Chapter 1

I shifted my eyes around the wooded scenery silently. I still wasn't entirely sure why I'd agreed to this. Well, to be honest, I really hadn't. Thinking back on it, the only reason I was here was purely due to peer pressure. I had to admit that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but I was still horribly uncomfortable nonetheless.

It had been about a year since what I called Aggie's passing on. Mitch's boyfriend had moved to Oregon to go to a fancy university that I couldn't seem to remember the name of. The seasons rolled by one by one, though it didn't really seem like it in the forever fall town of Blithe Hollow, and soon summer was upon us. Mitch had been talking for weeks about going to spend the summer break with his boyfriend, and had dropped plenty of hints that he wouldn't mind company.

Neil had tugged my hand tightly in his and quivered his lower lip over his double chin. "PLEAAAAASE go with us?" he'd begged.

"Wha-Neil I. I-I dunno about..." I had stuttered involuntarily through a broken sentence, staring at his big, pleading eyes. I sighed heavily. "Yeah. Okay. I'll go with you." He immediately threw his arms around me, pulling me into a warm, squishy hug. I coughed and sputtered as Neil showered me with unfamiliar affection. Even after a year of being best friends, I still couldn't quite get used to it.

Neil noticed my distress and let me go, smiling sheepishly as if he'd just broken my fine china. "Oh sorry." he apologized softly. I brushed my jacket off, one hand squeezing my opposite arm nervously.

"Its okay Neil, thanks." I nodded my head, giving him a small smile. He perked up a little, his smile squishing his cheeks up and squinting his eyes ever so slightly.

"You'll have lots of fun I promise!" he said, waving his arms excitedly. "You know the town we're staying in? Its this weird place called Gravity Falls."

I lifted my head to meet Neil's gaze. Gravity Falls? I felt like I'd heard that name somewhere before. "What makes it weird...?" I asked hesitantly. Neil flashed me a toothy grin and leaned in.

"Theres all these spooky rumors about that place. Like magic and vampires and-" Neil glanced around to see if anyone was listening, which of course no one was, and turned back to me looking like a kid in a candy store (which admittedly he almost always looked like). "Ghosts!" he finally said.

"Sounds...interesting." I said nervously. Neil slapped me on the back encouragingly. I winced and fought the urge to cough.

"NORMAN." I gasped through my nose, my shoulders hunching, as a screech echoed through the neighborhood.

"Hey I think someone's calling you Norman." Neil said, looking around with great confusion. I sighed and nodded.

"Y-Yeah, I'll see you later Neil..." I said, waving goodbye to my friend and continuing on my walk home.


"And just WHERE were you?" Courtney questioned me as I rushed into the house. I stood for a few moments, panting.

"Talking. *huff* To Neil. *huff* He wants *huff* me to go with him *huff* and Mitch *huff* to visit Mitch's *huff* boyfriend." I swallowed as my feet scuttled out of my shoes. Courtney wrinkled her nose and flipped her hair. If I wasn't her brother I would have thought she was acting homophobic, but I knew she was really just a little sore from it. It seemed as though the more she got to know Mitch, the more she fell for him, despite knowing he was already taken before she even met him and by another guy no less. I didn't envy her.

"Oh." she said, sashaying into the kitchen. After catching my breath I followed her. "So what did you tell him?" she asked begrudgingly as she pulled out two glasses and poured both of us some orange juice. I scrambled up to the table and took a seat with her just as she sat down the glasses.

"I said I would go..." I answered, taking the glass in both hand and tilting it back to take a gulp. Courtney swished her juice around, her shoulders low. I put my glass down and wiped my mouth with my sleeve. "Did you want to...come with me?" I asked tentatively. Courtney blinked a few times, her eyes shooting up to meet mine.

"I don't know Norman." she said, her facial expression nearly impossible to read.

"I'm sure Mitch wouldn't mind. And I would actually..." I gulped, looking down at my hands and trying not to blush. "I would actually like you to go with me." I shivered, my lips tugging down into a frown. "It can get real scary. Especially away from home..."

"Oh Norman..." Courtney sighed sympathetically. "Yeah okay." she said. "I'll tell Mitch I'm coming with you. Someone's gotta take care of your dork butt." I looked up to find her smirking and holding out her glass. I smiled back, and raised my glass. A tiny clink echoed and we drank our juice.


Flying on an airplane itself was not the terrifying part of our journey to Gravity Falls, Oregon. It was the ghosts that liked to wander in and out of the airplane that scared the ever loving snot out of me. One moment everything was dandy, everyone living and breathing, and the next suddenly we've picked up five hillbilly hitchhikers with more missing fingers than I could count. Why in the world would ghosts linger so high in the sky?

Luckily none of them stuck around for long. It helped if I pretended not to notice them. Courtney also held my hand through the entire flight, for her comfort or for mine I'm not sure, but it helped even so.

Finally we were on the ground, safe and sound. We gathered our luggage and went to go meet Mitch's boyfriend so we could make the last leg of the journey.

"Oh, there he is!" Mitch smiled, tugging my sister along. The buff older male let Courtney go and immediately pulled his arms around what appeared to be his boyfriend. I had only seen him a few times, the most memorable being Neil's birthday party. The chubby boy was rocking on his heels, just as giddy as Mitch was. He loved seeing his brother happy.

"Ah I missed you so much!" Mitch hummed, nearly crushing his boyfriend. The man laughed brokenly, straining to hug Mitch back. Finally the ginger let his boyfriend go and turned to introduce him since we'd never formally met. "So this is my boyfriend Seth." he said, taking the man's hand. Mitch then cycled through our names and relations.

Seth was scrawny and looked nearly like a toothpick in comparison to Mitch's muscular body. His hair was black and straight, a pair of wire glasses sat on his nose. He was definitely some flavor of Asian, though I admittedly couldn't tell which. He smiled kindly.

"Its very nice to meet you." he said politely. We all returned the gesture and headed to Seth's car.

As I sat in the car on the drive to Seth's house, I began to notice an odd sensation. Something about being around Seth and Mitch made my stomach feel uncomfortable. I scrunched my eyebrows and watched the pine trees zip by. It was probably nothing.


The first three days stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. Neil and I were sharing a room, the living room, while Courtney was set up in the guest bedroom so she could have her privacy. We unpacked and got settled. Seth and I bonded over several indie horror films I had brought with me. He was actually a pretty cool guy.

On the fourth day, however, Mitch and Seth dragged Courtney with them to get groceries for the weekend. Of course Neil had promised that we would stay inside, and by that he meant that he was going to force me outside, down a couple streets, take two rights and a left, and get lost in the middle of nowhere.

I sighed loudly, disturbing the silence and several crows that cawed angrily. "Neil we're lost." I said, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Neil was silent for a moment, contemplating my theory, before nodding confidently.

"Yes I think you are right." he said, looking very determined.

"Ughhh..." I grumbled.

"Hey hey hey!" Neil said, pulling me to a stop. He stood there for a moment, just listening. "You hear that?" he whispered happily. I listened again, catching the tiniest sound of muffled voices. "Someone's nearby!" he shouted.

"W-Wait, wait!" I called after him as he rushed into a cluster of trees. "W-Wait Neil you shouldn't run off!" I ran and yet somehow this chubby boy could still run faster than my chicken legs.

He disappeared into the trees and I rushed in, following the echo of his voice and crunch of his footsteps on the forest floor.

"Heeeeey!" Neil shouted once again.

"Dipper, did you hear that?" A voice answered.

"Yeah..." A second voice answered skeptically.

"Heeeey we're lost!" Neil continued shouting. Finally I caught up with the larger boy, my chest heaving for oxygen.

"Neil!" I wheezed. He turned and smiled.

"Come on Norman!" he took my hand and walked us towards the mystery voices. My mind raced as I tried to catch my breath. At the very least I knew if Neil could hear those voices then they were more than likely not from the dead.

We came into a clearing to find two kids, a girl and a boy, about our age, walking our way.

"Heeeeey!" Neil shouted jovially. The boy winced slightly.

"Okay you can stop shouting now." he said nervously. The girl gasped loudly and pranced the rest of the way toward us.

"I've never seen you guys around here before!" she smiled, showing off her silver braces. Neil smiled back.

"And I've never seen you either!" he answered.

"What a coincidence!" she giggled.

"Maybe thats just because we don't live around here..." I said, but somehow I felt as if I could hear an echo. Looking up I could see the last word hanging on the boy's lips, we had spoken in unison. We both blushed and looked away. Neil and the girl both bit their lips and exchanged glances.

"Hi I'm Mabel! And this is my twin brother, Dipper." the girl said, sticking her hand out towards Neil. The boy took it and shook warmly.

"The name's Neil!" he returned heartily.

"So what's your name?" Mabel asked, looking at me with a twinkle of admiration in her big brown eyes. I shuffled nervously.

"N-Norman..." I answered softly. Dipper instantly tensed and Mabel looked slightly uncomfortable. I gulped. "W-What...?"

"I dunno...he looks too thin to be made of gnomes..." Dipper not-so-whispered to Mabel. I grimaced. What in the world was he talking about? Mabel slapped Dipper's hand.

"There's no way they'd try that again. Not after the leaf-blower!" she laughed and shook her head, only confusing me further.

"I'm sorry for whatever I did..." I said hopelessly.

"Nahhh Dipper is just being a fussy pants!" Mabel insisted. Dipper coughed, looking irritated.

"So you guys said you were lost?" he asked, but somehow Mabel and Neil were already lost deep in their own strange garble of a conversation. Dipper and I winced, then noticing our mirrored reactions, laughed nervously.

"Um so did I...do something wrong?" I asked, vaguely aware of the time as the sun began to lower itself towards the horizon. Dipper shook his head.

"No not you..." he narrowed his eyes. "Er, I'm sure its nothing." he shook his head once more. He seemed pretty conflicted about something.

I had a lot of questions to ask him, but as usual I couldn't seem to find the words. So we stood in silence, watching our emphatic partners in crime laugh over things like the consistency of pudding. It was kind of relaxing.

"You sure you're human?" Dipper asked casually, his eyes looking off into the distance as if he were just asking about the weather. I flinched.

"W-W-Why would you ask that?" I coughed. Dipper raised an eyebrow.

"The last guy I met named Norman. Uh. Well he wasn't very...normal." he explained. I gulped, taking a step back.

"A-Ah Neil we really need to be getting back." I stuttered, tearing my eyes away from Dipper's intrusive glare. "Courtney will kill us if she finds out we left." I chattered nervously, linking my arms around Neil's and tugging him back towards the trail we'd come from. Neil frowned.

"Yeah, you're right." he sighed. "I'll see you later Mabel!" he waved to the girl. She smiled her toothy, metal smile and nodded.

"Come to the mystery shack! We'll show you around!" she glanced at Dipper who was still glaring though a little less intensely. She glared right back and elbowed him in the ribs. "Won't we Dipper?"

"Yeah yeah." he grumbled, rubbing his side.

"Until next time!" Neil shouted as we ventured back towards Seth's house.

From that point until Neil could no longer see the twins, he waved and shouted bye back and forth with Mabel, like a couple that couldn't decide who would hang up the phone first.


Author's Notes

I started posting this one tumblr so I figured I'd post it here. I think this story should end up being about five chapters long and hopefully can have some fluffy one shot spin-offs as well? So enjoy and tell me what you think!

-AppleLove