Scooby Doo! Meet Ellie Machine

The Secret Serum (Part 1)

I was lying next to Daphne on my towel at the edge of her pool, soaking up the sun and relaxing on this fine Saturday afternoon. Shaggy and Scooby were both floating in the pool sipping on their drinks. "Like, Scooby-Doo, there's something about putting a teeny-tiny umbrella in your drink that just makes it better," I heard Shaggy say. "Yeah. I heard that," Scooby responded.

This is the calmest and most civil our group has been this week. After Shaggy and Velma's official break up, Daphne has taken Velma's side and refused to talk to Shaggy, all the while I've taken Shaggy and Scooby's side leaving Velma to practically ignore me. Fred has been caught in the middle, and his solution has been to make up hypothetical traps as a way of leveling everything. Case and point...

"Now, this is purely hypothetical, but let's say your extravagant grotto was haunted by a pool monster. Want to know how I'd trap it?" Fred asked Daphne, who was also next to her. "Uh, could you tell me later?" Daph asked, tired of taking the brunt of Fred's trap talk. With Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma feuding, Fred has mostly taken to talking to Daph and I as a way to not make anything worse. Unfortunately, this has made the two of us slowly grow tired of him and his traps.

"First, I'd use some combination of Shag or Scoob to lure him under the waterfall. Then I'd add quick-drying cement to the water and boo-yah! Trapped," he said proudly. I sat up and stared at him. "Yes, and make the entire pool fill with cement, thus ruining the Blake's pool and making them spend thousands of dollars to fix it, which will come out of your dad's pocket because you're the one who ruined it and you don't have a job, so you won't be able to pay for it," I said dryly, making Daph chuckle. I then proceeded to stand up and dive into the pool.

Having just barely made the deadline for the newspaper, and with the feud of Shaggy and Scooby vs. Velma, Daphne taking her side, and Fred's constant trap-talking, I was tired and finding myself growing short with everyone.

When I surfaced, I saw Velma posing in front of Shaggy. "Oh, Shaggy," she was saying. "Like my new bikini?"

I rolled my eyes, though snorted at Shaggy's response. "Um, like, I don't know. Are you wearing one?" he asked cautiously. She frowned at him "Yes! I just don't want to get burned. Do you have any idea of how damaging the sun is? Give me a call when someone wants to make a leathery handbag out of your back fat," she scolded him. I once again rolled my eyes.

"Hey, don't worry, Velma. I think you look great!" Fred called to her. I really thought he was being nice to her until he made a fatal mistake: continuing to talk. "And with the sun reflecting off your pale, colorless skin, we can blind the monster and just push him into the pool with the cement already in it. Genius!"

"Fred!" Daphne scolded him.

Footsteps caught my ears, and I turned as Mrs. Blake walked onto the patio. "Boy, am I steamed," she said fiercely. I've always had a level of respect for Nancy Blake. She managed to push out five girls and keep her figure, and despite how shallow she appeared, she genuinely wanted what was best for her daughters. Whenever I slept over and woke up earlier than Daph, she and I would sit over coffee, and she'd tell me her worries for Daphne compared to her sisters. We actually had a pretty good bond.

"What's wrong, mom?" Daphne asked as she and Fred stood up. I swam to the edge of the pool to also hear what was troubling her. "A vampire ruined my auction last night," she huffed. "Vampire?" Scooby yelped from behind me. "A mystery! Quick, Velma. Set your milky whiteness for 'stun!'" Fred called to the nerd. I could hear her grumbling from behind her newspaper.

"Fred!" Daphne scolded him again. Of course, Fred was clueless as to what he did. "It's okay, Daphne. I don't care what Fred thinks," Velma said as she stood up, looking pointedly at Shaggy. He smiled sheepishly and slid off his float and into the water.