Hi again, guys! Here's the latest chapter- again, sorry for the wait. I was on holiday and then all my writing motivation left me, but it's okay. I won't give up. This story WILL be completed. I know how much you guys are enjoying it and I don't want to let any of you down. Now, before I get to the disclaimer and the story, I figured I'd get something out there:

As much as I'd like to, I CAN'T upload a new chapter ever single day. I know you guys have been asking for me to for a while and really want me to, but the thing is, each chapter is written with care and given an insane amount of editing and re-writing before publishing. If I uploaded everyday, you'd end up getting a bunch of crappy, rushed chapters with a ton of spelling errors. I'm going for quality, not quantity, here folks. Besides, life can tend to get in the way quite a bit too. That's why these chapters are taking so long. I'm doing this for you guys. I want you to enjoy what I write as much as possible and I really want to honour one of my favourite shows in the process. I hope you all understand. :)

Now, with that long (but important!) stuff out of the way, please enjoy the chapter! :D

Disclaimer: Gravity Falls, like many other awesome official shows, is not something I own. Why must the disclaimers keep reminding me? I need to get me an infinity sided die. Bet that would fix that! :D

Chapter 7

"Hey, Pacifica, could you pass me that box of bobbleheads?"

"Yes, sir." She handed him the box obediently and Stan smirked at Dipper.

"See, Dipper? Why can't you be more like her? She don't moan every time I ask her to do somethin'."

Dipper scowled and the girl shrugged. "It's just a box, Mr Pines."

"Maybe, but it's nice having someone like you around, kid."

The girl beamed, before it quickly turned into a frown. She was used to being complemented by people that were jealous of her and her money, but this was different. Stan wasn't just complimenting her on something she had actually done. He was thanking her for it. Nobody ever thanked her for anything, least of all her parents. She busied herself with sorting out the shelf in front of her. Stan didn't seem to notice, though.

"Nice ta know someone's doing their job around here. Keep that up, and ya might be able to get rid of Dipper quicker."

"I honestly don't mind, Mr Pines."

He shrugged. "Well anyway, good work, Pacifica. Now, I'm gonna go see how Wendy's doin'. Probably slackin' off again, as usual."

True to his word, Stan, after giving his nephew an affectionate pat on the head, made his way over to the lazy cashier girl. Dipper grinned at the rich girl.

"Hey, he actually bothered to remember your name. I'd say you're making progress."

She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yeah, I guess."

He frowned. "Hey, are you… okay?"

"Yeah," she assured him stiffly. "Yeah. Great, in fact." Thinking it best to change the subject, the girl smirked at him. "So, you going to explain those gnomes to me now?"

Taking the bait, Dipper laughed nervously, making him look even more awkward and sweaty than usual.

"W-what about them? They're just these little guys in hats…"

Her eyebrow lowered. "You knew them a bit too well," she planted her hands on her hips. "and don't even get me started on how this weird stuff always happens around you."

"Y-you d-don't know what you're t-talking about, Pacifica."

"I'm no expert, Pines, but I'd say that you and Mabel are the only kids this stuff happens to."

Dipper nervously felt the inside of his vest where the journal was hidden. Could he really tell her about this? No, there was no way he could do that. The journal told him to trust NO-ONE. That included her. It wouldn't be smart.

Seeing the conflicted look in the boy's eyes, Pacifica put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon Dippy, you can tell me," she gave him a kind smile.

"I...I dunno…" His resolve was dropping as he looked into those warm crystal eyes. They were friends now, he supposed, and she was really nice…

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," she continued. "Please? I was born here. I wanna know what's going on."

He paused and took the journal out from its' hiding place. "Well… alright, but you better keep this to yourself."

She nodded and he opened the first page of the journal out for her.

"I found this journal out in the woods," he began. "Stan asked me to hang some signs out there, and I accidentally found it, hidden deep inside the ground."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "What, seriously?"

"Weird, right?" He flipped through several pages. "It was written by this unknown author about all the mysteries of Gravity Falls." He began to get excited. "It has all these codes and cryptic messages everywhere, usually about the monsters and mythical creatures that inhabit Gravity Falls. But then halfway through, the author just stopped writing and I dunno why, but it's so freaky and it'd be SO awesome to figure out what happened to him, you know? I could discover something MAJOR!"

Pacifica tried not to giggle at how adorable her friend was when he was excited. She'd never seen him like this before. The whole thing did intrigue her, though. If it wasn't for the journal right in front of her, she'd probably have accused him of making the entire thing up.

"Wait- hold on a sec," she frowned at the pages in front of her. "Go back a few pages." He did as he was told, and she pointed at the top corner of the page. It seemed he had stopped at the page about the Hide Behind. "Look!" she exclaimed excitedly. "It's a code thing!"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, the book is full of 'em, but this code is really hard to crack, so you probably won't be able to decipher it. After all, it's not exactly in English."

Her eyes narrowed and she sighed exasperatedly. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Assuming I'm stupid. I've had some of the best tutors money could buy, you know." She started counting on her fingers. "I know what the figures of Pi are, I have Shakespeare's plays memorised word for word, and if you asked me to cook a creme brulee, yeah, I could probably do that too!"

The boy rubbed his neck apologetically. "I wasn't saying tha-" He paused as he took in what she had said. "Wait, really? That's...that's impressive."

She nodded. "Yeah. My parents don't let me brag about it, but I'm not just a pretty face, Pines."

The boy nodded, a bit too aggressively. "I-I know that! A-all I'm saying, is that decoding this stuff can be k-kinda hard! I d-don't even know what c-code to use for t-that one!"

She smirked. "Good job I'm here then, isn't it?" She studied the text for a few minutes. "That one looks oddly famil- oh, wait." The girl looked back at Dipper, recognition shining in her eyes. "That's a basic Caesar cipher. It shouldn't be too hard to crack if you know how."

His eyes widened. "A Caesar cipher! Of COURSE! And here I thought it was Atbash! No wonder it made no sense!" The boy grinned and snapped his fingers. "Right, I've got this. This code'll be cracked in no time!"

The blonde laughed at her friend's enthusiasm and made her way over to the other side of the room. As adorable as Dipper was, she still had a job to do while she stayed there. She didn't want Stan mad at her, after all.

Sweeping at the floor with her broom, she started humming a little tune. She was surprised to hear Gideon joining her as he shelved items nearby. She smirked at him.

"Someone's cheerful today."

The younger boy smirked. "What? Aren't I allowed to have a good day or somethin'?" He carefully placed a Stan bobblehead onto a shelf. He seemed to be organising them all into neat rows. " 'sides," he continued, "you're lookin' pretty chipper today yourself."

With her own smirk, Pacifica ignored him and continued to hum the tune in her head. It was a hopeful, yet quiet tune that seemed to be mirroring her own feelings. Mostly, she was just enjoying herself, though. Gideon, meanwhile, continued with his own upbeat tune. Somehow, both tunes seemed to blend perfectly together, as if they were part of their own song.

"Oooh, that sound greeeat!" Mabel grinned, approaching them. "Can I have a go?"

The blonde nodded with a genuine smile as she continued to hum, accompanied by Gideon.

They almost broke their tunes with giggles when they heard Mabel's addition to the song- beatboxing. Oddly enough though, the beatboxing still kind of fit.

Hearing the ruckus, Dipper looked up from his book ciphering. Huh? What the heck…?

"I...uh, do I even want to ask about this?" The others ignored him and continued to play their a cappella song, making Dipper groan and put a hand to his forehead. "Ugh, please don't make me ask about this."

Mabel aggressively beatboxed into her brother's face.

"Eww Mabel! Don't- eww- spit on me!"

This proved too much for the trio of accidental musicians, and they each burst out laughing. Stan frowned at the sight of the three pre-teens collapsed onto the floor of the gift shop as he approached.

"I leave you lot unattended for…what, ten minutes?" He stared incredulously at the only child not laughing. "Okay, Dipper, you wanna explain to me what the heck this is?"

The boy only shrugged. "Hey, your guess is as good as mine, Grunkle Stan."

Stan shook his head as he observed the pre-teens, of whom were still in stitches on the floor.

"Wow. Just… just wow." Feeling the need to sort this out quickly, before a customer came in and thought this was some sort of mental asylum, he crossed his arms. "Right," he said, with an authoritative tone, "if you lot don't get back to work right now, I'm gonna make all of you give Waddles a bath, no excuses. This ain't a youth club I'm runnin' here."

Dipper frowned. "But Waddles doesn't like getting washed."

"Exactly."

Almost like they had heard a gunshot, the three of them shot up from the floor and promptly got back to the jobs they had been working on previously. Stan nodded with satisfaction. They still had wide grins on their faces, but at least they were working again.

Dipper looked at his great uncle and gestured to the other pre-teens.

"Now do you see what I have to put up with?"

"Dipper! How can you say that?!"

Not needing to hear the rest of the protests the kids were giving the male Pines twin, Stan made his way to his office, trying hard to keep down his own laughter.

"Dipper, what th' heck am I watching?"

After the pre-teens had finished for the day, the first thing Dipper had done was drag Gideon to the living room. To say that the ten year old was confused at the twin's actions was a major understatement.

Dipper tried to choke down a laugh. Gideon had no idea what he was in for.

"I-it's, um, j-just a… m-movie! That I, uh, t-think you might, l-like."

The younger boy raised an eyebrow at his roommate, of whom was sat next to him in front of the TV.

"Why don't I believe you?"

Dipper's lips twitched, but, not thinking it wise to actually open his mouth, merely shrugged. Gideon rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the TV.

"But Maaaandy," whined the voice of a man with beady little eyes. "I'm a nice guuuuy!"

The woman, clearly not agreeing, glared at him and started backing away.

"You killed my brother!" She exclaimed.

"But he was getting in the way of our relationship!"

"Get AWAY from me!"

Gideon chose to stare at the television blankly for a few seconds, before turning back to Dipper again, a cynical eyebrow raised. "You...oh mah god."

"W-what?" the male twin giggled. "You m-making some kinda… c-connection here?"

Gideon rolled his eyes. "Wow, you're hilarious. Look, I'm not that bad!"

"Really? How exactly are you supposed to be different?"

The blonde sunk back into the chair and glowered at the floor.

"For one thing," he muttered icily, "you're not dead. Yet."

"Oooh ouch." Dipper pretended to wince and let out another laugh. "Don't worry, dude, I'm just messing with you. We're just waiting for what's on after this." He held up the TV magazine and pointed to the page that had been circled. "You know that cheesy musical, Shampoo? That's on next. Figured you might want to watch it."

Truthfully, over the course of the week, Dipper had been surprised to find out just how bearable the young con-artist could be. He'd expected him to be a total nightmare to share a room with, but in actuality, Gideon was really tidy and he didn't even snore. He could even have a civilised conversation with him now, which was a miracle in and of itself. Part of him still resented the boy for trying to kill them and for upsetting Mabel, but if his sister could get past that, so could he, he supposed.

"Hey, Dipper?"

"Hmm?" The brunette was pulled out of his thoughts. "Yeah?"

"I was just thinkin' 'bout...I don't…" he sighed. "I guess I wanna know what I did wrong."

Dipper blinked. "Huh? Wrong? When…?" He noticed how nervous and fidgety the boy suddenly looked.

"Ya know, with…" he paused and shook his head. "Naw, f'rget it. Ya wouldn't understand."

Now the boy was interested. "C'mon, you don't know that. What is it?"

Gideon started fiddling with his white tie. "M-mabel. Why… did she break up with m-me? I wanna know the truth."

Despite how upset the younger boy clearly was, Dipper couldn't withhold the deadpan expression on his face. "You did try to kill me," he told him matter-of-factly.

Gideon rubbed his fat neck awkwardly. "Oh, uh, r-right. I am, um, sorry 'bout that, yah know..."

"I know. Water under the bridge, man," Dipper shrugged. "Though you should know, she was going to break up with you way before that. It just took her a while to finally tell you."

"But why? Didn't I give her enough attention? Were the dates not expensive enough? I don't-"

"Woah, woah!" Dipper exclaimed, holding a hand out in a 'halt' motion. "Look, Mabel didn't care about any of that. She never even wanted to go out with you."

Gideon found himself glaring at the floor. "Then what the heck did she say yes for?"

Dipper sighed. "She didn't. At least, not really. All Mabel wanted was to be your friend, and I don't think she felt about you in any other way than that. She told me she kept trying to say no, but she was worried about upsetting you."

The young psychic slumped into the chair, a dejected look on his face. He sighed. "Great. My first proper friend, and I totally screw it up. Nice goin', Gleeful."

Admittedly, Dipper felt kind of bad for the younger boy. He couldn't just let the kid beat himself up about this, even if it was Gideon. "I wouldn't say you've messed up too badly," he told him.

"What?"

"I think Mabel does still want to be your friend. I think she's just worried you're going to go all evil on us again."

Gideon studied the brunette's face. He didn't look like he was making that up to make him feel better, which, he had to admit, he liked.

"You're alright, Pines," he told him. "I might 'ave been… kinda wrong about you."

Before he could stop it, a large smile stretched itself across Dipper's face, though he did manage a mocking gasp.

"What's this? THE Gideon Gleeful? Complimenting ME?"

"Oh, shut yer yap," he smirked back with an eyeroll. "Ya carry on like that, and it won't happen that often."

"That, I can live with. At least you're not a jerk anymore."

Gideon's smirk fell and he narrowed his eyes, turning his attention back to the television. It was still playing the stalker movie that he had begun to hate so much.

"I'm not a jerk, Dipper," he told him quietly. "I never was. All I ever did was stick up for myself."

Dipper frowned at the boy's sudden change in demeanor. "What are you talking about?"

"Ah've been pushed 'round all my life," he admitted, subconsciously feeling the top of his hair. "Folks used t' make fun of me due to mah hair and how I care 'bout my appearance. The fact that I'm a bit… vertically challenged… didn't help neither." It took Dipper a minute to realise that he was trying to imply, and when he did figure it out, the challenge of not laughing was almost too great. He held it in, though. "Eventually, I got fed up of takin' it all and decided that if they weren't gonna treat me with respect, I'd make 'em."

The brunette opened his mouth to speak, but Gideon was still talking. "Now, people respect me, but… it also means I never had any friends. Your sister was the closest thing I had to one."

"Maybe you'd have more if you weren't so rude to everyone, but I get your point." Dipper sighed. "If it's any consolation, I'm not that lucky with friends either. Before coming to Gravity Falls, I was bullied all the time for being a 'nerd.' My closest friend was my sister, but you know her. She was friends with almost everybody." He fiddled with the brim of his hat. "I usually preferred to keep to myself, so to everyone else, I was just 'the other twin'. Kinda sucked, but hey, at least I wasn't constantly sleep deprived back then, so I had that going for me."

Gideon offered the boy a small smile. "Looks like we both could use a friend, huh?" He paused. "Wait, why are ya sleep deprived? Oh gawd, I don't snore do I?"

Dipper chuckled. "No, no. It's not really to do with you." He bit his lip. "It doesn't matter. Forget I said anything."

Gideon frowned. "Oh no you don't. I told ya my deep dark secret. You can at least tell me yours."

"I… you've got to promise you won't tell anyone, okay? Or laugh at me."

"I dunno 'bout that. Could be pretty hilarious," Gideon joked. His smirk dropped when he saw the look on Dipper's face. He looked deadly serious all of a sudden. Whatever he didn't want to say was clearly important. "Okay," he said after a pause. "You have mah word."

Dipper nodded and pulled his hat down over his eyes, almost ashamedly. "I… k-keep having these...n-nightmares." He paused to look at Gideon's reaction. Thankfully, the boy didn't look like he was about to laugh. If anything, he actually looked concerned, so Dipper continued. "They're usually...about B-Bill."

The ten year old shuddered. He'd had nightmares not long after meeting Bill too. There was just something about the creature that was so creepy. Just hearing him talk had a habit of putting you on edge.

"He's terrifying, I know," Gideon told him grimly. "For a while, I even had nightmares 'bout him myself."

"R-really?"

He nodded. "Yup. How couldn't I?" He rolled his eyes with a smirk. "But ya know what? He's just a flying dorito at the end of the day. He can't even touch us in the real world."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Dipper managed to smile. "You know, it's really weird knowing someone that gets all this stuff. But, like, weird in a good way."

"Yeah, it is."

The television buzzed loudly.

"COMING UP NEXT IS THE AWARD WINNING MUSICAL, SHAMPOO!"

Grin getting wider, the boy sat up in his seat, apparently looking pretty enthusiastic about watching the cheesy movie. Seeing this as his cue to leave, Dipper said his goodbyes and left the room, just in time to hear the first song of the movie start. It wasn't that he didn't like the movie, but he knew that if he heard any of the songs come on, he'd practically be guaranteed to sing along, and he knew that not even a reformed Gideon would let that one go.

"Go fish!"

"Mabel, darlin', ya can't just keep yellin' 'go fish' and hope it'll make ya win."

"He's got a point."

"Shut up."

The girls, Gideon and Stan were having another game of cards that night. Dipper was upstairs, claiming he had 'some reading to do'. The sky was turning a deep orange as they played, and not a single sound could be heard coming from the outside. Overall, everything felt totally normal.

This had been Pacifica's first clue that something wasn't right.

"Tssssssss...tttssssss...tssstttsssss…"

Pacifica spun her head around quickly. She could hear something by the window. It sounded...an awful lot like something supernatural. Either that, or there was a bird nearby shaking a maraca. She opted to ignore it for now, though. It was probably nothing.

"Hey, Paccy? It's your turn."

"Huh?" The blonde looked up. "Oh, s-sorry. Um...I've got…" She tried to check her cards, but it was getting harder and harder to focus when she could still hear that noise. It just seemed to be getting louder.

"Hurry it up, kid," Stan grumbled. "We don't got all day…" He paused. "Well we do, but I don't wanna spend all day doin' this."

"I..."

"Raaaattttaaaaaa...tssssssssaaaaaa…."

"I'm just trying-"

"TTTSSSSSSTTTT…TATATATATATAAAAAAAA…"

"AUGHH!" She screamed, grabbing her hair in frustration. "Can none of you HEAR THAT?!"

They all exchanged worried looks.

Mabel put down her cards. "Are you...okay, Paccy?"

"I'm fine, but can you hear that?"

Gideon rubbed his fat neck. "I don't hear anythin', Pacifica. You sure you're feelin' right?"

"I SAID I'm FINE! I can't be the only one hearing this!"

Stan put his own cards down and crossed his arms. He looked the hysterical girl in the eyes.

"None of us can hear anything. Maybe you should get some sleep, honey."

She stood up from her seat and forced herself to stay calm. That noise really was driving her insane. "I'm...I'm going to see Dipper."

Dipper looked up as his bedroom door was angrily shoved open.

"Pacifica?" She looked calm, but also very rigid and stiff. Something was definitely up. He put the journal to one side. "Are you okay?"

She winced and tightened her balled up fists. "Dipper," she started, in an angry, controlled voice. "There's this...annoying thing outside, making this...annoying noise and it's...really annoying!"

Dipper raised an eyebrow and stood up to look her in the eyes. "I...get that." He put a hand onto one of her tense shoulders. "But you need to calm down. What did this thing sound like?"

"Like...hissing, but...but with bass. It sounded kinda like a maraca." Noticing Dipper's blank facial expression, she continued. "You know," she tried. "Like...hisssssss! ttttthhhhssss! It's super annoying!"

The boy thought for a moment. "Well...what did the others say? They were all sat with you, right?"

She sighed and stared defeatedly at the floor. "Yeah, but none of them could hear it. I was closest to the window though, so that might be why." She looked back up at Dipper desperately. "Am I going crazy?"

He smirked. "I ask myself that everyday." He picked up his trusty journal. "Okay, so you heard it outside the shack, right? Let's go check it out."