"So… Like'… here's the plan gang!" Chimed in Shaggy, moving towards everyone to explain his idea. Stealing Fred's line in the process.
"Basically we have one night to gather as much candy as we can. But there is the problem of the parent's only giving out candy once to each kid in costume. So what we need to do is fool the parent's into thinking that we are not the same kids. Like, say we are going to visit Velma's parents. If we all go together, then we have wasted an opportunity. But instead, if we go in scattered groups, we can have more people go through without them noticing."
Velma picked it up for the more complicated portion of the plan.
"Here's an example of what we can do to maximize our candy output. Say Fred goes first. He visits my parent's house and is able to be visually recognized by my parents. He could have two of us with him, but in a costume that hides our faces. While Fred vocalizes the 'trick or treat' the other two can stay quiet, say Shaggy and me for this example. If anyone asks who they are, all Fred has to say is that there are some friends visiting. It's not a lie, but it's not the whole truth either. If they get to curious, it would be easy to give the excuse that there are more houses to hit, and that you were in a hurry. Then, the next shift I would be seen, and then Fred could dive into a full body costume and Scooby could be the second while Shaggy and Daphne hit another house. So we could have two groups going at once, we could get multiple stops per house and in less time as well."
Velma beamed, understanding and realizing that the idea wasn't that hard to pull off. It as perfectly logical and the only problem was getting in and out of the other costumes and not letting the parents get too curious. If they caught on, then they won't be able to pull it off the next year. Which would give them more then enough time to reflect back on the previous actions and movements to refine it for the year to come.
"So, Like' you guys understand what I'm thinking of?"
Shaggy inquired Fred and Daphne. Fred nodded his head, musing over the ideas in his head, while Daphne had gotten distracted and moved to the costume pile. She had gotten the idea and was moving into the next part, Costumes. She picked it up like it was going to bite her, before she got disgusted with it and dropped it back down into the messy pile.
"Ewww… I'm not wearing one of those… Things…" She had to ponder for a second to find the right word to call it. "Those are sooo last year. Wearing parent's old clothing. A few of these can stay, or you guys can wear them. I have a few more I can bring."
Picking up her cell phone, she dialed a number quickly, her fingers moving by their own accord to the memorized number. It took seconds before the other side picked up.
"Oh Jenkins? Please bring over my Halloween assortment that I had picked out and bring them over Shaggy's residence. Oh, no… You don't have to bring them in, just drop them off in the trailer trunk and we'll get them. Thank you Jenkins!"
She hung up the phone with a click. Moments later a horn sounded downstairs, meaning the trailer trunk had been dropped off. Daphne skipped to downstairs and opened the door to the front of Shaggy's house. The rest of the gang followed and was amazed at the small trailer trunk seeming to be filled with clothing. With some grunting, the gang was able to hike the trunk to Shaggy's room before his parent's got to suspicious of the heavy thunk'ing sounds coming from the stairs. Once inside the room, and cut off from the rest of the house, Daphne opened the trunk revealing a mass amount of costumes. Mostly, frilly dresses like princesses and fairies, but there were a few more generic ones, like ghosts and ghouls. With a nod of satisfaction, Daphne was more content at her selection then the meager pile that Shaggy had. Plus it was more organized and pretty. Just how she liked it.
"Now that is a costume collection. Alright, I'm all set."
Daphne said with an approving look. Velma and Scooby were the first to investigate the new selection; while Shaggy seemed to be sizing up the new addition.
"Hmmm… Velma, do you think this will be enough to pull off the plan?"
Shaggy inquired. He wanted to make sure his plan had no flaws. So that they could… How did Velma put it…? Optimize their acquired…. Candy….Ness… Yeah. Less complicated words, but it meant the same.
Velma looked back to the plan leader and got a thoughtful look on her face. Moving to the side of the room, she pulled over her suitcase that included her pop up computer. Punching in a few numbers she quickly calculated the required amount of costume combinations to maximize the candy output from each house and a proper schedule of house sequences to reduce the suspicion of the surrounding adults to their actions.
"If done correctly, which I do not advise that we try accomplishing all this year, is thirty five combinations of the five of us, to each house."
Velma turned her computer, which had been covered in one to two letter combinations to show who was the person visible, to the people who were wearing the full body costumes. Eliminating the repeating patterns to make the selection come out to her calculations. It also included a small picture of the block and how many, and who was in each house.
"With the neglecting of the haunted house of Miss Skylark, that leaves us eleven houses to hit, including all of our houses but Daphne's place. Since she lives on another block. We are constricted to working this plan upon this block, so eleven houses are the one's we are going to be able to acquire candy from. And even if we accomplish half the amount of combinations per house, that means approximately seventeen and a half pieces of candy per costume, per person, per house. So at the end of the day, if we accomplish even half the amount of costume combinations we can get a grand total of nine hundred sixty two and a half pieces of candy for the whole block overall. That is close to 193 pieces of candy for each of us."
Though the gang got lost in all the calculations, even with the help of the diagrams, the numbers were enough to make even Daphne drool. Which she quickly cleaned up with a hankie for just such occasions, but it still had been there. What kid didn't like the idea of candy, and lots of it? Shaggy and Scooby's jaws could be found resting on the floor, making a small puddle of slobber at the prospect of all that candy.
"Like man oh man Scoob. Just thinking about that makes me hungry."
Shaggy gathered up his bottom lip from dragging on the ground and put it back in place. Scooby's mouth seemed to roll up back into position, with a click of his teeth as his jaw closed as he agreed with his scruffy haired companion.
"Rah Rah! Ret's r'eat!"
It was about lunchtime anyway, so the gang padded down to the main room of Shaggy's house for a homemade lunch for them all. Shaggy's mom served them, noticing their ravenousness appetite as they all dug into the sandwiches.
"Dear… You guys must have been working really hard up there? Working up such an appetite. What are you doing up there that made you guys so hungry?"
Shaggy tried to stammer up an answer, but Fred jumped to cover for him, complimenting Shaggy's mom on the lunch. "Wow Mrs. Rogers! This is a great sandwich!"
The others jumped to divert Shaggy's mom from asking more questions. The last thing they needed was a suspicious family member to spoil the whole thing.
"Great sandwich indeed. You must tell Jenkins the recipe. You making it just perfectly."
Flattered Daphne, smoothing it on Mrs. Rogers as well as she had put the peanut butter upon the bread, laid on evenly to compliment the equally well spread jelly. Preening from the flattery, she lost track of her asked question, with relief from the whole gang. She left to the kitchen to write up the proper peanut butter and jelly instructions to give to Daphne to give to her butler when she saw him.
"Phew… Like' that was close. Good job guys."
Sighed Shaggy, feeling more at ease with his mother less inquisitive to their actions. That made it easier to plan. He leaned over, to be able to whisper and be heard and not let his mom find out.
"I think that we should relocate everything to the headquarters so there will be a less chance to be discovered. After lunch, Daphne and I will distract my mom, while you guys get Daphne's truck out and bring it to the HQ."
Everyone seemed to be in agreement when Scooby seemed to be against it. Shaggy looked over to his canine companion with an inquisitive look.
"Like' what's wrong old buddy old pal?"
"Ruh Uh!" Remarked the Dane, paws crossed in front of his chest in a defiant nature. The gang all turned their attention to the hound to get an answer.
"Why not Scooby?" Questions a confused Freddie.
"Raggy's rad." The pup said with a nod.
"Shaggy's dad?" Echoed Daphne, puzzled at the response he had given.
"Oh… I know. I forgot my dad was going to be repairing that one wall in the HQ… Remember? We had that one hole and there was a draft coming in and let in those hornets in and they made their nest? Well, my dad said he was going to take care of them for us this weekend. And if we hide everything there, he might find it. Nice save Scoob." Shaggy gave a thumbs up to his partner, who grinned smugly.
"But if we can't put it there, then where can be hide it?" Velma milled over the current predicament, unsure their options. Since they could not hide the costumes forever if it was in one of their houses. Their parents could get curious if the gang kept coming over and hiding in the room for hours. They needed a safe place to stash it all. But Scooby seemed to have not let go of his smug expression. He was practically beaming. This didn't go unnoticed.
"You got a plan Scooby?" Fred inquired the pup. With his muzzle splitting open with a grin, he revealed his genius idea to them all.
"Rah Rah! R'y r'lace!"
"Like' that's perfect!" Laughed Shaggy, smacking himself in the forehead for not thinking of the solution sooner. Velma's eyebrow raised as she watched the two celebrate before she translated Scooby speak and realized what they were talking about.
"Oh… Scooby's place. His dog house."
Once Velma made the idea vocal in human speech, Daphne and Fred got it as well. It was a good idea. No one went inside Scooby's doghouse except Shaggy and Scooby, and occasionally the gang. After the run in with the sludge monster, it let the gang in to the splendor of Scooby's dog house. It was almost as big as Daphne's house, or at least seemed like it. It was far more spacious then the outside would suggest.
With the location of their hideout for the plan acquired, Daphne and Shaggy moved to distract his mom while the rest of the gang discreetly, as a bunch of kids could with a rather large trunk, got the costumes out and into the doghouse. They made sure to look out for any overlooking parents from other houses before they ducked inside and put away the trunk. The rest were a lot easier, since while in the kitchen, Shaggy had snuck some trash bags and brought them up to his room to get the rest of the clothes bagged and out. If his mother would ask, he would say he's taking some things out of his room to clean it up. His mother thought it was a miracle that he was actually cleaning, and didn't question her good fortune. Allowing them to have a clean get away with the goods.
Halloween came all to soon for the gang. They had spent the few days they had preparing doing drill runs as a group. Scooby standing in for the parent's at the fake houses they made out of left over boxes that had been scattered around the doghouse. The main problem they all found was trying to get in and out of costumes fast enough to be able to hit the next house. It had to work like clockwork or the schedule would get messed up. Though Velma had thought ahead and classified each costume combination with a difficulty and calculated the time it took each member to get into said costumes. They all figured that with the one person being recognizable, they would get the more complicated outfit and the other two traveling would just need a more simple full body costume and when they were ready, would assist the main person with their costume. Scooby had three main exits from his doghouse. The main one everyone saw, which was also the way in, and two more hidden exits on the Rogers property. Those were more secluded and were better for the change ups. People would see them enter the doghouse, but never exit. So if anyone were suspicious, it would look like the gang was hiding in the doghouse rather then exiting out the hidden passage.
With all the preparations ready, the time was upon them.
"Alright gang, let's go!"
Forgive me anyone who is actually GOOD in math and notices if I messed up in my calculations. I'm FAR dumber then Velma, even when she was that young, so feel free to correct me. I'm really not good in math. So my appologies! : bow: Toki
