A KevEdd Christmas

Eddward Marion Vincent stood looking at the table in all of it's Thanksgiving splendor. For the first time in years his home had been filled with people for the holiday. It had felt wonderful to spend time with family. Even though his parents had not been able to come home he still felt as if family were here. All the "Kids" from the cul-de-sac had come together to make him feel loved at this time of year when people felt the absence of family the most. Nazz had come to him the week before and suggested that he host a Thanksgiving dinner and invite everyone from the cul-de-sac.

He had balked at first at the thought of people messing up his home. Then each had come in their own time and told him they would come if invited for dinner. That even though there were times that they had not all got along they felt he was a part of the cul-de-sac gang and that made him family. Eddy and Ed had come after Nazz, then Jonny and Plank had stopped by when he was out gathering his mail. Rolf had called him over and spoke to him urging him to go ahead with the party that he would supply the fresh veggies. Sara and Jimmy had come and said they would help with the decorations. The thing that finally made him give in and decide to have the party was something that occurred over the weekend. It was getting late and he was preparing for bed when he heard a knock at his front door. He looked out his window to see who was knocking on his door at this time of night. To his surprise he saw a redheaded jock standing at his door looking up at him.

"Hey Double Dork, you gonna open up or what?"

"It's late Kevin, what do you want this time of night. I would think you would be out with your friends having a good time." Double Dee said.

"Nazz has been after me all week to come and join in them asking you to have your party."

"OK, you did, so good night."

"Nah, Dork come down, I want to do this right if I do it at all and talking up to you in the window isn't the way I wanna do it."

Dee nodded and pulled back into the window. What if this was a trick of some kind. He hadn't done anything to make the jock upset so he shouldn't be wanting to pound on him. He walked down the stairs and unlocked the door opening it a crack so that he could see out. The jock stood outside the door with his hands in his jacket pockets. He had a large grin on his face that made his whole face light up under the dusting of freckles on his cheeks and nose.

Kevin took his hands out of his pockets and pushed the door open as if the Dork wasn't even there. He leaned down and picked up a box that had been beside the door and walked into Double Dee's house. Before the raven haired boy could remind him about shoes not being worn in the house the redhead had toed off his shoes on the mat inside the door. He then walked straight into the kitchen. "Come and see what I brought Dork."

Double Dee straightened up Kevin's shoes and walked behind him to the kitchen. When he walked into the kitchen the jock was talking off his leather jacket. He turned around and grinned at the sockhead and said. "What's your biggest objection to having the dinner Double Dork?"

"I guess I would say that people tracking stuff into my house, not everyone will want to take off their shoes at the door and walk around in their socks, like you are doing Kevin."

"Well, I sure the hell ain't gonna wear those bunny slippers like you have on Dee." The redhead laughed and pointed at Double Dee's slippers. Kevin opened the big box and pulled a bag out. "Here we will just make sure everyone has a pair of slippers to wear. Everyone got a pair of slippers to wear so that you would not get freaked out over that. One objection down so what's the next one."

"Language Kevin."

Kevin laughed and said "You know that doesn't work on me Double Dork. So what's your next objection?"

"There will be a huge mess that I will have to clean up afterwards."

"We will help you clean up, well maybe not Big Ed, We will let him watch TV or something so nothing gets broke. Next?"

"I'll have all this cooking to do, and the shopping I haven't really got the time to do that kind of shopping nor have I budgeted for that kind of meal."

The redhead smirked and opened the box again. "Look in here Double Dork, We all chipped in to get the items we need for the dinner. Mom is gonna make a couple of cakes and some pies, she loves to bake. I'll come over and help you cook. I am a pretty good cook my mom says. I can do more than grill Dee. C'mon have the party, I promise you will have a great time."

"Why would you care Kevin, you've always disliked me?"

"It's not like that dude, I've always envied what you can do. You can come up with all kinds of stuff off the top of your head, You're so smart you make everything in school look so easy, where I have to work hard get anything above a B. I did a lot of those things hoping you would notice me. I'm sorry if it went the wrong way. Please have this party so that we can show you how much we like you. It's like we are all family growing up here in the cul-de-sac together. We want to fill some space in your life. We know it can't be easy with your folks gone all the time, and there have been times when we weren't the best of friends to you so give us a chance to make it up to you. For you I'll even try to be nice to the shrimp."

"Oh, ok I'll have the party, Jimmy and Sara can decorate within reason and I will be supervising them. I will expect you to help with the preparations. We will have to start on Monday."

"Choice! If you find we need anything else just let me know and I will pick it up while I am at work at the supermarket."

Double Dee shook his head and looked towards the living area of the house. There had been a bit of rough housing between the boys. Fortunately Kevin and Rolf were keeping Ed in check so that he didn't get too rough. Eddy had switched on the TV to a football game and that had settled the boys down. Jimmy and Sara had started picking up the dishes and Nazz was taking the left overs into the kitchen. Edd began brushing down the table cloth for crumbs and arranging the pies and cakes on the sideboard so that if anyone wanted a snack during the game all they had to do was help themselves. It was going against every grain of his being to let food into the living room but he would allow it this one time.

He thought back to the start of the week. Monday had started like any other day off from school. He awoke at his usual time and took care of his morning rituals as usual. He then checked over his homework to make sure he hadn't missed anything. After checking his homework he went down starirs and started on his chores around the house catching up on his cleaning which really wasn't much because he kept his home so tidy. He then watered his cactus Jim and fed his ant farm. With nothing else to hinder him, he then went to the kitchen to start gathering the items that they would need for preparation for the planned feast.