Once again, I want to thank Silent Arrancar for creating his OC for this story.
That said, please enjoy this chapter!
The Newcomer
An Amazing World of Gumball Story
By NeoNimbus
Chapter 31-The Fire: Part 2
The next day at Elmore Junior High, Brian, along with Gumball, told Darwin and Anais what had occurred yesterday. Once the boys finished their story, both siblings were understandably surprised to hear how the day had ended.
"I'm sorry to hear that this Scorch fellow still hates you." Darwin said to Brian, sympathizing with his situation.
"I appreciate the comfort, Darwin, but it still changes nothing." Brian said in a tone of sadness.
"Don't beat yourself too much Brian…" Anais began. "Maybe the next time you meet him you'll be able to sort things out with him."
"Anais had a point, Brian." Gumball agreed with the child prodigy. "There's still time to make amends with Scorch."
"That's easier said than done, Gumball." Brian spoke bluntly. "I don't know how Scorch will react if we cross paths again. Making things more complicated is the fact that we both happen to love the same girl."
"Oh, that's right." says Gumball, rubbing his head sheepishly when he recalled yesterday's incident.
"Don't be in such a rush, Brian. I know you'll find a way to get on Scorch's good side." Darwin assured the purple fox.
"I hope you're right Darwin." says Brian, still uncertain about that last statement, as he and his friends made their way to their next class.
The day at Elmore Academy went like any other day for Rhonda: getting ready for the most difficult tasks in each class she attended and practice her sports every lunch break. But today, the yellow mouse felt a bit distracted, especially what happened yesterday at the park.
Ever since she heard Scorch's proclamation of love for her, Rhonda wanted to confront the fire humanoid what he meant by that last statement. Unfortunately for the mouse, Scorch had been avoiding her all day, unwilling to talk to her like he always had. Rhonda couldn't blame him for what happened, but the mouse hope that the fire humanoid would come around and talk to her like they always do. After all, they were friends and she hope he wasn't going to ignore her after what happened.
'Where are you Scorch? We really need to talk.'
On cue, Rhonda heard a loud banging not far from her, prompting the mouse to rush towards the loud noise. When she reached her destination, she was dismay to find Ivan, along with his gang, confronting Scorch, the latter clearly not in a good mood with having to face the red bear.
"Well, you have some nerve to behave like that in front of Rhonda." Ivan remarked with a look of displeasure.
"That is none of your concern, Neanderthal." Scorch remarked at the red bear. "Besides, why are you and your buddies so concern about this?"
"We've been seeing you all day avoiding Rhonda like a plague. That isn't like you at all." Joey pointed out.
"Yeah, it's way out of your character and not nice at all." says Lloyd.
"Look Scorch, all we're trying to say is whatever it's going on, you might want to tell her." Ray insisted.
"Well, I have another tip of advice for you dunces…" Scorch began. "Stay the freak out of my business before you regret it."
Before Ivan and his gang knew what happened, the temperature from the fire humanoid dramatically increased, prompting the four to quickly back off. Rhonda, watching from a distance, became very worried that things are about to get very ugly.
'I have to stop this before things gets out of control.'
But before the mouse had a chance to make her move, a certain school principal unexpectedly made her presence known to the five boys, prompting Rhonda to back down, knowing all too well what Principal Pauline is capable of.
"Am I interrupting anything boys?" asked Athena.
"N-no ma'am, we were j-j-just leaving right n-now." Ivan fearfully insisted "Isn't the right, you g-guys?"
Joey, Lloyd and Ray nodded their heads in agreement, hoping it was enough to please the great white shark, before all four passed by the school principal, disappearing around the corner, leaving Scorch on his own, prompting Athena to confront the fire humanoid.
"Is there anything you want to add, Brandon Steele?"
"No ma'am, not one bit." Scorch sarcastically responded, before he also passed by Principal Pauline, as well as Rhonda, not bothering to say a single word to her.
"That kid isn't right in the head." Athena remarked, before she turned around and made her way back to the office.
Rhonda, meanwhile, could only shake her head, disbelief that the fire humanoid was becoming increasingly rebellious. At this rate, Scorch will be expelled from the academy. That was one scenario she hoped wouldn't become a reality and she could really use some help.
After the day came to an end at Elmore Junior High, Brian, along with the Watterson siblings, decided to make their way to Elmore Academy, hoping that today would turn out much better than yesterday. The purple fox was just glad that his friends were willing to accompany him on his way to the academy; as far as he was concerned, he was worried how his next encounter with Scorch will turn out.
"Thanks for coming with me guys. To be honest, I'm really nervous about seeing Scorch again."
"Don't mention it, Brian." said Gumball. "We're always here to help a friend out."
"Besides, we really want to make sure that nothing bad is going to happen." Darwin informed the purple fox.
"But right now, we should really meet up with Rhonda. Maybe she knows a thing or two about Scorch." Anais pointed out.
As the four continued with their conversation, both Brian and the Watterson siblings eventually made their way to Elmore Academy and spotted Rhonda waiting right near the school gate, but right away, they noticed that the mouse was rather unhappy, much to their curiosity.
"Is everything alright, Rhonda?" asked Brian, as he and his friends approached the mouse.
"Oh, hey you guys." Rhonda greeted. "Sorry if I'm not so upbeat today."
"Why the long face?" Gumball questioned the mouse, prompting Rhonda to take a deep breathe, before launching an explanation of the issue.
"I've been trying to talk to Scorch about what happened yesterday, but every time we cross path, he just kept avoiding me. I understand that he's quite sensitive about yesterday, but I wanted to assure him that I was more than willing to try to understand his actions."
"You must really care about Scorch." Darwin noted.
"He's one of the few people I befriended when I first came to Elmore Academy and I want to let him know that we're still friends, despite what happened." Rhonda explained.
"Maybe if we show up at Scorch's place, perhaps it will be enough to convince him to hear us out." Anais suggested.
"She's right, Rhonda. We'll just pay him a visit and just hope that things don't turn ugly." Brian said to the mouse. "Out of curiosity, where does Scorch live?"
Rhonda hesitated for a moment, unsure how to answer the purple fox's question. She was worried how her friends will react should they know where Scorch lives. On the plus side, this might be their only shot to confront the fire humanoid and hopefully hash things out between them.
With her mind made up, Rhonda turned to the four, ready to give them her answer.
"Alright, I'll tell you where Scorch live, but you guys have to promise me that you'll keep your guards up if we head out to his place."
"Sure Rhonda, we promise." Brian assured the concerned mouse.
"Well, you see…" Rhonda began.
Downtown Elmore is one of the poorest areas in the town and by far the least friendly place to visit, especially for outsiders. Anyone that did visit Downtown Elmore had to keep their guards up at all cost, as the area's residents don't warm up to any unfamiliar faces right away; some would keep a far distance from said visitors and others would have ulterior motives to befriend them, mostly for money or just for kicks.
When Rhonda told them about this place, both Brian and the Watterson siblings were stunned to find out that Scorch lived in such a place. At the same time, it would explain why the fire humanoid was always so grouchy to begin with. Even so, the four insisted to go through with the visit and along with Rhonda, all five made their way on the transit bus and eventually arrived to their destination later that day.
"I'll have to be honest, Rhonda…" Brian began, as he, his friends and the mouse got off the bus. "This place really gives me the creep."
"I'm going to side with Brian on this one." Gumball agreed. "Just being in this place gives me the spooks."
"I know this isn't an ideal area, but this is where Scorch has lived for most of his life." says Rhonda.
"Let's just find Scorch's home and get this over with." Darwin spoke out, as he felt a cold chill crawling down his spine.
"I couldn't agree more." says Anais.
With that, the five walked around the neighborhood, all the while keeping a close eye on some of the residents living here. The residents, in turn, were keeping an eye on the kids with suspicious glance, making the group incredibly nervous.
'Whoa! These people really don't want us here at all.' Brian fearfully thought.
As the purple fox continued to mind his own business, he suddenly bumped into some sort of hard object, causing him to fall down to the ground. As his friends came by to help him back to his feet, Brian looked up and noticed an older individual, a bulldog, staring directly at the fox with a look of irritation.
"Sorry about that sir. I didn't know where I was going."
"Maybe next time you should look where you going!" the bulldog rudely shouted at Brian, before the older individual resumed his walking, unwilling to apologize for his behavior.
"Talk about being rude." Gumball commented, displeased by the bulldog's behavior.
"Sad but true, Gumball. In Downtown Elmore, everyone around here is nothing more than shady characters. It's very rare to find anyone who can be considered trustworthy." Rhonda explained.
"That still was no excuse for what that bulldog did back there." Anais pointed out. "The least he could have done was apologized."
"I think we should be worried about who else we might bumped into." Darwin fearfully spoke. "I mean, who knows what kind of person we might end up meeting next."
"Darwin's right. We should stick together and just focus on locating Scorch's house." said Brian.
Nodding their heads in agreement, the five resumed on their walk once more, trying to avoid and ignore most of the residents' glares and passing by several run-down stores along the way, which only increased the discomfort within the group. The sooner they locate Scorch and his place, the sooner they could get out of this neighborhood. But as the group made their way past an alley, a voice unexpectedly spoke out of nowhere.
"What's a bunch of little tykes like you doing here?"
Brian, Rhonda and the Watterson siblings stopped in their track and turned to the direction of the voice in the alley. Before they knew it, three figures showed up out of the blue from the alley: one was a tall and gangly stork, with a bright red Mohawk hairstyle, the other was a short ferret with pink fur and the last individual was an average-sized gecko with a nose ring. All three of them wore punk fashion style clothing and had menacing looks on their faces, which left the five feeling very uncomfortable.
"Look, we're kind of busy right now and we don't have time for this. So please, just let us go and will mind your business." Gumball tried to reason with them.
"Don't be in such a rush, kiddo." the gecko spoke with a cockney accent. "After all, we just met you tykes."
"What do you want from us?" Darwin asked with fear in his voice.
"That depends, fish boy." says the tall, lanky stork. "Just hands us whatever money you have and we'll be on our merry."
"And if we refused?" asked Brian, arching an eyebrow with suspicion.
In response to the purple fox's question, the tall, lanky stork promptly grabbed Brian by the collar and before he knew it, he found himself staring into the stork's eyes.
"Let's just say that you'll get a beating of a life time." the pink ferret responded
"Hey, leave Brian alone!" Rhonda shouted, prompting the gecko to shove her on the ground.
"Stay out of this if you know what's good for you." the gecko snarled.
"Is that how you always treat a girl?" asked a certain fire humanoid.
The gecko, along with his pals, stopped what they were doing and noticed Scorch right in front of them, staring at them with a look of displeasure on his face.
"What do you want kiddo? Can't you see we're busy at the moment?" the gecko asked the fire humanoid.
"I don't care what you and your buddies are doing…" Scorch began, as he slowly approached the gecko. "All I do know is that I see a couple of punks harassing a group of kids for no other reason than sheer amusement."
"You've got some nerve to talk to us like that." The gecko spoke with annoyance. "Give us one good reason why we should stop."
In response to the gecko's last statement, Scorch headbutted him directly in the face, breaking his nose in the process. As the gecko lied on the ground recoiling in pain, the stork and the ferret stared at the scene with shock and awe, both distracted as Gumball and Darwin tackled them on the ground, freeing Brian in the process.
"Are you alright, man?" asked Gumball, as he and his brother helped the purple fox up on his feet.
"I'm fine, thanks to you guys." Brian replied. "What about Rhonda? How is she?"
"Don't worry, I'm fine Brian." Rhonda assured the worried fox, as Anais and Scorch helped her to regain her composure.
Brian sighed with relief, before quickly focusing his attention on the gecko and his friends, all lying on the ground and in pain, as they slowly managed to get up on their feet and quickly ran back to the alleyway, disappearing within the shadows.
'That was a close one.' Brian thought, before him, Gumball and Darwin regrouped with Rhonda, Anais and Scorch.
"Thanks for the help Scorch." Rhonda said to the fire humanoid.
"Don't mention it." Scorch spoke back, rubbing his head sheepishly. "Anyway, what are you doing here? And for that matter, what are him and his friends doing here?"
"Well…" Rhonda began. "You see…"
After Rhonda explained the entire situation to the fire humanoid, Scorch was understandably stunned that she, as well as Brian and his friends, came all the way to Downtown Elmore just to find him, hoping they could talk about yesterday's incident. As much as the fire humanoid wanted to ignore it, he soon realized that he might as well give them a chance and lead the five to an apartment complex not far from where they were.
"Wow, so this is where you live." Brian commented, as he and his friends are lead by Scorch inside the building.
"Don't get the wrong idea…" Scorch began, as he leada the five up the stairs. "The only reason I'm doing this is just so you, Rhonda and Gumball wanted to talk to me, that's all."
"Wow, you weren't kidding when you say he had a temper." Darwin whispered to Gumball's ears, prompting Anais to nudge him on the shoulder.
After heading up a few more flights of stairs, Scorch eventually led the five up to the third floor, before all six found themselves on a door labeled 'Room 305'. The fire humanoid then pulled a key from his pocket and promptly unlocked the door, allowing them to come inside the room.
Upon entering Scorch's place, the five couldn't believe the kind of place he lived in. For living in such an unfriendly area of town, the fire humanoid's apartment room was very cozy and modest and aside from the typical layout, it felt more like home compare to the exterior of the apartment complex.
As the five continued to survey the living arrangement in Room 305, Brian noticed several picture frames hanging above the couches. From what the purple fox could make out where he was standing, it was clear that they were family photos, some consisting of two similar fire humanoids, only the older female was a lighter shade of blue and the older male had some few wrinkles and a brighter shade of orange. The man in the other picture frames looked remarkably similar to Scorch, though slightly taller and older than him, along with an older female water humanoid right besides him.
'They look like good people based on those pictures.' Brian thought.
"This is such a nice place you have here, Scorch." Anais commented.
"It's not much, but it's better than nothing." said Scorch. "You and Darwin make yourselves comfortable while I'll talk to Gumball, Brian and Rhonda in my room. Don't worry, my aunt and uncle doesn't mind visitors."
Anais and Darwin complied with the fire humanoid, as the two siblings decided to watch some TV, while Scorch had Gumball, Brian and Rhonda to follow him in his bedroom. Once the trio made their way inside his bedroom, the fire humanoid closed the door and sat on his bed, staring at the trio with serious intent.
"Alright guys, I know you have questions, so I'll cut to the chase." Scorch informed the trio. "Obviously, you three wanted to talk to me what happened at the park yesterday."
"Well, of course." says Rhonda. "That's why we're here to begin with."
"Just so you know man, we just want to clear a few things up." Brian insisted.
"At the very least, just promise us that you won't overreact like last time." Gumball said to the fire humanoid.
"…Fine, I'll try my best to stay calm." Scorch reluctantly promised.
"That's good to know." Brian said with relief. "Look, we just want to know why you're always so mad all the time."
"What do you mean by that?" Scorch asked the fox, as the temperature from his body rose up.
"Scorch!" Rhonda scolded, prompting the fire humanoid to calm down enough to lower the temperature from his body.
"Sorry, that was an accident." Scorch apologized, looking down on the floor. "It's just that, life seems to be unfair with me almost every day."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Gumball, arching an eyebrow in curiosity.
"What I mean is that ever since grade school, I'm always getting picked on just for coming from a poor neighborhood." Scorch started to explain. "It doesn't help that my parents passed away when I was in kindergarten or the fact that I was born with an uncontrollable condition."
'That makes sense now.' Brian thought.
"It's bad enough that I have to deal with all of teasing and taunts during grade school, but I have to deal with it during Elmore Academy, no thanks to Ivan. But then, everything changed when I met you Rhonda."
Rhonda was surprised to hear this from the fire humanoid. While she was aware of his faults, she was stunned to know that she had some sort of influence on Scorch's life.
"You were the first person who never poked fun of me because of my issues. The moment we crossed paths, all you wanted to do was be friends with me and up until that point, I thought such a thing would never happen."
"Scorch…" Rhonda began.
"I'm not done yet." the fire humanoid spoke. "Ever since we met, I've always cherished your friendship and I thought it would never end. But when I saw you with Brian the other day, I was crushed. The fact that you two were hanging out almost every afternoon only upset me."
"That would explain your behavior towards me." Brian commented.
"At the time, I didn't know you that much. I didn't know what kind of person you are or if you were like Ivan. I guess I just overreacted and I allowed that to get the best of me at the park yesterday."
As soon as Scorch made that last statement, the fire humanoid took a long, deep breath, before resuming his speech once more.
"So yeah, that's why I'm always in such a bad mood. I hope you three could understand the kind of person I am."
Once the fire humanoid finished telling everything about himself, Gumball, Brian and Rhonda looked at him, amazed by the details he had just described. After the trio looked at one another, they all decided that it was their turn to talk with Scorch.
"Scorch, there's no reason to be mad to begin with…" Rhonda began. "I'll admit that what happened to you in grade school was bad, but you need to let go of the past and move on."
"Rhonda's right." Gumball agreed with the mouse. "You claim that you have got nothing and yet, you have an aunt and uncle who willing raised you when your parents passed away. Be grateful that you still have a family."
"Plus, the fact that you made your to Elmore Academy is quite an accomplishment." Brian pointed out. "To be honest, I'm sort of jealous that your aunt and uncle are together."
"What do you mean by that?" Scorch questioned the purple fox, arching an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Do you know where my uncle is?" Brian answered in the form of a question.
"Um…no?" was Scorch's answer, as he didn't know what else to say.
"Same here..." Brian started to explain. "Six years ago, my uncle just left my aunt without any explanation. Since then, I haven't seen or heard anything from him. As far as I'm concerned, he broke my aunt's heart."
"What's your point?" asked Scorch.
"My point is that be grateful with what you have." Brian replied. "Otherwise, you're just being selfish."
Once the purple fox finished his speech, Scorch sat on his bed, thinking what Brian had just told him. After a few minutes, the fire humanoid just took a deep breath and looked down on the floor, realizing that Brian was right: he was being ungrateful.
"Scorch, you don't have to be mad at all the time." Rhonda said to the fire humanoid. "Don't let such emotion get the best of you. I know that deep down, you're a good person and I know you'll overcome it in time."
Scorch looked at the mouse, touched that, in spite of what happened at the park, she was willing to offer words of comfort for him.
"Just think what we just said Scorch and hopefully you realize that you do have everything you need, even if life isn't how you always imagined it to be." Gumball informed the fire humanoid.
With that said, Gumball, Brian and Rhonda left Scorch's bedroom and gave the fire humanoid some time alone to think about their conversation.
The next day…
The entire day of Elmore Junior High went by relatively peaceful, before the school bell rang for the end of the day, signaling for the students to leave until tomorrow. Among the students were Gumball, Darwin, Anais and Brian, having just finished their classes. They were thankful that Scorch's aunt and uncle were very generous to drive them, as well as Rhonda, back to their homes, saving them the trouble of waiting for a transit bus.
But as the four prepared to make plans for the afternoon, a certain young, fire humanoid unexpectedly showed up, much to their surprise.
"Scorch, what's brings you here?" asked Brian.
Scorch didn't answer right away, as the fire humanoid rubbed his head sheepishly, glancing down on the floor. Eventually, after a minute or so, Scorch looked at the purple fox, ready to give him his answer.
"Brian, I just wanted to thank you and your friends the other day. You were right; I shouldn't be ungrateful about everything just because of what happened in the past."
"I'm glad to hear that." says Gumball.
"Same here." Darwin agreed.
"At least you'll keep a better outlook on life from now on." Anais noted.
"Well, I'll do the best as I can." Scorch informed the child prodigy, before he chuckled.
"It's nice to know that you'll be positive from now on." Brian said with a relief.
"Well, after that pep talk last night, I really need to loosen up."
Brian couldn't help but smile, happy that, despite getting off to a rocky start just a couple of days ago, he was able to get on Scorch's good side, as well as managing him to be a much friendlier person.
Next time on The Newcomer
Chapter 32-The Talent: Part 1
Gumball, Darwin, Brian and Penny signed up for the school talent show and formed their own band to compete in it. But the boys soon discovered that Penny is a horrible singer.
Tidbits
-Once again, I wanted to thank Silent Arrancar for creating Scorch. He was a very interesting OC and I hope he would show up in future chapters.
-Originally, I was going to introduce Scorch's aunt and uncle, but due to pacing, I have to cut them out. Hopefully in the future, I'll give them a formal introduction.
-Just like Elmore Academy, Downtown Elmore is created exclusively for this story.
Thanks to everyone who read part 2 of "The Fire" and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!