Chapter 42
The golden, glistening light of the sun rose over Peach Creek estates at approximately 6:30 a.m., exactly the same time Double Dee's alarm clock had gone off. He quickly roused to begin yet another productive academic day.
As Double Dee dressed himself, he couldn't help but feel relieved that he had gotten over the hurdle of meeting the rest of Marie's family. Not only that, but he had actually enjoyed being around them, as their friendly demeanor made him feel right at home. The fact that shocked Double Dee the most was that he still couldn't believe that he had just had one of the best nights of his life with a trio of sisters that he had thought were immoral, irrational, pig-headed monsters prior to this winter. Even though he had a feeling that Marie was a nice person from the moment she showed kindness on that faithful night exactly two weeks ago, he had never thought that the other two Kanker sisters also harbored gentle and friendly personalities of their own. He had most definitely been surprised when Marie had told him that May had feelings for Ed that were similar to Marie's reason for liking Double Dee. He could only hope Ed's forgiving and friendly personality would give May a chance, at least as a friend, if she showed him who she truly was.
Double Dee had finished dressing and decided that he would be the one to wake Eddy up for a change. He exited his house and ran across the street towards Eddy's yellow colored ranch house. He entered the yard and attempted to open the door to his bedroom. Oddly enough, the door was locked.
"Strange." said Double Dee to himself.
Double Dee was completely puzzled. He looked through the window into Eddy's room. The circular bed that he would usually still be sleeping in was vacant, with only what appeared to be a used tissue on the sheets, as well as a poorly hidden cover of one of his "girly" magazines.
"Filthy." said Double Dee under his breath as he left Eddy's yard, pondering where he could possibly be.
Double Dee quickly ran into Ed's backyard in an attempt to find Ed. Sadly, Ed was absent as well. Although he wanted to tell his two closest friends about the wonderful and exciting night he had, he would just have to wait until he arrived at school. Double Dee returned to his yard and unhooked the "Ed Mobile" from its chain. After wheeling the bike out to the street, he began pedaling down Rathink Avenue toward his beloved school.
Marie woke up just as excited as Double Dee. She had spent the night talking Lee's ear off about Double Dee, and was continuing to do so, even as the girls were getting dressed for school. Marie donned a blue form fitting shirt, as well as a pair of black jeans and her black winter boots. Lee, not caring merely as much as Marie for her manner of dress, simply wore her usual polka dotted white shirt and a pair of blue jeans.
Marie was excited about seeing Double Dee in school, but she was also excited about good news that she had heard last night. May had called the trailer from Rods house shortly after Double Dee had left. She was talking so fast from excitement that Marie could not even understand her at first.
Rod had somehow been able to pick up a new insurance plan that provided orthodontic care for any child under the age of 26. May of course fit this category and by next week she would be fitted with braces that would initiate the process to correct her large overbite. Marie felt extremely happy for her sister, as she knew that that was something that May had desired for a long time.
Marie couldn't help but notice how many beautiful things had happened to her and her family since Double Dee had come into her life. Of course, she knew that May's ability to get braces had almost nothing to do with it, but it reminded her of how Double Dee's kindly personality had allowed her to become much closer to her sisters than she ever was before. In addition, Double Dee had freed her from the torment and pain she suffered as a victim of school bullying as a little girl, and allowed her to trust people once again. Marie could not deny it, Double Dee was truly her hero.
Little did Double Dee or Marie know that Eddy had snuck into the school early to break into Double Dee's locker. He made sure he was alone, as he had to make sure that it looked like Double Dee placed the brown envelope that Eddy was carrying in his own locker, in order for the plan to work. Once the evidence was planted, Eddy rejoined Kevin and Ed, who were sitting out on one of the park benches, and discussed a few final details of the sting.
"Alright, now I want one on every locker okay?" said Eddy, "And if we run out, Sock Head said that he stashed more in his locker yesterday and gave me the combo for his lock so we could get them."
"Righteous!" said Kevin, as he slapped Eddy five and then shook his hand, pulling Eddy into a hug.
"Alright, let's go give those Kankers a taste of what they fed us for a whole year and a half!" yelled Eddy as he and Kevin began walking into the school.
At this moment, Eddy turned around and saw Ed still sitting on the park bench.
"Hey monobrow!" yelled Eddy, "Are ya coming or what?"
Ed sat staring at Eddy. Suddenly he grabbed his stomach and bent over in pain.
"Ooooh, Eddy," said Ed, "My tummy hurts, I'm gonna go to the nurse."
Ed began walking into the building, still bent over in pain as he passed through the steel doors to the school.
"Geez, I guess all that gravy finally caught up to him." said Kevin as he and Eddy laughed.
Kevin and Eddy spent the next hour taping copies of a certain flyer to every locker in the vicinity of Double Dees locker. Thankfully for Eddy, they had enough to fill all of the lockers and didn't require any more from the "planted" stash that he had placed in Double Dee's locker.
"Perfect." said Eddy while grinning slyly, "Now we just wait for Sock Head and Wall Eye Wendy, and everything will be peachy keen."
It was now almost time for school, and the children of the cul-de-sac began funneling into the building. Everyone was surprised to see a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper taped to their locker. After a quick glance at the flyers, several of the students began laughing.
Nazz was one of the first students to view the flyer. At the same time, Kevin was atempting to surprise her with a hug from the back.
"Hey babe, what's happenin?" asked Kevin as he hugged Nazz.
"Yo Kev," said Nazz, "Did you see this?"
Nazz held up the flyer to Kevin. Kevin snickered.
"You think this is funny Kev?" said Nazz, "This is cruel and heartless. I can't believe someone would actually do something like this to another person."
At this point, Kevin froze. He knew that it was he and Eddy responsible for the notorious flyers that were distributed to the entire school. He did not want to be on Nazz's bad side.
"Yeah tell me about it." said Kevin nervously.
At this point Marie and Lee had reached Peach Creek Junior High, and were currently standing outside on the curb. A few moments later, Rod's truck pulled up, May smiling from ear to ear in the passenger seat. She kissed her father goodbye, and promptly got out of the truck placing the pink single strap of her book bag over her shoulder. As Rod pulled away, May couldn't help but run into Marie's arms and jump up and down still excited at the prospect of her teeth being corrected. Lee couldn't resist joining in on the group hug, happy for her little sister as well.
Around five minutes later, Double Dee pulled up on his bike. The girls took notice and ran over to him as he began chaining the bike to its rack.
"Hey handsome." said Marie as she leaned down and kissed Double Dee on the cheek. "Hello Angel." said Double Dee as he stood up. Double Dee, although once a shy teenager who would do nothing but babble like an idiot and sweat around girls, did not hesitate to reach his arms out and hug Marie in a tight embrace. Lee and May watched happily as Double Dee picked her up off of the ground and spun her around.
"Whoah, you're in a frisky mood today mister." said Marie as Double Dee put her down, "What's the occasion?"
"No occasion Marie," said Double Dee, "I just thought I would test the abilities of your body for use as a gyroscope."
Marie stared at Double Dee grinning evilly, yet jokingly.
"On second thought, maybe I just was extremely happy to see that beautiful face of yours." said Double Dee while smiling.
"That's better!" said Marie as she kissed him on the lips. "Alright you two!" yelled Lee as she walked over to the couple and separated them, "Let's get inside, May's got some good news to share with ya!"
The group began walking up the steps to Peach Creek Junior High, while May began her story about how Rod told her that she was going to be able to get braces. She changed to a deeper sounding voice with a slight southern drawl to imitate her father's patterns of speech as she told her story in an extremely quick manner.
"And then my Dad said, 'I have a little surprise for you little girl' and I was like, 'what do you mean Daddy?' and he was like, 'I was just cleared for a new insurance plan that will let us get you orthodontic care' and then I said 'what is orthodontic care?' and then my Dad said 'You are finally going to be able to get br…"
May was cut off as she opened the doors to the school. The whole hallway was silent, and every last person's eyes were staring at the group of four. Double Dee felt extremely awkward as he walked down the hallway towards his locker with Marie and her sisters by her side. Eddy approached Double Dee snickering.
"Yo Double Dee!" said Eddy, "I gotta admit you are one slick con man!"
Eddy patted Double Dee on his back.
"Eddy, I am afraid I have no idea what yo…"
"Don't play dumb Sock Head," said Eddy, "We finally got them where we want them."
Double Dee turned and looked around the hallway. All of the lockers were lined with the same exact flyer, which consisted of a white piece of paper, with writing on it.
Lee walked over to one of the flyers and ripped it down off of the locker. There were words written at the top of the page:
We all knew that Marie Kanker was quite the dirty skank.
Her face turned to anger as she Lee's found even more words at the bottom of the page.
But wait till you see what she is really hiding under that dirty hair of hers! Turn the page for a nice little surprise.
Lee turned the page and found an extremely large picture of Marie without her hair covering her right eye. Eddy couldn't help but laugh when Lee laid her eyes on the photograph.
Marie snatched the flyer away from her sister and read it through herself. The whole hallway was silent except for slight snickers and giggles from a few students. Marie read through the words and glanced at the pictures, after which she placed her hand over her mouth, distraught beyond belief. As she fought tears, she looked down and handed the flyer to May, who read through it equally as surprised. Marie decided to speak up. She walked over to Double Dee, who was confused beyond belief.
"Double Dee?" asked Marie as she looked into his eyes heartbroken, "Ho…..how did this happen, these are the pictures I gave you."
"Marie I have no ide…."
Double Dee was cut off by Eddy, who jumped in front of him.
"HA!" said Eddy as he pointed into Maries face, "You fell for it!"
"Fell for what?" asked May.
Marie looked into Double Dee's eyes whimpering.
"Double Dee, what's going on?" she asked quietly.
"Marie, I honestl…."
Eddy once again cut Double Dee off.
"What's going on is that your stupid ass, as well as your sisters fell for possibly the best scam we have ever come up with. And it was all Double Dee's brilliant idea." said Eddy.
The three Kanker sisters stood in silence.
"Double Dee told us the whole story about how you became close after he fixed your TV, and how you trusted him more than anything. You may have trusted him too much because he told us all of your secrets. You didn't know that he was just playing into ya, trying to dig up some good dirt on you animals. Well it worked, and now you'll finally feel the embarrassment we felt from you ten times over!"
Marie stood in front of Double Dee upset beyond belief. She looked into his eyes.
"Is it true?" asked Marie, holding back tears.
"Marie, I honestly don't have a clue what is going on!" said Double Dee.
"Then how did these pictures wind up all around the fucking school!" yelled Marie.
"Oh I'll tell ya how." said Eddy grinning, "Cause Sock Head made hundreds of copies of these pictures, and we're planning on releasing many more. He's got them all in his locker."
"Eddy that is preposterous!" yelled an infuriated Double Dee, "I know for a fact that I certainly don't have anything in my locker!"
Double Dee walked over to his locker and opened it. To his dismay he spotted a brown envelope, much like the one Marie had given to him with her pictures in it. He pulled it out of his locker, surprised.
Eddy snatched the envelope off of Double Dee and opened it.
"Well oh well." said Eddy as he pulled out a slew of flyers from the envelope, "Look what we have here." he said while grinning. He walked over to Marie, and flashed the pictures in her face. Marie was so distraught that she was completely unaffected by Eddy's horrible act, and continued staring down the hallway.
"YO!" yelled Lee as she walked over to Eddy, "Get outta my sisters face!"
"Oooh what's she gonna do about it, stare at me with that eye of hers and make me puke" yelled Eddy, laughing at his own joke.
What Eddy had failed to realize was that none of his other friends were laughing with him. Kevin felt quite horrible for two reasons. First and foremost, he knew that Nazz would be infuriated if she discovered that he had taken part in this sting operation. Secondly, even though he was prone to making fun of others, he had not taken the time to think that what he was doing could really upset Marie. Even the hard athlete couldn't help feeling sorry for the ridicule Marie was suffering. He began to realize that helping Eddy was a huge mistake.
Marie walked over to Double Dee and looked into his eyes, still holding back tears.
"I TRUSTED YOU!" she yelled, "I gave my heart to you Double Dee! "
"Marie I…" Double Dee couldn't get the words out of his mouth.
"How could you do this to me!" yelled Marie, tears were now streaming down her face for the first time in public, "After all we have been through!"
"Marie let me…"
"It was all a bunch of shit lies!" yelled Marie, "I can't believe I was so stupid. I was completely wrong about you, you're just another jerk!"
Eddy took notice of Marie's crying.
"OOOOHHHH what's the matter baby, ya gonna cry?" said Eddy in a baby like voice as he pulled out his cell phone to take a video, "This is freakin priceless!"
Eddy began laughing at his own joke .
"THAT IS ENOUGH EDDY!" yelled an infuriated Double Dee.
"Shut up!" yelled May towards Double Dee. She put her hand on Marie's shoulder who was crying into her hands, "You are a heartless jerk Double Dee!"
Lee had elected to remain silent, staring at Eddy with a curious, yet irritated look while these events unfolded.
Double Dee had no idea what to say, as he absolutely had no idea where any of this had come from.
Just then one student blurted out the phrase, 'Lazy Eye Marie!", and began causing some of the other kids in the hallway to chant the phrase over and over. Marie was brought back to her days in elementary school, and the torturous feelings that came along with it, as 'lazy eye Marie' was the nickname bestowed to her by her bullies.
For the first time since they had moved to Peach Creek, all three Kanker girls stood as still as statues with fearful expressions, as the kids gathered in a circle around the girls, effectively trapping them in a mob of hurtful words.
Marie couldn't take it no more. She ran as fast as she could toward the front door of the school, crying her eyes out. Double Dee gave chase.
"Marie!" yelled Double Dee as she ran, eventually catching up to her.
"Marie, please listen to me!" yelled Double Dee as he placed his hand on her shoulder. Marie whipped around, and removed his hand from her shoulder.
"Don't you ever touch me, and don't you ever speak to me again Double Dee!" yelled Marie as she ran down the stairs of the school and out of the parking lot, heading towards the cul-de-sac.
Moments later, Lee and May emerged from the school doors and began running after their sister. As they ran, May turned around and gave Double Dee quite the nasty facial expression. Lee, surprisingly still did not say a single word.
Double Dee stood on the concrete steps of the school, staring up into the blue sky. He had absolutely no idea what had just happened, but it was clear that within the course of around 5 minutes, he and Marie's beautiful relationship had been completely tarnished, and their strong trust for each other had been broken as well. Double Dee's heart was torn in two when he heard Marie's last words before she ran off.
After slightly regaining his composure, Double Dee had realized that some form of foul play had taken place, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Double Dee stormed back into the school, and walked over towards his peers. Most of the students had dispersed from the scene; Eddy however remained by his locker, snickering as he exchanged his books. At this point, Ed had finally rejoined the rest of the group standing near Eddy's locker.
"Mornin' Sock Head?" said Eddy, acting as if nothing happened .
Double Dee simply walked past him, not saying a word.
"Geez, don't jump to say hello." said Eddy.
Double Dee was furious beyond belief.
"Eddy McGee, what you have just done to Marie was completely inexcusable!" yelled Double Dee, "I demand to know how you obtained those photographs!"
Everyone was completely confused. Kevin was the first to chime in.
"Yo Eddy, what's goin on I thought you said Double Dee gave you the pictures?" asked Kevin, inadvertently blowing his cover.
Nazz looked at Kevin with an evil glare.
"You knew about this Kevin?" asked Nazz, extremely upset. Kevin couldn't bring himself to say anything else.
"Alright." said Double Dee, "I want an explanation immediately!"
Eddy was completely trapped at this point, he had nothing left to do but confess the whole thing to Double Dee, hoping for the best.
"Alright, alright," said Eddy as he walked over to Double Dee, attempting to place his arm around his shoulder."
Double Dee simply moved backward, as to not let Eddy perform the act. Eddy was taken aback, but continued his story anyway.
"See Double Dee," said Eddy, "I couldn't let ya fall in love with a Kanker sister. It just isn't right ya know. So I had to do something about it. We stole the pictures from your room while you were out in the bathroom the night we came to get you for the game night. Then me and Kev made the flyers at my house Sunday night."
Double Dee stared infuriated at Eddy.
"You'll thank me for this later." said Eddy as he winked. Double Dee was fed up, and did something he would never think that he would do. He grabbed Eddy by the shoulders, and slammed him into a locker, causing an audible metallic thud.
"I will certainly never thank you for this Eddy!" yelled Double Dee, "You have ruined quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to me in my life! I cannot believe that you would stoop to such a low level!"
Eddy stared into Double Dees infuriated eyes before beginning to speak.
"Geez, Sock Head, that Kanker really had ya brainwashed!" said Eddy.
"My name is Edward thank you very much," yelled Double Dee, "And that beautiful, intelligent and dignified woman has a name of her own as well."
Double Dee paused releasing Eddy.
"I thought that as my best friend, you could see past all of her mistakes as I did, and get to know the beautiful person she really was. I strongly believed that you would be happy for me finding someone who truly cared about me. I now know that I was incorrect, and I suppose you really aren't my true friend Eddy!" said Double Dee.
"So this is the thanks I get for saving you from that skank!" yelled an angry Eddy.
"Don't you dare ever call Marie a skank again, or I'll….I'll"
Double Dee placed his fist up as if he was going to punch Eddy.
For the first time ever, he was pushed over the edge, and was seriously considering using violence to solve his problem.
Several students walking the halls took notice of the situation. They stopped and began chanting "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT" repeatedly.
At this point Double Dee put his fist down. He was still filled with rage, but decided to express it in an entirely different way.
For the next thirty seconds, Double Dee displayed his command of the English language in an entirely different way. Eddy had known that Double Dee had an extraordinary vocabulary, but never knew his lips were capable of enunciating the various obscenities that were yelled in that short period of time.
After Double Dee had finished, he began walking away from Eddy towards homeroom.
Everyone in the hallway was in a state of shock, as Double Dee picked up very flyer he saw, crumbled them up, and threw them in the trash.
"So you're just gonna walk away!" yelled Eddy.
Double Dee turned around.
"Don't even speak to me Eddy!" yelled Double Dee, "Thanks to you I have lost Marie', and her trust as well. She thinks I'm am quite possibly the worst person standing on two feet due to your horrible shenanigans. I hope you are happy. From this moment on, I only have time for my true friends! Good day sir and have a great life!"
Double Dee continued walking down the hall eventually turning the corner.
"Be that way Sock Head!" yelled Eddy has he began picking his book bag up.
Kevin was now furious at Eddy, mostly because Eddy had manipulated him into hurting one of his other friends. He began walking over to him to give him a piece of his mind when Nazz grabbed him and turned him around.
"Kevin, you were behind all of this?" asked Nazz
"No Nazz, ya see Eddy made me…"
"So this is why you've been blowing me off for the last week!" yelled Nazz. "I can't believe you could actually do this to another human being Kevin! I thought you were cool."
Nazz glared at Kevin and shut her locker, after which she stormed down the hallway, furious beyond belief.
"Wait Nazz, I can explain!" yelled Kevin.
"It's over Kevin!" yelled Nazz, "If you can treat another girl that horribly, I can only imagine what you could do to me!"
Before Nazz turned the corner to the hallway, she uttered one final word to her now ex-boyfriend.
"DORK!" yelled Nazz at the top of her lungs. Kevin stood speechless for a few seconds, before furiously marching over to Eddy. He grabbed Eddy just as Double Dee had done a few moments ago.
"Kev, I'm sorry dude, I didn't mean for that to happen!" said Eddy in a state of panic.
"Spare your shit!" yelled Kevin, "I thought you changed, apparently you didn't. You're still the lying manipulating con artist you were before. You just cost me the best thing, I had in my life, and you just ruined something great for your supposed best friend. I can't believe I actually trusted you. I thought you were cool man."
Kevin shoved Eddy into the locker and began walking away. He turned around to utter a few last words.
"Go live with that disgrace you call a brother, you're just like him!" yelled Kevin as he turned the corner to the hallway.
Eddy was absolutely furious.
"Screw you all!" he yelled as he rubbed his sore shoulders "Come on Ed, let's go!"
Ed had not said a word during the whole duration of the calamity that had just transpired, yet reluctantly followed Eddy to their homeroom.
Double Dee would spend the next few minutes in the boy's bathroom in privacy. He was extremely distraught, and managed to burst into tears for a few minutes. He had just lost the trust of his beautiful girlfriend, who he was able to confide in about any personal problems he had. He was sure Marie would never forgive him for what he had supposedly had done.
On the other hand, Double Dee was extremely disappointed that Eddy would do something so horrible behind his back. He couldn't believe that Eddy called himself his best friend, yet wouldn't stand by him through his relationship with Marie. He felt betrayed, as he put his ultimate trust in his friends.
Double Dee quickly made himself decent in front of the mirror and exited the bathroom. He was late for homeroom by five minutes, and was about to begin the longest, most painstaking school day that he had ever experienced.