Chapter 27: A New Level

That title might be an understatement. Anyways, it's now the next morning, and oh where oh where to begin...? Let's start with Double D. Well, he's still high on that drug you call love, although not as much as when he went to sleep, for certain. Putting that aside, our sockheaded Ed-boy currently was busy preparing himself for the new day of school, and yeah... it's gonna be a strange day for him and his girlfriend. He was hoping that Marie was able to keep the whole thing from last night just between them, as more people finding out is NOT going to help their situation in the slightest bit whatsoever. Anyways, Double D just simply finished dressing up, and prepared himself for the weirdest day between him and Marie, as ever since Lee came back from what happened, the two of them have simply keep it, "below the radar", so to speak, my good lad. Although... now? It's a test for both of them.

As for other things to note, our other lads, Ed; Eddy and Chris, are already outside of Double D's house, as they are currently waiting for Double D, to discuss how things went in general. And yeah, once Double D goes outside, Eddy greets him, saying, "Hey Double D!"

"Greetings!" Double D said. "How are you doing this fine morning?"

"We are all good I want to say." Chris responded. "But, why don't you tell us what happened yesterday at night? We got plenty of time while we walk to school, so tell us man!"

So, the boys start walking to school, and Double D begins to speak, "Well, Marie and I started off the whole date by first eating dinner. I simply got ourselves leftovers from a previous dinner night with mother and father. Proceeding onwards, Marie wanted to watch a couple movies and I obliged happily to join her. After that and so, some other events conspired."

"What?" Eddy asked, but come on now! He, Chris and Ed know what Double D is talking about!

"What's that supposed to mean...?" Chris said, pretending to be surprised.

Double D is trying to find out how on earth he could explain what he's referring to. Then again, he could always just... not tell them, but this would be pointless because we already know why. So, BEFORE Double D says what he means, he first states, "You all must promise to not reveal this very important piece of information to anyone within the confines of our cul-de-sac or school. Understood?"

"Yep. We promise. I'll make sure we keep it to ourselves, right guys!?" Chris said, reassuring Double D, and the other two lads promised to do so aswell. And... oh my goodness, Double D actually decides to SPIT! IT OUT! "Well, Chris, if you recall the meaning you provided to myself about going to 'second-base'... I suppose you can say. I assure you, I kept sure that it didn't exceed anything more than a simple... expression of affection."

"Wait..." Chris said, pretending to be shocked, and so was Eddy. "Does this mean that you..."

Double D only nodded his head as to say, affirmative. And, Chris and Eddy looked at each other for half a second, and burst out in laughter.

"DUDE!" Chris yelled out. "You really went there? My dude! I'm proud of ya!"

"Did you stop halfway through! I bet you did!" Eddy said, teasing him.

"Uh... of course not!" Double D, who was now embarrassed beyond belief, more than you think.

As the four lads went to the school, they arrived to their lockers and while doing so, Chris tells Double D, "Relax alright? Only we know about it, but promise we will keep it between us. After all, we aren't going to spread it around you dingus."

"Hopefully your word is sincere. Thank you Chris."

"No worries. Lads! To class! We go!"

And so, the four split up, as we all know, Chris and Eddy to Math, and Ed and Double D to Spanish. While the former two go, Eddy says, "You think he bought that we didn't know about it?"

"Yeah." Chris said. "Although, let's hope to god Ed doesn't spoil over cover. Then again... maybe Double D won't believe him. Let's hope so..."

The two lads take their seats, which are still the same, so nothing different there. Although, Chris notices that Skylar is, once again, late. "Huh... wonder where Skylar is. Why does she always come late...?"

"Maybe she's getting all ready for something or someone." Eddy teased, making Chris slightly annoyed.

"Shut up, you twit. Ugh... you're never gonna let this go, are you? Just calm down already!" Chris said in response.

Around a couple minutes, as Chris and Eddy were getting set up, Chris notices Skylar enter, luckily Mr. Muta wasn't there yet either, as he was busy with some stuff himself. Skylar then notices him, and shoots a smile at him, and of course, he returns the favor.

"Hey! How's it going?" Skylar asks him.

"Alright, more or less. Just kinda bored. You?"

"Okay." Skylar says. "Happy to see you. You think Mr. Muta will give out another really long set of problems today?"

Chris missed what Skylar asked because he was surprised about what she first said. But then, tick! It ticks in his head what she just asked, and, sheepishly, he says, "Not... uh... sure? Maybe?"

"We will see, hmm?" Skylar says back to him.

"Jesus Christ me! Calm down already! It's fine, you have literally no reason to be nervous! Listen to some Metal or something to cool off a bit!" Chris yelled inside his mind to himself.

On the other side...

In Spanish, things are going well for Double D and Marie. Of course, they both waved at each other, and said hello, but nothing more, as they had to keep this away from Lee, no matter what. Which, luckily, they both managed to do. Granted, May knew about it, but Marie had yet to tell her about the details about... well, everything, to be exact. But May did know about the whole thing, as she literally helped out Marie, similar to how Chris, Eddy, and Ed knew about it because they helped Double D. In their class however, Marie and Double D both shot smiles at each other here and there, but luckily for them, no one else really saw or noticed it much really. So far, so good... so what!?

Skipping over unnecessary details, the crew of 8 peeps all simply went through their classes in a breeze and so, lunchtime! And you know what that means for the boys. Yeah. The good news is Eddy stopped complaining about it endlessly, thanks to Chris convincing him that the more he complains, he just added salt to the wound. Anyways, the group of 8 got bored at their table, and they all decided to play "spin the bottle", but NOT in the way it's normally known for. In fact, they all agreed to do a much different version of the game. Let me try to explain to you. Ahem...

The way that they all mutually agreed to do this, was more of a combo of Spin The Bottle and Truth or Dare. Basically, someone will spin the bottle, and then whoever it lands on will have to answer a truth, or do a dare. In fact, hey! The lads are all ready to play, so let's go see what's up!

"Ed, you shall go first!" Double D proposed, in order to start.

Ed spins the bottle, and... it lands on Skylar. So, Ed then says, "Ooh! Uh... I dare you to turn into a vampire!"

Skylar laughs a little bit, but then says, "Yeah uh... I'm not able to do that. Sorry to disappoint."

"Ed... maybe try something more reasonable?" Double D suggested. Ed simply say there... thinking and thinking about what exactly to say. Then he got an idea.

"Okay! How about... tell me a story!"

Skylar nods her head, and decides to share a short story in order to not take too much time. "Well, I found this school by fighting through an invasion of evil sorcerers and devils! They just didn't want to let me find out about this place, but spoiler alert, they failed to hide it from me. And because they failed, they went away to their homes. The end."

Everyone shared a chuckle, as the moment Skylar mentioned demons/sorcerers and that stuff... it was pretty obvious that it just a joke, and that obviously Skylar didn't actually fight through that stuff. Ed, while laughing a little says, "That's a cool story! Okay! Double D's turn!"

"Very well." Double D says, and so, he spins the bottle and... Chris!

"Oh, alright. Let's see what the smart guy has in store for me." Chris said.

"Because I don't resort to immature dares," Double D said. "I will give you a dare that's easy to do. I dare you to take a break from your heavy metal for three days!"

"Really?" Chris said. "Well, not the worst thing ever, but I'll try this. If I listen to a metal song, I'll mark it down and you can use it against me... if ya want. Until then... I guess some Jimi Hendrix and some video game music will suffice."

"Glad to hear." Double D responded. "Eddy, your turn."

Eddy then spins it and... he lands on Marie. Shocking? Maybe not much. But...

"Alright then, Marie! You ready for a dare?"

"Bring it shorty!" Marie yelled back. That might've been a poor choice of words, as...

"I dare ya to kiss Double D."

Hahahaha! If their secret was well hidden now, well... it just got a hella of a lot more complicated than you think lad. Now what? Double D and Marie don't have an issue with this now, but the thing is... if they make seem like they are enjoying it, there goes the marbles. They could just back out; right?

"Eddy!" Double D yelled. "I will not participate in this, no thank you!"

"Oh, you will. Otherwise, why don't we do something I like to call, 'Metal Roulette'?" Chris said.

Double D raised an eyebrow, then asked, "What exactly are you proposing?"

"Here's how it works." Chris began to explain. "Now, I'll pick a random Metal song from a collection, right? Now, you could end with a very short, but brutal song like Get This from Slipknot, or you could end up with a song like Metal Meltdown from Judas Priest, which is not brutal, but fast as hell for a good portion of its 5 minutes or so. Or, lastly, you could end up with a very slow song, but very long song, like Iowa from Slipknot, running at FIFTEEN minutes. Like I said, it's random. So, don't do the dare, and I'll roll and see what song you get. Your choice."

Wow. That's a way to get their spirits up, isn't it. Not really. Anyways, Double D didn't mind the music itself, but he gets sick of it after like 4 songs, and he prefers more calm things, so... kissing Marie it is! But, he decided to LOOK like he wasn't going to enjoy this. Marie had the same thing in mind too. So, after around like 10 seconds of staring at each other, the two of them share their... official and unofficial kiss in public. The circumstances make the two of them hardly willing to even consider that their, "official" kiss in public.

"Well... here I thought you didn't have the guts. Ha!" Eddy teased, which annoyed Marie. Anyways, it's now Chris's turn. He spins it and... he lands on May. This could be slightly... empty per se.

"Uh... hmm... May, maybe I could do a truth. Have you always had your two teeth poking out like that? Not making fun of that, I'm just curious."

"I think..." May responded. "...around like went I was 5 I noticed that. I've tried to ignored it though."

"Cool. Umm... Skylar? Your turn."

Skylar spins the bottle and... oh wow! Chris is up yet again. "Well... hmm... give me a second..."

"Just nothing embarrassing... PLEASE." Chris thought in his mind. After around a few second, Skylar turns to him and asks him, "Tell me the most ridiculous thing you've done that you can recall."

"Whew." Chris said. "Alright uh... one time in ninth grade, we were assigned to analyze a song and write a whole set of three or so paragraphs. And well... I chose 'Iowa', which is..."

Skylar laughs at him, as she knows what the song is about. Chris just spits it out and says, "...it's about playing with a dead corpse. Yeah, so, I did that and the teacher had us read the damn songs we picked too, and everyone didn't think of me the same way for a bit. The teacher found it funny believe it or not, and... that was that."

Everyone was shocked at first, but then shared a chuckle at the ridiculousness of Chris's situation. Skylar then says, "That is pretty funny. You should've done 'Purity' instead, probably would've been even better.", and then elbows him playfully. Chris chuckles a bit, before nodding his head.

"Alright, Marie, your turn!" Skylar says. And spin the bottle, Marie does. And she lands on... Eddy! Uh oh!

"Hey shorty!" Marie says. "You ready?"

"Oh shush, what's the worst that-"

Marie laughs before saying, "You have to go and kiss Lee!"

Payback hurts, doesn't it? Well, Eddy IMMEDIATELY doesn't wanna do this of course, but Chris whispers, "Remember the Roulette dude."

"What?!" Eddy yelled out. "But I thought that... that was only for Double D!"

"No. It's for EVERYONE. So... like I said to Double D, your choice dude."

"Forget it!" Eddy yelled. "Chris, roll your dumb Roulette thing."

"Okay... you insisted." Chris says. He pulls out his phone, and hits shuffle and... he lands on, "The Great Southern Trendkill" from Pantera.

"You got a REALLY aggressive one. Eddy, uh... well... actually... think about it some more. But at the end of the day, it's your choice dude."

Eddy simply sits there, as well, he has two choices, and as you just witnessed, he is very much... NOT willing to do the dare. But then... something in his mind clicks. Although... yes, he did promise that he would maybe get a conversation with Lee about whatever to Chris, he was not sure as to... how or when to do this. Here's the thing that Eddy realizes, he is going to not have these unspoken tensions between him and her. And so, Eddy gets up, walks towards Lee, who, by the by... hasn't really been caring a lot about the dares and truths going on, until now really. She notices this, and she turns to him. Eddy doesn't do anything ridiculous, only a quick one on the cheek.

"There!" Eddy says. "Is that good enough?!"

Marie laughs before she says, "Yeah yeah, relax and sit down, May! You're up!"

May spins the bottle and... she lands on Double D. May decides to ask a question that is quite simple, yet something she is curious about. "How long have you worn your hat?"

"Well," Double D begins to state, "I've had it since I was around 10 or 9 years old. It has always... Uh... been a great help with my hair!"

May chuckles a little before she passes the bottle to Lee. She spins it and... Eddy, again! Now, you would expect Lee to perhaps make an embarrassing dare for him... but she just says, "You're off the hook, my man."

Eddy felt a shock up his spine, but... let's just say that he is more thankful, and glad he doesn't have to do anything stupid. Unfortunately, the bell rang, signaling time to go to class, and yeah, everyone starts to get ready to split to their classes. Although, Eddy tells his small crew, "Gimme a second, alright?"

"No worries. I'll catch you in class, alright?"

Eddy, in quite the quick manner, goes to Double D and says, "Hey, I got something to ask ya, fast."

"Okay Eddy."

Double D goes with Eddy and he says, "What's the matter Eddy?"

"When do you plan to like... I guess tell everyone about the whole thing between you and Marie? I think you and her have to tell it sometime."

"Eddy," Double D began to speak. "Marie and I have yet to decide that, as we wish for it to be free of drama. Rest assured, don't worry about it. I appreciate your concern. Get to class now however, you cannot risk being late!"

Eddy shoots Double D two thumbs up, and went to join his crew. However, the rest of school was quick, yet somehow long at the same time. Isn't that new? Anyways, once everyone leaves the building...

"I'll catch ya tomorrow then." Chris says to Skylar.

"Yep! See ya!"

"See ya boys later!" Marie said, speaking for all her sisters.

And so, once everyone said their goodbyes at the end of the day, Eddy whispered to Chris, "Yo, you available for talking?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'll tell ya soon. Gimme around 30 minutes okay?"

Chris, not sure what Eddy says, simply responds with, "Alright then."

Hmm... Eddy has a plan... but what exactly...?