Chapter 61
It had already been one hour since Eddy's big blowout had started, and the party was in full swing. In Double Dee's living room, several Peach Creek Junior High students, in addition to Kevin and Nazz, danced to one of Eddy's favorite 70's funk tunes, Pick Up The Pieces, by the Average White Band.
As the students enjoyed their time within the house, Ed and May remained outside on the back porch. It was truly a beautiful night, the sky was clear and the absence of street lights in Double Dee's yard allowed for a perfect view of the stars in the night sky. The music that seemed almost unbearably loud indoors, was insulated well by the sliding glass doors. Winter nights in the cul-de-sac were rather quiet, in contrast to the summer months when the sounds of chirping crickets and hissing cicadas filled the air.
May and Ed had been sitting in silence staring at the night sky for around 15 minutes, admiring it's beauty, as well as contemplating what exactly they would say to each other. Both boy and girl were utterly infatuated with one another but couldn't help but feel awkward in the intimate moment they were sharing. Ed had been known to be shy around girls, but no one suspected May to be introverted as well. Even though she spent months chasing Ed around and kissing him involuntarily in front of the entire school, May was a shy girl deep down inside. She was truly afraid of making a fool out of herself in front of her crush. May decided it was time to finally break the silence.
"I just love the night sky," said May, "It's so beautiful."
May turned on to her side and placed her elbow down on the lawn chair. She leaned her head on her vertically oriented hand and stared over towards Ed, who was still laying on his back.
"What do you think Ed?" asked May as she involuntarily twirled her blonde curls.
Ed paused for a second before turning his head to face May.
"Yeah, it's nice," said Ed in a dreamy voice, rather than his usual dopey voice.
As Ed stared into May's eyes, he began to feel himself blush once again. To Ed, May truly looked amazing tonight. Her blonde hair, freckles and exquisite manner of dress made her look like a beautiful southern belle.
The two eventually turned their attention back to the night sky. After around two more minutes of awkward silence, May decided to pose a question.
"So Ed?" asked May as she leaned her head towards him, "What do you and your friends do when we aren't around harassing you?"
May giggled playfully, at which point Ed smiled. He looked into May's eyes and blushed as he attempted to get the words he needed to say out of his mouth. He was forced to look away from May's captivating face and towards the star filled sky in order to from a response to her question.
"Well," said Ed, "We sure did try to scam people a lot before we made the whole neighborhood mad last summer, but now we play video games a lot, and a lot of sports too."
"Really?" asked May, "What sports do you play?"
Ed looked down at his feet and placed his hands on his abdomen, twirling his thumbs as he spoke.
"Well Eddy makes us play basketball a lot, and Kevin wanted us to join the school football team last year, but then his girlfriend thought that I had good school spirit and I became the mascot, so I never really got to play on the team. It was probably the best because I am just not really that good at sports"
Ed paused.
"Do you like to play sports May?" asked Ed.
May paused as she glanced over towards her crush, who continued to stare at the sky.
"I like sports," said May, "But the only one I'm really good at is softball."
"Oh yeah, that's like baseball right?" said Ed in an enthusiastic tone as he looked over towards May.
"Yeah, they are almost the same, but there are a lot of differences" said May, "The ball is bigger, and you pitch underhand instead of overhand. The softball diamond is a little smaller than the baseball diamond. In baseball, the pitching distance is around 60 feet. I don't know what it is for boys softball, but for girls fast pitch, its 43 feet for adults, 40 feet for girls under 18, and 35 feet for girls under 16."
Ed looked into May's eyes after she had finished. He was amazed that May knew so much about softball. Ed would be the first person to admit that he wasn't the smartest guy in the world, and he knew that May was not particularly the smartest girl either. He was impressed at her display of knowledge of the sport.
"Boy May you sure do know a lot about softball." said Ed.
May looked into Ed's eyes and blushed as she came into eye contact with him. The couple both turned their attention back to the sky as May continued speaking.
"Yeah," said May, "I played for a few years on a junior girls team for our YWCA back in the city."
May paused for a second and ran her fingers through her hair before continuing.
"I always liked playing since I was a little girl," said May, "My sisters like sports too, but they were never as into it as I was. When I was 9, my Dad asked me if I wanted to play on a team. I said yes, and he signed me up."
May paused, after which she looked towards Ed.
"I always had a hard time in school," said May, "Me and my sisters were picked on a lot for being shy, and I was picked on all of the time for my buck teeth."
Ed turned towards May and locked eyes with her, listening to her story. Ed was a naturally friendly and peace loving person and never abdicated bullying. In addition, he hated seeing those he cared about being picked on. He looked into May's blue eyes as she continued her story.
"But on the field, all of the girls were nice," said May, "Nobody ever judged anybody or acted mean. Even when we got real competitive, we always still had fun playing together. It was a great way for me to get away from all of the teasing I got from school."
May paused.
"The girls on the team were the closest thing I ever had to real friend's in my life," said May, "We all lived in different parts of the city, and went to different schools, so the only time we ever really got to see each other was during practice and during games. I consider my sisters my best friends, and we do everything together, but it would have been nice to have some of my own girl friends."
Ed smiled at May as he looked into her saddened eyes.
"Don't worry May," said Ed, "You've got a friend in Ed!"
May smiled and blushed at Ed's sweet words. She was extremely flattered and excited that Ed was finally considering her a friend. Although becoming a close friend to Ed made May the happiest girl in the world, deep down inside she still longed for more. She was hoping that eventually Ed would be willing to put the word "girl" in front of friend.
The couple sat in silence for a few seconds before May continued.
"I started out on first base," said May, "But then the coach said she saw potential in me to be a great pitcher. She did a whole bunch of drills with me to teach me how pitch, and then she started letting me pitch at games. After my first game, I was pitcher for the rest of my time with the team until we moved here."
"I like the way they spin their arms around when they throw the ball!" said Ed in a goofy voice.
"That's called a windmill pitch," said May as she smiled.
Ed giggled.
"I tried to do it outside when I would play catch with my dad and Sarah, but the ball would always wind up behind me or somewhere where I didn't want it to be." said Ed.
May giggled.
"Don't worry," said May, "It takes practice, it took me awhile to perfect it. It's actually really easy if you learn the right way to do it."
May paused and thought about things for a minute. She saw the perfect opportunity for her to spend more time with Ed.
"If you want, we can get together sometime and I can teach you," said May as she looked down towards her feet and blushed.
Ed smiled at May's invitation to join her for a softball lesson. After a few seconds of thinking, Ed had an idea. They didn't have to wait for another time to begin their lessons.
"Wait we do not have to wait May, for I have an idea!" yelled Ed enthusiastically as he stood up off of his lawn chair.
Ed grabbed May's hand, causing her to blush and helped her stand up. He led her down the three wooden stairs from Double Dee's deck and across the dark yard to Double Dee's shed. The shed was a small wood structure with a sloping roof and Forest green trim surrounding the border of the doors. Ed took his hand away from May's and used both of his hands to quickly swing both doors open.
Ed entered the shed and reached towards the ceiling, searching for the pull string to power the single light bulb inside. After a few seconds, he finally felt the cold metal chain. With a quick tug and click, the shed was illuminated.
May watched as her crush began searching through Double Dees belongings. Even though she was surrounded by the comfort of Ed's jacket, the cold wind managed to sting her bare legs as well as cause her blonde curls to intermittently wave.
Double Dee's shed was filled with many things, including many of his father's tools as well as the manual powered lawn mower that Double Dee loathed. In addition, the shed also contained a few shovels and rakes, one of which was still taped to a hockey stick from when the Ed's had fabricated stilts to attempt to keep up with the kids quickly changing fads the previous summer. The makeshift stilts were not the only thing left from that day; the old mailboxes they had used as part of their "fad freaker" getup remained in the place they had left them.
After a few minutes of searching, Ed had finally found what he had been looking for.
"Found it!" yelled Ed happily.
May watched as Ed yanked a large green bag out of the shed. The bag contained various baseball bats and gloves, in addition to a few baseballs and softballs.
"You can teach me now," said Ed as he dropped the bag on the ground. "I don't know how to tell what is a baseball or softball, so you can do the honors."
May smiled as she began going through the bag.
"Okay Ed," said May, "But don't think that I'm gonna go easy on you just because you look insanely handsome tonight!"
May giggled at her joke causing Ed to blush, smile and look towards the ground. May eventually managed to find a pair of gloves, as well as a yellow softball.
"Okay," said May as she tossed a glove to Ed, "Put this on and go stand over by the gate."
"Okie Dokie!" yelled Ed as he put on his glove and ran across the yard towards the gate, leaning backward as he always did while he ran. Ed reached the gate and turned around.
"Okay, now what!" yelled Ed.
"Okay, first I'm gonna pitch to you like I was pitching in a game to show you what it looks like." yelled May, "All's you need to do is catch the ball okay?"
"Okay!" yelled Ed with a smile on his face.
May took off Ed's large jacket and hung it on one of the open doors to Double Dee's shed. She placed the brown glove on her left hand, and took hold of the soft ball with her right hand. She took a pitchers stance as she stared at Ed's position, justifying her distance as well as her aim. May looked quite professional, as she stood with her right hand in her left glove, preparing mentally for her pitch.
Just then, May began her pitch. Within the course of a second, May leaned forward slightly while drawing her right arm behind her back. She stepped forward with her left foot rather aggressively as he right arm began to swing downward past her hips. As she planted her left foot on the ground, her arm had finally passed over her head. After a quick descent, May released the ball as her arm passed her hips for the second time.
The ball was now traveling towards an intimidated Ed at high velocity. If there was a speedometer the pitch would have clocked in the neighborhood of 64 miles per hour. In the milliseconds that Ed had to react, he did the only thing he could do; duck out of the way. The ball of course, bypassed the intended target, Ed's glove, and smashed into the wooden fence, causing a loud crash.
Ed turned around to observe the fence. The wood had splintered slightly from the impact, although it wasn't broken.
"Ed, you were supposed to catch it silly!" said May playfully.
"I couldn't May," said Ed as he threw the ball back across the yard to May, who caught it in her glove, "It was too fast!"
May looked at Ed as she smiled.
"You can do it," said May, "Close your eyes and hold your glove out in front of you."
Ed stared at May with quite fearful expression.
"Trust me," said May with a smile on her face, "Just hold out your glove in front of your chest and close your eyes. I'll put the ball where it needs to be."
Ed reluctantly held his brown glove out in front of him while shaking out of nervousness. After spending a few seconds adjusting himself, Ed was finally able to close his eyes. He could only hope that May's aim was as true as she claimed it to be.
May studied Ed's position for a few seconds. She closed her left eye, and licked her lips, an action she always performed whenever she was in the process of aiming. After a few adjustments of her position, May once again fast pitched the ball to Ed.
Ed was quite surprised that the ball did not hit him in the head or anywhere else on his body for that matter. After feeling the ball make contact with his glove, he opened his eyes to make sure that it was really in there. May smiled as Ed pulled the ball out of his glove with his right hand.
"Boy May, you sure are good at pitching," said Ed as he smiled at May.
"Thank you Ed," said May softly while she blushed.
The two stared at each other for a few seconds, after which May began walking over towards Ed.
"Alright Bub," said May playfully as she was beginning to feel more confident around Ed, "Now it's time to teach you!"
May spent the next ten minutes drilling Ed on fast pitch softball. Ed was quite slow to get the hang of the motions, but with persistence, he was able to achieve a rather uniform pitch, although it was nowhere near as fast as May's.
After Ed's lesson in windmill pitching, Ed and May decided to have a gentle catch while conversing. May and Ed tossed the ball back and forth to each other a few times, before May decided to pose another question.
"So what else do you like to do Ed?" asked May as she smiled.
Ed caught the ball in his glove and hesitated for a few seconds before throwing it back to May. He often had trouble performing actions and speaking at the same time.
"Uhh….I like reading comic books and watching monster movies," said Ed.
"Really?" asked May, "I like some comic books too and I love monster movies, especially older ones!"
"Cool," yelled Ed as he smiled, "What comic books do you read?"
May caught the ball and threw it back to Ed before continuing.
"I haven't read any in while," said May
May paused.
"But the last one I read was the first book in The Curse of Evil Tim series," said May.
Ed's eyes lit up.
"I LOVE EVIL TIM!" yelled Ed.
"So do I!" yelled May back.
"It's funny," said Ed, "Last summer I actually tried to get all of the things that were needed to summon Evil Tim. I only got halfway through the book though, so I didn't know what to do next."
May smiled at Ed who was laughing dopily and walked over towards him.
"Me too!" said May, "But I had to do it secretly, or Lee and Marie would have spoiled all of the fun."
"How many commands did you satisfy?" asked Ed. He was now in full "comic book geek" mode, and was much more confident around May now that the conversation had led to a topic he was comfortable with.
"I couldn't get anything, except the hoard of wishbones. I collected them for months after every chicken dinner at my Dads house" said May.
"The hoard of wishbones?" asked Ed.
"Yeah," said May, "They were the last thing after the sacrifice! The book said that they stop Evil Tim's crow henchmen from coming. The wishbones make the crows think that you are an expert at killing birds, and scare them away."
"Awww man," said Ed as he kicked his foot in the dirt, "I was so close, I knew I should have read the next page. I did everything up to the sacrifice."
Even though Ed had once thought his comic book was real, he had matured slightly over the winter and realized that his "Evil Tim" ceremony was just all in good fun. He and May shared a laugh at their idiosyncrasies for a few seconds.
After their laugh, the boy and girl stood close to each other under the moon light in silence. May stared down at her feet blushing while Ed rubbed the back of his head with his right hand.
"I guess we really do have a lot in common," said May as she looked up into Ed's eyes blushing.
"Yeah," said Ed, with a nervous look on his face as he blushed.
May swallowed and took a deep breath.
"Listen Ed," said May, "I…really….liked…um spending time with you tonight."
May began twirling her hair once again with her right index finger.
"I really like you Ed," said May, "I know that we didn't get along in the past and I sure did do a lot of mean things to you, but after talking with you over the last couple of days, it's like we have so much in common."
May looked up into Ed's eyes. Ed was staring down at May blushing heavily with a nervous look on his face.
"I guess what I'm um…trying to ask you….is…um..if…you…wanted to be more than just frie…."
Before May could get her words out, Ed placed his hands on her shoulders.
"I can hold it in no longer!" yelled Ed in his usual dopey voice, although there was a strong trace of seriousness in it for once.
May stared into Ed's eyes with surprise as he continued speaking his mind.
"Over the last few days I've been getting this funny feeling in my tummy whenever you were around. And now every time I look at your face, I not only get that funny tummy feeling. I also get this warm feeling in my cheeks."
Ed looked down into May's blue eyes, which were staring back up at him. He couldn't help but be enamored by her beauty.
"Even now as I stare down into those beautiful blue gems that are your eyes, I am getting this feeling that I should do something that I really want to do, but I don't know if I should do i, but I really want to do it, but I don't know if it was the right thing to….."
Ed's long winded and almost nonsensical ranting suddenly came to a complete halt. He stared down into May's blue eyes, after which he raised his hand and stroked her hair, causing May to smile. Ed could not hold back any longer.
"I'm gonna do it!" yelled Ed.
Just then, Ed leaned his face down and touched his lips to May's. At the moment their lips touched, May was in heaven. Without even realizing she was doing so, May wrapped her arms around Ed's neck as they shared their first kiss under the moonlight. Ed returned the favor by placing his hands on May's hips and pulling her closer to him. Due to the rather large height difference, May was forced to stand on her tip toes in order to maintain contact with Ed's lips.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ed finally pulled away from May gently. The two waited to open their eyes upon pulling away for a few seconds, after which they stared into each other's eyes, blushing heavily once again. After a few seconds, Ed chimed in.
"Um, May?" asked Ed in a child-like voice, "Does this mean that you are my girlfriend now?"
May was so ecstatic about receiving a voluntary kiss from Ed that she had almost not realized what Ed had said.
"Well," said May rather shyly, "If you want me to be your girlfriend I will be."
Ed paused for a second.
"Okay!" said Ed rather dopily.
May looked up into Ed's eyes.
"Oh Ed!" yelled May as she ran into Ed, burying her face in his chest. She wrapped her arms around his body in a tight squeeze. For the first time, Ed didn't hesitate to reciprocate. He slowly but surely wrapped his arms around the much smaller May, smiling the whole time he did so.
While still holding on to her new boyfriend, May looked up into his eyes.
"Ed, you made me the happiest girl in the world right now!" said May as she smiled.
Ed looked down into his beautiful girlfriends eyes. Ed, even though shy around girls no longer needed any help from movies for sweet lines. He decided to come up with a completely original reply.
"No May," said Ed, "I am the happiest guy in the world to be standing here with May Kanker in my arms."
It wasn't the most original statement, and Ed did feel slightly awkward. He was not used to being the romantic type, and it was slightly uncharacteristic of him to utter a phrase as he just did.
"Ed, you are just one big ball of sweetness!" yelled May
After a quick glance up into her new boyfriends blue eyes, May tip toed once again and touched her lips to Ed's. The couple spent the next few minutes sharing their first passionate kiss as a couple in the middle of Double Dee's yard, bathed in moonlight under the beautiful, starry sky.