CHAPTER 9- Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews on this story! I'm having fun reading what you guy's think of my work! Anyway, at the end of this chapter, I wrote why I chose Frank. Yup.

By the way, in here I make Isabella's middle name Alyson, because Alyson Stoner voices her. Just in case you're wondering.

Quick, choose one!

A) Creepy lady who likes to turn people into other things

OR

B) A person who can see ghosts?

Let me know! Read and enjoy!

The real problem begins when mine, Buford and Baljeet's cell phones all ring simultaneously at around 9:45, all of them displaying the same caller ID:

HOME.

ISABELLA'S POV

Shoot! We forgot to tell our parents something! I look over at Buford and Baljeet, who are looking over at me. They both look nervous. Candace frowns as she sees our faces.

"What's wrong, you guys?"

I show her what my phone says and she pales. "Darn it. Wait! OK, quick, tell them you're with us and we are all camping with our friend Vanessa and her dad."

The three of us look at Candace like she's grown another head, and she rolls her eys. "Just do it!"

I answer my phone quickly, trying to settle my nerves, and bring it slowly to my ear.

"Hi Mom."

"Isabella Alyson Garcia-Shapiro! You are in so much trouble young lady! Where are you?"

I wince at the use of my full name, and gulp slowly, looking at Baljeet and Buford. From the looks on their faces, it's easy to see that they're in the same kind of trouble I am. I return my attention to my mother. "I'm sorry, ma. I was going to call, but I couldn't get cell service. Candace and Phineas and Ferb invited me to go camping with them and their friends Dad."

"So you didn't bother waiting for my permission before you went?"

I winced again. "You've let me go on so many camping trips that I thought it wouldn't matter. I can ask her Dad to bring me home if you want."

My Mom sighs on the other end of the phone. "No. You said Candace was there?"

"Yes."

"May I speak to her please?"

I hand the phone to Candace and she takes it nervously, placing it next to her ear and taking a deep breath before answering. "Hi, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro."

Even from 4 feet away, I can still hear my Mom. "Candace Flynn, you should have had the kids call me before you did something nuts like this!"

Candace sighs. "I know, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro. I'm sorry; it was completely irresponsible of me. Please let Isabella go."

"Of course she can go!" I hear my Mom yell. "But if anything happens to her, I'm holding it to you."

With that, she hangs up the phone.

After Candace has finished saying pretty much the same thing to Buford and Baljeet's Mom's too, we all have permission to stay where we are….or at least, where they think we are. After handing Baljeet's phone back to him, Candace turns to Jeremy. "Is your Mom going to flip, too?"

Jeremy shakes his head, but a look of uncertainty crosses his face. "I don't think so. Let me call Coltrane and get him to cover for me."

Carl quickly puts a hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "We already erased his memory."

Jeremy smiles, a bit sheepishly if I do say so myself. "Yeah, but he's covered for me before, no questions asked."

Candace's eyes widen. "He has? For what?"

"Sometimes I just need to get out, you know? So every now and then I sneak out of the house and leave a note on my bed saying I went to Coltrane's. He's always got my back."

Candace still looks suspicious, but she agrees to let Jeremy call Coltrane. The call is short, and true to Jeremy's word, Coltrane will cover for him for however long is necessary-and he didn't ask any questions. Coltrane did say Jeremy should call his Mom, though, and so while the rest of us turn our attention back to the blue prints, Jeremy goes to call his Mom.

We work for a while, only losing focus when Jeremy comes back and says that everything is cool with him and his Mom, and another time when Dr. D's vaccum-inator comes by under our feet and we have to lift them up. Finally, I get up to grab a new pencil for Phineas and my eyes catch a tired glimpse of the clock. "Holy crud guys, it's almost midnight!"

Everyone looks up, eyes bleary and red, and I realize that everyone is yawning. "OK," Dr. D says, stretching and standing up, "we can set up camp in the living room. Phineas, you can take my bed, like you did earlier, and Ferb is asleep in Vanessa's room. Girls, you can all share the sofa bed, and boys, I have some sleeping bags we can use on the floor."

"Aw, come on!" Buford cries, and then to my surprise, Baljeet punches him in the shoulder hard enough for the bully to cry out and shut up.

"Thank you, Dr. D," he says, glaring at Buford.

"Wait," Phineas says, "what about Perry?"

Vanessa stands up as well, stretching and as I hear her back crack, she says "I have my old dog Jessie's bed around here somewhere. You can use that, OK Perry?"

Perry nods stiffly and hops down off his chair. The rest of us stand up, groaning, and make our way to the living room, now completely spotless. Candace and I pull out the sofa bed and the boys help Dr. D bring up the sleeping bags from the storage area. Vanessa comes back as they are setting out the last one and she puts the dog bed down a few feet away from everyone just as Perry comes back from taking Phineas to his room. He chatters in approval and jumps into it, settling down with creaks and groans that even I can hear from across the room.

I walk over to the bed and kneel down in front of him, looking him in the eye. He looks tired, confused and a little scared. "Hey," I say, rubbing his head gently, now free of the fedora, "doing OK?"

He nods, and grimaces in pain. I rub my hand gently over some of the larger cuts and smile at him.

"Everyone will be fine you know." Perry looks up at me with an uncertain look in his eye. "Hey, come on. Whenever you don't destroy Dr. D's inventions, don't they normally work?" He nods reluctantly, a hint of a smile on his face. "And don't our inventions always work?"

He nods again, and a tired smile alights on his face. "Night, Perry."

He chatters in response and I stand up, heading back over to the bed where Candace and Vanessa have already crashed, both of them totally zonked out.

I lay down on the end carefully, so as not to wake them up, and Pinky hops up next to me. I freeze, and look down at the Chihuahua. His big brown eyes meet mine, and for a moment I just look at them. Courage, intelligence, and calmness are displayed prominently, but I also see fear, desire, love and affection in them. I think I just earned my "Reading another person's emotions" patch. Although, I'm not sure if Pinky would count as a person. I re-focus my attention on him and smile softly. "Hey, I'm not mad that you're a secret agent Pinky. I promise."

He smiles brightly and curls back up next to me, falling asleep almost instantly. I wrap my arm around him and try to fall asleep as well, but for some reason, I can't. I must've though, because the next time I look at my watch, it's 3 in the morning.

I'm parched, and I manage to find my way over to the kitchen without getting lost to get some water. On my way back, as I'm stepping carefully over Jeremy with glass in hand, I notice a soft light coming from under Ferb's door. Curious, I walk over, almost falling flat on my face as I trip over Carl. Luckily, he doesn't wake up, so I go over to the door and push it open quietly.

"Dr. D?" I whisper, a bit surprised at seeing the evil doctor in here. He looks up from the People magazine he's reading and smiles. "Oh, hi."

"What are you doing in here?" I ask softly, walking over and setting my glass down on the nightstand next to him. He shrugs.

"I got up about an hour ago to check on both boys and their bandages. Phineas stayed asleep the whole time, but Ferb woke up and wanted to talk a little, so I stayed in here."

"Wait, wait, wait," I say, holding up my hands. "Ferb wanted to talk?"

"I know, right? Anyway, he dozed off about 15 minutes ago, but I stayed in here just in case. I'm not really all that tired."

He punctuates that sentence with a yawn that could fill the Grand Canyon. I snicker and sit down on the bed next to Ferb, taking his left hand, the least injured, into mine. I look the boy over slowly, and then turn to Dr. D. "He….your machine's going to work, right?"

"I hope so." Dr. D smiles and I get the feeling that he's going to keep talking. "From the way this kid talks about what you guys have pulled off this summer, I think it will. I mean a rollercoaster? Travelling through time? Giant tree house robots and a shrinking submarine? Not to mention the chaos you created outside today, err…..yesterday. That was spectacular! You know, up until…" He trails off.

After a moment, he looks at me. "You're awfully worried about him. Do you-"

I cut him off abruptly. "No. He's my best friend, and if your best friend was this badly hurt, wouldn't you be acting like this?"

Dr. D smiles and pats my head. "I suppose I would. You should get back to bed. It's getting late, go get some rest."

I nod and give Ferb another small kiss on the cheek. Then, to both mine and Dr. D's surprise, I turn and throw my arms around the scientist in a hug.

"Thank you."

Well? I literally typed all of this last night while I was babysitting, after the kids went to bed. I was going to post it, but the parents came home before I could.

Here is your answer to the Frank question, guys!

OK, the reason for Frank is because Jeff and Dan have a friend named Frank who they call Ferb. Yes, it's that simple, and that's where Ferb actually gets his name from. Congrats to Quantomkid for getting it right!

Stay tuned for the next chapter, which will probably be up later this afternoon, and please R and R!