Gravity Falls: Chaos Rising | Book #1 |

Chapter 1

"We have great news!" Mom announces at breakfast. School ended yesterday and I really hope she's going to say that we can go to Gravity Falls for the summer because Dipper and Mabel had so much fun when they went last year.

"Ooh, what?" Mabel asks, hugging her pet pig Waddles. Waddles came back from Gravity Falls with Mabel and Dipper last year, Mom and Dad were annoyed, to say the least.

"Can we go back to Gravity Falls?!" Dipper asks, standing up and slamming his hands against the table.

"Whoa, calm down!" Dad says in a joking way.

I look up from my bowl of marshmallow cereal hopefully.

"Well, your Grunkles Stanley and Stanford say that they're going to be in Gravity Falls over the summer and they have agreed to take you for the summer," Mom says.

"Yes!!!" my siblings and I yell, jumping up.

My polydactyl sphynx cat, Bastet, seizing the opportunity of an empty chair, steals my chair. "Oh come on, Bast!" I exclaim using my cat's nickname, which mind you, holds no more power than her full name.

Bastet gives me a "What are you going to do about it, Mily?" look.

"You're a butthead cat," I say.

"What are you three waiting for? Go start packing!" Mom says, shooing us up the stairs.

My siblings and I race up the stairs to go pack.

(*?*)

I've almost finished packing, but I need more crystals to make necklaces. On my last trip I grabbed a lot of crystals and they've lasted me almost a year, but I need more. I push a tree branch away from my face. I jump down into the ditch, it's pretty the same as it was last summer, so I start to shove as many crystals into my messenger bag as possible. I look up again and then I notice that the book I found last year is exactly where I left it. I sigh. I reach out and pick up the book and shove it into my bag. Might as well take it if no one else will. Right?

(*?*)

I haven't mentioned, yet how much I hate long drives, well, turns out there is a long bus ride to Gravity Falls. I'll probably be fine, I mean Mabel is telling me some very fun stories about unicorns and such. Mabel and I have both snuck our pets onto the bus. What was I supposed to do? Leave my peculiar companion behind? Never! Bastet would probably destroy the world, or something like that. You never know what a bald cat with extra toes can do.

Dipper pulls out the notebook he's constantly writing in and starts digging in his backpack. "Darn it!"

"What?" I ask.

"I forgot to bring a pen!"

"Well, since I saw this coming, I brought five packs of pens!" I say, pulling a full pack of pens out of my bag.

"Thanks Mily!" Dipper says, taking the pens.

We sit in silence for a while. That is until Mabel starts asking about how I seem to never run out of crystals.

"Mily, how do you never run out of those shiny crystal things?"

"I found a ditch full of them in the woods," I answer.

"Cool. Can you show me where?" Mabel asks.

"Sure, when we get home at the end of August," I say.

Mabel smiles wide, her braces catch the light and blinding me. I can't count how many times either hers, or my braces have tried to take away someone's vision.

"Ah! Your braces are blinding me!" I exclaim, shielding my eyes.

Mabel and I start laughing like idiots. We only stop when we lose the ability to breathe. We sit in silence again, the only noise being Dipper's pen on paper. Sooner, or later we all end up doing different things. Dipper is writing, Mabel is texting her friends who live in Gravity Falls, and I just sit there awkwardly, that is until I remember the book I shoved into my bag earlier. I stand up to access the overhead storage. I push some things around, like Mabel's art kit, at least half of Dipper's library, my diamond shaping and polishing kit, a bag of crystals, that's not even everything. Finally I find my messenger bag, all the way at the back, behind Mabel karaoke machine. I pull out the bag and sit back down. I unclip the clasp and pull out the book. Before I start reading I look to see if I can judge approximately how old it is. When I fail to do that I just give up and open to the first page of the book. There's a bit of an introduction, which references another book. Then things get a bit more interesting. After the introduction the author starts talking about amulets, strange phenomena, and very weird creatures. Also because I'm weird I mentally commented on the author's cursive. Yeah I have a weird brain.

I don't know how long I've been reading now, but my train of thought is interrupted by a quiet squeak. I shake my head, close the book, and look underneath my chair. "What's up?" I ask my cat.

Bastet gives me a look that screams "The sky you idiot!".

"Yeesh, don't need to get so moody," I say. I have a very sassy cat, but she can also be really friendly. However when you ask questions that are in her opinion really dumb she gives you annoyed looks and then (unless she actually wants to point out something important) she ignores you. Bastet tilts her head in the direction of Mabel and Dipper. That's when I notice something strange: they aren't moving. I turn to look at the bus driver, he isn't moving either. I look outside and notice something else: nothing is moving. I look back to Bastet. She's frozen mid foot lick. I stand up and look around. There's another detail I should have noticed earlier: everything is in grayscale. Except for me that is. I look around trying to see what the problem is. Suddenly there's a flash of light and there I think, a triangle in the corner of the room. Wearing a top hat?