"Oh, where's that suitcase?" Dipper muttered frantically. He rushed to his attic and grabbed a big cardboard box labeled "traveling stuff". He had recently moved to his new house, so most of his non-essential items were still stored away. "Packing is going to he a lot harder than usual." He thought. With a perplexed look, he grabbed a large luggage bag from the box and began packing up various shirts, shoes, and shorts. His old lumberjack hat already rested on his head, and a blue vest was on his shoulders. He added a few more items to his bag and began scouring the rest of his house for anything else he would need to bring. As he passed a mirror, he took a glance, and saw himself, but younger. An adventrous teen packing for a similar summer trip, years ago. Not much had changed, yet everything had changed.
Dipper Pines was not a man that changed much from his younger years. He still wore his same old shorts and vest, and made a point to constantly wear a worn out hat that a certain special girl gave him several summers ago. The only things that had changed about him at all were his height, and the small stubble on his chin. He had always seen his look from his teen years as fitting for him, so he never made the effort to change it.
"Think, Dipper, think," he said to himself, "what else do I need?" In a single motion, he picked up the postcard and note he had received from his Great Uncle off of the ground, and shoved it into his pocket. He strided into an office which he was in the middle of setting up and picked up a book with a faded and worn cover. Dipper brought it closer to his face examining it. He debated whether or not he should bring the book or not. The air of mystery about it, the golden hand, the crispy pages, all had an intimidating yet magical sense of secrecy.
"Well if I don't need it," he thought to himself, "Ford might." He brought it to the suitcase, set it gently on top, and finally felt good about closing up his luggage. Although he had some doubts about what could happen if he brought the book back, he knew that if he was in a pinch, he could count on the world of weird that lay inside of the book to help him out. It had many times in the past.
Dipper withdrew the letter from his pocket to read it again to see if there was anything in there to signify what else he needed. He knew that things must be pretty serious for Ford to have let his beloved pristine handwriting slip away. For instead, there was disheveled, angular lines instead of the usual curly and perfect. The note read: "Dipper, these letters have gone out to many of our close friends, including your sister. I'm afraid that Stan has recently suffered from cardiac arrest and is currently in the hospital. Professionals say he probably won't last long which is why you must come to Gravity Falls immediately However, I have a favor to ask of you. We both know that Mabel was very close to Stan. I didn't tell her many details of what happened, knowing that her reaction would be... less than practical. I was hoping when you arrived to Gravity Falls you could speak with her about it. I must go and attend to other matters. Best of luck to you, and I look forward to seeing you again."
"Mabel?" Dipper said to himself, "I-it's been so long. Too long." He felt his eyes burn as he swallowed back the lump in his throat. Regret had suddenly boiled in his chest as he grabbed his phone; the final item, and hauled his bag out to his SUV. He popped in a cheesy old BABBA CD to his car and opened his phone. It took a while, but he eventually found the phone number he was looking for. The contact picture was them at their graduation: one of their last few days seeing each other.
"Okay, why are my hands shaking?" he said, "it's literally just my twin sister..." "...that I haven't talked to in almost 5 years..." "you know what? I'll just text her. Y-yeah, that's better than calling anyways, right?" He began typing, trying to casually throw in a "what are you up to lately?" or a, "well we haven't talked in a while," but Dipper just couldn't get it to sound right. Eventually, he remembered that he was short on time as it was, so he settled for a small text that didn't fit half of what he needed to say. "We'll talk everything out," he said "In Gravity Falls." He pressed send and started his car.
"Disco girl, coming through, that girl is you! Oo Oo Oo, Oo Oo Oo!" He sang as he rolled down the dusty road to a sleepy town of memories.