Edward casually walks back to the cafeteria to check on his brother and Marie , just to be safe but before he can open the door , someone already did from the other side as they walk out , it's Sarah and her best friend Jimmy . Edward immediately hides his bruises hands in his jacket front pocket , keeping his expressions calm before her . Edward continues his walk , but Sarah stops him by moving to her left , blocking his path . Her previous behaviors already put a bad taste in his mouth , now it's just frustrating.

Edward: what do you want ?

He asks her bluntly , right to her face .

Sarah : Oh i was just wondering why the one the biggest bully in school decided to go out of his way to help the school lamest nerd and her little rag tag group of friends? Although I thank you for helping her , lining yourself with her would only hurt her and your reputation ,in my opinion ,so why did you help her ?

Sarah underhanded Marie and question Edward action in one move to put herself in a favorable position in his eyes , for further down the line but lies and deception are nothing to Edward . Too many has been said in his presence and now it's nothing new to him .

Edward: I'm more interested in why you didn't help her since from where I can see , you were just being a bad friend. People says I'm a bad person but you , you are a wolf in sheep clothing . You tell me , what is worst ?

Edward leaves her with his question as he returns to the table. Sarah is angry but leaves it for now since she knows he is not an easy target to tie down . She leaves with Jimmy by her side while Edward enters the cafeteria. The amount of students have dropped but a few are still here , including Marie and her friends with his brother who are just minding their own things . He checks his hands and the bruises are still quite visible so he hides them in his pocket as he walks to his table . Marie spots him approaching from the distance and instinctively wave at him to gain his attention. He smiles at how charming she is when she smiles at him but doesn't wave back in fear that people who are after him might go after her ,so he just casually walks back . Ed see him and immediately waves at him with a big smile on his face . Edward smiles at him as he takes his seat .

Edward: What is your on mind , Ed ,and it better not be gravy with toast for dinner .

Ed : I just heard from coach that I will start this weekend game . Can we go to get some fried chicken later ?

Ed has his hands together like he is praying .

Edward: Is this true ,Marie?

He looks over to Marie with a doubtful look as he tells Marie in body language that he needs some conformation.

Marie : Yes , it's true . Mr Graham was just here , told your brother to practice with the starter after school.

He believes Marie so he trust her to be telling her truth. He looks back at his younger brother.

Edward: Alright, I will order some fries and sandwiches by 6 . Make sure to enjoy yourself, you have earned it .

Ed raises his hands up in the air in celebration.

Ed : Wait, you are not eating dinner with us , Double D ?

Ed looks at his brother , a bit concerned.

Edward: You know how busy I am after school. Just enjoy yourself, I'll have some when I get home . I'll even buy some biscuit for breakfast tomorrow, how that sounds ?

Ed smiles again.

Ed : OK, you got it big bro.

Edward: Eddy , you want something to celebrate Ed getting into the first team ?

Eddy : Popcorn chicken .

Edward: Alright, you will help him do tonight homework then .

Eddy looks up from his phone , surprised and frustrated.

Eddy: Wait what , how does he get free food and I have to do homework for mine ?

Edward: Cause I have to buy the food with my money and Ed has football practice, which leaves you free with nothing to do for 3 hours . I'm sure you can find a way to do it regardless of how difficult you may find it to be .

Edward chuckle as he ends his conversation with an annoyed Eddy returning to his phone .

Marie : Edward, can I ask you something?

Edward: What is it my favorite nerd , with your cute glasses ?

He pokes at her glasses to make fun of her when in reality he doesn't want to give too much away from his true feelings about Marie . Marie blushes a bit but continues her question.

Marie : What do you do after school? I almost never see you at night anymore , not even when the school have get together.

Edward knows why Marie asked him that question, she is worry about him ,about him working at an early age .

Edward : I have things to taken care off that's all , although I don't think I need to tell you what I do in my free time .

Edward sounds arrogant and cheeky to make sure his brother and her friends don't suspect him .

Edward: Unless you want me to dedicate some of my time to you?

He gets close and change to a more seductive tone which makes Marie starts stutter and blushes, even her friends starts to feel the heat .

Marie : I .. mm .. I was just ...

Edward laughs at he stands up and rubs Marie head , messing up her hair and walk away , appearing to make fun of her for being nosy . Everyone sees Edward leaves the room laughing and think Marie just made a fool of herself to make him laugh like that but after she adjusts her hair and glasses, she received a text . It's from Edward, apologizing for messing up her hair and not telling her the truth . Marie blushes at how thoughtful he is and continues to play dumb about what happened.

Lunch break ends and everyone is back to class , Edward has no class with his brother nor Marie for the end of the day so it was pretty boring for him but with everything already planned , there isn't much to do outside following it to a T as he would attend all the remaining classes, do the bare minimum and leave when the bell rings . He doesn't say goodbye to his brothers as his schedule is pretty tight so he leaves without a trace shortly after the bell rings . Marie is with Lee and May by the lockers, discussing about a sleep over so they could do their homework together and hang out . Eddy is busy with Ed on the field ,meaning he is on his phone while Ed practice. Edward is traveling to his job on foot today so he could makes some food order for his brothers. While he is at it , he thinks about getting some new clothes since some of his are pretty old and are wearing out , he checks his wallet and sees he has just a few hundred in total so he will have to be frugal with his purchase . Stopping by the restaurant, he order two 5 dollars combo for his brothers then pay to have it delivered to his home . For his clothes , he goes on his phone and scout the internet for coupons, vouchers and sweet deals for some jeans and jacket since winter is coming . Marking some good deals , he leaves it for later as he gets on the bus to make the final trek to the junkyard.

This place hasn't changed much since the day the Kanker family moved out of the area but the memories of him and his brothers hanging out here are still fresh in his mind . The feelings of being a kid , it's so far and between that he almost never get to live it fully . He has chosen this harder path to let his brothers live a comfy life to the best of his ability. The choice was somewhat easy to make for him , he always feels that he is different, in a way that he feels disconnected from everyone around him . It was the reason that made him so cold towards his family, his brothers and his mother. It has been eating him slowly inside from such a young age that drove him to smoke at such an early age , chosing violence as a mean of self preservation. It went away for a brief period when he first met Marie , the hope of a normal life came back to him but his misunderstood attempts to garner her trust which drove her away , made him go back to his old ways of self isolation . Now , he has hope once again and he will not let anything nor anyone stand in his way of enjoying it to the fullest. Oh he would give up anything to be with Marie , to care for her like his girlfriend or even beyond. He just feel joyful thinking of her as he smiles upon arriving at the front gate of the junkyard. He greet the guard who he will replace when his shift begins , casually like always as he goes to center control. Walking past mountains of scraps and shelves of dead car , there lies a small shipping container, refurbished into a small work station where his boss office is located. Opening the door , he finds his boss just behind his desk , putting in the numbers as closing hours approaches . Edward puts his jacket on the hanger and puts on his work uniform . Going over to the desk to has his time card stamp to start his shift , his boss greet him .

Chuck : How is your first day of high school ? shit or shittier ?

There is a bit sarcasm in his voice which makes Edward chuckle as he responds.

Edward: Great actually, outside the fact that I had to beat some bully down into a pulp for picking on a shrimp .

Chuck laughs.

Chuck : And that is why I hired you to guard this place , you and your violence.

Edward laughs under his lips.

Edward: Is there anything else you need , boss ?

Chuck : Nah , just go with the usual. Make sure to do some sweep before you leaves , someone been stealing junk at the back . Nothing valuable but it will become a bigger problem if we don't handle it .

Edward: Got it , have a good night ,boss.

Edward waves goodbye as he leaves the room with his boss continues his work . Edward goes to the front gate to fetch his baton and register his name in the guard list . With everything done , he starts his first sweep before sitting in the booth all night . Going over to the site where the alleged theft took place , he finds some car hood have been opened and some part are missing but with the engine are still in place and most of the values lies in the engine, so Chuck hasn't made a big deal out of it ,yet . Still , it's a problem that need to be solved so he calls in central command to report through his phone.

Edward: Boss , are you there ?

Chuck : What is it , D ? what did you find ?

Edward: I checked out the cars that got jacked and most of the values still here . Whoever stole those junks are not going for the money .

Chuck : What make you say that ?

Edward: Consider only the unusual things are gone , like wire, dead fuse , panel control board . These things that I checked on the weekend when we do scraps . They are busted and can only be repaired by experts.

Chuck : So we have a backyard scientist on our hands.

Edward: guess so , I will do some sweep later tonight to check like you said but should we report to the police?

Chuck : We can't really since the value lost is too low , most of those things are broken so even if they catch the thief , nothing will happen to them beside some small compensation. It's best that we catch whoever this is and solve the matter ourselves.

Edward: Guess you have a point, alright, D out .

He ends the call as he returns to the post to begins his shift . The clock strike 4 and he enter the booth . Like always, the hours go by like nothing as he checks the camera and do the routine sweep . With no signs of the thief for over a few hours now, he takes the time to rest up and catch up on his school work . He has an impressive memory, almost photographic like but it also apply to movement. Copying fighting moves on TV and fighting sport , he slowly became a good fighter and with enemies to challenge his throne , he sure has practiced . At one point , he has a fight every week but hardly ever he got heavily injured. The worst he ever got a was some fracture ribs from tanking a baseball bat to his back . He returned the favor by taking the bat and swung at the fucker knee , cause him to limp up to this day . Studying on his phone, he unexpectedly received a video call , from Marie .

Edward: Shit , I can't let her know I work here .

Edward immediately takes off his uniform and goes outside the booth , pretending to be just outside in the street as he accepts the call .

Marie : hello ?

Marie , in her pajamas, with her trusty glasses and braces look absolutely adorable on the screen as Edward greet her .

Edward: HI, I wasn't expecting you to call . Not that I didn't want you to call . I mm , what can I help you with?

The little stutter just make Marie giggle at how cute he is when he is with her.

Marie : It was getting close to bed time so I thought I should give you a call , checking in on you since we made a promise to each other .

Edward: Yes, thank you for calling and I'm happy to tell you that I haven't smoke since we made that promise . I wouldn't break it even for the world .

Marie giggle which made Edward blushes a bit .

Marie : I'm glad that I was able to help you that's all .

Edward: and I'm very grateful of that . What are you doing right now ?

Marie : Me and the girls are just preparing for sleep , we just finished our homework and it getting late now . What's about you ? Why are you still out in the street so late ?

Edward: I was just getting home from a errand that's all .

Marie : Well , I don't want to intrude so just be safe ok ?

Edward : I will , see you at school tomorrow?

Marie : Oh wait ,about that ?

Edward : What is it ?

Marie : I was wondering, could we go somewhere else to have lunch, just the two of us ? I want to get to know you better , since you know , we are friends now .

Edward just want to scream in cheers after what she just said but he has to keep his composure. Edward clears his throat and asks her .

Edward: Do you have any , place in mind ?

Marie : Mm , I don't know , I haven't really got to know the school that well so may be you can tell me one .

Edward: I ah mmm , there's a mm , no that's not it . ok , may be the roof . The weather is quite cool so I think it can be quite comfortable there , for a date .

That one slips out of his mouth as he quickly shuts up as Marie avert her eyes away and blush at the motion of a date with Edward.

Marie : I , mm , I would like to try that . Lunch that is , a date , I mm , I don't think I'm ready for that , just yet .

She stutters through her words like Edward as the both of them are red like a tomato.

Edward: OK, see you tomorrow then .

Edward makes an awkward laugh as he is too embarrassed to even say anything else .

Marie : Yeah , same .

She does the same as the two laughs at the camera before finally ending the call . Edward crouch down and covers his face in embarrassment as he just tried to ask Marie out for a date so soon. He punches the ground as self punishment for being too eager to the situation and probably ruin what little progress he was having with Marie . On the other end, Marie is just holding her phone close to her heart to hear how fast her heartbeat is , she can't believe how fast she is progressing with Edward and her feelings for him is becoming clearer every time they talk to each other .

Marie : Why am I feel so nervous and flustered every time I speak to him ? am I infatuated with him?

She is left to ponder these questions as she returns to the living room and get ready for bed . Edward continues to be unable to focus after the call and decided to do a sweep before his shift ends. Close to 10 , his replacement is a bit late but still arrive before his shift ends . A bit frustrated but since he is already used to walking home at night , missing the bus is not really a concern for him . With his shift registered on his card , he takes off his uniform, put his normal clothes back on and head home. Walking home at night in downtown is never a good idea , especially for someone who doesn't live there . For those who does , it's just something they have to live with . The violence, the crimes , the deaths are considered normal for the average downtown citizens. The trailer is parked just outside the downtown area so they are relatively safe but it doesn't stop some people from trying to rob the Kanker family . The three brothers learned to fight for real from these experiences, not from picking on shrimp at school trying to sounds tough but real life situation that tested their guts . Edward has some scars on his shoulders from some knifes cut but he often brushes it aside , not even letting his brother know about it . They had injuries too but they often join the fight late , it's much less significant. Edward walks across the final stretch of pavement before entering the wood where the trailer is parked. Passing through the trees then slowly appear a source of light, the fly catcher outside the trailer . He walks past the gate , carefully avoid the traps around the trailer as a precaution measure to avoid being rob , then making a few more steps before arriving at the front door . He doesn't hear any talking from inside , consider it's 10.45 , he bets most of them are already asleep. Edward quietly open the door and enters, locking the door tightly behind him as he makes his way to the couch where he puts his school bag down . Resting a bit , he rubs his face dry to wear off some of the fatigue as he hasn't eaten anything since lunch . Laying there for 10 minutes or so , he gets up and head to the cooking station to fix up something from any left over he can find . Fortunately for him , his brothers left him a lot of food from dinner . Turning on the microwave, he puts in some fried chicken while toasting a bit of bread to make a sandwich. Like always, his brothers avoided the salad so the salad container are still unopened. Pouring the salad onto a large place then place the bread and chicken next to it , he cleans up the cooking station before taking his plate and sits outside to eat . Enjoying the calm and quiet atmosphere of the woods ,he fills his hungry stomach with bite after bite . He didn't know how hungry he was from all the walking but after 20 minutes, he finish his plate and clean the dishes before heading back inside. Going into the sleeping quarters, he find his 2 brothers sleeping in their usual spot , soundly , then he goes to his mother side to check in on her and as always, he finds her sleeping with a bit of alcohol smell to her . Not surprising since there is open bottle of whisky by her bed . Not wanting the entire trailer to stink with alcohol, he takes the bottle away but before he puts back in the cupboard, he sneak in one gulp down his throat. Edward grunts from the burn as he close the cap and stash the bottle away . Among the bad habits he took on, drinking is his 2nd most favorite. Sometimes he sneak one from his mom , sometime he buy one himself. The effect is the same , to numb the pain of reality. With everything done on his list , he goes to the bathroom to brushes his teeth and shortly after , goes straight to bed .