The bus rumbled beneath his feet, and Dipper grinned with anticipation. It had been a full year, and now he was finally on his way back to Gravity Falls.

"Oooooh!" Mabel squealed next to him, "I can't believe it! It's finally happening!"

Dipper grinned over at her, "Me neither!"

"Just think, we get to see our friends and grunkles again!"

"Mabel," he chuckled, "Didn't you just video chat with Grunkle Stan last night?"

She frowned, "It's not the same, Dipper! Besides," she grinned, "Aren't you excited to show Grunkle Ford your journal?" Her voice became sing-songy on the last word, and Dipper blushed.

"Yeah, all right. I am pretty excited about that."

She grinned, poking his side teasingly, "See, I told you, bro bro! This is gonna be the best summer ever!"

They laughed and shouted "Best summer ever" in unison, earning them a strange look from the bus driver, but they were too thrilled to care.

Soos, meanwhile, was eagerly counting down the minutes, Melody watching the clock beside him. The Mystery Shack had been quiet, although a stampede of wealthy tourists would hardly have distracted them from the anticipation of their guests arriving soon.

While Melody had spent less time with the twins, she felt as though she'd known them as long as Soos through his stories, told in minute detail. In anyone else, it might have seemed excruciating, but somehow with Soos, it was endearing.

The bell chimed, heralding a new arrival and both spun to look at who had entered the store.

They deflated when the mayor walked in, "Are they here yet?"

Both wordlessly shook their heads.

"Aw." Tyler sighed, "I thought they were supposed to be here by now."

Soos shrugged, "It's okay, dude. Maybe they're just running late."

They all peered out the nearest window as one, sighing when nothing appeared on the horizon.

Wendy sat by the bus stop, passing the time with the latest issue of post-pre-teen magazine. She'd bought it for Mabel, but the articles on how to let a guy down easy had caught her eye. Goodness knew she could use all the tips she could get. The latest summer hit "Blanchin' and Romancin'" was stuck in her head, courtesy of Dipper's last email update. He'd tricked her by pretending it was a link to real music. She hated the song, but it was definitely catchy.

Candy and Grenda chatted beside her about all the cute boys they'd meet over the summer, though Grenda would serve in more of a support capacity. Marius was still technically her boyfriend.

"Those boys can look, but they can't touch!" Grenda declared, quoting their trio's missing member.

Candy giggled, "Those boys won't know what hit them."

Both grinned as Grenda's phone chimed, signaling a text from Mabel. "They're leaving now!" Grenda announced enthusiastically.

Wendy leaned closer to read over Candy's shoulder. Mabel had texted a boy, girl, and pig emoji followed by a bus emoji, which was then followed by at least twenty hearts and sparkles. Wendy smiled even as she rolled her eyes. Leave it to Mabel to make even texting into an art form.

Wendy tugged on the brim of the pine tree trucker's hat, covering her face from the sun as she resumed reading. A chime sounded from her phone, and she smiled. Dipper's text read simply "See you soon."

Dipper grinned as he spotted a road sign for Velcro City, "V!"

Mabel pondered a moment, looking around for the next letter of the alphabet and stopped when Waddles caught her eye, "Waddles!" She lifted him up, "W!" She hugged her pet to her chest.

"Mabel," Dipper complained, "That's not how it works."

"Yes it is!" she protested.

"Oh, come on! You have to see it on a sign!"

Mabel held up Waddles once more, "Waddles." She said seriously, "Give me a sign."

The pig oinked twice and Mabel squealed in delight.

"See? A sign!" she declared.

"Mabel..." Dipper sighed, figuring an argument was useless at this point, "Fine. This game's dumb anyway." He paused as he heard his phone sound beside him.

"Ooh! Is that a text from Wendy?" Mabel nudged him with her elbow.

Dipper groaned, already anticipating Mabel teasing him about his former crush, "We're just friends..."

Her phone chimed and Mabel grinned, "Speaking of texts from friends. I believe I have one from-" Her face fell when she saw the message, "Gideon..."

"Sheesh," Dipper peeked over her shoulder, "He's still texting you?"

"I don't know how!" she shouted in frustration, "I've blocked like a million numbers, but he just keeps getting new ones!"

He gently put an arm over his sister's shoulders, "Hey, it's okay. You know who's going to take care of him?" He tugged her closer as he pointed at himself with both thumbs, "This gu-" He suddenly shot up, releasing her head from his grip, "XYZ! Ha!" He pointed as they passed a road sign for a performer named Zeta the Extraterrestrial Yodeler.

Mabel groaned, "I thought you said this game was dumb!"

"And you fell for it!" Dipper laughed triumphantly, "I win!"

"Hey, I'm still the alpha twin," she contended, Gideon's text all but forgotten, "Don't forget I'm an inch taller now!"

They both bickered good naturedly as the time slowly passed.

Meanwhile, the mayor was debating between a Mr. Mystery shirt and a Questiony the Question Mark shirt. Soos ignored him, but Melody was still...adjusting to Tyler Cutebiker's unique brand of indecisiveness.

"You know you're just going to end up getting both, right?" she asked, bordering on irritable.

"Hm! Now there's an idea!" the mayor exclaimed as though the thought had never occurred to him.

"Ssh! Do you dudes hear that?" Soos asked in hushed tones.

All three raced to the window as a loud roar rapidly approached. A bright red car careened into the parking lot, taking out a No Refunds sign or four. The car skidded to a halt inches from the Shack and for a moment, all was silent.

"Stanley, this is why I've told you I should drive!" Stanford's angry voice sounded as the driver exited the car.

The twins were finally here.

Stan emerged, shouting, "Oh, what? You don't like my driving? Maybe you should try getting a license then, poindexter!"

"I would if someone hadn't stolen my identity!"

"Geez, how many times do I gotta apologize for that?"

Stanford walked around to the front of the car, finally meeting Stan halfway, "Maybe I'll let it go when you stop making amnesiac jokes!"

"Hey! You can insult me. You can insult my driving." Stan punctuated each shout with a poke to Ford's chest, "But never insult my jokes!"

"Mr. Piiiiiiiiiiines!" The twins' fight was interrupted by Soos running towards them, picking both up in an impromptu group hug.

The simultaneous back cracks from both men sounded through the air as Melody followed at a more reasonable pace.

"Soos! Put me down!" Stan grunted out.

Soos obliged after a few more squeezes, tears glistening in his eyes.

Ford caught his breath as Stan muttered, "Eesh."

Soos grinned, "It's so good to see you two dudes again!"

Stan chuckled, "Yeah, yeah."

Ford nudged him with a look that clearly showed they'd talked about this.

Stan sighed, "Ugh. I missed you, too, Soos."

Soos engulfed him in another hug so fast Soos' fez toppled to the ground. Stan's expression clearly communicated that he and Ford would be discussing this again later with some more colorful expressions headlining Stan's new line of argument.

Melody laughed and proceeded to greet Ford, politely asking if she could help carry their luggage into the guest rooms Soos had included in the Shack's most recent expansion.

Soos finally released Stan, wiping his eyes as he animatedly began asking about everything they had experienced over the past year of adventuring at sea.

Melody gently reminded him that they needed to unpack the car so they could go to the bus stop to greet their other guests arriving today.

A limo pulled up beside the bus stop, causing Candy, Grenda, and even Wendy to stare as Pacifica stepped out.

The driver pulled a chair out, and Pacifica planted it by the bus stop, but far enough away from the other girls that she could maintain an air of superiority.

Candy and Grenda looked at her in confusion.

"There's like nothing else to do, so I figured I'd waste time waiting for Mabel and Dipper." Pacifica pulled out her phone, reviewing the emoji text she had also received with a disinterested expression, "Not that I care or anything."

Candy and Grenda glanced at each other uncertainly, but quickly recovered, chatting about the sleepover they'd planned to welcome Mabel back to Gravity Falls. Soon enough, they were just as vibrant as before Pacifica's arrival.

Pacifica did her best to ignore them, flipping through her phone and sighing in boredom.

Candy finally glanced back at Pacifica, "Do you want to help with the party planning?"

Pacifica initially responded with a curt , "As if!" But, she cracked in seconds, quickly joining Candy and Grenda on their beach blanket to chat about party plans. Somehow, through dozens of texts, she and Mabel had become friends, though the feeling had yet to fully translate to Candy and Grenda.

Wendy gave it a week before their trio expanded to include Pacifica permanently.

Dipper laughed, showing Mabel the photo that Wendy had sent of Pacifica happily chatting with Candy and Grenda.

Mabel grinned, "I can't believe they're all getting along!" She picked up her half-finished "World's Best Co-Grunkle" sweater. One of two she had made for their grunkles. "I can't wait to see everyone!"

Dipper laughed, "Yeah, I'd even be happy to see Robbie right now." While the two teens were slightly less antagonistic towards each other now that Robbie had moved on with Tambry, there was still some residual...unpleasantness.

Mabel knitted as she spoke, "I'd even be happy to see Toby Determined!"

"Eugh." Dipper reacted, "Okay. There's a couple people I'm okay with not seeing."

The twins laughed for a brief moment before the bus lurched to the side. They shouted and looked up to see the bus driver erratically steering the bus between the lanes.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Dipper shouted.

"Whoa! This driving thing is way harder than it looks!" the bus driver cackled.

"H-hey! Watch it!" Dipper grabbed Mabel, pulling her to the front of the bus with Waddles following close behind, "What's wrong with you?"

The driver looked up at them through the mirror above him, "Nothing at all, Pine tree! Just having a little fun!"

Both twins screamed, quickly clinging to each other in terror.

"Bill?" Dipper yelled, incredulous.

"In the flesh, kid." Bill laughed, pulling the bus over in one swift motion, nearly knocking the teens off their feet, "Well...in someone's flesh anyway."

A/N: I'm still planning to continue the other stories I have published, but I've written quite a bit of this one, and my lovely sister encouraged me to post it, so I figured I would post this while I work on the next chapter of Steven Dorito Whisperer. I have also posted this on AO3 (under treble-maker) and tumblr (under mysteryfics).