Deep in the Fair Forest, the tranquility of the afternoon was suddenly interrupted by a mighty figure galloping through the trees.
"Giddyup, Gretchen!" came a sudden cry. An onlooker would barely have had time to register the sight of the majestic mare before she streaked past: eleven feet high, made of shiny titanium-alloy, she was the pinnacle of robotic engineering. Her rider was no less impressive: sitting straight and true in the saddle, with a confident grip on the reigns and an adventurous glint in his eye.
"We should be getting close," said Prince Phineas, looking down at their rocket's tracking device. Sure enough, it wasn't long before they broke through the trees to find that morning's missing project, lying in a crater in a clearing.
"Whoa!..." said Phineas, tugging on the reigns. Gretchen slowed to a stop before the pile of tangled metal, and the prince slid out of the saddle.
"Atta girl, Gretchen!" he said, before he knocked on the door on her side. "Everything okay in there, Ferb?"
The door suddenly swung open to reveal Ferb sitting in a kind of cockpit in the horse's torso. He set down the controller and gave his brother a thumbs-up, before he climbed out.
"Great. Now, let's see…hmm." Phineas examined the wreck of the rocket. "It doesn't look too bad. I'd say it's fixable, wouldn't you?"
Ferb blinked.
"Yeah, that's just what I was thinking. But something's missing," said Phineas. "What happened to the nose cone?"
"Now, when investigating mysterious noises, it's very important to use caution," Isabella reminded the animals as they made their way through the shrubbery. "Anything could have made that noise. An animal falling out of a tree, an animal that bites with the slightest provocation. An avalanche of huge boulders cascading down a cliff! A—"
She pushed her way through some low hanging branches, and suddenly stopped. "A nose-cone from a rocket?" she said incredulously, looking at the object embedded in the earth in front of her.
"Hey!" piped an unfamiliar voice. "You found it!"
Startled, Isabella spun around. Standing at the edge of the clearing was a boy. He wore a purple travelling cloak and a warm, friendly smile; his hair was bright red and endearingly messy. Freckles dotted his nose beneath his large, dewy eyes.
In that moment, it was as though Isabella's heart had sprouted butterfly wings. The forest seemed to evaporate around them as she gazed at him, suddenly and acutely aware of her own breathing.
Wow… she thought, enchanted, and then mentally smacked herself. C'mon, Isabella! Say something!"
"Hi," Isabella said shyly. "Whatchya doin'?"
"We were looking for the missing part to our rocket," Phineas explained, coming forward. Ferb and Gretchen followed a few steps behind. "And now, thanks to you, we've found it!"
"Oh. Glad I could help," said Isabella breathlessly. "My name is—"
She hesitated briefly. Oh, no. What am I doing? Buford and Baljeet told me not to talk to strangers! But I'm already talking to them; I can't just walk away. That would be rude! Um…
"—Ella," she said finally, deciding to only give half her real name.
"Pleased to meet you, Ella," said Phineas, bowing. "I'm Phineas, and this is my brother, Ferb, and our horse, Gretchen." He indicated behind him. Ferb waved, and then pushed a button on the remote, so that Gretchen inclined her head with a snort.
"Nice to meet you, Phineas," Isabella blushed. "How did you guys get a rocket? I thought those hadn't been invented yet."
"We built it," Phineas explained. "Ferb and I were trying to see if the earth is round—but then our rocket was stolen by a purple tractor beam and the nose cone popped off. We knew it fell somewhere in the Fair Forest, but we weren't sure exactly where. We might have lost it forever if it hadn't been for you." Phineas smiled at her.
Handsome and smart!... Isabella thought dreamily—but suddenly Phineas frowned.
"How are we going to get it back to the ship, though?" he wondered aloud, looking back at Ferb. "It's too heavy for us to lift by ourselves."
"Oh! I know!" Isabella eagerly clapped her hands together, turning to the animals. "Alright, Forest Scouts, it's time to earn our Reunite-A-Nose-Cone-With-Its-Rocket patches! You know what to do!"
The animals saluted and promptly surrounded the nose cone. Working together, Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and the scouts were able to lift the cone out of its crater and harness it behind Gretchen.
"There!" said Isabella, dusting off her hands. Phineas climbed up in the saddle, and then held out a hand to her.
"Wanna come along, Ella?"
"Do I!?" she exclaimed happily, and Phineas swung her up into the saddle behind him. That nose cone must have been really heavy, he thought, noticing that her rosy cheeks were even rosier than usual.
"Hang on," said Phineas, and Isabella put her arms around his waist as he grabbed the reigns. "Ready, Ferb? Alright; giddyup, Gretchen!"
Back at the cottage, baking was harder than Buford had anticipated.
"One tisp baking soda," he read, squinting at the recipe. "Tisp? T-s-p…what's that? Why don't these cookbooks speak English!?—Ack!" he exclaimed as he turned on the mixer, sending its contents splattering across the kitchen. Blinded by cake batter, he fumbled desperately for the switch. "Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off—!"
Meanwhile, after a solid half-hour of trying, the exhausted Baljeet had finally succeeded in inflating a single balloon—but as he took it out of his mouth, it slipped from his fingers and went spiraling across the room in crazy loops.
"Ohhh," Baljeet groaned, and flopped backwards. "How are we possibly going to get everything done by lunchtime?" he panted.
Suddenly, Perry walked up to him, peeling the deflated balloon off of his head.
"Oh! Perry, you're back! Sorry about that," Baljeet apologized. Perry just glared. Without a word, the platypus set Isabella's present down on the table, before he whipped out his wand. He aimed it at the decorations; instantly the balloons began to inflate, and the streamers strung themselves throughout the room.
Walking into the kitchen next, Perry's eyes widened as he saw the broken eggs on the floor, the batter on the walls, the flour spilled across the countertops. What the—!?
Buford grinned sheepishly as Perry marched up, took the remaining batter, and waved his wand over it, transforming it into a multi-tiered, pink-frosted birthday cake.
"Heh, heh. Oh, right. Magic. Why didn't we think of that?" muttered Buford. Perry simply gave him a stern look, and handed him a broom.
"Wrench?" came Phineas' voice from under the rocket.
"Wrench," said Isabella, placing the tool in his groping hand.
"Ball joint compressor?"
"Here you go," said Isabella.
"Rubidium-infused satellite-receptor microchip?"
"Gotcha covered," she declared, passing it to him. "Watch out for the radiation."
"You got it!" declared the prince. Isabella looked up at the marvel of engineering towering above her.
"Wow, Phineas. You sure are good at building things!"
"Gee, thanks," said Phineas. "You sure know a lot about tools."
"Oh, well, you know," said Isabella modestly, a light blush coloring her cheeks. "I didn't earn that Mechanics patch for nothing, I guess."
From beneath the rocket, there came a squeak, a creak, and a clickety-clack, and then Phineas' delighted voice.
"Perfect!" He shimmied out from underneath, and Isabella helped him to his feet. "That should do it for the engine. Now the only problem is the fuel tank."
"Why? What happened?" asked Isabella.
"Well, when the rocket hit the ground, the fuel tank cracked," the prince explained. "Without fuel, we'll never get off the ground. If only we had some way to patch it up."
"Hmm…" Isabella thought. "Oh, wait! I have an idea!" She grabbed a couple tools and headed for a tree. She hammered a nail into the wood, yanked it out, and then inserted a piece of metal pipe into the hole she'd made; gradually, an amber liquid began to drip from the end of the tube. She placed a bucket underneath, and in no time, it was full of the sweet brownish substance. She stripped a few leaves off of a branch and carried them and the bucket back to the boys.
"Check this out!" She crawled through the side door and quickly located the fuel tank. One by one, she dipped the leaves in the bucket's sticky brown contents and plastered them over the crack.
"Cool!" Phineas exclaimed. "What is that stuff?"
"Maple syrup." Isabella quickly poured the rest of the sap into the tank and closed the lid. "The stickiest substance known to man, and its inexplicably high sugar content should be all the fuel you need to get you to outer space!"
"Awesome!" Phineas cheered as Isabella climbed out of the rocket. "Thanks for helping us repair the rocket, Ella."
"Oh, it was nothing," she said dreamily.
"Would you like to come with us into space?" asked Phineas.
"Really?" Isabella breathed. "You want me to come with you!?"
"Sure, why not?" said Phineas. "It's the least we can do. We couldn't have fixed the rocket without you."
"Aww, shucks," Isabella blushed, looking down at her dainty leather shoes.
"Oh, hang on," Phineas said suddenly. "You've got sap on your face."
"I do?" said Isabella, running a hand across her cheek.
"Here, I'll get it." The prince stepped forward and wiped the sap off of her other cheek with his travelling cloak. Isabella's heart was pounding so hard that she thought you probably didn't even need a stethoscope to hear it—never mind that stethoscopes hadn't been invented yet.
He…touched me. He really touched me!
"Ready to go?" Phineas asked her. Isabella wondered how she'd ever get breath for her answer, but just as she opened her mouth, they were suddenly interrupted by a loud growling noise.
"What was that?" Phineas looked around. The growling sounded again, even louder. Isabella stepped towards the prince, alarmed.
"What if it's some kind of animal? What if there's some fearsome beast that roams the woods? Or—"
"Or, it could just be Ferb's stomach," said Phineas, pointing to his brother. Sure enough, the growling, rumbling noise was emanating from Ferb's midsection. He sheepishly put a hand over his belly.
"Hmm," said Phineas. "No sense trying to fly a rocket on an empty stomach."
"If you guys are hungry, you're welcome to join our picnic," said Isabella, looking around to the Forest Scouts. "We have more than enough food to go around, right, guys?"
"Are you sure?" asked Phineas. "We'd hate to impose."
"Not at all," said Isabella. "I was wondering what we were going to do with all those sandwiches."
Phineas looked at his brother, who nodded vigorously. "Well, in that case, we'd love to!"
"Mmm!" said Phineas through a mouthful. "Peanut butter and ham on rye. My favorite!"
"More lemonade?" Isabella offered.
"Thanks!" Phineas held his glass steady so that Isabella could refill it. She set the pitcher down and sat back with a contented sigh.
"It's so nice to have someone else to share our picnics with," she said. "I've never had human friends before."
"Never?" said Phineas incredulously, while Ferb blinked in disbelief. Isabella shook her head.
"No. I've lived in the woods my whole life, and Buford and Baljeet have always forbidden me to talk to strangers."
"Then why are you talking to us?" Phineas asked.
"Well," said Isabella, "you're not really strangers. I mean, technically you are, but you don't feel like strangers. I really feel like I know you. You're like—my friends."
"Well, we're honored to be your first friends, Ella," said Phineas.
"Really, the honor is mine," she sighed, before she suddenly noticed a cut on Phineas' hand.
"What happened to your hand?" she asked, concerned.
"Huh? Oh, that," said Phineas, looking down at his palm. "I guess I must've cut myself repairing the atomic stabilizers."
"It's bleeding!" Isabella exclaimed. "Here, let me help you." She held out her hand. "Scouts, the emergency first-aid-kit!"
"Don't worry," Phineas reassured her as she pulled out alcohol swabs and antiseptic ointment. "It doesn't hurt that much. Really."
"Still, I don't want it to get infected," Isabella said, gently cleaning the cut and applying a layer of ointment over the broken skin. She looked back in the kit, and smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, no; we're out of band-aids! How could I have let this happen?" Before Phineas could say anything, she reached up and undid her pink hairbow. "I guess this will have to do."
As Isabella wrapped the ribbon around his injured hand, Phineas felt a sudden, curious warmth, unlike anything he'd ever felt before. The only thing he could compare it to was the feeling you get after a sip of hot chocolate, when the sweet, creamy liquid settles in your stomach and warms you from the inside out. Somehow, for some reason, feeling Isabella's fingers against his own made him unmistakably happy.
"That's much better," said Phineas. "Thanks, Ella."
"You're welcome," she said, smiling at him. "What are friends for?"
Phineas smiled back. For the first time, he noticed just how blue her eyes were. A recessive gene.
"But aren't you sad to lose your hairbow?" he asked.
"You're more important," said Isabella. "Besides, I'll probably get another one later today. It's my birthday."
"Really!?" exclaimed Phineas. "Well, why didn't you say something sooner? Happy Birthday!
"Thanks!" said Isabella. "I'm having a party later today. I'm just avoiding the house for awhile so that my guardians can set everything up." She looked at Phineas, eyes shining. "Would you guys like to come to my birthday party?"
"We'd be honored," Phineas proclaimed, and Ferb gave the thumbs-up.
"Great!" exclaimed Isabella. "I can't wait for them to meet you."
"What time should we come by?"
"How about two o'clock?" Isabella suggested.
"That sounds perfect," said Phineas. "Ferb, add that to the calendar!" Ferb nodded and whipped out a scroll and a quill. "Gosh, I almost forgot," Phineas added. "What would you like for a birthday present? I hope we have time to get you something you like."
"Oh, that's okay," said Isabella. "Just you being there is the best present of all."
Phineas smiled. It may have been the most utterly cliché of sentiments, yet coming from her, it radiated sincerity.
"Or maybe we'll just take you for an extra-long flight among the stars," he said. Isabella's cheeks were aching from smiling so much. Behind them, Ferb nudged Gretchen conspiratorially, pointing to the pair with a wink. Suddenly, Isabella looked at her sundial keychain and gasped.
"Yikes! I've gotta go! I promised I'd be back in time for lunch!" She leapt to her feet.
"Okay," said Phineas. He and Ferb helped her pack away the picnic stuff. "I guess we'll see you at the party this afternoon, then."
"See you then!" said Isabella. As she scurried into the woods with her backpack, she turned to wave. "Bye, Phineas!"
"Bye, Ella!" he called. "Can't wait!" And then she was gone. Phineas stood up, grinning. "Ferb, I know what else we're gonna do today."