Read an Excerpt
Chapter One: The Cheese Head
The neon numbers on the alarm clock flashed from 1:59 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Yet Gumball Watterson lay on his bedcovers, eyes open. This was no time for a nine-year-old to be wide awake. He stared at the wooden slats of the top bunk above him. No one slept up there. Instead, the sound of snoring came from Darwin’s fishbowl.
School started in the morning. Gumball’s mind filled with a combination of excitement and dread. He was excited to see his friends again, but incredibly bummed that summer vacation was over.
Gumball stared at his clock.
The numbers now read 2:01.
Would morning never come?
Gumball got out of bed, tiptoed into the hallway, and then headed down the stairs.
If he couldn’t sleep, then Gumball might as well do something important, like watch TV.
Gumball yawned as he sat on the living room couch. He dug in between the seat cushions, pulling out the television remote control. He flipped through channels of boring infomercials and reruns. Cartoons weren’t on this late. Or was it this early? Gumball was too groggy to think straight, but too antsy to sleep. He breathed deeply, his eyelids feeling heavy, and he watched a show about a blender.
It was an awesome blender. Not only did the machine cut, chip, whip, and puree fruits and veggies, but it could also cut, chip, whip, and puree watches, a digital camera, and a key chain. Gumball eyed the phone number flashing at the bottom of the screen. If he ordered the blender within the next thirty seconds, he would also get a set of knives.
He imagined blending his sneakers, a lightbulb, and the bowl of Cheezy-Bites snacks that sat on the coffee table in front of him.
His dad must have left the bowl out last night.
Gumball’s mind floated off, dreaming of various electronics mangled and mixed from high-performance blending. His eyelids once again grew heavy, his breathing slowed, and he drifted off to sleep.
***
"Wake up!"
Gumball’s eyes popped open, and he saw a sea of orange.
He had fallen asleep with his head in the bowl of Cheezy-Bites.
Gumball’s mother stood over him. Nicole Watterson was dressed for work in her Rainbow Factory uniform: a gray skirt, a white shirt, and, of course, her rainbow-colored badge. “You’ll be late for school!”
Gumball’s father, Richard Watterson, stood next to her. He adjusted his black work tie and patted the red woolen cap he always wore on his head. He rubbed a finger across Gumball’s forehead. “Yum! Processed cheese dust!” he exclaimed as he licked his finger.
“Hurry! School!” Mrs. Watterson shouted.
Gumball bolted off the sofa and into the bathroom. He stared in the mirror. He gasped. The top half of his light-blue head was coated with Cheezy-Bites cheese powder. He wiped his forehead as hard as he could with a hand towel.
The orange stain refused to budge.
“My head is orange!” squealed a panicked Gumball.
Darwin stood in the bathroom doorway. “What’s wrong with having an orange head?” he asked.
“Sure, orange looks good on you,” cried Gumball. “But I can’t go to school like this!”
“You’ll have to,” said Darwin. “There’s no time to wash it off. Mrs. Mom says we have to hurry or we’re going to miss the bus.”
Gumball squeezed between Darwin and the door frame and dashed to the hall closet. “No . . . no . . . maybe,” he mumbled, as he rummaged through a large cardboard box at the back of the closet.
“Why are you looking at our old Halloween costumes?” asked Darwin.
Gumball grabbed a pirate hat, glared at it, and then threw it back into the box. A moment later, Gumball emerged from the closet. A large black fedora with a small white feather was perched on his head.
“Why are you dressed like a 1920s gangster?” asked Darwin.
“Because I look awesome!” Gumball announced. He puffed out his chest. He tilted the hat. It completely covered the cheesy powder. “I’m glad my head is orange, Darwin. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have thought to wear this hat to school.”
“The bus is here!” yelled Mrs. Watterson. Gumball and Darwin hurried toward the door. “Good luck!” she called after them.
"I don’t need luck,” said Gumball, striding out the door. "I've got a hat!” He clapped Darwin on his back. “Nothing can go wrong when you’re wearing a hat.”
