I Turn to You - Chapter 1
Phil and Keely were in their seats in last period - math. Keely despised math... it was her worst subject. She had a lot of trouble with it, but she had to admit that she had gotten better with Phil's tutoring. She loved hanging out with him. But what she loved even more was him PERIOD. She had always loved him. Everytime she had a boyfriend, it was to make Phil jealous... just to see what he would do. Everytime he tried to stop it.
She got so into her daydreaming that she didn't notice they were doing something new. Keely didn't get it at all. It was even worse when Mr. Hackett called on her to answer a question.
"Ms. Teslow? Can you answer question number two for us, please?" he asked. Keely's face turned as pale as a gravestone. "Uh... sure," she stuttered. She put on a fake smile and slowly looked down at the algebra book on her desk. She looked at Phil worriedly and he looked sympathetic. She just sat there, frozen.
'Everybody's staring at me,' she thought.
"Keely? Do you not understand this?" Mr. Hackett asked.
"Yes, of course I do, sir, it just takes me a little while."
"Well, that's perfectly alright. Take your time." She nodded her head and stared down at her algebra book again. Then, as if by a miracle, the bell rang. Everybody shot up and rushed to their lockers.
'Yes, there's the door! Just a couple more feet,' she thought. But then Mr. Hackett stopped her.
"Keely, could you come here, please?" he asked. She squinted in disappointment and walked over to her teacher. Phil waited for her at the door.
"Keely..." he said, "I don't think that you are getting what's going on in class. You seem to be spacing out very often. Do I need to move you up front away from Phil?" Keely stared at him and swallowed hard.
"No, sir, it's not that. I don't ever talk to him, I just..." she sighed. "I just space out a lot. It's like I can't control it."
"Well, I'll give you until three days after we come back from Thanksgiving break. If you don't start shaping up by then I'm going to have to move you up, okay?" he said. Keely nodded her head and smiled. Keely then made her way to the door.
"Have a nice Thanksgiving, Mr. Hackett!" Phil shouted as he walked out the door.
"You too, kids!" he shouted back.
"Phil, I hope we're not gonna be late for the bus," Keely said as they rushed outside to see the buses lined up. "Phew!" She breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close, huh?"
"Yeah, Keel. I thought we were gonna miss it, too."
When they boarded the bus, they were lucky and found a window seat all the way at the very back.
"Keel, do you want the window seat? I don't mind, really."
"Really? Thanks, Phil!" she said and gave him a quick hug. He gazed at her as she sat down in her seat, her usual bouncy, happy self. He had been beginning to wonder if he was falling in love with his best friend.
'I mean, why would I NOT love her?' he thought. 'She's so perfect. She's pretty, funny, and smart!' Phil got so lost in thought about her that he didn't notice Keely was trying to talk to him.
"Phil? Come in, Phil! Earth to Phil!" she said over and over, waving her hand in front of his face. He blinked and came back into focus.
"Huh? Oh, sorry... I spaced out."
"Well, you're not nearly as bad as me. I do it 24/7," Keely said, pulling out her portable CD player.
"Phil, you wanna listen to it?" she asked him nicely.
"Uh, sure. Thanks, Keel." She smiled and gave him one of the small, delicate earpieces. She stuck the other one in her ear.
"What are we gonna listen to?" Phil asked her.
"I have five cds with me. Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Nickelback, Maroon 5, and Lindsay Lohan. And of course the radio."
"Do you wanna alternate song choices? Like you pick a song and I pick a song?" he asked her.
"Yeah, sure."
"Okay. You go first." Keely smiled and picked 'I Turn to You' by Christina Aguilera. She started to mouth the words when Phil looked at her dreamily. She didn't notice.
'This is our song,' Keely thought. 'Well, at least it WOULD be if we were together.' Little did she know that Phil was thinking the same thing.