Oh dear, oh dear

Double D sat tugging at the hem of his sleeve nervously while awaiting the arrival of his two friends. The high school gym became more and more flooded with bodies excitedly chattering about this and that. The Freshman entry ceremony was about to begin, and as per usual the other Eds were tardy, leaving Double D alone in a sea of strangers.

The plan had originally been to walk to the school together, but Double D's unanswered texts led him to believe the other two had overslept. He walked alone to the school for fear of being late.

After nervously shifting his weight from left to right a few times, Double D decided to make his way through the crowd in order to see if he had just missed the arrival of Ed and Eddy. As he walked, he took in the vastness of the high school gym. It was much larger and certainly much more modern than the middle school gym he had grown accustomed to.

The ceiling is so elevated... Double D thought. The construction alone must have tak-

"Oops! Sorry, Double dork. I didn't see you there."

Double D sat on the floor after having walked into his childhood bully.

"Ah! Greetings, Kevin. No apologies necessary. The fault was entirely my own."

His light build had stood no chance against Kevin's athletic form, and he had simply fallen backwards making very little sound upon impact. Double D had become quite used to falling as he often walked into things when he was distracted with his thoughts.

Kevin held out a hand for Edd and effortlessly hoisted him up to his feet.

"So, where are the other dweebs today?" Kevin asked, giving the gym a quick scan. "Don't think I've ever seen you without the other Eds before."

"I'm quite certain that is not true." Double D laughed, though he knew Kevin was just overexaggerating. "Unsurprisingly, but still much to my dismay, they are running late. I am glad to find a familiar face among the crowd though." Edd smiled, motioning towards Kevin.

Edd's relationship with Kevin since their childhood had mellowed out, but still remained slightly distant. Kevin had abandoned his bullying phase somewhere along the line, and on occasion had even spoken out against the harassment that Edd would receive from others. Double D could not justify using the label of "friend", but Kevin was someone he now looked upon quite fondly. Though, he could not assess whether the feeling was mutual.

Kevin returned Edd's smile before turning his attention to the center of the gym where the principal was struggling with the microphone. A loud high-pitched wave of feedback from the speakers sent many of the chattering Freshmens' hands to their ears. Double D covered his mouth with his hand to avoid looking rude for giggling at the principal's battle with the sound system. A slight nudge from Kevin earned a few more chuckles from the pair before a commanding "Ehem…" echoed through the gym's speakers.

"Welcome, Peach Creek High Freshmen-"

Kevin leaned in towards Double D's ear while keeping his head facing forward. "Bet you a quarter I could nail the principal with a spitball from here."

Double D shivered a bit from the feeling of Kevin's breath on his neck.

"Shh.." Double D lightly hissed at Kevin, afraid of attracting attention to himself.

"Dork." Kevin chuckled before standing upright again.

…

Yawn. Kevin stretched his arms above his head as the principal delivered some closing statements. He stole a quick glance at Double D who was standing with his hands clasped in front of his chest, an engaged look on his face.

Kevin laughed to himself as he lowered his arms back down.

Over the past couple years Kevin had begun to notice Double D more. He had seen the way others were treating him, tormenting him for being smart or for being around the other Eds when they pulled scams. Despite all of it Double D was always so happy. Soon after noticing Edd, Kevin began to feel protective of him when other kids would give him trouble. Before he knew what he was doing he started stepping in to protect Double D from the bullying. At some point the feelings of protection started to develop further, but Kevin suppressed them since he knew the others wouldn't be okay with… whatever it was that was causing him to feel this way. Throughout middle school Kevin just continued to occasionally defend Edd and hope that was enough to rid his head of anything else concerning the dork, though it wasn't always successful. More recently, he found himself thinking about Double D quite often.

Broken and unenthusiastic applause brought Kevin from his thoughts where he realized that the ceremony had ended.

"Well, I suppose I should be on my way" Double D chirped. "I always make a point to get to class a bit early, as should you, Kevin."

"Yeah yeah." Kevin scratched the back of his head. "So listen, Edd-"

Just then the two missing Eds came barreling into their friend, landing Double D on the ground for the second time that day.

"Double D! We thought you had been eaten by flesh sucking zombies!" shouted Ed, hands frantically waving above his head.

"Yeah, what's the deal, Sockhead? I thought we were coming here together."

"Hey, Double Dweeb," Kevin said, one hand still on the back of his neck. "I'm going to head off. Maybe we'll see eachother around." Kevin smiled.

"I would like that very much," Edd looked up to Kevin from the floor.

Kevin turned to walk away.

Eddy scoffed at Kevin before returning attention back to his friend on the floor. "What're you doing hanging with Shovelchin?" He offered a hand to Edd.

Edd declined and picked himself up before smiling and shrugging off the question.

Double D fixed his beanie and motioned towards the gym exit "Gentlemen, shall we?"

"Yeah, whatever." Eddy scoffed as they all began walking together.