Dipper was all movement, a flurry of his hands and feet and knees, all scurrying around, like a little vole, trying to find his idea. It was a book he remembered well from his childhood. A book might not be considered "living a little," but he was so sure Bill would love it, he didn't care. He searched all over the Mystery Shack, because he was sure he had seen it before. He was so sure, it was something with a ruddy cover, with a pyramid on it, which couldn't be too hard to spot. He looked through a lot of rooms that Bill probably knew about but Dipper didn't, or maybe he did but it was never important. He looked in his room and in other rooms, even in places where he knew it wouldn't be. He accidentally stepped into a closet full of glitter and made a mental note to tell Mabel about it later. He found a room full of cages of various sizes that looked like most of them had been broken or opened, which was creepy. Then, he found a door, painted over like the wax museum once was. The door handle was still very much intact, however, and Dipper pulled on it. It opened. It wasn't dusty, and honestly worked pretty well. It obviously had been opened recently. Inside was a large room, gleaming and immaculate, with a desk and on that desk sat... Dipper couldn't believe his eyes. It was a reddish brown leather book with gold binding and a gold cutout of a six-fingered hand on it. There was a large black four in the middle. Dipper didn't know whether to feel angry or shocked or just ignore it. He couldn't just ignore it, however. That wouldn't make sense. He had to talk to Grunkle Ford at the very least, if not Mabel and Grunkle Stan. Dipper closed the door behind him instead and sat down at the desk, opening the book. There was table of contents and page numbers this time, which he smiled at. It had been one of his suggestions for Ford. He looked down the table of contents, smiling once again at the new code. Maybe it would be harder to crack. Maybe it would even be vigenere! Dipper almost squealed at the thought, then remembered he should probably be quiet. Bill's room was the only soundproofed one. That's right. Bill... He could sneak back into this room another time. He slowly crept up from the chair and out of the room, making sure no one saw him do anything.
"Dipper? What are you doing?" Darn.
"Uh, hi Grunkle Ford, how are you on this fine day?" Dipper tried to look him in the eye.
"Dipper. Did you find my secret room?"
"Uh... yes?" Grunkle Ford stared at him for a second, then looked to the ground.
"What do you think of it?" He said softly, almost like he was scared.
"It's a very nice room..." Dipper wasn't exactly sure what to say. "I found the journal too, and I thought we were over those. But I like the table of contents and the page numbers. I didn't look at much else." Grunkle Ford nodded.
"Page numbers, huh... Are you angry?" He asked, this time looking at Dipper.
"No- I mean, yes, but not right now. I'm too worried to be busy." Dipper almost clasped a hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say the last part, but Grunkle Ford didn't seem to notice.
"Are you going to tell everyone else?"
"I don't know. Should I?"
"Probably."
"Whatever. I'll tell them later." Dipper was surprised at his own lack of enthusiasm about this, but them again, he did have a boyfriend in the hospital due to attempted suicide, so maybe Dipper had an excuse. Grunkle Ford nodded at him, opened the secret door and closed it, and then Dipper was alone in the hallway. He kind of felt like an idiot, standing in a hallway where nothing else stood. Except something did stand there, but no one else knew it was there. He knew he shouldn't feel like an idiot, but he did. Weird.
He began to walk around again, still looking for his book. He couldn't find it anywhere though, and he had already searched most of the Mystery Shack. It looked like it was time for a trip to the library. He walked to it, because he didn't feel like explaining to anyone why he needed a car to go to the library. It was a fairly hot day, and he sweated quite a bit, but it didn't really bother him. It did bother him, however, that it was almost the end of June, and the end of August approached with each passing day. He still had to figure out what to do when Bill was left alone here. Bill couldn't leave Gravity Falls, but his parents had already refused to let them move there. He shouldn't think about that right now, though. He stepped into the library, realized it wasn't air conditioned, and sighed. Of course. Only about half the people who lived in Gravity Falls were literate anyway, why would they spend any money on the library? Maybe he would become mayor one day and change that.
He searched the stacks with the kind of intensity you only got from hope and fear, boiling together in your stomach. He searched every section, even the ones where he knew it wouldn't be, just in case someone had put it back wrong or something. No one had. He walked up to the attendant at the front desk and they looked at him. It was Pacifica Northwest.
"Dipper? What are you doing here?" he asked, seeming surprised.
"It's the library, Pacifica. Do you expect me to be other places?"
"Welcome back to Gravity Falls, dork. What do you want?"
"I need your help finding a book," Dipper said, rolling his eyes.
"There's a book!" She pointed in the direction of the stacks. "Leave me alone."
"Pacifica, I really need this! Please, just once, can you help me?" Dipper hated begging for things, especially from rich girls who he used to like but then they didn't pick up on it in time, but this was a necessary evil.
"Fine, dork. Which one?"
"I think it's called 'The Pyramids Were Built By Aliens, and Fifteen Other Conspiracies Your Boyfriend Will Make Fun Of'."
"Follow me. Do you even have a boyfriend?"
"No..." He said, almost grinning. "I just like conspiracies." They stopped at a back section that had an overstacked shelf.
"This is it," Pacifica said, pointing to a big, flat book that had a pyramid on the cover.
"Okay, thank you."
He checked it out and ran to the hospital, then to Bill's room without any warning to the attendant there. She shrugged and resumed playing solitaire. She was alone in this world, and she figured it wasn't here place to stop those who need to go into the hospital wings. A voice in the back of her head told her that it was literally her only job to do that, but she shrugged again and smiled. She was the queen of anarchy.
"Bill!" It was late afternoon, though you couldn't tell from the lack of windows, and Dipper held up his book proudly. "I got something!" Bill smiled at him.
"Thanks Pine Tree!" He looked at lot better and some of his luster had returned. Mabel smiled at him from the chair in the corner.
"I got to sing for W-Bill!" She shouted, grinning. Everyone giggled and Dipper sat down on the edge of Bill's bed, and began to read out loud all the conspiracies. Bill chimed in whenever he knew one was fake, to criticize and correct. Dipper read until the very last page, until it was very dark out. No one came back to stop him, so he hoped it was fine to be saying so late. The queen of anarchy felt a surge of happiness as he thought that.
"My Pine Tree, I loved it," Bill said as Dipper finished reading. Dipper smiled and nodded.
"I hoped you would."