Chapter 1
The Worst Seven Words Ever
"Come on, Keel," 18-year-old Phil Diffy called back to Keely Teslow as he hurried down the front steps of H.G. Wells Junior/Senior High School. Keely ran down the steps to catch up to Phil.
"Wait up, Diffy!" she shouted down at him in mock annoyance. "Do you want to give me a hernia trying to catch up with you! If so, you're doing a good job of it! And our teachers are helping! I can't believe they'd hoist so much homework on us so close to the end of our senior year." She hoisted her heavy backpack onto her shoulders. She finally reached Phil and panted in an overly dramatic fashion.
"I get the message, Keely." Phil took Keely's backpack from her as she smiled gratefully. He pulled it onto his shoulder, not remembering that his and Keely's backpacks weighed about the same. So, Phil keeled over.
"Phil, are you okay!" Keely dropped down next to him. "What happened!"
"Gravity. Gravity's what happened. Now will you get these things off me!" Phil gestured urgently at the backpacks that were crushing his ribs. Keely quickly grabbed her backpack and proceeded to yank it off Phil. She, too, forgot about Newton's laws of motion, and landed hard on the cement sidewalk.
"Ow." Keely winced. "Ow. Ow. Ow." Phil finally managed to get his backpack off of him and helped Keely to her feet. He turned to her, looking a bit annoyed.
"From now on, Keel, how about you carry your own backpack?" He handed said offending backpack to its owner. Keely looked a little hurt.
"What's with the attitude, Phil?" Keely looked at him with a funny look on her face. "Are you feeling underappreciated? If so, you can tell me. I'll listen."
"I'm not feeling underappreciated!" Phil half laughed, half yelled. "It's just that they sent out the letters saying who won student awards for this year, and the recipients should be getting those letters today. I want to know if I won for Math Whiz." Keely gaped at him.
"The recipients should be getting them today?" Keely gasped. Phil nodded. "Well, then. I have to go.
"Of course you do. You need to see if you won for Most Popular, Most Talented, or …" Phil began ticking off the names of the awards that Keely would probably win.
"Most Ditzy?" A voice sniggered behind them.
"Shut up, Tanner." Phil growled.
"Why don't you make me?" Tanner sneered.
"Phil, don't do it. He's just trying to get a rise out of you." Keely advised him.
"And it's working." Phil snapped.
"Yeah, Phil. Listen to Miss Ditz." Tanner taunted.
Now Keely was the one who needed to be held back. "Why, I oughta…"
"Keely!" Phil grabbed at her arm. Keely had other ideas. She swung at Tanner's head with her backpack and… missed. Phil sighed with relief. But no! Keely swung again. And this time her backpack connected with… Tanner's face.
"Oh my God!" Tanner screamed." What is up with you! You broke my nose!" It appeared that, for once, Tanner might have been right. Blood spurted from both his nostrils and drenched the sidewalk. Keely gaped in horror at what she had done. Phil grabbed Keely by the hand and pulled her, his backpack, and her backpack down the sidewalk. Keely had apparently lost all desire to make independent movement. Her mouth just hung up. Once they were a good block away, Phil and Keely plopped down on the sidewalk, panting heavily.
"What did you do that for, Keel!" Phil half yelled at her. He didn't have the energy to go up to maximum volume. "Tanner's parents could file a lawsuit against you! You could get put in jail! Do you want to get put in jail!" Keely looked up at Phil with tears in her eyes.
She managed to whimper, "I don't want to go to jail, Phil. I don't want to." Phil instantly regretted yelling at Keely.
"Aw, Keel. I'm sorry." He gave her a hug. Keely hugged him back. After a while, Phil realized that Keely was tightening her grip. "Uh, Keel?" He choked out the words. "Choking, not breathing."
"Oh! Sorry." Keely released Phil from her tight, bone-crushing grip. Keely was still feeling upset about what she had done, but a happy thought made her face brighten. "You know what's good about this?"
"What could possibly be good about this?" Phil asked curiously.
"Well, Tanner probably has a broken nose, which means…" Keely started.
"Yes?" Phil asked impatiently, giving Keely a look that urged her to go on.
"All the girls in school will be so repulsed by his nose that they won't go to the prom with him, no matter how many times he asks them!" Keely nearly let out a cheer.
Phil took in a gasp of air, as if he was going to scold Keely, but let it out. His face brightened as well as he answered Keely. "I think you may have a good point there."
"I told you so!" Keely playfully punched his shoulder. Phil clutched his shoulder in mock pain. Keely laughed at him as he continued his act and began writhing on the sidewalk. "Oh, Phil. Don't be such a baby!" She stood up and yanked him to his feet. They nearly collided, they were so close. Their faces were about three inches apart. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Keely backed away. Her heart was throbbing wildly. She wondered what it meant.
They looked at each other for about five minutes. Phil finally remembered that he had to get home and work on the mountain of homework his teachers had given him. He cleared his throat and broke eye contact with Keely. "Well, we need to get home and work on this pile of junk." Phil pointed to his back pack. For some reason, he had trouble getting the words out. He was strangely… tongue-tied.
"Right." Keely agreed with Phil. She fixed her backpack on her shoulders and they headed for home. The walk home was silent. The only words they said during the entire walk was "See you later" when the y reached their respective homes. Phil walked into the front hallway and dropped his backpack to the floor with a heavy thud.
"I'm home!" he called. His mom heard him first.
"Oh, Phil. Come into the living room. Your father and I have big news for you and Pim." He followed his mom, into the living room, wondering what could be so important. Pim was already seated at one of the couches. Lloyd Diffy sat at the other couch. Barbara Diffy indicated that Phil sit with Pim. He plopped down onto the couch. His mom sat with his dad. Phil sat patiently and waited for his parents to say whatever it was they had to say. Pim, however, blurted out some information she thought her parents would think important.
"Can we get this over with, and fast? I have some serious channel surfing to do." Barbara gave Pim a Look.
"Go ahead, Lloyd." Phil's dad nodded and looked at Phil and Pim.
"I have some great news." Before he could say the great news, Phil interrupted.
"Did I win the school award for Math Whiz?" Phil stared at his parents, as if begging them to say yes.
" I don't know, Phil. The mail hasn't come yet." Phil's head drooped. Phil's dad was just about to continue when he was interrupted yet again, this time by Pim.
"Did you get that cable upgrade I told you about? 200 channels?" Pim stared down her dad.
"No, Pim." Lloyd shook his head. "No cable upgrade. Even better." He paused to build up the suspense. He finally decided that he'd built up the suspense enough. "I fixed the time machine." Phil's mouth dropped open. "We're going home."