A.N. This is it boiiiis! A story that has taken me way longer than I care to think about is finally coming to a close. I don't want to say that I didn't enjoy writing this, because I really did at times, but I have to say that looking back on the story, I made a lot of mistakes. I'll get more into detail on the final note at the end, but just because I say it may have had mistakes shouldn't stop you from enjoying this work. I hope many of you enjoyed reading this one, and there will be more to come in the future! Hopefully you enjoy this closing chapter, and I'm glad you were able to make it to the end!

"Mother, father, this is Marie, my girlfriend," I said as my parents shook her hand and they greeted each other. It had been about a week after the party at Kevin's, and in that time I was able to set up a date to invite Marie over for dinner. She seemed pleased to come at first, but as the day grew closer she would call me and ask me about what to wear, what to expect, what to say, with each call getting more frantic than the last. I never expected her to be so stressed about this whole ordeal, especially since she was the type of person who didn't care much about what others thought of her. She was very polite with my parents, but I could tell she was very robotic in her movements and was awkward with her speech. I was worried that maybe her nerves were getting the better of her, so as we walked into the living room, I leaned down to her.

"Are you ok?" I asked, unsure as to why she was acting the way she was.

"I've never done this before," she whispered under her breath. It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about.

"You've never had a dinner with someone else's family before?"

"Not besides my own. Plus, why would you think I've done this before, I'm not exactly popular with anyone." She said as we sat down on the couch. My parents went into the kitchen again to set the table and get the food ready.

"Well you're pretty popular with me. And pretty in general," I tacked on the last part, to which she snorted a little.

"Shut up," she said elbowing me. I had told her to be natural and herself when she came over, and that she had nothing to worry about with my parents, to which she replied that if she acted like herself she would get kicked out. I was glad to see that she wasn't trying to put on a mask at the moment just to try and impress my parents. However, I wanted her to feel welcome in our house, and not like she had to worry about every little thing she did. Not long after, my parents invited us over to the table for some chicken pasta.

"So, how long have you guys known each other?" My father asked as we were eating.

"I've known her for a while now, when we were around 11 or 12." I replied.

"Did Eddward keep in touch with you while he was away like he did with Ed and Eddy?" My mother queried this time. Marie looked at me, probably because she knew I hadn't talked with either of them while I was away, but I would have to explain that to her later.

"No, we weren't really active in communicating while we were away. She's in a few of my classes though, so I've able to talk more with her about what's been going on in class and work more with her, and through that we just got together." My parents nodded as they listened, and a brief period of silence came over the table. I glanced over at Marie, and I thought I could see that her nerves were starting to get to her again. Before that happened though, my dad asked some more questions to get Marie talking.

"Well since we already know about what Edd here is planning on doing in the future, what are your plans for the future, Marie?" She looked up from her plate, caught a little bit off guard by the question, but she went ahead and answered it.

"Well, I want to go to a university to study music and performing arts, but I don't think I'll be able to go." She said, trailing off at the last part. Without missing a beat though, my parents were able to get a conversation going.

"What kind of experience do you have in those fields? You'll have to forgive us, we aren't well versed in performing arts." Marie gave a slight chuckle before going into detail about all of the plays that she was a part of at school, along with her singing. As she went on, I could see her smile grow as she talked about something she was passionate in. I couldn't help but admire her passion for the arts, and I recalled her showing me her singing abilities a few weeks prior.

"You said that you might not be attending university, is there a reason for that?" My father asked once she was finished. "You don't have to explain if you don't want to, I was just wondering." The smile faded away once the question was asked, and I nudged my leg up to hers in hopes that she would know I was still there and to not worry. She sighed before going into an explanation.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to cover the cost of it. College is expensive, and even if I work a job, it won't be enough to cover the cost of it." She said as she stared down at her plate, still picking at the little remaining bit of pasta left.

"Well, I had trouble with paying for college too. It's different in today's world, I know, but there are different ways to get the money you need for it. Apply for aid if you can, find scholarships wherever you can, and if none of that works, student loans are there for a reason." My dad finished off.

"I just don't want to be in debt, and I'm worried that if I do I won't be able to pay it back, you know?"

"Yes, well there is also community college. It's much cheaper, and you can get more experience and credit there than if you don't do anything. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out, there are many different options and all of them are good options. It just depends on which one is the best for you." Marie nodded her head at this, and our night continued with more conversations that varied from what my parents do for work, what New York is like, and what Marie's history is. She seemed to skip some parts, such as when she would chase me around when we were younger, but I felt that it was for the best. As the night went on, Marie became more and more comfortable, and before we even realized it, it was time to take Marie back to her home.

"You can go ahead and drive her back home, make sure she gets inside safely!" My mother called out to me as we walked out the door. I assured her it was going to be alright, and we got in the car. It was cold, which made sense as it was still winter at the moment, but it still made it a little bit chilly in the car. At least, it would be that way until I got the heater running. Luckily there wasn't any snow on the roads, but I would still drive carefully in case of any ice on the road. As we were travelling back to the trailer park, we talked about the dinner and the conversation in more detail.

"So you told them that you were talking with Ed and Eddy while in New York?" She questioned.

"I didn't want them to think bad about anything at Peach Creek or to worry about me. I knew if I told them that I didn't like anyone here, they would have blown it out of proportion, which I really didn't want." I said as I focused on the road ahead, as we got closer to Marie's place.

"I never thought you would be one to lie to your parents."

"I did it so they wouldn't harbor any poor thoughts about here while we were in New York!" I rebutted against her chuckles. We turned onto the street before entering the trailer park when Marie slowly grabbed my shoulder.

"Can you park it here really quick?" She asked me, and I pulled over to the side of the road and put it in park.

"What's up?" I asked as she looked out the windshield.

"Nothing really, I just like the view." She spoke as a gentle smile caressed her face. I looked out and noticed that she was looking out to the moon, which was almost full, and fairly bright, lighting up the night. I turned off the headlights so we could see it better, and we sat in silence as we just watched the moon, taking in the sight before us. Sure, I'd seen much more beautiful sights, but I found it nice to share this one in the company of Marie.

"Edd, do you ever just look at the stars and think about...life?" She said, making a circular motion with her hand as she landed on the word.

"Well, not really. I don't think about life too often, and when I do I get too anxious about the future and what it holds for me." Marie never took her eyes off the sight in front of us as she nodded at my response.

"You should sometime. It's peaceful and calm, and you can think about what to do in the future. I do it all the time when my sisters are fighting and it gets too much in there. Of course, I'm not sitting in a car, so normally it's cold as fuck when I sit outside," she chuckled as leaned back farther into the seat. "But it does me some good sometimes." I sat there as I thought, but my mind didn't allow it to go that far.

"I just worry about making mistakes and messing up in my life. What if I don't get into the college I want? What if I mess up and fail some of my classes? I worry too much about the future, sometimes. It's probably not a good thing, but I was never built to fail I guess." I said as I stared down at my lap. I saw Marie look at me out of the corner of my eye and look at me for a few seconds, and I looked at her to take in her expression.

"You worry so much about failure, but that's just how you learn. Everyone fails, but not everyone learns from their failures. As bad as failing is, you can learn a lot from it. You learn what not to do and you don't do it again. That's how I learned not to touch an iron when it's on." She said, and I winced slightly as she pointed to her hand. "I might not be the best example, but I've learned a lot by failing. I didn't just start singing or acting perfectly on the spot. It took me time to learn how to properly control my voice, how to shut out the thought of people watching me as I performed. If you don't make it into your dream college, which I doubt they'd turn you down anyways, then you have your other options. Sure, it'll suck, but sitting there thinking about how it didn't work out for you won't do anything. Failure sucks, but sometimes we need it to learn. Just roll with the punches and keep going." A moment of silence came between us as I thought about what she had just said. "How many times did you mess up when you were learning how to dance?" I started laughing as I remembered the countless times I had fallen or failed and my friends would always encourage me to do better and keep trying.

"Way too many to count." I replied through my laughs.

"And you still managed to get up and keep going! And now you can do all that crazy shit you showed me a while ago! It probably sucked to mess up, but you kept at it and now you can do it! Messing up isn't always a bad thing, just keep that in mind." Marie finished, showing me a full smile. I smiled back, and we returned to looking at the night sky. My mind still wasn't ready to think ahead into the future, so I thought about the past few months and everything that came with it.

"Marie?" She hummed in response. "When I first came back here, I thought it was the worst thing that could have happened to me. I thought that I would have to hide myself from everyone just to be alright. I didn't want to come back here. And despite all of the crazy things that have happened, it wasn't so bad." I looked at Marie, and she snickered in response. When I looked at her in disgust she burst into fits of laughter.

"I'm sorry, just that it wasn't so bad, like you're a kid getting a shot and you're like 'it wasn't that bad.'" She finished, bursting into more laughter.

"Shut up!" I said, beginning to laugh myself. "Really though, I thought it was going to be terrible."

"Oh? I can't imagine why," Marie said as she grinned at me.

"Of course. Well, I wasn't expecting what had happened. I wasn't expecting to hear about all of the things that had happened to all of you once I left. I wasn't expecting to be greeted back the way that I was. Yet here I am, almost like nothing ever changed." I said as Marie and I looked deeply at each other.

"Well, some things have changed. If they didn't I wouldn't be in your car right now." She spoke as she bit at her lip.

"Out of all the changes that happen, this was certainly not one that I was expecting to see. Yet, I find this to be the best thing to come out of me coming back. I'm glad it happened." I spoke softly, and as I finished we closed the gap between us and kissed, her smile dancing underneath mine.

"Marie…" I whispered as we parted.

"Hm?" She hummed.

…

"I'm glad to be back."

A.N: And that does it! A long journey has finally been wrapped up! Thank you all to those who have followed along with me, I tried my hardest to finish and deliver this story, and now it's finally over. I will say, there is a lot that I wish I could change about this story, but that's to be expected, as my writing style and me as a person has changed over the few years of working on this story. I suppose I should leave you all with a bit of writing advice for those who wish to write stories of their own. These are all genuine pieces of advice that I picked up whilst working on this story, so here you go, although there is some more stuff at the end for the readers too.

1. Plan out your stories. How will it begin, how will the action rise up, what is the main conflict, how will it end, etc. I rushed way too fast into this story, and while I had a solid beginning at the time, I soon realized that I hadn't planned for an ending. Hell, I hadn't planned for a main conflict really. Seriously, do yourself a favor and plan it out.

2. Get to know your characters. Whether it's fanfic like this one or an original story, making characters act like themselves is really important for their dynamic and relation with others. In this fic, I feel that I made characters too out of character.

3. Edit well. Comb over your piece as much as you can, because chances are, there is a misspelled word, plot hole, or other error in your writing after the first draft. Don't be afraid to take out whole sections and paragraphs either, sometimes it's for the best.

Over the past few years I've changed as a writer and as a person. That's probably why when I look back at earlier chapters, I cringe. That's a good thing though, it shows that I've changed, and probably for the better. I'll still be writing stuff on here occasionally, as I've got another story planned for the future that takes a darker yet more realistic tone between Edd and Marie in a different universe than this one. Hopefully you'll all enjoy my future projects, and as always, I have my WattPad in my bio as well for original stories. Have a great day, and I hope to see you in the future!

-SomeGoldfishGuy