sonderling || mystery incorporated

015 WHERE WALKS APHRODITE

Lydia hated getting sick, honestly, but she would always take that excuse to skip school. She was enjoying taking the day to sleep and try to process the conversation she had with Glory. Honestly, she didn't want to feel hurt or betrayed, but with her own mother always being busy with working, Glory was pretty much all she had in terms of a parental figure.

Sure, there were the gangs parents, but only two of them actually gave Lydia the time of day. Shaggy's parents, his mom specifically, seemed to hate her, while Daphne's parents tended to pity her and treat her like a beggar. Velma's mom was great, actually, but Lydia rarely saw her dad. Unfortunately despite all his faults, which were a lot, Fred's dad, the mayor, was generally decent with being some form of a father, and at least he didn't talk down to her... usually.

So feeling betrayed by Glory keeping the information from her... It really did hurt, but a part of her understood that it was probably really hard to talk about, even to think about.

Lydia looked away from a blank canvas propped up on a easel as her phone buzzed, making her glance at it confused. School had started, why would anyone be texting her? She picked up her phone, the screen lighting up to show a text from Shaggy.

"I think your like really cool." Was all he sent, making her frown in confusion, sending back a simple 'thanks' before another text came through almost immediately, "And like youre so awesome and look cool and your totally rad!" Lydia let out a short, sudden laugh as she stood up, the confusion bubbling up. He'd never texted like that. 'That' being compliments and near-perfect spelling, along with almost-there grammar.

That's when she finally walked upstairs onto the main level of her home, her bedroom in the basement. "What a goof..." Lydia mumbled to herself, shaking her head. She went to the kitchen, originally planning to get some snacks, when she realized the outside world almost looked... pink?

She frowned, stepping outside with a box of tissues in hand, looking around the street for a reason as to why it looked like the air was put through the wash with a bunch of pink fabrics. Lydia rubbed at her eyes, blinking hard as she just got more confused, there's no way a common cold would cause hallucinations, at least nothing like this, right?

The sound of an engine was heard, and Lydia turned to look down the other end of the street, watching as the Mystery Machine came roaring towards her. She jumped back, eyes wide as it screeched to a halt in front of her, "Fred! C'mon, man, you almost-" "It ain't Fred, baby, get in now before you get love-ified!" Angel cut her off, the blue haired girl looking confused as the radio deejay sat behind the wheel, Glory in the passenger seat.

The front passenger door opened, and Lydia awkwardly crawled over Glory's lap to sit between them. She wasn't even sat down fully when Angel started driving off, Lydia letting out a sound of surprise, "Wait, what's happening?" She asked, confused. "K-Ghoul was gettin' a bunch of calls and requests to play the hit love songs of last year, so we knew somethin' was up." Angel explained as Lydia glanced to Glory.

"We never get requests for love songs." She clarified, making Lydia nod, still confused. "Then we walked into town and found everyone dancin' and prancin' around all in love with each other! Even Sheriff Stone and Mayor Jones were 'in the love'." Angel moved her hands off the steering wheel to make quotation motions for the last part, resulting in Glory giving a panicked sound to get her to put her hands back on the wheel.

That's when Lydia realized her phone was still buzzing, making her pull it out and look at the dozen of dozen text notifications from the same person- Shaggy. "Ah, that actually explains some stuff." Then she sneezes, curling forward as she hid her face in the crook of her arm, "Sorry, I'm really sick, why I'm not in school... Guess now's a good time to be sick so I wouldn't end up all lovey dovey." She shrugged.