"Fireside Diaries"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Milly is the last of the main seven to get a solo story, and in this very special entry, she learns about the p-word!
Yes, this is still a K+/PG series. Why do you ask?
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.
Prerequisite (i.e. read before reading this):
- Entry #093-5 ("Phineas is Mine!," Chapter 5)
"Milly! Milly!"
Milly was holding her breath as she hid behind a parked car on the side of the street. Slowly, she peeked out around the side. She saw Isabella and the rest of the girls heading her way, and she noted that their eyes were scanning left and right. They were searching for her, and had been for a few minutes. Isabella was the only one calling Milly's name, though, and Milly could tell from the continually descending tone that her friend was getting more annoyed and impatient by the second.
"Milly? COME OUT RIGHT NOW!"
Milly ducked back behind the car, sat on the ground, wrapped her arms around her raised knees, and began shaking in fear.
Entry #099 - Written by Milly
Have you ever seen something you... weren't supposed to? And now you're seeing it already in everyone around you? And... you're fearful that you'll see it in you, too?
The truth is that, no matter what I saw, it's going to happen. Tomorrow, next month, or in a couple years, it's going to happen. I won't be a child forever. One day, it's going to happen.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Milly emerged from her hiding spot, screaming in mortal terror. In the process, she had forgotten the book that she had carried with her today. It was open to a page which had one word highlighted in yellow on it. Ten instances of that one word on that page alone, to be exact. That word?
Puberty.
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Entry #099 [FSD207] - Growing Pains (02.20.12)
-
It all started two days ago...
Milly had just arrived at the library, and she was tagging along with Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet. She had a look of concern on her face, but Isabella had put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"It'll be okay," Isabella told her. "You'll knock out these book reports, no problem!"
"If you say so," replied Milly.
The group started going their separate ways. The girls traveled to the Junior Fiction section. Or, that was the plan, until they passed by the Romance section of the Young Adult Fiction shelves. Isabella forgot that she had accompanied Milly to help her, and instead, found herself a few good books to browse through for a few minutes. Milly, meanwhile, just continued on.
A few minutes later, after finding three of the books on her list...
"Okay," she thought. "Now, I've got just under three weeks until school starts! Reading them all and writing those reports is doable in that short a time, right?"
As she tried to work out a plan of attack in her mind, she started walking. Completely distracted, she turned the corner to head to the front desk to check out, and she ran smack into the back of one Jeremy Johnson, Phineas' sister's boyfriend. Upon doing so, she knocked him forward into the half-full cart of books next to him. Jeremy managed to catch himself, but not his cart, which felt to the floor with a loud clang, and all of its contents spilled onto the carpeted floor.
"Oh!" Milly gasped. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"It's okay," Jeremy said to her as he pulled the cart upright. "Accidents happen."
Jeremy squatted down to start picking the books off of the ground.
"Let me help you!"
Milly placed her books on the cart and then proceeded to help Jeremy clean up the mess that she had made. But even as she did, her mind wandered back to planning how to do her book reports. In doing so, as she began placing books back on the cart, she inserted a book that was titled 'What's Happening to Me?' in between two of hers, 'A Wrinkle in Time' and 'The Phantom Tollbooth.' She failed to realize it as she finished putting the other displaced books onto the cart. Once they were done, Milly reached for her books, still unaware of her earlier error and grabbing the three leftmost books on the top shelf of the cart and leaving behind 'Tollbooth.' After apologizing a third time, Milly finally resumed her walk to the front desk.
She was the first of her friends to get there, as everyone else was still milling their selections. Milly handed her books and her library card to the librarian, and waited for her to complete the checkout process. But upon getting to 'What's Happening to Me?,' which was at the bottom of the stack, the older woman seemed perplexed. She shot an odd glance over the counter and down at Milly, who flashed an innocent smile back at her, and then pulled back. The librarian shrugged her shoulders.
"Whatever. Kids sure are learning about these things earlier and earlier."
She stamped the books, and Milly was still none the wise to her goof.
Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher gave us all rides home. I had no idea that I had borrowed the wrong book by accident, and neither did anyone else. I wish I had taken a minute to make sure before I had left the library, even though I was confident I had the right books. Even more so when I found out what that wrong book was that night...
Milly was lying in her twin size bed, atop her white comforter which had a flowery pattern on it. Her feet were up in the air, constantly moving, for as one leg was being lowered down, the other was being raised straight up simultaneously. Her chin was resting calmly on the palms of her upward-facing hands, as her eyes looked down at the book in front of her, slowly going from left to right as she read to herself.
Upon reaching the end of the chapter, she lifted the book off of the bed, picked up the bookmark she had placed under it about 20 minutes ago, and used it to save her place. She closed 'A Wrinkle in Time,' satisfied with her progress thus far.
"That was okay," she told herself. "But it's starting to put me to sleep. Maybe I should start with 'The Phantom Tollbooth' instead."
She reached for her small stack. She reached for the book on the bottom, underneath 'Island of the Blue Dolphins.' Milly froze when she pulled it out and saw that 'What's Happening to Me?' was in her hand instead of 'The Phantom Tollbooth.'
"Wait, wha?"
Confused, Milly hopped off her bed and went to her closet to search her backpack for the other book. But upon reaching it...
"Wait! I didn't bring my backpack to the library! So that means I must've borrowed the wrong book! But how?"
It didn't take me long to realize the obvious.
"I must've grabbed the wrong book from the cart after helping Jeremy! I guess I should've been paying more attention. Oh well. Looks like I'm gonna have to go back tomorrow."
Milly climbed back on the bed, put the mistaken book aside, and she decided to grab 'Dolphins' and start on that.
Now, normally, this would be the end of the story. I forget about the book, morning comes, I swap it for the right one, and so on...
But as the minutes passed, Milly could not help but look up from 'Dolphins' and glance over at the other book. Several times.
But...
"Oh, I can't take it any more!" she shouted. "I've got to see what it's about, even if it wasn't on my list!"
She closed 'Dolphins,' this time without using a bookmark to save her place, and she snatched up 'Happening' to give it a read.
Well, what did you expect? It... called out to me!
She opened it and began reading through it.
"So many big words," she quickly noted. "Great. It's like a textbook!"
Her eyes wandered down a few lines, and she came across an intriguing sentence, which she read aloud.
"'When a child reaches a certain age, their body begins going through many changes.'"
Milly soon came across a word that she was not familiar with.
"Pu-pu-pu ber-ber-ber ty-ty-ty. Pu-ber-ty. Puberty. Hmmm... what's that?"
She turned the page...
Warning! If you're currently trying out our beta audiobook system, I suggest you turn down your volume. Trust me. You want to.
...and stopped. Her eyes went wide as the next pair of pages had some diagrams on them. Some very intricate diagrams of the human body. Very, very intricate.
"Um, wha? What is that? WHAT... IS... THAT? AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Milly threw the book up in the air and started running around her room in a panic, screaming her head off.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
After about two minutes, Milly decided to jump into her closet and close the door behind her. She turned on the lights, then took a seat in the corner of the enclosed space and stayed there.
"That can't be right," Milly thought. "I bumped into Jeremy in the fiction half of the library. So nothing in that book is true, right? It just can't be! It just can't be!"
Believe it or not, I had just scarred myself with an image that I wasn't supposed to see. Not for a couple years, at least. But at the time, I didn't believe what I had seen.
A few minutes later, Milly emerged from the closet. She had calmed down, convinced that what she had seen in the book could not be real. One step at a time, she slowly made her way back to her bed.
You'd think I'd be too scared to pick up that book again.
Milly climbed back up onto her bed, and waiting for her was the book she had sent airborne earlier. It was lying face down.
"Just close the book and put it away," Milly told herself aloud. "Too scary! Too scary."
And yet, she flipped it right side up and proceeded to stare at the diagrams once more. Three seconds later...
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
...Milly sprinted back to the closet.
But I didn't know any better!
Five minutes later...
Milly approached her bed once again.
"Okay. This time, close it. You don't have to flip it right side up."
Unfortunately, this time it was already face up...
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
...and back to the closet Milly went.
3:30 am
Milly's eyes were heavy as she climbed onto her bed once more, having long lost track of how many times she had seen that picture in that book and had ran into the closet in fright.
I had no idea if I had finally become desensitized to them or if I was just so tired that I didn't care, but this time upon picking up the book and staring at that page...
Milly gave it another look, and this time she did not turn away, or close her eyes, or scream in terror. She just stared at it, and stared at it, and stared at it...
And then she turned the page and resumed reading.
"This isn't so bad," she thought.
And suddenly, a book that I was afraid of for hours on end now did not seem scary at all. In fact, I was now so enthralled that I wanted to continue on, and learn more.
And boy, did I learn more!
The next morning, in the woods, Milly was making her way to the clubhouse to meet up with the rest of the girls. She had brought her book on puberty with her, and she was still reading through it.
"Whoa." She gasped. "I never knew our bodies could change that much, so quickly! So, so scary! I'm sure glad we're all still a year or two from all that happening to us!"
She arrived at the clubhouse, where all the girls were already waiting for her.
"About time!" shouted Isabella, who had her hands on her hips. "Do you know what time it is?"
Gretchen answered the question for Milly, who did not seem to know. "It's 10:01."
"Did I ask you, Gretchen? I asked Milly! And, Milly, didn't I say to be here at 10:00?"
Adyson walked over to come to Milly's defense. "You're gonna bust her for being one whole minute late? We're doing the same thing we do every day. Getting a 'Let's Help Phineas and Ferb' patch!"
"Don't sass me! One, you know what it's called, and two, as troop leader..."
As Isabella and Adyson went at it, even though Isabella was the only one shooting her mouth off, Milly leaned over to whisper to Katie.
"What's got her all snippy today?"
But Katie had other concerns, as she was grabbing the tails of her shirt and was trying to pull them downward.
"Tell me the truth. I'm gaining weight, aren't I?"
Milly gave her best friend the once over. Katie did not look as if she had put on some pounds since she last saw her yesterday. But her failure to give an immediate answer sent her into a tizzy.
"I did, didn't I? I knew I shouldn't have had that slice of bread for breakfast!"
Katie ran off to take care of her problem. But before Milly could chase after her, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, then drape her arm over it. It was Holly, who had a look of anguish on her face and her other hand clutching her stomach.
"Speaking of breakfast," she groaned, "ugh! Hurts so much!"
Holly then lifted her right arm off of Milly and dragged herself towards the clubhouse entrance.
"What's going on?" Milly asked herself aloud. "Everyone's acting strange."
She looked over at Isabella and saw her staring longingly at a photo of her and Phineas. She sighed happily. She then lowered it and saw Adyson standing in front of her, and she hastily lost her composure.
"Stop standing there like a bump on a log! GO GET THE BUCKET!"
Adyson nodded, then ran for the clubhouse entrance.
"I've seen this all before," noted Milly.
Isabella went back to calmly admiring her photo, while Milly opened her book once more and found the page she was looking for.
"Weight gain? Stomach pains? Mood swings? OMG, those are some of the early signs of puberty!"
Milly pulled out a pair of binoculars out of nowhere and turned her attention towards Ginger and Gretchen. She first turned her focus on Ginger. The Asian girl was in the middle of an explanation that required her to get on her tiptoes. But Milly had not seen that, and instead saw that Ginger's chin was at the same height as the top of Gretchen's head - which had not been the case yesterday. Milly then whirled in Gretchen's direction, and increased the zoom on her binoculars by 100 percent. In doing so, she spotted a very, very small hair being to grow out of Gretchen's left arm.
"Growing in height? Hair appearing in places other than the head? No, no, no, no, not them too!"
Milly headed for the clubhouse entrance, bolting past Isabella...
"HEY! It's not ladylike to run!"
...and to the door, she opened it, and was greeted by the sight of Adyson.
"Oh, great timing! I didn't know how I was gonna get that open!"
The brunette was carrying a metal bucket filled to the brim with green apples. It seemed normal enough. Yet, Milly seem to have an adverse reaction to it. One that reminded her of a recent event involving them.
"EEK!" Milly screamed. "Apples!"
Adyson was confused. "Um, yeah? They're apples!"
"Not those apples! THOSE apples! EEK!"
Milly pointed at Adyson's chest, which was not flat as she had expected, but had a sizable protrusion. Milly screamed once more before spinning around and running in mortal terror. Everyone stopped what they were doing as they wondered what was up with Milly.
"Alright, who's been giving her sugar cakes again? You girls KNOW how she gets!"
"I dunno," Isabella thought out loud. "But all I know is, we gotta catch her and find out what's going on! 'Cause if we don't, I, uh, we, won't get to earn some 'Help Thy Neighbor' patches! COME ON!"
The six girls began chasing after Milly. The curly haired girl eventually made her way out of the woods and into the suburban streets of Danville.
"Milly! Milly!"
She ducked behind a parked car on the side of the street.
"Milly? COME OUT RIGHT NOW!"
And that explains why I was on the run from the others! Now, what happened next? Oh, right, I remember! Mortal terror!
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Milly emerged from her hiding spot, still screaming her head off. In the process, she had forgotten the book that she had carried with her today. She made her way down the street and eventually came across the front yard of the Flynn-Fletcher residence. Milly saw Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher emerge from the driver's side of her station wagon, and she immediately ran up to her.
"Oh, my!" Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher gasped as Milly wrapped her arms around her and started crying into the housewife's blouse. "What's wrong?"
Milly lifted her face up to explain as Candace exited from the other side of the car. But all that would come out of her mouth were an assortment of jumbled words.
"Swings! Hairy! Weight! Pains! APPLES!"
"What in the world are you talking about, dear? Candace, a little help?"
Candace seemed suspicious of Milly.
"Didn't you buy apples as a gift for Phineas last week? And didn't that NOT work?"
"EVERYTHING'S CHANGING AND I'M NOT READY TO CHANGE!" Milly suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs.
"CANDACE!"
"What? C'mon, Mom, I didn't do anything! I don't even know why she's freaking out!"
"I think we might know..."
The trio saw Isabella standing at the edge of the driveway with a book in hand, and the rest of the Fireside Girls were with her. Isabella walked over, holding the book up so that Linda and Candace could see the title.
"Milly, where did you get this book from?"
Milly used the back of her hands to dry the tears from her eyes, and then she replied, "From the library yesterday."
So I explained what had happened. Once I was done.
"I see." Linda breathed a sigh of relief. "A bit of an overreaction, but not unexpected from someone unfamiliar with it. Milly, you have nothing to worry about. Yes, some of the changes you might go through sound scary, and they may be painful. But everyone goes through it. I did when I was your age, as did Candace, and so will you and the rest of the girls."
Candace laughed. "I never acted like her going through puberty!"
"I have home movies that prove otherwise."
The girls gathered around Milly to comfort her.
"It sounds like the last 12 hours haven't exactly made any sense to you," Isabella stated matter-of-factly. "If you want, we can all help you understand it."
"You mean understand puberty, since you're all already going through it?" questioned Milly.
The girls all looked at each other and laughed.
"Us? Oh, no. AFAIK, none of us are 'in it' yet."
"WHAT? But the signs..."
Milly opened the book to the page that had the signs on it. The girls quickly explained.
"Ate too little because I'm getting self-conscious."
"Ate too much and now I'm wishing I hadn't."
"I was on my tiptoes to show how tall this boy I saw the other day was."
"That was a piece of dead grass."
"And you know how much I abhor spending any unnecessary waking seconds of my life NOT being with Phineas. Speaking of which, can we hurry this up?"
That was directed at Adyson, who reasoned her way out of her 'sign' by pulling her beret out of her shirt.
"I brought my old one, which is two sizes too small for my head, and didn't realize it until it was too late, so to keep from losing it, I stuffed it in my shirt for safekeeping!"
"Ah!" Milly exclaimed. "For a minute, I thought they sprouted up overnight!"
Adyson gulped. "That would be scary."
"You won't have to worry about that," Isabella said with a chuckle. "Just look at Candace."
"HEY!" the teen redhead shouted. "Standing right here!"
"I think that this crisis has been averted," deduced Linda. "Who wants pie?"
"I DO!" all of the girls shouted in unison.
Linda and Candace led the way in. Milly, though, still had one question to ask her friends.
"That book only covers puberty in girls. It's the same in boys, right?"
The girls all giggled with glee. Milly became distraught as they all headed inside.
"Oh, come on! I can't get any more freaked out than I already am! Come on! Tell me! Tell me!"
So, now that you've heard me tell you how I learned what puberty is, I'm gonna go pass out! Good night!
End Entry
Author's Notes:
Ladies and gentlemen, that's the closest to an 'after school special' you'll probably see in this series. I'll say, this was a toughie, trying to get the right tone to address the subject matter without being too offensive. Not to mention that things are complicated by the fact that I'm a guy writing an episode about a girl learning about puberty, without any first- or third-hand experience. So, yeah... awkward doesn't even begin to describe my feelings about this.
So, why? Those of you who read "Phineas is Mine" are aware (as I noted after Milly's chapter there as well) that I'm using Milly as my go-to open-to-wild-personality-interpretations character in my stories. Will I keep doing these kind of stories for Milly? That all depends on what other far-reaching topics there are to explore with her... and if you guys still want to see such tales.
Onto next week, and the winter/mid-season finale! Isabella's ready to share some very, very big news... what could it be?