Biology Lab

Volleyball tryouts came up later that week, and Isabella made the JV team. Unfortunately, the only other person she knew on the team at all was Ginger, a Japanese-American girl from Adyson's troop. The two of them mostly ignored each other where they could.

Dave stopped by toward the end of a practice, waiting for her so they could ride the bus home together, and Ginger gave her a jealous look.

"You're so lucky," Ginger said. "You've got a boyfriend."

Isabella shrugged. "Is there a particular boy you want?"

Ginger sighed dreamily. "His name is Baljeet. He's so smart, and conscientious, and organized, and cute..."

"So ask him out. The first dance is apparently girls-choice."

Ginger's eyes widened. "I...couldn't."

"Get someone to back you up. Go talk to Gretchen and double-date with her and Ferb."

"Is Gretchen going to ask Ferb finally?"

Isabella rolled her eyes. "I hope so. I'm lab partners with them, and maybe it'll get them to stop making googly-eyes at each other all class."

Ginger laughed. "I'll talk to Gretchen tonight. Maybe this will work for us. Thanks!"

The next day, Gretchen walked into World History class nervously, with Ginger pushing her along. "I did my part. Your turn," Ginger was saying.

Gretchen nodded and walked up to Ferb's desk. "...ummmmm...so Ginger and Baljeet are going to the dance next weekend, and they were wondering if you and I'd be willing to double-date with them...?" she asked hesitantly.

Ferb smiled up at her and emphatically nodded his head. Gretchen looked like she was barely suppressing a squeal as Ginger patted her on the back and headed off to her own class. With a smile at Ferb, Gretchen walked over to Isabella's desk. "I understand I have you to thank for this idea. How did you know?"

"You two weren't very subtle," Isabella said with a smile. A few rows over, Adyson glared at her, then turned away.

As Gretchen found her seat, Dave leaned over to talk to Isabella. "That was really nice of you. Wasn't she in that troop that kept beating you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, she was Adyson's second-in-command. She's my lab partner in bio now, though, so...probably a good idea to help her out where I can."

Their first lab report was assigned in biology that afternoon, so Isabella, Gretchen, and Ferb tried to figure out a time and a place to get together to work on it.

"Ferb's place is probably the closest to central that we've got," Gretchen said after they compared where they lived. "He's at least between the two of us."

Isabella nodded. "That's fine. When works for you? I can do tonight but not tomorrow or the day after."

"Tonight's fine at my end. Ferb?" Gretchen asked.

Ferb nodded.

"Sounds good. I'll send my mom a text saying I'll be late, and catch the bus over there. I think I can catch the #55 cross-town bus to get home easily enough." Isabella pulled out her phone and started sending the message.

They finished gathering the data for their lab report, and headed out to catch the school bus. Gretchen and Ferb took a seat together; Isabella grabbed the seat in front of them so she didn't have to watch. From the whispers she heard, they were sorting out their new relationship, and she felt a sudden pang of jealousy. She hadn't even told Dave what she was doing, because they had no plans to get together tonight anyway.

A blur of motion crashed into the seat next to her, leaning over the back of the seat. "Hey Ferb, hey Gretchen, what's up?" Phineas said. He glanced over at Isabella. "Mind if I sit here?"

She shook her head, and he smiled and turned back to the couple behind them. "You two are sitting awfully close together," Phineas continued. "What's up?"

Ferb glared at him as Gretchen blushed a bright red. "They're going to the dance together," Isabella said.

"Ferb, you sly dog! About time you got around to...wait, this is a girl's choice dance, isn't it? Good job, Gretchen!"

Gretchen asked, "Where's Adyson?" in what Isabella thought was a transparent attempt to distract the boy; apparently it worked, as he seemed to deflate a bit.

"She had to go to the library for some research for an Earth Science paper," he said. He turned to Isabella. "Hi! I'm Phineas. Nice to meet you."

"Isabella," she said. "Ferb and Gretchen's lab partner in biology."

"You're in English class with me?"

She nodded as the bus driver yelled, "Phineas! Sit down!"

With an embarrassed smile, Phineas turned and sat on the bus seat. He looked over at Isabella, sharp blue eyes that bored straight through her soul. "Funny. You don't look evil," he said.

Isabella blinked. "Excuse me?"

"From what Adyson always said about you, your favorite activity is trying to ruin her life." He peered at her, smiling. "Perhaps she was exaggerating a bit."

"Wait, how did you know I was that Isabella?"

"Adyson pointed you out to me, and then Ferb said you were his lab partner," he shrugged. "Anyway, it is nice to meet you, and I'm sorry we made your life difficult. We were just trying to help out our friends; we'd have helped you too if you'd asked."

Isabella sat back and listened to this strange boy talk non-stop for the rest of the bus ride.

Phineas led the group into his house and shouted, "Mom, we're home!" A tall, red-haired woman looked in from the kitchen and said, "Hi boys. Oh, hi, Gretchen. And who's your new friend?"

"This is Isabella. She was Adyson's arch-rival, but now she's Ferb and Gretchen's lab partner in bio."

"O...kaaaaay. Well, it's nice to meet you, Isabella. I'm Linda Flynn-Fletcher, the boys' mother. The kitchen table's open if you'd like to take that over for whatever work you need to do."

Isabella took a seat and looked across at Ferb, then over at Phineas in the living room reading his algebra textbook. "Flynn-Fletcher. Stepbrothers, then?" she asked Ferb.

Ferb nodded, and Gretchen said, "Linda is Phineas and his older sister's biological mother. Ferb's biological father is Lawrence; he's probably still at the antique store."

Isabella suppressed a burst of jealousy. Her father had died in a car crash just before her sixth birthday, and her mother had never tried dating again. The idea of having two parents around sounded wonderful, and these boys didn't even realize how good they had it.

"Who wants some snacks?" Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher asked, bringing over a plate of cookies, which they helped themselves to.

A wall-eyed teal platypus wandered into the room and chattered at them. "Oh, there you are, Perry," Gretchen said.

From the living room, Phineas said, "That's Perry. He's a platypus. They don't do much."

They finished up the lab report, and Ferb offered to type it up for them. Isabella gathered her things and prepared to catch a bus home.

"Isabella, would you like a ride home?" Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher asked. "Gretchen's father asked me to bring her home, so one more is no problem."

"That would be very nice, thank you," Isabella said, and the older woman led the two girls out to the car.

On the way, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher turned to Gretchen. "So, Phineas said you asked Ferb to the dance?" Gretchen nodded silently, and the red-haired woman continued. "How nice! Let me know if I need to give you two a ride, then. I think I'm already bringing Phineas and Adyson there. You know, it's really about time you two started dating, the way you've been eyeing each other. I mean, even I noticed."

Isabella felt a twinge of sympathy for Gretchen, who looked like she wanted to curl up into a little ball and die of embarrassment. They soon reached Gretchen's house and dropped her off, and Isabella gave Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher directions to Cypress Avenue.

"So...Adyson's arch-rival?"

Isabella swallowed. "Sort of. I led another Fireside Girls troop, and we came in second to Adyson's troop in the 'most patches' award every year. Mostly because of the help your sons gave them."

"Oh, I see. So, not romantic rivals or anything like that. I was worried that you two were fighting over Phineas."

Isabella laughed. "No, not at all. I have a boyfriend. His name is Dave."

"Oh, that's nice. Looks like both my boys have found girlfriends now. And just a couple years ago, I didn't figure either of them ever would look at a girl like that. Phineas especially - he was so clueless for a while. But then he was spending a lot of time with Adyson, and she asked him on a date this past summer, and it just went from there."

Isabella nodded as she realized where Phineas had gotten his talkativeness from.

They arrived at Isabella's house; her mother wasn't home yet. "Thank you for the ride," Isabella said.

"You're welcome. Feel free to stop by whenever you'd like - we're kind of used to being the hangout for the whole neighborhood at this point."

Isabella smiled at her. "Thank you, but I don't know that Adyson would appreciate that."

"It's my house, not Adyson's, and I say you're welcome to stop by."

"Thank you very much," Isabella said.