Isabella skipped along the sidewalk, her arm entwined with Phineas'. Could life get any better? The reunion had gone off without a hitch and Phineas was even dreamier in person. And for the very first time in her life, Phineas' eyes were completely on her. This was even better than all the times he had built something for her, because building always seemed to take over his mind. Now Isabella was finally getting the kind of attention she had always wanted. Was he feeling what she was feeling too? She had thought so in the letters, but she was still a little worried.
"Isabella, who do you want to see first? I wish you had given me a little more notice; we could've had another party." Phineas said.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It was short notice for me too. I don't really care, I want to see everybody."
They turned the corner to Baljeet's house. Buford's motorcycle was parked in the driveway.
"Cool," Phineas said. "Buford's here too."
"I'm sooo excited Phineas. I just can't believe I'm back. Of course, with your emails, it was almost like I never left."
"Right." Phineas pulled nervously at his collar, and knocked on the door.
Loud music could be heard as the door opened.
"Phineas, we were just about to come over and see what you were going to do today." Baljeet said.
Baljeet was the shortest of the four guys. He was neither fat nor thin. His thick Indian hair was still neatly cut, and he was wearing simple shorts and a T-shirt.
"Well, change of plans Jeet," Phineas said. "I have a special friend to introduce to you."
Isabella popped her head up from behind Phineas' shoulder. "Surprise!"
Baljeet smiled widely. "Oh Isabella, can it be true? Buford, come in here."
Buford came lumbering in with a large hammer in his hands. Buford was a big, beefy man, with a buzz cut, and five o'clock shadow. "I told you, today we need to smash some stuff." His eyes narrowed. "I got some issues to work out." He then saw Isabella. "Whoa, a chick! We haven't hung out with a chick since…." He then realized who was standing in the hallway. "ISABELLA!"
Buford ran up to her and gave her a big bear hug. "Thanks… Buford… but… you're… squishing…me." Isabella wheezed.
Buford let her go and backed up. "And before any of you sissies say anything, tuff guys can hug when it's strictly a reunion kind of thing."
"My turn." Baljeet pranced over and hugged her.
Isabella smiled. "You guys haven't changed a bit."
They both gave her toothy grins.
"The gang's all back together!" Phineas said. They all smiled.
Then Buford noticed something. "Hey, where's Ferb?"
A long arm shot up from behind Phineas. In all the confusion, and reunion, Ferb hadn't even made it into the building. He had just been standing in the doorway, behind Phineas.
X
"Bye guys!" Phineas waved to Buford, as he went home, and to Baljeet as he closed the door.
They had spent the whole time catching up. Isabella had learned about Baljeet's medical dreams, Buford's motorcycle, Biff II, and all the other major things that had happened to them since she left. And there weren't that many of them! It was like she had never left, or like Danville had stopped changing just for her.
Phineas stuck out his arm to Isabella once more. "My lady,"
Isabella giggled and curtsied. "You're such a gentleman."
"Where to next? Paris, Tokyo, the moon?" Phineas exclaimed.
"How about Candace's instead?" Isabella laughed.
"Right this way."
The two bounded off, once again leaving the third member of the party behind. Ferb grumbled to himself. This wasn't as bad as how Phineas and Isabella used to be. This was much MUCH worse. Even if Isabella had always wanted to run away with Phineas, Phineas had never responded to her actions before. Could Phineas actually LIKE Isabella? Ferb felt extremely ill. But it had to be true! Phineas never acted like this with the prettiest of girls. But he was acting like this with Isabella. This, whatever this thing they were doing together was, could most definitely be classified as flirting. FLIRTING.
And once again Ferb was the third wheel. Maybe he had never outwardly shown it, but Ferb was getting tired of being shoved to the side. And he hadn't even gotten to say anything to Isabella yet.
He stopped in front of Candace's house. Isabella and Phineas had no doubt already run inside. The lights were on, and he could see silhouettes of people laughing and hugging. The mere fact that the lights were on made him realize how dark it was already. And it was a little chilly. He sighed and walked inside.
The house smelt like cookies. Warm and homemade. He could hear laughing from the kitchen. Ferb kept going until he was all the way in.
The scene was perfect, in a chaotic sort of way. Jeremy was wearing oven mitts and an apron over an orange shirt. Jeremy was the perfect husband, charming, doting on his wife and daughter. If any other man had been pulling cookies from the oven, it would have seemed dumb, but it wasn't with Jeremy.
Next to him was a little girl, wearing a purple dress, with her orange hair in two cute little pigtails. She was bouncing as high as she could, up and down. "Daddy, daddy, daddy, are they ready?"
"They have to cool Amanda."
"No fair." She pouted, and crossed her arms.
Meanwhile, Phineas, Isabella, and Candace were sitting at the kitchen table together. Candace was pointing an accusatory finger at Phineas. "You're saying that all you were doing today was hanging out with an old friend?"
"Yup." He replied.
"But, but, that's so… NORMAL." Candace stuttered. "OW! Okay," she put her hands on her big rounded stomach. "Whoever just kicked me is so grounded when they come out!"
"Whoever?" Isabella asked.
"Twins." Candace said, smiling.
Ferb sat down at the table. "Hey Ferb." Isabella said.
Ferb opened his mouth. Come on, he thought. Just say something to her. Anything! "Isabella…" he began.
DING! The timer Jeremy had set for cooling went off.
"… do you want a cookie?"
Isabella arched her eyebrow at him. "Sure."
"Come and get it!" Jeremy said.
Everyone rushed up to get cookies, except Ferb. He sighed. He had no guts. Absolutely none. And with all this time he had been wasting thinking about Isabella, he hadn't thought of WHAT to say to her.
"Ok kiddies, don't eat too many, you'll spoil your dinner." Candace said.
"Aww, Mom!" they all said, mocking her.
They wolfed down the cookies almost as fast as humanly possible. Man, Jeremy could bake! After they finished, Candace collected the plates, and took them to the sink. Jeremy left to do some work in the office, and Amanda went to play with her toys.
"Come on Isabella, let's go sit in the living room." Phineas said.
"Ok Phineas." She got up and went with him.
Ferb made the move to follow them, when someone called him.
"Hey, Ferb," Candace said. "Help me out and dry while I rinse, will ya?"
Ferb frowned, but turned around to help his sister. He could hear Isabella and Phineas talking in the other room.
"It's been so fun hanging out with you again." Isabella said.
"Yeah, I know." Phineas replied. "So, I don't want to seem pushy, or make things awkward between us, or anything, but,"
Ferb strained to hear what his brother was saying.
"Would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight? You know, like a date?"
There was a loud smash in the kitchen as Ferb dropped the plate he had been drying.