#but a SECOND question??? gosh golly gee wilikers im blushin

[cartoonsareeverything]

Hello. I recently saw a post from hellmandraws with your character Grace. This isn't the first time I've seen her and I'm very interested in what she is to the Stans ?

hey anon!!! idk if its the same anon who asked about grace before, but nonetheless! time to ramble wooo!! this got rly long, so im putting it all under the cut

grace had become a very close friend to the stans. she only got transferred in their junior year, so she didn’t spend her whole time at glass shard high. junior year was when she met them, and while they only had that year to get to know each other, it was senior year when they got really close. when high school sucks, you gotta stick together

they’ve seen each other pass by in the halls, but they properly first met one night at the beach. when both parties are big mystery fans, you tend to end up exploring the same crime scenes and cryptid sightings. except you think the other party is the cryptid in question so you need to keep your distance and dont let them see you. 

the twins and grace try to trip each other up, thinking the other is the cryptid at large. grace wins this fight by setting up a trap for the cryptid to fall into, but she got the twins instead. this leads to a whole lot of confusion and bickering 

grace: YOURE the ones who have been following me this whole time??

stan: following you??? no?? you were the one following US!!

grace: IM ACTUALLY trying to capture a cryptid!! 

ford: you made a pretty flimsy trap for a cryptid i mean come on what self respecting cryptid would be attracted to a lamp tied to a half-baked attempt at a metal detector

grace: says the ones who fell into it in the first place 

ford: YEAH WELL WERE CLEARLY NOT CRYPTIDS ARE WE

grace: YET YOU STILL FELL INTO THE TRAP

the real cryptid jumps out at this point, so the trio has no choice but to work together in dealing with the creature. they start to bond once they realise what they all had in common, and here is when grace realises how much fun she was having with them. 

so she asks if they could hang out more. 

the twins, startled that someone is asking to hang out with them instead of running away or turning their back on them or teasing them or

“YES” stan replies quickly enough for the both of them, because they both do know gaining a new friend, someone who isnt fazed by ford weirdness or stans rep of being the dumb twin, is not smth to turn away from 

it takes some time for the twins to warm up to her tho,,,thinking at one point shes just going to stab them in the back. its safe to say that shes amongst one of the popular kids at school, always befriending as many people as possible (that must be exhausting to remember all those birthdays.) so why was she spending time with the pines twins?? crampelters no. 1 target? for all stan and ford knows (due to their past experience with their peers) grace could somehow betray them and throw them to the cool kids to pick em apart like vultures at dead carcasses. besides, we’ve always had each other sixer, so why should things change now?

but grace stays. she still hugs them when she sees them, still places study notes in stans locker, still helps patching up fords hands and face, still brings them diet pitt packs whenever theyre working on their boat, still visits them on weekends, still invites them to play rehearsals, parties, performances, still listens to them on good days and bad days

she still turns her head and speaks up whenever she hears someone bad mouthing the twins, because after hearing their stories of after school confrontations, ignorant teachers, salty tears, broken glasses and bones and wounds that can’t heal with bandages, the last thing grace ever wants to do is let history repeat itself. im not gonna stand by and let them do this to you. she promises never again.

but she can only do so much and thats something that frustrates her to no end

in general, she wants to be the perfect friend so when she goes too far with smth and fucks up she panics. she can get too far in her own head, so sometimes the twins need to bring her back down to earth and remind her of who she is. stan, ford and grace become each others anchor. keeping each other afloat and steady in this sea of societal expectations, self worth/identity issues and the unknown....and the occasional monster of the week

aaaand thats basically their relationship!! thank you sm for the question! theres plenty more details and other layers to graces character and her friendship with the twins, since the first half of this post explains how they met, but this pretty much serves as an intro to all that jazz.