Time seemed to freeze. The infuriated mother's stare bore deep into the fifteen-year-old.

"Well? Explain this." She repeated herself. However, she wasn't the only one who wanted some answers.

"Where did you get that?" Wendy demanded.

"Under the bed. Right where you were hiding it." Mrs. Pines shot back accusingly. The teen's temper immediately flared.

"Ohhh, nice. Real nice. Is it just me, or do you treat all your guests this well?" The teen instinctively returned fire with a sarcastic reply.

"You brought an axe! Into my house!" The outraged mother yelled back so fiercely that the girl flinched. Attitude clearly wasn't going to do her any favors here. This was officially a worst-case scenario that she now had on her hands.

"Okay, okay, okay, yeah that's mine!" Wendy hurriedly admitted. "But just relax, okay? Look, I'm sorry if it freaked you out. But it wasn't like I was walking around the house and swinging it everywhere. See, it's got its sheath on and everything!"

"But it's still an axe inside my house!" Mrs. Pines emphasized. "Why would you even bring this here?"

"I like having it with me just in case." She spoke nothing but the honest truth. For her it made perfect sense considering the countless times it had come in handy for her in the past. But it instantly became clear that this was not an acceptable answer.

"Just in case for what? For when you decide you want to go and steal something?" Mrs. Pines demanded. Wendy could feel her heart sink into her chest as she watched the furious parent point into the living room and at the decorated tree standing in it. "I know out how you really got that. Don't deny it."

"I was only trying to help you guys out! Mabel said that you really needed a new tree! And she was totally right, I looked at your old one in the basement-"

"And then you decided to go out and just steal one?" The mother crossly interrupted.

"I'm sorry! I seriously didn't mean to, I swear! I didn't know how the whole thing worked. I didn't think you people actually had to like, go out and buy a tree somewhere!" Even as she was busy defending herself, the whole concept still sounded bizarre to her.

"What? How...how in the world do you not know that?" Mrs. Pines asked incredulously.

The teen's frustration spiked. "Because I'm new to most of this! It's kind of the whole point of having me over, remember? Look, there's a lot of stuff around here that I don't get!"

"Just because you don't know what's going on doesn't mean you can go ahead and do what you think is…." It was only then that she noticed that all three teens were noticeably scratched and battered from their sledding incident. "Oh my God, just look at you all! What happened? Where were you just now?"

"We were just messing around. We're fine." Wendy replied vaguely. The last thing she needed was more fuel on the fire.

"Messing around? It looks like you got everyone caught up in a brawl! Can you get through one day without dragging my kids into some kind of trouble?" She shook her head. "Just what is wrong with you?"

"What, you want me to come out and just say it? Fine! I was raised in the woods! Literally right in the middle of the woods! Okay?" Wendy couldn't help but let her temper flare again. "That's where I come from, and that's the kind of life that passes for my normal! Happy now?"

"No, of course I'm not happy! There's huge difference between adjusting to someplace new and everything that you've been….I mean, where do I even start? Scaring me half to death with that shelter outside…"

"Mom!" Dipper tried to desperately cut in, but his call went ignored. The list of wrongdoings continued.

"...Stealing an entire tree from someone's yard….."

"I told you, I didn't mean to! I legit didn't know!" Wendy tried to remind her. "Why would anyone have to go and actually buy a tree?"

"...Lying right to my face, bringing weapons into this house..."

"Mom?" Now Mabel attempted to interrupt. "Mom!"

"...Alerting the police to my home…."

"I get it, okay?!" Wendy began to involuntarily shout. "I know, I know, I've made a bunch of things totally weird here! But I haven't been trying to make things crazy on purpose! I'm only trying to do this whole holiday thing-"

"I knew things would be different with you, but I never imagined that it'd be anything like this! It's just been-"

"I'm sorry!" Wendy desperately tried to get in another apology before she was cut off.

"It's just been nothing but nonstop madness with you since the very start! I just...I don't even know how to..." Mrs. Pines was now so hopelessly wound up that she couldn't even speak for a few moments. She just didn't understand. It was like this girl had come from a different planet. The frazzled parent clenched her fists and exclaimed, "What on earth did your mother do to you?"

There was a long pause before the stunned teen murmured back, "...W-what?"

"What happened? I don't understand it! I literally cannot understand it! How on earth did your mother raise you to end up with...with all this!?" She gestured to the startled teenager. "With you? How?"

Wendy looked like she had just been punched in the stomach. The tears were already prickling up in her eyes when she hurriedly headed straight out the door and closed it behind her with a loud slam.

"Wendy, wait!" Dipper tried to follow, but his mother grabbed him by the arm. His injured shoulder twinged with pain, but he kept himself from wincing.

"You two and I need to have a talk. Now."And as she pulled her children over to her, she noted their fresh scratches with a grim sake of her head. "Just look at you two. What did she rope you into this time?"

"Nothing!" Dipper broke away from her grasp and whirled around. "It was all my idea!"

She just sighed exasperatedly. "The things she makes you do when she's around-"

"Forget about it! We're all just fine!" Dipper snapped. He had much bigger fish to fry than some outdoor fun gone slightly wrong. "Mom, how…how could you say any of that to her?"

"A-HEM." She pointed to the hatchet now resting on the foot of the stairs.

"She knows how to handle an ax. She's known how to handle one for ages!" Her son said defensively. "Her dad's a lumberjack! We told you this!"

"And that's exactly one of the things I was worried about!" She shot back. "I knew something like this was going to happen!"

"Mom-"

"How can I possibly be okay with someone who grew up in a household where it's perfectly normal to carry sharp tools everywhere? Or doesn't mind bringing along a blade around when she visits others? Or is just fine living outside every now and then? Or...or...doing whatever it was that happened when you were hanging up the lights? And by the way, I do not buy that 'sliding' story at all."

" That's just who she is! Wendy's not like other people!" Dipper didn't hesitate to admit. "But you know what? That's what makes her great!"

"Dipper!" She raised her voice, but the young teen wouldn't back down.

"You'll never be able to know anyone out there like Wendy. Ever! But you haven't actually tried to get to know her. You haven't tried at all! You've barely given her a chance for anything ever since she got here!" Dipper boldly accused her.

His mother frowned in annoyance. Even since this past summer, her boy had been talking back a lot more than he used to, which was barely at all. Both of her twins had been doing this, actually, and she now felt that she had a pretty good idea about who played a big role behind the change.

"Don't take that tone with me, young man. And Wendy has been trouble from since the moment that she's walked into this...no, it's actually been even longer than that. But especially since she's been here with us-"

Mabel couldn't bear to hear anymore. She blurted out, "But Dipper's right!"

And now was two-on-one. Great. Just great. Mrs. Pines sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Mabel, I-"

"No, he's right! Mom, this is supposed to be her first real Christmas! It's supposed to be something special! And Wendy's been really trying to figure all this stuff out! She knows she's made it crazy-awkward, but she's been working to fix that! That's why she got us a real tree this year, she was only trying to help us out! But while she's been doing all that, you haven't done anything to help give her a good holiday! You've just been so...so…" Mabel closed her eyes and unhappily blurted out, "You've been so MEAN to her!"

This second accusation took their mother completely off guard. "I...I...no, I haven't been...I've only been looking out for you two! You know that! And Wendy's been-"

"But you've been going so overboard that you haven't done anything to make Wendy feel welcome! At all!" Dipper spoke up. "All you've done is freak out on her or give her a cold shoulder!"

"I've only been making sure that you're both alright." She reiterated. "Wendy's made it hard-"

"But Wendy knows that it's been hard with her around." He revealed. "And she's been trying to make things easier. Didn't you hear Wendy just a minute ago? She was trying to say she was sorry-"

"Some try! She wouldn't even let me talk to her anymore. She just ran out without-"

"Of course she did! After everything you've already put her through you had to say all that stuff! And worst of all, you had to go and bring up her mom!" He fumed. Of all the injustices, that one was hands-down the very worst.

"I was only-"

"Her mom!" He repeated with a rarely-seen ferocity. "Seriously, why would you even say that?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Their mother genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. Mabel however quickly realized that their parent was missing out on a crucial detail.

"Dipper!" She gasped and tugged her brother's vest. Her twin's temper quickly started to cool as he read her expression with dismay. With all they had gushed about their friend for the last few months, not once had they mentioned one very particular detail about Wendy's life. Now to be perfectly fair, it wasn't exactly the kind of thing that the older teen would want them sharing without hesitation. Still, it probably would have helped things a lot just now had their parent been more in the know.

The twins shared a quick couple wordless looks. Dipper gestured that he'd take on the task of breaking the awkward truth. Their mother meanwhile watched on confusedly as he cleared his throat. "Uh….Wendy doesn't have a mom."

"Wait...what?" Mrs. Pines exclaimed with shock.

"She doesn't have a mom." Dipper softly repeated. A brief by uncomfortably painful silence swept the room. The boy needed a few moments, but he eventually worked up the courage to admit, "Sorry...we should have told you."

"Oh my...did she pass away?"

"No Her mom left the family a couple of years ago. Wendy still has her dad and her brothers, but..." Mabel fidgeted with the hem of her sweater. "It's not easy."

"It really gets to her sometimes. Especially with everything she has to do to help take care of her family." Dipper understated.

Their mother had to take a seat on the stairs. It didn't take long until guilt came flooding over her. She couldn't help herself. She was a parent, after all, and so her heart automatically went out to the motherless fifteen-year-old. She couldn't even begin imagine the agony her own children would have to go through if either she or their father suddenly left them, nor did she even want to. Wendy however apparently knew that pain all too well. And she had just accidentally rubbed salt in a wound that the poor girl had been carrying for God only knew how long.

Yikes.

"I….I….." She stammered. Mabel plodded over and gently rested one of her little doll hands on her knee until the woman found her voice again. "I….oh my God. I'm sorry, I didn't…."

"That was our fault. We never told you." Her son guiltily reminded her.

Now that she wasn't letting stress get in the way for the first time all week, she actually had a chance to look back at the past few days from a different perspective. And she wasn't happy at all with what she saw.

"I'm….I'm sorry." She repeated herself with a heavy sigh. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

"But we never told you about-" A slightly confused Dipper tried to remind her again.

"No, not that. Everything. I just….I've only been trying to make sure you two are okay," She said yet again, and neither twin protested. They could see that their mother was being completely honest. "Wendy….she just makes me so nervous when she's with you."

"But why?" Her son asked. He couldn't think of anyone else who could help put him more at ease (excluding the butterflies she still put in his stomach every now and then).

"Well, the things she gets you into are….they can be a little-"

"A little what? We've only been having fun!" Mabel interrupted. "That's all it is. Fun! And a lot of it is just like the kind of stuff we did up in Gravity Falls!"

"That's what I thought. And while it might be nothing but fun for you, for me it's like…." Mrs. Pines took a deep breath. Her daughter cocked her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Ever since you both came back from the summer, things have felt…different with you two. t's almost felt like...like…." As much as she hated to say it, she managed to admit, "It's like you've both become a little….wilder.."

Dipper and Mabel exchanged surprised looks. This was all news to them.

"Really?" Mabel chirped incredulously.

"You know, with the way you've been acting, and with some of the things you've gotten yourselves….especially with that business at school a few months ago….I've been worried. And when you two began telling me more and more about Wendy, I started getting my suspicions. And after seeing everything you've gotten up to since she's been here, I thought I finally figured out. I thought I finally knew who's the one who's been making you both so…..you know."

An awkward silence settled on the mother and her children.

"But….I don't think Wendy makes us crazier or anything." Dipper gently interjected. "I mean, at least it's not supposed to be like that. I think she makes us….she makes us….."

"Better!" Mabel finished for him, and he flashed his sister a thankful smile.

"Better?" Their mother curiously repeated.

"Yeah." Dipper nodded in full agreement. "She always has. Even at the start of the summer when she barely knew us, Wendy's never treated us like just a couple of little kids or anything like that. She's always pushing us to try new things, and it's not just because she doesn't have anything better to do. It's because…..it's because she believes that we can handle it, whatever it is. She always does, no matter what."

"But what happens when there's trouble?" She couldn't help but ask. Her normally shy, soft-spoken little introvert of a son was more than happy to answer.

"Then she'll help get us out of it." Dipper said matter-of-factly. "She'd do anything to make sure that we're okay."

"Uh-huh! Wendy's always is there for us when we ask. And she's also there when we don't even ask for help! That's just one of the awesome things she does!" Mabel had started to bounce a little on her toes as she proudly explained. "She's always just as ready to go crazy with us as she is to watch our backs! Or help us chill out! Or make us feel better! Or anything! It's what makes her the best!"

"We can always count on her." Dipper proclaimed without the slightest doubt.

It was then that Mrs. Pines finally noticed it, and when she did she was stunned that she hadn't realized it far sooner. Her children weren't acting up against her. They weren't raising hell just because of some redhead's bad influence. No, it was absolutely nothing of the sort.

This was just…..confidence.

Both were simply defending a friend with a solid confidence the likes of which she simply wasn't used to. Mabel wasn't speaking out for mere positivity's sake, as she tended to do; she was speaking with a firm conviction that was coming straight from the heart. And Dipper….her little Dipper was standing strong on Wendy's behalf and looking like he wasn't going to budge in the slightest. These shamelessly bold-faced siblings were definitely a striking change from what she was used to.

She took a moment to think everything over. Perhaps she had judged a certain redheaded teenager a little too hastily.

"I'm….I'm sorry." She apologized again. Suddenly she felt like the world's biggest louse.

Not surprisingly, Mabel was the first to forgive her. The forever-optimistic brunette flashed a toothy grin. "It's okay. It's not like you can't make it better with Wendy, right?"

"Well…." Mrs. Pines balked, considering what she had done to their guest. She couldn't imagine that the girl would want to even be within a mile of the likes of her at the moment.

"Can you please just go talk to her?" Dipper pled firmly. "Please?"

She gnawed her lip in anxious silence for a few moments. This was going to be painful, no doubt about it. But it definitely had to be done. And as she rose to her feet, she could see hopeful looks light up her children's faces. The much-needed incentive brought a flash of a smile to her face.

"It looks like I've got some explaining to do." Her declaration was rewarded by two grateful hugs around her waist. She stroked their heads and sighed. "I just wish I knew where she ran off. Do you think she's in that thing in the backyard again?"

"Actually," Dipper only needed to give it a mere moment's thought. "I think I have a better idea of where she went…"

It was a sad sight to behold up on the roof. The lanky teen hugged her legs and buried her face buried down out of sight as the hot tears ran down her freckled cheeks.

Leave it to the girl from the middle of nowhere, Oregon, to come down and ruin things for literally everybody. Now she had an infuriated parent on her hands and a holiday that was probably going to be anything but jolly after tonight. It definitely didn't help her badly flagging spirits to listen to the faint sounds of Dipper shouting at his own mother, no doubt on her behalf. Unless getting grounded was a Christmas tradition, she doubted that would turn out well for her friend.

The girl's thoughts turned back north, to where all her other Corduroys were right now. Her brothers were probably all huddled around a fire, roasting whatever animals had been unlucky enough to stumble into their traps that day. She could picture her father ambling about the makeshift camp, pausing to check on the meat every now and then. She could see the boys all carving down sturdy branches down into spears, while the family patriarch would gruffly grumble how they would all need to make the points a lot sharper than that if they wanted to catch anything in the river first thing tomorrow morning. The scene would be cold, smoky, and everyone there would all undoubtedly be stinking to the high heavens.

And the mere thought of it all was absolute paradise compared to the mess of things she had made here. So much for all this holiday stuff.

There was metallic clunk as the top of the ladder came to rest on the side of the house. The startled girl immediately assumed that it was one of the twins, if not the both of them. Wendy wiped her face and braced herself for the awkward meeting that was going to start any second now, whether she wanted it or not.

"Hey, I'm sor-" She stopped dead mid-sentence. She quite surprised to see a very sheepish-looking woman appear.

"Uh….." Mrs. Pines anxiously cleared her throat. "H-hi there..."