The Family Reunion |The Amazing World of Gumball Short Story|

Part III

The Family Reunion Part III

Nicole was frozen in place, the only movements she was able to make were the small trembling in her arms. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but no words would come out. Her eyes were shrunk in shock and disbelief, staring at the people in front of her. The people who raised her, the people who controlled her. The people who sent her away.

"Surprise!" Gumball, Darwin, and Anais exclaimed as they hopped behind her, wide grins plastered on their faces. "Merry Christmas, Mom!"

Richard, who was watching from the kitchen, put his hand to his face and sighed wearily, "oh brother.."

"Ah Nicole, I see you haven't changed a bit." Mrs. Senicourt said boredly, eyeing her daughter up and down. Nicole's shocked expression remained, though she raised a brow, as if refusing to believe she was actually seeing this.

"Aww..look at her." Darwin said as he and his siblings stared at their mother in awe, small twinkles in the center of their eyes. "She's so shook, she's speechless!"

The two elders standing in the doorway looked down at the children and back up at their daughter. "Well, aren't you going to welcome us into your humble home? Or did you send that electronic mail by accident?" Mrs. Senicourt said.

"You mean email?" Gumball asked.

Nicole suddenly snapped out of her shocked state and looked at her confused. "Email? I didn't send you an email." She said, then muttered bitterly to herself, "I didn't think you even had one, considering how vacuous you are.."

"Well, we received on from your account, though we weren't surprised to see it was nwatterson!" Her father said, raising his voice a little at the end.

Nicole widened her eyes then slowly turned around to look at her kids-who were smiling nervously. "Hi..." Gumball said awkwardly.

Richard power walked into the room and chuckled nervously, wrapping his arms around the kids to bring them a distance away from their mother. "Oh, family reunions are so fun! Aren't they, Nicole?" He asked nervously, dragging the kids away into the kitchen.

"Very.." Nicole muttered, glancing back at her parents-who seemed to be either confused or disgusted. It was difficult to tell with their usually bored/unimpressed expressions.

"Wait...so you..and him...actually..?" Mrs. Senicourt asked, amused yet slightly repulsed.

Nicole rolled her eyes, "Yeah, glad you know how reproduction works."

"Kids, what have you done?" Richard asked urgently, but in a low volume so no one would hear the conversation. He constantly glanced back in the living room, anxiously biting his lip.

"We invited our grandparents to the family reunion." Darwin said, not understanding what they could've done wrong.

"Okay, you didn't know so its not your fault at all, but..your mother didn't end things on good terms with her parents." Richard said, getting down on one knee to sort-of face them. "The last time she say them was at least 17 years ago when she was supposed to go to college."

"What? What happened?" Gumball asked.

"I..don't know if she wants me to tell you. All I'm gonna say is things ended badly..and she had to walk out. I really appreciate you kids trying to do a nice thing for her but this was probably the worst thing that could've happened to her on Christmas.."

"But how come Mrs. Mom said she missed them that one time?" Darwin asked.

"She never said that." Richard said, slightly confused. He couldn't recall a time where his wife ever admitted to yearning her parents' presence.

"But I heard it, a couple years ago. She was talking to you about how much she missed them!" The goldfish replied.

"First off, you were eavesdropping?!" Richard asked, slightly offended. Darwin only bowed his head in shame, but let his father go on, "Second off, she was talking about her parents! She was talking about her grandparents!"

The three kids blinked, making the same face of realization and disbelief. "OHHHHH!" They exclaimed in unison.

"Well, I feel stupid.." Gumball said.

"What are we gonna do now? We can't just kick them out on Christmas Eve!" Darwin said.

"But Mom won't be happy if they stay." Anais argued.

"Kids, don't worry, okay? Your mother and I will figure something out. Just let me talk to her. And in the meantime..get to know your grandparents.." Richard suggested.

The three nodded and walked back into the living room. All four elders are sitting at the couch, not saying a word. Joanna was giving the Senicourts the stink eye, but mainly focused on her tv show, while Louie paid no mind to them. Nicole was standing behind the couch, her arms crossed and her brows furrowed. The kids reluctantly walked over and sat on the floor in front of the couch.

"Nicole honey.." Richard said slowly as he approached her. But the second she heard him speak, she flinched and walked away, back into the kitchen. He frowned as he watched he leave the room, for even he could tell this whole situation was too much for her to handle.

He waited a brief moment before following in her steps to the kitchen. He was a bit surprised to see her rapidly munching on a cookie from one of her discarded batches. But he sighed, knowing exactly what she was really doing. She was eating away her problems, like he always did.

After she hurriedly stuffed another cookie in her mouth, he walked up behind her and plastered on a faint smile. "Hey now, don't stress eat. That's my thing." He said softly.

Nicole sighed, swallowing the cookie and frowning at the counter. "I thought I'd never have to see them again that night we ran away.." She said, her voice slightly raspy and miserable. "And now it's too soon."

"Honey, I know you're upset." He said, "But think of this as a good thing. Our families are finally together under one roof! Maybe this could our chance to..make amends, show your parents how happy we are and that your life turned out great."

"They'll never be happy for us, you know that." She frowned, turning around to face him. "I'm a grown woman and they're still looking down at me like I'm doing everything wrong. I wanted to be done with those gosh-forsaken narcissists, I never wanted to see them again.."

"I know, honey, I know.." He spoke softly, wrapping an arm around her to bring her in close. "But don't worry. We're still gonna have a fun Christmas, the kids can occupy their grandparents with our fun traditions. And come tomorrow morning, you'll be smothered with presents and love from me and the kids."

Nicole giggled and rolled her eyes, slightly blushing. It confused her how he could always changed her mood in an instant, but she wanted that to stay a mystery. She liked that quality of him. "Fine, but tomorrow after breakfast, they're out of this house."

"Sooo...got any baby pictures of Mom?" Gumball asked curiously, trying to make small talk with the elders.

"We had them burned and buried in a grave yard." Mr. Senicourt said in a monotone. Everybody looked at the Senicourts strangely, the discomfort in the atmosphere increasing every second.

Anais sighed and said sarcastically, "Well, we're off to a great start."