Chapter 2: Career Week Mess up?
It was early in the morning. The sun barely rose up yet and Gumball was waiting outside in front of a tattoo parlor, that had ridiculous service hours and was open very early. To him, it was lucky since it meant that he could do his plans he had agreed to do with his girlfriend, but at the moment, he was lost thinking about the odd letter he had received yesterday. His eyes focused on it, and he had no idea about who sent it to him so far. Suddenly, Gumball heard a light airy voice. "Hey, Gumball," the words rung through his ears and immediately drew his attention.
Gumball looked over to his right to see his girlfriend standing there. Teri was a slightly crumpled paper bear whom he had been dating for the few months. She was a hypochondriac, meaning that she had a lot of diseases that were more than likely in her head. "Oh, hi Teri," Gumball greeted her with his happy tone that he always had when he was around her. This made him question if she was nervous about this or not, but considered that she might be terrified like he was too. "What's that you got there?" Teri couldn't help but ask after seeing the letter in his hands. He didn't care about who saw it since it seemed nonsensical, almost as if it was sent to the wrong person. Teri looked it over and that just seemed to confuse her as much as him. "How weird... maybe it was meant for another person with your name," she suggested. Her boyfriend shrugged and crumpled up the letter, throwing it behind him. "Whatever it is, it's trash now."
The day went on like it normally would, but around lunchtime, Darwin was at his locker, putting some books away and digging through his backpack. "Hey, Darwin," someone called him. Darwin closed his locker and looked back to find Gumball standing there happily. "Oh hey, dude. I haven't seen you all day. Where have you been?" Darwin asked his older brother. "I was getting that tattoo. Wanna see?" Gumball asked wanting to show him right away. Darwin nodded with a lot of doubt in his mind. "I don't believe you…" he said, seeing Gumball roll up his right sleeve, revealing a red heart right below his shoulder with words surrounding the side of it that read, "This heart belongs to Teri," the words surrounding the heart in an arch like fashion. Darwin's eyes widened from seeing the tattoo.
"You actually got it?! Dude, mom is going to flip out!" the young goldfish complained in a panicked worry, Gumball rolling down his sleeve with a smirk of fulfillment across his face. "Not as long as no one tells her. Just please don't tell, man," Gumball pleaded seeing. His younger brother could not give an immediate response, sighing and reluctantly nodding, agreeing to keep it a secret. They suddenly heard an echo from the loud speakers, indicating an announcement was about to happen. "Attention, students! Attention! Career Week signups are ready at the gymnasium. Please get there in a calm and orderly fashion. Thank you," the principal announced before cutting off the loud speakers that echoed throughout the school.
"See ya there, dude," Darwin said and immediately ran off. Every student drove by, doing the exact opposite of what the principal requested. They were running through the halls, catching Gumball in the crowd and dragging him to the gymnasium. Everyone was in a hurry to sign up for the best jobs to learn on.
Sooner or later, the crowd that had been dragging Gumball to the gymnasium stopped. He groaned, aching from just being dragged at least a good half mile across the school. "Are you okay?" he heard, feeling someone help him up. Gumball looked at another friend of his who was an anthropomorphic peanut with antlers. "Yeah. Thanks, Penny," Gumball responded. She was Penny Fitzgerald, a cheerleader whose jealous rage she had against Teri for supposedly taking Gumball from her was unknown to Gumball himself. "So who are you signing up with?" Gumball curiously asked. Penny just sighed. "My dad wanted me to see how he runs his construction company, so really I kinda got forced to sign up for it," Penny claimed not happy with it in the slightest. She wanted to follow her own career and not run the company in his place whenever his age got the best of him.
"Yeah, well it's probably better than the Rainbow Factory," Gumball said while looking around. He was trying to find his mother, but the crowd of students filling the gym made it hard to see since there were dozens of students that were taller than him. Suddenly, Gumball caught a glimpse of a pair of blue ears that resembled Nicole's. Like an employee late for work, he began shoving his way through the crowd in irritation.
Gumball made his way to the booth and saw the registration paper in front of him. He didn't hesitate to write down his signature on it. "Sorry I took so long," he apologized while relieved to have made it to sign up. When he looked up, his eyes widened to see a tall blue feline in a white business suit and a black fedora on his head. "Oh no! I-I'm sorry, I signed up at the wrong place!" Gumball panicked while the man took the sheet since he was the only one who signed up. "Oh, I see. Well, I suppose I could just sign a simple piece of paper to transfer you over to the right registration area, but I don't want to," the man claimed with a hint of taunt behind his voice.
"What? Why not? Come on, I was hoping to see mom work," Gumball claimed somewhat angry about it. The man wouldn't transfer him to the workplace he was so desperate to go to. The man however held out his paw to him in offer of a handshake. "I was hoping to run into you. I hope you got my letter yesterday, Gumball," the man started. This made Gumball raise an eyebrow. The letter that he couldn't understand, no matter how much he examined it, had already confused him so much, but he had thrown the letter away like it was none of his business. "…Who are you?" the young feline asked with his attention caught. The business man smirked, with an answer that could possibly freeze Gumball with such shock and disbelief. "Triston Amador."
End of Chapter 2