The doorbell at the Wattersons' house rang, making someone's arrival and presence known.

Gumball skipped merrily downstairs to the front door, expecting someone he loved standing outside.

When he opened the door, his expectation was correct.

There at the front door was Penny, the golden shape-shifting ferry who he invited for a date the previous night. The sight of her caused his face to brighten up into a cute lovestruck smile and his big eyes to twinkle. From what I can tell, he probably saw her in slow motion and heard an angelic choir in the background.

"Hi, Gumball. I got the invitation and made it" said Penny.

Gumball shook his head out of his daydream and blushed bright red. "Oh, hi Penny. Welcome. Hope you're prepared for an unforgettable lunch at La cuisine de Gumball" he said, quickly facepalming at the cheesiness of that name.

Penny chuckled at Gumball's attempt at a fancy French restaurant name as she entered the house.

Just as Penny took a seat on the couch, decorated as romantically as possible, Gumball left for the kitchen-"[GASP]". Gumball's eyes widened in horror when he saw smoke exiting the stove. Shutting the door and peaking inside the oven, his hopes for this smooth and easy date were dashed. "NOOOO! WHY!? MY ROAST IS RUINED!" he screamed melodramatically at the sight of his "Watterson Chicken Surprise" burning in the oven. He really should be more careful when cooking.

Gumball felt his heart pound in synch with his hyperventilating, panicking about the reality of the situation. Would Penny understand? Would she get furious? As she's a shapeshifter, making her angry is just as horrifying as angering his mother. He needed to come up with a strategy, and he needed to come up with one quick!

His panic was halted by the faint sight of a sign over the horizon reading "Joyful Burger". Recognising the logo on top, an idea began to click together in Gumball's head. "But what if...I were to purchase fast food and disguise it as my own cooking?" he thought. He began to laugh maniacally as his eyes turned yellow with thin red pupils, convinced his idea was so crazy it just might succeed. "Delightfully Devious, Gumball" he hissed.

He hopped onto the sink and opened the window, ready to enact his idea...

"Uh..."

He froze when he heard Penny enter the kitchen, most likely hearing his manic laughter through the door. She squinted her eyes in suspicion, seeing Gumball putting one foot out the window as if he was attempting an escape.

"Penny! I was just..." fast-spoke Gumball in a panic, obviously not prepared for Penny to enter the room. Fortunately, he was able to find an excuse for resting his leg on the window. "Uh, just stretching my calves on the windowsill. Yeah. Isometric exercise. Definitely not leaving for joyful burger. Care to join me?" he said, chuckling nervously while doing exactly what he said he was doing.

Of course, that wasn't Penny's concern. "Why is there smoke coming out of the oven, Gumball?"

Gumball knew he had to practice precision thinking to excuse the smoke coming out of the oven. "Uh... Oh! That isn't smoke. It's steam. Steam from from the steamed clams we're having. Mmmm, steamed clams" he lied, rubbing his stomach while nervously grinning and sweating.

Penny raised a suspicious brow, but bought the "explanation" after looking at Gumball's smile for a few seconds, and left the room. Gumball breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead before he leapt out the window. "OW" he screamed, spraining his ankle upon impact with the concrete.

Despite the pain in his foot, Gumball pressed on.

Back in the living room, Penny was getting the feeling that something wasn't quite right, but thought it would be intruding the surprise to check on Gumball. So, she just stayed seated on the couch.

Out on the street, Gumball kept running bound for the nearest Joyful Burger, repeatedly screaming "Ouch" each time his sprained foot made contact with the ground. Too busy paying attention to his surroundings, he dashed onto the road, only now noticing that the light for walking was still red. "FOR PENNY!" he yelled bravely, not giving any about the on-coming cars from each direction.

In the living room, Penny was finding the wait pretty tiring, with her boredom rising and her hunger climbing but her patience dropping. She was now starting to find this date quite an odd one.

Meanwhile, Gumball, all battered, bruised and baring a black eye from being hit by a car, finally reached Joyful Burger... only to shout "WHAT THE EVERLASTING WHAT!?" at the line in front of him. Growling in frustration, he hopped from head to head, making it to the front of the entire que.

Larry, knowing the rules, was quick to notice. "Uh, sir, you cut the line-"

"NOT THE TIME! I NEED EIGHT BURGERS WITH FRIES TO-GO! PRONTO!" interrupted Gumball, placing some cash on the counter.

"Eight burgers pronto?"

Gumball hissed like an impatient predator, making a face intimidating as his mother's, forcing a shaking Larry to stutter "C-Coming right u-up".

Back at home, Penny was finding it pretty boring just sitting there doing nothing. Wondering when Gumball's "steamed clams" would be ready, she tried watching TV to pass time.

Back at Joyful Burger, Gumball waited impatiently and anxiously. "Here, sir. Hope you enjoy" panted Larry, handing Gumball three bags of the meal he was to pass off as his own.

"Thanks Larry!" shouted Gumball, quickly sprinting out of the restaurant. "I'M COMING FOR YOU, PENNY!"

Back in the living room, Penny turned off the TV after finding nothing interesting on. She looked at the clock and sighed, knowing it has been fifteen minutes since she last checked on Gumball. What the heck is keeping him?

Suddenly, she jumped at the sound of glass shattering on the other side of the room, the door bursting open and Gumball exiting with a tray of hamburgers and fries. "Penny, I hope you're ready for mouthwatering hamburgers" he panted, looking as if he had just ran a few miles.

Penny raised an eyebrow at his appearance. "Are you alright, Gumball? You look like you had been running for ten minutes and injuring yourself along the way. And I thought we having steamed clams?" she asked.

Setting the tray on the coffee table, Gumball immediately regretted not thinking his lies through as he replied with "No no! I said 'steamed hams.' That's what I call hamburgers".

Penny was instantly curious. "You call hamburgers 'steamed hams'?"

"Yes. It's a region dialect"

"M-hmm. And what region?"

"Uh, Southern California"

"Really? Well, we obviously live in Elmore and I never heard anyone, including you, use the phrase 'steamed hams'"

"Oh, not in Elmore. No. It's a Los Angeles expression"

"I see" said Penny, finishing up their conversation before they dug in. Gumball, as you might know, found the burgers delicious as usual. Penny, on the other hand, found them good as well, but also quite strange. They tasted familiar. "You know, these hamburgers are quite similar to the ones they have at Joyful Burger" she noted.

Gumball, in response to this suspicion, burst out laughing. "Hahaha no! Patented Watterson Burgers. Old family recipe"

"For steamed hams?"

"Yes"

"Yes, and you call them 'steamed' hams despite the fact they are obviously grilled"

Gumball knew there was no excuse for this one. "Uh, y-you know.....one thing I should...Excuse me for one second" he said, getting up and turning to the kitchen door.

"No no! Wait, I didn't mean to..." said Penny as Gumball reentered the kitchen, believing it might've been something she said.

She didn't need to worry for too long, as Gumball exited the kitchen once more, a little sooty. While trying to damp down a flame on his head that Penny seemingly didn't notice, he made a fake yawn and said "Well that was a wonderful date wasn't it? Good times are had by all. I'm pooped".

Penny wondered why this "date" was pretty short, but thought that maybe it was putting pressure on Gumball. "Yes, I guess I should be-WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THERE!?" said Penny as sight of a raging inferno in the kitchen caught her eye.

Sweating and biting his lip, Gumball could only think of the one excuse his brain could muster at the moment; "Aurora Borealis"

Penny's mind immediately flooded with questions from that response. "Uh! Aurora Borealis? At this time of year!?"

"Yes"

"At this time of day!?"

"Yes!"

"In this part of the country!?"

"YES!"

"Localised entirely within your kitchen-"

"YES!!" screamed Gumball tearfully and over-dramatically, giving those big watery puppy-eyes that tried to look sincere.

Penny was a little startled by Gumball's desperation for her to buy his explanation. So she, albeit uncomfortably, gave a little smile to show that she believed him. "Well, may I see it?"

Gumball thought for a bit; "No."

Exiting the house, Gumball and Penny heard a voice that sent a shiver down the former's spine. "GUMBALL, DID YOU SET SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE AGAIN!?"

Knowing the worst could happen if he upset his mother, Gumball chuckled nervously before responding. "NO, MOM! IT'S JUST THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!"

Then he turned to Penny, who said "Well, Gumball, you're an odd guy and that really wasn't much of a date".

Gumball nervously sweated.

"But I think you've earned this" she smiled, giving Gumball a little peck on the cheek, which immediately blushed red as he returned to that cute lovestruck face, complete with his sparkly eyes shaped like hearts. Penny giggled at his cute reaction to her kiss before turning to leave.

"HELP!! HELP!!" screamed Richard from inside the burning house.

Hearing this, Penny turned back one more time to Gumball, who gave a thumbs up after snapping out of his romantic stare into space. Fortunately not noticing the inferno behind the young cat, Penny left the block, allowing Gumball to head back inside to help fight the blaze inside as some fire engine sirens became audible in the distance.

The End.