"Okay… this should be the place." The little girl in the shooting star sweater looked up from the map in her hands towards the building in front of her. It was old, shabby, and looked like it could fall apart at any moment. The Mystery Shack was exactly how the guy at the tourist center described it to her. "Now to just knock on the door and get started with everything. And… go!" With slight hesitation, the girl walked up to the tourist trap and knocked on the door.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack, miss!" The door opened immediately. Standing behind it was a boy who looked to be the girl's age and height dressed in a suit with a red fez on his head. His appearance was so startling that the girl ended up taking half a step back.

"Um…"

"My name is Dipper Pines, but you can call me Kid Mystery! Step right this way for a tour of incredible amazement at an arguably reasonable price!"

"Actually, I'm here to-"

"Please! Hold all questions until the end, my friend!"

"But I-" This time, Dipper leaned in close when he made his interjection.

"Listen, I hate to be 'that guy', but this goes a lot faster if you just keep your mouth shut and move along. Everyone does that, and everyone always has a good time. You get what I'm saying?"

"I… guess?"

"Good enough! Let's go!" Dipper turned back around and headed into the Mystery Shack. Begrudgingly, the girl picked up her luggage and followed him inside.

Out of all the things Dipper loved in the world, easy marks were definitely near the top of the list, and this girl was definitely one. Cutesy sweater, multiple bags of clothes and whatnot, map to the Mystery Shack even an idiot could read; this girl basically had "gullible tourist" written all over her face, and there was no way he wouldn't abuse that to high heaven.

"Behold, the Corn-i-corn, a unicorn made entirely out of corn!"

"Wow, it's so pretty!" The doe-eyed girl exclaimed as she applauded the cheap display of corn glued to wire. Step One: Charm them with the random junk of the Mystery Shack. "I've never seen a unicorn made of corn outside of my dreams!"

"Really?" Step Two: Latch onto whatever shit sticks to the wall. "Sounds like we've got ourselves a unicorn lover."

"Yeah, you do! Unicorn was my first word, you know!"

"Adorable. Then please allow me to direct your attention to the majestic Beavercorn!" With a flourish of the hand, Dipper pointed to a stuffed beaver with a horn crudely glued to its head.

"Ooh!"

"The magnificent Grizzlycorn!" The girl's attention was directed to a mounted bear head on the wall with a fake horn glued to it.

"Aah!"

"And le piece de resistance-that's Spanish for 'Big Finale'-a portrait of a Multiunicorn! That's a unicorn with a unicorn attached to its horn, with that unicorn having a unicorn attached to its horn, and that that one having a unicorn attached to its horn, and so on and so forth… behold!" With a snap of his fingers, Dipper turned the girl's focus towards the aforementioned portrait, which was just as odd as he described.

"...Whoa…" The girl didn't see it that way, though. "I'm going to dream about that every day of my life until I die…"

"That's all I could hope for." Now it was time for Step Three: Bleed them dry. "And that concludes the tour, my friend! Before you leave, though, please! Take a look at the fine inventory of our giftshop! I think I saw an 'I saw the Corn-i-corn and all I got was this stupid T-shirt' T-shirt with your name on it!"

"Actually, Dipper…" The girl started as she was led into the aforementioned gift shop, a room filled to the brim with snack food and cheesy knickknacks, "I don't have any money. Spent all of it on the bus ticket up here."

"Then you know where the exit is! Please use it immediately before I have to force you out."

"I can't just-"

"Seriously, leave. Trying to run a business here, girl."

"But I can't leave this place! I came here for a reason. A big reason! Me being here is, like, the biggest thing I've ever done in my life!"

"...Really?" Dipper couldn't help but turn his head in confusion. "It's really that important that you're in a place like this? Why? Who are you supposed to be?"

"Finally." The girl took a deep breath, closed and opened her eyes in succession, and stared straight at Dipper with a toothy, braces-filled smile. "My name is Mabel Pines, and I'm… I'm your sister!"

"...Pfft! Pffhaha!" Dipper immediately broke out in laughter.

"H-Hey! What's so funny?!"

"Y-You are, girl! Trying to pull the 'long lost relative' con, are you? That's hilarious!"

"I'm serious!" Mabel exclaimed with a glare (coming from her, though, it was more of an adorable pout).

"Right, right, right…" After thirty seconds, Dipper finally calmed himself down. "Look Mabel, can I call you Mabel? I don't know what your real name is, so I'll just call you Mabel. Mabel, I might be just a beginner in the world of con artists, but even that's enough to see through a cheap trick like this."

"But it's true! I am your sister, Dipper!" Mabel got right in front of his face to accentuate her statement.

"You are not convincing in the slightest. There's no possible way that you… could be… my…" Now that this "Mabel" girl was right in front of him, Dipper was forced to really take in the physical aspects of her upper body. Didn't take that long, though, since they apparently had the same face and curly brown hair, though his hair was short while hers covered her back.

"No way…" Mabel smiled wide as he said this. With a feeling of astonishment, Dipper grabbed a hat off one of the shelves, put it on the girl's head, and shoveled her hair into it until it was at the same level of his own. Now when he looked at her, it was like looking at himself in a skirt.

"Oh my God…" Mabel's smile got even wider. "This… This isn't a trick. You're really my… my… my…"

"Hug me, brotha!" Arms spread wide, Mabel charged at Dipper with the intent of embracing him. Dipper immediately stepped out of the way, leading to Mabel tripping over her own feet and falling onto the floor.

"The heck are you doing, kid?" Right in front of the feet of an old man dressed in the same clothes as Dipper, though he also wore a pair of glasses (for some reason, there was an eyepatch over one of the lenses). "This look like a playground, to you? If you're done with the tour, then buy something or… get out…" The old man was suddenly at a loss for words when he got a good look at Mabel, even flipping up his eyepatch to look at her with both eyes.

"Good morning, Grunkle Stan," Dipper said, the boy's passive aggression not even masked a little. "This is Mabel. Apparently, she's my sister."

"Hello!" Mabel shouted as she got up off the floor.

"Care to weigh in on this?"

"...Uhhhh…" Stan, noticing the dense level of awkwardness in the air, did the only thing that he could think of doing: jump out the window, run to his car, and drive away. In his haste, however, Stan accidentally backed up into a tree.

"Yeah, she's fine. Kid got here in one piece. ...No, this wasn't my idea. She just showed up outta nowhere! ...I don't think she's gonna like that. ...You think I don't know that? Of course I know that! But they're already together, so we might as well let them stay together! ...Right, right. ...I'll ask him." Stan put his phone down and turned to Dipper, now dressed in shorts and a brown jacket over a red shirt.

"Hey Dipper, you wanna-"

"No." Dipper's response came out so fast it seemed automatic.

"Yeah, thought so." Stan picked up his phone and went back to his conversation with the people on the other line: Dipper and Mabel's parents. Two people who, up until an hour ago, Dipper had no idea existed.

"This is pretty exciting, huh?" Along with the girl sitting next to him on the couch. Mabel. His sister. "In just one day, the two us are getting new family all at once! That's cool, right?"

"Yeah, super cool. You mind scooting over?"

"Okay." Mabel did as her brother asked and moved a little away from him.

"Little more. Little more. Aaaaand perfect." Mabel was now sitting right into the armrest, barely within arm's length of Dipper.

"It is?" Mabel asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Alright, talk to you later." Stan hung up his phone and turned to the kids as he put it away. "That was your parents. They're mad that you just ran off like that, Mabel, but they're happy you got here, alright."

"At least we know they're responsible. Coupled with the fact that they exist, that's two things I know about them," Dipper said, his words laced with venom. "Stan, is all of this really true? Is she really… do I really…"

"It's… It's all true, kid. You and Mabel are brother and sister. Twins, actually."

"Twins…" Dipper let the word sit around for a while, as if he was tasting some odd foreign food for the first time and needed to get a feel for taste and texture before deciding to swallow it.

"Grunkle Stan," Mabel started, "I'm really happy to be meeting you and Dipper, really, really happy, but why were we separated, in the first place?"

"It's… complicated." Stan couldn't even look at the kids when he said that. "When you two were born, some stuff happened that's too dangerous to even talk about, and your parents, Shermie, and I all decided that you'd be safest if you were raised apart. I took Dipper with me to Gravity Falls, mainly because Shermie's too old to raise a kid, and your parents held onto Mabel down in Piedmont."

"And you weren't even going to tell us?" Dipper asked in anger.

"It's not like that!" Stan reflexively put up his hands in defense. "We were all gonna tell you two about each other when you turned 18, the standard age for telling kids dark and terrible secrets about their lives! Even with everything that happened, the four of us agreed to tell you by then!"

"Right…" Dipper hardly seemed convinced. Not having anything else to say on the matter, Stan turned his attention to Mabel.

"How did you even find out about this, Mabel?"

"Well, it's a funny story, actually…" Mabel started to say. "No, wait, it's not really funny, or long, for that matter. Kind of just a regular story."

"Feel like telling it?" Dipper asked.

"Right, sorry. It all happened a week ago, right after the school year ended. I was up in the attic looking for my 'School's Out for Summer, Yippee!' Mixtape to play on loop for three hours. Trust me, the songs on there are worth it. Anyway, while I was looking for it, I found a box that had 'KEEP OUT', 'PRIVATE', 'CONFIDENTIAL', and all sorts of other words like that written on it, so of course I opened it up to see what was inside! And I couldn't believe what I saw:" Mabel's eyes started to widen, it even looking like there were sparkles in them "pictures of me as a baby next to another little baby, and a birth certificate saying it was my brother!

"I kept looking through the box to see what else there was. Most of it was just more pictures of us, but then I found postcards from Gravity Falls, Oregon written by someone named 'Stanford Pines', and they all talked about Dipper, so that had to mean my brother was living there with my long-lost uncle, or something. I knew that I just had to meet the two of you, so as soon as I had enough money, I took the first bus up here and, well, here I am. Yaaay!"

"Well, you can go, now," Dipper stated matter of factly.

"Huh?"

"You said that you wanted to meet us, right? Mission accomplished, so go home, Mabel."

"I kinda wanted to do more than that. I wanna spend the summer here and get to know you guys!"

"You're alone on that!"

"!" Mabel's face contorted into one of shock. "You… You really want me to leave?"

"Obviously. Now, you said you spent all your money coming up here, right? I'll give you what you need to go home. Keyword: give. Don't want you coming back with the excuse of having to pay off your loan."

"Hold it, Dipper!" Stan interjected before Dipper could say anything else that was rude. "If you don't want her to stay here, then fine, but I didn't raise you to be the kind of knucklehead who just gives people money. And Mabel! Your parents raised you to just accept handouts, did they?"

"No, but if I can't… if I can't stay here, then how do I go home?" Mabel asked.

"Easy. You'll work here in the Shack."

"What?"

"What," Dipper stated.

"In the real world, you gotta work to earn your keep, so that's what you're doing, Mabel. Now the bus back home is around a hundred dollars, so…" Stan started moving his fingers through the air, as if he was doing some calculations. "Subtract food and room and board… yeah, one week of minimum wage should be enough for a bus ticket back to Piedmont. You'll work here for a week, get paid, and then you go home."

"Aww…" Mabel moaned.

"Of course, if, during that week, you manage to convince certain people that it'd be a good idea for you to stay longer than that…" Stan put his eyepatch back on and turned towards Mabel, "then I couldn't really do anything about that, right? ...I'm winking under my eyepatch."

"Works for me!"

"And this is where you'll be staying." After cementing Mabel's living arrangements and the terms surrounding them, Stan brought Mabel upstairs to where she would be sleeping for the next week: the attic (Dipper made a point of not wanting to join them). The attic was very spacious, despite several boxes of junk littering the area. Dust and cobwebs clung to the rafters with a natural magnetism, and in the center of the room was a small bed illuminated by the light flowing through the triangular window.

"Look, a goat!" There was also, as Mabel pointed out, a goat standing on the bed who was chewing on the mattress.

"Hey! Get outta here, Gompers!" At the sound of Stan's yelling, the goat, apparently named Gompers, ran out of the attic with a bleat. "Sorry about making you stay in here, Mabel. There aren't any other rooms in the house, so…"

"This is fine, Grunkle Stan. I love how splintery the floorboards look!"

"Heh. As long as you're happy, I guess. Well, do a little unpacking, then come down to the gift shop and start working. I'll help get rid of some of this junk after we close up shop." Mabel nodded her head in agreement and Stan took that as an OK to leave. Once Mabel was alone, she put her luggage down on the floor, jumped on the bed, and started kicking her feet around and giggling.

"I have a grunkle! I have a brother! Eeeee! This is so great! Everything is great!"

"This is so terrible. Everything is terrible," Dipper, dressed back in his Kid Mystery outfit, sighed against the wall of the gift shop.

"You alright, Dipper? You're not usually this grumpy in the morning." This came from red-haired teenage girl behind the counter wearing a trapper hat and green flannel shirt.

"Something very… annoying happened before you came in, Wendy. Very, very annoying."

"On a scale of one to ten-"

"27."

"Whoa. What happened?"

"You'll see soon enough."

"HELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO!" The sudden shout of a new voice stopped Wendy from asking another question. Wendy didn't know who it was, but Dipper did, dampening his mood further. It dampened even further when the owner of the voice stepped into the gift shop.

"Uhhhhh…" Wendy was at a loss for words at the sight of Mabel. Before anything else could be said, the door opened, and a large man wearing a cap and a shirt with a question mark on it walked inside.

"Morning Dipper. Morning Wendy. Morning Girl Dipper," the man said, walking past the three of them… only to immediately step back into the room. "Something weird's going on here. Dipper, you standing in front of a trick mirror, or something?"

"I wish, Soos," Dipper said with a sigh.

"My name's Mabel Pines, and I'm Dipper's long-lost twin sister!" Mabel, paying no mind to Dipper's mood, exclaimed with a grin.

"Twin sister?" Wendy parroted, her eyes going wide like dinner plates.

"Oh my God, dudes! There's… There's two of them, now!" Soos could barely contain his excitement. "This is great! My name's Soos, Mabel! Give me a hug!"

"Finally!" Mabel happily ran into Soos' arms and hugged him. "You're so squishy; I love that!"

"I know, right?"

"Soos, Wendy, don't get used to her; she'll be gone in a week," Dipper said, wasting no time to cut into Mabel and Soos' moment.

"She is?"

"That's undecided, right now," Mabel said, letting go of Soos. "One week is just how long I have to get certain grumpy gusses to change their minds about wanting to hang out with me."

"Good luck with that." Having said his piece, Dipper left the gift shop.

"Did you hear that? I have a chance!"

"I think that was sarcasm, dude," Soos told Mabel.

"Aww, really?"

"Look, Mabel, was it? I'm Wendy, by the way, let me give you some advice," Wendy started to say. "Soos and I have known Dipper for years, so we know that family is a very touchy subject for him. You seem like the kind of person who's hyperactive and super in your face, and that's not a bad thing, but if you're not careful, you'll just push him away."

"So what should I do?"

"Just take it easy. Try to make him open up with small talk, then take it from there."

"Small talk, eh? That's just crazy enough to work!" With that, Mabel took off after her brother.

"You think Dipper will open up to her, Wendy?" Soos asked.

"Sure hope so."

"And that, my friends, is how this Horn of Sealing was used to prematurely end the devastation of Ragnarok. And if you want it to maintain its power, $20 should be more than enough!"

"Makes sense to me!" Ripping off gullible morons with cheap junk. Even with what just happened a little under two hours ago, Dipper was able to return to his usual M.O. He was thankful for that, and it allowed him to relax for a little.

"Yay! Bravo! Woohoo!" That seemed to be over, rather fast.

"...Thank you, everyone." "Everyone" referring to the people in the crowd besides Mabel.

"You're welcome! No, wait! Gotta tone it down a little, Mabel! Don't scare him off!"

Too late, Dipper thought to himself.

"Haaah… So that was pretty cool, Dipper. Speaking of cool, sure is a cool summer you have up here. Good thing I brought this sweater and a ton of other ones and a ton of yarn to make new ones. Is it always like this in Oregon, or is this year just special?"

"...And we're walking, and we're walking. Come on, people, I know your legs work." Ignoring Mabel's attempt at small talk, Dipper led the tour group away from her to another area of the museum.

"Okay, talk to you later, Dipper. Hahahaha… haha…" Dipper and the tour group were gone. "No need to worry, Mabel. When you think about it, we are supposed to be working, right now. I should just wait when we're all done and neither of us are busy!"

Several hours later, the Mystery Shack was closed for the day, Wendy and Soos had gone home, and only the Pines were still in the building. Since it was getting late, the three of them quickly decided to have dinner, giving Mabel another opportunity to strike up a conversation with Dipper.

"I'm eating in my room." Or not.

"Your room? You never eat in there, Dipper," Stan said.

"Things change, even if we don't want them to change," Dipper said, picking up his plate of food and leaving the table.

"Right…"

Okay, so waiting for us to be done with work didn't go any better. That means any time is fair game! Mabel thought to herself. Just gotta keep trying, Mabel! Just gotta keep trying!

"So Dipper, outside of Wendy and Soos, you got any friends in town? I bet if they're your friends, they must be pretty cool, so-"

"Did you know that I can burp the alphabet, Dipper? People always tell me how cool it is to see that. Here, let me-"

"If you could go to anywhere in the world-"

"What's your favorite col-"

"Toast-"

"Uggggghhhhh…" It had been six days since Mabel came to Gravity Falls, and Dipper still hadn't had a real conversation with her, which was why the girl was lying on the gift shop floor with a frown, the Mystery Shack's older employees all looking over her.

"Hey, Mabel, you did get what I was saying, right?" Stan asked. "How you should use this week to get Dipper to like you so you can spend the summer getting to know each other?"

"I got that, I'm just doing a terrible job of it. Grunkle Stan, you won't really make me go home if I can't get Dipper to like me, will you?"

"Well..."

"You will?"

"Look kid, I get where you're coming from. I think it'd be great for you to stay here so we could get to know each other, I do! But Dipper's hardly said a word to me since you showed up, and I can't have the kid hating me, so…"

"What am I supposed to do, though? I keep trying to make small talk, but Dipper just keeps ignoring me!"

"Well, if small talk isn't working, you should go for broke and talk about his hobbies, or something," Wendy said.

"! Great idea, Wendy! ...What are Dipper's hobbies?"

"Science."

"Ugh!"

"Cons," Stan said.

"I don't have a poker face; I barely even like the song!"

"Dude's also into DD&D," Soos added.

"You mean 'Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons'? Just saying the name gives me a headache! Is he really only into a bunch of stuff I could never learn about in one day?" Mabel then started to hit herself in the face, repeatedly. "Why didn't I ask about his hobbies, earlier?! Stupid hindsight! Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"Oh, wait!" Wendy suddenly said, an idea seemingly popping into her head. "Dipper's also really into the supernatural!"

"? Supernatural?"

"Hey, that's right," Soos said. "Dude loves reading about aliens and vampires and gnomes and stuff. One time, he helped me try to prove that the mailman was a werewolf. Turns out he was just a hairy guy, but we still had fun."

"So… I can get Dipper to talk to me if I talk about the stuff in the Shack?"

"Doubt it, kid thinks this stuff is 'cheesy' and 'lame', which it is, but he says it with such an attitude," Stan said. "So if you want to get anywhere, go to the library, read up on… I don't know, the mating habits of wood elves, or something, talk shop about that for an hour, and boom! You're best friends!"

"That's a great idea, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel got up off the floor and turned to the door. "I've never said this and been happy about it, but I'm going to the library!"

"Hold it!" Stan put his arm out in front of Mabel before she could get moving.. "You can do that when you're off the clock. Right now, I need you to hang up some signs in the woods."

"What?! Why me?!"

"Dipper and I got a tour group coming in a few minutes, Soos has to fix the heater, and if I told Wendy to do it, it wouldn't get done for three days."

"He's not wrong," Wendy said. Mabel simply sighed and went to do her job.

"Can't help but feel that I was given conflicting advice, Gompers," Mabel said to the goat whom she came across in the woods. "First Grunkle Stan and everyone gives me great advice on how to impress Dipper, then they just give me a bunch of work that had nothing to do with that?"

"Baaaaaa!"

"Yeah, I'm probably just overthinking things. I can just go the library when I'm done."

"Baaaaaa!"

"If I'm lucky, Gompers!" The conversation apparently finished, Mabel went back to hanging up the signs, each one nothing more than a piece of plywood cut into the shape of an arrow talking about how amazing the Mystery Shack was (it was definitely Stan who made them). Mabel only paid a little attention to what she was doing, her thoughts focused mainly on finding something good to talk to Dipper about.

Then one of the trees made a clanging sound.

"?" Puzzled, Mabel knocked on the tree with her knuckles. The same sound reverberated through the air. "Is this even a tree?" It couldn't be. Trees, as far as Mabel knew, weren't made of metal, yet every part of the tree she put her hands on felt nothing like wood. While Mabel felt up the tree, her fingers came upon a section that felt empty, like she could put her fingers into it.

"There better not be a giant spider inside of here…" Her sole concern voiced, Mabel put her fingers inside the gap and pulled, causing an entire section of the tree to open up. While there wasn't a giant spider inside (Mabel breathed a sigh of relief), there was some sort of electronic device with two switches on it. Curiosity still piqued, Mabel flipped one of the switches to see what would happen. Nothing. She flipped the other one to see what would happen, and she suddenly heard the sound of heavy movement from behind her, along with Gompers running away. Turning around, Mabel saw what appeared to be a square hole cut right into the ground.

"...Alright, if there's a giant spider in there, I'm going to be really mad." Curiosity even more piqued than before, Mabel walked over to the hole to inspect its contents, if any. There wasn't a giant spider, or anything similar to one, all that was in there was an old, dusty book with a monocle attached to it.

"What's this doing out here?" Mabel picked up the book and dusted it off, revealing the cover to have a gold, six-fingered hand on it with the number "3" in the center. Was this the third in a series? Mabel asked herself. Putting that thought aside, Mabel opened up the book and started reading.

"'It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon. In all my travels, never have I observed so many curious things! Gravity Falls is indeed a geographical oddity.

"'MY CONTINUED MISSION:

1. Investigate the Oddities of Gravity Falls

2. Discover GRAND UNIFIED THEORY OF WEIRDNESS

3. Publish Theory and join the works of Newton, Tesla, Einstein in the path(?) of science!'

"What is this?" Mabel started flipping through the pages of the book. Each time she stopped to read, she came across something odder than the last. Flying eyeballs, ghosts with various categories, squash with human faces and emotions, all of it being cited as existing right there in Gravity Falls. Eventually, Mabel came to a single conclusion: Gravity Falls was a town of unparalleled weirdness, and this book was one of three created to catalogue all of it.

"This is incredible!" Mabel was apparently amused by this. "Forget the library, this book is exactly what I need! Once Dipper sees that I found a mystery book of super weirdness, he'll want to talk to me, for sure!"

"I will protect my father and the honor of the Jackson family!"

"I reject my humanity, JaJa!"

"So what'd you guys think of the trailer for JaJa's Kooky Quest?" Soos asked Dipper and Wendy as he closed the video and put his phone away.

"I don't know, Soos…" Dipper started. "It looks kinda cool, but the animation and art seems a little weird. And why's everyone so muscular and campy?"

"That's just the style of the story. You read the manga, Wendy, so you know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, and I'm mainly concerned about the inevitable censorship," Wendy said. "JaJa can get really violent, so you know that a lot of that will be censored. If we're not lucky, we could be looking at another Osaka Goblin."

"There were tons of things wrong with Osaka Goblin that had nothing to do with the censorship, though," Dipper said.

"Pretty easy to say that when you've never read the manga."

"I will, I will! At some point."

"Dude, you always say you'll read the manga, but you never do," Soos said.

"I'll get to it! Just let me-"

"HEYO!" Mabel kicking the gift shop's door open abruptly ended the conversation.

""Hey, Mabel,"" Soos and Wendy happily greeted the girl.

"..." Dipper just glared at her, barely noticing the book she had under her arm.

"Dipperdipperdipperdipperdipperdipperdipper Dipper!" It didn't take long for Mabel to be right in his face.

"...I'm going to my room for a while." Dipper turned away from Mabel and walked through the "Employees Only" door into the living, Mabel (unfortunately) right behind him.

"Wait, Dipper! I found something amazing! You gotta check it out!"

"Not interested." The boy didn't even turn around to look at her.

"I know you will be! This'll blow your mind! You'll be like, 'Whoa, Mabel, that's awesome!'"

"No, I won't."

"And I'll be like, 'I told you! I told you you'd want me around!'"

"No, you won't."

"Okay, so here it is, Dipper!"

Shut up, shut up, shut up…

"I was out in the forest hanging up signs when I found this metal tree, but trees aren't made of metal!"

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

"Then I found a door on the tree that had this weird little box behind it with a switches. When I flipped one, the ground behind me went whoosh!"

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

"I looked behind me to find a big hole in the ground, and at the bottom was none other than a super cool and awesome book that talks all about-"

"Will you just shut the hell up, already?!" Dipper shouted, turning around to face Mabel, directly.

"Wha-"

"Just stop talking to me! I don't want to hear another word out of your stupid mouth!"

"But I just-"

"Agh! Why won't you just listen?! Why can't you take a hint?! Get away from me! I don't want you in my life!"

"! …" That was enough. Even someone like Mabel knew when she wasn't wanted. Not wanting to get hurt any further, Mabel turned away from Dipper and ran away from him. With Mabel gone, Dipper was able to take notice of Wendy and Soos' shocked expressions.

"...What?! Don't look at me like that!" Dipper walked away from the two of them, not even waiting to hear anything out of them.

"Aaa… aaa… aaa…" Mabel was back in her room, on her bed, all alone. Now was the right time to cry. "Aaaaaaaa…

"Stupid Dipper… Stupid Dipper! I just… I just wanted to get to know him a little, and he… Fine! If Dipper… if he doesn't want me around, then I'll just leave! I'll just go home and we'll never see each other, again! Stupid Dipper…" In the midst of her sobbing, Mabel took another look at the book. The book that was supposed to build a brother-sister relationship. The book that did nothing. The book that only helped to make things worse.

"Stupid book!" Mabel, in her anger, threw the book onto the floor. When that happened, it opened up to a random page.

"'Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed, I'm being watched.

I must hide this book before He finds it.

Remember- in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust.

TRUST NO ONE!'

Yeah, ain't that the truth."

Day Seven, Mabel's last day in Gravity Falls. At this point, she was more than happy to leave.

"So… pretty major stuff between you and your brother, yesterday," Wendy said to Mabel, the younger girl resting her head on the counter in sadness. "Want to talk about it?"

"No. I just want to go home…" Mabel said, not even turning towards Wendy. "This was a mistake, and I just want to forget about it…"

"Oh… Well, sorry about… all of that, and, um… hey, check out that guy!"

"?" Mabel looked in the direction Wendy was pointing in and saw the guy she was talking about. He had pale skin, wore a dirty black hoodie, and looked like he was bleeding from his cheek. Still a pretty handsome boy, though.

"That guy's been looking at you all morning. I think he likes you."

"So?"

"So if you're leaving after today, you might as well have a good time while you can. Maybe going on a date will cheer you up, a little."

"I don't know. Sure, he's good looking, but I don't think I'm in the mood to-"

"Hey." Mabel didn't have as much say in the matter, as the guy decided to walk up to the counter.

"Well, I think I have a thing to do over there, so…" Wendy left the counter and just walked in front of a wall, not moving an inch from there.

"Can I help you?" Mabel asked the guy.

"My name's… Normal… Man..." he said in a rough, disjointed voice.

"Do you mean Norman?"

"...Yes."

"What do you want, Norman?"

"I've, uh… seen you around here a lot, lately. You're really nice and… pretty! Do you want to... go out with me, today?"

Bet Wendy's having a laugh about this one. "Listen, Norman, you're a nice, handsome guy, and on any other day, I'd say yes in a heartbeat, but I am in a bad mood, right now, and I'm not really feeling up to going on a date. So if you don't mind, could you please… actually, hold that thought, I need to check something." Not waiting for Norman's response, Mabel left the counter and ran out of the gift shop.

After leaving the gift shop, Mabel immediately ran upstairs and grabbed the mystery book up off the floor. Maybe she was being paranoid, maybe she was just doing what Wendy said and trying to entertain herself before going back home, but something about that Norman guy seemed off. Almost… inhuman.

"Nope, nope, nope, nope, no-ah wait! Here it is!" Mabel, after flipping through page after page, finally found the one she was looking for.

"'The Undead

Creature #6

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!

"'Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes, these creatures are often mistaken for teenagers. Beware Gravity Falls' nefarious zombies.'" Mabel quickly closed the book with a gasp.

"Oh My G-O-S-H! Norman's a zombie! Why couldn't he have been a vampire? I mean, zombie, oh no! I gotta go tell-"

"Why can't you take a hint?! Get away from me! I don't want you in my life!"

"...No. Screw Dipper. If he doesn't want anything to do with me, then I don't want anything to do with him! I'm gonna honeypot the heck outta Norman, beat him up, and when I go home, I'll make sure the last thing Dipper sees is me holding his severed head out the window! That'll show him! That'll show him like he's never been shown before!"

"I would love to go out with you, Norman," Mabel said after returning to the gift shop. "Just wait outside for me while I get ready, okay?"

"Cool…" Norman then proceeded to exit the Mystery Shack… after walking into the wall several times.

"Nice one, Mabel! You go, girl!" Wendy said, playfully punching Mabel's arm.

"Yeah, I go, girl. I go, girl, indeed…"

Five minutes later, Mabel had nearly everything she needed to complete her Zombie Honeypot™. Meow Wow! glitter sweater: check. Star earrings: check. Mystery monster book of mystery: check. All Mabel needed now was a weapon of some sort to combat the zombie, and if anyone could help her with that, it would be her shady con artist of an uncle.

"Grunkle Stan, where do you keep the knives with the most cutting power?" Mabel asked as he argued with a tour group outside.

"Secret compartment behind the register," Stan replied, barely giving thought to what he said.

"Thank you!" Mabel skipped away to retrieve her weapon while Stan went back to what he was doing.

"For the hundredth time, it's not a face! It's a rock that looks like a face!"

This was stupid. There was no reason for him to be upset. He didn't do anything wrong and was completely justified in what he said. So why, then, was Dipper feeling so bad? Maybe, Dipper thought, he was too hard on Mabel?

"No, no I wasn't!" Dipper shouted, slamming his fist into the living room table. "She shouldn't have even come here! I was just saying what she should already know! What's wrong with that?! Nothing, that's what! Nothing!"

"You done with your little soliloquy, kid?" Dipper turned his head to see that Stan had entered the room.

"What do you want, Stan?"

"Just wanted to know if you've seen your sister. I might have told her something that could get one or both of us arrested."

"Don't know, don't care."

"...Listen, Dipper," Stan pulled up a chair and sat down, "I know you're still mad at me for lying to you your whole life, but you shouldn't just project those feelings onto Mabel."

"I'm not doing that!"

"Dipper…"

"...Fine, maybe I am, but not entirely! My life made perfect sense a week ago, but then she just shows up out of nowhere and messes everything up! Why should I want her around?!"

"Because she's family, kid. Family's supposed to stick together, not separate and leave each other to die."

"Like you know anything about that. Like you know how it feels to be abandoned by your own family!"

"...I do, actually."

"?" This was unexpected. Stan was about to talk about his family, something Dipper had rarely ever seen.

"Remember how I told you that I became a businessman at eighteen instead of going to college?"

"Yeah, 'cause college is for suckers."

"And it is! ...It was in my day, anyway, so you should go to college, but anyway! I didn't exactly do that completely by choice. At the end of my senior year, I got into a huge fight with my old man. I did something really stupid, and even though it was an accident, he wasn't having any of it and kicked me out of the house and the family. You can imagine how angry I was at him. All I was thinking was 'If that jerk doesn't want anything to do with me, then I don't want anything to do with him!' I decided right there and then to live for myself, and I never went back to my old home… until his funeral, anyway.

"For twenty years, I barely ever thought about the guy, and when I did, I only ever thought about how much I hated him. As soon as I heard he died, I thought I'd be happy, do a little dance, but I just felt nothing. The whole flight to New Jersey, still nothing. Then, when I finally got there, and I saw his cold, lifeless body, I finally felt something."

"What did you feel?"

"First, I was sad that he was gone, that one hit me by surprise. Then, I was angry that he just went and died without apologizing for what he died. Finally… I was filled with regret. Regret for letting things get so bad, regret for not seeing him again until he died… and regret that it took one of us dying for me to realize how much I needed him…"

"Wow… Stan, I-" Stan just put a hand on Dipper's shoulder.

"Look, kid, hate me if you want, but don't hate Mabel for just trying to be your family. Take it from me, if you lose your family, by the time you want them back, it might be too late." On that note, Stan left the room with a somber look on his face, leaving Dipper alone to think about everything he just said.

"...Dammit…" Dipper kicked his chair as he stood up and left the room, not even sure where he was heading, not paying attention to where he was. That was the case before he stepped on something in the gift shop.

"Huh?" Looking down to the floor, Dipper saw that he stepping in some sort red liquid-type substance. "Wendy, did you drop another packet of fake blood?"

"Wasn't me," Wendy said. "I think it might have been Norman."

"Who's Norman?"

"A good-looking guy Mabel went on a date with. Looked like he was bleeding, or something."

"...Huh."

"What 'Huh.'?"

"Little weird, don't you think? Neither of us know a Norman, and the guy asks her out on the last day she'll be in town?"

"You're overthinking it, Dipper."

"Maybe…" Dipper knelt down to the floor and touched the substance with his finger. Then, much to Wendy's confusion, he put the finger in his mouth.

"Jam…"

"So, here we are, in the woods… alone…" Mabel innocently walked around a patch of dirt in front of Norman, holding the book in one hand, clutching the knife with the other as she hid it behind her back.

"Yeah. I like the woods… Lots… of dirt."

Which you probably crawled out of. "You said you've been watching me for the last week, right?"

"Yeah… I'm shy."

"That's cute. So since you've been keeping an eye on me, you probably know that this is my last day in town." Mabel started moving behind Norman, still keeping her back away from him.

"Yeah. How do you feel… about that?"

"It's fine. I mean, I wanted to stay longer, but certain people don't want me around and won't even give me a chance, so who needs this place, right? Still, there are some people who I'm going to miss." Mabel was now right behind Norman. "You, included."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. You're so nice and easy to talk to, Norman. I know that it was just one day, but it really was… knife meeting you!" With little hesitation, Mabel launched herself at Norman, ready to cut off his head.

"Ah!" Norman, however, dodged Mabel's attack and kept his head on his shoulders. However, Mabel was able to follow up with another strike, piercing Norman's arm.

"Haha! I've got your arm! Now I'll just- wait, this doesn't feel like rotting flesh. This also doesn't feel like regular flesh, which is good, since I just realized I had no proof of you being a zombie, but what?" When Mabel pulled on the knife, Norman's entire arm came off, except it wasn't a real arm, it was a wooden stick attached to a fake hand.

"Well, I guess now's as good a time as any," Norman said, suddenly talking normally. Sighing, Norman took off his hoodie to expose what was lying underneath. It wasn't a shirt of any kind, or even his bare chest; rather, the removal of Norman's hoodie revealed the boy to actually be five incredibly short people standing on top of one another.

"Oh no! My date was actually a bunch of midgets standing on top of each other! It's just like that episode of Familia Buddy!"

"No no no, we're not midgets, we're gnomes!" The one on top said.

"Oh. That… probably makes more sense… in a way. Sorry for trying to cut you up, earlier."

"Don't worry about it, Mabel. You thought we were a zombie, and in this town, going with your gut when it comes to weirdness is a lifesaver. Oh, where are my manners? My name's Jeff, and this is Carson, Steve, Jason, and, um…" Jeff stopped when he got to the last gnome, who seemed to be very dopey-looking. "I'm sorry, what's your name, again?"

"Shmebulok," the odd-looking gnome said.

"Right. Shmebulok. So listen, Mabel, like I said, we've been watching you this week, so we know some things that are going on with you. Like, for example, how your long-lost brother screamed at you for just wanting to have a relationship with him."

"Oh… So you saw that…" Mabel managed to say.

"We sure did. What an asshole, right? That's why we brought you out here, Mabel; we want to help! You wanted to rub a zombie head in his face, but I bet a bunch of gnomes would be even better than that!"

"Really? You'll help me out?" For the first time that day, Mabel had a genuine smile on her face.

"Absolutely! You just gotta do us one small favor, first."

"Anything! Name it and I'll do it!"

"I like your spunk, kid! Alright, we'll help you put your brother in his place, and in exchange, you just have to marry us and become our queen!"

"It's a de- ...hold on, what?"

"I said you have to marry us!"

"...Did you suddenly decide to use the royale 'we'?" Mabel took a step back from the gnomes.

"Nope, still singular."

"So when you say 'us', you mean the five of you here."

"And the other 1,000 spread out across the woods! What do you say?"

"Um… well, Jeff… no."

"No? But why?" Jeff asked, looking surprisingly confused.

"I'm just a kid, and you're gnomes. Apparently 1,000 gnomes. That's just creepy on so many levels. How do you not get that?"

"Don't you want to rub some genuine supernatural stuff in your brother's face, though?"

"I do, but not like this! I'll just look for a real zombie, and if that goes nowhere, I'll probably just flip him off from the bus."

"Haah…" Jeff exhaled. "Well, it seems like you've made up your mind. In that case, we'll just have to go with Plan B."

"What's that?"

"The same as Plan A, except you don't get a say in the matter."

"What?!"

"Yeah, we're gonna kidnap you, now. Gnomes! Forward, mar-" Jeff never finished his sentence, though, as he was abruptly cut off by a golf cart slamming into him and the other gnomes, knocking all five into a tree. Mabel focused her attention on the golf cart to get a look at her savior, and her jaw nearly hit the ground.

"Dipper?!"

"Come with me if you want to stay single!" Dipper exclaimed, extending a hand out towards Mabel. With no hesitation, Mabel shot out her arm and-

"Why can't you take a hint?! Get away from me! I don't want you in my life!"

"Remember- in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust. TRUST NO ONE!

She immediately retracted her arm.

"Mabel, there's no time for this! We gotta go!"

"Why should I listen to you?! Not even a whole day ago, you told me to go to Hell! Why should I listen to you?!"

"R-Right… Listen-"

"DIPPER PINES!" Jeff's shout cut the twins' dialogue short. "How dare you interfere with gnome business, again!"

"We've been over this, Jeff!" Dipper shouted back. "You can't kidnap random girls and force them to be your queen! And why is it always kids?! If you tried this on adults… no, it'd still be creepy and wrong, but in a slightly more tolerable way!"

"You know nothing of-hold on. Guys, mind bringing me up to eye level?" The other gnomes all stacked themselves under Jeff and carried him over to Dipper. "Thanks-you know nothing of gnome culture, Dipper Pines! I won't let you interfere with us, again! Prepare to feel my-"

"Left hook!" Dipper swung his fist right into Jeff's stomach, sending the gnome flying. He landed in a patch of dirt and started vomiting rainbows.

"Come on, Mabel!" Not waiting for an answer, Dipper forced Mabel onto the cart and took off.

"...So… it seemed like you and those gnomes knew each other," Mabel said after several minutes of silence. "Do you fight them a lot?"

"Gnomes, goblins, flying brains, the occasional radioactive squirrel, you name it," Dipper said. "Gravity Falls is filled to the brim with weird, insane stuff, and my friends and I have been fighting and studying it all for years."

"So you run a team of... monster hunters?"

"Well, I don't mean to brag, but yes. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah! So all the stuff in the Mystery Shack is real, then?"

"No, that stuff's all fake. Grunkle Stan doesn't see the point in putting real stuff on display when he can just get people's attention with random junk he makes, himself."

"Sounds like something he'd-wait, what am I doing? I'm still mad at you!"

"Mabel, now's not the time for this! We can talk about that later-"

"Oh, now you want to talk to me? You've got a lot of nerve! I have half a mind to give you those hand gestures I was saving for the bus!"

"Will you just-!" Suddenly, a loud stomping sounded through the air. "Oh no."

"What? What is that?" Mabel turned around to get a look at things, and her jaw dropped when she saw the source of the noise: a giant gnome that appeared to be made out of an incredible number of regular gnomes. "Oh… that's that."

"Give us our queen!" Jeff's voice sounded from high up.

"Go back to the shire, you jerks!"

"Wrong little person, Mabel!" Dipper shouted. The gnome giant swung its arm towards the cart, making several gnomes fly out onto the vehicle. They all crawled inside and jumped onto Mabel, but the kids quickly swatted them away. The gnomes then decided to change things up a little and throw a tree into their path.

""AAAAAAAAAAAH!"" Dipper narrowly avoided crashing into the tree with a sharp turn, but the cart still ended up crashing right by the Mystery Shack from the momentum.

"You okay, Mabel?" Dipper asked as the two of them crawled out of the overturned cart.

"Stop acting like you care about what happens to me!" Mabel shouted. "I'm trying to do what you want, aren't I? Isn't staying out of your life what you wanted me to do?!"

"Move!"

"Don't change the-"

"Move!" Dipper suddenly shoved Mabel aside and onto the ground. Mabel was about to say something in response, but she instantly lost her words when she saw the gnome giant grabbing Dipper with its giant gnome hand.

"Dipper! …!" Mabel put a hand over her mouth. She didn't want to shout that. She didn't want to care about him. She didn't have a reason to.

"Alright, alright. Meant to grab Mabel, but this works, too," Jeff said. "Mabel! Marry us or watch your brother die! I know you don't care about him, but he's still a person, so you probably don't want to watch him die, right?"

"Don't listen to him, Mabel! Just get out of here!"

"Get away from me! I don't want you in my life!"

"TRUST NO ONE!"

"..." Silently, with barely any emotion, Mabel pulled the golf cart up off its side. She then got in the driver's seat, turned on the gas, and drove past Dipper and the gnomes.

"Jeff, she's getting away!" One of the gnomes said.

"I see that. We'll get her later, though," Jeff said. "For now, let's get rid of this guy, once and for-"

"...aaaaaaaaaa-"

"Hey, does anyone else hear that?"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa-"

"Sounds like something's coming at-OH MY GOD!"

"AAAAAAH!" Mabel's earlier action wasn't her running away, it was her preparing to save the day. After driving out of sight, Mabel immediately turned the cart around and drove into the gnome giant's legs at maximum speed, causing the lower portions to break apart.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Naturally, this caused the whole creation to fall apart.

"I could have lived without that happening," Jeff said as he worked his way out of the pile of gnomes on top of him. "Alright, gang, let's try that aga-!" Jeff was forced to stop himself short when he took notice of the present situation.

"I don't know why Mr. Stabbington is out here, but I'm not complaining." Namely Dipper holding Mabel's knife in front of his face. "Go back to the woods and stay away from Mabel, Jeff."

"Ha! You don't scare me, Dipper Pines! Like you'd really have the guts to-" Dipper poked Jeff's nose with the knife, drawing a small amount of blood. "...We'll be scampering off, now." The gnomes then got on all fours and ran away from the Mystery Shack, a good number of them shouting intentions of vengeance (save the repeated shout of "Shmebulok") as they ran towards the horizon.

"That went better than I thought it would. Thanks for saving me, Mabel."

"Don't mention it. One of us has to be the good twin," Mabel said as she exited the cart.

"Right… So… why did you go with those guys, anyway? Was their human disguise really that handsome?"

"He wasn't bad, but I thought it was a zombie, and I was gonna cut off his head and rub it in your face."

"Well that explains why Mr. Stabbington is out here. Why did you think it was a zombie, though?"

"Well, he matched the description of zombies in the book to a 'T', so it made sense, to me."

"? What book?"

"The book I was trying to tell you about yesterday before you exploded at me!" With an audible huff, Mabel pulled the book out of the cart and brought it over to Dipper. "I found it in the woods, yesterday, and-"

"OH MY GOD!" Dipper suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, startling Mabel. "You-You-You-You You found one! You found a Journal!"

"Wait, you know about-Hey!" Dipper ripped the Journal out of Mabel's hands, eyes wide and mouth agape as he flipped through the pages.

"I've heard about this from the older monsters in town! How back in the '70s, a six-fingered scientist came to Gravity Falls to study all of its weirdness, and he recorded his findings in three Journals, just like this one! Oh man, oh man! This whole time, I've just been going in blind, barely making progress, but with this, I can finally get somewhere!"

"...Yeah, might as well make that a parting gift to you."

"'Parting gift'?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow, remember? You seem like you'd get more use out of that thing than me, so you might as well keep it…"

"Oh… right… thanks…" Dipper put the Journal in his jacket pocket and looked down at the ground, his expression unreadable.

After putting the golf cart away and leaving a note that blamed the damage on rowdy teenagers, Mabel and Dipper went back inside the Mystery Shack.

"You two sure were gone for a while. Did Dipper have to rough up your date for messing with his sister?" Wendy asked from the counter.

"..." The twins were both silent. Wendy just awkwardly went back to her magazine.

"Aaaaaaaaand it's five o'clock! Quittin' time!" The voice belonged to Stan, the man walking into the gift shop with Soos right behind him.

"Mr. Pines, do you really have to do this?"

"Not up to me, Soos. What's done is done."

"Aw, man…" The two men stopped when they got in front of the kids.

"Well, I've worked here a whole week, just like you said," Mabel said.

"Yep…" Stan reached into his pocket and pulled out a pile of bills. "I didn't write you a check, since you don't really need one for what you're doing."

"Makes sense. I'll go pack up my stuff…" With a melancholy expression, Mabel took the money from Stan and moved towards the living room.

"Wait, stop!" Only to find herself stopping when Dipper opened his mouth. "Stan, you can't just let Mabel go home!"

"And why's that, kid?" Stan asked.

"Because, she's… the best employee we've ever had, after Soos!"

"I'm not arguing with that, but it's still annoying to hear," Wendy said.

"Mabel's friendly with everyone, she came up with a new shelving method that involves colors and is surprisingly efficient, and her positive attitude makes people buy stuff, even when they don't want to! You can't get rid of someone like that!"

"Hmmm… so let me see if I understand you, Dipper. You think it's a bad idea for Mabel to go home, and you want her to stay here for the summer. Is that right?"

"..." Dipper took a look around the room to view everyone's expressions. Stan looked incredibly smug, Wendy looked like she was waiting for some kind of punchline, Soos looked like he was about to cry, and Mabel… Mabel just stared at him, looking unsure about how she should be feeling.

"Yes. I think it's a bad idea for Mabel to go home, and I want her to stay here for the summer."

"!" Now Mabel had an expression on her face: a smile.

"Well, that's that," Stan said, shrugging his shoulders. "Sorry, Mabel, but my hands are tied. Looks like you're stuck here for the whole summer."

"Well, if I have to be!" Mabel exclaimed, smiling even wider.

"Alright!" Soos suddenly grabbed Mabel and lifted her up with a bear hug. "This is great! You get to stay here, dude! I'm gonna do everything to make this your best summer, ever, just you wait!" Soos then went with more exclamations along those lines.

"That was really sweet of you, Dipper," Wendy said, patting the kid on the head.

"Yeah…"

Several hours later, after having what went from a goodbye dinner to a welcome dinner (the first meal Dipper actually attended with Mabel), Mabel was lying on her bed when someone started knocking on her door.

"Mabel, it's me. Can I come in?" It was Dipper. Dipper had never come to her room, before.

"Yeah, I'm decent enough," Mabel said (she was just in her over-sized night shirt). Dipper opened the door and walked inside.

"Hey…"

"Hey…"

"So… um… here." Dipper walked over to Mabel, took the Journal out of his jacket pocket, and put it out in front of Mabel.

"You're giving me this?"

"I'm giving you back this. Finder's keepers, and all that."

"Wow… thanks." Mabel took her Journal back from Dipper with a smile.

"Look, Mabel… I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you, all week. I was mad at Stan for keeping this from me, and I projected those feelings onto you."

"I thought you were doing that."

"But that's not it! I was also… I was also scared."

"Scared? You?" Mabel looked at her brother with confusion. "But just a few hours ago, you made an army of gnomes run away in fear as you held their leader captive at knifepoint!"

"Stuff like that is easy. Dealing with people, though? That's the real challenge. I got all the friends I have through luck, but when it comes to dealing with people on my own, I never know what to do and I panic."

I know how that feels, Mabel thought to herself.

"And when the next new person I had to deal with ended up being my long-lost sister? I didn't know how to handle that, so I just… tried to not handle it. Pretty terrible, right?"

"No, don't think like that. You're not terrible for doing that.

"Look, Dipper, I know that I've been acting like meeting you and Grunkle Stan was some super cool adventure I was on, but I've been scared, too. I've spent my whole life thinking that my only family was my mom, my dad, and Grandpa Shermie, and then I find out I have a great-uncle! That I have a twin brother! But why didn't I know about this? Are they bad people? Are my parents bad people? Do they not like us? Do we not like them? I don't know! Anything could have happened when I came up here, and that was scaring the bejeezus out of me!"

"Then why'd you even come?"

"Because I didn't want to live my whole life scared of what I didn't know, wondering what could have happened if I just tuned out my brain for a bit and came here! Plus… I just really wanted to see you."

"...This is going to be a weird, terrifying summer, even for living in Gravity Falls. But with you by my side, Mabel, I think I can get through it."

"You really mean that, Dipper? You… want me to be your friend?"

"What? Of course not." Mabel looked shocked. "I want you to be my sister." Then she started smiling again.

"May I?!" Mabel got off the bed and held her arms out towards Dipper, shaking them excitedly.

"Go ahead." Dipper copied her pose, though with less shaking.

"Hug me, brotha!" The twins then proceeded to embrace each other with a hug.

"Agh! Agh!" Which was slightly ruined by Mabel squeezing Dipper incredibly hard.

"Sorry, sorry!" Mabel quickly let go of her brother. "I'm a strong hugger. And high fiver. And thumb wrestler. I'm just really strong, I guess."

"No kidding. Well, um… see you tomorrow. I'm gonna ice my ribs for a while." Weakly smiling, Dipper exited the attic, Mabel waving at him all the while. After he was gone, Mabel brought the Journal over to her desk, grabbed a pen from a small jar, and opened up to a blank page.

"'It looks like I'll be staying in Gravity Falls for a while,'" Mabel wrote. "'I'm really happy that I get to spend time with my brother and my great-uncle, but at the same time, I'm scared of how I don't know what's going to happen. But like I told Dipper, you can't let fear control you. Though, with Dipper by my side, I don't really have anything to fear. Even though The Author said not to trust anyone in this town, I think the people I've met are definitely an exception.'"

While Mabel wrote in the Journal and Dipper tended to the bruising inflicted by Mabel's hug, Stan was in his office making a phone call.

"Yeah, looks like she's staying," Stan said into the phone. "Really didn't expect Dipper to have a change of heart. Guess he didn't inherit the Pines family's hard head. ...Mabel can't go back, now. She'd never forgive any of us! ...Have some faith in your uncle. I'm not gonna let that triangle lay a finger on them."

BRX VKRXOGQ'W KDYH OHW KHU VWDB KHUH, VWDQOHB