Yes, this is called April Fool's Day, but as it is August, you all can rest easy. This is an actual chapter, not a prank. :)

Forewarning: there is kind of a mini-introduction to a minor OC. She will be introduced more thoroughly in the next couple of chapters. Just don't be weirded out thinking that you missed something. You haven't, we promise.

It took us FOREVER to figure out where we wanted this chapter to go. But once we figured it out, it took off on its own and started growing massive! I'm sure you all will appreciate that.


Disclaimer: Not our sandbox! We're just building stuff in it!


April Fool's Day

[Isabella's Age: 14]

Three months. It's been three months since I found out that Phineas didn't like me—and probably never would. I rolled over and turned off my alarm clock, feeling numb. Every morning for three months I have followed the same repetitive pattern. I would wake up slowly, feeling a chill or hardness in my chest like my heart was turning into either ice or stone. I would get dressed without really thinking of anything, because those first couple of weeks after I had that realization I would break down into tears if I thought about Phineas. Then I would grab my finished homework off of my desk and neatly pack it away into my bag. Then it would be time for breakfast.

Today was no different, though I must be getting a little better—or at least I'm more skilled at keeping my feelings from my face. My mom no longer looked at me with that motherly love/pity over her coffee mug. She was my rock in the beginning few weeks, and I love her for it. But I am so glad she stopped trying to convince me that the pain will eventually go away—that I will get over him soon and will find someone else. Someone 'better'.

As if there were anyone out there better than Phineas Flynn.

I love my mom dearly, but she just doesn't understand! No one understood. Everyone says "You're young," and that I "have my whole life ahead of me," and I would "meet someone else," yada yada yada.

I was not that silly eight-year-old anymore! I'm fourteen for crying out loud. I know what love is—and I loved Phineas. My heart was broken. The end.

But, I like to think myself as realistic. I know I might meet someone else. Or Phineas might wake up someday and fall in love with me and all of my dreams will come true. It could happen. I've seen the movies.

After rinsing out my breakfast dishes, I swung my backpack over my shoulder and walked out the door. It was almost time to catch the bus. It was probably the hardest moment of each day… That first time seeing him.

I could see the bus pulling around the corner as I took my time getting to the stop. This was mostly what I did—wait until the last possible moment to board the bus so I could avoid contact with Phineas for a bit longer. Either that or sometimes I would get an early start and dash off to one of the other girl's stops and ride with them.

Not Ginger though. Not anymore.

I hopped onto the bus with seconds to spare. A few rows back I could see Phineas, Buford, and Baljeet crowded over a piece of paper, with Ferb staring off into space. Darn it! Why weren't there any seats in the front of the bus? I did not want to have to walk past them to an empty seat. The last thing I wanted was to be addressed by any of the guys right now. Just seeing Phineas caused the ache in my chest to grow, let alone actually talking to him. Buford would have likely said something stupid. Baljeet just reminded me of lost friendships and harsh words. And Ferb was… Oh, how I resented him right now.

I didn't think much of the paper, as I was trying to get by them to a seat as far away as possible, until Ferb looked up at me just as I passed and nudged Phineas with his elbow. Phineas looked at me too and stuffed the paper in his open backpack with a not-so-innocent grin on his face. I narrowed my eyes at them, but continued on to my chosen seat. I pulled out a notebook from my backpack to do some practice article writing (I hope I can get on the school newspaper team next year), but now I was curious and I kept watch out of the corner of my eye anyway. Baljeet was not-so-discreetly watching me, but it must have appeared to him that I wasn't paying them any more attention because he turned away, nodding to Phineas who then pulled the paper out again and wrote something down that Buford said but that I couldn't hear. And wasn't that surprising—Buford usually spoke loud enough to be heard up and down the whole bus no matter where he sat.

I found myself watching Phineas' face again. I had been doing that a lot these last few months. That hollow feeling in my chest was still there, but I guess it wasn't as bad as it had been in January. Not by much though. I missed the lightheadedness that used to affect me whenever I thought about Phineas. I would much rather take that over the sad, lonely emptiness that was there now.

My pocket buzzed and I pulled out my phone. It was a text from Ferb.

Are you alright?

I scowled and shoved my phone back into my pocket without replying. The nerve! Everyday the same thing. As smart as he was, one would think he could take a hint.

I was still angry with him—actually, it was probably more like flat out pissed. But at least something good came from my ire towards the Brit. After my breakdown that day those few months ago, the flirting had diminished finally. The intense looks were gone and he no longer crowded in on my personal space (and I definitely did not miss it).

He still tried to be there for me, but I wasn't having any of that. Although thinking back, I was probably taking it a bit far. It's not like I wanted to cut another friend out of my life, but every time I looked at him or even thought about him all I could think was that it was all his fault that Phineas didn't like me. Because he made my one true love think that Ferb liked me, and Phineas is such a sweetheart that of course he would back off of his 'brother's girl'.

Never mind the fact that I am not—nor will I ever be—'Ferb's girl'.

Baljeet's dulcet voice caught my attention, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Can we please leave Ginger out of it? I do not want her upset with me too."

Ginger… I felt my stomach flip and my eyes stung. Thinking about her brought up similar feelings that thinking about Phineas did. Besides the loneliness and sadness, though, there were also feelings of pain and more than a little bit of fury.

You know, everyone says that people change in high school and that the friends you have as kids wouldn't last there. I always thought it was nonsense. Sure, my friend group was large, but I honestly didn't think that any of us would ever change. Boy was I wrong. The worst part was… it came straight out of nowhere!

Ever since even before freshman year, I think some of our classmates had the same stupid idea in their heads that I was going to get with Ferb. Maybe it was because of that silly Valentine's Day thing. Or maybe it was the health class assignment. Or maybe it was just because we always hung out together. Maybe Adyson was spreading rumors. Heck! Maybe Phineas was spreading rumors! It hurt to think that, but somehow I wouldn't put it past him to do so. But yeah, plenty of people thought I liked Ferb, which still was not true!

Anyway, Ginger never tolerated those thoughts herself. She insisted with all her heart that I belonged with Phineas. Then, after Adyson told her about Ferb and mine's kiss on New Year's Eve, it was like she took it as a personal insult—like I had deliberately stomped all over her 'feelings' because I kissed Ferb instead of Phineas. Like that should even matter to her! She started acting all snarky and offensive about it, finding new ways to bring it up whenever we were around each other—to the point where even Adyson (who had outed me in the first place) started defending me. She had practically started insinuating that I had done something foul and was a horrible person.

The impending break happened when she snubbed me saying that "At least I got the boy of my dreams! It's a good thing you never got Phineas though. He deserves someone better than you. He will find someone who suits him like Baljeet and I do each other and you will just have to always settle for the lesser man."

And that was that. I felt tears filling my eyes and I closed my lids to hold them back. I remembered the rage that overwhelmed me that day. I was so close to slapping her. If Katie hadn't grabbed me, I probably would have. Even now, remembering her words still made me mad. To say that Baljeet was the boy of anyone's dreams would make someone question her sanity—he's almost as annoying as Irving (not quite, but it's close). To say that I'm not good enough for Phineas when we are so alike was insulting. To claim that he will someday find his perfect match that wasn't me was painful.

But to call Ferb the lesser man…?

No.

I may not be happy with him right now, but he was still one of my best friends. And that seriously crossed the line. I missed Ginger—The girl who had been my best friend since Pre-K. But that was it. She had insulted me. She had insulted Phineas. She had insulted Ferb. There are some things I couldn't forgive very easily, and I wasn't going to take it anymore.

My phone buzzed with another text message and I pulled it out.

I'm not going to stop until you talk to me again.

Ferb… I rolled my eyes and put my phone back into my pocket. I chanced a quick look over at the boys and my eyes met blue. I spotted a quick flash of triumph in his eyes before I turned away, wiping away the small grin I didn't realize I had.

Ridiculous man.


It wasn't until the end of homeroom that I thought again about that paper the boys had—and that was because I was pretty certain exactly what that paper must have been… As we were packing up our bags to head off to our separate classes, the teacher gave an announcement that he did not seem all that enthused about.

"I know next week is April Fool's Day, and though the school has a rather lax stance on pranks between classes, please remember that such actions during class will result in punishment."

Throughout the entire school day, I thought about what the guys might be thinking. I also tried to do some plotting of my own, but I couldn't come up with anything… good. It's hard coming up with something creative and mischievous. I think I'm going to need some backup… And maybe do some light recon.

As children we had never really done much for April Fool's Day, at least not to each other. I remember the boys did something to Candace once, but it was more for her than to her. I vaguely recall it being something for a concert or a sold out activity she wanted to go to, but couldn't get the tickets and then "April Fools! We got it for you!"

But other than that random year, we didn't do anything.

Until last year…

Last year, I'm not sure how they did it—or why, because the fact that they had done it in the first place was random itself—but the boys put some kind of hair dye into each of our shower heads. Usually color didn't work well in my dark hair, but they must have made something special because I ended up going to school with my hair and eyebrows an ugly, neon yellow. Since there were seven of us girls in the group, it would be an accurate thing to guess that we all each ended up with one of the seven colors of the rainbow.

The absolute worst—or best, depending on who you asked—was when we were sitting together at lunch. The colors were even more obnoxiously bright together, the entire cafeteria was snickering at us. And I knew that somewhere the guys were laughing their brains out. Probably getting pictures or something. Anyway, I still didn't know what they did, but it only lasted that one day. By the next morning the color was gone. Katie was sad she had lost her purple hair. And though she really hated it, I will admit Gretchen looked pretty cool with the indigo. Maybe someday she will try it again. Who knows.

"Girls," I announced towards the end of lunch to those sitting at my table with me. I was missing Milly, who now usually sat with Ginger during lunch; and Gretchen, who was likely in the library doing some quick fact checking for a homework assignment. I'd catch her later during English or something. "Meeting at my house this afternoon, if you can make it. Code: April Colors."

I saw their expressions change from curious and exasperated at my last minute announcement, to surprise, understanding, and a small amount of outrage. It might seem silly that we, as mature teenagers, still used codes; but they were handy.

It was unanimous: they would be there.


I tucked myself between the fence and a (currently empty) neighbor's house. I guess having a previous owner be arrested right on the doorstep caused some bad luck. All those who have ever moved here didn't stay for very long. But it was an effective place to listen in on the guys as they made their plans.

Some of their ideas were way over the top while others were honestly a little pathetic. It was like they couldn't find a happy medium. Some examples included:

A full garden grown in our lockers. (Complete with beehives, apparently—Buford's suggestion.)

Picture flyers all over school/town with our phone numbers advertising some kind of a contest. (Um… what?)

Caramel onions instead of caramel apples. (Pathetic.)

As the time when I was supposed to be meeting the girls at my house came around, they still hadn't settled on anything. Finally I decided I wasn't going to get anything definitive out of them, but at least I had confirmed that they are planning something so we had all the reason to retaliate.

The last thing I heard was Phineas asking, "Where's Perry?"

I could almost see Ferb rolling his eyes. I think he has a theory about where their pet went daily, but he wasn't sharing it with anyone. Not that it mattered anyway—it was bound to be nothing interesting, considering how little platypus's actually do. But the question made me smile as I thought back to simpler times where friendships would last forever and dreams could still come true…


"GIRLS!" I yelled, slamming the door of my bedroom open. Gretchen, Adyson, Katie, and Holly were there and I think I may have startled them because I saw more than one jump slightly (and Adyson fell off the bed, but whatever). I walked so I stood in front of them and put my hands on my hips, looking very serious. "I have confirmation that the guys are planning something for April Fool's Day again. We need a plan of attack. We cannot let them beat us! So, ideas ladies!"


I sighed dreamily, not wanting to wake up but having no choice. It was weird though—my alarm hadn't gone off yet. Maybe it was just one of those off days where I wake up before my alarm. I could feel the sun shining on my face, so I knew it was at least close to time for me to wake up for school. Oh well, today was a great day to wake up peacefully after a full night's sleep. April Fool's Day! I will likely need all of my energy to face whatever those boys are going to throw at us.

With a grin, I thought back to a week ago when we started our planning, and also yesterday when we began putting our pranks into effect. The guys were building something (probably for their prank against us) in the backyard—all of them, which was perfect! I walked through the gate to distract them while the girls completed their assignments.

It was the first time I was able to stand in their backyard talking to Phineas without feeling like that ache was going to consume me.

I rolled over onto my back and blinked up at the ceiling. Hmm… My room's ceiling was a pastel pink, not blue-gray. I'm at Gretchen's house. I glanced around quickly to check, but no one else was there. So I'm at Gretchen's house alone. Weird…

Oh, duh! April Fools! I close my eyes and shook my head. Really guys? This was what you came up with? Switch us around to each other's rooms while we are asleep? Boring!

Wait… Did they actually move us while we were sleeping? Creepy!

Gretchen's phone started to ring on the table next to me. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I should probably answer it, since Gretchen wasn't there. Maybe it was her trying to contact me. Besides, when I looked at the screen it read Isabella so it was my phone calling anyway.

"Hello?" I said, a little raspy. I needed a drink.

"Isabella?! Please say it's you?!" Wait, weird… the voice was the one I hear on recording when I'm talking… I was listening to myself?

"Uh, yeah. It's me." I responded, rubbing my eyes. The room was a little blurry.

"Oh! Thank God! I've had to call all of the girls to find you! How the heck are you able to do anything with your hair?"

I blinked at that odd question. "Um… what? Who is this?"

"It's Adyson!" She yelled, sounding extremely exasperated. "Seriously, your hair! It's crazy! I can hardly see anything."

I sat up in Gretchen's bed. "What are you talking about?!"

"What do you mean 'What am I talking about'? Haven't you seen what those jerks have done?"

I felt a chill go down my spine. "Um… no?" I replied tentatively. I reached up to rub my head—I was starting to get a headache—and I realized that my hair was… well, not my hair. I pulled a strand out in front of my eyes so I could see it and I shrieked. "What the heck?!"

"I know!" The voice in the phone exclaimed back to me. "They've switched us all up! I called my phone and it was Katie! And Katie is now Holly, who is now Gretchen, who is now you! How could they have pulled this off?!"

She was starting to panic, but I was in no position to calm her down. I was Gretchen! I looked at the glasses folded neatly on the nightstand and, reluctantly, put them on. Almost instantly I could tell a difference and my headache started to ease. I ignored Adyson, still ranting, and thought about the position we were in. Finally, I came up with a plan.

"What are we going to do?! I can't go through school as you! I can't! We are in different classes! I don't know anything about Spanish—"

"Adyson! Calm down!" I nearly shouted into the phone. She instantly shut up. "Everything will be fine. We won't go to each other's classes. We will go to our own—we'll just have to explain this somehow to our teachers."

I heard her sigh. "Alright… I'll get ready and I guess head to the bus stop. Wait, when does the bus get here? And seriously! What do I do with this rat's nest you call hair?!"

I rolled my eyes. "Bus arrives around 7:15. Just watch for Phineas and Ferb to leave their house and meet up with them. You can smack them around a bit for all of this. As for the hair, ugh. Just… brush it as best you can and tie it back in a ponytail. I'll take my time with it when I'm back in my own body."

I could hear the glee in her voice when she agreed—she definitely was looking forward to a little payback on the boys. They picked the wrong girl to put into my place.

I scrolled through the phone and dialed Katie's number. As I spoke with Holly about maybe asking Katie's mom for some of those name tags she almost always has on hand—thank goodness that pretty much all of us girls were fairly comfortable around each other's moms so there hopefully wouldn't be a problem for any of us—I looked through Gretchen's closet for some clothes for today. We didn't really have the same taste in style, so it was a challenge to find something that I was willing to wear, but eventually I did find something.


It hadn't really sunk in that I was in a different body—or that any of my friends were either—until I saw Katie waiting for me at her and Gretchen's bus stop wearing a sticker that said Holly. "This is so weird." I stated.

Katie—I mean Holly laughed. "Yeah, but you gotta admit that this is a pretty cool prank."

I laughed, nodding in agreement as she handed me a name tag with my name on it. I slapped it onto my shirt where it would proudly let everyone know that 'Hi! My name is Isabella'. The rest were put away until we got to the school.

When we pulled up to the school, I could see Adyson in my body (which was probably the strangest thing I have ever experienced—and probably ever will) standing with the rest of the girls. As Holly dug through Katie's backpack for the name tags, I noticed the boys standing nearby watching us, all four of them looking really tired. I felt a smirk coming on, but quickly changed that to a brilliant smile and waved.

"Good morning, guys!" I greeted brightly and looking them all in the eye, except for Ferb, who I narrowed my eyes at slightly but mostly ignored. "Did you all sleep well?"

A rhetorical question, but they glowered at me (in their own personal ways, though Phineas mostly just yawned) nonetheless. Whether it was for the sleep comment or the fact that us girls didn't really seem all that bothered by their joke, I didn't know. Without replying, they walked on into the school with us girls following behind. Like the guys, we didn't want to miss out on seeing our prank in action. This was part two for us though.

Part one was what happened the night before. That afternoon, while I was out distracting the guys (pretending to try to see and help with what I now know to be their mind-switcher machine), the girls went their separate ways to the boy's bedrooms. They carried between five and seven alarm clocks each—all set at different times, and hidden away in different spots so each boy would have to hunt through their room to shut them off. The first one was set around 12:30am, with the rest at random times throughout the night.

Serves them right for switching us up.

Part two happened soon after we peeked around the corner of the hall where their lockers were. Since I was on distraction duty for part one of our prank, this was my setup—which I did after school yesterday and why I got to the Flynn-Fletcher's house much later than the guys. It was practically perfect the way they opened their lockers. Really, it could not have been better. Phineas and Baljeet's lockers burst forth a shower of glitter almost in unison as soon as they opened the doors. Buford and Ferb turned to look but ended up unable to stop their own locker doors in time to keep them from opening and covering them in glitter as well.

Laughter erupted up and down the hall. I nodded to Adyson, who was looking at me pleadingly—and that was surreal to see myself giving me the puppy dog pout—and as we began walking down the hall to our own lockers, she smirked. "Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies. You will never get it all off," she commented to Buford, who we were sure would repeat those words to the others—likely very loudly. If we were lucky, we'd get to hear it.

The rest of the day was fairly straight forward. We arrived to each class early to explain to our teachers what had happened, and watched as the boy's lockers erupted a couple more times. The second and third times they opened their doors there was nothing, making them think the glitter was it and giving them a false sense of security. The fourth time, paper confetti; and the fifth time, frosting and sprinkles. We knew that was probably all we could get them, so that's all we planned. It was still entertaining to watch them open their lockers from the side for the rest of the day, however.


I was leaving my last class of the day (Spanish) when I noticed Adyson leaning against my locker looking extremely agitated. I gave her a questioning glance and she nodded towards a group of girls standing nearby. As I got closer, one of the girls moved slightly and I could see Ginger talking and laughing. I couldn't hear what they were saying until I reached Adyson, who scooted to the side so I could get into my locker, but by then the girls were laughing that mocking, twittering, mean girl laugh.

"That girl is really pushing it," Adyson growled as I packed my books away.

I rolled my eyes. "What's she saying this time?" I asked, though I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

The other girl in my body huffed and crossed her arms. "More of the same crap. And she waited until I had stopped here before starting up about it. I think she may have forgotten all of us were switched up." She finished with a smirk. I glanced at the group out of the corner of my eye and stilled a grin at Ginger's confused face. She was watching us, glancing back and forth between Isabella's body standing nearby while Gretchen opened and dug through Isabella's locker instead. I could definitely tell when she remembered about the switch up because she cheeks flushed and she looked away quickly.

"Well, I'm glad I wasn't around to hear it then," I commented to Adyson smoothly.

I spoke too soon.

"Don't worry Miranda. I'm sure you can get his attention. She's probably just playing with his feelings like she did with Phineas'."

I froze. It was obvious whom Ginger was talking about, as she had raised her voice just enough. Adyson pushed off of the wall and was ready to walk over and confront Ginger, but I put my arm on hers. Vaguely, I noticed both Milly and Miranda were looking a little uncomfortable, but when I focused on Ginger all I could see was that smile. She looked like she was genuinely trying to be comforting, but she had to have said that on purpose. I could barely see the smugness, but when she looked at me it was there in her eyes. In ten years of friendship, how had I never noticed how catlike they looked?

I looked away and focused on my other old friend. Aw, Milly. Without Milly on my side, cooking class sucked. I missed her terribly, but she was always the one girl of all of us to shy away from the group—or at least me—at times. She had even gone to Phineas and Ferb's house without me once, a day I will not forget. I couldn't help feeling like Ginger was preying on the weakest link somehow. And Milly is loyal to her, so Ginger was unlikely to lose her.

I looked away from her and ended up looking at perfect Miranda. She looked beautiful, as usual… Grr. She was watching Adyson and I with identical eyes to the ones I usually had, stroking a strand of her dark hair as she stammered a bit in response to Ginger. "I'm sure that's not true, Ginger."

Before the Asian progeny could react, the vent grate above her fell open and a cloud of white filled the hall. I could hear coughing nearby as I tried waving it away, followed by a few shrieks. When the cloud cleared enough for me to see, I burst out laughing.

Flour… Flour had fallen from the grate in the ceiling, covering the group of girls. Most of them were barely speckled, including Milly and Miranda, while a couple were more white than not. And then there was Ginger…

She was absolutely caked in the white powder!

No pun intended…

I could feel the cramp forming in my side as Adyson and I held onto each other, tears in both of our eyes. I didn't think we were laughing for the same reasons though. She was kind of vindictive and probably saw this as a little bit of fitting payback. Me, on the other hand… Let's just say that I remembered my first day of high school very well.

As I wiped the tears away, I saw a movement of green off to the side. When I looked over, I could see Ferb and Buford sharing a high five before the former bully walked away chuckling. Ferb glanced back at me and winked before following after him.

Adyson and I ran off in the opposite direction before Ginger started blaming us for the mess—and before I gave Gretchen's body a heart attack from laughing so hard.


Later that night, as I lay in my own bed—and in my own body (Gretchen told Phineas in a very no-nonsense tone, which actually sounded natural though still quite frightening in Holly's voice, that if we weren't back in our own bodies by dinner time, he would very much regret it. Buford once again proclaimed his love for her, but it took them ten minutes and we were back. None of them realized it was her own personal April Fool's joke, and we weren't about to spill that secret), I was still chuckling about it. It didn't make up for everything Ginger had done and said these last few months—nothing would unless she let go of her feeling of betrayal and apologized for it herself—but it had made me feel a little better.

As I thought about that, I glanced at my phone. I picked it up thinking that maybe it was time I let go of some things too, and sent a quick text message off in a reply that was a long time coming.

I'm doing better. Thanks for asking, and thanks for today. It was fun.

I went to put my phone down, but it buzzed in my hand.

My pleasure. I'm always here for you.

I smiled and sent back a simple smiley face before putting my phone down on the table and snuggling into my blankets. Things might still be difficult for a while after a long time of ire, but, well… it was a start.


Let us know of typos in case we missed any.

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Phineas and Ferb Question:

*Name an episode where Ferb says Isabella's name! Each person who can think of one (and is correct!) gets virtual brownies! YUM!