Isabella had an outing with Gretchen the following day. They went to a bookstore that Gretchen loved to go to (especially on Saturdays), and she brought along $200. How she managed to save up that much solely for books, Isabella would never know.
Gretchen vanished into the teen fiction section, and Isabella, against her better judgement, walked over to the nonfiction and started looking for books on soulmates. For no reason whatsoever. None, thank you very much.
"'Soulmates: Everything You've Ever Wondered.'" Isabella muttered to herself.
She opened the book and flipped to a random page near the beginning.
Your soulmate is your one true love. They have been around almost as long as humanity itself. This book both highlights how to find your soulmate and explores the many different theories as to how soulmates originally came about. No one is really sure how—
Isabella stopped reading, and tucked the book under her arm. This was exactly what she needed. Basic reminders on soulmates, how they worked, why they existed. She was dealing with some feelings she didn't quite understand, and some reminders of what she should do with her life were perfect right now.
Although Gretchen seemed more than a little surprised when Isabella showed up at the counter with a book on soulmates. Isabella being 100% sure of her soulmate was literally part of her reputation. Isabella lied easily, saying it was for an assignment, and the two brought their books and left the store.
Isabella tucked the book into her purse, and forgot all about it the whole time they were at lunch at Paul Bunyan's (where the food was good, but not too good). Unfortunately for Isabella, Gretchen thought the food was decent enough to warrant eating there every couple of weeks. (It was her favorite place to go.)
She only thought of the book again after dinner that night, when she went into her room and tossed her purse onto the floor only for there to be a loud thunk that wasn't usually there.
Oh yeah, she realized. I bought that today.
She reached inside the purse and fumbled around for a bit before pulling the book out and moving over to her bed.
The table of contents was not very long, but then, neither was the book.
Part One: A History of Soulmates
-Where Did Soulmates Come From?
-How Did People Figure it Out?
-Famous Soulmates in History
Part Two: How To Find Your Soulmates
-What to Avoid
-Several Names and Numbers to Help You
-How to Approach Your Soulmate
Part Three: Soulmates of All Shapes and Sizes
-How to Deal With Language Differences
-Should I be Worried if my Soulmate is a Different _?
-My Soulmate is Famous or Well-Known
-My Soulmate is Not What I Expected
Part Four: Other Facts and Notes
Isabella flipped to part three, section two. Maybe section four would help more, but the second one also sounded possibly beneficial, so she went there first. The first part said this:
Whatever the ending to that question is, no, you should not. Soulmates come in all varying genders, sexualities, ethnicities, and more. The important thing to remember is that this is fate. They are the right one for you.
You might have to work through some differences at first, but this is why relationships before your soulmate are recommended. Give yourself a practice round so you know what to do. But also remember that that person you may or may not start dating is not your soulmate. You might develop feelings for them, but it is simply not comparable to what you will one day come to have with your soulmate.
Back to the topic at hand—
Okay. Isabella thought. So that's it. Maybe I have a— a crush. But Phineas is not my soulmate. Nothing will ever happen between us.
And she didn't need a "practice round." She had never considered that necessary. Not for her. After all, her mother hadn't had a practice round, so she didn't need one either.
She realized she felt a million times better. Here was proof. These feelings were normal, but she shouldn't dwell on them. She just needed to sit on them for a while, and they would go away.
She let out a sigh of relief and set the book to the side, changing into her pajamas and crawling under the covers.
It had been a strange two days. But she was just a little confused. In time, this would disappear.
…
The next morning Isabella's mother woke her up at 7:30 and the two went to the synagogue a couple blocks over.
Isabella sat in the back of the room with her mother, trying hard to focus but finding her thoughts distracting. She still had homework later, and a lot of it.
Afterwards, however, she would still find it hard to focus on it because of what she saw as they pulled into their driveway.
Across the street was a giant ice cream sundae.
That was impossible. And where had she seen the impossible lately?
Phineas and Ferb.
"No way." she whispered to herself, and without asking for permission and ran across the street. She shoved open the back gate, also without permission, which revealed the very two people she had really hoped wouldn't be there.
"Oh, hey Isabella." Phineas said. Ferb waved.
"What— what are you doing here?"
"Um, we live here?" Phineas said. "Why?"
"That's— that's my house. Over there." Isabella said, pointing across the street.
"Really?" Phineas said. "That's awesome!"
That had not been Isabella's reaction.
"Do you want some ice cream?" he said, gesturing to the giant sundae.
"Um, no I have— homework. Like, a lot of it."
"Oh, that's too bad. Well here then." He grabbed a giant ice cream scoop and somehow managed to get a reasonable amount into a reasonably sized bowl. "You can eat some while you do homework."
"Oh, thanks." Isabella said, taking the ice cream and backing out of the gate as fast as she possibly could.
This was going to be more problematic than she thought. They were living across the street from her. How was she supposed to ignore them and let the feelings go away now?
Over the next couple of hours, Isabella got exactly no homework done. Instead, she played with the ice cream in her bowl until it melted, then drank the ice cream soup (+ bananas).
Eventually, Isabella realized it was 6:00 and she hadn't even started on homework. She managed to shove Phineas to the back of her mind and pull her English out of her backpack.
It took her a good couple hours to get her homework done, with a quick break for dinner. By the time she finished, it was 2:00 AM and she was struggling to keep her eyes open.
Suddenly, as she was putting her pajamas on and climbing into bed, her phone went off. Isabella fumbled around her nightstand and grabbed it. The recently added Phineas Flynn contact shone back at her.
She hit 'accept' and put the phone to her ear. "Phineas?" she said blearily.
"Hey Isabella! Are you done with homework? Did you like the sundae? 'Cause I saved some more for you in the freezer just in case you wanted more. Do you want more?"
"Phineas, it's 2 in the morning." Isabella mumbled.
There was a pause, probably Phineas looking at a clock.
"Oh my gosh, is it really? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize what time it was! Did I wake you up?"
"Wasn't asleep yet." Isabella said, running a hand through her hair and blinking herself awake. Her eyes were doing that thing when they went cross-eyed when she was tired. "Told you I had a ton of homework." And some very distracting thoughts.
"Wow. Apparently. Do you still want the sundae?"
"What, am I supposed to walk over there and get it at this hour?"
"Why not?"
Isabella laughed. "You are a dangerous boy. I'll be right over."
Isabella walked quietly downstairs and grabbed a jacket to put on over her tank top pajamas. It took her about ten seconds to make it across the street and knock on the door. Phineas opened it a second later.
"Would your parents be okay with this?"
"…Maybe?"
"Good enough for me."
The two walked inside. Phineas' house still had a lot of boxes all over the place, probably because they hadn't fully unpacked yet, but as they got to the kitchen there weren't any to be seen, which made sense. Eating was kind of important. Phineas pulled the ice cream (solid form, not soup this time) out of the freezer and set it down in front of Isabella, who took a bite and nearly dropped the spoon.
"Phineas, this doesn't taste like it's been frozen," she said in shock.
"Yeah. Ferb and I added that feature. Do you like it?" Phineas asked eagerly, seeming to want an actual opinion.
"It's amazing." Isabella said genuinely. "Where is Ferb, by the way? Why are you still up?"
"I took a nap earlier today and got about four hours of sleep just now, so I'm good to go for the day."
Isabella stared at him. "Are you human?"
"Yep. I'm a short sleeper." Phineas said with a shrug. "I can operate on less sleep than the average person. I typically only need about 4 or 5 hours, but if I only get 2 or 3 I'm pushing it. Less leeway. Missing an hour or two makes a bigger difference. Oh, and of course I need more when I'm sick."
Isabella sighed. "Lucky. I'm gonna be a zombie tomorrow."
Phineas raised an eyebrow. "I think I can help you with that." He walked into the other room and came back a second later with a small device, about the size of an alarm clock. He tossed it to her, and she caught it. He walked over and pointed out a dial. "You can set that manually, or hit the button on the top for half an hour. It reverses time for just you, so no one else notices. Ferb made me build him one since I keep waking him up at ungodly hours. Just make sure that you don't go too far back and erase the completion of some of your homework; otherwise you can get as much sleep as you want."
Isabella stared at Phineas in awe. "Where have you been all my life?" she whispered.
Phineas blinked in shock and went bright red.
Isabella only realized what she'd said a second later, causing her to turn an even deeper shade of the same color. "Ahh, sorry! I have no filter when I'm tired."
"Uh… that's okay." Phineas stuttered. "I'm, uh… glad you like the ice cream."
"It's really good." Isabella said, taking another bite. "Where'd you get the ice cream?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"The moon."
"Ex-cuse me?"
"We sent some cows up there a couple years ago. Now we head up there every now and then… or, we did. We still have to build some stuff to make this house compatible. The giant sundae today was the last bit of it."
"Oh yeah?" Isabella asked. "Well you'll have to work on that."
"Wha— I already brought you ice cream from the moon! What more do you want from me?"
Isabella laughed, and the two proceeded to make small talk and tease each other until Isabella finished her ice cream at about 3 AM and walked back across the street with her new magic alarm clock.
It was only when she got back to her bedroom and noticed her soulmate book on her desk that she noticed what she had just done for the past hour.
Guilt and fear crept up in her chest. Come on, Isabella! What are you doing? How are these feelings supposed to go away if you keep acting on them?!
Isabella glanced down at the alarm clock in her hands and promptly threw it in the trash.
Phineas Flynn is not your soulmate. You need to stop this. The end, no more, enough of him entirely.
It's what's best.