Sponge: I. Love. College. My wilderness trip was flipping awesome, but I learned that I never want to go canoeing ever again. The first few days of college orientation have been pretty hectic, but I've managed to find time to update! Anyway, congratulations to AudreyMetalMouth and XxLadyStrengthxX for winning this round of the contest! "Bad Reputation" is a song by Joan Jett. Enjoy chapter 8! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters – they belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera.
Chapter 8: Loser
"Whoa! Who drew the creepy picture of Lewis Jacobson?"
That voice came from behind the gang. They turned around to find Tony Moretti standing behind them.
"Tony?" Fred was confused. "What are you doing here? You're not in this homeroom."
"And how do you know this guy?" Daphne asked.
"What did you say his name was?" Velma chimed in.
Tony laughed. "One question at a time guys!" He turned to Velma. "His name is Lewis Jacobson." Then, to Daphne, "I've seen him around school." And finally, to Fred, "I had to use the bathroom and on my way back to class, this guy" he pointed to the drawing "stopped me and asked me to deliver a note to Mr. Aiken. Okay, I've answered your questions, now someone answer mine!" He gave them a lopsided grin.
"Like, I drew it," Shaggy admitted.
"You're pretty good, Rogers," Tony said. "You gonna join the art club?"
"I don't know. Like, I was thinking about it," Shaggy told him.
"Well, I definitely think you should. You've got talent. That looks just like him," Tony said.
"How did you say you knew him again, Tony?" asked Fred.
"I ran into him on the first day back from winter break," Tony explained. "I was on my way to lunch when I saw someone sneak into the basement. I knew there weren't any sophomore study halls that period, so I was kinda curious. I followed the guy down there and found him snooping through one of the old empty classrooms. I asked him what he was doing down there and who he was. 'Lewis Jacobson,' he said his name was. 'I'm a janitor.' Only…he wasn't dressed like one. He was dressed…you know. Normally. Then he told me to get to class. And then today I ran into him on my way back from the toilet and he asked if I knew where Mr. Aiken's room was. 'Sure I do,' I said, so he asked me to take this note to him. And then I saw him heading for the basement again."
"Like, I ran into him in the basement, too," Shaggy chimed in.
"That doesn't make any sense," Fred stated. "He works as a janitor at City Hall. Why would he suddenly change jobs?"
"The school is short staffed for janitors," Daphne reminded him. To Shaggy, she said, "Before winter break, a bunch of the custodians went on strike. The administrators wouldn't explain why, though."
"Pretty suspicious, if you ask me," Fred said.
Another suspicious thing was how quiet Velma was being. Shaggy looked over to the smaller girl to see why she wasn't saying anything. She was staring at Mr. Aiken, who seemed flustered and was hastily shoving a folded up piece of paper into the pocket of his shirt. Suddenly the bell rang and everyone headed out of the classroom.
"Dinks, Jonesy, I'll see you guys in chem, huh?" Tony said with a grin. "Rogers, I'll see you in history."
"Like, right," Shaggy said.
"I'll see you in algebra, Shaggy," Daphne said to the tall skinny boy. "I'll see you in French, Freddie."
"Hey Fred," Velma murmured once Tony and Daphne were out of sight. "What's your next period?
"World history," Fred replied.
"Is your history class going to the library today?" asked Velma.
"I think so. Why?" he wondered.
"Do some research on Lewis Jacobson," Velma said. "I want to find out what he's doing in the school."
"You got it, Velm." With that, Fred turned down the hall.
"Let's walk to Spanish together, Shag," Velma whispered, taking his elbow. "I need to talk to you."
"Like…about what?" Shaggy was confused. He and the younger girl hurried down the hall and up the stairs to Spanish.
"Did you see Mr. Aiken?" asked Velma.
"Like, not really. I saw him put a piece of paper in his shirt pocket. Was that like, the note that Tony gave him from Lewis Jacobson?"
"Yes," Velma replied. "Did you see him reading it?"
"Like…no."
"He opened it, his eyes got wide and seemed really flustered when he finished," Velma said. "It was extremely strange."
"Like, why's it strange?" Shaggy wanted to know.
"Because Mr. Aiken doesn't get flustered, Shaggy! He's as cool as a cucumber!" They had arrived at Sra. Rodriguez's room and sat down in their seats. "I want to know what that note says."
x.X.x
Meanwhile, Fred's world history class was heading to the library to do some research for an upcoming project. Instead of looking up information on British parliament, Fred did some research on Lewis Jacobson, as Velma had asked him. He thought it was extremely suspicious that both Shaggy and Tony had seen the man that cleaned the floors at City Hall in the school basement and that Velma had seen him in the woods behind her house. The same woods, he remembered, where the Wendigo allegedly lived.
Fred found nothing on Lewis Jacobson, so he signed into oovoo. Sometimes his father went online during the day when he wasn't busy.
Luckily, his father was on oovoo. Since the school computers didn't have webcams (and Fred didn't want to talk out loud in the school library when he was supposed to be doing research anyway), he began a text chat.
trapmasterfreddie: hey dad! do you have a few minutes?
Fred_Jones_Senior: Fred? What are you doing online? Shouldn't you be in school?
trapmasterfreddie: i am at school but i have a question.
Fred_Jones_Senior: I don't have time Fred, I'm very busy. And you should be doing your schoolwork! I know that you're supposed to be doing something else right now. I have a feeling.
trapmasterfreddie: dad remember that janitor who worked at city hall? lewis jacobson? when did he quit and start working at coolsville high?
Fred_Jones_Senior: What are you talking about, son? Lewis Jacobson still works at City Hall. Now I have to get back to work and you have to get back to school! I'll talk to you when I get home.
Fred_Jones_Senior has signed off.
Fred stared at the computer, dumbfounded. If Lewis Jacobson still worked at City Hall, then why had he been in the Coolsville High School basement? In his street clothes? Unless he wasn't at Coolsville High as a janitor. But then, why had he introduced himself as a janitor to Tony? Did it have something to do with the custodian strike? Fred suddenly got a crazy thought.
He whipped out his cellphone and sneakily sent Daphne a text message.
hey daph, see if you can find anything out about the janitors strike during 1 and 2 pd. it may have something to do with the mystery of the wendigo.
He, on the other hand, decided to obey his father and try to get some schoolwork done. Maybe if he did well on his project, he might raise his grade to something above a C minus.
x.X.x
Daphne and her lab partner, Ellie Flanders, were testing certain chemicals on PH strips to figure out if the chemical was an acid or a base, when suddenly her phone vibrated in her pocket. Stealthily, she took a peek and saw that it was a text from Fred. They had exchanged phone numbers the previous day when they dropped Velma off at her house.
I just saw him like, fifteen minutes ago, Daphne thought to herself. What could be so important? Secretly, she was glad she was getting a text from him, although she would have never admitted it to anybody.
hey daph, see if you can find anything out about the janitors strike during 1 and 2 pd. it may have something to do with the mystery of the wendigo.
Daphne furrowed her brow. What could the janitor's strike possibly have to do with the mystery of the Wendigo? And how was she supposed to do research in the first place? She had chemistry and algebra first and second period. There was no way she could do research.
Unless…
Daphne peeked at her lab partner, who was watching as the PH strip turned pink. Of course! Ellie Flanders' mother was on the school board. Surely she'd know something about the janitor's strike.
I'll see what I can do, was Daphne's response. Once she shut her phone, she turned to the brown-haired girl standing next to her.
x.X.x
"I think that during lunch today," Velma said to Shaggy when they hit a lull in class, "you, Freddie, Daphne and I should go back to Mr. Aiken's room and see if we can sneak a peek at that note. It may be an important clue."
"Like, I don't know, Velm," Shaggy hedged. "I like, promised Scooby Doo he could eat with us again."
"We'll take him along," Velma said. "I bet he could sniff out the note so we could find it faster."
"Like, what exactly do you think will be in the note?" Shaggy couldn't exactly grasp what Velma hoped to find.
"I just think it's suspicious that Lewis Jacobson showed up in the school basement and in the woods behind my house and had a note for our homeroom teacher that made him nervous," Velma said. "I want to know why it made him so nervous."
It was already making Shaggy pretty nervous. When the bell rang, he and Velma headed out and ran smack into Daphne, coming from chemistry.
"You guys will never believe what I found out about the janitor's strike," she said exuberantly.
"What?" asked Shaggy and Velma.
"I talked to Ellie Flanders during chem today," she explained. "Ellie's mom is on the school board, you know? So I decided to ask her about the janitor's strike because Freddie thinks it might have something to do with the Wendigo."
"Wait…what?" Velma didn't see Fred's logic.
"That's what I said, but Freddie may not be far off. Ellie couldn't tell me much, but she did tell me that the strike happened all over the city, not just in schools. The place it originated from was actually some real estate agency."
"Like hold on," Shaggy held up his hands as he remembered something. "Like, Paul Reynolds was a real estate agent, wasn't he?"
"Exactly! Ellie said that it was his agency that started the strike."
"That's pretty suspicious," Velma said. "Just a month or two after Reynolds disappears, his custodians begin a city-wide strike?" She furrowed her brow. "It seems like it should add up somehow, but I can't make sense of it." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "We should get to our next classes. I'll see Fred in chemistry and I'll ask him what he found out about Lewis Jacobson. Shaggy, you tell Daphne our lunch plan."
"What's the lunch plan?" asked Daphne confusedly as Velma took off down the hallway.
"Velma wants you, me, her, Fred and Scooby Doo to like, sneak back into Mr. Aiken's classroom and look at the note that Lewis Jacobson had Tony deliver. She thinks that it like, might have something to do with this too," Shaggy explained, hoping that Daphne would decline.
Instead, she arched an eyebrow. "That's actually a pretty good idea. I noticed that Mr. Aiken seemed anxious when he put the note away. I'd like to see what made him so nervous."
x.X.x
"I don't understand," Velma said to Fred. She had just finished describing "the lunch plan" and he and just finished describing his conversation with his father. They were speaking quietly because their respective lab partners (Tony Moretti was Velma's and Maureen Fischer was Fred's) were nearby. "How could Lewis Jacobson be working at both City Hall and the school?"
"Unless," Fred pointed out. "He wasn't actually working at the school. He was just…visiting."
"Why would he visit the basement, though?" wondered Velma. "That's the mystery."
"Hey Dinks, you gonna help me with this PH strip or what?" asked Tony teasingly. Velma looked back to Fred.
"I guess we'll talk more later," she said as she headed over to Tony. "Don't forget that we're snooping in Mr. Aiken's room during lunch." Velma tried to focus on chemistry. But thoughts of Lewis Jacobson, his mysterious note to Mr. Aiken, and the janitor's strike swam through her mind for the rest of the period.
Fred was lost in thought about these things as well, until Maureen Fischer took his thoughts elsewhere.
"Did you know that Daphne Blake is a closeted lesbian?" she asked him. He stared at her as if broccoli had begun sprouting from her ears. "I'm serious. She has a thing for Velma Dinkley."
"…Maureen, that's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard," Fred said.
"Why else do you think she's never said yes when you asked her out?" Maureen said. "I mean, any girl in her right mind would jump at the chance to date you." She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "I don't think you deserve a girl like Blake anyway. She's a loser. You deserve someone…better. Someone prettier." She touched his hand but Fred jerked it away. Maureen scowled and muttered "Idiot" under her breath, but Fred didn't hear her. He was still trying to process all this.
It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be. He knew that Daphne had dated several boys. And Daphne never acted like she had a crush on Velma.
But Fred remembered the previous day at the malt shop, when he'd completely missed the fact that Velma's sister Madelyn had a crush on Shaggy. "You've still got a little to learn about girls," Daphne had said.
Could it be possible that he'd missed this, too?
x.X.x
Daphne left Shaggy and headed for French, determined to talk to Fred about what she'd learned about the janitor's strike. But for once, he wouldn't talk to her. He sat beside her and glumly stared into space.
"Freddie," she finally said about halfway through the period. "What's the matter?"
"Do you like Velma?" he asked her bluntly.
Daphne blinked, surprised by his question. "Uh, yeah. I mean, I think she's a really nice person and she's very smart and I think she and I could become good friends. Why?"
"Is that all you think you two could become?" Fred asked, dreading the answer.
"Fred, what are you trying to ask?" Suddenly Daphne remembered Wednesday's gym class and it hit her. "Oh no. Have you been talking to Maureen Fischer?"
"She's my chemistry lab partner," Fred confessed.
"What did she say to you?" asked Daphne.
"She told me that…you and Velma…" he didn't want to finish the sentence. It was still too horrible to believe. Daphne took several deep breaths.
Awesome, she thought sarcastically. Maureen is trying to convince people that I'm a lesbian. She sighed and put her hand on Freddie's.
"Maureen is only saying that because she wants you for herself," Daphne told him. "I'm sure of it. It's not true. I like boys. So does Velma," she added as an afterthought. "Maureen's only saying it because I stuck up for Velma last gym class." Fred looked sideways at her.
"Really?" he asked. "But at the malt shop…I had no idea that Madelyn liked Shaggy. It flew over my head. I thought this flew over my head, too."
"Well I won't pretend like things don't fly over your head," Daphne grinned slyly, remembering the previous night when she and Scooby had noticed Velma and Shaggy blushing at each other, but Fred didn't notice anything. "But you're pretty good at figuring out other things. I mean, you had a good hunch about Lewis Jacobson being connected to the janitor's strike."
"I did?" Fred looked directly at Daphne now. "What did you find out?"
Bit by bit, Daphne told Fred about her conversation with Ellie in chemistry. When she was finished, Fred smiled.
"We should pay Mrs. Reynolds another visit," he said. "See if she knows anything about that."
"Good idea, Freddie," Daphne replied with a smile of her own. She noticed that her hand was still on Fred's. Blushing, she removed it just as the bell rang.
x.X.x
Daphne caught up with Velma outside of the girl's locker room and snagged her before they went in.
"Watch out," she warned her. "Maureen Fischer is spreading rumors that you and I are secret lesbian lovers."
Velma groaned. "I'm sorry, Daph."
"It's not your fault," Daphne told her. "Besides, if she tries anything again, I'll teach her another lesson." Daphne cracked her knuckles, a sound which always made Velma shudder.
"Daphne, I don't want you going to detention on my behalf again," she tried to dissuade the girl. "Let me deal with Maureen. I probably couldn't beat her up as well as you, but I could do some damage."
Daphne laughed. "How about neither of us beat her up and if she accuses us of being lesbians, we just run over and kiss Shaggy and Fred?" She'd been kidding, but she went red at her own suggestion anyway.
Velma blushed at that, but when she noticed that Daphne was blushing too, she eyed the other girl suspiciously.
"How are things between you and Fred?" Velma asked. "You seem to be getting along with him better."
"Yeah well…" Daphne's eyes darted, trying to think of a way to escape having to explain her sudden attraction to Fred Jones. "Oh wow, uh, look at the time! We better get into our gym clothes, huh? We're gonna be late." With an awkward smile, she dashed into the locker room. Grinning slyly to herself, Velma followed her in.
Meanwhile, Fred was filling Shaggy in on the plans for after school.
"Like, oh boy," Shaggy sighed. He didn't want to go back to the Reynolds' house. He didn't even want to snoop around in Mr. Aiken's classroom during lunch. He really wanted a smoke. Or a sandwich. A sandwich is probably healthier, he decided. Besides, I like, don't have any more pot. AND, besides, I'm going to quit.
He'd come up with that decision the previous evening, after the big blowout he'd had with his mother. He hated the fact that she disapproved of his friends (even though her suspicions about Brannen had been correct).
When he and Fred left the locker room, they found Daphne and Velma waiting for them.
"Hey, did you know that Velma's not a lesbian?" Fred asked Shaggy quietly.
Shaggy stared at Fred for a moment. That statement had come completely out of left field. "Um…like…did people think she was?"
"Oh yeah. Sometimes I forget that you're new," Fred chuckled. "People have believed that she's a lesbian since like, eighth grade. Last year when we were in ninth grade she went out with Tony Moretti, but everyone could tell there was no chemistry, so people just assumed she liked girls." He sighed. "I guess it was wrong of us, but she never dated any guys other than Tony."
Shaggy was trying to absorb so many things at once. People thought Velma was a lesbian? Was she? And…she'd gone out with Tony Moretti?
"I've got it on good authority that Velma is straight, though," Fred babbled on. "I think she and Daph are becoming pretty good friends."
"Like, how long did she and Tony go out for?" asked Shaggy.
"Pretty much all year. They went to the homecoming dance together – that's how it started – and then they broke up around Memorial Day. They're still really good friends," Fred told him. They had reached the girls by now and stopped talking. But Shaggy was still stuck in his mind.
"Have you ever liked a girl so much that the thought of her dating some other guy made you crazy?" Fred's words from the first day of school crept into Shaggy's mind but he immediately pushed them out. He certainly liked Velma, there was no use denying that. But…did he really like her that much? He glanced over at her and she grinned when he caught her eye. He felt his heart do somersaults and his face catch fire, and he turned his gaze to the ground.
"So gang," Velma said in a murmur. "Don't forget that during lunch we're going to search Mr. Aiken's room. Shaggy, is Scooby good at finding things with his nose?"
Shaggy found his voice again. "Like, yeah. He's great at sniffing things out."
"I'm just worried about one thing," Daphne said. "How can we be sure that Mr. Aiken won't lock his door?"
"Well like, if he does lock it, Scooby Doo is the best lock picker I've ever known," Shaggy heard himself say. Why did I say that? he shouted in his head. Like, I don't want to snoop in Mr. Aiken's classroom!
Suddenly, a snooty-sounding voice interrupted them.
"Well, well, well. Check this out, girls. It's the Loser Geek Squad." The gang looked up to find Maureen and her minions, Rachael and Phoebe standing not too far away. Daphne rolled her eyes. They didn't have time for Maureen right now.
"You've got some nerve, you know?" Daphne said. "Starting up rumors like that."
"Yeah, Maureen," Fred chimed in. "I'll have you know that Daphne and Velma are both straight!"
"Thank you, Fred," Velma said with a small groan.
"Shows how much you know, Fred Jones," Maureen sneered. "You don't know shit about any of these people!"
"How much do you know about us, Maureen?" Daphne shot back.
"You," Maureen began, pointing at Daphne, "are a danger-prone drama queen! She" (Maureen now pointed at Velma) "is an awkward loser geek, and he" (now she pointed at Shaggy) "is a fucking pothead hippie!"
Shaggy felt his face blanche as the others swiveled their heads around to look at him. How the hell had Maureen known…?
"Like, no I'm not," he said. This was true. He had never been a pothead. Sure, he'd smoked it a couple times, but he'd never been as stoned as Brannen. And besides, he was quitting.
"Oh, don't even try," Maureen scoffed. "I saw you the other day. You were smoking during study hall, in one of the empty classrooms in the basement. Don't even think about lying to me, friggen California boy!"
BAM!
The next thing anyone knew, Maureen was sprawled on the ground with blood pouring from her nose. Velma stood above her, fist clenched, eyes angry. Everyone gawked at her, not quite believing what they were seeing. Time seemed to slow down for Shaggy. All he could do was stare.
…Velma had stood up for him.
Like…no one's ever done that before.
"You fucking bitch!" Maureen screeched, propelling herself up from the floor and lunging for Velma. On an impulse, Shaggy threw himself in her path and body-blocked her, sending her to the ground again.
"Like, don't even think about it!" he heard himself say. Shaggy wasn't quite aware of what he was doing. It was instinct. He felt like he was watching himself do this.
"What is going on here?"
If Shaggy had been having an out-of-body experience, that voice certainly propelled him back into reality. Everyone turned to see Coach Warren storming towards them.
"Maureen, what happened?" asked the coach as Maureen got up.
"Velma and Shaggy attacked me," Maureen said, pointing.
"Maureen started it," Daphne spoke up in an attempt to defend her new friends.
"No she didn't!" Phoebe shot back. "Velma punched her in the face, and then Shaggy pushed her to the floor!"
"Only because she was verbally attacking us!" Fred cried.
"ENOUGH!" bellowed Coach Warren. "Maureen, I don't know why these kids seem to have it out for you, but I can't believe that they are actually picking on you just for the sake of picking on you." He pointed to her, Velma, and Shaggy. "You three have detention today. After school. But I'll split you up. Maureen, you're going to have detention with me again. Velma and Shaggy, you have detention with someone else. I'll check around to see who can supervise your detentions." With that, Coach Warren walked off.
Velma stood stock still, trying to process everything. Detention? She had detention? The concept was so foreign. She'd never been in trouble before. She felt like crying.
But then Shaggy murmured "Thank you" to her. She glanced at him and saw that he was blushing and staring at the ground. The others all looked at him too.
"…Do you really smoke weed?" asked Fred.
"Like, not anymore, man," Shaggy said after some hesitation. "I like, used to. But I'm gonna quit. Like, I did quit."
"Wow," Daphne said. "I had no idea."
"Me neither," Velma admitted. Usually she was good about reading people. But this had come completely out of left field for her. "And it's no problem," she continued. "Maureen had no right to attack you."
"She had no right to attack any of us," Daphne growled. "I'm going to teach her a lesson."
"Daphne, please. We're already in enough trouble with her. Let's not make it worse," Velma said rationally.
"But I have to do something to help, Velma!"
"What you can do," Velma told her, "is go back to Mrs. Reynolds' house today with Fred since Shaggy and I can't. Find out as much as you can about the janitor's strike."
"Good news kids," Coach Warren interrupted. "Mr. Aiken will be around this afternoon. You can have detention with him. Now let's go play some basketball."
x.X.x
During lunch, Daphne and Fred went over the specifics of what they would ask Mrs. Reynolds' that afternoon. Scooby went around the cafeteria, trying to find leftovers that people had dropped on the floor. This left Velma and Shaggy to do quite a bit of talking.
"So how long had you smoked?" she asked him.
"Like, not all that long," he told her. "I only started cuz like, my buddy Brannen liked the stuff and had me try it one day."
"Did you like it?"
"Not particularly," Shaggy admitted. "It like, burns. And I was like, hungry all the time."
"Not much seems to have changed in that respect," Velma remarked, indicating the enormous sandwich that Shaggy was about to take a bite of.
He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, well…" he trailed off. There was a pause before he continued. "Thanks again for like, sticking up for me."
"Thank you for sticking up for me," Velma replied. "Nobody's ever done that before, other than Daphne."
"Like, seriously?" Shaggy said. "Me neither."
Velma grinned shyly at him. "I guess we're both losers, huh?"
"Like, given a choice between you and Maureen Fischer, I'd pick you every time, Velm," Shaggy said. "In fact, given a choice between you and like, anyone else, I'd pick you every time. You're not a loser to me." Shaggy felt himself go red and he stared at his sandwich.
Velma blushed as well. "Thank you, Shaggy," she said softly.
Scooby Doo stood on the other side of the cafeteria with half of a pizza crust in his mouth. He watched this scene unfold and felt his heart sink a little. And he didn't even know why.
Sponge: Wh-hoo! Chapter 8 has been completed! There are still nine chapters left of this story guys, but I don't know when the next update will be. Classes start on Tuesday for me, but I'll do as much as I can to get this story completed! Until then, keep guessing song titles and reviewing! See you all soon, I hope!
