"Nobody cares about who you were yesterday, people care about if the person yesterday tries to change themselves for the better for the person of tomorrow, if that makes any sense"
-Ryan Lobner, December 30, 2020

The seats at in the Elmore Junior High Auditorium were occupied on this particular Monday evening.

Among those occupants were the Watterson parents and their little four-year old daughter.

"Nicole, why do we have to be here?" asked Richard as if he was a few years younger than he should be.

"I told you many times, Richard" sighed Nicole, facepalming. "We need to be here to support Gumball and Darwin during the play"

"Isn't this the story titled Citizens of Mountain Valley: Journey to Revenge?" asked Anais.

"Please don't remind me" said Richard, cringing at the thought of seeing this ridiculous story as a play, which is ironic considering his intelligence.

"Look, I don't want to be here either" said Nicole. "In fact, I'd much rather look at paint drying on a wall for eternity than witness a group of people boringly fighting another group of people who want unjustified revenge just to be villainous. But Gumball and Darwin are in this play. So as a family, we have to be here for them"

Anais sighed in agreement, while Richard pouted and crossed his arms like the man-child he was.

No student was actually willing to participate in this play, for they knew the brainless stupidity of the book. I mean, it wasn't really original and the villains ranged from vague to pathetic. But, seeing how Miss Simian either didn't care or just saw pleasure in making these students miserable each day, it was compulsory.

"And now, we will brainwash you all and take over the entire city" said Tobias Willson, dressed with blue and yellow cardboard armour to be Dan, the main antagonist.

"No. Nooooo" fake-screamed Darwin, dressed with a grey coat to be the secondary main character named Willis.

The family knew it was an embarrassment for Gumball and Darwin to be featured, but tried to smile for them nevertheless.

Their smiles were most forced when Gumball came on stage.

He wearing a black and white jacket and blue jeans, playing Nicky, the lead character. It was humiliating. Absolutely humiliating. Gumball saw his family in the crowd and started to feel stupid being on stage despite their supportive expressions.

"Take a look at your friends, Nicky" Tobias said, obviously showing no interest in the role. "We're going to brainwash them"

"Help us, Nicky!" cried Penny, whose performance as Lauren was pretty much the only saving grace of the play regardless of her lack of interest.

"Don't worry! I'll try and save you from the evil teacher that staged this story" Gumball improvised.

Before long, the audience giggled, except for the rest of the Wattersons, who were starting to feel embarrassed. Gumball was making a foolish image out of them by making fun of the play on stage when the script did not call for it.

"Mr. Watterson, stick to the script" Miss Simian whispered from backstage.

"Oh I'm sorry" Gumball called out. "It's not my fault this script is so brainless"

"Gumball, what are you doing?" Tobias whispered.

"Duh, improving this garbage" Gumball whispered back before continuing. "Do you all want to know the real conflict in this torture? It's the fact I was forced against my own will to fight these stupid villains. I mean, spoiler alert, they whine like toddlers and babies in the end even though they brainwashed an entire city. Yeah. They brainwashed an entire city with unexplainable magic! How does this even work!?"

The family cringed as the rest of the audience laughed even louder.

Gumball's next move was to tear off his costume, not giving a darn about the fact he was naked (except for his underwear) and throwing it onto the ever laughing crowd. The family at this point couldn't show their faces.

"And you know what else?" Gumball went on. "The fact that this is spewing multiple copies is showing the growing stupidity of writers that think stories like this need to exist! I don't even know why they went out their way to turn this into a school play! So in conclusion, I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE..."

"It's funny because it's embarrassing to his family!" chortled Harold Wilson, who only laughed ever more at the sight of the Wattersons in the crowd hiding their faces.

Just when Gumball announced his true thoughts on this brainless story, Miss Simian ran up onto the stage with the script in hand to try and correct the young cat. But Gumball just snatched it, tore it to shreds, tore those shreds to shreds, threw them onto the ground, grabbed a match out of thin air, lit it, dropped it and stomped on the burning pile while laughing like a lunatic. Then he took a cardboard water tower and threw it on the floor. The audience erupted in laughter while the family lowered their heads in embarrassment.

He went on and on, destroying the set and screaming nonsense criticising the play until...

"GUMBALL!!!"

He froze and turned around.

Everyone in the crowd stopped abruptly and fell silent.

Gumball felt a deep dark abyss tear open in his stomach when he looked at the crowd.

His family was glaring at him. Their faces read embarrassment, anger, and probably worst of all, disappointment.

Gumball chuckled nervously as he looked around, finding his adoptive brother also giving the same expression that sent a chill down his spine.

Sure, he hated the play like everyone else, but trashing it to express himself just made even more of a foolish image out of his family.

Lowering his head in shame, he made his way towards the backstage to grab his clothes.

About 7 minutes later...

On his way to parking lot, Gumball to tried to crack up a grin, but it fell at the thought of what his family would be thinking about him. "Just relax, Gumball" he said to himself. "I'm sure they hated that story as well. No big deal"

This thought was cut off when he reached the parking lot.

You all might know the yellow family station wagon, right?

Well, here's Gumball's reaction to what happened next.

"WHAT THE WHAT!?" he shouted when none of the cars in the parking lot turned out to be that station wagon.

Believing the family left him to walk home, he groaned in disbelief and began his long trek home, the resuming laughter still echoing from inside the school building.

The shame inside him was reaching new altitudes.

It was cold and dark, with only the streetlights to light his way.

The journey was long and tiresome. He knew now that he made a foolish choice to ruin the play, regardless of how much he hated it.

With his arms hanging low above the ground and his feet aching so much they felt like they needed to be replaced, he at last caught sight of that familiar small two-story blue house, though he was surprised to find the door left open; this indicated that they were waiting for him.

Cautiously walking in, he saw some bags on the table with a Joyful Burger logo on them, indicating they ate out without him. This really wasn't the original plan as the entire family was supposed to have a nice dinner at the mentioned fast-food restaurant to brighten the evening after that torturous play. The only food left on the table was a bland usual sandwich that tasted as void as tap water.

Disgusted, Gumball turned away and made his way to the living room, which was dark and quiet. He reached his arm out to a light switch and turned it on...

"GUMBALL, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" shouted Darwin.

"YOU MADE AN EMBARRASSMENT OUT OF ALL OF US!!!" agreed Anais.

"WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING THAT STUPID, IT MAKES ALL OF US LOOK STUPID!!!" yelled Nicole.

"BECAUSE OF YOU, THEY TOOK AWAY THE SNACKS I BOUGHT!!!" added Richard.

Gumball's shame and regret was now reaching it's boiling point. He had messed up at the school, humiliated himself, possibly his family name, and now the entire family were furious at him for such an act of stupidity.

No matter how hard he tried to block it out, Gumball just couldn't ignore everything his family was yelling at him. It was just too much for him to take in.

It was what happened next when something inside him finally snapped...

"WHEN WILL YOU STOP BEING A BURDEN?!?!" they all finished.

Silence dominated the house for a few seconds.

No one moved, no one spoke...

"Now"

The rest of the family's faces turned from angry to surprised.

"What?" Darwin asked.

Gumball didn't answer. He just held a blank stare.

Patiently, everyone waited for another word, but nothing came out.

It was quite unsettling really. Sure, they wanted him to stop screwing up in public, but his brief and blunt answer didn't solve any problems. In fact, it might've started a bigger one. Was he not taking their words seriously, or taking them too seriously?

Everyone just looked at him, still waiting for a response, but all he did was stare, as if he was in a trance. But he couldn't be, as his eyes seemed to follow the direction of his everyone else's. Then without another word, Gumball walked silently upstairs, stopped, gave one more glance at his family, continued into the bathroom and shut the door, unusually quietly.

After being indirectly called a burden, he knew his first instinct.

The rest of the family stood pondering about what their next course of action should
be.

"Was it something we said?" asked Darwin, knowing full on it most definitely was.

Suddenly, they jumped at a voice coming from upstairs...

"MY EYES!" Gumball shrieked.

Instantly sensing trouble, they dashed upstairs and peeked through the crack of the bathroom door...only to find something that widened their eyes.

There, at the sink, was poor Gumball with red tear-filled eyes (obviously stung by the soap in his paw), punching himself once, then twice, then thrice. He was literally beating himself to his knees.

Then he picked up a trash bin and emptied it's contents all over himself. "I'M NOTHING BUT TRASH!" he cried at himself (I don't know wether to feel sympathy for Gumball or cringe at that pun). Then he ran to the toilet, dipped his head into it and pulled the flush chord. The family watched in shock as Gumball's body stuck out of the toilet and spun-around before it spat him out (not literally), revealing a mess of facial features before he shook himself back to normal.

Gumball, now bruised, baring a black eye, some lost teeth, and messy fur, got up and whimpered in pain after stomping on his tail. He turned around, immediately spotting his family staring agape.

"I'm kicking my butt, do you mind?" Gumball cried, panting heavily. Then he literally did just that, extending his foot back, propelling it into his rump and sending him flying into the wall, causing him to wail in agony.

Everyone else just looked at each other, realising that maybe they used the wrong choice of words.

And those were certainly the wrong words.

Throughout the night, everyone slept tightly, but not pleasantly.

The rest of the family were all stuck in concern over what their words might've done to Gumball, regardless of what happened at the auditorium; Darwin and Anais decided to give him some space by sleeping in the living room.

As for Gumball, there was only one word echoing through his ears; "Burden! Burden! Burden!"

He was even starting to mumble in his sleep as he tossed and turned through the night.

"Burden! Burden! Burden! BURDEN! BURDEN!"