#parallel stanley

The fact that Jane has went from a name I pulled out of the air and into a character I want to develop is great. 

Anyway: back to A Better World/Parallel World

Tate had been dreading this day since Jane had brought it up. He knew it would have to happen eventually but with his family as it was it was something he dreaded. Here he was now though, sitting at the dinner table with his father being himself and his ‘uncles’ trying to act normal. 

Jane seemed perfectly content sitting across from him; not even noticing the strangeness that was his family. Maybe she was noticing it and was planning on breaking up with him once they left the dinner table. 

The teen pushed down the panicked thought and grabbed his drink quickly to help push it down. 

“Tate, you doing alright?” Jane asked. 

Tate chocked some on his water and tried to pass if off. 

“Yeah,” he chocked out, “Fine.” 

“He usually does that when he is nervous,” Fidds supplied with a chuckle, “When he was ten he got all nervous at his birthday party and chugged down his whole cup of soda. Poor kid let out the biggest bletch in the middle of all of us singing happy birthday to him.” 

“Dad,” Tate whined under his breath and glanced at Jane. 

“Oh, I remember that,” Stanford supplied, “He was mortified and tried to hide in the bathroom for the rest of the party. That didn’t work out as well as he planned-”

“As he tripped on the way out,” Fidds finished and the both of them laughed. 

“Oh. Oh,” Stanley sat up with more life in him now that the game was embarrassing Tate, “What about the time that he got all nervous around that one intern at your nerd school. He started chugging the bottle of water he had and then she asked him a question and it all came dribbling out.” 

The adults at the table all started laughing with Jane joining in with a few giggles. 

Tate felt himself heat up in embarrassment and he looked down at the table.

“Guys please,” he mumbled under his breath. 

“So that is why he will randomly grab his water bottle,” Jane giggled. 

“At least he didn’t pick up on this guys pen chewing habit,” Stanley chuckled and flicked his brother. “Or his dad’s habit of eating us house and home when nervous.” 

“You get paranoid about one little thing and eat the fridge dry,” Fidds mumbled, “And suddenly you are the bad guy.” 

“I worked hard for those groceries,” Stan pointed out.

As the adults moved onto teasing each other, Tate chanced a glance up. Jane was smiling at him happily from where she sat. The girl glanced over at the other three people at the table before leaning across and lowering her voice. 

“You got nothing to be embarrassed about. Your family seems nice.”

“You are only saying that because you don’t know them.” 

Jane rolled her eyes and looked over at them. Fiddleford and Stanford had matching looks of being done with whatever tale Stanley was spinning but McGucket did have a small smile pulling at his down turned frowned. 

“I think I will like them even if I didn’t know them.” 

I set it in the Better World/Parallel Universe cause why not, right?

Jane Mirren. 

There was not a more perfect girl in all of Gravity Falls High School’s junior class. One could argue that it could be the whole school or even the whole town. Maybe even the whole world but that would be unreasonable. Still, she was the girl that Tate liked. 

He glanced around the crowded car pool line for any sign of his dad’s beat up truck or his uncle’s convertible but saw no sign of them. The teen hated that he was having to wait on them, mostly because this made time limited. 

He sucked in a breath and moved forward in the crowd towards the girl. 

“Jane!” 

Jane turned to see who had called her name and gave a smile seeing it was Tate. Her friends around her seemed to get the message and said their good byes to leave them alone. It made his heart pump loudly in his chest with nervousness. 

“Um…hey,” Tate got out as he stood in front of her. 

His head was screaming that this was a terrible idea. That he should retreat and think of something new. He just stood there internally panicking but keeping a smile on his face. 

“Hey,” She chuckled, “You’re Tate McGucket, right?” 

Tate gave a nervous chuckle and nodded, “Yeah. That’s me.”

“Oh cool. My mom works up at the Institute,” She smiled.

“That’s cool,” Tate was floundering on a way to get to where he wanted to. 

The teen nervously wrung his hands together and looked around the at everything but at Jane as he tried to get the words up. 

“Well,” Jame said after a moment, “It was nice meeting you-”

“Wait. I-I wanted to know if you-.”

A car’s horn suddenly blasted over the talking of the students and Tate’s face went white. He did not need to turn his head to know who’s car horn that was. 

“Tater!” His dad’s voice floated over the crowd, “We gotta go! Stanford wants us back up there soon and ya got homework to make up!”

“Yeah!” Stan’s voice joined it, “You said it yer self, squirt. You need to make up the homework since you had to miss it all after getting your teeth pulled! Remember? I got it all on video~.” 

“Stanley, don’t be shouting things like that!” 

Tate’s hands suddenly felt sweaty and the world around him seemed to dip. The one time he got the courage to talk to his crush since freshman year is, of course, ruined by his dad and embarrassing Uncle Stan. 

“I-I,” The teen desperately tried to stutter out an apology but another blast of the horn ruined that. 

The boy just scrambled for the piece of paper he had made ready for when things went over smoothly and handed it over to her without much comment. 

“Sorry,” He squeaked out and pulled his hat down to cover his eyes further. 

This had gone terribly. He would not be surprised if Jane never wanted to see his face again. The only thing that stopped him from continuing the walk of shame towards the car that was still blasting its horn was a hand on his shoulder.  

Tate looked back at her nervously. Jane had a smile on her face and was holding the number tightly. 

“I’ll see when I am free and we can hang out,” She said, “That sound good with you?” 

Tate nodded, “Yeah! I mean…that sounds great.” 

She giggled and hit his hat so it titled up and let his usual bangs fall over his eyes.