Dipper hugged his foster parents, making sure he held them long enough to appear genuine. He gave a gentler wave to Ben and Vanessa, and seeing them turn to Mabel gave a final look to the three younger children. Their faces were a mix of relief and anxiety, the latter taking over more as Dipper stared at them. There wasn't really anything more to do with them though. In a few minutes, they'd go their separate ways.
"Hey, you kids have a good time, okay?" Their foster father called as they climbed into the social worker's car. "Say 'Hi' to your great-uncle for me! And hey, if you're allowed, please call us! We'd love to hear how things go for you!"
"Hehe, alright," Dipper gave one final wave as he rolled up the window on the car door, "Yeah, bye! Bye!" The glass reached the roof. "Ugh," he slumped against his seat. "Finally." Now they just had to wait for Mrs. Gorpe.
"You get everything?" Mabel was going through the one suitcase they had dragged into the back seat. The rest of their stuff was stowed in the trunk.
"Yeah." He watched her unzip the bag's pockets. "Hey, can you find my book in there?"
"Ehhhhhh…ha!" She yanked out a copy of Carrie and handed it to him. "There we are, and...come on…"
"Hm, let me guess? Front left pocket."
Mabel checked. "Yes!" She pulled out her pocket knife, the one that Dipper had bought for her birthday the year before. "Couldn't forget this bad boy!"
At that moment, Mrs. Gorpe opened her door. She was just getting into her seat when she spotted the knife in Mabel's hand. "Did they let you have that?"
"Well, yeah! It's just a little pocket knife! Plus it has a bottle opener, a corkscrew, two kinds of screwdrivers -"
"But what could you possibly need it for?" She left her car door open and had one foot on the ground, like she was ready to jump out and scold the parents.
"Oh, I like to explore around outside, and this thing's really handy. Plus I'm experimenting with wood carving. Look!" She dragged a crude wooden blob out of the suitcase. "This is my friend at school! Or at least, it's going to be when it's done." Dipper recognized the face alright, but it sure wasn't someone Mabel considered a "friend." In fact, this was the third copy she'd made of this person, the other two having met unpleasant ends...
Mrs. Gorpe breathed out her nostrils for a moment, narrowed her eyes. Finally she ruled it wasn't worth the effort, and closed her door. "You be careful with that thing."
"I am!" She hummed to herself as she flicked each blade out, then back in. Dipper could see that this was not comforting Mrs. Gorpe at all.
"So," he leaned on his elbow and stared out the window as their old home rolled away, "how long to get to Gravity Falls?"
"It's going to be about five, six hours. Do you have anything to keep yourself busy?" Again she looked in the rearview mirror at Mabel.
"I have a book, and she's got-"
"Do you mind if I do a little carving, actually? I promise I won't make a mess!"
"Absolutely not! What if we had a sudden stop, or if the road gets rough? You'll slip and cut yourself!"
"I can be careful!" Mabel put her hands on her hips. "Really!"
"No, I won't allow it. Don't you have something else you could do?"
She groaned. "I could draw, I guess…" She folded her knife and stashed it in her sweater pocket.
"There we go, that's a MUCH better idea right now. Alright, let's see…" she turned onto the main road. "We'll stop for lunch when we get into the town, okay?"
Dipper buried himself in his book, every now and then looking over at Mabel. She was busy sketching out new designs for wooden figures, and not many of them were flattering. They drove out of town, onto the interstate, the hum of the tires against the pavement rarely changing.
Two hours into the drive they crossed the Oregon border, which was little more than a sign amid an endless army of trees. An hour later, Dipper felt a tap on his arm. Mabel offered him a piece of paper which read: Are you hungry?
He looked up at Mrs. Gorpe, who was watching the road with vigilant eyes. She had said they'd eat when they got to Gravity Falls, but surely she could be persuaded? Gesturing for the pen he responded: Yes. What do you want?
Mabel got a big grin on her face as she wrote back: Tacos!
He gave her an annoyed look - she knew he did not like tacos, at all. Ha ha. For real though.
Sandwiches or hot dogs?
Dipper circled sandwiches, and Mabel nodded excitedly. With that agreement reached, now they just had to get their plan in action. Dipper silently indicated he'd go first.
"Mrs. Gorpe?" He curled his arms around his stomach. "I know you said we'd wait, but I'm really hungry now. Urrgh…"
Mabel backed him up. "Yeah, I'm starving."
She glanced in the mirror at them. "Come now, we'll be there soon. After lunch it'll be a jump and a skip to your new home."
"But we barely had any breakfast this morning," Dipper complained.
He could see her stiffen a bit. "They didn't feed you before you left?"
Sure, it had been scrambled eggs, potatoes, and pancakes with plenty of milk and orange juice to chase them down, but details weren't important here.
"Just a little snack, they said we'd get food on the trip."
"No, I told them, I told them we were stopping only for restroom breaks, and…" she sighed. "Alright, next chance we get, we'll stop. Anything you kids want?"
"SANDWICHES!" they shouted in unison.
To their great luck, a small sub shop appeared only five minutes down the road. Mrs. Gorpe decided to roll it into their scheduled pit stop, and after lunch she became determined to make it through without stopping.
It was two hours later that her voice finally spoke again. "Okay kids, here it is…"
Dipper looked up from his book again. They were approaching a large sign that read "Welcome to Gravity Falls", with a shining sun behind the lettering.
"We're here!" She looked in the rearview mirror, gave a thin smile, and repeated the sign's message: "Welcome to Gravity Falls!"
Looking ahead, Dipper could just barely make out the steeple of a church and a water tower, and beyond them rose a pair of cliffs that had curious gashes in their sides.
"This is your new home," Mrs. Gorpe announced, as if Dipper and Mabel hadn't been made aware yet.
Dipper looked over at his sister, raising an eyebrow and jerking his head towards the town. She simply shrugged and took to staring out the window, and he resigned to the same.
As they came up from the south, they approached the center of the town where a row of low buildings squatted, the talelst only three stories high. They took a left and followed the line of facades, until the road took a sharp right turn at the cemetery. From there they went past some restaurants, including an Hermanos Brothers (Great… Dipper thought bitterly) and Greasy's Diner ("Look, remember that place Dipper?"). Then they passed a used car lot on their right, a large tent colored pale-blue, and finally took a dirt road to the left.
"We're not even in town?" Mabel asked in disbelief. "Even in nowhere, we're living in nowhere!"
"Now children, behave. Your great-uncle lives far out here because he owns a tourist attraction. He runs a business, so he's a very serious man. I want you to be on your best behavior, okay? He won't want any trouble from you."
Dipper looked at Mabel at these words, and they exchanged little smiles. No trouble, sure…
Finally the road led to a house - a house that looked about ready to collapse. Signs were plastered around it, and lettering across the top read "MYSTERY HACK". An extra "S" was lying atop the roof. In front of the building, a small crowd was gathered around a man in a business suit and eyepatch. When Mabel opened her door, they could hear the man's voice in the air:
"For the love of - it's not hard to understand people! It is a ROCK, that looks like a FACE! It is not an actual face, I promise you!"
"But if it's just a rock," a voice answered, "then why doesn't it look like a rock?"
"AUGH! For the last time, just -" Suddenly he caught sight of the twins and Mrs. Gorpe. "Oh! Uh, you know what, you're right! Absolutely right! This rock should look like a rock, but it doesn't. You wanna know why? Go buy the book in the gift shop! Go on, all of you! Haha, thanks for comin' folks!"
"Mr. Stanford Pines?"
"Please, call me Stan." He leaned on a walking stick topped with an 8-ball. "And you must be Miss Thorn?"
"Mrs. Gorpe."
"Right right right, which means these two are my great-niece and nephew, ha ha! How's it goin' guys?" He messed with Mabel's hair, much to her dislike. Dipper clapped his own hands over his hat. "Ah, little shy, huh?"
"Mr. Pines, I just have some final paperwork for you to fill out, and a few concerns to discuss with you."
"Sure sure, uh...kids, where's your stuff?"
"Mostly in the trunk," Mabel pointed. "We have a bag in the back seat though."
"SOOS!" Stan hollered. A large man in a green question mark shirt came jogging. "Soos, can you help them get this stuff up to their room?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Pines!" As Stan and Mrs. Gorpe proceeded into the Mystery Shack, he began lifting the bags out of the vehicle.
"Whoa whoa, careful!" Dipper yelled in alarm as Soos handled the suitcases. "My lab stuff is in there!"
"Oh, sorry dude." He took much more caution handling them now. "Lab stuff? Are you some kinda scientist?"
"Still in middle school, here."
"Right, got it! You're a boy genius, working in a top secret lab, can't talk about it. My lips are sealed, dude."
"Uhhhh…" Dipper gave a sidelong look to Mabel, who had no explanation to offer him. "Sure, whatever you wanna think."
"Oh man, do you think I could see one of your experiments? That'd be so awesome!"
Soos kept talking as he carried their bags upstairs, Dipper and Mabel each taking one on their own. Their room was a refurbished attic, which had two beds on opposite ends of the room and a triangular window facing the front of the Shack.
"Whew!" Soos set all of their stuff down on one of the beds. "There you go guys. Well, I better see what else Mr. Pines wants, but it was great meeting you Dipper, Maple."
"It's Mabel."
"Oh, right. Sorry, yeah, haha." With that he waved and exited.
Dipper looked around at their new living space. "Well, at least it's bigger…"
"Yeah, it's something." Mabel pulled out her pocket knife again, flipped the blade open, and began poking it into the walls. "Hey, it's soft...do you think Stan will let me carve some stuff here?"
Before Dipper could reply, they heard Stan's voice: "Kids! Come downstairs! Say good-bye to Miss Corpse!"
Coming to the first floor, they found their uncle trying to walk Mrs. Gorpe out the door.
"Mr. Pines, please, I'm just a little concerned about Mabel's possession of a knife."
"Look, it's not a big deal. She knows how to use it, right Mabel?" She nodded. "See? No problem!"
"Okay, even besides that, the rest of your paperwork I had questions on-"
"Hey hey, lady. You got my background checks, totally legitimate background checks that I did not pay to have forged by a Canadian crime syndicate. You got my home reviews, you got all that stuff - I'm legit. I'm taking these kids under my wing."
"Mr. Pines, as their social worker I am obligated to-"
"Uh uh, what's this behind your ear?" He pulled out a hundred dollar bill. "Look at that, my old friend Benny! He says everything's alright here."
She stared at him. "Is this an attempt to bribe-"
"Uhp! Your other ear, I think it's...it is! Benny's clone! He also says everything's alright."
She looked around uncomfortably before settling on the twins. "Dipper, Mabel? You'll be alright here? Call me if anything goes wrong?"
"Sure thing," Mabel replied, and Dipper nodded in agreement.
"Very well. Stanford," she tipped her head and went out the door. Stan watched as she went off the porch and into her car, waving from the doorjamb the whole time.
"That's that!" Stan clapped his hands together. "Alright kids, time to meet your ol' Grunkle Sta-"
But when he turned around, they had disappeared. He was just in time to hear their door close.
"Oh right, right, long day…" he cleared his throat and called through the floorboards. "I'll call you down at dinner!"
They stared at the floor of their room, and then at each other. So their uncle, instead of a disciplinarian, was a cunning old con man.
They couldn't tell which would get in their way more.
D SDLU RI WZLQV: VLVWHU, EURWKHU
RQOB WKHUH IRU RQH DQRWKHU
LQ D ZRUOG WKHB KDYH IRUVRRN
DUH WKLQJV DOZDBV DV WKHB ORRN?