Narrator POV:
"Hey, Cake-"
"No." Cake cut her sister off before she could even finish her sentence, she knew exactly what she was going to say.
"You didn't let me finish!"
"Did it have something to do with school and adventuring?"
"Only 70% of it..." Fionna pouted.
Cake took notice to Fionna's childish pout and crossed arms, she was already 16 yet she still acts as though she's a preschooler.
"Don't get so mad, we're almost to the Candy kingdom." Cake tried to cheer her sister up, but the only response she got was a muttered yeah. The sisters went a little ways longer in an awkward silence, Fionna was so focused on pouting, that she didn't notice the letter that she had received this morning had been snatched out of her hand.
"H-hey!" She gasped when she realized it was gone, she looked up seeing the floating figure of her vampire friend, Marshall Lee.
"Hey Fi, what's this?" He purred opening the letter to try and urk her, it was one of his favorite pass times after all.
"Marshall Lee, don't go taking my stuff like that you jerk face!" She reached out trying to take her letter back, but ended up knocking the umbrella he used for shade slightly out of his grasp.
He hissed at the slight contact of sunlight and dropped the letter, giving Fionna the opportunity to snatch it back from the blood sucker.
"Hah! That's what you get for taking peoples stuff!" Fionna stuck her tongue out for emphasis, Cake simply rolled her eyes at her sisters childishness.
"Jeez, you're no fun," Marshall deadpanned poking the burned mark on his hand and hissing. "But seriously, what's in the letter?"
"Oh, well I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you. You are a close friend anyway."
"I'm honored you think so highly of me." He remarked as he floated along side the two sisters, Fionna flipped the letter open to show him, he gingerly took the letter from her grasp and scanned the words that were neatly written on the paper.
"School? Oh yeah, I remember that. I ended up being forced to go when I first came here."
"Was it fun?" The adventurous excitedly asked, her eyes glimmering with hope-
"Yeah, I don't really remember that much. Besides, I'm pretty sure I skipped most of the actual school part." Only to be disappointing with the empty answer. "Sorry Fi, but that was years ago so there's no way I can remember."
"It's okay, I'll just ask Gumball." She sighed taking the letter back from him.
"Is that why your heading over to Bubbas?"
"Yupp!" Fionna pipped, "He teaches at the school sometimes so I thought he'd be best to ask about it!" Cake silently glared at Fionna, it was actually Cakes idea after all.
"Really? How long is this school thing anyway?"
"Man you really don't remember anything, huh?" Marshall shrugged, it's been who knows how long, how does she expect him to remember? "According to Cake, I'll be there till next May. I'll get days to come back and visit though!"
"Till May?" The vampires eyes widened, he knew school wasn't exactly a short period of time, but for almost a year she would be there?
"Heh, you seem surprised. You gonna miss me Marshall Lee?" Fionna teased her friend. Marshall's slim, grey fingers flicked her forehead making her instantly feel a shock of pain.
"Like I would miss a little twerp like you, then maybe I'll actually have time to myself." He added, but even he knew it'd be deathly boring without the blonde adventurous running around and occasionally dragging him into her adventurers.
"Okay you two, we're here," Cake grumbled, just before Fionna was about to sock Marshall in the face.
"Yay!" Fionna instantly turned from her sour mood to happy, hopping off Cake's back and into the colorful castle.
"She's like a child." Marshall muttered to no one person in particular.
"You don't have to tell me." Cake shrunk back down to her normal size and followed behind Fionna with Marshall Lee close behind.
She quickly found Prince Gumball in his lab where he normally was with his experiments and such. He looked completely concentrated and unaware of his surroundings as he carefully tried to mix two substances, Fionna had at least the courtesy to calm down until he was finished with whatever it was he was doing.
However, Marshall Lee didn't.
As soon as the mischievous vampire walked in and caught sight of what PG was doing, a smirk spread upon his lips. He nonchalantly sauntered over to the pink haired fellow with his hands in his pocket, just to show how easily he was going to carry out his plan.
"Marshall!" Fionna called out in a whisper of worry, it was never good when he wore a smile like that.
Marshall ignored his human friends protests and stealthily slinked his hands near PG's sides, in one swift motion he stabbed the science geeks sides with his index fingers on either side.
"Eep!" The prince cried in a rather girly manor, dropping both the beakers he had with a crash onto the counter tops. Luckily, both the substances weren't on the high side when it came to acid, so nothing happened. Though, that didn't change the fact that Marshall had completely ruined his experiment.
"Hey Bubba, miss me~?" Marshall winked to annoy Gumball further, PG simply ignored him and cleaned the mess he has caused. Fionna being the nice person she was felt partially at fault for ruining hid experiment, after all she was the one who brought him along.
Wait a second. She stopped her moment of guilt, He invited himself over. It was nowhere near her fault. She thought to herself.
"Marshall you jerk face!" She suddenly bellowed throwing a strong first into his arm, something she had wanted to do earlier anyway.
"Glob Fi, you've been awfully violent today." Marshall remarked rubbing the most likely bruised spot on his arm.
"Yeah, well you've been more of a pest than normal!"
"Okay you two," Gumball butt into the argument between the two, "You guys have been like cats and dogs lately. Honestly, it's unsightly," He gave a glance to Marshall which he chose to ignore, "And unladylike." And another glance to Fionna who reacted the same as Marshall.
"Yeah Marshall, it's unladylike." Fionna muttered to herself but was still audible to everyone in the close proximity.
Marshall turned his glare to the blonde but held back from saying anything else that would further their fight, which took all in him to do.
PB let out a sigh, "Anyway, why are you guys here? I was in the middle of an experiment until you two came in. Or more like you came in." He gave a glare to the vampire.
"Why is everyone so serious today? I don't even know why I bothered leaving my nice, dark cave for this."
"I came here to ask about this thing called school, Marshall kinda just followed." Fionna clarified, Gumball did a complete 180 in his mood when she mentioned the word school.
"Ah, that's right you're 16 now, aren't you? This is great, you're going to love school! Here, follow me, we can discuss this with tea." He gestured for the blonde and Cake who had kept quite the entire time to follow, Marshall Lee also followed though he wasn't invited.
"So you teach science?" Fionna asked as peppermint butler set a cup of tea in front of her, but paid no mind to it.
"More so Chemistry and Biology, not too often though. I used to teach a lot more before, but I've been so busy lately. I only do it when their in need of a substitute."
"Really? Then I wanna take Biology and Chemistry too!"
"Heh," Gumball paused trying to figure out how to word what he wanted to say so it didn't sound insulting, "I don't know if those kinds of classes would suit you, but I know you'll defiantly like gym class."
"Gym?" Both Marshall and Fionna asked.
"Marshall, I thought you already went to school. How do you not know what gym is?"
"Isn't it obvious? I skipped almost all my classes."
"What?! How did you not fail?" PB was bewildered, though it shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise.
Fionna watched the two bickered back and forth and took the opportunity to try some of her tea. She watched as Marshall threw witty comments at the flustered Gumball and suddenly noticed something.
Over the four years since she and Gumball had first met Marshall Lee, she noticed that her and PB were starting to look more mature. Gumball didn't have the same baby face he did when he was 18, he grew just a tad bit taller and gained more of a masculine face. Fionna couldn't really tell the difference in herself, but people who've known the adventurist since she was in diapers were constantly telling her she had changed so much in the last few years, but she didn't get how since Cake was always telling her how childish she was for her age.
Then she shifted her eyes to Marshall, absolutely nothing has changed about him. He still stayed in his 18 year old form, even though he's over a thousand years older than them. It was strange seeing PB look older than Marshall, it was something that didn't settle right in her stomach.
"Meh, maybe I did fail? Who knows, I never bothered to even check to see if I passed."
"Marshall! This is really bad, you know if you don't pass school you have to leave Aaa?" Everyone in the room seemed to pause and process the words.
"Leave? As in go back to the Nightospere?"
"Well you don't have to go back to the Nightospere but-"
"You don't understand, I can't go back there! I can't." Marshall clutched onto the collar of Gumball's shirt with a look of desperation and plea written all over his face. Gumball studied his face and came up with the only thing that could really be done to solve this problem.
"Then I guess you'll have to go back to school." Gumball concluded.
Marshall heaved a long groan and fell back into his chair, "Is that really the only thing that can be done?"
"Yes, you should've thought of the consequences before you went and skipped all those classes." Gumball lectured placing a few sugar cubes into his cup before taking a sip.
"Um, question! So does that mean Marshall is going to school with me too?" Fionna asked excitedly.
Gumball took a glance at the vampire whose face was covered by his grey hands, probably to hide the despair that he was feeling from the news that was revealed. It's not like Gumball wanted to kick Marshall out, but as a higher up in Aaa, it was his duty to report these kinds of things.
"Yeah, it looks that way. Marshal, you shouldn't be so down. I mean, at least you still look the same as you did however many years ago it was when you first went to school, so it'll be as if it's your first time around!"
"Quit trying to make it seem better, I may not remember what this school place was like, but if I hated it enough to skip it must've been hell."
"You're over exaggerating." PG smirked taking a delicate sip of his tea, "Anyway, I'll send in your paperwork to the school later today."
"How the hell do you have my information?!"
"Isn't it only natural that I have the information of everyone in the land of Aaa? After all, I am the king of one of the most prosperous kingdoms."
"Prince. You're a prince, I am a king."
Gumball inwardly glared but continued, "Yeah, sorry, a prince. A prince that actually finished and passed school the first time around with straight A's." He couldn't help but make his last comment a bit snarky after Marshall ever so rudely corrected him.
Fionna could sense the situation taking a turn for the worst again. She and Cake had come over to talk to Gumball, but so far it's just been Marshall and Gumball arguing.
"Cake." Fionna leaned over and whispered into her sisters ear "You think we should leave? There's always another time, and now doesn't seem like a good one." Cake nodded in agreement, the two slipped out of the room going unnoticed as the guys started another session of arguing over nothing.
JESUS I SUCK, I would like to apologize and say I didn't mean for this update to take so long, and for a short and sucky chapter non the less. Build up chapters suck for both writers and readers.
I ended it off pretty boring-ly too, goodness gracious I'm going to try harder for updates not too take so darn long from now on, they'll continuously get longer too don't worry. I just wanted to wait till next chapter to introduce Flame Prince into the story is all, this chapter didn't have too much fluff but the next one should have a little FionnaxFlame Prince fluff.
Don't you worry your pretty little reader heads though, Both Flame Prince and Marshall will get their fluff moments, though I still haven't decided who Fionna will end up with. If you have an opinion on the matter feel free to review it because I'm indecisive and all like that.
Anywho, again sorry for the long update, I don't really have any excuse except for school and being a track manager, but those are pretty petty excuses. At the very least, summer is almost here!