Caught in the Stars: Chapter IV
A Gravity Falls Fanfic
“Slow down, Mabel, or you’re going to choke!” Pacifica said.
“I have to go find Sara,” Mabel said between bites, only increasing the chance of danger. “We’re going to spend the whole day working on costumes for the play coming up.”
“Can’t you take a minute to actually eat breakfast?”
“Nope! Sorry to run, but I’ll see you later!” She leapt up, waved, and ran from the dining hall.
Pacifica sighed. Her eyes landed on a small slip of paper Mabel had left behind. When she flipped it over, she found along stream of seemingly random letters. She tucked it in her pocket and headed to the library to study.
The note seemed to burn a hole in her pocket as she studied. She told herself she would decode it when she had finished, but her curiosity grew too strong. She pulled it out and found a book on codes. After reading a few pages, it became clear that without the key, it would take a lot of patience to decode.
Hours passed, and she managed to puzzle out a lot of the letters based on their positions. Words began to form: dreams, reality, star, nightmares–
Bill.
She tore the page she had been writing on out of her notebook, crumpled it up, and threw it away. Why had she picked up the note? It seemed obvious now that it hadn’t been left for her. Mabel would have been clearer giving it to her, and probably would have given her the key if it had.
She put the codebreaking book away and tried to focus back on her history textbook, but her eyes skimmed over the words without understanding any of it.
“Mind if I sit here?” Pacifica looked up to find a smiling redheaded girl pointing at the chair across from her.
“No, that’s fine. You’re Mabel’s roommate, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, my name’s Christy.”
“Pacifica.”
“Nice to meet you.” Christy sat down, but made no move to read or do homework. Pacifica wondered if she was supposed to say something, but couldn’t think of what it would be. If it were Mabel or Dipper, she would tell them to spit it out already, but she didn’t think she should say something like that to a near stranger.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked tentatively.
“No, there’s nothing wrong. But, well, I did have a question.”
Pacifica waited, but when it was clear the other girl wouldn’t continue, she asked, “What’s the question?”
Christy twirled one strand of hair around her finger. “How do you do it?”
“How do I do what?” Maybe she shouldn’t have let Christy sit there.
“How do you talk to them?” It only took a second to realize who “them” was.
“What do you mean? I just talk.”
“But you always understand them, even when the stuff they say doesn’t make sense, and . . . they actually talk to you.”
Pacifica shook her head. “They just talk to me to be nice.”
Christy laughed, but it sounded hollow. “No, I’m the one they just try to be nice to. Mabel is my roommate, and she’ll offer to study together, or play a game, or something, but whenever she . . . has a hard time, she pretends nothing is wrong, and it’s like I’m suddenly a stranger again. And then Dipper, I just don’t understand him. He’s always nice, but I don’t think he likes me.”
Pacifica frowned. “Why?”
“He never talks when I’m around, and if he’s in the middle of a conversation, he just stops when I show up, and won’t even look at me, and if I ask him a question, he barely gives me an answer.”
Pacifica started laughing. She covered her mouth with her hands and tried to stop, but Christy’s confused expression started her up again. “I–I’m sorry,” she gasped, “but that’s just Dipper. He acts like that until he gets to know you.”
Christy’s eyebrows drew together. “How do you know? You haven’t known him very long either, have you?”
“I met him five years ago when he and Mabel came to stay in the town I live in for the summer.” She hadn’t spent much time with them, but she still knew them fairly well, didn’t she?
“Ohh,” Christy said. “Well, that explains things. So did he act like that to you when you first met?”
“Well, no,” Pacifica admitted. “But that’s because he was pretty mad at me for a while.”
“Why?”
Pacifica tugged on the ends of her hair. “Um, it doesn’t really matter.” Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember him ever being nervous around her.
“So do you think it’s just cause I haven’t known them very long?” Christy asked. “Do you think once I’ve known them longer, our relationship will be better?”
Pacifica frowned. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because you’re such good friends!”
“What?” Sure they had called her their friend before, but–
“You sit together for at least one meal every day,” Christy pointed out.
“Well yes, but–”
“And they took you on one of their monster-hunting adventures. I didn’t think anyone else was allowed to go.” Pacifica clamped her mouth shut as she remembered Dipper telling her he hoped she would come on another one.
Christy laughed at her dumbfounded expression. “I guess I shouldn’t have asked.” She sat back in her chair. “I have another question. Do they actually believe in ghosts and things?” Pacifica wasn’t sure how to answer that.
Christy smiled when Pacifica let the silence stretch on too long. “I thought that might be the case.” She stood up. “Anyway, sorry to bother you, but thanks for talking to me.”
“Uh, sure.” Pacifica watched her start to walk away. “Wait, Christy?” The other girl turned around. Pacifica thought about the page of her notebook in the trash can. “If you really want to learn their codes, ask. I’m sure Mabel would love to teach you one, but don’t try to figure out any others.” She bit her lip. “Some things you aren’t supposed to know.”
Christy chuckled. “You even have their cryptic warnings down. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.” She waved and walked away.
“And don’t forget that our first exam is one week from today,” Professor Wimblewirt said. “And that’s everything for today. See you on Thursday.” There was a flurry of movement as everyone grabbed their bags and ran out the door.
“Is it just me, or does this feel like a lot of material to cover on one test?” Pacifica whispered.
Dipper zipped his backpack closed and waited for her to finish packing her things. “Yeah, it does. Maybe we should take Mabel’s advice and study together.”
Pacifica glanced at the large textbook and shrugged. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
“Cool.” Dipper stuck his hands in his pockets. “So, um, I don’t know your schedule and I promised I would meet Mabel to work on something in a few minutes, but I could give you my phone number and we could talk about it later.”
Pacifica blinked. “Um, yeah, I guess that works.” She still had her notebook out, so he flipped it open and scribbled his number on the corner of the first page.
“So, uh, just text me later, and we can talk about when and where to study.” Pacfica nodded, stuffed her notebook in her backpack, and left the room.
Dipper waited, sighed in relief, then left the room as well.
“Wow, I’m impressed!” a familiar voice said. He whirled around and spotted Mabel grinning at him and leaning against the wall of the hallway.
“Mabel! What are you doing?”
“You said you would help me with my art project.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t mean you should come to my class! I was headed over to the library to meet you.”
Mabel’s grin spread wider. “After you gave Pacifica your phone number.”
He glanced away. “We have a big test coming up, and we thought we could study together.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard the whole thing.” She elbowed him in the ribs. “You’re not exactly subtle, but you still managed it. I really am impressed. Your track record for flirting is not that great.”
“I wasn’t flirting! I just thought we should study together.”
“Mmhmm. Right.” Mabel gave him an exaggerated wink.
Dipper groaned. “Never mind. Let’s just go work on your project.” Mabel smiled and skipped ahead of him to the library.
“Okay, so what I need you to do is look at these pictures and tell me what differences you see, and then I’m supposed to teach you about the different artistic movements they’re from.” She spread four pictures out on the table.
Dipper looked at the pictures, each one of a person in fancy, old-timey outfits in different poses. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t have asked Christy to help you.”
“Just look at the pictures.”
Throughout the entire time they worked, Dipper tried to keep his eyes from straying to his phone, but as soon as Mabel finished writing notes about the discussion, he nearly leapt up to check it, before sagging back onto his chair.
“She’s probably just busy,” Mabel assured him. “I’m sure she’ll text you soon.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Dipper said, crossing his arms.
Mabel rolled her eyes. “Sure you don’t. Well, I’m going back to my dorm. See you later!”
Dipper stayed in the library and pulled out his books to study for Trigonometry, but it didn’t matter how hard he tried to focus, his eyes continued to drift over to his phone.
An hour later, the screen lit up. Hey, Dipper. It’s Pacifica. I’m free tomorrow after 3 if that works for you.
He grinned and texted back.