DYSFUNCTIONAL

"It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not."
― J.R.R Tolkien

DESPAIR

As Andrew was walking in the woods, on his way to school, he tried to figure it all out. It was very common of him to go back to his early childhood years and see if he, in his young age, classified the relationship between his siblings.

The first step that he always takes, is when the Pines family portrait was taken, when he was about four. Whenever he tried to think about it that only thing he is certain is that he had no idea what was going on when the photo was taken.

It was a day in early summer that Mr. and Mrs. Pines decided it would be a good idea to take a family portrait of the Pines family. By that time, Dipper and Mabel were about 16 and the last thing they both wanted to do was to be dragged to this photo studio in Oakland, and have to wait three hours before their photo was finally taken. And of course, Andrew was too young to even know what the hell was happening. But there was a moment while in the car ride coming back from Oakland, that was highly questionable to him. At that point in time, their family had a used golden minivan, until they sold it in exchange to buy a car in Charleston. Andrew's carseat was in the middle seat of the back row, so Dipper and Mabel often used the optional third row in the very back.

While parents were talking about politics or something, Andrew heard a brief stifled giggle in the backseat. Their parents were too preoccupied with their conversation, and Andrew had limited access to peripheral vision, with the head barriers at the top of the seat. But Andrew was far too curious to ignore that the giggle never happened. With all of his might, Andrew pushed out of his carseat, only to be pulled back into it by his seatbelt. But he did get a glimpse of the back, but it wasn't until when they returned from spring break that he started to try to put the pieces together. Andrew could've sworn that he saw Dipper sucking on Mabel's lower neck.

Then of course, there was that time. Andrew was about 5 or so, and he lost one of his favorite stuffed animals. It was a very special stuffed bear that Andrew slept with at night. Every night. Andrew was crying, and tears were falling like raindrops down his face, and he burst into Dipper's room with out knocking first, a thing that Dipper had increasingly become angry at with the young Andrew. Andrew burst into Dipper's room, not he intent of searching the whole house, top to bottom. But he had accidentally walked in on Dipper and Mabel making out on Dipper's bed. They all froze, Andrew being very confused to what was happening, and Dipper and Mabel worrying that he would run downstairs and tell Mom about the discourse that was happening upstairs. Instead, Andrew just awkwardly backed out the room, and went to bed, the first time he had slept without his bear, and he would soon forget about the bear. When Andrew woke up the next day, he thought that it was all a dream and soon forgot all about it.

It was funny though, they did act really weirdly at breakfast and for the rest of the week, but Andrew thought nothing of it. Andrew could soon see a light at the end of the forest and eventually his school came into view. It was a nasty public school, that hadn't had a major renovation since the 90's, and it had at least 2000 kids. Andrew hated middle school. His middle school in particular. The middle school was infamous for it's underground network of black market weed. And not only that, there were some ferocious bullies that lurked it's hallways, just waiting for some poor kid to piss them off royally.

Andrew checked his watch. 8:37, he was 7 minutes late for homeroom, but it's not like they cared about perfect attendance anyways. Andrew started to walk across the soccer field that separated the end of his shortcut and the building. He walked past the parked buses and climbed the cracked stone steps into the school building. You were apparently supposed to go the front office if you arrived late, but Andrew's late almost everyday and that doesn't make a difference to him. His middle school was sanctioned off into different parts according to your grade.

The 6th graders stay in the cleanest part of the building, the 7th graders got a slightly dirty part of the building, but it wasn't much to complain about when you look at the eighth grade area of the building. Half the lockers there have had the locks on them busted and it was easy to pick those locker locks, so it wasn't a good idea to leave personal belongings hanging around in your locker. The floors look as if the janitor just looked at them and said, "Nope", and walked away with his mop and wash bucket.

Andrew arrived at his locker, the one with the outrageous graffiti and pulled out the books that he needed for his first period class. He then walked off to his homeroom class, where his teacher greeted him with a frown and a scolding about being late. He just shrugged and walked to his desk, where he remained for exactly 18 seconds before the bell rang and Andre and to face the mobs in the crowded hallways.

It was a good thing that Andrew had already gotten his books out of the hallway, because there have been some cases where kids have been pushed into lockers be the tidal waves of people in the halls. he decided to brave the mob and tried his best to get to his first period class in one piece. The class was either social studies or biology, Andrew wasn't so sure.

All Andrew was sure of was the pointing and the whispering that he had to endure that class, all because his brother and sister decided to be together. It was moments like those in which he loathed them. When the class was over, he was pulled aside by his teacher. Andrew wasn't surprised, he was slacking in his class for weeks now.

"Andrew, uh..I've recommended to the principal that you go um..see him, and he's expecting you for second period." The teacher explained.

Andrew was angry. The class next was art and he was furious that we was going to have to miss it. Art was one of the new classes that he actually liked. His parents weren't so keen on him being an artist, because it was a "girl" thing, but Andrew didn't care. He liked art, and there was no one who said he could draw. But if he didn't go to the front office, the principal would probably call his parents, and he knew he wouldn't want that. Andrew slowly trudged down the starts to the front office, where the receptionist greeted him with a teeth smile and told him to wait until he could meet with the principal. From the sounds coming out of his office, it sounded like he was chewing a kid out for beating up a 6th grader. When the captive exited the office, Andrew noticed how much this kid looked like a ball of clay which had painted on white skin color and eyes. He gave Andrew a menacing look before leaving the front office.

"Andrew Pines, please enter the office" He heard from the principal.

Andrew entered to an office surrounded with various inspirational posters, and found the principal, a man with curly red hair, fat cheeks and a round body.

"Please sit down" The principal asked.

Andrew hesitantly sat down before the principal began to chew him out.

"Andrew, I know you're a bright kid, you've always been an A student until the informations about err…your siblings leaked"

It was funny. We had moved from Piedmont, a year after my siblings told my parents about their relationship. Shortly after Dipper and Mabel left for Oregon, news began to spread around the town, that there was a family in Piedmont whose children were in a romantic relationship. And before we knew it, my family was ostracized from our community.

The Wednesday nights when Andrew's mother went out with her friends slowly became less frequent, soon becoming non-existant. Andrew could tell that his Dad's work experience became un-standable, because whenever he got home he was always mad at him and his mom. One night, he came home bubbling with anger, and tried to drown his anger in television. Andrew guesses that having that family portrait with their faces still visible on it really got to him that night, because he grabbed a sharpie and marked their faces out of the picture, both of them. It was from that day, Andrew became an only child. he no longer had any brothers or sisters. he had "perverted weirdos" that were disowned by their own family. They moved a month after that day. He learned later that my dad's boss made a joke at a staff meeting about his children.

They wanted to go to a place where no one knew them, where no one could judge them: Charleston, South Carolina. I mean, they could've moved anywhere, and Andrew's guesses his parents wanted to go to a place near the ocean, like Piedmont. They were right. There was nobody that judged Andrew's parents according to their children. To the people of Charleston, they were just a normal couple with just one boy. And it stayed like that, until Andrew messed up. Supremely. When he first arrived at middle school, Andrew met this girl named Amber. She was beautiful, long blonde hair and blue eyes, which made me attracted to her.

When he told his parents he had a crush, Andrew thinks they were relived that he was a "normal person" when it came to love. He somehow had the courage to ask her for her number. They ended up exchanging phone numbers and they began to text. One night, they were exchanging secrets about each other, and they got on the topic of siblings. She told Andrew that her brother was arrested once for drinking and driving. She then asked Andrew to tell her a secret about a family member. Andrew hesitated. He didn't want anyone to think of me as a weirdo if Amber told someone, anyone.

Andrew'll admit, it is a juicy secret to keep contained. He thought he could trust Amber and told her everything about Dipper and Mabel. She then suddenly told him she had to leave and said goodbye to me. That whole night, he was sick to my stomach about that. The next day at school, he had a nasty shock of finding out that everyone in my school had found out about my brother and sister. Things have never been the same since. The children told their mother, who in turn ostracized my mom. Andrew's dad has never treated him the same since I blabbed about Dipper and Mabel. Andrew has a feeling that we're going to move pretty soon, but they're still here. He has a theory that my parents want me to finish my school year here and they'll move us somewhere else. Somewhere that nobody knows us.

"Andrew? Hello?" The principal asked him, bringing me back into reality.

"Uh, yeah?" Andrew asked him, pretending that I was listening to him the entire time.

The principal paused.

"I was telling you that every Monday during second period, I would like you to meet with me to talk about your studies and personal problems with me".

Andrew stopped. "What did he say? What? The only people that meet with the principal are people who are contemplating suicide. Ha, if I think that's bad, wait till I hear it from my parents!" Andrew thought.

"You're just like the perverts, you're a disgrace. Just a damn disgrace!" His dad would tell me.

"Look Andrew, I know that you're not exactly keen on meeting with me every Monday, but I'm only doing this because I think it will help you progress in your studies. You currently have a C average in all of your classes and I think you're and A student." He explained.

It was true that he had straight A's until Amber told everyone about his family, then he thought that there was no point in doing good in school. Why try to make myself look good in-front of people that are judging me constantly?

"Thank you, Andrew, you can go back to class now" He finally says to him.

He got up, and walked out, without saying a word to anyone and walk quickly back to his next class. By the time Andrew got to art, everyone was already involved with some sort of project, so he just sat around, waiting for the bell to ring.

As Andrew was thinking about the possible outcomes, he realized that nobody's really analyzed his situation that much. Sure they've heard about it, but they never really think about it other than to stay away from the weirdo, him. Hell, there's people scooting away from him at his table even now! Andrew doesn't know what the outcome will be with the principal looking at his dysfunctional family, but he does know one thing: things will never be the same again.