"Fireside Diaries"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Here we are at the end of the second season. Can you guess what movie this episode is a homage to? Answer's at the end! (Hint: The episode title pretty much gives it away.)
Prerequisite (i.e. read that before reading this):
- Entry #399 ("Fireside Diaries," Episode 215)
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.
Entry #400 - Written by Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, troop leader
Last time, our troop had gone off on a camping retreat. It was short-lived, though, as we learned our neighbors were in fact the members of our rivals, Troop 28933. We put our tickets for the upcoming Fireside Girls Jamboree on the line in a Survivor Patch-Off.
We couldn't find a victor for our first challenge, so we had to to employ some outside help to think of a second...
Isabella was ecstatic to see Phineas and Ferb arrive at the campsite. And they had come prepared, with blueprints in hand.
"We heard you girls needed a new challenge to undertake," Phineas said aloud, "so we came up with this... a great canoe race!"
Ferb unfurled the largest of the blueprints on the ground, and Isabella, along with Elizabeth, who had walked over to see what was going on, only needed a few seconds to scan it and decide that this was what they were going to do.
"Jolly good!" proclaimed Elizabeth. "My troop's in!"
"If they're in, then so are we!" Isabella said in response.
"Good," Phineas nodded. "Let's build us some canoes!"
-
Entry #400 [FSD216] - Wild Fireside Girls:
Part 2, Race for Your Tickets, Troop 46231! (05.14.12)
-
All the boats were lined up at the starting line. Phineas, atop a boat he created with his stepbrother Ferb, started passing down maps to each of the teams.
"What's he doing here?" The Chaz asked, pointing at Phineas.
"There's no rule saying we can't race either."
He pointed out Ferb, as well as Buford and Baljeet, who were part of his crew.
"Actually," Elizabeth interjected, "given what we're racing for, you shouldn't be in this. And neither should you blokes, Rats!"
"We're in it to impress some girls," admitted Chaz.
Immediately knowing he was referring to her, Isabella shouted from off-screen, "In your dreams, maybe!"
"Fine," Elizabeth gave in. "But what about HER?"
She pointed to the boat on the other side of Phineas's, which was going to be driven by Candace.
"I can't bust you all if I don't see you race! So I'm staying!"
Her co-pilot, Stacy, had her own reasons for participating.
"Meh. Better than going on a blind date set up by my mom."
"Now that we're caught up on who's in," Phineas spoke up once more, "this map has marked off a course best suited to test off canoe piloting and navigation skills. First to the finish wins!"
Each team quickly unfurled their map and studied it for a few seconds. Before they knew it, Phineas had taken out a flare gun and he pulled the trigger. When the flare exploded in the sky, the race began!
All five teams began their paddling, each hoping to get out into the early lead. The Riverside Rats used pure muscle to reach the first riverbend before anyone else. Fireside Troop 28933 was second, followed by Phineas' team, Candace and Stacy, and lastly, Fireside Troop 46231, who was having trouble getting their rowers in sync.
"Stroke!" bellowed Isabella. "Stroke! At the same time, girls, or we won't go anywhere!"
Although the river was made by nature, Phineas and Ferb had put some manmade, but environmentally-friendly obstacles along the way to make things more challenging. First up was a section of rapids, enhanced by the addition of a wave machine. The device was set so that the waves were just high enough to cause choppy waters, but not too high as to fling boats up and over.
"Child's play!" The Chaz exclaimed, seeing the rapids. "Chop it up, fellas!"
The Rats navigated through the rapids without any problems, making sure to follow the flow as much as possible while staying in control. Not wanting to be outdone, Elizabeth sprung her girls into action.
"Betty, get to the back! Lauren and Abigail, hard to port. Christy, stop eating that candy bar and pick up your oar!"
The girls followed Elizabeth's orders exactly, and they got through. Next up was Phineas and his crew.
"WHEEEEEE!" exclaimed Phineas, Ferb, and Buford with their arms high in the air.
Baljeet was the only one not having fun in the group, as he was steering and getting splashed left and right by the waves.
"I should have brought more underwear," he said with a sigh.
Behind them, Candace and Stacy entered the rapids. Stacy grabbed the oars and was about to hand one to Candace when she was met with a hand to the face.
"Um, Candace?"
"We need to take a vote, Stacy! We should vote for whether we should row left then right, or right then left!"
Stacy only had one response to that.
"You serious?"
"DO I LOOK LIKE I KID? PASS OUT THE BALLOTS, STACY!"
The ballot was a blank half-piece of yellow notepad paper. Both girls took their half, wrote down their vote with a pen, folded it up, and placed them in a bowler hat that Candace happened to have.
"Okay, Stacy, count the votes!"
Stacy did as she was told.
"One vote for left then right. Two votes for left then right. Um, so left than right wins."
"So it does!"
Last but not least was Isabella's troop. Isabella shouted out orders as she attempted to keep them afloat and upright.
"Lean left! No, right! Steady as she goes! Speed up, right side! C'mon, girls!"
It was rough going, especially when Ginger brought her oar up a little too high and accidentally hit Adyson in the back of the head, but they made it without losing anybody.
"That was close, Chief!" Gretchen exclaimed.
"I'll say," Isabella said, relieved. "I hope the rest of the course isn't this tough..."
The next thing the teams had to get through was a fog-filled lake that also had several exits, many of which used a series of slides like one would see in a log flume, to double back and dump them back in they lake. They could barely see five feet in front of them, so they had to use their other senses to get to the correct exit.
The teams dealt with many more obstacles. The Rats were shown bailing water out of their boat after getting caught in a freak torrential downpour. Candace was seen batting away hungry crocodiles with her oar as Stacy attempted to paddle them to safety. Phineas and his crew try to barter their way past a family of beavers in the midst of building a dam. Elizabeth and her troop were under fire from locals posing as spear-chucking natives. And lastly, Isabella and her girls were seen trying to break up the ice after an odd, midsummer blizzard blew through the air.
But despite all the ridiculousness on the course, all five boats were still in the running as they reached a fork in the river - the last one before the finish line.
"Okay!" Phineas shouted out loud. "Make sure you take the left fork ahead! As fun as waterfalls can be, the one down the right fork isn't the kind you wanna ride on. So go with the flow!"
All of the boats heeded Phineas' warning, and started bearing to the left. All except...
"Stacy! Pass out the ballots!"
"Candace?"
The redhead gave her the eye. Stacy sighed, then followed Candace's instructions. After voting, Stacy tallied them.
"One vote we go left. One vote we go right. It's a tie!"
"There be no such thing as ties in a democracy! We vote again!"
"Candace, I'm not changing our vote! Phineas said..."
"We're not doing anything until we decide which way we're going to go until one option has a majority!"
They voted again, and Stacy tallied them.
"One vote we go right. And one vote we go left."
"Oh, come on!"
But by this point, though, the junction had passed, and the river had carried them down the right fork. Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of roaring water. A sound commonly heard near...
"WATERFALL! DEAD AHEAD!"
Stacy frowned. "If we survive this, I'm impeaching you."
They picked up their oars and tried to escape, but it was no good. Seconds later, they could be heard screaming as their boat went over the edge and down into the jagged rocks below...
But they were not the only ones with problems, as the boat of Troop 28933 had sprung a leak unexpectedly. Then two, four, and eight. In just seconds, there were leaks everywhere!
"We're taking on water fast!" remarked Abigail.
"Well, DUH!" quipped Lauren.
"Abandon boat!" shouted Elizabeth.
The entirety of the troop either jumped or swam on the boat as it quickly became to filled with water stay afloat, and it sank. Not too far behind them were Isabella and her team. They had witnessed the entire event.
"They've been sunk, Chief!" pointed out Gretchen. "What should we do?"
Isabella groaned. She knew what she had to do. She knew what she was supposed to. And yet she did not want to do it. But...
"Bringing aboard seven, girls! Make room!"
The girls stopped paddling so their boat would come to a halt in front of Elizabeth and her troop.
"What are ye doing?" Elizabeth queried. "You got this, fair and square!"
"You should know better than anyone, since you're troop leader," replied Isabella. "Fireside Girls never ignore other Fireside Girls in need."
Isabella extended an arm out to Elizabeth, wanting her to grab on so she can be pulled up into the boat. She hesitated at first, believing she did not need pity from a rival troop. But she did not want to stay in the water all day, so, she grabbed Isabella's hand and let her pull her up. The other girls were helped up soon after, one at a time. While this was happening, they were passed by the Riverside Rats, who went by without even stopping.
Isabella focused on the issue at hand... how to manage 14 people in a boat when they had only six oars to go around and little room to stretch.
"The only way this is going to work is if we have our best rowers in place. Everyone else is gonna have to squeeze in the center and make no sudden movements."
"I got no problem with that, lass! Lauren! Betty! Veronica! You girls cover this side of the boat."
"Great! Adyson, Holly, and Katie, you've got this side!"
Once everyone got into position...
"And..." both leaders said in unison, "STROKE!"
Isabella and Elizabeth looked at each other in confusion.
"Um, our boat, my command. Got it?"
"Fine. It's your boat."
"Okay, girls of Troop 46231 and Troop 28933! All together now... stroke! Stroke! Stroke!"
The girls quickly got into a rhythm, and they were moving once more. They had to hurry, though. The finish line was not that far away.
Up towards the front, the two all-boys teams were trading the lead back and forth. Both were determined to get to the finish first. The two boats reached a point where the river merged with the stream leading away from the bottom of the waterfall they were instructed to avoid. All of a sudden, a boat surfaced in front of them. It was Candace and Stacy, and not only had they survived the huge drop, but they had managed to bail out enough water to keep their boat afloat, and they had popped up in front everyone else, in the lead.
"Candace!" exclaimed Phineas.
"How?" gasped a shocked The Chaz.
The Fireside Girls had gotten the other boats in sight just as Candace's boat had reappeared.
"There they all are! We're still in it, girls! Stroke, STROKE!"
The finish line was in sight, and all four boats raced to get there first. Candace and Stacy were leading the way, followed by the team of Phineas, Ferb, Buford, and Baljeet, then the Riverside Rats, and lastly, the Fireside Girls.
"We're gonna win!" Candace exclaimed. "We're gonna win!"
Candace dropped her oar and stood up, extending her arms straight up in the air. She then started to dance, swaying her hips left and right, back and forth.
"Uh huh! Oh yeah! We're the winners! We're the winners!"
"Candace! Don't stand up in the bo-oAAAAAAAT!"
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Candace had danced too hard, thrusting to her left so much that she lost her balance, tipping the boat over and sending her and Stacy into the murky river. Their boat was now upside down, floating on the water. The two teenagers surfaced shortly thereafter. As for their oars, they continued down the river without them. As did the other boats.
"YOU'RE STILL BUSTED AFTER THIS!" Candace yelled after her brothers.
Phineas, Ferb, Buford, and Baljeet were in rhythm as they drew ever closer to the line. Buford, hoping to speed them up even more, tossed his oar aside, ripped the one Baljeet had out of his hands, and used the Indian boy as his new oar. It worked as they sped up. For about five strokes anyway.
On the sixth stroke, Buford lost his grip on Baljeet's ankles as he was pulled away by some overgrown tuna fish.
"Help!" cried Baljeet as he was dragged upstream by a large tuna. "I am being fishnapped by a lost salt water fish!"
"Wow," Phineas admitted, as the trio stopped rowing. "I'll admit, I didn't foresee that predicament."
"Well, this isn't our show, after all," said Ferb.
The boys chased after Baljeet-in-a-tuna. That meant the race was down to the Riverside Rats and the Fireside Girls. The girls were closing the gap, but the finish line was only a few paddle strokes away.
"We're not gonna make it!" Adyson shouted.
Isabella was not willing to concede until the Rats had passed under the banner. Suddenly, she remembered something. She turned to face the Rats' boat as they started to come alongside.
"Oh, The Chaz!"
The Rats' leader responded. "It's not Chaz, it's THE Chaz... oh, wait, that's right."
"Remember that favor you owe us in exchange for us not telling your Scout Leader what you and your friends did to our blog?"
"Nice try, babe. We don't owe you anything! You posted what happened on your blog and we got demerits for it!"
"Okay, then. Let's make a deal! I not not-promise to not go out with you if you do not throw this race for us!"
The Chaz took a second to process what Isabella had offered. He then replied...
"DEAL!"
He picked up an anchor, which was lying flat on the boat and apparently out of sight for the entirety of the race and threw it overboard. Instantly, the Rats' boat came to a dead stop. As the Fireside Girls went by, The Chaz took a few more seconds to process Isabella's offer again.
"Hey! You tricked me!"
"Sorry!" apologized Isabella as she waved farewell. "All's fair in love and war! Especially the war part!"
Isabella was pleased with her little act of trickery, and Elizabeth was impressed, laughing at what had happened.
"Blimey! It's true what they say. Boys ARE daft!"
To which Isabella responded, "Yes. Yes, they are."
The two troop leaders high-fived each other as the front of the boat crossed the finish line. A loud cheer went up among the crew.
Twenty minutes later, after everyone had dried off and the boats were out of the water, it was time to for the founder of the Fireside Girls to pass out awards.
"Another tie," sighed Isabella as she turned to Elizabeth. "Looks like both of our troops will have to raise some extra money to make the trip to the Jamboree after all."
"Aye," agreed Elizabeth. "'Tis a shame. We should both be getting free rides, after the effort we put together."
"Yeah. But you know it doesn't work that way."
Eliza approached the two troop leaders with a smile on her face. Which seemed odd given the circumstances.
"It doesn't, Isabella, Elizabeth. But there are times where making an exception is acceptable."
She pulled out enough tickets out of her pocket to give to each member of both troops.
"You really mean it?" asked Elizabeth to make sure she had heard her right. "We all get to go?"
"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Isabella. "Hear that, girls? We're ALL going to the Jamboree!"
The girls all cheered gleefully. They started to sing and dance and dish out hugs. Most of the girls were content with hugging each other. But Isabella grabbed Phineas, who happened to be standing nearby, watching the whole ceremony.
"Thanks, Phineas!" she told him. "Without you, none of this would have been possible!"
"Anything to help you girls!"
Isabella was a little disappointed that he added an extra word to the end of that compliment. But no matter. She got to hug him, and he let her. That was enough for her.
Adyson, though, was not going to get out done by Isabella in the celebration department. She grabbed the nearest boy and gave him a peck on the cheek without even giving it a second thought. The boy seemed so surprised and delighted by it that he promptly fainted afterwards.
"THAT is how you celebrate a win!"
As Adyson gave herself a congratulatory pat on the back and walked off to continue celebrating with the others, the boy in question came to as he sat up on the ground.
"What just happened?"
That boy was Baljeet. Buford knelt down next to him and answered his questions.
"You just got the cooties, and you got six months to live! Nice knowing ya!"
"That just make me even more befuddled!"
The two troops continued to celebrate, not paying any attention to the Riverside Rats, who were leaving the scene. But not before their leader could get in some last words...
"You may have won this round, Fireside Girls, but next time, the Riverside Rats will be the triumphant ones! Oh, that babe Isabella will be mine! Rats, we are out! Peace!"
With the departure of the Rats, that left the Fireside Girls and their friends to begin the clean-up process...
But as everything got cleaned up and everyone packed their belongings back into the vehicles they had brought them to Sheer Falls Park, there was still one last matter to take care of.
And that involved Elizabeth getting the last word in.
"I may have newfound respect for you and your girls, and perhaps even friendship. But don't mistake it as a sign of weaknesses. In four weeks at the Jamboree, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, my troop will win Troop of the Year, honestly and fairly!"
"Nice try, Elizabeth Griffiths-Hollingberry, but there's one thing wrong with that statement."
"And what's that?"
"My girls are gonna win Troop of the Year! Naturally."
The two girls smirked smugly at each other. They stared into the other's eyes, already looking forward to the competition at the Jamboree.
"Get a room!" shouted Abigail, joking from afar.
"Put a cork in it, Abby!" Elizabeth shouted back without looking.
The two girls shook hands, each squeezing the other's hand hard so she would not be forgotten by her rival. With that, the engine to the van carrying Elizabeth's troop home roared to life, so she headed off to join her party. Isabella and her girls watched Troop 28933 drive off before getting back to finishing their packing.
"Okay, girls!" Isabella said to her troop. "Time to head home!"
And with that, our camping retreat came to an end. We have some great memories to look back on, and we got to know a lot about ourselves and our rivals. Best of all, we go our free ride to the Jamboree back! By working together with Elizabeth and her troop, we all proved that with teamwork, you can overcome any obstacle!
We'll have to remember that at the Jamboree, because it's going to take all of us to become Troop of the Year.
- Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, leader of Fireside Girls Troop 46231
The van carrying Isabella's troop was packed. The girls hopped in and were off, followed closely by the Flynn-Fletcher's station wagon, which carried Phineas, Ferb, Buford, Baljeet, and Stacy home.
Wait... is there someone missing?
"Hey! Hold up! YOU FORGOT ME!"
Candace came running up to the road, but it was too late. Both vehicles were heading for the exit and neither was stopping to wait for her.
"Now what?" she asked aloud.
Suddenly, a loud motorcycle with an attached sidecar pulled to a stop right next to her. Candace coughed as a cloud of dirt kicked up as a result. When it cleared, she could not believe that a white beagle wearing a helmet, sunglasses, and a scarf was behind the wheel. Without saying a word - he is a dog, after all - he lobbed a helmet at Candace, which she caught. To this, Candace only had one response.
"Good grief."
End Entry
End Season Two
Author's Notes:
And that's season two in the books! Season three is in the planning stages, and you'll see it most likely by the end of this year. Also, this is the last chance you have to suggest an idea for an episode for next season! I'd like to lock in the plotlines by next week. So if you want something to happen to your favorite Fireside Girl... speak now or, well, you know the rest.
And be on the lookout for new "Fireside Diaries" feature, tentatively titled "Jamboree Jambalaya," coming this July! Might be doing some teasers in the weeks leading up to the premiere, so make sure you check my profile page, website, or Twitter feed on a regular basis.
I also participated in a Phineas and Ferb podcast for The [Real] Scratch Pad a couple months ago and it finally got posted last night. I don't talk much in it, as I'm only a guest panelist, but if you're interested in hearing what a bunch of guys think about the show, check it out! The link will be posted on my profile page, or just Google it! Fair warning - it's approximately two hours long!
Be kind and review, and see you for more "Diaries" stuff soon!
[Answer] This episode is an homage to the 1977 animated film "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown."