Disclaimer: All characters of Phineas and Ferb are the property of Dan, Jeff, and Disney. I'm sure they're used to long lulls between updates as well, so I guess that they and I have something in common.

Chapter 4 - Hush

Being quiet about things is a surefire way to make sure plans go by unnoticed.

Which is why Baljeet had not mentioned any of what had been happening over the past few days with Ginger to anybody else.

Except his mom, of course. It was his mom after all.

Even then, he had not told her about all of his misgivings that he was having about his nightly adventures. If she knew everything, surely she would stop him from biking to the part this late at night.

Baljeet was on his bicycle, heading out to the center of the Danville Park. This was the place where he and Ginger had agreed to spend their second night stargazing. Their assumption was that since it was so far away from the city, there would not be as much residual light muddling with their findings, and more than likely no giggling mothers breaking their concentration.

Unless they were already there.

And then that would be weird.

He pulled up to the clearing, hopping off of his bike in the process. He could see Ginger near the edge of some trees, already setting up her things beside a large boulder.

"Good evening."

She looked up and waved. "Hi, Baljeet!"

"I see you have everything almost prepared. Besides the actual equipment, of course."

"Well, there's no use witnessing the glories of the evening sky without being comfortable, right?"

"I suppose not." Baljeet took notice of the two lawn chairs and end table, as well as what appeared to be a large blanket on her cushion. "Is there any particular reason why you only brought one blanket?"

"What?" Ginger was too busy rummaging through her backpack to pay him much attention. "It's just in case we get cold, that's all."

"But it's only one. Don't you think-"

Baljeet stopped himself mid-sentence. There was only one reason why someone would bring one blanket to an outing.

To share it.

"...Never mind."

Luckily for him, Ginger either didn't notice his internal revelation or was too preoccupied to care. She took her telescope out of Baljeet's pack and began to set it up. "Is there anything in particular that you want to try to look at tonight?"

He sat down in one of the chairs, his notebook in his lap. "I was thinking we could try to find Aquarius. It is going to be a rather faint batch of stars, but seeing an actual constellation would make wonders for our report."

"Sounds good, especially since that's my birth sign."

"Really?" This was something new. "I did not know that. So you were born in..."

"January, yes."

"So your birthday is coming up pretty soon."

"Not soon enough." Ginger sat down in her chair. "I always like my birthdays. It's a shame I only get once a year."

"I do not think it would be fair if you got more than one a year. That would probably defeat the purpose."

"Probably." She looked down at her feet, dangling her legs back and forth. "I do need new shoes. I've already worn these out."

"Hmm. Good to know."

"What?"

"I mean...we should go." Baljeet pointed up to the sky. "We should go and get started before it gets too late. We do have school tomorrow."

"Good point."

With that, they set off on their work. Thankfully, Baljeet was not offered the solitaire blanket; he had brought his coat again with him, so there was no need for it.

Now, not unlike the previous night. there was almost no conversation between the two of them for the majority of their hour. However, the tail end of their time together would not consist of awkward banter and jacket fetching.

No, we're going to go with something a little more...interesting.

"Have you been able to find Aries yet?"

"I have...not." Baljeet adjusted the focus on his telescope. "Is it not suppose to be below Triangulum?"

"Yeah, but I'm getting a little cloud cover near the moon. We probably should-"

"Do somethin' about it."

Baljeet yanked his head up out of the eyepiece. It was a quiet voice, but it was unmistakable.

"Buford," he whispered.

"Hmm?" Invariably Ginger hadn't noticed.

"Buford's here. I just heard him."

"That's impossible. Why would he even be here? You must've heard-"

"You're not going to do anything about it, you dope."

Now Ginger was the one snapping her gaze out of her telescope.

"Adyson."

Baljeet had recognized her too, but his surprise was still set on Buford. He stole a glance at Ginger, who seemed just as confused as he was.

The quiet conversation appeared to be coming from a clearing off to their right, the view blocked off by a large tree and a cluster of shrubs. The voices sounded like they were getting louder by the moment. He made a walking motion with his hand to Ginger, who nodded. Silently, they made their way to the tree.

Baljeet made it to the tree first and attempted to glance above the shrub. He failed to take into account that he had an overeager and taller girl in his company, so he was demoted to a partial stepstool as Ginger peered over him, her hand on his head.

"It is Adyson!"

"What?"

"And Buford! They're working on their project together."

"...What!?"

Ginger slapped a hand over his mouth. "Shhh! They're gonna hear us!"

Baljeet glanced at the two of them through a small hole in the shrub. They were clearly in the middle of a conversation, although with their stargazing equipment set up a little ways away, it didn't seem like it was about that.

"I wonder what they are talking about?" he whispered.

"Probably setting up their next secret meeting with each other."

"And why do they have secret meetings?"

Ginger bent down, almost speaking into Baljeet's ear. "Why do you think?"

"Because of the project, right?"

"Not unless they've been doing this project for the past six months."

He slowly turned his face to hers, taking note of the gigantic grin on her face. "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that they are..."

Ginger nodded.

Baljeet narrowed his eyes at her. "How long has this been going on?"

"No one knows," she replied, leaning around him to get a closer look. "She hasn't even really come out and admitted to it yet. Not that she has to, anyway. The entire troop can see it." She lowered her voice even further as she continued. "I know they attend the same karate class. They spend a lot of time together at school."

"Isn't he with me most of the time?"

"Well, you and her."

"...Interesting."

Ginger saw his face and the subsequent glint in his eyes. "You're plotting something, aren't you?"

"Me?" Baljeet asked, placing his hand on his chest. "Oh no! Why would you ever think that? Just because I now know something that is sure to make him more inclined to not treat me as a punching bag means nothing."

Ginger giggled quietly. "Your sarcasm is coming along very well."

"It is kind of hard to not have a lot of practice with sarcasm when Buford's around. I just usually do not use it with anyone else."

"Excuse me?"

He and Ginger quickly turned to see Adyson fuming and practically in Buford's face, almost on the tip of her toes.

"Yeah, you heard what I said," the bully retorted.

Baljeet glanced at his companion, who shrugged in response. They had not caught whatever he had said, but the Fireside Girl's reaction was enough to indicate that it was something that should have never been brought up.

"I thought we decided that we weren't going to talk about that," Adyson whispered in her most dangerous tone.

"Well, I'm not. 'Technically'," Buford replied, waving his air quotes for emphasis. "I'm just gonna dance around the subject a little bit. You know," he added, dropping his voice even lower, "Kind of like what you've been doin'."

"What do you think they're talking about?" Ginger asked.

"I do not know, but I think that it is something that we have no business being near," Baljeet responded.

"You were the one who wanted to come over here."

"I was investigating. Now we are done. There was not any need to do any of this extracurricular-"

CRACK!

In the midst of his speech on the study of secret conversation, he had failed to notice the twig near his foot. Due to being under the watch of the vast majority of the Irony Gods, it also had to be the driest and most brittle branch in the history of branches. The sound would have alerted Baljeet's uncle all the way back in India, and it most certainly got the attention of one of the people in front of him.

"...Uh oh."

"Hey, you hear somethin'?"

"No, Buford," Adyson retorted. "All I hear is the sound of your voice."

"I thought I heard somethin' in the bushes."

"Oh crap." Ginger's face melted into a look of pure terror. "If they find us in here, she's going to kill us. And not even like our 'Playing Possum' Patch. Like she'll take out her nunchuks and beat us into next week." She started looking wildly back and forth. "What are we gonna-"

A hand grasped her by the shirt, dragging her in the opposite direction of Buford.

"Eeep!"

Seconds later, Buford's face poked through the shrubbery, his beady eyes glancing in all directions.

"Man, there's nothin' in here!"

"See if you can find your mind in there, because I think you lost it a while ago," Adyson said. "Now get back over here so that we can lug this stuff back to my house."

Buford narrowed his brow to take one final look around. Seeing nothing, but still unsatisfied, he withdrew his head and turned to walk back to Adyson.

It was a good thing that he did not take a closer look at the nearby tree, because if he had, he would have noticed the outline of his nerd, trying his best to blend into the trunk. If he had looked even closer, he would have seen Ginger right next to him, his hand over her mouth in an attempt to avoid making any noise.

Baljeet craned his neck around the tree. It appeared that Adyson and Buford were making their way out of the park. It would only be a few more moments before they were out of earshot.

He felt a sharp intake of breathe on his hand and looked down. He had not been very graceful in pulling Ginger out of Buford's view, as she was currently laying on Baljeet's lap. He could tell she was trying her hardest to keep quite, but her wide eyes and her heart thumping into his leg was not having any of it.

"Hold on, I think I forgot something."

Adyson's voice came back into focus, and Ginger quietly squeaked into the Indian boy's hand.

It suddenly occured to Baljeet that being found in the bushes overhearing a private conversation was not going to embarass him for life. No...it was being found in the bushes in a somewhat compromising position with a girl that he had the sneaking suspicion had a huge crush on him. And by Adyson? They would never hear the end of it.

Luckily, as he finished his thought, he heard her footsteps fading away again. He counted to ten in his head and took a quick glance around the trunk.

"Are they gone yet?"

Baljeet's hand has risen off of Ginger's mouth just enough for her to whisper her question to him. Her breath was still shaky from the close call.

"Yes, I believe that they have vacated the premises."

"Uhh, Baljeet? Do you mind...?"

"What?" He jerked his head back around, realizing she was still being pinned next to his body. "Oh. Sorry." He brought his arm back around, allowing her to sit herself up.

"No, it's...OK." Ginger's face was bright red, and Baljeet surmised that at least one reason for that was not because of her inability to talk.

"Well." He stood up to brush his pants off. "Besides almost getting caught by Buford and Adyson, I would say that this was a pretty quiet evening."

"Yeah." Ginger stared off into the sky as they began to make their way back to their equipment. "But let's not put all of that in our presentation."

"I agree. I somehow think that Adyson and Buford would not approve of it."

"Speaking of which..." Baljeet gathered his papers and took a quick glance over them. "It appears I did not make as many remarks for tonight that I would have liked to. I assume we have Buford and Adyson to thank for that."

"Did you want to borrow my notes?"

Baljeet looked up to see Ginger's red folder in his face. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I took pretty extensive notes on everything tonight. And besides...what are partners for?"

And now her face color matched the folder.

"Thank you, Ginger," he said, taking it in his hands. "I promise to give this back to you tomorrow."

"No problem." Composing herself, she began to walk up the street toward the bus stop. "I'll be over your house tomorrow for the final night, right? I'll see you then."

"Sounds good." Baljeet began to pack up their equipment when he realized he had just watched Ginger walk off without even asking her for a ride.

"Hey, Ginger, did you-"

He glanced up to see he was now speaking to an empty park.

"Hmm." Slightly disappointed, he continued to pack up. "Note to self: make offers before the girl leaves your sight."

Baljeet arrived at his house about fifteen minutes later, sweating slightly. He had not expected to take such a long time to get home, but lugging a full backpack halfway across town was not something he was used to doing. At least he was back.

He made the quick trip up his stairs, leaving his backpack outside. He would make sure to get it unpacked before he went to bed, but in the meantime...

Baljeet cradled the folder in his hands as he walked across his room. " Ginger said she has all of her notes in here. Let me make sure I did not miss anything."

He gently tossed the folder onto his desk. And that would have been the end of it...had he not noticed something jettison out of it, almost landing on the floor.

"Hmm?"

Baljeet picked up the object. It was a small notepad, the cover also red in color. This one, unlike the folder, was very worn, the paper a dark shade of gray instead of bright white.

The most obvious thing he noticed, however, was the giant heart drawn on the cover in pencil, with two sets of two letters in the middle: GSH and BGT.

"That is...weird."

He brought his hand forward, ready to look inside, but he stopped his hand an inch short.

"Come on, Baljeet, this is not your notebook. You should not read it at all. She gave you her notes to use. That is it."

The hand continued to hang over the pad like a cloud.

"Then again, this was in her folder. Perhaps she put something in here that was not mentioned on her other papers."

Still hanging.

"No, I am not going to do it."

...Stiiilll hanging.

"Maybe just the first page."

His finger flipped the cover open, as if he wanted to make as minimal contact as possible. His eyes glanced over the paper, taking in the writing on the inside.

And then they narrowed.

The next page got flipped.

Then another..

Then the next.

All the time, Baljeet's mind started to comprehend all of the information that he was reading.

If only it had really been astronomy notes.

As he closed the pad back up, the one thing that he could think about was not stars or planets or even anything that had happened that night.

It was about tomorrow.

And what he was going to say to Ginger.

"I really do not think I can take much more of this."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: ...Hoo boy.

So many unanswered questions. What was in that notebook? Have we seen it before? What is going to happen in the next chapter?

And most importantly, is Jason going to find a way to update more than once every few months?

That, ladies and gents, is the most important question of all.

I do apologize if this chapter seems a little...rushed (yes, I know the irony of that statement). The vast majority of this writing was done over the past two days, and there were a couple more things that I wanted to add in here but cut due to time, including more of Adyson and Buford's conversation. I think they were pretty much superfluous anyway.

Plus I may have an additional fic with Ady and Buf and the entirety of their conversation.

Of course, if you've read Those Great Indoors, you would already know what they're talking about. :P

Baljeet's still awesome to write, and I hope the awkward scenario of this chapter was to your liking. The next chapter is going to take a U-turn from those awkward situations, at least in the positive sense. There's a reason for that.

But in the meantime, read and review if you like the chapter. Until next time, peeps.