June 21st

If you've ever taken a road-trip through the Pacific Northwest, then you've probably seen a bumper-sticker for a place called Gravity Falls. It's not on any maps, and most people have never heard of it. Some people think it's a myth.
But if you're curious, don't wait.
Take a trip. Find it. It's out there somewhere in the woods… waiting.
A brilliant man once kept a journal of his great findings and knowledge of Gravity Falls, and even though I've added on, now that he's back, I've decided to keep my own journals.
I know there's still a lot more to learn about this weird unmapped town, and I'm not planning on missing out. So as I return again for a second trial-run, I hereby record my findings as

"DIPEEEEEEEEER!"

The young teenager jumped and used his new adrillilan to hide his journal. His twin sister opened the door and just missed his scurrying and found the young explorer in the middle of the room, just standing and gave a smile and a wave in greeting.

"Grunkle Stan made lazangua!" Mabel yelled with stars in her eyes, hardly noticing or caring that Dipper looked nervous. "It's like cake, but with noodles, meat, sauce and EXTRA CHEESE! Come on!"

"Coming!" Dipper replied, following the hyper thirteen-year-old out of their attic bedroom, leaving his journal hidden under his mattress.

Stanford rapidly tried to drot down a few quick thoughts on gnomes and how their weakness was still unknown, but when you're writing with your non-dominant hand and have your journal against your knees, it makes it very difficult to write anything legible down.

"Would you please let go!" Stanford yelled in frustration as he pulled his right arm loose, only to have it be pulled back into her strong hold. "This is the fifth trenchcoat I've had to throw out this year! They're not cheap, you know."

The young woman rolled her eyes and let a puff of air escape from her lips. She observed the hole in the sleeve more closely. "C'mon, it's not that bad. Just a few stitches shy of bein' good as new. I'm more concerned about your arm."

All while fighting a head-strong Pines, she carefully took the right half of the coat off, letting it dangle off of his left shoulder, and slowly rolled up the sleeve of his shirt. A scratch seeping blood was unmasked, and so Stanford's friend clapped her hands together, almost like in prayer, and then touched the injury with one hand. When she removed her palm, the wound was gone and the arm was healed.

But Stanford hardly glanced up and muttered, "Thanks." He didn't sound like he meant it.

The woman was furious and smacked him upside the head.

After a quick yell of a mixture of pain and anger, Stanford finally lowered his pen and looked at his friend full in the face. "Look, I'm trying to…"

"Discover the mysteries of Gravity Falls, yeah, yeah, yeah." She snapped back. "N' I'm tryin' to help a friend! A little appreciation would be nice every once n' awhile, ya know."

Stanford's anger dwindled and he started to realize that he usually did take her for granted. She did help him find the gnomes' hideout and just saved his life from a giant angry monster who was mad that they had lost their queen. Perhaps he did usually forget to say...

"Thank you." He said sincerely.

Her anger also died and she smiled; she may be a tough woman, but she wasn't unreasonable. "Anytime."

She sat against the tree Stanford had occupied and leaned on his shoulder to look at the drawing of the gnome in his journal. A bit of color rose in Stanford's face, but no one (not even Stanford) noticed. "No weaknesses, huh?" She asked, then sat up and shrugged. "Simple: ya kick 'em out of your way." She answered as she punched her hand.

Stanford smiled and asked, "And what if they form into a giant monster?"

"Run away n' scream like two girls!" She laughed.

That was enough to make Stanford close his journal. "What? There's no need for plurals." He joked.

"Right, it was only ya. M'bad."

Stanford opened his mouth to argue playfully when their shared tree was yanked out of the ground by a giant gnome made up of hundreds of little gnomes. Stanford's argument was defeated when he gave a small squeal of fear that only a ten-year-old girl should make.

"Finally! Our queen!" The top gnome yelled with delight at seeing the girl with dreadlocks.

Stanford snapped and stood up, pointing a finger at the top guy, and yelled, "She's already taken, buster!" A moment too late to save him from embarrassment, Stanford realized what he said and his face turned beet red.

Catching on and shaking off her shock, the stubborn young lady stepped forward and put her hands on her hips. "Listen here, Short-Stack." She yelled in a voice scary enough to make anyone freeze. "This queen's already got a king! I ain't goin' nowhere n' there ain't nobody in this world who can tell ME what to do! So move your tiny pointed-hats outta my face before I use 'em to play darts!"

Enjoying insulting the tiny bearded-men, Stanford put a six-fingered hand on one of his friend's shoulders and yelled at the gnomes, "What do ya want, a kiss on the cheek?! Get out of here!"

Crying and wailing a horrid sound that had the young adults cover their ears, all the gnomes in their formation ran off with their heart broken. The woman couldn't help herself and laughed wildly, and it proved to be contagious as Stanford started from a struggling chuckle into laughter so painful he had to fold his ribs.

While she tried to calm herself down, Stanford opened his journal to the pages discussing gnomes and saw he had just enough space for their weakness. Heartbreak? Teamwork? Still unsure, he decided to leave it blank.

While traveling along the seven seas, finally looking for adventure and maybe even some treasure if lucky, there were things about Gravity Falls Stanley Pines missed, even if he would never admit to it.

For instance, he had missed being dry. And he also found he had missed earning money instead of spending it. He also missed bossing people around, something his brother did not permit on the second Stan O' War, so when Grunkle Stan came across Waddles eating a cardboard box that he had spilled all over the gift shop, he grumpily ordered Dipper to clean it and for Mabel to take care of the pig.

Once the gift shop was empty, Dipper got on his hands and knees and got to work. The box was too wet and torn apart to reuse, so he took to collecting all of the trash before the next tour group. Most of the things from the box seemed to be old receipts and bills, dates going back to the late 70s.

The teenager was intrigued; no one ever gave a date of when… er, when the incident happened, but Dipper did the math and guessed it was in the early 80s. He read the clippings and receipts just in case it led him to discover something new. One showed a purchase for a large pizza, another was a coupon for orange juice, and so on and so on. While it looked like most of it was trash, one small piece of paper caught his eye.

It looked like it had been ripped from a page or something, taking the shape of a corner. In blue ink, it gave a name in cursive and a phone number. The name read "Hephzibah Cece".

Emerging from behind the vending machine, Grunkle Ford coughed into his fist as smoke poured into the shack.

"Grunkle Ford, did you overdo it with the whole fire-instead-of-shaving thing again?" Dipper asked.

"Not exactly." Ford huffed and took a moment to check his reflection in the vending machine's glass. "Though it did leave a nice clean shave." He added, deciding that there was no great loss without some gain.

"Hey, did you know someone named Hephzibah Cece?" Dipper asked, rereading the phone number.

"What?!" Ford asked in panic and turned to face his great-nephew.

"Hephzibah Cece." Dipper replied, a little bit more cautiously than before. "I found her old phone number and… hey!"

Grunkle Ford quickly snatched the phone number and ran for the vending machine. "Sorry, Dipper! Just continue… Dipper-ing!" He hastily typed in the code for the underground study, completely forgetting that he could use his watch to open the hidden door, and ran down the stairs before Dipper could question him any further.

Mable had just decided to see what kind of damage her beloved pig had caused in time to witness one of her uncles scurry away at the sight of a piece of paper. "What was that all about?"

"I found some old phone number and..."

"WAIT!" Mabel yelled and grabbed her brother by the shoulders, a huge smile over her braces-free teeth. "You found a phone number and Grunkle Ford just panicked and ran? Dipper, do you know what this MEANS?!"

"That you're dislocating my shoulders?" Dipper guessed, wincing at his sister's strong grip.

"FORD HAS A GIRLFRIEND!" Mabel yelled as she let go of her brother and dance happily, but Dipper quickly shushed her and tried to calm her down, especially before Ford heard her.

"Mabel, he doesn't have a girlfriend." He whispered. "It could have belonged to anyone! A friend from college, business-related, she may even had studied a field he... "

"HA!" Mabel yelled and pointed at her brother excitedly. "She! That's proof! GRUNKLE FORD…"

"Shh!" Dipper covered Mabel's mouth with one hand and used the other to drag her out of the gift shop, through the house, and up to their attic-bedroom. Dipper locked the door and covered their window before turning to his twin and further discussing who the phone number belonged to. "Look, just because she knew Ford, that doesn't mean they were together." Dipper said, slightly annoyed by Mabel's need to instantly pair any male and female together. "They could have been just friends, like me and Wendy."

"Dip-Dip, you still have a crush on her!" Mabel accused.

"No, I don't." He said plainly. No blushing, no jerky eye-movements, but Mabel still wasn't sold.

"Well, who's phone number was it?" Mabel asked.

"Her name was Hephzibah Cece." Dipper answered. "I don't remember her phone number, though."

"Let's asked Toby Determined!" Mabel suggested. "I bet he knows who she is! He knows all the gossip!"

"We could also ask McGucket."

"Nah, he's away at Bluegrass Con. in Montana, bro-bro." Mabel reminded him.

"Oh, right." Dipper said and grabbed his journal and threw it in his backpack; the book was white with a blue pine-tree on the cover. "Well, let's ask Toby and see if we can get any leads."

"FOR TRUE LOVE!" Mabel yelled with a fist in the air.

"FOR DISCOVERY!" Dipper yelled to try to remember Mabel that not everything in the world revolves around love or romance, but she was relentless and did not catch the clue, and so they both ran off for the town's gossiper.