TWISTED
Chapter 4
As per usual, Hazelle had a bad feeling.
They returned to her living room, resuming their seats, but Jocelyn lagged behind, staring down at her hands in dismay. As she passed by, Hazelle opened her mouth to ask if she was alright, but Stanford's hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Forgive my curiosity," he said, smiling meekly. "Is that...a map you've got there? Of dimensions you've visited?"
Hazelle flushed, eyes shooting down to said map in hand. It was wrinkled and yellowed with age, but every angle and line was sketched in determined black ink. Over the year and a half she'd been creating it, the notebook she kept the map in had grown with vigor, every corner filled with notes, equations, drawings, and codes.
"Um…" Hazelle laughed nervously. "Yeah, it is."
"May I see it?" he asked, holding out his hand.
Hazelle hesitated. Stanford, for the first time since she'd met him the night before, looked earnest, with a crooked smile and a polite tone. She really hadn't known him for long at all, but he was the Author. All her scribbles were probably completely off, in comparison to what he'd seen.
"Sure," she said, handing it over.
Stan's mysterious twin brother flipped through, humming under his breath. Hazelle gave him room to analyze, stepping into the living room-and right into another one of Jocelyn and Stan's squabbles.
"You promised me," he cried, arms folded over his chest. "You and Four Eyes promised me you wouldn't go jumpin' through portals anymore!"
"It was out of our control!" Jocelyn countered, angrily waving her hands to make her point.
"Out of your-all ya had to do was stop!"
"We COULDN'T! Lucy was out there and it was driving me-us crazy! We couldn't just not look."
"Kid, you could've gotten yourself hurt! You saw what happened back there! What if you had gotten stranded in some crazy dimension without any way back?"
"I can handle myself! I'm not a kid, I can control it! And obviously we're fine! Nothing went wrong, except for the fact that we never found her!" Jocelyn yelled, seething. "And as far as I'm concerned, we're close to finding her, so if you'd kindly fuck off, that'd be great, because we know what we're doing!"
Hazelle winced. She could tell that her powers being inhibited had deeply upset her friend. That, combined with the touchy subject of Lucy, had surely set Jocelyn off like a firecracker. As the lights began to flicker overhead, Hazelle knew she had to intervene, but before she could do anything, Stanford seemed to read her mind and step forward instead.
"I know tensions are high," he began, pausing as Jocelyn shot daggers at his extended, patient hand, "but squabbling like this won't do us any good." He turned to Hazelle. "Do you have a work space we could use?"
Hazelle nodded. "The basement would work. Nobody really goes down there, but it's where my dad keeps all his tools and stuff. There's a workbench and everything."
Stanford clapped. "Excellent, we can do some great work there. But first: Jessalyn, is it?"
Jocelyn was quiet as Stanford incorrectly addressed her. She was still tense, but she wasn't ripping any heads off, which Hazelle considered a good sign. "Jocelyn." she replied tersely.
"Oh, yes, of course. Could we pick your brain about this whole portal jumping situation?" he asked, pulling out Journal #1. "I've got some notes to update, of course, but if we could analyze the logistics of this situation, I'm sure we can get to the bottom of what's causing your irregularities."
Jocelyn crossed her arms and quickly glanced at Stan. "I guess so," she muttered.
In turn, Stan narrowed his eyes and stalked away over to the couch, sitting stiffly down next to Soos and Mabel. All the while, Dipper had inched himself closer to the Author, obviously wanting in on whatever Stanford had planned.
"Alright, then," Stanford announced, breaking the slightly awkward silence. He turned and made his way toward the basement door, with Dipper on his heels. Jocelyn trudged behind the two of them, arms crossed over her chest.
Hazelle watched with a sinking feeling as Stan's frown deepened. "Umm...the TV's all yours," she said dumbly.
Stan harrumphed and swiped the remote from the armrest, pulling his feet up.
"Hazelle?" Stanford gestured her over from the basement door. "Are you coming?"
"Me?" Hazelle asked in surprise.
"Of course!" Stanford said, eyes bright. "You've clearly got the right mind for all the elbow grease that goes into interdimensional exploration. You and Dipper could lend a lot to this study of the portal jumper."
For a moment, Hazelle was put off by his reference to Jocelyn as "the portal jumper." But the excitement lit her blood on fire and she couldn't hold back her wide grin.
"Wow, I'd love to! Uh… Stanford."
Ford smiled warmly at Hazelle.
"Please. Call me Ford."