Chapter 1

"Was cryin' all night, I slept until noon"

Pacifica

"Goodbye everyone! Thanks for coming! I hope you all had a lovely night! Goodbye!" Pacifica waved cheerfully to everyone who walked past her on their way out the door, occasionally nodding in respect to those older or richer than her - the richer part was just reflex.

"Hey, Pacifica?" a soft, sweet voice chimed from behind her. Pacifica turned and saw the source of the voice - a small brunette girl decked out in a poofy dress made of fake pink feathers and poor quality polyester-cotton fabric roses, held together with hot glue. On her head rested a matching lopsided hat that had been 'fancied up' with a handful of fabric roses and what Pacifica swore was most likely the top half of a plastic chair that had been painted pink. Her giant heart shaped earrings matched the bright fuschia of the flowers and Pacifica was sure that if she could have, she would have stuck pink sequins onto her braces as well.

Mabel Pines.

Pacifica thought she felt her heart beat a little faster.

"Oh, um, hey Mabel. What's up..? I guess?" She mentally facepalmed herself. "Dammit." She couldn't help but feel a little awkward around Mabel after that whole rivalry thing they'd recently been through. That and also the fact that she and her friends - what were their names again? Candle and Grin… Grinny? - found Marius 'hot'. Eugh. Been there, done that. All he cared about was money and himself.

Mabel smiled shyly and twisted a few strands of her hair around her finger, playing with it aimlessly. "Listen, I uh… I wanted to thank you for letting me and Candy and Grenda come to the party. Even though you kinda had to do it to get Dipper to come and get rid of your ghost and stuff, we're just commonfolk and I kinda got the feeling that you felt like we were gonna ruin the party by just being there. But you still gave us the tickets. And THEN!" She let go of the hair as she flung her arms out in excitement and yelled, "WE ALL GOT TURNED INTO WOOD AND YOU SAVED US! Like, how crazy is that?! TOTALLY crazy! Amirite?! Like whooooaaa!"

Pacifica burst into laughter at the girl's excitement and enthusiasm. "I did! And it was! Crazy… Ha ha… Ha… *ahem*" She cleared her throat, feeling a little stifled by the sudden awkward silence.

The pair stood in silence for a while, each not daring to make eye contact with the other in fear of making the situation even more awkward. Finally, Mabel spoke up. "Hey… I'm proud of you Pacifica. You did the right thing. Even though it meant disobeying your parents. That was really brave of you. And that makes you A-OK in my book." She reached up and took off her hat, dug her hand inside and pulled out a round, sparkly sticker, which she promptly pasted on Pacifica's cheek. "There." She put her hat back on and took a step back to fully admire her work.

Pacifica gently peeled the sticker off her cheek and took a look at it to see what it said. The sticker had a picture of a beautiful gem on it and read "You shine bright like a diamond!" Pacifica's features melted into a soft smile and she pasted it on her arm instead. She turned back to Mabel and murmured, "Thanks Mabel." Mabel grinned. "No problem." Taking three big steps forward, she wrapped her arms around the blonde in a tight hug.

Pacifica's eyes widened at the embrace. But she quickly melted into it and returned the hug. When Mabel released her, she quickly looked away, so as not to let Mabel see her blushing furiously.

"Mabel? You ready to go?" "Ready as ever, bro-bro!" As the pink in Pacifica's cheeks died down, she turned back to see Dipper standing next to Mabel in the doorway, about to leave. Mabel turned to Pacifica and smiled once more. "G'night, Pacifica!" she called, waving as she walked off with her brother, "Maybe I'll see you around again sometime soon!" Pacifica waved back, a dazed expression on her face. "S-sure! See you around! Goodni- AHH!"

Pacifica let out a scream as a large hand forcefully grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. "PACIFICA!" She heard her father bellow her name, right before a hand flew across her face, delivering a hard slap to her cheek. She cried out, more in shock than in pain. The initial shock quickly wore off though, and within seconds she began to feel the heat of the red mark her father had left on her cheek. She cried out again, this time from the pain pulsing in her cheek. Her eyes blurred with tears and she squeezed them shut as she felt her other cheek get the same treatment, her head jerking to the side from the force of the impact.

"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Pacifica opened her eyes slowly, blinking the tears away. Her father's face was directly in front of her, glaring down at her. "LOOK AROUND YOU AND SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" he bellowed, pointing angrily at their surroundings. Pacifica looked around. The ballroom was, admittedly, a mess. But only half that mess was created by the so-called 'riff-raff'. The other half had been caused by the chaos of the Lumberjack ghost that her parents had refused to deal with, despite the solution being as simple as opening the party gates to the people of the town.

Pacifica would not stand for that.

"W-what I caused? What I caused?! I didn't cause a thing! I saved everyone! You were the one who wanted to leave everyone to die!" she stammered bravely, her voice cracking slightly in fear. "WHAT?! I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN! I DARE YOU TO TALK BACK TO ME!" Preston narrowed his eyes and shook his daughter violently. "I WILL!" screamed Pacifica, "You could have solved the problem by just opening the party gates to let the people of Gravity Falls enjoy the party as well! But no! You would rather risk everyone else's lives, or in fact, leave everyone else to DIE than just let the people of the town into the party for JUST ONE YEAR! JUST ONCE! That's all the Lumberjack was asking for!"

"Pacifica, where on earth are you getting this dreadful attitude from?!" her mother chided in her annoyingly nasal and hoity-toity voice. "You must be spending too much time with those dreadful commonfolk children. What are their names again? The Pans? The Pins?" "The Pines." spat her father, anger filling his voice and his eyes. "You're right, dear. This isn't the Pacifica I know. This isn't the Pacifica I raised. Pacifica, from now on, you are banned from ever seeing either of those two dreadful kids ever again!"

Pacifica's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. Her response was instant. "WHAT?! NO! PLEASE, NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" She grabbed her father's collar, tears starting to stream down her cheeks once again. "Please, no!" she pleaded, her voice starting to waver and become soft. "I'm sorry Pacifica, but this is for your own good. This decision is final. You are not to see either of those kids ever again!"

"But Preston, what if she happens to bump into them on the streets?" her mother inquired. "Hmm. You make a good point, dear." Preston got to his feet, pulling his daughter off him and letting her tumble back onto the ground. "Then I guess we're going to have to ban her from ever leaving the mansion again as well!"

Pacifica collapsed into a heap of tears, sobbing helplessly. "The two people that have ever actually made me feel like they were my friends, and not just some dumb lackeys following me around because of my money and my popularity. The two people that I actually like and want to spend more time with. The two people that forgave every single horrible thing I've ever done to them. Every. Single. One. I can never see them ever again."

"Goodnight, Pacifica dear. Now go to your room. The staff need to clean up after you decided to let the riff-raff in and they wrecked this place. We'll see you in the morning." Preston walked away, his wife with him, leaving their weeping daughter behind them.

As soon as her parents were out of sight, Pacifica bolted up to her room and slammed the door shut. She grabbed her silk pillow, shoved her face in it and wailed at the top of her lungs. It didn't do much to muffle the sound, but she didn't care. She just wanted to cry.