Scooby Doo: Monster Menagerie

Chapter 4: Back to School

A few patrons of the small restaurant looked in the direction of a certain group of friends, who happened to be enjoying a story between the five of them (well, six, if you counted the great dane). Some looked amused, a few looked rather annoyed, as at random intervals, they would often break off into fits of laughter, sudden breaths of gasping, and even a bit of groaning.

Googie would be the one retelling most of the story, although Shaggy and occasionally Scooby would interject to fill in any blanks that she would have missed. For the most part, the other three members of Mystery Incorporated would be very interested in the story, albeit for slightly different reasons.

Freddie was greatly invested in the amount of action that Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and Googie had to go through. It would have made a great story in and of itself, but with the fact that monsters were thrown in almost made it hard to believe! He didn't seem to take that into account, though, rather focusing on everything else.

Velma, however, focused more on the fact that none of them seemed to be quite nonchalant about the whole ordeal. Sure, sometimes they'd react with a grimace at the mention of two certain hunchbacks, or even slightly angry about the fact that Dracula had no intent on keeping his end of the bargain. That didn't seem to surprise the curious girl, though. The King of Vampires was known to be regal and a bit uptight. His reputation to be a deadly creature of the night was something he felt like he needed to uphold, and if he had to do so by lying and cheating, so be it. Still though, why he would do so for a ridiculous road race was beyond her.

As for Daphne, she didn't seem to carry any disbelief for the very outlandish story. For a little while, she didn't know why. Shaggy as a werewolf driving in a monster car with other monsters? It was definitely not something she should have blindly believed as she listened to the story unravel. Strangely enough, though, she did. It wasn't until around halfway through the story did she even realize why. It would also unknowingly give her an explanation as to why Shaggy didn't seem comfortable talking about that school he used to teach at.

At one point, she and Shaggy, along with Scooby, Scrappy, and a boy who passed himself off as a con-artist, managed to track down and recapture a bunch of evil spirits (after accidentally setting them free, that is). At the time, the whole prospect of it was quite terrifying, but they all made it through to the end. It was certainly an adventure that they would never forget.

And yet, neither one of them seemed to bring it up again afterwards. Why though? Was it the feeling that the others wouldn't believe them? Perhaps they both felt guilty about having not included them? Guilt over whether or not they'd be worried for their own safety when they, at the time, almost carelessly disregarded it? Strangely enough, even as she thought about it now, the only part about that whole adventure that scared her was how she had decided to style her hair back then. Just thinking about it made her wince a little.

Eventually, the story of the werewolf Shaggy, Dracula, and a monster road race would end, leaving most of the others in almost stunned silence. "In the end, it's strange to think back on that whole event. If anything, all of those monsters turned out to be kinda... well, dumb," Googie concluded, smiling a bit as she held in a laugh. Scooby wasn't as thoughtful, snickering to himself.

"Ryeah! Real dumb ronsters!"

Shaggy was grinning as well, although he was meekly slurping from a milkshake, not wanting to bring too much attention to himself.

Freddie was the first to speak, grinning widely at Shaggy, heavily impressed. "Wow, Shag, I guess you weren't lying about being a race car driver after all," He began. "Not only that, but you had to do it with a bunch of monsters!"