(After Camp Campbell is shut down for the rest of the summer due to health problems at Lake Lilac, the children, counselors, and Quartermaster are moved to the secondary site Cameron Campbell hasn't touched in years; the boarding school stationed in Gravity Falls. Will Max's cynical, nihilistic outlook on life and magic be changed by accidentally falling into Dipper and Mabel's life? Will Mabel finally find her summer romance when she crosses paths with Harrison? And why do Grunkle Stan and Cameron Campbell hate each other so much?)

Max shoved his hands into his usual blue hoodie, frowning as the entirety of the camp's alumni was shoved into the bus.

"A boarding school…?"

He heard Nikki's dejected voice, rolling his aquamarine eyes. "Yeah, what the fuck, David?"

"Language, Max. We're not really going to a boarding school, that's just what it used to be. We're using it as a… secondary camp! It's going to be great, you'll see! There are even woods and a lake too!"

Gwen shook her head, getting into the bus and grabbing her trashy book to read.

"I can't believe the camp had mold inside the shed. It was all over, we could have died!" Neil yelled, arms waving a bit.

"Yeah, all of the camps were shut down." Space Kid interjected, voice bouncing off the glass of his helmet.

Max raised a brow, moving swiftly to the front to ask Gwen about it.

"Hey, Gwen?" His voice held confusion and some form of irritableness that everyone had already grown accustomed to in the short time of knowing the nihilistic ten year old. "Why are there more buses following ours?"

Gwen glanced over, a sigh escaping her as she half scowled. "Because it was Campbell's fault that the lake got shut down, he's letting the Flowerscouts and Woodscouts use the extra wings of his school. He really wanted to avoid lawsuits."

Max shut his eyes, face palming with a shake of his head. Before he could speak, he was thrown back, the bus jumping forward.

He stared at the ceiling of the bus for a long moment, thoughts darting every which way, before they settled on one that caused his eyes to narrow into a glower and voice go low into an impatient, angry growl.

"This. Fucking. Sucks."

Dipper's first reaction to the buses milling into the old, haunted school was to go up to his Grunkle Stan, slightly frantic.

"Eh?"

Mabel beat him to it, however, jumping up and down excitedly. "There are buses full of kids our age getting into the old school across the street!"

Stan's eyes widened as he realized what that would do to his revenue. Campbell was going to screw him over, again.

He quickly ran out in just his tank top, underwear, and hat. He glared toward the usually empty building, buses milling into the lot of the building in similar disfashion as his shop.

"CAMPBELL!"

Max looked up at the yell, but his attention quickly went back to Gwen.

"You guys can go anywhere in town from 6 to 12, be back for camp activities, and then you can go out again from 4 to 9. There'll be some exceptions, but you guys get it."

"The goal is to make as many friends as possible! I know being away from the camp is a little less than ideal, but we can make it at least half of what the camp was! I know you guys can do it!" David spoke, a little less upbeat, but his voice was still tinged with a happiness that obviously took a lot to extinguish.

Max gave an irritated sigh, turning toward the exit. "C'mon Neil, Nikki."

Nikki's immediate response was to jump into the air with a cheer, eyes bright. "Adventure!"

Neil waved them off. "You guys go; I've got unpacking to do."

Max's first stop was the Mystery Shack.

"Ooh!" Nikki kept humming as she looked around at the oddities of the shop, bouncing around in a way that caused Max's eyes to roll.

He started toward the counter, before jumping onto it, causing the red head sitting there to pull her magazine down and raise an eyebrow at him.

"You do know the sign on top of this place says Mystery Hack, right?"

The girl sighed, tipping her head a bit so her hair fell out of her face, a jaded smile stuck on her lips. "Yeah, it does. What do you think this place is?"

Max groaned, jumping down off the counter and barely keeping the jar of fake eyes from toppling to the ground and shattering.

"Good job noticing though, little dude."

Max's lips quirked into a tired smirk, nodding as he walked out, dragging Nikki with him.

"Aww, I wanted to see more!"

Max immediately ran into someone.

He glared at the boy he ran into, hand letting go of Nikki's arm.

"Uh, sorry." The boy apologized, fixing his white and blue hat.

"Yeah, yeah…" Max sighed, brushing past the boy.

He hadn't noticed that Nikki had gotten caught up in a conversation with the girl that was with the boy he ran into.

"Max!"

Max turned, raising a brow as Nikki ran up and forcefully pulled him back, causing his shoulder to scream in protest.

"Oww, what the f-!"

"Look- this is Dipper and Mabel! They're twins!" Nikki introduced, hand still gripping Max's arm tight enough to hurt.

Max ripped his arm out of Nikki's grasp. "Wonderful." He grumbled sarcastically with an eye roll.

"You guys should come over!" Mabel started excitedly, causing Max to give a sigh and face palm.

He saw Nikki nod her head vehemently from the corner of his eye.

"Yeah! Friends!" Mabel cheered, grabbing onto Nikki's arm and quickly leading her to the Mystery Shack.

Max narrowly avoided Nikki dragging him along to, staring after them with a scowl set on his lips.

Dipper shook his head minimally, starting to walk off.

For a moment, Max hesitated. He had no qualms with being alone, though after meeting Nikki and Neil, it was sort of rare.

Hell, when he wasn't with them, he was usually with someone else.

So he followed Dipper.

"… I'm Max."

Dipper seemed to get startled by Max, but he calmed, stuffing the book he'd had out into his vest before Max could really see it.

Max's eyes narrowed, but he didn't speak.

"Well, as your friend said, I'm Dipper."

Dipper was a little wary of Max, but he didn't tell him to leave.

Max shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie, before raising a brow again as Dipper delved into the forest.

"Hey, uh, where are you going?" Max asked, suddenly getting a bit nervous.

Before Dipper could answer, a noise started to their side.

It caused Dipper to jump and quickly grasp at whatever he'd hid in his vest, though Max just gave a slightly bored scowl.

Until of course, a bat like creature the size of David jumped out of the bushes.

Max's eyes widened a small bit as he stared up at it, before tilting his head. His initial thought was this was some sick bastard dressed up.

"Don't!" Dipper tried, but Max was already tugging at the thing's face.

Max suddenly paled a bit when he realized that it was real.

A bitter taste started in his mouth, before suddenly he inhaled and screamed.

Max's scream seemed to scramble the thing, its clawed hands reaching up to hold its head, wings flexing.

Dipper quickly started doing… something, but Max wasn't paying attention, trying hard to keep his scream going when he realized it was the only thing keeping the bat from attacking.

Suddenly it turned into a real bat, flying away as Max desperately tried to suck in air, lungs burning.

"What the FUCK was that?!"

Dipper blinked in surprise, obviously unused to people cursing around him.

"Well, that was a reverse werebat."

"A what?!" Max cried, hands going up to grip at his hair. He needed to go do something else somewhere else before this scarred him for life.

Max was sitting on Dipper and Mabel's couch, leaning away from the pig who was staring up at him. "… you have a pig."

Mabel picked up the pig, swinging him around a bit. "This is Waddles! I won him at the fair a few days ago!"

Max stared at her for a moment, before breathing, "You're worse than David…"

"Hey Max, it's almost time to go." Nikki said, laying on the counter of their kitchen.

Mabel looked excited. "You're doing camp stuff?! Can I come?!"

Max groaned, plopping forward to lay down on the couch, before looking up when a goat started chewing on his hoodie.

"… this fucking place."

"We don't have enough beds for all the campers, so we're going to have to share!" David's first words caused Max's eye to twitch.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Max groaned, tipping his head back.

"There's 2 missing beds, so-!" Gwen started, before suddenly Mabel slid forward, eyes sparkling.

"2? They can stay at our place! I call Nikki!" Mabel shouted, grabbing onto Nikki.

Nikki was nodding so hard she was going to give herself whiplash, eyes sparkling.

Max shrugged. "Alright. Anywhere's better than jammed here."

"W-Wait!" Neil tried, realizing that he was going to be left behind.

"Oh, Max!" David spoke happily, looking down at his clipboard.

Positivity + Max = success.

Was this success?

Max glared up at him, rolling his eyes as David teared up.

"Sorry guys, I'm just really overwhelmed by all this friendship!"

"Oh no. Not gonna happen."

Max raised an eyebrow up at Stan.

Of course, he should have expected a no.

He would rather sleep on a park bench than go back to the makeshift camp across the street, though.

"Hey, mystery man? David said he'd pay you since you're letting us stay here." Nikki spoke, shrugging a bit.

Stan suddenly grinned.

"There's probably some room in the attic with Dipper and Mabel!"

Max watched him walk off, before dropping to sit on their couch. He hesitated, before calling Dipper's attention.

"What happened in the woods?" Max finally asked, wrapping a thin arm around his torso. "That wasn't real, right?"

Dipper stayed silent, gnawing on the end of his pen. "… yeah, it was! This town is full of monsters, ghosts, e-everything!"

Max listened to Dipper's explanation, eyes wide. His pupils constricted with the realization that this world was way more fucked up then he thought.

Somehow, Max already figured that he'd be utterly traumatized by the end of it.

His eye opened, snapping to attention as everything suddenly started falling into place.

"Hoodie's in town~!"