Long after the party had ended and every last one of the guests had left Daphne was sitting outside upon her balcony. She was now clad within a nightgown of silk, lavender fabric; her hair was no longer placed intricately up, yet the curls surrounding her porcelain face, added a sense of glow to it. Sorrow merely adorned her eyes as she looked out upon the heavenly crystals that adorned the dark blue sky above her. She thought about the night's events, wondering if Fred honestly thought of her as his, "Kitten" just as he had talked of four years before. A few delicate tears fell from her thoughtful eyes as she figured he must have only stated that he liked her to give as a story to laugh at when with the guys. Her reasoning, his reaction to her as the couple's exchanged gifts.

As Shaggy and Velma exchanged their gifts, and each of the Blake's employee's shared gifts with their families and friends, Daphne went up to Fred and handed him the gift which she had purchased for him. "I hope you like it," she had managed to say before he carefully unwrapped it.

"It's perfect, Daphne," he stated as he looked down at the book he held within his hands. He had talked of almost no other subject the entire last semester of the school year and Daphne knew that there was no other materialistic thing he wanted more.

"Daddy even got the author to autograph it for you," she stated as she opened up the cover page that had inscribed, 'Fred, go for your dreams, and shoot for the stars, never look back but always press forward to the goal ahead,' Fred thanked her with a kiss upon the cheek, yet as he dispersed his gifts for the others, nothing was ever handed to Daphne.

She couldn't help but notice the absence of a gift from him, the one person who mattered most to her, especially after recalling his words. In all factuality it would not matter to her that he could not get her anything if that was the case. Materialistic, despite what many thought, was not what many would characterize the charming Ms. Blake as. All she wished for from Fred was love, yet it was those horrid words that were stated after her questioning while they had been up in her room that made her full of the angst she felt overcoming her heart.

A recollection of a "girl's night" with Velma no more than two years ago had crossed her mind more than once as she watched Fred leave with his family from the party early that morning. The girls were speaking as they sprawled about Daphne's room, dressed in their pajamas, sharing a tub full of un-coooked-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough. "So...have you talked with him about it yet?" were the words that extended the seemingly shy and quiet, then teen, Velma.

"Oh gaw-" was the response she received as Daphne looked back into the depths of the gooey carton and fiddled lightly with her spoon.

The memory continued ... "You two have to discuss it sometime, Daphne. I mean...you have to let him love you before it's too late and another girl snatches him up."

Daphne's cheeks had grown a red shimmer to them as she listened to her best-friend's words in shock, "Velms, you can't be serious! I mean, yeah, I like him. But so do half the girls in Coolsville and millions of others out there. If you don't notice, every time we're on the news again Fred gets about double the amount of admirer's letters than the rest of us." Velma attempted to stifle back a laughter, yet Daphne caught her gleaming eyes, "Velma Dinkley you tell me right now what you know that I don't or I swear I'll tell Shaggy that you like him!" Velma's head turned quickly about after having jumped up and placed her hand over the red-head's mouth a few moments too late. Daphne's smile now contained an evilly playful grin, "Swearing I will...tell me!"

The threat honestly should have meant nothing to Velma, yet she did not know that Shaggy would tell of his feelings for her less than a week after. "Alright. Well, you know how you and Freddie are best friends and are constantly with each other, all the time, day or night, night or d-"

"Velma, I have two things to say to you," Daphne had interrupted; to this young girl it would seem than interrupting another would come almost as a gift...a gift which she had been blessed with a million times over. "First of all, I'm only with him a lot in the morning and afternoon. Secondly, we haven't been talking much on the phone at night, he always says that he's, and I quote, 'dead-dog tired and though he wants to talk, he can't'."

"Oh, yes, about that! He hasn't replaced you or anything, he still thinks of you as his best-friend, and as always, wants you as more, but...he's been talking to me. He says he likes you...a lot."