Pine Tree [ Gravity Falls Fanfic ] [ Billdip ]

The Letter

 Mason "Dipper" Pines, a 17 year old boy from California, sat comfortably on his bed. Upon his lap rested a stack of research journals that he had just collected and dusted off from the top shelf of his closet. For as long as he could remember, he had been keeping track of everything: journals of his every day life, both the normalities and the abnormalities. He didn't realize that the series of notebooks had gotten this big, though. There was nearly a dozen of them filled page to page with drawings, data tables, and observations. Just the sight of him gave him a jolt of nostalgia as he remembered his past years.

He had already sent in a number of impressive college applications to countless schools along with a complete collection of standardized test scores that were beyond what anyone expected a timid and awkward young man to score. Even most of the college responses had been a solid "yes", he was still waiting to hear back from one in particular.

During his 12th year, he spent the summer apprenticing under his great uncle, Stanford Pines. He was cool and collected, a genius, and an inspiration. He told Dipper the story of his childhood, how he had a shot to his dream school, West Coast Tech, but his golden ticket was torn in two. Ever since, Dipper became borderline obsessed with trying to get in. He wanted to make his great uncle proud and his own family even more so.

"Dipper, there's some weird packet thingy here for you!" A voice rang from downstairs, and immediately, he pushed the journals off of his lap and onto the bed.

"Coming!" He yelled back and stood up, walking out of his bedroom and down a wooden set of stairs.

Dipper's slightly older twin sister, Mabel Pines, stood in front of the doorway, a manilla letter in hand one and twirling her hair around a finger with the other. She looked up when she saw her brother and smiled, their caramel colored eyes like reflections of one another.

"So?" Mabel began the interrogation as soon as she passed off the packet to her brother, "what's in the thingy?"

Dipper read over the return address in the top left corner. His mouth immediately began to shift into a smile, "it's from West Coast Tech! It must be the acceptance letter!"

"Or rejection," Mabel pointed out, and her brother's smile quickly turned into a frown.

"Or rejection." Dipper repeated.

"I'm just kidding, Dippy! A nerd like you definitely got into your nerd school!" Mabel said with a toothy smile.

"Thanks, Mabel," he replied with a roll of his eyes. Dipper tore at the top of the packet, soon pulling out a thick stack of paper.

"So?"

He glossed over the words, "'Mason Pines'-"

"It's so formal!" Mabel pointed out, interrupting her brother.

"Of course it is, Mabel, it's from a college!" He cleared his throat, "'On behalf of the faculty and staff at West Coast Tech, it is with great pleasure that I inform you of your admission'!"

"No way!" Mabel squeaked, "you got in! You got into your nerd school, Dipper!"

A smile broke out on Dipper's face, "I... I got in... I really did it. I got in. I got in!"

"What does the rest of it say?" Mabel asked, moving closer to her brother and trying to peer over his shoulder.

Dipper skimmed over the words, his smile vanishing. "Oh no..."

"Oh no?"

"I didn't get the scholarship and was denied financial aid," Dipper said slowly, handing the papers off to Mabel, and pacing through their home.