When Kevin reaches school, everyone is in an uproar.

He parks Baby in his usual spot, helmet tucked under his arm as he makes his way across the parking lot, trying to make sense of the cacophony of whispers that surrounds him.

By the time, Kevin enters through the lobby, he's gathered that there's a new student but is missing what exactly about this kid's identity has made him so goddamn fascinating to the entirety of Peach Creek High student body.

Locating a familiar mop of teal-colored hair, Kevin makes his way towards his best friend, waving and nodding at passing students.

Nat is practically buzzing with enthusiasm when Kevin bumps shoulders with him. "Yo." He offers in way of greeting, eyes darting around to take in the overly excited atmosphere "The fuck is goin' on?"

Nat offers him his usual shit-eating grin and jerks his thumb behind him. "We got ourselves our very own tall, dark, and handsome enigma of a man and let me just say-" He waggles his eyebrows "-the response so far has been very positive."

Kevin leans to the side to peer over Nat's shoulder in the direction he was pointing and finds himself seeing a very familiar but yet equally foreign face and realizes very belatedly who that face belongs to and what has the school in such an uproar.

"Holy shit." He breathes. "That's Double D."

And for a second, it feels almost wrong to call him that because the teenager in front of him doesn't seem to be the Double D he knew years ago. Sure, there's the same wide, green eyes, button-nose and gap-tooth countenance framed by jet black curls, forever shoved under an old black beanie, but something was undoubtedly different. Yes, he was taller and yes, his jawline was sharper and slender body frame somewhat more defined but something seemed so off, so vastly different and unknown that he wasn't sure he could call this kid Double D.

Yeah, he could see why everyone was so interested.

"That's Double D?!" Nat exclaims, jaw hanging open almost comically wide. "That's the mute kid you used to harass to no end all because you secretly-"

"-Yeah." Kevin cuts him off abruptly. "That's him."

Nat regards him with a wide-eyed, bewildered stare. "…Damn." He says, after a brief moment of silence.

Kevin agrees with his perplexed sentiment and finds himself staring unabashedly at the scapegoat of his youth until suddenly, as if aware of his presence, Edd turns and catches Kevin's gaze.

Kevin's mouth goes dry as his palms start to sweat and he wants desperately to say something, anything to make up for how he used to treat the young brainiac, before he realizes what is so different about Edd.

He looks like a robot.

Cold, blank eyes meet Kevin's apathetically, with an icy sort of detachment that nearly has Kevin physically recoiling. Edd looks dead. Like a zombie. There's no life in his eyes. That's not the kid Kevin grew up with.

The bell sounds, causing Edd to break his gaze as he moves towards his class. Nat frowns at the exchange. "Wow man." He offers, pulling Kevin out of his trance "That was intense. Dude seems real frigid."

"Yeah." Kevin returns weakly, allowing Nat to pull him to class. "Wonder what happened."

But inside, his mind screams at him

You know exactly what happened.

And it kills him.


Marie finds him during lunch.

He had decided to spend his lunch period in the library, far away from the unrelenting gaze of his peers, where he can sit and read and even sleep if he so desired without being observed like some new display at the zoo.

Marie sits next to him without much preamble and Eddward prepares himself for a barrage of questions but is instead treated to only a small smile. "Hey." She offers, almost shyly, as if asking if it was alright to sit there and greet him.

Somewhat calmed- and maybe even grateful?- for her soft spoken greeting, he returns her sentiment "Salutations."

Seemingly relieved at his acknowledgement and acceptance of her presence, she relaxes into her seat and pulls out a book to read.

They sit in silence until the bell rings.


Naz finds him during lunch.

She fixes Kevin with a knowing gaze as she dumps her lunch tray and bag on the table.

"Well." She demands and Kevin, though annoyed by her assumption, is unable to deny her any response.

"Well, nothing." He says grumpily, digging into his disgusting lunch with faked enthusiasm. Naz raises an eyebrow, wholly unamused. "I take it you know he's back."

Kevin tries- and fails- to ignore her. She rolls her eyes and settles into her own lunch "Did you talk to him?" She tries again.

Unlike Nat, Naz knows practically everything (save that one night that Kevin will keep secret till the day he dies) and her unwavering moral compass has her pressuring Kevin to make things right.

"What the fuck am I gonna say, Naz?" Kevin responds, praying that she'll drop it while secretly hoping that maybe she has the answers to all his problems and knows what exactly to say to Edd that can make this ball of lead that Kevin's carried around for almost four years disappear.

Naz stops for a second at that, mulling it over before sighing "You gotta do something, Kev." She says finally, her large doe eyes searching Kevin's. Kevin echoes her sigh "I know." He responds "I just gotta think about what to say first, I wanna do this right." He sighs again "I don't wanna make it worse."

"The worst you can do is say nothing." She says, finally relenting when Nat reaches the table.

They fall into -forced- easy conversation as Kevin ponders in the back of his mind if there is any way he can make this right?

How can you apologize for breaking someone?