Sponge: Oh my goodness, I'm sorry it took me so long to update, everyone. I have been so busy with school, homework, play rehearsals and my own love life. But I magically found some time to update! Thank you everyone for all your reviews! Congratulations to A. Nani Mouse for being my fiftieth reviewer! Cyber cookies galore for you! Also, congratulations to Eternity, Converse101, Brianna, Charliefox2012, Nani Mouse and More-Than-Ever17 for correctly guessing the artist of the chapter title! "Hello, Seattle" is by Owl City! Just so everyone knows: the next two chapters are filler chapters. There's not really going to be a whole lot of mystery solving happening in these next two chapters, but there will be some character development and, later, Maureen-bashing. Also, if no one reading this has ever been to a party where alcohol is served, this chapter and the next one are based on a few of my experiences. (I don't drink, just so everyone knows…I'm the one who takes care of my friends after they get drunk, haha.) Enjoy chapter 11! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters – they belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera.

Chapter 11: Downtown

Later on Saturday afternoon, the gang walked downtown. Their original idea was to go to the malt shop and try to plan out some ways to capture the Wendigo and prove that it wasn't real, but before they could, trouble found them.

As they walked down the street, they saw five people come out of a grocery store and begin walking towards them. Maureen Fischer, Rachael Amora and Phoebe Albion were walking out of a grocery store with a couple of boys. Each person carried a grocery bag. The gang saw Maureen and her crowd first.

"Uh oh…" Daphne muttered.

"Like, who are the dudes?" asked Shaggy. He recognized the red-headed one from his World History class.

"Brandon Michaels is the guy on the far left," Velma told him. "The red-headed kid is Red Herring. Fred hates him."

"Like, why?" asked Shaggy.

"I don't actually know," Velma admitted. "It's just known around school that they don't like each other."

Fred overheard this and sighed.

"I don't like him because of what happened with Daphne," he whispered.

"Rut rar roo ralking rabout?" asked Scooby.

"Red and Daphne dated for like, ten months," Fred told them. "I think they broke up…how long ago was it?" He broke off, trying to remember.

"We broke up right before school started," Daphne replied. She had been eavesdropping. She looked like she was about to say more but was unable to because the others had arrived in front of them. The ten of them all stopped.

"Hey Lesbo Geek," Maureen stated with fake sweetness.

"Hey Slut Face," Daphne replied just as artificially. Maureen's face clouded over in a scowl. Shaggy shifted his eyes nervously around at his friends. Scooby stood by his master's side loyally. Fred and Velma looked as though they were trying to restrain themselves from pummeling Red and Maureen.

"Hello, Fred," Red said with malice in his voice.

"Hello, Red," Fred replied through gritted teeth. Scooby noticed the rhyme and almost laughed, but the looks on their faces were so serious that he didn't.

"Well…uh…" Shaggy began, obviously trying to get everyone out of this awkward situation. "We should like…probably be going. Right, Scoob?"

"Reah!" Scooby agreed whole-heartedly. He began to strut passed Maureen and the others, but his tail caught on one of the handles of the grocery bag that Red was carrying. As Scooby walked by, he accidentally jerked the bag from Red's hands, spilling the contents of the bag on the side walk. A case of beer fell to the ground with a smack.

Everyone stared at it for a couple of seconds before Red hastily heaved it up and threw it back in the grocery bag.

"Dumb dog," he muttered. Scooby Doo glared at him.

"Like, what's the beer for?" Shaggy accidentally wondered out loud. He blushed when he realized he'd spoken.

Brandon, who obviously had no idea of any animosity between his friends and the gang, said, "There's a party at my place tonight around nine. You guys are totally invited. There'll be lots of beer!" He gestured to the other grocery bags, indicating that each person had a case in his or her bag.

"We'll think about it," Fred said. "For now we'd better get going." With that, he waved his hand and he and the rest of the gang walked on.

"That could have been so much worse than it was," Daphne sighed in relief once they were out of earshot.

"Why do you think they invited us to the party?" wondered Velma. "None of them like us."

"Well, Brandon has his head in the clouds," Daphne pointed out. "He's almost as bad as Fred."

"What?" asked Fred, who clearly had not been paying attention. The girls giggled, but Velma stopped abruptly.

"Jinkies," she muttered. "You know where Brandon Michaels lives, don't you?"

"…Do you?" asked Fred.

"He lives in Cedar Creek – the same housing development as Mr. Aiken." Velma looked at them.

"Wait a minute," Daphne said after a few moments. "How do you know where he lives?"

"I did some research," Velma replied vaguely.

"What are you suggesting?" Fred asked.

"That we go to the party as a pretense for actually snooping around Mr. Aiken's house," Velma said. "There's bound to be something incriminating lying around."

"Velma's right," Fred said. "I'm not really in much of a party mood tonight anyway."

"Do you guys like, party a lot?" asked Shaggy.

"Occasionally," Fred admitted. "I do it a lot more when it's not football season, but tonight I'm not feeling it."

"I party sometimes," Daphne said.

"I've never been to one," Velma muttered. Daphne jumped up and down and squealed.

"Velma, parties are SO much fun! And it's best to go to your first drinking party with friends anyway. That way, we can make sure you don't get too smashed."

"Like, how often to you guys drink?" Shaggy wondered.

"Only when I go to parties. I can handle about eight or nine beers before I get too messed up," Fred said.

"I can handle four or five," Daphne admitted.

"Do you drink, Shaggy?" asked Velma.

"Like, occasionally," he admitted.

"Well I guess it doesn't matter, because we won't actually be spending any time at that party," Velma said.

"That's true," Daphne replied looking slightly deflated.

"So here's the plan," Fred said, gathering everyone around. "We'll all head to Brandon's house around 9:30ish, as a…what word did you use, Velma? A preference?"

"Pretense, Fred," Velma replied.

"Right," Fred replied. "Then, we sneak out the back door and head over to Mr. Aiken's place to see if we can snoop around his house." He turned his gaze to the dog. "Scooby, can you help us pick the lock?"

"Roger, Reddie!" Scooby replied, saluting him.

x.X.x

Unfortunately for the gang, the evening did not go as planned.

First of all, they were late getting to the party because Shaggy and Scooby got lost. They arrived around ten, but Brandon was glad to see them all the same. A loud, pulsing bass line greeted them.

"Sooooooooo glad you guys were able to make it!" he laughed as he let them in. "Last-minute invites are the best! Here's to spontaneity!" He hoisted his can of beer in the air before taking a very long sip.

Most of the parties Shaggy had attended back in California had a keg as opposed to individual cans. This was rather unusual for him.

"I'm confused as to why we even came to this party instead of just heading straight for Aiken's house," Velma murmured. She was clearly uncomfortable. Unsure of what else to do, Shaggy took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Come on, gang," Fred said over the music. "Let's head out." They made their way through the house, careful not to get separated. Unfortunately, however, they didn't make it to the back door.

"Oh my God, is that Daphne Blake?" Upon hearing her name, the red-head turned around to see a small Asian girl running towards her.

"Ashley?" Daphne replied. Before she had time to say anything else, the short Asian girl wrapped her arms around Daphne, almost spilling the beer she clutched in her hand.

"I can't believe you're here!" the girl squealed. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Uh…it's great to see you too, Ash," Daphne replied as she wrenched herself from the girl's arms.

"Daph, who is that?" Fred asked loud enough for only Daphne and the others to hear.

"Gang, this is Ashley Hoang," Daphne attempted to introduce them, but Ashley was still too excited about Daphne to pay attention.

"I can't believe you're here!" Ashley exclaimed again. "Oh my gosh you HAVE to see everyone! The entire old gang is here! They're gonna FLIP when you realize you're here!" With that, Ashley grabbed Daphne's hand and yanked her into the crowd.

"Daphne!" Fred exclaimed. He rolled his eyes. "All right well, it's not necessary that we all stay at this party, so Velma, why don't you and I find Daph. Shaggy and Scooby can go scope out Aiken's house and we'll meet there when we get Daph?"

"Like…you mean…Scoob and me will sneak over to Mr. Aiken's house…in the dark…alone?" Shaggy did not like this plan.

"You'll be fine," Fred assured them. "Aiken's house is only one block away."

"Rye ron't rant to," Scooby whimpered. Velma's face took on a small smirk as she reached into her backpack and took out a box of Scooby Snacks. Immediately, Scooby perked up.

"Do you want to now?" Velma asked.

"Like I want to," Shaggy said. Suddenly, his face turned red. He hadn't been planning on telling his new friends that he occasionally ate dog treats. Velma and Fred both looked at him, but neither seemed very surprised by this confession. In fact, Velma smiled a bit. She reached into the box and pulled out two Scooby Snacks. One she tossed to Scooby, who all but inhaled it. The next, she placed in Shaggy's palm. They grinned at each other before he gobbled it down.

"Like come on, Scooby Doo," Shaggy said. "Let's go spy on a teacher."

x.X.x

Ashley had dragged Daphne into the next room where a game of beer pong was currently underway. The players, at the moment, were Maureen Fischer and Brandon Michaels against Rachael Amora and Phoebe Albion. Maureen and Brandon were clearly winning.

"Daphne and I are playing winner!" Ashley proclaimed to the room.

"Um Ash, I really don't have time –" Daphne protested but was interrupted by another voice.

"How about Daphne teams up with me and we play winner?" Daphne whirled around and found herself face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend, Red Herring. She felt her face go scarlet.

"Hello, Red," she said coolly. He smirked at her – a look she used to love. He had changed greatly from the beefy kid he'd been in his youth. He was still large, but it was all muscle nowadays. He was, after all, the star linebacker on the JV football team. He was very attractive, Daphne couldn't deny that. And besides, their hair matched. They had been the "it" couple freshman year.

"Whaddaya say, Daph?" Red asked. "We used to be the best pong team. No one could beat us." Daphne paused. It was a tempting offer. She and Red had always been fantastic at beer pong. There was a brief burst of cheering from the table as Maureen and Brandon won the game.

"Yeah, come on Blake," Maureen taunted. "Brandon and I will be happy to take you and Red on." Maureen had obviously had a few, as had Red and pretty much every other person in the nearby vicinity. Daphne was the only sober person in the room. She glanced around at Maureen smirking at her, Ashley egging her on with lots of nodding, and Red holding out his hand to her. Daphne grinned and took Red's hand.

"You're on, Fischer," she said.

x.X.x

Fred and Velma were side-tracked in their search for Daphne when they were discovered by Tony Moretti. He wasn't drunk, but he was rather tipsy.

"Dinks!" he exclaimed upon seeing Velma. "I never thought I'd see you at a party like this!"

"Well…here I am," she grinned uncomfortably.

"And Jonesey! You're here too!" Tony was beside himself with glee.

"Uh…Tony you haven't seen Daphne Blake around anywhere, have you?" Fred asked. They didn't have time for shenanigans like this.

"Blake? Nah I haven't seen her, but I'm sure she'll turn up here sooner or later. We're about to play Kings if you guys want to join in."

"Um…" Velma turned to Fred. "What's Kings?"

"It's a drinking game," Fred replied. "I'll explain the rules before we play."

"We're – we're not actually playing, are we?" Velma was flabbergasted. Tony put a hand on Velma's shoulder.

"Don't worry Dinks, it's not bad," he promised her. Velma glanced at Fred.

"We're supposed to be finding Daphne," she reminded him.

"We'll play one round, and then we'll get her. I promise," Fred told her. Velma looked at the boys, each of them staring at her wide-eyed and hopeful.

What am I getting myself into? Velma wondered. She sighed.

"One round," she told them. "But that's it."

x.X.x

Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy were crouched behind the bushes near Mr. Aiken's house, quivering with cold as much as fear.

"L-l-l-like…should we look in the window, Scoob?" Shaggy asked, teeth chattering.

"Rye ron't roe…" Scooby replied just as nervously. Shaggy took a deep breath.

"Like, okay," he said. "We'll peek in the windows and if we don't see him, we'll call the gang and tell them to like, bag it. Sound good?"

"Rye rike it," Scooby agreed. Silently, the pair sneaked over to one of the windows and peered in. They were met with darkness.

"Like let's go around to the other side of the house," Shaggy said. They crept around the house but on their way, they discovered something rather odd.

"Raggy?" Scooby began. "Rye ris re rarage rore ropen?" Shaggy turned his head. Indeed, the garage door was open.

"Like, I don't know, Scooby Doo," Shaggy replied. "Like, there's no car in the garage." He glanced at his canine companion. "Like, I bet Aiken's not home."

"Rall Relma," Scooby suggested. Shaggy took his phone out of his pocket and stared at it. He'd called girls on the phone before. Why did it take him so long to gather the courage to dial Velma's number? He took a deep breath and selected her name in his contacts list.

"What's up, Shag?" Velma asked.

"Like, how's the search for Daphne coming?" Shaggy asked her.

"Well, Fred and Tony wrangled me into playing a game of Kings," Velma said. "So we might be a while yet. What did you find out at Aiken's house?"

"Like he's not here, Velm," Shaggy told her. "His garage door is wide open and like, his car isn't here."

"Can you get into the house?" Velma asked. Shaggy paused.

"Um…I mean like, I guess…"

"Shaggy, you and Scooby start snooping. I'll try to get out of this game and I'll meet you at Aiken's house." With that, Velma hung up the phone. Shaggy stared at it dumbfounded for a few moments.

"Rut rid re ray?" asked Scooby. Shaggy gulped.

"Like…she's making us go into his house."

x.X.x

"Fred, you can find Daphne without my help, can't you?" Velma had been pleading with Fred to let her join Shaggy and Scooby but Fred wouldn't hear of it.

"Come on, Velm," he protested. "You've never been to a party before in your life. Leave the mystery alone for a while and just have some fun. I promise we'll get Daph and join Shag and Scoob as soon as this round of Kings is over."

"I really shouldn't…" Velma trailed off. Tony, who hadn't heard any of the previous conversation, suddenly grabbed Velma's wrist and tugged her towards a table where four other kids were sitting.

"Guys," Tony said. "These are my friends Velma Dinkley and Fred Jones." Then, to Velma and Fred, "Guys, these are Sadie MacElroy, Patrick Kutner, Rob King, and Laura Greer." Fred and Velma each raised a hand in greeting. Tony gestured for them to sit down. Fred took a seat next to Rob and after a few minutes, Velma reluctantly sat between Tony and Fred.

"Okay, how do you play?" Velma asked.

"Each person goes around and draws a card," Fred explained. "Two means you, which means that you choose someone to take a drink. Three is me, which means that you take a drink. Four is floor, which means the last person to hit the floor takes a drink. Five is guys, which means that all the guys take a drink. Six is chicks, which means that all the girls take a drink. "

"Seven is heaven, which is when everyone puts their hands in the air and the last person to do that drinks," Tony continued. "Eight is mate which means that you choose someone to take a drink with you. Nine is bust a rhyme, so we go around in a circle and rhyme words and the first person to mess up drinks. Ten means categories, so we give a generic thing, like types of cars and we list as many as we can and the first person to mess up drinks. Jack is never have I ever, where you put three fingers up and the first person to lose all three fingers during never have I ever takes a drink. Queen is questions, which is when you go around the circle asking only questions and the first person to mess up takes a drink. King is you make up a rule, usually a rule like every time you drink, another person has to drink."

"What's ace?" asked Velma.

"Ace is either waterfall or hot seat, depending on who you play with," Fred explained. "With waterfall, everyone takes a drink and you only stop drinking when the person who drew the card stops drinking. With hot seat, you ask a yes or no question to the person who drew the card and if the answer is yes, he drinks and if the answer is no, you drink."

"I like playing hot seat better, personally," Tony said. "Let's play that way." He grinned at Velma, and she grinned back.

x.X.x

"Hold on hold on hold on!" Ashley shouted as Daphne and Red made their way to the table. "Let's make this more interesting."

"What do you mean?" asked Red. Ashley grinned.

"The team that loses has to kiss their partner!" Ashley squealed. Daphne felt her face go red.

"Uh…" she started to protest, but Maureen and Brandon seemed to like the idea. As did Red.

"Haha, you're going down, Blake!" Maureen sneered. "You'll have to kiss your ex!"

"Not a chance!" Daphne shot back.

"Yeah Fischer!" Red agreed. "Daph and I are gonna wipe the floor with you. As usual."

"We'll see!" Brandon exclaimed.

Daphne was so caught up in the moment that she didn't even notice the fact that Red looked disappointed at the notion of not kissing her.

x.X.x

Shaggy and Scooby had stealthily snuck into Mr. Aiken's house through the garage door and found themselves in a foyer type area. There wasn't a soul in sight.

"Rut rar ree rooking ror, Raggy?" asked Scooby. Shaggy shook his head.

"I have like, no idea, Scoob," Shaggy whispered. "Let's like, start in the kitchen."

"Rokay!" Scooby agreed whole-heartedly. They opened every single cabinet door and the fridge. Mr. Aiken, for living by himself, had a lot of food.

"Like, jackpot Scooby Doo!" Shaggy exclaimed excitedly. Before either of them knew it, they were stuffing their faces with the contents of the fridge and the pantry.

They only stopped when they realized that they'd been eating for almost an hour.

"Rikes!" Scooby exclaimed when he noticed the time.

"We should like, get out of here," Shaggy said. "We'll like, go back to the party and tell the others that we didn't find anything." He looked around at the mess they'd left. "Like, maybe we should clean up a bit, huh?"

"Reah," Scooby sighed. For having such full stomachs, they did a pretty good job cleaning up. The kitchen sparkled twenty minutes later. "Rey, Raggy?" Shaggy looked over from the corner that he was sweeping to see that Scooby Doo held a note in his mouth.

"Like, what's this?" Shaggy wondered, taking the note from his dog. His eyes bugged out. "Like, zoinks!"

"Rut ris rit, Raggy?" asked Scooby, confused.

"Like, this is the same handwriting as that note that we found in his desk the other day," Shaggy murmured. He read the note out loud.

"'Don't worry. We can fix this. No one has to find out. Meet tonight at the same place. Bring the greens.'" Shaggy furrowed his brow. "Like, what could this mean?"

"Raybe rey realized re round re rinting ress," Scooby said. It took Shaggy a minute to figure out what he'd said.

"Like, I bet you're right, Scooby Doo!" Shaggy exclaimed. "But like, how could they have possibly figured it out?"

"Rye ron't roe," Scooby shrugged. Shaggy looked at the note again.

"Like, where'd you find this?" he asked.

"Rin re ruddy," Scooby replied. "Rye ruz rooking ror ra rathroom."

"Where's the study?" asked Shaggy. Scooby pointed with his paw down the hall to a room that had a door ajar. "Like, let's see what else is in there." Shaggy and Scooby made their way down the hallway into the study. Silently, they shut the door behind them as they began to search through the papers on his desk.

"Raggy?" Scooby asked.

"Like yeah?"

"Rye rill raf ro ree." Shaggy rolled his eyes.

"Like, sorry Scooby Doo. You go to the bathroom. I'll wait in here for you." Scooby went over to the door and attempted to open it.

But it didn't open.

"Umm…" Shaggy was confused. He went over to try the door. But again, it wouldn't budge.

"Ris rit rocked?" Scooby wondered.

"Like, no…" Shaggy tried the door. "I think it's just like, stuck." He tried the door again. Nothing. "Like, maybe if we both push…" They tried. Nothing.

They were locked in.

Sponge: Oooh! Cliffie! Hahahahahaha I'm so evil! Anyway, I apologize AGAIN for not updating since September. I had no idea how crazy college would be. I'll try not to be this late updating again, especially since I just left you guys with a cliffhanger. I've only got sixteen days left in the semester though so once finals are over and Christmas vacation begins I'm sure I'll have more time. In the meantime, read, review and guess the chapter title! See you guys soon!