After watching the rehearsal for a few more minutes, Joe turned to walk around the back of the stage behind the curtain to see if Vanessa was back yet. Just then he heard a scream rip through the air followed by a loud crash. He came through the wings onto the stage just in time to see the ladder he had set up laying on the floor having narrowly missed Craig Mann, the lead in the play.

Seeing that Craig had not been hit by the ladder and was just shaken up, he turned around to go and check out the ladder. He knew he had set it up properly; there was no reason why it should have fallen.

Craig had been helped to his feet by Alan Botts, one of the boys on the stage crew. Dusting off his pants, Craig started walking towards Joe's retreating figure and angrily shouted, "Hardy, I know that was you back there with that ladder. Are you that jealous of me getting this part?"

At first Joe was shocked when he heard Craig start to shout at him. Then his anger at the accusation started to build. Just as Craig finished his rant, Joe turned towards him ready to shout back, but was caught totally unprepared by Craig's right hook that sent him crashing to the stage.

Before Joe could react, Craig was on top of him and his fist was swinging towards Joe's face again. Joe used his injured arm to block the blow and wave of pain ran through him.

Just then he heard Vanessa scream, "What is going on? Get off of him! Somebody stop Craig!"

Frank had entered the front of the auditorium just in time to see Craig hit Joe. He sprinted down the aisle and leapt up the steps to the stage. Frank grabbed Craig from behind before he could get off another punch and pulled him off of Joe.

"Someone get Craig out of here until he calms down," Frank said as he dropped to his knees by his brother. "Joe, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said through gritted teeth. "I just hurt my shoulder. I can't believe he came after me!"

Vanessa came over and helped Frank pull Joe gently to his feet. "Tell me what happened," Frank said looking at the two of them.

Vanessa and Joe took turns explaining the events leading up to the fight.

After they had finished the recount of events, Frank said, "Let's take a look at the ladder and see if there is anything we can find."

Frank looked it over thoroughly. Finally he said, "The only thing that I see is that the right hand locking mechanism was not secured. It is possible that the ladder would fall like it did without that support tightened. Who put this ladder up?"

"I did," Joe replied with a frown. "I thought I put both locking mechanisms in place though."

"Joe, it is on the right side of the ladder, the same side as your injured arm. Maybe you didn't press on it hard enough to lock into place. Are you positive it was locked when you set it up?"

"I don't know Frank. I really thought I did it. But I could be wrong," Joe said, starting to get flustered.

Frank replied soothingly, "Joe, its okay. No one got hurt. But, you really shouldn't be doing that kind of work with your shoulder anyway. You need to let it heal so that you're ready for the game."

Vanessa spoke up, "That's my fault Frank. I didn't even think that he shouldn't be doing that."

"Ness, it's not your fault. It's my fault, I probably just screwed it up," he said, involuntarily cradling his arm.

"You're right you screwed up Hardy. You had better watch yourself; coming after me was the wrong move. Not everyone here at this school thinks you can do no wrong," Craig said as he reentered the stage with Alan walking quickly behind him.

Frank noticed that Joe's face was turning red with anger. Before things could get out of hand again, Frank grabbed his good arm and said, "Forget it Joe. Let's get out of here."

As they got down off the stage, Joe said quietly, "I can't believe Craig thinks I would try to hurt him because he got the part and I didn't." He sighed, "Well at least this afternoon wasn't a total waste, while I was watching in the wings, I found my little black notebook," Joe said as he pulled it from his jacket pocket held it up for a second. "I found it in the wings under the curtains. I must have dropped it when I was auditioning."

Vanessa reached out to grab the notebook while saying, "Let me write down my new email address for you. Mom just changed internet service provide-" but she stopped in surprise as Joe jerked the notebook away.

"No!" Joe snapped. When he saw her surprised look, he added, "Sorry Ness, its private that's all."

"Okay," she said, though she thought it was strange that Joe was keeping secrets from her, but she knew she really couldn't say anything about it. She took out a sheet of paper and gave him the email address instead.

Frank finally broke the awkward silence as Joe stuffed the notebook into his jacket pocket, "I'm glad you found it Joe. Anything to keep you organized. We all know that you need all of the help you can get," Frank said with a smile. "Come on, let's go home and I'll get you some more ice for your shoulder. Practice wasn't nearly as good without you there." Frank grabbed Joe's bag as Joe said good-bye to Vanessa and they left for the van.

Joe was unusually quiet on the way home. He was lost in thought about the accident. He really hated to make mistakes, but he was human. What made it so much worse was Craig's attitude.

Frank kept glancing over at his brother. He hated when Joe was so withdrawn and it wasn't like him to speak like that to Vanessa. It just made Frank worry all the more. He had to break the silence, it was driving him crazy. "Joe, mistakes happen. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"I thought I took care of it Frank. But I guess I was wrong. Things are just not working out for me this fall. I feel like I should just crawl into bed and sleep until Christmas break."

"Joe, it's not that bad. Come on. Do you want to go and grab a pizza? I'll buy, just like I promised," Frank said. He was sure Joe could be cheered up with good trip to Mr. Pizza.

"No, I don't want to go. I'm tired and my shoulder hurts. Just take me home please," he said and then returned to looking out the window.

They drove in silence the rest of the way. When they finally got home, Joe went straight to his room and went to sleep. Frank tried unsuccessfully to wake him up enough for dinner.

When Frank came down by himself for dinner, Laura asked, "Where's your brother? Is he okay?"

"He's in his bed. He woke up enough to tell me he wasn't hungry and then went back to sleep," Frank said.

Frank decided he would just have to talk to Joe in the morning. It was unlike Joe to be in a slump and he was resolved to get him out of it.