Welcome Back | Gravity Falls

3. Road Trip

After breakfast, Ford and Stan took turns driving all day and all night. Charlie kept waiting for one of them to start screaming at the other drivers on the highway. Scott always did that. Every vacation, every birthday party, every holiday, all preceded by an unpleasant car ride filled with his relentless shouting. He even once got them nearly killed with his road rage.
Charlie could remember it clearly. She and her parents were on their way to the roller skating rink for her 9th birthday party when a car cut them off. Scott slammed the breaks and began cursing. He sped up to drive right next to them, rolled down the window, and began shouting profanities at them.
The other driver shouted back at Scott and sped up to cut him off again, challenging him.
Scott took the bate.
The engine purred as Scott pressed his foot farther and farther on the gas pedal.
"Scott, please, just ignore them."
He remained silent, continuing the game of chicken between him and the other driver.
75mph
"It's Charlotte's birthday, can't you just let it go?"
"Don't tell me what to do," he growled, back.
80mph
Suddenly Charlotte's view of the road went spinning as Scott slammed his foot on the break and sharply turned the car, just missing the car in front of them, fishtailing off the road, and leaving tire tracks in the grass.
"Get out."
"What?!"
"Get out of the car Scott, I'm driving."
"How is this my fault?"
"Are you kidding me!"
Charlotte couldn't even make it to her own birthday party. All her friends got to enjoy the day skating, and she, the birthday girl, was stuck in a car for hours with two screaming parents.
But this time was different. Stan would mutter "son of a nutcracker" every once in a while at bad drivers, but it never got dangerous.
They were listening to the radio, when Ford pointed out his window at something.
"Right over there is the liberty bell."
Charlie looked and sure enough there it was, crack and all. Ford was still talking about it, explaining its significance in the fight for abolition. Charlie already knew the story, but let him continue anyway. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
Stan added in, "Yeah yeah, cool story bro. Now Charlie, this is where I sold Stan Co Band-Aids that gave half the state of Pennsylvania rashes. You shoulda seen them suckers chasing me out of here with pitchforks!"
Throughout the rest of the trip, Ford continued to point out historical landmarks, and Stan told stories of his not-so-legal business ventures that got him banned in more than half the states.
It was nice, probably the first car ride Charlie actually enjoyed. She could sit there with the window down, letting the wind blow her hair back, every once in a while scrunching her nose at the pungent smells of truck fumes and factory smog. For the first time in her life she felt free from Scott. She was momentarily relieved of his yelling and the voice in her head telling her something bad would happen.
"Alright, we're here!"
Charlie shielded her eyes from the sunlight and looked out the window. Sure enough, the car made its way through a clearing in the woods and stopped in front of a large cabin labeled "Mystery hack".
Charlie, Stan, and Ford were greeted by a man in a suit and fez. "Mr. Pines'es!" he shouted with a large grin.
"Heya Soos, how's the shack been treating ya?" Stan asked.
"It's been awesome! Abuelita loves her room and Melody has found a new talent for bartering."
"Hah! I knew I liked that kid!"
Ford gestured to the man, "Charlie, this is Soos, he runs the Mystery Shack for Stan. Soos, meet Charlie, she's going to be staying with us in Oregon."
"Alright, another dudette to show my amazing repair skills to! Nice to meet you Charlie," Soos reached out his hand for a fist bump, and Charlie accepted, making sure her sleeve was down this time.
A woman with brown hair, hearing the commotion, came outside to greet the group. "Hi Mr. Pines, hi...other Mr. Pines!" She said with a chuckle.
The twins greeted her back, "Hi Melody".
"So where are you all planning on staying?" She asked.
"Erm...we haven't exactly figured that out," Stan said.
Ford added, "We could probably stay with Fiddleford, he said he had plenty of room to spare in his new...shed."
"Actually, you dudes could just stay here at the Mystery Shack! Like old times!" Soos offered.
"Thanks Soos, but we wouldn't want to crowd you two and your abuelita."
"No, that would actually work out kinda perfectly," Melody cut in. "I mean, me, Soos, and Abuelita are gonna go an a trip to South Carolina to see my family. We were going to pay someone to stay here and watch the shack, but with you three here, we won't have to!"
"Wow, that actually does work out perfectly."
"Its almost weird how perfectly that worked out...like maybe we're all fictional characters in a story forced to follow the will of the writer who is too lazy to figure out another reason for certain characters to be missing from the plot!" Stan blurted out.
Everyone paused for a moment, taken back by the sudden and random dialogue.
Stan wiggled his fingers by his face and made a goofy "woooOOO" sound to break the awkward silence. They laughed.

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A/N: No clue what that ending was there...