Sponge: It's me! Hi! I'm the author, it's me! (Can you tell I've been listening to a lot of Taylor Swift this week?) Anyway, here's chapter 14! Please enjoy! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna Barbera.
Chapter 14: We're Already Apart
Since Scooby was already standing so close to Shaggy, it was easy for him to jump into his arms. Shaggy staggered slightly under the weight, a bit impressed that he'd been able to catch the dog in the dark.
The recording device clattered to the floor as Daphne dropped it. Instinctively, she reached for Fred's hand. He gripped it tightly.
"What happened?" he exclaimed, though it was a bit of a rhetorical question – he figured the sudden lack of electricity had something to do with the thunder and lightning outside.
Mr. Farquard confirmed. "It appears the power has gone out due to the storm. Quite honestly, I'm a bit surprised it's taken this long, considering we've been without cellphone reception since the clouds began rolling in."
"Okay so like, what do we do?" Shaggy asked, digging his phone out of his pocket to turn on his flashlight app. He was dismayed to discover, however, that his phone was at less than twenty percent battery life. Fred and Velma brought out their phones as well.
"Not to worry," said the butler. "The breaker box is in the basement. My wife and I will attempt to reset it."
A flash of lightning lit up the sky outside. The brief illumination through the window above the sink revealed Mrs. Farquard on her knees in front of it. "This is where the torches are kept," she explained. "Though of course, here you call them flashlights." She came away with a pair, her silhouetted frame rising to stand beside her husband once more. She handed a flashlight to him, then turned on the other. The light was quite dim, especially compared to the cellphones.
"Once we've reset the breaker, we'll come back upstairs," the butler promised, turning on his flashlight as well. "In the meantime, you all should stay here. Perhaps you can figure out the General's clue."
The Farquards left the room by the light of their flashlight. But once they – and the light – were gone, the gang discovered they were at a loss.
"Well…what do we do now?" asked Shaggy.
Fred frowned. "First things first – we should get some flashlights too," he said. "I'm worried that if we keep using our phones for light, we're going to run out of battery, so we should make sure we have back-up options."
Daphne knelt beside the cabinet under the sink and began digging through the contents. It was slow-going, since she was feeling around in the dark – she had left her own phone upstairs. Fred noticed and handed her his phone to use for light. "Thanks babe," she said, still half buried beneath the sink. "In the meantime, what do we think of the clue the Farquards gave us?"
Shaggy had put the piece of paper in his jeans pocket, and dug it out now, shining his phone flashlight on it. Fred read over his shoulder, frowning in concentration. "Your uncle said this was a riddle?"
Shaggy nodded. "Yeah. Like, a code. I think."
Fred nodded thoughtfully. The gang had some experience with codes – the most recent of which had been last summer. He would prefer not to think about that though. It had been one of the most terrifying times in his life. But his birth parents were amateur cryptologists, and in the year or so that he'd been able to get to know them (from afar – they lived in Chicago, but they visited Coolsville whenever they could), they'd taught him a little about cracking codes.
"This is probably a book cipher," he said at last. "Each group of three numbers represents a different aspect – the first number is probably a page, the second number is a line on that page, and the third number is the word in that line. Most likely, it's for a book in the General's private library."
"But how will we know which book?" asked Daphne. She had stood up and begun handing flashlights to each member of the gang. "There are dozens of books in that library – maybe even hundreds."
Fred glanced at Shaggy. "It might be that Beauregard history book," he suggested. It made the most sense to him, though there was one big hurdle: the fact that it was not written in English.
Shaggy sighed. "I hope not. We like, have no way to translate it."
"It was the only book that was remotely helpful," Daphne reminded him.
"But it wasn't the book that was helpful," Shaggy argued. "It was like, the floor plan that we found inside it."
Daphne conceded – Shaggy had a point. "Maybe we should go back to the library and have another look at all the books," she suggested. "We might find something we missed when we were in there this morning."
Fred doubted it, but he thought it was the best course of action. "Sure," he agreed. "It's worth a shot."
Shaggy realized that Velma had been awfully quiet this whole time. "What do you think, Velm?" he said, turning towards her. In the dim light of his flashlight, he noticed that she was scowling. "What?" he asked at the look on her face.
"Nothing," she replied, her voice petulant. She couldn't help her tone. Everyone else was having all these great ideas and revelations, while she just stood around feeling – and being – useless. It was not something she was used to. So it made her angry and defensive.
Daphne put her hands on her hips, fed up with these shenanigans. "All right," she scolded. "Enough is enough. Velma, you have to tell us what's going on."
"Nothing's going on," Velma lied.
But Daphne wasn't hearing it. "Oh please," she scoffed. "You've been acting weird all summer."
"She's right, Velm," Fred added. Daphne was right – she'd been right yesterday too, when she'd brought it up in the parlor. Fred just hadn't been paying attention. But he was now. It was impossible not to. "You haven't been yourself at all," he continued gently.
Velma cut her eyes at him, but because the only light came from their dim flashlights, the effect was less poignant.
But Fred had a point. She wasn't herself. Shaggy knew this. Velma wasn't the bright, confident, helpful girl he remembered from high school. She had changed into a surly, sulky person. But how? And why?
"Did like…something happen?" he asked her. "Like at school or something?"
Velma felt her face blanch, grateful the gang couldn't tell in the dark. "What?" she said, trying to keep her voice casual.
But Scooby heard the unease behind it, and he knew. Of course something had happened to her at school. Since she'd come back this summer, she hadn't talked about Stanford or her classes or her professors once. And that was so unlike her. Velma loved school. She loved learning. Why would she be so reluctant to talk about something that she loved so much?
"Relma," he said softly. "Rhat rappened?"
Scooby, as a dog, had better night vision than his human companions, so he could see the minute Velma's expression changed. Where there had once been anxiety, Scooby now saw something he had rarely seen on Velma's face.
Disgrace.
He realized that whatever had happened to her must have been something huge, something enormous. He couldn't imagine what would have caused her to feel such shame, but his heart broke for her, that she had to feel this way all alone. He wouldn't stand for it.
"Roo can tell us," Scooby murmured, padding over to stand by her.
A war was raging in Velma's heart and brain. She'd been keeping this secret for so long that it was threatening to burst out like water from a leaky dam. At this point, it was causing more trouble to keep it in. I want them to know, she realized. But I don't want to tell them.
They would never look at her the same if she told them what had happened. What she had done.
"I…I can't." Her voice was so small.
Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy all exchanged concerned glances. They could hear the pain in her tone now too.
Scooby sat in front of her. "Rhen just rell me," he suggested. He sat down at her feet and glanced up at her expectantly.
Velma looked back down at him.
Scooby Doo was many things. Wimpy. Gluttonous. Silly. Dramatic.
But he was not judgmental.
Velma sat cross-legged on the kitchen floor. She was wearing shorts, so she could feel the cool tiles against the backs of her thighs. Scooby lay beside her to put his head in her lap, and the heavy warmth steadied her. She stroked his neck absently, letting her courage build.
"Rake your time," Scooby told her. "Rhenever you're ready."
She was hyper-aware of Shaggy, Daphne, and Fred standing behind her, though she couldn't see them. But she tried not to focus on them. Only on Scooby, on the weight of his head on her knee, how his coarse fur felt beneath her fingers.
She took a deep breath, resolved.
"I don't know how it happened," she began. "First semester, everything was fine. I mean, the workload was heavy with homework and my job in the lab, but I was keeping up. My professors all loved me. But my classmates…" She paused. "They were a different story."
Scooby said nothing, merely kept his head resting on Velma's knee. No one else in the gang spoke either.
She went on.
"I was so much younger than all of them. For the first week, the guy I sat next to in Organic Chemistry 101 thought I was a high schooler who was doing some kind of dual-enrollment thing. It took him forever to realize that I was his classmate, his peer. A lot of the people in my class were like that. And they never really…accepted me."
With the help of the flashlights, their eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, so Daphne exchanged a look with Fred. She had a vague memory from elementary school, when Velma had arrived in their third grade class, even though she was still supposed to be in second grade. Several kids in their grade had made fun of Velma that year, the fact that she was a know-it-all who didn't belong. But that had been over ten years ago. They had been children then. Surely these college students hadn't been so awful?
Velma was speaking again. Now that she had started, she didn't want to stop. She wanted to get the story out.
She wanted it to be over.
"I didn't really care, though. Not then. In the fall, I was in the top five percent of my class. I was the only frosh who had declared a double major in physics and chemistry. I didn't have a life – I spent every night studying or working in the lab – but I was doing it. I didn't care about making new friends. I just wanted to succeed. And the chem classes weren't really that bad. It was the physics courses that were giving me a run for my money. But I passed all my classes and finals with a 4.0 at the end of the semester."
Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy had sat down on the floor behind her. She still wasn't facing them, but Scooby could see them from where he lay. All three of them were looking at Velma with concern and confusion etched on their faces. Scooby felt the same.
"Ro…rhat happened rin the rpring?" he asked quietly.
Velma involuntarily clenched her hand into a fist. "In the spring I took Quantum Mechanics," she whispered. "And it was…impossible."
Shaggy felt his eyebrows shoot up. Impossible was not usually a word found in Velma's vocabulary, at least in regards to her skills.
"I don't know why I had such a brain block with it," she went on. "But it was a nightmare. The workload was absurd. I've never had that much trouble with a class before. And I was too…embarrassed to ask my classmates for help. Instead I just started neglecting to study for my chemistry requisite courses in order to keep up. It worked – I started doing better." She hesitated again, this time much longer than before. At last, she murmured, "But then my O Chem grades started to suffer."
Now the gang felt truly bewildered. Velma was a science whiz. How was that possible?
"I was in danger of…failing," she admitted, trying with all her strength to keep her voice from shaking. "And I don't mean like, the 'B-plus is failing' mindset my parents drilled into me and my sisters. I mean…by spring break, my average grade in O Chem 102 was…" Her voice caught, and she swallowed, steeling herself. "...sixty-three percent."
D-minus.
Scooby thought he might faint dead away, but he forced himself to keep any emotion from showing. Velma did not need to know how shocked they were.
But the rest of the gang apparently couldn't help themselves. Shaggy's and Fred's jaws had dropped open, and Daphne let out an audible gasp.
Scooby shot her a death glare, but she didn't notice.
"Oh Velma…" she began. That was when she saw the look Scooby was giving her and stopped talking.
Velma went on as though Daphne hadn't spoken at all.
"I was…desperate." Her voice was barely a whisper. "I didn't know what to do. I needed both O Chem and Quantum Mechanics for my majors, but I didn't have enough time or energy to devote to them both."
Curiosity burned Scooby's tongue until he couldn't take it anymore. "Rhat did rou do?" he asked.
Velma squeezed her eyes shut. Everyone waited with bated breath.
"Just before spring break, we had midterms," she said. "I knew I wasn't going to do well on my O Chem exam. But because of my work study job, I had a key to the science lab…" She paused again. "…And my professor's office."
Scooby furrowed his brow, unsure of what she was getting at. But it was just dawning on Fred and Shaggy…and Daphne was already there.
"Oh my God, Velma…" she murmured, unable to help herself.
To Daphne's credit, there was no disappointment or pity in her tone. Only compassion.
It gave Velma the courage to say what she needed to say next.
"I stole the test answers," she admitted miserably. "It was easy to find them on his computer. But my professor caught me. He gave me an F on the exam. I went to an academic integrity hearing. And…" She hesitated, gathering strength. "…they suspended me for the rest of the semester."
Everyone in the gang was absolutely silent. The mystery of why their friend was acting so strangely had been solved…but it wasn't anything that they could have predicted.
Velma Dinkley – brilliant, honest Velma – had cheated on a test. And she'd gotten suspended for it.
Daphne and Fred looked at each other, stunned.
Shaggy felt like he'd been punched in the stomach.
Scooby was glad that Velma was turned away so she couldn't see the gang's faces. He looked up at her again, and discovered that she had begun to cry. No weeping or gnashing of teeth, just silent tears streaming down her freckled cheeks and her shoulders shaking almost imperceptibly.
Daphne noticed though, and immediately wiped the shocked look off her face to scoot forward and wrap her arms around Velma.
"Oh Velm," she said. She could feel tears building in her ducts, and the telltale tightness was growing in her throat. It was hard for Daphne not to feel emotional when her friends were in such distress. She didn't want to say anything else, in case she was unable to suppress a sob. But she swallowed and said, in a rather thick voice, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that all by yourself."
Velma wiped her cheeks with her hand and removed her foggy glasses to wipe them on the hem of her shirt. "Well…I wasn't totally by myself," she admitted. "After my suspension, I went to Pasadena to stay with Marcie Fleach for the rest of the semester."
Shaggy felt ire sear his blood. He knew that Marcie and Velma were friends, but Marcie had also had a crush on Velma in high school. Shaggy was not proud of this, but he considered Marcie to be a rival for Velma's affections on some level. He didn't want to make this about him, about his feelings – especially given how much Velma was struggling – but he reacted anyway. "Marcie? Why?"
Scooby shot Shaggy a warning look.
Fred put a calming hand on Shaggy's shoulder. "I think, what he means," he said. "Is that you could have come back to Coolsville…or even New York or Chicago. Any of us would have let you stay with us. How come you didn't reach out?"
"You were too far away," Velma mumbled, putting her glasses back on. "And I didn't want to face my parents. There was so much pressure…I've always been the golden child, you know? My sisters had their issues, but I was the one who could somehow do no wrong. But now…it's like I can't do anything right. It's happening with this mystery, too — I don't have all the answers, and I'm not finding any clues. It's discouraging, and humiliating. And it all stems from…this." She sighed. "I couldn't go home and tell my parents I'd failed."
"You'll be able to retake the class though, right?" asked Fred. "Once you go back, I mean."
Velma shifted in her seat on the floor. "I might not go back," she confessed. "I'm thinking of…quitting."
Shaggy's mind felt blank. "Quitting what?" he asked. It was several moments of Scooby, Daphne, and Fred all staring at him expectantly before he realized. "Wait…quitting school? Like are you serious?!"
Scooby glared at him. Shaggy really was not helping this situation.
Daphne tried a different tack. "Why didn't you tell us any of this?" she asked, softening her voice. "I thought we were done with secrets – it almost tore us apart in high school."
"We're already apart," Velma murmured softly, still only looking at Scooby. "None of us even live in the same state anymore, and we're almost all in different time zones. And after winter break, it felt like you all kind of… moved on from our friendship. Not because any of us wanted to stop being friends, but because we're all so far apart now that it's hard to keep up these friendships long-distance."
"That's not true!" Daphne cried. "We're still your friends, Velma…it doesn't matter how far apart we are."
Velma sighed and finally turned around to face the others. "Yes it does," she whispered. "It shouldn't…but it does."
Her eyes began welling up again, and her throat burned with unshed tears. But she forged on.
"Do you remember that first semester, when we would video chat every Wednesday?" she asked.
The others nodded. Once a week for the first few months of school, they would log onto their computers or open apps on their phones for a video call. They'd stopped around November, when things had gotten too busy and they had the promise of Thanksgiving break to hold them over.
Velma inhaled. "I lived for those nights," she admitted. "I missed all of you so much. And I was…so lonely. So homesick."
"We were all homesick at the start," Fred tried. "I missed you guys more than anything."
"Me too," Daphne agreed. "It took me months before I stopped feeling lonely."
But Velma shook her head. "That feeling never went away for me," she told them. "Not once. And it was so much worse for me because…I was alone."
"So were we," Fred argued, but Velma quited him with a shake of her head.
"Not like I was," she said. "You all had at least one person with you that you'd known from the past. Daphne had Holden Walsh and Leesa Beamer in New York with her. Fred had…most of our graduating class, plus Mayor Dad. And Shaggy and Scooby had each other." She sighed. "But me? I had no one."
"What about Marcie?" Shaggy asked.
"Marcie's school was five hours away from mine," Velma told him. "It wasn't like she was right next door."
"But like you still went to her before you went to any of us." Shaggy knew he was harping on this, but he couldn't help it. Part of him felt betrayed. His girlfriend, who supposedly loved him, had kept this gigantic secret from him. And had continued to do so for the entire summer. How was he supposed to feel about that?
"Marcie understood the kind of pressure I was under," Velma said. "When you have the kind of grades that we did in high school…everyone has high expectations of you. Including yourself. So…when I did what I did…" She exhaled. "It was out of desperation. She understood that. She didn't judge me. And she understood the humiliation I felt after the fact, more than anyone else could." She glanced up at her friends. "Even you," she finished apologetically.
Daphne knew that Velma was right. Cheating was obviously never something to be proud of, to aspire to, and while she knew that only the most desperate times could have called for these desperate measures, she also knew that she and the gang would never understand exactly how Velma was feeling.
"Maybe that's our own fault," Daphne said. "We could have…done more for you. We could have talked more than once a week, we could have kept up communication after the holiday break."
"We still talked," Velma reminded her. "I mean we'd…text each other every now and then."
"But not consistently," Daphne said. "You're right…the rest of us all kind of moved on after winter break. And I know that's what we're supposed to do, but I don't want our friendship to be a casualty of our new lives." She turned towards Fred and Shaggy and beckoned them to join her, Velma and Scooby in their cluster. "You all are still the most important people in my life. I don't ever want to do anything that will jeopardize our relationships. I already know what my life would be like without you – we got a taste of that senior year – and it fucking sucked. I don't ever want to go through that again." She turned to Velma. "And it's so unfair that you had to go through it again." Daphne glanced at the boys. "I think we could all do a better job next year of being more intentional in our friendships, so that none of us feel alone no matter how far apart we are."
Velma closed her eyes and leaned her head against Daphne's shoulder. Daphne was a good friend. Her best friend.
Fred had scooted closer and put a hand on Velma's shoulder. "We would never judge you, Velma," he told her. "You're our best friend, and we love you. Whatever you decide to do next year…you have our support, no matter what."
"Reah," Scooby agreed. His head was still on Velma's knee.
Shaggy didn't say anything, but he came around to face Velma so he could put his arms around her from the front.
The five of them were in a huge group hug on the floor. It was the most loved Velma had felt in months.
She closed her eyes with a slight grin, basking in the embrace of her friends. When she opened her eyes again, her flashlight was shining on the poem, still on the floor from when they'd removed it from the wall.
Ten Little Beauregards went out to dine, one choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine Little Beauregards stayed up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight Little Beauregards traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven Little Beauregards chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six Little Beauregards playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five Little Beauregards going through a door; One stubbed his toe and then there were four.
Four Little Beauregards going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three Little Beauregards walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two Little Beauregards sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One Little Beauregard left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.
Like a semi-truck, inspiration struck her.
"...Oh jinkies," she whispered.
The gang pulled back from their group hug. "Rhat?" asked Scooby.
Velma crawled over to the poem and shone her flashlight on it. "Shaggy, do you still have the clue the Farquards gave us?"
"Yeah like, right here?" Shaggy answered, digging it out of his pocket.
"What's up, Velm?" asked Daphne.
"I think I figured it out!" Velma was giddy with excitement. "Fred, you were right, this is a book cipher…or rather, a poem cipher."
Fred's eyebrows shot up. "You mean the poem is the key?"
Velma nodded. "The first number of each sequence is the line in the poem, the second number is a word in the line, and the third number is the letter in that word."
Fred studied the poem, and then the piece of paper in Shaggy's hand. "Holy shit, I think you're right."
"So…" Daphne glanced at the paper. "This first clue… 1, 3, 7. That would be the first line, the third word, the seventh letter?"
"The third word is 'Beauregard,'" Shaggy said. "And the seventh letter in Beauregard is…" he broke off to count silently. "G."
Fred had stood up to dig through a drawer by the light of his flashlight. He returned momentarily with a pen, which he handed to Shaggy. "Write that down," he instructed.
Shaggy did.
"So the answer is going to spell out the location of the Beauregard treasure?" Daphne asked.
Fred nodded. "If that tape is to be believed."
Daphne looked resolute. "Then let's figure this shit out."
The gang set to work. Velma patted Scooby affectionately, and he grinned up at her with pride.
He was glad to have her back.
Sponge: Thanks for reading! i'll be taking another brief hiatus but hope to be back by Thanksgiving! In the meantime, if you can solve the code using the clues provided, PM me with your guesses! Also, I posted blueprints of Beauregard Manor on my Tumblr blog earlier today, so you can check those out if you haven't yet! And as always, reviews are always appreciated!