One more chapter for tonight. More to come soonish.

Team Pines had a couple more unofficial members. The first was Soos Ramírez, who had been an employee at The Mystery Shack since he had been twelve and Cary had been around five. He was essentially like an older brother to her, protective, loyal, and as constant as the sun and moon. Sometimes he and Cary argued, usually when he was worried about her getting hurt, but there was no bitterness in their bickering. Cary had seen her dad watching them go back and forth before, with a sadness that reminded her that he'd lost his own brother. She'd urged him to tell Soos and Wendy about Stanford so that they could help, but he always said that the timing wasn't right.

Wendy Corduroy was the other member of the team, as well as Cary's best friend and (secret) crush. Wendy was Stan's third and final employee, mostly tasked with running the gift shop. Wendy could be a hard worker when she wanted to be, but she and Cary did spend a good amount of their time at work just goofing off. They would sneak up to the roof or take the golf cart out for a joyride, or go around town gently antagonizing the other citizens of Gravity Falls. Sheriff Blubs had recently gotten a new deputy and Cary and Wendy were already planning new ways to prank them.

"You guys are going to get caught," Soos warned. His protective older brother instincts came out whenever Cary attempted to endanger herself.

"We never get caught," Cary laughed.

"Then why are you banned from laser tag?" Soos pointed out.

"Maybe that was part of my plan," Cary said, causing Wendy to snicker. Wendy's laugh always made Cary's face go warm and her hands feel sweaty and so she had to shift her focus elsewhere.

"I think this is gonna be the hottest summer yet," Cary complained.

"I hope so. Heat brings the tourists inside, and tourists bring money," Stan started.

"And money brings paychecks," Wendy finished. He'd said that many times.

"Right you are. Wendy, you're the employee of the month, or week, or whatever."

"Do I get a raise?"

"No."

"Dad doesn't give raises, except to adjust for minimum wage," Cary said.

"He's been paying me roughly the same amount since I was twelve, and I'm employee of the year every year," Soos said.

"And if you keep complaining about your pay that title will be revoked," Stan warned.

"Aww." Soos looked a little bit bummed out.

"Don't worry, Soos. You'll always be the employee of the year to me," Cary said as Stan left to greet a gaggle of tourists.

"What about me?" Wendy asked, sticking her tongue out at Cary and causing Cary to laugh and blush a little.

"Don't make me play favorites. I've got to get ready for my performance."

Wendy laughed now, "Have fun, Feathers."

"Yeah, yeah. See you on my break."

Wendy ran the gift shop, Soos served as a handyman, Stan scammed the tourists, and Cary stood on a pedestal, dressed in a gaudy feather-covered costume as "The Bird Girl of Oregon." When the tour got to her she would put on a smile and pose and dole out fake prophecies for the real morons who paid a hundred dollars to have their futures read. They'd been pulling that part of the scam since last October, and Cary couldn't complain much. She hated the costume but she did like making forty dollars every time she gave a riveting performance, pretending to peer into the future. Of course, she couldn't actually cause a vision to happen on command, and Stan wasn't going to let tourists watch Cary while she slept just in case a prophetic nightmare happened.

The tourists (morons, as Stan called them) would believe anything, but her friends hadn't believed her about the future and the monster inside her at first. Soos had tentatively believed that Cary might be able to see the future but refused to believe that she was a monster. Wendy tried to deny both. They'd had sleepovers where Wendy had seen Cary wake up in tears because of a vision but it was too hard to fathom that Cary could be the creature from her nightmares. Still, she could admit that there were a lot of fill-in-the-blanks in Cary's life. Maybe there was something there, but Wendy didn't want to entertain the idea.

"How much did you make today?" Wendy asked when they left for their late lunch.

"Four hundred big ones," Cary said proudly.

"Whoa, that's a lot of pancakes." They were headed for Greasy's Diner, which was one of their regular spots. Sometimes they ate at Cary's house or Wendy's, but when they had a little spending money they liked to treat themselves to breakfast foods.

"Only the best for you, my dear," Cary joked, bowing dramatically.

"You're so theatrical. You should be an actor. I'd come to all your shows."

"Oh," Cary blushed now, but Wendy didn't notice.

"I hope my dad isn't at the diner today," Wendy commented. There was a pretty good chance Manly Dan would be there, in Wendy's opinion he always showed up at the most inconvenient and embarrassing times.

"Your dad isn't so bad," Cary said, but she only held that opinion because Manly Dan had always approved of her and Wendy's friendship.

"Yeah but… My family is just a lot."

"Well, you're always welcome to chill with mine."

"Respectfully, your family is also a lot. But at least your dad pays me."

"Hey," Cary said suddenly, thoughtfully, "would we still be friends if you didn't work for my dad? Like, if he didn't pay you?"

"What? Of course we would. You're my Cary, my best friend, after Tambry."

"Right, obviously. Sorry, sometimes I just get nervous. It's not your fault that my head is weird sometimes."

"I like your weird head. Let's go get pancakes, and maybe tonight we can hang out with the others. That'll make you feel better."

"Yeah," Cary agreed. She liked Tambry and Thompson but sometimes the other boys made her uncomfortable. Sometimes Lee would hit on Cary, and Robbie was always teasing her about the bird costume, it wasn't her idea of a good time. Cary preferred hanging out with Team Pines, but she couldn't bring that up with Wendy. Wendy loved all of her friends, no matter how cringey they got.

"It'll be fun," Wendy promised as if she could sense Cary's reservations, "I won't let Lee hit on you."

"Thanks, Wendy."

"Anything for you."