The Curse and The Helmet

by Gumball

  Title Page

  The Curse

  CHAPTER 1: The Wish

  CHAPTER 2: The Explanation

  CHAPTER 3: The Charm

  CHAPTER 4: The Accident

  The Helmet

  CHAPTER 1: The Decision

  CHAPTER 2: The Disposal

  Copyright Page

  nais, for the last time, we just can’t afford it,’ her mum, Nicole, sighed as she queued up outside the family bathroom.

  ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees and Daisyland tickets don’t just fall from the sky.’

  Anais had been begging for Daisyland tickets for weeks and now the rest of the family was joining in.

  ‘But you always say that if you put your mind to it,’ Darwin jumped in, standing in line between his parents, ‘you can accomplish anything.’

  Just then, Richard scrunched up his face and groaned – loudly.

  ‘Dad, what are you doing?’ Anais asked with some concern. Her dad did weird stuff all the time, but this just didn’t look healthy.

  ‘Urggghh! I’m getting tickets by using the power of my mind,’ her father informed her, taking a brief break from concentrating to speak.

  Anais rolled her eyes.

  Now Darwin was using the power of his mind, too. Even with their two brains working together, Anais just knew that this wouldn’t result in any tickets. Anyway, what was going on inside that bathroom?

  ‘Gumball Watterson!’ Nicole finally yelled in to her son. ‘Get out of this bathroom now!’

  But Gumball couldn’t hear her yelling. He was in the shower – singing. It was going to be a great day. He just knew it.

  Suddenly, the pipe on the shower burst and a spray of mud shot into Gumball’s face, temporarily blinding him. Gumball grabbed for the pipe, but instead he pulled the shower curtain down over his head.

  He tumbled over the slippery fabric and landed headfirst in the toilet.

  His great day was not off to a good start.

  FLUSH! SWOOSH! POP!

  Gumball flushed himself down the toilet, slipped through the drain and then came crashing out through the manhole cover in the street outside the house. Maybe, Gumball thought to himself, this day needed a restart.

  Gumball ran into the house. If he didn’t hurry to get ready, he’d be late for school.

  The school bus arrived and Anais and Darwin jumped on without their big brother. Gumball made it to the kerb just in time to get his finger stuck in the closing door.

  As the bus pulled away, Gumball ran alongside it and almost made it to school without an accident. But then…

  SMACK!

  Gumball crashed right into a metal pole in the street.

  ‘Well, it seems like it’s not my day,’ he said cheerfully as he dusted himself off. ‘But that’s okay, because it’s nothing a good song won’t fix.’

  When life hands you lemons

  You gotta make some lemonade…

  CRUSH!

  In the middle of Gumball’s song, Hector the giant stepped on him, flattening him right onto the sole of his huge foot. Hector continued on, completely unaware that he’d squashed poor Gumball like he was a, well, gumball.

  Finally, in the school hallway, Gumball pried himself loose. He dragged his flattened, ragged body towards Anais and Darwin.

  ‘Gumball!’ Darwin yelled, surprised to see his brother at school on time.

  ‘How’s it going?’

  ‘Great!’ Gumball answered sarcastically, ‘except for the fact that this is turning out to be the worst day of my life! It’s like I’m cursed or something.’

  ‘Watterson!’ shouted a voice from behind Gumball. Oh, no! It was Principal Brown.

  ‘This school has a dress code,’ the angry administrator went on. ‘These rags are obscene! Get yourself to Lost and Found. They’ll provide you with something more suitable.’

  ‘But Principal Brown…’ Gumball protested. It was no use. Gumball sulked off to the Lost and Found.

  ou’ve got to be kidding me,’ Gumball grumbled when Rocky at the Lost and Found gave him a used pair of swimming shorts to replace his tattered outfit.

  ‘I’m sorry, dude,’ Rocky answered, ‘but this isn’t a department store.’

  ‘Rocky,’ Gumball begged, ‘there has to be something else.’

  ‘You’re in luck,’ Rocky answered after sifting through the boxes one more time.

  ‘There!’ Rocky said with satisfaction as he plopped a pink feathered hat on Gumball’s head.

  Gumball seethed silently and walked away. The peculiar hat wasn’t making him, or this day, look any better. Gumball walked down the hallway, where he met up with Banana Joe and Idaho the Potato.

  ‘People think I’m a fruit,’ Banana Joe explained to Idaho, ‘but I’m also classified as a herb.’

  ‘Huh?’ Idaho gasped when he saw Gumball walk past them in his bright new duds.

  ‘What?’ Banana Joe laughed. ‘Where did you get your clothes? Lost and Found?’

  ‘Well, actually, yes, I did,’ Gumball answered glumly.

  ‘Oh. Uh…’ Banana Joe replied, not knowing what to say, so he repeated his original jab, but with a twist.

  ‘Where did you get your clothes? The circus? Ha ha!’

  Banana Joe and Idaho cracked up.

  ‘Dude,’ Gumball answered patiently, ‘we kind of just went over this already: Lost…and…Found.’

  ‘Oh, hey!’ Banana Joe tried again. ‘Where did you get your clothes? The swim shop and the hat shop? Ha ha!’

  ‘Ugh!’ Gumball shouted, losing his patience at last. ‘Where did you get your brain from? The dollar store?’

  Just then, Principal Brown stepped out of the bathroom.

  ‘Seven hours detention!’ the principal announced while handing a detention slip to Gumball. ‘I’ll see you after school.’

  ‘Er, Gumball?’ Darwin asked, coming up behind his now-crying sibling in the hall. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Everything’s great, Darwin,’ Gumball answered through his sobs.

  ‘Everything’s just peachy.’

  ‘Oh, okay,’ Darwin said with a smile before turning to walk away.

  ‘Darwin!’ Gumball screamed. ‘Don’t take everything I say so literally!’

  ‘Okay,’ Darwin agreed. ‘What you said just now, should I take that literally?’

  ‘No! Yes! No!’ Gumball shouted. ‘Oh, I don’t know!’

  ‘Talk to me,’ Darwin said, grabbing hold of Gumball’s face.

  ‘I think I’m cursed,’ Gumball sobbed dramatically to his brother.

  ‘Hmm,’ Darwin replied, trying to think of a solution. ‘Then what you need is a good luck charm.’

  ‘Guys,’ Anais said when she arrived on the scene. ‘There are no such things as lucky charms, curses or tickets falling from the sky. There must be a scientific explanation for what’s happening to Gumball – like there is for everything.’

  ‘Oh, yeah?’ Darwin argued. ‘Well, how does your science explain the magic of rainbows then, huh?’

  ‘Refraction of light through moisture in the atmosphere,’ Anais answered.

  Darwin stared blankly at her. Clearly, his little sister was not going to be able to help them with an unexplained curse. Thinking that there must be something that could help, Darwin dragged Gumball away from Anais and out to the sports field in search of a tried-and-true lucky charm.

  arwin,’ Gumball asked as they searched through the grass, ‘how will I know I’ve found a four-leaf clover?’

  ‘Simple,’ Darwin answered, ‘they’ve got four leaves and they’re extremely rare – just one in a million. Found one!’ Darwin plucked the special plant from the ground and handed it to Gumball.

  ‘I can already feel my luck chan
ging,’ Gumball said hopefully as he stared at the clover.

  PLOP!

  A football suddenly appeared at Gumball’s feet.

  ‘Hey, look!’ Gumball yelled in surprise as he picked it up.

  ‘A lucky foot…’

  BAM!

  Just then, a large football player ran towards the ball and kicked it – while it was still in Gumball’s hands. Gumball went flying towards the goal post, crashed into it and landed flat on his back.

  CRASH!

  The goal post fell over and smashed down on top of him. Even in his dazed condition, Gumball knew that it was time to see Anais.

  ‘I’m ready to take your advice now,’ Gumball told his sister when he found her in the cafeteria. ‘Now, please tell me! What is the scientific explanation for all this?’

  ‘There’s no explanation,’ Anais said.

  ‘What’s been happening is just a coincidental series of unfortunate events.’

  Gumball stared at her. This wasn’t a satisfying explanation at all.

  ‘Hey, guys!’ Darwin yelled, running up to Anais and the increasingly distraught Gumball. ‘I’ve been thinking scientifically and I think I’ve figured it all out.

  ‘Gumball, do you remember when we were setting the table for dinner last night?’ Darwin asked.

  ‘You tripped. All the dishes went flying into the air but then landed on the table perfectly!’ he continued. ‘It was probably the luckiest thing I have ever seen. You used all your good luck in one day. That’s why today you are left with nothing but bad luck!’

  ‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Anais answered, ‘but it’s the best we’ve got. So the logical conclusion to your nonsensical theory is that if he can survive today, everything should be back to normal by tomorrow.’

  Gumball breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, a logical explanation!

  umball obediently reported to detention later that day. But he was full of terror. The day was far from over. Something bad was bound to happen and now Principal Brown was leaving him all by himself in the detention room.

  ‘Please, don’t go,’ Gumball begged. ‘I’m in great danger.’

  ‘You’re in danger of getting another three hours of detention,’ Principal Brown threatened before walking out of the room.

  ‘Just do nothing. Just do nothing,’ Gumball repeated to himself. He could get through this. But as he sat in the lonely room, the sweat started to bead on his face. The overhead light flickered ominously and the sharpened pencils sitting upright in the pencil holder looked like darts.

  Gumball relaxed for a moment when he saw Principal Brown returning, but his relief was short-lived.

  ‘I forgot to slam the door in anger,’ the principal said as he took care of business.

  CRASH!

  The force of the slamming door caused the overhead fluorescent light to crash down onto the teacher’s desk, causing the tin of pencils to scatter like shrapnel. One of the pencils hit the ‘on’ switch for the floor fan. The wind from the fan blew onto a book which toppled onto another book and then another and then another.

  The last book crashed into a big globe, which rolled along the windowsill, knocking over a vase full of water. The water dripped down into an electrical outlet, causing the electrical system to short-circuit.

  ‘Watterson!’ Principal Brown bellowed as he watched Gumball flee from the ill-fated detention room.

  ‘What are you…’

  BLAST! BOOM!

  Suddenly, the door of the detention room flew off its hinges and thick black smoke wafted out of the room. Gumball tripped and fell into a cleaning bucket on wheels, which then took off at top speed down the hallway.

  ‘Come on, bad luck!’ Gumball yelled as the bucket zipped past the lockers. ‘Let’s get this over with! Give me your best shot!’

  BOOM! BLAST!

  Suddenly, another explosion shook the school. This one sent Gumball careening down the outside staircase and out onto the highway.

  Gumball screamed. His little bucket was racing down the road, right towards a tractor trailer. Another truck was closing in on him from behind. Could his luck get any worse?

  ‘Oh, no! Give me a break!’ Gumball yelled as the doors of the truck in front of him opened, and the cargo of rubber car tyres came rolling out. The truck behind him swerved to avoid the tyres, spinning out of control and sliding off the road and into the woods.

  CRASH! KABOOM!

  The truck slammed into some electrical lines, causing yet another explosion. The truck in front of him slammed on its brakes as it tried to avoid the crashing towers. Gumball ducked – and slid right underneath the truck and out the other side!

  ‘Ha ha!’ Gumball laughed when he looked back at the mayhem. ‘In your face, bad luck!’ But the journey down bad-luck highway was not over.

  ‘Uh, oh!’ Gumball mumbled when he realised that his bucket was headed for an unfinished bridge.

  ‘I’m gonna make it! I’m gonna make it!’ Gumball promised himself. Then he closed his eyes tight.

  SLAM! BOOM! CRASH!

  ‘What happened?’ Gumball asked, when he saw his mum, dad, Darwin and Anais standing around his hospital bed. Though his memory was scrambled, he was in remarkably good condition.

  ‘The doctor says you were very lucky to survive,’ Nicole said.

  ‘Very lucky indeed,’ she added.

  ‘Lucky?’ Gumball yelled with glee. ‘This means my good luck has finally come back.’

  ‘Thus proving my scientific hypothesis to be correct,’ Darwin announced proudly.

  ‘And since science and reason have gone out the window,’ Anais sighed, ‘I suggest we all use the power of our minds to get tickets to Daisyland.’

  They all put their fingers to their temples and concentrated. The room filled with sounds of groaning and the gritting of teeth.

  Then the whole family felt a rustle of wind and watched in surprise as the much-longed-for family Daisyland pass blew in through the open window.

  Every Watterson hand reached for it – just as it was sucked into the blades of a fan and shredded into a thousand little pieces.

  ‘Yeah!’ Darwin cheered as the confetti rained down around them.

  ‘I wished for snow!’

  don’t think I’m going to wear this anymore,’ Gumball announced to his family at dinner. The entire family stared at the strange-looking tinfoil helmet that sat on top of Gumball’s blue head.

  ‘Why?’ Darwin asked. ‘I thought it brought you good luck.’

  ‘Yeah, it does,’ Gumball agreed reluctantly, ‘but nothing’s fun anymore. Watch this.’ Gumball put some food on his spoon and flicked it across the table. The morsel miraculously jumped from bowl to bowl, before landing right in his mouth.

  ‘Whoooaaaa!’ the Wattersons yelled in unison.

  ‘It’s boring,’ Gumball complained.

  ‘What are you talking about?!’ Darwin answered. ‘That was finflapping-tastic!’

  ‘Yeah, a week ago, maybe,’ Gumball said, ‘but now, it’s just lame. I think I’m gonna throw it out.’

  ‘Don’t throw it out!’ Richard, Gumball’s dad, protested as his son removed his tinfoil hat. ‘I could really use some luck right now. I’ve been trying to get on Win or Don’t Win for five months, but they’re not returning my phone calls.’

  ‘You’re never going to get on that show,’ Anais said, ‘hat or no hat.’

  ‘You want it? You can have it,’ Gumball replied, plopping the helmet on his dad’s head.

  Just then, the phone rang.

  ‘Hello?’ Richard said, picking up the phone. ‘Would I? Tomorrow? Oh, thank you, Win or Don’t Win!’

  Richard hung up and turned to Nicole. ‘This hat is amazing!’

  ‘Okay, guys,’ Nicole sighed. ‘As impressive as all this is, let’s not get carried away. There’s no way a tinfoil hat is responsible for…’

  Richard placed the hat on his sceptical wife’s head.

  ‘RING! RING!’ her mobile phone sang
out.

  ‘Hello?’ Nicole answered. ‘Interview? Tomorrow? For a promotion and a pay rise?’

  Reluctantly, Nicole conceded that the hat just might be a magic hat after all.

  When she headed out for her interview the next day, however, the helmet was nowhere in sight.

  ‘I need it more!’ Richard insisted when Nicole confronted him. ‘I need it to win on the show.’

  ‘Well, I need it to get the promotion,’ Nicole explained, ‘which is more important than a game show.’

  ‘But if I win on the show, I’ll get a speedboat!’ Richard pleaded.

  ‘Richard, you’ll never use it,’ Nicole argued. ‘Besides, think about what’s best for the family.’

  ‘You’re right. I’m sorry,’ Richard answered as he handed her a paper bag. ‘It’s in this bag.’

  Nicole walked out, now confident in her ability to ace the interview.

  ‘That was an astonishing interview!’ a company representative said after meeting with Nicole. ‘There’s just one thing: You are aware that if you get the job, you won’t be able to wear that papier-mâché helmet.’

  ‘Of course!’ Nicole agreed cheerfully, with the helmet still on her head. ‘But, for the record, it’s not papier-mâché, it’s tinfoil.’

  ‘Mmm, no, I’m pretty sure it’s made of papier-mâché, painted grey,’ the man insisted.

  ‘What?’ Nicole exclaimed as she realised that Richard had tricked her. She took the helmet off to examine it to be sure. ‘Can I switch your TV on?’

  Richard was a winning contestant on Win or Don’t Win – and the proud owner of a new speedboat. On his head was the tinfoil hat!

  Nicole was furious. She hurled the TV to the floor, threw papers off the interviewer’s desk and knocked over the filing cabinet. She was just about to break a chair when she saw her bosses’ horrified faces and stopped in mid-rampage.