Dipper x Reader Experiment

Experimental Chapter

They say your senior year is the easiest. You've gotten through all the hard parts, all the college applications and SATs and ACTs, and now you get to just drift. Relax. Prepare for what's coming.

Unless you're me.

I'm sure it's supposed to be easy, it was for my parents, and for Wendy, and even for Grunkle Stan, who flunked out half way through his senior year. But not for me. I guess I was just cursed or something.

I'd like to say it started when I opted to spend my last year in Piedmont instead of going to Gravity falls. Soos offered to lend Mabel and I our old room in the Shack so we could graduate there, see our friends before we all split off and go to college and all that. But we'd been spending every summer there since we were 12, and our parents missed us. They wanted to be there for our last year of high school.

I'd like to say that's where it started, but I don't think that's true. I think it started with that girl.

I took a lot of AP classes, trying to cram in some last minute credibility I suppose. Extra credits never hurt anybody, after all. The work was hard, but if I could put my head down and focus without being bothered, I'd be fine. That's how I got through a lot of high school, after all.

I guess I focused so hard I had no spacial awareness. There was a new student in my AP Calculus class about a month into school. I didn't look up as they were being introduced, and I didn't catch their name. It wasn't my problem.

But then she made it my problem. She sat down in the empty seat next to me. It made me feel slightly claustrophobic, but it was mostly fine. And then she spoke to me.

"Dipper?"

I jumped and looked over. The girl sitting there looked almost perplexed by my very existence. She looked kind of familiar, but no bells were ringing. I didn't know her. So how did she know me?

"...Yeah...? How'd you-?"

The teacher started talking. She shut up and turned to the front, as if she hadn't spoken to me at all. And she didn't talk to me for the rest of class. It was weird. It made me nervous.

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"I'm telling you, I've never seen her in my life, how'd she just know my name?"

I was leaning against the back of Mabel's car while she sat on the roof. School was out for the day, but we sometimes liked to stick around the parking lot and talk. Mabel also liked to say bye to her friends and point out people she found cute to me.

"Dude, I dunno, maybe she heard someone else say it?"

"Who would she hear it from, nobody talks to me. And she said it weird, like she knows me already."

She was looking at me like I was crazy. I sighed. "I don't know. I don't know, it just felt off."

"You have trust issues, bro."

"Yeah, that's what my therapist says."

She snickered. "I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe you can ask her next time you see her?"

I shrugged, feeling defeated and wanting to move on, but then I happened to look up and see the girl herself, walking to her car. "Speak of the devil."

Mabel followed my gaze. "That her? She's cute...  I'm gonna go talk to her." She stood, ready to jump off the car.

"What? No, Mabel, don't."

"Why? Nervous?"

"No, just... she's wearing headphones. She clearly wants to be left alone."

Mabel rolled her eyes and hopped down next to me. "Uh huh. I'm sure it'll be fine." She pushed the bill of my hat over my eyes and walked away.

I huffed, fixing my hat so I could watch the conversation. I couldn't hear them, but after they spoke for a bit, Mabel rolled her eyes and dragged the girl over.

"This is Hazel." Mabel says, pointing at her.

The girl looked bewildered by the situation, shrugging when I made eye contact with her.

"Cool?" I said.

Mabel sighed. "You're hopeless. Do you want to explain?" He asked her.

She smiled and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Hazel. We have Calculus together?"

I slowly took her hand. Her grip was firm. "I know. How'd you know my name?"

She chuckled. "Dude, it's embroidered on your backpack."

I blushed at the reminder and looked at my backpack sitting on Mabel's trunk, and... yep. There it was, in navy thread. Mabel face-palmed.

"Oh. It sure is." I laughed awkwardly.

She seemed amused. "Yeah, uh... Sorry, I just thought you were cute and wanted to say hey. I guess I could have handled it better."

"No, it's okay, I'm just... weird..." Did she say cute? She was still holding my hand.

"Aren't we all." She smiled. "Well, uh, I've gotta go, but... maybe I can catch you later?"

"Yeah, no, definitely." I smiled back. I'd gotten better at talking to girls in the past couple years, but that didn't mean I was good at it.

"Awesome." She let go. The air made my hand cold. Oh, God, was my hand sweaty? "See you," She said, and waved to Mabel, then left.

Mabel leaned against the car next to me. She was smirking. I could feel it, despite my focus being on Hazel's back.

"You're in love." Mabel said.

"You're crazy." I replied, but I knew my face was red.

"Uh huh. It's okay, I don't blame you. She's cute."

I rolled my eyes. "Right. Can we go?"

"Oh, yeah, come on."

I followed her around the front of the car to go home, glad I managed to change the subject.