Isabella was sure she didn't hear Phineas say what she knew he did. If he and Ferb were in fact planning on doing something tomorrow, it would have to be something a bit smaller than normal what with the school day and probably homework. Then again, in all likeliness they probably weren't going to let that stop them. Yeah, they have it under control, Isabella told herself, Nothing to worry about. It's not your business anyway.
That wasn't enough to convince her, though. The way he said it, relaxing under the large tree, hands stretched out behind his head. Something about his entire attitude, his choice of words: 'a real summer party...' His composure told her that something was terribly wrong. And neither Phineas nor Ferb seemed like they were about to do anything about it.
And so, once out of earshot, Isabella began to sort things out. Or at least try to. There was only one explanation, and she didn't like it. "I-I can't believe it. Phineas and Ferb… In denial? Surely they learned about summer ending! Those poor, poor kids… I never thought they would react like that! Oh, Phineas, I'll help you out." She let out a small gasp as an idea struck. She whipped out a small cell phone and dialed a familiar number.
The recipient answered quickly. "Gretchen! Get the Fireside Girls together, I'm calling a meeting now. We have a code tangerine, I repeat: A code tangerine!"
Gretchen was at her computer, wearing a headphone mic for inexplicable reasons. "I hear you," she reported, "We'll meet you at the Fireside Lodge in 10 minutes."
"Great!" Yelped Isabella, hanging up. She sighed, relieved. "Ah, it's good to have dependable friends like that."
She drummed her fingers against her phone.
At first, Candace was as surprised as her brothers to find out that summer vacation would come to a close for good tomorrow. After breakfast, she retreated to her room as the boys coincidentally did the same. She was equally upset at the news, and while she didn't know how her brothers would cope, she didn't really care at the moment.
Something else was on her mind. Among other things that gave her reason to cringe at the very thought of going to school early, there was one prominent detail that she didn't want to face up to. And, as confusing as it sounds, that was the exact reason it gave her shivers thinking about it.
Candace was a proud procrastinator who took her brother's sarcastic advice on the first day of summer. Because of the former fact, she didn't regret waiting until the last minute to complete her homework assignment. Unfortunately, the deadline quite literally came sooner than she expected and she had only one day now to find out what she had to do and get it done.
The teen reluctantly strolled over to a drawer in her desk and pulled out two sheets of paper, stapled to each other. One was the assignment itself; when she flipped to the other page she saw a series of blank lines waiting for the scratch of a pencil to make them complete.
Blank lines, staring her down, drilling into her and saying, You are obligated to do this. If you do not, you will be subject to a miserable and unsuccessful life filled with shame. All because of blank lines. Glaring at her now, saying, You had this coming to you. Now you will show up at school tomorrow with blank lines on this page and all of your teachers will hate you and everyone in the class will point and laugh at you and your pitiful blank lines. Unless you sit down in that chair which just became really hard and uncomfortable, pick up a pencil and try to remember how to use it, and somehow put something amazing in each and every one of these horrid, blank lines. You know you can't do it. Admit it.
She couldn't do it.
Candace dropped the papers on her desk and tugged at strands of her hair. After discovering this was painful, she took a deep breath and tried again. She flipped back to the first page and began to read what exactly the project was.
The class was civics. The assignment was to promote better citizenship by highlighting what makes a person a bad citizen. The idea was to find any example of injustice, report it to an authority figure, and document things like how you did it, what makes the offense wrong, and how the community would improve if acts like it ceased to happen. The culprit was to be anonymous, but it (/they) could be anyone, if supported strongly enough. The next page was there to put it all on paper, and the blank lines were now eager to be filled in. And, Candace discovered, the opportunity couldn't have been better.
Even though her brother wasn't present in her room at the time, Candace grinned somewhat evilly and seethed, slowly, "Ferb… I know what I'm gonna do today."
After changing into her Fireside Girls uniform, Isabella promptly left for the cabin in which the girls held meetings. Collecting herself, she raised her hand and knocked the secret code that was to admit her.
"It's me, Isabella," she explained while doing so. The door opened and the first thing the leader saw was an overexcited member of the troop poised and ready to face an intruder. Isabella could only let out a "Gretchen, put down that-" before she was hit with summer vacation's grenade. "-Water balloon," Isabella finished, now arguably drenched.
Gretchen smiled sheepishly, then hid her weapon of choice, the slingshot, behind her back.
"Oh well, we have more important things to deal with..." Isabella started wringing the water out of her hair.
Milly, ready to move on with the mission, asked, "So, a code tangerine, huh? Is this about Phineas and Ferb, or what?"
"Exactly," Isabella started, "I was visiting them this morning - they invited me to watch the sunrise - and you won't believe what Phineas asked me!"
Holly gasped, sure that today was the day. "Did he finally ask you out?"
Gretchen wasn't amused. "Is that the first place your mind goes to?" She asked. The girls had been waiting for Phineas and Isabella to get together, but sometimes there were more important things.
"Yeah," Ginger agreed, "How would that result in a code tangerine? Denial, remember?"
"Ahem," Isabella cleared her throat, "As unbelievable and amazing as that would be..." She sighed. "No, he didn't 'ask me out.' He invited me to his Big Idea tomorrow."
Six girls gasped in unison. Milly started freaking out. "What are we going to do? If Phineas and Ferb can't deal with the situation, then, then..."
"It'll be okay, Milly, it'll be okay..." Adyson was there to calm her friends if they needed it.
"Our heroes fall..." Gretchen looked on the brink of fainting.
"Woah, Gretchen. That was very 'Irving' of you."
At Isabella's comment, all sounds were cut and all eyes were on Gretchen. "Uh..." The girl stammered.
Thankfully, the awkwardness did not last long. Isabella started explaining herself in quite a rambly tone. "I just don't know what to do! I mean, summer is ending and Phineas still hasn't noticed me. I mean, what if -" she shuddered at the thought - "What if I don't see him until next break and- and- and he starts to like someone else? Huh? And from the looks of it, it doesn't seem like they're gonna do anything about it. I mean - No summer vacation for the rest of their lives? Could you imagine? They're the kings of summer! And they just - and they just..."
"Sh, sh, calm down, Chief." Adyson was comforting her, speaking slowly and quietly, as if performing hypnosis. "Everything's gonna be fine. Relax, okay? It'll be fine..."
Isabella wasn't sure if she wanted to believe this, but she gave her friend a chance. "...Really?" She asked, hopeful.
"Of course!" Adyson stated triumphantly.
"How do you know?"
Ginger took over. "Well for one, the next break is this weekend."
"C'mon, Isabella," Adyson started, smiling warmly. "The time will come. It might not be today, but one day maybe when the two of you are older, he'll see you, you'll see him, it'll all play out from there. And Isabella, as far as Phineas falling for anyone else? Well, if he hasn't noticed you yet, there's no way anyone is going to take him easily. Besides," she held up her sash. "Three 'Save Your Friend from an Emotional Breakdown' patches doesn't just happen."
There was no arguing with that. "I guess you're right. But if you're going for another one, then-"
The door opened mid-sentence, and the last person anyone expected stood in the doorway.
