Chapter 8: First Day at the Mystery Shack

Dipper's POV

Pacifica (now known an Elicia Pines) came down from the attic with her new identity. Her dirty blonde hair already made it hard to recognize her. But with the addition to not wearing make-up or jewelry, she really did look, as her folks would say, like a commoner. But to me, she looked normal as every teen should, but strangely still beautiful.

Both Mabel and Pacifica stood in the door way, waiting for my reaction. Boy did I give them one. I was still in shock and tried to say something, but all I could do was stare. I know it was embarrassing to just gawk at someone but at the moment, I didn't really care. I was too busy comparing the old Pacifica and the new Pacifica.

Noticing that they both were waiting for me to say something, all I could muster up was, "Y-Ya, t-that will work…"

Both Mabel and Pacifica chuckled quietly together as I turned around back to the stove and tried to hide my face under my hat. I quietly resumed setting up the fluffy pancakes I had made for everyone for breakfast.

Out of nowhere, I here Mabel scream, "So which one do you like better Dipper! Before or After?"

I was so embarrassed by the question that I accidentally burned myself trying to think about it. I slowly looked back to so Pacifica. I saw her twiddling her thumbs and quietly looking at the floor. It was obvious that she was wanting to know what I really thought.

"Well… S-She looks cute either way! So I guess I wouldn't have a favorite look for her." I said taking the question seriously

"But I believe it depends on how she feels when she is looks like one or the other. With the Pacifica we know, she's filled with confidence in her looks and life styles. While being as she looks now, she might not have all the confidence, but for her, it could soon feel like the weights and chains holding her down could disappear. This allowing her to behave, act, or do whatever she wants with not being held down by her family's status." I explained

"So in the end, it doesn't matter what I think. What matters is how you feel Elicia!" I said with a smile, but Mabel was displeased.

"Way to dodge the question!" Mabel said

"I didn't dodge it! That's what I really believe!" I argued

"Well I think you read too many books and make it too complicated!" Mabel said

I looked to Pacifica to see if she thought the same thing. But she just smiled and seemed to be extremely satisfied with the answer.

I then told the two girls to sit down so I could bring them their pancakes. And as we were eating, I asked to Pacifica, "So what do you think about your new look?"

She gave me a great big smile and said, "I feel exactly how you said, that the chains of my family has been lifted off and a new world is being shown to me. So I'm happy, excited, and nervous. I don't know what's in store for me, but I know I'll be fine as long as I have you guys next to me!"

"But mostly as long as Dipper is next to me!" she thought.

As soon as we were done eating, Mabel took the dirty dishes and washed them as I took Pacifica to show her around the Mystery shack and all the miscellaneous jobs she could do to keep herself looking busy when Stan was around.

Pacifica asked, "Dipper, what do you mean when Stan is around?"

"Well, the truth is he doesn't have a lot of jobs for us to do! So in the end we are just re-sweeping and dusting the shack, trying to keep ourselves busy during the day. At least until he asks one of us to help him with something." I explained

It was then a ring came from the entrance of the Mystery Shack. I noticed how Pacifica flinched to the sound of the bells hanging on the door to let them know a customer had arrived. But it wasn't a customer, it was Wendy and Soos arriving to start working.

"Hey Wendy, hey Soos!" I said as I waved them to come over.

"What's up dude!" said Soos

"How's it going Dip?" said Wendy

"Hey whose the new kid!?" said Wendy

"I would like you to meet Elicia Pines, my cousin! She came to work from the cities." I said

"Nice to meet ya!" exclaimed Soos

"I feel sorry for ya, welcome to hell!" said Wendy

"Wendy works the cash register and Soos does the heavy lifting and fixing at the Shack" I told Pacifica. But of course she already knew this and them since she's come to the shack during working hours before.

Keeping up with the act, Pacifica said with a smile, "It's nice to meet you both"

"Elicia, you are looking at the champ at fake working" as I said pointing at Wendy.

"Wendy, when I'm not around I hope you will help her look busy when Stan is around!" I said

"Don't worry about it! I got her!" Wendy said as she sat on the stool in front of the register. She then put her feet on the counter and starting reading one of her teen magazines.

"Soos can you show her where all the tools and cleaning supplies are for today!" I asked

"Sure dude, I'll show her the ropes!" said Soos

Pacifica looked a little disappointed that I wasn't going to show her, but I reassured her that she'd be back next to me in a couple of minutes. Wendy started to notice how close we were.

As Pacifica disappeared with Soos, I went into the kitchen to grab a stool. I then put it next to the entrance door and climbed to carefully get the bells down that were hanging. Trying to not let them jingle, I climbed down and took them outside to put them next to the wood pile.

Seeing what I was doing, Wendy asked, "Are you sure Stan wants you to do that?"

I said, "It's fine for as long as Elicia is staying here"

"Why?" asked Wendy

"Well…" I said as I tried to think of an excuse to not reveal to much that would show that Elicia is Pacifica. But Wendy didn't know anything about Pacifica, so I decided to go with the truth.

"Elicia was traumatized and it hurts her when she hears bells." I said in a serious tone.

"What did Santa traumatize her or something?" said Wendy jokingly.

But the jokes ended when I looked serious and said, "She was traumatized by her parents!"

The smile went away from Wendys face… She seemed to regret joking about the subject.

"What happened?" she asked

"I'm not going to go into details about it. Because if I did, I wouldn't be able to smile to Elcia for the rest of the day" I said

"All you need to know is that she's been traumatized by her parents for an amount of time, and I got her the hell out of there. So now she's living with us. Don't ask her anything that would bring the conversation up and keep bells away from her, got it!" I said now being very serious as I stared at Wendy.

"Ok" she said

Satisfied, I started to walk away, when Wendy asked one more thing.

"What's with the patch on her face?"

My fists tightened and turned white due to lack of blood flow. I slowly looked at her as I answered. "It's the reason I got her the hell out of there!" I said in a low angry voice.

I then walked out of the room to look for Pacifica without another word. I didn't know if Wendy understood what was going on from what I said, but I'm sure she would keep her mouth shut about the conversation.

Wendy had never seen such fire and anger in my eyes that it gave chills down her spine. She didn't bring up the conversation again.

About half the day went by. I was chopping more wood for Stan when I suddenly heard a couple screams from the shop. I ran as fast as I could thinking the worst. That the disguise didn't work and Pacifica was being taken by her parents! As I burst through the entrance door. I looked over to see Mabel, Pacifica, and Wendy huddled up in a corner of the store. And what was between me and them gave me a huge sigh of relief as my worries started to fade.

It hadn't notice me yet, but an opossum somehow made it into the store. The three girls were shaking in fear as it hissed at them.

"It's a GIANT RAT!" Pacifica screamed

"It's a SUPER RAT!" Mabel screamed

"Why the hell are you just standing there! Get it away from us!" Wendy screamed

"Really Wendy? You can attack a mountain lion with your bare hands but can't get rid of an Opossum?" I said disappointed I her.

"I'm sorry to disappoint but I can't stand rodents! Now please do something!" Wendy pleaded

I grabbed the broom that was always kept in the other corner of the store. As I walked to get it, the "Giant Rat" still hadn't noticed me. But one hit with the push broom was all it took to get it's attention.

"Come on, move it along!" I said

It hissed at me but only earned more bumps in the face with my trusty broom.

"Hiss all you want but you know you're not supposed to be here." I said

A couple more hits with the broom drove the vermin out of the shop. Outside it turned around and hissed at me one more time.

"That's what you get for sneaking in to someone's home and scaring all the girls!" I said right back at him.

The opossum then turned around and ran back into the forest.

I closed the entrance door and sighed. I thought something much worse happened but it ended up being something as trivial as wild animals entering the store. I was used to it since it happened occasionally. The shack was in the middle of a forest, of course it was going to happen from time to time.

"Are you girls alri-OOF!"

I was suddenly tackled to the ground with a tight hug around my waste. I was surprised to see it was Pacifica.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was so scared!" screamed Pacifica

"It was noth-OOF!"

Before I could sit up, another tackle got me right in the chest!

"You were so cool! I have a new respect for you!" yelled Wendy wiping her tears on my shirt.

Usually I would enjoy being tackled by such cute girls, but it was getting a little "hot" for me below my waist. So I tried to end it before anyone noticed. But before I could ask for them to give me some room, all I saw was Mabel running towards us screaming, "DOG PILE!"

"No no no-OOF" was all I could get out before Mabel was on top of all three of us screaming, "GROUP HUG!"

Wendy was on my chest, Pacifica was on my waist, and Mabel was on top of both of them.

"Oh come on!" I said, but I shouldn't have. Their bodies were crushing my tiny lungs and I couldn't take another breath of air! I tried to move my arms and legs to struggle to tell them to get off. But they were held down by the three girls.

As I lied there not able to breath, with three women lying on my tiny body, I started to see a bright light. I started walking towards it, laughing to myself, "Well Dipper, you died a hero! What a way to go! You got three girls to sit on top of you, yet you're still going to die a virgin. Reality is so cruel!" I laughed

But then suddenly the light disappear and all I saw was complete darkness.

Until… I started to hear voices

"God he's fragile!"

"Somebody do something!"

"No pictures ok Mabel!"

I then felt a sudden breath of fresh air in my lungs. I started to cough as I slowly opened my eyes.

Pacifica was sitting above me.

"Oh thank god Dipper! Why'd you have to scare us like that!" said Wendy

"Oh so your saying it's my fault!" I said as I regained my memories of what just happened.

"I save you from a Super Rat and you literally try to hug me to death!" I yelled

"We didn't mean to" said Mabel

I looked over to Pacifica who was looking away and was as red as an apple.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked the other two.

"Oh Elicia's just shy because she's the one that gave you cpr." said Wendy

"What!" I yelled now turning as red as Pacifica.

"Wow Dipper, you can't catch a break! First it was a reverse-cpr kiss from Mermando and now a cpr kiss from Elicia. Either way your first kiss was taken by cpr!" said Mabel

Pacifica was shocked to hear she just took my first kiss. She then started to look like she hated herself for stealing it without my permission.

"Well…" I said

"I don't really mind if Elicia was the one to take my first kiss…" I mumbled

If Pacifica's face could get more red, it did with that statement.

Suddenly Grunkle Stan came into the store but didn't notice that all three girls were surrounding me.

"Dipper! You haven't finished cutting the wood yet? You'll be out there all night if you don't get off your ass!" Stan yelled.

And I was. I was still chopping when Wendy and Soos left for the day and I was still chopping when it was dinner time. I was finally able to get the last of the wood chopped using the moonlight because it was already dark.

Every muscle in my body was sore from the hours of work I had completed. Stan was really rough on me today. I wasn't even able to check up on Pacifica to see if she was ok.

All the lights were off, except the one in Stans office, but I could hear him snoring from the front door. I missed Dinner but I was too tired to eat anything anyways so I passed the kitchen and headed straight for the stairs. I didn't see any sign of Mabel or Pacifica so I assumed they both went straight to bed. And that was where I was heading.

Writer Notes: Warning! The Next chapter is going to show why this fanfiction is Rated for Mature!