Chapter 11: The Gravity Falls Flower Festival

Another bill came in the mail that morning, for the gas this time, and with a groan Stan goes and goes over his profits from the week.

It seemed he had enough money to be able to pay the bill and to actually buy some decent food. His budgeting was cutting it close, but he had to keep the Shack open so he can continue to work on the portal to get Stanford back. With a sigh he signs the check, his heart skipping a beat when he wrote the name "Stanford Pines" on the line for the signature.

Even though he's been using his twin's identity, it still was odd when someone called him "Stanford" when he had been "Stanley" his entire life. Stan felt terrible that he was getting letters from his twin's college days of friends asking about his successes and asking about coming back to the college for some kind of reunion thing.

Stan can see it now if he actually went…

Oh, yeah, I built an interdimensional portal and got sucked into it and now I'm trapped. Yeah, I'm not Stanford, I'm his twin brother Stanley. He rolls his eyes at his thought. Yeah, I'd get sent into the nuthouse and never see the light of day again.

Stan puts the check into an envelope and writes the address of the company it needed to be paid to and sticks a stamp in the corner. He tosses the envelope to the small pile that had the other bills as well. Stan was getting better at paying bills since he is now getting a steady flow of money, and he usually goes and pays it the moment he gets the bill in the mail, he couldn't afford to miss the mortgage or anything because if the house gets taken away then so does Stanford…

With a sigh Stan puts on a light jacket since the spring air was still a little chilly in Oregon, and puts on his fez. He gathers up his small pile of the bills and leaves the house to get into his car to drive to the post office. At the post office people waved at him and said hello to him, so he waves back and says hello as well. He did end up paying extra for priority mail, even though the bills were due next week he wanted them there within a few days so there was absolutely no risk to losing the house or anything.

Once he returned back to the house, he noticed something was taped to his door, making him start to panic. Did he forget to pay a bill? Stan jumps out of his car that he has had since he was sixteen years old and runs to the door. There was a poster about a festival going on in Gravity Falls.

"'Join the fun at the annual Gravity Falls Flower Day Festival to welcome the spring weather'." Stan read from the poster. He raised an eyebrow, thinking that it was a stupid thing. With a roll of his eyes he crumbles up the flier and goes inside the house, getting ready to open the gift shop.

As some customers came in, they were wearing flower crowns and pastel colored shirt with flowers on him. Stan tried extremely hard not to call them any names, but his filter was very little and a couple of times he actually did insult someone. They kept telling him to go to the Flower Festival, which was the reason why they came to Gravity Falls in the first place, and tell him to enjoy himself.

After the shop was closed he did debate whether or not to go to the Flower Festival. He then realized that Stanford probably never participated in these festivals because of his research…

Stan goes and gets dressed in a more casual outfit, a long sleeved white shirt and dark pants while wearing his fez and his spring jacket. He decides to walk to the festival, which was in Downtown Gravity Falls, seeing how there were flowers everywhere. Stands were selling bouquets, flower crowns, seeds for flowers, and even t-shirts. As he walked around he saw stands that had alcohol that was made with edible flowers, so he decides to buy one to try it and it was okay at best.

"That was a pansy ass drink…" he mutters when he finished it. He then read the bottle and it was indeed a pansy flower infused alcoholic drink. Stan narrows his eyes and his expression slacked. "Well… that happened…" he throws the bottle away.

As he walked around, he saw the people of Gravity Falls and the tourists walking around and enjoying the time. He actually saw a group of children that appeared to be siblings putting the flower crowns on each other's heads. In a way it made his heart ache seeing that, reminding him of his childhood with Stanford when they would paint each other's faces for Halloween.

Stan sighs and he walks by a stand that claimed that it sold flowers from around the around. The owner of the stand calls out to him, "Hello, stranger! Never seen you at this festival before!"

"Uh, yeah," Stan muttered. "Not my kind of thing."

"Where are you from?" the man asked.

"New Jersey," Stan responds.

The man then holds up a flower crown that was made with the New Jersey state flower. "How about you take this, on the house?" the man asked Stan.

Stan raises an eyebrow, a little skeptical. "What's the catch?" Stan demands.

"You wear it and have fun!" the man replies. "Honestly, you look like you could use a pick-me-up. You look like you just witnessed a death…"

"You have no idea…" Stan mumbles as he puts a hand to his face.

"Then take it," the man insisted. "Maybe it'll help you remind you of the good days…"

Reluctantly, Stan takes the flower crown and places it on his head and around the fez. The maroon and the purple complemented each other very nicely. Stan looks up at the crown, him with a small smile, the aroma of the flowers actually calming him a bit.

"Enjoy the rest of the Gravity Falls Flower Festival!" the man calls out.

"Yeah, you…" Stan was replying as he went to look at the stand. Except that the stand was gone, like it was never even there. "…too…" he finishes, his eyes widening. He then glances a round making sure that people weren't looking at him oddly for basically talking to himself. "This town… is crazy…" he then mutters as he walked away.

After the festivities were over, Stan heads back home. As he got ready for bed he put the flower crown on the bed post, where he could still smell it when he lied down. When he was falling asleep his mind was already echoing the laughter of his and Stanford's when they were children exploring the beach to find treasure, the faint smell of the viola sororia mixing in the with the faint sea salt air of the Atlantic Ocean.


A/N: Sorry if the chapter was short, but I wanted a chapter dedicated to Stan and his first experience at a Gravity Falls festival. Also... if someone could draw Stan in the flower crown, that'd be stupendous! (if you want, you don't have to...)

Thanks for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~