Forever Young | A Gravity Falls OC Fanfic

Prologue: Ford

Ford knelt down in the burning sand, adding the finishing touches to the side of the shipwrecked boat.

"I dub thee: the Stan O' War!" he said proudly, looking up at his twin brother, Stan, with a grin. Just as he did, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.

"Ow! What the heck?"

He turned around and found himself glaring at three kids who stood halfway down a nearby hill. Ford's heart sank as he realized he recognized them.

"Well, well, if it ain't the loser twins," the kid in the middle sneered. "Nice boat. Ya get it at the dump?"

He and his friends laughed at his rather dumb joke and high fived each other. Stan took an angry step forward, his little hands clenched into fists.

"You would know, Crampelter! Get lost!" he shouted. It only seemed to make Crampelter angrier. The bigger kid also took a step forward and pointed at Ford.

"Listen, dorks, and listen good. You're a six-fingered freak," he then turned his accusatory finger on Stan, "and you're just a... dumber, sweatier version o' him! And you're lucky you have each other because-"

He suddenly broke off with a shout of pain and surprise, rubbing the back of his head. He and his friends turned around, and Stan and Ford followed their gazes. There, standing on the rickety, unstable fence at the top of the hill with her arms crossed, was a girl. Her fawn-colored skin contrasted wildly with her golden blonde hair.

"Leave them alone, Crapelter," she snapped. "They've done nothing to bother you."

Crampelter scowled angrily at her.

"Oh, yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, Levandorkski?"

The girl pulled out a slingshot and began throwing it back and forth between her hands.

"I've got better accuracy with this thing than you do in your entire body, Crapelter," she said casually. "Wanna have a goose egg on your forehead to match the one I gave you on the back of your head?"

Crampelter glanced between the Pines twins and the girl, then muttered something to his friends. After another moment's hesitation, he growled.

"Fine," he huffed. "But this isn't over, losers!"

With that, Crampelter and his lackeys walked away. The girl stood on the rocky fence for a moment longer, until she was sure the bullies were gone, then jumped down and started walking towards the twins. They both stared at her in shock and awe.

"Wow!" Stan said as she reached them. "That was awesome! You really showed them!"

The girl shrugged.

"Crapelter is my neighbor," she said. "His mom thinks I'm a 'sweet and friendly girl.' Her words, not mine. If I were to go to her and complain that he was being mean to me, he'd get in a TON of trouble." She grinned a wide, toothy grin, revealing two missing teeth in the front. "He knows not to mess with me."

She suddenly stuck out both her hands, still smiling wide.

"The name's Tricia," she said happily. "Tricia Levandoski. You can just call me Trish."

Stan readily took her hand to shake, but Ford hesitated, his hands still tucked behind him from Crampelter's comment. Tricia tilted her head curiously, and Stan noticed. He quickly stopped shaking Tricia's hand.

"I'm Stan," he said quickly, drawing Tricia's attention to him. "This is my nerdy brother, Ford."

Tricia's eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Oh, so you're the infamous Pines twins," she said mysteriously. "I've always wondered when I'd run into you two."

The brothers exchanged uneasy looks, and Tricia laughed.

"It's a good thing, trust me," she chuckled. "I've been wanting to meet you for a while! You guys are always getting in trouble, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about."

She turned her attention back to Ford.

"So you're the one with six fingers, I'm guessing?"

Ford looked at the ground and fidgeted with his hands behind his back, then nodded nervously. Tricia's eyes lit up.

"Can I see?" she asked politely. Ford looked up at her, and next to him, Stan tensed. They stood there in silence for a moment.

"Um... i-if you're not comfortable with it, you don't gotta show me, of course," she said quickly. "I was just curious."

Ford relaxed a bit, smiling slightly. That was a first. People usually had two reactions to his extra fingers: they either begged to see it and wouldn't take "no" for an answer, or they looked away in disgust. Usually the second one. But Tricia was different. Ford smiled wider.

"No, no, it's fine," he said, holding out his hand. "Usually, people aren't so polite about it."

Tricia stared at his hand, and Ford realized it was in awe. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed. "You were born like this, right? I know there's a word for this kinda thing, but I can't remember it off the top of my head. It starts with a 'p,' I think. I'm not sure. What was it..."

"Polydactyly," Ford supplied instantly, and Tricia's eyes lit up.

"Yeah!" she practically shouted. "That! Do you have central or postaxial polydactyly? It looks like central, but I could be wrong. Is it central? Did you know that means you have two middle fingers? You could flip someone off four times instead of two! Have you tried that before? I think it'd be really funny if you did."

Tricia continued to babble on and on, and suddenly, Crampelter's mean nickname of "Levandorkski" made perfect sense. Ford and Stan shared a happy, amused smile. Suddenly, Tricia looked behind them.

"Nice boat," she commented. "You guys find it here?"

"We actually found it in a cave back that way," Stan said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. "We just pushed it over here. Poindexter and I planned on fixing it up and going on crazy treasure hunting adventures in it! Do you wanna join us? We need a first mate."

Tricia grinned.

"I would love to," she said. Stan and Ford grinned at her, then at each other. Stan suddenly held his hands up in the air.

"High six?" he asked. Tricia looked confused for a moment, but when Ford returned the gesture, she figured it out and copied him. The three kids laughed and walked off together, their smiles bright and happy.