A/N: Well, here's chapter ten of my story. I actually had a load of fun writing this one! I hope you enjoy it too! Oh, and by the way, I understand that last chapter might have upset some people, but I just wanted to make one thing clear is all. I made what happened be done, not on my behalf, but Carrie's for Darwin. I did not inject my own thoughts into the chapter; it was more along the lines of "an act of true love" statement, showing she cared for Darwin so much, that in her swept-up mind, she was defending him. You're free to choose however you wish to view it, but thats my say. Read away!

Add-on: Whoops! Accidentally forgot to display the poll on my profile! }) Ah well, it's fixed now. Sorry 'bout that guys, and for those who don't get this, just read my end note at the end of the chapter. Again, sorry, but kind of funny too. X)

In front of Gumball stood none other than the infamous talking yellow ice cream woman, Sarah Lato. As though it were mocking him, her cherry lipstick smile so pleasant and sweet looking insulted him and his swollen eyes. Though she considered him a friend, he always a hard time letting her into his life, though given the history, it might as well have been his affairs. Every time she got involved, it only made things worse, or crazier than normal. Of all people who possibly had to see him as is, he wished it wasn't her. For Gumball, it was difficult to explain, but at times, she acted like she knew things he didn't. Something about that just didn't settle well with him.

"Sarah," he whined out in disbelief, still holding his head low and eyes pulled all the way up.

"Well, I'm certainly not Tina, am I? You would have heard me coming then." Her smile furthered his aggravation, almost like she didn't even care what happened.

"Go away," he said hostillically, making her drop that authentic smile once and for all. "Get away from me, and take your weird with you." She retracted her hand, but wouldn't leave so easily.

"But I'm here to help." There was her smile yet again. Gumball grew seriously irritated with her lack of listening, even though he did appreciate her deep down.

"I mean it. I'm not in the mood for your crazies." He threw as much force as he could against his legs, pulling himself against the wall he laid back on to stand. He tried to wipe away his tears so Sarah wouldn't ask. Of course, it was already too late. "Are you here to try and cheer me up? 'Cause cause I don't think there's anything you can say to make me feel better." He brushed the dirt off his body, then turned away from Sarah to avoid looking at her. "You don't even know why I'm upset."

"Oh, really? You sure about that," she teased. Her annoying attitude got to him.

"Get AWAY from me!" He gritted his teeth at her, beholding sharp, pointy teeth like Carrie's naturals. It didn't faze Sarah in the slightest. As unusual as she was at times, she didn't scare easy. Whether it was out of valor or naivety could be anyone's guess.

"I couldn't even if I wanted to, and besides, I actually do know." Gumball's guard dropped and relaxed his posture. He realized she wasn't going away, and though it bugged him, he figured playing along would make her eventually leave.

"Oh please. There's no way you could-", but before he could finish, she countered on que without taking a breath.

"Darwin's acting strange and you couldn't figure out what's wrong, so you asked Carrie to help, but after she told you how bad you are to her, you fear Darwin hates you too because that's what you think he told Carrie." She placed her hands behind her back and smiled with a great pleasure of gratitude for herself. Gumball found her knowledge of the situation impressive. It would have left him speechless if not for the obvious.

"Ha-How did you-" Sadly, he didn't get a chance when she interrupted again, giving a slight chuckle on her emphasis.

"I RE-heal-LY shouldn't reference continuity so blatantly, but I'm the 'anime fangirl who stocks the loser' remember?" Gumball knew she was referencing back to a previous dilemma in his life; a perfect example of what happens when she got involved in something. His voice went from baffled to flat after working it out.

"Oh, yeah, right."

"Plus, I kind of pieced it all together from what Carrie said while hiding over there." Her finger led to a corner of the hall, where Gumball's eyes followed right to.

"So… you heard everything?"

"Not all of it. I was actually going to my locker from the library when I heard all that commotion. I wanted to see what was going on and, well, I'm sure the rest is obvious enough." Sarah bent down to the debris on the floor and picked up a tissue pack, opening it to hand to Gumball. "Gotta say: I've never seen Carrie so mad before. I knew she had a hidden strength to her, but after watching this, just… wow!" She looked around the destruction left behind, impressed by her abilities. Gumball grabbed a few tissues out of the pack and began wiping away the tear residue in his eyes and face.

"She accused me of hurting Darwin." Sarah's smile left for good after the comment.

"I heard." She put the tissues she took away and got to talking. "I always figured one day something like this might happen. It was only a matter of time given what Darwin thinks." Gumball looked shocked.

"You know why Darwin's acting so crazy?" He grabbed hold around her wrists and shook em viciously. "Tell me please!" Sarah jerked her arms up and out of his grasp. She didn't respond right away, looking off behind her in deep thought about the gravity of the situation. One hand on her chin, the other on her side. Gumball was waiting for her to answer.

"It's only a hunch. Come with me. I have something I want to show you." She twirled around and began down the hall, but Gumball wasn't buying it.

"What is it," he tried to ask with no prevail. She turned the corner, but popped her head back to him.

"Just come and see, and I don't think you'll be taking off either." She disappeared around the corner, leaving Gumball to question her sanity once more.

He stood still, calling out as loud as possible in hopes his voice was reaching her. "Sarah, Why can't you just tell me what's wrong? What's do you have to show m-" In mid sentence, Gumball was ejected into mid-flight and zoomed towards the corner. "-AAAAAA-aaa-AAAAAHHH!" His acceleration stopped mid flight, landing right in place on two feet towards the ground, with Sarah standing right in front of him, and her locker in front of her. Her face buried in her locker trying to grab something, Gumball looked around in disbelief. The laws of physics broke out of nowhere. He was struck and didn't get how. He felt like Sarah was somehow responsible though. "Wha-I-ah-but-da, ah-Sarah!"

"Yeah," she calmly asked him, turning away from her locker.

"Wha-eh, I mean, wha-what was that?! How did-you-you-jus-just do that!?" She pulled her head out to face him.

"Do what?" She shrugged her shoulder in complete cluelessness.

"THAT! With the whole… picking me up and… I…" He stared at her blank empty eyes, realizing she didn't know. He let out bitter, annoying sigh. "You know what? Never mind. I don't have time for this right now." Sarah shot him a weird look.

"And people say I'm the weird one," she silently spoke unto herself and returned to her locker.

"What is this all about," Gumball asked in an attempt to forget the last few seconds. He watched as Sarah kept rummaging through her locker on the second level, red like all the others.

"I always figured there would come a day when Darwin would finally come out, so it's a good thing I had this for when it happened." Gumball's voice became trebly and dreadful upon hearing her.

"You knew this was going to happen? How, and when?"

"I'll get to the 'when' in a second, but the 'how' is because of this." She pulls out a notebook and drops it from her height down to Gumball's paws. It was a black notebook with all kinds of girly stickers on it. Rainbows, animals, and some anime-looking figures. When he caught it, he opened it up to the first page and read her title.

"Memoirs of Misery?" The name already didn't sound good. "What is this?" He turned to the next page to find dates, titles, and a bunch of wording and sentences. He studied them and looked it over while she droned on.

"It's a catalog. One that documents all known moments in Darwin's life where he felt… unhappy, to put it vaguely. Some are of my own findings, but most of them are collected testimony from Darwin himself. Some go back many years ago while others are more recent." Gumball began turning pages one at time, gradually increasing his speed. The more he went through, the more mortified he became.

"Darwin told you THIS much? When was this?" As she continued on, his look became more and more shameful.

"Welllll… It started out innocently enough when I was bugging him in the hall's about you. Being the character I am, I learn more about you from those closest to you, which typically includes Penny, Darwin, and Anais. After too much pestering one day, he got a tiny bit upset and told me that I shouldn't idolize you. After-which, he began telling me he was feeling down. I asked why, and I became a good shoulder for him to cry on." Gumball nearly freaked when he heard her.

"Please tell me you mean that metaphorically?" She didn't say anything at first, but found her speech soon enough.

"Yyyyyyeeeaah, sure. Anyways, he told me it felt good to talk about this kind of stuff; One thing lead to another, and the next thing I knew, I sort of became, like… eh, I don't want to say therapist because that sounds depressing, but Mr. Small is the guidance councilor, so I'll go with… Behavior Adjustor?" Gumball barely paid attention, wallowing himself down deeper and deeper into Darwin's rabbit hole of shame. The farther he got, the more his own heart sank.

"I can't believe there's this much." Sarah could see the melancholy in his voice coming forward. "There must be a hundred pages worth!"

"Don't exaggerate," she merrily said to help him cope. "It's only about thirty-or-so out of the hundred pages in the book. Anyway, it was pretty much a win-win: He told me stuff about you, and I got to help him out with his sadness if he ever needed to talk." Gumball closed the book and looked up at her, mortified beyond comprehension.

"Why didn't you ever tell me you were doing this? I could've helped."

"Uh, hello? Ever heard of doctor-patient confidentiality? What kind of a friend would I be if I did that? I'd just be gossiping then." He looked back at the cover of the book, unable to comprehend the wording inside.

"How was this supposed to make me better? It's only making me feel worse."

"I never said it would make you happier; just that it would help you." He returned his focus back upon her.

"But… then…" He found himself wanting to produce more tears, not even caring if Sarah saw him do it. "She was right." He lost his grip on the book, letting it hit the floor. He felt like he was about to collapse with it. "I… I really am a jerk." His breathing tightened up, almost sound like he was panting. Sharp, quick inhales of air made his breathing heard in Sarah's presence. She could see him on the verge of a meltdown. She wasn't going to let that happen. She lowered her cone closer to him, placing her ice cold, yellow hand on his shoulder. He stopped the fast-paced breathing and whining, but the tears still looked to be coming when he looked into her eyes.

"That's not exactly true," she sweetly told him. Her voice sounded serious, but caring and thoughtful. As he looked into her eyes, he could tell in that moment that Sarah's gravity had changed. She showed genuine care for him; The same Darwin and Penny always had before. Just like her creany top, her eyes appeard soft and sweet, displaying a truly caring individual. One that Gumball felt he could call a true friend.

"Wha *sniffle* what do you… mean?"

"I mean just that: You're not just a jerk." Gumball couldn't help but ask.

"Just?" She pulled out and away from him, returning to her elevated status like Penny had before. Her voice was the softest and most gentle he had ever heard from her. Gumball began thinking that if she was always this sweet, no wonder Darwin told her how he felt.

"I've spoken with Darwin quite a few times, and I've been analyzing your personality from day one." She bent down to pick up her note book, opening it to some random pages near the end. "In my study of you from what Darwin's confessed, I've found that there are two kinds of jerks: Those with hearts of jerks, and those with hearts of gold." She looked back at Gumball below, still sad, but holding up. "You really, truly are a good, gold-hearted person, Gumball; everyone sees that." She snapped the book shut and put it up in her locker. She came back down to his level. "You may sometimes do go out of line, but you always want to make things and other people better. If you were just a plain ol' jerk in general, you wouldn't feel bad about yourself, and you certainly wouldn't want to let Darwin suffer either." Gumball couldn't get rid of his tears, but she did see a small, appreciative smile come on from him. He didn't look at her, but she still kept on. "You're not a bad person. Maybe a little vitriolic of a friend to Darwin at times, but you've helped a lot of people in Elmore, and while you can sometimes be the nature of the problems, you always want to make things right. A true jerk wouldn't even care." His smile grew a little bigger, and he felt he owed it to her to at least notice her. He finally pulled his gaze up at her. He didn't think Sarah was all that smart, but even psychos do their research very extensively. Her words brought some comfort to him.

"Is that really true," he said in a somber way. She knew he wasn't really sad though.

"Very much so." Gumball's smile grew larger, puffing out his cheeks and looking so cute to her. The smile didn't last however.

"But, that means I'm still a jerk." Sarah's smile temporarily faded away. She needed a second to gather her input.

"Well... we're not all perfect. Everyone has flaws to them, don't they?" Gumball kept staring at her, wanting any excuse possible to feel better. "It's only normal to be imperfect." She ascended back into a straight posture looking down at him. "Think about it; Everyone has an idiosyncrasy that gets on other's nerves. I'm obsessive, Bobert's is too literal, Leslie's too girly, Tina's a hypochondriac, why, even Darwin has a hard time telling people their problems."

"He doesn't seem to have it now."

"I think it's more passive-aggressive in this case." Sarah looked away with her hand back on her malleable chin."Though what caused him to let all it go today is beyond my knowledge." Her gaze returned to the cat. "The point is: maybe you messed up; We all have in our lives, but all we can do is try to make amends for the problems we cause." She descended once more, pacing her freezing hands back on his shoulders. The cold grabbed his attention more now. "I want my duo back in action, you hear me?" Gumball let a few puffs escape out his nostrils trying to hold in his laugh. Without seeing it coming, Gumball threw his paws up and grabbed hold around her cone body, extending a hug of gratitude towards her. Sarah was quite taken by the gesture. Gumball was just happy to not feel so hated anymore.

"Have I really been this mean to him?" Sarah lowered her arms around his body, trying her best to hug him too.

"I think he has reason to be upset." From behind Sarah's bent back, Gumball's newly dried eyes shot open, fearing what she'd say. "But you can still make this up to him." He let go of her cone and prompt her to do the same. When she released him, they each took a step back to look at one another.

"So then… how do I fix this? How do I make things right?" Sarah did feel bad for Gumball, but she knew something that Gumball shouldn't, yet.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that; this is where my part of the story ends." Gumball took the statement with great offense.

"Hold on, what?! You're not gonna tell me how to make correct all this?"

"Sorry, but if I instruct you on how to make him happy again, you won't experience the heel realization to it's true nature. You have to tell Darwin what comes from your heart only, not someone else's mind." Gumball began to think that the crazy side of her was coming back already.

"What is a heel realization? I don't get this."

"Doesn't matter; you get the context, and that's enough to work with I'm sure." Gumball put his hand on his chin, trying to figure out Sarah's weird little riddle.

"So, what you're saying is: Now that I know why he's upset, I have to tell him that he was right to want away from me. Then once I admit I was wrong and say I'm sorry, we can put this matter behind! Right?" Sarah chuckled lightly under her own breath. She leered her eyeballs towards the fourth wall.

"I smell a Peggy Sue coming ooon," she wailed out in a high pitched tone with great excitement. Gumball caught notice of her eyes and looked over to see an empty hall.

Who is she talking to? There's nobody here. "What? Who's Peggy Sue? What does she have to do with me?" Sarah focused back on Gumball and waved it off with a hand gesture.

"Inside joke – please, carry on." Gumball gave her a look that made him question her sanity. He almost wasn't sure what to think now.

"Ugh, whatever. But I think I'm starting to get it now."

"Ahhh, there's that heel for ya." He grew to be annoyed with her, again.

"Sarah, I don't understand this psychology babel you're using. Can you please just talk with normal words?" Her smile dropped at the comment. "I should have known this was my fault. I feel awful... but I owe it to Darwin to tell him how sorry I am. I have to go find him and tell him myself!" He twisted his body around ready to dash away and out of sight. Before he could, Sarah, stopped him in place.

"Well, that might have to wait." He looked back at her a little misread.

"What do you mean," he asked her normally.

"On my way from the library, I saw Darwin walking towards the front of the school with your father. Looked like he was leaving." Gumball's body swung back into place, facing her for more input.

"Darwin was so angry with me that he asked dad to come get him?!" She shrugged her shoulders and held her arms out.

"I don't know. I just don't think he's here at school anymore." Gumball clapped his hands over his cheeks.

"Oh jeez. I really have screwed him up." He started feeling depressed once more, wishing he didn't. The guilt he thought was never there made him feel feeble once more. "This is so… sad."

"No. What's really sad is having to rely on an ex machina in order to get out of school early." Gumball didn't understand and caught himself off-guard.

"A what?" was all he could muster, but before Sarah had a chance, a demonstration began, and out of nowhere, Principle Brown's voice was heard over the intercom.

"Attention students: it has come to my attention that today is actually teacher appreciation day. As such, the faculty has decided to let school run as a half-day, meaning you're free to go home while we-" A door slams open revealing Principle Brown with the mic in one hand and a beach ball in the other. "PAR-TYYYYY!" We zoomed down the hall, cheering like a lunatic. Out of nowhere, the doors of the classrooms all flew open and the students went running out through the halls. So many came trampling that Sarah lost her footing and got swept off with the crowd. Gumball jumped up and grabbed hold of the open door to Sarah's locker.

Sarah called out to Gumball over the cheering students. "Now you can go home and tell Darwin before things get any worse!" She slowly fell farther and farther away. , Gumball shouted back, hoping she'd hear him over the others.

"Sarah, how did you do that?!"

"It wasn't me! It was the ex machina. THE EX MACHINAAAAAAAAA…" She was gone, and the last wave of students faded with her. When the hall ways were empty, Gumball let go and descended from the locker door. He didn't understand how it was possible, or even if Sarah was responsible, but he didn't want to waste anymore time as it was.

"Well, whatever helps I guess." He slammed Sarah's locker shut and started running in the direction the others had. The halls were almost completely empty. There was only one still inside, wandering past where Gumball and Sarah conversed.

"This doesn't seem right." From off the other side of the corner wall, Carrie the ghost came floating by. "Why would a teacher day suddenly mean that everyone can go home?" She stopped and found herself in front of Principle Brown's office. The door smashed wide open and left unattended. " At least I can get Darwin's record easy." She looked around the halls to see the vacancy of the place. She floated inside and behind his desk to a file cabinet. She looked at the labels and saw the bottom one read Personal Records. Carrie pulled her hand up and pointed at the lock with one finger out. She starts focusing on it, trying to concentrate. Then, a clicking noise was produced. She proceeds to open the cabinet drawer, having unlocked it. "Let's see. Q, R, S, T, W, aaaaaand Darwin." She reaches in and grabs the yellow folder. "That actually was easier than I thought." When she turned around, she saw no one coming towards her. She also didn't hear a peep or noise made. "Kind of a let down," she commented. She closes the drawer shut and zaps out of the office. Carrie appears on the other side of the front of school, file in hand. She looks over to see the bus with all the students of her class boarding. She didn't know if Darwin had already made it to her place or not, but she didn't want to think about it. She flashed again, moving farther down the street. She kept on teleporting over and over, hoping to make it back to her house in time. She wished she was accurate enough to just go straight home, but she was young, and still needed practice. By time she was out of sight, Gumball boarded the bus after waiting behind his classmates and was on his way back home. Question was: Where would Darwin be?

A/N: Well, there you have it. Next chapter goes back to Darwin, although to be honest, I'm not 100% sure if I want to keep this going. It's not because I don't like my story, and you're praises and reviews have REALLY helped to keep me going! It's just that: as the series has progressed, I'm starting to think that the creators have done away with Darwin being treated... down, so-to-say. What with "The Roots" and "The Matchmaker" (especially after this because, personally, I think it helps show Darwin as more equal),I've been debating about either discontinuing or deleting this story because I just don't think it fits cannon anymore.

Please let me know how you guys feel, PM, review, or poll wise, but I'm being serious. If you are liking the story(or rather just want to see what happens, even though we all probably know the 'what' and just want the 'how' to it), I'm glad to keep going, but I kind of feel I need some serious input. I'm not gonna ask again, just this once is all. If you think this should be scrapped, for better or worse, I understand.