It had been 7 months since Kevin last saw Double-D. In early February, Eddward and his parents got in a severe car accident on the highway coming in from a camp that he went to for a week. A drunk driver fell asleep at the wheel and headed into oncoming traffic speeding at about 70 miles an hour. The driver hit Edd's car head on.

It wasn't long before everyone in the cull de sac found out about the horrific accident, and before you knew it, the entire Peach Creek community. Both of Double-D's parents were killed instantly, but Eddward survived do to the fact that his father's seat protected him from numerous pieces of shrap metal and glass. He was in the ICU at Peach Creek Medical Center for about a month and a half after his emergency surgery to repair his collapsed lung; then was in foster care until his aunt stepped up to the plate. She even moved to Peach Creek, and in his house, so that he would be more comfortable in his surroundings. There was a rumor that his aunt had a job just like his parents, and was never home. Seems like nothing ever changes…

Kevin wasn't going to lie, even though he was an Ed, he had it rough, and he didn't deserve it. But what Kevin saw walking through the hallway, was never in the least bit what he expected.

Down the hallway came not a boy, but a man. An almost unrecognizable man who had lost everything in his life. The only feature that was the reassurance that he was indeed Eddward, was the black beanie places upon his ebony hair, pulling it back to reveal his face. But his face, it was not his face. It was some one else's. Someone unknown. Underneath the black beanie, was a completely new person.

His blue eyes were less vibrant. They were dull, lifeless, and full of agony and hatred. He had acquired a new scar sketching itself from his temple, to the top of his well-defined cheek bones. Right next to it was a black barbell that pierced his eyebrow. 'He got a piercing!? That's odd…' His nose hadn't changed. It was still sharp, but not long to where it would look like a beak. It was a good nose, one of a kind. His lips were placed in what seemed to be a permanent snarl, but not directed towards anyone, but maybe himself.

He was wearing a plain red V-neck, somewhat loose, but tight enough to expose the recent change in body type. He was less scrawny, like he had been working hard to put on some muscle. 'Well he always was a health freak I guess.' On top of his shirt was his leather jacket; black of course. It fit him well, and was exciting and pleasing to the eye. It gave him a rough edge. His jeans were black and tight. Defiantly skinny jeans, but not too tight. He had it at what seemed like the perfect balance for his body. His pants sagged slightly, revealing about an inch to an inch and a half of his boxers; black. And the last new acquirement was something dangling from his neck. A necklace, with some sort of pendant on it.

Kevin watched as Edd headed down the hallway, in his general direction. Realizing that he had attracted some eyes, Edd locked gazes with Kevin, who quickly retreated from the eye contact.

'There is something completely different besides Edd's appearance and stature. A feeling, that wasn't present before…'

Kevin walked to his locker, which was about 10 feet away and began to dial in his combination. '21…35…' Before Kevin could finish his combination, he felt a presence beside him. There right next to him, was Double-D. He had gotten tall. Kevin was 6'2, and Edd looked to be the same height. He looked so blank…no blank wasn't the word. He looked lost. The gap toothed smile that was illuminated the nerds face, was replaced with a frown full of utter pain and sorrow. Kevin could now clearly see Edd, and he wasn't sure of what, or who he was looking at to begin with.

Edd opened his locker and began to place his unused books into it. Kevin turned back to operate his locker. He felt like he had been looking at him too much, and quite frankly, it freaked himself out. 'Why would someone be so interested in him?' Kevin pondered on that thought, once again bringing his curious eyes to the nerd. That pendant, was no pendant. Kevin eyed it carefully…it was a piece of shrapnel; blue. 'Wasn't his families SUV blue?'

Slightly annoyed that the kid had yet to notice or pay any attention to him, Kevin spoke up. "Sup double-dweeb?" Edd turned his head toward the ginger slowly. "What do you want Kevin?"

'Are you kidding me? I give him a more than normal response, and he cops an attitude? When did this sudden courage envelope from him?' Where ever the attitude came from, Kevin didn't like it. Double-D had no right to be so rude to him. But more than that, the boy's voice shocked him. His voice use to be so high, harmonic in a way, but now it was replaced with a somewhat darker, raspy voice. He sounded sick. Either way, he wasn't going to accept the way the nerd was treating him.

"Look dork, you don't need to pop an attitude with me. All I said was sup... So chill."

Edd wasn't sure what to say. It wasn't like he really wanted to talk to him. He was mean, and bullied him. Why would he want to respect any part of him? Edd wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he once admired Kevin for his strength. He never took any crap, and he always made the people who tried to mess with him pay for it. But now, he realized he was weak. He was a bully; a nobody. He enjoyed bringing pain to others, and that was not a quality of a strong man. Plus he picked on Double-D all the time growing up, and he never did a thing to Kevin. He was nice to him, but Kevin never really showed kindness back. Double-D did not want to hear anything the jock had to say.

"Whatever Kevin," Edd spat as he turned to walk away, but then he was restricted by something grabbing his arm. "Hey Double-D! Just because you think you're a bad ass now doesn't mean you can ignore people who say hi to you and be an asshole!" Double-D just sat there for a moment… "I'm sorry Kevin. Hello." Edd remained staring at the freckled tiles on the floor, rather than looking back at the jock speaking to him. Kevin released Edd, and once the grip was broken, he walked away, and didn't look back the entire walk down the hallway.

Kevin later found out that he had 6th period with Eddward…chemistry. Kevin hated chemistry. It was all math based, and he hated math as well. Kevin brought his gazeto the board… 'Oh god, partner work.' Kevin hatedpartner work. It showed how bad he actually was with the subject to people, and he didn't like that. He wasn't a bad student, he just maintained C's most the time.

The teacher began to assign pairs. Kevin watched as the teacher randomly stuck two students together, waiting to see who he would get stuck with.

"Edwardd and Kevin, partner up. I'm handing out a workshe-"

Kevin completely missed everything she said after that. He had to partner up with Eddward. The same kid who gave him the cold shoulder this morning. How was he expected to keep calm and not choke out the damn kid?

Kevin turned around and watched Edd rise from his seat, grab his book, and walk over to him. Kevin never noticed how ungraceful the nerd was. It looked like he was gonna fall on his face just from walking. Kevin wasn't sure why, but his heart started to beat erratically as Edd walked up. He could feel the heat rush to the surface of his face…Kevin looked down quickly avoiding eye contact as Edd took the seat next to him.

Edd drew his attention to his partner. He wasn't very happy to be partnered with Kevin. He knew he'd end up doing all of the work. He hadn't really looked at Kevin this morning. He never really noticed that he was a pretty handsome guy. He was tall, you could tell because he looked awkwardly long compared to his desk. He still wore the same red baseball cap backwards, and his red hair was cut short. He had emerald green eyes, they really were stunning in the light. He was anxiously biting his bottom lip like crazy and staring at the paper trying to make sense of it. He was wearing a red and black school letterman jacket with his name on it and a patch for football and baseball. Beneath the jacket, was a plain white T. His jean were blue, and extremely worn out on the knees. Edd brought his gaze back up to his face. Kevin glanced up from the paper and made eye contact with him. Edd's heart just about stopped when those green eyes met his. He felt like he was completely emptied of oxygen, and had to fight to retrieve it back. He wasn't sure how he was going to handle this assignment. He couldn't seem to even be able to look at the jock without getting fluttery.

Kevin was the first to break the silence. "So…I'm not exactly sure what this means by moles…"

Edd wasn't surprised. "A mole is a form of measurement. 1 mole is equal to 6.02x1023. They gave you grams, so you need to do a gram to mole conversion to find out how many moles there are." Edd waited for a response, but Kevin came short of one. Edd continued to wait…

"Hey Edd…"

"Yes?"

"Are you still tutoring? I mean, I really don't know how to do any of this, and if you could, I need help."

Edd was completely shocked by Kevin's response. Kevin had never once asked him for help, let alone be so nice to him.

"Uh, yeah I can tutor you, but you have to actually try. I'm not doing your work for you."

Kevin was actually just as equally as shocked that Edd said yes, but he was happy. For some reason, he wanted to spend time with him, and tutoring seemed to be his only chance. Kevin shot Edd a smile that made his heart melt.

Why was the one person that makes him weak in the knees, happen to be one of the biggest jerks he knew, and why couldn't he be normal around him? He was so rude to Kevin, and he didn't want to be. That made him just as low on the food chain, and that's not where Edd wanted to be. He was smart, and knew he was ment to be bullied, he just couldn't take it anymore. He felt the only way to end it, would be to turn into a jerk. It's not like he didn't have a reason to hate people. His parents just died, and that would ruin any 16 year old kid.

Either way, it wasn't going to be easy to be mean to Kevin. The other bullies might not be as hard, but Kevin wasn't the same… He just didn't understand.

The class continued on with Double-D trying to show Kevin how to set up and go through with stoichiometry. In other words, the tutoring was defiantly needed.