I must apologize if this story is erratic! I tend to just write as I go instead of planning everything out first. I already have a general concept of how I want this story to go, but things never go perfectly according to plan. Enjoy the second addition to this tale! :)

It was to the sound of giggling that Dipper woke up to. He cracked his eyes, looking over at his sister sitting on her bed. She was watching him, her phone out. Dipper sighed

"What did you do?"

Mabel laughed more. "Nothinggg. Hey, we better head downstairs. I heard Ford is cooking! The Food may actually be edible today!" And with that, She ran downstairs.

It was true, the smell of cooking wafted up the stairs to Dipper, his stomach growling in reply. He got up, glanced down at his wrinkled wardrobe, and shrugged. He could change later. He quickly followed the delicious scents into the kitchen, to find Stan at the table, Paper in hand, with Ford at the stove. The sound of sizzling could be heard, the smell of bacon making Dipper's mouth water.

Stan glanced up from his paper, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline when he saw Dipper. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it again and buried his head back into his paper with a grumble about kids these days. Dipper rolled his eyes. If anyone was one to talk about looking neat, it wasn't Stan.

Dipper took his Seat across from Stan as Mabel entered with Soos. As she sat down, Mabel giggled all the more, while Soos on the other hand wouldn't meet Dipper's eyes.

"You alright Soos? I didn't do anything to offend you did I?"

Soos visibly gulped. "Nah, dawg, er- dawget? You do you man, don't worry, or whatever."

Dipper shifted in his seat, but grouped this reply into the normal Soos weirdness. It wasn't long until Ford came to the table, pan of bacon and eggs in one hand, plate loaded with toast on the other. There was a slight hesitation when he saw Dipper, but he gave no other reaction to what Dipper presumed was a rumpled, unbathed appearance.

"Well," said Ford, "Dig in everybody!"

The meal was pleasant, the food great. The best thing was the significant lack of hair in any of the dishes. Dipper had just taken a large bite of toast when Ford reached across the table, patting his arm.

"Dipper, I would just like to say that I am proud of the fact that you are comfortable to just be yourself around us."

Dipper quickly swallowed his mouthful. "Er, um, your welcome, I guess?" he mumbled in reply

After breakfast had ended, Dipper was tasked with washing the dishes. He grumbled a bit as he worked in the sudsy water, cleaning all of the plates. As he was working, he noticed lipstick stains on one of the glasses.

Was Mabel wearing lipstick this morning? Ugh, girls.

It didn't take too long to finish, but just as he was finishing up, Mabel walked in.

"Hey Dipdop! I was just told by Stan that you and I are working in Shop today!" She giggled.

"Wait- two questions: why is Stan the one giving the orders? And is he really making us work on our vacation?"

Mabel just patted his arm. "I guess you forgot Dipper, this is Stan we are talking about. Where there is money to be made,"

"Stan'll be there." finished Dipper. "Alright, give me a minute to go get washed up"

Dipper started for the stairs, only to be blocked by Mabel.

"No Dipper, " she flicked his nose, "You look fine, in fact, some would say it's an improvement! Ha. But Stan said he wanted us there now."

He squinted at the offending twin, before sighing, and changing course for the gift shop. What a great way to spend all of their time here. In the gift shop. Again. He couldn't help but be annoyed. I wasn't like the work was especially hard, or any of the sort, but Dipper was itching to get back in the woods. In the comfort of his own thoughts, Dipper almost missed Mabel's comment.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. Wendy stopped working at the shack, so Soos hired someone new"

Dipper smacked his forehead. "Agh, can this day get any worse?"

The pair walked into the musty gift shop. As usual, the place was chock full of cheap merchandise at ridiculous prices. The only new addition Dipper could see was with the bobbleheads, which now had a Soos variety alongside the Stans. Soos walked around the counter.

"Hey dudes, Stan said that it would be a good idea to have you two work in here for a while. My employee should be arriving soon, so try not to bite!" Soos was the only one to laugh at the joke. Under his breath, he whispered, "I have EMPLOYEES. You da boss Soos."

He went into the exhibit portion to get the shack ready, leaving Dipper and Mabel alone in the shop. Dipper's eyes traveled from the dusty floors to the disorganized merch.

"Well, I guess I'll grab a broom then."

He quickly got to work in sweeping the gift shop, and Mabel reorganized the merchandise so that it was a least partially acceptable. As Dipper emptied the dustpan, the bell above the door announced the arrival of somebody. His only sign of warning was the gasp from Mabel, but who walked in, wearing a heavy violet scarf and a pine tree cap, froze him with one hand extended over the rubbish bin.

Her eyes traveled from Mabel to Dipper, and as Dipper was about to give a terse hello, she laughed. And laughed. And laughed. His mood went from confused to annoyed.

"Okay Pacifica, what's this all about?"

It took a few minutes to calm herself to an understandable degree.

"This, well, he he, this is quite an interesting situation. I mean, if I was still as mean as I was, I'd have sooo much blackmail on you right now."

Dipper glared pointedly. "What do you mean?"

"Tell me Dipper, have you looked in a mirror lately?"

He blinked in confusion. His clothes had straightened for the most part. He glanced at Mabel, to see her laughing into her fist, tears leaking from her eyes in mirth.

Pacifica walked forward, reached into her bag and withdrew a make-up mirror. Dipper glanced into it, to meet the eyes of a classic primadonna, with red lipstick, heavy eyeshadow and mascara. He looked from his reflection, to Mabel, and back again.

"MABEL!" he shouted.

She took off running, with Dipper close on her heels leaving a blond on the floor rolling around on the floor in laughter. With a quick escape via grappling hook, Mabel was gone. Dipper angrily trudged to the restroom.

It was a half hour later that a now mostly makeup free Dipper reentered the gift shop. He was able to get everything but the mascara to come off, but he could deal with that later. He was surprised to see Pacifica behind the counter.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked tersely.

"Well hello to you too Dipstick." came her reply.

The two glared at each other lightly, a silence falling over the room. Soos walked in, the classic Fez planted firmly upon his head, wearing the sweater he was given proudly. His eyes lit up at the sight of Pacifica.

"Oh Pacifica! Glad you were able to make it!" he turned to Dipper. "Dude, this is my staff now that Wendy got a job with her Dad."

Dipper did a double take. "Wait, the great Pacifica Northwest is working as a cashier at the mystery shack?" His voice squeaked in incredulity.

"Yeah dude, she started like, at the start of the school year"

Pacifica cleared her throat. "'She' is right here! And I thought I was rude."

Both turned to her, Soos rubbed the back of his neck, an apologetic look crossing his face, "Sorry dawg, didn't mean it that way."

She sighed, "No, it's fine. Just, ugh."

The room was plunged into an awkward quiet.

Soos glanced between the two. "Well, um, lots of boss stuff to get done! Totally not me just making an excuse to avoid this awkward situation! Bye!" He bolted out the front door, only to reenter, shivering. "That is the wrong door!" came his passing comment as he went back into the exhibit area.

It was Pacifica who broke the silence, "So, um, you're back in town, eh?"

Dipper scratched the back of his head, "Y-yeah, for christmas break"

"Oh" came her reply

Dipper walked over to the counter, picking up a fallen snow globe, returning it to its home. His eyes landed on the pine tree cap atop her head, bringing about a train of thought.

"So," he swallowed, "You work at the Mystery Shack now?"

"Well, obviously." she sighed.

"Can I ask why?"

"You can." at his glare, she continued, "Well, you remember how with the whole wierdmageddon thing, we lost a lot of our funds? Yeah, well, that made me lose almost all of my allowance, so I had to get a job so I can make some money. I mean, you don't look this good for free."

He eyed the cap once again. "So then the cap is, like, your uniform while working here? I didn't think Soos would require you to wear a dress code."

She blinked for a second, before taking the cap off her head, stuffing it into her bag. "No, it's not a dress code Dipstick! Just because you spoiled the look of something doesn't mean I can't try to fix it. And, trucker hats are in fashion right now. Ugh!"

Her shift from terse but polite to a level of animosity was sudden, catching Dipper off guard. "S-Sorry, geez.." came his reply, "I didn't mean any offense. I mean, obviously I don't mind the hat or anything. How could I? I used to wear it all the time."

She inhaled deeply, and Dipper cringed, prepared for some further onslaught.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap.."

Dipper couldn't have been more surprised. Pacifica Northwest, apologizing. Now that was probably a first. He smiled. With warmth in his voice, he said, "Geez, I didn't know you could apologize Pacifica. You really have changed."

She huffed at his reply, not meeting his eyes. "I really was a jerk, huh?" She spoke in a small voice.

Dipper reached out, poking her forehead. "Hey," he said, "Everyone was a jerk once in their lives, eh?"

She looked up, blue eyes meeting brown. A flush caught Dippers features when he realized the in the course of the conversation, they had gotten progressively closer, now to the point of a mere handful of inches separating the two. "You think so?" came her quiet reply. Dipper licked his lips nervously.

The flash of a camera brought both their heads turning to what appeared to be a human clad in a ghillie suit made entirely of Mystery Shack merchandise.

"SCRAPBOOKORTUNITY!" shouted the know well known figure

"MABEL!" Cried the two teens angrily as she once again fled the scene of her social crimes at an almost inhuman rate. Pacifica turned back to Dipper, anger etched in her features.

"How does she so darn fast?!"

Dipper shrugged. "It's Mabel, is another reply even necessary?"

He looked around the shop wearily. The pair fell into amiable silence. Dipper grabbed out his notebook, doodling a little. It was quiet few minutes, his thoughts straying back to their conversation. She really had changed, hadn't she? From the meeting at the party that felt like years ago now. To who was currently restocking some of the shelves, he wouldn't have recognized her. He looked down at the notebook in his hands, a rendition of said girl left in gentle graphite strokes.

"Watcha drawing?"

Pacifica's question knocked him out of any stupor, and he quickly flipped the page. "N-nothing!" he blurted quickly, "Just, uh, drawing um," His eyes scanned his surroundings, landing on the frigid snow outside, "Winter?"

She look on , curiously.

"Can I see?"

"N-no! I mean, um, maybe when I'm done with it?" He palms were slick with sweat.

She squinted at him, a critical eye bearing into his soul. After a tense few moments, she said, "Fine"

He visibly relaxed, glad the whole ordeal was finally over. He closed the notebook, a comfortable silence falling over the room. From doorway, heavy footfalls could be heard, followed by the jingle of the bell.

"Dipper!" Came Stan's growling shout, "Go shovel the property! It's too cold for me to do!"

"I didn't even bring along a jacket!"

Stan growled, "Well, be quick then!" and he trudged off deeper into the Shack.

"Ugh! He is impossible!" Dipper rubbed his temples. "Sorry pacifica, I gotta go take care of that I guess.. At least I have that sweater Mabel made.."

"Yeah.."

Dipper trudged up into his bedroom, grabbing the sweater and slipping it on.

At least I probably won't die bundled up in this..

He walked back downstairs, and had just reached the giftshop door, shovel in hand when Pacifica called out to him.

"Dipper! Wait!" She walked around the counter, purple scarf held in one hand. "You can use this, don't want you dying, or anything.."

"Um, thanks, I guess.." He took it from her, wrapping it around his neck.

She shifted her feet, and with a moment's hesitation, gave him a bone crushing hug.

"It's good to have you back Dipper."

He was so shocked at the sudden affection from the prickly girl that he barely noticed when she shoved him outside. He couldn't help but smile, pulling the scarf tighter around his face. All of a sudden, the air didn't seem so cold, and he went about shoveling the ridiculously long driveway with a swing in his step, humming a tune to himself. It seemed he finished in record time, walking back inside. His hands were cold but he felt surprisingly good, a smile creeping back onto his features as he brushed the snow off his sweater and pants.

His mood faltered when he walked into an empty gift shop, the lights out.

He sighed, putting the shovel back in the closet, and walked into the living room. It was only then that he noticed the time: 6:18. Of course it was 6:18. She'd already taken off.

Why do I even care?

He sat down on the sofa, closed his eyes, and for the first time since exiting the shack hours ago, he felt cold. Someone in front of him coughed, he opened his eyes. In front of him, Pacifica stood wearing a heavy wool jacket, the pine tree hat atop her head.

"Glad I was able to catch you before I left. You uh, forgot something on the counter." She reached into her bag, setting his notebook onto the couch edge.

"Did you, y'know, look through it?" He eyed the offending book, not meeting her eyes.

Silence followed his question, he didn't know what to expect from her seeing it, but he couldn't handle no answer. He looked up.

For the first time in his life, Pacifica looked flustered. "You, um, You're a really good artist Dipstick."

A pin could have been heard. Did I hear that right..? Before he had a chance to reply, a car horn blared outside and Pacifica was out the door like she was being chased by satan himself.

He picked up his notebook, flipping to his last page. There was the picture he had drawn, of the girl who had ran outside. He was preparing to rip out the page when he noticed a small note written neatly in the corner.

'Here's my cell, if you ever want to hang out or something -Paz'

In one day, went from terse to friends with Pacifica Northwest. He nestled into the scarf still surrounding his neck, breathing in the scent.

Could this day get any better?

Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize if there are grammatical errors, I didn't proof read this chapter besides for a rough one, so please tell me if you spot any errors! Really glad you guys are enjoying this, I'll try to update often! As always, reviews and criticism are welcome