"Phineas is Mine!"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Now comes the meat of the story. One by one, you'll see each of the girls try to figure out what's the best way to approach and impress Phineas, and then actually try to execute their respective plans.
We start with Gretchen, who wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of openly flirting with her best friend's crush. Let's see what she does, shall we?
Oh, because all of the chapters from here on out take place around the same time, don't be surprised to see a number of repeated scenes and spotting other Fireside Girls making cameos in each other's chapters.
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.
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Chapter Two - Gretchen Really Needs Love (09.09.10)
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"What did I agree to yesterday? Why did I agree? Why didn't I do anything more to keep it from getting as far as it did? Is Isabella gonna hate me for siding with the others?"
Gretchen found these questions continuously running through her mind on a repeating loop as she, dressed in her Fireside Girls uniform, made her way on foot towards the Flynn-Fletcher house.
"I know she likes him so very, very much!" she said aloud, even though no one was around her. "So why am I risking our friendship over this? Phineas admittedly does have a lot of features that girls would find interesting, but I don't like him the way Isabella likes him."
Gretchen sighed as her head looked up towards the partly cloudy sky. After a few seconds of doing that, she lowered her head and then turned it to the right. It was at that point that she realized that she was standing in front of Isabella's house.
Gretchen let out another sigh.
"I wish I knew how Isabella felt about Phineas so, if I have to do this, at least I can calculate the simplest way to get an affirmative response."
A light bulb then turned on inside her head, as she got an idea.
"That's it!" she shouted.
Gretchen ran back the way she came, back towards her house. Just as she was out of sight, the front door to the Garcia-Shapiro house creaked open just a little bit. Isabella stuck her head out, looked left, then right, and then left again.
"Must be hearing things," she told herself. "It's too early for any of them to be trying anything yet."
Isabella pulled her head back inside, and closed the door.
Some short, unknown amount of time later, Gretchen returned, this time with a pen in one hand and a notepad in the other. Again, she turned to look at Isabella's house, as in her mind she debated whether or not the plan she had just formulated would work.
The debate lasted about two seconds. Not because her sharp mind instantly picked out the correct side to take, but because her thinking process was disrupted by the sound of a shrill teenager's voice filling the air.
"PHINEAS! WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THIS TIME?"
Gretchen turned to the source of the sound, which was the backyard of the house across the street. Phineas' house.
"Sounds like Candace," Gretchen thought to herself, "and given the position of the sun in the sky, she's precisely on schedule."
Gretchen had already scribbled a few preliminary notes in her pad as she walked into the Flynn-Fletcher backyard and was studying them so intently as if trying to memorize them. Which she was.
She was so involved in committing her notes to memory that the sound of Candace slamming the rear sliding door shut after going back into the house sounded only like a fly swatter hitting a plaster wall.
Even worse, she didn't even notice that the bush that she had just walked past suddenly sprouted a Fireside Girls beret at the top and a pair of legs with ankle-length white socks and black strapped shoes on at the bottom.
"Based on my past observations," Gretchen thought, "if I can just do the same things Isabella does whenever she sees Phineas, maybe I can recreate her emotions and see if I can get him to elicit similar reactions. That should be adequate enough to get me on the right track to asking Phineas out."
Gretchen then added, with enthusiasm.
"For Isabella. Chief's gonna be so proud of me!"
Once in the backyard, Gretchen saw Phineas and Ferb hard at work on their 'Big Idea' for the day. Gretchen could usually reason out their plans even if she saw them before they were finished, but on this particular day she couldn't figure it out at all.
"I'm sure they'll tell me once I ask."
The two boys continued to work, not having spotted her yet.
"Okay... the first thing Isabella does is always show curiosity and general interest..."
Gretchen walked to within normal earshot range and said...
"Hi, guys!"
"Oh, hey Gretchen!" Phineas greeted.
He was looking down from his perch on whatever they were building, about six feet above the ground. Ferb, on the other hand, hadn't heard her over the welding he was doing a bit further up.
"So... whatcha doin'?" she asked, as sweetly as she could. "Um... I did that right, right?"
"Yes," replied Phineas. "Yes, you did. And to answer your first question, we're building a Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector."
"Really?"
"Yep!"
Phineas used a rope-and-pulley system to lower himself safely down to the ground. Once down, he ushered Gretchen to follow him to the other side, where wires were leading out of the giant device and to a computer monitor and a keyboard, whose frames hadn't been attached to it yet.
"This huge thing is a projector," Phineas explained, "which will point up to the sky and can be aimed to project a message over the entire tri-state area! The idea is people tell us important events they can't forget, like anniversaries, dates, birthdays, meetings, etc., and when appropriate reminders are needed, our machine will project them into the sky. No one will ever forget anything important again!"
"Great! Chief could've used it last week, when she somehow forgot that she had scheduled Pinky for a visit to the vet."
"That's exactly why we built this! Wanna help?"
"Sure!"
"We need a bunch of small LED lights of various colors. Probably about 50... dozen."
"No problem!"
Gretchen started to walk off to take care of her assigned task.
"If we're not here when you get back," Phineas shouted, "we're going to be setting it up near City Hall!"
"Got it!"
"Curiosity satisfied, interest high," Gretchen noted as she wrote in her notepad.
Gretchen got to the driveway, passed by the Flynn-Fletcher's car, and was about to reach the street end when she looked up and saw Isabella standing there. And staring intently at the roof.
"Uh... Chief?"
Hearing Gretchen's voice, Isabella turned her head to look forward, towards her second-in-command. Isabella had a concerned look on her face, observed Gretchen, one that made her feel a bit uneasy about what she was doing.
"What were you looking at?" Gretchen asked, jumping in before Isabella could ask the expected question.
"Oh," Isabella replied, taking the bait, "I swear I saw someone on the roof!"
Gretchen turned around, and the two girls looked up. Their eyes scanned the roof, but they saw nothing out of the ordinary up there.
"Oh well," Isabella gave up, "must've been my imagination."
The two turned their backs to the roof and they trotted a few steps away from it. As they did, they missed the sight of Milly appearing and heading for one of the bedroom windows.
"So tell me," Isabella looked at Gretchen, a bit of anger seeping into her voice, "what are you doing here? Without me?"
"Well, Chief," Gretchen quickly answered, attempting to quell her best friend's fears, "I just wanna say that I fully support your crush on Phineas. That's why I'm only participating in this for research."
"Research?" Isabella raised an eyebrow, not fully convinced. "What KIND of research?"
"To be honest... I've always wanted to see what it's like to be in love. You know, like you are! I just figured, if I could recreate your obviously successful methods of impressing boys, then I could use those same methods to snag a boy of my own."
Isabella frowned at Gretchen.
"A boy whose name isn't Phineas?"
Isabella smiled.
"Okay then!" she exclaimed cheerfully.
"You approve, Chief?"
"Of course I do! But if that's all you wanted to do, you could've just asked me! I'm glad to give you a few pointers."
"Thanks the same, Chief... but it's not the same unless I test out my hypotheses personally."
"I understand. Just don't get too into your study, okay?"
Gretchen saluted.
"Aye aye!"
Gretchen then headed off, believing Isabella had given her study her blessing... with cautious optimism, of course.
"Okay," Gretchen thought to herself, "next comes adulation and admiration. And I can take care of those..."
"Once I've gotten these!"
Gretchen was exiting a hardware store, pulling a little red wagon holding a large crate marked 'LED lights.'
"Now... I wonder where Phineas and Ferb are."
She got her answer, as an empty spotlight appeared high in the sky. Gretchen quickly triangulated its source, and concluded that it was originating from...
"City Hall!"
Gretchen had to walk a few blocks to get to City Hall, and was admittedly pooped by the time she arrived. She spotted a small group of people gathering on the sidewalk. She saw that they were being handed fliers by Ferb, who was advertising the Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector. Speaking of said invention, Phineas was next to it, running some tests.
As Gretchen approached him, Phineas heard her coming and turned around to greet her with a smile.
"Ah... the most important part of the project has arrived!"
Gretchen's feet and heart stopped as her face started to blush red.
"I must being doing better than I thought!" Gretchen thought to herself, "Phineas thinks I'm important!"
But her visions of love were dashed when he took the handle of the red wagon she had been pulling from her.
"The LED lights! Can't project messages in the sky without them!"
Gretchen quickly regained her composure, covering up for her spontaneous daydream.
"The rest should be here any minute," she said, just as it looked as if Phineas was being to wonder how 50 dozen lights could fit in one crate.
"Looks like that any minute is now!" Phineas pointed out.
A delivery truck from the hardware store Gretchen had gone to came to a stop in front of City Hall. Phineas went over to accept the deliveries.
"Nice job, Gretchen!" complimented Phineas as he looked back at her.
Gretchen smiled, pulled out her notepad and pen, and checked off two more things on her list... adulation and admiration.
"Almost there," she said aloud. "Though, now that I think about it, aren't adulation and admiration essentially similar in meaning?"
Before she could answer her own question (the correct response is yes, by the way), she heard a familiar voice calling out to her.
"Gretchen!"
Gretchen turned to her right and saw Isabella running toward her, with a stack of fliers cradled in her arms. But she wasn't alone, as also with her was Adyson, also holding her own packet. It was a good thing Gretchen showed up when she did, because Isabella and Adyson were glaring virtual daggers at each other, unhappy with the other being present at that point in time.
"Finally!" Isabella said with relief, "someone I can trust!"
"Nuh uh, you did NOT just go there!" Adyson retorted defiantly.
"Look," Isabella continued to talk to Gretchen whilst ignoring Adyson, "Adyson and I got into an argument about which one of us should give out fliers and which one should stay here to help Phineas!"
"She's just jealous because she knows Phineas will say yes to me the moment I pop the question!" Adyson exclaimed, giving her take.
"I am NOT jealous!"
"Then how come every time I've tried to approach Phineas today, you've been right next to him? We agreed to no interference!"
"But I haven't..."
"And we also agreed that no one was allowed to ask him if any other troop member was present!"
"I haven't been around him all day! In fact, Gretchen saw Phineas this morning before I did!"
"Aha!" Adyson pointed at Gretchen. "You've been working together! You probably had her keep an eye on Phineas until you could get to him."
"What? Now you're just accusing me out of spite!"
"We agreed against team orders too! Isn't that right, Gretchen?"
Gretchen whistled and looked away, making the smart move by staying completely out of the argument.
"Gretchen isn't like you or anyone else!" Isabella shouted. "I know in my heart that she's not going to try and ask Phineas out behind our backs!"
Adyson crossed her arms over her chest, thinking about disagreeing. But if there was any believable sentence that had come out of Isabella's mouth in the past few minutes, it was that last one.
"Fine," Adyson agreed. "We can give out fliers, Gretchen can stay and help Phineas."
Isabella and Gretchen nodded in agreement. As Adyson and Isabella debated a plan of action, Gretchen walked over to Ferb, who was giving out the last of the fliers in his hands.
"Ready to do this?"
Ferb answered by pulling out a blueprint from his pants pocket, which he unfolded to show her where all the LED lights would be installed. And, boy, were there a lot to be installed.
"This could take a while with only three of us..."
"Boy, Ferb, you know how to make awhile seem like just a few seconds."
Gretchen made that comment as Ferb stuck his head out of the top of the projector, blowing a small amount of smoke away from the six-pronged LED light screwdriver-like tool attached to a metal belt around his waist.
"All that's left is to install the projector lens," Phineas said as he walked up to admire Ferb's handiwork.
"Can I help?" Gretchen asked.
"Sure! How 'bout typing up a test message so we can see if it works?"
Gretchen nodded, then ran over to the keyboard as Phineas went to grab the lens. But the moment she found herself standing in front of the control monitor, her mind drew a blank.
"What can I use for a test message?" she asked herself aloud. "It has to be something that'll get everyone's attention."
Gretchen pulled out her notepad again and discovered that she had not planned past admiration.
"Oh no!" she gasped.
"Hey... cool thingy-ma-bob!"
Gretchen looked to her right, and slightly up, and saw Stacy standing next to her.
"What does it do?" Stacy asked.
"Well," Gretchen explained, "it's supposed to display messages in the sky so people remember important things they have to do. Kinda like a PDA, only this one belongs to the entire tri-state area."
"Cool!"
"There's only one problem... I'm supposed to think of a test message, but not one comes to mind that seems important enough."
"Aren't you supposed to be super smart or something? You should be able to think of one easily without my help."
"I would, but I'm kind of distracted at the moment."
Stacy looked at Gretchen and immediately knew the problem.
"Boy trouble."
"Boy trouble?"
"Boy trouble. Tell me all about it."
"Well, you see, I have this friend, a girl, who really, really adores this other friend, a boy. Then there's this girls' choice dance tonight, and the aforementioned boy is the only one without a date. So the friends of the girl all get panic-y and desperate that they have this contest to see who can be the first to get that boy to say yes. And I'm trying to help the first girl, the one that actually does like the boy, win."
"Uh huh, uh huh," Stacy nodded continuously as a plan of action formed in her brain. "I have an idea."
Stacy walked over the keyboard and started typing. Gretchen tried to peek around the older teenager to see what keys she was stroking, but Stacy instinctively blocked all of the younger girl's attempts.
"It's ready!" Gretchen heard Phineas yell. "Send the message!"
"Sending!" Stacy shouted before Gretchen could say anything.
Stacy pressed the 'enter' button, sending the message off.
"Tell your 'friend' I hope everything works out," Stacy said, emphasizing the word 'friend' with air quotes as she walked away.
"Wait!" Gretchen called out. "What did you type?"
She didn't have to wait long for an answer, as the projector's spotlight shined in the sky, and words started appearing in it, each set staying visible for two to three seconds apiece.
'Phineas,'
'Would U Like'
'2 Go 2'
'The Girls' Choice'
'Dance With Me?'
'Gretchen.'
"What?" Gretchen squeaked in surprise.
Phineas slid down the projector, scratching his head in confusion as he looked at Gretchen, who shut it off before the message could start repeating.
"Uh... not the test message I was expecting..."
"I can explain!" Gretchen flailed her arms in a panic.
Phineas then started laughing unexpectedly, catching Gretchen off-guard and resulting in her being the one offering a look of bewilderment.
"I get it now!" Phineas calmed himself. "You wanted to test the device's effectiveness of grabbing someone's attention! I have to say, you got me good! I almost thought you were asking me for real!"
"Now why would I do that?" Gretchen said with a smirk. "I know there's only one girl for you."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then my answer is yes."
Phineas then looked up at Ferb.
"Hey, Ferb! We'd better go inside and file the proper paperwork before City Hall closes for the day!"
Ferb slid down, and the two brothers headed inside. Only when they were already halfway up the steps did Gretchen suddenly realize the oddity of Phineas' response.
"Wait a minute!" she gasped. "Did he say 'yes' to me? But... but... that's not what I wanted!"
"Oh, really?"
Gretchen gulped, feeling two pairs of eyes staring into the back of her head. Sure enough, Isabella and Adyson were standing behind her, and both looked as if they were ready to tear Gretchen limb from limb.
"In my defense," Gretchen said as she turned around to face them, "I wasn't the one who typed that message..."
"I guess I was wrong," admitted Adyson, "girl played us both!"
"I trusted you!" Isabella half-growled, half-on-the-verge-of-tears.
"Chief! Adyson! Let me explain!"
Isabella and Adyson moved in on Gretchen, who backed up until she felt the keyboard jabbing her in the lower back. As the two taller girls drew closer, they walked over Gretchen's notepad, which she had dropped just seconds earlier. It was open to the page where she had made her list.
It read:
- Curiosity
- General Interest
- Adulation
- Admiration
- Admittance and Proposition of Love
The first four had checkmarks next to them, but the last one had been crossed out, and an arrow was drawn from it to a set of three words at the bottom of page, in all capital letters.
JEALOUSY RUINS FRIENDSHIPS!
To be continued...
Author's Notes:
When I first started writing this chapter, I started regretting putting Gretchen at lead-off. It was going to be, essentially, a second set-up chapter, this one setting up the framework for the other girls' tales. That, and I couldn't think of a wow-inducing 'Big Idea' for the girls' activities to central around.
Still, I think the chapter picked up enough in the second half to make it enjoyable. And there's enough questions deployed that you should be anxious to see how the other girls spent their day.
Next installment when I get around to it. Reviews appreciated!