AN: I OWN NOTHING OF THE SCOOBY DOO FRANCHISE!
Me: Beautiful song belongs to the Plain White T's,
Arya: Do not expect me to make appearances beyond this. As of now, I cease to exist outside of my encasement.
Annabeth: * A bit timidly * Please read and review?
Athena: This is part two of an earlier story, Nerdfighterlike.
Me: Jaz should enjoy the title.
Welcome to Mystery,
Shaggy sighed as he got out of the cab in a small neighborhood of Bonn, Germany. It wasn't like he minded visiting his distant cousins, but it was the first summer-long visit he would have to endure without any of his friends from the gang, with the exception of his best pal, Scooby Doo, with him. Getting his bags out of the trunk, he payed the caber and walked up to the strange, multicolored house before him. Looking at it, it was slightly crooked, and each wooden panel that ran horizontally along the house was painted with a separate color. Compared with the dull colors of every other house on the street, this one most definitely stood out the most.
Tentatively, Shaggy knocked on the door, which ran with the colors of the siding making it multicolored as well, and waited. Within a matter of seconds, the door opened to reveal a young girl, about the age of fifteen. She had long golden-brown hair that reached to her lower back and dark emerald eyes, almost seemingly brown. She wore red radish earrings, a black shirt with the Sweeney Todd logo on it, glovelettes from an old Sally costume Shaggy remembered seeing, and a pair of black shorts. Upon recognizing his face, she lit up and turned around, slightly bumping into the colorful door frame.
"Pia, Jaz, Onkel Stan! Shaggy ist hier!" She called out, an American accent in her voice though she had been born in Bonn. Only a few seconds later and Shaggy saw the three aforementioned individuals. One had kind of curly hair that was almost the same color as the previous girl, she wore a shirt with the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles and a pair of blue jeans with red converse. Her eyes were a gray-blue color, she sported braces on her teeth and was about the same age as the other girl. Then there was a red-headed girl, she was slightly taller than the other two girls, and had bright blue eyes. She wore a dark blue frock and black skater shoes upon her feet. Then there was the oldest, Uncle Stan. He had graying hair and brown eyes. He wore a Charlie Brown shirt and a pair of beige slacks.
"Like hey guys!" Shaggy said cheerfully, though he wasn't all that cheerful. Sure he loved his cousins and their Uncle, but he wanted his friends to be here with him and his whacky, but loveable family as well.
"Colby, why don't you take Norville's bags up to the guest room," Uncle Stan said, gesturing the girl with golden-brown hair that reached to her lower back.
"Sure," Colby said brightly, stepping forward to pick up Shaggy's bags.
"Like, it's okay Uncle Stan, I can handle it." Shaggy said, putting his hand over Colby's to stop her in a polite manner.
"Alright then, girls, go on and show 'im to his room." Stan said, moving aside for Shaggy to enter the colorful home, each room a separate color. Colby followed him inside, the gray-eyed girl catching her arm to stop her from falling as she clumsily tripped over the entryway.
"Thanks Pia," She said, grateful for not making contact with the hard-wood flooring for the millionth time in her life. With that, Jaz, the red-headed girl, Colby, and Pia led Shaggy to the staircase, where once again, each step was another color. Leading him up, they brought him to two doors.
"The one on the right is yours," Jaz said, pointing to a green door.
"The one on the left," Pia said, pointing to a lilac door next to it. "Is ours."
"Well," Colby said after a moment. "Aren't you going to step inside?"
"Oh, right" He said sheepishly, pushing the door open. The room seamed fairly normal compared to the rest of the house. His bed sat in the upper left-hand corner of the room, beside it, amusingly, he saw a child's bed, just big enough for Scooby Doo to have all to himself. Against the wall to his right sat a desk with a lamp upon it, then next to that rested a wooden dresser.
"Uh, thanks guys. I think I'll unpack, like before it gets dark you know." Waving them off, he began to unpack with Scooby, though throughout the day he could have sworn he could hear thumps and pounds, almost as if a few people were bumping into things, or knocking them over. Then he remembered something about Pia and Colby, they were completely danger-prone, almost worse than Daphne in that they tend to bruise themselves.
When everything had been put away, and Scooby Doo fast asleep on the miniature bed, Shaggy took out his brown laptop and set it up on the free-space of the desk. Turning it on, he sat in his chair to wait for it to load up. As it was very late in the night, he had not expected a surprise visitor in his bedroom, yet, there came a knock on his door. Getting up, he answered it.
"Like, what're you two still doing up at one in the morning?" Shaggy inquired when he saw that two of his young distant cousins walked into his room. Even though he was only two years older than they themselves, he didn't think they should be up so late at night.
"We could ask you the same thing you know," Colby said as she sat down on the bed, staring at him, a pair of glasses clutched in her hand rather than sitting upon her face. Pia walked over and sat down beside her.
"She has a point you know." Noticing the computer, she thought about those friends Shaggy had. "Hey, where're your friends this year? Don't they come with you almost always?" Shaggy explained the situation with his friends, but seemed to go on a bit longer when it came to Velma, not unnoticed by the two girls.
"So, when ya gonna tell her?" Colby asked, when he finished explaining where all of his friends had gone over the summer. Confused, he looked at her.
"Like, what do ya mean Colbs?" He asked. She stiffened a bit as he called her that. "Oh, right sorry, forgot." He said quickly, remembering that she doesn't much like nick-names, well at least that one anyway.
"She means," Pia pressed onward, "When are you going to tell Velma that you love her." Shaggy looked flabbergasted. Had he just heard right? Did his cousins really just ask if he was going to tell his best friend, besides Scooby, in the whole world he loved her?
"You-what, how?" He stuttered in amazed confusion.
"Simple really, you go up to her, or message her, whatever, and say-" Colby began but was soon cut off by Shaggy.
"No, no, no, I mean how did you two even, like, think of me loving her?" He asked, the shock still evident on his face enough to make the two girls laugh.
"Easy," Pia began. "You spent the longest time talking about her,"
"Every single time you talk about her you get some silly look in your eye that you NEVER notice," Colby continued.
"And, every time she was here with you, you always stuck with her." Pia finished.
Shaggy looked back, yes, he had spent the longest time talking about her, yes, he always hung around her because she was his friend, but did he really have some strange look in his eyes every time he talked about her?
"Well, when you're ready to admit you need our help and that you love her, you know where to find us." Colby said, placing her glasses on her face and walking out and into the next door to the room she shared with Pia and Jaz.
"Guten nacht," Pia said before sliding off the edge of his bed and going into their room as well, leaving Shaggy on his own to ponder his thoughts.
Forgetting his now loaded up laptop, he sat down on his bed where his cousins had sat moments before, telling him what he thought was impossible. Now though, now he was questioning that notion. He pictured her, Velma, all alone in Coolsville this summer, nothing to do while they were away but go to the library, and utterly, be alone. That was when he noticed that his mind began to wander away from feeling bad for his friend, to thinking how beautiful she looked the day she had seen him off at the airport in Coolsville. The way her denim shorts and sweet orange tank-top made her look so grown-up and woman-like, but a teenager all the same.
Then, he noticed something else. The way his heart twinged in some strange, unknown fashion that he had never experienced before in his entire life. The way he felt terrible, more than would be normal for a friend, when he left her all alone. Then, the worst and somewhat best, most terrifying thought, had struck his mind. He loved her.
The next morning, when Shaggy walked downstairs for breakfast, he was somewhat frightened as as soon as he stepped into the kitchen he saw them. His three cousins say at the table, each staring at him expectantly and amusedly, as if waiting for him to say or do something. Walking nervously over to his Uncle, he collected his pancakes.
"Hey Uncle Stan, like, why're they staring at me like that?" He asked in a whisper. His uncle chuckled slightly.
"They want you to admit something." Was all he said before leaving the room to the four teens.
"Well?" All three of them asked at once as he sat down at the breakfast table with his food.
"Alright, you guys got me, I like her." He said, hiding the last part beneath his breath.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Jaz asked playfully. "We couldn't hear you."
"I like her!" He said slightly louder. Resulting in smiles from all three of the girls.
"Now, we go for phase two." Colby said calmly, getting up to rinse her plate off in the sink.
"Phase two?" Shaggy asked, giving Scooby the rest of his pancakes. "What do you mean phase two?"
"Oh, you'll see." Pia said, getting up herself to help clear off the tables. Shaggy tried to ask more questions, but none of three girls would answer him. All he could do, was wait it out until they unfolded 'Phase Two' before him.
Waiting for the day to go by, turned out to be much harder than he thought. He couldn't talk with his friends due to different time zone issues, Scooby was at the park for the day, trying no doubt to meet a pooch he could talk with, and his cousins, though he could still most definitely hear the thumps and pounds that meant Colby and Pia were still alive, and bruising, were off in their room, scheming away in secrecy.
All he really had to do to while away the time until they let them in on their plan, was read. He hadn't really been into it much openly, but secretly, he kinda liked it. Walking into the library, he searched the shelves, looking for something that would catch his eye in the expansive sea of literature. Most of it, yes, was in German, but they had at least five bookshelves over-flowing with books in English. Finally, one caught hold of his wandering eye. Picking it up, he studied the bright cover. It showed a young girl, about his cousins ages, so she could have been fourteen or fifteen by the looks of it. She looked sad, her face grungy and dirty. The title read, 'Paper Towns, by John Green.'
"Hmm, Paper Towns," He whispered in interest. Sitting down on one of the many different armchairs in the room, he began to read, engrossed by the immediate mystery of the girl who became so fascinated by them, she became one herself. Little did he know, behind the door of the study, the three girls were silently cheering that he had chosen the book that would set phase two in motion.
Hours later, and well past midnight, Shaggy closed the now finished story and set it back in it's place on the shelf. Heading up to his bedroom, he turned out the lights and drifted into a dream that seemed to take place in Wonderland, mystery and all. The best part about it, was that Velma was there, and he felt the best he had, well, since he left the Coolsville airport. There was no place like Wonderland.
Imagine a place you can always escape to,
An island off the coast of no where,
A new destination of your own creation,
Just waiting till you choose to go there,
Blue treetops and velvet skies,
Be ready to blow your mind,
Oooo,
This is a place where your mind can escape,
All the problems today,
And go far far away,
This is a place with no history,
Welcome to Mystery,
The following night, at one in the morning to be so precise, Shaggy was paid a visit by the two night owls that he called his cousins, Colby and Pia. Two sisters with two devilish minds to hatch one devilish plan that he had no doubt would cause more trouble than he could bargain for.
"So, I suppose you two are here to, like, set 'Phase Two' in motion?" He asked, swirling to face them in his computer chair.
"Oh, you did that yourself yesterday." Pia said calmly, sitting straight down on the bed, her feet propped up lightly on the ever-sleeping Scooby Doo. Before Shaggy could ask what he meant, Colby jumped right in, Shaggy not in the least surprised by her outfit that she wore. Tonight she decided that she wanted to wear Jack Skellington knee-highs, Gir shorts, and a Sweeney Todd t-shirt.
"We wanted you to read Paper Towns, so it would let you let us explain how our plan is so ingenious without having to explain a book as well."
"Right," He said, though clearly still confused about the plan. "What exactly is the plan?"
"Well," Pia began before diving into the explanation. Their plan was every bit as crazy to Shaggy as he thought it would be. They wanted Shaggy to make Velma realize she loved him too, because apparently, they could tell these sort of things, without Velma knowing it's him, therefore letting Velma fall for a mystery man with all the qualities she loved in a man, then when Shaggy went home, she would find out that the mystery man lived in someone she already liked.
"Right... and how are we gonna make this work?" He asked, still a tad bit confused on that point.
"Simple," Colby said, hopping off of Shaggy's bed and going over to his laptop. Turning it on, she finished explaining the plan to her confused cousin. "It's called a screen-name. Simply be yourself, under another name."
"Okay, so I do that. But, like, what's my name gonna be? It can't be Norville, she does know my first name." He asked, taking Colby's place in the chair as she stood up.
"How about Chastain?" Pia suggested Shaggy's middle name.
"Perfect!" Colby agreed.
"Like, okay, I'm Chastain, but what's my screen-name gonna be?" He really was curious about that one.
"Base it off of Paper Towns, that's the whole reason we had you read the book, Velma's a Nerdfighter." Pia told him, hoping he knew who the Green's were and that he watched at least one of their videos in the past. Happily, the two saw his face light up at the realization that he did know and he had watched. With that, the three of them began to create Chastain, of course Colby and Pia supplying a few facts to him book wise.
An hour later, Colby and Pia had gone off, leaving Shaggy on his own to enter the remaining parts of Phase Two. Logging on as 'PaperTownsHavePaperSouls' for the first time, he opened a chat window, typed in a message, and waited for her to sign on. Luckily, she did so but a moment later. Nervous, he launched into the wondrous conversation with the woman that made him feel like he was in Wonderland, lost forever, with her by his side.
Imagine a city,
Where everything's pretty,
And you sir,
You rule the kingdom,
You call the shots,
You can do what you want to,
Oh just imagine,
The freedom,
Blue tree-tops and velvet skies,
Be ready to blow your mind,
Oooo,
This is a place where your mind can escape,
All the problems today,
And go far far away,
This is a time with no history,
Welcome to Mystery,
Over the month of June alone, Shaggy felt himself falling deeper for Velma, relieved to see that she was falling for him herself in turn. In fact, much to the delight of his cousins, Shaggy almost never left his room, too entranced in his conversations with Velma to even notice that they would sometimes come in just to watch, Scooby usually by their sides. In fact, the summer was going by so much faster than he had ever expected. Somehow, someway, he wanted it to end so he could go to her, for real, but another part of him told him to stay in Wonderland forever.
Blue tree-tops and velvet skies,
Be ready to blow your mind,
Oooo,
Imagine a room, where the flowers they bloom,
Through the cracks in the floor and the ceiling,
Just you and the missus, with rose scented kisses,
My what a wonderful feeling,
Oooo,
This is a place where your mind can escape,
All the problems today,
And go far far away,
This is a place with no history,
Welcome to Mystery,
Finally, it was time for Phase Three. He was going home, to Coolsville, to her, Velma. His heart was pounding with the slightest touch of fear as he packed his suitcase. He nearly jumped out of his skin in the Bonn airport when Jaz tapped him on the shoulder.
"Don't forget to give her this," Colby said, handing him a folded-piece of paper through her glove-laden hand.
"It's the most important part of the plan" Pia reminded him.
"Don't blow it," Jaz jokingly reminded him.
"Bye Scooby," Colby said, giving the Great Dane a pat on the head.
"Bye!" They all said once more after each hugging Shaggy good-bye.
On the plane ride there, Shaggy tried to keep his thoughts straight, listening to music, watching movies with Scooby on his laptop, anything to keep his heart from going any faster than it already was.
Finally, the plane landed, it'd been six hours. Stretching his legs, Shaggy got up, gathered his bags, and walked into the airport, Scooby close behind him. Not two minutes after stepping into the airport had Velma raced over, trying fast to rush him out of the airport. Not moving, he waited until she turned around, held out the paper to her, and waited for her to read the small, meaningful message inscribed upon it.
'The Paper Towns live,'
When she looked up too him, he merely smiled and walked to collect his bags. She ran after him, he felt her grasp his arm, whirling him around to face her.
"Norville Chastain Rogers..." Was all she could say before he kissed her. Sending them both into Wonderland.
This is a place where your mind can escape,
All the problems today,
And go far far away,
This is a time with no history,
Feel no misery,
Come and visit me,
Welcome to Mystery...
And little did they know that there were three, very mischievous, very sneaky, teenage girls watching from the distance, silently applauding a job well done. They had led him to Mystery.