Pim smiled and whispered excitedly, "That's great!" Phoebe, on the other end of the three-way call, agreed with her.
Pim walked into her room quietly and closed the door. Locking it, she leapt onto her bed. "Alright, so you two got any ideas?"
"Nope, nothing for now," Phoebe said.
"I got one!" Tia exclaimed. "I suggested a Christmas Ball this year since it's coming soon..."
"Oooh, not bad!" Phoebe said at once. "It's almost definite that he'll ask her."
"Whatdya mean, almost!" Pim questioned, sounding mildly insulted. "It's definitely definite! Phil likes her!"
"Likes who?" a new voice was introduced into the conversation.
"Uhhhh...who was that?" Phoebe asked hesitantly.
Pim gasped. "Oh no..."
"Who was it?"
"Oh no oh no oh no..."
The person cleared her throat. "Pim Ganza Diffy, tell me what you are doing and tell me now."
No one found the situation funny enough to laugh at Pim's ridiculous middle name. "Mrs Diffy!" Phoebe asked.
"Yeah," Pim said nervously. "Uh...let me start from the beginning?"
"Please," Barbara said promptly. The story began and finished, and in the end Barbara couldn't hold back a loud snort.
Tia chuckled. "So you agree with us too?"
"Oh, yeah!" she said with a laugh. "I don't know why I didn't do it sooner!"
They all laughed in agreement with her.
All four of them didn't hear a faint click in the background.
-
"Oh my God, oh my God," he muttered quickly under one breath. He looked nervous as he paced around the kitchen. He was thinking about the phonecall he'd just heard.
"Hey, dad," a cheerful voice greeted him as the back door slammed shut. Phil looked at his father worriedly. "What's wrong?"
"Wrong? No - nothing's wrong," Lloyd said nervously. "Nothing at all. Everything's fine."
His son stared at him and nodded slightly. "Alllll right," he said, disbelievingly. He set his bag on the table nearby and walked over to the fridge.
"How was school?" Lloyd started a little hesitantly, as if desperately trying to cover up.
"Was fine," he said shortly, drinking out of the carton. "I got a coupla assignments and I gotta hand 'em up soon. Keely's helping, though, so there shouldn't be much of a problem."
Lloyd nodded, inwardly wondering how there could be a problem if Keely herself was the problem. He tried to voice his opinion tactfully. "How're things with Keely?"
"Fine," he said, eyeing his father a little doubtfully. "Why?"
"Just...wanted to know," he said with a shrug.
"Oh." He sat down on one of the chairs and stared at the table top. "Maybe it's not all fine..." he started, trailing off.
"Mm-hmm?" Lloyd said with interest, nudging his chair closer to him.
"It's just," he began, then looked up at the older man. "Never mind." He shook his head and pushed himself off the seat. "I'll see ya later."
Lloyd simply stared at the retreating back of his son and wondered what was going on that he couldn't know.
Then he looked up at the framed group picture on the wall that they'd taken recently, and smiled slightly. The third girl in the photo smiled back at him, her arm around Phil and her head leaning on his shoulder. He, in turn, had his arm around her and his own head leant upon hers.
Perhaps there wasn't much need to wonder, after all.