Chloe pressed her forehead against the locker. She couldn’t figure out what was happening with anyone any more. Belle had been polite to her but distant. Shawn seemed like he was trying to avoid her. Philip didn’t talk to her, but she was routinely catching him looking at her, studying her. He would look away the second she glanced in his direction.

From down the hall Philip saw Chloe resting her head on the lockers. He wondered what had her down. She had seemed so sad the last few days. He had noticed too that she wasn’t spending much time with Belle. He wished he could go and talk to her. Jason punched Philip in the shoulder.

"What’s with staring at the freak?" he asked

Philip turned to Jason. "She’s not a freak. Leave her alone."

"Oh, Phiwip, is you in love with a loser?" Jason snickered.

Philip stared at his friend and Jason began to back up from the intensity of Philip’s gaze. "How pathetic is your life? You have nothing better to do than to stand around and make fun of people?"

Jan sidled up to Philip. "Correct me if I’m wrong Philly-boy, but up until now that was pretty much your M.O."

"Yeah, well, that stops right here and now. I have better things to do than hang out here with you two morons," Philip retorted and walked away, still glancing over his shoulder at Chloe.

Jan put crossed her arms across her chest. "Just who does he think he is?"

Jason shrugged. "He thinks he’s Philip Kiriakis."

Jan began an evil smile and started tapping her fingers against her arm.

Jason looked at her in awful anticipation. "Jan, whatever it is, let it go. Philip’s just being a jerk."

Jan put her arm through Jason’s and began pulling him. "Nobody talks to me like that. Come on. I need you to help me do some planning."

******

Belle walked down the hallway, only half-listening to Mimi’s inane chatter. "Then they actually offered my father a raise. Can you believe that? He was so afraid he was going to lose his job. Like half the company was fired during these cutbacks. But I guess they’ve like reorganized the company and merged with someone else, and they told him that his job is pretty secure. Cool, huh?"

Belle turned to her friend with a guilty expression on her face. "I’m sorry, Meems. What did you say?"

Mimi studied her friend and waved her hand. "Forget it. There’s obviously something more important on your mind these days. So, spill it. ‘Fess up. What’s going on with you?"

Belle stopped in front of her locker and began dialing the combination. "I don’t really feel like talking about it, Mimi."

Mimi cocked her head and looked down the hallway and saw Chloe leaning against her locker. "Let me guess. It has something to do with the witch down the hall."

Belle peeked over her shoulder and saw Chloe. She turned to Mimi and said, "You know, I really wish that you wouldn’t call her that. Chloe is a nice person. If you’d ever give her a chance, you’d know that."

"Well, if you like her so much, then how come you haven’t said two words to her for the last three days?" Mimi queried.

Belle shrugged her shoulders silently and began taking out her books for her next class.

Mimi pulled a mirror out of her purse and began smoothing her shoulder-length brown hair. Bright hazel eyes looked back at her. Mimi closed the mirror and looked up.

"Look out, Belle, you’re about to up your daily allotted word factor."

Belle spun around and saw Chloe approaching her. She began walking away quickly.

"Belle, wait!" Chloe called out desperately. Belle stopped in her tracks. Chloe came up to her and said, "Can we please go somewhere and talk?"

Belle saw the tears in Chloe’s eyes and shook her head yes. Chloe looked at Mimi and said, "Could you please excuse us?"

Mimi was caught off-guard by the civility in Chloe’s tone. "Um, sure. Whatever. Catch you later, Belle."

Chloe gestured towards an empty classroom. Belle walked in and sat down at one of the desks. Chloe closed the door and sat down in the seat next to Belle.

"Belle, whatever it is that I’ve done, I’m so sorry. I’ve never wanted to do anything to hurt you. You’re my best friend, Belle. Pretty much my only friend. And I want you to know that I would never intentionally do anything to make you want to stop talking to me," Chloe said, her voice ragged as she desperately tried to hold back the tears.

Belle looked at Chloe, her own eyes brimming with tears. "Oh, Chloe, how could you go to the dance with Shawn?"

"What?" Chloe asked, surprised.

"Chloe, I’m in love with Shawn Douglas Brady. I didn’t realize how much until you told me that he was going to the dance with you," Belle sobbed.

Chloe got up out of her seat and crouched next to her friend. "Belle, I had no idea. Please forgive me. I would never have told him yes if I had known. I’ll go find him right now and call the date off."

Belle shook her head violently. "I don’t want you to cancel your date. Shawn obviously wanted to go with you, so, I think you should go."

Chloe reached over and hugged Belle, holding her while she cried. "Belle, what are we going to do to fix this?"

Belle sat for a minute and then pulled away from Chloe. She wiped the tears off of her cheeks and pulled a mirror out of her purse to assess the damage. "It isn’t your fault, Chloe. I shouldn’t have been angry with you. You didn’t know how I felt about Shawn. I never told you."

Chloe sat down in the desk directly behind Belle. "You know, I thought it was really odd that Shawn was asking me out. Since I’ve been here, I always thought he had a thing for you."

Belle’s eyes lit up at the prospect. "Really?" Then she visibly saddened. "Then why didn’t he ask me out?"

"Maybe he’s too shy. Maybe he’s afraid you’ll say no," Chloe offered. "Maybe the earth wasn’t tilted on its axis correctly. Who knows with boys?"

Belle reached over and took Chloe’s hand. "Thank you for making me feel better. I’m sorry that I was so awful to you."

"Belle, I’m so sorry that I hurt you."

Belle smiled, and Chloe saw that familiar twinkle back in her eye. "Oh, I think things are going to be okay, Chloe. I might have a plan."

******

Mrs. Morris droned on, "And this is a critical juncture here, when we begin to stir. It has to whipped, students. If it is not whipped properly, the soufflé will fall."

The students in Salem High’s Lifeskills class murmured amongst themselves. The room was peppered with various smells and cooking-type sounds like utensils scraping metal bowls and liquids bubbling.

Chloe bit her lip in frustration. She was in the very back of the classroom, as far away from the teacher as she could get. This was one class where she was not the teacher’s pet. Chloe didn’t seem to have a knack for domesticity. She was vainly trying to stir the ingredients together on the stove, and make sure that it didn’t clump up. She wasn’t having much success.

"Jeez, what the hell is that?" Philip asked as he peered over Chloe’s shoulder.

She glared at him. "That is my soufflé."

Philip laughed. "You sure?"

Mrs. Morris called for attention. "If everyone could please gather up here, I would like to show you the proper technique for beating the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks appear." Most of the students in the class went and gathered around Mrs. Morris.

Chloe wasn’t far enough along with her dessert to go up and see the next step. She tried desperately to push all the lumps out of her batter. Philip leaned over on his left side, holding his own soufflé mixture.

He studied Chloe in her black uniform. He tried to imagine what she would look like in a different color, and couldn’t. Then he started to imagine what she’d look like without anything at all…He stopped and tried to initiate a conversation.

"I don’t get the point of this exercise," he said.

Chloe eyed him. She noted only too well that his jeans fit him perfectly, and that his dark green shirt set off his blonde highlights. Damn him for being so cute. Damn him twice for knowing it, she thought. "I don’t suppose you would. You’ll never have to cook for yourself."

"Even if I had to cook for myself, I can tell you it wouldn’t be a soufflé. This is a life skill?" Philip got no response from Chloe. He looked around and saw that they were alone, and no one was watching them.

"You’re really killing that poor thing."

"What, and I suppose you did so much better?" Chloe fumed.

"As a matter of fact, I did. Here, want a taste?" Philip put his bowl down on the counter, stuck his finger in his batter and offered it to Chloe.

She stepped back, startled. "I am not going to lick that off your finger."

"What’s the matter, Chloe," Philip teased, "Chicken?"

"I have no idea where that finger’s been," Chloe retorted.

Philip smiled and thought, Or where I’d like it to be…

"Bock, bock," Philip whispered.

Chloe angrily grabbed Philip’s right hand. She pulled it closer to her, and stared at him with ice-blue eyes. She clamped her mouth around his finger. Philip lost all coherent thought. He gripped the counter with his free hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His knees threatened to buckle underneath him. Chloe looked up at him, and deliberately sucked the batter off of Philip’s index finger. He could feel her tongue rubbing the underside of his finger. His arousal spread like fire throughout his entire body. Every nerve ending in his finger was screaming. His heart was slamming so hard in his rib cage that he thought everyone in the room would turn around to see where the sound was coming from.

Don’t stop, he thought. For the love of God, please don’t stop. Philip shut his eyes, overwhelmed by the sensation.

Chloe released his hand and he left it hanging in the air. He opened his eyes and looked at her. Chloe was shocked by her own boldness, and was even more amazed at the sight of a frozen Philip Kiriakis. "Breathe, Philip. Breathe," she said with a soft smile.

She turned away from him, took her mixture off of the stove, and left to join the gaggle of students gathered around Mrs. Morris, leaving the scent of strawberries behind her. Philip stood in place, unable to move.

Shawn approached Philip, "Hey, E.T. phone home."

"What?" Philip asked, confused.

"Why do you have your finger sticking out like that?" questioned Shawn.

Philip put his hand down. "No reason. What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Just seeing what you’re up to. There’s too many people up there to get a good look at what Mrs. Morris is doing."

"I don’t see why we’re doing this," Philip replied as his heart rate returned to normal. "Isn’t that what chicks are for? You know, to cook stuff?"

Shawn joked, "I hear they have their other uses."

You’re telling me, Philip thought. He noticed Belle walking towards them and was glad to be able to change the subject. "Here comes your sidekick."

Shawn turned and his heart did flip-flops. Belle looked stunning in a soft blue baby t-shirt that was the same color as her eyes. Her hair was the color of sunshine, and he longed to reach out and feel it between his fingers again. She had been ignoring him for four days now, and he wasn’t sure why. She never returned his phone calls, wasn’t home when he came by, and had been steadily avoiding him at school all week. He wanted so badly to apologize, to make things between them better, but she wasn’t allowing him to.

"Hi Belle," Shawn eagerly said.

"Shawn," Belle coldly acknowledged. "Hey, Philip, how are you doing?" Belle coyly asked and slipped her arm through his.

Philip looked down at her in surprise. Belle had never acted like this before. "Fine, I guess."

Belle stepped in between Philip and Shawn so that her back was to Shawn. "I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to our date on Friday."

Philip was confused. Date? He looked at Belle, and saw that she was silently pleading with her eyes and imperceptibly nodding her head for him to go along with it.

"Oh, sure, our date this Friday," Philip said. "What time did you want me to pick you up?"

Belle shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh, I don’t know, how about eightish?"

"Sure," Philip replied.

"Great!" Belle enthused. "I’ll see you then." She twirled and faced Shawn. "Maybe we’ll see you and Chloe at the dance." She walked off.

Philip registered what Belle had said and grabbed Shawn’s shirtfront. "You’re taking Chloe to the dance?"

"That’s the second time you’ve grabbed me when someone’s mentioned Chloe’s name. You got something you wanna share, Phil?" Shawn challenged.

Philip released Shawn’s shirt. "No, nothing."

"Did you forget about the bet? I have to take Chloe to the dance," Shawn looked him over angrily. "You know, it should be me kicking your ass for taking Belle, you punk."

"You finally gonna admit that you have feelings for Belle?" Philip asked in mock horror.

"Just as soon as you admit you have a thing for Chloe," Shawn snapped.

Mrs. Morris called again for attention. "There’s only a few seconds left in the period, and I want to remind all the students that our final project for Lifeskills will begin on Monday. You’re dismissed."