A couple of minutes later, the alarm clock rings and Samuel wakes up painfully, unaware of what just happened in his mind. Just before that noise, Bill vanished entirely from the room, following his vessel around without making himself seen or heard. For now, he doesn't want anyone to see him in this state.

Sammy rushes out of the house to go to school and he ends up being early, waiting for his friends. Dipper and Mabel arrive together with a lot of joy as they see that their best friend is himself again despite the deal. And Dipper is extremely happy to have proven himself innocent the previous day and being allowed back in school early.

While a part of the twins might have questions just waiting to be asked when it comes to Bill... for now, they put it aside entirely. They instead want to spend the school hours learning and enjoying their friend's company, and decided that they would only bring up Bill should he decide to show himself in some way.

And they do great at this. They only bring joyful topics when they get the chance, talking about what they recently did and giving some more details about their respective vacations. Regardless if it's during breaks or between the two boys in class, they only share positivity during those few days while Bill remains hidden with a lot of painful thoughts in his mind.

On Friday evening, a new week-end starts. But there is an issue... Samuel is alone in his bedroom and speaks up. "Bill... can you come here?"

Bill shows himself for the first time in two days, hiding his feelings with a sarcastic "Yes, you called...?" with his arms crossed.

The kid doesn't notice anything odd yet, but he reminds with a serious tone. "Tomorrow is the detention morning, and I don't suppose you'd be avoiding it... I hope not, at least."

Bill groans. "Yeah yeah, I'll possess you and attend all the detention time so you don't have to!" He sounds frustrated. "Because I'm the one to blame, I deserve it, yadda yadda..." He then looks away.

Sammy is a little bit confused, but doesn't want to question him as he seems fairly upset. He instead gets ready for bed. Bill mutters to himself... "It's not like it's gonna be as painful as the wait I had to endure in my life for nothing..."

On Saturday morning, Samuel opens his eyes... They have the color and shape of Bill, as he took control of the body to go to his detention hours. He acts like he doesn't give a single care in the world as he walks to the school.

While he's on the way there, he realizes he got a text from Dipper, where he tells Samuel "good luck handling detention." Bill sees this instead and tells to himself. "Shut up, Pinetree, I don't need your empathy!"

He enters the classroom, leaving Samuel's phone and other non-academic items away, as the superviser states. "You are here because you have to use the time to think about your actions."

Bill answers half-sarcastically "Yeah, I definitely will!" So he takes a seat in the empty room, and just... stands there for a while, many thoughts rushing in his mind to keep his head busy...

After the first hour, he gets an idea to pass the time. Reaching for the backpack, he grabs a notebook that is mostly blank. He asks himself "What is this for?". He starts reading it, seeing that Samuel wrote his thoughts about his friends returning home and gives up after a few words. "It's some stupid diary or something... I don't think Fuzzball would mind if I borrow some pages..."

And with that... he starts to draw during the following hours. Bill keeps his mind busy using these human fingers to draw with pencils... He finds it relaxing, but at the same time... It creates pain in the human body he's using.

The demon has an amazing memory, so he draws stuff from his past. With a lot of bad feelings rushing in Sammy's body, he completes several pages of the notebook, all of them being related to Weirdmageddon. In one of them, he has drawn the Fearamid, his previous castle, floating all mighty right under the dimensional rift. On another page, he has drawn the evil-looking flying car he got himself to ride with his friends. On several pages, he has drawn a solid amount of the creepy, non-sensical things he caused during his reign. And one where he recreated the painting that was at the top floor of the Fearamid, him wearing a crown with skulls and putting a foot on a globe.

But the most difficult thing for him to draw is what he does last... He decided to draw his friends from the Nightmare realm. All his Henchmaniacs, one after the other.

And as he finishes and looks at everything... He can't help but feel negative... These drawings represent the short-lived happiness that he had on that dimension, which reminds him that everything is gone with no return now... He breaks down crying on the desk, unable to handle the feelings of grief regarding what he lost...

The superviser of the detention notices and goes to him. "Are you alright, Samuel?"

Bill hides what he has drawn in the notebook, doing his best not to cry again. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just... feel some heavy guilt, I guess..."

He gets a fairly sympathetic and generous answer. "Since your detention time is almost over, you can leave now, even if it's a few minutes early, if you want."

Putting the notebook and pencils in the backpack, he says "Thank you, Sir... I appreciate it", and leaves, letting Samuel get control again outside the school without a single word of explanation. Once again, Bill vanishes from view and lets Samuel there, which was definitely needed as he can't show himself in public except for the very select people that know.

Speaking of, Sammy takes a solid breath and runs to the Pines residence for a visit. Once there, he finds his friends keeping themselves busy. Mason is reading a book and Mabel is cuddling Waddles in the bedroom. They are both very cheerful to see their friend.

And with the door locked and being sure the parents won't see a thing, Bill shows himself with a very grumpy attitude. "Oh wow, Fuzzball, you go spend some time with these two... THAT'S DIFFERENT!" He then just floats to a corner of the bedroom. Without knowing it, this is where "Pinetree" stored all his memorabilia of the summer, but he doesn't look around... yet.

Samuel acts a little ashamed. "I... Sorry about that..."

Dipper, who notices Bill is just standing there innocently, takes the logical thing to say. "That's alright... He's not being a nuisance, and we know how he can be."

Mabel then speaks one of her biggest worries. "Sammy, I don't want you to think we wanna hang around with you mainly to question Bill... I've been fearing you'd think that for a bit."

Dipper adds. "Yeah, I have to admit... My curiosity about him is strong, but I don't want you to feel sidelined either. You are still our number one priority as our friend."

Sammy understands, and actually had a similar worry. "Oh that's fine, I get it! I mean, I'm also very curious about the stuff you told me about your vacation, but it doesn't equals to me not caring about your feelings!"

Mabel acts a little worried about the next question. "So... how was your detention time...? Because of..." She stares at Bill's back, but doesn't add anything to that.

"Oh well, in a way, I was sleeping during it. Bill attended it as we arranged and he did nothing bad there, so I got no complaints."

They speak for a bit. In the middle of the conversation, Waddles goes to cuddle Samuel, as the little pig ends up treating his owners' best friend as someone he can trust. And Sammy pets him with a smile in response.

Mabel looks at the scene and gasps with sparks in her eyes. "He adopted you..." She takes a picture of the moment with agreements from her friend. She then stares at Bill, looking worried. "Say, we haven't heard of him in the past few days. He really did... nothing bad, during that time?"

Samuel claims the truth. "Indeed, after our meeting outside school Wednesday, he just... disappeared. I didn't hear of him until the Friday night when I called for him. And I never asked."

Dipper wonders. "This is so unlike him to be silent like that. I'd like to ask, but..." he actually feels hesitation about it. He then wonders about a different solution. "Sammy, this is a weird question, but... did you keep track of his behavior in some way, since the deal?"

Samuel actually has a bit of a curious side, much like his best friend Mason. And so he answers. "Yeah, I've written a few observations, almost like a diary. If you're really curious about it, I can show you!" He grabs something in his bag. "It's in my notebook."

The word makes Bill get very nervous. He thinks about the drawings he did, and he doesn't want them to see. So as Dipper is about to grab it... "NO!" Bill floats at immense speed out of nowhere and grabs it.

Samuel is shocked and tries his best to solve the situation, trying authority and compassion together. "Bill, what gives? Give it back!". The twins are very surprised and don't say anything for now. The notebook is their friend's business and they only plan to react if things get worse.

Bill holds the notebook with a tight grip. "No! And don't insist, Fuzzball, or I'll..." He starts thinking in a desperate train of thought. "I'll burn it!" He makes a blue flame come out of his left hand to make his threat more believable.

His vessel gasps and panics. "No, don't do that! I wrote important things in there! Plus... you can't start a fire indoors, let alone in my friends' room. This goes against the deal of not putting them in danger!"

Bill makes the flame disappear, groaning and realizing his bluff didn't work. "Ugh, fine, you got me... If you want answers, okay, I'll hear your questions." Bill gives the notebook back to its owner, but he also approaches in a serious voice. "But don't... show... them!"

Samuel keeps his composure for the most part. "I... Thanks, Bill..." He grabs the notebook and puts it back on his bag, keeping his promise.

The twins sigh of relief and are happy to see they got an understanding.

Bill approaches the twins and tries his best to apologize, since there is still a hint of anger in his speech. "Sorry about what you just witnessed... I lost my cool and I apologize." Both forgive him for it, even if Dipper's curiosity is slightly getting the best of him. The demon then says "So you apparently have one or two questions for me? Just ask away..."

Dipper has a very important question. "Yeah, I was wondering... what was...?"

Unfortunately, the discussion gets interrupted as it's now lunch time, and all three of them are hungry. So they decide to put the question on hold for now. They leave him alone in the bedroom.

Bill rolls his eye. "Oh, those flesh sacks and their stupid needs..." He is left alone in the kids bedroom, since he can't move with them and introduce himself to the Pines parents without causing a freakout. Fortunately, being one floor away from Samuel is still generous enough for the magical chain that links them together.

He takes advantage of being left alone to peek around the bedroom. Especially around the corner he was standing close to. And he finds the box Dipper put there. He opens it to find a bunch of items from the vacation, but his attention is mainly taken by the envelope standing there. So he uses his magic to make it open itself, and he sees the paper...

"... Pinetree... Got this before he left, uh...?" As he reads the farewells and signatures of all those familiar names... He feels fury inside, thinking about all the humans that worked together against his dream. If he was to let his feelings get the best of him, he would've ripped the paper to pieces, burned it, melted it, anything to make it disappear. But, he is forced to let it go in order to avoid causing a commotion with the kids. So he just puts it back, alongside other items that Pinetree considers as important souvenirs from the summer. He puts the box at its place before the three kids come back.

So Bill sits in midair while taking a relaxed and confident facade in presence of the humans. He asks how was the meal, acting like he gives the smallest care, just so they'd trust him some more.

And then Mabel asks a question first. "Bill, I know you take pleasure in evil and tormenting, but... it feels like you've, um... changed a bit? You've showcased some feelings that are quite unlike you. So maybe you are more complex than we thought. But then, this made me wonder... why do you find pleasure with this stuff to begin with?"

Bill answers both honestly and sarcastically. "Because I'm a sick and twisted individual who just loves it!"

Dipper frowns at the response, but that's what was to be expected. Meanwhile, Mabel continues. "Surely there are things besides causing evil that bring you joy... What are these?"

Bill crosses his arms and answers honestly. "I could show you, but, you wouldn't like them."

Mabel insists. "I still wanna know!"

Bill moves his arms to the side. "Okay, then..." His body just turns into a projector, and Bill shows her very creepy imagery. Stuff that definitely belongs in horror movies. It involves a lot of body horror and nightmarish sights. He then stops after around 20 seconds and claims happily... "This stuff really is a beauty! It always get giggles out of me!"

Dipper is shocked, but not surprised. Meanwhile, Mabel... she's standing, shaking... and has some tears. She's close to feeling traumatized. "That was... horrible, sickening, awful... There are no words!"

Bill floats downwards with a frown. "I warned you, didn't I, Shooting star? You have no right to complain to me!"

Dipper grabs his sister's shoulders for comfort and gives a very judgemental stare at Bill, who's still defending himself angrily. "She asked for it!"

Since the boy's stare doesn't leave, Bill gives up and rolls his eye again (being around those kids does make him very prone to do that). So he floats upwards again and his body then goes back into a projector mode, but instead... he shows a long montage of many types of animals doing cutesy things to cheer Mabel up back. While Bill... he shudders of disgust inside for what he's doing and showing, but does a good job hiding it.

The girl feels a lot better and gets a smile back. "Thanks, Bill. But... why...?"

Bill hides behind anger. "Don't ask!"

"... Still, thanks, I appreciate it." She smiles at him and goes to sit.

While Dipper starts speaking. "As for me, I only have... one important question to ask, Bill..."

The demon beats him to the punch. "I know... You wanna know what I think of Sixer, don't you?"

The boy gasps, shocked that he was able to correctly guess.

Author notes: Part 1 of my final establishing chapter is here... It really took a while, but I guess I really cared about explaining the situation and showing how each character feels about it.

The notebook will be an important story element from then on.