Caught in the Stars: Chapter II
A Gravity Falls Fanfic
“So then Christy said–”
“Listen, Mabel,” Dipper interrupted as he grabbed a plate. “I’m glad you and your roommate hit it off, but you don’t have to tell me everything she’s ever said, especially first thing in the morning.”
Mabel rolled her eyes. “I haven’t said that much.”
They collected their food and sat down with Pacifica. She looked up, startled.
“You don’t mind us sitting here, do you?” Mabel asked.
“No,” Pacifica said slowly. “But you sat here last night. Don’t you want to sit with your friends?”
“You’re our friend too,” Mabel said at the same time Dipper said, “What friends?” They looked at each other.
Pacifica frowned at Dipper. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He looked down and took a large bite of food before he answered. “I meant exactly what I said. My roommate barely talks to me, no one talks in my classes, and there are no clubs or anything I’m interested in.” He looked up and pointed his fork at Pacifica. “I’m friends with you,” he pointed at his sister, “and I’m friends with Mabel. That’s it.”
Mabel rolled her eyes. “Come on, you have friends.” Dipper raised his eyebrows.
“We’re friends?” Pacifica asked.
He looked back at her. “Well, yeah.” He grinned. “I figure going on a life-threatening ghost hunt together definitely makes you friends.”
“Wait, who is that?” Mabel asked, leaning all the way across the table and pointing toward the dining hall doors. She rested her chin on her hand and sighed. “He’s so cute.”
Dipper rolled his eyes, but turned to look and spotted a familiar black-haired boy coming in. He slapped his hand over Mabel’s eyes. “Oh, no. Absolutely not. You are not going to start flirting with my roommate.”
Mabel pushed his hand away and gaped. “Wait, that’s Eli?”
Dipper shoved her back in her chair. “Yes. Stop staring.”
She tilted her head and considered him. “He doesn’t seem that weird.”
“Mabel! Please stop staring! I don’t want him to think I’m talking about him.”
She sighed. “Fine.” A sly grin crossed her face. “You didn’t tell me how cute he was, though.” Her eyes rolled up to the ceiling. “Maybe he just needs someone to open up to.”
“No, no, no!” Dipper poked her arm.
“Ow!”
“Things are already awkward enough between us,” he said. “Don’t make it worse.”
“I won’t, I promise, but, Pacifica, don’t you think he’s adorable?”
Pacifica glanced at Dipper nervously. “Uh, I guess.”
“He’s so dreamy and–”
“Ugh, I’m leaving!” Dipper snatched up his plate and walked away.
“I’m going too,” Pacifica said. “I have to get to class.”
“I thought it doesn’t start for a while,” Mabel said.
“I like to be there early.”
“Okay. See you later!”
“Dipper, it’s so sunny and nice outside. Let’s go wander around for a while, or play tag or something.”
“Sorry, Mabel,” he said without looking up from his book. “I have a History exam to study for.”
“But which is more fun? Hanging out with me, or studying History?”
“Hanging out with you, but if I have to choose between playing tag and graduating, I choose graduating.” He looked up. “Aren’t you supposed to be studying for Art?”
Mabel laughed. “Pfft, what’s there to study in Art?”
Dipper frowned. “A lot of things. There’s a lot to study in Art.”
“Well, I’m fine. I don’t need to study, and neither do you. You’ve been studying forever!”
“This exam covers a lot.”
“Like what?” she asked, moving closer.
“Like all the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, all their theories, the–” He broke off as Mabel snatched up his hat and ran off. “Hey! Give that back!” He scrambled up and chased after her.
Mabel ran outside. She didn’t have much of a headstart, and she knew her brother would catch up quickly. She spotted Pacifica reading on the short brick wall surrounding the library and ran over.
“Can you hold this for a minute?” Mabel shoved the hat into the other girl’s hands and ran off before she could answer.
“What? Why? What am I supposed to do with–” she broke off when she realized Mabel was too far away to hear her.
Dipper ran out a second later and she shouted at him, but he took off in the direction Mabel had gone without sparing her a glance.
She frowned. Why did Mabel give her Dipper’s hat? She needed to study, not get tangled up in . . . whatever this was. She stared at it, then put it on so she had her hands free to turn the pages.
Meanwhile, Dipper caught up with Mabel and grabbed her shoulder, squeezing it to make sure she couldn’t slip out of his grasp. “Okay, you got your game of tag, now give me my hat.”
Mabel grinned and shrugged, displaying both empty hands. “I don’t have it.”
“Then where is it?”
“Pacifica has it.”
“Pacifica? Why?”
“I asked her to hold it when I came outside!” She laughed. “I tricked you!”
Dipper groaned. “I’m going to go get my hat, go back inside and keep studying, so leave me alone.” He turned around and Mabel followed him, still chuckling over her victory. When they got closer to the library, Dipper looked around for Pacifica, then froze.
She was sitting on the brick wall, dangling her feet over it as she studied, and her hair spilled out of his hat and drifted in the breeze. His hat. She was wearing his hat.
“You okay, Dipper?” Mabel asked.
He coughed. “Yeah, fine.”
“I’ll go get your hat back.” She ran off.
“You don’t have to–” He sighed. “Never mind.”
Pacifica looked up as they approached. “There you are. What were you doing, and why did you give me Dipper’s hat?”
“We were playing tag,” Mabel said innocently.
Dipper crossed his arms. “Ha.”
Pacifica looked between the two of them, then took the hat off and held it out to him. “You two make no sense.”
Dipper took a step back and raised both hands. “That’s fine. I mean, you can keep it for now. I’m just going inside, and you probably need it more than I do, I mean, with the sun and all . . .” Pacifica stared at him. “Well, I’m going inside.” He hurried into the library before she could say anything.
“What was that?” Mabel asked, following him.
“What was what?”
“I never get to wear your hat, but now Pacifica does just cause she’s outside?”
He folded his arms. “You steal my hat and wear it all the time.”
“Yeah, but you don’t give it to me to wear.”
“I didn’t give it to her either.”
Mabel crossed her arms and shrugged one shoulder. “I guess not.” She watched him suspiciously as he returned to his seat.
As every college student knows, the best ideas come in the middle of class, when you can’t do anything about them. Dipper was in the middle of photography class when he suddenly realized the common denominator in all the phoenix sightings Ford had mentioned. He scribbled a note on his hand and waited eagerly for class to finish. As soon as it did, he ran back to his dorm, flipping through his journal for all the notes on birds he had.
He put his hand on the doorknob right as Eli opened the door, and he fell forward, sending both boy’s papers and notebooks flying.
Dipper knelt down and started picking up pages. “I’m so sorry! I was looking at my journal and wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking, and–” Dipper broke off as a vaguely familiar piece of paper caught his eye. He picked it up.
“Is this a character sheet for Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons?” He looked up at Eli, a broad grin spreading across his face. “Do you play?”
All he was expecting was a grunt of agreement, but to his surprise, Eli’s face lit up. “Yeah, since middle school.”
Dipper studied the drawing in his hands and tried to cover his shock. “This is an awesome character design, though I generally prefer wizards over barbarians myself.” He slid the drawing back to the other boy. “Sorry, I guess I got over-excited. I love playing D, D, & D, but hardly anyone will play with me.”
Eli picked up Dipper’s journal to hand back, but stopped when he saw the open page with a detailed drawing of a reverse griffin–an eagle-like creature with the head of a lion. He stared at it for a moment, and Dipper tugged on the brim of his hat. Eli’s fingers slid down the page, caught on the corner, then stopped.
“Can I?” he asked. Dipper nodded.
Eli flipped through the book slowly as Dipper stacked up the rest of the scattered papers.
“Do you DM back home?”
Dipper looked up. “Uh, sometimes. Depends on who I’m playing with.”
Eli turned the book around and gestured to a drawing of gnomes stacked into a monster. “Did you come up with all this stuff on your own?”
Dipper rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess so. I mean, Mabel and our great-uncle helped.”
Eli kept flipping through the journal. “There’s a group here I meet every week. That’s where I’m headed now. We’re finishing up a campaign soon. Would you like to join when we start our next one?”
“Yeah! Yeah, that sounds amazing! I mean, are you sure you wouldn’t mind?” Eli nodded and both boys grabbed their respective notebooks and loose papers.
“See you later!” Dipper called as Eli left. “And thanks!”
Eli nodded and waved. Dipper went into the dorm, collapsed on the bed, and sighed in relief. Maybe college wasn’t so bad.