A/N: Alright, fellas. Same drill. I don't own Ed, Edd, n Eddy. They are the property of Danny Antonucci and AKA Cartoons.
On with the show!

Chapter 4

To say Edd was nervous reaching the school building would be a massive understatement. Usually he was the cheeriest person around, but this morning he kept glancing around himself and rubbing his palms together. He even began muttering to himself, planning possible escape routes should he run into Kevin. The smallest noise made him jump about 5 feet into the air. He was sure he had lost 3 pounds in sweat in the last 15 minutes alone.

In short, he was a wreck.

"Oh, dear, oh, dear…" he kept muttering to himself as he finally reached the stairs. He half expected to see Kevin leaning against the doors, his trademark scowl in place. The other half expected him to be tackled at any second from either side. Really, he simply expected a beating, plain and simple. He shakily reached out for the door's handle, and held it open for a rambling Ed and a grumbling Eddy. On the way to school, he'd helpfully reminded Eddy that they had a history exam today. One for which, of course, Eddy hadn't bothered studying.

"I thought it was on Friday!" he seethed, wishing he could reach out and somehow punch the teacher through time and space. He filed that idea away for a scam later on. 'Ed hitmen'. They'd make a killing.

"Yes, well, Eddy, you should have been studying anyway," Edd answered simply. Eddy glanced at him, surprised. He hadn't nagged him for five minutes straight, as he usually did. In fact, that small scolding had been almost… reasonable.

"Hey, Double D, what's up with you today, man?"

"Whatever do you mean, Eddy?"

"You're not… yourself today. What's wrong, Jim die or something?"

"Nothing's wrong, Eddy! I'm just… occupied with another matter." Eddy didn't buy it. Edd kept glancing around, jumping in the air whenever someone shut their locker… the sight of football jerseys seemed to send him into a frothing panic unusually quickly, too. Eddy sighed. He didn't have time for this.

"Alright. Well, Sockhead, when you've got your head back on your shoulders, let me know," he said, walking off to class, closely followed by Ed.

Edd was left all alone. He bit his lower lip and peered around himself with wide eyes. Sweat started to roll down his forehead. He tapped his fingers together nervously, suddenly acutely aware of just how exposed he was at the moment. And it wasn't even 7:00 yet.

"Hey, Double D!" the scream Edd let out when he heard someone call his name was enough of a screech to crack several windows in the vicinity. Many people started to glare at the flustered young man, who was currently holding both hands over his mouth and apologizing to no one in particular.

"Double D, dude! Wait up!" Edd turned around, relieved that the voice he'd heard hadn't been Kevin's. Said relief was replaced with a mounting sense of dread when he saw Nazz running at him, a dazzling smile on her face, her cheerleader uniform crisp and freshly pressed. "Hey, dude! What's kickin'?"

"N-Nazz! Greetings! I mean, uh," Edd racked his brain for the proper 'hip' term, struggling through a thick pink mist fogging up his thoughts. "What is chilling, guvna?" he attempted lamely. Nazz giggled in response.

"Dude, you're starting to sound like Rolf. C'mon, let's walk for a bit," she invited. Edd could only nod dumbly for a moment.

"C-Certainly! I'd be honored to aid you in reaching your next hallow of academia! Oh, how I do love this building, with its-" Edd began to ramble as he always did, a defense mechanism of his whenever he got nervous. Nazz could only smile at his spazzing, but eventually broke into his long-winded speech to get a word of her own in the conversation.

"Listen, Double D. We rescheduled the play rehearsal to 5:00 today. Think you can make it?" she asked, hoping he'd say yes. Being honest, she knew she didn't just want him to practice his parts. She wanted to be able to spend a little time with the reclusive genius. True, the original time the teacher had suggested had been 3:00, but Nazz had cheerleading practice at that time.

"Yes, I suppose my agenda is free at that moment…" Edd muttered, opening his briefcase and rifling through some files. Nazz was surprised at the sheer amount of material he'd crammed into the container. There was a file on Ed, a file on Eddy, Rolf, Jonny, herself, the Kankers, Sarah, Jimmy, class notes, blank paper, a writing pad, a clipboard… Nazz wasn't sure it was physically possible for all of that to exist in such a closed space.

Eventually, Edd managed to fish out a small day planner, which he thumbed through, mumbling to himself. His finger tracked down the current day of the week, then moved down into the hours section, coming to rest on 5:00 PM. He smiled to himself when he saw the blank entry.

"Why, yes, Nazz! I believe I can make it easily to the play rehearsal!" he announced to her. She smiled at him again, and Edd all but melted at the sight.

"Awesome, dude! Can't wait to see you there," she said. Much to Edd's surprise, she kissed him on the cheek, then hurried off to her class down the hall. Edd just stood in the hall, his face as red as a beet, a dumb smile slowly spreading over his face. He all but waltzed to his locker, to retrieve the books needed for Math class. He was, as they say, walking on air.

Then he opened his locker, and his eyes fell on a white piece of notebook paper, neatly folded on top of his textbook. He blinked in confusion, and picked it up to see what it was. He unfolded it and began to read.

"Oh, dear," he mumbled when he reached the end. His face had lost its red coloration. In fact, it was quite colorless at this point. The letter had succeeded in reminding him of the existence of both Marie and Kevin, a whopping sucker punch to his good mood. Really, it didn't take a genius to figure out who the letter was from. Only one person referred to him as "love-muffin" and used that shade of lipstick on a regular basis.

On the plus side, it seemed like she wanted to discuss the arrangement he'd brought up the day before. On the downside, he'd have to go meet her. Alone. In the boiler room. The Kanker den.

Edd gulped. There was a good chance that this was all just a trick by Marie. After all, she had presented a very valid point the night before. She stood to gain nothing from the "arrangement". As a matter of fact, if she was serious about her attraction to Edd (something he had very serious doubts about, of course), it would be actively detrimental for her.

Still, she was his best shot at this. He took a deep breath and steeled himself. He still had two hours to think about this, right? He glanced at his pocket watch.

"Correct," he confirmed to himself, "one hour and fifty-nine minutes until the clock strikes nine." He began to put the watch back into his coat pocket when he realized exactly what he'd just read.

"GOOD LORD! I'M LATE FOR CLASS!"

Down in the boiler room, Marie stopped in the middle of setting the mood and tilted her head. She was sure she'd heard someone scream…

She listened for a few more seconds, shrugged, and went back to spreading rose petals over the floor. She wiped some sweat from her forehead. She was working solely by the boiler's light, which she'd turned up until the flames were licking outside the grate. She'd looked for candles, but hadn't found any, so she'd settled for using the metal monster for romantic lighting. Of course, the heat had climbed steadily until she was forced to remove her jacket just to avoid heatstroke, but she knew it'd be worth it later.

She grinned as she thought for a second. Maybe that HAD been his voice she heard just now…

"Rolf does not understand why this equation will not make sense, Double Dee Ed Boy!" Rolf said to Edd, all but smacking him in the face with his notebook. "Please help this son of a shepherd. You will be rewarded with the strongest of Nana's yams once the season gives its rewards to Rolf, yes?" Edd sighed, but guessed this was alright. He WAS done with his exercises, after all… and one could never be too helpful with his friends' academic improvement!

"Very well, Rolf. Let me see," he answered, holding out his hand. Rolf gleefully put the notebook into his hand and watched expectantly as Edd carefully looked over his work. The hat-wearing Ed moved his lips as he carefully pored over Rolf's equations, surprised at the usually bumbling foreigner's skill for solving algebraic problems.

"Ah-HA!" he finally proclaimed in his usual manner, poking his finger at the culprit on the page and startling Rolf. "Here's the problem; you forgot to shift this X to the other side during step 3, so you were left dealing with X's on both sides, rather than a single one to solve for," he explained, pointing out the offending bit to his friend. The foreigner rubbed his chin thoughtfully, both eyes narrowed as he looked at the equation again. Then his eyes widened and he burst into a gigantic, somewhat terrifying smile.

"Rolf sees now! Thank you, Too Smart for his Hat Ed Boy! You will receive the yams upon the fourth crossing of Rolf's chickens after the yams have matured, yes?" he said, taking back the notebook from Edd and starting over on the equation with renewed fervor. The teacher kept on snoring.

"Oh, Rolf, that's really quite alright, I-" Edd was interrupted by the landing of a strong hand on his bony shoulder. His eyes followed the hand back to its arm, back to its chest, and up to its face. He was immediately covered in a cold sweat.

"We need to talk," Kevin said, his expression unreadable. Edd gulped.

"K-Kevin! Fancy meeting you here, of all places!"

"We've been coming to the same algebra class the whole semester. I copied off you for the exam, remember, dork?" Kevin reminded him, his expression still inscrutable. Edd wasn't sure, but he seriously hoped those weren't flames of rage he saw flickering in the jock's eyes.

"Oh! Of… of course I remember, Kevin! How I helped you out of the bottom of my heart, without expecting anything in return!" Edd brought up, hoping to mitigate Kevin's wrath a little. The redhead only narrowed his eyes a little.

"Meatheaded Kevin boy! Come look at how this son of a shepherd has progressed thanks to the Ed boy's assistance!" Rolf seemed to come to Edd's rescue, but Kevin's eyes never left Edd's sweaty, broadly smiling face.

"In a minute, Rolf," he said, then leaned in close to Edd. "It's VERY important that you and me have our little talk. Am I making myself clear, Double D?" Kevin only ever called him Double D when he was trying to play nice or when he was about to absolutely pound him. And Edd was sure he wasn't trying to play nice right now. He could only nod dumbly.

"B-But I'm a bit busy next period, so maybe we'll have to postpone our enlightening conversation for a later date!" he said suddenly. Kevin scowled.

"You trying to avoid me?"

"N-No, Kevin! Not at all!" "Good Gracious! Does he have mind-reading powers?!"

"Good. I will talk to you later, Double D," Kevin straightened up, turning to Rolf. "Alright, Rolf, let's see what you're so excited about, man."

Edd let out a shuddering breath he'd been holding. He was still alive! In one piece! Elation ran through his veins ("Dopamine racing through my circulatory system to celebrate my untracked skull!"), especially when a few seconds later the bell rang. For once, Edd was the first one to leave the classroom, bolting like his life depended on it.

As far as he was concerned, it did. He didn't share this next class with Kevin, but there was no guarantee the taller redhead wouldn't be waiting for him outside the classroom when it ended, or that he wouldn't intercept Edd on his way to the cafeteria for the 9:00 lunch break. His classroom, however, was less than two locker blocks away from the boiler room. He could reach it if he made a run for it after Biology…

Edd gulped. He didn't like putting his life in Marie's hands. But for the second time in as many days, it seemed he didn't have a choice in the matter.

It's a sad thing, the luck of an Ed.

A/N: This one was a bit shorter than the previous ones. Mostly because exam week is next week and I want to get an early start on studying, so this is the last one I'll be writing for around two weeks. Speaking of which... once I get back, do you think maybe I should time the releases between chapters? Make it more of a periodical thing?
As always, please make sure to enable my review addiction if you enjoyed, or if you thought something could be improved.