Chapter 36

The redhead opened her eyes. She didn't worry that the clock pointed at 10. Lee Kanker had asked her boss to be able to start later on in the day, as there were pressing matters she couldn't ignore anymore, matters she needed to take care of. She huffed as she remembered she was assigned the graveyard shift, knowing she would have to work well past midnight to finish the twelve hours she usually worked on Sundays.

She couldn't sleep anymore, so she lied down on the bed awake. In the midst of the quiet morning she was experiencing so far, she could hear the snores of both of her sisters, each one to a side of her. From time to time she would hear the occasional sniffle coming out from May's nose.

Lee cleaned the corner of her eyes as she thought of how much her baby sister was suffering. May had once again started shaking in the middle of the night, crying in pain. The blonde didn't know her big sister could hear all her sorrow, the quiet whimpers she would let out in dreams, and the times she had started calling out to her beloved but softly. The main reason the redhead had decided to stay at home during daytime involved her need to intervene in May's whole affair. She wanted to know what is it that had happened that made her sister so blue. She was determined to go the Sockhead's house to clear things. Tenderly, Lee caressed May's blonde hair and cleaned up some of the moist on her eyes. Don't worry kid, whatever it is that boy did, he's gonna get it this time...

She turned to see her blue haired sibling. Lee couldn't understand why Marie could be as indifferent and uncaring towards the blonde, especially at her state. She knew how May and her would fight constantly, but even then the youngest of the Kankers wouldn't hold resentment over her older sibling. Marie, on the other hand, would spend several days without addressing her. Lee scratched her head, pensive. There had to be a way for the two girls to live together in peace.

Carefully, Lee got out of their bed without waking up her sisters. She made her way downstairs. She served herself some breakfast and did a few chores around the house, opting to leave the laundry for Marie.

When the redhead stepped out, the sun was already at its summit. Seven hours were more than enough for her to mop the floor with the boy in the beanie hat.

His green jacket blended with the park grass well. Ed walked with a serious look on his face. He was determined to talk to her, to fix things, and to be his friend again. He walked past the cul de sac in construction, crossed the creek, and made his way to the entrance of the Park N' Flush trailer park. He was starting to sweat, fear catching up to him.

His hand shook a bit as he knocked on the Kanker trailer's door. Suddenly he felt his mouth very dry and his hands much too humid.

"What?!" Marie answered, still angry at yesterday's happenings when she answered the door. Ed's eyes grew exponentially wide.

She made the jump with ease. Lee landed on the grass without difficulty. She started to make the walk from the woods to Double D's house. She walked slowly, thinking carefully about what manners of pain she could inflict on the smarty pants, and how bendable his limbs could actually be.

"What do you want, you big ape?!"

Ed had no clue where to start. "Uh... uh..."

"Say something!"

"I... I've come to see May."

Upon hearing Ed's words, Marie smiled. Surely Ed was worried over his love. "Huh? Aww that's so sweet of you, Ed! You're so worried over my sister! Aww you must really like her! Wait one second, I'll let her know you came..."

Ed spoke, gagging slightly. "Actually I'm not coming to see her, I came to talk to her about Double D. I don't want to see my friend so sad I wanted to ask her to be his friend again..."

The blue haired girl let her mouth almost literally fall down in surprise. "What. the. heck?!"

Ed took a step back, intimidated. "I want May to talk to Double D aga—"

Little could Ed do when Marie turned him around and sent the mother of all kicks on his buttocks. All he could do was whine and rub the affected area as he looked at the blue haired Kanker with sad puppy eyes.

"Get out! You're not gonna see May today, or any other day!" Marie ran to the tallest of the Eds. Ed, seeing how the menacing girl approached him so dangerously, hurried his steps out of the facility of trailer homes, his behind still raised due to the intensity of the hit he received.

He did not stop until he made it to the park. He saw Johnny hanging from a tree. The boy waved to him with Plank on his hand.

"What happened to you, buddy?"

Ed looked at the wood boy with melancholy. "I got the boot, Johnny..."

His breakfast laid on the table, half eaten. The cereal was too soggy now he could choose to pour the contents of his bowl onto a glass and drink it. Yet, Double D wasn't anywhere near the table. The boy was sitting down on the sofa, his elbows resting on the coffee table. His head, supported by his arms, was filled with thoughts of what to do to better his current situation.

But I can't just go and ask Marie to leave May alone… I don't know what is it she has that is controlling—

Suddenly, his front door crashed against the wall inside. He saw a big footprint imprinted on the door below the handle. Trembling, he rolled his head to the frame to see a mad Lee Kanker standing there, almost fuming from the nose.

"Lee?"

The teen walked towards Double D and grabbed him by the shirt. Her huge strength allowed him to lift the flaky boy easily from the sofa to have him face to face. Double D had to stand on the tip of his shoes to avoid hanging on the air. It was only then that the suddenness of the action startled him and scared him a little.

"W-What are you doing?"

Lee frowned madly. "DON'T ACT DUMB, BOY! YOU BROKE HER HEART!"

Double D widened his eyes, surprised. Despite the spontaneity of the situation, he caught on Lee's words quickly. "… You mean, May? How is she? IS SHE OKAY?!"

The redhead did not expect to hear such words from the boy. She thought the first reaction the boy in the beanie hat would have would be to shake and cry out of fear. And yet, Double D looked extremely worried, to the point of being fearful for the well-being of her sister. It was then and only then that Lee noticed the boy looked weak and his eyes were glassy. Has he been sleeping well?

Confused, she dropped Double D, who fell to the sofa on a sitting position. "Explain this to me, because I don't get it. On Tuesday, May never came back to class and asked to go home. She's been too depressed to show up to school since then, and she hardly wants to eat or sleep. What do you have to say in your defense?!"

In response, Double D shed a couple of tears. It was one of those rare times in which he hated to be right. May was suffering because their relationship could not continue because of Marie.

"… So, she didn't want to break up with me."

His words only managed to confuse the toughest bully he ever knew even more. "Break up with you?! What do you mean?!"

Double D proceeded to tell her what had happened the day before as she sat down to listen. He told her about how Eddy had confessed to him that he saw him and May together at the library one morning. After that, the boy had gone to her sister Marie to sell them out. He told her the blue haired girl must have done something to May that forced her to finish their relationship, as Marie was still interested in him. Lee Kanker was very surprised for two things: She knew the short boy was devious, but she never expected him to be so mean. And, she had never expected Marie to exploit May's weaknesses in order to have things go her way. She felt both anger for the way Marie would step down on their youngest sibling, and sadness because even when she knew the boy was a bad seed, she had expected better from him.

"So, is she doing okay?" Double D asked again.

Lee sighed. "No. No she isn't. She's crying every day and doesn't eat much… she sleeps for only a few hours each day and when she does she cries in her sleep…"

Double D felt his own heart could break into tiny little parts at the thought of her beloved suffering. "Oh."

The redhead stood up. Seeing the boy next to her so sad, she patted him on the shoulder. "Cheer up. There is a way out of this. You two shouldn't have broken up. I'm going to go have a talk with Marie about this, but you need to talk to May yourself."

Double D listened to the girl's words. Suddenly having her around to help them in their darkest hour was such a relief to him.

"You need to convince the kid she's not going to be in any danger, she might only listen to you. She really loves you, Double D," Lee said, making the boy blush, "so please, please help her. Bring my sister back to the bubbly girl she always was…"

The beanie wearing boy was very surprised. Of all people, he never expected Lee Kanker to plead. "I-I will, Lee. I will."

Lee smiled. "I'm sure you will. Well, good luck with that." She said, as she stepped out, not before putting the door in place. Now that Double D was left alone with his thoughts, he needed to ponder over what to do in order for him and May to reunite. If Lee was going to speak to Marie, then it was inevitable that mayhem would break out and some of it might affect the blonde. The boy in the beanie hat started considering which would be his best option to buffer some of the damage Marie would cause, while at the same time being able to show May that he would be with her unconditionally.

Soft knocks could be heard from outside. The bike boy made his way to the front door.

"Yes?"

"Kevin, I need your help, please! You have to help me, you must help me!"

Kevin arched an eyebrow. He found it odd the frailest boy in the cul de sac could go to him and plead for his assistance. "Whoa, hold on a minute, Fluffy! What makes you think I'm going to help you?!"

Jimmy stepped back, but said, "Because you're the toughest boy I know."

Kevin, feeling proud of himself, decided to comply. "Okay, what is it?" He said as he invited Jimmy in. The youngest boy of the cul de sac proceeded to tell Kevin what he heard from the mouth of Double D, from his extreme sadness at the loss of May, to the despicable betrayal of Eddy.

"WHAT?!" The bike boy's yell could be heard across the whole cul de sac and all the way to the park.

"Yes, what do you want?" Asked a bored, annoyed Mr. McGee.

"Hi, sir. I wish to speak to your son."

The man's demeanor changed to become livelier. The wimp had returned home yesterday with an array of bruises, but he would barely say a word when asked. This morning, he ate half his breakfast in silence and the rest remained at the table along with him. It was weird that he, being the loudmouthed, crazy kid he always was, would refuse to act as per usual. Seeing that someone was looking for him, and that it was a girl, he thought his son could cheer up a bit.

"Yo, Eddy! There's a bombshell out here looking for ya!" Lee blushed but slightly upon hearing his words.

Seeing that the kid wouldn't come forward he turned and went to him. Eddy hadn't even raised his head to see! Exasperated, the man grabbed his son by the neck of his shirt with one arm.

"Hey! What's the big idea, let me—"

"Out you go!"

Eddy was thrown outside by his own father. Lee simply stepped aside to avoid having him crash against her. Eddy went down to the floor.

"And remember, play nice! Mwa ha ha ha ha…" His father started laughing as he closed the front door.

Eddy was too confused to notice at first. Right after his father closed the door, he noticed a redhead standing in front of him. His face did not even change as he saw that it was Lee.

"Oh, we'll play nice!" She said. She grabbed the boy by the shirt with both hands and raised him to have him close to her face. Eddy could have done nothing to attempt to keep his feet on the ground, but even then, he wasn't even trying. "You oughta have some tiny little brain to pull such a stunt, you jackass! What…"

"I know…" Eddy replied weakly.

"… you did to May and Double D is disgusting! And Double D has been your friend for so many years! What kind of sick, demented lowlife are you…"

"I know…"

"… to do something like that to someone so close to you?! I thought you were better than this, but it appears you only worry about your selfish, uncaring ass!"

Eddy sighed, pain drawn across his words. "I know…"

Lee finally noticed that Eddy wasn't trembling in fear or that he never objected to anything she said to him. Heck, the con didn't even look scared! What, now I'm losing my touch?

"How about all the times I've been insensitive to you and your sisters, and to Jimmy and Sarah, and all the cockiness I've displayed when deep inside I knew I'm a good for nothing who cannot live without being the center of attention?!" He yelled, not to her, but in the way he did so it almost sounded like he was trying to yell at himself. She dropped Eddy, who proceeded to sit down on the curb. Lee followed suit and positioned herself next to him.

"Double D told me you talked to Marie and that led to his break up with May…"

"You knew? Weren't you against them being together last month on the fourteenth?"

Lee remembered how she had worked alongside with her blue haired sister to split Double D and May. "I was, but Double D has shown he can be trusted, that's why I just let them be. Now you, why did you have to ruin what they had?"

Eddy sighed again. "Because I'm an idiot… I thought having Double D by my side would mean I could easily pass school, and that with his clever ideas I could get money whenever I wanted… but I was too stupid to see Double D's friendship is-WAS more than that!" He said. Lee had never heard the boy as defeated and emotionally destroyed as he was just now.

And yet, there was room for even more surprises as the short guy started to cry, right in front of her. Eddy lowered his gaze and cleared his throat, trying to cover up the whimpers coming out of his throat. Lee smiled. She felt everything was starting to fall into place. She was relieved that, despite the bad news she had heard about her boy, she now saw that as per what she believed, Eddy wasn't the monster he had tried to be in the past weeks.

She thought about it rationally, and saw there was no other way to attempt to cheer him up. So she went along with it. Eddy suddenly stopped crying as he felt some unexpectedly tender hands grab both of his cheeks, followed by a soft mouth which found its way to his own. The kiss Lee Kanker gave to her secret love lasted about three seconds, after which she moved away. Eddy was wide eyed, his mouth open wide.

"Are you feeling better now?" She said sultrily.

"Uh… buh… buh…" Eddy stuttered.

Lee stood up. "You're not a bad boy, Eddy, you've just tried really hard to be an ass because you thought it was for the better. But now you see that it wasn't. Tell me, do you want to feel like crap for the rest of your life? If you sit around there and do nothing, you're definitely on your way to misery. You screwed things up, I get that, but don't sell your friend too short. You know Double D more than I do, and I think he's very noble. Surely he could forgive you if you show him you're truly sorry, what do you say?"

But Eddy couldn't talk. He was still stupefied. Lee knelt down, placed both of her hands on his shoulders and spoke, "I believe in you, Skipper. There's no one better than you for this kind of situation. You can turn it around, I know you can, so don't let me down, k?" Lee said, as she kindly bumped both of his cheeks with her hands and went on her way.

Eddy was red, thrown for a loop, and extremely surprised. Of all the times the redhead had kissed him, she had never been as cute as she was then. Her words, now that he had started to process them, made a lot of sense. He had to do something about this mess!

Suddenly, cold sweat ran down his face as he remembered a crucial bit in her words. Wait… when did she learn my middle name?!

Notes: We're approaching the end of this fic. Please, keep an eye out for what's coming!