"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
― Aristotle
PATIENCE
Andrew watched as the Chicago skyline started receded into the setting sun, as they headed off to the airport to go back home. It would only be home for another couple of weeks, so Andrew knew it wouldn't be the last time that Andrew would glance at the city if Chicago in wonder. He turned away from the taxi rear view window to see his parents in the back seat, still sulking at the arrangement made by his late great uncle. He said if they wanted to get a piece of his fortune, Andrew would have to go to Oregon. Well, now he knew the name of the town, Andrew guesses he should be calling it Gravity Falls? What a weird name for a town anyways. Andrew had never been to Oregon. He was supposed to have start going when I was 6, but by then they were already out of Piedmont and in South Carolina "for good". Until the truth finally caught up to to them.
They arrived at the airport and again, passed the many pictures of landmarks in Chicago. Andrew wondered if he might get to see all of them. He boarded the plane and before he knew it, he was back in Charleston. Andrew knew his days were now numbered there, so he began not to care about anything. he thought that if he could finally stand up to the people who had been saying that he didn't deserve to fit in with society and get away from them. He arrived in Charleston, and the first thing that happened was his parents calling him into the den, for a "family meeting". He knew what that meant. His parents were going to load him up on things he should and shouldn't do. They weren't about to lose him to them. They had arranged everything through the sheriff at that town, when and where he would be receiving the check.
"Andrew, you have to understand this, and only this. You are only there to receive the check. Nothing else. Not to get in touch with your…family members. You are not to socialize with them, period." Andrew's dad ranted to him.
"But, aren't I staying with them?" Andrew asked him. It was true, hotels up to the Pines' standards aren't exactly the easiest to obtain in a small town in Oregon. They had arranged for him to stay at the tourist trap, the same one his siblings lived, which had been arranged completely through the sheriff. When his parents said they were never going to talk to them again, they meant it.
"Don't you get smart with me, mister!" His dad shouted at him.
The whole things was a mess for Mr. Pines. The thing that he most dreaded was coming a reality. The people that he had worked so hard to protect his son from were suddenly coming back into his life. Mr. Pines prayed to god that they wouldn't share their perverted life with Andrew.
In his best case scenario, Andrew would be staying there and that would be it. He wouldn't be acknowledging them, or noticing their existence. Andrew would bring back the check and he would find that his family has obtained a quarter of a million dollars.
His worst case scenario was if Andrew decided not to come home to him, if he wanted to stay with them. He would have to personally go over them to tear them up. Andrew would probably grow up to hate him, if he isn't already.
"Look Andrew, you're going to be staying in Gravity Falls for two weeks. By that time, we'll already be settled in Chicago. You'll fly out of Charleston, stay there, get the check, and fly to Chicago, where we'll be waiting for you" Andrew's mom explained.
Andrew had one week left at his middle school, and to be honest, he was glad to get out of there. The only thing he would miss about that school is the walk in the woods that he made every day. That woods would be so hard to obtain in his home in Chicago. He heard that there was a wilderness that surrounded Gravity Falls, so he would have to cherish that until he had to be shipped off to Chicago.
He started to stand up to the bullies had been tormenting him for years. There was a particular bully that Andrew hated the most called Jackson, who had been making jokes about his siblings for years.
"Hey Pines!" Jackson shouted to Andrew.
Andrew who as usual, was eating alone at lunch, minding his own business. Once he heard Jackson's snotty voice, he jerked his head to find him smiling with a michevious grin infant of his clan of bullies.
"Can i ask you a question?" He said to Andrew.
Andrew knew that this question wasn't going to be good, and we was going to do something he would regret. Andrew pretended that Jackson wasn't even there. Jackson leaned in on his face and whispered his question.
"Are your brother and sister so fucking ugly that they have to fuck just to get some action?" He whispered in his face.
Andrew paused for a moment, taking in the question. He turned and looked at Jackson, who was smiling and his friends behind him laughing their asses off.
Andrew waited one second, and punched Jackson in the face, right on the nose. Jackson grabbed his nose and flung back and fell over a chair, still clutching his nose, and with the red liquid seeping out of his fingers. His friends looked at him, then looked at Andrew in awe.
For a second, Andrew had a flashback to when his siblings came out to his parents. How shocked they looked, how surprised. He had a flashback to when his dad slugged Mabel, and how she fell over in her chair. Just for a second, Andrew relived that experience, remember how awestruck he was when those events unfolded in-front of him.
"Are you crazy?" One of Jackson's friend shouted at him, bringing him back to reality.
Andrew looked around the cafeteria. Everybody was watching him, and the only thing that was audible was the multiple whispers that were going around the tables that surrounded Andrew.
Jackson slowly got up, still holding his nose, and bravely uncovered it. was it supposed to be bending that way? It was pointing to the left, and there was blood still coming out of it. It was obvious that Jackson was seriously hurt. His friends guided him out of the cafeteria and to the school nurse's office. Everyone was still looking at Andrew, wondering what he would do next. He paused for a moment, taking in everything that just happened, and then stormed out of the lunchroom.
He leaned against the lockers, just thinking about what would happen to Jackson, and him. then, then bell rang, and everybody flooded out of the lunchroom. They sort of crowded around Andrew, noticing that he was probably there the entire time, and just walked past him to class. Andrew didn't go to class. He didn't see a point. He remained there, until he was clear into the principal;s office via intercom. He slowly trudged over to the front office and checked in with the receptionist. Soon enough, the principal told him to get into his office.
he asked him to sit down, and once he did, the principal sighed.
"Andrew, Andrew, Andrew. I was hoping we wouldn't have to meet like this" he said to him.
Andrew just sat there, just hoping to take whatever he had to say and be done with it.
"You're supposed to be a good kid, Andrew. A good kid who always shows up to class, who tries hard at everything, and who does NOT PUNCH PEOPLE IN THE NOSE. Witnesses report that you walked up to Jackson, and started punching him without reason, until he started to cry. Is this true?"
"What? No!" Andrew screamed at protest.
The principal sighed at relief.
"Oh, good. I was hoping that it was a lie." The principal said.
"I just punched him once, in the nose because he said obscene things about my siblings". Andrew tried to explain.
"Oh, god Andrew, you can't do that!" The principal told him.
"What! But he-"
"Look, Andrew, Jackson's mom is on the PTA, and she has the power to ruin all of our lives, and once she finds out that some kid beat up her son, she isn't going to have any mercy! I know that life is hard for you, because of your siblings' life choices, I understand that. But you just gotta deal with whatever you got. I'll admit it, life's hard, but we have to take what we're offered, because that's what we do." He said to Andrew.
Andrew just sat there quietly, hoping that the principal would stop taking soon.
"Now, you get to class right now. And I ever catch you punching anyone ever again, you'll be expelled."
Andrew knew that this was rubbish. The principal probably let people off the hook for committing the same consequences, repeatedly. "He just wants to maintain an image of me being a model citizen or something." Andrew thought to himself.
Andrew got up and walked over to his class, where his teacher was already immersed in his lecture. When Andrew entered the room, everyone turned to him and started, looking to see what he would do. Andrew just walked in, plopped his stuff at an empty desk and put his head down for the rest of the lesson. The classes went on with no end, and when they finally did, Andrew slowly walk home, knowing that my parents already knew what went down. When Andrew did get home, he was surprised to find that both of his parents greeted him glumly as they did everyday, and he attempted his homework, as usual. It got to dinner when he almost thought he could get away with this, when his father spoke to him.
"Andrew, your mother and I are really proud on how you stood up for yourself at school today" Andrew's dad said to him out of the blue.
Andrew stopped, with this confession that his parents knew what happened blowing him away".
"It shows us that you're becoming a man by showing your dominance and it really makes us happy that you don't take anything from anybody" His dad explained to him.
Andrew was confused. His parents were happy that he punched a kid? He was happy that he hurt someone? Why? Maybe his parents wanted him to show to their families that they weren't going to do nothing while their kid is being bullied? Andrew didn't know. All he did know that soon, he would be going to Gravity Falls soon, to finally meet his sibling once again at the end of the week.
The days of that week for some reason flew by, and for whatever reason, some of Jackson's friends started to sit at Andrew's table, abandoning the badly hurt Jackson. Maybe the thought he was the alpha male or something. Or that they thought Jackson was weak now. But Andrew knew it wouldn't last. On the final day he was to be enrolled in that school, the plan was that he would complete that school day, walk back to his house for the last time, grab his prepackaged suitcase, and have his parents drive him to the airport, where he would fly from Charleston to Seattle, for a whopping 6 hour layover, and finally fly to Portland, where Dipper and Mabel would be waiting for him, and then would take him back to Gravity Falls.
Finally, Friday rolled around, and when his parents woke up, they were not excited to see their son fly off to be with the perverted weirdoes. Andrew woke up at 8:31, and slowly got ready. His parents didn't care about him being late on that day, it would be the last time he would every see that school again. He got dressed and skipped breakfast and slowly walked to school, cherishing the second to last time he would ever walk in the South Carolinian forest. He got to school, at 9:07. His teachers wouldn't be happy with him when he entered the school, and they weren't. His biology/world history teacher openly ridiculed him for being tardy so many times this past year and told him he was to serve an after school detention on the following Monday. Andrew only laughed to that, and just went to the usual place he sits and did nothing but stare into a corner the entire period. The day went on until lunch, where Andrew, who usually ate lunch alone, was now surrounded by Jackson's entire pack of brick heads. I could see Andrew, with his nose wrapped gauze and a big bruise around it, staring at him, imaging that ways that he's going to beat Andrew. Too bad that he'll never get the chance.
In a way, Andrew dreaded the end of the last period, because it would be the last time he would be alone in the wondrous forests of South Carolina. He was told there are forests in Illinois, but he would have to drive out there, and that would probably be too much of a hassle for his parents.
Before long, the bell rung, releasing all of Andrew's anxiety of ever being tormented by anyone at that godforsaken establishment. He went on one last tour of the school, wandering it's hallways and classrooms. One of his teachers told him to have a good weekend and that he'll see him on Monday. Like that'll happen.
Once Andrew's final tour was finished, he wandered out in-front of the building, walked across the soccer field, and climbed the short hill to the backwoods. He trudged along the dirt path, experiencing the beauty of the nature that he took upon himself to experience for himself, feeling the pattern of the green leaves, and the bark on the tree. It would be a long time after Gravity Falls for him to be this close to nature again. As Andrew walked further and further away from the school, he never looked back once.