So, if Wendy's right, it means I've got to actively hunt down anomalies in Gravity Falls. Fine. The place is a hotbed for that kind of stuff. I can handle this... But right now?

I glanced awkwardly at Wendy. A lingering, uncomfortable silence settled between us. It was pretty clear she was sticking around to join the action, but to be honest, there wasn't much to talk about.

And, yeah, I did punch her boyfriend just the other day. This wasn't the most comfortable situation for me.

Yet, Wendy still seemed bored.

"Hey dude. You're not just gonna bail now, right? We should totally celebrate this thing. A new team, isn't that cool?"

"..."

Seeing that she wasn't about to change her mind, it seemed inevitable that I'd be spending some time here. Now, how could I make this time a bit more meaningful...?

Ah, anomalies come from stories. Maybe I could use that. Finding a new anomaly and tackling it would be better than just wasting time.

"So, you said there's no 75-cent coin on you?"

"...Yeah, I've been looking all around the room, but I can't find it."

"Well, do you know any other interesting, scary stories? I mean, anything's fine. Just something abnormal that you've experienced in this place. It might help us hunt down some anomalies."

Wendy took a moment to think. I scanned the room—considering the amount of stuff around, there had to be a haunted doll or something like that.

"Hm... a ghost story, or something like that?"

"Yes."

"Hmm... Ah, frick... Yeah, I have one. I just remembered again."

Wendy's expression turned serious.

"What's up?"

"So, before you showed up in Gravity Falls, I had this friend. She was... well, not great. Caused quite a bit of trouble around town too."

"More trouble than you?"

"Yeah."

Wendy nodded, looking more serious and concerned than usual.

"She was... kinda psychotic. Used to abuse animals, all with a smile on her face."

"Huh..."

I didn't really get how 'bad' that was, considering she was just a kid. But that sounds like some sort of mental disorder.

"Like, autism or something?"

"No, she's fine most of the time. Acts pretty nice."

Wendy, like you, isn't the model kid in town. Not that bad, but rebellious, and made some trouble in the past. Teenager stuff, like drawing on walls, blasting loud music...

Not like abusing animals while grinning. That's really messed up.

Wendy sat properly on the bed, lost in her memories.

"I used to hang out with about five kids back then. We skipped school every day, and hung out near the railroad. Strangely, none of them even remembers who she is."

"A childhood friend that nobody remembers..."

This was getting interesting. I sat down on a chair, leaning in.

Wendy started talking about the story with a serious expression, staring into space as if trying to recall the past.

Wendy's story.

After Wendy realized her mother wasn't coming back, she lost interest in following rules. Living with her macho father and brothers made her sick of being around her family.

Elementary school was tolerable for her, and she did manage to make some friends. But the focus of this story is on a particular girl who was unusually kind to her.

Wendy, known for her insensitivity and ruthlessness as an elementary school student, usually didn't befriend nice kids. The closest she had to a kind friend was Tambry, and even she wasn't all that kind. However, there was a different girl in her class, Mary, who stood out. Mary helped Wendy with her homework, engaged in occasional conversations, and even shared some of her lunch.

"I still remember the name. It was Mary. Mary Robinson."

"It's a common name."

Despite Mary's kind demeanor, Wendy's classmates avoided her.

About a month later, Wendy joined a group of rebellious friends who sat at the back of the class, skipped school, and roamed around town. It became Wendy's daily routine.

"But we literally do nothing at school, and it ends quite early. Why did you have to skip school?"

"Dunno. Maybe I just wanted to break some rules."

The teachers didn't pay much attention when Wendy and her group skipped school. They usually ignored kids with troubled family backgrounds or issues. Consequently, Wendy's group could do whatever they pleased. They hopped over the school fence during recess, went to the arcade, and became a daily target for the school counselor searching around town.

"Our homeroom teacher really didn't care about us. So the school counselor looked for us. I don't know why she wanted me to come back to school so badly, but yeah. Later on, the arcade room owner recognized us and called the school when he saw us."

Despite their rebellious antics, Wendy's group often clashed with students from other classes, other schools, and even faced some middle school bullies. Through it all, when Wendy occasionally attended school normally, Mary was always there to support her.

"She lent me her textbook, her pen... and always worried about me when I got hurt."

"Sounds like a nice kid."

Honestly, back then, Wendy couldn't bring herself to dislike Mary. Even though Wendy found her a bit nosy, she appreciated how much Mary cared about her.

And then, one day after school, Wendy's group gathered to visit the newly opened cosmetics shop. Coincidentally, Mary was right next to Wendy. As was Wendy's habit, she decided to take Mary along.

"I don't think a girl like that will fit well in your group..."

"I told you, Ray, she was not... well, 'nice'."

Wendy let out a dry cough and began recounting the main event.

"We went to the cosmetics shop. I mean, we didn't have any money, so we couldn't buy anything. On our way back, we ran into some middle school boys we knew and ended up hanging out at the park..."

"Wendy, check this out!"

"Whoa! A four-leaf clover! Where'd you find it?!"

Mary just smiled shyly, not saying a word. Her face looked pretty and charismatic when she kept quiet, but that constant smile made her seem like an easy pushover.

'Not the brightest, but she means well...'

Wendy worried that Mary might think they were now super close after hanging out just once. She glanced around the park, still searching for a four-leaf clover.

"Dude! I found a lizard!"

"Really?"

Wendy shoved the clover Mary gave her into her pocket and ran towards the boy who found the lizard, pulling Mary along.

The group always played near the forest or park since most of the cool things in Gravity Falls were expensive. The dirt and little critters in the forests were perfect toys for the group.

"Let me touch it."

"Here."

The boys grabbed the squirming lizard, handing it over to Wendy. She bravely grabbed it and looked at Mary.

"Wanna try touching it?"

Mary gazed at the lizard with extreme curiosity, even opening her mouth in awe, as if dumbfounded by the situation.

"Here, go on."

"Ah!"

Mary held the lizard by its tail as Wendy shoved it towards her.

"Hey! Grab it by its body, not the tail...!"

"Ah!"

In a split second, the lizard cut its tail and ran away. The fallen tail squirmed in Mary's hand, blood coming out. Mary observed it with awe.

"You should've gone for its body. It ran away!"

"Wow..."

Even when the group and the middle school boys blamed Mary, she was only focused on the one thing that mattered—the dancing, dead lizard tail in her palms.

"...Aren't you scared about that?"

"No..."

Until Wendy asked her, Mary couldn't move her eyes off the lizard's tail.

"Let's stop looking at it and go."

"..."

Wendy quickly snatched her classmate's hand and followed the group and the middle school boys who already found another interest.

The next morning, at school, Wendy was running late, and it was almost 9:00 AM. The class probably already started. To her surprise, Mary was waiting for Wendy right next to the school gate.

"Wendy!"

"...Why are you here?"

Mary was smiling as usual, every muscle on her face tense.

"Look!"

Mary opened her hands and showed it to Wendy.

There was the lizard tail from yesterday, all shriveled up and covered with dry blood.

"Do you have more of these?"

"..."

"Where can I get more?"

And that was when Wendy started to realize something was not nice about her classmate.

Since that day, Mary started to follow the group even when they didn't invite her. At first, the group members didn't really care about her. But as Mary started to make some strange requests, they got annoyed too.

"Are we going to catch lizards today?"

"No. We're going to the arcade."

"Are we going to catch lizards today?"

"We're hanging out with the middle school guys."

"Are we..."

"We're going to her house and watch movies. So forget it."

"..."

Mary still followed the group, but she never got along. She just stood at the corner, making everyone feel uneasy. This was the point where Wendy's group started to feel uncomfortable about Mary.

"Are we..."

"Oh, for god's sake."

The next day, one of the girls in the group finally got annoyed with Mary and started swearing at her.

"If you're not going to hang out, don't ruin the atmosphere and just forget it."

"When are we going then?"

"WE ARE NOT GOING FOR LIZARDS! We don't do that!"

"...Then, what about bunnies? Let's go see the bunnies! The school hutch is open today!"

Wendy was personally surprised at how Mary was talking to her friends like that.

"No."

"Then..."

"Hey, dumbass."

Finally, the boy in the group stood out and confronted Mary.

"Are you really this clueless? We told you, we're not going to play with you. Do you think we're your friends or something? We—"

"Stop, Stop. Hey, you. I'll hang out with you just for today."

Finally, Wendy intervened in the situation and told the group that she'd be with Mary just for today. The group left, and Wendy went to the park with Mary.

"...Just for today, okay? Don't ask for more after this."

"Okay!"

And soon, they were near the park where they found the lizard. Mary started to run on all fours and meticulously looked around for lizards.

"Hey, be careful..."

"Hee Hee...!"

Soon, Mary brought a handful of something in her hands and showed it to Wendy.

There were 10 lizard tails, all moving and bleeding... as if freshly cut.

"Wendy, look!"

"Yuck...!"

Wendy was disgusted at the things spraying their last blood around, squirming in Mary's hand. She quickly shook off Mary's hand.

"What the heck, Mary? Why are you so obsessed with this kind of stuff?"

"Uh..."

The lizard tails fell to the ground.

"Don't ever follow me again if you want to do things like...this...!"

"..."

"You can't do stuff like this! Okay?"

"Why?"

Looking at the tails with a desperate look on her face, Mary asked why.

"Why can't I?"

"It... It's disgusting!"

The 15-year-old Wendy could have gently told Mary about the immorality of this action and lectured her about why people should care about animal's life, but Wendy back then was just an elementary school student. Even though she was rebellious, she was a kid.

After leaving Mary alone in the park, the next day, Wendy came to school during lunchtime and was called right to the counselor's office. She thought that she was getting scolded for skipping class again, but the topic this time was about her classmate Mary. The young, pretty teacher started to talk.

"Wendy, you... noticed that Mary is... sick, did you?"

"A little bit."

"Today, when you weren't here, Mary opened her bag and... dozens of lizards sprang out of it, making a total mess in the classroom. Mary told that she went to the park with you and caught them together, is it true?"

"She... She just did it by herself. I have nothing to do with that."

"Hm..."

After letting out a small sigh, the counselor smiled.

"I understand. But later on, Wendy... would you please make Mary come to my office when she tries to follow you again? She's supposed to come here, not go around places."

"Okay."

Wendy supposed that the Counselor used to know about Mary and counseled her a lot of times.

"And if you see her hurting animals again, please call me."

"I will."

But the day Wendy called the counselor never came. Because after a while since Wendy's group started to ignore Mary, all the rabbits in the rabbit batch of the school were killed.