Sponge: Welcome back! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. Here's chapter three! Warning: some language. Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby-Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera. All dialogue that's in bold font comes directly from the Next to Normal script.

Chapter 3: Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmocologist and I

Shaggy spent the weekend listening to the soundtrack and reading the script over and over again. His role, Henry, was certainly not a focal point of the action. Most of the dialogue and music went to Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Holden. Shaggy didn't have any songs just to himself, and for that he said a prayer of thanks - even when he had solos, the songs were shared between him and at least one other person.

Usually, it was Velma.

It made sense. Henry and Natalie were love interests. But Shaggy hadn't counted on it being quite so intimate. There was a lot of touching between the two characters. Embracing.

Kissing.

This was the part that worried Shaggy the most. If his math was right, Henry and Natalie kissed no less than five times during the course of the play. And now that he had given a name to the way he felt about Velma's relationship with Tony - jealous - he couldn't stop thinking about her in a different context. Last semester, on his very first day of school, Fred had asked Shaggy a simple question: "Have you ever liked a girl so much that the idea of her dating some other guy made you crazy?"

At the time, Shaggy hadn't. But once he'd learned that Tony and Velma had dated for almost the entirety of ninth grade, he couldn't deny that he'd felt something well up inside him, like hot bile. Now he knew it was jealousy. Did that mean that he liked Velma...romantically?

And on top of all that, there was the heavy subject matter of the play itself. Shaggy wasn't sure he could ask his parents to come see this play, for multiple reasons. He didn't want anyone to get upset.

He had so many emotions mixed up inside him all weekend, but all he could do was wait nervously for Monday.

x.X.x

On Monday afternoon, Shaggy and Scooby headed downstairs from the art classroom to the auditorium for the first rehearsal. Daphne, whose final class of the day was drama, arrived first, and Velma was close behind since the band room was just one hallway over from the auditorium. The student government association room was also on the first floor, so Fred got there next. Shaggy and Scooby were the last to arrive, and found the rest of the cast sitting cross-legged in a circle on the apron of the stage. Many of the student crew had assembled as well – "techies," Daphne had called them.

"Like hey," Shaggy said, dropping down between Daphne and Velma. They both smiled hello at him. Fred had one arm around Daphne and was chatting with Tony on his other side. Holden was studying his script intensely.

Scooby looked around. "Rhere's rhe rirector?"

"Mr. Atwood?" Holden looked up from his script. "He'll be here soon. I think he and Leesa were going over some logistics for rehearsal today."

Sure enough, both Mr. Atwood and Leesa Beamer entered the auditorium from the side door and ascended the stairs to the stage.

"All right everybody, shut the hell up," Mr. Atwood said.

Shaggy caught Velma's eye and they grinned at each other. Mr. Atwood and his antics were quickly becoming both predictable and funny.

Mr. Atwood and Leesa both pulled folding chairs from the wings (which Shaggy learned from Daphne was the theatrical term for the off-stage area where actors waited to enter the stage) and sat down near the rest of the cast and crew.

"Hello and welcome to Next to Normal," Mr. Atwood addressed everyone. "Congratulations. I believe we're going to have an absolutely stellar performance, if your auditions are any indication." He cleared his throat. "Now before we begin, I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself for those of you who are new...which is basically all of you."

"He does this for every play," Holden whispered to Shaggy. "Even when everyone in the cast and crew has been in a Coolsville High production before."

If Mr. Atwood had heard Holden, he made no indication. "My name is Keith Atwood," he introduced himself. "I graduated from Elon University with my bachelor's degree in Drama and Theater studies, and no I will not tell you how long ago I graduated because it was long enough ago that it brings on a sense of ennui and existential crisis when I think about it."

This statement elicited snickers from the company.

Mr. Atwood continued. "I moved to Ohio about ten years ago and I've since directed every main stage performance here at Coolsville High." He appraised the group. "Now I'd like us to go around the circle to introduce ourselves and let the group know your role in this production. If you're an actor, who do you play? If you're behind the scenes, what exactly do you do? Let us know." He pointed to Leesa. "We'll start with you, Beamer."

Leesa smiled warmly at everyone. "Hi guys. My name is Leesa Beamer. I'm a senior, and I'm the stage manager for this production. I'm here basically for organizational support, making sure the production runs smoothly both onstage and off, and helping Mr. Atwood remain calm." She shot him a teasing, sideways glance and Mr. Atwood made a mock-laughing face.

"Good luck with that," Holden remarked.

More laughter from the group.

Mr. Atwood pretended to scowl at Holden. "Very funny, Walsh. Why don't you go next?"

"All right." Holden addressed the group. "I'm Holden Walsh. I'm a senior, and I play Gabe. This will be my fourth musical here at Coolsville High. Prior to this, I was in The Crucible as John Proctor, Into the Woods as Cinderella's Prince – "

"Okay, okay," Mr. Atwood interrupted. "No one asked for your life story. Save it for the program bio." But there was a teasing glint in his eye, and Leesa, Holden, and the drama kids all laughed.

Shaggy glanced at Velma again. He'd never known a teacher quite like Mr. Atwood.

Tony went next. "Tony Moretti. I'm a junior, and I play Dr. Madden and Dr. Fine."

"There, you see?" Mr. Atwood shook his finger jokingly at Leesa and Holden. "Short and sweet. You could learn from him. Next, please."

"Uh..." Fred looked around at the group. "Hi, I'm Fred Jones. I'm a junior, and I play Dan Goodman."

Daphne smiled at the group. "I'm Daphne Blake. I'm a junior, and I play Diana."

Shaggy looked at no one in particular as he introduced himself. "Like, I'm a junior, and I play Henry." After a beat, he remembered. "Oh and like, my name is Norville Rogers, but I go by Shaggy."

"Good call, man," Holden quipped. "Norville sounds like the name of an eighty-year-old bus driver."

The boys all chuckled.

"Moving on," Mr. Atwood interrupted.

Velma cleared her throat. "I'm Velma Dinkley," she introduced herself. "I'm also a junior, and I play Natalie Goodman."

Everyone looked expectantly at Scooby Doo.

He cast a wild glance at Shaggy, who motioned for him to go. "Ruh...Rye'm Rooby Roo rand Rye'm rhe Ray-SM."

Shaggy translated for Leesa. "My dog, Scooby Doo, is like, gonna help you out, I guess."

"Great." Leesa beamed a radiant smile in Scooby's direction. "I love dogs. I think we'll get along really well, and I'll teach you everything I know."

"Rokay," Scooby agreed. He had no idea where to start, but it was a good omen that the stage manager was already so eager to show him the ropes.

All the members of the crew introduced themselves next. Travis Brown was a senior and the head lighting technician. Corinne Faulkner, the props mistress, was a junior. The sound engineer, Addie Wong, was a senior as well. Harmony Collins, another senior, was the costume designer. They each had several students working under them, mostly freshmen and sophomores. After everyone had introduced themselves, Mr. Atwood got down to business.

"All right, everybody," he said. "Beamer's going to pass out some rehearsal schedules. As you can see, we meet every day after school for two hours. As we get closer to the performance dates, we may be required to meet longer, or on weekends, but if we stick to the schedule, we should be fine. You'll see that Halloween is the day of our first full run-through. That's one week before our show opens. We have four performances - opening night is Friday, November 8th at 8 pm. Two performances on Saturday November 9th - a matinee at 2 pm, and an evening performance at 8pm. The closing show is Sunday, November 10th at 2 pm. Like I said, I know this is going to be a great performance, and I'm eager to get started. For our first rehearsal, we're just going to have a read-through. Don't worry about singing today – we'll get to that later. We'll just talk through the songs for now. Beamer here will read the stage directions. Is everyone ready?"

Everyone obediently opened their scripts. Mr. Atwood nodded at Leesa, who turned to the first page of her script and read the stage direction. "Music. Then, the lights go out..."

x.X.x

Shaggy had to admit - the play was good. And actually hearing everyone read through their parts helped get him in the spirit of the performance. Daphne especially was amazing, but he'd already known that. No one sang that first week - Mr. Atwood informed them that the following week, the choir teacher Ms. Barden would come for music rehearsal, along with Mr. Harrison and some band students, but until then, they were to focus on line memorization.

Fred worried endlessly about it. "I'm no good at that," he complained. "I've never been good at memorizing things."

No surprise, Daphne and Holden had the first half of Act I memorized by the end of the week. Velma wasn't far behind, and it was only because she also had piano parts to memorize that she wasn't further along. Shaggy and Tony were about on par with each other, which made sense, as they had the smallest roles in the show.

But Fred was still struggling hard on Friday.

"Don't worry babe, you're really close!" Daphne encouraged him at their final rehearsal of the week. They were rehearsing a scene in the opening number, "Just Another Day," the context being Dan and Diana having just finished having sex early one morning. It was easy to be nonchalant about it, because there was nothing untoward about the dialogue at all. It was supposed to go like this:

Fred/Dan: That was great, wasn't it? It was great. Oh Christ, I'm late.

Daphne/Diana: That'll teach you to take a whole ten minutes.

Fred/Dan: Sorry, what?

Daphne/Diana: I said, isn't it a beautiful day?

Fred/Dan: Okay. Sure. I mean it's cloudy and raining, and really cold for September, but beautiful.

Daphne/Diana: Makes you want to dive in with both feet, doesn't it?

Fred/Dan: Absolutely.

That was the whole scene before the song started in again. It was short, but it was giving Fred serious trouble. There wasn't any blocking yet (another term Shaggy had learned from Daphne, which meant staging the actors the way they would be for the performance) so Fred and Daphne just ran their lines standing up together onstage. Mr. Atwood, Holden, and Scooby watched from the front row with pained expressions every time Fred missed a line, which was often. Velma and Shaggy sat together several rows behind them and went back and forth between cringing at Fred and watching Tony and Leesa dance in the aisle.

Tony, in his first role as Dr. Fine, had to do a dance with Daphne (as Diana) in the song "Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I" (the pronunciation of that word, Shaggy had learned from Velma - 'sy-ko-farm-a-call-o-jist'), and while Tony was an excellent singer and actor, he lacked talent in the choreography department. Leesa was what Daphne called a "triple threat," which meant she could act, sing, and dance, so she was his dance instructor, though it didn't seem to help much.

"This is painful to watch," Velma muttered to Shaggy as she watched Tony fumble over Leesa's foot.

"Like, which one?" Shaggy murmured back, as both Fred and Mr. Atwood grimaced when Fred said "December" instead of "September" for the fourth time in a row.

"All of it," Velma replied.

"Goddamnit," Tony swore when he missed another step.

Leesa, to her credit, was unwaveringly patient. "Don't worry, Tony," she soothed. "You'll get there. This is only the first week - no one expects you to be perfect right away."

"I gotta take a break or I'll go crazy," Tony said. "I'm gonna try to memorize that list of med instructions I'm supposed to give before the song."

Leesa nodded. "Sure thing. Let me know when you're ready to try again."

"Jones," said Mr. Atwood, who was clearly on the fraying ends of his patience. "How about you and I practice one-on-one? It might help to get away from prying eyes."

Fred glanced at Daphne. He knew she was probably ready to take a break too, but he felt terrible.

She smiled at him. "I think that's a good idea, babe. I can run some lines with Holden."

Upon hearing his name, Holden leapt to his feet. "Sure thing, Daph. Opening scene?"

"Sounds good." Daphne and Holden settled into some seats in the auditorium while Fred and Mr. Atwood moved further upstage.

"Scooby," Leesa called. "Wanna go on a quick backstage tour? I can show you the ASM desk, where you'll be during the performances to call the cues."

"Rure, Reesa," Scooby agreed, nodding his head upward to Shaggy and Velma before following Leesa backstage.

Velma sighed and brought up her script. "Wanna run some lines?"

"Like, sure," Shaggy replied, opening his own book. "How about one of the short scenes in the middle of the psycho-karma whatever song?"

Velma giggled. "Psychopharmacologist."

Shaggy smiled back. Making her laugh was one of his favorite things. "Like I'm just glad I don't have to say that word."

Velma shook her head wryly at him and read her first line.

Velma/Natalie: "It's just that the thing with jazz is, how do you ever know if you got it right? It's just making shit up."

Shaggy/Henry: "Which is also known as the act of creation."

Velma/Natalie: "Oh. You're one of those pretentious stoner types."

Shaggy/Henry: "That's totally unfair. I'm not pretentious. And I'm definitely not classical. It's so rigid and structured. There's no room for improvisation. You have to play the notes on the page."

Velma/Natalie: "Yes, and what did Mozart know anyway? He should have just smoked a bowl and jammed on 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.'"

Shaggy/Henry: "Yeah, let's do that!"

They grinned at each other. This was a conversation they might seriously have in real life. Shaggy still felt guilty about his stint with pot – especially the way his friends had found out about it – but he had to admit, this casting was spot-on.

"Next?" Velma asked. They flipped to the next page, where the song continued with a different scene between Henry and Natalie.

Velma/Natalie: "I've wasted like, weeks of practice with you in here. Improvising."

Shaggy/Henry: "Oscar Peterson was classically trained."

Velma/Natalie: "Beethoven did cocaine."

Shaggy/Henry: "Miles Davis went to Julliard."

Velma/Natalie: "Mozart wrote poems about farts."

The stage directions after this last read (Henry and Natalie are now very close…) and indeed, Shaggy and Velma found that they had drawn quite close together. Velma could see each whisker on Shaggy's chin, and felt her heart thunder in her chest. She had to admit, she'd always found this tall, skinny boy attractive, ever since he'd joined her class last winter. She and Daphne had talked a few times about when or if Velma would ever ask him out, but Velma knew she couldn't risk it. Their friendship was too important to her. If Shaggy felt the same way, it might be a different story. But so far he'd given her no inkling that she could tell, apart from the faint blush that spread across his cheeks now. But surely this was due to their proximity to each other, right?

…Right?

"Fortunately, I have no desire for sex!" Daphne called out across the aisle. Shaggy and Velma blinked and looked towards her. She and Tony were now sitting together, rehearsing the split scene. The line she'd just said was the same one Diana said after Natalie's Mozart farts line. Holden was nearby, watching with a smile.

Daphne continued. "Although whether that's the medicine or the marriage is anybody's guess."

Tony replied as Dr. Fine. "I'm sure it's the medicine."

"Oh, thank you," Daphne/Diana responded, flattered. "That's very sweet. But my husband's waiting in the car." She shot a wistful glance across the auditorium at Fred, who was still working with Mr. Atwood.

Shaggy looked back down at his script, to see the next stage direction was (…but instead of kissing, Henry and Natalie play furiously, four hands).

He shuddered at what had nearly transpired between him and Velma. He was so nervous about kissing her, and he knew it would come eventually. Hopefully it would come later rather than sooner, and he'd be able to grow a pair by then.

x.X.x

Scooby had followed Leesa into the prop closet, which was just off the stage-left wings. Corinne and the stagehands were there, sifting through some neatly organized bins looking for various props they might need. They waved at Leesa and Scooby as they passed by.

"This is the prop closet. Over the summer," Leesa told him, "a bunch of the seniors in the ITS inventoried everything in here, threw out old stuff and ordered new stuff. Everything in here is finally properly organized and labeled, which is a huge weight off my shoulders." She sighed and cast a glance upward where Scooby remembered the costume loft was. "Now if we could just get all the costumes under control, we'd be golden."

"Rhat's rhe Rye-TS?" Scooby wanted to know.

Leesa smiled. "Sorry. It's the International Thespian Society. It's an honor society, like the NHS or Quill and Scroll." Scooby still looked confused, so Leesa elaborated. "NHS is the National Honor Society. Quill and Scroll is an honor society for journalism. Joining an honor society like that looks good for extracurriculars on your college resumes."

There was that word again, "extracurricular." Scooby felt as though the Ultimatum was following him everywhere.

Leesa moved along, pointing out the girls' dressing room across from the prop closet. As they walked across to the other side of the stage, she pointed to the area above them, which she called the 'fly space,' and explained the rope and pulley system that dropped down or lifted up backdrops and curtains during a performance. When they reached the stage-right wings, Leesa showed Scooby the boy's dressing room, a smaller lumber room (similar to the wood loft, but with smaller set pieces) and his ASM desk. Truthfully though, Scooby wasn't really paying attention. He was still thinking about the Ultimatum.

Suddenly, he had a thought. They were here to get around the Ultimatum, right? Isn't that what Daphne had said? She'd mentioned something about a ghost haunting the auditorium whenever a production featured ghost characters, or a death. Well, Gabe was a ghost, sort of. And Diana almost kills herself near the end of Act I. Scooby glanced sideways at Leesa, who was still talking about the ASM desk. Should he ask her about it? He wasn't really sure he wanted to know.

But Leesa made up his mind for him.

"You're part of that mystery-solving group, right?" she asked him, taking a seat at the desk. "With Blake and the others?"

"Reah," Scooby replied.

"I heard about the Wendigo thing from last year," Leesa said. "And all the creepy stuff that happened this summer." Now Leesa looked at him, a conspiratorial glint in her eye. "Wanna hear a real ghost story?"

Now that she was offering it up to him, Scooby was positive that he did not at all want to hear a real ghost story. But it would be rude to say no, right? So he nodded. Leesa smiled wider, got off the chair, and sat cross-legged on the floor. Scooby sat down in front of her.

"The legend goes," Leesa began. "About twenty years ago, Coolsville High was the first school in the area to get the rights to the musical The Phantom of the Opera. It was a trial run, to see how well the show would do on the high school stage. It was huge news – all over the papers, the TV, the radio. The drama department was national news for a while. But after what happened here, Phantom rights got tabled for high school use until just a few years ago."

"Rut rappened?" Scooby asked, even though Daphne had already told them.

"The girl who played Christine, the main role, was beautiful," Leesa told him. "And talented. And much like Christine in the musical, this girl was torn between two boys – one who played Raoul, and one who played the Phantom. Also like Christine, the girl chose Raoul over the Phantom, and the Phantom got jealous.

"There's a pivotal scene in the play, where the Phantom brings down the chandelier," Leesa continued. "Once during rehearsal, the girl playing Christine didn't get out of the way fast enough, and it crushed her. She died instantly, a victim of the Phantom's jealous rage. And ever since then, she haunts our productions, especially when the play features ghosts or a death." Leesa looked around, then leaned forward to whisper to Scooby. "I saw her last year."

"Roo rid?" Scooby's voice was as quiet as a breath.

Leesa nodded. "During rehearsal for Into the Woods. We had built a large staircase for the set and as I was climbing down, she appeared. It was just for a minute, but I got a good look at her. She's terrifying. She has thin, black hair and beady yellow eyes, and she wears the white wedding dress that Christine wears at the end of the play." Leesa shuddered and shook her head, as though trying to shake the memory out of it. "It startled me enough that I fell off the stairs. Luckily I wasn't hurt, but it was absolutely terrifying." Leesa looked around. "I wonder how long it'll take her to show up this year."

Scooby looked around too, unnerved. He felt the fur on the back of his neck prick up. Even though he could hear the sounds of rehearsal from the other side of the curtain, everything felt ominous to him now.

x.X.x

"All right everybody," Mr. Atwood said at the end of rehearsal. The cast and crew had all gathered back on stage. "Great work today. I know some of us might feel a little discouraged," (here he glanced so quickly at Fred that no one might have noticed unless they were looking directly at him – which of course, Fred was) "but remember it's only week one. Everyone's doing a good job and I know that with hard work, you'll make this performance a great one."

Daphne squeezed Fred's arm affectionately.

"Next week," Mr. Atwood continued, "we start in on the music rehearsals and the blocking. I'd like all of Act I blocked by the end of the month, so start to get in the mindset of your characters' physicality. How do they walk, how do they stand? Everything from their posture to the way they kiss." He looked pointedly at Shaggy and Velma, then clapped his hands once. "Dismissed. You may go. See you on Monday."

Monday, Shaggy thought, his stomach dropping to somewhere near his ankles.

He would have to grow a pair now, because in two days, he might be kissing Velma.

Sponge: Thanks for reading. Hope y'all are ready for some Shelma in the next chapter! Review if you please!