In English the following morning the air between Isabella and Phineas felt charged.
Her mother had teased her about her date all the way to school the night before, and Phineas had been the only thing on her mind during rehearsal. It had even caused her to mess up on her lines to the point where some people asked her if she was alright.
And now everyone could tell something was different between Phineas and Isabella.
Well, no. Ferb could tell something was different. No one else. Isabella was only recently starting to realize how clueless their society was when it came to romance.
But the fact that he was the only one who noticed did not stop Ferb from giving both her and Phineas teasing smiles all throughout the period.
It definitely did not stop either of them from glaring back. And then noticing each other and blushing and looking away.
By the time lunch hour rolled around, even Katie was catching on that something was up.
"Hey, are you two okay?" she said, mainly to Isabella.
"FINE!" Isabella screamed, at the same time Phineas yelled "YEP!"
Suddenly everyone in the lunchroom was staring at them.
"Yep, they're hiding something." Buford deadpanned.
"What, no, why would we—"
"What would I possibly have to—"
"What is going on with you two?" Katie asked.
Ferb was struggling to hold back laughter. "Oh, nothing. They're just really bad at hiding their feelings."
"Ferb!" both of them hissed to him at the same time.
Ferb laughed again.
Eventually people's attention traveled back to whatever they'd been focused on before, and Baljeet cleared his throat to draw the attention of the table to him. "So, mostly to change the topic from… whatever is going on between you two—" he gestured at Phineas and Isabella. "Is there any plan for today's lunch hour?"
"Yes, please tell us!" Isabella said, still a bit too loud.
"Uh, yeah, hang on." Phineas said, turning to his backpack and pulling out the latest invention, which was dessert related this time.
"What're you gonna do when you run out of parts of a meal?" Buford asked.
"We'll see." Phineas said with a grin, seeming to have calmed down a bit as hovering robot menus floated around to various tables, asking for which dessert people wanted.
In art, which was the class Isabella had right after lunch, along with Buford and Phineas, the two were focused on each other again, their gazes wandering, and both were finding it very hard to pay attention.
Luckily, Isabella's last two hours were Phineas-free, and Phineas had Robotics Club on Wednesdays, so she didn't have to worry about seeing him on the bus.
When Isabella got home, she grabbed her phone on a whim and texted Katie before she could really think about what she was doing.
'Hey Katie, how would you feel if I dated someone other than my soulmate?'
As soon as she sent it she regretted it. Where in the world had that come from? Since when was she dating Phineas? She had stressed so much last night that it was not a date.
But, then again… wasn't it?
Katie replied: 'Ha. Nice joke, Isabella.'
And now she felt so much worse.
She grabbed her homework and sat at her desk, trying to focus on it. It wasn't working.
At 4PM Isabella noticed Phineas walking into his backyard across the street, and immediately felt like a stalker who was watching him. Like a creep. Like a stalker. Like a creepy stalker.
And then she climbed up and walked down the steps, out the door, and across the street, knocking on the gate only once before pushing it open.
Ferb was there too, and now she felt embarrassed that she hadn't noticed him earlier. He seemed to pick up on what was going on, though, because he quietly excused himself.
For several seconds the two stared at each other.
"Um… hi." Phineas said.
"So, are we going to talk?" Isabella asked. Might as well jump right to it.
"About what?"
"You know. About last night. Was it a date or not. About the way we've been staring at each other all day and now everyone is noticing. How confusing this is, because we're not soulmates. About how we've known each other for less than a week. We're teenagers, and this could all disappear in like, 3 months so is it even worth seeing where this goes. And about how I kind of really want to see where this goes anyway because I've had my whole life planned out since I could read and this was not in the plan and it's really exciting and amazing and also kind of terrifying. And about how I've known you for less than a week and know almost nothing about you aside from the facial image you show to the world. Do you even think a crush can form that quickly?"
"I don't know." Phineas said. He looked a little stunned. "I mean, they say your soulmate is love at first sight."
"That's bullshit." Isabella said, never having really believed so before now.
"Well…" Phineas said slowly. "If you really think you don't know me that well…" he walked over to the tree and sat down. "Ask me anything." He patted the seat next to him.
She hadn't been expecting that. With only a little hesitation, Isabella walked over and sat down, but it took her a minute to figure out what she wanted to ask.
When she couldn't come up with anything, she settled on: "Um, where did you move here from?"
"Downtown." Phineas said. "I mean, we kind of wanted to go to another school when we moved, and Mom and Dad wanted a break from city life. Oh, and of course my sister spent a ton of time in Danville because her soulmate was here, so she convinced Mom and Dad how great it was and this is where we moved."
"Oh, Candace Flynn and Jeremy Johnson!" Isabella realized. "Everyone knows that story."
"Yeah. That's my sister."
"Wow. I bet that can get annoying."
"All the time. I mean, it's not so much a problem at school, because we're known for other reasons, but I've lost count of how many times someone's walked up to me in the grocery store and said 'Hey, aren't you Candace Flynn's brother? Wow, you're so lucky!' or something like that. Or at least, that happens in this area. Not as much when we go on vacation, and so much more in Danville than downtown."
"Why did you guys have to move to Danville anyway?"
"Uh." Phineas cleared his throat. "Ferb and I— blew up our house."
"What?!"
"Yeah, we're not that great with Chemistry, which can be a problem. We offered to fix it, but I think Mom thought we were joking. She got really irritated and sent us on a 'Everything Shopping Trip.' 'Cause, you know, everything was—"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Isabella said, and suddenly a new question popped into her mind. "Yesterday, at the library," she said, thinking back to how this had sparked her interest. "You said I was a friend, but you said it like that was a brand new thing. I mean, you had to have had friends before, right?"
"Uh, well…" Phineas muttered, and he sighed. "Not really."
Isabella stared at him. "You're telling me you two weren't popular?"
"No, of course we were popular. But that's different. There were a bunch of people who wanted to be friends with us, but mainly because they looked up to us. They viewed us more like… a goal or an amazing achievement or something than like actual people. There's a reason Ferb and I are so close. For most of our life, we were each other's only actual friends."
"Wow…" Isabella said. "Well, I guess I sort of ruined that for you." she said with a nervous chuckle.
"Yep. Now Ferb has more friends than I do, gosh darn it." He snapped his finger.
The two looked at each other for a minute.
"You wanna… ask me anything?" Isabella asked.
"Why did you say you had your whole life planned out since you could read?" Phineas asked.
Isabella bent down and pulled up her sleeve to reveal her name.
Taylor Turner.
She wasn't sure how she felt about that name anymore.
"We were gonna meet and compare the names on our wrists and stare longingly into each other's eyes, and then date approximately three months before getting married at an outdoor wedding so everyone could stop and see. Then we were going to have two children, one named Diego, and one named from his traditional background. We were gonna raise them to be good people and find their own soulmates and they were basically gonna repeat history and have really great lives. When I say I've had my whole life planned out since I could read, I mean I have had my whole life planned out since I could read this name."
Phineas blinked.
"And that's stupid. There's no room for spontaneity or adventure. I don't want my life to follow a script. I want to see what I can make of it." She looked over at Phineas. "You kinda… helped me realize that."
Phineas cheeks went red, and he chuckled. "Well, my motto is 'Carpe Diem'. It's kind of a given."
"What's 'Carpe Diem'?"
"It's Latin for 'seize the day.'"
Isabella laughed. "That sounds very much like you." She looked ahead, not looking him in the eyes, and sighed. "I mean it, Phineas Flynn. You were not in my perfect plan. You are very new and interesting and terrifying all at once. And somehow that's so much better than the idea of a soulmate."
It was silent for a couple seconds, and Isabella felt Phineas looking at her. Eventually he spoke.
"Alright, well you asked me more than one thing, so I'm gonna say I get one more question."
"Ask away."
Phineas swallowed. "Would you let me kiss you?"
Now Isabella looked at Phineas. "Yes."
And they did.