The Triangle's Deception...

Chapter 24: Pine Trees and Shooting Stars

Summer of 2012

The summer sun shone down brightly on the two children as they got off a bus, in the middle of nowhere. Well, not exactly nowhere. More like, "Gravity Falls, Oregon", but who's ever heard of that place? Twins, as it seemed, a girl and a boy.

Their parents had sent them to "the great outdoors" for the summer, to get some fresh air. Like sitting in a comfortable, air-conditioned home for summer break, in Piedmont, California, was worse than this. Going to an estranged great-uncle you barely knew at all, in a different state? Yay.

A log cabin, with a large sign on the roof that said "MYSTERY SHACK" (the "S" on "SHACK" had fallen off), was a few feet away from the bus station. A crowd of bright-eye, noisy tourists crowded to the shack, like moths to a flame. Dipper Pines hesitated. This seemed...worse than he had initially expected. A tourist trap? Really? Their parents had told them Great Uncle Stan was a "businessman", but he never expected this. Stan was most likely a con man instead. Dipper groaned. This would be one long summer.

"Mabel, this is ..."

He trailed off, followed by a goat bleating, somewhere close by. Looking around, he couldn't find it anywhere.

"...really sketchy. Are you even sure our parents sent us to the right place?" he asked, turning to his sister. But Mabel was already running off to the nearest tree.

"DIPPER! LOOK AT HOW COOL THIS TREE IS!" she hollered at the top of her lungs, running towards the tall pine trees. "LOOK AT ALL THE TREES!"

She was...much livelier than her brother. Dipper called her an optimist. Mabel called herself "a person with an amazing outlook on life and chic fashion sense". Right now, she was wearing a pink sweater with a shooting star on it, one she knitted herself. She took pride in her hobby, and that sweater was her favorite. It was a surprise on how Mabel wasn't dying from the sweltering heat. It was actually...rather impressive.

"Mabel, come back!" And her brother ran in after her, adjusting his lucky cap.

They came back out around an hour later, after being lost, encountering a bear, and successfully escaping. They approached the shack, walking slowly, both worn out from their previous adventures.

"Dipps, do you...do you think...Mom and Dad were right to send us...here?" Mabel asked with a tinge of doubt, panting.

"I... I don't know...let's go?" Dipper answered with an equally unsure tone, also panting, as they neared The Mystery Shack.

"Yeppers." she responded, smiling at him, with her brace-clad teeth.

They made their way up to the door.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Together, Dipper and Mabel Pines knocked on the door of the place that would be their whole summer. That would change their lives.

For the better or worse?

Well...they'll just have to see.