Chapter Text
“Someone is speaking”
‘Someone is quoting something’
Someone is thinking
Do you know that falling feeling that you have sometimes at the end of a nightmare? The one where you are just falling helplessly? That’s me right now. I was just casually walking home from just another day of Junior year in highschool when out of literally nowhere, everything started to fade away. I wanted to run back where I came, but the same thing was happening behind me as well. I was trapped and the rock music that was playing through my earbuds was not helping. Eventually, everything around me was white, including the ground I was standing on. I wanted to scream as I started falling, but nothing would escape my throat.
I unstrapped my backpack, brought out in front of me and held it tight to my torso. I was going to hit something soon, I had to. I shut my eyes in anticipation, but nothing came. My eyes slowly opened and I realized that I was hurtling towards land and some trees. Finding my voice this time, I yelled as I hit the treeline, and even though it slowed my fall, I still hit the ground pretty hard. My body was cushioned by my backpack thankfully, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt. I rolled onto my back off the flattened bag with a loud grunt of pain. I winced and shut my eyes, trying to breathe and comprehend what just happened.
After a few seconds, blood started to trickle out of my nose forcing my eyes open. I wiped the back of my hand under my nose, clearing it away for but a few moments . My gaze lifted from my bloody hand and I almost passed out at what I saw. In front of me there was a building that I loved and cherished. The building was a shack, and on the side of its triangle roof were red painted wood letters with a yellow backdrop making the letters pop out. Two words were proudly displayed with those letters, and they read: ‘MYSTERY SHACK.’
My jaw dropped, this was not possible. Gravity Falls is a cartoon, it's not real, it can’t be real! I slowly began to stand on my feet, completely disregarding my bag, fallen out earbuds and my current nosebleed and walked up to what I believed was the gift shop entrance. Shakily grabbing the wooden handrail, I made my way up the rickety steps and to the door, stumbling a little when I had to let go of the rail to get to the door. Sloppily wiping the blood off my face one final time, I took a big breath and pushed open the door. I almost passed out due to surprise again right when my eyes laid upon the cashier of the establishment, she had red hair just like me and I knew that it must be Wendy Corduroy.
She had her feet propped up on the counter top and was reading a magazine with a lifeless expression. “Welcome to the Mystery Shack, or whatever.” She said in a bored tone when she heard the bell ring as the door opened. I was completely appalled, she looked real. The tangles in her hair were noticeable and so were her sporadic freckles. The green flannel she was wearing hung loosely to her torso, her boots were all muddy, probably making a mess on the table and on top of it all was her lumberjack hat. She looked like a real person, and if that isn't scary enough, her voice sounded identical to the one she has in the show.
I tried to take a step further into the room, but stumbled forward knocking down a metal stand of postcards while trying to regain my lost balance. My eyes flew over to Wendy as she said, “Watch it buddy! Stuff here is expensive ya know!” When she said this the magazine was still blocking her view, so when she heard no reply from me, she lowered the reading material and shock spread across her face. “Oh my gosh are you okay?” Even when she talked she looked real, her mouth matched up perfectly to the words coming out of it.
She brought her feet to the ground and ran over to me, where I was clinging onto a shelf for support so I could stand. So she looks real, big deal! That doesn’t mean she IS real. I have to be hallucinating. When she reached me, she put her hand on my shoulder, which made my eyes widen. I’m not hallucinating! I’m not hallucinating! My arms went limp from physical exhaustion and from the overwhelming fact that I’m actually in Gravity Falls. I collapsed on the floor and the last thing that I remembered was Wendy giving a yelp at my loss of consciousness.
A few hours later I woke up. I had a gauze pad under my nose so the bleeding stopped, my arms had damp cool towels on them and below that I had a rather large ice pack on my stomach. Wincing at the pain, I tried to sit up so I could examine my legs. They were in the same condition my arms were in, covered with wet rags in different places. Slowly, I brought my body back down into a resting position, but I closed my eyes and began to cough. I must have grabbed someone’s attention because I heard footsteps approaching me. Barely opening my eyes, I tried to identify who the footsteps belonged to, but all I saw was a fuzzy outline of a man coming closer.
Deciding to risk it, I allowed my eyes to fully open and gaze upon who was in my presence. I freaked out... to say the least. Standing near my legs was the man, he wore a dark suit with a white undershirt. His face supported rectangle-like glasses and above one of the frames was a flipped up eyepatch. On top of it all was a red fez with a golden symbol in the center. I jumped back closer to the arm of the sofa I was laying on in complete surprise and the man’s serious stature quickly became alarmed by my reaction.
His voice was gruff and deep, but friendly, indicating he had spoken to many strangers in his time. “Whoa, easy there kid. By the looks of it you’ve been through a lot, take it easy.” Take it easy!? How could I take it easy when a real life Stanley Pines was standing above me? My heart was beating so fast that I heard it in my ears. First Wendy now Stan? Is there anyone not here? What is Soos here too?
As if on cue, a lumbering large man walked up to Stan. “Mr Pines, all the tourists have left. I had to use the hose on a few because of the cut tour, but they all ran out pretty quick. Hey, the mystery dude is up.” He said and I could all help but stare at him. He looked real too, albeit a little more recognizable than the other two, but real nonetheless. He wore his question mark shirt over his large stomach, cargo shorts were covering his legs and on his head he had a dark baseball cap.
Stan rolled his eyes at the handyman, “Yup, the kid just came around now.” My gaze quickly switched to the old man’s face, even the nose was spot on! “What’s your name?” Stan asked, resuming his serious expression that he held before. I didn’t respond, I couldn’t respond. This was all so much to take in. I loved Gravity Falls, yeah, but being here literally out of nowhere was too crazy for me. I often had daydreamed being here and now that I am officially in this backwoods town, it didn’t feel as amazing as I thought it would. It mostly just hurt, not just physically too. What about my friends and my family? Was I the only one that got “flashed?” Were there hundreds of people crawling and stumbling around like I had?
Stan snapped his fingers grabbing my attention to him, “Kid, I closed shop just so that we could properly fix you up. The least you could do is tell us who you are.” His tone was straightforward, impatient, a little rude and rightfully so. He had no idea who I was and how I managed to get to his doorstep, then again, I didn’t know either.
However I did know my name, but they can’t find it out because then they’ll know if I’m from another dimension. He’ll try to find my parents and then he’ll realize that they don’t exist... probably. I just couldn’t risk it.
I sat up with a small grunt and looked right at Stan, “My name is Matt. Matt…” It needed to seem like I had some form of memory loss so they wouldn’t question for my last name, and to make it look more convincing I brought my left hand to my forehead. “I can’t quite remember,” As I spoke my hand slid down and over my face. Stan is a professional con man, and I’m willing to wager that he can detect small facial cues of lies, so I hid my face.
When I brought my hand back down to my side I tried to find an emotion on his face, I couldn’t find a single one. “What year is it?” Stan asked nonchalantly.
I squinted slightly at the odd question, “What?”
“You heard me. What year is it?” He asked again in an irritated tone.
“Um, 2020?” I asked hopefully.
Stan scoffed at my answer, “Kid you must have hit your head on something really hard. It’s 2012, the beginning of summer meaning…” He seemed lost in thought as his eyes drifted away from mine. And then his face suddenly lit up and he shouted, “My niece and nephew are coming here tomorrow!” He slapped his forehead. “I completely forgot! I have to set up their bedroom!” He quickly walked out of the room and up the stairwell nearby. His footsteps stopped and I heard him come back down, prompting me to turn my body slightly to look at him. His head and shoulders were peeking out from behind the wall as he said, “This doesn’t mean that our conversation is over.” And with that, he walked right back up the stairs, signaling that I could lay back down once more.
“So what happened to you anyway, dude?” Soos asked, which startled me a little. I completely forgot he was in the room.
“Oh I thought you left,” I responded. “Man, for a big guy you can blend in pretty well.” He beamed at the comment, which wasn’t a compliment, but that’s Soos for ya. I didn’t like lying to someone like Soos, but I knew that he had a big mouth so I had to. “I don’t really know how I wound up here, man. I just kinda woke up right on the edge of the woods I guess, with all of these injuries too.” I glanced at my towel covered limbs and back to him. “I never got your name.” God, playing dumb really hurts.
“Oh, my name’s Soos!” He said with a small tip of his cap. “And that old guy was Mr. Stanford Pines, my boss.” The way that Soos stated Stan’s name really showed how much he cared for him. He really does view him as a father.
“He’s not, like, going to kick me out right?” I genuinely asked, hiding my concern with a chuckle that made me cough a little.
Soos raised his eyebrows slightly with his response, “No, of course not. Sure Mr. Pines looks kind of scary and mean, but he wouldn’t kick you out of the shack.” He looked off to the side. “I hope.” I ignored the last part and gave a small smile and tried to change the subject.
“What about that redhead manning the cash register? The one I probably scared half to death.” I clarified with a small chuckle that hurt a little.
Instantly, and I mean instantly Soos’s face became excited again as he responded, “Oh that’s Wendy. She’s the only girl in a family full of lumberjacks, and she’s super cool.” Despite Soos’s grand smile while talking about his friend, I couldn’t help but frown slightly. So that basically confirms that her mom is gone. Poor Wendy. I heard the front door open, shaking me from my thoughts. In walked the female lumberjack, she was texting someone on her phone and had a bag slung over her shoulder.
She looked up from her phone and looked at Soos and I while putting her device away, “My fellow ginger has awoken, how ya feeling?”
I smiled at the comment. She really was as cool the show made her out to be. “To be honest, everything hurts. I should be able to get around tomorrow much easier. Sorry for freaking you out earlier.”
She waved a hand through the air with a smile, “Pssh, I’ve seen more freaky things. One time I caught this kid trying to steal my moisturizer.” I laughed in response. If she thought Gideon doing that was weird, then this summer is surely going to rock her.
After my laughter subsided I asked, “What’s in the bag?”
“This stuff is for you, man,” She said, bringing the bag out infront of her.
I raised an eyebrow, “Wait, for me?”
“Yeah, dude,” Soos said while walking to a nearby table and grabbing a chair. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your clothes are pretty jacked up.” He brought the chair a few feet away from the couch and sat down. “Wendy and I put some money together to buy you this stuff.” He extended his hands out for the bag and Wendy placed it in his grasp and Soos sorted through it. “We got you some extra clothes, a hair brush, toothbrush and toothpaste and some shampoo. Stan’s got that old man's hair wash, do not want to put you through that.” He said with a chuckle.
“You guys didn’t need to do that, I have an extra set of clothes in...my...backpack…” I trailed off.
“Ah so that was your bag outside, I’ll go get it for you.” Wendy said politely, but I didn’t respond. My backpack had my first and last name imprinted on it. She couldn’t see that, if she did then I was screwed. I was about to call out and say that it wasn’t necessary, that I'd get it in the morning, but she was already gone. I hope she is as carefree as I think she is.
A few seconds later, Wendy came back in the shack and closed the door. She had my bag slung over one of her shoulders and had something small in her free hand. “Nice color choice with the bag, red like the fiery hair.” She nodded in approval as she put the bag down beside the couch, allowing me to exhale a breath I didn’t know I was keeping in. “Never seen these before though. Are these yours too?”
She held out my wireless earbuds close to me so I could see them. Since this was 2012 and not 2020, those earbuds were not invented yet. I didn’t really know how to explain what they were so I just nodded. Luckily, she didn’t ask any further questions and put them in the mesh pocket on the side of my bag.
The room fell into silence afterward, and a question entered my mind that I somewhat knew the answer to. “I can’t help but ask,” I started, grabbing Soos and Wendy’s attention, “Why am I in some shack and not a hospital right now?”
Wendy and Soos exchanged a small glance and the lumberjack turned back to me with a somewhat serious face, “You seem like a chill guy, so I’ll tell you this, but you cannot tell anyone else.” I nodded in response which prompted her to continue. “Okay uh, Stan isn’t exactly the most clean guy out there, so if the police or an ambulance came here with you looking like this, he might get into some trouble.” Yup, that’s pretty much the answer I was expecting.
“Well, as long as he allows me to stay here for a few days, then we’re straight,” I said with a small smirk.
“Yeah we better be straight, kid,” Stan said walking into the room surprising me with how quiet his descent down the stairs was. “I’ll let you stay the night, but tomorrow I’m bringing you back home to your folks, alright? Do you live in Gravity Falls?” Stan asked and I put on the best innocent act that I had ever put on. I knew full well that Gravity Falls was in Oregon, which meant that I was on the other side of the country from my hometown.
“I don’t live in this town, Mr. Pines.” I said quickly. “I don’t quite remember where I live, but I can tell you right now that it is not Gravity Falls.” Stan let out a sigh. “I mean, what kind of name is ‘Gravity Falls?’” Well... that hurt a lot to say.
“At least you remember how to breathe.” Stan muttered under his breath and was silent for a few seconds, but then spoke up. “Tell you what, until a missing person’s report matching your description comes out, you get to stay here. Now, that could take a while to get out to the public, so if you’re okay with staying in a shack with an old man and a pair of 12 year old twins, you can.” I nodded. Man, I’m going to be here for a while. “That doesn’t mean that you won’t have responsibilities, you are going to watch over my niece and nephew whenever I can’t. If they are working in the shack, then so are you. And if they decide to go out into town, then you are going too.” I honestly couldn’t tell if this was good or bad. On one hand, I have an opportunity to spend the foreseeable future with the Pines family and go on all of their adventures, but on the other hand, my family might have no idea where I am right now and could be worried sick, so I should try and get home as soon as possible. Then again, I didn’t know how to do that, so my best bet was staying here until I can figure that out.
“I’ll do it, Mr.Pines,” I responded and out of the corner of my eyes I saw Soos and Wendy start to smile at my choice.
“Alright then.” Stan concluded and was about to walk away, but then halted his movement. “But if you remember anything about your background, you tell me immediately. I don’t want people thinking that I kidnapped a teenager. Got it?”
I nodded once again, “Got it, Mr. Pines.”
“And one more thing, if you’re going to be staying here, just call me Stan.”
“That makes things easier,” I acknowledged. Thank god! That really does make things easier! I’m surprised I haven’t called him grunkle yet.
“You’re going to sleep down here for tonight, I don’t want you falling down the steps. Tomorrow I’ll show you around, so don’t go snooping where your nose doesn’t belong,” Stan pointed a finger at me and I smiled. Too bad I already know everything that he is trying to hide. “As for you two,” Stan turned to his employees, “You can go home now. You’ve done your part and it’s getting late.” Soos stood up and brought his chair back to where he got it while Wendy turned to me and gave a thumbs up.
“I’ll see you around, Matt,” She said making my blood run cold. I never told her my name.
“See ya later, dude!” Soos exclaimed as he followed his co-worker out the door. It took all that I had in me to put on a smile for him and it disappeared once he walked out the door.
Stan turned to me once they were gone, reaching for the light switch near the door, “Welcome to Gravity Falls, Kid.” And with that, the room plunged into darkness and I heard the man walk down the hall to his room. At least Stan didn’t realize that my bag had my name on it, but one thing’s for sure, I have to talk to Wendy and make her promise that she won’t tell anyone my last name.
I adjusted my head so I was looking to the ceiling and closed my eyes as I said to myself, “At least at home it’s a Friday and not a school night.”
When I woke up, irritation was the first thing on my mind. I raised my head up to look at my arms and I quickly noticed, despite the dark lighting, that my limbs had white towels on them. Wondering how they got there, I removed them but not without a jolt of unexpected pain. I brought my hand to my face and felt a multitude of cuts embedded into my skin. “Okay, what happened last night,” I said to myself sitting up now. Craning my head to the left, I looked around the room and it looked so familiar. Then it clicked and just like a flood, everything that happened yesterday came back to me.
“As much as I love Gravity Falls, I was kinda hoping that was a very vivid dream.” I reached my hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone, surprised at the fact that the screen was not absolutely shattered from yesterday’s events. Turning my device on, I quickly noted that the time was 6:58am which meant that Stan would start to get ready for his tourists. And probably rudely make me get up for work as well, despite my injuries.
When I unlocked my phone I sighed in disappointment at the fact that there was no service, I might have to switch to GRAVIT&T in order to use my phone, I still can’t believe that’s an actual thing. Putting my phone away in dissatisfaction, I brought my feet over and to the ground with yet another wince of pain. I needed to hype myself up in order to get the courage to stand up. With a few deep short breaths, I got to my feet. Bad idea. The quick added weight to my legs was too unbearable and I let myself fall back onto the couch. “Ow, I should have thought that through more.”
Then out of nowhere the lights were turned on, prompting me to shield my eyes. “Rise and shine, kid,” I heard Stan say.
I rubbed my eyes and slowly adjusted to the new lighting. “First, you don’t tell me where the bathroom is. Then, you tell me to go to sleep without feeding me and now you turn on the lights in a dark room where you know I’m sleeping,” I stated angrily to which Stan just shrugged. “If you're going to be a caretaker, you may want to work on the care part.”
“Stan turned and walked out of the room while saying, “The only work that’s going to be happening starts when the shack opens for business.” I rolled my eyes at his response, he is definitely Stanley Pines. “Get your butt over here.”
I gave a groan in reply and slowly stood up on my feet with minimal pain and lightly limped over to the room Stan had walked into. I stopped in the door frame and leaned there to take some weight off my legs. The room before me was the kitchen and it was just as underwhelming as the one in the show, guess that’s what happens when a man lives by himself for thirty years.
“As you can tell, this is the grub room. If you eat anything that has my name on it, I’ll put you right back into those woods.” Stan said while pointing out the window.
“Understood,” I rolled my eyes once again. “By the way, when are those kids coming today.”
“They’ll be here around two in the afternoon, it’s about a four and a half hour drive.” Stan said in response. “You already want to ditch me, huh.” I gave a shrug that had the same energy as the one he had given me moments ago. I savored the scowl that he gave me. Stan walked past me and my smirk back out of the room and stood impatiently at the foot of the stairs. He gestured past him and down the hallway beside said stairs. I walked past him and I noticed that I was actually a few inches taller than him. Wasn’t expecting that. The first door on the right led into the parlor, the place where Wax Stan’s funeral was held, or I guess will be held. The next door was Stan’s room, he made it very clear not to go in there, oh well, no fully clothed women for me. The one after that was his office, I wasn’t really supposed to go in there either. The last door led to the bathroom. It was inconvenient for the people that lived in the shack, but convenient for the tourists because the museum was placed right at the end of the hall down a small staircase.
“You should probably go take a shower, I don’t want anyone thinking that one of my attractions came to life,” Stan said to me after the small tour of his showroom.
“Oh yeah good thinking Mr. Pines,” I replied sarcastically. “Wouldn’t want to deduct the amount of scams you pull today.” Stan scoffed and my tone became serious. “How does anyone believe that stuff?”
“Beats me kid, but seriously though, wash up and then go eat something,” Stan said as he walked into the gift shop. I grabbed the bag that Wendy and Soos had given me and walked back down the hall to the bathroom. I got a good look at my face and the rest of my body, it was as bad as it felt. There were indeed multiple minor scratches on my face so shaving was going to be a problem. I need to go out and buy a razor at some point. On the back of my left wrist I had a big bruise that was turning black and blue and on my right forearm there was a similar bruise. The shirt I was wearing was completely totaled, it had holes on the sides and upper body, probably from the branches that I whipped past yesterday. I took off the wrecked article of clothing and turned to examine my back, nothing out of the ordinary which was a huge relief.
My legs had cuts and scratches up and down, but perhaps the worst were my knees. They had marks covering the top halves of them and hurt to the touch. Believe me, it was a joy to find that information out. To top everything off, I had dirt and dried blood everywhere. I grabbed my new shampoo out of the bag while making sure that there was an actual towel in the room along with body wash, which, to my delight, there were. I was in the shower for about twenty minutes, mostly because the shower wasn’t mine and I had no idea how to use it, but being extremely dirty had affected the time as well.
Once I got out I felt much better and after I dried myself off I took a look at what clothes were given to me. I first pulled out a red flannel, definitely Wendy’s idea, and put it to the side. Next there was a plain black t-shirt that I think would look good with the flannel, then again I’m a guy with no fashion sense and could never quite get a proper set of clothes. I pulled out another T-shirt and when I opened it I was happy to see that it had a giant question mark on it. Okay, never getting rid of this. I put that to the side along with the others and after that I pulled out a maroon sweatshirt that looked really comfortable. At the bottom of the bag there were a pair of jeans, definitely Wendy again, and a pair of regular grey pants, underneath that there were a few pairs of socks and underwear.
I put on what I’m pretty sure Soos had given me, mostly because it covered my cuts and bruises. Then I brushed my teeth and then my hair. I used the brush to part my hair to the right and smother down any loose strands, there were a lot of those. After I was done, I didn’t know where to put my toiletries ao I just kept them to the right side of the sink on the counter. I walked out feeling refreshed, sweatshirt in one hand and bag in the other that had all of my clothes. I’m not about to be a slob in the Mystery Shack, I don’t know what could happen to me if I was.
I made my way back to where I had my backpack and put my dirty clothes into the front pouch after I took out a thermos of water that was in there. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I laid my eyes upon it, I hadn’t had anything to drink since lunch yesterday. I chugged the whole thing in about seven seconds.
“Jeez kid, relax, that water isn’t going anywhere.” Stan said as he walked into the room, I gave no reply, I just put the flask back into my bag. “Let me show you where you’ll be sleeping.” I grabbed the two bags, making sure that an article of clothing was sticking out of the pocket and covering my name. He led me up the stairs and into a room that had two twin size beds on either side of it and a big nightstand in the middle of them.
...Wait a minute. “I’m staying in the same room as your niece and nephew?” I asked very quickly.
Stan shrugged, that stupid shrug, “I don’t see why not, nor the problem.”
“Maybe the fact that I’m a teenager and the fact that they're twelve?” I fired back.
Stan gave a small laugh in response, the first time that I heard him laugh since I got here. “Look kid, If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t a lot of places for you to stay. It’s either this room or the museum, and you’ll actually be an attraction if you stay there.” Then I heard him start to say under his breath, “Come to think of it…” Uh-uh, I’m not letting him humor the idea of people throwing money at me.
“Fine, I’ll stay here, but where am I going to sleep,” I asked. If he says on the floor I’m gonna lose it.
“Oh yeah, help me move the spare mattress in here,” Stan replied and he walked past me. The mattress was just outside the room, leaning on the wall. “I know you’re hurt so let’s do this nice and slow,” He said, which kind of surprised me, maybe he did care. “Now since I’m an old man, I get the side with the better grip.” And there it was.
We got the bed, well it wasn’t even a bed, just a mattress, into the room pretty easily and I put my bags beside it. “Alright kid get situated, and then come down and eat something like I said earlier,” Stan said. “Sheets and blankets are in there.” He pointed to the closest in the front left corner of the room and then walked out. He didn’t even close the door.
I got right to work by making my mattress, that sounds really weird. Next I needed a place to put my bag and new clothes, so I opened the closet where I got the sheets and then I remembered something. The invisible wizard in this closet was an actual thing according to Ford’s third journal, so I just closed the door slowly and backed away. I expected something to jump out at me, but nothing happened making me sigh in relief and I looked for another spot. Under the beds? No, there would be glitter and pen ink all over my clothes in a matter of days if I put them there. My gaze hit the shelves, no way either of the twins can reach up there, or really anything for that matter so that’s where they went. Now the only problem was my bag.
There didn’t seem to be anything sharp in the attic, maybe I could grab a knife from the kitchen and cut the fabric out, I was hungry anyway. So, with that in mind, I made my way down the stairs extra carefully and hoped that my legs wouldn’t give out. After the successful descent, I walked straight into the kitchen and found Stan sitting by himself at the table by the window reading the morning paper, or trying to avoid eye contact, I’m not really sure.
“You like cereal, kid,” He asked, looking at me now. I nodded in reply. “It’s in the cabinet behind yah, bowls too.” I grabbed a bowl and next to it I saw some off brand corn flakes, beggars can’t be choosers. Placing the bowl on the table, I took the cereal off the shelf and took a guess at where the spoons, and hopefully knives, were. My first guess was right, they were in the drawer right underneath the cabinet. I looked back at Stan to make sure he wasn’t looking at me, his face was hidden by the paper, and I quickly pocketed a knife. This is most certainly a safety hazard. I then pulled out a spoon and then closed the drawer, I grabbed the box cereal as well. I was a little hesitant to grab the milk out of the fridge, but my hunger won over my concern.
Now sitting at the table, I poured the cereal and milk into the bowl and asked, “What are the kids’ names anyway?” Yeah... still totally hurts to ask questions like that.
“Dylan and Rowena.” And responses like that hurt even more. “Wait, no no, Dipper and Mabel.” What would their reaction be when they find out that they have to share a room with me. I was very excited to see the twins, but would they think highly of me like I think highly of them? Mabel I wasn’t too worried about, but Dipper? Gaining his trust, even his friendship, would be a task and a half. And what about after I, hopefully, gain his trust, would I tell him about who I really am? There will most likely be slip ups from me down the line, that I am sure of, and there is no way that his curious and paranoid personality won’t pick up on them. My best bet was going along with what happened in the show, even if my presence alters it a bit. At least the time I spend here will be exhilarating.
“I’m really sorry about all this Stan,” I said with a sigh. He brought down the paper that he was “reading” and looked at me. “I don’t want to be a problem to you or your business and I can’t really do much to repay you because I’m only a sixteen year old kid that can’t even remember my full name. But even with that in account, you’ve taken exceptional care of me, so thank you.” Stan studied my face with slightly squinted eyes, as if looking for something.
“Are you sure that you’re a teenager,” he said at last. “Kids never show gratitude these days.” He looked away for a second. “That’s why I was hesitant to hire Wendy.” he then looked back at me. “But you,” he pointed a finger at me. “I like you, you’ve got a good character, don’t lose that.”
I smiled slightly, “Thank you Stan.”
“Alright, let’s save the sap,” he said now standing up, fixing his bowtie. “Wendy and Soos should be here any minute and so should the tourists.” A second later the gift shop bell rang. “Duty calls.” And with that, Stan walked out of the room. I stood up soon after as well, putting everything back where it belonged and patted my pocket to make sure the knife was still there. It was.
I quickly walked upstairs to the attic bedroom, opened the door and stepped inside, making sure to lock it when it was closed. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the blade and did a small twirl with it in my hand. Now sitting on one of the beds, I dragged my bag to my feet and brought it up onto my lap, making sure that my name was facing me. With some effort I was able to get the entire blade of the knife inside the thick backpack fabric and began to cut at it. I made sure that there were jagged edges of the cut and even scratched the internal fabrics of the bag and I ripped out the name once I was able to grasp it so there would be loose threads everywhere, it needed to look as natural as possible. With that in mind, I added extra cuts and holes throughout the bag’s surface to make it even more convincing.
Grabbing the cut out pieces, along with the knife, I stuffed them into my pocket and stood up. I kicked my bag to the right corner of the room and made my way over to the door, unlocked it and stepped through it to the stairs where I heard light chatter. Peeking my head around the corner and down the staircase, I spotted Wendy and Soos conversing near the foot of the steps and sighed in relief at the fact that it was just them and not some government agents. I started to make my way down and they instantly spotted me.
“What’s up, Matt? Me and Soos were just about to come and get you,” Wendy called.
I raised an eyebrow in response, “You were getting me for what exactly?”
“We are going to help you get started working here, like us!” Soos said excitedly.
They both started to walk to the gift shop as Wendy spoke, “Get your keister over here, noobie. You’ve got a lot to learn.” I gave a small smile as I followed suit. Soos held the door open for me as we walked into the iconic gift shop. Wendy turned to me and out her hands on her hips. “First order of business, clean up your mess from yesterday.” She grabbed a broom from the corner of the room and handed it to me.
I took a deep breath, “Fair enough.” I made my way over to the collapsed postcard stand while Wendy and Soos went over to the cash register. I placed the broom so that it was leaning against a shelf. I picked the stand off the ground and set it up properly. I glanced over to the pair on the other side of the room, I needed to learn even more about them. “So how old are you two anyway?” I asked as I knelt down and started picking up scattered postcards. I was pretty sure that I knew the answer but Wendy looked like she was at least eighteen (especially in the show) not fifteen, while Soos looked like his age, didn’t act like it though.
“Fifteen,” Wendy replied as she leaned against the desk.
They both looked in my direction. “Twenty-two,” Soos said proudly. “What about you, dawg?”
“I’m sixteen,” I stated, looking smugly at Wendy.
“Boo, of course you’re older than me. I should have known, you’re pretty tall.” Wendy responded. She was at least five foot-ten, so to her I guess I was tall. Soos, on the other hand, was at least four inches taller than me, so around six foot-four. He really was a big dude.
“Don’t let that put you down, Wendy,” I said. “You have more experience here than I do.”
She snapped and gave me a finger gun motion, “That’s true,” Wendy smiled and I gave a small chuckle in response and returned the postcards in their proper place. Just then, Stan came bolting in the room panting heavily.
All three of us snapped our attention to him. “Woah, Mr. Pines, are you all right?” Soos asked as Stan ran right past him.
Stan blurted out, “I read the kids’ parent’s email wrong, they’re coming at 12!” I checked my phone to see the time, my eyes widened when I saw it. It was 11:47. Okay, I was definitely in that shower for more than twenty minutes and I totally lost track of time, I hate when that happens!
Wendy spoke up, a bit frantic, “What?! How can you misread an email?!”
Stan glared at her, “I don’t know! I’m still getting used to this whole technology thing!”
“Technology doesn’t change the way numbers look ya codger!” I think she meant boomer... is that even remotely close to a thing yet?
I couldn’t help but smile at the classic Pines family mayhem. “Alright whatever, you made a mistake, just go get them right now.” I said reassuringly.
Stan’s gaze switched to me, he did not calm down like I thought he would. “I can’t! I have a tour at the same time!” My face fell, Yep that’s definitely a problem.
“Okay then, we’ll cover for you,” I said. “We’ll let the brain dead tourists check out all the merchandise while you’re gone.” Wendy snickered at the suggestion.
Stan facepalmed and then looked at me while saying, “That’s not too good for business, kid. Those tourists are going to be way more interested in the gift shop after the tour.”
I held a blank expression, “Do you have a choice?” He was about to reply with a raised finger, but he stopped midway through and muttered to himself.
He walked over to the door and opened it. “If anything goes wrong while I’m gone you’re all responsible, even if you didn’t do nothin’!” He slammed the door behind him as he ran out to his car, started it and gunned it so hard down the road that he destroyed a sign that said ‘BE AMAZED’ making Wendy lose it.
Soos only sighed in response and said, “I’ll go get the spare.” That’s when I lost it too. The fact that Stan probably did something like that on a regular occasion is hilarious to me. Our laughter subsided when Soos walked outside with the spare sign and some tools. I glanced over to Wendy and I remembered what I needed to do.
“Hey, um, Wendy,” I cleared my throat and she looked over to me. “Do you know my last name, by any chance?”
She leaned back on the desk. “I wondered when you were going to ask me that. I have seen my fair share of last names, but I gotta say yours is kinda cool. I thought it was a nickname at first.” She wasn’t wrong, almost all of my friends call me by my last name. It’s been a little hard getting used to only being called by my first name and not my last.
I smirked a little, “It is kinda weird isn’t it?” She nodded in reply. “Okay, this is a huge favor to ask, but can we keep it a secret ginger to ginger? I’m not from around here and if Stan finds out my last name he could probably track me back to my hometown and I do not want him freaking out.” She nodded again in understanding, which alleviated a lot of stress that was building up. Wendy looked like she was about to bring something up, but Soos walking back into the building cut her off.
“Mr. Pines really needs to work on his driving,” Soos stated after the door closed behind him. “This is the fourth time this year that he has broken one of his own signs.” He shook his head.
“Do you guys know anything about those twins anyway?” I needed to seem like I have no idea who they are. A few seconds later I heard a loud screech from outside and Stan’s car came barreling into view.
“Hehe, looks like we’ll find out soon, dude.” Soos replied with a chuckle.
Soos and Wendy seemed completely cool and relaxed but I was confused. “Okay, am I the only one that noticed that he probably did a ten minute drive in about two?” They both shook their heads. “How many road safety laws did he break?!” I looked back and forth between the two and they just simply shrugged.
“That’s Stan for ya,” Wendy answered with a small chuckle. I turned around and looked out the window to see two kids get out the back seat of Stan’s car, one full of energy and excitement and the other visibly disheveled. Stan was a few feet ahead of them as he himself turned to face the two stepping out of the car.
He declared loudly,” Welcome to the Mystery Shack!”
A/N
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