Don't know where my love for this pairing came back from suddenly. Too much tumblr maybe? Total possibility in my opinion.
Major spoilers for WAC!
Nancy drummed her fingers on the desk in the library at the illustrious Waverly Academy. She fiddled with the blazer she was wearing. The uniform here wasn't exactly comfortable, and she was getting tired of waiting for these pictures to be uploaded to the website only to be denied by Rachel with unhelpful comments.
Once the pictures were downloaded, she disconnected her phone. Nancy decided to head back to her room for a bit to take a nap. She planned on spending the night trying to get into that locked classroom without getting caught by Paige, the Wicked Witch of Waverly Academy, as the girls called her. Nancy was definitely not in the mood to receive ten demerits. While technically not a student, she still tried not to get expelled.
Nancy climbed the stairs to the second floor and stepped into the room she was sharing with Corine Myers. As always, Corine was busily typing away at her computer, working on that forty-page paper Nancy figured. "Hey," Nancy greeted, just chatting to be friendly.
"Hey," Corine said as she spun around in her chair to face Nancy. Nancy feigned a tired smile. "How come I couldn't find anything about you online, like on YR Page?" Nancy stiffened for a minute. She couldn't blow her cover. She hadn't considered this problem when taking on the identity of Becca Sawyer, but she let the detective improvisation instincts kick in.
"Is that a big deal?" she asked, taking the path of cluelessness for once. Corine gave her a funny look.
"Well, yeah. I mean, anyone under the age of like thirty who doesn't have something up on YR Page either A: has been living on Mars, or B: is seriously weird. And since it doesn't look like either of those apply to you, what gives?" Nancy thought for a minute.
"I took my page down because…for personal reasons." Oh, great one Drew. That was convincing.
"Well… do you have a boyfriend?" Nancy's heart picked up. Corine looked interested.
"Yeah…" Nancy trailed off. She hoped Corine would leave it at that.
"Well, who is he? Where does he live? C'mon. You can tell me this stuff. I'm your roommate," Corine asked as she bounced slightly in her chair. Nancy hesitated. Giving away a name could blow her cover.
"Well, he's sweet in his own way, and he's funny and charming," Nancy sighed with a smile. "He's incredibly smart and protective of me, but he knows that I deserve my own life, too," Nancy carried on. As she spoke, she realized that her words applied less and less to her current boyfriend and more to a certain brunet boy, who lived less than two-hundred miles away.
"Oh, he sounds wonderful," Corine gushed. Nancy's cheeks darkened. "What's his name?"
"Frank," she replied without a second thought. The name felt wonderful coming off of her tongue.
"What does he look like? Where did you guys meet? Did you know him before you moved to France?" Corine fired questions at her. Nancy plopped down on her bed by Corine's desk.
"He's tall, well-built but not overly muscular," she said as she thought about Frank. Part of her was yelling 'Stop!',but she'd always imagined what this moment would be like, telling someone about her boyfriend, Frank Hardy. "He's a brunet, with these chocolate brown eyes and a warm smile. We met a long time ago. We've known each other forever. Our parents were friends," Nancy explained. "We grew up to be best friends. We got together just before I went to study abroad in France," Nancy lied. She felt bad about lying, especially about Ned, but this was going to keep her cover better.
"Gosh, Becca, you really love him. I can tell by the way you talk about him. He sounds like a real catch," Corine said with a wide smile. Nancy looked down at her lap. "You must really miss him."
"I do," Nancy answered honestly. She hadn't seen the Hardy Boys in a few months, and although she had several ways to contact them, she'd been so busy lately, and she knew they were extremely busy. Joe had a girlfriend of his own, and both brothers had cases to work.
"Have you seen him since you came back from France?"
"No," Nancy said with a shake of her head and a slight smile.
"Well where does he live? It's break! You should go see him!" Corine encouraged.
"Oh, I don't know. Rachel asked me to help with her project, and I've only been here less than twenty-four hours…" the detective trailed off as she flopped back onto her bed.
"Nope, none of those excuses! You had no work to do here! Does he live close by?"
"About a two hour drive from here," Nancy replied as she stretched her arms above her head.
"Becca! What are you waiting for? Go see him!" Corine yelled again. Nancy couldn't help but chuckle.
"Maybe the day after tomorrow, I will," Nancy said with a smile. "Right now, I'm going to try and take a nap and catch up on my jetlag," the sleuth said as she lied down.
"Okay. And Becca?"
"Hmm?"
"If you're still here in two days, I'm going to kick you out and hire a cab to take you to see your boyfriend." Nancy chuckled, trying to ignore that pang of guilt.
The case was solved. The black cat was dealt with, the girls back to focusing on the valedictorian award, just as things should be.
Nancy sat on a bench next to Corine, who was waiting for her parents to show up. Nancy had called a cab to take her back to the airport. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?" Nancy asked, trying to be pleasant.
"All that stuff you said about that guy- Frank- was that all true? Or did it come with the Becca Sawyer identity?" Nancy shuffled her feet with a chuckle.
"Well, I do have a boyfriend," Nancy confessed. "His name isn't Frank though."
"So the guy you were describing, what is his name?" Corine asked. She sounded genuinely curious.
"Actually, the guy I described is Frank. My boyfriend's name is Ned. He lives back home," the sleuth told the girl on the bench. Corine nodded before falling silent for a minute.
"So Frank must be a detective, like you." Nancy nodded. "Can I ask you something else?"
"Fine," Nancy sighed. She was never one to be rude, but she didn't exactly enjoy conversing with criminals.
"Why aren't you dating Frank?" The question surprised Nancy. She looked up from her phone and over at Corine.
"What?" Nancy had to make sure she heard the question right.
"Why aren't you dating Frank?" Corine asked again. Nancy's mouth hung open for a minute. She wasn't sure what to say.
"I'm happy with Ned," she replied in a confused tone. A red car pulled into the parking lot.
"This isn't going to be pretty," Corine said with a sigh as she looked at the car. "Look, I know you hate me, and that's fine, because I don't really like you, Drew," Corine said as she stood. "But the way you say Frank's name is very different from the way you say Ned's. Frank as your boyfriend was much more convincing than your Becca Sawyer personality, and you played that relatively well." Corine gathered her luggage and opened the trunk, loading the car. "I might be a heartless bitch, but Frank seems like a great guy. And the way you talk about him?" Corine shook her head with a slight smile. "I think you're missing out on a lot, Nancy Drew." And with that, Corine climbed in the back seat of the car before the car drove off and out of sight.
Nancy bit her lip and looked down at the snow-covered ground. She shuffled her feet around and thought about Corine's words. As she sat in silence, a yellow car pulled up in front of her. Nancy looked up at the cab driver and gathered her bag. She climbed in the back and buckled her belt. "Where to, miss?" Nancy opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. She grabbed a piece of paper from her purse and scribbled down an address and handed it to the cabbie. He took the piece of paper from her and looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. "You know how far this is?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes," Nancy replied calmly. His expression softened.
"Going to see someone special?" Nancy felt a slow smile creep across her face.
"Yeah, someone really special."