Chapter 10:

"So, like, how was the skiing, anyway?"

"Nonexistent," Daphne answered Shaggy's question as they all sat around playing Scrabble in the Joneses' living room on New Year's Eve. "There was a huge snowstorm just the day before we got there that blocked half the trails and knocked out most of the safety equipment. We only stuck around because we wanted to hang out with Daddy."

"Oh," Velma answered, feeling just a little less guilty that Shaggy had stayed home with her. He had been wonderful to the point where Velma felt she didn't deserve it. She had to admit that he was very good as a de-stresser; some people just had a natural talent for working goof-off time into their schedules. Still, just by declining to go skiing he had sacrificed some of his free time... a part of himself, really...

"How were things back at the ranch?" Fred asked.

Neither Shaggy nor Velma answered that question. Things really had been quite boring. Mostly, Velma worked. Occasionally Shaggy would pry her away for an hour or two or three. Then they would see a movie, or go out to eat, or take a walk in the park, or just hang out and talk.

Once, Velma thought to herself, we almost built another igloo. We really did. It was Shaggy's idea this time... She wasn't entirely sure why they hadn't, either. They had gotten so far as to cut out big cubes of ice with their shovels when Velma had looked at her watch and realized she had two hours left before the meeting with the HTRT... and she wasn't showered, or dressed neatly, or anything like that. Shaggy had understood when she asked if they could finish the igloo later... only they never did. Following the meeting, Velma came back with another heavy stack of paperwork. This she was occupied with even as the gang was playing board games this New Year's Eve.

"Hey, Velma..." Freddie interrupted her thoughts. "It's your turn."

"Oh... right..."

She stared at the board and at her own tiles. Finally she placed some down, feeling lizard-eyed as she kept one eye on her paper and one eye on the game board.

"Priorities," she said, reading her word aloud. "How many points is that?"

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The TV was on, and the ball was almost going to drop. Just five more minutes...

"Does anyone here have any New Year's resolutions?" Freddie wondered aloud. "I'm going to try to stop leaving the milk out while I eat my cereal in the mornings. There, are you happy, Daphne?"

She giggled. "Thank you, Freddie. I'll try to resist half my urges to drag you into department-store sales... although Macy's does have buy-one, get-one on these really cute polos that would look great on..." Fred groaned playfully. "Sorry," she told him. "What about you, Shaggy? Any New Year's resolutions?"

"Nope," he responded unregretfully.

"What about you, Velma?"

She shrugged. "Probably just to be less of a procrastinator, I guess..." That was a lie. Everyone knew she wasn't much of a procrastinator in the first place. Her real resolution was hard to come up with; what really had to change, what had to be achieved?

Actually, she knew deep down the resolution she longed to make. It was a childish one, so she wouldn't say it aloud, not even to Shaggy. She didn't really even want to admit to herself that she wanted to make it, but seeing as she did she recited the resolution in her head:

Before the year is out, she told herself, Shaggy and I will make another igloo.

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Ten... nine... eight...

The seconds were ticking. A new year was about to dawn on them...

Seven... six...

Daphne and Freddie scooted closer together; Shaggy and Velma did the same.

Five... four...

When they were little kids, if this were some game of hide-and-seek or something, whoever was counting here likely would have gotten impatient and yelled "Threetwoone!" as fast as he or she could. But time unfortunately went by at its own pace; sometimes that was way too fast, but here it was painfully slow. Nobody could control it just by counting faster.

Three...

Two...

One...

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"

Daphne and Freddie hugged first, then kissed. Shaggy and Velma kissed first, then hugged. Scooby, left being the odd one out, settled to give an oh-isn't-that-cute doggy kiss to Janice, who until the midnight commotion had been sleeping peacefully for nearly four hours. She would have cried, but Scooby's licking of her face amused her too much. She even seemed to smile a bit. Then she went peacefully back to sleep.

Soon Daphne and Freddie rose to pick up the debris from the party-- plastic cups, Scrabble tiles, loose M&Ms that had fallen out of the bag, confetti-- and Velma and Shaggy rose to help them.

"Shoot, there's cheese dust on this packet..." Velma said, holding it up over the trash can and dusting it, hoping to remove some of the crumbs.

"Sorry," Shaggy said, grinning sheepishly.

"Oh... well, this one wasn't that important..."

Good old Shaggy. Careless, clumsy, and cute. Velma was strangely glad he hadn't made any New Year's resolutions. She didn't want him to change.

"Sorry anyway," he told her.

They kissed once more as they crammed one last paper plate into a large black garbage bag. It was one one of those moments almost nobody would have said would have been a romantic time or place, but Velma felt an enthralled sensation slide gently yet rapidly through her veins. She was with Shaggy...

If only this were how she really felt all the time...