Sunday, December 10, 7:00 AM

The Brown Residence

Django

Seven AM on a Sunday.

This is normally the time when I would be leaving the house and walking a couple of blocks over to Phineas and Ferb's house for their great invention of the day. Since they can't do big inventions during the school week, unfortunately, they have to do them only on the weekends. Right now, Phineas is probably explaining everything to the rest of my friends about what they're going to be doing, and then in about a minute, he'll be asking where Perry is.

But today, I'm not going to be there to see either of those things happen, because I'm staying home.

Why, you may ask? Well, when you spend a whole night not sleeping and instead lying on your back and staring at the ceiling and thinking the way they always do in the movies, then you'll understand why I decided to opt out of the day's activity for the day. I know that there's no way I'm going to be able to get out of bed at this rate.

With a groan, I roll over, but it isn't until it's too late when I realize that I'm rolling over on the wrong side. Within two seconds, I'm sprawled out onto the floor, blanket and all. "UGH," I moan loudly, kicking at nothing in particular.

My dad peeks into the room, toothbrush in his hand and bathrobe on. There are both advantages and disadvantages to having your room right next to the bathroom. In this case, it's definitely the latter. "You all right, son?" he wonders, lingering behind the doorway. He knows how crabby I can be in the morning when I haven't gotten any sleep.

I don't respond, instead just rolling my eyes and burying my head underneath the blanket that fell with me.

"Sorry." He chuckles in a somewhat nervous way. "Uh…dumb question." He doesn't leave, though, instead walking back into the bathroom and putting the toothbrush back, then coming back and sitting on my bed, peering down at me. "Really though, buddy, what's gotten into you? Aren't you usually at your friends' place by now?"

"Yeah," I mumble. I bite my lip, which is insanely dry. "I don't want to talk about it."

"It's not…" He lowers his tone, and after glancing out into the hallway as if someone could actually be listening (Mom's always in the kitchen at this time), turns back to me. "Adyson, is it? Are you guys doing…all right?"

I can tell by the tone in his voice that he's starting to get really uncomfortable. "We're…" I hesitate, not knowing how to continue, and decide to sit myself up. After touching my cheek, I realize with embarrassment that I have stubble and try to hide it with the blanket. "…Not doing so well."

His face falls. "Really?"

I nod, starting to feel more and more like a loser. The blanket is still partially covering my face. "Yeah. I've…kind of ignored her."

Dad just continues to sit there, doing nothing but blinking. "Well…I don't really know how to help you there. But why are you ignoring her?"

"Dad. My girlfriend's pregnant, and I'm not the dad." I glare at him. "How would you feel if that happened to you? Pretty crappy, right?"

He bites his lip, looking slightly hurt by my tone. He shuffles a little bit in his seat. "Yeah…but Django, did you tell her you were okay with it?"

"Uh…yeah. But I-"

"And you say you've been ignoring her?"

"Uh…yeah. But-"

"You need to talk to her, buddy." Dad then stands up and begins to walk over to the doorway, but not before giving me another look. This time, his face displays a look of disappointment. "She's probably confused and scared about all of this, and you doing that isn't going to help. At all." He then gives me another close look, and I realize that the blanket isn't covering my face anymore. I hastily make that happen as he chuckles lightly. "Make sure to call her. And then, of course, shave. You don't want to look like a gorilla by the end of the week, do ya?"

My cheeks flame. I hate when he tries to be comedic at the wrong times. "Dad."

"Sorry, sorry." He holds his hands up and quickly scurries into the bathroom. Within a few seconds, the lock clicks, and also within a few seconds, I'm holding my cell phone and am at my contact list, touching Adyson's name. I take a very deep breath before holding it up to my ear, waiting for her response. I don't even know if she's at Phineas and Ferb's or not, so she may or may not pick up.

"Django?"

I nearly jump in my seat after hearing her voice, also beginning to smile. She sounds surprised. "Uh, hey, Ad. How are you-"

"Django. Brown." All of a sudden, she sounds angry, and the smile wipes right off of my face. She doesn't sound good. "Next time I see you, I am so going to kick your frickin' ass."

My eyes widen, and I gulp. Uh oh. "Hey, okay, but-"

"Do you know how long it's been since you've talked to me?" Now she's full out screaming, and I hold the phone away from my ear. "Where the hell are you? How long has it been? Hmm…I don't know? A month?"

I wince as I put the phone back in its proper place by my ear. "Ad, let me explain. It's complicated-"

"Oh, really?" She sounds more and more sarcastic with every syllable. "So complicated that you couldn't support your pregnant girlfriend and instead started to ignore her. That's just great. You know, if you're not okay with all of this, that's fine, but I kind of want to know that. Is this making any sense to you?"

I keep quiet. I have a feeling that she wouldn't like what I want to tell her.

"Well?" she demands.

I take an intake of breath. "Well…yeah, it does make sense," I say quietly. "All of what you said is true."

I can picture her rolling her eyes. "Well, for God's sake, Django, why didn't you say anything?" Her voice is shrill as well as trembling. "Why you didn't you just tell me how you really felt when I told you what happened to me? Then we wouldn't be having this dumbass conversation."

I honestly don't have a good answer to that question. "I…don't really know," I say after hesitating. "I really don't. But you know I'm sorry, right?"

Adyson sighs, and I can hear her moving something aside, likely to sit down on. I think I can safely assume at this point that she's not at Phineas and Ferb's. "I do," she says quietly, sounding like she's about to cry. "But what's really upsetting me about all of this is you weren't honest with me. You said you were okay with this. I thought you were one of my only real supporters, not just someone that felt sorry for me like a lot of our other friends. Really, only Vienna, Isabella, Phineas, Ferb, and my brother have really supported me, especially Isabella. In fact, I'm staying at her house as we speak."

My eyes go wide. Oh no. "Oh my God. Your mom didn't-"

"She did," she interrupts, and my heart sinks as she continues. "But you wouldn't know that, because you refused to talk to me for the past month."

All right. Now I'm getting mad. I stand up and begin to randomly walk around my room. "I didn't know what to say to you," I tell her finally, moving my free hand in random motions everywhere even though she can't see it. "Not to mention it's embarrassing."

"Um, embarrassing?" Great. Now I've pissed her off again. She lets out a laugh that's obviously fake. "Embarrassing? How have I been embarrassing you? I really think it's the other way around."

Uh…what? "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Whenever I walk in the hallways, those stupid sophomore cheerleaders Daphne, Morgan, and Julianne keep taunting me about where my boyfriend is. 'Where's your boyfriend?' one of them will say, and I have to reply that he doesn't seem to care."

"Doesn't seem to care?" Now I'm actually laughing. "Doesn't seem to care? That's hilarious. I do. Oh, and by the way, do you know the kind of looks I get from people? People actually think I'm the dad when you're the one who screwed up and went off with that guy."

Adyson's voice sounds tight when she responds, not to mention angry. "You take that back, Django. You take that back. You know it wasn't my fault what happened."

"Actually, no, I don't. How am I supposed to know whether or not you were telling the truth? You could have been cheating on me behind my back for God knows how long, and you just now messed up." I'm well aware that I'm entering risky territory here, but I don't stop, beginning to yell. "I'm tired of getting blamed for your mistakes. I'm also tired of people bashing me because they think I'm the one who knocked you up!"

"Well, of course they do, you frickin' idiot!" she retorts. "You're my boyfriend…or so I thought."

Oh no. Oh no. I suddenly realize that I've gone too far. "Ad, wait. I didn't mean-"

"You suck." I realize now that she's crying while yelling. "You frickin' suck, Django. And to think I thought that I would actually have more than five people not pitying me or kicking me out of the damn house. Turns out, I was wrong." She chuckles. "Oh, so wrong."

I hang my head in shame as I slink down into a sitting position. I've really messed up this time, and I know it. "I'm sorry-"

"Shut up. I never want to talk to you again." She hesitates before speaking again. "We're over."

I gape. "Adyson-"

And just like that, she hangs up.

The Flynn-Fletcher Residence a few minutes later

Phineas

Everyone around us is bored.

Yes, that's right, bored. Want to know why? Because I can't think of any new inventions.

Currently, I'm sitting at my old, turning-rotten wooden desk with some blank blueprints in front of me, hands on my head and staring at them blankly. Ferb is behind me, looking concerned, but I'm ignoring him and the others (that are sitting under the tree) to the best of my ability and am thinking hard. Somehow, I can still do this even when others are complaining loudly.

"Yo, Dinner Bell," Buford is yelling. "Ya almost done there?"

"My hair's getting frizzy!" Ginger whines. "The cold is not good for curled hair. Or my new shoes my sister got me. Man, Stacy's going to kill me."

"Oh my gosh," Irving is gasping into his camera, which is positioned so it's directly in front of his face. "Phineas Flynn is running out of ideas. Is this…the end of…Phineas and Ferb… as we know them?"

I turn around. "Guys, it's okay," I shout to the other end of the yard, where all of my friends except for Adyson and Django are sitting. "I'm still thinking."

"Yeah, guys, it's all right," Isabella says, smiling at me. I smile back before turning and thinking as hard as I possibly can. However, I'm still drawing a blank. What haven't we done by now?

"Gosh, Ferb, I don't know," I moan, and he snaps back into reality and stares at me as I continue to talk. "Can you think of anything we haven't done yet?"

He thinks for a second before shaking his head, giving me a look at the same time.

"Right, right, I know, you're not usually the one that comes up with what we're gonna do today." I bite my lip. "But-"

I'm interrupted by the sound of someone gasping. I turn around and see that Isabella has clapped a hand over her mouth and is staring in horror at her cell phone. "Oh no," she breathes.

"What?" we all wonder simultaneously.

"It's Adyson and Django." Her hand is still over her mouth, but it's now partially uncovered so that we can hear her. "Apparently, they broke up."

"No way!" Vienna gasps. Her mouth is hanging open.

"Yep." Isabella nods, and then sighs. "I knew I should have stayed home today…you know, maybe I should get going. I have a feeling that she's going to need a friend right now. V, you can come, too." Vienna nods, and she glances at Lilly. "Maybe you could go visit Django…he probably will, too…"

"Yeah, probably," Lilly agrees. She glances uncertainly at the rest of us. "Anyone else want to come if I call Django and he says we can come over?"

"I will," Baljeet says, standing up.

Lilly scrunches up her face. "Well…" She hesitates. "All right."

"Thank you." Baljeet then looks expectantly at Buford, and he sighs and stands up as well.

"Guess I will, too," he grunts, glaring at his frenemy. "Though it ain't my decision."

"Fair enough." She pulls out her cell phone and turns it on. "Anyone else?"

We all shake our heads. "I would," I tell her truthfully. "Same with Adyson, Isabella. But Ferb and I need to stay here and try to think of some more ideas."

Isabella and Lilly both nod, and with that, they, Vienna, Buford and Baljeet silently walk/wheel out of the yard. My girlfriend is the last one out, and she closes the door on the fence that leads to the backyard, but not before shooting me another small smile.

When the door latches shut, I immediately turn towards those remaining, which are Irving, Emily, Aubrey, Holly, Ginger, Savannah, Katie, and Milly. "Okay, guys," I begin, getting up from my chair and walking straight over to them. Ferb follows silently behind me. "So you know how Ferb and I are…um, drawing a blank today on what we should invent?"

"No, we've just been sitting here doing nothing for the past twenty minutes for no reason," Ginger sarcastically replies.

Savannah crosses her arms and glares at her. "Hey. They know what they're doing. You don't need to be a bitch about them not knowing what they want to do."

Ginger glares right back. "Well, considering the fact that my shoes are sucking in cold air and therefore getting dry and losing the wax that I did on them yesterday, I think I have every right to be annoyed. Oh, and by the way, your hoodie is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen."

Savannah glances down at her hoodie. There's nothing really wrong with it. It's just a basic, gray zip-up hoodie. "You think this is the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen?" she asks her ex-best friend.

"Uh…yeah," Ginger says with a duh expression. She tosses her curled black hair over her shoulder and rolls her eyes.

"Well." Savannah laughs. "Clearly, you haven't looked in the mirror recently."

"Ooookay," I interject as Ginger's mouth falls open. I'm not willing to hear any more insults, so I clear my throat. "Let's get back to what we were talking about earlier, shall we?"

"Yes, please," Holly informs me. I notice that her eyes are currently fixated on Aubrey and Irving, who are holding hands. She sighs, and then drifts her attention back to Ferb and I.

"Yes," Emily agrees, shuffling a bit in her seat. "That would definitely be the best thing right now."

"All right, then." I clap my hands together. "Does anyone here have any ideas?"

Aubrey raises her hand. "Can we take a trip to Fairy-Tale Land?" she chirps, eyes bright and excited the way they are the majority of the time. She looks at me expectantly.

I look at her sympathetically. "No, Aubrey, we can't," I say gently. "We went there a few years ago for your birthday, remember?"

Her face falls. "Oh." She sighs. "That's right. I forgot."

"That's okay, Aubrey. Maybe another time." I smile at her before looking back at the others. "Anyone else?"

"Maybe we can move Danville to another location on the map?" Milly suggests. "Like, take the whole Tri-State Area and move it to, I don't know, somewhere in Europe? Just for a sort of, I don't know, change in the system?"

Everyone looks at her strangely. Katie coughs.

"What?" Now she looks offended. "It's different. We haven't done it before."

"Well…Milly, we would probably have to, uh, get permission from the mayor before doing something like that, since it's the whole Tri-State Area we're talking about. And we unfortunately don't, uh, have time for that," I inform her, scratching my ear.

She shrugs. "Well, it was worth a shot."

"Anyone else?" I ask.

A minute or so passes, and no one says a peep. Irving, Katie, Milly, and Emily are clearly thinking the hardest, and Aubrey looks as if she is daydreaming about something. Holly is just sitting there with a blank expression on her face, and Ginger and Savannah are still giving each other dirty looks.

"Come on, guys," I plead. "We can do this, I know we can."

"Phineas," Ferb mutters quietly to me so the others won't hear. "Maybe they really can't think of anything. You are usually the one to come up with the inventions while everyone else, including myself, helps you initiate that idea."

I rub the temples on my head. "But bro, I…really don't know what to do. The things we've done in the past few weeks were my last ideas that I could come up with on demand. Now…I'm lost."

He says nothing in reply. However, he still has that concerned look passing over onto his face like a shadow.

"It's just…" I sigh. "For the past eight years, we've been making these awesome ideas come to life. We've been a team, Ferb. I've always been the creator; you've always been the builder. We've made every summer the best summer of our lives since the day we constructed the roller coaster. And even when we entered middle schooland then went through high school, we were still a great team. Up till now, we've never run out of ideas or lost our creative streaks. But now…" I glance over at our friends, who are still thinking, determined looks painted on their faces. "I don't know, bro. Maybe this is a sign."

He looks at me quizzically.

"A sign…" I blink repeatedly. "That we should…I don't know…stop inventing."

His eyes widen. His look says, What?

"I know, I know, it's a bit of an impulsive thing to say."

Now, as he crosses his arms, his look says, Gee. You think?

"But Ferb, if we can't come up with anything new to do…what's the point of continuing?" I look at him sadly. "Think about it. Maybe…at the very least, we need to take a break for a while."

My brother bites his lip lightly, so imperceptibly that I almost don't notice it. He shrugs slowly, and I notice with surprise that his eyes are watering.

"Ferb… it's okay." I reach over and hug him, not caring that my eyes are watering, too. "We'll start again eventually, I'm sure. Remember, it's… just a little break." I sniff and hold him tighter.

"Ferb? Phineas?" Emily is calling out. Her tone is filled with worry and alarm. "Are you… alright?"

But neither of us answers, just continuing to hold each other. "It'll be okay," I mutter into my brother's shoulder. I sniff again and struggle not to actually start crying. "It'll be okay."

Next Chapter Preview: When Aubrey informs Irving of her belief in Santa Claus, he asks the others that don't anymore, like him, what he should do. Obviously, this is everyone but Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet, just for clarification if you don't remember the Christmas episode.

Um…yeah. This is probably my most depressing chapter to date. Adyson/Django breaking up, and then, worst of all, Phineas and Ferb deciding that they need an unknown amount of time to take a break from inventing, the thing they love doing the most. Some very...unexpected things to happen, no? Sorry...lame pun.

Next chapter won't be nearly as sad…I'll actually try to make it somewhat comedic. I'll try. After all, Aubrey's one of the main characters in it.