Hello again everyone! Thank you for your feedback! Shaddowridder221, I had a different plan in mind that will be explained a little in this chapter, but I can throw that idea in! Thank you very much! Hope you all enjoy!
II
Avery stared dumb-founded up at Dipper and Mabel. Mabel waved a hand in front of Avery's face. "Hello~ Earth to Avery!" Avery blinked once, looking at her new four-fingered hand. She looked at her clothes. She had become a cartoon!
"Are you okay?" Dipper asked. "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to do that."
"It… it's fine." Avery stood. Being a cartoon felt as natural to her as being real. "This is just… so surreal…" She observed her hands, turning them over and moving the fingers. "Really weird, but, at the same time, it's kind of cool." She cracked a smile. "I look so different now."
"You look like us now!" Mabel grinned, then took Avery's hand. "Come on! You can meet our Grunkle Stan!"
"Uh… okay!" Avery cried out at the fact that she was now being dragged. Dipper rolled his eyes and followed the two.
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel called, letting go of Avery, allowing her to stand on her own. "We made a friend!" A girl with long red hair standing behind a counter smiled at Mabel.
"Who's this?" The girl asked.
"This is Avery." Mabel motioned to Avery. "She's our new friend!" Avery only nodded in confirmation.
"Nice to meet you, Avery." The girl smiled. "I'm Wendy."
"Nice to meet you… too…" Avery looked away and saw a larger man wearing a shirt with a question mark on it.
"Hey, guys!" The man smiled. "Who're you?" He asked Avery, observing her.
"Avery…" Avery paused. "Who're you?"
"I'm Soos!" The man, Soos, smiled proudly. "Are you the twins' friend?"
"Yep!" Mabel spoke for Avery. Avery waved. "Where's Grunkle Stan?"
"Mr. Pines is out, doing… whatever it is he does." Soos shrugged. "Why? Were you gonna show him Avery?"
"Pretty much." Mabel nodded. "I was gonna ask if Avery could stay here."
"He'll probably say yes." Soos paused.
"Who'll say yes?" Another man wearing a fez came through the front door. "And who's this?"
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cried in joy. "This is Avery. We wanted to know if she could stay here!" The man called Grunkle Stan paused, as if in thought.
"As long as she's okay with working for free." He said. Avery slowly nodded.
"I guess I am." She spoke quietly. Grunkle Stan heard her anyways and laughed.
"You'll start tomorrow!" He grinned. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a show to watch." As he walked away, Avery tried to process all that had just happened to her.
She was in a cartoon. There was no denying that. She apparently made some new friends, if one could even call it that. To top it all off, she had gotten a new job. She chuckled slightly. "Happy birthday to me."
"It's your birthday?" Mabel asked excitedly.
"Yeah." Avery shrugged. "It's nothing major, though. Just turned sixteen…"
"Sixteen!" Mabel cried. She giggled excitedly. "The day's just begun! We're gonna throw you the best sixteenth birthday party ever!"
"Yeah, okay. Wait, what?" Avery blinked in surprise. Mabel began blurting off various party plans. As Mabel started describing the 'dream dress', Avery cut her off. "Now hold on! No one's throwing a party for Avery!"
"Oh come on, Avery!" Mabel whined. "You only turn sixteen once!" Avery sighed.
"Okay, fine." Mabel cheered.
"Yay! You're gonna love it!" Mabel ran off to get things for the party. Not knowing what else to do, Avery walked back outside and saw a floating screen that depicted her chair in front of her desk back home. Getting an idea, Avery walked over and pressed her hand against the screen. It went through and Avery was not as surprised as she had been before. She did yelp a little, but then moved her arm through. She moved her other arm through, and placed them on her desk. She pushed herself through and landed back in her chair.
She sat down properly and stared at the screen. Had she really just done that? A command formed in her head. Shut it down. Alt and F4 should do the trick. Deciding to follow the command, she pressed the keys on her keyboard and the screen went dark. The screen soon showed her regular desktop again. An executable file was in the upper right corner.
The next day at school, some students noticed that Avery had been acting strange. She would space out and stop talking during her presentation and wouldn't resume talking for a minute or so. When she did resume, she continued as if she hadn't stopped in the first place.
Avery felt as though she were an observer to her body, as if her actions weren't her own. She tried to present normally, but she would see something at the back of the room and stare at it for a while, not realizing that she had stopped speaking, until it had disappeared and her voice continued.
Now as she sat in Calculus, Avery couldn't get her mind off of the cartoon world. She wondered what Dipper and Mabel were doing. Had everything frozen in the world, or would it simply resume like a video game? "I want to go back." Avery muttered to no one. Everything seemed so strange… "I have to go back." Avery stood, picked up her backpack and walked to the door.
"Miss Bravo?" The teacher asked in a demanding voice. "Where do you think you're going?" Avery just turned her head to him.
"I have to go back." Was all she said before opening the door and leaving. The teacher sighed.
"I don't get paid enough for this…"
The next thing she knew, she was outside her front door. She blinked once, twice, then three times. "How'd I get home?" She asked, looking around. The last thing she remembered was that she was in Calculus thinking about… What was she thinking about? Avery shrugged, assuming that school had ended and she had simply gone about her end-of-the-school-day routine and had thought nothing of it. She unlocked the door and walked inside. She did not announce her return, for who would be there to hear it? She walked to her room and turned on her monitor. The file was still in the upper right corner. She clicked on it, her face a complete blank. The screen went black, then showed the building again. Avery put her arms in the monitor and pulled herself in.
She looked down and saw that she had become a cartoon again. The door opened and Mabel came walking out.
"There you are, Avery!" She smiled. "I was looking for you. Where did you go?"
"I went back." Avery explained, regaining her senses. "It's been about a day."
"A day?" Mabel giggled. "Oh, don't be silly, Avery! It's only been about three hours!"
"Half an hour?" Avery asked. "I guess time is different in this world."
"I guess so!" Mabel smiled, taking Avery's hand again. "Come on! I found the perfect dress for you! I hope you like sparkles!" She led Avery back into the building and up a flight of stairs into an attic. "Are you ready?" She pulled open the door. "Ta-da!" Avery gawked at the sight of a blue dress with short sleeves had a curved look at the bottom. It had light-blue sequins on the chest area. "Do you like it?"
"Mabel…" Avery blinked. "It's awesome! I freaking love it!" Mabel grinned.
"Go try it on!" Mabel closed the curtains so that no one could look in through the windows and closed the door. "I'll make sure no one gets in." Mabel covered her eyes and turned to face the door. Avery smiled and began to change into the dress.
"Hey, Mabel?" Avery called.
"Yeah?"
"Where should I put my regular clothes?"
"Put 'em on my bed." Mabel instructed. "It's the one with the kitten sheets." Avery walked over to the bed and laid her clothes down.
"Alright." She tried to pull the back zipper up, but could only reach halfway. "Hey, it's safe. Can you help me with the zipper real quick?" Mabel turned around and zipped up the dress the rest of the way. "How do I look?" Avery turned around and Mabel's eyes went wide.
"Amazing…" She whispered. Avery blushed. "Let's go show them! They should have the party ready by now!" Avery nodded as Mabel led her back downstairs. Avery watched Mabel run ahead of her and flinched when she yelled. "The princess has arrived!" Everyone turned their heads to see Avery walking down the stairs. Various 'Ooh's and 'Aah's rang out and Avery became embarrassed. Wendy started clapping and others joined in. "Come on." Mabel nudged Avery. "Say something."
"Uh…" Avery was at a loss for words as the clapping died down. "Thanks for… coming, everyone. Um… e-enjoy the party! I guess…" Everyone resumed their activities and Mabel left to talk to her friends. Loud music was blaring from speakers, making Avery's head hurt. It was hard to hear people over the music and bright lights shone in her face. Avery decided to go outside, if only to get away from the lights.
It had become night outside and Avery sat on the porch of the building. She placed her elbows on her knees and looked up at the starry sky. She had never seen the sky with stars before. Yes, there were a few stars at night back home, with three visible stars at the maximum, but Avery had never seen so many stars grouped together before. She sat in silence, with the music somewhat audible from inside. "It's nice out here, isn't it?" Avery jumped as she heard someone else's voice. She looked to her left and saw a boy about her age wearing all yellow with a black top hat and bowtie. He had blonde hair covering his right eye. He chuckled at Avery's reaction.
"Y-Yeah…" Avery calmed down. Where had this boy come from? She hadn't seen him inside. On the other hand, maybe she had and didn't take any notice of him. "It's… real nice." Avery glanced at him. "Hey, uh… I'm not trying to sound rude or anything, but… Who are you? I didn't see you inside." The boy smirked, leaning back.
"Name's Bill Cipher." He smiled. "Nice to meet you, Avery." How does he know my name? Eh, probably heard Mabel or someone else say it…
"Nice to… meet you too, Bill." Avery forced a smile. "Why aren't you inside?"
"Why aren't you?" Bill dodged the question, knowing Avery wouldn't ask again.
"I… don't really like parties." Avery shrugged, looking down at her faded red sneakers. "They're too loud and the lights hurt my eyes…" Suddenly, the door behind them flew open and Mabel walked out.
"There you are, Avery!" She cried. "I was looking for…" She trailed off when she saw Bill.
"Hey, Shooting Star." Bill grinned, tipping his hat. Mabel screamed and ran to get Dipper.
"What was that all about?" Avery asked. Bill didn't reply as he stood. Dipper and Mabel ran out.
"Why are you here, Bill?" Dipper demanded. Avery leaned away from the dispute.
"Hey, relax, Pine Tree." Bill put out his hands defensively. "Just wanted to wish Eaves a happy birthday!" Avery blinked. Was he talking about her?
"Are you sure?" Dipper asked, now confused.
"Yeah. That's all!" Bill began to float away. Avery's eyes widened at the sight of the boy floating. Humans can't fly, right? "Well, I'll catch you three later!" He floated away, then disappeared altogether.
"What just happened?" Avery asked.
"That was the dream demon, Bill Cipher." Dipper began explaining. "He's supposed to be really dangerous. I've never seen him look like a human before…"
"He didn't seem dangerous." Avery muttered, looking at the ground. Soos came out the door.
"Hey, dudes." He smiled. "The cake is ready! Everyone wants the birthday girl to get the first bite."
"Come on." Mabel started walking off to the party. Dipper lagged behind.
"Avery. I know he seemed nice, but he's bad news, okay?" He said. "I don't want you getting hurt, so just please stay away from him."
"Okay." Avery nodded. She flinched at the sudden explosion of noise from the speakers. "Can we turn that down, please?" She called to Dipper.
"Okay!" He called back, motioning for the DJ to turn it down a little.
"Thank you!" Mabel led Avery to pink cake, which had the words 'Happy Birthday Avery' on it in red frosting. Wendy cut a piece and handed the plate to Avery, who nodded her thanks. She took a bite of the chocolate cake and Mabel threw confetti at her.
"Happy sixteenth, Avery!" She yelled, cheering along with some others, who soon began enjoying their own slices.
After the post-party clean up, Avery had changed back into her regular clothes and was back at the floating screen. Mabel and Dipper had already gone to sleep and Avery had the dress tucked under her arm. She put the dress through first and then pulled herself in. She closed the portal and checked the time. Half past midnight? She sighed, then changed into her pajamas and soon fell asleep in her bed.
Avery's eyes widened as the new student walked to the front of the room a week later. Her breath caught in her throat as he said his name.
Bill Cipher.
A/N: Whew! Long chapter! Hope everyone enjoyed! If anyone has any ideas, feel free to send me them! See you all next chapter!
