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Dipper didn’t care if he was an honors student– summer homework should be made illegal.
He stared at his Honors Geometry homework, willing the answers to just appear on the page so he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore. But they stubbornly stared back. He wished one of his gruncles was around– they could make this go a lot faster, probably. But they were both out on their Stan O’War again this summer, the Mystery Shack being run by Soos.
“Find the X of the equilateral triangle.”
The triangle in question suddenly grew one centered eye and a top hat. Dipper yelled and threw his chair back, jumping away from it. Bill was dead, but he was in his homework, but he was dead, but he was in Dipper’s homework …
Then as soon as it began it stopped. It was just a normal geometry problem on normal school paper.
He caught his breath and sat back down. It wasn’t real. He was probably just tired because Mabel had kept him up all night with theories about where Larry King’s wax head had gone after Weirdmageddon.
Your X is currently on a ship far, far away from you, you devil dorito , he laughed bitterly as he went back to solving proofs.
Bill had possessed him. Again. He wasn’t even sure how without a handshake this time, but there was no mistaking the absolute terror of watching his body do things without any control.
Bipper climbed the ladder of the water tower. He got to the top. Mabel was at the top. Mabel was crying and in sweater town and facing away from them at the top.
“Mabel! Turn around, get up!” he screamed. But it did nothing. Because he was a useless floating spirit and Bill had his body and he couldn’t do anything but watch as his own hands grabbed his sister’s shoulders and pushed.
She screamed. He screamed after her and ran to the edge, watching and waiting for the horrible sounds.
He felt Bipper’s presence behind him. “Want to join her, Pine Tree?”
Dipper fell.
“Dipper! Dipper, wake up!”
He gasped and opened his eyes. Mabel was leaning over him at the side of the bed. “It’s okay. You were having a bad dream.”
He jumped up and wrapped her in a hug. She was surprised for a second but quickly returned it, hugging tighter. “You okay, bro bro?”
“Fine. Just a dream. Thought Bipper killed you.”
He felt her shoulders tense. “He didn’t. I’m okay. And you’re okay.”
“We’re okay.”
“Pat, pat.”
They fell asleep in the same bed that night, arms wrapped around each other protectively.
“DIPPER. DIPPER COME ON!”
He cringed at his sister’s yelling. But his annoyance was actually short-lived when he realized what day it was. August 31st. Their 16th birthday had arrived. They were officially teenagers… that could drive cars!
He and Mabel bounded down the stairs, where Soos was talking to someone at the door. “Dudes! You’ll never believe who’s here.”
They looked at the doorway to find their Gruncles smiling at them. “Hey kiddos,” Gruncle Stan waved.
They screamed in excitement and ran to hug them both. Mabel then ran into the kitchen and pulled out the Mabel Juice. Everyone but Ford cringed a little.
“The cup with the target on it is Gruncle Stan’s so he can get his aim better, the cup with the letters on it is Gruncle Ford’s because he needs to learn to appreciate the alphabet, mine is the one with extra fairy dust, and Dipper’s is this one cause it’s weird.”
She passed him a yellow cup with a black bow tie printed on it. For a split second Dipper was getting flashbacks to Weirdmageddon, until he realized it was supposed to be Spongebob– the design had nearly faded after years of use.
They were eating pancakes and trying to stomach Mabel Juice when the thoughts hit him.
Stab yourself. With the fork. It’s right there, do it, it’s fun. Pain is hilarious!
Shut up, he thought back to himself. This was his birthday. He wasn’t going to let Bill ruin it from his stupid grave.
The rest of their sunny birthday went off without a hitch. The party was awesome– Robbie took a full nose dive into the apple bobbing bin, Wendy gave him a new hat just like hers, and their Gruncles had brought back more weird artifacts. The cake was good, the party canons sprayed confetti and not zombie ooze, and Gruncle Stan let them put off fireworks at the end of the night. It had been a good day.
So when he got back to his room and thought he saw Bill, it all came crashing down. The flash of yellow– the flash of his soul leaving his body. The circle– the eye blinking in between who would die first, him or Mabel. The triangle– the pyramid jigsaw body horror demon.
CRASH.
Glass rained down on him and onto the floor. He clutched his fist, bleeding, wondering why he had just done that. It was just a window…
Mable came running. “Dipper! What happened? Wait, wait here I’ll go get some stuff.”
She came back with a first aid kit (wait, Gruncle Stan had those?). She was cleaning the cuts and plastering cat bandaids all over him. She leaned down and whispered, “It’s been bad, huh?”
“I can’t stop seeing him everywhere, Mabel. It’s like even his soul is obsessed with me– and I don’t think he even has a soul,” he replied, eyes brimming with tears.
She pulled him into a hug. Mabel hugs made everything a little better. “I will kill him with my own fists if he comes near you again,” she said sincerely. And Dipper believed it. He almost felt sorry for the demon that ever dared to cross Mabel.
“Hang on. I got you one more thing.”
She pulled out a rainbow bracelet. It shimmered with extra sparkle, and Dipper realized it was unicorn hair. How she had gotten more of it after getting banned from being within twelve feet of a unicorn he had no idea. And he didn’t care.
He put it on. “Thank you, Mabel. Happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday, Dipper.”