Disclaimer: This is a piece of fanfiction. All the characters appearing in the following story are copyright of Disney Television Animation/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder.

Notes: This fic will be a collection of mostly unconnected oneshots, in which I explore how Phineas must have fared during those years he thought he was 'so in the friendzone'. Basically, this story tries to stick to canon. So Act Your Age is set after this story.

Chapter Title: The day Isabella gave up on Phineas

Chapter Summary: A kind of angst-y one-shot exploring Isabella giving up on the crush that she had held onto for most of her life.

Chapter Notes: This one-shot takes place in their freshman year. In 'Act Your Age' Isabella says that she gave up on Phineas once they got to high school. This is that.

Somebody was knocking on the front door with great force.

It was already dark out and not really a normal time for surprise visitors, but when Phineas went to answer the door anyway, he found an obviously emotional Isabella standing outside.

Her eyes were red, her lip was trembling. She wasn't crying but it was clearly only a matter of time.

But before Phineas could reach for her and ask her what was wrong, she determinedly rushed past him into the house.

"What? Wait!" Phineas said and went after her, but she was already walking up the stairs like a girl on a mission.

"Ferb's in your room, right? Great," she said, without looking at him or waiting for an answer.

She ripped open the door to their room, where a startled Ferb dropped the pen he was holding.

Isabella entered the room and immediately closed the door in front of Phineas' face.

Before Phineas could react, he heard the lock click shut.

"Okay? I guess, I will leave you alone then?" he said, completely confused by what was happening. He waited another few moments for Isabella to open the door or anything to happen. When nothing did, he reluctantly went back downstairs to wait them out.

Inside the room, Isabella leaned against the door she had just closed and tried to gather herself.

Ferb was looking at her shrewdly.

When she had taken a moment, she took a deep breath, looked Ferb in the eye and said: "Phineas does not return my feelings, does he?"

Ferb's gaze softened, as he shook his head no.

Isabella closed her eyes to ward off her tears and sighed, before opening them again.

"That's what I thought," she whispered, then with more strength she told him, "I am giving up on him. I'm not going to- I will stop trying to get him to see me as more than a friend."

Finally, Ferb got up from his desk chair, to take Isabella in his arms.

It was then that Isabella started to cry.

"I told the girls today and they just didn't believe me. They said I'll never give up on Phineas, that I'm like one of those creepy stalker girls on TV," Isabella blubbered, tears running down her face and onto Ferb's shirt, "Well, they didn't say that exactly, but they said that I'm like one of those girls hopelessly in love with the main character who never gets the boy but is still always after him. And, let's face it, everyone finds them creepy and stalker-ish. But I'm not kidding, Ferb, I mean it. No more manipulating the situation or failed flirting or hoping for more. Because there is never going to be more. It's never going to happen."

Ferb stroked her hair comfortingly and she knew he believed her. He lifted his hand from her hair to grab a tissue out of the box on his desk.

She managed a small smile when he handed it to her.

"Thank you. I know it's not going to be easy and that it's going to suck, but I have to move on. I'm so unhappy. I'm unhappy and I'm scared that eventually I'm going to start resenting Phineas for it. But it's not his fault he doesn't feel the same way. I just have to deal with it like a big girl and move on."

With a sigh, Isabella lifted her head from Ferb's shoulder and took another tissue to rub at the wet spots she had left on his shirt.

"Honestly, I don't even know who I am if I'm not in love with Phineas," she admitted, as more tears escaped.

"Well, then it's high time to find out, isn't it?" he said and pushed Isabella into the chair he had vacated moments earlier. He swiveled the chair around so she would face his desk, where she found a list of all the extracurricular and clubs their high school offered. The school year had only started a few short weeks ago, so they hadn't joined any yet, but Phineas had expressed an interest in keeping his afternoon as free as possible, so she had planned to do the same. Now she wasn't so sure.

Ferb had ticked off 'soccer' and 'student government'. Next to student government, he had written 'start on campaign plans' in his perfect penmanship.

"You want to join student government? What will you campaign for?" she asked.

He only raised an eyebrow and Isabella gasped.

"What? Seriously? You are going to run for president? But we're only freshmen!"

He opened his mouth to reply, but Isabella already knew what he was going to say.

"I know, I know, when has your age ever stopped you from doing what you want. I mean, it's pretty crazy, but I'll vote for you."

"Wonderful. And I will vote for you," he replied and gave her a meaningful look.

"You can't be serious," she said.

He smiled.

"You want me to run as well? As what? Vice president?" she asked dubiously.

He nodded.

She was about to start ranting about how outrageous it was for a freshman to run as vice president (let alone president!), when she started to think about it. Really think about it.

How freaking fun it would be to run a student government together with Ferb.

She always did like being in charge.

And soccer.

And dancing.

And singing.

And playing the violin.

She swiveled the chair back towards the desk, took a pink pen out of the repurposed cup and started ticking off the clubs and extracurriculars that interested her. She noticed Ferb grin when she put a big fat check mark by 'student government' right next to his own little mark.

A few moments later the paper was covered in pink.

"You don't mind if I borrow this, do you?" she asked.

He shook his head and gave her a fond smile.

"Thanks, Ferb. I really needed this. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you to talk to," she said, as got up to give him another hug.

"Oh, you won't tell Phineas about this, right?" she asked gratefully, knowing full well how much it meant that Ferb was willing to keep her secrets, even from his own brother.

He gave her two thumbs up.

It took a while, but eventually Isabella emerged from their room, eyes still red but a smile on her face. Phineas knew her well enough to know that she had cried.

"Isabella, what is going on?" he asked, but she just waved him off.

"It's nothing, really, I just had to talk to Ferb about something."

He put his hands on her arms and looked at her searchingly. She seemed fine. In her hands, she was wringing a piece of paper, which she definitely wasn't holding when she came in.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Plans for the future," she said, "I'm sorry, but I think I'll be too busy for after school projects with you guys."

"Oh, okay. It won't be the same without you," he said. He was confused though, Isabella loved projects. She always participated with such enthusiasms and vigor, the thought of her not being there because she had actively chosen to do something else without him was… upsetting. More so than was reasonable, he thought. Why was he so upset about this? "Well, we'll always have vacations, right?"

"Yeah," she replied softly. She fell silent and, for several long moments, just studied his face as if she wouldn't see him for a long time. He wanted to say something, anything, but was powerless to break her gaze. Then suddenly, she hugged him tightly. Surprised, he put his arms around her and couldn't help but enjoy how her smaller frame fit against his. These days he spent a lot of time thinking about weird little details like that, how she looked up at him when they talked, her slight shoulders, how soft her hair felt or her long eyelashes. They had hugged millions of times, but somehow it felt different this time. His heart was racing.

When she finally pulled away (because frankly, he wasn't going to), she took another moment to just look at him.

Phineas wanted to bend down and kiss her.

What.

WHAT.

His brain short-circuited.

"Anyway, it's late and I didn't tell my mom I was coming over. I really need to go. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" she said and took a few steps backwards to the door.

Frozen to the spot, he nodded mechanically. "Yes, of course. Bye."

"Bye," she whispered and gave him a heartbreaking smile. He could see her eyes water again, but she quickly turned around and walked out the front door.

Phineas sat down where he stood.

What just happened? He had just had a thought about kissing Isabella. His best friend (well, besides Ferb). You don't kiss your best friend. That's not a normal thing to do. Oh God. Was that a fluke? A weird one time thing that would never happen again, like the time he thought quilting would be a fun activity for a hot summer day?

It must be.

He never had the urge to kiss Isabella before. Okay, well, sometimes, back when they were kids, he would look at her and have a sudden vague sense memory of her lips on his, but it disappeared eventually. But that didn't count, it wasn't the same thing.

And if he never had the urge before, why should he suddenly have it now. Ferb described the first time he met Vanessa Doofenshmirtz as 'love hitting him in the face' and he had been carrying a torch for her ever since. He met Isabella a long time ago and it was nothing like that. So there. He had always been friends with Isabella and that was how it would always be.

Nothing to see here. Now to deal with more pressing issues.

Phineas got up and went to their room.

"What did Isabella want?" he asked.

"She came over to tell me she approved of the campaign plans I drew up for us," Ferb replied simply.

"Campaign plans?" Phineas asked curiously.

Ferb held out a blueprint to him, that Phineas took and unrolled on the floor.

"No way! Dude! You guys are going to be the best president and vice president team the school has ever had. If you need any help, just let me know!" he said enthusiastically once he had studied the plans.

Then he remembered. "But why was she crying?"

Ferb shrugged.

"I mean, her entrance was quite dramatic, I can't imagine that discussing campaign plans was all she wanted. Is she okay?" Phineas asked.

Ferb looked out of the window to the house across the street.

"She will be," he replied.

The End!

By the way, it's Ferb who makes a big mistake in this story: Thinking that he would know if Phineas fell for Isabella. Turns out he doesn't! ;)

Anyway, what do you think? Suggestions, comments, questions? You can also leave me prompts and requests for one-shots! :*

Next up: The day Phineas got turned into a dog