"Fireside Diaries"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
It's been a long season, but we're coming down to the end! Here's part one of two of the second season finale!
Prerequisites (i.e. read these before reading this):
- Entries #386 & #274 ("Fireside Diaries," Episodes 202 & 208, respectively)
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.
An orange van drove through a set of gates and past a sign that read 'Sheer Falls Park.' It kept moving along the roads, not coming to a stop until it came to a marker which read 'Campsite 29,' at which point it came to a stop.
Seconds later, the passenger side door slid open, and members of Fireside Girls Troop 46231 began filing out. Meanwhile, the front passenger door swung open, and out hopped the troop's leader, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro. She inhaled deeply as she got a whiff of the open air around her.
Entry #399 - Written by Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, troop leader
Whatcha' doin'? Reading our blog, I bet! Well, followers, have we got a good one for you today! We're now T-minus 27 days until the Fireside Girls Jamboree, and before the big event, our troop is having a little camping retreat. One, to get away from our normal lives - sorry, Phineas, but this is one weekend I don't want to be doing whatever you're doin' - and two, to begin getting ourselves mentally and physically prepared for the Jamboree! This time, we're not leaving it up to an after-the-fact ruling... we're gonna win 'Troop of the Year!' And you can bet on that!
But, really, don't. Seriously. Fireside Girls don't endorse gambling of any kind. Now, where was I?
"Hop to it, girls!" barked Isabella. "We've got three hours to set up camp before the sun goes down! Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" replied the troop, in unison.
The girls all went to work, beginning to move supplies from the van to the campsite. First order of business was setting up tents, and the girls paired off to start that process - Gretchen with Ginger, Adyson with Holly, and Milly with Katie.
You guys remember what happened last year, right? Well, if you don't, maybe what happens next will jolt your memory...
Isabella notices the campsite next to them was set up. She spotted three tents, each sporting Fireside orange as background to a daffodil pattern that adorned them.
"Ooh, another Fireside Girls troop! I should be neighborly and introduce myself!"
She strutted over and did just that, heading towards the center tent, which was slightly bigger than the others.
"Hello! Anybody in there?"
She immediately got an answer. From a very familiar voice. And the body to match the voice, as Isabella noted upon this troop's leader lifting up the tent flap and emerging from her quarters.
"Cheese and crackers!" the girl groaned. "You again, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro?"
The girl was Elizabeth Griffiths-Hollingberry, the leader of Troop 28933.
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Entry #399 [FSD215] - Wild Fireside Girls: Part 1, I'm a Camping Survivor! (05.07.12)
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There I was, standing face-to-face with my Fireside rival, Elizabeth! She's only girl left from that troop a year ago that cheated their way to the title of Troop of the Year by using visual aids during the singing competition. Since then, Elizabeth has made it her mission to get her revenge for that debacle, and she's assembled a new group of girls to help her.
Isabella took a few steps back as the rest of Elizabeth's troop emerged from the tents. They all stood strong behind their leader, ready to back her up if need be.
"Elizabeth Griffiths-Hollingberry! Of all of the places you could have set up camp, you pick next to MY girls?"
"Last I checked, this be a free country, lass."
Not feeling comfortable being outnumbered seven-to-one, Isabella put two fingers in her mouth and whistled for help. In an instant, her troop appeared alongside her. Upon recognizing whom they had to come to 'save' Isabella from, Adyson could be heard groaning.
"Great! I'm gonna have to learn all of their first AND last names too!"
Suddenly, one of the girls in Elizabeth's troop, a behemoth of a girl who was a clear foot taller than anyone else and had muscles upon muscles bulging out of her arms and legs, clenched her fists before starting to step forward. But before she could get past her leader, Elizabeth stuck out her arm to the side to block her.
"No! No, Betty! Fireside Girls do not condone violence! Especially against other Fireside Girls!"
Betty grumbled in understanding, then stepped back into line.
"You'll have to excuse her," Elizabeth told Isabella. "She's new, that she is."
Gretchen tapped Isabella on the shoulder, then whispered something in her ear. Isabella then turned her attention to the portable electric generators sitting in the campsite. One for each tent. She also noticed that Elizabeth's troop also had a microwave, a TV, and a bunch of Bango-Ru dolls that were arranged in a circle around the heater.
"No offense, Elizabeth," Isabella pointed out, "but isn't this a little much for a camping trip?"
"There's nothing wrong with bringing some comforts from home. Besides, Isabella, what about you and your Yanks?"
Elizabeth pointed over at Isabella's campsite. Or, more specifically, at the bags and bags of food that had been left in a pile on the ground.
"You blokes feedin' an army?"
Isabella said in defense, "I don't see how having an overabundance of food is worse than what your troop's doing!"
"We're modernized young women, not savages," shot back Elizabeth, "Unlike some people."
Suddenly, there was a lot of shouting and arguing between the members of the two troops, as they debated which side was more wrong in their actions. After a minute or so, someone came in to end the feud.
"Hold it right there, little ladies!"
Everyone stopped and gasped as they saw Eliza M. Feyersied, the founder of the Fireside Girls, standing before them.
"There's only one way to settle this debate! Isabella, please read aloud Article 12, Section Foxtrot, Footnote 3!"
Gretchen came forth with the Fireside Girls Rules of Order book, already opened to page that Isabella needed. Everyone listened attentively as Isabella began reading aloud.
"Troop versus troop challenges: Survivor Patch-Off. Two or more Fireside troops may compete against each other in a test of survival skills. All participating troops must survive one night in the wild with very minimal supplies. The troop that does that the best and passes uniform inspection the following morning will earn their Survivor Camping Patch. Additional stakes, such as one troop's tickets to the Fireside Girls Jamboree, may also be wagered, as long as it is done within accordance of the principles of the Fireside Girls."
"Seems strangely specific," commented Elizabeth, "but those terms are just. As long as you're willing to part with your tickets!"
"We're not giving up anything without a fight! Elizabeth, you've got yourself a challenge!"
30 minutes later...
Everything had been removed from both campsites except for tents, sleeping bags, and one set of sleeping wear for each girl. Once Mrs. Feyersied had departed with the last of the extras, the challenge officially began.
"Alright, girls!" Isabella said, addressing her troop. "This should be easy! First things first! Adyson, you're on foraging duty! Take Holly and Ginger and find us some grub! Gretchen, take Milly and Katie and get looking for firewood! By my triangulation of the sun's position, we've got less than two and a half hours before nightfall!"
The girls headed off. Seeing this, Elizabeth spurred her girls into action.
"Oh, she won't be getting the drop on us! Let's show them blokes we can forage and collect firewood better than them! Go, girls, go!"
And with that, Elizabeth's girls split into two teams and went off.
Ginger and Holly were smiling gleefully as they picked berries from some bushes. Suddenly, Adyson walked up to them, happily sporting a pair of fresh mushrooms in her hands.
Not too far away, Lauren was peeved as she saw their success from afar. She pointed to her two friends to produce better results. They ran off and returned seconds later with a beehive that they had plucked from a nearby tree. And with it came its inhabitants, an angry swarm of bees. The trio fled for their lives, with the hive in tow.
Elsewhere, Betty was grinning from ear to ear as Abigail and another girl placed a bunch of twigs and branches into her arms. Abigail smirked as she knew she was being watched.
Nearby, Gretchen was indeed keeping tabs on the opposition, as she lowered a pair of binoculars from her eyes. She spun around to see how Milly and Katie were doing. Her jaw dropped wide open when she saw them unknowingly pick apart a beaver dam. A dam that collapsed right underneath them, taking the girls and its remnants down the river. Gretchen pulled a pair of live preserves out, from seemingly nowhere, and chased after her friends.
A few hours later, after nightfall...
On one campsite, a previously-lit fire was on its last embers as it died out before the last of the girls headed into her tent for the night. On the other side, the campfire was still going strong, as three girls sat cross-legged around it, all in their pajamas.
"How can they already be sleeping?" grumbled Adyson. "Those berries and mushrooms didn't do anything for me! I'm still famished!"
Gretchen tapped her on the shoulder and offered a piece of tree bark.
"No matter how hard you try to convince me, Gretch, tree jerky is NOT food!"
"Keep it down, guys!" Isabella waved her arm at them. "I'm trying to hear what they're up to!"
"Um, Chief?" Gretchen interjected. "I don't think they're up to anything."
"Good. Which means we can be up to something."
Suddenly, Katie ran out of her tent, doing so awkwardly as she headed for the woods. Milly exited right after, following her there.
"Buddy system, Kat! Buddy system!"
Once they disappeared from sight, Isabella's face lit up. She had just gotten an idea. Gretchen and Adyson watched as their leader went over to Milly and Katie's tent and started taking it down. They had dumbfounded looks on their faces, and so did Holly and Ginger when they stuck their heads out of their tent to see what all the commotion was about.
"Taking our tents down and sleeping underneath the big, blue sky ought to earn us some extra points! That'll give us an edge! Ooh, and we can make an outdoor shelter out of the leftover firewood! Double bonus!"
Isabella got up and went to work realizing her plan.
"I don't like those girls either," commented Adyson, "but even I think this is a bit much."
"I have to agree," added Gretchen, as she stood up. "For you see..."
Before Gretchen could finish, though, she was interrupted by a series of loud screams.
"That came from the other troop's camp!" exclaimed Isabella.
Suddenly, there was a second round of screams. This set came from the woods to their east.
"And that's coming from where Milly and Katie went!"
The girls split up to check out both trouble sites. Holly and Ginger ran towards the treeline, while Gretchen and Adyson followed Isabella over to their neighbor's campsite.
Once there, Isabella's group was astonished to see the camp had been completely trashed, which was apparent even in the darkness of night.
"Search for clues," commanded Isabella, "but be VERY careful! Whatever came through here might still be lurking about!"
Isabella headed directly for Elizabeth's tent. She squinted as she tried to see if anyone was hiding in there. The tent was empty. But she did find something highly out of place.
A flashlight.
She grabbed it, flipped the on switch, and exited the tent. Her newfound source of light immediately got Gretchen's attention.
"Chief!" she shouted. "Ten o'clock!"
Isabella turned in that direction and saw Gretchen about 70 feet away. She was done on one knee and looking down at what looked to be a partial beehive that was mostly covered in honey. Isabella went over to get a closer look.
"I recognize that!" Adyson said as she appeared to Gretchen's left just as Isabella got to Gretchen's right. "That's the beehive Lauren and her group plucked out of a tree earlier!"
"The way this hive broke," speedily deduced Gretchen, "tells me that it wasn't by human hands, intentional or otherwise."
"Hold up!" Isabella said aloud. "Adyson, take one step to your right."
Adyson complied. Isabella shined her flashlight where Adyson had been standing just a moment ago. Right there, in plain sight, were giant animal tracks.
"Bear tracks," identified Gretchen. "American black, to be precise."
She and Isabella started scanning the ground for more bear prints. When they found a trail of them, they began following them and were about to leave the campsite when Adyson called out to them.
"Uh, girls? Do you remember there being any other active campsites within sight of ours?"
She had asked that because she had just spotted a large amount of light coming from what looked to be a grouping of tents to their southwest.
"We should go over there," Isabella decided. "One, to warn them about the bear, and two, see if they've seen Elizabeth's troop."
As they headed off in that direction...
Holly and Ginger were stumbling through the forest, in search of their lost friends.
"This is what I don't like about camping!" exclaimed Ginger. "You go to 'go,' and then you go missing!"
"I hear ya!" agreed Holly. "Who knows what you could run into out her-..."
They suddenly heard the sound of a twig snapping, and the duo stopped where they were. They waited and listened closely to see if they could identify by sound what they were about to run into. But after all they heard was silence, they decided to continue onward.
Soon enough, they stepped out of the underbrush and onto an unmarked path. And on it was a black bear, one that was staring right at them. And he was not pleased to see them. Holly and Ginger started to back away, but the bear started coming for them, matching them step for agonizing step.
"Okay," Holly told Ginger, "remember our training. When confronted by a hostile bear, the best way to get rid of him is to play dead. Got it?"
With that, Holly laid down on the ground, closed her eyes, and waited for the danger to pass. Ginger, on the other hand...
"EEEKKKKKKKKKKK!"
...panicked, and ran screaming down the path. The bear roared, then chased after her, not even giving the 'dead' Holly a sniff before doing so. Once she could no longer hear Ginger or the bear, Holly opened her eyes and got to her feet.
"It worked! Now, to go save Ginger."
She dusted herself off and took two steps forward. The ground gave way underneath her, and she fell into a pit.
"Really? How am I the only one who fell for it?"
Meanwhile, Isabella's group had made it to the far-off camp. And when they got there, they saw a few people they had secretly hoped that would never see again. Oh, and Elizabeth and her entire troop as well.
"Small world! Looks like my girl came crawling back to... The Chaz!"
"I'm beginning to regret suggesting this camping retreat," deadpanned Isabella.
The campsite was occupied by the members of Riverside Rats Troop 12038. And among them were The Chaz, who was the troop leader, as well as his friends Larry and Taylor - the latter two of which had appeared behind Gretchen and Adyson.
"It was scientifically proven that we'd meet again," Larry told Gretchen, interlocking arms with her.
Taylor tried to wrap Adyson in a bear hug, but she sidestepped him and he instead received a free trip to the dirt below.
"Still sore about what we did, huh?"
"Although it's great seeing you beauties again," The Chaz said aloud, "we're on official Riverside Rats business. Plus, we're already entertaining guests."
"If you call this entertaining!" griped Elizabeth. "All you and your boys have done is gawk at us since the moment we came here in mortal terr- I mean, to warn you about the bear that ravaged our camp! It's like none of you lads know how to talk to girls."
"Trust me," Isabella grumbled. "They don't."
"Why you gotta go and ruin my game like that, babe?" asked The Chaz.
"Call me babe one more time..."
"Oh, sorry, ba- Isabella. Isabella! See? I can call you by your name."
"Peachy. Look, Elizabeth, I won't stop you if you want to stay here, under the protection of... them..."
The three boys grinned, flashing their pearly whites.
"...but doing so violates the terms of our challenge. There's no way you're winning if you don't go back to your campsite."
"I don't know about you, Isabella, but the lives of me and my troop are more important than some silly barbaric competition! We'll find another way to the Jamboree."
"Very well. Let's go, girls. We've got to find the rest of our troop."
Isabella, Gretchen, and Adyson departed. Once they were out of earshot, The Chaz walked over to Elizabeth, intending to take a seat next to her...
"Not if you were the last bloody Yank in the world..."
...and he kept walking, all the way to his tent.
The girls were expecting a long night, but they got a pleasant surprise when they found the others had made their way back to camp. They all shared hugs, glad to see they were all still alive and safe.
"What happened?" Isabella asked.
"We heard a bear," Milly replied, "and we hid in the woods, hoping it wouldn't find us!"
"Safe to say I'm not going the rest of the night," added Katie, even if got her a few uneasy looks from the others.
"We found the bear," stated Ginger. "It got Holly, then I ran for my life!"
"It didn't get me!" corrected Holly. "I played dead, which you were supposed to do, and after he left, I fell into a pit!"
"Oh. Well, at least I got rid of the bear. Or shooed it away."
"It probably went back to the other troop's camp," deduced Gretchen. "There was still some honey left in that hive."
"Should be enough to satiate his appetite for the night," Adyson said in relief. "I think we can sleep easy."
"Good, especially since Elizabeth and company are out of commission."
"What?" the other four girls asked.
"Long story. I'll tell you all tomorrow. I think it's time we turn in."
With that, the girls went into their tents to retire for the night.
So you'd think that the story was over. That we had won easily. Well...
It was morning, and now both troops were now gathered at Isabella's troop's campsite. Troop 28933 had already conceded and were just waiting for the inevitable announcement that Troop 46231 had won. But there was a problem as Isabella's troop was undergoing uniform inspection.
Ginger was wearing a uniform that was two sizes too small for her, while Isabella was still dressed in her pajamas.
"I... can't believe... you threw your uniform at the bear... to chase it off... and then tried to hide it by snatching my uniform and not telling me until five minutes ago."
"I was panicking, okay?"
Eliza M. Feyersied was performing the inspection herself, and she shook her head in disappointment after doing so.
"I expected better from you and your charges, Isabella. You fail inspection, which means BOTH troops failed the challenge. That also means that nobody gets tickets to the Jamboree."
"What? No!"
All of the girls in Isabella's troop groaned in dismay.
"We worked so hard for those tickets!"
"And we worked so hard to legally take those tickets from them!" shouted Elizabeth, inserting her own argument.
"I'm sorry," Eliza told them, "but if you want them, you'll have to earn enough money in the next few weeks to buy them, like the other troops normally do."
Elizabeth stepped forward.
"I beseech you, great founder of the Fireside Girls... surely you could see it in your heart to give one of our troops the tickets!"
Isabella also made her case.
"Elizabeth's troop didn't earn those tickets, we did. But she has a point. It wouldn't be right for those to just go to waste, unclaimed!"
Eliza thought about it for a minute.
"I suppose you young girls are right."
Isabella and Elizabeth smiled.
"But we'd need to come up with some other way to test which troop is worthy of them. But what?"
Girls on both troops started racking their brains, attempting to come up with an idea. A stumped Isabella, unable to come up with one, started to worry once more.
"Oh, this is hopeless. If only Phineas and Ferb were here. I know they'd come up with a good idea!"
40 miles away, in a certain suburban Danville backyard...
"FERB! I know what we're gonna do today!"
Phineas looked over at his brother Ferb, who responded...
"Your friend-in-need sensors went off, didn't they?"
"Yes. Yes, they did."
So, what idea did Phineas and Ferb come up with to help us? I'd tell you, but you'll just have to wait until next time to find out!
End Entry
Author's Notes:
15 down, only one to go. Come back next Monday for the second half of the "Fireside Diaries" season finale to see how this one ends!