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Dipper Pines blinked his eyes open a few times. Mabel was still asleep next to him. Dipper looked out the window to see that they were close to the town of Gravity Falls, Oregon.
After the twins had returned home on their thirteenth birthday, they hadn't stopped talking about that summer for months, years. Their parents had even discussed moving there personally, but after a short trip, they just couldn't do it. So they agreed that when the kids finished high school, they would spend the summer there again.
Mabel slowly woke up a few minutes later.
"OHMYGOSHWE'RESOCLOSE," she yelled excitedly.
Sure enough, they were starting to see Gravity Falls bumper stickers, road signs, and landmarks.
"Ooh! I wonder how everyone's changed," exclaimed Mabel. "I'm gonna see Grunkle Stan, and Candy and Grenda, and Pacifica..."
Dipper thought the same. Wendy and the other teenagers would be about twenty now. Would they be at college? Was Ford still there?
Mabel took out her scrapbook and started writing down things like what kind of rocks they saw.
Dipper smiled. Mabel's personality had remained the exact same. She still knitted colorful sweaters and only talked in exclamations and loved colorful and cute things. Dipper had pretty much remained the same too. He frequently watched Ghost Hunters on the DVD Pacifica gave him, and was always walking around in the forest, looking for adventure.
A couple minutes later, the Speedy Beaver bus pulled up to the bus stop. The twins couldn't contain their excitement.
They saw that nobody they knew was at the stop. They were saddened immediately. Would Grunkle Stan really have them just take public transportation to get to the Mystery Shack? Did nobody care that much?
The kids got off. They still didn't see anybody.
Behind them, there was a door creak. The twins turned around to see Grunkle Stan coming out of the bathroom, toilet paper stuck to his shoe.
"Kids," he exclaimed.
"Grunkle Stan," the kids yelled back.
They dropped their things and ran to hug their Grunkle.
"Oh! Look at you! You're so big," Stan exclaimed.
He looked the exact same, except for some more wrinkles and scars and he was wearing casual clothes.
They drove to the shack and parked a few feet away.
Someone on the porch saw the car and yelled into the building.
The kids went onto the patio and waited for a few seconds.
Soos was the first one to come outside. He wore the Mystery Suit and fez. Melody was standing next to him wearing the employee outfit.
"Dudes," Soos exclaimed.
The kids ran forward, and they hugged.
Wendy came out next. She had more freckles and short hair and was wearing even dirtier clothes.
They hugged. Dipper had to admit, she was still attractive, but the age gap was still too much.
Candy and Grenda were next. They embraced Mabel, but Dipper hung back. They weren't really friends, so they didn't miss each other.
Right after Mabel and her friends broke their hug, there was a thumping sound on the wood. The twins looked up.
Pacifica was standing there. She wore a purple tank top and designer purple shorts and heeled brown suede boots. Her hair was the same, and her makeup was even more extreme.
Mabel ran forward and hugged her. She was taller than Pacifica, even though she was wearing flats.
The two girls hugged, then Mabel stood to the side for Dipper.
The truth was, Dipper and Pacifica had kept in contact all these years. They would FaceTime, text, or call, talking the night away. But they hadn't seen each other in person since they were twelve.
Pacifica ran forwards and hugged him tightly. Dipper did too.
They didn't separate for a while, but eventually Pacifica cleared her throat and moved back a little.
That night, everyone went to dinner at Greasy's Diner. The kids learned that Ford had left, and Wendy had gone to work at the lumberjack company, and the Northwests had gotten their fortune back somehow.
The kids were interrogated, and they interrogated the others. Not much had changed in the town, other than some new businesses and people moving in. Stan still lived in the shack. Soos and Melody stayed in Ford's old room.
That night, the kids, and Pacifica, who they'd invited, climbed up the stairs to the attic bedroom. They were surprised to find that there was only one large bed. The old small beds had apparently fallen through because of age.
Undeterred, the kids just put their individual bedding on either side. Pacifica had brought a servant and everything she needed for one night, which was a lot.
Her air mattress wasn't inflating. The servant was panicking, probably because he thought he would be fired if it didn't work.
"Hey Pacifica," Mabel said. "You wanna sleep up here, with us?"
Dipper's eyes widened, and he started fidgeting. He hadn't realized that was what Mabel meant.
After some reasoning with herself and making sure that her mattress didn't work, Pacifica agreed.
She had to sleep sandwiched in between the twins because of their bedding. She put her "old backup sheets" down, and they were far nicer than anything the Pines had.
They all tried to get ready in the same small bathroom, then quickly realized that wouldn't work and started getting ready one at a time.
After a few more minutes of talking, they got into bed and went to sleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Dipper woke up. He went to the bathroom to get a drink.
He found Pacifica curled up on the bathroom floor, crying silently.
Dropping to his knees next to her, Dipper asked, "Pacifica! What's wrong?"
She sniffed a few times and looked up at him.
"I'm still rich," she started. "And it's not even ours! We just basically work for Mcgucket and he lets us live there and we share the money! And I hate it and I hate my parents and they're still so controlling and I can't be with you! They won't allow it!"
Dipper pried her hands away and held them.
"Well, we'll find a way," he said encouragingly. "We defeated a literal demon, your parents will be easy as pie compared to that!"
Pacifica smiled and sniffed one last time. Her and Dipper walked hand in hand back to the bed. They embraced each other in their sleep.
They slept all night long like that.