The month of March has started, and alongside it comes warmer weather. Dipper and Mabel go back to their regular attires, as there's enough heat to allow that, and leave for school.
In the meantime, Samuel also gets dressed for school and is about to go, when he's interrupted by Bill jumpscaring him by appearing in front of his face before he leaves the bedroom. And as much as he claims that he's getting used to him showing up out of nowhere, he still gets surprised enough to back down a few steps.
Bill is, like often, very chipper. "Come on, Fuzzball... Do you REALLY have to go to school?"
Sammy is a bit confused. "Um... Yes, of course. I gotta get a good education for my future, and all that..."
The triangle approches. "Oh, wow, really? You don't even need to waste your time at school! I could just snap my fingers, and provide you with all the knowledge in the world in a few seconds!"
He gets interested. "You really could, uh...?" Yet, he insists. "No thanks, I'd rather get where I'll be in the future on my own merits. Plus I don't mind it if it allows me to hang out with my friends every day."
"Fine, fine... Whatever you say, Fuzzball, your choice..." After a bit of silence, he adds... "Can I do the walk to school today? ... Might as well save you some energy for later in the day, I don't know..." Bill struggles making an excuse for that, maybe he just feels like it.
Samuel can tell that he's bothered at the prospect of asking for a reason and he respects that. He answers. "Alright, sure!" They shake hands and Bill takes command from now on.
Sammill runs out of the house, moving towards the school and seemingly hopping at times along the way. He somehow enjoys being able to interact with the city around him from time to time. It's not as pleasant as what the Nightmare Realm was to him, or what he wanted to turn that dimension into... But he seems to enjoy the sense of freedom when he uses his human host regardless.
Dipper and Mabel have arrived a couple of seconds before him, and when they're about to reach the stairs to enter...
"BAH!" Sammill is making them jump by touching their shoulders from behind.
Dipper freaks out for a second before turning around. "Sammy? ... Wait..."
After taking a good look, Mabel says. "Oh hi, Sammill!"
Dipper screams a bit. "That wasn't funny!"
Sammill is being very playful. "Oh, come on..." He bumps their shoulders again, more softly. "My dear old Pinetree and Shooting star, wouldn't your life be quite boring without some emotions and excitement like that once in a while?"
Mabel giggles a bit because she kind of agrees to an extent once the shock cooled down. Dipper just smiles a little, which is more due to seeing Bill's new behavior and confidence about it than what just happened. To encourage that, he leaves a small. "Yeah, you're right, to some extent."
Sammill shrugs and says confidently. "Of course I'm right!" Then the bell's ringing gets heard. "Looks like you gotta go, so I will too, byyyyye..." Sammy blinks, and then he's suddenly in charge again. "Oh, good morning, guys..."
After some quick banter, they go to class. However, Mabel's cheerfulness from the interactions that just happened quickly fade when she approaches the classroom and sees the usual spectacle.
"Look, Alan's brought candies to share today. He's so nice!"
"I know, right? He's such a good person..."
She groans in silence and goes to sit, where Alan is as cocky as always. "Ah, if it isn't that Mabel... How are you today?" He slightly rubs her head in a teasing manner when no one's looking.
"Stop!" She moves her arms quickly to get him to remove his hands.
Alan takes the opportunity to speak loudly so others in the class could hear. "Mabel, calm down... Why are you being so quick to being rude to me...?"
Mabel tries her best not to answer, knowing full well how Alan's game goes. She keeps the frustration to herself for now.
During lunch break, she takes a moment to tell Dipper and Samuel about it.
"Ever since I've told Alan that I'd stop dealing with his demanding and manipulative behavior, he's been even more annoying than before... Like he really wants me to feel more powerless than I already was..."
Dipper feels pretty bad. "It's my fault... I'm the one who said you should stand your ground, and you're paying the price for it..."
Samuel tries to reassure him. "Don't say that... You're not guilty of anything... All the blame goes to that jerk..."
"Sammy's right, Bro-bro! You look for my best interests, and I'm thankful!" She holds his hand just to reassure him.
"Yeah..." Dipper still feels bad, but he tries to smile for now and hide it by switching the subject once he looks at the mashed potatoes they got for lunch. "Hey, remember how you were good at sculpting with it? I bet you can't do something good with it anymore, since it's been so long."
He's taunting her simply because he knows how she'd react. She answers. "I haven't lost it at all! I'll show you and you'll eat your words!" and immediately tries something, making her forget about her worries for the time being, which helps the boys feel better too.
During the beginning of the afternoon break, Sammy and Dipper are bantering a little when Dipper sees Alan going to the bathroom. His friend didn't see it and he quickly interrupts the conversation. "Sorry, I'll go to the bathroom really quick, I'll join you outside soon."
"Sure, no problem!" Samuel leaves and Dipper rushes to open the door.
The door of the bathroom closes, with only the two of them being here.
"Hello, Alan..." He says, in a coldly manner.
Alan's reaction seems mostly unfazed. "Oh hey... Do I know you?"
He seems angry, but controls himself. "You should... I've seen how you treat Mabel..."
"Oh, I see..." With a bit of a smirk, he asks. "Are you maybe going to try to play little prince charming to help her?"
The comment makes Dipper lose his composure. "What? I'm her brother! Twin brother, in fact, you sicko!"
"Oh, I know..." He says with a snarky expression. "It was just funny to see your reaction to that. It was easy to break your confidence..." With that, Dipper tries to get his focus back, but Alan continues. "Just like I told her, it's pointless to fight with me... And I'm going to prove it to you..." He violently grabs Dipper and makes it so he gets a bruise on the head by repeatedly slamming him against one of the bathroom stalls, while also covering his mouth so he can't alert anyone. "And now..." He grabs him more softly after exiting the bathroom.
His behavior switched to a much softer one as he talks by dragging Dipper along. "Please... coming through... I gotta bring him to the nurse office... It's really bad..."
Once again, he ensures that Dipper can't have a chance to say anything on the way there, even though his skull is bleeding a little.
Once there, he ensures that the school nurse could take care of this.
"It's just a little bruise..." He says as he puts a little bandage on the bleeding part. "It won't take much time for this bonk to heal itself. No worries to be had..."
Alan leaves a strong sigh of relief. "Thank goodness it's nothing too bad..."
"You did good bringing him here as fast as you could."
"Oh, thanks!"
"You little..." Dipper can't stay quiet. "You're the one who injured me! Just because you act worried now won't change how awful you are!"
"Mason! Alan went through the trouble of bringing you here, and this is how you thank him?"
Alan speaks up. "No... He... He has a point..." His speech suddenly feels very apologetic, like he's about to cry. "It's in fact my entire fault... We were in the bathroom, and I was careless. I... I pushed that door rather violently, without thinking there could be someone on the other side who could get hurt... He's definitely right to get mad at me... I don't think I can even manage to forgive myself for what I've done..."
Confronted to this speech, the nurse adds. "He is not right to think that... This was clearly an accident that you shouldn't blame yourself for it..."
"I see..." Alan is feeling relieved.
Dipper feels like yelling. "What? But he..." However, seeing how much Alan is doing a good job, he knows that it's pointless to try and tell the truth... He says, with disgust. "Okay... Yeah, I forgive you for it, Alan..."
Once they're out of the office, Alan speaks up. "I already told your sister a few times, and I just proved it to you... Don't try to fight against me! I have way too much power on people, you'd only drag yourself down... Still, it'd be fun to see you try again..." He leaves with a smirk.
Outside, Samuel and Mabel are wondering what's taking Dipper so long, and Mabel feels horrified when she sees him arrive with a bandage on his skull. She runs to him, quickly followed by Samuel, to hear what happened...
Author notes: Yeah, so, even though I wouldn't say I've done a bad job at building up Alan's character so far, you can definitely expect it to get more focus from now on. I wanted Dipper to feel involved because he wanted to and not because Mabel asked him that. I felt that it was something important to do about his motivations.
Thanks for reading!