Chapter 10

Dipper was in shock.

What happened? He fell asleep for five minutes and he grew cat ears?

As he watched, they disappeared, only to reappear where his human ears had been. Great. Fortunately, they were the same color as his hair, so if he put on his hat and positioned his hair right, they blended in.

He paced the room, wondering how on earth this could happen. He grabbed Volume 3 and flipped through it, desperately looking for anything that could hint at his situation. Brownies, giants, vampires, the Avengers... nothing seemed to be useful.

Finally he found a page that he had used not too long ago. It was the page about the size-altering crystals. At first he didn't realize how helpful this page was; he just reminisced about the time he had gone into the forest to get one. Tiny antelope, giant butterfly, tiny... cougar.

That was it! The cougar had bitten him! But cougars weren't magical... were they?

Suddenly he heard Mabel pound on the door. "Dipper! Can I come in? It's not like you're naked or anything!"

Let's hope this works, he thought, putting his hat on and repositioning his hair. "Sure."

Mabel entered the room. "Hey, Dipper! We're going to the lake! You want to come?"

"Uh, sure," Dipper said. "Let me get my pool stuff first."

He pulled on his suit, grabbed his things, put them in Mabel's pool bag, and walked out with her. Jake and the others were already waiting.

When they got outside, the six kids got in the Mystery Cart and headed to the lake, with Dipper and Mabel yelling, "We're going to the lake!"

Dipper heard Trixie say, "Did you bring sunscreen?"

They turned the cart around and yelled, "We're going to get sunscreen!"

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the lake. Mabel accidentally steered the cart into a mound of dirt, and the kids flew out as the cart fell on its side. Dipper was the only one who landed on his feet.

Huh, he thought. Must be part of the cat thing.

"Wow, Dipper!" Mabel pulled herself off the ground and picked up her bag. "How did you do that?"

He shrugged. "Reflexes, I guess. Probably from the wax figures."

"You know," Jake said as he helped Trixie up, "you never explained what happened with the wax figures."

"It's a long story," Dipper said, putting on his sunglasses.

"I'm a Long child with a long story," Jake countered. "I'm used to long stories. Go ahead."

So as they helped re-right the cart, Dipper explained what had happened those few days. When he mentioned the part where Dipper decided to try to solve the case, Jake nodded, obviously impressed. When he explained the part where he surveyed the town for left-handed people, Jake said, "Smart." And when he described the near-fatal fight with Sherlock Holmes on the roof of the Shack, Jake's eyes widened as he said, "So that's why the 'S' isn't attached to the sign!"

After Dipper was done, Jake said nothing for a moment, then said, "Wow. You and Mabel are, hands down, the best fighters and smartest thinkers I've ever met."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed. "You have my praise."

Dipper wasn't sure he'd heard them right. "Uh, hello? Mabel and me? You're the one with the dragon powers! That totally beats-"

"No it doesn't."

Dipper half closed his eyes. "Ok, then. Explain."

Jake shrugged. "Fine. When something magical comes up and threatens me, bam! Dragon up and hand their butts to them."

"Exactly! So you're better than-"

"Hey! You didn't let me finish. What I mean is that you and Mabel don't have any of that. You rely on pure wits and human skill. And you still survive day to day. If you stripped me of my powers- which has happened, don't get me wrong- I probably wouldn't last a week."

They finally pushed the cart upright and Dipper sighed. "Huh. I never thought about it that way. I mean, I guess you're right..."

"Exactly!" Jake insisted. "Now we're settled."

Dipper shrugged in agreement and followed the others to the lake.

After watching the other five race each other up and down the lake for hours- Haley and Jake in dragon form half of the time- Dipper was bored. He had already read through Volume 3 a few times and insisted on not going swimming. Not that he didn't want to- he loved swimming. Back in Piedmont, it was his favorite thing to do, second to maybe video games. But he didn't want Mabel and the others to see his cat ears, so he stayed put.

"Come on, Dipper!" Mabel yelled. "I'll only beat you by a tiny bit!"

"Mabel," Dipper said, pinching between his eyes, "I told you. I'm not going in!"

"Guess again!"

Dipper turned around, looking for the person who had said that. Jake and Haley, in dragon form, were hovering above his pool chair. They each grabbed one of his arms, flew over to the lake, and tossed him in.

He came up for air, gasping, and paddled over to the shore. He got out, shook his head, sat back down in his chair, and stuffed his cat ears under his hat, hoping they hadn't seen them. "Very funny, dragons."

"You're right!" Mabel laughed.

"Dude, it was pretty funny." Spud got out as well and sat in the chair next to Dipper.

"Maybe if I was wet already!" Dipper yelled, but he said it in a way that everyone knew he was fine with it.

Jake and Haley transformed back to human form and walked over to Dipper. "Sorry, man," Jake said. "We couldn't resist."

"It's fine," Dipper insisted.

"Hey, Jake," Haley said, turning to him, "you want to race?"

"Sure, Haley," Jake responded smugly. "I was looking for someone else to beat."

Dipper didn't know what compelled him to do so, but he suddenly said, "I want to race."

The Longs looked at him. "Really?" Haley asked. "Thirty seconds ago you didn't want to get in the water. Now-"

"Not in the lake."

Jake looked at him funny. "On land? No offense, Dipper, but I spend my free time running for my life. I'm the fastest runner for miles."

Dipper scoffed. "Jake! Quit putting words in my mouth! I never said anything about running! Not for you, anyway..."

Haley's eyes widened. "You mean flying? We fly as you run?"

"Yeah," Dipper said simply. "Why not?"

Jake and Haley both started to say something then stopped, obviously not able to come up with a reason for him not to run.

"Ok, then," Jake allowed. "You can race with us. Once around the lake?"

"Sure."

Trixie held the stopwatch. Spud was the referee. Mabel was the audience. And Dipper was the cocky racer who seemed to have no chance whatsoever.

"And three, two, one!" Spud blew the whistle, and the three racers took off.

At first it seemed like no contest. Jake was in the lead, followed by Haley and Dipper. Dipper was going pretty fast, and he was enjoying every moment of it. Then, apparently impossibly, Dipper started to gain on Haley, and he wasn't just running. He was hopping giant distances from rock to rock, occasionally doing twists or flips in the air. Finally, he passed Haley completely and was neck- and-neck with Jake.

"Whoa!" Jake yelled, impressed. "You weren't kidding about the wax!"

Dipper smirked. "It's what I do!"

The finish line was coming up fast. Jake and Dipper pulled ahead, neither one giving up. At the last second, Dipper rolled and sprung into the air, sticking the landing just across the finish line.

"Woo!" Trixie yelled. "We have a winner, baby! Two minutes and seven seconds!"

Dipper stood up straight, panting hard. He felt like someone had used his head as a punching bag, but he also felt pretty good, considering the situation.

Mabel ran up to him. "Wow! That was amazing! How did you do all that stuff?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess running for your life changes you."

Jake walked up to him and transformed back. "Good race, Dip. You got some mad skizills there!"

Dipper smiled. "Thanks. I've never run that fast before."

"Well," Jake said, "you might want to consider-" Suddenly he gasped.

"What?" Mabel asked, looking at Dipper. She gasped too.

Trixie, Spud, and Haley came over and gasped as well.

"What?" Dipper demanded. "Why are you-"

Then he saw it.

His pine tree hat was lying on the ground near the finish line.

Dipper slowly put his hands up to his cat ears and felt them, out in the open.

"Aw, man..."