Chapter 2
Candace continued to cry in her bed as she thought of the horrible nightmarish image of a drunk Jeremy, wandering and stumbling through the streets of Danville after Veruca drops him off from the Middleton area.
"My Jeremy! Veruca's gonna take her away from me!" she continued to sob, clutching the pillow tight. "All those years of friendship! All those years of being together! All those years of seeing him at the Slushy Dawg! All these weeks of being by my side as boyfriend/girlfriend! Gone!" Tears flowed almost never-ending from her eyes as it made impressions upon the fabric.
Linda then came into the room with a sad and concerned look. She did not want to see her daughter end up this way, for this was worse for Candace than when she nearly lost her best friend, Stacy, in the lemonade stand incident.
"Candace, dear," Linda sighed as she went and sat on the side of Candace's bed. "I know that you want to join the Middleton Cheer Squad and all, but I question it now because of Veruca's antics…"
"But how?" Candace continued to weep, now sitting upright from her bed. She grabbed a nearby box of tissues and began to blow her nose.
"It's because of Veruca and the cheerleaders that she normally hangs around with that may question my decision. But, maybe not all of the Middleton cheerleaders are bad, dear. I've heard that there's one potential cheerleader that can help you!" Linda said while trying to help light up the terrible situation that Candace is stuck in. She patted Candace's back and hugged her.
The eldest Flynn sibling of three turned back to her mom, giving a weak smile. "Mom, are you really sure?"
Seeing that positive spark of enthusiasm and energy in her daughter, Linda replied with a wink of her eye, "Oh course, honey!" Her eyes then began to widen, beginning to sense an idea that could help Candace.
She jolted up from Candace's bed. "Candace, dear, I gotta go downstairs. I believe there's a newspaper somewhere when Veruca got arrested for underage DUI."
"Okay, Mom!" Candace smiled as Linda left the room to get the newspaper that she was speaking of.
After her mom left the room, Candace dried up her eyes once more and peered outside her bedroom window. She grabbed a pair of binoculars, looked down and saw that her brothers, Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher, were sitting underneath the family tree in the backyard.
Candace seethed at the sight of her brothers relaxing on a hot summer day.
"Oooohhh….those brothers of mine! I know that they are planning some contraption, but I don't know what!" she growled while tapping her head as if she was trying to get inside the ingenious minds of her brothers. However, she began to giggle with glee, "But when I show the finished thing to Mom and see what they did all summer long, they are gonna be so busted this time!"
She snickered at the thought of her mom yelling at Phineas and Ferb for building such gigantic inventions within their very own backyard.
Linda went downstairs with the notion of helping out her daughter to join the cheer squad. Meanwhile, her husband, Lawrence Fletcher, was reading the morning paper.
He saw something that caught his eye and, like glue, read it silently to himself.
Lawrence then turned around and saw his wife, "Hey, luv, check this out! They're having a Civil War re-enactment of the Siege of Vicksburg that's going to take place all day long tomorrow with iron-clad ships from the era on the Mississippi River!"
Linda stopped for a moment to peer over her husband's shoulder to look at an advertisement for an upcoming re-enactment for the battle that split the Confederacy in two. "Vicksburg….isn't that three hours to the north of Danville?"
"Yes, yes it is, luv, and they are going to have a small flea market afterwards! There could be a few unique items for the family antique store downtown!" Lawrence continued on his account on what was to occur over at Vicksburg.
His wife thought about it for a moment and replied with a smile, "Alright, dear, we're on our way to Vicksburg! When does it start tomorrow?"
"At 10 in the morning, luv," Lawrence replied, pointing to the time on the newspaper article.
"Okay, dear!" Linda confirmed with a grin on her face, "I'm gonna have to wake Candace bright and early in the morning, letting her know that I am leaving and that she is in charge of the boys."
Then she paused momentarily, knowing that Candace has another dilemma to face besides taking care of her brothers. Linda then asked another question, "Um, Lawrence, where did you put the newspapers that had the account of Veruca Salt's arrest
Lawrence answered, putting down the paper for a moment "It's right here, luv." He then took out the paper that had Veruca's arrest on the front page and handed it to Linda.
"Thanks, dear!" Linda smiled as she pecked Lawrence's cheek.
He felt it, and grinned, reminding him of the time they met at a Love Handel concert, a much younger and more innocent time.
After this, Linda went outside to the front porch and scanned down the paper. She especially got interested when she glanced at a photo in which one certain red-haired teenage hero stood in triumph over Veruca, who's handcuffed behind her back, her $50,000 mink coat completely covered with the bubblegum. The photo also captured her moment screaming her head off, looking down at the gum-covered coat. But it was behind the arrested and drunken cheer captain that the teenage hero stood in triumph over her rival. That teenage hero was none other than the world famous Kim Possible.
Linda exclaimed, "She's perfect! Now all I have to do is call up her cell number and Candace will be a cheerleader in no time!" She looked through the phonebook to find Kim's phone number.
She called up the number connected to Kim's phone and hoped for the best.