It's the first Monday of the school year, and the three kids are happy to reunite. What's more, Sammy is noticing that the twins are wearing custom friendship bracelets. Dipper has a blue one and Mabel has a pink one. He reacts with a lot of joy in his heart.

"Aww, you like these?"

"Of course we do! You made them for our birthday. And they're so cute, we couldn't resist.", answers a cheerful Mabel.

Dipper gives a subdued, but genuine smile as he looks at his. "You mean a lot to us, so no way we wouldn't wear them!"

Samuel feels a little down. "I feel bad that I couldn't think of something else... We didn't hang out for a while, so I didn't have any other idea..."

"Hey now, it's a great gift you made for us, don't feel bad!" Dipper looks at his friend with a serious stare about it.

"They're handmade by yourself, so you put a lot of heart into our gift. And that's all that's needed!" Mabel reacts with a smile.

Sammy has the biggest smile on his face. "Well now I'll have to get one for myself. I'll do that during the week!"

"Also also..." Mabel says, still cheerfully. "We got cellphones from our parents for our 13th birthday!"

"Oh yeah, true..." Dipper shows his alongside his sister.

"Awesome!" Their friend notes and the three exchange their contacts, since Sammy got a cellphone himself near the end of the previous school year.

The bell rings and the three look at each other.

"Alright, time to face a new school year! We can do this!", encourages Dipper.

The three enter the building to find out something that does ruin a bit of the happiness.

"Aww, what? Looks like I'm not in the same class as you guys...", claims Mabel, who's very disappointed about it.

Her brother is quick to cheer her up. "Don't worry too much, we'll still reunite every day for the breaks and stuff. You know it doesn't mean anything..."

The message is enough to reassure her as she goes to her classroom while Samuel gets curious. "Say, the way you told her that makes it seem like she's scared..."

Dipper quickly explains. "You see... near the end of the vacation, she got quite a fear from feeling of abandonment, and... I feel like she might still be struggling to recover."

"Oh, I see..." Samuel gets a little concerned, but keeps it to himself for now as the two friends naturally sit together in class.

After several hours, it is lunch break and in the middle of their usual playful banter, Sammy asks something unusual. "Say, Mabel, can I speak to you?" He looks at her brother. "Alone, if you don't mind?"

Dipper doesn't object despite his curiosity. As the two reach a place out of his earsight, Sammy starts speaking and he can't see his sister's reaction to whatever he's saying, but he sees her returning fairly upbeat. Thanks to that factor alone, he doesn't really question anything.

It is now Thursday afternoon and it is time for recess. Sammy exits the classroom followed by Dipper, who seems a little off. He indeed looks at his shoes and his body seems tense.

Sammy notices: "Uh, that's odd, is Mabel late? Well, maybe she's still stuck in her class. I don't think she'd be mad if we take a little headstart on recess, right, friend?"

Dipper is mainly silent, but his body language implies "you're annoying me...". As the two boys walk in the hallway, out of nowhere and without witnesses, he violently grabs Samuel to enter a barely lit closet.

Samuel gasps. "Dipper? What gives?" The boy in question answers by grabbing his friend by his shirt collar and pinning him against the wall.

The brown haired boy raises his head and he looks... creepy. He has a very sadistic smile on his face, one that Samuel would've never thought possible from his best friend. It was enough to give him chills on his entire body.

"SHUT UP!", orders Dipper.

Samuel feels a bone-chilling fear. "B-but... Di..."

"I said... SHUT UP!" Dipper punches the wall very close to Sammy's face, adding even more terror, if that was even possible.

Sammy feels petrified. He did not understand a thing, and he's unable to speak.

In a sinister way, he states... "Time is ticking for you, my so-called... friend..." He seems disgusted as he said the word. "I will turn your life into a living nightmare, Fuzzball!". This is a nickname that he made up on the spot, referring to his hair.

Sammy is confused and gets the courage to speak a few words. "W-what d-did y-yo...?"

Dipper makes one last threat with a very angry expression. "What... don't you understand... when I say...? SHUT UP! The next time you dare cut me off, I'll do the same by cutting that stupid tongue of yours!"

The terror in Samuel's body gets so high that he faints on the spot, with Dipper looking very satisfied as he leaves him alone in the closet.

Barely two minutes later, Mabel goes outside and meets her brother. "Hey bro, where's Sammy?"

Dipper reacts with his usual behavior. "I don't know, we left the classroom together and I feel like he just... vanished? I assumed he went to wait for you, but he's not with you either..."

Concerned, the two enter the building and explore the halls, asking the teachers and other faculty they come across if they've seen their friend. Then, as they walk, Dipper hears a faint sound coming from the closet. They open the door nervously.

"SAMMY! What happened?" They see their friend laying on the ground, barely managing to move. He's shaking of terror, unable to stand by himself.

"I... I..." He gets a comforting pat on the shoulder from both of his friends to encourage him.

"Come, we have to lead you to the principal's office so you can explain this", states Mabel as she grabs her friend's arm to help him move.

After what seems to be hours of anticipation, Sammy exits the office and he guessed the obvious question on his friends minds, so he wastes no time and repeats his explanation.

"I got bullied... Someone dragged me on that closet and scared me so much I fainted! It was so scary I... somehow forgot who the culprit behind this was..."

"Oh my gosh... What kind of monster could do such a thing?", asks a disgusted Dipper. "Are you gonna be okay now?"

Samuel answers: "Given the circumstances, the principal allowed me to skip the final hours of class so I could take time to relax."

Mabel smiles. "Oh, that's really generous! Oh shoot, speaking of, I gotta hurry back to class! We'll talk more real soon, okay?" She storms off.

"Yeah, same for me, my friend... I'll provide the few hours of lectures and homework you might miss. Meanwhile, try to relax..." He leaves his friend alone in the hallways, where he can get a seat and breathe. But he now feels a sense of dread and insecurity around him, like if someone's out there to get him.

In the evening, Samuel reaches home and he tells his parents about what happened. He promised that he would report anything he knows should this situation happen again. While his parents are understandingly worried, they do trust their son for doing the right thing and don't bring the subject much more. The kid gets a faint smile about it as he still feels unsafe. He gets his mind off this for a little bit as he makes himself a purple friendship bracelet to match his friends.

In that void space, the same ominous and loud voices cheers. "That was lovely, wasn't it? And the fun is only BEGINNING!" The sentence is followed by a loud evil laugh.

Author notes: And so it truly begins... This is my first time writing a long-term scenario that isn't a rewrite, so I'm basically a newbie at this. But I hope it is good to read. Feedback would be very appreciated, if you please.

So yeah, it should be obvious who the culprit is, and there are some iJekyll & Hide/i shenanigans going on with Dipper right now. There is a reason why this occurs, but the explanation will come on a later chapter.

Also I've been debating with myself when it comes to chapter lenghts, but I didn't wanna publish too much at once, so sorry if that felt a little short.