Just about a million ways to harm you; all the things I shouldn't say, are the things that when I wanna make you happy, only comes out of me…


Chapter 14

Porcelain

The day seems to carry on rather slowly for Mel. Sitting in her usual spot during class, she can't help but simply not care about what the teacher has to say as her mind keep drifting back to the three girls from earlier that attempted to threaten her. Adorable, really. It wasn't until the bell rang for the lunch period that the day started to become a little more interesting for her.

Heading towards the lunchroom, an odd tension hung in the air as she walked passed students from the Junior High, and it didn't get any better after she entered the lunchroom to stand in the queue. The most bizarre part was however when she went and sat down at a table. Usually she either sits alone or ends up crashing her brother's and his friends' table, but this time it seems to be the other way around. Before she's even able to start eating the three boys rush over to her table and have a seat, trays nearly thrown onto the table as if their days were numbered and came out as just minutes. The very disturbing smiles on their faces doesn't help her confusion either, which must be visible on her face as she can feel her eyebrows knitting closer and closer together. Seriously, she's literally sitting with the fork in hand and just stabbed into her meal and then she froze in that pose. If they don't manage to see that she's confused and in need for some sort of an answer, then she really doesn't know what to say.

"Uhh…" Yeah, that's pretty much it.

"Why, hello there dear sister!" Edd says, far more enthusiastic than she's ever seen before. "I hope you don't mind, but Eddy, Ed and I thought it would be a wonderful idea if we were to dine together during lunch hour."

She blinks, once, twice, trying to understand what's going on. There's just something about the way he acts so happy to see her when she knows that he's still upset with her – his eyes wide to the extreme, his big smile likewise, the way he placed his hands on the table with his fingers tied together… it's… unnerving. "Uhh-huh…?"

"Enough with the chitchat!" Eddy suddenly snaps, whilst still whispering at them. "We need to come up with a plan!"

Leaning closer to his friend, Edd whispers back to him. "But Eddy, it would be a good idea if we were to act normally, as it would render less of a risk to attract unwanted attention."

What the actual-?! Eddy merely shrugs and mutters something as a response to that, but he does try to act as if nothing is wrong; as far as Mel can tell, though she is confused so… She keeps looking back and forth between the three very oddly behaving boys. Then she has enough. Locking eyes with her brother, she can see the terror in his eyes despite all of his attempts to act as if nothing is wrong.

"Y-yes…?" He asks, sounding very hesitant.

"What's going on?" She asks.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" He's trembling, it's not helping much.

"Edd…" She doesn't have much more time than that to speak.

"Kankers!" Eddy suddenly shrieks on a significantly more silent tone than he usually speaks in, and just like that, the three boys vanish underneath the table.

Staring at where they used to be, Mel feels how she slowly becomes a living question mark that wonders about many a things… why are we all here just to suffer? Is there a greater something out there that watches over us? Why in the world did her brother and his two friends lose their minds and decide to hide under the table in their school's lunchroom? Big questions…

For a few seconds of thinking deeply she hears a commotion coming from down the hallway that leads to the lunchroom. She just about manage to turn around to see the trio of girls from earlier walk in without a care in the world – what people think of them or who is in their way/spot. And just like that she feels like she understands why the trio of boys that randomly joined her for lunch decided to hide. Could it be that those girls are nothing but troublemakers that sometimes come after her brother and his friends? It would be very interesting to see what would happen if they were…

A few moments pass as the girls fight their way up to get their share of the food for the day only to vomit in some random trashcan – like seriously; the blond girl just straight up threw up in a trashcan and NOBODY SEEMS TO CARE! What is happening here?!

She watches them from where she sits, big eyed and just utterly shocked/surprised at what she just saw. The girls complain loudly at the quality of the food they're serving and decide to go hunt down some real food, which for some reason causes Jimmy and Sarah to panic and leave their tables to run after the girls desperately. Is there something she should know…? Shrugging to herself she turns back around to face her tray and now probably cold meal. Before she starts eating she gently knocks on the table three times, to alert the boys that she's about to say something.

"I don't know who you're hiding from but the three chicks just left." She says just before she takes her first bit out of her meal. Honestly she's not sure what the girls were complaining about. I mean, yeah, school lunch isn't exactly the best, but it's not that bad – not so bad that you have to throw up in a trashcan.

The boys carefully come out of hiding, sticking their heads out juuust enough to see if the coast really is clear before they get up and sit properly at the table again. "Phew! Thanks for the help on that one." Eddy chuckles, relieved that whatever happened is over.

"Uh-huh." Mel says, taking a few more bites before speaking again. "So… is anyone gonna tell me what's going on with you and those girls or… am I free to decide for myself what to do with them?" Not the right thing to say.

Edd immediately glares at her, angry as he'll ever be, tightening the hand he's holding the fork with to the point where it must hurt badly. Jaw set tight, he barely moves his mouth as he speaks. "Don't you dare!" He hisses. Too bad for him he's too adorable to be scary.

"Gee, I'm sorry, but what do you want me to do?" Mel says. "All I know is what I've managed to observe, and from what I've seen you three are very afraid of those girls. In my mind that could only be because of a couple of reasons, and I'm not gonna lie; none of them are good. So why don't you do me a favor and tell me what's going on so that I don't have to worry? Because when I worry my mind wanders far and wide, and I do something stupid, which we've already seen proof of." Looking Edd straight in the eyes, she can see he's angry, but also a little unsure. "Ever heard about the tip of the iceberg? Guess what the incident with the jocks was. You've no idea how far my imagination can go if it wants to run for it."

Angry but scared of what she's just told him, Edd understands clearly what it is that she's trying to tell him; I could do so much worse. As bad as the Kanker sisters are, he truly doesn't think they deserve something like that. "It's nothing." He says, earning big shocked eyes from the other two Eds. "It's nothing that deserves… that kind of treatment." Stabbing his food with his fork, he avoids eye contact with her. "They just… tend to be a bit amorous… and pushy with their… advances."

It's silent at the table. Three people stare at Edd with surprised eyes, though for different reasons. Eddy is the first to speak up. "What the heck Double-D?!" He yells. "What are you saying?! Why are you acting like it's not a big deal? They've been tormenting us for years!" The yelling has now drawn a bit of attention.

"Kankers are bad for Ed!" Ed simply cries, tears running down his face.

Mel remains silent, keeping her gaze locked on her brother's face even though he refuses to make eye contact with her. Are those girls sexually harassing them? As Eddy keeps yelling out things that the girls have supposedly done to ruin their lives as well as the lives of the other kids in the cul-de-sac, Edd keeps his gaze lowered, fixated on his plate. She keeps staring at him, not knowing fully what else to do. Soon enough Eddy's shouting becomes white noise in the background. Moments pass without anything else happening… but then Edd's gaze leaves his plate – and lands on her. It becomes too much.

"Pardon me." She says as she stands from the table, ready to leave.

"Wait!" Edd calls out and stands up as well. Reaching out, he grabs her arm to prevent her from leaving. "Don't do it! Whatever it is you're thinking about doing, don't do it!" He's desperate. As scared as he might be of the Kankers, he's even more desperate of not having the same scenario happen again. Mel simply stares at him.

"Let her go Double-D." Eddy says, seeming excited at Mel's interest to leave. "This could be our key to getting rid of them for good!"

"Nonsense!" Edd gasps at his friend's words. "As horrible as they've been to us and probably will be, they don't deserve to get that kind of… that kind of… they don't deserve it!" Looking up at his sister, he tries his best to make her drop the hatchet before anything happens… again. "Please Mel! You have to promise that you won't do anything to them! Promise you won't do it!"

She looks at him, partially surprised at his words but also a little upset at them. What is it with him and protecting people that hurt him?! She's just about to tell him off when he squeals out a really sad and desperate 'please!' that just about breaks her heart just from hearing it, with or without context. And so she sinks back into her seat and drops her head on the table, Edd still holding onto her arm. "You have to be the most frustrating thing I've ever come to care about." She groans out. "And that says a lot – I still care about Amanda after all!" Noticing how he still holds onto her arm she looks up from the table to him. He's scared but still remains desperate to get that promise out of her, just so that he has some hope that she won't do them any harm. She sighs. "Fine… I promise."

Hearing her words draws a sigh of relief from him and he withdraws his hands from her arm. She looks at him, still uncertain why he would want to protect people that have been tormenting him and his friends for years. Why doesn't he think they deserve punishment? Looking at Eddy, she finds him shaking his head in disbelief, and she cannot help but agree with it. This world doesn't deserve him.

Hunting chickens is a fun activity, but it hadn't been something they were planning to do. No, it had merely been a little piece of bait for some of the younglings to run straight into their trap. As soon as the door had closed behind them the Kankers had jumped them and tied them to one chair each for interrogation. With the ceiling lamp for extra mood for the moment, Lee had walked up to them, hands on her hips, ready to do basically whatever needed to get the answers they're looking for.

Watching them shake in fear, it makes her smirk. "Alright kiddos, let's get down to business." She says with her sisters on each side of her. "Now, we've been away for a while and we've noticed that some things have changed while we weren't here – especially with the high schoolers. You two have been brought here to answer some questions about what's going on and then to help us make things go back to normal again."

Looking back and forth between each other, Jimmy and Sarah are very concerned and unsure how they're going to do that. "Wh-what are w-we goi-ing t-t-to do?" Jimmy asks.

"Make people remember us." Marie says. "Duh."

"Yeah!" May joins in. "Crank up their memories of the Kankers!"

Lee nods in agreement. "Just like that! After all, we wouldn't want everybody to forget about the true terrors of this neighborhood is, right?" She says, still smirking, while leaning closer to them. "That would just make them too unprepared for what's to come once we get our hand on them."

"Yeah! That's just no fun!" Marie pouts.

"Just like that high school girl that didn't know about us. She didn't even get scared!" May says. "Ooooh! Do you think that she will get scared when she hears about everything we've done?"

"Beats me – but that does spark the first of the many questions we have in store for you two." Lee says, and points her finger at them. "Who is that new girl that roams the High School hallways?"

They're silent for a moment, but then Sarah draws the conclusion that it must be her that they're talking about. "Are you talking about Mel?" She asks.

"Wait… you actually know who she is?" Lee says, having not expected them to actually know and thus been prepared to humiliate them for their lack of knowledge.

Jimmy nods. "She lives with Double-D, and I think she may be-"

"SHE LIVES WITH MY MAN?!" Marie roars, not letting him finish his sentence. "Why that-! I'm gonna kill her!"

"Wait… does that mean he's cheating on you?" May says.

"What did you say?" Marie growls, her voice low and deep in anger and hatred.

May stands back, afraid as her sister gets more and more angry by the second. Lee however, has had enough with the whole deal, and walks up to her sister to snap her out of it. "Marie! Snap out of it!" She yells before slapping her in the face to cool her down. She does – just a little. "It appears that the situation is much worse than we first thought, girls. Not only is that girl just not afraid of us, but she's also tampering with Marie's man – and who's to say she hasn't been tampering with all of our men?"

"Not my Big Ed!" May cries.

"That settles it! It's time we set out to talk to our men – Kanker style!"

And with that, they leave the room to go and prepare everything for their much needed meeting with their boyfriends – leaving one Sarah and Jimmy behind, still tied to the chairs. Though as the school day progresses, they're soon discovered and released as the next class begins and the teacher panics from finding some of her students in such a state.

As the day comes to an end they all return home. The bus ride is long and obnoxious. Mel sits in her usual seat alone. Lots of words are being said in the background, but not a single one is aimed at her. Not that she complains – it helps her think… think about what her brother told her during the lunch break. She will never truly understand why he continues to try and protect people around him that continuously hurt him, as if it was an entertainment activity.

Turning her head slightly, she can see the spot on the bus where he usually sits with his friends. They had been sitting there this morning to, talking about something. She has no idea what that might've been about, but Eddy seemed to be the one in charge of the conversation, as he usually is, but he also seemed to be a bit worried over something. It wouldn't surprise her if it had been about the three girls they were talking about at lunch break, when they decided to join her at her table. It most likely was as Eddy appeared to be both upset and worried about how Edd talked about them with her, as if they weren't as bad as they sounded like – which had sounded awfully familiar in her ears. As loud and obnoxious as Eddy can be from time to time, he is also from time to time the only one out of the three boys that Mel can get a true answer out of; the only one who seems to realize when enough is enough when it comes to being bullied. She almost wants to talk to him about the girls, just like she talked to him about Edd being bullied the first time… but then she remembers how angry Edd had become (and still am) and she decides against it – against her better judgment.

The bus ride comes to an end. They've arrived at the cul-de-sac. It's time to go home. Getting off the bus, she stands by the road for a few seconds before she starts walking up to their house. He's inside, most likely cooking something like he always do when she arrives home. She wants to talk to him, she really does. If only she didn't already know how he's going to react to the topic that's on her mind for this one.


Song: Porcelain – Skott

Every time I finish a chapter I look back on it and just wonders… is this really worth waiting a whole month for?

I'm not sure it is.