Cipher, Cipher

Chapter 3

The night ended too quickly for the twins, and it seemed like only minutes had passed when the last car pulled out of the driveway. Despite the cold and it being 5 in the morning, Dipper stayed outside and helped clean up anything left over (which wasn't much; the two had given a majority of the party supplies away as gifts for coming).

"Didja have fun, bro-bro?" Mabel asked happily, as if staying up for almost forty-eight hours straight didn't affect her. "You were dancing out there, so you must've."

"The party was great, Mabel," Dipper smiled tiredly, but meant it. "Even the dancing part."

The brunette giggled. "Ooh, yes, the dancing part!" she dropped a large piece of cardboard in a trash can. "I saw you dancing with the new guy..."

"Mabel, please-"

"C'mon, admit it!" Mabel squealed, twirling around. "I rubbed off on you!"

Dipper rubbed his temples, and groaned. "Just because I danced with a guy doesn't mean I like him." Or does it?

Mabel clapped her hands together and a dreamy look crossed her face. "Then why were you dancing with him in the first place?"

"Well," Dipper started. "He scared me, and I almost fell into a garbage can, but then he caught me, and-"

"Ohmygosh you fell for him!" the brunette squealed, dancing in circles around her brother. "Dipper, do you know what this means?"

The man groaned. "Mabel-"

"You've got a crush!"

•

Later that day, at about five in the afternoon, Dipper was awake on the couch, staring at the ceiling. What the heck are feelings, anyway? And how can I have them for someone I just met? But I guess that's what happened with Wendy all those years ago... he sighed and rolled over to face the TV. Speaking of which, what even happened? Dipper sat up, his eyebrows pushed together in concentration. Why can't I remember anything? "Why can't I?" he whispered to himself. Everything seems so familiar; that must mean something... the Journal! 

He jumped up quickly and bolted up stairs, nearly hitting his toes on all the steps. Once in the attic, he slid to the ground and sorted through the mess of his bed, grabbing the aged book when it was revealed. Without a second thought, he opened the Journal and started to re-read. As before, everything seemed overly familiar, and he didn't know why, and it was seriously beginning to tick off the man. He also noticed that several pages were ripped out, too, adding onto his anger and frustration.

Then, at the end of the Journal, a few pages parted and revealed several lines in a different handwriting than the rest:

"Finally back safe and sound from one of the weirdest days in Gravity Falls.

This Journal told me that there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust, but when you battle a hundred gnomes side-by-side with someone, you realize that they've probably always got your back.

Our uncle told us there was nothing strange about this town, but who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked?"

"This handwriting," Dipper murmured aloud, grabbing a piece of scratch paper. "I know this handwriting!" he quickly wrote out a sentence on the paper, the one about trusting no one, and compared it to the handwriting in the Journal.

It was almost a perfect match.

"What happened?" the brunet's eyes flicked between the Journal and the words on the scrap paper. "I definitely don't remember anything about gnomes- and why gnomes? And secrets? Sure this town is weird, but... gnomes?" With a sigh, he pushed the book away, a headache throbbing dully behind his eyes. "It has to be a coincidence. I didn't do anything this weird when I was a kid."