Chapter Ten: Lonely Rich Girl

September was pretty miserable. Along with the usual downer of school starting, the new house was small. Her bed was small, she could only have one mirror in her small room, and had to sell almost all of her stuff. Just one pair of shoes, not nearly as many cloths as she would have liked, and only one pony left. As far as help went, he family only kept one butler and a cook. The only silver lining was that she was allowed to keep her most cherished possession; a small picture of herself with the Pines twins at the party that passed summer. Of course, she still had to hide it from her parents; they still didn't like the twins. Dad said everything that had happened over the summer was their fault.

Through October, with the dust from the move all settled, Pacifica experienced true loneliness for the first time. As a small child, she had been quiet and shy, so her father had payed Tiffany and Andre to, to be perfectly honest, pretend to be her friends. Pacifica knew this; she'd known for years. What she hadn't anticipated was that they'd abandon her the moment she lost her family's excess money. In fact, they mocked her. They mocked her! Calling her a brat, making fun of the none-designer cloths she wore, asking her how if felt to fall from such a high place in society. It didn't help that her real friends, the Pines twins, were now in another state, where she couldn't seek the comfort they would surely offer.

At the start of November, she'd met Thomas Anderson. Pacifica knew it was a mistake to just jump into a relationship, but she'd been so lonely she no longer cared. For a while, things were great; they went on dates, walked to and from school together, and he'd even been her first kiss. That's why it had been heartbreaking to see it. Pacifica had gone to his house to see if he wanted to see a movie, and she caught him making out with another girl. The break up had been loud and messy, and Pacifica had ran from the house in tears. She didn't feel like explaining things to her parents, so she'd retreated a short way into the woods and had herself a cry. Her plans for solitude were dashed because that Wendy girl came across her. The older girl only sat down beside her and told her to vent. Pacifica started explaining everything going on, trying to keep calm, but somehow ended up bawling at everything, only vaguely aware of Wendy's arm around her, stroking her arm up and down for comfort.

As December came around, Pacifica found herself spending more and more time with Wendy. The older girl was kind and a good listener, and never had a shortage of stories to tell about her adventures with the Pines twins. The girls had shared a good laugh at Wendy's story of the ghosts from the old general store. Poor Dipper. Curiously, something about learning that Dipper had had feelings for Wendy had made her uncomfortable, but it easily wasn't worth being alone again, so she kept quiet. And that llama sweater. She'd offered it back to Mabel before they left, but Mabel had insisted that it was hers now; it looked like it belonged with her. She preferred not to admit it, but she had grown attached to the thing. She had found it very warm and cozy during the cold winter nights in a less isolated house than she was used to.

By January, Pacifica had finally gotten used to her new lifestyle. One day, Wendy asked her about some one her own adventures with the supernatural; a total of three including Bill. Wendy, with a brand-new driver's license in hand, drove them up to what used to be the Northwest Mansion. The gates were wide open, and that old hermit ushered them in with glee; the guy must have really like company. Pacifica showed both of them the secret room and confided her mixed feelings about it in them; On the one hand, it was everything wrong with her family. On the other, it had been her safe place, where a dear friend had saved her life in more ways than one.

February seemed like a joke to her. She'd had and broke up with her first boyfriend months ago, and she had no one to spend Valentines day with. She couldn't even bribe boys like she had in the past. Perhaps to get her mind off of her singleness, Wendy decided to help her with her hair. Pacifica wasn't aware how bad all those products were for her hair and so she quickly stopped using them. Wendy and her friend Tambry had taught her how to properly apply make-up and treated her hair. Pacifica went through all of this in confusion; why were they doing this for her? She had never done anything for them to be deserving of this kindness. When she brought this up to them, they only said that they were her friend and they cared about her. It was far from the first time Wendy had ruffled her hair, she was getting used to it, and she said she was like the little sister she never had. After the girls left, Pacifica contemplated the word; Sister.

Come May, Pacifica was feeling better than she had been years. Her hair was getting better, she was now completely comfortable in her new life, and and she had noticed something. She might have lost a lot, but she also gained everything she hadn't had before. True friends (even if two were still out of state), freedom, and a sister. It was really cool one day, when Tiffany and Andre were picking on her again, and Wendy had intimidated them into backing down. Having gained confidence, Pacifica decided to try hanging out with Mabel's weird friends. It was a bit off-putting at first, but things eventually became easier and they hang out every once in a while. They didn't have that much to talk about apart from bands and boys, but they were both quite nice. Feeling bold, she tried to befriend Gideon as well, but the kid was just too weird. The clincher was the love-shrine he had to Mabel.

April brought warmer whether with it. She turned thirteen this month. Had this been her old self, she would have probably kicked up a fuss that her party wasn't a huge production. This year, she decided to be adventurous and bake the cake herself; well, with Wendy's help, really. It took three tries because, somehow, the first two had ended in cake fights, with both girls ending up covered in batter and frosting. Third times the charm, though. She'd been given a fake but pretty golden necklace emblazoned with bright green stones from Candy and Grenda, a sleek new phone from Tambry, and a pretty cool hat from Wendy. It was a light brown cap with a star that had clearly been recently recolored into hot pink; her favorite color. Pacifica was pretty sure there was more to the hat than she was letting on, if her wide grin was any indication. All Wendy said was that she found it in the woods, took it home, washed it, and had the star recolored. Still, the hat was pretty cool, and it went with her hair, which was now dirty blond, now devoid of any products and back to full health.

As soon as March started, she began counting the days until summer. Not only to get out of school, but she was just as eager to see Dipper and Mabel back as everyone else. Did Mabel still have a super weird sweater for every occasion? What has Dipper been up to? Was he still an adorable nerd? She blushed when she brought these questions up to Wendy, in those exact words, and the older girl smirked and began teasing her about Dipper. At least now she could tell the deference between playful teasing with malicious teasing; this was easily playful. She wasn't sure exactly how her father found out, but she hadn't seen him so livid in years. A Northwest with a common boy; scandalous. He'd grounded her, saying she 'can come out when she's normal'.

With June came summer, at last. Pacifica was relieved when the grounding was lifted, but she was beyond disappointment when Wendy said the twins had contacted her, saying some things had come up with their parents, and they wouldn't be back this summer. She was so looking forward to having an uninterrupted game of mini-golf with Mabel, listening to Dipper carry on and on about his cute little nerd findings, going exploring in the woods with the two of them. So this is what being cheated felt like. July also went by as a boring blur.

A couple of weeks into August, Wendy had come to Pacifica with wonderful news. They were coming back, for good; the Pines' were moving to Gravity Falls, parents and all! The next week couldn't move any slower in her eyes. She planned out her wardrobe; a simple pink shirt with blue jeans. She wasn't sure about Mabel, but she knew Dipper was unimpressed with her family's wealth before; he might appreciate something a little more...understated. She fought her blush back...she didn't like him like that. She really didn't.

This last fic is meant as a tie-in to my current big project; Our Home. I didn't include it there because, as of yet, there's nowhere for it to fit. This is basically a run-down of what happened to Pacifica between the canon finale and the start of Our Home. Go check it out, it's pretty cool. Review.