Monday morning - it was supposed to be the day that Star and Marco would go back to school, but, never did. And if that wasn't unsettling enough, Marco hadn't had any service to call his own parents. As well as for his parents, he hadn't heard a call from them either. He had tried to ponder of some insane idea that might work, but, nothing. It seemed absolutely hopeless.

Marco didn't have the time to wait for some kind of miracle. He worried what his parents were doing. He worried about his friends he left back at school. He worried about missing school and, though it wasn't his biggest priority at the moment, keeping his grades up. If he wasn't there to pass the class, no one was going to do it for him.

Star had her own solution to the problem - to take this chance as an opportunity to get to know Mabel and Dipper better. She tried to convince Marco it wasn't that bad and that this so - called 'opportunity' could teach him to drop his worries and let loose. After breakfast, Mabel was excited to quickly pull out her knitting needles and knit Star a sweater that matched her unique style. Star gasped when Mabel pulled out her needles, asking if they were her magic wands.

Mabel chuckled. "Actually, they're my knitting needles, but, I guess you could call them my tiny wands. Do you want to see my magic?"

Star let out a long, exaggerated gasp. "Show me!"

As the girls stayed up in the attic, Dipper and Marco found awkward silence creeping up on them in the gift shop. "So..." Dipper began, but, he didn't know what to say. After a second of struggling to fill the awkward quiet, he said, "Looks like Star and Mabel are really getting along."

"Yeah, seems like it." Marco responded with a chuckle. He casually kept his hands in his pockets and leaned on the edge of the cashier's table. They both laughed uncomfortably for a moment, until it finally ended with a strange, descending sigh. Suddenly, Dipper was grateful for his great uncle, Ford's, disturbance. The vending machine's door swung open and he greeted them with a warning. "Hit the deck!" Ford yelled. In his fist, he had a one-eyed, green, tentacled creature. It stumbled and leaped out of Ford's reach. It tried to escape by scattering and scrambling everywhere, until it got cornered by Ford.

"What is that thing?" Marco exclaimed. He kept his distance from the creature.

Ford closed in on the creature, hoping to catch it. "Steady. Steady...and..." He muttered. But, the creature was quick and dodged Ford's attack. It moved to where Marco stood, startling him. It crawled up to the counter and Marco attempted to use his karate moves to fight it off. The creature growled and jerked itself away from Marco's knife hand. It crawled away, but, not far enough for Marco to karate kick it to the wall. After that, Ford took control. He grabbed it before it could get away again and used his futuristic gloves to shock it numb. He held it up as if it was a prize. The creature was burnt and gave off a strong odor that stung all of their noses. It didn't seem exactly happy that it was caught. "Thanks for the help, kid." Ford said to Marco. "Where did you learn how to fight like that?"

"I don't know. I guess karate was just my thing. I take karate classes back in my dimension."

"Oh, right. That reminds me. I've been meaning to ask you something. How could you have possibly ever gotten here? Was the machine set for your dimension? Were you and your friend the ones to discover the portal?"

"Actually, Star used her magic dimensional scissors." It was an answer even Ford wasn't expecting.

"Magic dimensional scissors, huh? How could that be?"

"Well, her friend, Pointy Head, gave them to her." Now, Ford felt like he misheard Marco. He didn't believe his ears. It sounded a bit crazy, considering he studied odd anomalies and even lived in a different dimension for half of his life. "They basically cut into any dimension you want them to."

Ford thought for a moment, then said, "So you conjured up your own portal?" Marco nodded. "Hm, your portal must have opened the same exact time the machine in the basement was activated, causing them to link together somehow. They must have interfered with one another, which would explain how you came here."

His scientific explanation made Marco moan with frustration. "I just wish there was some way I could get back to my own time era! Star and I have been trying for days, but, it's been kind of hard. Not to mention the part where I was thrown in a sack and used as ransom by a half-lizard, half-lawyer guy. Like I said, though, I don't want to be stuck here anymore. Right now, I'm stuck a couple of years in the past and frankly, I don't want to relive my awkward years." Marco shivered before going on. "I wore turtlenecks."

Ford stared with complete confusion at the teen in front of him. He figured that Marco was insane. He was so dumbstruck, he wasn't quite sure how to respond. Marco tried to ease the man's mind. "It's a long story. I'm not crazy."

"Okay, then. If you say so. Anyway, I have more important things to attend to at the moment, so if you kids don't mind, I have to get going." Ford continued on into the vending machine to go back to the basement, but, Dipper stopped him. "Hey, uh, Great Uncle Stanford?" While Dipper spoke up, he did a toe to heel rocking motion due to the awkwardness of getting to approach The Author of The Journals.

Ford chuckled before clarifying. "Please, just call me Ford."

"Uh, okay." Dipper giggled. "So, Great Uncle Ford. I've been reading all about these monsters in your journals and I was wondering - do you need any help?"

"I'm sorry, Dipper. But, with the long, frightening road I've been down, I'm afraid you cannot follow." Dipper's smile faded. To Marco, Dipper looked like a little kid whose dreams had just been shattered. Secretly, Marco thought it was amusing. "Well," Ford announced, cheerfully. "Call me for dinner!" And just like that, he was gone. Dipper wondered why Ford felt the need to isolate himself and make himself seem mysterious to the outside world. To Dipper, he thought he could handle helping Ford with his work. Unfortunately, Ford thought otherwise. Besides, what could possibly be so bad that Dipper couldn't handle? Why did Ford reject him?

"Looks like that dream's dead." Marco commented, a smirk shown on his face.

Dipper groaned. "I don't get why he just can't be so secretive! If he thinks I don't have what it takes to help him, then, he's wrong. If he knew about the disturbing and messed-up things I've experienced this summer, then, maybe he wouldn't shun me away!"

"Hey, listen. The basement is pretty creepy. To be honest, I hated being down there. Why don't you just stay up here and try to get your mind off of it?"

Dipper sighed deeply. "I guess so." He paused before asking Marco, "So, you take karate?"

"Yep."

"I, uh, actually wanted to learn karate when I was younger."

Marco laughed and pulled out his white martial arts headband. "You came to the right sensei." He said, tying his headband on and striking a karate pose.

Marco set up two cinder blocks and a wooden board on top, preparing Dipper for his first lesson. Both of them stood out in the front yard of the shack. "Now, watch after me." Marco told Dipper. Before he actually knife handed the board, Marco did a few practice drills, also making sure to inhale deep breaths to build his momentum. At his third time, he hit the board hard with just enough strength to break it in half with the side of his hand. Dipper was in awe. "Woah," he said. "Nice!"

Marco replaced the broken board with a new one, telling Dipper to try, now. Dipper, unsure how it would turn out, nervously approached the board. "Okay." He breathed. "I can do this. I punched a nine-year-old in the face, once. I think we're friends, now.”

"Remember," Marco added. "Focus all of your energy on that board. It's okay if you don't get it right the first couple of times. It is all about learning, after all."

Dipper looked back down at the board and warmed up his fingers. Then, he raised his hand high and straight down, like Marco had shown him. Except, Dipper hadn't broken the board. Instead he broke his hand. He quivered his lip, clenching his broken hand with his other hand. He tucked in his lip and bit down on it, trying to hold back the scream of pain. Though, he wasn't successful and opened his mouth to let it out, taking a breath in before doing so.

The birds in the trees above were startled by his scream. They flew out of the trees from which they settled themselves in, squawking and flapping their wings to retreat from the high-pitched noise.

Even Star and Mabel could hear it from the attic. Star could have sworn her ears were ringing. Mabel dropped her needles and the sweater she was knitting at the sound. "What was that?" Star questioned.

Mabel laughed, not being able to catch her breath. She knew exactly what that noise was. "That's just my sister." She giggled.

"I didn't know you had a sister."

"I don't."