Chapter 13 The Call
When Gumball got back home, Darwin was waiting in his room for him.
"So?" he asked. "How did it go?"
Gumball smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
"That's great man." Darwin said as he gave him a pat on the back. "So you two are dating now?"
Gumball's smile turned into a bit of a smug look. "Of course, dude. She couldn't resist me."
"Yeah, yeah," Darwin said, rolling his eyes. "Well tell me how the date went? I want to know every last detail."
"Sure," Gumball said as he sat down on his bed to get comfortable. "first we went to the movie theatre. We went in for the kids movie first to see the preview for A Pony's Tail 3."
"Oh yeah, Carrie liked that show doesn't she?" Darwin said. "I am not sure why? It really doesn't seem to be the kind of thing she would be into."
"It's not that bad." Gumball said with a wave of his hand. "She is right. If you give it a chance you might really like it."
Darwin raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you have been on one date and already Carrie is changing you. You better watch out man or she will start getting you to change the clothes you wear and who you hang out with."
Gumball growled in annoyance before continuing. "Anyway, we then went and saw the horror movie which wasn't scary at all. I was honestly disappointed. It was probably the worst part of the date."
"Really?" Darwin said surprised. "If I go see it maybe it will be one of the first times I make it through one of those movies."
Gumball shock his head. "I wouldn't recommend it dude. It is not even like one of those so bad its good movies that Carrie likes. It's just bad." Gumball took a breath before continuing on with his story. "We then decided to go and scare people. I thought of an idea to make it a contest to find out who could think of the best way to scare people. I thought of this great idea where Carrie calls to them like a ghost in the movies. We totally scared a couple of guys with tattoos. However, Carrie's idea was crazy. She wanted to take possession of a taxi and scare the driver with me inside it! She ended up driving us around town like a manic."
Darwin was quite taken aback by that. That seemed a little crazy, even for her. "Were you ok?"
"Yeah I was fine." he said. "Next we went out to dinner and had a great meal. She ordered Steak with mash and gravy and a strawberry cheesecake for desert. After that I took her home and that's the end of the story."
Darwin nodded. "Well it sounds like you had a good time. So are you two going to be all lovey dovey at school tomorrow?"
Gumball let out a small laugh. "I doubt Carrie would be like that. I don't think our attitude towards each other is going change between us in public. Now come on, we better get to bed. I got to call Carrie tomorrow."
"Alright," Darwin conceded. "I wouldn't want to keep you up and get in trouble with your new girlfriend. She might haunt me if I do that. Night Gumball." Darwin jumped on top of the dresser and got inside his fish bowl.
"Very funny Darwin." Gumball said. "Night Darwin." he got into bed and went to sleep.
When Monday came around Gumball and Carrie didn't really act that different around each other. They just relaxed and acted like they did before. It didn't really bother him that no one knew. If someone asked, he would certainly tell them but there was no real reason to tell everybody about it.
When Gumball went to lunch, he waited at his usual table for Carrie when suddenly Leslie came over.
"Gumball, can I ask you something?"
Gumball was surprised. The two of them weren't that close. Gumball felt he was still sore about him gluing him to that bench and getting those bugs to eat him.
"Sure," he said "What is it?"
Leslie paused for a moment before finally coming out with his question. "Is…. Is something going on with you and Carrie?"
Gumball was quite surprised. Maybe more people realised then he thought.
"Yeah." he replied. "It is very recent though. We only officially became Boyfriend and Girlfriend last Friday."
"I see." Leslie drawled. "Well… goodbye then." he walked away from them to go sit with his friends.
'That was weird.' He thought to himself.
"What did Leslie want?"
Gumball turned his head and saw Carrie setting her tray down next to him.
"He was just asking whether we were going out." Gumball replied as he took a spoonful of his food and put it in his mouth.
"Really?" Carrie said, surprised. "Are we that obvious?"
"I don't know," Gumball said with a shrug.
"So?" Carrie said. Gumball looked at her confused. Carrie let out a sigh. "What did you tell him?"
"I told him that we were going out." Gumball replied. "That's ok, right?"
"It's fine." Carrie said. "I am just still surprised that he was able to tell."
"Don't worry about it." Gumball said, turning back to his food. "It doesn't really matter if he knows or not. It's not going to change anything so you shouldn't let it bother you."
Carrie smiled. "You're right. Thanks Gumball."
Gumball gave her a thumbs up. "No problem." he said before he went back to eating.
When Gumball got home, he and Darwin were playing video games, when the phone rang.
"You should go get it." Gumball said.
"No way, you go and get It." he replied. "Quit expecting me to go and get it."
"Alright, alright. Chill." Gumball said. "I'll go get it." He paused the game and got off the couch with a groan. He picked up the phone and as politely as he could, said, "Hello, Watterson's residence. Gumball speaking."
"Hey Gumball."
Gumball's eyes widened in shock. He would have recognised that voice anywhere.
"P-penny." he stuttered.
"Yeah, it's me." she said, her voice made it sound like she was feeling slightly awkward as well. "How have you been?"
"Good!" Gumball practically yelled into the phone. "Sorry. Things have been good. How are you? You settled in at your new school?"
"Yeah, everything's fine with me. I have already made some new friends. We're going skiing in a couple of weeks."
"That's great" Gumball said, genuinely happy that she was fitting in at her new school. "I am really happy for you."
"Thanks." she replied. "How is Darwin?"
"He's good."
"That's great." There was a pause between them before penny continued. "So anyway, I wanted to apologies to you, about breaking up with you without giving much of a reason why."
Gumball didn't quite know what to say. Before he had imagine exactly what he would say if he ever talked to her again. Now that the moment was here, he didn't know what to say.
"You don't have to apolgi-"
"No Gumball, I do." she cut him off. "Gumball I really cared about you. I still do. I didn't want to break up with you. I just felt that it might not be good if we did the long distance thing. I honestly didn't want to hurt you. You aren't mad at me are you?"
Gumball didn't respond right away. He was trying to think of the right thing to say. "Penny, I was upset at first when you broke up with me but I am fine with what happened now. So you don't have to feel bad about it."
Penny sighed through the phone. "Thanks Gumball."
Gumball shrugged, not that Penny could see it. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. In fact I recently started dating someone else."
"I know," Penny said. "You're dating Carrie now aren't you?"
"How did you know?" he asked surprised.
"Leslie told me."
It totally made sense now. Of course Leslie would tell her cousin about her ex-boyfriend dating someone. No wonder he asked earlier.
"I am glad that you are dating Carrie." Penny said, snapping Gumball out of his train of thought. "She is a great girl."
Gumball smiled. "Yeah, she is. So what about you, are you dating anybody?"
"Not yet," Penny admitted. "But I got my eye on someone."
"Cool. Well good luck with getting him. Any boy would be lucky to have you."
"Thanks." Penny replied. "It was good talking to you again Gumball. I hope things continue to work out with you and Carrie."
"Thanks Penny." he said "I guess I will talk to you again sometime."
"Sure, see you Gumball."
"See you." he said before hanging up the phone. He walked back to the couch and started playing video games with Darwin.
"Who was that?" Darwin asked.
"Penny." He replied.
"What?! Darwin yelled, pausing the game. "Are you…. Are you ok?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." he said with a smile. Gumball didn't know why but he felt better then fine. He felt happy. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Weird. He thought he was completely over Penny but maybe he still needed to have this conversation before having closure.
Author's Note: I think some people are going to find this chapter pointless because it really does nothing much for the relationship between Gumball and Carrie. I however disagree. The main reason I wrote this chapter was just to assure people that I wasn't bashing Penny in the first chapter. No one has actually accused me of that but I wanted to make sure that I made a point against that anyway. I don't like bashing characters.
When I said in the Authors Notes in the first chapter that a girlfriend of mine that moved away when I was in High School did that to me, I wasn't saying that as a negative. I was happy that she did it in the long run. I wasn't mature enough to handle a long distance relationship at the time. NOW I AM. But I wasn't then. I had Penny do it because I believe she would think that it was the right thing to do. If you disagree and think Penny would never break up with Gumball no matter what, I can't say anything to change your mind. I can only explain my reasoning.
