React and Interact

Pair: Eddy and Lee (friendship)

Warning: Woo, there's a swear in here! (Which is why the rating changed to T. Cause I don't want anyone bugging me about it…)

-/-/-

As the teacher read down the list of names, Eddy knew what was coming. She was pairing them alphabetically, his last name started with 'M' and there were no 'L's in the class. That could only mean… "Lee Kanker and Eddy Martel." Damn.

Eddy sat slumped in his seat, glaring at the teacher as she finished dooming people to unwanted partnerships for their class project and then turned his glare on Lee as she sauntered over, looking equally displeased. "Don't gimme that look." She growled, dropping down into the desk next to his.

"What look?" Eddy replied petulantly.

Lee ignored him and spoke as though he never had. "You think I wanna be your partner any more'n you wanna be mine?" She asked, placing her chin in her hand and leaning on the desk.

"Oh, yeah? What's wrong with being my partner?" The boy asked, sitting up straight.

Once again ignoring her new partner, Lee continued. "Let's just get this over with. What d'you wanna do for the project?" She asked, looking up at the board.

Eddy huffed and slouched back against his chair. After middle school, as both the Eds and the Kankers began to mature- 'mature' being a relative term- their dynamics had changed. Ed and Double Dee, May and even Marie seemed to have made a sort of peace with each other, while Eddy's and Lee's relationship had simply cooled to one of mutual dislike. Neither one really tried anything to hurt or hinder the other anymore, but they certainly wouldn't spend time in each other's company if it could be helped.

"Would you say something?" Lee groused, nudging the boy next to her, "Geeze, you're the one with all the good plans; come up with a project."

Raising an eyebrow, Eddy glanced at the redhead. "Good plans?"

Frowning, Lee looked away but offered her explanation. "Yeah. Like in middle school. Some of those were pretty good." She paused and let out a huff of laughter. "Hell, that's why it was so fun screwin' 'em up."

"Fun for you." Eddy scowled. "But we worked hard on those and you n' your band of girls would just come and smash it to pieces. Literally."

For a moment, the girl seemed almost embarrassed. "I guess it was kinda a shitty thing to do."

"Damn straight." Eddy agreed in vindication.

"But you weren't exactly on the level, buddy." Lee pointed out, poking him accusingly in the side.

Eddy opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. After a minute or two, he cracked a small smirk. "So, I wasn't perfect. What's the fun in that?"

Lee matched his grin. "No fun at all, if yer askin' me."

The two sat in amused silence for a few more minutes before Eddy spoke again. "Maybe I could get Double Dee to do the project for us…" He mused, glancing over at his partner.

Grinning, Lee smacked him on the shoulder good-naturedly. "See? Full'a good ideas."

-/-/-

Words: 492

Author's Note: "Martel" is the surname I picked for Eddy and will be the same in any and all stories of mine henceforth. I picked last names and parent's names for all the characters, but they're not important at the moment.