A/N: Wendy is NOT Robbie's girlfriend yet! I know that I said that in Hand that Rocks the Pine, but I changed it for more side plots and plots in general. ;)
Robbie arrived at the Mystery Shack around eight to pick up the cousins, just like he'd (unwillingly) promised.
Gideon made sure they had the journal with them, which was currently placed in a backpack that Pacifica now carried on her back. This was Gravity Falls, of course - who knew what they'd come across on a simple trip?
And so, around eight, the cousins stood on the front porch as a red van came into view, stopping in front of the Shack.
The van's side door slid open. Robbie, seated at the driver's seat, pointed to the back and said, "In you go."
Pacifica marched into the van, excited and ready -
- until she saw exactly who was sitting in the car as well.
"Hurry up," Gideon complained. "What's taking so long?"
He looked over Pacifica's shoulder and at once he froze.
The Gleeful twins were sitting in two of the van's seats.
"Gideon!" Mabel Gleeful cried happily, clapping her hands together. "I didn't know you'd be here, too!"
Gideon shrank behind his cousin, as if to disappear from the universe entirely.
"Let's go sit in the back," Pacifica whispered.
As soon as the two cousins were seated in the back of the car, Robbie started up the motor, and the car was on its way.
Pacifica glanced over at Gideon - his lips were pressed together in a thin, straight line, and he looked incredibly nervous sitting this close to Mabel.
Pacifica pitied him instantly.
"Hey," she said, nudging her cousin. "It won't be as bad as you think."
"That's what you say," Gideon whispered, sounding panicked. "I didn't even know she'd be here! I'm pretty sure she still thinks I like her!"
"Then this is the perfect opportunity to hide from her - by getting to know Robbie's friends!" Pacifica grabbed a red marker from her backpack and scribbled something on Gideon's plastic armrest: You look nice today! "See? Inspirational message for the night!"
Gideon smiled faintly. "Thanks, Paz."
As he turned towards the window, staring glumly at the passing scenery, Pacifica knew that she hadn't cheered her cousin up in the slightest.
The store proved to be indeed abandoned. All of the lights had been most likely turned off years ago, and the foundation of the building was already crumbling away.
"This is the place!" Robbie announced, once everyone had gotten out of the car.
"How . . . abandoned," Mabel said slowly, trying not to show the obvious look of disgust on her face.
Robbie tried to pull open the door, but everyone noticed right away that it was incredibly stuck. He stepped away from the door after a few failed attempts, gasping for breath.
"Wow, that's stuck," he breathed, running a hand through his hair.
"How are we going to get in?" one of his friends asked worriedly.
"Lemme try," Pacifica piped up.
There was a beat of silence before Robbie's friends burst out laughing.
"You?" one of them managed in between laughs. "You're, what, ten?"
"Thirteen," Pacifica corrected, feeling her temper rise. "And what are you, twelve?"
That shut him up right away.
Robbie made a silent oooooooooh.
Pacifica smirked. She turned around and began to inspect the door, spotting a key stuck in the wrong side of the lock. She then walked around the building and began to climb up the side.
"Pacifica!" Gideon cried. "What are you doing?"
Pacifica didn't answer as she climbed onto the roof.
"Who says she doesn't make it?" someone snorted.
Seconds later, the door to the store swung open, Pacifica standing in the doorway with the key in her palm.
"Boom," she said.
Robbie's friends looked stunned. Mabel seemed annoyed; Dipper just blinked. Wendy had a cross expression on her face. Gideon looked horrified that his cousin had just climbed onto a roof and most likely had slid down the vents.
Robbie smirked. "Nice job, Paz."
Pacifica smiled brightly up at him. "Thank you. And, Gideon, don't worry. I'm fine."
Gideon frowned and crossed his arms.
"Well, c'mon!" Robbie said, gesturing towards the door. "The store's not going to explore itself!"
As soon as everyone had entered the store (and after the lights had been turned on), Robbie began introducing the members of his friend group.
"People, meet some pals from my work - Pacifica and Gideon," he said. "These are my friends - Nate, Lee, Tambry, and Wendy - oh, and Thompson over there."
Tambry smiled widely and energetically waved to the cousins. Thompson glared at them while Nate and Lee said in unison, "Sup!"
"And these are the Gleeful twins," Wendy announced. "Or whatever."
"How did you get the Mystery Twins to come?!" Tambry squealed.
"I work for them." Wendy shrugged. "They thought an abandoned store sounded cool."
"Aw yeah," Nate said, giving the twins a thumbs up.
"What are you guys waiting for? Explore!" Robbie ordered with a smile.
There wasn't a whole lot to do at the store (except to endure Mabel's loving and affectionate wrath) - at least, to Gideon's view. Pacifica ran off to the candy section immediately, leaving her cousin behind in the dust.
That's when Gideon caught Robbie spying on someone.
"Robbie?" Gideon asked, confused.
Robbie whirled around, looking panicked. "Gideon! What are you - why are you spying on me?"
"Who are you spying on?" Gideon said suspiciously.
"Um -" Robbie swallowed. Then he sighed, turned around, and pointed.
He had been spying on Wendy.
"Don't tell her," Robbie pleaded.
Gideon gave Robbie a sly smirk. "Wouldn't it be awfully . . . inconvenient, dare say, if you two just so happened to be . . . alone?"
"Don't you dare -"
Gideon just slyly smiled and rubbed his hands together.
The store was disappointing.
Dipper hadn't seen or felt the presence of a single ghost since he had arrived, and Wendy's friends were far too idiotic for his liking.
Except Thompson, who always wore a glare, never talked, and was currently sitting in a corner while not looking up from his phone.
Dipper decided that he liked Thompson.
"Hey, Mystery Twins," Nate said, approaching the famous twins. "How you liking it here?"
"Kind of a disappointment," Dipper simply said. "No ghosts."
Mabel nodded in agreement. "There should be more adventure here."
Nate snorted. "Man, you two sound like Wendy and Pacifica. You should hang out with them some time."
Dipper wasn't against spending time with Wendy. She was cool.
Mabel, however, narrowed her eyes at the sound of spending time with Pacifica Southeast.
"Well, see ya." Nate ran off to join Lee and Wendy to watch Tambry do something ambitiously stupid.
After a few seconds, Mabel brightened and said, "I'm going to visit Gideon. See you later, Dipstick."
Dipper growled in irritance at his nickname, watching his sister flounce over to the aisles of (mostly expired) food.
Then something stopped him.
He lifted the sweatshirt tied around his shoulders to reveal a glowing amulet, tied around the collar of his shirt.
So the store wasn't completely empty, after all.
There was a ghost here.
Pacifica couldn't eat any of the candy, even if she wanted to. It had all been expired for years, and it would certainly make you sick.
She couldn't afford to get sick. Certainly not during summer, not when there were mysteries to be solved!
"Dang," she sighed. "Looks like it's gonna be a long evening."
A brightly-colored display caught her eye. Pacifica turned to see what it was.
She couldn't believe it. She ran to the display, skidded to a stop in front of it, and stared in delight.
Smile Dip!
She'd had this when she was younger! Only once, though, and she never understood why Ford had convinced her parents to ban the candy from their house.
Well, none of them were here.
She reached out and grabbed a bag of Smile Dip. She tore it open, dipped a stick of pure sugar into the powdery goodness, but, just before she licked the powder off of the stick, she hesitated.
Then she bit the top of the sugar stick off.
The powder burst into several different flavors on her tongue. The world tilted in front of Pacifica's eyes so fast that she got dizzy. She clutched her hair, closed her eyes, and shook her head to get rid of her sudden dizzy spell.
She opened her eyes, the world clearer now, and she continued to eat the Smile Dip.