Kevin Barr was never one to pry. If he ever needed to know something it would come to him eventually. Gossip always seemed to spread fast in Peach Creek. Like last year at school it took approximately eight minutes for the entire student body to find out that Jon White had slept with Selina Parker and threw up afterwards. At the moment however, Kevin was sitting on the floor of his garage attempting to tinker with his babe. Or motorcycle, whatever you wanted to call it.

Loud sounds from the house across the cul-de-sac kept distracting the teen. After a while Kevin jus sat on the ground with his dirty rag and wrench and clinched his jaw tight. 'Something is happening over there...something annoying for sure. I bet the dorks are behind this...' Kevin was holding himself back from heading over to that stupid white house and banging on the door to get Double Dee and his dork friends to shut up. Although he did have a short temper, he wasn't going to be that neighbor. You know, every neighborhood has them. That one old man yelling to get off his lawn.

Kevin almost chuckled at himself before getting up and throwing the greasy rag across the room and walking inside to clean himself up. It was obvious he was done for the day with all that racket going on.

The next day when Kevin walked into the school he could tell it was going to be a good day. He looked good, his friends were happy to see him, hell he felt great. Nazz immediately latched onto his arm as soon as his group made it to his locker. "Hey Kev,"

Kevin glanced at her as he dug books out of his backpack. "What's up Nazz?"

"Have you noticed anything weird today?" she asked, squinting her eyes suspiciously. Kevin shrugged and shut his locker firmly. "Okay I'll give you a hint since you aren't gonna bite. The Eds aren't here today. Weird right? None of them. Even Double Dee! That dude never misses anything school related." she rambled on, once again clinging to the taller teens arm.

"Eh. Don't think too much into it. Probably another scam." Kevin sighed and broke contact with the blonde to walk to his first period. She grumbled something incoherent and walked away quickly. Kevin shook his head and sighed. Something was up, he could feel it. 'So much for being a good day. All the dorks are gone and that means a prank and then a serious ass kicking.'

...

Edd sat at his unusually cluttered kitchen table with his head in his hands. One of his legs bounced furiously under the table as he stared at the papers before him. 'How could this be happening? This is preposterous. Mother and Father would never..! Maybe something happened to them? No. Someone would have contacted me surely...'

Edd was so consumed by his thoughts that he didn't notice his friends walk into his home. Ed gave a nervous glace at Eddy as they caught sight of the crumbling teen before them. Bills were scattered everywhere and even onto the floor. Edd said he had been receiving some bills in the mail but assured himself that his parents had taken care of it like they always have. "I should have been more attentive..." Edd mumbled, pulling his hat over his face in shame.

"It's not your fault 'D." Eddy said as he sat down next to the taller boy. Usually he would have slapped him on the back and told him to buck up or force his latest money making scam on him, but even Eddy knew when to draw the line.

Right now one of his best friends was having an actual swear-to-God crisis. The worst part was that he didn't think he could help Edd out of this one. "What about the credit card they got for you?" Eddy asked hopefully.

"I-I don't know. All of my currency is just..gone. I called all of the banks, I-" Edd sobbed into his hands. "T-There's no more money left."

His parents had left his best friend high and dry after how many years? Now they also left their son with no money, which meant his bills had been piling up. Poor 'D still thought they were keeping up until his electricity was shut off last night. "Did you call them?"

This only made Edd sob harder. "Yes...I telephoned the hospital that they last worked for."

Ed and Eddy sat in silence for a moment waiting for Double D to continue.

"They haven't been there in the last four months. Uh, the man I spoke with said they just 'up and left' one day."

Eddy deflated in his seat. It's not like 'D could just get a job and make everything all better. He was months behind on the rent and everything else was about to be disconnected. Suddenly a wave of anger flashed through Eddy and he stood up quickly. His chair clattered to the ground and he quickly grabbed all the bills in his arms and carried them over to stuff them in a kitchen drawer. "Eddy? What might-"

"Grab Double D Ed, we're headin' over to my place to watch some movies." the shortest teen ordered. Ed saluted him and immediately swung Double D over his shoulder. Eddy slammed the door of Edd's house in anger once they were outside. Double D just hung defeated over the strong Ed's shoulder. As they were walking across the cul-de-sac they caught the attention of some of the neighborhood kids such as Nazz and Kevin, who were sitting on Kevin's doorstep.

"Hey guys!"

Ed and Eddy turned around to see Nazz waving excitedly at them. The two boys paused when they noticed her making her way over to them with Kevin trailing behind her. Double D groaned inwardly, he really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. "What's up?" Eddy asked impatiently.

Kevin wrinkled his nose at the shortest Ed but said nothing. However Nazz seemed unfazed by his attitude. "We were just wondering why all three of you guys weren't at school today." she paused, dropping her sweet voice. "It seems a little sketchy."

"Ed let me down." Double D commanded, which greatly disturbed Ed and Eddy since the 'please' wasn't present. Without looking at anyone, Double D turned on his heel and stalked towards Eddy's house. He seemed to have a new attitude about him. Nazz was about to yell after him when Eddy caught her just in time.

"Leave him alone. He's having a really rough time right now. Double D doesn't need people like you guys breathing down his neck." Eddy growled, his defenses running on high all day for his friend.

"Look here, I didn't even say anything Short-stack." Kevin yelled, shoving a finger in Eddy's chest. Ed shuffled his feet trying to make up his mind on whether or not he should interfere. He really didn't want another one of his friends to be hurt!

"Save it Shovel-chin. I don't really give a shit right now."

Kevin fumed and picked up Eddy by his collar. "Alright Skipper. You asked for it."

While the fight had escalated so rapidly, no one had noticed Double D standing on Eddy's doorstep with his hand on the doorknob watching the entire thing.

As a young boy, Edd was a scrawny kid. He seemed to lack every muscle you could think of since he devoted most of time to his studies, physical education had taken a back seat. Though once he met the other two Eds, his scrawny physique had transformed into an extremely lean and strong one. All that heavy lifting from Eddy's schemes and holding the Eds back from certain doom had to pay off somehow.

Still no one noticed when the raved-haired boy stalked over to the brawl and literally ripped his friend away from the football star's angry fist.

...

I stared in the spot where that dork's face was in confusion. Both Nazz and my own face snapped in the direction of Eddy. I couldn't believe what he was seeing. That nerdy, overly articulate dork was literally holding Eddy up by his collar. With all honesty, the dude looked a little menacing. Double D's hat was pulled down over his eyebrows so all you could see were these dark-rimmed eyes with a scowl. His muscles I never knew Double D had rippled under his maroon V-neck. What happened to the dorky kid I used to know?

Double D set Eddy down and stared hard at Nazz and myself. "I would appreciate it if you didn't try to beat up my friends, thank you." he said evenly. Nazz huffed, looked between Edd and I, and stormed off. Eddy and Ed did the same, both ready to be done with the situation. I turned my attention back to the guy in front of me, once menacing, but now he just looked exhausted. I bit my tongue. 'Should I say something? I did just almost beat up his best friend in front of him.'

"I'm surprised Dork."

Double D seemed to jump a little, as if he forgot I was standing there for a second. "May I ask why?"

"I didn't know you were that strong, let alone had muscle." I chuckled. Double D just barely cracked a smile before looking down at the concrete. I was about to say something else when he cut me off unknowingly.

"I shall see you later Kevin. I wish I could say it had been pleasant..." Double D mumbled the last part as he walked away and back to Eddy's house. I had this odd sensation of guilt wash over me as I turned around and headed back to my own house.

The dude looked terrible. Paler than normal, bags under his eyes, even his perky attitude had faded away to a scowling face. As much as I really didn't want to care, I still kind of did. Maybe it was the whole 'cul-de-sac kids gotta stick together' motto, or maybe it was something else.

I walked Double D drag his feet into his friend's house with new light. "I gotta find out what's going on."