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billnoncipher · 7 years

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Fireworks at the Lake

(A story of mine on fanfiction.net that happens to fit the prompt “Fake Relationship” for Wendip Week)

Fireworks at the Lake

By William Easley

(July 4, 2014)

"Wendy," Manly Dan rumbled, "I want to talk to you."

Lounging on the sofa on the back porch of the Shack and nursing a Pitt Cola, Wendy glanced at her dad and immediately thought, Oh, shit! He had that you're-in-trouble look in his eye. But she forced a smile and said, "Sure, dad. Uh, you want another beer? I'll run and get you one—"

The Fourth of July barbecue was into its second phase, after the games had ended, before the sun sank low enough for people to head out to the lake for the fireworks. Manly Dan and the boys had showed up a little late, but he'd made up for that by eating five cheeseburgers, three barbecue sandwiches, a pound of fries, half of a ham, and a quart of coleslaw, along with four beers.

Now he climbed up onto the porch—it creaked—but then jerked his thumb at her and said, "Let's go somewhere more private."

They walked through the side yard and into the woods, just a few steps. The murmur and laughter of the ongoing Independence Day party at the Shack still came drifting on the sultry air. Wendy tried again: "If you want me to get you another beer, it won't take me a minute—"

He grabbed her arm before she could start toward the house. "Naw, I wanna know what you were doin' runnin' around kissin' every boy in sight."

"What?" she asked, blinking. "What gave you that idea? I haven't—"

Dan scowled down at her, making her feel about five years old. "You tellin' me you ain't kissed a boy?"

"When?"

"Today! When'd you think? You sayin' you ain't kissed no boys today?"

Wendy shook her head. "No, I'm not saying that—but it was just one, and it wasn't even—"

"Out in public?" Dan growled. He pounded one gloved hand against a small pine tree, which broke and fell over.

Wendy held up her hands. "Dad, please! Calm down, OK? Do you want to hear what happened? 'Cause I'll tell you if you'll just give me a chance!"

"Go ahead," Dan said. He snapped off the trunk of the pine tree he'd punched out—granted, it was only a young one, but it had been twelve feet tall already—and moodily broke the remainder of the trunk into smaller and smaller pieces.

With her gaze on the mutilated wood, Wendy said, "OK, I kissed Dipper Pines, right? Once, and on the cheek! And that was 'cause we'd just won the three-legged race!"

"Oh, just a little kid?" Dan asked, visibly relaxing. "Toby didn't say that. What is Dipper, nine?"

Wendy chuckled. "Little older than that, Dad. He's in high school now. But we won the race—"

"By how much?"

"I dunno. 'Bout fifteen, twenty feet ahead of second place. We were way out in front!"

Manly Dan actually laughed. "'Cause you dragged him along on the ground! You did, didn't you?"

"No. I didn't have to. Dipper's a pretty good runner, Dad. Don't you remember, him and me have been running together every morning?"

"Oh, yeah, trainin'. Didn't I hear he was a track star or something?"

"Yeah, down in California. State high-school JV champion in the hundred-meter sprint. We surprised everybody. Nate and Lee have won the three-legged race for the last two years, and we left them in the dust, man!"

Dan's face clouded. "But then you kissed him where people could see and all!"

"Dad," Wendy said, "I remember five or six years ago when in front of the whole crowd, you kissed Tyler Cutebiker at the Fourth of July games!"

"That was only 'cause we won the relay race!"

"Yeah, and you just won it 'cause you picked him up while he was still holdin' the baton and carried him and it both over the finish line! But you kissed him, and there was even a photo on the front page of the Gossiper!"

"That was different!"

"Well," Wendy said reasonably, "isn't this different?"

"No! This is the same!" Dan bellowed. "I was kissin' a teammate! You was kissin' a boy!"

"Who was my teammate!"

Dan blinked, processing that. "Oh, I kinda see what you're drivin' at. And you won by fifteen, twenty feet, huh?" Pride and anger warred in his face for possession.

"We whupped everybody," Wendy said with a grin, borrowing one of his words. "Just like you, Dad."

Pride seemed to win. Dan dusted all the splinters of the pine trunk off his hands. "Well. Glad you run such a good race, then. But I better not hear of that kinda behavior again."

"Stop talking to Tony Determined, then!"

"Toby."

"Whatever! Even if you call him Bodacious T, you can't believe everything he says. He's still a gossiper."

"He's on th' television! People on th' television don't tell lies."

"Dad!" Wendy said. "If you're going to believe people who love to tattletale instead of believing me—"

"Simmer down, baby girl. I believe you. For now. But don't you go kissin' on every boy you meet, you hear me? I don't trust your judgment. That guitar player, that Robbie Valentino, now—"

With a sigh, Wendy told him, "Robbie is old news, Dad. He's going with Tambry now."

"Yeah, I heard about them, too." He sounded angry.

"Well, they don't exactly hide it," Wendy said.

Dan sniffed and gave her a quizzical look. "Prob'ly shouldn't tell you this, might give you ideas. But you listen here." He dropped his voice to a confidential whisper: "Tambry's folks were goin' to a movie one night an' they got about fifteen minutes away from their house when Mrs. DiCicco realized she'd left her purse at home. So they drove back, and there set Robbie's car parked in the driveway. Her mom slipped inside quiet-like and caught them on the living room couch, and there wasn't no doubt about what they'd been up to, judging from what they weren't wearing."

Wendy felt her face getting hot. "Tambry never told me that," she admitted. "But you don't know the whole story, either, Dad. You'll hear the rest of it soon enough, so I might's well tell you. They're engaged, Robbie and Tambry. They're getting married as soon as they graduate next spring."

"Gives him no right to do what he done to her!" Manly Dan bellowed. "That coulda been you, baby girl! I don't want nobody tellin' me you have to get married 'cause of some boy doin' you like thataway!"

"Not gonna happen," Wendy assured him.

He grunted, and for a few seconds they were silent. Then he asked, "You goin' to the lake with us?"

"Nah, my boss offered me a ride out. Then he'll drop me off at our house after."

"Soos, you mean?"

"Sure. He's the manager."

"Not Stanley Pines?"

"No, Soos Alvarez. You know Soos, Dad. Married to Melody, they got the little boy?"

"And Dipper ain't goin' with you?"

She shrugged. "He and his sister will probably go over with Stanley and Stanford. Maybe they'll bring dates."

"They're too young for datin'!" Manly Dan said with great assurance.

"I think they're like sixty-seven or some deal," Wendy said.

Dan blinked. "Oh. I though you meant the little ones. Dipper an' what's-her-name."

"Mabel."

"Yeah, them."

"I don't know what plans they have," Wendy said. "I may run into them at the lake, or I may hook up with some of my friends there."

"Not Robbie Valentino! Nor Tambry DiCicco! They're bad influences!"

"OK, geeze, Dad, I may just hang with Mabel or something."

Dan sounded far from satisfied: "And I may check on you. Just to see who you're runnin' around with."

Which was pretty nearly exactly what Wendy figured. And dreaded.

Later that afternoon, up in the attic of the Shack, Dipper groaned, "Oh, man, I didn't know people were gonna make such a big deal out of one kiss! And it wasn't even—you know."

"No, it sure wasn't in our top ten, dude!" Wendy said with a grin.

She, Mabel, and Dipper were sitting on the floor of Dipper's room, away from the laughter and shouts and the sounds of eating out in the yard. "You got a top ten?" Mabel asked, her eyes wide. "Show me! Show me! Show me!"

"Nah," Wendy said. "We'd be a bad influence on you."

"I don't know about that," Dipper said. "Before now, I've heard suspicious sounds from around the corner and when I got there, I spotted Mabel and Teek in a clinch!"

Mabel wilted a little. "Won't happen today, though. Teek's not gonna be at the lake. His folks are driving over to Portland for the big waterfront fireworks show. He invited me, but after all the craziness that happened today with that dumb crystal ball, I gotta take a breather."

Wendy nudged her. "Well, Mabes, I told Dad I'd prob'ly hang with you at the lake, so there's that at least. If you even want to go, I mean."

"Yeah, I want to go! I love fireworks. Maybe we could go out on Soos's boat with him and Melody and Little Soos."

"Yeah," Wendy said.

"What's wrong?"

"Well . . . thing is," Wendy said, sounding moody, "I don't believe it's a real good idea for me an' Dipper to be seen together, even if we're in a group and chaperoned. Not with Dad on the warpath like he is right now. This summer I've already been in trouble with him because I was hangin' out at the Shack too much."

"I thought that had all blown over," Mabel said.

Wendy shrugged. "Kinda has. I worked out a way to make sure the wolves were all fed on time."

"You got wolves?" Mabel asked, her eyes bugging. "I've got pigs! Wolves and pigs—what's happening here? We totally have to get them together—"

"I don't think she means real wolves," Dipper said, his voice not sounding happy.

"No, dude, I meant my dad and brothers!" Wendy said.

"It's a metaphor," Dipper added.

Mabel tilted her head. "Like in poetry?"

Her brother sighed. "Yeah. Kinda."

Mabel turned to Wendy. "Oh, man—wait—your family's not werewolves, are they? 'Cause that would be so cool!"

"Not as far as I know," Wendy said, laughing. "Dad and the guys just eat like wolves. And smell like them too, most of the time. Anyhow, yeah, Dad ragged on me about not being home in time to clean and cook and all, but I worked out a schedule, and Dad agreed finally that I'm responsible enough now—Assistant Manager of the Shack an' all—so I deserve some free personal time. 'Cept he sneaks around and asks around about what I'm doin' and checks up on me!"

"Bummer," Mabel said. "Hey, Dip, what's wrong with you?"

Dipper had been leaning back against his bed, but he slumped forward now, arms wrapped around his bent knees, huddling as though gathered into himself. If he'd been wearing a sweater, he probably would have turtled into Sweater Town. "Aw, it's that I've been looking forward to seeing the fireworks with Wendy," he admitted. "Last year we saw them together, and it was special."

"First real kiss special," Wendy said.

"Ooohhh!" Mabel murmured. "That's why Dipper wrote on the Fourth of July in English class when we had to do a 'My Favorite Holiday' essay!"

"You did? That's sweet, dude," Wendy said, reaching out to rub Dipper's back.

He leaned against her. "Yeah, but—if we can't even see each other tonight. . . I mean, it's kind of an anniversary and all."

Mabel said, "Fear not, Broseph! The course of true love won't stumble over its own feet and fall over like a tree Manly Dan has chopped off at the roots! We'll come up with a plan!" She booped Dipper. "Now, those were metaphors!"

"You hate making plans," Dipper pointed out. "You make fun of Mom and me all the time because we always make plans!"

"Exceptions prove the rule! Let me think, let me think—hey, Brobro, can I chew on a thinking pen?"

"They're in the cup on the table," Dipper said. "Help yourself."

Mabel not only chewed on it meditatively, she gnawed it. Then she giggled. "Ink! Blaarrgggh!" She stuck out a purple tongue. "Okay, that helped. Maybe we can find a way to get you two together for your anniversary. But you're gonna owe me if I can pull it off."

"Sure, whatever," Wendy said.

"Better hear her out before we agree to anything," Dipper cautioned.

Manly Dan drove the boys to the lake as the sun was going down. Half the town was already there, and the other half were coming in. He wandered through the crowd—easy because he was a crowd on his own, and he towered above everybody else on the beach—and watched families spreading beach towels and tablecloths or setting up folding chairs for the big fireworks display.

The fireworks team had already set up out on Scuttlebutt Island, and this year they had put out a line of red-blinking buoys to keep boaters at a safe distance. The previous year one family had ventured a little too close, and a dud skyrocket had flopped down onto the deck of their cabin cruiser before exploding. It hadn't done serious damage or hurt anybody, but the four people aboard, dad and mom and two kids, had jumped into the lake and had to be fished out.

Meandering, Dan saw the McGuckets and spoke to them—Old Man McGucket, tidier than he'd been in the old days, was actually making sense for a change—and then he spotted Tats, recognizable by his head and chin tattoos, who asked him, "You workin' tomorrow?"

"Naw, layin' off after the holiday," Dan said. "Whatcha got?"

"All-night poker game, you want in. Do you?"

"Sure," Dan said.

"Awright. Back room of the Skull Fracture, eleven o'clock."

"Who else?" Dan asked.

"Blubs an' Durland, Stan Pines, Roadhog, Chains, Ghost Eyes, so far."

Dan laughed. "Well, we'll take a few bucks off of Blubs and Durland, anyhow! See you there. Want me to bring anything?"

"Snacks if you want. Got the beer covered."

"Good enough."

Dan said hello to Mayor Cutebiker, to Lazy Susan, and a few others. But he was looking for a tall redheaded girl, and he'd better not see her in with a bunch of guys. Or else.

Twilight started to come on and deepened into dusk, and then Dan heard a distant but familiar laugh. It came from the docks.

He walked through the crowd, then around past the ranger station. By the time he got there, the sky was darkening and the first stars were just visible. He saw two figures sitting really close together on the edge of one of the piers, their feet swinging.

They didn't look around as he went toward them, though for a man of Dan's size, there was no way to keep his big feet from clomping on the wood. He stopped behind the two. "Wendy."

She leaned on one arm and turned around. "Oh, hey, Dad."

"You behavin'?"

"Yeah. Me an' Mabel are just hangin' here 'cause it's a good dark place to see the fireworks from. Wanna join us?"

Now Dan recognized the girl sitting beside his daughter—the pink headband, the long brown hair cascading down her back, the sort of goofy grin. She was wearing a red T-shirt and shorts, and she waved at him. "Mavis," Dan said.

"Mabel," the girl corrected.

"Oh, yeah. Uh. So where's your brother?"

Mabel pointed out toward the lake. "Soos's boat."

"So why ain't you with them?"

She shrugged. "I get seasick."

"It's a lake."

"Lakesick. Blarrrggg!" She mimicked vomiting.

"Okay," Dan said. "You girls be careful an' don't fall off the dock!"

"It's like three feet deep down there," Wendy said. "But, yeah, we'll be careful."

"Might take the boys out in th' rowboat," Dan said. "Well—I'll be home late, Wendy. You make sure everything's locked up."

"Will do. Have a good time, Dad."

Dan turned and walked away through the gathering darkness.

"Wow."

Wendy laughed. "I know, right? You know what he's gonna do now. He's gonna take the boat out and hunt up Soos's boat and make sure Dipper's aboard."

"He sure doesn't trust you."

"Oh, I dunno. It's not that so much as it is that when Dad gets an idea in his head, it's stuck there." Wendy pointed. "Uh-huh, there he goes with the boys."

It was getting hard to see, but you could make out the rowboat heading out from the far side of the ranger station. The tall, bulky figure at the oars was definitely Manly Dan. And sure enough, he did head toward Soos's boat, which had been repaired since the Gobblewonker expedition—if by "repaired" you meant that Soos had acquired another second-hand boat and had put the steering wheel from his old one on it.

A single rocket streaked up from Scuttlebutt Island and exploded, signaling the beginning of the fireworks show. Then more joined it.

"There they go," Wendy said. "Come here."

It lasted maybe ten or fifteen seconds. When they pulled apart, Wendy murmured, "Mm. Wow! Tambry an' I used to practice kissing for when we'd start dating guys, but I never French-kissed a girl before. I think I like it!"

"Aw—"

Wendy reached out for a tight embrace. "Come here, Mabes. I want me some more of that!"

Dan pulled up alongside Soos's boat. "Hiya," he said.

On the boat, Stan Pines leaned on the rail and said, "Hiya, Dan. How's it hangin'?"

"Fine, fine. See ya at the game tonight."

"Oh, yeah. I'll be there."

"That, uh, that your nephew over there?"

"Huh? Yeah, Dipper, come an' say hi to Manly Dan."

The kid came to the rail. In the light from the exploding rockets, Dan saw it was Dipper Pines, all right—pine-tree hat, red shirt and blue vest, the whole nine yards. "You're gettin' tall," Dan said.

Dipper shrugged. "Never match you, sir," he said.

"Listen, I, uh, heard you an' Wendy done good in the games."

"Three-legged race."

"Yeah. Congratulations. You, uh, kissed her, didn't ya?"

"She kissed me. On the cheek!"

"Yeah, well—you gotta realize not to do that in public to girls. Ruin their reputation."

Stan laughed. "That's a good one, Dan! Hah! Ya don't have to worry about Dipper—he's still scared of girls! Right, Dip?"

The kid looked down at his feet. "Aw, Grunkle Stan!"

"Good seein' ya," Dan said.

He rowed for a better vantage point and relaxed to watch the fireworks.

He felt a lot better now. Wendy and Dipper Pines—what a laugh! Why the kid's voice hadn't even broken yet.

While his boys yelled with enthusiasm at the rockets and Roman candles and bursts of stars, Dan smiled gently, reminiscing. All those flashing lights reminded him pleasantly of the times in the woods when he'd misjudged and a limb or a whole tree had whopped him in the head.

Really took him back.

Wendy was giggling. "Come on, Mabel, kiss me again!"

"No way! Not until I take this off!" Dipper reached under the shirt and struggled with the sports bra until Wendy had him turn away so she could unhook it. He had to shrug out of the shirt sleeves to get the straps off, and then he pulled the wig off his head. "I felt so silly!"

"Good thing that Mabel had that." Wendy picked it up and stroked it as though it were some kind of long-haired animal. "Why'd she even buy a Mabel wig, anyhow?"

Dipper tugged his shirt back down. "For those school mornings when 'five more minutes' turns into half an hour in bed and she doesn't have time to get her hair ready. Think she looked enough like me?"

"Oh, yeah, man," Wendy said. "With her hair tucked down the back of her collar and your hat and clothes on—yeah, in this light she'd fool anybody."

Dipper sighed happily. "Well, at least we got our anniversary."

Wendy dropped the wig to the pier beside her and said wickedly, "It's not over yet, dude."

As if to underscore that, fireworks lit up the sky.

"Want to see what it's like kissing a boy this time?" Dipper said. "I've just popped a peppermint!"

She pulled him tight against her. "Oh, dude, I thought you'd never ask."

The End

#wendip-week #Gravity Falls #Mabel Pines #Wendy Corduroy #wendyxmabel #Dipper Pines #wendyxdipper #Manly Dan #wendip #William Easley

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