Return to Gravity Falls

      It all began from nervousness and sister, sleeping on his shoulder. Dipper was sitting in the bus to Gravity Falls, trembling from excitement and looking at the trees passing by the window. They hadn’t been to Gravity Falls in five years! Dipper could barely holding himself from starting to shake his leg in excitement. He was kinda envious of his sister now. She poured out all her energy in the first hour of the trip, making a wild run with Waddles all over the bus, after which she shared her plans for this summer with the driver without a break. In the end, Dipper had to take Mabel to their place, and only there the girl first searched her entire seat, trying to find treasures, and then passed out on her brother’s shoulder. Waddles, following the example, slept on her lap.       Dipper chuckled a little nervously and squeezed the fabric of his jeans. He had been waiting for this trip for so long… And now, when he halfway to this little town of unsolved secrets, it was very hard for him to sit still. He could feel the cover of his own journal lying in his backpack. This blue-covered book with a thin silver border and picture of a pine tree, just like on his old cap, was given to him by Mabel at the end of that first summer in Gravity Falls. Dipper snuggled closer to the back of the seat and, consequently, to the journal. The book was almost empty now. It contained only a few pages that Dipper copied for himself from Ford’s old journals, considering them the most intimate. He couldn’t wait to get there and immerse himself in the mysteries of Gravity Falls: meet with the gnomes and finally find out why they need these pointy hats; explore the hiding place where the eighth and a half president of the United States used to wait for his release; sing the songs of BABBA with Multi-bear; and add new notes to his journal.       Waddles snored loudly in his sleep, scaring the hell out of Dipper, who was lost in thought. Slightly familiar landscapes were already flashing outside the window. Dipper stared wide-eyed at the forest flickering outside the glass, and childhood memories flashed through his mind, frame by frame. Suddenly, for a second, it seemed to Pines that a small man in a red cap was crawling along the tree that the bus had just passed. The guy smiled happily from ear to ear and lightly poked his sister in the side:       “Hey, Mabel, wake up! We are almost there.”       “Huh?” The girl opened her eyes and yawned, rubbing her sleepy face. “We’re close?”       Dipper nodded. He’d already gotten up to get his and his sister’s bags, even though they were probably still fifteen or twenty minutes away from arrival, but sitting still was incredibly difficult and he needed to do something.       “Great! I finally get to see Candy and Grenda, woo hoo!” Mabel clapped her hands excitedly. “We’ll go on a hike with them, or maybe even on a concert! Oh no, we’ll have a sleepover! And we’ll meet up with Wendy’s friends, maybe even break into a haunted store again and cause some trouble! Have you decided on your Summerween costume yet?”       “Summerween’s still a long way off, Mabel,” Dipper smiled. “So no, I haven’t thought about it.”       “Then I’ll think something out!” The girl, bending strangely, lay down sideways on her brother’s vacant place. “Will you make a ghost costume? Or… a priest!”       Dipper raised an eyebrow at Mabel, who had fallen silent with her mouth open. Dozens of sock puppets and everything associated with them immediately popped into their heads.       “Nooo,” the twins shook their heads in unison.       “Then we’ll stick with the ghost for now!” Mabel continued. “Or we’ll make you a nerdy nerd costume. You won’t have to work on that one at all!”       “Oh, thank you… not.”       Mabel laughed loudly. The bus stopped abruptly, twins gasped and nearly fell over, when the driver said boredly:        “Gravity Falls, final stop.”       Grabbing her now-not-a-piglet (Dipper always marveled at how Mabel never got tired of carrying the heavy Waddles), the girl raced to the exit, dumping all the bags on her brother. He had no choice but to sling his sister’s backpack over the shoulder and grab two more bags in addition to his own.       “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” Mabel squealed, jumping down from the steps of the transport. She was immediately greeted with hugs.       “Dudes, you’ve arrived!” Soos’s voice rang out. Dipper smiled happily at the boy.       “Hi, Soos!”       “So-o-o-o-o-os!” “Mabel’s voice sounded muffled, as the girl spoke with her whole face buried in her friend. “I’m so glad to see you!”       Five years later, the new Mr. Mystery hadn’t changed much: Soos was a little taller than Dipper remembered, his hair had grown a bit longer, now sticking out from under his cap. Instead of his question mark T-shirt, he was wearing a dark green sleeveless shirt with a picture of a kitten chewing on its paw, and his shorts had been replaced by light, loose pants. Overall, it was still the same Soos — a little more mature and a little more serious, but just as kind and funny.       “Come on, dudes, everyone’s been waiting!” he smiled, taking Dipper’s bags. “I have so much to tell you! These past few years have been something!”       All the way home, Soos told twins about the changes in the Mystery Shack: about the new exhibits he and Melody had made, about the renovations in several rooms — but Soos assured them that everything in the attic was the same — and about how the Stans were bringing chaos into the measured lives of the Shack’s residents. Mabel laughed.       “Don’t worry, Soos, I’ll help the uncles cause chaos! I’m the goddess of chaos!” She laughed contentedly and lifted Waddles over her head. “We’ll wreck everything, won’t we, my dear?”       Waddles grunted in agreement.       “Yes, but I would be more careful with the destruction, Mabel. After all, Soos’s grandmother lives with us now.” said her brother.       “Oh, she’s nice!” their friend assured them. “And she’ll bake you dinosaur-shaped cookies.”       Dipper sighed. He had no doubt that Abuelita was nice, but he really didn’t want to cause anyone any trouble. Yes, he and Mabel were grown up now, and they don’t misbehave as much as they used to (at least they’d agreed to play mini-golf outside now) but his sister was still that troublemaker, fond of grabbing things with her grappling hook and starting spontaneous dance parties with music blasting at three in the morning.       “And yet we will behave decently,” the guy insisted. “Right, Mabel?”       The twin simply waved off her boring brother and enthusiastically began telling Soos about all the boyfriends she’d had. Dipper, who knew every single one of Mabel’s love affairs down to the last detail, stopped listening and became lost in thought. He’d spent the entire year trying to persuade his mother to let him stay in Gravity Falls after summer break as Ford’s apprentice. Luckily, his uncle’s twelve degrees were a powerful argument, and she finally agreed to let Dipper study with him.       Dipper glanced sideways at Mabel, who was smiling. They had discussed the matter, and fortunately for him, his sister supported his decision, but she hadn’t yet decided what she’d do after the holidays, figuring that by the end of the summer, she’d surely come up with an idea. Dipper had no doubt that over the course of three months, she’d come up with over a trillion ideas about what to do after the holidays, and she’d eventually decide to implement at least half of them.       Finally, they reached the Mystery Shack. The twins sighed in unison: it had hardly changed in all these years! The same slanted signs, the fallen “S” lying right in front of the store entrance, several bizarre monsters and an ugly stone statue that looked a bit like Stanley Pines stood on the porch. The excited voices of friends and family drifted from the house. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other with excitement: right here and now their second best summer of their lives was beginning!       “Hey, guys, close your eyes,” Soos stopped the twins at the porch, preventing them from going inside. “You’re in for a surprise!”       Dipper, suppressing a shaky sigh, covered his face with his hands. Out of the corner of his ear, he heard his sister squealing. Plunged into darkness, Dipper now trusted only Soos’s large hands as they guided the twins inside. As soon as the boys crossed the threshold, silence fell over the cabin: not a whisper, not a breath, only Soos’s heavy footsteps and the creaking of the floorboards echoed through the room. Eventually, they came to a stop. Dipper, actively recalling the layout of the shack, assumed that they were currently in the room where Uncle Stan had once hosted a party.       “Can I open my eyes now?” Mabel asked. She was stomping her foot impatiently, squinting and holding Waddles in her arms. “I’m bursting with curiosity!”       “On the count of three,” Soos announced. “One, two…”       “Three!”       Dipper opened his eyes to such a loud cheer from everyone gathered that he nearly went deaf. Mabel, who let out a squeal and dropped her piglet, rushed to hug the first person she saw, Gruncle Stan.       “I’ve missed you so much!” she exclaimed.       Next to Stan stood Ford, and behind them were all of Dipper and Mabel’s friends. Wendy, wearing Dipper’s old cap, waved at the twins and managed to kick Robby in the side to make him wave as well. Candy and Grenda were there and they rushed to hug Mabel as soon as she let go of her uncle. Behind Robby and Wendy were Thompson, Lee, Tambry, Nate, and surprisingly, Pacifica.       “Hey everyone!” Dipper smiled. “How’s it going?”       The next three hours blended into one crowded and noisy scene: Dipper was surrounded by Wendy’s gang, clapping him on the shoulder, ruffling his hair, and frequently exclaiming how much he’d grown; then Pacifica was hugging him and Mabel, who had appeared too abruptly next to him; Ford was whispering something in his ear about new monsters and upcoming training; Stan was telling stories about his and his brother’s journey; and Soos was recounting funny moments at work at the Mystery Shack. And all this discordant noise was drowned out by Mabel’s happy squeals and the shouts of Candy and Grenda. The latter’s voice had become much more pleasant and melodic over the years, though still low. For years, Mabel had constantly exchanged letters with her friends. Letters from Candy and Grenda filled an entire closet and kept spilling out.       Dipper sighed and tried to focus on the stories of Wendy, Lee, Nate, and the others. It turns out that right after finishing school, the guys all went on a road trip around the country. The whole group, having convinced Thompson’s mom to let them borrow the car a week after graduation, first went to Astoria, where they spent a month fishing and kayaking, and then headed to Hood River and Jacksonville. Dipper nearly cried with laughter when Wendy told him that Thompson, while visiting a water park in Jacksonville, got stuck upside down on one of the slides, and that one of the kayak rides ended with Lee and Nate managing to crash theirs and almost drowning the others.       “Yeah, it was fun,” Robbie nodded, hugging his girlfriend by the shoulders. “We also learned one important thing on this trip: don’t let Lee near the fish frying over the fire.”       “Hey!”       Dipper turned away from the boys' playful fight. Just then, Mabel jumped on him.       “Isn’t that great, Dip?” the twin was grinning from ear to ear. “Candy, Grenda, Pacifica, and I agreed to go to the mall tomorrow! And the uncles planned a day of family fun for Saturday!       “I hope it’s not fishing this time,” Dipper smiled.       “Nooo, Grunkle Stan said he’s fed up with fishing!”       The twins laughed.       “What are you doing tomorrow?” the girl asked and Dipper shrugged in answer.       “I’ll either run through the forest looking for strange creatures, or work with Grandpa Ford, I don’t know for sure yet.”       “Boo, that sounds so Dipper-like!”       Wendy approached the twins and Dipper, looking at the grown-up girl, admired her beauty and coolness, just as he had in childhood. Wendy hid her red hair under a cap and tucked her red-and-blue checkered flannel shirt into ripped jeans, making her look simple and awesome. She exuded confidence and cheerfulness, and looking at her, you can’t help but feel more confident and cheerful yourself.       “Want to go for a walk in the woods with Soos and me? The guys are getting ready to leave — they have to go to work tomorrow, and I still want to hang out with you,” she tugged at the brim of Dipper’s hat and winked. “Just like old times.”

***

      The guys walked aimlessly, heading deeper into the forest. Mabel’s bright blue sweater, covered in glitter and sequins, sparkled in the sunlight and made sunbeams, which Dipper noticed were sometimes chased by gnomes. His sister pulled marshmallows, lollipops, and chocolates out of her pockets and immediately put them in her mouth. Wendy walked next to Dipper, occasionally nudging him, while Soos, walking ahead, told him about meeting the Snowman last winter.       “He ate all the decorations from our Christmas tree, can you imagine? Now I don’t think we’ll be decorating a tree in the forest.”       “He was just hungry!” Mabel smiled, waving a candy wrapper. “You should have treated him to some salad or whatever he eats.”       “Probably eats Christmas decorations,” Wendy chuckled, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “But come on, guys, what was going on with you? We corresponded, sure, but you probably didn’t tell us everything.”       “Nothing particularly interesting,” Dipper dismissed, watching the gnome chase a sunbeam. “Mabel once took dance classes for a year, then went to drama school, and then…”       “I was the best in everything!” the twin laughed. “And at dance school, I met such a hottie…”       “You mean the one who loved wearing tights?”       “Hey, those are actually leggings! They’re comfortable for dancing!”       Wendy grinned.       “I’m sure those leggings were what made him look so hot, huh?”       “Yeah!” Mabel smiled and winked conspiratorially at her friend. “He had such a…”       “I don’t want to hear it!” Dipper screamed, covering his ears with his hands. The girls burst into laughter.       “So, what have you been up to, Dip?” Soos asked.       “I decided to learn to draw so I could supplement my journal entries with drawings, like unkle Ford,” Pines replied. “And I’ve been practicing editing a little, but I’m not very good at it yet.”       “He spent most of his free time in his room drawing, so boring!” Mabel waved her arms, and candy wrappers fell out of her sleeves. “But he drew such a gorgeous portrait of me, you should have seen it! A perfect replica!”       “Well, definitely not perfect…” Dipper muttered, kicking the grass in embarrassment.       “Don’t be modest!” Wendy punched him in the shoulder. “Will you draw me?”       “Me too!” Soos beamed. Dipper smiled and nodded.       “I will.”       “Oh!” Mabel yelped, suddenly stopping dead in her tracks. “Wendy, remember? There are unicorns around here somewhere!”       The girls winced at the same time.       “Hmm, I wouldn’t want to meet them.”       Dipper looked around: they were standing in a clearing strewn with stones etched with squiggles. A stream ran nearby, and the grass was covered in pink flowers. Sometimes fairies flew from one stone to another. Dipper noticed that the stones were not scattered randomly; they formed a circle, like Stonehenge.       The boy remembered his sister’s story about meeting unicorns: these beautiful creatures turned out to be real jerks, and all the stories about how only a pure-hearted person could touch their hair turned out to be nonsense. Ford was furious when he heard this, but when he learned that Mabel had punched a unicorn in the nose, he laughed like crazy. And Mabel herself wasn’t so crazy about unicorns after that adventure.       “I’d like to see a unicorn!” Soos sighed dreamily. “Especially the one that helped us fight Bill!”       Wendy clapped Soos on the shoulder and shook her head.       “Believe me, my friend, she may have seemed nice back then, but that Gibberish, or whatever her name is, is actually a real bitch.”       “Celestabellebethabelle,” Mabel blurted out. “Yeah, she turned out to be completely different from what I imagined.”       Wendy pulled her shirt off her shoulders, spread it on the grass, and lay down on top of it. Looking up at her friends, she winked, “Well, what are you standing there for? Come sit next to me!”       Soos immediately dropped to the grass and Mabel, announcing that she’d join him soon, ran off to pick some flowers growing in the clearing. Dipper settled between Wendy and Soos. The three of them silently listened as Mabel giggled and ran around, occasionally exclaiming, “Wow, what a beautiful flower! No, this one’s better!” Dipper closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The clean scent of the forest made his head spin a little, and the rustling of the leaves lulled him. He felt so calm at that moment that he could have fallen asleep right there.       “I missed you,” Dipper sighed, addressing either his friends or the forest and the town.             Wendy chuckled softly and poked his friend in the shoulder.       “Me too.”       “Yeah, dude, it’s been so boring without you!” Soos said, spreading his arms wide.       Dipper smiled. City life, after a summer in Gravity Falls, had also seemed a bit bland and boring to him. There high school had been thrust upon him along with teachers (who were boring even for him), his parents' quarrels and divorce, and exams. He’d wanted to escape to this strange town, where the worst thing was not knowing the author’s identity by the end of the summer, so badly that his sister had once called him crazy. But then she’d laughed and added that he is just like her.       Mabel, smiling from ear to ear, loomed over the trio, blocking the sun’s rays. She held pink flower crowns in her hands.       “Here, guys, these are for you!” She plopped down on the grass next to her brother and draped a woven accessory over each of their heads. “They’re so fragrant! And there’s a caterpillar in one of them! Isn’t that great?”       Dipper grinned, thinking that with his luck, he’d be the one with the caterpillar.       “How wonderful, thanks, Mabel!” Soos smiled, adjusting the crown. “Can you weave another one for Babulita?”       “What’s the question, of course!”       A group of fairies flew past the group of friends, giggling. One of them circled Mabel’s sweater briefly, sprinkling it with pink glitter. Mabel sighed in admiration.       “Hey, Dipper, look!” They seem to like my sweater!”       Two more fairies fluttered nearby, sniffing briefly, then darted into the sweater pocket, pulling out a candy for each of them.       “And your candies,” Dipper chuckled. Mabel just laughed.       “Oh, come on, I don’t mind.”       “I don’t like these fairies,” Wendy muttered, brushing aside one that had dropped glitter right down the neck of her black T-shirt. “Maybe we should get out of here? They’re just too… pink.”       “Yeah, they’re pretty!” Soos nodded, eyeing the fairy perched on Mabel’s shoulder. This petite girl, shrouded in a pinkish glow, kept sprinkling pink glitter onto the sleeve of Soos’s sweater and his nose.       “Okay, let’s go, or we’ll get buried in glitter,” Dipper stood up, shaking pink dust off his pants and beckoning to his friends, some of whom were watching the fairies in fascination. “Let’s go back to the Shack.”       On the way back, Mabel peppered Wendy with questions about her travels. She was interested in every detail: what the weather was like during their trip, what color car they most often encountered, how exactly the boys managed to crash their kayak, and how many photos Tambry took. Wendy, to Dipper’s surprise, was able to answer every question without much thought, but he was sure his friend didn’t actually remember such details and was simply making them up as she went along. Regardless, Mabel was delighted with her answers. Between Mabel’s questions, Soos told him about his trip to Portland and meeting Melody’s parents. To his immense relief, they turned out not to be octopuses or cyborgs, but rather nice, ordinary people who simply loved peanut butter and musicals. Soos spent the entire weekend with them on the couch, enjoying upbeat songs and delicious sandwiches.       Dipper smiled and turned to face Soos, wanting to ask what musicals they’d seen, but the question stuck in his throat when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a moose skull, sparsely covered in moss, among the green trees. Stopping, he peered deeper into the foliage: something was wandering among the pine and birch trunks, its body was kinda humanoid, covered in tree bark, and with the skull in place of its head. It looked like a tree that had grown around the remains of a moose skeleton and learned to walk. Its antlers, huge and heavy, were hung with flowers and from its empty eye socket peered out a gray mouse. The strange creature, likely sensing someone else’s gaze, stopped and turned toward the stunned boy. Dipper was amazed when the monster raised its only arm, which looked more like a huge branch covered in flowers, and waved at him, then stepped behind the nearest tree and disappeared.

9-20 23-1-19 6-15-18-5-19-20

      “Hey, bro-bro, are you coming?” Mabel’s voice brought Dipper out of his stupor. He waved to his sister, showing that he would catch up now, but did not take his eyes off the tree behind which the unusual creature had just disappeared. The young man practically squealed with delight: in his first few hours in Gravity Falls, he’d encountered an anomaly that even Uncle Ford hadn’t written about in his old journals. After waiting a few more seconds, hoping it would show itself, Dipper finally caught up with his friends.       “Hey, dude, everything okay?” Soos asked worriedly, peering into his friend’s stunned face. Dipper nodded.       “Yeah, I just noticed a monster I hadn’t seen before in my uncle’s diaries,” he sighed, feeling immense disappointment at having left his backpack with his journal in the Shack. Soos nodded thoughtfully.       “Yeah, Mr. Pines says a lot of new creatures have appeared after Weirdmageddon.” Soos nodded thoughtfully.       “Oh, really?” Mabel asked, surprised. “Have you seen them yet? Are there any mermaids among them? And werewolves?”       “There are so many monsters in this forest, and only your uncle can tell you for sure which ones were there before Weirdmageddon and which weren’t,” Wendy snorted. Dipper smiled, feeling proud of his uncle. Mabel, noticing his smile, nudged her brother.       “So, you want to know all the weirdos in this town by heart, too, huh, Dipper?” she laughed.       Pines chuckled nudging his sister in return.       “Of course. But from me you would be able to find out the exact number of werewolves in Gravity Falls.”       “Oh, that’s different!” Mabel said, hanging on her brother’s neck with a satisfied expression. “If your research helps me with my love life, you can spend all day and night on it!”       Wendy listened to the twins, laughing.       “Hey, Mabel, do you want to date a werewolf?” she asked.       “Of course! They’re so hot!” The girl immediately nodded.       “Well, here we go…” Dipper muttered, pushing his sister away from him. “They’re just huge, hairy, and not cute at all.”       “And they really like to rip toilet paper with their claws,” Soos added, frowning. Dipper giggled.       “Only minuses, basically,” Wendy concluded, winking at a pouting Mabel. “Why the fascination with werewolves?”       “Oh, she watched some TV show where these not-really-wolves were one of the main characters, and she’s caught a hyperfixation on them ever since.”       “Oh, stop it!” Mabel stuck her toung out at brother. “And, really, this series is legendary! It has such a… Plot…” The girl closed her eyes dreamily, and Dipper get that she thinks not about plot at all at once.       “She bought all the books on which this series was based, but didn’t even open nether of it.” grumbled he, remembering that these books occupied all of the shelf what he planed to use for his textbooks.       “I brought them here, for you to know! Candy, Grenda and I will read them on our sleepovers.”       The flashbacks of sister’s friends staying the night in their attic passed through Dipper’s mind, and Wendy, noticing his expression, clapped his shoulder as a sign of support:       “Don’t worry, man, I’m sure it won’t be as it used to,” and after little pause she added, grinning “Your sister’s sleepovers now will be much worse.”       “Oh, really reassuring, thanks” sarcastically answered Dipper and then continued “I just really hope we will have separate bedrooms.”       “Oh, I hope so too!” Mabel said and poked her brother in his side again “If it’ll be so, I will be able to make scary ghost-like noises under your door at night!”       Finaly, the Mystery Shack’s roof showed up from behind the trees. Like a blind eye, attic’s triangular window was looking at the group of friends. Soos came closer and put his arm over Dipper’s shoulders, happily announcing:       “Speaking of rooms! Misters Pines and I’ve decided that you, Dipper, will sleep at the attic, and Mabel will take the new bedroom near the recreation room.”       “Woo hoo!” Mabel threw up her arms triumphantly. “I’ll cover the walls with my posters and no one will ask me to take them down! And I’ll decorate the ceiling with sparkles! And Waddles will get his own bed!       “Isn’t it too much to have a whole bed for the pig?” Wendy asked in surprise.       “Nope!” actively shook her head Mabel.       “It’s just that every time Waddles sleeps with Mabel he pushes her out of the bed.” explained Dipper. “But agreed. A bed for a pig really is too much.”       “Phhht” replied Mabel and grabbed Soos by the arm, dragging him into the house. “Come on, Soos! Show me my room! I can’t wait to decorate it!”       The two of them went into the Shack. Wendy put her hand on Dipper’s shoulder and stopped him in the doorway. Glancing at his friend, Pines noted that they were now the same height. He no longer had to tilt his head back to look into the girl’s green eyes. Wendy grinned and pulled her earflap hat off Dipper’s head.       “Exchange!” said she happily, putting his cap on top of his head. “Well, it’s more familiar this way.” She put on her hat and smiled at her friend.       “Thanks,” Dipper laughed.       “Hey, Dip, I heard from Mr. Pines that you’re staying in Gravity Falls to live. Is that true?” asked she, leaning against the doorframe.       “Yes,” nodded Pines “unkle Ford and I settled that question with my mom a month ago.”       “That’s awesome, dude,” the girl grinned. “And how did Mabel react to the news?”       “She gave me a big hug and said she was happy for her nerdy brother,” Pines smiled, adjusting his cap that had slipped over his eyes. Wendy clapped her friend on the shoulder.       “Great! Glad everything’s okay,” she glanced quickly at her watch and, clapping Dipper on the shoulder again, said goodbye. “I’ll be running. I wanted to stop by the cafe with my family, so bye! See you later.”       Dipper waved her off and walked into the house. Before he could close the door, something slammed into the top of his head. Startled, Dipper quickly ran his hand over his head, but felt nothing. But when he looked at his palm, it was covered in bright pink glitter, shimmering faintly in the dim light of the corridor. The young man quickly removed his cap. Where he felt the blow, the spot was adorned with a pink glow.       “Very funny, Mabel,” Dipper muttered, shaking off his cap. But, contrary to his expectations, his sister’s muffled laughter didn’t ring out nearby. Rolling his eyes, Dipper walked into the living room, hoping to catch her hiding behind the couch, but she wasn’t there either. Instead, two fairies were there. They’d ripped open the bag of sweets, which Mabel was eating on their walk, and were flying around the room, scattering candy wrappers and glitter. Dipper stopped dead in his tracks.       Heavy footsteps were heard behind him. Soos appeared next to the boy, armed with a mop.       “Mr. Pines, there are two more!” he shouted. Uncle Stan’s raspy voice came from the second floor:       “Beat them, those creatures, before they ruin my whole shack!” Soos, raising the mop like a spear, rushed at the fairies, who only giggled and, flying apart, showered both Soos and the TV with glitter. And Dipper overheard his sister’s indignant voice from the second floor, reproaching her uncle for being excessively cruel to beautiful supernatural creatures.       The broom handle Soos was swinging was already glistening with a bright pink substance that looked more like blood. Dipper, like his sister, had no desire to kill mythical creatures and decided to help his friend get rid of the fairies without unnecessary bloodshed. Screams and stomping could be heard from the second floor; apparently, a fight with the fairies was going on there too. Wondering where they could have come from, Dipper, brushing away glitter which flew into his nose and eyes, ran to the nearest window and opened it.       “Soos, can you make them fly outside?” he asked.       “I’ll try that, dude!” Soos, swinging his wooden weapon, tried to push the fairy toward the window, but she suddenly bared her teeth, flew up to him, and quickly bit him on the nose. With a short cry, Soos dropped the mop and pressed his hands to his face. “That hurts!”       Dipper took off his cap and swung it, hoping for luck. He tried to catch the nearest fairy with it. She, preoccupied with Soos, didn’t notice the approaching cap and got right into the trap.       “Ha-ha, got it!” “Dipper exclaimed triumphantly and shook the fairy out the window like an annoying insect, immediately slamming it shut. But the second fairy, clearly wanting to avenge her friend, squealed menacingly and threw a glitter bomb into the guy’s eyes. He was immediately blinded by something pink enveloping his eyes and causing a strong burning sensation. Dipper squint, dropped his cap, and began rubbing his watery eyes. Through the pain and screams of Soos, Stan, and Mabel, he heard a short grunt. Soos immediately fell silent. Silence reigned on the first floor. Dipper’s watery eyes barely cleared when he saw Waddles sitting on the couch, contentedly chewing something. The fairy was no longer in sight. Dipper glanced in confusion from the pig to Soos, who, leaning wearily on a mop, nodded.       “Waddles ate the fairy, dude,” he said calmly. His nose, greatly enlarged, was bright red.

***

      All the Pines were sitting at the dining table with Soos. Ford, who missed the fight with the fairies, made up for his absence by cleaning up glitter. He’d invented a small machine, very similar in appearance to a robotic vacuum cleaner, which rolled across all vertical and horizontal surfaces, collecting the glitter that had coated the floor, some walls, furniture, and the clothes of those who were getting rid of the fairies in a pink layer. Dipper felt a slight tingling sensation as the device rolled over his back, collecting the pink dust. Soos’s grandmother, staying in the living room and keeping Ford’s car company, was vacuuming the television.       “And yet,” Stan muttered discontentedly, handing Soos an ice pack. “How in my house appeared these little flying…”       “Stan,” Ford sighed reproachfully.       “…Fairies”       Mabel crumpled the hem of her sweater, a little embarrassed.       “Well, as I understand it, they were in my pocket.”       “Wait,” Dipper said, surprised. “Are you saying you dragged them home from that clearing?”       “I didn’t do it on purpose! I’m just as much of a victim as you are. They ate all my candy, actually,” the girl pouted, offended.       “Oh, I didn’t know fairies loved sweets so much,” the scientist said thoughtfully, taking out his notebook. Stan, looking at this, simply rolled his eyes. Soos, touching his nose, which was wet from the slowly melting ice, sighed.       “I really hope my nose doesn’t fall off or something.”       Dipper gave the dejected guy a reassuring pat on the shoulder.       “Don’t worry,” Mabel said, supporting her friend. “Even if something happens to it, uncle Ford can restore everything to the way it was!”       Stanford nodded, still busily writing the pages of his diary, and Soos smiled broadly.       “Thanks, guys.”       After a few more grumbles, Grunkle Stan began preparing dinner. Tossing sausages into the frying pan, he warned the twins:       “Starting tomorrow, you’ll be cooking for yourselves, suckers.”       “Stanley, don’t be rude,” Ford sighed.       “That goes for you too,” the old man muttered, casting a disgruntled glance at his brother. “Even though your food looks more like a pile of…”       Stan paused briefly, sighing heavily. Dipper, exchanging a glance with a smiling Mabel, only laughed.       “It’s okay, Grunkle Stan, of course we’ll cook,” he said. “I’m good at making lasagna.”       “Oh, and I can make pancakes in the morning!” Mabel proclaimed, clapping her hands. “My pancakes are the best!”

***

      After dinner, Dipper began unpacking. He and Mabel decided to make a competition to see who could decorate their room better. Of course, he knew Mabel would win, but it was a pleasure to decorate his own space, especially knowing he’d be living there for a long time.       He left his bed — the actual bed, not just part of it — in the same corner where it had stood five years ago. He hung several posters above his bed: an “I WANT TO BELIEVE” poster with the last word crossed out and changed to “KNOW,” a poster of characters from the TV series “Unnatural” and a miniature image of Nikola Tesla, with the caption “1-2-3-4”. Dipper hadn’t forgotten his old trophies either: the pterodactyl claw once again occupied its place of honor at the head of the bed. Next to it sat the dreamcatcher Mabel had made him two years ago. At the desk beneath the triangular window, he placed a chair he had discreetly stolen from the first floor.       Dipper hadn’t touched the empty part of the room where Mabel’s bed had once stood, but he planned to put a large bookcase and an armchair there. The boy had long dreamed of having his own reading nook and now hoped to make it come true. Dipper thought it would be great to add another wall there and create some kind of secret room, but he doubted Grunkle Stan would be happy with such a renovation.       Having laid out his clothes in the closet and scattered his books and notebooks on the table, Dipper looked around his possessions. The large attic, which was no longer cluttered after Abuelita had moved in, looked rather empty with this pitiful pile of furniture, but the young man knew that he still had plenty of time to fix it. Slapping his thighs, Pines grabbed the journal from the table and headed to his sister’s room to see what she’d managed to do there and declare her victory. But getting into his twin’s room was impossible: Mabel had clearly decided to completely rearrange the bedroom, and the doorway was blocked by a closet. Shouting something about moving it tomorrow, Mabel sent her brother on his way.       Not at all upset, Dipper settled down on the first floor. Instead of Stan’s favorite yellow chair, there was now a wide sofa, also yellow, on which someone had thrown an old blanket. Next to the dinosaur skull stood a small, vintage blue armchair. Dipper assumed this was Abuelita’s favorite spot. He curled up on the sofa, turned on the TV so it played quietly in the background, and buried himself in his journal. He wanted to sketch as much detail of the monster he saw today as possible. Dipper, running his pencil over the pages, carefully recalled every detail, from the single branch-like arm covered in flowers to the empty eye sockets from which mice sometimes peered out.       Dipper spent several hours sketching. The rustling sounds from the rooms on the second floor ceased, and it was completely dark outside. Dipper leaned closer to the pages — the light from the TV was dim, but he didn’t want to turn on the lamp. Suddenly, the floorboards creaked. Dipper flinched.       “Oh, you got scared, kid,” Stan chuckled. Dipper turned to his uncle and exhaled. He glanced at his almost formally dressed grandfather and, surprised, asked:       “Where are you going? It’s late, isn’t it?”       Grunkle Stan, standing in the shadows, merely waved him off.       “The call of nature. Want to come with me?” Dipper grimaced and shook his head, and his uncle gave a raspy laugh.       “That’s it,” he muttered, going outside. The slightly open door let in a fresh night breeze and the distant hoot of an owl. “Don’t stay too long, nerd.”