The Newcomer
An Amazing World of Gumball Story
By NeoNimbus
Chapter 63-The Diary
It was just a typical day at Elmore Junior High that was close to being over and for Brian O'Quinn, he was trying to catch up with Gumball, Darwin and Mike on what he had been missing out on, now that his punishment was finally over. As far as he was concerned, the purple fox was glad to be with his friends, as he listened to their most recent adventures.
"Wow Darwin, I can't believe you're afraid of airplanes." Brian said with amusement.
"It's not funny, it was terrible!" Darwin retorted. "I wanted to stay home, but no, Gumball, Anais, Mrs. Mom and Mr. Dad forced me! It was the most horrible experience I ever had!"
"At least you're not running around the airport like a lunatic." Gumball pointed out.
"Besides, it was only a one hour flight, Darwin. Get over it." Mike insisted.
As the four continued on with their conversations, they failed to notice a certain blue humanoid heading right towards them, before making her presence known right away.
"Hey guys." Rachel greeted the four, prompting the boys to stop what they were doing, before turning their attentions to her.
"Hey Rachel!" Gumball, Darwin, and Brian greeted back.
"How's your day going so far?" asked the two-legged fish.
"Um... Pretty good I guess." an unsure Rachel replied.
"Are you sure?" Brian asked the blue humanoid, arching an eyebrow in suspicion from her tone of voice.
The moment Brian gave her that look; she took a deep breath before offering an answer to the boys.
"Okay no, my day is going very badly." Rachel responded shamefully.
"What do you mean by that?" Mike asked with curiosity.
"I...lost something of mine. Something really important to me." Rachel replied, trying to find the right words.
"Just how important is it, Rachel?" asked Gumball.
Nervousness and anxiety soon expressed itself on the blue humanoid's face and out of desperation, gave them the best response she could think of.
"...My diary. I lost it and now I'm starting to panic." Rachel said quickly.
Despite saying her words as fast as possible, the boys slowly understood what she had just told them just now.
"Well... that really sucks..." Gumball said finally.
"Kind of an understatement there, Gumball." Mike pointed out.
"It does make sense, considering how important a diary can be." Brian commented.
"But how did you lose it to begin with?" Darwin asked Rachel with concern, prompting the blue humanoid to take a deep breath, before she began to explain to the four of her dilemma.
"It all began shortly after I came to school…"
1 hour ago…
Rachel was lucky that she was able to make it to school on time, due to dealing with her annoying excuse of a brother getting in her way. Right now, though, the blue humanoid had far more important things to worry about, as she walked down the hallway. Along the way, she passed by three certain individuals she once thought were her "friends".
"Well, if it isn't the girl formerly known as Rachel." Hilda remarked rather snidely.
"She's probably having fun with those loser baby friends of her." Sissy mockingly suggested.
"She was already a loser the moment she befriended that purple fox." Linda said with a cruel tone.
For her part, Rachel just rolled her eyes and continued walking towards her locker, knowing full well that all of their taunts would have no effect on her. As far as she was concerned, they caused more harm than help and she was glad that she severed her ties with them.
'That was rather pathetic.' the blue humanoid thought, as she finally arrived to her locker. After she put the right combination on her lock, the blue humanoid opened it, only to be surprised when she noticed one particular item missing.
'What the-? Where's my diary?! It should have been here!'
Stricken with panic, Rachel almost gasped out loud, but managed to catch her breath at the last minute. Not wanting to create a scene, the blue humanoid quietly closed her locker door, before she turned in the opposite direction, determined to get some help with her situation.
Present...
"...And since then, I've been trying to find my diary and so far, I had no luck."
Once Rachel was done with her story, the boys couldn't help but feel bad for her, having a better understanding of her situation. If they had lost something rather important, they too would have been in a state of panic as well.
"Where else would you have kept it?" Mike calmly asked, breaking the silence.
"Other than my room, that was it." Rachel replied. "Plus, I was the only one to have access to my locker."
"Then it's probably in your room." Brian said as there really was nowhere else it could be based on what Rachel was telling them.
"That's the problem; I took my diary with me yesterday when my mom was cleaning up my room."
"That explains why she would bring it to school." Darwin said.
"Though it doesn't explain where it is now." Gumball pointed out.
"Which brings us to something very important..." Mike began. "Do you have any idea on who could possibly steal your diary?"
The moment the maroon badger made that suggestion, the four looked at their friend with utter shock. At the same time, however, it made entirely sense; whoever stole Rachel's diary must have hold a bitter grudge against her.
"Let me see…" Rachel began, as she rubbed her chin. "Tobias might have something to do with it, but he's not that bold and he knows fully well what I can do to him if he crossed that line. It certainly isn't William, since he doesn't have any arms. I highly doubt that Tina and her friends would do such a thing. Then, there's Hilda, Sissy and Linda…"
The blue humanoid trailed off when she mentioned the girls' names. Earlier ago, the three made rude and snarky comments and Rachel had to admit, they didn't seemed to be irked when she didn't respond to their taunting. Whether it was a coincidence or not, she at least had something to go by.
With that in mind, Rachel turned to the boys to inform them of what she had just thought of just now.
"I think Hilda, Sissy and Linda might have something to do with it."
"Then we should probably start there." Mike suggested.
It was just another typical day for Hilda, Sissy and Linda, as the girls were talking with one another about the latest gossip. As usual, the three couldn't help but be amazed of such a scenario occurring in a place like Elmore; the more scandalous the event is, the juicier the details. As the girls continued to talk with each other on the rumor, a certain blue humanoid, along with her friends, showed up out of the blue, prompting the trio to stop what they were doing and confront the five, though they were hardly happy to see them.
"Well, what do we have here?" Hilda sarcastically asked. "You and your loser baby friends better have a good reason to show your sorry faces to us."
"What is wrong with this town? Everyone we meet has a superiority complex." Mike said to anyone who would listen.
"Yeah, but it takes a while to get used to it." Brian commented flatly.
"What's a 'superiority complex'?" asked a curious Gumball.
"Is that a title of a movie or something?" Darwin asked the maroon badger.
"I'll explain it later, you guys." Mike replied, before sighing.
"Cut the innocent act, Hilda!" Rachel shouted, ignoring the black poodle's remark. "Did you and your friends steal my diary?!"
"The audacity!" Hilda exclaimed, somewhat shocked but angry to hear such an accusation.
"Do you even know what that means?" Mike asked, putting the sheep on the spot.
Hilda, in response, glared at the maroon badger, while Mike smirked in amusement at the black sheep's reaction.
"I didn't think so."
"Where is my diary?" Rachel demanded, getting the subject back on track.
"Why would we want your diary?" a confused Sissy asked, slightly irritated.
Before either she or her friends knew what happened next, Brian, Gumball, Darwin and Mike began listing possible motives.
"Blackmail?"
"Humiliation?"
"Torment?"
"Profit by selling it back to her?"
The boys' questions, however, ended up irking the girls, becoming increasingly agitated with each passing minute.
"I'm starting to hate these kids." Sissy grumbled.
"Especially the red one." Linda stated, pointing at Mike.
"Get in line, princess." Mike said in a calm manner.
"Fine, we'll answer your stupid question if it'll make you five go away." Hilda grudgingly said, before facing Rachel. "We didn't steal your diary. Even if we did, we probably would have thrown it in the trash."
"And why should we believe you?" Darwin asked the black sheep, still not convinced of her innocence.
"Our lockers are far away from Rachel's and none of us know the combination to her lock." Sissy insisted.
"Yeah that wasn't the smartest question, Darwin. Especially considering that it's extremely unlikely that any of these three know how to crack a tumbler lock." Mike pointed out to further irk the freshmen trio.
"Anyway, now that we have answered your dumb questions, I suggest you geeks get out of our sight this instant." Hilda demanded.
With that said the five immediately turned in the opposite direction and walked away from the trio.
"Wow, I guess it took all your brain cells to come up with that one." said Gumball, taking a page out of Mike's book.
"You're one to talk, but good effort on your part." Mike commented, annoying the blue feline.
"It still doesn't change the fact we have no clue where my diary is." Rachel reminded her friends. "If I had known this was going to happen, I would have kept it in my backpack."
For a while, there was a long silence among the five. Eventually, Brian spoke to Rachel, as he realized what she had said seconds ago might have been very important.
"What were you doing when you took it out?"
The blue humanoid pondered for a moment, trying to think what she did prior to her diary being stolen. Eventually, she was able to recall what she had done.
"After I took it out from my backpack, I looked around the hallway to make sure no one else saw my diary."
"I take it the hall seemed empty..." Mike said as the rest listened for Rachel's answer.
"That's what I thought, until I heard a few noises from one of the classrooms."
"Which one?" asked Darwin.
"I think it was the wood shop classroom that was right...near...my...locker..." Rachel trailed off the moment she realized what she had said.
"You think someone in the wood shop may have taken it?" asked Gumball.
"Not unless they can break locks and fix them again." Brian pointed out.
"Or maybe one of them knew the exact position of Rachel's locker and managed to meticulously find a way to retrieve it without raising suspicion." Mike suggested. "Though it's still only a possibility and I don't think we have enough facts to prove it."
"Let's investigate the wood shop anyway. And who knows? You might be on to something." Brian insisted.
Nodding their heads in agreement, the five immediately made their way to the wood shop, hoping that it might lead them to a clue to the whereabouts of Rachel's diary.
Upon arrival, Brian, along with Mike, Rachel and the Watterson brothers, immediately began to search the wood shop for any possible clue that could help them find their friend's diary. Mike and Gumball searched the work lockers, inspecting one after another, while Brian, Darwin and Rachel searched the desks. A few minutes have passed and so far, none of them came up with anything.
"So far, nothing's out of the ordinary." the blue feline stated, before closing another work locker.
"We still need to keep searching." said the maroon badger. "We need to keep a close eye out for any possible clues."
As everyone continued with their searches, Darwin, not paying attention to where he was going, accidentally bumped his head in to the wall. But the two-legged fish noticed, for a moment, that the wall made a rather unusual noise.
"That's weird..." Darwin began, as he knocked on the wall once again. Now the two-legged fish was now certain of one thing: it sounded hollow.
"Guys, I think I found something!"
The four all went to where Darwin was as he continued to knock on the hollow space and were quite shocked as the two-legged fish was upon this discovery.
"That is very strange." Brian commented.
"No kidding." Mike stated. "Well, there's only one way to find out for sure."
Before everyone knew what happened next, the maroon badger wound his arm up and without any hesitation, he proceeded to punch through the wall, leaving everyone stunned, before the dust settled, revealing a hidden cavity, along with a piece of paper.
"What's this?" asked Gumball, before picking up the piece of paper.
"It looks like combinations to tumbler locks." Darwin replied, as he looked at the paper.
"And not just a few; there's about a hundred on here with names to them." said Rachel, as she looked over Gumball's shoulder.
"But who would have the time to write all of this?" asked Brian.
"Apparently…" as Mike pointed to the most recent addition with the name "Rachel". "Our diary thief."
As soon as the maroon badger made note of this, Rachel looked at the paper very closely and was stunned to see her name on the list.
"The combination... that can't be..." Rachel looked at the one line with her name and combination and saw that they matched.
"At least we're on the right track." Gumball commented.
"Now we just need to find out who made this." Darwin stated.
"Then we better do it fast before our culprit finds out." Brian insisted.
"I don't think he'll be missing this." said Gumball as he folded the paper and put it in his pocket.
Not wanting to alert their suspect, the five immediately put everything back in their places, including covering up the hole in the wall, before leaving the wood shop as fast as they could.
After discussing with each other for a few minutes, the five agreed to make their way to the school yard, as it was the last place their culprit would least expect, as they examined the paper with serious intent, trying to find out who was responsible and why.
"Judging by the hand writing, it's obvious that this individual is pretty intelligent." Brian remarked after observing the paper a few more times.
"How can you tell?" Gumball asked in disbelief.
"Think about it Gumball..." Brian began. "Who would spend most of their time trying to write up many possible combinations and list each of them right next to the people?"
"Yeah but that could be determined just by common sense; not the handwriting." Darwin pointed out.
"That still doesn't explain why he wanted to steal my diary." Rachel reminded her friends.
"We don't even know if it's a "he". It could seriously be anyone." Mike pointed out.
For the next several the minutes, the five continued to ponder, trying to figure out who was the culprit and hopefully track this individual down and discover the location of Rachel's diary.
"Well…" Mike finally spoke up. "The culprit is in the first hour shop class as that's when you said you lost your diary."
"Yeah, I remember mentioning that before." said Rachel.
"Was there anything else that you can think of, Rachel?" asked the maroon badger. "Anyone that gave you dirty looks from that class?"
"...Now that you mention it, there was one person who has a one-sided crush on me." Rachel admitted. "He always gave me that funny look whenever I show up and I always gently decline his offer."
"What's his name?" Gumball asked the blue humanoid, as he looked down at the paper.
"He calls himself Melvin." the blue humanoid replied.
"Do you know where his locker is?" asked Darwin, as the two-legged fish noticed that his name was not on the list.
Rachel pondered for a moment, trying to recall where Melvin's locker was located, before answering Darwin's question.
"It's at the opposite end of where my locker is..." Rachel stopped what she was doing, before she and the boys looked at one another with astonishment, especially the former.
"Is it possible he might have something to do with Rachel's diary?" asked Brian.
"I think we need to get back inside and find out for ourselves." Mike insisted.
With that, the five immediately went back into the school, hoping that they didn't arrive to their destination too late.
Brian and his friends didn't know how many minutes had passed, but right now, they needed to focus on their main priority, as the five arrived in the school hallway where Rachel's locker resides, as they focused on one particular locker that was adjacent to the blue humanoid. If their instinct was right, then there was a slight chance that Rachel's diary happens to be inside of Melvin's all along.
"Do you think my diary is in his locker?" asked Rachel.
"We won't know till we look." Mike said as he walked up to the locker.
But before the maroon badger had a chance to get a closer inspection of the locker, a nasally voice spoke out of the blue.
"Hey, what are you doing to my locker?"
Startled by this, everyone looked in the direction of the voice and right in front of them was a tall but lanky orange ostrich, with thick-rimmed glasses, a white t-shirt, brown trousers and blue sneakers. The five had no doubt that the individual right in front of him was most likely Melvin.
"Yeah I'd believe it if you told me that he might be good at picking tumbler locks." Mike responded calmly.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Melvin asked the maroon badger, somewhat unamused by his reaction.
"Don't mind him!" Gumball spoke suddenly.
Melvin was taken aback by this, but before he could say another word, he noticed Rachel with them, causing him to be smitten due to her presence.
"R-rachel! W-What are you doing here?" Melvin stumbled.
The blue humanoid hesitated for a moment, uncertain how to answer the ostrich's question. The last thing that she wanted to do was accuse him of something that he may or may not have done. But before she could say another word, a certain purple fox suddenly spoke first.
"We might as well tell him, Rachel. Who knows; we might have the wrong guy." Brian suggested, having noticed the look of uncertainty on the blue humanoid's face.
"Tell me what exactly?" asked the ostrich.
"My diary has been stolen." Rachel replied shamefully. "And we think you might have been the one to take it."
Stunned to hear such an accusation, Melvin looked at Rachel, not with anger, but with disappointment and sadness on his face.
"Why would you think I would do that?"
In response, Darwin pulled out the combination sheet and showed it to the surprised ostrich.
"We found this and out of everyone in the first hour class, your name isn't on it."
Melvin looked at the paper, checking it twice, before he looked at Darwin, a bit perplexed by this.
"So where did you found this?"
"In the wood shop." Mike said plainly.
Melvin, at this point, could only take a deep breath, before offering the five his answers.
"Alright, I'll admit that I wrote the list."
"Why?!" The five shouted in unison, stunned to hear the ostrich's answer.
"I don't know what came over me. Maybe part of me was fed up with being looked over." Melvin attempted to explain.
"So you decided theft was the answer?" Gumball asked, angrily.
"I just wanted to get noticed for once." Melvin insisted.
"That's still no excuse for what you did." Brian bluntly pointed out.
"Don't get me wrong! I didn't steal anything!" Melvin said defensively.
"Oh sure, we believe you." Mike said sarcastically.
"No I'm serious! I never stole the diary!" the ostrich continued to plead.
"Then prove to us that you had nothing to do with it." Rachel insisted, despite being somewhat mad.
"There have been people who've paid me for a combination on the list. They've never told me what they were planning specifically but I dreaded the worst." Melvin explained with shame on his face.
"Exactly who are these people?" Brian asked the ostrich, as he and his friends loosened their attitude towards him.
"And who's the one that wanted Rachel's combination?" Darwin asked as well.
"I really don't know them that well. All I know is that they wanted to get even with Rachel for what she did to them." Melvin replied.
The moment the ostrich made that last statement, it didn't take the five too long to realize who he was referring to. Rachel, in particular, was shocked that she knew of the people Melvin was referring to.
'I can't believe they would stoop that low to get back at me!' the blue humanoid thought.
"Why do I have the feeling we're getting more info but walking in circles?" Mike asked to anyone who knew the answer.
"I know what you're thinking Mike, but we better think of a better plan to get them talking about Rachel's diary." said Brian.
"So they were lying to us?" Gumball asked, realizing who the two were talking about.
"Makes a lot of sense to me, considering their attitude towards us." Darwin stated.
"So how do we get my diary back before they ruin my life with it?" Rachel asked.
"Easy," Mike said as he grabbed the list from Melvin. "We'll make them an offer they can't refuse..."
Hilda, Sissy and Linda couldn't believe what had happened to them, as they discussed with each other of their latest success. Infuriated that someone like Rachel would turn her back on them for those seventh graders, they decided that the only way to get even with her was to steal her precious diary. Once they forced the nerd known as Melvin to get them what they needed, they promptly snatched it before the blue humanoid knew what happened. They were just amazed that they hadn't thought of it sooner, but it was certainly worth it as far as they were concerned.
"I can't believe they bought it!" Hilda laughed.
"I'm surprised they even managed to come up with the gall to accuse us!" Sissy joked.
"Even though they're right!" Linda finished.
As the trio continued to laugh, amazed by their success, they were blissfully unaware that a certain purple fox, along with his friends and Melvin, were secretly spying on them, due to the ostrich informing the five of them where they could locate Hilda and her cronies.
"Mike, are you sure this will work?" Brian asked.
"No." Mike said bluntly.
"Do you have a better plan?" Gumball asked.
"No."
"That's not very reassuring then." Darwin commented.
"I don't care if it works or not, I just want some payback." said a determined Rachel.
"Then let's not keep them waiting." Melvin said as Mike nodded his head in agreement.
Once everyone else agreed with the orange ostrich, all six barged into the empty classroom, startling the girls in the process. Hilda, Sissy and Linda looked at one another nervously, wondering if they have heard what they were talking about.
"Um, may we help you?" asked Hilda, feigning cluelessness on her part.
Likewise, both Sissy and Linda played along with the black sheep, hoping that their act would be enough to not arouse too much suspicion.
"You have something we want…" Mike began, as Darwin pulled out three journals. "And we have something you want."
Upon seeing their journals being held by the two-legged fish's flipper, the girls were shocked, unable to say a single word, before it was replaced by sheer anger and outrage.
"Where did you get those?!" Hilda demanded.
"We found them." Gumball said with a smirk.
"You guys stole them!" Sissy accused the group.
"Just like you three stole Rachel's diary?" Brian pointed out, much to their shock.
"We did-" Linda was stopped by Hilda.
"Fine. You got us." Hilda said with a smirk, much to Rachel's disappointment.
"I never thought that you three would go that low." the blue humanoid spoke with disdain. "I can't believe I even considered you guys as friends."
"This town is so messed up." Melvin whispered to Mike.
"I know man...I know." the maroon badger whispered back.
"After you and your loser baby friends humiliated us, we need to find a way to get back at you." Hilda nonchalantly said.
"Yeah and now your plan won't work because we can humiliate all three of you." Darwin pointed out.
'Dang it! I forgot about that!' Hilda thought, before the black sheep face palmed, worried what the six planned to do with them.
"Why don't we set up a 'secret a day' calendar? Each day another one of your secrets gets spread around the school." Gumball suggested deviously.
"You wouldn't dare!" Sissy shouted, hoping that the blue feline was bluffing.
"Believe me; if they won't, I will." Mike said smirking.
"Don't worry about that, Mike. Let me give it a shot." Rachel suggested, before she allowed Darwin to hand her one of the journals and opened up to a random page, as the girls looked on with horror.
"Ahem.'Dear Diary-'"
"Stop!" the trio shouted in unison, as Rachel closed the journal with a smirk on her face.
"Fine, we'll give you back your diary if you give us back ours!" Linda pleaded with the blue humanoid.
"Deal." Rachel accepted the pterodactyl's pleas, as they traded diaries. The girls immediately opened the diaries to see something they weren't expecting.
"Wait a minute! These are all filled with math notes!"
"Oh give me those." Mike said as he took the notebooks and handed them the real diaries.
"Why were those filled with math notes?" asked Brian, perplexed by Mike's actions.
"In case they tried anything funny." Mike replied, shrugging his shoulder.
"Wow that was actually pretty clever." Melvin admitted.
"You all didn't really think I wouldn't have a plan B, did you?" Mike remarked, as he walked down the hall smiling.
'Wow, he really is clever.' Rachel thought with astonishment, before turning her attention to the four. "Thank you guys for everything. I couldn't have got my diary back without your help."
"We're friends after all. Glad we can help you out." said Brian, as he, Gumball, Darwin and Melvin accepted her gratitude. "Don't worry Rachel; we'll let Mike know what's up."
With that, the four began to track down the maroon badger in the hallway, while Rachel looked on with a smile, happy that everything turned out alright in the end.
Next time on The Newcomer
Chapter 64-The Honesty
Fed up with Clayton's lies, Brian tricks the clay into drinking a concoction created by Anais. But the purple fox soon regrets this when Clayton's newfound honesty ends up creeping everyone out.
Tidbits
-It's been a long while, but I was finally able to create another chapter with Rachel. I apologize if it took too long, but better late than never.
-For the voice of Melvin, I visualized Eddie Deezen, due to his role as Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory.
-I wanted to thank Sal for helping me out on this chapter.
I hope everyone enjoyed The Diary and I'll see ya next time!