Dipper's POV

I stepped out the door and stretched to greet the long day ahead. Now that I was all moved in and settled down, I could focus on reviewing with Grunkle Stan. He'd decided that if I would ever make a good successor, I would need to know all his little tricks to ensure a good family business. Frankly this business was the last thing I ever thought I would get into. Especially with a con man as my boss, a family-run business just didn't seem like the kind of thing I would've wanted for my life. But that was the funny thing—"life" took people wherever it wanted. So here I was.

I headed off to the Mystery Shack—which hadn't changed in the slightest... Every single exhibit there was nothing short of the most obvious hoax and I still hadn't built back up the confidence to bring another creature in there. If I did, it certainly wouldn't be a gremloblin...

Mabel's POV

I walked in through the door and greeted Tammie and Tyrone with a big hug. Today had been their last day of school—a half day, meaning they'd waited at home alone for me to come back.

"Oh, you guys grow up too fast," I said. "Another summer goes by."

Which meant that they would be home alone again. Summer was hardest for me because, while I didn't have to get the twins ready for school, I still had to work and leaving Tammie and Tyrone here by themselves made me nervous. They knew all the rules and, as far as I knew, followed the important ones—such as not opening the door for anyone—but I was worried someone might break in. We didn't know any of our neighbors yet so who knew what kind of people were living right beside us. Not to say that they were bad but I didn't know what they were like and I didn't want Tammie or Tyrone to be hanging around strangers.

Now was harder than ever because I had Bill to worry about... I had no idea what he wanted; he had never come back to tell me. I'd decided to simply drop the subject and move forward with life.

"Now that you're here, is it okay if we can have a look at the woods?" Tammie asked. "I'm hoping we'll find tree mold."

Did I really used to say things like that at one point?

My phone chose that perfect time to ring and, my lucky stars, it was Scott Devons—the guy who creeped me out and couldn't take no for an answer.

"Um, sure. Just be sure you still see the apartment when you go over there and don't wander too far," I replied.

As the kids excitedly rushed out the door—it was true we'd been so busy with getting settled in and ending the school year that the twins didn't get the chance to play in the woods yet—I answered my phone and had the pleasure of hearing that man's voice.

"Hello?" I said.

I didn't need to see him to know he was grinning right now.

"Hello, is this Mabel Pines?" he "asked".

I rolled my eyes. "How are you doing?"

"Fine, fine, and you?"

"We're doing fine, just getting over the school year."

"In celebration, perhaps you and your children would like to accompany me—"

"I, um, I'm sorry," I interrupted. "I have other plans for tonight."

"Oh? Are you sure? It would be a nice restaurant, definitely a treat to you all."

I barely restrained a groan and slumped down into the nearest chair. "We've talked about this before; I don't have time for a relationship right now."

Tyrone's POV

"Tyrone, check it out!" my sister called to me. "I found some fungus!"

I turned to her and traded her mushroom for the stick I was holding. It was the kind of mushroom that looked like either a tiny ball or a bird's egg. Perfect.

"All right. Ready?" I asked, readying myself to launch the mushroom.

She smiled and held up the stick—our makeshift bat.

I used as much force as I could to throw the mushroom at her. Per usual, she missed. But I was sort of glad she did. The thump made by the mushroom caused us both to run around. No, it wasn't the normal thump of a tree or the ground. It sounded like we made something bounce off a tree and hit the ground.

My first thought was that it was just a piece of really loose bark that finally fell off the tree trunk, but when Tammie moved out of the way to go pick it up and inspect it, I second guessed my idea.

"Hey, Tyrone, what's a Mystery Shack?" she asked, turning to show me a wooden sign that looked like it had been hung up.

I just shrugged and looked in the direction it was pointing. Nailed to a tree farther off in the distance, I saw what I believed to be another sign. I was proven right when we went over there.

"Hey, look, another sign's over there," Tammie said, pointing her original sign towards the direction of the newest sign.

And it wasn't just that sign that we started following. There were more and more, becoming more frequent until they started to multiply into a million more, all pointing in the same direction.

I held my sister's shoulder before she could drag us farther.

"Tammie, I don't think we should go this far," I said. "Mom said to stay within sight of the apartment."

At this, I paused for a minute, realizing what I'd just said. Tammie seemed to realize the same thing and we both began looking around. With all the signs everywhere, we had followed them too deep into the woods. Now the apartment was entirely out of sight.

"No problem. We can just use the signs to find our way back," Tammie said with more confidence than I imagined she actually had.

But the problem was, there weren't signs in a straight line from where we came and we had gone left and right, all over trying to keep up with a single line...and clearly failed. There were signs side by side, diagonally, front to back...they were everywhere. No matter which direction we tried, our chances of getting back were slim.

"It's that way, I'm sure of it," Tammie said, pointing left of where we were standing. She seemed to quickly change her mind and pointed right. "No, no, it's that way. Definitely that way."

"We're lost," I groaned. "You just had to follow the signs, didn't you?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Me? I'm not the one who knocked the first one down!"

"I'm not the one who led the way!"

"I didn't lead the way either, we did this together!"

I opened my mouth to speak but she did have a good point and fighting wasn't getting us anywhere—certainly no closer to home.

I sighed and replied, "Look, maybe if we just follow these signs to this 'Mystery Shack' place, we can just find someone there and ask them for help."

"How can they help? We don't know our address yet," she reminded me. "Mom always runs out the door telling us our old address."

True. Our mother was always too busy and stressed to realize that she wasn't giving us important information. On top of that, she had her phone number changed and kept forgetting to tell us her new number. We also didn't have cell phones so we couldn't save her in a contacts list.

"Okay...well... What's your idea?" I combated. "Don't have one? Then let's head for the Mystery Shack."

She nodded and we both reluctantly followed all the signs nailed or hung on the trees.

It had to be twenty full minutes before we saw a wooden building in a large clearing. Looking closer, it sort of looked like a gift shop. And on the roof, spelled out in huge red letters, was, "MYSTERY HACK". I was pretty sure we were both a little confused until we came closer and saw a fallen "S". It didn't take a genius to figure out where that "S" was supposed to go in the letter order.

Dipper's POV

I stretched, yawned, and took a look at the analog clock hanging in the gift shop. Almost quitting time, almost time to go home and just relax. Moving was always hard, long, and stressful. Now that I had finally unpacked the last box, I was officially moved in, meaning that today would be my first official day at home.

"Wendy, how are you supposed to do your job if you keep your head stuffed in a mag—"

I stopped myself as soon as I read the title of the magazine. It was one of those healthcare magazines and from what I could see, that particular issue was rightfully to her interest. Apparently it contained articles about boosting fertility. At that knowledge, I decided to just let her keep reading. There were no customers in right now and she seemed to be too deep into that article to be listening to me anyway.

And right at the moment I thought there would be no more customers today, the bell to the door chimed and I just barely stopped myself from sighing heavily in disappointment.

Two children came in, a boy and girl, came in. I could tell immediately that they were identical twins. The boy looked so similar to me when I was his age, or around it, depending on how old he was. His sister reminded me so much of my sister when she was her age, once again depending on how old they were. I hated the images of Mabel flooding back to me but at the same time loved seeing a reminder of her, despite that reminder being in the form of another person.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack, how can I help you today?" And where were their parents? My best guess was somewhere outside.

"We're sort of lost and we could use a little help getting back home," the boy said.

"We saw your signs and followed them here," the girl added.

In that case, I could understand how they got lost. Grunkle Stan's obsession with attracting tourists ran so deep that he always had me hanging signs all over the woods. These kids wouldn't be able to find their way back without knowing their way around the woods perfectly.

"Okay, sure; where are your parents?" I asked.

"It's actually just our mom, and she's probably back at home."

Which meant she likely lived outside the woods.

"Oh. Well, uh, we have a phone if you want to call her," I suggested.

"She changed her number recently."

"What's your address then? I can drive you home," I offered.

"Um...well, see, we sort of just moved..." The boy let his voice trail off, which was all the answer I needed.

Okay. So these kids didn't know their address, their mom's phone number, and from the way it sounded, their mom didn't know they had strayed into the Mystery Shack. I honestly didn't know what was left to do. The police couldn't help since the kids didn't know anything and since the only police in Gravity Falls were rarely of help. If their mother didn't know where they were then... Oh boy, this was bad, this was really bad. The day wasn't getting any younger and I didn't really know what to do with these kids.

The only shot I had was asking around but if the kids didn't know anyone, the other person wouldn't know them either. They didn't seem to know anyone here or else they would've pointed it out right away.

"Do you guys have any aunts or uncles we can contact?" I asked.

"Well we had an uncle but he died before we were born."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." Well there went one option... "Grandparents?"

"No."

"Cousins?"

"We don't have any other relatives."

"Well what about your dad?"

They both shook their heads.

"It's just our mom," the boy said.

This wasn't good. Their mother would probably come looking for them but who would think to look for a pair of twins in the woods?

"Does your mother have any friends?"

"Not that we know of."

You had to be kidding me! No relatives, no friends, no way back... Their poor mom would be so worried about them. In truth I myself was a little worried about them. They were just kids; what was I supposed to do, kick them out?

Wendy looked up from her magazine at stared at them for a moment. If she thought I would let her keep the twins with her until we could find a way to get them to their mother, she was dead wrong. She couldn't have kids of her own and I was afraid she would grow too attached to them. It would kill her to see them leave and she'd already had enough pain when she found out she couldn't have kids.

So before she even had the chance, I offered them my house. They could just sleep on my bed and I could sleep on the couch. It might be a little awkward for a boy and a girl to sleep together in the same bed, but they were siblings so in my eyes, it was fine.

They seemed unsure of whether to take up my offer at first and kept exchanging different glances, like they were using telepathy to talk about it. Eventually they came to their answer.

"I guess, until our mom comes," the boy said. He immediately snapped his fingers afterward and added, "By the way, my name's Tyrone and this is my sister Tammie."

I couldn't help but smile at the great name pairing—perfectly fitting for twins.

"Tyrone, huh? You know it's funny, I've always wanted that name," I said. "And Tammie's a cute name."

She smiled widely—she definitely had a smile like Mabel's; it was like I was looking at my sister again.

In that instant I knew I would have to tread carefully around them, especially Tammie. She would really grow on me if I wasn't careful. And Tyrone, he looked so much like my younger self it was almost scary. If they hadn't said they didn't have any other relatives I would probably assume we were related somehow.

I blinked. "You can just call me Dipper."

Little did I know what I was getting myself into...

A/N

Big news! :D You've most likely heard of Alisi Thorndyke (most famous story is probably Behind the Mask). For the first time ever, Alisi and I are co-writing a new GF fic called Black Tears.

Summary: Unpopular transfer student Mabel Pines discovers the dark side of high school when she meets golden girl Pacifica Northwest...who may harbor a few secrets of her own.

Keep an eye out for that, because after this update, we'll be working on the first chapter. And don't worry about our other fics. We're taking turns writing the chapters so we'll both have time to write on our other stories as well, meaning that none of them will be abandoned. ;)