Chapter 12

Gideon was overjoyed.

He had just filled Uncle Rotwood in on the magical secrets of Gravity Falls, and he had believed him. Rotwood was impressed by Volume 2 that Gideon had shown him. In return, Rotwood had explained that Mabel's visiting cousins were secretly dragons, and that he had almost exposed the boy, Jake, several times.

"So," Rotwood said, looking out Gideon's window, "how do we propose to go about this? Should we terrorize the Pines boy first? Or expose the dragons?"

Gideon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I've always tried and failed to get revenge on Dipper. But it doesn't sound like you've had much progress exposing that Jake fella. So we appear to be at an impasse."

"Which one, then?"

Suddenly an idea sprung into Gideon's mind. "I know! I know!"

"What?" Rotwood demanded. "What is it?"

"We can do both!"

Rotwood did a double take. "How?"

"Leave that to me," Gideon said evilly, rubbing his shiny red amulet hanging around his neck.

Dipper was being overloaded with questions.

"When did you meet that guy?" Mabel asked. "He gives me the creeps."

"Oh, I saved his life a few weeks ago," he said, as if he had loaned the bear a dollar.

"And why did he tell you to expect the unexpected?" Jake wondered.

"I think he left me a message," Dipper said. "That or he knows someone who did, because that's the message I found in Volume 3."

"Volume 3?" Trixie asked. "What's that?"

"Oh, right." Dipper pulled the mysterious journal from his vest. "This is it. I found it a week after we arrived in Gravity Falls. I had to go hang up signs on trees, and there was this metal one that was obviously fake. I opened a secret trapdoor on the bark, and there was this weird metal control box thingy. I flipped a switch, and then another trapdoor in the ground opened. This was inside."

The four New Yorkers were silent for a while. Then Haley said, "Wow. So you use that as a guide to help you stay alive and stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I know for sure there are at least two other volumes, and I intend to find them."

Spud whistled. "Whoa. That explains a lot about you."

Dipper's ears perked up and he turned to Spud. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's kind of obvious." Spud waited until the other four had gone ahead, leaving the two boys alone. "You kind of seem like the kind of guy who is serious all the time. You spend too much time worrying about staying alive and you don't care about living a normal life."

Dipper sighed. "I try. But things in Gravity Falls must be different than things in New York, because I'm saving my hide every week and I still have no social life."

"Well, that's the thing," Spud said. "You're the only one who cares about staying alive."

"Thank you!" Dipper said. "I've been saying that since we got here!"

"But the three of us save ourselves together. You save everyone else's lives by yourself. Even Mabel doesn't help you."

"Music to my ears," Dipper muttered.

"My point," Spud clarified, "is that you should chill out some."

"Chill out?! Man, I have freaking cat ears and a tail! And now I think I have fangs!"

"Yeah," Spud admitted, "I guess I forgot about that."

"Oh, well," Dipper said dejectedly. "Let's just go home and forget all about it."

But just before coming out of the forest, Dipper had an epiphany.

"Wait, wait, wait!" he cried. The others stopped and stared at him.

He gestured to himself. "We can't let anyone see me like this!"

Jake facepalmed himself. "Right. Duh." He turned to Mabel. "Any ideas?"

Mabel frowned thoughtfully. "Well, we could say that it's a costume for an attraction at the Shack."

"No, 'cause Stan will want to put me on display," Dipper countered. "We need to sneak in somehow."

"Oh!" Haley pointed to the roof. "We could go in through the window to the attic."

"Perfect," Jake commented. "But how do we-"

"Really, Jake? Really?"

Jake seemed to notice his error. "Oh. Right."

Making sure that nobody was around, Jake 'dragoned up' and flew Dipper to the window. Haley and the others just went through the door.

"So," Jake asked when everyone was gathered in the attic, "what now?"

Mabel raised her hand, and Jake made a big show about choosing her as if they were in school. "Uh... you. Ms. Pines."

"Let's hang out for a bit," she suggested. "We've been up to our necks with magical biz for the past week. We need some R&R, you know?"

Spud raised an eyebrow. "I like the way you think, Mabel Pines."

Mabel giggled, and Dipper noticed that she blushed ever so slightly. "Thanks."

So, for practically the rest of the day, the six kids followed Mabel's idea to do whatever. Spud and Mabel went into the guest room to watch rapping babies on Spud's laptop. Trixie and Haley got together with Wendy and read magazines in the gift shop. And Dipper and Jake just stayed in the attic and hung out.

Dipper, laying on his bed, was updating the journal when he heard a peculiar sound, like rubber hitting wood. And it sounded like it was coming from above him. He looked up and saw a rubber ball bouncing off the wall behind him. He realized that his hearing was really improved for him to have predicted that.

He looked at Jake, expecting him to be throwing the ball against the wall. What he saw instead was Jake leisurely laying on Mabel's bed in human form, but somehow his dragon tail was there. That was what he was using to hit the ball.

"Whoa!" Dipper exclaimed.

Jake looked up. "What?" Then he realized that Dipper was staring at him, and he laughed. "Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot to mention that Hales and I can go partway dragon. I just get really bored sometimes."

"No kidding," Dipper said in awe. "That's really creative."

Jake shrugged modestly. "Yeah, well. Hey, you should try it! I mean, now that you've got a tail."

"No, no," Dipper said, "I'm good."

"C'mon, Dipper!" Jake insisted. "It's entertaining!"

He cracked a smile. "Fine."

Jake caught the ball on the rebound, balanced it on his tail for a moment, then sent it toward Dipper. "Think fast!"

Dipper thrust his tail in the air and intercepted it from hitting him in the face. Unfortunately, it landed on the floor.

"Oops," Dipper muttered.

"It's fine." Jake reached out with his tail and picked it up, balancing it once more. "You must need practice. I was a complete failure the first time I tried it."

And they went on for about a half an hour, just like that.

Until Dipper had the misfortune of glancing out the window.