TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.2 - Of Her Peers

PART 11b: PHIL DOUBT 2

"Grocery shopping?"

"No," Clarke refuted. “Passing by on my way to Julie's."

"Ah. I see," Frank replied uncertainly.

Clarke had bumped into his classmate while passing in front of one of the local minimarkets, prompting Frank's inquiry. "Er, speaking of Julie," Frank continued, "I've noticed that she's been looking quite preoccupied with something this past week."

"Her behaviour right now isn't too different from how she usually acts," Clarke countered.

"Yeeeeees, perhaps," Frank admitted hesitantly, verifying Clarke's belief that Frank was among the people who never thought too much about Julie until things got personal.

“Except, well... Clarke, you probably know Julie better than anyone else," Frank continued. "So it occurred to me the other day that, should I run into you, I should take the opportunity to inquire about her. Okay, no, I mean about whether there's anything in particular that is going on right now with her, in the form of, say, unexpected interests. That is, things interesting her more than normal, which could be anything in general, or even more specifically something that could somehow relate to a person, such as someone who is, er, say, me."

Clarke stared at Frank for a long moment. Despite being a school genius, the guy wasn’t so good at casual inquiries. Clarke got the gist of what he was saying though.

"Whatever Julie's activities are, they're not for me to say right now," Clarke insisted. Deflection was usually the best bet - after all, Julie couldn’t get upset with him that way.

"Ah. Yes, well... maybe I wasn't being very clear there," Frank apologized. "Basically, I meant that there's no reason for Julie to concern herself with me. Okay?”

"If you say so," Clarke remarked impassively. In fact, he really didn't see the need for any concern when it came to Frank himself. It was more the ties with Carrie that Julie was obsessing over.

"Right," Frank said a bit uncomfortably. "Well then. I guess I'll see you around."

"Probably," Clarke concluded. Frank moved off in the direction of his place, while Clarke continued on to Julie's.

At this point, Clarke hoped that whatever Julie was planning, whether it related to Frank or not, it wouldn't cloud her judgment too much. It was never good when Julie - or anyone, for that matter - stopped listening to reason.

***

"Word has it you've been asking for a little one-on-one chat."

Phil turned. Lance was standing there now, with an unpleasant expression on his face. He had to be the one. Phil cleared his throat a little nervously. "Maybe I have," he admitted.

"'Maybe I have'," Lance mimicked mockingly. "Don't play dumb with me, Clarke. You told Harry you wanted to talk to the guy behind our little alliance, so here I am. Now, surely you don't have any complaints with how I'm running things, do you?" he challenged.

Phil cleared his throat again. "Actually, I... I just wanted to ask... would you like me to give you some basketball pointers?" he stated in a rush.

Lance blinked. "Huh?" he replied, caught off guard.

"Basketball. Both of us are on the team and you're a really great player," Phil continued, slowly gaining confidence. "But sometimes you telegraph when you're about to--"

"Are you trying to be FUNNY?" Lance cut in, reaching out to shove Phil by the shoulders.

Phil stumbled. "F-Funny?" he repeated in confusion.

Lance shoved again and Phil went down onto the pavement. "I'm not laughing!" Lance said.

Phil blinked up at his aggressor. "I... I only wanted to see if there was some agreement we could reach... some way we could help each other out," he stated, forcing down any urge to retaliate. As Mary had advised him, physical violence would solve nothing here. It wasn’t his area of strength.

"Yeah? You've helped enough already,” Lance fired back. He bent down next to Phil's prone form, jabbing out a finger. "Now listen up, wise guy. Everyone at this school knows that I was the star of the basketball team until you showed up! Waltzing in here, signing up for the team tryouts on the last day, constantly upstaging me in practice... just who the hell do you think you are?"

Phil blinked up quietly at Lance. "Someone who wants to be your friend?"

Lance stared in amazement. "Are you freakin' nuts?"

"No, listen," Phil pressed on doggedly. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding. I meant what I said about giving you basketball tips... to keep you from telegraphing your shots. I bet we could even become an unbeatable pair if we tried. Plus, should my dad move again, as he probably will, I'm gone and you end up better off from the deal because of the techniques you've learned. I mean, if you'd prefer I could try to help you in science... but it's not my strongest subject."

Lance stood, sizing Phil up. "You truly believe everything you're saying, don't you," he marvelled at last.

"Yes," Phil answered simply.

There was another brief pause. "Saying that took guts, Clarke," Lance conceded. "I like guts. Perhaps you even make a bit of sense." Lance rubbed his chin. "Okay. I’m not about to get buddy-buddy with you, but how about this. You seriously help me out and STOP showing me up... and maybe I’ll see about cutting you a bit more slack around here."

"Sounds good," Phil agreed with a smile. "I never meant to show you up anyway." He scrambled to his feet again, then offered his hand to Lance. Lance eyed it warily, before finally reaching out to grasp it and shake. He then shook his head.

“Again, no saying we’re friends!” Lance cautioned. “In fact, let me offer up some words of free advice. Pay more attention. Be careful who you cross in the future. Not everyone with the power to pull strings around you is likely to be as... forgiving as me."

"Gotcha," Phil assured, admittedly a bit confused as to what Lance was getting at. 'After all, using Mary's advice, I can't go wrong!' Phil thought to himself. 'I just need to be myself and work at helping people out! If I do that, who in the future could possibly create trouble for me?'

***

"Miss LaMille requests you join her downstairs," Jeeves stated archly. "She is currently in her... 'play room'."

Clarke nodded to the LaMille family butler and left the waiting area to go and find Julie. The mansion she lived in was actually not quite as large as it appeared from outside; some of the size was illusionary owing to its location and the comparison made with nearby houses. It had originally been designed and built by an eccentric inventor who’d lived in the town some years ago, though he’d disappeared shortly after the LaMilles had bought the property.

Of course, the place was still large enough to get turned around in if you weren't careful, or you didn't know your route. Fortunately, Clarke was quite familiar with the route to Julie’s favourite room by now.

"Ah, Phil!" Julie said as Clarke joined her. The brunette shut the drawer of the filing cabinet next to her. One of three in the room. She walked past the maps of both the school and the town which she had pinned up on the wall, then leaned onto the table housing numerous little trinkets and electronic gadgets.

She fired a grin in Clarke's direction. "Glad you could make it after all. You'll never guess what I've managed to get my hands on to help me deal with Carrie!"