Ch. 7

Hey y'all, sorry for not uploading for so long but I took a bit of an end-of-semester hiatus from fanfiction after I posted my valentine's day story. I do a lot of writing between schoolwork and this on the side but since school's out you guys can expect more from me!

I'm not gonna act like this is nearly enough to make up for not uploading for almost 4 months but this is a looong chapter.

Enjoy!

? POV

I felt like I had been very ineffective in my attempt to get Milly and Buford together until I got a text telling me that they're apparently going on a date. Like holy shit, either I'm the best matchmaker in the world or I'm the luckiest because this is awesome.

I of course went ahead and texted Milly, wishing her the best of luck on her date tonight. The best part; she has no idea it's me, which is amazing because she would not be listening to me if she knew who I was.

Milly POV

I've been thinking a lot over the last few days about my date tonight and I can't envision it going well. After all the awkwardness of our phone calls, I feel like there will be loads of awkward silence. So, I'm gonna call Katie and ask her what she thinks about making this a double date.

"Hello?"

"Katie! Can we talk?"

"Of course, what's on your mind?"

"So I was wondering, if you and Phineas are free tonight, if you want to make it a double date?"

"Well I'm not busy tonight, but I haven't talked to Phineas yet today."

"Could you ask him if he's ok with it? I'll talk to Buford."

"Yeah, I'll ask. Talk to you later."

"Bye Katie."

I hung up before swiping through my contacts, clicking on Buford.

"Hello?"

"Hi Buford. I need to ask you something."

"Ok."

"What would you think about Katie and Phineas going to dinner with us? Like a double date?"

"Sounds fun."

"Great! I gotta go, got homework to do, I'll see you later though."

"Ok, bye Milly."

Phineas POV

"Hey Ferb, I'm gonna go grab the tomato juice for Olympus Mons, be right back!"

I ran inside and grabbed the juice from the fridge and brought it out to Ferb. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system and it happens to be on Mars, which Ferb, Baljeet and I are building a replica of for a science project. Except we want our volcano to work and spew out juice acting as lava.

I headed over to work on the Mars rover that Nasa sent up to the planet, when I felt a buzzing in my pocket. I pulled out my phone to see Katie's picture since she called me.

"Hello?"

"Hi Phineas, whatcha' doin." Katie asked. I could hear her giggle after she said that.

"Haha, didn't know I was talking to Isabella. I'm working on our science project right now, what's up?"

"I just got off the phone with Milly, and she wants us to tag along with them tonight and turn their date into a double date."

"Hmmm, I don't know Katie. Shouldn't the first date be just them? I don't want to feel like we're intruding on their thing."

"Milly is worried that it's not gonna go well after the rough phone calls they had the other day."

"And that means I have to be there because…?"

"She wants us there to loosen up their stress levels."

"I mean, I guess that's fine. I'm not really sure how long I'll be working on this though. Still have a decent amount of work to get done for this."

"Alright, but keep me posted."

"Yes ma'am."

"Bye Phineas."

"Bye Katie." I said before hanging up and then calling Buford.

"Buford, are you busy right now?"

"No. What's up?" He asked.

"You wanna come over? We can talk things over for tonight." I offered.

"Yeah sure, I'll be over in a minute."

"Oh, bring Baljeet. He can take my spot while we talk."

"Aight. See you in a minute."

"Yup. Bye."

I kept working on my model of the Mars rover for the project. It doesn't need to move like the real-life one does, but I'd like it to look good; and since art isn't my specialty, it could take a bit to make it look good.

After a few minutes Baljeet and Buford walked through the gate.

"Hello Phineas. Hello Ferb." Baljeet greeted.

"Hey Baljeet." I said. "Think you could take over for a bit? I'm working on the little Mars rover that I want to glue to the model, but I think I'm almost done with that, so if you wanna help Ferb with the volcano, that'd be great."

"Sure Phineas. I can do that." Baljeet said as he walked over to Ferb.

"Alright, Buford. Wanna walk?" I suggested.

"Sure," he nodded as he opened the gate for us.

"I assume Milly talked to you about Katie and I tagging along tonight?"

"Yeah, she did ask me that. I think she said she was waiting for Katie to hear from you about if you wanted to make it a double date."

"Yeah, I was a bit skeptical at first because I thought that your first date should just be the two of you, but Katie said Milly was nervous and blah blah blah and now we're going."

"Honestly I didn't really care, I just went with it when Milly asked. She seemed excited when I said yes, so I assumed it was her idea."

"I thought the same thing." I said. "So how are you feeling about tonight? Nervous? Excited?"

"Honest? I'm nervous, which is weird, because I didn't think I cared that much about romance and all." He started. "This time last week I was holding strong on the whole "I don't want a girlfriend" stance and now here we are. So yeah, I'm not really sure how to feel."

"This might sound weird, but I think your nervousness, your nervous energy is a good thing. It means you care. You care about Milly whether you realize it or not."

"I guess you could say so, but it's not like I didn't care about her before. She was still a friend."

"It just means more now because you're going on a date with your friend and you don't want it to go wrong, since it could ruin the friendship." I said in a tone of realization.

"Yeah." Buford agreed. "Definitely part of it."

"Buford, I don't know if I ever asked. But where are we going tonight? What's the plan?"

"I never gave Milly a set location, I kinda figured she'd wanna pick. I'll call and ask."

"Ok cool."

Buford clicked through his phone until it started ringing and Milly picked up right away.

"Hey Milly." I heard him ask. "Where do you want to go for dinner?"

There was a pause before he responded, "Ok, sounds good. See you later."

"We're gonna go to Sara's diner." Buford said.

"Cool. That sounds good." I responded. Sara's diner was a small family-owned restaurant in Danville that quickly became a favorite of ours. We used to go as a big group all the time back before Isabella moved away. We still went, but less frequently than before and hardly ever with the whole group, it'd usually just be Ferb, Baljeet, Buford and I.

We arrived back at my house and Buford headed back home. I walked into the backyard to see Baljeet and Ferb standing by the model.

"Hey guys, how's it coming along?" I asked.

"Great! Olympus Mons is working!" Baljeet said excitedly before pushing the button and tomato juice started flowing out of the little volcano like lava. Ferb quickly wiped it down with a towel and took it inside.

"Great work guys! Let's head inside and take a break. Ferb and I will finish up the model tomorrow, marking the craters and getting the rover done and added." I stated.

The three of us headed inside and were greeted by Mom.

"Hi boys! Your project out there looks great."

"Thanks mom." I said.

"Do you boys want a snack?" She offered.

Ferb declined the snack and grabbed his bag, "I've got another project I need to get done. Dad, could you drive me to the library?"

"Of course Ferb. Let's go." Dad said as they walked out.

Baljeet looked through the fridge before grabbing some grapes and plopping them in his mouth one by one. We sat around for a bit before Baljeet left and went home.

I headed upstairs to my room to get some privacy so I could call Katie and tell her that we're done with the project for the day.

"Hey Katie."

"Hi Phineas!"

"Just wanted to call and let you know that we're done with the project. I'm all good for tonight."

"Oh great!"

"Yep, I'm gonna walk over to Buford's house, grab him and then we'll head over to your place assuming Milly's there." I said.

"She will be."

"Cool, I'll see you later."

"Ok. Bye Phineas."

Later

I walked down the street and knocked on Buford's door. He opened it wearing his usual outfit; cargo shorts and a black t-shirt.

"Looking good Buford." I remarked.

"Heh, thanks dinnerbell." He said. "Lead the way."

"You ready Buford?" I asked as we walked down the driveway and back onto the sidewalk.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Not nervous or anything, are you?"

"Nah not really anymore." He started. "I was before because I was thinking about it too much but then I stopped thinking about it being a date and more of it being that we're just going out to eat, cuz then it's just like whatever; you know nothing special."

"Alright, if that helps, then go for it."

As we walked further down the sidewalk I felt a vibration from my pocket to see that Katie was calling.

"Hello?"

"Hey Phineas; are you and Buford on the way?"

"Yeah, we're just a few minutes out; what's up?"

"My dad offered to drive us so we don't have to walk to Sara's. We will have to walk back though, but it's something."

"Oh sweet, alright well Buford and I will be there in just a minute; see you soon."

"Ok, bye."

I got off the phone and Buford asked, "What was that?"

"Katie says that her dad offered to drive us to Sara's to save us the walk. At least the walk there, we will still have to walk home from dinner."

"Oh cool."

We passed by the last few houses before walking up Katie's driveway past her dad's SUV and knocked on the door. To my surprise it was her dad answering the door instead of Katie.

"Hello boys. Come on in." He said with a smile.

"Thanks." I said. "I don't believe we've met yet; I'm Phineas, Katie's boyfriend."

Gosh, that still feels weird to say, "Boyfriend."

"I've heard about you. Nice to meet you Phineas."

"Thanks, it's nice to meet you too." I said as I shook his hand. "Are the girls in Katie's room?"

Katie's dad nodded yes. Buford introduced himself and started chatting with Katie's dad as I walked up the stairs to Katie's room. I turned the corner before walking down to and knocking on Katie's door.

"Katie! Buford and I are here; are you ready to go?"

Silence.

Weird. Where else could they be?

"BOO!" I flinched as Katie jumped on me and Milly laughed from around the corner.

"Well hi; how are you girls doing?"

"Good." Katie said. "Where's Buford?"

"Downstairs, maybe talking to your dad." I responded. "Ready to go?"

"I am." Katie turned to Milly. "You ready?"

"Yeah, let's go.

The three of us headed downstairs and saw Buford sitting next to Katie's dad chatting away about the recent wrestling match.

"Alright dad; we're ready to go!" Katie said.

"You got it, let's move." He responded.

We piled into the car, a 4-door Sedan; so Milly, Katie, and I were all sat in the back row while Buford sat shotgun. After a short car ride we pulled into Sara's parking lot.

"Thanks for the ride dad!" Katie said.

"No problem sweetie, see you later."

We headed inside and sat down in a booth.

"You really hadn't met Katie's dad before today? Do you not go over very often?" Buford asked.

"My dad works a lot of night shifts." Katie started. "He usually works Saturdays but he had to switch shifts for some reason so he was home."

"I've gone over for dinner before but it was just us two and her mom." I said.

Just then our waitress walked over to our table with her notepad in hand.

"Hey guys, are we all together or separate checks?" She asked.

"Us two," Buford said, pointing at Milly "and them two." He said pointing at Katie and I.

"Alright. Are we ready to order? Know what we want?"

"Yeah, we're good." Phineas said.

"Ok, what can I get for you?" She asked, looking at Phineas.

"I'll get the chicken club sandwich, with a side of Mac and Cheese, and Iced Tea."

"Ok, for you?"

"I'll do a Caesar salad, and a Coke to drink please." Katie said.

"Alright, for you?"

"Can I get a Club Wrap and a Sweet Tea?" Milly asked.

"And for you?"

"I'll do the double cheeseburger with fries and a root beer please." Buford said.

"Ok, I'll get that put in for you."

"Thanks." I said.

The waitress walked away for a second and quickly came back with a tray full of our drinks. She dished them out and was quickly gone again.

I sipped down a bit of my iced tea before saying, "I figure this is as good a time as any to try to see if we could try to piece a couple things together about these notes."

"Yeah definitely." Katie said. "Whoever is doing this knows us; at least semi-decently enough to know that I like Phineas and all that. But with you Milly, it seemed like it got a lot more personal with the sender."

"Yeah, this is someone who knows us in a manner that they were able to get my phone number, but it wasn't someone whose contact information I have." Milly said.

"Did the writing on any of the notes look familiar?" Buford asked. "I didn't recognize it, did any of you?"

"I didn't." Milly said.

"Me neither." Katie chimed.

"I didn't recognize it either." I said. "Does anyone have any ideas? Even people that it just could be?"

"What about Ferb?" Katie said.

"I don't think so; I know Ferb's handwriting and I'm pretty sure it's not that." I said.

"He could've written differently to try to throw us off." Milly said.

"Yeah, but anybody could've done that." I said. "Why Ferb though?" I thought for a minute. "He hasn't done anything unusual that I've noticed the last couple weeks. I wanna go back to the text thing with Milly; what was said in those?"

"It was just the same kinda stuff that was in the envelopes on the notes. I'm not concerned about that, I'm more worried that they got my number somehow." Milly said.

"You said something about how they knew you didn't read your note the other day. That was one of the texts." Katie said.

"Who knew that you didn't open that note Milly?" I asked.

Milly appeared to be thinking for a moment before she said, "I told you girls at lunch of course; and I told Holly."

"Holly?" Katie said. "Gosh, haven't seen her in a minute, but why her?"

"She's in my first period and we talk before class sometimes and it was fresh on my mind so she could tell something was bothering me. So I explained the whole thing to her, but she was the only one who knew, I think."

"Could it be Holly?" Buford asked.

"I guess it could but why? What does she gain from this? A little extra school drama? It doesn't make sense."

"What does anyone gain from this?" Milly asked.

"I don't know." Katie started before putting her arm around me. "I definitely gained from this."

I just smiled and put my arm around Katie.

"Who all did you tell Katie?" Buford asked.

"When I was getting my notes? Just the girls at lunch so Milly, Adyson, Gretchen and Ginger were the only ones."

"Phineas?" Buford asked again.

"I mean you, Django, Ferb, and Baljeet."

"That's not that much help." Milly said.

"Did you tell Ferb we were going out the day before we were?" Katie asked.

I thought for a moment before remembering, "Yeah, I did."

"There we go; it could be Ferb." Katie said. "He knew about us before it happened, hence the specified note. The one telling me to tell Phineas that night when nobody else knew."

"But that doesn't explain Milly's texts; unless Ferb found out from Holly somehow that Millly didn't open her note."

Our waitress arrived with our food and handed it out to us, and we all sat and ate for a while.

"I guess I don't see the "why" factor as to Holly's potential motivation." I said. "Maybe she was just simply trying to help you girls out but you guys aren't really close anymore. Something just feels off. Like we're missing something or somebody else it could be."

"So maybe it isn't Holly or Ferb. Who else could it be? Who else knows us, and would basically just toy with us?" Milly asked.

"I know." Buford said. "It's Irving. It's gotta be."

"Yeah, that would make sense." Milly said, "He was obsessed with your old creations from back in the summer."

"No, it couldn't be Irving." Katie said. "He likes me, why would he try to put Phineas and I together?"

"I doubt it's Irving." I said. "Remember the other day Buford, when he sat down with us for lunch and we told him about this. He didn't seem like he knew about any of this."

"I don't think it's anybody within our circles that's doing this. It's someone from the outside, because everybody has some missing link." Katie said.

"Except for Holly." Buford said.

"It could be Holly, but the texts." I started. "Milly, you have Holly's phone number right?"

"Yeah. The texts came from an unknown number." Milly said.

"And Holly is the only one who knew at the time." Katie said.

"Meaning maybe Holly told somebody that you didn't open it? Or somebody overheard you guys talking about it?" Buford said.

"I think Katie's right. I can't see it being anybody we've talked about." I stated. "Nothing connects and besides; there's gotta be a better way than these notes to convey the message this mystery person is trying to spread."

"One thing's for sure. Whoever this is is doing a fantastic job staying anonymous." Milly said.

"Maybe our matchmaker will strike again this week and we'll figure something out from it." Katie said.

By this time we were all pretty much done with our food and the waitress just came by and handed Buford and I the checks. We handed those back over to the waitress and she hurried away.

"Well we didn't really get anywhere talking about this but hopefully our notemaker will leave us some clues this week in their next set." I said. "If that's the case and you guys are down, we could meet up and try to figure out more about this. Who knows, we might have more help by then since our mystery sender has only been targeting us."

"Yeah, we can definitely do that." Milly said.

The waitress came back and handed Buford and I our change and the four of us headed out of the restaurant.

"I gotta run to the store and grab something for my mom. I'll see you guys later." I said looking at Buford and Milly. "You wanna come with?" I asked Katie.

"Of course." Katie said. "Just wait a second." Katie then ran over and hugged Milly and told her goodbyes before our group split.

"So what do you need to get for your mom?" Katie asked.

I held her hand in mine before saying, "Nothing. I just thought that we did enough ice-breaking at dinner that they could be by themselves for at least the walk home."

"Awww, that's thoughtful. So what do you wanna do?" Katie asked.

"I don't know. Wanna go to the park?" I asked.

"Of course." Katie smiled.

We walked over to the park and sat down on the same bench where we sat just a few weeks ago. The trees part for a beautiful view of the sunset and that bench has become one of our favorite spots to just sit down and be together.

"What do you think about all of this?" Katie asked. "All of the notes. All of the mystery."

"I think that everyone who our mystery sender has targeted is better than they were before. I think that they are two for two so far. If this is to continue, I have no reason to believe that the sender won't continue to bring people together. I was very surprised with Buford's positive reaction to the notes so if he can be swayed like this anyone can. As far as the mystery, honestly; I wish I knew who was writing these, but if it has to stay anonymous to work then I'm ok with that."

"I'll have to agree." Katie said. "I know I'm happier thanks to our matchmaker."

"Me too." I said.

We sat for a while, snuggled into the bench watching the sunset, watching birds fly by.

"Hey Phineas."

"Hey."

Katie looked over at me and said, "I love you."

I don't know what came over me, but that might've been the happiest I've ever been in one moment.

"I love you too." I said with the biggest smile on my face.

"Really?" Katie asked with tears starting to form.

"Of course I do!" I said as I wiped the tears from her face. "And I'll prove it." I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers as we kissed for the first time. It was a rush of emotion, I felt like I was floating, it was like magic. That kiss may have only lasted a second, but I'll never forget it.

Milly POV

"So who do you think it is, Milly?" Buford asked. We kept the topic of the notes and what we expect for the next coming week going as we walked along the Danville streets heading for home.

"Honestly, I have no idea." I said. "I don't think it's Holly, but it seems more likely to be Holly than Ferb, and we don't really have any other suspects. Do you have any ideas?"

Buford was quiet for a moment. A thoughtful quiet. I could tell he was working on how to word out his thoughts. "This is gonna sound crazy. But what if it was Isabella? I had the idea of a mastermind behind this whole operation when it was brought up that Holly was the only one who knew you didn't open your note and then you got a text from someone that obviously wasn't Holly. So maybe there's a bigger mind working this whole thing?"

"But why Isabella of all people? She doesn't even live in the same Tri-State area?"

"Nobody cared about Phineas more than Isabella, but since she moved away; she obviously couldn't be with him. So what if she picked Katie to be with him since she couldn't. Someone she trusted to take care of him."

"You're right Buford. That sounds crazy." I giggled.

"No, no. I think I'm onto something here." He said smiling.

We arrived at my house, Buford walked up the driveway with me to the door.

"I know all we did was make conspiracies about these notes, but I had fun with you tonight. We should hang out again." Buford said.

"Yeah for sure." I said. "You really think you were onto something there with your mastermind theory?"

"Yeah! It doesn't have to be Isabella, but anybody could be getting help from Holly!"

"I'll talk to her about it this week."

"You do that." Buford said. "Well I got to get home, it's getting dark out."

"Ok. No problem. Talk to you later."

"Yeah, talk to you later."

Hey you made it! Nice work.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your patience while I wasn't uploading. I hope this made up for it; but you'll have to let me know by leaving me a review!

Sidenote: If you are going to leave a review; please don't leave it under "guest." Makes it easier not only on me but on all writers as we don't view reviews written under guests the same as others; mainly because bots use guest accounts fairly often. It's very simple to make an account, I believe you just have to put an email address down and you're set.

Until the next one,

Bye y'all