Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls High
"Yo Wendy, did you see the video of Dr. Funtimes kicking the snot out of that bully?", Nate said as the group walked up to Wendy at her locker.
"Yeah, man. Did you teach him that?", Lee joined in on the conversation before Wendy could respond.
"It's everywhere. I've seen it on yourspace, mytube, rublr, greatbook, my blog, I mean everywhere.", Tambry added.
"I didn't think the lil guy had it in him.", Thompson piped in.
"Whatever.", Robbie caustically chimed in.
"Yeah guys, I saw it last night before I talked to him.", Wendy finally was able to answer her friends. "I dunno guys, I'm actually worried about him. Yeah he stood up to the guy, but now he's put a bigger target on his back."
"Whoa, whadya mean?", Nate asked.
"Well for one the father of the guy he fought is pulling his son from his football team for being a bully, that's gonna make him, his friends, and maybe the rest of his team mad. Two he took down a bully and is getting a lot of popularity from the video, that may make the other bullies want to try to take him out now. And finally he's gonna have other people who get picked on looking up to him and that could put pressure on him that I only hope he can handle.", Wendy said with a worried tone in her voice.
They stood there for a moment before they had to split up to head to separate classes. Seeing as Wendy and Tambry were heading to English 2 they stayed together and talked some more.
"Ok, I'll give you that there's all that. But there's more to it, isn't there? You may also be worried about the attention he may start to get from the ladies down there," Tambry teased her friend.
"Wait, no. Psah. What, what are you getting at?" Wendy replied actually stumbling over her words as her normally cool facade slipped a little, "Why would you think that?"
"Well first off after the trip to the DusktoDawn, you actually spent more of your free time with him than you did me and the guys this summer and even when you did hang with us he and his sister would be involved.", Tambry answered.
"Well I couldn't just leave them stuck in the shack with Stan & Soos all of the time, plus Dip's pretty cool once you get to know him." Wendy countered.
"Secondly, you've become very quick to defend him when anyone tries to attack him, verbally or physically, you didn't even do that for Robbie when you guys were dating.", Tambry continued.
"Well he's one of my best friends. I usually defend all of you guys that way." Wendy said trying to defend herself.
"Thirdly," Tambry said counting off a third finger, "after realizing he was gonna get fired from that lifeguard job over the summer you intentionally got yourself fired so he wouldn't feel as bad about losing the chance to work with you."
"Ok, you've got me there.", Wendy admitted, wondering exactly where her friend is going with this, "I couldn't stand to see the lil doof be so downhearted."
"Exhibit number four." Tambry held up a fourth finger now, "You gave him your hat. You've had that thing since your mother's accident. It was the last thing she gave you. And you gave it to him."
"Well he needed to something to remember me by," Wendy was actually blushing at this point, "besides I took his hat in exchange."
"Suurree. That's a good exchange. And now for the fifth and final tidbit. I've been thinking about a lot of stuff ever since Robbie and I got together, you know worried about how it would affect our friendship. And well there was always something about Dipper that was there in the back of my mind, it always felt like I had seen him before. Then it hit me, he reminds me a lot of the first guy you told me you thought was cute.", Tambry remarks not meaning any harm. She was mainly doing this to see how flustered she could get her normally stoic friend.
"Uhm, you've got me here. What are you talking about?", Wendy asked actually confused.
"We were both five, we were out riding our big wheels down main street when we ran into an older kid and his girlfriend or cousin or something and you leaned over and whispered that the guy was cute, so I told him what you said. The more I think about it the more I think that Dipper looks like that guy.", Tambry explained. "You ended up having us ride around that area for a week or two cause you hoped you could see him again."
"Tambers, we were five like you said," Wendy retorted, "I really don't remember that. Heck you had a crush on Alexander Graham Bell back then."
"Really, you can remember that?", Tambry questioned, "But can't remember the first guy you thought was cute enough to tell me about it?"
"It was a long time ago.", Wendy shrugged as they entered their class, though she see was vaguely starting to remember that day. 'Hmm, I'll have to ask one of them about that,' she thought as she sat down.
Piedmont, California
Nancy Reagan Middle School
Dipper headed to bus stop with Mabel feeling some trepidation. He had checked the mytube posting again before leaving the house and saw the video has had over 5,000 likes and nearly 30,000 views. Someone had also taken all the sound from it and dubbed it with sound bites from the Fight Fighters game. Who knows what type of reception he was gonna get at school, especially if Jimmy's dad really does pull him off of the football team. He intentionally wore muted colors today in order to not stand out. He tried hard to work on the research last night but he could barely concentrate enough to open the book. He brought one with him to read during lunch and he saw Mabel put the 'Venkman's Guide' in her backpack. Now to just wait for the bus.
"You ready for this, Dip?", Mabel asked as the bus had started turning the corner to head to their stop. Despite his protests she was wearing a sweater with Dipper's face on it in order to show support for him.
"We'll see.", Was all he said.
No sooner had the bus door open then he heard a resounding, "Hi Dipper!", Come from most of the bus.
As they got on they noticed Jimmy wasn't riding today. Some kids he didn't even really know kept asking him if he wanted to sit with them today, but he'd say he was gonna just sit with his sister like normal. Finally one kid got up to give them his seat. It seemed like everyone was asking about how it felt to take down one of the biggest jerks in the school. Pretty much he just sat back and let Mabel field the questions.
It didn't get much better once they got to school, nearly everybody was stopping him as he walked the halls to talk to him about the fight, even some of the Cheerleaders. Right now he just wished it would all go away. Sure he didn't mind the 'fame', he just wished it had come from one of his scholastic endeavors and not due to some stupid fight. Apparently even some of his teachers had seen the video, his English Lit teacher praised him for his 'Chivalrous Endeavor' in defending his sister, his Applied Sciences teacher commented on his proper use of physics in using his body as a fulcrum for the swing of the backpack, and the Phys Ed teacher asked him if he was gonna try out for wrestling due to him being comfortable outside of his weight-class.
It was lunch time before it seemed like he was gonna get any type of respite. For the first ten minutes it seem it would just be him and Mabel at their table, but just as he was pulling out his book to do some studying up walked Jimmy's two cronies.
"Well look, it's lil Dipstick." #1 said, "Having fun soaking up all the glory your video is getting you?"
Dipper just looked at him. 'One of these days I'll have to learn their names, I can't keep thinking of them as Jimmy's cronies.' Dipper thought as he looked them over. 'They sorta remind me of an inverted Durland and Blubbs. I think the taller one is Jason, Mason, Hanson, something like that. And the other one I think I've heard him called "Stumps" or something like that.'
"You're lucky we wanted to make sure James didn't have any permanent injuries after getting an encyclopedia slammed into his head," said the crony #2, the shorter one. "or we would've made short work of you lil man."
"Sure you would've, Lumps." Mabel said standing up and in getting in to Lumps face, "All I remember seeing yesterday was the two of you trying to ride on James coat tails and once he went down like a sack of flour you ran with your tails tucked between your legs
"We weren't talking to you, spaz.", Lumps said as he goes to push Mabel out of the way only to have her grab his hand and twist it.
"NO, you were threatening my brother." Mabel said as she slap a sticker on his forehead that read 'Totally Brain Dead!' in neon green.
"You..." crony #1 said as he went to swing at Mabel only to have his arm grabbed by Dipper.
"You two just don't learn," Dipper said as he slammed his free hand palm first into #1's ear, knocking him into Lumps who Mabel had just let go. In the back of his mind he could almost hear Mayor Cutebiker doing his lil 'Git him, git him.' chant. "You don't mess with my sister."
Before anything else could happen the teachers assigned to cafeteria duty were there to separate the two parties, "What's going on over here?" the first teacher asked.
"We were just trying to talk to the school's newest celebrity, when this psycho," Lumps pointed at Mabel while spinning a tale for the teachers, "got up in my face starting trouble. Then her brother hauled off and hit Tyson."
"Yeah right. You came over here talking about how you were going jump my brother. And when I called you out on running like a chicken with head chopped off yesterday, you tried to push me down. When I stopped that your lil boyfriend went to hit me, which my brother stopped and then he made sure you two stepped away from me." Mabel countered.
"What do you have to say about this, Mr. Pines?", the teacher asked.
"It went down just the way my sister said. But if you don't believe me ask the crowd, I'm sure someone saw them coming towards me and probably recorded the whole exchange.", Dipper replied frankly.
No sooner had he said that then three people were offering up videos of the confrontation from three different angles. The teachers went ahead and took all four of the individuals involved to the office along with the provided videos to evaluate the situation. Once there they keep the twins and the jocks separated while they reviewed the videos with the principal before deciding what to do.
While they waited Dipper pulled out the research book from his backpack and started reading at just about where he left off. Seeing this Mabel pulled out the 'Venkman's Guide' and a sketch pad. They both were still distracted by the fight they were just in but still they were able to read some in an attempt to calm themselves. Dipper looked over act Mabel's sketch pad and saw she was sketching out a gargoyle with a set of googly eyes surrounded by several of her normal array of stickers. He cracked a smile because it almost looked like the gargoyle was suffering from a bad acid trip. After what felt like hours but was closer to 20 minutes the office door opened and in walks Mr. Pines.
"Two fights in as many days, what is going on with you two?", Mr. Pines asked as soon as he saw his kids. He then notices Lumps & Tyson "Wait a minute, are those the two guys who ran off after you clobbered that Jimmy kid yesterday?"
"Yeppers, dad.", Mabel replied putting out as much charm as she could muster.
"Yeah, they came up on me trying to cause trouble. I was gonna just ignore then till the short stack tried to put his hands on Mabel." Dipper said.
"Well actually," Mabel interrupted, "I stopped him, but stretch went to hit me and that's when Dipper gave him what for." She then turned towards Dipper and poke his nose, "Bloop. I forgot to say thanks, broseph."
At that point the principal's door opened and he walked out. Seeing Mr. Pines he spoke, "Ah, good to see you Mr. Pines. I'm sorry it's under this type of situation. Will the three of you please step into my office?"
With that he turned and went back into his office. By the time they entered he was already back behind his desk. The two teachers who had escorted the group to the main office, Mr Kwan & Miss Maisey, were still in the office.
"As you know we have a zero tolerance policy we it comes to fighting," seeing Dipper was about to speak up, "Yes. I know you were just trying to defend your sister, Marlon."
"It's Dipper, sir.", Dipper respectfully corrected him.
"Well according to our records your name is Marlon, so that's what I will address you as." Principal Speigel said somewhat haughtily , "Now as I was saying with our zero tolerance policy everyone involved in a fight gets a two day suspension. Again I know you were only trying to defend each other, but after reviewing the video of the incident and despite the protests of Mr. Kwan and Miss Maisey, I'm going to have to have the punishment stand. I really hate to do it because other than something about a head shaving incident in second grade the two of you have pretty clear school record, but I can't make any exceptions when it comes down to it. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance."
"Wait a minute, you mean there's a video of this fight also?", Mr. Pines asked incredulously, looking between Principal Speigel and the kids, "you do know that those two out there were involved in an attempted attack upon my kids yesterday after school.
"Yes. I'm are aware of the attack, Mr. Riva's father called his son in this morning and asked to talk to me. He let me know he was pulling his son from the football team as punishment for the quarrel yesterday. As for today's incident we have video of it from three different angles, Mr. Pines, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear there was more evidence recorded. We do live in the digital age unfortunately. Also in case you are worried about possible retribution from Mr. Willows or Mr. Clover, don't, they are both on their second strike and they'll each be out for all of next week. That should cover everything, if there are no more questions I'll let you take them home."
He gets up and walks around his desk and comes to stand next to Mr. Pines and offers his hand. "Again it was a pleasure to speak with you Mr. Pines I just wish it was under different circumstances. Mr. Kwan will walk you to your child's lockers and then outside. Mabel, Marlon have a good weekend and we'll see you again on Wednesday." He then walks over to his door and opens it so they can exit.
Mr. Kwan (Dipper's English Literature teacher) walks them out of the office and down the hall towards their lockers. As they walk he speaks to the twins, "We'll let your teachers know about this, most of the home work for the two days you'll miss will be waiting for you as you get to your classes on Wednesday."
"Thank you Mr. Kwan. We're sorry for taking up so much your time today.", Dipper nodded towards his sister as he commented. As he got to his locker he pulled out his jacket and the hat Wendy gave him. Mabel just had to grab her jacket, so it was a quick stop. They walked on outside in silence and made it to the doors after the bell rang to end the period so the halls crowded a bit as they went on. Unbeknownst to the others Mabel stopped and asked one of her friends to get a copy of one of videos of the fight and email it to her later.
Once they got out to the car their father told them to get in the car. After he pulled out of the parking lot he asked, "Alright you two, have you ate yet or did the fight happen before you got to get anything."
"We had just finished when this happened, dad," Dipper stated, he then turned and looked out of the window and cotinued, "Sorry about this dad, you shouldn't have to give up your time because some idiot decides that I'm a good choice to be their punching bag."
"Look, Dipper, I maybe upset that you've been suspended, but I would've been more upset if something had happened to you or your sister. I'm proud that you are stepping up and defending each other more, I just wish it didn't have to be so violent." Mr. Pines said as he turned into a fast food joint, "Also I wish you had waited till I had had my lunch before you had gotten into trouble."
Mabel laugh a lil at her father's weak attempt at humor.
After he had gotten his food he took them home and dropped them off as he had to get back to work. He told them he should be home by 5 but that their mother had a late shift tonight and wouldn't be home for dinner.
Dipper went on up and dug back into the research books, so far he's gotten a few items to ask Soos or Wendy when talks to them next that may help narrow things down better. There seems to be quite a few things that are able to turn men into stone...
A couple of hours later he hears Mabel's email alert on her phone go off.
Gravity Falls 8:00 PM
Gravity Falls Natural History Museum
"Well Fiddleford, how did you get talked into coming back here?" McGucket asked himself as he was waiting on the others to arrive. Ever since he began regaining his memories he had done his best to avoid the Museum as it reminded him of how he had allowed himself to believe it was better to forget all of his problems instead of facing them. He has glad Ford's great niece and nephew had came to town and helped him regain himself.
"Wassup, McGucket dood?", he heard the big man Soos say from behind him. As he turned he saw Wendy was with the new Mr. Mystery.
"Ah, good to see you two. I was afraid I had a honeysuckle, sassafrasin memory lapse." He said still slipping in an 'old timey swear word' as Soos had called them once, just to get a smile from the big man and so hopefully they wouldn't notice how nervous he was to be here.
"Sorry man, it took a moment to get dad to let me out for this excursion, and if he asks Soos needed my help to pick up a new display item for the Shack." Wendy said with a twinkle in her eye at doing something her father may not approve of.
"Ok, doods let's get this done. I know we've gotten all of the members taken care of but this place still gives me a chill at night.", soos said as he headed up to the front doors. "Ah man, the doors are locked and Mabel's not here to pick it."
"Hold on guys," Wendy said digging into the inner pockets of her bomber jacket, "after everything this summer I've been slowly picking up a few new tools." and with a flourish she produce a tumbler lock pick gun. "Keep an eye out, alright."
With that she bent down and operated the gun until she heard the lock release. She lightly tugged on the door and after she made sure she didn't hear any alarms she opened the door wide enough for them to sneak in. Keeping an eye out for the security guard they traveled down to the entrance to the Society's inner rooms. Once in they started going down to the 'Hall of the Forgotten' to see what they could find that might be helpful. Once they were in the 'Hall', Soos and McGucket started looking around to see what might be helpful. Wendy went through the tubes to see if anyone's memories had any clues. So far the only interesting tidbit she had found was that her dad had met the Manotaurs before Weirdmageddon.
"Bells and buttons," McGucket muttered before he called out to the others, "Hey you two, didn't there used second one of the cornswaggled tube veiwers?'
Wendy didn't hear him as one of the tubes caught her eye, it was labeled 'Pines, Dipper'.
You know sometimes no matter how much you try to write a story with an outline, the characters just come along and say forget that I wanna shine through. This is what happened with the Wendy/Tambry conversation. This bit was just supposed to be the bit with everyone acknowledging the video and it snowball once I got into writing the fact that Tambry knows Wendy better than Wendy does sometimes (as most people do with people they have been friends with for a long time). Then the reaction at the twins school was only gonna be a paragraph or two and hello avalanche.
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