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: I would like to sincerely apologize for the delay in this! Last Monday I was on a roll having written most of the chapter when my browser crashed, and the writing was gone. Some of you who also write probably understand where I was coming from, but I was so unmotivated to write the whole chapter over again after all the hard work and thought went to waste. Finally I stepped back up to the plate and churned this out. I think in the end it was good because I got to restructure some parts I wasn't too happy with, but it was definitely frustrating. I hope you all enjoy Chapter 10 after such a long wait!

Joe ran into Ryan on his way back to the room.

"Hey, what's up, Joe?"

The blond teen really had no interest in associating with Ryan due to how things stood between him and Nancy, but he decided it would look impolite if he ignored him. He jogged over to where Ryan was, his coat swishing with every arm motion.

"Did you hear about what happened?" Joe inquired of him.

"Dude, how could I not?" Ryan replied. "This is absolutely terrible. How is this gonna affect his track abilities? Everybody loves Phil, or at least respects him."

"Well, I don't think this attack was focused on him," Joe told Ryan. "It seems like the target was Mrs. Hyde. It was her room, after all, and she was supposed to be there before Phil."

Ryan stopped walking and looked at Joe. "I'm not so sure."

Joe returned the gaze inquisitively. "What aren't you sure about? That Mrs. Hyde was the target and Phil wasn't?"

"Remember the chandelier incident?"

"How could I not?" Joe said. "It was the reason we came here."

At this point the two boys had begun walking again and ended up in front of the administration building. "Let's go inside and I'll show you how the chandelier incident played out," Ryan suggested.

Entering the lobby, Ryan pulled Joe to the side, right next to the swimming pool. "This is about where I was, and I was talking to Liam." Then he pointed upwards. "The chandelier made a really loud cracking noise, and started coming down in the middle of the room."

Joe was confused. "But you and Liam were out of the way. So how did it come down and break Liam's legs?"

"Because Liam was the only one who reacted fast enough, ran to the middle of the room, and pushed Phil out of the way."

Joe's mind was overloading with this new information. "So is it possible someone is targeting Phil?" He thought back to his conversation with Mr. Cochran earlier that day. "He did have a test scheduled with Mrs. Hyde. In other words, it wasn't just a drop-in visit. Somebody must have known that he had a makeup test scheduled for around that time. Of course, if that were the case, they would have to understand that they could hit Mrs. Hyde as well."

"Maybe they were okay with that," Ryan pointed out. "I mean, isn't she helping you guys? It could be that they saw the prime opportunity to strike out at either target. It would make the attack a success either way."

Both boys jumped as the door slammed open. "Heads will roll on this one!" Phil Grady, Sr. roared as he hobbled in with his cane. He squinted at the boys, then said, "You're such a good friend Ryan. Good job being there for Phil while he's in the FREAKING HOSPITAL!"

Joe was taken aback at the man's attitude. He thought Nancy had been exaggerating just a tad when she told him about Phil's father.

CRASH! Joe and Ryan both jumped and their friend's father swore loudly at the large bowl that now lay in pieces on the floor. "Great!" he yelled. "Nice to see that they keep the structural integrity of this place strong. No wonder the chandelier came down!"

"Mr. Grady!" All three turned to see Dean King storm through the door. "I will not accept you destroying school property like that!"

"How the hell is the bowl my fault at all!?" Mr. Grady raged.

"We can discuss this in my office." Dean King flashed her Queen glare at the man, who seemed to ignore it, complaining loudly to her all the way up the stairs until Joe and Ryan heard the door to Queen King's office close.

Both teens were silent for a moment. "Wow," Joe finally said. "I'd pay to see a fight between those personalities."

"No, I don't think you'd want to," Ryan answered. "There can be a lot of collateral damage when they lock horns. Just ask Phil once he's back in the swing of things."

"It's nice that Queen King thought to pick up the bowl," Joe observed, pointing to the shards still sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, well, I don't really blame her," Ryan commented, "considering the problem that's sitting in her office right now."

Joe walked over to the bowl, then looked up at where it had come from. "Ryan, that alcove is right next to where the pot that hit Frank was sitting."

"Yeah, it sat in that middle alcove that's empty now," Ryan pointed out.

Joe had an idea pop into his head. "Do you think Queen King is distracted enough so that she won't look at her cameras, if there are any in here?"

"I think you're fine. What are you thinking about?" Ryan asked him.

"I'm going to step on the table and then jump up and try to latch onto one of the alcoves so I can see inside and take a better look," Joe explained.

"Don't fall," Ryan advised as Joe walked over and stood on the small table, testing that it could hold his weight before stepping up.

"Thanks, you're oh so helpful," Joe retorted. He swung his body down and with all his might powered upwards, towards the third alcove. He grabbed the ledge tight with his hands and then pulled himself up onto his elbows, latching himself in place by locking his elbows on the sides of the alcove. He looked around inside. "It looks like there are some issues with the structure." He turned himself slightly and carefully in order to see inside the next alcove.

"Ryan, reach up and grab my phone out of my pocket." The dark-haired teen complied. "Now unlock it; the password is 7823." Joe made a mental note to change it later. "Open up the camera for me. I'm going to reach down slowly and I want you to hand the phone to me once it's set up." The blond slowly pulled one of his arms out, waited for a second as his right arm shook under the pressure of holding his entire body up, then let his left drop to his side. Ryan put the phone in his hand and he pulled it up, quickly snapping a few pics of each alcove. "Now I'm going to hand it back down to you." Joe let his arm drop again with the phone, just in time for the plaster under his right arm to let go and send him tumbling to the floor.

Nancy kept her breathing nice and deep. If she started taking shallow or super large breaths she knew she would be heard by the other occupant of the room. It had been an hour since she had ducked under the bed, but luckily for her, it seemed her "companion" was drifting off to sleep. After a few more minutes, she started the hear snoring, causing her to slowly stick her head out like a turtle coming out of it's shell. Sure enough, Sergio was flopped across the bed, eyes closed with a tad of drool on the corner of his mouth. Removing her boots, Nancy tiptoed across to the door, opening it slowly so as to prevent the clicking of the lock from waking the teen on the bed. Looking both ways before stepping out, Nancy replaced her boots onto her feet and rushed out of the building in the direction of where Joe had been headed.

A small crowd was still present at the science building but it seemed they were in packs discussing the events of the day in hushed whispers. Whatever had happened was clearly over. Looking around at the crowds, she saw Matt and Bryan with a couple friends standing right next to the building.

"Hey Matt! Hey Bryan!" She jogged over to where they were. "What happened here?"

The four boys there looked at her like she had three heads. "You didn't hear?" Bryan said. "Even I heard, and everyone knows I don't know what goes on here on campus."

"I've been a little busy," Nancy countered. "I've been in the girls dorm for awhile, and haven't been out since my detention."

"Whoa, you got a detention? Cool," Matt replied.

"Um, I don't know what word I would use to describe it, but cool would not be one of them," Nancy pointed out. Feeling her phone buzz, she looked down to look at the caller ID. It was Frank. "Excuse me, guys." Pressing the green button, she answered the phone.

"What's going on Frank?"

"Do I have some information for you!" Then he lowered his voice. "Whoops, I forgot Mom was sleeping. Hopefully that didn't wake her up."

"Frank, I'd like that information rather than you talking to yourself," Nancy said lightheartedly.

"Well, this may not have anything to do with the case, but I was doing some research along the teacher path. Like, to see if any of them might have something from the past to motivate them."

"And what did you find?" Nancy inquired.

"Looking back through the newspaper articles online from the papers up in Maine, it seems that the school was hit for discrimination about a decade ago. Turns out that several students were not allowed into the school despite having received higher test scores than others. There wasn't a specific discrimination. Kids of all years, genders, and races were held out. The matter was settled outside of the court system which is why it wasn't nationally publicized."

Nancy happened to notice Mr. Cochran walking back to his building with Mr. Tyler. "And I think I know who was the dean back then, too, considering she seems a little ancient."

"Yep, you got it." Frank paused for a second. "Reading from the article, it says that Suzanne King was thought to be the main source of the problem as the dean of the school."

"Frank, you're awesome. I need to go do a little snooping on this matter but I'll call you when I finish."

"Alright. I've got a doctor's appointment in about 20 minutes so if you get done pretty soon then could you wait until after dinnertime to call?"

Nancy laughed. "Will do. See ya." Ending the conversation, Nancy hurried to the building between the girls dorm and the science building. Walking at a brisk pace, Nancy soon turned into Mr. Cochran's room, where he was sitting at his desk.

"Hey Mr. Cochran."

"Hey, Mrs. Super Spy Private Eye. Like that rhyme there?"

Nancy was caught off guard. "I'm sorry, but I don't follow."

"The dean told the staff about how she brought you and the Hardy Boys in to solve our problem for us. I mean, it makes sense. We all thought she was crazy for not bringing in the police at all. Well, we still think she's crazy, but that's beside the point."

Nancy laughed. "Well then, could you fill me in on what happened?"

After the teacher had told her, she drummed her fingers on his desk. "That's terrible. Poor Phil."

"I feel bad for the kid as a coach. I know how bummed out they can be when they have to miss any time for sports, even when it's just practicing."

"Yeah. Now, on a different matter, I was wondering about my entry exam score."

Mr. Cochran laughed. "I agree, it's a little stupid that you can't mix the junior classes with the senior classes because you should definitely be with the seniors. For history, at least," he added hurriedly.

"So you're saying I got a good enough score to put me in the top tier of history classes?" Nancy inquired.

"Nancy, the scores you had on that part of the exam were pretty good. Now, do I think you'd be at the top of the class, no, I don't think so. But you could've managed the workload and the material well."

Nancy grimaced. "Oh well. Thanks for talking with me."

"Stop back in whenever you desire." Mr. Cochran turned to his filing cabinet as Nancy exited the room.

Nancy made a few different stops. Mr. Tyler and Mrs. Hyde both confirmed her good scores in their respective tests, with Mr. Tyler even pointing out that she would even be one of his top students if she were with the most advanced class. By the end of her trek, it was clear to Nancy that she should not have been placed as a junior. The Queen had forced her to suffer the same fate that those other kids dealt with a decade earlier. The question was, were more kids than just Nancy having the same problem? Was it why Matt couldn't get in until this year?

"Nancy!" Her titian hair flopped around under her hat as she turned her head to see Luna approaching her.

"Girl, we've got a problem. The Queen is about to go all Alice-in-Wonderland with Joe and Ryan. As in, off with their heads."

"What do you mean?" Nancy was confused.

"I don't know the full details, but they ended up somehow breaking the table in the lobby in the administration building," Luna replied. "She has a short temper with Joe, but Ryan? There's word the dean is considering expelling him." (2215, 22,643)

Ooh, lots of new information! Guess what? We only have six more chapters and then this story is DONE! :O I really appreciate all the support you guys have given me. So in return, I'll give you more clues, more mystery, and more suspense. We're just a few chapters away from discovering the culprit (or is it culprits?) behind these incidents, so get your two cents worth in soon in the review section. Also, please favorite and follow to show your amazingly awesome support!