The Gift: A TAWOG Story

Chapter 13: The Office

Gumball stayed in his room the whole weekend, except coming out for meals. His mother did not ground him, but rather he grounded himself. Despite Nicole and the rest of the family's pleas for him to come out, he hesitated.

Come Monday morning, he finally had no choice but to leave his room to go to school. He still felt disgusting with what he did Friday night, still struggling to talk or even eat breakfast. Nicole could tell he still was not feeling himself, yet thought it would be best not to bring up the incident.

"So what's going on for you monkeys today?" Nicole asked all three of her children, but really panning to Darwin and Anais.

"Pretty normal day for me, really," replied Darwin.

"Same here," said Anais. "What about you, Mom?"

"Oh, just another day at the office. Although I forgot that today is Gender Equality Training Day, all because my coworkers kept reciting that dumb monologue Martin Lawrence did on Saturday Night Live. It's basically gonna be an hour and a half that I'll never get back."

"Well, good luck with that," said Darwin. "What are we having for dinner tonight?"

"My pot roast," said Nicole. "It's in the slow-cooker right now."

"Yum," said Darwin and Anais. Gumball remained silent. They finished their cereal and grabbed their backpacks.

"You two go ahead," said Nicole to Darwin and Anais. "I need to talk with Gumball."

"He's gonna get it," Anais said with a smirk to Darwin.

"No, he's not," said Nicole. "Have a good day at school, you two." Darwin and Anais left through the front door to catch the school bus, while Gumball remained seated and Nicole sat back down across from him.

"You're not in trouble, Gumball. I just want you to be honest with me. What happened between you and Darwin on Friday before the fair?"

"I don't know," Gumball said. "He made me mad, and I just... I really don't know what happened! I just screamed at him and everything just knocked over by itself!" It was spooky. But I don't understand. You're just gonna let me off the hook again?"

"Of course," said Nicole. "Because I know you didn't do it on purpose. I wanna try something really quick. Just bare with me." She placed an empty can of soda in front of him.

"Now, what did Darwin say that made you so mad?"

"I don't even remember much," answered Gumball. "What I do remember is that he told me I'm just so insecure about myself and I don't even really care about Penny. All I care about is just having a girl."

"Yes, and?" said an excited Nicole.

"Well..." Gumball growled a little bit. "He said I don't even bother trying to get to know her." He started clenching his fist as Nicole clenched hers in excitement. "He said eventually she's gonna dump me for someone else! Ugh!!" A small bright white magnetic beam whipped from his face directly at the soda can, knocking it over.

"Gumball!" Nicole cheered. "Oh, my baby!" She ran over and hugged her son, who did not fully understand what was going on. "You've got my anger force as well!"

"Um... yay?" Gumball said, feeling awkward.

"Come on," said Nicole, letting go of her son. "Let's get you off to school."

While Gumball felt enlightened that his mother was beyond proud of him for inheriting her abilities, he started to feel like he was being treated more special than his siblings.

Nicole drove Gumball to school, which only elevated his guilt since he felt his siblings deserved a ride to school from their mother as much as he did.