"Fireside Diaries"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
This is the episode where the plot of this season's main story arc comes to light, and I'm kinda worried because it may be deemed controversial and too non-canon. If you look at the prerequisites below, you probably have figured out where this is going, but if you haven't... well, enjoy the ride!
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.
Prerequisites (i.e. read these first before reading this):
- Entry #214 ("My Salty Sweetwater")
- Entry #365 ("I'm Your Next Class President!")
Concurrent with (means some events occur at the same time with):
- Entry #406 ("Fireside Diaries," Episode 304)
It was lunch time at Danville Elementary, and Isabella, Adyson, and Katie were seen exiting the line. They headed for the table in the cafeteria where all their friends were sitting.
Entry #407 - Written by Adyson Sweetwater
I have a problem. And not a silly problem, like accidentally checking out a book on puberty or needing help passing a physical fitness test. I have a real problem.
A real BOY problem.
Isabella happily took a seat at the table in between Phineas and Gretchen, while Ginger claimed an opening to Gretchen's right. Adyson sat right across from Ginger, with Holly to her right and Milly to her left.
But you're probably thinking... Addy, didn't you have boy problems before? Well, yeah! With a certain one of my friends...
Adyson turned her head towards Phineas...
Wait, wait, wait! I don't mean Phineas... I mean...
Suddenly, she felt Holly tap her on the shoulder.
"Girl, you really gonna eat that?"
Adyson followed Holly's finger, which was pointed at the former's lemon-colored sloppy tuna casserole. They looked over at Ginger's tray and saw the same mess of a lunch on it as well.
"See, that's why I started bringing lunch from home," stated Milly, holding up a cold ham-and-cheese-on-wheat sandwich.
"I seem to remember," stated Holly, "as your campaign manager, that one of your presidential promises was to improve school lunches! What happened to that?"
"I talked to the principal about it," Adyson answered, "but he said there wasn't any money in the school budget for such a change."
"Surely there's something you can do!" exclaimed Ginger, as she poked at the casserole with her fork. "If I don't eat anything, I won't have any energy to spend starting at Baljeet the rest of the day!"
She then glanced down the table and started staring at him anyway.
"Oh, Baljeet..."
Adyson started to think.
Ginger's right. There was something I could do, but I needed help. And I knew just the person to ask.
Adyson glanced down the table to look at Baljeet. She then turned to Ginger, then Baljeet, then Ginger again, and finally, back at Baljeet.
See? Real boy problem.
-
Entry #407 [FSD305] - The Promise (12.17.12)
-
That afternoon, coming out of the classroom...
"You sure you can't come?" Isabella asked Adyson.
"Yeah. I really have to do something about these school lunches."
Isabella then spotted Ginger hiding behind her locker door, trying to spy on Buford and Baljeet.
"I guess I'll go ask Ginger then."
Adyson went to her locker and got her things. She closed it just in time to see Isabella pull Ginger away from her 'spy' mission.
"Good luck, Miss President!" Holly exclaimed, as she walked by with Gretchen.
Adyson waved goodbye to her friends. Only when they had all disappeared into the stairwell did she finally move towards Buford and Baljeet. She watched as Buford swung his backpack at Baljeet's head for what had to be at least the tenth time. Of course, he did so slowly that Baljeet was able to dodge it once more, but still...
"Stop! Buford, we are going to miss the bus!"
"So? Walking's good for ya!"
Buford swung again. Having seen enough, Adyson attempted to step in. But all that did was put her right in the path of Buford's swing.
The next thing she knew, the bag had hit her square in the nose. Baljeet gasped.
"ADYSON! Buford, look what you have done! You hit a GIRL!"
"It's not my fault she doesn't know how to duck!"
He lowered the bag back down to the ground.
"I'm okay," Adyson said, rubbing the bridge of her now-visibly red nose. "I've been hit with worse."
Baljeet reached into his locker and pulled out a frozen ice pack. Adyson was impressed.
"Why do you have ice packs in there, and how do you keep them so cold?"
Adyson held it up against her nose as Baljeet pointed to the mini-fridge in his locker before responding to her query.
"One who is bullied can never be too careful. Especially one who likes to give wedgies. That is why they are so small, so I can put them down my..."
"EEW!" squealed Adyson, freaking out as she let go of the ice pack. "BALJEET!"
"I throw them away afterwards! Do you think I am unsanitary?"
Baljeet sighed as he took a second ice pack out to give to her. Adyson hesitated at first, but then, showing how much she trusted him, she took it and held it up against her nose.
"So, uh, Adyson, did you need something?"
"Oh, right! Remember the class presidential campaign?"
"Regrettably, yes. Not my finest moment."
Buford interjected. "Hey! It's not the fault of us bullies! We held up our end of the bargain and voted for ya!"
"You do not have to keep reminding me!"
He then turned to Adyson.
"Anyway, what of it?"
"Do you recall that campaign promise I made to improve the school lunches?"
"Now that I think of it, you never fulfilled that. Shame on you, misleading the student body!"
"I HAVEN'T BEEN MISLEADING..."
Baljeet yelped in fear, as he hid behind Buford. Adyson's tone of voice had sharpened, and in turn, it had frightened Baljeet.
Yeah, I really have to work on keeping mood swings to a minimum. Especially around someone as jumpy as Baljeet. Anyway...
Adyson cleared her throat in order to calm herself down. Once she thought she was back to normal, she restarted her proposal.
"I've kind of been having trouble getting it done. Normally, I'd ask Isabella for help, since she's my advisor and all, but she's too busy with Fireside Girls' stuff. So, being my second choice, I was hoping that you'd be willing to lend me a hand!"
Baljeet slowly came out from Buford, and he started to think.
"Hmmm..."
"Well?"
"The issue does not matter to me in the slightest, seeing as how I rarely partake in lunch."
Buford whistled innocently.
I should note Buford takes lunch money from Baljeet every day. One of these days, maybe us girls can get him to stop. One boy problem at a time, though...
"Still," Baljeet continued, "I can see how healthier school lunches would be beneficial to the general school populace as a whole."
He took a few more seconds before he could come to a decision.
"Okay! Adyson, I am in!"
Adyson squealed with delight.
"Thanks! I knew I could count on you!"
She reached over to wrap her arms around Baljeet and give him a hug, but she suddenly stopped herself just a few inches away. Her face went red as she dropped her arms, and then quickly walked away.
"What was up with that?" asked Buford.
"I am... not sure?"
Oh, really, Baljeet? Just you wait...
Meanwhile, Adyson had gotten far enough away that the redness in her cheeks had changed back to its normal rosy pink. She stopped walking to regain the rest of her composure.
"Why?" Adyson asked herself aloud. "You were long over this, girl!"
She headed for her locker to get her things...
If one of the other girls were writing this, you would believe that they figured that something was up with me. And they would be right...
The next day, after school, Baljeet was quietly sitting at a table booth inside Mr. Slushy Dawg. He was twiddling his thumbs as he waited patiently for Adyson to arrive. Little did he know that she had already been there for 10 minutes.
She was just hiding in the women's restroom, indicated by her slowly sticking her head out of the entrance door in order to see where Baljeet was sitting. Suddenly, Baljeet turned his head ever so slightly in her direction, and she quickly ducked back inside.
"Why am I acting like this?" Adyson asked herself. "It's not like I've never spent time with Baljeet before."
True. But usually, there were other people there. The last time I was alone with Baljeet? I'd say... about seven months ago?
She walked over to the mirror and looked at her reflection.
"Look, girl, if you don't go out there, he'll think you're a flake! Or worse, he'll think I stood him up! Which would be a whole lot worse for his self-esteem!"
She turned on the sink and splashed some water in her face.
"You're here to fulfill your duty as class president, Addy! Just remember that and forget everything else, and you'll get through this with no problem!"
Having found her confidence, Adyson nodded at her reflection. She turned off the faucet, got a paper towel to wipe her face dry, and then she exited the restroom.
"Just doing your duty," she told herself as she headed for Baljeet's table. "Doing your duty. Doing your duty. Doing your duty.
"HA! You said doody!"
Adyson's eyes went wide. "That voice!"
She looked up, and to both her shock and dismay, Buford was there. He had pushed Baljeet into the booth, trapping him and preventing his escape.
"BUFORD! What are you doing here? This is a private meeting!"
"'Jeet and I are a package deal! You get both of us, or none of us."
Baljeet coughed. "You mean neither of us."
Buford glared at Baljeet. He promptly shut up.
On one hand, having Buford there would make it difficult for Baljeet to concentrate on what we were doing. On the other, not having him there would probably have made it difficult for me to concentrate.
Adyson sighed in defeat. "Fine."
She slid into the seat on the opposite side of the booth. Adyson started to reach for a pencil and a notepad, but then she noticed for the first time that Baljeet already had a presentation of sorts prepared.
"I have already had talks with both the principal and the Danville School Board in regards to the issue of healthier school lunches. But despite presenting a plan that I believe that both accomplish our goal of them offering healthier options and making it cost-effective with minor modifications to the school's annual budget, they rejected it!"
Adyson picked up a 12-page packet that detailed the entire plan. It was filled with diagrams, charts, and illustrations that were accurate and concise.
"Yikes!" Adyson replied after scanning the packet. "But all of this... this is incredible, Baljeet! Who in their right mind would turn down this?"
Neither of them noticed, but Buford suspiciously looked away.
Earlier that day, at the main School Board office, about ten minutes prior to Baljeet's meeting with them...
"Young man," the board president said to Buford, "we will not be bribed into turning away a reasonable proposal to improve the options for school lunches at Danville Elementary!"
The rest of the board agreed with the president. Buford, though, had a great counter-offer, as he pulled out...
"Free coupons to Mr. Slushy Dawg!"
The board huddled to discuss it. After a few seconds, they rendered their verdict.
"Deal!"
Buford. Sigh... yeah, one of these days, we REALLY need to do something about him...
"There may be one last option open to us," Baljeet said. "We have to take this to the top!"
Adyson gasped. "You mean... the President of the United States?"
Baljeet frowned, unimpressed. Adyson started giggling.
"I'm kidding, kidding! You mean the mayor's office, right?"
"Yes! Surely Mayor Doofenshmirtz will see the light and realize how important it is that the students of Danville Elementary have healthier options for lunch!"
"YEAH!"
"Wait, wait, WAIT!"
The two's exuberance was interrupted by Buford voicing a concern.
"What?" deadpanned Adyson, scowling.
"You two are talking nonsense! You're going to get rid of the hot dogs, and the pizza! Those are still half-edible!"
"Buford," Baljeet told him, "we would never advocate axing pizza! We will just be pushing for real ingredients, like actual tomato sauce!"
"Uh huh," added Adyson, "and the hot dogs would be of real pork! No fillers!"
Buford thought about it. "Hmmm... real food? What a novel concept! Concerns withdrawn."
"Good! Then all we have to do is get 500 signatures from registered Danville voters by 5 pm tomorrow, and the mayor promises to give our proposal a fair amount of consideration!"
Baljeet had a five-page packet, in which each page had 100 spaces for signatures. He kept the first two pages for himself, handed the next two to Adyson, and then gave the last page to Buford.
"And please do not make up names this time, Buford."
"For the last time, Seymour Butts is a real person!"
"Sure he is."
With that, Buford got up out of the booth and headed for the exit. Baljeet was about to slide out, too, but then he realized that, for some strange reason, Adyson was staring at him.
"Um, Adyson?"
Upon hearing her name, Adyson snapped back to reality.
"Sorry. Trying to think of good places to ask for signatures."
"Well, don't think too long! Those pages won't fill themselves!"
"Of course not!"
Baljeet left, leaving Adyson alone in the booth.
"What is WRONG with me?"
Trust me, me. You don't want me to answer that.
To be honest, getting 200 signatures in such a short period of time is not a problem for someone like me. Between my connections as a Fireside Girl and as Class President, it was a cinch.
I just had to hope Baljeet and Buford could pull through...
It was late the next morning, and Adyson was sitting in the waiting area just outside Mayor Doofenshmirtz's office inside City Hall. The mayor's secretary, Melanie, was keeping herself busy by filing her nails. Adyson had in hand two pages full of signatures, and was just waiting for the boys to show up with the other three. She glanced up at a clock on the wall. It read 11:51.
She whipped out her cell phone and typed out a text message for Baljeet. It read 'Where are you?'
The room then went silent, save for the noises of Melanie filing and Adyson tapping her foot impatiently. That was all that could be heard for three minutes. Then, out of the blue, a third sound filled the air: a dinging noise signifying that the elevator had arrived at that floor. Baljeet walked out of the car, gasping for breath and looking apologetic, and Adyson got up to greet him.
"I am... sorry for... my tardiness!" he exclaimed, in between breaths.
"Baljeet!" Adyson lightly snapped. "You know better than to keep a girl waiting!"
"Sorry, sorry!"
He would have continued to apologize over and over if he had not become frozen after catching sight of an article of clothing that Adyson was wearing. One of great significance between the two.
"Adyson? Why are you wearing that?"
Adyson looked down at her lime green sweater, which had a cat playing with a ball of yarn on the front of it. She then looked at Baljeet again.
"What? It was unusually cold today for a late summer's morning. Though I admit, it is getting a little warm in here..."
She started to do so, slipping her left arm back into her sleeve.
"NO, NO! NOT HERE!" cried Baljeet.
Melanie snickered to herself from her desk as she watched the scene unfold.
"I was her age when I had my first crush," she said, in a sarcastic tone.
Baljeet pleaded for Adyson to stop, but she continued to strip anyway. Underneath her sweater was her sleeveless orange Fireside Girl uniform shirt, minus the sash. She then proceeded to tie her sweater around her waist, letting the bulk of the fabric cover her legs from the front.
"A-A-A-Adyson..."
Baljeet was staring at Adyson, and the brunette seemed perplexed as to why...
Light bulb of realization going off in 3... 2... 1...
...and then it came to her.
"This is..."
"...the exact outfit you wearing that night!" finished Baljeet. "Last Valentine's!"
Adyson grabbed one of the sleeves of her sweater and held it up in front of her.
"I had forgotten about that! This is the first time I've worn this since!"
"Why is that? It looks great on you!"
Adyson gasped, releasing her grip on the sleeve. Realizing what he had said, Baljeet blushed in embarrassment.
"OH!I was not supposed to say that out loud!"
"Baljeet, it's okay!"
Adyson grabbed Baljeet's hands and sandwiched them in between hers.
"I think it looks great on me too."
The two preteens gazed into each other's eyes, savoring the moment and completely forgetting the reason they were at City Hall.
And then Mayor Doofenshmirtz opened the door to his office and peeked his head out.
"Melanie, is my 11:30 here yet?"
Upon hearing Roger's voice, Baljeet and Adyson snapped back to reality. They ran up to the mayor, with Baljeet's prepared packet and pages of signatures, including the page Buford had been responsible for.
"Mayor!" shouted Baljeet. "We would like to submit to you a proposal to mandate healthier lunch options for students at Danville Elementary!"
"I'm our Class President," explained Adyson, "and this is one of my campaign promises, so I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a look. This is something that everyone at my school really wants, so..."
"APPROVED!" declared Mayor Doofenshmirtz.
He took the papers from them and put them on the desk. He pulled a rubber stamp out of his pants pocket and used it, stamping a red 'Approved' stamp on the front page of Baljeet's packet. The kids were stunned at the quick affirmation.
"That... that's it?" Adyson asked.
"Well, what do you expect? It's lunchtime on a Saturday! Speaking of which, Melanie, verify the signatures and prepare an official document for me to sign first thing Monday morning! I'm taking a half-day!"
With that, Mayor Doofenshmirtz marched for the elevator, leaving his secretary to do all his work. As she went to it, albeit begrudgingly, Adyson and Baljeet left.
The two walked down the steps of City Hall, together, headed in the direction of the main shopping district.
"I can't believe it's been more than a half a year," Adyson thought aloud.
"I know. That was a magical evening."
Adyson smirked. "So, your definition of magical is you falling off the pier, me saving you, and then you spitting sea water back at me when I tried to resuscitate you?"
Baljeet let out an uneasy laugh. "Well, when you put it that way..."
"Everything else, though... that was magical."
The two turned towards one another and looked into each other's eyes once more. Before anything more could happen, though, Adyson grabbed Baljeet by the hand and lightly pulled him down the street with her.
So, I fulfilled a campaign promise today and now my friends and classmates no longer have to worry about what's in their lunch. Oh, and I also figured out why I've been feeling funny around Baljeet. And, apparently, why he feels the same way about me.
We like LIKE each other!
Oddly, I'm kind of glad I had forgotten about that night. Because that means I also forgot that we promised to not tell anyone about it.
Adyson and Baljeet were laughing happily as they skipped off into the distance.
That being said, I couldn't be happier! In fact, now I don't remember why I said this was a real boy problem.
Eh... I'll sure it'll come back to me!
End Entry
Author's Notes:
More P&F characters make their debut this episode with Mayor Roger Doofenshmirtz and his secretary, Melanie, but they're probably who you don't want me to talk about, huh?
I decided to revisit the ship I refer to as Adyjeet - not sure if there's a name for it or not - because everyone seemed to like it the first time it came up ("My Salty Sweetwater"). Besides, it's just as likely to happen as the other two ships involving Adyson - you crazy people know who I'm referring to - which is pretty much not likely at all. But I digress. Also, you all seemed to dislike me messing around with Isabella's love life last season, so I'm switching things up this season to mess around with Adyson and Ginger. Speaking of which... how long did you think it'll take Ginger to find out?
It won't be next episode, which you'll see after a short break for the holidays! On January 14th, it's the second and final two-parter of the season, as a blizzard hits Danville! One of the Fireside Girls gets buried alive in the snow! Can the others find and rescue her before it's too late? You'll find out in four weeks!