Chapter 2: The Shooting Stars?
It was the middle of the day, and most of the students were getting their items and putting other items up in their lockers. All of them were getting ready for the field trip. Gumball was standing at his locker, pulling out the star doll and looking at the reflective black eyes that were sown carefully onto it, staring at them like there was something about them that interested him. "Hey, Gumball." Gumball silently yelped. He hid the doll behind his back and slammed the locker shut. "P-Penny! Hi!" Gumball responded in surprise. Penny Fitzgerald was an anthropomorphic peanut with antlers coming from it. She was his girlfriend who he had been dating for a couple of months, but not without slight interference from another boy. "Are you excited for tonight?" Penny asked with her cheerful tone. Gumball however felt nervous about how she would feel about his good luck charm he received from his mother.
"Y-yeah, of course! P-practically a big camping trip with the girl I love and my best friends. …W-what's that?" Gumball found her holding something in one hand. She held it up, showing a puppet spider that looked poorly sown. It was like if a puppet maker made it with very poor effort. "It's a doll of Mr Cuddles. My little sister made it for me a while back," Penny explained. It was a doll of their pet spider that more than slightly loathed Gumball, and had injured him majorly before. "What did you bring?" she then asked in return. Gumball reluctantly pulled the doll out from behind his back and showed the star plush. Penny giggled at her nervous love interest. "It's cute," she commented. Gumball was glad that there wasn't a joke at his expense.
They heard the loud static noise of the speakers that were set up around the hallway. The principal of the school wasn't the best at operating a microphone. "Attention, students. We are leaving in half an hour, so please gather up outside in a single file, please. That is all" the principle announced. The two listened carefully until the announcement was over. "Has Tobias been a bother lately?" Penny refocused her attention back to her boyfriend. Gumball shook his head. "A few punches, but nothing I can't handle," Gumball admitted. Tobias was a boy that had a jealous aggression against the feline for taking the heart of Penny. It was a love triangle situation that felt more like a slowly built slave pyramid for all the beatings he had received by the jealous boy. He had exaggerated when he claimed it was only a few, especially when it was far more than that.
"Hey, where's Tina and hector? I haven't seen them all day," Gumball tried to change the subject. "Tina's off sick and Hectors mom isn't letting him come. Obvious reasons," Penny answered. Hector, a giant friend of theirs had a bit of an emotional problem, and his mother was worried about how he would feel about the field trip. "Come on, I don't want to miss the bus," Penny offered her hand to him. Gumball smiled, gripping her hand with his walking alongside her. He did feel somewhat childish to be lugging around a toy star from his mother, but most of the students had brought old memento toys. It appeared that a lot of people believed in lucky charms making their wishes on the shooting stars come true, and they were ready to test it tonight.
Later on, Gumball sat on the bus, sharing a seat with Penny somewhere in the middle of the bus. Everyone was holding various objects that represented their good luck charms. They mainly oriented around childhood toys or family heirlooms of important values. Seeing all of this, Gumball felt less ridiculous since he knew that he wasn't the only one with a toy held out on the bus. Seeing all of his various friends and foes made him actually look forward to tonight. He noticed and watched the leader of this trip. Mrs Simian, a primate in a polka dotted dress with her long lanky arms crossed, was their aggravated teacher from their class.
"Alright, kids. Listen up. It'll take a few hours to arrive to the right area, but the good news is that by the time we get there, the shooting stars will begin shortly after," Mrs Simian explained the plan from there on. It seemed like a bunch of gibberish about camping, at least what the kids thought that out to be. The bus began moving, driving off and beginning to make its way out of junior high and eventually Elmore City.
Gumball was talking with Penny throughout the entire ride, but during some of their conversation they suddenly heard the voice of Gumball's main rival. "Hey, guys!" They turned their heads to a boy with a headband around his head, who was poking his head out over the seat. The good time they were having talking and passing time was rudely cut short by the practical bully Tobias. "What is it, Tobias? Don't you have better things to do?" the young feline asked with his ears lowered.
"Nah, I just wanted to ask if penny wanted to ditch the zero and get with a hero," Tobias smirked, his cocky attitude making the cheerleader turn her head away from him, facing towards the window in annoyance. "That line is as outdated as your headband," Penny spat in return, enough of an insult to get him to sit back down and go quiet. He used to be a slightly adequate friend of Gumball, but he had become more of a bully since Gumball started dating Penny, the one Tobias had been trying to woo all this time. Gumball tried to sleep throughout the rest of the trip, somehow drowning out the noise around him from every other student that was talking.
A little while later, Gumball was awoken by the bus slowly braking to a halt. He had smacked his head against the seat in front of him as the result. "We're here!" they heard Mrs Simian announce. Gumball peeked outside the window. It was dark already. He had wondered how long he was asleep, but he didn't care. The only thing outside was a big open area to view the stars from. He could see only a few in the sky, and they certainly didn't look like they were shooting. Gumball and Tobias were the first few to step off the bus while everyone else was getting their items.
"What is with you? I can't seem to go one day without you harassing me," Gumball couldn't help but strike a conversation by bringing their past friendship up. "Because, you took away the girl I loved," Tobias spat the obvious answer that felt more than ever nailed in at this point.
Suddenly, the two caught a glimpse of something shoot by, but seeing how close it was shooting by, it was coming towards them. The object swooshed over them and crashed right into the nearby forest. "W-what was that?!" Gumball shouted still gripping his star shaped plush, like someone had super glued it to his hand, mainly out of fear of his mother being mad if it got damaged or worse. He received no response. Tobias had a major curiosity about it and went off ahead without a word to check it out. His late friend wanted to stop him, but didn't care anymore, thinking of bringing it up to Mrs Simian later.
Tobias walked through the dark forest to find a bright light being obstructed by the forest's dense trees. Tobias approached closer and closer until he saw the object lying in the small crater, a pitch black star. Tobias was confused. "Oh man… I probably could become a millionaire with this thing," he thought aloud, reaching towards it slowly in case it was piping hot. When he touched it, the star exploded into a cloud of dark smoke that wound up encasing him. Afterwards, Tobias vanished within the strange smoke.
Gumball in the meantime was with Penny and many of their classmates, waiting patiently with their good luck charms to make their wish. The teachers leading the field trip were in another area setting up the tents. Not really caring over this whole event. They started to see the first shooting star, and it went right over them and crashed into the bus, blasting it into pieces. The students were all shocked and frightened by what just occurred so quick and suddenly. "Are you okay?" Gumball asked Penny. She had taken to hiding on the ground out of fear. He grabbed her hand and helped her up. "Y-yeah. What was that?" she asked, but no answer was needed. Everyone could see a star that had crashed into the bus, a major oddity that muddled their minds in confusion. And was not supposed to happen, the stars were meant to shoot through the sky. Not crash toward the viewers at max velocity.
Gumball suddenly felt startled. He thought he heard Tobias laughing, but it seemed like no one else could hear it. He looked to his shaken up sister and startled brother. They found a rain of shooting stars beginning piercing through the skies, but as they noticed, at least half of them seemed to stop midway and suddenly get a weird dark glow around them. The stars flew straight for the students that then scattered like a frightened group of bugs. The stars began crashing into the ground in a fiery blaze. It was like a dangerous meteor shower had just started and devastated those who were here.
Gumball wanted to run, but then he heard something get whispered into his ear, making him question his sanity. "What about your wish?" The confused kitten looked around to see who had said that, but he noticed everyone was to preoccupied trying not to get killed by the falling stars. "I can help you and your friends, if you wish," the same voice that was high pitched and airy rang. Gumball just looked at the beady eyes on his star plush. He was not sure why, but he felt like something was forcing the words out of his mouth.
"...I wish we were anywhere, but not here!" he yelled. At the next second, he noticed everything around him turn grey; the fire, the ruined school bus, and all of his friends and classmates froze in place. He slumped onto his knees feeling drowsy, like something was putting him to sleep. He couldn't resist, as he feel into a deep sleep. He could hear Tobias' laughter haunting his sleep. Whatever he had just gone through was no way normal. That was all he was certain about.
End of Chapter 2