Chapter 1:

"Hey, Daphne… you're late," Fred told her as she raced into the Snack Shack, where the others had agreed to meet at exactly six o'clock and had already ordered and received their food.

"Sorry… doctor's appointment," she explained hastily. Fortunately, there wasn't a huge line for the counter-it being a Monday night and all-and within five minutes Daphne had a hot dog and a drink and was situated with her friends again, although she really didn't feel like eating or talking too much.

The others, however, were gleeful-just as Daphne had been, even upon waking up this morning-and their lively chatter was not something she wanted to spoil.

"So, like, isn't it groovy we all managed to graduate a semester early and land the same job?" Shaggy commented, and the others nodded in agreement. The fact that even Shaggy had achieved this feat meant that the gang could get back together months before they ordinarily could have. Being at separate colleges had been rough on all of them, but it had been hardest on Scooby and Shaggy, who were used to never being separated. Alas, Shaggy's dorm had not allowed pets of any kind, so it had been a very long three-and-a-half years.

Imitating Shaggy, Fred added " 'Isn't it groovy' that not only do we have the same job, but it's only two-and-a-half hours from Coolsville-our hometown?"

"Yeah…" Shaggy sighed, feeling nostalgic memories wash completely through him. He straightened just then, though. "But like, why haven't they been so clear on what we're actually doing at this… Coolsville Communication Center? Or why it's not exactly in Coolsville?"

"Orientation is tomorrow. I'm positive they'll offer an explanation then," Velma told him. "But they did mention ambassadors. I hope they have translators. I'm fluent in most of the major world languages, but my Tagalog and Cantonese could use a ton of work…"

"Don't worry, Velma," Fred told her, smiling. "If knowing other languages was so important they wouldn't have hired us. None of us was a foreign language major." It was true. Shaggy was a culinary arts major; Daphne had gone into aesthetics and design; Fred had taken English; and Velma had double-majored in marine biology and human factors engineering. Clearly it didn't really matter what kind of degree they had; only that they had one.

"I guess you're right," Velma told him. "I guess we'll just have to wait until our job starts tomorrow."

"Speaking of that… if it's convenient with the rest of you I can pick you up in the Mystery Machine. Be ready by seven-thirty," Fred offered. Shaggy, Scooby, and Daphne suppressed a groan; Fred and Velma were the morning people of the bunch. Still, a ride was a ride, so they thanked Fred.

Daphne looked around. Conversation had entered a bit of a lull; here was her opportunity. Shaggy and Scooby went up to the counter and ordered more food; no doubt they would be there a while. Now all she needed was to distract Velma.

Daphne reached into her bag and pulled out a National Geographic she had picked up at the mall on the way back from the doctor's office. She had hoped to find an issue of Discover, a journal Velma followed as though it were a TV soap, but at your typical newsstand when you were in a hurry, finding even a National Geographic was doing well.

"There's an article in here I thought you might find interesting, Velma," she told her friend. It was a lie; Daphne had not so much as opened the cover. But fortunately Velma assumed she knew what Daphne meant.

"Oh! This one about the cultural diffusion between the-"

"Er… yeah, that's it…" Daphne told her hastily. She waited a minute until Velma was clearly absorbed, knowing she wouldn't put the magazine down until she was completely done with the article. Then Daphne motioned to Fred, and catching on, he slipped out the door with her into the night air.

A/N: I promise you, this is the most boring chapter of all fifteen I have written so far. That's right- I've got lots of chapters written; I just want to see what people think before posting more, so please review! This is going to be a long story- I've got like 36 or 37 chapters planned out- but I'll try not to make any one chapter too long. Incidentally, while human factors engineering sounds like a made-up subject, that's actually my dad's job... basically he's a psychologist who works with designing things so people don't make mistakes and hurt themselves. Classic example: If a car has the gas pedal too close to the break pedal, they could hit the wrong pedal when they need to stop. Okay, I'm as bad as Velma... sorry.