Gumball lazily whirred from his sleeping position, nestled in the comforting blankets. After a long weekend of gaming with Darwin, the rest was earned. He twisted his body around until he hit that sweet spot; the feeling of finding that one, glorious position eliciting a smile from his lips. The feeling lasted all of about five seconds until Darwin kicked his door open, barging into his room.
"Gee, thanks." Gumball scoffed, grabbing a half-open book from his nightstand and tossing it towards Darwin, aiming to strike his chest with the object. Darwin easily swatted the book away.
"I'm sorry, did you think that would work or something?" Darwin rolled his eyes. "Hello. MONDAY. Get up."
"UGH." Gumball let out an exasperated groan as he rolled out of bed, rubbing his eyes. "Wait, what time is it?"
Darwin looked past him at the alarm clock, the red numbers screaming a sense of urgency. "SHIT, 7:30!"
Gumball didn't waste a second. Gasping in shock, he tumbled into his clothes as he raced down the stairs, Darwin calmly trailing his path of destruction. Anais, having seen this exact sight hundreds of times, simply shrugged and continued reading her book.
"Oh, Anais, did you do my English homework last night?" Gumball shouted from the kitchen, tossing the fridge around in search of the bread. He shivered for a moment as he opened the fridge door, a cold blast of air hitting him like a punch to the face. Having only been awake for two minutes at most, his skin was still sensitive to the cool morning air.
She slid over the chapter report to Gumball, who managed to catch it over the table just as he popped two slices of bread into the toaster. "Can't you just do it yourself for once?" Anais yelled, crossing her arms with disappointment in her brother's habit of laziness.
"You know me, I'm not into all that 1894 stuff."
"1984?" Anais mocked.
"Shut it nerd." Gumball patted her head as he moved to the living room, stuffing his backpack with a chaotic array of papers and textbooks and calculus problems. Anais's eyebrows furrowed with indignation as she prepared a grand speech in her mind to unleash upon Gumball, just as he dashed out the front door.
Anais curtly huffed. One day, she would let him have it. One day.
Elmore High's architecture was weird, to say the least. Supervised by Nigel Brown (who somehow, despite his fraudulent credentials, managed to snag the Principal job and move up from Elmore Jr High), the high school had revamped and updated their large campus, with outdoor pathways connecting various classroom "blocks". This revamping came with the addition of numerous bathrooms, extensions to the football/track stadium, and of course, the students' parking lot. The lot consisted of roughly 200 spaces, which was kind of tough to manage in a school of over 1500 students.
Gumball's honda easily maneuvered into one of those parking spaces, guided by his masterful driving skills. He checked his phone for the time. 7:58, only two minutes left.
The students of Ms. Simian's class shuffled into their desks. The AP Literature teacher was notorious for her cruel disposition, a reputation that caused her students to cower in fear at a mere glance in their direction.
Ms. Simian smiled. Gumball would be late after all.
"Silence from all of you!" The hushed morning chattering ceased as the classroom filled with a palpable tension. Ms. Simian walked across the room, her shoes clanking on the wooden floors, each contact making a thud that shuddered the students to their core. She arrived at her desk, sitting back into her plush chair as she straightened her papers.
"Get out your Chapter 4 Report on Nineteen Eighty-"
Cutting her off, Gumball crashed into the classroom, racing through the labyrinth of desks. He dove right into his chair just as the alarm bell rang, hastily retrieving his chapter report to Ms. Simian's ire.
"Watterson! Tardy again?" The old crone tasted victory, her grimace bleeding into the eyes of her students.
"Hey, I was in my seat BEFORE 8:00, right?" Gumball raised his eyebrow at her, casually smirking.
Ms. Simian groaned. She was a lot of things, but she wasn't unfair. Following the whole framing Gumball ordeal, she was under tight watch of the district.
"Fine. You win this one, Watterson." Her smile bent into a frown, that victory dissipating into bitter defeat.
"Anyways, about the Chapter Reports. We will be discussing…."
The minutes drug on as the class fell into a spell of unrelenting boredom. Ms. Simian would lecture and ramble over the deep political theory and symbolism of some random aspect of a book that nobody frankly cared about. Being teenagers, her class had a short attention span for drivel like this, and resorted to sneakily texting and talking to reprieve themselves of Ms. Simian.
Gumball tapped Penny's shoulder, unable to bear the madness. "God I can't take this anymore, is it her job to make this as boring as possible?"
Penny stifled a laugh, her hand clasping over her mouth. She whispered, "Stawwwwp, we're supposed to be listening," before playfully punching Gumball's shoulder.
Gumball stiffened in his seat. What the hell was he supposed to make of that? He certainly wasn't as funny as she made him out to be.
"Uhhhh, I'm not really cut out for that learning stuff," He replied.
"Ugh, you're smart, stop being modest." Penny smiled at him, tying back her scrunchie. She had a little trouble with it, fumbling it around in her hands before she managed to tie it into a bun at the end of her long hair.
Time bore on until the third period bell set off, ringing reprieve in the ears of Ms. Simian's class. "At least History isn't taught by that witch," Gumball thought to himself as he walked through the campus of Elmore High.
Lunch meant freedom for the seniors of Elmore High. Well, for the ones that could actually afford to get fast food every single day. That group decidedly excluded the Wattersons. So on most days, they retreated to their little corner of the school.
The eastern pavilion of Elmore High's outdoor cafeteria was that little corner. It was the unofficial congregation spot of the Watterson brothers as they ate their lunch on the concrete floor.
"Dude, I'm trash at getting signals." Gumball complained to his attentive brother. "I mean, I don't even know! Is she being friendly? Flirtatious? Annoyed?" He sighed as Darwin patted his back.
"Okay, back up for a sec. Tell me what she did." Darwin said, taking a bite out of his apple.
"She laughs at everything I say, even though it's like totally unfunny and I'm not even trying. Uh, she messes with her hair a lot, is that some sort of medical issue?" Gumball only managed to get that out before Darwin broke into laughter, flailing on the ground in a wild guffaw.
"Come on, dude! I really like her, I don't know what the shit I'm doing here." Gumball buried his face in his hands and groaned.
"Okay, okay, look. If you ain't capping-"
"No cap, swear to god." Gumball interjected.
"-Then it's very obvious she's got at least, like, a thing for you." Darwin finished.
"Let's be real here Darwin, she's way too hot for me to be anything but a guy friend."
Darwin grabbed Gumball by the shoulders, staring at him dead in the eyes.. "If you don't do something, some other dude will."
"But I'm not as cool, intelligent, attractive, funny, or charismatic as 'some other dude'." Gumball hung his head in defeat.
"Nah that's weak ass shit right there, you gotta have some belief in yourself. So go right the fuck now and ask her out, you ain't allowed back here until you asked her." With that, Darwin shoved Gumball up and pushed him away from their spot. Gumball glared back as he went to find Penny, pushing through the sea of people as he navigated the school.
Penny was sitting with her Cheer friends. Their table, in the center of the lunch grounds, was frequently swarmed by guys as each one vied for a chance to 'woo' one of the hot girls. Penny, being the captain, was the most frequent target, although with Tobias lurking around, not many had the courage to try their luck with her.
Tobias, the competition having been scared into submission, sauntered up to the cheer table, certain that she would fall for his charms this time. He leaned against the table with his right arm, turning his head towards Penny, with an arrogant smirk on his face.
"Hey," Tobias casually said as he snatched Penny's phone. "Looks like this is mine now, huh?"
Penny sighed. "Tobias, seriously, stop with the phone stealing thing, it's literally obnoxious."
"Aha, you're gonna have to take it back though," Tobias teased.
Now, despite his ridiculous flirting attempts, Penny didn't dislike the guy. Which is why she didn't slap him for that stupid quip.
Penny continued to ignore him, not even looking in his direction. Even if she didn't hate Tobias, it was a ways away from actually liking him, and that meant she generally wanted to restrict interactions with him to pleasantries and greetings.
When she didn't respond to his games, Tobias shook his head. "Suit yourself," he said as he slipped Penny's phone back into her hand.
After Tobias was back at his usual post, the cheer table erupted.
"Penny, your game is just horrible. How was that flirting?" Masami rolled her eyes.
"Uh, I wasn't trying to flirt with him? Hello? I don't like him?" Penny responded, exasperated with their insistence that she get with the guy.
"How could you not drool over him, seriously!" Molly gushed as Masami nodded in agreement.
"Well," Teri inserted. The rest of the girls looked at her, waiting for her to continue as she finished wiping her hands with hand sanitizer. "If you're not going after him, I am."
"Uh, no." Masami laughed. "Tobias isn't into germaphobes." Teri gasped at the insult, and the two got into yet another argument. The cheer squad couldn't help but laugh at their petty squabbling.
"Y'all forget that Tobias," Leslie paused, gaining attention from the other cheer girls, "is into Penny. So don't be betraying the girl code now."
Masami dryly stared at him. "Leslie, you'd fuck him if you got the chance. Don't even-" she tugged her sleeves up before continuing to text.
Tobias laughed with his friends as he observed and listened in on the cheer table, glaring at the boys who tried to get too close. Until, of course, Gumball walked by, searching for an islet of solitude where he could wait out his banishment.
What Tobias wasn't expecting was for Penny to look at him and… get up and run after him?
"Juke, look." He nudged Juke, motioning towards Penny and Gumball. In response, Juke shook his head.
"I know, what the fuck would she wanna do with him?" Tobias balled his fists in a small show of anger. It was definitely not supposed to be like this.
Juke just shrugged his shoulders.
"Gumball!" Penny grabbed Gumball's shoulder and pulled him towards her, hugging him tightly. "Ugh, couldn't get away from the cheer girls, thank GOD you're here." She yelled.
"Uhhhhh, hey?" Gumball asked with an inflection in his voice, awkwardly patting her back.
"I kinda wanted to talk to you for a sec," Penny said, tugging him into a less crowded section of the school. The midday sun beautifully illuminated her skin, the sunshine bouncing off her lightly tanned skin. Her outfit only accentuated that matter, making it quite hard for Gumball to focus on the words she was saying.
"So…." Penny started, crossing her legs while standing on the concrete path.
"Sooooo?" Gumball questioned back, folding his arms in his hoodie. He juggled between what could technically qualify as eye contact and glancing at her body, mainly the former.
Penny sighed before looking at him and continuing. "I got two tickets to Daisyland, and I was just wondering…?" She grabbed his arms, cocking her head at him.
Yea, Gumball was in full panic mode. His stomach churned with anxiety as his inner alarm blared 'DANGER' on repeat in his head.
"YES, I'll go. With you, obviously." He got out, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head with his left hand.
"It's a date then?" Penny smiled, radiating a tantalizing beauty that melted Gumball.
The gears in his head finally clicked. Did Penny actually like him? It was a crazy thought, even for him.
"Yes, tomorrow night, at eight." He managed to say.
Penny lit up. "Great! Bye."
And just like that, Gumball experienced a rollercoaster of human emotions in under a minute.
"A WHAT?" Nicole gaped at her son, the rotisserie chicken still cooking in the boiler. The cool summer evening produced a nice, light breeze that swept through the house, as Nicole liked to keep the kitchen window open for cooking. The sound of boiling broth was watering to the mouth, especially coming from Nicole's expert cooking.
"A date? With Penny?" Gumball said, eagerly anticipating his family's response.
The rest of the family had gathered at the dinner table, eagerly awaiting tonight's dinner. Richard, in particular, had quite the voracious appetite. But this news flipped all those thoughts of food off the table as millions of questions began flooding the Wattersons' minds.
"Penny as in Fitzgerald?" Nicole asked while turning off the boiler.
"That's the one. Why do you ask?" Gumball shouted back from the dinner table as his father cheered and hollered.
"Penny's father was the guy that-"
"Yea, accidentally ran his car into our garage a few years ago. Whenever I mention her, you always bring this up. Seriously, you don't have to worry." Gumball sighed, slumping back into his chair. "I'm sure everything's gonna turn out fine." He finished.
Richard, being a father, slapped Gumball on the back and congratulated his 'casa nova', before asking to see another picture of his date. His son with a pretty girl caused his paternal pride to soar.
Nicole knew Penny from Yuki, Masami's mother and Nicole's coworker. She espoused into great detail the skill and finesse of the Elmore High cheer team, and while she primarily (as in, mostly) focused on Masami's talents, Penny was often highlighted as well. It was certainly not the class of girl Nicole expected Gumball to mingle with, but that wasn't important to Nicole. She just wanted her son to be happy.
Anais was rather unimpressed. While she rationally understood what was going on, considering she was a literal genius of 190 IQ, her complete lack of physical maturation and age meant such matters as romance and love hardly ticked her interests. So she waved it off as another distraction which would invariably lead to heartbreak, and then resumed reading some two thousand page testament to neo-confucian philosophy, whatever the hell that was.
As for Darwin, the guy was Gumball's brother. Gumball's victories were also his. So Darwin declared the night a celebration in honor of his brother's success, and vowed to binge the Legend of Zelmore games with Gumball until the sun rose from the eastern sky. Gumball wasn't about to say no.