Okay, so I had the idea for this fanfic last summer and I finally wrote something, so let me know what you think! This is just a preview, a little Chapter 0 if you will. Let's see if I can actually manage updates this time! Oh also, I didn't really proofread, and I wrote this like five minutes ago so please forgive any errors. Future chapters (should they come to exist) will be a lot more thought out and edited. Thanks for reading!

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Dipper should have known things could only stay relatively normal for so long in Gravity Falls. It was suspicious how calm the summer of their senior year was, even more suspicious that their first couple of days at Gravity Falls High School passed by without incident. Being the new kid in school isn’t so bad when you’ve been through an actual apocalypse with most of your grade, even if everyone pretty much pretended Weirdmageddon never happened (as was required by “Never Mind All That” Act). Things were going well with Pacifica, the friendship the two decided to continue after their summer fling two years ago still going strong. Mabel was already two weeks ahead on assignments and searching for a new crush to focus her remaining attention on, currently transfixed by a red-haired girl in their history class that Dipper playfully called “Mabel’s Wendy”. 

Everything was going really, genuinely, actually well. Too well. Almost so incredibly well that Dipper nearly missed the subtle changes that started the week before school began. The gnomes, who paid many visits to the woods around the Mystery Shack, were suddenly gone. Before their first day of senior year, Dipper had gone searching for an hour to no avail. They were nowhere to be found. Not only that, all magical wildlife seemed to be missing from the forest surrounding the Shack, yet when he searched the forest on the other side of town, magical creatures were lurking about everywhere. When Dipper brought it up to Great Uncle Ford, he was brushed off quickly, the older man too busy writing up plans for his next voyage with Stan. 

The next thing he found that night was a newly built house, about 5 miles from the Mystery Shack. It was a beautiful piece of architecture, floor to ceiling windows on every wall and a wrap-around porch that was covered with perfectly placed ivy. Dipper had no idea anyone was moving so close to them, yet when he asked Gruncle Stan about it, he was once again brushed off, given only the information that some ‘rich schmuck’ had built the place and moved his large family into it without so much as a hello to the neighbors (the Mystery Shack was the only building anywhere near the new house, so Dipper didn’t blame them for stopping by). 

Wednesday started just like all the other unnaturally normal days of the now past summer break. Dipper woke up, got dressed, made himself his normal breakfast of a piece of toast with peanut butter and bananas, then went out for his normal morning expedition. Then, he drove himself and Mabel to Gravity Falls High in his 2005 Honda Civic that he swore was a magical creature itself considering how well it was holding up, especially after the Lilliputtian infestation of 2014. He parked in his normal spot, not specifically assigned to him but it might as well have been, and the twins made their way into their shared homeroom. The sky was gray today, something that differentiated it from the first two days of the week but there was nothing surprising about a cloudy day in Oregon. First period passed, then second and third, but it was fourth period where things began to noticeably shift. 

Dipper had been focused for the first three periods on writing notes in his own field journal, creating an updated version of Journal 2, but in fourth period he finally began to catch on to the whispers. 

“What’s going on?” He leaned over and asked Pacifica, who was diligently taking notes on Mr. Blandley’s boring class lesson as always. She looked over at him with a slight glare, annoyed that he was talking in class but too much of a gossip not to answer.

“How have you not heard yet? There are like, five new kids and they’re all hot.” She responded, before her eyes slid to the front of the room where a girl Dipper had never seen before was sitting. She had long, wavy blond hair and was wearing designer clothing he swore he’d seen in Pacifica’s closet. Speaking of, the blond next to him looked positively envious of the girl now stealing all of the attention in the classroom, a mixture of jealousy, fury, and lust in her eyes. As if she could feel the stare on her back, the new kid turned her head to lock eyes with Pacifica, then Dipper, and the boy had to hold back a gasp. Her eyes were unnaturally gold, gold enough that for a moment, Dipper was confronted with flashbacks of puppets and triangles and a summer of chaos. But just as quickly as she looked back, she returned her attention to Mr. Blandley. 

Trying to shake himself out of the bad memories, Dipper attempted to focus back on his journal, but his mind was now stuck on the blond girl sitting 4 seats ahead of him. Something wasn’t right, and he felt a chill crawling down his spine that he knew all too well meant something was coming, something bad. 

The rest of fourth and fifth period dragged on until finally Dipper could rejoin Mabel in the cafeteria. After getting their lunches, they made their way to their normal table where Pacifica and Candy were already sitting, talking amongst themselves while glancing at a table in the back of the busy lunchroom.

“Did you have classes with any of them??” Mabel suddenly asked excitedly when they took their seats, and Dipper furrowed his brows before remembering the golden stare of the girl. 

“Oh, the new kids? Um yeah, Pacifica and I did in history. Something was off about her-” He began to say before his sister's eager voice cut him off.

“They’re all so hot! Like models hot! There’s no way they’re highschoolers I mean- look at them!” She said before not so subtly gesturing to the table where all five of these new students sat, picking at food on trays and surveying the room with matching golden eyes. Dipper furrowed his brows and watched them before a girl with short, choppy brown hair met his eyes and he quickly looked away. 

“Who are they?” He asked, still feeling incredibly unsettled about their odd appearances, but also the unnatural beauty that he’d be a fool not to notice. He focused on Candy as she answered, pushing up her glasses while smiling, looking away from the table of models to look at him.