Chapter Text
A soothing calm, as usual, reigned in the school library. Half-shadow enveloped most of the room, and specks of dust drifted through the light cast by the lamps on the tables. Apart from the librarian – sitting with a book in her hands and occasionally turning its pages – there were also a few other students bustling about. Most of them were seated at the tables with books spread out around them, accompanied by the quiet scratching of pens against sheets of paper. A few others occupied the window sills, cramming material from their lessons.
Almost at the very end, between the last two bookshelves, an isolated pair of fifteen-year-olds was staying. A girl with raven-black hair, whose navy-tinted strands shimmered in the darkness, was lying in a half-reclining position, her back resting against the backpack belonging to her companion. She rhythmically tapped the tip of a pencil against the notebook resting on her thighs, while unsuccessfully trying to concentrate. The boy with fiery red hair, nestled against his girlfriend’s arm, shrugged innocently while tracing invisible patterns on her stomach. He smiled a little mischievously, noticing her reactions to that small gesture.
Suddenly, Isabella’s phone began to vibrate. With a quiet, long-suffering sigh, she set her pencil down in the pencil case and pulled the device out of her hoodie pocket. She hurriedly unlocked it, though discretion didn’t quite go according to plan. She tapped the notification, which redirected her to a conversation with her best friend.
Emi <3: Where are you? Do you know where Phineas is?
Iska <3: In the library, he’s with me.
“Why did you text her that?” Phineas groaned dramatically, straightening up. After slipping his own phone back into his pocket, he let his full weight fall against the bookshelf behind him, crossing his arms in indignation and resembling a sulky five-year-old. Isabella glanced at him from beneath her lashes, quietly giggling at the comparison in her mind.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you mad because you won’t be able to cuddle me anymore?” she mocked with a smirk, tilting her head back until the back of her skull touched one of the shelves. “Oh, don’t pout like that, we’ll have plenty of time alone together,” she added with an encouraging smile, resting her head on the boy’s shoulder.
“Have they replaced you?” he asked flatly, without amusement.
“And why would they replace me?” she replied with a laugh, glancing at her phone as it vibrated again. With sluggish movements, she opened the message icon to read a new message from the same sender as before.
“You were the one who said that when we were ten and eleven, you wanted to spend time alone with me,” he reminded her innocently, wrapping an arm around the girl. “And now you’re talking so indifferently about other moments we’ll spend together,” he huffed.
“Wait – are you offended because my priority isn’t hunting down alone time with you anymore?” she laughed, but immediately fell silent, remembering where they were. Instead, she shook her head in amusement, still chuckling under her breath.
“I’m not offended!” he denied quickly.
Emi <3: I’ll be there with Ferb in a moment.
“She replied with something we already knew from the start,” Phineas rolled his eyes upon seeing Emily’s response. Isabella gave up on commenting on the boy’s behavior, continuing to giggle as she deemed her attempt at studying biology a failure and surrendered, packing her supplies and notebook into the backpack beside her. “Where are the guys and girls anyway?” he suddenly asked, furrowing his brow.
“Liv mentioned something about she needing to deliver ‘justice’ Adyson for all the attempts to break up Bufvia,” she emphasized the word clearly, quoting what her other friend had told her. “Whatever that means, we’d better prepare ourselves for a great feat by Olivia Davis,” she spread her arms theatrically, demonstrating clumsily.
“Should I prepare a shovel in case we need to bury a body?” a girl’s voice came from behind the bookshelf, and a second later a blonde girl appeared with a green-haired boy by her side. “Or would it be better if I invented Liv a new life?” she added, stopping in front of the pair.
“I honestly don’t know…” Isabella pondered theatrically. “Hmm… Maybe both?”
“This is a joke, right?” Phineas asked, exchanging a look with his brother. Both girls stared at him like he was an idiot, then burst out laughing simultaneously.
“Yes, a joke. Probably,” Emily muttered mysteriously, shrugging indifferently. A moment later, her face lit up with a radiant smile when she glanced at Ferb, who took a step back with a stone-cold expression. “Don’t tell me you’re serious…” she let her arms drop limply at her sides.
“Iz is the leader of the Fireside Girls, and you’re her main deputy. Not to mention that you’re the best in the whole troop. What am I supposed to think?” he replied calmly, sitting cross-legged opposite his brother, who nodded in agreement without a word.
“You too?” Isabella raised an eyebrow in disbelief, to which Phineas raised his hands defensively. “Idiot,” she muttered, punching him in the torso with her fist. With a sulky expression, holding back the smile pushing onto her face, she crossed her arms over her chest and turned toward Emily.
“And Melody and Baljeet?” the blonde asked, settling comfortably on the floor and leaning her back against the bookshelf. “I haven’t seen them anywhere in the library, and you can always find them here.”
“Mel had some IT project, remember? Baljeet promised to help her, they’re in the computer lab,” Isabella replied. A joyful, slightly broken sigh escaped her lips when she felt Phineas’s arm slide down around her waist. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it ‘accidentally’ locked itself.”
“Yea… Okay, stop,” Emily ordered firmly, straightening up completely. The confused pair looked at each other, then at the impassive Ferb, and finally at his girlfriend. In sync, they raised an eyebrow questioningly. “You’re acting weird. And I mean weird–in a better way,” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Weird–in a better way?” Isabella repeated, confused, before bursting into laughter. “Good grief, Emi, what are you on about now?” she shook her head in disbelief.
“You’re wearing Phineas’s hoodie,” Ferb noted meaningfully, resting his forearms on his thighs, interlacing his fingers and propping his chin on them.
“So what?” she dismissed him with a sigh.
“So what?!” the blonde echoed incredulously. “Iska, every time we told you that you were wearing Phineas’s hoodie, you claimed you’d just bought it in the men’s section. You stuck to that story even when we saw Phineas wearing it,” she argued indignantly.
“Lee means that you’re dating. Because logically speaking… Buff and Livia are a couple, and Livia wears his hoodies. Same with Jeet and Mellie, and with us,” he pointed to himself and his girlfriend. Isabella opened her mouth to deny everything, but Phineas stopped her.
Seeing the determined faces of his stepbrother and pseudo-younger sister, the redhead sighed heavily and tilted his head back. He glanced at the nearby tables, then down the continuation of the aisle between the shelves. Making sure it was definitely empty, he straightened up, drawing the attention of all three. Without ceremony, he draped his arm back over the black-haired girl’s shoulders, pulling the startled girl close to him.
He kissed her on the lips.
In front of Emily and Ferb.
Isabella blinked, completely stunned by the turn of events.
She had assumed that for a while their public relationship wouldn’t change. I mean, sure – she wanted to call Phineas Flynn her official boyfriend, mark him with an invisible “taken” badge, wear his hoodies without pathetic excuses or, generally, most of his wardrobe, hold hands while walking down the sidewalk, hug in the school hallway while talking to the Gang…
Of course, various scenarios had crossed her mind – from Phineas being ashamed to have her as a his girlfriend, to Phineas playing on two fronts (her and Lara Selto), all the way to absurd notions that he was just toying with her feelings – but none of them fit Phineas Flynn. The definition of summer, bright as the sun, optimistic, friendly…
None of those inventions reflected the real boy she had fallen hopelessly in love with at the age of four.
“Damn bell,” Emily snapped irritably, throwing her hands into the air. Clenching her jaw, she sluggishly got up from the floor, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “Iska, we’re meeting at your place after classes. Clear?”
“What…?” she muttered distractedly, blindly searching for her backpack. Suppressing a laugh, Phineas helped her up and handed it to her. “Ah, uhh… I… I mean, sure,” she managed. Emily shot her friend an amused look, while Ferb smiled faintly.
“Someone’s got their head in the clouds,” the green-haired boy teased, grabbing the blonde by the hand. The two of them headed toward the library exit first, with the other pair following right behind. With a quiet sigh, Phineas wrapped an arm around Isabella’s shoulders, making her jump.
They continued walking through the school hallways in silence, occasionally passing other students heading to their classrooms, until they reached the biology room. To everyone’s surprise, the door was locked, and everyone who was scheduled to have biology was scattered in different areas. Before anything could spark between the black-haired girl and the redhead, young Flynn released Garcia-Shapiro with a visible grimace. Together with the other pair, they approached the remaining four students standing by the windows.
“What’s going on?” Stevenson asked, glancing at the gathered group. After looking around, she returned her gaze to her friends.
“Thomson is late,” Olivia explained. “She probably got locked in the bathroom again – at least that’s what Django says, but I don’t know,” she shrugged.
Phineas scanned everyone briefly, then approached a nearby windowsill and sat down on it. He pulled his phone from his pocket with an indifferent expression and returned to browsing his socials. Meanwhile, Isabella stared at him intensely, as if she could burn holes straight through him. She bit the inside of her cheek until it bled, shifting restlessly in place. Letting out a shaky breath, she glanced at Emily. As it turned out, Stevenson was already looking at her. She nodded toward Flynn, and when that didn’t work, she pointed at him ostentatiously with her hand – only for Isabella to shake her head.
Frustrated, Emily smacked her forehead. She pulled her phone from her pocket and unlocked it. Opening a conversation with Isabella, she typed a short message and hit send. Expectantly, she looked up from the screen at the black-haired girl, who finally pulled out the vibrating device, too busy staring at her boyfriend.
Emi <3: Go to him, girl. He’s your boyfriend, right? Show it to the others.
She tightened her fingers around the smartphone, staring at Emily’s message for a moment. Then she looked at Phineas, who was sneaking glances at her, and when their eyes met, he sent her a barely visible but cheeky smirk. Instantly, she felt her cheeks flush hot and a swarm of butterflies invade her stomach. Without thinking much, she set off toward him. She stopped right in front of him, her backpack facing his directly. Slipping her phone back into her pocket, she smiled softly.
Before she had time to think anything through, she took his phone into her hands and, without asking, sat down on his lap. With a sly grin, she turned her torso sideways toward him, tilting her head. Reading her intentions, Phineas leaned toward her without protest, brushing his lips against hers. A thrill of excitement ran up her spine, and a squeak nearly escaped her throat. She immediately returned the phone to its owner, instead reveling in his arms.