Chapter Three: Mabel's Night, Catching Up with Friends

"Mabel! Hey!" Pacifica said. She seemed anxious.

"I can come out in a little while… I'm here with an… Old family friend." Pacifica said. Her family wasn't nearly as wealthy anymore and they didn't live in Northwest Manor anymore. But they had a home outside of Gravity Falls that was very comfortable.

"Who are you talking to, daughter?" Preston asked.

"N-no one…" Pacifica said. It was obvious that she still had trouble standing up to her parents.

"Well, bring them in. I'm sure our friend would be interested to meet them." Preston said pompously. Pacifica knew that this was a terrible idea. That the least of what Mabel would be subjected to would be mockery and cruel laughter. At worst, she would be expected to act the fool for her parents' stupid rich friends.

"Come around the front. The maid will bring you in." Pacifica said, hoping Mabel wouldn't hate her after this. Mabel came inside, hoping to be able to make nice with the Northwests.

"Raul… This is… What was your name again? I'm sure I've seen you before, but I don't remember your name." Preston said to Mabel. Pacifica wrung her hands. She knew Preston knew Mabel. But he was already mocking her.

"Mabel Pines, Sir." Mabel said, reaching out to shake his hand. He shook her hand, reaching out to the maid after and getting a hand wipe, cleaning off his hands.

"Uh, pleasure to see you again." Preston said unconvincingly.

"Raul, this is Mabel Pines. She and her brother did a service for the town years ago I think. Yes, their pictures are up in the town hall as heroes… Whatever that means for a small town like this." Preston said.

"Anyway, Mabel, this is Raul Lestarno Aurumacho DiSarti. He's one of the options to be Pacifica's fiancé. We've talked to a few noble and even royal families who are interested in merging with the Northwests." Preston said proudly.

"Raul's family is mostly from Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain and Portugal. They apparently have smaller branches of their family in France as well. We're testing how she takes to a few different men." Preston said.

"Now you see why we're trying to do this early." Preston said to Raul.

"We're hoping to remove… Less than impressive influences like her." He said to Raul. Mabel blushed in humiliation.

Preston knew that Pacifica had been communicating with Dipper a lot and seemed to have a lot of chemistry with him. They wanted to cut that off as quickly as they could. They would send her to live with her fiancé in his country or state for a while and let her get readjusted to an upper class and even noble lifestyle before they let her come back. They were hoping to get the Pacifica that they had before the Pines Twins came along.

"You may go now, Daughter." Preston said, letting Pacifica head to the door with Mabel. She'd already been given her orders for the night. She had to break off her friendship with Dipper and Mabel. Pacifica wasn't sure she could do it. Mabel and Dipper had been some of the best friends she'd ever had. They didn't demand that she look down her nose at others. They didn't expect her to be on all the time. They didn't ask her to do things she was uncomfortable with. She could just be herself around them.

She sighed as she went out on the town with Mabel.

"I'm sorry about my parents. I shouldn't have invited you in. I still have trouble saying no to them." Pacifica said helplessly. Mabel smiled.

"So, fiancé, huh? Should I offer congratulations or condolences?" Mabel joked. Pacifica sat down on a bench, resting her head in her hands.

"I don't want to be with that jerk! I mean, Raul is okay. But I don't love him. I don't even like him!

"Can I be honest with you? You can't tell anyone!" Pacifica said. Mabel nodded.
"I like Dipper. He's a dork, he's a loser, he's kind of scrawny and gets lost on weird tangents about even weirder games. But he's cute and he's nice and he listens to me. He doesn't act like I'm just some hot piece of ass or wealthy arm candy. He's never asked me for money or tried to use my influence and I can talk to him for hours about whatever we want and he doesn't try to hurry me up or ring a bell to shut me up." Pacifica said.

"He's… If I had to marry anyone, I would want to marry him. But I bet he's already chasing that red haired girl again, isn't he?"
"Wendy? Yeah. But if I know Wendy, and I think I do, she wouldn't be too jealous if you wanted to be Dipper's 'fake girlfriend' so that you could get out of marrying a jerk. If I've seen enough fake engagement movies, and I have, I have a plan.

"But it may require you to date Dipper for a while. We'll need to talk to Wendy about it, see where she stands on the issue." Mabel said. Pacifica laughed.
"I appreciate it, Mabel. But it won't work. As long as I'm untouched, if you take my meaning… These noble families have really weird things they want of their son's fiancée. But yeah, as long as I haven't been claimed by another man, I don't really have a choice." Pacifica said.

"What! Of course you have a choice! They can't force you to get married. Isn't that illegal?" Mabel demanded. Pacifica actually laughed.

"Sweetie… Do you know my family? They own the police. Any crime they commit and they can just go through a list of people they've 'helped' in the past and get any case thrown out. Anything short of treason would be thrown out." Pacifica said. She sighed heavily.

"No, I'm just going to have to settle down and prepare to get married." She said, trying to hold back tears.

"No. I won't allow it. Dipper and I will figure out a way. You say that as long as another man hasn't claimed you… Why don't you let Dipper claim you?" Mabel said innocently. She'd never heard it said that way, so she didn't quite know what it meant.

"Mabel, do you know what that means?" Pacifica asked. Mabel shrugged.

"He'd have to have sex with me." Pacifica said, blushing heavily.

Mabel laughed.

"Oh! Well… That makes things a bit more complicated… I mean… Would you be okay with having sex with Dipper?" Mabel asked tentatively. Pacifica's breath hitched. That would be rank treason in her parents' book. They were marrying her off for two main reasons. One, to drill her elitist personality back into her. And two, to get back amongst the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world list. They'd lost a lot of clout after Weirdmageddon and they still hadn't fully gotten it back.

They were multimillionaires again. Preston's most recent estimation was that they were worth about 75-100 million dollars. They had accounts in dozens of countries, in gold, oil, pharmaceuticals, diamonds and other things, some of which Pacifica didn't really understand. But still, her parents were monsters. She couldn't continue to let them control her life. She wasn't going to let them leave her rich and powerful but miserable.

"I'll do it. I'll have sex with Dipper." Pacifica said, blushing heavily.

The rest of the night was spent just doing things that Pacifica rarely did because she didn't really have any friends on the poorer side of town. All of her friends were carefully selected by her parents and thus, she was entirely in charge when they hung out. She paid for everything to prevent her from doing anything that would expose her to the other side as it were.

She and Mabel went to the diner, then went to an arcade to play games. Pacifica showed that she was really awful at video games. But she was having fun doing it anyway, even if she wasn't winning, even against Mabel, who always lost to Dipper.

"How would you like to come and sleep at my place tonight?" Mabel asked. Pacifica hesitated, but then nodded. It was a way to defy her parents. She was 19 and she would not let them control her life any longer. She was sure Dipper would one day be very rich and successful.

He was smart and talented and she had faith in him, even if he was a clumsy dork.