Disclaimer: I, in no way, own the familiar characters in this story. I would also like to give littlesoprano the credit for creating the Dace family and letting me use them as she is using my character, Lauren, in one of her recent stories.

This story takes place years after littlesoprano's New Journey Beginning's, which I recommend you read first. My story might make more sense them.

This is not my first fan fiction, but it is the first one I have published. No flames please, I am very sensitive about my writing! Enjoy!

Chapter One

"Crap! The phones ringing!" Lauren yelled as she juggled several large shopping bags in order to get the proper key into the lock of her front door. The phone rang again. As the key twisted a click sounded and the door gave. Dropping her bags at the entry way she made a mad dash for the end of the hall where her phone was located. Just as the phone sounded again Lauren hit the speaker button. "Hello." She managed

"Hi, Lauren. It's Velma!" The nasaled voice coming from the speaker was that of Velma Dace-Dinkley, the famed mystery solver.

"Oh, hi! I was going to call you in about fifteen minutes." Lauren answered, her hands now sitting on the tall oak table where the phone was resting.

"Well, then I guess I saved you the trouble." Velma quipped. "I was just wondering if you were ready for tomorrow."

"Actually, I just got in from shopping. I still haven't packed yet, and I was planning to clean my house tonight, too. I hope I have enough time to sleep!" she complained while looking over her mail. Great!, she thought, Bills.

"If not you can always sleep on the plane. You'll have plenty of time."

Lauren cringed. She hated to fly. "I have seriously considered driving all the way to Coolsville. If I leave early enough I should reach you guys by nightfall." She laughed. Lauren could almost picture the frown forming on Velma's face.

"You will not! It isn't safe for a twenty-three year old to drive so far by herself." Velma scolded.

"So maternal we have become! Speaking of, how is little Jordan?" The four year-old was Velma's first and only child so far. Ethan and Velma had wanted to wait until he had more control over his music career before they had children. They were married three years before Jordan Alexander was born. Motherhood had changed Velma a lot. She was much more emotional. She had also become very protective over the people she loved. Sometimes it was hard to tell if it was really Velma, then she would pop out some one-liner that was uniquely the Velma style.

"He is doing just fine!" It was a deeper male voice that time, but not at all unfamiliar.

"Ethan?" the surprise in her voice was obvious.

"Nice talking to you too." He laughed.

"I'm sorry, I was just surprised! I guess I'm on speakerphone then?"

"Well, we are aren't we?" Velma asked. Ethan let out a hearty laugh.

"Yeah," she giggled," What are you guys up to?"

"Just planning the party." Ethan answered.

"That's been enough to keep me busy. I just want everything to be perfect for Linda and Charles." Velma answered. Linda and Charles were Ethan's parents. The party was for their 43 Anniversary. Knowing Velma, there was no doubt that the party was going to be quite extravagant. She really had acquired a knack for planning such events over time.

"I still feel very strange about going." Lauren confessed.

"They would want you to be there, Lauren. They always loved you." Ethan assured her.

"Yeah, because I almost married their son, right?" Lauren questioned.

"Scott's still single, too." Velma added.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't make me feel any better." Lauren confessed. Inside her brain was going into shock. How could he be single? Girls were always hitting on him when we were together!

"I just thought you would like to know. I'm sorry. Besides, I want to see you. It has been two years since you have been back to Coolsville." Velma tried to mend the unhealed wounds she'd obviously reopened.

"How are things going in Rapid City?" Ethan asked in hopes of saving the conversation.

"Great," Lauren was grateful for the change in subject. "I finally finished decorating the house. It's beautiful. And my restaurant is packed every night." About a year ago, Lauren had opened Little Italy, an Italian restaurant using mainly her grandmother's recipes. It was risky to open a restaurant right out of culinary school, and she was already years younger than her peers because she skipped several grades, but her restaurant was a big hit.

"That sounds lovely." Velma added.

"Oh no! We're supposed to pick Aidan and Thelma up in fifteen minutes." Ethan suddenly blurted. Aidan was Ethan's older brother, and Thelma was Velma's cousin. They met at Ethan and Velma's wedding. Things were a little bumpy between them at first, but after awhile it was very apparent that they had something special. They had married after a few years and moved to California. Aidan perused a career writing poetry with much encouragement from Thelma. She was a successful marine biologist, like her mother.

"You should go then." Lauren urged.

"Okay. We love you!" Velma said

"Yeah, see ya tomorrow!" Ethan added.

"Bye!" Lauren hung up. Turning her back to the phone, she picked up her shopping bags and brought them into the master bedroom where she threw them on the king sized bed. Thinking of Scott, she sat down in one of the oversized crimson chairs.

Lauren had met Scott when they were sixteen. They had been at Velma's surprise wedding shower. Lauren had flown from Rapid City to Coolsville earlier that day and had arrived at Daphne and Fred's house where the party was being held. She could remember everything about their meeting.

"Lauren, could you come here for a second!" Lauren heard through the crowd a little while after she got there. Looking around she saw that it was Velma standing next to a very attractive boy about her own age wearing a very interesting outfit.

"Hi," She gave Velma a quick hug that caught the woman of guard. "I am so happy to see you again. Do you think you're ready for the wedding?" They had of course greeted one another already, but hadn't had much time for conversation.

"I am happy to see you again, too. As for the wedding, I think I am ready. I couldn't imagine being happier with anyone else." She gave the girl a smile. It was true that she couldn't imagine being happier with anybody but Ethan, yet she was feeling a little nervous about actually getting married. Of course she wasn't going to tell anybody that. She figured that most people felt that way before their weddings. It wasn't a big deal right? Remembering the promise she made to Ethan she continued. "There was someone I wanted you to meet. This is my soon to be brother-in-law Scott. You remember Ethan told you about him." Scott gave Velma a panicked look at this last comment. "Scott this is Lauren. We met at that resort summer before last."

"Hello, Scott." Lauren said sweetly. She managed a smile, but couldn't help feeling a little shocked. Was this the boy that Ethan had described as an awkward, unconfident teenager? Of course it had been over a year since that conversation had taken place, but she couldn't imagine those things ever describing the guy she had been trying to check out since she walked in the door.

"Hi." He said. It was short, but not rude. Lauren could see that in his "Chippendale's" inspired outfit, he was clearly not as comfortable as the other waiters, but for a sixteen-year-old he looked pretty good too. He had a slim build and his skin had a slight, but even tan. Beside, she thought he was positively adorable anyway.

"Well, I'll leave you guys to get to know each other." Velma smiled at each of them and then went to talk to the other guests.

Now normally Lauren would have at least tried to have an educated conversation with Scott, but she felt very shy and unsure of herself around him: things that seldom happened. She was scared of intimidating him the way she had with other people. There was also the fact that there were several other girls at the shower that were their age. Girls that she immediately would have thought Scott rather go for if he, by some miracle, didn't already have a girlfriend. Another thing that worried her was that she was often misjudged by her appearance. She wore a lot of dark colored clothes. The only bright colors she ever really wore were on her many skateboarding shoes. At sixteen she already had four piercings in each of her earlobes and another piercing in the cartilage of her left ear. Lauren had also gotten her first tattoo, a scorpion for her zodiac sign, a couple of weeks earlier for her birthday. Most people interpreted her style has being rebellious and angry, but it was actually one of the ways she expressed herself. She was very concerned that Scott would think the way a lot of people did about the way she looked.

All the while Scott was having the same feeling. He thought that Lauren probably wouldn't like him because she seemed like the kind of cool, rebellious girl that usually told him he was a dork. Yet for whatever reason he always fell for those types of girls and they usually didn't want anything to do with him. Scott was a very kind person who would never do anything to intentionally harm anybody and it was very painful for him to be constantly rejected. The only reason he could come up with was that girls wanted bad boys and he didn't want to change himself. His hope was that they would become friends with him and see how good of a guy he really was, but so far none of his female friends had fallen for him. So why would Lauren be any different?

"Umm," Scott turned bright red. Lauren laughed and then looked down at her cherry colored shoes.

"Lauren!" it was another voice coming from the crowd. Lauren jerked around to find the source. It was Daphne followed by several other women coming from the kitchen.

"Hi!" Lauren said as they approached.

"I wanted to introduce you to some people." Daphne introduced her to Linda and Kate. Kate was the wife of the eldest Dace boy, Gregg. They spent the next few minutes questioning each other and talking about the wedding, Scott completely silent the entire time.

"So, did Velma introduce you two?" Linda finally asked Scott.

"Yeah." Scott said a little sheepishly.

"What were you talking about?" Kate asked this time.

"Nothing." It was the honest truth, yet both Lauren and Scott blushed. The three women looked from one to the other, and smiled. They immediately knew what was on the mind of the young people standing in front of them. Wasn't puppy love just darling?

Scott and Lauren spent the rest of the night dodging each other. If they ever accidentally came close to each other, both would turn bright red and run off in the opposite direction. There infatuation was incredibly obvious to all of the people who witnessed their encounters. How does Ethan do it?, Velma kept thinking.

It wasn't until the end of the night that they shared more than two words. Lauren was walking toward the kitchen right as Scott came out holding a tray full of drinks. Needless to say he dropped the tray spilling everything on Lauren as soon as he saw her.

"Oh!" Lauren screamed. She was more surprised than angry. "That's really cold!" The entire top portion of her body was dripping soda. It was all over her face and shirt, and it was flowing down her back. Her hair which she had swept back into a bun was now falling into her eyes. Lauren was sure she looked like a wet dog.

"I am so, so sorry!" Scott looked absolutely mortified. Real smooth, Scott, ya klutz. She is really gonna fall for you now!, he was secretly kicking himself. He just stood there having no clue what to do.

"Towel. Please." She managed to say.

"Umm, yeah, Okay. I'll be right back." He still looked scared to death. Scott picked up the tray, but left the empty cups on the ground. He turned to go back through the kitchen door and dropped the tray once again. Cursing under his breathe he picked the tray up and ran.

Lauren heard snickering behind her. Slowly turning around, she saw that everyone at the party had seen what had happened and were now laughing heartily. She burst out laughing too. She didn't now why, but she couldn't help it.

"Like, wow! I am never going to forget that!" Shaggy announced through spurts of laughter.

"Reah!" Scooby added.

"I'll go see what he's doing." Fred said after he had stopped laughing enough to stand. He walked into the kitchen with a broad smile on his face.

"You poor thing." Linda stood up from her chair and walked over to her. Lauren still had not moved. "He's never done that before." She giggled.

"It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have ice cubes in the front of my shirt." Lauren said laughing, as she took the hair band out of the few hairs it was still holding up. There were bursts of laughter again.

"You probably want to take a shower, huh? Where is your bag? I'll bring it to the bathroom." Daphne offered still giggling.

While Lauren showered, she decided that she ought to talk to Scott later. She wanted him to know that she wasn't angry. In fact, she thought it was one of the more interesting things that had happened to her in awhile. Besides, the worst he could do after that was to spill dinner on her.

Meanwhile, Scott was feeling very sorry for himself. He ran off and locked himself in one of the other bathrooms. Fred had to look all over the house to find him.

"Hey, man. How are you doing?" Fred said as he knocked on the door.

"I don't feel like talking!" Scott yelled back. He didn't sound that upset, but it was probably because he was still in shock.

"Sure you do." Scott unlocked the door and opened it. He looked at Fred with eyes that were almost popping out of his head. Fred began to laugh again. Scott tried to close the door, but Fred stopped him. "It could have been worse." he offered.

"How?!" Scott demanded. Fred laughed again.

"I don't know." He was still stifling laughter. "She could have been mad, but she was laughing."

"At me!"

"No. She wasn't laughing at you; she was laughing at the situation." Fred assured him, still smiling. "We were all laughing at the situation." He cracked up again. He finally stopped and Scott gave him the most serious expression he could muster, setting Fred's giggle fit off again.

"Your not doing a very good job of making me feel better."

"I'm sorry." He had finally stopped. "I still say it could have been a lot worse though. Besides, Lauren doesn't get mad over silly things like that. She knows it was an accident."

"She still isn't gonna want anything to do with me." Scott sighed.

"Oh, I don't think that's true."

"What?" his heart skipped a beat and he was suddenly very alert. Did I hear him right?

"What I mean is that she liked you before your, umm, accident." Scott rolled his eyes at Fred.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because from the moment she walked through the door she couldn't take her eyes off of you." A smile cracked on Scott's face, but it slowly vanished.

"She could have been looking at something else." He thought it was too good to be true, although he hoped it wasn't. He wanted her to like him. From the moment he looked at her, he thought she was beautiful, but in this silly get-up he wouldn't blame her for not thinking the same about him.

"I don't think so. She was looking at you. Besides, she told Velma she probably would have done the same thing." It was true. She had shared that with Velma. Of course Lauren had also sworn her to secrecy. But Velma thought that it would be a very good confidence builder for Scott, so she found Fred and told him to pass it on. Velma knew that if things turned out the way she expected them to, Lauren wouldn't mind her breaking the promise.

"Really?" Scott smiled again and it was growing wider by the second.

"Yep. So here's the plan. When she is done cleaning up, you get her alone and beg for forgiveness, although I don't think it will take much. Sound good to you?" Fred was suggesting more than ordering.

"Okay, but I am not carrying a tray anywhere near her." Scott was very serious and Fred couldn't help but start laughing again, but this time Scott joined him.

"That's probably a good idea." Fred agreed.

"Scott, can we talk?" Lauren asked and hour or so later. The party was about to end and people were getting ready to leave. Scott had just changed out of his uniform and was getting ready to approach Lauren, but all the same he was happy she had approached him.

"Yeah. I wanted to talk to you to." He had surprised himself with how confidently he had said those words. He led her into one of the guest bedrooms.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm, umm, not upset about, you know, earlier." She sounded shy, even to herself. She felt like she couldn't put two intelligent sentences together if she had to. What was wrong with her?

"Well, I wanted to apologize. I feel really bad about it." His cheeks turned red.

"You shouldn't feel bad. I know it wasn't intentional." She assured him.

"So, you don't hate me, then?" Is this boy serious? My feelings are the exact opposite of hate!

"Why would you think I hated you?" She looked absolutely shocked.

"I'm pretty sure most girls would not have been as nice about the whole thing." He smiled. Lauren was crazy about that smile.

"Well, I'm not most girls." That's for sure!, Scott thought. "Besides, I had wanted to talk to you anyway." She turned a violent red and looked down at her shoes again. Scott's heart leapt.

"Really? I wanted to talk to you, too." He laughed nervously.

They didn't completely share how much they liked each other that night, but they did become fast friends. They talked about their schools. To Scott's surprise he found that Lauren was already a senior. He was only a sophomore, but that didn't bother her one bit. They talked about music and movies and the upcoming wedding. They had to be broken apart by Velma. Both blushed horribly when they noticed her waiting patiently at the door for them to finish.

That night, while laying on the Dinkley's couch, Lauren realized that she wouldn't forget a single thing about that day. And so far she hadn't.

Lauren wiped the tears from her eyes. Although it had been two years since she had seen or heard from Scott, thinking about him was very painful. He was the only boyfriend she had ever had, the only man she had held hands with, the only man she had kissed and he was the only man she had ever loved. Truth be told, she was still in love with him and she knew that her heart would never let go of him, even though the rest of her had tried.

She pulled herself out of the chair and decided to set to work packing. She knew that she had a lot to do and not very long to do it. Dwelling on old memories wasn't very practical at the moment. She decided that thinking about her history with Scott wouldn't be a good idea for awhile. She knew she would have to see him soon and she intended to be as civil as she could be. If she thought too much about the agony she had endured, she knew she would just go back to blaming Scott and she refused to do that to Linda and Charles on their anniversary.

So what did you guys think? Please review.

The second chapter is well underway, but these stories take some time to write, so bare with me if the second chapter isn't up for a while.