The Kitten's Limit Remastered

Chapter 10: A Chat with Mom

Gumball and his Mother sat quietly at a table in Joyful Burger as he ate his meal. She'd been called out of work to pick him up early as he'd been suspended for a few weeks. It was originally going to be a straight-up expulsion, and it would have been if it hadn't been for Anais.

True to her word she had convinced Principal Brown to go easy on him, by breaking down in tears and begging him to change his mind. After much persuasion and guilt-tripping from her, he'd eventually given in and reduced the punishment to a much fairer one.

As soon as they'd left the office to wait for their Mom to arrive however Anais had immediately stopped crying, revealing that the whole thing had simply been an act to guilt trip Principal Brown.

He thought he'd seen everything from her but putting on a whole performance, including fake crying on demand, to save him from being expelled?

The feline let out a small, quiet chuckle. She really was the master of manipulation...in fact, knowing her, she'd probably used that exact same fake crying trick on him and Darwin before. Probably more than once even...

As he glanced around his eyes landed on his mother. Neither of them spoke, the two just sat in silence. Gumball was unsure of what to say or if he even should say anything. The only thing he'd said to her since she came to pick him up was a 'No' in response to her asking if he'd had lunch, after which she said she'd taken him to get something to eat here, not before they stopped at home and got him some clean clothes and a shower first however.

He looked up and studied his Mom. Was she mad at him? Upset? Disappointed? She didn't look like she was mad, in fact, she'd just given him a reassuring smile.

"Something wrong sweetheart?"

Surely she had to be mad though, right? He'd just destroyed a good chunk of the school and gotten suspended for half a month, not to mention their earlier argument. How couldn't she be mad at him.

She must be so disappointed in him. So upset. So why was she being nice and getting him a meal?

He teared up and looked down whimpering, his ears flat against his head. He thought about everything that had happened, Penny, Darwin, Anais, the school, and his argument with his Mom. Everything finally caught up to him and he suddenly burst out crying.

"Hey, Gummypuss, what's wrong?" Nicole asked softly. She walked around to his side of the table and hugged him tightly as the young feline continued to sob even harder, almost painfully so, into her chest, the pain and sorrow of everything he'd been through all hitting him like a truck.

"It's okay, it's alright....I''m right here..." She gently stroked him as he continued to cry. "There we go...just let it all out..."

And let it out he did. He cried for what seemed like hours, the pain and sorrow of everything he had been through, everything he had done, finally catching up to him. As he sobbed he repeated one phrase over and over, heaving into his heartbroken mother's chest.

"I'm sorry!" He kept saying over and over and over. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm s-so sorry."

The older feline simply continued to stroke him, barely keeping it together herself. It hurt so much to see her poor baby so worked up and guilt-stricken like this. Especially considering that she had contributed to his stress and eventual breakdown with their argument at the start of the day. In fact, she was the one that started the ball rolling in the first place. Their argument was the first domino that had set off this entire chain reaction that had caused everything else to go wrong for Gumball, to the point he'd completely lost control. If she had simply let Gumball explain himself instead of interrupting him repeatedly, none of this would have happened...