Chapter 39: Two Sides
(School)
During the events that happened previously, Dante and Darwin had their own events happening at school. After finding out Gumball's apparently nowhere to be found, Dante was still sure that Gumball would come back eventually. Things were looking up for him, he wouldn't repeat what happened 4 years ago. So he didn't care much about it and hoped his adopted brother would find his way home, wherever he is.
Darwin, on the other hand, was understandably mortified that what happened 4 years ago would happen again. He had the thought of finding him after school.
School went by quick. Dante walked out of his class at lunch and went over to his locker to put back his stuff. As he was walking to the cafeteria, he heard a loud thud of the lockers along the way and a girl screaming. That's when he saw a group of girls from his old class (The OG girls from the show) huddling around Jamie who's holding Masami by the lockers in some sort of a chokehold; you know, 'cause Masami doesn't visibly have a throat to choke on.
Dante rushed over to her and tried to get through the group of girls. "Jamie! Stop!" he shouted.
By the time he got through, he saw Masami fading out. He grabbed Jamie by the arms from behind to hold her back. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Jamie screamed as she frantically tries to escape Dante's grasp.
"Jamie, it's me, Dante!" Dante said. "Stop it!"
Jamie stopped trying and Dante slowly let go as the other girls get Masami up.
"What the hell's goin' on?" Dante asked.
"That's right, go back to your BOYFRIEND for help." Masami tested her.
Jamie then went at her yet again, only this time had a white paw holding her back. It pulled her back until she almost lost balance. She was about to go after whoever was stopping her until she saw who it was.
"What do we have here?" said the white principal cat with his normal British accent.
"Mr. Watterson. I-" Jamie said before being interrupted by Endo raising his paw.
"My office. Now." he said as he walked away to his office.
Jamie now furious stomped behind him, leaving the girls to tend to Masami. Dante chased after her.
"Jamie, wait!"
"Go away, Dante! I'm not in the mood right now!" Jamie said without looking back at him.
Dante pulled her arm and she stopped dead at her tracks. He could hear her sobbing before he was caught off guard. Jamie turned back to him and pulled him into a hug. Dante was still shocked seeing her from a raging animal to the soft girl he somehow made her to be, at least when she admitted it.
"I'm sorry, Dante." Jamie said quietly.
"Hey, hey, it's alright. You don't need to apologize." Dante said. He pulled her apart so that he can see her face. "What happened back there?"
"I don't wanna talk about it." she replied, head held down. "I should get to Principal Watterson's office."
Jamie walked away. Dante knew it was sort of futile chasing after her, so he went to the cafeteria to get back with the others.
Darwin had some trouble coping though, still wondering where his brother went. He didn't even have the appetite to eat amd stayed at the courtyard of the school, thinking of where to look first.
He was then met by Christine, holding her scrapbook. "Hi, Darwin." she said. "Mind if I sit here?"
"Hi, CJ. Sure thing." he said quietly.
Christine took her seat on the bench next to Darwin and flipped her sketchbook to a blank page, looking to draw something new. Darwin didn't bother her, he kept on thinking..
"Something bothering you?" Christine asked.
"No."
"You're not your normal happy go-lucky self, Darwin. That was a rhetorical question." she said. "It's got something to do with Gumball, isn't it?"
Darwin kept quiet.
"I can understand that you're worried on where he went. Especially on what happened four years ago.."
"You were never there and didn't know him when that happened!" Darwin snapped at Christine, causing a few students to stop whatever they were doing and stare at them.
Christine looked down and stopped talking. Darwin gave her a short glance and immediately felt guilty. He knew she was more emotionally sensitive than he ever used to be, given her background.
"I'm sorry. I'm just too worried. I don't want what happened back then happen again when this time we don't even know the reason why."
"It's alright." Christine let out a little sniffle. "If it makes you feel any better, I can help you find him after school. I can get my brother to help and track them."
"You'd do that?" Darwin asked. "And another question, you CAN do that?"
Christine let out a giggle. "We're wolves, numbskull. Of course we can 'sniff' him out" she said, hinting him by pointing at her nose.
"Thanks, CJ."
"No problem." CJ put down her pencil and let out a huge breath. She shows Darwin her drawing. "What do you think?"
It was a light sketch of Darwin sitting in the middle of the bench, hands on his cheeks making him looking full of wonder, under trees with leaves falling. It was just a sketch done by light pencil and there was no shadow or tone in it, but Darwin found it impressive. "This is really good."
He flipped through the pages and saw a number of drawings she drew of the others. Cato and Amber running together on a path, a close-up of Gumball with a lollipop in his mouth, and a picture of him (Darwin) and Gumball throwing paper balls at each other in class. It all seemed photographed, but it was still drawn.
He finally stopped at a page he found a little disturbing. It was a drawing of a wolf with their eyes obscured and surrounded by a black void, scribbled frantically with a pencil.
Darwin only took a small glimpse of it before Christine took the scrapbook back. Darwin decided not to talk about it. "You have a pretty photographic memory." he said.
"Yeah." Christine said, feeling embarassed.
"Sorry about that." Darwin said as he got up from the bench. "And thanks for offering the help. We'll start after school at the mansion. Now, let's get to class."
Christine smiled a little seeing Darwin back to his normal state. She nodded and followed him to class.
(After school)
Jamie sat at the detention room for quite awhile now. Already bored out of her mind doing nothing at her table alone. Kira looked at her from afar from time to time. She knew something's bugging her.
"You wanna talk about what happened earlier, Jamie? With Masami?" Kira asked.
"Not really."
"You seem pretty troubled about it."
Jamie gave it a little thought before giving in. "Promise not to tell Dante."
"Promise." Kira said.
Before Jamie said anything, the door opened amd Dante came walking in.
Kira gave them a confused expression. "Dante? Is today 'Detention for Behaved Students' day?"
Jamie sheepishly slumped her body into the chair. Dante rubbed the back of his neck. "Uhh...long story short I was caught wrecking the locker room. Endo didn't believe me when I said I was crushing a roach."
"Well, alright. Take a seat." Kira said. "Also, Jamie's got something to tell you apparently."
"KIRA!!" Jamie yelled.
Kira giggled as she got up from her seat. "I'll leave you two to your business for awhile. I got papers to grade and left them at the office. I'll be right back." And she left the room. Jamie was both flustered and furious at her.
"So what is it?" Dante started. "This got something to do with the girls earlier?"
Jamie got up and walked to him, keeping her head down. Dante didn't know what to expect - whether a kiss or a slap - until Jamie wrapped him around in a hug, silently crying.
"They made fun of me." Jamie started. "I used to be the big bully with Tina. But after you came in, I stopped and distanced myself from her. And now the others are bullying me for it. Karma's a bitch I guess."
"How long?" Dante asked. "How long was it?"
"A while."
Dante broke off and wandered around the classroom. He brought back to her two stacks of books and a rope. He cut the rope into two with his teeth and tied one to each stack.
"What're you doing?" Jamie asked.
"I'm not all for bullying. I was glad you dropped it. But self-defense is an entirely different story." Dante said, holding up a stack of books in each hand like they were boxing punching mitts. "Time for some practice. I've been long itching to have some books meet Mr. and Mrs. Fist."
Outside, in the hallway, Kira was heading back to her desk to get her papers. Then she met Endo. "What are you doing here, Kira? Aren't you supposed to keep an eye on Jamie?" he asked.
"I needed to get my papers to grade while keeping watch. And Dante's there so she won't be going anywhere."
"And why is he there?"
"Cuz...you put him in detention?" she said with an eyebrow raised.
"No, I didn't."
They looked at each other in silence for a second before Endo dashed to the detention room and Kira teleported there. They peered through the window and saw them doing jab exercises.
"Well, as long as she stays in there, I guess." Kira said. "I'll go get my papers. Hold on a sec."
Kira then teleported, leaving Endo at the door.
"Why didn't she do that the first time?" Endo asked himself. He turned back to the two teenagers. "The teenage side of me says let them be together. So I guess give Dante two hours detention as well for lying about me giving detention."
(Near the haunted mansion)
"Thanks for coming with us, Eric." Darwin said.
"Sure thing." he replied.
Darwin, Christine and Eric were on their way to the haunted mansion to start their search.
"You get worried that Gumball might run away again?"
"Yeah."
"I think I understand where you're coming from, but you need to take into account that Carrie went missing too. And with how things are looking, them being all happy without a problem and all, I doubt they ran off together. Conclusion: They should still be in Elmore at farthest." Eric explained.
Darwin thought about it. He makes a good point. They seemed happy, there should be no reason they would run. He started calming down a bit.
Right as they reached the haunted mansion, they rang the doorbell. It played a typically creepy doorbell noise before it opened. Amber was there to answer it.
"What're you guys doing here?" Amber asked.
"Tryna find Gumball and Carrie. You wanna join?" Darwin offered.
"We already found them. Apparently they just got stuck in our giant basement."
"Are you fucking serious?" Eric asked before Christine smacked him at the back of the head.
"I assume Gumball's at home then?" Christine asked.
"Yeah he just left not too long ago-" Amber said until Darwin ran off back to home.
"Welp, looks like we're going home then." Eric said as he turned around to walk away.
"You don't wanna stay for a bite or something?"
Eric then turned back around and glared at Amber. "What do you have?"
"Actually not much, just some drinks."
"We can stay for some drinks." Christine said after she looked at her phone to look at the time. "It's almost curfew though, but a drink sounds nice."
They both went in and went over to the living room, noticing Cato at the dinner table sipping on a drink.
"Oh, hey guys. What's up?" Cato greeted.
"Darwin brought us here to find Gumball amd Carrie. Apparently they were here the entire time." Eric answered.
Carrie then went in through the back door wearing dirty gloves. "Hey, guys."
"Speak of the devil." Christine said. "Hi, Carrie."
"Where's Andrew?"
Eric's question got the three inhabitants of the mansion blank for answers.
"That's a good question. I don't think I saw him while we were looking for the other two earlier." Cato said.
Suddenly, they heard the front door creak open and Cato got up to see who it was. It was none other than Andrew.
"I'm back." Andrew said, as if he didn't do anything wrong.
"And where the hell have you been?"
"I went downtown to get some groceries yesterday, and I kinda got stuck and my phone died." Andrew said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Bad timing, good thing I got a ride from the Donut cop guy."
Amber went up behind Cato. "At least that answers that question."
Carrie, Christine and Eric followed suit. "Hey, man!" Eric said as he got to Andrew for a handshake.
"What's up?"
"We were kinda just leaving, it's near curfew and we need to get home quick." Christine said.
"Aww." said both Eric and Amber, which got some glares from Carrie and Cato.
Carrie's phone buzzed from the living room. "I should probably get that. Stay safe, you two." she said before getting to her phone.
She got a phone text from Gumball.
"Carriiiiieeeeee"
"Whaaaaaat?"
"They bought the story. XD"
"Nice. Let's not repeat the same mistake again. You know, if you want a round 2 :winky-face:"
"Remind me next time to text my mom and you got a deal"
"Carrie! You still need to clean up your mess!" Amber said with a loud voice purposely, despite just being behind her.
"Alright! I'm doing it!" Carrie replied with the same volume. She continued texting. "Gtg. Amber's making me clean up our mess last night"
"Alright. Have a good night, bb :kissing:"
"You too, my lil' Gummy-puss :winky-face: :heart:"
That wraps up this chapter. And by the looks of the title, you can probably tell I'm running out of title names, so crap XD.
And as for the emoji on Carrie and Gumball's texts, I couldn't use regular emoticons because apparently some symbols don't render, so I had to do it old school style.
Also, I guess now's the time to finally announce that I only have a number of chapters left before we're reaching the end. Something I've been working for about a couple years now so it's a long time coming. But I'm just gonna keep that at the back of my head and keep enjoying making these ridiculous stories for you guys. That's all the update I got for now, so lemme know what you think of the chapter. As always, see you in the next chapter.
Peace out!