Chapter 4: Decision

After the talk with his father, Gumball was walking home with his head hung low. He was staring at the number Triston gave him to call when he made his decision. It felt depressing to him. He didn't know how to react or think of the situation, and he was wondering what to do. "Should I go with him…?" he asked himself, thinking that it might be the only opportunity to get to know his real father. He was so far lost in his thoughts that he didn't even realize that he had walked all the way home. Gumball entered his home and closed the door behind him, making his way upstairs. That was until he bumped into Richard who wasn't paying attention, and he knocked Gumball down the steps again. He bumped into each hard wooden step before slamming into the carpet floor of the living room.

"Oh my god! Gumball, are you okay?!" Richard asked, rushing down the steps to him in the process of the fall. Gumball's sleeve had rolled up slightly, and while he helped Gumball up, he saw the tattoo and was somewhat surprised. "Get off me," he said, jerking his arm away in irritation. He fixed his sleeve while narrowing his eyes at his practical stepfather. Gumball stormed off upstairs. Now he was enraged just at the thought of this.

Gumball entered his room, slamming the door shut behind him and sitting on his bed. He sighed, but he saw his younger brother. Darwin was in his fishbowl taking a nap, but when the door slammed shut, it woke him up from his slumber. He stood up and climbed out of his fishbowl, normally disliking to sleep in a bed. "Dude, what's wrong?" the young goldfish questioned him in confusion wondering why he was so mad. "Oh, no reason… Richa… I mean, dad nearly killed me by knocking me down the steps. That's all," his older sibling answered still enraged by that.

Downstairs, Richard was going into the kitchen where Nicole was currently making dinner. "Hey, Nicole. Did you allow permanent markers back in the house?" he asked making his wife raise an eyebrow. "No, not since we had to replace that couch," she answered while setting plates on the table, remembering an incident with her children when they were very young. "Oh... Gumball had some weird heart thing on his shoulder and part of his hair by it looked shaved," the obese rabbit explained what he saw, only out of concern for what he saw as his son. "I'll ask him about it later," Nicole responded, too busy cooking and not dwelling too much on it since her children got into a lot of odd situations.

Gumball was lost in his thoughts for a while, and still he was steamed. He couldn't ignore the decision. Once Darwin was out of the room, he pulled out his cellphone and dialed Triston's number. He listened to the ringing sound pound into his ear for a moment. "Hello?" "Hey, dad... I'll accept your offer," he claimed agreeing to the offer he made earlier that day.

"Excellent! I'll pick you up at midnight," Triston told him before hanging up. Gumball couldn't help but start thinking of what he could do, wondering if this was a decision he could change his mind on if he wanted to. However, he was getting sickened from all the problems Richard caused, and the fact that Triston claimed to want to make up for all that time he lost, with what may be the last few years of his life.

In the meantime, everyone was downstairs. Nicole remembered what Richard said about the strange mark on Gumball's arm. "Hey, Darwin. Do you have any idea if Gumball's drawn on himself recently?" she asked her second oldest son. Darwin looked around nervously, but he sighed, since he would be in trouble if he didn't answer. After all, he knew how tough their mother was. She could run a marathon just out of pure rage without breaking a sweat. "He got a tattoo," Darwin admitted. This immediately made her eyes wide with rage. Anais and Richard both gulped as they saw Nicole stand up from the table. "Thank you for telling me, Darwin," she said in a calm tone before walking off, heading upstairs with all of her fury. It was scary to know how fast she could go in between the two emotions.

Gumball was lying in bed, not feeling anywhere hungry. He heard the door creak open as his mother entered the room, having calmed down from her own thoughts after noticing how strange he had been acting lately. "Hey, honey..." she said. Something was calming her down as she knew that her son had a lot of problems before.

"What?" Gumball asked sitting up with a confused expression. Nicole just sat down on his bed beside him. "Is, uh... something wrong?" she questioned. Gumball sighed. "No, nothing's wrong, mom..." Gumball responded wondering why she was asking. "I'm only asking because Darwin said you got a tattoo, and Richard claims he saw it. Is that true?" Nicole just tried to approach the topic as calmly as she could. "Yeah it is. And that idiot nearly broke my neck when he knocked me down the stairs," Gumball responded still angry at his practical stepfather. "Well, okay yeah. He's not too smart, but he's your father and that doesn't change the fact you got a tattoo without permission," she said while standing up. Her rainbow pin at night always looked creepier. The rainbow colors would all be black and gray like the light literally made the pin's colors alive.

Gumball couldn't exclaim how badly he wanted to tell her about Triston, but if he did, he would just cause other problems. He let out a sigh and looked at Nicole. "What's my punishment?" he asked, but Nicole shook her head. "Trust me. It'll be a punishment enough to get it removed. It's expensive. Maybe next time you'll think before doing anything like that without talking to me," Nicole answered, exiting his bedroom after that. Gumball in the meantime wondered why she would spend their money on his one tattoo.

End of Chapter 4