A/N: Yes, guys, it's me. Sorry I haven't been on in a LONG time. My old computer crashed and died at the beginning on December, meaning I could never type any new fanfics for you. Now, that I'm back, I can finally type up this fic I thought of a LONG time ago, and since I saw an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball about it, I was motivated to write a random one-shot about fish puberty. Hope you enjoy!

Circle of Life

Oscar stacked up all of his morning papers. It was an average Wednesday, as far as every student in Freshwater High School could tell. Milo lazily groaned and moved to his seat. He was lucky enough to make it before the bell started to ring.

"Dude, what's wrong with you this morning?" The older one of the two asked, concerned for the state of Milo's liveliness.

The beta fish managed to speak out some words. "I was just up late last night, bro…Kooky Carpenter Cousins marathon…till 3am…no breaks…" After some silence, Oscar finally looked to his left to find that his brother was snoring loudly on his textbook, asleep and undisturbed.

Their pregnant seahorse teacher, Mr. Baldwin, finally made his way into the classroom. "Good Morning, class. It's great to see all your smiling faces here today…even if they're not really smiling…" He looked down his list, calling off names for roll call. "Wait, where's Bea?" He noticed, and turned to Milo and Oscar. "Boys, you're her friends, right? Where's your little female friend?"

"Oh, Bea's gone on vacation for a few days in Fish Paris." Oscar explained. "She'll be back tomorrow, but I'm- I MEAN, we're starting to miss her a lot!" He chuckled, attempting to hide his nervousness.

"Well, then, it's great to see Bea getting some time off to have some fun." The teacher's mind pondered off. "Too bad I can never afford to take one of those fancy trips. Not on this teacher's pay…" He sighed. "I can never have nice things for myself, and now my baby will have to-"

Clamantha was frustrated. "We get it already! Move on!" The rest of the class began to agree with the teenage clam, fed up with another one of Mr. Baldwin's sob stories.

The seahorse flustered with his recovery words. "Oh, um, heh, right." He grabbed his notes and was ready to teach his newest lesson. "Now, pay attention, class. For this may be the most important thing I will ever teach you, besides taxing advice, you gotta listen to that now, cause let's face it. If I can't file taxes, you kids can't too-"

"C'MON, GET TO THE LESSON!"

"Okay, okay, fine." He sighed, cleared his throat and began his lecture. "There comes a moment in your life when changes begin to occur in your body. Big changes, changing you from an immature child to a mature, sophisticated adult." He swam over to his blackboard, keeping his eyes on his students, who had all ears towards him, even if one was asleep. "These changes are known as: puberty."

A gasp escaped the classroom. Milo suddenly sprung up from his sleep. "MR. BALDWIN! That's big kid stuff! Are you sure we're ready to know?"

"You kids are 16, you should've known a LONG time ago, but I was just nervous to explain it to you guys, but I now think that you're old enough to handle it." The pregnant teacher confessed, but quickly cleared his throat. "Now, this section, and this section only, is about the changes in boys. Girls are forbidden to know these things."

"Well, then, where do we go?" Finberly asked, shrugging her shoulders. Suddenly, the rest of the girls in the classroom started arguing to their teacher.

He nervously smiled. "Oh, I never thought of that...uh, all the girls can leave and skip school for the rest of the day, now go." An eruption of feminine cheers exploded of out of the classroom, but some male groans remained.

Oscar was a tiny bit concerned, and took the side of the boys. "That's not very fair, Mr. Baldwin. The girls get to leave for the rest of the day while we have to sit here through a lesson we probably should've learned in 7th grade?"

"Bro!" Milo whined towards his brother. "Of course it's fair! This is all the juicy stuff they've kept hidden from us for a LONG TIME. And they're also keeping it hidden from the girls now! It must be so super important!" Oscar nodded in understanding, a grin forming on his face.

"Now then," Mr. Baldwin continued. "The first sign of puberty is a facial blemish called acne. This is not a very good thing, for it can drive away girls, friends, and future opportunities. Trust me." He turned on the projector at the front of the room, and a photo of a teenage fish with acne popped up. "Acne will contain such dangers like pimples, blackheads, zits, etc. Be warned, this stuff can change your life dramatically, since once you started getting pimples on your face, it. Will. Never. Stop." He pointed to his face, where several hives remained on his cheeks and nose.

Milo gasped. "I hope that doesn't happen to me for a long time, right Os-CARRR!" He screamed, taking in Oscar's face. There was a large red dot on the side closest to Milo.

"Wha-what, Milo?" He shrieked too, as he was being pushed out the door to the hallway by his brother's forceful shove. They made their way to the boy's bathroom, where Milo moved him in front of the mirror, covering his eyes.

"Milo, what's going on?"

The smaller brother sighed. "Bro, sorry I have to do this, but you just have to see…" He removed his hands, and the afro'd fish took a good look at his reflection. It didn't take long for him to find his flaw.

"I…caught PUBERTY, MILO!" He yelled, gripping his brother's shoulders. "What do I do? What do I do? More zits are gonna grow soon, and my face will become ugly, and scare away girls, because I'm a grown up man, and…I'm a man now. I'm a man now!" He suddenly calmed down, but replaced his fear with gloating.

Milo grimaced. "Yeah, that's nice, bro." Honestly, he was somewhat jealous his brother hit puberty and became a man before he did. "But, that's just one zit, more outta pop up soon, and other kids will call you 'Pizza Face' or something mean."

Oscar chuckled, patting the younger one on the head. "Milo, Milo, Milo. You just don't get, because you're too young."

"I'm only 10 minutes younger than you!"

He continued. "I've had pimples before, like last Christmas Eve, but that was only stress induced. This was puberty induced! Besides, if my acne actually does get out of hand, I can use this Proactive stuff I ordered for this occasion." He pulled out a white, tin bottle from his 'satchel', and popped open the can. He tried squeezing some onto his fingers, but nothing came out except for dust. "Of course, I bought this when I was 13. That was a few years ago…"

Milo looked at himself in the mirror, while continuing on his conversation. "Maybe you can catch puberty before I have the chance to, but I know I will soon…" He examined his face, but no blemishes were there. "C'mon, let's get back to class so we don't miss anything else…" He looked to the ground, gloomily swimming back to his main destination at the moment.

Oscar sighed, and followed his younger brother. He wasn't feeling so happy either. Yes, he was a man now, who can pretty much have Bea's fin when she returns. But, he was not feeling a little sorry for his little brother's dilemma.

"Now that Milo and Oscar are THANKFULLY back, we can continue our lesson with the next step in puberty: voice and body changes." Mr. Baldwin paced the room. "Another sign in puberty that you may already be aware of, and maybe going through. Basically, your vocal chords change when puberty occurs, so your voice deepens a bit, sometimes it's a good thing, but for me, it only got worse."

Oscar was twiddling his fingers, listening in the lesson, while Milo was glaring over at him. Mr. Baldwin continued his lesson. "Body changes happen, too. You may get hair on your face, arms, armpits, legs, legpits, on your back, on your chest, and…down there…" He was hoping somebody would understand what he was implying, but everybody sadly got the message. That spawned up some 'Eww's and groans from the classroom.

The bell rung, signaling that the end of the school day was here. Everybody started to pack up their things, before their teacher stopped them again. "Now, class, before you go, remember this: watch yourselves. You never know when puberty will start to happen in your bodies, so look out! Class dismissed."

"So, Oscar?" His brother talked him on their way to their lockers. "You witnessing any of the other signs of puberty yet? Like voice changes or body hair? Ooh, please tell me you have ARM PIT HAIR!" Milo tried to reach under his under arms, but Oscar quickly deflected his grabby fins.

"Milo, puberty doesn't happen all at once. Usually a lot of these changes will have longer termed breaks. I may not suffer through voice changes till tomorrow, or next week, or two months from now!" He grabbed inside his locker, and placed all his desired homework in his satchel. "Who knows? Maybe your voice will deepen before mine…"

This lit up his brother's face. "You really think so, bro?" The afro'd fish nodded, before the beta fish embraced him in a hug, where he returned it.

Most of the night for them was silent and sound. No stirring from Milo, as he went to bed earlier than the previous night. Oscar tossed and turned, as usual. But, he kept moaning in the middle of it, but these didn't seem to be moans of pain, they seemed to be of…pleasure. This disrupted the other fish asleep in the room, Milo. He tried to cover his head with his pillow, but the sounds kept seeping through, as his whimpers became louder.

"Oscar, quiet down!" He whispered loudly. It seemed like he didn't hear him, and his hips thrusted underneath his sheets. "Oscar, what could you possibly be dreaming that leads you to ignoring me…Oh, oh my apple!" His face blushed, as he came to the realization of what his brother was supposedly dreaming of. He covered his head with his pillow harder, trying to keep the traumatizing noises out of his ears.

The next morning, Milo surprisingly woke up refreshed with sleep. He remembered the ordeal hours before, and looked over to his sleeping brother's figure. The first thing he noticed was a small patch of hair on his upper lip, as well as some on his cheeks leading to his chin.

Oscar woke up soon after Milo, who was pretending to be sleeping as well. "Milo, I know you're not asleep-" He stopped, taking in his voice. Instead of the high pitched whine he was used to, it was a much darker tone, which echoed through the room. Milo instantly got up, and swam to the other end of the room.

"Oscar! You told me that I'd have a deep voice first!" He pouted. Oscar had no idea really what was going on. From what he's read, it wasn't quite normal for all acts of puberty to happen all at once. Yesterday, acne started popping up, which he tried treating last night. Today, his voice changed; along with…is that facial hair? Bea'll be all over him now!

"I never said that, bro! All I said was that there was a POSSIBILITY you would start puberty before me. But, somehow, all the effects of adolescence are happening in a close series of events for me!" He looked down at his sleep pants. "And why are my pants sticky?"

Milo shrugged, trying to hide the fact that he knew why. "Did you wet the bed again?"

Oscar suddenly became angry. "I grew out of that years ago! I'll just clean myself up." He swam to the bathroom, where the sound of rushing water in the sink could be heard outside. Moments after, he quickly made his way to his brother. "Hey, Milo!" He sang, in a way Bea probably would. "You said you wanted armpit hair?" He lifted his arm, to find a small patch of hair.

Milo went from furious to overjoyed. "Whoa, lucky!" He examined closer, as his brother proudly grinned. "C-can I touch it?" For some reason, Oscar allowed Milo his wish. It sort of tickled his finger, but for the most part, it was pretty prickly and sharp. The older, newly matured fish gained instant pleasure. Maybe puberty isn't so bad. Maybe it's somewhat AWESOME!

Oscar strutted into school that day, smug about his new mature appearance. Girls gave their looks towards him, where he shot them back a grin from his brace-bandaged teeth. They swooned over him anyway, though they weren't the girls he was quite looking for right now.

As he made his way into the classroom, Mr. Baldwin gave a dumb-found look. "Os-Oscar? Is that you?" The afro'd boy, err, man, flicked a finger off the collar of his shirt. He began to speak, for the first time using his 'adult voice' in front of anyone but his brother.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." He slyly voiced. About everybody in the room gasped from surprise, including Bea, who returned at her seat just in time to see her transformed best friend. Once Oscar noticed her, he whirled on next to her in his seat. "Sup, Bea. How was Fish Paris?"

Bea had nothing really to say. "Oscar, what happened? I was only gone 5 days, and you grew a mustache, and your voice got deeper, and you grew taller…" She looked up at him, as she pointed out how he was towering over her by a few fish inches now.

"Puberty happened, Bea." He started, brushing through his newly combed down hair. He didn't think the afro would look 'mature' enough, so he flattened it out. "It just started yesterday, and so far, it's going great. Though, to be honest, don't tell anybody, but I think Milo's jealous of me."

Bea sighed. "You're right. I think he is. I saw him on FishBook, posting edited photos of himself with body hair." Oscar couldn't help but chuckle.

"Heh, well that's Milo for ya." He saw a slight look of concern on Bea's face and stopped laughing. He looked down at his desk. "Jeez, he did look upset. But, that's how Milo is. If the pizza delivery man arrives, he must answer the door. If we play video games, he must be first player. And now, if it's our time, I start puberty first. Milo always seems to have his way, and this whole thing happened, which his quite new to him. He's not quite used to being in second place. Perhaps, it was because…I'm mostly just gloating about this, and not at all being mature about it."

"I think you should go talk to him, he's outside in the hall." She placed a fin on his shoulder. The Old Oscar's face would flush and he would whimper out of nervousness. But, this is the new and improved Oscar. So, all he did was made a swift bee-line towards the outside hallway. And there he was. Sitting at his locker, listening to the music on his phone. Milo only buys and listens to music for one reason: to ease his pain. It's like Oscar and his blogging.

Oscar slowly approached him, which the younger one noticed almost immediately. "What do you want? You don't want to be hanging out with the little babies anymore!" He growled. The afro'd one nearly flinched at his brother's tone.

He gulped. "Milo, I just wanted to apologize, okay?" Oscar squinted his eyes shut tightly, trying to keep in his tears. "I wouldn't necessarily call myself a man. Yeah, I'm undergoing puberty, but I'm no more than a man. I wake up at ten in the morning on Saturdays to watch My Little Pony for fish's sake!" Milo laughed, and smiled back to normal. "I was being arrogant over this small factor of my entire large life!"

"Yeah, you kinda were, but honestly, I'm not mad at you." The beta fish shook his head. "I was actually quite jealous of you. I actually thought I'd hit puberty before you! I mean, you're older, but we're the same age, and I usually do everything before you!"

"Uh, dude…"

"What I'm trying to say is that I was being too immature, that I was quite ready for maturity."

"Milo."

"Could it be that I may never start until I wise up? If I don't start now, I might not hit puberty ever!"

"MILO!" The older fish yelled, and pointed to a spot on Milo's face. There was a pimple. A single red dot lay right on his cheek.

The smaller blue fish took a lot from this. "Oh my gosh, PUBERTY! WOO!" He cheered, and made his way down the hallway to celebrate his new, minor accomplishment. Oscar just remained smiling.