Stacy brandishes a sheaf of pamphlets. "Who's ready for Career Day?"
Jeremy, Jenny, and (surprisingly) Lacie all stretch their hands out to receive a pamphlet. Jenny opens hers immediately and buries her nose in it.
Candace groans. "Must they thrust the real world upon us so early? We have almost two whole years left of high school! Can't we enjoy the days when our parents buy our groceries and we make all our money babysitting? Except you, Jeremy."
"I have never sat a baby even once," Lacie says.
"It could be parents are a little scared of you," Candace offers, as delicately as possible.
"That's the plan," agrees Lacie.
"I babysit," says Jeremy. "But it doesn't really count, because it's just for Suzy and I don't accept money to watch my own little sister."
"Oh, I take that cash and run," Stacy says. "Or I used to; Ginger's old enough to look after herself now."
"Vanessa, did you ever babysit?" Candace asks.
She shakes her head. "I don't know how to talk to kids."
"You get along well with my brothers."
"They are really not normal kids."
"Yes! Thank you!" Candace exclaims with a broad gesture that nearly knocks Jeremy's chocolate milk into his lap.
Jeremy moves his milk a few inches further from his excitable girlfriend and returns his attention to the pamphlet. "I'm kind of looking forward to life after Slushie Dawg."
Candace links her arm with his. "Maybe you will be a famous musician, and I can be your manager."
He leans his forehead on hers. "I love how much you believe in me, but I don't play for the money."
"Do you play for the chicks?" comes a question from across the table.
Candace shoots Lacie a death glare, but Jeremy chuckles and slings an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "Just this one right here."
Lacie rolls her eyes.
Stacy extends a pamphlet to Vanessa. "Are you coming to Career Day?'
Vanessa grudgingly takes the pamphlet, scowling at the fake smiles plastered across the front page. "My mom wants me to be a doctor, and my dad wanted me to be evil for most of my life and now wants me to be a high school science teacher or a time traveler, so...jury's still out on my career path."
"Speaking of juries," Jenny puts in, finally lowering her pamphlet, "Candace, you're going into law enforcement, right?"
"Why would I ever…" Candace starts to answer, but Stacy and Jeremy are both saying, "That's perfect!" at the same time.
"You could bust people like it was your job!" exclaims Stacy.
"Because it would literally be your job," Jenny reinforces.
"I can't see myself as a police officer," says Candace.
"How about a lawyer?" asks Jeremy. "Then you'd be making enough money for both of us and I could focus on music and taking care of Fred and Amanda."
"Xavier and Amanda," Candace corrects automatically.
"Attention to little details makes a good lawyer," he responds.
"I'd like to be an event planner," contributes Stacy. "Ginger and I have even talked about starting our own company someday. We're good at telling people what to do."
"I want to have a small organic farm just outside the city limits," Jenny says.
"I just want to be left alone," says Lacie. "What's the job where people will keep away from you as much as possible?"
"Mortician?" volunteers Vanessa at the same time as Candace says, "Dental hygienist?" They look at each other and grimace.
"Maybe there's a way to combine the two," Lacie muses.
As the rest of the table argues over the most off-putting job, Candace drifts into a daydream. She sees herself in a courtroom, Phineas and Ferb in the dock. She has just delivered an impassioned, well-reasoned speech that has gotten the judge/Mom to agree they should be busted. "For your sentence," the judge/Mom intones, "you will do all of Candace's chores for the rest of your lives." The crowd cheers. Candace bows her head in acknowledgment.
"What're you doing?" Jeremy whispers, and she realizes the head bow wasn't just in the daydream.
"Oh, you know," she answers, smiling at him. "Thinking about being a lawyer."
He smiles back. "That's my girl."
