The next few days had been rather uneventful. A lot of Edd keeping to himself, occasionally talking to Lizzie or Ed during the Language Arts class they had together, dodging menacing glares from Kevin whenever he had gym class and thinking about Ed's loyalty to him through all of these years. It ate Double D up quite a bit to know that the big lunk had remained so loyal to him, but he tried to keep himself distracted.

Friday started off no different than the rest of the week had. Edd came in, tired from a night of chores and studying the night before, and sat down at the back of his Language Arts class, being joined by Ed and Lizzie. The teacher droned on for about 45 minutes before passing out the day's work sheet and letting the class go about their studies.

"Ugh," Lizzie mumbled as the class started to chat among themselves, "that guy really does go on and effing on, doesn't he?"

"I do not understand what he is saying, but his voice makes me want to go to lullaby land." Ed said in a typical dopey fashion.

"Well," Edd said, "I have to admit that he could go about it in a more interesting way, but the points he makes about literature are quite fascinating."

"God, you are such a dork." Lizzie said with a smirk on her face. Edd, while he didn't like being referred to as a "dork", decided it was best to just return the smile. They chatted for about five minutes before a girl with dark blue hair covering her eyes came in, dressed in a black Dimmu Borgir shirt, fish net arm bands and black trip pants. She handed the teacher a slip of paper, chatted with him for a moment, then left the classroom.

"Man, that girl looked awfully familiar for some reason..." Edd said to nobody in particular.

"Who, her?" Lizzie said, eyes fixed on her assignment, "That's Marie Kanker, the 'Goth Princess' of Peach Creek High."

"Wait, that was Marie Kanker?"

"You know her?"

"Yeah... she kind of used to have a gigantic crush on me..."

Lizzie let out a bit of a giggle. "Yeah, that doesn't shock me at all. Marie's probably had a crush on every boy in this school who wears black and band tee's. Let me guess... super obsessive, kind of a bitch toward you?"

Edd laughed. "Sounds about right. I wonder what everyone else is like now..."

"Well, I could always tell you." Lizzie looked up from her paper and looked Double D in the eyes. "Me and Ed usually go to the junk yard on Saturday and hang out in this old hippie van."

"Wait, Ed still hangs out there? Man, I remember we used to go there all the time when we were kids!"

"Yeah, he said the spot reminded him of you... ya know, up until a week ago, I thought you were an imaginary friend."

Double D looked over at Ed, who was in his own little world, doodling horror movie monsters and comic book super heroes and band logo's on his assignment sheet, and he felt as guilty as he did when he had gotten Jim back.

"Anyways," Lizzie said, snapping Double D out of his guilt trance, "I was going to invite you to hang out with us there. I can let you know what everyone's been up to since you left, and you can finally tell me why you decided to skip town."

"You seem rather interested about me, Lizzie."

"The big guy hasn't shut up about you in the three years I've known him. I'd kind of like to know the man, since I've heard a lot about the myth."

"Right..." Double D started to feel guilty again, but quickly snapped himself out of it. "Yeah, I probably have some chores I need to take care of first, but I can meet you up there. 2 PM on Saturday sound good?"

"Sounds pretty disco to me!"

"...Disco?"

"Ugh... you are such a square!"

xoxoxo

Ed stood in the locker room, getting changed from his football gear back to his street clothes. It had been a rough practice, so he was still sweaty and stinky, but he didn't like the showers in the school (Well... truth be told, he just didn't like showers.) He had just gotten his shirt on and was about to slip on his jacket when Kevin walked up to him.

"Hey, lunk head!"

"Oh, hi Kevin!"

"Look, people are saying that you're hanging out with that new kid who dissed me the other day. Spill the beans, what's his deal?"

Ed bit his lip. "I don't know who you're..."

"You're a terrible liar, mono-brow!"

"Oh... oh, that new kid. Yeah, he's weird!" Ed didn't like lying to Kevin, but he had to protect Double D's identity. He didn't fully understand why, but he'd asked him to.

"What do you know about him?"

"Umm... well, he likes to help me with my homework, and I think he's an alien!"

"...what?"

"Yeah, his eyes kind of glow just like the Martian Man-Ducks who came to save us from the Brain-Eating Beaver..."

"Ugh..." Kevin grimaced at Ed's stupidity. "Listen, dork, you let that kid know that if he ever disses me or tries hitting on my girl again, I'm going to smear his ass from here to Cancun, okay?"

"But Kevin, how will you get his buttocks to the Cancun Nebula? That's past the farthest reaches..."

"JUST TELL HIM THAT I'LL KICK HIS ASS, YOU STUPID BASTARD!"

Kevin huffed off and Ed let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure why Kevin was so angry, but he knew that it wasn't a good thing. He quickly put his jacket on and left the locker room.