Chapter 01

There was one mystery that I was able to solve that day. That was the mystery of where the 'Mean Daphne' that I had grown up with had gone. She was alive and well and cohabitating in the body of the new 'Nice Daphne'. As soon as Marcie showed up at the Gang's table, Ms. Hyde showed up. Dr. Jekyll had left the building.

"What's she doing here?" Daphne asked the question to me without looking at Marcie.

"She needs our help."

"With what?"

"A mystery."

"I thought we were taking a break."

"We probably should be but this one seems like a technical issue. Probably just need to change out some breakers."

"I don't know what that means but it doesn't sound like she needs us. She should call a plumber or whatever."

I could see Fred wrestling with himself over his desire to start mansplaining breakers. It was one of the rare occasions when he made the right decision and stayed silent.

Marcie tried to answer for herself. "There are certain irregularities that don't fit within easily explainable parameters…"

Daphne waved a hand at Marcie and continued to speak to me. "Blah. Blah. Blah. I don't understand a word she's saying."

I had now known Daphne well enough to know that she was bright and understood every word. I had never understood before that dumbness could be weaponized. That explains a lot of modern politics.

Even Fred seemed confused by his girlfriend's behavior. "Daph?"

She ignored him. "Velma, you know that you are a cool nerd." I did? "But this one is not. She is just a regular nerd and somewhere a line has to be drawn."

Suddenly, both Daphne and Marcie were staring at me and waiting for me to say something. While Daphne was clearly in the wrong, I will admit that I was basking in the description of me as a 'cool nerd'. This sort of acceptance was foreign and new to me. And I liked it. But I had to say something.

Before I had to utter that first word, Shaggy (bless him) stumbled up to the table with a mountain of food piled on his tray. I wasn't sure if it was the precarious balance of the food or his chemically-impaired reflexes that made him trip slightly and barely get his tray safely to the table but I was happy with the interruption.

"Like, I thought we were all going to spread out for a few days but, since everyone's here together, I figured I'd come on over." He seemed to notice Marcie for the first time. "Hello Marcie."

She looked at the ground. "Hello Norville."

Fred seized on the appearance of a fellow male to try and de-escalate the situation. "Shags, Marcie has asked for our help with a mystery."

Shaggy shrugged. "Any friend of Velma's is a friend of mine. I'm in."

Once again, I can only dream of mastering the art of the withering glare to Daphne's level. She directed it at Shaggy who missed it entirely as he dove into his food.

My two worlds collided. Just two nights before I had shared with The Gang that I felt them to be the first real friends I had ever had. But here was Marcie who I had just realized was also a friend. My cup runneth over. And spilleth down my shirt. And staineth everything.

Daphne looked at Marcie for the first time. "Marcie, could you be a dear and let us talk about this amongst ourselves for a few moments?"

Marcie didn't respond but turned and left. She had no tail, but if she had, it would be between her legs.

My emotions were in a jumble. On the one hand, Shaggy had just stated that he considered me a friend. Daphne had stated (or at least implied) that she also considered me a part of her friend group. Fred, through silence, had tacitly agreed. Maybe I'm reading too much into a few sentences but I hoped not.

On the other hand, Daphne was being a jerk. Marcie didn't deserve that. I had things I should say but I was too afraid to say them. I wasn't used to having a social life to risk. I actually cared what these people thought of me. All of which I would have considered a weakness a few months earlier.

Fred helped me out. "What's the mystery, Velma?"

I pulled out a chair and sat down, trying to ignore Daphne's petulant posture and the sound of Shaggy's eating. I recounted what Marcie had told me.

Fred was pensive. "You're right. It's probably just an electrical problem."

Daphne disagreed. "Electrical problems don't make hot dogs."

Shaggy was Shaggy. "Hot dogs? Just how many hot dogs are we discussing?"

"That's not important." Any reaction on Shaggy's part to my dismissal of his question was drowned out by the return of his full attention to what was left on his tray.

Fred was on board now. "Come on! Think about the visuals! An abandoned amusement park! Even if the mystery is weak, the scenery alone will sell an episode."

"And if the mystery isn't weak?" Daphne countered. "Have we forgotten what last week was like? Even Sheriff Stone was talking about all of the weird cases that are coming at us. It's almost like its being staged for some ulterior motive." This was long before we knew anything about the Anunnaki. The only mystery I have never been able to solve is Daphne's almost clairvoyant intuition.

That one brought on a full stop. We all disappeared into our own heads for a minute.

I decided who I was. "Marcie is my friend and I want to help her."

Daphne looked at me closely. "Sarah says that Marcie is a lesbian. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Then why mention it?

"Unsubstantiated and irrelevant." My mind was whirring as I replayed Marcie's body language from our last conversation in my mind. Could she be infatuated with me? Was that a bad thing? At that point in my life, I wanted to be considered normal. I wanted to be an insider. And I was almost there. Would having a romantic partner fully bring me into the light of social acceptance?

There were two or three same-sex couples in the school. Per the dictates of our society, no one said anything overtly negative about them. Nor did anyone mock them behind their backs. There was something of a rigid politeness around them. If my desire was to be an insider, that was not the way. They were outsiders like me.

Which, if what Sarah Handler said was true, would make Marcie an outsider squared. I doubled down and repeated my last sentence. "Marcie is my friend and I want to help her."

Shaggy smacked and gulped down a gastronomically and anatomically impossible wad of food and then belched. "Like I said—I'm in." The words were sweet but the belch smelled nasty.

Fred was next. "An old empty park is just too good of a backdrop to turn down."

I turned to Daphne and saw the precise second when the beamer smile erupted across her face—totally hiding whatever emotion had been there previously. "Well! We have a new mystery!"

I turned my head to see Marcie seated at the nerd table. A couple of the regular crew had joined her. They were talking to each other while Marcie stared at us. I gestured for her to come. She left her food and walked over.

Daphne turned the big smile on her. "Marcie! Why don't you get your tray and join us? There's plenty of room."

The look on Marcie's face reminded me of an antelope on the National Geographic channel when a lion was circling. The female lion was the hunter. Daphne's smile never faltered.