About a week later, Phil, Keely, Tia, and Seth were in Phil's house trying to stay out of the hot. They'd been swimming, but then realized that the water in the pool was just making them hotter.

"What's the point of having a pool if it feels like a hot tub"? Tia asked.

"And air conditioning if it still feels like 100 in here," Seth said.

"I know what you're saying, it's way too hot here," Phil said.

"I'd love a vacation to Alaska right about now," Keely said.

"Well, there's one place in this town I know we can go to that's not hot," Tia said.

"The mall"? Phil asked.

"It's the coolest place in town," Keely said.

"Great, let's go," Tia said.

"Tia, do you really want to go to the mall in your bathing suit"? Keely asked, noticing Tia still had her swimsuit on.

"Oops," Tia said. "Be right back, I'll go change." Tia changed and they set off for the mall.

"Aaah, relief," Tia said when they walked in.

"Sure does feel a heck of a lot cooler in here," Phil said.

"Well, it's 95 degrees outside, and 70 in here, so do the math, and it's 25 degrees cooler in here," Seth said.

"Thank you for the technical talk, Professor Wosmer," Tia said. "Come on, let's go shopping."

"Great, you girls go spend your hard-earned dollars clothes shopping," Seth said. "We're going to walk around."

"Okay, we'll be in Old Navy," Keely said.

"We'll meet you there when you're done," Phil said, and he and Seth walked off in one direction, and Keely and Tia in the other.

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"Pim, are you still with us"? Mr. Hackett asked, noticing that she was about to go to sleep.

"I guess so," Pim said, sitting up.

"Listen up class, because I'm about to assign a project for our first unit of study, the human body," Mr. Hackett said. He briefly explained it, then handed each person his or her individual project.

"Now, you have all weekend and part of next week to work on this," Mr. Hackett said. "This will be due on Wednesday. Any questions"? The class shook their heads. "All right, you're out of here." Everyone ran out before Mr. Hackett could finish his sentence. Pim walked out and read her project paper. Her topic was to see how sleep deprivation affects the human body. She had to stay up for two nights and write an essay on behavioral effects.

"Staying up for 2 whole days, that sounds like fun," Pim said. "But on every kind of 'fun' project we get, we've got to write a dumb essay at the end." She walked downtown to McDonalds to get something to eat with the money she'd taken from Phil's room that morning. After that, she walked around, until Rebecca saw her and challenged her to foosball at the arcade.

"You're on," Pim said, and they went into the arcade.

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"How much longer are you gonna be here"? Seth asked. Keely and Tia had been clothes shopping for two hours, and that was really starting to bore out Phil and Seth. They'd been to twenty other stores in the same amount of time as Keely and Tia were in Old Navy.

"Just let us try these outfits on," Tia said. "The changing rooms are full; I should have brought my portable changing room."

"Great, if you need us, we'll be at the food court," Phil said, and he and Seth left the store. Keely and Tia finally finished shopping and met Phil and Seth at a table at the food court.

"Sorry we took so long," Keely said, sitting down.

"You see, there was a sale at Old Navy, and I had Daddy's gold card," Tia said. "I couldn't resist getting some new outfits." They all got lunch, and then decided to head home because they all had things to do that afternoon.

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"Berwick, for the last time, stop following me home," Pim said.

"But I think that a charity yard sale is a great idea," Debbie said.

"If I were going to have a yard sale, I'd be selling other people's things and keeping the profits," Pim said.

"You know, I really think you should help with this," Debbie said. "I'll be doing it when I get back from Florida."

"Oh, great," Pim said sarcastically. "Wait, did you say you're going to Florida"?
"Yup, for two weeks," Debbie said. "It's gonna be so much fun"!

"Yeah, fun not having you around," Pim mumbled as she reached her house.

"Well, see you in two weeks," Debbie said, and walked off.

Pim ran into her house and shouted, "YESSS"! Phil and Keely were in the kitchen, and they just stared at her.

"What are you so happy about"? Keely asked.

"Berwick's taking off to Florida for two weeks"! Pim said, and ran into the living room.

"Okkaayy," Keely said to Phil. "Anyway, I'd better get home before my dad sends the dogs. He'll freak if I'm a second late getting home."
"I need to get down to the store," Phil said. "I'm working the afternoon shift today."

"Have fun," Keely said. "See ya tomorrow."

"See ya," Phil said.

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"You're a minute late," The boss said to Phil. "Where've you been, on a date"?

"No, I was just, um, at home," Phil said, wondering why he was making such a deal over a minute's tardiness.

"Then next time, be on time," the boss said. "An employee can't clock out until you clock in." Phil clocked in and then ended up stocking items on a shelf that a delivery truck had just brought. He couldn't help but think that the reason he got this job was because he had an idea of what to get Keely for her birthday, but was running low on cash. He'd had it figured out that he liked her, but just didn't have the guts to tell her yet. He thought that maybe on her birthday he could surprise her and tell her. But first he had to talk to Tia.

"Excuse me, sir," a woman said, interrupting Phil's thoughts.

"Yes," Phil replied.

"I'm looking for my 4-year-old who ran off a few minutes ago," the woman said. "Have you seen her"?

"No," Phil said. "But hold on, I'll announce it over the intercom."

"Great, thank you," the woman said. He made the announcement, and moments later, a man with a little girl came walking over.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," the woman said, running over to her child and thanking the man for finding her. The rest of work went pretty well for Phil. He got cash register duty after stocking shelves, and no more little kids ran off. He clocked out for the night at 8:00 and went home.

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Keely went home to see that both of her parents were in the kitchen, which surprised her, because her mom had been putting in a lot of overtime lately.

"Mom, you're home early," Keely said.

"I decided to take the night off for once," her mom said. "Your father and I are going down to our old favorite restaurant for old time's sake tonight. I made a chicken noodle casserole for you kids."

"What've you got in those bags"? her dad asked.

"Oh, just some new outfits," Keely said. "We all went down to the mall today because it was too hot to do anything else."
"We all, as in"? her dad asked.

"Phil, Tia, Seth, and me," Keely said. "Anyway, have fun tonight. I'm gonna go sort through these clothes." She ran up to her room and dumped her bags on her bed.

"Hey, what've you got there"? Rebecca asked, coming in the room.

"Just some new outfits from the mall," Keely replied.

"I just beat Pim at foosball down at the arcade," Rebecca said. "Five times to be exact."

"Oh, so that's the reason you came in here, to brag about something else," Keely mumbled to herself.

"What"? Rebecca asked.

"Oh, nothing," Keely said, and Rebecca walked off to the guest room to watch TV.

Keely remained in her room, thinking about her mom and dad.

'Mom and Dad are actually going out to dinner together,' she thought. 'And they haven't had a major argument for a week. I wonder if they're on the road to getting back together. I mean, my mom's weird in her ways and my dad's way overprotective sometimes, but I've always hoped that someday, they would get back together. I don't even know why they divorced. I just hope it all works out for them in the end.' Keely put her outfits away and went downstairs to eat.

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Phil was in the living room watching Who Wants to Marry a Dentist when Pim strolled in, grabbing the remote and changing the channel.

"Hey, I was kind of watching that," Phil said.

"Too bad, cause I'm staying up all night and I'm gonna watch something good on TV," Pim said.

"Staying up all night?" Phil asked. "Why"?

"School project," Pim said.

"Just don't keep the rest of us awake," Phil said, and wandered off to bed. But the night was anything but quiet. At 11:00, soon after getting to sleep, Phil woke to what sounded like the grandfather clock, only it was louder. 'I think Dad needs to fix that clock because it's too loud,' he thought. But it wasn't the clock at all. It was Pim hitting her gongs, imitating a clock on the hour. Phil was about to go wring her neck when he heard his mom telling her to stop the disturbance. But at 11:30, the family was awoken again, this time to the blast of loud music. It was lowered seconds later. But they were awoken again at midnight to the bang of the gongs again. 'That's it,' Phil thought. 'I'm sleeping in the time machine tonight.' He went out of his room, grabbed a blanket from the closet, and went out into the time machine, being careful not to wake Curtis who was in the garage. Phil got to sleep and woke up a few hours later to see his parents sleeping in there as well.

Pim made noise all night, though now aware that her whole family was sleeping somewhere else, she just wasn't sure where. She ate and watched TV when she wasn't banging the gongs. By 2 AM she was getting rather bored, so she decided to make some prank calls. First, she called Debbie Berwick, knowing she'd leave for Florida the next day. Pim disguised her voice with the Wizrd, and told Debbie she'd won a million dollars and it would be sent to her in the mail.

"Ohmigosh, are you serious"! Debbie asked, not knowing it was Pim. "Now I just need to figure out what charity I want to give it to."

"Well, be watching your mail cause a big check's on it's way," Pim said, hung up, then said to herself, "One big fake check for Debbie Berwick coming right up." Pim then called Candida, saying that she'd won a million dollars also; only she'd have to meet her on the sidewalk down the street to get it. Pim had a plan to get rid of her once and for all, and she was going to put it to action. After Pim hung up, she used the Insta-Morph to disguise herself as Candida's best friend, Lindsey (A/N- I made up the name). She grabbed a pie that was in the fridge and went down the street to see Candida.

"Lindsey what are you doing here"? Candida asked.

"Just here to tell you that you didn't really win a million dollars," Lindsey/Pim said.

"What do you mean"? Candida asked. "Wait, was that YOU on the phone"?

"It was me all right," Lindsey/Pim said, and then she chucked the pie at Candida's face.

"What did you do that for"! Candida shouted at her.

"Just wanted to tell you I'm through with you and your dumb schemes," Lindsey/Pim said.

"Fine, be that way"! Candida shouted. "But you'll never be cool again as long as you live! And you better believe I'll be getting you back after this 3 AM wake up call"! Candida ran back home, and Pim did too. She thought that she might just have gotten rid of her. Now that she'd caused tension within the Fashion Zombie group, maybe they'd leave her alone. With the two leaders fighting, it wouldn't be long before the whole group would be fighting. Pim got home and spent the rest of the night keeping awake. The rest of her family came in a few hours later.

"Where'd you all go, Motel 6"? Pim asked when they came in.

"Actually, we all slept in the time machine," Barb said.

"Seeing as someone was trying to keep us awake all night," Phil added.

"Hey, where's my banana cream pie"? Barb asked, looking in the fridge.

"Uhh, Curtis ate it," Pim said. Everyone turned to look at her to see that she had pie on her shirt where Candida had thrown some back at her.

"It looks like YOU ate it," Lloyd said.

"Sheesh, you're getting as bad as Curtis," Phil said. "Maybe you're the one who needs a job."

"How did she eat that thing"? Lloyd whispered to Barb.

"I don't care how she ate it, she's grounded for a week," Barb said.

"But I was hungry," Pim lied.

"I'm not talking about the pie," Barb said. I'm talking about you running us all out of the house with your incessant noise last night."

"How was I supposed to stay awake"? Pim asked.

"Try something that doesn't keep the rest of us awake," Lloyd said. "Like pinching yourself."

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"Phil, I know she likes you," Tia said over the phone later that day. "Everyone does."

"Really"? Phil asked.

"Yeah," Tia said. "Don't tell her I told you this or she'll kill me, but she's waiting for you to ask her out."

"She said that"? Phil asked.

"Yeah, and that was a month ago," Tia said.

"So what are you saying I should do"? Phil asked.

"Hello"! Tia said. "You ask her out, and you do it before I'm old and gray"!

Phil laughed. "I'll talk to her soon." Tia's call waiting beeps.

"Potential boyfriend calling," Tia said. "Talk to you later."

"Later," Phil said and hung up.

(A/N: Here's the latest installment! Stay tuned for future chapters; there'll be more Pheely than in these first four. R&R, hope you like this so far:-))