Ghost in the Falls

Chapter 3

"So what do we do now?" asked Danny, wondering if the others knew about something fun to do in Gravity Falls.

"What about swimming?" Mabel said. "There's a creepy lake in the woods-"

Dipper interrupted her: "That lake's gross, not creepy." He shuddered slightly, imagining what it would be like to swim in the lake.

"Do what you want to. I'm not joining in," said Jazz, still annoyed at being called a kid.

"Swimming it is!" cheered Mabel before anyone could argue. "Let's go get our swimming stuff." Mabel ran towards the Mystery Shack, with the others following behind at a slower pace. Dipper wanted to go back to the  'Dusk 2 Dawn', but had decided it was better to stay with Mabel, and stop her from doing anything stupid. As the shack came into view Jazz broke into a sprint, trying to reach the safe haven of her room, away from ghost nonsense. "Hey," yelled Danny, as he dashed after her. Dipper made an attempt to keep up with the running trio, panting between his shouts of "wait for me!"

Bursting into their room, Danny and Jazz immediately sat down on their bed and began panting. "Not bad Danny," said Jazz. "Who knew you could run?"

Danny laughed at this, and gave her a quick glare, before grabbing his bag full of stuff from under his bed and digging around for his swimming stuff. A very sweaty and out of breath Dipper passed by the doorway, as Danny found his swimming shorts and top. 

Danny went to the bathroom, and got changed into his swimming shorts, and a top made from the same material as his shorts. The top was quite baggy, this helped to conceal the fact that Danny was a lot more muscular than he seemed. He had gained a decent amount of muscle from ghost fighting, but had to act like a wimp to avoid drawing suspicion to himself. 

As he left the bathroom, Mabel ran to it, wearing a bright purple swimming costume, Dipper standing a bit behind her, wearing swimming shorts. Mabel looked slightly disappointed when she saw Danny. "Did I do something wrong?" asked Danny.

"No," replied Dipper, slightly annoyed. "She just wanted to see you shirtless. I swear that's the only reason she wants to go swimming, she thinks you're..." He got quieter and trailed off at the last part, and Danny burst into laughter.'This is a first,'  he thought, most people just saw him as a wimpy nerd. 

The trio walked through the forest of evergreens, Mabel enthusiastically bashing plants out of the way with a large stick. "There it is!" shouted Mabel, pointing to a swamp-like lake, with pond weed all across the surface, floating on a gross green-brown liquid. 

"Is this stuff safe to swim in?" asked Dipper, prodding the surface of the lake with a stick, looking ready to barf at any moment.

"Of course it is, Dipstick," commented Mabel as she gave him a shove into the lake, where he landed with a sickening mix between a squelch and a splash. In an attempt to spare Dipper the embarrassment of being the only one covered in slime, Danny got a running start and grabbed Mabel as he went, flinging them both into the broth. Mabel let out a slight squeal, which was soon silenced by the landing into the lake. Dipper's head emerged from the lake, his hair covered in green slime, smiling slightly at the sight of his sister grimacing, equally coated in slime.

"What was that for?" she said angrily to Danny, who responded with a shrug and splashed murky lake water into her face while treading water. It didn't take long for a fully fledged water fight to start between the three teens, no one being quite sure who was splashing them in the chaos. 

By the end of the splashing war, they all looked like swamp monsters. Danny was sure his parents would have mistaken their slimy, mud covered forms for ghosts as they climbed out of the lake.