Splash. Water splayed all over her turquoise swimming suit. Splash. The water reached her hair, nearly grazing her headband. Splash. It battered her skin, leaving it with the putrid smell of chlorine. Mabel gritted her teeth and glowered at her "friends".There was a reason she stayed out of such imprudent activities. But no, her moron of a great uncle insisted that she had some "normal time". What did that even mean? Normal was never a good thing. Look at the normal people of Gravity Falls, all brainless buffoons. 'Look at the normal people in front of me,' she thought.

One of the girls called her. "Mabel! Come on in already. We're talking about boys!"

Mabel rolled her eyes, plastered a fake smile onto her scarlet lips, and lowered herself into the pool. So much for staying dry. She tuned out the girls' conversation entirely, focusing on the plethora of things she'd rather do than be there. Set fire to the library, poison every drink in Lazy Susan's Diner. Mabel was considering dunking in one of the girls' heads into the water for a few seconds. Harmless, just for fun.

Her scheming was rudely interrupted by Gideon Pines and Pacifica Northwest as they burst through the pool's gates and climbed over the fence, obviously trying to escape from something. Mabel dismissed it as another one of their idiotic antics before she noticed a leather book in Gideon's hand.

Mabel froze in shock as she put two and two together. That book wasn't just any book.

It was Journal #3.

"Dipper, get a load of this!" She announced, swinging the closed door open. Her brother was always cooped up in the shed, coming up with a new spell for the show or analyzing a never-seen before monster.

The shed was, as usual, spotless. Dozens of papers in neat, orderly stacks were on Dipper's desk.

"What's got you so excited?" He said, not taking his eyes off the paper he was reading.

"Well, you know the third journal? The last one?"

That got him interested. "Yeah, what about it?

"Pacifica Northwest and Gideon Pines have it! I saw them running from some sort of monster, and Gideon was holding in his hands.

Dipper looked into her eyes, and he knew that this was one of the few times she was telling the truth. This was the last piece, all they needed before the could take the other dimension's dream demon captive. This one's, Will, was a pushover, to put it bluntly. Will's unorthodox refusal to use his powers had weakened and limited the things he could do. And though Will was easy to take captive, he'd proven himself worthless. With the other demon, however, they could have infinite power. They could rule over every dimension, every alternate universe. So he remained locked up in the shed, able to hear every word of the two's plans.

"Well. We'll have to figure out a way to get it from them."

"Figure out a way? Figure out a way? Here's a way: kill them, and make the bodies look like they got attacked by a bear or something. Simple."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Mabel, we're not going to kill them. Say we get caught? What if their uncle found out? No, there are too many variables. I suggest we use Pacifica's weakness to trick her into handing it over. Legally," he added, giving Mabel a look. "Pacifica's weakness is her heart, she practically wears it on her sleeve. All we need to do is gain her trust, to be her friend, and the journal will be ours."

In the end, the plan was simple. Spend a week with Pacifica, just the right amount of time to gain her trust, and ask her if they could "borrow" the journal. No blood will be have to be spilled. No life will have to be taken.

The Next Day

It was an average morning. Gideon and Pacifica sat around the worn breakfast table, eating bowls of Pink Krunchy Kutie Kittens.

"Soooo" Pacifica said, drawing out the word. "What're we going to do today?"

"Er...I dunno, Paz. Maybe we can go to the arcade?"

Pacifica gave him a bright smile, pulled out the Journal, and flipped through its yellowing pages. "Let's look for unicorns! We can tame them and ride them around and take pictures with them! Unicorn beast masters!"

Gideon peered at the page she was pointing to. Magic hair only for the pure of heart. "You are pretty pure of heart." He flipped over to the summoning page. Deepest chant. "Um, Paz? It says that we have have to use a deep chant...We don't exactly have the deepest voices"

Pacifica laughed and elbowed him. "Whatever you say, Mr. Voice Crack."

Gideon scowled at her and spooned some now-soggy Kutie Kittens into his mouth.

"Hey kids!" Uncle Bud boomed. "Let's go to the park. Whaddya say?"

Pacifica let out an enthusiastic "Yeah! Time to use my park sweater! Whooooo!"

Gideon just shrugged.

"Alright, finish up your breakfast and get ready in ten. I'll be waiting in the car."

"Ten what? Minutes? Hours?"

"Minutes, ya doof," Pacifica gave him a light punch on the shoulder and sped up the stairs, blonde ponytail bouncing behind her.

Maybe it was just their cheap, rickety car, but it felt like his dad was going over every bump in Gravity Falls just to spite him. Maybe it was his stomach's hatred towards cars, boats, planes, or any type of transportation that wasn't walking. Who knows? But as soon as the three arrived at the Gravity Falls park, Gideon rushed to the nearest trash can and promptly deposited all of his Pink Krunchy Kutie Kittens.

Pacifica came up behind him and patted his back. "Aww, you poor thing. Have this," She handed him a rainbow water bottle covered in sprinkles. Gideon mumbled out a weak thanks, and began throwing up again.

The Gleeful twins were trained actors, performing since they were toddlers. Over the years, fake smiles looked real and full of mirth, forced chuckles sounded like music to any ear. So when Mabel saw Gideon vomiting into a trash can, she merely put on her best sympathetic expression and walked right up to him. The things she did for Dipper.

"Hey Gideon, are you alright?" She said with a worried expression.

Mabel was pretty intimidating, even when she tried not to be. Her nails were as sharp as her aquamarine heels, her black fishnet leggings laced over her long legs, and a silken teal cape hung loosely around her matching leotard. Doubled with blood-red lips almost constantly in a sneer, Mabel scared Gideon witless, and he just didn't have the courage or confidence to talk to her without some kind of support. So he glared at her for a few beats of silence before Pacifica popped in to check on him.

"Hi Mabel!" Pacifica greeted her with a friendly, albeit surprised grin. "What brings you around here? I haven't seen you anywhere outside of your tent. Er...Not to be rude or anything…"

Mabel ignored that last part, and put on her most convincing voice. "Oh, I saw poor Gideon throwing up, I just wanted to make sure that he was alright."

Gideon raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you get so nice?" Yep, she had to work on that voice.

"I-I guess Dipper and I realized how bad we were being towards people. I never wanted to hurt anyone, I just wanted to have some fun. Perhaps I don't get emotions. I just want some friends."

Hook, line, sinker. Gideon's annoying little eyebrow was still risen, but that didn't matter. No, Pacifica was more of the stubborn type, nothing he could say would stop her from helping a new "friend". Her theory had proven correct; Pacifica's eyes were softening with sympathy already. Acting skills really did come in handy sometimes.

Mabel seemed nice, it really did seem like she had changed. Plus, she felt bad for her, for Pacifica knew how it felt to be lonely, when no one wanted to be you friend because you were the outcast.

"Well, you've just found yourself a friend right here! How about I ask Uncle Bud if you could come to the Shack later?"

On the outside, Mabel gave her a hopeful nod. But on the inside, she recoiled. A whole week with the human highlighter..What kind of nightmare had she gotten herself into?