Sun and Fun

Yes!"

Dani hooted triumphantly as her balloon hit it's target.

"Oh come on." Robbie replied as water dripped from his clothes.

"That's what you get for throwing one at me." She laughed back and he ultimately did too.

Suddenly a funny sensation came over her and she jerked forward before looking down at her now soaking wet arms.

"What the-"

She picked up the sound of a particular laugh behind her and recognised who it was immediately.

"Dipper."

"And that's for beating me at bowling!" He exclaimed before running off. He narrowly dodged the onslaught of projectiles flying past him as everyone else threw their balloons at each other, much to Dani's annoyance.

Well it looked like she'd have to give chase.

Naturally, the Halfa too managed to weave her way through the water maze until she got to the other side where Dipper was frowning and panting.

"Wow, I can't believe you actually got through that without getting hit!"

Dani raised an eyebrow, "You did it." She pointed out.

"Yeah but I'm like, noodle bones so- HEY!"

As they both looked down at his arms, the girl took the opportunity to sling a water balloon right into his chest.

He frowned up at her as she smiled innocently.

"Hey guys, you know we're just aimlessly throwing water at each other right?" Tambry suddenly said from the rock she was sat on not too far away. She really needed to do something other than look at her phone.

"Well, we can just get into our teams again and have a proper fight can't we?" Robbie suggested causing most to nod in agreement.

"This all stup-" Tambry was suddenly cut off.

"Boosh!" Robbie had poured some of the water from a balloon down his girlfriend's back. Said girlfriend proceeded to yelp and jump up in shock. After a moment where everyone held their breath, she carefully placed her phone on the rock and turned to glower at Robbie.

Everyone else froze, worried about what would happen next, but Tambry smirked, threw a random water balloon in his face and challenged him to a fight. The pair began laughing so the others joined in, got into their groups and began the battle.

"Water dodgeball!" Robbie cried out enthusiastically.

...

Colours rapidly shot through the trees and water splashed around everywhere. Surprisingly enough, hardly anyone had been hit.

"Ahh man." Lee groaned in sadness after a projectile got him. Well, there was someone.

Nate paused to laugh at him but in turn got wrecked by an onslaught of hits from Lee's team.

"Ha, teamwork!" Mabel stated, giving Dani a fist bump.

"Man, this is awesome!" The ravenette cheered.

"We can make it even cooler!" the bubbly one giggled before standing on a nearby rock, "Hey everyone! Ceasefire!" She shouted and all attention turned to her.

"Guys, it's that time!"

'That time?' Dani wondered. What was she talking about?

As if to answer the girl's question, the teens started snickering and snapped their heads towards Thompson who appeared to be shaking.

"It's dare time!" Lee announced.

"Yeah," Robbie confirmed, "You have to uh... Jump in a pile of custard filled balloons!"

Thompson looked uneasily at everyone, "Er, I don't-"

Wendy rolled her eyes, "Come on. Thompson! Thompson!"

Her cheers triggered the others to join in, "Thompson! Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!" The teens were chanting and the twins joined in too.

"Anything for you guys!" He suddenly screamed startling Dani. Seemed he was crazy loyal.

"But where are we gonna get custard filled balloons from?" The younger teen blurted out after a moment.

Robbie smirked deviously, "I kinda brought a whole load with me in case you guys wanted to up the risk but, this is a better way to use them." He looked at Dani, "Wanna help?"

"Eh, alright." She shrugged.

Robbie led the girl to the water balloon crate where they gathered the custard ones, brought them back and set them in a pile.

Thompson prepared himself as everyone continued to egg him on.

"Alright, three, two, ONE!" He prepped himself and dove head first into the pile. The custard splattered around, narrowly missing the rest of the group before he emerged yellow from head to toe.

The applause started up after a moment of deliberation and then everyone fired regular water balloons at him.

The games started up again.

"Woo! Striker strikes again!" Lee hooted from the side-lines as Dani took out Wendy.

"Striker?" She called at him questionably while dodging balloons.

"Yeah! That's your nickname now!"

The Halfa felt a swell of pride in her chest and nodded approvingly at the gangly blonde, a wide smile on her face. The older teen turned his attention to other players while Dani hefted another balloon.

The girl lined up her shot and went to throw at Dipper when she had to stop suddenly.

Her forehead fired up for a moment.

"Whoa." She touched the pain spot for a moment and stumble back slightly. Her vision blurred for a second before things came back into focus.

What the hell was that?

"Hey, kid are you okay?"

Dani looked to the left to see Robbie glancing at her.

"Y-yeah I'm good. It's just a little hot today." she stuttered in response, swallowing the urge to vomit and flapping a hand in front of her face.

"This'll help." He said before a water balloon hit her square in the face and the Gothic boy clutched his stomach laughing.

Dani's eyes became slits.

"Sorry kid, looks like you're out so you can sit down and chill at least." He continued laughing but quickly jumped up to dodge a balloon from Mabel.

The young teen stomped away, her fists clenched at her sides. Only a little grateful that she could sit down. She sat with Lee and Tambry on a log, watching as Mabel fought on against Robbie and her brother, who was a heck of a lot better at dodging than throwing. Dani felt a little silly for actually even getting hit by a water balloon from him before.

Another wave of nausea briefly took her breath away. Hang on, what was it the doctor said? 'Not too much exercise' or something? Dani had figured her ghost healing would've fixed her by now then...unless the damage was actually worse than she thought.

She inhaled sharply at that thought and held her breath for a moment with a frown.

"Robbie, you're out!"

Dani snapped her sights back to the game. She wished she'd been paying attention but at least she got to see as Mabel threw a very precise projectile into Dipper's chest causing him to fall over.

"Another win for us!" Dani cheered from the log, pumping her fist into the air somewhat weakly.

The group all came back together in a circle and Dani took a deep breath before standing up to join them. She had to steady herself as she stood as her balance was a little off.

"What are we gonna do now?" Tambry asked as Dani joined them.

"First what's the time?" Wendy questioned.

Dipper stuck an arm out and glanced at a watch Dani hadn't noticed before. "It's about 1:40."

"Oh damn, I have to get back soon." Wendy groaned.

The group collectively sighed dejectedly before everyone agreed it was time to start leaving. They'd been out for more than a few hours at that point.

Once everyone had loaded back into the van, Tambry suddenly spoke again, "Today was fun, Dani should totally hang out with us again." She said, surprising the others.

They all agreed and praised her words. Except for Dipper, who pouted slightly. Approval from the toughest person to get attention from in the group was sure to leave anyone on a high.

And Dani was smiling all the way back to the way back to the Mystery Shack.

The following day was Dani's fourth day in town. And it felt good. The girl had had such a great experience so far...She had to admit, her eventual departure, fairly soon as well she expected, would definitely leave her feeling quite sad.

Maybe it was because instead of sleeping on the streets, she actually had somewhere to stay here. And she was constantly in the company of nice people.

Dani sighed in content and lay back further on her beanbag. It wasn't morning, it was actually around noon but she had gone up to the attic to relax a little. She'd been helping about in the Gift shop all morning, with the twins this time. Even though it was work, Dani found herself enjoying it. But yeah, it was kinda tiring.

A smile formed on my lips as she got even more comfortable on the beanbag.

Nothing could ruin this.

"Dani! Come downstairs! The doctor's here to see you!"

Damn.