Chapter 1: A Sad Truth
During the average day in Elmore City, the sky was dark with clouds as close to raining, but in one neighborhood the sound of a couple of children playing could be heard. "Dodge or dare!" a duo roared in the back yard of one residence. Two kids were playing a ridiculous game they had made up. A thirteen year old young blue cat and his younger eleven year old goldfish brother were the only ones to ever play it. "Alright now, take a card, Gumball" the fish said to the kitten who was named Gumball. Gumball nodded and took a card from the top of the deck.
"Shoot a bowling ball into the shed by bouncing it off something," the card read. Gumball saw no harm in it like usual. "Alright, Darwin, watch and learn," he told his younger sibling. Darwin nodded and held the shed door open while Gumball went over to a pile of junk they usually brought to play this game with and quickly got to work. While inside a cloud of smoke, he made a big rubber band slingshot and had it already loaded with a big bowling ball. "I think you broke your building time record, dude," Darwin said since the duo played this game a lot, even though were well known for causing lots of antics throughout town.
"Well let's see if this works," Gumball said, letting go and shooting the bowling ball. It slammed into the fence and bounced off to the other direction, heading straight for the shed and unexpectedly slamming into Darwin, knocking him out cold. Gumball came over and looked at his unconscious brother. "Huh… first time that's happened to someone other than me," he claimed since it was abnormal.
"Gumball, honey, come here!" his mother called. Gumball left Darwin passed out by the shed, and when he went inside he saw his mother, another older blue cat who wore a light blue collared shirt, a grey skirt and a rainbow pin on her shirt representing where she worked. She was called Nicole. "What is it, mom?" Gumball asked. "I was wondering if you wanted to go anywhere special for your birthday?" she questioned since his fourteenth birthday was coming up soon.
"…Not that I can think of…" Gumball said scratching his head. "Well you have four more days to think about it," Nicole claimed and went to get back to what she normally did since she usually handled all of the practical chores in the house. Gumball thought that he should probably go get Darwin out from the backyard, so he headed back outside to do that.
Later that night, Gumball was sitting at the kitchen table with his younger siblings Darwin and a five year old pink rabbit named Anais who was considered smarter than them. "Where's mom and dad?" Anais asked since their parents weren't at the table which was really odd especially for their dad. "What? ...Sorry, I think that hit I took today messed up my hearing…" Darwin said rubbing one of his ringing ears, along with a black eye and bruises on his face. Gumball nervously chuckled. "Yeah, I'll uh go get them," he insisted, getting up from the table and making his way through the living room that had only a big couch and a television.
As Gumball began to get up only the first few steps, he heard yelling coming from a room upstairs. He glanced back to the kitchen knowing that his siblings couldn't hear it. Gumball began going up the steps as quietly as possible. The farther up he got the louder the shouting was heard. He arrived to his parents' room in the dark hallway with the door creaked open, leaning up against the wall and wondering what they were arguing about since they always were before his birthday.
"Richard, why do you get so upset every time I buy him flowers? It's the least I can do for him!" Nicole asked the overweight pink rabbit she had for a husband. Normally he was lazy but whenever he acted different she welcomed it. "Because it's just your biggest mistake ever that we've been trying to forget all these years, and you doing this keeps bringing it back!" Richard yelled in response. "He's dead! You don't have to be so worked up over it!" she said. Gumball was just listening confusedly though he hated hearing them argue.
"…Alright, fine! Can we talk about telling Gumball the truth then?" Richard asked having calmed down. "What? Are you serious?" Nicole asked and laughed sarcastically. "He's going to be 14! The longer we wait to tell him, the more it will hurt him when he finds out!" he explained what was wrong with keeping. Whatever this lie was it actually made sense and Richard was being smart which he rarely did. "No way! I'm going to let this secret go to our graves! I'm going to take these flowers to his grave tomorrow like always and then we don't have to think about it for another year," she said not wanting to continue this argument any longer.
"So you think that it's fine not to tell Gumball that he isn't really my son?" Richard asked back. Gumball's eyes widened hearing this. Nicole sighed and held her head. "No, I hate that too, but I don't want our son to despise you over a fourteen year secret! I just got stressed out and drank too much the night before our wedding, and one thing led to the other with my friends and somehow I wound up with Triston," Nicole sat down on the bed beside Richard. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, getting upset over just thinking about it. Richard rubbed her back.
Gumball walked back downstairs, dragging his tail along. His ears were lowered and his soul was broken along with his heart. He was not sure what he should do about it, but he knew one thing by default. He was not going to tell his brother and sister about this since he knew it was likely going to arise more problems. Gumball skipped out on dinner completely and headed straight to bed, while having a small idea in the process.
End of Chapter 1