ASC: Chapter 6

It was now the 4th of July here in the little town of Peach Creek, currently around 6:30 in the evening. We zoomed in on a Cul-De-Sac where we could see a teen girl exiting their house to head toward the bus stop nearby. It was Alice, who was getting ready to meet up with her friends to see the fireworks.

It has been five days since Alice came to live with Eddy due to the unfortunate circumstances of the death of her parents. Since then, Alice has met everyone in Eddy's neighborhood, who were all shocked at the news that Eddy had another sibling who was so close to his age; only older than him by a month.

The two other teens that the three Eds met the other day, Reese & Jade, have also met Eddy's neighbors, seeing that they never visited the Cul-De-Sac before despite living a lot further down the street and passing by it ever so often. Everyone seemed to get along with Alice and her two new friends, which came as a relief to the three Eds. They were kind of scared that they would be shunned like they once were, or so Eddy feared; but that did not happen, thankfully.

The other neighbors were only given a partial explanation about why Alice moved in with Eddy. The only thing they did not tell them was that Alice's parents were murdered by the Corvin Family and that she was a witness in hiding; the less people knew about her being here and why, the better things would be once things calmed down.

Alice made a small sigh to herself as she began to trek toward the bus stop, which was located in between the Cul-De-Sac and the very edge of town that was close by. Once she arrived at the bus stop, she sat on the bench nearby, waiting for the bus to arrive to take her to the site where folks in town could view the fireworks. As she was sitting down on the bench, Alice could feel herself getting a slight chill, 'Wow, I didn't expect it to be this cold. I know it's nighttime right now, but it's still the middle of summer…'

"Oh, why hello Alice!"

Alice widened her eyes at the familiar voice walking over to her, turning to see Double D coming to sit down next to her on the bench. He was wearing a slightly baggy brown jacket over his usual summer attire due to the sudden temperature change. She could also see he was carrying a bag on his right shoulder, presumably for carrying the picnic blanket for everyone to sit on for the viewing, "Seems like we both arrived here at the same time. I assume you were going to the fireworks early to find a viewing spot for us?" he asked.

"Yep," Alice replied to him with a smile before glancing at the carrying bag he had, "I kinda had a feeling you were gonna do the same, but I forgot to ask if you were going to. My bad."

Double D chuckled at her, "It's alright, I usually try to stay one step ahead for things like this: especially for my friends. They are both very scatterbrained, one more so than the other."

Alice laughed at that, "So I've noticed."

The two teens sat there for a moment, waiting for the bus to arrive. Alice looked at the teen boy beside her before glancing up at his hat, the black beanie with the two white stripes on one side. She noticed that Double D was always wearing this hat, even during the hot summer days. Alice could see that he had a lot of his hair hidden under his beanie; it was light blond, judging from some of the strands that came out from under his hat, but it was barely noticeable most of the time.

"… Say, Double D?"

Double D glanced toward Alice, "I've been meaning to ask this, but why are you always wearing that beanie? July isn't the kind of month to be wearing a winter hat. Don't you get uncomfortable from wearing it all the time?"

Double D was silent at her question, staring at her with a look of horror in his bright green eyes before looking away.

Alice immediately noticed his silence and his behavior after she asked her question, "Oh… I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

"It's okay," Double D interjected to her, still looking away from Alice, "It's only natural for you to be curious, but… I-It's, umm, a bit of a sensitive topic for me."

Alice looked at him with a bit of worry, "Is there something you don't want others to see underneath your hat?"

Double D flinched when she asked that question, "U-Um…"

"Do Ed or Eddy know?" Alice continued to ask, "If so, maybe I can ask Eddy—"

"NO!" Double D yelled in a panic, making her startled by how sudden it was, "P-Please don't inquire them about that! It's—"

He could feel Alice gripping his left shoulder, "Double D, I wasn't going to ask them, don't worry!" Alice stated to him, trying to calm him down, "I was only trying to get you to be more open about it because I was worried!" she took her hand off his shoulder, "I'm sorry if asking you that way came off as rude… I won't ask again."

Double D stayed silent to Alice, looking away from her again. The silence between them was becoming more awkward. Alice looked down toward the ground, twiddling her thumbs, 'Wow, congratulations! You made a friend that you're worried about and hate your guts in record fashion! Ten outta ten, never do it again!'

"… Alice."

Alice perked her head to look at Double D, "I-I know you were only trying to pry like that because you were worried, but please don't worry about me," he looked back at her, trying his best to not falter at what he was going to say, "It's… Well, it's a very old scar from a bad burn, located around my forehead; I got it when I was much younger, living in another town in a different house… living with my real mother and father," he placed his right hand to his forehead, feeling where the scar was underneath his beanie, "The scar was very bad and never went away over time, so my adopted parents bought several of these beanies for me to wear, to cover up what happened and to help me socialize with others."

Alice was silent to him before widening her eyes; Double D was an adopted child, meaning his real parents were also gone, just like hers. It sounded like his parents died in some sort of fire, judging by the fact that he said his scar was from a burn…

"… No one else in the neighborhood knows about my burn besides Ed and Eddy," Double D continued to say, "Even so, I-I never told them the details about it, o-or even the fact that my parents they are acquainted with are not my biological family… I'm not exactly fond of being around fire either, even when I know it's under control," he began to scratch the back of his neck in embarrassment, "I don't even know why I decided to tell you this; I've always kept this to myself for the most part… M-My apologies, Alice."

There was a bit of a small pause before Alice leaned over to Double D from where she was sitting to hug him, much to his shock, "Wh—"

"Double D, listen to me for a sec," Alice started to say to him, "It really hurts, I know, but holding in those sorts of emotions for so long is bad for you!" She hugged him tighter for a split second, "I-I know what it's like now; losing the people you care about, just like that… Life can be unfair."

Double D could feel himself beginning to blush as Alice was hugging him, but it quickly went away as soon as she let him out of it. She glanced away from him and sat back to where she was sitting before, not even looking back at him, 'Oh my god, I didn't mean to hug him like that! I was only trying to make him feel better…' Alice thought as she closed her eyes, 'God, he probably thinks I'm some sort of weirdo or a freak now! Why do I have to be so awful with this kind of stuff?!'

"… T-Thank you, Alice."

Alice looked back to Double D with a shocked expression. He was looking straight ahead; a small smile started to form across his face, "It's true that I need to be more open about these sorts of things, not keeping these emotions to myself… It's just that I don't want others to worry about me because of what happened, which is one of the reasons why I've never mentioned it to anyone… I'd much rather have folks care about themselves."

Alice could only stare at him, not really knowing what to say. She could feel her heart begin to race, beating faster and faster as a deep blush started to form on her cheeks, 'Geez, you just met him a few days ago! Stop acting weird!' she closed her eyes to think, 'Yeah, he's cute and nice, but he's also your brother's friend! Don't be like this!'

The two teens soon could hear the bus approaching their stop, "Seems like the bus finally arrived," Double D stated as he sat up from the bench, "We should get going."

"Yeah…" Alice replied as she shook off what she was feeling "We don't want everyone else to take all the good spots!"

About an hour passed by after Double D and Alice went to the viewing site for the fireworks. They had found a very good spot that was on a hillside, right at the very top! The crowd had not even begun to form yet when they got there, so they were thankful that they arrived early to get the spot.

As Double D and Alice were waiting for their four other friends to arrive, we could see Ed walking toward the area where there were a few concessions stands for food and drinks. He had just arrived a moment ago on his own, seeing that he had to do something earlier before getting here.

It was while he was walking that Ed started to hear a small commotion nearby. Being curious, Ed went over to where he could hear the shouting, only for him to widen his eyes. He could see Reese up ahead, surrounded by four teen boys their age.

"You need to cut the act. You're not fooling anyone, you know," stated one of the boys to Reese.

"Yeah, you need to put on some makeup," stated another boy, "It'll make you more attractive!"

"… Thanks, but no thanks. I already put moisturizer on, and I have no interest in that sort of stuff," Reese began to say to the teen boys in a stern tone, trying to look around for an opening so they could make a run for it.

"Hey, what's the rush?" asked the third boy, blocking them from trying to run, "We're just trying to help you with your problem, that's all!"

"I don't have a problem!" Reese finally snapped back at them in anger with a glare, "Please, leave me alone!"

The fourth boy suddenly grabbed Reese by the wrist, "Oh, come off it! You're a girl, so you should look more like one!"

Reese gasped at the boy's sudden action, "H-Hey! Let go of me!"

Before anything else could happen, the boy who grabbed Reese was forcefully pulled aside by Ed, letting Reese go as he did, "Leave Reese alone, you bully!"

Reese widened their eyes at Ed as the three teen boys went over to the fourth boy Ed pushed aside. The four teens growled a little at Ed before they scoffed at them.

"Whatever, we don't need to waste our energy trying to help her. She's a lost cause," the four teens dashed away from Ed and Reese, leaving them behind where they were.

Ed looked over to Reese, who looked very upset about what happened, "Are you okay?"

Reese was silent for a moment, "… No, I'm not okay," they responded in sadness, "Why does everyone have to be like that to me?! I… I'm not a boy or a girl! They really need to leave me alone!"

"… Huh?"

Reese looked to Ed, who seemed very confused by that statement as he scratched the side of his head in confusion, "Uh… Are you a space alien?"

Reese stared at him before bursting out laughing at the thought, "Hahaha, I wish! That would kinda rule, honestly."

Reese took a deep breath before explaining to Ed, "It means I'm non-binary. I'm not a boy or a girl… Umm, by my own choice. I just wanna be myself."

There was a pause between the two teens, 'Oh no, did I just lose him as a new friend?!' Reese thought with sadness.

"Oooh, okay!"

Reese widened their eyes at Ed's response, "I don't really get it, but that's okay! I can get it later!" Ed stated with a big smile.

A sense of relief washed over Reese at his words, "Y-Yeah, let's just ignore those jerks! We should go find Double D and Alice; they've probably found us a spot by now!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the area, we could see Eddy walking towards the spot that Double D and Alice picked out to view the fireworks. He had already received a message from Alice saying where the spot was, he just needed to find it.

As he was walking to find the spot that his friends picked out, Eddy heard a very small yelp close by; the voice sounded a bit like Jade. Eddy directed his attention to where he heard Jade's voice, only to see something that made him halt in his tracks.

Eddy could see that Jade fell when she accidentally ran into someone when she was not looking… The man she ran into was Eddy's brother, "Whoa! You okay there?" Evan asked with a bit of concern.

"Y-Yes sir…" Jade replied as he extended out his hand to help her up, "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, I…"

"Jade, NO!" Eddy yelped out to her as he ran over to her side, swatting away Evan's hand, much to Evan and Jade's surprise, "I'm not gonna let him hurt you!"

"Eddy?" Jade questioned in shock at his actions. Eddy then held out his hand to help her up, which she took, "Umm…"

Eddy looked back to his brother, glaring at him, "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"… I came here to see the fireworks, like everyone else," Evan replied in a cold tone. He had to continue acting like this to his brother to keep him away. Evan was still on patrol and undercover, looking out for any members of the Corvin Family that could be nearby.

Evan was about to walk away until he could feel Eddy gripping his jacket sleeve, "Don't you DARE walk away from me! I want some answers from you about last year!" Eddy shouted at him.

Evan said nothing to his brother. He could tell that what happened last year had put a strain on their relationship, but there was nothing he could do about it until the case he was working on finally ended.

Evan raised his hand to forcefully swat Eddy off his arm, "Stop that, you're making a scene."

Eddy yelped as he was swatted to the side, falling a little to the ground. Jade widened her eyes as she ran over to Eddy, he did not seem to be hurt, thankfully.

Jade looked up at the man; she could see he was worried by his expression, even if his tone of voice said otherwise, "You need to stay away from me, got it?"

Evan then dashed off into a crowd nearby, leaving behind the two baffled teens. Jade looked at Eddy, noticing his pained face from the sudden encounter. He did not even look at the man when he ran off, "Who was that man?" she asked.

"… My older brother," Eddy grumbled before making a sigh to himself, "When I saw you on the ground, I thought he had hurt you."

Jade made a concerned face at Eddy; there was a history here that she did not know about, but it seemed very personal, "W-Well, I ran into him by accident, he didn't hurt me…"

"And I wasn't gonna let him hurt anyone again," Eddy interjected with a small growl before taking a deep breath to calm himself down.

Eddy got up from where Evan swatted him away, "Geez, what a mess," he stated, brushing the grass and dirt off his shirt and pants.

He turned to Jade, noticing that she looked concerned, "We should, uh, go find that spot that Double D and Alice picked out. It's almost time for those fireworks to go off."

"… O-Okay," Jade replied with a nod of her head as a smile slowly began to form on her face.

As the two of them walked toward the spot that Double D and Alice picked out, Jade kept glancing at Eddy occasionally. Before she realized what came over her, Jade reached out her right hand to Eddy's left hand, making Eddy jump a little in surprise.

He looked back at the girl beside him, noticing the small, but nervous smile on her face. Eddy could feel himself start to blush before glancing away from Jade and walking with her to find the viewing spot. They continued to hold hands while they looked for Double D and Alice.

Evan was watching them from a good distance away, keeping an eye on them to protect them. He could see them holding hands even from where he was, "Good luck tonight, Pipsqueak," Evan chuckled.

The six teens had finally gathered at the spot Double D and Alice picked out.

"Whoa, you weren't kidding when you said the spot was perfect!" Eddy cheered at Double D and Alice.

"Yeah, coming here extremely early was a good idea!" Alice chucked.

A few seconds passed by before the six teens could see and hear the fireworks begin to go off above them. They were impressed at the sight above them.

Double D glanced over to Alice for a short moment, noticing she was shivering slightly, 'Oh dear, I didn't realize the cold was getting to her.'

Double D took off the brown jacket he was wearing before putting it over Alice's shoulders to help keep her warm. Alice widened her eyes when she noticed what he did, "O-Oh, umm…"

"Don't worry, you can wear my jacket," Double D replied with a smile, "We don't want you to get sick because of the sudden drop in temperature."

Alice stared at Double D with a blush on her face, though he could not see it very well since it was nighttime, "Thanks…"

Alice glanced back over to Double D, making a small smile before taking the left side of his jacket and putting it over his left shoulder while keeping his jacket on her right shoulder, using it like a blanket. Double D widened his eyes at her actions, "A-Alice…?"

"Who said we can't wear the same jacket at the same time?" Alice asked with a chuckle, "You don't need to get sick either, Double D!"

"I-I suppose you're right," Double D replied with a sigh of defeat, looking back up at the fireworks above them.

Eddy and Jade, who were sitting behind Double D and Alice to Double D's left, looked at the two teens in front of them. Eddy was trying his best to not burst out laughing, 'Whoa, I didn't see that coming,' he thought with a snicker.

Eddy looked over at Jade, who was looking up at the fireworks, making a smile at her. She was a beautiful girl, just like he thought when he first met her. Even so, Eddy thought this weird feeling for her would go away, like a crush that would come and go like every teenager experiences. But as he kept hanging out with her, trying to help Jade come out of her shell, he could see that his feelings for her were growing even stronger.

Eddy took his left hand to reach out to take Jade's right hand with his. Jade widened her eyes when she felt Eddy's hand being placed over her before he began holding it tightly. She looked at Eddy in shock, "U-Umm…"

Eddy did not seem phased by her reaction, "Is that, uh, okay for me to do?" he asked.

They were both staring at each other. Jade bit her bottom lip in nervousness, "I-It's… It's okay, Eddy."

Eddy gave a big smile to Jade's response as she leaned her head against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his left in a hug. They both looked back up at the fireworks in the sky.

Ed and Reese were both oblivious to their friend's actions. They were lying on their backs on the picnic blanket, looking at the fireworks in the sky.

"Ooo, I wonder what that firework was shaped as?" Ed questioned as they continued to watch, "I couldn't really tell."

Reese chuckled at him, "Probably something related to summertime; I think I saw a butterfly-shaped one a moment ago!"

"Whoa… That's so cool."

"Yeah, it is."

The two teens paused at what they were saying before they both started to burst out laughing. Everyone was enjoying their time together.

It was a shame it would not last for long.

Author's Note (March 29th, 2024): Things have not been well for me lately in my life. Not going into details about it here. I don't want to rant anymore right now. If I started slowing down on posting stuff here, just know that I'll get back to it eventually.