In the small condo that Mystery Inc. were renting, four teenagers and a dog were sitting together in the living room, slouched on various sofas and armchairs, their eyes flicking between the screen of a large widescreen TV and a small slip of paper held in the hand of a young brunette girl snuggled against a scruffy boy wearing a green T-shirt and torn-hemmed brown slacks. Next to them, on the other sofa, an attractive redhead sporting a fluffy purple jumper and purple-tinted jeans was snoozing after her long shopping trip that morning, her head leaning on the shoulder of a blond-haired boy wearing a white shirt and plain jeans, who was focusing on the TV and trying not to sneeze due to the fluff coming from her jumper. In front of them, lounging on an assortment of pillows, cushions, blankets and bean-bags (some of which actually belonged to the gang), was a large Great Dane with a turquoise collar round his neck. As the dog turned his head the tag flashed and the initials "SD" stood out from the gold surround which had cost the gang dear, since the tag was actually gold-plated.

The group had decided to have a go at the lottery earlier on in the day, whilst at the corner shop, and after half an hour's arguing over the numbers had decided and paid. Now they were watching to see if they had won, or even gotten a number right; before they had had two goes at it and neither of the tickets had even gotten one number.

The show came on, and the atmosphere tensed in the room, for everyone except the redhead, who carried on sleeping.

"And this week's numbers are…"

Fred gently nudged Daphne awake as the numbers waited to be chosen, and she murmured "is it on?" and opened her eyes blearily. Fred put his arm round her and she wriggled closer to him, grinning as he sneezed due to a fresh onslaught of fluff from her jumper.

"Seven!"

Velma smiled.

"Hey, gang, we got one!"

Fred smiled and Shaggy punched the air.

"Eighteen!"

"Another one?" Daphne asked, flipping back her hair and hitting Fred in the face. Scooby sniggered and Fred sighed. Velma nodded and Shaggy did a mock victory dance.

"Like, we're having great luck so far!"

"What's the bet the next one is millions off?" Velma asked, smiling. She knew the exact figures of their chances of winning the lottery and they were slim.

"Four!"

"Oh, no, we got that one too…"

"We have?" Fred asked, his eyes widening. "Wow."

Daphne looked over at the ticket for herself and whistled.

"I would love to get all the numbers."

"Wouldn't we all, man," Shaggy said, motioning to the peeling wallpaper of the condo. The living room badly needed re-decorating.

"Reah, reah!" Scooby butted in with his opinion, making the others laugh.

"Maybe, guys," Daphne said, pointing to the screen as five came up. "We've got five too."

The room suddenly became silent as the next number slid onto the screen.

"And fourteen…" Fred murmured.

The atmosphere was no longer simply tense. It was electric. As one, the group leaned forwards towards the TV, their eyes wide and ears practically on stalks.

"Sixteen."

Daphne gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she saw the same number on the slip. Velma was beginning to find breathing hard. Fred had stopped breathing altogether and was holding his breath in anticipation. Shaggy fell off the sofa as he leaned further towards the TV. Scooby yelped as the beatnik landed on him, but his focus was on the TV and so was Shaggy's.

And then the final number came.

"Twenty-five."

Velma could barely bring herself to look down at the slip of paper in her hand, but she knew what she would see.

Etched clearly and innocently on the paper, ringed by her, was the number twenty-five.

The rest of the gang leaned over, just to check, and then, still silent, stared round at each other, eyes shining, unable as of yet to comprehend what had just happened to them.

And then it sank in.

Someone standing outside the house might have thought some kind of explosion had taken place as the five started screaming and yelling and, in Velma and Daphne's cases, crying. Shaggy and Scooby started doing a mad kind of victory cha-cha together, Velma just screamed at the top of her lungs and started jumping about, not caring that she was losing it a bit, and Fred and Daphne instantly turned to each other and hugged each other. Daphne leaned up and kissed Fred full on the lips, tears shining on her cheeks, and Fred deepened the kiss, drawing her closer to him and closing his own eyes. Shaggy pulled Velma into the cha-cha and she laughed as they kicked in unison and screamed and yelled and shrieked and held the miraculous little piece of paper high up in the air, out of harm from the celebrations.

"WE WON THE LOTTERY! WE WON THE LOTTERY!" Shaggy whooped, catching Velma in his arms and planting a kiss on her cheek as well. She giggled and blushed a deep crimson.

"With a chance of 1 in 13,983,816," she murmured, hardly able to take it in still. Shaggy kissing her hadn't helped.

Daphne laughed at the pair, and Velma dropped the paper as Shaggy kissed her on the lips. Fred swooped down and picked up the precious little slip of paper, tucking it safely in his jeans pocket. Shaggy resumed his cha-cha and Daphne rushed through to the kitchen to grab a pack of J2Os in celebration. They hadn't got any champagne, and besides, they were underage.

With the glasses filled with J2Os and the gang settling slightly after their shock and the resultant celebrations, the sofas were once again occupied by the group. A small party started up, with Shaggy selecting 60's music for the stereo and the rest of the gang just laughing and talking about what they would do now and what they would do with the money and who to tell about it all and just generally celebrating their extraordinary win.

They were in no hurry to go to bed, even though after a couple of hours Fred fell asleep and Daphne had to wake him up to get the slip from his pocket so that they could take a proof photo of it just in case.

At five in the morning, five bleary-eyed and yawning members of Mystery Inc. walked upstairs to bed, anticipating claiming their reward the next day and still mildly in shock.

Velma had thought she would fall asleep on contact with her pillow, but instead she lay awake for most of the night, listening to the sound of Shaggy snoring in the next bedroom along and thinking about the money they had won. For some reason, every time she thought of the win, her stomach clenched and a sense of dread and anticipation filled her stomach, but it wasn't a good sense of anticipation.

"Stop being so silly," she murmured to herself, turning over and clutching her blanket in both hands, trying to sleep. She had had a cuddle blanket when she was little and feeling the soft fabric helped her to relax slightly, but not much. "You'll just collect the money and probably keep it in storage. They said five million dollars, that's one million dollars each. So you can simply celebrate and relax and everything will be fine. It won't change the gang or anything like that."

But the more she tried to convince herself that life would just continue as before, the more the sense of dread took over, growing stronger and stronger until eventually Velma slipped into an uneasy sleep, full of dreams of her and her friends in desperate situations and dark silhouettes cackling their evil laughs and slapping their hands over her mouth so she couldn't even scream.