The Beginning

by Christopher R. Martin

Chapter 8 – It might not be so bad after all


The first day of the week was only just starting, and already it threw the first of its twists and turns.

In the hallways of Elmore Junior High, Gumball walked amidst a stampede of his fellow classmates. The trampling of Tina Rex did not seem to afflict him in any way. He did not flinch at the sound, nor did he shuffle out of her path. Not that he was blocking her off or could do such a thing.

Then again, he always had his Marvelite piece in tow, and just about anything could happen. He could never know.

Speaking of not being able to see anything coming, he made his way past the principal's office and overheard a conversation unfolding inside. His curiosity coming to life and screaming in hunger, Gumball froze in place and stepped back closer to the door. He leaned his ear against the wooden surface and sealed off his senses from the rest of the world.

"Are you sure you're alright, Lucy?" the first of two voices spoke. Principal Brown.

"For the fifth time, I told you I'm fine," the second voice responded, agitated yet disheartened. Miss Simian. "There is nothing wrong with me. Why do you keep asking?"

"I don't see any harm in showing my darling how much I care about her."

Gumball pulled his head off of the door so that he could repress his reflexes. Particularly the one that forced him to throw up. But he couldn't help himself, especially not when it involved Brown and Simian's little intimacy. He swore that they spent their free time making stupid faces, uttering baby-ish nonsense, sucking face or even wor—

No, no, no. No!

Refusing to go that direction, Gumball shook his head clear of any such thoughts. There was no need for the psychological scars. Everyday life was rife with them as it were.

"Nigel, I'm flattered and all, and I'm grateful. Really, I am," Simian continued. "But in all honesty, I think this will be a good thing. Not just for me, but for the entire school. Oh, who am I kidding? I'd be doing Elmore justice."

"Okay, you've made your point," said Brown. "I guess what I meant to say is that it's rather—oh, how can I say it?—unbecoming of you to take a vacation leave, let alone for an entire month. I know you're entitled to it, and everyone could use some rest and relaxation, but my point still stands."

"Well, you know what they say. There's a first time for everything. Besides, after these past few days, I need to reevaluate my life anyway. I've thought this over long and hard."

"I know you have. This school just isn't going to be the same without you, Lucy."

"It may not be the same, but it doesn't mean it won't be in worse shape."

You wanna bet on that, sister? Gumball thought humorously, as a way to abate some of his guilt.

"So, can I? Oh, and while we're at it, let me just quickly write this note for the substitute teacher. 'Please notify the class about a one-week extension on their History assignment and about my'…"

Having heard enough, Gumball continued down his original path and entered his classroom, where his peers kept to themselves in their respective activities. This was one of those mornings where the boys were delegated to one side and the girls to the other.

Rather than mingling with his own kind, however, the blue cat child settled himself at his seat. His mind was heavy, and his heart heavier.

He pondered on the conversation he had just heard between Simian and Brown, focusing hard on the topic at hand. An entire month of school without Miss Simian's overbearing presence constantly monitoring them. This would otherwise be a blessing in disguise for him and his classmates. A dream come true. A fantasy made reality. He should be happy, bouncing up and down, somersaulting—or at least failing to—cheering and exclaiming to the entire world.

But he wasn't. Instead of being glad, he was bothered. Instead of feeling joy, he felt regret. Instead of him thinking that he had done his class a great service, this was a giant slap in the face to the entire school. A personal, intimate punch in the gut to one Lucy Simian.

Some things in this world were simply out of one's control. The rising and setting of both the sun and the moon, the chances of winning the lottery, the face that a die lands on, they were determined by chance, not by choice. But making a mockery of an accomplished teacher, making her out for the heartless brute that she could be more than, it was all on him. It was his fault. His fault. There was a fine line between hilarious and hurtful, and he had skirted over that line and on to the latter.

A creaking noise coming from the door urged Gumball out of his stupor and the rest of the class back to their desks. Entering the classroom was not Lucy Simian, but the cubic mammoth of a gym coach and Jamie's mother. That reminded him: where was Jamie today?

Squeezing herself into the classroom, the coach proceeded towards the middle. She attempted seating casually on the desk, only for the piece of furniture to snap into shards.

"Alright, class. Quiet down and take your seats," the coach ordered, wriggling her posterior. Removing a pencil that had stuck itself around that area.

We're already quiet and seated, just get on with it, thought Gumball.

Behind his back, someone was raising a hand to ask a question. It was Idaho.

"Scuse me, coach, but isn't Miss Simian here today?" asked the tiny spud in his dense southern accent.

"As a matter of fact, no she's not. And as a matter of fact, she left me this to tell you kids." The coach searched his person for the small sticky note Simian had supposedly given to her. Eventually pulling it out from seemingly nowhere, she held it in front of her face and cleared her throat. "She says that she's going to be away from school for one month. I don't know why exactly, but I heard her saying something about going on a getaway to the Bahamas while she was walking down the hallway."

Once the announcement had gone out, the entire classroom erupted into a cavalcade of cheering and hollering. The boys and girls were coming together in their merriment, including Penny and Darwin. Joe even did his usual schtick of stripping himself of his banana peel and swinging it wildly in the air as if it were a whip of some sorts.

Gumball remained in his seat and buried his face in his arms, encumbered by his own thoughts. By the guilt that swelled in him. He paid no mind to the coach's orders, which his mind registered as garbled gibberish. She was most likely ordering his classmates to settle down and return to their seats.

He then felt water sprinkling on to his face. It went on and on until he forced himself up and exchanged looks with the coach. Disgust quickly took hold as he realized it was saliva, not water, that he was being sprayed with. The coach's whistling attempts may have failed—again—but she still had his attention.

"Thank you for returning to the land of the living, Gumball," the coach bantered aridly, moving back to the front of the classroom.

"No problem at all," Gumball muttered through clenched teeth, repulsed, scrubbing the spit off with his sleeve.

"Now then, where was I? Oh, right. Miss Simian also wanted me to tell you that you've all been given an extention on your History assignment. The deadline is now Friday of next week instead of this week."

The statement was met with another round of applause. This ovation wasn't as uproarious as the one prior, not as ear-crushingly loud, but still loud enough that it filled the entire room.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," said the coach, grabbing a clipboard and pen from the remains of the desk. "Just because Miss Simian isn't here doesn't mean you have an excuse to slack off. Until she comes back, I'm going to be keeping my eyes on you."

Even her warning did not abate the cheering of the entire class. Nothing could ever hold a candle to the things that Simian had ever done.

The Marvelite shard glowed in Gumball's pants, alerting him.

"Something on your mind?" Remy asked, his tone indicating his concern.

"We might have gone a little overboard, Remy," Gumball thought, his guilt tearing away like rust on metal.

Remy was just about to whip out another one of his wisecracks, but stopped himself before he could. "I guess you're right," he admitted shamefully.

Little did he know that Darwin had cut his cheering short to inspect him. To watch the private conversation and confirm his growing suspicions on him.


"Hey, Jamie. I was just looking for you." Gumball waved his hand in the air as he crossed the hallway and bade the troglodyte girl warmly.

"Watterson! What do you want?" Jamie gasped and turned the other way.

As she sprinted off to the opposite direction, Gumball sighted the cast on her right arm and the sling that kept her limb aloft. There was enough time to feel guilty, but now he needed to make his wrongs right.

"Jamie, wait a minute!" he shouted, giving chase to the injured bully.

Not wanting to give the blue cat the time of day, Jamie tucked her head inside her person and strained her eyes closed. She ran as quick as her feet allowed, which thankfully weren't broken, relying on her intuition to lead her away.

Her thoughts swirled in her mind as she traversed the hallways and down the flight of stairs. As if the rest of her life wasn't miserable and pathetic enough. Between being held back one grade, having her own mother work at her school and finding solace in only one person who may or may not leave her side whenever it'd be convenient for her.

Now she had Watterson on her tail. Watterson, who through a stroke of luck had made her look like the fool and not the other way around. Gumball Watterson, who played her in her own game. That had to be the lowest blow of them all. Not her academic shortcomings or her mother's intrusion in her life.

Why wouldn't he leave her alone? Was that really too much to ask for? Didn't he have better things to do?

Jamie asked herself these two questions over and over and over again. She glanced over her shoulder on occasion. He was still there. Still trailing her. He didn't know when to quit. She had to give him credit for that.

She dwelt on each of these thoughts until her path had led her to a janitor's closet next to the boiler room. She leapt inside and used a mop as a makeshift barricade. For a moment there, she was able to breathe easy, close her eyes and relax her entire body.

But her respite did not last for more than a minute. On the other side of the door, Gumball knocked and called out to her.

"Jamie, I know you're in there," said Gumball in a sing-song voice.

"No one's here!" Jamie cried. Not quite what she should have said, but if it could get him to leave, then she had no reason to complain.

Refusing to give up on his apology, Gumball leaned on the adjacent wall and let out a sigh.

"Fine. Have it your way," said the blue cat. "I just want to tell you that…"

Strange. The words weren't coming out. This was harder than he expected. As though he needed to swallow something first. Something like a pill. A pill that tasted strong and was rough on the throat. Or his pride.

A second of hesitation later, he pulled away from the wall and stared at the closet door. "I want to tell you…that I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fracture your arm, and I didn't mean to make you spill your lunch all over you."

Jamie had her hands over her ears, but gently removed them as two specific words embedded themselves into her brain. Those two words were 'I'm' and 'sorry'.

Outside, Gumball continued his apology. "If I'd watched where I was going, then we wouldn't be here right now. None of this would have happened. You don't have to forgive me if you don't want to. That's perfectly fine with me. I just wanted to let you know."

Swayed by his words, Jamie leaned her ear against the door.

"And if it's going to make you feel better, then I'll let you go to town on me. You can punch me, kick me, bite me as much as you please. I'm not going to run away."

The school bell blared just as Gumball was finishing.

"Anyway, I'm heading back to class now, and you probably should too. Catch you later."

Footsteps rung outside once the bell had quieted down. With Gumball having finally left, Jamie leaned on the door and sighed. There weren't any tears arising in her eyes, but if there were, she wouldn't prevent them from falling down her face. From streaming along her cheeks and onto the ground.

Soon enough, her eyes had become misty, and she sniffled now and then. Contrary to what Gumball had told her just now, she was glad that he had bumped into her. That he had spilled her lunch all over her, and that he had—by no fault of his own—broken her arm. Otherwise, she would not know that there were other people out there besides her mother, her father and Tina who cared about her. That between everything that was wrong with her life, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

The first time Gumball and his 'mutant pet' had tried reaching out to her, she thought it was just a front. She convinced herself that she had no need for them at all. But this attempt was more sincere, more genuine.

And contrary to another claim that Gumball made, she didn't have her usual persistent urge to hurt someone. Not right now. Probably not for a while.

Of course, no one would ever know that. No one would find out about any of this. No one would see how much of an effect Gumball has had on her. Not her fellow classmates, not the faculty and staff, none of them. They didn't need to know. She had to be tough, to show some presence, for her sake.

To her chagrin, there was a knocking on the closet door again. Releasing a frustrated groan, she rose from the floor, cast the mop to the side and swung the door open.

"What do you want now, Watterson? Can't you see that I—" she shouted, expecting to find a cowering, sweat-drenched Gumball on the floor. Her glower softened.

It wasn't him. It was the other Watterson kid. The quote-unquote 'mutant pet' of their already zany family.

"Sorry to bother you," said Darwin as he rebounded from the outburst. "I'll be on my way now."

Frustrated at herself, Jamie groaned and rubbed her temples.

"No, wait," the troglodyte attempted, taking two steps out of the closet. "I should be the one apologizing."

Darwin faced her with an eyebrow raised. Apologies were uncommon with her.

"Huh?"

"You're obviously here to do something. What is it?"

"Ah." Darwin scratched the back of his head and gave out several discomforted chuckles. He quickly regained control of his nerves and spoke. "I thought I'd let you know that class is starting. I saw you running down the halls and caught up with you here."

"Oh, okay." Jamie's eyes were towards the floor. She ignored the fact that she had been followed the whole time and focused on a more surprising fact.

That was two times in a row now. Two times in—what was it, five minutes?—that someone has shown her any sort of care or attention. That someone has seen her as more than just a brute, more than some petty hoodlum. An odd sensation swelled in her chest. It was foreign. She hardly if ever felt it. It was soft. Warm. Calming. It resonated with her. It urged her to let her defenses down, if only for this moment.

Heeding these prompts, she brought her entire self out of the closet and drew close to Darwin. She didn't know what to make of it, how to follow through on this sensation. But she would never know unless she gave it a chance.

Darwin had shifted his face away from hers and braced himself for a punch, but eased himself when he found that it did not come.

"Care to go for a walk?" asked Jamie, her voice humbled.

Remembering his etiquette, Darwin stepped to the side and gestured with his fins. "Lead the way," he said, grinning warily. He immediately affirmed his smile as they began the walk back to the classroom.

On the way, Jamie found herself getting more and more accustomed to the idea walking alongside some other student not named Tina Rex for a change. Even with how odd it seemed at first glance, she grew to like it. And before long, she had settled enough to have a conversation with Darwin.

She first thanked him for going out of his way to personal find her and remind her about their class, but her pride made it somewhat harder than necessary. That was yet another streak she was keeping track of – words, phrases and sentences that wouldn't usually come from her mouth. First 'sorry', now 'thank you'. What was next? 'I love you'?

The more she spoke to him, the more comfortable she had gotten. She then told him what had happened several minutes ago. Why she was running down the halls and into the janitor's closet. She illustrated to Darwin how his brother went out of his way to apologize to her for breaking her arm. How he said to her that she was free to beat him up as she pleased should they come across each other again. She told him all of this with no shame of any kind, making sure that she hadn't skimmed on any details.

Darwin took every sentence, every last word, every little syllable to mind and to heart, and was swayed by them. Gumball sitting down with a school bully was nothing new; he and Tina Rex have sat down and talked it out on a number of occasions, settling whatever dilemmas they may—or may not—have had.

If what Jamie had said just now, about Gumball being the bigger man and burying the hatchet between him and her, really was true, then it really goes to show what he had brought up to Anais the other day: Gumball was not the naïve, bumbling, oblivious boy he once was. And this change has done him and a lot of other people more good than anyone realizes. Perhaps it has done more good than bad.

"He actually did that?" asked Darwin to be sure.

"Yup. In a way, I'm kind of glad for that," said Jamie, a hint of a smile showing on her countenance.

After crossing the hallways and stairwells of the school, Darwin and Jamie were nearing the end of their walk. The classroom was within their line of sight, but before opening the door, Jamie faced Darwin to ask him one last thing. One small favor.

But she wasn't requesting so much as she was commanding, forcing. Coercing. She crinkled her face into a glower and moved close to the orange fish boy.

"Let's make one thing perfectly clear here, Watterson," Jamie uttered lowly, her eyes daggers into Darwin's soul. "No one finds out about any of this?"

Darwin brought his right fin across his mouth in an imitation of closing a zipper and raised the same fin in the air. "You got it. My lips are sealed," he stated.

However, there was a lot more to the request—demand, command—than what he assumed.

"No, no, no," said Jamie, shaking her head furiously. "I mean none of this goes out to anyone. Absolutely nothing, absolutely no one. If I find out that so much as a peep about this comes out of those fish lips of yours"—she leaned her forehead against his and narrowed her stare—"then I'm making you a permanent resident of Uppercut Village. Do we have an understanding?"

Typically, Darwin would be shaking in his shoes when such a threat was made. But this time, he did not. He took the words to heart, but was unmoving as a boulder and completely calm. Jamie's threat was met with a smile and a nod.

Darwin made another zipping motion, except this time his mouth really was sealed, with an actual zipper over it. With the same fin, he gave Jamie a salute.

"Aye aye, ma'am. Loud and clear," cried Darwin in an exaggerated fashion. His holler would be easy to take seriously if it weren't muffled behind his zipped-up mouth.

Jamie had to fight the urge to chuckle, but it was a losing struggle. She dropped her glower for a snicker and a grin. He had understood her, but did he have to salute?

In any case, she opened the door and set her foot inside the classroom, but not without telling fish boy, "Thanks."

Darwin entered the door too and proceeded to his desk. Gumball was there at his seat, conversing with Penny. His pocket wasn't glowing right now, so the orange fish boy kept to himself.

If his suspicions were correct and he was not going crazy, then these turn of events so far have affected Gumball a lot better than he thought. He did say that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And that was exactly what these past few days were.


"That seriously happened? You actually farted him out?"

"No lie. That's how it happened."

"Ugh! That's disgusting!" Remy declared with a laugh, flicking a marshmallow into his mouth. "If only I were there to see it."

"It was priceless."

"As a matter of fact, I want to take a look at it for myse—"

"No!" Gumball cried and grabbed Remy's arm as he was about to summon another realm-jumping gale. "I think you're digging into my head enough as it is."

Vexed, Remy pouted and resumed with his bag of candy. "Killjoy," he remarked, chewing on a second marshmallow.

Shaking his head, Gumball yielded and returned the remark with, "Some other time, 'kay?" He too continued stuffing his face with sweets.

As per their agreement, Gumball had shared another one of his adventures to Remy. The story for tonight's dream was one that stood out in his head moreso than any other. Personally, it was one of his favorites.

He had told him about the one time he discovered his 'real name' – Zach. At the time, it seemed like literally the coolest thing on the planet. It was much less embarrassing than 'Gumball', and upon finding out the name, he wore it with pride. A badge pinned on his shirt.

With this new name, his life had started to look up and take a turn for the better. He had never been more confident, more determined and more capable. Just hearing other people refer to him by an actual name was a music note sung by the most graceful voice ever. The more he heard it, the longer he wore the name, the greater his pride in himself became.

And therein lies the problem. He had grown far too proud, too full of himself, for his own good. His ego had inflated until it was the size of an entire continent. That pride and ego then manifested itself into a sentient being with a will of its own. This new entity was determined in making itself the only one that mattered. The one true Gumball in existence.

In order to accomplish this, this other Gumball—this Zach—sought out to erase every last trace of the original. Making alterations to his memories that fitted its image, that was according to its vision. Every failure, he had transformed into a success. Every loss, he had altered into a victory. Every mistake, every misstep, wiped clean from the slate.

To his own dismay, Zach's continent-sized ego was ultimately his greatest undoing. For how confident and how full of himself he was, failure was never an option for him. It wasn't even part of his vocabulary. He wanted excellence, perfection, and anything less would not do for him. But for every little word the people of Elmore had used to describe Gumball—lazy, bumbling, stupid, incompetent, and everything else in-between—he was not afraid to stumble every now and then. Mistakes, failures, shortcomings, they were just an essential part of life, after all.

Zach could not comprehend that—would not comprehend that. He refused to. And while Gumball always found himself back on his feet after getting knocked down, the same could not be said for Zach.

"Do you have any regrets?" asked Remy, finishing his treats and discarding his bag for the breeze to carry.

"Sometimes," Gumball replied with a shade of wistfulness in his voice. Zach had a nice ring to it in the first minute or so.

Helping his cat friend to his feet, Remy cracked a smile to soothe him. "If it helps, I think it was cool what you did. I can imagine how much you had to give up."

Gumball had no answer to that; in hindsight, he had given up a lot. But if anything, it was a good thing that Zach stayed down. For Gumbal, he much rather preferred to be remembered for the lazy and inept goof that he was instead of the absolutely perfect guy that he was not.

"Besides, you're more of a 'Gumball' than anything. I'll take it over 'Zach' any day of the week," Remy added.

"You're just saying that." Gumball gave Remy a jab on his right arm and moved away from the cliff.

Remy, struggling to find the proper words, eventually answered with, "Okay, maybe I am. And even so, it takes a lot of guts to have a name like that."

Lowering his head at an angle, Gumball chuckled and shuffled towards the mountain. A little credit to himself wouldn't hurt anyone, and Remy did have a point.

"Anyway, where are we off to now?" the feline asked, putting his paws on his waist.

"You already know the answer to that. Now hold tight," Remy stated, rubbing his hands together.

In no less than ten seconds, a gale whipped up above and around the two boys. The current of wind carried them above ground and out of 'Old Elmore'.

As they were being taken from one realm to the next, everything around them began to vibrate. Bursts of static fizzled at an irregular interval, causing Remy to stain his face and break a sweat. The turbulence threw him off his focus and took away his momentum.

"What the heck is going on?" shouted a weary Gumball, looking left and right. Trying to make sense of this static.

"I'm not sure…" said Remy, groaning from keeping him and his friend aloft. Compared to Gumball, he was calm for most of the predicament. "Whatever it is, it's nothing to be afraid of, but it is getting in the way."

"What are we supposed to do?"

Remy looked over his shoulder. "Try opening your eyes."

"They are open!" Gumball called out in the screaming wind, in the midst of the static.

"I mean wake up!" Remy yelled back, mustering enough energy to conjure up a gaping spatial tear of white underneath him. "It's not something that's interfering, it's someone. I think someone's trying to get their hands on the stone on the other side. See if you can get him off your back."

The last word brought forth a gasp from Gumball. He started asking different questions, every last one of them of equal importance. A person was behind this? Who could be awake at this late an hour? Was it a burglar or a kidnapper some other kind of criminal

And more importantly, how did it know about the Marvelite in his possession? Was it what this man or woman was really after?

"Wakey wakey, Gumball!" shouted Remy.

Gumball heeded the prompt and dived out of the gale and into the white void.

In his room, he pried his eyes open. As he rose up, two separate voices screamed simultaneously inside the room. The first was his, obviously. The other did not belong to a burglar. It was too high-pitched and feminine.

Gumball saw who the voice belonged to and was nonetheless stunned as to who this person was. His bewilderment did not stem from fear, but from betrayal…

"Anais?" the cat asked, moving his legs over the edge of his bunk. Staring at his younger sister who he had accidentally thrown off of him.

Recovering from her fall, Anais exchanged looks with her brother. Whereas his stare was one of sheer disappointment, hers was one of fright. All that time spent planning her little gambit, and she had no justification to get herself out scot-free.