Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and I'm only writing for fun. The Magic School Bus and its characters belong to Joana Cole, Bruce Degen and others. Scooby Doo and its chracters belong to Joe Ruby, Ken Spears, Hannah Barbera, Warner Bros, Cartoon Network and I don't know how many others.
The day was grey and wet and glancing shyly around the school cafeteria, Ralphie felt like a stranger to a new world. It was the first day of highschool, Freshman year, and everything felt so different, so big, so strange. The place was full of those giggling juniors and seniors looking so confident, so cool, so unlike him.
Carlos and Joe didn't seem to mind. They carried their trays confidently and walked around the room as if they'd done it a thousand times, making fun of everything and everyone.
At least while they're around I won't have trouble making new friends, Ralphie thought.
"Not here, losers!" Said a good-looking African American girl who dressed fashionably.
"Oh, give me a break, Keesha" protested Carlos "there's nowhere else to sit" And without further notice, he and Joe sat facing Keesha and her friend Janet.
"There's plenty of room at the nerd table! Besid- OH, NOT YOU AGAIN!" Keesha had just noticed Ralphie as he sat down facing Katie, next to the window. It was raining heavily outside, which somehow made him feel even more dizzy and unconfortable. It felt as if the rain was there to announce that he was not welcome.
"No, no, no!" Keesha kept saying
"What's the matter Keesha?" Ralphie said "Still can't get over the fact that you have a crush on me?
"Only in your dreams!" Janet said, and Keesha turned to one side to address only Janet and Katie
"This dude" she said pointing at Ralphie, and Janet and Katie looked at the accused "sat next to me in algebra and embarrassed me in front of everyone by telling a bunch of stupid jokes!"
"No way." Janet said, and Katie giggled.
"In my defense" Ralphie said "everyone was laughing".
"Yeah, they were laughing at YOU, I imagine" Janet said matter-of-factly, and this time Carlos and Joe laughed too.
"It's the first day and my reputation is already over thanks to this moron" Keesha said.
"Well if you think Ralphie's bad, guess what" said Carlos "Dorothy-Ann sat in front of us at the lab"
Joe nodded.
"Ohmygoshshe's SO annoying" Janet said
" 'Guys, do you think Ms Petterson knows about I-don't-know-what recent discovery about life on Mars...?'" Joe said imitating her voice.
" '...Because according to my research…'" Carlos finished, making an even better impression of her nerdy tone.
This time they all laughed except for Katie, who didn't even know who this Dorothy-Ann was, so she only giggled a little so that nobody would notice. What probably none of them noticed was that this Dorothy-Ann was listening, since nobody turned or stopped laughing when she walked passed their table with an empty tray and a sad expression on her face.
"I heard she keeps telling people that we all used to fly on a magic school bus when we were kids" Keesha added.
"a whaaaat?" Janet said
"Wait, wait" said Joe "is this girl mental or something?"
I'm probably mental, Velma thought as she turned on her flashlight and started to climb down the stairs to the basement. The door closed behind her. She was only being sarcastic.
Mental. That's what people had told her and the rest of the gang over and over. "You guys are mental". They were probably right. Only mental people venture in the night with a flashlight chasing weird guys in disguise. But no, that wasn't the reason why she was mental. Mystery INC had been shut down years ago. What was she doing with her life?
The first one to go was the old Mystery Machine.
"Freddy! Freddy stop!" Daphne begged. Before that night, Velma had never seen Fred so angry. Nothing they said could make him stop kicking and punching that fence "There must be another way!"
"There isn't" Fred claimed coldly "There isn't. Dad said it's either selling the Mystery Machine or not getting into college. He said I should've studied and played more football at school instead of playing ghostbuster".
"He really said that?" Daphne couldn't believe her ears.
"Why do I have to obey the old man anyway?!" Fred bursted "I don't wanna go to college!"
"Like, me neither!" Shaggy said, and Scooby approved.
"You can't get rid of the Mystery Machine" Velma said "can he?"
Daphne bit her lip.
"What's going to happen to this now? What's going to happen to us?"
Nothing. That was what happened. They never stopped seeing each other. They just saw each other less frequently. And it wasn't the same. They were grown ups now. They just hanged out and chatted about college friends, parties and papers. They never solved a mystery together again.
But Velma never changed. She had come to this college because of the paranormal stories people told. This time she was investigating the case of the ghost in the basement. They said it was a real ghost, but she had heard that one before.
She reached the end of the stairs and looked around. It was a long, spooky corridor with shabby walls and not a light switch to be seen. Almost immediately, she felt a cold air on her neck. Just like her roommates had told her.
"Are you here to torment me?" said a cold, sad voice in the dark.
Inside that old garage, Dorothy could still hear the gentle raindrops on the ceiling. It was an abandoned building of her old school where they kept all the buses that weren't used anymore.
And there it was, all dusty but without a scratch. The eyes and the smile were gone. It looked as if it had never been magic at all. And yet she just knew it was. She reached for the stairs and looked inside. The empty bus was just like she remembered. She stood there for a while, still hearing the rain fall.
"Can't get rid of those memories, can you?" said a mysterious voice. Dorothy Ann looked around. At the bottom of the stairs stood a dark-haired girl wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Dorothy was startled.
"What are you doing here?" she said in a non-amiable tone. Everyone at school hated her, so why should she try to be nice?
"You're not the only one who can tell a magic bus from a normal bus, you know?" Wanda approached calmly and glanced around.
"Good for you" Dorothy said, and she sat down in the driver's seat. Like Dorothy, Wanda hadn't had lots of friends at school lately, and her new passion for philosphy and the arts wasn't helping. But remembering about the magic school bus? That was the most surprising of all.
"Have you-" she started to say after a while. It was difficult to talk. She hadn't talked to her for ages. They both knew about the old bus, so what? That didn't mean they had to be friends "have you ever seen her again?"
Wanda's response came immediately
"Well I've been looking for her ever since we finished school".
Dorothy turned to look at her
"Really?"
Wanda nodded "That's why I'm here, actually. I come almost every day. What about you? Why are you here?"
"I come here to think. I've been looking for her too. I've been going back to all the places we visited with her. Not a clue".
"That's because you've been looking in the wrong place" Wanda said, and Dorothy frowned "The question is not where or how. The question is why. And most importantly: what if?".
"I don't know Wanda… I just don't understand what you mean".
"You're only looking at things from the point of view of science, Dorothy Ann! But the Friz taught us so much more than that" She reached out and started to press buttons and pull levers while she talked " 'Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!' There is a whole world out there you haven't even noticed!" Wanda was getting really serious now, and that scared Dorothy.
"Where are we going?" she couldn't believe her eyes. The bus was active! It was magic again.
"To find Ms Frizzle" Wanda smiled a foxy smile "First stop, college. Let's go!"