Chapter 1: Morning time and the radio announcement
September 6, 1968
Location: Coolsville, Central California, United States of America
The timing of the alarm clock on the nightstand going off next to his bed couldn't be even more lousy, as it just had to go off as he was getting to the best part of his dream.
Fifteen-year old Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, so-nicknamed due to his dusty brown shaggy hair, groaned as he grudgingly opened one eye and turned towards the nightstand.
7:30. Shaggy groaned. You've gotta be kidding me.
Groaning about the prospect of having to wake up early again, Shaggy nevertheless stretched his arms and yawned before sitting up and turning to get out of his bed.
In a sleepy fashion, Shaggy made his way to the nearby washroom next to his bedroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, nearly tripping over the family pet Great Dane, Scoobert "Scooby" Doo, in the process.
"Like, good morning, Scoob." Shaggy said as he yawned once more.
"Rorning, Raggy." Scooby replied as he, too, stretched his four legs and yawned before getting up.
"Sure glad it's Friday today, Scoob." Shaggy commented as he made his way to the washroom.
"Rou ran say rit ragain, Raggy." Scooby nodded in agreement.
After finishing his business in the washroom and washing his face, Shaggy returned to his bedroom to change into his signature attire, consisting of a green shirt and brown pants, before proceeding to comb his hair while looking at the mirror.
After grabbing his school bag, Shaggy made his way down the stairs to the dining room for breakfast.
His father Samuel Chastain "Sam" Rogers was already at the breakfast table finishing his coffee and breakfast, while his mother Wendy Rogers, née Amon, and thirteen-year old sister Margaret "Maggie" Rogers were settling into the table for breakfast.
"Morning, Norville." His father said as he put down the morning newspaper he was reading, revealing a middle-aged man in his mid to late-40s with dusty-brown hair wearing a navy blue sports shirt and shorts.
The shirt consisted of his surname on both sleeves, a printed version of a police badge on the left chest area, and a list of Class of '45 police cadets that joined the Coolsville Police Department the same time as him on the back.
A twenty four-year veteran of the Coolsville Police Department, Sam was appointed as the city's chief of police a year prior by the mayor Henry Walton, an appointment that was preceded by a solid twenty three-year career as he climbed up the ranks, fifteen of which saw him attaining a reputation as a solid police investigator.
And prior to serving in law enforcement, Sam had served in the war in Europe as an officer of the United States Marine Corps, where he was honourably discharged with the rank of captain following demobilization.
It was during his wartime service that saw Sam first crossing paths with Wendy, who was a nurse in the Women's Army Corps. Unlike Sam who was discharged at demobilization in 1945, Wendy stayed in the WAC for a few more years before her discharge with the rank of major in 1949.
Several more encounters between the duo eventually saw Sam asking Wendy out and subsequently led to him proposing to her, which she accepted.
After tying the knot in 1951 and settling in Coolsville for good, Wendy subsequently gave birth to Shaggy on April 27th, 1953, followed by his sister Maggie on July 24th, 1955.
"Like, morning, Mom, Dad, Maggie." Shaggy replied as he went to grab some bread slices and placed them in the toaster before moving to get a glass of water, a bowl and a cereal box.
"You sure look mighty cheerful today, Norville." Maggie commented as her older brother and Scooby dig in. Like her brother, she had dusty brown hair, and she was wearing a darker green blouse, a light brown skirt and an ascot that matches the skirt.
"Glad you noticed, Mags." Shaggy said as he pulled out a few records he had brought from his bedroom. "Mainly that I've found some interesting music to play through the school's radio network for lunch period."
"Cool." Maggie nodded as she read the album of the record and noted its title. "'Did She Mention My Name?' By Gordon Lightfoot."
Raising her eyebrows at the artist's name, Maggie quipped, "Can't say I know for sure if anyone at school is up for listening to the haunting storytelling of someone from up north, Norville."
"Well, the playlist's gotta be refreshed once in a while." Shaggy shrugged as he put the album back into his school bag. "I've listened to it with Clam, Tinker, W.W. and the guys, and they all liked his vocal style and storytelling and suggested that I put it on over the school radio during lunch period."
"Fair enough." Maggie conceded as her brother resumed eating.
After breakfast, Shaggy went to brush his teeth before grabbing his school bag and lunch before he and Scooby made their way to the front door, where Sam was putting on his sneakers and adjusting his helmet.
"I don't suppose you are up for joining me and the lads on the bike ride to downtown, do you, Norville?" Sam asked.
Shaggy and Scooby glanced at each other for a brief moment before Shaggy shook his head. "I think Scoob and I are fine with walking to school, Dad, but thanks for the offer anyways."
"No problem." Sam nodded as he saw a squad of cyclists pulling up, then he added, "I'll see you at home later in the evening, son."
"Like, see you later, Pops." Shaggy replied as his father made his way out the door with a backpack.
Through the doorway, Shaggy and Scooby watched the police chief pull his bicycle out from the garage and headed down the driveway to the waiting squad of officers who were also on their bicycles.
"Morning, Chief." They heard the lead officer on the bicycle, Sergeant Snyder, said in greeting.
"Morning, Zayden." Sam nodded back as he mounted his bicycle. "How are you lads doing?"
"Doing well, sir." A second officer responded as he was joined by nods from others.
"Glad to hear." Sam smiled before nodding towards the front of their bikes and added, "Shall we?"
After he and Scooby watched his police chief father taking off with the officers on their bikes, he proceeded to put on his shoes and tie his shoelaces before he and Scooby said their goodbyes to his mother and sister.
Living near the intersection of Maple and Easy Streets in the Meyer neighbourhood of Coolsville, Shaggy's school Coolsville Central High School is a twenty-minute walk away from home.
In the past, there were instances in which Shaggy tagged along with his father and the cycling officers, given that Coolsville Central High School was located along Franklin Avenue, one of the two main north-south throughfares linking the Meyer neighbourhood to downtown Coolsville.
As the duo made their way out of their house, Shaggy glanced at the mansion across Easy Street, right in front of where Maple Street ends and joins Easy Street.
Through the gate, he recognized the fifteen-year old redhead who was about to step onto the family car with her school bag.
The redhead briefly turned back towards the front door of the mansion to wave her parents goodbye, then she was about to step into the car when she paused and looked towards the gate.
Shaggy gulped as the redhead spotted him, then he hesitatingly raised his left hand to greet her with a small wave.
The redhead smiled slightly as she waved back at him, then she stepped into the car.
As the car shifted into drive, Scooby snapped him out of his thoughts when he prompted, "Rhat's wrong, Raggy?"
Snapping back to reality, Shaggy turned to Scooby and quickly replied, "Oh, nothing really, Scoob."
Nodding towards the mansion, he added, "I was just thinking about her, Scoob."
Scooby nodded. "Ri see, Raggy. Rou rink it is rodd someone rike her roesn't have any friends rat school."
"None that I've ever noticed." Shaggy clarified. "Quite the mystery, isn't it?"
"Rure ris." Scooby agreed.
With nothing else to add on the matter, Shaggy nodded towards their front as he said, "Let's get going, Scoob."
Fifteen-year old Daphne Blake exhaled as she stepped out of the mansion and onto the driveway, where the family butler Jenkins is waiting behind the wheel of the BMW 700 to drop her off at Coolsville Central High School along the way to the airport where he is to pick up a business associate of her father George, who is flying in from Munich, Germany.
She briefly turned back toward towards the front entrance to wave goodbye to her parents, then she was about to step into the car when she felt something, or rather, someone was watching her.
Looking up towards the gate, she saw a shaggy-haired boy with a Great Dane on the other side of Easy Street, right at where Maple Street ends at the entrance to her family's mansion.
Dressed in her typical attire consisting of a purple dress and hairband with a green scarf, Daphne noted that the boy's green shirt matched her green scarf.
She's practically seen him almost everyday and she knew that he and his family lives in the townhouse just a couple houses away from the Easy and Maple Street intersection, which is also where the local streetcar stop is at linking the neighbourhood to downtown.
Daphne has also seen him at school, however, while they had shared classes with each other, she hardly interacted with him given how new she is to Coolsville Central High School and she never went to the same school as him until her enrollment at Central High.
Nevertheless, she saw the boy briefly hesitates before he raised his left hand to greet her with a small wave.
For some reason, his act of waving at her made her heart feel warm, and Daphne promptly smiled with a wave back at him before she stepped into the car.
As Daphne closed the door behind her and buckled up, she turned towards the front entrance to the mansion, where she saw the silhouettes of her parents on the glass on the doors.
The only child of George Robert Nedley Blake and Elizabeth Blake, née Bernstein, Daphne Blake was born on August 24th, 1953 in Rochester, New York.
At the time of her birth, her father George was busy managing the East Coast operations of the family firm, Blake Enterprises, in which the regional headquarters for the east coast is located at New York City.
Though born in Rochester and spending some time in New York City, Daphne never really identified with the Big Apple, as the family moved to Grande Cristal in 1959, where George took over ownership and management of Blake Enterprises from his father (and Daphne's paternal grandfather) Nathaniel Harold Matheson Blake.
As a matter a fact, Grande Cristal is actually the main hub for the Blake family and is home to the headquarters of Blake Enterprises, which is also the city's largest employer in the private sector.
To dive into the history of Blake Enterprises, it is important to dive into the history of the Blake family itself.
The Blakes first settled in America in the late-1830s beginning with the family of James Charles Blake, Daphne's great-great grandfather, who were among the wave of Scottish emigrants that were cleared out by the second phase of the Highland Clearances.
Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Scottish immigrants to America were economic immigrants from the Lowlands rather than being cleared out by the Highland Clearances, which leaves the Blakes as among the minority of Scottish immigrants that ultimately settled in America.
The Blakes were among the wave of settlers to settle in California in the Gold Rush of the 1840s, and it was upon settling in Grande Cristal and attaining his wealth from gold prospecting that James and his brother Malcolm started a merchant shop, named Blake's General Merchants, in 1855.
Concurrent to James and Malcolm starting Blake's General Merchants, Dennis, the third brother, began to use the wealth to take up ownership of the coal mines in the east side of the Roan River, and by extension, the steel mills and coal shipping.
After the Civil War broke out in 1861, the Blake brothers, all of whom joined the fledging Republican Party, have achieved a monopoly controlling mining, shipping and finance in Grande Cristal, which cumulated in the incorporation of Blake Enterprises in 1866.
By the time Robert Constantine Blake, Daphne's great grandfather, had achieved the age of majority in 1871, his father and uncles have divested away from merchant trading and began to further involve the company in mining, finance and shipping and expand into chemicals and manufacturing.
Robert eventually took over the reins of Blake Enterprises in 1887 and oversaw the company's growth, which included expanding into the energy and agriculture sectors.
Under the leadership of Nathanial Harold Matheson Blake, Daphne's paternal grandfather, Blake Enterprises further expanded into the energy sector with the oil boom in Texas in the early 1900s, and by the time the Great War broke out in 1914, arms manufacturing have become the latest addition to the company's diverse portfolio.
A series of wise investments made during the 1920s allowed Blake Enterprises to weather the storm following the stock market crash of 1929, although the company divested from the mining sector as the mines in the east end of Grande Cristal County dried up.
The company was able to rebound when the United States entered World War Two in 1941, and the company's expansion into pharmaceuticals and successive contracts in arms manufacturing, including ship-building, and later infrastructure construction after the war made Blake Enterprises one of the most successful companies.
It was on the eve of the company's post-war expansion that saw George, by then discharged from the United States Marine Corps with the rank of captain, becoming involved full-time.
Utilizing his expertise in logistics and experience as a quartermaster during the war, George eventually played his part in the growth of Blake Enterprises, which also contributed to his father's decision to naming him as his successor following his retirement in 1959.
With his brothers appointed to the company board of directors following their father's retirement, George continued to maintain the company's successes, which left his family incredibly wealthy.
In spite of her family's wealth, in her early years growing up in Grande Cristal's suburbs and enrolment in the private Quimby School, Daphne never really fit in with her peers, many of whom came to find her to be rather shy.
It seems as though that she was missing something with her peers, and it didn't help that her parents were frequently busy, leaving Daphne with the family butler Jenkins as her primary source of company.
It was Jenkins who eventually confided on Daphne's struggles to her parents, and in the discussion that followed, George became convinced that perhaps Daphne would benefit more from getting brought up in a smaller city setting and enrolment in the public school system would help her crawl out of her shell and make friends.
The family subsequently relocated to Coolsville in 1968, in time to enrol her to Coolsville Central High School for the start of the 1968-1969 school year, however, while Daphne welcomed the change in environment, she still find herself struggling to step out of her shell.
Not helping matters was the enormous weight of expectation weighing down on her, considering the legacy of the Blake family name in Grande Cristal, and while her parents have made efforts to connect more with her, Daphne at times felt that they hardly understood her well.
As the BMW 700 pulled out of the driveway and onto Easy Street, Daphne's mind shifted to the boy with the Great Dane she had waved her greetings at earlier.
Having had seen him at school and sharing some classes with him, she was acquainted with him enough to feel comfortable exchanging morning greetings via hand waves in spite of her hardly interacting with him.
From what she could tell through their occasional interactions, it seems as though he lived a relatively carefree life, not being burdened by huge expectations from a famous family name, and even if he were burdened, at least he has a group of friends he could confide with.
Not that she ever overheard him expressing concerns about family matters, given every time she did see him in school, it was always him joking around with his group of friends.
Daphne pushed those thoughts out of her mind as she glanced at her schoolbag, and new thoughts soon cloud her mind.
It was already the first week of her sophomore year, but it would seem she was still going through the same issues of making friends at school.
Hopefully this year will turn out to be different, though Daphne figured she would soon find out whether that will indeed be the case.
After the twenty-minute walk, Shaggy and Scooby made their way into the school's main lobby, with a few students saying "Hey, Shaggy." to them, with some offering handshakes to the duo.
Nodding, Shaggy and Scooby shook their peers' hands before carrying on down the hallway.
As they made their way to their lockers, a cat and mouse duo were seen chasing each other in the hallway.
"Morning, Tom, Jerry." Shaggy said to the duo, who both paused to wave their greetings at Shaggy before resuming their chase down the hallway.
"Rose rwo rever stopped rasing reach rother." Scooby quipped as they watched Tom and Jerry racing down the hallway.
"Yeah, and I think it's safe to say that Tom lost a bet." Shaggy added as he eyed the orange paint on Tom's tail.
"Ri can rell." Scooby agreed. "Rhen ris he going ro learn rot to make rets ragainst Ruff."
Just then, a voice says, "Well well well, look who's going to be representing our school in the county track competition, guys."
Turning to look, Shaggy and Scooby spotted a handsome-looking blonde-haired boy with a white shirt, light blue jeans and wearing an orange ascot with a group of two other boys wearing similar outfits, a boy they instantly recognized as Frederick Jones.
The younger son of Jefferson "Skip" Jones and Peggy Jones, née Morris, Fred was born in Coolsville on June 30, 1953.
At the time of Fred's birth, Skip was a junior partner of a well-established law firm in town specializing in criminal defense, and it was in that capacity that saw him crossing paths with Shaggy's father Sam, usually on the opposite sides on a number of cases.
Given the long-established professional rivalry between their fathers, seeing Shaggy and Fred having a rivalry wasn't much of a surprise to the populace of Coolsville Central High School.
Both boys are involved in several extra-curricular activities at school, with Fred being a member of several school clubs, on top of being on the school's soccer team, in addition to have organized a few school events in the past.
In the meantime, Shaggy's music and athletic skills has helped the school earn a lot of awards, and having had helped organized several music and athletic events at school in the past, he was widely recognized as the school's voice on its radio network.
"Like, there's a reason why the guys at school called me 'Central's Fastest', Fred Jones." Shaggy replied proudly with a thumb pointing towards him. "I can run 100 metres easily in less than a minute."
"Reah, reah reah!" Scooby replied excitedly as the nearby students stopped what they were doing and watched the two rivals speaking to each other.
"100 metres in less than a minute? That's nothing when I ran across the school's football field to help score a game-winning touchdown without getting caught by any of the ballplayers from the other school!" Fred proudly replies.
"Good for you, Jones." Shaggy smirked. "Did I mention that I broke a new record in the state's track and field finals last spring?"
"Oh, yeah. You did good in that, Rogers." Fred nodded. "But I can do better than that when it comes to racing across the football field and help scoring game-winning touchdowns for the school's football team!"
"Well, we'll see to that, Jones." Shaggy replied as he and Fred shook each others hands in a "Challenge Accepted!" fashion, earning a sea of "Woah!" and "Oh!" from the crowd of students.
After the encounter with Fred Jones and his pals, Shaggy and Scooby made their way to their lockers to put away their school bags and grab their pencil cases, notebooks, and text books before splitting up for classes.
"Ree you rat lunch, Raggy." Scooby says as he prepares to head out with the other animals.
"Yeah, like, see you at the cafe, Scoob." Shaggy nodded and smiled.
After watching Scooby leave, Shaggy glanced at his watch and noted that he's got five minutes before he's supposed to be on the air on the school's radio network.
"Zoinks! Better get going!" He remarked to himself as he grabbed the records, slammed his locker door shut, and made his way down the hallway to the radio station in the main office.
He arrived just in time as the school's radio network operator was doing his finishing touches of checking the equipment.
"Morning, Mr. Rogers." The operator said as he saw Shaggy enter the room.
"Like, morning, Mr. Walker. I guess I've arrived just in time." Shaggy replied.
"You sure did, Mr. Rogers." Mr. Walker nodded before Shaggy went to take a seat and after testing out the broadcasting equipment, he placed one of the records he'd brought with him into the player.
There was a countdown clock in the booth, which was a countdown to both when they are on the air and when the bell rings, which will indicate to the students that they have five minutes before first period classes starts.
"Ten seconds to go before we're on the air, Mr. Rogers." Mr. Walker said as he and another operating assistant got down to work.
As the timer counts down, Shaggy put on his headphones as after the countdown to zero, the music from the record can be heard from the radio speakers located across the school.
The first song that Shaggy played through the radio was The Last Time I Saw Her from Gordon Lightfoot's album Did She Mention My Name?, which took up the whole five-minute duration of the break.
Though not as catchy to listen to compared to Hey Jude, the school faculty were listening intently to the music.
After the bell rang, Shaggy's voice can be heard through the radio speakers as he began the school's morning announcements.
"Like, good morning, Central. It's Central's Fastest Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers behind the mike here with your morning announcements. Before I get to them, please stand for the playing of the national anthem, followed by a moment of silence." Shaggy spoke.
After that, Shaggy's voice was replaced by the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner as the whole faculty stood up from their seats. Following the national anthem, the faculty took a moment of silence.
After the moment of silence, Shaggy's voice returned and echoes throughout the entire school as he said, "And now for the morning announcements. Starting on Monday September 16th, yearbooks can by ordered at the main office at a price of $10 through cash or cheques."
Flipping the page of the day's morning announcement, Shaggy continued, "Next, tryouts for the Coolsville Central Devils football team starts next Monday afternoon. If anyone has an interest in joining the football team or want to help Freddie Jones in securing victories for the Devils, then feel free to take part in the tryouts next Monday."
Shaggy then paused for a glass of water before continuing, "Know how to play a musical instrument? Want to perform great music? Then come on down to the music department for tryouts for the school orchestra starting next Monday. Trust me, it will be a lot of fun, especially considering the fact that you'll be performing with a group of awesome students and be practicing under the guidance of the great Mr. Curtin."
After going through a few more morning announcements, Shaggy concluded, "And that's all for today's morning announcements, Central. Have a wonderful rest of the day! Norville Rogers, signing off."
With that, the radio network went off the air.
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