I have caught up! Yes!
Guess what? I still don't own the Hardy Boys!
Enjoy!

~Frank

"Find anything new in your translations?" Joe asked me after failing to sneak into my room unnoticed.

"Not much. Kate apparently didn't like being popular, so she was very happy when she fell out of that group. Too much pressure and all. Ron and Troy are… I guess the only way to describe them is 'pure nerds.'"

"Never thought I would hear you insult the nerd community, O Powerful Nerd King."

"You're asking for a pillow right in the kisser, Joe."

"Yeah, I figured." He sighed as he flopped down on my bed, messing up the sheets that I had already fixed less than twenty minutes ago. "Have you talked to Dad at all?"

"Not since Sunday."

"Same here. He decided that he should probably avoid me since I stuck up for you." Joe sighed. "Maybe this is the start of a great family tradition. We try to talk to him every Sunday, and he ignores us the rest of the week."

"You shouldn't have dragged yourself into my problems, Joe."

"Sorry Frank. It's in the contract."

"Contract?"

"The one that brothers have. An unwritten one, if you want to call it anything. Your problems are my problems, and mine are yours."

"But you are my problem."

"And it would be a problem for me to try to change my lovable ways."

"Lovable? Pssh." I wheeled my chair over to the bed and grabbed the pillow.

"Oh, come on! How come you get the pillow?" Joe yelled as I began to smack him in the head with it.

"My room, my pillow." I managed to chase him out a few minutes later, before going back to my computer and exiting out of the emails. I decided I'd read Stacy's stuff during my study hall later.

As for now, I had to remake my bed and go after my brother for messing it up in the first place.

-----------

"So, has Phil decided to screw public opinion?" Joe asked as we walked from the art room after lunch.

"Yeah. Not that the public cares too much anymore. They're all freaked out by the Secret Killer." The signature from the cards somehow found a way to be known by the one kid, who did the chain reaction thing our school is so fond of, so now everyone refers to Greg's murderer as the "Secret Killer."

"Well, Greg is kinda… you know…"

"Yeah." I sighed. "Wish I had a solid clue, though."

"We have a list of six suspects, which narrows it a whole lot from just about everyone attending this school. That is some progress, if you ask me." Joe looked thoughtful for a second, before adding, "And I think it might be safe to take Kate off the list. She wouldn't be stupid enough to add herself to the target list when you started investigating. It's like saying 'See, I'm definitely not the killer because I got a threat too!'"

"She does seem unlikely, considering her councilor did not a more cheerful appearance since she came to terms with her real interests."

"So we have five. Did you look at Stacy's stuff yet?"

"I'm going to. I got study hall, but the computer lab should be open."

"Cool. I got gym, so I guess I'll meet you at your locker after school, okay?"

"Got it, bro."

To my luck, the whole lab was empty except for the teacher. She was reading some pop magazine, so I didn't have to worry about her trying to read my stuff.

I only had to scan through Stacy's info quickly before some of the pieces started falling in place. I opened another attachment that Phil managed to get, which turned out to be the psychologists report. Whether or not I should have been reading this didn't matter. All the information was there. It connected all of the targets. It explained so much…

I checked back on the other targets' info, and picked out all of the information I needed. It was an insane plot, but at the same time it was brilliant…

I exited out of the email, and typed Joe a quick run down with only a few letters. Something told me that they knew. They knew what was going on. They were gonna come after me next.

Hope you can decipher this, Joe. After writing all I did know with very few letters, I clicked "Send."

A second later, a cloth with chloroform was placed over my mouth. Two other strong hands held me down as I tried to struggle. I blackened out, with one last thought in mind.

Hypnotism…

--------------------

~Joe

"Joe, this is bad!" Ivy practically screamed at me, running up from the theater. It was just before eighth period, right before I was suppose to see my brother and find out any new information.

"Do I really want to know?"

"You know the prop guns that we had?"

"You mean the ones that had real bullets that the teacher was freakin' out about?"

She nodded. "Someone cleaned them this morning for a scene, and got all this red stuff from it."

"Fake blood?"

"We hadn't used the guns till today, so Mr. Robins sent it down to the station to see if the gun was legal or not."

"And?" My stomach had knotted up, waiting for the answer.

"It's Greg's blood. Someone used the prop gun, put in real bullets, and..." She leaned against the wall. "I don't know what else to think. Is it our fault-"

"Ivy, no. Someone just happened to be a bit insane and actually use it for a dangerous purpose," I said, trying to calm her. "They would have probably found some other way to kill Greg. Okay?"

"I know… It's just all so unreal…"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure…"

"Find out who knew where the guns were stored, and who could access them. And try to make sure that there are blanks in the gun at all times."

"Are you saying that someone's switching the blanks with real bullets during school hours?"

"Really, I'm guessing. But it still would be a good idea."

"Okay, Joe." She tried to compose herself in front of my eyes, but I could still see the corners of her eyes red from crying. "I'll try to talk to Mr. Robins about this."

"And I'll tell Frank." We parted ways, as I headed off to Frank's last class of the day.

I had to tell this to Frank now. This just upped the game to a whole other level.

"Ms. Shell, can I talk to Frank?" I asked, poking my head into the room.

"He hasn't shown up yet, sweetie. It fact…" She checked the online attendance thing the school had set up (who knows why). "He didn't show up for his seventh period class either."

Not good. Frank would never do that unless…

Unless he was kidnapped too.

It was bound to come... *waves bye to Frank*