Sponge: Were you worried I was gonna do that thing I did with One For The Money where I left you on a cliffhanger for eight years between chapters 14 and 15? Well, I'm back! Thanks for your patience - and also for the kind and thoughtful reviews I've received! (Lookin' at you, Anonymous Ava and iamacliche. You da real MVPs). Here's chapter 15 of Two For The Show! Warnings: language, mild peril, and a little bit of kissing. Enjoy! Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby-Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera.
Chapter 15: The Break
Chaos descended in the darkness. The members of the pit orchestra screamed. The stagehands and the techies fumbled in the wings. The lighting and sound technicians scrambled to restore order. Everyone called out to each other.
"Daphne!"
"Rhaggy!"
"Scooby Doo!"
"Dinks!"
"Ouch!"
Moments later, Travis Brown finally reset the controls, and the lights came up. Scooby and Tony had rushed onstage from the wings, only to both trip over Holden and Fred in the darkness. Everyone got up and sorted themselves out. Shaggy and Velma had clutched each other in fright, and they awkwardly disentangled when the lights came on.
Fred stared up into the fly space. "They're gone," he breathed. The others followed his gaze. There was no sign of the Phantom or Daphne. The stage crew, pit orchestra, and heads of tech all came up to the stage and peer up into the fly space as well. Scooby glanced at the people who had gathered. Somebody was missing - somebody besides Daphne - but he couldn't put his paw on who. His brain was still too scrambled from what had just happened.
Velma descended the stairs from the platform to the stage. Shaggy followed her cautiously. "Well they have to have gone somewhere," she pointed out, shedding her formal coat to reveal her turtleneck. "They can't have just disappeared."
Holden shook his head. "There's nothing up there," he said. "Just the pulleys and ropes." He exhaled. "I always thought the Phantom was a myth…but that was an actual ghost."
It was Velma's turn to shake her head. "If it was a ghost, how could it have grabbed Daphne?" she pointed out. "Ghosts aren't corporeal. Or real."
"Well like, something took Daphne," Shaggy stated frantically. He and Scooby stood beside each other, trembling in fear.
"We've got to find her," Fred declared. His mind and heart were racing. This had never happened before. Sure, Daphne had fallen through the odd trap door or accidentally gotten stuck in a secret room. But this was the first time she'd ever been kidnapped. What was the Phantom going to do to her? Was she as terrified as he felt? Fred had never been more scared in his life. Is this how Shaggy and Scooby feel all the time? "We've got to find her," he repeated.
"I agree," said Holden. "But how? I'm telling you, the only way to get into the fly space is with the cherry picker, and only Mr. Atwood has the keys."
"Don't worry about that," Fred told him. "I have a plan."
"What can we do to help?" asked Tony as Shaggy removed his tuxedo jacket.
"Get everyone out of the auditorium," Fred replied. "We're the ones the Phantom wants. We can handle this."
"Should we call the sheriff?" asked a stagehand.
Fred shook his head. Mystery Inc. did not have a very good rapport with Sheriff Stone. "Not unless we tell you to," he said.
Holden and Tony rounded up everyone and escorted them out of the auditorium. Soon, just Fred, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby were left alone on the stage.
"All right Fred, what's the plan?" asked Velma.
"Well...I don't exactly have one," Fred admitted. "I just needed everyone else out of the theater. I have an idea for a trap, but it doesn't help if Daphne's still missing. I just want her safe."
"We all do, Fred," Velma replied. "But we need a plan to find her."
"Ro roo rave ra ran?" asked Scooby.
"Sort of," said Velma. "When props or costumes went missing, they always ended up in the upstairs lofts. Maybe the 'Phantom' left some other clues lying around in there before she snatched Daphne. I think our best chance of finding her will be in the costume or wood loft." She looked at Fred. "Should we split up?"
Shaggy stared at her incredulously. "Uh…like, NO," he replied, while Scooby shook his head vehemently.
"Actually, we should," said Fred. "That's a good idea, Velma. How about you and I go through the wood loft and Shaggy and Scooby search the costume loft? We'll meet on the catwalk when we're done."
"Rar roo razy?!" Scooby gasped.
"The catwalk is like, the first place Scoob saw the ghost!" Shaggy cried.
"Which is why we'll go there together," said Fred.
Scooby whined fearfully.
"Hold on," Velma said, heading for the girl's dressing room. She reappeared a moment later with a box of Scooby Snacks. "Okay guys," she said. "Will you go up to the costume loft for a Scooby Snack?"
Shaggy and Scooby glanced at each other. It had been awhile since Velma had needed to bribe them with Scooby Snacks. "Rokay," said Scooby, who opened his mouth and obediently waited for Velma to toss one in. She did, and he snatched it up, smacking his lips.
Shaggy and Velma made eye contact. Without moving towards him, Velma tossed a snack Shaggy's way. He caught and ate it quickly, and they both looked away.
Neither Fred nor Scooby noticed the awkwardness of the exchange. "All right gang," Fred said once Shaggy and Scooby had finished chewing. "Let's split up and search for clues."
Fred and Velma went towards stage right, Shaggy and Scooby went towards stage left.
"So like, I guess Holden is innocent after all, huh?" said Shaggy as he and Scooby ascended the stairs to the costume loft. "He was like, right there when Daphne..." He couldn't finish the sentence. It was too horrible.
"Rye ron't runderstand," Scooby sighed. "Roo rould rant ro rurt Raphne?"
Shaggy shrugged. "Like, I don't know, buddy," he replied. They had reached the door to the costume loft and opened it. Shaggy had to admit – the senior drama students had done a good job. It was a lot more organized than it had been the first time that Daphne had brought them here.
"All right, Scooby Doo," Shaggy said. "Like, use that nose of yours. See if you can sniff out anything suspicious." Hopefully if they found a clue quickly they could get out of there sooner.
"Rokay," said Scooby. He put his nose to the ground and set to work. Shaggy followed him, keeping his eyes open for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. But so far everything seemed normal.
"Rhere did Red rand Raphne rind rhe ruxedo?" asked Scooby.
Shaggy thought back. "Uhh…like I think they said they found it under the cushions in the couch."
Scooby sniffed the green couch and Shaggy began removing the cushions.
"Like nothing here…wait!" Shaggy plucked something off one of the cushions. "Like, what's this?" He and Scooby inspected it closer.
"Ris it…rair?" asked Scooby.
It was hair. A piece of hair so blond it looked white.
"Ris it Reddie's?" asked Scooby. "Re's rond. Rand re ruz rere…recently."
Shaggy shook his head. "Like, I don't think it's Freddie's. This hair is too long. It must belong to a girl." He furrowed his brow. "But like, it can't belong to the Phantom. She has black hair. And no one on Harmony's costume committee is a blonde."
Scooby scrutinized the hair. There was something familiar about it. Suddenly, he recognized the scent, and figured out who had been missing after Daphne was taken. "Rhaggy," he whispered as realization hit him. "Rye roe roo rhe Rhantom ris."
THUMP THUMP THUMP
Shaggy and Scooby screamed at the sudden noise.
"ZOINKS!" Shaggy yelled.
"RIKES!" Scooby shrieked. He jumped into Shaggy's arms in fright, before they both realized that the thumping was coming from the wall behind the couch. And it was accompanied by muffled, yet very familiar sounding, calls for help.
Shaggy set Scooby down and cautiously pressed his ear to the wall. "Like…hello?" he called, feeling like an idiot.
"Shaggy? Scooby?" came the voice from the other side.
Shaggy and Scooby looked at each other in alarm.
"Rit's Raphne!" Scooby realized. He and Shaggy quickly pushed the couch away from the wall.
"Like, Daph!" Shaggy called through the wall. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," came Daphne's disembodied voice from the other side of the wall. "But I'm trapped. The Phantom closed the latch from the outside."
Shaggy suddenly remembered the day Daphne had taken them on a tour of the costume loft the day the cast list went up, and realized that she was locked in the secret shoe room. "Like, Scoob and me are gonna get you out of there, all right?" he called back to her.
Scooby used one of his paws to lift the latch on the bottom of the panel. The wall opened so the whole panel came away like a door. Daphne was sitting in the pile of shoes, looking disgruntled, but otherwise okay.
"Boy, am I glad to see you," she said as they helped her out of the room.
"Rar roo rokay?" asked Scooby.
"I'm fine," Daphne said. "I'm not hurt or anything. Where are Freddie and Velma?"
"They're in the wood loft," Shaggy said. "We split up to like, try to find some clues."
"Well I've got a big one," Daphne said. She opened her fist to reveal a tube of lipstick. "This fell out of the Phantom's pocket when she grabbed me, and I hid it from her while she pushed me into that room."
Shaggy furrowed his brow. "Like what kind of ghost has a pocket?"
"A human who's pretending to be a ghost," Daphne replied. "Let's go find Freddie and Velma."
She started to make her way towards the door to the catwalk, but Shaggy and Scooby dawdled.
"What are you waiting for?" Daphne asked when she noticed they weren't following her.
"Um…" Shaggy hedged. "What if like…the Phantom is there?"
"She won't be," Daphne told them. "She's hiding in the fly space, I'm sure of it. We'll run across and she won't even know we left the costume loft. She can't even see the catwalk from the fly space - just the stage."
Shaggy and Scooby still didn't budge.
Daphne sighed exasperatedly. "Fine then. I'll go find Fred and Velma. You two stay here by yourselves."
Shaggy and Scooby glanced at each other.
"Ron recond rought…" Scooby muttered, moving to follow Daphne.
The three of them quickly raced across the catwalk and reunited with Fred and Velma in the wood loft.
"Daphne!" Fred exclaimed when he saw her enter with Shaggy and Scooby in tow. They rushed to each other and embraced while Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby looked on awkwardly.
"I thought I'd lost you," Fred murmured into her hair.
"I told you," Daphne whispered back. "You'll never lose me." She loosened her grip slightly. "Besides, I don't think I was actually in any danger."
"What do you mean?" asked Velma. "You were kidnapped."
"Honestly, I think the Phantom panicked," Daphne replied, turning to her. "After I found this," she produced the lipstick, "I have a pretty good hunch about who it might be."
"Scooby thinks he knows too," Shaggy said. "We like, found a long blond hair on the couch in the costume loft."
Fred knit his brow in confusion. "But the Phantom's not blond."
"No," Velma realized. "But the person pretending to be her is."
Fred shook his head. "It can't be Holden. He was right there when Daphne was taken."
"Holden's not the only blond person involved in the production," Velma told him.
Fred's brow furrowed deeper. "Me?" he asked.
Everyone just rolled their eyes and waited for him to catch up.
"Oh. OH!" Fred exclaimed once realization hit him. "Oh my God."
"I know," said Velma.
"Rut rhould re ro row?" asked Scooby.
Fred now looked resolute. "Catch her," he said decisively. "I think it's time to put that trap I mentioned into motion..."
x.X.x
"Rye ron't rike rhis," Scooby grumbled, fixing his wig.
"I don't like this either, Scoob," Shaggy replied, pulling on a wig of his own. They were back in the costume loft, where Fred had found some clothing and other accessories that they could use as Daphne disguises. Shaggy and Scooby were in the process of dressing up as her. This was not the first time they'd been used as bait, but it was the first time they'd ever had to dress up as someone else in the gang.
"Like tell me again why Scoob and me have to dress up like Daphne when Daphne already looks like Daphne?" Shaggy asked Fred for the umpteenth time since the plan had been explained.
"Because we can't risk putting her in danger," Fred told him, also not for the first time.
Daphne rolled her eyes. "As I said before," she said. "I can take care of myself."
"And as I said before," Fred replied. "I don't want to risk it anyway. You're too valuable."
"Rhanks a rot," Scooby grumbled.
"Yeah like what are we? Chopped liver?" Shaggy replied. But he understood. He didn't really want to put Daphne in harms' way again either. And he certainly wouldn't ever want to use Velma as bait if someone was after her.
Velma herself arrived just then from the catwalk. "I just checked the trap," she told Fred. "I think we're all set."
"Great," Fred replied. He clapped Shaggy on the back. "You ready?"
"Like, no," Shaggy sighed. "But we'll do it."
"Awesome. Remember: Velma, Daphne and I will be on the catwalk. We'll be able to see everything that's happening onstage. All you guys have to do is distract the Phantom."
"This'll all be over soon," Daphne promised them. "And then we can get to the bottom of this."
Velma approached them both. "Don't worry," she said. "You're not in any danger. She can't hurt you. She's just a person."
"Yeah and like, I've never been hurt by a person before," Shaggy retorted.
Velma blinked at him. Shaggy wished he could swallow his words.
"Ready?" Scooby asked.
Shaggy turned to him. "Like, yep," he replied. "Let's go, buddy."
They left for the stage while Fred, Daphne, and Velma waited near the costume loft end of the catwalk.
As Fred had predicted, it didn't take long for the Phantom to appear. The bright red wigs Shaggy and Scooby wore made them stand out from the fly space where, Daphne had correctly guessed, the Phantom was waiting.
"Rover rere!" Scooby called, running towards stage right. The Phantom flew over him.
"Like no, over here!" Shaggy yelled from stage left. The Phantom whirled around, confused.
"Velma, now!" came Fred's voice from above. Velma turned on a spotlight and shined it right in the Phantom's face.
"Aagghh!" she cried, raising her arm to shield her eyes from the brightness.
The light also illuminated something that Shaggy hadn't noticed before.
"Like, hey," he said aloud. "She's connected to wires." That's like, how she's been flying!
Fred raced to wood loft side of the catwalk and grabbed the rope that controlled the wires, now that they could see how they were attached, and pulled the Phantom up towards the catwalk.
Once the Phantom was close enough, Daphne grabbed a loose rope and lassoed it around the Phantom, pinning her arms to her sides.
"We got her!" Fred exclaimed, accidentally letting go of the rope in his glee. Upon doing so, the Phantom plummeted down. And since she was still holding her rope, Daphne fell over the railing of the catwalk and came with her. She screamed as she tumbled down.
"DAPHNE!" everyone cried. Fred desperately grabbed the rope again, and Daphne and the Phantom stopped in midair.
"Velma!" he shouted. "Help me! My grip's slipping!"
Velma grasped the rope with him and they grunted with the strain.
Daphne clutched the Phantom for dear life, as the Phantom's arms were still pinned to her sides by the rope. Shaggy watched helplessly from the stage. They were both still high enough that they would be hurt – badly – if they fell. "Scoob…like what do we do?" he murmured.
"Rye've rot em!" Scooby proclaimed, shaking his wig off his head. He ran downstage until he was right on the edge of the apron. "Reddie! Relma!" he barked up. "Rower rem rown. Rye've rot em!"
"What?" they called back.
"He like, wants you to lower them down," Shaggy called back. "We've got 'em down here!" Shaggy threw his own wig aside and followed Scooby downstage.
But before Fred and Velma could do anything, the rope snapped, and everyone screamed as Daphne and the Phantom plummeted down.
For a split second, time seemed to freeze as they fell. They were headed right for the pit. Surely they wouldn't get out unscathed. However, Scooby took a flying leap off the stage into the pit and cushioned their landing. He then grabbed the rope so the Phantom's arms remained pinned to her sides, and Shaggy ran into the house to help Daphne out of the pit.
"Like, are you okay?" he asked her.
She nodded and threw her arms around him in relief. "That was terrifying," she exclaimed. They let go and waved Fred and Velma down from the catwalk, but they were already on their way. Scooby exited the pit next leading the Phantom out by the rope, and she sat defeated on the floor.
Fred and Velma both embraced Daphne when they arrived. "That's twice in one day I've almost lost you now," Fred whispered to her.
"Keyword: almost," Daphne replied, kissing him tenderly.
"I'm just glad you're safe," Velma said, trying to get her racing heart back to its normal speed.
"Thanks to Scooby." Daphne looked at the dog fondly, and bent down to hug him.
"Raw, rhucks," Scooby said with a smile.
"Now," said Fred, approaching the Phantom, who was still tied up on the floor. "Let's see if we're right about who the Phantom really is." He turned towards his girlfriend. "Daphne, would you like to do the honors?"
"Certainly, Freddie," she replied. She knelt towards the floor and removed the Phantom's black wig first, revealing platinum-blonde hair. Then she peeled away the mask, to reveal…
"Leesa Beamer!"
The stage manager looked up at the gang shamefacedly.
"Rye roo it," Scooby proclaimed.
Leesa looked at him, confused. "How?"
"He like, recognized your hair in the costume loft," Shaggy told her. "We found it like, on the couch in the costume loft, near the secret shoe room where Daphne was hidden."
"I realized it when this fell out of your pocket after you shut me in there," Daphne continued, pulling out the lipstick again. "It's the same shade as the lipstick on the mirror the day the girl's dressing room was destroyed."
Leesa shook her head. "I should have known better than to try to fool you."
"Rye rusted roo," Scooby said, looking at her with hurt in his eyes. "Rhy rid roo ro it?"
Leesa sighed. "This is my senior year," she said. "You know we only do a musical in the fall, and then we do a straight play in the spring." She shrugged. "This was my last chance to do a musical here. And then after callbacks, when Mr. Atwood asked me to stay back, he told me he wanted me as the stage manager so that Daphne could be the lead." She looked at Daphne mournfully. "I was so jealous. And mad. All I wanted was to scare Daphne away from the production. I never wanted to hurt her."
"What about the sandbag?" asked Velma. "That certainly had the potential to hurt her."
"I swear to God that was an accident," Leesa exclaimed. "I was figuring out how to attach myself to the wires in the fly space. I'd been practicing with it before rehearsal that day, and something had gotten stuck somewhere…" She looked Daphne in the eye. "I'm so sorry. I swear I never meant to hurt you."
"Then why did you kidnap her?" asked Fred.
"That was an accident too," Leesa replied.
The gang stared at her dubiously.
"It was!" she insisted. "I panicked. When she fell into me, I just grabbed her and took her with me. I wasn't going to hurt her. I was just afraid that she'd realize it was me. I had to take her and hide her somewhere until I figured out what to do." She looked at Daphne again. "I'm so sorry. I was going to let you go, I swear."
Daphne surprised everyone. "I believe you," she said.
Everyone gawked at her.
"What? Why?" asked Velma.
"Because this isn't really about me," Daphne replied. "Well, it is. But more than me, it's about Christine McCormack."
Tears filled Leesa's eyes and she closed them and hung her head. After a moment she nodded miserably.
Shaggy furrowed his brow. "Like, why do I know that name?"
"It was name of the student that inspired the legend of the Phantom," Velma reminded him. "We read about her at the library, remember?"
"That right," said Fred. "And Harrison Walsh."
"That was when I knew I'd gone too far," Leesa whispered. Her tears hadn't fallen, but it looked as though they might at any moment. "I'd known that a kid had gotten injured once, but I had no idea his name was Harrison Walsh. It provided a red herring that I never intended. I never wanted Holden to be blamed for any of this. He honestly had nothing to do with it – it was all me."
"I'm like, confused," said Shaggy. "What does Christine McCormack have to do with any of this? She went here like, twenty years ago."
Daphne knelt beside Leesa and put a hand on her shoulder. "She was your aunt, wasn't she?" she asked softly.
A tear escaped and trickled down Leesa's cheek. "Yes," she murmured.
Velma stared at her. "Wait. Christine McCormack was your aunt? The one who…" She didn't finish the sentence.
Shaggy suddenly remembered the day of the full-cast bonding, when Leesa had mentioned her aunt. "Zoinks," he whispered, wide-eyed. "How did you figure that out, Daph?"
"I mentioned when we found her picture in the yearbook that she looked familiar," Daphne said. "I just didn't realize who she reminded me of until I saw Leesa in the Phantom costume."
"Jinkies..." Velma breathed.
Leesa took a shaky breath as more tears fell. "She used to tell me stories about her days as an actress here. The story about the kid who injured his leg during dance rehearsal for Grease stuck with me. But when I was a little girl, I used to love the stories she'd tell me about her time on this stage. It was my biggest dream to perform on this stage like her. After she died, I was distraught. And like I said, this was my last chance to perform a musical here. I wanted to do it in her memory. But…I didn't get the part I wanted."
"So you tried to scare Daphne away?" Fred asked. "So you could take the role of Diana from her?"
"Well, I knew it wouldn't be that simple," Leesa admitted. "Not after the rest of you got involved with the production. So…I'm sorry to say this, but I tried to scare Scooby away first."
Scooby gave her a quizzical expression. "Rut?"
Leesa looked at him mournfully. "Scooby, I'm sorry. I swear, you're the best ASM I've known. You learned so quickly. I didn't expect you to be so good. But I knew your reputation in the group as one of the cowards, so I figured you'd be my easiest target. That's why I told you the story of the Phantom first. Theaters all over the world are said to be haunted, and the students here have always called our ghost The Phantom of the Auditorium, but I was the one who really helped spread the story around, especially this year. I combined elements from different shows - the injury from Grease with my aunt as the lead in West Side Story - and embellished the rest to make it more interesting . All that stuff about the Phantom of the Opera first being performed here was a big then I made sure that only you saw me the first few times."
Shaggy sighed. "And like that's why you made sure I was the other person that saw you," he realized. "Because I'm…the other coward."
"And you figured that if Scooby and Shaggy quit the play," Velma said. "The rest of us wouldn't be far behind."
Leesa closed her eyes and shook her head. "I feel horrible about it," she squeaked. "All my motivations were wrong. And at first I didn't care about any of you. I just wanted you guys out of the play, and for Holden not to feel isolated. You turned the whole cast against him, and that was never my intention. So I decided to have that cast bonding session while Mr. Atwood was out sick, so that Holden would get back into everyone's good graces. But that plan backfired."
"How?" asked Daphne. "Holden is back in everyone's good graces."
Leesa smiled sadly. "It backfired because I got to know you," she replied. "All of you. I was already starting to like you all by then, but after that day…after everything I learned about you all…" Leesa shook her head. "I couldn't keep treating you the way I had been."
"So then why dress up as the Phantom again today?" asked Fred. "What purpose did that serve?"
"I wasn't planning on it," Leesa said. "I swear. When Mr. Atwood went home sick again, it came upon me as like a spur-of-the-moment idea. I decided I would appear as the Phantom to see if anyone still believed the legend. If it didn't work, I'd quit for good and just let the show go on."
"But then I fell into you and you caught me," Daphne said. "And you were afraid I'd expose you in front of everyone, so when you went back up into the fly space, you decided to just take me with you."
"I am so sorry, Daphne," Leesa said again. "I wish I could make you understand how much I regret everything. And Fred – I was putting the production behind schedule more than you were. I'm sorry I let you take the brunt of that. I was the one hiding the props and the costumes. I was the one who told the drama class to start building the set early because I knew it would put Mr. Atwood even further on edge. I was the one who ransacked the girl's dressing room. I didn't want to hurt you – any of you. I just wanted to make my aunt proud." She shook her head. "But she wouldn't be very proud of how I've been behaving. I'm so sorry."
"Like, I have a question," Shaggy piped up. "If you were the ghost then like...what did you see last year when you fell off the stairs?"
Leesa sighed. "That was a lie, too, and it was for the dumbest reason. I did fall of the stairs, but it was just because I missed a step. I had a crush on the boy who played the Baker and I didn't want him to think I was a klutz, so I made up the story that I'd seen the Phantom. Though I ended up getting a lot of mileage out of that story this year."
"I can't believe we didn't suspect it sooner," Velma murmured. "Now that you're telling us everything, it makes total sense. But what I don't understand is why you always seemed surprised as the rest of us when things went wrong."
Leesa shrugged. "I'm an actor," she said by way of explanation.
No one said anything for a while.
"I truly am sorry," Leesa told them. "I don't expect you to forgive me. And obviously you have to tell Mr. Atwood."
"No we don't," said Daphne.
Everyone gawked at her again.
"What do you mean 'no we don't?'" said Fred.
"We're back on schedule with the show. Nobody actually got hurt. She apologized to me, and I accept," Daphne said. "And I believe her. I don't think she's going to do anything more to sabotage the production."
"Daph, are you sure?" Velma tried to dissuade her.
But Daphne was vehement. "If she does anything else to mess up the play, that's when we tell Mr. Atwood. But I believe that she's turning over a new leaf."
"But what about the other students?" asked Leesa. "They all saw me kidnap you. How do you explain that?"
"We could tell parts of the truth," Daphne suggested. "That it was a prank to scare us, and that you kidnapping me was an accident. We don't have to tell everyone that you were deliberately sabotaging the production in order to drive us away."
"Will everyone believe that?" asked Velma dubiously.
"They will if Daphne says it," Fred replied. "She's the best actress."
Leesa looked at them mournfully. "You guys are too kind," she said. "I don't deserve this. Daphne, I really do feel terrible."
"I know," Daphne told her. "And that's why I know you'll keep your promise."
x.X.x
"So…it was all a prank?" asked Tony.
"It was," said Daphne. "And it almost worked."
They had just called the other students back into the auditorium and debriefed them on parts of what had happened. They'd left out Leesa's malicious primary intentions, and had only said that she'd wanted to play a trick on them.
"Yep," Leesa confirmed. "But Mystery Inc. was too smart to be fooled. I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for these meddling kids and their dog." She looked at Holden. "I am sorry that everyone suspected you. That's completely my fault."
"Well, it certainly made for an interesting rehearsal process," Holden said with a grin.
After everyone had apologized and been forgiven, the run-through picked up where it had left off. The rest of the rehearsal went quite well, and everyone left school feeling accomplished.
"You know," Daphne said as Fred drove everyone back home. "I'm glad we figured out the mystery behind the Phantom, but I wish Leesa had just told me how she'd been feeling. A lot of drama could have been avoided if she'd just told me she was jealous."
"That's true," Fred replied. "We may have even all become friends sooner."
"It's important to communicate your feelings," Daphne sighed, remembering what Velma had said to her on Skype all those months ago. She gazed at Fred. She'd been through a lot that afternoon, what with the kidnapping and the dangerous struggle over the catwalk. What if something had happened and she'd never gotten another chance to tell Fred that she loved him? She placed a hand on his arm as he drove. She didn't want to tell him now, while Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby were with them. But she was feeling braver now than she had been. "You have to tell people how you're feeling," she murmured, almost to herself. It was her resolve – her way of convincing herself that she was able to do this.
Velma glanced at Shaggy out of the corner of her eye. Though she knew that Daphne was speaking of her own feelings for Fred, Velma realized that in all the time they'd been meeting in the practice room, Velma had never actually told Shaggy how she felt. Sure, she'd said she enjoyed what they did in the practice room (which was true), but she'd never explicitly told Shaggy that she had feelings for him. Actually, she hadn't told anyone that fact in so many words – the only person who knew was Tony. Jinkies, Velma thought to herself. Here I am, chiding Daphne for not telling Fred that she loves him, while I'm doing the exact same thing. But Velma wasn't ready to put her friendship with Shaggy on the line like that – not unless he wanted it, too. And as far as Velma could tell, he had just wanted a casual hook-up.
Shaggy himself was taking a different sort of meaning from Daphne's words. He was thinking about his family. His sister. They hadn't really talked about Sugie since she'd died. But now that Shaggy had talked about her with his friends, he knew how essential it was to keep that conversation going. And he wanted to start tonight. Shaggy made eye contact with Scooby. Somehow, Scooby seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, and for that Shaggy was grateful.
It was time to talk to his parents.
Sponge: Thanks for reading. Two chapters left! Wow. More next week! Review if you please!