Bitter Sweetwater, Part 2

Thursday Afternoon

"Adyson, it's pretty clear to me that you've got it bad for him," Isabella said just before she dove gracefully into her pool.

Adyson's third visit for the week was with Isabella for some pool time, and upon her arrival Isabella had been able to tell something was troubling her more than just having so far wasted her summer. Adyson had retold the events of the past couple of days as well as her talk with Django after the Slushy Dawg escapade. Isabella swam underneath the pristine blue water for a few moments before popping up right at Adyson's feet.

"That can't possibly be it," Adyson told her. "I mean, I hadn't seen or heard from him for years since he moved away. And when I first met him again he just infuriated me so much!"

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," Isabella replied as she let herself float on her back a bit. "First off, clearly whatever first impression you had of him when you saw him again has changed."

Adyson looked away from her sheepishly. "Well yeah…"

"Also, didn't you say you two were really close when you were little?"

"We went to kindergarten together, along with Phineas and Ferb."

"And I distinctly remember you admitting even at the welcome back party that you thought he was cute."

Adyson sighed in frustration as she walked alongside the look, looking at Isabella as she floated. "Am I not allowed to simply find a guy cute?"

Isabella stopped floating on her back and swam towards the side of the pool near Adyson. "Of course you're allowed, but that's not the point."

"So what is the point, then?"

Isabella grabbed a nearby ladder and climbed out of her pool. She wrapped a towel around her midsection and grabbed another for her hair as she walked back over to Adyson.

"This isn't just something that's a recent phenomenon, Addie," she told her while drying her hair. "You haven't just recently started liking Django. You've liked him all along. It's just that now you're both older and those feelings are far stronger than they were when you were little."

"But he's just so…I mean even if you're right, and I'm not saying you are yet Izzie, there are things about him that just bother me so much!"

Isabella laughed at the comment. "Welcome to the world of liking a guy. Do you think any of us who're romantically involved like every single thing about our boyfriends?"

"Well, yeah. You especially."

Isabella shook her head at her friend. "Even Phineas has his moments, trust me. For the life of me if I never see another Space Adventure movie I'll consider myself blessed, but he loves them and insists on quoting lines from whichever one of the movies we happen to be watching. Sometimes he'll even drop a quote out of the blue when he thinks it's appropriate. It's the height of aggravating. But I love him despite it all."

"Pet peeves are one thing, though. There are things about Django's attitude and even things he believes in that I'm not sure I can deal with. We've grown to become two very different people."

"Are these things so bad that they make you dislike him?"

"Absolutely not!"

Adyson practically shouted the answer. Isabella stifled another chuckle at how quickly and energetically she had responded.

"Are these things anything that you might be willing and able to help him change about himself," Isabella asked, continuing her line of questioning.

"…I would like to go shopping with him sometime for some better clothes," Adyson said after pondering for a few moments.

"Adyson, just face it already. You like Django a lot. A whole lot. My advice to you is this: If you want to deal with these feelings and start getting some fun out of your summer, the best possible answer is for you to start going out with him."

"What if things don't go well between us, though? What if…we end up hating each other?"

"You won't know until you try, right?"

Isabella's comment immediately made Adyson recall saying the exact same thing to Django the previous day. The irony of it was certainly not lost on her.

"Fortune favors the bold," she added quietly. "But…I just really don't know, Izzie."

"You'll figure it out," Isabella told her as she stretched out on a deck chair to sun herself. "Maybe yet today even. Django will be over with Phineas pretty soon after all."

Adyson's eyes went wide with shock. "WHAT?"

"Oh please, Addie. Do you think much of anything goes on with any of the girls that I don't know about? I've been talking to Katie, Ginger, and Gretchen all week about this. I invited Phineas over to swim today too, and I told him to see if Django wanted to come as well, which he did. Don't worry; I didn't mention that you'd be here too."

"You could've at least told me before I came over! I could've picked a nicer swimsuit than this plain old red one-piece!"

Isabella could barely contain her amusement. "Oh so now you're all concerned about how you look because Django's coming?"

"Of course! I mean, no! I mean…gah!"

"Just relax. Boys like girls in just about any swimsuit."

"Easy for you to say, you've actually got a good figure, a tan, and a nice swimsuit," Adyson said, looking over Isabella's violet-colored two-piece. "I'm about as plain as you can get. Not to mention I'm white as a sheet."

"Adyson, try having a little confidence in yourself. You said Django admitted to finding you attractive, so go with that."

"But I still don't…I mean he's just a…I'm not really…oh why is this so confusing?"

"Like I said earlier, welcome to the world of liking a guy."

Adyson shook her head in a combination of confusion and disappointment as she began walking towards the diving board. "I need to do something to clear my head. I'm gonna take a quick dip, okay?"

"Have at it. That's why I invited you over in the first place."

Moments later, just as Adyson had completed her dive into the deep end of the pool, Phineas and Django arrived. Phineas wore dark blue swim trunks while Django's were light blue with a Hawai'ian floral pattern on them. Both had towels hanging around their necks.

"Hey guys, glad you could make it," Isabella told them. "We were getting a little bored hanging out by the pool by ourselves."

"We," Phineas repeated questioningly. "I don't see anyone else here."

Isabella grinned at him. "Wait for it."

Django was about to echo Phineas' confusion when it happened. It was like a scene out of some movie, and it felt like it was happening in slow-motion to boot. Adyson emerged from underwater at the end of the pool just in front of Django and pushed herself up out of the water using the edge of the pool wall. She threw her head back to get her wet hair out of her face, which had the effect of arching her back and thrusting her chest out a bit. Her wet swimsuit hugged every small curve on her athletic body as well. All told it gave Django a whole new perspective on a girl he was already harboring burgeoning feelings for, and as such it left him positively dumbstruck.

"That was refreshing," Adyson said as she ran her hands through her wet hair to make sure it stayed out of her face. "Oh, hey guys. What's wrong with Django?"

"You can be a little on the evil side sometimes, Izzie," Phineas told his girlfriend as he smirked at her. "You know that, right?"

Isabella simply donned a pair of sunglasses and lay back on her chair again. "Yes. Yes I do."

Thursday Evening

Adyson hugged her knees as she sat beside the pool. Phineas and Isabella were chatting away as they tended to the grill for dinner that night. Django was still inside showering and cleaning up after all the swimming he'd done. Adyson herself had long since changed out of her swimsuit into a sleeveless blouse and capris with sandals on her feet. The day had never really gotten all that hot, and the evening was cooling off rapidly. As another shiver came over her, she felt a dry towel get draped over her shoulders. She looked up and saw Django, who'd just returned.

"Chilly evening, huh," he commented as he sat in the chair next to hers.

"Yeah," she replied. "You okay?"

"For now. One thing that is good about Cali is the temperature. I was never good at dealing with the cold."

"I'm not exactly a fan myself, but I don't mind it. It's part of living here, after all."

"That's true. So, how was your day today?"

"Not bad at all. This week's been getting progressively better as I think about it."

"I'm glad to hear that. You seem like you've been in need of some cheering up lately."

"I've…had a lot on my mind is all."

"Anything you wanna talk about? I'm all ears."

"Well…half of it is I just feel like I've been wasting my summer vacation so far. I've had a couple good times this week so far, granted, but…I just haven't done anything really interesting or fun yet. I don't want to start school again and feel like I didn't do anything for three months."

"I can appreciate that, but what's the other half?"

"The other half is something I'm not prepared to talk about right now. I'm sorry, but it's…really difficult."

"I can appreciate that too, and I'll respect your privacy. Just understand that I'm here for you if or when you do want to talk."

"Thank you, Django. I promise sometime soon I will talk about it. Just not now."

"You're welcome. As for your first problem, I think I might just have an idea for you."

"At this point I'll try just about anything."

"Are you free tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, I don't have anything going on. Why?"

"Can you meet me in Danville Park at about eight A.M.?"

"I guess, but what do you have in mind?"

"I kinda want to keep it a surprise, if you're cool with that. Just come wearing clothes you're comfortable in, nothing fancy. And make sure you're wearing tennis shoes."

Adyson smiled and shook her head to herself. "Okay. This had better be good."

"Do you trust me?"

Adyson was about to answer offhandedly, but saw an uncommonly serious look on Django's face as he looked at her. It felt oddly compelling to see him like that, and she had to stop herself from leaning towards him as she found herself getting lost in his eyes for a moment.

"I trust you, Django," she said confidently. "I know you wouldn't ask me to try something unless you really did think I would like to some degree."

"Thanks, Addie," he replied, smiling warmly at her. "Now whadya say we get some dinner?"

"Sounds like a good call. I'm starving."

The two got up and went to check on the status of the burgers being grilled. As the night progressed, Adyson found her thoughts completely occupied by Django. At one point she found herself musing that whatever he had in store for the morning could be construed as a date from a certain point of view. She shook that thought out of her head as she ate, talked, and laughed with her friends. Her summer so far might not have been all that interesting, but she was having fun nonetheless. At that moment, that was all that seemed to matter.

Friday Morning

Adyson worriedly looked at her watch as she wandered into the park. It was still a few minutes before eight in the morning, but she didn't want to be late to meet Django. Whether this was actually a "date" or not, she didn't want him to think for a moment that she had blown him off. Just as she was about to reach for her cell phone in the pocket of her shorts, she spotted him stretching near a water fountain. She called out to him as she jogged over to meet him.

"Right on time," he commented as she reached him. "I shouldn't have expected any less from you."

"Don't kid yourself, I was late getting out of the house," she told him. "So what's this surprise idea of yours?"

Django did a few more stretches and then smiled brilliantly at her and pronounced, "We're gonna go running."

Adyson was understandably underwhelmed. "Running? That's it?"

"Well, yes and no. You'll see as we go. For now let's just get underway."

Adyson had to force herself to not get sarcastic with him right then and there. There had to be something more to this if Django had specifically asked her to come do it with him. She nodded and the two began to jog side-by-side through the park.

"I gotta say, I never picked you to be an exercise nut," she said once they'd been underway for a couple of minutes.

"Oh, I'm not," he replied.

"What? Then why the heck are we running? Are we heading somewhere?"

"Maybe, but that's not the point. You'd be surprised the kind of fun you can have while running. The joy is in the journey, after all."

"Django, you're making no sense at all."

Django sighed, but upon seeing a change in the landscape ahead he quickly smiled.

"Maybe this'll help you figure it out," he told her.

Before Adyson could get another word in, Django took off at a much faster pace towards a set of tiered stairs that led up a rather large hill in the park. Each tier had a section of wall to it as well, which were staggered like massive stairs for a giant. She saw him running straight for the first section of wall and called out to him to warn him, but in the next moment she realized her concern wasn't necessary. Django jumped, his right foot touching the wall just enough to give him an extra push upwards. He grabbed the top of the wall and hoisted himself up it in one motion. He then continued upwards along the walls doing the same thing all the way up.

As Adyson approached the obstacle herself she quickly decided she wasn't capable of doing the same thing. Instead she took the stairs, but taking a cue from Django's ascent she decided to take the steps two or three at a time instead of one at a time. She reached the top moments after Django finished pulling himself up the final wall. They both stopped to catch their breaths for a moment.

"That was amazing," she told him between breaths. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"In San Fran, where else," he told her. "My friend Vic introduced me to free running out there."

"I've heard of that before. That's where guys run all over the place, climbing and flipping and stuff, right?"

"That's it, but there's more to it than just a bunch of stunts. I thought you might like to try it out yourself. You being a former Fireside Girl, I figured you did your fair share of climbing and such."

"Oh yeah, I certainly did," Adyson said with a laugh, recalling the many times she ended up tethered to Gretchen on various climbing expeditions. "So how's this work, then?"

"Just figure out how you want to go, it's that simple."

"But wouldn't the stairs have just been the easiest way to go back there?"

"The easy way isn't always the best way. Just do what feels right to you. C'mon, let's go!"

Django took off running again, with Adyson quickly on his heels. Together they traversed the park like few others ever had. They vaulted over low walls, ran up slides and across teeter totters on playgrounds, and jumped benches like hurdles. Adyson even saw Django add a forward roll or even a flip as a flourish after getting past some obstacles and did the same as well herself at times.

After a couple of hours of running, broken up by stops to catch their breath or get some water, the two finally came to the fountain in the middle of the park. They sat next to each other on the edge of the fountain as they caught their breath once again.

"I gotta admit," Adyson told him as she leaned back on her hands, "that was the most fun I've ever had while running. Not to mention the most fun I've had in a while period."

"I knew you'd love it if you gave it a try," Django replied. "Admittedly I'm not as good as Vic is, but I'm working at it."

"Are you kidding? You flipped while jumping over that one park bench! You had me impressed."

"Compared to you scaling that playground equipment by climbing the fireman's pole that was nothing. How'd you do that?"

"Don't you remember? I used to do that when we were kids at recess all the time."

"Yeah but that was years ago! You must still be pretty fit to pull that off now."

"I try to stay in shape, yeah. But the same goes for you if you can do this kinda stuff."

"More like doing this stuff is what keeps me in shape, heh."

"Well for exercise, this is pretty fun. Thanks for inviting me to do this, Django."

"You're welcome. I'm glad I could share this with you. Though to tell the truth, I had a selfish reason for asking you to do this too."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, well…I mean we are alone doing this together and all. It's kind of an odd one, but it's still-"

"-kind of like a date." Adyson finished his sentence for him, causing Django a bit of embarrassment.

"So you thought that too, huh," he asked, suddenly finding it hard to make eye contact with her.

"It was hard not to," she replied, acting likewise.

"So do you think?"

"About what?"

Django forced himself to look back up at her again. "About this. About dating. About…me?"

Adyson fell silent for a moment and then stood up, turning away from him.

"Remember that other half I couldn't talk to you about yesterday," she asked him.

"Yeah."

"This is it.

"Oh…I see."

"It's not…don't get me wrong, Django. Like I said, it's difficult."

"What's so difficult about it? Adyson, you know I-"

Adyson whirled to look at him, her eyes pleading with him. "Don't say it! For God's sake, please, Django! Not now…at least not yet. I'm still so confused. My heart's telling me one thing and my head is telling me the exact opposite and I don't know which one to listen to anymore. There's only one thing I know for sure, and that's if we did get together it's only going to end up hurting us both."

Django stood up now, his expression showing that he was clearly beginning to get upset. "How do you figure that?"

"Because you don't live here anymore," Adyson said, practically shooting the words at him. "Danville is not your home, Django, San Francisco is. You said it yourself back at your welcome party. How exactly is any relationship between us going to work or even last if we're hundreds of miles away from each other for most of the year? I'm not sure I can do that, and I don't want to make you suffer through that either. It would just make the most sense if-"

"Damn it, Adyson, I don't care what makes sense!"

Adyson froze in utter shock at Django's exclamation. She didn't know what was more surprising: hearing him swear, even if it was rather mildly, or seeing him actually get angry. Django walked slowly over towards her and stopped just a few feet away from her, his eyes locked on hers.

"I told you before that I came here for the summer because Jenny's gonna be in Candace's wedding," he told her. "But that's just the cover story. The reality is I had to get away from that place. I begged my dad to let me come out here with Jenny. The people and the lifestyle out there drive me absolutely crazy, Addie! I tried to make friends out there. You know how many real friends I have? Two! You know both of them by name now from my stories. Everyone else out there thinks I'm not worth their time.

"You know how many times I've tried to get a girlfriend out there? I've had six first dates and zero second dates. The girls there are so vapid and self-absorbed that every time I try to date one of them I end up disgusted with myself for thinking they might be more dynamic and interesting than cardboard! And then I come back here and I meet you again. I remembered all the good times we had as kids and I remembered how much I liked you back then. And now on top of all that you've become this incredibly pretty girl who's smart, has a razor-sharp wit, and a passion for life. Is it any wonder that I'm crazy about you?

"I know I have to go back in about two months. I know it'd be hard to maintain a relationship from that far away. But I can't help myself anymore, Adyson. I can't help how I feel, and I refuse to let something as stupid as reason or logic tell me what would be 'best' to do. I like you. I think I may even love you, Addie. If I only have two months to spend with you, then I want to spend that time being with you and making you the happiest girl in the Tri-State Area."

"Django…" Adyson said his voice quietly as she was still reeling from his rant. "What…what am I supposed to say to that? What am I supposed to do?"

"Just answer one question for me, Addie. In all honesty, what am I to you?"

Adyson searched for an answer, but it was futile given her state of mind. "I…I…I'm sorry. I don't know. I honestly don't know right now. I'm so sorry…"

Adyson sobbed a little as her emotions overcame her. Django moved to try and comfort her, but she quickly recoiled from him.

"Please…don't, Django. I…I need time to think. Alone."

"I understand," Django said, nodding to her. "I'm sorry, Addie. I didn't mean to dump all of this on you like this."

Adyson shook her head at him as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "No, don't be sorry. You can't help how you feel. Besides, this is very like you. You've always been very well in touch with your feelings. I think that's why you're such an amazing artist. I'm just…very terrible about this sort of thing."

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right? Anytime."

Adyson shook her head at him. "Not this. I need to figure it out myself. But I'll make you a promise."

Django simply nodded to her as she stood up straight and took a deep breath.

"Phineas and Ferb's family always has a party on the Fourth of July," she told him. "Come to that party. I promise you…one way or another I'll have an answer to your question then and there."

Django nodded at her. "I'll be there without fail."

Adyson nodded in return and turned to leave, but paused to say one last thing. "For what it's worth, Django? I did think of this as a date too. And I had a really good time with you. The best I've had all summer so far. Thank you."

With that said, Adyson took off running once again, leaving Django alone to wonder what was left for him to do to try and win the heart of the girl he'd been in love with for as long as he could remember.

To Be Concluded...

Next Episode Preview: Part one of the three part Independence Day Extravaganza! Phineas and Ferb begin plans for the biggest and best Fourth of July Party ever. But how will finding out about Django's romantic troubles with Adyson affect their preparations?