Chapter 5: Back to School
Next morning, Gumball was just waking up. He wasn't sure what he thought of himself at this point, now that his little sister and Bobert had diagnosed him with multiple personality disorder. He was worried what he could do to overcome it. It was easy to make him snap into one of those different personas, and when he did snap, he could hardly remember what he did.
Gumball just pulled himself out of bed. His brother's fishbowl was empty. Gumball had slept in late. He just continued his way downstairs tiredly, and in the kitchen he saw Anais and Darwin sitting at the table eating their usual cereal. Gumball didn't see their father anywhere, which was odd. He just ignored it, presuming that he was trying to do some chores around the house, even though he was spectacularly lazy.
"How are you feeling, Gumball?" Anais asked her older brother worriedly. "Like I shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning," Gumball answered. He didn't even get to touch his cereal before hearing the sound of the school bus' horn outside. "Come on, dude. We gotta get going," Darwin told him while grabbing their backpacks and beginning to make their way outside. It was raining heavily and pattering down on the three siblings. Once on the bus, Darwin and Anais took their usual seats at the back of the bus. Gumball just took the first open seat he saw, which was beside a girl with blue skin, wearing a green skirt with a white shirt. Her long hair color faded from yellow to magenta.
"Hey, Gumball," the girl greeted him, receiving a slight sigh from the young feline. "Hey, Rachel," Gumball responded to her. Rachel used to dislike Gumball and a lot of his friends until his younger brother made her think otherwise. Gumball was just hoping for a silent trip, but then something caught his eyes. He saw someone towards the front of the bus look at him. He saw an anthropomorphic peanut with antlers on her head, giving a small glance behind her seat before turning back to the front of the bus. Gumball barely got a view of her before he just looked to the floor like he had just been scolded. "Is it true?" Rachel suddenly asked that made his ears perk up in confusion.
"What's true?" Gumball responded, unable to give a minor glance. He felt even deeper in his soul sucking depression at just viewing his ex-girlfriend, Penny Fitzgerald, a cheerleader at their school. "...well, there was a rumor going around that you broke up with Penny because you hit her," Rachel explained this immediately. Gumball was frozen. His head turned towards her in a flash. "What? Of course not! …She broke up with me because I'm just a kid… an immature kid," Gumball claimed, his gaze falling back to the bus floor, the rain pattering against the bus.
"Who told you that anyway?" Gumball questioned, starting to feel slightly enraged but trying to keep calm. "Masami. She heard it from Teri, who heard it from Jamie, and I think Jamie heard it from…" Rachel somewhat stopped herself on the last word, like she was somewhat afraid to say it. But it wasn't right to hide the name of who had spread the rumor. "I think Tobias started it," she finally finished her sentence, referring to her younger brother that used to be good friends with Gumball until he started dating Penny. Ever since, Tobias had become a practical bully to Gumball. Gumball's eyes were close to turning red. He just took in a deep breath, trying to keep calm down. He had to try and avoid screaming in public as much as possible.
"Why would he say that? We're not together anymore. You think he'd be done with it by now," Gumball claimed, though he presumed his old friend Tobias just was ensuring he wouldn't reconcile with Penny. "I'm going to need to talk with him," Gumball said while calming down, thinking of confronting Tobias about this sometime today. He felt Rachel pat his back reassuringly, knowing he was upset over the whole ordeal.
Soon, the bus stopped at their school. Gumball just followed everyone else off the bus, most of the students just trying to get inside before getting covered in a coat of water by the still heavy rain, but Darwin took his time enjoying the current wet atmosphere. He was a fish.
While at his locker, Gumball was just trying to stay calm, but already his day was off to a bad start. He had to deal with Tobias at some point, and that alone was already dwelling in the back of his head. "Hey, Gumball, are you okay?" he heard, looking over to see a concerned Anais standing behind him, checking up on him to make sure he was alright. "Yeah, just having a problem to deal with," Gumball admitted. He was curious about how to deal with the multiple personality disorder, and mostly having trouble with the fact that he had no ability to control it. "Just try to keep calm. We'll find a way to get rid of it," Anais tried reassuring him, but she was doubtful herself. Even if they had the help of a super computer robot like Bobert, it was still hard to figure out what was going on with him.
Gumball was prepared to go to class when something caught his eye. Standing there was a brightly colored boy, wearing a headband on his head. Gumball went over to him. "Hey, Tobias," he said, grabbing his attention. "What do ya want, Gumball?" Tobias coldly asked him while the hallway was beginning to clear out, people going to their respective classes. "What is the deal with that rumor? You know I wouldn't hurt her," Gumball began his interrogation, trying to keep his cool. "Because, friend, I want her to be mine. If you got a problem with that, then go cry about it to your mommy," his late friend responded.
Gumball was starting to take deep, angered breath, now starting to lose his patience. "Listen to me. I want you to tell people the truth that what you said was a lie," Gumball demanded. Tobias scratched his chin, pondering about it, "Alright… I'll do that, never!" he responded. He stomped on his enemy's foot, making him yelp in pain before he punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor flat on his back.
Gumball held his head in pain, dizzy and disoriented. He felt even more enraged now. He stood up, looking around with his eyes quickly turning red, but he was unable to see Tobias anymore. "Coward…" he mumbled while panting heavily, but then his eye color reverted to magenta, and he began rubbing his hands together with an idea. "So… the game will be played that way, will it? This shall be fun," he muttered before picking up his backpack and heading off to class. His personalities were starting to last longer and longer each time he changed his blue eye color, refusing to come back.
During his first class, it was only half finished and there was still an hour left within class. Gumball saw his teacher, a homely primate in a polka dot dress, approach him after seeing him lounge around lazily, doing nearly nothing for the first thirty minutes of class. "Gumball! What are you doing? You didn't even touch the pencil, or your test," she shouted. Miss Simian often tried to put a stop to his antics. He just looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. The magenta color of his eyes made her confused.
"I finished it already," Gumball announced, showing the paper to her. "What? Impossible!" she swiped the sheet from his hand, reading over it. Gumball wasn't lying. He had completed the test in a matter of seconds, and that left her eyes widened in shock. "Can I go get something from my locker?" he asked, claiming to have forgotten something in his locker. "Er… sure," his teacher answered while continuously reviewing his test paper. Gumball could tell that a lot of the classmates were looking at him in surprise, but he just ignored it, exiting the class room.
Gumball wandered through the hallway past his locker, having lied about needing something from his locker. He made his way outside of school where he found two familiar people nearby. He saw two girls, one being a tall Tyrannosaurus Rex and the other a girl with orange hair and two small curved horns sticking out on the sides of her head, wearing her usual black pants and black wrist bands. The two of them were well known in school for being a pair of bullies, Tina Rex and Jamie.
Gumball's eye color changed from magenta to green as he approached the two. "Hello, ladies," he greeted them, grabbing their attention. "Playing hooky, I see," Gumball said with a raised eyebrow. That was just what they were doing at the moment. "What do you want, Gumball?" Tina asked with a nasty glare. "Get outta here. I'm not in the mood to beat you into the ground," Jamie hissed, trying to scare him away.
"Please, I require the assistance of you two ravishing ladies," Gumball claimed in a gentleman tone. The rough duo looked at each other in slight confusion at how weird he was acting. "Perhaps this will change your mind," Gumball said, while pulling out a fifty dollar bill. Jamie rolled her eyes as she took it from him. "Now you're speaking my language. What do you want from us?" she questioned, noticing a devious grin creep across Gumball's face. "Just some small help with an acquaintance."
End of Chapter 5