Double D woke up the next day with a bit of a headache. He hadn't gotten much sleep due to last night's extremely late escapades. That said, he also couldn't bring himself to sleep in. He had trouble falling asleep in the first place. He couldn't stop thinking about the outcome of his efforts.

He crawled out of bed and stepped over to his bedroom window, which presented him with a familiar view of the row of houses across the street. Only one house mattered to him, of course. It was the one with the perfect front yard.

Eddy's plan was certainly executed as well as it could've been, he thought. Not a single tuft of grass sprouted higher above the rest, no leaf remained on the ground, and not a single branch of a bush looked out of place. The Eds had really come through, and the results were there, plain as day.

Most of the results, anyway.

The one thing he still had no answer to was the note he slipped under the door. Was there even an answer to expect, he wondered? Should he expect an enraged phone call, or perhaps a stern knock at his door? Kevin's father's car sat quietly in its driveway. He feared such confrontation.

The only thing he feared more than confrontation was no response at all.

He would have to be patient, he decided. In matters like this, where all one could do was wait, Edd found it best to start with breakfast.

Stepping heavily with a lot on his mind, Edd descended the stairs and entered the kitchen. He began to think about how helpful Eddy had been last night as he fixed breakfast. Even if the plan failed to yield the intended results, he would still have to think of some significant way to repay his friend. While the project last night had not been as nuanced as their previous experiences, he could tell that Eddy respected the sheer importance of the task at hand. Eddy didn't care about Kevin, Edd knew, but he knew how much it meant to his friend. And for that, Eddy gave the plan his all.

After breakfast, it was time to collect the mail for his parents. He found himself afraid to go outside, however. Who knew If Kevin's father would see him, demand to talk to him, perhaps yell at him? Perhaps, he thought, he could delay getting the mail until he had some time to calm his nerves.

Despite this thought, he opened his front door, and found Kevin sitting on his stoop, wiping down his bike.

"Kevin?" he asked in shock. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Idunno," he said, not looking up. "Half hour. I figured you might need to sleep in, and I needed to clean my bike a little anyway."

Double D stepped outside and took a seat next to his friend on the stoop. He looked down at his shoes and said nothing for a time. He thought of a question, any question, just to break this maddening silence.

"Are you still—"

"What'd you say to my dad?" Kevin interrupted. "He didn't just unground me, Double D. He sent me over to talk to you. He didn't even say what to talk about. And the front yard is all finished. I know you did something."

Edd blushed and squeezed his hands together. "Well, I… Ed, Eddy and I decided to take care of your yardwork. And I… may have left a note."

Now Kevin blushed. "Oh, man. What did you say, dude?"

"Among other things?" Edd began. "That I don't think I can manage a summer without you. I don't… really want to repeat everything I said." He shrunk a little, feeling like he may have made Kevin angry. Please, he begged the cosmos, don't have let me mess this up.

Kevin looked down at the ground and dropped the rag he was using to wipe his bike. There was a long pause that drove Double D mad.

Then, Kevin scooted closer to him.

"You know," Kevin said, "I really thought it was over. I thought I was gonna be stuck at home all summer. I thought about all the stuff I was going to miss out on, stuff like bike rides, playing baseball in the street, whatever. The thing I was most beat up about though, was… that I couldn't hang out with you."

Edd smiled.

"And then, like some light switch, you just fixed it. It didn't even last a day. I don't think you just told my dad that you wanted to hang out with me. I think you said something else, man."

"Well," Double D explained frantically, "I told him I'd be helping you with yardwork for the rest of the summer if need be, so that you wouldn't forget your responsibilities again. I told him I'd make sure you stayed on track, and I wouldn't plan things that made you avoid your chores."

Kevin looked at him with a suspicious face. "Is that all?" he asked.

"Yes," Edd lied.

"Okay, then. Well, thanks. And tell Eddy I said thanks too. Him helping me was about the last thing I expected to ever happen, and he's pretty good at trimming bushes."

"You can thank him yourself," Double D suggested. "I'm heading over there today to discuss the next big project. I was hoping you'd want to be involved, it seems promising. Some sort of virtual rollercoaster machine, far less sophisticated than what we accomplished with the headset, however—"

Kevin grabbed Edd's hand and kissed him right on the lips, turning both of their faces beet red.

"I'm in," Kevin agreed.