Best Pals?

The Sleepover (Prologue)

//A/N: Word count is 1491, excluding the author's note. It's short because it's just a prologue or whatever. Also, try listening to the song on loop below this note as you read this chapter. Anyways, I have not much to say so... Enjoy?//

The bell rings loud. It's as loud as the human ears can take. Though, to the students (and sometimes even teachers), it's music to their ears. School ends once again, bringing temporary joy to its inhabitants. Two students exit their classroom, chatting as they walk side by side. Gumball walks through the corridor of lockers, while being accompanied by his best friend and brother, Darwin. The two chats without worry—occasionally pushing each other's shoulder every now and then when they crack some jokes. As their feet prepare to make a turn, Gumball abruptly stops them as soon as he sees what is ahead of them. Darwin tilted his head lightly to the side in confusion. The blue-haired boy points his eyes over to the direction in front of them, plus a smile embeds his lips—the direction he points heads straight to someone else. Darwin looks around and try to retrieve clues he can process.

His pupils scan the area that lies ahead of them—another corridor, a bunch of students talking per usual, not much out of the ordinary. As soon as his line of sight travels to the side, there he finds someone who catches his attention. Someone he knows—well, kind of knows. Seeing him just standing there, with his nose practically buried in his phone, Darwin gulps and pulls his eyebrows closer. A haunting shiver creeps onto him, as he recalls an incident involving him and the figure in a very unexpected moment.

It was the awkward fellow Darwin had to hug in the bus. He had no idea how that happened, but it did. The relentless teasing Gumball threw that took place after that incident. Oh, how unexpected it was.

"Oh, it's him." Darwin's tone drops sour. The painful facial expression he makes is amusing to his brother.

"Hey, come on, he's not that bad." Gumball grins, making his brother feel even worse.

"Whatever. Just go ahead. Have fun, okay?" Rolling his eyes, Darwin decided to just accept the fact that his brother will have the last laugh (for now, at least). He'll figure out a way to get back at him at some point. The other brother grins happily, nodding.

Just like that, the brothers part with a simple wave and childish smiles. Darwin makes his way to the exit door and Gumball approaches his friend. While the two would go home together everyday as soon as school ended, this time, Darwin goes home alone, because Gumball has other plans to attend to.

He will have a sleepover at his pal's house.

Noticing a short boy walking over to him, the figure looks away from his phone. Gumball smiles, hoping to receive one back. Almost in an instant—almost as if at Gumball's command, he smiles back to a very familiar face.

"Hey, Hot Dog." Gumball casually greets, waving subtly in a friendly matter.

"Hey, Blue Cat." Hot Dog replies back as he drowns his phone in his pocket, placing all the attention away from his gadget and dumping it over to his friend.

It's been a few months since the two became actual friends—rather than the bundle of socially anxious mess they were before. Despite the large amount of talking spent, neither of the two bothered to ask each other's real names at all. Not even once. Either they are too shy to bring it up, fearing the idea of asking directly about it (perhaps to not bring the awkwardness back), or neither of those reasons—they are just simply content with the names they entitle each other with at this moment. For whatever plausible reason the average person can come up with, they just don't question it. Period.