ASC: Chapter 5

It did not take them that long to walk back to Evan's car. Double D and Alice reluctantly got into the back seat while Evan got in the driver's seat. He locked the car door and made a deep sigh, "There, now we can talk."

Evan looked at the two teens in the back seat through his rearview mirror, "I know you two have a lot of questions. You can ask me what you want, but I can't guarantee that I can explain everything. Secrecy and all that jazz."

"… Fair enough," Double D replied to him before glaring at the man, "Last year, my friends and I ran away from home because of an accident we caused. Parts of our neighborhood were in shambles, and everyone was out to get us because of what happened," he could feel himself tremble in anger, "It took us the whole day AND the next morning to find you, very much by pure happenstance. We had hoped you could help us out, but you violently pushed us away!"

"… Yeah, I know I did," Evan started to say to him, "Trust me, I did not want to push you all away like that, but I had to. It's because I was undercover, and I still am. I had moved to that location so I could eventually be recruited and accepted into the Corvin Family. I was tasked to find out who the insider for the police is that Mr. Corvin has connections with. And I finally got my chance to be accepted into the family a few days ago, but…"

The two teens could see Evan grip the steering wheel in anger, "But that was when Alvin was murdered along with Marisa. I wish I could have stopped them, but I did not know they were their targets at the time!"

Both Double D and Alice could tell how upset Evan was, "I was too late to do anything for them," he angrily stated before calming down, turning to Alice sitting in the back seat, "I guess the best I can do for them now is to protect my friend's daughter."

Alice and Double D were silent for a moment before Alice realized something, "Umm… Did you not know?" Alice started to ask him, "I only learned this a few days ago, but he was not my biological dad. I'm only my mother's child, and…" she paused for a second before continuing, "Mr. McGee is actually my biological dad; your dad."

"… Huh?!"

Evan turned to her fully, looking at her from head to foot. That was when it clicked to him, "… Wait, how's that possible?!" Evan questioned in shock, "No one's ever told me this at all!"

Alice looked at him with a sad face before talking, "After the murder happened, Mr. McGee came forward to tell me and the police that he was my real dad," she explained, "He said that my dad had a medical condition that prevented him from having a child with my mom, so your dad volunteered and donated his sperm for my mom to have me with my dad's blessings… I guess they wanted to keep it a secret from us, but he had to come forward to help me so I could live with him and his family like a normal teenager…"

A heavy silence fell in the car at the bombshell that was dropped to Evan, who had turned back to look out at the window in front of him, "… Heh, I see now. It's no wonder why I always thought of you like a little sister when I was younger."

Evan took a deep breath to calm himself down again, "This just gives me more motivation to put those murderers behind bars for good. I won't let them lay a finger on any of you, you can count on it!"

Double D and Alice could only sigh in relief, "Thank you for telling us all this, Mr. Evan," Double D stated, "It's very good to know that you were only trying to protect us back then… Though I wish you had handled it better."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that," Evan replied to him. He then took out his cell phone, "Here, let me give you both a way to contact me. I'm not supposed to do this with friends or family, but THIS is a bit more important than upholding some dumb rule right now; only call me if it's an emergency."

Alice nodded her head as she and Double D took out their cell phones to get Evan's number. It did not take them that long to register.

"Anyway, I think you two should get going," Evan stated to them, "I can't exactly stay out like this; you never know who is around, and I don't want to put you all in danger."

"We understand," Double D replied to him as he and Alice got out of the car after Evan unlocked the door.

"Oh! By the way," Evan started to say as he let down his car window to say something else to them, "I'll always try to stay nearby, but… Please don't mention my job to Eddy or anyone else, okay?"

"Okay," Alice replied with a nod of her head, "Bye!" She waved to him before the two teens began to run off back home, leaving Evan behind in his car.

Evan made a sigh of relief, "Geez, what a way to find out you have another sibling," he said to himself as he watched the two teens disappear down the sidewalk, "I need to protect them. The Corvin Family needs to be taken down, and fast."

Meanwhile, back with Eddy and the other three teens, the group had finally arrived back at the entrance of the Cul-De-Sac. They were sitting around the playground, eating the candy that they had bought earlier. Ed was enjoying his jawbreaker while Reese was eating some Skittles and Jade was snacking on the gummies she bought. Eddy had not started to eat his jawbreaker yet, mainly waiting for both Double D and Alice to come back from town.

Eddy eventually shrugged his shoulders, concluding that they were running late with what they wanted to do. He was about to put the jawbreaker he bought into his mouth before glancing over to Jade, who had finished eating the gummy snacks she wanted; he could see she had left a few in the bag for later.

"Oh, shoot! I almost forgot something!"

Everyone turned to Eddy when he spoke. They could see him reach into his pocket to see he had a second jawbreaker; he just remembered that he bought two instead of one today at the candy store.

Eddy took the extra jawbreaker he had and handed it to Jade, "You said you wanted to try one, right? This one's orange-flavored!"

Jade widened her eyes at him as he placed the jawbreaker in her hands, "Huh? B-But…" Jade looked down at the piece of candy in her hands before looking back at Eddy.

"Here, I can show you how to eat it!" Eddy stated as he took out his jawbreaker again, "All you gotta do is push it into your mouth…" he then put his jawbreaker in his mouth as a demonstration, "Shee? Like thish! Jush keep shuckin on it, and it'll malth on it'sh own laither on!"

Jade stared at him for a split second, mainly trying to understand what he was saying with the candy still inside his cheek, before looking back at the jawbreaker he handed her. She bit her bottom lip a little before finally putting the jawbreaker Eddy gave her into her mouth, placing the piece of candy into her right cheek.

She widened her eyes at the taste. The jawbreaker was a lot better than she expected it to be and it was an orange-flavor, her favorite! Jade began to start sucking on the big piece of candy; Eddy could tell by her face that she was enjoying it a lot. Meanwhile, both Ed and Reese looked at the two in confusion.

'Eddy's been acting really weird today compared to yesterday,' Ed thought to himself as he scratched the side of his head to think, 'Wonder what's going on with that?'

'… This feels too suspicious to me,' Reese thought to themselves before making a small glare at Eddy, 'I don't know anything about him, but it kind of feels like he's hitting on her… But I don't think he is. Maybe he's just being too friendly…?'

Reese made an internal grumble, 'Well, whatever weird thing he's planning, I'll be there to stop him and help Jade if she needs me! That's what friends are for!'

A few minutes passed by before everyone finished eating the candy they had. It was then that everyone noticed that Double D and Alice were walking over to them, finally coming back from town. They could see that Double D had his jawbreaker in his mouth and was almost finished eating it. Alice had a small lollipop in her mouth, holding a bag filled with the same lollipops.

"Hey, there you two are!" Reese greeted with a smile, "What took you two so long?"

Alice took the lollipop she had out of her mouth so she could talk, "Well, I wanted to look at the pizzeria across the street to see what their business hours were. I was thinking about going there whenever we have the time in the future," she then gestured to Double D, "I ran into Double D on my way back here, so here we are!"

Eddy stared at his sister, "You know you could have looked up something like that online, right?"

"Yeah, but my phone's been acting a little weird lately," Alice replied to him with a lie, "I've been thinking about upgrading it, but maybe it can fix itself."

Eddy made an irritated groan, "Whatever, at least you're both back."

Double D finally finished the jawbreaker he was eating, "Sorry that I had to walk away as well. You two know my parents are out of town again, so I had to call them, so they know that I'm okay."

"Oh, we know!" Ed said with a nod of his head.

Everyone got up from where they were sitting, "Phew, now that we're finished with the candy, what should we do next?" Alice asked.

The three Eds stood there to think for a moment before Double D spoke, "Well, it's not today, but the 4th of July is coming up in a few days. Maybe there's a place where we can watch the fireworks go off?"

"Huh, that's not a bad idea!" Alice replied with a smile before turning to Reese and Jade, "Do you two want to come with us?"

"Yeah, I think we will!" Reese replied as they looked at Jade, "Maybe we can meet and talk to other people! We really need to help you become less shy!"

Jade looked at her friend before nodding her head, "I-I guess I can try…"

"Awesome!" Eddy cheered at what he heard before thinking about something, "Uh, but that's not something we can do for the rest of the day."

"… Oh! Oh! I know what we can do!" Ed started to say, "I got a cool movie we can watch at my house!"

Both Double D and Eddy signed at their tall friend, "Oh dear, not another B movie…"

"… Sure! We can do that," Reese suddenly replied, much to everyone's shock, "I've got a soft spot for movies like that. Let's go!"

Ed made a big smile, "Yay! Movie time!" he cheered as he walked off to go back to his house with Reese following close behind him.

Their four friends looked at each other before sighing a little. They began to walk off to Ed's house to watch the B movie Ed wanted to show.

Author's Note (March 8th, 2024): ... Man, yesterday was a sad day for anime fans. That's all I can really say. Just... ouch.