CHAPTER 4- Probably the last time I update for a week or so. Today's Wednesday, right? Yeah. I'm a bit frazzled this week….

Fanatic97: What do you expect? He's Ferb. (:

Rachealninja10: Wow. I have never heard that acronym for SPAM before. Ha-ha, but it's so true.

FanficChic2: Thank you so much! It's nice whenever someone comes across my stories and really enjoys them! I hope the rest of this story satisfies you!

14AmyChan: Doesn't EVERYONE have something against canned meat? Or is it just me? And thanks! It's sure to be awesome! (We're taking two buses, thank God. There's like fifty two of us going)

Living Encyclopedia: Aw, thank you so much!

So, here's to…my choir tour. And songs. And bonus fudge to anyone who knows what "Cantar una cancion alegre" means! (And yes, it's missing accents)

I don't own Phineas and Ferb or Gravity Falls.

The group laughed and headed to the kitchen for something edible.

GENERAL POV

Linda walked into the house half an hour later to find the kids eating a large watermelon. She smiled, set her guitar bag down, and held out her arms.

"All right, I want a hug," she said teasingly, looking at Mabel and Dipper.

The twins laughed and gave their relative a hug.

They were never quite sure what to call Linda; technically, she was their second or third cousin, so they could call her by her first name, but she was also like, thirty years older than them. So it was weird. So the two didn't really call her anything if they could help it. The situation had yet to arise where they had a need to use her name.

"When did you kids get here?" Linda asked, releasing the duo from her death grip.

Dipper glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. "Like forty five minutes ago or so."

Linda nodded and stuck her guitar into its place in the hall closet. "What have you guys been doing?"

Phineas gestured to the melon in front of him. "Eating watermelon. It was in the fridge, and Dipper and Mabel were hungry. It was ok to eat it, right Mom?" he asked, not concerned at all.

Linda smiled. "So long as you kids didn't spoil your appetite. I'm making fried chicken for dinner, with mac n' cheese."

Phineas and Ferb gasped in delight and Isabella giggled. "Wish I could stay, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher, but I've got to go. See ya guys tomorrow!" she said with a wave, exiting out the back.

"Bye Isabella!" Linda called.

She looked back at Phineas and Ferb's puppy dog faces and she rolled her eyes. "Boys, there's still two hours until dinner. Go do something."

Phineas and Ferb sighed and stepped into the backyard with Dipper, Mabel, and Candace. "Is your mom's chicken really that good?" Mabel questioned.

The Flynn-Fletcher siblings just stared at her in disbelief and Mabel held up her hands. "I was just wondering."

Phineas chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, it is that great. It's like, our favorite thing our mom makes."

"Except her pie," Ferb reminded him.

Phineas grinned. "Yeah. Her pie is great! She's had a lot of practice making it."

Dipper and Mabel raised their eyebrows at this, but said nothing. "So, what are we going to do while we're here?" Dipper asked, leaning back in the grass.

Phineas and Ferb glanced at one another, and then both boys looked at Candace. She shrugged. "What do you guys want to do?" she asked the twins.

Mabel looked at her brother and then back at the siblings. "I mean, we've never been here before, so you guys know all the fun stuff."

Candace rolled her eyes. "Then based on the reviews of people who live here, you're going to be spending a lot of time in this backyard."

The kids giggled and Phineas shrugged. "I mean, we can take you guys to the museum, show you around town, and introduce you to all of our friends, if that's ok with you."

Mabel and Dipper grinned. "That's great!" Mabel squealed. "Maybe we can go to the museum tomorrow, and then have the rest of the week to do whatever else."

Phineas nodded and Candace raised an eyebrow. "I swear you take everyone who visits us to the museum. I don't get it."

Phineas smiled widely. "Candace, we have had some pretty cool adventures there."

Candace rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Cause almost getting eaten by a T-Rex is cool."

They chuckled and sat in the grass, chatting for almost two straight hours about things to do over the next week, and things that had happened since they had all last seen each other. When Linda came out to announce that dinner was ready, everyone was kind of surprised.

"Wow, that was a quick two hours!" Dipper commented.

Phineas nodded as he stood up, dusting off his shorts. As Ferb helped Mabel of the grass, the triangular boy commented, "It's weird. It's like everything in Danville happens in fifteen minute time spans. I don't get it. Maybe it's something to do with the city power lines."

Dipper shrugged. "That's ok. Sometimes I feel like all of our adventures happen in half an hour."

The kids trooped inside to find their father setting the table. Phineas grinned. "Dad, when did you get home?"

Lawrence looked up with a wry smile. "A good hour ago, Phineas. Linda said that you kids were having fun in the backyard, so I didn't bother you."

He hugged Mabel and gave Dipper a firm hand shake, smiling warmly at the two. "Are you kids ready for some of my wife's famous fried chicken?"

Mabel's eyes widened. "Is it really famous?" she asked in awe.

Dipper chuckled. "No, Mabel, it's just a metaphor."

"Actually," Phineas said, seating himself at the table, "it was almost true. Mom entered a contest and won an honorable mention."

Linda rolled her eyes as she put the steaming pan on the table top. Ferb grabbed the mac n' cheese and added it to the table. "Which is nothing," the woman said in annoyance, nodding to her son as he sat back down. "Honorable mention is just the judges way of saying they feel bad for you."

Candace snorted and leaned over to Mabel. "She's still kind of bitter about it," she whispered.

Mabel raised an eyebrow with a half-smile. "No, really? I hadn't guessed."

Candace snickered and helped herself to the chicken and macaroni. In minutes, everyone was quietly chewing, and Dipper and Mabel looked like they had won the lottery.

"This only got an honorable mention?" Dipper finally said.

"I know, right?" Phineas said. "That other chicken must have been, like, magic or something."

The others nodded in agreement, and not another word was said, except for people to "Please pass the (insert food name here)."

The kids went to bed afterwards, changing into their pajamas and brushing their teeth, all five of them crowded into the same bathroom.

"You know," Candace commented, after almost spitting into Ferb's hair, "there's another bathroom. Why on earth didn't we use it?"

There was a silence, and then Phineas sighed. "Because we're DUM!"

The kids all looked at him and he grinned. "Inside joke."

That ended that conversation, and eventually, the bathroom was left empty as the children went to their appropriate bedrooms.

Mabel snuggled into her cot, Waddles curled up at her feet. Candace settled into her bed, yawned, and flipped off the light switch. "Night, Mabel."

Mabel yawned widely, and the tired sound penetrated her words. "Night, Candace."

Phineas and Ferb clambered into their beds, being careful not to accidentally step on Dipper's cot as they did so. The boy had already taken off his hat and pulled the blankets up to his chin. His arms were stretched under his head and he nodded to the boys.

"Night Phineas, night Ferb," he said sleepily.

Phineas smiled. "Night, Dipper and Ferb!"

Ferb nodded to the two boys and pulled out a book light. Phineas turned off the large light and the only light in the room came from the soft glow of Ferb's itty bitty lamp. Even that was shut off fifteen minutes later, as Ferb found himself too tired to read.

Perry snuck into the room, looked between the three boys, cocked his head, and then hopped onto Phineas' bed. He would go to Ferb's in the middle of the night, he decided, and then tomorrow start on Dipper's bed, if the boy would let him.

Perry yawned, curled up under Phineas' arm, and fell asleep immediately.

Linda and Lawrence peeked in each of the rooms before they went to bed, and the adults smiled. "Looks like they were too tired to stay up and chat," Linda murmured softly.

Lawrence chuckled and shut the door to Candace's room. "Believe me, that's a good thing."

The next morning, Dipper was the first up. He kept quiet, trying not to wake up Phineas and Ferb, got dressed, and then snuck downstairs.

He paused for a moment, and then, recalling where the dishes were kept, pulled out a bowl and spoon.

The boy frowned after a moment, not sure exactly where to find the cereal. Obviously, the milk was in the fridge, but there were at least a dozen cupboards, and Dipper didn't feel comfortable going through them all.

"Looking for something?" said a soft British voice.

Dipper spun around and put a hand to his pounding heart, scowling at Ferb, who looked like he was trying not to smile. "Yeesh, man, a little warning next time!"

Ferb smiled vaguely and opened the cupboard at his right, revealing five boxes of cereal. Dipper smiled sheepishly. "Thanks, Ferb."

Ferb nodded and got himself his own bowl and cereal brand, and the two sat munching in silence. Dipper hesitated. He had always felt a bit awkward around Ferb. Phineas and Candace could read Ferb like a book, and so could Isabella, apparently. Even Mabel was getting pretty good at it. But Dipper had a hard time talking to someone who rarely talked.

Still, he tried.

"So, uh…what are you doing up? I didn't wake you, did I? It's only seven."

Ferb gave a small smile and shook his head. "This is the time we normally get up. Phineas will be up soon. You?"

Dipper shrugged. "I just…I had a hard time sleeping."

Ferb looked concerned for a moment. "Was it the cot?"

Dipper looked at him in confusion. "Was it-? Oh, no! No, the cot is fine, man. I just…"

He trailed off, staring at his bowl intently, and Ferb studied the boy in front of him slowly. "You're a bit homesick, aren't you?"

Dipper gave a thin smile and looked up. "That obvious, huh? I mean, it's nothing against you guys. I felt the same way when Mabel and I first started staying at the Mystery Shack. I'll get over it. But uh…if you could not tell anyone, that'd be great. It's a little embarrassing. I mean, I'm 12, for Pete's sake."

Ferb shrugged. "Well, if you need to talk, I'm obviously all ears."

Dipper raised an eyebrow and studied Ferb a little more closely. The boy had the smallest smile twitching at the corner of his mouth, and Dipper realized that Ferb obviously knew that he was quiet, and he knew that everyone else thought it was different. And yet he didn't seem to care.

Dipper gave a grin. "Thanks, man."

Ferb tipped an imaginary hat as Phineas came thundering down the stairs. "Anytime."

Yay, Ferb and Dipper bonding! Ferb is like, one of my favorite Phineas and Ferb characters ever. Yeah…

So not much really happened in this chapter, but don't worry. The next chapter will have…well, not so much action as a "Holy crap," moment. Yeah.

I won't be updating this until probably next Thursday. Tomorrow is going to be spent packing and Friday starts my choir tour! And then next Saturday I leave for our Mission Trip in Minnesota. Shout out to anyone who lives there!

So yeah, probably only one more update this month.

And my inside joke...ha-ha. Oh Creation.

But review please, and I'll do my best!