After the fiasco of trying to collect 5 soaking wet chickens from Ed's bathroom and returning them to an angry Rolf, Edd was feeling much better about how he sat with Ed and Eddy. Edd had immediately hung up the phone and rushed through the evening autumn air over to Ed's to put a stop to the nonsense.
Eddy happened to be over there, waiting for Rolf to appear and was going to demand a quarter for each returned chicken. At first Eddy was hostile and was angered to see Edd appear, but trying to capture 5 fluttering, clucking wet masses of feathers has a way of bringing people together. Soon enough, the three amigos were reunited. Even though Kevin was Eddy's worst enemy, Eddy finally decided that he could understand Edd's wish to keep the peace.
It was bright and early the next morning. Double D had finished his morning routine and was going to go into the school an hour earlier than usual to read in the library. He found that between studying, chores, homework and hanging out with his friends, he almost never had time to sit down with a good book. The bus wouldn't come to pick up students for another 45 minutes, so Edd was set to walking that morning. For some reason, it didn't seem near as long walking to school that morning as it had walking home just yesterday afternoon. In no time, Edd was halfway to school, and walking past his friend Anna's house.
He looked over and saw Anna outside taking her dog to its pen and she caught sight of him and waved. Edd smiled at her and waved back, but didn't stop to chat. He had other things on his mind. For instance, he was wondering what he would do if Kevin caught him in the halls today. After all, Kevin was hall monitor and Edd didn't want to face him after yesterday. Even thinking about the situation today made Edd's stomach clench with embarrassment. But how could Kevin smell so good without cologne? It was beyond Edd.
These thoughts and more about the redheaded jock managed to carry Edd all the way to school. As he walked through the halls to his locker, he passed the gym and paused. He heard footsteps, the bouncing of balls, and other noise in the gym. It was more than one person, though. Edd stood in front of his locker, listening to the noise as he put his jacket away. He figured he might as well go see who was making the noise.
He walked the few feet over to the gym doors and paused. Then he reached out and as quickly as he could, pulled the door open. Public door handles were harbingers of germs and bacteria. As Edd walked around the bleachers further into the gym, he was surprised to see that it was Kevin, Nat and a few other basketball players in their basketball attire.
Edd was going to turn and just walk back out, but he found that he was mesmerized by Kevin's athletic skills. The way he moved across the floor while bouncing a ball was so fluid. The silk shorts and tank Kevin wore allowed Edd's eyes to see the toned muscles and tan skin of Kevin's body. Nat and another kid came at Kevin to try and get the ball, and the way Kevin whirled around them and leaned up to shoot the ball into the net was simply amazing. Edd envied his prowess and abilities. There wasn't an athletic bone in his body. However Kevin was all athlete and Edd found that he was creeping further into the gym, wanting a better view of Kevin's game.
He had never really talked to Kevin much anymore, though he would liked to have. They just never really met each other anymore, save for maybe once or twice when they were going home together. Edd liked those small moments though. He felt like Kevin actually cared about him in those moments, though he knew that the ginger probably didn't really.
Edd watched as the redheaded athlete high fived the couple players on his team and as the other team took the ball, one of the guys spotted Double D near the stands and pointed at him and shouted "Hey nerd, what the hell are you doing in here?!" Edd's eyes widened and he turned around and fled as all of the guys including Kevin and Nat turned to look at him.
Kevin watched Edd flee the gym and one of the guys called out "Faggot!" as the gym door was closing. Kevin turned to the guy and said "Hey. That's enough dude." The others snorted and said "Whatever, Kev. That guy is a nut job." Kevin glared at him and said "Yeah, well the kid has feelings too, y'know." The teams regrouped and the game started again. This time however Kevin couldn't take his mind off Edd. He always appeared at the oddest times. It was kind of cute in a way.
Kevin was so lost in thought that Nat managed to grab the ball from him at take it all the way to the basket. Kevin's teammates groaned and said "C'mon, Kev. We're trying to play here!" Kevin shook his head and said "Nah man. You can go ahead and play. I'm gonna hit the showers." With that he turned and headed to the locker rooms, leaving the other guys to stare after him.
As Kevin stripped and stepped into the warm shower he heard another guy come into the locker room. A small glint of hope crossed his heart, hoping it was Edd. This confused Kevin even more. He didn't care about a dork like Double dweeb, or at least he didn't think he did. However his thoughts were dashed when Nat's voice rose over the shower "You ran pretty quick, champ. You aight?"
Kevin ignored Nat and continued to think. He thought about all the times he'd been mean to Edd. Eddy and Ed, he didn't necessarily care about. He'd beat the crap out of Eddy in a heartbeat and he really didn't have much to do with Ed. But he started to regret beating up on Edd. All the kid wanted to do was try to get along with everyone. It really was Eddy's fault Edd ever got into trouble with the other kids most of the time.
Kevin never really took notice of the sock-headed Ed too much until all the cul-de-sac kids went into high school, and they all had gone through puberty and were beginning to grow up. His own body was beginning to cover itself in fiery red hair. A slight stubble was coming in across his chin and upper lip. Edd, however still looked rather pale, and Kevin could see no facial hair on him, however he really didn't know, since he only every looked at Edd from across the hall. According to Nazz, Edd didn't go by 'Double D' anymore unless it was by his friends. He actually preferred to be called Edd now, which was weird for Kevin.
He smirked to himself, the dork would always be Double dweeb to him, even if he changed his name completely. Another interesting feature was that Edd had also grown into his long, lanky body, now he didn't look like a bean pole on two tiny toothpick legs. Edd continued to wear shorts most of the time, and his legs were now much longer, those legs were nice legs.
'Those legs were the same ones you nearly broke in 8th grade.' Kevin squeezed his eyelids tightly shut and shook his head. He had to remind himself though, he was in a different crowd than that loser. He was the captain of the football and basketball teams, and he was almost guaranteed the same position this year on the baseball team. Edd was a dork who stayed in the library with the other few pale, skinny losers and those two he called his best friends. Kevin dated cheerleaders, went to parties, got whatever he wanted, Edd was nothing, a nobody, but that's not how Kevin wanted it to be for some reason.
The more he thought about Edd, the worse he felt. So Kevin shut the water off and stepped out to get redressed. Nat had already changed and left, so it was just him. Kevin knew he had a chance at lunch break and recess to talk to Edd, and he also had Literature with him. He figured he would just talk to Edd, see if he wanted to hang out sometime. He wanted to try and be a little nicer to the sockhead, even get to know him maybe.
As Kevin walked out of the gym and to his locker, someone came up and slapped him on the shoulder and greeted him "Morning, Kev!" Kevin looked and saw Nazz in all her beauty. He smiled and said "Sup Nazz?" She rolled her eyes and replied "Ughh I had to come in early and do extra credit for Cooking class. I gotta a D on my last project. Like, HOW can you fail a student for forgetting to put milk in a smoothie? Like, how do you judge whether a smoothie is right or wrong?!" Kevin smirked and pretended to listen, but really his eyes were scanning the hall for a sock-headed dork. As they came to Kevin's locker, Nazz smiled and hugged him and said "Well, gotta go. Catch ya later, Kev!"
All the while a pair of green eyes was watching them under a ski hat from behind, trying to stay out of sight of him and his fellow athletes.