Author's Note: This chapter moves us a little more into the plot. It's from Candace's perspective, as each chapter will be from one character's perspective except when it isn't. Don't expect there to be any order in that. But hey, variety and not knowing whose perspective to expect is fun, right? And it gives us the opportunity to see the situation from various characters' point of view. For the moment, though, we start off slowly, with what should have been a relatively ordinary day at the Flynn-Fletcher household... ...one might call it the calm before the storm.

Candace had had two years to prepare for it. And yet, she wasn't ready.

Two years spent mulling it over. Two years spent worrying about the future, about that date which came ever closer. Two years filled with something she'd only been able to forget entirely when focusing on busting her brothers. Two years spent waiting until that day everyone in her position dreaded would come. And now, it was right around the corner. She had just seven more days to go before it happened.

Just seven more days, and then Jeremy would be off to college.

It was silly, really. She'd known this would happen long in advance, and Jeremy had repeatedly assured her that it wouldn't change anything about their relationship if he went off to Povenmire University – it was just over an hour's drive away, for crying out loud. It would just be one little year in their lives and after that, she could come to join him there and they'd be together and become happy and date and eventually get married and have kids...

But a year was a long time. She knew that from her own experience, and if that wasn't enough her brothers' attempts to 'make the most of summer' as they always put it had made it clear just how much could happen over the course of a single season – over the course of a single day, even. Jeremy would meet new and interesting people, he'd blend into a wholly different crowd, and he would surely forget about the girl who currently felt so much younger and less mature than him. She looked at the top shelf behind the bed and wondered whether to try removing Mr. Miggins again. His presence was one of the clearest signs of her immaturity – and yet she just knew that he'd be back before the day was out, because that was the way it had gone the previous three times.

Maybe she could leave him in place and only remove him when Jeremy came around. That was a reasonable compromise with maturity, wasn't it? Now you're just caving in to your own weakness and you know it. "Oh, shut up!"

Candace sighed. Maybe she could call Stacy. It was better than mulling over everything alone. She couldn't talk to Mom and Dad about Jeremy, as they didn't understand. Jenny would probably be willing to provide a listening ear but derail the conversation into something about pigeons halfway through. And the boys…

Don't get me started on the boys.

Frankly, it was strange to see how little they had changed. Sure, from physical appearances it was clear enough that they were older, but inside, they were still the same people. Phineas and Ferb still optimistically built the craziest schemes every day, while she continued to try – and fail – to bust them. They were probably building something even right now. She would've run out to check what it was right away had her mind not been elsewhere.

She probably should call Stacy. Stacy was the one best experienced to understand, really. Sighing, Candace got her cell phone out of her pocket and called her best friend's number.

"Hi, you've reached Stacy Hirano's voicemail. Please don't leave a message because one of my best friends has stuffed my message box and it's going to take me a few days to plough through all of them."

No help there then. Which left her with one option left to redeem her maturity – go over to Jeremy's house and spend every waking moment of the next week with him. They still had seven days to go before he would go off to college, didn't they? She could prepare him for their new long-distance relationship that way, and ensure she'd always be on his mind.

Encouraged, she headed down the stairs and greeted her father before almost bumping into her mother on her way out to the garden. "Candace, honey, I'm going into the basement to read this library book" Linda said. "If you're going to come and get me to bust the boys today, please do it after four o'clock, okay?"

Candace smiled. "Got it, mom!"

Her mother frowned. "You're not going to obsess over Jeremy leaving all week, are you?"

Candace blushed. "What, me? Obsess over Jeremy? Pshaw, whatever gave you that idea? Oh no! No chance of that here!" She hastily made her way out of the door before her mother could bombard her with any more inconvenient questions.

The seventeen-year-old was halfway to the gate when she really stopped to look at the boys' invention of the day – or rather, creation, because it wasn't an invention in the technical sense of the word. Instead, their garden was adorned by a gigantic red, thornless… rose? It was the size of her house, and looked so freaky… so bustable… "Phineas! Ferb!"

Her favorite brother's head (although on moments like this, he was more like her least unfavorite) popped out from near one of the rose's leaves. "Oh, hi Candace! How are you?"

"I've been better" Candace replied wryly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Do you like it?" Phineas asked. "It's s'Spring! I know you can't hear it but there's really two s'es there. It was Isabella's idea, since we've previously made s'Winter and s'Fall, so she suggested making something combining the unique fun qualities of summer and spring, involving flowers and blossoming nature and so forth. So Ferb and I made this huge red rose to bounce around in! Who wouldn't love that?"

Candace could name someone who wouldn't, someone who probably had had entirely different ideas when raising the issue of flowers but would never dare to say that to her oblivious crush's face for fear of hurting his feelings. "Yeah, whatever" she dismissed him. "It's still going to be here by four in the afternoon, isn't it?"

Phineas shrugged. "Unless we get bored before then, but the way it's been going thus far, I can't see that happening! Which reminds me, I've been thinking, since it's the end of the summer and all, why don't you join us more often in this final week? I mean, if we're going to close off the season with a bang, you should definitely be there."

Ugh, this again. Candace groaned. "Not now, Phineas. I'm way too busy spending time with Jeremy. I still need to buy him a goodbye-gift." Her eyes momentarily lit up as she thought of her boyfriend. "I've had a shirt hand-made with our picture in a heart in it, and I'm going to give it to him this afternoon, and we're going to go out on dates throughout the week, and this way, I'll never really be leaving him!" She blinked, getting back to solid ground. "So, yeah. I don't have time for your silly little projects this week."

Phineas' smile briefly faltered there. "Okay, I see" he replied solemnly. "Have fun!"

"Yeah, yeah" Candace replied, heading out of the gate. It was eleven, which meant she still had at most five hours to spend with the love of her life. And she was going to make the absolute most of them.

The visit to the gift shop wound up being a brief affair, so she showed up on Jeremy's doorstep only some twenty minutes later. The look in his eyes as he saw her present made her day, as did the kiss he gave her. The remainder of the afternoon was not exactly a success, though, for three main reasons.

One, that she'd let him pick what to do, and stuck to that even when he suggested playing a video game on account that it was his idea and it was a great cuddling opportunity. The problem was that Jeremy occasionally lost himself in the game, and when he didn't she felt like she was making a fool of herself for her lack of skills – not exactly a sign of maturity. The moments when he patiently tried to show her what to do also weren't as romantic as they could have been, and all in all the game eventually wore on her nerves.

The second problem was the eternal one – Suzy Johnson. Candace was still longing for the days that Suzy would get too old to uphold her charade of innocence, but they clearly weren't there yet, and Jeremy continued to remain oblivious whenever his sweet little sister graciously served them something to drink and 'accidentally' dropped everything over Candace's shirt. And that was only the least horrible moment of the afternoon.

The third problem with the date, however, was probably the worst, and that was the position of their gameplay – right across from the window through which she could see Phineas and Ferb's giant flower in the distance. As many times as she told herself that the flower would still be there when she got back and her mother didn't want to be bothered until four, the thing wore on her nerves. Here it was, one of Phineas and Ferb's creations, seemingly mocking her by its mere existence. Soon, she found her eyes glued to the clock and counting down to four PM. Occasional realizations what she was doing and mental reminders that this was the last week she was going to spend with Jeremy and that she needed to make the most of it only worked for relatively brief periods of time. She said an uneasy goodbye to her boyfriend at three-fifty and quickly rushed home.

The flower was still there when she got there at 4 PM sharp, making her breathe a sigh of relief. She grinned maniacally and quickly rushed through the door and into the basement. "Mom, mom, mom!"

Her mother sighed at her approach. "Is it really four o'clock already?"

"Four-o-one, actually" Candace cheerfully corrected her. "Come on, you've got to see this! It's huge!"

Linda shot her a wary look. "Isn't it always? That's the impression I get from your stories, at least."

Candace shrugged. "Yeah, guess so. But just wait until you see it Mom, it'll blow your mind!"

Her mother nodded, got up and walked out of the basement, taking the time to put her book back on the shelf in the living room while Candace was impatiently waiting at her side. After that was done, she wasted no time in dragging her mother out through the garden doors. "See, Mom? See?"

Linda sighed. "You know, I know I should humor you, but I'm not even going to say it anymore."

Candace blinked, and opened her eyes to look at the all-too-familiar sight of an empty backyard, clear except for the presence of her brothers and their friends. "Hi, boys" her mother greeted them. "And hi, Isabella. Well, I guess that covers that part of the day. Anyone want some snacks?"

As the boys (and Isabella) cheered and followed her mother inside, Candace came to her senses long enough to realize that this time, she wasn't going to let it go. She – she needed some kind of explanation for this madness. She thus reached out and grabbed Phineas' arm as he passed her. He stopped in his tracks and before she knew it she had pulled him towards her, ending with her being face to face with him, inches apart.

Wait, what? How could she be face to face with him, wasn't he supposed to be half her size? She had noticed he'd been going through growth spurts before, but she thought she still had a head on him at least. Now, as she mentally measured him, it looked like he came up to at least her nose, possibly higher. It freaked her out. The last time he had been her size was when she'd been artificially shrunk to his and Ferb's age, on the day that…

Candace froze. She – she had tried so hard to forget the events of that day, the day which had featured her getting along with the boys and their friends, enjoying being immature, and accidentally gaining... er, hallucinating a considerable... tiny… crush, on Phineas. The day had popped up in her memories and dreams on occasion, mostly when she needed it the least, but overall she had been fairly successful in forgetting all about it.

And she would again, of course, as long as she paid no attention to it. For heaven's sake, the only reason she had had that delusion in the first place was because she was feeling insecure and immature about Jeremy! If she just spent time with him as she had planned and ignored this nonsense, everything would be all right.

She became aware of her brother giving her a concerned look. "Are you okay, Candace?"

"I'm fine!" Candace replied, probably a little too confident. "I'm fine, I just need to…" A question, she had meant to ask him a question, hadn't she? What was it again? Oh, right. "What just happened!" she demanded. "Where did the giant flower go?"

Phineas shrugged. "We were still bouncing around in it when a green ray came out of the sky and hit it, which caused it to completely wither away. We decided to throw the remnants into the dustbin immediately because we didn't want to leave the garden a mess."

"I see" Candace murmured. Actually she didn't see, because those green rays had always been a mystery to her just as everything about the Mysterious Force had always been a mystery to anyone in the household (well, except for her mother, who happened to be completely oblivious about it). "Haven't we not seen those rays in a while, though?"

"Yeah, I don't think we have" Phineas said thoughtfully. "They were here all the time some two years ago, but since then our projects have always disappeared because of other reasons. I wonder why – oh there you are, Perry." He smiled, picking up their pet platypus and petting him. "We really had fun today, though. It's too bad you weren't there." He looked up at her. "Do you think you could make it tomorrow?"

Candace grimaced. The day had worn her out and the last thing she needed right now was spending more time with Phineas and being reminded of the events of two years ago. "Listen Phineas, I have got a lot on my plate right now. I don't have any time to waste on participating in your silly, bustable, crazy ideas!"

She walked into the house, her expression set in a grim look which softened as she caught sight of her brother's face in a mirror. Phineas looked really hurt this time, and she noticed Ferb patting his shoulder and giving both of his siblings concerned looks. Candace worried whether she hadn't been a little too harsh on him and considered going back to apologize until she caught sight of something else. Where Perry's eyes were usually unfocused, there now seemed to be an… intelligent, thoughtful expression on the platypus' face. She blinked and looked back to see it was gone.

She had to have imagined it. She just had to.

Her life wasn't quite that crazy just yet.

Author's Note: For the record, Candace 'hallucinating' a crush on Phineas is a reference to my other story, "The Shrunken Sister".