Gravity Rises (S2)

ST: Part Four

Dipper and Mabel spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon at the library, flipping through dictionaries and code books and the Journal and typing in whatever they could find. Dipper made a herculean effort to stay focused, but it wasn't long before he wanted to jump out of his chair, shove everything to the floor, and cartwheel out onto the street. He figured he should get a medal for sitting this still for so long.

Finally, Dipper's stomach growled almost louder than the BZZT sound, and he decided that enough was enough.

"C'mon, Mabes," he pleaded. "We gotta get some food. We can come back tomorrow."

She blinked at him. "But there's so much of the day left."

"If we do it all day today, we won't have any energy for it tomorrow," Dipper pointed out.

"You might not," Mabel muttered.

Dipper stared her down. "Mabel. Come on."

She sighed. "Fine." She closed the laptop. "We'll go get some food. But we have to find somewhere to hide the laptop from Melody, somewhere secure. We can't leave it here."

"I don't get why we have to hide it from her," Dipper said as he gathered up the books they'd found. He didn't want to hide things — especially from someone as caring as Melody.

"We might not have to, but I don't want to take any chances."

They grabbed everything off the table and went to go put the library books away. "Okay, fine," Dipper said, sliding one of the dictionaries back into its slot. "I'll go into the Museum first and make sure the coast is clear, and we'll take the laptop and Journal up to our room. Unless Ford is feeling better," he added. "Then we'll give them back to him."

"Right. Thanks."

The twins finished putting the books away. They were headed for the door when Dipper saw her.

The girl stood at an angle, so she could only see half her face. Her eyes, which glinted green in the sunlight that drifted in through the high windows, were focused on the poster she was hanging on the library bulletin board. Her tongue protruded out a little from her small lips, and a pencil stuck out from behind her ear, brushing against a cream-colored cloth hat perched on her head. Her long hair framed her face in black, but became lighter and lighter as it trailed down her back, until it was a bright blonde.

She was adorable.

"Dipper?"

Dipper realized he had stopped walking. Mabel was at the library door, her hand on the knob.

"Look at her," he said.

Mabel rolled her eyes, walked over to him, and looked at the girl. "Great. She's beautiful. Let's go."

Dipper didn't exactly think that was fair — hadn't he spent most of the day helping Mabel with what she wanted to do? And now he couldn't even stop to look at a pretty girl?

"I'm going to go talk to her," Dipper said, partly out of a sense of injustice.

"Dipper," Mabel whined.

"Look!" Dipper pointed. "Look at her poster!"

The poster was mostly black with neon green highlights and blue-white smoke that spelled out The Spectre of the Theatre.

"We have a friend in that show," Dipper said. "It's a perfect conversation starter! C'mon."

"Wait, Dip — what about Amanda?"

It was a desperate ploy to stop him, and Dipper knew it. "Oh, come on. I can talk to whoever I want. Amanda and I are just friends."

"Friends with benefits," Mabel muttered. Dipper pretended not to hear her and started towards the ombre-haired girl.