Mabel, Dipper, and Amanda sat around the living room, playing more cards. It was the same game as earlier, and Dipper was still winning consistently (though Amanda gave him some competition). Mabel was bored of the game, but she kept playing for Amanda's sake. And so that she could watch Dipper: He was sitting a bit too close to Amanda, in Mabel's opinion.

They were just about to finish another round when the doorbell rang. "Not it!" Dipper shouted.

"Not it!" Mabel said a split second later. "Aw, dang it." She gave Dipper a mock glare and stood up, heading for the door. She absently scratched her head as she went.

Her hand dropped when she opened the door. So did her mouth.

"Uh, hi," Pacifica Pleasure said.

Mabel immediately went to slam the door, but Pacifica caught it with an outstretched hand. "Mabel—"

"What are you doing here?" Mabel hissed, covering up her internal panic by glaring fiercely at Pacifica.

"I—"

"How dare you show up here after what you've done! What, are you here to apologize?"

"Yes, actually."

Mabel threw up her hands. "Well you can — wait, what?"

"I'm here to apologize."

Mabel lowered her hands to her sides as she stared incredulously at the other girl. Finally, she glared again and said, "What are you playing at, Pleasure?"

An expression flitted across Pacifica's face, nearly unreadable. Was that. . . amusement? Respect? But then it was gone, and Pacifica hesitated. She was probably deciding whether or not to lie.

"Nothing," she finally said. "I'm really sorry for attacking you. I'm. . . unstable. I need help, and I don't know where to get it. So, I'm sorry."

Nothing could convince Mabel that Pacifica was being sincere. And yet. . . she was being insincere in a strange way. It was like she found this. . . funny. Mabel's eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to mock me, Pacifica?"

"No! Please, you have to forgive me. I can't live with myself knowing you hate me."

"You can say things like that to me when you mean them!" Mabel shot back, her voice rising. "How dare you come and laugh at me and pretend to apologize like — like it's nothing! Like what you did wasn't even a big deal!"

She was shouting now. She braced herself in the doorway, vaguely aware of footfalls behind her.

"Mabel, what's going—?"

Dipper stopped when he saw Pacifica. "What are you doing here?"

Pacifica let out a sigh that Mabel wouldn't have expected from her dainty way of moving. "I'm trying to apologize to Mabel, but it seems she doesn't want to hear it."

Mabel gave an indignant scoff, but Dipper started talking before she could. "You, apologize? To Mabel?" His eyes narrowed. "What are you playing at, Pleasure?"

Pacifica threw up her hands, much like Mabel had done earlier. "Never mind! Just know I'm sorry, okay? Let me know when you want to believe me." She turned and stomped down the steps, giving heavier footfalls than Mabel thought possible.

It was only then that she realized Pacifica wasn't wearing any shoes.

Dipper eased Mabel's hands off the doorframe and closed the door. "You okay, Mabes?"

It took Mabel a moment to process that he was talking to her. "Y-yeah, I guess. That was. . . weird."

"Who was that?"

Mabel blinked and looked over her shoulder at Amanda. She had forgotten she was even there.

"What?" Amanda asked, which made Mabel realize she was staring.

"I guess we're even now," Mabel said without thinking.

"Wait, what?"

Dipper looked from Amanda to Mabel. "Uh, she meant she was even with the person who was at the door. That was just, um, a girl that Mabel has a bad history with."

That was one way to put it. Mabel shot Dipper a grateful look for covering for her, as they both knew Mabel had meant that she was even with Amanda. Mabel had overheard Amanda's phone call, and Amanda had overheard Mabel yelling at Pacifica. The guilt from earlier eased into embarrassment as Mabel wondered just what Amanda had heard.

She tried not to think about it as Dipper led her back to the living room. "Do you want to finish this round, Mabel, or do you want to start a new one?"

Mabel looked down at the card game, trying to hide her distaste. "Can we play a different game?"

"Sure." Dipper looked to Amanda. "Any card games you can teach us?"

"Yeah, actually." Amanda sat down and started shuffling the cards, and the twins joined her.

Mabel wasn't sure she wanted to play any card games, no matter how cool Amanda's new game was. But, it's what she had. She did her best to push away thoughts of Pacifica and to focus on the cards in front of her.

~~~~~

Gideon scowled down at his freezing feet. He would be wearing shoes, if Pacifica knew what kind of shoes to wear in the dead of winter. He was no fashion police, but nobody should be going about in heels if they didn't want to twist their ankle. Although, come to think of it, Pacifica with a twisted ankle would be rather nice.

But not while he was in her body.

He stopped at the tree line and turned his scowl to the Mystery Museum, which he had just left. Everything about his encounter with Mabel left him feeling angry. He wasn't exactly sure what it was. Maybe he had been so surprised at her ferocity — considering how cowardly she'd been the last two times he'd met her. Or maybe it had felt like she was yelling at him. She was, after all; she just didn't know it. And yet, she hadn't just been angry. She'd been. . . panicked.

Pacifica. . . do you know what you've done to this girl?

Gideon slipped into the trees until he couldn't see the Museum anymore before leaning against a tree trunk. He had a lot of thoughts floating around the chamber of his mind, and he tried to focus on them while ignoring the emotions that snuck in on the sides. Finally, he came to one conclusion: He couldn't let Pacifica near Mabel. Not while in his body and not while in her own. Who knew what would happen. At this point, he didn't even know who would come out victorious.

But only one would come out unscathed. He was sure of that.

Now what? He had thrown a very convincing tantrum back at the Tent of Telepathy: "Oh, please, I just can't stand being away from my parents so much! I can't do the show today — I just can't — I have to see them!" He couldn't go check on Pazeon, since he had decided this morning that she couldn't show up at his mansion again.

This morning. He had been in his own body just this morning.

What time was it, anyway? His stomach growled in answer, telling him that whatever time it was, it was past time to get something to eat. Well. . . he had told the Tent of Telepathy staff that he was going to be with Pacifica's parents, and they probably had food.

Gideon pushed himself off the tree trunk and headed back towards town, walking just inside the tree line so nobody in the Museum would see him.

~~~~~

"All right, who's ready to go reverse the direction of a portal?"

Mabel looked up from her cards (Amanda's new game was actually pretty fun) to see Ford trundling in with big wires strung over his shoulder. He looked excited, which was a strange expression to see on his face: It creased his wrinkles into places where they weren't used to being.

"Me!" Dipper said, waving his hand in the air. "Although. . . is it all hard and science-y?"

Amanda laughed. "I'm on the same page as Dipper," she said. "I hope you won't need our help to do anything too complicated."

"No, no, but you have to be there to go through. Your seal skin is in the car, and—"

He stopped as Amanda's face darkened. "What?"

"You. . . moved my seal skin." Her voice was quiet and emotionless, but it was the type of forced emotionless that was holding up a dam on the inside.

"I'm sorry; was that not all right with you?"

Amanda's face had gone pale, and Dipper put a hand on hers. "Amanda, what's wrong?"

"Amanda?" Ford asked, carefully.

Amanda took a breath that seemed simultaneously shallow and deep — like she was trying to breathe deeply but couldn't. "In. . . in all of the stories, people capture selkies by. . . by stealing their skins. So they can't. . . get away."

Mabel's eyes widened.

Dipper gripped Amanda's hand tighter and looked like he wanted to say something, but Ford beat him to it. The old man dropped his equipment (gently) and knelt down so he was looking Amanda in the eye. "Amanda," he said, "I am very, very sorry that I scared you. I promise that you are not in any danger here, and that I never meant to worry you. I won't touch your seal skin from now on, all right? Are you going to be okay?"

Mabel was amazed. Not a condescending inflection was audible in Ford's little speech. Where was that tone of voice when he was talking to her and Dipper? He would've told them to deal with it.

Amanda nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be okay. Sorry, I just. . ." She let out a breath. "Thanks. I know you didn't mean anything."

"Okay." Ford gave her a little smile. "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded, easing her hand out from under Dipper's. He gave her a reassuring little grin, which she returned, and the two got up and headed for the car.

"Well, those two are nice and friendly," Ford commented, picking up his equipment and slinging it back over his shoulder. He didn't sound as nice as he did to Amanda, but he wasn't in his normal gruff mode either.

Mabel decided that now was the best time to ask. "Um, Grunkle Ford?"

"Yes?"

"I-is there anything I can do to help? With the portal."

Ford glanced at her for a moment. "Oh. Yes, you can certainly help me hold things in place and such."

Mabel bit her lip. "Can you. . . teach me how you do it?"

That got Ford's attention. He looked down at her, a surprised look on his face. "Why?" he finally asked.

Mabel's eyes widened in disbelief. "B-because I want to learn!" she said. "You know all this cool stuff about the supernatural, a-and I love that kind of stuff! I wanna learn about it! So. . . will you teach me?"

She didn't know what to expect, but she hadn't expected Ford to be surprised. Shocked, even. An entire conversation passed over his face in an instant, and the open, stunned expression closed into a hardened, stalwart one. "No."

"But—"

"Mabel, we're going to help Amanda get home, because that's what we need to do. That's it."

"But Grunkle Ford!"

"You can watch; you can help; but I'm not explaining. We're doing this out of necessity only."

"But can't you—"

Ford cut her off by turning his back on her and walking out.

Mabel stood alone in the living room, mouth agape. Where was the kindness and courtesy that he had shown to Amanda? Where was that adventurous spark that Melody claimed he once had? And why wouldn't he at least use this opportunity to teach Mabel some of what he did? Or. . . what he used to do.

Her feet started moving of their own accord, plodding to the door to join her family. It felt like her brain was frozen gelatin: Thoughts squeezed through the suspended mass in a painful trickle. It suddenly dawned on Mabel that she was getting into the car; but the last she'd been attentive, she was still in the living room.

"Mabes? You okay?"

Mabel nodded absently at her brother, not really caring if it was convincing. In her mind's eye, she could see the Journal, its six-fingered hand cocooning the 3 that was emblazoned on the cover. That couldn't have been written by Ford. Not the Ford she knew. If he really had once been the frantic, excited writer that scrawled across the pages of three different journals, then something huge must've happened to change that.

What was it?

~~~~~

Dipper's eyes strayed to Mabel again. He tried to stay focused on Amanda, because he really was interested in what she had to say — especially when she talked about being a seal. How cool was that! Dipper had heard of mermaids and such, but never selkies. Amanda was so lucky to be one — and he was lucky to know one!

But as he tried to listen, his eyes kept catching on Mabel.

Her gaze was locked on the seat ahead of her, but her eyes were unfocused. Most of her body was stock still, but occasionally her mouth moved to form vague, soundless words.

Yep. She was in one of her trances.

Part of Dipper was glad he had Amanda to talk to, since Mabel was out of commission; but another part was worried about his sister. And when wasn't he? Sometimes it felt all he did was worry about Mabel. His parents told him it was sweet, but Mabel used to tell him it was annoying. And yet. . . ever since they'd come to Gravity Rises, she'd stopped doing that. She'd started relying on Dipper more, like he'd always wanted her to. He finally felt like a useful twin.

But the fact that Mabel let him worry about her worried him even more.

"Dipper?"

He blinked, snapping his eyes back to Amanda. "Yeah! That's awesome!" Oh, shoot! He had lost focus while Amanda was talking to him! He didn't want to do anything to upset her, not with that beautiful smile she flashed on him. He couldn't live without that smile.

He inwardly scoffed at himself. 'Couldn't live without that smile.' Ha. Mabel would tell him he was being dramatic, and that Amanda was just another crush. But she wasn't! None of his crushes were! They were all special.

"You think it's awesome that I nearly got caught in that net?" Amanda asked. For a millisecond, Dipper panicked; but then he picked up on the raised eyebrow on her face and the gotcha tone in her voice.

"Oh, no, sorry. I was distracted. What were you saying?"

"I was saying there are dangers to being a selkie."

"Yeah, but it's worth it, right?"

Amanda let out a small laugh and smiled. That smile! "Yeah. Yeah, it's worth it."

The car rolled to a stop; as it bumped and slowed, Dipper's stomach lurched. Wasn't the car ride supposed to take longer? Truth be told, he didn't really want Amanda to leave. He'd only known her for a few hours, and she was the best girl he'd met all winter. Considering that one girl had already turned out to be psycho, the chances of that happening with Amanda were virtually none! But what if Ford fixed that portal up, and Amanda went through, and Dipper never saw her again?

"Hey, kids!" Melody turned around in her seat to address them while Ford got out of the car. Mabel's eyes flicked up in Melody's direction, but she didn't seem to really snap out of her trance. "Guess what!"

Dipper gasped. "You bought us all chinchillas with adorable hats!" He loved playing guessing games.

Melody laughed. "Nope. Since our little ice skating party got interrupted earlier, I brought the skates along! Who knows how long Ford will be working on that portal. So, while he's busy, you can skate some more."

"That's awesome!" Not as good as chinchillas in hats, but he knew that was a long shot anyway. "Do you have some for Amanda?"

"Amanda can have mine," Mabel said quietly.

Every head in the car turned to her, and for a second the only sound that could be heard was Ford rummaging in the trunk of the car. "You don't wanna skate, Mabes?" asked Dipper, before anyone else could say anything. He didn't trust anybody else to deal with Mabel in this half-trance state.

"I'm going to help Ford with the portal," she said; her voice was still quiet. She wasn't meeting anyone's eyes, but Dipper could see a hardness that told him she'd been thinking long and hard over that statement. Uh-oh. Ford and Mabel had been the last ones in the car. Had he said something to her? Had he hurt her?

"You still need ice skates for that," Melody pointed out. "Actually, since the portal is underwater, I don't exactly know Ford's plan. You'll have to ask him. But, anyway, I did bring skates for Amanda, so everything is fine."

"Thanks — um—" Amanda cut off, looking embarrassed.

"Melody."

"Oh. Right. Thanks, Melody." She flashed her a smile. Dipper wondered if cloudy, miserable days were caused by Amanda not smiling.

"You're welcome," Melody said with a wink. She slid out of the car.

Dipper got out on his side and held the door for Amanda, all gentleman-like. Girls liked gentlemen. He bowed for her slightly as she stood up, which made her laugh. And, of course, when she was laughing, she was smiling. She had her seal skin over her shoulder, but she made an attempt to curtsy back. "What a gentleman," she said.

Score!

Dipper turned to follow Amanda away from the car, then realized that Mabel hadn't gotten out yet. He stuck his head back in. "You coming, Mabes?"

She looked up at him. Her eyes were finally clearing, and she seemed engaged in the real world again. "Um, yeah. Just give me a minute."

"That was a pretty long trance. You okay?" He'd had the sense not to mention it when Melody and Amanda were in the car, but he had to say something.

"Yeah, I'll be okay."

"Okay." Dipper straightened and closed the car door, but her words weren't lost on him. She said, "I'll be okay," not, "I am okay." Which probably meant she wasn't okay.

Well, he wasn't going to bother her about it now. Dipper ran a few yards to catch up with Amanda. "So, my lady," he said, keeping up with the gentleman theme, "why don't we. . . What is it?"

Amanda had stopped moving and was looking out over the lake. Dipper followed her line of sight. "Oh."

About a dozen people were skating on the lake.

"Looks like the rest of Gravity Rises had the same idea we did," Dipper said. "Not to reverse the direction of a portal, but, y'know, to come skate."

While he waited for Amanda to reply, he scanned the small crowd. He picked out Robbie and Wendy and a few more teenagers. He saw Candy and Greyson — sweet, they could meet Amanda! Then he saw a head of white hair, and he frowned. Was that Gideon Northwest?

"Um, I guess we should hide my seal skin somewhere," Amanda said.

Dipper glanced at her. "Oh, right, I guess we should," he replied. "Maybe in the car?" Then he remembered Mabel was still in there. "I can go put it there for you!"

Amanda shook her head. "Sorry, my gentleman, but only I get to touch the skin. Thanks for the offer, though." She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Dipper's mouth dropped open. He watched her walk away, his eyes unwilling to look anywhere else. Then, slowly, his open mouth turned into a huge smile.

"Look at you go."

Dipper blinked and looked to the source of the voice. It was Mabel. He hadn't even seen her get out of the car or heard her approach. She had a small, wry smile on her face.

"Did you see that?" he squeaked.

Mabel nodded. "You're quite the ladies' man." Her smile dropped. "So, um, did you see where Ford went?"

Dipper shrugged and pointed. "That way, maybe? I was kinda. . . focused on something else." His grin refused to go away.

"Okay, thanks." Mabel turned to go.

Dipper's smile finally dropped as he registered the tone of her voice. "Mabel," he said. She looked over her shoulder. "Did Ford say something to you? Back at the house?"

She stared at him for a moment, probably debating on what to say. "Nothing that I can't fix," she said, looking determined.

Uh-oh. That meant it was bad. Not only was it bad, but it was the type of bad that Dipper wasn't allowed to help with. Mabel was determined to solve her problems all by herself — which meant that Ford had better watch out. She left before Dipper could say anything, and he watched her go with a sigh. Sometimes the tension between Mabel and Ford was hard to live with.

"All right, I'm back! Ready to go skating?"

But Dipper could live with it as long as Amanda was around. He turned a big smile on her — a smile fueled by the memory of her kiss — and said, "Absolutely!"

As the two headed toward the lake, Dipper decided something right then and there: Before Amanda left — something he didn't want to think about — he wanted to have his first kiss with her.