Chapter 1
Too late for corrections
Katelyn Josephine Barr, 16 years old, ginger hair, big green eyes, pale skin that's covered in freckles, glasses, thin/scrawny, champion of the Quiz Bowl club(proven by her red/black cap), fear needles, nerd/dork, loves mechanics and mathematics, quite brilliant, yet still in the freshman year of high school as she is now – officially – a cancer survivor. She is also the new neighbor girl in a small qul-de-sac in peach creek, as she and her parents just moved in, and the new student of Peach Creek High. She is also super late for her first day at her new school.
Standing by the front door, waiting for her mother to get ready to leave and driver off to school, Katelyn takes the time to re-watch some of the 'good luck' videos her friends at the Lemon Brook Hospital made for her as her long and painful treatment finally reached its end. Having been at the hospital for nearly 1.5 years, you tend to miss out a lot of school, but also make some special quality friends. Friends that will remember you till the day they die, even if they don't hear from you ever again.
In the videos there are people from different ages and genders. Nurses, doctors and patients that she befriended over the course of the treatment, standing next to each other and waving at the camera, and then it's just videos of them one at the time telling her how happy they are for her, how they're going to miss her and how much they wish the world for her. It's hard not to smile at them and their incredible kindness. The End-Of-Treatment-Day had been one of the best as well as one of the saddest in her life. There had been a lot of crying, and for many different reasons, a lot of hugging and sobbing in each other's arms. Her cancer was finally gone, and she was able to return home to live a normal life outside of hospital walls and colors. But she would also be moved far away from all of her friends, to start anew in a brand new town, at a brand new school, in a brand new world. She was nervous, obviously, and it didn't really help with the fact that she was running incredibly late for her first day, just because her mother didn't like the idea of her riding her motorcycle to school so soon after being off the treatment, and thus made the decision to drive her, only to realize in the last second that the car keys were gone. Now, her mother and father are running around like crazy hens in their brand new house (brand new to them, not brand new as in it was built recently – this house surely has seen some stuff) on the hunt for the missing keys while she's standing by the front door, looking at them and thinking if she should just go out and walk to school, or if it will even be worth it by now.
"FOUND THEM!" Her father cries out after entering the laundry room – out of all places. "They were still in my pants pocket. Must've forgotten."
Her mother just groans and snags them from him before grabbing Katelyn's backpack and rushing out the door with her daughter on her tail. They get in the car and Katelyn barely has any time to put the seatbelt on, let alone close the car door, before her mother has the car started up and driving out of the cul-de-sac. It's not that far to the school, but her mother really didn't want her to drive her motorcycle or walk, so she just sits back in the seat, holding on for dear life as her mother really puts the car's safety up to the test. Once at the school's parking she hits the brakes hard and rushes Katelyn out and literally drags her in the building. They haven't missed that much out of the day, but the first lesson is surely about to end, if it hasn't already, given the lack of students in the halls.
Her mother still has a firm grip around her wrist and pulls her after her as she rushes through the hallways, searching for a teacher or anyone who can help them find Katelyn's first class. After a lot of asking, someone actually decides to walk with them to the classroom. Her mother thanks the person many times before knocking on the classroom door and waiting for the teacher to open it. The door opens and a very young looking girl stands before them, looking very uncertain of what to do about them. They simply stand and stare at each other for a few hundredths of a second before another person enters the doorway. It's an older woman with her hair in a bun and a pair of glasses on her nose. She sends the young girl back into the classroom and opens the door a bit more to eye them up and down. A sense of discomfort begins to form in Katelyn's stomach, and is she ever so thankful that her mother is the open and talkative person that she is as she takes control of the situation and introduces them to the older woman.
"I am so sorry that we're late!" She begins saying with a stressed voice. "We couldn't find the car keys and I really didn't want Kate to ride the bike in this weather."
"Ah!" The older woman says, a mix of understanding and realization hitting her face. "You're the Barr kid. Come in, come in! We've been waiting for you!"
Katelyn eyes her mother for a brief second before smiling at the woman and walking in through the door, saying goodbye to her mother who smiles warmly at her before turning around and walks away. The door closes and the older woman walks back to her spot at the front of the classroom while Katelyn remains where she is until she's told to move closer. Standing a bit awkwardly next to the older woman, Katelyn eyes carefully the room full of students that's before her. Boys and girls of different categories and groups are all staring at her for a moment before some of them in the back (she's assuming they are the "cool kids") return to looking down at their phones – or their crotches.
"Alright class!" The older woman says to the students that obviously don't care about anything. "The new student has arrived – a bit later that what's allowed, but what can you do? Unforeseen events can happen, but–"
The door opens once more, much rougher and at such a high speed that it slams into the wall with a bang, making everyone look that direction once more – Katelyn included. A tall boy stands in the doorway, looking straight at her with an almost surprised expression on his face, but it soon blends into one of pure boredom. He wears a black beanie with white stripes on each side, covering his head and eyebrows. His eyes are bright blue, with is a big/beautiful contrast to the dark raven hair that's managed to escape the beanie's prison at the base of his neck. Though his eyes are a bright blue color, they are also very dark in a frightening way, which suits well with his pale olive skin that – from what she can tell – isn't dirtied by a single birthmark. She somewhat envies him that. He wears a black leather jacket over an open dark grey hoodie which reveals a bright red shirt underneath and a small chain around his neck with two dog tags close to his heart. His pants are black jeans and he wears some sort of black shoes… vans, maybe? She isn't really sure, and to be honest, he isn't really the kind of person you'd ask fashion questions to, even if he looks like something out of a teenage girl's dream, standing with his hands in his pockets and what not. It isn't until the old woman starts talking again that Katelyn realizes that she's been staring at him this whole time, but then again, he's been staring at her this whole time too.
"Eddward." The old woman says with a less optimistic/interested tone in her voice. "We didn't think you would show up today. Please, have a seat. We have a new student in class today."
The boy, Eddward apparently, shifts from looking at Katelyn to the old woman as she talks to him, but then shifts back to looking at Katelyn before simply turning on his heels and walks off to sit down at an empty desk, not saying a word. Even if she might be new and all, Katelyn can still sense the odd atmosphere that's taken a hold of the classroom as soon as that boy entered. The way the students eyes him and seems to be just uncomfortable to have him in their presence gives her a slight lump in her guts, but she does her best to ignore it. He sits down with a somewhat silent thud and leans back in the chair while looking back at her through his lashes as he keeps his head low. Katelyn gulps, as the way he stares at her reminds her of a documentary they showed at the hospital about lions, how they live and all. She remembers that they showed how they lower their heads when they hunt, to keep themselves hidden and to focus on their prey – or whatever they said, she doesn't really remember. What she does remember is that the lions would look at their prey the same way he looks at her right now – head low, eyes dark yet focused.
Katelyn can vaguely hear the older woman talk again, but she's too distracted too really hear what she's saying. If she had, then she would've been able to correct the slight mistake the older woman has apparently made when it comes to her name.
"Well, even though you are a bit late to follow the rest of the class, we really do hope you're going to feel welcome here, Kevin."
"Wh–?" Katelyn snaps her head from the boy to the woman, eyes big as saucers as she tries to process what she had just been called.
"And I expect you all to treat this young boy with respect and kindness!" The woman keeps talking, now focused on the class with a firmness that can be compared to a grandmother scolding her grandchild. "He has quite recently ended his treatment for cancer, so no teasing or anything of that sort!"
"Wuh–?" Her mind isn't fast enough to process the information to open her mouth and put an end to what's about to happen before it happens.
"Now, does anyone feel like volunteering to take this young man under their wings, or do we need to pull the bowl out?"
Silence fills the classroom as no one makes any effort to actually help Katelyn out of this mess. Well, I guess she can't really blame them – after all, they don't even know about the mess. As the woman sighs in frustration, Katelyn is still standing completely still and silent as she's wrecking her brain to come up with a way to fix this as smoothly as possible. But she ends up with nothing, and now the older woman has pulled out a glass bowl and put on her teacher's desk.
"Alright." She says and eyes the entire classroom. "You know the drill. Write your name down on a piece of paper and then put it folded in the bowl."
For the first time of the day, the class sets into action. Papers are being ripped into smaller pieces and names are quickly being written down and soon the bowl is filled with small folded pieces of paper. As the last student puts his name in the bowl the older woman shuffles the papers to mix them together and probably make the end result as random as possible. But instead of drawing a name from the bowl she turns towards Katelyn with a soft smile as she gestures towards the bowl, telling her silently to draw one for herself. Taking a deep breath, Katelyn walks up to the desk where the bowl sits, and carefully lets her hand shuffle through the names some more before grabbing onto one and pulling it out from the bowl. Holding her breath she unfolds the paper and reads out the name written in a beautiful handwriting.
"Eddward."
The air grows inhumanly heavy and she can literally hear the classroom take a deep shocked breath as they all turn their attention towards the boy with the black beanie. He's looking at her again, with the same look in his eyes – like a predator.
"Well then!" The older woman says as she claps her hands together, completely oblivious to the tension that's taken control over the students in her class. "Why don't you go and have a seat next to Eddward?"
"Y-yeah." Katelyn says carefully and walks slowly up to the empty seat next to the boy who seems to be considered a demon or a monster of equal measures.
"And Eddward?" The woman says, looking sternly at the boy who merely meets her glare with complete boredom. "I'll be keeping my eyes on you, to make sure you take care of this boy. Do you understand me?"
A simple shrug is all she gets for an answer, and to Katelyn's utter confusion it seems to be all the woman wanted as she smiles once more before continuing the class till the bell rings. As the entire classroom empties, Katelyn waits at her seat for the woman to give her the books she will need for these lessons. The only other student in the classroom is Eddward, as he for some reason has decided to wait with her. Once she has the book in her hands and she's about to write her name in it, it suddenly hits her even harder what's just happened – not the whole thing to be forced to walk around with this creepy kid – but the fact that everyone now believes that she is a boy – a boy named Kevin.
Eddward Marion Vincent, 17 year old, dark raven hair, bright crystal blue eyes, pale olive skin that can be compare to porcelain, black beanie, gap-toothed, captain/champion of the swim team, school's odd/bad boy, genius, speaks English, French and Spanish fluently, lives with his rich single prostitute for a mother – and doesn't know who his father is. Always been seen as the odd one in society growing up, Eddward eventually decided that if everyone was just going to see him as an offspring of a slut, then he might as well live the part to the fullest. Though his mother might be the reason why so many marriages have ended, she still makes a good amount of fortune for them to be one of the richest families in the small town. He once heard her boss telling someone that she was one of their best employees, and that she was the one everyone always asked for. He honestly couldn't care less what that man had to say about his mother.
Growing up with a prostituted mother, it isn't a surprise that Eddward never believed in the legend of the stork and how that's where babies comes from. It also never surprised him that society would always pity him in some way, always offer to help him even though he didn't need any help – his mother was always there for him – and then society would treat him like garbage just because of who his mother was. What was surprising to everyone was how he viewed women. With a prostitute for a mother, everyone would just go to the assumption that Eddward would end up in a dark world, the dark side of society, where women are just seen as toys to be played with and then thrown away. What no one saw coming was that he would never ever even look at a woman or girl in that way – never lay a hand on them, never catcalling, never flirt, never harass. No one would've guessed that he would actually be a gentleman to every single woman that he happened to cross paths with – no matter when, where, age or situation. If it so was a little girl that lost her mother in a store or an old lady that had trouble crossing the street, he would always make sure to treat them with great respect – even saving them from perverts if he caught the action. However, something that again catched everyone off guard was the way he viewed the men of society.
Growing up with a prostituted mother, he learned very early how cruel men can be towards women – for no reason. When he was only six years old a man had hit his mother so badly that he had gone between them and roared at the man with all his might to get away from his mother. The man, caught off guard by the small boy's courage, left the house never to return. Ever since that day, Eddward had made a promise to always protect his mother and every woman possible, from men like that. That's also when he started training everyday to get stronger for that one promise alone. He could care less that some people found it odd or disgusting that a child would train like that; he needed to be stronger for his mother's safety, for the safety of the female society. He could care less that over the years, the older and stronger he got, the more attractive he became for the said gender that he tried to protect. Never asking anyone out, always turning them down gently, he does what he can to be there for them when they really need him. However, teenage girls can be quite irritating… to say the least. That's why he decided to be a bit of an outsider when he reached high school – hopefully that would make most of them back off. It worked so-so at the start, but when he managed to send four jocks to the hospital, all with broken bones, for harassing some shy girls, they all began to fear him, boys as girls. He didn't mind.
Slowly but surely, he began to become known as a local freak/odd boy that was best to be left alone. It suited him just fine, as long as he was able to help his mother by keeping her and women overall safe. When it comes to school however, he rarely sees the reason for him to be there, as he already knows more than the teachers there. He only comes when he absolutely needs to – when there's a test that will affect their grades or something like that, or when his mother has a client over. As for today, he's just bored.
Looking out his bedroom window, he's watching the new family across the street as they appear to be in a hurry. The mother of the family is rushing out the house with their teenage child on her tail to the car that's parked in their drive-in. Leaning backwards to look at the clock on the wall, it is not that late, however if you're heading towards school then most of the first lesson has already passed. Given the way they're stressing, he makes the assumption that they are heading to school, and that they know they are late. The mother drives the car out from the cul-de-sac – almost before their teenage child has managed to even get in the car – and soon they're out of his vision. Killing a sigh, he walks away from the window and grabs his bag from his bed. He's been watching the family almost daily now, ever since they moved in a few weeks ago. In all this time, he's hardly seen anything of the teenager of the family, and he's constantly being interrogated by his mother why he hasn't gone over to welcome them to the neighborhood and introduce himself, and maybe even make a friend for once. Don't get him wrong, he's been thinking about it – but it just feels odd to, especially when you can't even tell if the kid is a boy or a girl. Sure, it could be answered by the very simple question "what's your name?" but that's not good enough for him, for some reason. After all, girls can have boys' names and vice versa. How is he to know what they've decided to name their child? And what if the name turns out to be gender-neutral? That's almost worse than being named something that's meant for the other gender, as at least then you can point that out.
One final glance at the clock, he decides to go to school. His mother isn't working at home today, but he is bored, and he knows that there's going to be a new kid at school today – probably the kid across the street – so there's going to be some sort of interesting event today. Though the chances of him meeting the kid are low, he can always feast on the fact that there's something actually interesting happening at school. Plus, he might luck out and see them in the hallways at lunch break or something.
He locks the door after him, sends a quick text to his mother that the house is empty in case she wants to leave the "office" and come home during her breaks. Then he gets into the car that one of the latest clients bought him, after trying to buy Eddward's approval of having him over almost every single day. To say that man had issues is an understatement. He was arrested not too long ago after attempting to break into some woman's home because he found her pretty and therefore deemed her to be his. In all honesty, Eddward's just happy the man moved on to a different victim. It took some time, but the man soon enough realized what his mother was and became disgusted by her, but he still left the car, so, win-win.
Arriving at school is about as fun as arriving at the dentist; Boring and painful. He parks the car and slowly heads inside. The hallways are empty, part from some skippers here and there, and a handful of monitors. They never bother him though – like everyone else, they don't really know what to think about him, if they should fear him or not, so they just all look at him and sometimes gives him a nod, letting him know that they've seen him. He just looks at them, sometimes nods back, but overall, he just doesn't care. School is one thing he used to enjoy, but the older he got, the more he learned, the more he began to hate it. He likes learning, that much is true, but he doesn't like being surrounded by ignorant idiots that doesn't even know what 1+1 is.
Killing a sigh as he arrives at his classroom, he opens the door the same way he always does – forcefully. The door swings open and smashes into the wall with a loud bang, sending the entire classroom into silent fear and confusion. But that's not something he cares about right now. Right now, he cares about the teenager that's standing in front of him, staring at him with the biggest, greenest eyes he's ever seen.
Just as the door swings open, it reveals the kid from across the street; standing right next to the oldest teacher in the building… what was her name…? Oh right – Mrs. Thompson. Caught completely off guard, Eddward freezes, focusing his eyes on the green ones that stares right back at him. What are the odds for this to happen? His mother always wanted him to make friends with them, and he's always wanted to figure out just what gender they are (he really is curious about it. He's never before seen a person that is so gender-neutral before, and it's slowly killing him). Maybe this will be his chance? After all, a new student needs to be introduced, which means telling about their back-story and also their name.
"Eddward." Mrs. Thompson says with the same tone she always gives him, dragging his attention to her. "We didn't think you would show up today. Please, have a seat. We have a new student in class today."
Looking back at the kid one more time, Eddward then heads over to the one desk that everyone avoids – his desk. It's not like it has his name on it, it's just that ever since he claimed it on the first day, everyone has steered clear of that one seat, and the one next to it. Again, he doesn't mind at all. Dropping his bag at the floor he sits down with a slight thud and leans back in the chair. He can feel everyone's eyes on him, they all know that he rarely shows up for school, and that one of the few reasons why he does is to let his mother have the house for herself and her possible client. He can feel their disgusting accusations as they stare at him, but he doesn't let himself be bothered by them – he's more interested in the kid standing in front of the class, the kid that's still looking at him with those green eyes. He's not sure why, but he feels… soothed by them. As Mrs. Thompson begins introducing the kid Eddward finds himself partially whishing and hoping for the kid to be a girl. Not that he would have anything against them being a guy; it's just that he's not gay or bi. True that he's never dated before, but he still feels confident about him being straight – or asexual. One of the two.
"Well, even though you are a bit late to follow the rest of the class, we really do hope you're going to feel welcome here, Kevin."
"Wh–?" The kid suddenly snaps their head towards Mrs. Thompson, eyes big as saucers, which catches Eddward's attention to say the least.
"And I expect you all to treat this young boy with respect and kindness!" Mrs. Thompson says as she glares at the class, as if she believes it will make them listen to her more. "He has quite recently ended his treatment for cancer, so no teasing or anything of that sort!"
"Wuh–?" The kid… Kevin, seems to be a little confused by what's happening. Did he not want them to know about him being a cancer fighter? Eddward doesn't know. All he really catched from this is the gender and name of the kid. Boy – Kevin.
"Now, does anyone feel like volunteering to take this young man under their wings, or do we need to pull the bowl out?"
Eddward carefully eyes the classroom from the edge of his eyes, observing the way everyone is desperately doing their best to not do anything that might be seen as an act of volunteering for the sake of the new student. Sometimes Eddward wonders how any of them managed to get friends, but then he remembers what kind of friends they all have, and then he's not so surprised anymore. Still. Looking back towards Kevin, Eddward thinks slightly about raising his hand and volunteering for the kid, partially to get to know the kid, but also because he'd like to see the entire classroom freak out. However, before he's able to make a decision, Mrs. Thompson sighs and pulls her famous glass bowl out from hiding and puts it proudly on the desk.
"Alright." She says and eyes the entire classroom. "You know the drill. Write your name down on a piece of paper and then put it folded in the bowl."
Soft sounds of movement fills the classroom as everyone begins tearing paper and writing their names down. Eddward follows suit, writing his name carefully down with the beautiful handwriting his mother taught him all those years ago. That is also something nobody expected from him – to actually learn how to read and write, let alone write so beautifully. It actually makes him want to gag. He doesn't though. He has learned how to mask his distaste in other humans – until they cross the line that is. Once he's done he stands up and walks over to place his folded piece of paper into the bowl before sitting down once more. The final student puts their name into the bowl and Mrs. Thompson shuffles them around for a bit before turning towards Kevin with one of the softest smiles Eddward has ever seen on her old face. He actually didn't know she was capable of smiling at all, but then again, she never seems happy to have him around, so I guess that's the reason why he's never seen her smile – she never does to him.
Very hesitatingly, Kevin approaches the bowl as if it was an alien or something equally scary and unknown, and reaches out to shuffle the names a little bit more before grabbing one and pulling it out. He doesn't have to read the name out loud, Eddward already knows that it's his name on that paper – he knows people might find it weird, but he's very picky when it comes to pens and paper, meaning he spends a lot of time to seek out the best kinds he can find. That being said – he can see from where he's sitting that the piece of paper in the boy's hand is coming from his notebook. However, for the sake of the tension in the classroom, for the sake of seeing everyone's reaction, he remains silent, waiting for Kevin to read out the name on the paper, written in the infamous handwriting.
"Eddward." His voice is soft, weak and light – almost a little feminine. For whatever reason, it makes Eddward want to protect the boy.
As the air grows heavier and heavier the more the class understand what the boy just said, Eddward can't help but feel a little bit of enjoyment in their reaction. It's like the entire classroom has decided to take a deep breath and hold it in at the one and same time, as if they were all telepathically connected. Eddward fights the smirk that threatens to form and focuses his gaze on the boy that seems to be petrified of what has just occurred.
"Well then!" Mrs. Thompson says as she claps her hands together, completely oblivious to the tension that's controlling her classroom. "Why don't you go and have a seat next to Eddward?"
"Y-yeah." Kevin says; his voice still small and light.
"And Eddward?" Mrs. Thompson says as she glares the best she can at Eddward, to which he returns with his most bored glance. "I'll be keeping my eyes on you, to make sure you take care of this boy. Do you understand me?"
He just shrugs, knowing that's all he needs to do for her to leave him alone. The boy sits down so carefully next to him he can't help but feel moved – for whatever reason. Mrs. Thompson then continues on with what's left for the lesson, and soon enough the bell rings and everyone hurries out from the classroom. Well, everyone except Kevin and Eddward. Kevin is waiting for Mrs. Thompson to give him the books he will need for these classes and Eddward sees no reason in running away from the kid he's been meaning to befriend, so he remains seated. Once Mrs. Thompson hands Kevin the books he sets out to write his name in them, but then hesitates. This, again, catches Eddward's attention and he carefully watches as the boy seem to fight with himself for a moment before writing his name down. Watching him write, Eddward can clearly see that the other boy's handwriting is not nearly as neat as his, but it's also far from the worst one he's ever seen. Once everything is in order, they get up from their seats and put their books into their bags and heads out from the classroom to continue the most awkward day in both of their lives – without even knowing it.
I would like to thank you all, who are reading this, for reading this. I wrote this entire chapter in one sit, no breaks or anything like that, so there might be a few mistakes here and there. Hopefully not, but I'm only human so I can't promise anything. This is the first time I'm writing a "romantic" story, so I would really appreciate some feedback and just some thoughts of what you think about this so far. It is also the first time I'm writing an ed edd n eddy fanfic, so please give me some feedback about that as well, I mean, if you want to. As you may have noticed, this is a rev!fem!kevxrev!edd, which is a small experiment I wanted to try out – as I haven't seen any version of the kevedd stories where revKevin is the female – so, I just wanted to give it a shot.
Also! Side rant! In this story, I have based Eddward's character of a character from a novel of which I don't remember the name of, nor do I remember the name of the said character – only that I was fascinated by him, and that he might be the first fiction character I ever had a crush on – and I'm sort of writing this story in the hopes of remember the name of the novel and/or the name of the character, because I – for some reason – began thinking about it the other day, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So, if you may have any clue as to what tale it might be, please tell me and I will check it out and see if it is the one I'm looking for. Sort of an odd reason to write a story, but I just can't get that one character out of my head!
If you want to know, the character is a ginger boy (age 13-15 I think), with an interesting sense of fashion. He dresses in long dark coats and has a hat on, that's somewhat familiar to a pirate hat, but more… normal? His mother is a prostitute, and he doesn't know who his father is. He is known to be the troublemaker of the neighborhood and he is friend with a very calm, friendly boy at the same age (I actually think that the friend might be the main character of the novel) who he from time to time drags into his schemes and sometimes ends up getting them both into trouble – naturally.
And that's all I really remember of the novel. It's not much, I know, but the memory of it is too strong for me to ignore – I have searched all over the internet (not really) and still haven't found anything. So, here I am, lol.
Anyway – thank you for reading this first chapter of this story – I will try to write some more soon – can't make any promises when the next chapter will be though – again, I'm just a human.
Thank you and have a good day!