The New kid

The warmth my parents never gave me

Edds P.O.V

The school day was coming to an end and I was deciding how to spend it. I tried to think of other things but for some reason, I couldn't get the news out of my mind. I walked into the bathroom and sighed, I wondered what Tom was doing, I went to text him but I accidentally hit call instead, from inside small the phone rang, "Tom?" I accidentally asked out loud. The ringing phone fell on the floor, Tom's phone, he said nothing. The worst thoughts came to mind, what if he was harming himself? Without warning I kicked open the stall door at the same time the bathroom door flung open.

"TOM?!" "EDD!?" "TORD?!"

"What the hell?? When??" I turn to Tord and point to Tom, "What is this??"

"Edd I can explain!!"

"When did you dye your hair purple??" I question, "What on earth are you to doing in here?" Tom lets out a sigh of relief for some reason.

Tom quickly stands up and walks out of the stall, "It was uh it--"

"It was a failed experiment in science class today, I don't really know how but that's the effect." Tord finishes.

"Edd, I need your and Matt's help. I need to undo this as soon as possible. It's not my color." he jokes.

"Okay well, school ends in a few minutes why don't we all head out right now? I'll call Matt," I walked out of the bathroom. "Those two are something else," I laugh, running my hand through my hair. I open my phone, "Hey Matt- OH Hey Matt over here!" I wave. "Guess who got an A on the English test." I brag.

He bows before me, "My dearest Edd Edward's?"

"Yeah!"

"Dude, no way! I'm so proud of you, I'm not gonna lie I think you might have scored better than me. I might need some lessons. Hey, speaking of lessons have you had a lot of subs recently?"

"Yeah, it's kinda weird, right? At least half my teachers today. They said something about a meeting which I mean I guess. Oh but anyways Tom needs your help."

Tord and Tom stumbled in front of us. Tord yanked off his hood, Tom slapped his hands away. Matt stepped closer and touched his hair, "What did you use? I don't even have any purple on my fingers?" His inner cosmetologist shined through. "There's a store down the block, we're going to have to try a few things," Matt looked at each of us and we looked at him as if he was a battalion commander. "Tord, you are in charge of finding brown dye, in case things go south we can at least change the color. Edd," I pulled up a picture on my phone as a reference, "I need you to find this shampoo, it's supposed to undo hair dye and it's pretty strong and uh.. hopefully works. Tom I need you to head home and hop in the shower and start washing your hair. I'll go buy some brushes. You can count on me!"

I don't think I've ever seen Matt so excited.

A warm sensation filled my heart, "Alright team!"

"Okay never say that again," Tom motioned.

"You can't stop me~" I skipped down the hall, "The last one at the store is cooking dinner" I winked.

Matt took off and Tord spirited after him, Tom dashed down the hall pushing past them and catching up, "Ohhh you are on Eddy!!" Tom huffed.

I don't ever want this to end, I thought.

And the loser was Tord, he ended up picking up some groceries to cook with while we were out. Matt turned on our street as I messed with the radio, the news played the same story again, and I turned it off. "I can't believe there's still nothing on that story. How do police still not know?" I turned to Tord, "Really you shouldn't go out alone you know."

He nodded, "Yeah but no need to worry about me Edd. I've been--" He clears his throat, "What I mean to say is my parents took safety very seriously so I went to a lot of training classes in case anything ever happened. If you two ever need anything just call me."

"What were you, like karate kid?" Matt chuckled.

"What's that?"

Matt slammed on the breaks and we both stared at each other wide-eyed at the uncultured swine before us. "..your kidding.. right?" I uttered.

For the first time, his strong demeanor went away and was instead replaced but an embraced flustered stammer, "I, um, well no.."

Matt and I looked at each other again before meeting Tords eyes, "You're lucky to have met us then!" I hooted. "Jump it, Matt! We have no time to waste!" Matt slammed on the gas as the car raced down the street, now we had a mission, mission Karate Kid.

--

Matt's P.O.V

"Okay Tom just hold still, acK sHHOOM!" I threw the bottles on the floor in irritation, "No way that didn't work!" It's been two hours of working on his hair and somehow it won't come out at all. I even tried the brown hair dye Tord got, it made it a little less noticeable but now Tom had a purplish tint to his spiky hair.

"Still no luck?" He asked.

I groaned in response, "Yeah, I've never had this much of an issue, it's really weird. What exactly were you doing again Tord?"

He immediately stiffed, "Science!" He yelled.

"Okayyy.. Hm, well maybe in a few days we can try again and it'll be easier?"

"That sounds like a great idea, Matt!" Edd cheered. "In the meantime, Tord needs a lesson of culture," He winked at me and I winked back dashing off to grab the tape. My phone chirped and I looked down, "What's this?" Someone posted a picture of a symbol graffitied on a wall, and everyone was commenting about how they keep seeing it everywhere. It was a black circle with a white line through it. I studied the picture as I walked back to the group, "Hey guys, have you seen this around?"

They all gathered around in confusion, all except Tord who looked like he'd seen a ghost, the others noticed too. "Tord?" Edd said. "Do you know what it is?"

He looked like he was in deep thought and looked each one of us up and down slowly as if choosing his next words very carefully. "I think we should talk."

Everyone sat around him, Tom looked skeptical but listened, "The thing is, my parents work for the government, and they're on business right now, in the meantime I'm staying here. I'm trusting you guys not to tell anyone is very important. I honestly don't know what is going on in this town but that, that I do know. That symbol is a logo of an army my parents have seen, never in this country but in others."

"Wow.." Edd mumbled, "Why do you think they're here?"

"I don't know if they're here. They may not be."

"Your parents work for the government?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Yeah, I'm not even allowed to know anything about them most the time."

"That's awful," I frowned, "It must be hard. My parents haven't been around most of my life either."

"Yeah, they are assholes!" Edd spat.

"My parents are dead and assholes." Tom grinned.

"My parents don't live around here," Edd added.

Tord looked at all of us then burst out laughing, "What?" I said.

"You guys are a whole new level of needed therapy," He joked, and Tom shoved him.

"Who needs therapy when you have friends," Edd smiled.

That night we all watched Karate Kid and talked about our lives, if you can't cry about some things, sometimes you just have to laugh. I asked Tord about his interesting hair and gave Tom the same style causing Edd to cry from laughing so hard and Tom to nearly attack Tord. We all 'practiced' karate after and Tord taught us a few things. It's so funny how different you can be and yet how close you can get too. The night ended with popcorn on the floor, Edd sleeping on the couch, Tord asleep on the floor, Tom halfway on the floor and I laid on the chair falling asleep with a warmth my parents never gave me. But I found a green artist, a blue metal head, and a red mystery.