The halls of Gravity High were eerily silent. Normally, there was a loud roar of chatter in the morning; everyone talking about what they'd done the night before, if they'd caught the new Ducktective, where they wanted to hang out after school and all the like.

This morning you could almost hear a pin drop as students stood at their lockers, not even making eye contact with one another as they grabbed their stuff for first period. Everyone knew the news. No one wanted to be the one who ended up being the first to look at him.

But of course, Gideon came into school a minute or two after the bell had rung, lightly humming to himself with a huge smile on his face like there was nothing alarming about his appearance at all. He looked around for a while, realizing that the other students were purposely avoiding eye contact with him.

Gideon, rather than just accept it, decided to take things a bit further. He cleared his throat and loudly exclaimed: "Students of Gravity High!"

Normally no one would be able to hear him with the amount of chatter going on, but Gideon was the only voice in the hallway. A few heads twitched in resistance, still trying not to make eye contact.

"I know I have done some awful, awful things in the past to some of you or your families." Gideon continued. "But I've become a new person through my time in the slammer, and now want to challenge my energy towards helping others. I understand my presence in your school may feel intruding, but please, just treat me like you would anyone else."

Gideon finished his speech with a big smile, waiting for someone - anyone - to decide to smile back at him. Nothing.

Finally, the sound of someone unzipping their lunchbag caught everyone's attention. A tall, slender blonde boy pulled a tomato out of his bag, turned in Gideon's direction, and threw it right in his face.

"Yep, just like everyone else." The boy said, with a smirk on his face.

There was an uproar of laughter. Even Dipper and Mabel, who were trying their best to turn completely invisible, couldn't help their funny bones being tickled by the incident. However, suddenly things turned a bit grimdark when, just as the bell was ringing, Gideon ran off crying into the restroom.

Dipper stopped laughing when he saw Gideon run off. He felt a sudden queasy pressure in his stomach.

Ugh. Why am I feeling...guilty?, Dipper questioned to himself in his head. Gideon's done so many awful things to us, this is just him getting his just desserts.

Still, Dipper couldn't help his good-guy instincts overcoming him. Maybe Gideon was legitimately trying to become a good person; everyone treating him like garbage was only going to make him go back to his old evil ways.

With a sigh, Dipper tried to shake off his feelings and went to first period. As he entered the classroom, he felt himself get nailed in the head with a piece of paper before he even had time to dodge it.

"Ow." Dipper moaned, as he briefly clutched his eyes shut before opening them again and realizing who had thrown the piece of paper: none other then the History homeroom teacher, Old Man McGucket.

"Man, you're a lousy catch, kid." Old Man McGucket said with a laugh. "No offense."

"None taken, Mr. McGucket." Dipper muttered, taking a seat at his desk. He unfolded the piece of paper that had been ever-so-kindly placed in his possession, only to find it was the details to a project of sorts.

"Let's see...is everyone here?" Old Man McGucket asked to the class, looking around the room.

"Uh, there's an extra desk right next to me, sir." A pale girl with black, violet-highlighted hair sitting in the back of the classroom stated. "But it wasn't here last time, so-"

"An extra desk? Oh, right! We've got a new student in our homeroom today. Or, rather, we're supposed to. Has anyone seen Gideon Gleeful?"

No no no no no no no no. Dipper's mind went immediately into panic mode at the boy's name. Sure enough, right on cue, Gideon entered through the classroom door, looking down at the floor as he took a seat at the empty desk next to the girl, not making eye contact or any sound other then a sniffle as he sat down.

"Ah, Gideon, there you are." Old Man McGucket said. "Don't sweat it about being late, kid; I'm usually a bit tardy myself. These hallways are pretty kooky. So, anyways, now that everyone's here, we can get started talking about this project. Now, according to the district's learning plans, we're supposed to be learning about the history of the United States in here, so the lesson plans I have here say to have you do a presentation on one of the presidents."

Suddenly, Old Man McGucket took a folder out from under his desk labeled "LESSON PLANS", and with a crazy grin, pulled a match out of his pocket and set it ablaze. One girl screamed. "Well I say phooey to that! Your project will instead be to ask one of us old-timers in Gravity Falls about our history in the town and present your information to the class, due Friday. This is also a partner project, so you can pick-"

Before McGucket had a chance to even finish his sentence, desks began shuffling and people began running towards each other. Everyone wanted to avoid one person. Dipper began panicking again as he looked around the room for somebody - anybody that didn't have a partner, other than...

"Gideon? Dipper? Are you two the only ones without a partner?" Old Man McGucket asked. "Well, I guess the two of you will be working together, then. I'm assigning you two to Lazy Susan at the Diner. She can tell you some crazy stories for sure. Now, as for the rest of you..."

As Old Man McGucket assigned the rest of the class their people, Dipper sighed and moved his desk towards Gideon's at a snail's pace.

"Gideon, I-" Dipper started.

"No, no, you don't have to say anything." Gideon said, sniffling. Dipper got the guilty feeling in his stomach again.

"Look-"

"I said shut up." Gideon suddenly uttered fiercely, looking up at Dipper with an angry expression on his face. "You know, for a while I thought about forgiving you for what you and your sister did to me. Now, after the events of this morning, I've decided to show no mercy. So, for now, let's just say that you owe me two things. One thing, you're doing this whole project yourself and letting me take half the credit. The second thing..."

Gideon got a sly smirk on his face. "We'll deal with that bridge once we cross it."

Dipper's feelings of sympathy towards Gideon sunk like the Titanic after he heard the kid's pledge. Now on top of all the other issues Dipper had, he had to deal with the fact that Gideon Gleeful was actively going to put the Pines family in danger again.

Maybe it'll be fine, Dipper tried to convince himself. No one really trusts the Gleeful family...right?


A/N: ...Right?

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm trying to update more regularly, but to be honest I need to figure out where this story is going myself before I can be totally committed to an update schedule. My writing almost has a mind of its own sometimes, and this story's already turned in directions I never imagined.

As usual, R&R highly appreciated. See you all next time!