The final bell of the day rang at 3:25. Dipper walked out of his class, avoiding Bill's watching eyes from the other side of the room. He headed to his locker, grabbed what he needed for his homework, and then exited the school. He walked over across the street to the tree he and Mabel agreed to wait at.
It took fifteen minutes before she arrived, bejeweled backpack over her shoulder.
"Sorry it took so long!" she panted. It looked like she just ran across the school. "I had to get Grenda and Candy's phone numbers, and then there was this cute guy from the swim team I had to talk to and-"
"Mabel, its fine." Dipper said. "Can we just get going now?"
Mabel squinted her eyes at him. "Somethings wrong with you."
"What?" snapped Dipper, defensively. "Nothing's wrong. Let's just go."
"Lier," stated Mabel.
Dipper rolled his eyes, and started walking down the sidewalk towards their grunkle Stan's house. Mabel pranced, quickly catching up to her twin.
"Dipper," she said sweetly. "Bro Bro, what's wrong. Is it that Bill guy?"
"Yes. Yes, it is that Bill guy."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"There's nothing to talk about besides the fact that he's insane and is probably going to try to murder me!"
Mabel snorted. "Murder you? Dipper, listen. He might be a little creepy, but you need to start putting your trust in people!"
"Well sorry for not blindly trusting everyone like you do!"
Mabel looked away from Dipper. "Well sorry."
"No- you know what I mean!" Dipper tried to apologize. "There's nothing wrong with being trusting."
Mabel sighed.
They walked in silence the rest of the way to the shack. Mabel kicked rocks along the way, as the winded down the dirt path of their forest shortcut. The trees loomed overhead, casting threatening shadows. This atmosphere did not help Dipper calm down. It drew worst-case scenarios into his mind, of what he has gotten himself into when he made that deal with Bill.
He pushed the thoughts aside as they walked up the rickety steps, through the back door, and into the shack.
"Grunkle Stan!" yelled out Mabel. "We're home!"
Mabel dumped her stuff onto the floor next to the door. Mabel pulled off her shoes too, but Dipper kept his on along with his backpack. He liked to be prepared to leave at any moment.
Grunkle Stan called out from the armchair in the living room. "Hey kids. Dipper, come hand me the remote."
Dipper groaned dramatically. "Hi Stan, school was good, no I didn't make friends, yes I did get harassed."
Stan waved at him dismissively. "Yeah yeah, couldn't have been that bad. Now come bring me that remote."
From the background Mabel yelled "I'm going to go work on my sweater!" as she ran upstairs.
Dipper plodded over to the remote and handed it to his grunkle. "Anything else?"
"Yeah," Stan said. "Maybe try smiling, you're sad face is really bringing down the atmosphere."
"…yeah."
Dipper walked headed upstairs, his mind wandering back to the deal he made with Bill. Why did he even need Dipper? What could Dipper possible do to help Bill by just standing there? What would-
A hand waved in front of Dipper's face.
"Hellooo?" it was Mabel. "Earth to Little Dip."
Dipper had made it upstairs, and was now standing in the middle of his and Mabel's room. He felt something under his foot and realized that he was standing on top of Mabel's pink glue gun.
Mabel made a look on concern. "You're so out of it that you walked over my craft space."
He moved his foot. "Oh, sorry."
Dipper walked over to his bed and flopped over to his back. He pulled his journal out of his backpack and flipped through the paged until he found a blank one. He grabbed a pencil from his bedside table and rolled over to his stomach. He mindlessly doodled until he heard Grunkle Stan yell that dinner was ready from downstairs.
Dipper glanced at what he had been drawing in his journal. The previously blank page was now full of ominous one eyed triangle drawings. He slammed the journal shut, scared of his own doodles, and put it on his pillow.
Mabel and Stan where already seated when Dipper walked into the dining room. Mabel was trying to convince Stan to give her money to go buy supplies for her current sweater project.
"In the long run it will save you money!" Mabel persuaded.
"Absolutely not," Replied Stan, crossing his arms.
Dipper sat down in the seat between the two. His plate was already in front of him with a tamale on it, curtesy of their old friend Soos, and his grandmother. The nights they had food cooked by her were always Dipper's favorites. Dipper and his sister had known Soos most of their childhood. He used to spend a lot of time together during the summer's they were staying at the shop. He used to work at the shop as a repair guy when he was a teenager. Now though, he was graduated and living with his girlfriend a city over. He still always came into town to check on his grandmother and say hello to Stan.
Mabel paused her persuading when Dipper sat down at the table. She squinted her eyes at him.
"What?" Dipper asked.
She shook her head. "Nothing." She then turned to Stan. "Did you see the last episode of ducktective?"
"Did I!" Stan shouted with excitement. "That twist at the end, when -"
"Was also the mysterious hooded man!" finished Mabel.
They both spent the rest of dinner enthusing over the latest episode of their favorite show while dipper quietly ate him Tamale.
Dinner quickly ended. Mabel announced that she was going to go the craft store and that anyone who wanted to come was invited. Dipper took that to mean that she had forgiven him for any bad feelings he had caused.
She was already out the door when Dipper was slipping on his shoes. He had to chase after her to catch up.
"So Mabel," he started. "Whats on the list to get tonight?"
Mabel unfolded a list from her pink-bejeweled fanny pack. She dramatically cleared her throat and read, "Replacement glue for my hot glue gun, lime green jewels, some more light pink yarn, and staples."
"Where did you get the money for this?"
Mabel pulled out Stan's wallet. "I have my ways."
The twins spent the rest of the evening shopping at a small craft store. Mabel excitedly ran through the isles, with Dipper following her making sure she didn't get into trouble. When they finally got home, it was already dark outside. Stan had fallen asleep in his chair, his glasses strewn to the side. They tiptoed past him and up the stairs to their room.
Dipper went straight to his bed and tried to sleep, while Mabel shuffled through and organized her new craft supplies.
"Don't say up too late," Dipper said to her as he slipped into a dream.
"Don't worry, only a few more minute then I'll go to sleep."
Eventually Mabel switched off the bedroom light and also crawled into bed, her mind buzzing with sweater plans.