Content to be outside and working on the van, Fred was oblivious at the growing text war that was brewing inside the household. Unaware of the storm that was starting to brew, and spill out into the peaceful backyard… any moment.

At first, Fred had been bored like Daphne. But once he remembered all the things he had to fix on the van, he found that he had more than enough things to occupy him. Especially with all the crazy driving they all did with the Mystery Machine. Not rain, nor sleet, nor blizzard conditions could stop them from getting to a mystery. But it did take its toll on the poor vehicle. Especially when they ended up running into a particularly large villain on a case, which in turn required their chase scenes to be on four wheels, rather than on foot.

But after all the Mystery Machines before this one, Fred had become rather good at fixing them and keeping the poor vehicle in one piece. And all the projects he was currently playing with were simple and routine. So Fred could practically do them in his sleep. Surrounded by his favorite tools, he had them all organized in such a way that he could reach all of them when he needed them. And he had been already neck deep in one of the many projects when he phone went off in his pocket.

"Huh?"

Pulling on the edge of the van, he used the creeper he was laying on to unearth himself from the vehicle. Face and fingers covered in oil and grime, he tried to carefully get at his phone, without getting too much dirt on it. (Mainly because he didn't want to hear a lecture from Daphne about getting his precious phone dirty.) But being afraid of leaving a smear, he looked about for somewhere to wipe off his hands before answering it. While normally his work clothes would do, they too had gotten rather covered as he had been working hard and Fred didn't find a spot that he hadn't gotten oily earlier.

Still lying on the rolling work pad, Fred looked around the area in search for his rag that he could use to clean up. And at first glance, he found that it wasn't among his favorite tools but outside arm's length. But it took a bit before he finally spotted it, lying nearby on a counter in the garage...

"Sigh. Great."

Hoping that it would have been closer than that, Fred had to roll himself fully out from under the van in order to extract himself off the creeper and back on his own two feet. Causing him to pause, letting his head swim a bit at the sudden change in elevation and direction. One drawback for having to work while lying down on the job.

"I hope this wasn't an important message." Fred muttered as his head started to clear. He didn't want to rush too much, making the sudden movement add to his already spinning head. Though as he was waiting, another sound went off... telling him that he had a second message to go with the first. But he still didn't want to rush, and end up meeting the pavement face first. At least, not again anytime soon. The memory of the first time he decided to rush after getting up, and then ending up becoming intimate with the ground in a hurry, was still fresh enough on his mind to not want to make that mistake again. It hurt just about the same as getting a rake to the face, which he sadly had experienced once before as well.

"I'm hurrying..." He muttered to his pocket, finally feeling confident enough to move towards the rag. With it in hand, he was able to clean off his hands enough that he felt that he could reach into his pockets without worry of a lecture from Daphne. And just in time, to get another message sound effect as he pulled it loose.

Staring at the little phone, he really didn't use it all that much. He had only kept it on hand in case of emergencies, and when his parents wanted to get ahold of him for some random reason. That, and Daphne had gotten one for all of them and expected for the gang to always have it nearby, just in case. Thankfully it was a simple flip phone, which he could deal with, and not one of the more top of the line. Smart phones. He didn't need anything fancy for himself, just something simple and functional. Fred just dreaded the day that Daphne would give into her trendy impulses and indulge in getting one for her, and in turn 'upgrading' all of them. Though thinking about it, he bet that Shaggy would love having one of those phones, since he could keep on hand a list of his favorite restaurants, and recipes... since no doubt they had an app for it.

Pity they wouldn't have one for making traps. Fred thought to himself, chuckling at the idea. Though he doubted that he would have enough time to be searching through his phone to try to use a trap app, when he was in the middle of a chase sequence. Let alone ask a monster to wait, while he tried to set one up according to some random directions that would probably be hard to read on even the best smart phone screens. Amusing thought aside, Fred thought about sticking to good old ingenuity and hands on experience.

Focusing on his phone, he flipped the cover up and scanned the notice inside. It was telling him he had three messages. One from Daphne, and the other two from Velma. Which caused him to pause for a second and let his eyes drift back to the house that was only a few steps away. Scrunching his eyebrows in confusion, he just had to shake his head. If the girls wanted to be silly and text from inside, it was their choice. Odd… but still their choice.

Looking back at the phone, he decided to read them in order of oldest to newest. Pushing the button down, he scrolled down the list and selected Daphne's message first. Covering one hand to block the sunlight's glare, he was able to read the small screens text.

-Hiya Fred! You having fun out there, working on the van? ~The Great Daphne-

Blinking, he wasn't exactly sure why he got this text. Though thinking about it, last time he had seen Daphne, she was moping about the house with nothing to do. So maybe she was bored, and decided to cope with it with messaging him. Which made him chuckle.

"Whatever works, Daph." Shaking his head, he was about to respond to her message, when he remember the other two messages from Velma. So just in case, he decided to read them first, before responding to Daphne. So backing out of the first message, he scrolled and selected the second one.

-Dear Fred. Just a heads up, Daphne's on a texting kick. So watch out! She'll drag you into a text war too! :Velmster:-

Snickering, Fred was amused at the heads up, even if it was too late. Since Daphne had already messaged him and definitely expected an answer from him in the next little bit. Though he also laughed at the automatic signature that came with Velma and Daphne's messages. No doubt something that Daphne had set up beforehand. Though he wondered if Velma had a nickname to hers... what his would be with his messages.

"Though... what was in the second message from Velms?" Even more curious then before, Fred backed out of the message and looked at the second one. Unable to catch the snorting laugh that came with him reading the content of her second message.

-Oh my god... I'm just like Daphne. ...Ignore these two messages! :Velmster:-