Even after coming home from school, the incident in the cafeteria was nagging at his mind. Apparently there was more to telepathy than just mind reading. He wondered what else he could do. He went to the computer and started searching online about telepathy. Most of the information he got was about comic books and movies, as most people didn't exactly believe that telepathy was real. He still clicked on those though, maybe they were on to something? He figured out that the heart bond that he and Darwin shared was technically a form of telepathy, he was going to have to tell Darwin about that, he found it kinda ironic that he already had a form of telepathy before going into the lake. He searched around on the internet for a while, but didn't really get very far. He was just going to have to hope that no new surprises turned up, and probably try to get a better handle on his powers. As much as he hated to admit it, Darwin was probably right in that he didn't want anyone else to hear him inside their heads. That would be a dead giveaway.
The next day Gumball went back to school without having done any practicing in regards to his powers, other than occasionally listening in to the thoughts of his family, of course. In his defense he totally meant to get some practicing done but all of research on telepathy led to some entertaining Elmore Stream videos and it kind of went downhill from there. So basically, he had about as well of a grip on his powers as he had yesterday. Still, he managed to get through a whole day and nothing bad happened, which didn't happen for him that often. So he was pretty confident. Gumball spent the day listening in to his classmates thoughts whenever he got bored, which was often. Eventually, Gumball decided to read William's mind. He was kinda creepy and couldn't really talk, so he always wondered what was going on inside his head.
"So plants reproduce by giving off seeds….." He was just thinking about the biology lesson Miss Simian was teaching, nothing fun there, but the accent threw Gumball off a bit. "What kind of accent is that?" He wondered "He sounds like one of those cheesy british supervillains always trying to take over the world."
"What the..? Gumball?" Oh crap, "Am I crazy or did I just hear Gumball Watterson inside my head?" William thought "And how would he know what my accent sounds like if no one can hear me?" Oh man, he accidentally projected his thoughts again. William was quickly figuring out what was going on. He had no choice, he had to come clean.
"Yeah, it was me. I'm sorry about the accent stuff, I didn't mean for you to hear it, I'm just not very good at projecting my thoughts yet, please don't kill me." Gumball thought, pleadingly. This was the guy who had almost killed him and Darwin because he thought they were ignoring him.
"I'm not mad, just confused. How are you doing that?"
"Funny story, me and Darwin went into a polluted lake a few days ago and I kinda accidentally got superpowers. Apparently I'm some kind of telepath now. I would ask you not to tell anyone, but it's not like you CAN tell anyone, right?" William was processing this. He didn't know Gumball very well but he did know his reputation, so he knew that Gumball Watterson getting telepathy was not going to end well. But on the other hand, the little cat had a point, he couldn't exactly tell anyone, and besides, it was nice to actually be able to talk to someone for a change. Living inside his own head could get pretty lonely. Gumball was listening in, wondering what his reaction was going to be. He hadn't thought about how lonely William must be, not being able to talk to anybody, he felt kind of guilty that he had never thought about that before.
"Ok, I'll keep your secret." William agreed halfheartedly.
"Yay! Thank you! You know, you're not as bad as I thought you were."
"Um, Thanks?"
"That was kind of insulting, wasn't it? Sorry."
"No problem. So, how does it feel being telepathic?"
"I don't feel any different, I can just hear people's thoughts now. How does it feel to be telekinetic?"
"I don't know. I've always been telekinetic, I don't have anything to compare it to."
"Well, it's cool. I wish I could do that. Imagine, never having to get up for anything ever again!" If William had a mouth, he would've giggled at that. He was also thrilled that Gumball found something about him cool.
"Well, I wish I could do what you're doing, this whole psychic communication thing. Then I could actually talk to my classmates."
"Too bad we can't switch powers, unless that's something you can do?"
"Nope, and I'm assuming you can't either."
"Not as far as I know." Suddenly the bell rang, signaling it was time for lunch.
"Well, it was good talking to you Gumball, or whatever it was we just did there. It was nice." Surprisingly, Gumball thought it was good talking to him too. Weird, he figured William would be a lot creepier. Sure he still looked creepy, but he was actually quite nice. Gumball wondered what else he was wrong about.
