A/n: Hello! I'm going to do my best to be more consistent with uploads. Fingers crossed I can do it!

Sorry that this is a shorter chapter. The next bit after this should be its own thing. But you'll see why soon enough.

le time skip, this is a Ferbella story after all ;)

Lunch Time the next day

"Tell us everything, Isabella! Was it everything you ever dreamed of? More! Tell us, tell us, tell us!" Katie practically yelled.

"Katie! Breathe." I can feel embarrassment creeping in.

"Come on Izzy, we all want to know what happened." Addyson chimed in, bringing everyone's attention back to me.

"We went bowling and to a fast food place," I say simply.

Six pairs of eyes blink at me.

Slowly Ginger says, "is that it?"

I nod, "yea pretty much."

Suddenly I was met with rapid-fire questions from the table.

"Hand holding?" No

"Butterflies?" Not really

"Who won the bowling?" I did

"Who bought food?" We bought our own.

"You paid for yourself!" Yes.

"What did you wear?" My regular clothes.

"What did he wear?" His regular clothes.

"Wait girls, wait." Ginger holds her hands up. "So Phineas took you bowling and to get food, that you paid for yourself while wearing your regular clothes. You didn't hold hands and you didn't feel any butterflies."

I blink, pausing to think. "Yea that sums it up."

The girls nod.

"So it was just like any other hangout, but just the two of you?" Milly reasoned.

"What are you girls talking about?" Someone behind me said.

I turn and I'm looking up to find Jazmin. With a slight smirk.

"Just about the biggest letdown of the century." Adyson piped up, irritation in her voice.

"Adyson!" I exclaimed, turning back around to glare at her.

She shrugs in response.

"Oh my gosh, it's tea time! Can I join you, girls?" Jazmin asked, a lot of pep leaking into her voice.

We pass quick glances between us, a silent agreement. Gretchen offers the seat next to her. Jazmin accepts with quick introductions made.

"So you were the one who was dancing Ferb most of homecoming!" Katie exclaimed.

"Oh yea that was me!" She had the audacity to act bashful, "I saw him across the room and thought he looked cute, then I saw him dancing with someone and knew I had to get a dance in." Some of the girls awed, but I knew she stole him most of the night. "Anyway, enough of that. What is this greatest tragedy of the century?"

The fireside girls turned to me for the breakdown. "Ah, so long story short. I've had this massive crush on my neighbor, Phineas, for years. And he is THE most oblivious guy you could ever encounter. I've tried everything, short of telling him about my crush, and he just never noticed or did anything,"

"Yea until he did!" Holly interjected.

"Exactly, he asked me to go on a date with him. Obviously, I accepted."

"How did it go?" Jazmin asked politely.

"It felt like a regular hangout, but just us two."

Faces fell around the table, now it was accurate since I had said it.

"It was your first date together?" Jazmin prompted.

I nodded.

"Oh, girlies that's normal." She said looking around at everyone. "I say go out on a few more dates and see if it continues or starts feeling different! And if it doesn't get better, then you can be disappointed."

The tension in the others seemed to leave.

"Okay, that sounds doable, thank you for listening, girls," I say as the bell rings.

Another time skip, but this time I'll summarize what happens in it.

Life continued on. School was normal. Some weekends Phineas and Ferb made a contraption in their backyard. Phineas and Isabella went on two more dates, very similar to their first one. Jazmin has successfully met the whole backyard gang, and frequently hung around the fireside girls. Isabell was still wary of Jazmin, though she was now accustomed to having her around. Behind the scenes, Jazmin had been making small, but frequent, moves on Ferb.

Ferb, being polite, had not told her off.

Now Phineas is off for a week-long internship with Danville College.

Ferb- the day after Phineas left for the internship.

Perfect, with Phineas gone, I can finally pull off the surprise I've been trying to do for months.

Ferb: Wyd?

Isabella: Nothing today, why?

Ferb: Come over? Messy clothes.

Isabella: Sure! See you soon

Wonderful. I got up quickly going to the garage to wait for Isabella. She came up the driveway in no time.

"Alright Ferb, I'm here. What are we doing?" She asked kindly.

I gesture for her to follow me. Leading her to the supplies I bought earlier.

She stopped when she saw them, "paint supplies?"

I nod. "Phineas, forever ago, said he wanted to change two of the walls in his room to blue."

"And since he's gone for the internship, now is the perfect time to do it!" She grabbed some of the supplies and went into the house.

I grabbed the rest and followed her.

"So it looks like you got most of the stuff, do you have drop cloths?"

"Yes, Mom keeps them in the bottom of the linen closet."

Isabella led us up the stairs to Phineas' room. She set the materials down, "okay I will go get the drop cloth, I'll be right back."

I nod to her as she leaves and start moving some furniture around.

She comes back in no time, starting to set the drop cloths up along the wall I cleared. I quickly grab my phone and put on a random playlist.

"Some background music, perfect." Isabella chimes in.

We get everything set up to begin painting, drop cloths and tape are in place. We both grab paint brushes and start on the edges.

"How are your classes going this semester?" Isabella asks from the ground.

She's doing this on purpose, she can't see me so I have to speak. "It's nice to be taking mostly classes I actually want to be taking."

"Oh my gosh, yes! Sure a couple of the classes are harder, but it's way more fun."

"I agree."

"This is really cool of you to do for Phineas."

"Thanks, Bella."

Silence fell for a moment. I, surprisingly, broke it. "How are you and Phineas by the way?"

"Oh, he hasn't told you?"

"Not really, and neither have you."

"I'm sorry Ferb," she said genuinely, "honestly, there hasn't been much to say."

"What do you mean?"

"Well." she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "It feels like nothing has changed."

I wait for her to continue.

"We've been on three dates, or at least we called them dates. But it feels like the two of us hanging out alone, not a date? I don't know. I've been having this whole internal dialogue with what the difference even be."

"Have you figured it out?"

"The only thing I've got is, a spark. There's a spark when it's a date or dating."

"A spark?" I stop to look down at her.

She's still painting, but her brows are furrowed in thought. I watch her for a moment, her brow remaining furrowed. I gently nudged her with my foot.

"What's the matter, Bella?"

She sighs, "I thought it would be different."

"Different how?"

"I guess I thought it was going to be magical. I think I built it up too much in my head, and it hasn't met those expectations."

I hummed in response.

"Ferb, I don't think me and Phineas work as more than friends."

At that, I put down my paintbrush and sit next to Isabella, gently taking the paintbrush out of her hand.

"You know, we can paint and talk."

I glare at her lightly. "We can paint after, you are more important."

"Feeerb." She pouts.

"Isabellaaaaa." I mock

She rolls her eyes, "okay okay, you're right."

"So what's happening?"

"Just like I said. We've gone on a few dates and no sparks." She takes a breath. " And it's not like we aren't trying to make them nice dates. He's putting in effort and so am I. And just nothing! So either we don't work or there's something wrong with me."

I blink at her, taking a moment to process.

"Well maybe you're thinking about it wrong." I say.

"What do you mean?"

"You've thought about this moment in Phineasland, thousands of time. But Phineasland is fantastical. Maybe you need to think of it in regular land, less fantastical."

She worries her lip in thought.

Hesitantly she starts, "okay I think I can do that. Like, I fix my clothes not because I'm bored but because I care about how I look." Confident now, "and I still lose my mind when I see him for the first time before our dates. You're right, Ferb. I can make this work on my end."

"People will say you're the lucky ones. I know I will."

And with that, we pick up our brushes and get back to painting my brother's wall blue.