Hours later, the twins sat on the gift shop floor with Robbie, chatting with him as he counted the money from the till. Dipper told Robbie about the cave they'd found (no prophecies, so it wasn't Harbinger Hollow, but it was still cool). Mabel listened idly to the boys, finding her eyes focused on Robbie a lot more than they were on Dipper.

"And then we heard something growling at us in the darkness, so of course Mabel ran out all scared — I totally would've stayed and fought the monster off, but—"

"Dipper!" Mabel cut in. "That's not what happened! You got spooked first!"

Dipper waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. Potato, tomato."

"It's 'potato, potahto.'"

"Have you ever been exploring in the forest, Robbie? It's really cool."

"Yeah, some," Robbie said. "I've been spelunking in some sweet caves with my friends." He swatted Dipper's hand away from the money as he spoke, not missing a beat in his sentence. "Hey, Mabel, could you hand me that stack of fives?"

Mabel blinked, a bit startled. "O-oh, yeah, sure." She picked up the stack and handed it over, flushing as Robbie's fingers brushed her own.

He didn't seem to notice anything. "Thanks, kid."

Mabel nodded, clamping her mouth shut so she couldn't say anything embarrassing. Why did her crushes always leave her in such a blabbering mess? And. . . did she have a crush on Robbie? She thought she'd gotten over how cute he was days ago. But what he said to her earlier, when she was drawing in the corner. . . apparently that conversation had sparked something in her brain.

"Earth to Mabes!" called Dipper.

Mabel started, looking up at Robbie and her brother. "S-sorry, what?"

"It's cool," Robbie said, counting out a handful of bills. "I just asked if you were feeling better."

"Uh, y-yeah, I am. It was, um, really nice to go exploring for a while." Mabel tried to smile, then realized Robbie wasn't making eye contact with her at the moment.

"That's good. Hey, Dipper, you take care of your sister, 'kay?" He gave the younger boy a nudge. "You are the man of the family, aren't ya?"

Dipper grinned. "Yeah!"

"I'm older!" Mabel blurted. Her mouth closed with a snap, but the words were already out. Wonderful.

Robbie chuckled. Dipper was about to retort with something like "By six minutes!" but then paused. He slowly turned his head towards Mabel.

Uh-oh.

Yep, he had picked up on it. Dipper could sniff out a crush a mile away, which wasn't exactly helpful when his sister, who was prone to having occasional crushes, never wanted to do anything about them. Honestly, it took him longer this time than Mabel expected. His face lit up in that look of his: the look when he was bursting with something to say but was trying to hold back. Mabel shot him a death glare when Robbie wasn't looking, but the expression didn't go away.

"Sorry to be such a bore," Robbie said, "but Mr. Pines wanted this all counted tonight."

Mabel blinked in surprised. She wasn't bored at all, though she was a bit mortally embarrassed. "W-we could help you!"

"Yeah!" Dipper's hand was slapped away again as he reached for the money piles.

"Nah, it's good. So, where are you guys from, again?"

"Piedmont, California!" Dipper replied. "It never snows down there."

"Is it your first time seeing snow, then?"

"Nah, we go visit our relatives up where it snows for Christmas sometimes. I've never seen it this deep, though! In some parts of the forest, we would sink to our knees every time we took a step. It's so awesome."

Mabel kept quiet. As long as Dipper was talking about something else, he wouldn't say anything embarrassing about Mabel's crush.

"And what about—"

Robbie was cut off as the door to the gift shop banged open. Mabel jumped; the Mystery Museum was closed, but they hadn't locked up yet.

"Hey, Robbie, I thought I'd find you here."

Mabel turned to see a girl with bright orange hair slouching in the doorway. A matching green beanie and jacket contrasted with her fiery hair, which framed a bored expression that bordered on a scowl. Her eyes scanned the scene before her, taking in Robbie and the twins sitting cross-legged on the floor with scattered piles of money in front of them.

"Oh, hey, Wendy," said Robbie as the girl approached. She sat down right next to Mabel, shoving the smaller girl out of the way with her knee yet hardly seeming to notice her.

"Hey, Robs. Who are the squirts?"

Mabel's face turned red, and she scooted away from the older teen.

"Oh, they're Mr. Pines' great-niece and -nephew."

"Hi!" Dipper said. "I'm Dipper. I get my nickname from my birthmark, wanna see it?"

Wendy raised her eyebrows. "I'm good."

Dipper and Robbie both looked at Mabel, expecting her to introduce herself; but she was staring at the floor, feeling as if her face were on fire.

Luckily, Dipper realized what was going on and responded tactfully. "And this is Mabel, my twin sister." It wasn't the first time he'd introduced her.

Wendy gave some kind of grunt in response and turned back to Robbie. "So the guys and me were gonna go hang out up by the Pleasure warehouse, wanna come?"

The guys and I, Mabel immediately thought; and in her mental correction, she almost missed the next part.

The Pleasure warehouse.

Dipper's eyes widened, and Mabel felt him move a little closer to her. She didn't dare close her eyes, or she would see her. Her eyes locked onto Dipper's knee and traced the pattern of the polka-dot bandaid that rested there.

"Robbie?" Wendy prompted.

"Sure, that sounds fun. Hey, you guys wanna come?" Robbie nudged Dipper, who started a bit.

"Oh, no, we're fine," he said, sounding slightly nervous.

"You sure?" Robbie asked. Mabel saw Wendy scowl in her periphery. "It's up on a cliff, and the view is amazing."

"We've already been!" Dipper blurted. Mabel flinched.

"When?" Robbie asked. "Oh, yeah, when you dated the Pleasure girl. What happened to that?"

"Oh, we just haven't talked for a while," Dipper replied.

Dipper was a bad liar, but even he knew that was better than to say, "Oh, she went psycho and tried to torture my sister." For which Mabel was grateful.

"Robbie, c'mon: We can't just bring kids along. And they don't wanna come, anyways," said Wendy.

"We're not kids!" Mabel blurted. She immediately bit her lip afterwards. What was wrong with her? First saying that she was older than Dip, now exclaiming that they weren't kids. She'd always hated people treating her like the youth she was, because they always underestimated her — but couldn't she keep quiet about it?

"We're thirteen," said Dipper, more conversationally than his indignant twin. "Technically teenagers. But yeah, we don't wanna come. You need us to finish counting the money, Robbie?"

Robbie laughed. "No can do, little bud. Only I get to touch the money. I'm almost done, though. Are the guys on their way, Wendy?"

Mabel heard a faint beep as Wendy pressed a button on her flip phone. "They are now."

"Awesome." A few beats of awkward silence passed, with only the faint rustle of Robbie stacking the bills of money in his hands. "So, Mabel," he finally said, without looking up, "you like to draw, right?"

"Um, yeah," Mabel replied quietly.

"Wendy's an artist too," Robbie said casually. "Maybe you guys can talk about it sometime. It'd be cool."

Mabel and Wendy glanced at each other; from the looks on their faces, neither one thought it likely that they would talk to each other about anything, much less art.

"Yeah, I started a new painting," Wendy said, her voice monotone. She completely ignored the twins. "I'm trying to express how breaks from school are like gasps of air when you're being drowned."

"Very eloquent," Mabel muttered under her breath.

Wendy paused. "Something to say, kid?" Her 'kid' wasn't half as friendly as Robbie's.

Mabel didn't think Wendy could hear her. Whoops. "No," she replied as her face reddened (again).

"One thousand two hundred and fifty seven. . . one thousand two hundred and fifty eight!" Robbie announced, placing the last bill into the pile. "All right, I'm gonna go give this to Mr. Pines, and then we can head out."

A horn honked in the distance. "They're here," Wendy replied. "I'll go tell them to wait for you." She stood up and walked out without another word.

"Bye, Wendy!" Dipper called after her. Mabel thought she heard a grunt in reply, but it was masked by the slam of the door.

"Sorry about her," Robbie said as he gathered the piles of money. "She's not the friendliest person on the planet." He winked down at Mabel, then turned to go find Ford.

"You okay?" Dipper asked his sister as soon as Robbie was gone.

"Yeah, I think so," Mabel replied, getting to her feet with her brother. "That girl was kind of a jerk."

"Yeah," Dipper agreed. A beat passed, and a giant grin spread over his face. "Someone has a crush!" he sang.

Mabel flushed. "Shh, he might be coming back!"

Dipper did her the favor of shutting up, but his face was still alight with his "Mabel has a crush" grin.

"Okay," Mabel admitted, "Robbie is really dreamy — but he's older than me, and there's no way I'm telling him!" The last part came out in a rush, before Dipper could say anything.

"Aw, come on," Dipper complained. "You never tell guys about your crushes."

"That's the point! You don't just tell people about crushes unless you think you have an actual chance with them! And you might have a chance with anybody, but not me, and especially not with Robbie."

"Don't sell yourself short, Mabes."

"Mabes" was about to retort that she wasn't selling herself short when Robbie re-entered the gift shop.

"All right, well, I'm headed out," he said, nodding at the twins. "Last chance: You sure you don't wanna come?"

Dipper shook his head. "We're good. Have fun!"

"Okay then." Robbie opened the door. For a split second, he stood framed in the sunset, his black hair gleaming dully in the orange light. He almost seemed to be glowing. Then he closed the door behind him, and the moment was over.

Mabel wasn't aware of anything until there was a hand waving in front of her face. "Earth to Mabel!"

She pushed Dipper's hand away. "I'm going to bed."

"Bed?" Dipper asked. "The sun sets early here, Mabel. It's only four in the afternoon."

"I'm still going to bed," Mabel replied, hoping he'd understand. It was best if she was asleep before it was completely dark outside. At least, she hoped so. She hoped it would help ward off thoughts of her.

"What about dinner?"

With a sigh, she conceded, "I'll grab something."

Dipper followed her into the kitchen, where Melody was starting dinner preparations. Melody didn't ask too many questions about Mabel going to bed so early, though she did give her a concerned look. Mabel tried to ignore it and made herself a simple dinner from leftovers. She ate silently and quickly, then put her dishes by the sink and left the room.

"Good night, Mabel," called Dipper when she was halfway up the stairs.

She paused and looked back at him. "'Night, Dipper." Then she trudged up the stairs, got ready for bed, and slipped under her covers, hoping sleep would overtake her sooner than later.