"-And we defeated him twice, once with kittens and once with tickles!" Mabel exclaimed proudly as she and "Waddles Two" walked on the bridge between two cars to enter the next one.

"You are one weird kid, Mabel." Waddles commented after hearing her story about a triangle demon attacking her and her brother last summer.

"Oh, I know. And that's, like, the twentieth time you've said that." Mabel pointed out.

"And I still haven't changed my mind."

Mabel had been on the train for about three days already, traveling car after car. They encountered some interesting worlds but none of them helped to change her number, which was still at "80" at the moment.

They got to the end of the bridge and the next train door clicked as it was twisted and turned until the door was split in half as Mabel opened it. It revealed the path to the next train car which the two then both walked into.

They entered the next car, finding the lighting bright but gentle. There was mostly soft pink and blue wallpaper that had obviously been drawn and doodled on. The childish decor was spread around the entrance and a reception desk accompanied it all in the center.

A giraffe that looked more like a stuffed animal than the actual animal greeted them with a warm smile once noticing them enter. "Hello! Are you here to drop off or take care?" he asked in a squeaky voice.

"Um, we're here to find the exit?" Mabel answered questionably after finding what she was looking for wasn't one of her options.

"Oh, you can't simply come in and leave without helping!" the giraffe's squeaky voice replied, countering Mabel's request, "The children rely on helpers like you; you must assist us!"

Mabel looked down at her companion. "Do we really have to help here?" she whispered to him.

"If you want to continue to the next car, yes." Waddles responded, "And who knows? Maybe helping here can get your number down a bit."

Mabel sighed and look back up at the receptionist. "Well if it'll keep us going, alright then."

"Excellent!" the stuffed giraffe replied happily, "My name's Gerry, with a 'g', by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm Mabel, and this is my friend, Waddles." she answered.

Gerry nodded and wrote their names on "HELLO! My name is" stickers before handing them to Mabel and Waddles. They both stuck them on, Mabel assisting Waddles to put his on.

"So, what exactly will we be helping you with, Gerry?" Mabel asked curiously.

"Well, I'd like to welcome you two to our day care: Stuffie's Helpies!" he answered cheerfully, "Where we help take care of any little kids whose parents need some 'me time', if you get what I mean."

"We're babysitting?" Mabel thought aloud to process what she just heard before squealing excitedly, "We get to play with cute babies?!"

"I'm pretty sure there's a big difference between 'taking care of' and 'playing', Mabel." Waddles noted.

She rolled her eyes. "This'll be easy-peasy. We'll be out of this car in no time. you'll see."

Waddles sighed. "If you say so."

Gerry smiled and grabbed a clipboard. "Glad you're excited to help. Follow me and I'll take you to the room of which kids you'll be taking care of."

Mabel and Waddles nodded and the two obliged. Gerry led them to a long hallway that had rooms with kids left and right. Mabel peaked through the windows of each room, the pitch of her squealing of excitement getting higher the farther they went down the hallway. In the rooms they had passed child denizens of all types; there were baby animals, robots, and even plants. Some of the children even looked like objects, all being taken care of by adult stuffed animals like Gerry. It seemed as if all the children here came from all different sorts of cars from the train. Seeing all this excited Mabel. She couldn't wait to see what type of kids she would be taking care of.

"And... here we are!" Gerry finally declared once they made it down to the end of the hallway.

Mabel squealed and ran into the door Gerry was next to, peaking through the window to see what kids were inside. To her surprise and pleasure, the room was filled with tons of baby unicorns; all sleeping peacefully, which made the job they had much easier.

"They're so adorable!" Mabel squealed excitedly. She was just about to open the door to the room before Gerry grabbed her wrist and chuckled. "Oh, I believe you've been mistaken. This isn't the room you've been assigned to." he corrected her.

Mabel frowned and let go of the doorknob. "Oh. Well, what are we taking care of then?"

Gerry walked to the door next to the unicorn room and opened it, being greeted with a loud scream coming from the room. Gerry smiled while Mabel quickly covered her ears and Waddles wished he could do the same as her.

Mabel looked into the room, with her ears still covered, finding a group of slimy creatures that were all crying and running around the room leaving traces of sticky slime all over the floor. She gagged and quickly stepped back. "What the heck are those things?!"

"The kids you'll be taking care of!" Gerry answered happily, "Now, all you need is to stay for an hour, so I'll be going-"

"Um, I think you've made a mistake." Mabel interrupted him with a nervous chuckle. "We were told we'd be taking care of cute children. Not creepy, crying blobs of goo."

"All kids need love and care, Mabel." Gerry said softly, "Just give them a chance; I promise you won't regret helping here."

Mabel looked back into the loud room and sighed while resting her arms at her side. "I guess if it's only for an hour..."

Gerry smiled and nodded. "Great. I'll be at the reception desk if you need any help."

Mabel and Waddles nodded and waved goodbye to Gerry as he left. The two walked into their assigned room which was twice as unpleasant to be in than when they just got their first sight of it.

"This can't be too bad... Right?" Mabel mumbled. She felt something slimy crawl over her feet and she looked down to see one of the kids trying to crawl up her legs. Mabel smiled awkwardly and slowly bent down to pick them up. It was hard to keep a grip on the slimy child but eventually, she managed to find a way to hold them without them slipping through her fingers. Getting a closer look, she noticed that the child really was just a blob of goo, with no eyes, nose, or mouth whatsoever.

Mabel's smile slowly grew to be a real one as she got a good look at the child in her hands. "This actually isn't too ba-"

Her sentence was suddenly cut shot when the slimy creature belched out a splash of slime onto her face and laughed at her before crawling out of her arms to get back on the floor to return with the others.

"I..." Mabel muttered in shock before wiping off some of the slime off her face, feeling angry, "Waddles, did you just see that?!"

"Um, I'm a little busy here." Waddles answered, his voice coming from a few feet away and muffled.

Mabel looked over to where she heard his voice and saw a group of the kids huddled together to drown the pig inside of them. Waddles was still alive and breathing, but he was floating upside down in the slime balls, not able to move. She blinked in confusion, staring at the situation as another kid jumped into the pile of slime that caused a small splash that sent some of the goo flying to Mabel's shoes.

There was no taming these kids, she could hardly get a hold of them, literally. They were slippery and much too fast for her to catch. Chasing them and trying to get Waddles out of the pile of goop felt like being there for hours when it had only been fifteen minutes.

Mabel stopped running to catch her breath, trying not to accept defeat though she knew there was no way to control these kids. As she was panting, she noticed at the corner of her eye another slime kid. They weren't like any other of the kids she was chasing just now; this one was hiding in the corner of the room, seeming shy and even a bit frightened. She noticed next to them was a children's book covered in slime, as if they were trying to open the book but couldn't without any hands.

She couldn't help but frown at the sight and walked toward them, sitting beside them. Mabel took the book and wiped the slime off the cover, her eyes widened with surprise when she found what book it was. It was a book that Dipper enjoyed reading repeatedly when he was little. It was his favorite at that age, and Mabel remembered because he would be reading it any chance he could.

"The Ugly Duckling." she slowly read aloud.

Her voice caught the attention of the shy child and they slowly scooted closer to her.

Mabel smiled softly and opened the book to start reading the story. The more she read, the closer the child moved to her. She wouldn't say anything and kept on reading, not noticing the room slowly getting quieter as she read. She didn't realize her reading was driving in all the other kids and near the end of the story, all the kids had sat beside her, either listening to her read or had fallen asleep to her soft voice.

"And he lived happily ever after. The end." Mabel announced happily as she read the final words of the book with a smile. And at that same moment, a drop of slime fell in front of her face onto the pages of the book in front of her.

Mabel looked up to find one of the kids sleeping on her head and soon realized all the others around her as well. She closed the book with confusion and, to her surprise, a familiar pig was sitting in front of her.

"Waddles!" she exclaimed, "You're okay!"

"Of course I am." he replied, "And may I add you have a very nice reading voice."

Mabel blushed shyly and smiled. "Thanks. Though, reading is more of my brother's thing." She looked back at the cover of the book she just read and frowned a bit. "You know... this actually used to be his favorite book. When he was little, of course," she informed and sighed, "I kind of feel bad for calling him a dork so much now. This is actually a pretty good book."

"Maybe you should tell him that." Waddles suggested.

"I wish I could..." Mabel mumbled, her mind drifting off for a second before she was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

"Your time's up!" Gerry cheered happily as he walked into the room, "Thanks again for all the work you've done for us, we can't thank you enough."

Mabel smiled at him and nodded. "No problem, and any time Gerry. Could you just help me a bit with this?" she chuckled awkwardly while pointing to the slime child still on her head that was spreading all over her hair.

"Oh my goodness!" Gerry exclaimed and quickly rushed over to help Mabel with the situation.

All the slime children were put to bed, some sounding like they didn't want Mabel to leave but Gerry said she had to go now. Mabel stood up and watched them all and waved at them, mouthing that she would be back some other time.

Once Gerry was done he walked over to Mabel and Waddles. "I'm so sorry about that." he apologized.

Mabel chuckled. "You're good, Gerry. Call us any time you need more assistance." she nodded, "And, by any chance, do you know where the way out is?"

Gerry nodded with a smile and pointed at the door he had walked through. "The door for you is right there."

Mabel turned to see and the, previously, normal door now looked like a red car door for them to leave through. Her eyes widened with surprise at the sight but what caught her attention even more was the quiet rattling sound coming from her hand with the bright green number on it.

"74"

"Whoa." was her response with amazement.

"Hey, looks like things are looking up again!" Waddles mentioned after watching what happened, "Or, down, I guess."

Mabel chuckled and nodded. "Let's see what's in store for us next."