[September 3rd, 2012]

[First Day of 8th Grade]

"Let's go Dipper, we're going to be late!"

Mabel Pines stood ecstatically at the top of the steps of the school building. Summer had just ended the day before, when she and her brother, Dipper Pines, returned from their faithful summer at the one and only Gravity Falls.

To both of them, it had been a huge mixture of bizarre, crazy, weird, and absolute madness. Although within that mixture, there had also been much fun, thrill, and overall excitement, despite the most disastrous events. They fought gnomes, zombies, a shape-shifting monster, lumberjack ghosts, unicorns, and a triangular dream demon that nearly brought about the end of the world.

Weirdmageddon - the summer's lowest point. Especially for Dipper, who had struggled through a good portion of the event on his own, with his sister encased in her own fantastical world, and one of his Great Uncles turned to gold. It was a rough time, and it had hardly been over a week since they endured it.

But by the end of it all, they had made it. When all hope had seemed lost, they survived and made it through with no major losses. The most important thing that Weirdmageddon had done was make them stronger. It proved that if two regular twelve-year-old kids could survive the apocalypse, then they could do just about anything.

Dipper, however, struggled to simply walk up the main stairs of the school as he carried an overloaded backpack that tugged down on his spine and a stack of textbooks weighing down on his noodle arms. This was, perhaps, the hardest thing he had done since Weirdmageddon, which had only been a few days ago, ironically.

About a week before the summer's end, the twins' parents had already gone and handled all the necessary back-to-school preparations for both of them with the new school year. Mabel had it easy- only needing to carry her fairly lightweight and brightly decorated backpack, as to fit her style. Dipper, having signed on for a bunch of more advanced classes, didn't have it as easy. He basically had a brick-like textbook for just about every single class, and it added up. He didn't mind so much having to have what was needed for his classes, but it had become an immediate realization that fighting off an apocalypse didn't prepare him for having to regularly carry eight textbooks.

His struggles to climb the steps continued. His back was in pain, and he needed to take a breather, but he kept pushing himself upward. Eventually, he started to break a sweat and just couldn't keep going. He collapsed to his knee and dropped half of his books on the ground.

He looked up at Mabel, who was just standing at the top of the stairs waiting as she looked down at him with her arms crossed.

"Hey, since your arms are empty, mind lending a hand?" he asked through his panting.

Mabel groaned, throwing her arms in the air before making her way back down to assist. "Why do you smart people have to go and take the super smarty-pants classes? Why can't you be like me and just be in regular classes that don't require breaking your back on a daily basis? With that big head of yours, it's not like you'd fail."

She got down and scooped up a few textbooks from the ground for him. With a lighter load in hand, Dipper got up from his knee and continued walking up with steps, with Mabel following.

"Well, regular classes don't give high school or college credit, so I think I'll just stick with what I got. A few textbooks aren't gonna stop me."

"Ha! Tell that to the stairs."

"Yeah, well, it's just something I gotta get used to. If I have to carry this bag and these textbooks up these stairs every day just to get some college credit, then so be it."

As the two finally reached the top of the steps, they could hear the outdoor ambiance of the school bell ringing throughout.

"Say, do they still give college credit to the late kids?" Mabel jabbed with a slight grin.

"C'mon, it's the first day. I doubt they'll do anything. Besides, you're late too."

"Yeah, but don't your advanced classes have advanced expectations for nerds like you?"

"Homeroom isn't a class, Mabel..." Dipper said with the roll of his eyes.

He changed the position of his arms holding the books to open the door to the main hallway. The two walked inside and made their way through the school until they reached the main locker halls. Since the first bell had already rung, the place looked almost barren apart from the students actively searching for their first-day classrooms.

"231, 232, 233… ah, here we go! Locker 234!" Dipper read aloud upon approach.

He set his textbooks down on the floor and popped the locker open. The two put his stack of textbooks inside, barely managing to fit them all. He then closed his locker shut, letting in a deep breath and exhaling loudly with relief.

"Man, that was tiring. But it's done," he said as he turned to Mabel. "Thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it. I'm always here to be the muscle to your frail, lil' bones," she teased with a light laugh.

Dipper didn't appear amused though. Instead, he just grabbed his bag from the ground and straightened his bomber hat before heading back down the hall. Mabel's smug look slowly faded into one of light concern.

"Dipper?" she called out to him as she quickly caught up to him in the hall. "C'mon, you know I was only joking."

"Huh? Oh. No, that's not…" he stuttered. "I'm fine. Just a bit anxious is all."

"Anxious about what?"

"I don't know. Just being here again, I guess," he said with dismay, placing his hands in his pockets as he started walking a flight of steps. "Maybe I got a bit too comfortable back in Gravity Falls. Just not sure I'm ready to readapt to the school environment again."

"I know how you feel," Mabel nodded empathetically. "This morning, I couldn't stand leaving Waddles back home by himself. So, I didn't!"

At that very moment, Waddles' head popped out of Mabel's backpack, oinking right in Dipper's face as he climbed the stairs behind her.

His eyes widened as he stood frozen on a single step. "You brought Waddles to school with you?! In your bag?! Mabel, are you crazy?!"

"C'mon Dipper, it's not like I didn't leave it open for him to breathe," Mabel said as she reached the top of the stairs. "Plus, I didn't even bring any of my other school stuff, so it's not like he didn't have room either."

"Mabel, that's not the..." He stopped on the stairs for a moment to facepalm before continuing to follow her up. "You know what? If Mom or Dad ask, I never knew about any of this. This conversation never happened."

"Whatever you say," she shrugged off as she petted Waddles in her bag. "Anyways, we shouldn't be anxious about school! We've faced so much worse this summer. Whatever happens here will be nothing compared to a Bill or a Gideon. Trust me, Dipper, we got this!"

Dipper caught up with her at the top and smiled. "You're right. What do we have to worry about? Getting a couple of A-minuses instead of A-pluses won't be anything like dealing with a zombie outbreak or army of gnomes."

"Yeah, quite the comparison you made..." Mabel remarked, rolling her eyes at his unintended grade flex.

"And at the very least, we have homeroom hour together this year. So we can't say we don't have any classes with each other. Unlike last year."

"Yep! The great room 324!" Mabel said eagerly.

"Actually, it's room 325," Dipper corrected.

"No, I'm sure it's 324."

"Well, I'm sure it's 325. I reviewed my schedule this morning. I'm positive about it."

"So did I. And it said 324."

Dipper dug into his pocket, taking out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it and turned the front toward Mabel, pointing his finger at a very clear "Room 325" on his schedule. "See? Room 325 - Mr. Thomas."

"What?" Mabel said with disbelief. "But mine said 324 - Ms. Rady. I didn't have Mr. Thomas."

The two then noticed two doors right beside them. They both had their own signs next to them. The left door was Room 324 - Ms. Rady. The right door was Room 325 - Mr. Thomas.

Dipper stared at the two signs, eyes narrowing in annoyance. "You've got to be kidding me. One room apart?"

"So, we don't have homeroom together?" Mabel said disappointedly.

"I guess not. Which means just like last year, we really don't have any classes together," he said, also disappointed.

Mabel tried to think positively. "Well, we still have lunch together," she reminded. "At least there's that. We could hang out then! I'm going to try and make some new friends by talking about all the adventures we went on this summer, and I bet it's probably not gonna be easy to convince them. You could help back me up later!"

"Yeah, I guess that's better than nothing," Dipper said, smiling slightly. "Lunch it is then."

"Yep!" Mabel agreed as she playfully punched Dipper in the arm. She then flipped the top of her backpack back over Waddles' head. "Alright, Waddles. I gotta hide you again. Be a good pig for the next few hours, okay?"

Waddles oinked before unexpectedly jumping out of her bag and making a run for it through the halls, catching both twins by surprise

"Waddles!" Mabel shouted as Waddles continued running. "Aw man, Mom and Dad are gonna kill me if they find out about this! I'm already on thin ice for bringing Waddles home in the first place!"

"Well, you better catch him before any staff does," Dipper told her.

"Argh!" Mabel groaned. She dropped her bag and quickly ran after the loose swine. "Come back, Waddles!"

Dipper watched her run off, shaking his head at the fact that she even brought Waddles to school in the first place. Even he knew she wasn't wrong about the trouble she was in with their parents, so for her to go and do something like this would not do her any favors if she was caught.

But as he had already said, he knew nothing of it. So he simply turned toward the door of Room 325 and took a deep breath. He opened the door to the room and walked inside with a confident smile.

Even though he didn't have any classes with Mabel, he still had a good feeling that things would be different for him this year. Dipper Pines was a new man after Gravity Falls. And it was time to show that to the rest of Piedmont.

"Hey, it's Dipstick!"

Dipper's smile was immediately wiped off of his face. The sudden callout brought the eyes of everyone else in the class his way. In the middle of the classroom sat a large boy with spiked, dark blonde hair wearing a familiar black shirt that read 'SLIGHT FEAR', with a bulldog's face right in the center.

Oh no... not Trevor...

Trevor tormented and picked on Dipper constantly when they were younger and was responsible for pioneering the nickname 'Dipstick' for a good portion of elementary school. It wasn't until he moved away at the end of the fourth grade to another school in Berkeley, which now looks to have only been a temporary break from said torment. Seeing him again after all this time replaced Dipper's confidence going into the school year with pure horror.

"Dipstick! Long time, no see, buddy!" Trevor called out again with a wide grin. "You're like ten minutes late! Didn't you use to always care about perfect attendance?"

Some chuckles were heard around the classroom. Some smirked and others simply didn't pay any mind to the exchange. But in the very back of the classroom, one boy with scruffy dark brown hair wearing a dark gray hoodie sat silently as he started to eyeball Trevor. All the while, Dipper just stood frozen in place, still distraught by Trevor's unexpected return.

"That's enough, young man," the teacher, presumably Mr. Thomas, called out to Trevor as he stood from his desk. Trevor noticeably snickered as he sat back in his chair. The teacher then directed his focus toward Dipper. "And what's your name, son?"

Dipper shook his head quickly, breaking from his horrified trance. "Uhh... Dipper Pines, sir."

Mr. Thomas looked down at his clipboard and flipped through it. He raised an eyebrow before glancing back up. "I don't have a Dipper Pines on my roster, but I do have a Mas-"

"YES!" Dipper loudly and swiftly responded, cutting Mr. Thomas off before he could finish announcing his real name to everyone, while also grabbing everybody's attention once more.

Part of being late on the first day meant that he couldn't go through the ritual of personally clarifying his nickname to the teacher ahead of time. With everyone's attention directed toward him again, he cleared his throat.

"Yes, that's me. Just call me Dipper, please..." he calmly said, face reddening as his eyes stared at the ground.

Mr. Thomas stared at Dipper in slight surprise for a moment before writing on his clipboard. "Alright, Dipper Pines. Please take a seat."

Dipper quickly made his way toward one of the only untaken seats in the class and sat down, folding his hands as he laid his head low. At that point, all he hoped for was to just be able to squeeze in without directing any further attention to himself.

"Anyways, I believe we've waited long enough," Mr. Thomas said, placing his glasses down on his desk. "My name is Mr. Thomas, and I'll be your homeroom teacher this school year."

Dipper listened to Mr. Thomas as he gave the usual first-day instruction talk all teachers did, sitting quietly in his chair like everyone else in the class. He tried to relax after tensing up from his "grand entrance", looking around the classroom and noticing the various states of those around him. While some students were paying attention, others were either asleep, falling asleep, or generally paying attention elsewhere.

In the midst of Mr. Thomas' introduction, Dipper suddenly felt something hit the back of his head. He placed his hand back, finding a piece of wet, wadded-up paper. He turned around and spotted Trevor a few seats back in the row beside him, but he looked as though he wasn't even paying attention to him. Dipper narrowed his eyes before turning forward again.

Within a few seconds, he was shot by another spit wad. He turned toward Trevor once again, and he looked the exact same way. Dipper looked at the other students behind him, but none looked as suspicious or as susceptible as Trevor did. He looked forward again, and as expected, more spit wads were shot right at him. This time, Dipper didn't turn around. He took several hits over a few seconds until he quickly turned around to finally catch Trevor in the act. But he didn't hide and instead, just shot a spit wad directly at Dipper's face. He laughed loudly at his success, while Dipper remained visibly unamused and annoyed by the whole ordeal.

Trevor's outburst caught the attention of Mr. Thomas, however, and was promptly approached by him. He silently put his hand out to him, clearly gesturing to hand the straw over, which Trevor did. Mr. Thomas continued his introduction as he walked over to a trashcan to throw the straw away. Dipper wiped off all the wads he had taken to the back of his head and his face, letting out a sigh of relief now that it was over.

However, within a few moments, he felt another spit wad hit the back of his head. Surprised, he turned around and noticed that Trevor had another straw on him. Fed up but exhausted by the issue, Dipper turned forward with nothing more but an irritated look on his face as he simply took every next shot that Trevor had at him without looking back again or doing anything about it. He had no desire to cause any further commotion or interruption that would bring more attention toward him. So, he simply let Trevor have his win.

In the back of the classroom, however, the boy in the dark gray hoodie continued to angrily eyeball Trevor. While unnoticed by others, anyone who might look over at him could easily identify the growing frustration on his face as the spit wads would persist over the next hour.

The bell rang, indicating the end of the first class period and the start of an early lunch period. Students began pouring out of each classroom, making their way toward the cafeteria. Dipper walked out of Mr. Thomas' class brushing off all the spit wads that covered the back of his head and hat. He thought it was a miracle that he managed to escape the first period alive with a need for nothing but a shower to wash off any remains of Trevor's saliva on the back of his head.

After brushing his bomber hat clean, he placed it back on his head. Remembering his deal with Mabel to meet up at lunch, he looked among the nearby crowd of students walking down the halls for her, considering that she was right next door to his first class. He had no luck finding her, however, and just decided to search around the cafeteria when he got there.

After a good few minutes of searching, he eventually found her already sitting at a table with another group of girls, talking and laughing away. He sighed and approached them.

"...and just when we thought we were going to fall to our death, I pulled out my grappling hook and saved us at the last second," Mabel told the girls.

"Wow!" a blonde girl with very large glasses exclaimed.

"So cool!" a black-haired girl agreed.

"And what happened to the evil demon child?" the blonde girl asked as Dipper walked up right behind Mabel.

"Oh, don't worry. He lived," Mabel said. "Fun fact: apparently you can be inside a giant exploding robot falling down a cliff and survive mostly unscathed! But nah, he went to jail. That wasn't the last time we heard from the evil demon child though."

"Pfft... I guess that's one way to describe, Gideon," Dipper intervened, grabbing the girls' attention.

"Dipper!" Mabel said joyfully. "Girls, this is my brother. He's the one who was with me during all the adventures we went on."

"Woah," the three girls said in awe.

"Dipper, these are my new friends who I met in homeroom- Sammy, Angela, and Gretchen!" Mabel introduced.

"Is it true you punched a child in the face?" Sammy, the blonde girl with glasses, promptly asked.

The question immediately threw Dipper off, leaving him unsure how to answer. "Umm... I mean, yeah, I guess. But I hope you know that there is much-needed context to that claim though..."

"Don't worry, Dipper. I already told them everything about Gideon," Mabel said. "They know what a butthead he was. In fact, they actually believe me about all the adventures we went on!"

"Oh, cool!" Dipper said. "By the way, what happened with Waddles?"

"Well, he was caught by a teacher," she said. "But I lured him back with a candy bar that Mom packed me for lunch when he wasn't looking. Now I think that teacher is somewhere going crazy thinking there's a loose pig in the school."

At that moment, they turned their heads behind them to see a man placing a 'Lost Pig' sign on a wall. The man quickly glanced around very worriedly before sprinting off.

"Ha! That was him!" Mabel chuckled. She then opened the flap of her bag, revealing Waddles in her possession again. "But he's safe and sound with me. I'm not gonna let him go running around again. You hear that you bad pig?"

Waddles simply responded with an innocent oink.

Mabel smiled tenderly before hugging her bag. "Awwww, I can't stay mad at you."

"Well, that's great that you got him back," Dipper said. He looked around at the table, noticing no empty seats. "So is there a place I can sit? Maybe move to another table or something?"

"I don't think there's any room any place else," Angela, the black-haired girl, answered. "I mean, we barely managed to grab this table when it was empty."

"Yeah... It's always this hard to find seats on the first day. I'm not sure you'll be able to sit with us," Mabel said sadly.

"But, you said we'd hang out at lunch!" Dipper reminded her.

"I know! I know!" Mabel said, clearly feeling guilty. "But I just met these girls, and I reeeeally want to hang out with them. I mean, they're so cool!"

"I can scoot over for you, Dipper," Gretchen, a brown-haired girl with pigtails who also wore pretty sizable headgear, offered as she looked at him dreamily.

Flattered, yet very much uninterested, Dipper took a step back. "Actually, I'll just find somewhere else to sit. Thanks for living up to our deal, Mabel," he said bitterly before storming off.

"What's his problem?" Angela asked.

"Doesn't he have his own friends?" Sammy asked.

Mabel sighed. "You see, Dipper's not exactly the king of being social. He tends to scare others with his dorkiness. Even the chess club is scared of him!"

"He's also terrible socially?" Gretchen sputtered through her headgear. She sighed dreamily. "We'd be perfect for each other..."

"You two probably would," Mabel agreed cheerfully. "Speaking of being perfect for each other, who wants to hear the story about me having my first kiss with a merman?"

"I do!" the three other girls said in unison.

Outside on the school's deck, Dipper bitterly sat by himself on a bench. He acknowledged the fact that he didn't have any real friends in Piedmont, but it never really upset or affected him that much. But that's because he never felt that he really needed friends in Piedmont. He had Mabel. She was his best friend, and she was always there for him when he needed her.

Well, almost always.

In some respects though, he knew that it was unfair to rely on her for company when she was out making new friends on their first day back. But then again, he's tried making friends many times before. The thing is - being accepted for who he was back home was never as easy as it was in Gravity Falls.

Regardless, at some point, he was gonna need to make his own friends back home too. While he knew he'd always be close to Mabel, he also knew that at some point, there was gonna come a time when they would go their separate ways. Whether that would be college or other future occasions, he wasn't sure. Given her string of past romances, he figured it was very possible she'd get married before him. And he very much had no intention of sharing a roof with her by the time that happened.

But he knew he needed to be able to find his own crowd. His people. Or at least someone else who understood him.

However, it occurred to him as he ate his sandwich that he had developed much better social skills after the summer. Before the summer started, simple eye contact with anyone he didn't know was an issue. But after everything he had come to learn and all the people he had met in Gravity Falls, he had gotten better.

So maybe what was difficult before wouldn't be so much now. Maybe things were still bound to be different this time.

"Hey, Dipstick!"

The voice called out to him and immediately hooked his attention. Looking up, he saw Trevor, accompanied by two of his friends. He sat beside Dipper on the bench and put his arm around him.

"You look so lonely over here, man. Like you could use a friend. And we both know you've never been a man who could make friends. Heck, we both know you've never even been much of a man!"

Dipper pushed Trevor's arm off him and got up from the bench, standing defensively across from him with narrowed eyes. "What do you want from me, Trevor?"

"Easy there, Dipstick. I don't mean nothin'," Trevor said with a grin, getting up from the bench as well. "Truth is- I know I've treated you like garbage for so long. But now that I'm back from Berkeley, I was thinking we could put that all behind us and become friends."

"You wanna be friends?" Dipper asked, very much unconvinced.

"Of course!" Trevor nodded as he got closer. "All you gotta do... is give me your lunch money."

"Sorry, Trevor, but I'm gonna have to decline. I brought lunch, therefore, I have no lunch money on me," Dipper declared.

Trevor folded his arms and smirked. "Hmm. Well, that's okay. There are other ways we can work things out..."

He snapped his fingers, prompting one of his friends standing behind Dipper to push him down in front of him. Caught off guard, Dipper came plummeting to the ground, the side of his face hitting the rough concrete. As he groaned in pain, Trevor crouched down and snatched the bomber hat off his head. Dipper looked up at him, the side of his face scratched up.

Looking around, Dipper could see that Trevor was causing a commotion, attracting other students to the scene as they began to circle the two. He could see people getting ready for some action. Some were even pushing others out of the way to get a better look at the show.

"There's a rumor going 'round that your sister came back to school with a pet pig. Now that's cool," Trevor said, examining the bomber hat. "But you? You came back to school with an even stupider hat."

"Hey, give it back!" Dipper pleaded, reaching out for the hat as he shot up from the ground. "A friend gave that to me!"

"A friend?" Trevor questioned with a chuckle. "You have a friend? Who? I gotta know what kid is loser enough to wanna give you this hat, let alone be your friend."

"Well, you don't know her! She doesn't live around he-"

"She? Her? You mean it's a girl?!" Trevor realized with a boisterous laugh. "Oh, man! Dipstick's got a girlfriend?! I can't believe it!"

A bunch of teasing "ooooh's" came from the surrounding circle of students, all of them looking in Dipper's direction. His eyes darted around with growing embarrassment as his face burned a bright red at the mere implications.

"She's not my girlfriend..." he clarified abashedly.

"But you mean to tell me you're friends with a girl... who doesn't even go to this school?" Trevor asked, raising an eyebrow. "How convenient! Just like every other loser around here. No friends at school, but knows TONS of people who like them that no one else will ever get to meet... because they don't exist!"

"Hey, Wendy does exist!" Dipper snapped back defensively.

"Oh, and you gave her a name? Now that's sad!" Trevor chuckled with a wincing expression as he continued to shake the bomber hat around in his hand.

As the surrounding laughter grew, Dipper could feel his face burn hotter as his embarrassment began to turn into anger. Mass social approval was not something he was gonna win today, and that much was clear to him. Rather than digging himself deeper into the hole of embarrassment, all he wanted any more was to get his hat back and leave before things could get worse.

"Just give me my hat back, Trevor!" he demanded.

"She's imaginary, isn't she? Is this her right here?" Trevor asked, gesturing to the side at seemingly nothing. "Well, I'm sorry, Wendy. I hope you're not mad about me taking the hat you gave to Dipstick. But if you don't mind, I think I'm going to rip it in half because, to be frank, it's a pretty crappy hat!"

With gritted teeth, Dipper clenched his fists angrily. "I said, give it back!"

POW!

With zero hesitation, he swung his whole fist against the side of Trevor's face, sending him straight to the ground and causing him to let go of the bomber hat. Dipper quickly grabbed the hat from the ground and backed up as the surrounding students gasped and awed at his unexpected beatdown.

They couldn't believe it. Dipstick Pines just decked Trevor in the face!

He looked around at the students murmuring about him. At the same time, Trevor's two friends came to his aid and picked him up from the ground. A quick glance up at him and Dipper saw that he had gotten him good too. A bit of blood ran from his right nostril and the whole side of his face was marked with a throbbing red. Dipper may have had noodle arms, but the strength he had gained over the summer still carried over.

Stan would be proud if he were there. But he wasn't, and Dipper was alone, outnumbered, and full of growing regret. Hugging his hat to his chest, he slowly backed away from Trevor as he looked on at him nervously.

"Look, Trevor... I'm sorry. Honest," he began. "I-I didn't want to hurt you... but I told you to-"

"But NOTHING!" Trevor angrily shouted, quickly walking up to Dipper and grabbing him by the collar. "You may have grown some guts after all this time, Dipstick, but that just means I don't have to feel bad about kicking your ass!"

He held up his fist, preparing to return the favor. Helpless, Dipper stopped trying to fight back, loosened up, and closed his eyes, leaving himself as a clean and easy target for Trevor.

"Drop him, Trevor!" a voice called out.

Trevor turned back. From behind, the boy in the dark gray hoodie entered the circle away from the surrounding crowd of students to make himself visible.

"Drop him?" Trevor asked. "This punk just punched me in the face and you're defending him?"

"Yeah, because you deserved it. You're the one who needlessly started picking on him in the first place," the boy continued.

"Needlessly picking on him? I was just looking for a bit of friendship," Trevor defended with a smirk, getting some laughs from his two friends.

"Cut the crap, Trevor," the boy said, shaking his head. "I was in your first hour. First, you humiliate him in front of everyone when he walks into the classroom. Spent that whole class shooting spit wads at him. Then the guy's just trying to eat lunch by himself and you wanna come up to him, take his hat, and start all this. You're nothing but a pathetic, attention-seeking stereotype."

The surrounding crowd of kids went wild at the hooded boy's comeback. Dipper slightly opened his eyes and looked around, only now paying attention to what was happening.

Seriously, where are the teachers right now?

Trevor raised an eyebrow. "Stereotype?"

"Oh I'm sorry, do you not understand how you're a stereotype or are you too dumb to understand the word?" the boy struck again. "I mean, come on. Shooting spit wads? Bullying for lunch money? Having two goons that you probably bullied as well into backing you up because anyone with half a brain wouldn't give you the time of day?"

Trevor's friends frowned guiltily at the insult, looking at Trevor before stepping away and leaving his side.

"You see?" the boy pointed. "You're the very definition of a stereotype. Big fat brute, small head. Can't help not being the center of attention. Probably has parent issues too, and trust me, I'd know. The difference between you and me is that I have self-awareness. You, on the other hand, are probably too blinded by your own stupidity to know what that is. Isn't that right?"

Trevor stared at the boy for a moment, looking around to think. After a brief silence, Trevor actually began to tear up, to everyone's surprise. Silently, he placed Dipper back down on his feet before turning away and walking out of the circle through the crowd.

Without saying another word himself, the boy pulled his hood up and walked away too. Before merging back into the crowd, he took a glance at Dipper, who looked back at him, both making eye contact. The boy didn't react further though and simply faced forward to continue walking away, the crowd watching him silently.

It didn't take long for the crowd to break up and resume going about themselves normally again. Lots of disappointed murmurs about the lack of a real fight commenced. Dipper, however, was stuck standing still with his mouth agape; completely shocked by the events that had just occurred. While nothing inherently bad was happening to him anymore, he had a sick feeling in his stomach and wished he was in the middle of a bad dream. Unsure how to react next or what to do, he simply grabbed his bag, placed the bomber hat back on his head, and rushed off in another direction.

After all that had happened, he didn't have much of an appetite anymore.

"...and then he started making out with his puppets, so I think it's safe to say I dodged a bullet there," Mabel said, finishing another story from the summer.

"Ewwww," Sammy and Angela said in disgust.

"I don't know, I think it's kinda cute," Gretchen responded. The other three girls gave her a weird look, to which her expression quickly reversed. "I mean, ewwww."

A notification ring was heard, and Sammy grabbed her phone from the table to look over it. She gasped. "Oh my gosh! There was a fight outside on the deck!"

"Already?" Mabel asked. "Mannnn, why do people gotta be so cray-cray around here? It's only the first day of school. Some people are just so immature."

"You wanna see a video of the fight?" Sammy asked.

"Heck yeah, I do!" Mabel shouted, jumping up from her seat to look over Sammy's shoulder and watch the video with the other girls.

Upon pressing play, a perspective from one of the students was shown from behind Trevor outside on the deck. In front of him, Dipper was clearly seen on the ground after getting pushed over. The audio wasn't clear, but Trevor was seen visibly holding his bomber hat.

"Wait, is that...?" Mabel asked, looking closely at the video. "...Dipper?!"

On cue, Dipper was seen throwing the punch that knocked Trevor down on the ground. The video promptly ended right after.

"Oh my gosh..." Angela said in disbelief.

"I know, right?" Sammy said. "That wasn't a fight! That was just a punch. Bor-ing."

"Sammy, that was my brother!" Mabel reminded with concern.

"Oh," she realized. "Yeah, I guess that's bad too."

"Wow. Your brother can sure throw a punch," Gretchen dreamily sputtered through her headgear.

"I really hope he's okay," Mabel said as she looked around worriedly.

At that moment, she looked right to the side and noticed Dipper discretely walking down the hall. Keeping his head down, he looked to be avoiding as many people as he could.

"There he is," Mabel pointed out to her friends. "Dipper!"

Catching her glance, Dipper began walking off even faster as he laid low, leaving Mabel to just look on concerned.

There were about under five minutes of lunch left to spare, so Dipper decided to start making his way to his next class, which was inconveniently located across the school. He continued trying to keep his head down as he quickly walked through the halls, aiming to just blend in and attract as little attention as possible.

He couldn't stop thinking about the gray-hooded kid who saved him from Trevor. It was so unexpected and out of nowhere. What surprised him most was that by the way he dressed, one would think he looked like he had an even edgier personality than Trevor.

His hoodie had all kinds of rips, stains, and other marks on it. Being hooded, it was hard to tell, but he had dark brown hair. He also wore black jeans, which were also ripped, but not the stylish kind of ripped jeans. The rips looked more like they were obtained legitimately rather than as an intentional style choice. And his shoes had holes in them too. The way he talked was also tense and threatening. Overall, upon first glance, you would take him for some angry, homeless kid. Not exactly the type of person you would imagine being an anti-bully hero.

But in the end, he had just saved Dipper and potentially a bunch of other victims from Trevor, who was always known as one of the biggest bullies of the school when he was around before. Maybe he could be homeless, or just really poor, and maybe angry, but he didn't seem like a totally bad guy.

At that exact moment, Dipper turned a corner into a hallway and conveniently spotted the gray-hooded kid kicked back against a wall next to two separate vending machines. He looked at the ground and seemingly didn't even notice Dipper standing there looking at him.

Dipper felt it was only necessary for him to walk up and thank him at the very least. He was hesitant though. Although the boy just saved him, he still gave off a vibe that he might've wanted to avoid entirely.

Despite his hesitations, he gave in and walked up to him. In the end, he at least owes him his thanks.

"Uh... hey, man," Dipper said as he stopped in front of him.

The guy brought his head up and looked at Dipper. He grinned, which Dipper didn't expect.

"Hey," he calmly greeted. "You alright after all of that?"

"Oh, yeah. No, I'm fine," Dipper assured him. "I, uh, appreciate the help back there. Definitely wasn't expecting a save like that."

The boy nodded. "Yeah, well, it was nothing. Besides, I never liked Trevor, and he deserved it. I've seen the stuff he's done to you and other kids years ago and seeing him back and at it again, it was just necessary to put him in his place, you know?"

"Um, yeah," Dipper agreed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, this is kinda awkward, but... I don't recall ever knowing you or seeing you around back then. What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

The guy chuckled, which also took Dipper by surprise a bit. Now knowing the guy actually can put on a smile and laugh a bit, maybe he wasn't as brooding as he originally thought.

"Nah, it's cool," he said as he held his hand out. "Derrick Mendez."

Dipper shook his hand. "Dipper Pines. Although even knowing your name now, I can definitely say I don't recall ever knowing you or seeing you around before."

"Yeah, I've always kind of kept to myself. Not exactly the most social guy out here," Derrick admitted. "I was in your class though. Second grade. I remember when Trevor embarrassed you in front of everyone when you didn't get any Valentines."

Dipper immediately cringed at the referenced memory. "Aghhh... man, you were there for that?"

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't get any either," Derrick said. "But that was actually because I didn't make my own paper bag for others to put them in."

"Really? Why not?"

Derrick shrugged. "Meh. I don't know. Didn't want to, I guess. I didn't really care either. Candy hearts are some of the worst candy ever made anyway."

"Man, I am with you there," Dipper nodded. "They're like eating hard chalk. Who thought to make that the candy of love? I mean, does anyone actually love those?"

"If so, I can't imagine they're sane," Derrick snickered. "Anyways, I was just about to grab a soda. You want one?"

Dipper looked up as he saw Derrick gesture over to the soda vendor next to him. "You know, I kind of do, but I don't have any money on me right now."

"Ha! Who said anything about buying a soda? Wanna see a trick?"

He looked around the hall to verify there were no adults around. He then used his fist to pound the top of the machine twice. Then, he backed up and kicked the bottom of the door once, popping it right open. He reached in and grabbed two cans of Pitt Cola, tossing one to Dipper and kicking the door shut.

"Woah, nice!" Dipper said, holding the can Derrick just gave him. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Uhhh, someone taught me," Derrick told him, opening his can and taking a sip. "It doesn't work on the snack machine though. Wish it did. I could go for a bag of Burrito Bites right now."

Dipper then remembered something and grinned. He set his can of Pitt Cola to the side and approached the snack machine.

"You're not the only one who knows tricks. Check this out." He placed his hands on the side of the vending machine. He had never done this trick himself before in all the time since he was first shown it, so he had to go by a rough memory. He tapped the edge with his hands and then popped the door open with his elbow as he said, "Bippidy-boop. Wop."

He smiled. Just like Soos showed me.

"How about that?" Derrick said in awe. "Now, where'd you learn to do that?"

"Uhhh, someone taught me," Dipper mocked as he threw Derrick a bag of Burrito Bites, shutting the door behind him. "Consider it my repayment for you saving me from getting beaten up." He grabbed his Pitt Cola again and cracked it open. He raised it in front of Derrick. "Cheers, my new partner in vendor-stealing crime."

Derrick chuckled as he clinked his own Pitt Cola can against Dipper's. "Cheers, dude."

The two took sips from their Pitt Cola cans. At that moment, the end-of-lunch bell rang, and students began moving through the halls yet again.

"Guess lunch is over," Derrick said. "I should probably be on my way."

Dipper gulped down a sip of Pitt Cola. "Yeah, same here. Thanks again for the soda machine trick. And, you know, saving me today."

"No problem. Thanks for your snack machine trick," Derrick said in return, lightly punching him in the shoulder. "You know, you're cooler than you look. We should hang out properly. Maybe lunch tomorrow?"

Dipper smiled at the offer. For what felt like the first time in his hometown, someone his age had actually extended the hand of friendship to him. And although Derrick was not at all the person he would have envisioned or expected as a friend, that didn't make him any less a contender for being one.

"That'd be... pretty neat," Dipper happily accepted.

Derrick began walking backward with his soda in hand. "Cool. I'll see you around, Dipper."

As he turned around, he bumped straight into someone, spilling his Pitt Cola can all over them.

Mabel gasped as she saw the giant soda stain on her red apple sweater. "My back-to-school sweater!"

"My soda!" Derrick shouted.

"You spilled your soda on my sweater!"

"More like your sweater got in the way of my soda," Derrick argued with no remorse.

"You bumped into me!" Mabel shot back angrily.

"Um, no. You bumped into me." Derrick said with narrowed eyes.

"Oh boy..." Dipper said as he watched the incident from a brief distance.

Annoyed, Mabel just slipped past Derrick and approached Dipper, with Derrick rolling his eyes as he walked off in the opposite direction.

"You alright?" Dipper asked her.

"Could be better," Mabel answered, examining the soda spill on her sweater. "But don't worry about that. Are you okay? I heard you got into a fight with Trevor."

"Oh yeah, I'm okay," Dipper nodded while rubbing the side of his face. "Few scratches, but no biggie."

"Are you sure? You didn't get in trouble?" Mabel asked. "Man... Mom and Dad are going to lose it if they find out that I brought Waddles to school and you got in a fight on our first day back."

"They won't find out about anything," Dipper assured. "I'm fine. You just need to make sure Waddles doesn't get caught for the rest of the day."

"I'm trying my hardest," Mabel said. "But sometimes he's just too cute and Waddle-y to keep cooped up in my backpack."

"Well, try a little harder, maybe?" Dipper suggested, beginning to walk away. "I gotta go to my next class. I'll see you later."

"Dipper, wait!" Mabel called out, stopping him. "Look, I'm really sorry for not keeping my promise about sitting with you at lunch. That wasn't cool of me. But I swear that I'll save you a seat with me and the girls at lunch tomorrow."

"Oh, uh, honestly? No need," Dipper shook his head. "I think I actually made a new friend myself today, and we're going to hang out at lunch tomorrow."

"Really?! That's great, bro-bro!" Mabel said, pleasantly surprised as she grabbed him and shook him by the shoulders with much enthusiasm. "Who is he? Is he a nerd like you? Is he cute? Could you hook a sis up if she thought he was cute?" She then gasped. "Or is it a girl? IT'S A GIRL, ISN'T IT?!"

Dipper politely pushed her back while chuckling. "No, uh, it's a guy... and I don't know if you'd find him very cute..."

"Oh," she said, toning her excitement down. "Well, either way, I can't wait to meet him!"

Dipper glanced down at the cola stain on Mabel's sweater. "I... think you can!"

He then looked up at the clock on the wall and began walking off again.

"Aw man, I really gotta go. But we'll talk more after school! Later!"

He quickly darted off through the flooding hall of students, making his way toward his next class period. Mabel was left to her own in the halls, simply watching as he ran off before losing him in the crowd. She held a look of brief confusion at his final response about the boy he had just befriended, but this soon faded as she looked down at the stain on her sweater again, narrowing her eyes in slight annoyance once more.

Dipper arrived at his next class. The classroom wasn't quite full yet, but the final bell hadn't rung so some students were still coming back from lunch. As to not repeat the first period, he took this opportunity to go up to the teacher's desk and personally explain his nickname, asking not to be called by his real name. Once this was done, he sat himself down in a seat that wasn't yet occupied.

As he sat waiting for the bell to ring, students kept coming in. Eventually, Trevor himself walked inside the classroom, much to Dipper's immediate dismay. As such, he quickly avoided eye contact with him and pretended not to even notice his presence.

Despite this, Trevor still looked at him. Only this time, however, he simply walked right past him. He sat on the other side of the room, out of range to be able to do anything to him without getting noticed.

The bell finally rang, and the teacher shut the door. As the teacher began their introduction, Dipper looked up and glanced over at Trevor, who looked completely out of the mood and kept to himself.

"Welcome, class. Now, I know that most, if not, all of you might already be finding the first day of school exhausting, but I hope you all are getting mentally prepared," the teacher began.

Dipper thought about it. Derrick's words must have really gotten to Trevor, and he couldn't believe it. After their earlier encounter, he thought any future meeting with Trevor was going to be a total nightmare. However, as it seemed right now, Trevor looked completely uninterested in creating any new drama with him or anyone else.

"This is your final year of middle school, and if you keep a good pace, it will fly by. Soon enough, you will all be in high school."

Dipper was excited about the school year now. A bad day suddenly took an unexpected turn for the best. His biggest bully may have been done bullying him once and for all, and he may have finally made his first true friend in school besides Mabel.

"And before you know it, high school will fly by, and soon enough, many of you..."

It was from this point forward, that things were finally starting to look up for the school year and the future. Whatever challenges may have been on the road ahead of him, he had a good feeling he'd be able to get past them.

"...will be getting ready for college."

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Welcome, readers! This is Gravity Falls: Once More - yet another Gravity Falls sequel fanfic you came across that you may or may not be debating whether reading through its 500k+ (and growing) word count is even worth it!

Well, allow me to tell you a few things about this fic so you can decide if it's your cup of tea:

- This is my attempt at a slightly more mature continuation of the series while doing my best to replicate its charm, tone, and humor, and stay true to its large cast of wonderfully memorable characters.

- The overall motive of this fic is to expand upon the show's lore and lingering threads - exploring underutilized characters, continuing certain character/story arcs that could've gone further; and going deeper into the Gravity Falls mythos - all while a new overarching narrative slowly builds across each "episode".

- Official supplementary canon or "canon-ish" books such as Journal 3, Lost Legends, and most recently The Book of Bill ARE referenced and canon to this story - although, they are not required reading to understand any significant references.

- Stories in this fic are generally divided into three-part "episodes". Why did I not just split each episode into individual fics? No idea! Guess I just wanted the entirety of the story in one place. For better or worse! Hopefully this one textbook-sized fanfic is still viable!

- Wouldn't be a Gravity Falls story without ciphers and codes, right? Feel free to crack any cryptograms you happen to come across. You may gain some hints about the story's future...

- I started this story here on FFN, but I've since made AO3 the definitive place for the story to be read. It even has art throughout the fic, most prominently a cover piece for each episode! While I'll keep updating here per usual, if you're an AO3 user, definitely consider checking the story out there instead.

So how do you feel? Is your brain suddenly craving over half a million words to digest? Yes? No? Maybe? I'm kind of getting a "maybe" vibe from you... And so, *maybe* YOU should go ahead and continue reading! Or not! It's your call, bucko! I promise I won't judge! Not out loud, at least...

But seriously, if you've decided to give any part of this story a moment of your time, thank you endlessly for checking it out! If you decide to continue, I can only hope it's as enjoyable for you to read as it is for me to write!

-Absolute Rift, 2024