Fanfic #27: "It's All Relative"

[yumi50]

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IT'S ALL RELATIVE


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Chapter 1: Another day in 2005

It was a year from the day that he had arrived in 2004, and Phil Diffy thought this would be and excellent opportunity to show his best friend Keely Tesslow the time machine.

“It’s amazing!” gawped Keely.

“Not really,” Phil replied, “It’s an old model.”

“But it’s so Sci-Fi!” Keely said, mesmerized by all the bright, flashing buttons.

“Sci…Fi?” Phil asked, unable to recognize the word.

“You know, movies, like Star Wars and Star Trek?”

“…Oh! I remember now! A few years after I was born, those movies were banned.”

“Banned? Why?” Keely asked in shock.

“Well, with advanced technology, we could do some of the things in the movies. Apparently they were banned when a group of people tried to make a Death…Star… or something like that.”

“Really? Wow!...Well, wow for me, you would probably be used to all that amazing technology!”

That was an understatement.

Phil Diffy wasn’t an ordinary 16-year old teenager. A year ago, he and his family took a time travel vacation. The time machine malfunctioned and Phil and the rest of the Diffy family, originally from the year 2121, were flung from the time-space continuum and landed in Pickford, California, in the year 2005. It hadn’t taken Phil long to find a friend, Keely, and he let her in on his secret-he was from the future. He had other friends at school, but Phil and Keely were closer than any other pair of friends could be.

“You should stay for dinner tonight.” Phil offered. “It’s okay, Pim’s not cooking.”

Keely smiled in relief.

“That’s good. That Unification loaf incident is still fresh in my mind, even though it was so long ago.”

Phil smiled.

“Almost a year. In fact, it is exactly a year since I arrived here.”

“Really? Your family should celebrate!”

“Um…no. It would probably make them feel depressed, realizing that they were still stuck in this century, and have been for the past year.”

Keely put her hand in front of her mouth. She had forgotten that.

“Oops… sorry Phil, I forgot that you never wanted to be here.”

Phil shook his head, grinning. She couldn’t have gotten it more wrong.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Phil laughed. “There are many things in this century that I have started to really enjoy.”

As Keely smiled, he met her gaze. He zoned out and suddenly realised he had been looking at her too long. Phil turned away, not wanting to give Keely something to misinterpret. Keely smiled. Phil was funny how he kept doing that. He smiled back.

"C'mon inside Keely," He said, patting her on the head. "you must be hungry."

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[yumi50]

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Chapter Two: The English Essay


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“Don’t you just hate all this…learning?” Tia leaned against her locker, while Keely dumped her Science textbook in her own.

“Yeah, it is annoying, with all the work and stuff.” Keely sighed. Now that she was in year ten, she had a pile of assignments due.

“And all the nerds are like, ‘wow! KNOWLEDGE!’” Tia continued, waving her arms in the air in hopes of imitating a crazy nerd.

“hey,” Keely began, “Phil and Seth are not nerds.”

“There you go, defending Phil again.” Tia sighed.

“Well, you’re teasing him again too.” Keely quipped.

“True.”

Tia smiled as Phil and Seth approached. Tia was very good at being two-faced.

“Hey Philly-Willy, hey Sethie Wethy…” Tia said. Seth seemed ecstatic that Tia had given him a nick name and grinned from ear to ear, while Phil shuddered.

“Never…say…that…again.” He groaned. “I mean, come on Tia, I’m 16!”

“Hey, I like that name!” Keely grinned. “It’s cute!”

Phil rubbed his dark brown hair and rolled his eyes.

“Have you seen the amount of homework we’ve got?” Phil whined.

“Well, we’re about to have more.” Seth smiled. “According to my calculations, Mr. Ross hands out approximately 1.25 assignments per five week period.”

“And you’re saying we’re getting another today?”

“Yep. Knowledge is great, huh?”

Tia, who was gulping down water out of her drink bottle, started to splutter. Keely tried to stop laughing but was failing in her attempt. Phil cocked his head to the side, missing the joke.

“Never mind.” Keely grinned. “It’s an inside joke.”

Phil nodded and continued to flip through his organizer.

Tia checked her timetable. “Well, I’ve got English now, so see ya later.” She walked away. At the end of the corridor, she called out, “Don’t forget to discover some KNOWLEDGE!”

Keely waved goodbye to Tia and turned back to Seth and Phil.

“We’d better go to our English class too- you know how Mr. Ross gets when students are late.”

“I heard a rumor that he nailed a kid’s jacket to the wall, with the kid attached.” Seth said, face filling with worry.

“I’m sure that isn’t true.” Phil patted Seth on the shoulder.

“Well, let’s not find out.” Seth said, unconvinced.

The three students took their seats at the back of the class, momentarily before Mr. Ross arrived. As he began to write on the board, a student knocked on the now locked door.

“Sir, sorry I’m late.”

Mr. Ross strode towards his desk instead of the door. He pulled out a hammer and a nail. The poor student screamed and ran down the hall. Seth eyed Phil, who was still skeptical.

“What? It was probably a scare tactic.”

“Now, class, assignments.” Mr. Ross announced proudly, as if he enjoyed the depressed looks on the entire class as he said this. He handed the pages out, warning that he ‘would not be issuing any more photocopies’. Keely groaned along with the majority of the class as he passed them out. She turned to Phil on her left.

“A family history assignment?” She asked, trying to work out the logic of this. “But isn’t this English?”

“Ah, no worries Keel’, it’ll be a breeze.” Phil smiled, trying to comfort her. Keely looked at him blankly. Obviously she didn’t think this was going to be. Unless… she thought to herself.

“Phil?”

Phil knew this was coming.

“D’ you think you might have-” Keely began, batting her eyelids at Phil.

“A gadget to help with the assignment.” Phil cut in, smiling. “Well, Keel’ I said it would be a breeze…” He smiled evilly.

“…And I want an essay on this.” Mr. Ross continued. Keely turned back to face the teacher and Phil sighed. He watched her chew her pencil and then flick her long, blonde hair…

Stop it Phil! You’re being stupid! Said a voice in Phil’s head. She’s not into you, remember the Tanner incident? How could he forget. She wouldn’t believe Phil when he had told her that Tanner was “bad rogue”. She had pushed him away. And then he had decided.

No more thinking about Keely. At least like that.

And that’s how it was supposed to stay. Anyway, he didn’t know if he still was in love with her. It felt different.

Maybe being friends was best.


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To be continued...


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[yumi50]

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Chapter 3: What the…?


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Pim Diffy rummaged through Phil’s room, searching for money.

“C’mon, where is it…” She murmured in frustration.

“Looking for my wallet?”

Phil stood in the doorway, dangling the wallet in question, just out of Pim’s reach.

“Phil, I need it.”

“For what?” he asked skeptically

“I want a pair of converse shoes.”

Phil didn’t believe her.

“Okay, maybe candy.”

“35 worth?”

“I’m hungry.”

“No, Pim.”

Phil walked away, wallet still in hand.

“I’ll get you Phil Diffy…If it’s when you sleep or while your studying…”

“Study?” Phil asked, still standing behind Pim. “What a great idea!”

“Arghh!” Pim yelled in frustration as her brother began to walk away again. “I HATE YOU PHIL!”

Phil shot back.

“Really? And how does this make you feel?” Phil asked, imitating a therapist, insinuating that Pim needed to see one.

Phil gave up the teasing after that. He needed to grab a clean shirt because Keely would be there to study any minute now. He rummaged through his cupboard full of gadgets.

“Organizer…no…Labeler…No…Wizard…” Phil shuddered. He had made a complete fool of himself last time he used that. Although Keely had said it would be pretty cool to be Curtis and an adult.

“Aha!…” Phil exclaimed to himself. The DNA projector. He had thought he’d lost it when one day he was digging a hole in the backyard to hide his wallet in it and he came across the DNA projector again. Curtis had buried it many months earlier. Not that it came in handy often.

Keely rang the doorbell at the Diffy house. She rocked on the balls of her feet and began humming a song she was working on.

“I can’t tell you ‘cause I don’t know if…” She murmured.

“Come in!” A voice called. “The door’s unlocked.”

Funny, that didn’t sound like Phil… oh well, never mind. Keely strode in to the house, pen and notebook in hand. She couldn’t wait to see what wild and wacky gadget Phil had this time.

Pim snickered. She was bad at imitating voices, but it seemed to have worked. She loved causing awkward situations between Phil and Keely.

Keely climbed the stairs up to the hallway where the family bedrooms were. She swung open the door…

“Arghh!”

Phil was half dressed, with his jeans barely on and his new clean shirt still on his bed.

“I’m so sorry Phil!” Keely covered her eyes, even though he was just topless.

Both of them went red at that moment. Phil swore he could hear hysterical laughter at the bottom of the stairs.

“I thought you wanted me to come in…” Keely began explaining. “I’ll just…go.”

“But you only just got here.” Phil said, grabbing his blue shirt and buttoning it up.

“I meant outside Phil.” Keely smiled, “you are so melodramatic sometimes.”

And are really hot without a shirt…wait, did I just think that? Ewww…

Keely shook her head and walked out the door.

“PIM!” Phil yelled.

“What’s the trouble, big brother?” Pim asked in her sweetest voice.

“Don’t.” He said, narrowing his eyes.

“Don’t what?” She asked, the sweet tone in her voice mocking him. “Don’t embarrass you in front of…” she took a large breath and fluttered her eyelids “Keely?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Phil has a crush on Keely!” Pim sang at the top of her voice. Phil ran to the window in his room and stuck his head out.

“It’s not true Keely! Don’t listen to my kidding little sister…who’s kidding.” He laughed nervously, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

“Phil, just come down here so we can do the assignment!” Keely called back.

Phil and Keely sat on the back porch, drinking lemonade that Barbara Diffy had brought them. Keely desperately wanted to see the new gadget.

“So, what gadget are we using?” She asked curiously.

“It’s called a DNA projector.” Phil began, feeling important all of a sudden. “All your relatives from around 6 generations ago will be in this. It scans your DNA, then calculates all your relatives and then lists them in according to importance, you know, like achievements in life, or how biologically close they are to you.”

“And HOW was this possible?” Keely asked.

“Time travel.” Phil answered simply. “people from my time went back into the past and conducted thousands of surveys. They disguised themselves as people from ‘Social Security’.”

“Ah…” Keely said, marveled by the brilliance.

“So, do you want to know about your relatives?” Phil asked.

Keely jumped up in excitement.

“Please!”

“Okay,” Phil stood up to join Keely. “Stand still and stretch your arms out.”

Keely complied.

“Now do ten star jumps.”

Keely started jumping.

“Why am I doing this Phil? What’s the purpose?”

“There isn’t one. It just looks funny.”

“Phil!”

“Okay.” Phil stopped laughing. “I’ll set the projector to 6 generations.”

Phil set the small red dial on the scanner to ‘6’. We then waved the scanner in front of Keely and it emitted a red laser.

“This tickles!” Keely laughed.

“Okay, all finished. Hey look! You’re distantly related to Abe Lincoln!”

“Wow!”

“And…Britney Spears…” Phil continued.

“Not so wow.”

Phil could see the question coming from a mile away.

“Phil, can we see who you’re related to?” Keely asked.

He was just as curious.

“I’ve been meaning to, but I never actually got around to it.”

He stood still as Keely pointed the projector at him, which scanned him with the red light, just like it had to Keely.

“Hey, you’re right Keel’ it does tickle!”

Keely handed him the projector and Phil pressed a few buttons.

“Hmm…” he said, trying to find a famous name.

Wait…what the…?

Phil pressed the ‘back’ button.

Keely Tessler.

“So…what have you found?” Keely asked, jumping with anticipation.

“Hey Keely, guess what?” Phil asked joyfully.

“What?”

“You’re my great-great-great grandmother!”

Keely stopped jumping. She felt like she had been slapped.

“Keely, are you okay?” Phil asked, beginning to feel worried.

“Yeah, fine.” Keely said, but with a fake sense of joyfulness. “Uh…I gotta go…”

And she ran through the Diffy household...

“Keely!”

And down the street…

“Come back!”

All the way to her backyard…

And burst into tears.

Phil couldn’t keep up with her. He turned around and walked back home. Over the weekend he would have a lot to think about.


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To be continued...


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[yumi50]

Chapter 4: The Weekend Break

Keely cried into her pillow for hours. While she sobbed, she tried to come to terms with this new situation in her life. Her realization that she had feelings for Phil that she had never noticed before.

What will happen if I am his great-great-great grandmother? Does that mean that we could never be together? Of course, that would only be if he felt the same way…

Keely sat up and pounded her pillow with her fists, imagining it was Phil. She wanted to hurt him, make him feel pain as strong as she was feeling. She wanted to blame him and hate him and yell and scream at him. She wished he hadn’t told her their connection, that he had kept it to himself, or that they had ever used the projector in the first place. Then she could stay happy and unaware of her feelings, hanging out with Phil until, eventually, his dad would fix the time machine and the Diffy’s would go home. Not that she liked to remind herself that Phil leaving was inevitable.

Suddenly, Keely heard a knock at her bedroom door.

“Who is it?” She asked. She was not letting Phil in.

“It’s your mother. What’s wrong honey?”

“Nothing, It’s fine.” Keely wiped her eyes, realizing her mother was coming in anyway.

“What’s the matter?” She asked sympathetically.

Keely wanted to tell her mom, but she couldn’t betray her best friend. Her mother would think she was a loony anyway.

“Umm, err… I’ve been thinking about Tanner again.” Keely made up on the spot.

“Oh, honey…” Mrs. Tesslow began. “sometimes you need to know that you had a relationship, but it’s gone. Many people cross your path during your lifetime, but only a few are special. You need to get over that person and move on.”

Keely blinked. Her mother had actually given her advice she could use.

She needed to get over Phil and move on.

If you think about it, it can go back to normal. Phil doesn’t know why I ran off. I can lie and we can still be friends. Then I can get over him.

She smiled.

“Thanks mom.”

Keely knew a guy on the football team that she thought was kind of cute anyway.

Phil sat at his drum kit in the living room. He twiddled his sticks between his fingers, trying to think.

Why did Keely run away?

He didn’t know if he should be joyful or sad about what he guessed the reason was

Keely wouldn’t be able to be with me if we were related.

He had thought it would be cool. Especially since they were supposed to be best friends.

But it may have been another reason, Phil thought to himself, and a part of him was begging for this so badly.

Maybe, thinking about relatives might have reminded her of her father. She never did tell me what happened to him.

Phil screwed his eyes closed in frustration. He needed to know why she ran away. Maybe he could help her feel better. For the whole of Saturday, Keely hadn’t been returning his calls. Her mother had said she was out, but Phil wasn’t sure he believed her. He hadn’t even bothered calling her today. She would be probably get her mom to tell him she was out again. Phil hated it when Keely closed herself off from her friends like she was doing now.

“All I want to do is help you Keely!” Phil yelled aloud, but the sound was inaudible amongst the loud drum beats as Phil beat the heck out of his drum kit, imagining it was him. If only he hadn’t told her that they were related. He had insulted her, he was convinced of it. He must of made her think of her father.

How can I be so insensitive!

Phil smashed the drums for the next 2 hours without a break. He collapsed on the carpet, believing he had got the anger out of his system. He wiped his sweaty forehead with an equally sweaty hand before realizing he’d have to go have a shower.

Pim, joyful because she had just successfully destroyed another Debbie Berwick sleepover, watched as Phil walked past. Something seemed odd.

Is he sick?

“Hey Phil,” Pim began.

“No money.” Phil mumbled as he practically crawled to the bathroom.

Nope, he’s fine, Pim thought to herself, just sad.

Keely had spent the rest of the weekend feeling more relaxed than she had been in days. She and Tia had been shopping therapeutically, although Keely wouldn’t tell Tia why. She knew if she told Tia, Phil would eventually know, and that would wreck Keely’s plan. As soon as she was back at school, she was going to look for a potential boyfriend. On Saturday night she had decided against football players after watching a game on the sports channel and realizing all the guys had broken noses and it was only a matter of time before the guys at H.G Wells would have broken noses too.

Phil had spent the rest of the weekend doing his family history assignment, but conveniently only covering three generations. He might get a ‘C’ but it was better than his whole family getting caught and arrested. He labeled all his books and half of his clothes in his cupboard. He had to keep busy. He didn’t want his family to notice anything was wrong, because then he would have to tell them. Unfortunately, his behavior was noticed by Pim.

“What’s up Phil?”

“What do you mean?” Phil asked and became interested in a magazine so he didn’t have to look at her.

“Well, one,” Pim added, a smile creeping up on her face, “you’re reading a ‘seventeen’ magazine”

Phil looked down at what he was reading. ‘Top 20 skirts for fifteen bucks’.

“So unless you are planning to become a cross dresser…”

“I get it Pim, I get it.”

“And two,” She continued, “You’ve even labeled your hair gel.”

“No I hav-” Phil began before he looked around. Pim was right. He had labeled EVERYTHING. His poster of Yellowcard, which reminded him the most of his favourite band in the future The Apple Gangsters, his mirror, his reading books, and even his unused guitar.

“So, what’s wrong?” Pim asked, which surprised Phil. Usually by now, she would have attempted to blackmail him into doing something for her instead of telling their parents.

“Keely.”

“The girlfriend?”

“Pim! I said it’s not like that.” Phil said, he seemed to be saying this more often now. “Keely and I are just friends.” He didn’t know who he was saying that to more, himself or Pim. “But I think I insulted her on Friday. And she won’t return my calls and…”

Pim grew impatient as Phil trailed of hesitantly.

“And what?”

“And Keely is my great-great-great grandmother.” Phil spat out.

“That ditz is my relative?” Pim shuddered.

Phil smiled. It was uncanny how Pim seemed to make you laugh, even if she was insulting you, or you were depressed.

“So, are you gonna tell mom and dad?” Pim asked.

Phil paused. He had never thought of that. Best not to worry them.

“No, I don’t think that’ll help.”

Phil sat on his bed and yawned. All this drum playing was making him tired. Pim got the idea.

“Okay, I’m gone.”

Phil changed into his pyjamas and fell asleep, hoping he could make it up to Keely tomorrow.

Keely sat on her bed. She smiled widely. Tomorrow at school, she would begin her hunt for a boyfriend. She had a new wardrobe and had boosted her confidence.

Forget Phil, she thought to herself. She believed it was slowly working. She turned off her bed-side light and fell asleep, dreaming of all the new people she could meet the next day.

To be continued...

[yumi50]

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Chapter Five: Like I Love You Not


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Click.

Phil put his locker key back in his pocket and swung open his locker door. He pressed a button and his locker lit up. He smiled at the neon flashing ‘Phil’ sign. Phil loved a sense of accomplishment and his locker was proof of it. A neon sign, a drawer with coasters, glasses and…cans of drink?

Phil peered closer. He was out of cans.

Lucky I keep a few in my bag just in case.

He zipped open his black Umbro backpack and pulled out three cans of Pepsi. He looked at the bottom of each one. ‘Pepsi can, 375ml.’

He shook his head. He really had labeled everything. He had sure been in a muddle last weekend. But he had a way to make up for being such a jerk to Keely. That morning he had gone to the gift shop near the burger joint that Keely loved and had bought her a small teddy bear. He had also prepared a small apology in his head and was planning to talk to her first thing that morning. He smiled as he took the teddy bear out of his bag. There was something about it that cheered him up. It’s little beady eyes and small paws…

No wonder why girls like these, Phil thought to himself, although he prefer playing ultra cool laser-squash to hugging toys. He shoved the teddy back in his school bag and flipped through his organizer, checking that he had no unfinished homework.

“Hey Phil!” Seth appeared at Phil’s side with his quirky grin.

“Hi Seth.” Phil smiled. He was glad to see Seth. Seth had been Phil’s first friend at H.G. Wells Junior Senior School. They both loved math and were A-grade students. That had made Phil an outcast at the beginning. Even when Phil agreed to tutor Keely, one of the popular kids, she was ashamed to be seen with him at the same table in a restaurant. When she pushed Phil under the table because she saw Tia and her other friends approaching, Phil crawled away, feeling deeply hurt by the gesture. Keely ended up passing her math test and made a brave decision to thank Phil and sit with him at lunch. Tia joined her, and that was how the group was formed.

“Seth, wanna peanut?” Phil asked, holding up a bowl of peanuts. Seth’s grin faded and turned into a face of horror.

“I’m allergic to peanuts!” Seth yelped, eyes wide, and Phil could have sworn one was twitching.

“Right. So I guess that’s a no then.” Phil said, putting the bowl back in his locker, “Anyway, I don’t even know how old those peanuts are.”

Seth didn’t say anything-he had gone sheet white.

“You really hate peanuts don’t you?”

Seth nodded.

Suddenly, the boys noticed that they could hear familiar laughter coming from the other side of the hallway. Phil recognized it immediately- Keely.

Well she must be in a good mood, Phil thought to himself before nudging Seth.

“Let’s go say hi.”

Seth agreed. It was likely that Tia was with her, and Seth never passed up a chance to talk to her. It was bleeding obvious that Seth had a crush on her, but as Phil noted to himself, Tia hadn’t really pushed him away. He suspected she liked the attention.

“Hey people.” Phil greeted Keely and Tia.

“Hey Phil.” Tia replied.

“Hi.” Keely replied.

Phil remembered the apology.

“Uh…Keely? Can we talk?” Phil pulled Keely’s arm so that they were separated from Tia and Seth, and so Seth could get to talk to Tia on his own. Seth rocked on his feet uneasily, and Phil grinned in amusement.

“Keely, I wanted to ask…why did you run away on Friday?” Phil said, as Keely rummaged through her new bag for sunglasses. She pulled them out and put them on. They ha known each other for so long that Keely was sure Phil could take one look in her eyes and see a lie. If she was wearing sunglasses to shield her eyes, maybe this wouldn’t occur.

“Well Phil,” She began “when you said I was your ‘great-great-great-grandmother, It reminded me of Luke and Leia. They didn’t know they were related for ages. Then I thought to myself, ‘What movie do they find that out in?’ I didn’t know if it was number five or six. So I ran home to watch it.”

Phil blinked.

“What?”

Keely was sure it had sounded more believable when she practiced it in front of the mirror before school.

Phil scratched his head in confusion.

Who the heck are ‘Luke and Leia’?

“Really? Is that all?”

“Really Really.” Keely lied. She felt her stomach sink. She felt like she was hurting him, even though he was believing every word she said.

Phil sighed in relief. His first thought:

So, she doesn’t have feelings for me. Being friends is best…I think.

And then another thought came to him:

Wait a minute, what the heck am I going to do with that teddy bear? It cost me 15 bucks!

Keely took her glasses off and put them back in her bag.

No need for these now, she thought to herself before turning back to Phil.

“So, can we go back to the others?”

“…” Phil had a blank look on his face as he was still thinking. Keely waved her arms in front of his eyes.

“Huh?”

“Let’s go back to Tia and Seth.” She said, pulling him with her.

On the way to science that day, Seth noticed that Keely and Tia were constantly saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Choosing potential boyfriends.” Tia replied, as if to say, ‘duh!’.

“And how do you do that?” Phil asked, wondering if there were any special rules, like offering gum and opening doors for people.

“Yes, it has rules, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Phil turned his head to see that Seth already had a pen and notebook ready.

“One.” Tia began, as if she was reading from a textbook, “NEVER date a friends’ ex.” She smiled at Phil. “Sorry Phil, Tanner’s off-limits.”

“Hey, are you insinuating that I-” Phil began angrily.

“Rule number two.” Tia cut in “You can’t date two people in a row with the same hair colour.”

“What? Come on Keel’ that isn’t a rule is it?”

“actually I don’t know about that rule.” Keely chimed, “But if so, no blondes.”

“You mean you are the one looking for a boyfriend?”

“Yep.” Keely said.

“and so you to are ‘boy shopping?’”

Both Keely and Tia nodded.

“This is ridiculous.”

Phil rolled his eyes.

It was two days before Keely found her perfect guy. She had been playing her guitar in the empty auditorium by herself, when suddenly he appeared.

“Hey, nice song.”

Keely turned around to see a kid from her year, but his name escaped her for the moment.

“Thanks.” She smiled.

“Hi. I’m Jake. You’re Keely obviously.” Jake stretched out a hand. Keely shook it. She made a note to herself that he had spiky black hair instead of blonde curly hair like Tanner.

“D’you sing?” Keely asked.

“No, I play guitar.” Jake replied, holding up an acoustic guitar case as he spoke.

Wow. He’s amazing, Keely thought to herself. Jake strummed his fingers in nervousness.

“Umm… this is going to sound weird but…if you’re not seeing anyone…” Jake began. Keely squealed.

“Yes!” She said, accepting his invitation. Jake smiled widely.

“Awesome! So I’ll call you sometime.” Jake turned around and walked out of the auditorium with a skip in his step. Keely grinned to herself and began to pack up her guitar. She had a lot to write in her journal now.

Tia noticed Keely’s joyful mood first. Keely was asking the lunch lady for seconds of Tuna Mornay which was a meal despised by all the students, with the exception of Seth. Keely was also humming. Actually, she did this quite often, but during lunch she had been humming boy band tunes. The last time she had been doing that was when she was dating Tanner, and she was singing N’sync songs because his name reminded her of one of the band members. Tia wasn’t game enough to ask Keely why she was so happy, because she had an idea already, but Phil, who was oblivious to it, decided to speak up.

“Keel’?” Phil asked.

“Mhmm?” Keely stopped humming.

“Why are you so happy? Was your social studies test cancelled?” Phil asked, before sipping his soda. He was amazed they didn’t have orange soda in the future.

“No, I think I got a B- though.” Keely replied, continuing to eat her plateful of tuna mornay. Phil had poked his a couple of times with a fork to see it was moving, but that was as close as he was going to get to eating it.

“Spill Keely.” Tia ordered, but Keely didn’t need to answer for them to find out.

“Keely?”

Keely smiled brightly.

“Hey Jake!”

“I just realised,” Jake began, “I can’t call you until I have your phone number.”

“Oh.” Keely blushed, “How stupid of me.” And started scribbling her number down. As she handed it to him, Phil gave him a dirty look. Luckily no-one saw, not even Jake, so it went unnoticed.

Something’s off…Phil thought to himself. But then, maybe I’m overreacting. Phil decided to give Jake the benefit of the doubt. For Keely’s sake.

“Hey, Jake, I’m Phil.” Phil extended his hand to shake.

“Phil, the over-exaggerated gymnast?” Jake asked, with a mocking tone in his voice. He shook Phil’s hand.

Ouch. Phil thought to himself. He didn’t need reminding of that incident. Almost a year ago, Phil had used one of his new-age gadgets to excel his jumping ability, in hopes of getting on the gymnastics team to impress Keely. He had made it in, but on the first competition night, his plan backfired and he made a screaming and yelling fool of himself in front of the entire school. He had physical and emotional bruises, and due to that incident, Phil now had a mild phobia towards trampolines and playground monkey bars. Jake had obviously watched Phil’s demise.

“Hey man, just kidding around.”

“Heh Heh.” Phil laughed, not in the slightest bit amused.

“Anyway, Keely, I gotta jet, so see ya!”

As Jake trundled off, Phil exclaimed loudly, “He’s got a JET? Wow, billionaires are getting younger and younger…”

“Ha Ha. Very funny Phil.” Keely said, smiling, indicating that even though she was using sarcasm, Phil’s cynical comment had amused her.

“Maybe you’re too old for jokes, Granny.” Phil joked. Phil had severe foot in mouth disease.

“Granny?” Seth asked, missing the joke entirely.

“It’s an inside joke.” Keely informed him.

And it’s too early for those jokes, She thought, frowning.

A week passed and Jake spent increasingly more time with the ‘gang’. Phil was tired of him already. He seemed to him as even more sleazy than Tanner, which, in Phil’s opinion, did say something. Phil knew how to solve a soon impending problem (that soon everyone would be attached, except him) by getting a girlfriend. There was no way he could stand another movie night if he was the only single one there again. Tia and Seth were so close now that Phil was beginning to categorize them as a couple, and Keely and Jake hugging all the time was beginning to make him nauseous. Phil was waking up to the fact that he was jealous of Jake, but he didn’t know if it was because now his best friend Keely was spending less time with him and more with Jake, or that he genuinely had feelings for her. Whatever it was, Phil concluded that a girlfriend would solve the problem, and that he needed one before Thursday night’s movie marathon repeat. He had no idea how to look for a girl in this century, but he had thought of one person who could help him.

“No way.”

“Please Alice?”

“I’m not helping you Phil. Ever since that…dinner, if you can even call it that, I promised myself never to talk to you again. That includes getting you a girlfriend who you’ll probably end up humiliating anyway.”

“But you know everyone in school right?”

“yes.”

“So you must know who likes me…”

“I’m not helping you. I said that before. Beat it, Neanderthal.”

“Okay, thanks for your time anyway,” Phil sighed and grumbled at Alice under his breath. He decided he might as well go to the library and read. Keely and Jake were playing their guitars in the auditorium again, so he assumed they wouldn’t notice he was gone.

As he browsed through the bookshelves, Phil heard a grumbling coming from the other side of the ‘Wildlife’ section.

“stupid book…”

At this comment, Phil decided to investigate. He pulled out a book from the bookshelf so he could see right through to the other side.

“D’you need help?” Phil asked. Suddenly a face appeared where the hole was. It was a girl with long hair and bright blue eyes.

“Yeah, if you can come over here and reach it.”

Phil walked around to where the girl was. He looked at the book she was pointing at. ‘The world in 100 years-think of the possibilities’ , which was on the very top shelf, way out of Phil’s reach.

“Do you really need that book?” Phil asked, unable to think how they could reach it.

“Wait a minute…” Phil mumbled to himself. Maybe he could use the DNA scrambler to stretch his legs long enough to reach the book.

“Let me give you a boost.” The girl said.

“Okay.” Phil replied, even though he knew he couldn’t possibly reach it. The girl let him stand on her hands and pushed him up. Phil pulled his DNA scrambler out of his pocket. He needed a distraction so she wouldn’t see him use it.

“Hey look!” Phil yelled, pointing to a tree outside the window. “Is that…” Phil searched for a name, “…Justin Timberlake?”

The girl turned to look in surprise as Phil pressed a few buttons on his DNA scrambler. His legs began to grow, until he was able to touch the book…

SNAP

Uh Oh. That didn’t sound too good. Phil looked down to see his DNA scrambler had fallen and had smashed on the ground.

Oh No! Am I going to have freakishly long legs forever? Phil asked himself frantically. Immediately, to Phil’s relief, his legs began to shrink. But because he was holding on to the bookshelf and his legs were getting shorter, the girl couldn’t hold him any longer. She turned back towards the bookshelf to see Phil half hanging off it.

“Hey, how are you going to get down?” She called.

“Don’t know, but I think I am about to find out.”

The bookshelf, along with Phil’s weight causing it to lean a particular direction, began to fall.

“Arghh!” Phil half yelled, half screamed. All the students in the area turned see Phil and the bookshelf fall…

Wait! That bookshelf will crush Phil!

At the last possible second, the girl pulled Phil from the bookshelf before it hit the ground.

Phil lay on the carpet of the library, eyes wide open, not saying anything for a few minutes.

“I saw my life flash before my eyes…like a really bad montage. I, I realised…My parents scammed me out of most of my tooth money!”

“Phil, are you delirious? Phil, are you okay?” The girl offered him her hand. He took it and she helped to pull him up.

“Er…thanks.” Phil said.

“That’s fine, thanks for helping me get that book I needed. I’m so sorry…I nearly killed you…”

“It’s okay, because I got to meet you.”

That was lame. I’m sounding more sleazy than ‘Jakie’.

The girl blushed.

“My name’s-”

“Phil Diffy.” The girl finished. “My name’s April. You were the one that the mayor accidentally unveiled a statue of. A rumor was spread that you were the mayor’s illegitimate son.”

“Oh yeah, that.” Phil said, groaning. Another embarrassing incident. “hey, for saving me, why don’t I treat you to a ‘mega movie night’ this Thursday?”

“That sounds good.” April smiled, “Hey, when school’s over, let’s go to that awesome burger joint next to Te-Ed-Eddies. If you want…”

“Sure. It’s a date.” Phil replied, really liking this ‘April’. “See you later then, meet me at my locker after school?”

“The one with the flashing sign?”

“That’s the place. See you.” Phil said before leaving the library to go to English. Wow. He had used a future gadget and ended up with a girlfriend. This century never ceased to amaze him.


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To be continued...


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[yumi50]

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Chapter 6: What have I done?


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Keely screwed up her nose when she found out the news- Phil had found a girlfriend. She didn’t understand why, her feelings were so confusing now, she couldn’t tell if she still loved Phil or if this was just a small amount of jealousy because Phil had told Tia first and not her.

But I’m with Jake, she thought to herself. He is really nice and cares about me. She smiled. Tanner hadn’t treated her like this. Jake was the real deal. A fellow musician who appreciated her.

Phil’s overall mood had increased in the past few days dramatically. When Keely was busy in the auditorium or the band room at lunch, he wouldn’t feel lonely. April made him feel happy again, but, as he admitted to himself, there was something about him that made him think of Keely a lot. They seemed alike.

Phil spent more time in the library studying with April and then leaving school to eat at April’s favourite burger place.

He preferred to avoid Jake as much as possible, but when he had to hang around him, he tried his best to bite his tongue before mocking his stupid behavior. He found it strange how no-one else seemed to notice it. Tia had even said that Jake was an ‘awesome guitarist and sooo…cute’, which caused Seth to come over to Phil’s house to borrow Phil’s never used guitar, which made Phil admire Seth’s persistence and also burst out laughing as soon as Seth had gone home.

“So, tomorrow is Thursday, and do you know what that means?” Keely sang, smiling to Jake. Phil cringed, and turned to smile at April. April smiled back and winked. Suddenly she was drinking his Pepsi.

“Huh, how did you…” Phil began in astonishment. April grinned and gave it back, tapping her nose.

“It’s a secret Phil.”

“Anyway,” Keely cut in, “Can anyone tell me what’s going on tomorrow?”

“I just remembered, I have a test tomorrow!” Seth cried in shock. “I’ve got to go study!” Seth ran to the library and returned a minute later. “Forgot my bag.” Then left again.

“But anyway, who can tell me what we’re doing tomorrow?” Keely sighed, becoming irritated by the constant interruptions. Perhaps they shouldn’t keep meeting at Phil’s locker where food and distracting flashing lights were.

“I know, I know!” Phil yelled, jumping up and down with his arm outstretched like a Year 3 student.

“Yes Phil?” Keely said, imitating a teacher. “What are we all doing tomorrow?”

“Watching Star Wars.” Phil said, smiling. Now he would finally know who Luke and Leia were.

“Did you know,” Keely began, turning to Jake, “Phil has never seen Star Wars?.”

Jake turned to Phil, and Phil tried his hardest not to size him up.

“Really?” Jake asked, laughing. “Dude, that’s whacked, what century are you from?”

Phil had a witty answer to this, but because he had to keep his identity secret, all he was able to do was look at Keely with a secret smile.

Her smile is so pretty, he thought to himself before pulling himself back to Earth.

Jake noticed the length of their smile and he narrowed his eyes. He’d have to watch this ‘Phil Diffy’.

He might have a girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like Keely, Jake thought to himself.

Phil looked back at April, and then remembered the promise.

“Hey, Tia, can April come too?” He asked.

“Sure. My parents wouldn’t mind me inviting one extra person.”

“Thanks Phil,” April smiled, “Alice said you were immature, but I’m glad I didn’t listen to her.”

Phil’s smile faded. So Alice had tried to stop April. Typical.

The rest of Wednesday passed by quickly, and soon it was Thursday and lunchtime.

“So which Star Wars movie will it be?” Keely asked Jake. This question grabbed Phil’s attention.

“There is more than one movie?”

“Duh.” Jake said. Keely laughed.

“Of course Phil, there are five movies, soon to be six.” She wondered what it would be like to live in the future without those kinds of movies.

“So, I think we should watch the first one.” Jake said. “You see, it’s the only movie when you don’t think that Anakin could turn evil. The situation is carefree.”

“what movie has Luke and Leia in it?” Phil asked. “I want to watch that. I’d like to see how they reacted when they found out they were related.”

“I thought you had never seen Star Wars.” Jake said, suspicious of Phil.

“No, I haven’t, but about two weeks ago Keely told me about that part of the movie.” Phil explained.

“That sounds like a good idea to see number five, then six.” April said, wanting to support Phil’s movie request. Phil turned and patted her on the back.

“Thanks,” He whispered in her ear. April giggled, his voice made her ear tickle.

“Hi April, hi Phil.” Tia said answering her door that evening. “Jackets over there, she said, gesturing towards a hat rack. Phil was slightly cold but decided to be polite and take his denim jacket off anyway. He and April then walked into the lounge room, hand in hand, to see that everyone else was already there: Seth, Keely…and Jake.

“Hey guys!” Phil greeted them all. “Doesn’t my date look amazing?” He asked, grinning at April, and she blushed a slight pink.

“So Seth, did you pass that test?”

Phil already knew the answer.

“Yeah, I think I got an A.”

“Come on Seth,” Tia joked, “You’re such a nerd, you always get an A on every test.” She sat on the couch next to him. Phil and April sat down as well. Normally, only half of the gang could have fitted on the couch, but Keely suggested to put two couches next to each other, so that everyone could be together. She grabbed her DVDs from her bag.

“Okay, April suggested we watch five and six tonight, and next week we’ll watch number four and number one.”

Phil was already confused.

“It’ll be okay,” April whispered, “I’ll fill you in as the movie goes along.”

Phil sighed in relief. He found Science fiction really hard to follow.

Keely placed the DVD in the DVD player and sat back down next to Jake. Jake put his arm around her and she smiled happily. She really liked Jake, and he was such a supportive boyfriend.

And so sweet! She thought to herself. We are perfect together, and now we get to watch a movie together and I hope we’ll be together forever… She trailed off as the movie began…

Long Long Ago, in a Galaxy far away…

“Pfft…” Phil muttered to himself, “What kind of a beginning is that?”

“Actually,” April whispered, “That beginning is a classic.”

“Oh.”

Phil decided that he wouldn’t say anything else that was criticizing the movie after that.

The time passed and soon the fifth movie was half over. Phil was beginning to like it.

It reminded him of life in the future, which, even though he had great friends in 2005, he still missed a lot. Although if the problem with the time machine hadn’t occurred he never would have met Keely.

At this thought, Phil turned to look at her through the darkness, and he narrowed his eyes. Jake had his arm around her, and she was watching the movie with her head resting on his shoulder.

He felt that feeling again…jealousy…and he knew why, but did not want to admit it to himself. It wasn’t just because Jake had been hanging out with Keely all the time and so she couldn’t hang out with him.

It’s because I still like her more than a friend, even when I have my own girlfriend. I have always loved Keely…

Phil felt a feeling of guilt as he looked at April. She was a lot like Keely, but she was not the same, and if he was going out with her just to look like he didn’t care about Keely and Jake, he was a bad person. He had to tell April tomorrow, before April got too attached to him and he would hurt her even more. He resumed watching the movie feeling sick. Something was going to go wrong, he could feel it.

As the fifth movie ended, Tia turned the lights in the lounge room back on.

“Okay, everyone, food break!” She called, pointing to the kitchen as the group all ran inside, just like wild animals, except for Phil.

“Phil, what’s wrong?” Tia asked. Phil never passed up a free meal.

“I kind of feel sick.” He groaned.

“No, Phil, why are you sick?” Tia asked. She knew it had nothing to do with his stomach.

“Um…err…” Phil trailed off. He looked at the kitchen and saw Jake and Keely laughing. Keely was squirting chocolate sauce from a bottle in to Jake’s mouth and she was smiling so widely.

Tia saw the sadness and hurt in Phil’s eyes. She was surprised she hadn’t seen it before.

“I had a lot to eat already.” Phil lied, patting his stomach and trying to smile. Tia sighed. Although Keely was her best friend, at this moment she sympathized with Phil. She smiled and looked into his brown, sad eyes.

“Stay strong Phil, you’ll be fine.” She patted his shoulder and walked towards the kitchen. Phil sighed and picked up the DVD on the floor, reading the blurb and trying not to think about his situation.

“Hey Phil!” Keely stepped into the room, unaware of Phil’s sad mood. Phil smiled. Keely had come in to make sure he wasn’t left out. She was always thinking of other people. She sat down and offered him a peanut.

“No thanks Keel’, I’m not very hungry.” He said, “although you seem to be…‘Hungry Hungry Keely’!”

Keely laughed, which made Phil feel better. “Keely,” he began, feeling nervous. “I need to tell you something.”

“What Phil?” She asked happily.

Phil couldn’t do it. No matter how much he liked Keely, he could never tell her.

“um…” Phil chickened out. “…your skirt suits you a lot.” He made up. Keely who was surprised at this comment, started fiddling with her skirt.

“Thanks, it’s a new one.”

“Except your shirt is a little country western-ish.” Phil continued. He hated talking about clothes, but it sure was better than talking about his feelings for her.

“Really?” she asked, pretending to be insulted. “Are you calling me a country bumpkin?” She asked, daring Phil to answer. He smiled evilly.

“Well,” He said, rising to the challenge, “Yes. Yes I am.”

“And this is coming from a guy who only wears shirts, and has three jackets and that’s it.” Keely teased, pushing him over. Phil laughed genuinely for the first time in four days and pushed her back.

That started a big cushion fight between them as the rest of the gang were arguing in the kitchen over how many pizzas they would buy.

Keely and Phil were closer now than they had been in over two weeks. Keely laughed as she pounded Phil on the head with a cream coloured cushion. Phil pushed Keely out of hitting range. She pushed back though and continued to hit him again. Suddenly, she started falling off the couch. Phil grabbed her arms to stop her. She smiled, and Phil zoned out. Her blonde hair, kind blue eyes, her pretty mouth, her pink lips…

At this moment, Phil kissed her.

And for a split second she had kissed him back. But then she pushed him away.

Phil turned to his right to see April, with a tear falling down her cheek. She had seen the whole thing. Phil grabbed his head.

“What have I done?” He said aloud to himself.

“oh my gosh.” Keely said to herself. April wasn’t the only one who had seen them. Tia, Seth and Jake had too.

Phil felt so many feelings at once in that small moment. Guilt, Disappointment, regret, and a feeling that he couldn’t describe, but it felt like his heart would explode. Keely refused to look at him. April wouldn’t look at him either.

“I’ll let myself out.” Phil said to Tia, and walked to the front door, grabbed his jacket and left Tia’s house before running into the street wishing that he could take it all back. But he couldn’t, and he had to face it all the next day.

He arrived at his house, and the minute Pim saw his face, she knew what had happened. Phil decided to let it out anyway.

“I’ve been such an idiot. I kissed my great-great-great grandmother.” He muttered bitterly.


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To be continued...
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[yumi50]

Chapter 7: Apologies, Confrontation and Broken Hearts


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Part 1: Apologies


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Keely didn’t get it. How come she hadn’t seen it coming? Because Phil was her friend and had never shown signs of wanting anything more. But how did he have to let her know like that? In front of everyone? In front of Jake? She shuddered. It would be like kissing your cousin. At this thought she felt sick and picked up the phone.

I hope he’ll still talk to me. Jake had left the second that Phil had disappeared. Keely would have followed out the door, but she knew her place was with Tia, trying to comfort a sobbing April. Keely had assured her that she knew nothing about Phil’s feelings for her, and would never make him cheat on April.

“Hello?” A voice on the other line answered.

“Jake?” Keely asked. Jake paused.

“Yeah it’s me.” It didn’t take a genius to realize that he was annoyed. “What happened tonight?”

Keely hesitated. “Well, Phil and I were having a pillow fight, then…”

“He kissed you.” Jake said with an air of contempt in his voice.

“Look, Jake, I had no idea.” Keely pleaded, hoping Jake would believe her.

“I know you wouldn’t lie to me, but…he makes me so mad!” Jake gritted his teeth.

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow. We need to clear a few things up.”

“A few?” Jake asked, “More like a lot.”

“True.” Keely laughed to herself. Jake had no idea how much.

Suddenly Keely heard a crash from downstairs.

“What was that?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know. I think I’d better go and check it out.” Keely replied, hoping it wasn’t Oreo, her new pet cat, jumping on the mantelpiece in the dining room again.

“Ok,” Jake sighed, “You’re always having to go, and we never talk long.”

“Sorry Jakie, but I assure you, it’s an emergency.”

“Bye then.” Jake mumbled and hung up the phone. Keely sighed before racing downstairs at the sound of her mother’s voice.

“Oreo, no! That’s my father’s ashes!”

Darn it Oreo, what have you done now?

It was now 12:30 in the morning, and Pim was both tired and annoyed.

For the past hour and a half her brother had been playing on his drum kit. She would have wrung his neck personally by now, but Phil had locked himself, along with his drums, in his bedroom, and although humans in the future had advanced greatly by means of technology, they still hadn’t invented a device that could open a door with a bookshelf lent against it without blowing it up.

Pim walked in to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack, but instead of finding a big bag of cookies, she found both of the Diffy parents, with equally tired looks on their faces.

“Do you know what’s got into him?” Barbara asked Pim.

“Hadn’t he always been this strangely behaved?” Pim replied, grabbing an apple and taking a large bite.

“Pim, show some compassion for your brother. It’s just a stage.” Lloyd said. “All boys go through this stage. First they’re in to music and want to play it constantly, then they eat mountains of food, then the next thing you know, they don’t have time for you anymore because they’re too busy with girls and cars, ignore you, then ALMOST MARRY YOUR WIFE.” Lloyd finished angrily.

“Something tells me this isn’t about Phil anymore.” Pim sighed.

Lloyd Diffy was always a little “quirky”, and Pim believed he had really outdone himself this time.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll be able to sleep soon.” Barbara said, trying to be logical. “I mean, he can play forever.”

Phil planned to. His wrists were sore and his arms were tired, but he couldn’t stop. While he played he didn’t have to think about April or Keely or Jake. He could also ignore the alarming fact; he was in love with his best friend, his great-great-great grandmother, and she didn’t love him back.

But why would she? It’s horrible, sick, twisted…Phil’s stomach turned at the thought. He continued to hit the snare, trying to drive those thoughts away. On Friday he would start helping his dad with the time machine, get away from it all, go back home where he’d never have to think about this century again. No Keely…No more Keely…

After a long time, which seemed like minutes to Phil and hours to Pim, he collapsed out of exhaustion and lack of sleep. With his last ounce of strength he moved the bookshelf, before passing out.

Pim burst out in celebration as soon as she could hear the loud snoring coming from his room. Barbara and Lloyd were both overjoyed, and grinned in relief. All that drumming was making it impossible for them to sleep, but now the whole family could get some shut-eye.

“Tomorrow I am talking to him.” Barbara assured her husband. “No-one keeps the family up for four hours without an extremely detailed explanation for their actions.”

She turned when she found no answer, to her husband who had already fallen asleep on the kitchen table. She shook her head and walked up the stairs to bed, leaving a mumbling Lloyd.

“…no, Curtis, off the table……”

Phil had minimal sleep. His aching bones woke him up and he yawned widely.

What am I doing on the floor? He thought to himself. Then he remembered.

“Scraps…” He mumbled. Not the Keely thing.

He looked up and finally noticed that there was a person standing above him. Pim.

“You are beyond dead, do you know that?” Pim said, grinding her teeth together and clenching her fists.

“I seem to feel alive.” Phil replied. Despite the situation and his depressing mood, he was still always going to be one beat ahead of his sister.

“Mom is going to ground you into the 22nd Century.” Pim smiled, enjoying hearing the information, even from her own mouth. Although Phil didn’t want to show his face in H.G Wells for an eternity, he still wanted to be able to go around Pickford.

“Really?” Phil said, not believing this.

“Yeah, well you kinda kept EVERYONE AWAKE.” Pim looked at her watch, which she had received from Bradley as something she liked to call “protection”, and tapped it.

“Okay, I had a grand total of 5 hours sleep Phil. How about you?” She grinned as Phil realized how long he had been playing last night. His eyes widened.

“Scraps.” He grumbled again.

“Well, adieu, I have to get ready for school. Good luck explaining to Mom!” At this, Pim skipped out of the room. Finally Phil was receiving some punishment around here.

Keely threw her books in her locker. Mathematics was first. How she hated mathematics. All the…numbers and…stuff… her brain felt like freezing even thinking about it. With a groan she lifted her gigantic mathematics textbook out of her locker. How could she do homework if she had to carry that book the whole way home and back? It was way too heavy to carry for much longer than a short distance. Tia who had noticed Keely arrive, smiled and waved cheerfully.

“Hi Keely!”

“Hi Tia.”

“So, did you do your math homework?”

“No. You?”

“Me Neither!” Tia clasped her hands together as if this was some kind of achievement.

“Congratulations.” Keely replied.

“No, Keely, this is horrible. I’m failing Math!” Tia said, her face suddenly appearing shocked.

“Oh. I must have misinterpreted you.” Keely apologized. Tia’s face immediately retuned to normal as if she had never said anything.

“So, Keely, are you okay after yesterday?”

No, she wasn’t.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Keely lied. “Jake and I made up, we’re cool.”

“And Phil?”

“I’m going to talk to him later.”

“Good idea, that boy’s got some ‘splainin to do!”

Keely didn’t want to talk to Phil, but she knew she needed to find out how he was feeling. If this was what she was going through, she could hardly fathom what was going on in Phil’s head. And despite what hid did to her, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him.

She shook her head as she closed her locker.

“Let’s go and grab a morning smoothie.” Keely suggested. “I could really use one.”

Phil sighed. Grounded for a month. That’s four weeks. 30 days. He looked at the ground as he entered the school that he wished he’d never have to return to. Pim skipped ahead in joyous celebration, for the air smelled sweet, the sky was blue, and her brother was grounded for four weeks.

Phil wished he could have been more like Pim, none of these “boy-girl” troubles, well not really, unless you called Bradley Benjamin Farmer ‘trouble’.

Phil on the other hand had to face at least four angry people today. And that was if they’d talk to him. He knew he and Jake would never be on talking terms again. Not that it bothered him much. You could only talk about the guitar so much before you become bored stiff. As he looked up, Phil scanned the hallway for people. As soon as he saw her, he took a deep breath and strode in her direction.

“April?” He said in a soft voice.

April turned around, trying to look surprised, but Phil was pretty sure she had seen him coming.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.” He lifted a bear out of his bag and gave it to her. It was the same bear he had planned to give to Keely a while ago, but never needed to. He felt bad that he was giving April something that was actually originally intended for someone else, but he hoped she knew that the heart was there.

April sighed and smiled at the teddy bear. It was a sad smile, and made Phil feel the guilt he had been feeling for around 24 hours now.

“I should have known.” She said, looking at him.

“April…even I didn’t know…”

“And it was an accident.” She finished his sentence for him, fully understanding. “Look, Phil, some things aren’t accidents. I believe in destiny. And what happened between us wasn’t it. You were meant to kiss her Phil, and we’re not meant to be together.”

“I should have told you, I’m sorry I hurt you so much.”

“I’m fine, it’s okay.” April said, urging him to stop apologizing.

“You’re taking this really well,” Phil admitted.

“Well, I had a long time to think about it last night, and I concluded that you and me, we just didn’t work. And you have had feelings for Keely for a long time, whether you noticed them or not.”

“uhhh…” Phil said, “ I don’t know how to answer that.” He paused. “I like her, okay? But I don’t want to. I can’t. I wish I could tell you why, but all I can say is that it’s unethical.”

April sighed.

“If so, then forget what I said, but keep in mind, it’s okay. Maybe we can go out together some other time.”

“That sounds good.” Phil smiled, hugging her.

“I’ve got to go now,” Phil said, pulling away from their embrace. “We can still hang out together if you like.”

“No, I think I’ll wait a bit. It’ll be too weird.”

“Okay. Well, see you later then,” Phil shrugged before turning to walk towards the English room.

Little did he know that around the corner Jake was waiting for him.


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To be continued...
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[yumi50]

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Part 2- Confrontation


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“Hello Phil.” Jake murmured, clenching his fists. “You remember Brian and Robert?” He gestured to two heavily built bullies who were standing behind him. Brian grunted.

“Hi.” Phil waved nervously. After Myron had stopped being a bully, these two had taken over. They were much worse.

“So Diffy,” Jake began, his eyes narrowing, “What have you been doing with my girlfriend?”

Phil took a step back.

“Nothing.”

“Yeah, really?” Jake was skeptical. “So most friends kiss each other.”

Phil’s mouth went dry.

“It was an accident Jake, I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Stay away from Keely.” Jake warned him.

“You don’t deserve her.” Phil muttered under his breath as he turned to continue down the hall. Jake heard this and grew much more angry. He grabbed the back of Phil’s shirt and pulled Phil towards him, before half throwing him into a locker.

Ouch… Phil knew he’d have at least one bruise after that. Phil pulled himself from the locker and winced.

“Stay away from Keely!” Jake yelled, and a few of the students that were still in the corridor turned to stare.

“Fine.” Phil grunted, and put his bag back on.

“Oh, and Diffy?” Jake added, with a slightly manic grin. “It’s not over. If you lay a finger on Keely, I’ll do something much worse than throwing you into a locker.”

Phil didn’t doubt him for one minute.

Jake nodded to Phil, and walked out the door of the school.

Phil sighed and walked to his locker. He had missed half on English, and there was no way that Mr. Ross was going to let him come in late.

Phil considered the consequences if he was found out side his designated classroom after the bell.

Detention…he thought to himself, and pulled his shrink-ray-like gadget out of his pocket. Last time he had used this, he had helped Keely gain enough confidence to sing in front of a crowd while he was hanging on to her microphone, supporting her the whole time. This time he was using it for his own purposes. Keely and Tia had laughed when they had noticed the miniature dollhouse in his locker, but now it would finally come in handy.

Beep.

Phil began to shrink to the size of a mouse, and hung on to his locker. When he stopped shrinking he stepped into his locker, smiling at his handy work. He had a pool, a couch, a mini working barbecue, and a mini closet all to himself. As he sat down, he sighed. He was planning to apologize to Keely, but how was he going to, now that Jake would be watching him?

I could after school…he began before remembering he was grounded. Phil rolled his eyes and kicked the side of the locker in frustration. The 21st century kept getting more difficult and frustrating.

Well, at least April isn’t mad at me, he comforted himself with a sad smile.

As the bell went for lunch, Phil emerged from his locker. Making sure no one else was around, Phil returned to his normal size. At least he would be able to apologize to Tia, if he couldn’t apologize to Keely.

“Tia, can I speak with you for a bit?” Phil asked, as he noticed her coming out of the Science Lab.

“Sure Phil.” Tia paused. “By the way, I think Keely was wondering where you were for English. She wanted to talk to you. If we wait just a minute, she’ll be here.”

Phil’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Uh, no, let’s go somewhere else.” He said quickly, pulling her further down the corridor. When they had moved down several more corridors, Phil relaxed his tight grip on Tia’s wrist.

“Geez, Phil, are you trying to kidnap me?” She said, grumbling and rubbing her slightly sore wrist.

“I’m sorry.” Phil apologized. “And not just for the wrist. I’m sorry for wrecking your DVD party.” Phil looked at her sheepishly.

Tia looked at Phil and noticed the difference in his face.

“Phil, this thing has really messed you up, hasn’t it?” She looked up at him, and seeing the look on his face again made her feel even worse. He seemed emptier than she had ever seen him before.

“No, I’m fine.” Phil lied, attempting a full-heartedly smile, but coming quite short, and looking like someone who just got a horrible present and was trying to pretend they loved it. Tia tapped her foot on the ground and narrowed her eyes skeptically.

“Okay, no. I’m not fine.” Phil muttered. “All I want to do is say sorry to Keely for what I did and sort some things out, but now I can’t because stupid Jake won’t let me near enough to her to apologize! I am grounded for a month, and after school is the only possible time I could have talked to her, but now I can’t leave the house! I betrayed my girlfriend, and wrecked your party. I feel like a jerk and an idiot. Not to mention, I had only 5 hours sleep last night, I missed English, and I have a really painful bruise on my back, thanks to Keely’s stupid boyfriend!” Phil grumbled with his voice rising at the end of each sentence.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think you made my party much more interesting.” Tia smiled, and patted him on the back.

“Thanks.” Phil smiled back.

“Let’s just sit here for the rest of lunch.” Tia suggested, pulling out her lunchbox. “I’m kind of sick of all that noise, and it might be good to have a break once in a while.”

“That sounds good.” Phil murmured. “Want a soda?”

“Sure.”

Phil now saw the side of Tia he didn’t know existed. The nice, non-shallow side. He wished he could see this side of her more often from now on.

“Mom I’m home.” Phil called out, to make sure his mother would know he had returned and wasn’t breaking the rules and going anywhere.

“Great. Honey can you help me with the dishes? Then you’re free to do your homework in your room.”

Phil groaned.

“Great…” he mouthed sarcastically.

“What’s got in to you the past couple of days?” Barbara asked him with a look of concern. “You’ve been moody and misbehaved.” She paused. “Is everything alright?”

Phil was tired of lying about it.

“No, nothing’s alright.” He sighed as he put on some large pink rubber gloves. “Where’s the detergent?” He asked, wanting to get this job done as quickly as possible and avoid answering questions. “Is it under the sink?”

He looked up to see that Mrs. Diffy was already holding the detergent. He knew where this was going.

“And if I don’t tell you what’s up, I don’t get the detergent, do I?” He asked in a drawl.

“No, I’ll give you the detergent, but I want you to know, that if you need anyone to talk to, I’ll always lend you an ear.” Mrs. Diffy laughed. “Hey, I can literally lend you an ear!” She said chuckling to herself, as she took a robotic ear out of a cardboard box lying on the table.

Phil pulled a confused face before running the hot water tap. Then it hit him.

“Wait a minute, we have a dishwasher.”

“I knew there was a reason why you get straight A’s and Pim gets Cs.” Barbara smiled. “Pim didn’t realize and washed the whole of the dishes by hand once.”

Phil chuckled.

“I haven’t heard that sound from you in a while.” Barbara said.

“Oh, No, I laughed yesterday.” Phil said, nodding. Then he remembered it was because he was with Keely.

“Mom?” Phil asked. He knew he was going to end up asking for her advice, so he might as well now.

“Yes?” Mrs. Diffy replied.

“What do you do when you find something out about a friend which could jeopardize a friendship?”

“What did you find out about Keely?” Barbara asked.

Phil’s mouth dropped open.

“How, how did, how did you know it was Keely I was asking about?” Phil asked in astonishment.

“I just knew.” Barbara winked. “You haven’t been talking about her for quite a while, and you’ve been very quiet since a few weeks ago when she came over to study with you. Although when I mean quiet, I am overlooking the fact that you kept the family up for hours last night with your incessant loud drumming.”

“I am sorry about that.”

“I’m sure there’s a reason behind it. But if you’d just tell me what’s wrong, maybe I can help.”

“Not unless you can turn back time, and we don’t really have a working time machine at the moment.” He sighed.

“Well honey, at least tell me what’s bothering you so I can at least understand what you’re going through.”

“Okay.”

Phil gave in.

“Keely and I were doing a project for English together. Then we used the DNA projector, so we could find out our relatives without even needing to research.”

“Which we forbade you from doing, because you’re not supposed to use gadgets from the future to cheat on your assignments. Ever since the Unification incident…” She began.

“Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have used it, but Keely needed the help and it was so easy. Anyway, we hit a major hiccup.”

“What hiccup?” Mrs. Diffy asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer, seeing as Phil seemed worried about telling her, especially when he said the word ‘hiccup.’

Phil hesitated. He didn’t want to tell her, because he could be in a lot of trouble.

“We’re related.”

“Of course we’re related, you’re my little cupcake.”

Phil pulled an agonized face when she said this, but continued, ignoring that last comment.

“No, Keely.” He said, as clear as possible. “Keely is my great-great-great grandmother.” He felt much better after he said it to her, but then all the memories of Keely flashed back and he felt sick again.

“Aww…that’s wonderful, you two are related!” Mrs. Diffy smiled. Phil gave her a look that clearly indicated he felt differently about the situation.

“What’s bad about it?” Mrs. Diffy asked, completely confused.

“You…can’t…” Phil began, feeling worse than ever about the situation.

“Honey, it’s okay, go on…” Mrs. Diffy tried to get Phil to keep talking and not trail off.

“You can’t be in love with someone who is related to you!” He blurted out angrily. Mrs. Diffy looked at him in shock. She had suspected he had liked her a bit more than friends a couple of times, but had always shrugged the idea off. Apparently her suspicions were correct, but it didn’t make her feel any better, seeing as Phil now could never have a future with Keely.

Phil bit his lip in annoyance. He should be feeling good getting this off his chest, but it seemed the more he told his mother, the angrier he felt towards himself.

“Oh, sweetie…” She said, hugging him. “First love always breaks your heart. Don’t worry, at least you two weren’t a couple before you found out.”

“I guess.” Phil mumbled. “Keely wasn’t in to me, so I don’t think we would have ended becoming a couple anyway I guess.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine. And if that’s all that’s wrong in your life, I’m sure soon you’ll get over it.”

Phil gave her a sad look. Barbara sighed.

“That’s not all, is it?” She asked.

“No, unfortunately.” Phil cringed. “Last night, I…kissed her.”

Barbara closed her eyes, trying to be nice about this.

“Phil, Phil, Phil.” She began. “Why?”

“It was an accident mom! I forgot…we were having such a good time last night and I just got caught up in emotion and stuff like that.”

“It seems like a rare lack of judgment for you.”

Phil nodded.

“Jake wants to beat me up now, and I think he has a right to.” Phil added.

“And who is Jake?” Barbara asked, although she had a pretty good idea already.

“Keely’s new boyfriend.” Phil grumbled. “I don’t like him very much, and right now, he hates me. At least April forgave me and Tia and Seth are still talking to me.”

“April? Is she a new friend?”

“No, she was my girlfriend. Emphasis on the ‘was’ part.” Phil sighed. “She and I broke up when I kissed Keely.”

“Phil, I can’t believe you.” Barbara said in an angry tone. “Think about how many people you’ve hurt.”

“Trust me mom, I know. It’s eating me inside. That’s why I was playing the drums all last night. I was punishing myself.”

Barbara sighed. This whole situation with Keely was muddling with her son’s brain.

“You know what you need?” She asked him.

“A tear in the time-space continuum?”

“No,” She laughed. “ Genuine, 21st Century PIZZA!”

Phil grinned. How he loved pizza.

Phil sat on the couch, happily munching pizza while he watched his father and sister fight over the remote control.

“So, what are we watching?” Barbara asked him.

“Wrestling.” He said, pointing to the other two family members.

Phil started to play around with his gadgets to amuse himself before the family would eventually decide what to watch. He shrunk and became big again so quickly he was starting to feel dizzy. Next, he turned the grandfather clock into a dog and tried to teach it how to sit, but all it kept doing was barking steadily every second. Growing tired of playing with the grandfather clock dog, he turned it back and picked up the dreaded DNA projector. How he hated this thing now. But, seeing as Lloyd and Pim were still ‘wrestling’, he decided there was no more harm he could do by using it. Phil pressed a few buttons and scanned himself, laughing at the tickling sensation he could feel throughout his body. As he was looking at all the names, he pondered where he got all his genetic traits. The Diffy’s were notorious for brown hair and dark eyes…

But then how did Pim come into all of this, seeing as she’s blonde? Phil thought to himself. He then thought of it. Keely had blonde hair. Then another thought hit him while he was thinking about Keely.

I wonder who she married?

Phil was curious enough to wonder if she would actually end up marrying ‘Jakie’. Phil pressed a few buttons and started searching for his great-great-great grandparents. Edward and Angelina Diffy popped up. Not the ones he was looking for.

Phil kept trying for an hour. Then finally he got a brainwave. Search for Keely’s name. He did. Keely Tesslow. Died 2089, Pickford CA. Phil tried to find more information, but he couldn’t. Lloyd, who had finally given in to Pim, looked over Phil’s shoulder.

“So son, what are you doing?”

“Trying to find out who Keely ends up marrying.”

“Phil, that’s unfair to meddle with time travel and the past. Just leave it be.”

“But…I can’t find out who my great-great-grandfather who married Keely is.”

Lloyd looked at Phil, confused.

“What are you talking about? Keely isn’t your great-great-great-grandmother.”

Phil rolled his eyes.

“Yes she is.” He explained. “When we both used the DNA projector, we found out she was.”

Lloyd still looked confused. Suddenly Lloyd’s face turned to a smirk.

“Phil,” He began, “You know you’re not supposed to use the DNA projector more than once every hour.”

“What do you mean?” Phil asked. Now he was the one who was confused.

“It’s an old model,” Mr. Diffy explained. “It gets scrambled and muddled up if you use it too much. You used it directly after Keely did, didn’t you?”

As Phil realized this, he punched his fist in the air.

“YAHOO!” He yelled, full of enthusiasm.

It turned out they weren’t related after all…

Wait till I tell Keely this!


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To Be Continued...



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[yumi50]

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Chapter 7- Part 3

Broken Hearts


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Phil’s weekend was the most enjoyable one in quite a while. He seemed to find everything more interesting now that he wasn’t constantly thinking about the horrible situation between him and his ‘great-great-great grandmother’ who now didn’t exist. He resumed in taking pleasure at making Pim feel like she was stupid compared to him, including convincing her that he had buried his wallet out in the garden and after waking up early on Sunday morning he looked out his bedroom window to see Pim still digging.

Phil had to admit that was one of the highlights of his weekend, besides the look on Pim’s face when he held out his wallet in front of her dirt-covered face. Phil had to run for his life, but he believed it was worth it.

As Monday came, Phil began to realize it would be a difficult task trying to get to Keely, seeing as Jake was now super-paranoid about him. Phil decided to pack some elbow and knee pads in his bag, but thought a padded helmet might be overdoing it. After a positive weekend, Phil entered the school on Monday actually wanting to be there.

“Hi Seth.” He smiled.

Seth looked surprised to see Phil so happy.

“Uh, Hi Phil.” He replied before stopping to think. After a long pause he resumed talking.

“You seem happier than usual…are you on Prozac?” Seth asked with a serious face.

Phil smiled again and shook his head.

“No. Can’t a guy be happy to see his friend?”

“I guess.” Seth said, still completely bewildered by his friend’s rapid change in mood over the weekend.

“So, where’s Tia?” Phil asked him.

“She passed here 3.5 minutes ago, headed East.” Seth said immediately.

Phil pulled a face.

“O…kay…”

Phil opened his locker and pressed a button and his large drawer shot out.

“You want one?” Phil said, making sure he was offering Seth jellybeans this time, not peanuts.

Seth looked horrified.

What now…? Phil thought to himself, rolling his eyes.

“He’s had a bad experience with a guy in a jellybean suit.” Tia informed him as she arrived at his side. Seth nodded as his face began paling.

“Halloween.” She continued to explain.

“Right…” Phil nodded. “Any other food you’re afraid of, just to let me know?” He asked Seth.

“He’s afraid of pizza, noodles, pasta, cotton candy, peanuts, marshmallows and tomatoes.” Tia counted on her fingers. “Hey, Seth, that’s seven things you’re afraid of!”

Seth continued to twitch.

“Wait a second, you’re afraid of tomatoes, but live in Pickford.” Phil thought out loud.

“Well it does explain why he’s so neurotic all the time.” Tia calculated.

Phil nodded.

“Yeah, that would explain a lot.”

“Anyway Phil, you seem much happier today. Why the change?”

“Uh…” Phil remembered he couldn’t tell Tia why, so instead he made up an excuse. “I had pizza last night.”

“Right…so pizza solves all these problems?” Tia asked skeptically.

“Of course!” Phil lied. “Think of all those wars that could have been stopped if they just could have negotiated over a slice of pepperoni pizza.”

“Okay, Diffy, you’re weird.” Tia said with a confused expression on her face. “I think you need to talk to Keely. She thinks you’re avoiding her.”

“Yeah, well if I could just get past that spikey haired-”

“Phil...” Tia warned.

“Well, if I could get past Jake, then I would happily talk to her and sort everything out, but I haven’t seen a window of opportunity yet.”

“Make a run for it.” Seth said, his face full of determination. “Talk to her straight after English before Jake gets there, and if he sees you, run for your life!”

Phil was surprised by Seth’s un-Seth-like comment.

“You know what?” Phil said, his voice also filling with determination as if he just heard the most inspirational speech of the century, “Perhaps I will!”

“Right, whatever.” Tia said, getting completely confused by the two boys.

Why doesn’t he just call her? Tia thought to herself before shaking her head.

Phil daydreamed all through English, thinking of how he was going to explain to Keely that ‘hey, we aren’t related, so it’s okay if we want to go out with each other’. Phil shook his head. This was going to be much harder than he first anticipated it to be.

Phil looked at his watch. Two minutes to go. He looked over at Keely, who was keeping her head down, trying to concentrate on her comprehension essay that was due next English lesson. Tia had assured her that Phil would be talking to her that lunchtime, straight after English was over. As she looked up at Phil she sighed. Phil had been avoiding her for the past couple of days and it was annoying her because all she wanted to do was to talk to him and find out what was going on inside his head. Phil seemed so unlike himself for the past couple of weeks, and even though she was still a little mad at him for the incident on last Thursday, she wanted to talk to him and hang out with him like they used to.

She hoped Phil wasn’t going to break his promise to Keely and ditch her without an apology or any other word for that matter. She turned back to her work, frowning.

Now which person wrote ‘Hamlet’ again? She thought to herself, chewing on her blue biro.

The second the bell rang Phil had already packed his books up and stood out of his seat. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, but remembering that he didn’t have much time, he moved as quickly as possible to Keely’s desk. Keely looked up and tried her hardest to show no emotion on her face.

“Keely, I wanted to apologize,” Phil looked down at the ground. Apologies always seemed easier when you thought them up in your head beforehand. “About everything.” He continued. “I shouldn’t have complicated things any further between us and jeopardize your relationship with your boyfriend.” Phil tried his best to say the words ‘your boyfriend’ without cringing or looking jealous.

Keely smiled.

“Thanks Phil, I appreciate you finally apologizing.”

“And I’m sorry I took so long, a few things were preventing me from talking to you.”

You can say that again.

“Let’s try to put this all behind us.” Said Keely with a smile. “When you weren’t talking to me, I felt something was wrong. I don’t want us to stop hanging out together Phil, you’re my best friend and it feels weird when you’re not around.” Keely leapt up and hugged Phil. Phil grinned widely, but then remembered he’d forgotten to watch the door. And, just his luck, Jake was standing there, with an extremely ‘displeased’ look on his face.

“Uh, I’ve got to go,” Phil said quickly. “Later Keely!” He added before running out the door as fast as he could. Jake stepped away from the doorway so she didn’t know he was there.

Time to take down Diffy, Jake thought to himself, cracking his knuckles.

Puff, puff, puff…
Darn it, I knew I shouldn’t have put this much stuff in my bag, I’m being seriously weighed down! What am I going to do with a calculator the size of a laptop anyway? Phil thought to himself, running as fast as he could, away from the classroom. If he knew Jake well, then he was in trouble. Phil rolled his eyes. He didn’t even get to tell Keely that they weren’t related after all. He knew he should have started with that first.

But no, I had to begin it with the nice-guy apology…

At this thought, Phil crashed straight into Jake, who was standing directly in front of him.

“It’s called a shortcut Diffy, you need to learn about them sometime.” Jake smiled, which somehow made him look more menacing than when he was frowning.

“Look, Jake, that was not what you saw.” Phil pleaded.

“I’m sure.” Jake said sarcastically, cracking his knuckles again.

“He he he…” Phil began chuckling nervously. “Come on buddy, you don’t want to do this…Keely and I are just friends.”

“Okay, if you are, what is her favourite flower and her favourite color then?”

“Rose, and Pink.” Phil said before clasping a hand to his mouth. “Oops.” Phil said, beginning to back away.

“Diffy, you know too much about her to like her just as a friend.” Jake said, grinning and stepping towards Phil.

“You’ve been trying to advance on my girlfriend for too long. It’s going to end now. It breaks my heart to do this, but…”

Phil closed his eyes tightly and braced himself for the impact of Jake’s fist.

Trust me, it hurt.

Phil limped down the hallway after his ‘encounter’. He needed to get his books for the next class, and if he got them during lunchtime, he wouldn’t have to worry about them directly before class. His face, arms and legs hurt the most. Well he was sure his left leg would hurt- if he could feel it.

“Phil!”

Phil turned around as he heard a voice.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention the whole time you’ve been walking down this hallway!” April grumbled aloud. “What is wrong with yo-” April then noticed the bruises and the nose. “What happened to you?” She asked in alarm. He was a complete mess.

“Daisy is a pretty horse…” Phil sang like someone who had drank a little too much.

“Phil,” April said, louder and clearer so she knew he would be able to hear her, “you’re suffering from mild concussion, okay? I’m going to take you to the bathrooms to get cleaned up.”

Phil nodded slowly and leaned on April slightly so she could help him walk with more ease. April’s screwed up her nose as she looked up at the ‘boy’s room’ sign and symbol before pushing open the door. There was no way she was going to take Phil into the girl’s bathrooms. They were always occupied by at least one person, and she knew how they’d react if they saw a boy in there. April suddenly pictured a girl screaming at the top of her lungs. Who knows what they’d do if she brought a bleeding boy in there.

April ran some water over a paper towel, looking at Phil through the bathroom mirror.

“This place stinks, you know that?” She asked him.

“Where are we?” Phil asked, putting a hand to his head. “My head hurts.”

“We’re in the boys’ bathroom,” April replied, while washing his face with the towel. “And your head hurts because you’ve hurt yourself somehow.” April paused.

“Actually, how did you get all those bruises and a blood nose?” She asked, hoping he hadn’t got the injuries from a stupid stunt or something close to that.

“Jake.” Phil mumbled, still clutching his head in pain.

April opened her mouth in shock and accidentally poked Phil in the eye with the towel.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry.”

Jake attacked him? Why? What has Phil done now? April thought to herself.

“Why did he hit you?” She asked.

Phil concentrated really hard on answering the question.

“Be-because I’m in love with Keely and he knows. He caught us hugging today. It was just a friendship hug, but he had warned me to stay away from her and I didn’t listen to him. I ran, but he caught up to me. I wasn’t fast enough to get away.” Phil looked embarrassed as he spoke.

“And it’s embarrassing because…” April started Phil off.

“Because it’s embarrassing for a guy to be beaten up.” Phil finished. “If anyone finds out, they’re going to laugh at me.”

April smiled.

“Well, I found out, but I’m not laughing,” She said, trying to make Phil feel better.

“People in 2121 don’t have to worry about all this.” Phil sighed.

“Phil, I think you still have a bit of concussion, but otherwise, well, okay, you don’t look great, but I cleaned for face up as best as possible.”

“Thanks.” Phil said, admiring April. “You know what?” He said to her, with a slight smile, “I hurt you so much, yet you’re still kind to me and helped me. It’s strange.”

“No, it’s called forgiveness.” April laughed, washing her hands in the sink with the only bar of soap. “Like I said to you on Friday, I should have realized that you had feelings for Keely. When I look back at the whole situation it is bleeding- sorry for the pun Phil- obvious that you liked her. You weren’t using me really, but I could bet my whole college fund that you liked her more than me.” She paused, and then added, “Anyway, you apologized really generously about it. Pity about that whole you and Keely couple thing is un-ethical eh?”

Phil smiled awkwardly.

“Actually, the un-ethical part doesn’t exist anymore. But I didn’t get the chance to explain it to her yet. I was about to, but then Jake appeared and suddenly it wasn’t on the top of my ‘to do’ list.”

“Ahh…” April grinned. “You know what?” She asked, tapping her lip while she thought, “The next class Keely has is Science with me, right?”

Phil paused to think, which for once, was literally hurting him.

“Yes, it is. What are you thinking of?” He asked curiously. April gave him a wink.

“I’ll distract Jake. You talk to her.” She replied.

“Will you?” Phil said trying to be excited, but felt if he smiled too widely he might hurt his face. “It would be appreciated.”

“Not a problem.” April smiled.

“You’re such a good friend! I would hug you, but I’m in too much pain.” Phil winced, settling for a smile.

“Thanks, Phil.” April laughed before helping him walk to his locker.

Phil limped with as much speed as possible towards Keely’s science classroom. April said she was going to try to hold off Jake as long as possible, but couldn’t guarantee him a lot of time.

As April passed him, she winked.

“Hurry Phil.”

Phil attempted a wink back, but instead it turned out to look more like a twitch.

“Thanks.”

As Phil spotted Keely, he smiled.

“Hey, Keel’, I wanted to tell you something.” He said, tapping her on the shoulder. Keely turned around and smiled back.

“What did you want to tell me Phil?” She asked, hoping it was really exciting news.

Phil took a pause to let the silence wash over him and to make Keely even more curious.

“Phil?” She asked, desperately wanting him to reply now.

“You aren’t my great-great-great grandmother.” He said. “In fact, we’re not even related. It was a glitch.”

It took a few seconds before Phil’s words sunk in.

“What?” Keely said in disbelief. “But, it showed up on your DNA thingy and everything.”

“It malfunctions if you use it more than once an hour.” He explained. “All the data from your family tree got mixed up with mine.”

Keely sighed in relief.

“Good, cause that was really weird.” She replied, twirling a bit of her blonde hair.

“So, do you want to hang out sometime? You and me…”

“And Jake? That’d be great!” Keely smiled. “Jake is such a great boyfriend!” She squealed. “He was completely forgiving about that ‘situation’ between you and me on Thursday. I love Jake so much.”

Then she noticed the bruises.

“Hey, how did you get those?” She asked, her face filling with worry.

“Uh…” Phil replied. Suddenly he couldn’t tell Keely that her boyfriend was a thug. Especially since he saw the expression on her face when she talked about him with admiration like that.

“Skateboarding.”

Keely scratched her head.

“I didn’t know you could skateboard.” She replied. “Actually, I didn’t even know you had a skateboard.”

Phil gulped.

“Well, I have many talents.” He answered, trying to look proud.

“Or lack of.” Keely said, pointing at the large bruise on his arm.

Phil laughed nervously.

“Well, I only just started, so…” he began.

“I get it Phil, it’s okay. You’ll get better, you always do.”

“Thanks for the support.” Phil answered with a kind smile. “Look, I‘ve got to go, but, be careful, okay?”

“Geez, okay mom.” Keely joked.

“Later.”

Phil limped away and hid behind the nearest row of lockers. In less than twenty seconds, Jake arrived at Keely’s side.

Phew, that was close, Phil thought to himself. He really didn’t need any more injuries from Jake today. He wished he could have told her about Jake’s violent outburst, but then again, he really didn’t want to break her heart. At least not like that, and not today.


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[yumi50]

Chapter 10 (I would call it chapter 8, but it’ll just confuse people-or maybe it has already…): The Emptiness


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Phil continued to chew on his 2B pencil until he felt it crack under his teeth.

Not another one…he sighed, throwing it on the pile with the rest of them.

Okay, he thought to himself, this time, you don’t chew right through this one…darn it, when did English essays get this hard?

He looked back at his essay.

William Shakespeare was a well known thespian in the Elizabethan times. He was very influential to his times, and was dating Keely.

Phil realised what he had written and sighed once again, before erasing it. His love for Keely was turning his brain into mush. His grades had slipped from A’s to A minuses, and even though this wasn’t a sharp drop in performance, the perfectionist in Phil was very worried. He persistently started chewing his pencil. At the beginning this was very therapeutic and kept stopping him thinking about Keely…and Jake, but now it didn’t seem to be working, and all he was doing was breaking every pencil in the house.

As Phil heard a familiar ‘crack!’, he rolled his eyes…

“Not another one…”he began. “…Ow, that one had a splinter in it…”

Phil had to admit, school was at least more bearable now that he didn’t have to feel guilty about Keely. He smiled as he opened the front entrance. He knew he couldn’t just waltz up to Keely and start chatting, due to the spiky haired demon to her left, so Phil settled for a long distance wave. Keely waved back before turning to her locker. Phil smiled sadly. After a while he might get used to this. Not being able to talk to Keely with Jake around. And maybe one day he might be able to look at them together without feeling the pang of jealousy. Maybe.

“Hey Phil, how are you?” April greeted him.

“I’m alive,” He smiled. “How are you?”

“Oh, you know me…happy.” She grinned

“So, I was thinking,” Phil began, “you think about coming back to our group? You do know it seems strange without your…different…sense of humor.”

April paused to think.

“Oh, alright,” she sighed like she was being forced to.

“Oh, well if you don’t want to,” Phil began, before noticing she was starting to grin again. “You’re kidding aren’t you?”

“Well,” She smiled. “You’re not as dumb as you look!”

It took Phil a while to realise she was insulting him.

“…Hey!”

By the time he realised she had already walked away.

“Scraps.” Phil half-cursed, hearing the bell. He hadn’t got his books for the first class yet, and it was English with Mr. Ross. Phil ran as fast as he could to his locker, grabbing his English book and homework, before continuing to run towards the classroom.

“Ha ha!” He laughed to himself. “Jake’s gonna miss the first class!” He commented, seeing Jake still at his locker. Suddenly he stopped.

Who is that? Phil thought to himself, not wanting to know the answer.

Right next to Jake, still at his locker was a girl Phil had seen enough times in his life, but it wasn’t Keely. It was Terra, a girl who liked to tease Keely about her singing abilities.

What is Terra doing with Jake? Phil asked himself.

“So, Terra, how’ve you been?” Jake asked, smiling.

“Oh, you know, fine, the celebrity life is very hectic though.”

Phil rolled his eyes. Terra’s dad was the weatherman for channel 36. It’s not like she was an actual celebrity.

Phil would have left, but there was something fishy going on, and he hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was…

Jake wouldn’t do that to Keely… Phil thought to himself. But then again, Phil did have a bad feeling about Jake the first time he met him…

And at the instant Phil had this thought, it happened. Phil was correct.

Terra kissed Jake on the cheek.

“Why you little…” Phil began, before remembering that he had to get to English. Phil ran as fast as he could, hoping for his life that Jake wouldn’t see him. Luckily he didn’t.

Phil made it into the English room at the last second.

“Hey Mr. Ross.” He panted, taking a seat next to Seth and behind Keely.

“So, Phil,” Keely began, “What took you so long?”

Phil’s mouth went dry. He couldn’t tell her yet. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t.

After school, Phil thought to himself. I have to tell her at her house.

Keely chewed her afternoon snack happily. She was freaked the others might find out what she was eating…peanut butter and jellybean sandwiches.

“Mmm…colored goodness.” She sighed happily. A good sandwich always finished a day at school with a happy note. Not that school was bad or anything, it was more like the icing on the cake.

Everything was going great for her now. She had a solid boyfriend, and she wasn’t related to Phil, her grades had improved and she was happier than she had ever been at school before. She wondered why Phil wouldn’t sit with her and Jake at lunch, but she had got used to his quirky behavior, and just assumed there was a strange ‘Phil-like’ reason for it. Keely took another bite of her sandwich before she heard a loud

BANG.

She screamed a little, before relaxing, realizing it must be thunder… it hadn’t rained in Pickford for a long time, but as she thought to herself, she remembered that the weatherman had forecasted a storm sometime that day. Keely refused to watch the Channel 36 guy, ever since Terra had started showing off about her ‘celebrity father’.

Bang.

Keely heard it again, but she noticed it was quieter. She shrugged it off.

Bang Bang Bang.

Keely laughed. She hadn’t realised it was actually the sound of someone pounding on the front door.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Keely called. “Just a minute!” She ran as fast as she could to the door. She hated to keep people waiting, even if it might just be a guy who needed her to sign a package. She flung open the door as fast as she could. She smiled, pleasantly surprised to see Phil on the other side.

“Uh…” Phil began, pressing the doorbell, and hearing and odd tinkling noise. “It’s broken.”

“Right, well, I’ll tell my mom and we’ll get it fixed.” Keely replied, pressing the doorbell as well, just to check. “So, why’d you come but Phil?” Keely asked curiously. Phil hadn’t been to her house in a long time. “Were you wanting a meal? Mom was ordering Chinese, and there’ll be a mountain of leftovers, so you can join us for dinner if you like.”

“Uh, no, I’m not that hungry.” Phil answered. “I came to talk to you-… hey, what is that?” He asked, pointing to the half eaten sandwich in Keely’s hand.

Keely blushed.

“Um, nothing.” She said quickly, hiding the sandwich behind her back.

“Keel’…”

“Okay, promise not to laugh?”

Phil smiled.

“Promise.”

Keely took a deep breath.

“It’s a peanut butter and jellybean sandwich okay?”

Phil paused.

“What’s that Keely?” He asked, pointing behind her.

Keely fell for Phil’s trick again.

“Wha?...Hey!”

Keely turned back around to see Phil take a bite of her sandwich.

“Mmm…not bad.”

“Give me that.” She said in a put on angry voice, before smiling. “So, what did you come here to tell me? It must be important if you risked the chance of getting caught in the rain. Actually, that reminds me, I’ll need to call Jake before the storm hits, make sure we’re on for tomorrow.” Keely gave a slight squeal. “He’s so amazing, you know? I think I couldn’t live without him!”

Phil’s quirky smile drooped.

“Oh, yeah…” He trailed off.

“So quick, Phil, what did you need to tell me?”

Scraps… Phil mumbled to himself. He couldn’t do it. Keely liked Jake too much. It would crush her.

“Uh…I just came over to say, I wanted you and Jake to be happy with each other…You deserve it.”

Keely smiled.

“Thanks Phil. I’m so glad that you’re such an accepting friend, even after that silly kiss and all…” She began, shaking her head. “Phil, you’re the greatest best friend ever!” She cried, hugging him tightly.

Phil couldn’t believe how much these few words hurt. Before, he used to be stoked if she said he was the greatest friend, but now, it seemed like an insult.

“Thanks Keely,” Phil smiled, knowing he had to get away from the situation as soon as possible, “well, you’d better go and call Jake, I’m sure he’s waiting.” Phil said before stepping out Keely’s door.

“Okay, well, bye Phil!” Keely waved, and shut the front door on him. Phil stared at the green wood as his heart sank. He sighed before continuing down the driveway. As he reached the street and began his three street walk to his own house, he heard the thunder again.

Phil rubbed his eyes and looked straight up at the darkened clouds.

“Why does she love him?” He asked, as if he would be given an answer. “Why does she love someone who doesn’t love her back…at least not as much as I love her…” Then Phil stopped.

“Why can’t she love me? Why have I got to be the ‘friend boy’?”

As if in an answer, Phil saw a flash of lightning and he was caught in a sudden downpour of rain.

“Hmphhh…” He sighed. Phil then smiled sadly. “Geez, I’m turning in to a baby…I haven’t shed a tear since I thought I was moving away 6 months ago…”

Phil wiped his face and continued home, wondering how he was going to protect Keely’s feelings. He’d need a cup of coffee or two though, before he calmed down.

Phil came to school the next day with a heavy heart, but a determined mind. He knew he had to fix the problem with Jake cheating on Keely without her finding out and being emotionally crushed. I had taken him a long time to figure out a plan, although when he thought of it now, it seemed laughably simple. Use the wizard to look like Terra, and then break up with Jake so he wouldn’t be cheating on Keely anymore.

Phil didn’t want to do it. He knew the right thing was to tell Keely what was going on under her very nose, but seeing how happy she was when she talked about Jake forced him to do this. There was no other way.

Phil trundled down the hallway, searching for Jake. For some reason, now that Phil wanted to find him, he’d disappeared. Phil rolled his eyes. Typical. When you don’t want to find someone they’re there, but when you need to find them, you never can. It took several minutes to find him, but seeing as Phil was in a hurry, it seemed like centuries.

Stopping to gasp for breath, Phil pulled the infamous wizard out of his back bag pocket and held it in the palm of his right hand as he searched his left pocket of his jeans for a photo. Pulling it out, he sighed with great pain. There was no way that he’d ever turn himself into a girl. But, as he scratched his head, trying to think of another plan, he realised there was no other option.

Taking one last deep breath, Phil turned over the photo of Terra and scanned it with his wizard. He then turned the wizard towards himself and felt the peculiar feeling of his body molding to the shape of someone else’s.

After the transformation was complete, he looked down. He shuddered.

So wrong, he thought to himself, before walking over to where Jake was sitting…a rickety bench directly outside the gymnasium.

“Jake.” Phil said. He was a bit alarmed when he didn’t hear his own voice, but instead the voice of Terra.

“Hey Terra.” Jake smiled sincerely, moving closer to Phil.

Phil had no idea what Jake was doing, but didn’t like the look of it, so he backed away slightly.

“I can’t do this anymore.” Phil said, trying to sound angry and hurt. “You spend more time with that Tesslow girl than me. If you really loved me, you would have just dumped her like the trash she is.” He was surprised how easy this was. He left a mental note to consider acting as a profession in the future.

“But baby, I love you.” Jake replied, pleading.

Phil was finding this way to weird. He had to end the conversation and get out of there.

“You’re a liar Jake, I hate you!” Phil yelled, and slapped Jake hard on the cheek. He then stormed off, before turning round the corner and whisking his wizard from his bag as quickly as possible. He could not stand to be Terra one second longer.

As he felt himself change back, Phil felt a sigh of relief. But the feeling soon wore off as he noticed Keely run up to Jake and give him a hug. Jake had a giant fake smile on his face, and Keely was falling for it. Phil just hoped that he hadn’t just geared Keely up for a bigger fall next time.

Walking down the hall, Phil mumbled the same words he had yelled to Jake earlier, wishing that they had come from Keely, and not from Terra. He looked back and as Keely noticed him, she waved heartily, face full of happiness. Phil waved back, before reaching a decision within him.

No matter whom Keely chose to love, he would protect her feelings.

Phil was unaware however, that Keely was more intuitive than he thought she was. As she hugged Jake, she knew something was wrong. Jake narrowed his eyes.

“You really don’t like Phil, do you Jake?” She asked him.

“Uh… no, he’s okay, just a bit depressive.” Jake replied, lying through his teeth.

“He wasn’t always this sad,” Keely replied. “Only a month and a half ago, he was the happiest person I had ever met…well, besides a certain grade seven student.”

“Yeah, well, he just gets me down Keely, and it makes me not wanna hang out with a guy like that. Now, can we quit the subject? Let’s talk about something…anything else.”

“Sure.” Keely replied, smiling.

She had no idea exactly what was going on, but she knew something had happened to Jake that day. Over the next week he had been becoming more snappy and edgy. Any time she talked about the two of them going to a movie or something, he would abruptly say, “No. Too busy, maybe next week Keely.” Keely became mildly absorbed in finding out the reason behind the sudden mood change. She figured if she knew that, then she could maybe get Jake over the problem and they could continue their dates.

“Jake, are you okay? What’s up?” She asked with curiosity and sympathy.

“Nothing.” He replied bluntly. “Let’s go eat lunch.”

Keely gave up. She concluded that the problem probably had something to do with Phil, as they usually did these days, and made her mind up to go to his house after school and find out.

Keely was completely wrong of course. Phil had been avoiding Jake ever since their little ‘conflict’, and so Jake hadn’t seen him in over a week. Terra and Jake had “gotten back together”, with Terra being completely confused as to why Jake thought they’d broken up, which she was sure they hadn’t. Jake had almost lost Terra, and was blaming Keely. To be frank, he’d gotten sick of her happy-go-lucky personality and behavior, and so didn’t really care about any more.

Keely had to set this right. In some part of her brain, she was sure Phil knew about the change in Jake’s behavior. The only left was to tell Phil, although this had become considerably harder, seeing as he seemed to avoid her in general.

After a long search, Keely finally found her friend, sitting on a bench near the oval.

“Hi Phil,” Keely smiled, patting him on the back. Phil’s spine shivered.

“Hi Keely.” He smiled back. He began to reminisce about all the time they used to spend together, just the two of them. The next thing he noticed, Keely was waving her hand in front of his face. Phil came to his senses.

“Sorry…in another time altogether.” Phil shook his head. “So, what’s up?” He asked, having a strange feeling she wasn’t just here for his company.

“Phil, I came to apologize.” Keely began. “I’ve been neglecting our friendship a lot, and we haven’t spent much time together, ever since-”

“Since Jake.” Phil ended her sentence. He said it matter-of-factly, and didn’t show any emotion. He had made a pact within himself to never make his feelings about Jake known to anyone. “It’s fine Keely, really. I mean, he…” Phil did not want to say it, but decided he better get used to it. “…is your boyfriend.”

Keely laughed nervously.

“Well, actually, things aren’t going so good. We’re not fighting, but I’m pretty sure something’s wrong.”

Phil tried to put on a surprised face.

“Oh, gosh, that’s awful.” He replied.

Keely had a strange pained look on her face.

“I knew it. You know why he’s acting so cold!” Keely concluded aloud. “Phil, please, tell me what’s going on.”

At that moment, Phil would have loved the earth to open up and swallow him.

“Err…well…you see…” Phil began, knowing she would be crushed. He attempted to say it again, but gave up. “…Keely, I can’t tell you.”

Keely’s smile faded into a frown.

“Phil, we’re not supposed to keep secrets from each other. We’re best friends. Telling all our secrets is an important thing of being a best friend.”

Phil could not help arguing this.

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s right.” He said sarcastically. “The last time you found out a secret of mine, I was cast out by everyone and…I didn’t even get to see the end of the movie!”

Keely took a deep breath. Why did Phil have to make this so awkward?

“Phil, you know about something that happened to my boyfriend. Now, my boyfriend is cold, and I think we’re splitting up. I can’t do anything about it. Well, I can, but that’s only if I know what made him turn cold in the first place.” Keely looked Phil straight in the eyes. She noticed something in them, like sadness, but was too caught up in her little speech to take much notice. “Phil, will you help me? Can you please just tell me what’s going on?”

Phil took a deep breath. “It would hurt you. I can’t hurt you.”

Keely looked at him again, this time seeming more intimidating.

“I don’t care Phil, I can handle it.”

“Keel’, I don’t want you to get hurt…”

Now Keely realised that Phil’s eyes were filled with pain.

“Just tell me Phil. We’re best friends.”

Phil mumbled something.

“Huh?” Keely asked, not hearing it clearly enough.

Phil raised his voice a little louder.

“There’s someone else.”

Keely felt like she’d been hit with a ten ton truck.

“Who?” She asked, trying to hold back tears.

Phil saw how sad she was, but knew that telling her was the right thing to do.

“Terra.”

This was much worse than what Keely had expected was wrong. She felt her heart beating super fast and the tears run down her face. Her jaw felt numb and her face burned with embarrassment.

“I’m such an idiot!” Keely sobbed before bursting into tears.

Seeing Keely like this made Phil want to cry. She looked as if she wanted the world to swallow her up too.

“Keely, it’s okay, it’s going to be alright…” Phil comforted, as Keely buried her head in his arms.

“No, it’s not Phil,” she wailed between sobs, “I’m so embarrassed…”

Phil had no idea what to say. This had never happened to him before. Unfortunately, this had happened to Keely twice.

“I’m sorry, I have to go…I can’t let you see me like this…” Keely mumbled, before pulling herself out of the hug Phil gave her, running to the comfort of the girl’s bathroom cubicles to cry her eyes out. Phil could only watch her go.

The minute Keely left, Seth, Tia and April appeared at his side.

“You did the right thing Phil.” April said, patting him on the shoulder, and noticing him flinch.

“But why doesn’t it feel right?” Phil replied.

“Because you hurt someone…but indirectly. What you said made her sad. But Phil, she had to find out from you before she found out for herself, otherwise she would have never forgiven you.”

“I think she’s mad at me already now.”

Tia spoke up.

“No, Phil, that’s the shock. Just give her a bit of time. She still has to confront Jake about it, which will be the hardest part for her. Knowing how smart she can be, she’ll not accept his excuses, and then we never have to worry about him again. Then she has to recover.”

Phil gave a small smile of inspiration.

“And when she does, I’ll be there to help.”

April smiled.

“That’s because you two are the best friends there could be.”

Phil grinned slightly.

“Thanks. I try my hardest.”


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To be continued...
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[yumi50]

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Chapter 11: Pining for Pheely! (aka ‘The Big Finale’)-Get Psyched Everybody! Last chapter!
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The days went by and Phil saw little of Keely. He seemed to find she was very good at avoiding everyone at the moment. He knew there was nothing he could do about this, and so tried to continue on his school weeks without blaming himself for her sad behavior.
The only time he had really seen her over the past couple of weeks was when she had her big breakup with Jake. It was a bit hard to miss, seeing as some amateur cameraman from the video department had captured it and broadcasted it as one of the morning announcements. This had finally confirmed the teachers’ beliefs that the morning announcements weren’t really that relevant to ‘announcements for the morning’, and instead had become a series of segments, including an amateur Big Brother segment, where Seth locked four people in a room with a camera.

Everyone in the whole school saw Keely on the monitor. Everyone saw Jake’s lame apology, with Terra at his side. Everyone saw Keely’s face fill with tears as she slapped him, yelled, “It’s over!” and stormed away.

Phil looked at the image of Keely on the screen and sighed sympathetically. He wanted to help her, but at the moment there was nothing he could do really. This was her problem that only she could deal with, and Phil respected that.

He just hoped Tia was right in saying that she would come around.

Keely felt as though her life had stopped. Everything seemed to go so slowly, and she kept finding herself thinking about Jake. Realizing this, she felt even more depressed, and started spending a lot of time in the toilet cubicles. She was glad that she had enough strength within herself to not crawl back to Jake, but everyday, she cringed, remembering how pathetic she must have looked, bursting into tears, and crying like a baby in front of Phil.

She missed Phil so much at the moment. She needed to get over the problem with Jake so that she could just continue her life and hang out with Seth, Tia, April and Phil. Especially Phil, who she was so regretful about ignoring. She sighed sadly, and continued her walk home.

Every day she got a little better than the last, but she felt it would be ages before she felt okay again.

Phil was slowly starting to notice an improvement in Keely’s mood. She was answering questions in English, and he even thought he saw her smile once or twice. He decided it was time to begin phase one of ‘Operation: Make Keely Happy’. He had devised it himself a couple of sleepless nights ago, and knew he needed a couple more sleepless nights to get the plan ready.

First off, he needed to find one of the band kids.

“Phil, that’ll never work. For one thing, that’s way to cheesy, or corny…maybe cheese corn!”

“O…kay…no-idea what that means.”

“Neither do I. Just made it up then.” Seth replied.

“Anyway…I think it’s a good idea. Keely loves music.” Phil pouted, picking up the acoustic guitar he borrowed. “Now, which end is which?”

“…You never used that electric guitar you had in your room...did you?”

Phil nodded.

“That’s because I could never tell which end was which.”

Tia spoke up.

“So what song are you going to play?” She asked. Phil tapped his nose secretly.

“You’ll find out when I play it.” He smiled mysteriously. “Although you probably won’t know it anyway.”

Tia had a grumpy look on her face.

“Are you telling me I have no taste in music?” She asked angrily.

“Well, you do listen to Simple Plan…” Phil muttered under his breath.

Phil had to force himself to learn the basic guitar chords and strings to play his song for Keely. Her love for music, and knowing her friend worked so hard to play music for her, might make her happier. Maybe happy enough to start acting like herself. Phil could only hope this would be true.

As he sat in his room with the guitar, Pim appeared.

“So, who’d you murder for the guitar?” She asked.

“No-one. I borrowed it.”

“Phil, Phil, Phil.” Pim sighed. “I’m disappointed.” She walked away without a word.

Phil was now convinced that if his sister did finally accomplish her lifetime dream of dominating the world, they were all doomed.

He didn’t have time to worry about it though. He was planning to play the song for Keely on Friday, and so only had a couple more days to practice. It had to be perfect.

The couple of days flew by for Phil, and plodded on for Keely. She had become happier, but still, many things reminded her of the pain the Jake had caused her, which continued to get her down all the time. Phil’s plan couldn’t have come in at a better time.

Keely found Phil’s handwritten note in her locker. As she picked up her science textbook, a smile crept up on her face. The note appeared to be written by someone sticking various letters from magazines instead of writing in the hopes of it seeming anonymous.

What got her smiling is that the ‘mystery writer’ had accidentally written ‘from Phil’ at the end, which defeated the point entirely.

The note told her that her guitar had been ‘stolen’, and the only way she would be able to get it back was if she went to the auditorium with a ransom of all her milk money.

Keely never knew that her guitar was worth $1.25.

Smiling a little, Keely headed towards the auditorium, wondering what wacky thing Phil was up to now.

Phil sat on his stool in the middle of the stage, beginning to hum. He wasn’t the greatest singer- well, his sister had told him he was as good at singing as she was at gongs, so he assumed that meant terrible. The least he could do was practice. A small amount of people had gathered in the seats below.

Phil assumed these people had found out from Tia. No secrets were safe when she was around, and Phil made a mental note to remember that. Seeing a few more people filling the seats, Phil had half a mind to bolt from the entire situation, but stopped himself, knowing that Keely would have read the note by now and would be heading towards him at that very moment.

There was no way he was going to bolt on his best friend. Not when she really needed support from him.

As Phil tuned Keely’s acoustic guitar, a familiar face appeared at the door to the auditorium. It was Keely, with a small smile on her face and a curious look to go with it.

Phil was so glad to see a smile on her face, even if it was just a small one. It had been a long time since he had seen her even vaguely happy.

“Phil…?” Keely asked. “…What are you doing with my guitar?”

Phil grinned evilly.

“I’m about to smash it.”

Keely’s face turned to shock.

“Oh! Please don’t!”

Phil grinned, less evilly.

“Just kidding Keel’, I know how much this means to you.” He said, standing up, guitar still in hand, and walked down the steps of the stage to where Keely stood.

“…So…” he began. “…got my $1.25?”

Keely smiled a little more.

“No, I don’t. I didn’t want any milk today. The school milk is 75 water you know.”

“Well,” Phil said, about to give Keely her guitar, before pulling it back towards himself. “I guess you don’t get your guitar back then.”

Keely pulled a face. Phil pulled one back.

Phil walked back towards the stage, Keely’s guitar still in hand.

“What are you doing with my guitar Phil?” Keely asked, with a little hint of concern.

Phil grinned, before sitting on the stool again.

“I’m just using it to pass on a message.”

Keely was still confused.

Phil smiled.

“Keel’, just listen to this, and it’ll say what I want to say to you.” He scratched his head. “I can’t sing very well, but I’m sure it will be more interesting than a speech…”

Phil checked the guitar was in tune one last time, partly over nervousness. He shuddered. The large amount of people in the audience, which had risen to 40, was certainly not helping. Now he understood how Keely felt with her stage fright.

Phil took a deep breath and picked up the microphone.

“Welcome everyone.” He began. “I wasn’t expecting such a large turn out, in fact I wasn’t expecting any turn out,” Phil narrowed his eyes at Tia, who seemed to ignore him. “This is a song I didn’t write, but I’m singing for my best friend…Keely Tesslow.”

Keely looked shell-shocked.

“So…without further ado, here’s the song...I apologize in advance for the terrible singing…”

And Phil began without another word.

Wherever you go
You know I’ll be there
If you go far,
You know I’ll be there
I’ll go anywhere,
So I’ll see you there
You place the name
You know I’ll be there
You name the time
You know I’ll be there
I’ll go anywhere
So I’ll see you there

I don’t care if you don’t mind
I’ll be there not far behind
I will dare
Keep in mind
I’ll be there for you

Where there’s truth
You know I’ll be there
Amongst the lies
You know I’ll be there
I’ll go anywhere
So I’ll see you there

I don’t care if you don’t mind
I’ll be there not far behind
I will dare
Keep in mind
I’ll be there for you

If you should fall
You know I’ll be there
To catch the call
You know I’ll be there
I’ll go anywhere
So I’ll see you there

I don’t care if you don’t mind
I’ll be there not far behind
I will dare
Keep in mind
I don’t care
I’ll be there for you
I’ll be there for you…


As Phil strummed the final chord he looked up at the audience, who were stunned. One person exclaimed out loud to break the silence.

“Your singing might have stunk Diffy, but that song was so…beautiful!”

Everyone in the audience took this as a sign to start applauding. Phil smiled. He wasn’t paying much attention to the audience though.

He was more interested in the genuinely happy smile on Keely’s face.

His plan had worked. He had made Keely happy again.

Phil grabbed the guitar and handed it to her.

“Well…I don’t need this anymore. I think my career as a singer is officially over.” He grinned. He stopped as soon as he noticed Keely beginning to cry. “…Keely? Are you okay? Was I that bad?” He asked, worried he had just made her worse than before.

“…No, that’s not it Phil.” She replied, wiping a tear from her face. “You helped me feel better about that whole stupid Jake thing. That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

She grabbed him in a big hug, and Phil couldn’t help grinning his face off.

Phil then had a thought, and pulled himself away from her. This had to stop.

“What’s up?” Keely asked. Phil had never acted like that before, even when he was sad.

Phil took another deep breath. He was kind of sick of taking these large breaths before a plunge, he hoped things would calm down soon and he wouldn’t have to use every emotion possible over a small amount of days.

“Keely,” He began. “I have to tell you something.”

Keely cocked her head to the side, having no idea at all what Phil was talking about.

“…Uh…sure Phil…what’s on your mind?” She asked curiously.

“You.” Phil replied, feeling the awkwardness between them.

“Huh?” Keely asked nervously.

“Keely. It’s you. You’re always on my mind. You always have been. From the very first moment I saw you in that algebra class over a year ago.” Phil looked down at his thumbs that he was twiddling nervously. “Keely…I…uh…” He gulped.

“I’m in love with you.” His face went an odd colour at this point. Between red and purple.

Keely opened her mouth in shock. Although, when she thought about it, that made a lot of sense. In fact, when she thought about it, it seemed to some extent, quite obvious.

“I don’t know what to say Phil.” She replied. She honestly didn’t have any idea what to say. At some points before the whole catastrophe with the DNA projector she had considered a future with him, but not to the extent that Phil had been with her.

“Uh…well, I’ll always be there for you Keel’.” Phil said, his voice sounding sad, but more like his normal self. “Whether or not you feel the same way.”

Keely smiled. Phil was so sweet.

She found herself thinking about the fact that she was so upset when she found out that she and Phil were related. In the corner of her mind she had been hoping they’d hook up, but that ruled the possibility out completely. So she tried to replace him with Jake.

And evidently, he tried to replace her with April.

But both relationships failed. And it turned out they weren’t related.

Maybe it was a sign.

‘Phil has helped to pick me back up so many times.’ Keely thought to herself.

And as she looked at Philip Diffy, 16 year old from the future, she realised that what she really wanted was right in front of her the whole time.

“Phil…I…” Keely grinned.

“What?” Phil asked.

“I think I’m in love with you too.”

And she kissed him.

And this time neither of them pulled away. At least not until they heard Tia making annoying squealing noises behind them.

“Do you think we would have ended up together if we hadn’t used that DNA scrambler all those weeks ago?” Phil asked Keely as they walked down the road towards the restaurant that they first hung out in together.

Keely just tapped her nose mysteriously.

“I think it’s all relative in the end.”

Phil chuckled at her lame joke.

“Exactly.”


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The End.
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