Pointdexter: A Swooning Over Stan-fiction

Chapter Three

Alice followed Stanley up the creaking porch stairs, glancing around at the shockingly normal house, say for the shrunken heads poised on top of the empty fish tank. As the Pines family led her into the house, Mabel snagged Alice's phone and quickly put her number in so that she could call 'whenever', as the little girl told her.

"Um... Stanley?" Alice started, only for Stanley to hold out his hand.

"Just Stan- Only my brother calls me Stanley," He said, gesturing to the living room. "This part's the house, but just outside that door's the Mystery Shack. Hey- You ever been to the Mystery Shack before?"

"Um... No actually," Alice muttered, letting her bags thud onto the floor next to her feet. "I did see a bumper sticker while I was on the road and got curiou-"

"HA!" Stan cries out, his hands forming into excited fists. Annie jumped, her eyes widening as Stan started to speak, a more than triumphant look on his face. "Those bumper stickers were a good investment! And Sixer says they're too 'plain' and 'graphically simplistic' and 'don't even have an address on them Stanley how is anyone supposed to find the place'. Sixer! Did'ja hear that?"

"Well, they are graphically simplistic," Ford stepped into the room, his expression less than amused. "I don't know how she found the place, let alone thought 'What is the Mystery Shack' was compelling."

"I kinda liked it?" Alice piped up.

"See?" Stan sneered at his twin, satisfaction practically seeping from every sense of him. "She kinda liked it! I like you, Alice. How about I give you a tour sometime tomorrow, regular price."

Regular price? Alice felt dazed again, maybe she had hit her head.

"Tomorrow?" Alice jumped as Mabel suddenly appeared behind her like a brightly colored tornado of energy. "Then I'll have to squeeze all my get-to-know-you questions in today! Alice! Tell me: Capybara? Yes or no."

"Um- Yes." Alice suddenly said. "I studied them in college for a little bit."

"YOU STUDIED THEM IN COLLEGE?" Mabel shrieked again, a massive grin spreading across her braced face. "WHAT WERE YOU STUDYING?"

"Zoology-" Alice suddenly found herself laughing. Child-like excitement seemed far more impressive when told something interesting, like that the stranger staying in your house was a zoologist.

"Dipper, my boy!" Ford called out as a young boy who looked suspiciously like Mabel passed in the hallway. "I'm surprised I didn't see you run out to the scene of the crime."

"Crime? What crime? I have an alibi, I swea-" The boy panicked, suddenly noticing Alice standing in front of him. He was about the same height as Mabel, perhaps a little shorter with fluffy brown hair and the same big eyes. Although Alice happened to notice, this boy looked like he hardly got any sleep, perhaps reading into the night if the book under his arm had anything to say about that. "Oh, you have someone with you."

The boy, Dipper, what a strange name, laughed. A sudden sweat broke over his forehead as he reached up to scratch the back of his head, maybe something he picked up from Ford.

"Hey! Ha... I'm... not suspicious at all..." Dipper laughed awkwardly, quickly averting his gaze from Alice and focusing on Ford. "Did you see that car in the side of the Shack? For a second, I thought the manotaurs were back with a grudge."

"Oh no-" Alice said with a shake of her head, "that's mine."

"Ah... Yes." Ford muttered lightly, a guilty look crossing his face. "About that. Dipper, meet Alice. I've, ah, stranded her car here by accident."

"That's one way to put it," Alice said, a good-natured smile crossing her face. Dipper stared in horror at his uncle? Alice wasn't sure what the relation was, but there were similarities between these kids, who looked like twins, and the men, who were twins.