LONG-LOST DISCLAIMER THINGY: I haven't been forgetting these... Ed just keeps eating them. But I recovered one! *pulls out a soggy paper, reads* 'I don't own EEnE. If I did I wouldn't be toying with their lives by writing fanfics; I'd be toying with their lives by making movies. Don't sue, as Rolf is the son of a shepherd. Thank you.' Huh... *shrugs* Whatever works... *makes a mental note not to write disclaimers so late at night*

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was originally the 2nd half of Ch. 6 (which is why there wasn't much action in that chapter - it was all here! *holds it up* see?), but I felt that I hadn't updated in a while and I didn't know how much longer I'd be working on this part. And since I found a fairly good stopping point (and it was getting rather lengthy), I just kinda hacked it in two. So the race is finally on. ;)

~ Kit

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Edd struggled to breathe evenly and keep a moderate speed after managing to almost catch up with Sarah and Jonny, only straggling behind by a few feet. The three had already passed the finish line once, and Eddy had looked rather annoyed that he hadn't gotten rid of any of the competition yet. But he knew he had to strategize this properly... both Sarah and Jonny had proven faster than he'd thought they'd be, and if he wasted his energy too soon-

"Hey, Jonny! Heads up!"

Edd snapped to attention as Sarah tossed the electric can opener she had picked up upon entering the kitchen at Jonny, hitting him in the head and knocking him to the floor. Sarah giggled as Jonny held his head, groaning. One down, one to go!

"Oh dear... Jonny, are you all right!?" Edd asked reflexively, skating up to the boy.

Jonny squinted, trying to determine which of the four Edds approaching was the real one. He smiled a little; at least he could always count on Double D to worry about his friends.

"Yeah, thanks, Double D... I think-"

"Sarah! You leave my kitchen appliances out of this!" Edd scolded as he skated past Jonny, too much in a hurry to really listen to his reply. He seemed okay, and at least now he only had one opponent to worry about.

"Or what?" Sarah asked with a smirk as they passed the finish line, ending the second lap. She grabbed Eddy by his hair as she skated past him.

"Sarah!" Eddy cried, trying to get out of her grasp. "Sarah! Leggo!"

"If you say so!" Sarah chirped, twirling around in a circle before sending Eddy flying into Edd. "Strike!" she exclaimed, watching the two fall to the floor.

"Nice form, baby sister!" Ed praised, applauding. Jimmy, Kevin and Rolf snickered while Nazz looked on in mild concern.

Edd struggled to sit up from beneath his dazed friend. "Using one of the officials as a projectile is grounds for disqualification!" he declared, pushing Eddy off of him.

"No rules, Double D!" Sarah stuck her tongue out at Edd and giggled before leisurely continuing her final lap. She saw no need to hurry now; Edd wouldn't have enough energy to pry Eddy off of him and catch up before she made it through his kitchen and to the finish line. The race was in the bag.

Edd scowled. So that's how it was going to be, was it? Seeing Jimmy, Rolf and Kevin's amused expressions, his frown deepened. If they all thought he was going to give up that easily....

"Pardon me, Eddy, but may I borrow you for a moment?"

"Wha...?"

Not bothering to wait for an answer, Edd rolled the disorientated Eddy onto his stomach and stood. Holding on to his friend's ankles, Edd pushed him face forward in front of him while skating as fast as he could to catch up with Sarah, adrenaline making up for lost energy.

"Whoa!" Eddy screamed, the sudden movement jarring him out of his daze. "Lemme go, Sockhead!!"

"What's he doin'...?" Kevin asked from the sidelines, confused but visibly amused by Double D quite literally wiping the floor with Eddy.

"Heavens to Betsy!" Jimmy gasped as he realized what Edd was up to. He poked his head into the kitchen just in time to see Sarah entering from the other side, still skating towards the finish line unhurriedly with a smug grin on her face.

"Sarah! Behind you! Eds at two o' clock!"

Blinking at her friend's frantic warning, Sarah looked behind her just in time to see Edd racing up, his energy obviously wearing thin. But he apparently still had every intention of winning the race, as he was coming up pretty fast despite his exhaustion. Eddy, still being pushed in front of Edd, screamed and covered his head defensively as he made contact with Sarah's ankles, causing her to lose her balance and sending all three into a heap on the floor... right on top of Jonny who had finally managed to stand up again before being bowled over by the impact.

"Choice crash!" Kevin cheered as he and the others peered into the kitchen.

Edd, on the top of the pile and attempting to catch his breath, quickly brought himself back to attention at the sound of Kevin's voice. I can do this - I can win! He hurriedly picked himself up from the heap and regained his balance. All he had to do was race to the finish line before Sarah had a chance to recover from the collision, and he was home free!

"DOUBLE D!"

Then again, there was the overlooked fact that Sarah was prone to quick recoveries. Edd looked on nervously as Sarah stood and, after kicking Eddy and Jonny out of the way, glared at him, huffing like an enraged bull.

Jimmy watched from the kitchen threshold in enthusiastic anticipation. "Go get him, girl!"

"Oh dear..." Edd muttered as Sarah charged him. "HAVE MERCY!" he cried out, finding speed he never knew he possessed as he raced out of the kitchen, desperate to avoid Sarah's wrath. "Please, Sarah! Calm yourself! It's just a race!"

The others watched as Edd flew by in a state of sheer panic with an infuriated Sarah on his tail. Just moments after the two passed the finish line, Sarah lept and tackled Edd, sending them both to the ground.

Ed smiled widely at his friend, who was pinned to the ground and about to get pounded, and threw shredded paper towel "confetti" over the two.

"And the winner you are, Double D! Merry Easter and a Happy Cinco de Mayo!"

Sarah's fist made an abrupt stop centimeters from Edd's nose at Ed's declaration. The two stared at each other, uncomprehending. It took a few silent moments for it to click.

"I... I won..." Edd breathed, eyes wide in disbelief. He let out a giddy laugh. "I won!" He'd been so caught up in getting away from Ed's little sister, he hadn't even realized it.

"Let's celebrate this horrendous occasion!"

"I think you mean 'momentous,' Ed," Eddy corrected, entering the living room and straightening out his shirt. He blinked as Ed happily held up the cheese he'd pulled out of his jacket pocket earlier and turned to Eddy, offering it.

"Fruitcake?"

Eddy raised an eyebrow. "Talkin' to yourself again?" He recoiled as Ed held the monstrosity closer to him. "Get that thing away from me, Ed! I think it just growled at me!"

"No, that's Sarah," Ed corrected, pointing to his little sister.

The three boys turned to Sarah who was, indeed, growling menacingly. She, too, had been so caught up in the pursuit that she hadn't realized she had chased her prey right past the finish line. And she was not happy about it.

"I want a rematch! Double D cheated!"

"Technically not, Sarah," Nazz replied, helping her up before she turned her focus back to pounding Edd. "There's no rules, and you can't cheat without rules. Besides, if there were rules, you would have lost by throwing Eddy in the first place." She shrugged sympathetically. "Sorry, Sarah."

"Yeah!" Eddy agreed. "So take it like a girl! Double D won fair and square! Kinda."

Sarah clenched her fists, having a hard time keeping her temper between losing the race and Jonny sticking his tongue out at her, obviously satisfied that she'd lost despite beaning him with a can opener. It was all she could do to restrain herself from shoving that ice pack he was holding to his head down his throat.

Noting her rising anger, Jimmy rushed over. "There, there, Sarah," Jimmy consoled as he patted her back. "Maybe later we can plant some Azaleas in the garden to make you feel better. Azaleas are your favorite!"

Sarah gave a final angry glance towards Double D, who grinned weakly in response, before letting Jimmy accompany her to the sidelines where the other kids were standing. It embarrassed her to no end to lose a race to someone so terrible at sports; but at least since Double D was an Ed, she could always find another reason to pound him later for the embarrassment... even if some small part of her would kinda like to see him win the race now that she couldn't.

After pulling him up off of the ground, Eddy held up Edd's arm triumphantly. "And so... the winner of round one! Double D!" he announced, grinning madly. Things were going right for a change. "Get ready for round two!"

Kevin grinned as he did some last-minute stretches. It'll be a piece of cake to win this lame-o contest if I have to go up against Double Dweeb in the final round. All I gotta do is get past Rolf and... uh-oh. He paused in mid-stretch, a look of alarm etched on his face.

Nazz.

Kevin swallowed a lump in his throat and scratched his head in thought. How the heck was he gonna bring himself to make Nazz lose?? Well, maybe Rolf would take care of that first. He really didn't want her to lose, but what could he do? After all, how would he keep his reputation as the coolest guy and best athlete in the cul-de-sac intact if he lost a stupid floor skating race? Especially to a girl? But then, on the other hand... what if Nazz were to hold a grudge against him if he did win? How was he supposed to impress her if she wanted nothing to do with him?

"This is not cool," he muttered.

"Next round! Rolf versus Nazz versus Kevin!" Eddy announced, jolting Kevin out of his thoughts. He pointed to the starting line as the three contestants lined up, Rolf and Nazz appearing rather confident while Kevin suddenly looked a bit unsure.

"You guys know the drill." Eddy held up the pistol again. "On your mark... get set.... GO!"

Edd looked up as Eddy shot the squirt gun, soaking his ceiling again. "Eddy, could you please clean that up?? Mother will be so peeved if-"

"Can it, will ya? A little water never hurt nobody!"

"Except the wicked witch of the whippoorwill," Ed corrected.

Edd sighed disconsolately and sat down with his back against the wall to regain his energy as he brought his attention back to the race. He was going to require all the strength he could muster for the final race, regardless as to which of the three would win this round...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Upon entering the kitchen on the first lap, Rolf was in the lead and rather quick to execute his plan. After glancing behind him to find that Kevin's attention was predictably on Nazz instead of what was ahead of him, he reached over and pulled Edd's refrigerator out so that it blocked Kevin's lane. Snickering, he quickly resumed skating towards the finish line as he heard a resounding 'smack' and a startled gasp from Nazz.

Nazz stopped momentarily to check on Kevin. "Kevin, are you all right??"

Mustering all the dignity he could while still being plastered face-first to the side of Edd's refrigerator like an oversized magnet, Kevin managed a thumbs-up sign and a muffled, barely audible "I'm cool..."

Assured of Kevin's health - if not his damaged pride - Nazz skated on to catch up with Rolf.

Meanwhile, Edd was debating on getting up to check on his kitchen. He had heard a rather loud crash and Nazz's inquiry of Kevin's well-being, and then saw Rolf skating out, chuckling as he finished his first lap. None of that could possibly bode well. Upon further contemplation, however, he decided he probably didn't want to see the damage yet; he was having enough stress worrying about getting the anchor back without having to agonize over whatever had just taken place in the kitchen as well. He'd just have to hope that if anything was broken, it was repairable...

This is as simple to Rolf as taking parsley from a cow - which is very simple because cows do not eat parsley! Rolf thought, grinning confidently to himself. However, he looked behind him in alarm as he heard Nazz's voice.

"You think you can win that easy, Rolf!?" Nazz asked as she put all her energy into catching up.

"Schlorp!" Rolf turned back ahead and kicked up the speed, passing the finish line and ending the second lap. He needed to get rid of Nazz - and quickly. He'd hoped that she would have spent a little more time hovering over Kevin who, as he had noted with amusement when he passed by, was still firmly attached to the refrigerator with apparently no hope of prying himself free before the end of the race.

"Go-go Nazz-girl skates faster than the chickens that flee from Papa's pruning shears," Rolf muttered to himself. His eyes narrowed as his grin returned. "But Rolf will fix that..."

As Rolf began to dig in his pockets for something to slow his opponent down, Nazz worked harder to catch up. She had absolutely no intention of letting Rolf take out whatever he was looking for. She was well aware of how good a cheater he was, and the only surefire way to prevent falling for his tricks was to prevent him from cheating in the first place.

"No, you don't!" she yelled as she caught up, skating right beside him. Rolf looked up just in time to feel his legs being kicked out from underneath him, sending him to the ground with a pained "Heink!"

Nazz smiled, thankful for all those martial arts classes she'd started taking last year, and continued on to the finish line, which was only a few feet away.

All of the other kids looked on with excitement as Nazz ended the second race victorious. All aside from Edd, anyway. As the others cheered, Edd suddenly found himself unwittingly in the same predicament Kevin had been in... how would he beat Nazz?? The very concept of dishonestly securing a victory from her - whether it was following rules or not - was unthinkable.

"And the winner of round two - Nazz!" Eddy announced, holding her arm up as he had Edd's before. "And now... for the moment we've all been waiting for! On to round-"

"Um, Eddy?" Eddy looked up at Nazz's questioning voice. "Do you mind if we take a break?" Seeing Eddy about to protest, she leaned in closer, bringing her voice down so Edd wouldn't hear. "Don't you think someone should peel Kevin off Double D's refrigerator before he notices...?"

Blinking, Eddy glanced into the kitchen to see Kevin still firmly planted in the side of the refrigerator. His barely contained laughter was short-lived, however, when he noticed the sizeable Kevin-shaped imprint in the refrigerator as well. He nervously turned back to Nazz.

"Yeah... a break sounds good..." Eddy turned to the rest of the kids. "Okay, intermission time! We'll do the final round in five minutes!"

"What are we on a mission for, Eddy??" Ed asked excitedly.

Eddy sighed irritably. "To keep the Great Nagging Monster happy so we can avoid his Ultimate Nag Attack, Ed."

Ed gasped. "I've seen it, Eddy! We must be careful!" He clutched at Eddy, glancing around fretfully. "If we do not proceed with caution, he will nag us to death with his horrible nagging nags of nagness!"

Eddy snorted. "No kidding." Seeing Edd busying himself with inspecting Jonny's head for damage as Rolf sat next to them, apparently awaiting treatment as well, Eddy headed into the kitchen with Ed. "Let's go, Lumpy."

"Ed? Eddy? Where are you going?"

Eddy nervously turned at Edd's voice. "Oh, uh, just getting a drink."

Ed lit up, an idea hitting him. "Oh yeah! Maybe a nice, cool drink will make the Great Nagging Monst-" Eddy quickly clasped his hand over Ed's mouth.

"Can I trust you two to notify me if something in the kitchen needs repairing?" he asked, paying no mind to Ed's words as he wrapped a bandage around Jonny's head to keep the ice pack on.

"Uh, y-yeah. Sure thing, Sockhead," Eddy replied with a grin. Glaring at Ed in a "keep your big mouth shut" manner, he removed his hand from Ed's mouth and dragged him into the kitchen with him. They needed to pry Kevin out of the refrigerator and find a way to fix the damage before the next round - otherwise Edd would be too preoccupied with his newest nervous breakdown to win the race. And that was something he couldn't afford to chance.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Pull harder, Ed!"

Eddy hopped from foot to foot, wringing his hands anxiously. It wouldn't be long before Edd was done treating the injured, and the race would be on again - and they were no closer to getting Kevin free than they had been when they started. To make matters worse, Eddy had yet to figure out a good way to hide the large indentation in the refrigerator after Kevin was freed.

Ed had Kevin by the waist and was pulling as hard as he could to dislodge the boy. Kevin's muffled insults sufficed to express his discomfort over Ed's futile attempts.

"He is... stubborn... Eddy..." Ed managed through clenched teeth as he continued his efforts at freeing Kevin. "Don't worry, Kevin..." he consoled as he paused to catch his breath before tugging on him again. "I won't let the... errgh!... refrigerator... ungh!... devour you...!"

"Just get me outta here, dorks!"

Kevin's barely intelligible reply caused Eddy to grimace. How selfish could someone get? "You're just lucky we care enough to let ya outta there! We could just leave ya, y'know!" He grinned slyly, leaning against the refrigerator. "So... exactly how many boxes of jawbreakers is this worth to ya, anyway? Three? Five? Ten?"

Kevin would have retorted if Ed hadn't nearly broken his ribs with his latest yank. Strained growl combined with muffled shriek as Ed tugged harder than ever to free Kevin, blinking away the sweat that fell in his eyes.

"Man, he's stuck real good," Eddy mumbled, wondering exactly how hard Kevin had to have slammed into the refrigerator to get jammed that deep into it... not that he was worried or anything, of course. Alarm did cross his face, however, when Kevin looked about to be ripped in half by Ed's tugging. "Ed, don't kill him!"

The struggling was put to a quick end as Kevin slipped from Ed's grip and slammed back firmly into the side of the refrigerator. Ed, who had been in mid-tug, was sent flying back, crashing into the counter across the room. The impact of Ed's collision with the counter jarred several dishes stored in the cabinet overhead, sending them crashing down on top of the boy.

"Great..." Eddy muttered as his gaze shifted back and forth between Kevin and the broken dishes scattered on the floor. He should've known better than to ask Ed to help fix something. "Now we're toast for sure..."

"Eddy..." Edd's troubled voice came from the living room as he finished looking over Rolf for injuries. "Are you two okay in there?"

Eddy laughed weakly, grabbing all the sticky notes he could find. It was time for Plan B. "Yeah, yeah, Sockhead! A few things just fell on the floor, that's all! Everything's peachy keen!"

"And sticky," Ed added, grabbing some sticky notes from Eddy and covering his face with them.

"Ed, give those back - I need those!" Eddy whispered anxiously as he grabbed the notes from his friend.

"'Sticky?'"

Eddy gulped as he heard Edd approaching. He quickly shoved the notes into Ed's arms and raced towards the threshold just as Edd was about to peek in.

"Eddy? What's Ed talking-"

"Ed said 'icky,' Double D!" he explained with a nervous laugh as he ushered Edd away from the kitchen. "He was just trying to eat his hair again! Heh heh, the big lug..."

Edd blinked as Eddy desperately tried to maintain a convincing smile. "But, Eddy... Ed likes to-"

"Oh, look! Is that one of your beetles crawling down the stairs!?"

Edd gasped in alarm as he rushed to the staircase. "Josephine! Have you escaped from your biological containment unit again!?" He plopped down by the stairs and, after whipping out his magnifying glass, fretfully began his search. "How many times have I told you that it's for your own safety that you take advantage of the bionetwork that I've painstakingly provided for you? I mean, honestly, how can you constantly..."

Jeez, even bugs aren't safe from this guy's nagging! Eddy mused as he watched Edd continue his lecture while inspecting the stairs for his errant beetle. He shuddered to think what kind of parent Edd would become.

Returning to the kitchen, Eddy grabbed the notes from Ed - or, what were left after Ed had stuffed a good portion of them in his ears to see how many he could fit in his head - and quickly finished his "repairs," plastering them on top of Kevin until he was completely buried within the confines of the layered post-its.

"Boy, Eddy, that sure is yellow," Ed praised as he finished cleaning up by stuffing the broken dishes back in the cabinet.

Eddy stepped back to admire his work and grinned. "He'll never know the difference!" He grabbed Ed. "Come on! One more race for Sockhead to win and then we'll be swimming in jawbreakers!"

Ignoring the muffled "dorks!" that made its way through the layers of sticky notes, Eddy headed back into the living room with Ed in tow. He could almost feel the money burning a hole in his pocket. It was time to get that anchor back so they could get on with their lives and, more importantly, get to the candy store.