Little Red Riding: Part 1
Deep in the woods on a Wednesday afternoon, Soos drove in his pick up truck. Mabel sat beside him in the passenger seat, whereas Dipper sat in the backseat next to a bunch of cardboard boxes stacked amongst one another.
They were on their way to Wendy's house, as she had previously requested that they bring over whatever empty boxes they could spare for her to use to pack for her upcoming move next week. With that noted and the Mystery Shack being closed for the day, the three had decided to take her up on her request and search the back for spare boxes, which they had found a fair amount of.
As they went through the woods to get to the Corduroy cabin, Dipper found himself a bit unnerved by how deep the residence was. Of course, it hadn't been the first time he had been to Wendy's house, but he still found it a bit unsettling on how isolated her family lived from the rest of the town, being plopped down right in the middle of the woods.
"Gee, I don't know how Wendy does it living out here all her life," Dipper said as he looked out the window as they drove. "Growing up in a house where you could get attacked by a bear just for checking the mail is terrifying."
"Yeah, for you," Mabel jabbed. "But this is Wendy we're talking about! Growing up in that same house, she's probably been raised to wrestle all the bears she's come across."
"Yeah, dude. Wendy's too much of a boss to let something like a bear freak her out," Soos agreed.
Dipper sighed as he rested his head on his arm. "Still can't believe that by tomorrow, it'll be exactly one week before she leaves."
"On a positive note, she'll have the comfort of knowing that we helped provide her with boxes for moving," Mabel claimed.
"I don't really see how that comes off as a note worth mentioning," Dipper replied as he looked over at the box stack next to him, raising an eyebrow as he noticed something. "Wait...Pizza boxes? Christmas present boxes? What the...? Why did you guys bring these?"
"I didn't bring those. That was all Soos," Mabel deflected.
"Soos?"
"What? Wendy said she needed boxes. She didn't say what kind of boxes," Soos defended. "So I just brought whatever boxes I could find."
"Soos, Wendy clearly meant boxes that could help her pack," Dipper told him. "What exactly is she going to put in an old pizza box from last week?"
"It could work as a good T-shirt or makeup holder…" Mabel thought aloud. "In fact, I think I know what fashion class is selling for next year's fundraiser!"
Soos made a turn in the road and spotted a cabin up ahead. "Looks like we're coming up her place, dudes!"
He pulled up in front of the house and parked on the curb. As they pulled up, the three spotted three redhead boys of different ages wrestling one another on the front lawn. They aggressively tackled one another to the grass, looking as though they were in the middle of some fight.
Soos opened up the car door and stepped out, looking on at the fight. "Woah! What ticked off these dudes?"
"Relax, those are just Wendy's brothers," Mabel cleared up as she got out of the car.
"Yeah. Marcus, Kevin, and Gus," Dipper named as he walked up beside the two.
"They're always this fighty-minded," Mabel claimed.
"...aaannd that is not a word," Dipper remarked.
"Hold on. These dudes actually have names?" Soos asked. "I always used to think of them as unimportant background characters. Go figure, huh?"
"Hey boys!" Mabel waved to the Corduroy brothers.
At that moment, the three brothers immediately stopped wrestling to turn over to look at Mabel. They smiled. "Hey Mabel!"
"Hey guys, is Wendy home?" Dipper asked as he opened up the other backdoor of the pickup where the boxes sat and took them into his arms. "We came to drop off some stuff for her."
"Nope," Marcus said as he attempted to stand up from the grass, only to be violently tackled back down by Kevin.
"Wends went out with the pops," Kevin said as he pushed hard against his brother's face, trying to pin him. "But she should be coming home any minute now."
At that moment, Marcus grabbed Kevin by the throat and held him in the air for a minute before slamming him back on the ground. "You tried!"
Right after, Marcus was kicked in the face by his youngest brother, Gus, who jumped into a victory pose right after. "Boosh! I win again!"
"Jesus Christ, Gus! What the hell?" Kevin angrily asked as he stood up and looked down at his little brother. "This isn't karate! No kicking people in the face!"
"Who made up those rules?" Gus asked, crossing his arms.
"We did! This isn't the first time we've done this before!" Marcus shouted as he rubbed the side of his face.
"And this isn't the first time I've kicked you in the face either!" Gus argued.
"What are you even trying to argue?!" Kevin asked, growing frustrated by Gus's attempts at reasoning.
"Seriously, what kind of game even is this?" Dipper asked as he and the others spectated the brawl.
"Oh, we're not playing a game. This is just how we decide who gets the last slice of leftover pizza," Marcus casually cleared up, which received supporting nods from Kevin and Gus.
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos stared at them for a brief moment in slight bewilderment at their outlandish ways of settling such a minor ordeal.
"You see? This is why I wished for an infinite slice of pizza," Soos told the twins. "None of this last man standing stuff for me."
SCREEEEE!
Everyone's attention then turned toward the street, where a car suddenly came speeding toward the cabin. It took a sharp turn before skidding onto the curb in front of Soos's pickup and parking. The driver's seat door flew open and Wendy stepped out angrily before slamming the door shut with the strong force of one arm. At the same time, Manly Dan stepped out of the passenger seat with an angry look of his own.
"God dammit, dad! Why do you have to be the most overbearing person in the world to drive with?" Wendy scolded angrily.
"Overbearing? I'm trying to watch out for our lives, Wendy!" Manly Dan tried to defend.
"Oh boy," Kevin said with an eye roll.
"Here they go again," Gus said with an awaiting sigh.
"After our lives?!" Wendy questioned. "I have my license, dad! I've had it for three years now!"
"I don't know how! Whenever you get behind the wheel, you always turn into a jittery wreck!" Manly Dan told her bluntly.
"Because you always stress me the hell out!" Wendy claimed.
"You think you're stressed?" Manly Dan asked, pointing a finger at her. "Imagine being in my shoes! My big, manly boots, Wendy! I don't shake in 'em when I wrestle a bear! But when I get into a car with you, Wendy, I quiver in them!"
"Again, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you'd stop being so stressful with your needless yelling whenever I make a turn!"
"My yelling ain't needless! I'm trying to help ya! I'm trying to teach ya!"
"I don't need your help!" Wendy shouted while slapping his hand away. "I can drive my friends around just fine!"
"Tell that to the speeding ticket you got street racing with those friends last year!" Manly Dan brought up, which prompted shocked looks from Dipper and Mabel at this revelation.
"Okay, that was last year!" Wendy tried to brush off. "And I already told you that I didn't think I'd get pulled over! I thought I was going under the speed limit!"
"You thought! But you weren't!" Manly Dan pointed out. "And that's not good enough! At this point in your life, you should already know what it means to be a responsible driver!"
"This is coming from the man who rammed into us with his truck because I called Sev'ral Timez overrated," Mabel referred over to Dipper.
Wendy wanted to argue further, but she was done with it at that point. She crossed her arms and turned away from her father, tightening her eyes shut as she tried to mentally keep herself from bursting. At the same time, her brothers, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos looked on at the ordeal, the latter three questioning whether or not they should even be there to listen to this argument.
"It's never good enough for you, is it?" Wendy said as she hung her head down away from her dad.
"Wendy, a week from tomorrow, you're leaving two hours up north to continue going to college," Manly Dan mentioned. "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have any issues with this. But since you pulled that stunt that got you kicked out locally, I've had all the reason to question my trust in letting you go on your own. If it were up to me, I'd keep you behind to stay with the family. But it ain't up to me, so instead, in the little time we have left together, I gotta make sure you're prepared for the real world. And that don't mean going easy on you. Because dammit, Wendy, the real world ain't easy! And you gotta get that through your head now before it really comes out to get ya!" He put his hand on her shoulder and attempted to turn her around to face him. "You hear me?!"
"I've heard it for nineteen years!" she yelled at him as she grabbed his hand and aggressively pushed it away. "And you know what? Yeah, I have made a bunch of mistakes and poor decisions over the last year or so. I've been admitting it. But I bet if mom were still here, she wouldn't be nearly as overwhelming as you've been about them to me while I'm at the lowest point in my life."
She stormed off toward the house, leaving Manly Dan in utter shock at her last statement. Even Marcus, Kevin, and Gus let out simultaneous gasps in shock. Dipper and Mabel looked somewhat surprised as well, considering it was the first time they had ever heard Wendy mention her own mother. Despite the high tensions, Soos just casually waved as Wendy stomped past them.
"'Sup Wendy! We got you your boxes!" he greeted as he gestured over to the stack of boxes in Dipper's arms.
Wendy glanced over at the three, finally noticing them. "Oh, right." She walked over to Dipper and took the stack of boxes from him. "Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it."
After a brief acknowledgment, she quickly resumed making her way back toward her house, while the rest of her family stood stunned.
"Um...just so you know, there may be some pizza boxes and other non-moving boxes in there," Dipper reminded her, trying to stick to the topic of their own involvement.
"It's alright," Wendy dismissed. "Trust me, as long as it helps me move the hell out of here, then it's fine by me." She kicked the front door open and glanced behind her one last time. "Anyway, I'll just see you guys at work tomorrow."
She kicked the door shut behind her as she walked inside. Her brothers exchanged looks with one another before glancing back at their father, who still stood stunned by the car.
"D-dad?" Kevin asked with a look of concern.
Manly Dan blinked once before putting a hand on his head as if he had suddenly grown dizzy. He put his other hand on the car to steady himself, shaking his head violently as his mind barely started to relax.
"I...I need to clear my head," Manly Dan said simply as he walked over to the driver's seat of the car and got inside.
"Dad, wait!" Marcus called out as he and his younger siblings attempted to run after his car.
However, it was too late. Manly Dan had immediately started up the car and sped off down the road until he was out of sight. Despite this, the brothers stayed determined and continued running after their dad at their fastest running speed. Dipper quickly grabbed ahold of Gus's arm before he took off, though.
"Woah, what the hell just happened?" Dipper asked him. "You guys said this has happened before?"
"The arguing has been a regular thing between them since Wends got expelled," Gus explained. "But it's never gotten this bad before. Dad hasn't driven off like that in years!"
"Him driving off like that is a thing?" Mabel asked, raising a concerned eyebrow.
"It used to be. There were days where he just got so upset that he drove off and never came back until late. That's why we're trying to go after him!" Gus explained before turning away and sprinting off to catch up with his older brothers. "GUYS! WAIT!"
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos stared off at them as they all ran off in an attempt to catch up to their dad, who was already long out of their current line of sight.
"Why do I feel like this is something to be concerned about?" Dipper asked, looking back and forth between Soos and Mabel somewhat nervously.
"The driving off part is a little unnerving," Mabel admitted. "But other than that, I'm sure it's just a case of normal family drama since Wendy's moving soon. I mean, moves are stressful! I'm sure it's nothing worth worrying about from our end."
"Mabel's right, dude," Soos agreed. "We just need to be supportive of Wendy. Things are getting tougher for her around this time. Just best to roll with it rather than interfere." He then walked over to the driver's seat of his pickup and sat back inside, starting it up. "C'mon, let's head back to the Shack."
"Woo!" Mabel shouted as she slid across the hood of the pickup to the passenger side, opening up the door and getting inside.
Dipper got back into the pickup and buckled his seatbelt before staring out the window and at the cabin. Despite being told not to worry, he still felt a sense of uneasiness at what had just happened. He had only been aware of Wendy's move for a few days now and it seemed like every time it was brought up, there was a sense of dread that came with it. Though, he did dread it, as one of his closest friends was going away when their summer was still basically getting started.
But more recently, he's seen another side of Wendy he hadn't seen too much of in the past. That being her more emotional side. A more damaged side. Sure, everyone has feelings and no one is emotionally invincible. But he's grown accustomed to seeing the fun, cool, and laid-back side of her. Since meeting up with one another for the first time in four years, he hadn't seen as much of that.
Of course, she had admitted once before that she wasn't always laid-back and even said she was almost always stressed because of her family. And that's what worried him. Mabel and Soos claimed that the current dilemma she's been facing is just family drama to be expected. But what if she had always been going through the same type of drama, except the extra stress from the move has just been pushing her to her breaking point?
All Dipper knew was that he was concerned. But he didn't feel like this was a situation that called for him.
Hopefully, things stayed that way.
The next morning came, and Ford had already been up and awake for a few hours. Having already dressed up, he sat at the kitchen table with the empty Quantum Destabilizer sitting on top of it.
It had been three days since the bunker adventure where they had retrieved the weapon. In its current state, it had no use, as all the power that he had managed to obtain for it inside the portal had been finished ever since his failed attempt to use it on Bill himself. He continued to think about how if he had managed that shot, they probably wouldn't even be in their current situation.
However, he knew that a lot of other events probably wouldn't have happened the way they did either. Like making up with his brother and such.
But with the Destabilizer, the current goal was to build a schematic that repurposed the death ray into some sort of mind gun that could destroy Bill inside Stan's mind without taking out his memory again or destroying his mind in any other way. It was not the easiest thing to come up with alone, therefore, he was going to turn to McGucket's help. With him being the inventor of the memory gun, he had more of an idea on how to build a mind weapon than Ford did, and that would be a great help in completing the task.
They had looked over old schematics last time they met, but they found nothing particularly notable for use. So rather than taking from old ideas, they decided to come up with something new and intuitive, which was why Ford was preparing to meet him that day.
As he inspected the weapon, Stan eventually walked into the kitchen in his usual sleepwear with a night robe on top of it.
"Morning, Stanley," Ford greeted as he looked up at his entering brother.
"Mornin', Poindexter," Stan greeted back with a tired yawn as he scratched his backside. He quickly noticed Ford already dressed as though he's about to head somewhere. "Where are you off to?"
"I've got a meeting with Fiddleford," Ford replied. "We retrieved the Quantum Destabilizer the other day, but it has no charge left and we need to figure out how to use it in a way that safely neutralizes Bill from your mind. Fiddleford's good at that type of stuff, so we're hoping we can put something together."
"Just say you're going to a friend's place to fix my problem," Stan said as he rubbed his eyes a bit annoyedly. "Seriously, it's too early for me to be stomaching your nerd talk."
"My, what a grateful man you are, Stanley," Ford sarcastically replied with an eye roll.
"Oh, please. Just because it's too early for me to tolerate your nerdy vocab doesn't mean I'm ungrateful," Stan assured him as he opened up the fridge and took out a carton of milk, which he promptly frowned at. "Skim milk?! Seriously?! They still make this stuff? And Soos buys it?! Yeesh, and they call me a criminal. Whole or nothing, Soos!"
He walked over to the sink and proceeded to start dumping out the skim milk carton down the drain. However, as he dumped the milk out, it had a yellower color rather than a normal white color.
"Ugh! It's spoiled too!" Stan shouted in disgust. "Soos can't even take good care of bad milk!" He quickly turned on the water faucet and washed down the expired milk before disposing of the carton in the trash can. He let out an annoyed sigh as he started making his way out of the kitchen. "Well, I wasn't planning on putting pants on today but someone's gotta do something about this."
"Hang on, where are you going?" Ford asked him, raising an eyebrow.
"Gonna go to the store and get the right milk," Stan replied casually as he grabbed a coat from a clothing hook beside the front door. He thought for a second. "Hmm, actually, yeah, who needs pants for that?"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Ford halted as he raced after Stan at the front door. "You can't go out!"
"What? Why not?" Stan asked, confused.
"Have you forgotten? You're sharing a body with a dream demon who could switch in and out of your mind at any point!" Ford reminded him. "With that risk, you're not fit to be out on your own in public."
"That's ridiculous!" Stan replied unhappily. "I'm just going out to get milk! I'm not visiting the president!"
"That doesn't matter," Ford dismissed. "You taking any step outside of this house is risky enough. You need to stay here where someone can keep a close eye on you and what you're doing."
"Ford, I've been stuck in this house since we got here! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually starting to get bored of doing nothing all day!" Stan admitted. "I mean, c'mon! I feel fine! I've been fine since the night in the forest!"
"You said the same thing when I trusted you to continue driving us to Gravity Falls. A few hours later, we're plummeting down a cliff," Ford reminded him. "I'm sorry, Stan. But you saying you feel fine doesn't mean anything as long as Bill's in your head. If you present him with any good opportunity to cause chaos on his own, there's a chance he can jump in and take it. And that's not a risk I'm willing to take."
Beep-beep! Beep-beep!
Ford looked down at his beeping wristwatch, which was a set alert to let himself know to get ready for McGucket's arrival. "I need to get going."
At that same moment, he noticed Abuelita walking into the kitchen behind Stan.
"Ah, Abuelita!" he called out for, grabbing her attention as he quickly walked over to her. "Necesito hacer una tarea muy importante. ¿Puedes cuidar a Stanley por mí?"
Abuelita glanced over at Stan, with a somewhat hesitant look before looking back at Ford. "¿De nuevo?"
"Por favor," he pleaded.
Abuelita sighed. "Tienes suerte de que seas el encantador."
"Muchas gracias. Realmente lo aprecio," Ford replied with a smile, putting a grateful hand on her shoulder, which prompted a somewhat flattered chuckle from her.
Stan glanced back and forth between the two a few times in complete confusion. Not because he didn't understand, as his time in Colombian prison had taught him well. But because he never knew his own brother could pull off Spanish as well as he did. "What the hell just happened?!"
"Abuelita's watching after you again," Ford said as he walked past him and opened the front door, which allowed for the sound of the McGucket's landing helicopter to be heard. "You're staying here, okay? I'll be back later tonight."
"What do you expect me to eat then? There's no milk!" Stan reminded him as he rubbed his stomach.
"I'm sure Abuelita can fix you something that doesn't require milk," Ford said as he walked over to McGucket's helicopter just as it touched the ground.
"Dammit, Stanford! You can't keep cooped up in here forever!" Stan shouted frustratedly as he shook his fist at him.
"And you won't be cooped up forever!" Ford assured him as he climbed aboard the helicopter and looked back at him. "Trust me, Stanley! We're working as hard as we can on this weapon! We just need you to be patient!"
Just as he let out his final words, Ford ascended into the air in McGucket's helicopter and flew off. Stan watched it fly over the horizon from the porch, glaring at it irritatedly.
It may have only been a few days since they got back to Gravity Falls, but even then, his patience was dwindling. He wanted nothing more than for the damn demon inside his head to be gone already so he could move on with his life. Considering his brother was still working on figuring out an actual weapon design, who knew just how long it would take before it would even be completed?
In front of the gift shop entrance of the Shack, Dipper and Mabel stood outside and were able to see McGucket's helicopter as it took off with Ford inside. They watched as it flew over their heads, which left behind a trail of heavy wind gusts that blew right over the two.
"Well, there goes Ford," Dipper noted as he held onto his hat.
"You think once this Bill nonsense is over with, we could convince him to ask McGucket if we could use his helicopter to go skydiving?" Mabel asked, enthused by her own idea.
"I wouldn't bet on it," Dipper responded honestly.
"Alright, dudes," Soos's voice suddenly chimed in as he and Melody were both seen walking toward the two. He also held a golf club in each hand. "You two ready to check out this new Mystery Shack attraction I've been working on?"
"You bet we are!" Mabel nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, we're always down to check out whatever keeps tricking people into spending money here while also mixing things up a bit," Dipper nodded as well.
"That's the spirit, dawg!" Soos said cheerfully as he offered the golf clubs to them. "Take these."
"Golf clubs?" Dipper questioned as he took the offered item and inspected it.
"That's right!" Soos said as he walked over to the side toward a something that was covered with a large tarp. He gripped the tarp in preparation to unveil what was underneath. "Brand new to the Mystery Shack is the new game of…"
He quickly pulled the tarp off of the structure underneath, unveiling it to be a single mini golf hole, which was designed to look like Stan's head. The hole itself was up a small slope leading into Stan's open mouth.
"...Mystery Golf!" Soos finished as he presented the hole.
"Mini-golf?" Dipper questioned, raising an eyebrow at the design.
"I love it already!" Mabel cheered as she stared at the hole in awe. Her love and skill for the game of mini-golf wasn't a new revelation to anybody.
"Thought you would, dude," Soos claimed as he looked over at her with a smile. "But yeah! I was thinking of another selling point I can advertise for the Shack, and I figured: Hey! What tourist attraction has their own mini-golf course? Think about it! Customers go into the gift shop and buy what they want, but as soon as they go back outside and see this bad boy, they'll wanna stick around for more!"
Dipper understood Soos's mentality behind the attraction but was too distracted by the fact that the hole was Stan's head. "Does Stan know you designed the course around his head?"
"Nope," Melody answered for him. "In fact, he even told him not to design the course around his head when Soos asked."
"Eh, he's just a shy," Soos claimed. "He's been out of the game for a few years, so he's not used to the idea of his face being seen in the public eye again."
"I thought he said that he just hated the idea of his head being used for a golf hole?" Melody asked as she recalled the time when Soos had asked.
"Typical shy man response," Soos brushed off before taking out a pair of golf balls and holding them out for the twins. "Anyways, dudes. Why don't you give the course a go? It's only one hole for now, but I still plan on charging thirty bucks a person when it goes live for tourists."
"ME FIRST! ME FIRST!" Mabel called out as she grabbed a golf ball from Soos and ran into starting position on the course.
She placed the golf ball down on the fake grass set up of the course. Getting into a position behind the ball, she lined up her aim with the club. With a quick hip wiggle, she whacked the ball, sending it flying up the slope and landing inside Stan's mouth, scoring a perfect hole-in-one.
"WOO! TAKE THAT, GRUNKLE STAN'S FACE!" Mabel cheered as she raised her golf club in the air victoriously.
BOOM!
A few seconds after Mabel's hole-in-one, Stan's head promptly burst into a fiery explosion, essentially destroying the entire attraction. Mabel was a decent distance away to be unaffected, yet she took a gust of hot wind to the face as the explosion occurred. As it settled, there were bits of malfunctioning fireworks that went off to the side.
In shock, Mabel stood completely frozen with her golf club still raised in the air. She glanced around somewhat timidly. "Does...does that mean I've gotten too good?"
"I may have installed a firework rig that was set to go off each time someone scores a hole-in-one," Soos claimed with an awkward chuckle. "Guess I didn't set it up well enough…"
"On the bright side, I was totally filming that whole thing," Melody said as she gestured to her raised phone. "You could go back and crop the explosion and it can make for an epic video effect!"
"Huh, you're right!" Soos realized as he smiled at her. "I was about to say that was a waste of a mini-golf course, but you may have just saved us there! The power of video editing!"
As Soos and Melody fawned over the explosion footage, Dipper and Mabel still remained in a slight state of shock from the explosion. For Dipper, at least, this was interrupted as he looked to the side and noticed a car speeding its way into the Mystery Shack's lot. It skidded into an open space and parked aggressively. Soon enough, Wendy exited the car and slammed the door shut before making her way over to the four.
"There you are, Wendy-dawg!" Soos said as he turned toward Wendy.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," she replied as she rubbed her eye. "Got caught up in a bit of junk back home."
"It's alright. You just missed Mabel blowing up Stan's head with a golf ball," Dipper casually told her with a humored smile, intending to get some sort of shocked chuckle from her. "You should've seen it."
"Right, well, I didn't, so whatever," she said as her voice shook up a bit, which she realized and proceeded to clear her throat.
Dipper was struck a bit by her reply and general reaction to his attempted amusement. Instead of a chuckle, she gave off a sense of bitterness, which was unlike her. But the more he examined her, the more distress he could see in her current state.
Her eyes were swelled up and red as if she had been crying. Her shaky voice seemed to support the idea. On top of that, her hair was a bit messier compared to how she normally brushed it. While she normally let it hang out, there were more notable strands of hair that he could pick out from looking at it. It was as if she made hardly any attempt to brush it earlier.
Generally, she just looked terrible. Her attitude paired with her appearance just said that she was going through something at that moment. And normally, Dipper wouldn't point out these types of deals for fear of making things worse, but it was just too obvious for him not to address or at least voice his concern about.
"Wendy, are you okay?" he simply asked with a genuine look of concern. "Your eyes look kinda-"
"UGH!" she cut off as she immediately realized what he was referring to. In response, she turned away from him and began rubbing her swelled up eyes somewhat aggressively. "I was hoping that wouldn't be a problem…"
Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Melody each exchanged looks of concern. Soos turned back to Wendy and took a step toward her.
"Wendy, dawg, is something wrong?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine, Soos!" she exclaimed irritatedly with a shaken voice as she slapped his hand off of her shoulder and began walking away in the direction of the Shack. "My makeup is just running a bit. I'm gonna go clean it up in the bathroom."
Her persisting aggression was a sign of her obvious denial for her current emotional state and Dipper knew it. There have been relatively few moments where he's seen Wendy when she was hurt or emotionally unsettled, with the most recent recollection being from their bunker adventure a few days ago. They were all hard for him not to remember, therefore, he found it easy to compare those times to her current state.
She was upset and refused to admit it. But being her friend, he didn't want her to feel like she had to be going through things alone.
"You know, Wendy, if something's up, you can talk to us about it," he offered as he took a few following steps behind her as she walked.
"Dammit, Dipper! I already said that I'm fine!" Wendy scolded as she turned back around toward him and pointed her finger at him. Her voice was now incredibly shaken up, almost to the point of a full-on breakdown. "There's nothing to talk about! And even if there was, I'd prefer if all of you would just leave me alone!"
She immediately turned back and continued stomping on her way toward the Shack, her fists clenched tightly. Dipper's eyes bulged in shock at the fact that she had just scolded him. This was the second time he's suffered this case with her, with the first being the time he selfishly asked if she wanted to go bowling directly after her breakup with Robbie. But that time was him being inconsiderate. This time, he tried to be a friend and just got pushed away for it without an exact idea of what she was going through.
"Gosh, poor Wendy. What's up with her?" Mabel asked as she watched her enter the Mystery Shack.
"I don't know, dude," Soos admitted. "I've never seen her like this before."
"I'm just so...confused…" Dipper said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Lately, she's just seemed so...distressed. I figured the move would be a bit of a weight on her, but could it really be causing her this much emotional turmoil?"
"You think we should keep asking her about it?" Mabel suggested. "Because no matter what she says, clearly, something isn't right."
"Actually, I really don't think any of us should bug her about this," Melody chimed in. "Yes, she's clearly going through some personal trouble, but she's also clearly not ready to talk about it. And as friends who love and care about her, we should respect that and wait until she's ready to talk. If we keep pestering her with questions now, that'll only add more trouble to what she's already going through. I mean, when I was a kid, we had a family dog named Winston. He was my absolute favorite growing up." Her eyes then went sorrow. "But one day, I was playing with Winston in the driveway and he accidentally got run over by my grandpa while he was backing up his truck. I saw it with my own eyes...but grandpa didn't know and thought it was my brother's skateboard. As you can imagine, I was pretty upset and ran to my room crying. But everyone was so confused and kept asking me what was wrong and tried to get me to talk about it, but all I could think of was the final wince I heard from Winston before grandpa hit him and it was just too much for me and all I wanted was to be left alone. But no, everyone kept asking me QUESTIONS because I guess they expect a nine-year-old girl who just saw their dog die to be able to actually talk it when really she just wants to hide in her closet and bawl her eyes out because she loves and misses her dog so much and they should really STOP ASKING HER TO TALK ABOUT IT!"
Everyone stared at her for a moment, processing her story while also analyzing how she seemed to relive her distress from that past experience as she recalled it aloud. Dipper and Mabel exchanged concerned looks with one another as neither of them knew how to react or respond. Soos, on the other hand, walked up to her put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"You wanna go out and get some comfort ice cream?"
Melody perked up a bit as he made this offer and looked up at him with a warm smile. "This...this is why I'm marrying you."
Soos smiled as he began leading her toward his parked pickup truck to the side of the lot. He looked over his shoulder and back at the twins. "We'll be back, dudes!"
The twins watched as they entered his truck and promptly drove out of the lot. Still, despite Melody's initial words, Dipper felt the need to do something in regard to Wendy's situation.
"Mabel, I'm going nuts over this Wendy thing," Dipper admitted to her. "Seriously, even before I found out she was moving, I noticed that she's been acting less like herself. Just subtle little nuances that she never had before. And even though I found out about her move, I still don't know why she's moving in the first place."
"I thought it was because she got expelled from college here so she's going to a new one?" Mabel brought up.
"Yeah, but we still don't know why she was expelled. Or why she doesn't want to talk about it," Dipper added. "She said she would explain eventually, but we're already a week away from her move and she hasn't told us anything. Now, she's coming to work crying and angry and doesn't want to tell us why and it's just...what happened? What started this nonsense in the first place? What got her kicked out of college? Was it something so bad that it just hurts her to even think about? I mean, c'mon! Am I being too nosy for wanting an answer that she promised to give?"
"No, I get you, bro," Mabel said as she put a hand on his shoulder, trying to coax him into calming down a bit. "I'm concerned about her too and I wanna know what's been making her so...bleh. But at the same time, Melody's right. We can't keep bugging her about it when she's already as hurt as she is. Whatever she's going through right now, we need to just respect her enough to let her deal with it until she's ready to open up about it."
"I know, I know," Dipper admitted with a sigh. "I just wish we knew more about it. Not to be nosy, but just to understand."
Mabel thought for a moment. "Maybe we can find out how she got expelled from her other friends like Robbie, Lee, and the others! I mean, we already know they're still in town, so they probably all went to the same college! And if so, then they must know what went down that day!"
"Huh...you're right!" Dipper agreed. "Those are her childhood friends. They gotta know what had happened."
"Exactly!" Mabel nodded enthusiastically as she began pulling him along with her in a direction out of the lot. "C'mon, bro-bro! Looks like we're taking a trip to the cemetery!"
"You think they still hang out there?" Dipper wondered as he followed along.
"Their personalities are still pretty dead after all this time, so probably!"
Inside the Shack, Stan and Abuelita sat in the living room in their own chairs in front of the TV, watching an ongoing Spanish soap opera.
Abuelita sat calmly invested in what was happening on screen. Stan, on the other hand, had the strong urge to rip his ears off. He tried to remain relaxed in his chair, but he couldn't help but grow more and more annoyed as time went on. Being forced to remain in the same room with her and sit through several episodes of such an irritating soap opera.
They weren't even talking over it. She wanted to just watch it without any disturbance. Any time he'd try to start a conversation to lighten up the mood, she'd shush him and tell him to be quiet. At least when watching Mabel's terrible cartoon movies as a kid, he could freely talk about how awful it was and get some enjoyment out of her comebacks. But with Abuelita, he felt totally helpless. Like he was a cat stuck in her grasp and he couldn't do anything to get away.
"Abuelita, please! We saw this episode last time Ford made you watch over me!" Stan told her. "Can't we change the channel and watch something else?"
Abuelita glanced over at him casually, before her eyes drew back to the screen. "No."
Stan sighed hopelessly. He knew he had grown tired of doing nothing for several days straight, but he would honestly prefer doing absolutely nothing instead of watching the soap opera.
Eventually, he heard the front door suddenly barge open, which immediately grabbed his attention. Turning to the side, he spotted an angry Wendy stomp her way into the kitchen, not even noticing him or Abuelita in the living room. He heard the water of the kitchen faucet begin to run simultaneously with the sound of her frustratedly muttering to herself.
"Oh, I love this part," Abuelita said as she continued to watch the show, appearing as though she had paid no notice to Wendy entering the house. She leaned forward in her seat a bit as if her investment in the current episode had just increased.
Stan glanced between her and the kitchen, where Wendy was. Eventually, he just decided to take it as a moment to step away for a bit. He got up from his chair and gestured over to the kitchen with his finger.
"I'm just gonna get a snack then…" Stan told her with an innocent smile. "Surely, you trust me enough to do that on my own, right?"
"Mhm, yes, good," Abuelita mindlessly nodded, her investment in the soap opera too great for her to be paying much attention to Stan at that moment.
Realizing her distraction, Stan jumped on his chance to get out and walked away from the living room, stepping into the kitchen. There, he saw Wendy at the sink, splashing water on her face, unaware of Stan's entrance. She closed the water, and grabbed a few sheets of paper towels, wiping her face dry. She then sighed as she stood in place, staring out the window ahead.
"Dammit, dad! Why do you have to be so hard on me all the time?" she ranted aloud. "I end up looking like a fool in front of my own friends because of him..."
"Yep, that's what dads do," Stan remarked from behind, startling her.
"Mr. Pines?!" Wendy asked as she turned around, eyes narrowing at him. "What the hell is your problem?!"
"Woah! What problem? I didn't do nothin'!" Stan said, holding his arms up defensively.
"You just barged in while I'm talking to myself!"
"Well, sorry for living here!"
Wendy paused for a moment before realizing her lack of judgment, to which she promptly facepalmed herself. "Ugh...sorry, I forgot about that. Still haven't entirely readjusted from the four years you were gone…"
"Not the only thing that needs readjusting," Stan remarked as he walked over to the fridge and opened it up. "You wanna work on that touchy attitude of yours while you're at it?"
"What? I don't have a touchy attitude," Wendy replied as she crossed her arms.
"Trust me, kid. I heard you muttering from the living room while the sink was running and the TV was playing," Stan claimed as he grabbed a Pitt Cola can and cracked it open. "That should go as a testament for just how touchy you are if you're that easy to hear over all that noise."
"Ugh…" Wendy groaned frustratedly as she turned away from him, gripping her hands on the edge of the counter
"What's up with you, kid?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow. "I heard you got that move coming up soon. Is that what's been bugging you?"
"I wish it was just the move," Wendy said with an eye roll. "My dad's been giving me more stress than anything else, really. He hasn't been easy on me since I got expelled from college, but the closer I get to this move, the harder it's been dealing with him."
Stan's eyes bulged. "Woah...you were expelled? I never heard about that part. How the hell did that happen?"
She sighed. "I'd rather not talk about it right now. I'm already bummed enough as it is."
"I see," Stan said as he leaned back against a wall. "A stressful pops, huh? I can relate. When it came between me and my nerd of a brother, my dad always found a way to praise him and everything he does while giving me the other end of the stick."
"Oh, don't even get me started on how much my dad loves putting my little brothers on a pedestal!" Wendy claimed, growing heated due to her own relatability. "Whether it's camping, fishing, apocalypse training, or whatever activity my family does, he always says what I'm doing is wrong! 'That's not how you start a fire!' 'That's not how you make a tent!' 'That's not how you hunt a bear!' Yet, all of my brothers get all the praised for doing the exact same thing in the most outlandish ways! But, nope! I get yelled at because I'm the one always looking for…"
"...the easy way," Stan finished for her.
"...the easy way…" Wendy said simultaneously. She glanced over at him in shock that he knew what she was talking about. "You know?"
"Are you kidding? My pop always used to bust my ass about me looking for 'the easy way!'" Stan told her. "I mean, most of my stress from high school was simply trying to graduate just so I wouldn't make the man even angrier!"
"That reminds me: just this year, my oldest younger brother, Marcus, graduated high school," she began to explain. "And of course, my dad builds a whole new wooden shelf just for the boys and their life achievements. Meanwhile, my diploma and the rest of my awards are hanging inside an old wooden shelf that already houses all of my dad's lumberjacking awards. Like, why can't I have my own or at least share the new one? Why do my accomplishments have to lie in the shadows of my dad's stuff?"
"Oh, I could go on all day about how much my dad put my brother's accomplishments ahead of my own," Stan said. He then smiled. "Ya know, I can't believe I never knew how much we had in common about this sorta stuff. Given the kinda crazy things I know you do with your friends, you pretty much remind me of myself when I was your age. Slick and savage."
"Guess that's one way of putting it," Wendy said as she leaned against the counter before looking down dejectedly. "Nowadays, though, there hasn't been as much 'savage' from me because of this whole deal. There've been times where I had to skip out on doing crazy things with my friends in favor of trying to be more 'responsible', I guess. Like what I'm supposed to learn from all of this is that I have to put away all these old habits now that I'm growing up to prevent stupid mistakes, like getting expelled again."
Stan took a sip of his soda. "Well, you don't have to. I mean, look at me. I'm as old as I am and I just got back from spending four years doing illegal things around the whole world! I've grown old, but I haven't really grown up. I still do whatever I please without anyone telling me what to do!"
"Stan! You've been in the kitchen for quite some time now!" Abuelita called out to him from the living room. "The next episode starts in a minute! If you aren't here by then, I'm going to have to call your hermano!"
Wendy glanced over at Stan and smirked. "So much for not being told what to do, huh?"
Stan promptly jumped in front of Wendy with pleading eyes. "You gotta help me, Wendy! Because of this whole thing with me and Bill sharing a body, Ford's been keeping me from leaving the house! As much as I love doing nothing, I've gotten sick of doing it for several days straight! And the only thing worse than doing nothing is being forced to sit through hours of soap operas with Abuelita! On top of that, I'm starving! Soos doesn't have any food and I've never even heard of the food Abuelita's offered me! I don't know what a yucca is, but it does NOT sound appetizing!" He desperately grabbed onto her shoulders. "You gotta bail me out of here! PLEASE!"
"What?" Wendy asked, pulling away from his grasp. "Why do you need my help? Just walk out the front door!"
"I can't leave on my own! She'll call Ford and he'll throw a hissy fit and then I'll never hear the end of it," Stan told her. "You're pretty much an adult now and Abuelita knows you, so she'll trust you to take me out of here!"
"And what makes you think that I'm going to agree to that?"
"What?! Are you kidding me?!" he asked, baffled by her lack of willingness to help. "I thought we just had a personal connection here! An eye-to-eye moment on our dads! Yet, that's still not enough for you?!"
Wendy sighed, knowing that turning her back on the moment they shared a second ago wouldn't be anything other than ill-mannered. "Fine. I'll help," she settled, which prompted a smile out of Stan. "But I'm driving. I know about that car crash that you and Ford got into when Bill took over. I'm not taking those chances with you."
"Understandable," he said with an eye roll.
"So, how do you want me to do this?"
"Just tell her that...uh...we're going out to get more snacks from the supermarket or something," he suggested.
"Alright," Wendy accepted as she made her way out the kitchen doorway with Stan following behind. They took a few steps into the living room toward Abuelita, whose eyes were still focused on the TV screen. "Hey Abuelita, I just found out that Stan's run out of clean Grampers and he needs to go to the store to get some more."
"Wait, WHAT?!" Stan's eyes bulged.
"You see? He's getting cranky already," Wendy said as she gestured over to him. "Anyway, you want me to take him off your hands for a second so we can go out and handle that?"
Abuelita still hadn't looked away from the screen since they entered. But she appeared to have half-mindedly processed what she had told them and lifted her hand up a bit and brushed them away, gesturing for them to go on. "Yes, yes. Go. Do what you must."
"Sweet! Thanks, Abuelita!" Wendy nodded as she turned around and started making her way toward the front door next to Stan. She opened the door for him as she looked up and saw he was giving her an unpleasant glare. "What? You said 'or something.'"
"If I was still your boss, I'd fire you," Stan told her bitterly as he walked out the door.
"Pfft. Fine by me. I'm leaving next week anyway."
Dipper and Mabel walked through the front gate of the town cemetery. Not a place either of them had frequented four years ago, but from what they remembered, it didn't appear as though it had changed very much since then.
Then again, what could one really expect to change from a cemetery?
"Ah, the cemetery!" Mabel said reminiscently as she looked around. "Home of some of the fondest summer memories! And dead people too!"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure their families don't look back on this place very fondly," Dipper claimed, going off her comment. "Anyways, we need to find Wendy's friends. I just hope they're actually around here somewhere..."
"God, you are so damn needy!" shouted the familiar voice of Tambry nearby.
"Says the girl who needs validation for every selfie she takes before posting them!" replied the voice of the even more familiar voice of Robbie from the same vicinity.
"I think it's safe to be hopeful," Mabel said with a smile as she looked at Dipper.
Tambry, Robbie, Lee, and Nate laid in the grass along a hill next to a set of stairs leading up to the mausoleum. Lee and Nate sat further to the side as Tambry and Robbie argued.
"I just don't understand why whenever I say we should do something, you blow me off. Then when we do nothing, you start moping on social media about how lonely you are!" Tambry complained to him. "Like, what exactly do you want from me? Because I'm actually trying here!"
"Trying? The reason I blow you off is because you never come up with anything good that we both can enjoy!" Robbie argued. "Right, because I'd TOTALLY love to go get pedicures from the place you get all your cheap nails done."
Tambry let out an offended gasp. "You take that back!"
Lee glanced over at Nate with a look of annoyance. "Time check?"
Nate looked down at his wristwatch. "Half an hour since we got here. Twenty-five minutes since they began."
Lee groaned as he dragged a hand over his face irritatedly. "THIS is why I'm never getting married."
At that moment, Dipper and Mabel had climbed up enough stairs to reach the level the group sat on the hill.
"Hey fellas!" Mabel happily greeted as she and Dipper approached them.
Nate smiled as he spotted the twins, thankful that there were people to actually talk to instead of listening to another round of Robbie and Tambry's arguing. "Ayy! Mabel! Dipper!"
"Finally! Interesting people!" Lee shouted, sharing Nate's same thankfulness.
"What're you two doing here?" Nate asked as the twins approached.
"We were in the area, ya know?" Dipper casually replied, not wanting to reveal the real reason for their presence.
"Yep! Just getting our daily dose of dead body watching!" Mabel added.
"Alright, taking it a bit far there…" Dipper claimed, pushed a little by Mabel's over-the-top back up to his reply.
"Normally, that'd weird me out, but we've been listening to these two arguing for a while now and so I can honestly take anything else at this point," Lee said as he gestured over to Robbie and Tambry, who paid no mind to them or the twins as they argued.
"Arguing?" Mabel questioned, raising an eyebrow. "About what?"
"Who knows?!" Nate asked as he placed his hands on his head. "It happens everyday and it's always about something so ridiculous and petty! Lee and I just try our hardest to tune it out whenever we hang out."
"That sounds like an unhealthy relationship…" Dipper claimed.
"Their problem. Not ours," Lee replied carelessly.
Mabel, however, was disappointed to learn the two have been fighting so much, considering she was the catalyst for getting their relationship rolling in the first place. Regardless of its initial legitimacy or not. "But they've been dating for four years! I get that couples fight and stuff, but if this is a regular thing, we should be the ones to try and help them work things out!"
"Mabel...maybe this is a problem for another day?" Dipper privately suggested to her as he put a hand on her shoulder. "We didn't really come here for this…"
"But…" she began before stopping herself as she looked him in the eye and realized he had a point. Despite how much she personally wanted to help mend Robbie and Tambry's relationship issues, that wasn't the point of their current encounter. "Yeah, okay…"
"Anyway, Robbie and Tambry's relationship issues aside, what's new?" Dipper asked Lee and Nate, attempting to set down the tracks leading to the topic he was aiming for.
"Nothing much, honestly," Lee replied. "Been mostly the same old stuff with us."
"Well, except for what's going on with Wendy…" Nate brought up before putting on a sorrowful expression.
Dipper's eyes bulged at how quickly they managed to actually reach the topic without him having to lead into it himself. "Right...she's leaving in a week."
"Yeah, it sucks so much," Lee said as he shook his head sadly. "Her getting kicked out of school and all."
"I still feel so bad for what happened," Nate nodded. "To think it could've been avoided had things gone to plan."
"Avoided?" Dipper questioned.
"Gone to plan?" Mabel also questioned.
"What do you mean?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Wait, she didn't tell you guys what happened that night at the school?" Lee asked.
Dipper shook his head. "We literally just figured out about Wendy's move and stuff this past weekend. She's hardly given us any details since."
"Yeah, so what happened that night at the school?" Mabel asked.
Nate glanced over at Lee for a moment before looking back at the twins and sighing. "Our math professor, Mr. Higgins, is, like, the biggest jerk in the world."
"Whole school hates the guy," Lee added. "I don't think he's ever given anyone an A in his life."
"Yeah. So, one day, we got tired of his crap and decided we were going to get back at him," Nate continued.
"The four of us, along with Wendy and Thompson, snuck into the college late at night and into his classroom and began vandalizing his stuff anyway we could. Spray painting the walls, breaking desks...you name it."
"We did what we came to do. But where things went wrong was during the getaway…" Nate started to get into.
"Turns out there was security watching the campus and they found out about us in the school and started looking for us," Lee continued.
"While they searched, Wendy came up with the idea of hopping the fence and going into the woods. What went wrong? Everyone made it over...except Wendy."
"What?" Dipper questioned, eyes bulging in near-disbelief of what he was hearing.
"Yeah, she was the last one behind us," Lee nodded. "Apparently, she got caught on the fence while climbing over and security was able to catch her."
"The worst thing about it all was that she took responsibility for the whole thing to save our asses," Nate revealed before shaking his head remorsefully. "We got away clean and she took the expulsion for all of us. I've never felt more guilty before in my life."
Dipper was so confused. "W-wha... how'd she get caught on the fence?"
"I don't know. The four of us didn't see any of it," Nate admitted. "It was actually Thompson who was the farthest behind. He's the one who told us what happened."
"You mean, you four left her behind?!" Dipper asked as he started to grow angry at the realization.
"What?! No!" Lee denied, shaking his head aggressively. "We didn't know they were still back by the fence! We were already making our own getaways through the woods! Why would we stay behind to watch when we're all being chased down?"
"Maybe because you guys are supposed to be friends? Because you're supposed to work and stick together?" Dipper challenged angrily. "Seriously, instead of staying to help anyone in case something went wrong, you all played every man for himself and just booked it!"
"Think about what you're saying, man," Nate urged him with narrowed eyes. "You mean that if you and a bunch of friends were running from the cops, you wouldn't just fend for yourself?"
"If they were really my friends, then no! I wouldn't!" Dipper assured as he walked up to him threateningly, which prompted shocked and almost intimidated looks from both him and Lee. "All of you agreed to this together! You were all involved, yet none of you were even there to see what happened yourselves! You had to get your information from the one guy who actually cared enough, who ironically, isn't even here with you guys right now! You all act so guilty about Wendy taking the blame, but the truth is, you've never felt safer since you weren't expelled either! She took the bullet for all of you! Now, she has to deal with the stress of moving away!"
Nate and Lee remained silent throughout Dipper's rant, processing every criticism of them that he made. Soon enough, their faces looked even guiltier than they did prior as if there was some actual bite that came out of what he had told them.
"Dipper…" Mabel said, somewhat unsettled by his tone. She reached out for him slowly in an attempt to get him to calm down.
"You call yourselves friends? Well, some friends you are!" Dipper continued angrily pressing, dismissing Mabel's attempt at coaxing. "Hell, Robbie and Tambry are still just arguing! They aren't even paying attention to any of this!"
The sudden mention of Robbie and Tambry's names aloud was what finally got them to break from their arguing to look up at the four.
Robbie raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what? Who said my name?" He finally noticed Dipper and Mabel's presence. "And where did you two come from?"
"My point exactly!" Dipper said as he gestured toward Robbie once again, leaving him and Tambry in utter states of confusion. He then proceeded to walk back toward the concrete stairs, starting to head back down. "C'mon, Mabel. Let's get out of here."
Mabel looked at him as he walked down before looking back at the other four, who sat staring at them with mixed expressions. She didn't have anything else to say or add, however, and simply proceeded to follow her brother back down the stairs with her own mixed feelings.
As the twins left, Tambry continued to wonder what they were conversing about that involved bringing herself and Robbie up. She proceeded to narrow her eyes frustratedly at him. "Great! We didn't even hear what they were talking about! It's all your fault!"
"Why?! It's just as much your fault for not listening as it is mine!" Robbie asked irritatedly.
"I hate everything," Lee said simply as he and Nate immediately displayed their former looks of annoyance in response to the couple's next starting argument.
Stan stood in line at Tons grocery store, having been driven there by Wendy to go and pick up more groceries for the Shack. He had already placed a variety of different food items onto the checkout counter conveyor belt. As the customer in front of him completed their checkout, he moved up ahead to face the cashier, Richard Dalton, at the register.
Dalton scanned through all the items quickly, bagging them as he went along. As he finished, he totaled the cost on the register. "Alrighty there, mister. Your total is $45.95."
Stan dove a hand into his pocket, checking around for money. However, after a quick feel around, he pulled the bottom of his pocket out only to find he was completely empty at that moment.
"Uh oh."
"Something wrong there, mister?" Dalton asked him, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, of course not!" Stan denied with a nervous smile. "I'm just getting that money for ya!" He dove into his jacket and pretended to search around. "I think my wallet is somewhere around here! Oh, here it is!"
At that moment, Stan quickly pulled out and threw down a smoke bomb, setting off a giant cloud of smoke in his position. As Dalton inhaled and coughed through the dissipating smoke, Stan grabbed his bags of groceries and quickly made a break for it.
As the smoke cleared up, Dalton's eyes glanced over at Stan as he ran off. He sighed helplessly. "Welp, there goes another one."
"What just happened?" Sheriff Blubs asked as he and Deputy Durland walked up as the next customers in Dalton's checkout line.
"Oh, the usual. Another shoplifter," Dalton casually told them. "I'm used to it at this point. Same with security. Nothing an old folk like me can do about it."
"Oh, you poor man," Blubs replied sympathetically.
"If only there were a pair of cops around here to do something about it," Durland claimed absentmindedly as he gave Dalton his own look of sympathy.
"Yeah, if only there were…" Blubs began, only for his eyes to bulge as he made a sudden realization. "Hey, wait a minute! We're a pair of cops!"
"Oh, right!" Durland nodded as he realized the same thing. "What are we doing? Let's get that fool!"
The two quickly went into serious-policeman-mode and began running after Stan, with Dalton casually watching them go from his spot at the register. As the two ran out the market doors, they glanced around the large parking lot for Stan. Eventually, they spotted him running through one of the open sections.
Blubs narrowed his eyes as he began running again in his direction. "Hey! You stop right there, mister!"
Stan looked over his shoulder as he ran, quickly spotting the two running after him. "Oh no!" he shouted before turning back ahead of him. He looked over at Wendy's parking car across the parking lot. "WENNNNNDYYYYY!"
Inside the parked car, Wendy laid back in her car seat with her eyes closed as some mellow rock played through her car stereo. While Stan's voice wasn't entirely inaudible, it wasn't loud enough to grab her attention at that moment.
"WENNNNNNNNDYYYYYY!"
His second call for her, however, was loud enough. Her eyes popped open and she looked up. She then glanced to the side and out her window, soon spotting Stan running back toward her with a panicked look as Blubs and Durland chased him. Her eyes bulged in surprise as she processed this.
As he reached her car, he ran around and opened up the passenger seat door beside her, jumping inside. Wendy looked down at him as he scrambled in his seat.
"What did you do?!" she asked, growing panicked as she looked back up through the window to see how close Blubs and Durland were getting.
"Simple: I went to buy groceries and didn't have enough money. So, I decided to improvise a little!" Stan quickly summed up.
"You shoplifted?!" Wendy asked irritatedly. Not that she thought it wasn't like him, because she knew it was, but the fact that he was dragging her into his crime by getting into her car with shoplifted groceries was what she found appalling.
"Yell at me later!" Stan told her as she threw the groceries into the back seat and shut the passenger door. "Just drive!"
Wendy gripped the wheel hesitantly. "But, Mr. Pines…!"
"Just DRIVE, kid!" Stan commanded as he looked up at how much closer Blubs and Durland were getting. "We need to get the hell outta here!"
Wendy froze at that moment, as Stan's words unintentionally prompted a familiar recollection in her mind as she stared forward.
Robbie was the first one ahead. Following behind him was Tambry, then Lee, then Nate, and a little farther behind, Thompson, who ran right ahead of her.
She glanced back over her shoulder for a quick moment, checking to see if they were being chased only to find no one just yet. She then looked ahead again.
"Keep running, guys! We need to get the hell out of here!"
"C'MON, KID!"
Stan's voice prompted Wendy to snap out of it. She shook her head quickly before analyzing their current position and surroundings. Then, she placed a hand on the gear stick and placed the car in reverse before stomping on the gas, causing them to violently back out of the parking space.
As soon as they were out and had enough room, she braked and put the car in drive. She stomped on the gas again as she turned out of the lot in a direction away from Blubs and Durland. The two policeman stopped running as they saw the two drive off onto the main road.
"Dang it! They got away!" Durland shouted angrily.
"Oh, we ain't gonna let them get away that easily!" Blubs assured him as he pointed toward their parked police car in the same lot. "C'mon, let's get after them!"
The two quickly ran over toward their car and got inside. Blubs started it up and speedily drove out of the lot. It took a moment, but eventually, they found themselves driving out onto the main road where Wendy and Stan had already gotten onto. Blubs turned on the sirens and the lights as they quickly caught up behind the two.
Wendy focused her eyes on the road ahead, her grip on the wheel tight as can be under her current level of stress. Stan looked over at the rearview mirror and caught sight of the police car and it's flashing lights.
"Aw, seriously? They're still chasing us?!" Stan realized as he spotted at them. "It was just forty-six bucks! They ain't gonna get a raise from stopping me!"
"What am I supposed to do?" Wendy asked, unsure how they're supposed to escape their current situation.
"Just keep driving!" Stan replied.
"For how long?"
"Until we lose them!"
"How long will that take?!"
"I don't know! Hopefully not long!" Stan answered somewhat impatiently. "Yeesh, kid! You're asking way too many questions about this!"
"Mr. Pines, I'm not a getaway driver! I don't know what I'm doing!" Wendy told him.
"Have you ever run from the cops before?"
Wendy hesitated to answer for a moment. "Yeah…?"
"Then you're just doing that, but in a car!" he replied. "It's not rocket science, kid! Just try to lose 'em!"
Wendy thought for a moment, processing what she was told. As she looked at the road ahead, she had an idea.
"Alright."
As they came across an intersection in the road, she took a very sharp turn to the right without slowing down their speed, leaving tire marks as they screeched along. Stan was thrown to the side, not anticipating the sudden turn. As he looked ahead, he realized that there wasn't much of the road left and that they appeared to be driving in the direction of the open forest, which made his heart sink.
"WOAH! WENDY! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU-?!"
"HANG ON!" she cut off, just before stepping on the gas even harder.
Stan gripped his seat tightly with his hands as she sped up. "AHHHHHHHHH!"
The car drove down a slump, the tires bouncing up and down violently through the natural terrain as it dropped. Wendy swerved the wheel left and right around incoming trees as she approached them, attempting to navigate through the forest as cleanly as she possibly could as Stan held on for his life right beside her.
Blubs and Durland took the same turn Wendy had taken at the intersection that led them toward the forest. As they reached the end of the road, Blubs parked the car and the two got out. However, as they glanced around at the supposed dead end, they found themselves unable to spot where the two had gone.
"Where'd they go?" Blubs asked as he looked around, growing frustrated at the fact they may have lost track of them. "God dang it! Don't tell me we lost them!"
"Will it make you happier if I didn't?" Durland asked as he walked over beside Blubs.
"Actually, it would make me happier," Blubs admitted.
"Then I promise that I won't tell ya then," Durland said as he put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Blubs smiled warmly at him as he placed his own hand on his. "You're a gift that I don't deserve, Durly," he told him, which promted a warm smile in return.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Stan yelled fearfully as Wendy continued to drive them through the forest.
Every turn they made around an incoming tree, bush, or other natural obstacle was violent enough to jerk him around the car. Granted, he wasn't wearing his seatbelt either, which made the turns even more aggressive for him. Still, he held on tightly to the grab handle above him, ensuring that he wouldn't go flying through the windshield or worse.
"Remember earlier when you said you wanted to drive because a demon made me drive off a cliff?" Stan brought up from earlier that day. "Well, how exactly does that compare to you driving us through a god damn forest!"
"Hey, at least I'm not trying to kill us!" Wendy defended as she tried to focus on getting through the forest.
"I'm not sure that makes me feel any safer!" Stan claimed.
"Then I suggest you hang on!"
At that moment, Wendy picked up her speed a bit more as a clearing came up. Right ahead, there was a dirt slope that led into an open lot. She quickly drove the car up the dirt, the speed giving the car a bit of airtime.
"AHHHHHH!" the two screamed as the car flew upward for a moment.
The car bounced up as it touched the ground. At the same time, Wendy put full force on the brakes, which allowed the car to come to a quick and sudden stop. As the car was braked, Wendy put her hand on the gear stick and put the car in park so she could relax her feet from the pedals. Finally parked, the two began breathing heavily and rapidly as they laid back in their seats. Seeing how it seemed they had lost the cops, they began to slowly relax.
They began to slowly process everything that had just happened. Oddly enough, the two began to chuckle lightly. Their chuckling continued for a bit, growing into more of a laugh after a good moment. Eventually, the laughing turned hysteric and nearly maniacal. The two had gone from a state of stress and anxiety to a state of exhilaration and astonishment from what they had just gone through.
"THAT WAS AMAZING!" Stan shouted.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Wendy shouted at the same time.
"So you agree?!" Stan questioned her.
"HELL YEAH!" Wendy enthusiastically confirmed, nodding her head rapidly. "I haven't had an adrenaline rush like that in ages! I loved that! I needed that! This is the type of action I've been missing!"
"Well, you certainly impressed me, kid!" Stan told her. "I've had my past of thievery and the few getaway drivers I've had to aid me during those times don't compare to what I just saw from you!"
"R-really?" Wendy asked, cracking a slight smile at his appraisal of her.
"Are you kidding? If you were around to help me back in the day, we could've been unstoppable!" Stan said as he put a hand on her shoulder and gestured forward with his hand as if he was painting a picture. "I could see it now: Stan Pines and Wendy Corduroy: the most unstoppable robbers of America! You got a knack for this type of thing, kid! I'm telling you! We should do this again and hit a bunch of other stores in town!"
"But, Mr. Pines...I already told you that I'm not a getaway driver," Wendy reminded him again, now starting to grow hesitant of his ideas. "Also, I wouldn't really say I have a knack for this if this was the first time I've ever been a getaway. I kind of just got lucky."
"Lucky? That wasn't lucky, kid!" Stan told her. "That was a smart, split-second opportunity and you took it! And as you can see, it paid off! If you just repeat what you did today after we hit a bunch of other stores, who knows what we could accomplish?"
"I...I don't know," she continued to hesitate. "This sounds like a bad idea. I'm already in a bunch of trouble with my dad as it is. If he found out about any of this, he might...I don't know...disown me."
Stan looked at her for a moment before looking down somewhat empathetically. "Yeah, and I know how that feels…I guess it's your choice in the end," he admitted before looking back at her hopefully. "But just know that I definitely saw something in you today, Wendy. Something I didn't know you had. And something that I think you can really master and do amazing things with if you put in the time. That's what I saw. That's what I believe."
Wendy couldn't believe how much confidence Stan was putting into the idea of her becoming a pro getaway driver. When it came to driving her own dad around, she had to deal with constant nagging whenever she made any little mistake on the road. Yet, she had just driven in one of the craziest ways she had ever driven in her whole life and she was getting praised for it by her former boss.
And while she was hesitant on the criminal image associated with becoming a getaway driver, she had to admit that what she had just done made her feel the freest she had been since her expulsion. A feeling that she had been missing for the longest time. The feeling of rebellion and doing what she wanted, seemingly without consequence.
It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and it was definitely a feeling that she didn't want to go away so soon.
But would it really benefit her? Would she gain anything from doing this besides making things worse between herself and her dad? Was becoming a potential criminal really worth it?
Those were things she wondered that held her back from being able to really decide. But the decision became easier as her rebellious side began to take mental priority after being given a small taste of what it clearly wanted more of. Risk was still a fear, but it was starting to mean less to her.
Still, she looked over at Stan and smiled. "Alright. I think I'll give it a shot…"
"Yes! Now we're talking!" Stan shouted excitedly as he raised his hand up to her, which she promptly high-fived. "Now come on, kid. We have history to make…"
(Updated as of June 13th, 2020)
If you know about that one scrapped plotline that Alex had mentioned a long while back, you can probably figure out what inspired this Stan and Wendy plot. The idea of developing the bond between the two has always been something that I've wanted to see, and so this episode is going to be a chance for me to do so. Can't wait for you guys to see how it ends up fitting into the overall narrative of the fic too.
Anyways, that's all for now, so until next time!
-Absolute Rift