"Oh! I am sorry Callie, what were you saying?" Frank said, coming out of his daze.

"I don’t think that my writing abilities are that great that you would lose yourself in my articles. What is on your mind?" Callie said, looking across the table at the dark haired boy.

Frank knew he could not say everything, but maybe Callie was the person to help him out.

"The article is fine. It is just I didn’t know that four of Joe’s teammates went back to the junior varsity team. Those seven played together throughout junior high! They were an excellent team," Frank replied in bewilderment. He could remember Joe’s junior high coach, Mr. Steele, bragging about how they were a championship team in the making. But now the seven was split apart.

"I found that strange too. But it is the way it is," Callie commented. "Maybe they didn’t watch their grades from last year or something."

"No, all of those boys were fine academically. They would have to be to even play on the junior varsity team," Frank pointed out.

"So what are you getting at?" Callie asked, leaning over the table. "Do you think something is up?’

Frank sighed. He was torn between his allegiance to his brother and his need to find out what was going on. Giving in after making Callie swear to not say a word to anyone, Frank brought her up to date on what he knew.

"It all just concerns me. This is not like Joe and I think something is really not right. But I feel like I am investigating my own brother," Frank said, looking at the floor in frustration. "But I have this feeling that there is more to this whole situation than just a little misunderstanding. I don’t want to see my brother hurt, but I don’t want him to hate me for snooping around behind his back either."

"It sounds like you are going to have to decide on something," Callie said, cocking her head and raising her brow. Frank looked up at her, noticing the change in her voice. "You are going to have decide whether you want to find out what is going on and trust your instinct or stand back and stay out of Joe’s business no matter what."

Frank sighed again. Callie was right. But Frank knew what he had to do and he was going to start right that minute. "Would you mind doing a spotlight on Bayport’s finest?"

"That will be easy. Those goons are always happy to get a little of attention from the press. What are you going to do?" Callie asked, picking up on Frank’s plan.

"I am going to go and meet up with Heath and Eric for starters," Frank said, getting up from the chair. "I have an hour before Joe’s practice is over. The junior varsity team should be in weight training right now."

"I will work on my end of the deal starting after practice. Meet here tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but I will have to meet you at four. I start conditioning for cross country tomorrow," Frank remembered. After agreeing to the time and exchanging phone numbers, Frank left for the weight room.

Meanwhile, Joe had just suited up and was waiting on Chet to finish tying his pads up. The two boys were sticking together more in hopes that numbers would make a difference. But it looked like their plan was not going to work. Steven walked up with Mike by his side.

"Let’s hurry up! Dad had to go to a meeting and he said for me to lead us in warm up and going over the new plays," Steve said with a smile.

"We will be there in a minute," Joe commented, feeling the pit of his stomach start to twist.

Steven started to walk towards the door that led to the field when he stopped and turned around to face the freshmen boys. "I do want to say that I am sorry about the eye there. I was totally out of line and we should be working together. I mean, this is my last year and I will have to pass the torch to someone after this season."

Joe and Chet just stood there looking at them very suspiciously.

"Okay, apology accepted," Chet said with a somewhat smile.

"I also hope that you have a great time with Iola. She is really hot you know," Steven commented, playfully punching Joe in the shoulder. Joe flinched and pulled back from Steven almost instinctually. "I know, I am having a small get together at my little garage after practice. Why don’t you come over and join us?"

"I don’t know about that Steven, it is a school night and…" Chet started in, but Steven cut him off.

"I will have dad take care of that. We will just say that we are trying to think of some new plays for Friday. You can be home by eight! You don’t want me to think that you don’t trust me anymore."

Realizing that they were in a hard spot, Chet and Joe reluctantly agreed to meet Steven at his house after practice. They quickly called their parents for permission and told Steven that they would be there.

Practice went unbelievably well. Joe actually felt like he was part of the team. Steven even let him run a few plays as the quarterback. While Joe really wanted to believe that Steven and his gang had "changed their ways"; he could not help but feel a little uneasy. Assuring himself that it was just jitters, Joe pushed down that feeling of alarm as he for the first time in a long time, enjoyed football practice without being used as a punching bag.

"Frank, I really don’t want to say much. I am on this team and I am happy where I am," Eric said, pushing up weight bars with his arms.

"You know that I will not say anything. I want to know why you left the varsity team," Frank pushed for more. Eric was definitely hiding something, but he was not revealing anything.

"Is it really your business?"

"I think it is going to be."

"What do you mean by that?" the stout bond haired boy said, stopping what he was doing. Frank pulled him aside.

"I think that there is a reason for your decision and I am afraid that my brother and Chet might be next," Frank said under his breath. "Now are you going to talk to me or am I going to have to go to Coach Steele?"

Heath spotted the two from across the room. The blond haired boy was Eric’s best friend and made his way over to the two other boys. Even though his arm was in a sling from a bad sprain, he was still coming to train his legs on the leg compression machine.

"What is going on Eric?" Heath said, startling Frank from behind.

"Nothing Heath," Eric replied. But Heath was not buying it.

"It is Joe isn’t it? They started on him haven’t they?" Heath said abruptly. Frank did not say anything at first. "Frank, I saw his face and everyone has heard about that Morton girl thing."

"I don’t exactly know what is going on. That is why I came to talk to you guys," Frank commented.

"I don’t know Frank. I just don’t…" Eric stammered, but Heath spoke up.

"Look, Joe is our friend. We owe it to his brother to help him out," Heath commented. Eric nodded in silent agreement. Then he turned towards Frank. ‘I don’t know if there is anything you can do. Joe wants to stay on the team. But Steven and his idiot friends enjoy making life miserable. They do all kinds of things that they are not allowed to do. Mike almost broke my arm even just because I went and talked to Coach Miller about it."

"Jonathan was beating up on Eric because Eric wanted to go out with this one girl. They feel it is their duty to "break in" the new freshmen girls. I stepped in and that is when Mike got a hold of me. He opened his locker and slammed my arm in it. Twisted me clear around like a rag doll. Sprained it real bad," Heath said, holding his arm out. "So after I calmed my mom down, I went to talk to the coach the next morning. He just laughed it off, saying that it was a rite of passage for the seniors to play their pranks on the new guys."

"He said it builds character and strong players," Eric interrupted.

"So he never did anything about it?" Frank asked. He could not believe that the coach was condoning hazing when the school board policies were very strict about things like that.

"Nope! Never did a thing except tell me that maybe I could not handle being on the team with the big leaguers as he called them. I had to tell my mom what he said and she went to the principal. I don’t know what happened from there, but I do know that Coach Miller was furious. He rode Eric and me from that day on. The boys would kick us; push us around and they even threw a rock threw our front window. Almost hit my little cousin! Fearing it might get worse, we both asked to be put back on the junior varsity team," Heath finished. "But we are happy where we are and we don’t want any more trouble. They have totally left us alone. Maybe next year after those goons move on, we can go up to the varsity team again."

"But please, be careful Frank. You don’t want to put any heat from above," Eric cautioned. "The more heat you put on them, the worse things will get."

Frank thanked the two boys for their time and let them get back to their training. It was only fifteen more minutes before he had to meet Joe at the car, so Frank quickly made his way to the old station wagon to await of the latest happenings.

But Frank was shocked by what he heard once Joe and Chet got to the car, both sporting a big smile. Joe’s eye was starting to turn black and blue, but that did not seem to sway him from wanting to join the rest of Steven’s gang at his house.

"I am sorry I could not tell you until now. Mom said that if you checked in that she would tell you that it was all right as long as my homework gets finished and I am home by eight," Joe said, throwing his gear and books into the station wagon.

"I will be with him and I will bring him home," Chet spoke up.

"Do you really think this is a good idea? Yesterday they were using you as punching bags and today they are your friends?" Frank quipped. He could not believe that Joe and Chet would be so forgiving.

"I never said that they were our friends. We are going to work on some plays and have some pizza at his house, completely harmless," Joe said, hiding his own worries about the situation. But he had to go. If he didn’t, he feared that the harassment would get worse.

Frank just made a face and nodded with Joe. "Well, if you need something, just call the house. That is where I am going. Have a good time!"

"See you at home!’ Joe shouted out, walking over to the passenger side of the car. He wanted to make things sound like it was all right. Chet chimed in with the same attitude. But both boys dreaded going to the fancy two-story house on Crossing Street. It was made even worse when the boys discovered that Steven’s parents were not home, leaving Chet and Joe alone with Steven, Mike, Clayton and Jonathan in Steven’s little room above the garage.

But things went fine for the first hour. Two plays were invented for use at the next day’s practice and they all finished off the last of the pizza. The room that Steven called his "guest room" was well equipped to entertain guests. It had a full entertainment center complete with a big screen television.

"You know, I think it is time to get serious about some things. We have some new members to our club here and it is time that we let them in on our secret society," Steven said as he stood up and walked over to the big screen television. All the boys whooped and made noises. Joe and Chet felt like they were about to see the real reason they were there. "You see we help each other out. We are a team. We are brothers! I understand that one of our brothers has a way to help us out a lot with a little problem that we are having," Steven said looking at Joe.

"What?" Joe asked, noticing all eyes were on him.

"Your brother is good with a computer isn’t he?" Steven asked. Joe nodded, not understanding what difference his brother’s computer skills meant to the boys. "We have ran into a little problem with Mr. Brahms."

"You mean the world history teacher?" Chet spoke up. He was also wondering what they were up to as well.

"Yes and he also teaches government," Mike pointed out. "The big senior must pass class!"

"If you are having trouble, why not ask coach to get you some tutors through the Honor Society?" Chet asked again.

"We are not going to have some nerds tutoring us after school! I don’t have time for it. I have things to do you know," Steven quipped angrily.

"I was thinking, Frank is only in tenth grade so he would not be able to help you out there," Joe added to the conversation.

"But he does help on his study hall period to type up Mr. Brahms tests. Or at least he did last year," Clayton said, drinking a Mountain Dew.

"I don’t think Frank does that this year," Joe said, not liking what he was hearing.

"Yes, but we all know that Mr. Brahms never changes his questions, just the order of the questions. I am sure Frank could get to those discs since he would know where they are stored and the password," Mike chimed in.

"How do you know there is a password on it?" Chet asked.

All the boys laughed together. Their laughter was an answer in itself that they must have already tried to do the deed on their own and had failed.

"So you want me to ask Frank to get a copy of the tests for you," Joe just blurted out.

"Exactly! It would be a great favor to the team and the school! Mr. Brahms hates us football players and he has been giving the team trouble for years dad said. Without a good solid "B" in his class, our gooses are cooked for the games after midterm!" Steven said, hitting his palm with his fist.

"But you have plenty of time before then to keep things going. I will help you guys study," Joe said, standing up excitedly. But he was met with the same humiliating laughter.

Jonathan walked over to the younger Hardy and put his arm around his shoulder. "Yes, you are going to help us study by getting a copy of those tests just for us. No one will know."

Joe swallowed hard. He could not believe what they were asking him to do. To ask his brother to cheat and betray a teacher’s trust, as well as a good friend of his father’s as well. Mr. Hardy and Mr. Brahms were good friends. That is why Frank was willing and trusted to help him out while he was sick recovering from a small bout with cancer. But that was something not everyone knew about and Joe was not about to say anything either.

"This is your chance to do something for the team. We all know that brother of yours will do anything for you," Mike called out.

"Yes, but I can’t ask Frank to do that. It could get him suspended and leave a black mark on his record," Joe warned. Then the four boys all walked over to him, cornering him away from Chet.

"So you are saying that you are not going to help us out?" Clayton said, stiffening up straight.

"I can’t. I can’t ask Frank to do that," Joe said, flat out refusing to cooperate with the plan. "There has to be another way."

"There is another way," Steven said with a sneer. Joe looked up at the muscular senior who stood a good five inches taller than he did himself. "You ARE going to get a copy of those tests one way or another by practice tomorrow."

"Or?" Joe remarked, not showing a bit of fear.

"Or I will make you regret it. Both of you," Steven said, pointing to Chet and Joe. "You will wish that you had cooperated with me. AND, if ANYONE gets word of this conversation, someone is going to have to pay the price."

"What do you mean by that?" Chet sounded off.

"You have a sister that seems to mean something to you while Joey here has a brother," Clayton said with an evil grin. "I am sure that you would not like to see anything happen to them."

With that, Chet and Joe were led to the door.

"So I am sure that we will have those tests in our hands by tomorrow afternoon. I have faith," Steven said, laughing with the rest of the boys.

Chet and Joe did not say anything to each other on the way home. They both knew that they were up against something big. Something way over their heads. But they could not say a word to anyone, for fear of their loved ones paying the price. "Or I guess we will be having some fun for the next few weeks at YOUR expense."

Chet looked over at Joe when he dropped him off in front of the Hardy house at seven thirty.

"What are we going to do?" he asked with a worried tone.

"Well, I am not going to ask Frank to do that and there is no way we are going to do it. We can’t say anything or Frank and Iola will become targets. So I guess there is only one other thing to do," Joe said.

"Quit the team?"

"Never! We are not going to let them win. We are going to stick with it and take the lumps. I would rather take the hits rather than bring Frank and Iola in on this mess," Joe answered. "We can do it. We have no choice."