THE GIFT OF FRIENDSHIP
by
CQB & Stephen
CHAPTER
3
THE CHAPTERS
As soon as he had hung up his coat and hat in the back of the classroom, Joe Hardy pulled the brightly wrapped present from his backpack. His mom had wrapped the “Frankenstein” book and the Tootsie Pops® together, making a rather unusual looking package. He proudly carried the gift toward the table in the corner where other presents were neatly stacked.
Joe saw George Rossi reach the gift table before him. He watched George slip a package out from under his green sweater and add it to the back of the pile. George moved away without even seeing Joe.
Joe added his gift to the pile and was about to look for the one George left, when a voice called his name. Joe turned to see Alan Hooper adding a present to the mountain of gifts.
“Guess what’s in mine? A basketball hoop that hooks on the back of your door,” Alan hurriedly explained. “It’s got a cool Nerf® ball with it. Bet you could have loads of fun with that!”
“That sounds really neat,” Joe agreed with a grin. He could just imagine how much fun he and Frank could have playing basketball in the house! Then Joe glanced back at the pile of gifts and his deep blue eyes focused on a package wrapped in notebook paper.
‘Nobody will pick George’s gift,’ the small Hardy boy thought. ‘That’s why he hid it in the back.’
Miss Shaffer called out for all the children to find their seats. It was time for their Christmas party to get started. While playing games and eating cupcakes, Joe occasionally glanced back at the gift table. His young heart was torn between what he wanted to do and what he knew was the right thing to do.
Finally the moment they had all been waiting for had arrived. It was time to exchange gifts.
“Boys and girls,” Miss Shaffer addressed the class, “I have put all of your names in this Christmas gift bag. I will pull out the first name and read it. That person will go and select a gift from the girl’s table if she is a girl or the boy’s table if he is a boy. They will come to this chair in front and open the gift they chose. Then they will pick the next name.” She reminded them to use their best manners and reached inside the bag.
She read the little slip of paper and called out, “Iola Morton. You get to choose the first gift.”
Joe turned to see the pixie faced girl with braided pig-tails stand up. He knew Iola because Frank often played with her brother, Chet. Joe smiled when Iola looked at him. He was glad she’d been picked first. She was okay, for a girl.
Iola picked a gift and carried it up front. She unwrapped a pink, ruffled, Cinderella umbrella. Iola thanked Beth Jackson for the gift. Iola then reached into the gift bag and pulled out a slip of paper.
Miss Shaffer read out loud, “Cindy Evans!”
It seemed to be taking forever and the gift pile was growing smaller as name after name was called. Joe wasn’t surprised when Alan Hooper tried to take his own gift back. Miss Shaffer quickly told him that wasn’t allowed. He then picked Joe’s gift, already knowing what was inside the pretty paper. Alan really loved Tootsie Pops®.
Finally, Joe’s name was called. He walked back to the table and looked. Only three gifts were left. Joe hesitated. One was Alan’s Nerf® Basketball, one was something for a girl in a big yellow bag and then there was George’s plain notebook paper-wrapped gift.
Joe chewed on his lip. There really was no choice now. George and Emily Williams were the only other kids who hadn’t been called yet. Squaring his shoulders, Joe reached past Alan’s gift and picked up the one George had hidden in the back.
Joe felt his cheeks grow warm as he carried the plain package up front; several of the children were giggling. He heard Miss Shaffer shushing them, but Joe didn’t dare look up. He couldn’t imagine what was inside the oddly wrapped package, but he was quite sure neither George nor his grandma went out shopping to buy something. Not with it wrapped in notebook paper.
The snickers and giggles stopped when Joe lifted the beautiful wooden horse up. His own mouth dropped open in astonishment. The carved horse was the most incredible thing he’d ever seen.
When Joe looked at George to tell him ‘thank you’, he noticed his friend quickly wipe a tear away with his hand. Joe felt like something was wrong as he carried the horse back to his seat.
After school, Joe tried to find George, but the Rossi boy had somehow slipped away while Joe was waiting for Frank by the flagpole.
When Joe saw his brother, he hurried to Frank and told him about the carved wooden horse. “Where would George get money for a carved horse? It prob’ly cost a hundred dollars!”
“It sure doesn’t make sense,” Frank said with a frown. “I hope he didn’t steal it!”
“George isn’t a thief!” Joe defended his friend hotly.
“Well,” Frank shrugged, “do you have a better suggestion?”
* * *
Frank and Joe hadn’t said much the rest of the way home and when they passed the house where George lived, Joe slowed down and stared at the old building a long time.
Finally they arrived home to find their mother and Aunt Gertrude baking Christmas cookies in the kitchen.
“M-m-m!” Frank proclaimed, walking in the door. “Do we have to wait ‘til Christmas to eat some?”
“Go hang up your things first,” Auntie ordered, shooing them with her hand, “then a few of these cookies might find their way into your bellies.”
“Boys,” Laura called out after them, “there’s a surprise for you in the living room.”
The boys exchanged a grin, and then hurried down the hall to hang up their coats. Together, they crept into the living room for a peek at their surprise. There, sleeping in the big, blue recliner was none other than their father, Fenton Hardy himself!
“Should we wake him?” Joe asked excitedly.
“Mom wouldn’t of said anything if we weren’t supposed to,” Frank said with a little laugh.
Together they raced up to the chair and crawled up on Fenton’s lap. The detective smiled and grabbed them both, having already heard them come into the room.
As Joe romped with his father and brother, he forgot all about the carved wooden horse in his book bag, but someone else couldn’t stop thinking about it.
* * *
In a small, dark apartment a few blocks away…
“At least Joe got it,” George Rossi consoled himself. “He’ll take good care of it.”
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Disclaimer
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.