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ALL STAR SCOOBY DOO

CHAPTER 3 – Of Mothers and Women

:::::MY GLASSES:::::

Wow, Fred Jones knows my name? Velma thought looking at the flyer that Freddy had handed her. "Hi Velma, I'm starting a new Paranormal Mystery Club. You should join. First meeting is tomorrow in the lunch room, immediately after school." He had said.

"Uh sure, okay" Velma had said without even thinking about it. She was blown away that Fred Jones the most popular guy in school, quarterback of the football team and star baseball player, even knew that she existed much less her name. Freddy had spent an entire week last summer with his yearbook memorizing the names of the entire student body. He knew that if he wanted to get Class President, that calling people by their names built an instant connection and could possibly earn him more votes in the election.

Velma read the flyer as she walked away, wondering what she'd just agreed to. "Students of Coolsville High, I, Fred Jones, want to invite you to join the brand new Coolsville High Paranormal Mystery Club, where we can investigate and prove or disprove all of the local paranormal phenomenon that our small town of Coolsville in known around the world for. The first meeting is this Tuesday in the Cafeteria, immediately following school . . . ".

Oh brother. Velma thought. Sure Coolsville was famous for all their unsolved supernatural mysteries, even being nick-named "Spooky Town" by the Sci-Fy Channel, but Velma never bought it. She'd lived here her entire life and had never seen anything to make her think otherwise.

Maybe I should just skip it. She thought. "It's not like Fred Jones will miss you." She muttered to herself. But even as she said that, she thought. But he did know your name, that's got to mean something, right?

Fred may be the only guy that knew her name at this school, by Velma's estimation. At sixteen years old, she'd never had a real boyfriend and had only been kissed once and that had been by Tommy Turnacle when she was fourteen. She found out later, that he'd only kissed her after losing a bet. Now she couldn't even hate Tommy because died less than a month later from fume inhalation. He'd been helping his Dad work on the family's car with the garage door closed. It had been truly sad and the whole town had mourned them. And since Tommy's, tragic and untimely death, had promoted him to near Saint like status, she couldn't even hate or think mean thoughts about him without a twinge of guilt.

"Velma you can't be mad at the dead" her mother told her, "They don't get a chance to apologize for what they did, so you got to get over and move on." Her mother was always full of so much wisdom it would seem, but Velma saw through it. She hadn't recognized it when she was younger but now that she was older she understood her mother. Her mother was insane, and not in the way that
"oh Mom you're so crazy" playful jesting, no she was clinically insane. Velma was sure of it.

Velma's Dad had disappeared long ago, when Velma was still in diapers. He was just there one day and gone the next. Her Dad had been a very successful lawyer, and had been working on a high profile case against the local Acme 171 manufacturing plant for their illegal disposal of toxic waste into Coolsville's streams and rivers, when one night near the end of the trial after leaving the courthouse he simply vanished without a trace. Police never found a body or anything and had no clue's or suspects into his disappearance. That was when Velma is sure that her mother suffered a major mental break down.

Her mom locked herself in her bedroom and cried nonstop. Velma had to go stay with her Aunt Thelma for a while. When she returned to live with her mom, she was different. She said that she had visions and at night while Velma was supposed to be asleep, she could hear her mother speaking to people who weren't really there.

After six months, the police declared her father legally dead. When the insurance company settled and paid out her dad's policy, at Aunt Thelma's insistence, Velma's mom used the entire lump sum cash settlement to pay off the family's sizable mortgage so that her and Velma could remain in the house and not have to move. The Dinkley's home was in a well-to-due area of Coolsville, and paying off the mortgage took all the money they had.

Velma's mother never returned to work either. In fact she hadn't left the house since her father vanished. When Velma was young, Aunt Thelma would come by weekly to deliver groceries and check in on them. As Velma became a teenager the responsibility shifted to her. Aunt Thelma would send a check every week and stop in now on a monthly basis for her checkups. Velma had felt very guilty. She knew the financial burden that this was putting on her Aunt. She had promised herself that as soon as she was old enough, she would get a job so that her aunt didn't have to support them anymore but when she turned sixteen, Aunt Thelma forbid it. She had told her, "Velma, I want you to focus on your school work and grades and being a teenager. There will be time to be an adult soon enough. You've already had to grow up far too quickly as it is."

As uncomfortable as it made her to keep mooching off Aunt Thelma, she would do as she asked. Maybe this Paranormal Club with Fred Jones was what she needed. Maybe joining a club is what regular teenagers did. She decided that she would go, at least once. She had in fact told Fred that she'd be there and even though social gatherings were not her cup of tea, she'd try. Jenkies Velma, what's the worst that could happen? She thought.

:::::DAMSEL IN DISTRESS:::::

"Daphne Anne Blake, you march yourself straight back upstairs and fix your hair." Daphne's mom ordered as Daphne came down for breakfast.

Oh my God mother, are you serious? Daphne thought but didn't dare to say it out loud. "Mom, all the girls where pony tails" Daphne pleaded.

"I did not raise a Tom Boy, I raised a lady. Now go up there and don't come back down until that hair been brushed, curled and crimped" Daphe's mom scorned. "And sweetie, really? More makeup would be nice too."

Ugh! Daphne thought as went back upstairs. Daphne and her mother's relationship had always been a battle. Elizabeth Blake, Daphne's mom, lived in fairy tale world. She had always seen herself as Queen among the other women in her high society friend circles, and being a queen she was expected to raise perfect little princesses. Daphne had never wanted to be a princess, nor had she been uber girly, but with her mother always droning on about "keeping up appearances" Daphne had learned to play the part well.

When Daphne was eight, she begged her mother to allow her to take martial arts, but her mother had forbid it stating that "girls don't fight." And when Daphne at fourteen and had brought home a permission slip to sign up for Coolsville High Girls' Softball team, her mother had faked passing out. When she awoke, she chastised Daphne for scaring her with a permission slip for her daughter to be a brute!

Even Daphne's friends, were not really her friends. Those relationships were fake, just like just like Daphne's girly persona. Her friends were all socialite clones exactly like her mom. All of them just looking to marry a rich successful man, and raise perfect little princes and princesses, never actually doing anything for themselves.

Daphne wanted to do things herself. She wanted a career. She wanted to be able to buy things with her own money that she'd earned. Sure, she wanted to get married and have kids, but they didn't have to be little princes and princesses, they could just be children, beautiful messy, dirty, wild children. Free to run and scream and play sports and make mistakes. And she swore that she'd never be embarrassed by them. She'd love them, flaws and all.

But until that time came, she'd play her part that her mother wanted; at least until she was an adult.

BLOATMAN'S CORNER: Thank you for reading! If you like please leave a review! Be on the lookout for ALL STAR SCOOBY DOO Chapter 4.