As Monday rolled around, Bill couldn’t wait to see Pine Tree-chan
again! The weekends without seeing him were just getting harder and
harder. He arrived early to school, unable to just wait around at home,
ready to see when Dipper would enter the school grounds.
Bill
was hiding behind one of the trees lining the school entrance when he
saw Pine Tree-chan come walking, his head hidden away in a book and his
sister walking beside him. They both seemed pretty freaked out, as did
most of the other students. Although, to be fair, some pretty grisly
events had occurred these past few weeks.
Bill let out a
small gasp when he saw another student, also reading a book, walk in the
opposite direction of Pine Tree-chan! But before he had a chance the
two collided, with Shooting Star-chan gasping in surprise.
“S-sorry,”
the guy who had just slammed into Bill’s Pine Tree stuttered. Bill
recognized that stutter; he knew that his cousin (on his father’s side),
Will, was attending this school, but he hadn’t seen him yet. The two
had spent a lot of their childhood together, mostly involving Bill
teasing his crybaby cousin, until his dad had encouraged his brother to
move away; he had probably wanted to protect his nephew from Bill.
“That’s
alright,” Pine Tree assured him, as the sweet angel he was. Then not
only did Pine Tree-chan have to get up by himself, but he actually
extended a hand to help Will up, when it should have been the other way
around! Not that Bill would have liked that any more…
“Y-you… u-um…” Will stuttered and blushed before running off with his head hanged low.
“Oooh!
What was that, Dipper-chan?” Shooting Star-chan teased, although her
tone made it clear she wasn’t entirely into it; probably because of many
deaths lately. “You got another admirer?”
“What do you
mean ‘another’?” Dipper asked confused. “And clearly not; that guy’s
just kinda weird. I think his name is Will. He runs the school’s Occult
Club; people talk all the time about how weird he is, one of the reasons
why I joined the Photography Club instead.”
“Dipper!” Mabel hissed in anger. “You shouldn’t judge other people like that! You don’t even know him.”
“No, but that guy is actually known for stalking other students,” Dipper argued.
It
didn’t seem like Bill had any reason to worry; Pine Tree-chan seemed
very put off by Will, meaning that legend or no legend, Pine Tree-chan
probably wouldn’t accept a confession from Will.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later
that day, Bill observed Pine Tree-chan at lunch, just like always, or
that had been the plan anyway, if he hadn’t seen Will in Bill’s usually
spot, stalking Pine Tree-chan!
Sneaking up on his cousin,
Bill tapped him on the shoulder, resulting in Will letting out a scared
squeak and jumping into the air.
“Oh! Y-you…” Will stuttered out when he saw Bill.
“Yes!
Me!” Bill said with a forced smile. “I had no idea you went to this
school too, Cous’!” Bill put an arm around his cousin shoulder, which to
an outside observer would look friendly, but Bill knew his cousin would
recognize as what it really was; a method of intimidation. “So, what
were you doing just now?! Spying on a kohai? How shameful!”
“I-
I wasn’t r-really spying!” Will said, obviously trying to hide his own
guilt! “I-it’s just… I ran into that b-boy this morning, a-and ever
since… I haven’t been able t-to stop thinking a-about him. I think
h-he’s put s-some kind of c-curse on me, o-or maybe h-he’s actually an
I-Incubus in disguise! I-I’ve already discovered a student I think i-is a
S-Sucubus, s-so it makes sense that a-an Incubus would be here t-too…”
Bill let go of his cousin, spotting an opportunity.
“Sorry,
it’s my phone,” Bill lied, fished out his phone and pretended to answer
a text message, when in reality he activated a voice recording app.
“Could you repeat what you just said?”
“I think h-he cursed me,” Will repeated. “O-or h-he’s an Incubus…”
Satisfied, Bill stopped recording and returned his phone to his pocket.
“And you’re just gonna keep stalking him until you find evidence, or…?” Bill teased.
“I
guess just observing him w-wouldn’t give me much e-evidence,” Will
admitted. “I w-will probably have to t-try and get close t-to him…”
“W-what!?!”
Bill shrieked, actually drawing Pine Tree’s attention. The two cousins
both stared at Pine Tree as he lifted a hand to wave at them.
“… Hi?” he greeted them in a confused tone.
Will
blushed and ran away. Bill decided to pretend he was worried about his
cousin, both to hopefully score some points with Pine Tree, and to avoid
explaining to Pine Tree what that had been about.
Bill was unable to find Will again, and decided to leave it at that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By
the time school was over and it was time for the students to clean the
school, Bill found himself on the rooftop, both to avoid cleaning, but
also because he knew Pine Tree-chan was leaving early because of a
dentist appointment.
He spotted Pine Tree-chan leaving the
school building through the main doors; he’d recognize the hat
anywhere. What surprised Bill was that someone stopped Pine Tree-chan in
the door opening; it was Will.
Bill couldn’t hear their
conversation, but he knew he had to something about this! Luckily, with
it being cleaning time, Bill had been given a bucket of water with
bleach to clean with. While he originally had no intention of cleaning,
he still had had the foresight to bring the bucket along. He dumped the
content of the bucket from the roof, and the bleached liquid hit Will.
Will
started howling and screaming, running away before Pine Tree-chan had a
chance to help him, and because of Pine Tree’s dentist appointment, he
didn’t have time to chase after Will!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By
the next day, Bill had decided that if his cousin wouldn’t back off, he
would have to do something about it. He hesitated to actually kill his
cousin, mostly because the enormous amount of death these last few weeks
had taken its toll on Pine Tree-chan, and Bill was nothing if not a
caring future husband.
He spotted his cousin stalking Pine
Tree-chan, like the creep he was. Seriously, what kind of freak follows
their crush around like that? Pine Tree-chan stopped up while Shooting
Star-chan continued walking to the school building.
Noticing that her brother had stopped, Mabel stopped herself and turned around.
“What is it, bro-bro?” she asked.
“Just go on ahead,” Dipper said, opening his backpack. “I just need to check something.”
Mabel shrugged and walked on ahead, while Dipper continued to rummage through his bag.
“Oh great, I forgot my bento,” Dipper mumbled.
“Y-you,
uh, forgot?” Dipper froze when he heard a voice from behind him. He
turned around only to see that creepy guy from yesterday.
“Oh,
hi,” Dipper greeted him, trying his best to be friendly. “Are you okay
after what happened yesterday? Sorry I didn’t go after you, but I had a
dentist appointment, so…”
“That’s alright,” Will assured him. “I’m fine. Y-you, uh, said you forgot something?”
“Yeah, my bento,” Dipper sighed. “I guess I’ll have to go back home and-“
“Y-you
don’t have to!” Will exclaimed before blushing at his own raised voice.
“I- I mean, I c-could buy you something from the cafeteria…”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind that?” Dipper asked in a surprised tone.
Bill was nearly pulling out his own hair! This wasn’t supposed to have happened!
“Y-yeah!” Will said with a happy smile.
“Well thanks,” Dipper smiled in return. “I’ll pay you back tomorrow then.”
Will waved goodbye as Pine Tree-chan left, and Bill swooped in to confront his cousin.
“Hey Cous’, what was that about?” Bill tried his best to sound casual, and he thought he pulled it off rather well.
“W-well, that boy forgot his bento, s-so I offered to pay for his lunch,” Will mumbled.
“Didn’t you say that you thought the guy was an Incubus or something?”
“Y-yes, but h-he might be a… nice one?” Will offered weakly. “A-anyway, I’ll have to gather evidence first…”
“You
know what you should do?” Bill smirked as he got an idea. “Make sure
his lunch is salty; if he’s able to eat it, that means he isn’t an
Incubus.”
“That’s a good idea, but… what if he is an Incubus?”
“Then you should probably stay away from him,” Bill shrugged. “Just to make sure he won’t try to steal your soul~”
“But he’s so…”
“Will, if he is an Incubus, that could be the curse talking! Promise me that you’ll stay away from him if he’s an Incubus!”
“A-alright…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill
spent the remaining time until lunch keeping an eye on Will. When
lunchtime rolled around, and Will went to the cafeteria, he bought the
B-lunch; Bill bought five packets of salt.
Will brought
the lunch to the usual place where Dipper ate his lunch, but before Will
could get Dipper’s attention, Bill tapped him on the shoulder.
“Did you make sure the lunch is salty?” Bill asked with a friendly smile,
“Y-yeah,” Will nodded. “I think s-so…”
“You go up and talk to him; I’ll make a real romantic setting for you~” Bill said with a wink.
“R-really?” Will’s eyes lit up in pleasant surprise. “Thank you, Bill!”
Bill
grabbed the lunch, and while Will walked over to talk with Pine
Tree-chan, Bill opened each packet of salt and poured the content into
the lunch. Satisfied with the result, Bill walked over to the nearest
door to spy on the rest of the encounter.
Will led Pine
Tree-chan over to the bench where Bill had left the lunch. They sat down
and began to eat, but no sooner had Pine Tree taken a bite of his lunch
before spitting it out.
“Urgh!” Dipper’s face cringed in disgust. “What did you buy me?! It tastes horrible!”
“I- I d-didn’t-“ Will stuttered, unable to reply either out of panic, embarrassment, or fear.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t eat this,” Dipper complained and left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill
was waiting for Will when the school day was over, mostly to make sure
his cousin wouldn’t try to talk to Pine Tree-chan again.
Will walked up to Bill with a sad yet contemplative expression.
“So?” Bill asked questioningly. “Is he an Incubus?”
“I… think so,” Will confirmed as the two began to walk. “But I… I don’t think he’s an evil Incubus.”
“Will,” Bill snarled. “We talked about this! You’re just under his mind control!”
“I
d-don’t think I am,” Will stuttered, but tried to sound convincing.
“H-he’s so nice to me; h-he didn’t even get mad that I got him a lunch
set h-he couldn’t eat… Besides he… I w-want t-to be with him… h-he’s the
o-only one I’ve ever m-met who’s…”
Will trailed off and began to fumble with his hands.
“Oh my dear cousin,” Bill sighed. “This path will only lead to your ruin.”
And with that threat disguised as a concerned sentiment, Bill left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
next day, Bill kept watch by the school entrance. He was going to keep
an eye on Will and Pine Tree, and find a way to cause more strife
between them.
He saw as Will arrived and waited for Dipper, who soon showed up along with his sister.
“D-Dipper-kun,”
Will stuttered as he approached him. “I w-wanted to apologize for
yesterday. I-I’m sorry; I didn’t realize that your food was that salty.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” Dipper shrugged while his sister smiled.
“Oooh~ You two shared lunch yesterday?” Mabel giggled.
“I
forgot my bento, and Senpai was kind enough to buy me lunch,” Dipper
opened his backpack and pulled out his wallet. “Which reminds,” he
fished out the money he owed Will.
“N-no, that’s okay, it wasn’t any trouble,” Will assured him, waving off the money.
“Are you sure?” Dipper asked hesitantly. “Well, thanks. Is there any other way to repay you?”
“I’m sure there is~” Mabel sang. Will’s face turned red with embarrassment, but Dipper just rolled his eyes.
“U-um,
there is something…” Will mumbled as he fumbled with his hands. “I’ve
n-noticed that you always have that book with you…” Will pointed to the
book in question, which Dipper carried in his arms.
“Oh yeah, it belonged to my great uncle,” Dipper explained. “He was a journalist, but he also had a hobby in the supernatural.”
“Y-you have an i-interest in the o-occult?” Will asked, his eyes practically transforming into the shape of hearts.
“Oh
right, you’re leader of the occult club,” Mabel recalled and nudged
Dipper in the side. “Say, why don’t you let him borrow the book? Then
the two of you can discuss it?”
“What?!” Dipper exclaimed.
“I can’t do that! What if something happened to it? No offense, Senpai,
but I’m not comfortable letting anyone borrow this book.”
“I u-understand,” Will nodded, but his expression made him look like a kitten stuck in the rain.
“Fine,” Dipper groaned, giving in to the pitiful, but adorable looking boy. “But you have to be promise me to be super careful.”
“I p-promise!” Will swore as a bright smile spread onto his face. Dipper blushed and handed him the book.
“Bring it back when school’s over, okay?”
“Yes! Thank you!”
As
the two parted ways, Bill snarled quietly to himself, glaring daggers
at his cousin. But then, ever so slowly, a smirk started spreading on
his lips; he’d destroy the book, making Will look careless and
untrustworthy to Pine Tree-chan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This
didn’t require a big, complicated plan or anything. Will was so
scatterbrained that during lunch, he forgot the book on his desk. Bill
swooped right in, took it without being spotted, and made his way to the
fountain where Will was eating lunch with Dipper. The two were stuck in
a conversation that, to Bill’s disdain, seemed to be going well, but
Bill had to bite his time.
When the two were done eating and left, Bill dropped the book in the fountain, right by where Will had been sitting.
All
Bill had to do then, was wait for the day to be over, where he observed
a downtrodden Will approach Dipper, carrying the soaked and ruined
book.
“I-I… I-I’m so s-sorry,” Will stuttered and looked like he was ready to cry.
“You…!”
Dipper took the book and stared at it with wide, watery eyes. “How
could you!?” he shouted and ran away without letting Will explain.
Bill
smirked. His plan had unfolded perfectly, like always. The destroyed
book had simply been another sacrifice necessary to bring him and his
Pine Tree-chan together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
next day, Bill once again waited in hiding to see if Will had given up
his endeavor of seducing Pine Tree-chan. It seemed Will hadn’t learned
his lesson as he still approached Pine Tree that morning.
“I-I’m still r-really sorry about the book, Dipper-kun,” Will said, following Dipper like a scolded puppy.
“Look,
Senpai, I was able to save the book, but I can’t let you borrow any of
my things ever again if you’re going to be so careless with them.”
Dipper gave his senpai a stern look.
“I know,” Will nodded. “I j-just want to make i-it up to you… H-how a-about I make you something? A-as a gift?”
“Okay,” Dipper sighed and shrugged.
“Thank you so much!” Will beamed. “I’ll see you after school!”
Will rushed off to his locker where Bill intercepted him, his phone ready to record their conversation.
“So, you still think Dipper-chan is a… what was it?” Bill asked.
“An Incubus,” Will answered. “And… no. If he was, he would have moved on to another target; I just keep screwing up…”
“Are you saying you have feelings for him?” Bill continued his line of questioning.
“Yes,
I think so,” Will sighed wistfully. “He’s so… wonderful… I want to give
him gift, to make up for almost ruining his book. But I don’t know
what.”
Bill smirked and turned off his phone recording; he
had all he needed. “What about a special song? Record yourself singing a
song about your feelings; then Dipper-chan’s sure to accept your
apology.”
“Y-you mean… I s-should confess to him n-now?”
Will stuttered nervously as his face lit up red. “I w-was planning on
waiting until tomorrow evening; you know, to fulfill the legend?”
“You, ah… actually believe in the legend?” Bill’s smile grew tight, but he tried to hide his inner rage as best as he could.
“I’ve been studying, and it seems to hold water,” Will explained.
“Well,
then lay the groundwork for it today! No need to confess, but plant the
idea that you might have feelings for him in his mind; then he’ll be
even more likely to confess tomorrow!”
“Y-you’re right!”
Will nodded determinedly. “I s-should probably get going now, a-and
record that song… s-see you later, cousin!”
Will ran off, leaving behind Bill, whose smile transformed into a hate filled sneer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill spent recess in the computer lab, reworking the two pieces of audio he had recorded.
Once
he was satisfied with the result, he swiped Will’s phone, which wasn’t
too difficult considering Will was still a scatterbrain, and really, if
after supposedly ruining Pine Tree-chan’s precious book because of his
absentmindedness, and not doing anything to better himself, didn’t proof
that Will would never deserve Pine Tree-chan- Anyhow, Bill located the
file Will had recorded for Pine Tree-chan, deleted it, and replaced with
his own manipulated audio file, after renaming it the same as the
original.
When the school day was over, Bill hid behind a tree and waited for Will to show the “song” to Pine Tree-chan.
They met up around ten minutes after Bill had found his hiding spot.
“S-so,
u-um,” Will was stuttering and shaking more than usually as he handed
Dipper the phone. “J-just press play; I h-hope it’ll speak f-for
itself…”
Dipper shrugged and press play on the phone.
“So, you still think Dipper-chan is a… what was it?” Bill’s voice was heard playing on the phone. Will frowned in confusion.
“An Incubus,” Will’s voice responded. “And… Yes, I think so. I think h-he cursed me.”
“T-that’s not-“ Will stuttered, only to have his phone handed back, along with a cold glare from Dipper.
“Is that why you’ve been harassing me?” Dipper asked. “You think I’m some kind of… evil monster?!”
“N-no, I s-swear, I-“ Will was further interrupted by Dipper holding up a hand.
“I
don’t want to hear any of your excuses. Just stay away from me from now
on, or I will get in contact with the student councilor about this, Senpai.”
And
just like that, Dipper left. Will held out a hand, almost as if he was
going to try and stop Dipper, but then decided not to; either because of
his own cowardice or out of fear that he would make everything worse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill
was grinning from ear to ear that Friday, knowing that he had
successfully sabotaged his rival. He lingered by his locker a little
longer than normal, mentally celebrating his victory, when he spotted
Will approaching Pine Tree-chan’s locker, carrying a letter.
Before Will had a chance to insert the letter into Pine Tree-chan’s locker, Bill rushed over and grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?” Bill asked, trying his damndest to keep his anger hidden.
“I… I was g-going t-to c-confess m-my feelings t-to D-Dipper-kun,” Will managed to stutter out.
“Really?”
Bill scoffed, officially done with trying to spare his cousin’s
feelings. “And what makes you think he’ll accept them? To him, you’ve
been nothing but a weird, unreliable creep; which incidentally is how
the rest of the school sees you too.”
“W-what?” Will’s eyes widened in sad confusion. “Y-you… Why are y-you t-talking to m-me like that?”
“Because it’s true,” Bill smirked. “Why would he ever love you back after everything you’ve done to him?”
“Y-you…”
Will paused before his eyes lit up in realization. “You sabotaged me? …
I-I’ll tell him. I’ll t-tell him what y-you d-did.”
“And
why would he believe you? He barely knows who I am, while you’re the
creep who keeps harassing him. He’s never going to return your
feelings.” Bill’s face turned serious and he leaned closer to Will. “Let
me make this as clear as possible; Pine Tree-chan is mine. No one else
deserves him. Especially not you. And I was easy on you because we’re
family. I could have done so much worse than I did. So stay away from
Pine Tree-chan, and everything will be alright.”
Will
gazed upon Bill with a look of fear, but a few seconds after Bill
finished speech, his face transformed into a look of determination as he
slid the letter into Pine Tree-chan’s locker.
“I g-guess we’ll find o-out,” Will said before walking away.
Bill glared at him as he left, deciding it was time to hammer the final nail into the coffin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It
was somewhat difficult, but thanks to an old radio he stole from the
teacher’s lounge, he was able to lure Pine Tree-chan away long enough to
steal his book, and then use the same trick in order to lure Will away
from his bag long enough to plant the book inside said bag.
All
Bill had to do now was wait in the hallway, until he spotted a
worried-looking Pine Tree-chan, walking around with a searching gaze.
Bill walked up to a nearby student, made sure Pine Tree-chan was within hearing distance, and finalized his plan.
“Hey, my cousin told me something really weird today,” Bill told the student whose name he didn’t bother wanting to know.
“What was it?” the student asked curiously. It seemed Bill had been super lucky and gotten someone interested in gossip.
“You
know how he’s the leader of the occult club? Well, he said he found a
spell that can force a person to fall in love with you. You just need a
very personal object from the person you’re targeting.”
“God, that’s so creepy,” the student shook her head. “But it does fit his image.”
Bill could barely contain his laughter when he saw Pine Tree-chan run past him in direction of the occult club.
“What
was that?” Bill asked in false surprise as he followed Pine Tree-chan.
He arrived at the occult club just in time to see Pine Tree-chan
grabbing Will’s bag and emptying its content, much to Will’s protest.
And of course, out of Will’s bag fell Pine Tree-chan’s book.
“You
creep!” Dipper almost screeched to his embarrassment, but at the moment
he felt too mad and violated to care. “I never want you anywhere near
me again! If you try anything again, I will report you to the student
counselor for theft!”
Dipper turned around, not listening to the waterfall of stuttering excuses from Will.
Bill
stepped aside, allowing Pine Tree-chan to pass. The object of his
affection even seemed to give Bill a little grateful look.
Will stared at Bill in utter disbelief and hurt.
“Why…?” he gasped as tears started streaming down his face.
“I already told you,” Bill shrugged with a smile and left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dipper
had discovered the letter in his locker when he first arrived at school
that day. It had been addressed to him, but there hadn’t been anything
saying who it was from, only a small confession of love and a request to
meet the letter’s sender after school underneath the school’s sakura
tree.
He stood there and waited for almost an hour, but
nobody showed up. Dipper guessed it must have been a prank. He sighed
and couldn’t help but feel a little heartbroken, but he supposed it made
sense; why would someone fall in love with him?
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