Winged Cupid Painted Blind Chapter 8- Once More Unto the Breach Dear Friends

A/N-Thank you all for your patience, the rotation is making the updates longer apart so I might do a mass writing endeavor this weekend to make it up to you all and do a chapter for each of my stories. But forgive me if it doesn't happen.

The next day after Tim got his invitation to join the swirly club Edd stared into the mirror in his bathroom. He was looking at the raven locks of his perpetual bed head, debating whether or not to skip school until he got a new hat or to just go to school as is. Why did Kevin have to go and say he liked his hair? Though he had to admit it was pushing him out of his comfort zone which is a good thing, but on the other hand it was pushing him out of his comfort zone which was raising his anxiety. For the past ten minutes he had been fighting with his hair, trying to get it to at least look like he didn't just roll out of bed, with little to no success. Lightly banging his head against the mirror in frustration, "Why won't you cooperate with me?" But getting no response from the unruly hair Edd continued to fuss over it until finally he had to leave or miss the bus, and that was a fate worse than a bad hair day in his opinion.

Rushing to the bus stop he found he was uncharacteristically late, being the last one to show up before the bus arrived, "Yo Double D, did you just roll out of bed?' Eddy called to him as he entered the group waiting on the corner.

"N-no," Edd meekly replied as he joined his friends, "I've been trying to get my hair to behave, with no success as you can see."

"Sit," Eddy points to the ground in front of him, Edd complies putting his book bag on the ground and sitting on top of it. Eddy ruffled his hair a little, then running his fingers through it trying to make it look more expectable, "There, now it's less bed head and more sex head." Eddy said as Ed stood behind him rubbing his chin trying to decide if there was truly any difference or not.

"Does it really look better?" Double D looked to Ed for reassurance and the boy finally decided to give his approval with a nod and thumbs up.

"So where's the hat man?" Eddy said as he helped his friend back onto his feet.

"I still don't feel comfortable wearing it, even though it's been washed three times already," Edd could only think of what might be lurking in the seams of his hat whenever he looked at it, "I might just throw it out and get a new one."

"But you've had that hat forever," Big Ed said rather loudly, reverting back to his excitable ways from when he was a kid drawing attention from the other students, noticing Ed calms down and softly said, "It's like a piece of history is being thrown out with the trash." As Ed finishes his sentence the bus rounds the corner down the street from them and begins to head in their direction, everyone at the stop begins to gather up at its usual stopping point.

The conversations between the friends went into its usual light hearted norm, plans for after school get-togethers and movie marathons were made, with Edd strictly forbidding them from watching I was a teenage zombie hooker again as the only condition. Arriving at school the boys took their usual seats in the lunch room to await the bell, being quickly joined by Kevin and Nat, "Glad you took my advice man, your hair looks good."

"You think so?" Edd blushes, not looking the jock in the eyes.

Grabbing Edd's chin gently Kevin turns him to face him but was looking more at his hair, he reaches up and moves one strand of hair and says, "There, now it's perfect," and smiles at Edd deeply. With the encouragement from his friends, not to mention the subtle feeling that Kevin just flirted with him, Edd had decided that maybe it was time to move on from the security blanket his hat had become. The rest of the week was pretty normal, but moved by slowly for Edd, the thought of the upcoming game looming in the back of his mind that included the opportunity to hang out with Kevin outside of school again.

Friday finally came to the relief of the student body, not only were they looking forward to the weekend, but to the utter annihilation of their long time rivals Lemon Brook. At the end of the school day they held a pep rally in the gym for the football team, the whole school was in attendance and slowly filling the pull out bleachers that were attached to the wall. The staff was seated on the floor equally distributed on either side of a small podium where the principal and coach would give their speeches, a small group of band members comprising of the first and second chairs sat behind them to play the schools fight song thought out the rally at certain spots.

As the trio of friends was walking up the rickety bleachers they heard Kevin hailing them over as he waved his arm in a beckoning manor. Nat putting his two cents in thinking they hadn't seen them cupped his hands and yelled, "Hey dorks, get your asses up here."

To which the coach yelled up to Nat, "Mr. Goldberg watch your mouth," Nat sat down visibly mocking the man, "My office after the rally, Mr. Goldberg."

As the boys sat down Nat was mumbling something about a stick up someone's ass. Double D sat beside Kevin on his left, Nat being on the right side of the jock, Ed beside D and Eddy on the end. "Hey, you excited about tonight?" Kevin said hold up his fist to Edd.

Edd meekly balled his hand into a fist and bumped it against Kevin's, "Ecstatic," he replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Hey Edd," the voice that called out from behind him sent a chill down his spine, Edd turned his head and shoulders a little to look behind him and lock eyes with Marie he gave a gently wave of his hand in response. "How are you?" She continued to push hoping to be invited to sit with them

Kevin turned his body so he could face her and Edd both, "Hey Marie, what up?" He gave a little wave to her with his right hand then placed it on Edd's left shoulder, she gazed at that hand intently for a moment and gagged Edd's reaction. The touch sent another shiver down Edd's spine, but this one was the polar opposite from the one a moment ago. "How's your sister?" Kevin continued, massaging Edd's shoulder slightly, Marie looked intent on chopping that hand off.

Marie was still doing the passive aggressive thing and did her best to not let her emotions be heard in her voice, "She's fine, but not very happy with you," Marie looked Kevin in the eyes and smiled broadly but then turned her attention back to Edd, "I'm happy you got a friend that will choose you, you know, over some party invite," She looks over at Eddy coldly to emphasis her point.

"Thanks Marie," Edd all but whispered.

"Yeah, he's a really cool dude," Kevin said shaking him slightly with the hand that was on Edd's shoulder, "Now if only some other people would try and be his friend without having ulterior motives." Kevin said bluntly not breaking his gaze from Marie, she flinched knowingly, well aware that he was referring to her even if he didn't say it outright. Seeing that he got the desired result Kevin turns back around, removing his hand from Edd's shoulder in the process. The rally started only moments later and Edd felt bad for Marie that Kevin was tactfully blunt, but at the same time he couldn't help but wonder how many years of rejection it takes before someone gets the hint.

The small group of band members began to play as the cheerleaders shouted out the words to the Peach Creek High fight song and did varying degrees of stunts to riel up the crowd. After the principle took the podium and in a monotone voice began to address the student body on how this was an exciting occasion for them all. That they needed to be good sports, win or lose there was not to be a repeat of last year's shenanigans, no TPing Lemon Brooks school, no egging the coach's house and definitely no kidnapping their mascot. "The boy from last year is still in therapy people, it's not funny, I see you over there Jonny don't think I don't know what you and plank are planning." Everyone in attendance looked over at the two boys who did their best to look like total angels, the principle pointed to fingers to his eyes and then at the boys to let them know he was watching them.

After the principal was down with his very rousing speech it was the coach's turn, "Are we going to destroy Lemon Brook?" To a unanimous roaring reply from the crowd of YEAH and the stomping of feet on the old bleachers, "Are we going to maim and slaughter them?" Again with the yelling and stomping of the feet, Edd found it amusing that his four friends were all so energized about this game, especially Ed and Eddy who were probably not going anyway, guess they just needed to let off some steam. "Are we going to send that bunch of pansies back home to their momma's crying?" Edd could feel a drop in his stomach with the homophobic slur as the crowd cheered, but did his best to hide it, it was common in sports to berate an opponent in such a way. "What are we going to do?" The crowd screams WIN, "Who are we going to kill?" the crowd in return, THEM, followed by a thunderous applaud and stomping of the feet, after that the coach began introducing the players. The first being the captain and QB Tommy who ran onto the court with his right fist over his shoulder swinging it in a circle making a whooping sound, mimicking the popular talk show host Arsenio Hall, the crowd in turn responded in kind with the same motion of their fist and whooping. As Tommy took his position he scanned the crowd for the girl who made his heart skip a beat, Myrtle, spotting her he smiled.

After the team was introduced and all in rank and file the coach continued, "We are going to destroy Lemon Brook tonight and in regional's, we are taking our boys all the way to state this year." Which was met with an uproarious cheer and more stomping of the feet, how these bleachers were still standing considering their age and misuse was beyond Edd's comprehension.

This kind of commotion lasted for another twenty minutes before the pep rally ended, and the student body made their way off the old bleachers and out into the halls to get on their respective buses and head home. As the six of them reached the bottom of the bleachers a pretty blonde in a cheerleader uniform comes up to Kevin, "Hey Kev, got a minute?"

"Sure Nazz," turning around to face his friends, "Hey Nat, Edd, I'll catch up with you guys in a minute," He watched for a little while as they walked off with Marie in tow, then seeing Nat get snatched up by the coach, he chuckled and shackes his head then turns back to the blonde, "What's up?"

"Are you going to Tommy's bonfire tonight after the game?" She bit her bottom lip and looked a little coy as she stared into Kevin's green eyes.

"Yeah sure," Kevin scratched the back of his neck knowing how she was going to react to the next part, "I'm bringing friends so I'll be with them most of the night."

"Well Nat's cool, he can take care of himself." She waved it off with her right hand then brushed it against Kevin's chest and left it to rest there.

"Not just Nat." Kevin was looking a little flustered, hadn't they already had this talk about their friendship, she needed to stop flirting.

"Who, the dork squad?" She pointed in the direction that the three Ed's had left in with her left hand never removing her right from his chest.

"Nazz,"

She furrowed her brow and spoke very bluntly, "Kevin, you need to think about your reputation, hanging out with these dork is going to kill it."

Kevin takes a step back to give some proper distance between them, so it was more like friends, "You know I don't care about that."

Looking a little put off because he had spurned her touch, "Well you should, we could be prom King and Queen this year."

He cocks a brow and starts to turn away from her, "Don't care," and starts to walk away, "I'll see you tonight Nazz." He knew she was a good person, they have been friends for years, the both of them had even tried dating a few years back but unfortunately he had to admit to himself that he saw her more as a sister than anything else. She on the other hand still had a crush on him, she did do her best to contain her feelings so she didn't make him uncomfortable but sometimes she got carried away and those emotions would seep out. He didn't hold it against her, he understood you couldn't help who you like or fall in love with. Catching back up to his friends he discreetly told Edd not to make any plans for tonight after the game and to be prepared for another all-nighter with him. Edd's nervousness about this evening went from mild to def-con 5 in a matter of seconds.