HAT: Thank you all for the "happy birthdays" and the birthday hugs! *glomps everyone back* Now... time for the most terrifying thing to all children and teens... School!

Disclaimer: If I owned Gravity Falls, Stan and 'Ford would make up already! *sigh* So I don't, just the plot and OCs.


School came too fast for the children. To go from staying up as late as they want to a set schedule... needless to say it hurt.

"C'mon, wake up, Pep," says whichever Stan decided to stir her from her slumber.

Pacifica cracks open one eye- it burns and stings to do so with how little sleep she's gotten- and glares at the figure. "Why?"

"You're gonna be late for school if you don't." She closes her eyes to contemplate how long she has before she absolutely needs to get up and also make the stinging stop. Two seconds and her butt's popped and Pacifica automatically jumps and leans onto one elbow and holds her lightly stinging rear while giving Stanford an incredulous look. "Get. Up."

"I'm up," she grumbles while doing as told and walking to the dresser any grabs her clothes.

"Now wake up Mabel," he orders only to receive a vigorous shake of the head. "Why not?"

"Mabel scares me when I wake her up," Pacifica admits and goes into the closet to change as he goes to wake up his great-niece.

She comes out in her cerulean blue jeans, azure t-shirt with the words "Hey Blue Shirt" on it, and Stanley's old leather jacket to see Stanford trying to get Mabel off of his back as she bites his shoulder. And this is why Pacifica's terrified of Mabel in the mornings: she gets violent.

"Pacifica, help me get her off of me!"

Mabel snarls at Pacifica and she shakes her head. "You're a man, you can handle it... I'm gonna go pack lunch for everyone."

She grabs her backpack and runs down the stairs to get to the kitchen as fast as possible. After several minutes she's got three lunches packed with their names on the paper bags. She puts her lunch in her backpack and sets it near the door. She doesn't want to go to school- there's so much crap that's there that she's- thankfully- been avoiding all Christmas break. She wishes every day could be vacation because she can avoid all the other things that get her in a mood. Dan and all the paranormal stuff is more troublesome than school, but school doesn't do anything to take away from that stress. She has to get good grades and avoid people and- now- watch her cousins.

This is gonna suck, she thinks as she goes into the bathroom and brushes her teeth beside Dipper.

"What's school here like?" He asks.

She shrugs. "Same as any other school, I guess."

Dipper observes her. "Are you sure it's not bad or anything?"

"It's alright, you guys will probably like it better than I do," she states and then continues brushing her teeth to avoid anymore conversation.

"Kids! Hurry up, it's time for school!" Stanley shouts.

"Coming!" Three voices chorus.

Within the next ten minutes the car has four people in it- Stanford has to get a raccoon out of the gift shop again- and they're on their way to the school. While Mabel is excited and Dipper mildly excited, Pacifica is dreading walking through the doors of the school and going back to being a pariah.

"Have a good day at school, kids. Oh, and call the Shack if you've got track, okay, Pep?" Stanley calls.

"I will," the blond assures and then closes the door once the twins get in their goodbyes.

She leads them to the front office to have the counselors give them their schedules and then looks at each of their schedules. Dipper has Aerospace with Pacifica first period and then they have the same lunch while Mabel is in math and has the same lunch as herself and Dipper- which is a good thing, she supposes.

"We'll show Mabel her class and I'll take you to ours," Pacifica says.

Pacifica shows Mabel where her math class is and then goes to Aerospace.

"Have a nice break, Miss Pines?" Mr. Roberts asks with a warm smile.

"Yes, sir," she replies before nudging her cousin. "This is my cousin, Dipper. He just transferred here."

Mr. Roberts takes the schedule and signs it. "Welcome to Aerospace, Mr. Pines?"

"I thought it sounded pretty cool," he says weakly.

"That's good," the teacher says as he hands the boy back his schedule. "Take a seat anywhere."

Pacifica walks straight to her seat and Dipper ends up sitting behind her. She may trust this boy with her life- as the cliffhanging had shown her- but she doesn't feel comfortable having him- or anyone for that matter- behind her.

Class is long and boring. Sure, they got to fly in the simulators- the best part- and she got to spend time with her cousin but it's just another day at school where everyone but two teachers treat her like trash. Not to mention now she'll have to make an appearance at the lunch room for Dipper and Mabel even though she wants anything, but be in a room full of people that can't stand her.

Maybe I can fake getting sick and go home? She thinks, but then quickly discards that after remembering how her guardians were when she got sick and thinking about how they'll overdo it knowing that she isn't really sick.

On her way to her fourth period she hears the voice of someone the last person that she wants to hear or see in life other than Dan.

"Hey, Pacifica," Tiffany sneers.

Jasmine smiles. "Bet you wish winter break were longer- huh?"

"Yeah, so I wouldn't have to see two faces with too much makeup on," she snaps.

They narrow their eyes and Jasmine picks up the collar of Pacifica's leather jacket. "Ew, where'd you get this? The '60s?"

Technically, Pacifica thinks, but doesn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that. "Get away from me, I don't wanna catch your stupid."

"Haha, use-to-be-rich's got jokes," Tiffany scoffs.

"You know... we're still gonna make those twins' lives miserable, right?"

Pacifica's teeth clench and she narrows her darkening eyes. "I may not be a Northwest, but I can still get things done. If you so much as touch them, consider your families destroyed."

She doesn't know if she has that kind of pull- her guardian is a criminal, her uncle is a scientist that has a lot of fighting experience apparently, her... whatever he is to her- father figure- is a mechanic can build the most dangerous devices known to man, and her ex-family's butler and her are on good terms (he's got connections), but that doesn't mean that she knows for sure if they can destroy a couple of rich families with such ease that she claims. She has no doubt that they can, but it could even take weeks.

"I don't believe you," Tiffany says. "Do you, Jazz?"

Jasmine seems to be hesitant to agree with her pale skinned companion because her almond colored eyes observe Pacifica for several seconds. She seems to see that there's something inside of this blond that can ruin multiple things- if not her family. She's wary because she's seen what Pacifica can do- with or without the help of money. Pacifica tries to convince this girl that it's a bad idea to mess with her by putting as much venom into her eyes as possible.

"You're on your own, Tiffany," Jasmine finally says and walks away.

It worked? Pacifica thinks, astounded, but quickly puts her mask back on as Tiffany whirls back on her after seeing her "friend" walk away.

"Whatever, I'm still gonna ruin your family's life," Tiffany snarls before walking away.

This entire ordeal took only fourth-four seconds, but it might as well have been three minutes and made her late for class. Luckily it doesn't and she gets to her fourth period without a problem.

It's funny.

School goes by both so quickly and so slowly at the same time because before she knows it lunch is here and she has to go to the cafeteria and make a spectacle of herself and sit with her cousins without getting into a fight with someone that wants to pick on her or them.

Fuck my life, she thinks as she waits at the cafeteria entrance and finds Dipper and Mabel walking with Cotton-Candy and Genevieve. They don't care for Pacifica at all- and she thinks the candy girl is trying to plot Pacifica's death, but she can never be too sure.

"Pacifica!" Mabel calls and runs forward and hugs Pacifica.

"Get offa me," Pacifica quietly grunts- as she usually does.

Dipper is much calmer in his greeting and simply nods and says, "'Sup."

"Hey," Pacifica replies.

"So- uh- Pep-" Dipper starts, but once receiving a glare he shies and chuckles nervously. "Pacifica... where do you normally sit?"

In the library. "I don't care, sit wherever they want to sit," she replies while gesturing to Mabel's friends- whatever their names may be.

They go to sit in the corner of the room but they might as well be in the middle of the room with the way that everyone else stares at them. Pacifica ignores them and eats her food in silence and pays mild attention to any conversations going on around her.

"Want my pudding?" Mabel asks.

Normally Pacifica would accept, but she learned that anything that can stain is a bad idea for lunch so she shakes her head. "Nah."

Mabel frowns. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just don't want pudding right now."

The brunette seems ready to press on, but Dipper- thankfully- intervenes and shakes his head. He knows that Pacifica isn't up for the million-and-one questions that Mabel will want to ask- especially in front of people that hate her- she's still not sure of Mabel's friends.

The rest of lunch is rather awkward and the rest of the day is spent both trying to avoid people and questions from her cousins when she runs into them in the halls or leads them to classes. She had Travis in one class and spent some time with him- they became almost-friends in the duration of his brother's recovery while she was helping him through his emotional turmoil. Despite that small relief by the time school finally ends she's exhausted and wants nothing more than to go home.

She goes to the front steps where she told her cousins to meet her and notices Mabel talking to Candy and Grendy before they have to get on the bus and looks around for Dipper only to find he's not anywhere in sight. With a frown she goes back inside of the school and walks to Dipper's last class- social studies- and doesn't find him inside the classroom. She slowly walks a different route to the front and hears a small whimper and loud laughter.

Wonder who that laugh belongs to, Pacifica thinks sarcastically as she peeks around the corner and then frowns immediately upon seeing Tiffany with her boyfriend, Chad (ugh, so unoriginal (A/N: Very))- a relatively tall, pudgy, but large boy with white-blond hair and stormy gray eyes- standing over a cowering Dipper whose book bag is lying on the ground and papers are scattered everywhere while he wears a grimace of pain.

Without hesitation Pacifica struts into view and clears her throat loudly, "Ahem!" They turn and look at her, but she doesn't cower like she normally would, but instead struts forward with a fierce glare. "What are you doing with my cousin? It better be helping him get his papers scattered all over the ground."

"Sorry, Pacifica." Chad's tough exterior cracks a little and he moves to help Dipper, but halts at his girlfriend's voice.

"What're you scared for? She can't do anything," Tiffany sneers.

Pacifica stands toe to toe with Tiffany and sneers back, "I can wipe that look off your face in a second flat if I wanted. Not everything I can do is just financial, Tiff." She says the nickname with as much scorn as she can muster. "Now either put up your dukes or get out of here- not you Chad, you help Dipper with his things."

Tiffany glares and Pacifica stares back cooly while on the inside she's hoping she doesn't have to fight Chad to get a point across- she's nowhere near as strong as a guy so her chances of winning are much slimmer than if she were to fight just Tiffany. This lasts for several seconds as Chad helps Dipper pick up his things before Tiffany breaks eye contact and scoffs.

"Whatever, Chad, let's go."

Once the two disappear from sight Pacifica turns to Dipper and looks for any injuries and prodding his torso to see if he has any bruises that he might hide. "Are you okay?"

"I was just shoved into a locker, I'm fine," Dipper assures while moving her fingers away from himself. "Thanks."

"No problem, just go the short way next time, okay?"

"Okay."

Suddenly Pacifica's phone vibrates violently in her pocket- Stanley talked Stanford into letting her have it back after reminding him of the reason they got her the phone in the first place- and she takes it out to check the caller ID. Mabel.

She hits the answer button and puts the phone to her ear. "Hey-"

"Pacifica, where are you and Dipper? We've been sitting here for ten minutes and you didn't respond to any of the texts Mabel sent," Stanley demands.

Wow, so he's picking us up today... wonder what's up with Uncle Stan, Pacifica thinks as she answers hurriedly, "I was looking for Dipper and I just found him- we're on our way."

"A minute and a half or I'm leaving you two."

"But-"

"Bye."

As soon as he hears him hang up she looks at her clock and then stuffs the phone in her pocket and grabs Dipper's arm and tugs. "We've gotta run- Papa Stan's gonna leave us in one minute."

"Crap!"

The two of them run as fast as they can- or at least Pacifica runs as fast as she can while half-dragging Dipper- to the front of the school and when the car's in sight both of them shout for their guardian to stay there just a little longer so that they won't be left at school even a moment longer. Both of their bodies slam into the car when they near it and Pacifica opens the door and shoves the boy inside before following after him and closing the door after herself when she feels the car start to crawl forward.

"One minute and fifteen seconds... impressive," Stanley grunts. "Buckle up!"

"What took you guys so long?" Mabel asks.

Pacifica glances at Dipper who shanks in shame and shrugs. "I think he got held up by a teacher or something- no big deal, though."

"Oh, okay," the brunette murmurs, still casting a glance toward her brother.

Dipper sends her a grateful look and Pacifica mouths, 'I got you.'

After all, he is family.


HAT: Yes, just family. There's no Dipcifica- sorry Dipcifica fans- or any shipping in this story, actually. No dating!

Soos: Come to think of it, romance isn't all that concentrated on in the series either...

HAT: Moving on from that- we reached triple digits in reviews! Oh my goodness, 100 reviews, 75 favs, and 94 follows. This had gotten so big so fast and it's amazing to see this grow to be something even remotely satisfying to so many people! Thank all of you! *glomps every reader* I love you all and you're all so amazing- don't let anyone tell you differently! If you think no one else appreciates you, know that I do!

Soos: The humble are the ones that make it the farthest on their journey to happiness in the end.

HAT: ... what?

Soos: Imparting a bit of wisdom.

HAT: *shrugs* Okay. Will you say it?

Soos: Review, dudes!