Well. I'm gonna make a strange move and write this knowing full well that the hype for this kind of story has long since died out. However, I want this entire series to be a sort of going away present for me. The entirety of my life has surrounded creating, and I love it. And while I will continue to create things soon I want to finally close the book of writing fanfictions in my life story. For years I have wanted to post something in the Fanfiction genre. I've written a lot of stuff, centered around many many different stories, universes, and genres. Yet I have never once posted anything I wrote, too shy, and definitely too scared to even attempt to try my hand at something I genuinely enjoy.

So here we are! The one (and maybe only) fanfiction that I wanted to get off my chest and share with someone. Strange that the one I truly wanted to write is Ed, Edd, n' Eddy; but seeing as how it and Courage the Cowardly Dog practically raised me as a child, I see it fitting to start and end there. This is oriented around Edd and Marie, however, I have taken the liberty of designing the story to fit other ships related to the show. I won't spoil it, but this is my way of closing this hole in my heart and creating something I really enjoy.

So please, enjoy…

Chapter One

Fall In Line

The hill was quiet, save the off-key chirps of hundreds of insects. Summer was over, school had started, and all around the normally green leaves had begun to wilt and fall to the ground in piles. The cul-de-sac was even quieter and despite the commotion slowly making its way up the hill, the serenity was truly peaceful.

Double D, panting like a dog, pushed a single shopping cart up the steep hill in exaggerated wobbly steps. The cart was worn, well worn at that, covered in rust that had long covered the original color. Eddy followed suit, carrying along one heavy looking rock. He huffed and panted, dragging the boulder higher and higher up the steep incline. Lastly came Ed, a box of supplies in hand, which he carried with minimal effort. His other hand, free from the cumbersome box, rest at eye level carrying a comic book, well worn with age.

Double D made it to the top first, breathing as if he had just run a marathon.

"What exactly are we doing with all this, Eddy?" Double D protested. Eddy, still struggling with the rock, grunted loudly as a response. Finally cresting the hill's zenith like a Mount Everest climber he dropped the rock directly in front of the cart to prevent it from rolling down. Ed who had the easiest job got to the top still enveloped in his comic, simply set the box down with a loud thud.

"Okay," Eddy said between exasperated breaths, "Sockhead, scout out the forest with that sex thingie." Double D frowned, offended.

"A sextant Eddy," He corrected. Eddy rolled his eyes, box in hand.

Double D, with the care of a nursing mother, placed his book bag at his feet and sat down quietly in the soft Autumn grass. With a rehearsed motion he took out his old sextant from the bag's front pocket and placed it up to his left eye. Adjusting the device ever so gingerly he spotted a small plume of smoke jutting out from a clearing of trees. With the trained grace of a navigator, he slid out a small notepad and pencil and jotted down the exact location of the smoke. After he was finished he placed both the paper and the sextant back into their respective places neatly in his bag before closing the flap.

The sky is beautiful, he thought inwardly, lifting his head. The stars above were just barely peeking out past the waning light of the sun. The moon, full today, sat lo to the east having only just recently entered the visible realm of nighttime. A small smile formed across Double D's face as his mind wandered.

Four years. Four short years had passed since Eddy's last and final scam had torn the lane to shreds. Since then a lot has changed. Double D, for instance, was a to be eighteen today, and though he didn't feel it he did look the part. He was tall for one, nearly as tall as Ed, though never as muscular. Short stubble had formed across his chin and mouth, it bothered in though. And so the task of shaving every day was added to the long list of daily chores Double D participated in while his parents were away.

Eddy was much the same, though he never got that growth spurt he had always wanted. While his height had barely changed, his goatee certainly had a lot going for it. It gave him that 'manly' look that Eddy constantly admired.

Ed was much the same, only slightly taller; the only thing that changed for him was wild unkempt orange hair that dotted both his face and his head.

"Alright, Sockhead."

Double D shook his head, releasing himself from the onslaught of memories and recollections to find Eddy holding a black tarp over the shopping cart sloppily. Suddenly, as if on cue, Eddy and Ed tore the tarp from the cart to reveal the hidden contents within.

Balloons of fascinatingly faded colors hung low behind the cart, and if Ed's huffing breathes was any indication they were most likely homemade. On the side closest to Double D hung a wooden sign, written in off-kilter red marker, saying 'Sockhead Express 18'.

"Well, Whattya think?" Eddy chided, arms crossed over his chest, "Pretty sweet, huh." Double D couldn't help but laugh. Eddy perked up, "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing, Eddy! It's great!" He snorted, placing a long-fingered hand on the carts rusted cabling.

"It better be great, I spent fifty bucks on this," Eddy grumbled. Double D produced a smile and placed a hand on his best friend's shoulder, "Thank you, Eddy."

Eddy looked away with a sly smile on his face, "Well it was nothing, besides we're about to use it anyway." The matter-a-fact tone in his voice gave Double D an uneasy feeling.

"What's the catch?" Double D stated plainly. Eddy, mocking offense placed a hand against his forehead dramatically.

"Oh you wound me, Double D," he joked. Double D rolled his eyes, arms crossed, foot tapping. "Oh fine," he finally gave in, "There is a bush party going on down there. And we're gonna crash it," he said smugly. Double D frowned once more. Suddenly his birthday surprise had turned into another one of Eddy's 'brilliant' scams.

"You mean to tell me you tore me from my Calculus homework to crash a party?" Double D asked. Eddy raised an eyebrow with a snort.

"That has to be the lamest thing I've ever heard."

Double D, snug against the back railing of the shopping cart could feel the sweat rolling down his neck. Heights have never been his thing, but neither has extreme speeds, social interactions, or physical labor been either. Eddy stood upfront, leaning across the front railing, using his hand to look towards the party, now in full swing, below. Ed hung back, the comic book in hand, still utterly engrossed in whatever sci-fi tale was being weaved.

"Okay Ed, time to move!" Eddy yelled back. But nothing happened. Ed was still standing there giggling to himself over the comic. "Ed!" He shouted. Ed, panicked by the sudden yelling quickly threw the book to the ground and leaped onto the back of the cart, causing it to roll forward. In literally an instance the entire shopping cart was flying down the grassy hill at incredible speed. "Oh good, lord!" Double D shouted over the rushing wind and creaking wheels.

"Ed go right!" Eddy bellowed from the front. Sure enough, a tree, big enough to shatter the cart at this speed came closer and closer into view. Ed with all his might quickly shifted all his weight to the right causing the rickety cart to wobble hard in that direction. The tree whizzed by, snapping the air as the cart narrowly avoided making contact with it. The hard movement sent Double D into the air, nearly knocking him out of the cart. He winced grabbing onto the side railing in a desperate need to not fall out at this speed. Eddy, still navigating, called back, "Lumpy, adjust left!" Ed shifted his weight slightly to the left, causing the cart to subtly change the forward path to the left. Then came the bump. All at once, the whole cart dropped down about four feet, sending mud and balloons flying into the air. Covered, in mud and filth, Double D groaned in both frustration and terror.

"Look out!" He cried hoarsely.

Eddy, eyes wide screamed back to go left. The cart rocked left, nearly enough to tip the entire cart onto its side. Eddy and Double D held on tightly, praying to not be thrown into the mud below. The cart clipped the tree, if only barely but surprisingly the cart held fast, finally rocking back to the right and rolling on all four wheels.

"Haha! We did it!" Eddy yelled in exuberant laughter.

Then the cart broke. It was quick really; one second everything was fine and the next the cart had broken nearly in half at the base. The sudden jerking of force caused the entire assembly to pitch upwards, which was further exemplified by the sudden underbrush surrounding the campsite beyond. Cart, Eds, and all went ass over tea kettle straight into the air and into the ground. Double D was thrown pretty far, probably due to his compromised position. He spun, head over heels like a tire until skidding to a halt, face-up in the dirt.

The sky is REALLY pretty.

His brains spun like a top, unable to tell up from down. A sharp ache sounded all across his body, but his focus was too preoccupied with readjusting his eyes to really feel any of it. Suddenly a face came into view. The darkness of the night sky obscured most of the person's features, save the glowing brightness of their deep blue hair.

His ears rung, and despite his straining to hear what the person above him was saying, nothing came through. Too dazed to get up and too confused to ask any kind of relevant questions, Double just laid there, eyes wide.

"-st your minds?" There it was, a voice cutting through the internal ringing of his eardrums.

"Oven Mitt?"

Double D shot up in terror, he knew that voice. It's very utterance sent a cold chill down his back. He poised up ready to run from the blue-haired figure of Marie Kanker when a hand rested on his shoulder. Upon further inspection, it was in fact NOT Marie, but instead was Rolf leaning over him.

Double D scrambled to his feet ignoring the aching pain all over his back and neck. Around him, he could see the scene he and his companions had so rudely interrupted. Twenty or so senior year highschoolers sat or stood in varying degrees of unrest, perturbed by the Eds' sudden entrance. He looked over towards the heap of scrap metal and splintered wood that was the 'Sockhead Express 18' collapsed against a massive oak tree. Finally, his eyes rested on the tangled mess that was Ed and Eddy, still dazed and sprawled across the campsite.

And all at once, a massive feeling of immediate regret crashed across his nervous system as he caught eye of both Kevin and Nazz watching from across the campfire lit at the center. Kevin, eyes narrowed in anger, stood arms folded across his chest. His signature red ballcap sat backwards against his fiery orange hair. He was fitter now, a football player at Peach Creek High; taller too, his very presence sent fear down Double D's spine.

"U-uh, E-excuse us," Double D stuttered, sweat dripping down his forehead. "W-we were just l-leaving." He turned away quickly and made his way towards Ed and Eddy who were just starting to lift themselves off the ground. Double D grabbed at Eddy's arm lifting him up and over Ed.

"Come on Eddy, we have to leave!" Double D protested, trying to pull his friend away from the campsite. Now whether it was the light concussion or Eddy's plan all along, he could say but in an act of defiance, he pulled away from Double D's grasp and marched up to Kevin.

Kevin, unphased by the much shorter Eddy stood still like a statue. Then Eddy spoke, "Yo! Shovel-chin, no need to thank us," he chided. "We just made this boring party of yours more interesting!" And then with the grace of a drunken lemur monkey, he pulled out a party popper from his left jeans pocket. Aiming it up he pulled the release string, sending confetti skyrocketing into the autumn sky, landing all across the campsite and onto Kevin in pathetic strands.

The silence was palpable. You could cut the growing unease with a knife as a red hot ember built up in Kevin's face. Grabbing Eddy by the shirt he tossed him to the side in a heap of dirt.

"You dorks!" He yelled, "You always ruin everything!" He moved off towards the collapsed cart and kicked it with a well-used foot. Then he noticed the sign, or what was left of it anyway, and clenched his fists.

"Sockhead, huh?" He half-whispered. Then he charged straight for Double D with in-human speed, grabbing him by the shirt and lifting him unceremoniously.

"Kevin, stop!" Nazz pleaded, setting her solo cup down and walking towards the pair.

"Stay outta this, Nazz," he snapped back, stopping her dead in her tracks. "These idiots have to learn a lesson.' With that, he wound up a right hook and smiled, "Happy birthday, Dweeb."

And then everything went dark.

Monday

6:24 AM

A loud crack of thunder reverberated across the early morning sky, shaking Double D's room as it passed. He shot up, drenched in a cold sweat, eyes barely able to see anything in the nearly pitch-black room. He groaned, placing a hand over his face and wiping the sweat from his features. Glancing at the alarm clock neatly labeled on his nightstand, he frowned. It was 6:25, five minutes before his alarm would go off to get ready for school and do his chores.

Events of the previous night streamed through his brain like an unwelcomed leak and he grimaced. I should have never left home yesterday.

He got up, put his slippers on, and folded his bed gently before moving towards his closet. Disrobing from his nightwear and quietly changing into a black thermal, orange tee-shirt, blue jean shorts, and orange socks. He folded his nightwear and placed them into a nearby hamper basket before moving to his desk.

The remnants of a mostly finished Calculus assignment sat neatly at his desk, pencil still waiting to be used. I never finished last night, he sighed, taking up the papers and placing them back inside his calculus folder. Then he set up his bag, replacing the beanie he had taken off last night and placing it atop his mess of wild black hair. Searching through the front pocket he pulled out his sextant, cracked, and bent in several different places. Last night's collision had destroyed it. A pang of sadness went through his body and he sighed again, placing it at his desk for later repairs.

With all of the necessary supplies squared away nearly inside his single strap book bag, he made his way out of his room and into the upstairs bathroom. Flicking on the light, he could see the same image he was used to seeing every morning; a thin body, gapped teeth, a bookish appearance, and of course the newly forming bruise across his left eye. He poked at it with two fingers and winced at the resulting pain, noting to doctor it before leaving for school.

The downstairs was quiet, knowing full well that his parents would not be home until Friday, he did not attempt to call down to them. Double D simply strode down the carpeted staircase and headed straight for the kitchen, slightly dreading the long list of chores to do before leaving. The sticky notes pasted across the fridge sat uninvitingly against the alabaster surface. Placing his book bag down at an adjacent chair he began the monotonous work of tidying up the house.

Once he had finished his morning chores, he started cooking a simple egg and bacon breakfast for himself. Plating the contents and cleaning up the kitchenware he took to eating his breakfast while finishing the remainder of his calculus homework. Then his phone rang. He pulled the sleek device from his pocket and put it up to his ear.

"Eddward speaking," he started.

"Hey, Sockhead! Ed and me are up early," Double D rolled his eyes a faint smile on his face.

"It's 'Ed and I,' Eddy'," Double D corrected, spooning the last of his eggs into his mouth.

"Yeah, Yeah, Brainiac; look we need to get this homework done before the first period, or Ed and I flunk out," Eddy shot back. Double D placed his dishes into the sink and placed a hand on his forehead. He sighed, "Fine, Eddy, but do hurry up. I'd like to be punctual this time around."

"Great! Be there in a second," Then the line went dead. The things I put up with, Double D groaned to himself, taking a seat at the table once more. In a few short minutes, he heard a commotion outside, though just barely over the heavy rain pelting the roof above. And then Eddy, soaked to the bone came stomping around the back of the house and up to the sliding glass door at the back of the dining room. He yanked it open, letting pockets of stray rain and mud into the neatly cleaned tile flooring of the dining room. So much for completing chores.

"Water-logged, Eddy?" Double D chuckled, taking an apple from the nearby basket of fruit.

"Can it, Double D," He grumbled taking his shoes off and tossing them onto the shoe rack haphazardly. "Lumpy back there knocked me into a puddle."

Ed who had been lagging behind held a half-soaked comic book in both hands. He stumbled in and knocked his shoes off before closing his comic with gusto. "Eddy! Look at you! You look like a newly born Glorgnak!" He laughed childishly.

Eddy grumbled a swear under his breath and took to unloading his soaked backpack, searching for his homework assignments. Ed did the same, still distracted by his comic book. Before Double D sat six different homework assignments of varyingly different subjects and dates. Double D looked over in confusion, " I thought you needed help with Algebra."

"Well yeah," Eddy began, "and History, and English, and Physics." He smiled through a mouthful of apple. Double D simply sighed, taking upon the task of cheating for the sake of his friend's grades.

7:20 AM

After cleaning the mess that was the dining room the three Ed's were finally out the door. Double D grabbed a dark brown leather windbreaker and locked the front door behind him. Eddy's brown van sat parked a few feet away from the front of the house, rusted in all its glory. Eddy, hopped up into the van with a smile, reaching over to manually unlocked the passenger door for Double D to step inside.

The interior was filthy and always had been. Dirt clung to the long decayed green shag carpet eliciting a musty, almost sharp smell from deep within. Double D grimaced, "I really must insist you clean this filthy vehicle." Eddy rolled his eyes with a grin.

"She's perfect the ways she is, Sockhead," He said indignantly. "You're just jealous you couldn't afford your own," Eddy chided, cranking the key in the ignition. Double D frowned, pondering that last statement. While it was most indeed true that Double D had never had a job and therefore could not afford his own vehicle he questioned if he really needed one. Cars were dangerous, any statistic would tell you that and Double D would be remiss to voluntarily get behind the wheel of one of these metal death machines. More memories of the night prior flooded his mind again and he shook the images from his head.

Finally, after the third attempt, the van roared to life with a sputtering. "See?" Eddy laughed, patting the car dash with one hand. "She's still got it!"

Double D offered a weak smile, to which Eddy ignored with a scoff.

7:26 AM

Peach Creek Highschool stood tall against the foreboding obsidian storm clouds beyond. It was an older building, not entirely kept up with but still in decent shape. From the parking lot, Double D could see cars lined up against the relatively small space provided for student parking. Students buzzed with excitement and talks of the previous weekend.

The van pulled into a spot close to the front of the building and shut off. Eddy, a smile on his face leaped out and yanked his bag from the back seat. Ed who was still entranced sloppily climbed out of the car and into the light Autumn rain. The trio shared light conversation, climbing up the few stairs to the double doors leading to the mouth of the school building. The building was mostly packed with students, most of them carrying on about their business with half-enthusiastic chatter about the coming day.

Double D, Ed, and Eddy had their lockers one after another in line. So their chat continued into the hallway and up to the lockers. Eddy stopped for a second, gazing at his appearance in the mirror before turning to Double D who stood to his right, picking out the right books and supplies needed for the day. He grumbled, "Stupid Kevin," under his breath with a small frown.

Double D simply shrugged, "We should know better than to spark his ire." Closing his locker he placed his materials under his arm before pushing them gently into his messenger bag. Eddy scowled but did little to refute Double D's point, simply slamming shut his own locker and hiking up his bag onto his shoulder. "Yeah, well, it's stupid," he muttered in protest.

Then they went their separate ways to get to their first period classes.

12 PM

The lunch period ringing brought a sigh of relief to everyone in the class, save Double D who was still working dedicatedly on his calculus assignment. He furrowed his brow, eyes intently focused on the numbers and letters and symbols scrawled across the page in his relatively neat handwriting. It was only after everyone had left that Double D noticed that the bell had rung and the lunch period had started.

He sighed deeply, finishing up a final problem, before returning to the empty teacher's desk and placing it onto a pile of papers. Eddy came rolling in just as Double D went to return his used materials back into his bag. He wore a smirk, hands deep in his jean pockets, wallet chain dangling in circular motions. "Hey, guess what, Sockhead?" Eddy laughed slyly. Double D gave a small look of confusion to which Eddy chuckled at. "Get to the Cafeteria and I'll tell you about it," He seemed proud of himself and Double D usually took that as a bad thing. But before he could protest about his student council meeting Eddy was off, humming something to himself while swinging his chain.

Double D let out an exasperated sigh. With all of his materials cleaned up be gently pushed his chair back into the desk and made his way for the open doorway. He stopped when he heard a cackle.

Not a laugh, a full-on witch's cackle from right outside the door frame. Double D froze. Kankers.

Sure enough, the three Kanker sisters strode by laughing about something that was oh-so particularly funny. "Did you see his face?" Lee, the eldest laughed through yellow teeth. Her hair, red as fire sat in unkempt curls across her head, her eyes almost completely obscured by the length. She wore a red and white polka dot tee-shirt and high-waisted blue jeans. Gold ringed ear-rings sat incandescently against her ear lobes and she smiled, showing her silver capped front canine.

May, the youngest snorted in her usual nasally voice. "Hah, I sure did Lee!" Her long, straight blond hair reaching down to her mid-back; clad in a gray shirt and red shorts. Her prominent buck teeth shone through her crooked smile as she laughed along with her sister.

Then came Marie, the middle Kanker sister. She was the source of the cackling, her bright blue hair flipping about as she wheezed. She wore a sleeveless black tee with a yellow lightning bolt emboldened on the front which exposed her mid-riff. Her green cargo pants filled to brim with some unknown contents, a small silver chain dangling from her belt loop. She kicked a bit as she laughed, her knee-high black and blue canvas shoes tied against her calves. Though her right eye was commonly hidden behind her blue colored bangs, her wild laughing made visible her phosphorous blue eye shadow and black eyeliner.

"He nearly peed himself!" Marie wheezed in snorts, causing her sister to laugh even more emphatically. Then she stopped, having caught something in the corner of her eye. Then she sighted Double D and her smile grew wider. Double D froze under the intense gaze of her single unobstructed eye and his palms began to sweat profusely.

"Hey, ladies look," Marie announced, pointing a finger in the direction of the open classroom. All at once the sisters stopped laughing and turned their attention towards Double D.

Lee nudged her sister with a loose elbow, "Why don't you go check lover-boy for some 'loose change." Marie grinned wider, small bits of her yellow teeth showing through her pulled lips.

"You got it, Lee," she smirked, covering the small distance between her and Double D.

"And hurry up," Lee called after, "I'm starving!"

Marie waved back annoyed, "Yeah, yeah keep your shorts on."

I guess I won't be eating today, he frowned. In defeat, he simply pulled out his wallet from his messenger bag and retrieved his five-dollar bill. He had intended to use it as lunch money since he had failed to pack a lunch with all the commotion this morning.

In a few short seconds, Marie had approached Double D and sidled up to the right side of his desk, looking up at him with a strange expression of glee. Then her smile faded as if by magic. Her smile turned into a deeply furrowed scowl as she looked towards the left side of his face.

"Hey, Oven Mitt," She started standing up, "what happened to your eye?" Double D stood in shock for a few seconds, as if his brain had failed to comprehend what he had just witnessed. Was that...concern? He almost couldn't believe what she had just said. After years of torture and ridicule and overly affectionate advances; why now did she suddenly care about his well-being?

"M-my eye?" He asked, almost inwardly, placing a finger on his face absentmindedly. He winced from the pain on instinct and Marie stood up straighter.

"Tell me, now Double D. Who was it?" She commanded, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling his face closer. He recoiled, pulling himself away from her black painted nails.

"It was nothing, M-Marie; It was a-a failed experiment!" He answered nervously. She cocked an eyebrow in suspicion before yanking him back down again. She took her fingers and traced out the size of the bruise with an absent-minded finger. She scoffed.

"If your gonna lie to me Dreamboat you should at least try harder," She said flatly with a crude smile on her lips. He pulled back again and reorganized himself with an indignant scowl.

"Think how you will, but it was seriously nothing major," he protested. She rolled her eyes and sat back down on the edge of the desk, facing him.

"Yeah, yeah; just give me the money and I'll take you to the nurses," she offered, pointing towards the bill creased between his fingers. He sighed loudly and handed her the five-dollar bill. She snatched it from his hands and examined it in the light, checking for its authenticity. Satisfied, she placed the dollar crudely into her front pocket and jumped off the desk. She grabbed him by the collar and half-drug him with her down the hallway and towards the nurse's office.

"For reference, why exactly do you care?" Double D finally said. Though his courage faded the instant he said it. She stopped, still holding him by the collar, and turned to face him. She opened her mouth to say something. But nothing came out, instead, she simply released his collar and pointed him in the direction of the nurse.

"Take care of your self, Oven Mitt," she said flatly. While intending to sound somewhat ominous, something about the way she held her left shoulder made her seem less than threatening. Then she whipped around and took off down the hallway in the direction of the cafeteria to meet up with her sisters.

Double D stood dumbfounded for a few seconds, his eyes watching her disappear around a nearby corner.

Huh?