It was about 9 AM on a normal Saturday morning. Dipper and Mabel were aboard the bus heading to Gravity Falls- their bags and luggage beside them. Waddles also sat sleeping on Mabel's lap. Their trip had begun about four hours ago when they were first picked up from the bus stop back in Piedmont.
Mabel was kicking her legs back and forth in her seat excitedly, while Dipper sat slumped against the window, sleeping comfortably. Or about as comfortably as one can be sleeping on a bus.
"Dipper!" Mabel shouted, startling him awake.
"What is it this time, Mabel?" he asked, somewhat irked as he rubbed his eyes.
"We're about fifteen minutes from entering Oregon!" she reminded enthusiastically. "Aren't you excited?"
"Sure. But we also have another four hours until we actually get to Gravity Falls."
"Yep!" Mabel nodded, not detecting the bitterness in his voice. "We're getting closer!"
"Mabel, this is the fourth time you've woken me up just to tell me we're getting closer," Dipper bluntly reminded. "I get you're excited, but can you please stop waking me up every hour just to let me know how close we are?"
"I'm sorry. I just can't help myself. I can't stop thinking of what's gonna happen when we get there."
"We go straight to the Shack, obviously," Dipper said with a smirk. "I just hope Soos didn't do anything with our old room. I'm not sleeping in his old break room."
"Ah, the Mystery Shack..." Mabel marveled at the memory. "I wonder what Soos has done with it since he took over."
"Yeah, I wonder if he's made any big changes or if it's more-or-less the same," Dipper nodded, beginning to think about it himself. "Maybe he actually innovated it to make it a real attraction instead of keeping it the same tourist trap that Stan made it!"
"And if you dudes thought that was cool, then you're gonna get a kick out of this brand new attraction we have today!"
Soos Ramirez stood in front of a large group of tourists in the museum of the Mystery Shack. In his trademark Mr. Mystery costume, he guided the tourists over in front of a red curtain, where he grabbed hold of the pull string. The tourists themselves looked attentive to everything Soos showcased and only seemed to grow more intrigued with what the new attraction supposedly was.
"It's scary. It's evil. It'll get you if you aren't careful!" he built up, grabbing the pull string with his second hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…"
He tugged down on the string, lifting the red curtain up. Behind it revealed a white pedestal holding nothing else but a dead flower on top.
"...the Tarantulip!"
Throughout the crowd, eyebrows raised and excitement faded. Everyone looked upon the dead flower with an alarming lack of impression.
"Um, it just looks like a dead flower," a tourist spoke out.
"You're very right, my dude," Soos nodded. "It looks like a dead flower. But the thing about the Tarantulip is that it's actually a cursed flower! When you touch it, you'll get hit with the throbbing pain of a tarantula bite!"
The crowd's lack of faze soon escalated into anger as they all began to boo Soos.
"Fraud!"
"We want our money back!"
"You charged us to look at a dead flower!"
"C'mon everyone!" Soos said as he started to sweat nervously. "It's real! I'm telling you!"
"Oh, really?" a voice suddenly asked.
Soos turned his head slightly, watching as an unimpressed male teen with shoulder-length blonde hair suddenly stepped from the crowd to face him.
"It just looks to us like you're trying to scam us by using a regular dead flower as some sorta 'cursed object'," the teen claimed, emphasizing with air quotes.
"No way! That's not at all what I'm trying to do!" Soos denied, shaking his head.
"So you're saying that if I touch this flower, I'll feel the pain of a tarantula bite?" the teen pressed skeptically as he walked up to the podium.
"Yeah, that's exactly what will happen," Soos said, scratching the back of his head. "But I strongly advise you not to do that. You'll very much regret it."
"Hah!" the teen cackled, sticking out his hand. "Will I now?"
"Don't do it, dude!" Soos warned.
"Cut the game, fraud," the teen said, hand inching closer and closer to the flower. "We all know that this is nothing but a big scam. And we all know that as soon as I touch this flower, there won't be a tarantul-AAAAAAAAAAHH!"
Immediately after his fingertips graced the flower, the blonde teen broke out screaming in agony. He threw himself on the floor and started rolling around, kicking his feet as he stuck out his inflicted hand. His hand itself looked perfectly normal and unmarked as if nothing happened, but his continuous screaming said otherwise.
"IT'S NOT FAKE! IT'S REAL! THE PAIN IS REAL!" he shouted in between screams. "THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST PAINFUL THING I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE!"
The rest of the tourists began to look horrified as they watched the teen roll around on the floor. Elders winced. Parents covered up their kids' eyes. But out of everybody watching him roll around, it was Soos who stood completely unfazed.
"DON'T TOUCH IT! I'M TELLING YOU! DON'T TOUCH THE TARANTULIP! I REGRET EVERYTHING!" the teen shouted, shooting up from the floor.
He looked around frantically before noticing the exit and running right out of the museum as he continued to scream. From there, he ran straight out the gift shop door and out of the Shack. The terrified crowd of tourists was left behind in the museum, watching as he ran away. Once he was out of sight, they silently turned their heads back to Soos, still maintaining their mortified faces.
"I tried to warn him," Soos shrugged.
The crowd suddenly began screaming as they ran for the exit of the museum themselves. As they ran through the gift shop, they soon came to a complete stop right in front of Abuelita, who held out a tray of cookies in front of them by the door.
"Would any of you like a Mystery Shack cookie?" she offered them, taking out an empty sack with her other hand. "Only ten dollars per cookie on your way out."
The horrified expressions of the tourists suddenly shifted into looks of contentment and cheerfulness.
"That's a great deal!"
"Agreed!"
"I do like cookies!"
In a single-file line, each tourist happily took a cookie from Abuelita's tray, placing their money in the bag she held as they exited the Mystery Shack in an orderly fashion. As the last tourists left the Shack, Soos walked up beside Abuelita and watched as the tourists left.
"Come again soon, dudes!" he called out with a wave.
He closed the door, but not even a moment later, there was already a knock again. As such, he opened it, only to reveal the blonde teen who had touched the flower earlier standing before him.
"Did they buy it?" he asked normally. "Was I convincing enough?"
"You sure were, my dude!" Soos nodded as he held his hand up to high-five the teen. "Nice going, Ryland!"
"Right on, man!" Ryland shouted as he high-fived back. "I wasn't a hundred percent sure what you meant when you told me to scream in the most terrifying way possible, so I tested a bunch of different terrifying screams beforehand and settled on that one."
"Well, that was the one! Great performance as always. We got them good!" Soos praised as he closed the door again behind Ryland. "That's a wrap, everyone!" He then turned to Abuelita and took a leftover cookie from her tray, taking a bite. "Mmm... and amazing cookies as usual, Abuelita."
"Aye, Soos. There is nothing I wouldn't do to help you succeed with your business," she said, walking off with the cookie tray.
Suddenly, the door to the living room opened up, with Melody peeking her head inside. "Hey, Soos! Did you just wrap up?"
"I sure did!" he nodded as he walked up to her. "And today was a great day!"
"Well, I'm happy to hear that," Melody said, smiling. She then took out a couple of papers from her back pocket. "But, hun, I just got our statement for last month and I think we need to talk about-"
"Wait, that's a wrap?" Ryland asked Soos, suddenly intervening. "Didn't we just open?"
"Yeah, we're closing early today," Soos nodded, disregarding his conversation with Melody. "Dipper and Mabel are finally coming back from California to hang with us for the summer!"
"What?!" a voice from the back called. Wendy Corduroy suddenly popped out from the living room and joined the three. "Soos, you never told me they were coming back today!"
"I thought I did last week. Remember the meeting?" Soos asked. He paused for a moment. "Wait, were you even there?"
"Oh, umm, yeah!" Wendy said, her voice sounding uncertain. "I totally didn't oversleep that day and miss it... But that's beside the point. Dipper and Mabel are coming back today? I can't believe it! That's awesome!"
"Uhh, quick question- who are Dipper and Mabel again?" Ryland asked as he rubbed the back of his head cluelessly.
"Dude, you're gonna LOVE them," Wendy assured. "Dipper and Mabel are pretty good friends of ours that we haven't seen in years. They're some of the coolest people we've ever met."
"The coolest. And if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have ever met Melody," Soos said as he lifted his eyepatch off of his face to look over at Melody, causing her to blush.
"I have to admit- I don't particularly know them that well either, but they seem like great kids. It'll be cool to have time to properly get to know them," Melody said.
"Man, how old are they now? Like sixteen?" Wendy asked, sitting on top of the shop counter.
"I think so. Time flies," Soos nodded as he turned back to Ryland. "But yeah, we're closing up early so we can get ready to pick them up when they get here later. So you can go home early if you want, dude."
"Eh, I think I'll hang back here," Ryland said. "If I head home now, my parents will force me to watch over my annoying little brother. I'll just keep working on the broken security camera in the back."
He then went back into the museum, leaving the others back in the gift shop.
"Soos, since we're closing up early, can we please take a minute to talk about this statement now?" Melody asked, raising the papers in her hand again.
"We'll talk about it later, babe," Soos told her. "Right now, we gotta prepare the place for Dipper and Mabel. I've been waiting years to see those dudes again. We gotta make sure this place is the absolute jam when they get here. Especially after the termite issue last year..."
Melody sighed disappointedly. "Alright. Later then." She looked at the papers again before walking back into the living room.
"Man, I still can't believe it's been four years since that summer," Wendy said, thinking back to that faithful summer of 2012. "It's still the best summer I've ever had. Summers have only been boring since those guys left. When they get back, things around here are finally going to be awesome again! Especially now that they're older. It'll be so much easier to sneak them into R-rated movies now!"
"I don't know, dude," Soos said. "Watching R-rated movies sounds kinda extreme for them, don't you think?"
"Soos, this is Dipper and Mabel we're talking about," she reminded. "They broke into a convenience store, took on a shapeshifting monster, and went through the apocalypse while they were twelve. I'll be damned if they can't handle R-rated movies after all this time. Besides, I started watching them when I was only six."
"Really? Huh, that explains a lot."
Wendy raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, um, nothing!" Soos quickly corrected. "I just meant that explains why you're so reckless and have issues."
Immediately realizing what he had said, Soos covered his mouth. Wendy just sat there and glared at him intimidatingly, not even slightly entertained.
"I mean, uh, I better go upstairs and prepare Dipper and Mabel's room upstairs. You know... upstairs," Soos said frantically before racing out the living room door, leaving Wendy to her own.
Not bothered enough to hunt him down, Wendy simply rolled her eyes before sitting back in the seat behind the counter. She kicked her legs on top of it as she grabbed a magazine to read. Was not very easy to focus on it though with Dipper and Mabel's upcoming return fresh on the mind. She looked up from the magazine and smiled.
Man, I can wait to see those guys again...
"Dipper, wake up!"
Dipper's eyes popped open, finding himself glaring at Mabel once again, who was standing in the middle of the bus aisle with her bags and Waddles beside her. Behind them were a bunch of different passengers exiting the bus through the rear exit.
"What happened?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "Are we in Gravity Falls?"
"Not yet. We have to get off the bus."
That woke him up. "What? Why?"
"I don't know. They said there's a problem with the engine or something," Mabel said. "We need to get off and get a transfer."
"Great," Dipper said sarcastically as he rubbed his eyes again. "How much longer do we have anyway?"
"About three hours," Mabel said, checking the time on her phone.
He sighed. "Well, nothing else we can do, I guess," he said, standing up from his seat and grabbing his own bags.
The two got out from the rear exit of the bus and made their way to the bus station doors with their things. Being the last two off the bus, the door behind them closed, and the bus began driving off. Dipper turned around and sure enough, there was smoke coming from the back of the bus where the engine was, accompanied by some very unnatural clanking noises as it drove off into one of the repair garages on the other side of the station.
"Uh, Dipper?" Mabel called back to him.
Dipper turned back and followed her into the station. He found her standing in front of a large monitor that displayed bus information for the whole terminal.
"What's this?"
"The bus schedule. Look," she said, pointing to a line on the screen that read 'Gravity Falls - Departure: 11:00 a.m.'.
"Alright, so the next bus comes in at 11 a.m.," Dipper said.
"Drat! It's only 10:15!" Mabel read the time from her phone again.
"It's only forty-five minutes. It's not even that long of a wait," Dipper told her as he sat comfortably in an empty row of seats.
"I know. It's just annoying," Mabel said, trying to cool off her frustration. "I mean, out of all the times we rode the bus to and from school, we never had a problem. How is it that the day we finally go back to Gravity Falls, something as dumb as the engine breaking down happens halfway through our trip back? Is our luck that bad?" She suddenly gasped. "Maybe there's an unstoppable force that doesn't want us to return to Gravity Falls and has been delaying us each summer!"
"Mabel, it's just a bad bus engine," Dipper said with a tired facepalm.
"Or is it?"
"It is."
"Or is it?"
"It is."
"..."
"..."
"Or is it?"
"Mabel, there's no 'unstoppable force' preventing us from getting back to Gravity Falls," Dipper replied nonchalantly. "Seriously, I get you wanna go back there as soon as possible, but can you just chill out a little bit?"
Mabel glumly slumped herself down in the seat beside him. "I'm trying, Dipper. I really am. It's just that it's been so long. I wanna see the Shack again. I wanna see my friends again. I wanna walk around town and smell that warm timber air. I wanna eat those stupidly fattening yet delicious burritos from Hermanos Brothers again." She tilted over on her side and faced away from him. "I'm just tired of waiting already."
"I am too," Dipper said consolingly. "But all I can say is to just... you know... Hang in there a bit longer. We're almost there."
Despite Dipper's efforts to console her with his words, he was unsuccessful at even getting her to smile. He visibly thought for a moment before looking through the window beside them. Conveniently enough, there was a sign for a Hermanos Brothers restaurant right across the street from the bus station.
"Well, you know, Hermanos Brothers is a regional chain," Dipper told her with a smile.
Mabel turned her head around. "Huh?"
Dipper pointed to the Hermanos Brothers across the street, directing her attention toward it.
She gasped in disbelief. "Hermanos Brothers!"
"Maybe they're not a thing in California, but they're surely a thing in Oregon," Dipper said.
"Well, what're we waiting for?" Mabel asked as she stood up from her chair excitedly. "We have forty-five minutes to kill. Let's go!"
"Hang on," Dipper pulled her back. "I'll go real quick and get your food. You stay here and request transfers to the next bus to Gravity Falls for us."
"What? Why can't we both go? Or if one of us has to stay, why can't it be you?" Mabel asked.
"Because there's a line for transfers here, and there's probably a line over there," he explained, gesturing toward the restaurant. "Also you're extremely choosy when it comes to ordering food and can never make up your mind right away."
"Am not!" Mabel defended. "I already said I wanted a burrito. Although come to think of it, I'm also craving one of their beef enchiladas. Wait, no! Their chicken quesadillas! Wait, no, the burrito sounds good again..." She looked back up at him. "Okay, you have a point."
"Uh-huh," Dipper smirked. He turned around and started walking back toward the exit. "Anyway, you go get the transfers. I'll go get your burrito."
"Wait, get the chicken quesadilla instead!" she called out as Dipper walked out of the station. "Wait no! The beef enchilada! Wait, the quesadilla again! No, the burrito! Get the burrito! Actually, wait! They have fajitas too! Get the fajitas!"