I was about halfway down the steps when I realized that I needed keys to use the golf cart. Which should've been in Melody's possession, since she had Wendy's job and Wendy always had the keys. Even when she possibly shouldn't have.

I was going to have to be really discrete about this.

I sauntered into the gift shop, where Mabel was talking to Melody excitedly, who was politely listening as she checked stuff out for tourists. Waddles had finally left Mabel and was busy participating in his favorite activity—lying in the window's sunlight and sleeping.

"Hey guys," I greeted coolly, propping my elbow on a nearby bookshelf.

"Dipper, I told you you sound and look like a baby lamb that just was born and is figuring out how to make sounds when you try to be cool," Mabel replied without even looking at me.

My elbow slipped, and I temporarily lost my balance, almost crashing into a rack of postcards that I briefly read to say Question Mark or Man Baby? with Soos on the front only wearing a pear of underpants and a question mark costume.

Mabel giggled. "Who wants a lamby lamby lamby?"

"What's that mean?" Melody inquired.

"Nothing!" I butted in quickly before Mabel could answer, feeling my face turn red with embarrassment. The plan already seemed like it was failing.

"Are you done being weird now? Wendy isn't here anymore—you know that, right?" Mabel laughed.

I sighed. "Yup." Sometimes you just had to roll with Mabel's stuff.

"Whatchyou need, Dipper?" Melody asked, handing a buying customer their gift bag.

"Oh, just wanted to know where the golf cart keys were. You know, just for information's sake. Also, just in case Mabel gets abducted by gnomes again," I replied smoothly, trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible.

"Oh really?" Mabel asked jokingly before Melody could answer, "Just for information's sake, eh? Not going anywhere?"

Dang it, Mabel knows me too well. "Nope. Maybe later, though, you know, once we get settled."

"Wait, Mabel, you got abducted by gnomes?" Melody asked, "That's a joke, right?"

"Where are you gonna go?" Mabel interrogated, ignoring Melody's question.

"Just…town. To see stuff."

"Can I come with?"

My heart froze. "No," I said immediately.

I'm not positively sure why I didn't want my twin sister to come along with me to see Wendy—after all, she's friends with both of us. Still, though…I didn't want her to come. Just in case she messed…something up.

"Wait, why not?" Mabel laughed, "What, is there something you're hiding from me? Already?"

"Uh, no."

"Why can't I come with you then?"

"And why are we not entertaining the discussion of Mabel getting kidnapped by gnomes again? I really am…very, very confused on that front," Melody chimed in.

I panicked a little, but an idea bulb shined in my brain, giving me the perfect lie. "Because, I'll just be…going to see stuff. Really not that much. Plus, I might be heading to the woods and taking notes on the stuff in there, just like last summer."

She groaned. "UGHHH WHYYY? You are SO BORING when you take notes, it's like you turn into an ultra-geek or something."

I sighed. "Yup, that's me. Ultra-geek."

"Aw no, I didn't…I didn't mean it like that, Dipper, you know I was just kiddin' around…In fact, I'll even be willing to sit through your boring, scientific studying thing you do," Mabel said, smiling at me.

NO!

"No!" I repeated.

Mabel frowned. "Dipper, do you not want me to come or something? Is that it?"

I tried to come up with a good answer to this question, but I just ended up stuttering some word that sounded like "blubber."

Mabel rolled her eyes and slipped off the counter she was sitting at. "Alright," she said, giving up, strangely enough, "Fine. I know when I'm not wanted. I'll just be upstairs…unpacking…" She started slowly thumping up the stairs backwards with her backpack, as she was facing Melody and me. I gave her a suspicious look, as she never surrendered that easily, but her nerve didn't break; she just kept on climbing the stairs slowly, a bump being heard at each step she went up.

Hm.

I turned back toward Melody, who looked slightly dazed at the conversation that had happened. "So can I have the golf cart keys now?" I inquired as sweetly as possible.

She blinked. "Uh, no way dude. That thing's pretty beat up, and it's not safe for you guys to ride around in."

I threw up my hands, exasperated. "Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?"

She shrugged. "Kinda interesting where that conversation went. By the way, what's all the talk about the gnome thing again? I feel like I'm being left out on something…"

"Oh, just a, um, inside joke from last summer. Nothing important," I replied. The later Melody had to worry about the strange and sometimes malevolent anomalies of Gravity Falls, the better. "Oh, and I'm going to go take a walk real quick, if that's okay," I also added, trying to just get out the door.

"Oh yeah. Walk till you drop, my dude," Melody answered, still looking kind of confused but more at ease, and then turned to realize that a whole line of customers had accumulated while she was talking to us.

I heard Melody profusely apologizing for the wait as I opened the door and breathed in the fresh air, mentally preparing my feet to walk. It couldn't be that far of a hike to the shop, could it?

I scanned the road, seeing that it split—one direction headed toward the town, and the other away from it. A normal person would assume that a sandwich shop wanting a lot more business would build the place near the town, but Gravity Falls was not a place full of normal people. They could've easily simultaneously had a (possibly supernatural) brain fart and decided to build the joint as far as they possibly could away from the town while still being considered a Gravity Falls address.

I started heading down the road in the direction going away from the town (because actual logic never seemed to apply here) when I felt someone's hands suddenly press on my shoulders.

"BOO!" I heard loud in clear and my ear and, for the third time in the twenty-or-so minutes I had officially been in Gravity Falls, I jumped up and screamed in surprise.

I whipped around and saw, to my dismay and slight relief, my twin sister.

"Wow, Dipper, you need to calm down!" Mabel laughed uncontrollably, "You might blow a fuse or something!"

"That doesn't even make any sense," I muttered, recovering from my shock.

"Ah, shut up, bro-bro!" Mabel joked, punching my arm.

"Aren't you supposed to be unpacking?"

"Yyyyyyesss…" Mabel replied slowly, "But I knew you were going to be out here at some point, trying to sneak off somewhere without me, so I decided to watch out the window until I saw you, climb out that window, scale down the house with my AMAZING climbing skills, and scare you." She grinned. "And it all worked out just the way I thought it would!"

"Except for the window part," I said, looking up at the shack and seeing the Bill-like window to be broken, "How were even able to break that without me noticing?"

She pulled out her grappling hook from her sweater pocket. "GRAPPLING HOOK!"

"Aaand that also doesn't make sense."

"So, where are you really headed off to?" Mabel asked, changing the subject.

I sniffed. "To town, just like I said."

"Town is that way," Mabel said, smirking as she points down the other direction of the road.

"Oh yeah…" I answer slowly, "Right." I didn't feel that dismayed, as it was a 50-50 chance of me going the right way.

I did, however, feel dismayed that Mabel was coming with me.

"Town, here we come!" Mabel cheered, skipping ahead of me, "And Dipper, whenever you want to tell me where you really wanted to go is fine!"

I simply rolled my eyes and sighed defeatedly. I guessed I wouldn't be seeing Wendy today.

Town, here we come.