What if Isabella got over her crush? Most eleven-year-old girls do, after all.

Now it's junior year of high school, and Phineas and Isabella are best friends. Nothing romantic between them at all.

Yet.

(What, you were expecting me to ship him with Adyson?)

Contains background Ginger/Baljeet and Ferb/Vanessa. I think this is in the same timeline as Mistletoe Is Serious Business, but it doesn't really have any major effect on this story.

Timeline: October, junior year of high school. Phineas and the gang are all about sixteen; Vanessa is twenty-one. OCs are appropriately aged for their school year.

Ferb walked to lunch from physics class, Ginger and Baljeet following right behind him holding hands. As he approached the table that Phineas and Isabella had staked out, he heard them talking.

"...a flying centaur? Really?" Phineas asked, incredulous.

"I was eleven. It made sense at the time," Isabella responded with a grin.

"Wow. You really did have a massive crush on me. How did I never notice?"

"Because you were the most oblivious boy ever to walk the earth," Ferb said, taking a seat next to his brother. Ginger, Baljeet, and Isabella all nodded agreement.

"Huh. Well, it was probably for the best, under the circumstances. I don't think either of us were really ready for a relationship, and if we'd tried, it might have messed up our friendship," Phineas said.

Isabella sighed. "Yeah, I don't think it could have ended well. Although if anyone could have pulled off the flying centaur look, it'd have been you. Much better as friends, though."

Ginger laughed. "Oh, come on. You two should totally try going out. You're not eleven anymore. Neither of you is dating anyone. Neither of you has ever managed more than two dates with anyone else."

Isabella protested, "Hey, I had more than two dates with Billy."

"Yeah, it was three," Phineas noted.

Isabella glared at him. "You're not helping."

Phineas cowered under her glare with a smile on his face. "Still two more than I've ever had," he said.

Baljeet interjected, "Seriously, why not try it? It worked for Ginger and me." The short Indian boy gave his girlfriend a smile, and continued, "If it does not work, then you can just stay friends, and if it does work, then you have so much more."

Phineas looked like he was trying to come up with a counter-argument. Isabella looked at him and shook her head. "We've been such good friends for so long...I think it'd feel like kissing my brother. If I had a brother."

In the locker room, Isabella and Ginger got ready for their volleyball game that afternoon. Once she was dressed, Isabella went over to Ginger's locker, where the Japanese teen was pulling on her knee pads.

"Ginger, I love you like a sister, but if you ever suggest I start dating Phineas again, I'm going to strangle you."

Alyssa, the team captain, laughed from the next locker over. "You know, he's come to every game since you joined the team as a freshman, and half the team parties, and I can't say I've ever seen any romantic inclinations between you two."

Isabella sighed. "I had a huge crush on him when I was eleven, and he never noticed. I got pretty badly hurt."

Ginger chimed in, "I remember Valentine's Day. You were a wreck. But that was years ago."

"I promised myself I'd never fall in love with him again," Isabella continued. "He's my best friend, and I just can't let myself see him as anything more."

Marie, a brunette sophomore on the other side of Alyssa, said, "He's kind of cute. You don't mind if I ask him to the after-game party, then?"

Isabella shoved down an unexpected protest from the back of her head. "No, not at all. Go right ahead."

Phineas watched the volleyball team taking the court. He hadn't ever really paid attention to how well Isabella filled out the tight shirt and tighter shorts that made up her uniform, her long black hair in a ponytail to keep it out of the way - for whatever reason, he'd never really thought of Isabella as a girl. She was his best friend, not someone he'd ever considered as a potential girlfriend, because ever since he'd started thinking about dating girls, she'd never given him any reason to think she'd be interested. But now that she'd revealed her old crush, and the conversation with Ginger and Baljeet had him thinking along those lines, he had a hard time taking his eyes off of her.

Down, boy. She said she's not interested, he thought. Find somebody else to drool over.

He looked at the rest of the team. Ginger was taken, as were Alyssa, Susan, and Lisa. (Besides, he'd already been out on a date with Lisa.) He didn't really know the younger girls on the team; maybe one of them might be a good choice?

Justin, a friend from his and Isabella's math class, came over with Baljeet. "Hey, Phineas. Baljeet said these games were worth watching..." He looked up at the team of teenage girls in uniform. "...whoa. Okay, yeah. Hey, is that Isabella over there?"

"Yes, yes it is," Phineas answered.

"You two are always together. Are you...um..." Justin tried to get out the question.

Baljeet raised an eyebrow, awaiting Phineas's response.

"We're just good friends. I won't get upset if you ask her out, if that's what you're wondering."

"Cool!"

Baljeet frowned at Phineas, shaking his head.

Danville High won the game, and Phineas, Baljeet, and Justin went down to congratulate them. "Ginger, you did well!" Baljeet said, giving his girlfriend a kiss. Alyssa's boyfriend Clarke came off from the side to wrap the athletic blonde in a hug and kiss her deeply.

A curvy brunette volleyball player with deep brown eyes walked over toward Phineas as he reached the bottom of the bleachers. "Hi, Phineas," she said.

Phineas smiled at her, desperately trying to remember her name. "Hi...Marie, right? What's up?"

"We're having an after-game pizza party, would you like to go with me?"

Phineas was surprised, but smiled and said, "Sure!"

He saw Isabella's smile flicker a bit, but then she turned to Justin, right behind him. "Hey, Justin, want to go to the party with me?"

Justin smiled widely and said, "You read my mind."

This will be seven chapters in all, posted one a day through next Saturday. Mostly this sort of relationship fluff.