Under Pressure: A Gravity Falls Story

The True Northwest

Pacifica was back home, bored out of her mind. She laid on her bed, wondering if Dipper would ever text her(let's just assume for all intensive purposes that she gave him her number). She had gotten home alright, her driver never questioned why she had taken so long nor did he tell her parents how long she had been absent. Although not wanting to look too suspicious, Pacifica raced around and bought some things just to show that she had been shopping. She never really paid attention to most of what she had bought but on her way out she had noticed a gorgeous dress in the window of a more obscure boutique.

*flashback*

She went inside and for once wasn't hit by a gagging amount of perfume or some God awful music that was considered "hip". Instead this place have her a more cozy feeling, and she thought she could hear someone speaking in the back room. She went to go check it out and was amazed at what she saw, an woman was giving what seemed to be dress-making lessons.

The woman had a kind face and seemed energetic enough to keep up with her students who kept asking questions. Pacifica noticed that the woman was very much Asian(not being racist I swear, this pertains to the story) and while she was really pretty, she had a few grey steaks in her midnight black hair, and had some bags under her eyes, probably due to sleep deprivation. The woman then noticed Pacifica in the doorway and and excused herself from her class.

"I'm so sorry miss I was unaware I had a customer in my shop, usually my daughter handles them, or are you here for lessons perhaps?" The woman asked kindly, genuinely excited for the prospect of a new student. "No no, I'm just a customer; I saw that dress in your window and it was just too beautiful not to look at." Pacifica said hesitantly, afraid that this might disappoint the woman. But when she looked up the woman had a face of delight still very much visible. "Excellent, you have good taste. My daughter made that particular dress, called it her finest work yet and frankly I can agree; she wasn't the most fluent in silk weaving as she is now." The woman replied happily.

Pacifica was delighted to hear that she hadn't upset her host but then another question nagged at her. "Why are there not many people in here, you're dresses are amazing." Pacifica questioned. The woman then frowned at this and replied, "All these damn shops who make their dresses from fake materials like polyester, rubber, plastic, and nylon, they have taken the art of dress-making and soiled it. I grow MY materials, in MY garden, and any duds come out of MY wallet!" The woman ranted before calming down slightly. "But they can sell their fake rags all day long because their dresses are priced lower than mine so more people flock to their shops, it's a miracle that I found this many people still interested in authentic dresses!" The woman explained, gesturing to her class in the back room.

"Well I think you may have a new favorite customer and potential student if you're up to it?" Pacifica said cheerfully, making the woman smile her broadest smile. "Oh you are just a wonderful girl, what's your name dear?" The woman asked happily. "Pacifica ma'am," she replied hesitantly, not knowing how this woman would react to having the only Northwest girl, actually only Northwest child, a possible customer/student. "As in Pacifica Northwest?" The woman asked kindly. "Yes ma'am, the same." Pacifica replied, mildly embarrassed that she had to say that. "Well this certainly is a surprise, my daughter Candicine mentions you plenty of times for me to recognize you, you must be her inspiration of some sort because she was dressing very differently this morning." The women said, making Pacifica look up.

"She must not know too much on my family, good for her. I wonder who her daughter is, I want to meet this girl now." Pacifica thought, before returning her attention to her hostess. "I'm sorry to ask but what is your name?"Pacifica asked, mainly wanting to not be rude(partly because I'm sick of writing "the woman" over and over, and I know some of you are too). "I'm sorry Pacifica, how rude of me, my name is Nikita or to some "Nicki" for short. My mother named me that when we were still living in Japan and I haven't had the heart to change it." Nicki said with a slight chuckle.