Kids Network Studios Presents

Co-Writer: Gothgirl01

In Association with Toonami and TimPrime1

Wanted: Author Alive

Two Cold Degrees of Separation

Stanley and I were in class one day. Stanley was munching on toffee peanuts as I was taking notes. I was always doing remarkably well in my studies while Stanley struggled. He always copied off of me when he was taking notes, which I didn't mind. I loved sharing my notes on occasion. Suddenly, the PA system roared to life.

The lady announced, "Pines twins to the principal's office. Pines twins to the principal's office."

Stanley rolled his eyes and asked me, annoyed, "Eh great. What is it this time?"

I shrugged, unsure. Usually, if Stanley got into trouble, they would just page him to the principal's office. So why did they need both of us? We both got up from our seats, getting a hall pass from our math teacher, and headed down the hallway. The walk was silent, which wasn't too unusual. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of trouble Stanley was in this time. When we had gotten to the office, we saw the secretary was filing her nails. She quickly stopped us.

"Not you," she said, pointing to Stanley with her nail file. She pointed to me with the file and added, "Him."

'Me? What did I do wrong?' I thought, now worried that Stanley had cheated or something. Just as I was gonna ask him, Stanley grunted, taking a seat as he waved for me to go in. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I entered the office, seeing our parents and our principal. I nervously sat down, in between my parents, my hands in my lap.

The principal started the conversation as he asked, "Now Mr. Pines, I'd like to speak with you very briefly if I may?"

"Very briefly is the only way I speak," Pop answered, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

The principal stated, holding up two fingers, "Now, you have two sons. One is incredibly gifted. The other is standing right outside this room and his name is Stanley."

I looked down for a moment, wanting to say something in defense of my brother. Is that what they thought of Stanley? But Ma spoke first, breaking my thoughts.

She asked, "What are you saying?"

The principal answered, "I'm saying that your son, Stanford, is a genius! All of his teachers are going bananas over his science fair experiment." The principal took out a brochure out of his top pocket and handed it to me. I took it and he added, "You ever heard of West Coast Tech? Best college in the country. Graduates turn science fiction into science fact. The admissions team is coming tomorrow to check out Stanford's experiment. Your son maybe a future millionaire, Mr. Pines."

My eyes were wide in shock as I had the biggest smile on my face. What an opportunity! Pop's signature stone cold face turned into a wide smile.

"I'm impressed," he told the principal.

'He's impressed by me! Finally I have his attention,' I thought, in complete awe and shock. I'm not going to lie but Pop was a hard man. He was always focused on Shermy, our older brother. It was hard for both Stanley and I to live in his shadow.

"But what about our little free spirit Stanley?" Ma asked, breaking my thoughts.

The principal raised an eyebrow as he answered, "That clown? At this rate, he'll be lucky that he'll graduate high school. Look, there's a salt water taffy stand on the dock. Someone has to scrape the barnacles off of it. Stanford is going places. But hey, look on the bright side, you'll still have one son here in New Jersey forever."

'That's my brother, you jerk!' I wanted to say. Hell, I even wanted to punch the guy. But I was never the one for violence, that was always Stanley. But the words never came out. All that came out was Pop shaking hands with my principal, thanking him for the information.

Later that day, I found myself on the swings with Stanley. We had been oddly quiet again, which was odd to say the least.

"Heh, jokes on them. It's not like you want to go to some stuffy college on the other side of the country." Stanley chuckled. "Once we get the Stan O' War working perfectly, it will be beaches and babes and international treasure hunting for us."

I hated doing this to him. But we couldn't be together forever. It was time to move on.

I turned my head towards Stanley and stated, "Look, Stanley, I can't pass up a chance like this. This school has cutting edge programs and multi-dimensional premine theories."

Stanley did the robot as he did some beeping sounds, "Beep boop, I am a nerd robot." He pointed at me and added, "That's you. That's what you sound like."

I chuckled a bit and replied, "Oh well, if the college board isn't impressed my experiment tomorrow, then okay. I'll do the treasure hunting thing."

"And if they are?" Stanley asked suddenly.

I made a fist as I playfully punched Stanley's shoulder and answered, "Then you better come visit me on the other side of the country."

I laughed, getting up to leave for home. My insides were screaming. I felt awful about the whole thing. I just wanted to at least give this whole thing a chance. I knew I hadn't been the best brother towards Stanley right now and maybe getting into the college might get me away from those feelings. Besides, I finally have the one thing that I never gotten before in all the time that they had been living at Glass Shard Beach. And that was something that I didn't want to lose.

The very next day, I had arrived at the science fair, all a quiver. I had just fixed my bowtie, ready to present. The college board consisted of two men and one woman. There was a white sheet over my project. I uncovered it and got the shock of my life. My Perpetual Motion Machine had been destroyed. I couldn't believe what was happening and before I knew it, I was out and I was upset.

I had found Stanley's empty bag of toffee peanuts on the ground. I gripped the bag hard, mad. How could he betray me?

That night, I came home, seething. Stanley was playing with his paddleball on the couch, upside down.

He sat up correctly as he asked me, "Hey hey, what's the word Sixer?"

'How could he not know what he's done!' I thought, furious. I held up the empty bag of toffee peanuts to him.

I hissed, "Can you explain to me what this was doing next to my broken project?!"

Stanley admitted sheepishly, "Okay, I might've been accidentally horsing around."

I pointed a finger at Stanley and accused, "It was no accident. Just cause you can't handle that I can go to college on my own!"

Stanley replied, "Look, I'm sorry. But on the plus side, if you think about it, there is a silver lining." I looked at him, his blood boiling. 'What silver lining! He took away everything,' I thought, furious still. Stanley added, breaking my thoughts, "Treasure huntin'."

My rage came out at once as I yelled, "Are you kidding me?! You really think I want to do anything with the person that ruined my entire future?!"

I shoved Stanley onto the couch, in rage. The fight had woken up Pop, Ma, and Shermie's (our older brother) baby son.

"You did what, you knucklehead?!" Pop hissed, grabbing Stanley by the collar of his shirt.

"Stanley, what's goin' on?" Ma asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Wait, no! I can explain!" Stanley yelped. "It was a mistake!"

But it didn't help much since Pop threw Stanley out of the door.

Pop huffed, "You ignoramus! Your brother was going to be our ticket out of this dump! All you ever do is lie, and cheat, and ride on your brother's coattails. Well this time you cost us our family potential millions! And until you can make us a fortune…" Pop brought out Stanley's bag and added, "You are not welcomed in this household!"

That's when Pop threw the bag at Stanley as I watch the scene from the window. I was hurt about all of this. Stanley had betrayed me, I had lost my dream school and Pop's respect probably, and Stanley was thrown out of the house.

Stanley looked up at where I was standing and stated, scared, "What?! Stanford, tell him that he's being crazy!"

Pop looked at me, the fire in his eyes. I know that it was an accident but it cost me everything, including my trust in Stanley. I looked down at the brochure in my hands, flinching sadly. I closed the curtains, the tears in my eyes. I heard Stanley crying out to me, asking for a high six. But Pop closed the door with force and I heard Stanley pulling out in his car. Sleep never came to me that night...or the night after.

I didn't even see Stanley for a good ten years. During that time, I gotten 12 PHDs from Backsupmore and had built a portal to find out the mysteries of Gravity Falls. I had gotten in over my head when Fiddleford, my college roommate and builder of the portal, had quit the project. He had been briefly thrown into the portal, coming out with one warning.

"When gravity falls and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye."

Was Bill going to betray me? I had found out the truth that night, finding that Bill was going to use the portal to bring over his friends and take over the world. So I had been betrayed once again and I was starting to lose my mind and my sanity. I even installed a metal plate into my head when it was fall. I had called Ma, whom I was in touch with after Pop died a few months ago. Stanley never came to the funeral, which I didn't blame him. It would have been too awkward. So when I had Stanley's current address, I wrote him, begging him to come.

As the blizzard blew around outside, I was trying to calm my heart. Bill, my only friend... Why... Why did every friend I have either betrayed me or left me? The knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts as I grabbed my bow and arrow. I didn't see Stanley at first, my sanity partially gone.

I pointed it at Stanley and shouted, "Who is it?! Have you come to steal my eyes?!"

Stanley commented sarcastically, "Well, I can always count on you for a warm welcome."

I felt relieved a bit as I put the bow and arrow down and asked, "Stanley, did anyone follow you? Anyone at all?"

"Eh, hello to you pal," Stanley answered gruffly. I grabbed Stanley and brought him in. I shone a flashlight in Stanley's eyes. I had to make sure that he wasn't Bill or anything. Stanley put up a hand and huffed, "Hey, what is this?"

I backed up for a second and started to answer, "Sorry, I just had to make sure that you weren't..." I stopped mid-sentence, shaking his head. I am better off not explaining. It wasn't worth my breath. "Eh, never mind. It's nothing." I waved Stanley in and added, "Come in, come in."

Stanley entered the shack, looking around my house.

Stanley finally had enough and questioned, "Look, you gonna explain what's going on here? You are acting like mom after her tenth cup of coffee."

I barely chuckled as I grabbed up some papers and explained, "Listen to me, there isn't much time. I've made huge mistakes and I don't know who to trust anymore."

I tried to pass by Stanley, whom placed his hand on my shoulder.

He replied, "Hey, easy there. Let's just talk this through, okay?"

I was quiet for a second. I couldn't believe he came after what happened between us. Maybe I could trust him. I turned around to face Stanley.

"I've got something to show you," I told him. "Something that you won't believe."

Stanley replied, "Look, I've been all around the world. Whatever it is, I'll understand." We went downstairs to the basement as Stanley looked up at the portal, in a bit of surprise. He corrected, "There is nothing about this I understand."

I walked towards it and explained, "It's a trans-dimensional gateway. A punched hole through a weak spot in our dimension. I created it to unlock the mysteries of the universe. But it can just be easily as harnessed for terrible things." I took out a journal from my top pocket and added, "That's why I jotted it down and hid my journals. They explain how to operate it. There's only one journal left." I handed it to Stanley as I stated, "And you are the only person I can trust to take it."

Stanley absorbed this for a second but then I guess my eyes captured his attention. I didn't know what he saw but I had to get him away from me. I had to save him. If Bill had him, I would never forgive myself, no matter what the friction between us. I spoke to him again.

I asked, "There's something I want to ask you. Remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat?" Stanley suddenly smiled. Good, he did remember. I added, "Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as you can. To the edge of the Earth." I walked over to the portal and finished, "Bury it where no one can find it."

'Please leave me to die,' I thought, trying not to cry.

But that's when Stanley's voice got my attention as he yelled, "That's it?! You finally wanna see me after ten years, and it's to tell me to get far away from you as possible?!"

I yelled, turning back to Stanley, "Stanley, you don't know what I am up against! What I've been through!"

Stanley took a step towards me and yelled, "No, no, no. You don't understand what I've been through. I've been to prison in three different countries, I once had to chew my way through the trunk of a car! You think you got problems?! I've got a mullet, Stanford!" 'Like I hadn't noticed,' I thought, a bit salty. He paused for a second then added, "Meanwhile, where have you been? Livin' it up in your fancy house in the woods, selfishly hoarding your college money because you only care about yourself!"

That's when my dam broke as I roared, "I'm selfish?! I'm selfish?! Stanley, how can you say that after costing me my dream school! I'm giving you a chance to do the first worthwhile thing in your life and you won't even listen!"

Stanley hissed, "Well listen to this! You want me to get rid of this book?" That's when he pulled out a lighter as he added, "Fine, I'll get rid of it right now!"

Stanley started the lighter but I stopped him. He couldn't burn my research! We started to fight, the journal being tossed to the side. Stanley picked it up then we started to fight in the control room, hitting the machinery. I wasn't paying attention to anything, more trying to fight my brother. I knew he was going to betray me!

"You ruined my life, you jerk! It was supposed to be you and me forever!"

"You ruined your own life!"

That's when I kicked Stanley so hard that his shoulder collided with the hot control panel. Stanley screamed in pain as my eyes went wide with horror. What have I done? Before I could apologize, Stanley punched me, towards the portal as I looked up at him. He looked so broken.

Stanley had a hand on his shoulder as he hissed, "Some brother you turned out to be. You care more about your dumb mysteries than your own family." Stanley pushed the journal into my hands, pushing me. "Then you can have them."

That's when my feet floated off of the ground. Oh God, no! The portal! Stanley watched in horror as I was being lifted off of the ground.

"Whoa, whoa, what's goin' on?!" He shouted, running towards the triangle shaped portal. "Hey Stanford!"

My feet were off of the ground as I was floundering in the air like a fish. 'No, this can't be happening!' I thought, horrified.

"Stanley! Stanley! Help me!" I cried.

"Oh no, what do I do?!" Stanley cried out.

"Stanley, do something!" I yelled, throwing Journal 1 at him.

Stanley caught it, as I felt myself going into the blue light, my glasses falling off of my face. The last thing I heard before passing out was Stanley's voice.

"Stanford!"

Wishmaker1028: Thanks to everyone who stuck by me during these crazy 6 years. I really do appreciate your support guys. You all have been amazing, especially during the bad times. And I have new name, new ID, and all new story just for you all. Stick around for chapter 2. Gothgirl, would you like to add anything?

Gothgirl01: Sure thing! Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be here. It is a good way to get more experience in writing. So, please read and review. And always think outside of the box.