Two hours later, Joe Hardy entered his house, considerably less enthused about May, baseball, the prom, and Vanessa than he had been earlier in the day. On the way home, Vanessa had told him about her conversation with Callie, and he had to admit that it seemed like a mystery to him. Ordinarily, that would have made Joe's day even brighter- there was nothing like a good adventure to get his competitive and creative juices flowing. However, although he and Callie were certainly friends, he could just hear her words echoing in his mind if he offered to help.

"Hey Callie, what's up with you and this Jeff guy?"

"Mind your own business."

"Well, fine. If you don't want my expert advice..."

"I don't."

"If you're cheating on Frank.."

"Then that's my business."

That, followed by a lot of shouting and Frank ultimately being angry at him, was the usual course of action. So, he figured, if Callie wants anyone's help, she'll have to do the asking. Frank had his hands full with that girl!

What was really on his mind, though, was the fact that he had forgotten about Iola's birthday. If he could not remember one date about a girl he had loved so much, did that mean he was forgetting her already? What kind of person was he? To make matters worse, apparently Callie had mentioned Iola's birthday to Vanessa, who was a bit upset about it, and THEY had had a fight, and now the only dinner that Joe was going to get was last night's meatloaf. With a sigh, Joe headed upstairs to his room. "Oh, well" he thought. "At least I saved a few bucks." With that, he was about to enter his room to look through old photo albums of him and Iola when he suddenly heard his brother's voice on the phone line that they shared.

Ordinarily, Joe wouldn't have listened in to his brother's conversation, but his normally even-tempered, mellow brother appeared to be yelling into the phone.

"I just don't understand it! Why won't you talk to me?!"

Pause.

"Listen, I really need to talk to you." (Pause) "Whenever. Tomorrow. Tonight. Right now."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"Hello? Hello?" And with that, Frank Hardy slammed the phone into its cradle, and nearly knocked his books off his otherwise perfectly neat desk.

"Girl problems, there, big brother?" Joe quipped, but one glance at Frank's face stopped his teasing at once. "What's the matter? Is there something wrong with you and Callie?"

Frank looked up at Joe and sighed. He had always been a private person, and even though Joe was his brother and best friend, he and Callie had always made it a point to keep their private lives to themselves. Besides, Frank wanted to help Callie now, and didn't need to hear one of Joe's famous anti- Callie digs. On the other hand, he COULD use some advice here.

Hesitantly, he began. "Joe, I don't know. Callie's been acting really weird lately. I've barely seen her, at school or on the weekends. I..." he hesitated. "I think she may be - ah- involved somehow with that new student, Jeff Wellington. But I don't know. I mean, I know her really well, and there's no way she would cheat on me. Um, right? You won't believe this either, but Chet's actually been hinting that Callie IS cheating, and normally Chet and Callie get along great, but even HE'S been talking kind of badly about her. I really don't know what to say."

Joe resisted the urge to make a sly comment about Callie when he saw the distressed look on Frank's face. Slowly, he recalled the conversation he had with Vanessa, and told Frank about Callie walking away with Jeff. As he did this, he watched Frank's face get slowly redder, so he felt he had to end with, "... and that's about it, but, like I said, Vanessa seemed suspicious about how Callie reacted and Jeff's comment, you know, could have meant anything."

"Well, Joe," Frank responded hesitantly, "There's only one way to find out. If someone's bothering Callie or if she's hiding something, I'll know. And if she IS cheating, then this Jeff guy's going to have a real problem on his hands. So, I'm going to go ask her."

And with that, Frank Hardy grabbed his sweater, left the room, and headed downstairs and out the door, leaving his brother staring open-mouthed after him. Iola, he thought, you'd know what advice to give. Sadly, he plopped onto Frank's bed and shut his eyes. "Great day this is turning out to be," he muttered.

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.