"So, one thing I noticed when going through last year's picks is that we really focused on one particular era…." Ken said, throwing some papers onto the floor.

"What, their married years?" Phoebe shrugged. ""Seems broad to me."

"Come on!" Ken scoffed "This week is about the bond they share in general. And we ended that week by reminding everyone that it goes back about 26 years...when they first met."

Phoebe sighed. "We'd better not be going through that again. But I have a better idea. See, the Christmas after, Mom visited Dad and Aunt Mabel. At the time they gave her a key as a sign she could drop by unannounced whenever she liked."

Ken laughed. "Yeah, how thoughtful of them. Thanks to SuperGroverAway for documenting that story, by the way, go check him out. Didn't they give her an axe too, though?"

Phoebe glared at him. "Not the point. The point is, Mom chose to use that key as a sign of carte blanche….as Piedmont Middle School soon found out…."

#########################################################################################

"Oh, come on!"

Dipper opened his eighth-grade locker to find several hateful notes from other students. He didn't really need to read them. He already knew what they said from the last twenty times this year that similar notes got in there. The good news is that as he picked them up they actually fit one hand. It sure was a lot smaller than when the year began.

"Whop!" Mabel poked him in the forehead as she showed up at her locker right next to him.

Dipper jumped a bit - some things you never get used to - before acknowledging his sister. "Oh, hey, Mabel. Enjoyed art class?"

"Of course, silly!" Mabel gave her signature laugh as her arms hung loosely by her side. "How about you, bro-bro, I bet you really enjoyed that lab we did!"

"Yeah. Still can't wait for high school labs, though..." Dipper held up the papers in his hand. "Mabel, have you been through my locker lately? We had a rule about this!"

"Whaaat?" Mabel made an expression of mock surprise. "I would never do that! You know I respect your boundaries."

Dipper snorted. "Correction. You don't respect any boundaries."

"Well, I at least know to not try to hide stuff from -"

As Mabel opened her locker, she was cut off by more pieces of paper falling out of her own locker, clearly labeled "pipsqueak" on the front. Dipper looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, um, those are mine."

"Really? Not unless they're from like two years ago. Do you even try to make those excuses sound believable?" Dipper picked them up and added them to his stack. "Huh….still a lot less than when the year began..."

######################################################################

"Well, congrats, dude! Sounds like you're making huge headway against the people who try keeping you down!" Wendy eagerly said to her friend.

Dipper leaned back in his bed, enjoying the cell phone his parent had given him - or more to the point, the voice of the girl on the other end. "Thanks, Wendy. I'm not forgetting that at all, I'm really not."

It was the same evening after Dipper had finished his homework. On any year before this, he'd have spent his remaining time clearing through all the homework that was to be assigned for spring break. Normally he would've this year, too, but he had a promise to keep. After he had gotten his new phone, he and Wendy had agreed to call each other every few days. Not that either of them needed any encouraging to do that - after the past few holiday seasons, everyday life without each other was too commonplace and boring.

"So why do you still sound anxious?"

"What?" Dipper bolted upright. "Me? I'm not -"

"I know you too well, Dipper, come on…."

Dipper sighed. Honestly, at this point he wasn't really wanting to hide anything from his best friend - it was more out of habit that he even pretended to try. "Well, the truth is, they all came from two people. Gary and Davis. Seems they decided to double their efforts to make up for no one else backing them up anymore. Faked their signatures and everything, like they had nothing better to do, which...makes a lot of sense, given who they are."

"It's incredible how much some people refuse to learn. But hey, dude, you got this! Just show them like you did the last few guys."

"It's not that simple, actually."

"Why not?"

"Well, the parents of those kids complained, so the district board set up a new rule. If you try and fight back, you're considered part of the problem and punished along with the instigator. They could honestly care less if you were going to bleed out had you not done anything."

Wendy paused before responding. "That might be the dumbest thing I ever heard."

"Yeah, they called it the Pines statute."

Wendy groaned. "Nevermind. That was."

Dipper continued. "Well, at least spring break is literally a day away. For now I can just keep my head hidden and relax for awhile afterwards."

"So what, back to plan A? Dude, if you give them that, they win!"

"No, it's not backing out. I just need some time to think of something else," Dipper replied unconvincingly. He looked at his books at his desk and decided it was time to get back to work. "Speaking of relaxing, I'm trying to knock out my spring break homework so I can actually have a shot at it. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Alright, man. Just promise me you'll keep your head up, even as you…you know, keep it down."

"No worries, Wendy. I will." With that, Dipper hung up, sighed, and rolled of his bed to do some math.

############################################################################

Wendy stared at the phone, listening to the dial tone for a few seconds before hanging up on her end. She was always glad to hear of Dipper growing into his own, figuring out how to stand up for himself. Still, sometimes it was hard to believe that the same person who stopped an apocalypse from destroying everything in the universe could get pushed around that much. She knew that those same brains were pretty much why he was bullied, but that was of little comfort. And now the board had somehow decided that it was perfectly fine for Dipper to lie down and take whatever those two meatheads wanted to give him.

She eventually sighed "That dork" before deciding that she too should get back to work. As she opened her notebooks, though, she gasped at what she saw. Immediately she picked up the phone and dialed another number.

"Hey, Tambry, how's it going?... Remember how you said you owe me for getting you and the others out of Weirdmageddon?... Well..."

#############################################################################

"OK." Dipper said to himself the next day, as he was packing his backpack at his locker. "Almost done...I just need to get out of here, and blissful spring break is - "

"HAHA! Sup, dweeb?"

Dipper closed his eyes and groaned at the familiar voices. "So close..."

Two boys taller than him - one blonde, the other black-haired - flanked him from either side, making it impossible for him to move. Dipper just had his back pressed up against the wall as his locker door swung left and right next to him. "Oh, hey Gary, hey Davis. What' are you still doing here?"

Blonde Gary laughed. "Well, we can't exactly leave school for a week without giving the nerdy shrimp one last reminder that we exist."

Davis chimed in, "Especially when that same shrimp tried pulling a fast one on our friends." His hands flexed threateningly.

Dipper's first instinct was to cower and apologize. But that sentiment lasted a millisecond before giving way to the words Wendy had told him last night - promise me you'll keep your head up, even as you…you know, keep it down. He was too far gone at this point, so it was time to go all in. "Some friends they are, for them to ditch your little hobby since then."

Gary's eyebrow twitched, but he acted tough as he retorted. "Oh, I guess their notes got lost in the mail, then."

Dipper snorted with fake bravado. "No, I have 'their' notes right here," he replied, pulling out the notes from yesterday. "But honestly, a kid could tell you just wrote them all. If you really enjoyed it that much, at least put some effort into it."

Gray pressed him into the locker wall. "You wanna keep talking, boy, I can - "

At this point, however, Davis looked at the open locker and noticed something. "Hey, Gary, look at this." With that he reached out and took the lumberjack hat inside. The hat.

"Hey! Give it back!" Dipper became defensive as his vision narrowed, only registering that the two hooligans were now fingering the precious photo of Wendy that he also kept in there.

"What's this? Dipstick's got a bit of an imaginary girlfriend, I see!" one began.

"And likes dressing up as her, apparently…." the other turned the hat around, laughing his head off.

"That's my friend from the summer! Oregon, remember? Making fun of my 'hick' uncle because he lives 'nowhere'? Now drop the hat!" Dipper remained locked in a fierce gaze right into Gary's eyes, but he felt a part of his confidence flag. He had fought well, but now he was losing and he knew it.

Davis laughed. "Right. Like someone THIS cool could come from THAT kind of place and be YOUR friend? I bet in real life your friend was ugly and dumb and..."

"Keep talking, buddy."

All three boys were caught off guard as they once again became aware of their surroundings. The taller boys turned around as Dipper's peripheral vision cleared up. All three of them had to slowly crane their necks a tad up, traveling from the boots...to the blue jeans..to the green flannel...to the red hair….to the blue-and-white pine tree trucker hat on top. For in front of them stood Wendy Corduroy, with eyes that showed anger at what she heard, but a smirk that showed she was going to enjoy what happens next.

Gary sneered, desperately putting up a brave front. "So, having your friend come down to save you? Having others fight your battles? You really are weak, runt."

"Really?" Wendy's eyes at this point were screaming bloody murder. "From what I hear, you two are the last of...what, a dozen people picking on my favorite guy? He took care of them without my help, and I bet he's smarter than all of them combined. I'm just giving him a bit of a break from dealing with you. Now then...what were you saying about me and my town?" Her voice made it clear that one wrong word would get them severely punished.

Davis spoke up. "Hey, you do know that if you attack us now, the school board will get you."

Wendy laughed. "Really, how stupid are you? You still don't get it. I'm. not. From. here. They can't do anything to me because I'm not one of their students. I play by Oregon state rules, where things get a bit more...physical." She flexed her fingers, long yet strong from days of holding her hatchet. "Wanna see?"

Davis and Gary both took one look at each other and bolted for the exit. Wendy called after them. "Yeah, you better run! Try messing with either Pines again, sucka!" With that, she turned her attention to the one boy left. "Hey, man. You ok?"

Dipper slowly stepped forward, unsure at first if it was real. Doubt quickly gave way to happiness as he hugged her as high as he could. "Wendy! You're really here! But...how did - ?"

Wendy hugged him back. "Good to see you too, buddy," she laughed. "It's actually pretty funny what happened last night after I hung up..."

###############################################################################

As she opened her notebooks, though, she gasped at what she saw; the planner in front of her said "school closed earlier for Spring Break. Starts Friday." She saw her chance to do the one thing she wanted to do more than anything at the moment; set things right for Dipper in Piedmont.

Immediately she picked up the phone and dialed another number. From the other side of the phone she heard her tech-savvy friend's voice say. "Hi, this is Tambry? Wendy, this really you?"

"Hey, Tambry, how's it going?"

"Wow, you never call this late. Something must really be weighing you down."

"Yeah… Remember how you said you owe me for getting you and the others out of Weirdmageddon?"

"Calling it in already? What is it?"

"Well, I know Mabel follows you on Twitter. Do NOT post anything tomorrow about Spring Break starting early."

"Oh, come on! I pretty much have to stay off it completely to do that! What justifies this?"

Wendy fingered the truck keys as she said, "Simply put, I need the element of surprise..."

#######################################################################

"Oh my God, you're the coolest person I know!" Dipper separated from the hug to look at his heroine with awe.

She cracks a grin. "What else is new? Anyway, you're the one who gave me a key for Christmas, you should've seen this somewhat coming!" She looked around. "Wait, where's Mabel? Doesn't she usually back you up?"

"Oh, well, we have different classes at the end of the day, so it takes her longer to get back."

Wendy grinned ad snickered. "Oh man, Dipper, I got an idea. I'm gonna hide in this classroom, she will go NUTS when she sees me!"

As she quickly took her position, Dipper grinned. "Break begins early, then..."

###############################################################

"So yeah, quite the gesture eh, Ken?" Phoebe asked. After a second of silence, she turned to check on him and was surprised. "Uh, Ken?"

Ken leaned against the back of his chair, scribbling numbers onto a notepad. "Oh, sorry, just calculating the fuel costs for such a trip."

Phoebe looked at him with befuddled amazement. "THAT was the takeaway for you? You can't ask for broader scope and then tune out when we get it."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I loved every moment of it," Ken reassured his co host. "I'm mostly surprised your mom didn't unsheath her hatchet in front of those kids for messing with a Pines."

"Alright, that's fair," Phoebe conceded. "Personally, I think it's mostly because she stayed with them when in town. Can you imagine if Granny Linda had heard about THAT when the three teens came home that afternoon?"

"Oh yeah, you're right..." Ken chuckled as he popped another bag of chips. "Absolute bedlam..."