Deep in the woods on a Wednesday afternoon, Soos drove in his pickup truck. Mabel sat beside him in the passenger seat, whereas Dipper sat in the backseat next to a bunch of cardboard boxes stacked amongst one another.
They were on their way to Wendy's house, as she had previously requested that they bring over whatever empty boxes they could spare for her to use to pack for her upcoming move next week. With that noted and the Mystery Shack being closed for the day, the three had decided to take her up on her request and search the back for spare boxes, which they had found a fair number of.
As they went through the woods to get to the Corduroy cabin, Dipper found himself a bit unnerved by how deep the residence was. Of course, it hadn't been the first time he had been to Wendy's house, but he still found it a bit unsettling how isolated her family lived from the rest of the town, being essentially plopped down right in the middle of the woods.
"Gee, I don't know how Wendy does it living out here all her life," he said while looking out the window. "Growing up in a house where you could get attacked by a bear just for checking the mail is terrifying."
"Yeah, for you," Mabel jabbed. "But this is Wendy we're talking about! Growing up in that same house, she's probably been raised to wrestle all the bears she's come across."
"Yeah, dude. Wendy's too much of a boss to let something like a bear freak her out," Soos nodded.
Dipper sighed. "Still can't believe that by tomorrow, it'll be exactly one week before she leaves."
"Yeah, but at least she'll have plenty of boxes to help her move," Mabel said.
"I don't really see how that's a note worth mentioning," Dipper said as he looked over at the box stack next to him, raising an eyebrow as he noticed something. "Wait... Pizza boxes? Christmas present boxes? What the...? Why did you guys bring these?"
"I didn't bring those. That was all Soos," Mabel said.
"Soos?"
"What? Wendy said she needed boxes. She didn't say what kind of boxes," Soos defended. "So I just brought whatever boxes I could find."
"Soos, she clearly meant boxes that could help her pack. What exactly is she going to put in an old pizza box from last week?"
"It could work as a good T-shirt or makeup holder," Mabel thought aloud. "In fact, I think I know what fashion class is selling for next year's fundraiser!"
Soos made a turn in the road and spotted a cabin up ahead. "Looks like we're coming up her place, dudes."
He pulled up in front of the house and parked on the curb. As they pulled up, the three spotted three redhead boys of different ages wrestling one another on the front lawn. They aggressively tackled one another to the grass, looking as though they were in the middle of some fight.
Soos opened up the car door and stepped out, looking on at the fight. "Woah! What ticked off these dudes?"
"Relax, those are just Wendy's brothers," Mabel said as she got out of the car.
"Yeah. Marcus, Kevin, and Gus," Dipper named as he walked up beside the two.
"They're always this fighty-minded," Mabel said.
"...aaannd that's not a word," Dipper remarked.
"Hold on. Those dudes actually have names?" Soos asked. "I always used to think of them as unimportant background characters. Go figure, huh?"
"Hey, guys!" Mabel waved to the Corduroy brothers.
At that moment, the three brothers immediately stopped wrestling to look over at Mabel. They smiled. "Hey, Mabel!"
"Hey, is Wendy home?" Dipper asked as he opened up the other backdoor of the pickup where the boxes sat and took them into his arms. "We came to drop off some stuff for her."
"Nope," Marcus said as he attempted to stand up from the grass, only to be violently tackled back down by Kevin.
"Wends went out with the pops," Kevin said as he pushed hard against his brother's face, trying to pin him. "But she should be coming home any minute now."
At that moment, Marcus grabbed Kevin by the throat and held him in the air for a minute before slamming him back onto the ground. "You tried!"
Right after, Marcus was kicked in the face by his youngest brother, Gus, who jumped into a victory pose right after. "Boosh! I win again!"
"What the hell, Gus?" Kevin angrily asked as he stood up. "This isn't karate! No kicking people in the face!"
"Who made up those rules?" Gus asked, crossing his arms.
"We did! This isn't the first time we've done this before!" Marcus shouted while rubbing the side of his face.
"And this isn't the first time I've kicked you in the face either!"
"What are you even trying to argue?!" Kevin asked.
"Seriously, what kind of game even is this?" Dipper asked while he and the others spectated the brawl.
"Oh, we're not playing a game. This is just how we decide who gets the last slice of leftover pizza," Marcus casually clarified, which received supporting nods from Kevin and Gus.
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos stared at them for a brief moment in slight bewilderment at their outlandish ways of settling such a minor ordeal.
"You see? This is why I wished for an infinite slice of pizza," Soos told the twins. "None of this last man standing stuff for me."
SCREEEEE!
Everyone's attention turned toward the street, where a car suddenly came speeding toward the cabin. It took a sharp turn before skidding onto the curb in front of Soos' pickup and parking. The driver's door flew open and Wendy stomped out angrily before slamming the door shut with the strong force of one arm. At the same time, Manly Dan stepped out of the passenger seat with an angry look of his own, watching as she walked toward the house.
"Yeah, go ahead. Walk away!" he shouted at her. "Car will just magically park itself the right way later!"
"You know better than anyone else, don't you?" Wendy shouted back. "Therefore, you can park it yourself!"
"Brilliant thinking, Wendy!" Manly Dan said sarcastically. "In fact, why don't I just be your personal driver up in Portland too? I'm sure it'd be oh-so mighty convenient for you! Especially since I'm already paying for the car!"
Wendy stopped in place and shook angrily as she clenched her fists. She turned right back to him. "God dammit, dad! Why do you have to be the most overbearing person in the world to drive with?"
"Oh boy..." Kevin said with an eye roll.
"Here they go again..." Gus said with an awaiting sigh.
"Overbearing? I'm trying to watch out for our lives, Wendy!" Manly Dan defended.
"After our lives?!" Wendy repeated. "I have my license, Dad! I've had it for three years now!"
"I don't know how! Whenever you get behind the wheel, you always turn into a jittery wreck!" Manly Dan told her bluntly.
"Because you're always stressing me the hell out!"
"You think you're stressed? Imagine being in my shoes! My big, manly boots, Wendy! I don't shake in 'em when I wrestle a bear! But when I get into a car with you, Wendy, I quiver in them!"
"Again, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you'd chill out with your needless yelling whenever I make a turn!"
"My yelling ain't needless! I'm trying to help ya! I'm trying to teach ya!"
"I don't need your help! I can drive my friends around just fine!"
"Tell that to the speeding ticket you got street racing with those friends last year!" Manly Dan reminded, which prompted shocked looks from Dipper and Mabel at this revelation.
"Okay, that was last year!" Wendy brushed off. "And I already told you that I didn't think I'd get pulled over! I thought I was going under the speed limit!"
"You thought?! You don't just accidentally go over the speed limit, Wendy! At this point in your life, you should already know what it means to be a responsible driver!"
"This is coming from the man who rammed into us with his truck because I called Sev'ral Timez overrated," Mabel whispered over to Dipper.
Wendy wanted to argue further, but she was done with it at that point. She crossed her arms and turned away from her father, tightening her eyes shut as she tried to mentally keep herself from bursting. At the same time, her brothers, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos looked on at the ordeal, the latter three questioning whether or not they should even be there to listen to this argument.
"It's never good enough for you, is it?" Wendy said as she hung her head down away from her dad.
"Wendy, you're leaving for Portland a week from tomorrow," Manly Dan reminded. "I wouldn't usually have any issues with this, but since you pulled that stunt that got you expelled, I've had all the reason to question my trust in letting you go on your own. If it were up to me, I'd keep you behind to stay with the family. But you're nineteen, so it ain't up to me anymore. Now, I gotta make sure you're prepared for the real world in what little time we have left. And that don't mean going easy on you because dammit, Wendy, the real world ain't easy! And you gotta get that through your head now before it really comes out to get ya!" He put his hand on her shoulder and attempted to turn her around to face him. "You hear me?!"
"I've been hearing you for nineteen years!" she yelled at him as she grabbed his hand and aggressively pushed it away. "And you know what? Yeah, I have made a bunch of bad decisions over the last year or so. But I bet if mom were still here, she wouldn't be nearly as overwhelming as you've been about them to me while I'm already at the lowest point in my life."
She stormed off toward the house, leaving Manly Dan stunned. Even Marcus, Kevin, and Gus let out simultaneous gasps in shock. Dipper and Mabel looked somewhat surprised as well, considering it was the first time they had ever heard Wendy mention her own mother. Despite the high tensions, Soos just casually waved as Wendy stomped past them.
"'Sup Wendy! We got you your boxes!" he greeted as he gestured over to the stack of boxes in Dipper's arms.
Wendy glanced over at the three, finally noticing them. "Oh, right." She walked over to Dipper and took the stack of boxes from him. "Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it."
After a brief acknowledgment, she quickly resumed making her way back toward her house while the rest of her family still stood stunned.
"Um... just so you know, there may be some pizza boxes and other non-moving boxes in there," Dipper reminded, trying to stick to the topic of their own involvement.
"It's alright. I'll take whatever I can get as long as it helps me move the hell out of here." She kicked the front door open and glanced behind one last time. "Anyway, I'll just see you guys at work tomorrow."
She kicked the door shut behind her as she walked inside. Her brothers exchanged looks with one another before glancing back at their father, who still stood frozen by the car.
"D-Dad?" Kevin asked with a look of concern.
Manly Dan blinked once before putting a hand on his head as if he had suddenly grown dizzy. He put his other hand on the car to steady himself, shaking his head violently as his mind barely started to relax.
"I... I need to clear my head," Manly Dan said simply as he walked over to the driver's seat of the car and got inside.
"Dad, wait!" Marcus called out as he and his younger siblings attempted to run after his car.
However, it was too late. Manly Dan had immediately started up the car and sped off down the road until he was out of sight. Despite this, the brothers stayed determined and continued running after their dad at their fastest running speed. Dipper quickly grabbed ahold of Gus' arm before he took off, though.
"Woah, what the hell just happened?" Dipper asked him. "You guys said this has happened before?"
"The arguing has been a regular thing between them since Wends got expelled," Gus explained. "But it's never gotten this bad before. Dad hasn't driven off like that in years!"
"Him driving off like that is a thing?" Mabel asked, raising a concerned eyebrow.
"It used to be. There were days when he just got so upset that he drove off and never came back until late. That's why we're trying to go after him!" Gus explained before turning away and sprinting off to catch up with his older brothers. "GUYS, WAIT!"
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos stared off at them as they all ran off in an attempt to catch up to their dad, who was already long out of their current line of sight.
"Why do I feel like this is something to be concerned about?" Dipper asked, looking back and forth between Soos and Mabel somewhat nervously.
"The driving off part is a little unnerving," Mabel admitted. "But other than that, I'm sure it's just a case of normal family drama since Wendy's moving soon. I mean, moves are stressful! I'm sure it's nothing worth worrying about from our end."
"Mabel's right," Soos agreed. "We just need to be supportive of Wendy. Things are getting tougher for her around this time. Best that we just roll with it rather than interfere." He then walked over to the driver's seat of his pickup and sat back inside, starting it up. "C'mon, let's head back to the Shack."
"Woo!" Mabel cheered as she slid across the hood of the pickup to the passenger side, opened the door, and got inside.
Dipper got back into the pickup and buckled his seatbelt before staring out the window and at the cabin. Despite being told not to worry, he still felt a sense of uneasiness at what had just happened. He had only been aware of Wendy's move for a few days now, and it seemed like every time it was brought up, there was a sense of dread that came with it. However, he did dread it, as one of his closest friends was going away when their summer was still basically getting started.
But more recently, he's seen another side of Wendy he hadn't seen too much of in the past. A more vulnerable and damaged side. Sure, everyone had feelings and no one was emotionally invincible. But he had grown accustomed to seeing the fun, cool, and laidback side of her. Since meeting up with one another for the first time in four years, he hadn't seen as much of that as he remembered.
Of course, she had admitted once before that she wasn't always laidback and even said she was almost always stressed because of her family. And that's what worried him. Mabel and Soos said that the current dilemma she had been facing was just family drama to be expected. But he was getting the feeling there was something else going on, and that the extra stress from the move had just been pushing her to her breaking point.
All he knew was that he was concerned for her. Even if he didn't feel like this was a situation that called for him, he wished there was more he could do to help.
But for the moment, all he could do was hope for the best.
The next morning came, and Ford had already been up and awake for a few hours. Having already dressed up, he sat at the kitchen table with the empty Quantum Destabilizer sitting on top of it.
It had been three days since the bunker adventure where they had retrieved the weapon. In its current state, it had no use, as all the power that he had managed to obtain for it inside the portal had been finished ever since his failed attempt to use it on Bill himself. It was a striking thought that had he managed that shot, they probably wouldn't even be in their current situation.
However, he knew that a lot of other events probably wouldn't have happened the way they did either. Like making up with his brother and such.
Now with the Destabilizer, the current goal was to build a schematic that repurposed the death ray into some sort of mind gun that could destroy Bill inside Stan's mind without taking out his memory again or destroying his mind in any other capacity. It was not the easiest thing to come up with alone, therefore, he had turned to McGucket's help. With him being the inventor of the memory gun, he had more of an idea on how to build a mind weapon than Ford did, and that would be a great help in completing the task.
They had looked over old schematics the last time they met, but they found nothing particularly notable for use. So rather than taking from old ideas, they decided to come up with something new and intuitive, which was why Ford was preparing to meet him that day.
As he inspected the weapon, Stan eventually walked into the kitchen in his usual sleepwear with a red bathrobe on over it.
"Morning, Stanley," Ford greeted.
"Mornin', Poindexter," Stan greeted back with a tired yawn as he scratched his backside. He quickly noticed Ford was already dressed as though he was about to head somewhere. "Where are you off to?"
"I've got a meeting with Fiddleford," Ford replied. "We retrieved the Quantum Destabilizer the other day, so now we need to figure out how to use it in a way that safely neutralizes Bill from your mind. Fiddleford's good at that type of stuff, so we're hoping we can put something together."
"Just say you're going to a friend's place to fix my problem," Stan said as he rubbed his eyes a bit annoyedly. "Seriously, it's too early for me to be stomaching your nerd talk."
"My, what a grateful man you are, Stanley," Ford sarcastically replied with an eye roll.
"Oh, please. Just because it's too early for me to tolerate your nerdy vocab doesn't mean I'm ungrateful," Stan said as he opened up the fridge and took out a carton of milk, which he immediately frowned at. "Skim milk?! Seriously?! They still make this stuff? And Soos buys it?! Yeesh, and they call me a criminal. Whole or nothing, Soos!"
He walked over to the sink and started dumping the skim milk carton down the drain. However, as he dumped the milk out, it had a yellower color rather than a normal white color.
"Ugh! It's spoiled too!" Stan shouted in disgust. "Soos can't even take good care of bad milk!" He quickly turned on the water faucet and washed down the expired milk before disposing of the carton in the trash can. He let out a sigh as he started making his way out of the kitchen. "Well, I wasn't planning on putting pants on today but someone's gotta do something about this."
"Hang on, where are you going?" Ford asked him, raising an eyebrow.
"Gonna go to the store and get the right milk," Stan said casually as he grabbed a coat from a clothing hook beside the front door. He thought for a second. "Hmm, actually, yeah, who needs pants for that?"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Ford halted as he raced after Stan at the front door. "You can't go out!"
"What? Why not?"
"Have you forgotten? You're sharing a body with a dream demon who could switch in and out of your mind at any point! With that risk, you're not fit to be out on your own in public."
"That's ridiculous! I'm just going out to get milk, not visit the president!"
"It doesn't matter. You taking any step outside of this house is risky enough. You need to stay here where someone can keep a close eye on you and what you're doing."
"Ford, I've been stuck in this house since we got here! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually starting to get bored of doing nothing all day! I mean, c'mon! I feel fine! I've been fine since that night in the forest!"
"You said the same thing when I trusted you to continue driving us to Gravity Falls. A few hours later, we were plummeting down a cliff," Ford reminded. "I'm sorry, Stan. But you saying that you feel fine doesn't mean anything as long as Bill's in your head. If you present him with any good opportunity to cause chaos on his own, there's a chance for him to jump in and take it. And that's not a risk I'm willing to take."
Beep-beep! Beep-beep!
Ford looked down at his beeping wristwatch. "I need to get going."
At that same moment, he noticed Abuelita walking into the kitchen behind Stan.
"Ah, Abuelita!" he called out, grabbing her attention as he quickly walked over to her. "Necesito hacer una tarea muy importante. ¿Puedes cuidar a Stanley por mí?"
Abuelita glanced over at Stan, with a somewhat hesitant look before looking back at Ford. "¿De nuevo?"
"Por favor," he pleaded.
Abuelita sighed. "Tienes suerte de que seas el encantador."
"Muchas gracias. Realmente lo aprecio," Ford replied with a smile, putting a grateful hand on her shoulder, which prompted a somewhat flattered chuckle from her.
Stan glanced back and forth between the two a few times in complete confusion. Not because he didn't understand, as his time in Colombian prison had taught him well. But because he never knew his own brother could pull off Spanish as well as he did. "What the hell just happened?!"
"Abuelita's watching after you again," Ford said as he walked past him and opened the front door, to which the sound of the McGucket's landing helicopter was heard from outside. "You're staying here, okay? I'll be back later tonight."
"What do you expect me to eat then? There's no milk!"
"I'm sure Abuelita can fix you something that doesn't require milk!" Ford said as he started walking over to McGucket's helicopter just as it touched the ground.
"Dammit, Stanford! You can't keep cooped up in here forever!" Stan shouted as he shook his fist at him.
"And you won't be cooped up forever!" Ford assured him as he climbed aboard the helicopter. "Trust me, Stanley! We're working as hard as we can on this weapon! We just need you to be patient!"
Just as he let out his final words, Ford ascended into the air in McGucket's helicopter and flew off. Stan watched it fly over the horizon from the porch, glaring at it irritatedly.
It may have only been a few days since they got back to Gravity Falls, but even then, his patience was dwindling. He wanted nothing more than for the damn demon inside his head to be gone already so he could move on with his life. Considering his brother was still working on figuring out an actual weapon design, who knew just how long it would take before it would even be completed?
In front of the gift shop entrance of the Shack, Dipper and Mabel stood outside and were able to see McGucket's helicopter as it took off with Ford inside. They watched as it flew over their heads, which left behind a trail of heavy wind gusts that blew right over the two.
"There goes Ford," Dipper said as he held onto his hat.
"You think once this Bill nonsense is over with, we could convince him to ask McGucket if we could use his helicopter to go skydiving?" Mabel asked with great enthusiasm.
"I wouldn't bet on it."
"Alright, dudes," Soos' voice suddenly chimed in as he and Melody were both seen walking toward the two. He also held a golf club in each hand. "You two ready to check out this new Mystery Shack attraction I've been working on?"
"You bet we are!" Mabel nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, we're always down to check out whatever keeps tricking people into spending money here while also mixing things up a bit," Dipper nodded as well.
"That's the spirit! Now, take these," Soos said cheerfully as he offered them the golf clubs.
"Golf clubs?" Dipper questioned as he took one.
"That's right!" Soos said before walking over to the side toward something that was covered with a large tarp. He then gripped the tarp. "Brand new to the Mystery Shack is the amazing game of…"
He quickly pulled the tarp off of the structure underneath, unveiling it to be a single mini golf hole, which was designed to look like Stan's head. The hole itself was up a small slope leading into Stan's open mouth.
"...Mystery Golf!"
Dipper raised an eyebrow at the design. "Mini-golf?"
"I love it already!" Mabel cheered as she stared at the hole in awe.
"Thought you would, dude," Soos said as he looked over at her with a smile. "But yeah! I was thinking of another selling point I could advertise for the Shack, and I figured: Hey! What tourist attraction has its own mini-golf course? Think about it! Customers go into the gift shop and buy what they want, but as soon as they go back outside and see this bad boy, they'll wanna stick around for more!"
Dipper understood Soos' mentality behind the attraction but was too distracted by the giant replica of Stan's head. "Does Stan know you designed the course around his head?"
"Nope," Melody answered for him. "In fact, he even told Soos not to design the course around his head when he asked."
"Eh, he's just shy," Soos shrugged off. "He's been out of the game for a few years, so he's not used to the idea of his face being seen in the public eye again."
"I thought he said that he hated the idea of his head being used for a golf hole?" Melody asked.
"Typical shy man response," Soos said before taking out a pair of golf balls and holding them out for the twins. "Anyways, dudes. Why don't you give the course a go? It's only one hole for now, but I still plan on charging thirty bucks a person when it goes live for tourists."
"ME FIRST! ME FIRST!" Mabel called out, grabbing a golf ball from Soos and running into a starting position on the course.
She placed the golf ball down on the fake grass set up on the course. Getting into a position behind the ball, she lined up her aim with the club. With a quick hip wiggle, she whacked the ball, sending it flying up the slope and landing inside Stan's mouth, scoring an effortless hole-in-one.
"WOO! TAKE THAT, GRUNKLE STAN'S FACE!" she cheered while raising her golf club in the air victoriously.
BOOM!
Just seconds after Mabel's hole-in-one, Stan's head burst into a firey explosion, destroying the entire attraction. Mabel was a decent distance away and so she was mostly unaffected, yet she still took a gust of hot wind to the face. Once it settled, there were bits of malfunctioning fireworks that went off to the side.
In total shock, Mabel stood completely frozen with her golf club still raised in the air. She glanced around timidly. "Does... does that mean I've gotten too good?"
"I may have installed a firework rig that was set to go off each time someone scores a hole-in-one," Soos said with an awkward chuckle. "Guess I didn't set it up well enough…"
"On the bright side, I was totally filming that whole thing," Melody said as she gestured to her raised phone. "You could go back and crop the explosion and it could make for an awesome video effect!"
"Huh, you're right!" Soos realized as he smiled at her. "I was about to say that was a waste of a mini-golf course, but you may have just saved us there! The power of video editing!"
While Soos and Melody fawned over the explosion footage, Dipper and Mabel still remained in a slight state of shock from the explosion. For Dipper, at least, this was interrupted once he looked to the side and noticed a car speeding its way into the Mystery Shack's lot. It skidded into an open space and parked aggressively. Soon enough, Wendy exited the car and slammed the door shut before making her way over to the four.
"There you are, Wendy-dawg!" Soos called out.
"Hey, sorry I'm late. Got caught up in a bit of junk back home," she replied as she rubbed her eye.
"It's alright. You just missed Mabel blowing up Stan's head with a golf ball. You should've seen it," Dipper told her with an amused smile.
"Right, well, I didn't, so whatever."
Her voice was shaky, but she seemed to realize this and quickly cleared her throat. All the while, Dipper was struck a bit by her blunt reply and general attitude. Instead of a chuckle back, she gave off a sense of bitterness, which was unlike her. But the more he looked on at her, the more distress he could see in her appearance.
Her eyes appeared to be swelled up and red as if she had been crying. Her shaky voice seemed to support the idea. On top of that, her hair was a bit messier compared to how she normally brushed it. While she normally let it hang out, it looked more unkempt than usual, with lots of loose strands hanging out. Almost like she hardly made any attempt to brush it earlier.
Overall, her disheveled appearance paired with her attitude just said to him that something was up. And normally, he wouldn't point out these types of deals for fear of making things worse, but it was just too obvious for him not to address or at least voice his concern about.
"Wendy, are you okay?" he asked. "Your eyes look kind of-"
"UGH! I was hoping that wouldn't be a problem…" she cut off as she immediately turned away from him and began rubbing her swelled-up eyes somewhat aggressively.
Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Melody each exchanged looks of concern. Soos turned back to Wendy and took a step toward her.
"Wendy, dawg, is something wrong?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine, Soos!" she said shakily, slapping his hand away before walking in the direction of the Shack. "My makeup is just running a bit. I'm gonna go clean it up in the bathroom."
Her persisting aggression was a sign of her obvious denial of her current emotional state and Dipper knew it. There have been relatively few moments where he had seen Wendy when she was hurt or emotionally unsettled, with the most recent recollection being from their bunker adventure a few days ago. They were all hard for him not to remember, therefore, he found it easy to compare those times to her current state.
She was upset and refused to admit it. But being her friend, he didn't want her to feel like she had to be going through things alone.
"You know, Wendy, if something's up, you can talk to us about it."
"Dammit, Dipper! I already said that I'm fine! There's nothing to talk about! And even if there was, I'd prefer if all of you would just leave me alone!"
She immediately turned back and continued stomping on her way toward the Shack, her fists clenched tightly. Dipper's eyes were wide in shock at the way she had just scolded him. This was the second time he had suffered this case with her, with the first being when he selfishly asked if she wanted to go bowling directly after her breakup with Robbie. But that time was him being inconsiderate. This time, he tried to be a friend and just got pushed away for it without an exact idea of what she was going through.
"Gosh, poor Wendy. What's going on with her?" Mabel asked, watching her enter the Mystery Shack.
"I don't know, dude," Soos said. "I've never seen her like this before."
"I'm just so... confused…" Dipper said while rubbing the back of his head. "Lately, she's just seemed so... stressed. I figured the move would be a lot of weight on her, but could it really be causing her this much emotional turmoil?"
"You think we should keep asking her about it?" Mabel suggested. "Because no matter what she says, something clearly isn't right."
"Actually, I really don't think any of us should bug her about this," Melody chimed in. "It's clear she's clearly going through something personal, but she's also clearly not ready to talk about it. So, I think it's probably best that we respect that and wait until she's ready."
Soos nodded. "Melody's right. If we just keep bothering Wendy with questions, that'll probably make her even more upset."
"Yeah, it's like this one time when I was a kid. We had a dog named Winston, and he was my absolute favorite growing up," Melody began. "But one day, I was playing with Winston in the driveway and he accidentally got hit by my grandpa while he was backing up his truck. I was pretty upset and ran to my room crying. But everyone was so confused and kept asking me what was wrong and tried to get me to talk about it, but all I could think of was the final wince I heard from Winston before Grandpa hit him... and it was just too much for me and all I wanted was to be left alone... But everyone just kept asking me questions and wanting me to talk about it, and all I really wanted was to hide in my closet and bawl my eyes out... and they should really stop asking me to unlock the bedroom! I just need five minutes to MYSELF, Mom!"
Everyone stared at her while she appeared to relive her distress from that past experience as she recalled it aloud. As she breathed heavily, Dipper and Mabel exchanged unsettled looks with one another as neither of them knew how to react or respond. Soos, on the other hand, walked up to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"You wanna go out and get some comfort ice cream?"
Snapping out of her distress, Melody looked up at him with a warm smile. "This... this is why I'm marrying you."
Soos smiled and began leading her toward his parked pickup truck to the side of the lot. "We'll be back, dudes!"
The twins watched as the couple entered the truck and soon drove out of the lot. Still, despite Melody's words, Dipper felt they needed to do something regarding Wendy's situation.
"Mabel, I'm really worried about Wendy. Seriously, even before I found out she was moving, I noticed that she's been acting less like herself. And even though we know about her move now, we still don't know why she's moving in the first place."
"I thought it was because she got expelled from college here so she's going to a new one?"
"Yeah, but we still don't know why she was expelled. Or why she doesn't want to talk about it. She said she would explain eventually, but we're already a week away and she hasn't told us anything. Now, she's coming to work crying and angry and doesn't want to tell us why and it's just... what happened? What started all of this in the first place? What got her kicked out of college? Was it something so bad that it just hurts her to even think about it now? I mean, what could it have possibly been?"
"I get you, bro," Mabel said as she put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm concerned about her too, and I wanna know what's been making her so... bleh. But at the same time, Melody's right. We can't keep bugging her when she's not ready to talk about it. Whatever she's going through right now, we need to just respect her boundaries and let her deal with it herself until she's ready to open up to us."
"I know, I know," he admitted with a sigh. "I just wish we knew more about it. Not to be nosy, but just to understand."
Mabel thought for a moment. "Maybe we can find out from her other friends! Robbie, Lee, and the others! I mean, we already know they're still in town, so they probably all went to the same college! And if so, then they must know what went down that day!"
"Huh... you're right! If anyone else knows about it, it's gotta be them."
"Exactly!" Mabel nodded enthusiastically as she began pulling him along with her in a direction out of the lot. "C'mon, bro-bro! Looks like we're taking a trip to the cemetery!"
"You think they still hang out there?"
"Their personalities are still pretty dead after all this time, so probably!"
Inside the Shack, Stan and Abuelita sat in the living room in their chairs in front of the TV, watching an ongoing Spanish soap opera.
Abuelita sat calmly invested in what was happening on screen. On the other hand, Stan was fighting the strong urge to rip his ears off. He tried to remain relaxed in his chair, but he couldn't help but grow more and more annoyed as time went on. Being forced to remain in the same room with her and sit through several episodes of such an irritating program despite a large and overly attractive cast.
They weren't even talking over it. She wanted to just watch it without any disturbance. Any time he'd try to start a conversation to lighten up the mood, she'd shush him and tell him to be quiet. At least when watching Mabel's terrible cartoon movies as a kid, he could freely talk about how awful they were and get some enjoyment out of her comebacks. But with Abuelita, he felt totally helpless. Like he was a cat stuck in her grasp and he couldn't do anything to get away.
"Abuelita, please! We saw this episode last time Ford made you watch over me! Can't we change the channel and watch something else?"
"No."
Stan sighed hopelessly. He knew he had grown tired of doing nothing for several days straight, but he would honestly prefer doing absolutely nothing instead of watching any more soap operas with her.
Eventually, he heard the front door suddenly barge open, which immediately grabbed his attention. Turning to the side, he spotted Wendy stomping her way into the kitchen, not even noticing him or Abuelita in the living room. He heard the water of the kitchen faucet running simultaneously with the sound of her frustratedly muttering to herself.
"Aye, I love this part," Abuelita said as she continued to watch the show, leaning forward in her seat a bit with growing investment.
Stan glanced between her and the kitchen. Eventually, he just decided to take this as his moment to step away for a bit, getting up from his chair and gesturing over to the kitchen with his finger.
"I'm just gonna get a snack then…" Stan told her with an innocent smile. "Surely, you trust me enough to do that on my own, right?"
"Mhm, yes, good," Abuelita mindlessly nodded, her investment in the soap opera too great for her to be paying much attention to him at that moment.
Realizing her distraction, Stan jumped at his chance to get out and walked away from the living room, stepping into the kitchen. There, he saw Wendy at the sink, splashing water on her face, unaware of his presence. She closed the water and grabbed a few sheets of paper towels, wiping her face dry. She let out a sigh while she stood in place, staring out the window ahead.
"Dammit, Dad! Why do you have to be so hard on me all the time?" she ranted to herself. "I end up looking like a mess in front of my own friends all because of him..."
"Yep, that's what dads do."
"AH!" she yelped, startled by Stan's unexpected voice. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Mr. Pines?! What the hell is your problem?!"
"Woah! What problem? I didn't do nothin'!" Stan said, holding his arms up defensively.
"You completely snuck up on me!"
"Snuck up? I live here!"
Wendy paused for a moment before realizing her lack of judgment, to which she facepalmed. "Ugh... sorry, I forgot about that. Still haven't entirely readjusted from the four years you were gone…"
"Not the only thing that needs readjusting," Stan remarked as he walked over to the fridge and opened it up. "You wanna work on that touchy attitude of yours while you're at it?"
"What? I don't have a touchy attitude."
"Trust me, kid. I heard you muttering from the living room while the sink was running and the TV was playing," Stan said as he grabbed a Pitt Cola can and cracked it open. "If you're so easy to hear over all that noise, you're touchy, alright."
"Ugh…" Wendy groaned as she turned away from him, gripping her hands on the edge of the counter
He raised an eyebrow. "What's up with you, kid? I heard you got that move coming up soon. Is that what's been bugging you?"
"I wish it was just the move," she said with an eye roll. "My dad's just been giving me such a hard time lately. He hasn't been easy on me since I got expelled from college, but the closer I get to this move, the worse it's been dealing with him."
Stan's eyes widened. "Woah... you were expelled? I never heard about that part. How the hell did that happen?"
She sighed. "I really don't wanna talk about it right now. I'm already bummed enough as it is."
Stan leaned back against a wall. "I see. A stressful pops, huh? I can relate. When it came between me and my nerd of a brother, my dad always found a way to praise him and everything he did while giving me the other end of the stick."
"Oh, don't even get me started on how much my dad loves putting my little brothers on a pedestal!" Wendy said, growing heated. "Whether it's camping, fishing, apocalypse training, or whatever family activity, he always says what I'm doing is wrong! 'That's not how you start a fire!' 'That's not how you pitch a tent!' Yet, my brothers get all the praise for doing the exact same thing in the most outlandish ways! But, nope! I get yelled at because I'm the one always looking for…"
"...the easy way," the two of them said simultaneously.
Wendy glanced at him in surprise. "You know?"
"Are you kidding? My pop always used to bust my ass about me looking for the easy way! I mean, most of my stress from high school was simply trying to graduate just so I wouldn't make the man even angrier!"
"That reminds me- just this year, my oldest younger brother, Marcus, graduated high school. And of course, my dad builds a whole new wooden shelf just for the boys and their life achievements. Meanwhile, my diploma and the rest of my awards are hanging inside an old wooden shelf that already houses all of my dad's lumberjacking awards. Like, why can't I have my own shelf or at least share the new one with the boys? Why do my accomplishments have to lie in the shadows of my dad's stuff?"
"Oh, I could go on all day about how much my dad put my brother's accomplishments ahead of my own." Thinking over things, Stan started to smile. "Ya know, I can't believe I never knew how much we had in common about this sorta stuff. Given the kinda crazy things I know you do with your friends, you pretty much remind me of myself when I was your age. Slick and savage."
"Guess that's one way of putting it," she said, leaning against the counter before looking down dejectedly. "Nowadays, though, there hasn't been as much 'savage' from me because of this whole deal. I've been skipping out a lot on doing crazy things with my friends to try and be more 'responsible', I guess. It feels like what I'm supposed to learn from all of this is that I have to put away all these old habits now that I'm growing up to prevent stupid mistakes, like getting expelled again."
Stan took a sip of his soda. "Well, you don't have to. I mean, look at me. I'm as old as I am, and I just got back from spending four years doing illegal things around the whole world! I still do whatever I please without anyone telling me what to do!"
"Stan! You've been in the kitchen for quite some time now!" Abuelita called out to him from the living room. "The next episode starts in a minute! If you aren't here by then, I'm going to have to call your hermano!"
Wendy glanced over at Stan and smirked. "So much for not being told what to do, huh?"
Stan jumped in front of Wendy with pleading eyes. "You gotta help me, Wendy! Because of this whole thing with me and Bill sharing a body, Ford's been keeping me from leaving the house! As much as I love doing nothing, I've gotten sick of doing it for several days straight! And the only thing worse than doing nothing is being forced to sit through hours of soap operas with Abuelita! On top of that, I'm starving! Soos doesn't have any food, and I've never even heard of the food Abuelita's offered me! I don't know what a yucca is, but it does NOT sound appetizing!" He desperately grabbed onto her shoulders. "You gotta bail me out of here! PLEASE!"
"What?" Wendy asked, pulling away from his grasp. "Why do you need my help? Just walk out the front door!"
"I can't leave on my own! She'll call Ford and he'll throw a hissy fit and then I'll never hear the end of it. You're pretty much an adult now and Abuelita knows you, so she'll trust you to take me out of here!"
"And what makes you think that I'm going to agree to that?"
"What?! Are you kidding me?! I thought we just had a personal connection here! An eye-to-eye moment about our dads! That still ain't enough for you?!"
Wendy sighed, knowing that turning her back on the moment they shared a second ago wouldn't be anything other than ill-mannered.
"Fine. I'll help," she settled, which prompted a smile from Stan. "But I'm driving. I know about that car crash that you and Ford got into when Bill took over. I'm not taking any chances with you."
"Understandable," he said with an eye roll.
"So, how do you want me to do this?"
"Just tell her that... uh... we're going out to get more snacks from the supermarket or something."
"Alright."
Wendy made her way out the kitchen doorway with Stan following behind. They took a few steps into the living room toward Abuelita, whose eyes were still focused on the TV screen.
"Hey Abuelita, I just found out that Stan's run out of clean Grampers and he needs to go to the store to get some more."
Stan's eyes bulged. "Wait, WHAT?!"
"You see? He's getting cranky already," Wendy said while gesturing to him. "Anyway, you want me to take him off your hands for a second so we can go out and handle that?"
Abuelita still hadn't looked away from the screen since they entered. But she appeared to have half-mindedly processed what she had said, as she lifted her hand up a bit and brushed them away. "Yes, yes. Go. Do what you must."
"Sweet! Thanks, Abuelita!"
Wendy turned around and started making her way toward the front door next to Stan. She opened the door for him as she looked up and saw he was giving her an unpleasant glare.
"What? You said 'or something'."
"If I was still your boss, I'd fire you," Stan said bitterly as he walked out the door.
"Pfft. Fine by me. I'm leaving next week anyway."
Dipper and Mabel walked through the front gate of the town cemetery. Not a place either of them had frequented four years ago, but from what they remembered, it didn't appear as though it had changed very much since then.
Then again, what could one really expect to change from a cemetery?
Mabel reminisced as she looked around. "Ah, the cemetery! Home to some of the fondest summer memories! And dead people too!"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure their families don't look back on this place very fondly," Dipper said while glancing at all the surrounding headstones. "Anyways, I just hope Wendy's friends are actually around here somewhere."
"God, you are so damn needy!" shouted the familiar voice of Tambry nearby.
"Says the girl who needs validation for every selfie she takes before posting them!" replied the even more familiar voice of Robbie from the same vicinity.
"I think it's safe to be hopeful," Mabel said with a smile as she looked at Dipper.
Tambry, Robbie, Lee, and Nate lay in the grass on a hill next to a set of stairs leading up to the mausoleum. Lee and Nate sat further to the side as Tambry and Robbie argued.
"I just don't understand why whenever I say we should do something, you blow me off. Then when we do nothing, you start moping on social media about how lonely you are!" Tambry ranted to him. "Like, what exactly do you want from me? Because I'm actually trying here!"
"Trying? The reason I blow you off is because you never come up with anything good that we can both enjoy!" Robbie argued. "Right, because I'd TOTALLY love to go get pedicures from the place you get all your cheap nails done."
Tambry let out an offended gasp. "You take that back!"
Lee glanced over at Nate with a look of annoyance. "Time check?"
Nate looked down at his wristwatch. "Half an hour since we got here. Twenty-five minutes since they began."
"UGGGGHHHHH!" Lee groaned loudly as he dragged a hand over his face. "THIS is why I'm never getting married."
At that moment, Dipper and Mabel had climbed up enough stairs to reach the level the group sat at on the hill.
"Hey guys!" Mabel happily greeted as she and Dipper approached.
Nate smiled as he spotted the twins. "Ayy! Mabel! Dipper!"
"Finally! Interesting people!" Lee shouted.
"What're you two doing here?" Nate asked.
"We were in the area, ya know?" Dipper casually replied.
"Yep! Just getting our daily dose of dead body watching!" Mabel added.
"Haha... yeah... little much there…" Dipper said, giving Mabel an uncomfortable glare.
"Normally, that'd weird me out, but we've been listening to these two arguing for a while now, and so I can honestly take anything else at this point," Lee said as he gestured over to Robbie and Tambry, who paid no mind to them or the twins as they argued.
Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Arguing? About what?"
"Who knows, and who cares?" Nate said. "It happens every day, and it's always about something so ridiculous and petty! Lee and I just try our hardest to tune it out whenever we hang out."
Dipper raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like an unhealthy relationship…"
"Their problem. Not ours," Lee shrugged carelessly.
Mabel, however, was disappointed to learn the two have been fighting so much, considering she was the catalyst for getting their relationship rolling in the first place. Regardless of its initial legitimacy or not.
"But they've been dating for four years! I get that couples fight and stuff, but if this is a regular thing, we should be the ones to try and help them work things out!"
"Mabel... another day?" Dipper privately suggested to her as he put a hand on her shoulder. "We didn't come here for this…"
"But…" she began before stopping herself as she looked him in the eye. "Yeah, okay…"
"Anyway, Robbie and Tambry's relationship issues aside, what's new?" Dipper asked Lee and Nate.
Lee shrugged. "Nothing much, honestly. Been mostly the same old stuff with us."
"Well, except for what's going on with Wendy…" Nate mentioned with a frown
Dipper's eyes went wide at how quickly they managed to actually reach the topic without him having to lead into it himself. "Right... she's leaving in a week."
"Yeah, it sucks so much," Lee said as he shook his head sadly. "Her getting kicked out of school and all."
"I still feel so bad for what happened," Nate nodded. "To think it could've been avoided had things gone to plan."
"Avoided?" Dipper questioned.
"Gone to plan?" Mabel added.
"What do you mean?"
"Wait, she didn't tell you guys what happened that night at the school?" Lee asked.
Dipper shook his head. "We literally just figured out about Wendy's move and stuff this past weekend. She's hardly given us any details since."
"Yeah, so what happened that night?" Mabel asked.
Nate glanced over at Lee for a moment before looking back at the twins and sighing. "Our math professor, Mr. Higgins, is like the biggest jerk in the world."
"Everyone who's had him hates the guy," Lee added. "I don't think he's ever given anyone an A in his life."
"And so, one day, we got tired of his crap and decided we were going to get back at him," Nate continued.
"The four of us, along with Wendy and Thompson, snuck into the college late at night and into his office and began vandalizing his stuff any way we could. Spray painting the walls, breaking his desk... you name it."
"We did what we came to do. But where things went wrong was during the getaway…" Nate began.
"Turns out there was security watching the campus, and they found out about us in the school and started looking for us."
"While they searched, Wendy came up with the idea of hopping the fence and going into the woods. What went wrong? Everyone made it over... except Wendy."
Dipper's eyes widened in near disbelief. "What?"
"Yeah, she was the last one behind us," Lee nodded. "Apparently, she got caught on the fence while climbing over and security was able to catch her."
"The worst thing about it all was that she took responsibility for the whole thing to save our asses," Nate said before shaking his head remorsefully. "We got away clean and she took the expulsion for all of us. I've never felt guiltier about anything before in my life."
Dipper stared up at them, glancing back and forth between them in great confusion. To him, something wasn't adding up. "W-wha- how'd she get caught on the fence?"
"I don't know. The four of us didn't see any of it," Nate admitted. "It was actually Thompson who was the farthest behind. He's the one who told us what happened."
"You mean, the rest of you left her behind?!" Dipper asked, starting to grow angry at the realization.
"What?! No!" Lee denied, shaking his head aggressively. "We didn't know they were still back by the fence! We were already making our own getaways through the woods! Why would we stay behind to watch when we were all being chased down?"
"Maybe because you guys are supposed to be friends? Because you're supposed to stick together?" Dipper argued angrily. "Seriously, instead of staying to help anyone in case something went wrong, you all played every man for themselves and just booked it!"
Nate narrowed his eyes. "Woah, hang on. Think about what you're saying, man. You mean that if you and a bunch of friends were running from the cops, you wouldn't just fend for yourself if you had to?"
"If they were really my friends, then no! I wouldn't!" Dipper assured as he marched up to him threateningly, which prompted shocked and almost intimidated looks from both him and Lee. "All of you agreed to this together! You were all involved, yet none of you were even there to see what happened yourselves! You had to get your information from the one guy who actually cared enough, who ironically, isn't even here with you guys right now! You all act so guilty about Wendy taking the blame, but the truth is, you've never felt safer since you weren't expelled either! She took the bullet for all of you! Now, she has to deal with the stress of moving away!"
Nate and Lee held their silence throughout Dipper's rant. Soon enough, their faces dropped further than they were prior as if there was some actual bite that came out of what he had said.
"Dipper…" Mabel said, somewhat unsettled by his tone. She reached out for him slowly in an attempt to get him to calm down.
"You call yourselves friends? Well, some friends you are!" Dipper continued angrily, dismissing Mabel's attempt at coaxing. "Hell, Robbie and Tambry are still just arguing! They aren't even paying attention to any of this!"
The sudden mention of Robbie and Tambry's names aloud was what finally got them to break from their arguing to look up at the four.
Robbie raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what? Who said my name?" He then glanced over at Dipper and Mabel, finally realizing their presence. "And where did you two come from?"
"My point exactly!" Dipper said as he gestured toward them, leaving the couple in a state of confusion. "C'mon, Mabel. Let's get out of here."
Mabel looked at him as he walked back down the steps before looking back at the other four, who sat staring at them with mixed expressions. She didn't have anything else to say or add herself, but something about the entire dilemma rubbed her the wrong way. Between Dipper's anger and the general state of Wendy's friends at that moment, she wasn't sure how to feel but she didn't feel good. Regardless, she simply went on to follow her brother back down the stairs, leaving the friend group to their own again.
Tambry narrowed her eyes frustratedly at Robbie. "Great! They're gone, and we didn't even get to hear what they were talking about! It's all your fault!"
"Why?! It's just as much your fault for not listening as it is mine!" Robbie barked back irritatedly.
"I hate everything," Lee simply said as he and Nate immediately went back to their former expressions of annoyance in response to the couple's next starting argument.
Stan stood in line at the Tons grocery store, having been driven there by Wendy to go and pick up more groceries for the Shack. He had already placed a variety of different food items onto the checkout counter conveyor belt. As the customer in front of him completed their checkout, he moved up ahead to face the cashier, Richard Dalton, at the register.
Dalton scanned through all the items quickly, bagging them as he went along. As he finished, he totaled the cost on the register. "Alrighty there, mister. Your total is $45.95."
Stan dove a hand into his pocket, checking around for money. However, after a quick feel around, he pulled the bottom of his pocket out only to find it was completely empty at that moment.
"Uh oh."
"Something wrong there, mister?" Dalton asked him, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, of course not!" Stan said with a nervous smile. "I'm just getting that money for ya!" He dove into his jacket and pretended to search around. "I think my wallet is somewhere around here! Oh, here it is!"
POOF!
Stan quickly pulled out and threw down a smoke bomb, setting off a giant cloud of smoke in his position. As Dalton coughed through the dissipating smoke, Stan grabbed his bags of groceries and quickly made a break for it.
As the smoke cleared up, Dalton's eyes glanced over at Stan as he ran off. He sighed helplessly.
"Welp, there goes another one."
"What just happened?" Sheriff Blubs asked as he and Deputy Durland moved up with their shopping cart in Dalton's checkout line.
"Oh, the usual. Another shoplifter," Dalton casually said. "I'm used to it at this point. Nothing an old coot like me can do about it."
"Oh, you poor man," Durland said sympathetically.
"If only there were a pair of cops around here to do something about it," Blubs said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, if only there were- Hey, wait a minute! We're a pair of cops!" Durland suddenly realized.
Blubs' eyes widened. "Oh, right! What are we doing? Let's get that fool!"
The two quickly went into serious policemen mode and began running after Stan, with Dalton casually watching them go from his spot at the register. As the two ran out the market doors, they glanced around the large parking lot for Stan, eventually catching sight of him running through one of the open lanes.
Blubs narrowed his eyes as he began running again in his direction. "Hey! You stop right there, mister!"
Stan looked over his shoulder as he ran, quickly spotting the two running after him.
"Oh no!" he shouted before turning back ahead of him. He looked over at Wendy's car across the parking lot. "WENNNNNDYYYYY!"
Inside the parked car, Wendy laid back in her car seat with her eyes closed as loud punk rock played through the car speaker. While Stan's voice wasn't entirely inaudible, it wasn't loud enough to pull her attention.
"WENNNNNNNNDYYYYYY!"
His second call for her, however, was loud enough. Her eyes popped open and she looked up. She then glanced out her window, soon spotting Stan running back toward her with a panicked look as Blubs and Durland chased him down in the near distance. Her eyes bulged in surprise.
As he reached her car, he ran around and opened up the passenger seat door beside her, jumping inside. Wendy looked down at him as he scrambled into his seat with several loaded plastic bags.
"What did you do?!" she asked, growing panicked as she looked back up through the window to see how close Blubs and Durland were getting.
"Simple- I went to buy groceries and didn't have enough money. So, I decided to improvise a little!"
"You shoplifted?!"
"Yell at me later!" Stan told her as she threw the groceries into the back seat and shut the passenger door. "Just drive!"
Wendy gripped the wheel hesitantly. "But, Mr. Pines-"
"Just DRIVE, kid!" Stan commanded as he looked up at how much closer Blubs and Durland were getting. "We need to get the hell outta here!"
Wendy froze at that moment, as Stan's words unintentionally prompted a familiar recollection in her mind as she stared forward.
Robbie was the first one ahead. Following behind him was Tambry, then Lee, then Nate, and a little farther behind, Thompson, who ran right ahead of her.
She glanced back over her shoulder for a quick moment, checking to see if they were being chased only to find no one just yet. She then looked ahead again.
"Keep running, guys! We need to get the hell out of here!"
"C'MON, KID!"
Stan's voice prompted Wendy to snap out of it. She shook her head quickly before analyzing their current position and surroundings. Then, she put a hand on the gear stick and put the car in reverse before stomping on the gas, causing them to violently back out of the parking space.
As soon as they were out and had enough room, she braked and put the car in drive. She stomped on the gas again as she turned out of the lot in a direction away from Blubs and Durland. The two policemen stopped running as they saw the two drive off onto the main road.
"Dang it! They got away!" Durland shouted angrily.
"Oh, we ain't gonna let them get away that easily!" Blubs assured him as he pointed toward their parked police cruiser in the same lot. "C'mon, let's roll after them!"
The two quickly ran over toward their car and got inside. Blubs started it up and speedily drove out of the lot. It took a moment, but eventually, they found themselves driving out onto the main road that Wendy and Stan had already gotten onto. Blubs turned on the sirens and lights as they quickly caught up behind the two.
Wendy focused her eyes on the road ahead, her grip on the wheel tight as could be under her current level of stress. Stan looked over at the rearview mirror and caught sight of the police car and its flashing lights.
"Aw, seriously? They're still chasing us?! It was just forty-six bucks! They ain't gonna get a raise from stopping me!"
"What am I supposed to do?" Wendy asked frantically.
"Just keep driving!"
"For how long?"
"Until we lose them!"
"How long will that take?!"
"I don't know! Hopefully not long! Yeesh, kid! You're asking way too many questions about this!"
"Mr. Pines, I'm not a getaway driver! I don't know what I'm doing!"
"Have you ever run from the cops before?"
Wendy hesitated to answer for a moment. "Yeah…?"
"Then you're just doing that, but in a car!" he told her. "It's not rocket science, kid! Just try to lose 'em!"
Wendy thought for a moment, processing her orders. As she looked at the road ahead, she tried to get analytical. Soon enough, an idea came to mind.
"Alright."
As they came across an intersection in the road, she took a very sharp turn to the right without slowing down their speed, leaving tire marks as they screeched along. Stan was thrown to the side, not anticipating the sudden turn. As he looked ahead, he realized that there wasn't much of the road left and that they appeared to be driving in the direction of the open forest, which made his heart sink.
"WOAH! WENDY! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU-"
"HANG ON!" she cut off just before stepping on the gas even harder.
Stan gripped his seat tightly with his hands as she sped up. "AAAAAAHHH!"
The car drove down a grassy slump, the tires bouncing up and down violently through the natural terrain as it dropped. Wendy swerved the wheel left and right around incoming trees as she approached them, attempting to navigate through the forest as cleanly as she possibly could while Stan held on for his life right beside her.
Blubs and Durland took the same turn Wendy had taken at the intersection that led them toward the forest. Once they reached the end of the road, Blubs parked the car and the two got out. However, as they glanced around at the supposed dead end, they found themselves unable to spot a trace of where the two had gone.
"Where'd they go?" Blubs asked as he looked around. "God dang it! Don't tell me we lost them!"
"Would it make you happier if I didn't?" Durland asked, walking up beside Blubs.
Blubs thought for a moment. "Actually, it would make me happier."
"Then I promise that I won't tell ya then," Durland said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You're a gift that I don't deserve, Durly," Blubs said, smiling warmly as he put his own hand on top of his.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Stan screamed fearfully as Wendy continued to drive them through the forest.
Every turn they made around an incoming tree, bush, or other natural obstacle was violent enough to jerk him around the car. Granted, he wasn't wearing his seatbelt either, which made the turns even more aggressive for him. Still, he held on tightly to the grab handle above him, hoping that he wouldn't go flying through the windshield or worse.
"Remember earlier when you said you wanted to drive because you didn't want me driving us off a cliff? Well, how exactly is THIS ANY BETTER?!"
"Hey, at least I'm not TRYING to kill us!"
"I'm not sure that makes me feel any safer!"
"Then hang on!"
At that moment, Wendy picked up her speed a bit more as a clearing came up. Right ahead, there was a dirt slope that led into an open lot. She quickly drove the car up the slope, the speed giving the car a bit of airtime.
"AAAAAHHH!" the two screamed as the car flew upward..
The car bounced up as it touched the ground. At the same time, Wendy put full force on the brakes, which allowed the car to come to a quick and sudden stop. As the car was stopped, she put her hand on the gear stick and put it in park so she could relax her feet from the pedals. Finally parked, the two began breathing heavily and rapidly as they laid back in their seats.
They began to slowly process everything that had just happened. Oddly enough, the two began to chuckle lightly. Their chuckling continued for a bit, growing into more of a laugh after a good moment. Eventually, the laughing turned hysteric and nearly maniacal. The emotional whiplash going from a state of stress and anxiety to a state of exhilaration and astonishment was severe, but it was better than getting hurt.
"THAT WAS AMAZING!" Stan shouted.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Wendy shouted at the same time.
"So you agree?!" Stan asked.
"HELL YEAH!" Wendy enthusiastically nodded. "I haven't had an adrenaline rush like that in ages! I loved that! I needed that! This is the type of action I've been missing!"
"Well, you definitely impressed me, kid! I've had my past of thievery and the few getaway drivers I've had to aid me during those times don't compare to what I just saw from you!"
"R-really?" Wendy asked, cracking a slight smile.
"Are you kidding? If you were around to help me back in the day, we could've been unstoppable!" Stan said as he put a hand on her shoulder and gestured forward with his hand as if he was painting a picture. "I could see it now: Stan Pines and Wendy Corduroy: America's Most Wanted! You got a knack for this type of thing, kid! I'm telling you! We should do this again and hit a bunch of other stores in town!"
"But, Mr. Pines... I already told you that I'm not a getaway driver," Wendy reminded again, now starting to grow hesitant. "Also, I wouldn't really say I have a knack for this if this was the first time I've ever been a getaway. I kind of just got lucky."
"Lucky? That wasn't luck, kid! That was a smart, split-second opportunity, and you took it! And as you can see, it paid off! If you just repeat what you did today after we hit a bunch of other stores, who knows what we could accomplish?"
"I... I don't know. This sounds like a bad idea. I'm already in a bunch of trouble with my dad as it is. If he found out about any of this, he might... I don't know... disown me."
Stan looked at her for a moment before looking down somewhat empathetically. "Yeah, and I know how that feels… I guess it's your choice in the end," he admitted before looking back at her hopefully. "But just know that I definitely saw something in you today, Wendy. Something I didn't know you had. You have so much potential here to do amazing things with your level of skill. That's what I think. That's what I believe."
Wendy couldn't believe how much confidence Stan was putting into the idea of her becoming a pro getaway driver. When it came to driving her own dad around, she had to deal with constant nagging whenever she made any little mistake on the road. Yet, she had just driven in one of the craziest ways she had ever driven in her whole life and she was getting praised for it by her former boss.
And while she was hesitant about the criminal image associated with becoming a getaway driver, she had to admit that what she had just done made her feel the freest she had been since her expulsion. A feeling that she had been missing for the longest time. The feeling of rebellion and doing what she wanted, seemingly without consequence.
It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and it was definitely a feeling that she didn't want to go away so soon.
But would it really benefit her? Would she gain anything from doing this besides making things worse between herself and her dad? Was becoming a potential criminal really worth it?
Those were things she wondered about that held her back from being able to really decide. But the decision became easier as her rebellious side began to take mental priority after being given a small taste of what it clearly wanted more of. The risk was still a fear, but it was starting to mean less to her.
She looked over at Stan and grinned. "Alright. I think I'll give it a shot…"
"Yes! Now we're talking!" Stan shouted excitedly as he raised his hand up to her, which she returned with a high-five. "Now come on, kid. We have history to make…"
If you know about that one scrapped plotline that Alex Hirsch mentioned a long while back, you can probably figure out what inspired the Stan and Wendy plot. The idea of developing the bond between the two has always been something that I've wanted to see, and so this episode was a chance for me to do so. Hope you enjoy how it plays out.
-Absolute Rift
(Chapter updated as of March 16, 2024)