Chapter 2: Locker chat and a pet fair

Sixteen-year old Daphne Blake was memorizing her lines as Hippolyta for the upcoming drama club performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream when she saw her seatmate from the bus struggling to open his locker, which was next to hers.

She could tell that he was annoyed by the fact that even though he had hit all three numbers of the combination correctly, the locker door refused to open.

Shaking her head, the redhead stepped forward and asked, "These lockers are a pain in the neck, aren't they?"

Her question startled him as he turned around, and she looked at him quizzically as a brief moment of recognition flashed his eyes.

He must've guessed that Daphne was watching him struggling to pull open his locker door, for he responded, "Yeah, like, it would seem the only lockers the school has are the squirrelly ones."

As Daphne went to her locker, she replied, "You can say that again."

The redhead then managed to open her locker door before she added, "Perhaps you'd like some help?"

Returning his hand to his locker door, he responded confidently, "I think I got it."

The redhead only nodded once as she placed her backpack in her locker and retrieved some items, during which she listened to him struggling with his locker door.

Eventually, he threw in the towel and said, "On second thought, perhaps you could give it a try."

"Of course." Daphne nodded as they switched places, and he looked on as she pounded the door from top to bottom before opening it effortlessly.

His eyebrows arched, he remarked as they switched places again. "I didn't thought of that."

"My locker was like this, too, nothing like a good pounding from top to bottom helps open it." Daphne explained before she took out a small cannister of oil and added, "Some oiling of the hinges will also keep your locker door from becoming jammed shut."

"Good idea." He nodded as she went to oil the hinges.

As he proceeded to place his backpack in his locker, Daphne extended her hand and said, "By the way, my name is Daphne Blake."

He turned around to take her hand and shake it as he said, "Like, the name's Rogers. Norville Rogers, though most people calls me 'Shaggy'. Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." Daphne smiled as they shook hands. "Until now, I never really noticed you, either on the bus or here at the lockers."

"Yeah, I take it that you don't take the school bus often?" Shaggy asked.

"No, my family always drives me." Daphne responded. "But for the next two weeks, my parents are out of town for a conference in Budaprest, and as our other car is in the shop, I have to take the school bus to and from school."

Shaggy nodded thoughtfully, which is when the redhead began to notice a look of sadness in Shaggy's eyes.

"Um, are you alright, Shaggy?" Daphne asked.

Seeing the look of concern on her face, Shaggy immediately put on a brave face as he said, "Like, I'm-I'm fine. Just...it's a bit chilly outside, isn't it?"

Daphne raised an eyebrow, which he quickly took as a sign that she wasn't exactly buying his explanation.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed his binder for Algebra class and said, "Zoinks, I gotta go, the bell's about to ring and I don't wanna get caught in the crowd."

Before the redhead could say something, Shaggy swiftly closed his locker door and raced off.

As he raced down the hallway, Shaggy was feeling that his palms were beginning to sweat. He wasn't sure why he was feeling anxious all in a sudden, but one thing for sure is that he wasn't exactly comfortable with her making observations on him right after he had gotten acquainted with her.

The Blake name also sounded familiar, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, though he quickly shook his head to shake off those lingering thoughts and made his way to the stairs for the second floor.

Meanwhile, Daphne was puzzled by the way Shaggy had rushed off. She had observed his change in behaviour when she mentioned her father George being out of town for business, and she can't help but wonder why he became anxious when she mentioned that.

The redhead could only shrug as she closed her locker door and make her way to her English class on the third floor.

Along the way, her mind continued to dwell on Shaggy. She did see him a few occasions, but typically when he was heading to his locker and she was finished up at hers, or when she was heading to her locker and he had finished up at his, as well as the occasional encounters at the hallways, though they never really interacted then.

And she was certain she never saw him at all in the previous school years, stands to her that he might've attended a different high school for the previous years.

Shaggy certainly looked like he's in her age group, though with his tall and skinny look, it could also be that he's a freshman who had finished middle school the previous year.

In any way, the thought of his reaction when she mentioned her father led to her mind dwelling on her own family.

Born on August 24th, 1994 in Manhattan, New York to George Robert Nedley Blake and Elisabeth Porsche, Daphne is the youngest in a family of eight.

Her father George is a businessman and entrepreneur who is the chairman and president of Blake Enterprises, a multinational conglomerate specializing in several portfolios.

The company had started out as a real estate management company in New York founded in 1897 by her great-grandfather Robert Constantine Blake, and the company had passed on to her grandfather Nathaniel before George took over.

Prior to taking over the company, George had enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after finishing high school in 1975 and had spent 16 years taking part in several assignments and postings, starting out as a logistics non-commissioned officer, then as a Scout Sniper and eventually as the quartermaster at the Headquarters & Service Company of the Combat Logistics Battalion 7 under the 1st Marine Logistics Group of the I Marine Expenditure Force.

Upon returning home from the Gulf War, George was discharged in 1991 with the rank of staff sergeant, upon which he began taking over prominent duties at Blake Enterprises, together with his brother Matt, who was key in getting the company into agricultural research and owned dozens of ranches in the southern and western states, mainly in Texas and California.

He had met Elisabeth while taking part in a corporate party at his father's company, during which Elisabeth, a child prodigy, was managing the real estate portfolio of a major corporation headquartered on Coney Island who had frequently retained Blake Enterprises' services as a consultant company.

The two married in 1980, which was then followed by Elisabeth giving birth to a pair of twins a year later.

Donna Blake was the first born of the pair of twins, and as the oldest of the Blake sisters, she frequently comes to the defence of her younger sisters, particularly Daphne, who she considers to be the baby of the family.

At present, Donna is enjoying her full-time work at NASA as an aerospace engineer, specializing in trouble-shooting the aerodynamics of new spaceship designs and working to increase fuel efficiency while improving payload, particularly for the Space Shuttle, and is currently engaged to a colleague.

Doctor Daisy Blake, the second born of the pair of twins, has recently completed her master's degree in psychology and has specializes in the research of behavioural science, in addition to working as a counselor.

Like Donna, Daisy is currently engaged with her fiance working as a dentist.

The twins were soon followed by First Lieutenant Delilah Blake, who was born two years later in 1983 and is actively serving in the United States Marine Corps, where she is currently assigned to the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the 1st Marine Division as a platoon commander.

Her assignment to the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion came after she spent the first year following her commission in 2005 as a second lieutenant assigned to the FORECON company in the division, a company that was under the command of one Captain Sam Rogers.

It was Captain Rogers who took note of her talent early on during her first tour of duty in Afghanistan, and the captain was the one who recommended her to be transferred to the Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.

Anyhow, Delilah was taking part in her fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan when her convoy was dispatched over to help repel a Taliban ambush in the March of 2009, an ambush that ended with the Marines turning the tables against the ambushers, though at the cost of the life of the now-major who had recommended her transfer to the Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in the first place.

Anyways, at present, Delilah is serving her third tour of duty in Iraq, and her family has frequently prayed for her safe return home in one piece.

Delilah was then followed by Dorothy Blake, born three years later in 1986 and is currently working as an intern mechanical engineer at a major multinational engineering firm headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

After Dorothy's birth, a gap of four years came before Elisabeth gave birth to Dawn Blake in 1990.

Dawn is currently the only Blake sister to be taking part in her post-secondary studies, at present in her second year at Darrow University studying opera at the Hoyt Curtin School of Music, where she's training to become a soprano with the goal of debuting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York by the time she reaches 30.

It was during the year of Daphne's birth that George's father handed control of Blake Enterprises to him and stepped down due to poor health, and following the old man's death a year later, Blake Enterprises underwent some restructuring following the company's board of directors voting to install George as the company's CEO.

One of the changes made as a result of the restructuring was the relocation of company headquarters from New York to a new facility across the continent in Coolsville, California.

At the time of the restructuring, the company's existing headquarters was getting out of date with the building itself dating back to the 1960s and has been experiencing mechanical issues as of late at the time of the move.

However, the move also came as the landlord owning the building, whom Blake Enterprises has done business with in the past regarding real estate, raised its rent in the aftermath of a major contract dispute.

The contract in question was regarding Blake Enterprise's work in helping the landlord, who specializes in real estate management and has also owned a number of properties worldwide, including casinos and golf courses, in renovating dozens of its properties in Manhattan during the 1980s.

While the landlord have boasted that the workers at Blake Construction & Engineering does a tremendous work in their field and has assured George and Nathanial that they will get the payment in time for the services rendered, when it came down to Blake Enterprises issuing its final bill to the real estate company in 1990, the landlord later said that due to financial problems, it was not able to pay the final $400000 to Blake Enterprises.

When Nathanial inquired about the nature of the "financial problems" the owner spoke of, pointing out that owner was still living a life of luxury, the owner charged that the work done by the engineers, interior designers and architects of Blake Enterprises wasn't satisfactory, though the owner assured Blake Enterprises that the company will still consider their services for future projects.

However, Nathanial was clearly not having any of the landlord's assertions, and in a meeting with the landlord, which was attended by George and the company lawyers, to discuss the topic of payments, well, to say that the tension in the meeting room could be cut with a knife was an understatement.

Shortly after that meeting, the landlord raised the building's rent, and while Blake Enterprises was able to remain financially afloat, even with the $400000+ owed and the raise in rent, the experience gave George the resolve to shake up the company and relocate the Northeast regional headquarters.

That was also the year the landlord entered a financial crisis, a crisis that saw the landlord and the other companies he owned owing an estimate of $3.4 billion, and at the news of the landlord's troubles, George remembered advising Nathanial that it would be a perfect opportunity to shake-up Blake Enterprise's operations and relocate its headquarters.

Nathaniel agreed, and George assembled a team of real estate managers from Blake Housing to make the search for a suitable property for their new headquarters.

Blake Enterprises soon found its answer in the form of a vacant lot across the continent in Coolsville, California.

The lot in question, located across Terminal Way from the city's train station, which is located right in the middle of nowhere in the city's former industrial district, has been vacant ever since a fire in 1985 destroyed an abandoned industrial warehouse sitting on the lot, with the remains were torn down a year later.

At the time of the discovery, Coolsville's former industrial district, located in the city's north end, has shared the traits one would associate with the derelict industrial districts in the Rust Belt - filled with abandoned, closed down industrial sites that tells the story of a once-thriving manufacturing sector at the turn of the century America.

As a matter a fact, Industrial Yards, of which the former industrial district of Coolsville was called, has been a pastor boy for urban decline, not to mention that travellers that uses the train station frequently warns others not to take the late night trains to Coolsville, owing to the large number of homeless inhabiting the abandoned warehouses, which have also become a favourite hangout for gangs.

The problem, combined with lack of public transit connection to downtown Coolsville, has become so bad that Coolsville Station, located on a spur line that is served by Amtrak's daily Coast Starlight train, was downgraded to an unstaffed flag stop, where trains would only serve the station if requested ahead of time by passengers.

George Blake had read about the situation regarding the former industrial district and the status of Coolsville Station, which has been designated as a flag stop even though the station, which is located between Martinez and Sulsun-Fairfield stations, sees more passenger volumes than Paso Robles Station down the line.

Knowing that the former industrial district deserves a new opportunity and seeing how cheap the lot really is, George then dispatched a team of surveyors and geotechnical engineers to the site to survey the land.

Turns out, decades of industrial usage had rendered much of the land to be contaminated with the cost for the cleanup estimated to be in the millions, where the cleanup of the contaminated soil is essential for the area to be suitable for an office environment.

In spite of the heavy costs, George convinced the board of directors to approve the high budget for constructing a new headquarters in Coolsville, which then came the negotiations with the City of Coolsville and Crystal Cove County, whereupon the city agreed to rezone the former industrial district for mixed-use purpose.

Under the plan, Blake Enterprises would construct a seven-storey building across Terminal Way from Coolsville Station, in addition to redevelop the land surrounding the headquarters for mixed-use buildings and thus redevelop the area surrounding the train station.

As part of the first phase of the redevelopment of Industrial Yards, the railway station front was redeveloped as the construction of Blake Enterprises new headquarters commenced in 1993, where George hired a consultant firm to do the decontamination and construction works.

Although the project ran into difficulties, the work was completed in the spring of 1995, two months ahead of schedule, and George Blake moved the family and company across the continent to their new home in Coolsville.

Today, Industrial Yards in Coolsville looks radically different than it was in the late-1980s. The vacant lots that once scattered throughout the neighbourhood was now filled with mixed-use buildings with residential housing, shops, small businesses, wide sidewalks and parks.

Several of the remaining former industrial warehouses were converted into cultural and community centres, and with buses now serving the neighbourhood, Coolsville railway station has seen more passenger volumes and has since been upgraded back to staffed station status.

It came as the railway spur line was upgraded into a railway mainline where the Coast Starlight and Capitol Corridor now frequents, and as such, the developments has seen Coolsville's Industrial Yards reaching new heights.

Anyways, being from a successful business family and with older sisters who have achieved a lot, Daphne has felt a great deal of expectation weighing down on her.

It was that weigh of expectation that continued to be at the back of her mind as Daphne got to the third floor and made her way to her English classroom.


Elsewhere in Coolsville, the Coolsville Pet Adoption Fair was well underway at the city's marketplace.

All sorts of pets were on display for sale. Cats, dogs, parrots, rabbits, hamsters, just to name a few.

The fair was well-attended, especially as the fair was held by the Coolsville Animal Rescue Association (CARA), a non-for-profit organization specializing in pet adoption who runs the fair on a monthly basis.

There was a mother and son pair who were looking at a bulldog, while the adoption coordinator was asking them, "Does his personality suit you?"

The mother responded, "I think we are looking for something a little bigger."

The coordinator smiled. "I believe I have just the dog for you."

Leading the pair towards a cage with a sign saying, "Pet of the Day", the coordinator said, "Meet our pet of the day."

The Pet of the Day was a brown-furred Great Dane with some black spots, sporting a blue collar with a diamond-shaped tag labelled "SD".

"Roh boy." The Great Dane exclaimed in excitement.

"He's very affectionate, and he will bring joy out of anyone." The coordinator explained to the pair.

But as the Great Dane panted, the look on the mother's face soured before she turned towards the coordinator.

"We'll keep taking a look around, thanks." The mother said with her voice chipped as she quickly led her son, who also had a sour look on his face, away, much to the Great Dane's dismay as he held onto the edge of the cage.

"Ro, ro." The dog said desperately, only for the mother and son pair to continue on without stopping, much to the coordinator's dismay.

As the Great Dane sighed, the coordinator turned back towards him and said cheerfully. "Don't worry, Scoobert. I have a feeling that today's just the day you'll be adopted."

As Scoobert's expression brightened, the coordinator added, "I just know it!"

After the coordinator went to tend to the other pets, Scoobert was left on his own as he watched the crowd.

Even though there was the sign advertising him as the Pet of the Day, no one took any interest.

Not even his paw-waving, cheerful greeting attracted any interest from the fair's attendees.

The Great Dane then took out various signs for further advertisement, signs that said, "Housebroken", "Good with Kids", and "Hypoallergic".

Still, no one batted an eye as they walked by his cage, even as he juggled while using his tail to spin plates while standing on a bouncy ball.

The whole day went by and soon, Scoobert was the only animal at the fair who was not adopted, much to his disappointment.

As the staff members of the animal rescue took down the cages and the concession stands, Scoobert was placed in a cage and loaded onto a pickup.

The coordinator sighed as he approached Scoobert, then shaking his head, he said in pity, "It's really a shame no one took any interest in you, Scoobert! I just had this feeling that today would be your lucky day!"

"Reah." Scoobert nodded dejectedly.


Around that same time, Shaggy was exhaling as he strung his backpack on his left shoulder at the end of the school day.

He was quick to finish up at his locker, not wanting Daphne to follow-up on his abrupt departure that morning.

As he made his way down the main hallway to the entrance, he walked by the school principal, who stopped him and asked, "You got a minute, Norville?"

Arching his eyebrows, Shaggy replied, "Sure. What's up, Principal Lantsman?"

The principal beckoned him to follow her to her office, and upon walking into her office, she took her seat behind her desk.

"Close the door and please sit down." Lantsman said as she put on her glasses.

Shaggy nodded as he closed the door and took his seat on the other side of her desk, then the principal said, "I hope you don't mind telling me how your day has been."

Shaggy blinked, and he exhaled as he tried to find the words before he said, "Well, it's been all the usual, like it has been for the past month or so since I started here."

"Yes, and I understand that you had went through...some trauma before you moved here." Lantsman nodded. "Among them being the loss of your father."

Shaggy nodded slowly. "It's been...like, quite the journey adjusting to the changes after moving here...from Brooklyn."

"I can imagine." Lantsman responded. "So tell me, Norville. Since you started here as a junior, have you made any friends?"

"Well..." Shaggy hesitated slightly. "...I do receive the occasional greeting from others here and there, whether be at the park or doing grocery shopping, and...say, is that a new pearl necklace you're wearing?"

Lantsman sighed before she said, "Yes, going back to the topic at hand, Norville, the reason I've asked is that over the past month since you started, I can't help but notice that you seemed to be having trouble make any particular connections with anyone here in CCHS."

As Shaggy paused his lips, the principal continued, "And to tell you the truth, I had a similar problem when I was your age. But you wouldn't guess how I managed to overcome that."

When Shaggy arched his eyebrows, Lantsman responded, "Philately."

"Philately?" Shaggy asked. "Like, what's that?"

"In simple terms, the study of stamps, of which stamp collection is the most popular area." Lantsman responded. "Believe it or not, it turned out to be the gateway for me to connect with the world as I met kindred spirits out there with similar passions in philately."

As Shaggy looked on, the principal proceeded to open a desk drawer and took out a thick book.

"Now, many would think this is Dullsville." Lantsman said as she opened the book. "But this is anything but that, and if you've got a keen eye, you'll understand why."

She then took out a magnifying glass and handed it to Shaggy as she pointed at one particular stamp and said, "Observe."

Shaggy took the magnifying glass and looked closer at the stamp she was pointing at, which featured a pair of rabbits.

As Shaggy looked closer, Lantsman explained, "If you look closer, you will notice that one of the rabbits has only one eye."

Seeing what the principal was describing, Shaggy nodded. "Like, I see it."

Handing the magnifying glass back to the principal, Shaggy leaned back as she explained, "It's a misprint, and given the year it was issued, combine that with how rare the stamps from that year are still around, that makes it very valuable."

"I'd imagine." Shaggy said.

With a nod, Lantsman said, "What I am saying here, Norville, is that you may be having difficulties connecting with others. But I am certain you will find your connections, they are out there and waiting for you to make that connection."

Then, taking out a book on philately, she added, "Who knows, perhaps you would find your own circle of friends through philately just like how it did with me."

Shaggy nodded thoughtfully as she handed him the book, which is when the school bell rang for after-school activities.

"Like, I'll keep that in mind, Principal Lantsman." Shaggy said as he took the book and got up. "And thanks for the talk."

The principal smiled as he took his leave, then she sighed and returned to her computer work.


Later, the CARA pickup truck was driving down a suburban road with Scoobert in a cage at the back.

There was some construction signs on the side of the road, and as the pickup truck swerved to avoid the signs on the side of the road, it drove over a rather deep pothole.

The bump caused the cage containing Scoobert to launch into the air before it landed on the ground, smashing into pieces in the process.

Finding himself free, Scoobert saw the pickup truck continuing on down the road, prompting him to take off after it.

"Rey, rey!" Scoobert called out. "Rait for re!"

But the pickup truck didn't stop, and Scoobert soon stopped and exhaled as he found himself abandoned on the road.


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