Disclaimer: The views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. The following is a fan-written fiction. Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Kim Possible, and Big Bad Beetleborgs are property of their respective owners, creators, and publishers. Please support the official releases.
TW: This story will contain references to physical and psychological abuse, murder, and torture.
|Last Dance|
With few knowing how close the dance came to total disaster, the Echo Creek Academy homecoming dance went on with more energy, joy, and celebration than ever before. Amidst the laughing and dancing students and Brittney's expensive and visually stunning decorations, rainbows, stars, and cute animals arced and swirled through the air as they were conjured by Star. She lit up the dance floor with her wand, like a living pyrotechnics display, as she partied with her friends.
All the divisions and tensions created by Brittney's obsession with perfection had been forgotten, and Brittney herself had been forgiven. The "Spirit Week By Wong" bracelets that had been her brand separating classmates from their happy memories were strewn everywhere–on the floors, on tables, and even some in now empty punch bowls.
Choosing to keep his as a memento of what they'd overcome tonight, Roland spun it around his fingers while he watched the dancing in a corner next to the gymnasium's folded up bleachers–a spot he'd chosen for a little space from the crowds.
His spot away from the dance wasn't a solitary one. Being in corner and out of mind of everyone else, several other students had gathered beside him, including Drew and Sabrina, who were sitting beside one another on the floor, eating some cake they grabbed from a refreshment table and were piling on with a can of whipped cream.
His date for the dance was still on the floor, dancing in a circle around a shower of yellow, gold, and orange glitter and sparkling lights shooting from Star's wand. Mabel, Misao, Janna, and Chantal were among the girls accompanied Megan–but what was so much more surprising was that Jo was there with them, sparkling in the same lights as the other girls as she laughed and urged their Ring Around the Rosie to go faster with the music.
"Nice," he said quietly, approving of the much welcomed vibe that had taken over.
Brittney, covered in glitter and a few glowing motes of light, walked past and leaned against the wall beside him, to his left. There was a weariness about her that spoke of her long day, and the emotional roller coaster she'd no doubt been on this evening alone. It all looked like everything was catching up with her.
"Almost done for the night?" Roland asked.
Brittney closed her eyes. "Mmh. I'm ready for the dance to be over, and to go home and sleep until Monday."
Roland agreed. "Nobody's gonna be mad at you for ending the party after a few more songs."
There was no better note to end the night on than now.
Brittney looked back out at the dance, then glanced at Drew and Sabrina. Sabrina was spraying some whipped cream in her mouth, while Drew was cheering her on chanting "Chug!"
She looked back towards Roland. "Yeah, I think a few more songs is fine."
He'd noticed where her gaze went. "I'm gonna be real; I respect what you got with your squad."
Brittney raised her right eyebrow. "Hm?"
"They got you, flaws and all, 'cause you got them."
"Of course, I do. Unlike those dumbasses, I know how to make friends."
Roland agreed with a nod. "You're gonna make a few more after tonight."
Both looked towards the dance floor, and at the party around Star. She had changed the glitter color to all those of the rainbow, and the spread of the shower now occupied the whole dance floor. Almost all the other people on it were circling her in different directions like it was pop music mosh pit.
Though she had bowed her head in apology, and the good-natured students of Echo Creek Academy had let bygones be bygones, Brittney felt a remorse Roland could see in her expression when he looked from the dance back towards her.
"I really fucked up," she said.
Roland nodded. "Yeah, you almost did."
"This isn't some big fancy gala like Northwest Fest… it's just a school dance where everybody goes to hang out," she looked down at her feet. "The only reason it's even in the news is because those stupid monsters tried to wreck it."
In consolation, Roland raised a good point. "At least word isn't going around about it because of how you tried to keep people out."
Brittney's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, shit… I don't think I'd survive that."
Letting out a laugh, Roland quipped. "A great perk of going to a third-rate public school: nobody cares except the people who go there."
That managed to turn the corners of Brittney's lips up a little. "Yeah… no one cares but us."
"Yep; some of us care too much, some care way too much, but hardly any of us don't care at all… and those that do only care about themselves," Roland finished. "As bad as this could've gone, at least it happened because you care about the school, and when it came down to it… you care about everyone."
Brittney sighed. "I should be better at showing that."
Roland agreed. "This is a good start."
She narrowed her eyes as she mulled on something, before asking him, "Can I come clean about something? I don't think I've even told 'the squad' this."
"I do have that 'you can tell me anything' quality about me–for whatever reason," Roland replied.
Shooting him a brief look, then rolling her eyes, Brittney turned her attention back towards the dance and looked specifically at Mabel. "Northwest Fest, the last one."
"What about it?" Roland asked.
"I was there."
At first confused by that admission, Roland stopped when he remembered what Dipper and Mabel had told him about what had really happened. "… Oh."
"I know you hang out with both of the twins. Did they tell you what happened there?"
Roland answered cautiously. "… Yeah, they did. I'mma be real, and say first off that I kinda thought it was BS."
Or he would've called it BS… if he didn't meet a wish-granting phasm that turned him into a superhero with speedster powers.
"It wasn't," she revealed. "There was a ghost, he turned us all into wood statues, and… afterward basically all of the out-of-town guests had their memories wiped by Dipper and that weird old hillbilly friend of his."
"… Except you," Roland replied.
"Yeah, as soon as I wasn't wood… I left. I got into my family's car and told my driver to floor it until we hit Portland."
She looked aside. "We got ticketed three times."
Her attention drifted to Star. "… That made sure I'd hate Star Butterfly the second she pulled some magic shit I didn't like."
So, it came from something traumatic, Roland understood that. "Look, even then… you're not wrong for being upset at Star for what she did. Heck, even she thinks so."
"Yeah, and Star is from another dimension where fighting monsters and medieval battles is a normal thing for her. Just like how being a tyrant who must control everything was…" Brittney stopped and reflected on what she said, then corrected herself. "… Is normal for me."
As Drew and Sabrina, no longer preoccupied with their desserts listened-in candidly, Brittney shook her head. "If I wasn't so preoccupied with Spirit Week and keeping her out of my social distance then, I might've realized that she just didn't understand our world and could've explained things to her. But, you know… I didn't exactly put much thought into it."
She let out a small huff. "Exactly as much thought as she put into the possibility that our world is different from hers."
Looking in Star's direction again, she couldn't help but let that huff out again as more of a resigned laugh. "We're the same… not thinking at all about what our actions do."
Roland added, "And being able to accept responsibility for it."
Brittney stared at Roland, and her smile turned up a little more. "… Well, it's better than being a dense idiot like Trip and Van."
"Always," Roland quickly agreed.
Turning to Sabrina, Drew gave her a big smile as she giggled, before he leaned closer and whispered something. Her eyes widening, Sabrina's smile matched his and they both begin chortling among themselves. Roland couldn't not notice it and wondered what they were thinking… until Drew began pouring all the whipped cream that he could onto Sabrina's empty dessert paper plate.
"Trust me," he went on, seizing all of Brittney's attention, "You will never, ever be as bad a person as Trip Vanderhoff or his brother. Girl, you are too smart to be that dense."
"Did you know those two just come here so they can be richer than everyone?" Brittney asked.
Roland nodded. "Oh yeah, you don't have to tell me. They always gotta remind my Nano that she rents the space for Zoom."
"I swear, Preston Northwest cucked their so-called father twice because they're just like him."
Roland laughed a bit hard. "Nah, I met their Dad before. Trip fell straight down from that tree and hit every branch on the way."
Letting out a laugh of her own, Brittney relished having something to hock some venom at. "Head-first."
Roland doubled over a bit, playing it up a bit–even though it was genuinely funny. "Aha! Hahahaha~!"
In fact, he was just loud enough to garner the attention of their classmates, and some began to look their way.
Brittney brought her head back to laugh herself–when she immediately noticed the mass of white moving out the corner of her eye.
She turned her head, just slightly, in time to see Andrew McCormick swinging a plate-full of whipped cream for her face.
SPLAT.
Once more, a deafening silence returned to the gymnasium, as all eyes fell upon Drew rubbing the plate into Brittney's face, making sure as much whipped cream as possible went everywhere. When he was satisfied with the coverage, he slowly pulled his hand back and left the paper plate to stick to Brittney's face.
Out on the dance floor, Star slowly lowered her wand as she, Mabel, Misao, Janna, Megan, Chantal, all the students formerly dancing, and all the cute magical animals she summoned stared.
After a moment or two, the plate unsealed itself from the mess and slipped to the floor.
Brittney blinked her brown eyes wide open, staring through the mess on her face at Drew, who was licking his fingers clean of some of the whipped cream that got on them in the process of pieing her. She looked just past him at Sabrina, clutching the can of whipped cream and biting hard on her lower lip to keep from bursting into laughter.
She then looked at Roland, who was wearing the positively most smug face she'd ever seen on the man as he leaned on his cane and tilted towards her to utter a single word.
"… Gotcha."
Brittney continued staring at Roland, silent.
Ten seconds passed with her unblinking, wide-eyed gaze locked onto him.
The DJ standing at his booth also stared in silence at the scene–before Jo made her way over to his table, scanned his mixer, and pressed a button seemingly at random.
"WAH WAH WAH WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
It was perfect. Without warning, a torrent of whipped cream erupted from over her mouth as she sputtered into loud, raucous, and relieved laughter. Sabrina lost it shortly after, nearly falling forward as she laughed like a hyena rather than a nervous fox.
And that was that, as the entire gymnasium began laughing and cheering.
"My boy!" Roland yelled as he stepped forward towards Drew, both swinging their right hands in to catch one another in a firm, celebratory handshake.
Drew grinned mischievously. "Well, since this is a school dance now, it needed a school dance prank."
"Yeah, but a pie to the face? Classic, but she could've killed you." Roland said after letting his hand go.
Drew brought his hand to his chest in a mock solemn gesture. "Then I died for the craft."
He glanced out to the dance floor and immediately caught Janna's gaze, her expression a mix of mischief, schadenfreude, and pride.
"You're not going to die," Brittney said, pulling his attention to her as she wiped off some of the whipped cream, still laughing. "But you're not escaping unscathed!"
And with speed that caught him by surprise, she smashed a palm-full of whipped cream into Drew's face, while Sabrina–her eyes gleaming–turned the whipped cream can on Roland, laughing as she did.
"Oh no!" He yelped as he was showered with the confection.
As the music came back on again, Mabel beamed down at Misao. "Isn't this nice?"
All sunshine and rainbows, Misao answered. "Ja, this is the best party I've ever been to!"
Janna turned to them both. "And to think the night is still so young. Hey, Star?"
Star sidled up alongside her. "Yes~?"
"I'm thinking after-party," the Queen in Yellow suggested.
Star gasped. "Oh my gosh. We could go to St. O's for the after-party! It'll be insane~!"
Mabel reached into her cleavage and pulled out her phone. "I'm gonna tell Marco that we're coming to grab him, Jackie, and Dipper to take them there."
"Yes!" Star quickly said. "The girls at St. O's have been fiending for Marco to come visit again!"
Janna really liked where this was going, as Mabel quickly swiped out a chat with her thumbs. "We should grab the other boys, too. I'm sure they'd find St. O's an experience."
Star giggled. "Janna, you're so…"
She trailed off when Mabel went still, and her smile vanished. The tall brunette blinked several times as she read the screen, before her expression darkened into something simultaneously horrified, cold, and enraged that worried Misao, startled Star, and even had Janna taking a step back.
"… M-Mabel?" Misao, cautiously, asked.
She did not realize Mabel was capable of such a frightening expression.
Janna had a very bad feeling at that moment. "Are you okay?"
Star stepped closer. "What is it?"
Lowering her phone, Mabel said to all of them in a tone level with fury.
"We need to go, right now."
A final piece of coda to end the night and Volume 6. See you in Volume 7, folks.
