[Hey guys, so the assumption is supposed to be that it's after the first season, so anything that happened there has happened, but Stan is going back and forth between the portals, making it appear that he's the same as always. This may not come up, I just wanted to clarify. Keep the reviews coming. Peace.]

"What's the matter with you?" Stan asked as Dipper slunk past him.

"It's Mabel," Dipper muttered. "Remember her 'crush' from the pool?" He made quote signs with his fingers when he said "crush".

Stan shrugged. "Sure."

"She's meeting up with him and I'm afraid she's going to abandon us for him."

Stan smirked. "Women." He went back to staring at his TV show.

Dipper, assuming he wasn't going to get anymore help, went outside and sat on the porch, watching the woods, imagining all the strange beings he had encountered in them.

"Hey, doofus," Wendy said, sitting next to him. "Why the long face?"

He looked up at her. "Me? Upset? What? No, I'm perfectly fine! You don't have to worry at all!" He laughed awkwardly.

She watched him skeptically but nodded. "Alright, sure. Say, me and my friends are gonna hang out tonight at the lake. I heard you were going anyway, so you wanna hang with us?"

Dipper nearly jumped into outer-space. "Me? Really? Come with you guys?!"

"Yup."

"Um, okay, yeah! Definitely!"

She grinned. "Cool. Just meet us out front and we'll pile in the van."

"Sure! Okay! What time?"

She shrugged. "Midnight."

"Midnight? Umm..."

"Is that a problem?" Wendy asked. Her voice was chill but Dipper heard it as harsh. He started mentally freaking out.

'Well,' he thought, 'if I get there a little before midnight, I can tell them I'm going to bring them snacks or something, take Mabel home, and come back…'

He smiled. "I'll be there."

...

"I'm so glad to see you again!" Mabel cried. "And look! I have a tail!"

"Marvelous!" Mermando laughed. "It is as wonderful as the girl who it is attached to!"

"What!" Mabel laughed, splashing him. "You're being so nice right now."

Mermando smiled, but then it fell.

"What's wrong?" Mabel asked, putting her hand on his arm.

"Well," he said, "I was wondering… since you have the tail, would you care to come to the ocean and live with all the other mermaids?"

"Oh, Mermando," Mabel said quietly, "I'd love to, but-"

"There's plenty of room! The mermaids have houses that need to be filled. You could live there! Mermen do not use money; it will be free of charge."

"But-"

"And food is plentiful! You will never go hungry!"

"Dip-"

"There are plenty of friends you can make! You will never be lonely!"

Mabel hesitated to say anything.

"Think about it," Mermando said, "you've made some friends here, yes, but they're not always around. And Dipper didn't even want to help you."

Mabel watched him skeptically. "I didn't tell-"

Mermando took both of her hands. "You'll be happy."

She watched his expression, then turned away. "I-I can't. I can't abandon my family."

He sighed. "I understand."

He swam toward the waterfall, stopping right in front of it. Mabel watched his long hair dance underwater, the few beams of sunlight glistening around him.

"We could play Marco Polo," she suggested.

Mermando turned and grinned, and soon they were playing the game. During one round, Mabel sat at the bottom of the lake, hiding from him. She wondered why he was acting so weird.

...

"Mouth-breathing village idiots," Gideon muttered as a crowd gawked as his cuteness. He slammed open his house door.

Mrs. Gleeful washed dishes, silent as usual. She made no eye contact with her disturbed son, who passed by her without saying a word.

Gideon slammed his door and sat at his desk.

"Oh, Mabel," he sighed, picking up a picture of her. "Why'd you have to team up with your devilish brother? We could've been happy together."

He picked the Dipper doll he had crafted.

"Because I'm using her," Gideon said in a terrible interpretation of Dipper, "to get the journals. And now that I have them, I'm coming after you."

Gideon threw the doll across the room. "We'll see." He screamed, "I didn't get bailed out of jail for nothing!"

"Gideon!" his father cried, bursting into the room. "Keep it down! I'm trying to sell cars out here!"

"I can get rid of you, Old Man!"

His father paused, then shrugged and shut the door.

Gideon picked up his cellphone, typed in a few things, then said, "Bill Cipher."

A window-like thing appeared on the wall, not showing the outside but Bill.

"What?" he demanded, reclining as well as a triangle can on a beach chair.

"Help me seek vengeance on the Pines family!"

"Why should I?" Bill answered, bored with the conversation already.

"They defeated you once," Gideon said. "Do you really want that to happen again? You could get rid of them once and for all!"

Bill sat up. "Interesting. Alright. What do you want me to do?"

"First get the twins against each other."

Bill laughed. "Water under the bridge. Way ahead of you. Let me finish this part of my plot and from there we'll work together."

...

Dipper jumped up as the clock stroke midnight.

"Mabel won't mind if I'm a little late," he said to himself.

"Let's go!" Wendy cried as he ran out and into the van.

"Hey, it's the kid!" Thompson said.

"Where's Robbie?" Nate asked.

Wendy scoffed. "Ugh. Don't remind me. He's not coming."

"You still haven't forgiven him?" Lee asked as Thompson slammed on the pedals.

"I said I don't want to talk about it," Wendy muttered.

"Genius," Nate teased Lee, "she doesn't want to talk about it!"

"Your mom doesn't want to talk about it."

Dipper stared out the window.

"Hey, Dip," Wendy said, "what's up? You're usually talkative."

"Oh," he said, looking at her, "nothing! Hey, I, uh, know where they keep the snacks at the lake."

"No need," Nate said. "We brought some."

Dipper froze. 'Think!' he demanded himself.

Before he could say anything else, they pulled into the parking lot for the lake.

The boys pushed each other out of the van, Wendy cheering them on, and Tambry somehow flawlessly exiting the vehicle while still texting.

"I'll get us some canoes," Dipper offered.

"Right here!" Lee said. "Wendy, the kid's a helper."

She smirked and helped unload the picnic supplies they had brought. Dipper soon forgot about needing to get Mabel.

...

"You're glowing!" Mermando cried.

Mabel watched her tail light up.

"It must be midnight," she said, crawling onto land. She felt her legs (thankfully with a bathing suit on) stretch out and air fill her lungs.

"That's it?" Mermando said. "You can't come with me?"

Mabel watched his expression, then shoved four herbs into her pocket.

"Maybe," she said. "But I need to stay with my brother."

"Wasn't he supposed to come get you?"

Mabel paused and glanced at her watch. "He's just a little late…"

"Why don't you canoe back and meet him halfway? I'll swim with you."

She grinned and nodded, and soon they were headed back.

"I don't see Dipper," Mabel muttered.

"He must've abandoned you!" Mermando cried.

"What? He wouldn't have!"

"Why not? Look!"

As they came closer to shore, silhouettes formed. Even closer, Mabel could see Dipper laughing with Wendy and her friends. Dipper looked up for a second, saw Mabel's petrified face, said something to Wendy and motioned for Mabel to come to shore where the teens couldn't see them.

When she arrived, Mermando hid behind a rock. Mabel stormed up to Dipper.

"I'm sorry!" he cried. "I'm so sorry!"

"You forgot!" she screamed. "After that lecture about not abandoning your family for love, you forgot!"

"I meant to come!" he promised desperately. "Really!"

"Then why didn't you?"

Dipper gulped. "Wendy-"

"Wendy!" she cried. "Of course! You broke your promise, so I'll break mine. I'm taking all four herbs!"