Chapter Two: Communication

On Monday morning I was woken up by the sound of my sisters sweet voice and the feeling of her soft hands rubbing my back. She was saying, "Dipper, wake up."

I opened my eyes and saw her standing over me, a warm smile on her face. She was already dressed for school. She was wearing a pink summer dress with real roses on the side with matching pink ear rings in her ears. I smiled and said, "Am I in heaven? Because there's an angel in my room."

She blushed and hit me on the shoulder, "Stop it! I swear one of these days you're gonna make people think we're in a relationship because of you."

I chuckled, "You say that like its a bad thing."

She punched me in the shoulder again and said, "Oh shut up. Hurry up and get ready for school, the bus comes in fifteen minutes."

I got out of bed and gave her a salute, "Yes ma'am."

She giggled, "Jesus Dipper, what am I gonna do with you?"

"Kill me?", I jokingly requested, "That's probably the only way to stop me from annoying you. Unless I come back as a ghost and haunt you."

She rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, leaving a smell of rose scented perfume as she left. As soon as she was gone I looked outside the window and into the woods. Despite just waking up, the event with the little boy was still fresh in my mind. My mind was still filled with hundreds of questions concerning what happened last night, and it didn't look like I was gonna get any answers anytime soon.

It took me about eight minutes in total to take a shower, brush my teeth and get dressed in some clean clothes. Ever since we were little, Mabel and I would always take showers and baths together, but when hit middle school and Mabel started…developing, I took it upon myself to get used to getting dressed extremely quickly to avoid awkward encounters. Everyone in the family agrees with my logic.

After I was done getting ready, I walked into the dinning room and saw a plate of two waffles and a glass of orange juice next to it. I'll be damned if I'm eating that. I've noticed that Gruntled Stan isn't the cleanest of people, and the fact that I've never seen him wash his hands doesn't help matters. I grabbed my bookbag and began to make my way to the front door when I was stopped by Mabel's voice.

"Dipper, where are you going?", she asked.

I turned around and saw her sitting on the cashier counter next to Wendy.

"Where does it look like I'm going genius?", I asked rhetorically.

"You can't leave yet", Mabel said, "Wendy wants to talk to us."

"That's not really encouraging me to stay", I said. Mabel grabbed my hand and dragged me over to counter where Wendy greeted me with a single wave.

"Wendys gonna tell us what high school is like", Mabel said excitedly.

"I'll do it for her", I said rolling my eyes, "High school is the same bullshit as middle school, times two."

"Well Dipper", Wendy said with chuckle, "You're not wrong, but your not completely right either. High school can be easy, or it can be hard."

"I prefer hard", I said with a smirk. Then I realized what I had said and immediately regretted it.

"Really? You like it hard huh?", Mabel teased.

Wendy leaned back in her chair and laughed, "I never took you for a catcher Dipper." Mabel laughed and I blushed out of embarrassment.

"That's not what I meant!", I said quickly getting over my embarrassing slip up, "What I meant was that I'm ready for a challenge. If high school is a rough time, then I'll get through it. It's as simple as that."

"That's some tough talk coming from a guy with noodle arms", Wendy said pointing at my skinny arms. Mabel laughed again and I groaned.

"Fuck both of you", I said while gritting my teeth.

Wendy stopped laughing, "What I mean is, the people here in Gravity Falls aren't like the people in California. You guys might be able to fit in with the kids back home, but here, you're gonna have a harder time."

I raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, let me ask you something ", Wendy said, "Did you guys even know that this town even existed before you came down here?" Mabel and I shook our heads. "There's a good reason for that", Wendy said, "Gravity falls is a very reclusive city. We pride ourselves as being as distant from other cities as possible. So when outsiders come in, we treat them like shit."

"So basically, the people at school are gonna shun us for not being here?", Mabel asked. Wendy nodded. "I can live with that", I said shrugging my shoulders.

"Maybe you can, but I can't!", Manel yelled as panic started to set in, "What if I have no friends?"

"You'll always have me", I said giving her a warm smile.

"That's not good enough", Mabel said as she started pacing the room. Wendy laughed as my warm smile turned into a scowl, "Fuck you then."

Wendy went up to Mabel and stopped her from pacing around like a fool, "Calm down Mabel. While it's true you might not have a lot of friends, you'll still have me. I promise that if you guys run into any trouble, I'll be there to help you."

"Seriously?", Mabel asked with a smile creeping up on her face.

Wendy grinned and ruffled Mabel's hair, "Of course little buddy, I got your back."

Mabel squealed like a little girl and hugged Wendy tightly. As she was hugging my sister, she turned to me and said, "That goes for you to Dipper."

I nodded, "Thanks Wendy, but I don't think I'm going to need any help." I grabbed my bookbag and walked out of the Mystery Shack and sat on the steps of the place. I saw Soos cutting wood with an axe. I gave him a wave and he waved back. He seemed to be in a busy mood considering that he would usually talk to me as he worked. Grunkle Stan must've offered him a raise or something in exchange for getting his work done even quicker than he usually did. He deserved a raise a long time ago if you ask me.

With nothing but the sound of Soos chopping wood in the background, I began to walk towards the woods. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting to find over there. I doubted that the kid would still be outside, but then again, this is the same kid who stood outside in the dark with no clothes on, so who knows where he could be.

"Maybe he's at home", I thought to myself out loud, "He might be at home with his parents. Maybe he just snuck out of his house last night without his folks knowing. But, why would he leave without clothes on?" Nothing I came up with seemed to make any sense. Even as a ten year old, you should know that you shouldn't leave your house without clothes on. And that doesn't explain why he didn't respond to me when I talked to him.

Knowing that me standing here thinking to myself wasn't going to get me any of the answers I wanted any time soon, I decided to call out, "Hey, are you still there?"

Sure, me yelling into the forest seemed like a weird sight, and trust me it was, but it's better than just standing there.

Of course, I got no response. The only sound was still Soos chopping wood in the distance. I decided to introduce myself a little more, "It's me, the guy from the window."

Again, no response. Although I was once again met with silence, this time I felt like I could feel someone looking at me. "Well, I already look crazy, might as well go all the way with it", I mumbled.

I picked up a rock that was on the ground and threw it into the woods. I heard connect with what sounded like a tree trunk. "If your there kid, I want you to throw that rock back at me.", I requested. I stood there for a couple of seconds waiting for something, anything, to happen, and then the rock came flying back at me and landed at my feet.

My eyes went wide as I finally got the response I was looking for. It was like I discovered some ancient being the no human had ever seen. I was so fascinated by this I decided to request something else just to be absolutely sure I was "talking" to the right person.

"If you're the boy who was outside my window last night, I want you to whistle.", I requested. Immediatly after I said that, he started whistling a tune to me.

Then, out of curiosity, I said, "If you are still naked, throw another rock at me." Within seconds another rock came flying at me and it landed in my cupped hands.

My amazement only grew at this point. I started to walk toward the woods, but then I heard the sound of leaves crunching in the distance signaling that he was now running away from me.

"Dammit", I mumbled, "That wasn't smart."

"Hey Dipper", I heard Wendy call my name. I turned around and saw her and Mabel walking toward me. Wendy had keys to what I assumed belonged to a car in her hands and a backpack

"I'm gonna drive you guys to School", she said. She noticed that I was staring in the woods, "What are you doing out here?"

I came up with an quick lie, "I was playing with a rabbit." Well, I might as well have been. He probably had the same language barrier a rabbit has.

"Really? Usually rabbits stay far away from here due to the traps Stan put in the woods.", Wendy said. Oh fuck. That kid is screwed. Wendy led us behind the shack where we saw an old white golf cart. Wendy got in the front seat and started it up. "Get in."

I chuckled. "Well, it's better than a school bus.", I said sarcastically as I let Mabel get on first.

"And it's much better looking than one", Mabel said as I got on. I don't think she understood my sarcasm.

"I'd rather take a golf cart with a hot driver than a school bus though", I said with a smirk.

Wendy chuckled, "In your dreams noodle arms." Mabel and Wendy laughed as my blood boiled. Wendy and Mabel started talking about stuff as we drove off. As we made it to the road, my eyes went wide as I saw the naked boy again. I could see that he was still naked which shocked me. Did he really not have a home, or were his parents that irresponsible?

He smiled and waved at me. I waved back and smiled at him. "Who are you waving at Dip Dop", Mabel asked. When she asked, the boy was already out of sight, so I just said, "The rabbit."

When we arrived to Gravity Falls high school, the first words on my mind were, "Jesus Christ there are a lot of people here!" Until now I haven't seen that many kids me and Mabel's age since we've been here, so I was shocked to see about two thousand teenagers outside of the school.

"Where the hell were all these people during the summer?", I asked myself.

"Most likely in their homes trying to avoid the outside world", Wendy said parking her "car" in a parking space, "The teens in Gravity Falls like to spend all of their time inside during any extended time off from school. It doesn't matter how many friends you have, if school is out, you're either outside by yourself or in the house."

I shook my head in disbelief, "Ok, now I'm sure this place is just an ass backwards ghost town. Back in California you couldn't go two miles without seeing some asshole spray painting a dick on a wall."

"Well Dipper", Wendy said putting her hand on my shoulder, "Welcome to Gravity Falls, the most ass backwards city in the damn world…or at least in Oregon."

The school bell rang and students started to enter the school. I looked over at Mabel and said, "If the jocks kill me, I just want you to know that I love you, and I was the one who killed your gerbil in elementary school." I started to walk toward the school doors ignoring Mabel punching me in the back as I walked.

"I. Hate. You.", Mabel said punching me in the arm as we walked. I chuckled as I felt her small and punie punches on me. She tries so hard to hurt me, but she just doesn't have a mean bone in her body. When we entered the school it was filled with the sound of kids conversing and celebrating the fact that they are seeing each other again after a long time.

I led Mabel to our lockers (which I kept in my pockets because I knew Mabel would lose hers), and said, "This is gonna be our prison cells for the next couple of months, I hope you like it."

Mabel rolled her eyes, "Will you stop that? This isn't gonna be that bad."

"Whatever you say princess", I said leaning against my locker. As I layed against it, I noticed a girl walking towards us. She was a blonde that was wearing all purple. She gave off a confident yet angry vibe. She had an annoyed look on her face as she approached my sister, and I became ready to protect my princess.

To be continued...