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“Danville High school for the last 2 years, has been home to a group of eccentrics. Scientists, inventors, and creatives. They have countlessly made the impossible, possible. Created inventions that others can only imagine. My name is Buford Van Stomm. And this is the story of these creatives, the story of my friends and I, of our senior year.”
Buford checks the start of his documentary one last time on his phone before switching back to his music playlist, which is filled with a lot more french pop music than he’d like to admit. The editing in the clip is not exactly what’s he’s aiming for. It’s only the first part of his documentary, sure, but his standards have to be high if he wants that film school scholarship in his future!
Thinking about it, he really owes a lot to Ferb for helping him find his passion, because he’s not even sure he would’ve even found it if he hadn’t become friends with him and the gang. And would he still be a bully if that thumb war with Phineas didn’t happen? Sure is a whole lot of deep stuff to even think of unpacking at half past 8 in the morning. Ah yikes! This whole school year is already off to a rocky start if he’s going to be late on the first day!
“Alright, Ferb! Last September of our last year of highschool!”, Phineas exclaims to his brother behind him as they descend the stairs. One on foot and one on invention – a hoverboard at that.
“I can tell you already have a million ideas,” Ferb retorts back.
“Yeah and I’m just getting started! Just think, there’ll be so many milestones and things we could do to make it the best year ever!”
“You say that about every year”, Ferb chuckles a little.
“Well, every year is a year of opportunity!” Phineas jumps the last step and shakes out some energy walking to the door and picking up his own board there, while Ferb steps off to pick up his up – since he’s too cool to use stairs obviously.
“No riding skateboards in the house, please”, their mother Linda advises sticking her head out from the kitchen – not seeing the floating board of course – before wishing them well.
“Have a great day boys, love you!”
“Love you too!” the brothers say in unison, as they step out the door.
“And cause no trouble!”
“Wouldn’t dream of it!”, Phineas calls out before shutting the door.
Isabella finishes packing her bag in the hallway, balancing it on her knee. Hopping to the door while trying not to drop her pencil case hanging from her teeth. She was normally more organised than this but, she got distracted by her thoughts! It happens! Getting lost thinking about the possibilities that could happen this year. And Phineas. It was always Phineas.
As much as she tried to convince the gang that she’d “get over him” and “date someone else”, they all knew she was lying, to them and to herself. Ugh. Why can’t things just not be complicated? It’s not like she hadn’t TRIED to tell Phineas how she felt, but, it just never felt like the right time… And when she did try coyly, he always assumed that her advances were just her helping him out and them hanging out as friends…
Oh gosh, don’t get lost again! You’ll be late if you keep doing this! She yells at herself in her head. The flustered girl opens the door and, by surprise, sees Phineas. I mean yeah they live across the street from each other so, it makes sense but- she quickly shuts the door before he can see her and puts her head her hands. Ugh! Just, be cool alright? It’ll be fine! All I have to do is, pretend I don’t like him. Like always. For… forever.
A beat passes. She looks towards the kitchen window.
Baljeet didn’t tell the others that he would be attending their final year, he just, didn’t get around to it. He was just sorta embarrassed to tell them. He had all these offers for Universities and chose to finish highschool instead, for whatever reason. He knew they’d ask why and encourage him to take the chance to study earlier, aboard or otherwise but…
Can’t he just have a normal school year experience for once like other people? There was always something going on. And although he very much enjoys being the super genius that he is… It is a lot to live up to. And having something not so serious to think about, like, you know, college, would be nice! But that’s wasn’t the only reason either, but he wouldn’t admit to them either considering he barely admitted it to himself-
He snaps out of his thoughts when someone raps on his car window. He scrolls his door window down.
“Isabella?”
“Haha hey! ‘Jeet! Could I uh, carpool with you?” She points and gestures awkwardly to the car.
He raises an eyebrow. A bit of an odd request since she has her own car but, by the look on her face it’s obvious there was a situation so he didn’t ask and opened the passenger door.
“Thank you!!” She exclaims and continues but her voice if muffled as she makes her way into the car, and then she stops.
“Wait, I thought you were going to take an offer for one of those fancy schools? Your mom posted about how you had a lot of offers a few days ago.”
“Oh uhhh…” Wow thanks, mother.
“Well,, it is our last year and um, I wanted to be around for it with everyone… Sorry to-“
“That’s great!” Wait now he’s confused.
“What do you mean? It is a huge opportunity and I am, basically throwing it away...”
“I mean, you’ll probably still have plenty of offers after highschool. But I’m just glad that we can all get to see you at prom and graduation!!”
“Oh, I did not think that you would care about that”, he admits a bit embarrassed by his assumption.
He puts the car in motion. She was always nice to him and they hung out but, not really by themselves very often . Not that they were not close! Or if they did it hang out that it would be weird but, that it would only really be just them if they were waiting on the others.
“Of course I care! We’re friends and it wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Ah, now he feels bad. He hoped the others weren’t disappointed too, besides Buford, since he was the only one he told. He never even considered it as a option she would be disappointed at his absence, he just assumed they would all be fine with whatever decision he made. And right now, he’s making a silent promise to be a better friend to Isabella, and to everyone.
“Oh. Well, to be completely honest, I did not think that you- well, that saw me as much as a friend as the others.”
“Aw Baljeet, I’m sorry… But I really do mean it. And hey, now we can spend more time together, we could even be best besties by the end of the year.” She sounds sincere as she nudges him.
They laugh to clear the air a little.
“Phineas is the reason for this carpool, right?”
“Of course it is, it’s always him,” she laughs again.
Phineas and ferb made it in great time for class registration. Them and the gang always ended up in the same form class somehow, as is their luck, that they hope would never run out. And as they walked into the classroom, they could see they’d have a different form tutor this year.
“Ah! Always right on time!” A familiar Drusselsteinian accent squawked.
“Hey mr Doofenshmirtz!” Phineas responds.
“Yes hello, take a seat. But I prefer Doctor Doofenshmirtz, thank you, I didn’t spend bad money on a doctorate to be called mr Doofenshmirtz”
“But you’re a science teacher”, the recognisable voice of Django Brown spoke up.
“Yes thank you for noticing, science teachers can also be referred to as Doctor- If you can call other science teachers Doctor you can call me that- am I going to need to teach you kids about titles and pronouns, I thought you were already knowledgeable about this-“ Doofenshmirtz continues to ramble as Isabella and Baljeet walk in.
Isabella grits her teeth and quickly shuffles to find a seat away from Phineas – who looks like he’s already planning on expanding their secret school hub – but she looks over and sees Baljeet making way to sit behind him and Ferb. Sigh. Not wanting to sit with someone else, she takes the other spot beside him as the other he’s holding for Buford assumedly, who is yet to show up.
The current song blaring from Bufords earphones pitter out as he rounds the corner towards Danville Highschool, home of the tigers. He pushes long hair out of his face and pockets his phone, all as he rushes into the foyer. A table is set up before the first classroom, where planners and class timetables are neatly stacked and laid out. He grabs what he needs and drops his back to the floor. He fishes out his camera, turning it on and then rushing towards the hallway.
“Got my planner, now I just gotta find everyone else”, the boy says aloud for the camera, as it faces the floor.
Buford suddenly remembers a seemingly endless list of things he needs to do today and sighs, maybe the others could help… Speaking of others, he suddenly notices a familiar triangle head and fiery red hair at the end of the hallway.
“Ah, there’s one of them. If only the camera would focus…”, he fiddles with the lens as he approaches an old friend, who’s already putting his stuff in his locker.
“Hey Buford!”, Phineas calls out and waves wildly, high energy as ever, “are you starting your documentary already?”
“Yeah, if I actually wanna pass and get into film school, I have to start as soon as possible”, he admits, which sounds more serious than he intended, ”I don’t think, I’ll get the grade otherwise”
“Oh wow, you caring about grades”, Phin laughs a little as he thinks of a way to ease Bufs mind, ”Don’t worry about it too much! You’re such a talented film maker!”
“Thanks dude, I really appreciate it”, he smiles and sees someone’s green hair out of the corner of his eye.
“OH FERBS HERE!” The camera whips round with him as he turns towards Ferb, who’s dressed a little different than usual.
Other than his usual green skinny jeans and purple hoodie, he’s wearing a long light yellow autumn coat - with a green and grey plaid pattern to it. Is this a kpop thing or is this a Ferb thing? Buford thinks before his filmmakers skills poke at him to interview the idol styled beanpole.
“Hey Ferb! How are you feeling about the first day?”, he asks as he peers through the viewfinder.
The green haired lad only responds with a thumbs up towards the lens.
“How in character”, Buford tells his future audience through a laugh,”what are you looking forward to the most this year?” Ferb thinks for a short moment.
“Probably being free from this corrupt school system”, Ferb deadpans.
“Damn, this deep dude”, he turns to Phineas with a little concern, the camera still on Ferb.
“And maybe see Baljeet make a fool of himself at prom drunk too”, he laughs. Buford and Phineas erupt into laughter too. “Come on guys, that’s mean!”, Phin defends his friend, whilst still laughing.
“I can sense that I am being mocked”, Baljeet says disgruntled from the other side of the hall. Buford whips the camera round to face Baljeet, and smiles as he looks up from the viewfinder for a second.
“Hey ‘Jeet! Say hi for the camera!”, Buford muses through a grin.
Baljeet looks away and poses subtly, but goes completely red in the face when the boys chuckle again.
“No it’s- it’s a video”, Buf grins again at Baljeet and fiddles with the exposure on his camera to make sure it isn’t too high.
“Well, tell me then! Instead of letting me embarrass myself…”, he retorts, still red.
“Nah, it’s fine don’t worry. It was cute”, Buford reassures but regrets that last part, going a little red too.
Man, everyone in this group is a mess. And Ferb is the one has to keep everyone’s secrets, poor guy.
“I- I very much dislike all of you as of this moment. I should have taken that professor job… Or just went to college”, he admits rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Aww come on, more time to spend with your pals?” The camera man looks up and frowns.
“Hmm I guess so…” Baljeet covers his red face as much as he can with his phone, checking a nonexistent text message.
“Yeah, we weren’t sure if you’d be here this year! If Buford didn’t tell us yesterday we probably would’ve just thought you were in a wizard school in Europe somewhere,” Phineas chuckles at looks at Ferb, but stops when he looks around and realises the group is missing someone.
“Hey, has anyone seen Isabella? She’s never this late for anything”, he asks scratching his reddening face, trying not to sound too obvious about his concern.
“Stop worrying, she will be here soon. She is just asking Dr Doofenshmirtz to be our class representative,” Baljeet retorts back to the redhead.
Phineas calms but confusion also shows on his face.
“She was in the classroom? I didn’t see her,” Baljeet figures this is the time to cover for her.
“Uh she was late and, did not have time to- apply… eyeliner! Yeah, she is in the bathroom. She said she wanted to make a good impression this year so-” He doesn’t sound very convincing but at least he tried.
“Wait what? But she already has a good impression on everyone.”
Oh boy, this was going to be difficult. Not just for Isabella, but for all of them to continue to make excuses – they couldn’t tell him the reason she was avoiding him was to get over her feelings for him. For some reason, Ferb chimes in, after possibly deducing the situation.
“Well, it is our final year of highschool. Maybe she wants to try a new look like the rest of us.”
“Oh my god, if she’s goth now I’d die laughin”, Buford adds, probably also aware of the tension. “We should get you a new style, dinner bell.”
“He definitely needs one”, Baljeet says half joking.
“I like my clothes…”, Phineas mumbles from behind his hoodies string-pulled hood.
“Oh here she comes now! Hey Isabella!”, Baljeet announces.
“Hey guys!”’Isabella waves to everyone, but tries not to linger when looking at Phineas. The group all give enthusiastic responses, while Phineas looks like he’s in awe.
“Girlie could you move to the right a bit, it’d make a better shot”, Buford says slyly as he lines up his camera again.
She glares at him and shifts over, and she can tell the boy beside her is eager to find out where she was, considering they normally all make their way to school together… I mean Buford had an excuse, being late and all, but her…
“Hey Isabella! Uh, we waited for you so we could all come up together but your mom said you already left?” Phineas scratches his face again.
A nervous tik probably. But why would he be nervous?
“Oh, uh yeah, Baljeet drove me here. I wanted to ask if he was coming back for final year so…”
They both stand there awkwardly getting redder in the face, unaware of the others blush. We’re best friends, why is it like this?
“Well, I’m glad you’re alright! I was worried I upset you somehow-“ “No of course not! Uh, well tomorrow we could all drive up together right?” She mentally facepalms.
She can already tell this avoiding him thing isn’t going to work, she’ll probably have to figure out some other way to get over her feelings… Because this way, is just making things worse…
“Yeah! I just got my license so I could drive us all up here tomorrow”, Buford presents his key chain proudly, which among game charms also has a punk looking ducky momo charm.
“As long as it doesn’t turn into bumper cars”, Ferb jokes.
Everyone breathes out a laugh. “
Come on, I can hardly be as bad as Phineas. Imagine you can fly a spaceship and drive not a car”
A little mean maybe but laughter continues nonetheless. Phineas goes to open his mouth to defend himself but the school bell rings.
“Ah, we should get going if we want to attend the induction”, Baljeet observes.
“You guys get going, I’ll be- back in a bit,” Ferb words seem distant as he grips his bag walking forwards the front door.
Everyone seems confused but call out some “okay”s and “see you later!”s and the gang starts making their way to the gymnasium. They can tell they’re all silently in agreement that he’s hiding something.
Ferb hoverboard halts at the front of Steam Noir, the broody hipster coffee shop. He pushes open the glass door as the bell rings out. There’s only a few people sitting inside, drinking and filling the room with vape clouds, almost reminiscent of a French café in an old movie, only a lot less romantic.
The girl behind the register looks up, friendly, but her expression is mixed with something that is either confusion or concern.
“Oh hey Ferb, uh, just the usual then?”
“Hey Vanessa”, he smiles walking up the counter, “yeah please, and two muffins. Actually, make that five, the others will probably eat mine and Phineas’ if I don’t get them some.”
“Yeah, I can already picture that”, she laughs a little,”Pistachio, chocolate?” He nods.
As she’s ringing up his order, he debates sharing his thoughts. Him and Vanessa have been friends for a long time, and ever since they met he’s a had a crush on her. Sure there’s been other girls he’s liked, boys he’s liked, people he’s like but… Vanessa was just, so cool and badass! And really pretty… And wasn’t put off by the weirdness that was his life! Which seemed to draw people in at first, being popular among his peers, but they’d lose interest when things would be too weird. It wasn’t his fault mysteries or alien species would land in his backyard.
Meanwhile, Vanessa is always willing to help him and Phineas despite all that. He’s asked her out before but it was always the same answer, and never a hard no which was confusing. Having a boyfriend, the age difference, busy with work and volunteering… Plus if she didn’t like him, she definitely wasn’t giving him any signs of that. From what he knew, her and boyfriend / ex boyfriend Monty were very on and off. And she really deserves better than that, and that was him, right? Looking at her brushing her out of her face and seeing her sparkling eyes, he suddenly feels way more tense about what he’s about to say.
“Vanessa, I know I’ve asked this before but-“
“Ferb,” she closes the register and looks up at him with a furrowed brow.
“I know what you’re going to say, but, couldn’t you give me one chance?”
“And I’ve already said this before-“
“Look, it’ll just be one date, after my birthday – and it doesn’t have to be serious. I just, I need to know if we could work. You know I’ve liked you since, forever in all honesty. And anytime I’ve been on a date with someone else, I still think about you being there with me instead… I can’t promise that giant whale flamingos won’t fall from the sky but… I can promise that it’d be fun at least.” He shrugs away that last part, as if already preparing for the rejection, which doesn’t feel too good on Vanessa part.
She taps the coffee marker pen on the counter, thinking. Boy, he sure is persistent like Candace. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about him, she knew they were friends and that it was great hanging out with him but? I mean he’s sweet and all but they could hardly have actual real relationship either way if she couldn’t be honest with him. She worked for OWCA now and she knew Perry’s identity! It would compromise everything! Plus the age gap was uncomfortable, but they’d keep going in circles if she didn’t give him a straight forward answer… The only thing she could think to say was-
“Alright fine, but it better be the best date I’ve ever had in my life!” The barista urges, pointing the pen at him with a serious look. “Yes! You won’t regret this, I’ll make sure of it!” He beams, collecting the coffee holder and bag of muffins from the counter. He slides over his points card but then notices the time on clock behind Vanessa.
“I’m going to be late, I’ll message you later!” He smiles to her as he rushes out the door.
She just shakes her head and laughs to herself. The nerve of that guy. Not only for that whole spiel while she’s at work, but there’s only enough on his card to cover the price under her employee discount! I guess whatever he’s planning though would probably make up for it. Her coworker leans over to say something, after clearly witnessing the whole scene.
“Sooooo-“
“Shut up, Coltrane,” Vanessa laughs again.