Oh ew! Not another OC story! I bet he's a Garry/Mary sue! Just wait! Give me a chance.

Yes, this is an oc story and his journey in this world. However, the story will focus on him and his interactions for only 50% of the time. You'll see other characters doing stuff on their own, without the OC being present.

Now, to explain some things:
The characters will look like they do in the show. No Gumball running around with human skin and face. That's just… Morbid. No, what I mean is, no athro. This is a Christian story after all. (Totally freaking kidding, I would never do that, why-)

The story will get dark at times, but the characters will stay true to themselves. The "children's show" attitude will still be present….maybe, who knows. We'll see. I mean, the show itself gets dark as hell sometimes, so yeah.

Ships are obviously going to be Gumball and Penny, Darwin and Carrie. Because that's canon and also the way of life. Maybe, just maybe, I'll give the OC a ship too, who knows, it's too early for me to say this.

Now then, off we go!

First thing that Neal heard upon waking up from his nap was the pounding music in his ears. The second thing, a long stretch of seats in front of him and at the very end, a lone person steering the wheel. The third, he was moving forward. He took the headphones out of his ears and stashed them into his pocket while pressing a stop button on his phone to cease the loud music. He stared at the screen of his phone, the time showed that it was six in the morning. Exactly one hour ago, he got off the plane and boarded a bus, which was currently taking him towards his new life.

He turned his head around to look out the bus window. He saw a desert, shrouded in the early rays of the rising sun. He always wondered why sometimes he could see the sun having a face. And why it could speak. It was a giant ball of burning gas, millions of miles away, and yet it could talk. He shaked his head, already feeling a headache coming on from trying to even question the laws of his world. And he learned it the hard way, that the best way to avoid having a headache from trying to question the weird and unexplainable, is to not question it at all. Sometimes he felt like he didn't belong here at all.

Besides, he had more pressing concerns. More heavier thoughts that needed to be addressed. Why exactly was he here. No parent could send out a child overseas to live alone in some town between forests and deserts, no doubt filled with dangerous creatures. Expect, his parents. Neal wondered how exactly did he earned his parents ire. Then the drowsiness from his short nap cleared out, and his mind arranged a mental list of reasons.

He got into many fights in his school, many of whom ended up being physical confrontations. But that was because he couldn't keep his anger problems in check. Bullies, classmates who were downright idiotic in his eyes, and of course, his own parents. That was one.

He didn't just study, he absolutely ignored studying, and missed out a lot of classes. His parents told him to study, but he just didn't listen. "Maybe they were too lax with my parenting?" Neal thought, trying to look at his situation from a third perspective. They always did allow him way more freedom than other parents would have. And how did he choose to spend this freedom? By having his eyes glued to the internet. His own choice led him to fail his grade, and he was held back by a year. His parents were enraged with that one.

But the final thing that drove the nail into the coffin, the accident that made his parents lose all their huge patience, was a fire. A fire that he caused in his room by mixing the wrong kind of chemicals and herbs. It wasn't a huge fire per se, but it did cause some damage to his bedroom wall.

And that was it, they got fed up, lost their cool and with couple of short arrangements and calls to few people, he was sent out on a lengthy transfer program to California state until he graduates. Of course that meant he has to attend classes diligently and have an above average GPA, otherwise, he would be kicked out and deported immediately.

He hated it, he resented his parents for doing this to him. He felt like they spat in his face and just threw him out into the world to be devoured by wolves. He clenched his fists tightly. He knew what he did was bad, wrong. He would have been fine with any punishment, but not this. Never before had he been punished, but now, it looked like all the punishments built up in one over the years and were crashed on top of him in one go. Away from the home he knew all his life, away from his friends. From the girl he had eyes on ever since fourth grade.

Bitterness, sense of betrayal, anger, fear. They swirled in his heart like a hurricane. His knuckles turned white from clenching his fists tightly for so long. Neal forced himself to inhale and exhale in an attempt to calm himself, and his racing heart. He didn't want to think so deep, so detailed. Seeing the world so clearly made him feel weak, insignificant, everything moved too slow and looked too sharp. All the built up fear of being thrusted into unknown place was beginning to catch up to him. But it wasn't working. He needed to calm down with the only way he knew how. The big, blue travel bag rested on the seat besides him. He pulled down the zipper, and digged around through all the clothing to the bottom of the bag. There layed a book, his notes on all the herbal mixtures, chemical mixtures, and both combined. And besides it, there was a small wooden box. He opened it up and took out one, tiny vial with a dark blue liquid inside. He unscrewed the cork and raised it up to his lips, a single drop of blue fell from the vial and ran down his throat. He quickly put the vial back in its box and closed his bag. The effects were instant, his heart rate slowed down to normal, his head became blissfully dizzy, his hands and feet felt pleasantly warm, and a small plume of blue smoke left his mouth with a content sigh. His troubles seemingly scattered themselves much like the blue tendril of smoke. Now everything around him didn't look so scary, everything felt, just fine. His resentment cleared away, the heavy anger seemingly melted from his heart and he felt safe, happy, and blissful.

With a renewed confidence in himself, he glanced out the window just as the bus passed a green road sign, which read 'Welcome to Elmore'. This was it. "A new beginning" He muttered to himself in a cheerful tone.

The bus came to a halt near a bus station. In the said bus station, there were no people present as it was still extremely early in the morning. Even the sun was barely shining from the horizon. The double doors of the vehicle parted and out from it came a human. Appropriately short for his age of thirteen years old, just barely above 5'2. Lengthy blonde hair, long bangs fell on his left eye, nearly covering it completely. Dark, sapphire eyes were clouded and barely focused as they slowly scanned new surroundings. He wore a simple, grey jacket and washed up, paling from use jeans of dark green colour A pair of sneakers matched his jacket in colour, and use. On the back, he had a very ugly looking school bag which was purple.

Neal took a step from the bus and watched as the driver, who was a literal dog, closed the doors, and drove away. He just stood there, taking it all in from the corner of the street where he stood at. Green lawns and fences surrounded almost every single house in the street, making it look like a normal and nice neighbourhood. He then plopped down on the bench that was near the bus sign, and from the pocket of his travel bag, took out a note. On it, there was an address of the family that he was going to stay with for the duration of his time here.

A name 'Wattersons' was written down along with the address, but a line was drawn over it and below it, a different name was written down, 'Kenae'. Apparently, the first family couldn't afford to feed another mouth and didn't want another kid on their plate, least that's what he heard. Following the street signs and the written down address, Neal began his trek down the street. He could have swore that the bus sign just blinked at him, but he ignored it and just kept walking.

It was still extremely early in the morning, but he figured that by the time he reached his destination, it will be time for school. His first day, at a new school. The thought alone made him anxious, and needy form the blue mixture. But the dizzy effects were still strong, evidenced by the slight sway in his step. So he refrained from touching it, for now.

He kept going down the street and following the green street signs. The houses with beautiful green front yards and fences were everywhere he looked. One particular blue, shabby house stood out for him because through the front window, he swore he caught a glimpse of a pink, overweight rabbit holding a bowl of popcorn, dressed in a brown bathrobe. Not only that, but when he rounded the street corner, still confused by the sight, he saw a black and white police vehicle rolling down the street. And he couldn't believe it. The driver was a massive donut with a blue police cap, pink frosting, white teeth made of clay in the top of it's hole and clay eyes. It also had two hands with white gloves on. The weird creature had a relaxed, not a single care in the world kind of look on its 'face' as it drove down the street.

Neal knew that the world was sometimes weird, but this was just freaky on a whole new level. Rubbing the back of his head, he power walked down the street with wide eyes filled with confusion and wonder. Just where in the world did this exchange program put him in? How come the news didn't report these creatures that defied all manner of evolution and biological life? He had so many questions swirling in his head and zero answers. Sure, his own town had some strange residents, bordering on the line of fantastical, like a man with gills or that lady that could float. However, nothing like this. Perhaps it was just America. Yeah, that had to be it. Surely the rest of the country, it's states, weren't like this, right?

The questioning of the entire world as he knew it came to a stop when he reached his destination. A two story house, it's walls were painted green. There was a small porch, with white coloured railings and one window below the overhang which was covered by lime green covers. There was one more at the second floor, also covered up by the same stile covers. Whoever these people were, they sure loved their green. And this, was his destination. He silently made his way towards the door.

Neal stood there, on the porch, his hand hovering near the door. He hesitated to knock. Random thoughts once more surfaced from his subconscious. What if the family he's was going to stay with will be strange as the rest of the residents in this city? What if they are cannibals? Bloodthirsty monsters that only appeared normal? He couldn't rule out those possibilities. Neal decided to keep his guard up from now now. From all the horrifying thinking, he already felt the itch to drink the medicine again.

He shaked the thoughts away. He literally had no other option. He knocked on the door, and braced himself for whatever horror might come crawling out from behind the door.

The white coloured door was opened after few moments of waiting. Neal struggled to keep a neutral expression after seeing the 'people' that were floating in front of him in the doorway. They were balloons. Actual balloons with faces that were drawn on by a black marker. They had long strings tied around the point where the air was to be blown into. One of the balloons was red, with glasses drawn on it's face, and bigger than the smaller, yellow one. From the long eyelashes, Neal guessed that the yellow one was a female.

Uncertainty soon rose within him. Did he get a wrong address? Did he mix up the street numbers? Were they dangerous? No, they didn't look like they could do much, only float at him aggressively if they felt inclined to do it.

The two balloons were looking at him with smiles on their faces, waiting for him to speak up first. In his great surprise, he forgot the basic politeness. "Ah.. G-good f-morning. Is this Ken… Knea...Kenae residency?" Great, now his English was lagging behind too. Just what he needed to get the day started. The numb tongue is one of the effects from his self made medicine as is the pleasant dizziness, which was fading rapidly this moment.

"Yes it is dear, and you must be the transfer student. Neal, right?" Asked the yellow balloon with a polite smile in a high pitched voice, like it was altered by helium.

"Yes, that would be me." He nodded in confirmation. So far, everything seemed to be going fine.

"Come in, come in." Said the red male balloon and floated to the side. His voice was a little deeper, but still affected by the helium as well.

Neal fixed the bag strap on his shoulder and stepped through the doorway. The inside of the house was as normal as one would expect. Except for the residents. He still couldn't get over the fact that he will have to live with balloons. For years. It will take a lot of getting used to.

"I'm Dexter, and this-" He turned to look at the smaller balloon next to him, "is Jessica, my wife." The red balloon introduced himself, never dropping the same, cheery smile as his wife.

"Pleasure to meet you!" Neal said with a smile that matched Dexter's and Jessica's. There was a small pause during which he debated whether or not he should offer a handshake. Then again, they had no hands, so he refrained from doing so. Oh how awkward it felt.

"Well, you should also meet our son!" Jessica said cheerily and floated over to the staircase. "Alan, honey are you awake?" She called loudly.

From the second floor came a response. "Yes mom, I will be down in a moment!"

Few seconds later, a dark green balloon floated down the stairs. He also had a face painted on with a black marker and wore the same smile while radiating happiness just like his parents. And his voice sounded exactly like his peers too.

"I don't know what I expected" Neal thought. Not good, with the dinizess going away, his mood was slowly swinging back to normal. Soon enough, he'll become unpleasant to be around. He subconsciously reached into his pocket for the vial, only to find it empty. Of course, he placed the vial in his travel bag before leaving the bus.

"Good morning mom, dad." The green balloon greeted his parents and glanced at the new arrival.

"Good morning son. Meet your new roommate, Neal!" Dexter said.

"Oh, pleasure to meet you, Neal! I'm Alan!" Said the green balloon, Alan. Then he did what could only be described as offering a handshake by extending his string towards Neal.

"Oh dear god, where in the nine pits of hell did I end up in?" Neal though and gently shaked the string. "Y-yeah...likewise." Neal's eyes widened a little. "Wait, roommate?" He thought in mild surprise. Which meant, he will have absolutely zero privacy? This day just kept getting better and better.

"Why don't you boys get to know each other a little and...Alan, show Neal where he will be staying!" Dexter suggested and gestured with his body towards the staircase.

"Alright, follow me!" Alan said and floated up the stairs, Neal begrudgingly followed behind while hauling up his travel bag.

Walking up to the second floor, there was a hallway. Three doors on the right side, and one door at the very end on left side.

"My room, or now, yours and my room is on this side" Alan floated over to the right, "The bathroom and toilet are right next to my room" He pointed with his string and the other two doors.

"Why would balloons need a toilet?" Neal wanted to ask, but thought about it instead. That question would be way too weird and now that he thought about, he didn't want to know the answer anymore.

"And over there is my parents room" He pointed with his string at the end of the hallway.

"Mhm, very nice" Neal responded dryly. "So this is where I'll be staying?" He pointed at the door leading into Alan's room.

"Yes! Come in, don't be shy!" Alan smiled and using his string, opened the door into his room. The room was normal at the very least. Pretty spacious, there was a dark green rug neatly placed in the middle. A bed, two to be exact, one with bright green sheets, and the other one with white. There was a wooden desk with a chair near a window, which was overlooking the street outside. There was also a wardrobe close to the door, which made Neal question even more things.

He just couldn't help it, he had to ask. "What's the wardrobe for?"

"Oh? It's where I keep my stick on ties!" Alan opened the wardrobe, and there were fifty differently coloured ties arranged in a neat line. "You can put your clothes here too. I don't use it for a lot other than my ties, so there's a lot of free space."

"Ah, goodie." Neal replied and looked at the beds. "I take it the white one's mine"

"I actually sleep there, but if you want it-"

"No, no! It's okay! I just thought… Nevermind." Not everything is colour coded, so Neal took a mental note of that. He placed his travel bag on the green bed and sat down on it. "This is where I will live from now on." He said out loud and sighed while rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah… Is everything okay?" Alan asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Yeah, everything is peachy." Neal responded with a terse ring, like he was keeping himself from yelling. Everything once again was becoming clear and bright, his thought process began to speed up as well. He needed to take his potion, now. "Uhm…could you step out for a moment?"

Alan nodded in understanding. "Of course. New place. New people, you need a moment, but don't worry-"

"No, I need to switch my clothes for school." Neal exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. What he said was only half true. Neal didn't want for Alan to see that he was going to drink some sketchy drink. It'll raise a lot of unnecessary questions. He also didn't know if Alan was being super nice, or just condescending.

"Oh, okay then. Come downstairs after you're done changing, my mother always cooks the best bacon and eggs!" Alan said and on his way out closed the door.

Neal took a moment to slowly look around the room and drink in the silence. After all, pretty soon he will board a school bus going towards a new school. New people, new interactions. He took a deep breath stood off the bed and approaching the window, he leaned against it. From the window, he could see an all orange woman walking down the street with her child, who was all blue. Both of them were just single colour blobs with fingerless arms and legs. "Are there no humans in this country?" Neal thought to himself. He guessed he will have his answer once he boards the school bus and sees the other kids and teachers for himself.

Neal turned away from the window and approached his bag. He still need to switch his clothing and drink his medicine.

He only switched out his jacket, from the boring washed up gray, to his button up school jacket. It was very dark blue, with coal black buttons, tight around the sides. It had an inner pocket, as well as two outside pockets, and one small one at the upper left side of the chest. It was split at the lower back quite a bit as well. He had to buy and wear it because his previous school required it. Thankfully, they didn't require specific pants to be worn. That would've been a pain. He never liked wearing this jacket, it greatly constricted his movement, especially around arms and shoulders. But he had some attachment to it now that he was going to attend a new school. And he was going to wear it with pride. Now that he had taken care of, he dug out his wooden box from the bottom of the bag and opened it up. There was a book at the bottom of the box, depicting herbs and various brews that he discovered. On top of it, sat a small vial, with blue liquid inside. He took it and removing the tiny cork, was about to take a drink before a thought occurred.

People. He was going to interact with people, and his would be classmates. Neal immediately decided to keep his interactions to a bare minimum, fade into the background and not talk to anyone unless addressed first. And even then, interaction from him would be professional and quick. It was probably going to get him labeled as a social outcast, but it will also make it easier for him to focus on his much required studies and his hobby. No friends here, meant no distractions. No painful goodbyes when he'll need to return to his home. And there it was again, thinking too deeply and detailed.

He took a small sip from the vial and closing it off again, placed it in his jackets inner pocket. Almost instantly, the potion too effect and Neal swayed slightly. Forget about not making friends! He was going to go down there and meet lots of new people whom he'll befriend. It was a dawn of new day, new opportunities and interactions!

-half an hour later-

The dinner proved to be most delicious and interesting. The way that balloons ate their food was through the holes at the bottom where the air is supposed to be coming in and out. And Alan was right, his mother was an amazing cook. How exactly did she operate cooking utensils still confused Neal, but he hardly cared right now. Everything was turning out great! He had a pleasant conversation with the balloons, they told him a lot about Elmore. The city was a minor metropolitan, residential district, financial district, park district. There was even an interstate highway.

Alan's parents suggested driving them both to school, but Alan politely refused, saying that it would be better if Neal met other students on the bus. And that's how both of them ended up standing outside, near the bus stop.

The time showed 7:45 on Neal's phone. The bus was going to arrive soon. Alan glanced at Neal and decided to break the silence. "Are you worried about meeting new people?" He asked out of curiosity.

"No, not at all!" Neal responded with a relaxed smile and looked up from his phone. "I'm actually really stoked. Meeting new people, making friends! It's going to be great!"

Alan beamed upon hearing his response. "Perfect! That's exactly the kind of attitude you should have! Trust me, you are going to love it here!"

"Oh I don't doubt it for a second! Are the teachers nice at this school?" Neal asked, hoping for a positive answer.

Alan winced a little. Neal was turning out to be such a nice person and now that he asked him about the teachers, Alan wondered what will his reaction be when he meets Miss Simian. He really hoped that the old baboon will go easy on the new student, otherwise it could ruin his first day here. "Y-yeah…they're really good teachers. Yep. Especially Mister Small! You will like him, he's a very relaxed, bright person!"

"Oh, then I can't wait to meet them!" Neal replied with a grin. He slightly adjusted his violet school bag and leaned closer to the street. A yellow bus was approaching the stop. "It's here."

The bus came to a stop, and the sliding doors opened. Voices of chattering students reached Neal and an excited smile spread on his face. Alan took a final look at Neal and floated into the bus. After a short pause, Neal climbed aboard as well. This was it. A new beginning.

-End of chapter 1-