"Ready to go?" Edd asks pocketing his IPhone.
"Ready." Marie responds swinging her small purse over her shoulder. Marie doesn't normally use the old black purse she's had for years but today she was feeling a little fancy and decided to use it to carry her wallet, keys and phone.
As they walked down the stairs a thought came to Edd. "I should check the mailbox, see if we have anything." He says realizing that it has been a few days since their move and they may have mail.
"If we do have anything it's probably just junk mail."
Edd takes out his keys. "Maybe, but if we do we should still take it out."
Edd opens the small metal door marked with their room number on it to find a single letter and a card. "A letter from my school and a change of address card, the post office must give these to new residents." He says pulling the contents of the mailbox out.
"I should probably fill that out, seeing as I never thought of changing my address." Marie says as Edd closes the mailbox.
He holds the card out for her to take. "Here you go then."
Marie takes the card and puts it into her purse. "So what's the letter say?" She asks as Edd opened the letter.
Edd quickly scans the letter. "It says I am supposed to head down to my school to sign up for my classes tomorrow."
"Well we know what you're going to be doing tomorrow." Marie says as Edd hold open the door for her.
Edd unlocks the passenger door for her. "Will you be ok with being home alone when the cable installer comes?"
"Yeah, and if the guy try's anything I'll just pound him." Marie says holding her fist up as Edd walked around to his side of the car.
Edd knew Marie could hold her own against most people that would think to mess with her. "Just so long as you don't kill the person." He says starting up the car.
"So where should we look first? I think I saw a Good Will when I came to Lemon Brook with my parents the last time." Edd says as they pull up to a red light.
Sense they got into the car and for the entire ride Marie has been texting on her phone, something she's not normally know to do. "That would be a good place to start." She says looking up from her phone. "Also I just scored us some transport for if we do find a couch, seeing as there is no way we would be able to fit one in your car."
The light turns green and Edd accelerates the car. "Oh, who did you get to help us?"
Marie puts her phone away in her purse. "I got Lee to help us, we just have to give her some gas money and feed her."
"That is nice of her."
"She said I could call her if I needed anything, and the use of Mom's truck and her driver's license is something we need."
Inside of the Goodwill Marie was looking through the racks of clothing as Edd looked at the surprisingly large selection of furniture. There are several couches, arm chairs, desks and all kinds of small tables.
"This is a lot more than I thought there would be." Edd says looking around at the different couches.
"Its cause of all the college students, they get an apartment while they are in school and when they move back home they can't take all the stuff they bought so they give it to us." A voice says from behind Edd.
Edd turns around to see an older woman with a blue vest on with the words "Good Will" embroidered on it "Hello." He says to the older woman.
"Afternoon dearie, looking to get a couch?" the woman says smiling at Edd.
"Yes I am, my girlfriend and I just moved here and we have almost no furniture."
"Heh have a little love nest going eh?" The woman says grinning at Edd.
Edd didn't think the woman would make such a joke and it caught him off guard. "Um well, in a manner of speaking…" He says feeling his face grow warm.
"Ha." The woman laughs at Edd's obvious embarrassment. "Well those over there have fold out beds and these ones are wide enough for four people to sit on or for two to lie on."
Edd couldn't believe how the woman was talking. 'Is every adult in this town a little crazy?' he thinks as he looks at the couches she was pointing at. "Well it is just us two, but we do have a large group of friend and family I suspect will be making surprise visits. I guess one of the wider ones will work."
"Good choice, my husband and I have long couches. When you choose the one you want just let one of the checkers upfront know." The woman says patting Edd on the back before she walked away.
"That was… strange." He says shaking his head with his eyes closed.
"What was strange?" He hears Marie ask.
He opens his eyes and sees Marie walking over to him with a few articles of clothing in her hands.
"I just had a very strange conversation with one of the clerks that works here."
"What did they say?" Marie asks raising her eyebrow.
Edd felt a little embarrassed telling Marie about the conversation, but he knew that she would want to know what the clerk said and would pester him if he didn't. "She was making some very inappropriate jokes and comments."
Marie felt an eye twitch of anger at the clerk. "She wasn't hitting on was she? Cause I will pop her in the neck if she was."
Edd waves his hands. "Oh no, she was just making jokes about hers and our... um personal lives." He says not wanting Marie to hunt down the clerk.
"She made jokes about sex?" Marie asks her anger fading.
"Yeah… it was something I would not expect a little old lady to do."
"Oh." Marie says finally understanding. "She was just a dirty old lady."
"Anyways, what did you find?" He asks wanting to change the subject to something not as uncomfortable.
"Oh I found a few things, some shirts and this." She says holding up a black nighty. "I thought you might like to see me in this.
Edd feels his face grow hot from embarrassment. "Um…" he says not knowing how to respond to her.
Marie's wicked smile appears on her face. "I'll take your burning red face as a yes." She says adding the nighty back to the rest of the clothes.
Edd shakes his head again trying to get his composure back. "So I was thinking we should probably get one of the wider ones so when our friends come by, like I know they will, we'll have plenty of sitting room." He says hiding the fact he would like to see Marie in the revealing night dress.
"And plenty of cuddling room." Marie adds not knowing that the clerk made a joke about two people lying on the couch.
Edd figured it was best to just let that be and move past the perverted old lady. "Personally I like this tan one here." He says pointing at a tan colored cloth couch.
"It's kind of boring looking, what about the black leather one?" Marie says pointing at a black leather couch behind the tan one.
Edd looks at the couch and remembers the leather couch Eddy's parents have in their house. "Leather furniture can get very sticky when the tempter is high." He says remembering how unenjoyable it was to sit on Edd's couch in the summer.
Marie doesn't like the idea of sticking to the couch. "Eww, tan one it is then."
"Alright, if you want to get ahold of Lee I will find a teller to pay for it."
Marie opens her purse and takes out her phone to call her sister. "Ok I can pay for these too then." She says holding up the cloths in her hand.
"Maybe I should have called her before we even went into the Good Will." Marie says looking at the clock on her phone.
When Marie called her sister Lee told her she'd "get there when I get there" and now Marie and Edd are sitting on their new couch with a small coffee table they also found in the parking lot by Edd's car.
Edd takes out his pocket watch to check the time himself. "It's only been, a little over an hour." He says seeing that Marie and him have been sitting outside of his car for over an hour waiting for Lee.
Marie rolls to her side and falls over landing her head on Edd's lap. "Sorry Muffin." She says looking up at him.
Edd looks down at her a he slips his watch back into his pocket. "It's ok, it's a nice day out and I can't think of anyone else I would rather be sitting outside on our new couch with."
"Yeah." Marie says closing her eyes. "It's the perfect conditions for a cat nap."
Seconds after Marie closed her eyes she hears the sound of an old truck pull up near them. "Hey Marie! Wake up!" She hears Lee yell at her.
Marie snaps her eyes open and looks over at her sister in their mothers truck. "How could anyone think about sleeping with you yelling?" She asks sitting up.
"Afternoon Lee." Edd says standing up from the couch.
"Hey Sock Head." Edd hears a voice he was not expecting to hear.
"Eddy?" Edd says looking into the cab of the truck and seeing his friend in the passenger seat.
"Hey Double Dee!" Edd hears his other best friend from the back of the truck."
"Ed? What are you and Eddy doing here?" Edd asks seeing Ed's head pop up over the cab.
"You didn't expect me to do any heavy lifting did you? So I dragged Eddy along with me." Lee says pointing at Eddy with her thumb.
"And I brought Lumpy to do MY heavy lifting, who invited May along." Eddy says pointing behind himself at the back of the tuck.
May stands up in the back of the truck. "Hi Marie, hi Double Dee." She says smiling at Edd and Marie.
Edd holds out his hand to Marie. "This went from a simple trip to a full group gathering." He says helping her up off the couch.
"When has anything gone as planned when my sisters or your friends are involved?" She asks happy to see her sisters.
As Edd and Ed worked on loading the couch and coffee table into the back of the truck Eddy choose to sit on the hood of Edd's car to "direct them", really all he was doing was lying on the hood looking up at the sky.
"You're doing great boys." Eddy says holding a thumbs up at Ed and Edd as they struggled to push the couch into the back of the truck.
Lee smacks Eddy accost the side of his head. "Go and help them you dweeb." She says feeling a little annoyed at him.
Eddy quickly jumps off the car. "Alright alright, I'm going." He says moving fast before Lee could hit him again.
Lee turns back to her sisters whom she had been talking to prior to hitting Eddy. "He is such a jerk sometimes." She says shaking her head. "I have half a mind to dump his lazy ass if it wasn't for the fact that he has a big-"
Marie cut her off by putting had over Lee's mouth. "Ok that is something we don't need to know. And we all know you love the fact that he's lazy and bossy, he's just like you." She says taking her hand off of Lee's mouth.
"I am not! Well maybe a little." Lee says agreeing with Marie.
"Ok it's in." Eddy yells at the sisters as he closed the hatch to the truck.
"You and Ed want to ride with us May?" Marie asks her younger sister as she opened the passenger door of Edd's car.
"Sure." May says happy that she wouldn't have to share the back of the truck with the couch.
"So how's the comic book store going Ed?" Edd asks as they drove back to the apartment building.
Ed leans forward in his seat. "It's going awesome Double Dee, Mark has been showing me all kinds of cool stuff. Like how to fill out the weekly orders for new books based off of what we sold the week before and planning out the bills for the month."
"It seems like he is showing you a lot about running the store Ed." Edd says looking at his friend in the rearview mirror and seeing the big smile on his face.
Ed's smile grows "He is, I wish I had known that working was going to be this fun sooner, I would have gotten a job while we were still in school."
"I think you got lucky with this job Ed, the theatre isn't as fun as you'd think it would be. I spend so much of the day cleaning up popcorn that I can't eat it anymore." May says frowning at the word popcorn.
Marie turns around in her seat and says; "You get a discount on movies and you didn't have to work in a grocery store, so you have no idea what a bad work environment is."
"Yeah, but you did quit that job in traditional Kanker style." May says as they pull into the parking lot of the apartment.
"That I did." Marie says with a grin as she got out of the car.
Walking over to her mother's truck Marie sees Lee and Eddy locked in a deep and loud kiss. "Hey!" She yells kicking the driver's side door. "Get a room ya freaks."
Lee pulls away from Eddy. "Fine, Hey Double Dee! Give me your keys!" She yells at her sister's boyfriend.
"Oh no! You're not doing any of... that." Marie says gesturing at all of Eddy and Lee. "Where I sleep."
"Like you're not having fun with you man every night." Lee says as she gets out of the truck.
Marie wants every time Edd and her are intimate together to be special, so she doesn't expect or even make him be intimate with her every night. Only when the mood is right do they culminate their relationship and love for each other.
"We're not a couple of rabbits like you two are Lee." She says not wanting to tell her sister the truth about her and Edd's personal life.
"Like you'd know what we're like." Lee says as the Ed's worked on getting the couch out of the truck.
What Lee doesn't know is that Marie does have the misfortune of know how much she is like a rabbit. One night when she'd come home from work she overheard her sister and Eddy "Going at it" in their bedroom and promptly left the trailer to go over to Edd's to get away from what was happening in her bed.
"I don't, and never want to know what you two get up to." Marie says as Ed and Edd carry the couch and Eddy carry's the table towards the building.
"Marie, would you mind opening the door for us please?" Edd asks giving Marie a way out of the conversation she was having with Lee.
"Sure." Marie says walking away from Lee.
"You've got a nice place Marie." May says as she followed her sisters into the apartment.
Marie holds the door open for Edd and Ed to get the couch through it. "Thanks May, it's really quiet and different, but I love it here."
"I'll be right back, I left something in the truck." Eddy says setting the table down outside of the door and then running back to the stairs.
Marie raises her eyebrow. "Where is he going?" She asks walking out the door to get the table.
"Beats me." Lee says leaning against the island counter on one of the stools. "When I picked him and Ed up he had a bag with him and wouldn't tell me what was inside it."
Edd and Ed set the couch down in front of the TV. "He said he had something to make going over to Double Dee's more fun." Ed says standing up and dusting off his hands.
"More fun? What could he have meant by that?" Edd asks as he took the table for Marie.
"No idea but I have to agree with May, you two do have a nice pad going on." Lee says as she looks around the apartment.
"Thanks sis." Marie says dropping down onto the couch.
Less than a minute later Edd got his answer when Eddy entered the apartment.
"Alright Ladies, let's get this party going." Eddy says pulling a large bottle of a light brown liquid out of a brown paper bag.
Edd had been working on linking his computer up to the TV, that is now sitting on the coffee table, so the group could watch a movie while they waited for the pizza he'd ordered as part of the payment for Lee. He looks over at Eddy and he knew right away that it was a bottle of liquor of some kind and got up from behind the TV and quickly walked over to Eddy. "I'll take that." He says taking the bottle away from Eddy before he could open it.
"What the heck Man?" Eddy asks confused as to why Edd took the bottle from him.
Edd walks over to the fridge. "While I do not approve of you consuming alcohol under age Eddy I cannot baby sit you anymore. If you wish to live your life this way I will not stop you, however I will not allow you to do so in this apartment. So you may have this back when you leave." He says putting the bottle on top of the fridge and pushing it all the way to the back.
"Dude! Don't be a dick man." Eddy says jumping up trying to reach the bottle on top of the fridge, but his lacking height made it impossible for him to reach it.
"I'm sorry Eddy, my home my rules." Edd says walking back to the TV to finish his work.
Marie turns around on the couch where she was sitting next to her sisters. "Yeah I don't want you getting drunk and yakking on our new couch."
"Come on, when have I ever gotten stupid drunk?" Eddy asks giving up on trying to get his bottle back.
"I can remember a party Kevin threw where you threw up in his closet." Lee says also turning around on the couch.
"Fine, we can sit around and do nothing fun." Eddy says dropping down onto one of the stools by the island counter.
"We are doing something fun Eddy, Double Dee ordered pizza and we are going to watch a movie." Ed says not moving from his spot on the floor in front of May.
Lee turned back around. "Yeah, so don't be a big baby and come sit down with the rest of." She says rolling her eyes at how Eddy was acting.
Not wanting his friends to pick on him more Eddy slides off the stool and drags his feet as he walked around the couch and sat down on the floor in front of Lee.
"Alright, moment of truth." Edd says turning his computer tower on. As the tower hummed and lights came on the TV displayed the Windows loading screen and the sound of the computer starting played through the speakers Edd had set on either side of the TV.
"Good job Double Dee." Marie says smiling at Edd as he stood up.
"Thank you Marie." Edd says walking over to the bookshelf. "Now we don't have much of a movie selection, I have several documentaries' I think would be quite educational."
"Booo." Everyone says at the mention of documentaries.
"I should have seen that coming, ok well there is… War Games and Real Geniuses and, I think this is one of yours Ed." Edd says pulling out a DVD of Jurassic Park.
"Oh! Let's watch that Double Dee!" Ed says excited to see his missing DVD.
"I was a little surprised to see that one with your stuff Double Dee. Its science, but too fictional for it to be something you'd own." Marie says as Edd opened the DVD case.
Edd opens the disk drive on his computer. "It is a bit silly of a concept, but it's still a good movie."
The boys sat on the floor at the feet of their respective girlfriends as they watched the movie and ate their pizza.
"The T-Rexes roar gives me goose bumps every time." Ed says taking a bite from his pizza.
"I have to agree with you Ed, despite it being what the creature most likely didn't sound like." Edd says shifting around so he's not leaning all of his weight against Marie's legs.
"Don't over think it Sock Head." Eddy says reaching past Ed on his left to push Edd.
Edd sits back up straight. "Sorry Eddy, a scientific mind always over thinks anything science related." He says picking up his own slice of pizza.
"Your such a nerd." Eddy says before taking a drink from his can of soda.
Lee kicks Eddy's back, but she made sure to be gentle enough to not spill his soda. "Can't be mad at him for being smarter than you." She says a little mad at Eddy for picking on Edd.
"He's not THAT much smarter than me." Eddy says trying to defend himself.
"She's got a point Eddy, you did barely graduate high school." May says from between her sisters.
Eddy felt his face grow red from anger and embarrassment. "I'm not that stupid." He says crossing his arms.
"Even I did better than you Eddy, and I hated school." Lee says holding back a laugh at her boyfriend.
"Jesus, why didn't anyone tell me it was rip on Eddy day." Eddy says pulling his head down and glaring.
"Sorry Eddy, we'll stop making fun of you if it's hurting your feelings." Edd says barely holding back his own laugh.
Ed pats Eddy on the top of his head. "Aww, there there. Eddy." He says grinning at the fact that Eddy is being picked on like he's done to them in the past. "It is ok Eddy, we still like you even if you are the dumb one now."
Ed calling Eddy the dumb one caused everyone, but Eddy, to laugh.
Eddy feels his face grow red from embarrassment. "You guys are all jerks. " He says wanting the night to end.
"Hey." Lee says reaching down and lifting Eddy's head up and back so she could look him in the face. "We only pick on you cause were your friends, and you think I would care if you were the dumbest person on earth?"
Eddy smiles up at his girlfriend, they may have only been dating for a few months but Eddy is really happy with Lee as his girlfriend. "I know you wouldn't care." He says before Lee leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.
As Lee reassured Eddy Marie couldn't help by watch her sister and Eddy interact. 'Man.' She thinks turning back to the movie. 'If I had never chosen that one closet with a bad door, none of this would probably have happened.'
Marie reaches down and scratches the side of Edd's head and lends down to whisper just loud enough for him to hear; "Love you Muffin."
Edd reaches up with his hand and puts it on top of hers. "Love you too Cupcake." He whispers back giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
"Ok kids, it's about time we get going back home." Lee says standing up and stretching as the credits start to roll.
"Thanks for the pizza Double Dee." Ed says standing up himself and then holding out a hand to May, just like Edd dose for Marie.
Edd sees Ed offering to help May up off the couch and felt proud of his friend for being a gentleman to his girlfriend. "You're welcome Ed." He says standing up and holding a hand out to Marie himself.
Where Marie is use to and expects Edd to help her off the couch, May didn't expect Ed to do it and her cheeks turned red. "Thanks Ed." She says taking his hand.
Ed pulls her up to her feet. "You are welcome my little Mayday." Ed says causing May to blush more at the use of his nickname for her.
"Oh god, not you too with the stupid pet names." Lee says walking away from the couch.
"Yeah all four of you are a bunch of saps." Eddy says hiding the fact that he has a secret pet name for Lee, he just never uses it in public because he didn't want to show a soft side to anyone.
Marie decided to use some of the dirt she has on her sister. "Don't hate us for it, Leewee." She says using the pet name she had heard Eddy use when they didn't know she was listing.
Both Eddy and Lee freeze. "What the heck are you talking about?" Lee asks looking at her sister.
Marie grins. "Nothing sis." She says walking into the kitchen to turn the light on.
Lee glares at her sister but choose to let it go for the time being. "Anyways, let's get going."
Edd followed Marie into the kitchen and takes Eddy's bottle of liquor down from the top of the fridge. "Here is your liquor back Eddy." He says holding the glass bottle out to his friend.
Eddy takes the bottle and puts it back into the bag he brought it in. "Thanks, now I have to figure out how to hide this from my folks."
"I wish you would reconsider your current choices in your life Eddy. You need to start acting like an adult now that we are no longer in grade school." Edd says a little disappointed in his friend.
Eddy rolls his eyes. "Whatever man, it's not like I have something I have to be responsible for. I'm young and without a care in the world." Eddy says opening the door to the apartment.
"For now Eddy, but you never know what life can throw at you." Edd say still trying to get Eddy to reconsider the choices he is making.
Eddy doesn't want to hear any more lecturing from Edd. "You worry too much man, you ladies ready to go?" he asks wanting to leave as soon as they can.
"Hey Eddy." Lee says reaching into her pocket. "You drive home, I want to sleep on the ride." She says tossing the keys to her mother's truck to Eddy.
Eddy catches the keys with his free hand. "Well we're off. Later Double Dee." He says walking out the door.
Ed walks to the door to follow Eddy and Lee out of it. "Bye bye Double Dee." He says giving Edd a surprised hug.
May stops at the door as well. "Thanks for having us over sis, take care Double Dee." She says smiling at Edd and Marie.
Edd smiles at his friends all outside of the door. "Good night everyone, drive safe."
"Later guys." Marie says walking up to Edd.
Edd closes the door and the four friends start walking to the stairs.
"Their doing well for themselves." May says commenting on how Edd and Marie are doing living on their own.
Ed takes May's hand. "Yeah, it's really cool that they have their own place."
"I give it a month, maybe two and they will either be at each other's throats or Marie will be pregnant." Lee says making predictions on what might happen to her sister and her boyfriend.
Eddy looks at Lee shocked. "Damn Lee, I think Double Dee is smarter than that."
"Eh, we'll see." She says shrugging her shoulders.
A normal person might have been driven mad over all of Edd's OCD behaviors, but Not Marie. She loved all the little things that have been happening in the apartment, separate laundry baskets for white and colored cloths, the kitchen and bathroom super organized, the cupboards organized in an alphabetical order and her pictures hung symmetrical on the walls. Edd's neat freakiness is one of the many things she loved about Edd.
Edd needed to head over to the community college to sign up for his classes early in the morning. So after they eat breakfast and taking a quick shower, and Marie giving him a long kiss, he left for his school leaving Marie alone in Lemon Brook for the first time since they moved.
Marie was lying on the couch listening to her CD player and reading the book she had been reading a few days ago that her and Edd got from the place of his soon to be new job.
*Knock knock*
"What the?" She says pulling one of her earbuds out of her ear and sitting up.
She turns off her CD player and leaves it and the book on the couch and walks over to the door. She opens the door and sees a bald middle aged man with a dark brown handlebar mustache, a utility belt full of tools and a cardboard box. "Can I help ya?" She asks unsure who the man is.
"I'm here to install your cable." The man says telling Marie why he was at the door.
"Oh." Marie says remembering Edd had made an appointment to get cable installed in the apartment. "Well come in then." She says standing to the side to let the man in.
"Thanks, names Bob by the way." The man says introducing himself to Marie.
While Bob worked behind the TV Marie watched him like a hawk. Never having a father growing up in stowed a lack of trust in any adult males in her, and Edd's strict father didn't help that problem. Leaning against the island counter sipping a can of soda Marie watches Bob install a coax cable into the outlet in the wall then into a splitter and then a second cable into a black box that looked like a VCR to her that he'd already hooked up to the TV. He then turns on the TV and the box with a second remote he took from the box and messes with the setting of the box.
"Do you have a modem already?" Bob asks looking over at Marie as he attached a third longer cable to the splitter.
Marie wasn't sure what he was talking about. "I don't think we do." She says figuring it would be best to tell him no so he wouldn't go looking through Edd's things looking for one.
Bob sighs and says under his breath thinking Marie wouldn't hear him; "Of course you don't, damn collage kids never come prepared."
Marie did hear him and it only made her not like the cable installer more. 'Jack ass.' She thinks glaring at Bob as he digs through the box.
Continuing to glaring at Bob Marie watches him plug the third cable into a small rectangular box and then attached a power supply cable from a wall outlet near Edd's desk to the small box.
"Ok." Bob says standing up. "Your all hooked up and we'll charge your account for the modem."
"K." Marie says not moving from her spot as he walked to the door.
Bob opens the door. "Have a good one." He says looking over at Marie.
"Yeah, you too." She says moving to close the door when he leaves.
When she closes the door she turns the lock on the door not wanting any chance of Bob coming back. "What a jerk." She says picking up her can of soda from the counter.
She walks over to the TV to see the work he's done. "He didn't even hook up Double Dee's computer, what a lazy bum." She says seeing that he had left an ethernet cable on the floor next to the modem.
Marie had watched and listen to Edd a lot over the years when he would talk shop or work on his computer, so after checking and rechecking the back of Edd's computer she was able to get it hooked up to the internet.
"Alright me." She says turning on Edd's computer as she sat down in his desk chair.
The computer loads up and a login screen appears. "Password huh?" She says looking at the screen. She's never used Edd's computer without him being with her so she's never needed to know his password. "Hum..." She says thinking of what his password could be. Looking at the screen she sees a little question mark button and clicks it and a little message saying "Best day of my life" pops up.
"Best day of his life huh? Wonder what that could be?" She says reading the password hint.
Marie leans back in the chair and looks up at the ceiling. "The best day of his life…" She says mulling the hint to what Edd's password could be.
A date came to her, it was a date that was the best day of her life. "It couldn't be…" She says sitting back upright in the chair. "Could it?"
She then punches in the date of a day from years ago that Edd chose to not go to school and instead invite Marie to go to the Peach Creek Mall with him after they were released from their high school after spending a whole weekend trapped inside of it.
"Ha!" She says as the eight numbers worked to unlock Edd's computer.
Marie proceeds plays around on Edd's computer for a while, he has shown her all kinds of things you can do on a computer but she is nowhere near his skill level. She plays a few games he has on it for a while, solitaire and a simple pinball game, but after that she used the ITunes program to play some music while she made herself some lunch.
As loud rock music played Marie sat at the island counter eating a sandwich. "I should check out that arts and crafts store." She says coming up with something she could do with the rest of her day.
After finishing her lunch and cleaning up the kitchen she heads into the bedroom to put on socks and her shoes.
In the bedroom she puts on her small silver heart necklace before pulling a pair of clean socks out of the top drawer of Edd's dresser that he gave to her to use. As she sits on the bed and pulls on the socks she sees Edd's orange hoodie hanging in the closet. She looks out the window and sees a few clouds in the sky. It wasn't enough to suggest that rain was coming, but it was enough for her to take Edd's hoodie with her. She loves the dark gray zip up hoodie she took from him years ago despite it being worn out, but it's hers now and she wanted Edd's orange one for the day for no other reason than it being Edd's.
"This place is awesome." Marie says as she walks down one of the few aisle of the arts and crafts store fittingly named Little Arts. It wasn't a very large store, but it was packed full of all kinds of arts and craft supplies.
"Oh my god!" She says as she enters the last aisle and sees all of the professional drawing supplies. Peach Creek never had a good selection of supplies and seeing all of the different pencils and various tablets she felt like a kid in a candy store.
"Oh man, I could spend a lot of money in this place." She says as she picks up a sixty piece set.
Marie wanted to buy one of the really expensive set of supplies, but she knew it would be irresponsible of her. So using all of her willpower she chose a small set of charcoal pencils and a new drawing tablet and headed to the front of the store.
As she approached the counter she sees a hand written sign saying; "part time help wanted."
Looking at the sign she thinks; 'I should ask about the job, this would be an awesome place to work.'
"Hello." The older woman with ghost white hair tied into a ponytail going to the middle of her back behind the counter says greeting Marie as she reached the counter.
Marie sets the pencils and tablet down on the counter. "Hi." She says back.
"Just these for you dear?" The woman asks as she starts ringing up Marie's things.
"Well, I was wondering about that sign." Marie says pointing at the help wanted sign.
"Oh that's not for sale, I'm looking to hire someone." The woman says waving a hand a Marie.
Marie held back a laugh. "No I don't want it, I'm curious about the job."
"Oh! Well that makes sense then." The woman says smiling at Marie. "My last part timer finished her schooling and moved away and I am looking for someone to help out around the store."
"Ouch, well I'm interested." Marie says feeling a little sorry for the woman losing her help,
"Eh, it happens. So are you a student at the college?" The woman asks.
"Na, just moved to Lemon Brook a few days ago."
"All by yourself?" the woman asks looking at Marie's necklace.
"Oh no, me and my boyfriend moved together. He's going to the school and I came along."
"Heh kids in love, it's a funny sight." The woman says smiling again at Marie. "Well as for the job the hours will be minimal and a bit sporadic, the days I need help changes every week."
Marie was fine with the fact that the hours would be all over the place. "That's fine, I just think it would be cool working at a place that feeds my hobby."
"Artist are we?" the woman asks.
"Yeah, painting and drawing are my passions." Marie says not adding that Edd is also something she is very passionate about.
"Oh where are my manners. My name is Ms. Marpole, but you can call me Sidney." Sidney says holding out her right hand to Marie.
Marie takes her hand and shakes it. "I'm Marie."
"So tell me Marie, what kind of work experience do you have?"
"Only job I've had was as a bagger at a grocery store back in Peach Creek."
"I see, well how old are you Marie?"
"I'm technically seventeen, but my eighteenth birthday is on Saturday."
Sidney looks at Marie as if she were mulling their conversation over inside of her head. "I like you Marie, the job's yours."
Marie's eyes grow wide. "Really? Awesome." She says getting excited.
"Come by tomorrow morning and we'll get the boring paperwork stuff sorted."
"Thank you so much Sidney." Marie says happy that she got offered the job.
"You're welcome Marie, but there is just one small thing we need to take care of first."
"What's that?" Marie asks unsure what is left.
"It's going to be twenty five dollars for the pencils and tablet." Sidney says pointing at the stuff Marie hand wanted to buy before she had asked about the job.
"Oh yeah, I should probably do that." Marie says laughing.
Walking down the street with her supplies in a bag Marie wanted to jump for joy, she likes Sidney and can't wait to start working at the shop.
"This is so awesome." She says stopping at a crosswalk. "This job is going to be so much better than the grocery store."
As the light changes and she starts walking again Marie remembers the last night she worked at the grocery store.
When Edd told her the day they would be moving Marie put in her two weeks notice of quitting two extra weeks before she needed to and was on the final week of employment at the store when she walked off the job.
The number one thing she hated about the job was that she couldn't make people pay for the way they would treat her. Most of the older people were always rude to her and she would get hit on almost every day by customers and other employees. The number two thing she hated was this other high schooler that worked there named Scott. Scott would hit on her almost every day and would want her to go over to his house for a party.
On her last night of working he came up next to her while she was bagging a big order for a large family.
"Hey there Marie, what's going on?" Scott asked using a line he's used on her several times.
Marie just rolled her eyes at the question. "What does it look like? I'm working you idiot."
Scott didn't even bother to start helping her. "That's cool, so what you doing tonight after work?" He asked leaning one hand against the register.
Marie felt her anger and hate for the egotistical jerk grow. "I told you before that I will hurt you if you don't stop hitting on me, so go away."
Scott didn't listen to her and continued to talk to her. "You always say that but you never act on it. I bet you're all bark and no bite."
Marie knew he wasn't worth her time and just focused on the fact that she only had a few more days left at the store. "Leave me alone." She says doing everything in her power to not swing at him with a bag full of cans.
"Come on Marie, why don't you ditch that pussy nerd and get with a real man." Scott says as he put his hand on her shoulder.
Normally Marie would just keep telling him to leave her alone and try to ignore him, but when he called Edd a pussy nerd she grabbed his hand bent his arm back and then punched him full force in the stomach causing him to fall to the ground.
Her retaliation against Scott caused the store to grow quiet. "I told you to leave me alone you peace of shit. And don't you ever talk about Edd that way, he is more man then you could ever achieve." She says before kicking him in the stomach.
"Marie! What the hell?" She hears her manager yell from behind her.
Marie turns around to face her manager. "What? I told him to leave me alone. It's not my fault he doesn't know to not piss off a Kanker." She says crossing her arms as Scott went into a ball on the floor.
"Your last name gives you no right to attack the pore boy." The manager says glaring down at Marie.
Marie points at Scott on the ground. "But his pretty boy face gives him the right to hit on me every damn day and to insult my boyfriend?" She asks raising her voice so other people would hear what Scott has done.
"That is not what we are discussing at the moment Marie. I want you to apologies to Scott and then come with me, we are going to have a word with the store manager and then we will be calling your mother." The manager says avoiding the topic Marie brought up.
Marie was officially done with the store and no longer cared about finishing the week. "How about this?" She says flipping off the manager with both hands.
"MARIE! UPSTAIRS NOW!" The manager yells his face growing red.
"Nope." She was getting a kick out of how angry the manager was getting. "Screw you guys, I'm a going home." She says walking around the manager.
"GET BACK HERE MARIE OR I WILL CALL THE POLICE."
Marie didn't stop walking to the exit, but she did respond back. "And what, tell them how you try to get into the pants of every underage girl that's worked here? I'm sure they would love to hear about that."
The store stayed quiet as Marie walked the last few feet to and then out the door.
When she'd gotten home that night she took both of her work polo shirts outside of the trailer and burned them in a fire pit that one of the other residents of the Park and Flush had dug so she would never have to look at them again. The next day when she told Edd about what happened he laughed and took her out for ice-cream. He knew how much she hated that job and even if it was on very bad terms that she left, it was still something to celebrate.
Marie never heard from the store or the police about what she did and was thankful that she'd taken Edd's advice and set up her paycheck to be deposited into the bank account her mother set up for her so she would never have to go back to the store.
And now as she entered the apartment building she couldn't wait to tell Edd about her new job.
Walking down one of the hallways of the college building Edd pulls out his ear buds from his old messenger bag he's used all throughout high school and plugged them into his IPhone. He wanted to listen to some music as he walked to his car to drown out the sounds of the hallway full of people. He navigates to the music playing app on the phone and pushes the play button. Most of the music on his phone was classical and calming songs, but when a rock song started playing he almost jumped out of his skin. Looking at his phone he sees that the player is set to shuffle and it had started playing a song name Through the Fire and Flames, one of the songs Marie has downloaded onto his phone during one of the many times she's played with it. He was about to push the skip button to pass over the rock song but as he listens to the song he couldn't help but start laughing at how much he's changed because of her. 'Lord knows who I would have become without her.' A smile grows on his face. 'I doubt I would even be here if it wasn't for her.' he thinks as he puts his phone back into his pocket getting some enjoyment from the song playing in his ears.
"Hey good looking, what's cooking?" Marie says from the kitchen as Edd enters the apartment.
Edd looks over at her and sees that she's in the process of cooking. "Shouldn't that be my line?" He asks taking his messenger bag off his shoulder.
"Maybe, but I have some awesome news. I got a job today Double Dee." She says her excitement from earlier returning.
Hearing this made Edd happy and excited for Marie. "Really? That's wonderful Marie."
She turns around to face the stove to continue working on the meal she was preparing. "Thank you Muffin. It's at that arts and crafts store we walked by the other day, the lady who runs the place told me to come in tomorrow morning for paper work."
Edd sits down on one of the stools at the island counter. "Looks like we both will be starting our new jobs tomorrow."
"Yeah, but enough about me and my awesome new job. How was your class signing up?" She asks looking over her shoulder at him.
"It was long. I should have known there would have been more to going to college then just a few letters sent into them, all the paperwork was a challenge."
Marie opens the cabinet they kept the dishes in and pulls out two plates. "Sounds like it was a bit stressful."
"It was, I am glad I'm finally home with you." Edd says smiling as Marie started to put food onto the plates.
Marie adds the finishing touches to the meal. "I had a feeling that it would almost kill you so I made you your favorite food." She says picking up the plates.
"Scrambled eggs and fresh hash browns?" Edd asks naming his personal favorite dish to have.
"With black pepper, cheese and ketchup." She adds setting the plates down on the island counter.
Edd looks down at the plate, Marie had clearly put in a lot of care into making the dish before him. The Eggs are perfectly scrambled with melted cheese mixed in and the hash browns had the right amount of black pepper and ketchup on them. "I love you Cupcake." He says looking over at Marie as she sat down next to him.
Marie could tell by the look on his face that she made the dish exactly how he liked it. "I love you too Muffin, now tell me about what classes you're taking. I can't brag about my genius of a boyfriend if I don't know what you're going to be learning."
"Not much to brag about." He says picking up the fork off of the plate. "They didn't have a lot of advanced classes open for a first year student. I have remedial Math, English and Basic Science for an hour each once a week. They did have an Introduction to Electrical Engineering class that I was able to get into so with that and the others I will have class three days a week."
"Enough time to also work and spoil me." She says picking up her own fork.
Edd looks over to her again and says; "I will always make find time to spoil you Marie."
"You better." She says before leaning over and kissing him.
AN: This has been my favorite chapter in this whole series to date. Writing Marie quitting was pure enjoyment, and I think that's how any of the Kanker sisters would quit a job they didn't like. I'm also finally getting more time to sit down and write, so hopefully I can get back to how fast I have gotten chapters out in the past.
