ATWN: Chapter 10

A few minutes passed by in both Peach Creek and Tusca after two of the Eds, Naomi, and Amelia arrived at the arcade in Tusca. We zoomed in on the campgrounds back in Peach Creek, where we could see the mysterious white door that was lying on the ground begin to open. Double D and Lily were crossing back over from her world into his.

"Phew, it looks like everything is still the same appearance-wise on this side," Double D sighed as he examined himself, noticing that he went back to how he normally looked, 'Not that I had any real doubts it would change at all in between now and then, but still…'

He looked back to Lily to see that she had changed appearances again to match the look of his world, just like he and his friends did a moment ago, 'Lily seems to be adapting to this situation just fine. It's quite impressive that she's able to stay so calm about all of this…'

Double D's mind began to wander, thinking about her appearance here and what she looked like back in her world, concluding to himself that both forms were, well, rather cute. It took him a split second to realize he was staring at her while he thought that, widening his eyes before looking away quickly in nervousness, 'W-Why did I even think that?! Lily is a friendly acquaintance!'

He quickly shook that thought out of his head before clearing his throat, "Umm, Lily, do you think it was wise to leave the others behind without telling them?" Double D started to ask her, still looking away, "I know we left behind one of the two keys if they needed to cross over, but everyone was still back in town…"

"It'll be fine," Lily stated to him, "I did send Amelia a text beforehand saying we were going back to Peach Creek for a moment. I sent it to her before crossing over because I have a feeling my cell phone won't work here," she made a small sigh of annoyance, "I know she'll see the message eventually; Amelia takes a long time to respond to any of the messages I send her."

"That's fair," Double D replied with a small smile.

The two teens looked around the area of the campground once more, "You know, I think we should move this door to a place where other people can't see it," Lily started to say, "If someone picked it up and threw it away; we would lose contact with each other."

"That's a good point," Double stated, scratching his chin to think for a moment, "But where would a good place be to hide it from everyone?"

They stood there to think about it for a second before Lily spoke, "Oh! What about the abandoned house? Do any of the other kids go in there for any reason? If they don't, then that would be a good place to hide something like this."

Double D was silent for a moment, "W-Well… I don't think anyone goes in there after what happened with Ed, Eddy, and myself, and I rather not enter that accursed place again."

Lily stared at him before realizing what he was talking about, 'Right, the Kankers lured the Eds into a trap there to marry them that episode… I completely forgot about that.'

"… But I do see your point, it would be a good place to hide the entrance since no one ever goes inside," Double D continued to say, "I remember there was a hidden room inside the library of that house, we could hide it there."

"Really?" Lily questioned with surprise, "Would you and the other two be okay with that?"

"Yes, I'll just have to put aside my feelings about that awful house," Double D replied before looking at Lily, realizing why she asked that, "Umm… I'm assuming the show I'm on showed that day as well?"

Lily widened her eyes a little before nodding back, "Y-Yeah, it did."

The two teens stood there before Double D looked away from her again, pulling his beanie down over his eyes and face. Lily could see that he was embarrassed about the fact she knew what happened that day.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make things awkward, but I didn't want to lie to you about that," Lily said to him before making a sigh, "Anyway, let's try to get this door over to the abandoned house and hope no one sees us carrying it."

Double D lifted his beanie from his eyes as a small blush formed across his face, "Y-Yes, let's get to it quickly."

Meanwhile, back at Round 1 Arcade in Tusca, we could see Ed and Naomi had just finished the light gun game they were playing (The House of the Dead).

"That game was so cool!" Ed stated with a very big smile on his face, "It's like it never ended until we had to game over! I wonder if anyone can beat it?"

"I'm sure at least a few people have, but it can be very hard to do," Naomi replied with a small chuckle.

The two teens began to walk away towards a part of the arcade that was a small food court and hangout spot. They sat down on one of the bench seats, slightly exhausted from the game they had played before.

"Hey… wait, is that Naomi I see over there?" questioned a voice nearby, catching the two by surprise.

The person who called out to Naomi was a fourteen-year-old boy. He had short, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. He wore a navy blue polo shirt, a pair of light brown khakis, and black and white tennis shoes.

The teen boy also had someone next to him, she was a fourteen-year-old girl who had long, black hair that went to her waist and wore a thick pair of glasses over her dark brown eyes. She wore a long-sleeved black and white striped shirt, a pair of gray jeans, and a pair of small black boots. She also wore a black choker with a white heart on the front of it.

"Oh! Hey there, Theo! Hey Norah!" Naomi greeted the two teens as they came over to her and Ed, "I didn't expect to see you two at the arcade today. What's the special occasion?"

"Uh, what makes you think it's something special?" Norah questioned with a slight bit of annoyance.

It was Theo who noticed Ed sitting with Naomi, "Huh, is this a new kid? I didn't hear anything about a new neighbor moving here…"

"Oh! Uh…" Naomi gasped a little before replying, "T-This is an out-of-town friend who came to visit!"

Ed waved at the two teens, "Hai! My name is Ed!"

Theo and Norah looked at Ed for a moment with a bit of silence, which was noticed by Naomi.

"Huh, I didn't check to see if there was any sort of convention in the area this week," Theo stated with a chuckle, "Your friend looks like he's dressed up as one of the kids from that show you and your friends always watch."

Naomi widened her eyes in surprise, 'Oh no, I didn't think about that! If other people saw the Eds and realized they're the same, they could find out about the door that brought them here!'

"He even has the same name," Theo continued to say, "Guess that makes him perfect for the role."

"Yep, that's me!" Ed stated with a hint of pride, "I'm from another planet; like an alien coming to visit, but not invading!"

"E-Ed!" Naomi gasped in a low voice of disbelief, instantly freaking out, 'He did NOT just say that!'

The two teens stared at Ed after he said that before they both started to snicker, "I'm guessing you're practicing for a cosplaying contest as well," Norah replied, "He's acting REALLY in-character."

"Y-Yeah, he is!" Naomi stated with a loud, nervous laugh, much to Ed's confusion.

"I guess we'll leave you two alone for now," Theo said with a small laugh, "See you and your friends in class tomorrow!"

"Bye!" Naomi and Ed waved at the two teens as they left. Naomi made a sigh of relief, "That was close…"

Ed looked at Naomi in confusion again, "Are you, uh… their neighbor?" he asked.

"No, they're just classmates that are in the same homeroom as me and my friends," Naomi replied, "They can be a bit much sometimes, but they're friendly to us… Thankfully."

She then looked towards where the arcade had food and snacks to buy, "Come on, we should go buy some snacks while Eddy and Amelia are still playing stuff. My treat!"

Ed made a big smile at the offer as the two of them walked over to go buy snacks with Naomi.

Meanwhile, back with Eddy and Amelia…

"Geez! I was SO close to finishing you off with that last hit!" Eddy irritably stated as he and Amelia stepped away from the Guilty Gear Strive fighting cabinet they were at, "If you hadn't hit me with that freakin' dolphin, I would have won!"

Amelia could only laugh at him, "That's the power of Totsugeki!" she said to Eddy in a teasing matter before calming down from her laughter, "But, honestly, you did VERY well for your first time playing Strive! You won the second match we had, and that last match was extremely close!"

Eddy looked at her with confusion, "Huh? You think I was good at it?"

"Yeah!" Amelia replied with a nod of her head, making a big smile, "Not a lot of people can get used to fighting games like that, but you seemed to be a natural at it! Makes me wonder how you would do against players online or at a tournament."

"Uh… Wait, a tournament? For a game like that?" Eddy questioned before flashing a mischievous smile, "Is there a prize involved?!"

"Usually, yes," Amelia said with a chuckle, knowing exactly what he was thinking, "The prizes do vary for different events, depending on who's hosting it, but EVO is a really big event in Las Vegas that usually has Guilty Gear Strive on the center stage, along with the top players in the world fighting to win the big prize, which is a trophy and a lot of money; definitely worth more than a quarter."

Eddy widened his eyes at this revelation, "Really?! How do I sign up for it?!"

Amelia looked at Eddy to see that he was very excited, "Well, EVO for this year has already passed, it happened about two weeks ago. So, if you want to even try to sign up, it'll be for next year's event."

The excitement on Eddy's face immediately faltered, "Oh, well that kind of stinks."

"Sorry to kill your enthusiasm there," Amelia stated, "The good news is that you can still practice for it all year if that's something you wanna aim for!"

Eddy shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe? We'll wait and see how I feel about that later!" he said before making a smirk.

Amelia held back from laughing loudly, only smiling at him, 'Who would have thought this would even happen? Meeting someone you didn't think existed and then you start to hang out with them… It feels kind of surreal.'

Amelia then glanced over to one of the DDR machines nearby, "Hey Eddy, want to watch me bust a move and get a high score?" she asked.

"… Wait, huh?" Eddy looked at her in confusion once again, "What the heck does that mean?"

"Oh, you'll find out!" Amelia replied before grabbing him by his wrist and dragging him over to the nearest DRR booth.

"W-Whoa, hey!" Eddy yelped as they came to a halt in front of the big dance pad.

Amelia lets go of Eddy's wrist before hopping onto the DDR dance pad, "Hey! Anyone wanna challenge me to DDR?!" She asked the many folks passing by her, trying to get their attention, "I've got some energy to burn!"

Not even a second passed by before Eddy and Amelia heard a loud, pompous laugh coming from behind them, "Well! If it isn't Amelia, the Loser!"

Amelia and Eddy turned to the person who said that. It was a fourteen-year-old girl who had long, brown hair that went past her shoulders and brown, almost red eyes. She wore a yellow blouse with short, wavy-looking sleeves, a pair of white shorts that went a little past her thighs, and a pair of tan shoes with white socks that went to her knees.

Amelia glared a little at the teen girl as she hopped onto the other dance pad next to her, "Man, why did you have to come here and ruin my day?"

"Because I enjoy taunting you, of course," the girl said with a smirk, much to the annoyance of Amelia.

Eddy could immediately tell these two had a bad history of some kind, judging by how harsh Amelia's glare was to the girl and how the other girl was treating Amelia. It almost made him start to feel angry as well because of the other girl's tone.

"W-Whatever, Justine!" Amelia replied, gripping onto the metal handle of the dance pad she stood on, "We'll do ONE song, and whoever loses is gonna buy the winner a snack at the food court!"

The girl named Justine laughed once again very loudly, "You're on, Loser!"

Eddy looked at the two girls as they started to decide what song to dance to, both bickering with each other very loudly, "Geez, here we go again…" stated a voice from behind Eddy, surprising him slightly, "I really wish Justine would leave her alone."

Eddy turned to his right, only to see someone walking over to watch the two girls bicker with each other. It was a fourteen-year-old boy with short, but scruffy black hair and dark blue eyes. He wore a dark grey T-shirt with a weird design on the front of it, a pair of dark blue jeans, and black and gray tennis shoes.

Eddy looked at the teen boy a little before glancing back at the two girls, "You know who that girl is next to Amelia?" He asked.

"Hmm?" The teen next to Eddy looked at him, realizing he was there, "Oh, yeah, Justine is my girlfriend. She's always trying to get under Amelia's skin, even when I try to tell her to stop."

'Wait, his… girlfriend…?!' Eddy thought before realizing something that made him widen his eyes. The picture that Amelia had shown him earlier this morning back in his world… This guy was the one sitting next to her! It was Amelia's ex-boyfriend!

"Hey, I don't think I've seen you around here before," the teen boy started to say in a friendly tone, "Did you just move here to Tusca recently? What's your name?"

"Uh… The name's Eddy," he replied with a slight bit of caution, trying to be careful about what to say, "I'm just, uh… visiting some friends that live here."

"I see," the teen stated back with a smile, "Well since it seems you know Amelia, I guess I can introduce myself," he took out his hand for a handshake, "My name's Aaron. She and I have been friends for a long time."

Eddy was a little hesitant before deciding to shake Aaron's hand; he did not want people to get suspicious of him or ask too many questions. He could also tell that Aaron did not seem like a bad or rude person, 'Guess I'll play along for now,' Eddy thought, "Nice to, uh, meet you."

"Same here!" Aaron replied as they stopped their handshake. Aaron then noticed something about Eddy that got his attention, "Weird, you look a little familiar, but I know we haven't met before…"

Eddy froze at what he said, 'Uh oh, does he know about the show?! I hope not, that would be awkward!'

"… Well, it's your clothes that look familiar to me, and not actually you," Aaron continued to say, looking back up to the girls on the DDR machine, "Kind of looks like the outfit of someone that Amelia likes to doodle a lot in her notebook. Guess that means she was drawing you and not some character she made up."

'… Wait, what the heck did he say?!' Eddy could feel himself becoming warm in his face at what he learned about Amelia from Aaron, forming a deep blush as he did, 'You have GOT to be kidding me! No one's ever liked me like that; not even the freakin' Kankers treat me that way half the time!'

"Huh… Well, isn't that something, I-I didn't know," Eddy finally replied with a nervous laugh. He shook those thoughts out of his head as he turned his attention back to the two girls on the DDR machine just like Aaron. They were getting ready to start the song they chose; or the song Amelia chose, after debating it over with Justine. The song was called 'Cartoon Heroes'.

As the song began, Eddy could see what kind of game this was while watching the two girls play it. It was a rhythm game where you hit the arrows on the ground in time to the arrows passing by on the screen to music that was playing. It looked to be extremely competitive and quite flashy with two people playing against each other.

Eddy looked to see how well Amelia was doing, watching her closely as she continued to dance to the song she chose. He could feel himself blushing again as his heart started to beat faster and faster; it felt like something was trying to jump out of him through his chest, like a hidden memory.

The song finally ended after a few minutes; the score was extremely close between the two girls, with Justine being only a double-digit score behind Amelia's, making Amelia the winner!

"Ha! I beat you!" Amelia taunted Justine with a smirk, "You did really good though! Kept me on my toes the whole time. Oh, and I lied about the snacks, you don't need to buy me anything."

Justine started to fume a little to Amelia, "W-Why you—"

"Alright you two, that's enough for now," Aaron started to say to them as he walked over to Justine's side, "Let's not start this again, okay?"

Justine's attitude turned a 180 as she looked back at Aaron, "Oh heeey! Sorry about that. You know how heated video games can be sometimes, you know?"

'… Freaking wow,' Eddy thought to himself, noticing how Justine was acting completely different with Aaron compared to Amelia.

Aaron turned to Amelia with a friendly smile, "I didn't see you here last week, Amelia. Have you been doing okay while your parents are away?"

"I've been… Umm, doing well," Amelia replied as she got off the DDR machine, feeling extremely nervous that her ex-boyfriend was here along with his girlfriend, not to mention Eddy was also here. She landed close to Eddy's side.

"Good to hear!" Aaron stated as he looked at Eddy by her side, "Looks like you made a new friend, huh? He said his name was Eddy."

Amelia froze at his words, "U-U-Uh…" Eddy looked at Amelia, only to see her cheeks becoming pink, mostly from embarrassment.

The three teens could hear Justine start to laugh loudly again, "Your boyfriend looks like a total DORK, just like you!"

Both Eddy and Amelia widened their eyes at what Justine said, with Amelia looking very shocked while Eddy's became angrier.

"Justine! That was uncalled for," Aaron scolded her with a sigh before looking back to Amelia, "Sorry, I can talk to you sometime later if you want."

"… Y-Yeah, okay," Amelia replied with a slow nod of her head.

Justine started to tug on Aaron's left arm, gesturing him to follow her, "Come on, let's go do something else!"

The two began to walk off towards the exit of the building, leaving behind Amelia and Eddy at the DDR machine. A few seconds passed by before one of them said anything.

"S-Sorry about her. Justine has always been that way with me," Amelia started to say to Eddy, "I just, umm… have to deal with her whenever she's around."

"… I don't like her," Eddy stated with a bit of an angry face, "It's like if Kevin was here, but more two-faced and a major suck-up."

Amelia stared at Eddy for a second before making a smile, "You know what? You're right, I should ignore her when she's trying to egg me on like that. Especially when Aaron is around her."

Amelia reached into her pocket to pull out her cell phone to look at the time, only to see the text message that Lily sent a while ago, as well as a missed call from her grandpa, "Oh, it's about time for me to leave here. I need to pick up my groceries."

She looked back to Eddy, "You can stay here while I'm at the store if you want to. I can text Naomi when I'm done, so we can all meet back up and leave to go home."

"… Nah, I'll come with you."

Amelia widened her eyes in shock as heard his response, "I did say I wanted to see a lot of things here, even the foods you have at the store!" Eddy said with a cheeky smile, "It could be something different from what I have at home, let's get going!"

'Eddy…?' Amelia thought to herself before shaking off the thought that was forming, "Okay, you can come with me. But I want to find Naomi and Ed first, so we can give them the rest of the tokens we didn't use."

"Hah, sure thing!" Eddy replied as he dashed ahead a little to the food court with Amelia jogging a little behind him.

Author's Note (January 10th, 2024): Yay! This chapter is done! Stay tuned for more, as well as a two-week time skip!