Stanley Pines, Our Hero (TEOC series #1)

The Reunion

**A/N: In this chapter, I will be introducing a new character, Bella McCreary, who is actually an OC created by user KittyKatBella. Once again, I do not own any characters I write about in this book.**

"I hope Sally was right about this," Ford said. We were standing on the doorstep of the apartment whose address was in my hand.

"It's not like she'd lie to us," I argued reasonably. "No one makes cookies that good and lies about something as important as this."

Ford shrugged, but was unable to find a counterpoint. He reached forwards and rang the buzzer.

A woman's static-filled voice asked, "Hello?"

"Hello," Ford called back tentatively. "My brother and I would like to speak with Bella Jackson. Or Bella Whatever-her-last-name-is, if she's married. Her sister Sally sent us. Is she available?"

There was no response. Ford looked concerned.

"Maybe she's out," I suggested, trying to keep both of our hopes up. "Or maybe she just got an important phone call, or – "

I stopped at the sound of locks being undone just beyond the door. We held our breaths. Then the door swung open.

The woman standing there was much closer to our age that Sally; her short hair only had a few streaks of brown among the gray. She wore red rectangular glasses that looked very old. I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. Even after twenty-five years, her face was unmistakable.

"Bella McCreary?!" Ford and I cried at the same time, in identical tones of shock. Then we stared at each other, eyes wide.

"Wait – you know Bella?" Ford asked me, stunned.

"Of course I know Bella!" I exclaimed. Bella McCreary, I knew, had lived with Ford and his friend McGucket in the Shack while they were doing paranormal research in Gravity Falls. "She helped me a bit with fixing the portal after you got sucked through, and helped run the Mystery Shack too." I turned to Bella, smiling. "You remember the Mystery Shack, right?"

The bottom of Bella's jaw had hit her doorstep. Her eyes flashed.

"But – but that's impossible!" She pointed her shaking finger first at Sixer, then at me. "You're supposed to be lost in another dimension thanks to that damn machine of yours and you're supposed to be dead!" Bella's voice cracked on the last word as she stared at me.

"Ah, yes," I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, feeling sweat form on my forehead. "About that. Well luckily I can explain everything!"

Bella's face softened slightly. "It really is you two?" she asked quietly.

I nodded, a small smile on my face.

"Oh." Bella looked as though she were about to either laugh or cry. "Well, in that case – " She reached out and seized us both by an ear, tugging us inside through the doorway amid loud yelps of pain. "You two knuckleheads better get inside and explain everything, right now!"

Her apartment was about the same size as Sally's. She dragged us into the sitting room and threw us, cursing, onto the couch. We rubbed our ears, groaning, as Bella settled into a chair opposite where we sat and glared at us.

"Well?" she demanded once we'd recovered from the pain. "Who wants to go first?'

I shared a glance with Poindexter, then sighed. This would be my story to tell, considering Ford hadn't even been back for a month, and I hadn't seen Bella since she came here to New York to visit her sister about twenty-five years ago and never returned.