The lanky young girl hurried back to the cabin fast as she could. Her arms were filled to almost the breaking point under a load of freshly split logs, with a hatchet balanced precariously on top of it all. Although her burden was making it difficult to see ahead of her, she honestly much rather preferred to return back home with too much wood instead of too little. After all, few things relaxed all her little brothers more than having a healthy fire roaring away in the fireplace. They loved to hunker around it and amuse themselves by tossing in twigs or leaves, let themselves become entranced by watching the dancing flicker of the flames, or just sit back and bask in its comforting warmth.

And she knew all too well just how badly they needed plenty of good distractions right now. Things had been pretty difficult in the Corduroy clan lately ever since a certain woman had suddenly upped and left her husband and four children behind. Wendy briefly pictured her, and immediately felt a painful twang in her heart. She hurriedly pushed the mental image from her mind before the sting grew too severe All her brainpower was once again refocused on her current task and nothing else. Stay busy, look after her remaining family. That had been her unspoken rule for herself the last month, not to mention her main coping strategy.

Unfortunately the pigtailed redhead was concentrating so hard on the current task at hand that she didn't see the danger up ahead until it was too late. Her leg was suddenly grabbed, and the wood and her hatchet went flying away out of her arms as the girl toppled face-first into the ground. She picked herself up, spit out a leaf and took stock of her predicament.

"Oh, no…"

The poor girl had walked right into one of her father's animal traps. Luckily it wasn't one of his heavy duty bear traps or any of the several other traps he owned that came equipped with powerful steel jaws. It was only one of the wire snares he'd set up to deal with the raccoons that always tried to sneak their way into the garbage.

But even though Wendy was physically unharmed, at least for the most part, she was still in a bit of a pickle. Simply put, she was stuck. She pulled at the metal loop that was snared tenaciously around her bare ankle. But her tugging only made the loop pinch her even more tightly, and soon the wire was almost biting through her skin. Her flats of course didn't come up high at all, and just her foul luck she preferred to wear them without any socks. The wincing girl hurriedly called it quits on this first attempt.

The next logical step for her was to go reach for her trusty hatchet. Perhaps a few hard swings would get the job done if she pulled the wire taut enough. But the axe currently lay among all the spilled logs just out of reach. The girl tried to stubbornly grasp for it, but the length of the wire only let her get so far. Even her freakishly tall body was of no help. Nevertheless she still made a hard go of it, and with a burst of energy she stretched so desperately it felt like she was going to pop her own arm from its socket. After one more hard reach she tossed this Plan B into the trash.

"Guys? Hello?" She tried calling to the cabin off in the dusk-lit distance. She could see it right there through the trees. Unfortunately what she didn't see was anyone coming out for her for her. Wendy raised her voice and tried again, "Hello!? Hey! Hey, guys! Guys, I'm stuck! Hey!"

She waited, but still no one came. This now called for desperate measures. She had no choice but to resort to that one fateful word they were barely allowed to utter in her family. The girl took a deep breath and called out as loudly as she could.

"HELP!"

Wendy looked to the cabin, waited hopefully, but nothing happened. She took a deep breath and tried again.

"Guys?! HELP! HEEEELLLLLP! I'M STUCK! HELP! I NEED HELP!"

Nobody came.

The frustrated girl looked at the infernal wire and growled. It looked like a new strategy was definitely needed. She checked the end of the snare and discovered it was securely bolted into a tree branch above, making it perfectly out of reach for all the animals that were intended to get trapped. For a Corduroy though, it was a different story. She headed over to the tree, latch on to the sides and began hauling her skinny body up, little by little. Her father had unfortunately used his trapping experience wisely and had chosen his tree well. The bark was fairly smooth, and the shortage of branches near the bottom would have made it hard for most forest animals to get a good hold. It actually was harder for Wendy than she would have liked. Her black flats made it tricky to grip the tree, and her shirt-sleeved green shirt left her pale arms exposed to a plethora or scrapes and small cuts every time she slid back down the trunk a little. It took a lot more time and effort than she thought, but she eventually reached her destination with a ragged gasp.

The end of the wire snare was connected to a metal screw that was buried deep in the wood. There was no way on earth that she was tugging that thing out. However, the branch didn't seem too thick. She stood up, grabbed the branch above her and pushed down with her legs. At first all the bough did was bounce beneath her body. The girl huffed in annoyance and doggedly kept on at it. She pushed and jumped, over and over and over, and just as she began thinking of switching strategies she heard a slight crack. As hope surged through her system, the excited girl immediately redoubled her pace Now she could see the branch start to give way from the tree, splitting off little by little. As the sweat beaded on her pale forehead she jumped on it like a machine, as the cracks become more frequent, grew louder, and the infernal branch kept sagging lower and lower.

She was planning to grab the bough right above and hold onto it nice and tight when the one below her finally fell away, but her timing was unfortunately a few moments off. There was a massive ear-splitting crack, and after the branch popped off the trunk she followed it down to earth with a thud. Wendy lay there for a few moments on the forest floor, with one pigtail undone and her limbs lying eschew like she was a giant marionette puppet. While her body ached in protest she got to her feet and walked an experimental few paces. The branch dragged behind her, meaning she was mobile again, but not very much. The tree limb was a heavy one, and as she dragged it behind her the wire loop pinched her raw ankle harder than ever.

Still she kept on, dragging it behind her. As reached for her hatchet, she made a mental note to give her wardrobe a major overhaul once this was all over. Once she had her tool in hand she went to work, chopping at the accursed branch until she was connected to nothing more than a small chunk of wood at the end of the snare. The tired teen shoved this and as much of the metal wire as she could into her pocket, tucked her hatchet into her belt, and then staggered the short distance back to the cabin. As she limped in through the front door, three small boys stopped playing around the couch leapt and crowded all around their big sister like a pack of baby birds.

"Wendy!"

"Wendy! Wendy!"

"Wendyyyyyyy!"

She smiled wearily at her brothers. "Hey guys. Could you you help-"

"Wendy, where's the firewood?" The oldest noticed confusedly.

"Hey, yeah? Where is it?" Said the second-oldest.

"Wanna fire! Wanna fire inna fireplace!" The youngest grabbed her torn pant leg and impatiently tugged. "Wendyyyyy, you said you were gonna make one!"

As she was bombarded by protests, her face fell. "Wait, I just-"

"WENDY!" A voice boomed from the kitchen. "You didn't get the wood?"

"Dad, I was-" She tried to explain before he cut her off.

"I gave you a job! And Corduroys ALWAYS get the job done!" He sharply reminded as the smell of frying deer steaks continued to fill the house.

"Okay, okay, I'll have it in a few minutes! Hold on!" With her brothers' protests still ringing in her ears, she shut the door behind her as she hurried out. Although she was tired, sore, and in need of a Band-Aid or two (she could feel a tiny trickle of blood from some thin cuts on her raw ankle), the very last thing that she wanted to do was get her father upset. He had been a near-constant mountain of stress lately thanks to the very sudden adjustment of life as a single parent, and while he was really trying his best, it was pretty hard going so far. As a result his infamous temper took even less to trigger than it used to.

Before she went to fetch the wood, she took a quick detour to the shed. She found some wire clippers, and with a snip she was finally free. Her ankle ached from the metal that had been biting into it for the past ten minutes, but she ignored it best as she could while she ran back to the fallen logs.

"Wendyyyyyyyy!" She heard a distant cry from the house. Two of her younger siblings had impatiently gathered out on the front porch. "Cmonnnnnn!"

"I'M COMING! GIVE ME A SEC!" she snapped back. Grumbling under her breath, she resumed picking up the wood. Things definitely had gotten a whole lot less easier around here. But as she balanced the last piece of wood on top, she could try and take a little comfort in one fact. When things got tough, at least she was lucky enough to be able to count on herself.

"WENDY!" Another one of her brothers yelled.

"I said that I'm comin' already! Gimme a break…."

"...Oh, come on."

Today had taken a very annoying turn. All the teen had wanted to do was go and get the mail. Just her luck, a gust of wind had blown a letter out of her hand, and as she ran to fetch it she stumbled right into this unfortunate situation. The sixteen-year-old now lay on the ground with a metal snare loop wrapped securely around her ankle. It looked like her Dad had forgot to mention that he had set up a couple extra traps around the house. Wendy buried her face in her hands and vented her exasperation with a long, long groan.

"Oh no! WENDY!" A started yelp interrupted her fuming. She looked up and spotted a young teen who had arrived a little early for movie night. Dipper Pines was now tearing down the road towards her, running fast as his scrawny legs and pumping noodle arms could carry him.

Wendy lit up with a slight blush. This wasn't the kind of situation she wanted anyone to see her in, much less her best friend. "Chill, I'm okay-"

"Okay? Okay?!" Dipper clearly didn't believe her as he knelt down by her side. "Look at you! You're in a-"

"Relax, it's only a snare. I just wasn't looking where I was going."

Dipper however wasn't listening. The boy examined the contraption closely, then looked at the thin metal wire that bound his friend's ankle to a nearby rock. He did some quick thinking before he announced, "Hold on, I think I got this."

With one summer in Gravity Falls under his belt so far and counting, the thirteen-year-old now never went anywhere around this kooky little town unprepared, and that even include the short familiar distance from the Shack to the Corduroy home. He slipped off his backpack and started searching.

"Dude, it's okay." She tried to scoot away and give herself some room. "I-"

"Here it is!" He dug out an almost impractically large multi-tool. Dipper then began sorting through all its components. "Let's see….knife….screwdriver….toothpick….fork….spork….double spork….can opener….nail file…..wait, it's definitely here, I know it….another knife….bottle opener….ruler….aha! Got it!"

He finally found just what he was looking for. "Okay, these wire clippers are kind of small, but they should get just the job done. If we get the wire taut enough, then-"

"Hold on, I got this." This definitely was no first for Wendy, as was made clear when she casually grabbed her foot and began pulling with her her leg. Thanks to the tenacious hold the wire had on her pinched ankle, it took her a couple hard tugs. But it wasn't too long until her foot popped free from her tightly snared boot.

"Oh...uh….that works too." Dipper hastily packed his multitool away and then helped her sit up. "You okay?

"Yeah, I'm good." She looked over her trapped footwear and laughed. "Probably better than good, actually. My dad owes me a new pair of boots now."

"Oh….oh, yeah….cool….." The embarrassed boy attempted a convincing one-eighty and tried to act calm as he could. There were still probably few things worse than letting his anxiety overwhelm him right in front of the Queen of Cool herself. " Sorry about that back there with…..uh, y'know….should have figured you'd be fine."

The back of his neck prickled with a nervous itch. He scratched at it while he added, "You always are."

He turned his gaze away from her. The sight that the red-faced boy cut made Wendy crack up. "Hey, if you're up for it, I could actually still use a hand here, actually."

"Huh?" He looked back up.

She pulled herself up onto one booted foot. As she swayed and tried to keep her balance she asked, "Think you could help me get to the cabin?"

"Oh, sure! Of course!" He darted to her side and let her lean as heavily as she wanted too against him. With her friend steadying her, she hopped back towards the cabin with relative ease.

"You got any sneakers, or anything?" He checked.

Yeah, I'll be fine. I got sneaks, sandals, even another pair of boots. But I'm still gonna get Dad to fork over a new pair." She said matter of factly, and her friend chuckled.

"That's one way to do it, I guess."

"You have Stan for a boss long enough and it kinda rubs off on you, I guess." She cracked, and the two shared a laugh. "Anyways, I'll get the popcorn ready once we get in."

"Okay! Oh, also, Mabel and her friends went a little overboard with a cookie-party today, so she gave me some extra to take over."

"What kind?"

"Double fudge chocolate chip."

"Nice! Any ideas for tonight's movie?"

"I checked the schedule. 'Werewolf-enstein Versus the Robo-Zombie' is gonna start on channel four at six."

"You researched that? It's summer, man." She teased her little dork. "Give yourself a break from homework for once, okay?"

"I can push you over right now, you know." He playfully threatened her.

"Do that, and I'll show you what a snare feels like." She replied in kind right before she stumbled on a tree root.

"I gotcha!" Dipper immediately grabbed both her arm and wrist. She meanwhile had to grab his shoulders, but together they kept her balance.

"Thanks, dude." She laughed.

"No problem." The hyper-helpful boy said distractedly. And as he focused on carefully getting her up the front steps of the cabin, he didn't notice the enormously grateful grin his best friend was currently wearing.

Lucky her. When things got tough, at least she had one person she could always count on.