Musical Genius

Chapter 1: Birthday Wish

Dipper's POV

I just finished my junior year of high school and it's time to go back to the best place in the world… Gravity Falls!

Over the years, not much has changed. Other than our appearances. I finally grew taller and got some muscle tone. Of course I rubbed it in Wendy's, Pacifica's, and Mabel's faces since they always teased me about my shortness. And chasing demons and monsters in gravity falls keeps you in top shape so that explains the muscles.

Mabel and Pacifica grew… Into the two hottest girls in gravity falls, aside from Wendy who had an early start of course. But Pacifica still had that tsundere personality but warmed up to me and Mabel. Mabel still was the quirky, artistic, fun loving sister I knew and everyone loved. Everyone loved…

I guess if anything has changed over the years… It was Mabel… Well not Mabel personally, but how everyone treated Mabel. She became instantly popular with her friendly personality. She made friends with everyone in Gravity Falls and everyone wanted a piece of her time to hang out and have fun.

Me… Well… With Mabel always out with her friends, someone had to watch the Mystery shack. Of course when she asked me to cover her shift I couldn't say no to her. But it's now at the point where she doesn't even work anymore and I take all the shifts.

It wasn't so bad at first… Soos kept working for a while until he got married and had a child. Now he's a stay at home dad trying to be better than his dad ever was.

Wendy quit working so she could go to college and get a teaching degree. She hoped she could be hired in Gravity Falls in the future. Wendy is at college most of the week, but she comes back on the weekends. She usually comes to the shack to hang out with me while I work. Of course I said she didn't need to but she said she wanted to and chilled next to me at the cash register. Sometimes if it was really busy and she helped, Grunkle Stan would pay her for some extra college money.

But tonight wasn't one of those nights… It was Friday night. Mabel of course was gone and the shack was empty. Grunkle Stan went to the bar and I was all alone… Again… And I was chilling at the cash register with my feet up.

After a few minutes I couldn't do this anymore. I was tired of just sitting here. I read all the books we owned, some two or three times. I'm usually good at keeping myself busy. But with how many hours I put into the shack there was nothing else to do and I was bored.

I wasn't expecting to see Wendy till tomorrow so I decided to do something that I never thought I'd do again… I grabbed a notebook and a pencil and I started to write… Write music… Mabel wasn't the only artistic one in the family. In fact she usually tells everyone I'm more artistic than her. It was true.

Mabel might have had arts and crafts, but with my intellect I had music. If I tried I could sing really well. And when I was little, I learned how to play a dozen different instruments. I had such a good understanding that I started to write my own music and enter different kinds of competitions. But on a night of one of my competitions… something happened… something that I will never forgive myself for. That night, I swore to never play or sing again. And I've kept it a secret. Mabel was against it but I forced her to never speak of it too.

Well, there was that time I sung to stop the zombie apocalypse. But Stan was there so I couldn't sing seriously or my secret would have gotten out. So I tried to sing horrible enough to not let it out but still destroy the zombies.

I never thought I'd fiddle with writing music again but since nobody was around… I thought it couldn't hurt to kill my boredom.

So I was surprised to find Wendy bursting through the shack doors screaming, "What Up Dipping Sauce!"

Recovering from the shock of her early arrival, I quickly closed the note book hiding my work.

"Oh Uh Heeeey Wendy! Good to see you! You're here early, I thought you weren't going to show up till tomorrow?" I said while trying not to act flustered.

"Ya but your guys birthday is this weekend so I thought I'd show up early." Wendy stated as she looked behind her.

To make things worse Mabel followed in. If Mabel see's the music notes, she would try to convince me again to play. She always tried to come up with an excuse to get me to play again. In fact she asks for me to play for her every year on our birthday as her gift. But I always turn her down. And our birthday just happened to be this weekend! If she found out, it would be a hellish summer and birthday, she can't find out!

"Mabel! You're home early too?" I asked

"Well it was my shift today, so I thought I'd leave my friends early and take over…" Mabel said

That's a first. Usually she'd be out until 10:00pm when it was way past closing time. But a part of me was so glad to see Mabel. I wanted her to stay close to me every day like we used to. I was so lonely without her by my side. It felt like one of these days it would kill me.

"What you working on there?" Wendy asked pointing to the note book.

I realized she saw me try to hide what was inside when she came in. And I knew too well what the look in her eyes meant… Curiosity… And once that happened she doesn't give up.

"It's nothing… I was just drawing… and writing stuff that could be put in those journals I always look at." I tried to lie

"That's funny? I thought you said you were done with those books? That you memorized them cover to cover and there was nothing else to add to them?" Wendy said with a tainted smile.

"Shit…" I thought

"Well ya but I-"

"What's in it? Some pages of Grunkle Stan's porn collection? A diary of your deepest feelings and love life?" She interrupted and teased as she walked closer and closer.

"You know as well as I do that I don't have a love life…" I mumbled as I tried to hide the note book behind my back.

How could I when I was trapped at the shack everyday… Alone…

"Come on! Let me see!" she said suddenly trying to grab the note book.

"No!" I said as I lifted it out of her reach. Thank god I was taller than her now.

"I know your hiding something, just show it already!" She said jumping on top of me trying to grab it.

With my new strength, Wendy jumping on me wasn't a big deal. But she tried making me lose my balance so I'd fall over. I wasn't going to let this happen, so I stood my ground, holding the note book tight and out of her reach.

"Wow, you sure aren't the little guy I remember with wimpy arms. But just because you're able to handle me on your own doesn't mean you can stop her too!" Wendy teased

I looked over to see Mabel charging over to join in on the fun. She reached out for the note book. But I was just able to keep it away, until Wendy shifted her weight and took me to the ground.

"Grab it!" Wendy shouted

Mabel and Wendy jumped for the note book that was still in my hand. They grabbed one end but I wasn't giving up the other. We all then tugged at both ends hoping the other would let go of the notebook.

But before any of us could, it burst open and pages flew out as it ripped.

I looked at the ground at my work in defeat as Mabel and Wendy kneeled down and searched through the pages.

"What are these? Music work sheet copies? No, these were written out… Dipper are you writing music?" Wendy asked

Now understanding what was going on, Mabel looked at me with big hopeful eyes as she was still kneeled on the ground holding part of my work.

"Dipper… are you finally-"

"NO!" I interrupted Mabel

"I was just messing with some stuff! Nothing has changed and I don't want to hear it! So don't talk about it!" I shouted at Mabel

"But…" Mabel spoke

"NO MABEL!" I shouted

I then ran up the stairs to the attic and slammed the door.

"What was that about?" Wendy asked

"Well I kind of promised Dipper to keep it a secret. But I can't stand him doing this anymore. Truth is Dipper is more artistic than me especially when it comes to music… He's been called a genius for his work sometimes." Mabel confessed

"More artistic than you? A genius? Mabel I've never seen him play or even sing." Wendy stated

"That's only because he swore to never play again after the incident…" Mabel said

"What incident?" Wendy asked

"When we were little… He signed up for a piano recital that he was highly likely to win since he was so far ahead of his age group. He was waiting for our parents and me at the concert hall but there was a car crash that put us in the hospital for a couple days. In the end we were fine and he had won the competition… But Dipper always blamed himself. Thinking that if he didn't play that night we would have never been put through that danger." Mabel explained

"But that wasn't his fault?!" Wendy said

"We know and we've told him that. But after that incident he's never done anything that has anything to do with music. When I saw these music notes, I really thought he was going to try again. But I guess not." Mabel said

"… I really loved his music. He was able to copy any song and make it his that we heard on the radio. I always used to challenge him, but he always surpassed my expectations." Mabel said

There was silence as Wendy looked at Mabel's sad expression showing how much she really loved the old days with Dipper.

"Anyways, did you invite everyone to the surprise birthday party like we planned?" Mabel asked

"Ya, but since it's your birthday too, why are you going to be a part of the surprising?" Wendy asked

"I always am the one that gets surprised by Dipper on our birthday! Not this year! Next year we will graduate and I'm going to get the last jump on him before we separate." Mabel said

"That's right! You're going to an art institute aren't you? Any idea what Dipper is going to do?" Wendy asked

"No. He can't decide what he wants to do still. But I know he won't be following me so this is our last summer before we… split…" Mabel said with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry Wendy can you watch the shack… I need to talk to my brother…" Mabel asked

"Sure… Take your time…" Wendy said

Mabel went upstairs to the attic where I was laying on the bed with a pillow on my face.

"Hey bro-bro…" Mabel said

"I'm sorry for yelling at you" I said under the muffling of the pillow.

"It's ok… I was just hoping that by some miracle you were going to play for me like I wanted every year on our birthday… Guess I was just being stupid…" Mabel said with a sad expression,

"No you're not! I'm sorry I was just angry at myself for giving in to my boredom."

"Dipper… It's ok, you used to love to do that kind of stuff."

I wanted to change the subject. Mabel was starting to try to convince me again.

"Anyways, are you excited for the party tomorrow like I am?" I asked

"Of course! Everyone is going to be there!" Mabel said with excitement.

"We'll have to make sure to have tons of fun before I leave!" Mabel said

"Wait… Leave?" I asked

"Oh ya… I forgot to tell you that I'll be leaving after the party to hang out with my friends." Mabel said

"B-But Mabel… It's our birthday! The day we always celebrate having each other! Why are you leaving? You should be spending time with me!" I shouted

"I'm sorry Dipper but I made plans." Mabel stated

What the hell does that mean? Did she forget this is our last summer together? We have barely seen each other as it is and now on the most important day of the year, she makes plans as if it was another day… Is she saying she doesn't care anymore? My mind flowed like a river with questions but in the end all I said was, "fine."

But now there was a pain in my chest.

"What do you want for your birthday this year? What's your birthday wish?" I asked frustrated

"…The same thing I want every year Dipper…" Mabel said

I looked away even more frustrated.

We then got ready for bed and fell asleep. And as I laid in the bed I realized something… I asked what she wanted, but she never asked about my birthday wish. Did she even care? The pain in my chest didn't go away. I think my twin sister finally broke my heart… and I cried myself to sleep.