Here's where the story starts.
Buildup
By
Terrence Orson
Correlated with The Amazing World of Gumball Season 3, episode 7
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: All characters and settings belong to their respective owners. This is an original idea that I've converted to FanFiction, using a "What If…?" theme.
Evergreen (the town, not the yet to be published novel) © Z Group Production/Network, 2013-present.
Note: The screaming Richard did in Season 1, episode 29 does not apply to this fanfic.
1
Usually, it takes cops for there to be an arrest; when cops aren't present, the arrest is from within oneself. To be arrested, one must be suspected of committing some crime, like a robbery, murder, kidnapping, and/or more. So many, though, commit a crime that they may not even realize, and it sooner or later proves to be a capital crime, bringing about a slow death that eats away at them until it suddenly strikes. In the city of Elmore, California, Richard Watterson was a repeat offender.
Richard walked into the Joyful Burger fast food restaurant. It was lunchtime for him, and he was craving a hamburger, so he went to the restaurant to satisfy himself. It was late June, so it was quite warm outside, and he had walked all the way from his house to the restaurant, a strenuous three-mile trek, so he was quite tired; plus, he wasn't used to moving such long distances on foot, or doing this much action in a day. He was considerably lazy. In fact, in 1983, Richard garnered the status of the laziest person in all of Elmore, taking it from the once Lazy Larry. They were only preteens.
Richard would have driven to Joyful Burger, but he had gotten his license suspended, and that was because he had proven to be the least safe driver in Elmore. Proof? Well, I only have a few instances, but as they say, quality over quantity.
Once, when he had been taking his children to school, he drove extremely recklessly, crashing through houses, areas blocked off due to road work, and such, and endangering so many lives around him. He had a GPS, but he had only followed the directions that told him which way to go and not when to go.
Another time, he had been on anesthetics after visiting the dentist, and they had made him loopy and had temporarily severed his ties to reality. His wife, Nicole, had told their kids to watch over him while she left the house for a time, but they lost him due to issues over flaking. Richard had gone around Elmore leaving a path of destruction. Tire skid marks lined the walls of house, and he even parked in a backyard pool. Strangely enough, this was actually an improvement from his usual driving habits.
Even with these two incidents, it took more for the Elmore law enforcement to take some responsibility, charge him with massive property damage, for which Nicole had to pay since Richard was unemployed, and suspend his license, whose acquisition was a mystery to everyone. Now, he had to walk to his destination whenever he went someplace without her. From the sweat stains on the armpit and abdomen of his cream colored dress shirt, which stuck to his rotund body as a result, one could tell he was definitely fatigued. The only thing keeping him from just giving up was the promise of food getting chummy with his mouth, taste buds, and stomach.
The restaurant was almost empty of customers because business was a little slow today, so Richard got to the ordering counter quickly even though he moved slowly to recover from the long walk. He leaned on the counter and panted, trying as much as he could to catch his breath and hoping his chest would stop hurting from all the walking. The cashier, Lawrence "Larry" Needlemeyer, walked up to him from the kitchen and grabbed a notepad and pencil.
"Welcome to Joyful Bur…" he began in his nasally, upbeat voice, but then, he saw that Richard was the customer, and his smile left his face. "Oh, it's you, Mr. Watterson." Larry sighed. "What would you like?"
Once Richard stood up, he took a look at the overhead menu. Joyful Burger had the food options one could expect in a typical American fast food restaurant, such as variations of burgers, fries and sodas of the three main sizes, breakfast options, and more. After almost a minute, Richard made his decision.
"I'll have two double cheeseburgers, hold the lettuce and tomato, extra cheese; large fries; and a large Joyfizz." Richard ended with a smile, seeming to have forgotten his long walk. Larry wrote the order down on his notepad.
"Alright. That'll be $6.27." Richard fished into his pocket for the money Nicole had given him—a ten dollar bill. She thought that if she gave him her credit card, things might be a little messy. He handed the money to Larry, who gave him his change and then walked back into the kitchen, and waited as his order was prepared.