Summer I thought that would last forever was coming to an end. It has been long, but it felt so short. After two weeks, I'll be back to Piedmont, and go to school after.
But oddly, it didn't give me comfort. It gave me fear, actually. Every time I thought about it, I shivered. Commonly it's the opposite. Of course I liked this place very much, but there was other gut feeling deep inside my mind, that even I didn't know.
But tonight, I finally reminded it. I don't wanna go back to Piedmont. Everything waa cruel and terrible in there, and the dream reminded me everything.
I was exploring around the surroundings of the Piedmont town. It was the only time that made me excited.
Stuck inside school, it was the worst I could imagine. They made fun of my birthmark. They made fun of my nickname. When I cried, they laughed harder. Spilling milk, tackling, stealing books... there wasn't any kind of prank that I haven't experienced.
Mabel was usually there to support him, but as time went by, she hung out with her friends more often. I tried to make friends for myself, but somehow ended up being nerd that even other nerds can't get along with. I guess nobody likes mystery hunting now, it's out of trend.
So now, I just try to fix it by myself. I didn't want her to worry about me anyways. When tears come out, don't show your eyes. No one loves me, why would anyone love me crying?
Going outside like this was a good way to vent my mind. I pulled out a paper map. Today I'm going to back of school, what kind of weird thing could lie here?
I turned around the corner. But it's not those things that greeted me. Rather, there were bunch of teenagers.
"Hey, what do we have here?" said a teenager. They noticed me. I tried to walk away, but my legs didn't move.
"what's your name?" Another tall teenager asked, coming near me. They smelled funky like smile dip and smoke combined. I started to sweat.
"...Dipper." My voice became much smaller.
"Dipper? What a weird name." said a tall, blond girl with strong cosmetics. "I mean, what kind of parents would name their son Dipper?"
"Do they hate you or something? Or maybe... You're adopted?"
"Ooh." They gasped.
"No!" I reply firmly. "Don't mention my parents!"
"Hey, chill out, kiddo." said the tall boy with black hoodie. "We just think you're cute."
Then he patted my head. I didn't like people calling me 'cute', and definitely didn't like the feeling of weird people touching me like a snake crawling my body. I desperately wanted it to stop, but I couldn't move out of terror. Soon other teenagers joined 'patting' me. My inside was screaming to stop, but my mouth never opened.
"Hey, look! This kid got something on his forehead!"
"Really?" A teenager with green hoodie took my hat. I tried to grab it, but he didn't give it back. Then he raised my front hair, revealing my birthmark.
"He got pimples!"
"That's birthmark, idiot." A girl replied. "And it's big... dipper. Huh, that's how he got his nickname?"
"Ooh, let me touch it!"
"Don't touch it!"
I suddenly shouted. I was always sharp about the birthmark. No one could touch it except ones I truly trust. This was my last line. I stepped away from them.
"What did ya say?"
"Don't touch it, or I'll tell my parents!"
"Oh, yeah?" said the teen with black hoodie. "come a little closer, kid."
SMACK!
Then without warning, a punch flung into my cheek. I felt as if a giant iron bar hit me. My eyes were watery. The only thing I could see was the teenagers chuckling around me.
"Good luck telling your mom that." He said. "We're ending here cause you're little. But next time you meet us, you're gonna have real fun."
Then I ran away. as fast as I could. The teenagers were laughing behind. I tried not to cry, but the tears continued to come out silently. Now I couldn't even wander around the town. All my hopes were gone. If I could adventure freely, without these freaks...
I slowly opened my eyes. Then suddenly, I saw a face with jiggly eyes.
"Ahh!" I soon noticed who it was.
"Morning Dipper, guess who?"
"Oh, if it wasn't for upside-downington. How long has it been? Third grade maybe?"
I just chuckled at her, who was staring at me upside down. It has been a long time since I recieved this kind of act from her. However bad the dream was, seeing her like this made me recover normal breathing. Because I felt like she was geniunely with me.
One of other thing that had been good in gravity falls was that she was always around. Of course she often got distracted, but now at least she's aware whether I'm alive or being eaten by werewolf.
"That's right. And I'm here to deliever upside downington-tastic message!"
"Is it the message we're getting too old for it?"
"Well, kinda, actually. It's that we're exactly one year away from our 13th birthday!"
It surprised me. Time has passed this quickly? "What? Then we're going to be actual teenagers?"
"Finally! I can stop reading pre-teen magazine and start reading post pre-teen magazines!"
"PG-13 movies here I come!"
"And just one more year till the high school."
said Mabel. "High school, Dipper-"
..Oh.
She seemed to say something, but nothing caught in my ears. My brain just went bland. Can you imagine bunch of jocks and bullies, all grown up, waiting to beat me? And I have hardly hit puberty yet. With those noodle arms, could I really survive that one out? What if someone forces me to drug-
My brain overloaded from thoughts. My body suddenly stopped as if I fainted while standing up. My breathing got rough again.
"Dipper?" I couldn't even hear her saying beside me.
"Dipper!" She shouted. I barely got conscious after. "Aren't you excited?"
"Y...Yeah." I answer. "Of course I'm excited..."
The rest of the day seemed to go pretty normal. Mabel was preparing for the party. But not until we heard a booming noise.
"Dipper! I need your help!"
I immediately ran. And there was Grunkle Ford, who was wiping his little burnt chin. I really admired Grunkle Ford, but sometimes even I couldn't understand.
"Great Uncle Ford! Are you okay?"
"Oh yes, I'm fine."
"But your face is on fire."
"It's much faster than shaving." He replied, then cleared his throat. "Now listen Dipper, I have a very important mission, and you are the only one who can help me. Remember the rift in dimensional spacetime I showed you? It's cracking."
"Wait, wait, what?" I needed time to process this. Sudden joy, suspicion, and excitement were mixed like an strange soup. 'Grunkle Ford needs me?' this was all the sentence my mind was repeating over.
"This is what Bill was waiting for. If it breaks, it will cause reality to completely unravel, a hypothetical event which I call weirdmageddon. Bill is out there, and he'll use any method to make that happen. But we won't let it happen."
"What do we do?"
"We'll patch the rift. I'll explain on the way." said Grunkle Ford, leaving out the door. I was about to follow, but paused.
"Wait, what about Mabel?"
"It's okay, Dipper! You should totally go out with Grunkle Ford to save the world or whatever. We'll all be doing junkies whatever. Plus, I packed those walkie talkies, one for for my party mission, and one for your smarty mission."
I was glad she agreed. Or I wouldn't know what to do. Then Grunkle Ford spoke. "I did mention that the fate of the universe is at stake, didn't I? Hurry, we haven't much time."
"Okay." And I immediately followed.
'This is my first big mission with Grunkle Ford. A chance to prove that you're not useless. Don't mess this up." This line in my head for the entire time I was following him.
Grunkle Ford was a great guy. He was smarter than me, had good physicals unlike me, and most importantly more experienced. I liked him so much. Now I'm about to discover how much he'll like me.
We arrived at the valley, and Grunkle Ford showed that the giant alien spaceship was beneath gravity falls. "Wow, shut up!" Was all I could say. I was speechless after. Then Ford handed me the magnet gun.
We reached the bottom of the spaceship by kiting with the magnet gun. It seemed like a scene directly out of science fiction movie. THIS is what you call an adventure. Not going everywhere in town and getting picked by teenagers. I felt like I should revisit every bit of this spaceship after this mission. My heartbeat was rising more than any time.
But I was still a young boy. I had trouble operating the magnet gun, so I almost failed during the kiting and fell almost 50 meters, before I barely reactivated it and de-accelated at the last moment. Grunkle Ford said he almost died from heart attack.
Then I touched something, hoping it's some kind of code to the glue, but it turned out it activated something unknown. We had to be extra careful.
Finally, we entered a large hall. It seemed like an odd place, but it was another whole new excitement for me. Rooms after rooms. Imagining to leave this place, it made me shudder. Actually shudder.
"Grunkle Ford?"
"Yes, Dipper?"
"I'm just asking... Do you plan to have any apprentice?"
"Of course I do! And it would be just right if it was my family..."
My face brightened. But Grunkle Ford said, "-But I'm not sure about you, Dipper."
"Huh? Why?" I asked. "I mean... no offense, just asking."
"You're too young. Many of this forest's monsters prefer weaker targets. And one mistake may lead you to inevitable death."
It was a totally rational excuse, I couldn't say back to any of it.
"..Yeah. I guess you're right. I was tricked by Bill, I was wrong about Stan's portal. Heck, I can't even operate this magnet gun right..." Then when I pulled a trigger, a spaceship tile stuck to it. I tried to push it off. Then suddenly Grunkle Ford pushed me.
"Wait, Yes, Dipper! You found the adhesive!'
"I did?"
"Hoho, you did it, kid. Maybe I'll think once more about your apprenticeship."
I tried to speak out of joy, but suddenly it was interrupted by exotic beeping sound. Grunkle Ford held up a gun.
"Uh, Grunkle Ford, you said everything in here is dead, right?"
"Yes, unless we somehow reactivated the security system!" He gasped.
"What do we do?"
"Listen to me, they detect adrenaline. You simply have to not feel any fear and they won't see you."
"What?"
"It's okay. I've done it before. Just take deep breathes."
But I couldn't. It continued to beep in front of me. My heart was beating so hard that I could hear it. "W-What do you- How do you- ugh I can't!"
It pointed a gun at me.
"Get down!" Then Grunkle Ford pushed me, and got a hit instead of me. Without a time to react, the droid produced arm inside it and started to kidnap grunkle Ford.
"Wait, No!" I tried to follow, but I tripped.
Stay back! It's too dangerous! Sealing the rift is what's important now! Take this!" He said, sliding the rift to me.
"Use the adhesive! Save the universe!"
But I couldn't let him go. I chased the droid down. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of there!"
the droid positioned itself inside the prison spaceship, and launched itself. I barely managed to catch it with my magnet gun. Fortunately, it got some sort of error, and when I used the magnet pulse of the gun, it lost piwer and fell into the forest. I barely made out alive, but I wasn't sure grunkle Ford did. As the ship crashed, I could only see him lying him unconscious inside the glass.
"Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Ford!" My body was sweating. I was scared that he would have died. What's worse, I heard another beeping in my back.
The security droid was still there, and pointing me gun. What do I do now? I already lost everything. Grunkle Ford was my everything. But my childish heart still didn't want to die. It didn't stop beating faster. It was charging gun at me. It flipped red. I failed. This was all my mistake-
POW!
When I opened my eye again, I saw grunkle Ford handing the gun instead of me.
"Great job, Dipper." He complimented nonetheless. "Though you really need a lot more training."
"Grunkle Ford! You were alive!" I shouted. Though he had a few scratches, he wiped the dust out of his coat, and stood like a true adventurer.
"Now let's go patch the rift to the home. It's only safe there." Then without giving me a chance to breath, he started walking away.
"Wait, great uncle Ford!"
He turned around. This was the last chance for me.
"About the... apprenticeship."
"Right. Dipper, listen. I do think you're good at these things. But you're too young to survive in the weirdness."
"But..."
"Maybe graduate college and call me back, then I'll think again."
"But I don't wanna leave gravity falls!" I shouted. My voice suddenly became louder. I didn't know what energy it came from.
"Dipper!" He shouted back. "You're still a kid. I don't wanna put my grand nephew in danger. I'm doing this for you."
He was absolutely right.
I couldn't say anything. I am just a kid with noodle arms, and I made billions of mistakes. I just needed Ford's help to destroy that drone. Considering that, I would be only burden to Ford. It felt depressing, but it was fact. I should not resist the fact.
"...I understand. Great uncle Ford."
But my mind was saying opposite. My eyebag got heavy, as if it had to release something. But I held in, if that's proper word. Along the walk, I was only looking at the grass.
I had to go back to Piedmont a week after. Then I'll be bullied again. My only companion would be MMORPG game, but my mom hates me playing that, so I can't even play it that much. Besides, it would be like nothing compared to gravity falls.
But at least Mabel will be always there. Right? Even if she doesn't seem to care, and seem to be always self-centered, she would always care about me after all.
Flooded with thoughts, I and Ford arrived at home. I went up to my room. For some reason, I really wanted to see Mabel. And there she was, of course. Always there to help me. My mind was slowly melting.
"Mabel..."
"Dipper! I'm sorry you didn't got that apprenticeship, I heard on the walkie talkie."
She said with her normal cheerful voice. But what bothered me that the 'sorry' was also cheerful. It wasn't serious, and sounded even cocky.
"Yeah. I really-"
"But you know what, Dipper? We're going to school together! Isn't that better?"
"Mabel, I-"
"Forget about lame apprenticeship, we're going to high school-"
"MABEL! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
I shouted, with tears on my eyes.
She didn't understand. How much the apprenticeship meant to me. How cruel the school could be to me. How I often expressed I didn't want to go to school. It all struck at once. I realized, she didn't care about me.
I could not say any more words. Nothing cares about me now.
I grabbed the backpack, and ran into the woods. I let the tears flow freely. It was first moment I genuinely cried.
Sitting on nearby log, I wailed. With my hands covering my face, for the first time I cried aloud. My cheek soaked with salty water.
After minutes, I slowly calmed down. Tears still made my sight blurry, but I was silent. I could hear the sound nearby. The birds singing, leaves falling, and wind blowing... Reminding that I won't be able to see this in a week, it left another wound in my heart.
But than, I heard a strange noise.
'What's it?' The footstep-like sound played again. 'could it be..?'
I thought what would sound like this. I remembered, the Hide-Behind.
'If I manage to catch that one, maybe grunkle Ford will accept me again."
It pierced my mind. I immediately wiped my eyes, and looked for the source of the sound. I walked away, leaving the backpack behind.
I followed the sound, it was getting closer. Then I jumped in. "Gotcha!"
But there was nothing. Maybe I misheard. Disappointed, I tried to go back to where my backpack was.
Only to find it wasn't there.
"Where is it? Did somebody take it?" I questioned myself. "But why would they even take that in the first place?"
Then I remembered it. Grunkle Ford put the rift in MY bag when he got captured by the drone.
"Oh God!" I desperately tried to look for it. I ran to everywhere. Then a gray man caught my eye.
"Blendin?"
He was searching my backpack.
"AHAHAHAHA!" He laughed as he pulled out the rift.
"NO NO WAIT!" I shouted. But it was too late. He smashed it on the floor, and the rift shattered.
He took off his goggle and revealed his yellow eyes, laughing maniacally. Then The yellow demon came out of blendin's body. His body was flashing brightly than any other times. "AHAHAHA!"
"AT LAST, AT LONG LAST! THE GATE BETWEEN WORLD HAS OPENED. THE EVENT THAT BILLION YEARS HAS PROPHESIED FINALLY COME TO PASS! THE DAY HAS COME, THE WORLD IS FINALLY MINE!"
"No you don't!" I tried to charge to him. But after a snap of his finger, I felt the strength of entire body draining out. My entire sight went black after.
"AHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHA!"
The last thing I could hear was Bill cipher's maniacal laugh, along with the fuzzy sound of the end of the world.