Proper Etiquette

Chapter 1

A/N: I wanted to write really anything that I could think of, so it just happened. I really do apologize for any issues that may happen in the future.

The alarm clock on the pink-headed boy's nightstand began playing music from the radio station that it was set to. The boy that was under the sheets groaned about getting up. Slowly, the boy stood up and glanced at his clock. It was flashing 5:30. The boy rolled out of his bed, turned off the alarm, and shuffled to the bathroom to take a shower.

Staring in the mirror after his shower, he looked at his damp, pink hair. He ran his fingers through, watching the strands of hair stuck together fall left and right. He sighed, and left the bathroom, a white towel wrapped around his waist.

No one but him was up at this time of day, but he had good reason for it. He needed to get some work done for his father before he left for his first day of school. The work wasn't hard, but there was a lot of it, and if he didn't finish it, his father would be all over him.

The pink-haired teen scanned the clothes in his closet, trying to decide exactly which outfit he was going to wear for school. He settled on a pair of black skinny jeans, a black band shirt on it, and a pink sweater. Happy with his choices, he took out the pile of papers that his father had told him to finish by today.

The work didn't really take as long as the teen expected, he was finished with the work by 6:30, and it gave him enough time to head downstairs and bake some goods before he left for school.

That is exactly what he did, he pulled out some strawberry cookies from the oven. set them to cool for a little bit before taking some and putting them into containers, and the others into a bag that he had placed into his lunch bag. He looked at the fridge, noting the photo help up by a magnet. Underneath the photo it read, "Gumball and Dad!"

Gumball recognized it as his own writing, and wondered if his father had ever written on a single photograph as he left the house with his schoolbag and lunch.

=+=

Not so far away was another boy who was having a little worse time getting ready for his same first day of school. He had nearly broken his alarm clock from smashing his hand on it to make it shut up. He was groaning and cursing under his breath after he had noted the black backpack on the floor near his bed.

He eventually kicked his sheets off to roll off of his bed. He really just didn't want to get out of his bed, much less leave his house to go to what he referred to as prison for children.

This boy pulled himself up, and was now sitting on the floor. He looked at the clothes near him and selected the ones he would wear today. They were a red flannel, a pair of black skinny jeans with holes in the knees, and a plain black t-shirt. Reluctantly, he stood up to put on the pants he had grabbed after he had put on the shirts.

Still waking up, the boy was walking downstairs to the kitchen to grab food, and hopefully evade his step-mother. She was probably out cold from drinking so much, but there was still the chance that she was walking around.

Sure enough, there she was, sitting at the dining table with a beer bottle in front of her. She was staring at it with vacant eyes that showed no emotion. Her stark white hair was draping over her back and the chair in knots She was wearing her clothing for work, which involved a long, blue, almost victorian era dress. The boy merely sighed and walked past his step-mother to get to the food.

"Marshall..." Said his step-mother. Her voice was slurred. Marshall set down the bread that he was about to put into the toaster to turn around and face his mother.

"Simone." Marshall responded.

"You're going to school today, right?" Simone was looking at Marshall with wide eyes. Marshall remembered the (rather one-sided) conversation that he had with Simone the other day when he mentioned going to school.