"Hello, son," Fenton Hardy smiled warmly at his son from the living room. Frank has just come in. "How was the first day?" his father asked.

"Quite usual," Frank replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing has changed. School will be school. Forever." He flopped down in the leather sofa which was in the living room. He smiled, "Glad to see you home. It’s been awhile since you had an evening to spend with us. No case to investigate, right?"

Mr. Hardy smiled back, he was sitting in his favorite arm-chair. "Right. Do you have a one for me? Let me guess…. Where has the principal gone on the first school day?"

Frank chuckled but shook his head, "Don’t remind me of him! But I do have something for you. I really don’t think that it’s going to become a case, but…."

"What’s that?" Fenton asked, already interested.

"A moment," Frank took the piece of paper out of his jeans pocket. He gave it to his father. "There’s a new guy in school, say, a new sensation. It was his first day in Bayport High, but every girl noticed he was there. But that’s not important, the thing is that this was on the windscreen of his car when he was leaving. He read it then just threw it away. Well, I picked it up so that you could take a look. I'm not sure it’s of any interest to you, but…."

"Honestly, I don’t know what to say, Frank," Mr. Hardy said as he read the letter. "If you ask me then I think it’s someone’s joke. I have only one idea. Someone’s girlfriend must have looked at him and the jealous lover decided to threaten him. I can’t check threat for fingerprints, many people had touched it. As for jealous lovers, it’s a usual thing when you’re young, you will never let your girlfriend look at another man, thinking you’re the one for her…. Ah, I still can remember myself when I was in High school. That was a great time, you know, beautiful girls, parties lasting until late at night, first alcohol drinks…." A huge grin appeared on Fenton’s face. Then he caught Frank’s stunned and mistrustful stare. "Don’t look at me like I'm 80! I am not that old, at least, yet. I'm only 42 and I was a teen, too!"

"Yeah, I know, but it’s not easy to imagine you with beautiful girls and first drinks at a mid-night party when you’re a teen and…." Sensing he was saying something completely wrong, Frank stopped. "What I'm trying to say is…."

"Don’t worry, I know what you tried to say. I was once like you are now…. Well, those were the days of my life…. Hmm…. Speaking of jealous lovers, how is Callie doing?" Mr. Hardy asked, a curious smile on his face.

Frank instantly turned red and looked down at his shoes. "She’s just fine…."

"Good…."

"But if you want to ask," Frank went on, "whether she had noticed Joe then yes, she had. Fortunately, Vanessa is going to save me because she won’t let anyone approach him."

"Joe?" his father asked, raising his eyebrows.

Frank nodded, "Yeah, Joe Stevenson, that’s the guy’s name. He and his father, Paul, moved to Bayport two or three days go. Mr. Stevenson works for the American Insurance Corporation, it has a branch here. He is not the least important man in the AIC. Not a president, but somewhere near that. I haven’t talked to Joe yet, it’s Vanessa who’s spreading the news."

Fenton nodded, but said nothing, it was like he got trapped in his own world. Frank noticed. "Dad?" he asked. No reply. "Dad, what’s wrong?"

Mr. Hardy looked up at him. "What? Sorry, I haven’t heard what you just said."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking. All right, let’s go eating. Your mother’s been waiting for you to come."

Next morning Frank saw Vanessa and his own girlfriend sitting on the stairs near the school entrance, next to the girls was Joe. Whatever they were talking about must have been very funny as they all were laughing. Vanessa seemed to be happy and it was obvious Callie liked Joe’s company as well. Frank groaned as he saw that.

He was still thinking about how to approach them when he caught sight of Martha, Vanessa’s classmate, who whispered something to her friend, then she started walking upstairs. When she was 5 steps away from the trio she suddenly cried out as if in pain and almost fell down, holding her right ankle. "Oh no, I must have strained it!" Martha complained, shooting Joe a sidelong glance, waiting for his reaction.

Too bad for her he didn’t have time to react because Cecil Benton was quicker. In a moment he was near the girl, willing to help. "I’ll take you to the nurse station, don’t move your leg," he offered. Martha angrily looked at him and steadily stood up. "Who asked you??!" she crossly hissed and ran past Joe, Vanessa and Callie and into the building.

"Well, Cecil, looks like you’re the best cure for sprained ankles, I’ll call you if I ever have the same problem, okay?" Callie, smiling, looked up at the boy who only smiled back in reply and walked off. "You should be more careful, Joe, or soon Bayport High girls will break every bone and sprain every muscle they have in their bodies if you don’t pay enough attention to them."

"From now on I’ll do my best not to hurt anyone," Joe modestly replied. Then they continued their conversation, still smiling and laughing.

"Who does he think he is? Casanova?" Frank angrily thought to himself. He could understand Vanessa, she was single after all. But Callie? He couldn’t help but feel jealous. He clenched his fists and let his anger out. Then he unclenched them and walked towards the three, trying to act as if nothing was worrying him at all.

"Hey, guys," he managed a fake smile.

The trio looked up at him. "Oh, hi, Frank!" Callie cheerfully replied with a grin on her face. She stood up, so did the other two. "Frank, let me introduce you to Joe Stevenson, he’s new in Bayport High. Joe, this is Frank Hardy I told you about, he’s my long-time boyfriend."

Frank glared at the guy. Then he faked another smile, "Pleased to meet you," he said, trying to sound somewhat sincere. I'm not pleased to meet you at all! he wanted to say, but kept it inside.

Joe nodded in response, "Me too." They shook their hands. End of conversation. One glance in Frank’s eyes and Joe knew that he didn’t like him. At all. Was it because of Callie?

"Callie, can I talk to you?" Frank asked. "Privately?"

Callie nodded, "Sure, let’s go inside."

"See you guys later," Frank said and disappeared into the school with his girlfriend.

Vanessa watched them go, she felt uneasy, it was obvious Frank didn’t want to make friends with Joe. And she hoped they’d become real friends soon. She looked at her company and saw he was thinking the same. "Nah, don’t think so. Frank is a great guy and you’ll see it soon. He may seem rather cold and naughty, but as a matter of fact he’s all heart," Vanessa told Joe. "There’s only one problem with him. You see, he and Callie have been together for 3 years now and I think he thinks Callie is his property or something like that. I guess that’s why he acted that way."

"It’s ok, no one is gonna make him be friends with me," Joe replied.

"When you get to know each other you’ll be like brothers, I swear. Just take your time. Anyway…. Say, do you like Bayport?" Vanessa asked, looking closely at him.

"I haven’t seen much of it yet. Me and my old man were busy settling down, unpacking things and stuff like that. We haven’t even met our neighbors yet. Ask me about Bayport two weeks later when I see more of it."

"Ok, I will," Vanessa nodded. "But I can guess what you think about it now. At the very moment you don’t like it."

Joe smiled, " You’re shrewd. I hoped no one would guess. Is it that obvious that I don’t like it here?"

"No, it’s not. I can guess because a year ago I felt the same way. I'm from Los Angeles, me and my mother moved to Bayport a year ago. I didn’t like it back then, I wanted to go back to California but my mother was not going to listen to my complaints, so I had to give up and stay here. It didn’t take much time to find new friends and get used to living here. Now I really like it here, I've got great friends, so nowadays I think that Bayport is no worse than Los Angeles."

"So you’re from Los Angeles?" Joe said. "I was born in California, exactly in Los Angeles. We moved from New York to Chicago when I was a year old. My old man is originally from NY, my mom was Italian, she was from Florence. She died when I was born."

"I'm sorry about your mother," Vanessa sympathetically said. "If it makes you feel better, I have only one parent as well, I don’t have a father, he and my mom divorced when I was four only years old. Me and my Dad seldom meet each other, but when we do I don’t feel like he’s my father, we’ve got a very strained relationship."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Joe sincerely replied.

"Nah, I got used to live without him. To tell you the truth, I can’t imagine life with my Dad, me and my Mom are so much better without him. We just don’t need him if you know what I mean. There’s only one thing I regret very much, it’s that I have no siblings, no aunts and uncles, no grandfathers and grandmothers or any other relatives. Sometimes I just feel lonely…. By the way, do you have brothers or sisters?" Vanessa asked.

Joe shook his head, "No. I was my folks’ first child, but Mom died, and my Dad refused to marry another woman. Though I definitely wouldn’t mind having a sibling. A brother would do."

"I have another situation. My parents wanted to have only one kid, so here I am. But I wouldn’t mind having someone as well. A sister, I guess. Actually, I know only few people here who have siblings. Take Frank for example. He is the only kid in his family, so are Callie, Phil, Biff and Tony. Only Chet had a sister, Iola, but she drowned many years ago when she was 5 or 6 years old. But all of them want to have a brother or a sister," Vanessa smiled.

The girl opened her mouth to say something when the bell rang. "Oh, no! I forgot we’re still in school. Let’s go, we have English now."

"Frank, what’s wrong?" Callie asked when they stopped near Frank’s locker.

He took a deep breathe looked at her, "I don’t want you to play with that guy anymore."

Callie’s eyes grew wide, "You mean Joe? Frank, what’s your problem with him?"

"I just don’t like him, that’s all," Frank replied, looking aside. He knew it wasn’t right. He had no right to tell Callie what to do, but he thought he should take measures now before it was too late.

"What do you mean you don’t like him? How can you say something like that? You don’t even know him!" Callie argued.

"Right and I don’t even want to! And I don’t want you to know him either!"

So that’s the crux of the matter! I should have guessed. A quizzical smile appeared on her face, "I think I can guess…. Tell me, are you jealous?"

"Me, jealous? Why should I be jealous? No, of course, no!" Frank replied, shaking his head when looking at Callie who raised her eyebrows at him, still smiling. So then Frank looked down, his cheeks red. "I mean yes…. No, I mean no…. Damn it! Yes, yes, I am jealous!!"

"I knew you were!" she exclaimed, a huge smile lit her face. "Oh, Frank, there’s no reason for you to be jealous! Look at Vanessa, she won’t let anyone approach him. Even if I wanted to snog Joe I wouldn’t be able to."

"What do you mean ‘if I wanted to’?" Frank sharply asked.

"I mean that I have you and I don’t need anyone else," she put her arms around Frank’s waist.

Frank stood silent for a few moments. "Really?" he finally asked. "You’re not gonna dump me because of that Joe?"

"Really, I am not going to dump you no matter what," Callie smiled at him. "Come on, you let me talk to your male friends and you feel ok about that."

Frank sighed, "I don’t know, I just don’t like Joe."

Callie shook her blonde head. "I'm sure you’ll change your mind when you talk to him. It’s never easy to find new friends, remember Vanessa? We became friends the next day after she had come to Bayport. Come on, don’t be so cold, why are you so sure that you don’t like him when you don’t know him?"

"Ok, ok, you’re right," Frank confessed. "I’ll do my best not to judge Joe before I talk to him. But it’s only if you promise to be mine forever."

"I promise!" Callie replied and gave him a quick kiss on his lips. "I love you. You’re a great guy. No wonder you’re my boyfriend."

Frank grinned, "I love you too."

When it was lunchtime, Vanessa, unwilling to leave Joe to the group of drooling girls, took her new friend to the lunchroom to introduce him to her other friends. When they entered the room, they saw Phil, Tony, Chet and Liz, Chet’s girlfriend.

"Hey guys, bonne appetite to you all," Vanessa smiled as she approached them, Joe behind her. "Mind if Joe joins us?"

"No, not at all," Phil said. "Sit down here," he told Joe, pointing at the empty seat.

"Thanks," Joe said.

"Where are Frank, Callie and Biff?" Vanessa asked.

"Frank and Callie decided to spend some time with each other," Chet replied, "so they’re somewhere outside. And Biff had to talk to his physics teacher, he’ll come here some time later."

"All right, guys, you already know Joe, don’t you?" Vanessa asked, her cheeks were a bit red. Thanks to her all of them already knew everything.

"Oh, yes, we do," Tony said, smiling, but making no comments on her red cheeks. "Vanessa told us about you," he told Joe. "I'm Tony Prito, glad to meet you in Bayport High, do you like it here?"

"Rather yes than no," Joe said. "Nice to meet you, too, Tony."

"And I hate Bayport High," Chet chimed in. "I’ve lived in Bayport for too long to see the best of it. I'm Chet Morton, by the way. Vanessa told us you were from Chicago. Say, why did you move to Bayport? Why not stay in there? If I were you I wouldn’t leave such a big city."

"My father, that’s the reason. He wanted to come here because of his job. If everything goes the way it’s expected to go then we’ll leave Bayport 2 years later when I graduate."

"Really? Where are you planning to go?" Vanessa asked, trying not to sound too disappointed.

"Los Angeles, Detroit or Seattle, I don’t know. My dad wants to live in a big city again," Joe shrugged his shoulders. Then he smirked, "But I’ll move back to Chicago anyway after I finish school. I've grown up there, there are a lot of friends left. We promised each other that we’d go to the same University and Chicago has a great University there."

"Cool. And what do you want to study?" Liz asked.

"Financial Law," was a simple reply.

They talked for a little longer when Biff came into the lunchroom. After saying ‘hi’ to everyone he turned to Joe, "You’re Joe, right? I'm Biff Hooper. Welcome," with that he grabbed his hand and shook it. He didn’t see Joe wince.

"Yeah… Me too," Joe said in response and managed a smile. "Say, do you always break people’s hands when you meet them for the first time and shake hands with them?"

"Erm…. Not always…. But often!" Biff confessed and apologized, "Sorry, I keep forgetting about that. People do tell me not to squeeze their hands like that. Is your hand ok?"

"Yeah, I’ll live," Joe nodded. Just then his cell-phone started to ring. "Sorry," he said and took his Nokia out of his pocket. "Hello," he said into it.

"I advise you to leave Bayport as soon as possible," a harsh voice said.

"What? Who are you? And why do you tell me this?"

"I'm someone who’s gonna do something terrible if you don’t follow my advice. I think it’s better to leave this town alive and in a car than dead and in a coffin…."

Then the line went dead.