FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY EDS
Chapter 6
The Eds were in Herriman's office, being reprimanded for their scam.
"I am quite furious with you, gentlemen," Herriman scolded. "Not only did you lie and take advantage of everyone here at Foster's but you ruined Adopt-A-Thought Saturday as well. What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"Frankie, Mr. Herriman, I speak for all of us when I say how sorry we are for our misbehavior," Edd said guiltily. "We never intended to hurt anyone."
"We just wanted a break from school and homework," Eddy argued.
"That doesn't give you the right to scam people," Herriman retorted. "I want you out of this house posthaste. You three are expelled from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends."
After hearing that, Ed started to cry. "SAY IT AIN'T SO! I LOVE IT HERE, GUYS!" Ed shouted in despair.
Herriman pulled an umbrella out of nowhere and held it over his head in order to shield himself from Ed's tears. "Cry as much as you wish, Master Ed. My decision is final," Herriman said adamantly.
"Mr. Herriman, please reconsider," Edd begged, feeling bad for Ed. "We truly enjoyed our stay here and we made some new friends as well. Is there any way we can redeem ourselves?"
"You know, Mr. H, they are just kids," Frankie pointed out, feeling bad for the Eds. "All they wanted was the freedom the imaginary friends have. They did go too far with the stink bomb thing but Bloo's done worse and we still let him live here. Maybe, instead of banning them from Foster's, we can just give them a lighter punishment."
Herriman thought for a moment. "Perhaps, we can."
The Eds, Frankie & Herriman were now standing on the front porch along with Cheese.
"So, to reiterate, you must adopt Master Cheese for the next week. Then, you may return him to Foster's," Herriman explained.
Ed was happy about adopting Cheese but Edd and Eddy weren't. Edd tried to grin and bear it though.
"Fair enough," Edd replied. "Thank you for renegotiating."
"Can we come back and visit sometime?" Ed begged.
"Very well. You may visit on one condition," Herriman replied. "You are to refrain from any more scams at this house. Do I make myself clear, gentlemen?"
"Yes, sir," Edd agreed. He and Herrriman stared at Eddy as if they expected him to respond. Eddy didn't budge though; he just stood there with his arms folded and an angry look on his face. A few seconds later, Edd finally elbowed him.
"Ow! Fine! We won't scam Foster's anymore," Eddy agreed.
"Alright, then. I shall bid you three good day," Herriman said before hopping back inside the house.
"So long, Frankie," Edd said. "Thank you for convincing Mr. Herriman not to expel us."
"Can we say goodbye to our new friends before we go?" Ed asked.
"Sure. I'll bring them out," Frankie said. "Later, guys."
"Call me sometime," Eddy flirted.
"Not gonna happen," Frankie replied sternly as she walked back inside the house.
"I think Sarah's gonna like you, Cheese," Ed commented.
"Yeah, right," Eddy replied in disgust. "He's gonna cramp our style."
Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo & Coco came out onto the porch.
"Hey, guys," Bloo greeted. "What did Herriman do to you?"
"He's makin' us adopt that thing for a week," Eddy answered, gesturing towards Cheese.
"He stuck you with Cheese? Oh, man, are you in for it!" Bloo teased.
"Put a sock in it, blob boy," Eddy retorted.
"You kinda deserve it, you know, for taking advantage of Foster's and wrecking Adopt-A-Thought Saturday with that stink bomb," Mac commented.
"You're right. We do deserve it. At least, it's only for a week," Edd replied. "Despite our immoral actions, I hope we can all remain friends. I can assure you Ed and I had no interest in scamming Foster's."
"It was Eddy's idea," Ed admitted, pointing to Eddy, who tried to bite Ed's finger but missed.
"That's okay, Double-D," Mac replied. "Bloo gets me in trouble too sometimes."
"I would've done the same thing if I was a kid," Bloo admitted.
"Imaginary or not, we enjoyed hangin' out with you guys," Wilt said.
"Sí. Any amigos of Señor Mac and Azul are amigos of mine," Eduardo said.
"Are you gonna come back and visit?" Bloo asked.
"You bet!" Ed agreed.
"If we have nothin' else to do," Eddy agreed.
"We'll certainly plan on it," Edd agreed.
"Good luck with Cheese. You'll need it," Mac said before walking back into the house. Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo & Coco followed him.
"They'll need more than luck. They'd be better off with Duchess," Bloo commented.
"I'm sorry but Duchess would be worse," Wilt argued.
"She'd drive them loco," Eduardo agreed.
"Co co co," Coco replied. She was the last one inside. The door closed once she entered the house.
"Well, all good things must come to an end, I suppose," Edd commented.
"Whatever," Eddy grumbled. "I just wanna get home."
"C'mon, Cheese. You can ride on my shoulders," Ed offered. He placed Cheese on his shoulders. "Alley-oop!"
The Eds walked off the porch, down the long sidewalk and left the yard through the gate entrance. After they left, the door to the house opened and Bloo came back out onto the porch.
"Hey, before you go, there's one thing I don't get," Bloo said. He noticed the Eds weren't there. "Aw, man. They already left. I wanted to ask them something."
"What was it?" Mac asked, coming back out onto the porch too.
"If they really weren't imaginary, how do you explain the tongue thing?" Bloo wondered.
"Good question. They probably eat a lot of candy. Some of it turns your tongue different colors and that might be how they tricked us," Mac explained.
"Oh, cool trick then," Bloo replied. "You know, it's too bad we missed out on that stink bomb. We should make one ourselves and maybe next time, we can set it off inside the house."
"Don't even think about it, Bloo," Mac warned. "Frankie said the one they built was huge and that the smell's gonna last a while. We might be stuck in the house until then."
The Eds were walking back to Peach Creek after leaving Foster's.
"Wheeeeee!" Cheese cheered as he rode on Ed's shoulders.
"That was the greatest scam in the world and now, it's gone," Eddy complained.
"It was fun while it lasted, Eddy," Edd admitted.
"Yeah, I wanna go back sometime," Ed agreed.
"We may not be able to do that for a while, Ed. I'm sure Cheese will occupy our free time and that we'll be grounded for skipping school yesterday,"
"It's gonna be a long week," Eddy groaned. He suddenly bumped into Terrence. "Get outta my way, lummox!"
"You get outta my way, shorty!" Terrence ordered. Eddy growled at him as he walked past the Eds.
"How rude," Edd said to himself.
The Eds continued walking until Eddy got an idea and grabbed Cheese.
"Hey, kid! Wait up!" Eddy called out as he ran after Terrence with Ed and Edd in tow.
"What do you want?" Terrence asked in annoyance when the Eds caught up to him.
"You wanna buy Cheese?"
"I'm not hungry,"
"I ain't talkin' about food. I'm talkin' about him," Eddy corrected as he showed Cheese to Terrence.
"I like cereal," Cheese said.
"Why would I wanna buy some stupid imaginary friend?" Terrence complained.
"He's not an imaginary friend," Eddy lied. "He's...uh..."
"An alien from another planet?" Ed interrupted.
"What Ed said," Eddy confirmed, gesturing towards Ed.
Luckily, Terrence fell for that. "Cool!" he exclaimed.
Edd was suspicious. "An alien from another planet?" he began. "Eddy, what are you-" Eddy slapped his hand over Edd's mouth before he could continue.
"How much do you want for him?" Terrence asked.
"25 cents," Eddy answered.
"Deal," Terrence agreed. He took three dimes out of his pants pocket and handed them to Eddy. "Here ya go."
Edd noticed Terrence had given Eddy too much money. "Excuse me but your math is incorrect," Edd pointed out. "Eddy asked you for 25 cents and you gave him-"
"Pleasure doin' business with ya," Eddy interrupted as he placed the money inside his pants pocket. Eddy grabbed Ed and Edd and ran off, leaving Cheese alone with Terrence.
"Awesome! A real alien," Terrence said once the Eds were gone. Cheese farted. "Ew..." Terrence groaned, unable to stand the smell.
"I pooted," Cheese said.
When the Eds arrived back in Peach Creek, they rushed over to the candy store.
"Man, what a sap!" Eddy laughed. "That guy was even dumber than you, Ed."
"Eddy, how could you?" Edd scolded. "Cheese is our responsibility."
"Not anymore," Eddy corrected. "He's what's-his-name's problem now."
"What if he finds out we tricked him or worse, someone at Foster's finds out?" Edd questioned.
"Who cares? They don't know where we live," Eddy replied. "C'mon, let's get some jawbreakers."
"But we only have 30 cents," Edd pointed out. "How can we afford more than one jawbreaker?"
"I saved a few quarters from when we sold cupcakes and lemonade back at Foster's. I hid 'em in my pocket before we got busted," Eddy admitted.
"YOU DID WHAT?" Edd asked in shock. "Eddy, that money belongs to Foster's. We don't even deserve jawbreakers after all the trouble we caused there."
"Lighten up, Double-D. Like you said earlier, we're gonna get grounded when we get home so we might as well enjoy the time we have now,"
The Eds entered the candy store and bought jawbreakers; one for each of them. When they left the candy store, they started eating their jawbreakers and heading back to the cul-de-sac.
"Well, so much for our plan to live at Foster's," Edd said in disappointment.
"Yeah, we almost had it made," Eddy groaned. "Who wants to live with that rabbit and his crazy rules anyway?"
"I hope that stink bomb wears off quicker than the first one we constructed. The odor blanketed the cul-de-sac for days,"
"I wouldn't worry about it. They'll be fine," Eddy assured. "The one we made at Foster's wasn't that big. It'll just last a few hours."
"I wonder whatever happened to those clones of us we saw yesterday," Ed commented.
The Eds soon arrived back in their neighborhood and saw the Edd and Eddy lookalikes at the end of the cul-de-sac.
"Look! There they are," Ed pointed out. He noticed his lookalike wasn't there. "Where's my clone?"
"What are they doin' here?" Eddy wondered.
"The truant officer from yesterday must've brought them here, thinking they were us," Edd assumed.
The Edd and Eddy lookalikes were waiting for Ed's lookalike to sneak out of Ed's house. The doppelgangers had been stuck filling in for their respective originals since the truant officer from yesterday sent them to Peach Creek and now, they were trying to escape. A few seconds later, Ed's lookalike finally showed up and joined his friends.
"What took you so long?" Edd's counterpart asked.
"I had to get past that crazy orange-haired girl who keeps calling me Ed," Ed's counterpart replied.
"Let's get outta here before we get caught," Eddy's counterpart suggested.
The doppelgangers took off and ran past the originals without even noticing them. The real Eds watched their counterparts run off until they were out of their sight.
"Well, that was peculiar," Edd commented.
"Can't be any weirder than the stuff we saw at Foster's," Eddy said.
"Where are they going?" Ed asked.
"Back to their own homes, I assume," Edd answered. "Should we thank them for filling in for us during our absence?"
"Nah, just let 'em go," Eddy replied. "We don't need 'em anymore since our scam didn't work."
That evening, when the smell from the stink bomb at Foster's finally wore off, Mac returned home. When he entered his apartment, he was shocked to find Cheese in his living room.
"Cheese? What are you doing here?" Mac wondered.
"I'm a horsey," Cheese said as he pranced around in circles.
"Check it out. I got me an alien from another planet," Terrence bragged, gesturing towards Cheese.
"Alien from another planet?" Mac asked in confusion. "Who told you that?"
"Some guys on the street," Terrence answered. "I gave 'em 25 cents for him."
Mac realized Terrence was referring to the Eds since Cheese was with them the last time he saw him. "Terrence, did those guys on the street happen to be three kids named Ed, Double-D and Eddy?" Mac questioned.
"Yeah, I think so," Terrence replied, remembering that he heard the Eds' names when he met them. "How do you know 'em?"
"I met 'em at Foster's," Mac explained. "They were pretending to be imaginary friends so they could live there. They got in trouble for it and now, they have to adopt Cheese for a week as punishment."
"So, he's not an alien?" Terrence asked.
"No, he's an imaginary friend," Mac corrected. "Those kids tricked you into buying him so they'd get him off their backs."
"Ugh, I can't believe I fell for that! Wait till I get my hands on them!" Terrence shouted angrily. He grabbed Cheese and marched towards the front door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna find those dorks and give 'em their thing back,"
"How are you gonna find them? You don't know where they live," Mac pointed out.
"No, but I know where they hang out. I saw 'em at the junkyard once. C'mon, Cheese," Terrence said before leaving the apartment with Cheese.
Later that night, the Eds' doppelgangers arrived at the junkyard (the one by Foster's, not the one in Peach Creek).
"Hey, we made it to the junkyard. Now, we can find our way home," Eddy's lookalike said.
"THERE YOU ARE!" an angry voice called out to the doppelgangers after they entered the junkyard. They turned towards the voice and saw Terrence and Cheese walking towards them.
"I like chocolate milk," Cheese said.
"Here!" Terrence shouted as he handed Cheese to the doppelgangers. "Take your stupid imaginary friend back."
"Who are you?" Edd's lookalike asked.
"Don't play dumb! You tricked me into thinkin' he was an alien. You're lucky it's dark out and I gotta get back home 'cause if I didn't, I'd pound you guys,"
Terrence left the junkyard and forgot to ask for a refund. Once Terrence was gone, the doppelgangers looked at Cheese with confusion.
"What're we supposed to do with him?" Ed's lookalike wondered.