Hello, everyone. I'm Waterfront3000. Today, I bring you another story from my brain to hopefully bring you all enjoyment. This one is a bit of a turn from some of the other stuff I did in the past, but it's just as good, I assure you. Letting you all know, Author's Notes (A/N) will be redirected to a forum on this site to keep everything tight. Just hit 'Forums', then go to 'Gumball's Hollow Ponds' and it'll be pinned on top. Also, I'm working on some cover art for this, and you'll see it later on.
And now, without further ado, I bring you my next story.
Perfectly Not
~O~X~O~
The sun, it's rays slowly passing through the glass window and into the small bedroom, bringing light to the dim place. A small clock sitting on a nightstand by a bunk bed went off at exactly 6:00 AM. It's high-pitched speaker went off, and continued to beep several times. A paw came out from under the blankets on the bed the stand sat next to, blindly searching for the alarm clock, hitting multiple objects as it did so.
Finally, it found what it was looking for and pressed the button on top, silencing the irritating noise. The hand slowly slid back under the covers, gripping them tightly and pulling some closer in with it.
A quiet 'yawn' came from the top bunk. There, a little girl in her pajamas was rubbing the sleep away from her eyes as she slowly pushed off the blanket from her legs and quietly climbed down. She walked up to the window with a desk sitting next to it and stared outside. It was sunny, yet it was also windy. Bringing in the cold fall-time air with it and some leaves. People were already raking yards and bundled up for the weather.
She turned around, walking back over to the bed, she tapped on a fishbowl sitting on the nightstand, right next to the clock. The fish inside opened one eye before smiling at the girl.
"Time to get up, Darwin," the girl said.
The fish slowly rose up from the fish bow with it's long legs, stretching out and yawning.
"Mornin', Anais."
They both yawned again before Anais walked next to the bed, poking the large lump covered in blankets on the bottom bunk bed.
"Gumball, time to get up."
There was no response. Not even a movement. She poked again, but a bit more harder.
"Gumball?"
Still no response. But it turned over. Away from her.
"Gumball, get up." She kept poking the lump. Darwin leaned over from the nightstand and started poking it too. They both had a rhythm with it as they continued poking the lump. It twitched with ever poke they gave it.
'Why... why the hell do they have to do this every, freaking, morning?'
"UghhaaAAAHHHG! STOP! STOP IT! I'M AWAKE!"
The sheets flew off the bed and across the room. The two backed up as an angry, furious cat huffed deeply. He shot the two a nasty look as he sat back down on the bed slowly. His tail was moving back and fourth quickly. A sign that he had been pissed off by someone.
"Okay, geez, Gumball, don't have a heart atta-"
"What did I tell you two about poking me when I'm asleep?" asked Gumball, still very angry.
"Well, we have school, you know," said Anais. She placed her hands on her hips.
"I don't care about school. I told both of you to not poke me when I'm sleeping." Gumball jumped off the bed, standing in front of the two.
"Chill out, dude." Darwin rose his fins in front of himself. "No need to get angry about anything."
"Well, I told you two about this, so you both should have known it would have pissed me off, so you can't blame anyone but yourselves."
Gumball went over to his closet and grabbed a few things out of it before leaving the room. Both Anais and Darwin stared at each other silently for a moment, before they both sighed at the same time.
"And once again, Gumball wakes up in a crabby mode for the milli-"
"I can hear you two in there!" yelled Gumball.
"...millionth and one time," whispered Darwin.
"He's never gonna change his attitude, is he?" Anais rolled her eyes.
"Not until Mom beats it out of his butt."
They both quietly giggled as they grabbed a few things before stepping out of the bedroom. They saw Gumball with a towel and some clothes standing by the bathroom door in his blue boxers, waiting for whoever was inside to come out. He had an annoyed look on his face and simply stared at the ground. Darwin and Anais both walked next to him, trying to ignore the look he was giving them.
Silence filled the room, (save for the shower running in the bathroom,) so Darwin thought it would be a good idea to make some kind of conversation between the three.
"So, did everyone finish up that assignment?" asked Darwin.
"Oh, I had that thing done the moment it was handed out. Essays are easy as Pi. The math term, I mean," said Anais. "How about you, Gumball?"
Gumball rolled his eyes. "Yeah..."
"Yeah?" Darwin raised an eyebrow. "What does 'Yeah' mean?"
"Yeah. Just yeah." Gumball rolled his eyes again.
"You don't look confident about it," said Anais.
"Look, I did the freaking assignment, okay? God, question me about everything..."
"Gumball, it was just a question." Darwin crossed his fins.
"Well, I don't see you answering it."
"FYI, Gumball, I finished my assignment last night." Darwin smiled, feeling good about himself that he got it done on time.
"Oh, joy, you placed a bunch of flags on a picture of the country, good for you."
Darwin went silent after that.
"Gumball!" exclaimed Anais. "That's not-"
"Nice? You weren't nice to me this morning. And you both still aren't acting-"
"Hold on a second," interrupted Darwin. "What did you just say?"
"I said you placed a bunch of flags on a picture of America and, what? wrote some dumb version of it's history?" Gumball rolled his eyes again at his brother.
"...Dude, that was next week's assignment."
"...What?" Gumball faced Darwin.
"Gumball, you were supposed to write an essay about a french novel this week. The country assignment is next week."
Gumball remained silent for a few moments, before throwing up his arms and saying, "So what?"
"W-what?" asked Anais.
"So, I got the assignment done early. In fact, I got it done before any of you two started." Gumball chuckled to himself, all while his siblings mouths hung agape.
"What about this week's assignment?" asked Darwin.
"I'll do it later."
"Gumball, the submission date is TODAY. You have to hand it in when we get to school." Anais looked disappointed and downright annoyed with her brother.
"And Mom is going to kill you when she finds out," added Darwin.
"Oh, geez, you know, I saw an ad on T.V. for a sale on hearing aids, you two should really go check it out," said Gumball with sarcasm all over. "I said I will do it later."
"Gumball, there is no way you can do that before the submission deadline."
"You guys just don't get how I work." Gumball pulled out a notepad from his towel. He took a pencil inside and started writing down something.
"Dude, what are you doing?" asked Darwin.
"Finishing my essay."
Both of his siblings slapped themselves in the face. Their father, Richard walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed and ready for the day.
"Morning, kids!" said Richard to his children. They all smiled at him, except for Gumball, who continued to write.
"Gumball?" Richard looked down at his son. "What are you doing?"
"School stuff, Dad." Gumball didn't look away from his notepad.
"You didn't finish that diorama?"
"No, Dad, he didn't finish the essay," said Anais, shooting a nasty look at Gumball. He ignored it.
"Won't his Mother be upset at him?"
"Won't I be upset at what?"
Everyone, (But Gumball,) turned around to the staircase. There at the end stood Nicole. She had a bag in her hand and had one eyebrow raised. Anais and Darwin knew there was going to be a beating.
"Um, Mom, uh... Gumball, uh..." Darwin didn't know if he should say it, standing right next to Gumball, still writing.
Nicole had an angry look on her face now. She moved past everyone and stood in front of Gumball. She looked down at him as he continued to write. He seemed to be completely unaware his mother was standing before him.
"Gumball," said Nicole bluntly. "What are you doing?"
"School stuff," replied Gumball.
"Gumball, you were supposed to finish that assignment a few days ago. What did you do last night?"
"School stuff," repeated Gumball. Nicole rolled her eyes and took the notepad away from him. She knelt down in front of him and placed a hand on his chin.
"Pay attention to me, Gumball." said Nicole with anger in her voice. "What were you doing last night?"
"I was grounded." Gumball looked away.
"That's no reason to skip your homework."
"In fact, it's a good reason to work on it," muttered Anais. Darwin nodded.
"I did do my assignment, on the computer. But since I was grounded, I didn't get a chance to print it out." Gumball closed his eyes, not wanting to look at any of his family.
"Gumball, you could have asked me," said Nicole in defense.
"I did, twice, but you didn't want to talk to me, neither did anyone else." Gumball now sounded hurt. Darwin and Anais rolled their eyes, Richard had a frown on his face hearing it and Nicole sighed. She looked at her husband.
"Richard, you go downstairs. Breakfast will be ready in a bit." Richard smiled, hopping downstairs.
"Darwin, Anais, get washed up." She stood up and looked at Gumball. "I am giving you permission to use the computer once, and only once, to print out your assignment. Understand?"
Gumball nodded, still keeping his eyes closed.
"Alright then, breakfast will be ready in a bit." Nicole walked back downstairs. Darwin motioned for Anais to step in the bathroom. She went inside, leaving her two brothers alone.
"...You okay, dude?" asked Darwin.
"No."
"...So, wait a second... If your assignment was on the computer, what about what you said with next week's assignment?"
'You freaking idiot,' thought Gumball. "I told you, I already finished it."
"Seems weird for you to get your homework done early."
"Like anyone would care if I passed it or not." Gumball turned around and stepped in his room, quietly closing the door behind him. Darwin sighed. He had no idea if he should feel guilty or disappointed at Gumball.
Ever since he turned thirteen, Gumball had slowly started to change. He was never as loud or playful as he used to be. He would always keep to himself and spend much of his time alone somewhere.
When he turned fourteen, anger was thrown into the mix. He seemed to hate every living thing on the planet and got easily annoyed with someone even when they just talked to him. Strangely, as his anger increased, his grades did as well. An afternoon when he got back from school, he was swearing because his foot had been ran over by a bicycle, (which was his fault,) yet in his hand was his report card with an A plus on one test.
His family didn't know how to feel about it, but soon, the anger made the grades forgettable. His mother didn't think Gumball would turn out this way, then again, neither did anyone else. His friends slowly started to hate him, in fact at one point, it seemed like the whole world wanted to avoid Gumball.
Darwin thought about talking to him one on one again, but the previous conversation changed his mind. He would give him some space to (hopefully,) cool down a bit.
Anais stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed. She waved to Darwin and walked downstairs. Darwin smiled at her as he went in the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
~O~X~O~
He silently watched as the last piece of paper slowly slid out from the printer. He grabbed the stack of paper, walking over to his backpack and shoving them inside. Gumball then walked back to the computer, pressing the power button and watching as the screen flickered before shutting off completely.
He thought about what had happened earlier. The conversation had poked at his nerves greatly, and now, Gumball felt he was going to have a break-down soon. He sighed, slipping off his boxers and wrapping his towel around his waist. He went over to the door and peeked out of it. The bathroom door was wide open, meaning he could go in now.
He quickly ran inside and closed the door behind him. He turned on the water, slipped off his towel and jumped in the tub. He fell to his knees as he allowed himself to cry. His sobs were drowned out by the running shower head, and his tears slipped away with the running water down the drain.
After a few minutes of crying, Gumball wiped away his tears and tried calming down a bit. He grabbed a bottle of soap, poured some in his fur and started scrubbing away. He got behind his ears and under his feet and the rest of his body, but stopped upon reaching his lower area. He could feel himself getting aroused, as he easily was nowadays, and thought something over.
He sighed, sitting on the tub floor, trying to 'help' himself. He didn't talk about it out loud, but Gumball thought this was the only peaceful thing in his life. He would have stayed all day if he could, but he only had time for one go as it was Monday and had to get to school. One was enough for him anyway, as he could go again when he got back.
Still being timed, he shut off the water and stepped out of the tub, continuing his little moment as he dried himself off with a towel. He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment. His fur was the same color, but it was noticeably darker. It wasn't completely dark, but from a distance, someone could tell it changed over the years. There was also more hair on his head, not going over his eyes, and he had more fur on his crotch. It was more darker than everywhere else, but then again, no one would really know about that.
He looked at his own eyes. They were a bit red, but nothing too bad. His thoughts drifted away as he finished up with his alone time, nearly falling over on the floor as he did. Letting out a cross between a long 'Ah' and a sigh, Gumball pulled himself together and got dressed. He wore a slightly bigger blue sweater, along with a darker pair of jeans. His other sweater and pants were stored away for the summer months, as they were more thinner and wouldn't stand up to the fall weather. Let alone winter.
He looked at the mirror one last time. His face was busing from his previous act, but shrugged it off. No one would know. He walked out of the bathroom and downstairs, eying a clock on the wall as he went to eat breakfast. It read '6:46'. He would only have time to eat, as the bus would arrive soon.
He walked up to the table where his family was already eating. Anais and Darwin only looked at him once for a moment, as expected. Richard was focused solely on his food, and Nicole was a bit of a mix of both. He sat down in between Darwin and his mother and looked at his plate. A stack of waffles, still warm with some butter on top.
"Did you print out your assignment?" asked Nicole.
"Yeah, I did," said Gumball, grabbing the syrup.
"Good. Just remember, you're still grounded from the computer when you get back." Nicole took another bite of her food, eying Gumball.
"I know..." Gumball poured the syrup on his waffles. For a moment, he looked like he was going to drown them.
"So, kids, any plans after school?" asked Richard, shoving another waffle in his mouth.
"Oh, not much. Probably watch some T.V. and-"
"Darwin, the T.V. is still broken," said Nicole. "Remember?"
"Oh, yeah..." Darwin sighed, staring at Gumball for a moment.
"The T.V. repair man will be here to fix it tomorrow in the afternoon." Nicole took another bite out of his food. She looked over at Gumball.
"...What?"
"Oh, nothing," said Nicole.
"Look, okay, I broke it and I'm sorry." Gumball shoved his face full with more of his food.
"Gumball, that's not why I'm looking at you. You already apologized about seven times yesterday." Nicole recalled two days ago when Gumball broke the T.V. He didn't care that day when it happened, but the next night, he wouldn't stop apologizing for it to everyone after the looks he was given. Especially by his father.
"Then why did you give me a look?" asked Gumball. Darwin and Anais knew it was starting up.
"Your face."
"...My what?"
"Your face. It's all red."
Gumball sat his fork down and placed his hand on his cheeks. He didn't think it would show so easily.
"It's fine," Gumball said, sensing he could start sweating any second.
"Are you absolutely sure?" asked Anais.
"Yes, it's fine, really." Gumball tried calming down a bit. Thankfully, everyone else dropped the subject.
"As long as you're not sick or anything. Remember, you have chores when you get home."
"Alright, mom..." Gumball's mind felt more at ease now.
'Thank god they stopped talking about it...'
"Wait, why do we need a T.V. repair man when we can get a new one?" asked Darwin.
'God, DAMMIT!' Gumball sank lower in his seat.
"Because our old T.V. is just fine, Darwin."
"Mom, not to be any way, but uh, Gumball broke the glass tube." Anais took a bite from her food, her plate completely empty now. Gumball closed his eyes at hearing those words. "How is that fixable?"
Nicole thought about it for a moment. The T.V. was old, and they could use the money from the repair man to buy one similar to the last one.
"I guess we could get a new one." Everyone but Gumball smiled. "On one condition."
"What is it?" everyone said.
"As long as someone helps pay for it."
Everyone blinked before turning to face Gumball. He kept eating his waffles, fully aware everyone was staring at him.
"...Allowance... right?" Gumball asked with food in his mouth.
"Yes, Gumball."
"Alright." Gumball nodded at his mother. "I have fifteen dollars... and five cents." He pulled the money out of his pocked and handed it to his mother. He then continued to eat his food quietly.
"Thank you, Gumball." Nicole nodded at her son.
After a few more minutes of silent eating, the three children took their plates and sat them in the kitchen sink, before grabbing their bags and stepping outside, waiting for the bus to arrive. They waved goodbye (except for Gumball,) to their father, now sleeping on the couch. They all stepped on the sidewalk and waited for the bus to pick them up. They saw their mother getting in her car and going to work. She waved at them and they waved back at her. (Like before, except for Gumball.)
When she drove off, the three of them stood silently. Gumball was looking up at the sky. Some clouds drifted by in the wind slowly. He thought about them for a moment. Could a cloud come down on the street? Maybe take him to a far away place? He wondered what it would be like if you could lay on a cloud. How it would feel, how sleeping would be...
How sex would be.
"Gumball. Earth to Gumball, respond." Darwin poked his shoulder, snapping him out of his daydreaming.
"What did I tell you this morning?" asked Gumball, irritated.
"The bus is here."
Gumball turned and saw the bus pulled up in front of them. Darwin and Anais stepped in while Gumball stared blankly at it. Not sure what was going on.
"Yo, kid, you getting in?" the bus driver, a large beetle said.
Gumball shook his head and stepped on the bus. The door closed behind him and slowly drove off from the house. Gumball looked around for an empty seat. There were some, but sadly, people were next to them.
Tobias was alone, making funny noises behind Carmen and Alan. He couldn't handle his stupidity right now. Further down was Sarah, writing in her sketchbook. He knew he would be eyed completely if he sat next to her. Jamie was also alone, but he couldn't handle her crap now. Finally, there was Teri. The germ freak. He thought she was the only one tolerable now. His brother and sister were at the back with an empty seat, but he didn't want to deal with them due to this morning's events.
He sighed, walking over to where Teri was sitting and sat down next to her. She looked at him.
"What on earth are you doing?" asked Teri.
"Sitting, what the hell is wrong with that." Gumball rubbed his eyes. He felt a bit tired.
"No, you're touching your face with your hands. Do you have any clue where they've been today?"
"Yes, on my arms. That's how its been for about... forever." Gumball rolled his eyes, sinking into his seat more.
"Do you know how many germs can enter your body by touching your face with your hands alone? There's so many things that can transmit germs through you-"
"Okay, first off, shut the hell up," spat Gumball. Teri moved back. "Second, for your information, I took a shower this morning, so there is pretty much no chance I could have gotten something."
"Even if you take a shower, there is still a chance of getting an infection from something!"
"Name one. One thing that could get me sick." Gumball rolled his eyes again. He knew she couldn't think of anything.
"...Oh, I know one thing."
Gumball chuckled. "Oh really, you know of one?"
"Yes, and it's all over your face."
"...Excuse me?"
"Your face shows somewhat of a rather large amount of redness. Which is more than likely blushing. You also have lots of fur covering you, meaning you would have had to have done something quite... intense, to cause a blush like that."
Gumball's eyes were wide. "What?"
Teri had a smug grin on her face. "Oh, I know what it is. You were mas-"
"SHHHHH!" Gumball brought a finger up on his own lips. Whispering, "No I wasn't, Shut up!"
"Not so smug now, Gumball?" Teri chuckled. "Also, your fluids contain so many germs, that I wouldn't put your finger on your mouth... Unless, that is, if you like the tast-"
"Stop! Shut up!" Gumball backed away from her. "We're on the bus! People can hear us!"
"Well, you should have thought about that before you sat next to me. Oh, and don't even try to say you didn't do it, because that outburst you had just now says otherwise." Teri huffed and scooted away from Gumball. He went silent, looking down at the bus floor.
'Note to self: stay the hell away from this bitch...'
The bus slowly pulled up to the school. The bus doors slowly opened as students jumped off and proceeded inside the building. Gumball was the last one to jump off, not at all pleased about another hellish day.
Almost two years ago, Gumball slowly moved on into high school. He remembered being so scarred of the change, because he was the first one out of his whole class to go. He remembered the look on his family's faces when they heard how fast he was going. Nicole cried, Richard continued to eat, and Darwin and Anais spent the whole night trying to figure out how he did it.
If you asked him, Gumball would simply say, "I dunno," and walk away. He didn't like the idea of high school, because he wouldn't see his friends until they graduated. After five months, they all slowly started appearing, joining Gumball in the new school. Sadly, this was around the time when Gumball was beginning to become annoyed at everyone.
He walked inside the building. The halls were lined with lockers and had students pulling things out of them or talking to each other. From the door, he went straight forward, made one left turn, and there was his locker. There was some stickers on it such as blue thunder and some Grey clouds, just so he would know which one it is. Sadly, his locker was sitting right next to Darwin's and Anais'. Something he was starting to hate slowly.
He walked up to his, ignoring as his two siblings walked up to theirs. He undid the lock and opened the locker. There were some books inside along with a few binders. But there was a large amount of colorful cylinders. Gumball opened one up. It was completely full of pencils, pens, markers and highlighter pens. Whenever someone dropped something to draw or write with, Gumball would always pick it up if he had the chance to. And over the year, he had about four jars filled up.
He shoved some of his books in his locker before closing it and locking it up. He walked down the halls to his first class. One that he dreaded every day: World History Class.
It was one that shoved his brain full of info about the spinning ball of dirt he lived on. From the country founders all the way to the other side of the world. Gumball didn't have a problem with all the races or the wars or anything.
He just hated his teacher's guts.
He walked in the classroom where a dozen other students sat quietly. The teacher was standing by his desk, holding a large stack of papers. Once Gumball closed the door behind him, the teacher eyed him carefully as Gumball went over to his desk and sat down.
His teacher was in no way a pretty sight. He was a goblin made out of stone, just like his heart. He wore a very fancy looking suit every day and he had a rather big pair of glasses. It was all topped off with a stone beard that somehow moved like it was real hair.
"Good morning, Class," he grumbled.
"Good morning, Mister Gravel."
"I assume you all finished this weeks assignment? If so, leave it on the desk now. If you didn't, just stay at your desk. You'll get an hour detention later on..." He grumbled ever word. His voice was low on the pitch scale.
The students all got up and placed their assignment with their names on the desk Mr. Gravel stood next to. Gumball was the last one to walk up. He sat his paper on the desk and looked at his teacher. Trying to not look angry.
"I didn't have a folder or anything to put it all in."
His teacher rolled his eyes. He stepped behind his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a green folder. He wrote down Gumball's name on it and slipped the assignment in. Mr. Gravel eyed Gumball.
"Do try to be careful, Watterson."
Gumball simply nodded and went back to his desk. He closed his eyes and quietly let out a sigh, being sure that no one heard him.
"Now, class, you all know about next week's assignment. I told you earlier that it was to be done by Friday for a reason."
Everyone remained silent.
"I am resigning as a teacher at Elmore High School."
Everyone no longer remained silent and gasped, (and like this morning, except for Gumball.)
"The school will be finding another teacher to help you all 'learn' about the different countries and such, but they will not be here for another month. Until then, a substitute teacher will be here on Monday until the school finds a full-time teacher. I will be leaving on Monday. Are there any question?"
No one rose their hand, but Gumball.
"Ah, yes, Watterson?"
"Do you need those spare folders in your drawers anymore?"
Mr. Gravel slapped his hand on his face as the entire class giggled quietly.
"Watterson, if I let you have the folders, will you refrain from asking another stupid question in this class for the rest of my time here?"
"...Yeah."
Mr Gravel sighed. "Take them when you leave the class." He placed the folders on his desk. "Now then, on with the lesson. This week, we're learning about America, it's states and their history."
Gumball sighed, sinking down lower in his seat. He had already finished his assignment on the current lecture last night, so there wasn't all that much of a reason to listen. But he couldn't fall asleep and risk getting chewed out for it.
He pulled out a notepad from his backpack and started scribbling down words. But they weren't Mr. Gravels words. Gumball recently got into writing poems. Most of them only consisted of four rhymes, though. His mind couldn't get very far with them.
Most of them had themes like 'Hurt', 'Anger' or 'Killing'. Gumball thought he should at least try to break out of the negative zone and try something more uplifting. Only one thing came to his mind.
'...Love...geh...'
Gumball sighed. He thought he should give it a try anyway. He wrote down one line on top of a blank page.
'Your heart is broken,'
...
As quickly as he started, Gumball closed his note pad quietly.
End of Chapter 1