked and started chewing on the arm of his chair.
"COME ON! You stupid goat!" Stan yelled, looking between the goat and his hands. His fez had ripped in half, one part in his hand, the other part still in the goat's mouth. He looked at me in a what-are-you-going-to-do-about-this way. I sighed and put a megaphone up to my mouth.
"Take thirty!"
That part about Stan's fez was to give a reason as to why it would be different next chapter. Deep End is the first episode with the new symbol, and since that's the next chapter, I figured I might as well give him a reason for the new design. Remember, the next chapter will not be released until August 3rd. Please leave a review and I'll see you then. #MakeADifference
PS: If you're in-between stories, check out Return to Gravity Falls by EZB. IT'S AMAZING, and should keep you busy for a while.