A/N: This will be the last chapter in the past, as after this we are caught up to the beginning of the story.
April 2013
London, England
Over the years Ferb had pretty much been forced to talk more by various teachers, which was the main reason he couldn't stand Mr. Taylor. The man would purposely call him out for every single slightly harder question in the book (which Ferb always knew the answers to, but it was still annoying).
Ferb wasn't sure where the intense hatred Mr. Taylor had developed for him had come from, but it did not seem to be letting up and even the other students (ones that hated Ferb the rest of the time) would approach him and say they were sorry he was treated that way and they weren't sure why he was.
Today, after Mr. Taylor finished his assault of questions, and other students were done rolling their eyes or silently groaning, he told Ferb to stay after class and moved on to give out the homework.
As the bell rung, Ferb's table partner, whose name was Thomas, turned to him. "Good luck." he said, rising from his seat with a glance at Mr. Taylor. "I don't know why they haven't fired that guy yet."
Ferb gave a brief chuckle and rose to talk to Mr. Taylor.
But instead of an insult, he was given a piece of paper that simply said something about a meeting that Wednesday.
"What's this?" Ferb asked.
"Apparently somebody thinks you're tour guide material and recommended you for this thing." Mr. Taylor said. "As to why they haven't come to their senses yet, I have no idea. The meeting is on Wednesday, you'll find everything out then.
"Everything out about what?"
But Mr. Taylor had stopped paying attention and was moving on to the papers the last class must have turned in. Ferb turned and walked out, carrying the paper.
Well, that had been as informative as a brick.
Later that night Ferb mentioned the meeting to his father, and they figured they should probably go at least to figure out what it was about.
So they marked it on the calendar and went back to what they'd planned for that evening (which was nothing), and that was that.
…
The meeting was in the school library, and not many people were there. Ferb glanced at the clock, but it was about the time it was supposed to start. Maybe there just weren't a lot of people needed.
They both picked a table and sat down off to the left.
Just as they were doing so, their librarian, Ms. Mirta, walked to the front of the room and started talking.
"Thank you all for deciding to be a tour guide and coming to get the information." she said.
"Wait, pardon?" Lawrence called.
She turned to him. "If you're here it means you've already decided you wish to be a tour guide." she said. Then she went back to discussing what was going on.
Lawrence turned to Ferb. Mr. Taylor? he mouthed.
Ferb nodded.
Lawrence sighed.
Well. Apparently he was a tour guide now. He listened as Ms. Mirta went on to talk about the details of what this would mean, assuring them they would not have to accomodate more than two people, warning that at least one of them wouldn't be a tour guide (there were slight murmurs of disappointment at this), and telling them when or where they needed to meet.
At the end of the night, Ferb knew what he should have known several days ago, and apparently he was a tour guide now.
"Well." his father said as they walked into the house. "We should probably set up some guest rooms."
"We only have the one." Ferb pointed out.
"So I can move my things from the office to the basement for the summer and we can buy another bed. It'll work out." Lawrence said with a shrug.
Ferb sighed. "Sorry I didn't know this stuff before."
"Well, we all hate Mr. Taylor, don't we?"
Ferb chuckled.
So apparently he was stuck with this now. Hopefully the people he may or may not tour were not total monsters.