Usually Nicole Waterson would not allow phones at the table when having evening family dinners, but in this case she made an exception because she was holding her son, Gumball's phone seeing group photos and selfies of his brother, Darwin and all their school friends. Nicole was scrolling through one photo after another whilst the boys were talking about their day with their dad and Anais was looking down at her spaghetti.
Nicole was smiling down at one photo and video after another.
One was Tobias and Gumball high fiving in the school halls… and then Gumball being slapped in the butt.
Gumball laughing with Penny, and Darwin laughing with Carrie on video. Nicole could tell because Darwin was talking to nothing visible.
Molly telling an 'interesting' story to the whole class whom were trying not to fall a sleep and Darwin giving off the hugest fake smile Nicole ever saw since she meddled their lives at their school.
A video of Banana Joe and Sussie showing off a trick to Darwin and Alan laughing whilst Gumball filming it.
Then more videos and photos of Gumball, Darwin, Joe, Tobias, Molly, and the rest of their class. Gumball reading a comic with Sarah, Darwin given a hand sanitiser by Teri, Masami and Gumball reading a girl's glamour magazine and then immediately getting caught by Darwin, constant interactions of students having a great quirky time together captured by either the boys or whichever companion was holding Gumball's phone.
Nicole's heart grew larger for each photo she saw. She was happy for both her sons' happiness.
The last photo she scrolled to was a group photo of everyone of the boy's school friends in front of an arcade place. This time Darwin was holding a drawing he made of Carrie so she could be in the picture for once.
"Wow, you boys had tons of fun. Maybe I should visit your school one day and have a good time, too?"
"Please, mom. Never again." Gumball said, shuddering at the memory, "anyways when we all hit the arcade, Bobert sort of fell in love with one of the machines. Oh Gosh! It was so hilarious! So yeah I guess they're dating right now."
"So you guys all went the arcade afterwards?" Richard asked after finishing his spaghetti.
"We went to the arcade with everyone after school!" Darwin said, "all of our friends! Penny, Carrie, Banana Joe, Tobias, Tina Rex, Alan, Carmen, Sussie, Leslie, Sarah, Idaho, Anton, Molly, Teri, Bobert…"
"So the whole class?" Richard asked.
"Well everyone we hang out with at school, that definitely does not include Jamie. Since she's a bully." Gumball said.
"Well maybe you could have invited her, then she'd feel accepted and stop being a bully..." Nicole said.
"She'd probably ruin everyone's day." Gumball explained.
"But we're probably going to get an hour lecture from the coach about not including people when we get back from spring break. Especially since she's her daughter." Darwin glumly muttered. Nicole decided to lighten up the mood again.
"Hey! Was Masami there too?" she asked excitedly.
"Oh yeah she was there too!" Gumball answered, "she literally stormed off when she was having trouble capturing a fluffy toy from the claw machine. Note to self - always bring an umbrella when hanging out with Masami."
"That reminds me, we're going to the movies with her next month. It's a chick flick by the way." Darwin said.
"Was it a red dragon toy she wanted?" Nicole asked.
"Yeah! How did you know?"
"Her father's my boss at the Rainbow factory remember? Plus I was out lunch with Yuki and she told me her daughter had this obsession with this dragon toy she wanted when she was a child. Oh, bless! Tell her I said hi when you see her."
"We will Mrs. Mom!" Darwin said with delight, "Then we ran out of quarters so Tobias gave us more." said Darwin
"His father owns the place since he's rich." Gumball said.
"How thoughtful of him!"
"After that we all headed to Tobias's place, partied and played video games!" Gumball sighed with joy, "It was the best night ever."
"Is it because of the video games and the party we had, Gumball?"
"Well yeah but also it was whole lot fun doing it all with our school friends. We rarely hang out outside of school and it was a such a blast. I think we should do it more often!"
"Me too!"
"So, Anais. How was your day today?" Nicole asked as the whole family was turning her attention towards the little girl bunny staring down at her spaghetti. She looked up at all of them and hesitated for a while. Despite her zoning out, she remembered all of them had interesting anecdotes of their activities with their social groups. Her father out shopping with his 'old lady friends', Nicole having lunch with Yuki and of course Gumball and Darwin talking about their huge amount of school friends. So what did she have to share? Anais hesitated nervously as if she were in a quiz.
"I got an A+ on an exam. Highest in the class."
"That's great, honey!" Nicole beamed, "did you celebrate with your classmates?"
"Of course the four year old pompous know-it-all gets the highest. What a surprise."
Anais remembered all those things her classmates said about her when she was eavesdropping. But she did not want to spoil the happy vibes of the evening.
"Nah, I'm used to getting perfect grades." Anais laughed nervously as if it was nothing then looked down at her meal.
"What about Josh?" Darwin asked.
"Josh?" Anais looked up.
"You know, the frog worshipper?" Gumball giggled with his mouth covered, which annoyed Anais. Nicole and Richard looked at each other confused.
"I… don't hang around with him since he's a weirdo and..."
Anais stared down at her food once again to avoid the conversation. The atmosphere just went quiet and awkward except for Gumball as he simply shrugged and went back to his meal whilst texting his friends. Anais wanted to slap herself. 'What have I done?' she thought, 'I just ruined the vibe.'
"Okay, Gumball," Nicole said sternly, "No texting at the table."
The family started clearing up the table. Gumball and Darwin emptied their plates and headed to the living room. Anais helped with a couple of other plates and cutlery. As she entered the kitchen and approached the counter she could not reach it, luckily Nicole came to her aid. "Thank you, honey. I'll take care of it." Nicole took the pile of plates and cutleries, placed them on the counter, and put her hand on Anais's head. Anais sighed in defeat and looked down. Nicole noticed her daughter was unhappy.
"Anais, are you alright?" Nicole bent down to console her daughter. Not that Anais wanted her to know she needed it.
"Yeah, I'm fine, mom. Just a long day that's all."
"I'll tell you what, why don't we all play a board game as a family? That will cheer you up!"
"It's not Dodge or Dare is it?"
"Please don't mention that game ever again," Nicole shuddered then she went over to her hand bag on the counter and pulled a rectangular cardboard box, "no, sweetie, it's Mountains and Dragons! An old traditional version of Snakes and Ladders. Yuki gave it to me before we left!" Nicole looked up and sighed happily, "We were playing this board game when we were little, before we got too competitive. So what do you say, honey?"
"Yeah that would be fun, mom." Anais appreciated the gesture plus she could spend time with the whole family since this was an activity she was included. Richard entered the kitchen with napkins as Anais left the room.
Anais spotted a fork on the dinner table. She picked it up and was about to head towards the kitchen. However in the hallways she could hear a conversation with her parents that she did not want to interrupt. Why, you ask? Because their conversation was about her.
"Richard… I'm… worried about Anais."
"But Anais is killing it with her grades!"
"She really is. But I'm worried that Anais is going to be alone during the spring break. The boys are going camping tomorrow morning with their friends for the whole two weeks!"
"Ah, don't worry, Nicole!" laughed Richard and put his arm on his wife's shoulder, "I'll be sure to keep her company."
"I appreciate that honey but you'll be too busy."
"Doing what?"
"A fourteen page list of chores I've written for you. We'll go through them tonight before we go to bed." Nicole explained as Richard moaned with annoyance, "and don't worry I've written out another fourteen pages for the boys to do when they get back."
"Awwww! I guess I'll have to cancel my shopping with the gals." Richard went to the house phone just as soon as Anais rushed towards the dinner table and hid under it. She could hardly believed her bunny ears.
'No one ever told me about this! Gumball and Darwin are going to be away for the whole holiday and I'm gonna be all alone?!' thought Anais, 'or maybe I was told this but I was just looking down at my spaghetti zoning out.' Then all of a sudden in the living room, Anais could overhear another conversation between her brothers.
"Are you excited for this camping trip, buddy?!" Darwin squeaked with glee, "This is gonna be so awesome!"
"It sucks that mom prepared a long list of chores to make up for our two weeks off, though"
"It think it's only fair."
"Yeah, yeah. But why can't Anais do any of the chores? It's not like she has so much to do," Gumball laughed so hard distastefully whilst Darwin folded his arms disapprovingly.
"That's not very nice, Gumball."
"Dude, I'm kidding! I'm sure Anais is gonna be fine all on her own. Watching Daisy The Donkey or reading a book on quantum physics is enough to occupy that little nerd for two weeks right?"
Anais held on the table cloth and clenched her fists with anger from what she heard. 'Oh sure, laugh it up. Gumball,' Anais thought. Then she came up with an idea. An idea that would teach her brother a lesson.
"Hey bros!" Anais popped up which gave their brothers a little jolt. "Mum says we should all play a board game before we go to bed. Don't worry. It's not Dodge or Dare or as it was written on the front, "Dodj or Daar", since you imbeciles don't know how to spell."
"A board game? Nobody plays those anymore. Come on, Darwin let's go pack our stuff."
"How about to spice things up… we settle a bet, Gumball?"
"A bet?" Gumball was now interested as his ears pricked up, "what do you have in mind?