Pacifica hated her braces with a blazing, burning passion.
Honestly, she didn't mind having an overbite and a few crooked teeth. Many of the other kids at school had much bigger dental problems. But her mother insisted that she fix her teeth now, so she wouldn't have to wear braces as an adult when her teeth ended up in a far worse condition.
Ouch.
Pacifica bit into her pancakes, wincing with every chew. She could feel her gums crying out in agony. It was just awful.
She took another bite.
OUCH!
Her mother had promised to make her oatmeal tomorrow, that would be a lot less painful to eat. But for now, she had to endure the dreadful chewing of her hot cakes.
Another bite, her teeth bit down hard against the steel of her fork, sending rivets of absolute torture into her gums.
"AUGH!" She spat out the pancake back onto her plate, the ache of her teeth had made her lose her appetite.
"Are you alright, dear?" Her mother called from the kitchen.
"Yeah. No," She pushed her plate away. "My teeth are killing me! I don't like these braces, Mom."
"I know, baby," Her mother came into the dining room, ruffling her hair as she passed her. "It will get better in a few days, I promise."
"A few days? More like forever." She grumbled, taking her plate up to the kitchen counter.
Her mother smiled, picking up her car keys.
"I'll pick up some aspirin on the way home from work." She kissed the top of her daughter's head. "Have a good day, sweetheart."
"I'll try." She said smiling.
Her mother returned the smile before heading out of the front door, saying goodbye to her daughter. Pacifica waved, watching her mom drive away. She headed into the living room and collapsed on the couch.
Can I just stay home today?
She let out a large sigh. She couldn't stay home, unfortunately. She had to do volunteer work during her summer, it was mandatory for the students at her school to do so. And lucky for her, she got to help out at the Mystery Shack where there was usually very few customers, except in those rare events in which the store received a huge wave of customers, then she wasn't so lucky. Bud usually had her put up signs or post flyers around the town, she enjoyed this a lot since she absolutely loved to ride her bike everywhere. The feeling of the wind blowing through her hair, it was fantastic.
Pacifica ran upstairs to her room to find the perfect sweater to wear. She was going to do her very best to have a good day, even if her braces told her otherwise. She opened her closet to reveal an array of numerous sweaters, all organized by color spectrum. She pulled out the first one, which was a white sweater with a single giant red heart stitched in the middle of it. It wasn't Pacifica's best work, but it was the very first sweater she knitted. That made it one of her favorite sweaters to wear.
She slipped it over her head and fixed her hair in the mirror. She bound her long golden waves into a ponytail; this was to ensure her hair didn't tangle when the wind swept through it. The silly blonde ran down the stairs, grabbing her backpack off of the kitchen chair. She kept all her personal belongings inside there: money, a ball of yarn, knitting needles, a sheet full of silly temporary tattoos, a stapler, her cassette player, and a first aid kit.
'You never know when you might scrape your knee!' She always thought to herself.
She headed out into the back yard, walking her bike out of the gate. She hopped on the bicycle and headed toward the Mystery Shack.
The air was cool and fresh, the day was young and new. Pacifica pedaled along the side of the road, feeling the air run through her hair swiftly and without any regret. Gravity Falls was not much of a town, but it was nice in its own way. And heading into the woods just made things more fascinating, they say weird things happen in those parts of the town. Though, Pacifica had never experienced them herself, she couldn't help but be incredibly curious. She had heard so many stories, some that were so hilarious and exaggerated that she couldn't help but laugh; like when Lazy Susan had told her that she saw a three-headed house cat running around the town alleyways. However, some of the other stories scared her stiff, like when she overheard Bud telling Robbie about the slumped over creature he sees standing outside his window sometimes.
This town was truly an oddity, but Pacifica had never witnessed these spooky things herself. Well actually, now that she thought about it, she had noticed some things that didn't seem right in this town. Starting with the time she had ran into those dreadful Gleeful twins one spring afternoon.
She had been riding her bicycle as usual, when suddenly her tires came to a screeching halt. She hadn't pressed the brakes or anything, they just stopped and almost jolted her off of her seat completely. She remembered trying to get her bike going , but whenever she did it would abruptly stop again. She remembered hearing laughter from across the street. It was the first time she had seen the Gleefuls outside of a performance. She was a huge fan of them back then, before things had gotten ugly of course.
"Oh! Hello there!" Pacifica had waved to them, stumbling over her bike pedals as he tried to dismount.
A high-pitched shriek of laughter erupted as the sister buried her face into her brothers shoulder, muffling her giggles. Her brother couldn't help but snicker too, his hand clasped firmly around his collar. He finally regained his composure.
"Oh, hello! My sister, Mabel, here was just telling me the most hilarious of jokes." He broke into another fit of laughter.
"That's nice!" The blonde smiled, trying to walk her bike further, only to have it screech into the cement, unyielding. "I'm a huge fan, by the way!"
She looked back at the twins, they seemed much more focused now.
"My bike seems to have broken or something." She looked back over at them.
Mabel turned to Dipper, a smug look grew across her face.
"Dipper, perhaps you should assist the young lady with her broken cycling device." She said, her voice a bit too upbeat for the occasion.
"Why, of course!" He copied his sister's tone as he got up and walked across the street toward Pacifica. "Anything to help out a fan." He smiled at the blonde. She felt her cheeks grow warm at his glance.
She had never been so close to Dipper Gleeful before, the same Dipper that the girls at school would swoon over, writing his name all over their notebooks. His eyes were violently blue and they seemed to have a glow to them, it was strange and unique to her. She could see his birthmark fully now, a perfect copy of the Big Dipper naturally formed on his forehead. He had no sense of shame, it was invigorating to her.
He pushed the bike forward, it moved with ease.
"Hmmm, this is quite a mystery." He looked over the bike, his thinking expressions exaggerated greatly.
Another laugh from his sister in the distance.
"Mind if I ride it for a minute?" He asked, making direct eye-contact with the enamoured blonde.
"N-no. Go ahead." She heard escape from her lips.
He smiled and hopped onto the bike, it pedaled freely without any problems. He pedaled over to his sister.
"Well Mabel, I think I have come to my final hypothesis on this enigma." He smirked atop the bike seat, his sister gasping for breath in all her continuous laughter.
"And what might that be?" She finally said, her smile growing wide.
"My telepathic abilities have reached out to this bicycle here," He patted the handle of the bike affectionately. "And it tells me that it has been absolutely fed up with the abuse of its current owner!" He shot a glare at Pacifica.
Mabel gasped loudly, her eyes widening as she brought her hand up to her smiling mouth in a fully over-dramatic horror.
"Oh my!" She exclaimed.
Pacifica was heavily confused, and had a sudden feeling that the situation was going awry.
"Thank you so much for fixing my bike, Dipper," Her words tumbled out quickly. "But I need to be somewhere-"
"Off to abuse this poor device some more?" He rode the bike in slow, leisurely circles around her.
"I didn't do anything to the bike, I love riding bikes!" She felt her eyes tear up, they were just taunting her.
"That's not what your tortured bike told me!" He projected, accusation in his tone, he cupped his ear with a free hand. "What's that, little bike? Put you out of your misery? I couldn't do such a thing!"
"Stop it!" She cried out. Why wasn't there anyone to see this? Why couldn't anybody hear the commotion?
"Stop the pain? The endless pain?" Dipper's circling became faster, and closed in more on Pacifica. "If it's the only way out for you, poor wittle bike." He cooed mockingly.
"STOP IT!"
"Don't worry, it will all be over soon." He abruptly steered the bike out of its pattern of circles.
The rest had been remembered in slow-motion. Dipper increased the bike up to an unnaturally rapid speed, heading toward a nearby thick pine tree. Pacifica sprinted suddenly, terror painting itself across her face as she realized what he was about to do. She screamed; running, still hearing the wicked brunette's cheers in the background, egging him on. And she swore, she saw him turn back and wink at her before jumping off of the bike, letting it collide full force with the trunk of the tree. The crash was quieter than she had thought it would be. She ran up to the tree, her face wet with tears.
She, with much hesitation, picked up the bent up deformity that once was her bike. She collapsed to her knees, looking down at the misused device; completely broken, crushed, and damaged. She felt a shadow over her, she slowly looked up.
"It's in a better place now." The boy's azure eyes stabbed into her, a Cheshire grin stretched over his face.
Mabel kneeled in front of her, placing her hands on Pacifica's shoulders. The blonde's head snapped up, her bitter hazel eyes met with the contemptuous navy ones of the telepathic brunette and shot her a look of raw revulsion.
Mabel smiled.
"Nobody will believe you." Her long nails slowly digging into the blondes small shoulders, her thick sweater prevented Mabel from drawing any blood, but it was still incredibly painful.
"Let go! You're hurting me!"
A sudden voice came from the distance.
"Hey! What's going on over there?" A young voice called from behind her.
Mabel released her death grip and stood up, a false look of worry spread across her face.
"Oh thank goodness, you came just in time. This poor girl rode her bike straight into this old pine tree." Mabel said to the dark-haired boy walking over.
"My sister and I tried to call for her, but it was too late! We heard the crash and we ran over as fast as we could to make sure she was all right." Dipper continued.
The boy leaned down to check on her, she looked up. His face was kind, locks of black hair fell across his forehead. He helped her up and asked her if she was okay.
"Yes." Her voice was faint.
"Oh wow, sorry about your bike," He examined the bent up bicycle. "I think I know someone who could fix this..."
He looked at the twins.
"Thank you for your help, but I think I've got it from here." He lifted up the bike.
Pacifica sniffled, not wanting to look back. She heard the suppressed sniggering from behind her, she felt her eyes well up.
How could they have been be so cruel?
The memory faded out as she rode up to the porch of the Mystery Shack. The ugly image still in her mind. The same ebony-haired boy who helped fix her crooked bike also worked at the register of the Mystery Shack. In fact, he was the reason she was able to help out there. He waved at her from inside the store.
"Hey 'Cifica," He smiled, beckoning her to come in. "I have something to show you!"
The blonde chained her bicycle to one of the supporters on the porch. And walked inside the store, he was re-organizing the tee-shirts on their rack. He had on a dark red plaid shirt, a trapper hat covering most of his hair sat on his head, snuggled over his ears.
"Hey, Robbie!" She watched him organize. "So what did you want to show me?"
Robbie reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small lizard. Pacifica let out a gasp.
"This cool lil' guy!" He held the tiny lizard in his hand. "I found him just chillin' out on the vending machine and I decided to give him a tour inside."
Pacifca's face lit up, the lizard was adorable. It's big eyes stared up at her with a comical blank look. It stuck out its tongue a bit.
"You can hold him if you want," He held his hand by hers and let the lizard crawl into her open palm."I know you think lizards are cool and stuff." He smiled as he turned back to organize the shirts.
"Hi!" She said, raising the reptile up to eye level. "What's your name?"
The lizard blinked slowly and stuck out its tongue again.
She let out a giggle and set the lizard on her shoulder.
Suddenly a white-haired boy rushed through the store, quickly stuffing something into his inner vest pocket.
"Hey Gideon!" He waved at the kid heading toward the front door.
"Oh!" He stopped. "Hey!"
"Where are you off to so early?" Robbie asked, looking at Gideon with fake suspicion.
"I wanted to check out the town today!" Gideon replied, flicking one of the nearby bobble-heads.
"Good timing!" Robbie patted Pacifica's shoulder, the lizard crawled back onto his hand. "Pacifica here was just about to go into town and put up flyers for our 'Maybe 10% Off' Sale!" He let the lizard crawl back into his front pocket.
Gideon smiled at Pacifica.
"Pacifica, this is Gideon Pines. He is Bud's nephew and he'll be staying here for a couple of months!" Robbie said.
"Nice to meet you Gideon!" She shook his hand enthusiastically. "I can't wait to show you around the town!"
"That would be pretty nice, actually." He replied, fixing his hat. "I probably would have gotten lost, otherwise."
Pacifica headed behind the register counter, grabbing a large stack of flyers. She handed half of the stack to Gideon.
"I'll even introduce you to the people here. Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" She grinned from ear to ear, heading out the front door. Gideon followed closely.
"Have fun you guys!" He waved out the window.
"Bye Robbie!" Pacifica waved back.
The two kids headed into town on foot since Gideon did not have a bike to ride. Pacifica didn't mind too much. Walking was easier for putting up flyers, she didn't have to get off of her bike every ten seconds.
"So what do you think of this place so far?" She asked the boy, shuffling her shoes across the dirt trail.
"Pretty," He glanced at Pacifica for a second before briskly turning away, clearing his throat quickly. "The scenery is very pretty."
"Oh, I know! I love it!" She looked up enthusiastically at the sky. "The weather is always perfect, too."
"It's kind of weird here, though."
Pacifica slowed her pace, eyes widening.
"How so?" She asked. "I mean I know this town is known famously for odd things but did you really see something strange?"
"TRUST NO ONE!"
The book echoed violently in his conscious mind. Should he tell her? He had just met her, but she didn't seem too harmless.
"Yeah, kind of..." He managed to say.
"Ooh, like what? If you don't mind me asking, I'm just very curious!" She played with a strand of her hair, looking very intensely at the boy. They seemed to have stopped walking.
"I don't mind." His heart sped up. Should he show her the book. What if she knew what it was? Could he trust her? It was making his head hurt.
Damn it.
"Okay, I'll tell you." He gave up. "You can't tell anyone, though!
"I promise!" She nodded anxiously, still playing with her blonde hair bound in its hair tie.
Gideon looked both ways to see if anyone else was watching them, before he took her hand and led her toward the nearby woods.
"I found something," They headed past the trees. "I think it's really strange."
He handed his stack of flyers to Pacifica before fishing out the Red Book from his pocket, it barely fit in there. Pacifica's eyes widened at the sight of the book, she let out a small gasp.
"What-"
"I found it in the woods yesterday, I pulled some lever in a tree." He flipped through the book.
She looked at him quizzically.
"I'll explain everything later."
"No, that book looks really familiar actually." She looked at the book in a trance, as if remembering something.
"What? Really?" His voice cracked in excitement.
"Yeah... YEAH! I have seen a book like that!" Her voice rising in realization.
"No way! Where?" He could feel his heart race again, this whole situation was enthralling.
Pacifica leaned in close to Gideon, her voice in a low whisper.
"Want to know a secret?"