Velma felt petrified with fear as Merlin tightened his grasp on her arm.
"W-w-what do you want from me?" Velma shivered.
"I want you to stop meddling in what you do not understand!" Merlin hissed.
"What do you mean?" Velma nervously inquired. She was pretty sure she knew, but she hoped that perhaps the answer wouldn't be as terrifying as she believed.
"Do not attempt to teach your class about my affairs. It shall not work." Merlin cautioned. "My powers go beyond what you could imagine!"
"I-I-I'm sorry." Velma quivered. She was so anxious that she could barely speak without tripping over her words. "I won't teach my students anymore about how to stop you, I promise."
"Good. You must stay true to your promise, because I will be watching you." Merlin rasped.
"Why are you here?" Velma blurted. "Why hasn't your spirit moved on?"
"My spirit remains here to take care of some unfinished business." the wizard replied.
"What unfinished business?" Velma continued to probe.
"It is not of concern to you." Merlin coldly shut down the glasses-clad teacher. "Now, I'll make you a deal. I will stop appearing in your class if you do not meddle in my affairs."
"I promise I won't." Velma said, feeling like she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
"Good, good." Merlin's mouth turned upward in a terrifying-looking grin. "Remember, I'll be watching you. Do not try to defy me, or you will face the full extent of my powers!"
With that, Merlin disappeared in a puff of red smoke. Velma could hear him chuckling as his physical form disappeared.
"Are you okay, Velma?" a familiar voice asked, The lights came on, showing that it was Sabrina.
"I…I think so." Velma tried to regain her confidence. She still felt her body shaking a bit from the shock of being ambushed by Merlin. "Did you see any of that?"
"Both of us did." Sabrina said, pointing to Parry Hotter, who was also standing in the doorway with her.
"Yeah, he told you not to meddle in his affairs!" Parry repeated. "I didn't realize you were gonna teach us about his love life too!"
"So, what are you going to do now?" Sabrina asked.
That was a good question. Velma hadn't even regained her composure from the incident yet, much less figured out how she was going to teach her class now that she couldn't teach anything about Merlin.
"I don't know." Velma admitted. "You guys read Merlin: A Semi-Autobiography: The Life and Times of Me today, correct?"
Parry and Sabrina nodded.
"Well, maybe I can teach that in a way that's flattering to Merlin." Velma said. She couldn't express her full thoughts on the matter, which were that she could continue her plan of having her students read about Merlin and figure out clues as to what his "unfinished business" might be, while presenting it in a light that would seem like she was praising Merlin to avoid his wrath.
"Sounds good to me." Sabrina shrugged.
"Let's just please keep this between us, if you don't mind." Velma asked. "I don't want the other students to worry."
"We will." Sabrina promised.
"Yeah Ms. D, your secret is safe with us." Parry promised.
"I overheard everything too!" Owen popped his head in the room. "By the way, I also have a megaphone with me, since it's Megaphone Monday!"
"That's a thing?" Velma was befuddled.
"No, but it's a side project I'm trying to get started." Owen stated, as he pressed the button to turn on his megaphone and put his mouth by it. "Hey everybody, guess what I just promised to Ms. Dinkley! I said…"
"Owen, the point of me asking you that was for you to keep this quiet." Velma clarified.
"Oh, sorry." Owen turned off the megaphone and looked discouraged.
Velma struggled to think of how she was going to teach about the book she'd assigned her students, especially given she only had ten minutes before class to do it. She'd just have to find a way to improvise.
Velma attempted to still teach the materials she had assigned for that day the best she could, although it was very difficult. She felt like her instruction was coming off overly gratuitous as not to anger the wizard.
"And those are some of the amazing things Merlin did." Velma concluded her lecture, feeling a bit sheepish. "Now since you're in groups, I'd like each group to share something they learned from this book about our headmaster's amazingly powerful ancestor. Preferably something you read about that you liked."
Velma felt like she was treating class as if it were a commercial, but she attempted to comfort herself with the thought that maybe she could think up some sort of solution to this after class today. She felt stuck though, as she'd already made the students read the Merlin book for today, and suddenly teaching about something else after they'd already done the assigned reading would make her students think there was something wrong.
"Do you want us to start?" Mitch asked.
"Sure…go ahead, group 1." Velma urged.
"We thought one cool thing about the book was that Merlin's grandson was a half-Devil." Kennedy pointed out.
"Yes, that was really interesting, wasn't it?" Velma smiled. "Group 2?"
"I never realized that Merlin is considered to be part of Arthurian legend." Ramando answered.
"Yeah, it was wild to find out King Arthur and him were in the same court." Owen agreed.
"Good, good!" Velma said. "Group 3?"
"I can go." Madelyn offered to her group mates. "I thought it was really interesting that Merlin is sometimes portrayed in the legends as a good guy, and other legends portray him as a villain."
Velma was immediately alarmed, worrying about offending the angry wizard. "Well, it's important to remember that he did a lot of great things. He is Whirlen's ancestor, after all. Anyway, let's move on to group 4."
It was no surprise to her that Kara was the one to speak from that group. "The fact that stood out the most to me is that Great Britain was nearly named after Merlin. It's only given a brief mention in the book, but another name for Great Britain was Clas Myrddin, which can be translated as Merlin's Enclosure."
"Excellent, Kara! Thanks for sharing." Velma smiled. "Finally, group 5."
"Well…" Ron stuttered. For once, Velma was glad they were having trouble coming up with an answer. Each answer the students were giving had her on the edge of her seat, wondering if they were going to say something to unknowingly offend Merlin and make him enact his vengeance.
"Merlin's the name of a bird. That's kind of a neat fact, ain't it?" Mike continued Ron's sentence.
"Yes…yes it is." Velma said. "Anyway, I see we've got seven minutes left…I want to use the time remaining to hand back your papers. I graded all of them over the weekend."
If Velma were completely honest, she just wanted this class to be done and over with as quick as possible. She needed time to process what had happened to her before class, and how she wanted to move forward. Thankfully, handing back the papers provided the perfect excuse for her to pad out the rest of class this way.
"Here's my paper, Ms. Dinkley." John said, as he handed it to her.
"Thanks, John. Have a good day!" Velma well-wished.
At least that was one less person to worry about. She handed out papers to a few students, but she felt a bit bad when she approached Jake, knowing the news she would have to tell him.
"Here's your paper back, Jake." Velma said, a hint of cautiousness in her voice. "I'm afraid this means your current standing in this class is…"
He quickly looked at the two horizontally perpendicular lines intersecting with a vertical one on the top of the paper.
"Yeah, yeah. I figured." Jake shrugged, as he snatched the paper out of Velma's hands and walked out of class.
Velma felt like she was experiencing some of Jake's discouraged feelings. Even though it was ultimately Jake's poor performance that was causing him to fail the class, Velma still felt bad for Jake. She didn't want to fail anybody; she just wished everybody could be as passionate about learning as she was. Nonetheless, he tried not to think about it too much and continued handing out papers to students.
"Woah, an A! Thanks!" Katie exclaimed. She seemed quite thrilled by this result.
"Nice, a B!" Ashley smiled. "Thanks, Ms. D."
Once she had handed out all of the papers, she noticed Brian sauntering out of class.
"Hey, Brian. Can I speak with you for a moment?" Velma called after him.
"Oh geez." he muttered under his breath. "Sure, sure, coming."
Velma found herself struggling for the words to say to her student when she had invited him over. She knew the sentiment she wanted to convey to him; she just didn't want it to come off as blaming him for his lack of assignment submission.
"I just want to say your assignments are great." Velma started.
"Oh…wow. Thanks, Ms. Dinkley!" Brian looked thrilled, which made Velma feel even worse about what she was going to say.
"That's why I'm always a little surprised when you don't turn anything in." Velma stated, immediately panicking that she had come off too blunt. "I mean, I'm absolutely not calling you out for your lack of turning stuff in or anything like that. You're not failing. I'm just a little concerned is all. Is everything okay with you?"
"Umm…yeah. There were a couple of Wednesdays where I was really sick, you know. Bad headache, chills…it wasn't good." Brian said. However, his actions definitely didn't match what he was saying. He seemed incredibly nervous, almost like he was a deer in the headlights ready to sprint at any moment. She even believed she remembered him showing up one of the Wednesdays he hadn't turned in the weekly assignment, so his excuse didn't make sense.
"Oh, okay. You're welcome to turn in those assignments you missed at any point. We can always work out a revised deadline where you're not losing as many points for the late submission." Velma offered.
"Yeah…uh…I'll do that." Brian said. "Anyway…I gotta go."
"Sounds good. Just wanted to check to make sure you were doing alright. Have a good day!" Velma smiled.
"Yeah, you too!" Brian practically ran out of the classroom.
Velma felt like something was definitely up with Brian. It didn't make any sense for him to supposedly get sick and then never tell her or try to catch up on the assignments he missed. Something quite frankly seemed very wrong. She didn't know what it was, but she vowed to herself that she would try to help him as best she could to not fail this course. First, however, she had to fulfill hervow to herself, which was figuring out what in the world she was going to do about teaching her class now that Merlin had forbidden her to teach anymore about him.
Velma had spent most of the afternoon planning out her class for tomorrow. Since her students had already started reading the Merlin book, her plan was to have them finish reading the book this week, and then switch gears completely back to non-Merlin books. Of course, she would ensure all discussions of Merlin this week were extremely positive almost to the point of sounding almost promotional, since Velma didn't want to risk having any more run-ins with the ghostly sorcerer.
She was currently eating dinner in the dining hall with Madelyn, informing her about what had happened before class today.
"You mean that Merlin appeared in the classroom and confronted you?" Madelyn gasped.
"That's exactly what I mean." Velma confirmed. "He told me I can't teach about him anymore or I'll face the consequences."
"That's horrible! What are you going to do, sis?" Madelyn asked. "He probably even got more upset because you taught about him today!"
"Well, I was thinking if I taught about him as a great sorcerer, he wouldn't get mad." Velma said.
"You did seem awfully gratuitous today when you were teaching." Madelyn admitted, causing Velma to blush.
"I don't know what I'm going to do, though. I guess just go back to what I'd planned before I switched the course to be about Merlin." Velma sighed.
"Are you going to tell Whirlen about it?" Madelyn inquired.
"I guess I should, yeah. He didn't seem to do much last time, though." Velma pointed out.
Speaking of the headmaster, Velma noticed him walking past the dining hall. He seemed in a hurry.
"Hey Whirlen?" Madelyn called. "Velma wants to talk to you."
"Is it quick? We've got a very important guest coming any minute to make some sort of a documentary series, and I want to be at the door to greet them." Whirlen informed.
"Oh, you can take care of that first. My issue isn't that important." Velma assured.
"Excellent. I can't wait for you to meet our guest!" Whirlen hurried off to the front door.
"Not that important?" Madelyn said in disbelief. "V, you could have gotten hurt!"
"I know, but if he's got an esteemed guest he has to make accommodations for, I don't want to inconvenience him." Velma reasoned.
"Velma?" a familiar voice called. "What are you doing here?"
Velma almost jumped ten feet when she saw who it was.
"Daphne?" Velma gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same thing!" Daphne cried out in shock. "Remember that show I was making about haunted attractions in America?"
"How could I forget?" Velma mentally rolled her eyes. That show was everything to Daphne; it was her proudest achievement and she talked about it all the time.
"Well, I'm working on filming something here. Supposedly, the ghost of the headmaster's ancestor is haunting this place." Daphne explained.
"Yeah, I knew that. I think the question is how did you know that?" Velma wondered.
"I was looking through a brochure of attractions with ghostly legends, and this place came up. I called the headmaster…is it Whirlen Marlin, or Merlin Whirlen?" Daphne inquired.
"It's neither, actually. There's Whirlen Merlin, and his brother Marlin Merlin." Velma explained.
"That really clears things up." Daphne rolled her eyes.
Ever since the gang had broken up, she and Daphne sort of had a witty banter going between them. It wasn't really like it was before, and Velma wasn't sure if that was because of a hint of tension between the two friends, or just an evolution of their relationship. Daphne was always on the road looking for haunted attractions, so Velma rarely saw her anymore. It'd caused the two friends to drift apart a bit, which made Velma sad. She wanted to be friends with Daphne, but there was no denying she had really changed from the person she was a year and a half ago when the gang disbanded.
"Ah Velma, Madelyn, I see you've found our guest of honor!" Whirlen smiled. "Now, let me show you to the guest room. I hope you won't mind the sleeping bags we provided you."
"There's no bed in the guest room?" Daphne questioned.
"Oh, there is, but it's been occupied." Whirlen informed.
"I'd be sharing a guest room with somebody else I don't know?" Daphne gasped.
"Well, yes, obviously!" Whirlen seemed annoyed. "Why do you think it's called the guest room? All our current guests stay in that room. At the moment, we have a teaching fellow sleeping in there."
"I didn't know you had fellowships here!" Velma said.
"Oh, no, we don't." Whirlen clarified. "It's just this fellow I hired to teach for us. He's done quite the fine job, I might add."
"Velma, can I stay in your room?" Daphne inquired. "I'll only be here for two nights. I can even sleep on the couch if there's no room."
"Umm…sure." Velma shrugged. She was still reeling a bit from the shock of having Daphne randomly show up here.
"Great! Then it's settled!" Daphne breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, almost. I didn't come alone…"
At that moment, a young woman probably around her age came into the school carrying a couple of suitcases. It would have been hard not to notice her with her bright pink hair. She wore a purple t-shirt and black leggings.
"Hey Daph! I got all the luggage." the pink-haired woman replied.
"Oh good, this must be your assistant you mentioned on the phone?" Whirlen questioned.
"Yep, that's her." Daphne nodded.
"Hi. You must be Velma." the woman greeted her. "I'm Isabel. It's so nice to finally meet you! I've heard so much about you from Daphne!"
"Oh, hi Isabel." Velma shook the woman's hand. She wasn't aware Daphne was working with an assistant. As far as she knew, Fred was her cameraman.
"So it turns out the guest room is a room full of guests." Daphne informed her assistant, rolling her eyes.
"Great! Lots of new friends to be made, I guess!" Isabel excitedly said. "So which way is the guest room?"
Velma was surprised how open Daphne's friend was to staying in a room with some random stranger. Clearly that came across to Daphne as well, as she leaned over to Velma.
"She's a bit of a ray of sunshine." Daphne whispered to Velma.
"Clearly." Velma chuckled.
"So, I guess it's settled then." Daphne said. "I'll stay with Velma, and Isabel will stay in the guest room."
Velma had noticed Madelyn was sitting quietly in the background. She hadn't uttered a peep since Daphne had arrived.
"By the way, this is my little sister, Madelyn." Velma introduced.
"Oh! I remember Velma talking about you before." Daphne said. "It's great to meet you, Madelyn. You must be here visiting her, then. Wait a minute though…Whirlen said you had a room here. Is that just Madelyn's room?"
"No, I work here now. I'm teaching a Magical Literature class." Velma explained.
"Oh wow! That's so cool!" Daphne exclaimed. "Congratulations. That's got to be a lot more fun than working in that dank old bookshop."
Velma admittedly felt a little insulted by Daphne's comment. Although she didn't feel particularly connected to the bookshop anymore, she still had fond memories of her quiet life working there. It felt nice to settle down after globetrotting and visiting a new place practically every week with the gang. Daphne clearly didn't feel the same way, however. She still traveled more than ever, practically going to a new place every week to film an episode of her show.
"Well, I've enjoyed both experiences." Velma decided to say. She didn't think Daphne had meant to come off as condescending as she did, so there was no reason to get upset. "Have you had dinner yet?"
"Yeah, Isabel and I ate on the road." Daphne informed.
"Well, we're almost done." Velma said. "If you want, I can give you the key to my room and you can bring your suitcase in there."
"That would be great! Thank you!" Daphne appreciated, as Velma placed the room key in her hand. "I'll be back in a minute!"
Velma was still reeling a bit from the shock of having her friend visit her. She never would have expected to see Daphne here. This felt like her own personal adventure away from home that nobody really knew about but her, so it felt a little strange to try to navigate bringing Daphne into her current new reality.
Once Velma and Madelyn had finished eating dinner, they headed back to meet Daphne in her room. Isabel had also joined them. Madelyn, Velma and Daphne sat on the couch, while Isabel sat in the chair with the broken leg on the other side of the living area. Of course, Velma had informed Isabel about the broken leg, but the chair appeared to still be functional, and Isabel seemed unconcerned with sitting there. Daphne had been telling a lengthy story about a recent adventure she'd had filming an episode of her show.
"And then, it turned out that the three ghosts of Christmas in the play were real ghosts!" Daphne shared. "Or, so we thought. We continued doing the play, but it turned out, it was just some guy trying to promote a cooking show. Stupid. I'd never watch that show."
"That sounds like a pretty wild experience." Velma said. Admittedly, she was getting a little sick of hearing her friend's stories. She wanted to know what Daphne had been up to; it was just the way in which she told some of these stories like she was the coolest, worldliest, most experienced person in the world that irritated Velma. The other thing that admittedly annoyed Velma a bit is that she had gotten to tell no stories thus far, whereas Daphne had told at least ten. There was the one about her trying to unhaunt a house only to realize the guy was trying to stop a form of oppression called "apparitionism," the time she was nearly killed at her studio by a falling spotlight, another story about her being kidnapped by her boss who was apparently evil, and the list went on.
"Oh, did I ever tell you about the time Shaggy and I ran into a werewolf?" Daphne excitedly said.
"You never told me about that story!" Isabel exclaimed.
"Yes I did. I told you about it in the car, remember?" Daphne looked confused.
"I know. I just wanted to hear it again." Isabel snickered. "It's such a sweet story of you and Shaggy kissing."
This got Velma's ears to perk up.
"You and Shaggy are dating?" Velma gasped.
"Well…" Daphne looked a little embarrassed.
"So it's like a no strings attached thing?" Velma wondered.
"No, not like that. It's complicated." Daphne blushed.
"So Velma, how did you get started teaching here?" Isabel inquired.
Velma was glad the pink-haired woman was kind enough to ask something about Velma, given Daphne had dominated the conversation for the last hour.
"Oh…yeah, sorry. I meant to ask about that." Daphne looked further embarrassed. Velma knew Daphne didn't intend to be rude or self-centered, but she'd gotten quite focused on herself and clearly thought the world revolved around her sometimes.
"Well, I got a call in January from the school. They wanted me to teach a Magical Literature course, because one of the other teachers had to suddenly leave at the last minute." Velma explained. "It's just for a semester, but I've really enjoyed it so far. Educating today's young minds is such a rewarding experience."
"That must be weird to have your sister teaching in the same school as you." Daphne said to Madelyn.
"Not really. I'm actually in her class, and I think it's cool." Madelyn revealed.
"You just give her all A's then?" Daphne joked. Velma was admittedly a bit annoyed by the remark, even though she was pretty sure Daphne hadn't meant any harm.
"Well…yes, but not for the reason you're thinking." Velma let out a polite chuckle, even though it didn't necessarily match her reaction to Daphne's comment. "Madelyn does great work. Her last paper was amazing."
"Aww, thanks sis!" Madelyn smiled.
"That's so cute!" Isabel put her hands on her heart.
"So what kind of stuff do you teach?" Daphne asked.
"I teach literature about all sorts of magic. Lately I've been focusing a lot on Merlin." Velma informed.
"The same Merlin that haunts this place?" Daphne wondered.
"Yep, unfortunately." Velma said with a sigh. "I might have to stop teaching about it now."
"Why's that? Are you worried he'll be upset?" Daphne questioned.
"Well, that's one way of putting it." Velma said, letting out more of a genuine chuckle this time due to how unknowingly spot-on Daphne was.
"Merlin told her that she can't teach about him anymore, or she'll face the consequences." Madelyn shared.
"What?!" Daphne replied in shock. "You've met the ghost of Merlin?"
"Several times, actually. He has a bad habit of appearing in my classroom in the middle of class and scaring the students." Velma further informed.
"Would you mind if I come to your class tomorrow and film?" Daphne perked up.
"Well…you can come to class, but not film. I think it's illegal to film students without their permission." Velma said. Besides this, she didn't really want Daphne interrupting her class just so she could film another episode of her show. However, she didn't want to say that aloud so as not to offend Daphne.
"Okay." Daphne shrugged, seeming a little disappointed. "I guess we can always film other areas around the castle."
"Even if you can't film, it'd be fun to have you come to class. I'd love for you to meet my students. They're great." Velma smiled. She wasn't just bragging either, she genuinely believed her students were amazing. She had really grown a connection to them in the past few weeks, far more than she'd ever thought she would. Every single one of them brought something unique to the class.
"Sure, yeah, that'll be fun! Anyway, I'm feeling pretty tired from the trip. I'm ready for bed." Daphne said.
Velma admittedly felt a little annoyed by this. Daphne had spent nearly an hour droning on about everything she'd done, and when it was finally Velma's turn to talk, she got to talk for 10 minutes at the most. To add insult to injury, the conversation was mainly catered to Daphne wanting to get Merlin on film for her show rather than actually caring about the exciting adventure Velma had embarked on for the past couple months. Velma would have loved to tell Daphne and Isabel about each of her students and talk more about what she taught, but it was clear Daphne didn't care enough to hear it. She certainly wasn't going to try to wedge it in; she knew how to take a hint that Daphne wasn't interested.
"Okay, I guess you have your choice of the couch or you can sleep on the other side of the bed with me." Velma coolly said.
"If you're fine with it, I think I'd prefer the bed." Daphne informed the brunette of her preference.
"That's okay by me." Velma shrugged. "Isabel, it was great talking with you tonight, and I look forward to talking with you more tomorrow! And goodnight, sis!"
"Goodnight to you too, sis!" Madelyn responded back.
"Aww…sis. That's so sweet." Isabel commented on Velma's term of endearment for her sister.
Once Madelyn and Isabel had left the room, Velma got ready in the bathroom and changed into her pajamas. It would feel odd sleeping on the other side of the bed from Daphne, but she supposed that her and Daphne had shared a bed before when the gang was traveling together a long time ago. Being a part of the gang felt like a distant memory to Velma at this point, especially with Daphne changing so much. She didn't think Daphne meant to hurt anybody, but tonight had cemented what Velma had felt on the rare occasions she saw Daphne in the past: her redheaded friend was so consumed with her own life that she didn't really think much of others anymore.
It was a bit jarring for Velma to wake up on the other side of the bed from Daphne. Despite having a bedmate, she slept quite well; so well in fact that she felt a bit groggy waking up.
Daphne was still fast asleep. Velma had noticed that the redhead's hair had fallen over half of her face as she slept. Velma didn't want to wake her, so she tiptoed into the bathroom to get changed and headed out to breakfast right away.
Upon arriving at the breakfast area, she saw Madelyn and Isabel were already sitting together.
"So, how did you sleep last night?" Madelyn inquired.
"Pretty good!" Isabel exclaimed.
"Good morning." Velma interjected when she arrived at their table. "I'm sorry you had to stay in that guest room with that random guy. I hope it wasn't too weird."
"Not at all!" Isabel said, a little bit of a squeak coming out at the end of her sentence. "He turned out to be a pretty cool guy. Name's Jeff. Worked in HR before this, then decided he'd had enough and moved to teach here. Prefers discussion-based teaching. Believes in trauma-informed pedagogy. Likes his sandwiches with no tomatoes. Nice dude."
"Salutations, student, teacher, and guest." the voice of Alvin Bumbledore greeted.
"Hi." Isabel waved in a friendly manner. "Who's this?"
"This is the other headmaster, Bumbledore." Madelyn introduced.
"Hey, Bumbledore. I wasn't expecting to see you out here!" Velma stated. She typically only saw Whirlen at breakfast in the mornings.
"I was just coming out here to break the fast." Bumbledore informed. "I hope our accommodations were sufficient."
"Oh, they were great. Thanks, Mr. Bumbledore." Isabel appreciated.
"Oh, yes, yes, of course. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to grab a muffin." Bumbledore informed.
"So, what time is class?" Isabel inquired.
"It's at one." Velma answered.
"Maybe Daphne and I can look around a bit while you're prepping for class." Isabel said. "I'm excited to meet your students!"
Velma really appreciated Isabel taking such a genuine interest in her life. It was certainly more than she could say for Daphne. Speaking of which, Velma noticed Daphne heading towards them.
Her red-haired friend let out a yawn before greeting them. "Good morning."
"Good m - what happened?" Velma cried out when she heard a thud and saw Bumbledore fall to the floor.
"Appears I've had another muffin-related mishap." Bumbledore sighed. "The blueberry ones are extra dangerous, I've found."
"Oh dear, was it the muffins again?" Whirlen ran out to help Bumbledore. "I really need to stop putting pastries out. They're far too dangerous for everyone."
"You're telling me." said a blonde male student who had his arm entirely wrapped up in a cast. "I still haven't recovered from last week's strawberry streusel sprain!"
"So what's the plan for today?" Daphne asked.
"Isabel and I were just talking about it." Velma informed. "It sounds like Isabel thought you might want to look around the castle while I'm prepping for class. Plus, you've got a class at 9:30, right sis?"
"Mmm-hmm." Madelyn confirmed with a nod.
"Sounds good!" Daphne agreed. "I'd love to have a look around."
"We'll meet you in your classroom at 1." Isabel promised.
"Great. It's classroom 1, which, despite what you might think, is on the opposite side of the school." Velma laughed.
"Classroom 1 at 1. Okay, we'll remember that." Daphne nodded.
"Aren't you going to grab breakfast?" Isabel wondered.
"I'm not really hungry." Daphne shrugged. "Guess the only thing I'm hungry for this morning is making some quality paranormal content."
Oh brother. Velma was starting to feel like an inconvenient errand in Daphne's quest to catch the ghost of Merlin on camera. Velma would have really enjoyed eating breakfast with her friend, but Daphne acted as if she didn't care to know about Velma's life at all, beyond the normal pleasantries.
It was nearly 1, and Velma didn't see any sign of Daphne or Isabel. She supposed she couldn't really worry about them, especially when she had so many other things on her plate to think about. One of those things was that Brian was also completely absent, which concerned Velma after she had talked to him yesterday. Maybe her confronting Brian completely scared him away from ever attending class again. She also was still worried about Merlin, even if she was going to be incredibly positive about him again. She hoped that she didn't look as silly as she felt praising Merlin so much, but she didn't feel like she had any other options.
"Alright class, we're going to talk about the next few chapters of Merlin: An Autobiography: The Life and Times of Me. You might have noticed a few religious things discussed in this particular chapter." Velma pointed out.
"Hey, I thought the school handbook said you can't talk about religion in the classroom." Parry pointed out.
"Doesn't it say you only can't specifically teach about religion with the intent to convert?" Velma clarified.
"Oh, I don't know, I don't follow that thing." Parry said, as he began to unzip the red sweatshirt to reveal he was wearing a shirt reading "Hooter's."
"Well, I have, and I don't think you can wear that." Velma scolded.
Parry finished unzipping his sweatshirt to reveal the shirt actually said Little Hooter's Baby Owl Rehabilitation Center. "Hey, you got somethin' against baby owls?"
"Never mind. Anyway, these chapters talk about some of the great things Merlin has done." Velma felt herself starting to stutter, struggling for the right words. "He really was a great man and a great sorcerer, you know! Umm…anyway…I want you to break off into groups and do a project together. Today, you're going to be making a ranked list of Merlin's accomplishments and how you think they contributed to modern magic. Then, you'll pick your favorite accomplishment, and debate with the other groups. The winner of this debate will receive an extra credit point. You'll have all of today to work on this, and everybody will present their findings to the class tomorrow."
Velma immediately felt guilty, and like this was a bit of a cop-out from having to teach. If she were honest with herself, it totally was. She didn't want to risk saying anything that might offend Merlin, and she figured devoting an entire project to his accomplishments was probably the best way not to do that.
At that moment, the teacher noticed that Daphne and Isabel had arrived and were sitting at the back of the room. She quickly hurried over to them.
"Wow, Velma!" Daphne said, making Velma feel a pang of happiness. Her friend must have been really impressed by her class. "Did Merlin pay you to say all that? That was practically a commercial!"
Velma's face immediately fell a bit.
"Oh…I'm sorry. I was just joking." Daphne apologized.
While her apology seemed genuine, it didn't exactly help Velma feel any better. This fed into a much larger insecurity Velma had: with Daphne constantly bragging about how amazing her life was, her life felt boring in comparison. Velma was really proud of this opportunity she'd gotten to teach, but Daphne acted like she barely even cared. Even worse, she acted like this was just an opportunity to get Merlin on camera, rather than genuinely enjoying the opportunity to reunite with her old friend. This wasn't any sort of new problem - Velma distinctly remembered yelling at her in the bookstore for only visiting her to get some ghost that happened to be haunting the store on camera. And worse yet, the person behind the mask wasn't even haunting her bookstore for Velma…they were just using the opportunity to get to Daphne. It felt silly to want a person to have a personal vendetta against her, but when even some guy in a ghost costume was more focused on Daphne than her, it began to make Velma feel extremely boring.
Alas, as a result, Velma sat alone in front of the class while they worked, telling her two friends that she needed to pay attention to what was going on in the class at all times. She could have sat by Daphne and Isabel, but quite frankly, she was a bit upset with the former of those people. Had the days when Daphne actually cared about her as a friend passed? Velma didn't want to admit it was true, but she was starting to fear that it was.
Velma was sitting at dinner with Madelyn in the dining hall. They'd spent the afternoon together in Velma's room working on class in different ways: Velma updating the participation grades on her attendance sheet and planning out the order of who would present when, and Madelyn working on finishing her part of her group's project. In the meantime, Daphne and Isabel had gone out to eat at a restaurant nearby and explore the nearby town. Just more evidence Daphne didn't particularly care about her.
Velma looked up from eating her plate of pasta to address Whirlen, who happened to be walking to get his meal.
"Hello Velma! And how goes the visit with your friend?" Whirlen always had a very antiquated way of saying things, which Velma found a bit charming.
"Pretty good." Velma shrugged. She didn't want to let him know that anything was wrong. "I was surprised you listed that the school was haunted by your ancestor in a brochure."
"I don't know what you mean." Whirlen looked puzzled. "I haven't told anybody about the Merlin hauntings, other than students."
"Hmm…maybe one of the students put it in a brochure?" Velma wondered. "Daphne said she saw it in a brochure, and that's how she knew to come here."
"Suppose so." Whirlen shrugged. "Anyway, I must be going. This pasta isn't going to eat itself, I'm afraid."
"Are you okay, sis?" Madelyn asked once Whirlen went to retrieve his noodle nourishment. "You didn't seem like you were enjoying the visit very much when you told Whirlen."
"Well…I guess what I think doesn't matter." Velma simply stated. She admittedly didn't want to go deep into something she didn't really know how to think about at the moment, even though she really wanted to tell Madelyn. "What have you thought of the visit so far?"
"Honestly, I don't want to offend you, sis…" Madelyn looked worried.
"You won't." Velma promised. "Just say whatever's on your mind."
"Well, Isabel's really nice, but honestly…Daphne seems pretty self-centered to me. She didn't ask anything about us last night, and she just talked about herself the whole time. It seemed like she just thought we would be so amazed by all her stories that she didn't need to ask us about our lives." Madelyn admitted.
Velma was admittedly a bit wowed. She felt quite validated that Madelyn had also noticed everything she felt. Maybe it wasn't just her feeling sorry for herself in her head. Maybe Daphne really was in the wrong here.
"I didn't know anybody else felt that way. I've been feeling that way about her lately too." Velma sighed. "I don't know what to do, though. She's my friend, and I want to be supportive of her. It is really cool that she has her own show, but I could stand without her talking about it all the time."
"Just because she's your friend doesn't mean she can never be wrong. Friends do stuff wrong sometimes, but it doesn't mean you don't have a right to call them out when they're treating you poorly." Madelyn advised. "Sometimes friendships just need a little work."
"You're right. Honestly, I kinda felt like it was all in my head, but it's really nice to hear another perspective on this." Velma smiled. "Thanks, sis."
"Of course. You deserve to be treated with respect." Madelyn reminded.
Hearing Madelyn say that was incredibly affirming to her. Tonight, when Daphne came back to her room, Velma was going to say something if Daphne droned on about herself and acted like it was an inconvenience to work around Velma in her own home.
Velma was sitting on the couch in her room when she heard a knock at the door. She quickly ran to get it, and as she opened the door, she saw it was Daphne and Isabel, back from their dinner.
"Hey! So I just talked to Bumbledore, and it sounds like we have free reign to explore the castle!" Daphne informed. "Want to come with us to see if we can find Merlin?"
"Sure." Velma agreed. "Let's go get Madelyn first. She'll want to come with."
"Oh, I remember where her room is! It's right near the guest room." Isabel informed.
"Okay, sounds good." Daphne agreed.
"I wouldn't exactly trust Bumbledore, though…he greenlights everything." Velma warned.
Nearby in the dining room, Velma noticed two students standing by Bumbledore. One of them, a girl wearing a red shirt and blue shorts, was talking to him.
"Hey, can I start an anti-club club? If you don't know what that is, it's a club for people who don't like clubs. I think you'll find it will be very productive." the student pitched.
"Greenlight! Instant approval! You know what I say, always do what feels right!" Bumbledore repeated his standard line.
"See what I mean?" Velma rolled her eyes.
"Uh…yeah…we might want to ask Whirlen." Daphne chuckled.
"Honestly, a better person to ask might be Marlin. He's Whirlen's brother." Velma suggested. "He knows a lot about Merlin."
"I'm down for that." Isabel shrugged.
"As am I." Daphne agreed.
Meanwhile, Velma noticed another male student wearing a black shirt and jeans walking up to Bumbledore.
"Hey, Bumbledore." the student snickered. "Me and the boys are lookin' to have a little harmless fun tonight. Just as a joke, y'know…we were thinking about rewiring the traffic light near the school so it always turns green when it's actually red, and red when it's supposed to be green. Just to keep things fresh, y'know. What's your opinion on that idea?"
"Greenlight!" Bumbledore exclaimed.
"Heck yeah!" the black-shirted student went to high-five several other students waiting nearby.
"Marlin's just upstairs, but let's go get Madelyn first." Velma instructed.
"Thanks for bringing me along, sis." Madelyn said. "I just wish there weren't so many stairs."
"There are certainly a lot of stairs…are we almost there?" Daphne panted heavily.
"Just a few more. It's this door up there." Velma pointed to Marlin's room, which she could see some light in under the door.
Madelyn knocked on the door once she made the long ascent up the windy staircase. "Hey Marlin, it's Madelyn and Velma!"
"Open up!" Isabel playfully knocked on the door again. "We just went up a lot of stairs for this!"
The door quickly opened. Marlin looked a bit surprised to see that Velma and Madelyn had brought two other people with them.
"Hey Marlin, these are my friends, Daphne and Isabel." Velma tried not to feel frustrated when she said the word 'friends,' because Daphne didn't feel like much of a friend to her lately. "We just had some questions about Merlin."
"Oh, come in, come in." Marlin invited.
"Woah, there are so many books in this place!" Isabel exclaimed when she saw the rows of full bookshelves in Marlin's room.
"Yes, I'm quite the avid reader." Marlin chuckled. "Now, what were your questions?"
"So, I have a bit of an update for you." Velma began. "Merlin confronted me alone in my classroom the other day."
"Oh dear! I was worried about this." Marlin sighed.
"He told me I had to stop teaching about him, or I'd face the consequences." Velma continued.
"Good lord!" Marlin looked astounded. "He's never directly confronted somebody like that before. Have you stopped teaching about him?"
"Well…kind of? I wanted to finish teaching the book I'd already assigned my students, so I've been teaching lessons about him in a way that would be flattering to him, so as not to upset him."
"In other words, a bit like an infomercial." Daphne interjected.
"That was a good choice, Velma. I think you need to stop teaching about him immediately until I'm able to research more on the situation. It's not worth putting your class in danger." Marlin advised. "Thank you for letting me know about this."
"We were thinking about looking for him around the castle. I have a TV show where I capture haunted attractions on film, and I'd love to feature Merlin on this show. Is that okay?" Daphne asked.
Marlin got a look of annoyance on his face, his face scrunching up a little in disdain. "With all due respect, this is hardly some sort of cute fun little thing to put on your show. Merlin is showing more signs of aggression than he ever has before in this school, and it's specifically targeted at your friend. I'm not going to stop you if you choose to do such a foolish thing, but it's hardly a wise idea to rile him up, especially if you care about your friend's safety."
"Oh…sorry to bother you, sir." Daphne meekly replied.
"Thanks for the advice, Marlin." Madelyn appreciated.
"Yes, thank you so much." Velma replied.
"Thank you for telling me. I'm very glad that you did. I'll keep looking into this, and let you know what I find the moment I do." Marlin said.
"Nice to meet you!" Isabel cheerfully chirped.
"Nice to meet you both as well. Take care." Marlin replied, his voice noticeably getting a tad bit colder when talking to the visitors.
They all remained silent until they had gotten a decent way down the stairs, after which Daphne was the first to speak up.
"Well, he was kind of a jerk. I'm not going to let that stop us from investigating this mystery, though." Daphne vowed. "I say that we still should investigate the castle."
"He wasn't a jerk, Daphne." Velma sighed. "He was just concerned for our safety."
"Yeah, Marlin's great." Madelyn added. "He just wants to make sure all of us don't get in a dangerous situation."
"Trust me, I've been in these situations before." Daphne confidently said. "Somebody always warns me away because they think it's too dangerous. There was this guy at a gas station by some haunted cabins where Shaggy, Scooby and I were staying, and he warned me about this ghost that was haunting the place and that I needed to stay away. Often, the best content for the show comes when I do go into those places that I'm warned not to enter."
Velma tried to keep her composure and not get too upset, although Daphne was really pushing her buttons. She calmly took a deep breath before she spoke. "Have you ever stopped to think about how it's not all about content?"
"When you're in the business I'm in, trust me, it's all about content." Daphne let out a light chuckle.
Velma decided to just ignore the remark for now. "So where do you want to start?"
"I was thinking in the basement." Daphne suggested. Velma had admittedly never gone down there before, since she never really needed to, so she had no idea what it looked like.
"That's fine. You'll know the place as much as I will, though. I haven't been down there." Velma said.
"I have." Madelyn informed. "It's a pretty nice place, although kind of spooky. It's got some old-style classrooms."
"I think it's around this corner?" Isabel guessed. "I got a little lost yesterday, so I passed by it on the way to the guest room."
"Yeah, it is!" Madelyn confirmed, as the group headed over towards the basement door. She held the door open for everyone, including a group of three snickering male students.
"What were you guys doing down there?" Velma asked.
"Uh…basement stuff." one of them quickly said, before the group ran off.
"Oh wow, it's spooky down here." Isabel commented. There were currently no lights on in the basement, making it impossible to see anything.
"I'm trying to feel around for a lightswitch, but it's not working." Daphne lamented.
"What do you mean, it's not working?" Madelyn inquired.
"I mean I feel like I'm hitting a switch, and it isn't working." Daphne clarified her previous comment.
"Let me try." Velma offered, as she brushed the palms of her hands along the firm, dense wall. It took her a moment, but she quickly felt the lightswitch that her friend was talking about. Sure enough, she couldn't get the switch to turn on.
"That must have been what those kids were doing down here." Madelyn presumed. "They were messing around with the lights."
"You should not have come down here." a creepy voice rasped.
"Daphne, turn your camera on!" Isabel shouted. Velma couldn't really see, but the rustling around in the dark made it sound as if the redhead was fumbling to get it on so she could record. The light from the device lit up the basement enough for Velma to see what they are dealing with.
"Velma Dinkley, I warned you not to meddle in my affairs, and yet you brought your friends down here to find me!" the wizard hissed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to!" Velma cried.
"This is your final warning! If you do not heed my words, you and your friends shall deeply regret it." Merlin snarled, as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Did you get all that, Daphne?" Isabel asked.
"I sure did!" Daphne gasped. "Jeepers, that was scary! Is everybody okay?"
A chorus of "yes" and "mhmm" affirmed Daphne's statement.
"I bet if we go in your classroom tomorrow and you talk bad about Merlin, he'll show up again, and we can get him on film saying why he's haunting the place!" Daphne said.
Velma felt a frustration bubble up in her. Daphne didn't even seem to care that she would be putting her class in danger; she just wanted to do things that served her own self-interest.
"Daphne, sometimes you're just too much!" Velma snapped.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Daphne retorted.
"C'mon guys, let's get up these stairs before we keep talking. I don't like it down here." Isabel shuddered.
Everyone trudged up the stairs as they headed back into the light. Madelyn held the door open.
"Daphne, what it's supposed to mean is that sometimes all you care about is your show. You don't even care about putting my students in danger. What if Merlin gets vengeful and attacks them? Is that worth it for your show?" Velma growled.
"I'm…" Daphne's excited expression waned to a guilty glance. "I'm sorry. You're right. I wasn't thinking that one through. Maybe there's some other way we can get him on camera."
"That's what I mean. You're always talking about that stupid show." Velma sighed. "I'm happy for you that you have a show you're so passionate about, but there's no need to make that the only thing you ever focus on or talk about."
"I do not just only talk about that show!" Daphne defended.
"Yes you do! You didn't even care what I was doing with my life. You're only here for Merlin." Velma got increasingly worked up.
"I absolutely care about what you're doing!" Daphne rebuked.
"You don't act like it! You didn't even ask me a single thing about myself, and we talked about you for an hour whereas we talked about me for ten minutes. Heck, you've barely addressed Madelyn, and I don't even really know Isabel besides the fact that she's your new sidekick or whatever, because you wouldn't let her talk or introduce yourself! All I know about her is your stories, because you always have to be the center of attention!" Velma's voice raised from a level of frustrated banter to an angry shout.
It was clear Velma's words hit Daphne hard, because she had no reply to this for at least a minute.
"Look…I'm sorry." Daphne looked like she was tearing up. "I wasn't trying to be mean, I just was excited about seeing you here, and I wanted you to know what was going on in my life…but I didn't really know how. We really don't see each other that much anymore…I mean, at least, not compared to how it was where we saw each other every moment. It feels weird we never really hang out anymore…I've been trying to do more stuff with Shaggy, so I wanted to try to initiate that with you again when he told me about Merl - oops."
Daphne suddenly became silent.
"Wait a minute, so Whirlen was right! There was no brochure. You just made the whole thing up!" Velma gasped. "Why would you lie?"
"I never wanted to hurt you! I just thought it would be a good excuse, where I wouldn't have to actually admit that I was coming to see you, because it had been so long and I felt awkward. Jeepers, I mean, the last time we talked was when I said I was going on that trip to Sumley's, and that was like…fall? I felt bad about that…so I thought it would be more natural to just say I stumbled upon the school myself. I don't know. I made a mess of things. I'm a terrible person!" Daphne broke into tears.
"You're not a terrible person, Daphne…sometimes you just have to be less focused on yourself." Velma tried to phrase it in a way that wouldn't upset her friend further.
"Ugh…I'm so embarrassed. I'm sorry. I need to get to bed." Daphne said. "Can you give me the keys?"
"Sure." Velma nodded, handing the redhead the keys. Whether she intended it or not, Daphne could be a bit too full of herself at times…Velma just hoped she hadn't been too harsh. She felt really bad for upsetting Daphne so much, but she hoped Daphne would feel better enough in the morning to discuss it further.
Velma awoke from her slumber as the late February sun shined down on her brunette hair through the window.
"Good morning." Velma greeted her cohabiting comrade.
"Hi." Daphne meekly said.
"Listen Daph, I'm sorry if I was too harsh last night. I was just feeling invisible, I guess. You spent so much time talking about your stuff that one night, and we didn't talk about mine at all. You even worked your schedule around what you wanted to do when you're visiting me." Velma shared. "I don't want to make you feel bad, I was just feeling like you were acting as if I were unimportant or not as good as you."
"Wait a minute…are you jealous?" Daphne wondered.
Velma genuinely hadn't considered that question before, but stopped to think for a moment before she answered.
"Maybe a little." Velma sighed. "But it still doesn't excuse your actions."
"You're right, it doesn't." Daphne admitted. "I can understand why you'd be jealous, but your life is pretty amazing too. You're teaching at a school for magicians. How many people can say they've done that?
"I mean, I won't be in another nine weeks." Velma said. "I'll be back to running my boring old bookstore."
"Is it boring to you, or do you just think it's boring to other people?" Daphne questioned.
"I loved my quiet life. However, working in a bookstore is objectively probably the most boring job you could possibly tell people you have." Velma responded.
"Who cares what other people think? Their judgment shouldn't mean anything to you." Daphne pointed out. "You love your life, and that's what matters, right?"
After Daphne had been kind of full of herself, Velma was astounded at the amazing advice the redhead had provided.
"Yeah." Velma's facial expression shifted from a groggy stupor to a smile. "You're right. I'm sorry I said all that about you."
"Why are you apologizing?" Daphne asked. "You were completely justified in everything you said. Sometimes I do get a little carried away with talking about my show to people, and it's something I need to work on. I'm sorry I was acting like I wasn't interested in what you had to say. That was wrong. I'll make you a deal…I'll promise to work on being a little too focused on myself, if you promise to work on your self-esteem. Deal?"
Velma felt all the appreciation and recognition from Daphne that she had been missing come racing back. It was great to hear Daphne admit that she could be too self-centered at times, and especially to hear the sentiment that Velma didn't need to feel subconscious about her life. Daphne was absolutely right: this job was fulfilling to Velma, and that was enough.
"Deal." Velma agreed.
Velma and Daphne realized they were the last ones at breakfast as they got their food and saw Madelyn and Isabel were already sitting at their normal table.
"Good morning!" Madelyn greeted. "How'd you both sleep?"
"Pretty good!" Velma informed.
"I slept well too." Daphne said. "Hey…um…I just wanted to say I'm sorry, Madelyn. Velma was right last night about me not making much of an effort to get to know you, and that was wrong of me."
"Oh…" Madelyn looked surprised that Daphne was apologizing to her, but pleasantly so. "No problem. I appreciate your apology."
"How'd you sleep, Isabel?" Velma inquired.
"Oh, decent." Isabel replied.
"I'm gonna go pack up my suitcase after breakfast." Daphne informed.
"I've already got mine in the car." Isabel informed. "I said goodbye to Jeff. Nice guy. We'll keep in touch. We're having lunch next week, actually."
"Oh, do you guys have to head out soon?" Madelyn inquired.
"You'd be welcome to sit in on my class, if you want. Just to meet some of my students." Velma suggested.
"You know, I think I'd like that." Daphne smiled.
It was a minute before 1, and Velma had just seen John come in. He was the last remaining student who was not in the room yet…except Brian, who Velma sadly didn't expect to see today. She would have to talk to Whirlen about him next week if he continued to not attend.
"Alright class, we're going to do our presentations today on Merlin, but first I'd like to introduce you to some special guests." Velma pointed to Daphne and Isabel sitting in the back of the room.
"This is Daphne Blake. You might know her from the TV show Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake on the Americana network." Velma introduced. "And this is Isabel, her travel partner when going to the haunted attractions she visits for her show. They're going to sit in and watch your presentations today. Now, let's start with group 5."
Velma had a feeling that one was going to be relatively bad, as group 5 never produced great work.
"Uh…Merlin's greatest accomplishment is that he was a sorcerer!" Ron stuttered.
"Ooh, magic!" Mike whispered.
"How many people can say that, am I right, or am I right?!" Parry confidently said.
Velma tried not to let out an audible sigh at how extremely poor quality their presentation was.
"How exactly did you come to that conclusion?" Velma inquired.
"Well…he's a sorcerer! Isn't that enough to ask of the guy?" Parry defended.
"Okay." Velma sighed quietly. She decided not to push the group, as clearly they'd put nearly zero preparation into this. She would need to have a talk with that group. "Let's mix it up a little bit today. Group 1, would you like to go next?"
"Sure!" Kennedy agreed.
"Brian's not here, though." Mitch mentioned. "In fact, he probably doesn't even know we're doing this assignment, given he's been gone since Monday!"
"I know." Velma tried to not reveal too much detail of her presumptions that Brian was hiding out of fear of being confronted by her. "It's okay, just go on with your presentation."
"Okay then." Mitch began. "We think Merlin's biggest accomplishment was protecting Arthur."
"They talked a lot about this in the book. It was clear that he completely dedicated himself to ensure the prince was safe, so that he could return magic to the land of Camelot." Kennedy explained.
"Excellent! Let's jump to group 4 next." Velma said.
"In our opinion, Merlin's greatest accomplishment was fighting his sister Morgan le Fay. He had to deal with great inner turmoil in realizing that a member of his family had become evil, and it took a lot of courage for him to realize that somebody he loved was in the wrong." Kara began.
"Morgan was sneaky and manipulative, so arguably, Merlin was a brave man for standing up to his sister." Katie added.
"Yeah, Merlin dealt with a lot, but he kept at it no matter what came at him." Velma found John's addition to be a bit generic compared to the other two, especially when it was next to Kara's incredible contribution, but she didn't let it bother her too much as the group's argument was otherwise very good.
"Wonderful job! Let's go to group 2 next." Velma pointed to the group, who was currently sitting near the back by Daphne and Isabel.
"Defeating the dragon was Merlin's biggest accomplishment." Owen said.
"I mean, just think about how much courage it would take to defeat a literal dragon! So scary." Ashley enthusiastically continued.
"Yeah, dragons are pretty dangerous, so it took Merlin a lot of mental courage and emotional courage to make it through that situation." Ramando added.
The argument came off a little flat, but she knew all of them were in their first year at Whirlen Merlin's, so she felt less cynical about it than she did with group 5's poor presentation.
"Great! This will be our final group to share before the groups all come up and debate. Group 3?" Velma knew Madelyn's group would have a very well thought through argument.
"Ours was kind of similar to group 1's." Sabrina warned.
"That's okay, go ahead." Velma encouraged.
"We think Merlin's greatest accomplishment was the act of protecting the throne." Sadie stated. "That took so much dedication and courage."
"There were times he almost gave his life for the throne." Sabrina argued. "That's true courage right there."
"Merlin sacrificed himself for his people, and that was truly an honorable deed." Madelyn added.
"Merlin dedicated his life to protecting the people, and if that's not an amazing accomplishment, I don't know what is." Annabelle concluded.
"Wonderful job, everyone! It's now time for you to debate against each other. Group 1 and 2 can debate, then group 3 and group 4…and…" Velma knew it didn't really matter which groups she put group 5 with, since their argument was so atrocious. "Group 5 can be with groups 3 and 4 as well. Groups 3, 4 and 5: your question essentially boils down to is protecting your people, dealing with the heartache of betrayal, or being a sorcerer more important?" Velma internally cringed when she said the last one.
"Awww yeah baby, I know which one they gon' choose!" Parry muttered.
"You know what, I'll be the first to say that I think protecting your people is most important." Kara said, to the class's surprise. "We didn't think about him protecting the throne from that angle. I think group 3's argument is the best."
"Wow…thank you." Madelyn looked shocked.
"Butcha still gotta face off against group numba five!" Parry slyly smirked. "He couldn't have protected the throne if he wasn't a sorcerer. Boom! Check and mate."
"Group 3 wins!" Velma exclaimed. "Him being a sorcerer wasn't an accomplishment because it's not like he worked to get his powers; he just had them."
"It is so an accomplishment! He was a sorcerer! What more could you want from the guy?" Parry snapped.
Velma chose just to ignore Parry's ramblings. "Group 1 and 2, it's your turn to debate."
"I guess our answer seems pretty silly in comparison to theirs." Owen blushed.
"Yeah…Merlin protecting Arthur is far more important than fighting a dragon." Ashley agreed.
"So that just leaves group 1 and group 3, and we both have very similar arguments." Mitch pointed out.
"I would argue that you could make a case for both, personally." Madelyn pointed out. "By protecting Arthur, he was protecting his people."
"Yeah, can more than one group win?" Sabrina asked.
"Absolutely. In fact, I was hoping they would. The point of this exercise was to get you to engage in dialogue about the perspectives that you read with one another. There's no one right or wrong answer, in fact, the majority of your perspectives were right." Velma wanted to say 'all,' but it would be hard to be more wrong than group 5's answer. "The important thing is that you talked about what stood out to you most. Now, class is just about over, but before you leave, I want you to come up here so you can see the grade I gave you."
The students began packing up their belongings, and each group sent a representative up to check their grades.
"Nice, we got an A!" Madelyn rushed back to inform her group after she looked at Velma's sheet.
"Sweet, an A!" Mitch said to Kennedy as both of them glanced at the grade sheet.
"B. That's pretty good!" Ashley said.
Next, John came up to see his grade. "Nice, we got an A! Thanks, Ms. D!"
She was admittedly hoping group 5 would be the last, as she needed to have a conversation with them. She saw Daphne and Isabel, who she'd admittedly forgotten about due to getting so caught up in grading the students.
"Aww, sweet, I bet we got a big fat honkin'...F?!" Parry gasped. "What's the meaning of this transgression against academia?"
Ron and Mike quickly hurried up to the front of the room when they heard Parry's frustrated exclamation. Jake eventually sauntered up as well.
"Well, I don't want to hurt any of your feelings, but…" Velma cautiously said.
"You don't know how to grade? Yeah, we noticed that!" Mike exclaimed.
"Mike, there's no need for insults." Velma's tone suddenly became more firm. "Your presentation was poor."
"Umm, I think you mean to say academically disadvantaged." Parry joked.
"This is no time for jokes, guys." Velma sighed. "Your presentation didn't have any information in it that couldn't have been said from not even reading the book."
"Well, I never! I'll have you know that I skimmed this book very thoroughly." Parry replied.
"I really think you guys have potential, but if you keep doing assignments this poorly, I'm afraid you're going to fail this course. I hate to say this, but you really need to step it up and start putting some effort into your assignments. That goes for your weekly assignments too." Velma warned. "Have a good weekend, you all."
Parry and Mike stormed off in a frustrated stupor, while Ron simply looked worried. Jake, as per usual, looked disengaged. In fact, Velma hadn't thought about it in the moment, but he didn't even say anything in his group's presentation. He simply didn't contribute at all. While she was going to at least give the group a 1/10 for a very slight effort, Jake was going to have to get a zero for his complete lack of engagement.
"Wow…I had no idea how good of a teacher you are." Daphne gasped.
"Oh…this? This is nothing." Velma shrugged off. "I was just trying to help them, because we're already halfway through the course as of next week, and they were going to fail if I didn't say something to prompt them to turn it around."
"Yeah, but you weren't just lecturing or making the students read stuff. You really were engaging them in the content." Daphne smiled.
"Yeah, you were a total boss up there!" Isabel agreed.
"You're amazing, Velma. I'm so lucky to have such a cool, kind person as my friend." Daphne responded. For the first time in forever, the redhead wrapped her arms around the brunette and gave her a hug, making Velma feel very warm inside.
It was a considerably nice day for wintertime. The sun was shining, and it was just barely warm enough for Velma not to need gloves. She admittedly couldn't remember the last time she'd been outside, as she spent all her time in the castle and never really had anywhere to go. Velma, Madelyn, Daphne and Isabel were all gathered by Daphne's red car.
"It was so amazing seeing you again, Velma." Daphne smiled. "And it was nice meeting you, Madelyn!"
"Nice meeting you both too!" Madelyn said.
"It was a lot of fun seeing you again too, Daphne." Velma responded. "Great meeting you as well, Isabel!"
"Yeah, super nice meeting you both!" Isabel replied.
To Velma's surprise, she saw Whirlen rushing out of the school as well.
"I wanted to say goodbye before you both left. It was so nice having you here! I hope you enjoyed your stay, and I wish you both all the best." Whirlen said farewell. "Always nice having guests staying here at the Me School of Magic!"
"Thanks, Marlin." Daphne accidentally misremembered his name. "It was pretty nice, other than running into Merlin, of course."
"You ran into my ancestor?" Whirlen gasped. "Why didn't you inform me?"
"I'm sorry, I promise I was going to tell you after they left." Velma apologized. "We just saw him in the basement yesterday with the lights out.
"We thought it was some kids messing with the lights, but I think Merlin short-circuited the lights to scare us." Madelyn added.
"Why did you think it was the kids?" Whirlen questioned.
"They said they were doing 'basement stuff' or something dumb like that." Daphne answered.
"Why, I'll have you know those students were doing some very honorable basement stuff down there! They were dusting, cleaning, and washing down everything since the janitor called in sick. Have you got something against basement stuff or something?" Whirlen became defensive.
"No…no, we don't." Daphne looked a little bewildered.
"I've got something against basement stuff." Velma could hear Isabel playfully mutter.
"Regardless, I must check into the Merlin thing. Thank you for informing me." Whirlen appreciated. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a tennis match to get to."
"I didn't know there were any tennis courts around here." Madelyn looked a little confused.
"I said a tennis match, not a tennis game! As in, I need to get to the shoe store and get some new tennis shoes that match my socks." Whirlen scurried off.
Isabel waited until Whirlen was out of earshot to make her next comment. "He's sort of a character, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he is." Velma chuckled. "I like him though. And I like this school."
"I think it's safe to say this school likes you." Daphne smiled. "I saw all those students beaming at your knowledge and loving the activity you had for them. I think you're doing great work here."
Velma felt like she should affirm Daphne's show back, since she was kind enough to compliment her on teaching. "You are too. It's amazing you have your own show, and I'm really proud of you."
"Maybe sometime you'd join me filming an episode?" Daphne suggested. "I'd love to have you come along!"
"That would be great." Velma's facial expression shifted into a smile.
"Then it's set. I'll bring you along when you get back to Coolsville in May!" Daphne agreed, as she began getting in the driver's seat, and Isabel went around to the passenger's seat. "Bye, Velma! Can't wait to see you again soon."
"I can't wait either!" Velma replied, as Daphne got fully in the car and began to drive away.
As Velma and Madelyn watched Daphne and Isabel drive off, Velma started getting reflective on her old life. It was nothing like it was now, but Velma was truly loving every moment of teaching. It was beginning to even feel like home to her. Even if it were temporary, Velma was so happy she had gotten this experience, and teaching here felt arguably like one of the most fulfilling things she'd ever done.
Author's note:
This chapter was so much fun to write. If you haven't read my other fanfic, this chapter was essentially a crossover with my first-ever fanfic Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake. Canonically in the universe of my fanfics, this chapter takes place in between the nineteenth and twentieth chapter of Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake ("A Coast-mas Carol" and "A Night to Remember"). I basically see Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake and Whirlen Merlin's School of Magic as happening at the same time.
Getting to have characters I'd written from a fanfic years ago and seeing how my writing has evolved since then was such a fun writing exercise. Given the other fanfic was all from Daphne's perspective, it was really cool to explore how Daphne is perceived by Velma within that fanfic. For those unfamiliar with the fanfic, there was a falling out between them at one point, so this chapter allowed me to explore why Velma had been upset with her from a different perspective. This was something I had never done before in my writing, and it made the process of writing this chapter one of the most enjoyable times I've ever had writing a fanfic chapter.
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it!