The Pinky

Chapter 4 - The Dinner

Evening, at the Wattersons' house...

The family occupied the dinner table, the main coarse being homemade spaghetti bolognese.

You'd really expect this to be happy dinner, right?

Well, that wasn't the case here.

Darwin, Anais, Nicole, and Richard wore concerned expressions as they ate.

And Gumball? He was devouring his dinner in a rough and impolite manner, glaring at his little sister with his face reading "I hope you're satisfied with yourself".

No word was spoken until Darwin piped in with a "So, how was everyone's day?".

"Horrible" Gumball grunted, his words muffled by the food in his full mouth.

"Gumball, don't talk with your mouth full" Richard said, his mouth also ironically full of the contents of his meal. Nicole rolled her eyes at his hypocrisy.

Gumball gulped his food down hard before doing a double take on his answer. "Horrible"

"What was so bad about it?" asked Darwin, starting to feel unease at Gumball's tone.

"What was so bad about it?" repeated Gumball, his irritation slowly rising. "I'll tell you what's so bad about it; my day, no, my entire week has been a complete bust! All because I accepted a stupid challenge to never lie until Sunday! And it's ruining my life!"

"Who would challenge you to never lie for a week?" asked Nicole, intrigued by Gumball's explanation.

"Oh, I know" Gumball said, obviously meaning some sarcasm, while glaring at Anais once more. "HER!". Upon saying that, Gumball catapulted a piece of his dinner onto his little sister with a fork.

"Gumball Tristopher Watterson, don't throw food at your little sister!" scolded Nicole, taken aback by Gumball's sudden action.

"Well, excuse me if she's feeling a hint of my pain right now!" retorted Gumball,  paying no attention to his attitude toward his mother.

Anais, after wiping some of the bolognese off of her little dress, crossed her arms before counter arguing "Maybe you wouldn't be going through all this turmoil if you HADN'T MADE THAT PINKY PROMSIE!".

"She has a point there" agreed Nicole.

"WHAT!? YOU'RE SIDING WITH HER!?" Gumball shouted.

"It's not my fault you pinky promised not to lie for a week!" countered Anais.

"Not your fault!? YOU MADE THIS WHOLE CHALLENGE UP ON SUNDAY!!"

"MAYBE I WOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT IF YOU WEREN'T A COMPLETE LIAR MOST OF THE TIME!!!"

What followed for about 30 seconds was a heated nuclear clash of words that were rather intense in my taste. So, I'm not going to dive into much detail, but I will say that this war of words got more heated by 20°F each time Gumball and Anais exchanged arguments and insults. The rest of the family tried to ease this tense situation as calmly as possible, but it wasn't coming to any avail.

This bomb of an argument was finally defused when Nicole finally put her foot down, slammed her fists onto the table, and screamed in fury "ENOUGH! YOU, GUMBALL ARE IN FAULT FOR ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE RATHER THAN SAYING NO! YOU, ANAIS, SHOULD NOT HAVE PUT GUMBALL INTO THIS WHOLE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE! CASE CLOSED! NOW LET'S JUST CALM DOWN AND HAVE A NORMAL FAMILY DINNER FOR ONCE IN OUR LIVES!!!". After a few seconds for silence, Nicole's face and tone returned to calm and cheery as normal as she sat back down and said "Thank you".

The rest of the dinner continued silently, though Gumball and Anais continued to glare at each other.

After everyone else finished, Gumball hopped off his chair, still holding that grumpy expression on his face.