Chapter 41: After School Activity Hunting

(School)

The school bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. But this time it felt a lot more relieving. The students have just completed their exams and everyone let out a sigh of relief and cheers as they rushed out the classrooms.

It was only the start of May, but it was as if summer break had already begun. The seniors now had absolutely no reason to come to school now that their exams have finished.

For Gumball and his friends, this looked as a chance to spend time relaxing together as much as they can before they part ways. But one problem had come to mind.

"What do we do now?"

"Me, Dante and Jamie are going to the gym after this." Cato said.

"Carrie said she's gonna help me do some researching about my future university. You know, in case I actually do get in." Amber said afterwards.

Despite managing to get a scholarship, she still needs to meet the requirements her university has laid out for her final exams. Understandably, she was anxious about it.

"I guess we're like..going to the mall?" Gumball asked, turning to the others.

"Me and Kelsey are gonna go ice hockey at the ice rink." Jake said.

"Ooh, can I join? I wanna try ice skating." Anna said.

"Sure thing, partner." Kelsey said, looking at Anna who is currently lighting up. She turned to the others. "See ya guys later."

"We're gonna head off too. Time's a wastin'." Dante said.

"Us too. Bye." Carrie said later.

They bid farewell to the group as they left, leaving Gumball, Darwin, and Lexy.

"Where's Ivan?" Lexy asked.

"He went straight home. Guess he wasn't in the mood to hang out. Or is going out with Teri." Darwin answered. "In fact, I think I'm gonna sleep in today. I stayed up all night for the exams."

"I'm gonna stay home to draw something. I don't got much on my mind for a hangout." Lexy said.

Gumball looked at his siblings in disbelief. "C'mon, guys. The day is still young. We could do something."

"I'm tired, bro. I'm gonna head off first."

"I'll walk you home, in case you flop on the way for some reason." Lexy offered.

Gumball looked at the two as they walked away. He was momentarily glad that they decided to decline the idea of hanging out, because Darwin fell on the floor just a few steps away and Lexy started dragging him.

"Great, what do I do now?" Gumball asked himself. He was too used to having weird endeavors everyday but there seems to be nothing today. "I guess I'm going to see what the others are doing."

(The gym)

"C'mon, Jamie. I've seen Anais punch harder than that!" Cato said mocking the female hybrid as he was holding the punching bag she was punching.

Jamie started panting as she keeps throwing jabs, looking more and more drained.

"Maybe we should take five. She looks beat." Dante said.

"You really gonna let a dead punching bag beat you?!" Cato yelled, again mocking Jamie.

Like a second wind had been unleashed from her, Jamie threw more jabs and even harder than the last until she threw one punch that literally sent the punching bag and Cato flying a few feet away.

Cato, feeling a bit stunned, got up from the ground and saw the punching bag broken in half. He laughed, probably a little hysterical as he was thankful that wasn't him, but also good that Jamie didn't back down.

"Jamie 1, punching bag 0." Jamie said, now mocking Cato.

"Good job." He said, as he was getting up, still a little dizzy. "I'll go grab another punching bag."

Cato walked towards the reception desk to find some help from the staff there. Jamie went to sit down and Dante gave her a towel and a water bottle. "Thanks."

"Anytime." Dante replied. Jamie took the towel and wiped off the sweat before drinking the water bottle. "You're amazing, y'know. With the determination and whatever."

Jamie almost choked on her drink when he said that. "It's nothing, Dante. Stop it." She said, blushing madly.

"You sell yourself short. You got a lot in you. And take that from someone who's survived in the woods alone for two years, you got that fire in you."

"Thanks." She muttered, almost inaudible.

Dante turned his attention to the door, as he noticed someone walked in. "Well, look who it is."

Jamie looked at the door and saw Gumball walk in.

"Hey, guys. Mind if I join?" He said as he threw his backpack next to Jamie.

"Sure thing, although you don't exactly have the right attire for the job." Dante said, mentioning about his old sweater.

"Oh, this? Easy." Gumball rips off his sweater to reveal a black sports shirt.

"You coulda just took it off and put it in your backpack." Dante retorted.

"Do you wear that under your sweater all the time?" Jamie asked.

"Kind of. And I keep a spare in here."

"Gumball, glad you could join in." Cato said, now coming with a new punching bag and setting it up.

"I don't have anything else to do. So, I'm just pitching in to what everyone else is doing."

"Awesome, then you can spot me while I do some practice jabs on this punching bag here." Cato hit a small jab on the punching bag now hanging beside him.

"Sure thing." Gumball said as he took hold of the punching bag.

"You ready?" Cato readied his knuckles and fixed in his fingerless gloves.

"Yeah."

"You know he's not ready." Dante whispered to Jamie.

"Definitely."

Cato pulled back his arm and threw a jab at the punching bag which already threw Gumball off his feet. "You okay, man?"

Gumball felt dizzy as he hit the ground a little too hard. "I think so."

"You want me to spot you instead?"

"I can try." Gumball got up and massaged his neck as he walked back to the punching bag. Cato was already holding onto the punching bag. "Ready." he said.

"I'm gonna throw you off this time." Gumball said as he pulled back his arm for a punch. He yelled as he threw a jab...

He gave himself too much credit. His punch barely made the punching bag move, instead his knuckles cracking was all that was heard.

His eyes start to well up. "You alright?" Cato asked.

Gumball only managed to whimper and nod in response.

"Maybe you should go and do something else. We don't need you hurting yourself." Dante said as he got up from his seat, ready to substitute Gumball.

"He's probably right. You might end up hurting yourself."

"Yeah. I'll see you guys later." Gumball said as he took his backpack and walked away and out the front door.

Jamie could only look at the two boys in annoyance. "Real subtle, guys. You know he's a softie."

"We don't really know how else to say it." Dante said.

(Ice Rink)

Jake and Kelsey were doing practices on ice hockey while Anna sat patiently on the stands for them to finish so that she can learn how to ice skate.

"Don't hold back on your shot!" Jake yelled, standing in front of the goal being the goalie.

"Be careful what you wish for!" Kelsey yelled back. She skated towards the hockey puck as she charged up her swing. The hockey puck was sent flying towards Jake but he blocked it with his arm guard. "Good block."

"Nice shot." Jake complimented back as he passed back the hockey puck to Kelsey.

Anna sat by and watched them, humming a song under her breath as she tilted her head from left to right and left again, following the rythm of her song. She heard a door open and shut behind her. She looked back and found Gumball coming over towards her.

"Hey, Gumball." She greeted. "Nothing to do, I assume?"

Gumball sat down next to the grey and white cat-rabbit with his hands on his chin. "You can say that." He massaged his knuckles a little, still feeling the abrupt pain of the punching bag before.

"Something wrong with your hand?" Anna asked.

"No, no. Just a small accident I had on the way here." Gumball said, trying to look as convincing as possible. "So, you're not ice skating?"

"Kelsey said she wants to do her practice rounds first, then she'll teach me." Anna answered calmly. "You wanna join in?"

"Sure."

Anna then looked at what Gumball was wearing, which to her was pretty abnormal that Gumball would be wearing a black sports shirt. "You might wanna change though, what happened to your normal sweater?"

"In my backpack here, I'll go change. I'll be back."

"There's some spare gloves and scarves outside the locker rooms." Anna shouted as Gumball left to change.

After another few shots Kelsey made and hockey pucks Jake had to endure and stomach, Kelsey noticed Gumball (already in his sweater) sitting by Anna.

"Heya, Gumball." Kelsey yelled as she skated towards the edge of the rink. "What you doin' here?"

"I thought I'd learn how to ice skate since I got nothing to do now."

"Are you guys done yet? I wanna skate. C'mon!" Anna said cheerfully and impatiently.

"Jake's probably taken enough hits, so yeah, we can start now." Kelsey said as Jake was moving out of the rink and sat on the nearest bench.

"Woo-hoo! Let's go, Gumball!"

Anna and Gumball walked towards the door of the ice rink where Kelsey stood. They put on their ice skatesand tried to balance on them. "It takes awhile to get used to it, but I guess being cats, y'all have no problem with balancing yourselves." Kelsey said, snickering at the sarcastic expectation.

"Stereotypes ain't cool. I'll have you know that I have fallen many times in my life, and there is no doubt that this will be no different." Gumball said in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner.

"C'mon! C'mon!" Anna said as she got up, ran through the door and past Kelsey, and immediately slipped and fell belly-down.

"Take it easy, partner. One step at a time." Kelsey said, getting Anna up as Gumball just only went through the door and fell on his butt instantly.

"This may be harder than I thought." Gumball commented.

He got up and then fell on his face. He then tried to push himself back up, only to wobble for a moment from side to side and eventually break into a splits. Second time today he gets injured and starts tearing up.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay, Gumball?" Kelsey said as she now went to Gumball to get him up.

"I think so. I need some help." He said with tear-jerking eyes.

"Alright, up and at 'em" Kelsey said, hoisting Gumball back up. Gumball was still having trouble balancing himself on the skates.

"This is gonna be rough."

(About 20 minutes later)

"You have to keep your pacing. Try to find rythm when you skate." Kelsey said trying to coach Gumball after he fell for the who-knows-how-many times.

"Looks like rythm isn't my thing." Gumball said with a hint of disappointment. "It looks like it's Anna's thing though. Look at her go."

Meanwhile, Anna was already skating around the ice rink as if she's already been skating for years. She raced around Kelsey and Gumball and made one loop around them before stopping in front of Gumball.

"Woo-hoo! This is so much fun!" Anna said joyously.

"Glad you're having a fun time, partner."

"Yeah." Gumball said, trying to feign a smile.

Anna looked down at Gumball who was still sitting down. He hasn't gotten up after falling down at all.

"You okay, Gumball?"

"Yeah, I just don't think this skating thing's for me." Gumball said before finally getting up and heading towards the exit. "You guys have fun."

Gumball took off his skates and placed them on a nearby bench before leaving towards the locker room.

While getting his stuff back, he noticed Jake sitting on a bench by the lockers playing on his phone. He immediately raised his head up and saw Gumball.

"Oh hey, Gumball. Leaving already?" The coyote asked.

"Yeah, ice skating isn't my thing." Gumball said as he was scratching the back of his head.

"Ah, I hear you. I thought it wasn't my thing too back then. But good ol' Kelsey taught me a lot and now I'm here. You'll get the hang of it when you try and try again. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you fell down 30 times for the past 30 minutes."

"It actually has only been 20 minutes." Gumball raised his eyebrow, thinking the statement was to put him down.

"Oh, well Rome wasn't built in a day. You'll get better as time progresses. As of now, you look like you're about to head home."

Gumball grabbed his backpack and shut the locker. "Pretty much. See ya around."

Gumball walked out the door and Jake shouted out "Hey, you gotta put back the ice skates at the front counter, dude!" but he probably didn't hear him.

(Haunted mansion)

Knock, knock, knock.

Gumball knocked on the door several times but nobody amswered.

"Weird. Didn't Carrie said she was just gonna research some stuff about Amber's college?" he wondered.

He tried knocking yet again.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Oh hi, Gumball." A female voice from behind said.

"AAAAAHHHHH!!" Gumball screamed as he turned around, only to see the two ghost cousins carrying shopping bags. "Oh, it's just you guys. Thought you said you were gonna stay at home?"

"We did. But Amber thought we should go buy some stuff first." Carrie said. She leaned over to Gumball's ear. "Here's a hint, it's for the prom next week."

"Ugh, don't spoil it for him. Now he won't be surprised when the day comes."

"Uhm, if he's drooling over how I look, you're gonna be the one cleaning up then." Carrie retorted and the two cousins laughed at each other. Gumball could only laugh nervously since he has no idea what they're talking about (He is really oblivious).

"C'mon, let's get inside." Amber said as she floated past Gumball and opened the door.

"Don't you guys ever lock the front door?"

"The entire point of a haunted mansion is to leave the door unlocked so that people would come in and get scared out of everything here, hun."

"That's my boyfriend, Amber. Only I get to call him names. Go call Cato a 'hun'."

Amber giggled. "Whatever you say, sweetie."

"Anyway, we're gonna put these up in our room first. Go ahead, have a seat. You look exhausted actually." Carrie offered.

"Thanks, Carrie." he said before flopping onto the couch face first.

Carrie had a look of worry before going up the stairs into her room. Amber was already getting her stuff out of her shopping bag.

"Hey, Amber? You think there's something wrong with Gumball?" Carrie asked.

"I'm not sure. He seems bummed out about something. Maybe you should go talk to him."

"Maybe..."

Meanwhile, Gumball was still face first on the couch as someone opened the front door and let themself in. Gumball frantically got up, only to see his white-skinned humanoid friend.

"Hey, Gumball. Whatchu doing here?" Cato greeted, now in his normal grey hoodie.

"Oh uhh..was just visiting Carrie. They're upstairs."

"Oh, lemme get you something to drink." He threw his bag on a cushion seat by the wall and went off to the kitchen to get drinks. Gumball didn't say anything to refuse.

Cato came back with two soda cans he took from the fridge. "Here ya go." he said as he tossed one to Gumball.

"Thanks." Gumball popped the soda can open and took a sip. "So how was the gym?"

"Went well. Jamie destroyed Dante just like every session." Cato replied. "How's the hand?"

"A lot better than my bottom. After I left I thought I went to the ice rink to hang out with Jake, Kelsey and Anna and learned how to ice skate." Gumball paused for a sip. "Not a good idea."

"Yeah...listen, about earlier, sorry that we just called you out like that. I mean, Dante should be more sorry than I am, but I didn't mean to hurt your feelings more than I did to your hand."

"None taken." He lied. He continued to sip from his soda can and just stared at it, keeping quiet and not even making eye contact with Cato.

Cato shrunk back and stayed silent too. Feeling awkward, he couldn't help but feel worse about himself.

It was about a couple minutes later when Amber came back downstairs. "Gumball, Carrie wants to talk to you. She's in the room." she said as she passed by the couch to the kitchen.

Gumball got up and went upstairs, passing by Cato who's still deep in the couch from the weight of the guilt. He walked over to her door and knocked.

"Come in, Gumball." Carrie said.

Gumball let himself in and found Carrie sitting at the edge of her bed next to one of her shopping bags from before.

"Come, sit here." Carrie tapped on the spot of the bed next to her.

Gumball went over and sat next to her, elbows on his knees and slouching forward. Carrie put her head on his shoulder. "C'mon, doofus. Spit it out, what's on your head."

Gumball was half expecting the question but still surprised by it. "What? Nothing's wrong."

"I know when my boyfriend's got something on his mind, dum-dum. You can trick everyone, but not me. So spill."

Gumball had a while to think of the words to say. He knew what kind of person (ghost) she was. If there was something wrong with him, she would empathize. Probably how that four years of him gone would take a giant toll on her.

"I was trying to figure out what to do for the next few weeks..or months I guess since there's also summer break. I can't workout at the gym with Cato 'cuz I can't even hit a punching bag without crying. I don't know how to ice skate with Jake and Kelsey. Darwin doesn't wanna go on some stupid adventure and just rather sleep in nowadays. Basically why I'm down is that I probably can't do anything anymore."

Carrie listened to him and had a small smile on her face and eyebrows furrowed. She looked down herself and had a thought.

"Well...you can be with me. There's something we can do together." Carrie said.

"Like?"

Carrie stretched her arms out and fell backwards, laying on her bed and turned to Gumball. "We can do absolutely nothing together. Just lay here together until adventure comes knocking at our door or until Amber tells us to go downstairs and do something."

Gumball looked back at his ghost girlfriend, laying down right beside him. He thought he shouldn't overthink and just follow what she says. He laid next to her and put an arm around her as she sneaks in and rests her head on his chest.

"Thanks, Carrie."

"No problem.. hun." Carrie said, cringing at her attempt to sweet talk him with cute names. Gumball looks over to her.

"Did you just call me "hun" or something?"

"Amber said I should try it, so I did. Shut up." Carrie said quietly.

To her surprise, Gumball did nothing but reach in and kissed her forehead, causing her to blush with a deep red face.

"You'll be better at it, babe." was all Gumball said.

Lucky for him, she was too shocked to even playfully hit him until she cooled down. And they stayed that way for the night.

AAAAAAA finally got a chapter out of the way. College and procrastination is really pushing this further back and I'm really sorry. And yes, this chapter is a bit longer than usual because it's another one of those short adventure chapters that I don't bother splitting into two parts. I also snuck in a Sponegbob reference. Anyway, lemme know what you think about it and I'll see you in the next chapter. Peace out!