Botony class was silent. Edd was the lone student in the dimly lit classroom. He was tending to his flower.
Everyone else was afraid to show up. They all heard what he had become.
There was a teacher in their classroom, but he wasn't here today. The teacher trusted Edd to run the class himself whenever he wasn't going to be there.
Edd wished he didn't have a meeting today, but he did.
Tears streaked Edd's face as he gently clipped a leaf from his flower.
The memory came back.
When he was five years old he lived in Lemon Brook. Edd was the target whenever dodgeball was played. He had mno idea why the teacher always made them play that ruthless game.
Nobody like Edd at his old elementary school. He didn't share the same interests with the other kids. He liked to study bugs bugs, the other kids liked to squish them. Edd was smart beyond his years, something that made the kids make fun of him even more. He should never have told them that he didn't like gym class because he was the target whenever they played dodgeball.
After too many hits to the head, Edd had it.
He skipped dinner with his parents to plan his revenge. He spent all night building his invention.
That's what added to his insanity. The kids threw off his final straw.
When it was time for gym, Edd snuck off to his locker.
He brought the machine into the gym where everything took a turn for the worst.
There were four menchanical hands built on the machine, along with a cannonball.
Edd remember how he was laughing maniacally as he hit every single person with a ball. He couldn't get a grip on himself as he also hit the teacher.
It wasn't until this little girl looked at him with the most frightened face.
He snapped out of his crazy spell and looked around the gym.
Everyone was hurt.
Some were unconscious, while others were cowering together in fear.
One was pinned against the wall, another who fell out of the window, and one holding their nose in pain.
The whole gym was destroyed.
Edd grew scared, beginning to cry.
Then his machine began shaking.
The cannonball malfunctioned shooting a dodgeball out from the other end.
It hit Edd who was sent careening into the wall.
Edd wiped his nose and rubbed his head, feeling the line of the scar through his hat.
His parents told him to tell nobody of the incident. Edd obeyed, but it wasn't healthy for him anymore. He needed to tell someone. His parents wouldn't hear of it since they told him how embarrassed they were.
Edd broke down even more. His parents were never there for him. Their relationship was basically through sticky notes. It was non existent.
If they were his parents they wouldn't have held a grudge over what he did.
He barely had a family.
The only two people who cared about him were Ed and Eddy.
But, not anymore.
Edd jumped at the sound of a noise. He turned around to see a cup roll out from under the teachers desk.
A glimmer of hope went through Edd. "Ed? Is that you?" He peared under the dark desk to see someone's eyes. Edd stretched out his hand. "Here, let me have your hand."
It wasn't Ed, but Jimmy who screamed to leave him alone.
Jimmy ran around the room in a panic trying to find an exit. He accidetnally went into the wrong room when he was trying to find his regular classroom.
"You dirty gorilla!" Jimmy shouted at Edd.
Edd grasped his chest, his head. The world was spinning around.
He had one last hope to try and get Jimmy to listen when the little boy cried out; "You punky palooga!"
Edd was in shambles, collapsing at his table. The tears burst out and he buried himself between his arms. "Oh, what's the use! Who'll ever believe I'm anythin other then a rambunctious rough egg?!"
This image caught Jimmy's attention who stared at Edd crying. He looked so broken. A bully would never give themselves up like this.
Just when Jimmy was going to ignore this, something beautiful happened.
The flower Edd was tending to bloomed.
Jimmy never saw a flower with such beauty.
"Double D!" Jimmy shouted. Edd was caught off guard as he smashed his head on the light above him. Edd feel backwards and when he opened his eyes, he saw Jimmy standing over his flower. He had that childish glee in his eyes. Edd was always intrigued by this. He barely spent his childhood the way Jimmy did.
"You cross polinated a rose with a Baby-Blue-Gym-Sock!"
Before Edd knew it, Jimmy was removing his gloves and holding them in his hands. Edd held himself back in fear that he'd black out and hurt him. "Only hands as gentle as hummingbird's wings could have spliced the two together! I believe you, Double D!"
"You do?" Edd was overcome with happiness as he threw his arms around Jimmy. "Oh, thaank you, thank you, Jimmy! If only the others had listened to my pleas of innosence."
The tears rolled down his cheeks. Jimmy was taken aback by this, never seeing Edd look so broken before. He was always trying to work out problems. He didn't think Edd had emotions. He was always happy or annoyed.
Jimmy gave him a hug back. Edd actually felt better. It was a real hug. Not like one of Eddy's amateur side hugs to get him to do things he wanted.
Jimmy stepped away and grabbed two hedge clippers. "Sounds like you need a shoulder to cry on, Double D," He started cutting up this huge bush in the middle on the classroom. "Be right with you?"
Edd watched as what was only a few seconds, Jimmy constructed one of those chairs patients would sit on in a psychiotrists office.
Edd never realized how Jimmy had so much talent.
"Gimme the dirt, and don't spare me the details!"
Someone was actually trying to help him. Nobody ever did this for him. It was because Edd always kept everything inside. He didn't want anyone to know that there was something wrong with him. But, now it was better to talk then hold it inside. His mind was jumbled up enough already.
Edd layed back in the leaf constructed chair and relayed everything. From how he accidentally dropped a book on Lee's foot, and then to what happened to Rolf. A container of white out dropped from his locker making him trip and kick Rolf. When he was going to turn around and appologise, his caught on a hook. That's how the pencils hooked him to his locker.
As he went on to talk about Jonny and Marie, Edd said how Jimmy payed close attention. He was such a smart boy, so mature for his age. Why couldn't Edd see that before?
Edd was in tears when he talked about the mishap with Ed. Couldn't anyone see him gently trying to pull the chair away so he could talk to his best friend? Ed was so scared that he had toppled on Edd. When he was trying to get away Edd's arms were caught around him as Ed was causing the destruction on his own.
That was the difference from all the incidents.
He never laid a hand on Ed, like how he accidentally kicked and smacked the others.
"How am I to blame?" Edd said to Jimmy beginning to go out of his mind. "It's so obvious! Is it me? But, I'm a pacifist!" Edd shouted.
He slumpt down, breathing in and out. He could go on about what happened in his past, but that wasn't relevent. Jimmy may think differently about him.
"You've been marked with a scarlet letter, Double D." Jimmy announced. He got up from his seat and went to the door. "All you need is someone to strip it from you, and validate that sweet and gentle you. Follow me, silly!"
Edd was cautious upon exiting the room. What if someone saw him running after Jimmy and had the wrong idea.
Edd had to let that go and trust Jimmy. He was weary on doing that remembering how he framed them during the summer. But, his instincts said that this was right. It was rare whenever that happened.
They came to a hault in the hallway.
Edd saw Jimmy wink before he was slapped across the face with a white glove. "You think you're so tough?!" Jimmy announced. He stood angry, ready to pounce if Edd moved. "I challenge you to a battle royale! Are you aware of the Marques of Queensbury rules?"
Edd was so befuddled. Didn't Jimmy say that he'd help him?
Just when he thought what Jimmy said was I lie, he peared to his side.
Kevin was standing near the soda machine, watching them, intently.
Now Edd understood.
"Explicitly, I think," Edd said going on with the act. He put in all he could to act like a bruiser. "I will make you consume your foolhearty words! We shall meet at-at... oh dear..."
"The pit!" Jimmy answered. Edd was amazed by how fast Jimmy was.
"Yes, the pit. Three P.M., yes?"
The two watched as Kevin ran off from down the hallway, looking gleeful.
Jimmy innediately smiled and give Edd a thumbs up. Edd was uncertain with how things were going to go, but he had to trust Jimmy. It was time to start trusting his insticts. Maybe, this was a start to changing himself as a person.