Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Obstacle

Dipper's POV

I open my eyes upon feeling something brushing my left shoulder. The first thing I notice are the trees passing by as the bus speeds down the highway. I look over to my shoulder and see my sister laying her head down sleeping. Her dark brown hair laying all the way down my arm as I feel her head brush against my neck as she unconsciously moves to a comfortable location from my movement. She has always been a little weird in that sense but she was always so enjoyable to be around. Most people found her plain annoying but to anyone who got to know her she was just perfect. Alway optimistic, very friendly, and resilient.

I keep thinking back to why we are on this bus in the first place and ask myself how she will be happy again after what had happened to us. Most of what happened can be considered a freak accident, but I still believe it was my fault. I know it wasn't, but I can't help but feel that if I didn't tell my parents about that movie I really wanted to watch, none of this would have happened. You see a movie I really wanted to see was premiering at the same time that Mabel's movie of choice was released. My movie seemed to have come out of nowhere so no one knew about it at the time. Our plans did not involve going back to a theater until after my movie would no longer be there. Though I knew that it would eventually be released on DVD, and I had originally planned to wait for it, my parents decided they wanted to surprise me with it. I was ecstatic to hear them say we could see it in theaters, but watching it caused us to be out later than usual.

The movie theater was very close to our residential area and it was a relatively safe place so we would normally walk to and from it as long as the weather report was clear skies. On our trip back home it would seem that a drunk man was driving in the area and somewhere along the way we encountered him. As you can imagine, he was very drunk, which caused him to fall asleep at the wheel and steer off the road … straight into us. With quick thinking, mom grabbed Mabel as dad grabbed me and pushed us out of the way of the oncoming car. We both weren't facing the car at the time so we did not see it as it impacted our parents, but we heard the crash and screams from the shops around us.

"SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE, " "HOLY SHIT, " "OH MY GOD, " were some of the things I heard shouted around me before I turned around and saw the destruction left behind. I did not see my parents where they were before. No, where they were I saw blood splattered everywhere leading to the inside of the shop that car crashed into. At this point I was already in tears and next to me Mabel was sobbing and running towards the shop to see if our parents were alright. As she ran in, Mabel could be heard yelling, "MOM, DAD WHERE ARE... " She suddenly stopped screaming as I arrived and saw what she had seen.

Both of our parents were nothing but a bloody mess. From the looks of the scene both had swift deaths, so it was painless, but what was left was not pretty. Our dad took the bigger brunt of the force from the looks of it since his head was no longer attached to his body - instead it hit the back of the shop and landed in a heap that barely even looked like a head. The rest of his body was mangled with, I am pretty sure, dislocated bones - if not broken - and cuts from the shop's glass window. Mom on the other hand was not as bad but still had nasty cuts and probably died from her neck breaking since she was up against the candy section with her legs up and head on the floor at a 90 degree angle.

Up to this point Mabel had been standing in silent horror. It was as if the gears in her head had ground to a halt. Her solemn silence was suddenly interrupted as her body sought to react to the scene in the only way it could - she doubled over and spilled her stomach unto the floor. Tears began to flow down her cheeks as she coughed away the last bits of vomit, and her involuntary act quickly turned into grotesque sobs. Seeing Mabel - the girl who had always been a shining beacon of joy in my life - utterly broken by the event that had unfolded before us made me finally lose my composure. I'd be trying to stay strong, but I could no longer hold back my tears. As we cried together, I felt her arms wrap around. I pulled her into a hug with as much strength as I could muster, our warmth providing comfort to one another when we both felt so hollow and cold inside. While crying I looked at the car and noticed that the driver was still barely clinging to life. He looked right at us and said in a very unintelligible quiet voice, "My god I am sorry for this ..." His body contorted beneath the crumpled wreckage of his car, his legs having been completed crushed. Blood erupted from his mouth in a violent fit of coughing, the crimson liquid flowing down his chest and pooling into the remains of his lap. As he gazed upon Dipper and Mabel with a look of utmost remorse, the light faded from his eyes. I'll never forget those eyes… After that, we just waited for the police and ambulance to arrive in silence.

After all of that the police took us to the station and we stayed there for what seemed like days - but really it was only a few hours. The whole time I was awake, but Mabel fell asleep. Even though she slept most of the time there, she still clung to me like a koala on a tree. Eventually a police officer came in and told me the bad news, as if we had not seen it ourselves. At that point I was angry at him for saying it as if I didn't know what happened. I yelled back at him. I don't even know what I said because somewhere in the middle of my statement I just burst into tears again. After I calmed down he instructed me on what was going to happen. One thing he asked me was if there was any family we can go to. Most of the immediate family were unable to take care of themselves, let alone us. I then remembered that for the upcoming summer we were gonna go stay with our uncle who we had not seen since, apparently, our births. I told the officer about him and they then made some calls to help us get to Gravity Falls, Oregon.

When Mabel awoke she told me she had the most horrible dream but I had to break that illusion for her. Needless to say she cried a bit more and was mostly quiet that day, and who could blame her? We both just lost our parents and now we are gonna go live with someone we barely even know. The few times she spoke was mostly to me and it was painful to hear her sound so broken and very … un-Mabel like. It was the same routine up to now with both of us clinging to each other like lifelines on a boat, afraid that if we were not together something would tear us apart.

A small funeral was prepared for our parents where their closest friends and some of the family arrived. Uncle Stan could not make it of course because of how short notice the whole thing was. I did not cry during the funeral since at that point I had accepted their deaths. If I could not be strong for Mabel then I don't know how I could expect her to return to her normal self.

As we packed our things from home we were plagued with happy, now turned sad, memories of our lives here with mom and dad. Every once in awhile Mabel would point a memory out and start tearing up while I would comfort her with a hug and assure her that it would all be fine.

We were also informed that the will reading would be performed later in the month at our new home, after everything had settled down. As we left our home, a couple of our friends were outside and came up to exchange good-byes and condolences. With one final good-bye from the officer who charged himself with helping us retrieve our things and taking us to the bus station, we boarded, and now here we are a few hours out. Needless to say we both took a nap

I just woke up as Mabel squirmed on my shoulder. I looked around and noticed that the bus was empty other than the driver so I spoke up loud enough for him to hear me "How much longer before Gravity Falls?".

He looked in the mirror and spoke up, "Give or take ten minutes, kid".

I nodded and stared at Mabel. I enjoyed the fact that she seemed to have a smile on as she slept and thought of how much I did not want to wake her. I gave her another three minutes or so before I nudged her and whispered to her to wake up.

"Dipper *yawn* where are we? " she asks as she stretches and looks around.

"About five minutes from our new home," I said as I pick up my backpack off the floor.

"Well that's exciting, " she says with a hint of sadness, but you could tell she was slowly regaining some of her old habits which put a smile on my face.

"Yea and we start school again the day after tomorrow so we can try to make some new friends. Maybe you can even find that dream boy you wish for all the time, " I say jokingly, hoping it would at least make her giggle or chuckle.

"Maybe I can even find you a girlfriend while I am at it, " she says while chuckling.

"Good luck with that one. " I reply with a smile on my face. It was good to see her starting to come back to normal. "You wonder what uncle Stan will be like? I hope he like mysteries and paranormal investigations."

"Whoever he is I hope he likes glitter and sparkles or else he will hate me by the end of the week," she replies with more joy.

"I am sure that he will like you just fine even if he does not like your hobbies." I say as the bus slowed to a stop.

"This is your stop kids, " the bus driver says as he opens the doors and turns off the engine to go have something to eat before he starts the long trek home.

Mabel and I get up and each grab one of the small bags we had, then Mabel puts on her backpack. When she is ready, I grab her free hand and squeeze it reassuringly. She squeezes it back and we hop off as we say goodbye to our old lives and jump head first into our new ones.

A.N: So this is my first fanfic. I would like to hear back from you guys to see how I can improve my story. I do not have anyone helping me but if you are interested in being my Beta I would love to speak with you. I am new at writing so I do not know how that process goes. Right now this story will take a book out of Rick Riordan's book as in each chapter will be one characters perspective but that may or may not change in the future.