Ruth glanced up at the clock as she heard the door to her classroom open. 7:06. If it were school time, being six minutes late would be enough to get a tardy, but at this point she'd made peace with the fact that almost all of the parents she was meeting with would be at least a few minutes late to the meetings, and at least this one had bothered to show up at all.
Rapid footsteps headed over to the desk. "Hi there! Sorry I'm late, traffic was horrible!"
Ruth had to force herself to stifle a laugh. She knew bad traffic, having recently moved to Gravity Falls from her hometown of Seattle; the idea of the small town having "horrible" traffic was downright laughable to her.
Finally, she looked up from her notebook and actually saw the woman who had entered her classroom.
The first thought that ran through her head was that there must have been some mistake.
Okay, so that was rude of her. She'd seen much stranger people wandering the streets of Seattle over the years. But still, this woman looked more ready for a rave than a parent-teacher conference. She wore a neon green sweater with an intricate pattern that looked vaguely familiar woven into it, large smiley-face earrings, and light-up gym shoes, the likes of which Ruth had seen on a number of her students but not on a woman of her own age.
"Um…" The strangely-dressed woman sat down in the seat across from her. "You must be Mrs. Pines?" She hadn't meant for it to come out as a question, but it did, despite her best wishes.
"Oh, please. Call me Mabel."
"I'm Ruth Cunningham, Acacia's demonology professor. It's nice to finally meet you." The two shook hands. Mabel's handshake was weak, and she left its grasp a little sooner than Ruth had expected.
"Yeah, Henry's away on a conference in Portland, so it's up to me!" She let out a soft giggle, and just before the teacher was about to speak, Mabel spoke up again. "Oh, that reminds me! This is Dipper- I hope it's not a problem that he tagged along? He is Acacia's uncle, after all… and who knows what kind of trouble he'd get up to if I left him alone with the triplets again!"
Ruth stared, blinking a few times to make sure that she wasn't seeing things… or rather, not seeing things. The space that Acacia's mother was embracing and repeatedly glancing while giggling at was completely empty. At first she wondered if there was something on the wall that had caught the woman's attention, but the only thing there was a motivational poster extolling the benefits of honesty, which didn't seem all that relevant to the situation.
"Er… right, that's fine, I suppose…" Ruth rustled through her papers, as much to reorient herself to the situation at hand as to locate the documents relating to the oldest of the Pines triplets. "Well. I certainly have no problems with Acacia's academic performance- in fact, she's one of my top students."
Mabel glanced over at the empty space again and started giggling. "Glad to hear it."
"And she hasn't…" How to word this diplomatically? Ruth had heard horror stories about the chaos that the Pines triplets had caused back in elementary school, and that Acacia was usually the instigator of such mischievousness; she had been pleasantly surprised to find that, at least in these first couple months, there hadn't been a single incident worthy of giving the Pines girl a detention, though many had caused the new teacher a great deal of sighing and head-shaking. "…caused too much trouble for me in the classroom."
Mabel smiled weakly. The Pines triplets' mother was clearly all too aware of the shenanigans her children could get up to, both inside and outside of the classroom. "Good."
"But there is… one concern that I have about her daughter."
That glance again. What was with those glances? That poster couldn't be that riveting, could it? "What's the prob, schmob?"
"Acacia has been doodling quite a bit during class-"
Mabel interrupted the teacher, shaking her head and grinning. "That's our Acacia, always the artist. Don't worry, I'll tell her to keep her drawing to art class."
"That's certainly reassuring, Mrs. Pines-"
"Please, it's Mabel. We can be buddies, right?"
"…Right. Mabel. But I'm really more concerned with what Acacia has been drawing in class."
The smile disappeared from the Pines mother's face. "Oh?"
"There are all these dark figures in her sketches, and I saw one where she's shaking the hand of a creature in all-black with fire coming from its hands… Mrs- Mabel, I think your daughter might be dealing with demons."
Ruth had been expecting a concerned look, a shocked outburst, even just a blank stare. She had certainly not been expecting the woman to burst into loud laughter, mouthing something to the empty space she seemed so fixated on in between laughs.
"Mrs. Pines, this is serious! If your daughter makes a deal with a demon, she could lose her life, her soul… anything! And for a child of her age… well, she just doesn't have the knowledge to protect herself!"
The laughter died down, but not before another long glance at nothing in particular. "I'm sorry, you're right, of course you're right. I'll make sure to give Acacia a stern talking-to. It won't happen again."
"Thank you."
"Is that all?" Oh yeah, that's all, your daughter is only considering risking her entire existence, it's not like it's a big deal or anything.
"That's all I wanted to discuss with you." As the mother stood up and began to walk away, Ruth debated over whether to say what she had been thinking throughout half of the meeting. It wasn't polite, certainly, but in a case of life or death, why should she bother with niceties? "Although…"
The woman turned around. "What is it?"
"It's just… If I were you, I wouldn't wear a sweater with a summoning circle on it. For a girl who's already seriously considering demon-summoning, such images might just be enough to push Acacia over the edge."
Mabel's eyes turned dark and cold. "I appreciate your parenting advice-" Her icy tone made the words ring hollow. "-but I really have to go."
"Alright then. I'm glad we had this chat."
"Sure." And the door closed.
Ruth sighed, barely paying attention to the notes she was scribbling down. So that was the mother of the Pines triplets. Well, that explained a lot.