Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Phineas and Ferb. It's finally the end of 2012! Usually during the last few days of the year, I'm like, "Wow, in a few days it'll be *insert new year.*" Now I'm just like, "Why isn't it 2013 yet?"

It was a late afternoon at the Flynn-Fletcher house. Linda and Lawrence chatted light as they unloaded groceries from the car into the kitchen. Perry slept soundly, though still on alert, for Monogram hadn't contacted him yet to tell him that Doofenshmirtz was up to something today. Late in the day though it was, Perry knew he'd be up to something. Wasn't it the evil scientist himself who told him New Year was a lot of noise?

Perry wasn't asleep in his pet bed, however. He somehow managed to avoid Candace's vision and now snored softly on her pink-flowered bedsheet. Oblivious Candace sat at her computer, busily typing away on her laptop. Candace giggled excitedly as she re-adjusted her cellphone so that she could hear Stacy better. "So after my mom's New Year's Eve party, we're all going to go downtown for the big parade," she squealed.

"And we'll see the big acorn drop! Why is it an acorn, anyway?" Stacy wondered, lying all flailed out on her bed.

"Beats a giant meatloaf," Candace pointed out. "And at the parade, Jeremy's gonna be his float!"

"Jeremy and the Incidentals," Stacy pointed out. "The Incidentals are important, and cute, and by cute, I mean Coltrane, and by Coltrane, I mean my unofficial boyfriend, and, yeah," Stacy nodded to herself, "everything else is pretty much literal."

"Yeah, and when Jeremy sees me in the crowd, he'll wave and then I'll probably faint," Candace sighed dreamily.

"Yeah, you and me both. Your brothers can catch us and make sure we don't hit the ground," Stacy suggested.

A look crossed Candace's face as she pushed her computer chair away from her laptop. "Phineas and Ferb?"

"Yeah, I mean, they'd catch us, right?" Stacy wondered.

Candace was not listening to her at all. "Where is Phineas and Ferb?"

"I don't know. Haven't you tried to bust them today at all? You've been pretty rantless today."

"That's because I've been trying to pick out the perfect outfit," Candace explained. She glanced guiltily at her room covered in an array of pants, skirts, shirts, and shoes.

"Oh, just wear your party outfit—you look cute in it," Stacy advised.

Candace smiled and said, "Thanks, Stace."

"Now, I think you were talking about your brothers?"

"Oh, right," Candace grinned. A sneaky glint grew in her eye and a devious smile crossed her face. Stacy, being well, Stacy, quickly realized what she had done. "Oh no."

"Thanks, Stace!" Candace said a quick goodbye and shoving her cellphone into her pocket, raced down the hall.

Her quickly falling footsteps could be heard by Phineas and Ferb, who both sat cross-legged on their bedroom floor. Phineas, wearing his white sweater, tugged at the collar; their room breathed quite warm, for all the boxes stacked up in it squished all the heat into the middle of the room, where he and Ferb sat.

The two studied a blueprint together. Phineas smiled as he held it in his hands and said, "And so, we'll do box 32 after box 23, making the colors look like a rainbow."

Ferb just agreed when Candace plowed into the room, running into a stack of boxes. With a squeal of pain and annoyance, she groaned and sank to the floor.

"Happy New Year's Eve, Candace," Phineas said pleasantly, completely ignoring the fact that Candace barged into their room.

Candace straightened up. "All right, what are in these boxes?"

"Explosives," Phineas smiled.

Candace was just standing up when he said that. She instantly froze, her limbs shot up in the air. Her lips barely parted as she whispered, "Phineas, are you serious?"

"Actually Candace, I am," Phineas confirmed.

"What?"

"You see, Candace, today is New Year's Eve, and Ferb and I decided that we would put together the biggest firework display Danville has ever seen!" Phineas explained. He added, "Don't worry, there aren't no matches around here."

Candace sighed in relief as her limbs went limp. She recovered her senses and declared, "You are so busted!" She raced down the stairs, yelling, "MOM!"

Phineas shrugged. Then their alarm clock suddenly beeped. Phineas smiled as he and Ferb stood up. "About time for the men to get here to haul this stuff to City Hall. Can't keep 'em waiting." And as soon as Phineas was done saying that, the top of their room was lifted and a man with a machine called, "Ready, boys?"

"Ready," Phineas responded; the man then used the heavy metal machine to lift a large stack of boxes out of the house.

Candace could hear them on her way downstairs, but she didn't care. She darted into the kitchen to find Linda and Lawrence hard at work. Linda retrieved sodas out of the grocery bags while Lawrence swept the floors. Today they'd host their annual New Year's Eve party.

"Mom, MOM!" Candace yelled, excitedly pointing to the back doors.

"What is it now, Candace? I'm busy, as you can see . . . if you were looking at me," Linda said, sighing, her hands on her hips.

"Oh, don't be so hard on her, luv. She's just excited for the parade," Lawrence said as Candace squealed, jumped up and down, and raced across the room to open the doors; she was met with a yard filled with snow.

"Candace, close the doors; you're letting the heat out," Linda said.

Candace remained frozen, repeating to herself, "But . . . but . . . but. . ."

Lawrence closed the doors, letting the heat stay inside, and said, "Candace, how about you go tidy up the living room for the party?"

"Yeah . . . I guess . . . sure," Candace said; she sighed and headed into the living room to go clean up in time for the New Year's Eve party.

With Linda, Lawrence, and Candace busy cleaning the house and Phineas and Ferb acting as overseers as their fireworks were delivered to the top of City Hall, there was nobody to notice Perry opening his eyes. Upon seeing nobody in the room, he quickly scuttled from Candace's bed into her closet. Slipping on a fedora, he opened a Ducky Momo cookie jar and jumped inside, slipping the lid back on it.

He rushed down a tube and arrived at his personal headquarters. Before he was in his red chair, the screen flickered on. Carl wore a party hay on-screen; Perry, unamused, saw see a disco ball in the background of what looked like a party.

"Agent P! First of all, Happy New Year's Eve!" Carl said, excited.

Perry remained unamused.

"Oh, or not happy. Anyway, with it being the end of the year, Doofenshmirtz is busy making something for an evil use. We're not exactly sure, seeing as I haven't had time to do anything but prepare the party!" Carl fist-pumped, but then remembered he was talking to someone working on an international holiday; he stopped and said, "Oh, sorry about that, Agent P."

He looked behind him and said, "Major Monogram is busy at the moment. You know, official O.W.C.A. business"; Carl cringed when Perry heard, "Carl, hurry, the DJ is here!"

Perry sighed and slid out of his chair. Carl called after him, "Um, good luck, Agent P!"

Perry didn't seem to notice him as he hooked up to his jetpack and shot out of the place.

Carl lifted up a finger, but sighed, seeing as Perry had disappeared. "But . . . you could come back early and join us. Oh, well."

At City Hall, Phineas and Ferb kept an eye on their fireworks by marking them off on a clipboard. Workmen busily unloaded the truck; Phineas was then tapped on the shoulder. "Um, yes?" Phineas asked.

A red-haired woman sighed and said, "Look, I'm the mayor's secretary, and I'm supposed to check if you have permission to put explosives on the roof."

"We don't, actually. Can we?" Phineas asked excitedly.

The secretary shrugged. "Sure, why not? Say, aren't you a little young to be firing off fireworks on a public building, though?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Well, just be careful then. See ya," and the secretary, grumbling, headed back into City Hall.

Candace, wearing a Christmas sweater her grandma shoved on her, was rearranging the pillows on the couch when the doorbell rang. Linda, wearing an apron and coming in from the incredible-smelling kitchen, opened the front door. She smiled and said, "Hello, Jeremy. Suzy, Hawkeye, Jack, come on in."

"Thanks, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher," Jeremy said as he and Suzy, looking grumpy at having to go to a party, greeted the hostess.

Candace, alert, said, "Wait, Jeremy's here. I'm—I'm not ready!" She proceeded to screech as she ran up the stairs, alerting the Johnsons to her screaming presence.

They all watched her flee up the stairs and once the door to her room slammed close, Linda smiled at the guests and said, "Come on in."

They entered, and after them came Vivian and Isabella, Vivian bearing a very large platter of salsa and chips.

"Ah, Linda, how wonderful to see you again. It's been so long! Goodness gracious!" Vivian said quickly as other guests arrived. People took off their jackets and mitts and scarfs. Linda managed to stand her ground and listen, though she was jostled, as Vivian continued, "I brought along my famous chips and salsa. I heard it was a finger food party, and what is more finger food than salsa and chips?!"

"Very good, Vivian," Linda said. "How about we continue this in the kitchen?"

"Oh yes, of course, Linda. The kitchen, what was I thinking?" Vivian said as she followed Linda into the kitchen.

While the party started downstairs, Candace was in the middle of a panic attack. While she cleaned not only did she wear a large, fluffy, scratchy and overall a sweater-that-you-only-want-family-members-to-see-you-in, she wore pajama pants.

Now Candace sat in the middle of her room, moaning into her hands. She got dressed in a pair of jeans and a white shirt with pink flowers on it. She looked fine. She just felt perfectly unprepared.

A knock resounded on the door, causing to Candace call out weakly, not looking up from her hands, "What?"

"What happened now?" Stacy said, peeking her head inside. She noticed Candace and said, "Candace, Jeremy is down there and your grandpa just popped open a bottle of champagne and the party just started. Why are you up here?"

"Is because of reasons a good excuse?" Candace asked, looking up.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Stacy said. She walked over to the foot of Candace's bed, where Candace sat. "Now come on and act cheerful. Intermingle."

"Yeah, I guess I should," Candace said. She offered her hand and said, "Pull me up, Stacy."

"The things I do to make you social," Stacy sighed as she grabbed Candace's hand and led her to the door.

Thank you for reading and please leave a review if you feel so inclined! Have a belated Merry Christmas!