Both stared at each other as they stood in silence. Keely's cheeks were a light shade of red, Phil observed, when she finally began - or, at least, tried to speak.
"Is anyone in there?"
Phil and Keely spun around simultaneously. He cleared his throat before he called back, "Yeah, it's - it's us."
"What're you guys doing in there?" Pim called, pushing a key into the keyhole and unlocking the door. She obviously struggled with the door before she finally tugged it open. She was still in her pyjamas as she stared at them sleepily.
He smiled slightly at her then glanced fleetingly at his best friend. "Curtis pushed us in here," he lied smoothly.
"Oh. What were you doing out, anyway?" Pim asked, beginning to walk back to their rooms. Keely's light pink went to full-blown red and noticing this, she laughed. "Ho, problems with the dark, I bet."
Phil let out a full-hearted chuckle. "Nail right on the head, Pim," he confirmed, grinning teasingly at Keely. "Got me out of bed, too."
The older blonde frowned and slapped him on his shoulder. It was the first time she spoke since she left the cupboard whens she said, "Look, Phil, I told you - "
"Leave your couple spats for when you're alone, won't you?" Pim interrupted irritatedly, then smothered a smug smile as she added, "The make-up bits would probably be better in private." She watched her brother and 'friend' exchange glances, and before they had time to interfere, she continued, "See ya guys."
Blinking confusedly, they watched the door to her room slam shut.
------------------
The first thing Phil did when they reached his room was to grab the Wizrd. Keely looked on as he fiddled around with buttons, then screamed a couple of times later.
"Uhm - Phil," she started, wincing as he yelled once more for good measure, "What on earth do you think you're doing?"
He grinned at her proudly. "My room is now officially soundproofed."
She giggled slightly. "Good, because I thought for a moment there you'd just turned crazy."
"Mm-hmm," he said, shaking his head as he joined her on the bed.
"It makes sense, you know. Built-up pressure from knowing your parents and sister and possibly friends had turned on you..."
He laughed, nudging her to bring her to stop. "You do know that my friends areyour friends, right?"
"Right...oh, right..." she paled slightly. "You think Tia's in on this?"
"And Seth?" They stared at each other, then sighed in unision. "This is pathetic," he said with a shrug.
"You're right."
"I know I am," he said smugly, then grinned suddenly. "I think we should fight back."
"Oooh." Her lips twitched into a smile as well as their eyes met. "I think I maylike where you're going with this."
------------------
The next afternoon at lunch both Barbara and Lloyd noticed Phil and Keely were quieter than usual. Sure, they talked to each other, and to the rest of the Diffys, but not as much as they usually would.
"They're hiding something from us," Barbara thought, watching them keenly. At this moment Phil pushed forward his plate and announced, "I'm done."
"Already?" Keely asked incredulously. "Phil, you hardly ate!"
"Of course I did," he replied stubbornly.
"No you didn't! Did he, Mrs Diffy?" she insisted, glancing earnestly at her.
"Erm - " Mrs Diffy was at a loss of words - truth to be told she hadn't been paying much attention at all.
"Never mind," she said with a sigh, then turned back to her friend. "I've been watching you, and I noticed you barely touched your food. Now, you pick up that spoon and eat at least a little bit more, or I'm feeding you."
Phil stared at her quietly until she threatened to move forwards and pick up the spoon. Hastily he resumed eating. Lloyd and Pim exchanged smiles as Barbara reddened considerably. She frowned at their hidden amusement and nudged Pim - once ("OUCH!"), twice ("OW!"), thrice ("OKAY!").
Pim got up immediately and said, holding her hip gingerly, "I need the bathroom."
Phil pretended to wince, as if ignoring the blatantly obvious fact that she only needed to go after his mother's 'secret' nudges. "Too much information!" he said, gesturing towards his food. Keely laughed, and when Pim turned away to go up the stairs she leaned in and whispered in his ear.
"She's gonna do something to our room now."
He smiled, and between his lips he forced a reply. "I know." He ate a few more spoonfuls and added, "But hey, that's what we want, right?"
She nodded, then glanced up at his parents. Immediately they looked away and she grinned. "They're looking at us again." She coughed and repeated, "Again."
"That's what we want, isn't it?" he repeated, chuckling slightly as his spoon fell to the plate with a loud clang. "C'mon, let's go up to our room now," he said loudly for both his parents to hear, then as if not even thinking about it, he pulled Keely's chair back. His hand clasped hers, tugged her up, and led her to the exit of the room.
"Pim! Leave the door open after you flush!" he yelled, laughing as Keely giggled. The Diffy parents glanced at each other, then hurriedly, Barbara pointed at their plates. "Put those in the sink before you go up," she instructed quickly, glancing upstairs as if looking through the ceiling and checking on Pim.
"It's Pim's turn today, remember?" he reminded, confused.
"Oh, is it?" she asked, frowning slightly. Darn it! For a robot she wasn't being very clever.
"Yes...you just changed our chore list last Friday." He had a small grin on his face. "Even Keely knows that."
She glanced at his friend and Keely nodded immediately, almost on cue. "Yes. I was there. Remember Mrs Diffy?" she questioned, almost too eagerly.
Her frown deepened. "Oh-kay..."
Pim stormed down the steps and opened the door wide to the dining room. "I feel relieved!"
"We're done eating but that doesn't mean we should be hearing this," Keely said with a sigh, and then turned to face Phil's mum. "Can we go up now? We've got some scripting to do."
"Scripting? About?" Now this was something new. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"It's just a project, Mom.. We're supposed to get something done in pairs, with a made-up script and acting and all..." Phil explained in as few words as possible. "For drama class."
"Oh."
There was a short silence and Phil finally nodded towards the stairs. "We'll be going now. Holler if ya need us," he added as he began climbing up the steps. Keely followed and they heard a giggle in the silence before his door slammed.
Two more seconds of silence - then they exploded.
"Pim, get to the dishes, Barb, clean up, I'll go check up on them," Lloyd said hastily.
"Oh no you don't, mister," Barbara reminded, pulling his sleeve before he got away.
Pim also looked very against the whole idea. "It's Phil's turn to do the dishes!"
"Is it?" Barbara glanced at Lloyd, who shrugged. Obviously recalling Keely's support of the idea, she sighed and took her son's side to get it done with. "Don't lie, dearie, and get the dishes done."
Pim growled. She knew this had something to do with them knowing about their Operation Pheely. Now, if only she could prove it...
------------------
They left again quickly after Phil got his hands on the InvisiSpray. She sprayed him with it, and he hurried into the room. He exited, the Wiz'rd blinking madly in his hand when came back into view. "Found it. On the lamp."
She glanced downstairs than peeked into the room. "The blue one?"
"Yeah, the blue one. It's right on the shade. And it's invisible. The Wiz'rd just detected a hole in the space in the room that wasn't made up of the normal composition of air."
"I completely understood that," she said with a nod, then sighed. "So we should do everything facing that?"
"Yeah, that'd be good."
"Okay." She took a deep breath, then giggled, pulled Phil in and slammed the door.
"How 'bout a futuristic thing?"
"You mean...something like someone getting trapped in the past while riding on a time-machine for vacation and having to stay there for a while?"
She grinned. "Yeah, precisely."
"I don't know..." a small beep (that he had programmed with the Wiz'rd) told them that the other Diffys had begun watching them from downstairs. Awkwardly, he continued, trying hard to forget that he was being observed. "With stuff like that and all, we'd probably do something or other that'll let slip that I'm from the future. Plus, there's my dad."
She joined him on the sentence with a laugh with the same words: "there's your dad." She smiled at their simultaneous speech and forced herself to look away from the accused lamp guiltily. Instead she looked straight at him and added, "If he found out we did something like that he'd probably drag us all the way to Europe."
"Make that Antartica," he corrected with a chuckle, then paused slightly, momentarily forgetting the presence of the camera. "Us?"
Keely had been fiddling around with her pen, writing random things on the piece of paper lying in front of her. "Hmm?" she asked absently, completing a tiny sketch of him with the last button on his cartoon-shirt.
"You said us." He reminded her. "He'd probably drag us all the way..."
She grinned at him bashfully. "Did I?" He returned the grin, nodding, and she turned slightly red. "Tongue-slip."
"Mmhmm," he said, chuckling, tearing his eyes away from her and scanned the room. Suddenly realising they were still being recorded, he mentally pulled himself into check and began. "So what're we left with?"
"We could try something with action..." she noticed his eager nod and smiled. "Nah."
"Keel!" he cried, frowning. "That is not fair!"
"Yes it is." Without waiting for a further reply she continued. "How about a romance?"
He made a face and she laughed. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
"No, I'm serious! That'd be a great play-thing. Like Romeo and Juliet of the future."
"Of the present," he corrected. "I'm Phil of the future because I'm from the future but Romeo and Juliet aren't from the future. And I'm not letting our project become sap, sorry."
"Ohkay." She sighed. "How about a romantic comedy?"
He sucked in air through his teeth, looking away. "A romantic comedy? Ah, Keel, I told you, nothing sappy."
"But it won't be!" she interjected, looking insulted. "Something sweet but still funny. With a lot of heart - sensitive, like."
"Like me?" he said hopefully, grinning at her suddenly.
"What're you talking about?" she said with a slight frown.
"'You're cute, funny and sensitive. Guide her to the curb!'" he quoted.
"Nothing about sweet in there," she reminded, and again, not waiting for a reply, she tore off a page in the notepad she was holding. "You have this one while I write on this one," she said, holding up her pad as she handed him the torn-off page.
"What a lot of space to 'unleash my creativity'," he said with a sigh, inspecting the cartoon of him on one of the page. He looked up again to notice she had already begun. Figuring he had no other choice, he grabbed a pen and sat down next to her on his bed.
She only glanced up at him when she was sure he wasn't looking.
------------------
"Nothing's happening," Pim said frustratedly. "I'm telling you, they know!"
"Don't be stupid," Lloyd chided, in the process spraying some donut crumbs on the table from his mouth. "Of course they don't."
"How would they?" Barbara added, cleaning up the mess on the table with a frown.
"They saw the BugCorder!" she cried. "They saw it and I know they did."
"Just because they haven't done anything special in half an hour doesn't mean they know."
"Mom - "
"Relax, Pim, they don't know."
The blonde glared at them, sat down with a huff, and bit off a bit of her donut with a vengeance.
"Look! Finally something!" Mr Diffy started suddenly, moving closer to the small computer screen. "What're they saying?"
"We'd hear it if you stopped talking." Barbara hit her husband slightly at the back of his head and stared at the screen.
------------------
"So then he moves closer."
"Like this?"
She looked up from the pad and noticed the lack of distance between them. "Mmhmm."
------------------
"They're doing something! They're doing something!"
"Shush!" Pim and Barbara chorused.
------------------
He half-smiled as he looked in her eyes. The message in them was loud and clear.
As soon as he could feel her breath on his skin his eyes closed - just after hers did.
------------------
"They aren't acting for us."
------------------
The music in her ears ceased as soon as she pulled away. Their eyes opened simultaneously and he bore into them, hoping she knew what he was thinking.
She did. She smiled.
"Still not keen for a romantic comedy?"
"I think I could work with it."
------------------
"They aren't acting for us," Pim repeated, watching as Phil reached for Keely again. "Oh my God, this is a good thing!"
"I told you they didn't know," Lloyd said triumphantly, high-fiving Barbara. "Man, if only we had popcorn."
------------------
"...and then they kissed!"
"What?" Tia gasped, staring at her. "Are you serious?" She was met by a brilliant smile. "Oh! Oh my gosh! Are you sure?"
"YES I'm sure! I have it on tape!" Pim said exasperatedly. "I'm not going to repeat it again and again!" she cried, pulling up her backpack strap.
Tia remained silent as they walked up the steps to the school. "What happened next?"
"I don't know. My mom told me to leave. 'Let them have their privacy!'" she mimicked, stifling her urge to growl. "I remember she didn't leave any sooner."
"So what?" Tia asked suddenly. "Are they together?"
"We don't know, do we?" Pim said wryly, sighing. "He left before I woke up - plus my mum and dad didn't see him since he grabbed a pancake. At six in the morning."
"That early?" she whistled. "Wonder what they're doing right now..."
As they walked further down the hallways the sound of yelling slowly increased in volume. And as they neared the source of sounds, Tia realised whose voices they were.
------------------
"I can't believe you!" she exclaimed.
"What do you mean, you can't believe me!" Phil replied, glaring at her.
------------------
"This is not good!" Tia cried, joining the already growing group of students in the hallway.
"You think?" Pim nudged her slightly to get her brother back into view.
------------------
"What do you mean, what you do mean you can't believe me?" Keely shot back. They gazed at each other heatedly and Phil hit his head with his hand frustratedly.
"I can't believe I let you kiss me," she said, frowning.
"Excuse me?" Phil asked indignantly. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who started dropping hints!"
"Was I?"
"Yes, Miss FlirtyMcFlirtin'thingy."
"Uhm, whatever," she answered, turning around abruptly.
With a growl of irritation, he slammed the door to his locker. "Goodbye, Teslow."
She stalked away, her backpack open but hardly noticed. "Already gone, Diffy."
As they both went in separate ways, the crowd gradually dispersed, mumbling and whispering about the scene they'd witnessed.
Pim and Tia stared at each other, identical looks of 'something-went-wrong' on their faces. A few seconds later Tia sighed. "I'll try to think of something," she decided, nodding, then turned around. She caught a glimpse of three guys trying to help Keely with the books that'd fallen out of her backpack and she groaned. Obviously they wanted to be with Keely since she was finally not 'Phil's Property'.
What on earth had happened?
------------------
She rapped on the door like he'd done the night he'd come for advice on the whole Marla episode. Hearing the final two knocks of the sequence, she opened the door, stole inside, and closed it again.
"Hey," she whispered, walking near the centre of the seemingly empty room.
He came into view, materialising right in front of her. "Hi," he greeted with a smile. "Did they buy it?"
She grinned, holding up her open backpack with one hand, the other holding up some books. "Three guys tried to help me out when the books fell out," she said. "Nice idea, the leaving-the-backpack-open thing."
"Thank you," he said, chuckling. "And?"
"And," she continued, "Tia asked me what happened and I just told her to get lost."
"Did she ask about the kiss?" he asked knowingly, his eyes sparkling with unconcealed laughter.
She couldn't resist a snort. "I told her your kissing was terrible and it could use some improvement."
"Oh, did you?" he asked, shaking his head. She nodded and he smiled. "I'll bet she believed that."
"Oh, yeah, she did," she said, smiling back at him. "She said she knew it." He looked insulted and her smile widened. "Kidding. She asked me if I was sick."
"I knew it," he said triumphantly, and she looked at him sceptically. He changed the subject quickly. "Did anyone see you coming in here? Does everyone think we're not 'together'?"
"We're all clear, Phil," she reported. She patted his back, leaning forwards slightly. "Your acting's really improved."
"Yeah, I really thought you hated me," he commented,obviously that being his twisted way of giving a compliment.
"Thanks." She paused, zipping up her bag, and looked up at him again. "What lessons do we have together again?"
"History, bio, english," he answered, ticking the subjects off his fingers. "And there's lunch."
"So we have to act angry throughout all of these?" she asked, frowning. "That is tough."
"Tell me about it. All a price to pay, I guess, if we want to get back at them." They looked at each other and let out deep breaths simultaneously. "We need to be able to talk more," he observed, looking away and biting his lip. "But where?"
"Whatdya mean?"
"We can't talk in school, for reasons even you'd know - " he ignored her cry of "hey!" - " - we can't talk at home, because everyone there's conspiring against us, and we can't talk in your house because chances are your mum's in this too and we can't take chances...what're we left with?"
"There's this small coffee shop a good walk away from here. Chances are no one we know'll come across us there," she offered after a moment of thought. As soon as she finished the bell rang, and Phil nodded in agreement, stepping forward. "Sounds good to me," he said, kissing her on the cheek quickly before propping up his bookbag. "See you after school here?"
She nodded, smiling brightly, and quickly took out her own can of InvisiSpray that they had replicated that morning. She sprayed herself, and, invisible, she slipped out of the cupboard along with Phil. He saluted her - or where he thought she'd be - and hurried off to class. She waited for a second before turning visible, spun around, and walked off in the opposite direction again.
The bell rang the second time and their school day began.