Biff Hooper had to admit that he had had a very enjoyable evening, despite the fact that he was technically assisting the Hardy brothers on a very serious case! Frank had joined them, minus his disguise, after he had attended a staff meeting. The three of them had sat at the kitchen table to talk about the goings-on at Thomson High. Biff, of course, didn’t have much to contribute, but he was fascinated by his friends’ ability to gather and remember tiny details about people and conversations. Biff had known for a long time that Frank and Joe had been involved in solving many cases, but he had seldom been involved at this level. It struck him that Frank was so careful and meticulous in the way he noted things down, and it absolutely blew him away that Frank could convince other people that he was a few years older and a trainee teacher! Joe’s powers of observation were also amazing, although Biff noticed that the younger Hardy frequently spoke about his ‘gut feeling’ about a person. Frank, however, appeared to be highly respectful of his younger brother’s intuition and noted down all of Joe’s impressions in the same, serious way he listed facts.

As Biff began turning off the lights and television, it occurred to him that while the Hardy brothers were two very different people, their passion for problem solving was exactly the same. While Frank had sat virtually still during the discussion, Joe had been constantly up and down out of his seat, fidgeting and pacing. Frank’s notes were neat and orderly, while Joe had had trouble reading his own scribblings back to himself! Frank could play the older adult to perfection while Joe was alarmingly convincing as the troubled, badly behaved teenager! It was a wonder the brothers could put up with each other, but all of their close friends knew one Hardy would do anything for the other.

Walking past Joe’s bedroom Biff paused to stand in the open doorway and grinned. Joe was sprawled on the unmade bed, legs up the wall, headphones on, and flicking through a sports magazine. They had only been in the apartment for two days, but the room looked as though a bomb had hit it.

Joe must have decided it was time to actually go to bed because he suddenly swung his long legs off the wall, sending two more magazines to the already cluttered floor. He caught sight of Biff in the door way and grinned, taking the headphones off.

‘What?’ he demanded, returning his friend’s grin.

‘No wonder Frank and you don’t share a room at home,’ Biff said. ‘He’d go ballistic having to put up with all this!’

Joe looked around at his room as if he was seeing the mess for the first time. He shrugged.

‘It’s organized chaos,’ he explained. ‘I know where everything is. I reckon Frank would drive me crazy! He’d be forever putting stuff away! I’d never be able to find anything.’

‘Do you think I’ll get called up to the school tomorrow after today’s suspension?’ asked Biff.

‘Doubt it,’ replied Joe. ‘They said the suspension paperwork will be sent home. Lucky it’s coming to you! Mum would have a fit! Hey, that reminds me. I have to quickly do some Maths homework.’

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ said Biff.

‘No!’ protested Joe. ‘Help me do it. I have to deliberately do a crappy job of it.’

‘Okay,’ said Biff, perching on the edge of the desk, not quite knowing whether Joe meant to offend him or not!

Between them, the two boys managed to complete the Maths homework sheet in a manner that would guarantee a lecture from the teacher once she had corrected it. With a mischievous glint in his eye, Joe added a few doodlings, just to convince the teacher that his mind had not been on the task at hand.

‘A magnificent job, even if I do say so myself,’ announced Joe gleefully. ‘Thanks for your help.’

‘You really love all this, don’t you,’ stated Biff as he leant back in the chair. The younger Hardy seemed in no hurry to go to sleep, despite the lateness of the hour.

‘There’s nothing like being on a case,’ admitted Joe as he stuffed the homework sheet into his bag. ‘At the start, anyone could be a suspect. You never know what’s gonna happen next. Little clues end up being the ones that matter. And I get to work with one of the best detective minds in the business.’

‘Yeah, your Dad’s got quite a reputation,’ agreed Biff.

‘Well, Dad’s great, but I actually meant my irritatingly fastidious brother,’ confessed Joe, blushing slightly. While he enjoyed teaming up with their father, Joe loved working side by side with Frank and feeling the camaraderie between them.

‘Don’t get me wrong,’ he added. ‘Frank is overly cautious, meticulous, far too serious for his own good, and a pain in the neck, but he’s actually not too bad once you get to know him.’

Biff punched his younger friend playfully on the arm.

‘He’s not that bad,’ Biff told him, grinning.

‘No?’ said Joe, folding his arms across his chest. ‘Bet you he gave you a whole list of things I was likely to do and you should pick me up on.’

‘Absolutely not,’ said Biff, although it was true that Frank had taken him aside a few nights ago.

‘Liar,’ said Joe good-humouredly as he got up from his chair. ‘He probably listed all my bad habits and made you promise you’d keep me out of trouble.’ With an exaggerated flourish, he picked up the bedspread by its edges and lifted it so that all the stuff on the bed slid onto the floor.