Chapter 2 - The Last Good Day

"Why is Eddy acting weird, Double-D?" Ed asked.

The two had been standing in Eddy's back yard for a few minutes now, staring at the house. There was no sign of life. Eddy's mom was at work and his dad was either in a bar or looking for a low-paying job somewhere. As for Eddy, he was still in bed. He'd been doing this for three days now. He wasn't asleep, but he hadn't felt motivated to get up. So he just lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling. He looked over at his alarm clock and noticed it was 12:56 already.

"I really should get up," he thought, but continued to lay there.

"I don't know, Ed," Edd answered at last, "I don't know."

"But isn't he going to help us scam kids, Double-D?"

"I'm sure he'll join us later on, Ed. Come on, let's get going."

The two began walking and were almost to Edd's house when Dea pulled up beside them in her SUV. The passenger side window was down and "Disasterpiece" was blaring out of the speakers.

"Hey," she turned the down the music a little, "I'm going to the mall with one of my friends, you guys wanna come?"

"Oh boy, oh boy!" Ed jumped foot to foot in excitment, "I love going to the mall!"

"Yes, I know you do, Ed," Edd said, "but we can't go today."

"Why not, Double-D?" Ed asked, face dropping.

"Because..." Edd searched for a good reason, "we can't leave without Eddy. That wouldn't be fair if he woke up and all his friends were gone."

Edd smiled nervously, hoping Ed bought it. The truth was, he didn't really trust Dea. While she seemed to be a nice person, she had exhibited some qualities the previous few days that Edd didn't approve of. She seemed a little unstable and Edd didn't want to get in a car with her when he hardly knew her, despite the fact he had trusted her to take them pizza a few days ago.

"He's still in bed?" Dea asked, "Well, wake him the heck up and tell him to go shopping with us!"

Edd started to object, but was cut off by Ed.

"I know his phone number, Dea!"

"Sweet. Let me have it," she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number Ed told her.

After about five rings, Eddy finally got up and answered the phone. He was a little surprised to hear Dea's voice on the other end. How did she get his number anyway?

"Sons of Baltazar and Broccoli!"

Oh yeah. Ed must have given it to her. He could still hear Ed rambling on in the background.

"Yeah, so you wanna come?" Dea asked, "It'll be fun."

"Um, I guess so. Where are you guys?"

"In the middle of the flippin' road! I think we're by Double-D's house."

"I still have to shower and stuff. How about you guys come over here and you can chill in my room or whatever while I get ready."

"Ok, we'll be right over."

Eddy hung up the phone and a few seconds later the door bell rang. He answered the door still wearing his boxers and a tank top. He caught Dea checking him out and laughed nervously.

"Um, this way," he said, and led his guests back to his room.

"Nice room, Eddy," Dea commented, taking notice of the record player and unusual decor, "you have good taste."

"Thanks. Well, you guys can just hang out or whatever. I'll be out in a few minutes."

Eddy shut the door to the bathroom behind him and left the other three to their own devices. Edd sat down on the bed and folded his hands in his lap. He frowned at the pile of clotheson the floor and the light coat of dust covering a lot of the room. Ed was digging around under the bed for Eddy's stash of Playboy Magazines. Dea meanwhile, was going through Eddy's music collection. She nodded, seeming to have found a record she liked, and put it on the player. "I'll Never Get Over You," by Tom Jones started playing.

About that time, Eddy came back into the room with a towel wrapped around his waist. His guest looked at him, wide-eyed.

"Eddy! Make yourself decent, there are ladies present!" cried Edd.

"Ohh-la-la," Dea said.

"I...um...forgot my clothes." Eddy pulled some clothes out of a drawer and went back to the bathroom, well aware that his company's eyes were following him across the room. He stopped in the door way and turned.

"You guys are listening to Tom Jones."

"Yeah, I love this song," Dea said.

"Cool," Eddy smiled at her, then went back into the bathroom.

A few minutes later they were all seated in Dea's car, heading toward her old home-town to pick up her friend. She was playing Black Eyed Peas this time, which Edd didn't mind so much if she wouldn't play it so loud.

"So what's your friend like?" Edd shouted in an attempt to get her to turn down the volume.

"You'll like her, Double-D. She's not at all like me."

Edd cringed, looking guilty. He hadn't meant to come across as not liking Dea. Maybe he was overly critical like Eddy said. Dea smirked, watching him in her rear view mirror.

"I'm just messing with you," she said, "Her name's Marty. She's super nice, but pretty much the biggest nerd I know."

"What makes her a nerd?"

"Well, she's really smart. She loves science and math team and reading novels, and all that boring stuff. She like, knows all this information that no normal human should know. Oh, and she's all like "save the animals!" I mean really,who cares about the stupid animals?"

"Really," Edd said. He was peeved that Dea called reading nerdy and that she was so down on her friend's vision to help animals.

"Yeah, she's vegan, so we'll have to eat somewhere that serves salad. She won't eat real food."

"She sounds a lot like you, Sock-head," Eddy snickered.

"Does she like buttered toast?" Ed asked.

"She'd like the toast. She wouldn't eat the butter because it came from a cow."

"That's stupid," Eddy said, "how does making butter hurt the cow?"

"It doesn't. That's what drives me nuts about her sometimes."

They pulled up outside of said "vegan friend's" house. The girl came out to meet them and was quite surprised when she opened the door to Dea's car and found three guys she'd never met before sitting in the car. Although, knowing Dea, she shouldn't have been surprised. She always envied Dea's ability to attract male attention.

"Hi, Marty," Dea greeted, "Eddy, get out for a second so she can climb over the seat."

Eddy moved so she could get in and Edd slid over next to Ed. As Marty got over the awkwardness of the situation she found time to be a bit upset with Dea. Not only did she bring a bunch of people Marty didn't know, but she made Marty sit in the back! Marty was a little bit offended, but quickly got over it. Dea did what she felt like doing and Marty was well accustomed to that by now.

"I hope you don't mind, Marty, but I decided to bring some of my new friends with us," Dea said once they were on the road again.

"No, I don't mind," she answered uncomfortably, "hi guys. My name is Marty, nice to meet you."

"My name is Ed! And this is Double-D! And up there, that's Eddy!"

"Nice to meet you," she said again.

She took off the blue hat she had been wearing and combed her black shoulder length hair. Edd had been unusually quiet since she got in the car. He still had trouble talking to cute girls. He wouldn't deny that Dea was physically attractive, but she wasn't his type. Marty, quiet innocent Marty, seemed like she might be. He studied her out of the corner of his eye. She wore a green headband in her hair and had glasses, like Dea, except her's were about five times bigger. She looked a bit taller than Dea and perhaps a bit thinner. She had a classiness about her that Dea's cold and short-tempered attitude wouldn't allow her to match up to.

The vehicle jerked to a hault and shook him from his observations. They were at the mall. The five of them got out of the car and walked in a group toward the entrance with Ed running excitedly ahead. Once inside they stood around a huge map, trying to decide where to go.

"Well, the book store is right there, so I think we should go there first," said Marty.

"Have at it," Dea said, "I'll be in the CD store over there."

"Ok, we'll all meet back here in, say, half an hour?"

"Sounds good to me."

Marty and Edd headed off to the book store, leaving Eddy and Dea by the map.

"You wanna look at music with me?" Dea asked Eddy.

"Sure. We just have to make sure the lump doesn't break anything, right Ed? Ed? Where'd he go?"

"SANTA!"

Ed was running across the center court of the mall to stand in line to see Santa.

"He's such a child," Eddy said.

That line was mile a long. It would take all of 30 minutes and then some to get through that line. They looked over to the book store and saw Edd and Marty holding numerous books and talking as they pointed to various pages.

"Well, we've got plenty of time to kill," Eddy commented.

The two went to the music store together and spent about 10 minutes browsing CDs. Eddy was being really quiet again and wasn't really reading the labels on any of the CDs. He just flipped through random racks of discs then moved on.

"Eddy, are you Ok?" Dea asked, standing beside him.

"Why?"

"You're really quiet today. I know I don't know you that well, but you don't seem like someone who would normally be silent. What's the matter?"

Eddy stared at her with fearful, yet longing eyes for a moment. He was at a loss for words. He silently turned and walked out of the store. He stopped outside the door, rubbing his arm nervously. Dea stared after him for a second and then followed him out. He tried to keep his back to her, but she could see he was holding back tears.

"What's wrong, Eddy?" she asked. She put her arm around him comfortingly.

"Nothing!" Despite his claim, Eddy sniffled once and burried his face in his hands.

"Come on, let's go get a drink or something," she said gently. She kept her arm around him as they walked off to the food court.

A few minutes later, the pair sat on a bench across from the book store, drinking slushies. Although Eddy still refused to tell anyone what was wrong, he was feeling much better. Dea seemed to know how to comfort him without beating him over the head to get all the details. They sat rather close together and were back to joking around lightlyand making fun of passers-by. Dea looked across to the book store and saw Marty and Edd coming out. She and Eddy stood up and walked over to meet their friends.

"Where's Ed?" Edd asked.

"He ran off to see Santa half an hour ago," Eddy answered.

The four of them walked over to the Santa part of the mall. Ed was currently sitting on Santa's lap naming off a huge list of stuff he wanted.

"...I want a space monster, and a transformer, and a bowl of chunky puffs, and a wood chipper, and..."

Santa looked like he was going to be crushed under Ed's weight. His face was all red and his eye was twitching. Ed's four observers even saw Santa try to push Ed off a few times. Of course, Eddy and Dea found this hilarious and even Marty was holding back a snicker.

"Ed! Come down from there!" Edd called, "You're crushing the poor man!"

"But I'm talking to Santa, Double-D!"

"Ed! You get down from there!" Eddy yelled.

"But Eddy! Santa!"

"Santa stinks! Get down from there or we'll leave you behind!"

"I am sorry, Santa," Ed said climbing down, "he didn't mean it. Eddy just hates Christmas because he's short."

"Wait a minute..." Edd mused, "Christmas was over almost two weeks ago! It's January! Of all the..."

They looked back up at Santa. The man's beard fell off and he looked around suspiciously. He grabbed a large bag next to his throne that read, "Santa $" and ran off.

"I should have thought of that," Eddy commented.

After that, they took a quick break for food, then went back to roaming the mall.

"Hey, let's go in that cheap jewelry store!" Dea pointed to a store across the way and they all headed in that direction.

"Hold it!" Marty stepped in front of Dea, looking cross.

"What's your problem?"

"You're not going in there to steal stuff again, are you?"

Everyone looked at Dea.

"Oh, come on! I never stole anything that big! Maybe if they didn't over charge for everything!"

"Stealing is wrong, Dea! You see all these buttons and pins on her purse? She stole half of them from that store!"

"I did not! I only stole a couple from there!"

"Oh, so you've been mugging other stores too?"

"No! I only steal from church. And sometimes my dad..."

"I agree with Marty," Edd said, "stealing is a serious crime!"

"You guys need to chill out," Dea said, "if it upsets you, look away while I go in there and you'll never know."

"Nice one," Eddy complimented.

"Not you too, Eddy," Edd whined.

"Hey, we didn't say we were going to steal anything this time. And Dea's right- they do overcharge!"

Eddy and Dea went ahead into the store. Edd, Marty, and Ed stayed outside, wanting no part of their mischief.

"We should take something just to make them mad," Dea said, "Little Miss Goody-two-shoes is makin' me mad. I wasn't planning on stealing anything this time and what's itto her if I do?"

"I know," Eddy agreed, "they're so moral. Hey, check this out."

Eddy went and stood in front of the display window where he knew the others would be looking in. Casually, he started picking up items, examining them, and stuffing them into his pockets. As expected, Edd started freaking out. He was hopping foot to foot and waving his arms like an old fashioned corny cartoon. Eddy waved at him and flashed him that characteristic sneaky grin. Edd covered his eyes and turned his back, unable to take it anymore. Eddy took this moment to unload his pockets and put everything back in its place.

A few minutes later, both of them came back out of the store. Dea had a bag with her and was working on putting on a new bracelet.

"I can not believe the insensitvity of you two!" Edd errupted, "You're so immature!"

Marty looked at Dea skeptically.

"Relax, I paid for it," Dea said, "you want to see my receipt and count my change?"

"No, I believe you," Marty said, giving up at last.

The group only roamed around for another hour before at last going home. All in all, it had been good day. Unfortunately for Eddy, things wouldn't stay that way.

A/N: I'll get into the more serious stuff next chapter. It will explain part of why Eddy's acting weird and what happened to his brother. Someone review me, please!