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"Gumball!"

Gumball let out a high, girlish squeal. Wiping some of the drool off his face, he took a moment to survey his surroundings, and groaned in frustration upon realizing he was still in detention. Why did he think it would be a good idea to follow Tobias of all people? Why did he care who Janice was? And why did he have to piss off Mr. Small of all people?

Speaking of Mr. Small, he was standing in front of Gumball's desk, arms crossed and wearing a very stern expression that he almost never was seen with. This was not the type of man you wanted to mess with.

"Look, little man, I'm not one to think that this type of punishment is a good thing. My idea of punishment is to ignore the bad, and reward the good," Mr. Small said in a surprisingly relaxed tone while pacing around the room, "But, sadly, the school makes the rules, not me. So for the next hour or so you're my responsibility. You got the picture?"

"Yes, Mr. Small. I'm sorry for falling asleep. It won't happen again, I promise."

His ruler for the next hour gave him a smug grin. For someone who tried to be respectful of kids, Mr. Small usually put out a very pretentious 'I know I'm better than you and smarter than you since I'm older so do what I say' vibe. It was hard to connect to a guy like that, much less actually respect what he had to say.

"Good. Maybe now you'll learn a thing or two about respecting other people's privacy," Mr. Small walked over to Miss Simian's desk and took out a small book and began reading it, looking up every minute or so to make sure Gumball wasn't dozing off again.

With a complete lack of anything to do, Gumball resorted to looking around Miss Simian's classroom. There were the colorful posters on the wall that were probably circa 1975 because of how faded they were, and in addition, the solar system one still had Pluto listed as a planet. Behind Miss Simian's desk was a poster promoting a school play, one that had been performed years ago, but she had apparently never bothered to take it down. Gumball scanned the desks lined up around the room. Many of them had rusty metal parts and wood that was chipped and drawn on. Whenever he so much as shifted his butt a little the desk would make a horrible squeaking noise, so of course Gumball tried to do it as much as possible in Miss Simian's class just to annoy her.

But for now, Gumball's butt was as still as the herbal tea in Mr. Small's cup. All that was present was the soft ticking of the clock on the wall and the sound or Mr. Small drinking his tea or turning a page in his book.

This is why I never want to go to prison. It's like this every single day, isn't it? Except even more boring.

Gumball looked around the room some more. His desk was near the front of the class, where Miss Simian had moved him so she could keep a close eye on him. Although Gumball didn't really mind, as this desk was the squeakiest. There was something strange about the room. It was as though something was missing. Or perhaps someone.

Unwilling to unleash the wrath of Mr. Small again, Gumball raised his hand and waited to be called on like a good student. It took a few minutes, and his arm had began to slowly sink down onto the desk like putty while he was waiting, but eventually Mr. Small looked up from his book and noticed him.

"Yes, Gumball?"

"Mr. Small, I was with Tobias when Miss Simian caught us up on the roof. Didn't he get detention too?"

"I don't see why that's any of your business Gumball. The point is that you two were both out of class without a hall pass or permission from your teacher. And you had both wandered off and gotten yourselves stuck on the roof of all places."

"Well, we weren't really stuck. Tobias was just taking me somewhere so he could tell me about... something." Gumball slowly began to realize who he was talking to. Mr. Small's reaction was just as he had pictured it. He raised an eyebrow and placed his book on the desk.

"Okay, you do realize you're going to have to tell me what he was going to tell you right?"

Gumball only nodded. He searched the deepest crevices of his mind, trying as hard as he could to come up with a good lie.

"You do realize I have a master's degree in psychology, right? I can tell by your body language that you're definitely about to tell a lie."

Ugh! How is he so good? I've royally screwed up now.

Mr. Small slowly rose up from his seat and walked over to Gumball's desk. As was habitual for him, he took a seat on a desk that was right next to Gumball's and crossed his legs.

The amount of fear felt by Gumball at that moment was nearly indescribable. It was second only to his mother's disapproving stare. He was so close to his face that he could see a few details that were usually unnoticeable, such as the slight hint of purple bags under his eyes, a sure sign that Mr. Small didn't always have an easy time sleeping.

Wonder what's been keeping him awake?

It seemed the more his counselor stared at him, the more he felt disturbed by his presence, but not because of his blatant disregard for personal space. It was because as he looked into his green and red eyes, he sensed pain. Despite seeming happy-go-lucky on the inside, Gumball was still sentient. He wasn't immune to pain. He had been driven to tears by his classmates as they bullied him for pretending to be a karate master. Most things he tried, he failed at them, and he wasn't really sure why. Maybe that was his father's side coming through.

Still, despite how much he didn't particularly like Mr. Small, he also did not like the idea of anyone suffering. In a situation like this, Darwin would show kindness. His father would be supportive, despite not being the brightest marshmallow Peep in the candy box. His mother would show strength, 'We can get through this together, you just have to be strong.' His sister would offer moral support. No one in the family knew how to manipulate better than her, her knowledge of emotions was both impressive and scary. What would he himself do?

"Um, Mr. Small?"

"Yes Gumball?"

"I know you don't really like me or anything, because of all the dumb things I've done to you over the years."

"I've never said that. I don't dislike you, I just feel disappointed in you because your mother was so different from you. Almost the exact opposite when she was your age."

That really hurt for some reason. Did his father's side of the family really mess him up that badly?

"N-no Mr. Small, I wanted to ask if there's anything I could do to help."

Mr. Small was a obviously taken aback by this. Probably expecting another snarky remark.

"What kind of help did you have in mind, Gumball?"

"Anything I can do, I feel kind of bad about how I acted yesterday. You look like you need a break. I kinda just wanna make it up to you, and I wanna say that I'm sorry."

To his surprise, Mr. Small started to smile. "I accept your apology little man. I know these years can be tough, believe me," he ruffled his hair a little, which Gumball wasn't too fond of, but he let him do it anyway. "I can't think of much that would help me personally. But I bet Miss Simian would appreciate it if you swept up her classroom for her. Heck, she might even be a bit nice to you for a change."

The two of them laughed at this, as the both of them knew that it was scientifically impossible for Miss Simian to be kind to any living being that wasn't her precious Nigel or herself. Gumball hopped out of his seat and got the broom and dustpan out of the closet in the back. Mr. Small went back to his desk, this time leaning back in his chair with his legs off the ground so Gumball could more easily sweep under them.

In a very short span of time, he was done sweeping up the classroom. While standing back to admire his hard work, he noticed that he still had about thirty minutes left in detention. Although somehow, he no longer felt like a prisoner. He felt like a valued employee.

"Hey, great job little man! This floor is so clean I can practically see myself. I'm actually starting to feel good about Principal Brown having to go to jury duty and Miss Simian just not wanting to see your face."

"Eh, you know what they say Mr. Small."

"What's that?"

"Too much of a good thing, isn't a good thing."

Mr. Small seemed to find this really amusing, "Ahh, that was a good one. Not sure if that's how the saying goes, but creativity is a good skill to have in today's crazy repressive world."

"Thanks, Mr. Small. Anything else I can do before my sentence has been served?"

"Ohh... let me think," he said, swinging from side to side, "Oh! I guess you could try reorganizing those books back there on that shelf. I think those have all been in a jumbled pile since like, the seventies."

"Yes sir!" Gumball dashed to the back of the room and began to sift through the dusty old dictionaries and encyclopedias. He didn't find this job as stimulating as sweeping had been, because while that required a bit of physical dexterity, all this entailed was looking in the backs of old, dusty books and putting them in order based on series or publication.

On the off chance that he decided to actually take a closer look at any of the books, they all had one thing in common. The back page was always signed "Miss Lucy Simian" in the most girly, frilly handwriting Gumball had ever seen. It was enough to make him want to gag, but the fact that Miss Simian had signed all her books like this was also extremely funny. The oldest book he found was an encyclopedia from what was apparently 1790. The text was so old fashioned that it was nearly indecipherable.

Forget classroom, this junk belongs in a museum...

Just as he was shelving the last book, Gumball heard the unmistakable sound of a metal object falling on the ground. In a state of confusion, he quickly looked around for a sign of what could have fell, but after feeling around on the floor and finding nothing, he decided to give up.

"Hey, Mr. Small, I finished reshelving those books for - YEEOOWW!" Gumball immediately jumped up, he had stepped on something sharp and cold, and whatever it was, it was still imbedded in his foot.

"Gumball?! What's the matter?" cried Mr. Small as he rushed over to see what the problem was.

"Ahhhh! I stepped on something and it really, really hurts!" he cried out, tears streaming out of both eyes.

Mr. Small winced as he took Gumball's paw to see what was in it. "Yeah, it's in there pretty deep. I can see how that would really hurt."

"Get it out! Please!" Gumball moaned as loud as he could. Whatever was in his foot was extremely sharp.

"Okay, okay, just hold still, I'll just pull it out." Mr. Small tugged on the small piece of metal as hard as he could, and after struggling for a bit, he finally managed to pull out the mysterious object.

Gumball collapsed onto the floor, but gave a thumbs up to show he was okay. Mr. Small decided to take a closer look at the metal object. Because of a disgusting combination of being hidden away in a dusty bookcase for god knows how long, and covered in Gumball's foot grime as well as a bit of blood, it took a few washes to get the object compeletely clean, but once it was, Mr. Small marveled at the beauty of it.

It was a gorgeous silver ring. Slightly dull in some parts, but what else would be expected of something probably decades old? The sharpness of it was caused by a beautiful, kite-shaped gemstone that shined with a green, ethereal glow. Being a new ager, Mr. Small quickly identified the gem as jade. His heart swelled, as this was a precious stone that he had a special connection with. As a matter of fact, this ring felt strangely familiar...

"Oh yes! Gumball, are you okay? I think your time is up. Do you need a ride home?"

Gumball had gone to a broom closet to get a bandage, and was fixing up his paw just as the clock struck 5:00.

"That's alright, Mr. Small. I can walk," with that, Gumball took one step, and squealed in pain from his injured paw. "Actually, a ride would be nice. Thanks for offering."

"My pleasure, Gumball. This ring you found is quite beautiful."

"Oh yeah, it is pretty nice. Just do not drop it. You have not felt true pain unless you step on a sharp ring. Think I might need a tetanus shot."

Mr. Small wasn't sure if he should laugh at that comment or not, so he just shook his head and smiled.

"Alright Gumball, I'll take you home. I think I just need to make a quick stop before we go there. Is that okay?"

"A quick stop where?" Gumball asked, understandably nervous about his counselor's suggestion.

"Nowhere fancy, it'll only take a minute. Just Janice's house. Need to return this ring I bought her."