Vanessa yells in frustration, stomping heavily on the floor of Candace's room. The sound of running feet is followed by a hammering on the door. "Come in," she snaps.
"Are you…" she hears a concerned voice begin as the door opens, but nothing more.
"Oh, great, it's you," she says, glancing in the mirror to where Ferb is standing as still as a statue. "Could you help me with these stupid hooks?"
Ferb walks slowly into the room, looking around. "Where's Candace?"
"On the phone with Jeremy," says Vanessa. "She said she'd be right back, but that was like half an hour ago and I'm sick of being stuck in this room and only halfway stuck in this ridiculous get-up."
She waves a hand at her hair, piled on top of her head and topped with a tiara; and her dress, shimmering layers of white satin and tulle strewn with sparkles.
Ferb shoves his hands into his pockets. "Running off to Vegas with Monty?"
"Riding on the Winter Magic float with Candace." She points to a matching gown draped across Candace's bed.
"I should've known Candace wouldn't be dressing as one of the snowflakes."
"We have to leave in twenty minutes, so I thought I'd better start getting dressed. Didn't factor in the lack of a zipper."
She angles her back to him again, gesturing at the hooks fastened halfway up.
"I think I must've gotten about half of them, but I have no idea how many are left."
"Forty-seven."
"What? It must have taken me five minutes to get the first half!"
Ferb moves closer. "It's probably more difficult without being able to see them properly."
Vanessa watches him in the mirror. He is studying the back of the dress, but he looks up and catches her eye. "Can you see them?" she prompts.
He takes a deep breath and releases it, drawing his hands out of his pockets. "I can always get my loupe if it gets difficult." He starts at the lowest open hook and begins fastening upwards, muttering under his breath from time to time as some hooks prove harder to handle than others.
Vanessa taps her foot impatiently. "Candace!" she bellows. Ferb startles, and his knuckle brushes the skin of her back.
"Sorry," he says, pulling the fabric tauter so as not to make contact again.
"No problem, I'm sure your hands are clean."
Candace clatters up the stairs, tiara tottering on her bouffant hairstyle. "I can't believe how late it is! Jeremy will be here in ten minutes, and we're not going to be ready in time!"
Vanessa inclines her head towards Candace's dress. "We will if you hurry up. I can help you soon; feels like I'm almost hooked in here."
"Three more," affirms Ferb. "There." He steps back and nods at Vanessa in the mirror.
Vanessa ruffles his hair. "Great timing. Thanks."
He nods again and leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Vanessa hurries over to Candace, holding the dress while her friend steps into it and then getting to work on hooking it up. It doesn't take as long as she'd expected it would, but she finds herself having to brace her knuckles against Candace's back a lot to get the best angle on the hooks.
Vanessa chuckles. "Your brother is quite the gentleman."
"I guess he's not bad for fourteen."
"He's gonna break a lot of hearts at Danville High."
Candace snorts. "Maybe once he gets his growth spurt. He's shorter than all the girls in his class."
"Yikes. That can be traumatizing. It happened to my dad, and he's still talking about it." Vanessa closes the last hook.
Candace grabs a necklace from the dresser and hurries out of the room, fastening it as they head down the hall. She stops abruptly at the top of the stairs. "I've always wanted to do this," she whispers, and descends slowly, waving in princess fashion at an audience that turns out to consist of Ferb, Phineas, and Perry.
"Wow, you two look great!" Phineas exclaims.
Candace smiles and bows, then waves him off. "You better hurry, or there won't be any good places left along the parade route."
"That won't be a problem," he asserts, holding up what looks like a briefcase that for all Vanessa knows is actually a full set of bleachers.
"Here's Jeremy!" Candace calls out, as her boyfriend gets out of his car and comes around to open the passenger side doors.
"Your carriage, miladies," he announces.
Vanessa waves to the boys and Perry and heads down the driveway.
"Shall I take your picture?"
She turns to see Ferb on the front steps.
"Love one, but this dress doesn't have any pockets for my phone."
Ferb holds up his own phone. "It's all right. I'll take the picture and text it to you."
"Cool. Candace, Jeremy, Ferb's going to take a quick picture." The other two get back out of the car and stand in front of it, Candace linking her arms through Jeremy and Vanessa's.
"Perfect," declares Ferb.
Vanessa suddenly remembers something. "Do you have my number?"
"Ah. No. I suppose I can text Candace, and she can text you…"
"No need for that." Vanessa hoists up her skirts and jogs over to him, taking the phone out of his hand and tapping in her contact number. She hands it back to him, leaning down to kiss him on the cheek at the same time. "Thanks for the help earlier. You're the best."
"Takes one to know one," he returns. She extends her fist and he bumps his own against hers before she runs off to hop into Jeremy's car. When she wrangles the full skirts of her dress in and reaches for the handle, Ferb is there to close the door. She gives him a thumbs-up by way of gratitude.
Jeremy is looking out at Ferb in puzzlement.
"What?" Candace asks.
He shrugs as he pulls away from the house. "If he weren't so much younger than us, I'd say that was one of the slickest moves to get a girl's number I've ever seen."
Vanessa laughs. "If he weren't so much younger, and if he weren't a perfect gentleman."
"Gentlemen need phone numbers, too," Jeremy points out.
Vanessa taps Candace on the shoulder. "See? Heartbreaker in the making."
"Gentlemen don't break hearts," Candace protests.
"Gentlemen break the most hearts. It's okay, it won't be his fault."
"Not once he reaches their eye level."
"I bet Phineas could come up with a gadget for that," Jeremy proposes.
Candace sighs lightly. "How many times do I have to tell you, Jeremy, don't tell Phineas these things or he'll spend all of next Saturday on them."
Vanessa thinks of the first time she kissed Ferb on the cheek, when she had to bend nearly ninety degrees. She hardly had to lean over this time.
"He'll get there on his own soon enough," she says.
"Yeah, let me enjoy my brief window of precious time to be the tallest sibling."
"No matter how much taller they get, you'll always be my favorite Flynn," Vanessa promises.
"Thank you." Candace pauses. "You know Ferb isn't a Flynn, right?"
Vanessa shakes her head. "Oh, right."
They ride on in silence til Jeremy chuckles quietly and says something under his breath.
"What was that?" Vanessa asks.
"Nothing."
Weird. She would've sworn she'd heard "Slick."
