Mystery Incorporated, the Untold Memories

Shaggy No. One: Twenty Roses and a Memory

He looked at her from his place in Ms. Wilkins class. She was new, moved up from two grades below his class. He wasn't sure what made her look so different from the other girls, she was still a girl after all and those things were lethal for a boy in the first grade. Especially a four year old girl carrying books bigger than her face. Still, he couldn't help but stare as she sat down just one row away next to Red Herring. She had short brunette curls that reached to her shoulders with a red bow in the back and he could see the black arms of her glasses clear against her pale skin. He couldn't really tell from where he was sitting, but he thought she had dark brown eyes underneath her glasses. She wore an orange dress with a long-sleeved red shirt underneath it with red knee high socks that led down to her very small black Mary Jane shoes.

He was so distracted by her, that he had no idea Ms. Wilkins had called his name to read the next question in their math book. His face grew red when he finally realized why everybody was so quiet and thanked the heavens above there was a set of windows towards the new girl's seat. He apologized and Ms. Wilkins smirked disapprovingly.

"Perhaps Ms. Dinkley would like to inform our friend what number we're on in the book?" He noticed the new girl's face go slightly red as she looked at the text.

"Number Nine, Ms. Wilkins."

"Thank you Velma. Now read us the question please, Norville." He nodded and his face was slowly regaining its normal color. He read the question and before the class could work on it, he bell rang announcing lunch and the kids steadily got up and formed two separate lines at the door after grabbing either lunch pales or money. Shaggy felt the red coming back to his face when he realized Velma was next to him in the girl's line.

He looked away and began thinking about ways to make it seem like he was indifferent to her when he'd meet up with his friends in the cafeteria. His indifference played out smoothly as they walked down the hall in their lines and he made it through the cafeteria line. His heart sank however when he walked into the lunch room and found Velma sitting at his table with his friends. They waved him over and he walked over nervously.

"Shaggy, this is Velma. Her parents moved her from Upper Coolsville." Daphne said. She was younger than them like Velma, but she was okay to hang out with because she started school early and they'd always known her anyways. Velma shyly waved to him.

"You're in my class, right?" Shaggy said, hoping he sounded like he'd just noticed her. She nodded.

"Velma's a cool name, and you seem nice. Want to come to the playground after school with us?" Fred said as munched away at his sandwich. "That's where we play Mystery every day when school's over."

"Yeah, you should come with us, it's tons of fun!" Daphne chimed in and Shaggy's heart sank.

"And just wait until you meet Scooby, he's Shaggy's puppy."

"So are you gonna come?" Velma looked at them all and gave a small little nod with the slightest smile on her face. Shaggy was right, she did have brown eyes.

"Great!" Fred said, directing Shaggy's attention away from Velma's eyes. "I play the leader and Daphne plays the damsel in distress -" Daphne punched Fred on the arm "I mean clue finder." She smiled and s he continued. "And Shaggy helps find the clues with Scooby. You can be the detective if you want, but just know the villain is always red herring."

"Is he a part of your group?" Velma asked.

"No, but I just know he's a real bad guy." Fred directed a fishy glance towards Red's table.

"Don't listen to Freddie, we just solve mysteries for fun and it's NEVER Red Herring." Velma smiled and Shaggy found himself doing the same. Something told him that maybe it wouldn't be so bad having the new kid in the gang.

Xx

Shaggy smiled fondly at the memory as he held the tattered old photograph in his hands. It was a class picture of Ms. Wilkins class. He placed it gently in his breast pocket and looked at the clock. It was time to visit her once again. He walked with the night air blowing swiftly into him. He was older and his days of solving mysteries with his friends were sadly behind him at age seventy. His graying hair was almost all but gone and all the food he had been eating his entire life had caught up to him a bit.

He pushed open a wrought iron gate and found depressingly that it was getting harder and harder each day to do so. He kept himself on the well worn path as the memory he had recalled was still fresh in his mind. He still found her peculiar in many ways, that Velma of theirs. She had always baffled him and he had a feeling she still would well past his dying day. She was always beautiful, smart and brave but if you dared tell her any of that she swiftly denied it in true modesty. He smiled when he thought that she still wore the same style of glasses he had seen her in the very first time they had met and still favored wearing orange sweaters and red jeans or a skirt above anything. He loved the normalcy of her and yet the very allusive way she lived.

He stopped for a moment and kneeled on the side of the road. He ignored the pain that immediately shot through his joints and reached into his pocket for his rose clippers. He brought her roses everyday and today would be no different. He clipped twenty fully bloomed roses and bound them with a silver ribbon from his pocket. He stood up and groaned slightly as the pain increased and dusted off his brown leggings. He placed the clippers back inside his pocket and continued down the worn out cobblestone road.

His thoughts turned to his family. They were older now too, the children he raised. Mary and Jane were both fifty now and yet it seemed like only a day or so ago they were begging to come along for the next mystery or climbing up on Scooby's back for a ride around the back-yard. He blinked these thoughts away though as he arrived at his destination.

He reached up and softly ran a hand through the hanging vine-like boughs of the willow tree he was standing under. He placed the roses down on the ground and blew her a kiss. She'd been gone for forty years now, forty long years and still she managed to make her presence clear everyday in his life. He smiled and whispered, "You weren't so bad after all."