A/N: Yes, yes, I just said a few hours ago in "You just have to look between the lines" that it would probably be a while before I updated this, because I actually deleted the first version I wrote of this chapter and started over. But, I felt that you guys had waited too long already, and devoted my afternoon to finishing this chapter! So...I did. I hope you appreciate this, I lost a lot of valuable lay-on-the-couch-and-be-lazy time over this XD
Disclaimer: You kidding? Do you seriously think I could afford to buy PnF from Disney? You people are all crazy.
Isabella's POV
"They won't—stop—staring!" I clenched my teeth and turned away from the boys, who only sighed.
"Sorry, Iz," Charlotte said sincerely.
"This must be kind of awkward," Ava quietly agreed.
"'Kind of'?" I muttered.
"Stop griping," Ferb complained, twiddling his thumbs absentmindedly.
I took a deep breath and slumped. "Sorry guys," I said softly. "It's just strange having the guy that I've liked for so long so…obsequious."
"Excuse me?" Charlotte asked, "Obsequious?"
"Obsequious," Ferb and Ava recited at the exact same time. "Characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning." They looked at each other after their little dictionary moment and blushed, turning away.
"Um, anyway," I said. "I'm really hoping that Meap's cute-dampening glasses get here soon." Soon after Meap had promised to send the glasses, the weak connection on the screen snapped and we had no way to contact him. His last words before the connection broke were "I'll be there soon! Don't leave the Tri-State Area!" "I mean, it's been almost an hour—"
"They're here," Charlotte cut in. Sure enough, I could see a small pod falling from the sky. I was afraid it was going to make an even bigger mess of Phineas' already wasted backyard, but at the last second, booster rockets took hold from the front and slowly turned it right side-up. It landed softly in the dirt, and a hidden door opened. Six pairs of anti-cute glasses popped out on a retractable tray.
"Oh, thank gosh," I said with feeling. After Charlotte, Ava, and Ferb took their pairs of the glasses (they didn't really need them, but it was better to be safe than sorry), I snatched up the remaining three pairs and rushed over to the guys.
I stuck the glasses on Buford first, because he was the most unsettling. I'd always wanted Phineas to look at me like this, and I already knew that Baljeet had a slight crush on me, but Buford…was just wrong. The glasses seemed to almost blend into his face, so I could barely see them. I guess Meap just liked his to look like sunglasses. "Wah!" Buford yelled, coming back to reality and really focusing on me for the first time all day. Suddenly, the events of the day seemed to hit him. "I…um…" he stuttered, pulling on the neck of his shirt and sweating. "I don't like you!" he yelled suddenly.
"Good," I said curtly. "I don't like you either." Next, I slipped the glasses onto Baljeet.
"That was…interesting," he managed as his pupils retracted. "I'm sorry about…you know."
"Yeah, I know," I answered, finally stepping in front of Phineas. He smiled back blankly, and I could see my reflection in his electric blue eyes. I knew at a glance that he was completely entranced by me. And for one terrible moment, I hesitated. I've always wanted this devotion from him. Now I had it. Did I really want to take it away? But I pushed that thought aside. No. This wasn't what I wanted. I wanted him to love me because of me, not because of some alien element. I gently lowered the glasses onto his nose, and watched him carefully.
His pupils shrank to normal size within a second, and he blinked twice. "Phineas?" I said slowly.
"Isabella," he said, his voice wobbly. "Something is very wrong. I…I still think you're cute."
Phineas' POV
I wasn't embarrassed by the fact that I had been so awestruck by Isabella's cuteness. The other guys had been too. What confused me was this:
I could still remember what happened while I was in a cute trance. It was fuzzy, but I knew that the glasses that she put on me were supposed to cancel out her cuteness. And while I wasn't spellbound by her cute levels as I was before, I still had the same feeling that she had given me. A kind of pleasant, soft feeling that filled me to the core. It still flared up each time I looked at her.
"You still think I'm cute?" Isabella seemed confused. "But the glasses worked on everyone else."
"He did admit that you were cute before," Ferb noted.
"But Ferb, that was a scientific fact," I said. "This is different. It makes me feel…weird." I saw Isabella's eyes flare with hope. It confused me, but I didn't have to time to ask questions because Ferb broke in.
"We'll be right back," he said quickly, and grabbed my arm, pulling me to the opposite side of the yard. "Phineas," he said slowly. "How exactly does Isabella make you feel?"
I frowned slightly at his strange behavior, but answered anyway. "Warm," I said. "Comfortable. Happy. She makes me feel…I don't even know how to describe it."
Ferb just stared at me, a smirk tugging at his lips. "What's so funny?" I demanded.
"Nothing," he said, the smirk still there. "We can go back now."
"O…kay…" I said slowly, confused, but I followed him back o the group. The moment I saw Isabella again, I had to step back. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. "What?" I asked Baljeet and Buford. "You guys don't still have to look away?"
"No," Baljeet said. "The glasses are working fine for us."
"Oh, my glasses must be faulty," I realized. "No wonder."
An awkward silence settled over the group. "So…" Charlotte said finally. "What do we do now?"
"Have you tried contacting Meap?" I asked.
"The screen completely broke," Ava said softly. "He barely had time to tell us that he was sending the glasses."
"He also said to stay in the Tri-State Area," Isabella added. "So he must be planning to come and help us. While we wait...I guess we have some free time."
It was quiet again for a minute before Ferb spoke up. "Anyone want to see a movie?"
"YES."
Anything to keep away the awkwardness.
Isabella's POV
As we left the backyard, I felt someone's eyes on my back. I turned around, and found Phineas, so I fell to the back of the group as we walked into town to talk to him. He looked confused. "What's up with the staring?" I asked, trying to make it sound like a joke, although I did really want to know.
"Something is…different, about me," he frowned, furrowing his brow. "I thought that my glasses were the problem, but when Baljeet offered to switch glasses with me, the problem was still there!"
"What problem?" I asked.
"I still see you the same way that I do without the glasses. I'm just not hypnotized."
I looked at him. "And…how exactly do you see me?"
"Like…what did Meap say earlier?" He thought for a moment, and I was surprised that he could remember anything at all from when he was…entranced…by me. "Oh, that's right," he suddenly seemed to remember. "I see you as 'the most drop-dead gorgeous woman in the universe'."'
My hopes soared suddenly, and I stopped dead. Phineas nearly ran into me. "What?" he asked.
"You think…I'm…the most beautiful girl in the universe?"
"Well, right now, you kind of are," he said matter-of-factly, and kept walking.
"Yeah, but, in your opinion, do you think I am?"
He stopped and looked at me. "Of course I do, Isabella," he said, looking confused. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Um, no reason," I wasn't sure whether to squeal with joy or start to sob over his answer, so I decided to do neither. "So…um…"
"I guess this is uncomfortable for you," he suddenly interrupted, whispering, "having all of your best friends fawning over you."
I giggled. "You have no idea how strange it was with Buford," I teased. "But, um, currently" I got a little more serious, "you're the only guy fawning over me."
"Oh, yeah," he looked a little bit gobsmacked. "I…didn't think of that. Hmm."
We walked in silence for a few moments, listening to the chatter of our friends in front of us. Charlotte was talking to Buford and Baljeet, something about martial arts and how to deflect certain moves. Buford was listening excitingly to the martial arts pointers, and Baljeet was trying to walk and write down defense moves on his hand at the same time. It reminded me that Charlotte was a lot tougher than she looked.
Ava and Ferb were at the front, talking about a summer reading book. Ava was obviously head-over-heels for him, and I doubt he even noticed. It was actually fairly ironic, because he was always making fun of Phineas' obliviousness. Ferb was giving Ava more details about this book than I would have ever imagined. I don't think I've ever heard him talk that much. I honestly felt kind of sorry for him. He was still trying to get over some punk college girl who he liked for a lot of his younger childhood, and couldn't seem to grasp the fact that he may like Ava instead now. I giggled a little bit at his unconscious flirting, and Phineas looked at me.
"What's so funny?" he asked with a lopsided smile, after he did a double-take and adjusted to my cuteness.
"Them," I gestured to Ferb, who was currently trying to act out the climax in Moby Dick as he held in laughter and Ava giggled uncontrollably.
"What about them?" Phineas asked, genuinely confused. I stared at him.
"You're kidding."
"No, really," he insisted. "What about them?"
"You really don't see it?" He shook his head, and I remembered; I was talking to Phineas here, king of Oblivious Land. "Phineas, they like each other!"
"'Like'?"
"Phineas, 'like'!" I said, losing patience. "They have a crush on each other! Ava likes Ferb, and Ferb likes Ava, even though he doesn't realize it."
"Ava has a crush on Ferb!?" Phineas exclaimed.
"Shhhhh!" I shushed him. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice his outburst. "Yes, Phineas," I said in a lower volume. "And Ferb also has a crush on Ava. But he's oblivious to it."
"What do you mean, 'oblivious'?"
I did a mental facepalm. "Oblivious means that he's unaware of Ava's feelings, along his own."
"Oh," Phineas said softly. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but he didn't seem to want to talk about it anymore. We walked in silence for a few more seconds. "Why do you care?" Phineas suddenly asked.
"About…?"
"About Ava and Ferb," he clarified.
His question surprised me. "I…I don't know," I said finally. "I guess I'm a big romance fan. I want the kind of love that you read in bedtime stories, someday, and I guess that helping other people reach it is as close as I can get."
"I'm sure that it will happen to you too," Phineas said, completely sure of himself.
I laughed feebly. "Maybe," I said softly. "But the boy who I want my bedtime story with is more oblivious than Ferb."
"Really, who is it?" Phineas seemed interested.
I looked at him and sighed. "No one," I smiled halfheartedly and looked at my feet, watching myself take each step towards town. "He'll never figure it out."
"I'm sure he will," Phineas said without a doubt.
"Guys!" Buford called, sounding nervous and breaking us out of our moment. I realized that we were on the edge of town, and that everyone—a huge crowd of people—was staring at us.
No. At me.
Oh no, I'm so stupid! A few minutes with my friends in anti-cute glasses, and I'd already forgotten the effect that cutonium has on people! The men and women both stared at me like I was a super nova, confirming my suspicions that Ava and Charlotte were acceptations to the rule.
"You…you're…" One man seemed to be struggling to get out the words.
They all opened their mouths as one and spoke something that couldn't have been scarier, "Adorable."
"Oh, no," Charlotte moaned. "We shouldn't be here! Not with Isabella!"
"I can probably tell them to leave us alone," I said, wobbly and scared to death. "I could control the guys like that in the backyard."
"But you weren't telling them to ignore you," Ferb said grimly. "They were allowed to do whatever they wanted around you. You weren't refusing your cuteness to them. I don't know if these people will accept that rejection from you."
"I'm sure it will be fine," I said. But I wasn't sure. "Okay, um, everyone," I said, too loudly. Everyone was looking at me and I gulped. I cleared my throat. "So, um, could you please ignore me and let me and my friends see a movie?" I said quieter, trying to put every ounce of cuteness that I could muster into the words.
They seemed confused, although they didn't take their eyes off of me. "Ig…ignore you?" One woman asked incredulously.
"Yes, please," I asked nervously.
They all looked at each other for a moment before looking back to me and saying something that chilled me to the bone, even more than before. "No."
They surged forward, pushing my friends to the side. I screamed and tried to run, but they were everywhere. I recognized Ms. Flynn, Candace, Django, even Mom as they came closer, all of them with blank, glassy stares. Phineas jumped in front of me, trying to help, but some poor, zombified person grabbed him. I saw his eyes widen in terror as he realized that the person clutching his shirt was his own father. He was thrown outside of the mob, where he joined my other friends in the struggle to get to me.
"Please, please, just leave me alone!" I shrieked, struggling against the hands holding me.
"We can't," someone answered, and I realized in horror that it was Milly, one of the Fireside Girls. "If we let you go, you won't let us serve you."
"But I don't want you to serve me!" I protested. "I don't want to be served, period!" But they lifted me up and began to carry me away. I couldn't see where we were going over the masses of bodies, but I could hear fine.
"Izzy!" I heard Ava and Charlotte screaming.
"Hey, put the girl down!" Buford yelled, and his power as a bully almost shook a few people around me out of their trances as they passed him, but never all the way.
Baljeet yelled, "Stop!" over and over again, but no one listened. Even Ferb was yelling my name.
But one voice stood out to me. "Isabella!" Phineas cried, trying desperately to push past the mob. I could hear the "oof"s of the people he tried to elbow, but I could tell that he wasn't getting any closer.
"Phineas!" I sobbed, reaching towards his voice. But it didn't matter.
My hand was just pushed back.
A/N: Well, that sure got super dramatic and cliffhanger-y fast, huh? First, Isabella just wants everything to go back to normal. Then, she has this sweet moment with Phineas, and seems to be breaking through to him! But...then she gets kidnapped by her friends and family, who have been hypnotized by her cuteness but will no longer listen to her. I guess that kind of ruined her day.
This chapter was originally about Phineas accidentally breaking Isabella's heart and Isabella turning evil, but you know what? I don;t want the story to go there. So, if that's what you were expecting, think again, sukkaz! :DDDDD
Review time, everybody!
Jet Engine: Think again! Well, actually, you never know...and Perry? I'm...not sure yet. He'll make an appearance, though, along with Dr. D
LaptopWriter22: Ugh, I know right?
ayahsad167: Okay, I used your word again. How many words like that do you know? Because when I right click in Word for synonyms, it doesn't give me any words that are that awesome! And trust me, the massive quantities of Phinbella will come :)
14AmyChan: The glasses came, but didn't do exactly what they were supposed to do :) Poor Phineas
PianoMan5: Really? Thank you! I was just having fun with it! And I seriously considered having the beam come out of Isabella's mouth... :D
Whythis: That's been one of my favorite lines in the story so far XP
MassiveSinger: That's okay. Idiocy is what makes us wonderful!
Axis22: In order again! 1) She did think about keeping him that way... :D 2) Which was, in a word, awkward. 3) I think that they aren't affected because, just like with a virus, there must be mutations somewhere. Just like some people are naturally immune to the flu, some people are naturally immune to cutonium, just like Ferb, Ava, and Charlotte. 4) Wouldn't we all? 5) Hey, you wouldn't have been snickering if someone called YOU hot gas. 6) I don't think a video screen is the same as a mirror. And he could have just be surprised to see her. 7) I don't know...it's pretty creepy... 8) Yeah...pretty much. Weird, huh? 9) Phineas...he's a bit more confusing. Is he in love with her because of the cutonium? Or for other reasons...?
gravity5: Good point, although I don't think Isabella's morals would quite agree c:
RedWingChris: But of course! ^.^
Bluefire407: Oh, thank you!
Mapiteu: You're going to adore this site :) And now I'm hoping for Mission Marvel Phinbella! I hate waiting for things...!
PhinabellaDirectioner: if you're swooning, try a glass of water :D jkjkjk thanks!
Shadouge-and-Silvaze4ever: I totally know :)
OreoSparrow: There very nearly was an explosion. It came this close :D And you can call me Cutie. Everyone does :)
Sabrina06: You just made me smile like an idiot :) :) :) :)
I love people! You review and make me smile. Trust me, I like to smile. I'm like, a smiling MENACE... :DDDDDDDD
Weeeeeeeeeeeell, that's it! Ciao!
Love, Cutie