hardy boys fan fiction
THE TROUBLE WITH RED
hardy boys nancy drew fan fiction
by
Phoenix
Chapter 3
hardy boys fan fiction
THE CHAPTERS
Frank hadn’t driven very far when the sound of a ‘gunshot’ proceeded the van swerving madly across traffic.
“Whoa!” Joe cried out, bracing himself against the dashboard as his brother expertly brought the vehicle back under control, pulling it safely to a stop on the side of the road. “What the hell—”
“Blowout,” Frank interrupted tersely, already shoving the driver’s side door open so he could get a look at the damaged tire. Joe did the same thing, groaning loudly when he saw the shredded front tire.
“Could this day possibly get any worse?” He knelt down and ran his fingers along the ruptured rubber.
“Joe,” his brother cast him a warning look. The last thing they needed was for the younger boy to tempt fate.
“All right. All right,” Joe groused as he stood back up and sighed. “Just tell me you packed the spare.” The look on Frank’s face did not instill any confidence in his brother. “Frank?” the younger Hardy asked hesitantly. “You did pack the spare, didn’t you?”
“Ah….Yeah, about that,” the dark haired boy grinned sheepishly. “I remember I was going to pack it—”
“But?” Joe really didn’t like the sound of this.
“But then Phil dropped by and I got sidetracked…”
Joe looked at his brother for a few moments and then he rolled his eyes as he plucked out his cell phone. “And people think I’m absent-minded…crap.”
“What?” Frank asked, eager to get past the ‘spare’ talk.
“Ah Frank, does your cell phone have any juice left in it? My battery is dead.”
Frank snickered and pulled out his own phone. “This really isn’t your day is it, little brother?”
“Shut up,” Joe leaned against the side of the van and closed his eyes. He really just wanted to get home and take a nap. Man, he was tired. The sound of Frank not making a phone call forced his eyes back open and he turned towards the older boy. “Frank? What’samatta? Forget how to make a phone call?”
Frank looked at his phone in surprise. “That’s odd.”
“What?”
“My phone isn’t working—” He shook the phone for good measure.
Joe snorted and held his sides as he laughed. “Battery’s dead, genius.”
“It can’t be,” Frank argued. “I always keep it charged.”
“Apparently not this time,” the younger boy grinned but his brother still shook his head, in absolute denial.
“Impossible!”
“Frank, the bleedin’ battery is dead. That’s all. It happens to the best of us.” Joe smirked. “And I should know…being the best and all.”
The eighteen year old just glared at him for a moment and then a devious thought hit him. His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You did this to me…”
“Excuse me Mr. Anal Phone Charger Person? How’d I manage that when I never even touched your freakin’ phone?!”
Frank pointed a finger at Joe’s chest. “I don’t know…” he punctuated each word with a jab. “Yet.” Pocketing his phone, the older boy scowled at the flat tire. “Well this is just great.”
“Yup.” Joe agreed. “Looks like you’re walking back to Mr. Pizza’s to use the phone.”
“Me?” Frank cried. “Why me?”
“Because,” Joe said with an amazing amount of sweetness in his voice. “You didn’t pack the spare, big brother.”
“Fine. Fine,” the older boy conceded. “I’ll go—” He started to walk away but then stopped and looked at the crimson-haired youth, a thoughtful frown on his face. “You sure you’re going to be okay here by yourself…?”
“I’m sure I’ll manage just fine,” Joe smirked already moving to slide open the side door. “In fact, I’m just going to stretch out here on the bench seat and grab a nap…” He reached onto the front seat and picked up the small pizza box. “After I eat my pizza, of course.”
“Brat,” Frank growled, with no heat in his words and started away from the van again. “And keep the doors locked!”
“Okay…Mom,” came the mumbled reply from a mouth already full of pizza, but Frank still heard the sound of the automatic locks clicking in place. This particular neighborhood wasn’t bad or anything but after the twenty-four hours his brother had been having, the older boy didn’t want to take any chances.
‘I’ll be back in about 45 minutes, tops,’ he thought to himself. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’
Talk about tempting fate…
ooooooOOOOOOoooooo
Joe had almost dozed off after making quick work of the small pizza when he heard two voices – a male and a female, and they were definitely arguing.
Cracking open an eye, he saw them standing in the road, right in front of the van. They looked to be about Joe’s age and as he watched, the argument heated up.
“I didn’t do nothing!” the girl’s voice wailed.
“I saw you, you two-timing tart! I saw you with him!” The young man yelled practically in her face. “So don’t you even try and say it wasn’t you!”
“It wasn’t!” the girl protested, hands on her hips and long blond hair swishing around her shoulders in full-out petulant ‘little’ girl mode. Joe couldn’t help but grin – oh, he knew that look real well…
“Look, Selina, I may be many things, but blind isn’t one them!” the young man yelled back.
“But stupid is!” Boy, that girl was good. Joe straightened up on the bench seat to get a better look. He couldn’t help himself.
“Why I oughta—” the boyfriend started but the girl beat him to it, her hand rapidly flying and catching him hard across the face. Immediately he grabbed her wrist, and Joe unlocked the door, slid it aside and hopped out – he’d seen enough.
Oblivious to the newcomer, the boyfriend continued to hold Selina tightly, his mouth twisted in an angry snarl; poetically matching the angry red mark on his cheek. “You bi—”
“Hey,” Joe called out, trotting towards them, as wide and friendly a smile as possible plastered on his face. “What’s—” he never got a chance to finish his question; the young man’s eyes widened, his face turned a horrific shade of red and he hollered, releasing the girl and advancing on the young sleuth instead:
“YOU!” And then before Joe could react, the man swung at him.
ooooooOOOOOOoooooo
Frank was hot and sweaty by the time he got to Mr. Pizza’s. His close friend and the owner’s son, Tony Prito, looked surprised to see him so soon.
“Hi Ton, can I use the phone?” the dark-haired Hardy asked, as he wiped his arm across his forehead. “Van’s got a flat.”
“No spare?” Tony added, “Guess not,” when he saw the daggered look Frank shot him. He shrugged, “Sure. You can use the one in the kitchen. Hey, speak of the devil, you guys missed a bit of excitement here a few minutes ago.”
“Really?” Frank followed his friend into the kitchen, wondering if the Italian youth was referring to Joe’s ‘police’ incident. “What?”
“This guy came here and started hitting big time on this blond chick—” Tony started, leaning against the counter and watching Frank pick up the receiver. “Stupid move…particularly since she wasn’t alone, and when her boyfriend came out of the bathroom – boom! Smack! He clobbered the Romeo-wannabe. Man, that guy is going to be hurting in the morning…”
“That’s hardly anything exciting,” Frank grinned. “Unless of course you’re a girl, and then that’s front page news.”
Tony chuckled. “No kidding. Let me finish first though. The interesting part is that, I swear to God, except for this guy’s hair color, I would have laid money that Mr. Smoothy was your brother. Frank, he looked just like Joe! Good thing Joe wasn’t anywhere around though, ‘cause the boyfriend is still pretty pissed and took off out of here looking for that guy…and I’ll tell you one thing, he’s angry enough not to be too particular about hair color.”
Frank felt all the blood drain from his face as a bad feeling dropped into the pit of his stomach. “Uh Tony…can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What color was Mr. Smoothy’s hair?”
Tony laughed. “You’d have to see it to believe it. Fire Engine, glow in the dark, neon red…uh Frank…Frank? What’s wrong?”
But Frank never answered, he was already halfway out of the restaurant. One thing he did have to admit as he raced back the way he came, his brother’s trouble magnet was sure in fine form today.
Tony’s voice caught him at the front door. “You want a ride?”
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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.