Accidental Chaos

"Come one, come all and ride Eddy's Extreme Spinner, the ride where if you don't puke, then we didn't do our job!" A loud and blaring voice boomed across the Cul-de-Sac as the sun rose to its peak. The source of the voice was a short boy standing on top of a milk crate, a megaphone in his hand and greedy and excited gleam in his eyes. His grin was stretched across his face from ear to ear, proud and sleazy, the exact copy of one that would be displayed on a salesman trying to sell opium pills to children at the turn of the 19th century.

Slowly in a trickle and then as a small stream a group of kids started to come out of the houses and started to assemble in front of Eddy's house, each one displaying a look of irritation and suspicion. After having been involved in Eddy's scams, belligerence, antagonism and shortsightedness for more than two years at this point, the neighborhood kids were more than willing to believe that he had a future as a used car salesman or a mortgage banker. Honestly by this point the only reason they continued to indulge him was a combination of the hope of having the odd fluke of an actual good idea that works and boredom caused by the tedium of reality, with a small heap of pity thrown in for good measure.

The group only numbered six people, but they could become a fierce force at a moments notice (as Eddy well knew, as he has been on the receiving end of such beat downs on multiple occasions). At the front of the group was a tough looking, semi perpetually scowling jock of similar short stature to Eddy, with a green long sleeved shirt, black shorts and a red baseball cap that he wore backwards over his crew cut red hair. His jade green eyes glared at Eddy, his anger and hatred barely restrained behind his stone like face.

"Alright dork, what are you trying to do this time?" He growled out. Eddy, sweating a little on the back of his neck, jumped down from the crate and put his arm around the jock's neck, his face now sporting the look of a dishonest door to door salesman. "Well Shovel Chin, you know those rides where you're strapped to a wall and then spun round and round until the ride ends? I just took the same concept and took it up a notch."

The jock threw Eddy's arm off his shoulder and picked him up by the collar. "You better hope that this doesn't go wrong or the next time you're seen, it's as a drowned corpse ten miles downstream. I know how dangerous these kinds of rides can be."

"Kevin, let him go. We haven't even seen the Spinner yet, let alone ride it. Let's withhold judgement until later." The jock, now named Kevin, looked back at the person who voiced reason when dealing with the local scam artist. It was a blond haired girl with full red lips and kind aquamarine eyes, wearing a white tank top over a black t-shirt and a pair of purple designer jeans. She was looking at Kevin with a judgemental sternness that was almost motherly.

"Indeed Kevin, let us see what foot in mouth Ed boy has to show. It might be better for Rolf than sanding Nana's foot fungus." This voice, going by the name of Rolf, had come from a tall and gangly blue haired boy with wise and slightly crazed mud brown eyes wearing a yellow short sleeved shirt crossed horizontally by a red bar and a pair of faded blue jeans. His accent, some vague eastern dialect that was part German, part Polish, part Swedish and part Slovak, indicating that he had only recently immigrated, easily distinct amongst the clear english and slight midwestern accents the other three speakers had.

Kevin eyes bore into Eddy's, causing Eddy to start to panic slightly before he sighed and dropped him before looking back at the blonde. "Okay Nazz, we'll do it your way, but if something goes wrong, I'm hanging him by his underwear from the top of the nearest street light." Eddy quickly got back up off the ground and looked around at his captivated audience, the sound of quarters clinking on glass chiming through his head.

"Ladies and Gentlemen and Jimmy," "Hey!" "Please step into the backyard of my humble abode and experience one of the greatest days of your life!" Eddy then sprinted around the corner of the house and out of sight. The rest of the kids followed him and found that what he had to show them wasn't as extravagant or as cheap as some of his previous scams. If anything it was rather simple. It was a wooden wheel that was lying on its side, elevated by a connecting spoked gear connected to another gear that was connected and moved by a crank that they saw Ed standing next to, waving at them and smiling in a dopey and cheerful manner. Eddy was posing arrogantly in front of a set of metal stairs that lead up to door in the side of the wheel, now wearing a green accountants hat and holding a glass mason jar. "Step right up and experience that ride of a lifetime, all for the low low price of one quarter!"

"And why should we do that?" Eddy froze in shock before his face morphed into an expression of irritation before looking into the crowd at a red haired girl with smoldering, angry light brown eyes and wearing a pink tank top and blue skinny jeans. Both glared at each other with unmasked hatred, each willing the other's head to blow up with little success. Luckily for both of them, Double-D exited Eddy's house through his glass bedroom door. In conjunction with his normal summer attire he was wearing a green and yellow plaid tie over his shirt, making him a bit more professional in his actions and mannerism (though really, nothing changed in his attitude, he just wore it to make him feel professional).

"Well Sarah, I have set this up so that we could get enough speed for an enjoyable experience and stable enough so that no accidents could happen. We are all aware that safety for this ride is our top priority." What Double-D didn't say was that he had had a hard time convincing Eddy to allow such a thing to happen, as his rather cheap friend wanted to use cardboard. Fortunately for Double-D, he was able to find some unused construction supports in the junkyard and had convinced Eddy to use those instead.

"And I will be carefully watching Ed to make sure he doesn't take it too far." Ed then appeared between the two and gave Sarah a bone crushing hug. "Your head is safe with me little sister." "ED!" Sarah growled, "Get off of me!" Sarah pried herself from her brother's arms enough to punch him in the face, sending his upper body stretching towards the house before snapping back like a rubber band and hitting Sarah in the face, popping her out of his grasp in the process. She skidded across the yard for a bit, leaving a trail of dirt and rocks cutting through the neatly trimmed yard until she rammed into the fence.

Eddy's hoarse cackle filled the air as a young boy with curly sandy hair, emerald green eyes, a blue longsleeve shirt, white designer khakis, a black belt and a wire brace that held what his ten remaining baby teeth ran towards the crumbled heap that was Sarah. "Sarah, are you alright?" he asked in a high pitched concerned squeak. He raised her head, now sporting a few bruises, a cut left cheek and a black right eye towards his. She looked dazed at first, but as she regained cohesion and heard Eddy's laughter, pure rage consumed her entire being. "No Jimmy, but those two are going to look a lot worse after I'm done with them."

Leaping to her feet she charged at Eddy and Ed with the fierceness of a Spanish bull. The two of them only had a few moments for their entire faces to develop into looks of utter terror before both were tackled and the three of them devolved into a whirling mass of dust, fists and agonized screams. The rest of the kids quickly dodged out of the way of the chaos as it moved past them. Some of them had been on the receiving end of Sarah's temper before and they were not interested in getting caught in her vengeful path.

Double-D, terrified for his friends lives and terrified that Sarah would turn on him next due to association, tried to desperately reason with her. "SARAH! Ed is the operator for the ride, it won't work without him!" But his pleas fell on deaf ears. By the time she was done with Ed and Eddy, the two of them were little more than crumbled living corpses, covered in deep purple bruises, a few broken ribs and two massive concussions that left huge bumps on their heads and spirals in their eyes.

Double-D ran to Eddy and kneeled down next to him. "Eddy, Eddy!" He shouted, holding his hand in front of Eddy's face and holding up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?" "Mommy, I don't want to go to school, I just want to stay home and make cookies with you." Eddy replied whoozelly before falling into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. Double-D, anxious and panicky, quickly looked over at Ed, only to find him in a similar state, a sight that caused him to fall into despondent despair. There was no way that they could get the Spinner to work now. With Ed unconscious, the only way they could get the Spinner to work was to get one of the other kids to operate the crank. Nazz and Jimmy were too weak to operate the crank at an enjoyable speed, Sarah was likely to kill him if he even suggested that she operates it and the rest were more likely to walk away and leave him with his broken friends than help him. There was no choice, he would have to close down the Spinner.

He slowly stood up, his head hanging low, his eyes close to the verge of tears. For most of Eddy's scams and projects, he had severe doubts about them and he would openly object to them constantly. He would help anyway, if just to try to give them the best chance they have to succeed, but he never believed in them and he more often than not was just waiting for them to blow up in their face. But this was one that he truly believed in. When Eddy had told him the plan early that morning, he was excited to try it and he had spent hours working in the intense heat making sure that everything would work and that it wouldn't fall apart and that the other kids in the Cul-de-Sac would enjoy. And now he wouldn't be able to see if it works, to see the smiles on the others faces and hear their laughter fill the air. All that work, wasted because the engine was knocked out by his little sister. He lifted his head up to the crowd and spoke to the rest of the kids, his voice nearly cracking as he tried and failed to keep his emotions at bay. "Well everyone, since Ed is unconscious and I am too weak to operate the crank, I guess you...you...you." He tried to finish the sentence, his voice close to blubbering as tears started to trickle down his face. He could feel the eyes of his neighbors piercing into his soul as he struggled to tell them that they could go home. Just when he was about to finally get the words out, an unexpected savior came to his aid.

"What's going on here?" A scratchy voice shattered the uncomfortable quiet of the afternoon. Double-D and the rest of the kids of the Cul-de-Sac and saw Marie Kanker glaring at them. She seemed rather serious, something that was an unusual sight. She saw the still lying forms of the other Eds out of the corner of her eyes, a puddle of drool coming from Ed's mouth forming at the base of his neck. She then looked at Double-D.

"What did you do?" Double-D blinked. While he did expect her to ask him a question, he didn't expect her to sound so firm. "Pardon?" "What did you do?" she repeated, this time in an irritated and accusatory tone. "You always do something to get cash for jawbreakers, something goes wrong and then you get beat up." "Well Marie" Double-D began to explain his voice audibly shaking with nerves as he tried to get her to calm down. "Nothing has actually happened yet." This didn't work, if Marie's glare intensifying had anything to say about it. "So we decided to skip step one and two and just went straight to step three then? Let me tell you, I'm not having a good day today, so give me one reason why I shouldn't fill your mouths with gravel."

The other kids backed away, some of them hiding behind Kevin and Nazz. They had been on the receiving end of the Kanker's fists before and they didn't want to be in it right now. "No, no, we weren't doing that." Nazz stated, clear panic nearly causing her to fall into hysteria. "Sarah was just a little too enthusiastic with her brother earlier and Eddy accidently got caught in the crossfire." "Yeah," a short, shaved headed boy with naive pale gray eyes interjected, his right arm clutching a plank of wood with a smiley face to his chest, his other hand switching from twisting his white t-shirt to grabbing his dirty blue sweatpants as he tried to rein in his own nerves. "Sarah had a bit of a tumble after escaping from one of Ed's hugs and she went a bit overboard. You can ask Plank if you don't believe me."

Marie kept glaring at him, her arms crossed in front of her chest, her fingers lapping against them as if itching to smash the plank of wood he was holding over his head. Eventually, she moved her glare over to Double-D, the glare weakening as she transitioned from rage to stone face anger. "So what were you planning on doing? It better not have been another dessert stand." Jimmy, Sarah and Double-D flinched at this as they remembered the scam that caused Jimmy to need braces, but Double-D quickly recovered and smiled at Marie in what he hoped wasn't a rictus grin. "No, it's just a simple spinning ride. However, Ed was the operator of the crank and he's well…" His eyes quickly flickered over to his friends bodies, flies now starting to circle their crumpled forms. "So, since there's nobody to work the crank I was just about too." "I'll do it."

Double-D and the rest of the kids were stunned. A Kanker helping an Ed. Inconceivable! Marie looked around at the kids, annoyed and aggravated. "Look, I don't want to be at home right now, and I have some energy I need to let out so let me operate the crank." Most of the crowd accepted this, a Kanker having an ulterior motive for something is expected, even common to them, but Double-D didn't. He was suspicious as the Kanker sister were usually never on their own when they could help it and yet here Marie was without any of her siblings. 'Somethings wrong.' Looking closer, he saw that her eyes looked a little red. 'Has she been crying recently?'

Knowing that he would be unable to get anything out of her, he decided that it would be best to ignore the matter for the time being. "Alright then Marie, I assume I don't have to tell you how to work a crank?" "Damn straight you don't" she muttered. "Right, I'll show you where the Spinner is and we'll get this thing up and running."

It was remarkable how well things were going. After moving his friends underneath an umbrella to stave off the heat, everything went off without a hitch. Marie was able to keep up a steady pace that was fast enough for it to enjoyable, yet slow enough to prevent serious injury. Some of the kids, like Jimmy and Nazz, were only able to go on it once before leaving, their faces tinged a sickly green, whereas others went on it multiple times, allowing Double-D to get a tidy profit off of them. As the hour crept by eventually most of the kids had left, leaving only Jonny behind with him and Marie, hemorrhaging quarters as Plank was still riding the Extreme Spinner. By this point the jar Eddy had earlier was nearly overflowing with cash, and Double-D figured that now would be the time for the fun to end.

"Marie, I was wondering if you could stop the Spinner, I think we're down for the day." "No." Came Marie's blunt reply as she kept turning the crank. Double-D looked over at her and winced a little. He thought that getting her exhausted with physical labor would cool her down, but that had apparently failed. Not only did she not look even remotely tired, she looked even angrier than she did before. Double-D looked down at her hands and saw that they were clutching the crank handle so tightly she was actually digging into the wood. 'She must be really angry, that handle is four inches thick!' Remembering what she said earlier, he cautiously went over, knowing that he would now have to try to have an actual conversation with her. 'I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm so very very dead!'

"Hey Marie," he asked, a visible tremor to his voice as if he were talking to a caged lion. "Is something wrong? You don't seem to be having a good day." If looks could kill, Double-D would've been in the ground three weeks ago. Marie's glare showed such intense rage that you could literally see flames replacing her irises. Her teeth were grinding so intensely they were sending sparks into the air and her hands had clutched so tightly that the handle nearly shattered from her grip. The Spinner started to go faster as she turned the crank with blazing ferocity.

"Oh nothing," she started, quietly at first but building in volume as she went. "It's just that I found out today that my life has been practically a lie and that its my dad's fault, that I was conceived by accident and that he abandoned his family because he cared about catching some 'traitor' than he did about caring for his family." As she kept ranting and turning the crank, Double-D smelled a strange ashy smell. 'Is something burning?' He turned towards the Spinner and his eyes widened in horror as he saw that it was starting to smoke. "And then I find out that I had been signed by my father back when I was one to attend a school out of the country that I've never heard of before and I'm supposed to go there just because my father did and I've been given no choice in the matter, as my mother and my father just expect me to go!" At that moment the top of the Spinner spontaneously caught fire. "PLANK! DON'T WORRY, I'LL SAVE YOU BUDDY!" Johnny shouted as he tried to race over the still spinning ride in order to save his wooden friend. And yet Marie didn't notice, as she only continued to vent, her voice rising to an enraged scream.

"Oh, and I'm going alone, my sister's get to go to the same public school as the rest of you just because I'm his biological daughter and they aren't, and I have to somehow get the supplies, with what money I don't know, it's not like we need it for important things like the heating bill, the electric bill and just so that we can have two meals a day." By this time the entire Spinner was a blazing inferno, its flames soaring through the afternoon sky as it got faster and faster. Johnny had somehow been able to climb over the open roof and unstrap Plank and was now banging against the door trying to get out. Double-D could do little but stare in dumbfounded shock as his efforts were consumed by the fire, as if they were the personification of the utter fury of Marie, who by now was screaming so loudly that she didn't even notice that the kids had just returned and were staring in complete amazement.

"SO NO, I'M NOT OKAY, BECAUSE MY LIFE IS BEING CONTINUOUSLY SCREWED OVER THROUGH THINGS THAT I NEVER KNEW ABOUT, A FATHER WHO I'VE NEVER MET AND I'M SUPPOSED TO JUST ACCEPT IT! NO QUESTIONS ASKED! ALL OBJECTIONS INVALID! YOU LOSE!RAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!" At that moment she stopped the crank and yanked the Spinner over her head, throwing a slightly smoldering Johnny and Plank out before slamming in repeatedly into the ground. Fire and burning pieces of wood spewed from the wreckage with every blow, causing the fenceline and the dry grass to light up and join the small wildfire that used to be Eddy's Extreme Spinner. All Double-D and the rest of the Cul-de-Sac could do was watch Marie's tantrum and keep as far away from the flames as they could.

"She's really lost it hasn't she Sarah." Jimmy asked, his terrified body shaking behind the girl he was using as a shield, who herself was looking at the monstrous sight before her with stunned horror. "Yeah, I think she did Jimmy." By this point the Spinner had been completely destroyed, with Marie now just swinging the handle on the now busted crank down on the flaming wreckage, surprisingly unharmed and untouched by the flames. She had devolved into little more than a ferocious badger, spewing hisses and curses that would cause the other to have had soap put in their mouths for three days, each punctuated with a blow on the pile of wood and flame that she stood on with the handle, which by this point was little more than a bundle of splinters.

In all the confusion, Double-D and the rest of the kids had forgotten about Ed and Eddy, who were still lying motionless on the lawn chairs they had been put on earlier. It was only when Double-D started to see that the flames were licking at the umbrellas that were providing their prone figures with shade that he rushed back towards the flames. "Marie! You need to get out of there! The entire yard is on fire!" Despite the roar of the flames, Marie was able to hear him. She looked up, as if she was coming out of a trance and was stunned to see that she was surrounded by a ring of flames. She looked back at the handle she was holding and saw that it too was on fire before she dropped it in surprise. Backing away from the pile as quickly as she could, she found herself back on the ground, the black ash that used to be grass caking the bottom of her pants.

'Did I do this?' she wondered. She had been so consumed by her own rage that the world had disappeared from around, so she was unsure what had happened in the last few minutes. The flames jumped towards her and around her and yet she didn't feel the heat that it conveyed. A wave of fire washed over her, and she saw that her skin wasn't burned. 'How is that possible, unless it's… magical fire.' Her eyes widened as she realized this, horror spreading across her face at this revelation. She started hyperventilating. 'Oh god oh god, I don't know what to do! There's magic fire destroying everything and I don't know how to put it out!' While she was panicking however, she saw that the fire was becoming more erratic the more petrified so got. 'That's it, the fire is tied to my emotions, it must be the accidental magic mom was talking about earlier. If I can calm down, the fire should go out!'

Slowly, Marie eased down the speed of her breathing, her frantic shallow gulps being replaced by calm, soothing deep breathes. With each successive breath the flames receded further and further, the air getting cooler and cooler. The umbrellas, at this point being half consumed by the flames, were suddenly snuffed out. The fence stopped burning, leaving a large hole in the fence line between Eddy's and Kevin's houses and the flames disappeared from the grass, as if blown out by a strong wind. Eventually the flame disappeared, leaving nothing but burned timber, white and black ash and a girl sitting in the middle of it all, passively staring at the ground, clutching herself as if trying to protect herself from a storm.

Double-D could hardly believe his eyes. What had once been a wildfire in the making had disappeared in less than two minutes for no reason. Heck, the fire had come and gone so quickly that if he hadn't seen the whole thing he might not have believed that it had happened at all. As far as he could tell the only reason that it had both appeared and disappeared in the first place was because of Marie Kanker. As he looked at her, he saw that she was starting to enter a stage of stunned disbelief and was looking around with a look of fear and...is that guilt. Before he could ponder this further however, Marie quickly stood up and scampered through the gap in the fence, looking like a panicked deer as she fled. Not sure what else he could do, he took off after her, calling her name as he desperately tried to keep up.

The rest of the Cul-de-Sac kids looked over the damage was befuddled amazement. Each of them too shocked to speak, their faces frozen as if they were still watching the fire that had existed there not five minutes earlier. Then a pained groan shook them out of their shock. "Uh, my head." Eddy groaned as he sat back up in the lawn chair, grasping his head and wincing in pain from the headache he was suffering. "I swear when I get my hands on that brat she's going to suffer for what she did to me." As he opened his eyes, he was stunned by the sight before him, of his yard destroyed and the ash that settled on what had been his latest scam. As he took everything in, he could do little but shout. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY EXTREME SPINNER!?"