The 5 year old grinned and waved to his guardian, who was on the porch watching. He then started walking off with his new pal, Wendy. She and him had agreed that today they would finally hang out for fun at the local arcade. She explained that they could get pizza to eat after they finished playing games until their fingers hurt. Stan didn't mind the two going out together, especially after seeing she had stayed along side him to protect him from the bullies that no longer bothered him after school when walking home.

"Man, it's nice to not have any worries, eh Ty?" She said while walking along the sidewalk, the younger kid walking right beside her. "This is what weekends are for. No homework, no worries! No bullies. Ya get what I'm sayin'?"

Tyrone nodded reluctantly even though homework wasn't a problem to him. He could fly by a half an hour's work in 10 minutes flat. "Mmm-hmm. I totally get what you're saying." He replies while striding down the walk way.

Wendy looked down at him and grinned, sensing he was feeling a bit of confidence while trying to act cool. She continued striding along with him until they reached the arcade, where she stopped in the front of it. The building with a joystick on the front and colorful lights flashing from inside made them both grin in excitement. Tyrone for one, had never been in an arcade, so everything looked amazing and he wanted to try everything. As soon as the two kids went inside, Ty wanted to play everything. Wendy giggled and after a couple hours of playing until their fingers did hurt, they started down the sidewalk to a pizzeria, which luckily wasn't too far down the road.

"Man, that was fun! What was your favorite game?" Wendy asked, looking down at her little friend.

"I liked Fight Fighters!" He replied back with a toothy grin. He paused, putting a finger on his chin as if he were thinking. "Hey, remember when I beat you that one round?" He grinned, trying to rub it in.

"Whattt? No. I let you win." She said back teasingly.

"Sure you did." Ty said with a giggle, still happy with his victory.

"What kind of pizza do you like?" She asked as they approached the next building, which reeked the smell of sauce, pepperoni and baking dough. They both inhaled it in with a happy sigh.

"I'm okay with pepperoni."

"Ah sweet! Me too! I'll be right back, you go on and pick a table."

With that being said, Wendy walked off, leaving the 5 year old alone with the chattering of people talking and a couple empty tables. There was one by the window, which is the table he picked right away. Wendy walked back over a couple minutes later with a number for their table and he and her chatted until their delectable food was brought to their table, in which they both ate like pigs, starving to death (or that's at least what it felt like).

"Thanks for hanging out with me today." Ty said with a grin, looking up at the older girl who grinned right back at him.

"Absolutely! And be sure to see me on Monday for our normal spot at the tables." She replied with a smile. Ever since she and him had been walking together, she always sat by him for lunch in the cafeteria. They traded their goods back and forth, and sometimes if Wendy didn't have anything, he would share.

Ty nodded with a smile on his face as well as they approached the Mystery Shack, the place he called home. "I'll see you on Monday!"

"See you Monday."

~

For some reason she wasn't there. She had always been there the past 3 years through their elementary years together but for some reason she wasn't here today. Ty sat up on his knees on the bench, looking desperately around for his best friend. 'Wendy, Wendy where are you?' his thoughts said in his head as he bit his lip. She must be sick today. The 8 year old sighed and rubbed his arm. Looks like he'll be eating lunch alone today.

The day dragged on slowly in his 3rd grade class. Multiplication and division were as easy as pie to him. His mind wasn't fully functioning today, his mind was focused on if his friend was okay, if she was home alone and stuck in bed. He even had saved a fruit roll up for her for lunch. His eyes glanced at the clock before they widened. It was almost 2:30, which meant he would have to walk home alone today. He silently begged for Jacob to be absent because he hadn't seen the classmate all day long, partially because he was in a different class this year, thank god. As soon as the bell rang out that ear-piercing noise he bolted out of the classroom. His heartbeat sped up rapidly as he started to race down the sidewalk, his shoes on the concrete making a 'thump' as they combined with the weight of his backpack. He was halfway. He could make it. He could-

Something or someone grabbed the hook of his backpack, yanking him back. "Going somewhere, dipstick?" A voice snarled out.

Never mind.

"I-I....leave me alone J-Jacob." The 8 year old stuttered out, fixing his beanie to make sure the gang wouldn't see his embarrassing mark on his forehead.

"Stuttering? And oh, what's this? No girl to keep you safe today? Guess she got sick of looking at that ugly mug of yours." He retorted as the 2 other boys that were with him laughed.

Ty's eyes watered as he tried to yank away. "G-guys!! Let me go!"

"Not unless you show us that birthmark of yours again!" One snarled with a sick smirk on his face.

Ty begged for someone to see this, for someone to come and save him. 'Wendy please come, please' he begged in his head while staying silent on the outside, indicating his answer would be no. He still ignored the other threats the bully threw at him, refusing to take off the beanie.

"Alright, you asked for it smart aleck." Jacob snarled before sucker punching him right in the gut, causing him to cry out in pain for a minute before one of the boys slapped a hand over his mouth. "Is the answer still no?" Not hearing a verbal answer the beatings kept going and going. Jacob and the gang teamed up and beat him to a pulp. Soon he was covered in bruises, cuts, and a black eye. Finally after what seemed like ages, the bullies dropped him. "Hope that'll teach you a lesson." Jacob said with a smirk before highfiving his friends and walking off.

Ty was on the floor, beat up and sore. He struggled to get up as his arms shook violently. Everything hurt and he wanted to lay down and cry some more, but he had to get home. Ty finally managed to stand up on his shaking, weak, sore legs and trudge back to the shack. He walked up the wooden porch steps, wincing at each one. Then, he finally got inside and started to walk past the gift shop so he could get to the kitchen. He sniffled but didn't want to make a scene, so he started to walk by without saying a word to Stan.

"That Corduroy girl out sick today or somethin'?" His gruff voice spoke that nearly made Ty jump in surprise.

"What? Um, no! I was just, uh....I tripped on a rock. ...A lot of rocks." He replied back, nervous and jumpy.

"C'mon, kid, you think I never got the snot beaten outta me when I was in school? I know a kick to the face when I see one. C'mere, let's get you fixed up." Stan said before leading his nephew by the back, leading him into the kitchen after putting some band-aids on him. He offered an icepack, which Ty took gladly and put it on his cheek.

"What can I do, though? They're all bigger than me, and if I tell the teacher, i'll just look like even more of a wimp."

"Heh. If you don't wanna look like a wimp, you should stop letting other people fight your battles for ya."

"But I can't-"

Stan interrupted him, standing up now and waving his hands in dismissal before starting to head over to a bunch of junk in a box he brought in. "Now hold on. I know you can't. You've got the muscle mass of a soggy piece of toast. But one thing I know about the world is that guys who were born bigger, stronger, and smarter are always gonna punch down, and guys like you an' me are suck right at the bottom like old gum. So if your wits can't save ya, all there is to do is punch back up."

"....Do you mean metaphorically or..."

"I was wondering when I'd have to dig these up again!" Stan said, talking to himself with a small smile before turning back around. "See, kid, all i'm trying to say is...when the world fights, you gotta learn to fight back." What Stan had in his hands...were a pair of boxing gloves.

~

Oh boy, did everything ache. Lesson one of boxing was a total flop to him, but Stan claimed he hadn't done that bad for a starter. Ty was just glad to see the sight of his bed, it almost was like it was calling him. He let out a huge sigh once he flopped on his bed in his comfortable shirt and shorts. Golly, it felt nice just to be laying on that thing. He let out a small smile before shutting his eyelids.

~

It was a dark forest that's for sure. The scenery looked like it was the actual time in Gravity Falls, nighttime. The 8 year old squinted and looked around, not seeing anything but trees and dirt. This was one of the weirdest dreams he had gotten by far. This one had no purpose, it was just twinkling stars and dark skies.

"Hey there, kid!" A voice rang out across the empty plains, which caused the boy to jump in surprise. "Woah there, don't have a panic attack! Yeesh."

The kid looked up at what he saw, which appeared to be a yellow triangle with one eye, bowtie, cane, and top hat with some strange symbols around him. "W-who're you...?"

"Name's Bill!"

Bill..."H-how come you're here? Did I do something? What are you? What are those symbols? What do they exactly mean? Why-"

"Yeesh! Enough with the questions, Dipper."

The boy paused for a moment before cocking his head up at the triangle. He felt like that name had an importance to it for some reason. "Dipper?"

"That's what I said."

The 8 year old looked up at the symbols again. They all looked so strange, almost as if they could be a foreign language or code. He rotated his eyes around until they stopped right on one that looked like the big dipper. Was that meant for him? Or was that just a crazy coincidence? "Is...is that one supposed to be me?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Oh this? Don't mind this." Bill said before snapping and making the strangle wheel with the symbols disappear. "Did you ever see the weird things going around you? Did your uncle ever tell you?"

"Weird things...? Like what?"

"Oh I don't know...such simple things as gnomes, or small monsters. Heck, even magical growing crystals. Didn't you know any of this?"

He blinked. "There's stuff like that...here?" He asked with excitement in his voice. The kid had always been a fan of the supernatural and in fact was planning to be hosting his own ghost hunting show once he was older.

"You'd better believe it! All over the place! I bet if you were to go into those woods right outside the shack, you would find something."

The boy grinned with excitement, now knowing what he was going to do after school and on weekends.

"I best be on my way, Dipper. See ya!"

Dipper....Dipper had that ring to it. That meaning of importance. He liked it.

~

The next day at school Wendy apologized for being gone and mentioned that her family went on a trip and didn't come back until later in the day. Dipper nodded and then excitedly told Wendy about his new name and how he would like to be called that instead of his old name 'Tyrone'. She grinned and nodded, pointing out how it was a cool nickname and all. Dipper smiled and handed her the fruit roll up he had saved for her and found himself getting hot-faced. Did he have a crush on his friend? No. No. But she was so cool and awesome and it was confusing on why she even liked him, he was just the class loser. A week rolled by and it was valentine's day. Guess who Dipper gave one to. Wendy of course. Dipper also gave one to Grunkle Stan who took it with a small smile and ruffled his hair. The boy failed to mention he himself didn't get any, which at first was pretty depressing to him.

Another week came by fast and Dipper was looking in the woods when he unexpectedly bumped into a child with tall white hair, blue suit on, and was chubby. He didn't look too friendly. Dipper apologized quickly for being such a klutz and hurried on to continue his hunt, that is, until the younger boy stopped him, mentioning how he too was on a hunt. They soon tried to one-up and battle each other in what they would find, becoming rivals. But one day he just stopped, and the older boy took on the theory that he had some dark secret power that he was hiding. He was going to find out what it was and bust him right in the act. But that plan wasn't working out too well, since he was banned from getting even close to the Tent Of Telepathy.

Dipper sat at the desk him his room, reading a new mystery novel from the library he had picked up during school hours when the class went. He was fully into the book until a voice spoke up, making him stop.

"Hey kid, I found one of your notebooks downstairs."

"Oh, thanks."

"So, "Dipper" Pines...that you?"

Hearing Stan figured out or even saw that name made his nephew jump slightly out of surprise. He forgot he put that on the cover. "Oh. Yeah, uh, I guess so." He looked down at his book to avoid eye contact before laying his head down in between his arms. "It's nothing."

"You got that from your birthmark? Thought you hated that thing."

"I did but...I had a dream a couple weeks ago that I was talking to...something. I can't remember what it was. And it called me that. Not as an insult, but like it was a title. I've kind of just been using it as a codename sorta thing. I don't know. It felt important."

"...It's not always a good idea to trust what you see in dreams, kid." Stan replied back, furrowing his eyebrows for a moment. "But-I like your attitude. You should be proud of what makes you different. And if that name makes you feel good, I want you to keep using it." He said with a smile while pushing his hair back, revealing his birthmark.

"Thanks, Grunkle Stan..." Dipper replied back with a smile, feeling better that he now had talked about it.

"Anytime, kiddo. Oh, by the way, Soos said he'd stop by later." He started to walk out the door before pausing and turning back to his nephew. "Boxing practice in 30, I'll see you down there."

"I'll be there."

Stan left. The sound of the creaking wooden staircase showing a sign he was gone for good as of now. The boy put a bookmark in his page before looking at the notebook he left downstairs which his uncle had put on his desk. "Dipper Pines" was written in ink. And he liked that. That name was sticking for good.