Phineas gasped.
None other than TJ, the kid whom he had met as school yesterday, was standing at the door.
"Ferb, that's-that's her," he whispered.
Ferb nodded.
TJ gasped as well. She picked up her bag. "Phineas?" she said in shock. "You-you're my cousin?"
"I guess..." he said, just as shocked.
"But, we just met at school! I...I don't even know what to say...I knew you looked familiar! That's why I rushed off to the bathroom...you reminded me too much of Dad, I thought I was having hallucinations..."
"I know, I didn't know why you had done that...but Isabella told me that she thought something was up, but I didn't follow. I just..." he trailed off in complete surprise.
"So we were cousins all along and we didn't even notice...? Ferb?" she asked.
Ferb shrugged. "I didn't know, although I usually do. I haven't met you before. Me and Father moved here after you left, evidently."
"Yeah, that's right. You used to come over here all the time to play with me and Candace, I remember that," said Phineas. "And then, well...he died and you moved away. I can barely remember Uncle Richard and Aunt Olivia, just barely. And then Mom married Dad."
"And the rest is history," said Ferb.
TJ and Phineas nodded as if in a daze.
In walked Linda and Lawrence. She smiled. "Good, you've already began to reacquaint," she said.
TJ and Phineas pointed to each other. "We met each other at school!" they both exclaimed at the same time.
"What?" said Linda. "You...have already met?"
They nodded. "Ferb too," said Phineas. "She got tripped at lunch. I helped her up, and invited her to sit with us."
TJ nodded vigorously.
The woman eyed the three in surprise. "Well, that's interesting. At least you already know them," she said.
"Yeah. But that's so weird...well, I guess it isn't, just a coincidence." said TJ.
"Hey, why don't Phineas and Ferb show you to your room and then around the house. We'll call Candace over for dinner, and have a little celebration." said Linda.
"Okay! C'mon, TJ! You'll get Candace's old room, since she moved out a few months ago. And then you can see the house, and our room! And then we'll..." Phineas said, pulling TJ up the stairs as his voice got farther away.
Linda laughed to herself. Phineas, you eager kid, she thought.
Phineas and TJ, with Ferb in tow, got to Candace's old room. He opened the door and let her in.
"So here's the room." He paused to let her look around. "You like it?"
"Yeah! It's cool," she said.
"Anything we can do for ya?" asked Phineas.
"Only if it's not too hard."
"Not a whole lot is hard for Ferb and me," he said. "We once built a rollercoaster."
"Like a little backyard one or something?" she asked.
Here, Ferb spoke up. "No. We built one that spanned the whole city."
"What? You're joking."
"Nope, he's right, TJ. Wanna see pictures? We love to invent stuff. We have a whole scrapbook, and blueprints, and sketches! After we show you the house, we'll show you our room and that." said Phineas excitedly.
"What? I need photographic evidence. Hang on." She put her bag on the bed. "As for that question, um, does the room have to be pink?"
"No. What color?"
"Preferably green, or at least blue. I despise pink." she said.
"Oh. Okay, we can do that. With Mom and Dad's permission. Why not pink? I thought every girl loved pink." Phineas said.
"I hate to break it to you, Phin, but not this one. I just don't like that color. Green is my fave." she said.
"Okay. Well then. All right, TJ, wanna see the rest?"
"Yup."
They left the room. They toured the upstairs first, leaving out Phineas and Ferb's room so that they could leave that as a last surprise. They showed her Linda and Lawrence's room and the upstairs bathroom. Then they went downstairs and showed her the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, and the downstairs bathroom. Then they went into the attic, garage and the basement, and also the Panic Room.
"You guys ever just come up here to the attic and see what cool stuff there is here?" TJ asked.
"No, not very often. But we did come up here once for some parts that Dad said he had." said Phineas.
"We should explore up here one day," she said.
They agreed.
Finally, Phineas said it was time to show her their room. They led the way and opened the door for her.
"So this is our room, as you can see," said Phineas. "We have our beds, and the totem pole, and the aquarium, and Ferb's telephone booth thing, which is really cool, and up there-" Here he stopped and pointed. "-is the pull down screen we have for video games. And here's the other bookshelf, and the Easter Island Head."
"Cool." She finally noticed the guitars in the corner. "You guys play?" she asked, gesturing toward them.
"Yeah. What about you?"
"Nah, never tried. I wanna learn though."
"Maybe we can teach you then. Here, wanna see the video game screen slash live video feed?"
"Sure." she replied excitedly.
Ferb grabbed a remote from the desk and pressed a button. Instantly a large hatch opened in the blue-sky ceiling and a screen pulled down. The screen lit up and images from each of the rooms in the house popped up.
"Wow..." said TJ, speechless.
"We didn't put in a computer, for convenience's sake. A regular computer is easier, cause you don't have to crane your neck backwards to see it, and also this thing doesn't have a keyboard plugin, although we could easily put one in." said Phineas. "We have easy access from each of our beds, and control the machine using two remotes and video game controllers," he continued.
"That's so cool!" she said. "You guys are awesome!"
"Thanks. You wanna see our other inventions?" asked Phineas.
"Yeah!" said TJ. She was ecstatic.
"Here's one," said Phineas. "This is a pet bed for Perry."
"Who's Perry?" asked TJ.
"Dude, we forgot to show her!" Phineas exclaimed, slapping himself on the forehead. "Okay, where'd he go?"
The boys looked around for him. The platypus walked in after a few minutes of calling.
"And this is Perry!" said Phineas, holding up his beloved pet.
"Awww. Can I hold him?" she asked. Phineas handed him to her. "He would love Padme," she said.
"Who's Padme?" asked Phineas.
"She's my pet platypus. Oh, crud! I left her in the car! Be back in a flash," she said, handing Perry back to Phineas and rushing downstairs.
After a few minutes she returned with a female platypus in her arms. "This is Padme."
"She's adorable! And she looks just as smart as Perry," said Phineas. He petted her gently. Ferb came up and patted her too.
TJ set her down. "You forgot to mention what the pet bed does," she informed her cousins.
"Oh, yeah. Well, it feeds him and gives him water automatically, and is self-heating. Also it's like a massage chair, but a pet bed. It also cools him in the winter." Phineas said. "He didn't use it much at first, but now he does. He loves it. Hey! We could make one for Padme, too, if you want."
"Cool! It'd make her feel a little better, new environment and all. Sure, thanks," she said, smiling now more than ever.
"We'll get right on it. After dinner, that is," he said.
"Yeah. Well, I'd better get settled in." said TJ.
"Yeah." said Phineas.
The three walked out of the room, leaving the two platypuses.
After they were sure that the humans were gone, they stood up and introduced themselves.
"Hi," said Padme.
"Hi. My name's Perry. You?" said Perry.
"Padme. Nice to meet you, Perry." she said.
"Same." He smiled. They shook hands.
They heard voices. Instantly they put on their "mindless domestic pet" look.
The voices passed. Padme stood up.
"Well, see ya around, Perry." said Padme. She winked at him and walked out of the room on all fours.
Perry smiled again.
Padme walked into TJ's new room. She looked around as soon as she was sure that no one could see her without her mindless cover. Nice room, she thought. Too bad it has to be pink.TJ herself, Phineas and Ferb were all in there, helping TJ get settled in at that moment. She had unpacked her bags and was starting to put her stuff away. The boys helped her arrange stuff and put her clothes away.
"Well, I guess that's it then, huh, TJ?" asked Phineas.
"Yup, got it all." she replied.
The doorbell rang from downstairs. "Looks like Candace is here," said Ferb.
