A soft breeze carried the scent of cookies through the air, and the home filled with warmth as they baked in the old oven. Though it was a cold breeze, nothing on the planet could make their home feel cold when there were cookies to be eaten.
Their last year of high school was just settling in, and the fall weather chilled them accordingly, so having a break of warmth helped them relax and get into the fall holiday spirit.
"Hey!" Mabel, the now smaller twin exclaimed as Dipper, the taller twin stole a cookie off her plate. "You got your share of cookies, you can't just steal mine!"
Dipper took a bite of the cookie and smiled. "Looks like I just did," he laughed.
His sister's eyes went from playful anger to full-on puppy-eye mode as she pouted and crossed her arms.
He rolled his eyes and got up from the couch. He really did hate to see his sister be sad, whether it was playful or not, so he decided he would get her something to make up for the cookie he had eaten in two bites.
"Here," he said as he re-emerged from the kitchen. He handed her a fresh glass of milk to help her finish off her remaining cookies.
"Aw, thanks bro-bro. I knew you wouldn't leave me hanging."
He smiled and sat next to her on the couch. "Wanna play some games while you finish off your cookies?"
She nodded and swallowed the mouthful of cookie she had eaten while he spoke. "Yeah, but we have to go to bed soon. School tomorrow!" She wiggled around and shook the entire couch.
Mabel loved high school. She had plenty of friends, she was passing her classes with a little above average grades, and no one was ever mean to her, not once.
Dipper on the other hand, was far less thrilled about it. Sure, he had a few friends, and passing his classes was a breeze, but most people either treated him like he didn't exist, or were rude to him for no reason. He hated feeling like a loser when he was forced to do group work, and would end up sitting alone, since he and Mabel didn't share any classes.
They played a few rounds of a racing game, playfully nudging at each other's arms when one would blow up the other, or when one pulled ahead.
"Well, time to hit the hay! Gotta wake up early to help decide the decorations for the gym!" Mabel was a part of any club or group that had anything to do with decorating, and the school was having a huge fall dance, so she was very excited to run around the school with black and orange glitter and confetti.
"'Night sis," Dipper said as he stood up and stretched out his long arms. He had gone through quite the growth spurt, and already even had some facial hair.
They parted ways, as they no longer shared a room, and prepared themselves for bed.
When they moved further up north, Dipper took the smaller room, since he knew Mabel would need all the room she could get for all of her crazy art projects, and he knew since he didn't need to try and figure out crazy conspiracies anymore, he didn't need the room to be filled with books and papers.
He laid down on his soft, freshly cleaned, bed as soon as he was stripped down to his boxers, and fell asleep almost immediately.
A vivid image of trees filled his head, and for a moment, he could have sworn he was back by the Mystery Shack. He looked around, and realized it must've been a dream. Ever since his out of body experience, he could usually tell when he had entered the Mindscape.
He shrugged it off and wandered around the forest, ignoring the deafening silence around him. There was no wind, no birds or animals making any noise, and even his feet stepping on small branches and leaves didn't offer a crunch or snap.
"Oh, Pine tree!" a voice sang.
His heart skipped a beat and he suddenly woke up in a panic, flailing his arms around. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time. It was a voice he never wanted to hear again. He sat awake in his bed until sunrise, not wanting to chance falling asleep again.
"Come on Dipper, you've been in the bathroom for like, seven years, I need to do my hair!" Mabel pounded on the door, and Dipper rolled his tired eyes.
He was trying to make himself look presentable, seeing as the lack of sleep made him look like a zombie. And he would know what that looked like, since he had knocked a few of their heads off before.
The door swung open, and immediately Mabel noticed his appearance. "Geez, did you stay up all night reading again?" she chuckled.
"I had a bad dream," he mumbled.
Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown. "You're always welcome to come into my room you know."
Dipper nodded and ran a hand through his fluffy brown hair. "I'm fine."
Mabel watched as he slumped away, and concern washed over her face. He hadn't had a nightmare in a while, and she knew for him that they were never just a jump scare or something really weird. They were always intense, and back when they shared a room, he would sometimes wake up screaming.
Dipper ate his cereal quickly, just wanting to get to school. He was looking forward to that day at least, since a girl he was talking to shared a class with him, and he had a chance of being paired with her for their next group project.
Mabel sat opposite of him at the table, and downed her own bowl of cereal. "So, I hear your history class is doing group work today," she said in a sing-song voice.
"Yeah, and?" Dipper leaned back in the wooden chair and crossed his arms. His face grew hot from embarrassment, because he knew where she was going to go with this.
"And, I know that you share that class with Claire." She wiggled her eyebrows, but her good mood flattened when she was reminded why he was tired and in a bad mood. "You gonna ask her to the dance?"
Dipper let his head fall onto the back of the chair and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? I don't think she even really likes me like that."
Mabel snorted and leaned forward onto the table. "You'll never find out if you don't ask her."
An obvious blush crept onto his face and he shook his head. "Anyway, hurry or we'll be late."
The school was buzzing a little louder that day, and at first Dipper didn't notice, but Mabel noticed as soon as they got out of their shared, blue, four door sedan.
"Oh shoot, I totally forgot! There's a new kid today! I'm supposed to show him around before school!" Mabel nearly threw herself out of the car, and almost tripped when she closed the door.
"Hey, Mabel!" Dipper shouted after her, but she had already run to the front doors of the school. He shrugged and made his way to his locker to organize his text books for the day.
The first three classes flew by for the twins, neither experiencing anything other than the norm.
At lunch, they met up at their usual table, and Dipper rested his head on his hand, still exhausted from his sleepless night.
"Hey, listen Dip, I gotta go meet with some friends to help starting planning the dance junk. I can only stay here for a minute."
Dipper nodded lazily, and watched as she sat down in front of him. "How was showing the new kid around? We don't seem to get many new people here."
Mabel shrugged with one shoulder and messed with the sleeve of her newly made sweater. "He was really quiet. He gave off this weird presence, and seemed to be looking for something the whole time. He barely even touched the candy I gave him!"
Dipper chuckled. "He's probably just nervous. Like you said, he's a new kid in a school that rarely gets new kids. He doesn't know anyone and probably feels like an outcast."
Mabel looked around the room and noticed that he was nowhere to be found. "I don't even see him in the lunchroom. That must mean he's sitting alone outside." Her eyes widened then her phone buzzed. "Shoot. I would go invite him to sit by us, but I gotta go." She stood up and started to walk away, but paused and looked back. "If you see him, be nice to him!"
He rolled his eyes and nodded so that she would go and leave him to sulk about being so tired.
The bell jolted him up, and he forced himself to walk to his fourth period. As he remembered that it was his history class, a heat rose up in his chest and he had to unzip his blue hoodie to feel less like he was being strangled.
He sat in his usual seat near the front, and opened his notebook. As he waited for the students to pour in and fill the seats, he tapped his pen impatiently on his desk.
Claire walked in and sat two seats to the right of him like she usually did, and his heart skipped a beat. She flipped her long, white, hair, and snuggled into her over-sized, black, jacket.
Dipper had to look down at his notebook so that she didn't catch him gawking at her.
The class silenced as the last bell rung, and the teacher, Mr. Ferritz, began to speak. "As we've talked about before, today will be the day we start our big group projects, that will be due halfway through the year. With that much time, and that much manpower, I expect nothing short of something worth an A from each and every one of you." He looked out at all of their faces and smiled. "Now here's the part you all hate; I will be choosing your partners."
A few of them groaned, annoyed that they couldn't be with their friends, but Dipper was relieved. Without the teacher forcing groups, he had no chance of ending up with Claire.
"I know, I know. Anyway, with the new student we have, the numbers are now perfect to make it so there can be three people to each team."
He began naming off the groups, and Dipper held his breath, hoping that he and Claire's names were called with each other.
"And Dipper, since your sister showed William around, I think it would be good for him to be paired with you, and . . ." he trailed off and looked at the list of names that were still left "Claire. I expect you three to have an especially interesting project."
Dipper ignored that he was stuck with the new kid, and nearly cheered when he heard Claire's name.
After he named off all the groups, he began to explain the project. "Each group will pick one of the seven influential people I have listed on the board, and you will make a display of their most famous moment, and write a anecdote on their life and accomplishments. I also expect you to make a poster to follow the diagram of their worst moment. It must be fully colored, and brought into me when finished so that I can laminate it. The last thing you need, is anything digital, a picture, a small clip, anything like that, and use it as an example of what you wrote about."
Dipper followed along and made a detailed list of each thing they needed to do.
"Alright, now break off into your groups and choose your person."
Claire looked over at Dipper and smiled. She stood up and pulled her jacket down, making it so her shorts were barely visible from underneath it.
He gulped and smiled back at her, trying to make it so his gawking wasn't obvious.
"So, me you and the new kid huh? Know anything about him?" She looked behind Dipper to see the new kid, who was slowly making his way to the front of the class, ducking past people who were moving around to get to their partners.
Dipper shook his head and cleared his throat. "Nah. My sister said he was really quiet though. He's probably just nervous."
The new kid finally made his way to them, and had a large, almost mischievous smile spread on his face. "Name's William, but you guys can call me Will, or even better,"
Dipper's heart jumped to his throat. He knew the other name you could call someone named William, and as paranoid as he was, he felt his heart slowly sink back to his chest in an almost painful way. It couldn't actually be Bill, right?
"Bill. Nice to meet you." He extended his hand out to Dipper to shake it, but Dipper nearly flinched back.
"Sorry, I have a thing about shaking hands." His voice was dry, and he was looking the guy up and down.
Bill shrugged and retracted his hand. "Anyway, which one of these old geezers should we write about?"
Dipper didn't answer, but instead looked at him as closely as he could. He had short, blond, styled, hair, and was wearing a black hoodie and black jeans. Nothing super suspicious, and he wasn't even sure if Bill could get another human body after they had defeated him a few years prior.
But again, Dipper was beyond paranoid, and was going to keep an eye on this new kid.
"Hm, how about Van Gogh? I love his work." Claire sat on Dippers desk, careful not to disturb his notebook.
"The painter guy?" Bill scoffed.
"I think Van Gogh is a great choice." Dipper crossed his arms and glared at Bill.
He raised his hands in defense and met his glare with a sharp stare. "Majority wins, it seems."
Each group decided on who their projects would be about, and the teacher let them stay in the groups to get started on who would do which part of the project.
"I'm pretty good at drawing and stuff, I can do the poster and the digital thing to go with the writing. And I know you like to write Dipper, so do you wanna do the anecdote?" She stared at him with her sky-blue eyes and was smiling softly.
He had to clear his head before speaking, and nearly choked on his words. "Yeah, I can do that."
"I guess that means I get to make the display of his greatest moment. I can do that," Bill leaned on the empty desk behind him and crossed his arms. He was staring at Dipper with a blank expression, seeming like he was deep in thought.
"Alright, this'll be way easy. If either of you need help, let me know. I know exactly what I'm going to draw, but I'm going to do some doodles so you guys can see it first and let me know if it's too much or not."
Dipper nodded, and tapped his pen on his notebook. He finally had his chance to talk to Claire, but no words came to mind.
"So, what kind of stuff do you draw?" Bill's eyes lifted from Dipper and slowly drifted over to Claire.
"Anything that comes to mind, really," she shrugged.
"I bet it's good," he smiled.
Did Bill just flirt with Claire? A boiling heat rose up into Dipper's chest and he glared at Bill.
"Thanks, I'll have to show you some of it sometime." She slipped off the desk and nudged Dipper. "I send this guy pictures of it all the time, give me your number and I'll include you in the loop. It'll also be good for me to have for the project."
Dipper caught his snide remark and had to tense his jaw not to say anything.
"I, uh, actually don't have a cell phone right now. I haven't gotten one yet."
Both of them shot him a curious glance.
"Well, that's fine. Do you have an email or anything?"
Bill shrugged sheepishly. "I'm not really very tech savvy."
The rest of class was spent with Claire asking about ways to even contact Bill, and Dipper sat silently in distress about the situation.
He couldn't out right go off on the guy. If it really wasn't Bill then he would be branded as crazy for the rest of his life, but he also couldn't just sit back and wait for something to happen to prove that it was Bill. He couldn't really try to force Bill to expose himself, since he had no idea how he could prove that it was him.
The bell rang, and Dipper finally became aware of his surroundings again, and he realized Bill was staring at him again.
"I'll text you later," Claire said as she patted Dipper on the back.
"O-okay," he smiled.
Bill stepped away without a word, and Dipper stood up shakily.
The guy was acting so weird, and just the fact that his name was Bill was too much for him.
He made his way to his locker, his thoughts racing about what Bill could possibly be there for. Revenge? Just to mess with him? Was he going to hurt his loved ones? Was he going to try and end the world again?
Mabel appeared next to him and noticed that he was nearly hyperventilating. "Whoa bro, what's wrong?"
He took one deep breath and held it for a moment, then breathed out. "His name is Bill, Mabel, and he kept staring at me and he was acting really weird. Why would he come back? Why now? What's he playing at?"
"Whoa! Slow down!" Mabel cut him off. "Dipper, you're way paranoid. I know your dream last night probably spooked you, but the kid's name is William Anderson. Not just Bill, and not with a Cipher at the end of it. And he was probably staring at you because he was trying to decide if we're twins. You know people do that sometimes when they meet us."
He looked at her with wide eyes and sighed. "You're right," he breathed. "I need to calm down. It's just that if it was him, I don't even know how I could fight him. I don't know if I could protect everyone."
She shushed him and crossed her arms. "You've always got me bro. We're the Mystery Twins, remember? We could fight Bill again if we had to."
He nodded and smiled. "You always know what to say Mabel."
"And that's why I rock! I'll see you after school!" She hugged him tightly, then walked down the hall to her next class.
Dipper's fifth period was Math, something he found incredibly easy, but he almost came unraveled again when he saw Bill sitting next to his usual seat.
He sat down as casually as he could, but felt like he was keeping himself from shaking. Every breath felt forced and his chest felt tight. What was wrong with him? He wasn't that scared of Bill, was he? He had defeated him before, why would a second time be so bad?
All throughout class, he avoided looking over at him, and found himself forcing his breath to stay steady multiple times.
When the bell rang, he wanted to launch himself from his seat and run to his car, and drive away, never to come back.
Before he reached the door though, Bill grabbed his upper arm and tugged at him. "Walk with me, would you?"
Dipper didn't know if he followed out of fear or anger, but he followed him, and was mentally preparing himself for a fight.
Bill lead him just outside, by a door that was hardly ever used. There was very few people around, and Dipper began to panic again.
How could he have let himself be lead to a secluded area by Bill?
"What do you want from me?" Dipper snapped.
Bill put his hands up in defense and smiled. "Geez, what's with the freak attack kid, did you miss me that badly?"
His words felt like a punch to the gut. It was Bill.