Mountains rolled past out the window. The sky was blue, but in the back of thirteen-year old Dipper Pines' mind, he could see it as a firey red color…

"Yo, Broseph, you in there? Hell-o-o! Earth to Dipper !"

Dipper blinked and turned to his twin sister, who was bouncing excitedly in the seat next to him. The sunlight glinted off her braces.

"Yeah, I'm here, Mabel." He said with a grin. "Gee, you would think you were excited or something."

Mabel's Crayola-crayon brown eyes had more than their usual spark in them—it was more like a fireworks display. "We're actually going to spend another summer in Gravity Falls! We'll see our friends again! It's going to be so awesome!"

Dipper tried smiling, but it wasn't enough to fool his sister.

"Look, Dipping sauce, just because there won't be any big mysteries to solve this summer, it doesn't mean you can't have a good time. We'll see Soos and Wendy and everybody, it'll be great! "

Dipper sighed. "I know. It's just—"

The summer before last had been—well, epic. They'd discovered all of the strange creatures of Gravity Falls, battled Gideon, met government agents, found out that their great uncle was trying to repair a trans-dimensional portal in the basement, then found out that said portal had been built by their great uncle's twin brother, and finally had battled a maniacal dream demon that had tried to take over the world.

"I know." Mabel said. "After all of the crazy stuff that happened last summer, you think that this summer's going to be boring. Well, you thought last summer was going to be boring too until you found Grunkle Ford's journal in the forest. "

"Yeah," Dipper said sadly, remembering that one of the events of the summer before hand was the destruction of those journals. "—but this year there's no journal to find. Besides, Great Uncle Ford and Grunkle Stan are sailing around the world, so we won't even see them. "

Mabel sighed. "Aw, Dip—come on. If you think this summer is—"—she crooked the first two fingers on both hands like quotation marks, '-not going to be as good' as last summer', then it won't be. You can't think like that. Let's make this summer great, too. It dosen't have to have fake child psychics or secrets in the basement or dream demons. "

Dipper couldn't help but grin as he saw the water tower with the name Gravity Falls on it (along with a spray painted graffiti "explosion" that looked more like a giant muffin). "Yeah, you're right, Mabel. As exciting as last summer was, there's a lot of it I sure wouldn't want to relive. As a matter of fact it will be nice not to have to deal with Bill Cipher's nonsense all summer. It'll be nice and peaceful, and we can just enjoy ourselves. "

He looked down at the backpack with his belongings in it that was squeezed between the seat in front of him and his feet. He also noted that his feet nearly touched the floor, unlike last year. Over the past year, he had actually gained over a millimeter in height than Mabel.

"Next stop, Mystery Shack!" called the bus driver.

Both of the twins shared large grins, stood and picked up their backpacks.

"I wonder how Soos' abuelita likes living at the Shack." Dipper thought aloud as the bus came to a stop.

"Let's go find out!" Mabel said, running down the aisle to the door of the bus before it had come to a complete halt.

The twins stepped off the bus, and it pulled away. For a moment, they both stood looking up and the "Mystery Shack" sign on the roof. Both of them grinned, seeing the "S" had fallen off the sign yet again.

"Where is everybody?" Mabel wondered aloud, looking around at the empty parking spaces.

"I don't know, " Dipper answered, "I would have thought someone would meet us out here." His heart was pounding, though he wouldn't have admitted it to Mabel. What was going on?

"Maybe—maybe Soos is re-designing the Shack or something? " Mabel said hopefully as the two of them headed for the door of the gift shop.

Both of their faces paled when they reached the door, and there was a closed sign hanging in the window.

"Wh-what's going on, Dip? " Mabel asked, obviously concerned.

"I don't know, Mabel, but let's try the house. "

The two went around the corner to where the front door of their Grunkle Stan and Ford's/now their friend Soos' house was. Dipper put his arm out to stop Mabel when he saw that the door was slightly ajar.

"Stay behind me." Dipper whispered. Mabel nodded, and Dipper heard the zipper on her backpack. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Mabel had gotten out her grappling hook.

"Mabel, I can't believe you brought that thing!" Dipper said in a loud whisper.

"What? At the very least I could conk a burglar over the head with it or something." his sister whispered back.

Dipper rolled his eyes and sighed deeply, then resumed heading for the partially open door.

The twins went up on the porch, then Dipper looked at Mabel and put his finger to his lips. Holding up his hand, he counted by holding up one finger at a time:

One – two – three….

Dipper pushed open the door with his shoulder, and Mabel came barreling in beside him, brandishing her grappling hook.

"Surprise! Welcome back ! "