That very Saturday, Mabel decided to go to her friend's home in the morning, finding Dipper's absence to be a little too painful to deal with. She brought her school stuff with her, hoping she might get some help.
Sure enough, Samuel is feeling like he wants to help her with math homework as much as he can. But he gets interrupted.
"No way, Fuzzball. Neither of you deserve to waste too much time thinking about this! I'll help!" Bill shows up, looking serious and sounding genuine.
Mabel sits down to do what is asked and write down what she's learning from the knowledgeful triangle, who does a great job explaining to her what can be difficult to grasp. "... And so, this is the answer to the final question..."
She's very thankful and impressed. "Wow, Bill... You're such an amazing teacher... You know exactly how to adapt difficult things to make them understandable. ... That's more than what I can say about Dipper..."
Bill gets a little defensive. "Hey, don't discredit Pinetree too much..."
Mabel giggles a little. "Don't worry, I wasn't serious... I know he's doing his best anytime he's helping me with school work, and I'm very thankful for it! Truly!"
Sammy's heart is beating a little painfully as he's bringing up something unpleasant. "Mabel... You can guess what's going to happen... At school, with..."
His friend loses her smile a little, causing Bill to intervene. "Don't feel bad, Shooting star... He's saying that because..."
"... we've been thinking of something... But... we weren't sure you would like it..."
Mabel gets really curious. "Really? How come...?"
Sammy sighs, feeling like he's about to reveal something awful, but he feels like he has to do it. "Bill and I may have come up with a plan... But we need your approval..."
The two explain quickly, which leaves her a little conflicted.
"I'm thankful that you want to help, but... I don't know... Do I really wanna do that...?" She looking away, a little bothered by the idea.
His friend tries to reassure her. "You don't have to, but... At this point, it might be needed..."
Bill is once more using his words in great use. "Shooting star... This jerk has been annoying you for months... And no matter what you tried, he kept getting away with it... Do you really want it to continue?"
She recognizes he's making good points, but a part of her still doesn't feel like it's the right thing to do. "No, but..."
The triangle insists. "Think of everything he's done to you! How miserable he made you feel!"
Despite that, she doesn't feel like she wants payback.
Bill then brings his final argument. "Think about Pinetree! Think about how this scumbag also messed with your brother! He tried to protect you, but pays a price for it... Don't you want to get back at him for that?"
This causes her to reconsider, she remembers that time Dipper came back injured. She's also picturing him doing his detention time that very morning, imagining him very miserable. All because he wanted to defend his sister from emotional and physical abuse... And she thinks about how Alan got away with it... This causes her to clench her fist and look at the triangle with a more serious stare. "Fine! Let's do it!" At that, Bill is shaking her hand, even if there's no magical deal in play.
The next Monday, Mabel sees the usual behavior from Alan when they're away from others in the hallway.
"Hiya, sweetie!" He's sounding extremely condescending, much like he's always been with her. "So, were you a good girl and did what you must...?"
Mabel sounds resigned... "Yes, I made the maths homework due to give back today..." She hands the paper to him, giving a sigh. "... So there you go... Just copy it before math class..."
Looking smug as always, Alan grabs it. "Don't mind if I do...", he says before going away. Once he turned around, Mabel suddenly acts a lot more serene about the situation.
Meanwhile, Samuel is actually following Alan while keeping a decent distance from him... As he's allowing Bill to scheme something before he starts copying...
Later that day, at math class, Alan enters the classroom with the copy of Mabel's answers on his hands, alongside the original work. And using his good student persona, he talks to the rest of the class. "If you don't mind, I'd like to pick everyone's homework to leave them on the teacher's desk in advance. That will save him the trouble, I believe. So if you would be so kind..."
Even though most chatter in the classroom talks about how benevolent he is, Mabel doesn't look irritated like she used to be around him. And when Alan comes to sit next to her, he silently tells her, "Thanks, little sweetie...", with his usual dismissive snark.
She reacts frustrated like often, but once more... On the inside, she's feeling a lot better, as if she was faking the negative emotions...
Later that week, in another math class, the teacher is giving back the homework.
"Mabel, you get an A..."
"Yay!" She grabs her paper, very excited. "Thanks, Sir!"
Alan smirks a little, but then he hears...
"Alan, sorry, but, you get an F."
"WHAT?" He lost his composure in one second. "But that's impossible! If..." He's almost about to say that he should have the same grade as Mabel, but he manages to stop himself just before the slip up.
The teacher is using logic. "I'm sorry, but everything you put on your homework is wrong... Which is surprising given your usual grades. But either way, you'll probably do better next time..."
Looking shocked, he takes it in silence while Mabel is still smiling about the grade she got.
Then, at the end of the class, when they're alone in the room...
"Not so fast, Mabel..." Alan is angry at the betrayal, but he's about to have a much different view. "You've deceived me..."
Mabel reacts shocked and speaks the truth. "What? No, I didn't... I gave you my homework..."
"You gave me a fake! You made me copy wrong answers and had the real copy elsewhere..."
She once again stays calm, acting like she's shocked to hear that. "What? Of course not! There's no way I could've done that... Remember, I didn't touch my paper after giving it to you... You immediately put it on the teacher's desk..."
This makes him reconsider, but he is still sure that he was duped somewhere. "Then what happened is that you substitued the paper you gave me with the real one... Or you took it back at some point to correct everything..."
Mabel speaks once again the truth with logical facts. "There's no way I could've done that. I couldn't approach the papers, since the teacher immediately put them in his bag... And look... My homework page is completely clean... If I did change it after giving it to you, it would show..."
Alan is feeling uneasy about the situation when he processes everything. From him getting the paper to studying it, and how Mabel didn't get the chance to touch it again between that and being graded. And yet, the contents of the homeworks are completely different. "It... It doesn't make any sense... Something doesn't add up... Something happened, but... what...?"
Mabel shrugs innocently. "Who knows? It's a mystery..."
When she does that, Alan takes notice of her right wrist. "Wait..."
"... Yes...?" She looks at his gaze. "Oh, you've seen that, haven't you...? It's the friendship bracelet I got for my latest birthday! Isn't it neat?" She shows him the pink bracelet closer, but Alan looks uneasy.
"But... Wasn't it... broken...? You ripped it last week, I've seen it..."
"Oh, that...?" She speaks up, telling the truth. "It got fixed, that's all!"
Alan feels extremely confused when he takes a good look. "But... It looks... new... Like it was never damaged... Did you replace it...?"
Mabel reacts like she heard something stupid. "Replace it? How absurd... It was handmade for a gift, it's one of a kind..."
"But... How can it look...?"
She leaves half a lie this time to conclude. "I'm just very good with needlework... That's all... But look, I have no time to waste anymore, my brother is waiting for me. See you later..."
She leaves Alan there, completely lost about the entire thing, and leaving him with many questions and doubts in his head. Once she knows she's no longer being looked, she smiles eagerly and joins her brother and friend.
From inside Samuel's head, Bill is laying with his legs crossed and his arms behind his body, sounding really smug and satisfied. "The seeds of doubt and fear are now planted... And just like that, this very fragile thing that is this ego is already at risk of being shattered by uncertainty and concern..." He starts thinking about what happened thanks to him today, and this causes him to leave out his usual laugh. "Hehehehehe... That felt good...!"
Author notes: I would like to be talking about this longer than I'm actually going to, but I feel like if I was to talk about the events of this chapter, I would only be stating obvious things about the global narrative. Which is something I'm trying not to do because I consider it a writing flaw.
Instead, I'm gonna say a huge thank you to the people who have been reading this far (with or without feedback) and have had to deal with these gaps between chapters. As we approach a big resolution, it's possible that I have a concern of not making or writing that conclusion impactful enough. Which explains why I've been slower on the writing process of these.
For those who have kept reading as I'm publishing these, I thank you for your patience and hope it's worth the wait.