"Hey!!" Joe shouted, running down the hall, ignoring the curious stares from every direction. "Hey, stop that!" The girl was banging on his locker now, her face clearly frustrated.

"What do you think you're doing?" Joe snapped, grabbing the girl's arm, and he realized he'd never seen her before. She stood just over five foot tall with long lustrous black hair and piercing green eyes. What struck Joe as strange was her clothes- a long, billowy black coat that swept the floor and buttoned up to her neck and knee-high black boots. But Joe wasn't interested in her clothes. "This is my locker!"

"Really?" the girl asked doubtfully. "I'm new here. But I'm sure this locker is the one they assigned to me."

"Let me see that," Joe said, snatching the note in the girl's hand. Frowning, he looked up. "Yes, you're right. But this locker's taken. There must have been some mistake. Come, let's go back to the office and sort this thing out."

"Sorry about what happened," April apologized, closing her new locker.

"It's okay. At least you didn't get to see what's inside."

"Yeah, I was pretty pissed when the combination they gave me didn't work," she laughed. "So April, have you made any friends so far?" Joe asked as they walked out together toward the school entrance. Joe found out that they were going to share some classes and with English class being one of them, April had gotten all excited when she heard about the upcoming play.

"Yeah, a few. There's one. Hey, Vanessa!" she called out, waving to a very familiar-looking blonde talking to a very familiar-looking looking dark-haired young man standing next to a ver familiar-looking black van. Uh-oh, Joe thought. He'd completely lost track of time, remembering his promise earlier to Frank to meet him after school for a quick cup of coffee at Starbucks.

April surprised him a lot when she suddenly whistled. "Wow, that guy talking to her is HOT! I wonder who he is. He's probably Vanessa's boyfriend anyway."

"Um, actually, April-"

"Hey, they're calling us over," April said excitedly. "Come on!" She walked off toward Vanessa and Frank, leaving Joe behind. This is one strange girl, he thought in amusement. She had just been here for a few days and already she was acting as if she had lived here all her life.

Joe arrived just in time to hear April say to Vanessa. "Say, Vanessa, who's your friend?"

Frank smiled uncertainly, and over April's shoulder he threw Joe a questioning glance. Joe just shrugged.

"Hi, April, right?" Vanessa still had her eyebrows raised. She'd been surprised to see the new girl walking out of the building with her boyfriend, but was quick to notice that Joe was not doing anything more than being friendly. She met her boyfriend's eyes and smiled. "I see you've met Joe."

"Yes, unfortunately I had some problems with my locker and Joe helped me out."

"Well, that's Joe. Ever the helpful one," Vanessa replied, smiling as she remembered the first time she met Joe. Her tires had been slashed the first day she was in Bayport and of course, the Hardys, inevitably came to her rescue. Then Vanessa applied mental brakes and shifted her mind to reverse gear and remembered April's question. "April, this is Frank Hardy. Frank, this is April Callaghan. She just moved here from Massapequa."

"Hi," Frank said, shaking her hand. April smiled demurely, but caught herself at once. "Hardy?"

"Yes, unfortunately I was destined to have him as my brother," Frank said, nodding at Joe's direction. Joe gave him a small smile.

"So, you're Vanessa's boyfriend?" April asked hesitantly. Inwardly Frank cringed. My God, she's bold. I wonder if I should tell her about Callie, he thought as he saw the first unmistakable sign of a crush.

Vanessa laughed as if the question didn't bother her at all. She linked her arm with Joe's. "No, I've snagged this Hardy. Hey, Joe, you still up for that coffee?"

"Actually, I'm not that-"

"You telling me you don't want to spend some time with me?" Vanessa had inched closer to him. When Joe sighed and smiled in resignation, Vanessa grabbed April's arm. "Come one, April, you're coming with us." Inside April felt like kicking herself. Apparently Vanessa was going out with Joe. That means I have a chance, she thought happily as she followed them into the van.

"Bayport's nice. So far I haven't seen anything that'd make me change my mind," April said, licking cream off her upper lip. "And the latte's out of this world."

"Like every latte they have in Starbucks all around the globe," Frank said dryly. "There's nothing special really, about Bayport. I'm telling you by the end of the week, you'd wish you'd moved to somewhere else."

"I doubt it," she said, smiling a little. She couldn't help stare at the elder Hardy. Too bad he had a girlfriend already. When Vanessa told her about Callie on the way in the van just now, she felt like kicking herself again.

"I'd like to live somewhere else. Somewhere exotic, unknown, full of mystery...like Asia, for example," Vanessa said dreamily. "Thailand sounds nice. The food is nice. Or China. The food is nice too."

"Is that all you ever think about? Food?" Joe teased. Vanessa stuck her tongue out.

"Speak for yourself, buster. Everytime you take me out for dinner, you'd lick every plate. Including mine." April laughed.

"That's because I've never had Thai food before. The spicy green curry they have in Ayutthaya down Columbia St was heavenly. Now, that's out of this world."

"What do you like, Frank?" April asked, smiling coyly.

"I like the spicy soup with everything thrown in-chicken, meat, seafood,vegetables- what's it called again, Vanessa?"

"The tom yam soup," Vanessa answered matter-of-factly.

"You've got to take me there sometime," April said. "I'd love to try it."

"We'd love to bring you there," Frank said and April smiled again. Joe and Vanessa exchanged knowing glances. If you don't let her Gothic style of fashion get to you, April is actually a knockout, Joe thought. Not that Frank is a sucker for every pretty face he sees but for his and Callie's sakes, I hope he knows what he's doing.

"That's good, Mr Hardy, emotion! Pour it all out," Mr Weinhardt said from his director's chair. They were staging the scene where The Phantom had kidnapped Christine to make her choose between being with him hence saving Raoul's life or freedom, killing Raoul in exchange.

Joe smiled. He was getting better and better each day. Last night they had another rehearsal and Joe had a feeling that the play was going to be a great success. Tonight they were supposed to have another one but Mr Weinhardt had pulled him aside just before class and suggested they have a private session tonight at his house. Joe had obliged.

"Right. Let's take it from the top," Mr Weinhardt said to the cast. "Mr Hardy, excellent job. You too Mr Hooper." After a beat, he added. "I just need you to improvise a little on the line when you said-" his face turned blank for a little while and then he picked up the scriptbook on his lap and flipped through

"I thought he said he knew the play by heart?" Vanessa whispered to Biff, whose arm was encircling her neck at the moment. Biff shrugged. "Maybe he forgot."

"- 'So be it! Now let there be war upon you both'. Now what I want you to do is try to put more power into this line. Raoul here is taking the woman you love away from you and what you're supposed to show is anger. Pure anger! The way you did it was more on the sinister side, as if you cared more about hurting Raoul than winning Christine's love. Now I want to hear fury, anger like fire coursing through your veins, let the audience feel your soul, your suffering of being denied love!" Mr Weinhardt said with passion.

Biff nodded and at the same time, stole a glance at Joe who was standing a few feet away. Joe was staring at the teacher with worshipping eyes, a rapturous expression on his face.

"Going out again?" Frank asked. The brothers were hanging out in Joe's room after dinner and when Joe started dressing up, Frank felt like he had to ask Joe what had been bugging him all night.

"Yeah."

"The school hall?"

"Nope, we're going to Mr Weinhardt's house tonight." Joe looked at his brother. "Don't wait up for me. I don't know when I'll be back."

"Joe, I want to ask you something and I expect you to give me an honest answer," Frank said seriously.

"What is it?" Joe asked, changing into a fresh pair of jeans.

"Were you lying to me the last two nights when you said you had rehearsal at the school hall?" Frank blurted out. No point in holding back now. He had found out Joe had been lying to him during lunch today.

Joe had frozen with his pants hanging halfway down his thighs. "What are you talking about?"

"I had lunch today with Vanessa and she told me a few interesting things," Frank said. "Where were you?"

Joe tried hard to remember. Squinting a little, his face suddenly brightened. "I skipped lunch to discuss a few things with Mr Weinhardt."

"What things?"

"Uh, let's see," Joe said slowly. What had they talked about? "The play," he answered simply at last. "What's with the 20 questions, Frank?"

"Vanessa told me there had been no rehearsals at the school hall last night. Or the night before either," Frank said, the expression on his face unreadable.

Joe was confused. Why would Vanessa say anything like that? Of course they were. He remembered it perfectly and clearly. "Frank, I don't understand. We did have a rehearsal that night. Everyone was there. Why-why would she say something like that?"

"I don't know, Joe. I was hoping you could tell me," Frank said evenly. He never liked being lied to, especially by his own brother whom he had made it his principle to always take care of.

Joe was starting to get angry. "Are you saying that I lied to you, Frank? You know I didn't. I know I didn't. Vanessa's mom told her that you called her that night. Didn't that check it out?"

"She went out with Charlene to finish their Science project, not to a rehearsal," Frank said. "I even checked it out with Biff. He was out watching a movie that night with Kara Cahill. Where were you, Joe?"

"I told you, Frank, I was at the school hall," Joe said in exasperation. He couldn't believe this! His girlfriend lying, Biff lying...what is going on? He remembered being greeted by Mr Weinhardt and they had acted out the scene where Charlene, who played Carlotta the prima donna was singing when The Phantom interrupted her and it went on fine. The image of the prop chandelier falling was still clear in his mind. I couldn't have imagined it all, he thought in anger.

The sight of Frank's unsmiling, disbelieving face angered him even more. "Look, Frank, I don't know what games you guys are playing here but I'm telling you it's not funny so quit it, okay? All I know is I did have a rehearsal that night and the night before and I have one now. So if you'll excuse me-" Joe furiously took off his T-shirt to change when he caught Frank staring at his neck.

"What's that on your neck?" Frank squinted to get a better look. With his naked torso, the mark on Joe's neck was more prominent. "Looks like a hickey."

"Don't be ridiculous, Frank. It's just a rash, I think," Joe said, a tad uncertain himself. "If it's other than that, can't remember where I got it."

Before Frank could say anything more, Joe put on a sweater and stormed out of the room. Wait till I get my hands on Vanessa and Biff. I don't know why they're doing this. They were there, for God's sake, he fumed silently as he stood waiting outside the door. A few minutes later, a two-seater zoomed down the street and stopped in front of the house. Frank watched from the upstairs window as his brother got in the passenger seat with a dry mouth and quaking heart. It was the same car which had tried to run him down the other night!

Pain PG