"PHINEAS!"

Vanessa hears it halfway up the walk, so she expects that when she opens the door there will be chaos and everyone talking at once, and Candace jabbing an accusatory finger at each of her brothers is no surprise, either. She does not expect a llama.

"Catch it! Catch it!" Phineas yells as the llama makes a break for the door, and Buford shoves Isabella aside in a flying leap that falls short of the animal, landing just near enough that he gets kicked right above the eye as the camelid exits the building.

Phineas dashes outside, tossing a reproachful look at Vanessa. "You had him!"

Isabella and a handful of former Fireside Girls (Vanessa can't keep track of who is who) are at his heels, and Ferb is close behind, slowing enough for an apologetic shrug on his brother's behalf.

"I didn't expect a llama," she calls down the sidewalk after him, rather weakly, and he waves distractedly and keeps running.

"I can catch him," a groggy Buford is telling Baljeet as she closes the door. "Lemme at 'im."

"You are most likely concussed," Baljeet explains with the irritation that passes for affection between the friends. "You are going to sit quietly in this chair while I get you some ice."

"Get the ice, but don't touch anything else!" Candace commands. "You've all done enough for one day."

Candace grabs Vanessa's arm and pulls her up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door behind them. She grabs a pillow from her bed and screams into it.

Vanessa spots movement out the bedroom window. "Uh, Candace…"

Candace tosses the pillow back on the bed. "I'm okay. I'm okay. And yeah, I love them and they're great and so am I, but they just drive me crazy sometimes."

"That's...not…"

"I mean, I told them I was having company over this afternoon. You'd think they could've schemed in someone else's yard for a change."

Vanessa takes Candace by the shoulders.

"Breathe, I know," says Candace. She takes a deep breath as Vanessa steers her to the window. "Deep breaths. Deep…" She follows the direction of Vanessa's pointing finger. "MORE LLAMAS?"

Vanessa counts. "Looks like one for each of them." Another set of llamas saunters into view. "They have enough for us, too! What's the plan?"

Candace takes her face out of her hands. "The plan? The plan?"

"Did you have a better idea for this afternoon than llamas?"

Candace's mouth contorts as she almost starts several different words before landing on a simple, "No."

"So, what, you hate llamas?"

"Of course I don't," says Candace. "Not unless they've managed to get in the house. Stupid Buford and his bright ideas," she mutters under her breath.

Candace has come a long way since Vanessa first started hanging out with her, six years ago now. She's much more accepting of her brothers and their antics. But Vanessa has noticed that it takes Candace a bit to reacclimate to them when she returns from college. Maybe hanging out with the llamas will ease her into it more quickly than usual.

"Let's go down, then," she coaxes, and the redhead reluctantly agrees. They make their way downstairs, and past a moaning Buford and eye-rolling Baljeet to the backyard.

A herd of llamas is grazing quietly. Vanessa does a quick double-take, but the one by the tree isn't really wearing a hat. At least not now.

Candace approaches the nearest llama, holding her hand out cautiously. "Easy...easy there, girl...I assume...maybe boy.… Easy there, Mr. (or Ms.) Llama." The llama eyes her curiously, then nudges her palm with its snout, and then it's a llama llovefest as all the rest of the herd surround Candace and Vanessa, nuzzling them and nibbling at their sleeves.

When Ferb and Phineas re-enter the backyard nearly an hour later, they are accompanied by the usual suspects, the llama that almost ran Vanessa over, and three less usual but still familiar faces.

"Oh, hey, Vanessa!" says a gangly youth wearing a large backpack.

"Hey, Milo!" she responds cheerfully. His friends Melissa and Zack throw her a sideways reverse peace sign and a wave, respectively. "What brings you guys to this side of town?"

"Oh, we have a little llama expertise," he says modestly.

"More like a llotta llama expertise," contributes Zack. "Get it? Llotta? With two Ls?"

"Can't hear the Ls, lloser," says Melissa.

Zack punches her lightly in the shoulder. "I know what you did there, girl. Respect."

"More like 'gnow' what I did. Like 'gnu.' The animal."

"These jokes don't really work if you're not reading them," says Milo.

Melissa twitches. "If I don't make jokes, I have to process residual llama trauma."

"You said they were soft," says Zack.

"Llama trauma?" asks Vanessa.

Melissa waves a dismissive hand. "It was a whole big incident. The point is that you can kind of get over something without getting totally over it."

"Hence us breaking up three times?" asks Zack.

"Watch it, could be four."

Zack moves swiftly and herds Melissa up against the nearest llama. "Feel the softness!" She threatens him with serious bodily harm, but she's laughing, and in a few seconds her hands are buried in the llama wool.

Milo makes his way over to Vanessa. "How've you been? I haven't seen you in ages!"

"I've been out of town for most of the past four years. College. Just graduated a few weeks ago, ready to take on the family business and supervise my first set of interns." She exchanges a double finger gun salute with Ferb, who is one of the interns who will be starting Monday.

"The family business?" Milo brightens. "Time travel?"

"You really think that's gonna be a thing?"

"Of course it will be!" interrupts Baljeet. "It already was!"

Vanessa catches Ferb's eye. "It seems likely," he says. "Barring a temporal paradox..."

"'...the likes of which would rend space and time in twain,' yeah, yeah, we've all heard the theories," says Buford. He leans heavily up against the nearest llama. "When're we gonna get this show on the road? Literally?"

Isabella whips out a pocket flashlight and shines it into both of his eyes. She exchanges glances with Baljeet. "You shouldn't be doing any llama racing. Even if llamas could support your weight. Which they can't."

"A little uncalled for, don't you think, junior petite?"

Isabella sighs. "The days when any of us were small enough to ride a llama are in the past, Buford."

Everyone looks melancholically at the llamas, who stare back unblinkingly.

"In that case," ventures Ginger, "what are we doing today?"

"Shakespearean drama!" announces Phineas.

"They're those llamas?" comes an anguished female voice from the middle of the herd, where two curly heads of hair are sticking up.

Phineas' face falls. "You've seen it before?"

"Oh, yeah," says Milo. "We're big on avant-garde llama theatre on the other side of town."

Candace pushes her way to Phineas and throws an arm around his shoulders. "Llama theatre by some second-rate hack? If you haven't seen my brothers do llama theatre, you haven't seen anything."

Phineas stands a little taller, and Vanessa feels a surge of pride for her friend, with a twinge of regret over being an only child.

The boy claps his hands together. "All right! Assigning roles!"

"What's the play?" Candace asks, all business, and Phineas grins.

"Since Shakespeare's been done, what do you say to The Princess Sensibilities? Played straight?"

"Played straight?" Candace repeats. "Does that mean no monsters?"

"Not a one."

"Eeeeeeeeeeee!" (Everyone knew that was Candace for "yes.") "I'll call Jeremy so he can be the prince from the neighboring kingdom, and obviously Vanessa can be the princess' lady's maid who is also her best friend, and we can call Monty to be the prince's valet who has a thing for the lady's maid…"

Vanessa cringes. "Can we not?"

Candace stops mid-stream-of-consciousness. "You guys broke up again? That's as many times as those kids." She points to Zack and Melissa, who make matching aggrieved noises. "Wouldn't this be a great way to smooth things over and get back together?"

"Don't really want to." Vanessa glances around the yard. All eyes are zeroed in on her. Even the llamas are staring. "Can you and I talk about this later? In private?"

"Absolutely," Candace nods. "But for the record, you were too good for him and don't need that drama in your life and I one hundred percent support you."

Vanessa smiles fondly. It's a variation of what her friend has said the other times she and Monty broke up; similar to the support speech the times they had gotten back together.

Candace's brow furrows. "Except now we need somebody else for the valet. Any volunteers? He doesn't really have a lot of lines; mostly just moons around after the lady's maid."

Ferb raises his hand.

"Perfect!" says Candace. "You're great at not saying much. Phineas can play the king, Isabella can play the castle cook, Buford can play the bully…"

"Hey!" he protests. "That's typecasting! I wanna be the wise old fisherman."

Candace's jaw drops. "You know this play?"

"I got culture! And class!"

Baljeet waves his hand in the air frantically. "That means I get to be the bully!"

Candace finishes assigning roles to Ginger, Milo, Zack, Melissa, and three of the Fireside Girls whose names Vanessa can never remember even when she's just heard them. There follows an interval in which the Flynn siblings walk around the yard finding the appropriate llamas to provide the action to front the vocal performances, then Candace runs off with Phineas and Isabella to make copies of the script and collect some costumes.

Vanessa leads her llama over to where Ferb is standing with his. "Why, hello there," she says, her voice pitched up an octave. "I believe we are to be scene partners. Have you done much work in this town?"

Ferb's llama voice is an octave lower than his usual. "Not much you would have seen. Experimental stuff. Off-off-off-Llama Broadway."

"I've just come back from a tour in Peru. Arsenic and Old Llamas."

"You certainly don't look like one of the old llamas."

"You're just flattering me because we are destined to fall madly in love in this play."

"Stage chemistry should not be ignored."

"Let's see your best 'mooning after a beautiful llama' face."

Ferb's llama doesn't change expression, but when Vanessa looks to Ferb, she bursts out laughing. "Wow," she says in her normal voice. "Mooning with just a touch of smoulder. If you could transfer that look to a llama, you could get on Llama Broadway."

"We all have our dreams."

Vanessa's llama nibbles the ear of the llama across from her. "Our llama alter egos seem to get on well. Smoulder aside."

"I don't think that sort of behavior would be considered appropriate in the world of The Princess Sensibilities."

"Maybe they're starting a torrid off-stage romance. Their onstage chemistry will be terrific, but things between them will blow up a month after the show closes."

Ferb shakes his head ruefully. "One really shouldn't let the excitement of show business go to one's head."

"Your Ferbian sensibilities are much more refined than those of a llama."

He looks toward the fence. "I need to get started on set design. Would you…"

There is a commotion to their right. Vanessa turns to see a row of llamas toppling like dominos. Ferb pulls her out of the way before they fall on her.

"My bad!" yells Milo.

Ferb places a steadying hand on Vanessa's shoulder. "Everyone okay?"

Milo, Zack, and Melissa throw six thumbs up, and Vanessa offers a less enthusiastic one.

"Llamas all look okay, too!" Melissa volunteers.

Milo begins rummaging in his backpack. "It's okay, I have a llama jack in here somewhere…"

"A llama jack?" Zack asks incredulously.

"Well, it's more of a regular jack, but with a few modifications, it should do the trick."

Vanessa looks to Ferb. "Need some help with the sets?"

"Safe choice," he says.

A truck delivers a stack of plywood, fabric, and assorted hardware a few minutes later, the driver far too familiar with the Flynn-Fletcher address to ask anyone if they are too young to be staging off-Broadway llama shows. Soon after that, the others return with costume elements and Jeremy, who steps into the chaos as casually as he has for the past six years. There is a buzz of sewing machines and a ruckus of hammering, backed by loud declaiming from the cast, all intercut by directorial notes from Candace and Phineas.

"You all work well together," comments Vanessa, attaching the final hook to the curtain that is serving as their backdrop. Ferb takes it from her and hangs it on the rod at the back of the stage, then steps back and surveys their work.

He nods, satisfied. "You've done well, yourself."

"Thanks for letting Candace and I crash your party."

"Who would I moon after if you weren't here?" he murmurs absent-mindedly, twisting a free-standing pillar an inch to the left.

Vanessa laughs. "That smoulder could land you any one of these Fireside Girls."

He turns. "I have a serious question for you."

"Shoot."

He stares at her long enough that she starts to get concerned something is wrong, but he finally asks, "You don't know any of their names, do you?"

She feels herself flushing, and he smirks. "I know Isabella and Ginger," she admits. "But honestly, I only remember Ginger because I've seen her at Stacy's house."

He comes to stand right beside her, leaning his head slightly towards her ear. "The one with glasses is Gretchen. Katie is the blond. Holly is wearing her hair in braids. And technically, none of them have been Fireside Girls in years, but we all still call them that, so it isn't just you."

She leans towards him as well. "You're the best."

"Anytime."

"I'm totally going to need you to remind me again."

"Should any social emergencies arise, you have my mobile number, which will come in handy now that you'll be my supervisor."

"I'm so excited you and Phineas applied. Brace yourselves; my dad is kind of intense."

Ferb motions to Phineas, who is gesticulating broadly towards a small clump of llamas. "One of us likely won't even notice, and the other is more than used to it."

"PLACES!" hollers Candace.

The show comes off as well as can be expected, which means they make it all the way to the final scene before the headdress on Milo's llama snags the backdrop; which spooks the llama; which sets off a llama stampede that carries off the set, the costumes, and the trio from across town, who claim the responsibility of corralling the herd and returning it to the llama theatre district.

Candace steps to the center of the backyard, taking the place vacated by the llama princess, and speaks her final line: "And yet would I give up all of this madness, for love of you."

Jeremy smiles. "As I would go mad without your love."

Ferb adopts his llama voice. "Kiss her, and have done with all."

Jeremy and Candace follow stage directions better than their llamas.

"We have all been mad, these happy hours," recites Vanessa. "Yet as you wake, gentles, carry the dream in your hearts, til we meet in sleep once more."

Candace grabs Vanessa by one hand, and Jeremy by the other, and so they all join hands with their nearest neighbors, raise them, and bow dramatically toward the house. Vanessa is just untangling her fingers from Ferb's when Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher comes into the yard. She takes in the line of young people facing her.

"Those look like some hungry faces. Who wants pie?"

Everyone makes approving sounds and heads for the kitchen. As she enters, Vanessa hears Candace behind her. "Phineas! Ferb! What're we gonna do next Saturday?"

It's going to be a good summer.