p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As Velma sat in the pleather seat of the minivan, her breath caught in her throat. She ran through the mental checklist of what was left to be done. The engine was running, the tires were at at the correct pressure, now all she needed was the ignition. Velma felt the cool smooth surface of the key against her thumb, her other hand drummed wildly against the rim of the steering while. Grimacing with anticipation, she moved to slide the key into place. Velma's hands shook so violently what she missed the slot in her first few attemptions, but eventually the sound of metal clicking againt metal rang out, and the key was in place. She felt the muscles in her shoulders tense as she adjusted her grip. Dull pain from her injured arm raced down her back. She was used to that by now./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Just turn the damned key, Dinkley!" Velma muttured to herself, spitting out the words like poision./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Before she could spend anymore time agonizing over it, she wrenched her wrist foreward./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"For a few harrowing moments, all that could be heard was the shuddering *tschk tschk tschk* of an engine failing to turn over. But then, just as she was about to withdraw her hand, the noise errupted into the triumphant roar of a 2008 minivan./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Velma cried out with joy, punching her fists into the center of the steering wheel. The horn had long ago stopped working, but even so Velma couls swear she heard triumphant horns blaring somewhere in the distance./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Finally!" she sighed, slumping backwards in her seat. Her face relaxed into a mix of achivement and exhaustion. The silence of the moment overwhelmed her. Fred and Daphne were going home! They would be safe. They could go back to their jobs and go back to normal. Her friends were going home! Velma paused for a moment, reality finally sinking in: Fred and Daphne were going home, and Velma was not going with them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She stared at the backs of her hands, placed perfectly at ten and two. Suddenly Velma was awake. No longer trapped a the stupor she'd aparently been in since- well since Daphne was bitten, really. Velma blinked at her reflection in the sideview mirror. It was hard to recognize herself nowadays. Very hard. She still on some level expected her reflection to be that of a sixteen-yeat-old nerd, with her short hair and that dorky orange sweater. Instead. she looked a bit like Thorn of the Hex Girls. Not nearly as pretty, mind you, but the long shaggy hair and the shredded clothes fit the bill./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"*Shaggy* how strange to use that word- that name- as an adjective. It wasn't. It was his name./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was the name of the friend who she'd lost. The friend she left behind. She dragged Daphne and Fred out of their perfect homes just to search for him, and now that they were almost there-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Velma put the minivan in drive, not willing to sit with her thoughts any longer. Daphne and Fred were going home. That was all that mattered./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Just turn the damned key, Dinkley!" Velma muttured to herself, spitting out the words like poision./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Before she could spend anymore time agonizing over it, she wrenched her wrist foreward./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"For a few harrowing moments, all that could be heard was the shuddering *tschk tschk tschk* of an engine failing to turn over. But then, just as she was about to withdraw her hand, the noise errupted into the triumphant roar of a 2008 minivan./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Velma cried out with joy, punching her fists into the center of the steering wheel. The horn had long ago stopped working, but even so Velma couls swear she heard triumphant horns blaring somewhere in the distance./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Finally!" she sighed, slumping backwards in her seat. Her face relaxed into a mix of achivement and exhaustion. The silence of the moment overwhelmed her. Fred and Daphne were going home! They would be safe. They could go back to their jobs and go back to normal. Her friends were going home! Velma paused for a moment, reality finally sinking in: Fred and Daphne were going home, and Velma was not going with them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She stared at the backs of her hands, placed perfectly at ten and two. Suddenly Velma was awake. No longer trapped a the stupor she'd aparently been in since- well since Daphne was bitten, really. Velma blinked at her reflection in the sideview mirror. It was hard to recognize herself nowadays. Very hard. She still on some level expected her reflection to be that of a sixteen-yeat-old nerd, with her short hair and that dorky orange sweater. Instead. she looked a bit like Thorn of the Hex Girls. Not nearly as pretty, mind you, but the long shaggy hair and the shredded clothes fit the bill./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"*Shaggy* how strange to use that word- that name- as an adjective. It wasn't. It was his name./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was the name of the friend who she'd lost. The friend she left behind. She dragged Daphne and Fred out of their perfect homes just to search for him, and now that they were almost there-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Velma put the minivan in drive, not willing to sit with her thoughts any longer. Daphne and Fred were going home. That was all that mattered./p