Should I have changed?

That was the thought as she approached for the third time that month, which she still couldn't believe. Normally, she would never visit under any circumstances whatsoever, unless it was some kind of special event (such as the Mystery Shack party.) so she could flaunt her family's wealth and send all the partygoers to an after party so they could collect even more of their money so they could repeat the process all over again.

Gosh, was she always that shallow before she met the twins?

Yes, I was. She scolded herself. But I'm getting help. That's gotta mean something, right?

She sure hoped it did. She couldn't imagine herself going back to her old life, being a butthole to anyone who wasn't rich or popular enough to talk to her.

She was going to change, by gosh, or die trying.

She silently hoped for the former rather than the latter. She was hanging out with the Pines family after all.

Anything could happen.

"Pazi!"

The sudden squealing of her name and the feeling of another body slamming into her own nearly terrified her half to death. She was about to beat the person who tackled her to full death with her bare fists when she realized it was just Mabel.

"You came! You actually came!" The overenthused girl exclaimed, pinning Pacifica's arms to her sides as she gave her a big bear hug.

Pacifica went stiff as a board, still getting over the shock of being knocked of her feet. She noticed Dipper chuckling behind his sister, a grin plastered on his face, a hand trying to hide the obvious.

"Right..." She finally managed to reply. She gave a little squirm. "Can we maybe do this when we're standing up?"

"Oh, sorry!" Mabel nodded, removing her arms from the blonde girl as she got to her feet. "I just still can't believe you actually came!"

"Well, I didn't have anything better to do, so I thought, 'Why not?'" Pacifica tried to blow it off as not a big deal. She didn't know if she did well or not.

"Need a hand?" Dipper asked, stretching out his hand.

Pacifica scoffed, turning her head away from the hand. "I can handle myself!" She said, starting to push herself off the ground.

"Pacifica..." Mabel chastised, giving a stern look to the young blonde, frowning.

The guilt she felt was immense, but she had known how to hide behind a front before.

With a roll of her eyes, Pacifica gave a murmur of agreement as she begrudgingly took the boy's hand. She was surprised at how powerful his pull was as she was lifted off the grass. Whether it was because of his adventuring or if he had just overcompensated to lift her up, she was impressed that he even had the capacity to pick her up with those noodle arms of his.

He pulled her into a standing position before letting go of her hand and checking her over for injuries, well acquainted with Mabel's roughhousing nature. Her clothes were wrinkled and covered in many grass stains, but luckily he didn't see any cuts and bruises. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask, just in case he couldn't see it.

"Are you alrigh-"

"I'm fine." Pacifica grumbled through gritted teeth, facing away from the young boy, intentionally avoiding his gaze.

"Now what do we say, Pacifica?" Mabel asked, a teasing smile adorning her face.

Pacifica gave her a chilling glare, before turning her attention back to Dipper.

"Thank you..." She whispered, barely audible.

"I'm sorry, what?" Dipper asked, cupping his ear with his hand.

"I said thank you." She said a little louder.

"I still can't hear you, what did you say?" He chided playfully, trying to hide his snickering and failing horribly.

So, he wanted her to be louder?

Ohh, she'd give him louder, alright. And some tinnitus to go along with it.

"I SAID THANK YOU!" Pacifica screamed, right into the boy's eardrum.

Dipper jumped back, his head throbbing as he covered his now ringing ear.

"Yep, I'm pretty sure I deserved that" He admitted, trying to shake out most of the noise still going around in his brain.

"Ha ha! Good one, Pazi!" Mabel commended, patting her on the shoulder. "The old 'scream-in-the-ear' trick. Gets him every time."

"WHAT?!"

"Nothing, Dip-Dop!"

Sticking a finger in his ear to make sure it wasn't bleeding (she had been a lot louder up close than he expected her to be), he turned his gaze back over to Pacifica.

"Thanks for that." He mumbled, giving her a glare.

"I'm sorry, what?" She playfully asked, a wicked grin on her face.

"Oh, ha, ha! Very funny."

"Aww, thank you! I try so hard."

Dipper rolled his eyes playfully before reaching into his vest, pulling out a very familiar journal.

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Pacifica said as she laid eyes on the book. "You didn't tell me that we were going on another ghost hunt! I do not want to do anything that makes me rethink my life again!"

"What?" Dipper wondered, before putting the pieces together in his head. "Oh, you think this is a ghost book or something, right?"

"Uhh, yeah?" Pacifica replied uncertainly. "Isn't that what you guys do all the time?"

"Pffft!" Mabel blew a raspberry. "No! We only use that thing for hunting ghosts sometimes!"

"Then, like, what the heck is it even used for except for getting rid of ghosts and destroying people's lives?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" Dipper exclaimed, practically teleporting beside her. He tore open the book, rustling through the pages so fast that she wasn't even able to comprehend what was on each of them. "You see, the part I showed you back at the mansion was just a portion of the weird things that go on in this town!" He flipped though the pages again, stopping at a specific page. Examining the drawing, it seemed to look a lot like...some kind of cave? She really didn't know; she wasn't a nerd. Luckily, she had her own personal one to tell her (even if she didn't really care).

"According to the journal, this is called the Cavern of the Seasons." Dipper explained.

"Wow, very original name. You come up with that yourself?" Pacifica deadpans, rolling her eyes.

"Nah, Dipper can't come up with anything that good. I'm the creative one in the family." Mabel snickers, with Pacifica following soon after.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, you two." Dipper grumbled, an annoyed look in his eyes. He waited a few seconds longer for their giggling fit to die down before continuing. "So anyway, the cave is said to hide wind-spirits, which are these four horsemen who each control one of the four seasons. This cave is apparently one of the sanctuaries that they had, where they stow themselves away until they grow strong enough to overpower the horseman who controls the seasons at that time."

"That sounds pretty stupid. I thought it had to do with the turning of the planet or whatever."

"Yeah, but isn't it weird whenever it's really nice one day in Spring, and then the next day it starts to snow?" Dipper asked.

Pacifica pondered on that thought for a moment, unable to answer. Luckily, she didn't have to.

"That's because Winter and Spring are fighting to keep themselves in charge. It just so happens that their fighting changes the weather and can drop or raise the temperature rapidly! Isn't that so interesting?" Dipper exclaimed, a huge grin spread across his face.

Now normally, Pacifica would give her very honest opinion that his ideas were stupid and that of course she was right, because of science and that he was wrong and blah blah blah. Honestly, it made her sick to her stomach at how she acted before.

However, she had seen little people who controlled mini-golfing and had a ghost haunt her house that turned people into wood. At this point, she didn't know what was real or what wasn't anymore. Plus, she couldn't deny that his excitement was rubbing off on her a little.

"Yeah, I guess..." She answered awkwardly, unsure of how to respond.

Dipper's smile widened, his happiness easing Pacifica's nervousness slightly. "I know! It's so interesting!"

Pacifica sighed as she released the breath she didn't even know she was holding in. If this is what it took to be nice, then she was going to get wrinkles.

"Good job, Pazi! You gave him a compliment!" Mabel encouraged with a pat on her back.

"He's still a huge dork, though."

"Yeah, we know."

"Hey!"

"So why are we even going there, anyway?" Pacifica asked, curious as to why the twins even wanted to go to some weird cave in the first place.

Dipper and Mabel gave each other a glance, staring at each other for a few seconds, silently communicating to each other while the rich girl watched on in confusion.

"Well..." Mabel started, suddenly looking nervous. "There is no reason."

Pacifica blinked. Once. Twice.

"What."

It wasn't a question.

"I swear, I tried my best to look for someplace more interesting!" Dipper tried to explain, starting to sweat. "It was either this or some really boring lake in the east. There wasn't any other place we could go without us getting kidnapped by gnomes or attacked by manotaurs! Plus..." He fell silent for a moment, gazing towards his shoes with a downtrodden expression.

"I thought it'd be pretty cool to show you on our first adventure together..." He murmured, kicking the dirt in front of him.

Pacifica felt a pang of guilt as she noticed the boy's sudden change in mood. Her anger slowly dulled down to a simmer, before vanishing completely from her system. All Dipper was trying to do was find some place for their little group to go explore, and Pacifica was complaining because they didn't have a reason to go. Of course they didn't have a reason; they just wanted to have fun and go adventuring. That was what normal, poor kids were supposed to do, right? Go do things just for the sake of doing them? She didn't know; all she knew were fancy dinner parties and what colors went with what outfits.

Man, did it feel weird to actually like someone instead of hating their guts.

She hoped that she'd get used to it.

"Ok..." She responded quietly, barely audible.

Dipper looked up in surprise, somewhat confused by the response. "What?" He asked.

"Look, we can go to this stupid cave thing or whatever! I don't care!" Pacifica snapped suddenly, feeling a bit uncomfortable with all the attention being put on her. "Let's just hurry it up. My parents are expecting me back by sundown, and if I'm not back by then, they'll probably kill you..."

She trailed off, a small blush appearing on her face as she looked down to hide the growing heat from the two.

Dipper blinked, eyes widening just a little at the blonde girl's outburst. "O-okay, then..." He responded awkwardly, not sure how to continue after that. "Th-this way, I guess..."

He started on the way as his sister walked close to him, giving Pacifica a stern glare. It wasn't one filled with anger or sadness or confusion, however. It was just plagued with concern, thru and thru.

Pacifica didn't think much of it. They could think whatever they wanted about her right now. She just wanted to start going to this random cave before she curled into a ball from everyone looking at her.

She just hoped that it wouldn't take too long to get there.