"Oh, geez, Pim," grumbled Phoebe, reluctantly breaking out into a jog to catch up with Phil and Keely.
There was no interaction, however, much to the indignance of both matchmakers, and they climbed up the steps of the school sadly.
"Bye, Phil," Pim said with a wave, and just like she did everyday, she walked to the right corridor while Phil and Keely continued walking forward. She stayed there for no longer than a minute and with Phoebe, she rushed out and followed Phil and Keely.
"Oooh - " she began, but was soon cut off when someone stood right in front of her, blocking their view of them.
"You're Phil's little sister, aren't you?" said the girl, frowning at her.
Pim nodded. "Uh, yeah, Pim," she stuck out her hand.
The girl took it. "Tia," she said with a nod. She gave another upward nod towards her friends. "What were you doing?"
Pim stared at her, while Phoebe smiled at Tia. "I'm Phoebe." Tia greeted her and Phoebe continued, "We're trying to bring them together."
The beam that spread across Tia's face was immediate, and Pim was taken aback. Tia laughed. "Finally! I've been meaning to do it myself, but one person ain't enough, you see."
Pim grinned. "So you'll help us?"
"Oh, sure!" Tia's face reflected Pim's. "Besides, you two aren't in their classes, but I'm in with them in most of them."
Pim nodded. "Thanks!" She held out her hand again, and Tia took it once more. "Deal?" she said, repeating what she'd asked Phoebe just two days ago.
"Yeah, deal," Tia nodded. She let go of Pim's hand, and used her hand to give a mock salute. "See you!"
Phoebe watched her retreating back with a mischievious grin. "And now there're three."
-
Keely grabbed some books off the shelf of her locker. "Oof," she muttered. "Too heavy, too heavy..."
Phil noticed her dilemma and couldn't help but grin. It was what happened every Monday, thanks to the fact that their first few classes were in the other side of the building. He grabbed the first few books from her pile as usual without hesitation and set them on top of his own books.
"C'mon, we'd better get going," he said, cutting her off before she could say thanks. She frowned and began to walk while he did.
"Meanie," she said.
"You've said enough 'thank you's, thank you very much," Phil said jokingly.
"Haha," she commented sarcastically. She changed the topic. "You heard? Tia's joining our first class today. Her first class teacher's sick so she isn't coming today."
He coughed and Keely heard the muffled remnants of 'gossip'. She straightened her back in a dignified manner and said, "For your information, Phil, I got my info from Tia herself."
Phil laughed. "All right, all right - hey, Tia!" he said with a wave.
The grinning girl waited for them to approach her so that they could walk to class together.
"Hey guys," she greeted. "What's up?"
"Eh, not much," Phil said with a shrug.
"We watched a movie last Saturday!" said Keely.
"'We' as in...?" Tia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Pim, her friend, Phil and me."
"You mean, Phil and I," Phil corrected.
Keely frowned and hit him on the head with her books. "Idiot." She looked back at Tia. "Horror movie. Man, was it it was scary - "
" - yeah, so scary that she grabbed my arm billions of times!" Phil interrupted.
"Oh, right," Keely said, though her cheeks were going red, "That was once - "
Phil cut her off again. "But you would've done it again if I hadn't taken your hand myself when you screamed."
Tia barely disguised a smile as she pretended to frown. "Well, you said that you said that you took her hand when she screamed - surely that means you were scared too?"
Phil opened and closed his mouth a few times, then finally closed it. "Girls always ganging up on me - I need more male friends," they vaguely heard him mumble.
"Oh, stop being - " Keely started.
" - so sore," Phil and Keely finished together. Phil sighed. "I know, I know." He flashed a joking smile at her. "We're getting late, come on."
"Okay," Tia said. They hurried to their class quickly. But at the entrance, Phil stopped and turned around. "But for punishment, you have to carry your own books into the classroom yourself," he said, his voice containing laughter as he placed the books he had taken back onto her pile of books. He walked into the classroom again.
"Philllll!" Keely whined, following him quickly.
Tia stood outside, staring blankly at Keely chasing after Phil as fast as she could though it wasn't very fast and Phil finally lifting all of Keely's books from her hands and carrying them to the table at the back, while Keely continued to protest, this time because of the lack of the load.
"Opens door means interested but with someone else...front cuts, back cuts, book-carrying - " Tia grinned widely as she entered the classroom. " - he's interested!"
Keely hugged him briefly before they sat down at the table and Tia was not very surprised about it.
"And so is she!" she giggled, walking towards the other two. "Pim and Phoebe are soooo gonna like this!"