They spent the first half of the next day helping Isabella's grandparents with things around the house. It wasn't because they were obligated to help. Quite the opposite, Phineas and Isabella both wanted to make the elderly couple's life easier.

Isabella helped with the daily cleaning of the courtyard and watering of the plants. When she was done, she helped with the washing of the dishes, as well as the indoor cleaning. After this was completed, she walked outside and relaxed on the courtyard, watching Phineas work with her grandfather.

Phineas was helping Juan with some manual work around the house. In the carport, there was an old Mercedes that one of Isabella's uncles had bought several years back. Due to years of disuse, the car no longer worked. Phineas gladly pitched in to help, knowing that he could fix the car in a jiffy with his mechanical expertise. After testing the car to see what was wrong, Phineas siphoned out the old fuel that was causing the car to stall. Then, he disassembled the motor and cleaned it entirely. When assembled back together, the car worked like a charm. The elderly man was really impressed with the swiftness of the repair, thanking Phineas for the help.

After eating lunch and another round of Spanish lessons under the grapevines, Phineas and Isabella went outside and knocked on the door to Ivan's house. His grandpa replied through the store window, "Ahi viene, esta limpiando su cuarto." He's cleaning his room, but he's coming out soon.

After five minutes of waiting, Ivan finally walked outside. They went to their usual hangout on the street corner, and talked about what they did during the day. Ivan told them how he had been semi-grounded for forgetting to do some chores. His punishment for this was doing more chores, of which cleaning his room was part of the deal.

Eventually, the neighborhood kids meandered towards the corner to play another round of street soccer. Some kids were missing, and the teams were uneven. Phineas and Ivan's team was short by only one player. Nobody wanted to sit out the game to make the teams even. They were puzzled, thinking of what to do, when Phineas thought of something. He told Ivan, "Hey, let's get Isabella to play."

Ivan looked at him with a concerned stare, which said, I really hope that you aren't serious, the team won't like this. But seeing Phineas' insistence, he sighed and brought it up with the rest of the team. At first the guys were all laughs and snickers, along with occasional comments of "gringo loco."

Isabella was close enough to hear, and became frustrated with the group of guys. She walked up to Ivan and asked, "What's wrong with me playing on your team?"

Ivan sighed and said, "It's nothing against you, but they just think that it's crazy that a girl would play soccer with a bunch of boys."

"Well, just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that I'm not good enough to play on the team. I'm just as good as any guy."

Ivan grinned and told the team that she was the only hope of getting the teams even if nobody wanted to sit out the game. They laughed some more, but accepted. Phineas was ecstatic, and told Isabella that she was in. After giving her the news, his smile was replaced with a look of concern, "Um, Izzy? Are you going to play the game in a dress?"

She giggled, "Of course not, Phin. I don't want to flash anybody. Let me change really quick."

Phineas gave her the key to the house, and she ran inside. Soon enough, she came back, sporting some gym shorts and a tank top. The outfit made her look, well, sporty. Phineas thought she looked beautiful, as always. But he realized that some of the guys on his team were now gawking at her.

He glared at the onlookers, an eyebrow raised. Irritation in his voice, he asked, "Que estan mirando?" What are you looking at?

The guys got the message, and they turned around, trying to get their minds off their pretty teammate. Phineas chuckled, and thanked Isabella for the Spanish lessons. Now he could stand his ground.

Immediately after the game began, Phineas' team let in a goal. The team members sighed and laughed, attributing their bad start to Isabella. But as the game progressed, the score was tied again. Eventually, the score was at 4-4. The team that scored the fifth goal would be declared the winner. Both teams played with as much grit and passion as humanly possible. The game had gotten really interesting, and some of the adult neighbors were on the sidewalk watching it.

During one play, Phineas was dribbling with the ball, passing by two defenders. Isabella was wide open on the other side of the street. He passed the ball to her, and she received it, shooting at goal. To Phineas, what happened next seemed to happen in slow motion. He had to admit it; there was something inherently sexy about Isabella getting all competitive during a soccer game. But what happened next made him totally ecstatic.

Isabella scored the winning goal. The goalie was badly positioned, so that when Isabella's shot flew by, he had no chance of blocking it. The ball sailed between the goalposts consisting of old sneakers and bounced off a parked car. Phineas had always known that Isabella could do it. He ran up to her, and gave her a tight hug. True, they both were sweaty from the intensity of the game. But that didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered was that they were together, enjoying the victory. When he let go, he kissed her on the cheek, and said, "I knew you could do it, Izzy."

She looked in his eyes, and replied sweetly, "Who said girls can't play soccer?"

Those teenage guys that had at first catalogued Phineas as a crazy-in-love lunatic now saw that he was right in believing in his closest friend. They saw the two friends hug each other and walk back home holding hands. One of the guys called the pair "enamorados." Another guy, in a softer voice, said in Spanish, "I guess girls can play soccer as good as guys."

*enamorados - lovebirds