Exchanged Student

(Not part of my normal continuity and written for the Wendip Week 2018 prompt "School")

It was January of 2015, and the first day of school after the Christmas break. Wendy Corduroy, Vice-President of the Senior Class, showed up sleepy and resigned to another five months of school before—freedom!

The other members of her class were already buzzing with plans for college. Wendy, not so much. During the summers, she and Dipper had talked about going to college together somewhere, but he'd been accepted at a prestigious technical institution in California, and she had not yet applied, mostly because she was positive she couldn't hack it.

But maybe there was another college nearby. She cursed her habitual laziness. Really have to get on the stick this month, find those schools, put in her application. Maybe tomorrow.

Everything went fine until first-period Senior English. She walked into the classroom, dropped her books on her desk, and dropped her jaw to the floor. Well, not really, but it felt like that. She slipped into her seat and said, "Dude! What are you doing here?"

Dipper Pines smiled at her from the next desk. "Hi, Wendy! I guess this is a surprise, huh? I transferred up from my normal school to finish up the year here with you."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Wendy asked. She couldn't help laughing. "Oh, man, this is such a—did Mabel come, too?"

"Mabel?" Dipper asked. "Uh, no. she wanted to finish the year at, you know, our school."

"Oh?" For some reason that bothered Wendy. Where Dipper went, Mabel was sure to follow. "Did something—"

"Settle down," the teacher said. "Welcome back from break, and I hope you haven't forgotten everything we learned up until December! We've got a new student with us, and I think many of you know him already—Dipper Pines. You're in Timmy Abbott's seat, Dipper. He will be in soon—the next five minutes, unless he's changed his tardy habits. We've got a seating chart, and you will be on the last seat in the second row over from where you are now. Go ahead and move."

He picked up his stuff and mouthed, "See you later" as he made his way to back-room banishment.

Wendy seemed to prove the teacher right in suspecting that she—and the others—had forgotten everything, though in fact she was only puzzled by Dipper's showing up in Gravity Falls. It wasn't like him just to pop up like that—he always had, and stuck to, a plan, no matter what.

He wasn't in her next class, but Tambry was, and Wendy grabbed some time to talk to her.

"You're kidding," Tambry said. "He came, like, up from Oakland or wherever to go to school here? What, is he insane?"

"I know, right?" Wendy said. "He's all about getting into a high-ranking college, and his high school has to be ranked ahead of ours. I can't figure it."

"Girl, he's still got a crush on you," Tambry said, grinning.

"Well—that wouldn't be so bad, considering the crappy guys you have to choose from around here. I'm not including Robbie, by the way."

"Yeah, thanks. It's not like I ever see him unless we're on stage together. Lucky I learned piano, huh?"

And then they had to concentrate on math for a while.

At lunch time, she spotted Dipper in the cafeteria and went to sit with him. "So fill me in!" she said. "What are you and Mabes up to this winter? Man, I wish you could've come up over the break! There was a crisis, man! Power went down all over Gravity Falls for the last three days. I was hoping it'd stay off today, delay school, but it came back late last night. Nobody knows what happened. I bet you could've tracked it down."

"Oh, sure I could," Dipper said.

Wendy waited. Then she said, "Well, what about it? You and Mabes?"

He shrugged. "Same thing we always do, you know. Nothing has changed much."

She squinted. "Have you like shrunk? I swear you were lots taller last summer!"

"Just slouching." He straightened in his seat and did seem to grow to the height she remembered—these days almost equal to hers. "The bench is uncomfortable. You're looking good."

"Thanks," she said. "What are you shaving with? Your skin's so smooth!"

"Just the regular stuff," he said. "I don't have bumps like a lot of these guys, that's all."

It was true. His skin was clear of acne—as smooth as it had been the first year she'd met him. "Wanna hang after school?" she asked.

"Oh, sure."

"I guess you're staying in the Shack, huh?" Wendy asked.

"Staying where I always stay," he agreed.

They talked a little more, but Wendy's uneasiness steadily grew. When she got a chance between her next-to-last and last class, Wendy called the Shack. Ford answered, mildly surprising her. "Hi," she said. "Wendy here. Listen, Dr. P, why didn't anyone tell me that Dipper was coming back to Gravity Falls?"

"He is?" Ford asked, sounding completely flummoxed. "When?"

"He's here in school," Wendy said. "He's got some junior classes, some senior ones, I guess. He just turned up this morning."

"Let . . . me do some checking. What time is school out?"

"Three-thirty."

"All right, nearly another hour. That should give me time."

She hunted around after her last class to find Dipper—not terribly hard, because the student body wasn't that numerous. "Hey, Dip!" she said, bundling herself in her heaviest coat—it was like fifteen degrees out—and carrying her backpack by the strap. "Wanna ride home? I got my car in the lot."

"That's great," he said. He headed for the door.

"Whoa, dude!" Wendy said. "Aren't you forgetting something? Where's your coat?"

"My coat? Oh, I did forget," Dipper said.

"In your locker, I guess?" Wendy asked.

"In my locker. Yes."

"Better go get it. You don't' want to freeze solid."

"I'll be right back."

He walked off, but didn't head toward the hall with the lockers. Instead, he turned toward the boys' room and came back in a minute wearing a heavy jacket identical to hers. "Nice style choice," she said.

"Thanks."

The eager seniors had already mostly cleared out the parking lot. Wendy said, "Let me toss this in the trunk and then I'll unlock the car for you."

The bitter breeze chilled her as she unlocked and opened the trunk. "Hey, Dip, come and help with this," she said.

"Help with what?"

He came around the corner of the car.

Wendy drew back her axe. "Did you escape from your tube during the blackout?" she snarled.

"What? Wendy, what do you mean—?"

"Freeze!" Ford's voice. He held that rifle-like thing he had toted during Weirdmageddon, not that it had helped, and he was aiming at Dipper.

"Yeah, Ford, it's the Shapeshifter!" Wendy yelled. "I figured it out!"

With a snarl, Dipper altered, became an identical copy of Wendy, down to the axe—

But Wendy was ready and swung first. The axe bit into the creature's throat, and green goo sprayed out. It staggered, wounded but not killed—you probably couldn't kill it with an axe.

A quantum destabilizer, though—that was something different, as Ford demonstrated.

All that it left of the Shapeshifter was a smoldering little patch on the pavement. "Thanks, man," Wendy said.

"You're welcome," Ford said.

"You want to check to make sure it's me?" she asked.

"No need. If that had been the real you, it wouldn't have disintegrated, but would have burst into a thousand bloody fragments."

"Whoa! Glad you didn't make the mistake!"

Ford shook his head. "In a way, I hated to do that. I was present when the Shapeshifter first hatched out. I tried to care for it, but—well, on its homeworld, it's an apex predator, and I should have suspected that." He sighed. "I kept meaning to destroy it, but it seemed harmless, frozen at minus fifty Celsius. Of course I should have anticipated an eventual power failure, but I have a bad habit of putting things off."

"Me, too, Dr. P," she admitted.

But the next Saturday, Dipper Pines—the real Dipper—heard the doorbell ring at about eleven and opened it to see—"Wendy!" He was so overjoyed that he not only hugged her, but kissed her.

"Slow down," she said, laughing. "Glad to see you too, Dip! How's Mabes?"

"Mabel? She's off at the mall this morning, probably be back for lunch You look so good!"

"Your mom and dad home?"

"Uh, no, grocery shopping day. They'll be back in an hour or so."

"Good," Wendy said, closing the door behind her. "You and me have some unfinished business, Dip. That's why I drove all the way down."

He swallowed hard. "I—think my dreams may be coming true," he croaked.

"Maybe. Let's go to your room, OK?"

"Uh, my, my uh, bed—bedroom?" he asked suavely.

"Yeah. You got a desk and a computer, right?"

"Right. Right, I have. Uh, why?"

She held up a sheaf of papers. "'Cause I got this college application to do, man! And I need your help with it."

The End