'Founding the Foundation' is briefly stuck, and this little piece has been needing to be written for a while. While Phineas and Isabella are off building their relationship, what are Ferb and Vanessa up to?

The title is from a list of Niven's Laws. It shares a place there alongside such wisdom as "Never fire a laser at a mirror" and "Never waste calories."

Timeline: A week or two before 'First Dance' in Firsts, a few months before 'Back in Time for Dinner'. Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella are all fourteen, Vanessa is nineteen.

Vanessa drove her mother's car aimlessly through the streets of Danville, trying to make a decision. She was home on spring break from her sophomore year of college, and her mother had just informed her of a summer internship opportunity at a major Wall Street firm. Vanessa was, of course, expected to take it, as the next step in her inevitable progression toward becoming the next head of her mother's private equity firm.

And that was the crux of the problem. Vanessa was sick of business school. Sick of the egotistical me-first attitude of the people there, and the focus on money as everyone's way of keeping score. Sick of how many people were interested in her mostly as a gateway to her mother. Sick of guys looking at her as a trophy to win and not a partner to spend time with. She'd had enough of that with Monty, thank you very much.

I need to talk to somebody about this or I'm going to explode, she thought. But who? I haven't kept in touch with any of my high school friends. They'd all think I'd sold out anyway.

She turned onto a small side street - Maple Drive, the sign said. She didn't get over to this side of town often. Just a residential street, nothing notable...and then the green-haired kid appeared on the side of the road. Ferb's always been a good listener. Maybe he'll put up with me again. He used to have that huge crush on me.

She pulled over to the side of the road and parked. Ferb had noticed her, and was walking over to the car. "Hey, Ferb," she said, climbing out. "I was just driving by and saw you here. Is this where you live?"

He nodded.

"So what've you been up to?" she asked.

Before he could answer, Phineas burst out of the front door, waving to them as he went past. "Hi, Ferb! Hi, Vanessa! Sorry I can't talk, I'm late for dance practice with Isabella!" He ran across the street, where the door opened even before he could knock.

"Dance practice?" Vanessa asked.

"Isabella's quinceañera is coming up, and she's asked him to be her chambelan de honor," Ferb responded.

"Oh? Did they finally get together?"

"No, he's still being clueless."

"Wow. Have you tried just telling him?"

Ferb shook his head ruefully. "It didn't help. So what's wrong? You look like you're driving to sort out your head."

How does he know me so well? she wondered. And what is it about his accent that makes me want to listen to it forever?

"You know my mom insisted I go to Ackerton School of Business, right?"

"You mentioned it last time I saw you, last summer. You didn't seem to like it there much."

"I don't. I want out of there, but Mom really wants me to get a business degree. And now she's got this internship lined up for me at this big Wall Street brokerage. I'm not sure if I want to go."

"Why not?"

"I'm worried that it'll be the same kind of aggressive asses as business school, only instead of them being my classmates, they'll be my bosses."

He nodded. "Have you talked to your mother about this?"

"I've tried. She doesn't listen. She just hears what she wants to hear and ignores the rest."

"If you could do anything you wanted...what would you do?" he asked.

She leaned back against the car, thinking. "Really? I'd transfer out of business school. I don't even know where I'd go. Just somewhere else."

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"I was hoping you would. You've always had good advice for me in the past."

"You need to talk to your mother about this. Get your father to help if you need to. If you're this unhappy now, it isn't going to get better. Figure out a solution your mother might be willing to accept - transfer to a business program at a school with a broader range of majors, maybe, so you can have people around who aren't in the business program."

She nodded. "What about the internship?"

"I think it's worth trying, actually. If nothing else, you can use it as a bargaining chip with your mother. She'll probably be worried that you want out of business programs altogether, so you can use the internship to reassure her that you're sticking with that. And if the internship fails, you can use that to help convince your mother that you need to do something else."

Vanessa stared off into the distance, thinking. "That might work. It's worth a shot, at least. I'll go try talking to her now." She gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, then hopped back in the car. "Thanks, Ferb," she said as she drove away.

Vanessa tried to think of what she'd say to her mother as she drove home, but her thoughts kept wandering back to the green-haired boy. If only he were older. He's going to make some lucky girl very happy some day.

Vanessa flung herself onto her bed, cursing herself. She'd gotten home ready to take on her mother, to finally fight for control of her future, and her mother wasn't even there. By the time Mom had returned, the adrenaline had all worn off, and Vanessa's thoughts were filled with images of Mom furiously kicking her ungrateful daughter out on the street, penniless.

Vanessa had tried suggesting looking at other business schools for transfers, and her mother had gone into great details about how prestigious Ackerton was, and how Mom was sure Vanessa was up to the challenge. Her grades were excellent, after all.

Vanessa decided that she wasn't up to this fight right now. She wasn't sure when she would be.

Maybe the internship won't be so bad, she thought. I'll be in New York, there should be fun things to do there when I'm not at work.

She just had to survive two more years at Ackerton. Surely she could do that. Maybe it'd get better. Maybe she could find something interesting to get a minor in. Dad would probably be amused by a physics minor.

Two years. How bad can it be?

Ackerton as a college town was lifted wholesale from karly05's Ferbnessa series, although I've repurposed it a bit as having a big-name business school there.