When you're sixteen years old there isn't a day that doesn't feel like the entire world is changing. This is why sixteen-year-old Dipper Pines was grateful that Gravity Falls, Oregon seemed to never change. He hadn't had the chance to return since he saved it three years ago, but it was exactly how he remembered it. He was walking down the street with his twin sister Mabel and her two closest friends. The three girls had talked on the phone every day since Dipper and Mabel had boarded the bus home to California, but it was different to talk to their friends face to face, so he didn't mind the excited rambling as the four of them walked to the diner. He was happy to let his sister be excited as he took in the sites of the town. He didn't realize how much he missed this place until he was back, breathing the same air he breathed the summer he spent here as a twelve-year-old. As he was looking around he caught the sight of familiar blonde hair and a purple cardigan getting off of the same bus he and Mabel had gotten off of the day before.
"Hey Candy, is that who I think it is?" Dipper asked nodding to the blonde girl. He hadn't done as good of a job as Mabel in keeping in touch with their friends, but he would be surprised if she had kept in touch with who Dipper thought this was.
"That is who you think it is. If you think it's Pacifica Northwest." Candy, the small and quieter of Mabel's two friends responded.
Pacifica Northwest was a name that, like every other name in this town brought up a lot of memories for Dipper. He thought the night he had been with her when she discovered her horrible family history, and when she decided that she would try to set things right. He remembered the way her parents had been willing to help Bill Cipher, and how she wasn't and helped them take him down. He also remembered that when he left shortly after that battle, her family had been homeless. He watched Pacifica wait as a car pulled up, and she heaved the old orange suitcase she was carrying into the trunk.
"Dipper? Are you coming?" Mabel asked as she held the door to the diner open. Candy and Grenda were already inside selecting a booth. Dipper, shaking the memories out of his head, followed his sister into the diner and then into the booth that Candy and Grenda had chosen. He looked out the window but the tan car that Pacifica had loaded her things into was gone. He was about to turn his attention back to the girl's conversation when the opening of the door distracted him.
"Sorry I'm late, Susan. The bus arrived later than I thought it would." Dipper turned to the very familiar voice to confirm what he was thinking. Pacifica Northwest. She was walking behind the counter that Lazy Susan was standing behind. Lazy Susan was an unfortunate reminder that while the town never seemed to age, people do. She behind the counter doing a word search with thick glasses low on her nose.
"It's alright honey. The first customers of the day just came in." Lazy Susan pointed at our booth. Pacifica put on an apron and headed towards the group. She took a small pause when she saw Dipper and Mabel.
"Well, if it isn't the Pines twins." She looked at the two with a smile on her face and Dipper looked back with utter confusion. "What brings you two back here?"
"Our Grunkles just came back from their latest adventure and we thought we'd visit before they left again." Mabel happily informed her.
"Where'd they go this time?"
"They just got back from some jungle in Africa," Dipper explained. "We're going to see them after lunch."
"Cool," Pacifica nodded, looking down at her notebook. "So what can I get you?"
The group gave her their orders as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She walked into the kitchen to fill them as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Pacifica Northwest was working as a waitress. Pacifica Northwest doesn't work. She had people for that, or at least she used to. Dipper remembered once again how her family had been made homeless when he left. Shaking his head he turned back into the girls' conversation.
"… It would be so fun to have you there." Grenda belted.
"I don't know guys," Mabel replied. "We don't have any costumes. And we're only here for a few days."
"But it would give you the chance to see everyone." Candy said very quietly.
"And it would be so much fun to have you there!" Grenda yelled.
"What do you think Dipper?" All three girls now staring at Dipper.
"About what?" He cautious about what they wanted his opinion on.
"Do you want to go to the town dance tonight?"
"Town dance? Dance for what?" If she had asked if Dipper wanted to go find the gnomes in the forest, or the Mulitbear he would be fine, but a social event is a totally different kind of monster.
"The town dance for Summerween!" she replied. Ah, Summerween. One of the many strange yet loveable traditions that made Gravity Falls, Gravity Falls.
"I don't think I'm up for it," Dipper shook his head. "Besides, you girls will ditch me and I'll have a better time with Ford discussing his newest findings."
By now the food was ready and Pacifica began bringing it over. Dipper focused his gaze out the window so he wouldn't stare at her again. It was like seeing an odd ghost from the past, or an alternate universe verse of Pacifica. Twelve-year-old Dipper never would've thought that he would be served at the diner by Pacifica. The group sat and ate as the girls tried to convince Dipper to come to the party. As the meal wound to an end, they tried less and less to get him to go, until they were done eating and the girls were done trying. Pacifica came over to drop off the check and began clearing the plates.
"So Mabel, Dipper, will you be at the party tonight? It'd be nice to better catch up with you." That was all Pacifica had to say to convince Dipper to go. Because he wanted to talk to her too.
The group left the diner to go find makeshift costumes for Dipper and Mabel. As they walked the questions in Dipper's head could no longer be contained. "So what's going on with Pacifica?" he asked, trying not to seem obvious. However, he forgot that he was talking to three teenage girls, one of which was his twin sister, and that he was a teenage boy, so he was, in fact, obvious.
"Well…" Grenda and Candy began explaining what happened to the Northwest Family after Dipper and Mabel left Gravity Falls.
Due to their support of Bill Cipher Pacifica's parents lost everything. They were homeless and penniless in a town that wouldn't look them in the eye. Desperate, they wrote a letter to Pacifica's grandmother. Apparently, Pacifica's mother had never liked the Northwests, and while she wasn't as rich as they had been she did have enough money to help them - on one condition. She wanted Pacifica to come to stay with her during the school year. While Pacifica's grandmother didn't like Preston Northwest, she didn't want Pacifica to suffer because of her parents' horrible choices. So during the school year, Pacifica lives with her Grandmother in California. Then in the summer, she stays with her parents in the trailer that her grandmother bought them.
Dipper wasn't sure how to feel about the story Candy and Grenda had told him. It left him distracted the rest of the day. Mabel pulled him out of his daze while they prepared for the town dance party that night. "It isn't our fault, you know. We aren't the reason they're hated or living in a trailer." Mabel applied white glitter to her checks. The twins were able to make salt and pepper costumes. They had always had matching costumes, and lack of preparation wasn't going to stop them this year.
"What do you mean?" Dipper asked as he tried to tie his black bow tie. It blended in so well with everything else he was wearing, a completely black suit with a white 'S' hot glued to his shirt.
Mabel put down her makeup brush but still avoided his gaze. "A lot of terrible things happened during the days of Weirdmageddon, but we can't take responsibility for all of it. And we can't blame ourselves for what happened after it."
Dipper looked up from his bow tie, now in three different knots and found his sister's eyes. Mabel was very rarely serious, but she was serious now. "Mabel?"
"I'm just saying, that we can't blame ourselves." She got up from her stool and walked towards her twin brother to fix his bow tie. "The horrible things that happened weren't because of us. They were Bill's fault. And the way people were affected, that was on Bill too. It isn't our fault."
Dipper hadn't been thinking about these things. He had felt bad for the Northwests, but he knew that they had made their bed and they had to lie in it. However, this made him curious if Mabel had been feeling this way. So much happened their last week in Gravity Falls, very little of it good, and he was curious if she blamed herself.
"No. They weren't our faults." Dipper repeated what she just said, thinking that maybe she needs to hear and believe the words more than he did.
"Now," she says as she rapidly blinks. "Let's go to the party."
The moment the twins arrived at the party, Candy and Grenda, and a group of people sweep Mabel away. Dipper stood awkwardly in the entrance for just a moment, then he headed towards the punch bowl. When Dipper and Mabel had first started going to parties and dances their parents had given them a rule: they had to go together. However, Mabel was far more friendly and well-liked then Dipper, so every social gathering had more or less the same pattern: they would arrive at an event, Mabel would be swept away by some group or another, Dipper would wait for a second or two by the entrance, and then he would head to the refreshments table. There was always some sort of refreshments table and if there were any nerds, geeks, or general outcasts, they would be there. But this time Dipper found an interesting surprise at the punch bowl.
"Hey," Pacifica said to him. She was wearing dark green converse, a light green dress, and had on a flower crown. Dipper thought she looked sweet, and possibly, good.
"What are you doing over here?" Dipper asked out of surprise.
"Oh. Um. I'm not exactly…uh, accepted by everyone here."
"Oh." Dipper felt awkward. "I'm not usually wanted at these things either."
The two of them leaned against the wall next to the punch bowl and talked about whatever they could think. They discussed their costumes, Dipper and Mabel's salt and pepper costumes and Pacifica's flower costume. They discussed school, how they were both in their school's honors program, and how they found studying a good escape from whatever life was making them suffer through. They talked of trying to get their drivers licenses, and how much a car costs. They talked until Dipper forgot who he thought he was talking to, and only saw Pacifica, not the girl who bullied his sister or the daughter of the town traitors. Just Pacifica. They talked until they heard the announcement of the final dance over the speaker.
"Do you wanna dance?" Dipper asked, surprising both of them.
"I guess, yeah," Pacifica shrugged.
They awkwardly and badly slow danced, as sixteen-year-olds do, until the song ended. They stepped away from each other looking down, trying to hide their blushing faces.
"It looks like Mabel has already left," Dipper said, wanting to say anything that would fill the silence.
"I should probably get going too. I have to open the diner tomorrow."
"You never actually told me how you ended up working for Lazy Susan." Dipper said as the two teens headed towards the door together.
"Well, I didn't exactly mean to get a job…" Pacifica began.
And so they continued talking. About her job. About his job. About college prospects. About future careers. About her parents. About his parents. They talked about anything they could think of. And they kept talking and walking until they reached Pacifica's door. Where Dipper said goodnight and said he'd stop by the diner in the morning for some pancakes.