Chapter 5: The Runaway
It was late out at night. The sky had gone dark, it was raining heavily, and thunder was crashing and booming in the sky. Gumball was sitting in the living room with a small bag of items. The bag was mainly filled with his most valued possessions and a few photos. He sighed as he saw a car pull up into the driveway, the headlights flashing through the living room windows. Gumball knew that his father was here. He stood up, picking up his small bag of his valued possessions and walking outside, leaving a note behind on the refrigerator door.
Gumball walked outside, the heavy rain falling upon him as he saw Triston approaching him holding an umbrella over his head. He held it over them both, and Gumball just walked beside him to the car that was just a regular red van. Gumball climbed into the passenger seat, putting his bag in the back seat. Triston put the umbrella away while pulling out of the driveway. Gumball took one last longing look at his home while they drove away.
"Am I going to have to change schools?" Gumball asked, but Triston shook his head. "Don't worry about it. You're just changing environments. You're not changing your life entirely just where you live," he corrected his son, with a happy smile that never left his face whenever he was around his beloved son. "...What kind of job do you have now?" Gumball continued asking while the rain pattered against the windshield in the dark of the night.
"Nothing different, still a freelance builder, only difference is that now I run an entire company of freelancer builders," Triston answered. It was true what they say. Once you get used to something, you really stick with it. "How come mom didn't recognize you at school?" he asked. His father just laughed at that. "Probably because I've had three plastic surgeries since then. Trust me, I was a lot, and I do mean a lot, uglier than I am today," Triston claimed, though this did make Gumball realize why he wasn't the cutest of babies when he was born, remembering photos of himself when he was only a month or a few weeks old. "So… are you married?" Gumball questioned while he was next to asleep in the car. The radio wasn't working so he was feeling bored and being put to sleep by the calm, quiet drive on the empty road.
"I was going to be at one point. Then my fiancée's father dragged her away to keep us apart, mad then a few years later I got an invitation to her wedding, and she had completely forgotten about me," Triston told his son about his past heartbreak. "In fact, that's the thing that led me to the bar that night when I met your mother. Irony of fate, I suppose," he added. This still seemed to only turn his usual smile into a straight bored face, but this was at the point where Gumball couldn't stay awake anymore. He had fallen asleep from being up too late during the long drive. Triston didn't mind and just let him sleep.
The next morning, Gumball woke up. He yawned and stretched, and he was wondering how long he had been asleep. He looked around, finding himself lying in a bed. He moved the blankets aside and got up, cracking his back and spotting a wooden floor and white walls. The bed he had slept in was somehow a water bed. He saw a regular nightstand by it in the room. There was also a glass sliding door that led out onto a balcony with metal bars for safety rails. Gumball was awestruck at the high view over Elmore City. He was inside an apartment complex judging by the balconies below him. He was up on one of the higher floors. He was wondering how he got here, but he just continued back inside to explore more of the building.
Gumball walked through the halls of the apartment, seeing the wooden floor that spread throughout it, even though the hallway was a small size. He arrived to the living room, seeing a black sofa with two black chairs surrounding a glass clear table. A big television was sitting in front of it as well. He looked and saw an open doorway that lead to an open kitchen. He entered through it and viewed basic accessories with a counter in the center of the kitchen.
Gumball finally found Triston sitting there, just reading a newspaper and relaxing until he noticed his son awake. "Ah, good morning, Gumball. Did you sleep well?" he asked while reading through the newspaper. "How'd I get here?" Gumball couldn't help but ask. Triston chuckled, finding his confusion slightly funny. "I brought you here since you fell asleep in the car. Welcome to my practical home. We're on the sixteenth floor," he explained to his son what had happened in his sleep.
Triston stood up and stretched. "Right, boy. Time to take you to my workplace. That is how career week works, correct?" he asked. Gumball nodded excitedly. "You bet!" he responded. Triston smirked, putting the paper away and beginning to leave the apartment with Gumball alongside him.
Meanwhile at the Wattersons' house, Anais was the first family member to be awake. She was downstairs getting breakfast when she saw the note on the refrigerator door. Curiously, she whipped the note off the refrigerator door. "I'm not getting my tattoo removed. I'm sick of living like an insane person, and I'm tired of being a huge problem around here, so I'm running away." Anais sighed. In her beliefs, their mother had messed up big time when she confronted Gumball on the subject.
End of Chapter 5