HDA - Classified Secrets by Cherylann Rivers Introduction

"You did WHAT?" Frank Hardy asked his girlfriend the next day, as they were sitting on the couch in her living room, watching television. He couldn’t believe what Callie had just told him, and he had to ask her again to make sure that he’d heard her correctly.

"I told her to answer this personals ad. Come on, Frank. Have a sense of humor here! It’s not like she’ll get picked or anything, but you have to admit it’s a good way for her to keep her mind off Joe."

Frank shook his head in disbelief. "Callie, that’s crazy! That sort of idea is wild, irresponsible, impulsive and something I’d only expect from…. well, Joe, I guess!"

Callie began to get annoyed, and pulled herself away from Frank, with whom, until just a minute ago, she had been very nicely cuddling. Turning around, she met Frank’s eyes with a steady glance and tried to control her temper. "First of all, do NOT compare me to your brother. Despite your tendency to insist that we have the same personality, you continue to be wrong. Second, I’m looking out for Vanessa here. While your brother takes his sweet old time deciding which girl he wants to be with, some of us- namely, Iola and Vanessa- are just sitting around. Personally, I wouldn’t let someone make the choice for me."

Frank, exasperated, said, "No, I’m sure you wouldn’t."

"What’s that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing. Look, do we have to talk about Joe right now?"

"You brought it up."

"No, actually, YOU did."

"Must you always have the last word?"

"ME?" Frank asked. "I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the last word."

"See? There you go!"

Frank flopped on the ground and laid out his arms in a fake posture of death. He adored Callie, he really did, but his arguments with her were exactly like his arguments with Joe. They both out-talked him, twisted his words, and always had to be right. No wonder everybody thought he was so soft-spoken. He had no choice- he had been silenced for years! Sometimes it was like he was dating his brother. That thought made him smile.

"Is there something funny, Frank Hardy?" The sound of Callie’s voice brought him back to reality, and he sat up. Smiling, he thought silently, well, if you can’t beat’em, join ‘em!

"Yes, baby. It’s funny how I didn’t see the light when you were talking earlier. It’s funny how I could have thought to argue with you. And you know what’s the most funny?"

Callie couldn’t tell if Frank was being sarcastic or not. "No. What?"

"It’s funny how much I love you!" With that he grabbed Callie, hugged her tightly, and started giving her tiny, quick kisses on her neck until she started laughing.

"That tickles!" she gasped. "Stop! Stop! I give up!"

With that Frank Hardy gave her one big, loud kiss on the top of her head. MWAH! "Forgive me?"

Callie shook her head and laughed. "Yeah, yeah. I guess I’m partially to blame, too."

Frank had to admit that the one difference between Callie and Joe was that at least Callie occasionally apologized.

"So.. you want to see the ad?"

Frank had to laugh. Callie, God love her, never let go of an idea once she had one. Obviously, she wanted him to see this. "Sure."

"I’ll be right back. Hold on."

A minute or so later, Callie returned to the living room and showed Frank several of the Classifieds. Frank shot her an odd look when he noticed that Callie had them all circled in red. "Any reason you’re looking for guys?" Frank asked her, only half-joking.

Callie rolled her eyes. She proceeded to tell Frank the same story that she had told Vanessa. As Frank looked at the ads, something didn’t strike him as quite right.

"Hey, Cal? These are a little odd, don’t you think? Why all the weird numbers and dates? I mean, aren’t most of these things more straightforward?"

"Frank!" Callie responded. "Stop looking for a mystery where there is none." She suddenly paused as something hit her. She eyed her boyfriend suspiciously. "And how, exactly, would you know what a normal personal ad looked like?"

Frank sighed inwardly and ignored the question. "Seriously. This is weird. I mean, the guy takes out ads all over the country? And.."

"Shhh!" Callie interrupted, placing a finger to her lips. "I’ll let you solve the case of the Perilous Personals if Vanessa gets chosen, okay? WHICH she won’t."

Frank gave in. "All right, you win!" With that, he wrapped his arms around Callie and was about to kiss her when he heard a report coming from the news that caught his attention. Callie found herself looking at Frank’s shoulder instead of his lips as he looked over her head at the screen.

"In yet another incident of an increasing health crisis, what is now being called the "High School Horror" continues to claim more victims. This time, an outbreak of Meningitis has struck locally, and is beginning to call attention to itself as a serious national emergency. Elmwood High School, in Upstate New York, is the latest in a series of high schools to be shut down. Already, three teens have died from the Meningitis outbreak there, and officials are in a state of panic. National government officials are being called to investigate, as well as state government and agencies. So far, the only missing connection to this case is the appearance of the "shoe" cutout that has been sent to all schools involved. If the pattern continues as it has been, that should be coming to the school in a day or so. This national crisis has already claimed the lives of more than 10 teens throughout the nation, with more in serious to critical condition. In other news…."

Frank shook his head. Elmwood High School! That was only about a three- hour drive from Bayport. By now, Callie was engrossed in this as well.

"And finally," the newscaster continued, "On the international front, there has been another serious bombing this morning in Ireland at the famous Chapel of Saint Patrick in Dublin. This marks the ninth consecutive major bombing incident in Europe, all of which seem to be connected to some sort of terrorist group. Fifty people were killed or injured in this incident. Although most major details are being kept classified for now, we do know that this group has sent forth a message, stating, "Praemonitus praemunitus,/ Sic semper tyrannis Ad corda." Loosely translated, this means "Be forewarned and forearmed; thus always to tyrants. To the heart." The cryptic nature of the message is unknown."

"Frank? What’s wrong?" Callie looked up at Frank’s handsome face, which was now furrowed in concern.

"That bombing case. My dad is working on that! Just yesterday he was telling us…" Suddenly Frank stopped. Although he trusted Callie completely, he couldn’t discuss the nature of his father’s cases with her.

Callie, from years of dating Frank, knew this implicitly and didn’t ask him any questions. Instead, she said, "It’s terrible. Scary, isn’t it, that nothing has hit the U.S. with all of this going on? Well, your dad is a fabulous detective, and I know he’ll crack the case."

Frank was still concerned. "Thanks, baby. I hope so. That’s bad enough, but now, that Meningitis scare is getting too close to home. Maybe…"

"Maybe you’ll check it out, right?"

Frank blushed. Callie knew him too well, sometimes. "Um, yeah. I mean, I thought I would relax for the last month of school, but if there’s something I can do to help…." His voice trailed off.

"Oh, no Frank. You better not miss the prom! It’s a good thing we have a few days off this week since we didn’t use any snow days this year."

"Don’t worry. I’ll be there for the prom. How could I miss a chance to take such a gorgeous date?’

Callie shook her head. "Flattery will get you everywhere. BUT, back to the case!"

"Yes?"

"Well, the more heads involved, the better, right?"

"That’s what I figure. Besides, Joe wanted to check this out."

"Great! When do we go?"

"We? Oh, no Callie. Not this time. The last case…" Frank shuddered. "That was way too close

for comfort for me. You‘re staying here. I’m not budging on this one."

Callie fought back annoyance. "Frank. I can take care of myself. You’re way too overprotective of me, and you have to stop it."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Frank!" Callie changed her tactic. "Listen. All you’re doing is checking out this latest case, right?" Callie knew that appealing to Frank’s logic over his emotion was generally the way to win him over.

"So far, yes, but we don’t know where the case will lead."

"Well, then, why can’t we make this a nice day trip? You, me, Joe and Iola. Iola and I will chat in the car and hang out while you two do the dangerous stuff, and the rest of the time we’ll just make a nice day of it. Chances are you can’t get through anyway." Callie had no intention of sitting back, but she could deal with that later.

"Iola?! Callie, you’re killing me here."

"PUH-LEAZE?" She flashed Frank her brightest smile.

"I don’t know…"

"Look. We’ll be perfectly safe. I told you Iola because I know Joe wants to see her, and I know the Mortons aren’t crazy about that. However, they’ll have no problem with Iola seeing me."

Frank looked at Callie in amazement. When had she become so devious? The day Callie would do Joe a favor out of the kindness of her heart….

He looked at her questioningly. "IF I say yes, it’s only for the first day. Just to have fun. After that, we will all go home and you will stay there. You’re right. Chances are, we can do nothing. But, if this requires further investigation, no Callie. No Iola."

Callie smiled. "EWWW! Girls!"

Frank wasn’t smiling. "I’m serious Callie. There’s no way I’ll endanger you or Iola. How will Vanessa feel about this, by the way?"

Callie sighed. "She knows I’m friendly with Iola. I’m trying to stay out of it. What the three of them do is their business. I’ll tell her the truth. I’m talking to her tonight anyway. I think there’s a new personal ad coming out later today, and we need to discuss it."

Frank looked at Callie. How on earth she managed to convince him to let her come was beyond him.

"All right, then. Let me go home and talk to Joe. I also want to see how my dad’s doing. By the way, I take it Joe’s not supposed to know about this personals deal?"

"Of course not."

Frank sighed. He hated keeping secrets from Joe, although Joe made him do the same to Callie. AND, it wasn’t like Callie was setting up Vanessa with another guy. In a weird, odd sort of way, she actually had good intentions. Still, he didn’t like it.

"All right, Callie. Promise me you won’t get any more crazy ideas like this."

"Me? Never. I just like a good adventure."

THAT, Frank thought, was just what he was afraid of.

Standing up, he gave Callie a hug and a kiss good-bye.

"Tomorrow, Cal, be at my house with Iola at 8:00." He turned to her right before he left. "Hey Callie?"

"Yes?"

"I love you, but you drive me crazy."

"Yeah, but that’s what you love about me" she smiled.

Walking to his car, Frank could only think to himself, that’s exactly the response Joe would have given.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation, The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow them without express permission of the authors.