Hello!
I have the honor to present you the second chapter of my story. And I would like to warn you right now that Daphne, unfortunately, is not very nice at the beginning. But do not worry, I did not ruin her personality. I just have planned a change of heart for her.
Alright. Enough of talking about the content. This chapter is much longer than the previous one but do not skip too much, okay? :]
Enjoy!
Ten-years-old Daphne cautiously looked around. The new school was, in fact, similar to the old one. Of course, the kids' faces were different but categories remained the same. Bewildered first graders, handsome sporty guys, beautiful cheerleaders, brutal bullies, nerds with glasses and regular losers. In general, not counting the sporty guys and the cheerleaders, none of these groups had friendly relationships with any other. This time, however, Daphne saw an exception. A quite handsome, blond-haired boy was talking to a dark-haired, bespectacled girl, much shorter than him and appearing to be a nerd, who stared at him without a word. Daphne was convinced that the boy was a sporty guy until a red-haired bully threw him into the nearest trashcan. Not being able to understand it, she stopped the first girl who was passing by.
"Why did he do it?" she asked, pointing to the red-headed boy.
"Don't you know that Red always throws Fred into a trashcan?" the other girl was surprised.
"I'm new here" Daphne explained. "My name's Daphne Blake" she added, holding out her hand.
"And mine is Kate Brown" the other girl introduced herself, shaking Daphne's hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Why Red treats Fred so bad?" Daphne asked. (A/N: Try to write this question without rhyming. I couldn't.)
"Devil knows" Kate shrugged. "Probably because Red is strong and Fred is a weirdo. And he hangs out with Velma who is even weirder than him."
"What do you mean?"
"She never talks to anyone except for Fred and the teachers, her glasses look like bottle bottoms and she wears badly matched clothes."
"Indeed" said Daphne, having looked over little Velma, unaware of anything and trying to pull Fred out of the trashcan. "Ewwwwww..." she shuddered.
That day, Daphne joined Kate and her five friends. She noticed almost immediately that actually, the only purpose of this group's existence was teasing kids who had worse clothes – particularly Velma. Frankly, Daphne had had slight remorse because of this but managed to convince herself that nobody cared about this little bespectacled girl anyway – maybe except for Fred, the school weirdo, but he didn't count. Every day, Daphne mocked Velma more and more boldly and became less and less touched by her tears.
x
About a month went by. One day, Kate and her friends as usual found Velma to tease her a bit.
"Hey, little girl, where are all those sweaters from?" Kate asked. "Did you rob a warehouse or what?"
"And those specs really are made of bottle bottoms or do they just look like that?" Tess giggled, taking the glasses off of Velma's nose. Other girls, including Daphne, laughed.
"Freddy!" the little Velma burst into tears. Soon, the breathless Fred made his way to her.
"Aren't you ashamed?" he shouted, taking Velma's glasses from Tess and with his angry gaze scanning the faces of the girls, surrounding Velma who had immediately clung to his side for dear life and buried her face in his sweater. "You know very well she's afraid of you! Why are you bullying her?"
"Why do you care?" Daphne asked. "Is she your girlfriend or what?"
"Why do you care?" Fred echoed. "Right after you'd come to this school, you started to bully Velma, even though she hadn't done anything to you. I thought you were different but you disappointed me very much, Daphne Blake. Come on, Velma" with this, the boy put his arm around the little girl's shoulders and led her away from between her bullies.
"Now what?" Daphne asked after a pause.
"Hey, look" Tess pointed to a small, black-haired boy "it's that little, stuttering fool, Louis!"
All the six of the girls ran off to tease Louis a bit. No, not seven. Six. Daphne had stayed behind, wondering why such a good-looking (and probably nice) boy, Fred Jones, was friends with the little freak, Velma Dinkley. After all, if it wasn't for her, he would undoubtedly be very popular at school, even with his obsession with aliens and other nonexistent creatures. On the other hand, whenever he stood in defense of Velma, it was obvious that he did it because he cared about her, not because someone had told him to. Certainly something was going on between them. Maybe it wasn't love (at the age of ten, Daphne was totally convinced love was something destined for a beautiful princess and a handsome prince at the end of a tale – and the two of them weren't a princess and a prince) but they sure liked each other very much. But why? Being born as a curious person, Daphne decided to discover the secret of Fred and Velma's relationship.
Since then, she closely watched both of them, either when they were together or when they went their separate ways. She quickly noticed a few details which could have seemed insignificant if she hadn't been paying attention. First – whenever Fred landed in the trashcan, Velma tried to help him out and did what she could do to comfort him when he once had begun to cry because of another humiliation. Second – each time a kid began to boast of their family in her presence, Velma ran away in tears and hid in the washroom for the rest of the break. Third – she was taken from school either by Fred's parents, or by a dark-haired, bespectacled woman, whom she called "Auntie". Fourth – there were a few times when, if Fred hadn't offered her his sandwiches or sweets during the big break, the little Velma simply wouldn't have had anything to eat. The same thing happened about a week before Thanksgiving. Daphne, as usual, had sat down in a spot from where she could easily watch Fred and Velma, without arousing anyone's suspicions.
"I have chocolate muffins" said Fred, gently pushing a blue cookie box towards Velma. "Help yourself to them."
"Can I?" the girl asked to be sure.
"Sure. You can eat them all, if you want to. My mom baked them especially for you" the boy replied, sinking his teeth in a sandwich. "She says you're too skinny" he added, rolling his eyes. Sometimes, he had a feeling his mom was very strange.
"Jinkies, tell her they're delicious" Velma asked him between one muffin and another.
"Why don't you do it yourself? My parents want to invite you and your aunt for the Thanksgiving Day. Will you come?"
"Jones fell in love with Dinkley!" Red screamed suddenly as he was just passing by the table they were sitting at. "Look at those two lovebirds, look at those two lovebirds, he is a ninny and she is a nerd!" he sang teasingly. (A/N: the melody was the one from the intro of "Pinky and the Brain" cartoon)
"Get lost, Red" Fred growled. "It's not your business."
x
The longer Daphne watched Velma, the surer she was that there was a difference between this little girl and the other kids even if she didn't know what difference it was. About a week before Christmas, she decided to inquire Fred thoroughly, hoping that the information gotten from him would help her find out the cause of Velma's oddity. Since they both were in the same grade, she simply caught up with him on their way to the Math class.
"Fred" she asked "how long have you been friends with Velma?"
"Since she started the first grade. Why?"
"What her parents are like?" Daphne decided to start with one of the most trivial questions.
To her surprise, Fred sadly looked into her eyes.
"Velma doesn't have parents" he said seriously. "They died in a car accident when she was three-years-old. Since then, it's her aunt who raises her. She's nice and really loves Velma but an aunt is not the same as a mom..."
"Oh, jeepers...!" Daphne covered her mouth with her hands. Suddenly, it dawned on her how cruel she'd been for the little Velma who had a tough life even without her teasing. "I... I... I haven't known..."
"Well, now you do. And I hope that you won't bully her anymore."
"I won't" Daphne promised. "And I'll try to make it up to her for all the teasing... somehow."
x
Jane Walton would give a lot to be able to get rid of nightmares. Almost every night, she dreamed about the terrible moment when she'd learned about the death of Nathalie and Thomas. Usually, she would wake up with a rapid heartbeat and her cheeks wet with tears. This night, however, like on every anniversary, the nightmare continued. And so, dressed in black, she was once again in the cemetery chapel in the middle of which, in two wooden coffins, bodies of her sister and brother-in-law had lay. In her arms, she'd held the three-years-old Velma, who had thought her parents would have gotten up and begun to play with her any moment. Then, the picture changed and Jane saw herself and her brother, Dave, weeping next to the tomb, in which gravediggers had placed the coffin with Nathalie's body. Once it had been all over, Velma, too young to understand what had happened, had asked to take her mommy and daddy out because she'd wanted to play with them.
At this point, Jane woke up. Almost immediately, she heard crying and screaming from the nine-years-old Velma's room:
"Mommy! Daddy! Auntie!"
The woman, feeling her heart breaking, got up and went to her niece's bedroom.
"What happened, darling?" she asked, sitting down on the bed and turning on the bedside lamp. "Have you had a bad dream?"
The girl nodded.
"I've dreamed about how mom and dad had died..." she said, swallowing her tears. "First, they were happy and laughed and then, the car began to skid, and mom was afraid, and dad couldn't stop the car, and they both died... And then, you also died and I had no one left..."
"Oh, you poor little baby..." Jane said compassionately. Then, she took Velma to her own bed, wrapped her in the covers and hugged her tightly to her chest. "No wonder you're trembling so much. Don't cry anymore. You'll stay here with me until the morning. Close your eyes and sleep."
"I love you, Auntie, you know it?" Velma murmured, listening to her aunt's rhythmic, comforting heartbeat.
"I know, dear. I love you, too" Miss Walton whispered, stroking the girl's hair and kissing her cheek. "Sleep well."
x
During the Christmas break, Daphne almost all the time thought about what Fred had told her about Velma. She couldn't forgive herself that only because of her look, she'd been thinking of her as of somebody worse. At some point, she began to wonder how many more people she could have hurt like this. She'd written down about thirty names before she realized that such list would have to be at least one meter long. When she understood this, it frightened her. She felt... no, she KNEW it couldn't be like that anymore. She had to change it. She wanted to change it. And she was sure she would change it.
She came back to school on January 5, because her mom had kept her in the house for another three days because of a cold. That day, during the big break, Kate and her friends were bullying Velma again.
"Where do you buy these weird clothes, Dinkley?" Kate nearly shrieked with laughter. "Sweaters like this one had been out-of-date when your mother was your age!"
Velma burst out crying and the girls, accompanying Kate, started laughing. Except for one.
"Leave her alone, Kate" said Daphne.
"Why? It's only Velma. The school's biggest freak."
"No matter who she is, you shouldn't laugh at her" Daphne insisted. "It's not cool to tease someone who is weaker than you and can't defend herself. Apologize to her."
"Okay, I'm sorry" said Kate. "But you, Daphne, also are a weirdo" she added, shrugging, and walked away with the rest of the girls.
Daphne embraced the weeping Velma and started gently stroking her short, dark hair.
"Don't cry" she told her softly. "Now, hush... They're gone already..."
Velma, however, pushed her away.
"Go away" she said, choking on her tears and sniffling. "You also have been rude to me."
"I know" Daphne admitted. "I'm sorry. It will be different from now. I'll help Fred to defend you. And I'll never laugh at you again. I promise."
"Velma!" Fred called out, running up to Velma and hugging her. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere! Was Kate bullying you again?"
"Yes" Velma admitted "but she defended me" she added, pointing to Daphne.
"Thanks a lot, Daphne" Fred grinned. "Now I know you were saying the truth."
"The Blakes don't break their word" Daphne smiled back.
Since that day, everything changed for the better. Velma and Daphne became friends. Daphne and Fred earned general sympathy and respect in school by defending the kids who were bullied by Kate and her gang. Red Herring was finally caught red-handed (A/N: how ironic... :] ) while picking on Fred and given a severe punishment. Velma, who had stopped being afraid of going to school, started doing much better with her education and at the end of the school year, she was told she'd been allowed to skip a grade which meant she'd have classes with Fred and Daphne. They all thought things couldn't be any better but four years later, another revolution would occur in their lives...
To those interested: Shaggy and Scooby will appear in the next chapter. Do not miss it!
Asking kindly for reviews, I send you my warmest greetings.
Yours truly,
VerMa.
PS - Okay, I was kidding with that formal tone. But I wasn't kidding about the reviews. Each one means a lot to me.
VM.