The alarm on the shared cell phone chirped out a gentle, relaxing melody, immediately prompting groans from the Pines Twins. While they were thankful that they were able to fall back to sleep quickly after Dipper's rude awakening the night before, they were still groggy enough that the morning was not welcome.
Mabel pulled herself slowly to her feet, yawning before grabbing the phone from her bedside table and silencing the alarm. She took a moment to scroll through and clear the notifications that had come through the night before, slowly blinked for a moment, and finally turned her attention to her brother's side of the attic. "Sleep any better, Dipper?" she asked, watching as Dipper similarly struggled to pull himself out of bed..
"I didn't have another nightmare about Bill at least, so I guess that's an improvement," he replied, lazily rolling over on the mattress to get his feet on the floor.
In the clarity of morning, with the horrific imagery of his dream fading from memory, Dipper felt he could say with confidence that he had only had a run-of-the-mill nightmare about Bill Cipher, not a mindscape encounter with the interdimensional being himself. 'If it had been Bill' he reasoned, 'he wouldn't have let me forget the dream this quickly.' And perhaps most importantly, with the help of their Grunkles, the twins had successfully erased Bill from existence and brought an end to his Weirdmageddon. At least, that's what he kept reminding himself.
"I guess we were so focused on the fun memories of summer in Gravity Falls that we kind of forgot the terrifying ones," Mabel wondered aloud, frowning to herself.
It was a fair point. When Dipper and Mabel dreamed together about returning to Gravity Falls, they would reminisce about the fun they had with Grunkle Stan, hanging with Soos and Wendy in the Mystery Shack, or teasing each other about embarrassing mishaps or misfired crushes. They took fewer strolls down memory lane to relive the harrowing moments where they found themselves fighting for their lives against gnomes, ghosts, and gremoblins.
Of course, when they found themselves fighting frenzied trees at a ski lodge as soon as they returned to town for winter break, the darker memories of summer had started resurfacing. At that point, anyone who went through such harrowing experiences on the regular might question the wisdom in intentionally seeking out more of the same. But considering he spent that same ski trip getting to know Pacifica Northwest better, which ultimately led to her asking him out?
"I'll take the good with the bad any day, Mabel," Dipper grinned, pulling the bomber cap gifted to him by Wendy firmly over his forehead.
"Is my infectious optimism rubbing off on you?" Mabel gasped joyously.
"Alright, let's not go that far."
Mabel returned Dipper's grin and threw on a sweater over her t-shirt. Anyone who spent even the shortest amount of time around Mabel knew that she loved spending her free time creating fun sweaters for all occasions. Today was no different, as her latest creation depicted her, Grenda, and Candy all laughing while sharing snacks.
"Looks like you've got plans," Dipper noted, pointing at her sweater.
"We're having an all day movie marathon! Only the best the 80s had to offer - The Book Nobody Finished, Puppetmaze, Dream Boy High, and Dream Boy High 2: Xyler and Craz's Tubular Quest!" Mabel hugged herself in excitement, while Dipper muttered a quiet thanks to Grenda and Candy. Knocking a few of Mabel's top picks for their family movie nights out of rotation for a while was a priceless gift as far as he was concerned. "What about you? Going anywhere special with Pacifica today?"
Dipper shook his head. "She's tied up with work again." After some heated interfamily discussions during the catastrophe at the Northwest ski lodge, Pacifica no longer had to hide her employment at Greasy's Diner from her parents. She was taking advantage of the opportunity to get more hours, which was unfortunately cutting into the time Dipper was able to hang out with her. They made up for the lost time with long evenings after her shifts, watching movies and playing Bloodcraft: Overdeath, but they hadn't yet gone on anything resembling a date.
"You could always go hang out at the diner while she worked," suggested Mabel. "It's not that far of a walk from the Mystery Shack."
"No," dismissed Dipper, shaking his head again. "As much as I'd like to spend time with her, I really don't want to make her feel awkward while she's at work." This wasn't strictly true, as Dipper had already spent some of the break hanging out at Greasy's during Pacifica's shifts. But given that the diner was an important daily staple for so many of the residents of Gravity Falls, ultimately Pacifica ended up so busy when he visited that it was hardly any different than just hanging out by himself.
"Have you even given her your gift yet?" probed Mabel, this time making no attempts to mask her disappointment. Dipper rifled around on the floor for the pants he had worn yesterday. After finding them, he plunged his hand into the right pocket, digging until he managed to produce a skinny jewelry box. He opened it up to reveal a simple gold chain bracelet.
"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this, honestly," admitted Dipper, staring down at the trinket in his hands. "It's way too plain for her, and I'm afraid that I might make her upset if I tell her the reason behind it."
"We've been over this," cried Mabel in frustration. "It's a good gift, and she's going to melt into the floor when you explain it. Trust me."
"If you say so," sighed Dipper, stashing the box into his new pants for the day. Mabel wasn't the only one he had asked to give him feedback on his gift, and the response had been universally positive. But given Dipper's highly judgmental and anxious inner voice, it took a ton of external voices of reassurance to outweigh his built-in negativity. "But I don't think it'll happen today anyway. I'll probably just take the day to relax and do a bit of reading."
Mabel's face fell in disappointment. "Dipper, we agreed we were going to make the most of the time we have with our friends in Gravity Falls. We're past Christmas and Hanukkah now, and after New Years we're back on the bus home. I don't want you to feel like you wasted our break when this is all over. "
With a smile, Mabel dug into the pocket of her sweater and pulled out their shared phone, scrolling through the contacts. "Let's find you someone to spend the day with. What about Gideon? He seems... less homicidal lately." Dipper shot Mabel a bewildered look, and she shrugged. "Well he does!"
"'Less homicidal' isn't exactly the vibe I'm looking for today," grumbled Dipper. Besides, the image he pictured of him sitting around idly chatting with Gideon Gleeful was too bizarre for him to want to even attempt it.
"Fair enough..." Mabel scrolled deeper into the contact list. "Ooh, maybe you could spend some time with Grunkle Ford?"
Dipper paused at the suggestion. Immediately following the nightmare he just experienced, the idea of spending time around his Great Uncle Ford left him a bit apprehensive. While almost any activity in Gravity Falls could devolve into adventure and madness, going to seek out Ford Pines was all but guaranteed to lead to danger. On the other hand, through the course of their adventure at the Northwest ski lodge, he did regret that he hadn't had much opportunity to catch up with Ford while they focused on saving everyone. Bad dreams or not, he reasoned, he likely wouldn't find another time in his break for them to hang out with his beloved Great Uncle.
"You know what, Mabel? That's a great idea," Dipper replied finally. Mabel beamed. "Though I'm not sure how I'm going to get to McGucket's mansion from the Shack…" After returning from their Arctic-bound sea voyage, the older Pines Twins opted to shack up with Old Man McGucket at his new mansion instead of crowding Soos and Melody at the Mystery Shack. While it made for a cushy crash pad for them, the remote manor wasn't an easy place for a thirteen year old to get to in the dead of winter.
"Well that sounds to me like a you-problem! How about I leave you this," Mabel handed the phone over to Dipper with a shoulder pat, "and I go spend the day with my girls."
"Wait," added Dipper, suddenly remembering what day it was, "you'll be back for Soos and Melody's Mystery Shack party tonight, right? He'd be pretty hurt if you didn't make it."
"Me? Miss a Mystery Shack party?" Mabel replied, feigning offense. "You cray cray, Dip Dop. Bye!" With a final wave, Mabel bolted out of their shared attic room, leaving Dipper alone to stare at the phone in his hands.
"And if you look over here dudes, you can see the terrifying form of the Skeleton Snowman!"
Dipper exited the attic to find a crowd of people in the Mystery Shack, gathered around a pile of sticks that had been haphazardly assembled into the basic shape of a skeleton. The look was complete with corn cob pipe, top hat, and a single eye made of coal, the second having fallen on the floor covered in broken hot glue residue.
None of this mattered to the crowd of tourists in the Shack however, as they all excitedly chattered about the sculpture, pushing each other out of the way in order to take photos.
At the head of the tour, Soos stood proudly in his Mr. Mystery costume, complete with Stan's original Shriner fez and party store eye patch. Dipper could tell that Melody had done some repair and tailoring work on the suit, as there were several patches of fabric that almost matched, but were distinct enough to add to the quirkiness of his ensemble. He turned and noticed Dipper, standing awkwardly in the parlor, and grinned widely.
"Ladies and gentlemen, what a great surprise!" Soos announced, not missing a beat. "Dudes, meet one of the Elders of our Mysterious Order, Dipper Pines!"
The crowd 'ooohed' and 'aaaahed', captivated by Dipper's purported celebrity. Dipper attempted an uneasy smile and wave as several of the tourists took his photo.
"Dipper's tireless monster hunting and super secret research helps me, your lovable Mr. Mystery, bring the strange and unnatural to you good folks." Soos turned back to Dipper, lifted up his eyepatch, and winked. "If you'll follow me, I've got something really weird to show you in here…"
Soos ushered the crowd further into the Mystery Shack, drawing their attention away from Dipper and towards another cheesy prop. Suddenly finding himself incorporated into the Shack tour was unexpected, but he was impressed by Soos' improvisational skills and the deeper lore he seemed to be establishing for the Shack. Grunkle Stan would be proud.
Dipper made his way to the Shack gift shop, where he had spent hours over the summer working with his friends. Not too much had changed as far as the room's layout was concerned, but Dipper did notice a number of changes to the merchandise. Figurines of Stan in Mr. Mystery garb had been replaced with figurines of Soos, a number of the new exhibits were represented in the poster selection, and a number of the symbols from the Cipher Zodiac Wheel were now embroidered onto baseball caps. Over a new sound system, an early hit from British pop icon Llama and the Diamonds played faintly throughout the room, and Dipper was surprised how much a bit of exciting music helped to energize the quaint, rustic shop.
Originally, Dipper had expected to quickly pass through an empty shop in order to get outside, but instead he found Wendy, lanky and redheaded as ever, seated at the cash register as she thumbed through a magazine.
"Wendy?" Dipper asked, surprised to see her. She looked up from her magazine, but only slightly, and greeted Dipper with a two fingered wave.
"Yo, Dipper! How's it going, man?" greeted Wendy in response, stashing her magazine below the counter. True to form, she was dressed in practical flannel, with the only remarkable change to her appearance being a new wool cap to replace the hat she had gifted to Dipper.
"I didn't realize the Shack was open for tours during the winter," admitted Dipper, looking around as the guests he encountered earlier began to file into the gift shop.
"It wasn't before," she replied, looking up again to quickly take a customer's cash in exchange for a bumper sticker. "Stan just operated the Shack during the tourist season, but Soos had so many ideas for winter themed attractions that he decided to do some limited tours this year as a test run. And lemme tell ya, these tours are already sold out through February.
"Whoa," exclaimed Dipper, just as the tour group he had previously encountered was released into the gift shop. All around him, guests were excitedly chattering about the experience as they perused the souvenirs on offer.
"I loved the Santa Crab!" a young girl declared happily to her father.
"The Gray-tivity UFO was surprisingly tasteful," remarked another patron to their partner.
"Do you have any postcards of the Krampusaurus?" a man asked Wendy. She pulled out a fresh package of postcards and rifled through the collection for a moment, finally finding the right card.
"Right here, my man. Two dollars." Wendy completed the transaction and smiled politely as the customer left, genuinely thrilled about his purchase. "Not that I expected Soos to do a bad job," Wendy turned her attention back to Dipper, "but he's really knocking it out of the park. Plus it gets me a bit more spending money, and I'm all about that."
"Why, you saving for something?"
"Dipper, the whole town's holiday plans were wrapped up in the Northwest's ski resort," Wendy remarked, frowning. "My family included. I'm trying to make a bit of that back to maybe give my brothers something nice. And my dad, after how he was treated. He's gone quiet about the whole thing, but he's clearly hurting right now. I gotta do what I can to pull him out of his funk."
Wendy's father, "Manly Dan" Corduroy, spent most of the fall working to get the Northwest ski resort cleared of trees. Eventually he found himself being paid with a bar tab when Preston Northwest had run out of money, which was now worth absolutely nothing with the lodge bar burnt to cinders. While Dipper and his sister had also been displaced from their winter plans, they at least had a designated 'Plan B' in the Mystery Shack. He hadn't considered the limited options others might have had in the aftermath.
"I'm sorry, Wendy," Dipper apologized awkwardly.
"No big deal, Dip," shrugged Wendy, "besides, you came out of it with something to brag about, didn't you?" She playfully punched Dipper on the shoulder. "You taking Princess Paz on any fun adventures yet?"
"She would not like it if she heard you call her that," laughed Dipper.
"Psh, yeah. I know. What's she going to do about it, she comes up to my waist," teased Wendy, defiantly crossing her arms.
"She's been picking up hours too. We've only been able to hang out at night, and even then we only get a few hours before Soos has to drive her home."
"Lame," groaned Wendy. "So if you're not hanging out with Pacifica, what are you getting up to during the day?"
Dipper sighed, looking down at his phone. "Not much for the most part. Mabel gave me the idea to hang out with Ford and Stan today, which would be a nice change of pace, but there's no way I can get there from here."
Wendy smirked and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you're right. If only you had an awesome friend with a truck and nothing better to do." Dipper looked up from the phone and laughed sheepishly. One thing had become fully apparent to Dipper in the months since his summer in Gravity Falls - Wendy was an incredibly loyal and thoughtful friend, and he considered himself lucky that she always had his back. "Soos only scheduled the one tour today, so once I close out the register I'll take you up there. It'll be cool to see what those old guys did to Northwest Manor."
With that, Wendy pressed a key on the cash register. The cash drawer opened, allowing her to pull out the tray and walk to the back office of the Mystery Shack. Dipper didn't notice any of this, however, as his mind suddenly returned to Pacifica, and the fact that just a few months ago, she lost the only home she had ever known.
The weekend lunch rush at Greasy's Diner was not for the faint of heart. Between "Manly Dan" Corduroy and his lumber buddies trying to out-eat each other, the legendary indecision of Mayor Cutebiker, and occasional gnome incursion, the waitstaff spent the average Saturday frantically running back and forth from front of house to the pickup window, working hard to just keep their heads above water.
With several months of service under her belt, Pacifica was proving herself to be the most fearless waitress on the payroll. She knew all the regulars and their orders by heart, and she skillfully deployed this knowledge to stay one step ahead of the noon hour fray. Not only that, but her social media skills had come in handy as well, helping Susan to establish a Snapagram page for the Diner that regularly updated customers on specials, holiday hours, and other happenings. Susan was so pleased with Pacifica's handiwork that she had started reminding every patron she closed out at the register to "Like us on Snapagram, hun!" It was a little thing, but it made Pacifica burst with pride every time she overheard Susan saying it.
"Suz, I can see Toby Determined in the parking lot," she reported dutifully while refilling a carafe of coffee for a round of warm ups. "Can we get his usual started?"
"Sure thing, Hon," replied Lazy Susan cheerfully. "One Frowny Face Breakfast coming up!" She quickly wrote out a ticket and sent it back to the kitchen. Pacifica flashed Susan a grin.
"You're the best!" thanked Pacifica as she left the counter service area with the fresh coffee. As she made her rounds of the diner, offering coffee and checking in on her patrons, she felt a stirring sense of pride. She was the first Northwest in generations to spend so much time amongst the regular people of Gravity Falls, possibly the first ever to do so in a customer service job. While the hours on her feet were long and the pay was meager, the conversations and connections she made with the patrons of Greasy's were, at least for now, worth the effort.
And if nothing else, at the very least today she had the Mystery Shack party with Dipper as something to look forward to afterwards.
As she reached the far end of the diner, the bell on the entry door rang, signaling new customers had arrived. Expecting to see Toby Determined, Pacifica steeled herself for his gross personal anecdotes and turned to greet him.
Instead, she found herself looking at two teenage girls, fashionably dressed and impatiently looking around the diner.
'Oh God, not them,' thought Pacifica, a fearful chill running down her spine. Tiffany and Alexis had at one time been a part of Pacifica's entourage, the trio having met years ago as children at the Gravity Falls Country Club. For years, Pacifica only needed to say the word in their group chat to make Tiffany and Alexis appear anywhere she pleased. They had been a trio of terror, wielding their popularity and wealth to intimidate the other preteens of Gravity Falls. No matter the occasion, be it a mini golf tournament or a dance party at the Mystery Shack, Pacifica knew she always had backup to cement her place at the top of the social pyramid.
But around the same time Pacifica's family was losing their mansion, Preston Northwest had also been forced to cash out of their country club membership. While he was preoccupied with the shame of no longer being a member of the club his ancestors founded, Pacifica had found that Tiffany and Alexis slowly stopped responding to her texts. At first, she had assumed they were just busy, but when she discovered they had removed her as a friend on every social media platform, she realized they were intentionally icing her out of their lives. She had considered them her closest friends, but now it was painfully clear that it had been more of a transaction than a friendship.
Pacifica repositioned herself behind Manly Dan's lumberjack crew, who had taken up residence at the counter seating. Hidden from view of Tiffany and Alexis, Pacifica flagged down Lazy Susan. "Hey, Susan?"
"What is it, dear?" Susan replied, carefully balancing a stack of plates on a tray for one of her tables.
"Can you take the customers who just walked in? I have too many tables right now," Pacifica lied. Lying supposedly came naturally to a Northwest, but this marked the first time Pacifica had lied to Lazy Susan. As she realized this, she felt her heart sink and her throat become tight. But most of all, she feared that the symptoms of her guilt would be obvious to Susan.
Thankfully, Susan was far too busy to notice. "Sorry, I'm full up too," she replied. "Lunch is almost over, Paz, you can do it!" Susan turned and gave Pacifica an earnest smile, which Pacifica felt obliged to return. Taking a deep breath, she turned around, braced herself, and walked out from behind the hulking lumberjacks with a smile.
"Welcome to Greasy's," Pacifica greeted, gesturing for the pair to follow her. She turned to offer them an empty booth, vacated seconds earlier by a gentleman wearing a "Free Pizza" t-shirt, and cautiously looked back and forth between the faces of the two girls. Neither were willing to make eye contact with Pacifica, choosing instead to rush into the booth and disappear behind the large diner menus.
"Can I get you two started with any drinks?" Pacifica asked, feigning cheerfulness. "Maybe an iced tea, Tiffany?" While the two girls had been careful to avoid Pacifica's gaze, this direct confrontation was impossible to ignore. Tiffany lowered her menu, looking directly into Pacifica's eyes.
"Do you have, like, watered down champagne?" Tiffany sneered, "I want to really get a sense of what your new life is like now that you're poor."
Pacifica swallowed, her throat tightening again.
"Yeah," added Alexis, "Can I get like, tap water? I'm so tired of the imported bottled stuff, I want to rough it like you, Pacifica."
Pacifica, trained by months of waiting tables, almost started writing Alexis's order onto her notepad. This misfire of muscle memory was noticed immediately by the pair, and they burst out laughing.
"Oh my God, Paz," said Alexis, "I was obviously kidding."
"What was her chat name again, 'PlatinumPaz'? Seems more like AluminumPaz these days," riffed Tiffany. Pacifica blinked twice, trying to maintain a veneer of confidence. Unfortunately, it was all too obvious to Tiffany and Alexis that they were tearing Pacifica's pride to shreds.
As she stared blankly at the two girls she had once considered her best friends, part of her desperately wanted to scream back. She knew all of their darkest secrets, she could drag them down to her rung on the ladder in a moment. It would be easy, she reasoned to herself. She had torn down so many others, and this time she would even be justified in doing so.
But before she could form a snide response, she saw Lazy Susan's smile in her mind's eye. For a moment, she found herself reliving the day she interviewed for her job, sitting in the break room of the diner in a pink polo and slacks. She had told her father she had taken a riding lesson that day, and for a brief moment, she wished that she hadn't lied. Her hand rested on her leg, and when she looked down, she noticed that it was involuntarily shaking. No Northwest had suffered the indignity of a job interview in generations, and every fiber of her being wanted to bolt out the door and never turn back. But Susan had patted her arm reassuringly, smiling. She had gently told her to do her best, and that everything would be okay. Without hesitation, Pacifica smiled back.
Pacifica swallowed again, taking the physical action to force back her desire to scream at Tiffany and Alexis. She had come too far to lose Susan's respect over this.
"Guess she's not used to being at the bottom of the social ladder," noted Alexis. "Bring us two Pitts, no ice." She turned to Tiffany and grinned. "It feels great to be ordering her around for once."
"We should have come in here months ago," added Tiffany. After a moment, realizing that Pacifica hadn't moved, she made a dismissive motion with her hand. Pacifica, head down and eyes closed, retreated back to the counter service area.
As she pulled two clean glasses from the counter drying rack and put them onto the soda dispenser, Pacifica noticed her hand shaking. She didn't remember the shaking starting, and for a moment she felt a flash of terror at the thought that Tiffany and Alexis might have noticed. She tried taking a deep breath again, but it did nothing to calm her nerves.
Suddenly, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Pacifica whipped around to see Lazy Susan, who had come to reassuringly pat her back. "I can take that table now, Pacifica," she said warmly. Pacifica scanned her face, trying to gauge if Susan had seen her interaction with Alexis and Tiffany. But she saw no signs of concern or pity, just kindness.
"I… no, I've got it," Pacifica insisted, sniffing lightly. Susan took the two glasses from her hands and started to fill them with Pitt Cola.
"Why don't you take a break right now? The lumber folk are on their way out, and that'll make the rest of the lunch rush a lot easier. How does that sound?"
"I can…" Pacifica trailed off, feeling her resolve crumbling in the face of Susan's compassion. "Okay, yeah. I'll be out back if you need me." Susan patted Pacifica's shoulder again before strolling out of the counter service area to Tiffany and Alexis's booth.
Pacifica wandered back through the kitchen in an uncomfortable haze, trying to keep what was left of her composure intact until she was alone. As she stepped out the back door of the diner, buffeted by the cold winter wind, she finally stopped fighting. Leaning back against the exterior wall of the diner, Pacifica wrapped her arms around herself and buried her face in them. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she hoped the sound of her sobs would be muffled enough that she would be left alone to wallow for as long as she needed.