Chapter 7:

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Go away," Pacifica curled herself into a smaller ball underneath her blankets.

She could hear the door opening, and groaned. The last thing she needed was another lecture.

"Dinner's ready," Dipper called to her.

"Not hungry."

An uncomfortable pause followed. After a few moments, Pacifica heard Dipper's footsteps coming towards her, and he sat on the edge of the bed.

"Look, Pacifica, what you did today was pretty stupid, I'm not gonna lie. But you can't beat yourself up over it. Just learn from your mistake and move on."

Pacifica sniffled from under the blankets, and didn't come out.

"Hey, if you want, early tomorrow I can give you a scuba lesson."

"After today you want me to get back in the water?"

"Well, yeah," Dipper answered. "Just not by yourself until you know how to handle it out there."

Pacifica sighed, and rubbed the back of her hand against her tear-stained face.

"We're not gonna kick you off the team just because you made one stupid mistake," Dipper continued. "Not unless you keep making a habit of it."

"That's what I'm afraid of!" Pacifica screamed, as she grabbed her pillow and furiously threw it across the room, causing Dipper to jump.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pacifica, I was kidding!"

The distraught girl just collapsed against the mattress and let a small sob escape her.

"Hey," Dipper settled back down onto the bed and set a hand on her back. "No one is expecting you to figure this right away. This is-"

"Don't tell me what I should and should know!" Pacifica cried. "Don't tell me what you expect out of me! I'm tired of hearing that!"

"Okay, okay," Dipper took a step back. "I'm just saying, don't be so hard on yourself."

"Why not? Everyone else is!"

"Like who? Your parents?"

"Not just them! You, and your uncles! You expected me to just go along with whatever you said because you know better, and the minute I didn't, you hate me, and who knows what I'm gonna have to do in order to fix it."

"Pacifica, we don't hate you. We're just a little disappointed is all."

Pacifica didn't answer, she just leaded her face on her knees.

"And you do know we only told you to stay on the boat to protect you, not because we don't like you, or think you're capable or anything like that."

"Whatever."

"Look, if you're hungry there's chicken soup on the stove, come get some. Tomorrow, I'll wake you up bright and early we can begin our scuba lesson."

Pacifica sighed and covered herself in her blanket once more.

"Pacifica…"

Pacifica groaned as she felt someone shaking her shoulders.

"Pacifica, come on, time for your scuba lesson."

Pacifica groaned. "Can't it wait?"

"No," Dipper ripped the blanket off her, then screeched and tumble back when he saw that Pacifica was dressed in nothing but a t-shirt and panties.

"Oh my gosh!"

Pacifica screamed and pulled her blankets back over her.

"What are you doing!?" Dipper shouted as he turned his back and shielded his eyes.

"It's hot!" Pacifica answered. "What are you doing yanking my blankets off?"

"Well, I wasn't expecting you to be half naked! Again, what are you doing?"

"Can't I do whatever I want in the privacy of my own room?" Pacifica challenged.

"Privacy!?" Dipper shouted. "We're on a freaking boat! And you're the only woman on this boat, so, no, the rest of us aren't going to think and this stuff. AND! And, you knew I was coming to wake you up!"

"I didn't expect you to take off my blankets!"

"That's what you do when you wake someone up!"

"Augh! Just get out so I can change!"

Dipper raced out of the room, and slammed the door shut. Still blushing, Pacifica stepped out of her bed and got dressed.

"…okay, now that we're done with the final check," Dipper explained. "You're ready to roll in the water."

"Okay," Pacifica nodded.

"Now, we're just going to swim about for a little bit, and then we'll go back."

Pacifica nodded.

"Now, remember, there are sharks in this part of the ocean. If you see one, don't panic, slowly move out of their way, and don't turn your back to them. If you try to turn and frantically swim away, it will think you're a fish in distress and a good food source."

"Yeah, yeah, heard you the first time."

"Alright, I'll go first, then you can follow me," Dipper sat on the edge of the boat, and let himself fall backwards into the water. After he had swam out of the way, Pacifica sat on the edge and let herself roll in.

Letting herself get adjusted, she found herself look about the blue mass. Though her heart was beating rather quickly due to yesterday's experience, she began to swim about. It didn't take her long to find Dipper, floating nearby, keeping an eye on her. Slowly growing comfortable, she began to swim about, Dipper following alongside her, letting her explore a bit.

The blue mass began to look more and more comforting as she floated about. The ebb and flow of the ocean guided her along in her journey. Pacifica felt a small smile grow underneath her mouthpiece. There was something strangely relaxing about the whole thing, almost like an out of body experience, but the good kind.

Suddenly Dipper grabbed her arms and pulled her against him. Surprised, Pacifica turned to him, and he pointed out to the open ocean. Pacifica turned, and her heart stopped. Coming through the blue haze was the unmistakable silhouette of a shark.

All she wanted to do in that moment was get out of the water, but she remembered what Dipper had told her. Don't panic. Dipper slowly swam backwards, underneath the boat with Pacifica in his arms, then pulled something off his utility belt.

Pacifica turned her head to see what it was. Was he seriously recording this? That's all he was worried about in a moment like this? Turning back to the shark, that was now much closer, she suddenly understood, and her heart stopped again.

In an eerily graceful motion, the shark began to pass by them, or rather under them. Pacifica glanced down. The head was wide enough to be a dance floor! As the shark swam along, the dorsal fin passed by them. It was as tall as Dipper, and created a small current that gently tried to pull her into the open sea with it.

Pacifica's entire body shook with every pulse of her heart, as the rest of the shark floated on by. Finally, the enormous tail waved by, almost teasing at them with its final farewell. Back into the murky depths that it had emerged from it disappeared.

The minute the it was out of sight, Dipper and Pacifica raced to the surface and onto the boat.

Ripping her mask and goggles out, Pacifica let out a half-gasp-half-screech.

"Was…Was that…"

Lying next to her, Dipper began laughing hysterically.

"What's gotten into you?" Pacifica wondered.

"I can't believe this!" Dipper began playing back the footage on his camera. "Pacifica, we've got actual, video evidence of a live megaladon!"

"Really?" Pacifica asked.

Dipper let out another joyful chuckle as he collapsed against the deck in relief. "Do you realize that this is probably the first quality footage anyone has ever gotten of this creature that supposedly went extinct 10 thousand or more years ago?"

"Let me see that!" Pacifica yanked the camera out of Dipper's hands.

"Hey!" Dipper protested, but she succeeded in prying it away from him to review the footage herself. "Wow!" she sighed in amazement, letting out a small chuckled. "That's amazing."

Her entire body tingled in excitement.

"Hey, what's going on up here?" Stan asked as he stepped out onto the main deck.

"Grunkle Stan, look," Dipper snatched the camera away from Pacifica and showed it to his Grunkle. "We caught footage of a megaladon."

"What?" Ford all but jumped onto the deck. "Let me see."

Pacifica smiled proudly as the two older men ooed and awed over hers a Dipper's find. Surely now she had made up for her mistake and could be a full member of the team.

"Are you sure we can't go in?" Pacifica groaned as she lay bored on the couch.

"Yes, I'm sure," Dipper sighed as he drew a picture of the megaladon into a journal. "You're still too new to go onto a full out hunt."

"Ugh!" Pacifica groaned.

Dipper chuckled slightly to himself. "Y'know, I didn't expect you to be so eager to just jump right into paranormal hunting."

Pacifica turned to him confused. "Why not?"

"Well, I dunno," Dipper shrugged. "You've just never struck me as the adventuring type."

"Well…" Pacifica crossed her arms. "Maybe I've just never had the chance to go adventuring before. And maybe that I've gotten a taste of it, I want more."

"Well, I'm glad you like it, but let's take it slow."

"Why?"

"Well, the paranormal hunter life is kind of…well, it's just like a sport-"

"Sport?"

"Yeah, somethings you can just pick up, and somethings you have to work yourself up to."

"Oh, are you saying I can't handle certain parts of the business?"

"I'm saying there are somethings you can't handle yet," Dipper explained.

"Well, I-"

"Look what we got!" Stan cheered as he and Ford raced into the living room.

"Did you find the megaladon?" Dipper asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Stan chuckled. "The sucker tried to eat us. So, I took the opportunity to collect some flesh samples!" Stan pulled out a bloody bag full of chunks of meat.

"Augh!" Pacifica squealed in horror. "Oh, that's disgusting!" She raced out of the room and into the bathroom to get sick.

"Case in point!" Dipper yelled after her.