Chapter 3: Enter the Great Dane and the fight
Dinner was largely uneventful for Shaggy and his sister Maggie as they have spaghetti. With their mother away from home for a three-week training exercise on base, it was up to the siblings to prepare their meals themselves.
Having had grown up with both parents serving in the military, the routine of shopping for groceries and preparing their own meals, including experimentation on various recipes, have become ingrained in Shaggy and Maggie.
For Shaggy, cooking also came to be some form of solace from the ongoing struggles in his recovery from the accident and subsequent addiction to painkillers and quitting the habit.
Cooking was the one of the few activities that he never lost his touch for even after the accident, and it has become more and more frequent for him to be the one preparing their meals in the year since the accident.
While it could never completely diminish his demons, at least cooking puts his mind at ease.
Even so, it was not lost on Maggie that since the accident and especially news of their father's death, her brother has become more emotionally distant even as he recovered from his addiction.
She would often pepper him with questions on his well-being, but he would often brush them aside by insisting that he is alright.
Maggie had observed that her brother never confided with anyone about his ongoing struggles over the past year, and she was certain he was still struggling to come to terms with their father's death, especially given the way they had their last conversation prior to his deployment and subsequent death.
It was also clear that their mother Wendy has also not had much success in getting Shaggy to open up, evident by her resorting to burying herself in work, whether be at the hospital or in the Air Force.
Given the struggles her brother had went through in quitting his addiction to painkillers, there was concern from Maggie that when putting up with the trauma from surviving the accident and the grief from their father's death, he could experience a relapse.
Those thoughts continued to cloud Maggie's mind as she watched her brother do the dishes in the kitchen, and she sighed.
Just as she was about to think of saying something to Shaggy, the telephone rang, prompting her to sigh and pick it up.
Shaggy only listened intently as his sister answers the daily phone call from their mother, who would always call them in the evenings to check in on them, and as always, Maggie will report that all is well for them.
He then became alert inward when he heard his sister say, "For sure, I will ask him that, Mom."
With an exhale, he placed the last of the washed plates onto the dish drying rack as his sister said, "Love you, Mom."
Turning around, Shaggy watched his sister hang up the phone before she walked to him and said, "Mom just wanted to know how are things for you at school."
Shaggy sighed. "Like, all the usual, I suppose. Nothing out of the ordinary other than Principal Lantsman having a talk with me after school."
"What'd you guys discussed?" Maggie asked.
"You know, how I'm coping with the school transfer and stuff about finding friends." Shaggy responded. "Even gave me tips on how to find friends by suggesting a hobby."
"And what will that be?" Maggie raised an eyebrow.
"Philately." Shaggy said as he pulled out the book the principal had given him. "Or more specifically, stamp collection."
Maggie took the book from her brother and opened it before nodding thoughtfully. "Interesting, though I never really took you for someone who would collect stamps."
"Figured you won't." Shaggy nodded as he headed for the stairs to his basement bedroom. "Not that I would have much of an eye for any peculiar details in the stamps."
It was at the tip of Maggie's tongue to ask her brother if any of those dreams are bothering him, but the abruptness of his departure and closing the door behind him took the wind off her sails.
Watching the door closing, Maggie could only sigh and shake her head lightly. Typically, when her brother does that for the night, he never comes out until the next morning.
She then looked at the book of philately in her hand, then she sighed and walked over to the door and slipped the book under the gap.
Around the same time Shaggy had retired for the night, several blocks away and in the chilly night, Scoobert was wondering through the nearby woods, unsure where should he go to next.
Pausing from his stroll, the Great Dane looked up towards the sky and saw the full moon slowly getting engulfed by the night clouds.
The wind soon began to pick up speed, and the Great Dane was finding it chilly, though his fur has been keeping him warm thus far.
Reems like re storm ris coming rup. Scoobert thought to himself, during which there was a light roll of thunder.
All it took was a brief lightning strike to provoke Scoobert's fears, though it wasn't because of the lightning itself, but rather it was because of what was on the wooden sign on the top of the iron gate.
The wooden sign, lightened up by the brief lightning strike, read, "Cemetery".
At the sight of the cemetery's entrance, Scoobert began to wimper in fear. Of all the places for him to end up wondering to.
As there was more lightning strikes in the distance, Scoobert's fears soon lead to him focusing on two particular graves, in which the tombstones were shaking rather restlessly with the storm, as if whoever was buried under was restless to get out.
The wind began to howl, and Scoobert gulped just as another lightning strike occurred.
This lightning strike struck those two graves with the shaking tombstones, which is when two glowing green spectres began raising from the graves.
The two spectres subsequently morphed into a man and a woman, both of whom were dressed in Victorian-era clothing and with pale white faces.
At the sight of that, Scoobert's eyes widened in horror while the two ghosts exhcnaged looks with each other with a haunting laugh.
"Raaaa!" Scoobert exclaimed in fright as he quickly took off, briefly leaving behind his collar hovering in the air in the process before he reached back to grab it and took off.
Neither of the two ghosts took much notice to Scoobert running away as they float towards the sky, during which the male ghost said, "Come now, Ravencroft, the master has summoned us."
The female ghost responded, "What of the purpose of the summons?"
"It's not a question of what the master seeks from us, rather to what end does the master seeks our services." The male ghost replied. "The game's afoot."
"Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, cry, 'G*d for Harry, England and St. George!'" The female ghost nodded as they continued to float away.
In the same time, Scoobert continued running. He first leaped over a stone wall, then several moments later, he smashed right through a wooden fence, leaving behind a outline of his figure in it.
Running in blind panic, the Great Dane burst right through a window in front of him.
The window opened, Scoobert raced into the house, and he hovered in the air for a brief moment before looking down and realizing he's far above the ground.
At the realization, he fell towards the ground with a "Ripe!" and landed on the bed.
When Scoobert landed, the sleeping figure on the bed sat up with a white blanket over him, which prompted the Great Dane to scream in fright.
The boy on the bed then took the blanket off him and upon seeing the blanket-covered Scoobert in front of him, he screamed, "Zoinks!"
It took a moment before he took the blanket off Scoobert in realization, and in the following couple of minutes, the two continued to scream at each other uncontrolledly in fright before he began to laugh nervously and their screams decreased in intensity.
And realizing that the boy he had just woke up was no ghost, Scoobert also joined in laughing in relief, though he soon remembered something.
To the boy's surprise, Scoobert raced back to the window and pulled down the curtain.
As Scoobert retreated under the blankets in fright, the boy asked, "Like, was there something out there that got you spooked?"
"Rhost! Rhost!" Scoobert stuttered in fright.
"Roast?" The boy asked in confusion. "Like, what's so scary about a delicious roast?"
"Not roast." Scoobert shook his head. "Rhost!"
Just then, the door to the basement opened and a girl peeked through the opened door and asked, "Norville, you okay?"
As the boy turned towards her, she walked down the stairs and continued, "Heard you screaming and-"
Before the girl finished, she stopped and screamed at the sight of Scoobert under the white blanket. "Ghost!"
"Like, he's no ghost, Mags." Norville explained as he took the blanket off Scoobert. "He's a dog that was just frightened by something outside and came to seek shelter here."
"Rog? Rhere?" Scoobert asked as he turned around in confusion.
The girl resumed climbing down the stairs as she said, "Well, whatever it is that scared you outside, you're safe here."
Her brother nodded as he introduced himself, "Like, my name's Norville but most people calls me Shaggy."
Then, gesturing towards his sister, Shaggy added, "And this is my sister Margaret, we just call her Mags or Maggie."
As Scoobert nodded, Shaggy reached over to the tag on his collar and continued, "Let's see what's your name."
Watching her brother turn the tag, Maggie leaned closer as Shaggy read, "Scoobert Doo."
"Interesting name." Maggie offered. "I do wonder if anyone's called you Scooby."
"Rooby Doo." Scoobert repeated. "Ri like it."
"It is a good name." Shaggy agreed before he extended his hand and added, "And it's nice to meet you, Scooby Doo."
"Rand rit's nice to reet rou both, Raggy and Raggie." Scooby agreed as he shook Shaggy's offered hand and then did the same thing when Maggie extended her hand.
After the handshakes, Shaggy continued to look at Scooby's dog tag, only to frown when he saw nothing else other than the Great Dane's name.
"I don't see anything else on your dog tag." Shaggy remarked and asked. "Who's your owner, and where did you come from?"
At Shaggy's question, Scooby's facial expression saddened. "Ri've got ro home nor rowner."
Shaggy and Maggie exchanged looks in response, then the latter said, "Well, in that case, you are more than welcome to stay with us."
"Yeah, like, we could even be friends." Shaggy added as his sister nodded encouragingly.
This seemed to brighten Scooby's mood up, for the next minute, the Great Dane leaped right onto Shaggy and licked him uncontrolledly.
"Haha, st-stop!" Shaggy exclaimed as Scooby licked him repeatedly.
October 19, 2009
Sixteen-year old Frederick Jones, Jr. exhaled as his seatmate Darrell was saying, "Anyways, Fred. You ready for the Thursday game against Crystal Cove?"
"Of course." Fred nodded as he briefly glanced out of the bus window. "But it's a question of whether the practices Coach Bender puts us through would be enough for us to turn around our losing streak."
"Won't I know it, it seems like the team just decides to fall apart ever since Coach Bender came on." Darrell agreed. "Between you and me, Fred, I think Bender's up to something, since we just can't seem to be able to get our acts together in spite of the practices he puts us through."
"Yeah, don't suppose he's gonna give us another earful should we get our a**es whipped by Crystal Cove." Fred muttered in resignation.
In mentioning Crystal Cove, Fred and Darrell were referring to the school's crosstown rival Crystal Cove High School, and to dive into the history of the rivalry between Coolsville Central High School and Crystal Cove High School, one must dig deep into the history of Coolsville, and by extension Crystal Cove County.
Notwithstanding the Native Americans residing in what is now Crystal Cove County for millennia, Coolsville was first settled as part of a westward wave of migration to California during the Gold Rush in the 1840s.
As the town's population grew and following Crystal Cove County's formation in 1869, efforts were made to bring in home rule for the fast-growing Coolsville, whose population growth was fostered by industrialization.
It was until 1898 that the Coolsville City Charter was passed by the state legislature, and Coolsville was formally incorporated as a city the following year.
At the time of incorporation, Coolsville's city limits were limited to the west bank of the Roan River, which, up until 1951, was the boundary separating the City of Coolsville from the neighbouring City of Crystal Cove.
While the City of Crystal Cove had a longer history of settlement than Coolsville, hence it being the name of the county, Crystal Cove's fortunes dwindled as the mines that made up the majority of its economy began to dry up.
The 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed was the final nail in the coffin for Crystal Cove's fortunes, and the city never recovered from the pre-Depression slump as the mines closed down and commerce began to move across the Roan River.
By contrast, while Coolsville was not spared from the fallout of the Great Depression, the city was in a better position as the Second World War came along and further industrialization led to its population surpassing that of Crystal Cove's by the end of the war.
The changes in the settlement patterns, coupled with the contrast of the economic prospects between the two cities, was a major contribution to the rivalry between Coolsville and the City of Crystal Cove, a rivalry that has carried forward into the collective memories of their respective residents after 1951, when Coolsville annexed the former City of Crystal Cove and expanded to its present-day boundaries.
The annexation was bemoaned by the residents of the former City of Crystal Cove, whose outskirts along the Roan River were dominated by residents who took advantage of the low property taxes of Crystal Cove while receiving the municipal services offered by Coolsville, namely streetcars, water and sewer services.
Even to this day, it is still a frequent habit for the town habitants to refer to the western half of Coolsville as "the old city" while the eastern half continues to be referred to as old Crystal Cove, and the contrast between the two sides of the Roan River couldn't be even more starker even a decade after the annexation and rapid suburbanization.
Furthermore, the rivalry between the two sides of the Roan has continued to play out in the form of the intense rivalry between their two high schools, Coolsville Central High School and Crystal Cove High School.
It wouldn't be a normal school year for the faculty of either high school without the annual Kidnapping of the Mascots, in which the two schools will "kidnap" each other's sports mascots in the leadup to the regional football finals in which the two schools will meet, upon which the kidnapped mascots are returned in a prisoner's exchange.
On the mention of Crystal Cove County, one must also mention Fred's background.
Born to Frederick Jones, Sr. and Peggy Jones on June 30th, 1993, Fred, Jr. grew up under the company of a family dominated by businessmen and lawyers.
As the youngest in his own family, Fred, Sr. himself grew up in a privileged background, one that was much, much more privileged than the Blakes ever had.
After all, Senior's father (And Junior's grandfather) was already a successful businessman by the time Senior was born, though as the youngest child, he wasn't expected to take over the family business (Instead, the role passed on to his older brothers).
After graduating from law school at Darrow University with high honours in 1980, Fred, Sr. was commissioned into the United States Navy as an ensign, having had enrolled in the University's Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program during his undergraduate studies.
He was injured while participating in the 1983 invasion of Grenada, subsequently, he transferred to the Judge Advocate General Corps as a lieutenant (junior grade), where he remained for the remainder of his naval career.
Fred, Sr. was transferred to the Naval Reserves as a lieutenant commander in 1990 and subsequently joined a private law practice, where his subsequent networking there provided him the inspiration to go into politics.
Senior's first shot at electoral politics was working as a legal affairs manager for State Representative Jefferson Dudley's ultimately-successful campaign to represent the California's 11th congressional district on Capitol Hill in the 1992 House election.
It was through that involvement that led Senior to his future wife Peggy, who was a volunteer at the campaign and has helped organize several campaign rallies.
And like Senior, Peggy started her legal career in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, with her being in the Army.
The two clicked and eventually married a year later, and Peggy subsequently gave birth to Fred, Jr. in 1993.
Even though Dudley lost his bid for reelection in 1994, Senior's involvement in the congressional campaigns has led him to more opportunities for political office.
The first opportunity came in the 1998 State Assembly election, in which Senior, by then discharged from the Navy as a commander, ran for a seat to represent the State Assembly district for Coolsville as a Republican and ultimately won.
He will went on to hold onto the seat in four more elections before deciding to contest Coolsville's state senate district in 2008, though he ended up coming in a close second in the party's primaries.
Also held concurrently to the 2008 State Senate elections was the Crystal Cove County Board of Supervisors election, and when the Republican candidate for the 3rd District Supervisor was unexpectedly forced to drop out of the race, Senior was nominated as the replacement candidate.
At the time of the election, just like in other parts of the country, the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis was on the minds of voters.
Coolsville and Crystal Cove County were most certainly not spared from the fallout, and in the face of a lot of controversies and scandals while in office, the then-incumbent supervisor for the 3rd district, which covers Coolsville, was facing an uphill battle for his bid for reelection.
Campaigning on a promise to relieve citizens of the financial burden from the crisis, Senior won the supervisorial race handily.
It is worth noting that given his successes in seeking electoral office, it was natural for Senior to push Junior to follow his footsteps and go into politics.
However, Fred, Jr. wouldn't hear any of his father's assertions, preferring to focus his energies on his hobbies, particularly with him taking part in the school's football team and the Rube Goldberg Machine Club.
With Senior frequently busy at work, father and son were never particularly close, and the chasm separating the duo widened after Peggy lost her battle to breast cancer a couple months after Senior was sworn in as the Supervisor of the 3rd District on the Crystal Cove County Board of Supervisors on January 2009.
As Fred carried on with his conversation with Darrell, the school bus came to a stop at the last stop of the route.
This time, Shaggy was already waiting at the bus stop when the bus pulled into the stop. However, he was accompanied by a hooded figure wearing sunglasses.
The bus driver was certainly confused as Shaggy and his companion boarded the bus, during which the companion said, "Rood morning."
When the driver stared at him in confusion, the companion added, "Rave a nice ray."
The driver's mind was certainly filled with questions, but given he was running late as a result of the traffic jam from a car crash couple blocks away, he didn't further question Shaggy's companion and simply closed the door before pulling the bus out of the stop.
Fred could only look on with disdain as Darrell once again stick his foot out and trip Shaggy over, then he shook his head as Darrell laughed.
"It's just too easy!" Darrell laughed, though the cheerful look on his face disappeared when Shaggy's companion growled at him.
Fred blinked. Did Shaggy snuck his dog onto the bus?
Before the blonde could enquire, Shaggy placed his hand on his companion's shoulder and lead him away.
Fifteen-year old Velma Dinkley was seated at her usual spot with her chemistry set by her side, and though she was busy reviewing her chemistry notes, she was most certainly aware of her surroundings on the bus.
Like the previous Friday, the bespectacled girl caught a glimpse of the school bully Darrell Taylor tripping over Shaggy, and even though she didn't directly saw it unfolding, she scoffed and shook her head.
If it wasn't Shaggy who is a target of Darrell's bullying, then it's her. At least it would seem that he's got a companion who wouldn't hesitate to stand up for him.
Being frequently derisively described as a bookworm or geek, Velma hardly had any friends in school, besides those in the science club.
It can be said that her interest in the sciences were inherited from her parents, both of whom had significant backgrounds in the engineering and sciences.
Born to Dale and Angela Dinkley on November 12, 1993, Velma grew up as an only child.
Her father Dale is a mechanical engineer who works for Lockheed-Martin, specializing in weapons research and development.
It is worth noting that his involvement in the defence industry wasn't limited to his work at Lockheed-Martin. Prior to obtaining his bachelor's degree, Dale was enrolled in the Marine option at Darrow University's Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
However, a training accident confined Dale to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and he was subsequently discharged.
Rather than letting the accident define him, Dale dived deeper into his studies and work, cumulating into him obtaining his masters and PhD by the time he met Angela.
Around the time she first met Dale in 1991, Angela was in the process of obtaining her PhD in theoretical physics at Darrow University.
It would be an understatement describing their first date as plain, though it didn't take long for their common interests in the sciences and similar personalities to lead them to click after a couple more dates before the marriage proposal and wedding.
While parenting wasn't exactly an easy task for Dale and Angela after Velma's birth, in time the parents adapted to their roles in bringing her up, and it wasn't long before Velma began following their interest in the sciences.
It was that interest that subsequently saw her getting involved in the school science club, and for that particular day, she was due to do a chemistry presentation.
At that moment, she heard someone at the back of the bus saying, "Scooby-Doo, where are you?"
Before Velma could turn towards the source of that voice, there was a biting sound and Darrell suddenly levitated from his seat and hit the ceiling, prompting her to snap her head towards him as he landed back on his seat.
Fred looked on in shock as Darrell hit the ceiling, and when he landed, he immediately grabbed the culprit responsible by the neck, or in the case of Shaggy's companion, by the collar.
Shaggy did snuck his dog onto the bus! Fred thought as Darrell prepared to punch the dog.
"So it was you who bit me!" Darrell snarled. "Wise guy, huh?"
Immediately, Fred decided to intervene by placing his hand on Darrell's shoulder and said, "Hey, cool it, Darrell. There's no need to-"
Before the blonde could finish, Darrell responded by shoving him back towards his seat.
Seeing Scooby was about to get punched, something came over Shaggy as he got up and tugged Darrell back by the shirt.
His attention diverted, Darrell momentarily let go of Scooby, who fell over towards Fred.
Fred immediately lunged towards Darrell, unintentionally shoving him towards Velma's seat and causing him to smash her chemistry set.
Before long, both girls joined the fray, kicking and hitting the brawling boys as the bus driver tried to get them to stop by shouting via the rear view mirror.
Meanwhile, over at the staff parking lot of Coolsville Central High School, Vice Principal Calvin Grimes was carefully parking his brand new orange sports car.
He winced as the car's bumper came close to the staff parking sign in front of his reserved spot, and he largely kept his foot on the brake as he adjusted his car's position.
Eventually, his car was well lined up in the parking spot and upon shifting the car to park, he switched off the engine and got out.
By that point, there were a small crowd of students watching him parking his car, and as he got out of the car, one of them whistled.
"Well, take a look at Vice Principal Grimes' new car." Another student remarked as he locked the car.
After locking the car, the vice principal took out a handkerchief and huffed at the engine hood before wiping it clean.
"Oh, yeah." Grimes remarked as he headed for the main entrance.
Back at the school bus, the scene at the back of the bus was chaotic. Students were fighting each other along with the core five - Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne, Fred and Velma.
Fed up by the chaos, the driver turned his head to the back and yelled, "Knock it off, you punks!"
But as he turned his head back forward, he realized that he has pulled up onto the school driveway with the rear end of another school bus fast approaching.
In a panic, the driver quickly jerked the steering wheel to the left, narrowing missing the bus in front of him while the students that were standing fell over as they lost their balances.
The bus drove through the garden before finally coming to a stop after the front end hit the flag pole, leading it to fell over.
The driver, and several of the nearby students and staff, could only look on in disbelief as the top of the flag pole fell over and smashed down onto the windshield of Vice Principal Grimes' new sports car.
As the car alarm went off, the bus driver's facial expression fell.
Hearing the car alarm going off, Grimes hurried back at to his sports car.
Seeing the windshield completely smashed broke, his blood began to boil as he exclaimed in anger, "My new car!"
Fuming mad, the vice principal walked over to the school bus and knocked on the door.
With a sigh, the bus driver reached over to open the door.
As soon as the vice principal marched onto the bus, he leaned towards the driver and demanded, "Who is responsible for this?"
As quick as a fox, the driver quickly pointed to the back of the bus.
Following the driver's finger towards the back of the bus, Vice Principal Grimes looked on as all of the students on board of the bus pointed their fingers at Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, Velma and Daphne.
It was that very moment that Scooby dropped his dark glasses and muttered, "Ruh?"
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