Melancholy Times

By: Yuki Mizuno

Summary: A revision of an older fanfic I wrote several years ago called the Aspie Girl. Obviously, some things in this story will be very different; since time has passed and certain terminologies have changed, but some things will be the same as the old story. Unlike the old story, this story takes place a month after the Big Picture Show.

MT: Chapter 1

It was a warm July morning here in the little town of Peach Creek as we zoomed in on one of the many Cul-De-Sac neighborhoods in the suburbs. It was in one of these neighborhoods that we could see a young fourteen-year-old leaving their house. His name was Eddward; or Double D, as his friends called him. He started to rush over to the small park nearby, hoping to meet up with his two friends before they could cause any trouble for themselves.

As he walked towards his destination, Double D could see a moving truck pass by the neighborhood. It drove off towards the newly built house that was in the next neighborhood over. The neighborhood next to the Cul-De-Sac had been in construction for a while, but they finally finished building two houses about a month ago, along with building more houses around it.

"Hey Double D!" called out a familiar voice from behind him. Double D turned around to see his two friends coming up to him, their names were Ed and Eddy, "Did you see the truck that went by?" Eddy asked.

"I did indeed," Double D replied, looking towards the direction of the new neighborhood, "I'm guessing someone moved into the new house there."

Ed made a big smile on his face, "Let's go say hi to them!" Ed cheered aloud, rushing past his two friends towards the new neighborhood.

"W-Wait a minute!" Double D gasped slightly as he started to run after him, "Let's not be too hasty, Ed!"

Eddy made an irritated sigh to himself, "Geez," he muttered, deciding to walk instead of running after his friends.

It took a few minutes for the Eds to run/walk over to the newly built house. They could see the movers moving in some furniture from the big moving truck, most of the furniture looked to be for an adult's bedroom.

Eddy groaned a little at the sight, "Guess it's not a new kid that's moving in," he said.

"Aww…" Ed muttered sadly with a small pout, "I wanna make a new friend!"

Double D, in the meantime, noticed more furniture towards the back of the moving truck that seemed to be more like what a young teenager would have, including a decently sized computer desk, 'Interesting.'

Suddenly, the three Eds heard and saw another car coming up to the house, it looked to be an SUV. They saw two adults coming out of the car, who then walked over to the moving truck to check on the progress of the movers. The Eds failed to notice someone else coming out of the car from the backseat until they heard the door slam. They turned to see who came out.

The person was a young teen girl that was about the same age as the Eds. She had medium-length dark brown hair and thick glasses that covered her eyes. She wore a long-sleeved pale blue shirt and dark blue pants, along with a pair of white tennis shoes. She had a phone in her left hand.

The teen girl was looking at her phone for a moment before realizing the Eds were standing a bit further away from her, she widened her brown eyes in surprise at them, "O-Oh…" she muttered, looking away towards the ground but still facing them a little in nervousness.

Ed made a wide smile, "A new kid!" he gasped as he tried to go over to her, but was stopped by Eddy, who had grabbed him by the back of his jacket, "Hold your horses there, Monobrow!" Eddy stated, "Let's go greet 'em together."

Double D glanced at Eddy, flashing a smile at him. It had been since June when the events of their final scam happened; it ended in a full-blown disaster and forced them to run away to Eddy's brother's home in Sunflower Shoal, which was the next town over. The trip itself tested their friendship, almost to the breaking point, but they managed to find their way to his home. Of course, the neighborhood teens/kids caught up to the Eds but were eventually forgiven by them once Eddy's brother showed his true colors to everyone. Ever since then, Eddy has been better about his temperament to everyone, and even stopped trying to scam the other kids.

The three Eds walked up to the teen girl, "Hello there," greeted Double D with a smile.

The girl glanced up a little to them again to try and make eye contact, "H-Hello…" she finally replied to them.

Ed came up to her and started shaking her right hand with a lot of force, "I'm Ed!" he stated with a wide, toothy smile, "What's your name?"

"Ed!" Double D gasped a little as he stopped his violent handshake to her, "Please refrain from using that much strength in your handshakes next time."

Ed blinked a little before realizing the problem, "Oh, sorry about that!"

"T-That's alright…" the girl stated with a bit of a small look of surprise on her face, "I was not expecting that."

"You get used to it with him," Eddy stated before pointing to himself, "The name's Eddy, by the way."

"And my name is Eddward, but my friends call me Double D instead," Double D stated with a friendly smile, "Can you tell us your name?"

The girl stayed quiet for a short moment, gripping onto her sweater's left sleeve; biting her bottom lip in nervousness, "My name is, umm… J-Jennifer," she replied, glancing back down at the ground once more, "Sorry, I-I'm not that good at t-talking with others…"

"That's quite alright…" Double D replied, "We only just met, so it's okay."

"… Say, would you like for us to give you a tour of the area?" Eddy asked, "You're gonna need to know your way around, right?"

Ed and Double D looked at Eddy with a bit of surprise at his offer, "Yeah, that sounds like a neat idea!" Ed stated in agreement.

Double D then glanced back at Jennifer, who seemed to be trembling ever so slightly, gripping onto her sleeve even more tightly. He could tell she was feeling uncertain about the request, "I-I don't know if I can…" she stated in a quiet tone.

"You don't have to do it right now, if you do not want to," Double D stated to Jennifer, trying to calm her down, "Perhaps some time later would be better for you?"

Jennifer looked at Double D with a bit of shock before glancing back down at the ground, "… O-Okay," she replied with a small nod.

"Jennifer!" called out her mom's voice from the house, "We need some help getting your stuff inside! Can you come help?!"

"Oh, sure! In a second!" Jennifer called back to her mom. She started to walk away, but not before turning back to the Eds, waving a small goodbye to them, "Sorry, I got to go help my parents. G-Goodbye…!"

"Bye-bye!" Ed waved back as Jennifer ran towards her house, leaving behind the Eds on the sidewalk.

"Let's come back later when they're not busy," Double D stated, "I'd say it's best to not disturb them while they're moving stuff in."

"… Yeah, I guess," Eddy stated with a small sigh.

The three Eds walked back to the Cul-De-Sac without saying much else.

"You know, the new kid acted kind of weird," Eddy started to say, "She barely even looked at us when she talked. Were we that boring to her or something?"

"Hmm…" Double D pondered it for a moment before replying, "I'm pretty sure that's not the case, Eddy."

"She's probably just super shy!" Ed concluded, "Like a pearl in a clam that's shut really tight!"

Eddy blinked at Ed's statement, "Huh, guess that makes sense," he replied.

Double D, in the meantime, was thinking about something else that was bothering him; the way that Jennifer was acting before he calmed her down, 'The trembling she did wasn't out of nervousness… She seemed terrified of something.'

It was now the early afternoon in Peach Creek. Noticing the lack of moving trucks around the neighborhood, the three Eds decided to walk back over to Jennifer's house to see her again. They arrived at her front door and rang the doorbell.

It only took a few seconds before someone answered the door; the man and woman they saw earlier this morning, presumably Jennifer's father and mother, "Yes…? Can I help you three?" her mom asked with a small bit of confusion.

"Hello there, we met Jennifer earlier this morning, but left so she could move in her things without interruption," Double D started to explain, "Is she around right now?"

Jennifer's parents both blinked a little in surprise before putting a big smile on their faces, "Of course, I'll go fetch her from her room. Just hold on a moment," Jennifer's dad stated before walking off towards the stairs next to the door.

"I would invite you three in, but everything is still a big mess in the living room," Jennifer's mom said with a small chuckle.

About a minute passed by with everyone still standing by the front door, waiting for Jennifer to come down, 'Why's it taking so long to leave her room?' Eddy thought.

Jennifer's mom made a small sigh, "I had a feeling this might happen," she started to say to the Eds, "It's very hard for her to leave her room."

Ed seemed confused about that statement, "Huh? Why's that?" he asked.

"My daughter is autistic," she replied, "Sometimes it's extremely hard for her to interact with most people, even to people she's close with."

The Eds were silent at her remarks; Ed and Eddy were confused by it, but not Double D, 'Of course! I remember reading about that on some webpages a few times,' he thought, 'I don't know why I could not piece that together.'

"There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the gist of it," Jennifer's mom continued to explain, "We've been trying to help her come out of her shell, but it can be daunting for her. A lot of times she relies on us to do any talking for her."

A few more seconds passed by before they could hear Jennifer's dad coming back down the stairs, with Jennifer closely following behind him, "H-Hello, again…" she greeted.

"Hi there!" Ed greeted her with his usual smile as Jennifer came up to them at the front door.

"We came by again to see if you would be okay with us showing you around the neighborhoods," Double D stated to Jennifer, "Of course, that is if you or your parents don't mind that."

"That's perfectly alright," Jennifer's dad said with a small smile, "Just try to be back before nightfall, okay?"

"If anything does come up, you can call or text us," Jennifer's mom continued to say, looking at Jennifer, "It's all up to you if you want to go."

Jennifer was silent to everyone for a moment before replying, "I-I guess I can…"

The three Eds smiled at her response, "Great!" Eddy cheered, "Let's get going!"

The four teens soon walked away from Jennifer's house, with her parents watching them leave, "Those boys seemed nice," Jennifer's mom stated when the teens were out of earshot, "I do hope she gets along with them."

"I'm sure she will," Jennifer's dad replied, "We did move away from Sunflower Shoal for her to have more confidence and make friends…" he then made a sad sigh, "Especially after the disaster that happened at that school."

It took the four teens a few minutes to arrive at the entrance of the Cul-De-Sac. Jennifer looked around with curiosity, 'It seems peaceful here…' she thought.

They soon walked up to the playground that was nearby. There was currently no one around but them. They decided to sit on the swing set to take a small break from walking.

"So, what do you think of the neighborhood?" Double D asked Jennifer.

"It's, um… k-kind of big," she replied.

Eddy was surprised to hear this, "Really? I've always thought the Cul-De-Sac was too small."

Double D sighed, "Probably feels that way now because we're not allowed to travel far from here."

"Yeah, just to here and the candy store!" Ed chimed in.

"Really?" Jennifer questioned, "Why is that?"

Double D made a nervous laugh at her question, "W-Well, it's a little hard to explain, but…" he paused for a moment to glance at Eddy, "It's okay to tell the story, right?"

"… Yeah, sure," Eddy replied with a nod, "We got nothing to hide."

The Eds then start telling Jennifer about what happened a month ago; about the failed scam, the disaster it caused, and their getaway attempt to Eddy's brother's house. Jennifer listened with great interest, deciding to stay quiet the whole time while they were telling their story.

"So, basically, when we all got back home, everyone involved was grounded for two months," Double D continued to say, "That all happened a month ago, so we're still grounded from leaving too far from here."

"I-I see…" Jennifer stated before glancing down at the ground, 'Seems like that theme park by the ocean is nothing but trouble…'

"… Hey, I think that's enough about us for now!" Eddy interjected, trying to change the subject, glancing to Jennifer with a big smile as he did, "What do you usually like to do, Jenna?"

"… Huh, m-me?" Jennifer stuttered with surprise at the nickname.

"Uh-huh!"

"W-Well, umm…" she paused for a moment before replying, "I like playing video games… A-And recording what I do in them."

That got the Eds attention, "Really?!" Ed gasped, "What kind of video games?"

"… Mostly roleplaying games that I like," Jennifer continued to say, "I'm not too much into any FPS or sports games. I also like puzzle games and some action games, and a few horror games… Not all the time though."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Ed stated with a large smile.

Jennifer was surprised to hear that compliment, "Y-You really think so…?" she asked, looking towards the three a little bit.

"Of course!" Double D replied with a small smile, "It's nice to hear someone talk about their hobbies so passionately."

"I-I… I guess so," Jennifer muttered, gripping onto her sweater's left sleeve in nervousness again. This did not go unnoticed by Double D; even Eddy noticed it this time.

A few minutes passed by between the four teens before Double D noticed the change in lighting in the area, "… Oh dear, the sun is starting to set," he stated.

"We should get ya home soon, Jenna," Eddy stated to Jennifer, "Don't want your folks to get mad at us."

"O-Okay," Jennifer replied as the four of them got up from the swing set, walking back towards her house in the new neighborhood. It only took about five minutes to get back to her house.

"Umm…" Jennifer started to say to the Eds, "I wanted to say, umm… T-Thank you for today."

"It's no problem at all," Double D replied.

"Yeah! We should hang out more," Eddy stated.

"Can we come back tomorrow too?" Ed asked.

Jennifer made a surprised face at his statement, "S-Sure you can."

Ed made a wide, toothy smile, "Yay!" he cheered.

Jennifer turned to open her door to go inside, but not before turning back around to the Eds, "G-Goodbye for now, guys," she waved a little goodbye before walking inside her house, closing her door as she did.

"We should get back to our homes soon," Double D stated, "The streetlights are coming on now."

"Yeah," Eddy replied with a small stretch, "I'm also gettin' tired too."

"And I'm hungry!" Ed chimed in.

The three Eds started to walk back to the Cul-De-Sac. As they were walking back, Eddy noticed a figure of someone from the corner of his eye towards the Lane. He glanced towards the Lane, only to see no one there.

"Eddy?" Double D questioned as he noticed Eddy had stopped walking with them, "Is there something wrong?"

"… Nah, I'm fine," Eddy replied, catching back up to Double D and Ed, "Guess I'm just more tired than I thought."

Double D made a small, worried face, "If you say so."

Little did the Eds know, they were being watched by someone; someone that would cause a lot of trouble.

Author's Note (April 26th, 2023): So, this was something I had been planning for quite a while, but never really sat down to type it until recently. I might focus on this story for a while until it's done. It might short, it might be long; who knows? I hope you enjoy what's to come!