"Go faster!"

"I'm going as fast as I can! This thing ain't a race car!"

Leo managed to dodge a tree at the last second, but instead he drove off a cliff. Dipper and Mabel screamed, and Leo closed his eyes as they drove into a sign.

"Is everyone okay?"

He got a few more screams in response. Mabel looked back.

"It's getting closer!"

Leo managed to zig-zag his way out of the monster's reach as it tried to grab them. He heard Mabel retch and winced, hoping she didn't puke now. A tree suddenly flew past them and landed in their path. Because that was exactly what they needed.

"Ah!"

"Look out!"

Everyone screamed again as Leo tried to steer the car away from the tree.

Honestly, how did they manage to get into this mess in the first place?!

EARLIER THAT DAY

Leo was calmly flipping through a magazine that he didn't care for, but anything was better than dealing with people.

"He's looking at it! He's looking at it!"

Also, there's the fact his amazing sister was on another boy hunt. Great.

Leo looked up in time to see the poor victim- ahem- guy look around in confusion.

"I rigged it!" He felt as if he should be bit concerned over how proud she was over fraud, but, hey, no harm, no foul. He shook his head and went back to pretending to read the magazine. Just ignore it Leo, it'll stop soon enough.

"Mabel,"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dipper spray a jar of- where those eyeballs? Yes, yes, they were.

"I know you're going through your whole 'Boy Crazy' phase, but I think you're overdoing it with the 'crazy' part." Leo snorted and hummed in agreement.

Mabel turned to them with a look of faux betrayal.

"What?" She blew a raspberry at us, crossing her eyes as she did so. "Come on, guys! This is our first summer away from home, apart from Leo, it's my big chance to have an epic summer romance! Leo, you agree with me, right?"

Leo felt as if he should take her side. Unfortunately, he's her older brother, that's not a part of his job description.

"I know there's a lot of fish in the sea, but, sweetie, you're scaring all the fish away."

Mabel pouted, and Dipper snickered.

"Exactly! Plus, do you really have to flirt with every guy you meet?"

Leo thought back to all the times she's found a poor soul to sink her affectionate claws into and winced. She really was kind of out of control. It was, admittedly enough, hilarious though. Poor Mattress King guy…

"Mock all you want brothers," Mabel's voice brought him back from his musings. She stood straight, a determined look on her face. "But I got a good feeling about this summer."

She crossed her arms and smirked. "I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now."

Her confidence was quickly shattered though, because, at that moment, Stan walked in, choking on his own burp.

"Oh! Oh, not good, ow."

"Aww! Why!" Mabel's disgusted face was the last straw.

Leo burst into laughter, dropping the magazine in favor of holding his stomach. He gave Dipper, who was also laughing, a high five.

"All right, all right! Look alive, people! I need someone to go hammer these signs in the spooky part of the forest."

"Nose goes!" Leo shouted pressing a finger to his nose.

"Not it!" The twins yelled, touching their noses as well.

Soos stopped drilling in the background and raised his hand. "Uh, also not it."

Stan gave him a look. "Nobody asked you, Soos."

"I know, and I'm comfortable with that." He pulled out a chocolate bar out of nowhere and ate it. Which Leo found rude, cause, like, sharing is caring!

Stan sighed and turned to the redhead that was sitting on the other side of the counter. Jenny, if Leo remembered right.

"Wendy," Never mind. "I need you to put up this sign."

She had a magazine in her hands, like the one Leo had, only difference is that she was probably actually reading it.

"I would, but I, ugh… can't, ugh... reach it…" She pretends to reach for the sign before signing in defeat and went back to her magazine.

Leo let out a small laugh and Wendy looked up at him with a smile.

Stan sighed.

"I'd fire all of you if I could." He turned to us and put his hands together. "Alright, let's make it… eenie, meenie, miney… you." He pointed at Dipper and Leo gave a mental salute to the fallen soldier.

"Aw, what?" Dipper moaned in complaint. "Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods I feel like I'm being watched."

Leo tensed and sat up.

Stan rolled his eyes and pinched his nose. "Ugh this again."

"I'm telling you," Dipper insisted. "Something weird is going on in this town! Just today, my mosquito bites spelled out 'BEWARE'."

Stan took Dipper's arm and examined it. "That says 'BEWARB'." Dipper took his arm back and scratched it.

"Look, kid, the whole 'monsters in the forest' thing is just local legend drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that." He pointed his thumb over to a guy in the corner giggling at Stan's bobblehead's head bobble. Just when Leo thought people couldn't get any dumber.

"So, quit being so paranoid! That's Leo's job."

"Hey! I resent that totally true comment!"

As Dipper sighed and walked out of the store, Stan turned to the older Pine kid. Leo gave him an innocent smile.

"Don't think you're off the hook, I need you to restock the shelves."

Leo groaned, but got up and went to storage. So much for easy day.

Leo was finishing up restocking the crystal balls when Dipper came rushing in with Mabel in tow.

"Leo-Lee! Come on, Dipper found some nerd book!"

"Mabel!"

Leo shook his head. He should just leave them alone, it's really not his bus- yeah, no. Curiosity killed the cat, and he always fancied himself a cat person so… nosey older brother it is!

He walked into the living room, immediately being pulled onto the couch by Mabel before she sat on the armrest.

Dipper stood in front of them with a large smile on his face and a book in his hand. It didn't look very remarkable and Leo tried to hold back a pout of disappointment. His curiosity was sated, but it was completely anticlimactic.

"It's amazing! Grunkle Stan said I was being paranoid- "

"Yeah, you're breaching into my territory, step off." Naturally, he was ignored.

"-But, according to this book, Gravity Falls has a secret dark side!"

He opened the book up and showed them a page.

"Whoa! Shut up!" Mabel said excitedly, shoving Dipper.

"Well, meow to you too…" Leo said absentmindedly. Maybe there will be a climax to this story.

"And get this: after a certain point, the pages just… stop. Like the guy who was writing it… mysteriously disappeared."

"Sounds mysterious." Leo commented, smirking as Dipper gave him an unimpressed look. The doorbell suddenly rung, and Dipper closed his book.

"Who's that."

Whoever it was, Leo could practically feel Mabel vibrating with excitement. She probably ordered a bunch of glitter to put in her Mabel Juice.

"Welp, time to spill the beans." She knocked over a can of beans that was on the table next to them. "Boop. Beans."

She giggled and put her hands on her hips. "This girl's gotta date! Woot! Woot!" She fell into his lap, laughing.

Leo stiffened. Not Mabel Juice, then. Something way worse.

"Let me get this straight: in the half hour I was gone, you already found a boyfriend?"

She grinned and nodded. Dipper turned to Leo. "And where were you during this? You're supposed to scare boys away with your big brother thing!"

Leo put his hands up in surrender.

"I was being a model great nephew and doing as our dear, old Grunkle told me to do! I'm just as surprised as you are."

"What can I say?" Mabel said, shrugging. She put her hands in her sleeves and started waving them. "I guess I'm just irre-sis-tible!"

The doorbell rang again.

"Oh. Coming!" She ran out but stopped at the doorway. She turned and gave Leo a pointed look. "Don't scare him away."

"Fine."

With that, she bounced out of the room. Dipper turned Leo with a pointed look.

"You're going to sass him instead, aren't you?" Leo scoffed

"What kind of big brother do you take me to be? Of course, I am."

Satisfied Dipper sat on the armrest and began flipping through the book, excitedly telling Leo more about it. As they spoke, Stan walked in with a Pitt Cola in his hand.

"What'cha reading there, slick?"

Surprised, Dipper fumbled slightly, placing (read: shoving) the book behind Leo. He grabbed a random magazine and started to pretend to read it. Leo didn't have the heart, or feeling in his side, to tell him what he just picked up.

"I was just catching up on, uh… Gold Chains for Old Men Magazine?" Leo snorted, earning him a glare.

"That's a good issue." Stan said approvingly.

"Hey, family!" Mabel said, coming into the living room. "Say hello to my new boyfriend!"

Leo blinked, processing all the red flags that were shooting up. One, this guy was obviously way older than Mabel. Two, he smelled like he rolled around in deer pee. Three, he looked like he rolled around in deer pee.

"Sup?"

Four, he sounds like a drug addict.

"Hey…"

"How's it hanging?"

Leo crossed his arms.

"You look like a what a stray cat might cough up."

Dipper hid his smile in his jacket while Stan outright laughed. Mabel gave him a glare before smiling back at the no doubt reject.

"We met at the cemetery. He's really deep." She grabbed his arms and swooned. "Oh, little muscle there. That's… what a surprise."

Leo then coughed out "stash" causing Stan to give another bark of laughter. Thankfully, it didn't seem Mabel or Dipper understood, or noticed.

"So, uh, what's your name?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah," Leo drawled. "I'd love to have a name to go with such a pretty face." Mabel gave him another glare. Leo blew her a kiss.

"Uh… Normal… MAN!" Mabel giggled.

"He means Norman." Dipper still didn't look convinced.

"Are you bleeding, Norman?" Leo looked at his face (which was gross in its own rights) and quirked an eyebrow at the red liquid on his face. Before he could say anything though, Mabel threw a pillow at his face.

"It's jam."

"I love jam!" Mabel gasped. "Look, at, this!"

Norman blinked. Even his eyes are as dead as his stench, Leo mused.

"So, you wanna go hold hands or… whatever."

Red flag, red flag, red flag, so many red flags!

"Excuse you? What the fu- "

"Oh, my goodness!" Mabel interrupted, giggling. She ran out. "Don't wait up!"

Norman gave them the finger guns and walked out. Well, tried. He kept hitting walls on the way out.

"Dude's trashed."

"Leo!"

"So, anything in particular that I need to know about you, Leo?"

Leo stopped stocking the eyeballs- truly, he has reached the peak of weirdness- and turned to Wendy. She had her feet on the countertop, idly flipping her magazine. At this point, he was pretty sure that she just had it as an excuse to ignore the world.

He respected that.

"Name's Leo, you can call me Leo. I am not an artist, I am not a actor, and, as far as you know, I'm not a ninja."

Wendy laughed, putting the magazine on her stomach.

"I'm sure that I can manage to find some evidence against that." Leo quirked an eyebrow.

"Which one?"

"Yes."

They both laughed. Then Dipper came into the shack, looking anxious while holding his book tightly against his chest. He grabbed Leo's hand and dragged him upstairs.

"Of course, I can come with you, little brother, it's not like I was working or in a conversation or anything." Leo rolled his eyes. Dipper ignored him, of course, and dragged him into the room and sitting him down on his bed.

"Norman's a zombie." Leo blinked, then smirked.

"Of corpse, he is."

"You disgust me."

Leo laughed and laid back on the bed.

"But, seriously, a zombie? That's a bit extreme. I mean, sure he smells and looks like the dead, and he sounds like a 40-year-old chain-smoker, and- wow, okay, you might actually have point here." Dipper flailed his arms.

"Exactly!"

That's when Mabel flounced into the room with a dreamy smile on her face.

"Hello, siblings!" She went to her side of the room and started brushing her hair.

"Mabel," Dipper turned to her and put his hands on his hips. "We've gotta talk about Norman."

"Isn't he the best?" She stopped and turned to face her brothers and pointed to her cheek. There was a big red mark on her face. "Check out the smooch mark he gave me!"

"What?!" The twins jumped and turned to Leo who was getting up. He went over to the closet and started rummaging through it. "Dipper, where's the bat? I'ma go bust Norman's a-!"

"No!" Mabel quickly went over to him and pulled him away from the closet. "It was just an accident with the leaf blower! I swear!"

Leo gave her an unbelieving look. There was no way that she- wait. Yeah, yeah there was.

He huffed and sat on the bed. "I'm still gonna cut an undead son of a corpse."

Mabel looked confused. "Uh, what?"

"Mabel, listen," Dipper said taking out his book. "I'm telling you that Norman is not what he seems!"

"So, you think he might be a vampire! That would be so awesome!" Mabel gasped happily.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you watch those movies." Leo muttered.

Dipper flipped open the book. "Guess again, sister. Sha-BAM!"

Mabel screamed, her face looking disgusted. Leo looked at the book and laughed.

"Wrong page, bro." Dipper looked at the page.

"Wait, hold on." He flipped again and then showed her the right page. "Sha-BAM!"

"A zombie?" She scoffed. "That is not funny, Dipper! And, you!" She pointed over to Leo.

"I can't believe you're going along with this!" Leo shrugged.

"I'm not joking!" Dipper cried, desperately. He put the book in his jacket and started pacing. "It all adds up: the bleeding, the limp."

"The smell." Leo added.

"He never blinks! Have you noticed that?" Leo didn't, but it was probably true.

"Maybe he's blinking when you're blinking." Mabel tried to explain, grabbing her earrings off the dresser.

"Mabel remember what the book said about Gravity Falls? Trust no one!"

"Well, what about me, huh? Why can't you trust me?"

"I trust you, Mabel." Leo said, causing her to smile at him. "But I don't trust him."

She frowned, before putting on her earring. "Beep. Boop."

"Mabel," Dipper yelled, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. "He's gonna eat your brain!"

She pushed him away.

"Listen to me, boys," Mabel said angrily. "Norman and I are going on a date at 5 o'clock," Dipper gasped, and Leo narrowed his eyes. "And I'm going to be adorable and he's going to be dreamy!"

She poked his chest. She went over to the bed, grabbing Leo and pushing him until he was next to Dipper.

"And I am not gonna let you two ruin it with a crazy conspiracy!"

With that she pushed them out of the room and slammed the door shut.

Dipper groaned and leaned against Leo. "What am I gonna do?"

"Whatever it is," Leo pat his head. "I'm not letting you do it alone."

Dipper smiled.

"Come on, let's go downstairs and wait for the inevitable."

Leo was sitting on the armrest of the couch, comforting Dipper, who was in the seat. The doorbell then rang, and he looked at the weird looking owl clock. 5 o'clock, on the dot. Impressive, or creepy. He'll decide later.

"Coming!" Mabel's sing-songed, running down the stairs while putting on one her more sparkly sweaters.

She opened the door with a smile, revealing the grey skinned demon.

"Hey, Norman!" She grabbed the end of her sweater and showed it off to him. "How do I look?"

"Sparkly." He shrugged.

"Oh, Norman, you always know what to say." She happily grabbed his hand and walked out, closing the door with a little more force than needed.

Dipper sighed and looked down at his camera. "Soos was right, I don't have any real evidence."

He turned it on and a video showing Mabel and Norman playing hopscotch showed up. Leo raised his eyebrows.

"When did you stalk them? And where was I during this?"

"When they hung out and you were off doing big brother things." He said absentmindedly. Leo tried to say something else but was cut off by Dipper's self-deprecating sigh.

"I guess paranoia runs in the family, huh?" Leo joked.

"Maybe, but- wait, what?!" He yelled as he saw Norman reattach his fallen hand. "Leo, did you see this?"

He hit rewind and showed the video again to Leo.

"What the actual frick?"

"I was right! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"

Dipper jumped off the couch and ran outside, Leo following him. "H-hey, wait up!"

He found him trying to get Stan's attention from the back of a crowd.

"For the fifth time, it's-it's not an actual face!"

Dipper made a frustrated noise. "Stan! Stan!"

"He's not listening." Leo said grabbing him and pulling him away. "C'mon; I think I see Wendy."

She then pulled up in the golf cart. Leo grinned. "Wendy!"

"Wendy! Wendy! Wendy!" Dipper ran up to her. "We need to borrow the cart, so we can save our sister from a zombie!"

Wendy raised her eyebrows, before crossing her arms and smiling. She threw the keys to Leo and winked. "Try not to hit any pedestrians."

Leo smirked back. "No promises."

Dipper grinned before dragging his brother into the golf cart. Before they cold drive off, Soos stopped them.

"Dude, it's me: Soos." He held up a shovel. "This is for the zombies.

Dipper took it. "Thanks."

Leo looked at him. "Got a bat?"

Soos held up a baseball bat. "Make sure you get those piñatas."

Leo took the bat and grinned mischievously. "Sweet."

Soos gave him a finger gun and winked. Leo pressed the gas and drove off as fast as he could. As he drove, dodging trees, rocks, and the occasional animal, he could hear Dipper muttering to himself.

"Hey, you okay?" Dipper groaned.

"I should have fought more to get her to leave Norman. Now, she's probably going to get her brain eaten and become an undead monster herself! She can't become a zombie!"

"And she won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Cause I'm your older brother. There's no way I'm letting a member of the undead touch my baby sister."

Dipper sighed but nodded. Leo reached over and pat his head. The moment was ruined by a loud scream. Leo knew that scream, he heard every time they watched a clay animation. "Mabel!"

"Help!"

"Hold on!"

As they reached the source of the sound, they saw a bunch of- were those gnomes- trying to pin Mabel onto the ground. Oh. Oh hell no.

"The more you struggle, the more awkward this is gonna be for everybody!" The gnome was standing on a rock, facing away from them said. "Just, ha, okay, get her arm there, Steve!"

"Let go of me!"

Mabel was kicking and punching away the gnomes as they came to her. Leo felt pride swelling up inside him. One of the ones she punched was knocked back a few feet and started puking rainbows. Normally, Leo would make a joke but

"What the heck is going on here?!" Dipper yelled.

"Get off my sister, you lawn decorations!"

A gnome ran past and hissed at them. It actually hissed at them. Leo didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Dipper! Leo!" Mabel yelled. "Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they're total jerks."

A gnome started pulling at her hair. "Hair! Hair! Hair!"

"Gnomes? Huh, I was way off." Dipper pulled out the book and started reading the section out loud. "Gnomes: little men of the Gravity Falls Forest. Weaknesses: unknown."

"Well, isn't that just great!" Leo said, rolling his eyes.

He started swinging his bat at stray gnome that was getting too close for comfort. He grinned victoriously when he managed to hit it. Looking up he noticed that his sister was finally subdued and was tied down onto the ground.

"Aw, c'mon!"

"Hey, HEY! Let go of my sister!" Dipper yelled at Jeff.

"Oh! Ha ha, hey there!

Um, you know, this is all just a really big misunderstanding." Leo swung at another gnome. "You see, your sister's not in danger-,"

"She looks in danger to me."

"She's just marrying all one thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity! Isn't that right, honey?"

"You guys are butt-faces!" She yelled before a gnome covered her mouth.

Dipper held up his shovel and pointed it at the gnome threateningly. Leo felt proud again. He raised his little siblings right.

The gnome glared at him.

"You really think you can stop us, boy? You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race! Don not trifle with the-ah!"

Dipper scooped the gnome up with the shovel and then flung it over towards Leo, who hit it with the bat. Leo laughed and threw Dipper a thumbs up. Dipper grinned back at him before cutting Mabel out with the shovel. Mabel let out a cry and knocked the gnomes holding her away. Dipper grabbed her hand and led her to the car, Leo hitting more gnomes with his bat before following them and turning on the cart.

"He's getting away with our queen! No, no, no!"

"Seatbelt. Dipper said, ever the responsible one.

Leo hit the gas pedal and drove off.

"You okay, little sister?"

"Yeah, I'm good. But, hurry! Before they come after us!"

"I wouldn't worry about it," Dipper said. "See their little legs? Those suckers are tiny!" He laughed.

Leo stopped the car and looked back. The was a giant monster mad of gnomes.

"Dang."

The thing growled. "Move, MOVE!"

Leo hit the gas again, going as fast cart would allow him. He heard a thump and looked back at the gnomes to find them regrouping.

"Come back with our queen!"

"It's getting closer!"

The creature threw a bunch of gnomes at the car and they started tearing it apart.

"Hey, get off! Leo yelled, swerving the car wildly, trying to throw them off and succeeding with a few.

Mabel punched a gnome that was hanging off the cart while another jumped behind Dipper. He yelped and grabbed the gnome, hitting him against the cart.

"Shmebulock…" The gnome fell.

Another managed to crawl its way inside and clung on to Dipper's face.

"I'll save you, Dipper!" She yelled before punching him repeatedly in the face. He dazedly thanked her.

Leo grabbed a gnome that jumped onto the steering wheel and threw it at a nearby tree causing its hat to get stuck in the bark.

"Ha ha! Headshot!"

His victory was short-lived, however when the giant gnome creature threw a tree and it landed in front of the car.

"Ah!"

"Look out!"

Everyone screamed again as Leo tried to steer the car away from the tree. The golf cart spun around and landed in front of the shack, overturning as it stopped. Leo and the twins crawled out from underneath.

"You guys still breathing?" They both muttered their confirmations before screaming the monster came to a stop in front of them.

Leo grabbed his younger siblings and put them behind him, holding his arm out in front of them protectively. They gripped at his jacket's sleeves.

"Stay back, man!" Dipper yelled, picking up the shovel and throwing it at the monster. It smacked the shovel away before it could do any damage. They screamed and held onto each other but keeping a grip on Leo.

"Uh, where's Grunkle Stan?"

"Probably out conning some people." Leo answered, not taking his eye off the monster. It took a few steps forward, backing them up against the shack.

"It's the end of the line, kids! Mabel, marry us before we do something crazy!"

Dipper shook his head and too out his book. "There's gotta be a way out of this!"

"Didn't that book say that they didn't have weakness though?" Leo asked, grabbing the bat off the ground and holding it out in front of him.

Mabel took a step forward.

"I gotta do it."

"What?!" The brothers yelled at the same time.

"Mabel don't do this! Are you crazy?" Dipper whisper-yelled. Leo nodded in agreement.

"I'm with him! You can't do this!"

"Trust me."

"What?" She turned to them, a desperate look on her face.

"Guys, just this once, trust me." She whispered, furiously.

Dipper and Leo looked at each other, then at the gnomes, before looking at Mabel and nodding. Dipper took a step back and Leo let her through.

Alright, Jeff," Mabel said, walking forward. "I'll marry you."

The creature stomped its foot.

"Hot dog!" Jeff said, starting to climb down the monster.

"Thanks, Andy! Alright, left foot, there we go. Watch those fingers, Mike!"

Jeff held out a diamond ring and wiggled his eyebrows. "Eh? Eh?"

"I'm gonna puke." Leo muttered to himself, one arm wrapped around Dipper's shoulders.

Mabel smiled demurely and held out her hand, Jeff sliding the ring onto her finger. She held her hand up to her face and admired the ring.

"Bada-Bing! Bada-bam!" Jeff did a little dance. "Now let's get you back into the forest, honey."

"You may now kiss the bride!"

It took all of his willpower (which was, admittedly, a very small amount) and Dipper gripping onto his hand to keep him from charging over to them and swinging his bat into every gnome in his way.

"Well, don't mind if I do!" Jeff turned and puckered up. Mabel smiled and leaned in, before turning the leaf blower on and holding it out in front of her. Leo grinned manically.

"Ah! Hey, hey, wait a minute!" Jeff held up his hands and slowly back away. "Whoa, whoa! Wh-what's goin' on?!"

As he said that, he got half-way sucked into the leaf blower.

"That's for lying to me!" She increased the power. "That's for breaking my heart!"

"Ow! My face!"

"And this is for messing with my brothers!" She turned to Dipper and Leo. "Which one of you wants to do the honors?"

Leo grinned and nudged Dipper forward, who happily took his place next to his twin. "On three! One, two… three!"

Dipper hit reverse on the leaf blower and it shot Jeff out at the gnome monster, causing it to explode and hundreds of gnomes to fall from the sky.

"Ah! I get you back for this!" Jeff yelled as he flew off into the forest.

Leo laughed loudly, before grabbing his bat and swinging at the gnomes that fell.

"It's raining gnomes! Hallelujah, it's raining gnomes! A-gnome!" He sang, batting away the gnomes that fell within his reach.

"Who's giving orders? I need orders!"

"My arms are tired!"

Mabel took the leaf blower and started taunting the gnomes with it.

"Anyone else wants some?" Dipper mocked, his hands on his hips as he smirked.

The gnomes all ran away, going into the forest. One of them got stuck in a six-pack holder. Poor, or excellent, depending on who you're talking to, timing because Gompers came and picked it up before running away.

Leo laughed and placed the bat around his shoulders. "Let's go clean up, younger Pines."

They started walking to the front of the shack when Mabel called out to them.

"Hey, guys?" They both turned to see her with her arms behind her back, looking ashamed.

"I'm, umm…" She sighed. "I'm sorry for ignoring your advice. You really were looking out for me."

"Oh, don't be like that." Dipper smiled, waving off her apology. "You saved our butts back there."

"Yeah," Leo grinned. "And, this allowed me to practice my swing."

He got into a batter's position and started to do a few swings. Mabel smiled sadly and picked a leaf out of her hair.

"I guess I'm just sad that my first boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes."

"Look on the bright side," Dipper shrugged. "Maybe the next one will be a vampire!" Leo snorted.

"Then it's a good thing this bat is wooden."

"Ohhoho, you're just saying that." She punched them on their shoulders. Dipper held out his arms.

"Awkward sibling hug?" Mabel and Leo smiled.

"Awkward sibling hug." Mabel and Dipper hugged each other, before patting each other's backs twice. "Pat. Pat."

"Well, this has been a fun day!" Leo said, wrapping his arms around their shoulders, Mabel on his left and Dipper on his right. The bat was still loosely hanging in his right hand. "But, like I said, let's go get cleaned up. I think there are leaves where no leaf should be."

Dipper and Mabel laughed and shoved at him but relaxed into his hold and walked to the shack. Once inside, Dipper kicked the door shut and they stopped in front of Stan.

"Yeesh! You three get hit by a bus or something? Ahah!" He laughed and slammed his hand onto the counter.

Leo rolled his eyes and moved forward, his siblings following him without a word.

"Uh, hey!" They all stopped and looked back to Stan. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, Leo overstocked some inventory,"

"Excuse you?"

"So, uh… how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop? On the house, y'know?"

"Really?" Mabel said, hopefully.

"What's the catch?" Dipper crossed his arms.

"I overstocked the inventory?" Leo put his hand on his chest in offense. Whether it was real or fake, no one could tell.

"That catch is that you do it 'fore I change my mind. And yes, you did. Now, take something."

He opened the register and started distributing money inside. The siblings all looked around the shack, looking for anything that caught their interests.

Leo went a bit more towards the back and found something that caught his eye. It was a green and black bracelet that wrapped around three times before connecting to a silver question mark. The strap on top was made of green rope, the middle, where the question was located, was black leather, and the third was also green rope. They were all connected to a silver clasp on the back. He grinned and took it. It matches his outfit.

"Found something!" He held up the bracelet. Stan nodded, and Leo put it on.

"I'm also keeping the bat."

"I said one thing!"

"I'm a rebellious teenager, you can't tell me what to do!"

"Hmm," Dipper grabbed a white and blue hat with a pine tree in the middle before going over to a mirror and putting it on. "That oughta do it." He smiled in satisfaction.

"And I will have a…" Mabel grabbed something out of the box, twirled before holding out a grappling hook in the air.

"Grappling hook! Yes!"

Stan looked a little worried before turning to Dipper. "Wouldn't she rather have a, uh, doll, or something?" Mabel shot it at the ceiling and it shot her up.

"Grappling hook!" She yelled excitedly.

"Fair enough!

After showering and de-leafing his body, Leo got into his pajamas and went to his room, a few doors down from the twins'. Getting into his way too small bed (he should really talk to Stan about that), he fiddled with his bracelet, smiling when the silver question mark caught the light of the lantern that was next to his bed. He glanced at the baseball bat that was harmlessly leaning against the wall with a smile.

"Welp, looks like it won't be such a boring summer after all."

He turned off the light and curled up, falling into a dreamless sleep.

Welcome! This is my first time writing for Gravity Falls, which is weird since I've been in the fandom since the show aired. It's also my first time writing an OC insert story. Lots of firsts! Leave a comment down below and tell me what you think!

Also, I was wondering if I should continue to do each episode in one chapter, like this, or separate them into two parts. What do you guys think? I'm planning this story to mostly follow canon, with a few diverging points here, and there, with a few chapters in between the canon episodes to either develop relationships or whatever else.

Anyway, this is how I imagine Leo too look like:

Brown eyes and hair, fluffy and slightly unkempt with the cowlick in the back that all the Pines seem to have. He has a bit of a slouch. His outfit consists of a green T-shirt underneath an open black hooded jacket with a gray hood. Faded blue jeans and black and white sneakers. For accessories he has his bracelet, which is described up in the story, and a pair of silver stud earrings.

And, with that said, goodbye!