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

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."

To be continued...

Hey people! I'm so sorry for not updating in AGES. I've been really busy and had a lot of problems with posting this chapter up. (Half of this chapter was separated from the other half, so I had to wait until I had both of them.) As most of you know, this is the second last chapter. Yay! I think. You people seem to be looking forward to it. At least according to the reviews. I'm getting a little writer's block with the final chapter, mainly because there isn't much more to write, but I know that readers don't want to read a one-page chapter. I'll keep working on it, and hope to post it within a week.

I've got a favour to ask. I want you people to send in any questions or comments you have about the story. I'll post up answers to any questions you have, and show you how some things in this story are references to my life. If you people want. I love comments, so please review!