Crossing Paths

Double D rose out of bed to the sound of his alarm. Sleepily, he switched the noise maker to "off" and sat on his bed to stretch.

"Another day", he yawned.

He pulled back his curtains to let the morning sunlight in. Then he opened up his closet to find thirty changes of the outfit he always wore. Picking what he thought was the best one, he quickly changed out of his pajamas and placed them into the hamper that stood near his door.

Double D left his room and made his way downstairs for breakfast. He had to choose between Chunky Puffs or half of a grapefruit. He remembered back to the last time he had grapefruit. Today he decided not to get squirted by the fruit's juice and chose the cereal.

He carefully measured out one and a half cups of the puffs. Double D poured in a half cup of milk and began to eat.

He washed the dishes and placed them on the drying rack to, well, dry. He walked back upstairs and brushed his teeth to finish the morning routine off.

He grabbed his schedule from his desk and left his home.

The first thing that was on the list was to fix Eddy's door. He knew he wouldn't need tools, so he made a good pace on his way across the cul-de-sac.

Eddy took a deep breath and gave a healthy sigh. His eyes shot open. He took another deep breath. His sinuses were completely clear. It was something short of a miracle. The night before he was feeling so bad that he had lost hope of it even going away.

He looked to where his door stood out of its frame. Eddy walked over to it. He examined here Ed had knocked it out of place. He thought that it couldn't be too hard to put back. Sure, he could have had Double D do it for him, but since he was no longer sick, he was going to do it himself. After all, being able to do something without his muscles aching was a nice feeling.

He took both sides of the door in his hands and shoved it back on the track it originally slid on. Giving it a few trial slides, he knew that it was fine and left to go start his morning routine.

"EEEEEDDDDDDD!" Sarah exclaimed. There was no reply. The girl stormed down the stairs and into the basement that served as her older brother room. She kicked open the door. No one was there.

"Now you're going to get it, mister", she said under her breath.

In a van that is currently in the junkyard…

"No flower spray for me", said Ed in between snores. The poor boy had kept running until he collapsed on the water bed in the van that the trio was presently restoring.

On the bright side, he could have been lost in the woods. That may have been safer than the van, because once he got back home, Sarah would be waiting for him.

Double D had made it to Eddy's to find that the door was already repaired. Curious, he walked up to it and knocked. Eddy opened it and greeted his friend with a mouthful of toast.

"Hey, Double D", was his muffled hello. Crumbs of toast flew from his mouth out a Double D.

"EDDY! Have you gone mad!" he exclaimed, frantically brushing the crumbs from his shirt.

"What?"

"Do you know how much bacteria can inhabit just a single crumb? And the fact that you're sick increases my risk of getting infection!" Double D scolded.

Eddy stuck a finger in his ear to ease the ringing in it. "Jeez, Sockhead, calm down. I'm not sick anymore."

Double D looked him over. Eddy's nose was no longer running, the color had returned to his face, and his voice was no longer hoarse.

"How…" Double D started.

"I don't know. I just woke up this morning and I felt a lot better."

"That doesn't make any sense. You should still be in bed, just coming out of the worst stage of sickness."

"Double D, I'm better now, be happy for me or something."

Eddy was right, Double D shouldn't be trying to bring the illness back just so it would make sense, he should be happy for Eddy's turn of luck.

"Now that that's that, I have a brand new scam for the kids of Peach Creek", Eddy said. He rubbed his hands together. "We'll be filthy rich!"

Double D rolled his eyes. If he had a nickel for every time Eddy said that…

Marie finished brushing her hair. She was glad it was Saturday, because her sisters would usually still be in bed until one in the afternoon. She got dressed in her blue outfit. It was a sky blue blouse and a navy blue skirt, complete with her silver-blue headband.

She left the trailer park with her notepad. Her sisters were still asleep so she didn't have to sneak out. The sun warmed up the February air, the reason she didn't leave with a coat. It was perfect writing weather.

Marie left for the cul-de-sac, hoping to run into Double D on her way to the clearing in the forest. She walked around the obstacle course of litter until she was free of the trailer park. The way the sun shone through the trees and on the dirt path that led to the cul-de-sac reminded the girl of one of her poems.

She really wanted to show Double D her work. She thought he would really appreciate it.

The streets of the cul-de-sac were empty as most of the kids were still in bed. She looked around for Double D, hoping he would be up and moving around too, but, it was empty. She walked to path that led to the forest. She felt peace as a light breeze picked up. Needless to say, it was a very beautiful morning.

"Are you sure Ed went this way", Eddy asked. He was very annoyed. Ed was the key part of his scam and the big lug was missing. Double D told him that he saw Ed run into the dump screaming.

"For the tenth time, Eddy, yes, he nearly knocked me down", Double D repeated.

"What do you keep looking at?" Eddy inquired. Double D almost turned red. Every few yards he would glance over his shoulder as if he were expecting someone to be following them.

"Nothing."

Eddy ignored his friend's behavior and continued to look for Ed. Both of them stopped after hearing a voice.

"I know I dropped it somewhere around here somewhere", it said. Double D gulped. He knew who it was. The same person that he was looking over his shoulder for.

"You hear that?" Eddy questioned. Double D shook his head.

"Aha! Found it!"

"I know you heard it that time. Go check it out, Sockhead", Eddy said, pushing Double D forward.

Shakily, Double D walked over to the big rock he sat on the evening before. On the other side, he found Marie Kanker holding up a fine point pen. Her eyes lit up when she saw him.

"Hey Double D", she greeted. She stood up. He did his best to muster a smile.

She looked at him curiously. "Are you okay?"

"Well, it's that-"

"Hey Double D! Everything alright over there?" Eddy called. He walked around the rock to see what had become of his friend.

What he saw stunned so bad that he had to take three more looks at the scene before he finally accepted that his eyes were telling the truth.

There, in front of him, was Double D with his arms around a very shocked-looking Marie Kanker.

You guys I'm soooooooooo sorry for the delay. I got caught up in three other stories and forgot about this one completely. I'm really sorry if you felt let down after my big update day.

I promise to keep it from happening again.