Fred began regaining consciousness as the sun streamed through the blinds. He was disoriented for a minute, thinking he was going to wake up at home, safe in his bed with his parents in the next room. He began reorienting himself to his surroundings as he opened his eyes, and realized that being at home was merely a dream. He was still in the midst of the nightmare that was Crystal Cove High.
Fred got out of bed and stretched. He glanced at the clock and saw it was 6:30. He was shocked by how late it was already…typically he always got up at 6. He must have slept through his alarm. He realized he needed to get moving, and quickly, if he was going to get breakfast and do his morning routine before reporting to Mr. B's class at 8:00am.
"Hey, Shaggy? Sorry I got up late. I'm ready for breakfast." Fred groggily called from his room.
No answer.
Fred figured perhaps Shaggy was in the shower and just didn't hear him. He quickly got changed into his clothes for the day and headed over to the bathroom. His heart nearly stopped when he saw nobody was in the bathroom. In fact, Shaggy wasn't in the room at all.
His brain immediately turned to the worst possibilities. What if Shaggy had been kidnapped in the middle of the night by The Freak? What if he was tied up in room 209 just like Dusk had been, but this time, The Freak took out his vengeance on Shaggy and murdered him?
This was the last thing he needed right now. In addition to his fears about The Freak, his issue yesterday with not performing well for the football team also was still swirling around his mind. It felt like Fred's anxiety was mounting, and if Shaggy had now been captured, he had no idea what to do. He'd felt they'd gotten extremely lucky with being able to save Dusk last night, and he couldn't bear the thought of potentially losing somebody who was becoming his new best friend.
Given Shaggy's love of eating, Fred could see a scenario where he perhaps just took the opportunity to get an early shower in, and beat the breakfast line. However, Fred's anxious mind wouldn't let him fully get rid of the idea that Shaggy was in some sort of danger.
As a result, he ended up forgoing a shower and rushed straight out into the hall. His mind perseverated about if Shaggy was alright or not, right up until he got to the dining hall. He saw Velma and Thorn sitting at a table already, but his heart began to pound when he saw no sign of Shaggy.
"I've got some really bad news!" Fred panicked, before he revealed what said information was. "Shaggy wasn't there when I woke up this morning."
"Of course he wasn't. He said he's been here stuffing his face since 6:00am, which is when he usually gets here." Velma remarked.
At that moment, Shaggy walked over with a plate heaping full of food: he had a bagel, a bowl of cereal, and a donut.
"I'm surprised they let you take that much, Shaggy." Thorn commented.
"Oh, hey, Fred! Sorry, like, you were pretty deep in sleep, so I didn't want to wake you up if you needed the extra sleep." Shaggy explained.
"Well, next time, wake me." Fred bitingly replied. "You scared me half to death, Shaggy! Did you really think it was a good idea to go for breakfast early and not leave any sign of where you were going, after what happened with Dusk last night?"
"Oh…like…sorry." Shaggy looked absolutely horrified, as he hung his head in shame. "I always go to breakfast at 6, so I thought you'd just assume I was there."
Fred immediately felt bad for snapping at Shaggy like that. He didn't mean to come off that strong; he just was feeling a lot of emotions with all the anxiety he was experiencing. "No, Shaggy, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, because your logic made sense. I was just worried."
"No, you were, like, right to." Shaggy sighed. "I should have left a note or something. I need to, like, learn to be more careful."
Fred sighed. He had never really been the type of guy to be vulnerable with his friends about his emotions before, so it was hard to even admit he was wrong the first time. Shaggy already had pretty bad self-esteem as it was though, so Fred yelling at him only made it worse.
"Shaggy, no, you don't. I was just on edge because of what happened last night with Dusk, plus all the stuff going on with the football team. You don't deserve to be treated that way, and I'm sorry." Fred apologized.
"Like, thanks. That means a lot." Shaggy smiled. "To be honest, like, hardly anyone other than my parents has ever acknowledged they were in the wrong after treating me badly. After a while, you start to, like, just assume it's your fault."
"Well, you shouldn't." Thorn chimed in. "You're a good guy, Shaggy, and I've never seen you act in a way where you were treating others wrong. You're a very respectful and kind person. You don't deserve to treat yourself like that."
"Really?" Shaggy replied, before noticeably realizing his remark was awkward. "I mean, thank you. Sorry, I'm, like, not so used to getting compliments, I guess."
"Good morning!" a familiar voice said from a distance. Fred spun around and quickly realized the voice was coming from Daphne.
"Hi." Luna waved.
"Man, am I ever tired." Dusk stated as she flopped down in the seat next to Fred.
"Don't you want to get breakfast, Dusk?" Luna inquired curiously.
"Maybe in a moment." Dusk yawned.
"We'll see you guys in a moment, then." Luna responded, as she and Daphne headed over to get in the breakfast line. The line appeared to be getting longer by the minute, and with the addition of Daphne and Luna, the line was just about jutting out the door of the dining hall.
"So, what are you guys thinking about the trap? I'd like to catch this freak as soon as we can, before he harms or captures anyone else." Dusk replied, her voice showing a tiny bit of invigoration through her lingering grogginess.
"What could we even use as a trap?" Thorn inquired. "We don't have any nets or ropes."
"Hmm… I wonder if we could jury-rig something using things we have around our rooms." Fred pondered.
"I doubt we'd have anything that would actually trap anyone." Velma replied.
"I think you'd be surprised!" Fred commented. "I took an Engineering class at my old high school, and ever since, I've been casually looking into how that stuff works. I'm not great at it, but I feel like we could come up with a makeshift trap if we tried."
"Like, maybe we could search each of our rooms for things that would be useful after classes today." Shaggy suggested.
Fred wished he could, but he realized that he had football practice again after school. He remained extremely on the fence about whether he wanted to quit or not, so he felt that he still needed to go to practice today, even if the thought of it made him very anxious.
"Sorry Shaggy, but I won't be able to do that. I've got practice until 5:30." Fred stated.
"Me or Dusk either. Band practice is tonight until dinner." Thorn stated.
"The rest of us could look in our rooms after class. That's still at least one person from each room: Shaggy, Daphne, Luna and I." Velma chimed in.
"Then at dinner, we can regroup, pull together our items, make a trap, and come up with a plan." Fred confidently suggested. "Hopefully then, we can capture The Freak once and for all!"
Shaggy was feeling too antsy to focus in Mr. B's class today, which was definitely saying something, as he typically loved that class. Mr. B had assigned them to do a small-group activity for the second half of class. The activity required that they collectively come up with a list of the five most iconic moments in the American Revolution, and then share the list with the rest of the class. They could only have groups of three or four, so Shaggy, Velma, Fred and Daphne grouped themselves together, whereas Thorn, Luna and Dusk made their own group.
"I would say Paul Revere's ride would work for our fifth item." Velma stated. "That was arguably one of the most pivotal moments in the entire war."
Shaggy only half-heard the list admittedly; his mind was too busy swirling whilst trying to think about items in his room that could contribute to the trap.
"Shaggy, you've been awfully quiet." Fred pointed out. "Is everything okay?"
"Like, yeah." Shaggy responded. He realized that trying to ponder what items in his room would be useful was his anxiety getting the best of him again,a s he was really nervous about making this trap. If it somehow failed, The Freak would likely be angrier than ever, and do unspeakable things to him and his friends.
"What do you think of the list we've come up with?" Daphne asked.
"Good. Seems like a solid list!" Shaggy vacantly commented.
"Shaggy, do you even know what the list is?" Daphne's tone was not frustrated, rather, more playful and lighthearted.
"Uh…you said Paul Revere crossing the Delaware and Benedict Arnold's Midnight Ride?" Shaggy stuttered. He hoped that his random guess was correct, but he admittedly had no idea how valid it was.
"You mean Washington crossing the Delaware, and Paul Revere's Midnight Ride." Velma corrected. "Benedict Arnold was a traitor."
"Like, that's not a very nice way to talk about such a prominent historical figure!" Shaggy exclaimed.
"Oh, Shaggy. You're really confused." Daphne laughed. "Are you even listening to the list?"
That was it. The jig was up. Shaggy was grateful that his friends were gentle about the fact he'd completely tuned out their list, and put in about as much effort to this project as one would turning on a light switch. Still, he felt bad about not paying any attention to what his friends were saying.
"Like, no." Shaggy hung his head. "I'm sorry. I promise I'm not trying to goof off. I'm just distracted by planning the trap tonight…I'm trying to come up with a list in my mind of all the things in my room that could be useful."
"Shaggy, we need to focus on class work now. There'll be time to come up with that list later." Velma stated with a hint of firmness in her voice.
"I know. Like, sorry. I'm just anxious about tonight, and trying to think through the trap makes me feel like I've got some sort of control over this bonkers situation!" Shaggy admitted with a nervous laugh, just as Mr. B was walking by.
"I don't mean to eavesdrop, kids, but I was just checking on how some of the groups were doing, and I heard what you said, Shaggy. It's okay if you don't tell me, but…is everything alright?" Mr. B inquired.
It figured. Shaggy would of course have to open his big mouth right at the wrong time, as to make Mr. B worried about them. Thankfully, Shaggy liked and trusted Mr. B more than his other teachers, so if he was going to say something stupid, this was probably the safest class to do it.
"Like, yeah, everything's fine." Shaggy nodded.
"We just had a bit of a sticky situation last night. Somebody tied up Dusk." Velma admitted. Shaggy was a bit surprised Velma had admitted this, but as he thought about it more, he realized Velma was a bit socially awkward and sometimes didn't always recognize the appropriate time to talk about a given subject.
"Oh gosh, that was you?" Mr. B exclaimed, glancing over in Dusk's direction. "I received an email about it this morning detailing what happened!"
"Yeah, it was me." Dusk sighed. "See, I wish they hadn't made me report this. Now everybody knows the messed-up situation I went through! I would have preferred to just forget the whole thing happened."
Shaggy didn't know Dusk too well, but she seemed like somebody who wanted everyone to always believe she was self-confident, so nobody mistook her for weak. Shaggy could tell that Dusk was still emotionally struggling with what happened, and clearly didn't want to talk about it.
"Well, it's school policy to report those types of things." Mr. B responded. "It's a good thing you did, since obviously whoever did that needs to be punished for doing something so messed-up to you."
"Yeah, I heard they made Marcie report what happened to her too. It's a stupid policy, if you ask me." Dusk lamented.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to Marcie?" Mr. B inquired. "I've noticed she hasn't been in class recently. I've been a little worried about her."
"Marcie got chased by the murderer." Thorn explained. "Headmistress Quinlan said she reported it on Marcie's behalf."
"That's strange. I don't remember seeing the crime report about that one, but maybe I missed it." Mr. B responded. "There's been an awful lot of crime reports this year, which is frightening. Maybe Headmistress Quinlan is waiting to figure out whatever is going on with Marcie to report it, I suppose. I've noticed she's been absent the past two days, and I didn't receive any note that the absence was excused."
"I wonder why." Dusk muttered under her breath. Shaggy knew the context of Dusk's sarcasm, but clearly Mr. B didn't pick up on it.
"I'm not really sure why." Mr. B shrugged, apparently taking Dusk's comment literally. "Hopefully she'll be back in class soon. Anyway, is there anything I can do for you kids? You've been through way more than you ever should in your first two weeks here."
"I think we're okay, but thank you." Daphne smiled.
"Okay. Well, if there's anything you think of later on, please let me know and I'll be happy to help you kids out. You seem like a great group of kids." Mr. B smiled.
"Thank you." Luna turned around from her group to say.
Once they ensured Mr. B was far enough away as not to overhear them, Daphne turned to Shaggy. "Is there anything we can do to help you, Shaggy?"
Although it surprised Shaggy, the thought that Mr. B and his friends were there for him was oddly enough to make him feel comfortable and focus on school again.
"Like, no. I'm sorry that I tuned out the list before, but I'm ready to work with you guys to finish it." Shaggy smiled.
"I'm headed to band practice now." Dusk informed her two roommates. "And this time, I'll make extra sure The Freak doesn't capture me. If I'm not back right on time for dinner, come looking for me."
"We will." Daphne answered. She genuinely felt a little worried about her roommate going off to band practice after what happened yesterday, but she had to hope that the kidnapping had only occurred because Dusk had seen The Freak without a mask. Dusk would surely be more careful this time.
Once Dusk had left, Daphne searched around her room for potential things that could be used for the trap, as did Luna. Thus far, she'd only found a hairpin that could be useful for triggering something. Hypothetically, building a trap out of stuff lying around their rooms sounded like a great idea, but thus far, Daphne was coming up blank in the creativity realm. Daphne usually considered herself a creative, artsy person, so it frustrated her that a hairpin was the best she could come up with.
"Find anything, Luna?" Daphne inquired of her roommate.
"Umm…I found some glue." Luna sheepishly said.
"Ugh." Daphne harrumphed. "This is so much harder than I thought, and we've searched pretty much the whole room."
"Let's hope the others had more trap-worthy items in their rooms." Luna sighed.
With a lump of anxiety in his throat, Fred headed off to football practice. He lamented the fact that he couldn't help his friends search for good trap-making items, and that he had to be at practice instead with a bunch of people that were probably just going to make fun of him again. However, he had slept quite well last night, so he felt more energized than he had the past two practices.
Fred internally shuddered as he saw his nemesis, Red Herring, walk up to him with a mischievous smirk on his face.
"Ready to fail again today, ya weenie?" Red teased.
Fred would never outwardly admit it, but this comment hurt. He knew it was an empty attempt to try to harass him, but the worst part was that a tiny inkling inside of him felt like maybe he deserved to be called that, due to playing so laughably the last two practices. Knowing that the best weapon against a bully like that was to not dignify such mistreatment with a response, Fred simply walked towards the football field with the rest of his team.
"Alright, looks like everybody's here." Coach Hayes said. "Let's start with some warm-ups. I'd like you all to run to the end of the field and back, just to build up your stamina for the tough passes we're going to be practicing today."
Fred was determined this time. He wasn't going to let these guys think he was a wimp.
"On your marks, get set, go!" the coach shouted.
Like lightning, Fred ran as fast he possibly could. This time, he tried not to look at how far ahead or behind the other players he was. He simply just kept running until the world around him became a blur. He tried to keep his pace fast, but not quite sprinting, as to maintain some energy towards the end. Once he reached the endpoint of the field, he ran back and picked up the pace slightly, now full-on sprinting until he reached the other end of the field again. Once he'd reached the finish, he stopped running and glanced around him. There was only one other guy who had made it before him.
Fred was admittedly shocked he'd improved so much with his increased energy level from sleeping better. Surely his teammates would treat him better now. Fred had remembered from his old school that guys would often jeer each other a bit if they weren't performing well, so Fred was hopeful that his now stellar performance would earn him some respect.
Red was just making it to the finish line. Fred was very curious to see if Red would stop teasing him now that he'd made such excellent time.
"Well, you tried and you tried, but you still couldn't be the fastest!" Red snarled, followed by a nasty, cruel laugh.
Fred was admittedly flabbergasted. There were seven other players who'd made it to the finish line now, so Red hadn't made anywhere near as good of time as Fred had, yet he was still making fun of Fred. What right did he have to do that? Fred still didn't dignify it with a response, and decided to just chalk it up to Red being mean. What did Fred care, anyway? He didn't even want to be at this stupid practice, so the criticisms had no weight on his identity.
The rest of the guys quickly came in past the finish line. Unlike Fred, the player who took the longest amount of time to make it back was not made fun of, which admittedly hurt.
"Alright guys, we'll start with an easy pass, and then we'll move up to the harder ones. We'll start out with a forward pass." Coach Hayes said. "Jones, you throw it to Johnson."
"Think you can throw far enough this time, grandma?" a blond-haired boy behind Fred snickered.
Fred tried not to let the comment shake him, as he threw the ball as hard as he could. He watched the ball sailing through the air, and felt he'd made a pretty good pass. It had great form to it, and looked like Johnson would easily be able to catch it. Right before it made it to Johnson's hands, the ball started dipping towards the ground a little bit. It was still catchable, although Johnson would have to quickly bend down a little to be able to grab it. Unfortunately for Fred, Johnson attempted to catch it by lunging for the ball, but the ball hit the ground before he could catch it. Fred was still satisfied with the throw though, it was really solid until the end, and it was a small mistake anybody could have made.
"Man, if this team wasn't open to everyone, you never would have made it, Jones!" Johnson laughed. "You're a joke!"
"Hey, tone it down a notch." the coach defended. "Jones, that was probably the best pass you've made all season, but it still needs work. You threw it a bit too low. Throw it higher next time, so it goes farther."
Fred felt like he should have been absolutely crushed by all his teammates making fun of him so much, but oddly, he didn't feel sad or hurt. He felt mad. He didn't deserve to be treated so shabby, especially when he had significantly improved.
Although he was sure this would only make his teammates ridicule him more, he zoned out for just a moment. He thought about his past week and a half at this school, trying to forget about The Freak. He'd come to this school most excited about playing football, but he'd begun to dread coming to practice out of fear of getting harassed. On the other hand, despite the fear of being caught up in a murder mystery, he'd found friends that he was honestly probably closer to than anybody in his life. That was probably his favorite part thus far about transitioning to this new school.
Even at his old school, most of his friends had been stereotypically macho jocks, who would rather get a broken leg than talk openly about their feelings. With Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, Thorn, Luna and Dusk, he felt like he could share anything with them. He enjoyed working together with them to solve the mystery, and just hanging out with them. They were actually kind to him, and helped him process through his issues with the football team. His new teammates were rude at best, and unusually cruel at worst. He'd actually performed really well today, greatly improving from the last few practices, and yet they still found a way to make fun of him. He didn't need or deserve this.
"Coach, thanks for everything, but I think I'm going to join another after school activity. Maybe I'll join the team next year, but this year, I don't think it's right for me." Fred simply said, as he walked away.
"Jones, are you serious?" the blond boy said with a cruel, biting laugh. "You're actually so bothered by a little teasing that you're quitting? Wow, you're way more of a wuss than I thought!"
"Wow, what a loser!" Johnson sneered.
"I understand, Fred." the coach responded. "Thanks for letting me know. Alright men, let's practice some harder passes now."
"Are you gonna go ditch us to hang out with that geek Shaggy now?" Red jeered.
Fred ignored him. He knew he'd made the right decision, and a very mature one at that. He wasn't leaving because he was hurt by a little teasing; they were being jerks and they knew it. He liked football, but it wasn't that important to him, and it wasn't worth wasting his time trying to get the approval of jerks who didn't even care about him anyway. He didn't deserve to be treated like this, and quite frankly, he realized he had far better things to do than waste every afternoon after school being with people who emotionally tormented him. Currently, building a trap was at the top of this list. Now that he had an hour to kill, perhaps he could even come up with a full-fledged draft of a model for the trap.
It was already dinnertime, and Velma had come up empty. She couldn't find anything in her room that was remotely useful for a trap. She supposed she should have realized this before, but the whimsy involved with creating their own homemade trap had blinded Velma into believing this was something she could pull together on their own. She didn't know what she was thinking, as she didn't have a single thing in her room that could be used to trap somebody. Being the brainy one of the bunch, Velma was a tad embarrassed she'd not found a single useful thing for the trap, but her ego chalked it up to it being more of an engineering dilemma than an intellectual one.
When the brunette sat down at their usual table in the dining hall, she quickly realized she was the first one there. She hoped that meant the others had more luck finding items for traps than she had.
A quick check of her watch showed Velma that she was about ten minutes early for dinner. There was no use in sitting there for ten minutes doing nothing, so she decided to beat the line and get dinner early.
She got in line, thinking through if she'd overlooked anything that could potentially still be used for the trap. Alas, she still could not think of anything. Suddenly, she felt somebody tap her on the shoulder, causing her to spin around. To her surprise, she saw Fred behind her, holding a piece of paper as he waited in line.
"Hey! I've got some great news!" Fred exclaimed. "I don't know what you guys found for the trap, but I came with a little sketch of the model."
Fred started to pull the paper, which presumably had the model drawn on it, out of his pocket. He quickly realized it was his turn to get food, so he awkwardly stuffed it back in his pocket as he grabbed his food from the cook. Velma got her food next, as the two of them grabbed their silverware and a napkin, and headed back for their seats.
"So, anyway, I was going to show you my little model. It's not the best, but hopefully it'll give you a rough idea of what I was thinking." Fred said. Velma could sense a great deal of optimism in him that was definitely not there before. It was almost as if a load had been taken off his shoulders, but Velma wasn't sure what that could be. They still had a long night ahead of them, especially given Velma had nothing to contribute to the trap.
Fred held up the piece of paper, which was now crumpled from his failed attempt to fold it up in his pocket, but it was still mostly intact and readable. Velma glanced at Fred's diagram, and she was quite impressed by how detailed the model was. The trap was so overly intricate and absurdly detailed that it almost looked like something out of a Dr. Suess book. Even with how oddly complicated it looked, it seemed to be extremely well thought-out.
"Wow, Fred, this looks incredible!" Velma exclaimed. "How did you have time to do this if you were at football practice?"
"Well, it's a whole thing…" Fred awkwardly stuttered. "I was going to wait to share until everybody got here, but I guess I may as well just share it now. I quit the team."
"You did what?" Velma couldn't believe it. She knew that the team was so important to him, so the thought of him just suddenly quitting was incredibly surprising to her.
"Yep." Fred nodded. The look on his face appeared as if he was going to continue explaining, but he spun around when he saw Thorn and Dusk come down and sit at the table with their trays.
"Wait, what did you do?" Thorn inquired, apparently not hearing him the first time.
"I quit the football team." Fred replied. It still surprised Velma to hear him say that, even though it was the second time around she had listened to him say the same phrase.
"What did you do that for?!" Dusk exclaimed in shock.
"Like, what'd you do what for?" Shaggy inquired as he sat down with a heaping tray full of chicken alfredo, garlic bread, and a cookie. Apparently, he had not heard any of the previous conversation either.
"Wait, what's going on?" Daphne asked.
Fred let out a playful sigh, followed by a laugh.
"Maybe you guys all better take a seat so we don't get ourselves into an endless cycle here." Fred chuckled, as Shaggy, Thorn, Dusk, Daphne and Luna all sat down. "So, like I just told Velma, Thorn and Dusk, I quit the football team."
"Like, that team meant so much to you, though!" Shaggy exclaimed in shock.
"Honestly, I'm just as surprised as Shaggy." Velma replied. "I knew you were struggling a little with it, but I never thought you'd quit. It must have been unbearable out there today!"
"Well…kind of." Fred explained. "I got out there today, and unlike the past two times, my warm-up actually went pretty well. I came in second place. Despite that, the guys were still making fun of me."
"That's horrible!" Luna exclaimed.
"I agree." Fred nodded. "Anyway, so I continued playing, and I made a pretty decent pass with a minor mistake. The guys continued making fun of me, calling me a weenie and a loser and all sorts of things."
"I'm so sorry, Fred." Shaggy apologized.
"Don't be. That's when I realized: being on the football team was bringing no joy to my life other than status. I can honestly say that my life will be far better without dealing with them." Fred replied. "I'm sorry if this is cheesy, but I'd much prefer spending my afternoons with you guys instead of going to a place where I'm not comfortable or wanted."
"I think that was a really mature decision, Fred." Daphne smiled. "I'm proud of you."
"Like, yeah. That's really sweet." Shaggy agreed.
"Thanks, guys." Fred appreciated. "Anyway, I was just showing Velma the draft of my model for the trap."
"Like, uh…about that." Shaggy grinned sheepishly. "I couldn't find anything in our room that could be used for a trap."
"You wouldn't be alone there, because we didn't either." Daphne admitted. "It was a lot harder than I thought it would be."
"Same here, unfortunately." Velma responded. She felt less bad now that she realized the others hadn't come up with anything either, but that still left the question of what exactly they'd use for a trap if nobody could find anything.
"It's totally fine you guys didn't find anything. I wanted to point this out in my model." Fred said, holding his pointer finger up to the diagram he'd made. "See these little checkpoints here? These can all just be little things to trip the trap. Even if it's a knick knack or a toothbrush, it should work. We just need a cycle of interconnected objects to connect the trip wires and spring the trap."
"Oh…I've got this old ugly gnome stuffed animal in my room. I honestly hate the stupid thing, but my mom wanted me to bring it. It's the family's "good luck" charm." Dusk scoffed.
"Perfect! We'll use it!" Fred exclaimed. "Hopefully it will bring us all the good luck your family claims it to when we capture The Freak."
"Like, you said a toothbrush?" Shaggy asked for assurance. "I've got one of those, if you want."
"Speaking of brushes, I've got a hairbrush." Thorn offered.
"I've got a stress ball." Velma mentioned.
"Great! We just need one more thing for this last checkpoint." Fred stated.
"Umm…would a pen work?" Luna cautiously said. "It's a pretty large one."
"Sure!" Fred answered. "Maybe something with the pen clicker could come into play in tripping the wire."
"There's just one thing I'm still confused about. Like, what are we going to use for the wire?" Shaggy asked. "I doubt any of us has, like, 20 feet of wire lying around."
"Simple, Shaggy. My mom always overpacks everything, and luckily for us, she gave me like five huge containers of extra strength dental floss." Fred smiled. "I'll never use it all, so we could just use that for the wire. The fact that the knick knacks you guys picked out are so light should work perfectly."
"There's another thing I'm confused about." Velma pointed out. "This sounds like a really intricate trap, but what exactly is the part that traps The Freak?"
"Oh! I forgot to tell you guys the best part. My mom gave me a huge mesh laundry bag, and I think it's just big enough to trap him." Fred explained. "I know this all sounds kind of out there, but I made things like this all the time in my Engineering class…well, not traps, but you get the point."
"This sounds amazing!" Daphne exclaimed. "Thank you so much for coming up with this trap. Hopefully, we can finally catch The Freak once and for all with this."
"Yeah, thank you, Fred." Thorn appreciated. "You really put a lot of thought into this."
"Yeah." Fred stated, as a little smile formed across his face. "I guess I did."
Velma could tell he was really passionate about making this trap, which made her happy. She'd never seen Fred speak this excitedly about football, so she was very glad that Fred had made the decision to quit the team. As Daphne had said, it seemed like a very mature, well-thought through decision, and based on this, Fred seemed like he would have a much happier life not trying to live up to standards he didn't even care about. Although Fred could be stereotyped as a jock from first glance, Velma was excited that Fred seemed to have a mind that was as creative as hers. Surprisingly, the fact that he had such a mind didn't make her jealous…it made her happy for her friend.
"Alright." Fred said, as he stood outside the door to Velma and Thorn's room, where he and the others had set up the elaborate trap. "So this gnome is what will spring the trap on The Freak."
Fred pointed to the gnome, which was carefully placed in the doorframe of Velma's room. "The gnome is connected to the extra strength dental floss, which in turn is connected to various other items, which are tied to the long strands of dental floss in order to make sure the momentum keeps going. We have a toothbrush first, just to give the wire a little extra momentum if it needs it, then a heavier hairbrush to give it the momentum it needs at the end. The hairbrush will spring a hairpin that Daphne gave us. The snapping of the hairpin will set this stress ball into motion, which will roll down this little makeshift slope I've created from our textbooks. Finally, the ball will hit the clicking side of this large pen, which in turn, is attached to another strand of dental floss, which I've doubled over here for even more strength. That wire will bring this mesh laundry bag down over The Freak's head, thus trapping him! Does that all make sense?"
"Wouldn't it be simpler just to have the dental floss connected to the mesh bag and not have all that other stuff in between?" Dusk inquired.
"Well, yeah…I guess…but what's the fun in that?" Fred playfully asked.
Daphne's head was admittedly spinning a bit from the excessive complication of the trap, but Fred seemed like he intricately understood every overcomplicated detail he was talking about, so the redhead trusted him.
"Alright…I think the trap's all set. Now we've just got to go confront The Freak and spring it." Fred said.
"So, who wants to be the bait? By the way, I hope asking that absolves me from that responsibility." Daphne joked.
"I think it would be smarter if we all went up there. As the old saying goes, there's safety in numbers." Thorn suggested. "The more people up there, the less likely somebody else is going to get captured."
"She's right." Thorn nodded. "We all need to do this together."
"Like, do we have to?" Shaggy shuddered, as the group began walking through the hall and taking the steps to the second floor.
"Yes, we all have to." Velma reaffirmed.
"I think it'll be fine, Shaggy. We just have to walk in room 209, lure The Freak out, and make him follow us down to the trap outside Velma's room. If all goes according to plan, it'll be quick and easy." Fred attempted to assure.
"Like, I hope that doesn't mean it's quick and easy for The Freak to capture us." Shaggy gulped.
Room 209 came up far faster than any of them wanted it to. Daphne was becoming increasingly nervous as they walked directly up to the dreaded room. If they were about to capture The Freak as easily as Fred made it seem they were, it seemed surreal to Daphne that this could finally all be over. Despite the fact that it had been ten days at this school now, it felt like an eternity that they'd been trying to solve the mystery of the murderer and stop The Freak. The stress and fear involved with this situation had really made the days go by slowly and blur together. This had taken up so much of Daphne's thoughts in the past several weeks that she couldn't believe that it would (hopefully) all be over in the next few minutes.
It was clear that Daphne was not alone in being afraid, as all of them stood in front of room 209 for a moment, waiting for somebody else to open the door. Finally, Dusk took the initiative and opened it for them.
"Why are you all just standing there?" Dusk asked. Although most people would find this comment to be rude, Daphne didn't consider it as such. She'd come to learn over the past week and a half that Dusk had a very in-your-face personality, so she knew there was no attempt to offend with her blunt remark.
"Like, shhh!" Shaggy gulped. He looked the most frightened of any of them, given his hands were beginning to shake, and his left eye began to twitch nervously. For a person as anxious as Shaggy, Daphne had to imagine doing this was unimaginably terrifying. Even she was incredibly on edge, so she couldn't imagine how nerve-wracking this was to Shaggy.
"We want The Freak to hear us, Shaggy. No need to be quiet." Thorn reminded in a whisper.
"Like, why are you whispering then?" Shaggy asked in a normal voice.
"I didn't want him to know that we wanted him to hear us." Thorn responded, a tad annoyed with Shaggy's inane question.
All of a sudden, muffled shouts could be heard from the closet.
"What's that?" Luna inquired cautiously.
"I don't know, but it sounds like it's coming from the bathroom." Fred said, as he rushed into the room to see where the noise was coming from.
"Like, Fred, what are you doing?" Shaggy gasped in horror. Admittedly, while Daphne knew Fred had nothing to lose, she also wouldn't be brave enough to run in a creepy room where The Freak was known to lurk.
"Guys, get in here!" Fred exclaimed, as the rest of the group was still cautiously entering room 209. "You need to see this now!"
Fred's urgent tone caused the rest of the group to pick up the pace. As Daphne got a view into the bathroom, she was shocked at what she saw. Marcie had her wrists tied to a folding chair in the bathroom. Her legs were tied together, with a gag wrapped around her mouth. Her muffled cries for help were getting louder now that she saw her classmates.
Daphne rushed to Marcie's side to remove her gag. Fred was quick to untie her legs, while Thorn untied Marcie's wrists from the chair.
"Thank goodness you've found me. I've been tied up here for two days." Marcie gasped for air.
"What the?" Dusk exclaimed. "How in the hell did Marcie get in here? I thought we figured out that she had to be The Freak!"
"We found your hair tie outside Velma and Thorn's window. Not only that, but the fact that you disappeared, and The Freak seems to have made your room into a hideout led us to believe it was you." Fred explained.
"I'm not The Freak, but that's who locked me in here. Over the weekend, I was walking on the second floor to meet a friend, and I saw a weird light coming from Headmistress Quinlan's office. I didn't even think a Headmistress would be in on the weekends. I probably shouldn't have done this, but since the door was open just a crack, I peeked inside to see what was going on, and that's when I saw The Freak…except he wasn't wearing his mask." Marcie explained.
"You mean you saw who it was?" Dusk gasped. "I caught a brief glimpse of them yesterday. It looked like a woman, but I thought it was you."
"It's not me, but I know who it is. The one who's been killing everybody is Headmistress Quinlan." Marcie admitted, to everybody's shock. "She's The Freak of Crystal Cove High."
All of a sudden, the door loudly slammed, causing everybody to jump nearly ten feet. Menacing footsteps began thudding towards them quickly, as the eight kids spun around to see who it was. Daphne had a sinking feeling she knew, though.
"You know my secret!" Headmistress Quinlan rasped in a shockingly cruel, almost inhumanly evil voice. "Well, you won't be telling anybody, because you kids will never leave this room."
