A/N: ASDFGHJKLMNIUIGUWYEROIHC I'm not used to people liking my stories but you do and I don't know how to handle it because I'm really grateful, but, at the same time, I feel bad that I have so many typos in my chapters! I type really fast when I get excited and I keep writing chapters really late at night so I'm really delirious, so thank you for pointing them out to me. (: But AUGH you're all so nice! I hope you like this chapter!
Passion Periodicals, Day 9
Hey, Dipper is in the hiz-house! Okay, nevermind...It's Dipper! (Wait, who else would it be? Duh!) Anyway, yesterday wasn't very eventful. Mabel and I tried to find out where the siren could be hiding. We asked the Gravity Falls High School music teacher, Ms. Loot, for a list of her students with the best singing voice. That worked out, but, after giving us the list, she said that all of her students "sounded like dying cats in a blender." We decided that wasn't a good thing, so we moved on. We went to Greasy's Diner to ask Lazy Susan if she knew either any good singers or anyone who seemed to control people with their singing. I mean, either of those would be a good, if not dead, give away! When I asked her, Lazy Susan laughed heartily and patted my hair, telling me what an "adorable little boy I was."
"Lazy Susan, you do know that I'm sixteen now, right?" I pointed out while fixing my cap. I could feel my cheeks heating as she manually winked at me. It made me feel really uncomfortable.
Lazy Susan giggled as she walked off to the kitchen, "What an imaginative boy." I looked at Mabel, she had a case of the giggles as bad as Lazy Susan, "She said you were adorable! Ha! I told you!"
"Stop it!" I complained, suddenly developing a new interest in my pancakes. We ate the rest of our meal, talking about the siren and where she could be finding and possible suspects. We ended up just going home after we finished eating though. The cycle of summer laziness was already getting to us. While we were watching TV, Soos kept giving me looks when Mabel wasn't looking.
Today was a completely different story. We went back to Greasy's Diner with Grunkle Stan this morning. Mostly so Grunkle Stan could stay and flirt with Lazy Susan. They'd worked out the whole situation with Mr. Cat-Face and they'd been dating for a while now. It used to be really weird at first, but now it's just slightly creepy. Just slightly. During Lazy Susan's break, they sat at the counter eating free donuts.
Mabel tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Come on Dippingsauce, let's blow this pop stand!"
We hopped out of the booth, "Bye Grunkle Stan!" we both cried in a chorus of glee. I didn't think he noticed though, he was too busy with his girlfriend.
As I drove through the morning haze, I wondered what that was like, to have a girlfriend, I mean. I sneaked a glance at Mabel as she stared out the window. No, I wouldn't want Mabel to be my girlfriend. Sure, I love her, she's my sister, and I might like her, you know, more than usual, but...I don't know, it's complicated. Then again, what isn't complicated right now?
"Hey Dipper," Mabel said my name more like a question than a greeting. I had a flashback to our last conversation that started like that. I could feel my heart rate elevating.
"Yeah, Mabel?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the road. I silently controlled my breathing to calm myself down. Why am I such a spaz?
"What if not all sirens sing?" Mabel asked flatly, like she had been thinking about it for a while now.
I risked a quizzical glance at her, "What? No. Sirens are temptresses who tempt people with song. Sirens just sing, it's only logic, Mabel. Siren's don't do anything but sing and, you know, be jerks! Mabel, that-that's just what they do!" I started talking really fast, the way I always do when I think out loud.
"Does The Book say that?" Mabel pointed out, like I'd completely overlooked that small detail.
I actually had overlooked that small detail. "I-I don't know!" I spat out dumbly. I'm an idiot sometimes.
Smirking, Mabel reached into the back seat and pulled out my backpack onto my lap, she unearthed The Book, mumbling how much junk I kept in my backpack, and flipped to the page about the siren. I didn't have to look to know that on the page was a shadowy drawing of a beautiful girl looking at her reflection in the mirror. In the mirror, however, was the gruesome face of a monster.
"Unlike popular belief, the siren was not the woman herself, but an evil spirit cursed with a hideous face. Jealous of all the beauty that surrounded it, the spirit possesses beautiful women, using her charming voice and irresistible face to control people to do her evil bidding. There are many sirens around the globe, but Gravity Falls is only inhabited by one. Beware of this monster," Mabel shut the book, satisfied with her own spooky narration, "Zip about singing, Dipper! Zip!"
"Zip your mouth why don't you!" I said laughing, pinching two fingers together and swiping them over her mouth, pretending to zip it shut.
Mabel stuck her tongue out at me, mocking me, "Who's the smart twin now, Dipper? Mabel! Mabel! Mabel!" She chanted her name a couple more times until she knew I'd gotten the point. Another thing about Mabel is, at least when it comes to me, when she's right, she has to make sure that I know that. She may be older by five minutes, but she's still pretty immature sometimes. But that's what I liked about Mabel, she was like a rainbow while I saw like a sheet of blank paper.
"Wendy, ahoy!" Mabel proclaimed, pointing at Wendy waving at us from the sidewalk. I parked and waited for Wendy to catch up with us. "Hey losers," she said when she stuck her head in the window.
"Hey Wendy!" we cheered in unison, which made her laugh at our twinliness.
"What've you troublemakers been up to?" Wendy said, a relaxed , carefree look in her eyes. A couple years ago, that look would have made my heart go all fluttery and junk, but now...no fluttering, or junk
Mabel and I looked at each other, a silent agreement passing through us: Not yet. "Nothing!" we chorused.
Wendy laughed, "Cool. I'm just waiting for my brothers, except they're more like animals now a days."
Something glinted in Mabel's eyes when she asked, "Ooh, you have brothers? Are they cute?" Boy crazy Mabel drove me crazy sometimes, and not even in a moderately good way. I had to stifle the jealousy rising from the pit of my stomach.
Wendy threw her head back laughing, her cool composure breaking for just a moment, "Trust me, you do not want to get mixed up with them, Mabel! Oh, God, my brothers, ha!"
Mabel smiled and shrugged, "Can't blame a girl for trying!"
I sighed, as much as her boy-crazy attitude bugged me sometimes, I couldn't stay annoyed with her. When she smiled, her cute chipmunk cheeks receded and her eyes sparkled...Focus, Dipper, focus.
"Where are your brothers anyway, Wendy?" I asked, eager to change the subject.
Wendy looked to both sides and squinted, "Over there. Hey, losers, over here!"
Three guys across the street sauntered toward the car. They all looked the same; red hair, pale skin, plaid clothing.
"Wendy!" They all cried in a dissonant chorus of bellows. They all mobbed Wendy in a huge blur of red hair.
They looked so familiar, but I couldn't place from where.
Until I saw the look on Mabel's face. Mabel was shaking, her features frozen in a look of utter shock. That's when I knew.
They were the guys from the gas station.
They trashed our car.
They could have hurt Mabel.
"You!" I yelled, my anger fuming, "You were the guys from the gas station!"
Mabel found her voice, "You wrecked our car!"
Get this, the Corduroy brothers didn't know what we were talking about! Unbelievable! They just stood there with these dumb looks on their faces! Wendy was shocked, she turned to the oldest brother, "Dude, is this true?! Don't lie to me!"
"N-no! We-we didn't do it, Sis, honest!" he sputtered stupidly, "Honest, we didn't!"
Wendy gripped him by his shirt, "Don't lie to me, kid! Do you know how much money it cost Stan to fix that broken window? Your life is a penny compared to that! Especially for Stan! You know how much he scrapes by just with that place!" Wendy got really scary when she was mad.
"We didn't do it, Wendy!" the younger Corduroys yelled, "We didn't!"
Wendy's eyes burned like fire. They were scared of her; I almost felt bad for them. "I-I swear we didn't, Wendy," the oldest Corduroy boy pleaded, fighting her steel grip on his shirt, "I've never even seen 'em 'til now!" That was hard to believe, considering we're here every summer. Then again, I hardly saw them around
"Swear it!" Wendy growled, squinting at him, daring him to lie to her face.
"We swear!" they cried in unison.
I looked around; people were taking notice, probably deciding whether or not to get involved. Just another Pines Family memory we'll always treasure, I'm sure. Wendy dropped her little brother and stomped down the street, fuming. People parted to let her pass. Remember how I said that no one messes with Wendy? That was why.
The Corduroy boys looked at us through the open car window, silently begging us to believe them. "Sorry about your car, by the way, but we really didn't do it." I only nodded, cooling down from the anger rush. They sincerely believed it wasn't them. I couldn't be mad.
We drove off; taking the road that would bring us home. The two of us drove in silence, neither of us really feeling like talking. How could we? I knew they were the guys from the gas station, Mabel knew they were the ones who'd wrecked our car, but they didn't know what we were talking about. It didn't add up.
Mabel was the first to speak, "It was them, I swear."
"I know."
"I saw them smash the window, spray paint the car, slash the seats."
"I know."
"I knew it was them."
"But they didn't."
I stopped the car short of the Mystery Shack and looked at her. She was shaking and her eyes were watering like a sad, abandoned puppy that had been kicked just one too many times. She looked down at her rainbow swampers sadly, wringing the sleeves of her dark green sweatshirt.
"Oh Mabes," I said as I got out of the car and moved to her side of the car. I swung the door open and she collapsed into my arms. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she buried her face in my chest. I froze for a second, unsure of what to do, then wrapped my arms around her middle. Then she started crying.
I hardly ever saw Mabel cry, but something about this summer has made her a waterfall. I didn't know what to do, so I just stroked her hair, trying to shush her as gently as I could.
"Dipper," Mabel sniffled, her voice muffled by the fabric of my shirt. She said something else, but I couldn't make it out.
I didn't say anything, but she called my name again, like I was far away somewhere. "Yeah, Mabel?" I answered, my voice shaking.
She pulled away and looked up at me, a distant look in her eyes. "Pacifica," she said barely audible so I had to read her lips.
"I-I don't understand," I said. Why did she always seem to come up?
Mabel shook her head a fraction and repeated, "Pacifica."
It hit me like a boulder traveling a hundred miles an hour, I took a hasty step backwards and tripped over a rock and onto my back like the coordinated gentleman I am. Mabel soon came into my vision. A halo of light curled around her head, like an angel. Either it started raining or a million of her tears started falling on my face, I didn't notice.
"Dipper, are you okay?"
I wasn't okay.
It all added up.
Pacifica is the siren.
Dipper, out!
(Okay, I was unsure before, but now I'm definitely keeping that. Just saying.)
A/N: Oooh, Dipper is such a super sleuth! I'm sure you all saw that coming. This should really be two separate chapters, but I didn't want it to be two awkward journal entries, so TA-DAH! And I guess this is like a "See You Later" Present because I probably won't be able to update during the week, which makes me very sad, but don't worry, I won't forget about you! Thank you for reading and please leave a review!
