I didn't think anyone else would be reading this fic O.o Once again, I do not assure that this story will be good. I'm trying to put in a feeling of verisimilitude in this story, so it can't be progressing as fast as I first planned it to. So,as you can see, Chapter 8 is not prom. There isn't much action going on here, but it's important,I think, to have the characters' impressions so far, so the story makes more sense, and doesn't feel that rushed. Because this story isn't going to be 40k words or something, the action is going to be a bit fast-paced, I think. Though I'm working on this to give more of a slow rhythm to the story. But then it'll be longer. Ahhhhhh. Don't know what to do. Do I keep this short or...?

Chapter 8: Fears

After the day's classes, Shaggy started running towards the exit, hoping that he would be able to catch Daphne before she went home. He needed to talk to her. If he didn't talk to her right now, he would probably explode from all the news he HAD to share with her. But he would have to be careful not to mention just how and why he had gotten close to Velma Dinkley. Or how she made him feel all goofy and...Shaggy-ish all over again. With his previous and very first girlfriend...Shaggy had felt that he wasn't being accepted for who he was, and that his one and true love was only trying to change him and in the end, he had been stripped of his personality entirely. And then, suddenly, there came Velma Dinkley, who didn't even care that he stuffed his face when he ate. Better still, he had actually stuffed his face right in front of her! But she hadn't seemed to mind at all. All in one day of knowing her! How...Just how had the girl done this to him? Was this sorcery? Was she a witch of some sort? How could he break the enchantment!? Questions like these were having pool parties and unstoppable fun in his mind. What actually was this...this weird feeling?

He suddenly felt all queasy at the thought, and believed he would actually faint from all the queasiness. But that would be the last straw. Here he was, almost whimpering with impatience, wanting desperately to talk to Daphne about that one girl, who was going to cause him to FAINT from thinking about her, and whom he had known for ONE day only. ONE DAY. He was pathetic. He could have smashed his face into a wall because of how truly desperate he found himself to be. And though he was trying to cool down a little, because it was evident he had overused his brain, the words "ONE DAY" were echoing restlessly in his mind, making him recall the meeting and lunch with Velma, and the way she laughed or...Or the way she blushed. Hehe, she was pretty when she blushed, thought Shaggy, a goofy smile appearing on his face.

Minutes later, as his mind drifted to wedding bells and a strangely very clear image of him waiting at the altar, he decided Velma Dinkley must be a witch or that he must be falling for her. And none of those two conclusions were very rejoicing ones, at least for him. He liked Velma, and didn't want her to be a witch. And he also wasn't ready to fall for someone yet again. But that may have been just what he had done. All in one day. ONE FREAKING DAY. He wasn't getting over this anytime soon. Oh, he wasn't.

Realising that he had somehow slumped down on one bench at the entrance of Coolsville High, Shaggy gave up on the idea of seeing Daphne today. He was too much of a mess at the moment and needed to figure things out a little bit. Or at least wait until that queasy feeling decided it didn't want to inhabit him anymore. And when Norville Rogers had to figure things out, nothing helped more than having big, fat servings of comfort food ready to console his soul. And so, he called home, and in a desperate voice, told his mummy he was hungry.

Velma, on the other hand, was not calling her mummy to make her lots of food. And anyway, Mrs Dinkley's idea of comfort food was philosophy, meditation and maybe some tofu, because she insisted that: "Above the body, the mind must first be fed." Velma wasn't going to refute her mother's theory anytime soon...But tofu really wasn't her cup of tea. And it wasn't like it was such a big deal to Velma. Okay, Shaggy and her had hit it off quite well, and got along nicely. And maybe even in a way she had never gotten along with almost anyone, save for Fred. But, it just wasn't the same thing! Fred was...Fred. And Shaggy was...well, Shaggy. And Fred was only a friend, she thought. A minute passed before she actually understood her own thoughts. What did she mean, "Fred was only a friend"? Wasn't Shaggy also ONLY a friend?

Sighing, Velma thought it may have been time to stop trying to keep up the appearances to herself at least. She might have thought of Shaggy in ways which exceeded the limits of friendship, and she might just be looking forward to going to prom with him- even if as friends only. But she couldn't let things get ahead of herself. She mustn't think that he actually felt the same way about her. After all, he'd done nothing very concrete to show he liked her. They weren't even at a point where they could even consider a relationship at all! They had only just known each other...and she had already developed a Lord-knows-what kind of feeling for him. But, it was just because he was handsome, she reassured herself. She wasn't usually around handsome guys...Unless you count in Fred. But Fred was not her type of guy, so he didn't count. Letting her head fall back on her bed, Velma decided not to think about Shaggy at all. "Concentrate on the prom. The prom" she told herself. After all, there really was a lot to be done in the coming weeks. The organising committee's plans had been quite ordinary, even boring. And they wanted to make that moment a fabulous one for both their friends.

Velma smiled at the thought of Fred, thinking about their friendship, or about how he had been the first one to try to stop people from bullying her. He was actually very kind and nice to her, and even towards a lot of other people. But it was the polar opposite when it came to Daphne. Giggling slightly, she thought that after all, it might be true that boys will actually annoy the girl they like, or it may have just been a facade they used to cover up the fact that they in fact liked each other in that way. What a surprise it would be though, when the whole school found out that the two persons they thought were nemeses, actually quite liked each other, and would make it known by coming to prom together. After all, masked prom or not, teenage girls could do better research than the FBI and would find out that hotshot Fred Jones was actually there with Daphne Blake. It was lucky, she thought, that both Fred and Daphne had such great friends who were not only trying their best to make their prom night an unforgettable experience, but who were also trying to make it a surprise. Really, they were such lucky bums.

The one and only Fred Jones was however not feeling very lucky at the moment. He had yet again caused trouble for, mocked, annoyed and ticked off his LonelyXPurpleXStar also known as his Daphne, and he'd done that at the rehearsal by sparking up a wave of "Simple Six" in the gymnasium, when all he had wanted to do was apologise for being the one who caused the nickname to exist in the first place, but as always, he ended up making her hate him, when all he wanted was the exact opposite. With that, he thought that he could hardly call her his, could he? Not when he actually ended up ticking her off every time he tried to approach her. This had gone on ever since he had fallen for her in their first year of high school, when he had seen the way she had been kind to an elderly cleaner who had had trouble finding his way to the administrative office. At that moment, everyone had been laughing at the poor man, and he had been about to help the latter before telling all the others off, when Daphne Blake had swooped in with her fiery hair and had scowled at everyone before helping the cleaner. That kindness of hers had him hooked right there and then. But somehow, he had never been able to tell her about his feelings, and even until now, when he was doing his last year of high school, he had never even been able to say something as simple as : "Hi, how are you?", but rather, it came out as "Hey, ready to fail maths again, Blake?".

And when that had come out of his mouth for the first time, he had been appalled, but seeing as he kept doing it over and over again each time he approached her, he simply went along with the I-hate-Daphne-Blake wave. But he had had enough of it. He wanted to get along with Daphne, and he had nearly given up at one point. But luck had been on his side that day, because Matt, one of his mates from the football team, had gotten Daphne's email address, and had suggested they prank her. Fred had said he would consider the idea and had readily taken the email address, before later announcing that email pranks were far too time-consuming, so they wouldn't be doing that. However, he had started chatting with her online as Adrien, and it wasn't like his email address gave him out in the first place. It was Frenchie58. And well, he was French. His mother was, at least. The story about his sister and what not had been invented on the spot, actually. At first, Fred had wanted to be just a random stranger Daphne would come to know, but things had quickly gone out of hand when she had asked just why a Frenchman spoke such good English, and how he even knew all these slang words. And that was how he had had a sister who had died in...was it a car crash or something similar?

Truthfully, he had forgotten by now, but he could afford to, because Daphne and his conversations weren't based on that at all, but rather they had fun talking about lots of things. And he realised, they sometimes even flirted online. Not that he minded. Because he didn't mind. And that little flirt game they had going on, coupled with the fact that they got along so well had been what had pushed him to make a move and ask her out to prom. He would reveal his feelings for her there and then. He would tell her how beautiful she truly was. Not just from the outside, but from the inside as well. And he wouldn't chicken out nor revert to jerk mode at that moment, he would look into her eyes and tell her that he was Fred Jones but that the words of Adrien were his own words, his own thoughts, so that she would know, every time he had said he was certain she was the most beautiful girl ever, he had meant it.

Also,is anyone maybe liking the story so far? Because I can't tell if I'm writing rubbish or not-so-rubbish. In any case, next chapter probably coming up tomorrow.