Part Three "You don't need them because you are too smart to waste your time with them."

One of Norville's earliest memories was back in 1st grade when he was enrolled in what he liked to refer to as a school for the loaded beyond all belief. His parents must have figured that he needed to be with other kids that were cut from the same cloth as him.

He was only there a week and his teacher had already called his parents in to "express some concerns."

Mainly to discuss Norville's focus issues and how they should deal with that. It was in her professional opinion (as a 1st grade English teacher) that Norville had a form of ADHD and that they should schedule an appointment to get him diagnosed.

Although he had no idea what they were talking about, he still felt embarrassed about it.

Of course his parents made no comments, not to the teacher on his behalf or anything, not defending him even a little bit. They didn't even reassure him that hadn't done something wrong, which is the impression he was getting from everybody.

By the end of the hour he was feeling confused and worried that he had done something to disobey the teacher or his parents.

It didn't help when eventually his parents told him to go wait in the hallway and not move an inch. He was definitely in trouble that was for sure, but how was he supposed to be punished if he didn't even know what he did wrong. He stood outside of the door for a few minutes wondering what they were talking about.

Was something wrong with him?

Maybe he had a cold or something and had gotten all of the other kids sick.

In that case he could just promise them he'd never get sick ever again, that shouldn't be too hard.

"Hi!" A loud voice came from behind him and he responded with a hi pitched scream and squatted down, covering his head with his hands.

The voice sounded again, "Sorry, mommy tells me I'm too loud. But I don't know how to turn down my volume." Slowly, Norville turned around and was surprised to see one of the girls in his class.

He remembered her because she had a weird name like his.

She was always wearing really sparkly purple and pink dress to class and she would sometimes let the other girls in the class brush her short, fluffy, soft, red hair with the shiny hairbrush. She told everyone that it was "bejeweled," Norville had actually heard that word before. One time his mother had painted a portrait of him and then bejeweled the whole thing.

"Hey you're in my class! You're the really smart one!" He just blinked at her, not responding.

Smart?

"My name's Daphne but sometimes mommy calls me Baby because she likes to watch Dirty Dancing." She had come and squatted next to him, he still hadn't said anything back to her.

"I don't really like that movie though, I think the songs are so boring. One time I fell asleep and then when I woke up the whole house was dark and mommy had gone to bed and I was really scared." Her mouth seemed to be moving a mile a minute and her weird purple eyes sparkled with every word she said.

Norville didn't really know what to make of her.

So far he was gonna say he liked her.

"What's your name anyway?" He froze for a second before looking away from her and mumbling, "Norville." He felt his cheeks heat up, now she was gonna laugh and make fun of his weird name.

"That's a good name. Hey why's your hair so long?" He looked back over at her and saw her reach over and ruffle his hair.

"My mom doesn't trust hair cutters." Her eyes widened and she let out a gasp.

"Really!? Hair dresses are like my bestest friends. Besides our turtle, Moira. Oh and my grandmama's shaggy dog, Sinatra. And then there's mommy's pizza maker and then right after that is you."

He perked up, "I'm your best friend?"

She giggled and shook her head, "No you're my 5th best friend, but you're my only best friend that's a person. Hey you look a lot like my grandmama's dog!" His eyes widened.

"Really?! I look like a dog?" He felt very proud of himself.

She nodded quickly, "You even have the same haircut. Hey why're you here after school's done?" She ruffled his hair again and looked around for his parents.

"Are you lost little puppy?" He groaned, he just remembered he was in trouble.

Daphne gave him a look of concern and he felt bad for making her feel that way, "I think I'm gonna get grounded."

Her eyes widened again, "What did you do!?"

He looked back at the door in front of them, "I think had a weird cold and gave it to everyone in the class."

She smiled at him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Shaggy that's the same reason I'm here too!" Those eyes seemed to always be set to stun. He looked at her sadly, "R-Really?" So they both got the whole class sick. She nodded quickly, "Mommy's yelling at the teachers for saying I had ADHD."

"Tha-That's what the teacher said I had! What does it mean?" Daphne smiled again and shrugged, "I don't know but mommy tells me I don't have it. She told me I'm just six years old and always hopped up on caffeine because she gives me her coffee."

He sighed, he didn't really know what any of that meant.

"I'm sure it's not a bad thing Shaggy, I don't think people get in trouble for being sick. Unless you barf on mommy's good rug, then you're not allowed in the blue room until you're 10."

She was still rambling on but he had stopped listening, if what Daphne said was true then he was gonna be just fine.

"Anyway I don't think you need to worry Shaggy and you're really smart so who cares if you are sick?" She patted him on the back a little harder than she needed to but he still sent her a smile.

After that they just sat in silence for a few minutes.

It wasn't a weird silence, they just chose not to say anything. And neither of them seemed to mind, they just sat and smiled at each other.

The quiet was eventually ended by someone screaming, "DAPHNE WE'RE LEAVING RIGHT NOW!" The both looked down the hallway to see a tall woman with long red hair.

Daphne stood up quickly and said, "That's my mommy I gotta go." She leaned down and gave him a hug, "I'll see you tomorrow." With that, she stood straight up and began to skip back toward the tall woman. But then stopped and turned back, then she smiled and yelled, "I'm gonna call you Shaggy from now on okay?!"

It didn't even take him a second to respond, "Okay!"

Her eyes sparkled again and she continued skipping down the hall where she joined her mom and they both turned the corner.

He stared at the end of the hallway for a bit, he liked Daphne. She thought he was smart and didn't make fun of his name. And she was really weird so he liked that.

Even though he was looking forward to playing with her tomorrow he didn't realize that he wouldn't see Daphne again until the first day of middle school 5 years later.

A gust of cold wind blew through the trees, causing a chill to run up everyone's spines.

"Uh, like, you're absolutely 100% no questions asked certain that the horrifying creature that beheads teenagers for fun is in those terrifying, dark and mysterious woods which have optimal hiding places in every nook and cranny?!" Shaggy was waving his hands out and gesturing towards "Lot's of Dead Kids Were Found Here Please Do Us a Favor and Not Ever Go In Here Forest."

Or "Kindling Forest" for short.

Velma rolled her eyes at his obvious distaste in their plan, "Shaggy, I am 200% certain this is where we'll find the Headless Beheader."

Daphne let out a little snort, ever since they had learned his name she couldn't keep a straight face when it was said. Which made Shaggy feel a little better because Daph's laugh was always entertaining.

He let out a nervous chuckle, "Like I was afraid you were gonna say that. Lemme guess, now you're gonna send Scoob and I into certain death where I will once again get a good ten years shaved off of my life span. And maybe even my head because we're chasing after the fucking Headless Beheader!"

Scooby nodded in agreement, his eyebrows furrowed.

Daph snorted again and none of the gang could resist smiling in response.

Fred looked over at Scooby then said, "Actually this time Scooby is with Velma and I." Shaggy's smile faded, "You're gonna pull Scoob out of the life-threatening danger?" He ignored the smug look Scoob was sending him as he trotted over next to Freddie.

Velma responded, "Quite the opposite actually, Scooby has the criminal's scent so he, Fred and I are gonna go in the front and track him." Scooby's ears drooped and he started to whine, "Meanwhile Shaggy and Daphne will be near the Sinatra trail at the back."

Him and Daph exchanged quick glances and then looked back at Velms.

Things had started to be kinda weird between them since the prom a while back, and they were sure Fred and Velma had picked up on it. Much to Daph's horror.

They didn't really know why things had gotten weird, they knew they were both just friends and everyone knew Daph was just batty for Fred. And Daphne wasn't exactly sure how she could be stark raving bonkers for one guy, but have this new accidentally awkward exchange with another guy.

Shag wasn't really sure how to address it, he knew that Daphne was already in love and had been for a long time.

He knew they were always gonna be just friends, and yet the weirdness was still there. Ever since she had wrapped her arm around him at the dance things just felt different, even though they shouldn't have. Just friends can dance with each other all the time, maybe they were just over thinking it

"Because this forest has amazing cell reception we will not be using Fred's walkie talkie idea." Fred groaned and rolled his eyes, he still stood by that plan that was for sure.

"When Scooby gets hold of the location of the culprit we'll call you and tell you where to go in order to corner him." She then walked over and handed them both tasers, "For some reason Freddie has police grade tasers in the Mystery Machine, I don't condone it but it's better to be safe than sorry. Please don't be afraid to defend your lives."

Shaggy gulped, pulling the trigger of anything wasn't his strong suit since he was too busy being totally frozen in place or running for his life.

But now he had Daph with him and she was capable of taking out any form of ghoul, so he was less worried about his livelihood at the moment.

Velma quickly finished briefing them, "The police will be alerted once we've found him and it should take them a maximum of 10 minutes to find us, so we need to make sure to keep him out in the open til then. That's about it, any questions?"

Daphne raised her hand, Velma rolled her eyes and pointed at her, "Could you please say Headless Beheader before we go?"

Velma groaned but there was a smile on her face, "Headless Beheader."

Daph let out that lovely, weird laugh as she and Shaggy began to make their way to the trail.

They had been leaning on the sign to the trail for about 6 minutes, nothing had happened.

Well except the leaf that fell on Shag's head which sent him in a panic that Daph quickly ended by grabbing his hand then reaching up and pulling the leaf off his head. She had meant to tease him about it but then realized she was holding his hand.

Then she totally forgot what she was planning on saying to him.

This had started a silence, not the mutual silence they both enjoyed but a terrible awkward silence.

Shag had no idea what to say, he couldn't just brush it off doing that always made girls angry, at least it made Velma angry. He wasn't totally sure what made Daphne angry, besides getting her feet dirty and Fred being totally clueless.

And Dirty Dancing, she hated that movie with a grand passion.

He looked over at her, she was currently playing with the assortment of rings on her finger. She was probably worrying about whether she'd break a bunch of them again.

The more violent their adversaries got, the more rings Daphne ended up breaking.

She would always make sure that the culprits they had caught would pay for the rings they were responsible for destroying.

"You good Shag?" She looked over to him, their eyes meeting.

He quickly looked out into the vast expanse of trees in front of them, "Like, I guess I'm fine for now. Just waiting to be struck by paralyzing horror and a wave of nightmares about some maniac called the Headless Beheader."

She tried to silence her laugh but it didn't fool him.

"Well if your hands start-"

"Daph I'm fine, honestly I'm just peachy keen okay?"

She looked down at his hands and then back at him, he knew that she had started always checking his hands before they went after their mask.

Of course he had no idea why she suddenly cared that much.

But then again things were weird right now so that might just be part of the weirdness.

"Okay...just-" She was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.

"Oh thank the Lord Almighty, like I thought they had already been beheaded." Daphne glared at him and answered the phone.

"Hello? Hi Velma did you- what? Velms I can't-" She began to move around Shag, probably trying to find a clearer area for better reception. After a minute of struggling to discern what Velms was saying she took the phone away from her ear.

Her face was gray, and when Daph was nervous it was enough to make Shaggy regret all his life decisions.

"I-she-they-I lost her."

Shag groaned and his breathing picked up along with his heartbeat. He wanted to make a run for it, they would have time to make it to the Mystery Machine and then they could call the cops, or the CIA or better yet just bring in the whole military.

But as soon as he saw Daph start making her way to the east side of the forest, to the area Velma had instructed to go to, he felt his feet move and their own and soon he was speed walking right next to her.

"So, Daph do you actually know what we're doing?" His voice was quivering and every bone in his body was telling him to get the fuck outta there.

"Velma's connection may have been mega spotty, but she did give the name of the trail we needed to be at." He sighed, amazing cell reception my ass. There went his delightfully awkward but safe time at the back of the dead teenager forest.

They picked up the pace per Daphne's request.

"Velms was also trying to warn me about something else." She said this as she began to walk even faster. Shaggy sighed, "Oh God of course she was." He chuckled nervously and sped up so he was next to her.

Daph was looking straight ahead, trying to spot the sign pointing them to the right trail.

"Yeah she was saying something about him setting stuff, again the signal was so bad it wasn't even funny. Like even with my fresh off the shelves brand new phone with all the latest in bells and whistles I couldn't make out what Vel-"

Her voice was immediately silenced and after a couple seconds Shag realized she had stopped in her tracks.

He turned around and saw her standing perfectly still, the blood seemed to drain from her face completely. "Daph what's-" He followed her eyes and looked down toward her right foot, which she seemed to be putting as little pressure on as she could.

Quickly he ran over and got on his knees, brushing away the leaves as gently as he could.

His breath hitched as he saw what he was praying he didn't see, a shiny, new bear trap. And it looked ready to chomp into Daph's tough and perfect leg. Shag felt the panic setting in and his breathing quickly picked up, he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

Daph saw his distress, "Hey hey hey! Shag don't look at that, um-uh j-just look at me okay?"

His eyes were on her's instantly and the calming purple helped him catch his breath again. She waited for him to get a grip on his senses before saying, "Shaggy, you're the one who helps Freddie the most when he sets up his traps right?" He nodded slowly in response, he saw where this was going.

"S-So you've seen traps like this all the time. Um- I need you to breath evenly and help me out okay?" He nodded again, he couldn't sit there and let Daph's leg get chomped that was for sure.

He took a long, deep breath and looked back down at the trap.

Then he made his observations, "The bad news is the beheading psychopath peeled off the directions to disarm it, so I have no specific idea on how to prevent your angel leg from being bit off."

She smiled at him, he felt a lot more sure of himself now that she was listening.

"But, like, the good news is that your perfect angel leg hasn't been ripped to shreds so that probably means they didn't set it up right. So our beheading psychopath is a trapping moron." She giggled in response and her smile grew brighter, but he could see tears shining in the corners of her eyes.

He continued to stare at the trap, still not sure what the best course of action was.

He sighed, "L-Look Daph I'm sorry, I-I know you'd rather have Fred here, he'd know how to disarm it in a second and we both wouldn't be scared out of our damn minds."

She scoffed in response, "BS, If Freddie were here he wouldn't even look at me, much less figure out that I am terrified beyond all belief. No he would spend the whole time admiring the trap, and totally forget that I was trapped in it."

He heard her let out a low groan, while he wanted to say that she was wrong and that Fred wouldn't waste anytime in saving her, he couldn't.

Fred was a lot of good things but tactful was not one of them.

"Honestly I'm happy it's you and not Fred. You may underestimate yourself, but I've seen your report cards. I know that you're a big ol' smartie pants!" He rolled his eyes, "Do good grades make me smart? Like, they don't exactly do much when it comes to our terrible, but inescapable lifestyle. do they?"

She replied by rolling her eyes and smiling.

He added on hastily, "Besides it's not like you're one to talk. I mean does Fred know about your straight A's since middle school?"

Her avoiding eye contact and beet red face answered his question.

Sometimes Daphne was able to render him breathless, and even though she was doomed at the moment, the gray light shining through the tree tops and onto her made her look just like an angel.

He realized he was staring at her while she was probably stressing her mind out, so he tore his gaze away and fixed it back on the leg chomper.

After a minute of brain wracking he came up with a plan.

He looked back up at her and found her staring intently at him, "Okay Daph, I think I have an idea of what to do."

She nodded rapidly and bit her lip.

Taking a deep breath, he continued, "When I say go you're gonna need to like, uh- throw yourself backwards. But in a diagonal direction." She nodded again her breathing seemed to speed up.

He stared intently at the pin that he needed to pull in order for the trap to disarm.

"Go!" He pulled on the pin and heard a clicking sound.

Before he could process it, Daph had crashed into him. He quickly stood up and she wrapped her arm around his shoulder, he then dragged her as far away from the trap as he could.

They both watched as the trap snapped shut, not ever going to know what Daph's leg would taste like.

Thank God.

For a few seconds they just sat there breathing heavily and staring at the trap, Daph's arm not leaving his shoulder.

"Wha-Why the hell did you jump on me?!" She didn't respond for a couple seconds then said, "I-I forgot which direction backwards was, seeing as I was in a state of ultimate terror."

That was a good enough answer for him.

"11 years later and you're still sharper than any bear trap in existence." He chuckled and he once again heard that amazing laugh.

After another minute of them not moving they heard shuffling coming from the woods.

Shaggy was done, he was 100% ready to ditch his friends and make a run for the van. The police could take care of the rest, they didn't need him to catch a creature from the 7th circle of hell that wanted his head.

But Daphne held on tightly to him and he wasn't able to run.

Out ran Fred, all sweaty and panting like he'd run a marathon.

"I...huh...finally found you two...hooo. Velms...sent me to...agh. to-um let you know...oh God...that we caught the guy. Well, Velma got him, she got him right in the back of the neck. I'm weirdly proud of her you know? Anyway we need to get back and and brief the police, who should be here in 5 minutes. I'll explain the solution on the way come o- hey is that a Rowhouse 1st addition bear trap?! Oh man you can't even get those in America legally anymore, this guy is on a whole other level of genius right?"

He stared at them expectantly.

They looked at each other and Daph gave him a look that said, "See what I'm sayin?" before they both looked back at him and scowled.