The Twins

Bill carefully pried his arm out of Blondie's grasp and shifted towards the twins. He felt very awkward and didn't really know what to say. Blondie seemed rather shocked and insulted they had been chosen over her. She snapped her mouth shut and narrowed her eyes towards Pine Tree and Shooting Star.

"Don't be mad, Paz." Shooting Star said softly.

"I called dibs." She stated stubbornly, "And don't call me that."

Shooting Star looked hurt and turned her gaze to the ground. "You can't call dibs on a person." Pine Tree said and he seemed a bit cocky. There he was. There was the Pine Tree Bill knew.

"Whatever." Blondie responded venomously, "I'll let you have him for now. You'll be coming to the party anyway, won't you Bill?"

"Uh, sure." Bill said.

"Good." Blondie smirked and she stepped towards him, "I'll see you there."

She then leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek, making sure Bill goth another good look down her shirt. Bill stiffened. Blondie pulled away almost as quickly. She gave him a wink before sneering at the twins and stalking off in direction of the cafeteria. The twins seemed annoyed for some reason, Pine Tree more so than his sister. Bill didn't understand why. Kissing was a good thing, wasn't it? A lot of the people on TV seemed happy when they were kissed. Then again, the demon remembered instances where trouble came from the supposedly intimate contact. He didn't really understand what was so special about it. It was just putting your mouth against something, uttering a "mwah" sound and pulling away – or, in other cases, it involved practically eating someone else's face.

"Are you okay with that?" Pine Tree asked, concerned.

"Um…I guess." Bill responded. He was mostly indifferent to it. He hadn't been expecting it but he didn't care.

"I'm asking because…" He stopped himself and looked at his sister who gave him a strange look, "You know…?"

I do…? Bill wondered.

Did he mean the anxiety thing? Was it secret or something? Did people who suffer from this senseless affliction hide the fact and cower at the prospect of being kissed? He should really research the thing once he got back to Timothy's mansion if he was to be convincing.

"Oh, I mean, yeah." Bill shrugged off. He opted to play it off like it was nothing.

"I-I mean, I was only because…" Pine Tree reiterated and he seemed flustered, "Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed—"

"What are you going on about?" Shooting Star asked with a hint of exasperation.

Bill very much sought the same answers. Sometimes Pine Tree was a most peculiar meat sack.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." He continued. "Let's just…let's just show Bill around."

"That sounds like fun." Shooting Star beamed, then she turned to Bill, "Let's see that schedule of yours!" Bill took out the piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over without think. Shooting Star looked it over curiously and her eyes widened in interest. "Hun, isn't this your exact schedule, Dipper?"

Pine Tree peaked over and skimmed through the classes. "Yeah, actually."

He should have thought having all the same classes was suspicious. Bill mentally punched Timothy in the face twice. "Haha, wow." The demon said awkwardly, "What a coincidence. Guess it was a better idea to stick with you."

"I'll say!" Shooting Star laughed but then she glanced towards the path Blondie had taken to leave. "I feel bad though. I mean, she seemed pretty upset."

"She's just mad she didn't get her way." Pine Tree sighed, "This is the first time princess doesn't get what she wants."

"Dipper!" Shooting Star chastised, "That's mean!"

"It's true." Pine Tree countered.

"Doesn't mean you have to be a dick about it." Shooting Star stated.

"Whoa." Bill said. He didn't think Shooting Star was physically capable of uttering a swear. He always thought she would combust if she did.

"Sorry." She apologised almost immediately.

"Better us than her though, right?" Pine Tree continued, "I mean, you get to—"

But he didn't finish. Shooting Star kicked him in the shin, promptly interrupting him and causing Pine Tree to double over in pain. He groaned and moaned quietly as he clutched the sore part of his leg. Bill **** himself not to smile. It was just so great seeing Pine Tree in pain. Gosh, he would really never tire of it. Regardless, he still wanted to know what the kid had been about to say.

"You get to what?" Bill asked, turning towards Shooting Star.

"Nothing." Shooting Star insisted stiffly and Bill noticed how her cheeks were rosier than before.

"Okay…"

"Let's just show you around." Shooting Star said. She wrapped her arm around Bill's and then Pine Tree's before leading the way down the hall.

Shooting Star spoke energetically the whole time. She pointed out each class and explained what they were usually for and what senior class was held within the local. Bill also learned the exact placement of Sixer's office and checked it mentally. Knowing where he could find him could potentially be useful. Obviously, the demon wasn't going to utilise him just yet. He needed to get better at this whole 'human' thing. One small mistake and Sixer could unravel his identity.

In this high school, there were two places where Bill could eat. It was either the cafeteria or the atrium. Most senior ate at neither place, opting to go out during lunch to the nearby restaurants and fast foods or to just eat in some random classroom. What stumped Bill was that the social groups he had seen on the TV were absent. When they walked through the populated eating areas, he couldn't distinguish the Goths, the nerds, and the preps. They all seemed to just blend together. It was the strangest thing and it worried him. How was he supposed to insert himself into the proper group if he couldn't tell them apart? Perhaps he should have stayed with Blondie…

Shooting Star and Pine Tree guided him to the atrium. The area was bigger and had far many more tables than the cafeteria could fit. They stood for a moment, both twins scanning the sea of people sitting and eating until their eyes fell upon them. Their friends. Glasses and that Monster were sitting on the other side of the room and were waving them over. Bill reluctantly followed the two to their table when something dawned on Shooting Star.

"Oh hey," She said and glanced at her brother, "We forgot our lunches. I'll go get them."

"Sure." Pine Tree shrugged and watched her leave. Then he turned to Bill and suddenly realised he lacked a lunch as well. "Did you forget yours in your locker too?"

"No." Bill admitted, "I didn't bring one."

He didn't expect to be at the high school for so long. Honestly, he had thought it was a thing one attended for a few hours before leaving – not the whole day. Regardless, he wasn't a fan of food. The textures were strange, the flavours bland, and the smell was terrible more times than not. However, Timothy required food to sustain his body. His stomach made weird gurgling sounds, which Pine Tree clearly heard because it brought a smile to his face.

"I'll share my lunch with you." He said.

"Hey, Dipper!" The Monster bellowed from the table at which she sat, "Are you going to stand there all lunch? Get over here!"

Bill stiffened. God, he didn't want to get anywhere near her. Not after what had happened all those years ago…in that closet. He shuddered.

"They're nice people." Pine Tree whispered to him as they sat at the table. "You don't need to worry about them but, if they do anything to make you uncomfortable, just nudge me, okay?"

Bill nodded.

"Is this the new student everyone has been talking about?" Glasses asked. She gave Bill a shy smile.

"Hubba, hubba, he's hotter than the rumours let on!" The Monster exclaimed shamelessly, "You girls are all lucky I'm in a relationship with an Austrian prince otherwise I would be all over that nice piece of man!"

"Okay…calm down, Grenda." Pine Tree said with a nervous laugh.

Bill wondered why Pine Tree was so nice to him. Obviously, the kid didn't know who he actually was and he was generally kind, but he seemed…different. Bill had never seen him so attentive and mindful to others before. Did it have something to do with 'anxiety' or was it just because Timothy was, supposedly, hot? The TV did inform that physically attractive people were viewed as more important than those who weren't. Speaking of…

"Hey, you never answered my question." Bill stated. Pine Tree gave him a confused expression, "Do you think I'm hot?"

Pine Tree's face flushed red as did Glasses's. The Monster simply snorted out a laugh. He didn't really understand what was so funny. It was an honest question. Not to mention the whole world seemed comfortable talking about Timothy's hotness in front of Bill, so why did things change when he asked Pine Tree? And why did his face go red? What did that even mean? Was he angry? Bill's form used to become red when he was angry…but that was when he was a triangle.

Gosh, he missed his top hat.

"Uh…well, I mean…" Pine Tree stuttered stupidly, "Does it matter?"

"Yes." Bill stated and he noticed how the two other girls got very still all of a sudden. He didn't understand why. It was just a question. "You seem truthful."

"So are the others…" Pine Tree insisted.

Bill frowned. Had his suspicions been correct? Was Timothy actually ugly? Had everyone else been mocking him by calling him hot? He would burn them to ashes if they did. How dare they show such impoliteness to their future God! Teenagers were truly the worst.

"And I'm back!" Shooting Star declared loudly and slammed two lunch boxes in front of Pine Tree. She sidled her way to Pine Tree's other side and sat down. "How much time do we have left?"

"About thirty minutes." Glasses answered, glancing at her wrist watch. "What took you so long before?"

"We were showing Bill around." Shooting Star grinned and leaned over to flash him a smile.

Bill found he quite liked the grins she managed to muster. Perhaps he could have her teach him somehow.

"Did Dipper introduce you to everyone?" She then asked and Bill shook his head, "Well, this is Grenda and that's Candy. They're our friends."

Bill **** himself to smile to the best of his ability. He tried to emanate what he liked about Shooting Star's smile but wasn't sure he was succeeding. "Hi." He said and everyone's faces went red. He really needed to figure out what that meant.

Lunch passed by quickly. Pine Tree gave him half of his disgusting sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly? Together? Sacrilegious. Shooting Star also gave him her bag of crackers which were repulsively salty. That being said, he ate what little food was given to him with a **** smile. He wasn't about to admit how nasty he found everything. According to the TV, that would be rude.

Once lunch ended, Bill followed Pine Tree to their next class. Apparently, a teacher couldn't be bothered to teach the computer programming class and so students had to teach themselves. This was called an "online course". On the bright side, it was the simplest class so far. He had helped Sixer build the plans for a trans-dimensional portal. When Pine Tree explained they had free range on the progress they decided to make every day though had to have finished a certain amount of work by a fixed date, Bill cracked his knuckles and got down to business. He would give Timothy one thing – aside from his **** wealth – his five fingers per hand were damn convenient for typing. By the time the period finished, Bill had completed half of the workload for the entire class.

"I take it you're a computer geek." Pine Tree chuckled.

Bill's blood froze. Geek. A dreaded word situating him in one of the lowest teenage social groups. It was debatably the lowest depending how one perceived the nerds. He had been so silly to think he could get away with being his usual impossibly smart self in a classroom he basically only shared with Pine Tree. He had to make him keep quiet otherwise it would make high school life tougher than it already was.

"Don't tell anyone." Bill said, glaring at the ground.

"Oh…okay." Pine Tree agreed and the former was surprised it had been so easy. "Don't worry about it. I'll keep it to myself."

Great. Now he was indebted to Pine Tree.

The last class of the day was cooking class. The dumbest class in the world, in Bill's opinion. What was the point in learning how to cook when food was so disgusting? He understood it was necessary for human's survival, but it was still stupid considering the food delivery system existed. A part of him wished he had decided to take a different course for the last period. The class was just next to the school's main entrance. It was one of the biggest rooms in the whole establishment, according to Shooting Star and Pine Tree. Speaking of, they found Shooting Star seated at one of the cooking stations by the window. She had the Monster with her and Bill sighed inwardly. Naturally, they were waved over.

"Last class of the day!" She cheered.

"I know. I'm so happy." Pine Tree breathed.

"I'm really looking forward to this class." The Monster said, "Everyone keeps saying how great Miss Strange is."

"I know!" Shooting Star cooed, "Apparently she talks about his boyfriend a lot too, which is adorable."

"I just want to make stuff." Pine Tree stated, "The only reason I took this class was to have a class with Mabel and make pastries."

"You'll get fat." The Monster warned.

Bill listened to them chat quietly. They seemed so comfortable amongst themselves. He glanced around the room and found how other students chatted easily with each other as well. He felt a bit left out and wondered if he should try joining in. The demon decided not to. He hadn't gotten the hang of this whole 'being human' thing and, as he continuously had to remind himself, he had to keep his words short. He could attempt more daring conversations when he had managed to make sense of the theory behind teenage speech and overall meat sack communication.

"Oh, Bill," Pine Tree said and snapped Bill out of his thoughts, "I…I was thinking we should get together soon to work on our bio project."

"Sure." He said nonchalantly.

"Do you want to meet up this weekend?" He asked.

"I can't." Bill said and pulled out the flyer Blondie had given him. "I'm going to this thing."

He placed the flyer on the table and Shooting Star took it. "Right, Paz is throwing another party." She mumbled.

"Except this one is just for seniors." The Monster noted. "Do you reckon we should go too?"

"Sure." Shooting Star shrugged, "Paz is always hilarious when she's drunk anyways."

"She does get very…affectionate." The Monster conceded. "But I'll go if you go."

"Awesome!" She exclaimed with a grin, "Dip?"

Pine Tree seemed hesitant.