Starfall

Chapter 7 - Plaid Rockstar

Dipper had taken some time to mull over his thoughts before he had fallen asleep the night before. He kept seeing what had stared back at him in his bike mirror. His mirror was centered on some gated trees set in the sidewalk. Then as Dipper had looked closer he saw a slender figure clad in all-black clothes and shoes peering at him from behind the tree as she crouched next to it.

Dipper had froze for a moment. He had then turned around to look. Nothing had been there. Just an empty tree base. Pacific had also asked curiously, What is it?" Dipper had turned around and started the bike. "It's nothing," he muttered. He wasn't sure if what he had seen was real or his imagination.

So he had drifted between sleep and awake that following morning, betwixt reality and something more superfluous. In the dream, he was chasing his sister into the yard next door. She had taken his slingshot and ran. Dipper chassed his sister as hard as he could, but she had begun to hit her growth spurt at about the same time as him. And despite, in the dream, being far younger than him she was still outpacing him. She wore a micro-checkered black and white dress which was paired with a bright red polka dot bandana that drew around her long flowing dark brown hair and was tied to a prim knot on the front with some extra fabric flowing behind her like tiny ears.

Dipper was determined to catch her and when she looked back at him with laughter she tripped and stumbled into the grass. Dipper, seeing his chance dove for her pinning her before she could run. She may have been slightly faster than him, but certainly not stronger. His sister made pouting lips. "Look at what you did to my dress...mommy's not going to be pleased." Dipper cringed knowing she was right.

The dream shifted. The girl was now closer to fifteen and Dipper had aged as well. Dipper was sporting a nineteen-forties style black fedora, a double-breasted black suit, and slacks with bright blue pinstripes that made the outfit pop with contrast. He was supposed to be meeting his sister before the dance. She had been invited to the dance by a junior. She said she was fine, but Dipper was none too fond of the young man she was seeing. He was fractious, unruly, an underaged alcoholic, and had all the wrong friends. Also, he was a compulsive gambler, which his sister had yet to pick up on.

What his sister saw in this young man remained a mystery to him. Nonetheless, despite his protestations, she had promised to go to the formal spring dance with him. Dipper arrived a minute early before seven pm to wait under the street lamp outside the dance hall.

He trusted his sister in most things, and she was no pushover by any means. It was just that love seemed to have blinded her to her boyfriend Harry's dire shortcomings. Dipper pulled back the buttoned sleeve of his suit jacket and looked at his dress watch. Seven o'clock had come and gone. It was now four minutes after seven. Dipper heard a panicked shout nearby followed by raucous laughter. Someone was in trouble and a young woman by the sounds of it. Dipper hatted to leave the spot he had promised to meet his sister in, but this young woman was in dire need of help. Dipper ran around the corner.

His heart sank. His sister was on the pavement and her boyfriend and his two friends were laughing at her. His sister swore at her boyfriend. "When my brother finds out what you've done he'll tan your hide, Harry!" The other two men and her boyfriend Harry laughed uproariously. Then an empty look washed the stupid grin off his face as his eyes grew cold and pernicious. Dipper didn't like that look. "Hold her down boys," Harry said as he began to take his suit jacket off. Dipper's blood boiled. He had heard enough. Dipper balled his hands into fists and marched towards Harry. As Harry was taking his slacks off Dipper approached him unnoticed. Dipper's sister screamed and spit at her perpetrators. At the last second, Harry looked up as Dipper's shadow, cast from the lamplight, fell over him. Dipper uppercut him so hard his feet left the ground for a moment. Harry was out cold.