Hello! I was planning on updating yesterday. Seriously, ihd the chapter DONE and ready to go, but noooo. That wasn't going to happen. It just had to be the day that my parent decides to screw with the Wifi router. But hey! Now I get to update, right?
There's reviews…
Guest: Why, thank you! And yes, you may be right… I'm not getting into details, though. You're not being selfish, either. I'll call it motivation.
Okay! Now that we got that out of the way, let's start!
After Gumball had left his homeroom, he had dropped into his next class, turned in all of the work
for the day, asked the teacher about their restrictions, and he was able to leave the classroom and do whatever until his next class.
He was now sitting under a tree near the football field, and was absentmindedly listening to the music playing from his headphones.
Gumball waited for his hour class to end before he popped into his next one and did the same thing. He had decided to head back to the tree, seeing that it was fairly comfortable.
Gumball was walking back to it when he noticed that Mr. Ricardio was sitting on the bleachers. Gumball waved to him, and almost immediately Mr. Ricardio had waved back.
'Odd that he was already looking my direction.' Gumball thought.
Gumball plopped his backpack on the ground near the tree. He dug in his backpack, pulling out his phone and his pair of pink headphones.
He put the jack into his phone and put the earbuds into his ears before opening his phone anf scrolling through the music options. Gumball chose a cover of "The Scientist" by Vitamin String Quartet. He leaned back against the trunk and closed his eyes, getting lost in the sounds.
A few songs had played when someone had kicked his foot. He opened his eyes and saw a jock standing above him. He took out one of his earbuds to make sure that he was listening to the guy.
"Can I help you with something?" Gumball asked.
"You can kiss my ass, you fucking faggot." the jock sneered.
Gumball absolutely despised that terms, but he wasn't going to let it get too far under his skin.
"Could you please leave me alone?" Gumball asked politely.
"You can't tell me what to do." the jock said.
"Fine. Then I will leave, and you can stay." Gumball said, picking up his backpack and stowing away his other earbud in his pocket along with his phone. He stood up and started walking away.
"Oh, no you don't." the jock said, grabbing onto Gumball's jacket and yanking him back.
Gumball fell onto the ground, letting out a small noise because of the impact. Without a second's hesitation, the jock kicked Gumball in the stomach, causing Gumball to start coughing and wheeze as he curled up and held his now injured stomach.
Gumball heard the jock walk along the grass before stopping somewhere close to Gumball's face. Gumball opened his eyes to see the jock, now squatting, reach out and grab a fistful of Gumball's hair. The jock yanked his head with the pink strands of hair, and spit in his face.
"Learn your place, faggot." the jock said, lacing venom in the slur. He slammed Gumball's head into the ground before standing up and walking away.
Gumball didn't do anything. He stayed on the ground in complete silence. He listened to the wind blowing, and he watched as a tiny lock of his hair in his vision quiver ever so slightly. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He lay there on his side, on the grass, thinking.
"Did this really happen again?" Gumball asked himself. He let his mind wander as he sat up. He leaned back against the tree, and let himself replay the past.
_Flashback_Begin_
It was 8th grade, and Gumball was on the floor of his school's hallway scrambling as fast as he can to pick up any salvageable papers. Behind him, he heard a rip of papers, and a crumpling of papers. He felt something drop onto his head, and Gumball looked up to see a friend turned enemy giving him a malicious grin before nudging him against the wall, making him land on his said. He got up quickly and went to pick up the rest of the papers.
It was now 9th grade, and Gumball was being shoved against a locker. The person that had done so grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him off the ground.
"Give me my fucking homework, fag." the guy said. Gumball nodded hurriedly, and the guy set him down on the ground so Gumball can scramble around to open his backpack and take out a stapled stack of paper. The guy yanked the stack of papers out of Gumball's hands, grinning.
"See? No fus, no fight. I'll see ya next week." the guy said before walking down the hall, leaving the pink teen on the verge of tears.
"I… I like you." Gumball stuttered.
"Yeah, man. I like you, too." the teen that Gumball had confessed to said. Gumball knew that he didn;t understand. The friend meant like as a friend, and Gumball meant like as a… well, as a crush.
"No. I mean, boyfriend like." Gumball tried to say, hoping that he would have to avoid the much more powerful "L" word.
The teen had stopped walking, and was staring at Gumball with a sense of confusion and disgust.
"What the fuck, dude?" the friend said.
Gumball could tell that this was getting very sour. Gumball swallowed. "Well… I thought that you would understand. You seem pretty accepting on this stuff, so I…I thought that…"
The friend didn't hear any of it. He pushed pushed Gumball away, causing him to stumble and fall.
"Freak." was all the other teen said before walking off.
_Flashback_Over_
When Gumball let his little memory montage finish up, he had noticed that it was now lunchtime.
Gumball was not at all intent on seeing his friends after something like that happening. Every single jock would be interrogated and possibly beaten up by Cake and Fionna by the end of the day. Even if he could face them with a convincing smile, there was no way he could wiggle his way with the condition of his clothing. Cake had a knack of seeing through his lies before they've even been said.
Gumball grabbed his backpack and stood up. He honestly didn't know what to do, now. He hadn't befriended really anyone else in the school, so it wasn't like he had a separate friend group to talk to.
'There's always Marshall.' Gumball thought.
A small smile spread on the pink teen's face. He could find Marshall and hang out with him. Talk to him about music. Get to know him better. That is, if he could find him. Gumball had no idea where he could find the teen. Gumball didn't know really anything about Marshall.
Gumball sighed in defeat, and sat down again, leaning against the tree's trunk yet again, as well. He pulled out his phone to just sit and listen to his music for the next hour.
Gumball was somewhat thankful that he had chosen to sit in a rather secluded section of the field, and that he had kept his lunch in his backpack. He did not want to risk the fact that he was away from his friends at the moment by going to his locker and getting it. He had brought a few more of the cookies that he baked the day before, as well as the pasta he had cooked for himself the night before.
Gumball sat in silence as he ate his lunch. He watched people around him talking and socializing. He noticed that he was the only person to not have someone to talk to. Well, not at the moment. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was happy.
Gumball had wondered, rather childishly, where all of the unhappy students were.
'The bathrooms.' Gumball answered his own question.
The notion made his mood instantly darken. He needed to stop thinking about that. He needed to bring his mind to other things. Academics? No, too simple. Music? It would help, but not get the job done.
Gumball whimpered as he brought his knees to his chest, and started rocking back and forth.
"Need to stop thinking. Need to stop thinking. Need to stop thinking. Need to stop thinking." Gumball whispered the mantra over and over again, trying to block out the thoughts, the memories, the fear.
And was failing miserably.
Gumball stood up rather quickly, before he went to the bathroom to check out the condition of his clothing.
He walked with lengthy strides across the schoolyard, trying to get to the school building as fast as possible. His breathing was ragged and short, but it wasn't from exercise. He was able to get to the school building, and duck into some of the nearest bathrooms.
When inside, he immediately went to the farthest sink and looked in the mirror, and he didn't like what was being reflected.
Grass and dirt stains covered all of one side of his jacket. Looking down at his pants, it was a similar situation. he looked at his face, noticing the dirt on it. His hair was partially flattened from the upward hairstyle he had left his house with. Blades of grass were mixed into the locks of his hair.
He ran a hand through it, getting the grass out of it. He turned the water on in the sink, got a paper towel, and attempted to try and rub off some of the dirt on his face and clothes. He had succeeded with his face, but he could only lighten the stains on his clothing. He sighed, knowing that they were going to be a pain in the bun to get out.
Gumball looked in the mirror again, assessing his appearance. It wasn't too bad. He could walk among the crowd without being called out for dirty clothing, but it wasn't all the way gone. Someone could see it, if they knew what to look for.
"What are you doing in here?" A voice startled Gumball. His head whipped in the direction towards the voice and he saw that Marshall was leaning against the bathroom wall, a smirk on his face.
Gumball cleared his throat. "I got some dirt on my clothes from sitting on the ground outside. I came in here to clean it off." He held up the paper towel that he was using to show proof.
"Is that so?" Marshall pushed off of the wall, and strode towards Gumball, hands in his coat pocket.
"Yeah. Do you think that I'm lying?" Gumball asked.
"Maybe. Maybe not. You can't read my mind."
'I wish that I could, though.' Gumball thought.
Marshall reached down and yanked the paper towel out of Gumball's hands.
"Hey, what are you…"
"You still have dirt on your face. Hold still." Marshall delicately held up Gumball's face under the chin. His cool fingers were sending chills down Gumball's spine as he felt the wet paper towel being rubbing his cheek. They both stood there in silence as Marshall did this. He turned Gumball's head to the side, having it face one way, then the other, and finally right at him.
"I think I got everything. You do realize that you can't get dirt on your face if you were actually sitting on the ground. If you were sitting, it would be on your… Why were you laying on your side?" Marshall asked, clearly showing concern in his eyes.
"Reasons." Gumball replied. He averted his eyes to the ground.
"Hey, I'm not blind. If you don't want to talk about it, fine. But seriously, I don't tolerate any bullshit pulled on anybody like this." Marshall said.
"Maybe I can."
"Keep telling yourself that, Gummy." Marshall stood up straighter and grinned. "Let's head to our next class, yeah?"
Gumball nodded before following the teen outside of the bathroom to his math class.
'I'm used to the pain, not this. What are you doing, Marshall?' Gumball thought.
They walked into the class about 5 minutes before they would be late. Mr. Ricardio was already sitting at his desk, pulling things out of his bag. Gumball didn't want to be in class, regardless of who was in that class. He'll stay in class for music, because hopefully it would only be he and Marshall, but he did not want to do it now.
"I'm assuming you're not wanting to stay in the class, right?" Marshall asked him.
"I don't think so. I'll be in music, but now is not the time for me to be in class right now."
Gumball went to the side, and set his bag on the floor. He sat on his heels as he unzipped the bag and took out today's worksheets. He stood up straight and walked over to Mr. Ricardio's desk.
"Um… Excuse me?" Gumball asked. Mr. Ricardio looked up and gave the pink teen a toothy grin. It was creepy to say the least, but Gumball didn't dwell on it long.
"Is there something you wanted to asked me, Gumball?" Mr. Ricardio asked.
"Yeah. I was wondering if I could leave the classroom if I turn in all of the work that you would've assigned us today now." Gumball held out the stack of papers that he had. Mr. Ricardio gave him a puzzled look as he took the stack. He thumbed through it, nodding as he did so.
"I'm sorry, Gumball. This work is beyond exceptional, but there is too much risk of you skipping class. I said this yesterday, you can do whatever you want, but it has to be in class."
Gumball swallowed. This was NOT what he wanted to go down. He wanted to hide, he wanted to get away. Not here. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be outside. There's open spaces outside. That's far better than a classroom. Far, far better.
Marshall placed a hand on Gumball's shoulder. Gumball looked up at the teen, who was gesturing him to sit down.
Yeah, sit down. Calm down. That's what he needed.
He needed Marshall.
Alright! I got it done! Now, I want to being this up again, if there is anyone that loves my writing style of something like that, I am taking requests for stuff to do. It doesn't even have to be Adventure Time! Comment or PM me your ideas!
See ya next chapter!
