~~~~~~~~~Third Person POV~~~~~~~~~

The group of six all walked out of the school bus once they reached the last station, since it was the closest one to the edge of the forest.

Dipper looked around. "You house is this far from school?"

"Nope!" Alyse already stood at the border between the hard roads and the soft grass. "It's a little bit farther."

"Y-you live in there..?!" Snow asked as part of her hid behind Mabel, who only smiled in excitement.

"Cool!!"

Besides Mabel, they all stared into the shadows that the trees made, making the forest seem a lot scarier than it was.

Alyse giggled at their expressions. "Calm down, guys; it's not bad, I promise!"

"Wait up!" The cheery brunette yelled as she ran after her friend into the woods. Varian and Dipper exchanged a glance of confusion before following beside Leo, along with Snow hiding behind all of them.

The deeper they walked, the more nervous they got, apart from Alyssa who calmly walked back home. Leo crossed his arms before looking at her. "Alyse, if you're talking us here to murder us, I won't forgive you."

She only rolled her eyes at his comment. "You're all such babies."

However, even through the fear and confusion, they noticed something: everywhere the young girl stepped on, the grass became greener, the flowers bloomed brighter.

It was as if her presence alone was what made this forest so calming in its own way.

"We're here!" She said, making everyone look over to see the large house in these woods. It was quiet modern, yet still had a vintage touch, with white walls and normal brick roofing, beautiful plants and flowers of all sorts of colors surrounding it.

"Everyone, this is my home."

"Whoa!!" Mabel viewed in awe at the scene along with the others.

They followed along as she walked into her house. As Varian looked around, he noticed something strange. This place had no sign of older adults, no parents.

Actually, Alyse had never mentioned anything about parents before.

He cleared his throat. "So, uh, who lives with you?"

"At the moment it's just my older sister, her boyfriend, and me. But she's working at this hour."

"That must be awkward."

"Not at all, Noah and his sister Sage started dating my siblings before they moved in, it's a ... really long story."

"Siblings?" Mabel tilted her head, to which Alyse nodded.

"I have two older siblings, they're twins. But my brother's in Florida with Sage at the moment."

"Wow there's a lot of people." They all turned to see Noah lying upside down on the living room couch with a gaming controller in hand. "Was there a party I didn't know about? That's so unfair!"

"Noah, these are my friends: Varian, Mabel, Dipper, Snow, and Leo. Friends, this is Noah; Noah, friends." She introduced, pointing at each of them.

To no surprise, Mabel was already drooling for him.

"And like I said before, is dating my sister and has been for the past three years." At Alyse's explanation, Dipper took off his cap and placed it over his sister's face, who squeaked in surprise.

She then nodded for them to follow, going upstairs and soon reaching her bedroom, to which they were all forced to flinch at the sight.

The room was bright as heck!

"Jeez, hold off on the pink!" Leo commented as he covered his eyes with the back of his hand.

Alyse giggled a bit awkwardly before Mabel hopped onto the bed. "I think it's beautiful!!"

"So what exactly can we do here?" Dipper looked around as Alyse sat on the edge of the bed next to Mabel.

"Well I was thinking we could chat, but I have video games and board games." They nodded at her request, and she went to get everything organized.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been around two hours; Mabel and Leo were playing a fighting game, and though a bit surprising, she was beating him every round, meanwhile Dipper and Varian waited to play the next round.

Snow and Alyse had decided to play a board game on her bed since neither of them had ever been big on video games. At one point, Alyssa fiddled with her golden locket, the one she'd never take off no matter what was going on.

"That's a really pretty locket..!" Snowflake said. She had wanted to tell her before, but she's always been too nervous to speak her mind.

Alyse looked up at her. "Oh, thank you! It was my mother's."

At the mention of it, Varian grew curious, walking over. "Actually, Al, if you don't mind me asking, where are your parents?"

"Yeah, you've never mentioned anything about parents since we met!" Mabel added, still focused on her game as the screen showed 'Victory'. "Execution!!!"

Leo groaned in defeat, the perky brunette ruffling his half before skipping over to her best friend.

Alyse looked around at her friends before down at her locker. "... Well, I never actually met my parents. I was less than a year old when they passed away."

It was as if a switch had been flipped, as soon as those words came out of her mouth, everyone's mood saddened, looking at her with sympathy.

This was normal, it wasn't the first time this happened, a lot of people felt sorry for her.

Mabel gave a small glare to Varian as she softly punched his arm. "Good going, V, you made her sad!"

"I- I didn't-!"

"No no, guys, it's okay!" She quickly waved her arms in dismiss, an awkward smile on her face. "I'm not sad or anything, I don't mind talking about it."

"Mind if I ask what happened..?" Mabel sat beside her as the boys sat or stood for Alyse to be facing them.

She gently gripped her locket. It's not that she didn't want to tell them, but with all that's happened these past few years, not just with Ryan, but with Ashley too, it was something she needed permission to say.

But then again, she could always just hide Ryan from the story.

"They were policemen, though my mom technically worked as a murder detective. They had a case, and it didn't really end well." She explained with a shrug.

The room was filled in silence, no one knew what to say, which confused her even more. This was normal the part where they'd apologize for what happened to her.

Instead, Varian looked up at her. "My mom died giving birth to me."

She looked over, but he only had a small smile. Then Snow gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "My dad passed away a few years ago.."

Leo then slightly raised a hand. "I barely remember mine, I've been in foster care a lot."

"Our parents divorced last year, and we barely get to see our dad now." Mabel added, her brother shrugging.

Snowflake wrapped her in a hug. "So you see..? None of us have had the easiest life, but you're not alone with this.."

It was a little shocking to know what they had been through, yet in a strange way, it made her feel more understood. They didn't apologize, instead shared their own stories.

Though the feeling was odd, she liked being understood for once.

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!

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