Epilogue

Nancy burst through her front door at 9:30 the following Wednesday night, giddy and excited. She was happy to see her dad and Griselda at the kitchen table, holding hands; she very much wanted to describe her experiences to fresh ears, like a verbal diary entry. Griselda looked at the table. Her dad slowly turned, but his eyes didn't seem entirely focused on her.

"My day was perfect!" she gushed, clutching her new book to her chest. "Thank you so much for letting me take the day off school to help Mrs. Hardy with her book signing. There wasn't a mob of thousands of people there, like I thought there'd be, and they didn't have much for me to do, but it was very thrilling to sit at the table next to her like an apprentice. And she gave me a signed copy for free! And then Michael, Polly, and Tony picked me up from the bookstore right on time for our double date, and it was so much fun for the four of us to go out to dinner like adults, and then the Talent Show at UConn was so funny! It wasn't about talent as much as…naughty jokes…and I'm going to go upstairs and start reading my book right away. I'm sad that today is over, but it's okay, because I feel like I also have so many things to look forward to—"

Griselda's shoulders trembled slightly. Nancy stopped speaking and slowly walked closer to the table, suddenly aware of her parents' strange moods. She realized that her stepmother was trying not to cry.

"What is it?" she asked quietly. Then, in alarm, "Oh, no, is someone hurt?"

"No, no one's hurt, honey," her dad reassured her, but he seemed worried and upset. "We're glad you had a nice time. Go upstairs and enjoy your book. We'll talk another day."

"No! That's not fair," Nancy said, taking a seat and putting her book on the table. "Now I need to know what happened."

Carson glanced at Griselda, but, for once, her stepmother didn't help him with a decision or mediate between them. Carson sighed and focused on Nancy once more.

"You're going to be a big sister, Nancy," Carson said. He tried to smile but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

Nancy froze, processing the information, and then her eyes lit up in happiness. "Yay! So you're crying happy tears. There will be a lot of changes, but this is so fun. We'll be a family of four!" She wondered why her parents still didn't look very cheerful about the news.

"Honey," Carson said, swallowing, "We're happy about the baby, we're just a little concerned because Griselda has some health problems. Nothing that you need to worry about, though. We didn't think that she was able to get pregnant, but the doctor confirmed it today and told us to…prepare…and all we know for sure is that this is going to be a very difficult pregnancy for Griselda. She's going to quit her job, which means that my salary is going to have to support all of us, which would be difficult with Bayport's high cost of loving. Griselda is going to need me, so I can't keep working sixty stressful hours a week, either."

Nancy's breathing stilled. "So what does that mean? Will you get a new job?"

Carson looked guilty. "I'm saying that my old firm offered to take me back for my previous salary, forty-hour workweeks, and generous time off benefits. And fortunately our house in River Heights never sold." He squeezed her shoulder and finished, with a forced note of optimism, "So you'll be with Bess and George again, honey. You girls must have missed each other so much."

Griselda finally looked at her. "I'm so sorry for doing this to you again, Nancy," she said hoarsely.

Nancy burst into tears.

Ndhb

1/29/19

Dear Tony:

Are you getting a thrill out of this snail-mail letter I'm sending you?! I know I always enjoy getting handwritten letters so I hope this makes you smile!

The Gruens made their final decision that Hannah is too "frail" to move back with us, which makes me very sad. But it's nice to have Griselda there when I get home from school. She seems weak and distracted and moves around less and less, but she caught up on all the Jane Austen books so we could talk about them. We're working through the Brontë sisters now. And we found out that I'm having a little sister! I finally understand something Mr. Hardy said a few months ago, that he was glad to pass a mystery off to someone else…I'm a little bit grateful that my dad and Griselda don't tell me everything that's going on with the baby. They pulled into the driveway after a doctor's appointment yesterday and my dad was crying. I've never seen him cry before and I don't ever want to see it again.

It's great to hear that Michael is enjoying his two new college classes. I wonder if Michael's real hang-up with college was just that he wanted it to be his own decision, not your mom's.

I'm sorry that the Patriots are in the Superbowl again. I'm sure they won't win. That's awesome that you guys decided to all try out together for baseball in the spring! You said that Vanessa will take my place babysitting Mary Hooper when Biff is at practice? That means that she and Biff will be seeing a lot of each other. I wonder…

Glad that Joe is still continuing with karate classes without me. I can't believe Frank and Callie got caught making out under the gym bleachers and have to do more community service! Remember when you and I had to do those three extra days for ditching and taking Mrs. Scott's vests with us? Only seven more months until you guys will all be helping the Hardy boys with their dad's cases…I'm so jealous that I won't be there, but they promised to call me for case consultation, and they also promised that they and I will work together when we're all adults. My dad is still teaching me things in the meantime.

Quit asking me for spoilers about your birthday novel! I told you a million times: the character of Antonio Prito is a warrior chief who saves his tribal village from catastrophe, swinging on vines in the jungle, loin cloth flapping in the breeze. I'm trying to use the plotting techniques that Mrs. Hardy is teaching me via email. By the way, my most recent assignment from her was a "descriptive essay about a day in my life when I was very happy," so I wrote about the day we made out by the Tower Mansion. I'd thought that she wouldn't be able to figure out what I was talking about since I didn't say exactly what we did, just used a lot of "similes" and "metaphors," but she asked me to keep my assignments G rated from now on so I suppose I should keep those memories between us (and Bess and George).

I'm happy for Phil that he's doing so well at Space Camp, and I'm relieved to hear that Iola doesn't seem to regret her decision for the two of them to take a break while he's away. If this is the real deal for them, they'll just get back together again in the summer, right? But I'm glad that you and I decided to make it work long-distance, even with how much it already sucks. My three months in Bayport already seem like a dream, a long vacation, except for the relationships I made and all the lessons I learned. Bess really wants to meet you sometime, but every time I think she's finished developing, she develops some more, so she will have to get prior approval from me for the outfits she's going to wear. And it's probably going to be a very long time before we can see each other again because Griselda isn't due until July and who knows what kind of special care she and my sister will need after then too. And I worry about what might happen to Hannah. Can you please light a candle that her health won't get any worse?

Everybody keeps warning me that I shouldn't be too heartbroken if you and I lose contact since we're both young and didn't know each other for very long. But of course we will never lose contact. I love your calls and emails, but it's weird how they hurt a little bit too, because they just make me want to see you in person all the more. I'm sorry that we haven't been talking as much as we used to, but it's only because of everything that's going on here. When everything settles down, we'll start talking every day again. It's only three and a half more years, and then maybe we can go to college together! A few years will fly by since we know that we are meant to be, and we'll beat the odds and prove everyone wrong and be together forever.

Right, Tony?

xoxo,

Nancy

~Finis~

A/N: I can't believe I wrote 226 pages of teen drama and had such a blast doing so.

This story was intended to be a Prequel to the published books: how Nancy met Frank and Joe; their attempt at a first mystery; and the attraction/connection between Frank and Nancy that will eventually lead to the two Supermystery makeouts. Therefore, romantically, Joe will soon begin to date Iola (thanks, Space Camp), and later Vanessa; Frank will continue to date Callie (Cherylann, I hope you appreciate this…my fingers hurt to type that!); and Nancy will meet Ned when she's older. Alas, I don't see a ninth-grade relationship lasting long-distance for years. The Nancy and Tony storyline was originally intended to only be a two or three chapter interlude in which Nancy learns her matchmaking lesson from Emma to fit that book into the Jane Austen "life lessons" theme…and then, after that first arcade/pizza date, Nancy and Tony refused to break up. Many thanks to my own Italian Stallion, my boyfriend Al, for providing cultural/linguistic consultation.

If this series ever continues on, I might shamelessly delete this optional epilogue or, more likely, age the characters into their twenties as a Sequel to the published books. Canon is only a springboard.

Words fail me to adequately express how grateful I am for every read and review, and especially to those most generous reviewers who have stuck with this Non-Bestselling Novel from the beginning to the end: xcherryxlipsx, katnissta, sm2003495, angelicalkiss, max2003, Cherylann Rivers, EvergreenDreamweaver, anonymous reviewers, and Rose12, ErinJordan, and ChrisCorso joining halfway through. Two chapter updates a week is a significant time commitment, plus I was afraid of losing a lot of reviewers when Nancy got together with Tony, so I'm constantly blown away by how supportive this fandom is. All of you will get PMs soon. If there are any lurking readers, I would love a review or PM on your overall thoughts about the story.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for enjoying these characters with me for the past three months. Hope everyone has a terrific rest of the summer. Until next time…? JB