Nancy Drew and The Hardys go to college

Interrogating Deirdre

Ned POV
Nancy pushed me forward, prompting me to go see Deirdre at the ice cream parlour.
"Wish me luck," I said before walking towards the ice cream parlour.
"You're gonna do great," Nancy said with a smile. "I'll treat you to some ice cream when she leaves, okay?"
I nodded and went to the shop. I gave Nancy a doubtful look and went in.
Deirdre was having ice cream with her friends. I went to the counter and ordered a lemon raspberry float and went to her. But before I went directly to her, I pressed the record button on my phone.
"Nedster!" Deirdre exclaimed, seeing me. "Why don't you join us?"
She motioned her friends to leave and smiled at me. Urgh I'm getting sick of that plastic smile of hers.
I plastered on a fake smile too and sat in front of her with my ice cream.
"So Ned, how's it going?" She asked me, still with that sickly smile. "How's your day?"
"It's good," I said, stirring the ice cream into my drink. "What about you?"
"Oh I feel amazing," said Deirdre. "But Amanda's missing. Hope she's okay..."
"Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine," I said. "She was pretty popular in my class, you know?"
"Really?" Deirdre said, raising her eyebrows. "Well yeah, she's a nice girl."
"Yeah," I said, taking another sip of the soda. "Max, the school jock, he's her boyfriend. Anyway, what do you think of him?"
"Oh nothing, really," Deirdre said, taking a sip of her ice cream soda. "Now that you're here, he's not important."
"Oh come on," I said, urging her to spill it. "Come on, there must be something that you think of him? He's pretty famous, I'm sure you know him."
"Well, I do," said Deirdre. "When you rejected me for Nancy, I had a slight crush on him, but he had Amanda. But now, you're here..."
"Okay, I have a question," I said, unable to resist the urge to ask her. "Why do you always have your eye on a guy who's already taken?"
"Well that's because single guys are single for a reason," said Deirdre. "The taken guys are always the hotties!"
Deirdre logic.
"That's a weird logic, but I guess that makes sense," I said. "What did you do when you found out that Amanda was Max's girlfriend?"
"Nothing," Deirdre said, shrugging. "I didn't do anything."
Liar...
"Are you sure?" I said. "Knowing you, you wouldn't have let Amanda off the hook that easily. Come on, tell me what you did."
"Fine I can tell you," Deirdre said, her face turning sad. "I-I sent her threats."
"What kind threats?" I asked after taking a sip.
"Texts," said Deirdre. "I sent her some threatening texts to keep her away from Max."
"Just texts?" I asked. "Oh come on, that's not that bad."
"Oh it is bad," she said, tears streaming down her face. "What was I thinking? And now she's gone."
She covered her face with her hands and started sobbing.
"Oh god, what have I done?" Deirdre said between sobs. "She's such a nice girl, and I did that?"
She continued sobbing, and I was just awkwardly sitting there, with a lemon raspberry float in my hand. I better do something...
"Come on, you didn't know she was gonna go missing, right?" I said. "It isn't your fault. She might be okay, in another place on earth."
"She might even be beneath the earth," Deirdre said between sobs. "Where could she be? Oh Amy..."
She tried to stop crying and looked at me. But her face still looked as if she could burst into tears at any moment.
"There's nothing I could do about it, right?" Deirdre said, giving me a watery smile. "Wherever she is, she's gonna be okay."
"Wait can I ask you something?" I asked and she nodded while taking a sip. "You didn't by any chance send an anonymous threat note to Amelia right?"
"No...?" Deirdre said, looking concerned. "Ned, are you telling me that Aunt Amelia received a threatening note? Ned, is there something you're hiding from me?"
Shoot! I think I've blown my own cover. I better try and cover up...
"What?" I said, looking surprised. "No! What do you mean? I'm not hiding anything. You know what, I've gotta go. I need to... need to meet Nancy. See you at campus!"
I just got up and practically ran out of the store with my lemon raspberry float.
Nancy was still waiting for me on that bench. She had her back to me so I decided to give her a start.
"Hey!" I said, grabbing her shoulder from behind.
"Oh gosh it's you!" Nancy said, looking relieved. "Anyway, how did it go with Deirdre?"
"I dunno, but I recorded the conversation with her," I said, holding up my phone. "Wait I'll send it to you right now."
I sent it to her and she received it.
"We'll listen to it in the dorm," said Nancy. "Anyway, like I said, I owe you an ice cream."
"I already have one," I said, showing her the cup of lemon raspberry float. "You want some?"
"Sure," she said, taking a sip of it. "Mmm... nice combo..."
"Yeah I know right," I said. "My favourite."
"Wait I just remembered," Nancy said suddenly. "Chet owes us lunch!"
"Oh right!" I exclaimed. "Free lunch on Chet!"
"Yeah but it kinda looks like he's escaping," said Nancy. "I saw him dragging Iola into his car to drive back to campus without us."
"That idiot," I said, grinning. "Did he succeed?"
"Nope," Nancy said with a snicker. "Frank and Joe found him and pulled him off."
"Where are they anyway?" I asked. "I haven't seen them in hours."
"Probably shopping for snacks at the convenience store," said Nancy. "Frank and Joe pulled him there."
"Well, wanna go see what's going on?" I asked and Nancy nodded with a grin. "Come on!"
We went to the convenience store that Nancy said the guys were at and saw them through the window.
Chet was filling his basket with snacks while the Hardy brothers were laughing at him. Callie, Iola and Jessica were there too, buying drinks and stuff.
We went in to see what was up.