Chapter 1 : Welcome to Gravity Falls

Tori looked down at the piece of paper in her hands, with a confused look on her face. She looked up at Cat in confusion.

"What is this"

Cat looked at her blankly, as if she'd just asked her what colour the piece of paper was.

"It's a bus ticket" she said simply.

"Yeah" Tori said "but why?"

"Well" Cat began "my parents said that they were sending me to live with my Great Uncle Stan for few weeks whilst the house gets fumigated"

"Wait, your house is getting fumigated?" Tori said in surprise "Again?!"

"Yep" Cat continued "Anyway, they said I was allowed to take four of my friends with me if they wanted to go"

"Where does your Great Uncle live anyway?"

"Oh" Cat said "In Oregon. In a town called Gravity Falls"

"Hmm, Gravity Falls" Tori said "Says it like it is" She thought for a second "So who else is going?"

"Well, me obviously" Cat giggled "also Jade, Andre and Robbie all said they'd like to go, for totally different reasons."

"Ok, so why did they want to go?"

"Jade liked the thought of the dark forests around the town, so she could, well..." Cat trailed off, obviously not wanting to say what Jade wanted to do, but Tori got the feeling it was something along the lines of stalking people. "Andre wanted to go so he could meet new people" Cat continued, trying not to think about what Jade would be doing "And Robbie wanted to find out more about the local legends"

"Local Legends?" Tori raised an eyebrow

"Yeah" Cat giggled for no apparent reason "They're not real though, they're just pretty cool"

Tori thought through everything Cat had told her and came to a decision.

"Alright, I'll go, but only because I have nothing else to do these next few weeks"

...

"Vega, wake up!"

Tori awoke with a start to find Jade looking at her with her usual scowl.

"What?" Tori murmured grumpily as she sat up from her bus seat.

"We're almost at Gravity Falls" Jade continued to scowl at her "And get off my arm!"

Tori shot up immediately, so she didn't end up being punched by Jade. She looked out of the window.

The vast cityscape that had been by the side of the road when she had nodded off was no more, and had been replaced by a thick wall of tall, red pine trees, that seemed to go on forever in every direction. Tori couldn't see very far into the trees, and after what Cat said about legends, she didn't really want to. She was a city girl, she would probably go and get herself lost, like that time her parents had taken her camping.

"Hey Tori, over here!" Andre called over from his seat on the opposite side of the bus "Come and look at this" Tori hopped past Jade and glanced out of the window, what she saw wasn't what she expecting.

What she had been expecting was a bunch of old wooden huts and some dirt tracks. What she saw was completely different. The town had buildings of many shapes and sizes, and one could sense that there was an aura of importance over the entire place, as if many great things had happened here. It didn't look it though.

"So which one of these buildings does you Great Uncle live in" Robbie asked politely.

"Dude, she said that already, you weren't paying attention"

"Rex!"

"What? She did, the old guy doesn't live in town, he lives in some old museum dump"

"Don't call his house a dump, it's cool." Cat smiled "Especially since my cousins will be there this time"

"Your cousins?" Andre said inquisitively.

"Yeah, Dipper and Mabel." Cat said excitedly "They're younger than us, but they're pretty cool. I get on well with Mabel"

"Well if she's anything like you Cat, I bet I can-"

"Shut it Rex"

"Come on Robbie, be cool"

"How can I be cool when you keep insulting everyone"

"I don't insult everyone, only people I don't like" Rex retorted.

Cat glared at Rex "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I don't like you"

"Why Not?"

"I just don't, deal with it" Robbie resisted the urge to throw Rex out of the window, knowing he would probably regret it later.

As the bus reached the edge of town it suddenly turned off the road and down a dirt track that twisted and turned deep into the forest.

Tori thought the track wouldn't end, but soon realised that her fear of getting lost was getting the better of her, and the track was only a few hundred metres long.

Pretty soon, the bus pulled into a clearing, and their names were called by the driver.

"Well" Andre said "Here we are"

They all tiredly trudged off the bus and stepped out into the clearing.

The building in the middle of the clearing was larger than Tori had expected, it had a high pointed roof, and a large sign across the side, MYSTERY SHACK (Though the S appeared to have fallen off and was lieing on the roof). Tori assumed that was the name of the museum.

Cat was the only one of them who had been here before, so she walked up to the front door of the house without hesitating, and was about to knock when she noticed the note on the door.

Cat,

I had to go out to track down your cousins (again). I won't be out long so I haven't locked the door. Let yourself in, and if I find out that you or any of your friends have stolen anything from the store, your dead to me.

Grunkle Stan.

P.S – The staff are out today, so you'll have to find your own way around the place.

"Grunkle?" Robbie said "Is that, like Great Uncle or something?"

"Yep" Cat said and just walked into the house.

...

"What were you two doing anyway"

"We were fighting an army of gnomes"

"Seriously Mabel, that excuse again?" Stan shook his head "Look, if you wanted some time off, you could've asked me. And I would've said no. But that's not the point" Stan turned his car off the road and onto the dirt track that lead up to his establishment.

Dipper had tuned out completely, since they got this talk every time they left during work hours. Instead of paying attention, he was thinking about his cousin, Cat. He couldn't wait for her to arrive, since it had been a while since they had last seen her. He just hoped that her friends weren't anything like Wendy's. He really didn't need more people to avoid.

"Well what do you know" Stan pointed straight ahead towards the shack "Looks like Cat's arrived already"

Dipper pressed his nose against the window. Sure enough, Dipper could see people moving around behind the windows.

"This is awesome!" Dipper jumped about an inch off his seat in surprise, it was physically impossible for anyone to make a noise like that, but somehow Mabel managed it "I haven't seen Cat in forever, and she really cool and-"

"Well if you like her that much, why don't you share the room with her!" Stan yelled over Mabel "I'm sure Dipper doesn't mind, right Dipper?"

"Well, I-"

"Then it's settled, Cat sleeps in Dipper's bed, Dipper sleeps somewhere else"

"But-"

"No buts Dipper, your sleeping in with Soos" Stan declared.

"Soos?"

"Yeah, he's working the 6am shift"

Dipper raised an eyebrow "There isn't a 6am shift"

Stan laughed "He knows that, but he's got some sort of big idea that he wants to try. Anyway, he has to be up really early, so he insisted on staying overnight for the next week or so"

"I see" Dipper said "So Soos insisted"

"Yeah" Stan said "He did"

As they walked up to the door, a sudden thought hit Dipper. Where was he going to hide the book. He couldn't keep it in his room, since he wasn't sleeping there. And if he kept it with him whilst he was sleeping, that would look weird. He would have to think of something quickly, then go up to his room and find the book before anyone else went in there.

"Hey Cat, how are ya" Dipper looked up to see Cat hugging Grunkle Stan. She looked pretty much the same as she always had, only older, and her hair now appeared to be Red.

"Hey Cat, over here" Cat looked around to see Mabel jumping up and down to get her attention.

"Mabel, how are you, I love your sweater"

"I made it myself"

"Cool" Cat turned to say hello to Dipper.

"Hi Dipper"

"Hi Cat, nice to see you, did you do something with your hair, got to go do something now, bye" Dipper turned and shot through the employees only door of the gift shop.

"Well" Tori turned to look at Stan "He seems nice"

"Sorry about him folks" the old man smiled "He's been obsessed with that book recently, both of them have in fact" he jerked a thumb in Mabel's direction.

"Yeah, I should probably go and see if he's ok" Mabel followed Dipper.

"No that's not what I- Never Mind" Stan turned to find everyone looking at him "Now can I interest any of you in any of my merchandise" he rapidly changed the subject.

"Um sir" Robbie asked "What was that you said about a boo-"

"Bobble heads, Shirts, you name it, but ya gotta pay for it"

"Grunkle Stan" Cat spoke up "I think Robbie asked you a ques-"

"How about a tour of the museum" Stan interrupted again "By the way, you have to pay for that as well"

"Dude, just tell us about the book"

"Did that puppet just talk" Stan's eyes widened.

"Who are you calling a puppet"

"I, uh. Fine! You forced my hand" Stan blurted out "Look, Dipper and Mabel are here for the summer, as you know. Early on Dipper found that book. I don't know where he got it. But it gives me the creeps and both of them deny that it exists" he relaxing a bit, now that he had got that off his chest after all those weeks of silence.

"You know" Jade said after a long silence "I'd like to take a look at this book, it sounds like my kind of thing"

"Good Luck" Stan mumbled "Dipper has it with him nearly all the time. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an obsession"