Double D and Ed rendezvous at Eddy's place, as they both received a message to get there as soon as possible. Double D rung the doorbell, not knowing what scheme Eddy would tell them about this day.
"It finally happened, boys!" Eddy said as he swung open his front door. "My parents caved and we got netflix!"
"Woah, Eddy! Are you serious?" Double D said.
Ed screamed with excitement. "Do you know how many movies they have that I can't find in the video store!"
"What made your parents change their mind?" Double D asked.
"My mom watched some baking show with my aunt and was hooked. She made my dad get a subscription and now we're in the money! We'll host viewing parties and charge per seat, it's foolproof!"
Double D and Ed were excited as well. This plan was straightforward enough, and they knew none of the other kids had an account. All they had to do was press play and watch the cash pile up.
…
They spent the week planning their viewing party, making sure they had the best snacks and aligning it with the premiere of a major series they had all been anticipating. Everything was perfect, and fifty cents didn't seem like a high toll at all. As the clock ticked closer and closer to the commencement of their party, Eddy couldn't take his excitement. As soon as it hit 4pm, he ran to his front door and opened it wide, but his excitement turned to confusion when there wasn't anyone outside.
"What gives?" Eddy said. "Ed, you handed out all the flyers, right?"
"As sure as there's a nose on my face I did, Eddy."
"Maybe 4pm is too early? Or is it too late?" Double D wondered.
"It's a perfect time," Eddy said. He caught sight of Jimmy and Sarah on the sidewalk and rushed to them. "Hey! Our first party guests. You two will have the best seats in the house!" He tried ushering them to his house when Sarah shoved him away.
"What are you talking about? We're not going to your house! We're going to Kevin's!" Sarah said.
"Kevin? What's going on in Kevin's house?" Eddy said.
"He just got netflix and is having a viewing party for everyone in the cul de sac!" Jimmy said, handing Eddy Kevin's flyer.
"That copycat! That's what I'm doing today! Why don't you two come over to my place instead, we have better snacks."
"No thank you," Jimmy said.
Sarah walked past Eddy, pulling Jimmy along with her. "Kevin has unlimited jawbreakers. Plus, he's not charging entry fees."
Eddy growled. "You can't live off of jawbreakers alone!" he shouted after them.
"Eddy, I know you're upset, but there's no need for that kind of language," Double D said, walking towards him. He led Eddy back into the house and the three boys stared outside the window, watching as all the kids headed towards Kevin's house, bowls of snacks and soda pop in hand.
"This stinks, Double D. My one perfect plan and it's crumbling in front of me. What should we do now?" Eddy said, depressed as he looked out the window.
"Well, you do have a netflix account, Eddy, and plenty of snacks. We can just watch something ourselves," Double D said.
Eddy sighed wistfully out the window before turning back, his sad demeanor turning chipper. "Alright! What should we watch?"
"The Reckoning!" Ed said, jumping with excitement on the couch.
"I don't know if I'm in the mood for something scary. Can't we watch a nature documentary instead to ease us in?" Double D said.
"As if! There's a new heist movie I've been wanting to see, let's watch that!"
As the three boys argued over what to watch first, Double D went into Eddy's bedroom and procured a die. "There's only one way to settle this! Chance! We'll roll the die and whoever's number comes up first, that's what we watch first."
Eddy shrugged. "Sounds good to me, but there's six sides, what are our numbers?"
"You'll be one and four," Double D said. "I'll be two and five. And Ed will be three and six. I'll roll!"
Double D rolled the die on the floor and all three boys looked on to see who would win when the die landed on five.
"That means I win!" Double D said, excited.
"Aw! But what about my movie?" Ed said, disappointed.
"We'll roll again after we finish Double D's thing," Eddy said, accepting defeat and getting comfortable on his couch.
Double D sat between his friends, eager he won and they could finally start enjoy Eddy's account, but before he could press play on his selection, the front door flew open.
"We heard there was a viewing party today," Lee said, holding up Eddy's flyer. Her sisters were flanking her on either side.
"Sorry we're late," Marie said with a giggle.
"Hope you boys didn't start without us," May said.
Eddy took the flyer from Lee's hand and crumpled it up. "The party's been cancelled, go home!"
"Not a chance, handsome," Lee said, scratching his chin before making her way in.
"No one wants to watch that," May said, seeing Double D's highlighted selection on the tv.
"Uh. But we rolled the die and my number came up," Double D said, holding the die on the palm of his hand.
"Then let's roll it again," Lee said, snatching the die from his hand. "You three boys can be one, two, three and we'll be four, five, six." She rolled the die and it landed on five again.
"That's my number! I get to choose what we watch!" Marie said, grabbing the remote and changing the selection.
"What are the odds it landing on five again," Double D murmured.
Eddy rolled his eyes and whispered to him. "That's one of my loaded die. It always lands on five."
Double D gasped. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? So I unwittingly cheated?"
Eddy shrugged. "Eh, it's no big deal."
"No big deal!" Double D snapped.
"Keep it down, will ya?" Lee said, turning to the boys on the couch. She and her sisters made themselves comfortable on the floor, taking the best snacks on the floor and watching as Marie's pick was about to start. "The show's about to start."
"What will we be watching?" Double D asked.
"A concert," Marie said.
"I've been so excited to watch this! It's going to be so good!" Lee said.
"A concert? That's so lame! Concerts are meant to be seen live, not on the tv," Eddy said.
"Shut up!" All three girls roared at him.
He put his hands up defensively, not saying another word about their terrible pick.
…
"Woah," Eddy said when the concert was over, totally impressed by it.
"That was so good!" Marie cried.
"I want to watch it again!" May said.
"She's such a genius!" Lee said. The three sisters were hugging each other, all three still in shock from the magnificence they had witnessed.
"I must admit, that was far and away better than I had thought it be," Double D said.
Ed was stomping and slapping his knees to what he believed to be the rhythm of some of the songs, but he was completely off.
"Should we watch it again?" May asked.
"I think we need some time to digest it," Lee said. "Let's roll the die again, see who gets to pick what we watch this time."
"Oh, uh. Just a second, I need to grab a new die that isn't loaded," Eddy said, grabbing the one they had been using in favor for an honest die. When he came back to the living room he rolled the new die and it landed on one. "Alright! It's my turn!"
All six watched the heist movie Eddy chose and he was pleased to see them all so engaged with his pick.
"Wow, who'da thunk Eddy had good taste in movies," Marie teased.
"I want to roll the die!" Ed said, grabbing it and rolling it.
"I think we only have time for one more roll, so make this one count, Ed!" Double D said, hoping it would land on his number.
"Six! That's me!" May said, excited as she grabbed the remote and decided on a series about a witch.
They watched two episodes of the series, everyone enthralled, but Ed especially so.
"I kind of want to binge watch this show now," Eddy said.
"Let's keep watching!" Ed said.
"It's getting kind of late, we should be getting back home," Marie said, looking at the time.
"Don't watch this show without us, you hear?" Lee said, giving the boys a stern look.
The Eds nodded in agreement.
"Same time next week then?" May asked.
The boys turned to each other. Double D shrugged.
"Yeah," Eddy said. "I actually had a lot of fun. You girls have pretty good taste."
"Obviously, if we like you numbskulls," Marie said.
"Goodnight, boys," Lee said. She and her sisters left, giggling as they walked out.
"I can't believe we had fun with the Kanker Sisters," Double D said.
Ed was biting his nails. "Aw, guys! Can't we just watch one more episode!" He went to press play on the remote, but Double D took it from his hands.
"No, Ed. A promise is a promise."
"More like a threat is a threat," Eddy corrected and chuckled.
"We can watch something else for now, just the three of us," Double D said.
"Let's watch the documentary you wanted to see," Eddy said.
"Okay!"
…
The next weekend the Kanker Sisters came as planned, and this time they brought snacks of their own to share. They watched two more episodes of May's pick before rolling the die for their next choice. When they landed on repeat numbers, they decided it was only fair to keep rolling until everyone had a turn before any repeats.
After a month the die wasn't necessary, all six smoothly transitioning into appreciating each other's taste and balancing their viewing experience.
The kids in the cul de sac would hear the shows coming from Eddy's home, along with laughter and chit-chatting. Sarah and Jimmy quietly opened the door to see the six laughing and engaged in a comedy special Marie had chosen.
"Can we join you?" Jimmy asked, his voice soft but still piercing through the comedy routine.
The paused the show and turned to them.
"What about Kevin?" Eddy asked.
"He just wanted to watch dumb action movies and wouldn't let us pick anything," Sarah said, sullen and annoyed.
The five kids turned to Eddy to see what his judgment would be on the two youngest kids in the cul de sac. He shrugged. "Yeah, sure, whatever."
"Yippee!" Sarah and Jimmy said, sitting together on the floor.
They let them choose the next pick and cried at the emotional animated movie Jimmy chose.
As time went on, more kids came to join them, and everyone got a chance to pick something to watch. When it reached the point where he was all alone in his house, Kevin decided to explore the cul de sac, figure out where everyone was. When he looked through Eddy's window, he could see his living room filled with kids. He was irritated as he saw the Eds on the couch, everyone else laying or sitting on the floor, and surprised to see even the Kanker Sisters were there.
"What's going on here?" he said, opening the door and causing everyone to scream in horror since the movie they were watching was a scary one, so they were all already on edge.
"Kevin? What the hell? Get out of my house," Eddy said, shooing him away.
"Why is everyone here? I was having a viewing party in my house too."
"Yes, we know, but you never let us pick a movie, Kevin," Rolf said.
"And Eddy does?"
"We have a lottery system!" Double D said happily.
"I won today!" Ed said, pointing at himself.
"What a surprise that the dork won the lottery double dork set up," Kevin said, crossing his arms.
"Kevin! We are watching a movie! Get out!" Sarah screamed, growing annoyed and wanting to return to what they were watching. She pushed him out of Eddy's house and slammed the door in his face.
He looked through the window, sad to be the one left out while everyone was inside having fun. Watching movies weren't as fun alone, so he decided to come back with a peace offering.
"I have a bunch of jawbreakers, can I stay and watch movies here too?"
"Jawbreakers!" Eddy shouted with glee.
"I'm sick of jawbreakers," Nazz said.
"Yeah, I had so many last time I was at your house I got a tummy ache," Jimmy moaned.
"Then these can be for me and the boys!" Eddy said, grabbing the huge box from Kevin and letting him in.
"Hey! We want some too," Lee called out.
The Eds and Kanker Sisters shared the jawbreakers since they were the only ones not sick of them yet. Kevin went to sit on the floor next to Nazz and all the kids were happy hanging out together as they streamed movies on Eddy's netflix account.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The concert is Beyonce's Homecoming, lmao