The following morning couldn't come soon enough, and to Darwin it really didn't. Yet when it did, he was exhausted. He had stood up late practicing how he would approach Crystal and ask her to go on a date, which he had decided to do by offering to buy her lunch, and by the time he actually went to bed he was so nervous about the events of the next day that he wasn't able to fall asleep. His brain was working at full throttle and his mind was swarming with pessimistic scenarios. What if he she rejected him? What if she would laugh in his face? What if she didn't like him at all?
The young fish was so tuckered out in the morning he nearly fell asleep in his locker when he went there to get his books for his first class, if it wasn't for Gumball scaring him awake before his eyelids closed shut by slamming the door to his own locker, which was conveniently next to his brother's.
"What was that for?!" Darwin shouted, trying to recompose himself from the scare.
"Consider it payback. And now we're even." The blue cat declared as he leaned against his locker and crossed his arms. "So, are you gonna do it?"
"You mean ask Crystal out?" he asked as he fished for his books in his locker. "I already told you, I'm serious about doing it. I'm just waiting for the right time."
"Uh, you might wanna reconsider that option."
"Why?"
Looking at his brother, Darwin saw he looked somewhat concerned about something, and as the feline pointed towards the far end of the hallway, he froze in realization to what had alarmed him: there was Crystal in her bowl, and talking to her was Tobias. No, not talking to her, hitting on her!
He couldn't hear what he was saying, but judging by his mannerisms and his body language he was clearly trying to put the moves on her. Eyes widened and heart beat accelerating, Darwin started to hyperventilate as he tried to figure out what to do.
"Wha… what… what do I do?!" he asked in panic.
"Do it, man! Just do it before he does!" Gumball replied as he proceeded to push his brother down the hallway.
"So yeah, I work out twice a day. Gotta keep these babies fit, know what I mean?" Tobias bragged as he flexed his biceps for Crystal with a flirtatious look on his face.
"Not really." Crystal said monotonously, bored out of her mind. Her happiness returned has she saw Darwin approach her, pushed by his brother.
"Hey, Crystal. Darwin has something to ask you." Gumball declared, giving the nervous fish a soft pat on the back. Darwin was about to speak, but Tobias slid between him and the mermaid.
"Beat it, Goldie." He poked Darwin where his nose should be. "She's into me, not you. And let's face it; she is WAY out of your league."
Fed up with Tobias' obnoxious snooty attitude, Crystal looked around the hallway for something that would shut him up, when she noticed a janitor's bucket only inches away from her bowl. Emerging from her glass container, she did her best to stretch and tried to reach it.
"She's already fallen for my charms." Tobias continued to brag. "So I suggest you take your cheap smelly sneakers and hightail out of – "
Before he could finish his sentence, Tobias was showered with a large quantity of dirty soapy water. Looking up, the three youngsters saw Crystal holding the janitor's bucket upside-down over Tobias' head, a wide devious smile across her face.
"Oh my, how clumsy of me!" she said in a mocking tone, throwing the bucket away. "I didn't see you there!"
She and her two friends burst into laughter as Tobias grumpily stomped down the hallway, his rainbow hair soaking wet and dragging behind him on the floor.
"Oh man, that was priceless!" Gumball commented, wiping away a tear from his eye. "Good one, Crystal!"
"He definitely needed to be brought down a notch." Said Crystal as she crossed her arms and turned her attention to Darwin. "So what did you want to ask me, Darwin?"
"Oh! I-I…" he stuttered, his nerves returning even worse than before.
He was taken by how beautiful she was. He didn't know how, but she seemed even more good-looking than usual. But then again, since he had only met her yesterday, maybe he just hadn't paid close attention before. But now that he was staring at her, all he had rehearsed the night before escaping his brain and his face reddening intensely, he realized how absolutely breathtaking she was.
"I-I was just…" he decided to try to ask her again, thinking of an entirely new approach. "You wouldn't happen to… I mean… Can you… I-I mean I… Can I…"
"Come on man, spit it out!" Gumball exclaimed, slapping his brother on the back and hoping that would make him say what he had to say.
"Can I buy you lunch?" he said in one breath, quickly covering his mouth with his fins and blushing even more profusely.
"Darwin…are you trying to court me?" Crystal asked a bit taken back, but in a good way.
"Maybe…" he muttered almost inaudibly, looking down at the floor. Crystal blushed.
"You don't have to buy me lunch… but I'll gladly have it with you."
Darwin's eyes widened as he looked up at her and saw her smiling widely at him. She had just agreed to have lunch with him, and he could barely believe it.
"R-really?"
"Of course! Why wouldn't I have lunch with the one who saved my life? Besides…" she stopped for a moment, blushing harder. "…I really like you."
Darwin's eyes widened even more and he had no idea what to say. If he hadn't expected to get a positive reply from his lunch invitation, he really wasn't expecting her to say that she liked him. Instead of talking he just stared at her in absolute shock, even when Gumball waved a hand in front of his face.
"Is he OK?" Crystal asked, starting to get worried.
"Yeah, he'll be fine in a minute." Gumball declared as he turned to her. "He'll meet you in the cafeteria at noon. How does that sound?"
"Sounds great! Tell him I can't wait."
"I will." He proceeded to turn Darwin in the opposite direction, who seemed to be petrified, and started pushing him away. "Seeya!"
"Bye!" she waved as he took his brother down the hallway.
He managed to push him all the way to the other end of the hallway, and when he saw Crystal was nowhere to be seen, he snapped his fingers in front of Darwin's face.
"Dude, snap out of it!" he snapped three more times before Darwin started to come to.
"Uh?" he looked around disoriented. "What happened?"
"You froze up when Crystal said she likes you."
"Oh yeah…" he sighed, gazing up dreamingly. Gumball rolled his eyes.
"I told her you'd meet her in the cafeteria at noon. Sounds good?"
"Great! Thanks!" he started to walk away, but suddenly stopped and faced his brother. "Oh, and before I forget…" he placed himself behind Gumball and slapped the back of his head.
"OW! What the heck, man?!" he exclaimed, rubbing his sore spot.
"Now we're even." Darwin said with a victorious smile, placing his fins on his hips.
Lunch time came around in no time, and all the students of Elmore Junior High were in the cafeteria enjoying their deep-fried trans fat-y meals. Darwin had insisted on buying Crystal lunch, despite her telling him otherwise, and now they were sitting together and enjoying each other's company as they ate.
"I've never had a real cheeseburger before." Crystal said as she munched on the burger Darwin had bought her. "I have to say, it's delicious!"
"Yeah, they make the best burgers. But stay away from the fish burgers." Darwin warned her before taking a bite out of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"They make fish burgers? Yuck!" Crystal was disgusted by the cruelty towards her own kind.
"I know, it's revolting."
They looked at each other and shared a smile, but were rudely interrupted by Leslie, who suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and sat down between the two.
"Well, hello there!" he greeted them as he sat his tray down on the table. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I just saw you two lovebirds from across the room and just had to come see how you were doing!"
"Well, actually…" Darwin started. "…we were just – "
"Yes, fascinating." Leslie quickly interrupted him and turned to Crystal with a smile. "So Crystal, you have got to tell me who does your hair!"
"Uh, nobody, actually." she told him, slightly uncomfortable, as she ran her fingers through her immense locks. "This is natural."
"Oh shut up, that is just amazing!" he exclaimed in pure joy. "I would kill to have hair like yours! I can't seem to do a thing to my petals, and as much as I love them, I think I should…"
He continued to ramble on as the two aquatic beings stared at him boringly. Crystal looked over the flower's shoulder at Darwin, who seemed displeased with that whole situation, and shrugged, not knowing what to do about it. Darwin rubbed his chin for a second and then his face lit up as an idea occurred to him. He lifted his fin to signal Crystal to wait, to which she nodded, and descended from his seat to walk towards the other end of the cafeteria, where Tina was having lunch with Jamie and some other girls.
"Tina, may I have a word with you?" he asked the T-Rex, who raised a brow at him.
Back at the table, Crystal was bored out of her gourd as Leslie went on with what he thought he could do to improve his looks. Darwin returned not long after, a triumphant smile on his face. The mermaid wondered what he had done, when she heard loud stomping approach them. Looking up they saw that Tina was right behind them, staring down at the flower.
"Hello, Tina!" Leslie carelessly greeted the dinosaur. "How are you?"
"I'm fine." Tina growled in her deep voice. "In fact, I was just in the mood to play 'He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not'."
"Wha – "
Tina picked him up before he could finish talking, elevating him to her muzzle, and as he squirmed and tried to free himself he grabbed one of his petals and yanked it off, making him scream in agony.
"He loves me… he loves me not…" Tina sang as she continued to pull out Leslie's petals, the flower now crying in pain as the closest things he had to hair rained down onto the cafeteria floor.
When the flower was completely bald, so to speak, Tina dropped him and walked away, leaving poor Leslie sobbing over the loss of his looks as he tried his best to gather all the petals that were scattered across the floor.
"My petals! My beautiful, beautiful petals!" he whined as he stared down at the ones he held in his arms. He let out a loud cry and ran out of the room in shame. Crystal, who had stared at the entire spectacle in awe, could not believe what had just happened, and had the urge to follow after him and try to comfort him.
"Poor guy. Is he going to be alright?" she asked as she turned to Darwin.
"Yeah, he'll be fine. His petals will grow back in no time." he assured her.
"Oh. OK."
They stood in silence for a while until Crystal started laughing. She didn't know exactly why, but somehow the scene she had just witnessed struck her as extremely humorous, and she just couldn't stop laughing. Darwin joined her, also not understanding why she was laughing, but in return found her laugh to be very contagious, and so the two just sat there laughing until they cried.
Crystal and Darwin spent the remainder of the day together, making what was going on between them official to all their other classmates. Darwin couldn't be happier now that he was with the girl of his dreams, and inwardly so was Crystal. Not only had he saved her from her demise, but he was kind, funny, and absolutely adorable. She couldn't have asked for a better companion.
As the school day ended and everyone left, Darwin accompanied Crystal to the spot where she would wait to be picked up.
"I had a really great time today." she told him, gazing lovingly into his eyes.
"Me too." he sighed, placing a fin on her bowl. "I hope we have another one as great as this one tomorrow."
"Me too."
She leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek, the young fish's eyes widening and cheeks flushing bright red. She muffled a giggle as they both heard the school bus' engine start to roar, indicating that whoever wanted to get a ride home should enter it right away.
"That's your cue. I'll see you tomorrow." she spoke softly as she gently stroke his head with her hand.
"Yeah…" Darwin said with a goofy grin, staring into the distance as he hobbled towards the large yellow vehicle.
Watching him walk away and enter the bus, Crystal couldn't help letting out a satisfied sigh. Darwin was everything she had hoped for. When their gazes had locked that evening in the park she knew he had to be the one. There was no doubt about it. And now her dream was coming true. They were dating. She knew it was nothing serious yet, but she looked forward to when it did become serious. She felt she had a real connection with the brilliant gamboge fish, and she didn't want it to end.
He was the fish of her dreams.