"Joe!" Bailey screamed, lunging for him but missing as Joe's body went over the edge. Joe reached out as he fell, his hand latching onto the guttering. It jerked and made a creaking noise but held fast. Joe reached up with his other hand and took hold of the gutter. There was a loud squeak and the aluminum began to fall.
Bailey grabbed onto Joe's wrists as the guttering gave way. "Hang on," Bailey said, grunting with the effort of holding the boy's weight while trying to maintain his own balance.
Joe's wrists were becoming slick and Bailey was having a difficult time holding onto the lad. He flattened himself on the roof and tried to pull Joe up, but instead he started sliding forward.
"Let me go," Joe told him. "It isn't all that far to the ground," he added bravely, not wanting them both to be pulled over.
"Not a chance," grunted Bailey. "Even if you didn't break something, you might land on the old shingles and the nails in them are long and rusty enough to cause major damage."
"Hang on!" shouted Vanessa from below. The girls had heard a loud noise from outside and gone to see what had caused it. What they had found was the guttering lying on the ground and Joe and Bailey about to fall off the roof!
Franc and Vanessa came over as fast as they could and pulled the ladder down closer to Joe. Bailey released Joe's left wrist and Joe reached for the ladder and took hold; putting his left foot firmly on one of the rungs before Bailey released his other wrist. Joe qucikly descended and Vanessa gave him a relieved hug as Bailey also made his way to the ground.
Franc hugged her father as Joe turned to him. "Thanks," Joe said gratefully.
"You need to be more careful, son," Bailey replied, smiling at the youth.
"Everybody tells him that," Vanessa informed him, grinning at Joe.
"Oh?" Franc asked, concerned. "You don't strike me as a klutz."
"He's not," Vanessa clarified. "Joe just seems to always get involved in something where he could, and lots of times, does, get hurt."
Bailey frowned and cast a glance at his daughter. "I'm not sure you're the kind of..." he began, speaking to Joe.
"Oh, no! It's not like that," Vanessa quickly assured him. "Joe's one of the good guys. If someone is in trouble, he'll help them out even if it means getting hurt in the process. He's just that kind of guy," she ended.
"A hero?" Bailey asked, impressed but faintly amused at the idea.
Joe blushed and shook his head. "No," he replied at the same time as Vanessa.
"Exactly!" she declared, drowning out Joe's humble reply. "As a matter of fact, we met when someone slashed my tires."
"What? Who would do such a thing?" Franc demanded.
"This guy had it in for my mom and was trying to get at her through me," Vanessa explained. "But Joe kept coming to my rescue. He even cleared my mom of the charges against her and got the guy responsible," she added, squeezing Joe's hand and giving him a peck on the cheek.
"Kind of like Batman?" Franc asked, her eyes sparkling.
"More like Robin," Joe admitted. "Frank, my brother, would be Batman."
"You and your brother help people out a lot?" Bailey inquired.
"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Vanessa with a proud laugh. "The Hardy Boys are known all over Bayport for their investigative abilities," she bragged.
"You wouldn't by any chance be related to Fenton Hardy, would you?" Bailey asked, just now getting the connection.
"He's my father," Joe admitted.
"Well, now, this is interesting. I'm an admirer of your father's. So you and your brother are following in his footsteps?" Bailey inquired.
"We're giving it our best shot," Joe confirmed.
"I would love to hear about some of your exploits," Franc said.
"Joe's too modest," Vanessa told her. "But I'm not. I'll tell you," she added, taking Franc's arm and going back inside the house, already talking animatedly about her boyfriend.
Bailey looked at Joe's flushed face and slapped him on the back. "A girlfriend who does your bragging for you," he stated in amazement. "You are one lucky fellow."
"She's special," Joe agreed and followed Bailey back up the ladder.
Frank walked in the kitchen door and set his backpack by the first cabinet before walking into the living room. "Hi," he said, seeing both his parents relaxing in front of the television, a rerun of an episode of the series Breaking Away playing. "Joe's going to be late."
"We know," Mr. Hardy replied, looking up at his eldest son. "He and Vanessa are having dinner with Franc and her dad."
"He's spending a lot of time with Francessca to just have met her," Frank observed, a worried frown on his face.
"I dare say Joe and Vanessa are relieved to have a new friend their own age," Mrs. Hardy said, looking at Frank. "Most of their friends are seniors," she said.
"You have a point," Frank admitted. "We kind of got carried away at lunch talking about our plans for after we graduate and Joe, Vanessa, and Francessca were gone before we knew it."
"Maybe you could plan something with Joe," Mr. Hardy suggested, knowing they hadn't completely resolved the quarrel they had the previous evening. "A little weekend hike or something before school is out?"
"I'll do that," Frank agreed, thinking maybe he could get Joe to not treat him so impersonally. This politeness thing was starting to get to him.
When Joe got home it was going on ten o'clock. He greeted his parents, told them about Mr. Wyndham and asked if it would be all right if he spent tomorrow evening with Vanessa and the Wyndhams as well. Receiving permission, Joe gave each of his parents a hug then went upstairs to his room.
Frank heard Joe enter his room and drop his backpack on the floor. Less than two minutes later, he heard the shower start-up. Frank spent the next twenty-five minutes online, giving Joe time to shower and change before he logged off and went through the connecting bathroom into Joe's room.
Frank had been all prepared to convince Joe into going hiking with him this weekend. He had prepared an argument to cover anything Joe could think up, believing Joe was still mad at him because of the coolness of his attitude. What he had not been prepared for was finding his little brother passed out on the bed, his pajama pants on, the shirt in his hand and his legs hanging off the bed.
Frank wondered what Joe had been doing that would make him this exhausted. He intended to find out but had to think of a way to do so without letting Joe know. He still wanted Joe to be more cautious and if Joe had an inkling that he was checking up on him, Frank doubted Joe would try to be.
Frank lifted Joe's legs onto the bed then went to the linen closet down the hall and took out a quilt. He returned to Joe's room, covered him up, then turned off the light and went back to his own room. Switching off the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed, he decided to tackle Joe first thing in the morning about the hiking trip. Soon, Frank was asleep as well.
Early the next morning, Frank leapt from the bed, showered, brushed his teeth and got ready for school. At fifteen minutes till seven, five minutes earlier than Joe normally awoke, Frank entered Joe's room. His smile fell as he saw his brother's neatly made bed, the quilt he had covered Joe with the night before had been folded and lay at the foot. There was no sign Joe had even been there. Even his backpack was missing.
Frank ran down the steps and into the kitchen. "Where's Joe?" he asked, expecting him to be having breakfast but disappointed when he wasn't.
"Mr. Wyndham picked Joe up," Mrs. Hardy informed him. "He said he was going to treat Joe and Vanessa to breakfast this morning since he had to leave town on business this afternoon."
"Why is he treating them anyway?" Frank demanded, jealous of the time Joe was spending with him, although he wouldn't admit it even to himself. "Wasn't dinner last night enough?"
"Joe and Vanessa are helping them restore their house," Mr. Hardy informed him. Mr. Hardy sat at the breakfast table, a plate of half-eaten pancakes before him.
"Shouldn't they get contractors for that?" queried Frank.
"Joe said Bailey had called contractors but they aren't able to start until sometime next month," Mrs. Hardy answered. "In the meantime, Joe and Vanessa are helping them make the place livable."
"Why so concerned?" Mr. Hardy asked, giving Frank a thoughtful look.
"I went to ask Joe about the hiking trip last night but he was passed out. So I went to wake him up this morning but..." he let the sentence go with a shrug.
"Ask him when you get to school," Mrs. Hardy suggested, gently pushing her son into a chair and placing a stack of pancakes before him. "He'll be spending the afternoon with Vanessa and Franc."
"I will," agreed Frank. Somehow, this didn't seem right. He was supposed to be leaving Joe, not the other way around. Why did he feel so lonely all of the sudden?
When Frank arrived at school he saw Vanessa's Explorer already in the lot. He jumped out of the van, locked it, then went inside. "Hey!" Frank shouted, seeing Chet and Biff talking by a set of lockers. The two boys turned and Chet waved Frank over. "Have you seen Joe?" Frank asked.
"Blond hair, blue eyes, about yay tall?" Chet teased, holding his hand up to the top of his head. "Yep, lots of times."
"This morning," Frank clarified, not finding Chet's attempt at levity very humorous this morning.
"Sure, he was with that new girl outside when I got here," Biff answered. "I can't believe Vanessa isn't jealous."
"That's because she is usually with them," Frank replied. "I wonder if he could already be in home room?" he added, thinking aloud as he started down the hall.
Biff and Chet exchanged a knowing look and joined him. "What's wrong?" Chet demanded.
"Joe and I got into an argument and he's mad at me," Frank admitted.
"Last night?" Biff asked.
Frank shook his head. "The night before."
"He didn't seem mad at lunch yesterday," Chet commented.
"No, he seemed distant," Frank conceded. "Which amounts to the same thing."
"Hey! There he is," Biff broke in, pointing down the hall where Joe seemed to be arguing with Aaron Dopleson, a beefy senior and heavy-weight on the Bayport High wrestling team.
Frank stopped, putting restraining hands on the arms of his two friends as they made to go and help. "Joe's in trouble," Chet said, mystified at Frank's reaction.
"Joe has to learn to handle these things on his own," Frank declared, biting his lip as Aaron shoved Joe back into a stack of lockers.
Bailey grabbed onto Joe's wrists as the guttering gave way. "Hang on," Bailey said, grunting with the effort of holding the boy's weight while trying to maintain his own balance.
Joe's wrists were becoming slick and Bailey was having a difficult time holding onto the lad. He flattened himself on the roof and tried to pull Joe up, but instead he started sliding forward.
"Let me go," Joe told him. "It isn't all that far to the ground," he added bravely, not wanting them both to be pulled over.
"Not a chance," grunted Bailey. "Even if you didn't break something, you might land on the old shingles and the nails in them are long and rusty enough to cause major damage."
"Hang on!" shouted Vanessa from below. The girls had heard a loud noise from outside and gone to see what had caused it. What they had found was the guttering lying on the ground and Joe and Bailey about to fall off the roof!
Franc and Vanessa came over as fast as they could and pulled the ladder down closer to Joe. Bailey released Joe's left wrist and Joe reached for the ladder and took hold; putting his left foot firmly on one of the rungs before Bailey released his other wrist. Joe qucikly descended and Vanessa gave him a relieved hug as Bailey also made his way to the ground.
Franc hugged her father as Joe turned to him. "Thanks," Joe said gratefully.
"You need to be more careful, son," Bailey replied, smiling at the youth.
"Everybody tells him that," Vanessa informed him, grinning at Joe.
"Oh?" Franc asked, concerned. "You don't strike me as a klutz."
"He's not," Vanessa clarified. "Joe just seems to always get involved in something where he could, and lots of times, does, get hurt."
Bailey frowned and cast a glance at his daughter. "I'm not sure you're the kind of..." he began, speaking to Joe.
"Oh, no! It's not like that," Vanessa quickly assured him. "Joe's one of the good guys. If someone is in trouble, he'll help them out even if it means getting hurt in the process. He's just that kind of guy," she ended.
"A hero?" Bailey asked, impressed but faintly amused at the idea.
Joe blushed and shook his head. "No," he replied at the same time as Vanessa.
"Exactly!" she declared, drowning out Joe's humble reply. "As a matter of fact, we met when someone slashed my tires."
"What? Who would do such a thing?" Franc demanded.
"This guy had it in for my mom and was trying to get at her through me," Vanessa explained. "But Joe kept coming to my rescue. He even cleared my mom of the charges against her and got the guy responsible," she added, squeezing Joe's hand and giving him a peck on the cheek.
"Kind of like Batman?" Franc asked, her eyes sparkling.
"More like Robin," Joe admitted. "Frank, my brother, would be Batman."
"You and your brother help people out a lot?" Bailey inquired.
"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Vanessa with a proud laugh. "The Hardy Boys are known all over Bayport for their investigative abilities," she bragged.
"You wouldn't by any chance be related to Fenton Hardy, would you?" Bailey asked, just now getting the connection.
"He's my father," Joe admitted.
"Well, now, this is interesting. I'm an admirer of your father's. So you and your brother are following in his footsteps?" Bailey inquired.
"We're giving it our best shot," Joe confirmed.
"I would love to hear about some of your exploits," Franc said.
"Joe's too modest," Vanessa told her. "But I'm not. I'll tell you," she added, taking Franc's arm and going back inside the house, already talking animatedly about her boyfriend.
Bailey looked at Joe's flushed face and slapped him on the back. "A girlfriend who does your bragging for you," he stated in amazement. "You are one lucky fellow."
"She's special," Joe agreed and followed Bailey back up the ladder.
Frank walked in the kitchen door and set his backpack by the first cabinet before walking into the living room. "Hi," he said, seeing both his parents relaxing in front of the television, a rerun of an episode of the series Breaking Away playing. "Joe's going to be late."
"We know," Mr. Hardy replied, looking up at his eldest son. "He and Vanessa are having dinner with Franc and her dad."
"He's spending a lot of time with Francessca to just have met her," Frank observed, a worried frown on his face.
"I dare say Joe and Vanessa are relieved to have a new friend their own age," Mrs. Hardy said, looking at Frank. "Most of their friends are seniors," she said.
"You have a point," Frank admitted. "We kind of got carried away at lunch talking about our plans for after we graduate and Joe, Vanessa, and Francessca were gone before we knew it."
"Maybe you could plan something with Joe," Mr. Hardy suggested, knowing they hadn't completely resolved the quarrel they had the previous evening. "A little weekend hike or something before school is out?"
"I'll do that," Frank agreed, thinking maybe he could get Joe to not treat him so impersonally. This politeness thing was starting to get to him.
When Joe got home it was going on ten o'clock. He greeted his parents, told them about Mr. Wyndham and asked if it would be all right if he spent tomorrow evening with Vanessa and the Wyndhams as well. Receiving permission, Joe gave each of his parents a hug then went upstairs to his room.
Frank heard Joe enter his room and drop his backpack on the floor. Less than two minutes later, he heard the shower start-up. Frank spent the next twenty-five minutes online, giving Joe time to shower and change before he logged off and went through the connecting bathroom into Joe's room.
Frank had been all prepared to convince Joe into going hiking with him this weekend. He had prepared an argument to cover anything Joe could think up, believing Joe was still mad at him because of the coolness of his attitude. What he had not been prepared for was finding his little brother passed out on the bed, his pajama pants on, the shirt in his hand and his legs hanging off the bed.
Frank wondered what Joe had been doing that would make him this exhausted. He intended to find out but had to think of a way to do so without letting Joe know. He still wanted Joe to be more cautious and if Joe had an inkling that he was checking up on him, Frank doubted Joe would try to be.
Frank lifted Joe's legs onto the bed then went to the linen closet down the hall and took out a quilt. He returned to Joe's room, covered him up, then turned off the light and went back to his own room. Switching off the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed, he decided to tackle Joe first thing in the morning about the hiking trip. Soon, Frank was asleep as well.
Early the next morning, Frank leapt from the bed, showered, brushed his teeth and got ready for school. At fifteen minutes till seven, five minutes earlier than Joe normally awoke, Frank entered Joe's room. His smile fell as he saw his brother's neatly made bed, the quilt he had covered Joe with the night before had been folded and lay at the foot. There was no sign Joe had even been there. Even his backpack was missing.
Frank ran down the steps and into the kitchen. "Where's Joe?" he asked, expecting him to be having breakfast but disappointed when he wasn't.
"Mr. Wyndham picked Joe up," Mrs. Hardy informed him. "He said he was going to treat Joe and Vanessa to breakfast this morning since he had to leave town on business this afternoon."
"Why is he treating them anyway?" Frank demanded, jealous of the time Joe was spending with him, although he wouldn't admit it even to himself. "Wasn't dinner last night enough?"
"Joe and Vanessa are helping them restore their house," Mr. Hardy informed him. Mr. Hardy sat at the breakfast table, a plate of half-eaten pancakes before him.
"Shouldn't they get contractors for that?" queried Frank.
"Joe said Bailey had called contractors but they aren't able to start until sometime next month," Mrs. Hardy answered. "In the meantime, Joe and Vanessa are helping them make the place livable."
"Why so concerned?" Mr. Hardy asked, giving Frank a thoughtful look.
"I went to ask Joe about the hiking trip last night but he was passed out. So I went to wake him up this morning but..." he let the sentence go with a shrug.
"Ask him when you get to school," Mrs. Hardy suggested, gently pushing her son into a chair and placing a stack of pancakes before him. "He'll be spending the afternoon with Vanessa and Franc."
"I will," agreed Frank. Somehow, this didn't seem right. He was supposed to be leaving Joe, not the other way around. Why did he feel so lonely all of the sudden?
When Frank arrived at school he saw Vanessa's Explorer already in the lot. He jumped out of the van, locked it, then went inside. "Hey!" Frank shouted, seeing Chet and Biff talking by a set of lockers. The two boys turned and Chet waved Frank over. "Have you seen Joe?" Frank asked.
"Blond hair, blue eyes, about yay tall?" Chet teased, holding his hand up to the top of his head. "Yep, lots of times."
"This morning," Frank clarified, not finding Chet's attempt at levity very humorous this morning.
"Sure, he was with that new girl outside when I got here," Biff answered. "I can't believe Vanessa isn't jealous."
"That's because she is usually with them," Frank replied. "I wonder if he could already be in home room?" he added, thinking aloud as he started down the hall.
Biff and Chet exchanged a knowing look and joined him. "What's wrong?" Chet demanded.
"Joe and I got into an argument and he's mad at me," Frank admitted.
"Last night?" Biff asked.
Frank shook his head. "The night before."
"He didn't seem mad at lunch yesterday," Chet commented.
"No, he seemed distant," Frank conceded. "Which amounts to the same thing."
"Hey! There he is," Biff broke in, pointing down the hall where Joe seemed to be arguing with Aaron Dopleson, a beefy senior and heavy-weight on the Bayport High wrestling team.
Frank stopped, putting restraining hands on the arms of his two friends as they made to go and help. "Joe's in trouble," Chet said, mystified at Frank's reaction.
"Joe has to learn to handle these things on his own," Frank declared, biting his lip as Aaron shoved Joe back into a stack of lockers.