chapter 1 ;; [by GG]
I was emerging from the empty mine shaft of Jake Hurley when his ancient train rumbled to a stop before me. My disappointment could shatter all of the windows on the train, but instead it was Lori’s screams. I glared at her as she hopped up and down, pointing at my head.
“Aw, it’s so cute!” Joe brought his fingers up to my hair, pulling something from it. Lori kept squealing as he tugged.
“Okay, ow!” I groaned, trying to slap his hand away, but instead he grabbed it with his other hand. In a second, the release, and in his pinch was a wiggling lizard.
“Hello, Spike!” Joe beamed at the reptile in his hands, spreading out one if it’s sticky hands—paws—er- claws. Ugh, what are those, anyways?
“Must my brother always name animals the boring usual stuff?” Frank’s deep voice rolled over Joe’s shoulder, squinting at me. “Come on and sit in the dining car with us, Nancy.” I failed to notice his tone as I followed up the steps and into the sweltering train car.
Lori kept a safe ten yards away from me as I plopped down on a seat across from Frank. Joe was already making a halter-leash for his lizard as Lori sighed, again.
“So what did you find?” Frank pulled out a notebook and set it out in the middle of the table, blank. Joe ripped the sheet out and put it under ‘Spike’.
“Ew, Joe! My notes are on the other side of that!” I smoothed my hair to make sure nothing else was in it and sat back in the chair. Frank, now exasperated, started madly through his notebook to find another blank sheet.
“Fanny, I’ve GOT to talk to you!” Now, Lori grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of my chair, leaving it in the isle as she tugged me all the way to the next car, where she leaned in to my ear. I boredly waited to see what she wanted, hoping it wasn’t anything to do with Jake Hurley. Based on what I didn’t find today, I hoped she never remembered his name ever again.
chapter 2 ;; [by Kaitie]
"Okay, okay, so you remember when you were like, going back and forth between me and Tino about our break-up and then you got him to apologize and then we got back together again?"
I blinked and cautiously nodded, hoping I had understood her correctly.
She was bobbing up and down excitedly, letting out small squeals every now and then. "Well, thanks to you, Francie, look!"
She stuck out her right hand and stared eagerly at me, expecting me to say something. But it looked completely normal.
She glanced down for a second. "Oh, yeah." She switched out her hands and displayed her left, which held an oversized, expensive-looking diamond ring.
"Tino and I are getting married!!"
For a second, I just stared at her like she was crazy. I mean, who would want to be engaged to that egotistical jerk of a 'detective'? But then, I reminded myself that she truly liked him, so I had to be happy for her. Pretend to be happy, at least.
"Wow, that's great, Lori!" I said in the most enthusiastic voice I could muster.
"I KNOW!" she closed her eyes and let out a piercing squeal, making me wince. "I just can't believe it! Well, actually, I can, but you know what I mean."
I forced a smile and nodded. "Why are you telling me this, but not anyone else?"
She suddenly got a super-serious look on her face, "Oh, right. You can't breathe a word of this to ANYONE. Not even those Sharkey guys you're friends with." I almost said something, but refrained as she continued. "Since you managed to find Jake's mine using the clues on that letter I gave you, I've decided that you are a totally trustworthy person, Nadine." Oh, yeah. You know that someone REALLY trusts you when they can't even call you by the same name twice in a row. "So I want you to, like, help us prepare. We plan to get married right here on this train!"
"Um, not to interrupt, but - don't you need a liscense first?"
Lori scoffed. "Of course not! My daddy already got one for me. Anyway. . "
The rest of her excited babbling kind of faded in my ears, so I just nodded and gave the occasional "Right", or "Okay".
When she was finally done, I had absolutely no idea what the last thing she'd said was. "Natalie, are you okay? Why aren't you saying anything?"
I was just about to respond when she gasped, dramatically covering her mouth with her hand. "You're not one of those people who can, like, fall asleep with their eyes open, are you?"
I stared at her for a second. "Uuhhh, no."
"Oh." There was an awkward silence. "Anyway, meet me in the caboose later, and I'll tell you EVERYTHING!" She let out one last squeal and headed towards the back of the train, leaving me bored and confused and weirded out all at the same time.
chapter 3 ;; [by GG]
I headed back into the now-cold dinning room with my eyes nearly crossed.
Joe gasped, jumping up to put his arms around me before I sat down. "I think Nancy just fainted with her eyes open, Frank!"
I blinked as he kneeled and lowered me to the floor, still holding me. "Do you need some water, or something?" Joe asked quietly, cradling my head.
"No, but I'd like to sit down in my chair like I intended to, Joeseph."
"Oooh, full name!" Frank gurgled from his chair, scribbling on something.
I glared at him as I sat down, propping my cheek in my fist. Still starring at him, I pulled out my phone with the spare hand. "Geooorge?" I wavered, trying to keep my voice straight. "Is Bess there?" I watched Joe frantically look through his stack of books on the table.
"Yeah, what's up, Nancy? It sounds like John Grey pulled a ghost joke on you."
Rubbing my eyelids, I said carefully, "I think I just helped the worst marriage that should never happen happen."
"WHAT?" I help the phone away from me ear a little.
"Well, you see, some one on the train--"
"LORI?" Bess screamed.
"SOMEONE, and they were mad at this guy, and--"
"TINO?"
"And so now, WHOEVER it is, well, they're getting married.... and now I have to.." I rubbed my eyes again, blinking at a lamp on the wall. Joe had now moved on to searching the floor.
"Oh my gosh, Nancy Drew, is it you and Frank?" Bess sounded a little hurt, because I knew she and him like liked eachother.
"EW! Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew NO!" I squealed, leaping out of my chair. Joe gasped, jumped up, and came towards me.
"Don't move, Nance!"
"Was that Joe?" George laughed into my ear.
Joe kept towards me, but, dazed as I was, I backed myself against the wall. He firmly grabbed me by both shoulders and leaned closed to me, squinting.
"Come on, Joe, now isn't the time!" I moaned. Now, I finally got it as he pinched something in my hair. "GET YOUR STUPID LIZARD OUT OF MY HAIR!" I yelled.
"Nancy, why is there a lizard in your hair?"
"But it's not me and Frank, it's...." I thought quickly as Joe examined my hair. "...Charleena." Oops. "I mean, not her, either."
"So it IS Lori!"
"Come on Bess. That is not the point. I just want to know why there is a lizard in Nancy's hair." George finally got it out, before putting the phone down to laugh again.
chapter 4 ;; [by Kaitie]
"It's a long story." I told them, squirming as I felt the creature run up to the top of my head. "EW, get it off!"
Joe finally lifted the lizard - err, Spike - off of my head and cradled him in his hand, stroking its back.
"That thing isn't a dog, you know. . ."
"I know! But lizards are animals, too. Isn't that right, Spike?"
Spike just stared at him, unmoving for a while. Then he ran up Joe's arm and crawled down his back, and before we could do anything about it, he skittered across the floor of the dining car. "NO! SPIKEY!"
Joe ran after it, dropping to the ground and scouting the floor for him, but I assumed it didn't go well. When he came back in, he looked as if he were about to cry. "Spike is gone."
"Again?" Frank commented blankly, not looking up from his notebook.
Joe sighed and plopped down in the end chair at the table, when I remembered that I had Bess and George on the phone.
"Oh, guys, I'm sorry! I got totally distracted!" No answer.
"Hello?"
. . .
"Shoot, they must've hung up." I murmured, slipping my phone into the pocket of my jeans.
When I looked up, the first thing I saw was Joe's defeated expression.
"Are. . are you okay?"
He nodded, but didn't say anything.
"It was a lizard, Joe. You'll probably find him anyway," I said, "I mean, he's obviously trapped between these three rooms."
Joe's face lit up, just as Frank sighed contentedly. "Finally, I re-wrote all of my notes."
His brother stared at him. "You remembered all of your notes?"
"No, I had them written down on this, in case I lost my notebook." He pulled out a small slip of paper and showed it to us, before putting it back in his pocket.
"If you had it written down there, then why the heck did you need to re-write it all in your journal?"
"Notebook."
"Whatever."
"I like to keep all of my case-related things in one place. . ."
The brothers' squabbling was quite amusing, but I couldn't stop thinking about. . . you know. Lori? And. . . Tino?
Yeah. It was just weird. And why did I have to 'help'? What was there to do? I sighed verbally, but neither of the Hardys seemed to have noticed.
I guess I would find out later.
chapter 5 ;; [by GG]
I gave Joe a reassuring pat, knowing how disappointment got him down. He looked up from his hands. I smiled faintly. He smiled back, and then craned his neck back a little. I hugged him with one arm, about to give him peck on the cheek.
"Ew." Frank glared at us. I rolled my eyes, sitting down next to Joe.
"So, anyways, I didn't find anything in Jake's mine.... I don't know why, but there were only lizards an--"
Joe started snooping around, crawling on his knees into the room with Charleena.
I widened my eyes and looked back at Frank. "...and I walked around. There was a cave in train-track thing, and that was it." I held up my hands, resting my elbows against the table. Frank nodded, putting his fingertips together and pressing them together hard. I sat back, crossing my arms.
"AAAAAUGH! You let go of me, you little..." Frank grinned as Charleena screamed. Or hollered.
As soon as I ducked my head around the corner, I bit my lip. 'Spike' was scuttering over Charleena's keyboard, and Joe was smashing his hands down all over it. Charleena was swatting at Joe, and yelling. Frank put earplugs in and kept grinning. Wait, where did Frank get earplugs?
Shaking my head, I watched Charleena slam her laptop closed and weld it, swinging madly at Joe. He backed up, flinging his arms out to grab something, but instead knocked me over backwards. In slow motion, he stepped on Frank's toes and fell over backwards on him.
"Three sleuth pile up!" I laughed until my shins ached, watching Joe try to get off of Frank, who had his arm flapping about, hitting me in the face a few times. Charleena was red, watching us as we tried to un-wedge from the doorway.
"Get out of my sight!" Charleena screamed down at Joe. I frowned at her, slapping Frank's arm.
"Hey, chill out, Charleena! He's a boy that likes his rodents." I tried to stay calm. Really.
"Reptile." Joe took a deep breath. That was it.
"Shut UP, Joe! Get out of my sight, too!" I yelled at him, shoving Frank out of the way as I ran to my room in the sleeping car. Once I got in and locked the door, I checked my clothes for any stray reptiles and finally flipped my hair over, combing through it. Satisfied, I quickly changed my clothes and flopped back into my bed. I sighed and took out my phone, calling Bess. I got a busy signal and rolled my eyes, staring at the old ceiling. It was weird, now that all of the options were used up with the mystery. Was Jake's mine nothing at all, just a wild goose chase to distract from it's real location?
I jerked from my thoughts as my phone vibrated against my hand. Bess.
"It took you long enough."
Bess laughed. Joe laughed.
Wait, what?
"Uh..." I closed my eyes.
"Hey Nancy, Joe called me a second ago... he seems pretty upset."
"Nancy, I'm upset." Joe pouted.
"Yeah, he's on the other line. Soooo, talk amongst yourselves for a second, I gotta text George real quick." There was a pause as I pressed a finger between my eyebrows.
"Look, Nancy. I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about Jake Hurley?"
"No." I frowned as I heard Bess tapping away at something.
"Okay, back." Bess took a deep breath.
"Were you, like, bongo-drumming?" Joe asked.
"Uh..." Bess paused, mumbling something. "Yeah."
"Cool."
I couldn't come up with another expression to make, so I just flopped my free hand around on the quilt.
chapter 6 ;; [by Kaitie]
There was a short while of silence, with no one saying anything; not even Bess.
"Woooww, you guys. Hostility," she finally spoke up, "Never thought I'd see that from Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew. Or hear it."
Neither of us said anything.
Why was I so angry about the stupid reptile? It was really pathetic, actually. I hardly ever get mad about little things like that.
But if I had to hear the name Spike one more time. . .
"I never found Spike after the whole Charleena thing." Joe finally said in a monotone voice. I stiffened and breathed deeply. Then I hit the 'off' button.
Of course, we would eventually go back to how we were before he found. . . the S-word. But when?
I know I wasn't going to do anything about it. . . yet.
I all of a sudden heard something in front of my door. It wasn't talking, or knocking, or even footsteps, but I could hear something. I turned to face it, just as an envelope was slipped under the door.
Ugh, stupid letters.
Begrudgingly, I forced myself to walk over and pick it up. "Nancy" was written on it in unfamiliar handwriting. My eyebrows came together in confusion as I opened it up and took out the small paper inside.
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
Narwhals are endangered
And so are you"
I scrunched my nose at the oddness. Narwhals? Why narwhals?
This person obviously wasn't a poet. And not quite a professional at sending threats.
Although this was supposed to be a very serious scenario, I bent over and held onto my knees with laughter. What in the world did narwhals have to do with anything?
After I had finally regained myself, I folded the note back up and hid it under a sweater in my dresser.
It wasn't the greatest hiding place, but it would have to do for now.
Now I heard more noises coming from outside of my door, but this time it was voices. Or, should I say, one voice.
"Camille. . . can you hear me?"
Hrm, can you guess who?
There was a while of silence. "Hello? Are you here, Camille?" John Grey must've been fiddling with something, I was assuming some equipment.
My ear was pressed against the door as I struggled to listen in, hoping he would say something informative. . . not just asking if a ghost was on board.
For a while it was pretty repetitive, but then he started getting excited.
"Yes! Yes, you are here! Hello! My name is John!"
I stared at the door with a 'you-are-insane' look, as though it were John. Wow, he was introducing himself to 'Camille'. This had to be interesting.
Then, I heard it. It was very soft, and sounding like it was floating through the air. A female voice. "Hello, John. . ."
John made a little excited noise and did something, but I couldn't tell what. "This is fantastic!"
That's when I decided to go out and see what was up.
The hallway stood completely empty, except for John, who had a large box-like thing strapped across his waist. There were tons of buttons and dials and switches on it. "Oh, hi, John."
"Hey, Nancy! You came at just the right time, listen to this!" He gave me a set of headphones and plugged them in somewhere, pressing a green button.
The same floaty woman's voice I had heard earlier filled my ears, except this one sounded much louder, so I assumed he had upped the volume level.
"I ran it through a quick filter and removed the background noise, so you can hear Camille perfectly. Isn't it great?"
"Wow, that's very interesting," I said, trying my best to sound excited about his work.
"Eh, you obviously don't care. But that's okay. Ghosts aren't everyone's cup of tea."
"Um, John. . . are you sure it wasn't just one of the females on the train?"
He looked horrified. "I'm positive. Did you even hear her voice? Neither Lori nor Charleena could've spoken that way."
"But they could've -"
"No buts. That was Camille. Anyway, thanks for the chat, but I've got to get back to work. See ya." I wanted to suggest a voice digsuise device, but I decided against it. Maybe I needed to loosen up a bit about the whole ghost thing. You'd think I'd be loose enough by now, what with being around Joe so much. Anyway, I shook off the thoughts and decided to ask Tino about the whole engagement ordeal.
chapter 7 ;; [by GG]
The first time I was not glad to be glad to see Joe (or some version of that) happened now.
"Naaaancy." Joe came up to me slowly, like a person trying to catch a dog. I stood there, with my hands on my hips. Glaring wasn't working lately with Joe, so he finally got close enough to grabbed my shoulders.
"Don't tell me somethings in my hair, again." I moaned.
"No, I just wanted to say I'm sorry." Joe gave me a tight hug, throwing his 'cute eyes' on. He gave me a kiss. I kept glaring at him. "And that I totally want to know what your thinking about." In response, I made my face blank and stared into his eyes. The old joke of ours.
"I know what your thinking about." I said flatly. "You just want to make sure your... whatever... isn't in my hair."
"Nope." He grinned a little, just barely. "And, are you thinking about Jake Hurley? Probably about the mine, I suppose."
"Trueee." I said thoughtfully. He kissed me again and I kissed him back. He grinned.
"And?" He pulled my chin closer to his. I, or course, couldn't talk (if yah know what I mean) but I could tell he didn't give a hoot about Jake Hurley, he just wanted me to quite yelling at him.
"And..." I finally took a breath. "I found--"
"A-HA!" Tino's accusing laugh rung in my ear.
"Uh, excuse us?" Joe didn't bother to move more than an inch away from me, turning his eyes to Tino. It sounds really, like, sickening, I know, but Joe was willing to do anything to get Tino 100 miles away from him. Even getting fake-real annoyed.
"You little twerp, using a lady to get little secrets and clues." Tino sniffed.
I turned to him, my whole face expressing 'Uhhhh'. I knew that getting married change you, but this was TINO. I mean...
"Hey, listen, PAL!" Joe pressed his fist into Tino's shoulder.
"Uuuuh, Joe..." I had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.
"I can kiss my girlfriend any dang time I please. And YOU arn't going to tell me what to do, because YOU don't have enough wit..."
"Uh, Joe."
"...to get a girl to go on a date with you, man. So just back off."
I lowered my head a little, praying that this didn't end in a black eye. Oh Lord.
"Joe?" I finally looked up after a long awkward silence. "Uh, he's--"
"It's okay, I'll take it from here, Nancy." Tino put on a layer of charm. "Actually, I'm getting married next week. Yeah, jealousy hurts, little man."
You couldn't have punched Joe harder into the ground than any time from the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. But, he laughed. Right in his face.
"Uh, Joe, we need to go get you a cheeseburger, how does that sound?" I pulled on his elbow. He kept laughing hysterically all the way to the dinning room.
chapter 8 ;; [by Kaitie]
After we had finally settled at the table with cheeseburgers in front of us, I was about to tell Joe that Tino was telling the truth, when Lori sauntered in dreamily.
But as soon as she saw us, she gasped. "Nanny, you didn't tell him about me and Tino getting married, did you?"
I just stared blankly, straight ahead, not letting her calling me Nanny get to me. "No."
"Good."
"Wait, you and Tino are getting married?" Joe asked, partly shocked and partly amused.
Lori gasped again. "How did you know?! See, Nadia, you DID tell him!"
"No, you did."
"No, I didn't!"
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't!"
"You just said it out loud!"
She thought for a moment. "Oh. Darn.
"Well, I guess there are two people in on the secret now! Why don't you go ahead and tell that Fran guy, too? I'm sure he won't tell."
Joe busted out laughing, for obvious reasons.
"Erm, his name is Frank. Like, with a 'k'."
"Whatever!" she thought for a moment. "Actually, never mind. He should be surprised, too. This is going to be totally awesome!" Lori continued gushing, but I wasn't paying much attention. And frankly, I didn't think Joe was either, what with how intently he was staring at/eating his burger.
I coughed, and Lori stopped mid-sentance to stare at me. "You're not sick, are you?"
". . . No. . ."
"Okay, good. I can't be around any sickos! Especially not a week before my wedding day! OOH, I have to go talk to Tino!"
She quickly rushed out, leaving us to wonder just what she planned to tell him.
"That was weird."
"Who cares about Lori? The fact that Tino was able to find someone to marry is freaking me out." Joe countered, taking another bite.
"Well, that's still about Lori."
"True."
There was a short while of silence while we both ate, before I remembered the terribly-written "threat". "Oh, I forgot to tell you! Just before you met me in the hall, I got this really weird poem. I think it was supposed to be threatening."
Joe grinned. "What did it say?"
"I dunno, something about narwhals."
He just about choked on his food from laughing.
"What? It's true. I don't really think it was from Charleena, you'd think she would be a bit more sophisticated than that." I was just about to counter myself when Joe spoke up.
"But, if she were really smart, she would purposely make it sound terrible so you wouldn't suspect her."
I placed my left hand on his shoulder, "I'm impressed! That's exactly what I was thinking. But I still say we should split up and ask everyone."
"Ask everyone what?"
Frank's voice made me jump. Apparently he had just come in from outside.
"Nancy got a weird threatening poem about narwhals," Joe told him, "So we're going to question everyone about it."
"Oh. Don't leave me out of the fun! Who's going after who?"
"Well, I was thinking I could take on Charleena again," I shot a glance at Joe, "And I know Joe isn't going to go anywhere near Tino for a while, so maybe he could go for John or Lori?"
"I'll take John." He said quickly, scooting his chair back and staring at his already-empty plate.
"So, Frank, take your pick. Lori or Tino?"
He groaned. "Why do I get stuck with the annoying ones?" He thought it over for a minute before deciding on Tino, and then we would all three head to the caboose to question Lori. When it comes to a suspect with an extremely low level of intelligence, three heads were always better than one. Or even two.
I was emerging from the empty mine shaft of Jake Hurley when his ancient train rumbled to a stop before me. My disappointment could shatter all of the windows on the train, but instead it was Lori’s screams. I glared at her as she hopped up and down, pointing at my head.
“Aw, it’s so cute!” Joe brought his fingers up to my hair, pulling something from it. Lori kept squealing as he tugged.
“Okay, ow!” I groaned, trying to slap his hand away, but instead he grabbed it with his other hand. In a second, the release, and in his pinch was a wiggling lizard.
“Hello, Spike!” Joe beamed at the reptile in his hands, spreading out one if it’s sticky hands—paws—er- claws. Ugh, what are those, anyways?
“Must my brother always name animals the boring usual stuff?” Frank’s deep voice rolled over Joe’s shoulder, squinting at me. “Come on and sit in the dining car with us, Nancy.” I failed to notice his tone as I followed up the steps and into the sweltering train car.
Lori kept a safe ten yards away from me as I plopped down on a seat across from Frank. Joe was already making a halter-leash for his lizard as Lori sighed, again.
“So what did you find?” Frank pulled out a notebook and set it out in the middle of the table, blank. Joe ripped the sheet out and put it under ‘Spike’.
“Ew, Joe! My notes are on the other side of that!” I smoothed my hair to make sure nothing else was in it and sat back in the chair. Frank, now exasperated, started madly through his notebook to find another blank sheet.
“Fanny, I’ve GOT to talk to you!” Now, Lori grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of my chair, leaving it in the isle as she tugged me all the way to the next car, where she leaned in to my ear. I boredly waited to see what she wanted, hoping it wasn’t anything to do with Jake Hurley. Based on what I didn’t find today, I hoped she never remembered his name ever again.
chapter 2 ;; [by Kaitie]
"Okay, okay, so you remember when you were like, going back and forth between me and Tino about our break-up and then you got him to apologize and then we got back together again?"
I blinked and cautiously nodded, hoping I had understood her correctly.
She was bobbing up and down excitedly, letting out small squeals every now and then. "Well, thanks to you, Francie, look!"
She stuck out her right hand and stared eagerly at me, expecting me to say something. But it looked completely normal.
She glanced down for a second. "Oh, yeah." She switched out her hands and displayed her left, which held an oversized, expensive-looking diamond ring.
"Tino and I are getting married!!"
For a second, I just stared at her like she was crazy. I mean, who would want to be engaged to that egotistical jerk of a 'detective'? But then, I reminded myself that she truly liked him, so I had to be happy for her. Pretend to be happy, at least.
"Wow, that's great, Lori!" I said in the most enthusiastic voice I could muster.
"I KNOW!" she closed her eyes and let out a piercing squeal, making me wince. "I just can't believe it! Well, actually, I can, but you know what I mean."
I forced a smile and nodded. "Why are you telling me this, but not anyone else?"
She suddenly got a super-serious look on her face, "Oh, right. You can't breathe a word of this to ANYONE. Not even those Sharkey guys you're friends with." I almost said something, but refrained as she continued. "Since you managed to find Jake's mine using the clues on that letter I gave you, I've decided that you are a totally trustworthy person, Nadine." Oh, yeah. You know that someone REALLY trusts you when they can't even call you by the same name twice in a row. "So I want you to, like, help us prepare. We plan to get married right here on this train!"
"Um, not to interrupt, but - don't you need a liscense first?"
Lori scoffed. "Of course not! My daddy already got one for me. Anyway. . "
The rest of her excited babbling kind of faded in my ears, so I just nodded and gave the occasional "Right", or "Okay".
When she was finally done, I had absolutely no idea what the last thing she'd said was. "Natalie, are you okay? Why aren't you saying anything?"
I was just about to respond when she gasped, dramatically covering her mouth with her hand. "You're not one of those people who can, like, fall asleep with their eyes open, are you?"
I stared at her for a second. "Uuhhh, no."
"Oh." There was an awkward silence. "Anyway, meet me in the caboose later, and I'll tell you EVERYTHING!" She let out one last squeal and headed towards the back of the train, leaving me bored and confused and weirded out all at the same time.
chapter 3 ;; [by GG]
I headed back into the now-cold dinning room with my eyes nearly crossed.
Joe gasped, jumping up to put his arms around me before I sat down. "I think Nancy just fainted with her eyes open, Frank!"
I blinked as he kneeled and lowered me to the floor, still holding me. "Do you need some water, or something?" Joe asked quietly, cradling my head.
"No, but I'd like to sit down in my chair like I intended to, Joeseph."
"Oooh, full name!" Frank gurgled from his chair, scribbling on something.
I glared at him as I sat down, propping my cheek in my fist. Still starring at him, I pulled out my phone with the spare hand. "Geooorge?" I wavered, trying to keep my voice straight. "Is Bess there?" I watched Joe frantically look through his stack of books on the table.
"Yeah, what's up, Nancy? It sounds like John Grey pulled a ghost joke on you."
Rubbing my eyelids, I said carefully, "I think I just helped the worst marriage that should never happen happen."
"WHAT?" I help the phone away from me ear a little.
"Well, you see, some one on the train--"
"LORI?" Bess screamed.
"SOMEONE, and they were mad at this guy, and--"
"TINO?"
"And so now, WHOEVER it is, well, they're getting married.... and now I have to.." I rubbed my eyes again, blinking at a lamp on the wall. Joe had now moved on to searching the floor.
"Oh my gosh, Nancy Drew, is it you and Frank?" Bess sounded a little hurt, because I knew she and him like liked eachother.
"EW! Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew NO!" I squealed, leaping out of my chair. Joe gasped, jumped up, and came towards me.
"Don't move, Nance!"
"Was that Joe?" George laughed into my ear.
Joe kept towards me, but, dazed as I was, I backed myself against the wall. He firmly grabbed me by both shoulders and leaned closed to me, squinting.
"Come on, Joe, now isn't the time!" I moaned. Now, I finally got it as he pinched something in my hair. "GET YOUR STUPID LIZARD OUT OF MY HAIR!" I yelled.
"Nancy, why is there a lizard in your hair?"
"But it's not me and Frank, it's...." I thought quickly as Joe examined my hair. "...Charleena." Oops. "I mean, not her, either."
"So it IS Lori!"
"Come on Bess. That is not the point. I just want to know why there is a lizard in Nancy's hair." George finally got it out, before putting the phone down to laugh again.
chapter 4 ;; [by Kaitie]
"It's a long story." I told them, squirming as I felt the creature run up to the top of my head. "EW, get it off!"
Joe finally lifted the lizard - err, Spike - off of my head and cradled him in his hand, stroking its back.
"That thing isn't a dog, you know. . ."
"I know! But lizards are animals, too. Isn't that right, Spike?"
Spike just stared at him, unmoving for a while. Then he ran up Joe's arm and crawled down his back, and before we could do anything about it, he skittered across the floor of the dining car. "NO! SPIKEY!"
Joe ran after it, dropping to the ground and scouting the floor for him, but I assumed it didn't go well. When he came back in, he looked as if he were about to cry. "Spike is gone."
"Again?" Frank commented blankly, not looking up from his notebook.
Joe sighed and plopped down in the end chair at the table, when I remembered that I had Bess and George on the phone.
"Oh, guys, I'm sorry! I got totally distracted!" No answer.
"Hello?"
. . .
"Shoot, they must've hung up." I murmured, slipping my phone into the pocket of my jeans.
When I looked up, the first thing I saw was Joe's defeated expression.
"Are. . are you okay?"
He nodded, but didn't say anything.
"It was a lizard, Joe. You'll probably find him anyway," I said, "I mean, he's obviously trapped between these three rooms."
Joe's face lit up, just as Frank sighed contentedly. "Finally, I re-wrote all of my notes."
His brother stared at him. "You remembered all of your notes?"
"No, I had them written down on this, in case I lost my notebook." He pulled out a small slip of paper and showed it to us, before putting it back in his pocket.
"If you had it written down there, then why the heck did you need to re-write it all in your journal?"
"Notebook."
"Whatever."
"I like to keep all of my case-related things in one place. . ."
The brothers' squabbling was quite amusing, but I couldn't stop thinking about. . . you know. Lori? And. . . Tino?
Yeah. It was just weird. And why did I have to 'help'? What was there to do? I sighed verbally, but neither of the Hardys seemed to have noticed.
I guess I would find out later.
chapter 5 ;; [by GG]
I gave Joe a reassuring pat, knowing how disappointment got him down. He looked up from his hands. I smiled faintly. He smiled back, and then craned his neck back a little. I hugged him with one arm, about to give him peck on the cheek.
"Ew." Frank glared at us. I rolled my eyes, sitting down next to Joe.
"So, anyways, I didn't find anything in Jake's mine.... I don't know why, but there were only lizards an--"
Joe started snooping around, crawling on his knees into the room with Charleena.
I widened my eyes and looked back at Frank. "...and I walked around. There was a cave in train-track thing, and that was it." I held up my hands, resting my elbows against the table. Frank nodded, putting his fingertips together and pressing them together hard. I sat back, crossing my arms.
"AAAAAUGH! You let go of me, you little..." Frank grinned as Charleena screamed. Or hollered.
As soon as I ducked my head around the corner, I bit my lip. 'Spike' was scuttering over Charleena's keyboard, and Joe was smashing his hands down all over it. Charleena was swatting at Joe, and yelling. Frank put earplugs in and kept grinning. Wait, where did Frank get earplugs?
Shaking my head, I watched Charleena slam her laptop closed and weld it, swinging madly at Joe. He backed up, flinging his arms out to grab something, but instead knocked me over backwards. In slow motion, he stepped on Frank's toes and fell over backwards on him.
"Three sleuth pile up!" I laughed until my shins ached, watching Joe try to get off of Frank, who had his arm flapping about, hitting me in the face a few times. Charleena was red, watching us as we tried to un-wedge from the doorway.
"Get out of my sight!" Charleena screamed down at Joe. I frowned at her, slapping Frank's arm.
"Hey, chill out, Charleena! He's a boy that likes his rodents." I tried to stay calm. Really.
"Reptile." Joe took a deep breath. That was it.
"Shut UP, Joe! Get out of my sight, too!" I yelled at him, shoving Frank out of the way as I ran to my room in the sleeping car. Once I got in and locked the door, I checked my clothes for any stray reptiles and finally flipped my hair over, combing through it. Satisfied, I quickly changed my clothes and flopped back into my bed. I sighed and took out my phone, calling Bess. I got a busy signal and rolled my eyes, staring at the old ceiling. It was weird, now that all of the options were used up with the mystery. Was Jake's mine nothing at all, just a wild goose chase to distract from it's real location?
I jerked from my thoughts as my phone vibrated against my hand. Bess.
"It took you long enough."
Bess laughed. Joe laughed.
Wait, what?
"Uh..." I closed my eyes.
"Hey Nancy, Joe called me a second ago... he seems pretty upset."
"Nancy, I'm upset." Joe pouted.
"Yeah, he's on the other line. Soooo, talk amongst yourselves for a second, I gotta text George real quick." There was a pause as I pressed a finger between my eyebrows.
"Look, Nancy. I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about Jake Hurley?"
"No." I frowned as I heard Bess tapping away at something.
"Okay, back." Bess took a deep breath.
"Were you, like, bongo-drumming?" Joe asked.
"Uh..." Bess paused, mumbling something. "Yeah."
"Cool."
I couldn't come up with another expression to make, so I just flopped my free hand around on the quilt.
chapter 6 ;; [by Kaitie]
There was a short while of silence, with no one saying anything; not even Bess.
"Woooww, you guys. Hostility," she finally spoke up, "Never thought I'd see that from Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew. Or hear it."
Neither of us said anything.
Why was I so angry about the stupid reptile? It was really pathetic, actually. I hardly ever get mad about little things like that.
But if I had to hear the name Spike one more time. . .
"I never found Spike after the whole Charleena thing." Joe finally said in a monotone voice. I stiffened and breathed deeply. Then I hit the 'off' button.
Of course, we would eventually go back to how we were before he found. . . the S-word. But when?
I know I wasn't going to do anything about it. . . yet.
I all of a sudden heard something in front of my door. It wasn't talking, or knocking, or even footsteps, but I could hear something. I turned to face it, just as an envelope was slipped under the door.
Ugh, stupid letters.
Begrudgingly, I forced myself to walk over and pick it up. "Nancy" was written on it in unfamiliar handwriting. My eyebrows came together in confusion as I opened it up and took out the small paper inside.
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
Narwhals are endangered
And so are you"
I scrunched my nose at the oddness. Narwhals? Why narwhals?
This person obviously wasn't a poet. And not quite a professional at sending threats.
Although this was supposed to be a very serious scenario, I bent over and held onto my knees with laughter. What in the world did narwhals have to do with anything?
After I had finally regained myself, I folded the note back up and hid it under a sweater in my dresser.
It wasn't the greatest hiding place, but it would have to do for now.
Now I heard more noises coming from outside of my door, but this time it was voices. Or, should I say, one voice.
"Camille. . . can you hear me?"
Hrm, can you guess who?
There was a while of silence. "Hello? Are you here, Camille?" John Grey must've been fiddling with something, I was assuming some equipment.
My ear was pressed against the door as I struggled to listen in, hoping he would say something informative. . . not just asking if a ghost was on board.
For a while it was pretty repetitive, but then he started getting excited.
"Yes! Yes, you are here! Hello! My name is John!"
I stared at the door with a 'you-are-insane' look, as though it were John. Wow, he was introducing himself to 'Camille'. This had to be interesting.
Then, I heard it. It was very soft, and sounding like it was floating through the air. A female voice. "Hello, John. . ."
John made a little excited noise and did something, but I couldn't tell what. "This is fantastic!"
That's when I decided to go out and see what was up.
The hallway stood completely empty, except for John, who had a large box-like thing strapped across his waist. There were tons of buttons and dials and switches on it. "Oh, hi, John."
"Hey, Nancy! You came at just the right time, listen to this!" He gave me a set of headphones and plugged them in somewhere, pressing a green button.
The same floaty woman's voice I had heard earlier filled my ears, except this one sounded much louder, so I assumed he had upped the volume level.
"I ran it through a quick filter and removed the background noise, so you can hear Camille perfectly. Isn't it great?"
"Wow, that's very interesting," I said, trying my best to sound excited about his work.
"Eh, you obviously don't care. But that's okay. Ghosts aren't everyone's cup of tea."
"Um, John. . . are you sure it wasn't just one of the females on the train?"
He looked horrified. "I'm positive. Did you even hear her voice? Neither Lori nor Charleena could've spoken that way."
"But they could've -"
"No buts. That was Camille. Anyway, thanks for the chat, but I've got to get back to work. See ya." I wanted to suggest a voice digsuise device, but I decided against it. Maybe I needed to loosen up a bit about the whole ghost thing. You'd think I'd be loose enough by now, what with being around Joe so much. Anyway, I shook off the thoughts and decided to ask Tino about the whole engagement ordeal.
chapter 7 ;; [by GG]
The first time I was not glad to be glad to see Joe (or some version of that) happened now.
"Naaaancy." Joe came up to me slowly, like a person trying to catch a dog. I stood there, with my hands on my hips. Glaring wasn't working lately with Joe, so he finally got close enough to grabbed my shoulders.
"Don't tell me somethings in my hair, again." I moaned.
"No, I just wanted to say I'm sorry." Joe gave me a tight hug, throwing his 'cute eyes' on. He gave me a kiss. I kept glaring at him. "And that I totally want to know what your thinking about." In response, I made my face blank and stared into his eyes. The old joke of ours.
"I know what your thinking about." I said flatly. "You just want to make sure your... whatever... isn't in my hair."
"Nope." He grinned a little, just barely. "And, are you thinking about Jake Hurley? Probably about the mine, I suppose."
"Trueee." I said thoughtfully. He kissed me again and I kissed him back. He grinned.
"And?" He pulled my chin closer to his. I, or course, couldn't talk (if yah know what I mean) but I could tell he didn't give a hoot about Jake Hurley, he just wanted me to quite yelling at him.
"And..." I finally took a breath. "I found--"
"A-HA!" Tino's accusing laugh rung in my ear.
"Uh, excuse us?" Joe didn't bother to move more than an inch away from me, turning his eyes to Tino. It sounds really, like, sickening, I know, but Joe was willing to do anything to get Tino 100 miles away from him. Even getting fake-real annoyed.
"You little twerp, using a lady to get little secrets and clues." Tino sniffed.
I turned to him, my whole face expressing 'Uhhhh'. I knew that getting married change you, but this was TINO. I mean...
"Hey, listen, PAL!" Joe pressed his fist into Tino's shoulder.
"Uuuuh, Joe..." I had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.
"I can kiss my girlfriend any dang time I please. And YOU arn't going to tell me what to do, because YOU don't have enough wit..."
"Uh, Joe."
"...to get a girl to go on a date with you, man. So just back off."
I lowered my head a little, praying that this didn't end in a black eye. Oh Lord.
"Joe?" I finally looked up after a long awkward silence. "Uh, he's--"
"It's okay, I'll take it from here, Nancy." Tino put on a layer of charm. "Actually, I'm getting married next week. Yeah, jealousy hurts, little man."
You couldn't have punched Joe harder into the ground than any time from the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. But, he laughed. Right in his face.
"Uh, Joe, we need to go get you a cheeseburger, how does that sound?" I pulled on his elbow. He kept laughing hysterically all the way to the dinning room.
chapter 8 ;; [by Kaitie]
After we had finally settled at the table with cheeseburgers in front of us, I was about to tell Joe that Tino was telling the truth, when Lori sauntered in dreamily.
But as soon as she saw us, she gasped. "Nanny, you didn't tell him about me and Tino getting married, did you?"
I just stared blankly, straight ahead, not letting her calling me Nanny get to me. "No."
"Good."
"Wait, you and Tino are getting married?" Joe asked, partly shocked and partly amused.
Lori gasped again. "How did you know?! See, Nadia, you DID tell him!"
"No, you did."
"No, I didn't!"
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't!"
"You just said it out loud!"
She thought for a moment. "Oh. Darn.
"Well, I guess there are two people in on the secret now! Why don't you go ahead and tell that Fran guy, too? I'm sure he won't tell."
Joe busted out laughing, for obvious reasons.
"Erm, his name is Frank. Like, with a 'k'."
"Whatever!" she thought for a moment. "Actually, never mind. He should be surprised, too. This is going to be totally awesome!" Lori continued gushing, but I wasn't paying much attention. And frankly, I didn't think Joe was either, what with how intently he was staring at/eating his burger.
I coughed, and Lori stopped mid-sentance to stare at me. "You're not sick, are you?"
". . . No. . ."
"Okay, good. I can't be around any sickos! Especially not a week before my wedding day! OOH, I have to go talk to Tino!"
She quickly rushed out, leaving us to wonder just what she planned to tell him.
"That was weird."
"Who cares about Lori? The fact that Tino was able to find someone to marry is freaking me out." Joe countered, taking another bite.
"Well, that's still about Lori."
"True."
There was a short while of silence while we both ate, before I remembered the terribly-written "threat". "Oh, I forgot to tell you! Just before you met me in the hall, I got this really weird poem. I think it was supposed to be threatening."
Joe grinned. "What did it say?"
"I dunno, something about narwhals."
He just about choked on his food from laughing.
"What? It's true. I don't really think it was from Charleena, you'd think she would be a bit more sophisticated than that." I was just about to counter myself when Joe spoke up.
"But, if she were really smart, she would purposely make it sound terrible so you wouldn't suspect her."
I placed my left hand on his shoulder, "I'm impressed! That's exactly what I was thinking. But I still say we should split up and ask everyone."
"Ask everyone what?"
Frank's voice made me jump. Apparently he had just come in from outside.
"Nancy got a weird threatening poem about narwhals," Joe told him, "So we're going to question everyone about it."
"Oh. Don't leave me out of the fun! Who's going after who?"
"Well, I was thinking I could take on Charleena again," I shot a glance at Joe, "And I know Joe isn't going to go anywhere near Tino for a while, so maybe he could go for John or Lori?"
"I'll take John." He said quickly, scooting his chair back and staring at his already-empty plate.
"So, Frank, take your pick. Lori or Tino?"
He groaned. "Why do I get stuck with the annoying ones?" He thought it over for a minute before deciding on Tino, and then we would all three head to the caboose to question Lori. When it comes to a suspect with an extremely low level of intelligence, three heads were always better than one. Or even two.
