The Extra Lily

Are you a budding photographer? A flower connoisseur? Maybe you're an avid reader! Either way, this contest is for YOU! Held by the Coolsville local library. Rules: Photos must include nine lilies of any type. Limit one photo per entrant. Deadline August fourth. Prizes: Grand prize wins a first edition copy of Bleak House by the esteemed Charles Dickens. First place prizes are a copy of P. D. James' The Lighthouse. Second place prizes are a digital camera with extra memory stick. One grand prize winner, three first place winners, ten second place winners. Enter today!

Velma stared at the poster, as if doing so could magically change the ink of the printed words to read something more along her strengths. Today was August second. She didn't honestly think she could enter – her lack of photography skills was one of the main reasons Daphne was the gang's official picture-taker – but she really, really wanted that book. First editions were so rare, and the first edition of such an amazing book written by such an amazing author? She swallowed. No. She couldn't do anything like that. Not in a million years and certainly not in two days.

Still…she snatched an entry form and shoved it inside her stack of books before she could change her mind. Maybe she could convince Daphne to enter and give her the book if she won.

oOo

"Why would I do that?"

"Daph, please," Velma pleaded, aware that her voice was bordering on a little-kid whine, "it'd be so easy for you and it's such a special book…"

"Then why don't you do it?" Daphne replaced the kiwi slices over her eyes and settled back into her massage chair, sighing in contentment. "I'm sure you could figure something out to impress the judges."

"Daph-ne."

"What-ie?"

"I can't take a clear picture of a rock."

"You're not taking a picture of a rock, you're taking one of –" She lifted one slice of kiwi to scan the entry form. "– lilies."

"Daphneee!" Her voice ended in a despairing squeak.

"Fine, fine," she complained. She sat up and threw the kiwi slices away. "I'll help you out. But you still have to be the one to take it, alright?"

"Thank you!" Before Daphne could relax again Velma was sitting on her footstool with a notebook and pen. "Okay. I'm ready."

"For what?" She eyed the notebook suspiciously.

"Note-taking," Velma responded with an innocent expression. She clicked the pen on and waited.

"Let me go get changed and I'll give you a lesson," Daphne grumped.

The brunette grinned to herself as her friend stomped out of the room. "Victory!" she whispered.

oOo

Daphne's purple and grey walking shoes crunched the fall leaves as she walked through the park. "Alright, the first thing you need for a good picture is a good subject." She paused in front of an oak tree, circled it, and nodded in satisfaction. "This will work. Second thing you need is good lighting. Now, everybody takes pictures with the light illuminating the front of the subject, right?"

Velma nodded without looking up from scribbling.

"Don't do that. That looks boring and like you aren't trying hard enough. We'll take this picture so that the light is shining around the tree rather than on it." She walked around to the said side to set up the tripod. Carefully fixing the camera onto it, she watched Velma still scratching furiously away and remarked wryly, "Don't forget to write down that the tripod has three legs."

Velma nodded and started to write something, then stopped. "Hey!" She stuck her tongue out. "Nyehh."

Daphne rolled her eyes, hiding a smile, and stepped back. "Okay, I think it's good. Next thing we need is an appropriate backdrop. That means nothing busy unless you want to make a real contrast with the idyllic tree in front of a busy highway or something, but since we're sticking with simple right now let's not go that route. See anything in the background that will take away from the main focus?"

Velma dropped the notebook and pen and darted over to the tree, raising her hand to shield her eyes as she scanned the area. "There's a jogging path over there that looks pretty popular; then behind that is a street with the coffee shop. Not too many cars but the people would detract, right?" She looked to Daphne for confirmation.

"Exactly! So what we need to do is get rid of the people. How do you think we do that?"

Velma thought for a moment, then grinned evilly. "Off with their heads!" Daphne gave her a look. "…no? Okay… I didn't really think so, but it was worth a try," she shrugged. "How?"

"We set up a detour, of course! Usually we'd just have to use something like Photoshop, but since that's a little more complicated than level zero –" She coughed and mumbled something like 'your level.'

"I know how to use Photoshop!"

"– we'll have to use a different strategy." She squinted through the sunlight. "Looks like three out of those four joggers coming are men," she said approvingly. "This is going to be so much easier than I thought." Motioning for Velma to follow, she started off toward the jogging path.

"Why is the masculine aspect a good thing, if you don't mind my asking?"

"First of all, shirtless guys are always a good thing," she said matter-of-factly. "Second of all, it means we can convince them to stay out of a fifty-foot general area by using a little thing I like to call flirting."

She heard Velma's footsteps stop. "We're doing what?"

The redhead turned and grabbed her wrist to drag her along. "Flirting with them to make them go away."

"We can't do that!"

"Sure we can. Wait, all four of them are guys. That one just has a long ponytail. Alright, I'll take those two," she pointed, "and you take the other two."

"Daphne, we can't do that!"

"I just told you, yes we can."

"I don't know how to flirt!"

"Just twirl your hair around your finger and giggle a lot. Guys love it," she waved a hand dismissively. Velma opened her mouth to protest again. "Do it for the book," she said with a tantalizing edge to her voice. Just as she'd thought, Velma weakly shut her mouth again. "Good girl! Now go get 'em. I'll take care of the other two." She pushed her in the direction of the one with the ponytail and the one with sunglasses. Then Daphne turned to the other two and smiled sweetly. "Hi there! Could you hold up a second?"

They slowed, trading glances. "Yeah?"

"Soo, I was just wondering," she said, twirling a lock of hair around her forefinger, "would you guys mind helping me and my friend out a little bit? We're kind of trying to do a really big project that's due tomorrow, but we need this section of the jogging path," she indicated a stretch of path, "to stay people-free, and nobody seems to be listening to us. We'd really appreciate it if you could keep everybody away from here, just until we're finished."

One scratched his head. "I dunno, we're almost done with our jog and then I gotta get home and babysit my little sister," he began, but the other boy cut him off.

"We can do that," he said eagerly. "Right, Seth?"

Seth still looked unsure. "I kinda need the money so I can pay off my student loan, Jared."

"Ah, it won't take long, will it?" Jared looked back at Daphne. She shook her head. "See, and we'd be helping her out."

"You said you had a friend with you," Seth said suspiciously.

"She's over there." Daphne waved a hand. Seth and Jared looked over their shoulders to confirm she was in fact telling the truth, then turned back.

"I –"

"We'll do it!" Jared told her. "Come on, Seth, let's get this clear." He grabbed his friend by the shoulders and steered him away.

Daphne waited a little bit, trying to smother giggles at Ponytail and Sunglasses. They were nodding and smiling widely, not seeming to be paying much attention to what Velma was actually saying. She kept shifting back and forth from one foot to the other uncomfortably but kept at it with dogged determination. Daphne could almost see the thought of that book driving the entire conversation – whatever it really was. It didn't look like it was very eloquent if Velma's face was anything to go by. Finally they nodded vigorously one last time and went off to go join Seth and Jared in keeping the path clear.

Velma practically sprinted back to where Daphne was standing. "See, that wasn't so bad," the redhead chided. "I think they liked you."

"Feeling not mutual. That was the most painfully embarrassing thing I think I've ever had to do," she grumbled.

"But aren't you glad because now you're that much closer to getting that book," she sing-songed. Velma brightened. "Okay, now that the path is clear we can take the actual picture." Daphne checked the camera and adjusted the lens angle. "Make sure the subject is centered in the frame and there are no unwanted obstructions," she instructed. "Then all you have to do is take the picture!" She stepped away from the camera.

Velma bent to look through the viewfinder, then with almost tortuously protracted hesitancy reached up to press the button. Daphne felt as if she were watching this in slow motion. The camera whirred. Click!

"Okee-dokee!" Daphne grabbed the camera and checked the screen. "Nice! See, it turned out fine. Now just put all this stuff to practice with your lilies." Her mind was already back on that at-home spa day she'd planned for herself. Maybe she could set up a hot bath and turn on the jets in the tub.

"Um, Daph?"

Or maybe she'd better save that for last and treat herself to the rest of that facial.

"Daph."

Yeah, she could do that. And then she'd get Eunice to give her a manicure and a pedicure. Then –

"Daphne!"

She snapped out of her daydreaming. "What?"

"I still don't know what I'm going to do with the lilies," Velma said sheepishly. "And I need to get it done tomorrow because the next day's the deadline."

She groaned. That spa day was looking so much farther away.

oOo

Velma tried to keep up with Daphne's train of thought. "…so you can use these lilies here for the picture," Daphne was saying, tapping a picture cut out from a magazine. "Got all that?"

She slowly shook her head. "No entiendo, lo siento."

"Smarty-pants say what now?"

"I said, I don't understand, sorry."

"Oh. Okay. Then we'll just start over in slow-mo. So, what I was saying was, I had this idea that woke me up last night that was totally perfect for your lily picture but obviously you still need coaching. The idea was this candle-lit room (or just a low lamp, whatever) and the lilies all in a vase with a little kid looking down at them. But since we really don't have a little kid that we can use –"

"What about Madelyn?" she interrupted.

Daphne stared at her. "We are not using your little sister. That completely throws off my entire artistic mental image! Bear with me, wouldja?"

"Okay, okay. Just a thought."

"Stop thinking for a minute and listen. As I was saying, since we really don't have a little kid, we can use someone with childlike features and demeanor to get across that innocent feel."

"Did you have somebody specific in mind?" She tried to think of all the people she knew that acted like someone under the age of ten. She came up with about seven, the majority of them male. That could just be because boys tended to be a little less… Well, they were boys. What else was there to say?

"Yeahh," Daphne said slowly, "which is what I said earlier had you been listening. I think Shaggy would be absolutely perfect for it because when he's not gorging himself he has that little-kid-innocence air, y'know?"

Yep, he was one of them, even if he did rank a little higher in her eyes because it worked so well on him. "Okay, so how do we get him to do it? I'm not flirting again!" she added quickly, trying not to blush.

"No, that would ruin the natural-ness of the moment," Daph agreed. She started to breathe again when Daphne said cheerfully, "You're going to sneak into his room and take the picture when he isn't expecting it."

Her heart stopped. "Purple-dress say what now?"

"Hey, no copycatting. It sounded so much better when I said it, you know. Anyway, you're going to get his mom to let you hide in his bedroom with the lilies, then when he comes in and goes over to look at them you'll jump out and take the picture."

"And the escape plan?" By herself? In his bedroom? …his mom?

"What escape plan? You just run like crazy and pretend you don't know what he's talking about when he asks about it the next day." Daphne shrugged. "Always works for me."

"Yes, but not all of us can be you," she protested.

"Think of the boo-ook!"

The image of that beautiful, perfect first edition flashed before her eyes. She savored it for a moment, then groaned. "I hate blackmail."

"Great! So, anyway, you should use these, because they totally complement his skin tone and they look so soft and creamy." Daphne pointed again.

Velma looked at the picture. "Lilium brownii? Right. I can find those."

"No, these lilies. If you want brownies you go to the bakery," Daphne said as if she were an idiot.

She rolled her eyes. "Daph, the scientific name for the flower is Lilium brownii. Brownii, with two i's, not brownie with an 'ie'. It's also known as Brown's lily or Hong Kong lily."

Daphne smacked her to end the botany lesson before it really began. "I get it, I get it. Just use those flowers, okay?" She shoved the magazine clipping towards her. "You can use my digital camera, but I'm not helping you anymore because I totally deserve that spa day and I've put it off way too long. My nails are in a state of über disrepair! I look so neglected," she mourned.

"I'll just leave you to your little pity party then," Velma said sweetly, then ducked out of the purple room, narrowly avoiding beheading by pillow. On her way out she swiped the digital camera. Hopefully it was really the camera that gave Daphne perfect pictures and it would lend some magic to her.

That first edition had her name written all over it.

oOo

The bell rang overhead when Velma entered the florist's shop. "Welcome!" smiled a pleasant-featured older man. "How may I help you?"

"Hi," she began, "I'm looking for nine Hong Kong lilies?" She bit her tongue to keep from spouting off the Latin name just in case he was only a cashier and a little less botanically inclined.

"Live?"

"Yes." She refrained from saying that she usually bought her flowers dead.

"Hold on one moment please." He disappeared off to go find the flowers. While she waited she let her gaze wander over the various floral arrays. The smell of all those flowers mingling together was assaulting her olfactory senses, whereas the visual aspect made her feel… girly. The man returned. "We do have some in stock, but I'm afraid I can't sell you nine."

She thought she was having a heart attack. "What? Why not?" Don't panic, Velma, don't panic, don't panic, do not panic. Panicking is substantially less than beneficial to the situation, so just do not panic...

"We only sell in units of one, five, ten, fifteen or the kind," he apologized. "You can buy ten if you'd like."

"Can't you just sell me nine of the one units?" she protested.

"I'm afraid not; would you just like ten?"

"But I only need nine," she reiterated stubbornly.

"Ten is all I'm allowed to sell," he told her with a nervous little smile. She crossed her arms skeptically and acted as if she was about to leave. "I can give you a discount," he hurried to add, scared at the prospect of losing a potential customer.

"Mmm…I don't know… A discount isn't going to change the fact that I only need nine."

"Ten percent off," he pleaded.

She smiled. "Deal."

Five minutes later she was standing in the driveway of the Rogers' house contemplating what to do with the extra lily. It was too pretty to just throw away. She'd have to come up with a good use for it. Somehow.

With a lot of convincing and promising Mrs. Rogers that no, she really wasn't stalking Shaggy, it was for a project that had meaning to it and was not strictly personal, and no, she didn't plan on going through his underwear drawer and had no such intention to do so anywhere in the future near or otherwise, Shaggy's mother let her in and promised not to tell her son that Velma was there. She learned that he was at a Sandwich Club meeting which should be over in fifteen minutes. Taking into account his habit of being chronically late she calculated that she had approximately half an hour to get the lighting the way Daphne had instructed, set up the camera and the nine lilies, and figure out a useful purpose for that extra one.

She exhaled. Better get to work. "Please, Shaggy, do not let this be the one time you're early for something," she muttered under her breath as she smoothed out a petal. She hurried to turn the lamp on a low setting, silently thanking Mrs. Rogers for adoring three-way bulbs and letting them get dim, and pulled the blinds shut. Turning around she tripped over a stray shoe. Her legs flew out from under her, causing her to squeak in surprise. She scrambled off his bed and severely scolded herself for not seeing that shoe, though in reality she was trying to cover up the awkwardness of the whole situation. Finally the setting was done.

There. Perfect. Except for one thing.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she asked no one in particular, staring down at the last lily in her hand. It was a little bit smaller than the rest and the bloom drooped from the stem, as if it was apologizing in shame for being such a bother. Velma sighed. "Daphne would know what to do with you. Unfortunately for both of us I'm not Daphne, so you'll just have to sit somewhere quietly until this entire ordeal is over with." She thought a moment. "Actually, I still haven't thought of a good escape plan, so that can be your job." She opened the door and set it carefully down on the floor in the hallway. "Let me know if you think of anything." She had to smile to herself. At least that was comforting. Inanimate objects couldn't argue that she should think of it since she was the smart one and the one who was supposed to be doing the actual escaping anyway.

Just as she closed the door she heard a bell. Running over to the window and peeking out the blinds, she realized she was just in time. Shaggy was locking his bicycle and getting ready to come inside. Panic sped up her heart rate and lodged itself in her throat. What was she doing? This was crazy! She shouldn't have let Daphne talk her into doing this. Maybe she should just get out while she still could.

Too late to back out. Footsteps on the stairs and a muffled voice. "Like, Mom, did I forget something?" The response was too faint for her to make out what it was. She ducked behind the desk where she'd set the lilies. "Just wondering because there's some kind of flower outside my room." The door creaked on its way open. She forced herself to keep her eyes open and to keep from holding her breath. "Huh?" He sounded genuinely confused. His footsteps softly thumped over to the desk. "I've got to have forgotten something," he said to himself. "Like, maybe it's Mom and Dad's anniversary. It's not my birthday. At least, I don't think so…"

Now! Daphne's voice was screaming at her from inside her mind. Get up and take the picture now! Opportunity! Now now now!

Before she could change her mind she popped up and clicked the camera. She waited a second to check the screen – perfect. Now all she had to do was –

"Zoinks!" Shaggy yelped, jumping backwards. "Like, where'd you come from, Vel?" He tripped over the same shoe she had and tumbled back onto his bed, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Umm…outside?" she answered weakly. "Escape plan, anyone?" she asked under her breath. Too bad that extra lily hadn't really been able to help.

He seemed to be trying to make a connection. "Okay, I give up. What'd I forget?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I have to have forgotten something, because otherwise Mom wouldn't have like pretended she didn't know you were up here and you wouldn't have gotten flowers and stuff and…" His jaw slowly dropped. "Do you, like, have a crush on me?"

"No!" She was blushing furiously now, she knew it. "No, no, no and no!" Ignore the fact that you are standing in his room, she commanded herself, ignore everything except that you need to get out of here before the conversation gets any more awkward and you end up falling flat on your face. Literally if that shoe doesn't get picked up.

"Then why are you in here?" He held up the lily from the hallway. "With flowers?"

She scuffed her shoes on the carpet. "It's for this thing at the library," she started, feeling more uncomfortable than ever, "and I needed a picture…with nine lilies in it?"

"Aren't you missing one then since this one was out there?" He counted. "Wait, why did you get ten?"

"Because they wouldn't sell me nine singular units," she said bluntly.

"Oh." He crossed his legs under him to settle into a more relaxed position. "So you bought a bunch of flowers and snuck into my room with a camera because of some… thing at the library?"

"And took a lesson on photography from Daphne," she admitted. "And 'snuck' isn't a word. The proper form of grammar would be I 'sneaked' into your room."

"Like, colloquial usage," he grinned. "See, I can use big words too." Shaggy paused. "D'you mind me asking why it had to be in my room?"

"Daphne advised it," she said, then cringed. That was a pitiful excuse and sounded so much more logical in her head.

"She told you to sneak into my room with flowers."

"And take a picture."

He fell back against the pillow. "Wow. That's kinda…"

"Stalker-like behavior? I know," she hung her head.

"I was going to say interesting," he objected. "But yeah, stalker-ish is groovy too."

"Shaggy!" Mrs. Rogers called anxiously. "Is everything alright up there?"

"Yeah," he yelled back, raising one eyebrow at Velma. To her, he asked, "Is there, like, something else I should know about this visit? Mom doesn't usually get wound up about friends over."

She tactfully avoided answering that. "I should be getting home now, since my escape plan failed drastically, so if you're done with the interrogation…?"

"Right, I understand." He licked his lips. "Everybody should be home for dinner. Worldwide unwritten rule of the stomach that completely follows my mindset." Shaggy got up and handed her the lily with a smile.

Velma's heart skidded around, banging at her ribcage like an animal in an enclosure. "Ah-uh-er-thanks," she stuttered uncharacteristically. She suddenly realized she was twisting a lock of hair around her finger and slammed her hand to her side. He smelled like gingerbread.

Why did she notice that?

She began inching toward the door, eager to get out of there. She couldn't stand the feeling in the air, partially because she couldn't quite identify it. "I should probably be leaving now," she said again.

"You said that already."

"Right." Great, now she sounded like a broken record as well as an idiot too.

"Did you, like, want to take the rest of the flowers?" Without waiting for a response he scooped up the other nine. "I can carry them for you." He waited a moment. "Unless you're leaving them for me." He still thought she had a crush on him, she inwardly lamented. No, no, no screamed her mind.

"You can keep them if you'd like," she said, much more nonchalantly than her heart rate would have belied. She could practically feel it running in frantic circles with uncertainty of what to do.

"I bet your mom would like them."

So it was indirectly decided that he would walk her home. Wonderful. And the smell of gingerbread would be haunting her the whole way.

For some reason the two blocks to her own house were agonizingly longer than normal. She had a mental picture of Daphne laughing hysterically at how entirely the 'escape plan' had failed. Yes, very funny.

At least he didn't say anything the way there. That was a plus, she tried to assure herself. She kept glancing over self-consciously – to see if he was still there? She honestly couldn't have said why. If he saw he never let on.

On her porch he finally broke the silence. "Hope your library thingy goes well."

"Thanks." Excellent comeback, she told herself sarcastically. You sound so intelligent. He handed her the lilies, then kept leaning in. "What are you mmm– !"

Ohh…

…mmmahhhehhh…

…ohhh.

It vaguely registered that she'd dropped all ten of the lilies, but her knees felt so weak that she was more worried about dropping herself. This was… a new experience… definitely. His fingers gently massaged her head, making her force herself to suppress a moan. Her own fingers tangled themselves in his hair.

He pulled back much more slowly than was probably good for either of them. "I still say you have a crush on me." Then he turned and walked back down the driveway while whistling to himself.

She stared. "What… I… what?" Some part of her brain was indignantly protesting that was no way to explain possibly the world's best kiss and he should come back and give her the explanation she deserved. Finally she gathered enough sense back together to retrieve the flowers she'd dropped and go inside. Velma carried the lilies up to her room, carefully setting them on her nightstand. Now she just needed a vase. She turned around.

Madelyn stood in the doorway, arms crossed. "What were you doing?" she asked accusatorily.

"Working on my project for the library. Why?" She started to brush past her younger sister.

"Li-ar!" Madds sang. "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"What are you talking about? I was!"

"Velma and Shaggy, sitting in a tree! K-I – !"

"Madds!" She clapped a hand over Madelyn's mouth.

The younger girl worked around the obstruction to say, "Can I kiss him before you get married?"

"We're not – ! What are you talking about?" She was running out of excuses.

"He's your boyyy-friend."

She dove for the last resort. "Mom!"

Madelyn ran off to her own room, giggling in victory. Mrs. Dinkley came to the foot of the stairs. "Is everything alright up there, girls?"

"Fine!" Madelyn called back before Velma could answer. "Velma was just telling me about her new boyyyyy-friend!"

"You were?" Mrs. Dinkley sounded amused.

"No! I wasn't! And I don't have one!" she insisted.

"That's not what it loooooked like," Madelyn giggled from the safety of her own doorway.

Velma gave up and went downstairs. "Please tell me you believe me, Mom."

"Now, as a mother, how am I supposed to answer that?"

"…um, honestly would be nice."

"If I say no you'll get even more worked up, and if I say yes that's like saying I don't believe you're pretty enough to have one," Mrs. Dinkley pondered. "So, for all practical purposes, I think I'll tactfully avoid saying anything and continue making dinner."

"That's smart of you." She crouched down, opening the cabinet, and rummaged around for a vase. When she stood again, her mom glanced at her briefly.

"In looking at further evidence," she said, continuing her previous monologue, "it is beginning to appear that your rigorous denials were a sort of defense mechanism to disguise the truth from Madelyn, which I understand you would want to do since she enjoys teasing you."

She flinched. Sometimes, she reflected, having a mother who understands you and can speak a language you understand and use on a daily basis is significantly less than great. "Umm…"

"And your hesitancy could be due to the fact that you want to admit it but aren't sure how to phrase it, or that you feel guilty about it, in which case you should tell me who I need to go beat up." Mrs. Dinkley turned around with a sly smile. "Am I right?"

"Your terminology was slightly unprofessional, but…n…nnn…" Oh jinkies, she couldn't even get the word out. "Nnnn…ooo."

Mrs. Dinkley chuckled quietly. "If you insist. Go on. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes though, so don't take too long."

oOo

The next morning Daphne was waiting impatiently for her outside the library. "So? So? How'd it go?" she urged.

Velma considered. "I got the picture," she said tentatively.

"And? You got out of there okay?"

That was the problem. It had been awful until that section of time outside her house, then after it had been a different kind of awful. Madelyn hadn't shut up about it even at dinnertime, so now both parents knew. "Mmm… Well… That is…"

"He caught you?"

"Why do you sound so excited about that?" Her voice was a little sharper than she'd intended, but Daphne brushed it off.

"I'm asking, did he catch you?"

"…yes…"

"I knew it!" the redhead crowed. "Okay, so did you win?"

"I don't know. They announce the results on the tenth." She was still suspicious. "How did you 'know it'?"

"Shaggy was being all vague and mysterious about it when I asked if anything exciting happened yesterday," Daphne waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, let's go ask if they've decided the winner yet."

"What happened to you absolutely hating this project?" She hurried to open the door for her friend. "Not that I'm against you changing your mind, because it would be really really great to get that first edition – keeee, understatement of the year; I would probably faint," she admitted.

"I had my spa day. It's all good now. I'm rooting for ya!" They made their way to the front desk. "Hi," Daphne said brightly. "Have you decided the winners for the photography contest yet?"

The young man at the desk didn't look up. "No, ma'am; we don't come up with them until the t– whoa-ho-ho," he whistled, finally turning to look at them. More specifically, turning to look at Daphne. "Maybe I can get some results for you early," he grinned at Daphne. He got up and hurried into the back room.

Daphne smirked. "Full volume mascara and the classic eyelashes-bat. Works every time."

He returned shortly. "Alright, these are copies of the winners. One grand prize winner, three first place winners, ten second place winners." He shoved the papers towards them and sat back down.

Velma took the stack and retreated to a chair, Daphne close behind. "Did you win? Did you win?"

"Shhh!" Velma hissed.

"Sorry," Daphne mumbled meekly.

Together they flipped through the winners, second place first. "What is that even of?" Velma whisper-exclaimed.

"A tattoo," Daphne responded in disgust, "on some fat guy's stomach. How did that win?"

"Creativity points?"

Hers wasn't in the second place stack. The three first place winners were all equally lacking the real one they wanted to see. "That's so stupid," Daphne wrinkled her nose, "they bought those just so they could burn them for the picture?" She admitted that it did make a nice photographical effect, however.

Finally all that was left was the grand prize picture. The girls both crossed their fingers and held their breath, and Daphne slowly turned the page over.

"EEEEEE!" she squealed.

To be further continued...