"Come on, my mom wants me to call," Phil said, upon seeing a phone booth on a street corner. He opened it, and he and Keely walked in. He looked curiously at the phone. Keely tried to stifle her laughter.

"Need some help there, little buddy?" she asked, a smirk playing across her face.

"Don't patronize me. I'll figure this out." He picked up the receiver and put his index finger into the coin return slot, then listened for a tone. Keely put a hand to her mouth to hide the huge grin spreading across her face. "Not. A word."

"I didn't say anything!" Keely protested. She bit her lip, then took a breath and sighed softly. "Go ahead."

He ran a hand through his hair and investigated the phone more closely. "Oh, it needs money!" He searched his pockets for some coins.

"There ya go, Champ!" Keely said, patting his head. "It's okay! Not everyone gets it on their first try!"

"You really don't need to be like this," he said as he put some money in the slot.

"Aww, come on now. If you're nice, maybe I'll buy you some Lego when we get home! And if you try real hard, you can make some of them stick together!" She covered her face and laughed as he rolled his eyes.

"Hey, how do I get this to call them, anyway?"

She took a deep sigh before straightening up and looking at him. "Hit zero-zero-one, then the area code and number."

The two waited as the call went through. "What time is it over there, anyway?" Phil asked.

"Oh, um... About noon?" she reasoned, looking at her cell phone.

Phil nodded as the other line rang. "So do you--"

"SON!" Lloyd's voice rang out in Phil's ear. He pulled the receiver away from his ear and looked at over at Keely wide-eyed. "CAN YOU HEAR ME, PHIL?"

Keely reached over for the phone and spoke into it, holding the earpiece between herself and Phil. "Mr. Diffy, we can hear you fine. You don't need to shout!"

"Oh, really?" Lloyd's voice became temporarily more distant. "Hey, Honey! These phones are pretty powerful! They can hear us fine all the way on the other side of the world!"

Keely laughed and rolled her eyes, then mouthed, "Wooow..." to Phil. He smirked.

A clicking sound was followed by Barbara's voice after she picked up the other phone. "Hey, Phil. How are you doing over there?"

"I'm fine. How about you guys? Have you sold Pim to the circus yet?"

"You should be nicer to your sister," Keely quietly suggested to Phil. He raised his eyebrows at her.

Phil's mother let out a laugh. "No, she's doing... well, she seems to be doing alright. Maybe a little too alright. Your father had a small situation with Curtis at work the other day..."

"It was just a small fire at work," Lloyd quickly covered. "Just an electrical thing. Your mother is blowing this way out of proportion."

"Anyway," Phil interrupted, "other than that, everything's going good?"

"Oh, everything's fine here," his mother replied. "You staying safe? Eating well?"

Phil cringed at the sudden onslaught of Mom Questions. "Yep. It's, uh, it's great here, really. Never been better."

Keely offered Phil a small smile, and he gave her a big grin in return.

"Glad to hear it!"

"Mmhmm. Yeah, I don't think there's much time left on this thing, so I guess I'll let you guys go for now..."

"Alright, Son," Lloyd said. "Stay safe. Keep in touch."

"We miss you!" Barbara added.

Phil chuckled. "Miss you guys too. Alright... okay..." Keely smirked as Phil nodded, waiting for a window to hang up. "Okay, talk to you later. Bye."

"Guess we'd better meet up with the others, then, huh?" she asked as she opened the door.

"May as well," he said, and left the booth with her.

- - -

"Oh, wow," Owen spluttered as he set down his glass. Via let out a snort of laughter.

"Bloody Yank," she muttered to no one in particular.

"What's that?" The young brown-haired man on her other side glanced over at her curiously. She looked over and shook her head.

"Oh, nothing. Just my friend here. Too used to the water they've got over in the States."

He laughed as he threw Owen a glance. "Ah, bloomin' Yanks," he said, with a shake of his head. Via narrowed her eyes slightly as she investigated him more closely. His British accent in particular stood out, as she was used to hearing Irish accents in the past several days. "Something wrong?" he asked, after noticing her focused attention.

"No, nothing. I just... feel like I know you from somewhere. I don't know. Might be the drinks, I suppose." She put a hand on her glass, then looked back at his light brown eyes and short, scruffy beard.

"Right," he said, nodding. "Well, I'm Liam, if that rings any bells."

"Liam..." she repeated, searching her memory. "Mm. Don't think so. I knew a Liam back in year nine, but I don't think you're him. I'm Olivia. Well. I prefer Via, actually."

"Well, I think I'd remember you if I ever knew you," he said. She looked ahead as one corner of her mouth curled into a smirk. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught an unfamiliar brunette sitting on Owen's other side.

"What a slimy tart," she said, shaking her head.

"Who's she?"

"No idea. I don't suppose he knows either. But that's Owen for you."

"Always looking for totty, eh?"

"I'm just hoping his girlfriend shows up soon," Via confessed. She glanced over at Owen again, to see if he took notice, but he hadn't.

"That's terrible," Liam said with a laugh as he took a drink.

"Yeah, well... he's terrible." She shook her head and chuckled softly. Liam laughed harder, making her glance over at him and start laughing with him. The noise eventually caught Owen's attention.

"What's so funny?" he asked curiously.

"Don't worry about it," Via said, covering her mouth with her left hand. "What happened to Tia?"

"She said she'll be here in a few minutes," Owen replied, checking his watch.

"And that girl next to you is......?"

He shrugged. "Just some girl. I— Wait, you don't think—"

"Oh, Owen, when have you ever given me cause to think you would do something like that?"

"Well thanks," he said, not catching the sarcasm. "I don't know why you assume I'm always up to something when I meet a girl."

Via looked over at Liam and raised her eyebrows. "I can't imagine," she replied. Liam chuckled.

"And who is that?" Owen asked in an undertone. Via slowly turned around to respond.

"I hardly see how that concerns you, especially given that I'm not the one in a relationship. And I certainly hope Tia isn't the jealous type, as she's right at the door talking to Keely and Phil."

The girl on Owen's other side didn't seem too pleased in overhearing this, as she announced indignantly "You didn't tell me you have a girlfriend!" before storming off. Owen, meanwhile, glanced over at the door and saw Tia glancing in his direction uncertainly.

"This ought to be good," Via said in an undertone to Liam, as Tia walked over, leaving Keely in the middle of their conversation. Keely was saying something to Tia as she left, but Via couldn't hear it over the rest of the noise in the building.

"Owen, can I talk with you?" Tia asked, seemingly pleasant.

Via smiled and rested her chin on her hand, looking over at the two of them expectantly.

"Privately?" Tia added, looking rather put off by Via's presentation. Owen nodded, and the two headed outside.

"Bugger," Via muttered, once they were out of sight. "Really wanted to see her go at it. Oh well." She smiled and turned back to face Liam, who was watching her amusedly.

"How does a girl like you get stuck with a couple of Yanks like them?" he asked, with a smile on his face.

"There's actually two - well, three more, really. Those two over there," she said, pointing to Keely and Phil, who were at a table for two on the other side of the room, "and... well, the other was with that girl and her friends, there," she added, pointing to a table with two older teenage girls, a man of about nineteen, and an empty seat. "It's a bit of a long story how they roped me into this trip, though," she finished, with a slight shake of her head.

"I've got time," Liam said with a shrug.

Via let out a small laugh before looking down with a grin. "Well, alright then," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "If you really want to know..."

Well hell, I can't tell if this even qualifies as a chapter or if it's just a collection of sentences and paragraphs poorly presented as fiction. Apologies for the length between updates. I decided to change the order of things here. Also as I'm currently working on a few different projects among other stuff I've got going on in this madness they call the Real World, this one is a bit of a bodge. I'll try and do better the next time.