Chapter 7- Part 3

Broken Hearts

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.

Okay people! Sorry I had to get demanding, but I really wanted reviews, and no-one was reviewing, so I had to take drastic action to get you people to listen! It might be a while until I update again, I'm not sure how long it'll take to write another chapter.

Okay, only two more chapters to go! Some people have asked when I was going to finish, and so there you go, that's when I'm finishing. I've had no comments on if you guys would like me to write another POTF fanfic, so until I get a comment, I'll take a break from fanfiction writing after the end of this story.

Reviews would be appreciate. Come on, you guys KNOW I love reading them.

Cya later :)