Disclaimer: I don't own EEnE or any of their characters!
I have had this idea floating around in my head for a while now. I didn't edit it very well so, if you see any grammar mistakes etc. I apologize.
Have fun reading! Kevedd is such a guilty pleasure to me, god they're so cute.
Kevin knew that something was up when his teacher asked him to talk to her after class. The normally cool headed boy was pretty nervous as he walked up to the desk where Mrs. Barr was waiting patiently—not that he'd ever show it, but he was nervous none the less. He reached the desk just as everyone had left the classroom and anxiously adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, preparing for the worst.
"So what's up, Mrs. B?" Kevin asked, looking down at her.
"I can tell you what isn't 'up', Kevin," she started with a frown. She reached down into her desk and took out a bunch of papers. On top of the stack was Kevin's test, marked almost completely in red. "It's your grades."
Kevin gulped and waited for her to go on.
She pushed the test toward him and he took it slowly. The bright red thirty-eight scribbled in the top corner of his test sent his heart plummeting into his gut. He wasn't the smartest kid on the cul-de-sac, but this was a new low, even for him.
"Kevin, if you fail another test, not only are you going to be unable to play baseball again," she continued, "you're not going to be able to graduate this June."
His eyes widened at that last fact, and his mouth went completely dry. He couldn't not graduate. His parents would kill him. No, worse. He'd only be living up to their low expectations: a loser kid who can't do anything other than hit a ball with a bat. Swallowing the rising lump in his throat, Kevin placed his shaking hands onto Mrs. Barr's desk and narrowed his eyes at her. "So what can I do?"
Shocked by the seriousness in his expression, Mrs. Barr blinked and took a second to gather her thoughts. She looked through the mess of papers on her desk until she found her small pad of sticky notes and wrote down something on it. "Here," she said, handing the sticky note to the boy. He took it from her and read it over quickly. All it read was:
Library, fourth cubby, after school.
Kevin raised an eyebrow at her and waited for an explanation.
"One of my advanced calculus students tutors after school, and I asked him if he could be of assistance," she explained, "You'll be meeting with him until your grades improve—that's if you want them to improve."
"I do," Kevin said with a nod.
"Good," She said, a small smile on her face, "I'll tell him that you're on board then."
Kevin nodded again and turned to leave. If he walked quickly enough, he could make it to his next class before the bell rang again.
"Kevin," his teacher called out again as he touched the door knob. He looked back and she smiled, "Don't worry. With Edward as your tutor, your grades will be up in no time."
Kevin pressed his lips together and nodded again.
"Thanks, Mrs. B," he said, his voice quiet and dull. He walked out of the room and hurried to his next class, unable to shake the previous conversation.
"Kevin, if you fail another test, not only are you going to be unable to play baseball again, you're not going to be able to graduate this June."
Truthfully, the rest of the conversation had blurred away. Thank god for the sticky note that was crumpled in his hand, because without it he'd be in a whole mess of trouble. Images of his parents flashed into his mind: their unsurprised expressions, the way they'd shrug their shoulders, and the way they'd just chalk it up to him being Kevin. Kevin, their loser son who'd rather fix his bike than work in his father's factory. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't.
When Mrs. Barr had asked Double D to tutor one of her calc students, Kevin, he didn't bat an eyelash. Of course he'd tutor whoever this senior at risk was. It would be devastating not to graduate along with fellow classmates, and Double D couldn't say no and have that on his conscience forever. No sir. He would tutor this student right back into the good standing of calculus.
Right after his last class had ended, Edd headed toward the library. He always got there early to reserve his cubby—not that anyone would really steal it from him but just in case.
He sat down at the cubby and started to unpack his 'tutor kit' which was equipped with a pack of sharpened pencils, a small binder of loose-leaf paper, and just about anything one would need to teach calculus. Edd placed all the items carefully on the desk, straightening and spacing them out perfectly before he turned to the clock to check the time. This Kevin was about five minutes late.
Tardy, Edd thought distastefully.
Edd fiddled with his fingers, waiting on the student and sighing at every passing second. Didn't people understand what it meant to be punctual? Goodness, he didn't have all day to wait on this kid. He had his homework to attend to and as much as he enjoyed helping a fellow student, his own academic standing was always number one.
Just as Edd was about to pack up and leave, a familiar nickname sounded from behind him.
"Double dork?"
Edd sighed and turned around.
"Kevin, I don't have time for your—Kevin," Edd said, his eyes focusing on the childhood bully with the calculus text book in hand. This was the senior at risk, Kevin from the cul-de-sac.
Before he could open his mouth to explain, Kevin was sighing and sitting down in the open chair next to him.
"So you're my tutor?" he asked, with a roll of his eyes, "I should have known."
Edd nervously touched at his beanie, and sighed with a nod, "Yes I am."
"So what is this? Another one of your dumb scams?" Kev asked, looking Edd up and down, his eyes suspicious.
Kevin looked around before looking back to Edd, "Am I gonna have to pay you twenty-five cents for your services, or have you dorks upped the ante?"
He looked around again, this time checking behind the cubby, "Is tweedle dork and tweedle dorker gonna pop out from behind the bookshelf?"
It took a massive amount of will power to ignore the multitude of English laws that were broken in Kevin's slew of cynical questions and move on.
"I'll have you know that I don't frequently participate in Eddy's shenanigans anymore," Edd said, his nose turned up and arms crossed.
Kevin snorted, "Yeah whatever Double Dweeb, you're still Eddy's bitch."
Edd gasped and glared at Kevin.
"I resent that, Kevin. I am not Eddy's… bitch," Edd said, his tongue tingling from the profanity.
Kevin rolled his eyes and leaned forward, eyes suddenly serious. Edd had never associated that look with something pleasant. He instinctively leaned away from Kevin and watched the red-head's hands cautiously.
"So do the other Ed dorks know about this?" Kev asked.
Edd shook his head no, grateful that Kevin had relaxed his stance and casually placed his uncurled fist onto the desk.
Kev nodded, "Good, because if Eddy finds about this I'll pound your face in."
"Goodness, Kevin!" Edd gasped, "There is no need to resort to violence. I had no intention of talking to Eddy about the tutoring. My work life and my private life are respectively separate," he looked at his watch and then angrily back at Kevin, "Now can we finally get on to the tutoring? It is already four thirty."
Kevin rolled his eyes in response and dropped his text book onto the table.
"Yeah sorry about that," Kevin said, and Edd was pleasantly surprised by the sincerity of the apology, "I left my text-book back at my house so I had to ride back and get it."
Oh, well that made Edd feel like a jerk for being so impatient. Kevin genuinely wanted to learn, and he had gone through all that trouble to be prepared.
"O-Oh," Edd said, turning to the desk, "Well, no problem then. Let's begin, shall we?"
Kevin nodded and pushed up his sleeves to his elbows.
"So, what are you having difficulty on?" Edd started.
"Everything?" Kevin answered honestly.
Edd could tell that Kevin was annoyed, and for a short moment he thought that he might be the reason for that annoyance. Edd imagined that it would be embarrassing to have someone you referred to as a dork know one of your more shameful secrets—such as being at risk for failing the twelfth grade.
After further consideration, Edd believed Kevin's annoyance to be brought on by his lack of understanding for the subject at hand. Edd couldn't relate, for he had never had to struggle when it came to academia, but he could imagine that it was quite frustrating.
With a nod, Edd looked at Kevin, "Alright, so why don't we start with the homework that you were assigned today?"
Kevin nodded and silently turned to the page he was assigned while Double D watched. The red-head pulled a pen from his pocket and pushed the text book in front of Edd, pointing to the first question assigned. Edd looked at it and nodded, quickly copying the question on a blank piece of paper and pushing the text book away.
"Read the question and tell me what exactly about it you don't understand," Edd said, his voice gentle.
He watched with curious green eyes as Kevin read over the question. He had never seen the bully look so serious in his life. Edd could practically see the gears turning in Kevin's head as the senior tried to understand the question in front of him.
Kevin huffed and tightened his grip on the pencil in his hand, "Dude I don't get it at all, it's like in another language."
Edd nodded. At least he knew where to start.
"Ok, well in this equation, you are trying to figure out the limit. It's actually a lot simpler than it looks," he started, leaning over Kevin and pointing to equation.
"Forget about how difficult the question appears and figure out exactly what it wants you to do," he said, underlining the key information in the problem while Kevin watched. "See? They already gave you the value of 'x' so all you have to do is plug it in and solve the question."
"Seriously?" Kevin asked, his eyes lighting up, "If it's that freakin' easy, why do they put all these dumb words and stuff? Why don't they just say, put the three where the 'x' is to get the answer."
Edd laughed lightly, "Because then you wouldn't learn how to problem solve."
"Fuck problem solving," Kevin muttered under his breath as he calculated the problem. "So is this the answer?"
Edd looked over his shoulder and nodded with a pleased smile, "Exactly! Now why don't you try some other problems?"
With a grunt, Kevin nodded and turned to his work.
Edd was surprised to see how quickly the baseball player picked up on the material. What surprised him more was how determined Kevin was. Edd was used to the Kevin who gave him wedgies, or barked slurs at him so seeing him like this hard at work with eyes squinted in thought and tongue poking through his lips was an adorable surprise. Even Kevin from the cul-de-sac could show such an expression. Fascinating.
Kevin looked up at Double D and he flinched back with reddened cheeks. Had the he read Edd's thoughts?
No of course not, don't be ridiculous.
The baseball player lifted an eyebrow at the reaction, but shook it off and pushed his homework at Double D.
"I'm done," was all that he said.
Edd nodded, still a little flustered from being 'caught in the act' and looked over the questions.
He must have taken a while because Kevin spoke up.
"How'd I do?" he asked.
Was that nervousness Double D heard in Kevin's voice?
Edd looked up from the questions with a smile.
"There were some basic math mistakes made but you understand the concept now and that's what really matters!" Edd said happily, giving Kevin back his homework.
Kevin bit down on his lips to prevent himself from smiling then nodded and placed his homework in his backpack.
After they had finished the homework that was assigned, Double D had Kevin try some more difficult problems that Double D had made up himself, and called it a day.
"Okay, Kevin, I believe we're done for the day," he said with a smile.
Kevin looked up from his work and smiled back at him.
He had a cute smile.
"Same time tomorrow, Double Dork?" The nickname didn't hold the venom that it once did and that made Edd's cheeks burn.
"Indeed! You should bring your past tests so we can work on them," Edd said as Kevin started to pack up.
The red-head nodded absent mindedly, "Uh-huh."
He looked like he had something else on his mind, and Edd was worried that he hadn't exactly processed what he said, but decided that it didn't really matter. He turned to his own stuff and started to pack it back into its right place.
"Dweeb," Kevin called out, placing a hand on Edd's shoulder and causing him to jump, "Thanks."
Edd's cheeks burned again and he blinked up at Kevin, whose hand was still gripping his shoulder. "May I inquire what for?"
Kevin let go of Edd's shoulder and brought his hand up to the back of his own neck, pawing at it sheepishly as his own cheeks reddened. "You know, for not laughing at me or, whatever. I know I've been a jerk to you in the past, and I would have laughed at me but… yeah you didn't so, thanks."
Edd waved his hands in the air and shook his head from side to side, "Don't think anything of it, Kevin. That's all in the past."
Kev smirked and mumbled a small 'Mhmm' before turning away. He waved over his shoulder at Edd, but the younger male didn't even really notice. He was too busy trying to focus on anything other than the odd pounding in his chest.