WARPED
Chapter 16
"Jocelyn?" Hazelle whispered.
She cautiously made her way over to her friend, inspecting her current state. Jocelyn seemed really sleepy and bleary-eyed, but not in any obvious pain. She even had the strength to sit up in the chair, rubbing her temples and grimacing.
"God, my head is killing me," Jocelyn complained. "How the hell did we get back to the Shack? What happened?"
"You…you don't remember?" Hazelle asked, frowning.
Jocelyn made a face. "I remember being in the woods…and I got really mad about something…and then it got really windy…" She gasped. "OH MY GOD AND THEN THAT BLACK HOLE! I remember now!"
Hazelle bit the tip of her thumbnail. This was way bigger than anything she'd been anticipating. First they were brought to Gravity Falls by some mysterious enemy for some unknown plot, and now Dipper was saying Jocelyn was a portal jumper? That Jocelyn had been the one to create that crazy black hole in the woods? Jocelyn couldn't even use chopsticks!
"It wasn't a black hole though!" Dipper flung the journal into Jocelyn's lap. "It was a portal! A portal you made!"
"I what?" Jocelyn read the page Dipper had opened and shook her head. "I didn't—there's no way—"
"How did you close it?" Dipper demanded.
Jocelyn paled. "I—I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO SO I JUST SCREAMED!"
"Everybody just calm down!" Hazelle announced. "Emotions are the things that set off that portal in the first place! Until we figure this out, we've got to be careful." She looked to Jocelyn. "Okay?"
"I'm not a baby," Jocelyn snapped. "Don't treat me like one."
"Okay, okay!" Hazelle backed up a couple steps, holding up her hands in surrender. "Just calm down, Joss."
"I'M NOT GONNA OPEN A PORTAL IN THE MYSTERY SHACK!"
"Just like you didn't open one in the middle of the woods?"
Jocelyn folded her arms across her chest. "'Cause that was on purpose," she said sarcastically.
"Look." Hazelle fixed a stern glare everyone in the room. "I don't care if it was or wasn't on purpose. In fact, I don't really think I care at all. All I care about right now is not opening any portals in the Mystery Shack and not putting ourselves in any more danger until we have to. So I propose we take a breather and cool it down a bit. My current goal is to not destroy Gravity Falls. Okay?"
Jocelyn handed the journal back to Dipper and sighed. Mabel shrugged. Dipper hummed under his breath and bookmarked the portal jumper page. Lucy shoved her hands into her pockets and left the living room
"Glad we're in agreement," Hazelle sighed, deflating.
XxX
Day turned to night, and Hazelle's head was pounding. Stan had "asked" for their assistance in the Mystery Shack after their "meeting" in the living room, and she'd been at it for hours. Stocking, re-stocking, and sprinting up to the roof with Dipper to stop the A in the Mystery Hack sign from falling on unsuspecting customers really took a lot out of a person, and she was ready for bed the minute the OPEN sign flipped to CLOSED.
But bed would have to wait. There was work to be done.
After a dinner of PB&J, milk, and Chipackers (courtesy of Chef Mabel, who ended up almost setting the house on fire by trying to roast marshmallows over the stove), Hazelle retired to the roof, claiming she wanted to check up on "that tricky A that had put up such a fight." This was a lie, but she had to pacify the Pines into thinking she wasn't up to anything.
Which, of course, she was.
The evening air was refreshing on Hazelle's sweaty skin. She took a careful seat, perched far from the end of the roof, and gazed up into the starry summer sky.
Meet me on the roof in 5, she texted Jocelyn. Come alone.
After her phone bleeped with the sending of the text, the night was silent. It was hard to believe such a quiet little town like Gravity Falls was involved in so many mysteries. It was hard to believe quiet Hazelle was involved in so many mysteries. Crossing dimensions, dream demons, portal jumpers—now she understood why Dipper was so freaked out all the time. Every new turn was a new danger!
Considering how freaked out she felt, it looked like she and Dipper had more in common than they thought.
Footsteps made Hazelle jump, and Jocelyn sat down next to her, wearing a flower crown.
"Wow, you look freaked out," Jocelyn commented, as if reading her mind.
"Said portal girl," Hazelle retorted.
Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "I thought we were 'taking a breather'?"
Hazelle gave her a look. "It was for your own good. We don't know how making portals can affect your health."
"Or the health of the people around me, I guess," Jocelyn sighed. "Sorry for being snappy. Finding our you're a portal jump is kinda…"
"Crazy?" Hazelle filled in, grinning. "Welcome to Gravity Falls, Joss."
Jocelyn laughed and punched Hazelle in the shoulder—too hard, as Hazelle winced and rubbed the place Jocelyn had slammed. "Those are always good words to hear, even if this town is nuts. Speaking of nuts, why are we having this super-secret-meeting on the roof?"
"If there are other secret, more private parts of the Shack, I don't know about them. This was our best bet to get away from the twins and Stan."
"To discuss what?"
"Stan's portal!" Hazelle said. "If it wasn't imperative that we talk about it with him before, then it's crucial now. Maybe he knows a thing or two about portal jumpers and can help you learn to control it. Besides, he needs to know that we know. We may need his help, at the end of all this, to get home. Whatever this is."
Jocelyn narrowed her eyes. "What about Lucy?"
Hazelle took a deep breath. "I won't tell her if you don't."
"Whoa." Jocelyn smirked. "Since when did you get so conniving?"
"I'm not conniving," Hazelle said, biting her lip. "I'm worried. Joss, Lucy's been acting really weird lately. I think something's wrong."
"Of course something's wrong. It's Lucy."
"I'm serious. She looks like she's listening to something else—or someone else—sometimes. I'll randomly look at her and she'll be cringing in pain. She's been snappy and distant and I think involving her in any more of this may set her off." Hazelle leaned back, as if she was reassuring herself. "It's for her own good. If we bring her along, she could get overwhelmed, and you know how much she wants to go home—what if Stan says he can't help? She'll flip. We'll let her relax and then we'll fill her in on what we learn."
"She won't be happy that we're leaving her out," Jocelyn said.
Hazelle sighed. "I know. But her bad attitude may get us in trouble one day while we're on this adventure. She needs to cool off."
"Alrighty," Jocelyn said, obviously in full agreement. "So what's our plan of action?"
"Wait until Mabel and Dipper go to bed and for Stan to head for the vending machine," Hazelle explained, "and then follow him down."
"I guess that means we won't have to…BREAK IN. DUH UH DUH UH DUH UH!"
Hazelle laughed so hard, her glasses slipped down her nose. "By the way, what's with the flower crown?"
"Oh, this ol' thing?" Jocelyn smoothed it back. "Mabel and I were making them. Ooh, look, I made you one too!"
Hazelle glared. "Really?" she deadpanned. "You know I'm allergic to daisies, right?"
Jocelyn's only reply was a mischievous grin.
XxX
Eventually, they saw the light in the twins' bedroom go out. Taking Lucy's absence as a sign that she wasn't around, Hazelle and Jocelyn crept down from the roof and waited in the shadows of the hallway.
"I wonder where Lucy is," Hazelle mumbled.
"Who cares? I wonder where Stan is," Jocelyn whispered.
Hazelle considered, but couldn't shake the worry Lucy's absence was causing. Where could she have gone? "Let's try the living room. There might be a The Duchess Approves marathon or something."
"Only in his dreams," Jocelyn snickered.
Tiptoeing, they made their way down to the living room, avoiding any planks of wooden floorboard that may squeak and give away their position. But there Stan was, in his chair, digging into a bag of Chocosaur Dinosaur-Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies—the Jurassic Snack! and watching the old lady movie channel.
"This is our secretive portal expert?" Jocelyn asked, snapping a picture of Stan on her phone.
"Looks can be deceiving," Hazelle responded, rubbing the back of her neck. "Or, at least, Stan's looks can be deceiving. Really, really deceiving."
They waited in the dark until Stan finally shut off the TV and stretched. "Now that's what I call quality TV," he muttered. Hazelle and Jocelyn scurried out of sight as he entered the hall and peered up the stairs. "Twins are asleep." He nodded to himself and then took off.
"Go go go go go," Jocelyn hissed.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Hazelle muttered.
They followed Stan to the gift shop and watched with bated breaths as he imputed the code into the vending machine. The machine growled and opened, and Stan swept paranoid eyes across the room before shutting the door.
"Now!" Hazelle hissed. She sprinted forward and caught the end of the vending machine an inch before it locked back into the wall.
"All right! You got the hands with the plans," Jocelyn said.
"I guess those sprints in band really paid off, huh?" Hazelle asked, grinning.
"For once," Jocelyn added with an eye roll.
Entering Stan's hidden lab was a dream come true for Hazelle. After getting off the elevator at level 3, she gazed around in the dark with wide, excited eyes, taking in every puff of steam, every blinking light, every bright screen that displayed a tiny section of Gravity Falls. She could find out the answers to every Gravity Falls conspiracy known to the fandom! Every one of her questions and theories would be either proven true or debunked! She, Hazelle Krimms, was really in the laboratory of a secretive portal scientist!
"This is amazing," she whispered, lightly touching a screen that showed the back of the Mystery Shack.
Jocelyn laughed and poked a dial, making more steam billow into the room. "Tap tap!"
"Jocelyn!" Hazelle shouted. "Be careful! We can't let Stan find out yet that we're—"
"What the—" Stan emerged from the steam and clenched his teeth, glaring. "What are you two doing down here?!"
Hazelle slumped. "—here," she finished lamely.