She was waiting for me in our living room. "Jeremy."
"Yes, Mom?"
"I received a call at work today. Apparently your friend Miss Hirano left Suzy by herself at the mall."
"Oh."
"You know how sensitive Suzy is. The only sitter she's been comfortable with has been Candace, and now you've taken her away. I'm sorry, but when the choice is between your job and mine, well mine just pays more than a fast food job."
"I'll take Suzy to the shooting tomorrow."
"You will!" Suzy burst from her room and jumped up at me.
I caught her so she didn't fall and hurt herself.
"And will you put me on the TV?" Suzy reached up to wrap her arms around my neck.
"I'll see what I can do."
"You're the bestest big brother ever!"
Mom frowned for a moment, then put on a smile as Suzy looked over at her. "Okay, you two. But I had better not get a call tomorrow."
"Don't worry, Mommy. I'm always safe with Jeremy!" Suzy snuggled up against me.
That evening after dinner, I was reading in my room when I got a call from Stacy. She begged my forgiveness and especially begged me not to tell Candace about it. I'd have to report that last bit. Not to Candace of course, but to Ms. Doofenshmirtz.
I had just put down my phone when a translucent glowing figure appeared in my room.
"Hologram or ghost? And where's Phineas?"
"Look you miserable little git, how I'm doing this is unimportant. And Phineas is the good little brother."
"You're not?"
"You've been golden in his eyes, ever since Candace said she favored you. I know better."
"Oh?"
"You've been too spotless Jeremy, but someday you'll mess it up."
"So, Ferb. What's the call about?"
"Candace of course. What did you do today to crush her feelings?"
"Me? You two are the ones who did that bait and switch with the tower. Why didn't you leave it up so she could have the joy of busting you?"
"She won't let us be busted. We've explained that already. She gets over that. Whatever you did really took the wind out of her sails."
"Can't you just try to be good little brothers to her?"
"We've tried. We've tried all sorts of things. The sad part is that we only spot the loop on the first day one time in a hundred. And here you go blowing this chance."
"Wow, you usually don't talk anywhere near this much."
"I follow the rule where I don't have anything nice to say and so I say nothing. But, just this one time, I'll make an exception. Certain parts of you are needed for the future existence of Amanda and Xavier, assuming that we ever get out of this loop. But that leaves plenty of parts of you that really aren't all that needed. So here's the plan. Mark this as your last chance to exit the loop with all of your parts intact. Next time through I'll break your bloody leg on the first day so Candace has to spend two weeks nursing you back to health. If that doesn't work then how about you spend the rest of your life walking with a cane, or missing an eye or a limb? It may take me thousands of loops, but I will find some extent of your suffering past which she can not endure. So get it right tomorrow, or you will never see it coming."
Ferb's image vanished before I could reply.
Tuesday morning Ferb met us at the door to their house and invited us in, but Candace was suddenly sick in her room when she was told that Suzy was with me.
"Okay, I'll call up Ms. Doofenshmirtz and tell her we can't come anymore and she should get other actors."
"No Jeremy!" Candace burst out of her room. "Don't let me stop you. You need this."
"She looks fine to me?" Suzy looked Candace over.
Candace flinched away from Suzy.
"Come on, it'll be fun!" Suzy jumped up into Candace's arms, who almost dropped her.
"Onward, to the studio!" Suzy pointed with her right arm to the door as she wrapped her left arm around Candace's neck.
Candace stood there with knees shaking, so I put a hand on each of her shoulders to steady her.
"Look, it'll be fine. You did great yesterday. So let's go there and try it, Okay?"
Candace took her eyes off of Suzy, turned to me and nodded.
I gently nudged her forwards and we set off to the bus stop.
Suzy insisted on riding in Candace's lap on the bus. The bus driver looked like he wanted to object to this, but then noticed that the same noisy girl from the previous day was quiet and so started the bus.
When we got to the studio I explained to Ms. Doofenshmirtz how my sister had insisted on being part of the production. She agreed to the request, so long as Suzy settled for a background role for the moment, sitting with various kiddie meals. Suzy accepted this minor role much more quickly than I thought she would and was very well behaved that morning.
The other two girls were much more of a problem. Candace kept looking nervously over at Suzy, while Vanessa elbowed Candace out of the way so she could monopolize the counter space in front of me. She had the zipper on her black leather top zipped down way too low, and the way she was always bending forwards showed me that she wasn't even wearing a bra under it.
So it was a relief when Ms. Doofenshmirtz called out "Cut!" and summoned me to her office.
She sat at her desk while I stood nervously in front of it. Then she leaned forwards. "Relax, Jeremy. I've thoroughly swept the room. You can speak freely, and take a seat."
"Thanks, Charlene."
"My daughter isn't herself today."
"I didn't want to say anything about that."
"No. This is very unusual for her. Last night she wanted to know everything about you. She's never fallen for a boy this quickly before and she would never ever make a play for another girl's boyfriend."
"I don't know what I did."
"It wasn't you. It was Candace. She's changed Vanessa using her powers, somehow."
"Why would she do that?"
"It's as her brothers said. She's putting up roadblocks in front of her own success. So that explains the nature of this time loop. It's all my fault."
"What?"
"Remember what we two did the night before the loop started?"
"Oh? Then why didn't she extend the loop back far enough to erase that?"
"It wasn't the first time. She'd have to erase the entire summer. She either can't or won't do that. It was a moment of weakness on my part and now she's punishing not just me, but the entire rest of the world."
"I'm sorry, I ..."
"No. It's not your fault, Jeremy. I'm the adult here. That's why it's a crime for me, and not you."
"We could make it legal."
"No, we can not. She's blocking that, remember?"
"Charlene, I lo-"
"Stop! We promised we wouldn't say that. Please act like the man I -, the boy who's wisdom beyond his years attracted me to him in the first place. I won't lie to you, Jeremy. What we had was very very good. For all your youth, you are very good at doing it. Candace is going to be a very lucky lady for the rest of her life. And it wasn't just the act itself. I will so miss the pillow talk, with somebody who understood the game and was willing to do whatever it took to win it. I still expect that you will be the one to run this operation some day. It's just that what we had between us is over. There will be no more graveyard shifts. Do you understand, Jeremy?"
"Yes, Charlene."
"I'm leaving now to go bail out my ex-husband and take him back to my place, under house arrest. Tonight I'm going to reconcile with him. He is nowhere near as good as you are, but that is my punishment for my sins. So go back there and slap Vanessa, if that is what it takes. Your focus must be on Candace, agreed?"
"Yes, Charlene. Wait, you've leaving now?"
"Don't worry, I've found a pair of highly recommended directors to run the shooting."
"You don't mean?"
"Yes, her brothers. Can you think of anybody else more motivated to get Candace back on track?"
"No, Ma'am."
As I was walking back to the studio I heard Suzy speaking in a far more mature and vindictive tone than usual.
"Oh, I don't have to do anything. You're making a mess of yourself today." Then she looked over, jumped out of the seat next to Candace, and ran to me. "Jeremy! Did you get in trouble?"
"No, Ms. Doofenshmirtz had to go, that's all."
Candace looked up at this. "So are you going to be in charge?"
"No, they are."
She followed my line of sight. Then she stood and walked over to her brothers. "Are you two dweebs a little young to be running a major ad campaign?"
"Why, yes. Yes, we are." Phineas responded, then took her hand. "Come on Candace, let's have fun today and get you on television."