A New Era

Chapter 1: A Nice Welcoming

"Are you excited, bro bro?" Mabel cheered, bounding down the stairs.

Dipper stayed silent.  He followed her to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water.  Glancing down at the table, he noticed his school ID card.  Dipper picked it up and stared at it for a moment, before shoving it into his pocket.

"What was that?" his twin questioned him.

"Nothing," he replied, almost too quickly.  She shrugged and started putting waffles in the toaster.

"Want one?"  She turned to him.  Dipper shook his head.  "Aw, c'mon man!  What's your problem?  It's our first day of 8th grade!  Aren't you at least a bit excited?"

Dipper sighed. "Why would I be? Everyone is just going to make fun of me like they always do, but this time, it'll be worse!"  He said, a bit too harshly.

"Geez, I was just trying to cheer you up.  You just seem a little dow-" she was interrupted by the honk of a car.  It was their parents outside, waiting to drive them to school.

"Mom and Dad are even driving us to school before they go to work!"  She quickly got her backpack and grabbed the waffles out of the toaster. "HOT HOT HOT!" she screeched.  Dipper chuckled.

He grabbed his back pack and headed out the door.  As soon as the sunlight hit his face, he covered it with his hood.  He didn't want the world to see him.

"Hurry up!" their dad called from the car.

Mabel was the first in the car and hopped in, then started choking on the waffle she took a bite on.  Dipper came up behind her and hit her back, making her spit out the waffle on the floor of the car.

"Dipper!  You saved my life!" She exclaimed with glee.

"Heh, sure.  Now could you pick that up? That's disgusting," he smiled at her.  She gave a toothy grin, picked it up and threw it out the window as if it were a cue to start driving.

"So, you got all your classes on paper?" their mother asked.  They both replied it a "yes" and kept answering their parents' questions with the same response.

At last, they arrived at the school, greeted by the many kids waiting outside.  Mabel was the first out of the car, the followed by Dipper, who was covering his face with his hood.  He felt like everyone was staring at him, and by the strange silence that followed as he walked past them, he knew everyone was staring at him.  Then he heard the whispers.

"Who's that?"  said one girl, probably the grade below him.

"I think that's that nerd from last year," replied another.

He tried blocking them out, but realized it was impossible.  Even if they knew Dipper could hear them, which they didn't, they would've kept muttering about him because nobody at Piedmont Middle School gave a damn about what wimpy, little Dipper thought, especially now.

"What happened to him?" someone else whispered loudly.

"I don't know," a guy said.  Dipper could tell the last voice was someone in his grade.

He sed up next to Mabel.  "Can we just wait inside?"  He said softly.  She winked at him and glanced behind their shoulders. She glared at the whisperers. They all stopped and gave each other nervous glances.

"So," Mabel said, trying to break the awkward silence in the empty hallway, "what do you have first hour?"

"Geometry," he answered back.

"Oh that's right, you're in 'advanced math,'" she used quotation fingers.

"Hey, I just really like math!" He defended. They chuckled and headed to their lockers. Mabel began putting her backpack in while Dipper just stood there. He was nervous about his peers, but excited for math class. He had a teacher who he's heard stories of: tough, strict, an overall asshole, a 'nobody passes this class with an A' kind of lady, etc.

"Just gonna take all your stuff to class, huh?" Mabel questioned, closing her locker.

"Well, I thought it'd be easier-" but he was interrupted by a bell and the flood of students rushing to get to their home rooms. Dipper just stayed calm and casually strolled to his first class, ignored by the rest of his classmates. He sat down in the back of the classroom and pulled out his journal and pencil, then leaned his head on his hand until the rest of the students poured into class.

The teacher's stuff was already on her desk, so the class waited for her to come in.

An elderly woman entered the room. She looked about 60 years old, scraggly grey hair, rounded glasses that rested atop her pointed nose, wrinkles that surrounded her eyes, and just an overall expression of hate among her students.

Oh great, Dipper thought. Though he shouldn't judge a teacher by his or her looks, he knew this one wouldn't be one for fun, especially Dipper's new circumstances.

She wrote her name on the board: Ms. Ile.

"Alright," she began, "I know it was a long, boring summer," Dipper smiled under his hood, "but now it's time to start school again. Nobody wants to be here, we all want to be smoking weed outside of a gas station, skateboarding or playing video systems," everyone exchanged glances of confusion, "but now it's time to get down to business."

She paused and looked around at the new faces. She then stopped at Dipper.

"Excuse me, young man?" He didn't look up. "I am talking to you!" She said, a bit annoyed.

He kept his face hidden in the shadows of his hood. She approached his desk and stood there with her hands on her thin waist.

"Young man?" She snapped.

He slightly looked up. "Remove your hood please," she demanded again.

Dipper firmly, without saying a word, pulled his hood back, revealing the scar on his forehead, the shape of a large eye with a slit for a pupil.

I hope you like chapter one of my story! I also hope the build up to the whole scar situation was well and properly set up. Thank you for reading! Btw, her last name is pronounced like "isle." Just if there's any confusion. I totally made up that nameXD!!!
Song: Everybody's Watching Me // The Neighbourhood