thirty more days

by quentinwoods191

he's counting the days. he knows he shouldn't, he knows he should be living his life in the moment, but there's something waiting for him at home, and he can't wait for finals to be over.

1. no pancake?

Thirty more days.

Though he knew that he should have been living every day in the moment, Dipper had been counting down the days until finals were over and he finally could go home and relax in his bed.

Sure, college was exceptionally helpful for his future development but home called to him. His bedroom was much more welcoming than his dorm room. His dorm was much too small, and he had a roommate which he barely talked to. All he knew about him was that his name was Gary and he didn't like to wash his hands when he got out of the bathroom. But when he was in his own bedroom, there was no need to ignore some virtual stranger sitting in the bed across the room.

And most of his friends were fiending to abscond from campus, reflecting his own sentiments.

"As much as I love the cafeteria's food, I think I could go another day without the seasonless chicken," said Justin while they were walking back from class.

Eagerly, Dipper could go a few months without the extremely difficult calculus and biochemistry assignments and the slumber-inducing droning of the ancient professors.

Today was a Saturday, which meant that classes were cancelled. Dipper had awoken that morning from an eight-hour binge of a recent show he and Mabel were watching called Brooklyn Nine Nine. He had been severely behind in the last few weeks due to the fact his assignments were like full-time jobs, so whenever he had any free time, he decided to grab some snacks and sit down and watch it. He was only on season five, and there were so many more left to go, but Mabel would be very mad at him if he didn't watch it.

When he lifted his head up from his pillow and threw off the obfuscating blankets, he saw his laptop was still open on his bed and his phone was face up, too, showing a wallpaper of the two of them on the beach near Piedmont, their farmer's tans visible upon their dual-shaded skin.

At the last second, Mabel decided to put two of her fingers behind Dipper's head giving him some bunny ears.

When he saw the picture himself, he was outraged and chased Mabel across the dunes but she was faster than him, giggling and laughing and running away, and as the sun caught her skin and her hair, she glowed in a way that made his heart skip a beat, for he, for a few moments, was allowed to witness a carnal beauty Mother Nature herself crafted with her hands alone. He would never admit it to Mabel, though. That was something better left alone.

Above their image, a notification appeared on his phone screen.

waddlezdagreat: whatcha doin broseph

Then another few texts came.

waddlezdagreat: broba tea

waddlezdagreat: bronado

waddlezdagreat: brotato

Dipper smiled at the texts. She always knew how to cheer him up.

GhostsAreReal101: wassup stranger

waddlezdagreat: how dare you, i am not a stranger

GhostsAreReal101: stranger danger, somebody save me

waddlezdagreat: oh yeah yer in trouble mister

GhostsAreReal101: what did i do now??

waddlezdagreat: you're under arrest for being a nerd

GhostsAreReal101: that is totally not a crime you know

waddlezdagreat: uh huh, it is, you can't prove it's not

GhostsAreReal101: whatever, tell that to the judge

Dipper put his phone down, stretched for a little bit, then pushed off of his bed, looking around his dorm room. It was a small hovel carved out of the side of Jackson Hall, a biege-colored cube with white lining along the walls and floors and various, multi-colored LED lights strung from a thin string which surrounded the coping on the ceiling. Gary had set them up the instant that they'd moved in, and though Dipper would sometimes get annoyed they were there, Mabel would go absolutely crazy when they started to change color. Her eyes would go wide and she would point it out as if Dipper weren't right there. He shook his head. Get her out of your head.

Rubbing the crust out of his eyes and looking down at his pajamas, he thought that there was no way he was going to step out into the world looking like a slob. Well, more than he already did. Frankly, he hadn't had a haircut in ages. Every time he looked in the mirror, he saw the bundle of curls which called the top of his head home kept growing exponentially larger. But there was nothing to do about that now. Being in college meant you had very little money of your own to use for things like haircuts, so until he got home and got Mabel to do it for him, he'd have to deal with pushing the strands out of his vision for a little bit longer. Not to mention the creature that was his beard situation. Sometimes, he wouldn't shave it for a few weeks, and it would become so bushy you could barely see his mouth. Around this time of the year, he opted to shave it, since with summer being around the corner, he was ready to embrace the light of the sun's rays.

Lethargically, he walked over to and rummaged through his closet, trying to find something good to wear. He collected a red flannel with black stripes going in both directions, a pair of black jeans and a white undershirt. Before he closed the door to the closet, his eye momentarily caught a single glance of an abandoned Sev'ral Times shirt Mabel had left on her last trip here. She didn't often visit the campus due to the fact that getting here required a long car ride across freeways and through the countryside and that cost money that they didn't have right now, but when she did, she would always come prepared, bringing most of her "blingiest" wardrobe and the "Best Snuggle Blankets Ever." Unconsciously, he picked it up, looked at the grooves of the wrinkles embedded in the fabric of the shirt, feeling the smooth velvet upon his fingers. And the smell – Dipper didn't even have to get close for it to waft up, and he instantly recognized the Mabel's natural sweet vanilla scent. Memories of the past shone like lights in Vegas when he smelled the vanilla, and he withdraw the shirt from his grasp, putting it back where it belonged. He closed the closet door with a lingering gaze on it before he turned around and sauntered to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, the mop of hair upon his head soaking wet, Dipper emerged from the bathroom. He picked up his phone and saw a new text from Mabel.

It was a picture of Waddles, sitting on Mabel's bed. Apparently, Waddles was wearing a new sweater, one which nearly matched his skin color. The moment Dipper saw him, he let out an aww and imagined the little scamp snorting in his face like old times. Dipper was surprised that Mabel had convinced their parents to let Waddles stay with them at Piedmont. Even though they stuck to a strict No Animal policy for most of their years of house ownership due to their "chaotic and reckless nature," Mabel did some serious mental gymnastics to get them to agree that Waddles would emotionally support her and without him, she would be a snivelling wreck. Granted, given the fact that Dipper had sacrificed his perfect date with Wendy and risked several times anomalies to acquire the fat pig, he was extremely grateful that she did not give up on Waddles. He was a part of the family and there was nothing that Mr. and Mrs. Pines could do that would remove his presence from Mabel's life. Nothing at all.

The accompanying message read as follows:

waddlezdagreat: waddles says he is the judge and he says that you are arrested and going to jail

GhostsAreReal101: oh really?

GhostsAreReal101: Well, if the judge will allow it, I'm gonna go get breakfast, what should I get?

waddlezdagreat: PABCAKRS!

waddlezdagreat: pancakes*

GhostsAreReal101: pancakes it is for the good lady

waddlezdagreat: hehe

Getting his backpack and making sure he had everything in his pockets, Dipper pushed through his dorm's door and barreled down the corridors of Jackson Hall to the cafeteria in Tharsis Hall, two buildings to the right, a little bit down the hill.

When he burst out into the daylight, the sun greeted him with rays of light upon his skin. The greens of the grass were verdant with life, as if a painting brought to reality through mere observation. The yellows of the daffodils rivaled that of the sun in the sky, sprinkling the ground in a gentle rain of little stars. The stone pathways snaking through the altitudes of the hills were surrounded with protective tubes of metal, stretched along the sides of the steep steps leading to the crest of the massive mounds the campus was built upon.

These pathways were home to students and professors alike, wandering about the campus with a coffee in hand and a bright attitude in mind. A few sought to ride their bikes, others skateboards and longboards, and Dipper enjoyed recognizing a few familiar faces as he walked towards Tharsis. One of those faces was his literature professor Mr. O'Neil, an older pale bloke with a skinny but tall frame, passed by Dipper with a few stacks of papers in his hands and two folders tucked beneath each of his armpits. When Dipper asked the literature professor if he needed help, O'Neil gave a Dipper with a pleasant smile. "It's quite all right, Mr. Pines. Go ahead and enjoy your Saturday. I hear a whole of lot of girls will be out today." The old man winked and continued lugging around his stacks of papers and folders.

Though Dipper didn't usually like to think about it, what Mr. O'Neil said was true. Many girls would be out and about, wandering around campus or sitting on the ground near some trees or playing volleyball in the courtyard. Speaking of, as Dipper walked by a group of girls sitting on a blanket in the middle of a tree clearing, one of them waved at him as he passed by, then blew him a kiss. He blushed at the treatment, nervously waved back, and continued to walk towards Tharsis. Women were not his strong suit. He loved women, surely, but when it came to college women, he didn't really have the best streak.

There was that one girlfriend he had at the beginning of the semester, her name being Alex, but she turned out to be one of the Crazies and nearly totaled his van and shattered its windows. For some reason, he tended to attract those type of women. She was attractive, yes, very much so, blond and beautiful, but she was like an angler fish, luring him in with a false sense of security and swallowing him whole before he had a chance to release himself from her grasp. Mabel even warned him about her, saying that there was something wrong with Alex from the start, but he usually disregarded what she said about any of the women in his life, considering she never liked any of them, even when they were in high school. "They're just a bunch of hussies," she would say. "They're trying to make you look bad. They always do."

She was right, no matter how much Dipper wanted to argue. Alex was no good for him and he learned that the hard way.

When he got to Tharsis Hall, he used his tag to get into the building and went left towards the cafeteria. He signed in at the front with one of the college volunteer attendants named Amir and went on to check the state of the mess hall, eager to see what disaster was left for him in the wake of the other college students. Usually they would slap around the utensils and bowls and make a mess for the janitor to lazily clean up later, but Dipper managed to show up before the athletic jocks and rich kids could ruin his breakfast experience with their unruly and disgusting behavior. He quickly scanned his eyes over the cereal, the fruit and vegetable bar, and located before long the pancake mixer. Thank God they had it out today. Every day, the food selection in the mess hall would alternate according to a set schedule, and sometimes, rather unfortunately, he would miss out on certain items which were a must-have.

After crafting a few pancakes using the oozing batter inside the steaming hot plate and slapping it together with a few yellow, gooey blobs of butter and a flowing, sticky stream of delicious maple syrup, he denoted his masterpiece his magnum opus and went to the assortment of tables and chairs at the back of the cafeteria to take a picture of his delectable meal and send it to Mabel. Dipper whipped his phone out of his pocket and put the plate in his left hand while he pulled up his messaging app, where he saw a boldened message awaiting him from the other side.

waddlezdagreat: did you get da pancakes?

Dipper started to type in a few characters to respond that yes, indeed, he had retrieved the bounty, but without a warning, he knocked into someone else, completely and utterly surprised by the sudden, unwarranted collision. Unfortunately, the pancakes soared out of his hand and flew backwards to land squarely on his chest, soaking his white undershirt with sticky resin and yellow butter. It seeped through the fabric, and he could feel the cold substance pressing upon his stomach. Some of the syrup got on his flannel, dripping down onto the ground slowly but surely. As soon as it happened, he knew that he should have been a little bit more careful, but he was too eager to talk to Mabel and show her what he'd gotten. As he looked down at himself, he felt ashamed. Around him, he heard gasps and snickers, and though this was a tragedy in microcosm, some were already viewing it as a comedy.

A voice then said: "Oh, my God, I am so so sorry, I didn't realize where I was going!"

Curious as to whose soft and gentle voice uttered that apology to him, Dipper glanced up from the horrendous and abhorrent mess which found its home upon his fresh outfit and felt his eyes nearly bulge from his head when he found the visage of a beautiful girl in front of him. She had the most smooth, tanned skin Dipper had ever seen before. She possessed long brown hair which stretched down past her midsection and ended right above her waist. And her eyes were a verdant shade of jade which glowed like a carved Asian statue. The instant Dipper took in the sight of this beauty made manifest, he couldn't make any words come to life in his mind to save himself from the swallowing maw of Bill Cipher.

Mabel had always said that whenever he found a girl that he liked, he tended to overdo it, and he had disagreed with her before she pointed out all the examples from before: namely that being Wendy, where he had set up a whole bunch of lists which were, in hindsight, pretty obsessive. But he reeled it in the past couple years, and right now in particular, making sure to keep his breathing even and his heart from beating out of his chest. This pretty girl was standing right in front of him, not even a foot away, and she was looking right at him, those jade irises something of a hypotist's trick, a devious ploy which was something like that of a devil's ballad. And why wasn't he saying anything back? He must look so stupid just standing there saying nothing! Okay, focus, Dipper, you can do this. You can talk to this girl no problem. Just imagine you're talking to Mabel. That's easy. Oh, that's super easy. Okay. Go.

"Hey, it's no big problem," said Dipper, an sheepish smile on his face. He looked the girl in the eyes, and her face shifted uncomfortably. Dipper didn't know if it was because he looked at her wrong or he looked funny, but she cleared her throat.

"I mean it, I'm so sorry," she repeated. "I've just been so stressed lately. Finals are coming up and I've been cramming hard."

"Trust me," said Dipper, laughing to himself, "I know all about that. Like last night, I had to review over 100 pages of my textbook."

"College, am I right?" said the girl.

They shared a laugh. It was good to laugh. Sometimes Dipper only had the chance to laugh like that when he was around Mabel. They would be watching some TV show or movie (especially the schlocky B-movie monster flicks they got out of the bargain bin at the nearest VideoShack) and some silly phrase would be said or some silly thing would happen on screen, and Dipper and Mabel would howl and repeat the phrase or mimic the visuals as well as they could, slapping each other while they had their eyes closed and they couldn't breathe. Those were some of the best times Dipper ever had, watching those flicks with Mabel, and channeling that sort of laugh with this girl invigorated his spirit.

"If there's any way I can make it up to you, please, tell me now," said the girl.

Dipper felt honored. "I couldn't ask anything of you," he said. "It was honestly my fault anyways. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I was texting my sister and – yeah, you see what happened."

"Just let me know if I can do anything, okay?" she said.

"I got you," said Dipper.

Though Dipper swore he could have imagined it, the girl winked before she left the scene, which no matter how you looked at it was an awful mess. Watching the syrup drip-drop on the ground, Dipper shook his head with a sigh, then decided that he might as well start picking all of this up. Thank God that only a few students were in the cafeteria this early. Otherwise Dipper would have been in the OSU's weekly newspaper as a laughing stock the moment Freddy Linse snapped his photo and plastered it in black and white ink upon the front page.

Shortly after taking a picture of himself in the mirror in the bathroom, Dipper hurried out of Tharsis Hall and headed back to his dorm. As he walked back, he checked his messaging app again. Mabel had sent another two messages between then and now.

waddlezdagreat: dip-dop?

waddlezdagreat: no pancake?

Dipper sent the picture of himself to Mabel and sent:

GhostsAreReal101: no pancake :(

After sending it, Dipper slid his phone into his pocket and navigated back to Jackson Hall. By the time that he approached the front left-side entrance, Justin, one of his best friends here at Oregon State University, noticed his humiliating state as he exited the hall and started down the stairs.

"Well, well, well, it looks like you got into a bit of a sticky situation," said Justin, snickering to himself.

"Yeah, yeah, hardy har it up," said Dipper.

"Just make sure you wash out the syrup. I heard that those stains are gnarly."

"Thanks for the heads-up."

"Whatever you say, cupcake," said Justin. "Anyways, I gotta bounce. I got a hot date I got to meet up with."

"And by hot date, you surely don't mean –"

"Up, up, up – no need to be a hater, Dipper," said Justin. "Just be Mater."

Justin walked off after popping his collar up as far as it could go. Dipper was left confused as his best friend walked away. "What does that even mean?" he asked himself.

When Dipper got back in his dorm, Mabel had messaged again. This time it was another picture of Waddles.

waddlezdagreat: the judge says that you are no longer arrested for the crime of being a nerd

waddlezdagreat: he sees you are in dire trouble and says you deserve a little break

GhostsAreReal101: tell him I said thank you

waddlezdagreat: don't push it mister

GhostsAreReal101: i'm not your honor

waddlezdagreat: good 3