Marie Flynn and Thomas Fletcher are the property of Sam-ely-ember, Melissa Thomas and Angelus 19. Find them on deviantART.


"Hey, Jasmine?" a very young Marie whispered one day, as she sat next to her best friend on the school playground.

"What is it?"

"Do you think Thomas is a girl?"

Jasmine snorted in a burst of suppressed laughter.

"D-Don't laugh, I'm being serious!" Marie squeaked, which only caused Jasmine to start laughing harder. She shoved her giggling friend lightly. "Stopp!"

"Ok, ok," Jasmine said, calming down. "Hm… Why would he be a girl? He looks like a boy to me."

"Well, he's really quiet, always reading," Marie listed, screwing up her face in concentration as she tried to recall his relevant traits. "And he doesn't hang around with a group of other boys. Isn't that weird? I thought boys were all sports-like and loud and hung around with other boys and stuff."

Thomas was reading on a bench and Jasmine glanced in his general direction. "Don't we go to his house all the time?" she asked. "He is your step-cousin, after all."

"Yeah but we've never really played together," Marie admitted. "He'd always get all red, then run off and bury his nose in a book all day. It must be because he's not really a guy and he's shy about it!"

"But he's your uncle Ferb's son," Jasmine said. "...Isn't he?"

"Maybe they're in on it too." Then Marie gasped. "Maybe he's not even a human! Maybe he's a robot!"

"Or an alien!" Jasmine exclaimed.

"Or an octopus!"

"Well he can't be all of them," Jasmine said. "That'd be way too weird."

"Hm..." They both resumed staring at Thomas, who was blissfully oblivious to the fact he was being scrutinised.

Several moments passed, until Jasmine snapped her fingers. "I got it, he's definitely a boy," Jasmine said confidently. "His nose is too big to be a girl's nose."

"Ok, that makes sense," Marie said, content with the answer.

"He is different to other boys, though," Jasmine commented.

"Yeah, he seems a little far away at times, but he's interesting." Then Marie gasped, her eyes and mouth widening, as an idea formed in her mind. "We must play with him someday!"

"Even though boys are pretty icky,," Jasmine smiled, "He seems cool. I wouldn't mind playing with him."

"Right!"

The two little girls leaned back happily.

"Hey, Marie?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think unicorns exist?"

"Hm..."