"I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone."
― Audrey Hepburn
ALONE
Andrew's classes went on as they usually did, uninteresting as usual. He used to be interested in all of those facts until his life went downhill. The thing Andrew always loved about a fact is that it was true, and there was no one to deny it. Ever.
A fact was that Andrew was lonely. He had no one to talk to about his feelings or anything. He was afraid that if he shared his feelings or thoughts with anyone, his parents would come after him. Andrew thinks that once, his parents truly loved him.
They also truly loved them too. His parents felt betrayed when Dipper and Mabel told their parents about their relationship together. They felt they betrayed their love, that their love was undeserving for them. Andrew thinks that his parents do care about him, but they're too afraid to love him. Not like before. They think that if Andrew does something unforgivable then he will to betray their love. So his parents excel to be distant, but not too distant.
Andrew sometimes thinks that at least Dipper has Mabel and Mabel has Dipper. He has no one. No one to open up to. No one to express himself to. Nobody that loves him. He sometimes thinks that his life could've been different if his siblings were normal people. He might've been loved. He might've had someone to talk to. Or if he was just born into another family all together. Maybe he could've been born to a family that actually loves him? I guess he'll never know.
Andrew hates lunch the most. I know, it does sound like Andrew's a nerd or something. But it's because Andrew feels connected in class, he feels like he has friends because of all of the students surrounding him. His real colors are visible during lunch, when he sits alone. He's sat alone since the information about his siblings leaked. No one wants to sit next to a kid whose brother and sister are doing it.
At school, everyone is expected to be normal. Everyone is expected to follow along with the pack. You have to fit in. If you're not normal, then you're forgotten. You're not important enough to be recognized by anyone in the school. Andrew often thinks to himself that everyone's weird. In some way at the least. Some are just better at hiding it. For Andrew, there's nothing to hide. He doesn't consider himself to be especially weird, it's just that his situation is weird. If it's weird, then it's nothing to be associated with.
When school finally ended, Andrew got up, flung his nap sack over his shoulder and walked out of the building. As he was walking across the soccer field, he turned back and look at the building. He could see the commotion of after school happening before his eyes: car horns honking, students talking, students leaving the school. He always loved to watch events unfold in public. Just to view people talking with people made Andrew long for the life he never had.
Andrew walked home was slowly as possible, trying to absorb the nature around him, trying to give him a feeling on serenity and to remind him of a purpose to be alive. Once he got home, his mother was already out of bed and watching daytime television.
"Aunt Sue called, she wants to know what you want for your birthday" was the first thing Mrs. Pines said.
"I'll think about it" Andrew lamely replied.
Andrew dragged himself to the kitchen table, where he attempted to do his homework. He thought the math homework didn't make sense, probably because he hadn't been paying attention for the last eight months. For Spanish, he just wrote down random Spanish words that didn't make sense when stringed together.
Before long, his father arrived through the front door, with as usual, a tired frown on his face. Andrew could see that his father loathed his job again, like back in Piedmont. His children had ruined his life, again. He just looked at Andrew with an unhappy grunt, before joining his mother in the den.
Just when Andrew had gotten back to trying to understand his homework, his parents called him into the den.
Andrew rolled his eyes, before slowly trudging to get to the den. He sat down in a cuisine arm chair, facing his parents. Whenever his parents called him in for a conversation, it either meant big news, or Andrew did something wrong. Andrew was sweating bullets thinking that his parents know about his principal asking him to meet with him every Monday.
Andrew faced his parents. He knew that he was about to learn something big.
"Honey um..your father and I have been talking about our current…situation in our community."
They meant that they felt out of place again, that they felt like they didn't belong. Unlike Andrew, that bugged the hell out of his parents. His parents always felt like they had to fit in.
"And we've both decided that it would be easiest for us to move" His mother explained.
Boom. There it was, just like he had expected. he had seen this coming for a while, he just didn't think they would announce it just yet. He thought they were waiting for school to end.
"Your father and I have been looking around for a place to love, and we've just decided on a nice house in the suburbs of Chicago. We're planning to leave at the end of the month".
Andrew didn't think much of it. He always was indifferent towards Charleston, and he thought that maybe Chicago would be better than Charleston. Andrew didn't know.
"Yeah mom, that sounds great." Andrew replied to her.
"But Andrew honey? Could you not tell your friends about the move yet?" My mother asked me.
Andrew's parents like to think he has a social life, and that he has friends, but oddly enough, his parents have never seen these "friends". Weird…
"Don't worry about it, Mom"
She smiled brightly at Andrew and tried to spread her joy over to her husband, who was still sulking about the long day he had.
Andrew got up, and went back to his homework which was quickly interrupted by dinner.
Tonight was spaghetti and meatballs, but Andrew rarely ate in-front of his parents.
"Oh, I just have a feeling that this move is the thing for us! Just think! The Sears Tower, Lake Michigan, and just everything!" Andrew's mom beamed, pretending that they were moving because they needed a new location, like normal people.
"Listen here Andrew, this weekend we're flying to Chicago to check out the house. And I DON'T need you telling anyone you can about our…family issues" My dad suddenly said.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Going to check out the scene, and exploring our new home!" Andrew's mom said to both of them.
"I guess" Andrew muttered under his breath.
For the rest of dinner, Andrew's dad just sat and glared at him, probably blaming him for everything that's happened since he blabbed. Dinner went by pretty swiftly, and afterwards, Andrew asked if he could have an early night.
The week went by quickly, just four more days of isolation. When his parents woke him up for the early flight to Chicago, Andrew didn't think much of it. Just another place to flee from. Andrew thought it was pointless. His parents try their best to forget about their current situation. They solve that by moving. Whenever the truth catches up to them, they just move, getting as far away from the truth as possible.
The flight didn't last that long, only about a couple of hours before landing in Chicago. When he landed, he was overwhelmed with various pictures of the Chicago skyline as he exited the airport. He could vaguely see the skyline as he walked out of the entrance. Just to think, in about 2 weeks' time, this would be his new home. They took a taxi to the north side of Chicago, where all the middle class suburbs are. After what seemed like forever of driving through roads and houses, they finally arrived at their house, a large white house that seemed a big bigger than his house back in Charleston.
The first thing Andrew did was check out the backyard. The backyard was nothing more than a patch of grass and a white picket fence. No backwoods, no woods at all for that matter, just house, after house, after house.
"Isn't it beautiful? His mother exclaimed to him as he stared at his joke of a backyard.
Eventually the realtor showed up and they talked about prices of the house. After what seemed like hours of chatting, Andrew's parents finally closed on the house. It was official. Andrew was moving. Goodbye Charleston, with your magnificent backwoods and your hellish middle schools. On the other hand, Andrew thought that Downtown Chicago was great. It was the biggest city he had been to by far and he loved every minute of it. Even know the backyard was a mess, Chicago might turn out to be interesting.
The Pines went to a hotel that was in downtown Chicago, and checked in. Their outwards view from the room was a view of the parking lot, which made the whole experience kind of miserable.
The room had two beds: one for his parents and one for himself. Once he got to the room, he lay down on the bed, without taking his shoes and pants off, and fell asleep quickly. He was tired after all.
Andrew was awakened with the ring of a phone. When Andrew lifted his head from the pillow, he discovered it was already dawn.
The phone's rings were cut off shortly by his father picking it up.
"H..Hello?" His father groggily asked the callee.
"Hello, is this Mr. Robert Pines?" The person on the other line said.
"Yes, who is this?" Andrew's father asked, slightly more awake.
"My name is Sheriff Durland, of the Gravity Falls Police force."
Andrew could hear his dad's jaw clench. Then before he knew it, Andrew had a shocking realization. Gravity Falls was the name of that peculiar town in Oregon! It was the town where his great uncle had a tourist trap! It was the place where…they lived.
"Look Sheriff, if this has anything to do with…"
"No, it has nothing to do whatsoever with Dipper and Mabel." Durland replied.
I gasped a little. This person…KNOWS my siblings? And can say their name without a twinge of anger? I didn't even know that was possible!
"I'm hear to inform you that your uncle, Stan Pines, passed last night in his sleep"
The great uncle? He died? Sure, Andrew didn't even know that much about him to begin with, but it still kinda bummed Andrew out that he never got to meet them.
"And your point is?" Mr. Pines callously answered.
"It's an uh…matter of his final will and testament" The voice responded.
Andrew could hear Mr. Pines freezing.
"The will of Stanley Pines states that Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pines would get a 20% cut of his fortune." Durland replied.
It was rumored in the Pines that the great uncle was sitting on a hundred thousand fortune, but there was no guarantee to it. For all Andrew knew, it could just be a couple of hundred bucks in pennies or something. He had heard that the great uncle was a bit…eccentric. Crazy, even.
"Okay, thank you for sharing that with me Sheriff…"
"Durland, sir"
"Sheriff Durland, thank you" His father said.
Andrew could tell that his father didn't care about the sudden death of his uncle, but the curiosity of the real amount of wealth his late uncle had been sitting on all this time.
"I assume the check will be mailed to us?" Mr. Pines asked.
"Well, not exactly" Sheriff Durland replied.
"What?" Andrew's dad asked.
"Well, the will states that you and your family gets a cut of the fortune, but a certain member of your family is obliged to receive the cut from the decedent. It states in the will, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pines, my nephew, shall receive 20% of the Stanley Pines fortune, but the only way a transaction can occur between my nephew and I is if Andrew Pines, acts as the beneficiary." Sheriff Durland explains.
Andrew's dad freezes, first in shock, then in fear. It was clear that he was thinking hard about what Durland had just said.
"Uh…t..thank you, Sheriff. I will make sure t..that Andrew Pines will act as a beneficiary." Andrew's dad replies.
"Thank you, Mr. Pines, and I hope to see Andrew Pines in the coming weeks."
"Wait. What?" Andrew thinks to himself. "What does he mean, he hopes to see me in the coming weeks?". Then it hit him. He was the beneficial. He tried hard to remember what that word meant. That meant backtracking his 7th grade english vocabulary lessons. Andrew worked hard to remember that definition. It meant: anyone receiving a gift or benefitting from a trust in final will terms.
The definition hit him before than his realization.
Andrew would have to go to Oregon on his own in order to get that 20%, or else his parents wouldn't get the money, which they were sure to want to get a cut of.
Andrew was going to go to Gravity Falls. Andrew was going to see Dipper and Mabel again.