J.M.J.

Welcome and happy Hardy Boys Day! The first Hardy Boys book was released on June 1, 1927 (96 years ago—we need to start planning a big party for four years from now!). I had several thoughts of what I could post today to celebrate, but in the end, I decided to post the first chapter of my long story that I'm working on. It's quite a bit different from the other stories I've written, and very long, just as a heads-up. I have quite a bit written already, but I've been experimenting with something a little different than how I usually write. Each chapter simply details each day's events, which means that the chapters are more uneven lengths than I usually write. I thought it would be fun to post each chapter on the day on which it takes place. That means that there will be stretches where there will be a chapter every day, and other stretches where there might be as much as a week between each chapter. That might be a little weird to read, but I want to try it anyway. The biggest problem right off the bat is that the next chapter doesn't actually happen until June 19, so it will be a little while before I post it. This is more of a prologue than anything, though. I hope you stick around for the rest of the story and that you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying writing it! God bless!

Castaways

June 1 – Thursday

Shortly after noon, eighteen-year-old Joe Hardy pulled his car into the driveway of the Hardy house at the corner of High and Elm Streets, pausing just long enough to grab his backpack—which was stuffed until it was nearly bursting—out of the seat next to him. He ran onto the porch, jumping over the steps, and threw the door open.

"I'm done!" he shouted. "I'm officially done with high school! Oh, wow, that's weird. I really am done with high school."

His mother, Laura, had come to meet him when she saw his car pull up, and she gave him a hug now. "I can't believe it. Both of my boys are done with high school."

"Only if Joe passed all his finals," spoke up a voice from the kitchen. It was Joe's Aunt Gertrude, his father's sister who had lived with the family for the last couple of years.

Joe rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "They already gave me my honor cords to wear at graduation tomorrow night, Auntie. I think I passed. Where's Frank?"

"He's up in his room," Laura said with a nod at the stairs. She smiled at him again. "Congratulations, Joe."

He gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. "Thanks, Mom." Then he dashed up the stairs, paused to throw his backpack through the door to his room, and then burst into his older brother's room. "I'm done, Frank! I'll never have to sit through another high school class again."

Nineteen-year-old Frank looked over the top of the book he was reading. "Funny. You don't look any smarter."

"Hardy-har-har," Joe retorted. "You're hilarious. You should be a stand-up comic."

"At least I wouldn't starve at it like you would," Frank continued the teasing, hiding his grin behind his book.

"That's what they said about one comedian I heard about," Joe replied with a straight face. "In fact, they laughed at him when he said he wanted to do stand-up. But then he finally got to do his routine on stage, and nobody was laughing then."

It took Frank a second and then he snorted with laughter. "I stand by my point. But I think I'll stick with the plan to be a detective."

Joe flopped on Frank's bed. "Me, too. So…what about the other plan?"

"What other plan?" Frank teased innocently.

"The trip to Hawaii? You know, that we've been talking about for a year?"

"We're all set," Frank replied. "We're leaving the tenth, and then we've got two weeks in Hawaii."

Joe did a fist-pump in the air. "Yes! This is going to be awesome! I hope nothing happens so none of the guys will have to back out at the last minute."

The Hardys and their four closest friends—Chet Morton, Biff Hooper, Tony Prito, and Phil Cohen—had been planning to take a trip to Hawaii to celebrate the graduation of Joe and Biff, the two youngest members of their group. There was the sobering possibility that this might be the last time all six of them would be able to do something like this, but they all refused to think about that. They would simply enjoy the moment while it was here and let tomorrow take care of itself.

Frank glanced at the time in the corner of his laptop's screen. "We'd better be getting to the airport soon. Nancy's plane will be landing in about half an hour."

Joe shook his head. "I still can't believe she's coming all this way just for my graduation."

"Why not?" Frank closed his laptop and retrieved his wallet so he could drive to the airport.

"Well, she didn't come to yours."

"So? She was graduating last year herself. She was a lot busier then."

"I know, but…" Joe stopped himself. There were very few things that were off-limits for teasing between him and Frank, but Nancy Drew was one of them. Her dad was an old friend of the boys' father, Fenton Hardy, and so they had known Nancy since they were kids. Given that and the fact that Nancy was just as fascinated by mysteries as Frank and Joe were, it was only natural that the three should have been good friends all this time. The one hitch in it had been that one disastrous date that Frank had asked Nancy on when they were fifteen. Their friendship had survived it and all seemed well, but none of them ever talked about that incident, and Joe found himself wondering occasionally whether Frank and Nancy now had as much of a brother-sister relationship as he had with Nancy himself.

In any case, he followed Frank downstairs, where Frank called to their mother that they were headed for the airport.

"Do you think Aunt Gertrude is still against the idea of Nancy staying here?" Joe asked with a grin as they walked toward his car. It was in the way of Frank's, so they would have to take it.

Frank shook his head and rolled his eyes slightly. "She's going to be in the guest room over the garage. I don't see how anyone could have an issue with that."

"Sometimes I get the distinct feeling that Aunt Gertrude doesn't trust us," Joe replied, still grinning.

They reached the airport just as Nancy texted to say that she had landed. That did leave them waiting by the luggage carousel for very long before they saw the strawberry-blonde nineteen-year-old coming toward them. She waved and smiled and greeted them both with hugs.

"I'm so glad to see you!" she said. "I just wish I didn't have to fly back already on Sunday."

"You might get tired of us if you stay any longer than that," Frank teased her.

"I doubt that," Nancy replied.

Joe raised his eyebrows slightly, but before he could get any other hints, Frank asked, "Do you have any other luggage with you?"

"Nope, just my carry-on," Nancy replied.

"I'll take it for you," Frank offered, and Nancy thanked him and let him take the bag.

Joe shook his head slightly at this exchange, and then he said, "Since today was the last day of school—half-day, actually—we're having a kind of pre-graduation party tonight at our place. Commencement and the school's party are tomorrow, and then the party that Mom and Dad are hosting and invited all our relatives to is on Saturday, but tonight we're just having some of our friends over, like Callie and Iola and Chet."

"Great!" Nancy said, her smile never dimming at the mention of Frank's girlfriend, Callie Shaw. "I'd love to see them all again."

Joe had to give up trying to figure it out after that.

"So, what have you two been up to?" Nancy asked, once they were all settled in Joe's car. "Besides graduating, obviously."

"We haven't had a case in a little while, if that's what you mean," Frank reported in some disappointment. "It's been really weird this year, with me in college and Joe still in high school."

"It should be a lot easier to take on cases when we're both in college," Joe added optimistically. "At least we won't have quite such wildly different schedules."

"How about you, Nance?" Frank asked.

"I just had a case a couple weeks ago, right after Ned finished his school year," Nancy replied, referring to her boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, who had just finished his sophomore year of college. "It didn't turn out to be much. We thought it was a kidnapping at first, but it was actually just a miscommunication. We still had fun working on it, though."

"You mean you and Ned?" Joe asked.

"Mm-hmm. He's a good sport and me and my mysteries, and he's a big help working on them, too."

"Hopefully, the next mystery will be something more exciting," Frank said.

Nancy nodded. "I hope so."

HBNDHBNDHB

The party that evening was a lot of fun. All of the Hardys' core friend group were there, along with several others. They grilled hamburgers, played several games, and towards the end of the evening, those who were more musically-inclined started a sing-along. Joe was, of course, in the middle of that. Frank, on the other hand, had less confidence in his singing abilities, so he hung more towards the peripheries. Callie came and sat next to him.

"Aren't you going to help them sing?" Frank asked.

"Oh, I don't know." Callie glanced at the rest of the group and chuckled. "It sounds like they don't need much help."

"They're loud enough that they probably wouldn't even notice my off-key singing," Frank joked.

Callie laughed. "It's so weird, isn't it?"

"The way I sing."

"No, silly," Callie replied. "That we're all graduated now, even Joe and Iola and Biff. It seemed like we were all in school together forever, and now all the sudden it's really over. I know we've already been in college a year, which has been weird enough, but now it's like all our ties to Bayport High have been cut off."

"I don't think it's quite that dramatic," Frank said. "Besides, it's exciting. We've all got our whole lives ahead of us. Where do you think we'll all be in ten years?"

Callie closed her eyes. "It's hard to say. I know where I want to be."

Frank watched her face and the way the gentle breeze stirred her blonde hair slightly. She had to be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. "So do I."

HBNDHBNDHB

Chet and Iola were the last ones to leave. They were still there after dark, and since it was a clear night, they all decided to lie in the backyard and look up at the stars. Bayport was small enough that there were still a decent amount of stars visible. One of Chet's hobbies in the past had been astronomy, and so he was able to point out several constellations.

"It makes me feel small to think about how far apart the stars are and how many billions and billions of miles of space there is out there," Iola commented, shivering a little.

"It makes me feel weird to think about how we're basically plastered to the side of a ball that's hurtling through space and spinning at a ridiculous rate all at the same time," Joe said, the darkness hiding his smirk.

"Um, yeah, I guess you can look at it that way, too," Iola said.

"I think the latitude here is about forty-two degrees," Joe went on. "That means we're slightly closer to the equator than not."

"So?" Chet asked.

"So that means that we're plastered about a quarter of the way down the side of the ball," Joe went on. "It would be one thing to be standing at the top of the ball, spinning around, but the way it is, it's like we're clinging onto the side. And, Chet, you've got your feet to the north, so you're basically hanging on upside down."

Chet buried his fingers into the grass, hoping nobody else would notice. "Cut it out, Joe. You're making me dizzy."

"Isn't it something to think about that there are actually people up there in space right now?" Nancy asked, by means of changing the subject at least slightly. "I think there are ten on the International Space Station. Is that right?"

"I think there are actually fourteen people in space now," Frank replied. "They're not all on the ISS, though. I used to want to be an astronaut."

"And you don't now?" Iola asked in pretended shock.

"It would still be cool," Frank conceded, "but the sorts of mysteries they're working on up there are a little different than the type I like to work on."

"If you could do anything in the world for a job, what would you do?" Iola asked. "I don't care if you say something impossible or that nobody does anymore, like being a dragon-tamer or something."

"Me?" Frank asked.

"Yeah, you," Iola replied. "Actually, everybody. You just go first, Frank."

"Uh, well, I guess I just want to be a detective," Frank said.

"Boring," Iola replied. "What about you, Chet?"

"Hmm. That's a tough one. Anything at all?" Chet asked. When Iola confirmed it, Chet hummed thoughtfully again. "Well, let's see. I don't want to pick something dumb. Can I just do one thing? I don't know how I'd stick to just one job, even if it was something awesome."

"Eh, you can think about it a little longer," Iola decided. "Nancy, what about you?"

Nancy chuckled slightly. "How serious are we being here?"

"How serious can it be when 'dragon-tamer' is a legitimate option?" Joe countered.

"But it is serious," Iola insisted. "Come on, Joe; if dragons were real, you'd want to tame them or fight them, admit it."

"You do have a point there," Joe conceded. "Okay, sign me up as a dragon-fighter."

"All right. Nancy, did you decide yet?" Iola asked.

Nancy paused, looking up at the stars. "I want to do so many things, it's hard to pick just one."

"Same," Chet agreed.

Nancy chuckled. "I guess, maybe, what would cover it the best would be to be a world traveler, who also solves mysteries everywhere I go. I just want to have adventures and everything there is to see."

"I think I want to be a zookeeper," Chet said finally. "You know, there's a lot more to it than you'd think. You've got to know all about all these different kind of animals and work with ones that are potentially dangerous. It would be exciting!"

"Okay, now you, Iola," Joe said. "What would you do if you could do anything in the world?"

Iola paused thoughtfully. "You want to fight dragons, Joe?"

"That's what I said," Joe agreed.

"Then I'd want to fight dragons with you," Iola said.

"Ick," Chet retorted. "Way to go and make the whole thing mushy and weird, Sis."

Iola only laughed, and little by little the conversation turned elsewhere until finally, the Mortons decided they had better be going home. Frank, Joe, and Nancy sat up a little longer, continuing to look at the stars. Bayport was the sort of city that became quiet at night, and they thought they could even hear the ocean from here.

"You must be getting tired, Nance," Frank said after a little while.

"Not really," Nancy replied. "It wasn't a very long flight. And—I don't know—Do either of you have a feeling like we're on the very edge of something?"

"I know I do," Joe said. "But I thought that was just graduating and the rest of my life and all that."

"But now that you and Iola and Biff are graduating, none of us have any close friends still in high school," Frank pointed out. "It's like we're really turning the page on that one now."

"It's more than that," Nancy said. "I'm not sure how to explain it."

"Like it feels like nothing's ever going to be the same again?" Joe asked.

Nancy nodded. "That's right. It comes close at least."

"That's not altogether a bad thing," Frank replied. "Things have to change, one way or the other. What was in the past was good, but trying to keep things from ever changing wouldn't be. I think there are a lot of good changes in the future."

"Probably," Joe agreed. "But that doesn't mean it's easy."