Christmas with a Corduroy

SuperGroverAway

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 Copyright Information

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This story was first published on November 17th, 2015, and was last
updated on November 19th, 2016.
FicLab ID: 0ioHUUoZ/kyfzbc8y/5030MC5

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 Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Information
Table of Contents
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Second Christmas (One-Shot)

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 Summary

title Christmas with a Corduroy

author SuperGroverAway
source https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11619311/
published November 17th, 2015
updated November 19th, 2016
words 35,233
chapters 11
status Complete
rating Fiction K+
Cartoons, Complete, Dipper P., Family, Fanfiction, Friendship, Gravity Falls,
tags
Mabel P., Mom Pines, Wendy

Description:
For the first time in as long as she can remember, Wendy doesn't have to spend the end of
December out in the woods doing the usual annual survival training with her family. The
twins have invited her down to Piedmont so their friend can finally have the first genuine
Christmas of her life. However, it seems that not everyone is happy to have a tomboy over
for the holidays.

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 Chapter 1

When apocalypse warrioress-style Wendy offhandedly mentioned that

her family didn’t do Christmas in Weirdmageddon Part 1, right then and
there I knew I had the seedlings for a story idea.
An enormous thanks goes out for ddp456 for providing a bounty of
suggestions and for helping me take several disparate ideas and working
them altogether into a cohesive plot. Also, big thanks to
DeadSNESproject88 for the story’s cover art!
Reviews, criticisms and whatnot are always welcome. You’re also to
politely point out any of the weird spelling or grammar issues that
always seem to magically elude both my spell check and my
proofreading. I hope you all enjoy chapter one of this multi-parter
holiday fic! — SGA

Wendy had always done the holidays a little differently than all of her
friends. To be more exact, she had never done them at all. Period.
Instead, at the end of every December Manly Dan would take his kids
out for their annual apocalypse survival training, where they would
spend several days out in the woods learning how to get by with the
barest of basics, their wits, and good old fashioned Corduroy toughness.
So while Christmas time for most other people meant gathering around a
tree sharing presents, for Wendy Christmas time meant sitting out in a
homemade dugout deep in the forests of Gravity Falls listening to her
dad instruct her and her brothers how to properly skin a freshly killed
deer or how to properly fashion a bow from a springy branch. Year after
year, she and her siblings sacrificed the holiday for the sake of their
father’s paranoia. But because that’s the way they had done things for as
long as she could remember, she had long since accepted it as just the
way things were.

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 This most recent summer however had brought quite a few major
changes to the way things were, to say the very least. At one particularly
dicey point when the town had been reduced to a depopulated wasteland,
Wendy was surprised to find herself actually putting all the survival
skills that her father had taught her over the years to very good use. But
while using said skills to help her friends stop a potential apocalypse, she
had briefly let slip about her family’s rather unusual end-of-the-year
tradition and how it had allowed her to remain one of the lucky survivors
scraping by in the demon-ravaged ruins of Gravity Falls.
It had been revealed in nothing more than a quick one-line remark
that her friend Dipper Pines had paid very little attention to at the time.
After all, they had a couple things to focus on that were quite a bit more
more important than this one odd detail about her family life. But after a
certain triangular demon had been defeated and everyone could recover
and finish the summer in happy peace, it wasn’t very long until the ever-
curious boy started to inquire more deeply about the Corduroys’ peculiar
holiday traditions. He simply couldn’t help himself after having watched
his friend in full apocalypse-warrioress action.
His twin sister soon caught wind of all this, and together the siblings
decided that while undeniably cool, this was also an undeniable travesty.
They literally couldn’t comprehend the fact that the lumberjill had never
celebrated a proper Christmas before (and that was saying a lot
considering all they had experienced over past few months). In their
minds, their friend’s lifelong Christmas deprivation was something that
had to be fixed as soon as seasonally possible.
And to make a long story short, such was how Wendy found herself
seated in the back of a bus that December afternoon, tugging her earbuds
out and gathering her things together as the vehicle lumbered into the
depot.
“Oakland!” The driver announced. Thanks to the long drive down
from Oregon, Wendy moved stiffly as a zombie as she wobbled her way
down the aisle. She thanked the driver, staggered off, and only had to
wait a grand total of one second before she was attacked.

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 “WENDYYYYYYY!” A brunette blur flew out of seemingly
nowhere, latched onto the redhead’s waist and immediately started
squeezing as hard as she lovingly could. A near-identical little thirteen-
year-old dodged around a pack of commuters as he caught up. Dipper
was so excited that he fumbled over his own tongue for a few moments.
“Y-you’re here.” He finally managed to sputter lamely, to his own
dismay. Less than a minute into their reunion and already he embarrassed
himself. Dipper immediately went bright red in the face. Wendy burst out
laughing as she grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him close. Soon
she could feel his noodle arms wrap tightly around her, and she eagerly
returned the favor by crushing both siblings back in a hug-of-war.
“Hey, doofuses.” The lanky teen was already smiling so hard that it
almost hurt. It felt so good to be back with her “other” family.
“Heeeey, Wen-Wen! Ooooh, I can’t believe it! You’re here! With us!
You’re here! You’re here! You’re finally, definitely one million percent
heeeerrrreee!” Mabel let go so she could perform an ecstatic spin. “So!
Are you ready to Christmas like you’ve never Christmassed before in
your whole entire life?”
Always one for showmanship, the quirky little thirteen-year-old
unzipped her windbreaker and revealed one of her most spectacular
sweaters yet. It had a sleigh and eight little reindeer, a snowboarding
snowman, snowflakes of all shapes and sizes, and to top it all off, it
glowed and blinked with actual Christmas lights of all colors that dotted
it everywhere. The girl had managed to make herself into a living yard
decoration.
“What if I said no?” Wendy playfully asked.
“Trick question! You have no choice!” Mabel revealed.
“Sweet.” She approved with a double thumbs up. It was then that she
noticed her other friend was still squeezing her side. “Uh, Dipper?”
Dipper yanked himself away as if she was on fire. “Oh! Sorry, I
uh….I just kind of….uh, zoned out back there, thinking about….uh, the

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stuff with….um….things….”
“Relax.” Wendy grabbed her former trapper hat from where it sat atop
his head and playfully tugged it down over his eyes. After he righted it
back in place she leaned in and flashed him a toothy grin. “I missed you
too dude.”
Dipper smiled back sheepishly. “Glad you could make it.”
“That makes two of us.” She slung her bags over her shoulders and
cast a long look around. “Man, I can’t believe I’m actually down here.”
“I can’t believe getting your dad to go along with this was the easy
part.” Dipper exclaimed with genuine disbelief. He felt like Manly Dan
wasn’t the kind of fellow who gave in easily to anything. Wendy just
smirked back proudly.
“He felt like I definitely earned it.” She then let out a sigh. “Your
folks though….seriously, it took them for-ev-ver to give me the green
light to come down.”
“I know, I know.” Dipper rolled his eyes as he recalled back-and-forth
emails, phone calls, video chats and general uncertainty that lasted all the
way until the end of November.
“Ooopsies! Hold one a sec!” Mabel’s sweater had gone out. As she
rewired everything back to the car battery she had been carrying in her
sparkly backpack, she rejoined the conversation with a grateful squeak.
“Lucky for us, Stan came in for the save!”
“I heard. Sounded like you had an interesting Thanksgiving with both
the geezers over.” Wendy joking understated, having heard all the stories
from the twins already.
Although she was clearly happy to be there, what wasn’t so obvious
to her friends was the small wad of anxiety sticking in the back of her
brain. If this holiday trip took that much work to get the official OK ,
how much could the Pines parents really want to deal with the likes of
her? She had been doing some thinking, and she hadn’t liked what she
came up with. Even the most flattering description of her would probably

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make her out to be….something of a character at best, at least in a place
like this. She didn’t know that much about where her friends lived, but
she knew it was definitely no Gravity Falls.
She didn’t have very much time to stew with her thoughts. The twins
led her out of the bus depot where a car awaited them.
“We found herrrrrr!” Mabel sang triumphantly.
“Great!” A trim bearded man waved them all over. He bore the
trademark milk chocolate hair and eyes, making his identity pretty
obvious on first glance alone. The closer Wendy got, the family
resemblance grew even stronger. He managed to remind her of both the
young twins and Stan and Ford back up in Oregon.
“Hey…..uh, Mr. Pines?” She safely assumed.
“Hey there! Welcome!” As he took one of her bags and popped it into
the back he asked, “Sorry, but we had to make a stop on the way over, so
space is a little tight right now. You don’t mind riding back in the trunk,
do you?”
A goofy grin had already spread across his face before he even
finished talking, and he then proceeded to crack up at his own dumb
joke. Dipper let out a sigh, and while Mabel giggled even she couldn’t
but help roll her eyes just a little bit. Wendy however decided she liked
him immediately.
“I’m the dad, just in case it’s not clear yet.” He laughed as he gave her
a warm handshake.
“Wendy. I think we talked on the phone like, once or twice?”
“Uh-huh! Glad you could join us down here.” As far as she could tell
he was being completely sincere, much to her relief. “How was the trip?”
“Not bad.” She shrugged. “Slept a lot of the way, read through a few
magazines, listened to some music.”

9
 “Good for you. Sounds like you handled it better than my guys here.”
He affectionately ribbed his own brood.
“Oohhhh, we were fine!” Mabel brushed it off. “A long trip just
meant lots of time to play Bus-Seat Treasure Hunt! Isn’t that right bro-
bro?”
“Twenty times in a row was at least fifteen times too many.” Dipper
immediately protested as he recalled their epic bus trip at the start of the
summer.
“Says you! Every expedition found whole new discoveries!
Remember that piece of gum that looked like Grover Cleveland?”
“Yes. You made me take a picture of you with it. And for the record, it
looked like John Adams.” He corrected.
“Pfffft! Oh yeah it did, in Cuckoo Backwards Crazy Land!” She
scoffed.
The twins continued the debate as they got into the car, and Wendy
laughed like a loon as she followed them in. It was so, so good to have
the crew back together.
“Leaving the station! Next stops, Walla Walla, Cucamonga, and
Piedmont!” The twins’ cornball of a father announced like a train
conductor as he pulled away from the curb. Wendy sat in the middle of
the back with a sibling on either side of her. The sizable drive to their
nearby hometown seemed to take no time, even with the small patch of
traffic they hit. She was too distracted chatting up with her friends. Even
though it had only been a week and a half since their last video call (she
always tried to in touch with at least Dipper once a week), Mabel still
had a lot of exploits to catch her up on.
“…And so then we head into lunch the next day, and what do I see?
Two, I counted them, two people dunking their fries in their chocolate
pudding!” She boasted while braiding Wendy’s long scarlet locks.
“Mabel Pines, Trendsetter Extraordinaire, does it again!”

10
 “I’ll be sure to tell everyone all about it when I get back home.”
Wendy noted.
“Be sure you do! Making new combos really goes a long way in
improving cafeteria food!” The brunette spoke as an expert, getting yet
another chuckle out of the teen. At this rate Wendy felt like her sides
were going to burst within the hour.
“Anyway,” she clapped her hands on her thighs. “So now that I’m
here, what do you dudes got in store for me?”
“A lot.” Dipper hinted simply with a smile. She punched him in the
side.
“You gotta give me more than that. I’m pretty new at this stuff,
remember? What’s it gonna be to get me all holiday-dayed up, or
whatever? Carols? Roasting chestnuts on an open fire? Putting…..putting
a partridge in a pear tree?” She playfully guessed, recalling what little
bits she already knew. “That’s a Christmas thing, isn’t it?”
“Yup, and then we’ll need to go find two turtle doves and a couple
French hens.” He sassed her. “Preferably three.”
“And then we’ll have a Nutcracker ballet later, right?” She kept it up.
“Go and help the toys fight off the gopher king and his army?”
“Oh yeah, that’s definitely on the itinerary.” He joked, then corrected
her, “But it’s actually the rat king—”
“HA!” She sprung her trap. “We saw that when I was in middle
school.”
“Ooooohhhhhh!” Mabel high-fived the crafty fifteen-year-old.
Dipper was beet-red again as he let his head slump against the seat.
“Definitely walked right into that one.”
“Yeah you did, dork.” Wendy grinned affectionately.
“Okay, home sweet home!” Mr. Pines announced as he pulled into the
driveway. It was only then that Wendy realized they had exited the core

11
of the city and were now in a spiffy-looking neighborhood.
“Whoa.” She couldn’t help but marvel a little at the two-story house
before them. It just looked so clean and well-kept and….well, she knew
that for the area it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Still, even for a
nondescript place like this, she couldn’t help let the word “fancy” spring
to mind. At least that’s what it was compared to what she was used to.
“Nice, huh? That’s why I got into teaching high school physics. It’s
where the big bucks are at!” Mr. Pines joked with a wink. “Though the
missus helps pay some of the bills with her dental practice.”
“It’s….yeah, nice.” Wendy didn’t get a chance to take in the sight for
much longer. Dipper suddenly appeared beside her, thoughtfully albeit
ungracefully carrying all of her bags at once. Before she could offer to
help, Mabel nabbed her by the wrists and yanked her along.
“C’mon! Let’s go! Let’s goooo-ooooooooo!” She sang. “There’s a
little chubby gentleman who can’t wait to see yooooou!”
“Okay, okay!” It was then that she noticed that the house actually
looked a little bare compared to its neighbors. “Yo, no decorations yet?
Thought you’d be all about that.”
“We’re here!” Mabel announced as she opened the door, then rejoined
their conversation without missing a beat. “Oooohh, you bet I am! We’re
decorating the living bazoogas out of this place!”
“We were saving that for when you got here.” Dipper gasped as he
put the bags down.
“And that’s just one of the activities planned for your holiday-
extravaganza! Because this isn’t going to just be your first Christmas!”
Mabel shook her head furiously. “Nope! This is also going to be your
best Christmas—”
They were interrupted by an appalled cry that sounded straight out of
a horror movie. A slender woman with short, shoulder-length black locks
was currently gawking with indescribable dismay at something behind
the arrivals. Wendy quickly followed the woman’s bugging stare stare to

12
the incredibly thick trail of muck that she tracked in, courtesy of her
boots.
Oops.
“…Uh…” Mabel cleared her throat and finished, “Your… um… best
Christmas ever.”

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 Chapter 2

Well, this was awkward.

Wendy froze as she met the woman’s horror-stricken stare. At least
now she had a good guess who had been the holdup for the last few
months.
A pink butterball of a pig came trundling out of the living room. As
soon as Waddles laid eyes on the familiar freckled face he beelined
straight to the redhead with an excited squeal. The merciful interruption
brought a relieved smiled to her face.
“Hey there, pig dude.” She scratched the little annimal behind the
ears. The girl then braced herself and sheepishly met the unhappy gaze
of Mrs. Pines. “Uh, hey. So, I’m Wendy, and um…..my bad about the
rug.”
Thankfully the embarrassed looks on the twins’ faces helped the
woman snap out of it. Even though neither of her children said a word,
they both wordlessly made it pretty clear that this was no way to treat a
guest. The flustered woman cleared her throat and recomposed herself.
“Oh, um, yes, of course. I’m….uh, I’m sorry, I must have given you a
little bit of a scare back there, didn’t I?”
Just a small heart attack, thought the teen. “It’s fine. Look, I didn’t
mean to—”
“No, no, it’s fine. It’s only a little mess.” Despite her reassurance, it
was clearly much more than a mere little mess to her. Her eyes wandered
back to the catastrophic trail of boot prints marking the formerly spotless
carpet and sighed, “Oh, and we just got this cleaned…..”
“It’s just a rug.” Wendy shrugged. This “disaster” was nothing
compared to an average day in the Corduroy cabin. An annoyed glance
quickly made her walk back her remark. “Uh, sorry.”

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 “No it’s fine.” Ms. Pines likewise stood down for the sake of the
uncomfortable tension that was rapidly filling the room. “Just….when
you’re coming in and out, could you please just wipe your boots off on
the mat?”
“Yeah, no prob.” The teen nodded.
“And maybe you can even just leave them right by the—”
“Mom!” Dipper interrupted with a groan. She shot him a
disapproving look, but he added defensively, “She just got here.”
She took another deep breath and conceded. “You’re right, you’re
right. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m just feeling a little… look, don’t worry
about it.”
And with that she gave each of her children a quick pat on the head
before heading out the door. “Sorry I can’t stick around, I need to go and
take care of some things. Bye! I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?”
In no time the matriarch of the Pines household was out the door, in
her car and pulling out of the driveway to go show some errands no
mercy. Wendy glanced to her friends and said sarcastically, “Well, totally
nailed that first impression.”
Mabel bounced on over for a hug around the waist. “It’s okay! Trust
me, I make messes LOTS of times.”
“Yeah, Mom can just get a little wound up sometimes.” Dipper
generously understated, followed by a grimace. “Sorry.”
“We’re cool.” Wendy wanted to remark about spotting some family
resemblance between mother and her often high-strung friend, but she
held back her tongue. For now.
“It’s fine. The holidays always get my Lynda in a bit of a tizzy.” Mr.
Pines cheerily brushed the matter aside. “And it doesn’t help that people
always try to squeeze in heavy-duty dental work around this time.”
“That’s…..huh.” The teen didn’t know how to reply to that.

15
 “Yeah. Welcome to the Bay Area, located about five miles west of
Reality.” The cornball of a man successfully got another laugh out of her.
“Coming from a town in the middle of nowhere, I think I could
actually do with a little more weird.” She and Dipper shared a knowing
look. According to her friends, quite a few details had been wisely
omitted from their summer Oregon, and it didn’t hurt to do her part to
keep the 100% dull sleepy backwoods town facade up.
“Sounds like you’re going to handle yourself just fine.” The oblivious
father chuckled. “All right, you get settled in. I’ll clean up here, and then
I’ll call in for pizzas in about an hour.”
“C’mon, Wendy!” Mabel grabbed the redhead by the hand, but
Wendy motioned for her to wait.
“Just take off your shoes. I have a whole thing about shoes.” She
performed a spot-on impersonation of a certain prissy jerk of a unicorn
while she tugged her boots off.
“Uh-uh, I’m talking to allll of you!” Mabel waggled a finger. Both
girls cracked up while Dipper bemusedly watched on. Wendy was then
led her to the guest room where she was in for a sight. The bed was
covered with a small crowd of Mabel’s stuffed animals, with each one
clad in a little hand-knitted flannel shirt.
“They’re in case you get homesick.” The arts and crafts master said
proudly.
Dipper meanwhile was now wishing he had put more effort into his
contribution. It was just a simple “Welcome Wendy” sign hanging taped
on the wall, ringed by a few scattered photos of her and the twins and
scrawled in his scratchy handwriting.
But as he watched her emerald eyes wander over to it, he sucked it up
and awkwardly admitted, “That’s, uh….that’s mine.”
“This is amazing.” Wendy beamed. Her grin grew by at least inch.
She honestly didn’t expect them to be this happy to have her over. They
were acting like they had won the lottery.

16
 “Really?” Dipper replied incredulously.
“Uh-huh. Dudes, you totally you didn’t have to do this.”
“No offense, but that’s where you are dead wrong! A big part of
Christmas is having friends or family visit. Or both!” Mabel let out a
sudden squeal. “Oooh! You’re like, both at once! You’re friemily!”
“I like the sound of that.” Wendy flung her bags on the bed. “Anyway,
thanks for tricking my pad out. So, what are we doing next?”
“Oh, we got plans.” Dipper excitedly signaled to his twin and started
to announce,
“Holiday movie mar—”
“Christmas movie—” Mabel started, and both stopped when they
realized they were completely out of sync. “Wait, isn’t it supposed to be
Christmas mov—”
“No wait,” Her confused brother interrupted. “I thought we
were…..wait, wait, you’re right, I remember now. Sorry.”
“It’s okay! Do-over in three, two…” Mabel counted down on her
fingers and this time they announced in adorable sibling unison,
“Christmas movie marathon!”
“Awesome.” Wendy cackled. “We talking like, those crazy old movies
with the creepy claymation stuff?”
At the mere mention of this, Mabel hugged one of her stuffed animals
from off the bed and shuddered. “No.”
“Ooooh, right. Sorry Mabes.” Wendy quickly remembered her
friend’s unusual phobia. Ever the dutiful sibling, Dipper was quickly at
his twin’s side and patting her back.
“Yeah, we’re uh….still not a big fan of those.” He gently put it.
“Luckily we still got a pretty good collection to pick from.”

17
 After Mabel’s quick recovery, the next several hours passed like one
of the many movie nights they had held over the summer. Greasy pizza,
loads of snacks, and a bunch of supposedly classic films that didn’t hold
up very well to the test of time. To put it bluntly, it was everything that
Wendy could hope for.
“…Whoa, whoa, so wait.” She protested as she watched an animated
snowman come to life onscreen. “Happy birthday? What’s he even
talking about? This is supposed to be a Christmas movie, right?”
“Frosty’s saying that because it’s his birthday!” Mabel explained
around a mouthful of popcorn. “Duh! He was just born!”
“Dude? That’s kind of messed up.” She gave her two cents. “I mean,
so he’s basically like a giant baby now?”
“Technically, I guess.” Thanks to her fresh perspective Dipper now
had to concede, “Wow. This movie just got a lot more disturbing.”
“It’s so messed up, man! I mean, look at those kids! Why aren’t any
of them running away? It was just a bunch of snow a second ago, and
now it’s like, an actual guy.” She cupped her hands over her mouth and
jokingly called out to the characters, “Yo, keep away from that thing!”
“He just wants to make friends!” Mabel tossed some popcorn at her.
“How do they know that? How does it even know what a friend is?
How does he even know how to walk, or talk, or like, anything?” She
kept riffing. “If I said ’happy birthday’ and tried to sing a song as soon as
I was born, my parents would’ve gotten an exorcist, pronto.”
“He gets all his knowledge from the hat!” The younger girl explained.
“It’s magic, silly!”
“Magic bringing something dead to life?” The teen shot her a look.
“Mabes, c’mon.”
“Oh man.” Dipper realized where she was getting at. “That’s like, the
textbook definition of a zombie.”

18
 “Took you long enough.” She teased the Mystery Twins. “Just a
couple months away from Weird Central and you guys are getting rusty
already.”
“Whelp, guess those kids are doomed then.” He deadpanned, and they
all immediately cracked up.
“They deserve it, if you ask me. Look at them!” Wendy laughed.
“C’mon! Just run away from him already!”
“He’s going to go for your brains!” Dipper warned.
“It’s night of the Living Snow-bie!” Mabel now got in on the stupid
fun. There was a sudden ding from the kitchen, and the brunette shot to
her feet. “Yes! Cookies are done!”
“Need a hand?” Wendy paused the movie.
“Nope, your orders are to stay here and keep enjoying yourself. And
then you’re going to eat at least two reindeer, one wreath, and three stars
before bed tonight!” The little hostess ordered.
“Yes ma’am.” Wendy rolled over onto her side and playfully saluted.
“Holiday Heroine, awaaaaaaay!” Mabel sprinted off into the kitchen.
“Have I told you how boring things are back home without you
guys?” Wendy grinned, even though she knew the answer. She probably
brought it up in at least half her emails and chats.
Dipper smiled before getting to his feet. “Hold on, be back.”
She watched him head towards the kitchen. “You sure you guys don’t
need me?”
“Yeah, I just….need to make sure Mabel doesn’t go overboard on the
frosting.” With this hasty excuse he slipped off.
His twin was happily crooning :Jingle Bells “to herself as she worked
like a cheery little machine as she decorated the cookies with incredible

19
speed. She saw her brother enter and waved him off.” It’s okay. All set
here, bro-bro. “
“I know.” He coughed before lowering his voice. “So, uh… how do
you think we’re doing so far?”
“Doing what?” She kept bustling about, never still for a second. .
“You know, with….” He nodded towards the living room. Mabel shot
him a puzzled look, then had herself a small giggle-fit.
“Hey, Nervous Nelly? When you find where Dipper went, can you tell
him to stop being such an anxious butt?” She gave her twin a gentle
push, leaving a smear of red frosting on his shirt.
“Mabel….” He groaned. This was not the sibling reassurance he had
been hoping for. Despite all their fun so far, he had been nursing small
knot in his gut ever since the rough introduction with their mother
earlier. “I just want to make sure she’s okay. I mean, this is like, literally
her first real Christmas. We made her come all the way down here, and
then as soon as she walks in the door Mom goes all…”
Mabel let him anxiously bvent a little until she had assembled a
gorgeous platter of handmade treats. She then silenced him by shoving a
cookie into his mouth. “You need to just relax and enjoy yourself. I
mean, this is our Wen-Wen you’re talking about! It’s not like we can do
something to like, get her upset and make her head all the way back to
—”
They returned to the den to find their friend gone. Dipper’s stomach
automatic tightened harder. Thankfully, the mystery of the missing
lumberjill wasn’t very difficult to crack; the opened sliding door was the
only clue they needed. They found her standing in the middle of the little
backyard, gazing out at nothing in particular.
“Wendy?” Dipper called out.
“Huh?” She snapped out of her reverie.
“You okay?” He scampered over to her side.

20
 “Oh! Yeah, I’m fine. While I was waiting I wanted to see what the
weather was like right now.” She explained as she rolled up her sleeves.
The teen genuinely marveled at the feel of such gentle night air on her
skin.
“So, what do you think?” Mabel did a twirl and grinned. “Pretty nice,
huh?”
“Nice? Nice? Ohhhh man, I can’t believe you guys even bother
calling this winter down here. I’d seriously kill for December weather
like this back home.” Wendy took another moment to relish the touch of
the marvelously mild temperature with a sigh. “Okay, so I know like, we
have Christmas traditions and junk to do, but….you mind if we hang out
here? Maybe for just a couple minutes?”
Considering how much time they had spent over the past summer
lazily lounging with her up on top of their great-uncles’ home, this was
hardly an outrageous request. They all settled down in the grass around
the overloaded plate of Mabel’s cookies.
“You’re really liking this, huh?” Dipper asked.
“Oh yeah, it’s like total paradise out here. Plus…. okay, freak-alert
coming, but honestly, it feels kind of weird actually being inside and
like, actually comfortable.” She confessed. “I mean like, being inside
during this time of year. I’m calling it now, I’m going to be super
confused when I wake up in a real bed tomorrow.”
“When your Dad makes you do your training thingy, do you get to use
a tent or anything?” Mabel asked around a mouthful of one of her
homemade treats.
“Only for the first few years when you’re younger. And then when
my Dad thinks you’re old enough, you have to make your own shelter
from then on out.”
“Out of what?” Dipper pried inquisitively.
“Whatever you can get. Branches, rocks,…maybe if the ground’s not
too cold you can try and dig yourself a little cave and cover that up.”

21
 Mabel giggled at the thought of her friend burrowing underground.
“Haha! Like a big bunny!”
“Sort of, actually.” Wendy chuckled. “I have had to use my hands a
couple of times. But a nice flat rock works best. But you can only do that
if you’re lucky and the ground’s not frozen solid, which it usually is.
Maybe if you hunt around you can find a hole something’s already dug,
but then you have to check to make sure nothing’s….”
Before she knew it she was giving a full-blown lesson. Not that the
twins minded at all. They both listened intently, Dipper particularly so.
The boy was absolutely fascinated with everything she had to say (he
was usually fascinated by whatever she had to say, but right now he was
more so than usual). Even on the few campouts he got to do up in
Gravity Falls he had never gotten to do anything close to what his friend
apparently did every year in the harshest of conditions. He marveled at
the tough-as-nails girl.
“And you would spend the whole night in whatever you made?” He
piped up with a question.
“Several nights in a row. I mean, if you know what you’re doing, it’s
really not that bad.”
“Soooo….” His mind started wandering. “Let’s say… I dunno, some
disaster happens and you’re stuck here. Could you make a shelter here in
the back yard?”
“Pffft! You kidding?” She looked around the neatly kept little yard.
“Like, it wouldn’t even be a challenge.”
“Really? How would you do it?” “Dipper immediately asked.
“Like, would you use stuff from inside the house, or we talking about
outside-stuff only?” Mabel chirped.
As both her younger friends bore into her with curious stares and
peppered her with questions, the corners of her mouth curled into a
smile. “…You guys wanna see how a pro does it?”

22
 “Sam! Sam!”
Mr. Pines was roughly shaken out of a deep sleep, and he instinctively
shot up in bed with a start. “Huh? Wha….Lyn, w-what’s wrong?”
“The kids!” The blurry outline of his wife answered frantically. He
groped at the bedside table until he could find his glasses.
“What about them?”
“They’re gone!”
“Wha….” He sat up. “What do you mean they’re gone?”
“They’re gone!” She repeated impatiently. “The twins aren’t in their
rooms, Wendy’s not in her bed, and…..they’re just not here! None of
them are!”
“Okay, okay, hold on.” He kept a calm head as he clambered from bed
to follow his anxious spouse down the hall. True to her word, a look into
each room revealed only empty beds.
“Maybe they just camped out in the living room.”
“I already checked!” She led him downstairs. All they found was a
half-empty bowl of popcorn, some pillows, and a movie still on pause.
He scratched his head.
“Maybe…..they could have just gone out early for….uh….” He
brainstormed. “Maybe the kids just wanted to show her……um…..have
you tried calling them?”
“Yes! And no answer! From any of them! There’s no note, literally no
trace of where they possibly could have gone, it’s barely seven in the
morning….”
The worried mother was interrupted when Waddles started scratching
at the sliding door with a little cloven hoof. Mrs. Pines groaned at the
family pet.

23
 “Not now, Waddles.”
“Hold on, he just needs to go out.” Her husband nodded
apologetically as he temporarily excused himself. “I’m comin’ boy.”
He opened the door, and the little animal trundled into the backyard.
But instead of tending to his early morning business, the couple noticed
that he headed straight towards a bush that neither of them could
remember ever being there before. Waddles stopped, sat down, and
waited expectantly for…..something. Both Pines curiously followed him
outside.
“Uh….hello?” Mrs. Pines cautiously called out. She got a mighty
spook when part of the “bush” was pushed aside to reveal a bleary-eyed
fifteen-year-old.
“Huh?” Wendy yawned. “Is….issit time to get up?”
Mrs. Pines needed a few moments to process the strange sight. The
“shrub” was actually a kind of handmade shelter, made entirely from
sticks, leaves, a piece of signboard and some other odds and ends that the
teen had scrounged from somewhere. The structure wasn’t anything
grandiose, but it was big enough to snugly accommodate about three.
Both Dipper and Mabel were still slumbering, with their sleeping bags
overlapping heavily on either side of Wendy as they remained snuggled
tightly against her.
“Everythingokay?” The dozy redhead mumbled as Waddles squeezed
past her inside.
“What…..what…..” The mother sputtered breathlessly. “What are
you….why—”
Her husband stepped in and answered on their behalf. “No, no, it’s
fine. You can go back to sleep. Uh, cereal and milk is in the kitchen
whenever you want breakfast.”
“Oh. Cool.” Wendy nodded before proceeding to do a quick check on
her bunkmates. Waddles was trying to worm his way into the tight
huddle, and so she tucked him into Mabel’s arms like a stuffed animal.

24
She then drew up the zipper of Dipper’s sleeping bag a little tighter, let
out another gaping yawn and unceremoniously closed up the entrance. In
an instant they all vanished from sight, and once again Mr. and Mrs.
Pines found themselves gazing upon what looked like nothing more than
an oddly-shaped bush.
“Wait….wait, she…..”
“They’re fine.” Her husband pat her shoulder and he meant every
word. After all, they were still at home and safe. But as he led her back
towards the house, she continued reeling from the bizarre shock.
“What….she….she had them all sleeping outside….all night? Out
here? Like a…..like a…..they were like bunch of raccoons, sleeping out
in a….a….” She stopped and pointed back to the survival shelter. “Just
what is that supposed to even be, anyway?”
He shrugged. “Looks like some pretty good camouflage, if you ask
me…..”

25
 Chapter 3

“…Okay, we’re leaving!” Mrs. Pines announced as she and her

husband gathered up the hefty assortment of packages. Each and every
one was carefully wrapped, meticulously labeled and ready for the mail.
“Hold on, we got a couple more things!” Mabel called from upstairs.
The twins hurriedly rushed down the steps with arms loaded with a few
more presents to send out to various friends and family. Through a near-
miracle their father managed to add them to his pile and pick the whole
lot up in one ungraceful go.
“We’ll see you guys in a week!” His face was just barely peeking
above the tower of packages as he got in one more joke before heading
out the door. Together the couple headed off to bravely face the long
lines at the downtown post office.
As soon as they left, Wendy immediately felt comfortable enough to
leave the guest room. The Pines matriarch hadn’t looked like a very
happy camper (ironically enough) when the kids all drowsily stumbled
into the house after their night spent outside. So the lumberjill teen had
wisely been staying out of sight and keeping a safe distance since then.
“What’d you guys need to mail?” She pried curiously while brushing
the last few tangles from her long scarlet locks.
“A couple things back up your way, actually!” Mabel bounced on her
toes as she explained. “A Christmas sweater for Soos…”
“And one for Melody too.” Dipper added. “Plus a new tool belt and a
scarf for them.”
“Cookies for Candy and Grenda, and a Christmas sweater each!”
“We also got matching ties for Grunkle Stan and Ford.”

26
 “And let me guess.” Wendy looked to Mabel. “Two geezer-sized
Christmas sweaters?”
“Nope! A whole lot of Mabel Christmas cheer!” She then
remembered. “Oh yeah, and matching sweaters too!”
“A whole lot of what?” Wendy cocked an eyebrow. “Okay, how do
you send cheer exactly?”
“With a video of my almost-one woman performance of ’A Christmas
Carol,’ of course!” Mabel grinned. “Complete with musical numbers,
special effects, and the role of the miserly yet adorable Ebenezer Scrooge
played by Waddles.”
“That’s one weekend I won’t ever get back.” Dipper was feeling tired
just thinking about all that camerawork that he had been forced to do.
“She wanted to to do it all in one take.”
“That’s because it was all part of my artistic vision!” She justified.
“No breaks, no pauses, just a full on-Christmas classic from start to
finish! Oooh! Speaking of, I have the extended edition on my computer!
You wanna see it, Wendy? It’s also got director’s commentary and
bloopers!”
While Mabel wasn’t looking, Dipper shook his head and frantically
whispered a few “no’s” to his friend. She assured him with a speedy
wink.
“Maybe later.” Wendy gently replied before craftily changing the
subject. “Don’t you guys still have to like, decorate the house?”
“Oh yeah! We totally got that on today’s holiday agenda!” Mabel
pointed to the boxes of lights that had been pulled out of the basement.
“See?”
“Okay, so what’s the drill here? We doing that bushes first? The door?
How’s this work?” She sorted through the colorful Christmas tangles.
“We try and change it up.” Dipper explained. “One year we kind of
outlined the front of the house, last year we strung up all the trees and the

27
fence, and this year….well, like we said yesterday, we thought we’d wait
to see if you had anything in mind.”
Wendy did in fact have something in mind. Without further ado she
began to pump her fists up and down as she started off a slow, steady
chant. “Roof….time….roof….time….roof time…..roof time….roof
time….”
It wasn’t long until she expertly wound up her younger friends, and
their chorused whoops soon started to ring through the house.
“…Roof time! Roof time! Roof time! Roof time! Roof time! Roof
time!”
Dipper broke off from the group and started dashing off for the
garage.
“Whoa dude, where are you going?” His friend demanded.
“Uh, to get the ladder?” He bemusedly answered
“Ladder? You kidding me?” Wendy scoffed. She hefted up a box of
lights, beckoned them along, and the twins followed her upstairs. “I
don’t even know the meaning of that word.”
It didn’t take her long to find the perfect second-floor window from
which to crawl up on top of the house. Once outside she then pull each
twin up one at a time after her with with the speediest of ease for her.
The next hour or so was dashing about and putting together a display,
abruptly getting struck by a new burst of inspiration halfway through and
starting all over again from the beginning. Their fourth plan proved to be
the keeper, and when everything was in place the trio stepped back to
admire their handiwork.
“A masterpiece!” Mabel proclaimed triumphantly.
“I almost wish the sun wasn’t up.” Dipper admitted, wishing they
could light it up already. Wendy almost sent the two of them toppling
over from hearty claps on their backs.

28
 “Alright, consider this roof officially Christmassed! Or whatever.”
She took the empty boxes and lazily kicked them off down into the front
yard.
“Oooh, wait Wendy! Do your thing!” Mabel realized this was both the
perfect opportunity and height for their friend to show off some of her
famous lumberjill moves. “Your jumpy thing!”
“YEAH!” Dipper tried to walk back his explosion of overexcitement
quick as he could. He coughed and scratched at the back of his neck “Uh,
you don’t have to, but….if you want to, you could.”
“What?” She feigned ignorance. “I have no clue what you guys are
even talking about.”
Wendy then flung herself off with a graceful leap. In honor of the
family name, there actually stood one tall skinny evergreen tree planted
in the front yard. For the lumberjack’s daughter it was the perfect exit
down, and she rode its bending trunk all the way to the lawn with no
problem at all. She cockily did a bow for her cheering friends.
“Oooh, yes! So graceful! Like… like a bit a beautiful green and red
bird coming to land!” Mabel poetically gushed as she stood a little too
close on the edge of the roof for Dipper’s liking. Her twin grabbed her
by the neck of her sweater and gently pulled her back a few inches.
“Don’t try to chuck yourselves off or anything. It definitely takes time
to get the hang of that.” She warned from down below. “First time I tried
that was the second time that I broke my arm.”
A mischievous thought occurred to her. “But maybe you could hitch a
ride….”
The twins could only watch as she snickered and raced back into the
house.
“Where’d she go?” Mabel asked. Dipper merely shrugged as he
fidgeted in anticipation. He was always eager to see what the veritable
personification of cool had in mind. A thump of boots announced
Wendy’s return to the roof.

29
 “Okay, Corduroy Flight 13 is set for landing in a couple minutes. Put
your tray tables and up, and seat belts on.” She waved a long belt she had
snatched from their parents’ room. “Who wants to go first?”
“Wait….” Dipper read all the clues pretty quickly. “Are you—”
“Me! Me!” His sister literally leapt at the opportunity by jumping
onto their friend and hugging her hard.
“Alright! Hold on a sec, Mabes.” Wendy looped the belt around and
cinched it tight, binding them two together. Mabel giggled excitedly as
they made their way to the edge.
“Now?” She asked impatiently.
“Now yet. Make sure you’re all on me first.” Wendy directed. The girl
lifted her legs and was now latching onto her friend like a baby koala,
leaving the redhead standing for the two of them.
“Have you ever done this before?” Dipper cautiously checked. “Like,
with your brothers?”
“Nah , not even once.” She cackled. “Okay, one, two, three!”
Every muscle in Dipper tensed tight as a bowstring the instant the
girls left the roof. Wendy still made it down the tree and onto the front
lawn with ease, although her landing was less graceful than normal
thanks to the extra weight.
“YEEAAAAH!” Mabel cheered. Even when the belt was unbuckled,
she still held on extra long to her friend for a happy squeeze. “Best trip
EVER!”
“Glad you enjoyed it.” Wendy tousled her hair, sending brown locks
spilling all over the girl’s rosy-cheeked face. After releasing her
passenger, she bounded back into the house, through the window and
crawled back onto the roof where the other twin awaited. “Okay doofus,
you’re next!”

30
 “Okay, let’s do this!” Dipper clapped his hand, let out a charged
whoop. Right on cue his voice immediately broke a little, betraying his
entirely expected anxiety.
“Demon things,, monsters shapeshifters, and ghosts are no problem
for you,” She teasingly fired off several examples. “But one little trip
down the—”
“I know, I know.” He grinned weakly. “Look, I got this, okay?”
“Alright, hop aboard.” Dipper awkwardly grabbed on, only to have
her shift him towards her front.
“What are you doing?”
“Shhhh…..it’s gonna be okay. Just listen to my heartbeat.” She
stroked his head like a mother calming a child. “There we go….niiiice
and soothing, huh?”
Mabel fell down laughing at the ridiculous sight.
“Thanks. I feel so much better now..” Dipper said sarcastically as he
moved to the lanky jokester’s side. She cinched the belt of extra-tight.
“Sorry man, couldn’t resist.” She chuckled. “It’s cool, I know you can
totally handle this—”
Wendy proceeded to prove her point by leaping off without warning.
Dipper’s startled yell filled the air as they hurtled towards the tree and
began the rapid slide down. Unfortunately she had been a little too hasty
with her surprise take-off. After landing awkwardly on her feet, Wendy
stumbled a couple paces before face planting into the lawn. After freeing
himself, Dipper couldn’t help but give her a big smirk the moment she
raised her head from the lawn.
“How’s karma feel?”
“Totally worth it.” She replied shamelessly. Dipper yanked the brim
of her (formerly his) blue-and-white pine tree cap down over her eyes.
She responded in kind by pulling down her old hat as far as she could

31
down his face, and for a moment the both of them had successfully
rendered one another temporarily blind. Before either one could get
loose Mabel threw herself onto the redheaded teenager’s back with a
warrior princess battle-cry, and a wrestling match quickly broke out.
Like with most of their play-fights, it consisted mostly of both the twins
holding out together in a desperate alliance against their friend.
“Calling in! This fight’s going to Corduroy in one minute or less!”
Wendy announced.
“No way!” Mabel cried as she held on tightly.
“You better watch out, Stan’s been giving us tips!” Dipper warned,
right before his friend sandwiched him against the ground.
“Oh yeah? What’d he tell you to do, overcharge people to fight you?”
She smirkingly taunted.
“Nope! Teach us dirty tactics!” Mabel revealed, and immediately
started tickling her ribs. The teen erupted with uncontrollable laughter as
she tried to simultaneously shake the little brunette off and keep Dipper
pinned. It was hard going, and as she tried her best it suddenly sounded
like she was going too rough on the boy as she pushed down on his
shoulder.
“Ow! Ow! W-Wendy!” He writhed in pain.
“Whoa, sorry!” She immediately let go. “You ok—”
He instantly dropped the act and tackled her waist. Even despite their
fierce counter-attack, of course she wasn’t going to go down that easily,
and soon she had each arm wrapped around a squirming thirteen-year-
old.
“You’ll never take us alive!” Mabel cried dramatically. “Twins,
unite!”
“Haha, yes! Looks like my Christmas present came early!” Wendy
cackled as they tried breaking her hold. “My first worthy challenge!”

32
 The trio kept energetically tousling in a fierce two-on-one struggle. At
one point the siblings trapped Wendy down on the ground, or at least
they thought they did.
“WOP!” Mabel flopped herself onto her friend’s stomach and held on
tight. “Gotcha!”
“Oh yeah? Boosh!” She flipped over them in a flash. “Tables turned,
doofuses!”
“Is that all you got?” Dipper taunted, even as the sweat poured down
his face in its usual excess.
The epic battle was abruptly cut short by the slam of a car door. They
all stopped to find that the Pines parents were back, and the matriarch of
the family wasn’t looking too pleased. Play fights between her twins was
one thing. But seeing her kids squished under a wiry-muscled teenager
almost twice their size wasn’t a spectacle she liked looking at.
“It’s cool, they’re putting up a good fight.” Wendy laughed as she
brushed some hair from her face. The remark failed to even get her the
briefest of smiles.
“Not too rough, please.” She warned exasperatedly. They took that as
a clear-cut sign to knock it out. As they peeled themselves apart, Mr.
Pines climbed out of the car wit a smile and a goofy crack at the ready.
“We’re back! That went faster than I thought. We were only in line for
two whole days.”
“At least that’s finally taken care of.” His wife mentally checked it off
the two-do list.
“Whoa! Looks like someone’s been busy this morning.” He stopped
and marveled at the decorations.
“The S.S. Pines is prepped and ready to sail away to awesome holiday
times!” Mabel jubilantly cheered. The announcement made her mother
briefly brighten up.

33
 “Oh, the lights are up? Wow, thank you for taking care of….” Mrs.
Pines took her first good look at her roof. The lights had been
painstakingly shaped to form the large, bold and simple message of
“Pines Rule!” on top of the house for all the neighborhood to see.
Surrounding this message were three figures all done up in surprisingly
recognizable detail thanks to Mabel’s excellent art skills (Dipper’s
representation stood out in particular thanks to accurately skimpy limbs).
Suffice to say, this wasn’t what she was expecting.
“Well that’s something different.” Mr. Pines burst out chuckling.
“Uh….” Mrs. Pines was still processing. This was a lot to take in at
once.
Before she could pass any judgement though, everyone was suddenly
soundly spooked by the shrill blare of a siren followed closely by the
shrill screech of tires. They all whirled around and found a police cruised
halfway pulled up on the sidewalk.
“Is everyone okay?” An officer asked as she and her partner
scrambled from their car. Mere moments later another police car arrived
and emptied two more officers onto the scene.
“Wha…..” As her property was swarmed, Mrs. Pines was swiftly
reduced to a flustered mess. “What happened?”
Three of the police officers carefully scoured the yard as another
explained. “Just investigating a call. We had a report from a neighbor
who said she spotted kids falling off a roof. We’re just making sure that
everything’s okay here.”
“Wait….falling off the…” Immediately she fixed her attention on
Wendy.
The teen didn’t notice her. Wendy was too distracted by the
surrounding spectacle. She now fidgeted anxiously as she watched the
stern-faced officers scan the area. After growing up with nothing to
worry about except for the buffoons in Gravity Falls Sheriff’s
Department, she was unused to such hard professionalism.

34
 Dipper cleared his throat as he stepped into the center. “Uh, officer?
Ma’am? Excuse me?”
Her inquisitive stare shot down towards him, causing the boy to flinch
reflexively. He coughed again and slapped up a convincingly reassuring
grin. “Sorry, but I think there’s been a big misunderstanding here. See,
we were just putting up lights on the house, and….and….”
The boy’s mind raced at a hundred miles an hour as he brainstormed a
believable cover-up. “We got a sort of….uh, got careless with the
ladder.”
“Ladder?” The officer looked around.
“We just put it away a few minutes ago, right before you got here.”
Dipper hurriedly explained. “Anyways, we were sliding down it.”
“Oh, right!” Mabel chimed in to add some credibility. “Yeah, we were
being totally responsible going up there and walking around, but when
we came back down, we decided we wanted to be all like, ZOOM!
Zooooooom!”
“You know, when you put your feet and hands on the sides and you
just slide down?” Dipper explained with a nervous chuckle. “I guess we
were going a little too fast. Wait, what am I saying? I mean, if it looked
like we were flying off of the house, then of course we had to….right?
Anyways, uh…..sorry.”
“Super-sorry!” Mabel turned up the charm to level eleven with the
biggest, toothiest, most adorable brace-filled smile she could muster. The
officer silently looked from twin to earnest-looking twin and then over to
Wendy before waving her colleagues over.
“It’s nothing. False alarm” She shook her head. “Some kids try and
horse around a little and someone has to go and lose their mind…. jeez,
some people. Alright, thanks for clearing that up for us. Didn’t mean to
cause you any alarm.”
“Oh, uh, it’s no problem.” Mr. Pines quickly forgave them in spite of
his ongoing bemusement. The officer got down on one knee in front of

35
the twins.
“Before I head out, just remember this. Make sure to be more careful.
No one wants to spend their holiday in the hospital.” She dutifully
reminded them.
“Of course! Lesson learned, one million percent!” Mabel chirped
sweetly, and managed to successfully get a grin out of the stern woman.
The officers quickly left, leaving the family in peace once again.
“Yikes, now who do you think called that in?” Mr. Pines started
curiously scanning up and down the street. “Miss Henderson?”
His wife ignored his musing. Instead she fixed her attention right onto
the ginger lumberjill and inquired suspiciously, “So…..sliding down the
ladder?”
“Yeah, totally.” Wendy put on the straightest face that she physically
could. The twins backed her up with a pair of vigorous nods. “You’d be
surprised by how much speed you can pick up on those things….”

36
 Chapter 4

Dipper was feeling worried, to say the least. And so after taking a
late-night bathroom break, he decided to take a quick detour to check up
on his family’s guest.
Despite the little fiasco with the police, it had actually managed to be
a pretty good day overall. The twins had spent the afternoon showing
Wendy around Main Street, where an over-excited Mabel had practically
dragged the redhead from decorated shop window to decorated shop
window at top speed. Dipper finally made them stop for cocoa at one of
the local coffee shops, where they spent the rest of the day happily
gabbing and joking about long after they had all emptied their cups.
They returned home in time to enjoy their father’s famous homemade
mac and cheese. Wendy downed three heaping bowls and remarked how
it definitely beat the roasted ground squirrel she’d probably be eating if
she was still spending the holiday back in Gravity Falls. This remark
made Mr. Pines laugh up a storm, and he jokingly declared that it was
best compliment that his cooking had ever gotten (Mrs. Pines however
abruptly decided she was feeling quite full, and excused herself early
from the table). After a few more Christmas movies followed by an
introduction to the epic world of toothbrush races, Wendy seemed happy
enough when they all retired for the night.
Despite the day ending on a good note, all definitely wasn’t well. The
tension that had sparked between Wendy and his mom at the get-go was
only getting worse. Sure, his parent had been acting polite enough, at
least for the most part. But her tone and body language towards their
guest every single time she had the redhead came into contact with one
another were still far from welcoming. And of course that little
“misunderstanding” with the cops hadn’t helped things very much.
Dipper swore that he even spotted his mom passing the teen a couple
suspicious looks when she thought she wasn’t looking during dinner. It

37
was pretty clear; so far she wasn’t a fan of having the lumberjill teen in
her house.
Wendy seemed to be handling it well enough. But few people knew
better than Dipper that everyone’s beloved bag of ice could camouflage a
lot more than just a survival shelter. So he figured he might as well see
how she was really holding up.
As crept towards the half-open door to the guest room, Dipper
mentally told himself over and over that this was okay. He was only
checking on a friend. Yup, just a friend that he may or may not still have
teensy bit of a lingering crush on. He was just being concerned, and there
was definitely nothing weird going on here. Nope, not at all.
This suddenly became the least of his worries when he found an
empty bed and no Wendy. He thought for a moment, dashed to his room
to throw on pants, shoes, jacket, and trapper hat and then he rushed to the
backyard.
“Wendy?” He called out as he peeked into the survival shelter.
Unfortunately she wasn’t there either.
Well, this definitely didn’t look good. The boy hastily launched into
an emergency search. After three fruitless loops around the house, he
started hunting around the neighborhood. It was eerily quiet as he
wandered about, his path lit by a few street lights and his own flashlight.
His stomach knotted tighter and tighter the further he went down the
block with nothing to show for his efforts. Soon he wound up near the
playground in the small park the end of the street. Like everywhere else
he had checked so far, there wasn’t a single soul in sight. All he could
find was a lone seagull pecking around an overturned garbage can.
He was about to turn around and head to the other end of the road
when there was a sudden clang. Something had fired out of the dark and
bounced off the trashcan mere inches from the hungry gull. It squawked
before hurriedly taking off into the night. Dipper was so spooked that he
would have done the exact same if he had wings and feathers. But
instead he just stumbled back a few paces and tripped over his own feet.

38
 “Dipper?” He got major deja-vu when he heard leafy rustling
followed by his friend’s voice.
“W-Wendy?” He breathlessly called back.
After a short silence, she dropped down from a nearby tree. Wendy
was decked out with a flannel headband, fingerless gloves, camouflage
jacket and a few twigs and leaves strategically threaded through her hair.
The spectacle was topped off with a burning red blush that set her
freckled face afire. Obviously she hadn’t planned on anyone catching her
like this.
“Uh….hey.”
“You okay?” He rushed to her side.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’m okay. I’m….um…..” She scratched her
neck, looked him in the eye, and after what felt like an uncomfortable
eternity for her, she finally erupted with embarrassed laughter. The
situation was so absurd that Dipper cracked up too. When the awkward
mirth subsided, she asked him half-seriously. “Soooo tell me….what’s it
feel like to be friends with a crazy person?”
“No, no! You’re just….you’re just…..uhhhhh….” He wasn’t exactly
sure how to finish that sentence. “Wait, so are you….like, actually
hunting right now?”
She noticed the way his eyes wandered inquisitively to her bow, and
she held it out for him to look at. It was a simple handmade affair
constructed from some line and a springy piece of wood.
“Kind of. It’s more like….working some stuff out of my system.”
Wendy took a seat on a nearby bench.
“What do you mean?” Dipper sat down beside her.
“It all started out with me not being able to sleep at all tonight. Like,
not at all. We’re talking wide awake, like I chugged a couple cups of
coffee.”

39
 “Why?”
“I think….it’s like my body knows that right now I should either be
curled up in a hole somewhere or looking for something to eat out in the
middle of the woods. And because I’m spending the holiday with an
actual bed and roof and regular food instead, my whole system is having
insane trouble handling the change.” She theorized.
“So you had to leave the house?”
“Oooh, big time. You should have seen it. I had all kinds of crazy pent
up energy going on.” She shook her wiry arms for effect. “I couldn’t
even lie still for a minute. It almost felt like I was going to pop. I
couldn’t stand it and so….yeah, I just had to go out and do some of my
normal holiday routine.”
“Whoa. I didn’t know it was that hardwired into your system.” Dipper
exclaimed with surprise.
“Honestly? Me neither.” The equally incredulous girl looked around
at her quiet suburban surroundings, glanced at herself and grimaced at
the ridiculous contrast. She then looked up to the night sky and scoffed.
“Thanks a lot, Dad.”
“It’s okay.” Her friend immediately tried to reassure her. “You’re—”
“Dude, just look at me. I had to go out and answer the freaking call of
the wild tonight.” She grumbled and shook her head. “No wonder I’m
driving your mom psycho.”
Dipper winced. So she knew. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a well-
kept secret. “It’s fine. She just—”
“She’s why you guys had trouble getting the OK for me to come
down here, isn’t she?” Wendy decided to finally drop the question that
had been stewing on her mind the past few days. The boy froze, but
while he tried to think up a gentle answer his silence ended up speaking
volumes more than he would have liked. The older teen sighed. “Figures.
Not that I can blame her that much. I probably sounded like the Wild
Woman of the North or something to her.”

40
 At this point she felt the need to remark, “Though honestly. It kinda
feels like she’d still be wound pretty tight without having all my stuff to
deal with. No offense or anything.”
“None taken. Trust me, I know.” Dipper confessed. “Okay, look. So
maybe she got worried about having you spending some time down here
with us….okay, not so much ’maybe’… but when Mabel and I talked
about you, we never meant to freak her out or anything. All we wanted to
do was show how….how….”
After a pause and some thought, he decided he wasn’t going to sound
cool no matter how he tried to phrase it. So he bit the bullet and put it
honestly, “We wanted to let her know how amazing you are!”
“Serious?” She cocked her head.
“Yeah! I mean, everything about you is just….I mean, look at you
right now. That bow and arrow set. You didn’t bring that with you from
home. You definitely made them all tonight. Right?”
“Well, yeah.” She shrugged. “They’re nothing much.”
“Nothing much? That’s incredible!” The boy gushed. “You made a
functioning weapon! And then you took me completely by surprise just a
few minutes ago! I had no idea you were nearby at all. Your stealth skills
are so…..so….they’re just so….I mean, I bet if you actually tried doing
this during right in the middle of the day, I still wouldn’t be able to spot
you. Probably nobody would! Wendy, everything you do is amazing!
And it’s this kind of stuff that we told our parents all about. Not because
we wanted to scare them, but because we wanted them to know how our
friend was literally one of the coolest people we’ve met!”
It was at this point that Dipper felt like maybe he was going a tad
overboard on all the praise. The boy clammed up with a nervous cough.
“Glad you don’t mind me turning your holiday into a freakshow just
yet.” Wendy smiled. Her friend always knew how to give her spirits a
boost whenever they flagged. Unfortunately her embarrassment
continued to linger. She slumped her head on the back of the bench and

41
sighed again as the grin faded from her face. “Wish I could say the same
for some others, though.”
Dipper fretfully kicked his legs back and forth as the two passed the
next few seconds in silence. It looked like he was going to have to try a
different route here. “Hey…..did I ever tell you about my thing with
Santa when I was little?”
“Huh?” She raised her head.
“Santa. I had this whole thing with him.”
“Wait, you talking about that time your Dad tried to take you to see
him at the mall?” She let out a chuckle. “Yeah, you made yourself throw
up just so you could go home, didn’t you?”
He scratched the back of his neck and went a little red in the face.
There wasn’t too many secrets that they held from one another, and now
there was about to be one less. “That was part of it.”
“Part of it? Were you scared of all mall Santas?”
“Worse. Santa Claus in general.” He confessed.
“Wait, really? I thought all kids were supposed to go totally crazy for
him.”
“Not me. It didn’t start out that way though. I used to be totally fine
with the whole Santa thing at first. But when I turned six I began asking
myself some questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“I couldn’t help but wonder about like… just what was this guy’s
deal? First of all, somehow he had a way to monitor everyone. I mean,
how else is he going to know whether you’ve been good or bad? Then
after watching you all year, he flies down from a secret hideout and finds
a way to break into millions of homes in only one night. That more I
thought about it, the creepier it all seemed. So after I scared myself, I

42
told Mabel all about this and got her freaked too. And so that year we
decided we were going to try and get some answers.”
“Awwww. So this was your first widdle mystery?” She playfully
cooed.
“Actually….” He thought about it. “Probably, yeah. We came up with
this whole plan to catch him. After we were put to bed, we snuck back
downstairs, set up a tripwire, hid under the couch, annnnd…..that
became the Christmas that Dad broke his ankle.”
“Wow.” Wendy cocked an eyebrow. “Honestly, even for a six year old
that’s that’s some serious paranoia you had going on.”
“You can say that again.” He drummed his hands on his thighs.
“Sooooo…..tell me, what’s it feel like to be friends with a crazy person?”
She snorted so loudly it was a miracle she didn’t wake anyone in the
neighborhood. Dipper joined right in as the two descended into
uncontrollable laughter.
“Thanks dude.” She fondly yanked down his hat. “Good to know I
have someone I can be totally nuts with.”
“Anytime.” He grinned as he righted his headwear back into place.
“So now maybe you can think about everything that’s going on with
Mom this way; if she’s been able to deal with me for the past thirteen
years, then she should be able to warm up to you.”
“I’ll try banking on that for now.” Wendy chuckled. She took a good
hearty stretch and then checked the time on her phone. “Alright, think us
crazies should head back to the house?”
“Well… we don’t have to.” Even though it was late, Dipper didn’t
seem too keen on leaving yet. He cleared his throat. “I mean… look, if
you feel like you need to stay out a little longer, it’s okay. Honestly, I
don’t mind.”
The corners of her lips curled into a knowing grin. She could read her
friend like an open book. “You want me to give a little survival archery

43
101?”
“Could you?!” His excited cry echoed down the dimly lit suburban
street, and he clamped his lips tight. Wendy stifled another snort.
“Okay, doofus. Class is officially in session.”
“Yes! Wait, so are we… like, actually trying to take anything down?”
He asked.
“Nah, nothing’s getting hurt. This is all just target practice. Dad
would make me do this a ton to work on my aim. The whole point of the
exercise is to just get your arrow close to your target without actually
hitting it.. He taught us only to shoot something if you plan on eating it
later. Otherwise it’s just a waste.” She lead him back to her perch up in
the tree. “Okay, so first thing you need to do is go stake out your spot.”
The lanky teen nodded to the garbage can nearby. With all the half
eaten food scraps in there, it was clearly the perfect attraction for
scavengers. Dipper had been on more than enough monster hunts to
guess what was going to come next, and Wendy had accompanied her
friend on enough of those hunts to know he didn’t need any reminders
about what to do. It was now time to lie in wait.
It wasn’t long until a raccoon trundled into sight and started sniffing
around. Dipper watched silently as his friend nocked an arrow, drew
back her arm, and sent it flying. It clanged a half foot away from the fat
little thing and it quickly scampered off.
“Whoa.” He murmured in awe.
“Okay, your turn.” She pressed her bow into his hands. Dipper took a
moment to examine it. After tugging the string a few times to test its
strength, she passed him an arrow and he tried to copy her form.
“Yeah, that’s it. Oooh, check it out!”
The same greedy raccoon waddled back out of the night under the
glow of the nearby streetlight. It cautiously sniffed the air, looked
around, and began nosing through a half-empty chip bag.

44
 “Try and get it within a foot or two.” Wendy whispered. Dipper took a
deep breath, drew back, and watched the arrow fly right several yards
high above the mark and into the night. Somewhere in the near distance a
shrill cry rang out, and a panicked owl flapped overhead in a mad rush to
safety.
“Ooohh, mid-air shot! Nice!” She gave him a congratulatory nudge.
“Dude, you scared the crap out of it!”
Dipper grinned and whispered, “It’d be better if that’s what I was
aiming for.”
“Here, let me help.” Another whittled arrow was taken out and
nocked onto the bowstring. Wendy shifted herself until she was right
behind him She was barely able to put her arm over his and already she
could feel his noodly limb shaking a little under the strain of the bow.
“Man, no wonder that last one went crazy….”
“I know, I know.” He groaned. They were so close that he could feel
her shake under the force of her half-muffled snickering.
“Alright, let’s make this one a team-effort.” She guided the bow for
the two of them. “We’ll fire this one off a few feet behind him. Now take
a deep breath, and—”
Someone’s foot slipped from their awkward perch. Suddenly the both
of them tumbled right off together while the arrow soared into the sky in
a high arc. Almost as soon as they hit the ground, Dipper sat back up
with a gasp.
“Where’d the—”
An overly-decorated home across the street suddenly found itself
under attack. There was a flash of spark as a ho-ho-ho-ing electric Santa
up on the roof took the crude arrow right to its bearded face. As its voice
warped into electronic nightmare gibberish, it wobbled back and forth
under the force of the missile. The teens could only watch and hold their
breaths until it finally toppled over. As it slid down the roof it snagged
several strands of blinking lights, all of which helped it drag down its

45
fellow tacky decorations. An enormous tangle tumbled yard with a
thunderous crash that could be heard throughout the entire neighborhood.
Panicked and angry voices rang out from the house almost immediately
after the holiday avalanche. The siren of a patrolling police car soon
blared in the near-distance.
“Oh sh—” Wendy swore under her breath.
“Go, go, go!” Dipper grabbed her arm and yanked her back up onto
her feet.
Their frantic retreat was nothing but a blur for the both of them. One
moment they were sprinting from the scene of the crime, and before they
knew it they were taking refuge in the little survival shelter in the Pines’
backyard. They spent the next several minutes laying low in tense
silence.
“Wow…..your cops are actually like…..good at their jobs.” Wendy
observed breathlessly, and a smile cracked fast across her face. Even as
the adrenaline continue to pump through his veins, Dipper broke out into
a grin. The two look to one another, then proceeded to explode with
laughter like a pair of lunatics.
“So… this never happened, right?” He chuckled.
She zipped her lip shut, as did he. After they both tossed their
imaginary zippers away, Wendy said innocently, “I have no clue what
you’re talking about. We’ve been doing nothing but hang out right here
allllll night…..”

The last thing Wendy could recall was aimlessly chatting about
everything and nothing with her friend as they recovered from their epic
retreat. Suddenly she found herself being woken by a deep voice.
“Mornin’, Wendy!”
She met the gaze of a creature with big bouncing googly eyes, rosy
cheeks and a bald chin-shaped head. The teen flailed her arms in surprise

46
and accidentally whacked her sheltermate. Dipper got up with a startled
grunt, took one look at their morning visitor, and rolled his eyes.
“Wendy, Mister Upsidedownington.” He yawned as he introduced the
two. “Mister Upsidedownington, Wendy.”
“Who?” Wendy chortled as she saw who it was poking awkwardly
into the shelter.
“Nope, not today! I’m Santa UpsideClausingdown!” Mabel pointed to
the little red hat balanced on her chin. “And I’m here to warn you that
people who forget to invite others to backyard campouts might end up on
the naughty list!”
“Sorry Mabes.” Wendy wriggled from her sleeping bag. “We were
just hanging out last night and we dozed off. Hope’s that’s cool.”
“Throw in a piggyback to the kitchen and you have yourself an
apology accepted!” Mabel smiled as she turned her head right side up.
“You drive a hard bargain.” Wendy crawled out and hefted the little
brunette up onto her back with ease. When they arrived at the back door,
Mr. Pines gave them all a fat welcoming grin as he bustled around the
kitchen.
“Mornin’! You’re just in time. First batch is almost ready.” He nodded
to the waffle iron.
In contrast, Mrs. Pines definitely wasn’t looking too pleased that her
son had spent another night sleeping out in the yard like an animal in a
burrow. She frowned at the sticks and leaves tangled in both his and
Wendy’s hair.
“Did you sleep alright, Dipper?” She exclusively asked him.
“We slept fine, Mom.” The boy replied before he gave Wendy a quick
wordless nudge. She nodded thankfully for the reminder before taking
care to remove her boots. The redhead then gave the matriarch of the
family an awkwardly friendly wave before she sat down with the twins at
the table. As they quickly filled the kitchen with their chatter and

47
laughter, Mrs. Pines decided to keep a polite silence for now. She took a
sip of her tea and switched her thoughts to her itinerary for the day.
Across the kitchen, her husband took a moment to turn the volume up
on his tablet. As usual he was listening to a live-stream of the local
public radio station, which had some rather unusual news to report on
that morning’s broadcast.
“…Local police say that there are currently no leads on the incident.
Their only clue is a single crude arrow that was found at the scene….”

48
 Chapter 5

It wasn’t a specifically Christmas-related activity, but the twins

couldn’t have their friend travel all the way to their Bay Area hometown
and not give her a chance to see the big city nearby. After an early
breakfast the trio took public transit out of Piedmont through
surrounding Oakland and into gleaming San Francisco. Dipper had put
his intense planning skills to good use and had set up a non-stop itinerary
that would let them efficiently get the most out of their day trip. It was
crammed with sights to see, photo opportunities galore, and a few side
trips to some special odds and ends rarely mentioned in the tourist
guides. Wendy managed to lose track of how many selfies she had sent
Tambry during the whirlwind tour before it was even noon.
When the jam-packed tour came to an end, the lanky redhead found
herself wide awake thanks to the pure exhilaration still flooding her
system. The twins of course had just as much fun as she had, but they
simply couldn’t match her tough stamina, and that was how the redhead
ended up being drafted into pillow duty on the long bus ride back while
Mabel was trying to teach her some carols.
“…Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad, prospero ano y
felicidad!” While the little brunette sang loudly and proudly, she
motioned for her bemused friend to join her as they reached the chorus “I
wanna wish you a merry Christmas! I wanna wish you a merry
Christmas! I wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my
heaaarrrrrt! I wanna—”
“Whoa, slow down.” Wendy begged. “Can’t you start me with
something easier?”
“If you can master a bilingual carol, then you can handle all the rest
with no problem!” Her little teacher grinned.

49
 “I’m pretty sure that’s not happening anytime soon. I already struggle
pretty stupid badly in my Spanish classes. Can’t we do….I dunno,
’Silver Bells,’ or something? That’s one of the big ones, isn’t it?” She
felt a weight suddenly drop ontp her side. She turned to the skinny
thirteen-year-old boy now slouching against her. “Dipper? Hey, Dipper?”
Unlike the last two times, he didn’t snap back up with a start. His
eyelids remained crashed shut as he dozed on her shoulder. The redhead
sighed in mock-annoyance. Mabel giggled at her exhausted sibling.
“Aw, he’s allllll tuckered out.” She teasingly cooed, Her mouth then
stretched open wide as a whopping yawn forced its way out of her.
“Tuckered out? Man, more like out cold.” Wendy remarked. Working
carefully, she first maneuvered her friend so his limp body wouldn’t slide
off her. She then plucked her former hat from off his head and made an
improvised pillow by wedging it between him and her shoulder.
“We can work more on your caroling later.” Mabel thoughtfully
decided for the sake of her slumbering twin.
“Sounds good.” After making sure that the napping Dipper was
securely in place, Wendy propped her legs up on the empty seat in front
of her. “So what else is going on tonight?”
“Dad’s making chili for dinner.” The younger girl rubbed her eyes.
“But that’s about it.”
“Christmas chili?” The older teen was only joking, but her friend
folded her arms and huffed indignantly.
“We only got to do try that one year when he let me make it with him.
But no one else liked the red and green frosting mixed in.” She
complained. “They couldn’t appreciate the spicy-sweet taste.”
“Maybe when he’s not looking tonight, you can try and slip some in.
Any idea yet what we’re doing tomorrow?”
Mabel brightened up in a flash. “Oh! That’s when the tree’s finally
going up! It’s not a complete Christmas if you don’t have the tree up!

50
We’ll bring Shaggy out of the basement first thing in the morning, and
then we’ll string on the lights, throw on the tinsel, and then we’ll hang as
many ornaments—”
“Shaggy? Who’s Shaggy?” Wendy managed to wedge a word in.
Mabel tittered.
“It’s our plastic tree.” Noting her friend’s confusion, she explained the
nickname. “It kind of sheds a lot.”
“What the heck? Is it like, made out of hair or something?”
“Noooo. We’ve just had it forever, so a bunch of its needles always
fall off it every year when we bring it up. Mom always gets alllll kinds of
stressed about it.”
“Oh boy.” Wendy rolled her eyes.
“It’s actually kind of like a kooky family tradition now. The tree sheds
a little more, Mom freaks how it’s getting too old, she and Dad agree to
try and get a new tree the next year, but then we put it back downstairs
after New Years, forget all about it, next holiday season rolls around and
thennnn….out comes Shaggy again!” A look of dismay swept the glee
off her rosy-cheeked face as something suddenly occurred to her. “Oh,
no!”
“What? You okay?”
“No! This is supposed to be your best first Christmas ever! But it
can’t be the best if we do it with a tree that’s balding!” Mabel began
furiously brainstorming. “It’s okay, we can definitely fix this. We can get
a new one first thing tomorrow morning. Or maybe we can go buy one
after dinner. There’s still going to be plenty of stores open, one of them’s
gotta have plastic trees, right? Or maybe even before we get home we
can try to….”
“Mabes, Mabes, Mabes….” Wendy chuckled. “Chill, okay? If it
wasn’t for you guys, I’d be trying to spear fish in a half-frozen stream
right now. I think you’re doing pretty awesome so far with this
Christmas thing.”

51
 “You really mean it?” Mabel chirped hopefully.
“Totally. You’ll figure this thing out just fine.”
“Thanks.” It was an enormous relief for the little brunette, and she
leaned in for a grateful squeeze. After a full thirty seconds passed,
Wendy just assumed the notoriously huggy girl was just dragging out a
moment like usual. But after a full minute, she checked and finally
noticed that Mabel’s eyes had sunk completely shut.
“Well, I guess I did just tell you to relax….” She admitted. A sharp
turn came, and she quickly draped an arm each around the dozing
siblings to brace them in place. With nothing else to do beside anchor her
friends and keep an eye out for their stop, Wendy started to do some
thinking.

“…Okay, out you go!”

The nightie-clad teen opened the sliding door for her pet to trundle
out into the back yard. Mabel made sure to avert her eyes so Waddles
could have some privacy.
“This is what’s going to keep happening if you keep drinking your
whole water dish right before bed.” She reminded him. “You’ll just get
another fat bladder that can’t wait until morning, and then—”
Something popped up over the fence and landed with both a rustle
and thump. Before Mabel could react, a shadowy figure hopped into the
yard after it. Waddles was immediately on the case, and he raced off with
an excited squeal.
“Yeah, get him!” She cheered, but then immediately remembered that
she had never taught her pet to attack on command. Or how to attack
anyone at all, period. “Oh no! Hold on Waddles, reinforcements are
coming!”
The little animal meanwhile raced over to the started intruder and
immediately started aggressively rubbing up against her like a chubby

52
pink cat. She tripped and went went sprawling onto her stomach, leaving
her exposed for a barrage of piggy snuffles and licks.
“Ackpth! No! No! Bad pig! Stoppit!” Wendy sputtered until she could
push him away. She wiped furiously at her mouth with the back of her
hand. “Sick!”
“Okay stranger, what’s the—” Mabel already had her grappling hook
out at the ready. But when she saw it was her only her friend she
immediately relaxed, as if none of this could possibly be any more
normal. “Oh! Hey there, Wendy!”
At first older teen just stared wordlessly. She was literally unable to
believe her luck. Caught twice in as many nights?
“Do twins have to do like, everything in pairs?” She exclaimed in
disbelief.
“Oooh! You mean like you and Dipper’s hunting thingy last night?”
During the bus ride into the city, Mabel had been regaled in detail with
the tale of her twin and friend’s shenanigans the night before. She began
bouncing on her toes in joyful anticipation. “Wooooo! Now it’s Mabel’s
turn for a surprise midnight adventure!”
“More like surprise midnight spoiler.” Wendy cracked awkwardly.
“Huh? What do you mean? What is this biz, anyway?” Mabel got a
look the teen’s delivery. When she realized it was a small evergreen tree,
her eyes lit up the night like two stars. “Whoa! Is that a….a….”
The little teen clapped her hands tightly over her mouth with muffled
squeal. “Omigosh! You….you….”
“Well, you said your tree was getting crazy old. Besides, with all the
junk you’ve been doing for me while I’ve been here, I thought I might
return at least one favor.” Wendy explained bluntly. “You weren’t
supposed to find out until tomorrow morning with everyone else,
though…..but….um…”
She shrugged. “Surprise?”

53
 “Wow! Oh, WOW! WOW! Oh wow, oh wow, wow! Wendy, you…
you got us a real live Christmas treeeeee!” Mabel clapped her cheeks and
broke out into a delighted dance.
“Glad you like it.” The older teen grinned. “Think your folks will like
it too?”
“What? Yes! A million times yes! Of course they’re gonna love it!”
Mabel bubbled back. “This is seriously the best most thoughtful thing
ever!”
This was all music to Wendy’s ears. After all the horrible
awkwardness of the past few days, it looked like she was finally on the
road to getting into some good graces. At least that’s the way it looked
until Mabel dropped the fateful question.
“How’d you even get this? Where’d you find a lot that was open this
late?”
“…A what?” Wendy had no idea what she was talking about.
“The tree lot! The one you bought the tree at!” The young girl
pranced about as her imagination raced. “Oooh! Oooh, oooh, ooohh! Is it
like, some super secret mobile tree lot that moves around the city late at
night? Did you have to track it down? Did they need a password for you
to get in? Did you use some secret lumberjack tree code to get a
discount?”
“Wait, wait, hang on. You’re actually supposed to buy these?” All
Wendy knew was that around Christmas people went out and “got” trees.
She literally couldn’t wrap her head around the concept of actually
shelling out money for one. All her life, if you wanted a tree you just
took an axe or a saw, walked twenty feet out of the house and got right to
chopping. Both girls were now shooting each other puzzled looks.
“Well…..yeah.” Mabel finally noticed the familiar hatchet tucked in
the back of the lumberjill’s belt. Wendy wordlessly glanced at her
successful haul, and finally it clicked. She would have started cursing
like a sailor right then and there had not her young friend been standing

54
no more than three feet away. Instead she vented her dismay with an epic
groan of despair.
“Oooohhhh, man.”
“So…..you didn’t buy it?” The little brunette innocently checked. The
girl took a closer look at the tree and answered her own question when
she saw all the fresh hack marks at the bottom of the trunk.
“No, I found it near the edge of someone’s yard. About like, three
blocks that way.” Wendy pointed. “I just thought that… wait, so there’s
definitely like, no public trees or anything like that around here?”
“Uh, for Christmas? Not that I know of.” Mabel answered, and
Wendy’s face fell.
“Ooooohhhh crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…”
“What’s wrong?” The smaller teen followed along while the older girl
started to frantically pace around.
“…Crap, crap, crap. We need need to find a dumpster. or something.
Like, now.” Wendy hastily decided.
“Wait! So this isn’t going to be our tree?” Mabel sounded deeply
disappointed. “Why not? It’s going to be amazing holiday surprise for
the rest of the family! They’ll all wake up, come downstairs and see it
standing there in the metal stand thingy, all real and fresh and beautiful
and one million percent ready for some serious decorating!”
“Are we going to decorate it before or after your mom flips out?”
Wendy asked. Mabel immediately stopped and grimaced. She of course
knew that her parent and friend weren’t exactly getting along well, to say
the very least.
“Ummmm….she’s….uh….she’s still just getting used to you. That’s
all.” The forever-positive little brunette generously suggested. “And your
present here should help smooth things over a little!”

55
 “Pffft! She’s still just barely putting up with me.” Wendy tugged
anxiously at her scarlet locks. “And now she’s going to take one look at
the tree, put two and two together and….gah!”
She hurled her arms up into the air with frustration. The teen was now
in rare anxious form. It wasn’t as if anyone could blame her, though.
Literally the last thing she wanted to do was inject a wave of fresh
tension into the Pines home. However, Mabel Pines was not going to
stand idly by and watch her friend freak out over her perfectly good
intentions.
“Wait! Just hold the phone here, Wen-Wen!” Mabel tugged on her
shirt. “It’s going to be okay! We can make this work!”
“Yeah, just as long as we can find a place to hide the evidence.”
Wendy pessimistically shot back.
“Oh pfffft! We can totally keep the tree! And we can still make you
look good too! It’s not impossible. It won’t even be that hard! Mom and
Dad just….. don’t have to know the full story.” Mabel mischievously
suggested.
Wendy stopped and stared. When she realized where the other girl
was getting at, she soon cracked a hopeful grin.
“I thought you were all about telling the truth.” The redhead wryly
observed.
“I can make little exceptions now and then.” Mabel was more than
happy to confess. “It’s like Dipper says; it’s fine as long as it’s for the
greater good.”
“That’s some pretty noble junk there, Mabes.”
“Thanks! But also….doing things more in the Wendy Way is also
usually much more fun.” She hugged her pig while she made her gleeful
confession. Wendy broke out with a full-fledged cackle as she tousled
her friend’s hair.
“Okay, now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

56
 Mrs. Pines received a sizable surprise the very next morning when
went to go check what the weather was like outside.
“Uhhhhh….honey?” She immediately called for her husband. “Could
you come here? Please?”
“Yeah?” he sauntered out from the kitchen with steaming mug of
coffee in hand.
“Do you know anything about this?” She pointed to the neatly tied up
tree sitting right there on their front step.
“Huh…..can’t say that I do.” He replied with a baffled shrug.
The kids followed out to see what all the hubbub was about. Still
spooning down a bowl of cereal, Wendy glanced outside and grinned.
“Sweet! Right on time.”
“What? Wait, you did this, Wendy?” Mr. Pines asked.
“Uh-huh. Surprise.” She casually announced before she took another
bite of her breakfast.
“Whoa. Wendy, you got us a—” Dipper was loudly interrupted by his
sister.
“OMIGOSH!” Mabel gasped before launching into a convincing fit of
joy. “A tree! A REAL tree!” She bounced about for a few moments
before she started petting its needle-covered branches. “The realest tree
ever!”
“Yeah. I mean, that’s a major part of the whole Christmas thing,
right?” The redhead asked innocently. “You go get a tree and decorate
it?”
“Oh my.” Mr. Pines was deeply touched by their guest’s generosity. “I
don’t know what to say.”

57
 His wife did. After all, if there was one thing her kids had made clear,
it was that their friend from up north came from a long line of rough-
and-tumble lumberjacks. And since a lumberjack’s daughter just made a
tree show up on her front step, immediate suspicion seemed like a more
than perfectly reasonable response.
“So, Wendy….where exactly did you get this from?” She was quick
to inquire.
“Ordered it online. It was pretty easy. And cheap, too.” The teen
coolly explained.
“Online? Okay….so….who exactly did you order it from?” She kept
up the gentle interrogation.
“Oh, you can give ’em a call if you like. It’s totally legit.” Wendy
nodded to the tree, and Mrs. Pines noticed a piece of paper attached to
one of the branches. While she distractedly fished it out, Mabel took out
her phone speedily fired off a text.
“Tree-Cycle?” The woman read the brightly colored label. It came
complete with phone number, corporate email, and a smiling, sunglasses-
wearing evergreen mascot that flashed a friendly thumbs up with a
branchy hand. She looked back to the grinning ginger teen and decided
to take out her phone and give a call right then and there.
“Lyn? What are you—”.
“Shhh.” She hushed her husband as it rang.
At this point Dipper’s intuition told him something was definitely
going on. He passed his sister and friend an inquisitive glance and the
two flashed back sneaky smiles.
“Hello, welcome to Tree-Cycle. How can I help you?” Someone
answered on the other end after the third ring.
“Hi there. My name is Lynda Pines, and I’m calling because I—”

58
 “Oh, Mrs. Pines! Good morning!” She was cheerily greeted. “Did
your tree arrive yet? We had your family down for overnight shipping
and early-morning drop-off.”
“Um,” She honestly wasn’t expecting this to be a real operation, much
less one that appeared to be so professionally managed. “Well, yes it did
—”
“Great! Just to make sure, could you please give us the confirmation
number on your tree?”
“Uuuuhhhhhh….” She looked blankly at the paper until her daughter
helpfully turned it around to reveal a number on the back. “It’s, um…
hold on….one three one three one five—”
“Thank you! It sounds like you’re all set!” He happily confirmed.
“Can I help you with anything else this morning?”
“Uh….” She paused and put the customer service representative on
speakerphone so her husband could listen in. “This is all….uh, pretty
new to me, to be honest. Would you mind telling me who you people are,
exactly?”
“Not at all! We’re Tree-cycle. We’re like, the number one reused tree
nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest. We take trees of all shapes and sizes
that have fallen down in storms and accidents for donation and
affordable resell.”
“Oh….uh, okay then. Sounds like a good cause, actually.
Um….thanks you for—”
“Would you like to know even more about our seasonal recycled
Christmas tree program? It sounds like you’re interested!”
“No thank you, I just—” But she didn’t even get a chance to politely
refuse when cheery elevator-style music began playing, followed shortly
by a peppy-sounding woman.
“Hello there! Holiday Operations Department, how may I help you?”

59
 Mrs. Pines hastily hung up. Wendy and Mabel shared a discreet fist
bump before the woman cleared her throat and turned to the redheaded
teen.
“Well then. Uh, thank you for the…..the very nice surprise, Wendy.”
She politely bade her guest. While the twins chomped down hard on
their lips to keep from laughing, Wendy kept up the convincing act.
“Oh, don’t mention it.” She shot her partner-in-crime a fat smile.
“Trust me, it was no problem at all…”

Back up north in the small town of Gravity Falls, the entire staff of
“Tree-Cycle” waited for word from Piedmont.
“Anything yet?” Soos nervously drummed his fingers on his little
keyboard. His accomplice nudged his mug of cocoa across the coffee
table closer towards him.
“Just relax. It’s only been a couple minutes.” Melody’s phone
suddenly chimed to announce an incoming text from Mabel. She read the
message, then broke out into a triumphant grin as she showed it off.
“Looks like they’re in the clear!”
Soos was overwhelmed with relief. Soon his girlfriend was bent over
laughing as he lumbered around his living room and created a one-man
victory party. After celebrating like this for nearly an entire minute
straight, he finally stopped to catch his breath and top off the spectacle
celebration with a final jubilant fist pump.
“Nailed it.”

60
 Chapter 6

“Are we there now?”

“Not yet.”
Thanks to the blindfold wrapped around her eyes, Wendy was forced
to rely on Dipper as he held her wrist and guided her through the house.
On and on they went, taking countless twists and turns. It wasn’t too
long before she figured out what was going on.
“Okay, either you quit it with all the circles or I’m tearing this thing
off.” She gave him an ultimatum.
“Quit what?” Dipper betrayed himself with a half-stifled chuckle. She
pulled her hand free and groped about until she was able to give him a
push.
“C’mon dude, I know your house isn’t this big. Knock it off with all
the circles”
“Okay okay. Hold on.” Dipper laughed. Their pathway felt much
more straightforward now, and she soon heard the distinct creak of a
door. “Careful, stairs.”
With one hand holding his skinny wrist and the other clutching a
bannister, the older teen had her friend slowly lead her down step by step
until he brought them to a stop.
“Okay, we’re here!”
She raised the blindfold to find herself standing halfway down the
basement stairs with a sea of soft white waiting for them below. All the
boxes and other assorted junk had been shoved up against the walls, and
not a single square inch of the actual floor could be seen.
“What is this?” She descended the last few steps and ran her hand
through the indoor pool of white packing peanuts. Dipper hopped off the

61
stairs and sprayed her with his cushy landing.
“It’s—”
He didn’t see the small flash of brown cruising towards him until it
was too late. His sister leapt out from the styrofoam with a roar.
“Abominable Snow-Mabel! RAAAHHHH!” She cried before
dragging him down. Fluffy white sprayed all about as the siblings
tousled beneath the surface. Dipper eventually reemerged with a gasp.
Mabel as usual was nothing but smiles as she popped up and spread her
sweater-sleeved arms wide, “Welcome to your winter wonderland!”
“My what?” the teen laughed.
“Remember, this is supposed to be your best Christmas! And it
definitely can’t be the best Christmas if it’s not a white Christmas!” The
girl bubbled matter-of-factly.
“And snow’s not something we get a lot of around here…..” Dipper
understated. “Soooo…..”
“Voila! A snowy day, just for you!” His sister said with a flourish.
“Where did you even get all of this?” Wendy gazed over the
thoroughly covered floor.
“Oooooh, easy! I got some friends at the arts and crafts shop that have
been saving this stuff up for me.” Mabel put on a proud grin. “And we
even have enough for an……INDOOR BLIZZARD! WHOOOOSH!”
The little teen reached for a nearby rope and tugged. A strategically
placed bag hanging from the rafters opened up and dumped a sudden hail
of packing material on the redhead.
Wendy burst out cackling as she dived into the “snow” without a
second thought. The three teens romped about like they were a bunch of
seven-year-olds. After a fierce “snowball” fight, the trio collapsed for a
breather.

62
 “Pretty good, huh?” Mabel popped up beside their friend with a
splash of packing peanuts.
“Yeah, as far as substitutes go, this is a pretty sweet.” Wendy gently
threw a handful into the girl’s toothy-grinned face. “Now if only we
could find a way to get a hill and a sled in here, then we’d be totally set.”
“Oh, easy! We could ride the laundry basket down the stairs!” The
little brunette immediately suggested. Wendy looked at the extremely
short distance between the bottom of the staircase and the cement
basement wall and shook her head. That seemed a little risky even for
her.
“As much as I totally dig the idea, there’s no way we wouldn’t all end
up with concussions.” She then noticed that Dipper had gone silent,
meaning he was now deep in thought.
“What’s on your mind?” She splashed him.
“There might not be any snow outside, but….” He pondered half-out
loud as tried to think of a solution for his friend. “But maybe we can still
try something out there.”
“Dude, are you coming up with one of your weird overcomplicated
plans again?” Wendy pried.
“Yeah he is!” Mabel sang knowingly.
Dipper sank a few inches down into their improvised “snow” and
glanced sheepishly to Wendy. “Well….you sound like you really want to
go sledding.”
“Just making sure.” She grinned while she half crawled, half swam
over. “Okay, I’m all ears…”

“…All right, let’s see if I can… okay, you see me now?” A gruff
voice asked from the other end of the video chat.

63
 “Kind of.” Mr. Pines chuckled at the image of the bulbous nose that
was now displaying on his tablet screen. He heard a sigh come from
behind Stan.
“Don’t get so close, remember? Here, let me…” The image shifted as
Ford positioned his brother’s face further from the camera
“Eh? Oh, there we go. I can never get the hang of this stupid…” Stan
muttered some very unkind things under his breath about today’s
technology. “Anyways, so how are the little gremlins doing?”
“They’re great! Well, besides the mess they just left in the basement.”
He smiled and shook his head at his children’s latest antic. “If we’re
lucky they’ll get that all cleaned up by New Year’s.”
“Sounds about right. Either of them around to say hi to their
grunkles?”
“Actually they’re out playing with Wendy right now.”
“Ah, I’ll talk to ’em later. So what’s it been like having her down
there, anyway?” The old man grinned.
“She’s making things interesting this year, I can tell you that.” Mr.
Pines chuckled.
“Wendy is… something.” His wife put it as diplomatically as she
could, and only after a long pause. Mrs. Pines continued to bustle about
the kitchen while her husband sat at the table.
“Ah c’mon Lyn, what’s the big screamin’ deal?” Stan scoffed at her
attitude. “I bet Dipper and Mabel are having the time of their lives.
Remember what I told you? It’d really make the kids’ holiday to have
her there for the—”
“Stan?” A thickly winter-bundled Soos trundled into the background.
“The maze is all shoveled out!”
“Hold on a sec.” Stan motioned to the camera. “Good. Now go give it
a good spray with the hose. The bottom of the path, the sides,

64
everything..”
“What? Oh for God’s sake.” His twin protested. “Why?”
“What? It’s not an ice maze without the ice.”
“Ice maze for what?” It was pretty clear Ford didn’t like where this
was going.
“Y’know. For like, family holiday fun, and stuff. We gotta find a way
to keep at least a little bit of cash flowing during the off-season.”
“What? Stanley, no.” The video chat was temporarily forgotten as the
elderly twins started arguing with each other.
“Aw c’mon!”
“You can’t be serious.”
“It’s just a little extra income!” Stan attempted to downplay his latest
scheme. “Nothing wrong with that, right?”
“We’re not doing this. The first person who steps in there is going to
immediately break an ankle.” His brother warned him.
“Not with me supervising, they won’t!” Soos vowed. “I’ll watch all
those mazers like a hawk! Like a….wait, hold on. Is that even a word?
Mazers? Huh, doesn’t sound right….what else would you call someone
who goes inside a—”
“Wait.” Recognition hit Mrs. Pines with the force of a runaway freight
train. She raced across the kitchen and looked over her husband’s
shoulder. “I… I know that voice!”
“Huh?” Stan turned back to his camera. “What? You mean Soos?”
“What’s going on?” The handyman asked.
“Yes! I definitely know that voice!” She proclaimed. “I was talking to
you just this morning, wasn’t I?”

65
 “Uuuhhh….IIIIIII……ummm….I have no idea what you’re talking
about.” Soos forced his tone down several octaves to the deepest bass
possible. “I, um….I’m just talking in my normal voice….which is this.
This voice here. Yup, this definitely what I sound like allllll the time,
especially when I’m talking with anyone on the phone…..”
It was too late. She was already storming out of the kitchen, all while
yelling so loudly that even everyone back in the Mystery Shack winced.
“I KNEW IT!”

It wasn’t exactly a marvel of engineering. But Dipper’s creation was

still a pretty clever set-up nevertheless. All he had to do was take the old
red wagon that still lived in a far corner of the garage (even though
neither of the twin had touched it since they were eight) remove its
wheels, and attach them to the plastic green sled they had bought for that
time when their parents took them to a ski resort. When he was finished,
they had a pretty decent looking warm-weather sled.
Even better, the thing actually worked. Or at least it worked the first
time they took it up the largest hill they could find in walking distance.
After the wild, bumpy ride down the grassy slope, the makeshift vehicle
finally slid to a halt.
“Yes! YES!” Wendy let out an exhilarated cheer. “Oh my God, yes!
That ruled!”
“Yes! That… actually worked!” Dipper laughed in relief.
“Whoooo! Take that, temperate California climate!” Mabel
triumphantly mocked their snow-less surroundings with a little dance.
“Gonna stop us from having winter holiday fun? Nuh-uh! Not today!”
“All right, round two, let’s go!” As soon as Wendy picked the altered
sled back up she was suddenly struck with inspiration. “Wait! Hold on!”
She put it back down and began excitedly scouting up and down the
hill.

66
 “What are you looking for?” Dipper asked.
“This!” Wendy tapped a large hump of earth with her foot. “Perfect
ramp, right here!”
The teen raced back, picked the sled back up in one fluid movement
and headed up towards the top of the hill again. “C’mon! We’re getting
some serious air this time!”
The twins cheered as they followed their friend without a second
though. Thirty seconds later, no one was doing any cheering as they lay
about in a mess near the bottom of the hill. Wendy was in such a daze
from the massive wipeout that it took her a couples seconds until she
could peel herself up off the ground.
“Guys?”
“Whooo!” Mabel bounced to her feet. “Best Christmas EVER!”
Alright, so at least half her dorks were good. She grinned and check
up on the other sibling. “Dipper? You okay?”
The boy bit down hard on his lip as he sat up clenching his shoulder.
“Ahhh….my….m-my arm….”
Recalling the trick he pulled on her a day ago, Wendy smirked and
shook her head. “Nice try, dude. But you have to do better than that—”
“DIPPER!” As his twin, Mabel could automatically see at least a half-
dozen signs that something was genuinely wrong. She was at her
brother’s side in a flash. Wendy needed another moment or two, but she
finally noticed that his left arm was dangling limply as a piece of rope by
his side. Her heart skipped a beat.
“Oh man, oh man, oooohhhh man…” She dashed over and got down
on one knee. “Here, let me have a look.”
Dipper winced as she gently took his arm and examined it closely.
Mabel had already taken out her phone, dialed 91 and was nervously
hovering her finger over the button for the last 1.

67
 But after performing her quick checkover, Wendy was incredibly
relieved to find that it wasn’t nearly as bad as she had feared. In fact,
she’d seen this injury a couple times in her own family over the years
thanks to constant daily roughhousing (plus several particularly nasty
falls out of various trees). “It’s okay, nothing’s broken. You just got a
dislocation.”
Her friend felt a pang of panic as he pictured himself in a doctor’s
office struggling to explain what happened to his parents. “So do I need
to go to—”
“Nope. It doesn’t look bad, so we should be good. Hold on a sec.”
Dipper temporarily forgot about the pain in his arm when the older
teen unbuckled her belt and yanked it off in one tug. His eyes widened as
he asked distractedly, “Uhhh… what are you doing?”
Wendy folded it over twice and took shoved it right into his mouth
without any warning. “Here, bite down on this.”
“Huh? Bith the belth?” He repeated bemusedly.
“Uh huh. Trust me, that’s gonna help big time. Mabel, can you grab
his hand?”
The little brunette and her brother shot each other equally confused
looks, but Mabel did as asked. After all, it sounded like the redhead
knew what she was doing. Wendy looked into her friend’s eyes, grasped
his shoulder and arm and nodded reassuringly. Dipper finally figured out
what was about to happen. He braced himself, shut his eyes tightly and
nodded to let her know he was as ready as he was ever going to be.
“We’ll do this on three. Ready? Okay… one… two… three!”
Mabel let out a squeaky yelp. It felt like her brother was squeezing
her fingers with the force of a vise. Meanwhile Dipper sank his teeth
deep into the leather as Wendy forced everything back into place (or at
least that’s what he hoped was happening). Thankfully the sharp pain
lasted for only a few moments before the older teen let go. She wiped her

68
brow, then delicately patted around his shoulder to make sure that
everything was where it should be.
“Okay….looks like we got it. Can you try and move it for me now?”
She asked.
Dipper tried his best to ignore the dull throb that now took over his
arm as he followed her directions. To his amazement, he could move his
arm again just fine. In spite of all the aches currently wracking his limb,
it was otherwise as perfectly functional as ever.
“Whoaaa.” Mabel gasped.
“How you feel?” Wendy’s emerald eyes were still full of lingering
worry. Dipper spat out the belt.
“…Ouch.” He groaned. His friend gawked at him in disbelief for a
second before she exploded laughter.
“That was nuts!”
“Yeah.” He marveled as he moved his arm about. “You just… put it
right back in.”
“That? That’s nothing. I’ve had to do that a couple times with my
brothers.” She deflected the comment. “I’m talking about you, man~”
“Wait, really?” Dipper couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Yeah! Your arm basically fell out! And now you’re barely acting like
it’s any big hurt-y thingy deal at all!” Mabel exclaimed in wide-eyed
amazement.
“I wouldn’t say it wasn’t a big deal.” He grimaced. “I mean, it feels
pretty sore right now.”
Wendy snorted and shook her head. “Dude, just listen to yourself.
Pretty sore? That’s it? My brothers were all in tears the first time my dad
had to pop their arms back into place. All three of them, every time, with
actual tears like, pouring down their faces. And I completely freaked out

69
the first time it happened to me I actually ran around screaming my head
off until anyone could make me stand still. But you? Man!”
With all the praise that was now being earnestly piled high on him,
Dipper allowed himself to take some pride in his injury.
“I… I did handle that pretty well, didn’t I?” He understated with a
small grin.
“Pretty well? You handled that like a total boss!” Wendy proudly
congratulated him.
“All hail Dipper, the Unbreakable Nerd!” Mabel triumphantly
whooped.
“Well, I’ve had to deal with a lot worse than…..” Now that his ego
had been puffed up, he tried to downplay everything with a cool shrug.
That of course instantly proved to be a bad idea, and his shoulder
immediately flared up with fresh discomfort. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow….”
“It’s okay.” Wendy laughed again. “You already won the Tough Guy
Award for today.”
“Thanks.” He smiled weakly she gently helped set him up on his feet.
“So, think we’re done with bad ideas for now?”
The older teen looked over the two plastic chunks that used to be the
sled. Each one was separated by a fair distance thanks to magnitude of
their crash. “Yeah, I’d say so.”
Besides the fact that their ride was trashed beyond repair, the sun
setting fast in the distance. Another relatively short winter day was
coming to a fast close.
“Alright, time to head back home! It’s Cookies-and-Christmas-
Movies O’Clock!” Mabel clapped her hands and proclaimed. The others
of course find anything to argue with that. They quickly located a public
garbage can to deposit all evidence of the day’s adventure. The return
walk was nice and uneventful, excluding the fact that Dipper had to
spurn several offers from both his sister and friend for a public

70
piggyback ride the rest of the way back (Mabel even got him halfway on
her back before he struggled free).
“So you need an ice pack, bro-bro?” His sister checked as they
entered the house.
“That would be nice.” He flexed his shoulder and winced again.
“You go get comfortable, Iron Man.” Wendy patted his back. “We got
this—”
“WENDY!” An angry cry rang out. All three froze up like deer in
headlights as Mrs. Pines stormed into the front hallway.
“What?” Wendy knelt down and began unlacing her boots. “Okay,
okay, sorry! I’m taking them off, see?”
Unfortunately, judging by the woman’s utterly livid expression this
obviously had nothing to do with tracking in muck. This looked bad.
Very, very, very bad. The redhead’s mind began racing a hundred miles
an hour as she and the twins gazed into the face of anger itself. What
could this be? The late night hunting practice? No, her bow was now just
a bunch of broken pieces of wood scattered in the backyard, no way
she’d find out about that. The shelter? Was she upset that it hadn’t been
taken down yet?
Wendy didn’t have to wonder for too long. The furious mother
reached behind her back and brought out a familiar-looking hatchet.
“Explain this.” Mrs. Pines growled. “Now.”

71
 Chapter 7

Time seemed to freeze. The infuriated mother’s stare bore deep into
the fifteen-year-old.
“Well? Explain this.” She repeated herself. However, she wasn’t the
only one who wanted some answers.
“Where did you get that?” Wendy demanded.
“Under the bed. Right where you were hiding it.” Mrs. Pines shot
back accusingly. The teen’s temper immediately flared.
“Ohhh, nice. Real nice. Is it just me, or do you treat all your guests
this well?” The teen instinctively returned fire with a sarcastic reply.
“You brought an axe! Into my house!” The outraged mother yelled
back so fiercely that the girl flinched. Attitude clearly wasn’t going to do
her any favors here. This was officially a worst-case scenario that she
now had on her hands.
“Okay, okay, okay, yeah that’s mine!” Wendy hurriedly admitted.
“But just relax, okay? Look, I’m sorry if it freaked you out. But it wasn’t
like I was walking around the house and swinging it everywhere. See,
it’s got its sheath on and everything!”
“But it’s still an axe inside my house!” Mrs. Pines emphasized. “Why
would you even bring this here?”
“I like having it with me just in case.” She spoke nothing but the
honest truth. For her it made perfect sense considering the countless
times it had come in handy for her in the past. But it instantly became
clear that this was not an acceptable answer.
“Just in case for what? For when you decide you want to go and steal
something?” Mrs. Pines demanded. Wendy could feel her heart sink into
her chest as she watched the furious parent point into the living room and

72
at the decorated tree standing in it. “I know out how you really got that.
Don’t deny it.”
“I was only trying to help you guys out! Mabel said that you really
needed a new tree! And she was totally right, I looked at your old one in
the basement—”
“And then you decided to go out and just steal one?” The mother
crossly interrupted.
“I’m sorry! I seriously didn’t mean to, I swear! I didn’t know how the
whole thing worked. I didn’t think you people actually had to like, go out
and buy a tree somewhere!” Even as she was busy defending herself, the
whole concept still sounded bizarre to her.
“What? How… how in the world do you not know that?” Mrs. Pines
asked incredulously.
The teen’s frustration spiked. “Because I’m new to most of this! It’s
kind of the whole point of having me over, remember? Look, there’s a lot
of stuff around here that I don’t get!”
“Just because you don’t know what’s going on doesn’t mean you can
go ahead and do what you think is….” It was only then that she noticed
that all three teens were noticeably scratched and battered from their
sledding incident. “Oh my God, just look at you all! What happened?
Where were you just now?”
“We were just messing around. We’re fine.” Wendy replied vaguely.
The last thing she needed was more fuel on the fire.
“Messing around? It looks like you got everyone caught up in a
brawl! Can you get through one day without dragging my kids into some
kind of trouble?” She shook her head. “Just what is wrong with you?”
“What, you want me to come out and just say it? Fine! I was raised in
the woods! Literally right in the middle of the woods! Okay?” Wendy
couldn’t help but let her temper flare again. “That’s where I come from,
and that’s the kind of life that passes for my normal! Happy now?”

73
 “No, of course I’m not happy! There’s huge difference between
adjusting to someplace new and everything that you’ve been….I mean,
where do I even start? Scaring me half to death with that shelter
outside…”
“Mom!” Dipper tried to desperately cut in, but his call went ignored.
The list of wrongdoings continued.
“…Stealing an entire tree from someone’s yard…..”
“I told you, I didn’t mean to! I legit didn’t know!” Wendy tried to
remind her. “Why would anyone have to go and actually buy a tree?”
“…Lying right to my face, bringing weapons into this house…”
“Mom?” Now Mabel attempted to interrupt. “Mom!”
“…Alerting the police to my home….”
“I get it, okay?!” Wendy began to involuntarily shout. “I know, I
know, I’ve made a bunch of things totally weird here! But I haven’t been
trying to make things crazy on purpose! I’m only trying to do this whole
holiday thing—”
“I knew things would be different with you, but I never imagined that
it’d be anything like this! It’s just been—”
“I’m sorry!” Wendy desperately tried to get in another apology before
she was cut off.
“It’s just been nothing but nonstop madness with you since the very
start! I just… I don’t even know how to…” Mrs. Pines was now so
hopelessly wound up that she couldn’t even speak for a few moments.
She just didn’t understand. It was like this girl had come from a different
planet. The frazzled parent clenched her fists and exclaimed, “What on
earth did your mother do to you?”
There was a long pause before the stunned teen murmured back, “…
W-what?”

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 “What happened? I don’t understand it! I literally cannot understand
it! How on earth did your mother raise you to end up with… with all
this!?” She gestured to the startled teenager. “With you? How?”
Wendy looked like she had just been punched in the stomach. The
tears were already prickling up in her eyes when she hurriedly headed
straight out the door and closed it behind her with a loud slam.
“Wendy, wait!” Dipper tried to follow, but his mother grabbed him by
the arm. His injured shoulder twinged with pain, but he kept himself
from wincing.
“You two and I need to have a talk. Now.” And as she pulled her
children over to her, she noted their fresh scratches with a grim sake of
her head. “Just look at you two. What did she rope you into this time?”
“Nothing!” Dipper broke away from her grasp and whirled around. “It
was all my idea!”
She just sighed exasperatedly. “The things she makes you do when
she’s around—”
“Forget about it! We’re all just fine!” Dipper snapped. He had much
bigger fish to fry than some outdoor fun gone slightly wrong. “Mom,
how… how could you say any of that to her?”
“A-HEM.” She pointed to the hatchet now resting on the foot of the
stairs.
“She knows how to handle an ax. She’s known how to handle one for
ages!” Her son said defensively. “Her dad’s a lumberjack! We told you
this!”
“And that’s exactly one of the things I was worried about!” She shot
back. “I knew something like this was going to happen!”
“Mom—”
“How can I possibly be okay with someone who grew up in a
household where it’s perfectly normal to carry sharp tools everywhere?

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Or doesn’t mind bringing along a blade around when she visits others?
Or is just fine living outside every now and then? Or… or… doing
whatever it was that happened when you were hanging up the lights?
And by the way, I do not buy that ’sliding’ story at all.”
“That’s just who she is! Wendy’s not like other people!” Dipper didn’t
hesitate to admit. “But you know what? That’s what makes her great!”
“Dipper!” She raised her voice, but the young teen wouldn’t back
down.
“You’ll never be able to know anyone out there like Wendy. Ever! But
you haven’t actually tried to get to know her. You haven’t tried at all!
You’ve barely given her a chance for anything ever since she got here!”
Dipper boldly accused her.
His mother frowned in annoyance. Even since this past summer, her
boy had been talking back a lot more than he used to, which was barely
at all. Both of her twins had been doing this, actually, and she now felt
that she had a pretty good idea about who played a big role behind the
change.
“Don’t take that tone with me, young man. And Wendy has been
trouble from since the moment that she’s walked into this… no, it’s
actually been even longer than that. But especially since she’s been here
with us—”
Mabel couldn’t bear to hear anymore. She blurted out, “But Dipper’s
right!”
And now was two-on-one. Great. Just great. Mrs. Pines sighed and
pinched the bridge of her nose. “Mabel, I—”
“No, he’s right! Mom, this is supposed to be her first real Christmas!
It’s supposed to be something special! And Wendy’s been really trying to
figure all this stuff out! She knows she’s made it crazy-awkward, but
she’s been working to fix that! That’s why she got us a real tree this year,
she was only trying to help us out! But while she’s been doing all that,
you haven’t done anything to help give her a good holiday! You’ve just

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been so… so…” Mabel closed her eyes and unhappily blurted out,
“You’ve been so MEAN to her!”
This second accusation took their mother completely off guard. “I…
I… no, I haven’t been… I’ve only been looking out for you two! You
know that! And Wendy’s been—”
“But you’ve been going so overboard that you haven’t done anything
to make Wendy feel welcome! At all!” Dipper spoke up. “All you’ve
done is freak out on her or give her a cold shoulder!”
“I’ve only been making sure that you’re both alright.” She reiterated.
“Wendy’s made it hard—”
“But Wendy knows that it’s been hard with her around.” He revealed.
“And she’s been trying to make things easier. Didn’t you hear Wendy
just a minute ago? She was trying to say she was sorry—”
“Some try! She wouldn’t even let me talk to her anymore. She just ran
out without—”
“Of course she did! After everything you’ve already put her through
you had to say all that stuff! And worst of all, you had to go and bring up
her mom!” He fumed. Of all the injustices, that one was hands-down the
very worst.
“I was only—”
“Her mom!” He repeated with a rarely-seen ferocity. “Seriously, why
would you even say that?”
“What? What are you talking about?” Their mother genuinely had no
idea what he was talking about. Mabel however quickly realized that
their parent was missing out on a crucial detail.
“Dipper!” She gasped and tugged her brother’s vest. Her twin’s
temper quickly started to cool as he read her expression with dismay.
With all they had gushed about their friend for the last few months, not
once had they mentioned one very particular detail about Wendy’s life.
Now to be perfectly fair, it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that the older

77
teen would want them sharing without hesitation. Still, it probably would
have helped things a lot just now had their parent been more in the know.
The twins shared a quick couple wordless looks. Dipper gestured that
he’d take on the task of breaking the awkward truth. Their mother
meanwhile watched on confusedly as he cleared his throat.
“Uh….Wendy doesn’t have a mom.”
“Wait… what?” Mrs. Pines exclaimed with shock.
“She doesn’t have a mom.” Dipper softly repeated. A brief by
uncomfortably painful silence swept the room. The boy needed a few
moments, but he eventually worked up the courage to admit, “Sorry…
we should have told you.”
“Oh my… did she pass away?”
“No Her mom left the family a couple of years ago. Wendy still has
her dad and her brothers, but…” Mabel fidgeted with the hem of her
sweater. “It’s not easy.”
“It really gets to her sometimes. Especially with everything she has to
do to help take care of her family.” Dipper understated.
Their mother had to take a seat on the stairs. It didn’t take long until
guilt came flooding over her. She couldn’t help herself. She was a parent,
after all, and so her heart automatically went out to the motherless
fifteen-year-old. She couldn’t even begin imagine the agony her own
children would have to go through if either she or their father suddenly
left them, nor did she even want to. Wendy however apparently knew
that pain all too well. And she had just accidentally rubbed salt in a
wound that the poor girl had been carrying for God only knew how long.
Yikes.
“I….I…..” She stammered. Mabel plodded over and gently rested one
of her little doll hands on her knee until the woman found her voice
again. “I….oh my God. I’m sorry, I didn’t….”

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 “That was our fault. We never told you.” Her son guiltily reminded
her.
Now that she wasn’t letting stress get in the way for the first time all
week, she actually had a chance to look back at the past few days from a
different perspective. And she wasn’t happy at all with what she saw.
“I’m….I’m sorry.” She repeated herself with a heavy sigh. “I’m so
sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“But we never told you about—” A slightly confused Dipper tried to
remind her again.
“No, not that. Everything. I just….I’ve only been trying to make sure
you two are okay,” She said yet again, and neither twin protested. They
could see that their mother was being completely honest. “Wendy….she
just makes me so nervous when she’s with you.”
“But why?” Her son asked. He couldn’t think of anyone else who
could help put him more at ease (excluding the butterflies she still put in
his stomach every now and then).
“Well, the things she gets you into are….they can be a little—”
“A little what? We’ve only been having fun!” Mabel interrupted.
“That’s all it is. Fun! And a lot of it is just like the kind of stuff we did up
in Gravity Falls!”
“That’s what I thought. And while it might be nothing but fun for you,
for me it’s like….” Mrs. Pines took a deep breath. Her daughter cocked
her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ever since you both came back from the summer, things have felt…
different with you two. t’s almost felt like… like….” As much as she
hated to say it, she managed to admit, “It’s like you’ve both become a
little….wilder..”

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 Dipper and Mabel exchanged surprised looks. This was all news to
them.
“Really?” Mabel chirped incredulously.
“You know, with the way you’ve been acting, and with some of the
things you’ve gotten yourselves….especially with that business at school
a few months ago….I’ve been worried. And when you two began telling
me more and more about Wendy, I started getting my suspicions. And
after seeing everything you’ve gotten up to since she’s been here, I
thought I finally figured out. I thought I finally knew who’s the one
who’s been making you both so…..you know.”
An awkward silence settled on the mother and her children.
“But….I don’t think Wendy makes us crazier or anything.” Dipper
gently interjected. “I mean, at least it’s not supposed to be like that. I
think she makes us….she makes us…..”
“Better!” Mabel finished for him, and he flashed his sister a thankful
smile.
“Better?” Their mother curiously repeated.
“Yeah.” Dipper nodded in full agreement. “She always has. Even at
the start of the summer when she barely knew us, Wendy’s never treated
us like just a couple of little kids or anything like that. She’s always
pushing us to try new things, and it’s not just because she doesn’t have
anything better to do. It’s because…..it’s because she believes that we
can handle it, whatever it is. She always does, no matter what.”
“But what happens when there’s trouble?” She couldn’t help but ask.
Her normally shy, soft-spoken little introvert of a son was more than
happy to answer.
“Then she’ll help get us out of it.” Dipper said matter-of-factly.
“She’d do anything to make sure that we’re okay.”
“Uh-huh! Wendy’s always is there for us when we ask. And she’s also
there when we don’t even ask for help! That’s just one of the awesome

80
things she does!” Mabel had started to bounce a little on her toes as she
proudly explained. “She’s always just as ready to go crazy with us as she
is to watch our backs! Or help us chill out! Or make us feel better! Or
anything! It’s what makes her the best!”
“We can always count on her.” Dipper proclaimed without the
slightest doubt.
It was then that Mrs. Pines finally noticed it, and when she did she
was stunned that she hadn’t realized it far sooner. Her children weren’t
acting up against her. They weren’t raising hell just because of some
redhead’s bad influence. No, it was absolutely nothing of the sort.
This was just…..confidence.
Both were simply defending a friend with a solid confidence the likes
of which she simply wasn’t used to. Mabel wasn’t speaking out for mere
positivity’s sake, as she tended to do; she was speaking with a firm
conviction that was coming straight from the heart. And Dipper….her
little Dipper was standing strong on Wendy’s behalf and looking like he
wasn’t going to budge in the slightest. These shamelessly bold-faced
siblings were definitely a striking change from what she was used to.
She took a moment to think everything over. Perhaps she had judged
a certain redheaded teenager a little too hastily.
“I’m….I’m sorry.” She apologized again. Suddenly she felt like the
world’s biggest louse.
Not surprisingly, Mabel was the first to forgive her. The forever-
optimistic brunette flashed a toothy grin. “It’s okay. It’s not like you
can’t make it better with Wendy, right?”
“Well….” Mrs. Pines balked, considering what she had done to their
guest. She couldn’t imagine that the girl would want to even be within a
mile of the likes of her at the moment.
“Can you please just go talk to her?” Dipper pled firmly. “Please?”

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 She gnawed her lip in anxious silence for a few moments. This was
going to be painful, no doubt about it. But it definitely had to be done.
And as she rose to her feet, she could see hopeful looks light up her
children’s faces. The much-needed incentive brought a flash of a smile to
her face.
“It looks like I’ve got some explaining to do.” Her declaration was
rewarded by two grateful hugs around her waist. She stroked their heads
and sighed. “I just wish I knew where she ran off. Do you think she’s in
that thing in the backyard again?”
“Actually,” Dipper only needed to give it a mere moment’s thought. “I
think I have a better idea of where she went…”

It was a sad sight to behold up on the roof. The lanky teen hugged her
legs and buried her face buried down out of sight as the hot tears ran
down her freckled cheeks.
Leave it to the girl from the middle of nowhere, Oregon, to come
down and ruin things for literally everybody. Now she had an infuriated
parent on her hands and a holiday that was probably going to be anything
but jolly after tonight. It definitely didn’t help her badly flagging spirits
to listen to the faint sounds of Dipper shouting at his own mother, no
doubt on her behalf. Unless getting grounded was a Christmas tradition,
she doubted that would turn out well for her friend.
The girl’s thoughts turned back north, to where all her other
Corduroys were right now. Her brothers were probably all huddled
around a fire, roasting whatever animals had been unlucky enough to
stumble into their traps that day. She could picture her father ambling
about the makeshift camp, pausing to check on the meat every now and
then. She could see the boys all carving down sturdy branches down into
spears, while the family patriarch would gruffly grumble how they
would all need to make the points a lot sharper than that if they wanted
to catch anything in the river first thing tomorrow morning. The scene

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would be cold, smoky, and everyone there would all undoubtedly be
stinking to the high heavens.
And the mere thought of it all was absolute paradise compared to the
mess of things she had made here. So much for all this holiday stuff.
There was metallic clunk as the top of the ladder came to rest on the
side of the house. The startled girl immediately assumed that it was one
of the twins, if not the both of them. Wendy wiped her face and braced
herself for the awkward meeting that was going to start any second now,
whether she wanted it or not.
“Hey, I’m sor—” She stopped dead mid-sentence. She quite surprised
to see a very sheepish-looking woman appear.
“Uh…..” Mrs. Pines anxiously cleared her throat. “H-hi there…”

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 Chapter 8

At first Wendy just stared through watery emerald eyes. Mrs. Pines
awkwardly drummed her fingers on the ladder before she worked up the
courage to ask, “Is it okay if I come up?”
The teen waited a few moments before she decided she wasn’t in
danger of getting her head bitten off. At least, not immediately. “Yeah, I
guess… I mean, it’s your house.”
With an overabundance of caution, Mrs. Pines hauled herself up and
sat down near the teen. Once she was settled, they sat in uncomfortable
silence together until she spoke up. “I’m sorry. Dipper and Mabel,
they…..they told me all about your mother.”
She quickly decided that merely one apology definitely wasn’t going
to cut it. “I’m so sorry, I honestly didn’t know.”
“Well, it’s not exactly a thing that I like telling people.” Wendy
acknowledged, then let out a resigned sigh. “But yeah, that’s a thing that
happened.”
A fresh silence descended on the two.
“Well, I guess long as we’re being a little more open with each other
right now….I have a few things of my own that I don’t really enjoy
sharing with everyone.” Mrs. Pines took a deep breath. “So, it’s probably
no secret that it doesn’t take very much to get me wound up….and that
goes at least double for anything that has to do with my kids—”
The teen snorted, but then shot her an apologetic look. “Sorry.”
The woman nodded understandingly. “Believe me, I get it. I can get
stressed at the drop of a hat sometimes. And it doesn’t help that a lot of
things haven’t come very easily for my twins. It’s been a challenge for
them literally right from the start.”

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 Wendy cocked an eyebrow as she continued to silently listen.
“They gave their dad and I a big surprise when they were born about
two months early. And so for those first few weeks….” The mother
grimaced at the harsh memories. Even now they still made her stomach
anxiously knot up a little. “It was nothing but visiting them day in and
day out, always hoping today was going to be the day that they were big
and healthy enough to finally take home. And if it wasn’t then I all I
could to was just sit with them, watching my children in their separate
incubators, both of them looking so….just so small and so frail.
Sometimes it felt like either one of them would accidentally break if I
even looked at them too hard.”
“Whoa….” Wendy’s eyes widened as she softly admitted, “I… I
never knew any of that.”
“They were out of any serious danger pretty quickly.” She gratefully
clarified. “But it still took some time until either one was ready to leave
the hospital. And after every time I saw them, I always managed to half-
convince myself that I might lose at least one of my struggling little
babies between now and the next time I could visit. So when you feel
like you almost lost both of your kids right at the start….it’s hard not to
worry about them. It hasn’t helped that they’ve both had more than their
fair share of others challenges since then. Take Mabel. Her optimism has
always set her apart from anyone else, and it really makes her
shine…..but then as soon as something really gets to her, it makes her
crash that much harder.”
“Sweatertown.” Wendy said with a brief ghost of a smile.
“Exactly. And she’s always so trusting of others. And while most
people adore her for it, there’s always someone here and there who’s
willing to try to take advantage of that. And Dipper…..” She shook her
head. “Where do I even start with my little guy? He’s sensitive, he’s
somehow managed to inherit my anxiety and then some, and while his
sister never hesitates to try and make new friends, most of the time he
acts like half the world’s out to get him. There’s almost nothing out there
that can’t make him suspicious. We’re talking about a kid who convinced

85
himself that Santa Claus of all people was some kind of criminal
mastermind when he was only six years old. Also of course there’s the
fact that he’s never is as open as his sister about… anything. Especially if
something’s really bothering him. And then…..”
Another pause. This was always hard for her to admit. “Sometimes I
feel like I have to thank the heavens that they came as a pair. At least
when other kids get tough on them, they always have each other for
backup. I don’t know if it’s their interests, their hobbies, or just who they
are….I mean, I wouldn’t trade my Dipper or my Mabel for anything else
in the world. But unfortunately there’s just something about them that
tends to make them targets for some kids.”
The teen nodded understandingly. Having gone through middle school
as a freakishly tall brace-wearer, she knew all too well just how cruel
other children could be.
“So anyways, when they came back at the end of this summer, at first
I thought I had even more to worry about with them. Suddenly they were
a lot more willing to take all kinds of new risks, try things they never
would have thought of doing before… well, at least not without some
hesitation. And that all went double when it came to putting up with
anyone who tried to tease them. Before, they would just try their best to
ignore them. Then this school year started up, and in the very first week I
got a phone call from the vice-principal telling me that Dipper got into a
fight.”
“Almost.” Wendy felt the need to correct. She had heard this story the
very day it happened via an over-excited flurry of text messages.
“Huh?”
“He almost got into a fight. But then those other kids completely
chickened out at the last second. Remember?” She reminded. As she
spoke, she did so with an uncontrollable hint of pride in her little dork.
“Oh. Uh, right, I remember. And then the same thing pretty much
happened the week after when—”

86
 The teen already knew what incident she was going to bring up. “Of
course Dipper wasn’t going to just sit back and let those guys in gym rag
on Mabel like that. They were just asking for it.”
It seemed like the lumberjill teen and her kids kept in a lot closer
touch with each other than Mrs. Pines though. “Um…. so I’m guessing
you know about what happened the week after when—”
“That thing in the cafeteria, right? Yeah. That other girl was lucky
Mabel only got a handful of her hair.” As Wendy practically boasted,
Mrs. Pines could see much of the same fiery spark she had seen in her
own twins mere minutes ago.
“It looks like you’re pretty up to date, the. So, anyway….with all that
going on, at first I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. I thought the
summer up at their great-uncle’s had turned them into two little wild
things. And when they started to talk more about you I….I thought I
finally knew who was behind the big change in my twins. And when
they asked if you could come down here for the holiday….I definitely
balked.”
She grimaced apologetically, then took a moment to get all of her
thoughts in order. She was still very busy trying to process quite a few
fresh revelations all at once. “But looking back…..while I was busy
fussing all about that, maybe I should have taken a moment to notice that
the scuffles at school stopped pretty quickly after those first few
weeks….or that they’ve been able to get through the rest of the year so
far without complaining about anyone else trying to pick on them….or I
could have at least noticed that my little Dipper hasn’t been stressing out
as much as he used too.”
“They can handle anything.” Wendy declared matter-of-factly. “And
especially anyone dumb enough to mess with them.”
A small but genuine smile had started to creep its way across Mrs.
Pines’ face. It continued to grow and grow as she looked at the lanky
redhead in a new light. This wasn’t any out-of-control anomaly from the
northern wilds. Yes, this girl was definitely someone who hailed from a

87
place that was a far cry from suburban California. But above all else, this
was someone who really cared for the twins with all her heart and soul.
The mother was even slightly tempted to think that this wiry redhead
cared for them almost as much as she did.
“You’re still definitely different from anyone I’ve met before, I won’t
lie. But…” She paused to make sure she felt positive about what she was
about to say next. The answer that came back to her from deep within
was a resounding yes. “I’m also pretty sure that you’re the friend that my
kids need.”
Wendy was surprised by the blunt confession. And after all she’d
been through, she couldn’t help but be only half-convinced she had just
heard this woman right.
“Wait… seriously?”
“Uh-huh. Thank you.” Mrs. Pines said with a soft but unmistakable
sincerity. “For helping show them that there’s so much more they can
do.”
“Yeah…..y-yeah, no prob.” Wendy scratched the back of her neck.
The praise made her freckled cheeks light up bright red.
“Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask you a couple favors.”
Mrs. Pines continued.
“Favors? Uh…” The teen hesitated.
“Don’t worry, I’m not bringing up the boots thing again. So first, I’d
really like you to keep looking after my Dipper and Mabel.”
“Huh? Oh… yeah. Yeah, of course. Anyone messes with them messes
with me.” She cracked her knuckles for emphasis.
“Thank you. And two; if it’s okay….I’d like if you could come inside
and continue celebrating the holiday with my family.” She anxiously
cleared her throat. “But only if you’re ready….if you feel like you need a
little more time out here or anything, trust me when I say that I’d
definitely understand….I mean, after everything you’ve had to go

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through tonight….and the past few days too…..oh, yikes, I really haven’t
been making things easy for you at all here, have I? Well, I…”
As the woman slipped into a nervous stammer, Wendy could
definitely start to see a little of where Dipper got his nerves from. She
grinned weakly. “No, it’s cool….I-I think I’d really like that.”
“Thank you.” The mother smiled. “And actually now that I think of it,
I have one more favor to ask. Now I know it’s going to be Christmas Eve
already tomorrow… but… well as long as you don’t mind the huge delay
on my part too badly… just let me finally say… I mean, if it’s okay…”
“Say what?” The teen cut in and saved her from getting swept up in
another stream of babbling. Mrs. Pines took the girl’s hand and gently
pat it before giving her long overdue greeting.
“Welcome to our home.”
Wendy honestly couldn’t remember how she ended up in a hug a
second later, but she was ninety percent sure she was the one who had
initiated it. For a moment she seized up with embarrassment. But when
her friends’ mother started patting her back, a rush of relief flowed from
her wiry body.
“I’m sorry.” Mrs. Pines whispered. The girl gave her an extra squeeze,
and she gladly took that as a sign of forgiveness. When they were
finished, she asked hopefully, “So, you feel ready to come back inside?”
“Yeah….I think I’m good.”
“Wonderful. Okay, you can go down first. It’ll probably take me a lot
longer to—”
Before Mrs. Pines could finish, the teen had headed to the edge of the
roof, lowered herself and clambered out of sight down into the nearest
window. She gawked for a moment, then shrugged to herself. “…Um…
that works too, I guess.”

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 Wendy wasn’t expecting to meet up with the twins so soon. The
siblings unfortunately had chosen to listen out of the exact same window
that the athletic lumberjill used as her improvised entrance. The fifteen-
year-old swung right into the two of them, and in a heartbeat they all
found themselves lying in a messy heap.
“Thanks a lot for the privacy.” She remarked sarcastically while she
untangled herself. Dipper started fumbling fruitlessly for a decent
excuse.
“No, no! We were just….we were… uhhhh…”
“We were just checking to see if you and Mom turned out okay.”
Mabel confessed with shameless joy. “And you did! Congratulations!”
“Yeah, I guess so” She rubbed red rimmed eyes, which fortunately
had run dry. “Thanks for helping her change her mind.”
“Of course! But it was my bro-bro here who did a lot of the major
serious-talking.” She swung an arm around her twin’s shoulders after he
freed himself from their pile. “This guy, right here! Mister Christmas
Hero!”
Wendy got up onto her knees and smiled at her friend. Dipper
sheepishly grinned. “I was just telling her the truth. That’s all.”
“Thanks for the save, dude.” She said gratefully.
“Hey, I need someone to be completely nuts with, don’t I?” He
reminded her. Wendy made sure to aim her affectionate punch in his
uninjured right arm.
“Yeah you do.” She then started chuckling in genuine embarrassment.
After all the drama of the past hour, she couldn’t help it. “Sorry for
making your guys’ holiday kind of weird. I mean, weirder than it already
was. Like, uncomfortably weirder.”
“Pffft! No worries! We had our apologies all around, and so now we
can all get right back on track again for the best Christmas ever!” Mabel

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whooped, then proceeded to clamber up onto the older teen’s back like a
squirrel.
“So we’re totally good?” Wendy laughed incredulously. “Just like
that?”
“Uh-huh!” The younger teen tittered sweetly. “Because you know
what?”
“Ooohhhh, man.” The redhead could tell that things were about to get
sickeningly sweet. “Mabes, don’t…”
“Because you’ve made this holiday amazing by already giving us our
best present this year, nice and early! And that present….iiisss….”
Mabel was now standing up on her shoulders and bent over for an
upside-down eye-to-eye. She prodded her friend in the nose and
gleefully revealed, “Having you here with us! Boop!”
The rosy-cheeked brunette giggled as Wendy reached up and ruffled
her chocolate locks.
“Know what? It actually looks like my best present came early too.”
She snickered.
“Huh? What’s that?” Dipper then noticed the mischievous glint in her
eyes. “Oh no—”
“The first worthy challenge!” By the time that the twins remembered
they had never finished their epic fight from a few days before, it was
too late. In no time she had the both of them in a double headlock. Their
laughter filled the entire upstairs as they struggled to wriggle free from
her gasp.
“Get her!” Mabel squirmed loose and wrapped her arms around her
waist. “Hit her with everything Stan taught us!”
“On it!” Dipper freed a scrawny arm and started tickling under their
friend’s neck.

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 “Oh, now you’re asking for it!” Wendy managed to yank his vest
partway over his head before the siblings managed to half-pin her to the
floor. The battle was definitely on.
The enormous racket and the sounds of their mirth echoed all
throughout the house. Downstairs, Mrs. Pines was recovering from the
last hour with a fresh cup of chamomile tea. She was just finished
pouring the piping hot water when her husband returned.
“Yeesh! What a madhouse out there.” He bustled in, arms loaded with
groceries. Mr. Pines then hastily deposited them on the counter before
dutifully checking up on his significant other. When he left she had
seemed pretty steamed, though as to what had gotten her wound her up
so badly, she wouldn’t say (though he did notice that right after she had
stormed off, Soos had left the video chat in a hasty rush).
She was looking a little worn out, but to his relief she also seemed to
have cooled down significantly. Actually, scratch that. His wife hadn’t
merely cooled off. She was looking more relaxed than he had seen her in
days.
“Lyn?” he put a hand on her shoulder. She greeted him with a tired
smile.
“Hey.” She greeted him with a peck on his cheek.
“Uh, hi… is everything okay?”
“Uh-huh. Everything’s just fine—” They were interrupted by a
tremendous crash upstairs.
“We’re okay!” Mabel reassuringly sang down from the second floor.
Mrs. Pines winced, sipped her tea and took a deep breath before she
started softly repeating for her own sake, “It’s fine… it’s fine….it’s all
just fine…”

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 Chapter 9

It was no surprise to Wendy that the Pines twins had a few unique
holiday traditions of their very own. On Christmas Eve just the night
before, Dipper had explained to her about how Christmas mornings in
their house always began. Every year without fail his sister would wake
him up at the crack of dawn by barging into his room to bounce on his
bed while making the biggest happy racket that she possibly could until
finally he got up. He had also told Wendy with extreme confidence that
this was the year that particular tradition was going to end. Dipper
excitedly went on and on about his plan to set his alarm to go off extra
early and then sneak off somewhere else in the house, leaving nothing
but an empty bed for Mabel to attack later on. He even thanked his friend
for keeping her survival shelter up in the back yard, as that would make
the perfect refuge for him to avoid his annual rude awakening.
The redheaded teen almost felt bad for him as she snuck into his room
the very next morning a few minutes ahead of his schedule. Almost. He
really should have known better than to tell someone he knew fully well
could employ extreme stealth when she wanted to. Mabel chomped
down hard on her lip while she stood in the doorway and gleefully
watched her friend in action. The redhead moved like a shadow as she
first turned off his alarm and then silently slipped under the bed.
Mabel now had to resort to biting down on the sleeve of her nightie to
keep from blowing their cover. Wendy flashed a thumbs up, then
rammed her knees up against the bottom of the bed. Dipper was
launched half a foot straight in the air.
“I’m up! I’m up!” He yelped to no one in particular. The boy then
reflexively rolled over and grasped for his alarm.
“IT’S CHRISTMASSSSSSSS!” Mabel hurled a handful of green and
red glitter at the back of his head as she charged in full-speed. He turned
around just in time for his epic annual holiday pounce. After hugging the

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breath out of his body she then jumped around and around him, sending
his scrawny body knocking about. The bedsprings squeaked loudly as
she finally sat down next to her sibling to cheerily sing, “Good
morningggg!”
After Wendy reemerged she flopped back-first onto the foot of the
bed, sending both twins rocketing briefly up into the air. Mabel snorted
with laughter as she landed on her side while Dipper was flipped over
onto his stomach. When the dazed boy looked up he found himself
gazing directly into his best friend’s smirk.
“Sup, dude.” She cheekily greeted. “Can you guess what day it is?”
Dipper grabbed a pillow and proceeded to throw it over her head.
“Well, looks like I’m never telling you anything ever again.”
The remorseless teen chuckled as she tossed it right back. “You know
you love it.”
“Boop!” Mabel prodded him in the back until her twin turned to face
her. She then asked sweetly, “So… cocoa?”
“Cocoa.” He repeated with a yawn and a nod.
As they headed out into the hall towards the stairs, Wendy noticed
that her friend went through an incredibly speedy transformation. In
nearly no time he went from dazed and drowsy to jittery with nervous
excitement.
“You okay?” She chuckled. Dipper looked up and grinned anxiously.
“Just hoping it’s good. That’s all.”
“What’s good?”
“Hold onto your socks and get readyyyy!” Mabel had turned into
ecstasy personified as she bounced down the steps two at a time.
Wendy couldn’t exactly explain what happened next. The tree was
exactly where they left it, as were all the ornaments and other
decorations adorning it. Also also the presents that had been

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accumulating under it over the course of the last few days were still in
the same place too. Literally nothing had changed since when they all
went to bed just the night before. But as she now laid eyes upon the
scene before her in the living room, she found herself unexpectedly taken
aback. There was something inexplicably…..beautiful about it.
Something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, what whatever it
was it made her stop halfway down the stairs to gawk like she had just
stepped into the heart of a treasure chamber.
“…Whoa.”
“So….you like it?” Dipper asked with a hopeful smile. The older teen
continued to gaze wordlessly for a few moments more. Eventually she
snapped back to the present with a slow nod.
“I think I’m starting to get what you see in this holiday….”
They had to wait in the kitchen with near-overflowing bowls of cereal
and steaming mugs of hot cocoa, where the twins told stories of past
Christmases while Wendy in turn regaled them with anecdotes from
winter apocalypse training. Despite her best efforts, eventually Mabel
couldn’t take it any more. She rushed upstairs and returned with two
sleepy parents shuffling along in tow. Once Mr. and Mrs. Pines had brew
up a pot of coffee it was then time for one of the best parts of the whole
day, or at least so Wendy had heard.
Everyone assembled in the living room and started to exchange
presents. At first the family’s redheaded guest was just happy to sit back
and watch the sweet scene, especially when the twins traded gifts with
each other. Mabel had thoughtfully bought a new vest for her brother
(Wendy almost wanted to thank the little brunette out loud when Dipper
first took it out of its box; his old vest had been getting a little too grungy
even by her standards). Dipper in turn had gotten his arts-and-crafts-
obsessed twin a brand new paint set. His sister gave him such a big
thank-you hug that it was a miracle none of his ribs were broken.
After the sweet sibling spectacle finished up, Wendy finally felt brave
enough to reach for several roughly-wrapped gifts lying grouped

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together under the tree. She plodded across the room and handed the
largest one to Mr. and Mrs. Pines.
“I wasn’t really sure what to get so….I decided to bring this from
home with me.” She murmured. “Uh, I hope you like it.”
Despite the reassuring smile she flashed, Mrs. Pines couldn’t help but
be visibly on guard as she very tentatively opened up the box. She and
her husband found themselves looking at four neatly packed jars, each
one tightly lidded and filled to the top with a thick black substance.
“Oh! It’s… it’s…..” Mr. Pines picked one up and curiously watched
its contents slowly ooze about inside. After the array of surprises they
had over the last few days, neither one was sure what to make of this.
“It’s blackberry jelly.” Wendy was showered with surprised looks
from the whole family. The girl shrugged their understandable reactions
off. “What? We have a lot of blackberries that grow near town. There’s a
place on Main Street that makes this.”
“Is that so? Then I know what I’m overloading my toast with for the
next few weeks.” Mr. Pines cracked as he flashed the teen a playful
wink. “If I let it last that long, at least.”
Mrs. Pines gasped in relief before she gave Wendy a small hug. “It’s
lovely. Thank you.”
“No problem. It’s just something local from home.” She tried to
coolly downplay her gift. Okay, so far so good. One down, two more to
go. Unfortunately now she was in the center of attention. Even Waddles
seemed to be curiously watching her from his makeshift nest in a pile of
wrapping paper.
Sensing that the girl was feeling anxiously out of her element, Mrs.
Pines quickly reached for another gift and presented to her husband with
a smile. “Here’s a little something for you.”
“Yes!” He whooped like a kid at the sight of a new cookbook. It was
one of his inevitable presents every single year, and it never failed to

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excite him. He wore an enormous toothy grin as he affectionately joked,
“How’d you know?”
She rolled her eyes and teasingly answered back, “I’ll admit, it was
pretty tough. You’re always so difficult to shop for….”
Now that the parents were busy sharing their own private moment
together, Wendy felt a little better. She took a deep breath and knelt
down in front of the twins. “Sooooo, these are for you guys.”
“Awww, but you shouldn’t have! You’re already our present,
remember?” Mabel reminded her with a sweet smile.
“Thanks, but I’m not going to let all this work go for nothing.” Wendy
chuckled. Without further ado she handed them a little box each. Both
twins made short work of the crude wrap jobs and opened the presents
up in near-unison. Inside each box was a small wooden question mark,
hand carved to look exactly like the logo of the Mystery Shack.
“Wow.” Dipper gasped and looked incredulously to her. “Did you….”
“Uh-huh. My Dad’s taught me more than just how to shoot and chop
things.” His friend said with no small amount of pride.
“Dipper, look!” Mabel squealed as she compared her little carving to
his side by side. “They’re like twins too!”
“More like triplets.” Wendy felt a little cheesy saying that, but she
didn’t know how else to put it. She reached underneath her shirt and
revealed a third identical wooden question mark that hung on a string
around her neck. “So, you know it kind of sucks living in totally
different states, right? Even though we can just call whenever, I was
thinking….if we all have one of these, it’s kind of like….you know,
we’re all a little bit closer.”
The teen coughed and shifted the conversation. “These don’t have to
go on your neck. You can use it as like, a bracelet charm, or on a
keychain, or whatever you want.”

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 “Thank you.” Dipper handled his like a precious relic. The sight got a
laugh out of her.
“Dude, it’s just wood.”
“Nuh-uh! It’s one of the most thoughtful things ever! Thank
yoooouuuu!” Mabel’s eyes were lit brighter than the nearby tree.
“Glad you like them.” Wendy smile’s hid her relief.
“Like it? Ooohhhhh, no, I love it!” In the blink of an eye she snatched
Dipper’s question mark away and gathered some nearby ribbon.
“HEY!” He protested.
“Just a sec!” In no time the arts and crafts master had fashioned him a
temporary necklace that she shoved down over his neck (with a little
more force than he would have liked). She used a shorter piece of ribbon
and quickly fashioned herself a bracelet. Now that they were both
properly wearing their gifts, she clapped her hands and excitedly
announced, “Okay, now it’s your turn!”
“Huh?” Wendy was immediately confused. “Wait, what do you mean
my turn?”
“Wait, what do you mean?” Dipper asked back. Now the twins were
confused too, and together they shot her identical looks of bemusement.
“Do you mean like…. presents? But…..hold on, isn’t this already it?”
She waved her arm and gestured around the room.
“What is?” He cocked his head.
“You know, this whole having-me-down-here thing?” She explained.
“Oh, that’s right! That’s totally enough for-NOPE! One million
percent wrong!” Mabel decalred before she attacked. The older teen was
suddenly blinded as something was thrown over her head.
“GAH! Hey what—”

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 “Don’t fight it! We’re almost done!” A few seconds later she finished
successfully getting her friend into a brand new hand-knitted sweater.
“Ta-daaaaa!”
“I so should have seen this coming.” Wendy remarked as she brushed
the hair back out of her face. At the very least she was expecting her new
garment to have a blizzard of glittery snow and a polar bear in sunglasses
high-fiving a dancing Christmas tree. But to her surprise it was a
stylishly simple emerald green affair.
“Do you like it? Pffft, what am I even saying? Of course you do!”
Mabel scoffed. “See how I didn’t give it a seasonal design? That way
you can wear it whenever it gets a little too chilly! And check out that
color. Nice, right? Now, I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t I go
with red? Well duuuuuh, because this goes so well with those gorgeous
locks of yours! And it really matches your eyes too, don’t you think?”
“This is actually….wow.” Wendy moved her arms about as she got
used to the feel of the new sweater. It was extremely comfortable, and
already she could tell that it was going to serve her well as soon as she
returned home to her snowbound hometown.
“You’re welcome.” Mabel tittered proudly without any need for
thanks.
“Speaking of, here’s another one for you… I mean, not another
sweater, but something for when the weather is….you get it, right?” With
his usual smoothness, Dipper handed her a finely wrapped box. Inside
the teen found a set of beautiful red flannel pajamas.
“Whooaa-hoooo, baby.” Part of her wanted to rush upstairs right now
and switch out of her current T-shirt and sweats.
“You keep talking about how much colder the winters are back in
Gravity Falls.” Dipper grinned with relief. “So I thought maybe this
would make the nights a little better.”
“Compared to here, it’s like the north pole.” She cracked. They shared
a laugh before her friend turned and wordlessly gestured to his parents.

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The twins’ mother got up and joined them.
“Okay, last but not least….” She handed over a small box. Wendy
opened it to find a key waiting for her inside.
“Oh, uh….thanks?” She tried to be polite, but only a second second
later she forced herself to admit, “I literally have no idea what I’m
looking at right now.”
“It’s a spare house key. For this house. It’s to let you know that you’re
welcome back here whenever you’d like.” Mrs. Pines welcomingly
explained.
“As many visits as you want, whenever you want!” Mabel
encouraged her. “Summer’s too far away to wait that long to see our
Wen-Wen again!”
The fifteen-year-old had just been bombarded with holiday
generosity. She hugged the new PJ’s close with one arm and and smiled
at the key now sitting in her hand. “I….I don’t know what to…..thank
you.”
No one was able to get in a reply in before she abruptly reached down
into her sweatpants. “Wait hold on….sorry, phone’s vibrating.”
She took it out, scanned the screen and shook her head. “Oh, man….
leave it to my Dad to really mess things. I got a call coming in from
home. Is it okay if I go take this?”
“Oh, sure!” Mr. Pines smiled forgivingly. “Don’t leave them waiting!”
“Thanks.” She put her presents down and quickly headed upstairs.
The parents had been fooled, but Dipper didn’t buy the admittedly
convincing act for a moment. Thankfully, shortly after she left his dad
presented his mom with a new robe while Mabel showed Waddles his
new pillow-bed (and his brand-new light-up sweater, of course). It was
the perfect opportunity for the boy to quietly slip away from the
festivities.

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 Just as he expected, he heard sniffling as he approached the guest
room. Wendy wasn’t talking to her anyone on her phone. Instead she was
busy wiping her watering eyes. The boy took a deep breath and
cautiously knocked on the door.
“Wendy?”
The teen definitely looked a little embarrassed, but also didn’t seem to
be surprised in the very least. She chortled hoarsely. “I knew it probably
wouldn’t be long until you showed up.”
“Sorry.” Dipper blushed and stepped back a few paces out of sight.
“It’s okay.” She gestured for him to come in. “I’m just not a huge fan
of tearing up with an audience, that’s all.”
“Is it the key that did it?” Dipper winced. Even if it was for a
perfectly happy reason, he still didn’t like accidentally reducing anyone
to tears. Especially not a friend, and least of all his best friend. “Sorry.
That was probably a little too much at once, huh? We probably should
have waited a little for the key thing….but just to let you know, we all
definitely mean it. After everything you did to make us feel at home in
Gravity Falls, it’s only fair. You know, if that’s our home away from
home, why can’t this be your home away from home? And I know it’s a
long bus ride down and back, but you’re definitely free to…..I mean, if
our spring breaks happen at the same time, then maybe you could….”
As he awkwardly babbled on, Wendy didn’t need long until she was
able to put two and two together.
“…Not that I’m saying you have to come down, I’m just saying that
we’d be okay if you… um….” He stopped when he noticed the fat smirk
that was rapidly stretching across her face.
“The key was totally your idea, wasn’t it?” She called him out.
“Uh….” Dipper’s immediate pause gave her exactly the confirmation
she needed. Wendy cracked up with a snort. The boy scratched the back
of his neck and nervously chuckled. “Did I make it that obvious?”

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 “Yes.” She didn’t mince words. “And there’s probably no way that
you can be that good at picking out girl’s pajamas.”
“Definitely not….” Seeing as she was going to get the rest of the truth
out of him no matter what, he decided to make it easier for himself and
fess up. “Mom took care of all of that. I just thought if she gave my gift
instead, it’d make you feel better about….you know, all that other stuff.
But even if she didn’t, she’d still want you to come back here too, just as
much as we would. Now it’s not like you have to come back here before
the summer or anything, we just—”
He probably would have kept right on jabbering if the snickering girl
hadn’t knelt down and swept her best friend into a tight hug. Dipper
could feel the red heat radiating off his face as she briefly nuzzled the top
of his head.
“Thanks, Dipper.” She whispered her gratitude.
“Thanks for being here.” He was more than happy to wrap his noodle
arms around her and return the warm embrace.
“Awww……” Came a muffled coo from just outside the room.
Dipper’s blush immediately started glowing at double the intensity.
“Mabel?” He groaned. “How much of that did you—”
“She probably heard everything. Just accept it, man.” Wendy rolled
with it.
“Heard it all, saw it all, and got some photos too!” Mabel announced
shamelessly as she revealed herself. Wendy mischievously held onto her
embarrassed doofus for a little while longer.
“Make sure to get our good sides!” She requested while the little
brunette happily snapped a few more pictures with her phone. “Sweet.
Send them to me later?”
“Already on it!” Mabel enthusiastically texted them off. “And don’t
worry bro-bro, the happy memories are being sent to you too!”

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 “Thanks a lot.” Dipper mumbled sarcastically.
“No problemo, Dippingsauce! But I’m not here just to creep around.
Well, kinda, but mainly I come up because Mom’s helping Dad start to
throw breakfast together, sooooo I thought maybe would be a good time
to…..you know…..” Mabel hinted to her twin. “With the thing?”
As soon as Dipper caught on he snapped to attention. “Oh, right!”
Together they hustled out of the room, leaving behind a curious
redhead. They soon returned carrying what appeared to be nothing more
than Dipper’s telescope case. But when they opened it up they revealed
that there still had one last present for her.
“You didn’t….” She couldn’t believe her eyes. Despite Mabel’s
excellent wrapping job, she could immediately tell what it was thanks to
its obvious shape. “How’d you even get this?”
“Stan helped! He bought it for us during Thanksgiving break after he
convinced mom to let you come down.” Mabel explained.
“Well, after we tried to buy it on our own.” Dipper grimaced at the
memory of that unsuccessful first go. “We definitely didn’t think that
through first time around.”
“What are you waiting for?” His sister bounced up and down on her
toes, “Open it! Open it!”
Just as she expected, it was a brand new hatchet. But what wasn’t
expected was the sight of her own name emblazoned into both the handle
and the leather sheath that covered the blade.
“Oh, wow.” She ran her fingers over the letters. “Guys…”
“It’s so your brothers know not to take it.” Dipper thoughtfully
explained. Wendy held it for a couple wordless moments, and even did a
few experimental twirls in her hand. She looked to her friends, and
despite her best efforts to fight it she erupted with a loud sniffle.
“Wendy?” Mabel chirped concernedly.

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 “You okay?” Dipper asked.
“I’m fine. It’s just….” As her eyes watered up fast, she reassured
them with a chuckle. “The sweater didn’t do it… the pajamas didn’t do
it….the key to your house didn’t do it….but this axe….this stupid
axe….oh man….”
It was all too much, and in the very best way possible. She croaked
out a hoarse laugh as she finally lost it. While the tears began to flow
down her pale cheeks, Wendy dropped down to her knees and opened her
arms wide. The twins gladly obliged her, and they all joined up for a
hearty group squeeze. However, it wasn’t long until something occurred
to Wendy.
“Wait a sec. So how come I got busted after just a couple days here,
but you were able to hide this thing for a whole month?”
“Probably because we kept moving it to new hiding places.” Dipper
confessed. “Like, every couple days. We kind of developed a system.”
“First Dipper’s room, then my room, then the garage, then the attic,
then repeat!” Mabel enthusiastically went into finer detail.
“Oh my God. You….you dorks.” Wendy chuckled and wiped her tears
in the younger girl’s hair. The little brunette flashed a hundred-watt
smile.
“But we’re YOUR dorks!” Mabel happily declared, then promptly
proceeded to tighten her loving crush. “And you’re OUR Wen-Wen, and
we wouldn’t want anyone else with us here this year! End of story!”
“I know, I know.” Wendy half-sniffled, half-snickered. “Merry
Christmas, guys.”
Dipper lit up with a grin that managed to outshine even his sister’s as
he felt their friend gratefully clasp them both as close to her as she
possibly could. “Merry Christmas, Wendy….”

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 Chapter 10

Another whole year had passed, and winter had once again returned to
the deceptively sleepy-looking town of Gravity Falls. Stan Pines was
lounging in his old recliner and distractedly flipping through the
channels when the relative quiet was broken by a telltale honk outside. It
sounded like Soos was back from the bus station. A grin swept across the
old man’s craggy features as he clambered to his feet and headed out the
door.
“Special delivery!” Soos cheered and honked his truck horn again.
One of the doors opens up and out spilled two fourteen year olds and a
small pig.
“Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Staaaaaaaaaan!” Mabel
flashed a braceless pearly white smile while she raced headlong for him.
“Hey, Grunkle Stan!” Dipper trailed close behind at his sister’s heels.
“Geez, you two again?! But I just had to spend another whole summer
with you!” Stan complained in mock-annoyance before they nearly
bowled him over in a joint crush. It was getting harder to withstand the
force of these hugs the way the two of them had really started to shoot up
like sprouts. But at least this time he stayed on his feet, and after
steadying himself he wrapped his wrinkled arms tightly around the both
of them. “Good to see you little gremlins back so soon.”
The epic hug had just ended before another familiar face emerged
from the Shack. Melody didn’t get a chance to say hello or even get a
single syllable in before Mabel detached from Stan and happily attacked
her waist with a tight squeeze.
“MELLY!” The little teen squealed. The young woman bubbled with
laughter as she squeezed the girl back with one arm and drew Dipper
close with the other into a warm group embrace.

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 “Hey guys! Welcome back!” She excitedly greeted the siblings.
As soon as she let go, Mabel started bouncing all about with
unrelenting joy. “We’re here! We’re here! I can’t believe we’re
heeerrreee! Christmas in Gravity Falls! Ooooh, just look at it! It’s like…
it’s like a Christmas card come to life!”
After marveling at the picturesque white-blanketed surroundings, she
flung herself to the ground with a giddy laugh and began making an
impromptu snow angel. Waddles flopped down and started rolling
around in the snow beside her.
“You ready a whole week of this?” Dipper grinned at his great-uncle.
“Probably not.” The old man half-honestly replied with a smile and a
shrug. “But I’ll try my best. Oh, and now that you’re finally here….”
He turned and called back into the house. “Okay, hit it!”
The roof lit up brightly array of lights, all carefully arranged to spell
out a familiar message.
“Yes! YES! Pines ruuuuule!” Mabel read the lights out loud at the top
of her lungs, and agreed with a cheer. Dipper brightened up hopefully.
“Wait! So is—” His answer came before he was even done asking
when another old man joined the reunion outside.
“Looks nice, huh?” Ford looked up at the roof and chuckled. “Though
to be fair, I’m a little biased.”
Even though they were happy to see him, the freshly-arrived teens
couldn’t help but let their faces falls a little with disappointment as they
gave their other great-uncle a hug. Both of the elder twins easily noticed
this.
“We know, we wish she was here too.” Stan said with a nod. “But her
old man didn’t want her missing out on two years in a row on their
wildman stuff.”

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 “The whole annual training just feels so unnecessary at this point. I
mean, what with the near-apocalypse having come and gone already.”
Ford gave his reasonable two cents on the matter. It had been pretty
unfortunate the way Manly Dan had waffled back and forth all the past
month before finally deciding just over a week ago that Wendy had to
join the rest of the Corduroy clan for their usual “holiday.”
“First Christmas up here, and no Wen-Wen.” Mabel sighed.
Melody gave her empathetic pat on the head. “Trust us, no one’s
really happy about it.”
“Yeah, Wen-dawg was especially bummed about it. But at least she
got the time to put these up before she left with her dad and bros this
morning.” Soos nodded to the peculiar decorations up above.
“It’s kind of like she’s here, then.” The brunette tried to look on the
bright side of things. She glanced to her twin, who passed her a weak
smile. It wasn’t the holiday with the crew they originally hoped for when
they had first been invited by their grunkles, but it was close enough.
“Oh, almost forgot.” Ford remembered as he scratched Waddles
behind the ears. “She also left a note for you too.”
“Where is it?” Dipper asked way too excitedly for his own good.
“Uh….I mean….do you have it?”
“Nah, she left it in your room upstairs.”
“Great! Thanks Grunkle Stan!” Dipper took his bags and headed
straight up to the attic, with Mabel trailing close behind.
Their shared room was more or less exactly as they left it since they
last visited for their second summer up north only a few months ago,
with a couple noticeable exceptions. A small handwritten note addressed
to the twins lay on Dipper’s bed, and nearly on the table a prepackaged
platter of Christmas cookies waited for them.
“What’d she say?” Mabel plopped her bags on her bed with a squeak
of old springs. Her brother sat down on his mattress, and was bounced an

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inch or two into the air when she took an eager seat right beside him.
“Dear guys — sorry I couldn’t make this a twice-in-a-row deal.” He
read out loud. “But I still want to thank you so much for giving me at
least one real-deal Christmas last year. I’ll be thinking about it while I’m
with my family all this week. In the meantime, don’t get too bummed out
without me. Just have a great time, and maybe my dad can let me leave
training this year a little early. Hope to see you before you guys leave.
Peace, Wendy. P.S. I left some cookies I got from the store. I would have
made some, but you know I can’t bake for the life of me.”
As he finished reading, he reached under his shirt and took out the
small hand-carved question mark dangling around his neck. The boy
give it a squeeze while he let out a wistful sigh. “Hope to see you too.”
“At least she left us a little something!” His ever-optimistic sister
pulled him over to the cookies. “Ooooh, looks like she got us—”
She picked up the package, and by the time they noticed the attached
string it was far too late. The siblings flew several feet up off the floor as
a well-concealed net scooped up the both of them.
“Help!” Mabel yelped in panic. “Help! Help! Cookie betrayal!”
“Waaaait…” This all seemed awfully familiar to Dipper. His
suspicions were confirmed when familiar laughter started to fill the attic.
There was a clomp of boots as a flannel-clad figure dropped down from
the rafters.
“Psyche!” Wendy grinned from ear to ear.
“Wendy!” Dipper gasped. “You’re….you’re here?!”
“Are you?” Mabel reached out and grabbed a handful of thick scarlet
locks just to make sure. “Yes! It’s the real deal!”
“Hey dudes.” The redhead greeted with a casual nod. She then
stomped hard twice on the floor, signaling to everyone downstairs that
they could all drop the act. They could hear Stan’s gruff chuckling echo
up from from below.

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 “Sorry, guys!” Melody called.
“But…” Dipper’s mind still reeled with joyous disbelief. “But I
thought your Dad didn’t want you to skip this year!”
“He really didn’t. But it turns out if you show up at the house with a
full grown doe that you caught on your own, he changes his mind pretty
easily. After that, he decided that I’m probably as trained as I’m gonna
get.”
“Oooh, that poor deer!” Mabel couldn’t help but be a little
sympathetic.
“Don’t worry, she was just totally fine.” said the older teen.
“But didn’t you just say—”
“Anyone can take a bow or something and bag a deer. It takes a real
Corduroy to take it down, bring it home, and release it in one piece.”
Wendy smirked as she proudly showed off a few heavy bruises on her
arms. When the twins winced together at the leftovers of her ordeal, she
reassured them with a simple and unrepentant, “Worth it.”
“When did you even do that?” Dipper asked.
“Few days ago.” She replied casually.
“And you couldn’t tell us any of this earlier because….” The boy
pried.
“Because surprises are fun, dummy.” The older teenager replied
matter of factly. Dipper burst out laughing.
“Yeah, for you.” He reached out and yanked down the brim of her
pine-tree cap.
“That’s what counts!” Wendy snickered. Once she readjust her
headwear back into place she sauntered over to the sturdy rope holding
the twins up and lowered them back down to the floor. “So, it looks like
you two dorks are stuck with me for another holiday.”

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 The instant they were free they both rushed her. The redhead let out a
grunt as she was squashed between them in a duel hug. But it wasn’t
long until the ecstatic twins could feel her wiry arms squeeze the two of
them back just as fiercely.
“That’s the best bad news I’ve ever heard.” Dipper happily declared.
“Course it is.” She replied cockily, followed by an extra squeeze for
him.
“I kind of get the surprise, but was the net really necessary though?”
He asked as he broke from the embrace. Meanwhile Mabel giddily held
on to their friend for five seconds longer before she finally let go.
“You better believe it. This year you’re on my turf, so we’re doing the
holiday a lot more Wendy-Style this time around.” She announced.
“Last year wasn’t enough?” Dipper’s sass earned himself an
affectionate shove.
“Not even close. Don’t worry though, no one’s sleeping outside this
time around.” She drew a blanket away from a lumpy pile to reveal her
backpack, a sleeping bag, cot and pillow. Also crammed among all her
things were what suspiciously looked like two half-finished bows that
she hurriedly pushed out of sight.
“So what kind of stuff do you have planned?” Mabel asked as she
bounced on her toes.
“A lot.” She said vaguely.
“And how much of it is probably going to upset Stan and Ford?”
Dipper pried.
“A lot. Probably.” Her shameless answer got a hearty laugh out of her
best friend.
“I’m in.”
“Me too! Best first Christmas ever!” Mabel leapt several feet into the
air with a mighty whoop. She then made sure to correctly clarify, “Best

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first Christmas in Gravity Falls ever!”
“Oooh, yeah it is. Okay, keep your boots and jackets on, and bust out
those gloves, dudes.” The redhead unsheathed a familiar hatchet.
“We’re getting right to the itinerary already?” Dipper wore a grin big
enough to split his face in half. Mabel giggled as she clapped her
mittened hands. Wendy of course looked just as excited as the two of
them, if not a little more so. It felt so good be back with her “other’
family.
“Yup. It’s like Mabes told me last year.” Together the reunited trio
happily trooped downstairs. “It’s not Christmas without a tree….”
The End

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 Second Christmas (One-Shot)

Hey folks!
I figured that given both the time of the season and how insane things
seem to be getting everywhere in general, I felt like now might be a good
time for an early infusion of seasonal silliness with the rerun of my
Christmas special fic. I went through and revised every single chapter
doing a bunch of little revisions and slight changes to make it a little
more in sync with the show (this story was originally published before
the final two episodes), and I also eliminated most of the remaining
weird typos that I’m so absurdly prone to making. So I hope this cleaned
up story will get everyone a bit more into the holiday spirit!
Of course, it would be pretty silly / ridiculous / rude / (insert less-
than-flattering adjective here) of me just to add a new chapter merely to
say “Hey, the story’s been cleaned up, that’s all!” So I’m also publishing
a little one-shot glimpse of Wendy’s second real Christmas (and the
twins’ first winter holiday in Gravity Falls) that I wrote a few days ago
for you all to hopefully enjoy. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to write
more of the same, but I’ll definitely see what I can do! I’ll also try and
make an attempt to make a Christmas one-shot for my “Pines Will Be
Pines” story collection.
Happy holidays to everyone! — SGA

Dipper cracked his eyes open with a whopping yawn. As set up in bed
and stretched his noodly arms he took a look around the attic to take
stock of his roommates. Mabel’s bed on the other side of the room was
empty, and looked like it had been so for some time. It was probably
completely safe to assume that she had already been up and about for
quite some time already, energetically tending to all kinds of various

112
holiday-related activities while brimming with her usual overload of
seasonal glee.
It was a completely different story in the cot that had been set up
between the two beds. Wendy appeared to still be deep in a dead sleep as
she lay totally curled up in the warm confines of her sleeping bag like it
was giant cocoon. Dipper muffled another yawn, slipped on a sweatshirt,
then used every bit of stealth he could muster to tip-toe around his friend
and out the door without disturbing her.
Once he was in the clear, he headed downstairs to grab some
breakfast. He let his mind wander aimlessly as he plodded along, not
thinking about anything in particular. It was Christmas vacation, and he
and his twin were here in their home away from home. He could just
relax and—
“BOO!” A familiar voice started the daylights out of him the instant
he entered the kitchen. After jumping at least a foot into the air he
whirled around to find a very unexpected sight. Wendy wore her beloved
red flannel pajamas and a gigantic toothy smirk as she leaned up against
the wall next to the doorway.
“What the….” Dipper gawked at her in a confused daze.
“Mornin’, dork.” She chuckled before downing a spoonful of cereal.
“Huh? Wait, but… but how did you get down here so….” The boy
stopped dead in mid-sentence, then face-palmed when he mentally put
all the pieces together. “That….wasn’t you that I saw upstairs, was it?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” She affectionately tousled her best friend’s hair
and chortled at the look on his face. After he finished processing what
had just happened, Dipper burst out laughing.
“Oh man….you are good.” He praised her.
“I know.” Wendy readily agreed with a snicker. She took a seat at the
table while the younger teen prepared a heaping bowl of cereal for
himself.

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 “So….I’m gonna guess that making decoys is something you learned
over some past holidays.” He rightfully assumed.
“Yup. My Dad taught us that whole strategy just in case we ever
found ourselves camping out and had to deal with something crazy
lurking nearby. You know, to turn the tables. So like, while a wolf or a
cougar is prowling around, you stuff a bunch of clothes inside your
sleeping bag and hide. Then while it checks out what it thinks is you, you
can ambush it.”
“Did that ever happen to you?” Dipper pried curiously. While the pair
chatted, a young woman bustled into the kitchen.
“Morning!” Melody cheerily greeted them as she poured herself some
coffee.
“Morning.” The pair chorused back before resuming their
conversation.
“Nah. Closest I ever got was my Dad testing me and my brothers by
sneaking around on us at night.” Wendy answered her friend’s question.
“That’s….uh, kind of intense.”
“Dude, this is my dad we’re talking about.” She pointed out, but then
conceded, “But yeah, that was a little much even for him.”
After they shared a couple snickers together, Dipper stirred his cereal
until he worked up the courage to ask her, “So….you that maybe you
could—”
“No prob. I’d be happy to give you a lesson later.” She laughed as she
read him like an open book.
The grin he sprouted almost split his face in half. Before he could let
his excitement go overboard he hastily he switched the subject. “Soooo,
how’s Christmas Number Two going so far for you?”
“So far so good.” Wendy flashed a thumbs up across the table, “A
little more low key than I expected, though.”

114
 “Really?” Dipper was surprised by this answer, as was the young
woman who had started listening in on their chatter.
“Low key….” Melody curiously mulled these words before chuckling
in disbelief.
“Hey, don’t get me wrong or anything.” Wendy turned around in her
seat. “I mean, I’m seriously loving how chill everything’s been here with
all the weird TV specials we’ve been watching and all snacks and
everything. It’s just….I was kind of expecting more…..I mean, think
about it. You have all of us together right here in Weirdness Central.”
“Huh. You actually have kind of a point there.” Melody agreed before
taking a sip of her coffee.
“Like I said, I got no problem at all hanging with all my crew here.”
Wendy reassured. “It’s not bad or anything like that. I’m seriously loving
it, and it totally beats spending my time outside somewhere in a hole I
had to dig out of the hillside. It’s just….kind of been a surprise to me,
you know? I mean, the first holiday go-around last year felt totally nuts,
and I wasn’t even in anyplace crazy. It was just some regular town. No
offense or anything, Di—”
She was interrupted by the entrance of a chubby man dressed in black
boots, a red suit, and matching cap. Soos’s costume was almost complete
with the exception of one very obvious and vital piece. He anxiously
rubbed his bare face as he hustled around the kitchen, searching high and
low.
“Soos? Everything okay?” Dipper asked while he watched his friend
check beneath the rickety table.
“Where is it….where did I…..” He murmured to himself. “Huh…..not
around here. Hey, dudes? Have any of you like, seen a—”
“Hold on.” Melody spotted the fake white beard hanging halfway out
of his back pocket. She tugged it free and dangled it in front of his face.
“Looking for this?”

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 “YES! There is it. Thanks ,Corn Chip!” He gave her a thankful peck
on the cheek before slipping the fluffy facial hair on. “Okay, how do I
look?”
“Perfect!” Melody gushed with a loving grin.
“Lookin’ good, Kris Kringle.” Wendy complemented, then asked,
“So, what’s going on here exactly? You and Mabes in a Christmas-off or
something?”
“Oh that’s right, you weren’t here last year. Nah dude, we’re doin’ a
Mystery Shack seasonal special. We’re gonna bring Santa’s Village to
Gravity Falls for the second year in a row.” He puffed his chest with
pride. “It was my idea.”
“Uh huh. And a much, much better alternative than that ice maze Stan
wanted.” Melody remarked. Right on cue, Mister Mystery himself
entered the kitchen.
“Soos! Did you find—”
“Yup! Soos-a Claus is ready for duty!” The co-manager of the Shack
stood smartly at attention. Stan grinned from ear to ear and rubbed his
wrinkled hands in anticipation.
“Ooooh, we’re gonna make another killing this year, I can just feel it.
Kids will be lined up out the door and into the parking lot, all of ’em
wanting to talk to Santa and get their picture taken for fifteen bucks a
pop—”
“What?” Melody set her mug down and raised an eyebrow. “Hold on
here. I thought we were only doing five dollars a picture.”
“Uhhh…..” Stan froze before he cooked up an obvious lie.
“Yeeeaaaah, five. That’s what I meant to say. Sorry, it’s still kinda early.
Hard to think straight when—”
“Stan, we agreed on this.” She put her hands on her hips and frowned
disapprovingly.

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 “Okay, okay, fine. Five bucks a photo.” He relented. However, Dipper
caught the telltale glint in his eyes from across the room.
“Grunkle Stan? Is the price going to stay that all day?” The boy
asked.
“Uh….” The old man was taken off guard by his hyper-observative
great-nephew. “Well—”
“You’re not just going to jack up the prices later, are you?” Melody
demanded.
“Look, let’s just see what the deal is with our supply and demand, and
then we’ll—”
“Stanley, no.” Another dissenting voice appeared. Ford entered the
increasingly crowded kitchen.
“Ah c’mon! We’re gonna have families flockin’ in here from all over
town, and they’re all gonna want to make happy holiday memories for
their kids! And good memories don’t come cheap.”
“Oh for….” His brother sighed. “Stanley, if there’s one thing you
shouldn’t gouge people on, it’s pictures with Santa.”
“Huh?” Soos had been distractedly adjusting and readjusting his
beard. “Wait, what are we talkin’ about now?”
“Nothing.” Seeing as he was rapidly losing the argument, Stan
switched tactics and tried to change the topic of conversation. “Uh, so
has anyone seen Mabel? She said that she was gonna handle the
decorations, and I wanna make sure—”
Everyone suddenly heard the faint but unmistakable sounds of protest
from across the Shack, which grew increasingly louder until two more
people entered the room. Actually, to be more accurate it was one person
and one humanoid forest creature (plus a small sweater-clad pig that
trotted along on Mabel’s heels).

117
 “Good morning, family!” Mabel greeted everyone in chipper
singsong.
“What in the world?” Ford exclaimed, startled to see an outraged
gnome trailing along on his great niece’s heels and ranting up a storm.
“…You can’t do this!” Jeff, ruler of the gnomes, fumed nonstop. “You
can’t! How do you honestly think that you can get away with…..”
The little teen meanwhile didn’t appear fazed in the slightest by the
tiny bearded man currently haranguing her as she checked a drawer.
“Let’s see, where’s the… aha! There you are, extra glue gun! Thought
you could hide from me, huh?”
“You can’t do this!” The gnome kept yelled. “This is an injustice! You
can’t just round up a bunch of my people and make them do your
bidding for your stupid human holiday!”
Mabel looked him right in the eye and merely giggled at his fury.
“You’re being the biggest silly right now, Jeff. You know that?”
“Silly? Silly?! What I’m doing right now is advocating on my
people’s behalf!” He shot back. “You can’t make them stand still outside
for hours for people to gawk at!”
“Whoa, hold the phone here!” Stan interrupted. “Mabel, what’s he
talkin’ about?”
“My innovation! We’re going all-out with our North Pole with super-
realistic elves!” Mabel boasted.
“We’re what?”
“Santa’s elves! I got us a whole crew of gnomes who are gonna be
dressed up in green and red, with little bell hats and everything! And
they’ll be all positioned to look like they’re busy making toys, and….”
She was so excited that she had to pause to clap her hands and let out a
squeal. “Oh it’s gonna be the best! All the kids will love it!”

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 Without missing a beat she then turned back to the enraged gnome
chief. “And I told you already, no one is forcing any of your guys to do
anything. I put out flyers by your grove yesterday, and anyone who
wanted to apply to be an elf for a day did so through the proper
channels!”
She reached into her jacket and took out a manilla folder that was
crammed full of forms. “See? Everyone submitted an application like I
asked, and they all signed their own contracts and everything! Mabel
Pines is a legitimate seasonal employer!”
Jeff briefly glanced through all the meticulous documentation. He
softened up a little, but still flashed her a grumpy scowl, “Well…..I bet
you used some kind of—”
“Nope, no tricks or anything like that here! Only promises of fair
wages for a fair day’s work! Everyone gets three of my secret-recipe
homemade Christmas cookies an hour, unlimited bathroom and Mabel
juice breaks, and a slice of my famous candy cane pie ie at the end of the
day for their holiday bonus!”
“Huh.” Jeff scratched his beard. “Candy cane pie, huh?”
“Uh-huh! And trust me, it’s just’s as delicious as it sounds! And this
year I baked whole gingerbread men into them too!” She boasted.
The gnome chief fell silent as he temporarily deep into thought. “…
How big a slice of pie are we talking about here?”
“No size limit! I baked plenty to go around this morning so everyone
gets as much as they want!” Mabel replied.
“Wow.” The gnome’s demeanor had changed dramatically in the last
half-minute. He now shuffled his feet, met her gaze and asked
awkwardly, “Uhhh….so, are you….um, I know this is kinda last minute,
but…..you still talking applicants?”
“Yup! The more the better!” Mabel gave him a hearty handshake.
“Welcome to Santa’s Village! Your guys are getting ready out back. I’ll
get your papers ready to sign before we open.”

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 “Yes ma’am!” Jeff scurried off out of the room. Everyone gawked at
the over-enthused gnome until he vanished from sight. Ford turned and
looked back at Mabel.
“You… you hired gnomes?” He said incredulously.
“Well, of course! I mean, they’re just perfect for the part, right?”
Mabel replied. “It’s just common sense.”
“That….is…..GENIUS!” Stan exploded gruffly with delight. As he
started laughing up a storm, he reached for his great niece, tossed her up
into the air and caught her in an adoring hug.
“I know, right?” Mabel giggled while he hefted her up onto his
shoulders. “It just hit me yesterday morning. I was sketching out some
decorating plans and then BOOM! Best idea ever out of nowhere!”
“It’s genius, kid! Pure genius!” Her great-uncle lavished praise upon
her. “You’re gonna probably gonna give us at least double the traffic
today!”
“You think so?” Her eyes sparkled brightly.
“Hey, You’re talking to an old business pro. I know a money-booster
when I see one, and you better believe that I see the heckuva out right
now.” He said matter-of-factly before he paraded her out of the kitchen.
“You make your Grunkle proud, you know that?”
“I make everybody proud!” Mabel happily boasted.
“Great thinking, Hambone! Santa’s Village is gonna look crazy
amazing now!” Soos almost had a skip in his step as he excitedly
followed. Mabel’s squeaky laughter echoed all throughout the Shack
alongside Stan’s enthusiastic cries.
“We’ll be able to charge ’em fifteen bucks a picture now! No, twenty!
No, twenty-five! And not only are gonna fork over the cash, they’ll be
happy to do it! Who else is gonna have a setup like ours? The Santa at
Gravity Mall’s got nothin’ on us!”

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 “Twenty-five dollars?” Melody shook her head, took one last sip of
coffee and headed off after them. “Stan, no!”
Ford took off in pursuit too, protesting loudly all the while. “You
can’t be serious about this! Part of a gnome colony all just standing out
in plain view? Now just hold on….”
The kitchen rapidly emptied. Soon the only ones left were Dipper and
Wendy still sitting at the table and Waddles lapping up at his water dish.
The two teens passed one another silent looks. The boy’s face scrunched
up, and the lanky girl let out a snort. Together the two quickly dissolved
into unstoppable laughter.
“I’m… I’m pretty this just became an official Gravity Falls
Christmas.” Dipper chuckled like mad.
“It totally just did.” Wendy nodded in one hundred percent agreement.
She then paused to listen to the still-ongoing racket and burst out
snickering again. “Oh yeah, now that’s the good stuff there…..”

121
Table of Contents
Title Page 1
Copyright Information 2
Table of Contents 3
Summary 4
Chapter 1 5
Chapter 2 14
Chapter 3 26
Chapter 4 37
Chapter 5 49
Chapter 6 61
Chapter 7 72
Chapter 8 84
Chapter 9 93
Chapter 10 105
Second Christmas (One-Shot) 112

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