Chapter 46
It was Thursday morning, and the morning sun had rose over Peach Creek estates at approximately 6:45 a.m. While the rest of the Peach Creek spent the night immersed in their dreams, Double Dee had been up all night, thinking about the horrible predicament that he was in. He longed to feel Marie next to him, to hear her, to see her face. He wanted to turn back time, and prevent any of this senseless drama from happening. Most of all, he felt horrible for Marie, who was forced to endure yet another taste of the bullying she had endured as a little girl.
Marie had spent her night thinking about how wrong things have gone as well. She thought that she could trust Double Dee, and that he was the perfect guy. Not only was she hurt that Double Dee had made a fool out of her, but she was quite possibly even more upset that she was made fun of about her eye. Marie would need time before she was ready to step foot back into her school environment, so she had already declared to her sisters before bed that she would not be attending school. Nevertheless, deep down in the bottom of her heart, there was still hope that Double Dee was too much of a gentleman to hurt her as bad as he did; she just needed someone or something to help her to dig it out.
The morning at Peach Creek Junior High was quite a somber one. Although Ed and Kevin had made amends with Double Dee, a great amount of emotional tension still filled the air. An extremely tired Double Dee was at his locker, exchanging his books as Ed approached him from behind.
"Hiya Double Dee!" said Ed in an enthusiastic tone.
"Oh, Hello Ed." said Double Dee as he turned around, before closing his locker and locking it.
"I made you something that will bring a smile to your face." said Ed as he dug through his pocket and pulled out a homemade card. The cover simply read:
I hope you feel better Double Dee.
"Thank you Ed," said Double Dee, "Your kind gesture in greatly appreciated."
Double Dee sighed.
"As much as I enjoy the fact that someone cares enough to attempt to lift my spirits, I am afraid that there is nothing in this world that will fill the void that was left when I lost Marie."
Ed could not find any words to say, as he watched his friend pick up his backpack and walk somberly down the hallway towards home room, bidding him farewell. He wanted to help his friend as best he could, and wished that he could more to be able to do so.
"Double Dee's still hurtin huh Ed?" asked Kevin who had approached him from the back. Ed turned around to face him.
"I wish I could help him Kevin!" yelled Ed, "Double Dee is now just an empty shell of who he was just like the lobster people after Slug-u-La consumed their fleshy innards on planet Gorf!"
"Right," said Kevin, who had no idea of how to respond to Ed's lengthy movie reference, he put his hand on Ed's shoulder.
"Look man, I know how he feels," said Kevin, "Nazz won't even let me get a word in edge wise. The more I try to explain what happened, the more she tries to ignore me."
Ed stood listening to Kevin as he talked about his problems for a few minutes, at which point Eddy had finally entered the main hall of the school. The extremely fatigued Eddy stared forward as he made his way down the hallway, on his way to his locker. Unspoken tensions radiated between the boys, as he walked past Kevin and Ed, stopping at his locker to exchange his books.
"Damn," said Kevin, "He looks like crap!"
As Eddy began fumbling with his lock, he had not taken notice that Lee and May Kanker had walked up to him from behind.
"Mornin' little man!" said Lee as she snickered, "How was your night?"
Eddy closed his locker and turned around, looking up into Lee's eyes. Lee had never seen the look that she had currently saw in Eddy's eyes at the moment. Quite frankly, she felt sorry for him even though she was angry that he had embarrassed her sister in front of the entire school.
"Geez, ya look like shit , what's the matter didn't ya get any sleep?" asked Lee.
Eddy began to pick his book bag up off of the floor. He glanced up at Lee, and then at May. He scanned the hallway and met eyes with Ed and Kevin, who both looked away from him as if ignoring him. What no one had known was that Eddy had been up all night analyzing Lee's words, in particular a few words of wisdom that she had shared with him last night in the alley,
"There are so many stupid things people do because they are selfish and jealous of what others have that they don't."
As Eddy lied in his bed thinking things over, he had come to the conclusion that Lee Kanker was completely right. Eddy had finally realized the error of his ways, and he didn't want his friendship with Double Dee to end in such a horrible way. It was time to take action. Eddy began walking towards the middle of the hallway.
"Yo, where ya goin?" asked Lee, "Don't you wanna see what we made for ya?"
Lee pointed to the stack of fliers that she and May and made as a retaliation for what he had done to Marie. Eddy turned around to face her, and finally began speaking.
"Do whatever you want, I deserve it" said Eddy, "But before ya do I have something to say,"
Eddy stepped out into the middle of the hallway.
"Everyone!" yelled Eddy, "I have something to say!"
All of the children of the cul-de-sac turned their attention towards Eddy, waiting to hear what the young boy could possibly have to say for himself this time.
"As you all know, yesterday I passed out fliers that made fun of Marie Kanker. It was all my fault, and I was wrong!" said Eddy.
Eddy turned his attention to Nazz who was standing at her locker,
"Nazz, Kevin had nothing to do with any of it. I tricked him following me into it, and if it wasn't for me scamming him, he would have accepted the relationship with no problem. Please don't be mad at him."
Eddy turned his attention back towards the crowd as a whole. The students watched as for the first time, Eddy showed concern for something other than money and his pride.
"I was jealous." said Eddy, "Jealous of my best friend. So I made up the whole scam to break him and Marie up. I never thought that Double Dee would be able to get a girl before me, and when he did, I was hurt. I had this whole idea that I was this suave ladies man that could get any girl I wanted, and when Double Dee broke the news to me, my pride was torn in two. And no, this had nothing to do with Marie. I would have probably gotten mad over any girl he was with."
Eddy paused as he caught his breath, he was attempting to hold back tears as well. As he regained his composure, a few more of Lee's words popped into his head,
"Even though I treated Marie like crap the previous night, she was still there for me. I knew right then I had to be there for her too."
Eddy continued using those heartfelt words as a guide.
"Double Dee was the first one there for me when my brother humiliated me in front of all of you last summer. He was the one who helped me see that everything was going to be alright, and helped me be able to see where I was wrong. And I was too stupid to realize that it was my time to be there for him. If I would have been there for him, we'd still be friends, and he'd still have the girl of his dreams. He even asked me to get to know Marie, and find out how nice of a person she really was. But my stupid pride wouldn't let me. I failed him as a friend."
Eddy paused.
"The real victim of this is Marie. There was no reason me to embarrass her like I did. I hope that one day she can forgive me."
Eddy paused while trying as hard as he could to hold back his tears. Ed, Kevin, Nazz, and the two Kanker sisters stood in awe as they watched Eddy pour his heart out. Eddy had just shown that he cared for something other than his ego, and there was no denying that his words were genuine.
"That's all I have to say, I am really sorry for everything. I considered you guys my best friends…..I guess I should have really treated ya like best friends." said Eddy.
Eddy turned around and began walking towards home room, passing the Kanker sisters along the way. He stopped in front of Lee, looking at her directly in the face. Lee had been too busy pursuing her own interests to catch a glimpse of Eddy's first emotional realization last summer, but she had no reason not to observe this one. She was shocked that the proud Eddy was able to admit his wrong doings with such powerful words. She stared into Eddy's eyes as he looked back into hers.
"I guess you can pass those pictures out now Lee." said Eddy, as he began walking away, leaving the two sisters stunned.
"And you can keep the magazines," said Eddy, "Get rid of them or give them to the other kids, I don't need them anymore."
With those words, Eddy turned the corner towards homeroom, and disappeared out of view, leaving the entire hallway in silence. After a few minutes, the kids continued their conversations amongst themselves and May turned to Lee.
"So I guess I'll start giving these out." said May as she began walking to hand the embarrassing flyers out to the kids. She had not gone two steps before Lee grabbed her arm stopping her. May turned her attention to her sister, who was looking into her eyes with a blank stare.
"No need to." said Lee, "My little plan worked, he learned his lesson."
Lee opened her locker and shoved the incriminating fliers into it, keeping them completely out of sight. Lee snickered to herself; her ingenious plan had really worked. Her idea to blackmail Eddy was nothing more than a backup plan. Lee knew that the right words would jar some sense into Eddy, and she had succeeded in allowing him to realize the error of his ways. She had known that Eddy couldn't have been that heartless, especially towards his best friends. She had accomplished the first part of her plan to reunite Marie and Double Dee, which was to first reunite Eddy with his group of friends.
After a long day of awkward tensions, it was finally time for lunch. Double Dee had been selected to help the chemistry lab technician prepare solutions for the students, so he would be forced to skip today's lunch.
Ed was the first person to enter the lunch room, carrying his brown lunch bag containing a sandwich that his mother had made with care that morning. For the first time, he really felt alone as he claimed a table towards the middle of the lunchroom and began eating lunch without his two best pals. A few moments later, Kevin joined him. The two boys gave their hellos, yet had nothing to say as they began eating their lunch.
"Room for one more?" asked an adenoidal voice from behind Ed. The boys looked up to see May Kanker standing behind Ed, politely asking to join him for lunch. Ed kept his promise he had made to her last night and moved over, granting May a seat on the bench next to her.
"So Ed?" asked May shyly, "How was your day?"
Ed had no idea what to say. His shyness around girls coupled with the awkwardness caused by speaking to a Kanker sister on good terms left him speechless. He finally managed to utter a few words.
"Um…it was good." said Ed.
May chuckled and blushed.
"I'm glad." she replied back,
"Alright you two!" yelled the voice of Lee as she slammed her lunch tray onto the table,
"Enough chit chat, we got work to do!"
Kevin watched fearfully as Lee took a seat directly next to him.
"Don't worry, I ain't gonn do nothin'" said Lee to Kevin, "I'm just here to make sure these two don't blow my plan to get our little lovebirds back together."
Lee laughed as Kevin nodded fearfully as if giving the okay for her to be there.
"So what do we do Lee?" asked May.
"Alright, here's what I want ya to do," said Lee, "I want you two to go over his house today after school, and try to convince him to come over the trailer to talk to Marie. If she hears his voice, she'll melt away inside and might actually want to listen to some reason."
Just as Lee had finished her statement, the doors to the cafeteria opened. Eddy emerged from behind the doors, carrying a brown paper bag. He walked across the cafeteria with an empty table in sight on the far side. Lee took notice that Eddy was attempting to isolate himself from his friends, and decided that it was time for them to properly reconcile.
"For cryin out loud." said Lee before she yelled."Yo Eddy!"
Eddy turned around to see Lee at the lunch table waving. She proceeded to shove Kevin with force towards the end of the table, freeing a space. She then got up from her seat at the table, grabbed Eddy by the arm and began pulling him towards the table she had been sitting at.
"Sit down, stay awhile!" yelled Lee as she forced Eddy to sit down on the bench next to her.
Eddy looked up into Ed's face, which was adorned with a blank stare. He decided that there was only one course of action to take, and that was to try to win his friends back.
"Hey Ed," said Eddy, "Listen, I want to help Double Dee too. I don't want our friendships to end like this and I want Double Dee to be happy."
Eddy held his hand out to Ed, with a tear in his eye.
"So what do ya say,…are we pals again?"
Ed contemplated for a few seconds before grabbing Eddy's hand and shaking it, with a tear in his eye as well.
"We are pals once more!" yelled Ed "Let's help Double Dee!"
Eddy turned his attention to Kevin, who was sitting next to him.
"Listen Kev," said Eddy, "I'm sorry I tricked you, and broke you and Nazz up. I didn't even mean to do it. You know, it's funny I hated your guts last summer, and now that I got to know ya, it's like were the same people, like brothers. So why let all of that go? Can we put this all behind us?"
Kevin placed his sandwich down on the table and turned towards Eddy. He thought for a few minutes before he made his decision. Seeing Eddy McGee get up in front of the whole hallway and admit that he was jealous let Kevin know that Eddy was truly sorry for what he had done.
"Alright dork," said Kevin, "But the next time you pull a stunt like this, I'm not gonna ask any questions, I'm just gonna pound ya!"
Kevin and Eddy shared a slight chuckle before exchanging handshakes.
"Dude," said Eddy, "I'm really sorry about Nazz. I'll try to talk to her and convince her that you didn't do anything wrong.."
"You don't have to" said a familiar voice from behind the boys, the boys turned around to see Nazz standing behind Kevin smiling. Kevin quickly attempted to reason with Nazz once again.
"Nazz, uh…I'm sorry for everything…I didn't mean…"
"Just shut up and come and eat lunch with me….dork!" said Nazz playfully as she chuckled and walked away from their table.
"Go" said Eddy as Kevin stared at him smiling, "Get outta here big chin! Go get her back!"
Eddy playfully pushed Kevin away from him. Kevin grinned as he grabbed his lunch and stepped over the bench, on his way to reconcile with Nazz.
"I just love happy endings." said Lee sarcastically as she snickered.
"Well we ain't home free yet," said Eddy, "C'mon, we got some serious planning to help Double Dee and Marie.'"
"Alright" yelled Lee, "But let me just make one thing clear so you don't get any funny ideas. This is just until Double Dee and Marie are back to prancing around the neighborhood all lovey covey. Don't ya even think that this means we're friends."
"Huh, that would be the day!" yelled Eddy, "Like I'd ever want to be friends with you!"
Ed and May watched as Eddy and his Kanker counterpart bickered before May eventually chimed in.
"GUYS!" she yelled in her obnoxious voice, "Come on don't forget about what we're here for!" May's words silenced the argument that was ensuing between the fiery red head and the short McGee boy. Today's lunch period would mark the first time that the Ed's and the Kanker sisters shared space voluntarily as a group. Even though they had had quite the turbulent past, the Kanker girls and Ed boys were able to put their differences aside to help their sister and best friend respectively.
After around a half hour of discussing, the lunch bell had finally rung, signaling the children to head to their first afternoon class. The group stood up and picked up their book bags preparing to leave the lunchroom. As the kids began to scatter, Eddy approached Lee.
"Listen," said Eddy, "Thanks for not passing out those pictures. You probably really should have."
"No sweat little man," said Lee, "I just couldn't bring myself to do it after that cute little speech of yours."
Lee laughed sarcastically, after which she leaned into Eddy's ear.
"Besides, I knew all along that you weren't that scheming little cheapskate you made yourself out to be." said Lee softly.
Lee laughed and licked Eddy's earlobe, causing chill to run down his spine.
"See ya tonight at the trailer!" yelled Lee as she walked away laughing.
Ed's first afternoon class happened to be English class; a class that he shared with May. As Ed made his way out of the cafeteria, May ran to catch up to him.
"Ed, wait up!" yelled May as she ran. Ed, although accustomed to running away at the sound of May's voice, stopped to wait for the little blonde teenager to catch up.
"Hi May!" Ed said enthusiastically, even though he had just spent the last 45 minutes sitting next to her.
"Hi Ed…."said May while blushing.
"Boy May, aren't you excited to see Double Dee and Marie happy again?" asked Ed, "I really miss my pal!"
"I can't wait either Ed." said May, "I just hope that our plan works."
May paused before she posed a question.
"So Ed, do you think we should meet after school and walk to Double Dee's together." asked a very nervous May."
"No need to walk missy," said Ed in his usual "happy-go-lucky" tone of voice , "I have brought my bike, and pegs it does have!"
May smiled at the thought of her standing on Ed's back pegs with her arms on his shoulders as they rode through town. While most girls dreamed of holding their crushes hand to declare their love, the thought of May riding on Ed's pegs gave her that same exact feeling. Her dream had come true.
"That's great!" said May as she blushed.
"Boy May, pretty soon Double Dee and Marie will be a happy couple once more!" yelled an excited Ed, "They will hold hands as they wal…."
Ed became silent. In the midst of his excitement, he had inadvertently grabbed May's hand, while acting out his statements May glanced down to see her right hand being held within the clutches of Ed's left hand. The boy and girl stood in the middle of the hallway staring at each other, both blushing heavily as they made eye contact. They quickly let go of each other's hands.
Ed and May eventually regained their composure, and continued their walk towards their English class. Although May desperately wanted to grab Ed's hands and continue to hold it as they walked through the hallway to the classroom, she knew that now wasn't the time. They had to prepare themselves to somehow convince Double Dee to take a chance and talk to Marie. Nevertheless, May couldn't have been happier, for at the same time that she was helping her sister, she was gradually forming a beautiful bond with her Big Ed.