**Again, I don't own Gravity Falls**
Chapter 3: Old Friends
-Mariah POV-
As the sun rose early the next morning, I was woken up my Matthew crawling out of our bed and getting dressed.
"Hmmm… what time is it?" I mumbled as I turned away from the light that he had let in when he opened the blinds enough to see what he was doing.
"Nearly ten in the morning." He said. "Everyone else headed into town in the truck. They left us the bikes though, so we can meet up with them at the diner and grab a late breakfast."I groaned, and realized that our flight last night had really tired me out. It had been a few months since I had been able to fly around in my full form, and after circling the town a good five times, I had become utterly exhausted.
"Well, let's get this over with… we might as well make some new friends and explain to Stanford how we are named after our grandfather and great aunt." I sigh, crawling out of bed and getting dressed along side of my chosen mate. I chose to wear some ripped jeans, a red and maroon flannel shirt, and my red and black glasses. Running a brush quickly through my short hair, I followed Matthew outside, and we each grabbed a mountain bike, and began our journey into town.
Dipper and Mabel had convinced Grunkle Stan to go into town and get some food at Greasy's, the local diner. When the trio entered, they saw that their usual booth was taken by a three-person group of teens. One, the smallest one in the group, was looking out the window quietly, silently chewing on a small stack of pancakes, another one, right next to her, was by far the tallest and thinnest, well over six feet tall was chowing down on what seemed to be his fifth large stack of pancakes, and the last one, who strangely reminded them of Soos, was focused more on his cell phone, putting together some sort of music track, than on the delicious eggs, toast, and bacon in front of him.
Suddenly, the small one nudged her tall companion, and pointed outside, taking a sip of her orange juice. Looking out, the tall one nodded, and, smiling, stood up from the booth, and walked to the door, right past the Pines family.
"Yo! Mariah! Matthew! We're in here!" He shouted to the two bikers outside of Greasy's. The two bikers, nodded, got off their bikes, and locked them to a light post.
"Hey Dominick!" The girl said, hugging the tallest member of the group. "How's my favourite twin?"
"I'm your only twin, doofus." Dominick grinned. The man who had walked in with Dominick's sister high-fived the tall guy.
"Well, I'm starving. So let's get some food!" The man, supposedly Matthew, replied. "Those pancakes look terrific!"
-3rd Person POV-
Dipper noticed Grunkle Stan do a double-take when he saw the twins hug.
"Hey, Grunkle Stan? Do you know them?" Dipper asked his summer guardian.
"Huh? No way. They're just familiar." Stan replied to his curious nephew. A little too familiar… Mariah and Dominick…. Where have I heard those names before… Then he suddenly remembered. They've returned? It's been so long, and now they choose to return? He felt slightly peeved at this revelation. Did they think I would forget about them? Mariah turned, and saw Stanford Pines analyzing them.
"Um, guys, That's Stan, right? Otherwise I'm definitely seeing things… because he hasn't changed much…" I trailed off as the rest of my group turned to look at the dressed-up con man.
"What gave it away? The glasses or the nose?" Tony laughed.
"Oh, shut up. I was just asking if it was him… maybe we should explain the real reason we're here… not for the tour of Chaos Dragon… but because of the recent…" I was stopped by Dom shaking his head.
"Let's not talk about that here… you remember what happened last time we spoke about something similar and HE was there." Dom looked around the diner. "Besides, Stan won't really believe us. When we knew him the only thing he really knew was that we were different, and we were the only weird thing about Gravity Falls."
"Touché, Dom. But I still think we'd better at least say hi and talk to him in private. I can set up a meeting at our RV to explain something. Besides, we should warn the two kids with him about some of the dangers here, not that they'd believe us anyway…" I stopped short of what I had been saying. The Pines family had walked up to us, and Stan looked a bit angry.
Dipper had only heard the last part of what the girl had been saying, "not that they'd believe us anyway…" When she twisted her body to see who was standing next to her, he saw her eyes widen a bit.
"Well, the infamous Stanford Pines!" She said as she stood up. "Long time, no see."
"Too long. Now what are you doing here? The last time I saw you, all you said was that I'd never see you and your group again because you were leaving for good."
"That's hardly the tone you should use when you greet an old friend, Stan!" Mariah laughed a bit. "Besides, this isn't the time or the place to discuss why we're here. If you'll remember what happened last time we spoke in an open area such as this."
Stan did remember, and since that day he'd been trying to ignore all the strange goings-on in the town, even going so far as trying to protect the twins from it.
"How about we meet my band's RV later? We'll make it a dinner date. Then we can explain everything."
"Where's your RV?"
"A bit south of the lake."
Exactly where Dipper had seen the strange dragon-like shapes land.