The Lemon Meringue Boy

Part 5

During the drive, me and Mabel played cards, Bus Seat treasure Hunt, License Plates, the Alphabet Game, and I Spy. Mabel gnawed through two sleeves of Chipackers and Waddles got one. That left one for me. Finally, Mabel fell into a food coma. Or just a regular coma. Or maybe she just went to sleep. Either way, I got some time to myself. 

I flipped open my copy of When Science Gets Smart and quietly tore open the last sleeve of crackers. As I read my mind started to wander. The words started to blur and I slowly lost communicability. All sound faded out as I drifted off.

I was awoken by a shrill screech as the bus came to a halt. I woke up Mabel and we found Waddles attempting to forage an old woman's lunch out of a brown bag. Luckily the woman was sleeping. I yanked him away before he did any noticeable damage.

 I was still trying to wake myself up as we walked down the aisle. When we reached the front the Baconater shot me a look that was both mean and hopeful.

"This is our stop. Thank you for your understanding sir." I said as politely sarcastic as I could muster.

"No, thank you for your business." There was a drawn out icy silence as we glared at each other. You could cut the tension with a knife. Mabel suddenly shoved between us and gave Baconater a big hug.

"Thank you soooo much mister!!!" she squealed like an eight year old. Baconater blushed and ruffled her hair.

"Anytime, kid. Best wishes for you." He turned back to the wheel and Mabel skipped off the bus. I just stood there in astonishment, still reeling from that scene. Mabel grabbed me by the sleeve and yanked me off the bus.

"How in the-"

"I have my ways. I'm difficult to hate." She had a point so I left her snake-charming abilities alone. We had bigger fish to fry. Don't ask me why, but our bus somehow found the one stop that is in the absolute middle of nowhere. 

I estimated about a... two day walk before we got to any kind of civilization. I put up my hand to shield my eyes from the glare of the summer sun glinting through the pine. I squinted my eyes and my vision focused on something rustling in the shrubs.

"Mabel, don't freak out, but I think there is some giant, ravenous beast monitoring our every move." I whispered. You could say I was being paranoid but hey, in these woods you can never be too careful. Suddenly the thing burst out of the brush and attacked. It was even worse than I could have ever imagined.

"SURPRIIIIIIISE!!!!!!!!!!!" bellowed Candy and Grenda as they swooped in and lifted Mabel off the ground in a bear hug. 

"Grenda saw a bus and we started chasing it like we have all day! And this time it was yours!" Candy ecstatically enlightened us. "When we saw you here we wanted to do the big surprise!"

"We hid here for like, twenty minutes!" Grenda chimed in. 

"I thought your bus got attacked by gremlins or something! It's been happening!" That caught my attention, mainly because we were stranded in the woods and were made of meat. If you haven't noticed that is bad when gremlins are around.

"In that case it is extremely important that we get out of these woods pretty much as fast as humanly possible. Which way to the shack?" I asked, my gaze flicking to Candy then Grenda. They looked at each other in confusion.

"We thought that you knew." Candy said, oblivious to my absolute shock.

"Why in the world would we know?! You guys were the ones that ran here from, you know, anywhere near actual people!"

"I wasn't really paying attention... we ran pretty fast. Trees look similar when they're all blurred." Grenda chipped in.

"Great. GREAT. Ok, so let's take a vote. Who says we should head... that way?" I said pointing and rubbing my temples. I ended up with a majority vote of three. Nobody else knew where to go and were eager for any kind of direction, probably thinking I had some reason for pointing in the random direction that I did. I didn't.

 We started walking and Mabel and her squad started chatting up a storm, catching up, even though they video chatted pretty much every day over the school year. Like learning that Grenda attended an Austrian preparatory school over video chat didn't count. 

They were screaming and giggling like some space boyband came to earth and gave them each ten million dollars and a hundred puppies. I just kept myself ahead of them and tried to muffle their reunion with my vest. Personally, I just wished a gang of gremlins would jump out right then and put me out of my misery.

 Suddenly, the brush started swishing about ahead of us for the second time that day. I almost freaked out, but luckily Wendy stepped out of the leaves before I threw something at her.

"Yo! Dipper! Mabel! The whole crew's been looking everywhere for you guys! Let me guess, you got dropped off at the stop up there?" she said, glaring up the way we came. "Yeah, we're always losing tourists to that dumb thing. Don't ask what they were thinking when the city put that in." She looked back down at us. 

"Anywho, I can take you to the shack. The admission is...hmm... one cracker!" she swooped down and stole a Chipacker from my stash, popping it in her mouth. 

"Kay dorks, lets hit the road... path... ground. No don't hit the ground, just walk." I laughed and started to follow Wendy through the trees. Thankfully, she laid down a strict "No talking until we get there" policy, which let me enjoy the chirping of the birds and the smell of the pines.