"The whole summer?" Ed asked.

Double D couldn't bring himself to say it again. His face was rested in the palms of his hands. He couldn't stand an entire summer without Kevin, not after all they had been through in the last few weeks. How could this happen?

"Maybe his dad'll let him out on good behavior or something," Eddy offered. He was fiddling with his fingers, averting eye contact with anyone. Double D wondered if he actually cared.

"Impossible, Eddy," he responded sadly. "You didn't hear his father's voice. There was great resolve in it. Whatever happened must have been serious."

"What DID happen, anyway?" Eddy asked. "He was in a hurry when he was talkin' to us, but it didn't really seem that serious."

Then it dawned on Edd. Of course. The lawn. Kevin had told him he needed to finish mowing the grass, and instead, he apparently went off to patch things up with Eddy. Double D sank further into his chair than he thought was possible. This, again, had been all his fault. If he had handled his own drama, Kevin wouldn't have had to step in and save the day. Kevin was grounded because of him, he admitted to himself.

"I think it was yardwork," he finally said.

"Yardwork?!" demanded Eddy. "That's nuts! There's gotta be more going on."

Double D tried to think. Had he been pulling Kevin away from his domestic responsibilities for more than just today? Yes, maybe, he conceded. The VR project was very taxing on free time, and he always found it surprising how often Kevin said he was available on a daily basis. He groaned, and pulled his hat over his eyes. This wasn't making him feel any less responsible.

"I don't know what to do," he cried to his friends.

Eddy furrowed his brow and brought a finger to his chin. Double D knew that look.

"I got an idea, Double D," Eddy finally said.

Edd put up a hand. "No, Eddy. We can't simply pull a classic 'jail break.' Kevin is GROUNDED. No matter what we do, he must return home at SOME point, and any kind of disappearance will be met with harsh consequences—"

"I ain't talkin' about a jail-break, Sockhead," he interrupted. "But we do gotta be sneaky about it."

Double D stopped himself from prematurely criticizing Eddy's plan. They had just been talking about this, after all. Only a short time back together, and they were already on another job. Perhaps, he thought, the most important job yet. He leaned in to listen to Eddy intently.

"Alright," Eddy continued. "If what I'm thinkin' will work, we have to wait until after dark. That gives us time to borrow some supplies from Rolf. I may need to trade some favors."

"Rolf?" Ed asked.

"Yeah," Eddy confirmed. "So, here's the idea…"

~Later~

"Ridiculous," Double D muttered as he fastened the black T-shirt he had wrapped around his face, obscuring his identity. Twigs and branches from Kevin's bushes jabbed him uncomfortably in his sides as he waited next to Ed, who was also clad in black. Even if this wasn't a jail-break scenario, he thought, it certainly felt like one. The sun had been down for four hours, and general sleepiness was beginning to set in.

Finally, Eddy appeared in the street riding Victor, Rolf's prized goat. He was hauling a small cart full of farming supplies, which included some manual lawn mowers, rakes, shears, and other useful materials. The cart rattled gently as it slowed to a stop.

Using a handy flashlight, Edd gave the agreed upon signal that the coast was clear with a series of flashes. Everyone in Kevin's house seemed to be asleep. They would still need to be quiet, however. Upon receiving the signal, Eddy mushed Victor forward into Kevin's yard. Ed and Edd quietly jogged out to meet him on the grass.

"You don't know what I had to do to get this stuff," Eddy hissed. "You owe me, Sockhead."

"That I do, Eddy," Double D agreed in a whisper.

The boys began to unload the cart. Eddy separated three manual lawnmowers from the stack, and handed them all to Ed.

"You know the drill, Lumpy," he whispered.

Ed jerked into an upright salute. Then, he grabbed all three mowers—one in each hand, one in his mouth—and began to push them across the lawn, covering impressive ground in a short amount of time.

Eddy, himself, grabbed a rake and shears. His job was to rake up the leaves around the trees before Ed got to the area with the mower, then touch up the bushes with the shears until they looked relatively neat.

Double D grabbed an extra rake, but Eddy grabbed his wrist.

"That's not your job, Double D," Eddy insisted in a hushed tone. "Stick to the plan."

Double D gulped. Right, he thought. The plan. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pink envelope. Inside was a note that he had hand-written to Kevin's father. He was terrified of slipping it under the front door. It was incredibly embarrassing. Neither of the Eds knew what Edd had written in the note, and they didn't have to—he just hoped it would work.

With his anxiety peaked, and the Eds working wonders on the moonlit lawn, Double D timidly stepped his way to Kevin's front door. His heart beat uncontrollably. Was the note too much, he wondered? Maybe just doing the lawn was sufficient to set Kevin free.

No, he quickly asserted to himself. The lawn required explanation.

With heightened resolve, he took a deep breath, blushed, and slid the envelope under the door. Then, he trotted back to his friends, and assisted Eddy with the leaves, trying to distract himself from what he had just done.