Change of Identity (The Ruh-ruh-redux!)

Chapter 6 The Purple Smiley Face Sticker

"Dipper?"

Oh no.

No.

This was not happening.

My name sent shivers down my spine. Wendy...she recognized me. This wasn't gonna go over well. At all.

"What's...going on?" Wendy spoke slowly, as if she was in slow motion.

"I-I can explain..." I stuttered, scared. Nothing good could come out of his situation.

I shakily opened the journal, which I'd started to carry around everywhere, and started to find the page about the mushroom. To be honest, I myself hadn't looked at it. Out of some sort of creepy instinct, I could feel Mabel tensing up without even looking her way. Why would she be scared of me looking in the journal? I did it constantly.

And then I knew.

Because when I found the page, I saw it.

In the corner, there was a single purple smiley face sticker, one of Mabel's fruit scented ones.

My mind was reeling. Mabel was on this page. Of course she was, she'd been reading it when I first woke up after...the thing happened. She put a sticker on it. Of course she did, Mabel put stickers on everything. She ran out of those before the hike. I saw her throwing away the sheet before we left.

My mind had no logical explanation to respond to that.

Mabel had been on this page before we'd gone on that hike. She'd known about the mushroom before we'd found it. And worse, she hadn't stopped me from eating it. She hadn't even said anything.

Then it hit me.

She'd encouraged me to try it. To make sure it wasn't poisonous.

Mabel...

She'd known this would happen.

She'd wanted it to.

The journal fell to the floor, but I wasn't really conscious of it. Anger boiled in the back of my head, and I was taking very shallow breaths.

"I can explain-" Mabel started, but I cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it."

"Hey, I don't have an explanation yet..." Wendy said. "What's going on?"

"Well, why doesn't Mabel explain?" I fumed. "After all, it's her fault."

Then, Mabel replied.

And it was so un-Mabel-like of her that it hit me harder than it should have.

But it would've hit me hard anyway.

"Why doesn't Dipper explain?" She seethed. "After all, it's her problem."

I froze. If I'd had anything in my hands, it would be on the ground with the journal. I was on the verge of tears at this point.

Mabel seemed to realize what she'd said. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that!"

I glanced back at her. "Yes you did."

I stalked out of the room and heard her explaining to Wendy. Of course she was.

All I could do was go upstairs, fall into bed, and cry.

((Whoa! That was...something. I cried while writing this. Ugh.))