"Fireside Diaries"
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Apologies for getting this up a day late, as things have been so hectic the last few days that I had trouble finding time to write this. This is worth the wait, though, as we finally, and I mean finally, get into this season's main plot.
The original idea for this entry came from user PFStories17. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.
Prerequisite (i.e. read that first before reading this):
- Entry #502 ("Fireside Diaries," Episode 406)
Entry #507 - Written by Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, troop leader
Dateline: January, in the Tri-State Area
Every four years, athletes from all over the world gather in a competition known as the International Winter Games. It's dedicated to awarding the planet's best in multiple disciplines such as skiing, hockey, figure skating, and the most misunderstood of them all... that one that involves using brooms to sweep a rock from one end of an ice rink to the other.
The narrator looked out the passenger-side window of a station wagon, admiring the snow-heavy trees off to the side of the road as the vehicle she was riding in drove up a mountain road.
But as much as it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the participants, it's just as much so for those lucky enough to watch the games in person. Especially given the price transportation, hotels, and tickets, such an honor is usually reserved either for the rich or those with 'connections'...
...or those who are lucky.
The car came to a stop, and the narrator opened the door and hopped out of the car, wearing weather-appropriate clothing. In her hand she had a flier advertising a special competition for kids ages 6-17, in which the winner would win a four-pack of tickets to the upcoming installment of the International Winter Games, all expenses paid.
Today... I hope the lucky one...
...is me.
She closed the door to the car, and the camera panned upwards to reveal that the narrator was none other than Isabella.
"Russia, here I come!"
-
Entry #507 [FSD407] - Winning for Winter (07.22.13)
-
Isabella walked away from the registration table with her two entry bibs in hand. She started pinning one to the front of her coat. As she finished, she had instinctively made her way to the competitors' base area, which was surprisingly full of a lot of familiar faces.
"Whoa," she gasped. "Is every kid in the Tri-State Area here?"
"Just about."
She spun around in delight, upon hearing the voice of a certain boy from across the street.
"Hi, Phineas! Whatcha doin'?"
"I've come to check out what all the hubbub's about. Or, rather, we all did."
"We?"
Phineas stepped aside to show that Ferb, Baljeet, and Buford were there with him.
"Wait! Are you a part of this too, Phineas?"
Please say no. Please say no!
"Why, yes! Yes, I am!"
Drat!
"Ferb and I helped with designing all of the events."
Drat retracted!
"That doesn't mean we made it easy. Everyone's gotta have a fair shot, y'know."
"Heh heh. Of course, Phineas."
And retracting the retracted drat!
"Who cares about fair?" Buford asked rhetorically. "I'll do anything I need to to win. And no girl is gonna stop me."
"Ooh!" Isabella hissed, taking the threat as a challenge.
"Good luck getting past my secret weapon!"
Buford held it up in front of him. It was Baljeet.
"Hello!"
Isabella put her hands on her hips. "Does Adyson know about this?"
"Why don't you ask her, cream puff?" growled Buford. "She's over there."
Buford pointed to the brunette, who had her back turned to them. But she was not alone, as Isabella could see.
"Whoa."
She left the boys and headed over to the girls, who were all having a little conversation.
Gretchen, Ginger, Milly, Katie, Holly, and Adyson. They were all here.
"Why are you all here?" Isabella asked the girls upon reaching them.
They all turned to face their troop leader. After a few seconds, one of them finally spoke up.
"The same reason you are," answered Holly. "To win those tickets!"
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" shouted Milly. "We wouldn't pass this up in a trillion years!"
"And we're not taking 'no' for an answer," Adyson declared.
"You do know that only ONE of us can win today," Isabella said to them all.
Everyone nodded.
"Well, as long as we're all clear on that. Good luck, and may the best Fireside Girl win!"
"AYE AYE, CHIEF!" the others bellowed in unison.
"Wait there a cotton pickin' minute!" exclaimed a teenage voice from afar. "Aren't you forgettin' one Fireside Girl?"
They turned to the source of the voice and saw Candace standing there, with a confident smirk on her face.
"You said may the best Fireside Girl win, right? Well, since I AM one, by proxy, that MEANS you want ME to win, since I'm CLEARLY the best."
Isabella seemed a bit uneasy.
"Not that you're statement is untrue, as you technically are still a Fireside Girl, but I question if you should still be. When's the last time you attended a meeting?"
Candace scoffed. "Details, details. It's not like there's a Mandatory Attendance Badge or Pin or whatever. Look, I'm gonna win this thing, leave you all eating my dust, and then I'll get to bust Phineas and Ferb for helping set up this mockery of a sports competition. See you out on the course, losers!"
The redhead stuck her tongue out at them before walking off.
With rivalries renewed, it was time for the competition to begin! The first event? The 5k cross country ski race!
More than 100 kids and teenagers were lined up at the starting line, all on their skis and ready to go. Phineas was ready to send them off.
"Okay, everybody!" he shouted through a megaphone. "On your mark, get set..."
Ferb then pulled out an airhorn and used it, signifying the start of the race, as well as giving everyone there a temporary loss of hearing. The skiers were off, and immediately, the stronger competitors moved their way to the front. That included Candace...
"Can't catch me!" she barked as she got to the front of the pack...
...Buford and Baljeet...
"Outta the way!" growled Buford, elbowing people aside to get through.
"Do not be mad at him," apologized Baljeet, who trailed close behind and did damage control. "It is in his nature!"
...and Adyson and Isabella, who proceeded side-by-side.
"Those tickets will be mine, Addy!"
"Nope! They're mine, Izzy!"
As Adyson and I traded barbs, it wasn't long before the course changed from a traditional Winter International Games' one to a course full of Phineas and Ferb obstacles and traps.
Candace chuckled as she reached the part of the course that went through the woods as the race leader.
"This is a piece of cake!"
She spoke too soon, though, as pop-up paper trees appeared ahead. The idea was to require the competitors to weave between them. But Candace saw the first one too late...
"AAAAHHHHHH!"
...and she went right into it. Instead of stopping her as intended, though, Candace kept going, taking the fake tree with her. She tossed it behind her to clear her vision, and it would have hit Buford had he not knocked the incoming object away with one of his ski poles.
"Is that all you got?"
The rest of the field started coming through behind him. A few skiers were caught by surprise when more waves of fake trees popped up amongst the first, sending competitors crashing, flying, or falling. Among the unlucky ones was Katie, who had to make a sharp turn to avoid one that had rose up right in front of her, and she ended up running into a real tree.
"Oof!" she mumbled, after hitting it face first and sliding back to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Gretchen asked, coming to a stop next to her fallen friend.
"I'm good," Katie replied, before falling onto her back.
Back up front, Candace led the way through the rest of the course. They all had to dodge an animatronic wild bear with real growling sounds, weave around a dozen snowmen built from snow and, in some cases, large rocks, and traverse gently over an ice-covered lake. Candace screamed as she was affected by each of the obstacles, but despite that, she kept everyone behind her and got to the finish line first.
"I won? I WON!"
"Congratulations, Candace," Phineas said to her.
"Gimme my prize. Gimme, gimme, gimme!"
"There isn't one except for the grand prize at the end."
"No prize, huh? I'm gonna bust you for that, y'know."
Candace pulled her cell phone out of her coat and tried to call Mom.
"Ugh, no signal! Stupid ski resort!"
After a few others got in, Isabella and Adyson were still neck-and-neck as they approached the finish. Along the way, they passed by Baljeet, who was pulling a sled that had Buford sitting on it. Seeing this, Adyson slowed down to raise an objection.
"Baljeet! Are you okay?"
She glared back at Buford, who was not frightened of her stare at all. And while she was focused on her boyfriend's tormentor, Isabella sped up and away.
"No need to worry about me!" Baljeet exclaimed. "Isabella is going, going, and gone!"
Adyson saw Isabella getting away. She forgot about helping Baljeet and attempted to chase down Isabella instead. But the gap was too large to make up in a short amount of time, and Isabella crossed the line ahead of her.
"YES! Isabella 1, Adyson nothing!"
"Oh, but the battle has just begun! It's not over 'til the cows come home!"
Adyson was definitely right, though. One battle does not win a competition, particularly with the much more treacherous second event ready to start. Short-track speed skating... on a pond!
The top 50 finishers from the first event advanced onto the second, and among them were Candace, Buford, Baljeet, and five-sevenths of the core members of Troop 46231.
"Go get 'em, girls!" shouted Milly and Katie from the stands after failing to move on.
All of the remaining competitors were seen participating in a random drawing to determine which of ten heats they would be racing in.
In theory, a random drawing was probably not the best way to determine who would be racing against whom, particularly since only the first two finishers in each heat would move on to the next event...
After Isabella drew a poker chip with the number '4' on it, Adyson took her turn... and also drew a chip with a '4' on it.
...and I ended up getting grouped with Adyson.
Isabella stepped up to the line with a determined look on her face. Adyson was flashing a confident smirk as she slid up to Isabella's right. And among the others in their heat was Holly, assuring that at least one of the Fireside Girls was not going to advance past this event. To make things even more difficult, the Phineas-and-Ferb twist was that everyone had small rockets on their skates, which would them go even faster.
POP!
The starting pistol went over, and the five skaters sprint-skated off the line to get to the first turn. The three Fireside Girls immediately showed off their abilities by leading the way. Isabella was up front, with Holly directly on her outside, and Adyson following right behind Isabella. They stayed that way for the first lap before Holly sped up and got in front of Isabella, taking over the lead.
But as much as I was worrying about Adyson, I should've been worrying about Holly, who's a great skater in her own right.
Isabella looked outside a couple times to try and get the lead back, but Holly was not having any of it. As Isabella did that, Adyson was just waiting for the right moment to strike. And she found it as the girls came to the line with one lap to go.
"Bye!" Adyson shouted, zooming by Isabella on the outside.
Fearing elimination, Isabella had to act quickly. She followed Adyson, who was in the process of passing Holly on the outside. Adyson got by just as they entered the final turn, while Isabella hustled to get in position. Coming to the line, Adyson crossed first, followed by Isabella, who somehow managed to just out-lean Holly at the line for the second and final transfer spot.
"Looks like the score's one-all, Izzy," said Adyson with a smirk, not even out of breath after that performance.
"It's far from over, Addy," retorted Isabella.
And that was the truth, given the heavy hitters we were still up against.
Candace and Buford were seen easily winning their heats, while Baljeet got left behind in his, Ginger was taken out in a spill that was not her fault, and Gretchen - as a result of that incident - lucked out and got to advance.
"Time for the third event!" Phineas shouted.
The remaining competitors stood at the starting line, looking up a hill with a fairly steep incline. Along the way to the finish at the top were shelters of various designs and construction. They were built for temporary relief from snowballs being shot from machines and thrown by hand from people standing at the top.
The third event of the competition? The dreaded snow mountain run!
Again, Ferb sounded off an airhorn, and the 20 remaining competitors began their run up their hill. While some played it cautious as they immediately ducked behind and underneath the first few protective barriers as the snowballs started to fly, some people just recklessly charged forward...
"HA!" shouted Candace at the snowball chuckers. "You couldn't hit the broadside of a snowman!"
Upon hearing that, they started throwing larger snowballs. Candace dodged some of them... and also took a few to the face.
"Argh, that one hurt!" she exclaimed after one hit her in the nose.
"This is nothin'!" bellowed Buford, who watched a few snowballs hit him in the stomach and slide right off.
Not too far behind them were Isabella and Adyson, who were hunkering behind a three-foot wall that was being pelted by machine-fired snowballs.
"What's the matter, Adyson? Wishing you had a presidential bodyguard right now?"
"You know those don't exist in grade school, Isabella! Maybe you should go first... Phineas might take pity on you and not shoot. Might."
"He's playing fair and you know it! I'll get pelted as hard as anyone else on this hill!"
"Yeah? Prove it!"
Adyson had just dared Isabella to step out into the line of fire, and she was not going to take 'no' for an answer. Isabella ran out and headed upwards. She gracefully ducked and spun out of the way, dodging most of the shots aimed at her and only taking one or two hits - one on the shoulder and the other on the arm.
Not wanting to be showed up, Adyson also came out from her hiding place and followed Isabella's path, footstep by footstep. She took her share of fire, but she rolled and sidestepped a high number of the shots at her as well.
She caught up to Isabella about two-thirds of the way up, taking a rest behind a very rotund snowman.
"No more shelter from here on up," Isabella warned Adyson. "Still time to give up!"
"Yeah, right!" Adyson said in response. "I wanna win this just as much as you, for the boy of my dreams!"
With similar goals in mind, the two girls resumed their ascent. With no shelter, it was harder to dodge. Even if you had managed to get out of the way of one, you were likely to get hit by a snowball that the other person had dodged. Isabella and Adyson both gritted their teeth and took the pounding, holding up their arms in front of them to protect their faces. The snow started accumulating on them and they found themselves starting to get weighed down.
Then, without warning, it had stopped. Lowering their arms, they saw why.
They had crossed the finish line. At the exact same time.
"WE DID IT! WE DID IT!" the two girls jumped up and down together in celebration.
"Woo hoo!" Buford said sarcastically. "Join the club."
He pointed to the five other kids that had beaten them up there, including himself, and, of course, Candace, who was jumping up and down as well. But in anger.
"I WANNA PRIZE! I WANNA PRIZE! I WANNA PRIZE!"
Isabella felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and was surprised to see a clump of snow. And it, or rather, she was wearing glasses.
"Oh! Hi, Gretchen!"
She spat some snow out of her mouth. "It's first grade all over again."
Despite the competition, I could feel those tickets practically being handed to me. I only had one more event to get through.
The ice dancing survival event.
Only ten moved on to the last event, which brought them back to the icy pond.
"In this final event," explained Phineas to the finalists, "you will have to be skating continuously around this pond for 20 minutes straight. Every so often, we'll command you to perform either a trick or a dance move. Complete them all and last to the end, and those still standing will win the grand prize... the tickets to the International Winter Games!"
"Hee hee hee hee," snickered Candace. "I'm gonna win those tickets and then I'll bust Phineas and Ferb so they can't go! It's the ultimate bust AND reward!"
She pulled out of her cell phone and held it up in the air.
"Ooh, if only I'd get a signal so I could call Mom!"
The whistle blew to start the final event, and a large timer set for 20 minutes at the far end of the pond started counting down. As expected, Isabella and Adyson were skating near each other, not wanting to let the other out of their sights.
"Final showdown time, Garcia-Shapiro!"
"Bring it, Sweetwater!"
They went around Buford, who was just standing there in the middle of the ice, doing nothing.
"What? You expect me to do all that ice swan junk? Forget it!"
Well, that's one less person to worry about.
"Single axel!" shouted Phineas.
The skaters all did the basic figure skating jump with no problem.
"Do the hustle!"
Again, they obeyed him, performing the hustle dance on ice. Phineas started giving commands faster.
"Okay, five-second camel spin! Electric slide! Rocker turn! The Charleston! The chicken dance! Sit spin!"
A couple faltered during the sequence, but most stayed on their feet.
"Now do the Harlem Shake!"
Those still on the ice started dancing randomly on the ice, wearing unusual costumes that had appeared out of nowhere. That continued for 15 seconds or so, before it ended with...
"And... single axel!"
Back in their original outfits as if nothing had even happened, everyone performed the final jump as asked. Except for one, who was still stuck shaking.
"Uh huh... oh yeah... the Candace way! The Candace way!"
The music stopped, and Candace saw that everyone was staring at her.
"Ooh... sorry Candace," Phineas said apologetically. "You're out."
"WHAT? You can't do that! You two are SO busted!"
Candace skated off the pond and went to find a cell phone signal to call Mom.
We all know how that turns out. Anyway...
Everyone was gathered around a hastily-assembled stage, where Phineas and Ferb were ready to announce who the winner was.
"Okay, everyone, settle down! The judges have made their decision."
Phineas pointed to a group of five adults - four men and one woman - that had scored everyone who had completed the final event.
"That's the first I've heard of them," Ferb admitted out loud.
The envelope with the decision was passed to Phineas, who immediately opened it.
"And the winner is..."
Isabella and Adyson leaned forward in anticipation...
"Gretchen! It's Gretchen!"
Gretchen cheered as she ran up to the stage to receive her prize. Everyone applauded for her, except for Isabella and Adyson, who were both left with jaws dropped in shock.
Wait, wait, wait. WAIT! Gretchen? GRETCHEN?
How did she win?
"And here to award the tickets," Phineas proclaimed, "TV star Ariel Winter!"
Ooooooooooooooh.
What a gyp!
Ariel Winter smiled as she handed Gretchen the ticket package.
I'm pretty sure Addy and I thought about protesting...
Isabella and Adyson screamed with glee.
But come on! It's Ariel Winter! How can you be mad at her?
"You wanna get Ariel Winter's autograph?" asked Adyson.
"Is the sky blue?" shot back Isabella. "Of course I do!"
The two girls started running towards the stage to do just that. But along the way, tragedy struck. Isabella appeared to trip over something, and she stumbled to the ground.
"Noooooo..."
Seeing her friendly rival going down, Adyson stopped running and went back to check on her.
"Isabella? Isabella, are you okay? Quick, someone get the medic! MEDIC!"
Oh my goodness! In my rush to get an autograph, something's happened to me! Will I be alright? Allow me to answer that...
...in the next entry! See you then!
End Entry
Next Week: What fate has befallen the leader of Troop 46231? Why suddenly are all the other members of the troop engaged in a power struggle? And why does Candace suddenly care about the Fireside Girls? Get the answers to all these questions in the next thrilling episode of the "Fireside Diaries!"