VIII - The Distractions

Gumball knew he wasn't exactly the brightest student. He didn't always do his homework – he wasn't one to pay much attention in class – and most of all, he got distracted rather easily.

It was a regular school day, mid week. It was lunch time, and Gumball and Darwin were sitting together, as usual. Lunch today was lasagne, which was one of the better options throughout the week, so Gumball was eating contently as he listened to Darwin gush about the date he had with Carrie the previous day.

"...And she loved it! I'm thinking we should go there more often, since Carrie really likes…"

Gumball's eyes drifted from his brother to the background, observing the people passing by. Masami was walking with Leslie today, which was a bit unusual. Tobias and Banana Joe were sitting together, which wasn't unusual. Carrie wasn't around, evidently having decided today that she didn't want to watch other people eat.

"...so cool! So we went to the store and bought some bread, so we could feed the other ones…"

Gumball frowned when he saw Alan and Carmen walking together, as usual. Please don't come and sit here, please don't come and sit here, he chanted in his mind, willing with every fibre of his being for Alan and Carmen to walk right on by. Today evidently wasn't his day, however, since upon seeing the tables mostly full, they turned towards his and Darwin's.

"Hi guys!" Said Alan happily, interrupting Darwin's rambling. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

"No," said Gumball through grit teeth, while his mind screamed yes. Darwin gave him a bewildered look, evidently having expected Gumball to come up with some roundabout ploy to avoid having to sit with Alan. The truth was; lunch was nearly over, and Gumball simply couldn't be bothered.

"Thanks!" Said Alan, moving in next to Darwin, on his other side. Carmen joined him, and the two became wrapped in a conversation as if Gumball and Darwin weren't there.

"...Okayyyyy," said Darwin slowly. "Dude. I totally didn't expect you to just… let them sit there."

Gumball could only shrug. Soon enough, Darwin was back into his rant about Carrie, and Gumball was back to idly staring into space.

Something just beyond Darwin caught his eye. It was Alan's string, dangling innocently in the air about a metre away.

Gumball stared at it.

There it was, just… dangling. When Alan bobbed up and down in the air, it moved too, and Gumball's eyes followed it. Alan laughed, and it jerked a bit. Gumball's head jerked along with it, captivated.

Maybe he could just… reach over and...

"Dude!" Exclaimed Darwin.

"Huh?" Gumball blinked, and turned his attention to his brother. His brother whose lap he was halfway across, a hand outstretched towards the string.

Thank god of gods, neither Carmen nor Alan had noticed. Red flushing to his cheeks, Gumball quickly retracted back from across Darwin and to his seat.

"Uhhh, sorry?" He tried, averting his eyes in embarrassment.

He was saved from having to explain himself when the bell rang. "Gottagotoclassseeyoulaterbye!" He exclaimed, jumping out of his seat and running out of the room and towards his locker.

The potential for this day to embarrass him through distraction arrived again in PE class. They were playing dodgeball, and once again, everyone was really into it.

Gumball was hit and booted out quite early into the game, much to his chagrin. He was grumpily sitting on the sidelines, trying to find a positive by watching Penny be beautiful at every turn, when something weird and pink on the floor of the gym caught his eye out of his peripheral vision.

Allowing himself one more second to watch his badass girlfriend get someone else out, he glanced over at the flash of pink.

At a first glance, it wasn't obvious as to what it was. But Gumball was familiar enough with his classmates to recognise it as one of Leslie's petals after a few seconds. It must have fallen off in the exertion needed for PE.

He watched it. It was light, fluttering around the floor of the gym with the breeze created by everyone running around. It twisted and flipped, and Gumball was captivated by its light, jerky movements.

Absently, Gumball stood up from the bench. Banana Joe, who was also out, gave him an odd look, but didn't pay much attention. Gumball stalked towards the petal, crouched down, and experimentally put a hand on top of it.

Nothing happened – not that he really… expected anything. He lifted his hand limply, and the petal idly rolled away.

Okay, no – not on his watch. Gumball scuttled forward, his hand still hanging out, and accidentally batted it further along the gym floor. This time it darted forward, and Gumball found himself watching it go with wide eyes.

He stood perfectly still as he watched it waver slightly. He should probably grab it to… give it back to Leslie. Yeah.

Gumball crouched down onto all fours, subconsciously adjusting his feet so as to get the optimum trajectory when he jumped for it. The petal was still swaying lightly, but remained in place for now. Gumball's eyes didn't leave it.

It was suddenly blown back when Tobias ran by, and Gumball pounced. He leaped across the floor, managing to firmly plant both his paws on top of it.

"Hah!" He said triumphantly. He picked up the petal, grinning in satisfaction. Holding it in one hand, he smugly made his way back over to the bench.

Across the room, Darwin had been watching his brother, struggling to contain his laughter. A few other people had noticed and had also been watching in amusement, but most of the class was still focused on the game.

The bench of losers now contained Carmen, Alan, Teri and Leslie in addition to Gumball and Banana Joe. Darwin was only half paying attention to the game at that point, watching as Gumball presented the loose pink petal back to Leslie.

"Ew, I don't want that!" Could be heard from across the room, and Darwin couldn't really hold in his laughter anymore. He snorted, and a dodgeball hit him in the leg courtesy of Tobias.

Accepting his fate, Darwin went over to join the others, approaching Gumball from behind. His brother wasn't paying attention, now annoyed at Leslie for not accepting his gift. Darwin casually put a hand on Gumball's shoulder.

"Hey, Gumb-" He began, but was abruptly cut off when Gumball shrieked and flinched backwards majorly, jumping approximately a metre into the air.

"YAAH!" He yelled out, and the squeaking of feet on the gym floor stopped as people turned to watch. Darwin was also startled, stumbling backwards at the sudden movement.

Gumball landed, and Darwin noticed with wide eyes that his fur seemed all frazzled. In fact, his tail had completely fluffed up and was sticking up ramrod straight.

"D-Darwin!" Gumball said, his voice high. He took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. "You really scared me there, man," he said, his voice cracking.

Disappointed at the lack of drama, their classmates turned back to the game. Leslie, who had also been close by, looked stunned.

"U-um, sorry about that," said Darwin, unsure. He had never seen Gumball react like that to being startled before. He must have been really distracted.

It wasn't long after that that class ended, and the students made their way to the changing rooms in order to shower briefly (or soap dodge) and change. Darwin found his footing back around Gumball easily enough, shaking off his shock pretty quickly.

"Meet you outside the school?" Asked Darwin, as the bell rang to signal the end of the day.

"Yep!" Exclaimed Gumball.

Gumball was planning on meeting with Penny to organise a date for the weekend, and Darwin was doing the same with Carrie. The two brothers would meet back up outside the front of the school in order to walk home once they were done.

Gumball found himself daydreaming about his beautiful girlfriend as he wandered through the halls towards her locker. Their date was going to be so awesome… maybe they could go play paintball, or go to a nice café, or go to the park and make up stories about all the randoms there…

Too stuck in his own fantasies, Gumball found himself nearly running into Penny. Thankfully, he stopped himself on time, awkwardly stumbling until he was right in front of her.

"Hey, Penny!" he said, attempting to cover up his lack of smoothness.

"Hey Gumball!" said Penny happily, rummaging around her locker. Gumball only had a few minutes, as Penny had cheerleading practice this afternoon. Normally, he would watch her, but he sadly had a project due tomorrow that he had barely started and needed to frantically make up stuff for.

"So… how about a date this weekend?" he asked, as Penny pulled up out of her locker. She had grabbed her pom poms, and Gumball found himself watching the tassels as they swayed around.

"That sounds great!" she smiled, moving the pom poms up to her chin.

She kept talking, suggesting date locations, but Gumball's brain couldn't pull him away from staring transfixed, at the pom poms.

He had seen this exact image plenty of times before, and he never usually had this problem. It seemed to be something about today – he just wasn't able to pull his brain out of caveman mode, the pom poms having some sort of hypnotic effect on him. The tassels rustled, and Gumball's ears perked up.

Slowly, they began to move to the left. Gumball's head followed them, and he felt his eyes dilate. They stopped, then suddenly jerked to the right. His head once again followed, his eyes not leaving them for a second.

They then started moving around in a slow circle, and Gumball still didn't let them go. They were just… so… interesting. The tassels rippled as they moved, and Gumball's eyes started to hurt from straining so hard.

Distantly, Gumball registered what sounded like a giggle, but he paid it no attention as the pom poms started moving up and down. They started off slowly, but gradually got faster, and Gumball found his head beginning to hurt as his blood was flung around within it.

This made him blink hard, breaking out of his trance. "Pffft," he heard from in front of him, and he glanced up to find Penny hiding her mouth with the pom poms. Her eyes were shining with mirth, and she was shaking with silent laughter.

For the third time that day, Gumball found himself flushing in embarrassment. Not only at the involuntary fixation on the pom poms, but because he had totally missed what Penny had been saying.

"I-I'm sorry, Penny!" he said, ducking his head and bringing up an arm behind it.

Penny lowered her pom poms, and started laughing harder. "It's no worries, Gumball!" She giggled. "I think it's adorable," she continued, a bright grin on her face. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

This only made Gumball flush harder, but he was secretly a bit pleased. She wasn't mad at him, and she had just said he was adorable!

The two managed to secure a date at the movies then lunch for the weekend, and Gumball skipped back outside to meet Darwin. Darwin was already waiting for him, boredly fiddling with his phone.

The two walked home, adamantly chatting about how excited they were for their dates. Time passed quickly as they walked, and they found themselves back home quite quickly.

"Hi, kids!" called out their mother from the kitchen when they opened the front door. "I've just done some shopping, can you help me put things away?"

"Sure thing, Mum!" exclaimed Darwin, happily placing down his bag and going to help their mother. Gumball took another second, stretching and wiping his feet on the doormat before going to join them.

He was slightly annoyed at being asked to help the literal second he walked through the door, but helping their mother was a much safer option than not helping her. Besides – it gave him a nice convenient excuse to delay that project he really didn't want to do even further.

Gumball wandered over to the kitchen, his hands in his pockets, and started helping put some of the easier things away.

With three of them working together, there were soon several empty shopping bags in place of the full ones. Darwin finished with his bags before Gumball, and happily bid his mother and brother a goodbye as he went up to the bedroom to get started on his own homework.

"Come on, hon, we're nearly finished," said Nicole. Gumball was staring at the bags full of fresh fruit and vegetables with dread – they were the absolute worst part of the shopping to put away. Sighing, he grabbed a few apples and placed them in the fruit bowl.

Before long, they had finished, and Nicole smiled at her son. "Thanks, Gumball," she said. She picked up a few shopping bags in order to deliver them back to the boot of the car.

Gumball was left alone in the kitchen, surrounded by empty shopping bags. Looking for any excuse to avoid starting that project, he sat down amongst them.

Out of the corner of his eye, he observed the bags. They were strewn haphazardly all over the place, mostly collapsed over, only half of the opening showing. Gumball turned towards the one nearest to him.

The fact it was half open… it was bothering him a bit. The bright green of the bag gave way to darkness with that opening, and Gumball needed to fix it.

He leaned over, sticking a hand inside the bag. The opening flopped down a bit, and Gumball frowned. He shuffled over towards it, and leaned down to peer inside. Finding nothing but darkness, he battled with his conscience for a moment.

To indulge, or not to indulge?

For the fourth time that day, Gumball's caveman brain won the battle, and he stuck his head inside the empty shopping bag.

A few minutes later, Nicole re-entered the kitchen to find her son in a life or death struggle with one of the shopping bags. He had one foot stuck through it, and he had bitten down hard on the soft fabric handle, while one of his hands was clawing at it.

Nicole snorted. Gumball completely froze at the noise, and slowly turned his head to face her. His mouth opened, and the handle dropped out of it.

"Um!" he squeaked.

Unable to stop smiling, Nicole reached down to grab another armful of bags.

"Don't be embarrassed, sweetie," she smiled. "It's just your mother. I've seen you in much worse situations, you know!"

Gumball flushed a deep red. "Yeah, but…" he trailed off.

Nicole chuckled. "You used to do that a lot when you were younger, you know," she said conversationally, sitting down to join him. Gumball shyly looked up, shaking his foot out of the bag.

"Really?" he asked. Nicole nodded.

"And so did I," she smiled. She started playing with one of the handles of the bags in her arms. "You and I are really similar in that way, sweetie," she reassured. "There's no need to be embarrassed. Your brother sometimes crushes up his food and sprinkles it over himself – and your sister and father like to hop around sometimes. And… you and I like to play with empty shopping bags," she winked.

Gumball stared at her, no longer embarrassed. "I… I guess, yeah," he said. "It's actually… really fun…"

"I know!" said Nicole, dropping the bags in her arms. Without a single ounce of shame, she started batting at the loose handles.

After a single moment of hesitation, Gumball joined her. Nicole started laughing, throwing a bag at her son.

That's how Richard found them an hour later, laughing together while empty shopping bags hung off every edge of the kitchen. And if Gumball had to pull an all nighter finishing his project because he didn't get it started on time, nobody had to know.


This is the last one! I hope you enjoyed, thank you for reading, and please review!