Friday, August 30, 2013. 3:05 PM. Piedmont, California.
Dipper Pines is on his way back to his house, having just dropped a few invitations to his and Mabel's 14th birthday party off at some classmates or family friends' homes. This birthday is going to significant, as just a few days after, it would be the twins' first day of high school – another major transition in their lives.
The soon-to-be-freshman boy in a lumberjack fur hat started humming to himself, hands in his vest's pocket, as someone else approached him.
"Well, well, look who we have here," the boy several inches taller than Dipper greeted.
"Hey George," Dipper groaned, not eager to see one of his childhood bullies again.
"Heard you and your sister are going to have a party. How come I wasn't invited?"
"I think it's quite obvious," Dipper responded.
Dipper started to walk around George. However, George snagged Dipper's fur hat off of his head.
"Hey! What gives, George?" Dipper exclaimed, trying to grab Wendy's signature headwear back. "What's with you and stealing my hat?"
"Ah, just like old times," George simply smirked, as Dipper fruitlessly tried to take back the hat held higher than he could jump. "You still haven't hit your growth spurt yet. Just the same old, puny Dipstick, helpless to get the one thing to protect your deformity back. Man, I could already feel the nostalgia. Haven't done this since the fifth grade."
"George, I'd really appreciate it if you don't bring up my birthmark," Dipper remarked. "And would you please be so kind as to give me back my hat?"
"Why? The only reason why you even wear a hat in the first place is to cover up that embarrassing scar on your forehead," George mocked. "Come on, you can find this in any department store. It's not like it has any sentimental value or anything."
"As a matter of fact, it does. It was given to me from someone very special. And…," Dipper continued grunting as he tried to jump higher. "I would…really…ugh…like it back!"
George, with his other hand, shoved Dipper down as if dribbling a basketball. Dipper's bottom landed onto the sidewalk with a thud. George bent down, still keeping the fur hat out of Dipper's reach.
"You poor, poor thing," George taunted. He lifted the hair covering Dipper's forehead, revealing the Big Dipper birthmark. "Heh, looks worse than the last time I saw it."
"Hey! Respect my personal space, will you?" Dipper slapped George's hand away from his head. "So I have a weird-looking birthmark in the shape of a constellation. Is that really grounds for you to keep bullying me?"
"I don't know," George shrugged. "It's just so…out of the ordinary. And it really matches your personality."
Dipper brushed himself as he got back onto his feet. "Seriously, we are entering high school soon. Can you at least try to act a little more mature? You should have long outgrown making fun of those who aren't so-called 'normal.'"
"Ha! 'Normal!' You said it yourself this time!" George exclaimed. "So you finally admit that you aren't normal? Your interests, your looks, your character traits - and nothing implies that everything about you is weird more than that depressing injury on your head."
"Shut up! Give my hat back right now, or…"
"Or else what? Man, that threat never gets old," George huffed as he effortlessly hurled Dipper's hat onto the lawn of the adjacent house. The fur hat landed just outside a dog house, where a vicious-looking canine with a spiked collar is snoozing. Dipper only sighed.
"Well, happy birthday, birthday freak!" George bid sarcastically as he continued on his way. "Oh, and I wouldn't be surprised if no one showed up to your party. I mean come on, no one even likes you! Let alone think your birthday is a day worth celebrating. Ha-ha!"
Dipper made a defeated groan as he watched his tormentor sulk away. He then looked into the gated lawn of the house belonging to a grouchy old man who hates teenagers with an equally-grouchy dog who likes teenagers (as chew toys, anyways).
"Okay, Dipper. You got this," Dipper said to himself. He took a deep breath, and climbed over the wooden fence. As quietly as he could, he inched his way across the brown, crunchy grass dried up by the summer drought towards the dog house.
All right…here we go…Dipper gently bent down and picked up his hat, careful not to disturb the menacing dog making loud grumbling sounds with every snore. He placed it snugly over his hair and proceeded to make his way back towards the lawn entrance.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY LAWN?!" A voice suddenly came out. Dipper froze in his tracks, realizing he has been caught by the old man.
The dog immediately woke up to its master's call. It laid eyes on Dipper, and made a deep growl, saliva dripping from its bared teeth.
"GAAHHH!" Dipper shouted as he sped up towards the fence. The dog barked loudly and went after the lanky teenager. Dipper barely got over the fence as the dog rammed into the gate and clawed at the wood.
"Next time I see one of you pesky teens around by my house, I'm calling the police on charges of trespassing!" the old man's voice came out again.
Dipper panted as he straightened himself up. He look towards the front of the house, the owner on the porch with a deeply irritated face and holding a broom as if ready to charge forward and swipe at him.
The old man's dog made another loud bark, prompting Dipper to finally run away.
3:30 PM.
Dipper is back in his room, feeling down as he usually does after getting picked on by one of many bullies from his elementary and middle school years. And he's still got to attend four more years of class with those same people. They just never change, do they?
The boy is sitting on his bed, staring off into space. He then picked up his smartphone, and stared at his reflection in the blank screen. He took off his hat and pulled up the hair covering his forehead. He looked intensely at the birthmark printed on his skin, reversed in the mirror image.
Dipper let out a sigh. The birthmark looks so…realistic. Like a literal copy of the actual Big Dipper constellation. It appears so much like the real thing…it's almost unnatural. No wonder people make fun of him for that. It's so real it's unsettling. And somehow the feeling gets generalized to Dipper's person as a whole.
Though, to be honest, he is kind of weird anyways. It's something that he has always been like since he could remember. Dipper rarely hung out with the other kids, and often spent his time doing his own thing. When people do interact with him, it's usually because they want to make fun of him or brutalize him. He knows more math and physics than kids his age normally would, and on top of his nerdy, book-loving nature who "kisses up" to teachers, there is his blatant birthmark, right on top of his face, where anyone could see. There is a reason why Dipper grew out his hair in the way he did, it's so people who first notice him won't see the obvious thing on his head.
Dipper let out a huge sigh. "Why can't I just be normal?" Dipper mumbled to himself. "Does my birthmark really make me special? What does special even mean in this case? Is it even a good thing?"
Friday, March 26, 2010. Morning recess. Eggbert Elementary School, Piedmont, California.
It is a cool spring day. The kids are frolicking around on the blacktop and the nearby playground. All of them are with at least one other person or friend.
Meanwhile, a ten-year-old Dipper Pines is sitting on the top of the stairs leading into the main entrance of the school building, reading a book he checked out from the library earlier that week. Unlike the other kids playing outside, the fifth-grader is alone, completely absorbed in his book. Usually he would be with Mabel, but the girl has to stay behind in the classroom to clean up a glitter "accident." However, it shouldn't take more than five minutes, and Mabel should be out soon for the remainder of the recess period.
Unfortunately for the boy, he keeps forgetting that outside is where most of the bullies tend to hang out. And indeed, one of them approached the unsuspecting loner at the stairwell under the shade.
"What'cha reading there, Dipstick?" the buff bully started his routine.
Dipper put down his book and looked up at his peer. Despite the two of them being the same age and in the same grade, George is almost a head taller than Dipper and looks as if he had been held back from middle school instead.
"Oh, uh…just an interesting book. To, you know, feed my brain or something, as they say," Dipper said nervously as he got up and prepared to walk back into the school building.
However, with agile speed, George snatched Dipper's lucky brown cap, much to Dipper's dismay.
"Hey! Not again!" the boy squeaked.
"Ha! There it is!" George pointed out the birthmark on Dipper's forehead. Though still partially covered by hair, it is now more obvious now that the cap is gone.
"No! Please! Don't point that out!" Dipper pleaded. "And give back my hat!"
"Try and catch me, sucker!" George waved the hat over his head and took off. Dipper immediately took chase after him, but being the wimp that he is, is unable to keep up and got worn out very quickly after a few circles around the blacktop.
"Still slow and fragile, aren't you, huh?" George mocked several feet away from the painting boy. Dipper squatted down as he took deep breaths and tried to regain his energy.
George walked back towards his noodle-armed victim. "You're such a freak, did you know that?" George reiterated for the nth time. "Without your precious hat to protect you, you're just an outcast, a nobody, with that ugly scar on your head."
"George, please, I beg you…," Dipper looked up at George.
"Aw, are you going to cry now?" George continued teasing. "Classic weak and wimpy Dipstick. Time to become a man, dude! Oh, wait…you'll never be one. What with your birthmark and your weird personality and everything. You do nothing but read, show off your skills in math and science class, kiss up to the teachers' butts, and actively try to hunt down ghosts and UFOs and junk…who even does the kinds of things you do? And not to mention, you're annoying, sensitive, a crybaby, short, weak, have no muscles, and your arms and legs are so much like noodles you can't even lift a basketball. And the cherry on top: you have that crazy-looking birthmark above your eyebrows. No wonder one likes you!"
George burst out laughing. A few others nearby looked over and started giggling and pointing fingers at Dipper as well. Dipper only titled his head down towards the ground, trying to keep his tears from spilling in front of everyone else around him on the blacktop.
Friday, August 30, 2013. 3:35 PM.
"Hey Dipper, is everything alright?"
Dipper snapped out of his internal reflection and turned around to see his sister at his bedroom door.
"You sure you aren't going to help out preparing for the party tomorrow?" Mabel asked. "Come on, it's for the both of us. And don't you like planning our birthday parties?"
"I do. But right now…I just want some alone time. I promise I'll be down there soon," Dipper responded.
"Are you sure? You came home and went straight up to your room without saying anything. Did anything happen when you were out dropping off invitations?"
Dipper only let out a deep sigh. Mabel walked towards her brother's bed and climbed on next to him.
"Dipper? What happened?"
"The normal thing happened," Dipper mumbled.
"What normal thing?"
"Well…George Rizzo happened. I ran into him, and as usual, he picked my hat off of my head and started making fun of my birthmark…and everything else about me."
"George hasn't picked on you since fifth grade. And since when did people started making fun of your birthmark again?"
"It's not a matter of 'again,'" Dipper sighed. "People have always hated my birthmark. And me in general. Oftentimes my birthmark and my whole person aren't differentiated."
"Dipper…you're not going through this again, are you?" Mabel grew more concerned.
Dipper pulled his legs closer to him and hugged his knees. He let out another deep, saddening sigh.
"Mabel, what exactly does it mean to be 'special'?" Dipper asked his twin. "Mom and dad, and some of our teachers…whenever I have expressed my self-doubt issues regarding my birthmark, they just say that it makes me 'special.' But what exactly does that word mean? Do you think maybe they are just sugarcoating? Perhaps maybe the right word to describe me is 'different'…yes, 'different.' Or maybe 'abnormal.' Yeah, that's more like it."
"Dipper, you know very well that's not how mom and dad view you. When they say you are 'special,' they really mean it," Mabel stressed. "And yes, your birthmark does make you 'special.' No one else has it. It makes you one of a kind. That's why you are special."
"Yeah, it may make me stand out, but not in a good sense," Dipper continued to put himself down. "The birthmark does indeed make me different. And it's because of this difference which is why people make fun of me. Heck, they even attribute my weird interests and quirks to my birthmark."
"Dipper, please don't go down this path again," Mabel pleaded. She huddled closer to Dipper and put her arm around her brother. "You already hated yourself enough when we were younger and just started school. It took you a long time before you finally accepted yourself and your birthmark. And I really don't want you to return to that phase. It was horrible. You were only five, six, seven years old and were all full of angst like teens. And we weren't even teens then!"
"I know. When people did say I was 'special' because of my birthmark…I took it as a compliment. That maybe my birthmark isn't as bad as I thought."
"And it isn't, Dipper, it isn't."
"Well, looking back, and based on what just happened between George and I not too long ago…I can't help but wonder, what does 'special' really mean? Of course mom and dad love me, and they would never say anything bad about me. But at the same time, what are they actually referring to when they say I'm 'special'? Were they just saying that to make me feel better about myself?"
"Hey," Mabel lifted Dipper's chin. The soon-to-be high schooler looked into his sister's eyes.
"I can't say absolutely what mom and dad mean when they say you are 'special,' but I can say what the word means to me," Mabel proceeded. "You are special because you are unique, unlike anyone else. No one else has a birthmark like you. And because it's nothing like anyone has ever seen before, it should be a sign that you are meant to do things that no one else would expect from someone who is, well 'normal.' And you've indeed done some amazing things. From kicking monsters' butts back in Gravity Falls to caring about your family…you've done it all. Dipper, you are brave, smart, helpful, loving, and while not strong physically, strong by heart."
Dipper smiled slightly. He has heard those words before, but it never gets old, especially coming from his sister, who means everything she says.
"Dipper, your birthmark represents what makes you, you," Mabel reiterated. "I love your birthmark. It's your most special, most remarkable feature…and everything about you, flaws and all, I love with all my heart. You are my brother, my twin, my best friend for all time, Dipper. No one else can ever come close to who you truly are. You are my Dipper, and I would never want to trade you, any of your traits, or your birthmark for anything."
Mabel wrapped her arms around Dipper and pulled him closely to her. "I hope that answers your question on what being 'special' means. At least, how you are special to me," Mabel whispered.
"Yes, Mabel. It did answer my question. Thank you so much."
"Anytime bro-bro," Mabel smiled. "I love you, Dipper."
"I love you too, Mabel," Dipper said returning the embrace.
The two continued hugging for a couple minutes. The two detached from each other, and smiled.
"You are special in a good way, Dipper. Special to me," Mabel repeated. "And please don't ever let anyone let you down because of your birthmark ever again. To others, it might be weird or freaky, but to me, it is anything but. It's my beloved brother's signature feature. It's what makes him the Dipper I know and love. Promise me you won't let your birthmark put you down, but rather, let you think more highly of yourself?"
"I promise, Mabel, I promise. Because of what it means to you."
Mabel smiled at her brother. She then proceeded to remove the lumberjack hat from Dipper's head. She brushed aside the hair covering her twin's forehead, revealing the birthmark. She sat up slightly and warmly kissed the marking. Dipper chuckled slightly at the affection.
"Feeling better?" Mabel asked.
"Much better," Dipper picked up his fur hat and put it back on top of his head.
"Come on, bro-bro. We've got some party planning to do," Mabel jumped off Dipper's bed. "It has to be a blast. Not only have we been teens for a year, but we're entering high school as well! And this girl is no longer worried or scared. Thanks to you, Dip."
"Well, we both got each other," Dipper grinned as he leaped off his bed. "And that will be the case through thick and thin to the end of time."
"Mystery twins?" Mabel held up her fist.
"Mystery twins," Dipper returned their signature fist-bump.
"Now hurry along, it's time to bring out the party cannon. We're going to raise this roof beyond the heavens!" Mabel exclaimed. "More glitter and industrial sprinklers are needed! More I say!"
"Way ahead of you, sis."
The twins shared a laugh, and headed downstairs together to continue preparing their epic birthday party for the following day.
Friday, March 26, 2010. Morning recess.
George continued laughing over a dejected Dipper. The boy being bullied can't help but allow some of his tears to slip out from his shut eyelids.
"Hey! Just what do you think you're doing?"
Both George and Dipper looked to their side to see a stern, frowning Mabel standing not too far away.
"Yeah, I'm talking to you, big guy!" Mabel continued. "Leave my brother alone!"
"Oh great, here comes the 'defense,'" George said in a sarcastic tone. "Well, come to think of it…" George looked back down towards Dipper. "You're always so reliant on your sister, constantly needing her for so-called 'back-up' whenever I come around to 'bug' you or whatever. I guess that goes to show what a further wimp and loser you are. Imagine if you don't have her. I probably would have been more triumphant each time. Well, it's not going to work this time. No matter what your precious sister does, I am not…"
George suddenly received a swift, full fist on his cheek, and the dazzled giant fell to the ground. Mabel towered over him.
"You're not what? Guess I can still stop you after all," Mabel smirked, folding her arms.
George rubbed his bruised cheek and looked up at the girl who just took him down with a single hit.
"You won't win this one so easy this time!" George tried to sound strong, but the pain on his cheek only made him wince.
"There's more where that came from," Mabel wrapped her hand into a fist again. "I've never resorted to violence before. But you've picked on my brother for far too long, and boy, did that punch felt good. Maybe now you won't mess with him again!"
George made a low growling sound. He got up to his feet, still rubbing his cheek. He glanced down at Dipper, then at Mabel, and walked away, accepting defeat.
Mabel extended her hand towards her brother and helped him up. A smile is now on the boy's face.
"Thank you, Mabel, for standing up to me," Dipper said. "If only I had the guts to stand up for myself." He then let out a sigh.
"Hey, it's okay, Dip-dot. I'm always here for you," Mabel reassured. "No need to feel bad. I've helped you out many times before, I won't hesitate to help you out again. It's what twins do." Mabel made a big grin.
"Yeah. What twins do," Dipper's smile re-emerged on his face.
Mabel picked up Dipper's hat from the blacktop, George having dropped it when he got socked next to his nose.
"I believe this belongs to you," Mabel smirked, handing the lucky cap to Dipper.
Dipper took the cap from his sister's hands. However, before he was able to put it back on, Mabel lifted the hair covering his forehead and gave him a small but soft kiss right on his birthmark.
"Never let anyone make fun of you because of your birthmark," Mabel reminded. "Remember, it makes you special. Special in a good way. And special to me."
Dipper's smile grew wider. He put his cap back on top of his head, and wrapped his sister in a big, grateful hug. Mabel returned the embrace.
"I love you, Dipper," Mabel whispered.
"I love you too, Mabel," Dipper responded back.
The twins continued hugging each other, absorbing each other's presence and warmth, for several more minutes, up until the end of the recess period.
Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsch and produced by Disney Television Animation. All characters and related media belong to Disney.