"You're so stupid," Joe heard the voices as he neared the edge of consciousness again. Too groggy to open his eyes, he grabbed his pillow and pulled it around his ears to block out the noise. He curled up into a ball as the voices kept nagging at him. "Worthless. Bad. Useless. Not Frank. Never amount to anything," the voices just kept coming at him. He sat up in bed, clamping his hands over his ears, silent tears threading down his cheeks. "Stop it, please stop it," he begged softly of no one.
When Joe came down to breakfast the next morning he found his brown-haired, brown-eyed, year older brother devouring a stack of pancakes. "About time you came down," Frank said. "We have to leave for school in fifteen minutes." Joe made a face at him.
"Sit down, honey," his blond, petite mother instructed him. "You've got time for breakfast."
"Thanks," Joe said with a faint smile. "But I'm not really hungry."
"Aren't you feeling well?" asked his father, Fenton Hardy, an older version of Frank. He looked at Joe with concern because he knew Joe was most always hungry.
"I didn't sleep well," Joe said with a shrug.
"Again?" Frank asked, frowning. "That's almost a week now."
"You'll probably have to watch what you eat before bed," Laura said sympathetically.
"Yeah," Joe agreed, although he hadn't eaten anything since supper last night. "I'll wait for you in the van," Joe told Frank and grabbed his backpack from beside the kitchen door on his way out.
"A week?" Fenton asked Frank.
"Yeah," Frank said. "He's starting to show the effects," he added, remembering Joe's bloodshot eyes.
"Maybe you two should come straight home after school," Fenton suggested. "Try and get Joe take a nap." Frank nodded.
"I'm going to call Dr. Bates and arrange for him to have a physical," Laura said. "It's been almost a year since his last one. Maybe he can give Joe something to help him sleep."
"But will he take anything?" Frank asked, getting up and carrying his dishes to the sink. "You know he hates to even take aspirin."
"He may not have a choice," Laura said sternly.
Frank kissed his mom's cheek, told his parents good bye and picked up his backpack. He walked out to the van and saw Joe sitting behind the steering wheel, his head leaning against the headrest and his eyes squeezed shut tight as if he were in pain. "You okay?" Frank asked, worry wrinkling his brow as he opened the passenger door and climbed inside.
"I'm fine," Joe said, sitting up and starting the van. They drove to school in silence. Joe parked the van and they got out and walked inside.
"Hey guys!" they heard a familiar voice. They turned around and saw blond, beefy, Biff Hooper walking toward them. "Ready for that math exam?" he asked Joe.
"No," Joe said, suddenly dreading first period. "I didn't study much."
"You had plenty of time," Frank said to him. "You knew about this test three days ago."
"Not everyone is perfect like you!" Joe stormed at him. "So what if I flunk this test?" he demanded angrily, not noticing the look of shock on his brother's face or the students who had stopped what they were doing to stare at him. "It'll just be one more time I'm not as good a son as you are," he added before taking off down the hall.
"What was that all about?" Biff asked a stupefied Frank.
Frank shook his head slowly, as if trying to clear it. "I have no idea," he said. "But I'm going to find out," he added and started to go after Joe.
Biff grabbed Frank's arm, the bell ringing to announce first period. "Later, man," he said. "I'll talk to him." Frank frowned but nodded and took off for his first class.
Joe tried answering the questions on the test but everytime he wrote down an answer, he would erase it. Unable to concentrate, he finally marked all the multiple choice B and left the rest blank. He picked up his paper and carried it to his teacher. "I'm through," he said. "Can I be excused to go the restroom?" he asked.
Mrs. Andrews took Joe's paper and nodded her permission. Biff looked at Joe and bit his lip in frustration because he hadn't had a chance to talk to him. Biff looked at Mrs. Andrews as she graded Joe's paper. She started frowning as she marked the wrong ones on the first page. She flipped to the second page and her frown changed to a look of surprise followed by one of anger. She wrote something on his paper and laid it face down on her desk. Biff shook his head in wonder and went back to his own exam, dreading the scene he knew would come when Frank caught up to Joe at lunch.
After first period, Biff looked for Joe but couldn't find him. He had second period with Frank where he told Frank he hadn't been able to talk to Joe. After second period was lunch. Frank and Biff waited in the lunch room for Joe. They saw him pick up his tray and head toward their usual table, but to their surprise and the surprise of their other friends, Joe passed by them and took an empty table in the back of the lunchroom. Frank got up from the table he shared with his friends, and went over to where Joe was now sitting and sat down across from him.
"What's with you?" Frank demanded, a little harshly. He was still hurting from Joe's verbal attack earlier.
"I don't want any company," Joe said, stabbing his lasagna with force.
"Why not?" Frank demanded.
"Get a clue!" Joe said, standing up. "I don't want you around," he added, picking up his tray and starting to move away.
"Oh, no you don't," Frank said, jumping up and grabbing Joe's arm, causing his tray to drop. Joe looked at the mess in the floor, then back to Frank. Before a word could be said, Joe brought back his arm, made a fist and punched Frank so hard, he staggered backward, landing on top of a table filled with lunches behind him.