A Strike of Luck

Bleary eyes blinked opened slowly and a particular raven haired girl sat up, or tied to with a groan. It felt like something heavy was on her stomach. Had she eaten to much the previous day?

Glancing down found an answer to her question.

"What." She complained.

An exasperated sigh escaped her lips as she saw a pink lump draped over her stomach.

"Waddles really? Dude, I know I needed to get up but that's not how you do it." She slowly got up, cradling him in the blanket in the process. Why was he so fond of her...

She carried the ball over to the end of the pink bed in the room, "Sorry Mabel." She whispered before plopping the pig onto the end of her bed, still with the blanket. Then, she left the room and wandered downstairs.

"Morning Mr Pines." Dani said upon entering the gift shop.

"Morning kid. Wanna help?" He asked, momentarily taking his eyes off counting some money.

Well, what was the harm?

"Kay, just let me get dressed and junk."

He nodded so Dani trudged back to the attic. Barely ten minutes later, she was back downstairs, ready to help.

"Can you man the till with me? If you do a good job, there's twenty bucks with your name it."

"Twenty!" The girl jumped up with anticipation and shock.

"You surprised because the twins keep telling ya I'm a miser?"

Dani backed down and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, "...Kinda."

"Well they're not wrong. But, you're a visitor who needs it. I can see you're in need of your own outfit." He chuckled.

"Thanks Mr Pines." She smiled brightly at him. Wait... did he just diss her?

"Well remember you still need to earn it. I'll show you how to use the till."

...

-35 Minutes Later-

"Hey Grunkle Stan, and Dani too." Dipper said upon spotting the two in the Gift Shop.

"'Sup."

"Morning."

The brunette headed towards them at the counter and glanced around. It wasn't unusual for the gift shop to be empty during the first hour of opening. Occasionally there would be a person or two looking for something in particular or needing something asap but that would be about it. The people generally started coming in around the second or third hour.

"So, anyone come in yet?" Dipper asked just in case.

"Not yet, but soon!" Grunkle Stan declared confidently.

The tween glanced at Dani who could only shrug in response before returning to look at a pamphlet. Curiously, Dipper joined her side to ask what she was reading about.

"It's about native Gravity Falls wildlife, I kinda want to check out the forest at some point seeing as though you and Mabel never showed me."

He tensed slightly. There was a reason for that. The forest was the part of Gravity Falls that basically housed all the Supernatural beings and objects. So, not the best idea.

"Uh yeah, the forest is actually pretty boring and it's really hard to find anything." Dipper explained as casually as possible.

"Yet you and Mabel go almost every day." Grunkle Stan pointed out and the boy felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead.

Dani glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow so he coughed nervously and hoped for a distraction. Fortunately, the bell above the Mystery Shack door rang at that moment and Dani shook her head, disregarding what Stan said to go back to reading.

He hoped she wouldn't ask later...

...

-2 Hours Later-

"Bro bro whats up?"

"Nothing." Dipper huffed and continue to sweep at the gift shop floor.

"It doesn't look like nothing, you're pulling the serious face that happens when you're thinking hard about something." She stated and attempted to do an impression of him before bursting out laughing.

"Alright, its about Dani. She wants to go to the forest soon and I don't know how to dissuade her."

"Well, you don't really have to."

Dipper pulled a confused face and motioned for her to explain.

Mabel shook her head and smiled, "We could just go with her and steer her away from the supernatural junk silly."

The boy considered the idea for a moment. He sister made a good point, why hadn't he thought of that. He'd have to ask Dani about them joining her when she returned from the mall. The girl had decided to go by herself much to the dismay of Mabel who was begging to help her pick out clothes. Dipper couldn't blame her though, she and his sister seemed to have very different styles.

"Hey Dipper, you and Mabel set to go?" A new voice asked.

"Ah!" His body went rigid and he spun in panic to see who spoke.

"Oh, hi Wendy." He rubbed his neck embarrassed.

"Wow, I'm getting good at scaring you Dipper." She commented with a cheeky grin.

"You're just catching me when I'm concentrating on something." He explained nervously.

"Eh." She shrugged her shoulders, "So you didn't answer my question."

"Right. We're waiting for Dani, she had to go buy some stuff."

The ginger teen folded her arms, "Do you know how long she'll be?"

Dipper grabbed a nearby clock and read the time. "Well it's 10:20 now, she left about an hour ago so she'll probably be back soon."

"Boom I'm back."

Turning around, Dipper watched unbelievingly as Dani dropped her shopping bag behind the counter and joined the group.

"Huh." The tween mumbled befuddled. Why was everything conveniently happening like that today?

"You guys ready for a day that will blow your mind?!" Wendy exclaimed, lowering her voice for effect.

"Um...Yes?" Dani asked unsurely.

"Awesome then let's go!" Wendy shouted pumping a fist in the air and running out the shack with the kids in tow. As they made it outside, the teens were seen waiting by the van conversing animatedly.

"Hey dudes, I got them." Wendy stated to her friends.

"Woo! It's Doctor Fun times and Party girl!" Lee hooted excitedly.

"But who's the new girl?" Nate asked while nudging his friend in the side and squinting at Dani.

"Guys, this is Dani, she's staying at the Mystery Shack for a little bit."

"Wait a minute! I remember you from the arcade!" Lee said with a grin.

"But is she cool?" Tambry remarked.

"Yeah newbie, what can you do?" Robbie inquired, joining his girlfriend's side.

Dani crossed her arms with a passive expression, "Well I'm 13, therefore a teenager, and-"

"Wait you're a teen?" Lee interjected and Dani slowly nodded.

"Then that's good enough!"

The twins and Dani stared at him in confusion.

"Well, okay not exactly. As a teen you get a day trial and if you can prove yourself worthy, you can stay!" Nate explained.

Dipper becomes surprised when Dani smirks slightly. She seemed to mutter something under her breath and he can't help but feel that she gets weirder and weirder every day.

"Anyway," Wendy started with a clap of her hands, effectively taking the boy out of his thoughts, "Let's get going, I have to get back at 2."

"Boo, deadlines suck!" Someone announced as the group all started loading into the vehicle. The twins ended up in the back again and this time, because Robbie opted for sitting with Tambry, Dani sat shotgun.

"Are we going somewhere fun!" Mabel shouted with a big grin.

"You'll know when we get there!"

"Awesome!", She faced her twin, "So, Dip-Dop any ideas?" She whispered.

"Um, about where we're going? No, not really."

"I'm thinking maybe a party, or a picnic, or the graveyard again!"

"You guys have hung out in a graveyard before?" Dani asked from the front. A smirk was briefly visible on her face and Dipper noticed it in the rear-view mirror.

Weird...

Everyone started babbling their own explanations and Dani raised an eyebrow at what they all said.

"So, basically you hung out in a graveyard because it was fun?"

"Yeah!"

"And here we are!" Lee declared proudly while stretching his legs as he stood in front of the now parked van. The rest of the group were quick to pile out after him.

"Bowling?" Dani uttered incredulously.

"Yeah, come on it will be fun."

She rolled her eyes, "If you say so."

The teens and two tweens trudged towards the building in separate groups. Robbie and Tambry were obviously together; Lee and Nate were, like Siamese twins, forever side by side; Mabel and Wendy were chatting about something or other while Thompson, as per usual, was trailing behind. Surprisingly to Dipper, Dani followed at the very back and because he was curious, he decided to walk with her.

"Do you really not like bowling?" He asked quietly.

Dani shrugged, "Meh, it can go either way depending on who you're playing with. I don't know much about Wendy's crew but they seem like your generic 'cool kids' so hopefully this will be a riot." She smiled a little.

"Yeah, but hopefully not too crazy. Sometimes these guys do go a bit overboard."

Dipper remembered a time when we were kicked out of Lazer Tag because the teens were getting way too into the whole thing and ended up scaring a group of little kids.

"I can imagine."

The 9 kids came up to the doors and made their way inside up to the desk where they collected their bowling shoes. A moment of confusion occurred when Thompson took off his original shoes only to reveal half a waffle inside but in the end, the group got to their lanes without any more hassle and began to assemble their teams.

"We're gonna mix things up!" Nate announced.

"Here's the teams!" Lee exclaimed and flung his arms at the two screens above.

Team 1 featured:

Lee

Tambry

Mabel

Dani

Team 2 featured:

Nate

Robbie

Wendy

Dipper

Thompson opted to not participate, mumbling incoherently about never wanting to be the ball again. The group asked why he decided to get shoes but he responded that he could never be too careful around them.

The first member of each team grabbed their ball and stood at the ready at their top of their respective lanes.

Mabel suddenly jumped in between them and shouted, "On your marks! Get set! Go!"

"Mabel, this isn't a race." Dipper called out with smile and a shake of his head.

"Or it could be." She countered with enthusiasm before smiling confidently, "But either way, your team's going down bro-bro."

He glowered jokingly and outstretched a hand, "I accept your challenge."

Mabel took his hand and shook it then the pair turned simultaneously and marched back to our seats. Dani looked at them disbelievingly but the twins simply shrugged in response.

"STRIKE!" the TV to Dipper's left announced causing him to frown as Lee returned defeated while Nate whooped back to his applauding team.

The tween looked back between his sister and Dani and huffed at their smirks.

Now it was definitely on.

"WOO! strike one for the Mabester!" The more energetic twin cheered and whooped in triumph at her victory. While she walked past, Dani gave her a high-five and as she moved away, Dipper was standing there watching the Halfa with a smirk.

"You ready to go?" He taunted cockily.

"Ready whenever you are." The Halfa snapped back with her hands on her hips.

The two approached their lanes and each picked a ball. Dipper raised an eyebrow in surprise as Dani hefted one of the heavier balls.

"Lightweight." She mouthed to him then got prepared to throw.

'And a one, and a two, and a-'

The bowling ball landed gracefully on the lane and powered down towards the pins. she realised she was probably far too confident but it payed off when the green blur crashed into the pins and knocked every single one down in one hit.

"Yes!" She closed her eyes and pumped a fist happily into the air. Unfortunately for her, this happiness was short-lived because Dipper cleared his throat expectantly and when the Halfa's eyes opened, she was quick to discover he had also achieved a strike.

Once again, the girl's competitive side flared up. She pointed from her eyes to Dipper's with a scowl then slunk away to the end of her line.

'It's on for real.'

After an hour and a half long game, finally, there was one go left. As the teams were currently tied in points, the collective group concluded that the best scoring team members should face off.

This just so happened to be Dipper and Dani.

"Oh come on, she got a strike nearly every single go!" Dipper whined.

"Yes, nearly every single go. You still have a chance to win Captain Fun Times." Lee reminded him.

The tween pulled a face, "I thought it was Doctor Fun Times?"

"Well if you win, you've been promoted."

A look of determination set on Dipper's face immediately and he strode up to the lane beside Dani with a newfound confidence.

"Ready to get beaten?" She taunted.

"I'd like to see you try." He sneered back.

"Come on Dipper! You can do it bro!" Team two called out.

"Dani! Dani! Dani! Dani!" Team one cheered.

The pair gave eachother one final glare before the balls skidded down their paths, crashed into the pins and-

"Ooooh, bad luck Pines."

...

"So, because you won it for the team. You get to decide what we do now!" Nate stated to a proud Dani as the group stood outside the building.

She tapped a finger against her chin in thought before coming up with an answer.

"Um, well I've been around town already but I was never shown the forest?" She replied unsure about her question. Would they even be interested or would they think of it as somewhere boring?

The fact that the group paused and stared at her made her expect the latter and she was ready to play it as a joke until Lee suddenly shouted out, "Woo! Let's party in the forest!"

The rest of the older teens cheered in approval and Robbie mentioned going to his house for supplies.

Dani smiled beside herself and exhaled with relief as they all started to head off with her following closely behind. The twins joined her.

"So, once again that was awesome how you beat Dipper!"

"Mabel, I'm right here."

Dani chuckled, "Thanks, but Dipper you did pretty good too." She pointed out to make him feel better.

"Eh, well you can't win 'em all...I'm talking about me by the way."

The ravenette raised an eyebrow, "You win a lot? Well I guess that explains your competitiveness."

"...Thanks." He monotoned, causing the girls to laugh lightly.

Dani patted him on the back, "But that was really fun though by the way. You were a great rival." She smirked.

"Well, thank you for real...And congrats...By the way, what exactly are you planning on doing in the forest with everyone? I don't expect them to want to look at the wildlife."

"Oh I know, I'm still going another time it's just that the forest is away from people so we can do whatever really."

Dipper cringed slightly, "Oh, okay."

The trio continued to talk as they got back into the van and the group sped away to the next destination.

Hopefully this wouldn't end badly.

"Heads up!" Dani ducked quickly as a water balloon sailed over my head.

"Jeeze!" She yelped as she regained her composure, "Where the heck did that come from?!"

The Halfa looked around confused until her eyes locked onto that one guy wearing the black hoodie with the broken red heart on it. He sheepishly carried a crate of water balloons and grinned apologetically at the girl.

"Oooooh! Everyone grab some!" Nate shouted.

And Wendy hooted and declared, "Water balloon fight!"