Author's Notes: Scooby Doo and all related characters and trademarks are copyright 2010 Hanna-Barbera Productions/Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network. I am not making any money off of writing this story, I am just a fan. I also got the idea for this story from an episode of the Disney cartoon series Tale Spin.
Chapter 1
Inside a modest one bedroom house in the city of Coolsville, Ohio there lived a brown haired girl named Velma; Velma was a very intelligent and brave young woman, in her time she had won numerous awards, medals and prizes for contributions to science, for various inventions and for excellence in her studies while she was in college, high school and pretty much every level of education she had been through going back to when she was little.
Velma was also a member of the group of teenage private detectives and their Great Dane known as Mystery Inc.; Mystery Inc. had solved who knows how many hundreds of mysteries and crimes over the years since they began and were quite famous considering they traveled all over the United States in their van known as the Mystery Machine, in addition to all over the world.
Today was another day off for Mystery Inc. which was a blessing and a hindrance, depending on which member of the group you talked to; the gang was once again back in their home town and for the moment were taking a break from solving mysteries, or at least that was the plan, but little did the gang know that one of their own would be involved in quite an unusual mystery very soon.
The time off from detective work was great news for Shaggy and Scooby as they had decided to hang out at the cowardly teen's small house in the Western portion of the city playing video games and watching television among other things; for Daphne and Fred the time off was good news as well as they had some time to get to know each other better, although the two sleuths had been dating for quite a while they never really got time to have some alone time because they were always on the road solving mysteries; however the time off was a bit annoying for the other member of the group, mainly Velma.
The bespectacled teen sleuth loved solving mysteries and using her brain power to figure out solutions to the cases, in addition to thinking up new inventions which she would use in and outside of crime detection and mystery solving; which is exactly what she was doing for a while one late summer day, that is until she became bored and decided to take a break from science work.
Velma spent most of the rest of the day reading and watching television, as well as a few minutes of computer work, mostly surfing the internet for things that might peak her interest; finally Velma decided to log off her computer and figure out something else to do, which was what she was doing as she sat on a sofa in her living room while she pondered how she would spend the rest of the daylight hours.
"I never thought I would say this but I'm bored, I need to rest for a while; I've been working so hard on experiments and mysteries I think I might go crazy" Velma said to herself as she put her feet up.
The bespectacled teen girl then decided to lay down on the sofa and take a short nap, she did that for a little while before waking up and noticing that the clock on the cable box in the living room now read 4 o'clock in the afternoon; seeing this she decided to get up and stretch her legs a bit, after stretching for a while, something clicked in the bespectacled girl's brain as she had decided exactly what she wanted to do.
"Jinkies, I've got it! I think I'll do a little cleaning around the house; the garage, basement and attic probably haven't been cleaned in a long time so they could probably use a woman's touch; the only problem is there's probably a lot of stuff in those places that I couldn't lift, so I guess I could call someone strong to help me out, and I know just who to call" Velma said with a smile on her face.
The chestnut haired young sleuth then walked over to the telephone and picked up a small notebook next to it; the teen sleuth leafed through the notebook until she found the number she was looking for, specifically the number of Shaggy and Scooby, two of her friends and fellow members of Mystery Inc.
While Fred and Daphne had always been two of her best friends, in fact she considered the pair to be like a big brother and sister to her, in Velma's mind Shaggy and Scooby were much closer; she could always talk to the two whenever she had a problem or question and vice versa, in fact Velma had helped Shaggy and Scooby out after the pair thought they had found their perfect girlfriends only to find that they were from another planet; in addition Shaggy and Scooby reciprocated when Velma was miserable after horror writer Ben Ravencroft tried to use her and her friends to find a spell book, which Ben needed because he was a warlock.
While not clearly a dating couple like Fred and Daphne, Shaggy and Velma had been always caught between Sweethearts and just friends; in high school during dances, the two always danced together and they split up together many times during mysteries, in fact a few times Fred, Daphne and Scooby joked about the possibility of them being together; naturally Shaggy and Velma always denied this and laughed it off as nothing, but deep down they knew they might have a chance as a couple and might become sweethearts themselves one day, but for now they considered themselves to be good friends.
Once Velma had looked up Shaggy's phone number she took the receiver off the hook and dialed her companion's house; the bespectacled girl waited a few moments as the phone rang a few times, finally Velma heard a familiar voice on the other end and smiled.
"Hello?" Shaggy said.
"Shaggy, this is Velma; I was wondering if you and Scooby could come over for a while?" Velma asked.
"Sure Velma, what would you like Scooby and me to do after we come over?" Shaggy replied.
"Well Shaggy, I was hoping that the two of you could help do some cleaning around my house; I figured that you two could assist me with things that might be too heavy for me to lift or if there are items in my house that I can't move" Velma explained.
"Like Scooby and I would be glad to help you out Velma; we should be at your house in a few minutes okay?" Shaggy replied.
"Sounds good, see you in a few minutes" Velma said; the young woman then hung up her telephone and eagerly waited for Shaggy and Scooby to arrive.
About ten minutes later, while Velma sat in an easy chair in the front room of her house, she happened to look outside the front window towards the street and saw that a green pickup truck was pulling up into the driveway; as soon as the bespectacled young woman saw the truck, she recognized it instantly and literally leapt out of her chair before walking over to the door to unlock it.
Once it was unlocked she opened it and saw Shaggy and Scooby walking up to the door, which resulted in a huge smile on her face; she then waited for the cowardly pair to get up to the door and after they were inside the house, they were both greeted with warm friendly hugs, courtesy of one Velma Dinkley, who was very happy to see both of them.
"Hey guys, glad to see you could make it" Velma remarked as she squeezed Shaggy just a bit, which resulted in him gasping for air.
"Velma, could you please let go of me?" Shaggy asked; seeing what she was doing, the young woman complied with Shaggy's request and released him from her grip.
"Sorry Shaggy, I guess all that Ice Hockey's made me pretty strong, I guess I don't know my own strength" Velma chuckled, while scratching the back of her head.
"Like that's okay Velma, so now that we're here, what did you want us to do?" Shaggy inquired.
"Well, as I said on the telephone I need to do some cleaning around the house and I was hoping that the two of you would be able to help me" Velma explained.
"OK, like we can sure give it a shot, right Scoob?" Shaggy asked, looking over at his canine companion.
"Reah, ranything ror Relma" the eager Great Dane said as he went over to lick the young woman's face.
"Aww, thank you Scooby, I'm glad you two can help me; now, let's get started" Velma said, smiling as she spoke.
With that the young woman walked with Shaggy and Scooby into the kitchen area of the house; while the two chicken hearted sleuths waited in the kitchen (and thankfully didn't eat any food while they were standing around), Velma went over to a cabinet in the room and retrieved some cleaning products, a mop and a broom and some yellow cleaning gloves, before a few minutes later returning to where Shaggy and Scooby were standing and prepared to give the pair instructions on what tasks they were to perform in order to get the young woman's house spic and span.
"OK guys, first I want you to put on these gloves, I don't want anything to dirty or dingy while we clean" Velma said as she slipped on her pair of yellow gloves.
"Like right Vel" Shaggy said as he slipped on his own gloves, while Scooby put on specially made gloves that Velma had purchased just for her canine friend; once the chicken hearted pair were wearing their gloves, Velma walked them into the living room and began explaining their assigned tasks.
"Now here's what I want you guys to do: we can start in the living room, then we'll proceed to the kitchen, and then the two of you can proceed to the garage, then we can all come back in here and have some soft drinks and snacks" Velma explained.
"Like that sounds great Velma, let's get going!" Shaggy said, somewhat excitedly.
"Reah, Rooby Roo!" the Great Dane agreed.
With that Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo started upon their cleaning tasks, which began with the living room; the green shirted Shaggy, along with the intelligent brunette of the group both started with cleaning the couch and the floor, which included using the broom and dustpan in Scooby's case, and in Shaggy's case using the a dry cloth to clean some of the excess dust off the sofa.
While they cleaned, Shaggy and Velma figured that this was a good chance to talk about the past and the present, including the gang and the pair's feelings for one another; in this case, it was Shaggy who started the conversation as Velma used a feather duster to clean an old grandfather clock and a couple of lamps which sat on both sides of the sofa.
'Velma, like can I ask you something?" Shaggy inquired.
"I guess so Shaggy, what did you want to know?" Velma responded.
"Well, like we've been friends for a long time and you've always spent a lot of time with me, and I was wondering: do you like me? I guess I shouldn't say that, what I mean is, well, what I mean is I think you're really cute and I've always thought you were good looking, so I was wondering do you or would you ever want to go out on a date with me?" Shaggy asked, clearly nervous as he spoke.
"Shaggy, this is a weird time to ask that, but since you asked, I think you're a pretty handsome guy yourself, and you know I would love to go out on a date with you sometime" Velma replied.
"Like you would?" Shaggy inquired.
"Sure, and like I said, you're pretty handsome and a wonderful guy, and I don't know what I would do without you" Velma said as she smiled at the young adult.
"Thanks Velma, I don't know what I would do without you either" Shaggy replied as he smiled back at her.
"Well, you know what" Velma remarked.
"What Velma?" Shaggy asked.
"I think the living room is pretty clean, or at least clean enough to where it doesn't look dirty anymore; which means we can continue with the other rooms of the house, Shaggy, you and Scooby Doo take a broom, dustpan and a dry cloth and head out to the garage, that room hasn't been cleaned in a long time, so it could use a good going over" Velma explained.
"Like sure thing Velma, but what about you?" Shaggy asked.
"I'm going to start on cleaning the kitchen, with me doing that and you guys in the attic, it should take us no time at all in getting this place looking spotless and clean, then we can have a snack and some soft drinks, like I promised, okay?" Velma inquired, looking over at her two cowardly friends for their input.
"Like sounds great Velma, come on Scoob" Shaggy said, urging his canine friend to follow him close behind.
"Rokay Rhaggy" the Great Dane replied as he walked close to Shaggy; while the two of them headed for the garage, Velma walked into the kitchen and began using the cleaning materials she had gotten out to give the kitchen a cleaning it wouldn't soon forget.
"You know, I couldn't ask for two better friends then Shaggy and Scooby, they're so helpful and so kind, I really hit the jackpot when they began hanging out with me; plus Shaggy said he likes me, and maybe, just maybe he loves me, something tells me things are going to get a bit more interesting in Mystery Inc., and quite frankly I couldn't be happier" Velma said as she cleaned the oven.
However, before the day was over, things would get a bit more interesting in Mystery Inc. and before the day was over, Shaggy Rogers would have a rival for Velma's affections and attention, one that might possibly take Velma away from him for good, and possibly take her away from the rest of her friends at Mystery Inc. as well.