Here it is!
I do not own the Hardy Boys.
Enjoy!

~Frank

It's been over a year. More specifically, a year and almost three months. That was the last time Joe or I saw Dad.

A lot of things had changed. Aunt Trudy had decided to go with Dad, because God knows that he'll need all the help he can get with his own detective agency. Mom was livid (or, as Joe refers to it, "beyond pissed"). She didn't fight him though. I don't know what the full argument was, nor do I really care. Joe thinks it was mainly about me being gay. I never questioned that theory much.

The whole financial situation part was lost on both of us, though. It seemed that Dad somehow made sure he paid for the bills, as a way of apologizing. We had all tried to come up with other reasons, but settled for that one.

He never contacted us. We never tried to contact him. No Christmas gifts, no birthday cards, no nothing.

Ignoring all the issues with our dad (most of them unresolved), it had been an overall pretty good year. Why? Well…

"Let go, Phil."

"It's Saturday. Who the fuck gets up so early on Saturday?"

"I do. You know that, too. Now let me go!"

His grip around my waist grew tighter. "But then I'll be lonely and cold."

"It's the end of May, Phil. Not February."

"I was referring to my heart, thank you very much."

"Well then tell your heart to put on some clothes." I leaned down, grabbed his pair of sweatpants, and tossed it in his face. The sudden attack of clothing surprised him, enough for me to escape.

"Fuck you. Except I already did, so…"

"Shut the hell up up, Phil." I rolled my eyes, trying not to give into temptation of throwing his shirt at him. Instead, I grabbed my ring from the desk.

One nice thing that actually worked for me was that I got engaged. Yeah, engaged. I'm not going to relive that memory at the moment, however, because I was embarrassed beyond belief (in a good way, but still…).

Callie and Ivy are, too. Joe claimed it was a miracle that the two could even make it to the one year anniversary point, but they did.

Joe also managed to pass that point with his girlfriend, Vanessa. Who knew a girl asking him out was all it took to get my brother completely whipped? (Which Joe never directly denied. He loves the girl a lot. Enough to compromise his pride, which requires a lot of love.) The only difference between their relationship and ours (besides the whole gay/straight thing) was that Joe is deathly afraid of Vanessa's father, and therefore hasn't popped the question.

This might be the reason he started swearing a lot more often than usual. Callie said it was a phase she went through, though Ivy says that Callie's going through it now because she started swearing. A lot. It scared all of us for about a month. Then, somehow, the word "fuck" just melted into our vocabulary, along with every other swear…

Still kinda weird…

"Yo, you two!" Joe shouted through my door. "Come on! Van says she's got a surprise for us!"

"It's seven," Phil complained, not moving from my bed.

"Joe, when the hell did you get up at seven in the morning?" I already knew the answer to that; never.

"Since Van texted me!"

"Oh, right…" For good measure, I added, "Whipped."

"Let's just go!"

"We're going, we're going…" I turned to Phil. "Come on. We have to get this over with."

"Okay, okay…"

----------------

"Van, it's seven thirty. In the fucking morning. We should be in bed, like any normal person during Memorial Day weekend," Callie said. We were all sitting around in Vanessa's living room, after the slow process of getting out of bed, getting breakfast… and everything else that had to be done. Callie and Ivy were sitting on the couch, Vanessa and Joe had taken an armchair, and Phil and I sat on the floor.

"Which means everyone but Frank," Phil added. I gave him a look, which he ignored completely.

"You might need the day to pack," the girl explained.

"Why? A…" Joe looked around, and continued when he made sure that Vanessa's parents weren't in sight. "A mission?"

Technically, Vanessa isn't supposed to know about ATAC. But she found out, anyways. (Completely Joe's fault.) She gives us a hand once in a while, but usually just stays back, tells Joe to come back safe, and forgives him for any dates that would be missed.

"Nope."

"They don't know that she knows, remember? Can't give a random girl a disc," Ivy added, before yawning. Callie pulled Ivy's head into her lap, before looking at Vanessa.

"Well?"

"I have a cousin who's a wedding planner. There's a wedding showcase thing going on over the weekend about an hour from here. Engaged couples go, spend a few days, and get walked through the whole wedding thing. So…"

"It sounds like you need to sign up for it. Which it's probably too late for," I said.

"She got all of us tickets, and just told me last night." Vanessa smiled. "So, we're going!"

'You're gonna have to find a guy to be engaged to for the weekend, then," Callie said. "And Joe will need a babysitter."

"Shut the fuck up, Callie."

"Did you tell her that there are two gay couples?" Phil asked. "Besides the fact that very few states recognize us…"

"Yeah, I told her. She said there are some other gay couples who signed up, so it shouldn't become that big of a deal."

"As in it still could be a bit troubling," I concluded.

Vanessa hung her head. She often came up with a lot of ideas, but a good portion of them are… I guess the word is "unobtainable." This wasn't so off, but I guess she didn't think too far ahead with the excitement.

"Stop being so pessimistic," Ivy mumbled, not opening her eyes. "We can still go."

"It is break for a reason," Callie added.

"I'm starting to get the feeling that you're ganging up on me," I said.

"Whatever made you think that?"

I was about to retort, when the doorbell rang. As Vanessa got up to answer, I decided to say what I was going to say. "Besides the fact that you seem ready to bitch at me…"

Callie gasped, and threw a pillow at me.

Joe laughed, and in the best parental voice he could use, said , "Now, now, Callie. Don't you think that you need to tone down? This is why you don't have a boyfriend-"

Another pillow was thrown, hitting my brother right in the face. "Joseph Hardy, say that again and I'll make sure that you and Van will never have children."

"Cal, be nice," Ivy mumbled.

"It's not like Van would want her children to have him for a father, anyways…"

"Cal..."

Vanessa came back, holding up a disc. She handed it to me before returning to her seat. "Graduation music from Sophie."

"What happened to keeping the music a secret?" Phil asked.

"A secret?" Joe repeated. "Why's that?"

"Remember last year?" I asked.

"Not particularly…"

"People knew what songs were playing, and planned some kind of… I guess you would call it a dance, except a fight ended up breaking out or something because of the coordination," Callie explained. "The fucking weirdest thing that ever happened."

"Wait, what?"

"Exactly."

Joe shook his head. "So the music is kept a secret because some screwy thing that no one understands happened last year?"

"Yeah. But why did I…" I looked at the disc again. "Van, are our names registered to go to that thing?"

"Um, yeah. Why?"

"This isn't a CD."

We were all silent for a moment.

"Shit," Joe finally said. "Lemme guess. We're probably gonna end up running around in dresses and tuxes, screaming our heads off because some asshole wants us dead."

"Perfect." Callie rolled her eyes. "Just fucking perfect."

"My parents aren't here," Vanessa offered. "We can play it now."

I got up to put the disc in the DVD player, feeling as pissed off as my brother. I mean, saving lives is awesome and all, but sometimes a wedding showcase should be just that; a simple wedding showcase.

"Hello, agents." The contact began the second I sat back down. Callie let out a groan, and started to give the screen a death glare.

"Callie, glaring at the screen won't help."

"Shut up."

"I'm sorry that we have to make your trip un-enjoyable, but I'm afraid that the event you were planning to attend has a bit of bad history attached to it."

"You know what I hate?" Joe said suddenly. "These people can read your minds! They're like aliens or something."

"Or something would be a pretty good guess," Phil said.

"If they could read minds, then they would know about Van," I pointed out.

"Guys," Ivy interrupted, sitting up with her eyes wide open. "What's with all of the pics of dead people?"

We look at the screen, and found ourselves seeing a slideshow of dead people. Brides, grooms, and others that seemed to be connected to a wedding. It was a variety of causes of death, too. Some were obviously gunshots or stabbing, while others seemed to have choked or maybe poisoned. But they all gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"I thought it would be more of thieves who took the rings…" Joe mumbled.

"These deaths, while appearing random in many ways, all have a connection; one or more of the people who are a part of the showcase had helped out in each wedding."

The picture on the television changed to one of a photo of a hotel. It looked peaceful and inviting, with flowers growing all around and the sky being clear…

Great. I now felt like I was watching some kind of commercial.

"The hotel that this event is being held at is known at the Flower Garden, which has a history for hosting such events. The majority of the staff, as well as the couples attending the event, are young. Three pairs of high school sweethearts wound not draw suspicion compared to some other methods that had been planned."

"Did they forget that some of us were gay?" Phil mumbled.

"It is your job to determine if any of the people there are murderers." The contact paused, before continuing. "Frank and Joe, there is another issue that has risen due to this. The man in charge of this showcase has become very worried about all of the deaths. In hopes of preventing further murders, he has hired a PI."

I felt my breath hitch, and I pretty sure the same happened to Joe.

"Your father was the hired PI."

I do think high school is kinda early to be engaged, but I know more than a few that have done so, and some that have survived.

And yes, they do swear a lot...