Salem High, Tuesday afternoon, a week later.

"I have some bad news class," Mr. Farris spoke as the young people settled down, all ready to get Calculus over with and clamoring to get out of school for the day.

A collective groan was heard. "What is it, the test was cancelled," one student asked, causing the others to laugh and cheer.

"I would think that would be good news Sam. There's been a death in the family and I can't be here Thursday and Friday because I'll be going out of town."

"Wait, so there won't be a test," the same student asked. "I mean, it was on Thursday, right. But since you'll be out of town..."

"The test will be tomorrow," Farris finished as another groan escaped the class. "I'm going to spend the first part of class teaching the last few sections and any time left over will be for questions concerning the test. I know it may seem like I'm pushing, but we've only got so much time to learn so much info. I can't move the test and I don't trust you guys enough to let a proctor give it," he finished, walking to the chalkboard. "So pay attention, becuase the last two sections will be on the test that is now on..." he waited for the class to finish, but each student seemed to be in an alternate realm, one of fear and total panic.

"Wednesday," Farris finished his own sentence before he began to teach the last parts.

Fourty-five minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the end of class and the end of the school day. While most students rushed out the doors, Phillip rushed to the front of the room. "Does this mean I get to take it over some other time," he asked, already having sent a prayer up to God.

"Sorry Phillip," Farris told him as he packed his attache case. "I know it's not really fair, but there's very little I can do about it. Interims come out soon, and you need a grade."

"But I'm not ready," Phillip argued, breaking out in a sweat.

"Haven't you been studying with Chloe," Farris asked, looking up to see if the young woman was present, but finding she was already gone.

"Yeah, but I only started a week ago. I still have a lot of ground to cover and there's no way I'll know it all by tomorrow afternoon."

Thinking it over for a second, Farris came up with an idea. "I could give your test to the Vice Principal and let him administer it to you after school Thursday. The only problem is, you'd have to miss football practice."

Phillip groaned. This was getting worse by the second. "Dalton would kill me," he said, referring to the head football coach, Robert Dalton. "I can't miss practice this week. We have a big game this Friday!"

Walking out the door, Farris motioned for Phillip to follow him. "I'm sure you think every game is a big game, Phillip. But you aren't here to play football, you're here to learn. Either take it after school Thursday or take it tomorrow with everyone else. I'm sorry," he patted the young man on the back and left down the hall, Phillip staring after him.

Wesley home, later that afternoon.

"Is Phillip coming over today,"  Nancy asked. She was preparing a meal of lasagna with meat balls and garlic bread for tonight and she was actually ahead of schedule.

"I don't know," Chloe muttered from her seat at the table where she was completing her homework.

"That's a definite yes," Nancy responded. Popping the lasagna in the oven, she went to take a seat next to her daughter. "Don't you think you should be getting ready," Nancy asked.

"This is what I'm wearing Nancy. I played your 'Dress Chloe Up Like A Barbie Doll' game for the duration of getting off my babysitting sentence, even though that wasn't the deal to begin with. I didn't dress up for Phillip yesterday and I'm not dressing up for him today. So just get over it!"

"But you looked so beautiful Chloe. And now you're back to your old self--"

"I like my old self. I love my old self. I'd rather be my old self any day than a dress wearing, make-up sporting barbie doll look-a-like. Now go away," she told her mother, irrated. Nancy had tried the same tactic yesterday, but she'd held her ground.

"Did you notice the way Phillip showed up early Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday of last week? You must have scared the life out of that boy on Monday afternoon. I'd never seen someone so disappointed in my life! He was expecting the new Chloe, the beautiful girl who wore dresses and actually paid attention to her hair and make-up, and he got the old Chloe, the one with drab, dark clothing."

"The Chloe I like," she said, trying to finish the problem she was working on before Phillip showed up. Even though she hated to admit it, Nancy was right. Phillip had seemed crushed when she'd opened the door Monday and she hadn't been wearing one of Nancy's Dresses of Horror, as she had dubbed them. Though he hadn't said anything about it to her, she had felt his disappointment in waves. "Phillip doesn't come here to see what I'm wearing Nancy. He comes here so I can help him learn Calculus and pass the test tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," Nancy asked, confused. "I thought the test was on Thursday, Chloe. That's what you told me."

"I know. Mr. Farris had a death in the family and he won't be here Thursday or Friday. So, he moved the test up."

"Well, that's not fair," Nancy said.

"Neither is someone in his family dying, but life goes on. It's just a test," Chloe shrugged.

"So, you're sure you'll do well," she asked, always concerned with how Chloe did in her school work.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's Phillip I'm worried about. I don't think he's--"

She was interrupted by the doorbell. "I'll get that," she said. Standing, she glanced at the kitchen wall clock before she made her way into the foyer.

"Phillip," she said, surprised to see him. "You're here early."

"Yeah, well, I cut the last thirty mintues of practice because I really need to get studying. I talked to Farris this afternoon and he said I had to take the test tomorrow like the rest of the class or stay after school Thursday and take it. I can't do that because of--"

"Football practice," Chloe finished for him. "Come in," she said, stepping back.

Phillip walked in an headed straight for the kitchen, their usual study spot. "Hello Mrs. Wesley," he greeted the woman.

"Phillip," Nancy said, surprised he was here. It's only 4:45" she said after glancing at the clock. "I thought football practice didn't end until five?"

"It doesn't, but I really need to go over some things with Chloe for the Calc test tomorrow. If I don't do well, they're going to suspend me off the football team."

She nodded her understanding. "Well then, you two get to studying. I'll only come in to check on my lasagna," Nancy said before she left the kitchen to get other things done.

Taking his seat, Phillip pulled his Calculus book and notes from his bookbag, placing them on the table. "Are we gonna do this, or what," he asked Chloe, who was still standing. He noticed her Shrouds of Death were still in effect, having seen them yesterday.

"Yeah, sure," Chloe responded, taking a seat next to him. "Let's get started."

Wesley home, family room, later that night.

"Why is Phillip still here," Craig asked Nancy. Dinner had long been over, Chloe and Phillip barely taking the time to eat before returning to their studies. But now it was nearing ten o' clock and Phillip was still in the kitchen with Chloe.

"They have a big test tomorrow, honey. Chloe says that Phillip isn't ready yet," Nancy told him as she snuggled closer to him on the couch. Nigel had gone to sleep at eight thirty, leaving her and Craig to some quiet together time for the night.

"So, they have to sleep," Craig said, looking at the door to the kitchen. "Maybe I should go check on them," he said, standing.

Nancy grabbed his arm, pulling him back down onto the courch. "You will do no such thing, Craig Wesley. You will sit here and enjoy this time with me."

"He has to leave sometime," Craig told her, exasperated. He knew of Chloe and Phillip's dislike for each other and had questioned his presence the first night he'd found them fighting in the kitchen. Once Nancy had explained to him, he had been a litlte more lenient to the young Kiriakis' presence in his home. But it was getting late. "Don't you think his parents will be worried about him," asked Craig.

Nancy thought this over. "I guess they would," she finally agreed. "But they haven't called yet, so I don't see why you should be so worried. They're only studying," Nancy finished, snuggline closer.

Craig turned to look at Nancy as if she had just grown a second head. "I can't believe you just said that, sweetheart. They're only studying," he repeated her words. "How did you and I study when we were younger," he asked.

Nancy thought back to those days that seemed so long ago. Craig would usually meet her at her house to study, though they never actually got any studying done. Oh, she thought. Looking towards the kitchen, she couldn't fanthom Chloe and Phillip doing...Would they? No! "Craig, they hate each other," Nancy explained.

"First off, they can't hate each other that much if they've been studying together for a week now. Seoncd, Nancy, Phillip is a teenage boy, almost a man. He's all hormones and no brains. And lastly, Chloe may be a caterpillar, but Phillip's seen the butterfly she can be. You couldn't possibly expect him to not be interested, could you?"

Nancy looked towards the kitchen as she thought over Craig's words. Phillip could be interested in Chloe? She had done a better job than she'd thought!

Wesley home, kitchen, a little bit later.

Frustrated, Phillip sat back in the chair. "I don't get why I need to know this crap anyway," he said. He was achy and tired and just wanted to go home and sleep. But he still needed to learn the sections they had been sped-taught in class today.

Glancing at the wall clock, which read ten till eleven. "It is pretty late," Chloe said. "Maybe you should just go home. We've done the best that we can."

"Well, that's just not good enough," Phillip said, scooting up in the chair to continue studying.

"It's not my fault that you had too much pride to let me help you," she told him, referring to that day after class. "Maybe if we'd started that afternoon, you'd know everything now." Chloe got up to go get a glass of water.

"Geez Chloe, I already apologized for that," Phillip said.

Setting the glass down in the sink, Chloe turned around, her hands braced on the sink behind her. "I know you did, but you can't sit there and act like it's my fault you don't know everything. You get taught the same fifty minutes that I do. I don't see how I get it and you don't. It's not like you're dumb, Phillip. You do fairly well in all your other classes, what's the problem with Calculus?"

"How do you know I do well in my other classes," he asked, curious. "You ask about me or something?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I'm in English and Physics with you, not that you would notice. And the rest I just hear about," Chloe told him.

"You're in English with me," Phillip asked. He knew she was in Physics because she sat in the front and played teacher's pet everyday. But he couldn't recall every seeing her in English.

"I sit in the very back," she explained.

"How can you suck up to the teacher from there," he asked.

"I don't suck up," she defended herself. "Just because I'm smart and know the answers doesn't mean I'm trying to win brownie points with them. I can't help it if they like me," she said, sitting back in her chair. "Anyway, we weren't talking about me, we were talking about you and why you don't get Calculus."

"Farris doesn't make sense," Phillip said, hoping that would explain it away.

"He speaks very clear english to me," Chloe returned.

"I just don't have time to go over everything we learn in class," he told her. "Right after school, there's football practice. Most days, I go with the guys to Dot.com afterwards. It's pretty late when I leave to go home, and I don't really make it a point to stay there that long."

"Why not," Chloe asked.

"I just don't okay. Can we stop with the twenty questions? I still don't get these functions," he referred to the topic they had been trying to get down for the past twenty minutes.

"Why do you always do that? I try and help you, give you someone you can talk to, and you just get mad." Getting up, Chloe headed to the deck, slamming the back door behind her.

Phillip was half way across the room to the door when both of Chloe's parents came into the kitchen.

"What happened," asked Nancy, searching the room for Chloe. "Where's Chloe," she asked, now worried.

"She just went outside...to get some air," he lied. "I was just going to go out and get some air myself."

"I think it's getting a little late Phillip. Nancy and I are ready to go to sleep," Craig finished his hint."

"Okay, well, goodnight," Phillip said, turning to go after Chloe.

"What I meant, Phillip, was that we can't go to sleep until you leave."

"Well, we still have one section to go over. It shouldn't take that much longer. You two should just head on to bed," Phillip said

Craig was about to just drag Phillip out himself, but Nancy yanked hard on his arm, distracting him. "That's fine Phillip. We trust that you'll leave in a half hour. Just tell Chloe we said goodnight." Before Craig could even mutter a word of disapproval, Nancy pushed him through the door and out of the room.

Phillip opened the door and stepped out onto the deck, closing the door behind him. "Chloe," he whispered, not seeing her anywhere. He walked forward a few steps before he tripped and stumbled on something. "Damn it," he muttered to himself, trying to locate the source of his blunder.

"You have such a potty mouth," came a voice from the left.

Turning his head, he saw Chloe standing  there, watching him. Though it was dark, the moonlight provided a scant lighting.

"Is that something they teach you on the football field," Chloe asked walking over to sit at the table.

"Kind of," Phillip grumbled, still sore from his near fall. "They don't teach it on purpose, but you kind of pick it up."

"Why do you play, anyway? It seems like a brutal and pointless sport. Isn't it just a test to see who can push the other over hard enough?"

Phillip smiled. "There's a lot more to it than tackling."

Chloe just shrugged, returning to her silence of before.

"Your parents said goodnight," Phillip told her, hoping to start a conversation.

She shrugged, again.

Okay, he thought. "Look, I'm sorry alright. Its just that, there's a lot going on at home right now and I don't really like to talk about it. I'd rather just pretend it's not happening."

"Does that really make you feel better," Chloe asked him. "Sure, while you're out of the house, at school or practice or with your friends, you can forget about it. But when you walk through those front doors, it's always there, staring you in the face. Why pretend at all?"

Sensing it was more of a rhetorical, Phillip gave no answer.

"It's not easy for me to share either," Chloe told him in a soft whisper. "I mean, after my adoptive parents died, I was passed around a lot. Nobody really cared what happened to me one way or the other. I was just there so they could get a check. It got to the point where I didn't trust anyone. I'd just always keep whatever I was feeling to myself. I guess you could say I put up a wall around me, to protect myself from others. And then Nancy found me, and she expected me to just become her daughter, to just open up to her and share everything with her. It was hard, Phillip. I didn't think I could. It was more like I felt she only wanted to try me out. She'd let me stay for a while and once she realized she didn't want me, it'd be back to the children's home I was in." 

Chloe paused, looking up to see if Phillip was even listening to her. She continued when she saw he was paying attention still. "So it took a long time for me to open up to her, for us to get as close as we are today. And we still haven't stopped growing. I mean, I can't even call her mom, you know? I know she's my mother, but just speaking those words is hard for me to do because for a long, long time, she wasn't there...she wasn't my mother." Chloe looked up to see his reaction, but Phillip was now kind of just staring off into the night. "Look, I don't want to push you. I know you don't even like me and I don't really like you. But if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to, that whatever is bothering you gets to be too much, I want you to know that I'm here...that I'd listen." Standing, Chloe started walking over to the door, saying "We should probably go and finish up."

A warm hand caught her arm, stopping her still. She turned to face Phillip, waiting for whatever he had to say.

Phillip just stared, not sure why he had stopped her or why he was still holding onto her arm. He didn't know how to respond to all the things she had just told him; didn't even know if there were words he could say. Yet, he was very glad she had decided to share that part of her with him. He watched her as she watched him, the stillness of the night surrounding them. An overwhelming urge came over him, bringing his head closer to hers, but her sudden flinch stopped him. "Thank you," he whispered softly, his breath fanning her lips. Then he stepped around her and went inside, Chloe following silently behind him.