Some time later a girl is exploring the town, her mother busy catching up with a old friend or something.

She meets a guy in a hoodie. He waves.

Francine waves and skips over she wants to make new friends while in here.

"Hey. I love your hair."

"Thanks! Do you live here? I'm new to Gravity Falls!"

"...Yeah. I live here. It's an odd place, isn't it?"

"It is! Today alone a jar of eyeballs followed me around and a friend unearthed a book about unicorns after finding a metal tree!"

"Wow."
He fidgets, unsure of what to say.

"It was great! How about you?"

"Same as always."

"What kinds of things do you do for fun around here?"

"Mostly walking around. Sometimes spray painting, sometimes going to the forest."

Spray painting is bad but now she is curious. "What do you spray paint?"

"Uhhh. That giant muffin... on the... water tower..."

"That is actually pretty cute! How did you climb all the way up there? Why a muffin? How long it took to spray it?"

"There are stairs almost to the top. I forget why it was a muffin. It took maybe 10 minutes. Maybe less."

"Was it scary to climb all the way up? How long did it take to learn to spray paint?"

"Nah. Not scary at all. There isn't that much to learn: shake the can, aim at a wall, press the button, draw a picture."

"Isn't it harder to draw something that big? I'm terrible at drawing."

"For some people it does, for some it doesn't. I find it easier. Want to go take a closer look?"

"Sure! I would have to tell my mom first. What's your name? I'm Francine Whitecreek!"

"Normal Man- Um, I mean Norman Mann. Blah! Can't talk today! ...Oh, wait, I almost forgot, I need to go do something, like, right now, so, see you later!"
He quickly runs off, not stopping or looking back.

"Bye, Norman!" Francine says.

Francine does more wandering around. Eventually she messages Zane. She wants to meet.

Zane needs to finish this one thing at the Mystery Shack and then he can meet her somewhere next to it.

Outside the Mystery Shack is good enough.

Almost done... Yep, done. "Hi Francine!"

"Hi Zane! What have you been up to?"

"Sorting the new merchandise. How about you?"

"Great, met a teenager called Norman, but forgot to exchange contacts."

"Well, Gravity Falls is pretty small, I'm sure you'll meet him again at some point."

"It is so weird coming to a place like this! I bet we can find him by just asking for 'Norman'. Hey, do you still have that book?"

"Yeah. ...I found a bunch of diagrams with runes and the things written under them are apparently in different languages. I tried translating. Didn't get very far, but I now know it uses German and maybe something else, too. There were also some chunks of gibberish among the creature pages, that, after I did some stuff to them, were revealed to be cryptograms."

"God, that is so cool. Anyway idea where the thing came from?"

"It's written by an 'Author' who lived here, in Gravity Falls. He or she doesn't refer to themself by name, though."

"Well, someone took a lot of effort to put it in the ground."

"Maybe the author was the one who hid it, you never know."

"Maybe, I am curious why they went to all that trouble with the tree and didn't bother to put a lock anywhere."

He shrugs.

Attempt one failed, but that doesn't mean they're going to give up.

He walks, looking around.

There is a blond girl walking around like she owns the place, which isn't all that far from the truth.

He comes up to her.
"Your earrings are pretty, and I love your hair," he says.

Pacifica looks him up and down, in a second a plan forms. Lets play the game of "pretend to be friends with the loser".

"Thank you, I like your..." gosh what she can pick that isn't out of a thrifst store? "hands."

He doesn't notice anything off. "Thanks. Would you like accompaniment wherever you're going, miss?"

Oh, wait. She can't take him anywhere she would go.

"Actually, I was curious about where you usually hang out."

She can go there laugh at the poor.