"Hello, this is Avery the Anteater, calling to see why you aren't at work this morning."

"I have a headache."

"Is it a migraine?"

"How would I know? I didn't know there were different types of headaches. Why categorize them? They're all in your head and they all hurt." Perry used the hand that wasn't holding his cell phone to adjust his ice pack.

"Any nausea?"

"Yeah. Maybe it would help if I wasn't holding a little device that spits noise directly into my ear."

Avery didn't sound amused. "If you are still in a condition to work, you need to come in."

"I'm sure Monogram would love me to come in and hurl on all the clean floors as I drag myself into my lair. No, I can't come in to work today because I'm sick. I have a headache, and I have no idea what species of headache it is. Understand?"

"Thank you. I will notify the major."

Perry hung up. He pressed the ice pack firmly against his head.

Phineas hopped into the room. "Hey, Perry! It's a new holiday that Ferb and I invented! Jumping day! Jump everywhere you go!"

Perry gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

"Aww. You okay?"

"Headache."

"Stress headache or real headache?" Phineas asked as he jumped.

"Again with the headache types! Am I the only organism on this planet that hasn't yet learned about the different kinds of headaches?"

"Perhaps." Said Ferb, bouncing down the stairs.

"You guys are making me dizzy." Perry rolled over so he wouldn't have to watch the boys bounce.

"Ferb, where'd you get that bruise on your head?" Phineas asked.

"I went to the park with Buford and Isabella." Ferb said. "There was this swing there and some person attached the swing too close to the bar that held the swing up and so when I swung my head hit the bar before I even got to swing high."

"Ouch." Phineas said. "Wait… you and Buford and Isabella went to the park without me?"

"You were at Baljeet's house. I was bored."

"You guys could have called us."

"Can you two ponder what could have happened somewhere else?" Perry moaned. "My head is killing me."

"You're a good faker, Perry." Phineas said. "But we know you too well."

Perry smiled and took the ice pack off of his head. "Ah well. You weren't the ones I was most concerned about fooling anyway."

Phineas shook Perry awake.

It took Perry a moment to figure out where he was.

"Perry! You're hogging the whole bed." Phineas said. "I can hardly stay on."
"Oh." Perry yawned. "Sorry. I was having a nightmare." He moved so that he wasn't spread out across the whole bed.

"About turning into a starfish?" Phineas asked.

"About being stretched. It was really freaky." Perry said.

"Stretched?"

"You know those creepy medieval torture devices where they stretch your arms and legs apart until everything dislocates? That kind of stretching."

"Aww. Well, it was just a bad dream." Phineas patted him.

"It felt so real."

"That's because you were spreading your arms and legs all the way across the bed!"

"Sorry."

"That's okay. When Ferb and I were little, we shared a bed and he dreamed he was playing soccer. He kicked me off the edge of the bed."

"Ouch."
"Oh, yeah?" Ferb said drowsily. "Remember the time you dreamed you were eating a sandwich, and you were really biting my arm?"

"I said I was sorry!"

"That's okay. You didn't hurt me as much as the evil swing did today."

"And you didn't hurt me as much as the evil vending machine did a long time ago."

"Doofenshmirtz was right." Perry muttered. He curled up into a comfortable position, but he was still afraid to go to sleep.

"Don't be scared, Perry." Ferb said, his voice muffled by his pillow. "No more starfishes teaching stretching techniques are gonna crawl into your dreams."

"…Was he asleep while he listened to us?" Perry asked.

Phineas shrugged. "He's right though, Perry. Go back to sleep. You'll be fine."

Perry cuddled up next to him and closed his eyes.

Perry didn't normally go to the O.W.C.A fundraisers, but Pinky had forced him to attend the Summer Festival.

"Money for the agency, and you'll have fun." Pinky said.

"Great." Perry mumbled.

They dodged animals in the crowd. Perry got caught in a handful of balloons that were just about to carry a baby narwhal into the air.

"Blobbity!" Giggled Ned the narwhal.

"Thanks for stopping him, Agent P." Carl said, untangling Perry from the balloons and picking up baby Ned.

"Only five dollars!" Shouted Manfred Freeny, a mink. He was standing on a chair to make himself taller among the crowd. It wasn't really working. "Five dollars to see me do any kind of dance you want!"

"He'd do that for free any day of the week." Perry said.

"Just not today." Pinky agreed. "Oh, cool! A fortune-telling booth."

"Please. No. I already see enough of the future in my dreams. And last night's dream wasn't a very reassuring picture."

"What was it of?"

"…A starfish."

"Come on." Pinky dragged him into the booth.

Doris the wolf was sitting in front of a crystal ball. She looked up at them from under a dark hood.

"Hey, Doris." Pinky said.

"Hey." Doris mumbled. She pulled out a deck of cards. "A dollar per animal."

Pinky put two dollars down on the table.

Doris shoved her crystal ball out of the way. It crashed to the floor.

"Uh…" Pinky said.

"Don't need it." Doris said neutrally. "It was a dumb prop they gave me. Pick a card. Don't tell me what it is when you get it."

Pinky pulled out a card and looked at it.

"Don't put it back in the deck." Doris shuffled the cards, pulled out a random one, and studied it. Then she put it down on the table. "You made a lot of bets lately? Danger. You gotta stop doing that. According to the cards, you're going to win something soon. And you will find love."

"Really?"

Doris gave him a skeptical look. "The cards say you haven't found love yet because you focus too much on the lives of others."

"That's fascinating." Perry snorted. "Can the cards tell him what he's gonna have for lunch?"

"The cards say he's already had lunch." Doris said.

The rest of the predictions weren't very interesting. Doris made most of them while looking at the crystal shards on the floor.

"You." Doris said after she told Pinky he was done.

"I don't think I need to hear what the cards have to say, but thanks." Perry said.

"No cards. Sit."
Perry sat, and Doris grabbed his paw. She began tracing his palm.

"So, you're a smart one." She said.

"He always was very smart." Pinky commented.

"Yes, but that's not the smart I was talking about. Smartmouth. Likes to tease people, but hates being teased himself. That gets him into trouble. Independent, but loyal. Very respectful to authority, although he is currently lying to it."

Perry felt his face get hot. "Tell me something I don't already know about myself."

Doris thought. "I see… black? Green? No… it's some kind of food item… a… bread? Tuna?"

"Sandwich?" Perry suggested.

"Yes. A sandwich. Hang on to it, the crystal shards say. It will save your life later on."

"Steve?" Pinky said. "Oh boy."

"Be careful." Doris said. "Remember to make your own decisions… you have not found true love yet, and it's not clear if you will."

"That it?"

"Yes. No!" Doris picked up a shard and held it close to her face. "The shards say… watch your back."

"I don't really have a security camera hooked up to it. Should I buy one?"

"The shards have no idea what the heck you are talking about." Doris said. "Thank you. Enjoy your day."

"Enjoy your day." Perry repeated as they left. "Be careful, watch your back, and enjoy your day."

"You gotta admit, that was pretty cool." Pinky said.

"I had no idea Doris could speak to shards and cards." Perry said. "I got more information from my future self when he came to visit. And he was senile!"

"You mean YOU were senile."

"I hate thinking about that." Perry said. "Getting so old I hardly remember my own experiences."

"You're still young." Pinky said.

"True. OW!"

Perry whirled around. Baby Ned had accidentally thrown a basketball at him, and it had whacked him in the back.

"Oopsiewoo!" Ned said.

Pinky burst into laughter.

"What, my suffering is funny now?" Perry demanded.

"Doris said… to watch your back!" Pinky gasped. "Ha!"

Perry rolled his eyes. "Right. Thanks, magical shards."

"Thanks for finally doing this. I was afraid they were going to split."

"You're welcome. Hold still, though. It's hard to trim your claws when you squirm."

"Then stop tickling me." Perry jerked his foot away.

Phineas held on to it again. "I'm trying not to. Ferb, I thought it was your turn to do this."

Ferb shook his head. "I did it last time."

"He did a good job, too." Perry said. "He varnished them and everything. And he didn't leave the ends all uneven."

"You asked me to do this." Phineas reminded him.

"Aww, are you jealous because Ferb's a better claw-trimmer than you?" Perry teased. "Don't worry, Phinny. If you try really hard, maybe one day you'll almost be as good as he is."

"If Ferb gets the varnish bottle from Candace's room, I'll give your claws a coat."

Ferb got up and went upstairs.

"You're fidgeting again."

"You're tickling me again."

Ferb came back downstairs with a bottle. "Want me to put it on?"

"I can do it." Phineas insisted. He finished the last claw and unscrewed the bottle.

"Keep that bottle as far away from me as possible." Perry said. "I hate the smell."

"Complainey complainey complain." Ferb said, holding his nose.

Phineas carefully applied the varnish to the claws on Perry's hand. "Do you ever actually use your claws?"

"Sometimes. Not right after I've had a manicure, though. They're useless until they grow pointy again."

"We should build something after I finish his foot manicure." Phineas said.

"There's no such thing as a foot manicure." Perry said. "It's pedicure. Like Italian. Mani means hands. Piedi means feet."

Ferb started laughing. "Foot manicure!"

Phineas turned red. "Okay, dude, whatever!"

"Foot." Ferb said. "Mani means foot in Phineasland."