Dipper and Mabel spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon at the library, flipping through dictionaries and code books and the Journal and typing in whatever they could find. Dipper made a herculean effort to stay focused, but it wasn't long before he wanted to jump out of his chair, shove everything to the floor, and cartwheel out onto the street. He figured he should get a medal for sitting this still for so long.

Finally, Dipper's stomach growled almost louder than the BZZT sound, and he decided that enough was enough.

"C'mon, Mabes," he pleaded. "We gotta get some food. We can come back tomorrow."

She blinked at him. "But there's so much of the day left."

"If we do it all day today, we won't have any energy for it tomorrow," Dipper pointed out.

"You might not," Mabel muttered.

Dipper stared her down. "Mabel. Come on."

She sighed. "Fine." She closed the laptop. "We'll go get some food. But we have to find somewhere to hide the laptop from Melody, somewhere secure. We can't leave it here."

"I don't get why we have to hide it from her," Dipper said as he gathered up the books they'd found. He didn't want to hide things — especially from someone as caring as Melody.

"We might not have to, but I don't want to take any chances."

They grabbed everything off the table and went to go put the library books away. "Okay, fine," Dipper said, sliding one of the dictionaries back into its slot. "I'll go into the Museum first and make sure the coast is clear, and we'll take the laptop and Journal up to our room. Unless Ford is feeling better," he added. "Then we'll give them back to him."

"Right. Thanks."

The twins finished putting the books away. They were headed for the door when Dipper saw her.

The girl stood at an angle, so she could only see half her face. Her eyes, which glinted green in the sunlight that drifted in through the high windows, were focused on the poster she was hanging on the library bulletin board. Her tongue protruded out a little from her small lips, and a pencil stuck out from behind her ear, brushing against a cream-colored cloth hat perched on her head. Her long hair framed her face in black, but became lighter and lighter as it trailed down her back, until it was a bright blonde.

She was adorable.

"Dipper?"

Dipper realized he had stopped walking. Mabel was at the library door, her hand on the knob.

"Look at her," he said.

Mabel rolled her eyes, walked over to him, and looked at the girl. "Great. She's beautiful. Let's go."

Dipper didn't exactly think that was fair — hadn't he spent most of the day helping Mabel with what she wanted to do? And now he couldn't even stop to look at a pretty girl?

"I'm going to go talk to her," Dipper said, partly out of a sense of injustice.

"Dipper," Mabel whined.

"Look!" Dipper pointed. "Look at her poster!"

The poster was mostly black with neon green highlights and blue-white smoke that spelled out The Spectre of the Theatre.

"We have a friend in that show," Dipper said. "It's a perfect conversation starter! C'mon."

"Wait, Dip — what about Amanda?"

It was a desperate ploy to stop him, and Dipper knew it. "Oh, come on. I can talk to whoever I want. Amanda and I are just friends."

"Friends with benefits," Mabel muttered. Dipper pretended not to hear her and started towards the ombre-haired girl.

"Hi there!" he called. The girl turned and looked around in surprise, and Dipper noticed that her lilac shirt said "Carrying the Banner" in blocky white letters. Her eyes met Dipper's, and the realization that he was talking to her dawned in her eyes.

"Hi!" he said again. "I'm Dipper. Those are some cool posters."

She smiled. "Oh, thanks. I didn't make them. I'm just putting them up. My name's Abigail."

"Hi, Abigail. Can I call you Abby?" Nickname basis was always good to establish early.

"Gabby is my nickname," she said. "Is. . . Dipper. . . ?"

"A nickname? Yep! I get it from my birthmark, do you wanna see?"

"Sure."

He lifted his bangs and grinned at her. "Pretty cool, huh? It's like I have some magical destiny."

She laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty cool." She waited a beat before gesturing up to the poster. "The Gravity Rises Theatre Group is putting on The Spectre of the Theatre. It opens in a couple weeks. You should come."

"Absolutely," Dipper said. "We're friends with the sound guy, actually. Robbie Corduroy, do you know him?"

"Oh, yeah. I met him just last night. He seems like a nice guy."

"Yeah, he's cool."

Dipper glanced at Mabel, who was shuffling closer to them, in his periphery. "Oh, hey, this is my twin sister Mabel."

"Hi," Gabby and Mabel said at the same time. Mabel bit her lip, but Gabby just laughed. She had a nice, soft laugh. Dipper liked it.

"It's nice to meet you guys," Gabby said. "I've gotta go hang up more posters around town."

"I can help!" Dipper offered.

"Dipper," Mabel hissed. Dipper turned to her, but she didn't continue, just looked between him and Gabby.

"Just a minute," Dipper said, smiling at Abigail before following Mabel around a nearby bookshelf.

"I thought you were starving," Mabel said once they were alone.

"Well, yeah, but. . . this is an opportunity to make a new friend."

"Don't you have enough friends?"

Dipper frowned. "Well, I definitely don't have too many. Anyway, you don't have to come. I'll just meet you back home."

"What about checking if the coast is clear?"

"Oh." Dipper had forgotten about that. "Um. . ."

"Can we please just go home?"

"Mabel," Dipper said, "I was here all morning with you. Can't you spend some time being with me?"

"But I won't be with you, because you're going to be with Abigail."

He looked at her firmly. "I'm going to go help Abigail hang up her posters. You're welcome to tag along, though. And when we're done, I'll help you smuggle in the laptop."

"Dipper," she whined. But he stared her down until she sighed and dropped his gaze. "Fine. I'll come along. Since you did help me and all."

Dipper smiled. "Great!" He almost thanked her, but stopped himself. It's not like he was asking permission.

He went around the bookshelf and back to Gabby. "We're coming with you! If you want us to."

"Of course!" Gabby said with a smile. "Extra hands would be great."

Dipper held out his empty hands and grinned back at her.

Gabby handed him the posters, and they headed out of the library, Dipper and Gabby walking together and Mabel trailing behind, still holding the laptop and the Journal close to her chest as if Gabby might steal them. Dipper decided that he would keep an eye on his sister but otherwise try not to worry about her. After all, he was making a new friend over here.

"So, what does your t-shirt mean?" Dipper asked when they were on the library stairs.

Gabby's eyes lit up, and Dipper smiled inwardly. Always ask about someone's graphic t-shirt.

"Well," Gabby began, "there's this amazing musical. . ."

They ambled down the street. Dipper kicked up snow and smiled sideways at Gabby as she talked animatedly about this musical that she loved. Apparently boys who could dance and sing at the same time were considered attractive. Dipper took note of this and idly wondered if Mabel would judge him if he started taking dancing lessons.

"And my hat is part of it, too," Gabby was saying, reaching up to touch her felt cap. "They all wear hats this style."

Dipper loved how she talked with her hands, gesturing with them and rubbing them together and flinging them out. And the musical she was talking about sounded great too.

Before long, they reached the town notice board, a snow-strewn cork board that stood in the tiny town square, surrounded by a few drooping bushes that probably looked prettier in the summer and a statue of some kind of robed saint. The bulletin board bore a few posters and papers that flapped in the wind, including a Missing notice for one of Lazy Susan's cats and a poster with a picture of Robbie Corduroy and Wendy Valentino that advertised a concert for July 2012 — six months ago.

"Okay, I think we'll hang two or three up here. Can I have a poster?"

Dipper handed her one, and she pulled a box of push pins out of her pocket.

"So, who do you play in the musical?" Dipper asked as Gabby hung up the poster.

"My character's called Meg," Gabby said around a pin she had stuck in her mouth. "She's the best friend of the main character. Do you know much about the play?"

"Not really. Just that it has ghosts. But Mabel knows some stuff about it."

Mabel, who was a few feet away, looked up warily at the sound of her name. "Um, yeah. I know a little bit."

"Well, I'd tell you more, but I don't want to spoil it." Gabby took another poster from Dipper. She braced the poster onto the bulletin board with her hand, pulled out a pin. . . and then paused.

"You know. . ." She looked over at Dipper. "We're short on techies."

"Techies?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah." She started putting pins in the corners of the poster. "They're people who do backstage stuff, like lights and sound and getting actors ready. We need spotlighters, and it's already tech week. You said you know Robbie, right?"

"Right."

"Maybe. . . maybe do you two want to come spotlight?"

"Sure!" Dipper said.

"No thanks," Mabel said at the same time.

"We'd love to," said Dipper, ignoring her. "I mean, I would love to."

"We're really busy this week," said Mabel, giving Dipper a pointed stare.

"We could make do with just one spotlighter, I think," Gabby said. "You guys can talk about it, but if you decide to do it, come over to the theater at seven tonight. Will that work?"

"Totally," said Dipper. "I'll be there."

Mabel's stare turned to a glare.

"Probably," Dipper added. "Anywhere else you need to hang posters?"

"Dipper," Mabel said in his ear, "I'm starving. Can we go now?"

Gabby heard her. "You guys can go, if you need food."

"No, we're fine," Dipper said.

His stomach growled.

Gabby laughed. "Really, go get food." She took the rest of the posters from him. "Thanks for your help. I'll see you tonight? Maybe?"

"Hopefully!"

Dipper grinned and waved Gabby off as she turned and headed towards the Town Hall. As soon as she was out of sight, he turned and frowned at Mabel. "That was rude."

"I'm hungry."

He wanted to snap at her that it didn't matter, but he figured they were both grumpy from the hunger. He sighed. "Fine. Let's just go back to the Museum."

The twins trudged back the way they came in silence. Dipper looked around at the snow and ice and building and not Mabel. She always got irritable when she was interrupted on projects like this, and he doubted she'd agree to help Gabby out even without the laptop taking up her attention. But she didn't have to be so rude about it. Right in front of Gabby, too!

It was a good thing Gabby was so nice. He already couldn't wait to see her again.

He glanced at Mabel.

She wouldn't like this. He looked up to see the Mystery Museum poking out from the trees. They were almost home. He'd better just say it now.

"I'm going to take the spotlighting job," he said.

It took her a full four seconds before she responded. She blinked, as if surprised to hear his voice. "Oh, um — what?"

"I'm going to help out at the theater and do the spotlighting thing."

This time it got through. "Dipper, no way! We have to focus on the laptop right now!"

"Mabel, we can't just drop everything to work on the laptop, we'll run ourselves to the ground."

"You're just like Melody."

"Maybe Melody's right!"

Mabel stopped and whirled on him. "What's more important, huh? Saving Stanley or going off to play with your new crush?"

The words stung.

"Do you think I don't care about Stanley?" Dipper said softly.

Mabel paused. "I don't know. Do you?"

"Of course I do!" Dipper exploded. "Of course I care about Stanley! But I also know that I can't just sit around all day looking at books and codes and passwords. I need to get out and do things, Mabel! Things with other people! I'm sorry I can't just survive as a hermit like you and Ford, I'm sorry I have things as dumb as crushes, but I can't just — I need this! I've been following you around all winter and doing mystery stuff for you. Can't I do something for me for once?"

Mabel stared at him. He took huge breaths and stared back.

"Fine," she said. "Do whatever you want. But I'm going to do something important."

They had reached the front porch of the Museum. Mabel turned and stomped inside.

Dipper watched her go and almost called after her. Wait, he almost said, what if Melody sees the laptop? But he stopped himself. Let Melody catch her. Let Melody take it away. They'd only been working on it for half a day and she was already obsessive.

He sat down on the front porch steps, ignoring the hunger gnawing at him. He didn't want to follow Mabel inside yet.

Maybe she was right. Maybe what he wanted wasn't important. But it sure felt important to him. Why couldn't she see that?

Maybe he should just forget about —

No.

No, he was going to do it. He was going to go help out with The Spectre of the Theatre. Mabel couldn't see just how much he'd done for her this winter. He was taking some time for himself. He was going to make friends with Gabby and the other actors and spend some time with Robbie and not do mystery things with Mabel.

He looked out across the snow-covered lawn and sighed. "I need my own time," he said to himself.

"The Mystery Twins are on break."