This is starting to feel like any other summer, except it's way better. Meaning, nothing weird has happened, but I actually have friends.

Today must be a record temperature for the state of Oregon- the cheap wall thermometer measures up to over 100 degrees. Since it is way too hot to stay in the stuffy attic, Dipper, Mabel and I are playing in the sprinklers outside. Mabel literally knitted herself a swimsuit, and Dipper put on swim trunks but refuses to take off his shirt like every other 12-year-old boy would.

Halfway through testing each other's theory over whether water balloons or water guns are more effective by splitting into teams (me and Mabel pelting Dipper with water balloons while he hits us with a hard, steady stream of dirty water), a figure approaches.

"Why, Dipper and Mabel Pines!" He says in a southern drawl, "What a pleasure to see you! And who might this be?"

"Go away, Gideon." Dipper rolls his eyes. "Didn't Grunkle Stan put a restraining order on you?"

"Loopholes, marshmella'." He pulls out a thick document. "Loopholes. The article states that I mustn't come within two hundred feet of Stanford Pines. I believe he's out running errands."

The twins stare daggers at the short boy. He smiles with fake innocence.

"Now, you two never introduced me to your guest." Gideon steps closer to me. "What is your name?"

"I'm Autumn." I say, trying out the same glare as Dipper and Mabel used. "But it's summer. So why don't you just act like I'm not here?"

"Well, it is very nice to meet you, Autumn." He takes another step towards me. I push him away and put my hands on my hips.

"Did you just come by here to see two girls in swimsuits?" I ask. "Because if you are, trust me, I've met people who could set up another restraining order."

He giggles. His laugh sounds like broken glass. "Why, of course not! I just came by to say hello. I heard there was a new girl in town. I wouldn't want you getting tangled up with the…wrong people."

Wrong people?

With that, he leaves. Mabel and Dipper step back into my line of sight.

"Ignore him, Autumn." Dipper says. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

The fight continued until it was proven that water guns are, in fact, more effective if you blind your opponents with muddy water and pop all of their balloons while they have no vision.

"Let's go back inside." I shiver. The temperature dropped as it got later, and now it's in the seventies.

The Shack provides a warm atmosphere as we put our clothes back on. It feels sort of weird to say we instead of I now- I haven't been part of a group in a long time.

"Hey, Autumn." Wendy puts down her magazine. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," I say. "Have you met that Gideon kid?"

"I haven't, but Dipper and Mabel have told me enough about him." She answers. "He seems like a short creep with tall hair."

"That's pretty accurate." I laugh.

The deal that we worked out was that I drive to the Shack in the morning, Wendy walks back to my place with me at six, and her dad picks her up when his work is over and my dad gets home.

Sometime during the walk home, Wendy asks, "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Do you think Dipper has a crush on you?"

I laugh, but then get serious. "No, of course not! Why would you think that?" (Author's note: He really DOES NOT have a crush on her. This was just something I wanted to clarify: this is NOT a Dipper x OC fic.)

She shrugs. "You guys hang out a lot."

"Mabel's there, too." I say. "And we're just friends. If anything, he might have a crush on you."

She laughs at this. "Yeah, right. I'm dating Robbie, anyway."

I shut myself in my room once I get home. Wendy doesn't seem to mind- she's texting Robbie from the couch in the living room. I sit on my bed and read from my book.

The time just keeps passing by. I read through everything about this town: ghosts, zombies, something about a monster made out of candy. I hear the front door open and my parents come in, but I stay in my room reading.

Sometime between when I heard my parents go into their bedroom and when my dad starts snoring loudly, I come across a page that I hadn't seen before.

Dryads, it proclaims on the top in messy handwriting.

Dryads? I think. What are dryads?

I have come across some dryads hidden within the forests of Gravity Falls. They can be hard to find and identify, because they often pass for normal teenage girls or blend in with their trees.

You might not have heard of them, but you know more than you think.

What? This is the first time that I've ever seen the book address the person reading it.

Then something happens that I'm even more surprised by. Where there used to be blank space on the page, writing starts to appear.

Dryads have a love for nature and fantasy. They find that they are in their element in the forest. They can feel like they don't fit in with normal life.

I don't have time to think about what I just read, because the writing keeps appearing.

You might feel that you are related to these traits…

…because you are.

Autumn Davidson, you are a dryad.

I'm a what?