I hated karaoke. I never told anyone but it made me really uncomfortable when I had to sing or act in front of an audience. My voice was not that bad, I mean, I was no Beyonce, but at least it sounded endurable. But the mere thought of having to sing in front of a crowd made my knees turn into pudding and my head spin.

Bill of course didn't care. When he invited me and the twins to join the karaoke party tonight Mabel screamed out of joy. Dipper rolled his eyes but said he would come, even though nothing in this world would make him sing. Nobody minded that which left just me. I wanted to say the same Dipper said, but I knew, if I showed up at the event Bill would eventually get me to sing – be it by telling Mabel he wanted to sing a duet with me, what would cause her to ignore all my objections and drag me to the microphone, or another way. As I already said, he always got what he wanted.

Luckily Mabel didn't wait for my response but ran off to tell the grunckles we would probably be late tonight, what gave me the opportunity to leave unnoticed.

I tried to avoid my friends this afternoon and luckily that didn't turn out very hard since Dipper took part in a card game tournament and everyone was there to cheer for him. I spent the day in the ship's library that we discovered on our little tour.

But then it turned seven, the time the party was supposed to start and the library closed. I had nowhere to hide anymore. Mabel found me at last and told me to pick out a nice dress. That's when I had to take action.

I really hated to lie to my friends but sometimes it was necessary. I told them my stomach hurt and that I'd rather go to bed early instead of the party. Mabel was disappointed but she understood that. Dipper even offered to stay with me as well, what made me panic for a moment, since my stomach was perfectly fine. I needed to even get Mabel's help but in the end, we convinced him to rather go and not worry about me since I wanted to sleep and he wouldn't really help by staying here.

When the two of them finally left, I couldn't describe how relieved I was. I quickly thought of how to spend my evening and then noticed the party was inside at the main hall of the ship, which meant the pool was empty. It was already dark and the pool lights were on. Nobody was there and I decided to hop in for a moment.

Swimming in an empty pool while it was dark outside was absolutely gorgeous. The underwater lights made me feel as if this pool was something very special and I was an important person.

It was beautiful to not have to worry about Bill for once since I knew he was at the party. I swam a few lengths and savoured these calm moments for there were very few of them in my life. But apparently, I had rejoiced too early.

"I see, Moonstone, you're not sick at all. Just what I suspected~"

I almost had a heart attack and sank into the water for a moment before I came up again. "B-Bill? What the heck are you doing here? Aren't you at the party?"

I turned red out of embarrassment for he had caught me lying.

"Oh..." He casually slipped into the pool beside me and I noticed he was still wearing only his boxer shorts. "The party was boring without you. Shooting Star may look quite nice but she's a terrible singer and she sang three songs from the 80s in a row. Even Pine Tree needed to secretly put his headphones on in order to endure that." Bill laughed. "Or should I call him >Palm Tree< now? Since he's got that new hat..."

That again made me laugh. "You can do whatever you want, Bill. Who am I to tell you what to do?"

He suddenly looked serious. "You're right for once, Moonstone." Then he let out another sigh. "It's great to be visible for once, and your human activities can be entertaining, at least for a while..."

"Oh well, I am glad you're enjoying yourself..." I let myself sink into the water until it covered my mouth. I closed my eyes.

"Hey sweetie~" I opened my eyes and shrieked. He was only about two centimetres away from me and I stared right into his bright golden eye. When I tried to cry out water entered my mouth and I coughed. Much to Bill's amusement.

"What do you want..." I asked, pretty pissed at him.

"Well, how do we handle this?"

"I have no clue what you mean."

"Oh come on, you lied to your friends, I found out... What do you offer me in order for me to keep quiet about your bad deed?"

I opened my mouth, surprised. "Y... you will give this secret away if I won't give you anything?"

He laughed. "Why of course, why should I keep quiet?"

"Jerkface..." I muttered, while struggling to think of something to offer him. "What do you want?" I finally asked when I couldn't think of anything.

"Hmm..." he pondered. Then he moved closer. I could feel his warm breathing upon my skin and I suddenly realized that we were both almost naked and only a few centimetres away from each other. My cheeks went red and I tried to not look at him.

He extended his hand. "I already asked for this once, but you refused. I still don't know why though..."

"What do you..."

"Your necklace." He touched it slightly.

I instantly moved away. "No! You know I won't give it to you!"

Bill frowned. "But why? I mean, it's just a necklace with a moonstone on it... What's so special about it?"

"Ford gave it to me. He told me to never give it away." I touched the moonstone pendant. This necklace was something very special to me and the reason why Bill called me >Moonstone<. I had received it from Ford at the end of our first summer in Gravity Falls. He told me it was very special and that I should always wear it and never give it away. Bill seemed to be quite interested in it for he already demanded it once as part of a deal, but I had refused just like I refused it to him now.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, Six Fingers probably didn't know what he was talking about. Besides..." He approached me again. "You don't have anything else to offer me."

In shock, I realized he was right. I really hoped Ford meant that seriously and that it was worth my following decision.

"I know." I said. "I don't have anything."