Survey the Social
A/N: Hey everyone. This is my first Ed, Edd, and Eddy fan fiction, so please be kind. Of course I don't own any of the characters.
Survey the Social
Chapter One.
The smell of summer was still in the air as the sun set on the 2nd to last day of summer vacation. Colored lanterns strung on thin wires fluttered gently in the dying summer breeze. Each string strung from light post to light post around the cul-de-sac as everyone socialized on the asphalt. The lights casted orange, red, and yellow glow as everyone celebrated the last weekend of the summer together. There were all the trappings of a summer barbecue, tables with paper coverings, piles of hamburgers and hot dogs and coolers still filled with soda, a boom box still blasting even as twilight settled in over the horizon.
Eddy leaned on the table next to the empty potato chip bowl and sighed. He had spent the better part of the afternoon trying to steal Nazz's attention from Kevin during the party. He had grown over the years, but never enough. Nothing ever seemed to satisfy his hunger for things better than what was provided to him. He wore good clothes, had the best hair products and everything a young adult might need. Never the less, little seemed to appease him. His eyes were on the blossomed young woman who had ignored him since his young adolescence.
"It's not so bad, Eddy." Double D assured as he approached from seemingly no where. He was always good at that, coming up to nag at the most inopportune times. "High school will be quite an educational advent-"
"Will you can it? It's not that." Eddy grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring up at his still taller friend. Double D seemed to think for a moment, and glanced out into the crowd before sighing. For a moment, he wondered when Eddy's attention had turned from shiny quarters to the opposite sex. Things change so quickly… After a moment of reflection on that idea he shook his head.
"I don't understand how that can still occupy your thoughts when there's a whole new school and academic challenge ahead of us." He put an arm around Eddy's shoulder. "High school is a time of great change, who knows how our social standings might shift with the new surroundings. Someone who was once popular may become a social outcast and the outcast may become popular as we finish maturing."
"So Kevin might become a nerd?" Eddy asked, half in excitement, and half hoping he had just translated Edd's wordiness right.
"Well, perhaps. One can never truly anticipate all the twists and turns of the future, so I suppose it's possible." Double D put a finger to his chin as he thought, but a plan was already at work in Eddy's mind.
"What if we sneak into Kevin's house tomorrow and steal all his new school clothes and replace them with yours? Then he'd really be a geek!" Eddy laughed. Double D crossed his arms.
"And what, pray tell, are you insinuating by that, Eddy? That I am a geek?"
"What? I thought you knew."
Double D only sighed, shoulders slumping a little. "I prefer academically astute."
"Po-tay-to, To-mah-to, Double D." Eddy shrugged off before going to join in the group again.
Double D watched him with a mix of offense and sad realization at the fact that his friend might be right. After all, how many of his peer group enjoyed reading through the library's non-fiction and biographical sections on the weekends? But he wasn't that geeky, was he? He didn't carry pocket protectors in his pockets or rave over cartoons like others in that category. Just what does it take to mark one as a geek, or jock, or prep? It certainly would be an interesting study to make once school started. Double D couldn't hide a grin at the chance to study others in the legendary setting of the last stage of basic education.
"They grow so fast." Ed said practically in Double D's ear, jolting him from his thoughts and back to the party. Ed was watching as Eddy still tried to keep Nazz's attention, but failing horribly.
"Yes, they do, Ed." Double D stretched "However, some things just don't change, do they?" He looked up at Ed, whose attention was caught by the dancing fireflies that had come out to join the celebration. The big oaf dashed off to chase them and Double D covered his giggle with his hand. A habit he picked up ever since the kids had made fun of the gap in his teeth when he smiled. Poor Ed had no idea what laid before them. What high school really meant. He was just satisfied with chasing after phosphorescent insects. Double D's thoughts were interrupted by a yawn.
"Oh my, it's later than I assumed." He said to himself as he checked his cell phone, a present from his last birthday. He would have alerted his friends that he was going home, but both were so preoccupied that he simply walked from the group and to his dark home. Double D's parents weren't home, which was normal in the evenings. He was accustomed to walking into an empty and dark home. The quiet there had stopped bothering him long ago.
With a deep breath, he took in the smell and sounds of the summer evening before opening the door and turning on the lights. On the coffee table in the living room wasn't a post it, but a note written on actual notebook paper. Only very very important things were written on actual paper. With a shaking hand, Double D picked up the folded paper and began to read.
Everyone was laughing, but Eddy was used to it. Humiliation only affects you for so many times before you grow a thick skin to it. He had got a dance with Nazz, finally, only for Kevin to trip him into the table, the punch bowl now empty and sitting on his head. When he lifted the plastic bowl he expected Kevin to be in his face, but instead it was Double D with an expression of complete and utter glee.
"What's with you, sock-head?"
"Look, Eddy!" He shoved the paper in his friend's view. "Mother and Father have planned a very important surprise for me!" Eddy gave his friend an annoyed and weirded out expression before taking the note with punch covered fingers and read it.
"Dear Edward, we are so proud of you for completing your junior high school with such honors that we have prepared a very special and expensive surprise-" Eddy stopped reading there.
"To help ensure success in your high school endeavors. Love, Mother and Father." Double D continued, having already memorized the letter. Eddy hopped up and pulled Double D to his level, pushing the paper in his face.
"Did you see that? Expensive surprise! You know what that means!"
"Eddy, you're covered in punch." Double D wiggled out from his friend's grasp and took his note back, trying to wipe off the punch from the paper.
"I bet they're giving you a car!" Eddy said, jumping in the air. "We'll get all the girls-"
"I highly doubt that my parents would just give me a car, Eddy. First, I won't gain my driver's licensure until my sophomore year, and secondly a car is something one should earn and maintain with hard work and-"
"What else does a high school kid need?" Eddy asked.
"Well perhaps it is a laptop computer to help with my studies, Eddy. Or their gift may be a new updated encyclopedia."
"Maybe it's a new collection of mashed potatoes and monster movies." Ed chimed in, a sock full of glowing fireflies in his hand. Both Eddy and Double D stared at him for a moment.
"At any rate, I wanted to tell you the good news. It's late and we should all be heading home to rest." Double D said, folding the note and putting it inside his hat.
"It's still summer, I'm not going to bed before 12." Eddy huffed, arms crossed.
"You have to think about your sleep cycle, Eddy. If you don't get the rest you need, you won't be able to grow." He said with a grin, knowing that was a sore subject with his friend.
"I still think that's a bunch of bull." Eddy huffed but still turned to his house but paused to yell back "When they pull your car into your driveway, you better come pick us up."
"I want to watch the movies!" Ed shouted as he walked to his own home. "And swim in da mashed potatoes." Double D just shook his head. Some things never do change. For that, he was truly thankful.