CH 84: The Perfect Gift

On a lovely day, the Mystery Twins arrived at the Piedmont Mall with the whole place busy, far more than the small town of Gravity Falls can hold.

"Alright, it's time for our mission." Dipper said as he pounds his fist.

"To find the perfect gift for Wendy." Mabel shouted. "Because school work and paranormal stuff made us forget to pick something up!"

Dipper held his hand out. "You ready to find the perfect gift?"

Mabel placed her hand on his. "Yes sir."

Then Jessica. "Count me in!"

Dipper looked at the two girls and nodded. "Let's go, team!" The three raised up their hands. "Now let us think." Dipper rubbed his chin. "What will be a great gift for her …. Wait a minute." Dipper slowly turned to the third party member. "Jessica?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I'd invited her over." Mabel gestured to Jessica.

"This seems random, but O.K." Dipper smiled. "Wendy is a lumberjack cool girl that can easily survive during the end times. What should we get her?"

"Well what's your budget?" Jessica asked. "How about some awesome game?"

"You mean like this one?" Mabel pointed to a game store with a board reading 'Monstermon: The Cellphone Game You Shall Accept for All Eternity.'

"Please, Monstermon?" Jessica rolled her eyes. "I was thinking of that." She pointed to the board next to it. 'Civilian Evil: Cannibal Crew.'

"She'll go with the violent one." Dipper said. "But we can do better than a game."

"Yeah, you're right." Mabel smiled. "Come on, let's explore."

The three kids walked around the mall and made their first stop at a gym equipment shop.

"Nice!" Jessica smiled as she spots a pull up bar. "How about something from here?" She smiled while testing out the bar herself.

"Sounds good." Dipper looked around. "Some weights, dumbbells … which I can totally lift." Dipper tried to look tough, with little results.

Mabel looked around some jump ropes and noticed a familiar face. "Eeeh he he…." It was Dyami, watching an exercise video.

Seeing a good chance for flirting, Mabel walked toward his direction to pretend to bump into him, literally. "La la la, I'm looking away while I walk."

"Oh, hey Dyami."

"Hi, Jessica."

Mabel fell over to see Jessica had already reached him.

"Hi, Mabel." Dyami noticed the brunette, not wondering why she was on the floor.

"Dyami." Dipper spoke up. "What are you doing here?"

Dyami pointed at the video. "Well since I'll be turning thirteen in a couple months, I'm thinking about doing weights."

"Wait, you don't already lift?" Mabel asked in shock as she poked his arm. "How'd you get these?"

"I'm an active boy." Dyami pulled away, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I hike the desert back home with my friends and turn over rocks for venomous animals. Nearly every day since I was six."

"Of course." Dipper glanced at his arm with a bit of envy. "We're looking around for a perfect gift for Wendy."

"Wendy?" Dyami smiled. "From how you praise her,I doubt she'll need anything here to get tough." Dyami thought for a moment. "You said she likes wood carving. Saw a store with that kind of stuff near the bathrooms."

"He got a good point there." Jessica said. "Nothing says 'We're not commercialized' better than a wooden knick knack."

Dipper tilted his head. "She does like carving stuff herself, but maybe we'll find something good there. Thanks."

The three left the store and came across the other shop filled with wooden homemade products such as wooden statues, picture frames, old-fashioned toys, and even some signs with dog related jokes.

"Really, not a single one for pigs?" Mabel asked herself as she looks through all the signs.

Dipper glanced all around the store, seeing nearly every item they have. "Any of this will be good for Wendy ….. If she was in her 80's." He picked up a pincushion decorated like a fat old lady. "I would get her that painting, but I don't have the money for it. Let alone on where you drill the nail on this."

Dipper looked at the entrance and found another familiar face. "Hey, Beethoven."

Upon hearing his name, Beethoven immediately hid something behind his back. "I don't like cute wooden animals, you do!" The bootleg bully pointed at the person, but found it to be Dipper. "Oh what a relief. I thought you were someone slightly more popular." He sighed, allowing himself to show his softer side. "I collect these …. No judging?"

Dipper shook his head. "This is the part where Mabel would be roasting me, but she's preoccupied." He gestured at Mabel roaming through the pet products.

"Yes, cats are adorable and our internet overlords, but what about pigs?"

"Cool." Beethoven said. "Now I can have a non-Mabel related conversation with somebody."

"And I thought I was a loser." Dipper said to himself. The boy then explained to Beethoven about their mission today.

"Nice, so …. Uhhhh." Beethoven rubbed his head. "Did you thought about makeup or a purse?"

Dipper held in a laugh. "For Wendy, no way. I never saw her once with makeup or a girly purse."

"Wow, this is a toughie." Beethoven tapped his foot, then had an idea. "What about bad movies? You guys love making fun of them?"

"That's actually a great idea." Dipper rubbed his chin. "I think the 'We Sell Toys to Grown Adults' store has those movie packs of 'original' animated movies. Thanks."

"Anytime." Beethoven waved as Dipper contacted Jessica and the two dragged Mabel away right when she found pig stuff. "I really need to get out and understand myself more. Oh, I should write it down too."

Now they entered a store that sells movies, but for some reason has a lot of geek merchandise. "Great, cults go here too." Jessica said as she watches two men arguing about something involving horses, which led to a very embarrassing fight. "I actually feel bad for them, weird."

Dipper looked through the aisle of animated movies which lead to the anime section. "This could be a change of pace. Let's see …. How about this?" But when Dipper picked up the DVD case, he'd noticed the cover of it to be a bit … eye catching. "The heck is this?!"

"Don't question it, burn it."

Dipper looked to his left to see Kimmy staring at him. "I …. I was just browsing."

"I know, and …. Just avoid it please." Kimmy looked at a DVD. "This loser guy shares a house with beautiful girls who all like and hate him, and apparently that's a genre!" Kimmy slammed the case back. "Back in my day, we had censors …. O.K. those slapstick cartoons gotten away with some things, but that was just lightly."

"Your opinion is ruining the economy!"

Dipper and Kimmy jumped back as the pitiful excuse of a brawl just keeps getting worse. "And suddenly I now have full faith in my masculinity." Dipper and his ghostly friend slowly stepped away as the fighting kept getting more painful to watch.

So now the four friends are at the food court, enjoying a bite to eat (minus Kimmy).

"Are you sure you're not hungry?" Jessica asked the ghost. "Got an extra burger here."

"I'm fine." Kimmy said with no amusement. "So no idea what to get her yet, huh."

"We tried everything." Mabel answered. "And now it's almost closing and we're still confused. It's all hopeless."

"We've only been to three stores and there's four hours left before closing." Dipper added after swallowing a bite. "But we're still stuck. No exercise equipment, no minor similarity with her hobby, and there's a police investigation at that video store, what else haven't we tried?"

Jessica finished her burger and burped loudly, much to Kimmy's annoyance. "Well if you asked me, I say you were on to something with the wood junk and movies."

"Yep." Dipper said. "Something that's simple and not flashy."

"And it has to be about the power of friendship!" Mabel said as she quickly snaps a photo of the group. "Friendship!"

"People still use these?" Jessica said as she sees the photo coming in. "Hey, Kimmy. You look pretty weird in this, like you're a-"

"That's the perfect gift!" Kimmy immediately shouted, drawing Jessica's attention from the photo. "... Yep, around there somewhere." Kimmy said as the girl started sweating ghost water or something.

"There?' Mabel squinted her eyes. "All I see are GAAAAAASP! That's it!"

"Did you really have to say the word 'gasp' like that?" Kimmy said with her head resting on her arm as Jessica felt her ear.

"Yes, because that is so perfect!" Mabel grabbed Dipper's head to face him to the prize.

"O.K., I see that and ….."

"Boop." Mabel poked Dipper with her camera.

"Kimmy, you are a genius!"

"This is a friendship thing, hold down the blush. This is a friendship thing, hold down the blush."

But as Kimmy was about to speak, Jessica jumped in. "People still uses those too? Man I think you got yourself the perfect bait!"

"Dipper, this mission is …."

"Accomplished!" The two twins high-fived. "Now let's go get it!"

When the two ran to the object, Jessica sat a bit closer to Kimmy. "So ….. He's pretty good looking." Kimmy raised her eyes a bit at the tomboy. "Think he'll be interested in dinner?"

Kimmy rolled her eyes. "Was that line the only reason you wanted to tag along?"

"Eh, why not."

"Just end this now."

End of Chapter

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