Hello, all you faithful readers and welcome to this fun little tidbit of extra stuff from Operation: Carpe Diem! To commemorate today (July 31st), the date on which the aforementioned story takes place, I have decided to give everyone a kind of preface to it. Consider this a... Prequel. Oh, man, that's a real word!? I'm not kidding, you know that little red zigzag that magically shows up under misspellings and such? It's not there. What kind of world do we live in where 'prequel' is a word?

Whoops, my inner Doof got the best of me again. So, without further ado...

"Everything ready, Ferb?"

A young British lad with green hair looked to his stepbrother and confirmed by presenting him with a thumbs-up. "Great," came Phineas's reply, "And not a moment too soon. Isabella, when's the sunrise supposed to start?"

"In just a couple of minutes, Phineas."

Phineas found it amusing that Isabella owned a watch that could keep time according to the sun. "I'll never understand how that watch works," he said to no one in particular. Despite his deep comprehension of technology and physics, particularly in the field of engineering, Phineas was the first to admit there was still a lot of things in this world that he couldn't quite wrap his triangular head around. And he liked it that way. It meant there was always something more for him to learn.

Phineas adjusted the last of the mirrors, focusing on a fixed place on the horizon where the sun was to appear. He and Ferb had put lawn chairs in the backyard so that the three could see the sun leap over the edge of the Earth for the last time that July. The occasion, for them, was like the beginning of an end; not the end, of course, but simply a checkpoint. For Phineas and Ferb, summer wasn't over yet. The boys chose not to hold the event on the last day of summer for fear of their emotions ruining it. Still, the sunrise on July 31st was to be a spectacular view.

The idea was to suspend mirrors and prisms all over the backyard so that when the sun did make its appearance, the resulting light could be seen in the form of an apparently tangible mirage from any angle in the yard; however, the best seats were right where Phineas and Ferb had placed them.

It was nice, but anyone who knew of the brothers' antics would say it didn't exactly qualify as a "Big Idea." That was because the boys decided to, after the sunrise, start preparations for tomorrow's project: a large block party in celebration of all things summer, as a tribute to the passing month while at the same time beckoning August to come and stay for a while. Phineas planned to invite Isabella to it once the sun had risen and the last day of July officially started.

Figuring everything was ready, Isabella scrambled onto her chair, watch and all. She counted the seconds left, anticipating the chance to do something - dare she say it - romantic with Phineas. She didn't know if she could get her crush to finally break through his obliviousness when it came to her feelings for him, but she knew it was her last chance to try. When she heard about the sunrise, she accepted immediately. When she arrived she learned that only she, Phineas, and Ferb were attending.

"What about Buford and Baljeet? Are they coming?" Isabella had asked before, hopeful.

"No, they couldn't make it," Phineas said apologetically, "Baljeet insisted he was busy and Buford said he had a problem with waking up too early."

Her hopes jumped like a Fireside Girl skipping rope. "And Candace? Will she be there?" She didn't expect her friend's older sibling to be interested, but she decided to ask just to be polite.

"Nah, Candace said she wanted to sleep in. Not a morning person, I guess."

By that time, Isabella became excited. Excitement turned into anticipation as the last moments of darkness fled the backyard.

"Phineas, quick! It's starting!" Isabella urged, spinning around in her chair to face the boy. She felt the strands composing the chair give up and make way for her shifting body.

"We're coming," said Phineas as he hopped on the seat next to her. On his other side was Ferb, stretched out with his hands behind his head, ready for the natural performance to begin. He knew he was in Isabella's way of getting his brother alone, but he also knew it wouldn't be easy for him to get them together without doing something drastic. Besides... He genuinely wanted to see the sunrise. But for the moment, all he could do was scoot his chair away from Phineas's just a bit, in the hopes that that would make it easier for Isabella.

The girl turned back around, noticing the extra distance. "Thank you," she mouthed without Phineas seeing. People who knew Ferb very well could make out traces of a smile as he looked at her and blinked. He considered his job there done.

The backyard itself seemed to be waiting with bated breath for the moment the sun finally climbed into the summer sky. Nothing really stood out, at first, and if your eyes didn't happen upon the earliest ray of light, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Nonetheless, each of the children saw it as it skimmed the ground and flew out towards them. It reflected off one mirror and flashed across each pair of eyes. It continued to ricochet around a prism as more and more sunlight entered the backyard. Each beam that landed on the children's awed faces added to the real show, which was just beginning.

Two of three kids were afraid to speak. The other knew when it was appropriate and when he preferred to keep his thoughts to himself. What happened next took all their breath away, so that it was so quiet one would think they could hear the warmth, the light, the sun flying all around them in a performance that looked like an explosion. But no one was scared. The entire star was visible from where Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella sat in their plastic lawn chairs, and now it seemed that the very air that they all breathed was in fact made up of the sun, of the summer.

When Isabella finally found her voice, it wasn't anything more than a whisper. "Wow..." She gasped, and didn't bother to collect herself before continuing, "This is amazing, Phineas. You're..." This was the moment of truth - "You're amazing."

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" Phineas agreed just as quietly, apparently not hearing or perhaps not interpreting Isabella's second comment. The girl sighed, careful not to break the near-silence. She turned her attention to the boy, whose entire world was currently the spectacle that was the July sunrise.

He was smiling dumbly; Isabella's heart sank. But she wouldn't give up so easily.

Carefully, she lifted her right hand. Taking advantage of the short-ish distance between the two chairs, she found her hand inching closer to Phineas's. If you looked at Phineas when she placed her hand on his, you wouldn't know if he even realized it was there. For the boy was completely entranced by the magic that swirled around his entire field of view. Isabella admitted to herself that she hoped he would notice, but she realized that Phineas wasn't, in fact, showing any sign of discomfort or desire to remove her hand from his.

So she stared ahead again, this time fighting back an oversized grin. It was beyond her ability to stifle a small smile, though, so until the last whisps sunlight faded into the coming day, she and Phineas were there, nothing short of happy beyond measure.

It took a while for the kids to notice when the show ended. In fact, not until the fence popped itself back up and the mirrors automatically put themselves away did any of them move.

"I-I don't know what to say..." Isabella started, finding that she enjoyed the whole of the experience. "You two have done it again. I don't know how to thank you..."

"That won't be necessary, Isabella," Phineas explained, finally breaking out of his gaze, "As long as you don't mind a song."

"A song? You want me to sing with you?"

Phineas picked himself up, then offered his friend a hand. Isabella accepted happily. "Yeah, I figured it would be appropriate. I'll take the first stanza, 'kay?"

"Okay," she said excitedly, "Whatcha got?"

Ferb noticed the growing look of hope on Isabella's face as Phineas cleared his throat to begin singing.

"Let's make it known in a happy tone..."

I feel like something's missing.

...

...I know what you're thinking, and it's not Perry...

...

...Peanut butter! No, that's not it...

...

...Oh, that's right!

I do not own Phineas and Ferb.

And... Scene!