They all crammed into the kitchen, with the adults standing with their meals, and the children (even Jazz, who refused to admit that she was a child) sat down at the table.

"Did you find any ghosts?" Dipper asked the adults, silently praying that they had.

Maddie shook her head: "Unfortunately not."

"There are ghosts there, I promise. They must have been hiding," Dipper insisted, as plateful of pasta was placed in front of him by Stan.

"We believe you," said Jack, waving his fork around. "Those pesky ghosts are everywhere, infesting our world, causing trouble all over the place."

Danny and Jazz meanwhile, were keeping their heads down as they ate, trying to keep out of the conversation.

"Not all ghosts are bad. I think Ma and Pa just want to be left alone," said Dipper. "They're just angry because they died because of teenagers."

Maddie was quick to shut down this idea: "Don't be silly, all ghosts are bad. They don't have feelings like humans do."

"But-" Dipper started to protest, before being cut off by Danny and Jazz. "You might as well give up, we've already tried to change their views on ghosts," said Jazz.

"Yeah, I don't want another argument about Phantom," Danny whispered.

Unfortunately for Danny and Jazz, Maddie overheard Danny's statement, and snapped back: "I've told you before and I'll tell you again, Phantom is not a good ghost. Sure, he might seem like it at times, but under that nice facade is another evil ghost."

"I've got to say, even though you've told me that Phantom's bad, I did some research of my own online, and he's done some pretty good stuff. Like he stopped a bus from falling off a cliff, and he-" said Ford calmly.

"And he ruined Christmas, remember that," shouted Jack.

"I'm pretty sure you two ruined Christmas with your constant arguments about whether Santa's real or not," Danny muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Dipper, Mabel and Jazz to hear. Jazz simply responded by putting her hand on Danny's shoulder, and giving him a comforting look.

It wasn't long before everyone finished their lunch, and the children left the shack to escape the argument about ghosts that was still going on in the kitchen.

As they left the shack a tall, red haired older teenage girl wearing a flannel shirt and a white and blue cap with a pine tree silhouette on called out to them: "Hey, Dipper, Mabel, wanna hang out?"

"Yeah!" shouted Dipper and Mabel at the same time.

Wendy noticed that Danny and Jazz were also there, and quite obviously didn't know who she was. "Oh, hey, I haven't been introduced," she said, gesturing to Danny and Jazz. "I saw you guys in the shack yesterday, are you getting along with the Pines?"

Danny nodded, and quickly introduced himself: "Uh, I'm Danny, and this is my older sister Jazz."

"I'm Wendy," said the girl wearing the cap. "So, how long are you staying here?"

Danny just shrugged. "A few weeks...I guess. Probably until my parents get bored and decide to go back to ghost hunting in Amity Park."

"Dipper must've had a lot of fun asking them about ghosts," she chuckled, and Dipper became visibly embarrassed. "Wanna mess around by the dump, you two can meet the rest of our friends," she said, directing the second half of her sentence towards Danny and Jazz.

And so the group set out to go to the dump, walking past the army of trees along the edge of the town, making jokes and small talk to pass the time, as they walked towards a heap of assorted rubbish, a couple of sofas and armchairs with mouldy cushions and a stack of mismatching tires were piled up in a dangerous looking tower. A group of teenagers were waiting there for them, most were texting, while one was precariously balanced atop one of the armchairs, looking out at the view, his long blond hair blowing in the gentle breeze that made the stack sway slightly.

As they arrived at the entrance of the dump, the teenager who had been sitting atop the armchair was now shouting to the others: "Hey! Guys!"

The group of older teens looked up to see Wendy, Dipper and Mabel enter the dump and wave happily to them, shouting greetings, with Danny and Jazz following behind, looking slightly unsurely at the choice of location.

"Who are they? Are they the tourists you mentioned?" asked a girl with deep pink hair with a light pink highlight to the side of her fringe, which was swept to the side.

Wendy nodded: "This is Danny and Jazz," she said gesturing to the Fenton siblings. Danny gave a small wave.

"Danny, Jazz, meet Tambry, Robbie, Thompson, Nate and Lee," said Wendy, pointing to each teenager in the group as she said their names. Tambry, the pink haired girl who had spoken earlier, was texting and looked up briefly as Wendy said her name; Robbie was a lanky pasty-faced boy with black hair, that fell across his head in clumps; Thompson was an overweight boy with mud brown hair that was styled to point upwards; Nate was a brown haired boy with bushy eyebrows, wearing a baseball cap, he had tattoos of lines and patterns on his upper arms; Lee, who had climbed down from his perch on the armchair, had long, blond hair that draped over his shoulders, and a long face, that was dominated by his chin.

"Oh, right," said Wendy, and took off her cap, and held it out to Dipper. "Let's swap our hats back for the summer."

"Oh yeah," he replied, and switched his hat for hers, placing the cap with a pine tree on top of his bushy hair.

"Wanna race to the cone?" asked Wendy, pointing to a neon orange traffic cone that has been precariously balanced atop the largest of the mounds of rubbish.

"Is that safe?" asked Jazz, eyeing the mound suspiciously.

"More or less," replied Wendy nonchalantly, shrugging, and Jazz took a step back.

"We're not climbing that. Right little brother?" said Jazz, but her words were falling on deaf ears, Danny had an excited expression plastered across his face, tugging his lips into a smile.

"Want to do the honours, Tambry?" asked Wendy, and Tambry looked up from her phone briefly and nodded, giving a thumbs up.

"On your marks!" she shouted, and the participating members of the group prepared to move. Mabel was hopping from one foot to the other, full of energy, her long hair whipping from side to side and up and down. Dipper was tensed, his eyes scanning the mountain of junk like a hawk for the best route up. Wendy was stretching, loosening her muscles and joints in elastic motions. Thompson stood in a stance that looked almost like a bad yoga pose, getting ready to run. Nate crouched slightly, one foot behind the other. Lee stood casually, balancing slightly on one foot, lifting the other slightly into the air. Robbie stayed sat next to Tambry and scoffed at the enthusiasm of his friends. Danny had joined the main group at the starting area, and was perched on his toes, ready to spring forward when they got the signal.

"Get ready!" Wendy stopped stretching and was now poised to spring forward at any moment, and the others seemed more focused.

"GO!"

All the racers jumped into a sprint the moment this word shot through the air. Wendy, Nate and Lee were tied for the first portion of the sprint, followed by Mabel and Dipper soon behind, then Danny, and last Thompson. Danny was never particularly good at running, especially not in his human form, but at least he wasn't in last; he was surprised by how fast Dipper was, he'd thought that Dipper was a skinny kid who was as bad at sports as he was.

When they came to the rubbish heap Nate and Lee began to fall behind Wendy, who was climbing up the miscellaneous objects like she'd been doing it for her entire her life, each step practised and precise, yet natural. Dipper and Mabel were still almost tied with each other, having overtaken Lee and Nate, Mabel slightly ahead, scrambling over dumped furniture, appliances and packaging. Danny was unusually light, caused by a combination of his slight frame and being half ghost, meaning that the junk beneath his feet didn't move much, making it easier to navigate the decaying hill; he managed to overtake Lee and Nate, catching up with Dipper and Mabel. Mabel kept stabilising herself with her arms flailing every time the junk slipped out from under her; while Dipper didn't have the same reflexes, and ended up face-planting into a lampshade, leaving room for Danny and Mabel to gain a lead over him.

The top within view, Danny sped up for the final sprint, only for Wendy to reach the top first and lift the cone into the air, panting, sweat pouring down her freckled face. "I win!" she shouted triumphantly, waving the cone from side to side. Danny had unfortunately not been able to stop in time, and ended up running right past her and over the edge, skidding down the cascading junk on his way down, landing on his butt on the sun-dried ground in front of a smashed car with its bonnet up, exposing a rusty engine with several pieces messily removed. An old man with a bushy dirty white beard and oversized red nose danced next to the open bonnet, his torn brown hat with a wide brim swaying with his gangling limbs from side to side, sticking a bandaged hand into the engine. Overall he looked very unusual, with a plaster stuck to his beard, and a torn pair of dungarees with a patch of fabric roughly sewn over the right knee. Wendy followed Danny's descent in a much more controlled way, sliding gracefully to the ground next to Danny. "Hi, McGucket! Anything interesting?" she called out. The old man looked up from the car, his arm still in the engine.

"Well I'll be darned, if it ain't you. I did see a flying spectre around those there trees last night, a child I tell you, he glowed like the full moon. I was all shaken up, gave me spooks," he rambled, shivering at the last part.

"What's this about a ghost?" asked Dipper as he came round the trash dump, his eyes sparking with interest.

"McGucket saw a flying boy over the trees, says he glowed," said Wendy, looking over in Dipper's direction as he and Mabel joined them by the broken car. Dipper's eyes grew wide in shock.

"A ghost boy?" he exclaimed. "What did he look like?"

"I didn't get a good look. He looked like a black and white shape from here, I'd swear his eyes were glowing an ungodly green, like swamp water in the spring," said McGucket, as Dipper took notes in a pad of paper he'd summoned from his vest pocket.

Mabel squealed, "was he hot?"

"I think he was more cold, like ice, like death," said the old man, shuddering at the last part. Mabel opened her mouth to speak, and immediately shut it.

"I can't wait to tell Ford," said Dipper, closing his notepad and shoving it back in his pocket. "I wonder how powerful it is."

"Now, don't mind me. I'm off to build a new doohickey of destruction," he said manically, ripping his arm out of the engine with a clump of car parts, and skipping off into the distance ungracefully.

Danny recovered from his shock, and got to his feet. "Do you really have to tell Ford? I mean, that guy, McGucket, is obviously off his rocker."

Dipper half shouted the next sentence: "He's a genius! Sure he might be a bit out of it at times, but wouldn't you if you were in his situation."

They hung out with the older teens for a while longer, with Mabel, Dipper and the older group catching up with each other after being away for almost a year, and Danny and Jazz chatting to each other some distance from the others, only joining in with the larger group when they had to.

"Someone saw Phantom?" she said quietly to Danny, whispering her next sentence. "Why were you even outside at night?"

"I needed to cool down and relax, okay," he whispered back. "How was I supposed to know that barmy old man would notice me? Let's just hope Mum and Dad don't find out, or Ford."

"Just be careful, little brother," she said before glancing to the rest of the group. They were all laughing and throwing small objects at makeshift targets, with Robbie and Tambry chatting and texting a little bit away from the others.