Chapter 1 - DAPHNE
"Fred! Will you help me please?" I said as I pulled my large trunk over to the parked van. We were on our way to a much needed vacation up in the mountains. Skiing, snowball fights, hot chocolate, and cute boys sounded like just what I needed. We all met at Fred's house loading up the Mystery Machine for the long awaited trip. Over the months, Fred had become an avid driver, that's why the van was normally at his house.
"Yeah, here." Fred grabbed the trunk for me and hoisted it up onto the top of the van. He was always such a help. It was great to have a strong handsome guy around, even if he was a little bit conceited.
"Daphne," Velma looked at me from her place on the lawn with her one suitcase. "We're only going to be there for a week. Do you really need all this stuff?" It was a typical Velma line. She always packed light and anything bigger than one suitcase was 'too much luggage' to her. But what could you expect, what she didn't have in fashion sense, she made up in brains. I seriously don't think I know a smarter person.
I decided to shrug off her statement as if it were a normal thing to say. "Of course I do." I looked over at her, "I have everything I will need for a week in such cold weather. Plus a few other things for everyone else."
"Snacks?" Shaggy asked hopefully, as he helped Fred load my luggage. Shaggy, always thinking of food.
"That's your department, Shaggy." I smiled at him, "Well, yours and Scooby's. Wait, where is Scooby?" I looked around but the dog wasn't to be seen.
"Oh, he's coming." Shaggy looked behind him. Just then a brown flash of fur came charging forward. "Like, here he is now!"
I braced myself for the inevitable, but then, the inevitable didn't happen. Just when I expected to be falling on my back, a large dog on top of me, and an even larger pink tongue rolling across my face, he stopped.
"Ree hee hee hee hee!" He chuckled.
"Scooby-Doo, like quite foolin' around, man!" Shaggy scolded and Scooby laughed again. Boys. Dogs. Who could live without them?
"Can we get going now? I would really like to be there before dark." Fred asked us all. Fred was also a constant worrier. It was one quality we both shared.
"Sure thing." I nodded.
"I'll grab my bags." Shaggy said.
Velma, meanwhile, quietly picked up her suitcase and walked over to the van, putting it with the rest of the luggage. Shaggy soon returned and we piled into the vehicle. I claimed the front passenger seat with Fred driving and Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby in the back.
"Oh, I can't wait to get there." I announced once we were on the road and I really couldn't. My mind was already swimming with thoughts of hot ski instructors and romantic snowy escapes. I had been looking forward to this vacation for weeks. It's what we all needed.
"Me either." Fred nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. "Can't wait to try some snowboarding." Fred and sports, they went hand in hand.
"And some sledding." Shaggy added.
"Ro reah! Redding!" Scooby agreed.
The inseparable team.
I smiled, "How'd I know you would agree with whatever Shaggy said, Scooby-Doo?"
"Like, he doesn't agree with me all the time!" Shaggy argued. Okay, so maybe they weren't inseparable. The two had gotten in a quarrel during our last case involving a lake monster, and the two of them had yet to fully recover.
"Rye Ro Roo!" Scooby disagreed. Well, at least Scooby seemed to be healing. I think Shaggy meant the world to him. After all, it was Shaggy who took him in off the streets. Then again, I think you'd have to be pretty stupid not to take in a talking dog.
"See?" I glanced back at the two before laughing. Then I spotted Velma just sitting there, looking out the window. She had been unusually silent since her near run with death last case. I tried my best to get her to come out of her shell. "Velma? What about you? What do you want to do when we get there?"
She shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Explore the surrounding environment, I suppose and maybe take the time to challenge the four of you to a battle of frozen, packed, H2O." She sort of smiled.
Fortunately, it didn't take a genius to understand what that meant. "Snowball fight!" Fred and I chorused.
"Row Rones?" Scooby asked hopefully.
"Like, no snow cones, man, a snowball fight." Shaggy shook his head at the dog.
"Yeah… haven't you ever had a snowball fight before, Scoobs?" Fred glance at him in the rearview mirror.
"Rell..." Scooby thought for a moment.
"Like, sure you have, man! Everybody's had a snowball fight."
"It will be a ton of fun. We can even break off into teams and go head to head." I said as I faced forward once again. I, of course would be paired with Fred, that is, if I didn't already find somebody else.
"Sounds like fun." Fred nodded, I could tell he shared my thoughts.
"Yeah. Maybe we can find one other person and have it be three teams of two." I suggested.
"Or two teams of three!" Shaggy added.
"No, Shaggy. Think about it! If we have three teams then you have even more fun!" I was determined to keep my plans in place. No way were we having two teams of three.
Shaggy shrugged and quieted. I only shrugged back at him.
"So Fred, How long is this trip going to take?" I asked after awhile, looking in the direction of Coolsville High's best football player.
"About four, maybe five hours." He replied.
"So long?" Said Shaggy.
"Is something wrong?" Velma asked.
Shaggy looked at his duffel bag. "I'm just not sure if I packed enough snacks."
"Shaggy!" The three of us said at once and then shook our heads. Like I said before, food was that guy's life.
"Racks! Rum rum rum." Scooby licked his lips. We laughed.
"How about a little music to past the time?" I reached forward and clicked on the radio and the sounds of soft jazz filed the speakers. I loved jazz. It was always so very relaxing.
"Jazz?" Shaggy asked. As usual, he was questioning my choice of music.
"Why not?" I turned to face him again, challenging him to make my day.
"Well, I was thinking that we could maybe listen to some folk music?"
Folk? I about gagged.
"Or Rock." Fred suggested.
That was doable.
"Or even a little classical music." Velma offered.
A little old-fashioned, but that would be okay too.
"Ror rome rap." Scooby laughed.
Defiantly not!
"Okay, no music it is." I switched off the dial. I frowned and looked out the window. Okay, so maybe it was a little too early to say that this was going to be a great vacation. We all sat in silence for a few hours before I couldn't take it anymore.
"Fred?" I looked to my friend.
"Yeah?"
"What's the place called again?" I asked. I'd try anything to start conversation.
"Snowflake Lodge."
"Sounds charming!" I settled back against my seat. It did sound charming. Quaint and cute, Snowflake Lodge sounded like a blast.
We drove the rest of the way up to the lodge in silence. Velma read the book she packed, and Scooby and Shaggy kept the food going between the two of them while Fred and I stared ominously out the front windshield. When we got to the lodge it was just after six o'clock in the evening and the snow was coming down in large clumps. My mood instantly brightened. It was beautiful.
The lodge was a massive wood and stone log cabin with a chimney blowing puffs of soft gray smoke into the air. It was surrounded by evergreen trees and you could see the ski lift behind it running up and down the mountain. It was getting dark and the lights shinning, in contrast to the snow, made the whole setting look like a masterful work of art. I couldn't help but gawk.
"It's beautiful." Velma's voice brought me out of my fantasy.
"Like a painting." I agreed.
"Like a giant snow cone." Shaggy put in his two-cents.
"Oh Shaggy. Always thinking with your stomach." I shook my head at him. As I said: food.
"Ree hee hee hee hee!"
I could tell the closeness was getting on Fred's nerves almost instantly, "Alright. We're here." He parked the van and looked into the backseat. "Everyone out."
Shaggy opened the sliding door and jumped out before opening my door for me. "Aw thanks, Shags." I still wasn't used to Shaggy's politeness. He usually wasn't so refined.
Shaggy merely shrugged in response.
Scooby and Velma, meanwhile, got out of the van and began collecting their luggage. Soon a grizzly of a man walked out of a back door to the lodge and came over. I gave him the once over. One word stuck in my mind: Ew.
"Daphne Blake?" He asked.
"Yes?" I answered, turning my attention to the man. I tried not to act nervous and, as I turned, I noticed so did Fred. How odd…
"You're late." The man turned to the van and scowled. "No one told me when you made the reservations that you were bringing with you a bunch of hippies."
"Like, we're not hippies." Shaggy came around the side of the van.
The suspicious man raised an eyebrow. I could just imagine the thoughts running through that guy's brain: Not hippies, huh? Then what's with your clothes and that accent.
"Hippies, Sir?" I asked. He nodded his head in the direction of the van. So our van was a little older, and had a rather odd paint job. But hippies? "No. We are defiantly not hippies!"
Velma and Scooby soon appeared and nodded.
"And a dog too?" The tone of his voice made my heart drop. Oh no. Now he was going to send us all back. No dogs? I knew I should have checked before I made the reservations.
But just as I was going to make my apology, the man smiled. "Welcome to Snowflake, kids."
I exchanged a confused glance with Fred. "Um… thank you, sir."
"Well, grab y'er bags and I'll get you the keys to your room." He turned and reentered the lodge. I looked back to Fred.
"Like, he sure was… friendly." Said Shaggy a little unsurely. I couldn't have said it better myself.
I shrugged at the boys and then Fred and I went back to the back of the car to grab our things. Shaggy handed out the trunk which he and Fred then carried inside while I grabbed Fred's bag and my purse. Velma followed close behind us.
"Rait! Rhat rabout the rooby racks?" Scooby sat by the door.
"I'll get them in a minute, man." Shaggy assured him. "C'mon."
We entered the lodge. The room had tall cherry wood callings with a sparkling chandler hanging in the center. There was a large wood desk off to one side of the room. The man from outside stood behind it.
"You kids all ready?" He held up several keys and dangled them in the air. "Just sign here." He pushed a clipboard across the desk and I went over to sign in.
"How's the weather been, sir?" Fred asked him as I wrote.
"For this time of year? It has been marvelous." He smiled at the five of us.
"No storms?"
"None so far. But you never know when one will hit." As he said this, the lodge's front door slammed open, causing us to jump in surprise. A lone figure stood in the doorway. They had on a bulky coat that made them seem much bigger then they were. Fred stepped in front of Velma and me, just as the figure took a step inside.
"Brrr…" The person's voice was deep and he sounded somewhat like the man giving us our keys. Just then, the hood of the coat was thrown off and a young man's face was reveled.
"Phil, my boy." The man spoke to the young man.
"It is freezing out there." The boy named Phil unzipped his jacket and smiled at us. "Pardon me," He said, his eyes settling on me, "Am I interrupting something?"
My heart melted. "Not at all." Not al all. Oh, he was gorgeous. Dark hair, blue eyes. I wondered where he had been all my life. Phil, the guy had called him. Phil and Daphne, Daphne and Phil… hmm… I liked it.
Fred gave me a rather odd look before turning back to finish what he had been writing doing: writing his own name and the names of our friends on the sign-in sheet. The boy and I smiled at each other for a moment and it almost seemed as if time stood still: Daphne and Phil, Phil and Daphne. Velma's sigh finally shook me from his cute, twinkling blue eyes.
"Maybe we should get up to our rooms?" She suggested.
I looked around the room. There were only five of us now: Fred, Velma, The man, me and… Phil. My long-haired friend and his dog were nowhere to be seen. "Where're Scooby and Shaggy?"
"They said they were leaving, a few minutes ago, for the Scooby Snacks." She looked at me oddly.
"Yeah… c'mon, Daph. You must me exhausted. Let me help you get settled." Fred instantly jumped in and went over to grab my trunk. He must have noticed my mistake.
"Oh. Thanks, Fred." I smiled at him. I then turned my attention back to Phil. "Well, Good night." Sleep, that was all I needed, and some time to plan out my next move on Phil.
"Good night." His dreamy voice danced its way to my ears. I sighed inwardly. What a hunk! Already, I was fantasizing: Dinner with Phil, Sledding with Phil, Ice-skating with Phil, Skiing with Phi-
"Daphne?"
I turned quickly to see both Fred and Velma staring expectantly at me. "Huh? Oh yeah, right. To our rooms. Coming." I gave Phil one last smile and then followed my friends up the stairs.
I overheard Phil's voice just as I disappeared from view and the front doors opened.
"Dude, that's one massive package, what's in it?"
"Like dog treats, man." Shaggy. He and Scooby had returned.
"That's all dog treats."
I smiled. Yep, I liked Phil already.
A/N: What do you think? We hope you liked it! Please Review! This is going to be in the eyes of Daphne and Velma. Every other chapter will be Daphne then the others will be Velma. Let us know what you thought. We love to hear from you!
We (Sadly) do not own anything Scooby-Doo!
Thanks!
B&R