A/N: I don't even know what's with me anymore. I seem to have an extreme addiction to Phineas and Ferb, and to this pairing in particular (you wouldn't believe the number of half written stories in my documents).
Disclaimer:
-Cover art belongs to Pascal Campion.
-It's truly amazing, the things you can learn on Wikipedia...
and those boys just weren't worth the trouble
(a story about Ginger Hirano and the trouble with best friends)
It starts at a young age.
She is six years old and "a hundred and fifty percent" certain that she is in love with Phineas Flynn. He is always so kind to her, always asking what is wrong, and letting her play with him and his brother every time her mom comes to drop Stacy off at Candace's house. She has always loved the way his smile made her feel happier than anyone else in sight. Sure it would be a little too cliché and a little too easy if he felt the same way, but she knows he was the one.
Everything changes in two months.
A little girl, the same age as her, with the deepest blue eyes and the darkest black hair moves into the house across the street from Phineas and takes a seat in her class at school. Her name is Isabella Garcia-Shapiro. All her friends flock around her like birds of the same feather. The new girl is sweet, confident, and very pretty. Not to mention she's the top of their class. Ginger is absolutely jealous.
So one day, only weeks after Isabella has been established as leader of her and her friends, Ginger comes out on the playground during recess to see her friends huddled around Isabella, laughing and giggling like they all know a big secret.
"Izzy has a cru-ush!" Katie sings as she sits down next to her.
Millie tugs on Isabella's sleeve. "Who is he, Izzy?"
The six-year-old giggles impishly into her hands. "I can't tell you guys."
"Are you in love with him?" Adyson asks, all wide-eyed with wonder and awe.
Isabella blushes. "I don't know."
"But you like him a lot, right?" Holly questions.
"Yea…" Isabella says wistfully. As Phineas Flynn walks near them, a warm smile appears on Ginger's face but no one notices because they're watching Isabella's eyes light up.
"I'm going to marry him one day," she sighs. Phineas passes in front of them and waves, Ginger notices the way he perks up a little more when he raises his hand to Isabella. "You guys watch, he's going to be my husband, and you can all be my bridesmaids. I'll let you guys pick out your own dresses as long as they're pink." She hops from her seat on the steps to skip down to the boy walking away from them at the bottom, taking all Ginger innocent fantasies of Phineas with her.
.
…
.
Baljeet Rai moves to Danville in her last semester of fourth grade and she thinks that she could possibly really, really like him. He's different from all the other boys in her class, nerdy and dorky, but in this way she really thinks is unique. He's the cutest boy she has ever seen.
And taken too, it seems, when Mishti Patel shows up at his door two summers later, all graceful and gritty, and childish and mature. Baljeet nearly loses himself. Honestly, what's the use in trying with a girl that amazing?
.
After Christmas vacation, Wendy Stinglehopper is giggling to her friends and making mooning eyes at Baljeet in math. He's been moved to the center of attention along with Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella, and now he has his pick of all the smart and good-looking girls in the class (at least he does until he's hanging by his underwear again)
.
The next summer, Ginger sees him trying to catch Isabella's attention over and over and she wants to ask the universe why the heck everyone has to fall for her.
.
…
.
She is wary of crushes for seven years then, not bothering with boys in general, because they'll all chase after her best friend so she'll be forced to be the Maid of Honour in their weddings. But then she meets Lawrence W.E. S. Rockefeller, who acts as high and mighty as his name sounds. He's taking pre-med like her and the two compete constantly, trying to out-do the other. She swears that she hates him.
Then, one day, something changes and she's head-over-heels in love with him. A few days after that she's walking out of microbiology class, when he runs after her.
"Hey, Rockefeller," she says, staring at his eyes, rather than looking at them, trying not to get pulled into their depths.
"Hirano," he grins. "Just the woman I was looking for."
The way he's looking at her intently makes her knees begin to shake, and her heart speed—no, this isn't what she is supposed to be feeling. This is all wrong. This is going to get her heart all set up to be broken again.
"What is it, Rockefeller?" She asks, raising her eyebrow to look nonchalant.
"I kind of need advice from you," he reaches up to rub the back of his head self-consciously, as if he's embarrassed about something.
"Another girl back for your guts?" she asks venomously. "Or do you need me to stand in so you can make another girl jealous?"
Lawrence rolls his eyes. "No, Hirano. I swear this to God…I'm in love with someone."
Her heart begins to thump sporadically, out of her control. "You are?" Her voice comes out mortifyingly high-pitched and soft. She coughs. "With who?"
"Your roommate."
And then all the memories are flashing before her eyes like the scenes on movie film, scenes of Phineas and Isabella, and Baljeet chasing Isabella. There was no way she's doing this again.
"I'm not giving you any advice on how to pick up any of my roommates, Rockefeller," she spats, care avoiding his eyes so that rock-hard Ginger Hirano will not break. "Who is it now?"
"Gretchen."
Shit. He makes a point to avoid anyone majoring in the science field (and who feels like they might be smarter than him). This kid's serious.
"Please, Ginger? Why won't you give me advice? You know her better than anyone here on campus."
A week later, Gretchen can't figure out why Ginger keeps shutting away from her.
.
…
.
It takes her nearly thirteen months to get over Lawrence, and it takes another year, before she meets Danny Udall. He's a second-year resident doctor over at the University of San Francisco Medical Center, one of those suave and mature-looking men that all the girls titter over when they see him during their rotations.
"Ms. Hirano!" Danny yells one day, approaching her as she walks to the lobby to meet her ride back to her apartment.
"Hm?" she sounds dumbly, surprised to see him talking to her.
He pulls her into the cafeteria, sitting her down in one of the chairs. "I need your advice on something."
"Why me?" she responds, trying to avoid one of the other med-students who passes by and throws her a thumbs up.
"You're a girl aren't you?" He asks obliviously.
She rolls her eyes, "Do you need a doctor's note from a medical examination to confirm that?"
His face reddens. "Pardon, I meant you're a young woman and you can give me advice on how to get into a young woman's head can't you?"
"Alright," she concedes, but you'll need to hurry because my ride is waiting for me."
"Of course," he answers gratefully. "So, you see, there's this girl who's been coming around lately. I haven't spoken to her much, only a few words here and there, but I can tell she's confident, smart, and she possesses a lot of grace. I want to ask her out but if she doesn't feel the same way, then it could stop whatever friendship we've built up."
Studying his face, Ginger thought about what he was saying. In that moment, he heart lifted with hope. There was a distinct possibility that he was in love with her. Why would he seek her of all people out after all? Finally she answered, "Well, I think –from a young woman's point of view—that you should just tell her. Girls love bold men. Trust me. So just tell her, and maybe she'll feel the same as you do."
"Thanks, Hirano!" The doctor leapt out of his chair, shaking her hand in a frenzy. "I'm going to talk to her. She should be in the lobby now, so I'm going to try and catch her!"
Right then and there, her heart split in two (or was it five, now?). Her face quickly morphed from a light smile to a bitter sigh. "All right. Good luck to you then."
She followed his trail, heading back toward the lobby to see him talking to Katie, her ride home.
She hated that for that one moment, when she had put herself out there. Risking everything—she simply had a piece of her heart broken off. And once again, it was at the hands of one of her family members.
But hey, at least the two of them look happy.
.
…
.
Six months later she's gotten over the episode and her cheeks stop burning in humiliation every time she revisits the memory. But then she moved from one resident doctor to one pre-med student who was just as suave and mature, and twice as handsome, and five times funnier, than he was. His black eyes pierce hers as he talks to her one day in the hallways.
"Ginger," he says, smiling at her, "Have I told you that you look especially nice today?"
"No," she laughs, "but you don't have to lie José, I can see the bags under my eyes in the morning. I look like a zombie."
He grins. "Everyone does, you just have a way of making it look good."
She ducks her head down and her cheeks flush a light shade of pink. "Did you get Ferris Wheller's book yet?" He was the only guy she could ask that and not get teased for being a nerd.
"Of course," he beams. "The first chapter was a bit of a stunner, but I managed to pull through it."
Nodding, Ginger responds, "I know. Me too!"
He was one of the first boys she really hoped would ask her out.
"Ginger Julia Hirano," he speaks her full name as he walks her down to meet Katie. "I've liked you for far too long. Would you please do me the pleasure of accompanying me for a date?"
Smiling, her heart races and she throws her arms around him in a warm embrace, nodding her yes into his left shoulder and sparing herself the shame of bumbling her speech.
For the first seven months their relationship is all flowers, fancy evenings out, and long-extended kisses outside her door. They are always together—one of those couples who actually likes to spend time with each other. Or at least they do in the beginning. Then she leaves for eight months to study and search for diseases in the jungles of South America and his letters, at first frequent, dwindle to nothing in the last two months. When she comes back, she notices the way his eyes trail her old college mate, and the closest friend she has here in the City by the Bay, Alice Liu.
Ginger works as hard as she can—buying flowers and taking him out to dinner, becoming the perfect girlfriend—because there was no way she'd let someone as good as him slip through her fingers.
In the end, it happens.
"I'm sorry, Ginger," José shakes his head ruefully, "I don't know how I let things get so wrong."
"It's Alice, isn't it?" she asks quietly, searching him for any confirmation.
"No," he lies, "it's just not working out for us anymore."
But it hasn't been even six weeks after he has broken it off with her that Alice Liu accompanies him to the Cherry Blossom festival.
.
…
.
Water dripping from her eyes, Ginger pulls out her phone and dials Holly's number—she's one of her only friends who's never ended up with a guy she likes. Holly picks up on the third ring.
"Ginger!" Holly sounds surprised to hear her on the phone. "What's wrong? Oh wait…it's about José, isn't it? Don't tell me that he's asked your little friend out."
"It's all me," Ginger sobs into the receiver. "I'm not good enough for anyone. Every single guy I've ever liked always goes for one of my best friends. They're always choosing them over me."
She sobs into the phone and Holly hums an odd tune as she listens to Ginger let it all out.
"You know that's not true," Holly replies soothingly as she hiccups die down. "Somewhere out there is a chap who's made to be with you. He'll be the perfect one, you'll see. And once he knows that you're the one for him, he'll never spare a second glance at any of your friends, close or not. He's going to love you for you, and he'll never love anybody else but you. And y'know, there's a man out there for me too."
Abruptly it hits Ginger. "You fell for them too, didn't you?"
"Not exactly. Ferb, Django, and Buford, one of them had to go and fall for the older girl and the other two went and married my best friends," Holly confirms, sighing tiredly into the phone. "But I will find a boy, you just watch me. And you will too, because both of us deserve something more than the guys we fell for."
"Of course," Ginger says as a chuckle crawls out of her, then escalates to full out laugh. Maybe Holly was right, and it was all true. She deserved far better than she had been getting.
.
…
.
Then, one Sunday night, the evening of her sister's inauguration ball, as she's mingling among the groups of celebrities, royals, government officials, and ambassadors, she looks up and catches the gaze of an old childhood friend (most of her old friends have been invited to the event on their own merit alone) across the room. Dr. Rai, as he prefers to be called, smiles at her and she knows this is it—their paths have crossed and for the first time he sees her and she really sees him.
In a moment he's gone, like a wisp of wind among the guest, and she can't spot his head in the crowd. Yet not even five minutes later she feels a slight tap on her elbow and looks up surprised to see him at her elbow.
"May I have this dance?"
Holly's words prove to be true, he takes the time to charm her, slowly softening her up to him until she realizes that this love could put her six feet under for all its the worth.
Still he wasn't perfect (he was OCD about organization and knowing things), but he was perfect for her.
It takes him a whole week of mental preparation to actually get the nerve to ask her out to their first date. It takes five dates before she gets frustrated and kisses him first. But their first date is one of her most prized memories and she quickly finds out that when he does kiss, he really knows how to sweep a girl off her feet.
She is a bit confused though. How can she fall for someone who has already liked one of her friends? Isn't this cliché or at least a clichéd non-cliché (ugh…she's really lost). Wouldn't she have noticed something about him before this?
"Maybe he's glitch in the cycle," Holly suggests. "He never actually got together with any of your best friends and it has to count for something if he can break your never-the same-guy policy. Maybe…" Holly looks thoughtful, "he wasn't what you deserved yet. He had a bit of growing up to do first. Maybe you weren't supposed to like him that time around."
.
Months later, Phineas and Isabella hold dinner at their house on the pretense of having big news to share. And it is pretty huge. Isabella's pregnant again and this time it is twins.
While everyone sits around the fire pit in the Flynn's backyard, Ginger casts a glance across the ring to where Holly sits holding Irving's hand; he's her complete opposite in almost every which way that does not matter. The two look happy together.
.
Ginger finds him in his office; he's leaning over a sketch of blueprints, sharpened pencil in hand, a concentrated look on his face. She's out of breath and struggling to catch it, her hand is held to her stomach, her heart accelerates five paces faster, and she feels like she's going to explode into tiny fragments. All her thoughts flee her mind when he turns to look at her, a surprised look on his face.
She walks right up to him, they both stay silent, and the tension in the room is overwhelming. She looks up at him, and he looks a self-assured surrounded by his computer, loose papers, filled notebooks, and pencils. He's really grown up a bit hasn't he?
"Baljeet Rai," Ginger starts in a strong, steady voice. "That was by far the cheesiest thing you have ever done." And she smiles a big goofy grin that she doesn't realize makes his heart skip a beat.
"Was it?" He jokes, acting ignorant. He gives himself away when his mouth quirks up to the left a slight. "I mean, that is what got Phineas Isabella, right?"
She rolls her eyes and swats him playfully. "She'd already been in love with him for ten years before he did anything, and his idea of romancing a girl is using what he got from his sister's chick flicks." She looks at his shirt, observing the rolled up sleeves and stiff collar. She twirls his tie between her fingers. "You know, I've always loved it when you wore a shirt and tie. I thought it suited you very well," she says casually.
He grins and pulls her in to meet his lips. She reaches up to wrap her arms around his neck as his hands settle on her back.
It's not the most innocent kiss when she hears a wolf-whistle from the other side of the wall of his office. She let's go and pushes him away, horrified to see a few of his employees looking in through the slice of glass in the wall that gives them a view of the going-ons in their boss's office. She turns away from them and looks at him for help, but he only grins and grabs her left hand, sliding her new engagement ring onto the ring finger and holding it up for the others to see.
Amidst their clapping, he pulls her out of the room, telling his secretary he's taking the rest of the day off.
He's got an engagement to celebrate with his new fiancé.
.
Finally, Ginger believes that she is good enough, good enough even for a happy ending again.