Chapter Text
“-can’t believe you two!”
All was not peaceful in the Pines family car. A woman ranted at the two children in the back seat, one boy and one girl. The man driving seemed irked, but whether it was at the children or the woman was tough to tell, even for him.
“You know, most parents never get called to the principal's office,” the woman. “Most kids don’t get in that much trouble. But no! You two weren’t happy just being called in once, or twice, or even three times! Five times! In one week! I’m amazed you only got suspended after the crap you both pulled!”
“Hey,” the man said, trying for a diffusing tone, “if nothing else, you gotta admire their creativity. I never would’ve thought to use a milk carton like that.”
“ Stop encouraging them! ” the woman shrieked.
“Geez, I’m just trying to lighten the mood,” the man responded.
“Well I’m glad you can be so nonchalant about all the medical bills we’re going to have to pay!” the woman retorted. “After all, we’re just made of money, aren’t we?”
“Well maybe if you got a real job like me, we might have some more cash,” the man grumbled back.
“Screenwriting is a real job!” the woman hissed. “One that pays well-”
“Unless it’s a dry season,” the man said mockingly, cutting off her usual line. “I’ll start caring about that excuse when we can cash it in at the bank.”
The children looked at each other, their conflicting feelings evident on their faces. When their parents fought it always got nasty real quick, and could last for hours. Their shouting matches were lasting longer recently, and now they didn’t always wait until they were home to start. But, if nothing else, at least their parents’ rage was directed at each other and not the kids.
The girl shot her brother a sad smile, her meaning clear. Despite the colliding train wrecks that were their parents, at least the twins had each other.
When the car arrived at the family of four’s suburban home, they all got out, the parents still arguing. The twins quickly darted up to their rooms quickly closing themselves in as their parents’ fight began escalating. Even from behind their doors and the floor below, their parents’ shouting could be heard. The wooden barriers muffled the noise so that neither child could make out the actual words, but the meaning was clear. Rather than risk leaving their rooms and subsequently getting dragged into the arguing below (the doors and floor were so creaky stealth was basically impossible), they called each other up on their cell phones.
“Hey Bro-bro,” the sister greeted.
“You doing okay, Mabel?” the brother asked, concern not often shown creeping into his voice.
“Okay as ever,” Mabel answered, cringing at the increasing volume from downstairs. “... Do you think we were too hard on those guys at school, Dipper?”
Dipper frowned. “They got what they had coming.”
Dipper and Mabel Pines had a bit of a reputation at their middle school. They were the troublemakers, the “ruffians” a teacher had called them once. They had gotten into several fights in elementary school, but had mostly stayed out of trouble the past few years. They both worked harder to keep their grades up so the teachers wouldn’t have a problem with them. Dipper even channeled his energy and aggressiveness into something positive, becoming the star of his middle school’s track team (the only sport where he COULDN’T start a fight), and Mabel was the best all around player on the school's baseball team. Problem was, the stigma of being the school delinquents stayed with the twins, and neither could really make many friends because of it.
This didn’t really bother Dipper all that much, what with his massive social anxiety and all, but Mabel hated it. The female twin was very much an extrovert, and craved social interaction. Unfortunately, all the girls at school either thought she was weird, were scared of her, or both. It didn’t help that she was starting to go through her “boy crazy phase” as Dipper liked to call it, but every boy at school was intimidated by her. As such, the twins were outcasts, social pariahs. The only meaningful interactions they had were with each other. This meant they were as thick as thieves, always together.
So naturally some idiot decided to start messing with them.
That was how the week started it’s downhill spiral. On Monday, some tough guy on the football team decided it would make him look cool if he screwed with the scary kids everyone was afraid of. Dipper and Mabel managed to keep their cool, but verbally tore into the guy, humiliating him in front of the entire cafeteria. That got them in trouble for some very inappropriate mentionings of certain parts of the jock’s body and how inadequate those parts were.
On Tuesday the guy returned with a few other members of the football team, and tried again. This resulted in a repeat of the prior day, but since Dipper figured this might happen, the twins had prep time to ready their best material. Suffice it to say, if Monday got them in trouble, Tuesday was a whole other level.
Wednesday was dodge ball day in gym. And since the jerks apparently stole all their bullying plans from crappy Disney Channel shows, they figured that the game would be the perfect chance to get back at the twins. Suffice it to say, things didn’t go as planned, and the gang of jocks each ended up nursing black eyes by the end of the day (all the left eyes, because sniping doesn’t count if you don’t call the shot). Principal’s office again.
Thursday was back to the cafeteria, where the bullies tried threatening them. Dipper proceeded to toss his mashed potatoes in the lead guy’s face. A food fight soon erupted afterward, and the twins were left to clean it up.
By Friday it was apparent that these guys were exceedingly stupid, as they came back to try again. Dipper and Mabel were about to tell them off, when the lead guy made a crack about how much time they spent together. “Same table, same classes, same house, same bed .” That caused Dipper to finally snap. He quickly drove his fist into the jerkwad’s face, Mabel springing in to back up her bro almost instantly. The ensuing curbstomp was legendary, brutal, and more than enough to get them suspended.
“They had every opportunity to grow up and stop,” Dipper said. “They didn’t, so we let ‘em have it.”
Mabel winced at the increasingly loud shouting from their parents. “I know, but-”
“They would’ve found another reason to scream their heads off at each other,” Dipper interrupted, already knowing where his sister was going. “It’s not our fault they can’t talk for two minutes without yelling.”
Mabel sighed. “... Yeah.”
A silence pervaded the two, their parents fighting a backdrop of white noise. Dipper swallowed uncomfortably, not really sure what to say. He’d never been very good at conversations, but he felt he needed to say something for Mabel’s sake.
“Dipper?” Mabel spoke softly, grabbing her brother’s attention.
“Yeah sis?”
Mabel’s answer was stalled by a sudden crash coming from downstairs. Both their parents were still screaming at the top of their lungs, and a few more shattering sounds could be heard. Probably the china, Dipper noted to himself. Their mother had recently begun taking her rage out on the set given to them by their father’s parents.
“... What’s going to happen to us?”
Dipper gripped the white sleeve of his letterman jacket with his unoccupied hand. “I… I don’t know…”
Shortly after, the two hung up and went to bed, the constant sound of their parents’ fighting coloring their dreams with darkened shades.
… retaL…
Dipper was gently eased back into the world of consciousness by the chirping of birds and the shine of the mid-morning sun. Despite the peaceful awakening, he groaned at being brought out of his haze. As unpleasant as his dreams tended to be, there was always the chance of them shifting into something better. No such luck in the real world.
He checked the time. Alarm clock said 10:23, and it was a Saturday. His dad would already be gone, as working on Saturdays were a fairly common occurrence for him. He always said it was to get more money for them, but Dipper figured after nights like the last it was to get away from his wife. And there was no way Dipper’s mom would be up this early when she was off work, so the house was probably safe to go through now.
Dipper rose from his bed and grabbed his letterman jacket, putting it on over his sleeping clothes as he went downstairs. Yeah, he didn’t NEED it, especially this close to summer, but he liked wearing it. Mabel would often joke about it being like a second skin with how much he wore it, and she wasn’t exactly wrong. It made him feel… better. He didn’t really know how to describe it. Maybe “reassured” was the right word? It was proof to him that he could be more than the hot-headed kid that got into fights a lot. Yeah, it was a little bit big on him, but it wasn’t really noticeable, and he knew he’d fill it out properly in a year or two.
‘ I should really get some patches for this thing, ’ Dipper thought as he reached the first floor. ‘ Non-school patches. No way I want to be a walking advertisement for THAT “wonderful experience”. ’
As Dipper made his way into the kitchen, he saw Mabel sweeping up. She looked up at him as he approached, and greeted him with a smile.
“Morning, Dippin’ Sauce!” Mabel said with a goofy salute as Dipper waved at her.
“What’re you doing?” Dipper asked as he went to fix himself some cereal.
“Oh, just sweeping up the plates Mom busted last night,” Mabel said as she got the last few shards into the dustpan. “Apparently no one cleaned up after the fight.”
“Do they ever?” Dipper asked.
Mabel got a sad look on her face, and Dipper immediately began mentally kicking himself. She was trying to make things better for their parents. Even if Dipper knew it was pointless, that something this simple wouldn’t fix anything, he didn’t want to take the hope away from Mabel that she could make a difference.
If he did, she would just end up like himself.
Mabel dumped the pieces of the china into the trash, put the broom and dustpan away, and proceeded to pour herself a bowl of cereal. She sat down next to Dipper at the kitchen table and began munching on her breakfast. The two ate in silence for a bit, before they heard the telltale creak from upstairs. Moments later their mother shuffled down the stairs, hair a mess and a robe haphazardly tossed over her shoulders. She walked into the kitchen with nary a greeting to her children and went straight for the coffee maker. As she step up the appliance she glanced to the now clean spot on the kitchen floor, confused in her morning haze.
She turned to her children and asked, “... Did you two do this?”
Wordlessly, Dipper stuck his thumb out, pointing at Mabel. The girl nodded with beaming grin on her face.
Their mother gave an acknowledging “humph” before turning back turning back to the coffee maker.
Mabel deflated at her mother’s complete lack of appreciation, or even interest, and seemed not relieved in the slightest that the mess had been taken care of for her. Dipper patted his sister on the shoulder, attempting to give some semblance of comfort.
The the twins hurriedly finished their cereal, trying to be done and gone before their mother could sit down with them. Both finished at the same time and moved to wash their dishes. After a quick rinse they deposited their bowls and spoons in the dishwasher and attempted to go to their rooms. Unfortunately…
“Hey,” their mother suddenly spoke as they made their way up the stairs, as if she just then realized they were leaving. “Where are you two going?”
“Room,” Mabel instantly replied.
“Need to study,” Dipper added quickly.
The twins smiled at each other. They didn’t have “twin telepathy”, or whatever crap people thought existed, but after spending so much time together, they practically could read each other’s mind sometimes. And it wasn’t like they were BS-ing an excuse. Their suspension was a week long, and the week following was finals week. They did need to study.
“Nice try,” their mom countered. “You both are suspended, which means you’re grounded too. You’ll have plenty of time to study this week. For now, the bathrooms need to be cleaned.”
The twins sighed, but nodded their heads. It was worth a shot, at least. They continued walking up the stairs, preparing to get the cleaning supplies, but their mom wasn’t finished yet.
“Hold on,” she said, grabbing her kids’ attention.
The two turned back and looked as their mother took a deep breath, trying to compose herself.
“So,” she started, “your father and I have some… things we need to work out. It’ll be better for everyone if we do this ourselves, so you both are going to be spending the summer away.”
Dipper and Mabel each looked surprised, with one looking a bit more hurt than the other.
“We’ve arranged for you to stay with your father’s uncle, Stanford,” their mother continued. “He lives up in Oregon, in a town called Gravity Falls. Your father and I hope you both can use this time to reflect, and maybe get your acts together. It’s a miracle the school is letting you back in time for finals, and if either of you pull something like this again you’ll be looking at expulsion, maybe criminal charges. So yeah.”
With that, she unceremoniously shooed her children away, and turned back to pouring herself some coffee.
With that hanging in the air, the twins walked upstairs, getting what they needed for chores. Dipper was mulling over what he had just heard. He was pretty sure he knew the real reason their parents wanted them out of the house for a few months, but it still kind of caught him off guard, even if he had seen it coming. And, Stanford? Dipper didn’t even know he HAD a great-uncle, and he was going to shipped off to live with the guy for three months? Dipper was too much of a realist to expect that to go well. And to top it all off- was Mabel crying?
Dipper looked and saw Mabel slumped on her knees, sniffling as wetness began to build in her eyes. His gaze softening, he knelt down next to his sister and pulled her into a side-arm hug.
“... Th-they…” Mabel sputtered out through her sobs. “... They d-don’t want us… Th-they’re s-sending us away…”
“It’s okay, Mabel,” Dipper said quietly, hugging her a bit tighter. “We’ll be okay.”
“... Th-they…” Mabel spoke sadly, “... they’re better of wi-without us…”
Dipper wished desperately that Mabel could see it was the other way around.
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