DISCLAIMER: None of the Hardy Family, Drew Household, or any other characters featured in the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew books belong to me. All those featured at the boarding school with the exception of Frank, Joe, and Nancy are my own creation.
Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction ever. I hope you all enjoy. My hope is for this to turn into a full novel size, but if the interest isn't there, I'll probably stop. The setting is similar to that of the Nancy Drew game, Warnings at Waverly Academy, but characters, crimes, motives, etc. are different. Basically, it revolves around a prestigious school, but that is the only major similarity between the two.
Frank entered the doorway just as something whizzed by his head. Ducking back into the hallway, he sighed.
"Joe, if you're going to throw pencils, at least throw them away from the door. You have three other walls which are better targets than the one with the door."
"I wouldn't throw it if Calculus wasn't so damn annoying," Frank heard Joe mutter. Assuming the doorway would be clear of flying objects, Frank quickly ducked into his brothers room.
His blond brother sat facing the wall at his desk, poring over a textbook. Several pencils were scattered at Frank's feet, which he picked up one by one before carrying them over to restock Joe's desk.
"You're smart. What the hell does this symbol mean?"
"Joseph Hardy, watch your mouth." Frank smirked as their mother passed by in the hallway before taking a look at what his brother was pointing to.
"You know, typically a teacher tells you how to do the problems they assign for homework. Have you ever heard of paying attention?" Frank knew exactly what the symbol meant, but he wasn't going to let his brother off without a hard time.
"Dude, you took a class with Old Linda. It's not like I would've learned anything even if I had been paying attention." Joe flopped over the side of the desk, looking to his elder brother as he sighed.
Frank, feeling sorry for the torment his brother was enduring, was about to explain what to do when his pocket buzzed.
Joe glared at him. "Don't you dare answer that phone."
Rolling his eyes, Frank took his cell out to look at the caller ID. Nancy. "Sorry bro, it's Nancy," he explained. He took the call and stepped out of Joe's room just as his brother let out a rather loud groan. "Hey Nancy, what's up?"
"Hi Frank. Is everything okay there? What's that noise?"
Frank laughed as he explained, "It's the sound Joe makes when I have to take a well-timed phone call just as I'm about to literally solve all his problems in Calculus." He could hear her rolling her eyes like he did.
"Well, I'd suggest you get somewhere away from Joe so we can talk more privately. Unless your homework isn't done either, mister. Although I suppose that may not matter."
Frank was completely lost as he entered his own bedroom. "Slow down. Yes, I'm away from Joe. And yes, my homework is done. And it wouldn't matter why?"
Nancy started, "Yesterday I got a call from a Suzanne King. She's the Dean of a prominent boarding school up in Maine. The T.J. Harrison Boarding School. Have you heard of it?"
Frank raised his eyebrows. "Who hasn't? What did she say? Were they trying to recruit you to the school?"
"No," Nancy laughed. "Well, not exactly. Recently they've been having some weird happenings. It began as small stuff, she said, things like a power outage on a beautiful day, a rabbit appearing in a desk when the room was locked. But things started to escalate, and it all took a turn for the worse when a chandelier came down in the main lobby. Luckily no one was killed but one of the kids had his leg broken by it and several others had minor injuries from the flying shards of glass. The semester just started and not only did the last 'accident' bring families to the verge of suing the school, enrollment is down 30% from the previous semester."
Frank set down his pen and looked at the scribbles he had made. "That chandelier business is pretty extreme."
"And there were signs of someone tampering with it," Nancy added. Frank jotted the extra fact down as Nancy continued, "Dean King wants me to take the role of a student to figure out who is behind all this and why someone is doing these things."
Frank nodded slowly, "Do you think it could be pranks gone wrong?"
"Dean King doesn't seem to think so. At any rate, it's pretty snowy up there, but I'm planning on moving in this upcoming weekend. I let her know that I had a couple other private investigators who might be able to help me on the case."
"And would those private investigators be Joe and me?" Frank could hardly contain his excitement. Here was his opportunity to be admitted to one of the top boarding schools in the country.
"No, I was going to invite Sherlock Holmes and Thomas Magnum, but I suppose you and Joe will do," Nancy replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Of course, I don't know whether your parents or teachers would allow you..."
Frank quickly chimed in. "Parents won't be a problem. Mom would be excited that we were recruited to such a big-name school, and we could probably tell Dad what's going on. As for teachers, they'd probably be excited for us, but how do we explain going for a couple weeks and then coming back?"
"Well, you could always say that you guys got kicked out because you weren't smart enough," Nancy joked, "But we don't even know how long this is going to take."
Frank said, "True. Maybe Dad will have some better ideas. Let me talk to him and Joe once he finishes his Calc and then I'll call you back." Saying goodbye, he hung up the phone before heading out in search of his father. After checking his study, the kitchen, and the bedroom, Frank decided to check the garage. Opening the door, he saw an empty garage. "Damn, he must be out at the station or something." Re-entering the house he saw his mother coming down the stairs. "Hey Mom, did Dad head out somewhere?"
Laura Hardy nodded. "He was called down to the police station, but he said it wouldn't take too long."
"Well, we have different standards of time," Frank said under his breath. "What's for dinner?"
"Well, your father was supposed to grill, but he should've started by now," Laura sighed.
Frank took that as his cue. "I'm done with my homework. I can get it going if you want. What are we grilling?"
His mother beamed at him. "What would I do without my two lovely boys?" She marched to the fridge and took out four burger patties. "One for each of us. I'll find out what type of cheese Joe wants when I pass his room. How's his homework going? And how's your homework?"
"My homework is done. As for Joe," he laughed, "I got a call from a V.I.P. before I got the chance to help him out. He's probably no further along than he was when I left him."
"Well, make sure he gets that done," his mother said. "And don't just give him answers."
"Mom, I wouldn't do that for anyone. You know how I am when it comes to helping other people with homework," Frank replied.
His mother asked, "Who was this 'V.I.P.' who you got a call from?"
Frank weighed his choices before speaking. "Well, it was Dean Suzanne King. The head of the T.J. Harrison Boarding School. She was interested in possibly having Joe and I enroll in the school for a semester."
This drew a gasp from his mother. "Frank Hardy, that is wonderful news! Maybe more for Joe than you, considering you've already been accepted into college, but this will look outstanding on your résumés!" Laura was absolutely gushing, a response Frank was not expecting. He saved himself from the momentary confusion by looking at his watch.
"I'm glad you're excited. We can talk more about it over dinner tonight. Joe still doesn't know, but I should get these burgers on the grill."
"Oh, I'll go let him know." Before Frank could protest his mother was already headed up the stairs. Sighing, he turned to grab dinner and brought it out to the porch.
At dinner it was hard to keep the buzz of excitement down from their mother. Joe looked at him questioningly for most of the meal, a look that was caught by their father. Once the eating had finished Joe left to finish his homework while Laura went to fold the laundry, leaving Frank and his father, Fenton, in the kitchen to wash and dry the dishes.
"So, would you happen to know why you two happened to get recruited to this school halfway through the school year with no prior warning?" Fenton asked. "And why the dean herself found it necessary to call you?"
Frank turned to him while he washed off a plate. "It wasn't actually Mrs. King who called me. It was Nancy. She's been asked to investigate some accidents at the boarding school after the last one left a kid with a broken leg."
Fenton looked at him quizzically. "Explain why you are going then. After all, it sounds like this is Nancy's case."
"She invited us in, and the dean accepted," Frank replied. "Here's how I see it: Joe and I will get to solve a mystery with Nancy while getting the best education available in the country at a top boarding school which also happens to have a good athletic program."
"Just keep in mind," Fenton said, "that while Dean King knows why you would be there, other teachers might not. You'll be pretty deep undercover, so those grades will need to stay in tip-top shape. Since you won't be here in Bayport, those grades you pull will count for however long you are there." His father paused for a moment. "Say that you solve this case. Maybe it takes the whole semester, maybe not. Will you both stay up there for the whole semester? Your mother and I might be fine with it, but that would be a long time away from your friends, and you wouldn't get to graduate down here."
Frank put the glasses in the cabinet as he thought. "I don't know. It would be awesome to stay there, but at the same time, you have a point. I don't see any reason why Joe wouldn't stay, but I guess I'll have to see what it's like."
Once everything was put away, Frank bounded up the stairs two at a time. Taking a right he walked a few feet and took a left into Joe's room.
"Are you still on the same problem I left you on?" Frank joked, earning a pencil thrown at him.
"No. Well, sort of. I just skipped that whole group of problems, but they're the only ones left. You couldn't have shown up at a better time." Joe turned to face him. "Help me out, because the sooner we get this done, the sooner you get to tell me about to call from Suzanne King that never happened."
"That's Dean King to you. Or will be pretty soon," Frank said sternly, eyes twinkling. "Now, how many questions do you have left?"
"Six."
Frank walked over to the desk, now lit by a lamp. He hated how early it got dark during the winter. "Alright, let's crank these out." (1856)
I hope you all liked this. I have a basic storyline planned but I can't give an exact schedule for when the next chapter will be out. My schedule is pretty busy from now through the first week of June or so. The writing process may slow down a bit, but please take a few moments to let me know your thoughts. Any compliments, pieces of advice, or criticisms (to an extent) are greatly appreciated, especially since I've never written fanfiction before! Thank you in advance!
