Chapter 1: SleepyheadIt was a beautiful day in Gravity Falls, Oregon. The sun was shining, the sky was near cloudless, and it seemed the perfect weather for dog-walking. Or, in Mabel Pines' case, pig walking. She and Waddles were enjoying the day out, when they noticed posters hanging everywhere.

"Gravity Falls Dog Pageant: Tomorrow at noon. Show off your dog for the chance to win!" she read.

As Waddles chewed a poster that had fallen off the lamppost, Mabel spotted Mayor Tyler walking around.

"Hey Mayor!" she yelled from across the street, "Can I enter Waddles into this pageant thingy?"

Tyler pondered this request for a minute, then replied, "A pig's close enough. As mayor, I will git you permission!"

At this, Mabel sped home, Waddles in hand. As she returned to the Mystery Shack, she saw Soos hanging 'No refunds' signs above the gift shop window. Mabel used her free hand to wave as she went in. As Soos tipped his hat, something in the forest caught his eye. A man in a white tracksuit was walking around with an odd machine in his hand that had a large antenna on it. The man noticed Soos, and put his finger up to his lips. Soos nodded in return. If the man wanted to do forest things privately, that was fine with him.

Once inside, Mabel was surprised to see Pacifica Northwest inside.

"Oh, hey Mabel," Pacifica said nonchalantly, "Do you mind if I hide out here for a while? My Parents are still a little sore over the ghost and me ruining the expensive carpets."

"Of course!" Mabel said, "Make yourself at home!"

This was the first time Pacifica had really been in the Mystery Shack, apart from a party held there at the start of the summer. She looked around. All the exhibits were incredibly tacky, except for one labelled 'The Cheapskate' which was surprisingly lifelike. Despite this, tourists always seemed to love the shack. Pacifica had always wondered why that was. Meanwhile, Mabel was busy hauling a treadmill and camera down the stairs.

"I can finally do Mabel's guide to fitness to train waddles!" she cried.

Just then, Dipper Pines came down the steps, looking very tired. "Train him for what?" he asked, yawning.

"The Gravity Falls Dog Pageant of course!" Mabel yelled.

"Oh yeah, my parents are entering that." Pacifica said. "They're gonna use our Huskey , Douglas. Hang on-"

She got out her phone, and showed the others a picture of a large dog with a wide grin on its face. Just then, Wendy came in. She looked more tired than Dipper, and he had his head on the table.

"Wendy, what's wrong?" Mabel asked, as Waddles began running on his treadmill towards an ice cream sundae.

"No sleep," Wendy murmured as she sat down by the cash register. "Well, I got a tiny bit. But I had this weird dream that I keep having."

She began to draw on a sheet of paper. When she was done, the others took a look. It was a mix of blue and white, but with a definite figure at the center, that appeared to have wings.

"Weird," said Dipper, now trying to focus on the conversation at hand. "Maybe there's something in the (yawn) journals..."

As Dipper went upstairs to look for the journal, he saw Stan walking around.

"Hey kid, have you seen my ice cream sundae? Lazy Susan made me it when I magically fixed all her loans." he asked.

"Umm... No, sorry." Dipper replied. He realised he had to Stall Gruncle Stan before he got downstairs. What should he do? "uhh... Hey, is that a Gnome eating the furniture?"

"WHAT?!" Stan yelled. As he raced away, Dipper sighed. He hoped Mabel would finish up quickly, but-

"AAAAAAAH!"

That was Wendy, Dipper thought, Run!

He sped back down to the gift shop to see what was wrong. Wendy and Pacifica also seemed surprised at what Wendy was screaming at. A boy around Wendy's height had walked in. He was wearing a blue hoodie with a t-shirt underneath and blue jeans , and had brown hair and blue eyes.

Wendy look as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Then she finally began to move towards him, and then, slowly, pulled him into a hug.

"Dude! You're awake! I-I can't believe it! What happened?" she asked, still shaking. "I'm not too sure myself... I remember the tree, and you being there... and then I woke up in the hospital, feeling better than ever."

None of them had ever seen Wendy speechless, although Mabel was still filming her video.

"And that concludes Mabel's guide to fitness, with Waddles, the jog hog! You want that sundae, YOU GOTTA JOG FOR IT, JOG HOG! Look at his little shorts!" As she turned of the camera, she noticed the commotion and decided to see what was going on.

"So... Who are you?" Dipper asked the stranger.

"I'm Matthew. Matthew Stoker. I live here, but I was..."

"... In a coma" Wendy finished. "Hey, why don't we go into town? We can give my friends the good news!"

But as they set off, Pacifica pulled Dipper to one side, and held up the picture Wendy had drawn of her dream. They looked at Matthew, at each other, at the picture and back at Matthew. Dipper mouthed the word 'Impossible.' Pacifica squinted, trying to make sense of it. Before either of them said anything, Mabel called them over. It could wait, they supposed.

Soos, meanwhile, was cleaning the hallways when he heard sci-fi sounds coming from the other room. Automatically intrigued, he peeked inside. There he saw Ford, looking extremely nervous, and cobbling together a device out of the TV remote.

"Uh, hey dude," Soos said, unsure what else to say, "everything cool?"

"Hmm?" Ford looked around, and saw Soos standing in the illuminated corridor. "Oh, it's fine really. Just some precautions is all."

Soos didn't think this was a very satisfying answer, but questioned it no further. He decided to get back to work: knowing this place, he would find out what he had been doing eventually.

After hours of training Waddles to roll over on command and other various exercises, Dipper and Pacifica managed to convince Mabel to come with them to investigate Matthew, although Mabel insisted that they bring Waddles. It seemed like everyone else had their dogs out too; it was getting near lunchtime now, and most families were out having picnics. At last they found Wendy and Matthew hanging out near the mall with Wendy's friends, Robbie, Tambry, Thompson, Nate and Lee. They all looked as shocked as she was when they saw him. Dipper stopped short of going to meet them, and the others backed behind a car to watch.

"So...what is this about?" whispered Pacifica, staring at Matthew.

"I'm not quite sure" replied Dipper, consulting the journals. "Let's see...there should be a section on dreams somewhere..."
But then he paused. The teens had gone silent, and were all looking at a car that had just pulled up. It was a very rich car, with tinted windows and a shining exterior. Out of the car stepped out another teenager of a stocky build, blond hair and clothes on par with Pacifica's in terms of fashion. Mabel's attention was turned to the teens once again. Tambry seemed unaware of what was going looked fleetingly between Matthew and the other boy, Nate and Lee's eyes were pointed at the ground. Robbie stepped backwards towards Matthew. Wendy gazed directly at the boy, his clothes, his car, his expression, with unbridled rage. Dipper too gazed in awe at Wendy's expression, he had not seen her this angry since she broke up with Robbie. Then he saw Matthew, who had pulled his hood over his head. The boy who caused all this stared; Dipper and Mabel could see no emotion, but Pacifica knew full well he felt smug about something, she had seen her father pull that face many times at home. The boy's parents finally emerged, and took their son into the Mall.

Matthew's blue eyes poked out of his hood. He seemed confused, as if he didn't know why he had put his hood up in the first place. The other teens looked at him, and at the floor once again. It was Wendy who at last spoke."Don't worry, dude." she said to him, eyeing the boy as he walked through the mall. "You won't have to deal with him again." Dipper turned to Pacifica."Do you know who that blond guy was?" he asked.
"Of course..." she whispered in reply, looking towards the mall, "that was James Wells. Follow me."