"Watch out, Lumpy!" a small boy with short, black hair and shrewd eyes jerked his taller friend back around their neighbor's hedge.
"What's wrong, Eddy?"
"Shh!" The short boy held a finger to his lips and jerked his head in the direction of the sidewalk they had just vacated.
A red-headed boy in a green shirt and backwards baseball cap, his eyes blazing stormed down the walkway. Kevin Barr's reputation as 'most likely to throw a punch' was a firm fact among the children of the cul-de-sac. Birds flew, storm clouds brought rain, and if you messed with Kevin, sooner or later you'd find his fist in your face.
The two boys quivering behind the hedge knew it better than most. Eddy's schemes had hooked all the kids at some point or another and burned each of them, but Kevin hit back the hardest. Both Eddy and the larger boy, Ed, bore the marks from yesterday's lemonade fiasco; Eddy's nose slanted a little more to the left than it had before and the right side of Ed's face was purpled from his chin to his cheekbone. The third, most delicate member of their trio hadn't even stepped outside today.
Unfortunately for Edd, or Double-D, as his friend's affectionately termed him, his house seemed to be locked firmly in Kevin's sights. Eddy risked a quick peek over the hedge, his palm planted firmly on the crown of Ed's head to keep the bigger boy hidden. The small boy ducked back down mere seconds later, his face pale.
"What did you see, Eddy?" Ed whispered – or as close as the mountain of a boy could get to one.
Eddy shook his head. "I don't know what's up with Shovel chin. I've never seen him that mad before."
"Lemme see!" The bigger boy's head popped over the top of the hedge like a gopher from its hole.
Eddy was right. Though the red-head had passed and only his back was visible to the other two boys, anger radiated off of him in a nearly visible red miasma. His fists were clenched as small and tight as stones, his shoulders hunched up almost to his chin. Ed half expected to see steam whistling out of his ears. And sure enough, he was headed straight for his best friend's house.
Without a word, Ed grabbed Eddy, tucked him under his arm, and ignoring the shorter boy's protests took off towards Double-D's house. Though he had a reputation of his own among the other kids as rather slow and stupid, the big boy was not really dumb so much as unsure how to express himself to his friends. Thus Eddy was actually surprised when instead of bursting out onto the sidewalk, Ed pulled off some nigh-Olympic feats hopping fences and ducking under clothes lines to beat Kevin to Double-D's without the red-head seeing him.
Eddy gave up reasoning with Ed by the second back yard and focused his energies on trying to get out from under his friend's arm. It was like trying to wiggle out of a steel band. Eddy slumped in defeat. Ed charged through the neighborhood like a crazy football player. One single thought looped around his head again and again every time his feet hit the ground.
Gotta protect Double-D. Gotta protect Double-D. Gotta protect Double-D. Gotta….
Double-D was only a little taller than Eddy, built as slender as a young willow sapling with big blue eyes and features as delicate as blown glass. Even though he had been the true brains behind most of Eddy's worst scams, the other kids usually curbed some of their aggression towards him. While Eddy moaned that it was "unfair" and "favoritism" there was a little more to it than that.
Eddy was abrasive even when he wasn't pulling cons. Ed himself was, well Ed. He missed most people's social cues, sometimes did things that made no sense to anyone besides himself. His friendliness was the only thing that probably saved him from being lower on everyone's crap-list than Eddy. Edd was an entirely different story.
Double-D was polite, respectful, and even sweet when you got to know him. It was basically impossible to hate him. It probably helped that the poor kid looked like he would break if you glared at him too hard. Even Kevin had never gone full-out on him after getting scammed – or at least not until yesterday.
After the lemonade fiasco, the red-head gave Double-D a hard shove to the mud and called it good before starting in on the other two. They had all gone through this more times than they could count, so it surprised Double-D as much as anyone when the smaller kid got up and latched on to Kevin's arm mid-punch. Kevin shook him off and then had punched Edd square in the face.
Edd dropped to the ground like a broken doll. The cheering kids circled round the brawl sucked in a collective breath. Kevin stared at his own fist as though seeing it for the first time. Time seemed to stand still for a moment.
Then the red-head jammed his fists in his pockets, shouldered his way through his gaping friends and stomped home. Everyone else soon followed suit. Ed had picked up his small friend and gently, carefully carried him back home. Even though Double-D was only out for a minute or two, Ed had felt something new with the smaller kid cradled unresponsive in his arms: fear.
Ed loved scary movies even though they gave him nightmares, and his little sister's rages usually had him bolting for cover, but when Double-D hit the ground, the bigger kid realized he had never really been scared before. He had never felt anything like the cold emptiness that lapped just under his heart when he thought for a moment that his best friend in the world might not wake up again.
And so he barely felt Eddy's squirming under his arm. He didn't hear any of his demands to be put down. He dodged obstacles instinctively because all he saw before him was Double-D's expression just before Kevin's fist slammed into his face. He forced his burning legs to power on just a little bit faster. He cleared the next fence with several inches of air.
Meanwhile, oblivious to the crazed boy running behind the houses, Kevin came to a stop on the Vincent doorstop. His pulse pounded in his ears and he had to take several deep, calming breaths. When he felt more or less in control of himself, he jammed his index finger into Double-D's doorbell. He gave it a few seconds before he pressed it again.
"Coming!" a high voice trilled from the other side of the door.
Kevin clenched his teeth. Reflexively his hands tightened into fists again. Deep breaths. In and out. He forced his fists to open and hang relaxed at his sides. The door opened.
"Oh!" Double-D yelped and instinctively tried to shut the door again.
Kevin blocked it with his foot.
"Relax, I'm not here to fight you, kid."
Double-D looked Kevin up and down. Took in his red face, his tight shoulders, his blazing eyes and promptly tried to shut the door again.
"Nope!" Kevin easily pushed his way inside. The smaller kid backed up, wringing his hands. One blue eye gazed at the red-head in abject terror. The other was a half-closed slit buried in the most impressive black eye the stronger boy had ever seen.
Seeing the injury he had left on Edd's face, all the anger evaporated out of Kevin. He sighed, took off his baseball cap and rubbed at his head – a leftover nervous tic from his early childhood. He closed the door behind him.
"Look, Edd, I just want to talk for a minute."
Edd's eyes widened a little. "We've known each other nearly a decade, but you've never called me Edd before. I ascertain the situation is more serious than our little debacle yesterday then. Am I right, Kevin?"
"Sure. Whatever. Sorry about that. Look, I just need to know if it's true." To Edd's amazement Kevin's face started to bloom a bright red again.
"I'm sorry but without specifics then I'm afraid I can't know what you are talking about, Kevin. Is what true?"
Overthinking things was never one of Kevin Barr's vices. In fact his off and on girlfriend, Nazz, often dryly said that he didn't think much at all. Nevertheless, his brain was ticking now as he looked over the cringing kid before him. Oversized t-shirt. Floppy black hat. Loose-fitting shorts. Delicate, almost pretty face. The pieces had always been there and now they slammed together hard enough to leave him dazed.
The expletive dragged out of his mouth as everything crashed into place. "Hooooley shit."
He took a step towards Double-D. "Take off your hat."
Edd backed up a little more and hit the sofa. "Kevin, please, calm yourself down."
"Take it off." Kevin's hands twitched forward and suddenly Double-D's beanie was in his grasp.
"No! Let go of it!" Edd snatched the edges of the hat and struggled to take it back, but Kevin wouldn't let go. He looked terrifying. His eyes bored into the smaller child, sharp as steel drills.
"My dad came home from work and got a call from your dad." He yanked at the hat again; Edd yelped and clamped on harder. "Do you know what happened then?"
Edd squeaked, too frightened to speak.
"My dad tore me a new one. Said that he had never been more disappointed in me. Do you know why?"
"LET. EDD. GO. NOW!"
"What the-"Kevin turned too late as Ed barreled into him, Eddy still squawking like a plucked chicken under his arm.
The three boys crashed into the living room wall as Edd ducked shaking behind the sofa. Kevin shoved Ed back and the two stood glaring daggers at each other. Kevin cracked his knuckles threateningly.
"You wanna go, dummy?"
"Bring it on."
"Enough!" Edd trembled under the weight of three sets of eyes. "If it will settle whatever in Sam hill this is, then…" slowly, painfully, the hat came off. The silence was deafening.
"It's true." Kevin breathed he tried to take a step forward, but Ed blocked him.
"Not another step. You aren't gonna hurt him again." He warned the red-head.
"Her." Kevin corrected.
Black hair tumbled in soft, shiny ringlets down to Edd's shoulders, framing the dainty nose, the big eyes, the pouty lips. Time stopped in the living room between the four.
"Mr. Vincent called my dad last night around supper," Kevin repeated. "Told my dad I'd given his daughter a black eye."
Ed let Eddy thud to the ground. "You're lying."
"No, no, he's not," Edd piped up from the couch.
All three boys swiveled to face her again. Her. Edd looked from one face to the other, what little color was present in her pale face gradually draining away.
"You all knew that, though. Didn't you?" her voice trailed off as she read the answer in their faces. "Edd, short for Edaline Vincent."
No response. Eddy picked himself up off the floor and dusted himself off, his eyes glued to her face. Ed was turning an interesting shade of red and Kevin apparently found something fascinating to stare at on her living room floor.
"Oh come on," she pleaded. "I even told you my middle name was Marian. Do you seriously mean to tell me that none of you knew I was a girl before now?"
Silence. Color seeped back into her pale cheeks. "I see." She jammed her hat back onto her head.
"You let us treat you like a boy," Eddy finally answered her.
"I let you treat me the same way I treated you; like a friend," Edd countered. "Gender never mattered, did it?"
"No, the pipsqueak's right," Kevin butted in. "We even called you 'one of the Ed boys' and you never spoke up." His tone verged on accusation.
"I thought it was just a stupid nickname! Just something to group us together." Edd twisted her hands. This was starting to feel like a nightmare. Unnamed dread was coiling like a snake in her belly.
Ed stood back. His mother had once told him that the slowest mills ground the finest – a rare moment before Sarah started bending his parent's ears against him. Slow, but thorough. In the deepest, quietest part of his brain, Ed sat down at a little desk. Edd was a girl. He turned this over and over behind a pair of outwardly blank eyes, oblivious to what was happening in the living room.
Eddy was starting to puff up like an angry balloon. "Sorry, Edaline, but I gotta say it kinda feels like you lied to us."
Edd flinched back from his poison tone. "It doesn't matter!" She glared at him. "Look we've had almost ten years of fun, and adventures. We ran your stupid scams, went to all the same classes, and even took beatings together! And now you're acting like none of that is as important as my gender."
Eddy straightened his collar, his eyes as cold as ice. "Maybe I am."
Edd felt like she'd been punched in the gut. "Eddy," she pleaded.
The short boy shouldered past her and walked out the front door without a backward glance. Kevin shuffled after him a moment later, offering Edd a single confused look. He quietly shut the door behind him, leaving Edd and Ed alone in the living room. Edd took a deep, shuddering breath.
She swiped at her burning eyes. To her astonishment, her cheeks were already soaked. Perfect. Not only had she just found out that none of her closest friends knew she was a girl, she'd evidently been crying the entire time.
"Ed?" she tried to get the tall boy to respond, but he stared past her to the far wall.
She slumped, feeling a new weight settling in her chest. Her whole life had just been flipped, her bully was acting like she was fragile, one of her oldest friends giving her the silent treatment, and the one person she had always been able to depend on was acting like she didn't exist. She sniffled and turned to move into the kitchen.
Some herbal tea would help clear her mind and figure out what to do next. She tried to calm herself down by mentally sorting the tea in her head. Lavender would calm her nerves. Mint would settle the turmoil in her belly. Ginger would warm that cold lump of ice sitting where her stomach used to be. Echinacea –
Edd yelped as she was yanked backwards and enfolded into a warm, slightly musty-smelling hug.
"I don't care if you're a girl or a boy." Ed said firmly. He squeezed the small girl tight to his chest. "You'll always be Double-D to me."