Dipper raced into the underground lab that his Grunkle ford was always doing different experiments and studying new anomalies in.

"Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Ford, you'll never guess what I discovered about the Hawktopi," Dipper said excitedly as soon as the elevator door was open.

"Calm down, Dipper. What happened," asked Ford

"Well you know how you wrote about the Hawktopus in the journal but you never actually studied it? Well I just got back from doing research on it," stated Dipper.

"Well what'd you find," asked Ford.

"Well first off, with it being part hawk and part octopus, it's quite obviously an aero-aquatic animal, but that means, it's the only aero-aquatic animal that's been discovered. Sure, there are fungi, but no actual animals that have the potential to live in both air and water. Just like with normal octopi, there are gills in the Hawktopus' mouth, which allows for breathing underwater, but due to it flying and being out of water for an extended about of time, my conclusions lead me to believe it has lungs like hawks do. Now hawks and octopi obviously can't breed, but I think I know how this species came to be. There is a group of fungi called Hyphomycetes that are aero-aquatic. Now I haven't discovered which exact genus of Hyphomycetes resulted in the cross-bred animal, but my hypothesis is that a Hyphomycete came into contact with a member of each species and while it was with the hawk, it came to Gravity Falls. With the abundance of weirdness here, it morphed into the Hawktopus," finished Dipper.

"That's quite astute, Dipper. This was excellent research that you've done. But make sure you aren't completely believing in this theory. I'm not trying to discourage you, but every hypothesis isn't correct," stated Ford.

"I know, Grunkle Ford. I'm prepared for this discovery to be inaccurate, but I thought I would share my findings with you. I just wanted to let you know what my research led me to believe in terms of it's evolution. But, that's not all I found," explained Dipper."

"Then by all means, my boy, continue," Ford prodded. And Dipper did just that. He spoke for almost an hour on what he found out about the Hawktopus. from the toxin in their tentacles that could withdraw certain chemicals from other liquids to how it ate with the tentacles in front of it's beak, and even what it ate.

Another day had passed since Dipper's scientific discoveries of the Hawktopus. Ever since, he's been spending even more time with Ford than he had been before. They went over his research, as Dipper had recorded everything he discovered in his own journal. They even went back out to the nest of the Hawktopi so Ford could get a more in-depth view of the Hawktopi in case Dipper missed anything that could be useful.

While her brother was doing his research, Mabel was hanging out with Candy, trying to cheer her up. With her other best friend back, Candy was a lot more cheerful.

"Alright, Candy, we have a dilemma. We're one girl short of our prime female power. We need a new friend," stated Mabel.

"You want to replace Grenda? How could you," shouted Candy in an aghast voice.

"NO. I do not want to replace Grenda, I love her, but we need to look at this in a sensible way. Say we're playing a game. There's the ref, and since there are only two of us, there will only be one player. We need a third to balance it out," explained Mabel.

"I, I guess you're right. I just miss Grenda," replied Candy.

"I know. So do I. But we need someone to balance us out. Do you have any ideas," consoled Mabel.

"There aren't many teenage girls in Gravity Falls. What about Wendy," pondered Candy.

"Woah, I guess great minds really do think alike, because that was my first choice as well." Mabel started out happy, but then continued in a down voice. "But sadly, she has to work so much that she wouldn't really have time for us."

"Damn, there goes Plan A," stated Candy.

"Then it's time for Plan B," Mabel shouted as she stood up and pointed at a lone figure walking toward them.

"Are you serious, Mabel? You know who that is, right," asked Candy.

"Of course I do. How could I forget that hair? That color? I mean, it's no seafoam green, but it's a nice color," stated Mabel.

"Have you heard anything about her since you've been back? Or even while you were gone," asked Candy.

"Well besides hearing she lost her house and about a quarter of her money, no," answered Mabel.

"Well things have gotten a lot worse for her. After losing part of their fortune, her father went into stocks to get it back. He didn't make many good choices. They went from missing a quarter of their former wealth to only retaining a tenth of it," explained Candy.

"Wow. So much has happened to her. Let's go talk to her," Said Mabel, leaving before Candy could say anything. Once Mabel had reached the person she was going to, she began talking to her. "Hey Pacifica, long time no see."

"Uhh, do I know you," asked Pacifica.

"Of course you do. I've saved your life, like, twice," explained Mabel.

"That doesn't necessarily narrow it down," replied Pacifica.

"It's me, wait seriously," asked Mabel. With a head nod, Mabel continued. "Oh, well it's me, Mabel Pines, you know, from the whole end of the world thing a few years ago."

"Mabel? What are you doing here? And aren't you usually attached to a nerd," Pacifica pointed out.

"Oh, Dipper? He's busy doing smarty stuff back at the Mystery Shack," explained Mabel.

"Yeah, whatever. Are you done bothering me," asked Pacifica.

"Not yet. We were wondering if you wanted to hang out with us," stated Mabel, unfazed by Pacifca's rudeness.

"Why would I want to do that," asked Pacifica.

"Well are you doing anything right now," retorted Mabel.

"Y-" started Pacifica, but she trailed off when she realized actually wasn't doing anything.

"Yeah! Let's go," Shouted Mabel as she dragged the reluctant blonde behind her.

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It only took 3 hours before Pacifica realized she was actually having fun with Mabel and Candy. Mabel had just told a really bad joke about blondes, which caused them all to start laughing after realizing Pacifica was a blonde. Pacifica didn't take offense to it, her confidence was as high as ever. The joke was told in Mabel's new room, which was the newest addition to the house. It was pretty basic in design. It was a rectangle, with the long sides being about 10 feet and the short sides about 7 feet. The door was on a shorter side, and when you entered, the bed was in the far right corner and was placed horizontally against the far wall. The wall to the right had to dressers placed in the middle of the wall, separated by a couch with a coffee table in front of it and a tv opposite of it. The remainder of the floor space was fairly empty, but the walls were covered in Mabel's posters. Ranging from her trusty Sev'ral Timez poster to newer ones with animals on them or new bands she likes. There was even a poster of the Mystery Shack on her wall.

"Okay, well, it's time for secret telling," stated Mabel.

"Oooooo," added Candy for dramatic effect.

"What? No. That's dumb. We're not little kids anymore," Pacifica said.

"That doesn't matter. Secret telling is more about bonding than learning secrets," stated Mabel.

"I still think I'll pass. It's getting late anyways, I think it's time I leave," Pacifica said.

"What? You can't. The fun's just begun," pleaded Mabel.

"Sorry, but I have to," said Pacifica, not sounding sorry at all.

"Can I at least get your number? We finally bonded and we need to hang out again," asked Mabel.

"Ugh, fine. Here." After she wrote down her number on a piece of paper, Pacifica said her final goodbyes and left. When she got downstairs, she went through the Gift Shop portion, but right as Pacifica was about to leave, she heard a bunch of noise coming from a vending machine. Curiosity got the better of her, and she began walking up to it. Before she could get even halfway across the shop, the machine came off of the wall and Dipper walked through it. She was so surprised, she didn't make any comments.

"Ugh, do I know you," asked Dipper once he noticed he was being stared at.

"Oh, sorry, my bad," stated Pacifica, kind of ashamed. She then continued "Yeah, it's me Pacifica."

"Oh yeah. What are you doing here," asked Dipper.

"Mabel brought me here when we were hanging out," explained Pacifica

"Oh. Since when have you two been friends? She's never said anything about you two talking," stated Dipper

"We're not friends, she pointed out I had nothing to do today, so I tagged along with her and Candy, that's it," denied Pacifica.

"Sure, what ever you say. Well I have some things to do, so I'm leaving," Dipper sad as he started walking past her towards the door.

"What? No, I'm leaving," argued Pacifica as she turned around and began all but running towards the exit.

"We can both leave, it's not one or the other," Pointed out Dipper.

"Oh yeah, I guess I'm just use to arguing with you from when we were 12," confessed Pacifica. She then continued, "why are you leaving anyways? it's getting late."

"It's only like 3, it's not late," Dipper defended.

"No, it's actually almost 8," retorted Pacifica.

"What!? Have I really been down there for nearly 18 hours? Dang," Dipper wondered aloud.

"What were you even doing behind a vending machine," asked Pacifica.

"Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn't know what's back there. Well to answer your question, I was talking to my Grunkle Ford about some discoveries I found regarding the Hawktopus. He had some major insights once we got back from watching them again yesterday," explained Dipper.

"Again?"

"Yeah, I went to their nest by myself yesterday morning to learn more about them, then when I reported my research on them back to my Grunkle, he wanted to inspect them himself to check to see if I missed anything. There were a few things I missed, such as despite being part bird, they're only source of food is fish."

"Oh, well that's... interesting."

"Oh, sorry to bore you with the details." I'll leave you to get back to where you were headed. Since it's so late, I'll just go back to my room." With that, Dipper left Pacifica in front of the door of the Mystery Shack Gift Shop.