Don't Deny It

This was originally a two-shot with the following story, but now it is a collection of short stories. Some are connected, some aren't. Pay attention to the author's note at the beginning for context. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Phineas and Ferb.

Lunch time. For seventeen year olds, it's the most important meal of the day, especially since a lot of teens skip breakfast so they can get an extra ten minutes of sleep before school. It's definitely Isabella's favorite period of the school day, but not for anything to do with food. It's much more important than that.

When class schedules had been handed out at the beginning of the year, Isabella, Phineas, Baljeet, and Ginger were the only ones of the gang with the same lunch period. They originally all sat together, but Baljeet and Ginger's bickering quickly had Phineas and Isabella both feeling awkward, so they moved to their own table.

And so, Isabella looked forward to lunch every day. Where once she found it impossible to have some alone time with Phineas, it was now a daily occurrence…even if they were surrounded by two hundred other kids.

One hundred and sixty-some odd days later, she found herself in limbo, both thrilled for the school year to be over, and a little sad that her daily lunch break with Phineas, and only Phineas, was over.

And apparently, there would be even one less day alone with him.

"Hey, Dinner Bell!"

Phineas and Isabella looked in the direction of the voice. Buford was pushing his way through the cafeteria toward them. He stopped at their table.

"Hey, Buford," Phineas greeted. "What's up?"

"I hate to interrupt your time with your girlfriend, but I need your help studying for my Geometry final. I'll have to take summer school classes if I fail it. Baljeet's helping me after school, but I have study hall this period, and I know you're the only one I know who doesn't have a class this period. Whatd'ya say? Can your help me out?"

Isabella smiling stupidly. Ha ha. Buford called me Phineas's girlfriend. Her smile quickly faded when Phineas answered Buford's question.

"Isabella's not my girlfriend. And you do know that Baljeet is in the lunch period, too, right?"

"Are you kidding? You can't get two words out of the guy when he's with Ginger."

"Good point. Take a seat."

"Thanks, Dude."

As Buford shuffled past Phineas to sit down next to him, Isabella sighed. She had never actually worked up the courage to ask Phineas out, and she doubted she ever would. Hearing Phineas deny that they were dating like that, though…it really broke her heart.

As Phineas was going over various terms and formulas with Buford, he happened to glance her way. "Isabella, are you alright? You look…I don't know, sick or something."

"Yeah, I guess I am feeling a little sickly…in a manner of speaking."

"Maybe you should go to the nurse."

"No, no…I'm fine."

"You sure?"

She gritted her teeth. "Positive."

Phineas and Ferb always drove Isabella to and from school since she lived right across the street. Today, however, Ferb had volunteered to help tutor students for finals after school, so Phineas drove Isabella home in his and Ferb's shared 1970 Ford Torino.

As they climbed into the car in the school parking lot, Isabella asked, "Would you mind driving me into the city before we go home? I just need to pick up my mother's dry cleaning."

"Sure. The cleaner is just down the street from that building vaguely shaped like Ferb's head."

"Thanks, Phineas. You're the best."

"I try," Phineas said as he started the engine.

It only took a few minutes to drive into the city of Danville, but they found the streets packed with cars.

"Wow. There's never this much traffic here at this time of the day," Phineas observed.

Cars lined the sidewalk up and down, too, taking up every available parking spot.

"Keep your eyes open for a parking spot," Phineas said when they were two blocks from the cleaners. "We may not be able to find any place to park closer to the dry cleaner than this."

They reached the block with the building shaped like Ferb's head. A car was pulling out just in front of said building. "There! There's a spot!" Isabella exclaimed, pointing excitedly.

"Good eye!" Phineas whipped the Torino into the parking space and expertly parallel parked.

They got out of the car and walked down the street toward the dry cleaner. They were just out of earshot when, from the top of the purple building, there was an explosion, followed by someone yelling, "CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!"

Phineas and Isabella walked to the cleaners, picked up Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro's dress, and walked the block back to the car. When they reached the purple building again, they noticed three men in lab coats setting up a scaffolding against the side of the building. One was only about three feet tall, one had an incredibly pointy nose and ears, and one had a crazy jagged mustache and head of dark red hair. Several cans of spray paint sat on the ground nearby.

"Hey, kid!" the short one called.

Phineas looked around. "Me?"

"Yeah, you. Could you and your girlfriend give us a hand with this scaffolding here?"

Isabella glanced at Phineas, an almost pleading look on her face. He didn't notice.

"Oh, she isn't my girlfriend." Isabella turned her eyes downcast. "But we'd be glad to help you. Right, Isabella?"

"Yeah. Sure."

"Great! We'll have this up in no time."

"Oh, thank you so much!" the one with pointy ears said.

Phineas unlocked the car so Isabella could place her mother's dry cleaning safely in the backseat, and then the two of them hurried to help the three men. In just a few minutes, the scaffolding was assembled.

"There you go! All done!" Phineas said.

"Thank you both very much," pointy ears said again. The three men each picked up a spray can and began shaking them.

"You're welcome," Phineas said. "Anytime." He looked up the side of the building. "So, what are you guys doing? Touching up the paint? Because if you are, no offense, but spray cans aren't really the best way to do it."

"Oh no, we're vandalizing it," said the guy with the mustache.

"What?"

"You see, this building belongs to Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz," shorty said. "He played a prank on us at the last meeting of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N."

"We were all so embarrassed," mustache said.

"So now, we're getting back at him by doing graffiti on his building."

Phineas and Isabella crossed their arms and frowned. "Well, that's just wrong." Phineas said.

"Yeah, we're calling the police!" Isabella yelled.

"Oh, really?" Pointy ears said. "We can't just allow that."

The three of them, still shaking their spray cans, stepped slowly and dramatically closer to Phineas and Isabella. "Think now would be a good time to hastily retreat?" Isabella asked.

"Yes, yes I do."

They both jumped in the car as fast as they could. Phineas fired the engine and burned rubber as they shot back onto the road, where there seemed to be considerably less traffic now that the unnoticed machine on the roof of the purple building had exploded.

Phineas waved to Isabella across the street as he walked out to his car, which was parked on the road in front of his house. Isabella was in her front yard, planting a few flowers. She waved back.

Phineas was about to climb into the Torino, but then he closed the door and walked across the street to Isabella's house.

"Hey Isabella."

"Hey, Phineas. Whatchya doin'?"

"Well, Candace is out with Jeremy, my parents are at some antique convention, and I think Ferb is with Buford and Baljeet. I don't really feel like cooking for myself, so I decided to treat myself to a nice meal out. What are you doing?"

"Oh, just planting a few flowers. I wanted to get them in the ground now before summer starts. Don't want to miss any of the excitement in your backyard starting next week."

Phineas laughed. "Good idea. I wouldn't want you to miss anything." He took a sort of hesitant step back toward the street. "Well, I'm going out. Do you want to come with me?"

Isabella practically jumped for joy, but she managed to restrain herself. "Um, okay, sure."

"Great! It'll be just like having lunch at school, only we won't be at school and we won't be eating lunch."

Isabella laughed.

A short while later, Phineas and Isabella were seated in the Diner. Ironically, it was the one right next to the purple building they had saved from vandalism earlier. The three men in lab coats had been taken into custody.

They laughed as they watched another man in a lab coat try to order a "whole-wheat on rye" sandwich, followed by a screaming match as the waitress failed to pronounce his name correctly. The man stormed out, muttering to himself, "Why did I even bother coming back here again? I should have known this would happen."

Not long after their food was delivered to their table, they were approached by the hostess. "Excuse me sir," she said, "but could I trouble you and your girlfriend to move to that empty table over there in the corner?" She pointed to it. "A very large party just came in and we need to push a few tables together to accommodate them. This one where you're sitting is much closer."

"Sure, not a problem," Phineas said.

"Thank you both so much. I hate to trouble you."

"It's no trouble at all. We don't mind. Come on, Isabella." They both picked up their plates and drinks and moved to the table in the corner.

They resumed eating quietly, their previous conversation having slipped their mind. Then suddenly, Isabella realized something. "Hey, Phineas?"

"Hmm?" Phineas replied through a mouthful of chicken.

"How come you didn't tell the hostess that I'm not your girlfriend?"

Phineas swallowed and shrugged. "I don't know. Just didn't think to I guess."

They ate quietly for a few more minutes.

"Maybe you should be."

Isabella looked up from her plate. "Huh?"

"Maybe you should be my girlfriend. Everyone seems to think you are anyway." Isabella dropped her fork. It clattered on her plate. Phineas continued without noticing the look on her face. "What'd you think? You want to be?"

Under normal circumstances, Isabella would have squealed, jumped up and down and screamed out "YES!" in reply. But she was so shocked, she forgot to. "Uh…y-yeah…sure." Then quickly added. "I'd love to."

"Okay. Great!" Phineas kept eating as if nothing had happened. Isabella just stared at him in shock. "Oh, wait a sec. Does that mean this is a date?" Phineas asked.

"I-I-I, uh…I guess so."

Phineas quickly took out his wallet and looked inside. "This could be a problem."

"What?"

"I only have fifteen bucks. My meal was twelve. I don't have enough to pay for yours."

"Huh?"

"It's a date. The guy is supposed to pay, right? That's how a date works. At least, I think that's how it works."

Isabella snapped out of her shocked state and laughed. "It's okay, Phineas. I'll pay for my own dinner. You didn't know it was a date when we got here."

"Well…okay. But only if I can take you to a movie tomorrow."

"Deal."

And, recalling their earlier conversation, they finished the meal as if nothing had changed.

Phineas dropped Isabella off in front of her house. "Bye, Isabella."

"Bye, Phineas. See you tomorrow morning."

"Yup! Just four days of school left!"

Isabella closed the passenger door and watched as Phineas pulled into the driveway, parked and entered the house through the garage. She suddenly tensed up. "Wait a minute. I-…and he-…and we-!…But…" She stared at the house across the street. Her shoulders drooped. "What just happened?"

Phineas went inside and was greeted by Candace, the only other person home.

"Hey, Phineas. Where were you?"

"I went out to dinner with Isabella."

Candace frowned. She poured herself a cup of coffee. "You went to dinner with Isabella?"

"Yeah."

"How was it?" She picked up the mug off the counter.

"Fine. We had a good time. We watched some guy in a lab coat try to order a sandwich with only bread on it. It was funny."

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time."

"Yeah, we did." Phineas walked out of the kitchen toward the stairs as Candace took a sip of her coffee. Then he called back, "Oh, and just so you know, Isabella's my girlfriend now."

The coffee mug slipped between Candace's fingers and shattered on the floor. "What?"

I don't think Phineas will ever figure out Isabella's feelings for him, but I still think they'll end up together, and it will happen just as I've written it here. More by accident then by design.