Chapter 10: Months later…

Months had passed since Gumball had gotten Gale. Each one of his family members was finding his maturity odd, but they grew used to it, even if they didn't know the reason behind it. He had been dating Carrie for the past months too, and summer was down to its last two weeks before autumn came, fairly early in the morning. Gumball woke up and yawned until he noticed that his brother was not in his fishbowl. He got up out of bed apparently having woken up early today. He walked through his room that had a pile of clothes lying about in need of being cleaned up. He headed downstairs and saw his sister Anais already awake and eating cereal at the kitchen table.

"Morning, Anais," Gumball greeted her while getting his breakfast. "Morning, Gumball, and happy birthday," Anais said. It was his birthday today, but Gumball had completely forgotten about it until now. "Oh, it is?" he chuckled embarrassedly while beginning to eat his cereal. He had been too distracted trying to raise Gale to even notice, though he probably knew why his brother had gone, probably for a surprise party that was obvious. He looked at his sister. "Hey Gumball, mom wanted me to ask you to do something," she claimed. He raised an eyebrow curiously. "Oh yeah, what is it?" he questioned, knowing that it was probably something to distract him while they set up a surprise party.

"Mom wanted you to go get our clothes from the dry cleaners," Anais claimed giving him the ticket for the dry cleaning store. He nodded in agreement. "Alright, I'll be back later," Gumball said and got up, leaving his home and putting the ticket in his pocket. He knew that when he came back, there was most likely a party awaiting him hence his usual birthdays. He was walking down the streets and heading into town, with the warm sun beating down on him from above. The streets of Elmore were as calm as it was now that he had calmed down his antics. It didn't take him long to arrive to the dry cleaners, so he entered inside and saw the white tile floors along with the white room being next to empty.

Gumball went to the line and saw only one person there tapping there foot impatiently. Suddenly he recognized the person. "Miss Simian?" Gumball asked seeing a very old baboon with dark grey fur and a homely primate face, walking solely on her two legs and wearing a dress. "Oh god… I thought when you graduated from middle school I would never see you again!" she exclaimed aloud. Miss Simian was one of his teachers in middle school and he had not seen her in a long time, so it was nice to run into her again. "Hehe, funny ain't it? How have you been?" he asked. She just groaned in response. "I finally retired. Now I'm just waiting for the idiot to find my clothes he lost," she answered still impatient.

Gumball nodded while they stood there. He thought that maybe now he could ask her for advice. "Hey, Miss Simian, what would you do if you had a child?" Gumball asked seeing her roll her eyes. "Right away, get a restraining order against your entire family to stay a hundred feet away from my family," she claimed getting a small chuckle of nervousness from him.

They haven't had the best past with each other. In fact, she despised him entirely due to his antics getting on her nerves. "…sorry for all I did to you in school," Gumball apologized. It surprised her but she groaned again. "It's okay. I know you weren't the only one causing problems. It kind of got boring without you and your brother around, and then old age got me," she claimed reluctantly acting nice towards him. He smiled though when the worker brought Miss Simian her clothes, she immediately left with them, and it wasn't long after Gumball got the clothes he was sent to acquire. Seeing them, they were mainly his father's clothes.

Gumball stepped outside and waited for the traffic to clear up so he could cross the road. "Um, hey Gumball," he looked over and saw Penny standing there. It surprised him since he didn't expect to ever hear her talk to him again after he had dumped her. "Hey, Penny…" he responded awkwardly staring at her. She stepped closer to him. "Listen, can we talk?" she asked. She had been told about his daughter months ago by Tobias that had confirmed what he had told her was true, and she had been remorseful ever since the breakup, and was feeling bad for not believing him. He nodded agreeing to have a quick talk.

"Listen, I just want to say, I'm sorry for not believing you when you told me," Penny started, but Gumball didn't take her so serious at the moment. "I haven't been happy since then. I can't even cheerlead right anymore," she claimed.

He looked at her and sighed, but before he could say anything, Penny suddenly showed him a gift. "Happy sixteenth birthday. I was wondering if… maybe you would consider… giving me a second chance?" she said. Gumball reluctantly took the present and he looked down at it. "Penny, I…" before he could finish his sentence, they suddenly heard a car come to a screeching halt, and they saw a long black limo with heavily tinted windows pull up behind Gumball, making him drop the gift and the dry cleaning. People in black suits with weird masks threw a black bag over his head and put him into it. "Gumball!" Penny screamed as they closed the door and sped off in the limo.

Gumball gasped and panted once he got his head out of the black bag. He saw four people in the limo with him and they were all wearing black suits with white masks. The only difference that could be distinguished between them was their different colored ties. "P-please, don't hurt me!" he begged before hearing a chuckle followed by a familiar voice. "We aren't going to hurt you, Gumball," it was the deep voiced man he had heard before. He was surprised and he looked over to see a person sitting across from him with an orange tie. "Y-you! What do you want with me?" Gumball asked nervously. "You'll see," the deep voiced man claimed.

Gumball looked down to the floor with a red carpet on. The whole limo was red inside, and it was somewhat scary to him. He was thinking they he just got kidnapped by the government on his sixteenth birthday, and it was just what he didn't expect at all. "C-can you at least tell me your name?" he asked. The man nodded back at him.

"Fine… my name is John. That is all I can tell you," the deep voiced man answered while everyone stayed quiet. "Has anyone ever told you that you all look like Slenderman?" Gumball asked but everyone in the limo groaned in unison. "Yes, and it's just to protect our identities," John claimed making the young feline snicker. He just stayed quiet for the rest of the ride, still terrified and wondering just where he was going that they needed him for.

End of Chapter 10