Another chapter from me! Wow, this story has come so far. I'm excited to see where it goes from here. No Ferb interaction this time and just a little bit of Phineas, but mostly Isabella and Katie. Katie is such an underused fun character. She's perfect for that 'weird friend'.
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"Help me! I think I'm in love with Ferb!"
"Um…what?" was Katie's response. After a moment she continued. "Isabella?" The other girl said through the phone. "Do you know what time it is?"
Isabella rolled over again to look at her alarm clock on her bedside table. Her eyes widened and she winced. It read 12:34 a.m. She kissed her thumb quickly (1-2-3-4. Make a wish!). "I'm sorry, I forgot you were in a different time-zone. Were you sleeping?" she asked.
"No. I just wanted to know if you knew what time it was," the blonde replied in her typical whimsical way.
Isabella rolled her eyes. She should have expected that. Katie was known for staying up to the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes she would come to school getting only a half-hour of sleep. At least being away for her cousin's wedding (which would be later today—on Valentine's day. Cliché.) she didn't have school, but she was still an hour off right now…not that it mattered anyway, with it being Saturday.
"Katie!" Isabella exclaimed, feeling a little irritated at the flighty girl.
"Right, sorry. So what's up?"
Isabella wanted to bang her head against the wall, but she settled for her pillow. "Katie, focus! I need your help."
"Yeah, I got that much. Help with what, exactly?"
"I think I've fallen in love… with Ferb…" Isabella told her nervously.
There was silence on the other end for a moment before; "Someone else told me that recently… who was that…?"
Isabella wanted to scream. "That was me! Earlier in this conversation!"
"Right! I remember that now. When did this happen anyway?"
Isabella rolled back onto her back. "Well, it started with the Valentine's day lesson I had and then I said that guys weren't romantic anymore and Ferb took me for ice cream and gave me his jacket and now I think I love him!"
Again, silence. "Um… okay. I think I missing a few facts… Walk me through it, Iz."
Isabella took a breath and started at the beginning, telling her everything from the bet to the almost-kiss in the car. They were both silent for a while as Katie let that sink in. Isabella reached out and grabbed Ferb's jacket. She really should have given it back to him earlier today, but couldn't make herself do it. Plus, it smelled wonderful—a spicy yet sweet smell with an undertone of wood and welding steel. She took a deep breath and smiled dreamily, not listening as Katie began talking.
"Isabella!" Katie shouted in her ear. "Stop smelling Ferb's jacket and listen to me!"
"What? How did you know—I mean, I'm not—"
"Please, Iz," Katie scoffed. "I can hear you sniffing it." Isabella could feel the blush covering her face. "Don't feel bad," her friends said. "I did the same thing when I had that crush on Jeremy all those years ago…except I didn't have his jacket… You're so lucky! I had to go out and trial and error it until I found his deodorant spray!"
Isabella pulled the phone from her ear and gave the picture of her friend a very… concerned look. "Um… okay," she said, once she returned the phone to her ear. "Listen Katie, my mom will be home soon—"
"Oh, tell her I say hi!"
Her hand clenched. "I will, but I need your help."
"Yeah, you mentioned that a few times before."
"Katie!" Isabella was fed up with her. "Stop that or I'll hang up and call Ginger."
"Okay, okay, what do you need?"
"I need…I don't know what I need. He's going to win the bet. Everything I try to throw at him, he doesn't react to—or he reacts totally different from how I expected him to."
Katie hummed. "Well, if you already know you're going to lose, why don't you have some fun with it?"
Isabella blinked in surprise. "What? How?"
"Like... try to out-romance him. Tomorrow—er, today, is Valentine's Day. It's the end of your bet, right?"
"Yeah…" Isabella felt a grin forming on her face. She knew she had called the right person.
"So, romance him instead. Flowers, cards, chocolates, candy hearts, and all that," Katie answered.
Isabella had a full-blown smile now. "That's genius!" Just then she heard the front door unlocking. "Oh, my mom's here. I have to go. If she catches me on the phone this late she'll ground me."
"Okay, but do one thing for me?"
"What's that?" she whispered, listening for her mom.
"Paint his tools pink."
"Okay, wait, what?"
"For Valentine's Day," Katie said, as if it explained everything.
Isabella shook her head grinning at her random friend. "Sure okay. I'll see you next week when you get back." They said their goodbyes and she hung up her phone just as she heard her mom's footsteps on the stairs. As quickly and as silently as she could, she slipped under her quilt, still fully dressed. Making sure the blanket was covering her shoulders so her mom couldn't see that she wasn't in pajamas, she feigned sleep. Her door creaked open and Isabella "stirred from her sleep".
"Mom?" she "dazedly" asked.
"Lo siento, mija," her mother apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you."
Isabella hummed at her and murmured, "Que duerma bien, Mama."
She could see her mom smile out of the corner of her eye. "Sleep well, Isa," she repeated back to her.
As soon as her door closed, Isabella sat up and grabbed her phone. Assembling a group text of all her female friends (minus Katie), she sent out her plan. It shouldn't be that hard to paint Ferb's tools pink in a few hours, considering they'd done everything from building a roller coaster to implementing a new language throughout the Tri-State Area in the same amount of time. The hard part would be how to keep Ferb away until it was done…
Isabella grinned as an idea popped in her head and she grabbed her phone again. It was late, but the boys didn't share a room so the chance that Ferb would see Phineas' phone before Phineas did was very slim. She typed out:
Hey Phin, the girls and I have a surprise for Ferb tomorrow but it needs to be done over there and we need you to keep him away for a few hours. Can you do that for me please?
She deliberately said "the girls" so that Phineas wouldn't think it was all her, just in case he did have some feelings for her…
Wait, did that matter anymore? Isabella stopped to think about it before she sent the text. Did she still have feelings for Phineas? She sat up on her bed and closed her eyes.
Alright, Phineas or Ferb. Life without Phineas; she imagined it for a moment and grimaced. That would be so boring… hmm. Life without Ferb…? Her eyes shot open almost instantly and she gasped. Her heart ached at the thought. She could live without him… but she really didn't want to. Life would be just as boring as it would be without Phineas, but it would also be so painful.
Well… that decided that, she thought, and pushed the send button on her phone. She wasn't expecting him to respond very quickly—he loved his sleep—but before she could shut it off and put it on her bedside table, it buzzed in her hand.
Sure
She smiled and put her phone away, not bothering to text him back that night. As she got dressed in her pajamas and laid down on her bed, she created a mental list of what she wanted to do the next day with Katie's words ringing through her mind.
"Out-romance him. Flowers, cards, chocolates, candy hearts, and all that."
Phineas rolled over, waking up as his phone buzzed. He always fell asleep early, but was a light sleeper. He groaned and grumbled as he picked up his phone and winced at the bright light as he powered it on. He read the text from Isabella through one eye. He sent back one word, sure, before turning it off again and putting it back on his bedside table.
As he rolled over to go back to sleep, he grinned. A surprise for Ferb, huh? Interesting…
I wonder if they'll have Candace plan their wedding too…
Next is veebee again. Review and follow :)
