So Whatcha Gonna Do?
Disclaimer: I do not own Scooby-Doo. Nor do I own any of the songs mentioned in this fic. Actually, I don't know which of these are songs people own and which are in the public domain... I might have rights to some of them. But to be safe, I'll assume I don't.
WARNING: If cute summer-camp-type stories involving cute summer-camp-type songs make you want to barf, skip this fic.
Rise Up, O Flame,
By the night's glowing
Show to us beauty,
Visions of joy
"There. Fire's lit," Velma told the fifteen-or-so Girl Scouts gathered around the fire on this lovely night at Camp Pamunkeyquand.
"Can we roast marshmallows now?" Jessica, a bubbly, African-American girl with braided hair asked eagerly.
Smiling, Velma shook her head. "We have to wait until after the flames die down a bit and we've got coals."
"Oh... well, is there a song we can sing while we wait?" Allie, a very cute, blonde-haired nine-year-old asked.
"I've got one!" Abby, a boisterous little girl, exclaimed. "How 'bout Blue Aardvark?"
"Yeah! Blue Aardvark!" came the cries of the girls on their sugar high.
"Not to rain on your parade... but I really don't feel comfortable with you girls playing that here. It involves too much running, and I don't want you doing that around the fire."
"O-kaaay..."
"Here... does someone want to pass out the bug juice? The s'mores will still be a few minutes, but we can have drinks now..."
A short girl named Kayla jumped up and got the pitcher of Kool-Aid, then systematically poured some into each girl's Styrofoam cup.
And of course, the girls burst out singing... again!
At camp with the Girl Scouts,
They gave us a drink
We thought it was Kool-Aid
Because it was pink
But then what they told us
Would've grossed out a moose
For that good-tasting pink drink
Was really bug juice!
Why, again, Velma had taught them all these songs in the first place was a mystery, one she would have needed the gang together for.
But the whole gang wasn't here. Fortunately, Daphne had signed up as another counselor at the last minute, but Shaggy and Scooby and Fred were all off in their own corners of the planet this summer. Fred was working as a lifegaurd at some resort in Florida... lucky. Daphne obviously didn't need summer job money for college like the rest of them, but she had decided to offer Velma some moral support. As for Shaggy and Scooby... Velma didn't have the slightest clue as to their whereabouts. Where Shaggy went, Scooby went... but she didn't know where Shaggy was. She hadn't spoken to him in ages. Not since that incident in chemistry class.
She saw Daphne coming up the hill, from where she had been filling an extra bucket full of water "just in case." She set the bucket next to the fire.
"Thanks, Daphne!" Velma told her friend. Daphne shrugged as the girls began the next song:
Every mornin' by the riverside,
Sardines!
See the people standin' by my side!
Sardines!
Every mornin' when I open the door!
Sardines!
See the people standin' beggin' for more!
"Girls, could you please quiet down for a minute!" Velma requested. They nodded and grew half a decibel quieter.
"Okay... so where are the skewers?" Velma asked Daphne.
Daphne shrugged. "Didn't we tell one of the girls to bring them back after our canoe trip today?"
"Good point... who was that?"
"I think it was..." Daphne scanned the girls. "Abby," she decided finally.
"Abby? Could you come over here for a minute?" Velma called. Abby skipped over.
"Abby, today after our picnic on the island... what did you do with our skewers?"
Abby looked down. She pulled the corner of her braided pigtail over to her mouth and nibbled on the end.
"Well?" Velma asked.
"I forgot them," Abby said simply.
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Velma looked at the camper, frustrated. "So the skewers are still on the island?"
"Yeah... I guess so..."
And figures. It was after dark. Were it still light out, Velma would have made Abby go back to the island herself (well, not exactly... Girl scout policy was for the girls to "stick with a buddy") to retrieve the skewers. But alas, camp rules forbade campers from using the canoes after sundown. Thus, a counselor would have to go back.
"C'mon, Daphne," Velma said finally, letting Abby go. "We have to paddle out to the island now."
Daphne shook her head. "Sorry, Velma, but one of us has to stay with the girls. Looks like you're going alone."
"Why me?" Velma asked, annoyed.
"You know I'm danger-prone... I almost tipped our canoe earlier today, remember? Anyway, I got the water, it's your turn..."
Daphne seemed a little too enthusiastic to stay behind, for some reason. Sighing, Velma signaled for all the girls to pay attention.
"All right, girls... your fellow camper, Abby here, appears to have forgotten the skewers back on the island. You know this means she has B.I.F.F.Y. duty next clean-up. But meanwhile, I will be going back for them. Daphne is in charge. Just because there's only one counselor doesn't mean there aren't always two eyes on you."
"You mean we can't roast our marshmallows until you get back?" Kayla asked.
"That's right," Velma told her, and every little girl cast a thanks-a-lot look at Abby.
"Why can't we just use sticks?" Abby asked defensively.
"Because Camp Pamunkeyquand has had a problem with poison ivy for the past few weeks, remember? You girls are much better off not trampling through the woods when it's this dark and you can't count the leaves. You'll just have to find something else to do... tell ghost stories or something until I get back. I'm sure Daphne can tell you loads from the perspective of the damsel in distress."
Daphne made a face that was a satire of one who has received a really harsh wisecrack, then laughed. "Or you girls could all... sing some more."
"Let's sing 'Li'l Canoe'!" exclaimed Jessica, quickly recovering from the delay of her marshmallows.
Velma groaned. "Aw... you girls have sung that one almost ten times today!"
"And we'll sing it again before the day's out!" Allie told her counselor, a mischievous glitter in her eye. Velma shook it off and turned to get the canoe. It was Daphne who would have to put up with this boisterous group anyway.
Velma paddled out into the lake, relieved now to escape another round of singing under the influence of bug juice.
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A figure emerged on the other side of the lake.
Velma squinted in the direction of the Boy Scout camp which shared a lake with Camp Pamunkeyquand. The island in the middle had never really been defined as belonging to one camp or the other. The philanthropist who donated the land for the camps had been very unclear on this matter, so both camps had free access to it. It was just big enough to take the campers there for a picnic lunch or a nature class.
Yes, this was definitely a Boy Scout camp counselor. Aside from the fact that he was much too tall to be a camper, Camp Saunders T. Brady had similar rules about canoe hours to those of Pamunkeyquand.
Odds were, he was headed for the island as well; where else would he be going? Velma shrugged. Right now, she needed to get those skewers ASAP.
The boats got closer and closer to the island. Through the darkness, Velma was embarrassed to say she didn't really see who was in the other canoe until after both boats were perched on the tiny island beach.
When Velma saw who else was on the island with her, she almost screamed.
"Shaggy! What are you doing here?"
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"Well, like my campers were all about to have a weenie roast, when John admitted he like left the skewers on the island at lunch and--"
"Wait a minute. Skewers?"
Shaggy nodded.
"That's why I'm here!"
"Great, like now we can search for them together."
Velma turned frustratedly away. "Together. Right. I guess you're all about letting other people do the work, right?"
Shaggy froze, shocked at her words. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"You know!" Velma looked him in the eye. "Our chemistry exam!"
"The final?"
"Yes, the final! Where both of us got a ninety-three!" Velma kicked at a pebble. "And the ones we missed... we both put exactly the same thing, remember?"
Shaggy sat on a log, forehead in his hand. "Is... is that what you think?"
"Yes, it is! Look, Shaggy, it's bad enough that you copied off of me. But you didn't even tell me you did! What am I... a book you can just open any time you feel like it? An object, a thing?"
"Velma... I didn't cheat," Shaggy said quietly.
"Don't lie to me! Mr. Wold asked me about the similarities on our scores... and if I let you copy my answers! Do you know what you almost did to my reputation?"
"Velma." Shaggy stood up then. "I don't know why Mr. Wold never told you what happened next."
"What--"
"There was a computer bug," Shaggy explained. "In the machine that was supposed to score our scantrons. See, I turned in my paper right after you, and the machine thought it was supposed to print the same score twice on consecutive sheets for some reason. I didn't copy, Velma."
"Oh."
Great. Now Velma really did not know what to say. Was this really why she had avoided Shaggy ever since the end of last May? Had she really been that angry with him? Had she been that petty?
Shaggy watched the expression on Velma's face for a minute, then turned.
"The skewers," he said simply.
"Oh... right..."
Velma and Shaggy scrutinized the island. The whole thing took up maybe a third of an acre, so it really didn't take too long for them to realize: The skewers were not there.
"Jinkies, this is odd..." Velma told Shaggy. "I've searched everywhere near where we ate lunch... and it was a really big bundle, it wouldn't be hard to miss..."
"Like, what'll we do? Tell the kids they can't roast anything tonight?"
"Well... the island has been isolated enough from poison ivy, we could probably take some sticks from around here..." Velma gathered a bundle of maybe twenty. Shaggy did the same. Then they headed back to the boats.
Or, at least, where the boats were.
"Zoinks, where's my canoe?" Shaggy asked suddenly.
"Jinkies, Shaggy, losing the skewers was one thing... but something as big as a boat?" Velma grinned feebly. It was terribly lame as far as jokes went... but she felt like she owed him some teasing, strangely, just like the gang used to do, back before Velma and Shaggy stopped speaking.
Shaggy smiled slightly, then stopped. "Aw... this was the one with the leak in it!" he realized.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... here it is!" Shaggy pointed to the miniature shipwreck filled with water at the bottom of the lake.
"Why did you take that one, then?" Velma cupped her hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to be mean; it just sort of slipped out.
"Well... I was sure we labeled the leaky one with a big red sticker just yesterday!"
"Oh... I see it now." Struggling to lift the boat full of water, Velma pointed to a sticky spot on its side. "Somebody peeled it off!"
"Like I wonder who would've done that!" Shaggy exclaimed. "Whoever it was can expect double latrine duty tomorrow morning at O-dark-thirty!"
Velma laughed. "I guess we'll just have to take you back in my canoe, then..." she told him. Shaggy nodded and climbed in. They paddled away from the island.
"So where's Scooby, anyway?" Velma asked conversationally.
"Back at camp," Shaggy told her. "Eating the hot dogs cold, no doubt."
"Dog-eat-dog-world?" Velma offered as a pun.
"Basically," Shaggy told her, smiling. "Getting him past typical camp rules was like impossible, until I told them that Great Danes have a great sense of smell and he could really help us find the scouts if any got lost in the woods."
"Could he?"
Shaggy shook his head. "I doubt it. But he's become kind of our camp mascot, you know?"
Velma relaxed her paddling slightly so the boat would curve towards Camp Saunders T. Brady. "I didn't even know you two were working here."
"Yeah, well... it was kind of last-minute, there were some certifications I had to get first, and I couldn't apply until I had them. I literally turned in my application a week before camp started, and that happened after..."
"After I stopped speaking to you." Velma felt a current of guilt sweep through her veins. "Shaggy... I'm really, really sorry. I--"
"Like, let's just forget the whole thing. You're not mad anymore... I'm not in the doghouse anymore..."
"Let's keep those reservations open for Scooby, shall we?"
Shaggy laughed and scooped up a tiny handful of water, intending to sprinkle Velma with it. Then he stopped.
"Hey... moon jellies!" He pointed to the glowing, stinger-free jellyfish in his palms.
"They're bioluminescent," Velma told him. "They have these--"
Shaggy threw the water at Velma, moon jellies and all. Velma laughed and retaliated with a handful of her own. Then she stopped, threw the cnidarians that now lay upon the canoe's floor back into the lake, and picked up the rowing pace.
"We should be getting back now."
Shaggy agreeably sped up himself.
Both paddlers stopped short, however, at the chorus that was then heard coming from the shore.
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A boy, and a girl,
In a li'l canoe,
With the moon shinin' all around,
And as they paddled their paddles,
You couldn't even hear a sound,
So they talked,
And they talked,
'Till the moon moved in,
He said, "Ya better kiss me
Or get out and swim!"
So whatcha gonna do,
In a li'l canoe,
With the moon shinin' all around?
Velma and Shaggy stared at each other. Then they shared at both camps, at both sets of campers.
Clearly, the kids were in this together.
The campers formed a line, right around the edge of the lake, the boys' side and the girls' side singing the same song.
And in every camper's hand, brandished victoriously as though it were a sword, was a skewer.
Velma broke what little silence had not already been penetrated by the campers' song.
"I don't believe this!" she exclaimed. "John and Abby didn't forget the skewers at all!"
"Like they set this whole thing up!" Shaggy was equally bewildered. "I bet that's why they scraped the sticker off the side of the leaky canoe!"
Daphne and Scooby stepped forward from their respective banks, waving skewers themselves, grinning from ear to ear.
"Daphne! How could you?" Velma called.
"Scoob... like you guys were in on this thing too?"
"Well... now we know whose underwear is going up the flagpole tomorrow!" Velma yelled loud enough for Daphne to hear.
"Too bad Scooby doesn't wear underwear!"
"Ew!" Velma made a face.
Then both occupants of the canoe burst out laughing. And laughing. Velma had to admit, Shaggy had a really nice laugh. Corny? Sure. Slightly deranged? Yeah, probably. But honest.
And, she might add, he was a very good sport about being the butt of two camps' worth of practical jokes.
"You have to admit... this was a pretty well thought-out plan!"
"Yeah..." Velma agreed. "Very well thought-out. Freddie couldn't have done better."
"And he's missing all this."
"All what, though? Watching two people stranded in the middle of the lake between a Boy Scout camp and a Girl Scout camp, unsure how to respond?"
"Good point." A mischievous grin swept across Shaggy's face. "We'll have to top all that. Let's really give him something to miss."
Meanwhile, the campers began on the second verse, which was almost identical to verse one.
A boy, and a girl,
In a li'l canoe,
With the moon shinin' all around,
And as they paddled their paddles,
You couldn't even hear a sound,
So they talked,
And they talked,
'Till the moon moved in,
He said, "Ya better kiss me
Or get out and swim!"
So whatcha gonna do,
In a li'l canoe,
With the moon shinin' all a--
Here, two or three campers from each side of the lake shone their flashlights up at the moon in the sky.
The boats floatin' all a-
The Boy Scouts set a bunch of origami sailboats from the day's arts-and-crafts onto the water.
The girls swimmin' all around!
Although they were not allowed in the water, the Girl Scouts did make breaststroke motions with their arms.
Then all the campers grinned knowingly at each other before singing the last line.
Oh... yeah?
Get out and swim!
The kids erupted into fits of laughter, practically rolling on the ground. The little masterminds had outsmarted their counselors. Surely Shaggy and Velma would accept defeat; it was game-over now.
Or was it?
"Hey... look!" someone from each bank inevitably pointed out. This wasn't entirely an unexpected outcome... but the fact that everyone had somehow expected something this extreme to occur only made it all the more shocking when it actually happened.
Velma kissed Shaggy.
With the moon shinin' all around.