Chapter 3: Shopping with the Girls

The next day, Isabella went to the googleplex mall to meet with the Fireside Girls while Vivian and the other moms were going out to lunch in the downtown area. She told Phineas earlier that morning how she wasn't able to hang out with them today because she and the Fireside Girls had to work on getting their holiday shopping done. He seemed slightly disappointed, but none the less he said he hoped she had fun with the girls and not to worry, he and Ferb would catch a movie or something. Isabella was relieved that he understood and she figured she could make it up to him sometime. The girls walked around a lot, talking and chattering all excitedly yet Isabella couldn't focus her mind fully on the subject ahead, whether it was Christmas presents, shoes,or even patches. Her mind kept drifting off into Phineasland and when someone would ask her for her opinion, she'd completely make something up due to barely listening in the first place. All the girls already had their outfits for the party except for Gretchen and Isabella so at one point they split up and planned to meet at the Pretzel stand around three so everyone could eat together before going home. Gretchen and Isabella searched and searched but so far they had no luck.

"Wow Chief, this is a lot harder than I thought.." said Gretchen as they left what seemed like the millionth store.

"Yeah I know," replied Isabella, "Everything is just so over sexualized or babyish. There's like nothing for people our age. Now what are we going to do."

"We're not losing hope if thats what you're thinking. We'll find something. " said Gretchen with a sigh. "I really hope so," said Isabella. "Hey what about that cute little place? Why don't we check it out?"

Gretchen wrinkled her nose, "Isn't that like an old people place? My grandma always buys junk from thrift stores like that."

"Looks can be deceiving besides, nether of us have been in there so we may as well check just in case. We are getting a little desperate here." reminded Isabella.

"Guess you're right Chief. Lets go."

The two of them linked arms and walked in together. The store was pretty much empty people wise except the older employees walking around and at first the place seemed like a storage unit. However, once they asked one of the workers where they could find nice attire, they realized that they found the place they were looking for. They looked through the racks and found some normal (and abnormal) looking things to try on and both had fun walking up and down in the dressing room like super-models. They didn't realize how the time had flown by and once Gretchen checked her watch she saw that it was 2:45 already. The girls both had two more things to try on and gave them a shot. Gretchen came out in a red chiffon swing dress that that fit her perfectly and modestly. It went below the knees with an interesting looking "wings" that hung loosely off the shoulder part of the dress, like a Greek goddess would have. The dress was slimming at the waist but loose enough to move easily in and while it looked slightly odd on the hanger, it was stunning on Gretchen.

"Wow Gretchen, that looks great on you. You look so beautiful, Baljeet will be sure to notice." said Isabella with a mischievous smile.

"Oh my.. Isabella!" shouted Gretchen before gently punching Isabella in the shoulder, "that's so not funny. Guess its my payback for the Phineas comment yesterday." She finally really looked at herself in the mirror and just stood there, speechless. "This is such a nice dress, I could wear this to our prom."

Isabella laughed, "We're not worrying about that now, that's not for a good while." She looked at herself in the mirror and she wasn't nearly as excited as Gretchen was. She wore a plain teal dress with a layered bottom and a halter top with a flower in the middle. It was a nice dress but it was not as fabulous on her as Gretchen's dress was on Gretchen. Isabella sadly looked once more in the mirror to which the lady who was helping them said, "You know young lady, I think I have something that you may like. I wasn't sure at first but now I'm positive you will." She smiled and handed the simple looking dress to Isabella.

Isabella came out a minute later and barely recognized herself for a moment. It was similar to the other one but there was something special about it. It was a black dress that hugged Isabella until her waist then fell in uneven layers loosely to her mid-calves. There was two black straps at the top and one of them had three black flowers that settled along one of the straps and top corner of the dress. They had little sparkles on them and although it was simple, it was beautiful. This is it thought Isabella and who knows maybe it'll catch Phineas' attention *mental slap* she hadn't meant to think about Phineas. Oh well. One look and she and Gretchen both knew that had found what they were looking for. They paid reasonable prices for the dresses and they walked quickly to meet up with the other girls. They started talking and, trying not to make the girls wait to long, walked really fast until suddenly Isabella ran straight into something and fell flat on the floor. She began to get up when she realized that it wasn't something she ran into, but someone. And it wasn't just someone, it was none other than Phineas Flynn.