"Are we there now?"
"Not yet."
Thanks to the blindfold wrapped around her eyes, Wendy was forced to rely on Dipper as he held her wrist and guided her through the house. On and on they went, taking countless twists and turns. It wasn't too long before she figured out what was going on.
"Okay, either you quit it with all the circles or I'm tearing this thing off." She gave him an ultimatum.
"Quit what?" Dipper betrayed himself with a half-stifled chuckle. She pulled her hand free and groped about until she was able to give him a push.
"C'mon dude, I know your house isn't this big. Knock it off with all the circles"
"Okay okay. Hold on." Dipper laughed. Their pathway felt much more straightforward now, and she soon heard the distinct creak of a door. "Careful, stairs."
With one hand holding his skinny wrist and the other clutching a bannister, the older teen had her friend slowly lead her down step by step until he brought them to a stop.
"Okay, we're here!"
She raised the blindfold to find herself standing halfway down the basement stairs with a sea of soft white waiting for them below. All the boxes and other assorted junk had been shoved up against the walls, and not a single square inch of the actual floor could be seen.
"What is this?" She descended the last few steps and ran her hand through the indoor pool of white packing peanuts. Dipper hopped off the stairs and sprayed her with his cushy landing.
"It's-"
He didn't see the small flash of brown cruising towards him until it was too late. His sister leapt out from the styrofoam with a roar.
"Abominable Snow-Mabel! RAAAHHHH!" She cried before dragging him down. Fluffy white sprayed all about as the siblings tousled beneath the surface. Dipper eventually reemerged with a gasp. Mabel as usual was nothing but smiles as she popped up and spread her sweater-sleeved arms wide, "Welcome to your winter wonderland!"
"My what?" the teen laughed.
"Remember, this is supposed to be your best Christmas! And it definitely can't be the best Christmas if it's not a white Christmas!" The girl bubbled matter-of-factly.
"And snow's not something we get a lot of around here….." Dipper understated. "Soooo….."
"Voila! A snowy day, just for you!" His sister said with a flourish.
"Where did you even get all of this?" Wendy gazed over the thoroughly covered floor.
"Oooooh, easy! I got some friends at the arts and crafts shop that have been saving this stuff up for me." Mabel put on a proud grin. "And we even have enough for an…...INDOOR BLIZZARD! WHOOOOSH!"
The little teen reached for a nearby rope and tugged. A strategically placed bag hanging from the rafters opened up and dumped a sudden hail of packing material on the redhead.
Wendy burst out cackling as she dived into the "snow" without a second thought. The three teens romped about like they were a bunch of seven-year-olds. After a fierce "snowball" fight, the trio collapsed for a breather.
"Pretty good, huh?" Mabel popped up beside their friend with a splash of packing peanuts.
"Yeah, as far as substitutes go, this is a pretty sweet." Wendy gently threw a handful into the girl's toothy-grinned face. "Now if only we could find a way to get a hill and a sled in here, then we'd be totally set."
"Oh, easy! We could ride the laundry basket down the stairs!" The little brunette immediately suggested. Wendy looked at the extremely short distance between the bottom of the staircase and the cement basement wall and shook her head. That seemed a little risky even for her.
"As much as I totally dig the idea, there's no way we wouldn't all end up with concussions." She then noticed that Dipper had gone silent, meaning he was now deep in thought.
"What's on your mind?" She splashed him.
"There might not be any snow outside, but…." He pondered half-out loud as tried to think of a solution for his friend. "But maybe we can still try something out there."
"Dude, are you coming up with one of your weird overcomplicated plans again?" Wendy pried.
"Yeah he is!" Mabel sang knowingly.
Dipper sank a few inches down into their improvised "snow" and glanced sheepishly to Wendy. "Well….you sound like you really want to go sledding."
"Just making sure." She grinned while she half crawled, half swam over. "Okay, I'm all ears..."
"...All right, let's see if I can...okay, you see me now?" A gruff voice asked from the other end of the video chat.
"Kind of." Mr. Pines chuckled at the image of the bulbous nose that was now displaying on his tablet screen. He heard a sigh come from behind Stan.
"Don't get so close, remember? Here, let me..." The image shifted as Ford positioned his brother's face further from the camera
"Eh? Oh, there we go. I can never get the hang of this stupid..." Stan muttered some very unkind things under his breath about today's technology. "Anyways, so how are the little gremlins doing?"
"They're great! Well, besides the mess they just left in the basement." He smiled and shook his head at his children's latest antic. "If we're lucky they'll get that all cleaned up by New Year's."
"Sounds about right. Either of them around to say hi to their grunkles?"
"Actually they're out playing with Wendy right now."
"Ah, I'll talk to 'em later. So what's it been like having her down there, anyway?" The old man grinned.
"She's making things interesting this year, I can tell you that." Mr. Pines chuckled.
"Wendy is...something." His wife put it as diplomatically as she could, and only after a long pause. Mrs. Pines continued to bustle about the kitchen while her husband sat at the table.
"Ah c'mon Lyn, what's the big screamin' deal?" Stan scoffed at her attitude. "I bet Dipper and Mabel are having the time of their lives. Remember what I told you? It'd really make the kids' holiday to have her there for the-"
"Stan?" A thickly winter-bundled Soos trundled into the background. "The maze is all shoveled out!"
"Hold on a sec." Stan motioned to the camera. "Good. Now go give it a good spray with the hose. The bottom of the path, the sides, everything.."
"What? Oh for God's sake." His twin protested. "Why?"
"What? It's not an ice maze without the ice."
"Ice maze for what?" It was pretty clear Ford didn't like where this was going.
"Y'know. For like, family holiday fun, and stuff. We gotta find a way to keep at least a little bit of cash flowing during the off-season."
"What? Stanley, no." The video chat was temporarily forgotten as the elderly twins started arguing with each other.
"Aw c'mon!"
"You can't be serious."
"It's just a little extra income!" Stan attempted to downplay his latest scheme. "Nothing wrong with that, right?"
"We're not doing this. The first person who steps in there is going to immediately break an ankle." His brother warned him.
"Not with me supervising, they won't!" Soos vowed. "I'll watch all those mazers like a hawk! Like a….wait, hold on. Is that even a word? Mazers? Huh, doesn't sound right….what else would you call someone who goes inside a-"
"Wait." Recognition hit Mrs. Pines with the force of a runaway freight train. She raced across the kitchen and looked over her husband's shoulder. "I...I know that voice!"
"Huh?" Stan turned back to his camera. "What? You mean Soos?"
"What's going on?" The handyman asked.
"Yes! I definitely know that voice!" She proclaimed. "I was talking to you just this morning, wasn't I?"
"Uuuhhh….IIIIIII…...ummm….I have no idea what you're talking about." Soos forced his tone down several octaves to the deepest bass possible. "I, um….I'm just talking in my normal voice….which is this. This voice here. Yup, this definitely what I sound like allllll the time, especially when I'm talking with anyone on the phone….."
It was too late. She was already storming out of the kitchen, all while yelling so loudly that even everyone back in the Mystery Shack winced.
"I KNEW IT!"
It wasn't exactly a marvel of engineering. But Dipper's creation was still a pretty clever set-up nevertheless. All he had to do was take the old red wagon that still lived in a far corner of the garage (even though neither of the twin had touched it since they were eight) remove its wheels, and attach them to the plastic green sled they had bought for that time when their parents took them to a ski resort. When he was finished, they had a pretty decent looking warm-weather sled.
Even better, the thing actually worked. Or at least it worked the first time they took it up the largest hill they could find in walking distance. After the wild, bumpy ride down the grassy slope, the makeshift vehicle finally slid to a halt.
"Yes! YES!" Wendy let out an exhilarated cheer. "Oh my God, yes! That ruled!"
"Yes! That...actually worked!" Dipper laughed in relief.
"Whoooo! Take that, temperate California climate!" Mabel triumphantly mocked their snow-less surroundings with a little dance. "Gonna stop us from having winter holiday fun? Nuh-uh! Not today!"
"All right, round two, let's go!" As soon as Wendy picked the altered sled back up she was suddenly struck with inspiration. "Wait! Hold on!"
She put it back down and began excitedly scouting up and down the hill.
"What are you looking for?" Dipper asked.
"This!" Wendy tapped a large hump of earth with her foot. "Perfect ramp, right here!"
The teen raced back, picked the sled back up in one fluid movement and headed up towards the top of the hill again. "C'mon! We're getting some serious air this time!"
The twins cheered as they followed their friend without a second though. Thirty seconds later, no one was doing any cheering as they lay about in a mess near the bottom of the hill. Wendy was in such a daze from the massive wipeout that it took her a couples seconds until she could peel herself up off the ground.
"Guys?"
"Whooo!" Mabel bounced to her feet. "Best Christmas EVER!"
Alright, so at least half her dorks were good. She grinned and check up on the other sibling. "Dipper? You okay?"
The boy bit down hard on his lip as he sat up clenching his shoulder. "Ahhh….my….m-my arm…."
Recalling the trick he pulled on her a day ago, Wendy smirked and shook her head. "Nice try, dude. But you have to do better than that-"
"DIPPER!" As his twin, Mabel could automatically see at least a half-dozen signs that something was genuinely wrong. She was at her brother's side in a flash. Wendy needed another moment or two, but she finally noticed that his left arm was dangling limply as a piece of rope by his side. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Oh man, oh man, oooohhhh man..." She dashed over and got down on one knee. "Here, let me have a look."
Dipper winced as she gently took his arm and examined it closely. Mabel had already taken out her phone, dialed 91 and was nervously hovering her finger over the button for the last 1.
But after performing her quick checkover, Wendy was incredibly relieved to find that it wasn't nearly as bad as she had feared. In fact, she'd seen this injury a couple times in her own family over the years thanks to constant daily roughhousing (plus several particularly nasty falls out of various trees). "It's okay, nothing's broken. You just got a dislocation."
Her friend felt a pang of panic as he pictured himself in a doctor's office struggling to explain what happened to his parents. "So do I need to go to-"
"Nope. It doesn't look bad, so we should be good. Hold on a sec."
Dipper temporarily forgot about the pain in his arm when the older teen unbuckled her belt and yanked it off in one tug. His eyes widened as he asked distractedly, "Uhhh...what are you doing?"
Wendy folded it over twice and took shoved it right into his mouth without any warning. "Here, bite down on this."
"Huh? Bith the belth?" He repeated bemusedly.
"Uh huh. Trust me, that's gonna help big time. Mabel, can you grab his hand?"
The little brunette and her brother shot each other equally confused looks, but Mabel did as asked. After all, it sounded like the redhead knew what she was doing. Wendy looked into her friend's eyes, grasped his shoulder and arm and nodded reassuringly. Dipper finally figured out what was about to happen. He braced himself, shut his eyes tightly and nodded to let her know he was as ready as he was ever going to be.
"We'll do this on three. Ready? Okay...one...two...three!"
Mabel let out a squeaky yelp. It felt like her brother was squeezing her fingers with the force of a vise. Meanwhile Dipper sank his teeth deep into the leather as Wendy forced everything back into place (or at least that's what he hoped was happening). Thankfully the sharp pain lasted for only a few moments before the older teen let go. She wiped her brow, then delicately patted around his shoulder to make sure that everything was where it should be.
"Okay….looks like we got it. Can you try and move it for me now?" She asked.
Dipper tried his best to ignore the dull throb that now took over his arm as he followed her directions. To his amazement, he could move his arm again just fine. In spite of all the aches currently wracking his limb, it was otherwise as perfectly functional as ever.
"Whoaaa." Mabel gasped.
"How you feel?" Wendy's emerald eyes were still full of lingering worry. Dipper spat out the belt.
"...Ouch." He groaned. His friend gawked at him in disbelief for a second before she exploded laughter.
"That was nuts!"
"Yeah." He marveled as he moved his arm about. "You just...put it right back in."
"That? That's nothing. I've had to do that a couple times with my brothers." She deflected the comment. "I'm talking about you, man~"
"Wait, really?" Dipper couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Yeah! Your arm basically fell out! And now you're barely acting like it's any big hurt-y thingy deal at all!" Mabel exclaimed in wide-eyed amazement.
"I wouldn't say it wasn't a big deal." He grimaced. "I mean, it feels pretty sore right now."
Wendy snorted and shook her head. "Dude, just listen to yourself. Pretty sore? That's it? My brothers were all in tears the first time my dad had to pop their arms back into place. All three of them, every time, with actual tears like, pouring down their faces. And I completely freaked out the first time it happened to me I actually ran around screaming my head off until anyone could make me stand still. But you? Man!"
With all the praise that was now being earnestly piled high on him, Dipper allowed himself to take some pride in his injury.
"I...I did handle that pretty well, didn't I?" He understated with a small grin.
"Pretty well? You handled that like a total boss!" Wendy proudly congratulated him.
"All hail Dipper, the Unbreakable Nerd!" Mabel triumphantly whooped.
"Well, I've had to deal with a lot worse than….." Now that his ego had been puffed up, he tried to downplay everything with a cool shrug. That of course instantly proved to be a bad idea, and his shoulder immediately flared up with fresh discomfort. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow…."
"It's okay." Wendy laughed again. "You already won the Tough Guy Award for today."
"Thanks." He smiled weakly she gently helped set him up on his feet. "So, think we're done with bad ideas for now?"
The older teen looked over the two plastic chunks that used to be the sled. Each one was separated by a fair distance thanks to magnitude of their crash. "Yeah, I'd say so."
Besides the fact that their ride was trashed beyond repair, the sun setting fast in the distance. Another relatively short winter day was coming to a fast close.
"Alright, time to head back home! It's Cookies-and-Christmas-Movies O'Clock!" Mabel clapped her hands and proclaimed. The others of course find anything to argue with that. They quickly located a public garbage can to deposit all evidence of the day's adventure. The return walk was nice and uneventful, excluding the fact that Dipper had to spurn several offers from both his sister and friend for a public piggyback ride the rest of the way back (Mabel even got him halfway on her back before he struggled free).
"So you need an ice pack, bro-bro?" His sister checked as they entered the house.
"That would be nice." He flexed his shoulder and winced again.
"You go get comfortable, Iron Man." Wendy patted his back. "We got this-"
"WENDY!" An angry cry rang out. All three froze up like deer in headlights as Mrs. Pines stormed into the front hallway.
"What?" Wendy knelt down and began unlacing her boots. "Okay, okay, sorry! I'm taking them off, see?"
Unfortunately, judging by the woman's utterly livid expression this obviously had nothing to do with tracking in muck. This looked bad. Very, very, very bad. The redhead's mind began racing a hundred miles an hour as she and the twins gazed into the face of anger itself. What could this be? The late night hunting practice? No, her bow was now just a bunch of broken pieces of wood scattered in the backyard, no way she'd find out about that. The shelter? Was she upset that it hadn't been taken down yet?
Wendy didn't have to wonder for too long. The furious mother reached behind her back and brought out a familiar-looking hatchet.
"Explain this." Mrs. Pines growled. "Now."