When Y/n woke up the next day, she found herself staring at a very unfamiliar ceiling.
"Oh shit," she muttered. A sudden fear made her scramble to the floor, tangled in the blanket that had been placed over her. But as she swatted the fabric away from her, she noticed that she was on the floor of the party room. Her fear quelled; at least she was still in the Shack.
Y/n didn't remember falling asleep on one of the couches, let alone coming back to the party room of all places. But it was soon after realizing just where she was that the memories came back to her.
* . °•★|•°∵ ৢোি ∵°•|☆•° . *
"Y/n! I want you to meet my party people!"
After Y/n escorted the rather odd Inigo out of the party, she had done herself a favor and taken a well deserved shower. It took her a while to get all of the pine needles and leaves out of her hair, but by the time she left, towel dabbing at her damp hair, the party had nearly winded to a stop. And just her luck: Mabel had been waiting outside the door for her for God knows how long.
"What? Isn't everyone gone?" Y/n asked, folding the towel over her arm.
"Nope! Wendy and her friends are still here, and me and my new friends are having a sleepover! And I want you to meet them!"
"Wait, Mabel, listen: I'm tired and— woah!"
"No way," she giggled, grabbing Y/n by the oversized sleeve of her night-hoodie, "I've already told them about you! Plus, you have to formally meet Wendy's friends anyway. Though," she stopped suddenly at the foot of the stairs, nearly sending Y/n topping over her. Mabel smirked, her eyebrows arching slightly. "I guess you already got to know Robbie well enough."
"Mabel!" She hissed, eyes widening. "I already told you—"
"Okay okay!" She giggled, continuing down the stairs. "Well, there you go; now you can tell me and Dipper about your little adventure in the woods today!"
Seeing as Mabel was already dragging her in the direction of a large group of people, consisting of teens, tweens, and Soos alike, there was no way for Y/n to leave now. So with a sigh she tried her best to conceal, she silently mourned the lost opportunity to return to her room and put on her most greetable face.
Mabel took Y/n straight to her newly found friends; a short girl in a green sweater named Candy who was as sweet as her name suggested, and a broad and bigger girl named Grenda who's heart seemed as big as her muscles.
The trio were sitting little aways from Wendy's group, far enough to have their own conversations between them but close enough for Mabel to add on details to whatever story the redhead or Dipper was telling in the other group.
The three told Y/n the general story on how they met, each interrupting each other at different times to add details or events the others might have missed. It was fun at first, but as the story seemed to keep going, Y/n found herself zoning out until Grenda shouted her part of the story and brought her back to reality.
The ravenette felt bad for not paying attention to the story— these two girls seemed incredibly nice, and she was happy Mabel finally found a little group to fit that was around her age— but her attention kept going to either her bed, calling for her to return to the safety of its sheets, or to the dull throbbing in her ankle.
God, she thought, masking a wince behind a slight cough. She awkwardly rolled her ankle every now and then, hoping that the movement would help improve it's condition. I hope this feels better in the morning.
The rest of the story was a blur, and the most she took from it was that there was this rich girl named Pacifica who was bothering them the entire night, and pretty much ruined the party with the stench of her ego and arrogance. She was a massive bully and was actually the one who ended the party when she announced her own afterparty on one of her parents' several yachts.
Y/n had only known about her existence for not even five minutes, but in her stupor she concluded that Pacifica would also go on her "kids-to-punt-list," taking the number one spot from Gideon. For now, at least.
From there, Mabel then dragged Y/n over to Wendy's clique on the sofas. She went through the lists of names so fast that the older girl was sure that she had already forgotten some, or, at the very least, she had merged some together in her mind. All she knew for sure, besides Wendy herself, was a large and awkward teen named Thompson, and Robbie. The other three seemed nice enough; a long and lanky blonde boy, a slightly shorter and darker boy with a cap and tattoos running along his toned arms, and a short girl with thick eyeliner accenting her hazel eyes and pink highlights.
Seeing as Mabel had gone back to the dance floor to live it up with her new friends as the clock continued to tick away into the early hours of the night, Y/n was stuck and left stranded with the group of teens. She sat at the edge of one of the couches, wedged between Dipper and the arm of the sofa. Luckily, because of her position, she was farthest from the conversation. She didn't pay attention to most of it, and while the tall blonde and his friend with the cap— who she had picked up were named Lee and Nate— had attempted to get her to contribute to the conversation, she barely said much. In hindsight, it was nice that they were trying to include her, especially since she barely knew the group, but she just wasn't eager to talk.
"Hey Mabel, Dipper."
The minutes ticked into hours, and the groups had started to die down. Some of Wendy's friends had called it a night and Mabel's friends had started to set up sleeping bags in the middle of the empty dance floor. As conversation had begun to slow down, Y/n was struggling more and more to stay awake on the couch. It was surprisingly more comfortable than when she first sat down. So she decided it would be best to tell the twins of her little adventure in the woods before she wound up falling asleep and forgetting. "Get over here for a bit?"
The twins joined her over on the sofa. The couch was slowly becoming empty; Soos had left an hour or so earlier, followed by Thompson and Nate soon after. The rest of the teens were sitting on the other, laughing and talking amongst themselves.
"What's up Y/n?" Dipper asked.
"Well," she started, making sure that Wendy's little group couldn't possibly hear them. The last thing she wanted was for Robbie to hear her and start complaining about her "version" of event, or— even worse— would take over the story completely and bend the narrative into one where he saved her or something. He seemed like that type of person, if she were to be honest.
"Mabel only sort of knows about what I'm about to say, only because she caught me after patching me and Robbie up."
"Oh!" Mabel's eyes lit up. Y/n had noticed that she seemed oddly eager to hear about her little adventure with Robbie. She knew that no matter what she'd say, Mabel wouldn't believe that there was nothing that had happened between them.
In reality, the girl was happy that her older sister had managed to make the tiniest of semblance of a friend, even if it was with someone who she equated to as the human version of rat poison. She had begun to worry about Y/n's reclusive nature.
And well, who knows? Mabel would be lying if she wasn't hopeful that something could sprout from it, especially since Robbie was one of the older teens in Wendy's group.
"Tell us what happened out there," Mabel whispered, pawing at her sister's flannel.
"Wait, out where?" Dipper asked, brow quirking in confusion.
With a sigh, Y/n ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, don't worry, I'm going to fill you in Dipper. But basically..."
Y/n told the twins a brief version of events: beginning with her deciding to go out for a "little walk" (sure to leave out any parts of her meeting with Bill), her encounter with the two Dipper copies— to which Dipper derailed the conversation to make sure they were doing okay; Y/n couldn't answer for sure, but she assumed if they were even half as a smart as the original, they would be fine— and ending with the run in with the Sprog and the desperate biking back to the Shack with Robbie.
"Woah!" The two shouted in unison. Y/n shushed them slightly; she really didn't want Robbie's attention on them at the moment.
"That Sprog sounds so cool," Dipper said, brown eyes lighting up. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in the journal! You might have totally found something the Author hadn't!"
If Dipper was to be honest with himself, he was a little envious of that possibility, and he could hear some of it seep into his tone. He didn't want to— it was great that Y/n was finally able to experience some of the town's weird, hidden, dark side— but part of him just wished it was something he had already seen before.
Y/n laughed slightly. "Maybe. I didn't get a good look at it though, especially when we realized it was trying to attack us. But, I can tell you what I remember and you can make your own entry in the journal about it if you'd like? I noticed you've made little additions to some of the blank pages."
"Y-yeah! Totally!"
"How's your leg doing?" Mabel asked, looking down at it. "It looked like you were limping earlier."
"Yeah," Y/n admitted, rolling up her pant leg a bit. She had replaced the bandage after her shower, and while it had stopped bleeding, it was still a little achy. "It's alright; it's not gonna kill me or anything."
"You should stay off of it for a while," Dipper agreed. "Are you sure they aren't poisonous or anything?"
"Uh... I mean," she started, crossing her leg over the other to get a better look at it. "The skin isn't discolored, so...?"
"We'll check tomorrow."
"And until then, we're keeping you off your feet. You're taking the next couple of days easy," Mabel said, putting her hands on her hips.
"I don't think that's possible," Y/n laughed awkwardly, she threw herself on the sofa, laying down. "Stan was already trying to get me to work earlier. He's not going to let me get off tours so easily."
"We'll figure it out for you, don't worry," Dipper said. "We have our ways when it comes to dealing with him."
"If you say so. But enough of that, go have fun. I just wanted to let you know before it ended up slipping my mind."
The twins nodded. "Go get some sleep," Dipper said, taking a seat next to her. "You definitely need some after tonight."
She nodded half-heartedly in response, watching as Mabel returned to her friends on the floor. They had a bowl of popcorn between them, and one had brought magazines for the three to look through and geek over.
Dipper was right, she probably did need sleep. But based on her little meeting with Bill in the woods, it was obvious that he was waiting for her to keep passing out in order to talk to her. But at the same time, it was impossible for her to keep fighting it off. Eventually she would have to give in.
But, she mused, thinking back to earlier, he was a lot more tame than usual. Even the deer teeth weren't that bad. Odd, but totally in character.
That made her chuckle a bit; was she that tired that the deer teeth didn't even phase her?
"God," she mumbled to herself, loud enough for Dipper to hear, "maybe I do need sleep."
"Yeah, you do. You're gonna start looking worse than Stan does in the mornings," he laughed, swatting at her head playfully.
"That's a horrifying thought. So horrifying that it just might have scared any of the sleep out of me, Dip-Dop," she laughed.
* . °•★|•°∵ ৢোি ∵°•|☆•° . *
"Yeah, obviously that didn't happen," she mumbled to herself, still on the floor.
It was weird, she had actually managed to get a full night of sleep! Or at least, a partial night of sleep; she didn't remember when exactly she passed out. But it was still something— something Bill-free on top of it!
As she rubbed at her bleary eyes and a yawn escaped her lips, she considered curling back up with the blanket and falling back asleep right on the floor. If she had managed to go at least 6 hours without Bill, maybe she could test her luck with another 2-4. But when she noticed that it was oddly quiet, she decided to get up and venture back into the living room. So, with a grunt and the light popping of her stiff joints from the couch, she grabbed the blanket and hopped up the stairs.
"Hey? Is anyone there?" She grabbed the banister, peeking her head up from the stairs.
No answer.
"That's... a tad strange," she mumbled.
As she climbed up the stairs, she noticed that her leg had in fact gotten better over night. It still ached a bit, but it was nothing compared to last night at the party. "Thank God," she muttered, stomping on it a couple of times when she reached the top of the stairs for good measure.
Wandering into the kitchen, she found that it was as empty as the other rooms. A little pink note laid fallow on the table, quickly catching her eye. Y/n picked it up by it's corner, not surprised to find it covered in glitter and gel ink.
"Y/n! We went into town to run some errands. We convinced Stan to let you sleep in. We should be back before you wake up, but here's a note just in case! :D"
"Well shit," she sighed, looking over at the clock on the microwave. "When did they leave? It's almost 2."
Pulling out her phone, aiming to maybe text the twins that she was at least awake, she was met with a rather unsettling text:
"Text from Dip-Dop; 10:23 am: call me."
That isn't ominous or anything, she growled internally. She was always quick to some paranoid and terrible answer, and the fact that errands shouldn't have taken more than an hour only added to this sudden irrational fear. Ignoring the subtle irritability which came with the idea of a phone call, she quickly unlocked her phone and dialed Dipper. With a few rings later, he picked up and Y/n was able to let out an audible sigh of relief.
"What's up?" She asked, clearing her throat. Y/n scolded herself quietly for jumping as fast to panic as she did. It was silly; what could have possibly happened when they went shopping in such a small town?
"Hey Y/n! Did you only just wake up?"
"Y-yeah," she admitted, pulling out a seat from the table. She leaned back, balancing it on its hind legs. "I ended up getting a pretty good night though, so thanks for not waking me up. Why'd you need me to call you?"
She heard Dipper pause. "So, it's a long story, but basically: Stan forgot that the town throws this Pioneer Day thing every year, the car got caught up with all these carriages, and Stan is in... old timey jail—"
"Jail?!" Y/n nearly fell off the chair, and with a loud slam, she managed to steady it's legs back on the floor.
"Yeah, they have him locked up in a pillory."
"A pillory? They still have those?"
"They also still have laws that allow you to marry a woodpecker."
She blinked, dumbfounded. "...Come again now?"
"This town is weird," Dipper sighed. "But I digress! So, now that Stan's in jail, me and Mabel—"
There was a quick shuffle and a muffled argument, before Mabel shouted: "HEY Y/N!" into the receiver.
"Hey Mabel," Y/n greeted, nowhere matching the girl's excitement.
But as quickly as the greeting came, Y/n could hear her mumble, "Wait, was that silly? Dangit Mabel!" before the phone was passed back to Dipper.
Y/n's brows furrowed in concern. "Uh, what's that about?"
Dipper sighed again. "Pacifica called her silly in front of the town and now she's trying to prove that she can be serious."
Y/n's expression soured, a scowl pulling at her lips. "Let me see that Pacifica girl; I'll show that little brat who's silly. If you give me like 15 minutes I can tot—"
"Y/n, no. We're on it."
"Oh? What are you gonna do? Fight her or something?" She asked incredulously, leaning closer to the speaker on the phone. "Because I've learned a thing or two from my friends and I can give you tips—"
"What? No! Oh God," Dipper laughed awkwardly. "Look, so the only reason she's such a hot-shot here is because her great grandfather founded the town."
"Wait," Y/n interrupted; she felt that she had heard this from somewhere. Her mind flashed to a certain page in... "Wasn't this in—?"
"The journal? Exactly. But apparently, the guy might not even be the real founder! The Author wrote about this whole conspiracy that even he was stumped on!"
"So you're trying to solve it and prove that she's a fraud?"
"Yes! Blackmail, dear sister! The most underrated form of revenge!"
Y/n let out an over-dramatic gasp. "How despicable," she said, feigning shock. Immediately she added, "So how far along are you guys with it?"
"Well," Dipper paused, and Y/n could hear the shuffling of papers. "We're about to go into the library to look up some of the alchemy symbols on the map he left. I'm thinking that one of them has to lead to how to get the next clue."
"How long do you think this is gonna take?"
"I... I honestly have no idea. But with Stan stuck in the pillory for at least another couple of hours, I think it's best if we investigate this instead of walking all the way back to the Shack."
Y/n perked up. "You, uh, want me to come down and help you guys...? Three heads is definitely better than two."
"Y/n wanting to leave the house? Who is this and what have you done with our sister?" Dipper joked, choking back a chuckle.
She smiled, rolling her eyes playfully. "Well what else am I supposed to do while you guys are out and about?"
"I mean, I don't mind—" But Mabel once again cut him off, quite literally ripping the phone out of his grasp.
"Oh, HECK NO SISTER!" She shouted into the receiver, making Y/n flinch. "YOU ARE GOING TO STAY HOME AND REST! WHAT DID WE SAY ABOUT THAT LEG, MISSY?"
"Oh my God, you're right!" Dipper said, his voice a lot lower than Mabel's now that he was away from the phone. "We're not gonna make you follow us around on a sore foot. It'll only get worse."
"But it's feeling better!" She managed to walk pretty much the perimeter of the Shack without any hassle. If the twins didn't remind her, she probably would have forgotten about it until she saw the bandage later that night.
"No buts, Y/n!" Mabel said, trying her best at a very serious matter-of-fact tone. "We'll keep you updated, every hour on the hour! We'll be on top of it this time, unlike the whole crime investigation thing."
"But—!"
"I said no buts! Except yours sitting on the couch and resting until we get back!" Mabel shouted, very matter-of-factly.
"Mabel's right," Dipper agreed, taking back the phone from her. "It might feel fine now, but if you push it it'll become a problem later."
"You're joking," she whined, running a hand through her hair. They were just gonna leave her in the Shack the entire day?!
With everyone gone, it's gonna be so boring! What am I supposed to do? Go into the attic and watch the moss grow?
She paused, freezing in her seat.
Wait.
WAIT—
"Fine," she contended rather quickly, sitting up suddenly. "You're right, I'll stay off the foot. Serious Mabel is right."
"YEAH!" Mabel yelled from somewhere beside Dipper. Y/n chuckled softly.
"We'll text you updates... and if we ever get Stan out of the pillory."
"Yeah. And tell me when you guys are on your way home. I can start dinner or something; I don't know."
"Woah? Y/n cooking?!" Dipper genuinely seemed shocked. "That sleep really did work wonders!"
"Yeah yeah yeah I get it, I get it." She rolled her eyes playfully.
With a laugh, Dipper and Mabel bid their farewells, already shuffling around and gathering their things to continue their search. Y/n felt a little bad not being able to join them, but there was a greater opportunity quite literally staring her in the face.
"Oh wait!" Dipper said suddenly, startling Y/n a bit. "I almost forgot. Stan said you got mail...? I think he left it on your bed."
The ravenette's brows furrowed. "Mail? Really?" She questioned out loud, as much to Dipper as it was to herself.
"Yeah. He didn't say from who either."
"It's probably from a friend," she shrugged. She was pretty sure one was on a road trip, but she didn't know how they could possibly get the Shack's address...
"Maybe. But anyway, me and Mabel gotta get going. We'll keep you updated, promise."
"Yeah, you better," Y/n joked, hanging up after saying goodbye and wishing them luck. As soon as she was sure the call had ended, Y/n jumped from her seat, quickly rummaging through the cabinets.
"I can't believe I almost got myself running around town investigating a conspiracy," she scolded herself lightly, an excited glint in her eyes. She paused for a moment, weighing her options.
"Well... I guess it could have been fun to hang out with the twins a bit... but that doesn't matter right now," she muttered, moving more cans around. "I have a more important matter to attend to.
The mischievous smirk that had begun to pull at her lips only grew when she found a granola bar. It wasn't the best breakfast, but it would have to do. It would hold her over until dinner later.
"I have the Shack to myself," she continued excitedly, running out of the kitchen and to her room. "No Stan, no twins, no Soos— this is the perfect time to get to the first journal!"
Opening the door, she found that Dipper had been right: the letter addressed to her was lying on her bed, as if keeping it warm for her since she hadn't been in it. She grabbed the Tabloid hidden under other books and papers on the bed and slipped it in the pocket of her hoodie before grabbing the letter. She silently cheered that Stan hadn't appeared to rummage through her things and found it.
Written on the front in big, bold, letters was "Y/n Pines." If she looked hard enough, she could almost see that the sender had gone over the last name two or three times, further darkening the letters and putting emphasis on "Pines." It confused her— almost irking her slightly— until she saw the sender's address.
"'Glass Shard Beach, NJ,'" she smiled slightly, leaving her room. She shook her head playfully. A gentle reminder of who she was from from Sherman. But... what was even in the letter?
Putting the letter in her hoodie pocket too, she ran back out and into the living room, deciding to look at it when she got to the basement. Y/n pushed her way into the gift shop, stopping in front of the vending machine, a smirk still imprinted on her lips. Lady Luck appeared to be on her side; first a Bill-free sleep, a letter from Sherman, and now potentially hours alone in the basement? How could things get better?
"Hey! I even have a chocolate chip granola bar," she smiled, pulling at the wrapper. "Today's my day, I feel it!"
Fingers danced along the buttons, and with a little puff of smoke, the vending machine swung open. Even though it was Y/n's second time seeing it, it still felt a little surreal. But, unlike the last time, she was ready.
Without a second thought, she ducked into the hallway, already skipping down the stairs. She had one goal in mind, and her thoughts began to race as she bounded down the stairs.
"I have to find out more about the Author," she muttered. "And even though I'm missing a whole lot of answers, I think I can piece together something from that first journal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Henlo!
I won't lie, this chapter was definitely a lot more short and filler-y than intended, partially due to my mini runt I appear to be stuck in. But it's okay! I've officially finished my winter class, and quite literally have a whole week before my spring semester starts to spend writing more chapters muahahaha.
As for what I've been doing now, this pretty up sums it up:
Yeah I might have a problem. But it's all good I swear—
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Vote, comment, and share if you can! :D
-Cipher