Chapter 8
"Joe, we're going to be late if you don't wake up now. I'm serious, Joe," Frank said, that next morning, a dark blue towel wrapped around his waist. He rapped his knuckles once again at Joe's door from the bathroom, which connected the boys' rooms.
Joe stirred, buried his face in his pillow then asked in a muffled voice, "What's the time?"
"8:05, bro, so you better get up. We still have 15 minutes to get to school." He paused then said, "I guess I also overslept," he said, annoyed.
Joe got up from his bed slowly, yawned and said, "Well, there's a first time in everything."
"Yeah, right. Now take your shower fast," Frank said before turning to his room and closed the door.
***
"You think we can still make it if you drive?" Joe asked as they went out the door. "No, I don't think so," he said, answering his own question. "Keys, Frank."
"Who said you're driving?" Frank asked, but gave the keys to the black van he and his brother shared and have used in many of their cases.
Joe shrugged, "I did. Who's the faster driver of us, anyway?"
Frank just muttered, "Fine", under his breath then went to the passenger seat of the van. "Just make sure you can get us there in..", he checked his watched then continued, ".. 4 minutes, without getting us in an accident, okay?"
"Sure thing," Joe responded then turned their van out of their driveway fast, almost blowing Mrs. Hardy's planted flowers with the van.
***
"You got here in 3 minutes?!" Vanessa asked Joe in disbelief while Joe was in his locker that morning.
"Yeah. Now where's that book?!" Joe asked, panicky.
"What are you looking for..?" Vanessa asked but was cut off by Joe's reply.
"Chemistry.. there it is!" he said triumphantly but right after he pulled his book out, there was an explosion.
And Joe Hardy was thrown backward, unconscious.
***
"Joe?"
Joe stirred and opened his eyes slowly but shut it again abruptly, blinded by some light. "Who're you? Where am I?" he asked, his voice slurred.
"Did he regain consciousness now?" He heard a different voice now, an older one.
"Yeah. He even tried to open his eyes but.." a third, male voice replied.
Then Joe felt like it darkened.
"I closed the lights for a while," the same elderly voice said. "Frank, open the curtains, please."
Joe finally opened his eyes. The first person he saw was Vanessa. He asked, "Am I in heaven now? I'm seeing an angel."
He saw Vanessa smile and heard his brother snort in his reply. He looked around his surroundings slowly, trying to ignore the dizziness, and after seeing the white walls and cabinets around him, he realized that he was in the school clinic.
"I think he's fine now, Mrs. Dawson," Frank said to the school nurse. "He's starting to joke now."
"Typical little Hardy, I guess," Mrs. Dawson said, smiling.
"No, no. I'm not yet fine. My head hurts, Mrs. Dawson," Joe pleaded to the school nurse he has known for years.
"If it wasn't for the explosion in your locker Joe, I wouldn't have believed you. That's always your excuse just to miss class," Mrs. Dawson said, while she moved closer to Joe and checked the bruise on his forehead, then the lump at the back of his head.
"I think you can miss class for today and stay here for a while, Joe. You're not fine enough to take classes yet so I'll let you go home later. Mr. S wants to talk to you though," she continued.
Joe cast a look on Frank and Vanessa, his eyes asking, What could it be about?
Mrs. Dawson saw that look then said, "I'll leave you for a while and when I come back, Ms. Bender should go back to class. Same goes for Frank." When she saw Frank hesitate, she added, "Mrs. Carmen said that the school bus will take your brother home." Frank just nodded and Mrs. Dawson left.
Eyes closed, Joe asked, "What happened? All I remember is, uh, I'm by the lockers? With Vanessa right?" He opened his eyes and saw Vanessa take the seat beside him.
"Mm-hmm," Vanessa said, taking Joe right hand in both of her hands. "Then you pulled out your chemistry book and there was an explosion, knocking you out. You hit your head on the lockers and you fell to the floor. That hurts doesn't it?" she asked sympathetically.
"Yeah.." Joe closed his eyes again. "What caused the explosion anyway?"
"That we don't know exactly yet, but there were traces of powder found near your things. Familiar?" Frank asked.
"Yeah..."
"So I think when you pulled your Chem book, it triggered or pulled something, causing the explosion, which could be.." Frank said which was continued by Joe.
".. a prank. So now, Mr. S wants to talk to me. I'm pretty sure he's having doubts whether it really is a prank or just a plan of mine that went wrong," Joe said, annoyed. Mr. Schneid was the principal of Bayport High.
"Uh-uh. I don't think so. He's silly if he thinks that way. If you planned that, then you should have planted the powder by yourself in your locker, but why would you do that, knowing you'll get hurt? You're just unfortunate to be the victim of a prank," Vanessa said.
"But if it really is a prank, what is this?" Frank asked then pulled a small, plastic bag out of his backpack on the chair. It looked like a small sandwich bag, only thicker. Inside was a folded paper. "I saw this inside your locker, if that's what you still call it after what happened. It's taped on the bottom, lucky that it didn't blow off."
Joe tried to get up, but Vanessa pulled him back down, got two pillows from the other bed and put it behind Joe's head.
Then there was a knock at the door and they saw Callie poke her head inside. "There you are!" she said and went near them.
"Lunch time already,' she told them and kissed Frank in the cheek. "I was at Physics already when someone told me what happened. You okay, Joe?"
"Still hurts, especially my head. It's getting better, slowly though," Joe responded.
"There were traces of powder, the kind you see inside mild explosives, in Joe's things after the explosion, and this was taped in the bottom of his locker," Frank briefed to Callie. "I haven't read what's inside yet. Maybe there's a pair of gloves here or something?"
Callie and Vanessa gave each other a look right after he said that. They both knew that simple things like this usually lead their boyfriends to a case.
Frank saw a pair inside the drawer at the foot of Joe's bed. He wore them, at the same time muttering "I hope Mrs. Dawson doesn't mind," and took the paper inside. He read it then gave the others a confused look and said, "It's… weird."
Joe tried to get up again to see the paper closely but Vanessa pulled him down while saying, "Take it easy, hon."
Frank showed the paper to them. When Vanessa saw it, she saw that the paper, its texture and light shade color, looked familiar. She saw a red leaf design at the lower-right hand of the paper and thought, That doesn't look familiar to me, though.
Callie looked at the paper closer and read what was inside, "Born, torn, sorrow, bare."
