The Beginning
by Christopher R. Martin
Chapter 3 – Nothing more, nothing less
Gumball felt the gaze of his classmates boring in the back of his head. They had been staring at him for roughly ten minutes, and by the looks of it, it wasn't going to stop. They weren't looking directly at him, per se, but at the radiant stone he was holding. The Marvelite fragment given to him by Mister Emery at the Historical Museum.
By this point, Gumball had just about had it. He was going to lose his mind. Sure it was prettier than your average stone, rock or pebble, and it was nice to stare at for hours on end, but there was nothing else to it. And all this attention was making the bus ride longer than needed.
He let out a grumble and faced his peers with a glare.
"Can't a man get some privacy around here?" he exclaimed loudly, irritated. Ignoring the fact that either Jamie or Tina Rex were looking on, too.
His classmates dispersed and returned to their seats, mumbling annoyed remarks under their breaths. Gumball leaned against the backrest and sighed, drained from the constant staring he was getting. He closed his eyes in hopes that he'd fall asleep on the ride home, but that wasn't happening any time soon.
Darwin, who was sitting beside him as always, passed a concerned stare at his brother. And it was all because of the rock that he was holding.
"You alright, dude?" he asked softly.
Gumball's ear twitched, registering the question. He gave no answer. What he wanted was for the subject to be dropped altogether. Yet another wish that would go unfulfilled.
The field trip as a whole was not terrible. He did find the different aspects of the old Elmore fascinating. From the clothes to the cars to the jobs, he was intrigued by them in some form or another. But the whole 'Marvelite' attraction was but a gimmick. A gimmick to rack in visitors, a gimmick that for some reason worked on his classmates. He was looking forward to hearing the myth of Elmore's 'magic' debunked, but the explanation he received today was not the one he had hoped for.
And this 'souvenir' he was given served only to remind him of his dashed hopes, of his naiveté. To make matters worse, the rest of his class had since been clamoring and circling him only to bear witness to this supposed stone that made Elmore a reality. Like some kind of adrenaline rush. Some kind of temporary high. Exciting, invigorating at first, but not lasting long enough.
Peeking past his eyelids, Gumball glanced at his pet-turned-sibling and eventually opened his eyes fully. "Probably," he said, tucking the stone away.
"Tell me again why Mister Emery gave you that," Darwin stated, encroaching on Gumball's personal space.
"Again?" replied Gumball, exasperated. He groaned. "Fine. He wants me to see what I can find out about this rock. Told me something about 'unraveling the mystery behind Elmore's beginning' or something like that. He was actually pretty serious about it, I don't know why."
Darwin's eyes were aglow with wonder. That could only mean one thing – the greatest adventure anyone could ever ask for. And to the both of them, adventure was the name of the game. "He said that?" his mouth was wide in a smile, and his cheeks glowing a lighter shade of red. "Whoa! Gumball, do you know what you have right there in your pocket?"
"What?"
"An opportunity of a lifetime. You have no idea how lucky you are." The fish boy's mind was flooded with exciting thoughts as he spoke. "To be appointed such a great task. It's amazing. Just imagine what Mrs. Mom and Mr. Dad have to say about this. I mean, they're gonna—"
Having heard enough, Gumball grabbed hold of both of Darwin's cheeks and kept their eyes locked together.
"Get a grip, will ya!" shouted Gumball. As much as he disliked it, he had no choice but to pull the stone out of his pocket and shove it in his brother's face to emphasize his point. "Look at this! Look at it, and look at it hard! Do you know what this is? I'll tell you what it is: it's just a stone. A small, piece of nothing! Just because it's glowing like a rainbow doesn't mean it can do anything. For all we know, it can't do anything. So just do yourself a favor and give it a rest already!"
Gumball released his brother and turned his eyes away from him, exhausted from his rant. From the whole day. Hopefully, that would be the last time he ever had to speak of this matter. Looking out the window always seemed to clear his head, and that was just what he needed.
Darwin slunk along his chair, still processing his brother's rant. Unsure whether to believe him or not, teetering more towards the latter. Even now, there was much about the world that he didn't understand. And it was always Gumball who showed him how the world worked. It was him who told him the difference between a pizza cutter and a DVD, how to understand facial expressions and how to assert himself confidently. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew plenty enough that he wasn't a complete idiot.
But even then, he still had his bad habits. One of them was being stubborn, and another was insisting that he was right. These very qualities are what led them into trouble more times than he could count. Just to name a few, there was that time when the two of them lost their way in a forest during a class picnic. Not to mention the time where they almost lost their lives for having a joke at their father's expense.
And now he was refusing to accept this gift that was freely given to him. This gift that made Elmore into what it was today.
Darwin kept to himself and remained quiet for the remainder of the bus ride. If only his brother would open his eyes more often. He wanted him to see it from a new perspective, but knew that he would not listen to a single word and ultimately dropped the topic completely.
Nighttime has descended upon Elmore later that day, streetlights flickering on, illuminating the sidewalks and roads. The sun has long since departed to give way to the luminescent moon and the myriad of stars that were always in tow. The moon gazed down upon the world, its eyes blinking occasionally, mouth curved into a smile.
At the Watterson residence, Gumball lounged on the bottom of the bunk bed. He toyed with his pen, repeatedly clicking it open and close, as he toiled away at an assignment that his teacher had given his class during the ride back home. It was three pages long and consisted of ten questions, finishing with a seven hundred-word essay. These questions were about the field trip earlier today, and he had until Thursday next week to complete the assignment and hand it in.
Merely thinking about it like that forced him to roll his eyes. Great. Yet another reminder of his dashed hopes. That was just what he needed. As if a useless little stone wasn't enough.
"Hey, uh, where are you up to now?" asked Gumball, moving his eyes upwards. They landed on Penny, who was sitting on his chair typing away at his computer and filling out every blank on her own sheets of paper.
"I'm at question five," said Penny as she wrote, her deft movements creating beautiful cursive writings. "Why, what's wrong?"
"This is going nowhere." Gumball groaned, crashing his head on his pillow.
Penny moved over to the bed, smiling at Gumball and offering him her notebook. Gumball rose up and flipped the thing open, turning page after page. He couldn't believe it. She had actually taken notes during the field trip. She wrote about everything—and literally, everything—that was brought up this afternoon.
"Maybe this will help," said the young shapeshifter, caressing her darling by his lap.
Halting in his tracks, Gumball spared a minute to make the most out of Penny's touch. To relish it, to register it deep in his mind. He loved every bit of it. It was soft, deft and gentle as always. Just the way he knew it, just the way he loved it. He asked himself why he was ever embarrassed, ashamed, to let her know his deepest, most sincere feelings for her. To let the world see these feelings.
He then returned to the book and began with his assignment, writing at a leisurely pace. Penny joined in, nearing the end of her assignment. Every now and then, they'd discuss the question and give help when it was needed, throwing in the occasional small talk to keep things from being too dull.
It made up the next twenty minutes to half-hour. As the seconds wore on, the strife melted off of Gumball's shoulders, and he was now focusing on and enjoying Penny's company and nothing more. Not a single thought, not one remnant about today lingered, but even if there was, it couldn't hope to spoil this simple, pleasant evening.
There were still other ways to kill a moment, though…
The door to their side squeaked and swung open, and Nicole set foot into the room, astonishing both children. She had forgotten why she was in there and instead found herself helplessly endeared by what was taking place. Her chest had gone soft and warm as she jotted down an image of her little man and his girl sitting side by side, conversing for minutes—hours—on end and escalating into a kiss.
"Mom!" Gumball shouted, flustered. Darting his eyes to the wall to hide his flush from his mother. As futile as it was…
It took a while before Nicole remembered what she came here to do, but she took one more step into the room and leaned on the doorframe. She wasted little time and got straight to the point.
"Sorry sweetie," she stated sheepishly, giggling to herself. "Let's see, what was I supposed to s—oh, that's right. Penny, I just got off the phone with your dad, and he said that he'll be over in ten minutes to come and get you."
"Okay, Mrs. Watterson," said Penny politely, nodding her head.
Immediately after that, Gumball rose from his bed and trotted to the door. "Yeah, Mom. Uh-huh. Got it. I think we're all good now. I'll catch you downstairs for dinner. Alright? Alright." His speech was quick and mortified; he needed his mother out of his room as soon as possible. Of all the times that she had to stumble upon him.
Even as she was being pushed out the room by her son, Nicole's smile stayed on her. It was clear that she was happy for the two of them. "At any rate, it was nice of you to come by, Penny. We hope to have you over again some other day. Oh, and feel free to call me Nicole, okay?"
"It's my pleasure…Nicole," said Penny tentatively, trying to adjust to using her first name instead of her surname.
"And we're done here. Thank you." Gumball hastily crashed the door shut, resting his forehead against the wood. He shook his head slowly and was steadily descending into small, inaudible bouts of laughter. He could always count on his family to make things weirder than they needed to be.
As he took his time to gather his thoughts, a strange sensation shot across the lower half of his body. It was sudden and came from out of the blue. It was sharp, as if he had been poked with a fork or bitten by a mosquito. It was warm. He felt it most around his left leg, where he had put the stone away.
Gumball's teeth clenched in his mouth, behind his lips, his leg slightly tender. This stone couldn't really be behind this. It couldn't have a mind of its own. It couldn't be acting on its own. If it was, then he would have been warned about this. It would imply that it really was something special. Which it wasn't. He might have just pulled a muscle. How he did, he wasn't sure, but it made more sense than anything that kooky paintbrush ever said.
"Hey, um, Gumball, are you alright?" asked Penny, noticing that Gumball was staying at the door for quite some time now.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good," said Gumball, smiling at her and scratching the back of his head. He returned to the bed and added, "So, where were we?"
The sensation persisted throughout the night, even after Penny had already left. Gumball made no mention of it whatsoever to his family…
…because there was no reason to.
