The Gift: A TAWOG Story

Chapter 5: The Outing

Gumball tossed and turned the rest of the night, trying his best to reminisce his latest dream. What started as a nightmare twisted into a turning point in Gumball's view. He was about to be attacked by his demonic mother when all of a sudden another Nicole stepped in and stopped it. While trying to make himself sense on the dream, he began to realize that the second Nicole that intervened was in fact the real Nicole, and the demonic one was just "another" Nicole.

It was ten o'clock in the morning, and as usual Darwin and Anais were already out of bed and downstairs, fully embracing the day. The sunlight poured through the window, and eventually reached Gumball's face. He scooted out of bed and looked out his window. The view was as usual, a small city backyard with the mini garage backing up to the alley behind their house. Another row of houses on the next street and tall trees lined the horizon. The sky had few clouds, and Gumball saw a couple of jet planes taking off and landing at Elmore Bocquelet International Airport off in the distance.

He listened to The Chainsmokers & Illenium's "Takeaway" on his phone before heading downstairs. Despite their opening-up yesterday, Gumball was beyond hesitant to tell his mother about his latest dream. Of course, unbeknownst to him, Nicole was the one who actually influenced it, not him. Still, Gumball gingerly walked down the stairs, trying not to make noise with his claws scratching against the carpet. His rounded the corner and headed for the kitchen when he saw his mother sitting at the kitchen table, on her laptop with a cup of coffee beside her.

"Morning, Gummypuss," she said, taking her eyes off her computer for a second to acknowledge her son. Gumball couldn't help but think she had not called him that nickname in at least a year.

"Hey, Mom," he said as he walked over to the cabinet to get some Oreo Cheerios.

"How was your sleep last night?" asked Nicole on the spot, practically trying to jump to the elephant in the room instantly but just catching Gumball off guard.

"Good," replied Gumball, trying to sound as casual as possible. He spilled a couple of Oreo Cheerios on the countertop and frantically tried to pick them all up. He had the impression Nicole was onto him about something, but how could that be possible? His dreams should be safe inside his own brain.

"Don't jump into it too soon," Nicole thought to herself. "If you lean on him now he'll never wanna share anything with you again. Just let it casually come up sometime today." Unlike her son, Nicole was an expert at just thinking to herself rather than saying everything out loud. Poor Gumball was struggling to keep his own thoughts to himself, so Nicole decided to lighten his mood.

"So I've been thinking, Gumball, and well, I realized we haven't been spending a whole lotta time lately."

"What are you saying?" Gumball replied, pouring milk into his cereal.

"I'm saying we should have a little Gumball and Mommy Day? Whataya think?" Gumball didn't know how to reply at first.

"First off, don't call it that, alright?" he said with a mouth full of cereal. "Second, I feel like I don't have a choice here, and if I do try to resist, you're gonna scare me with your fiery eyes, so what did you have in mind?" Nicole took a second to process what her son said. She felt slightly aggravated, but nevertheless hid it and casually replied.

"Nothing in particular, really," said Nicole shutting her laptop. "Do just wanna get in the car and go somewhere?" Gumball looked at her slightly befuddled. Nicole got up out of her chair and began singing as all the lights dimmed down except for a spotlight directly on her. "Would you like to take a trip to somewhere totally random?"

"I'm gonna have to hit the pause button right there," interrupted Gumball as the music abruptly stopped and the lighting returned to normal. "Sorry, but I thought we agreed to no musical numbers for this film."