Joe Hardy couldn’t help but to smile as he walked through the hallway of Bayport High School on this wonderful May afternoon. Baseball practice had just ended, and the smell of spring was in the air. The team had a winning record so far, and Joe was almost certain that he would be headed to the All-Star team this year. In addition to all of this, he was getting ready to take his girlfriend of the past several months, Vanessa Bender, to the Prom in just a few weeks. He was sure that with his keen blue eyes, wavy blonde hair, and athletic build, he would be named Prom King and Vanessa would be his Queen. Yes, life was falling into place very nicely for Joe.

Joe approached his locker and attempted to open it. He knew he had a big History test to study for. And, although he knew he probably wouldn’t actually crack the book open, it was sort of a confidence booster to have it sitting on his desk. It made him FEEL scholarly, or so he liked to tell Vanessa. Frank, his older bother, was the genius in the family, but Joe didn’t begrudge him anything. Frank actually LIKED school , which Joe couldn’t exactly figure out, but hey- Frank was a good guy. It wasn’t his fault that Joe’s idea of a foreign language consisted mainly of "I’ll have French fries with that" or that his biggest math problem was figuring out how to hide all of the girls’ phone numbers that he had managed to accumulate over the years.

As Joe opened his locker, he was instantly hit in the head by about three text books that he had somehow managed to cram into his locker above all his sports equipment, CD’s and pictures. "OOOOWWWW!!!!" he scowled, but he turned around instantly when he heard Vanessa’s laugh down the hallway. "Well, Joe, " she smiled, "You should at least have learned something from this." "Oh yeah?" Joe countered, at once embarrassed at his misadventure and pleased by Vanessa’s attention, "What’s that?" "That when you promise to meet your girlfriend at 5:00 it does NOT mean 5:15. See how the gods punish you for your cruelty?"

Smiling, Joe teased, "Yeah, I’ve been bad. You may have to punish me." Vanessa turned red, and quipped, "Sweetie, consider THIS your punishment. You are officially buying me dinner tonight. I have to go and meet Callie. I’ll see you in the parking lot in like ten minutes." With that, she gave Joe a quick kiss good-bye and skipped through the hallway.

Joe had to laugh. He had always been a ladies man, and prided himself on harassing Frank about being practically married to his long-time girlfriend, Callie. But since he met Vanessa, the tall, thin, ash-blonde girl who had recently transferred to Bayport from the City, he really had begun to feel he could love again. She was so kind and spirited, exactly like…. A pang stung Joe’s heart for an instant, as he tried to block out the memory that had haunted him for so long. Exactly like… Iola. Well over a year ago, Joe had lost his first true love, Iola, to a car bomb intended for him. Although he had come to terms with her death, he was still haunted by his guilt. Shaking his head, Joe couldn’t help but wonder why he was suddenly thinking of his ex-girlfriend. Then it hit him. Today was her birthday.

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency 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 original characters without express permission of the authors.