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During her visits to the Flynn-Fletcher household, there was always a moment where Isabella knew she had crossed the line between what the rest of the world considered normal and what Phineas and Ferb considered normal. It was surprisingly easy to miss, because the boys had a way of making anything seem possible – sure, let’s go to space as a bunch of elementary schoolers. Why not?
But afterwards, lying in her bed thinking about everything that had happened during that day’s adventure, she would realize that she had noticed the line being crossed, subconsciously, because it was always marked by a loss of fear, rather than an increase. Whatever winged creatures that had been in her stomach suddenly disappeared, replaced with a resolve that only the boys could summon. Once that line was crossed, the normal rules that governed the world – both man-made and natural – no longer applied. Across that line, anything was possible.
Today, that moment came much more quickly than usual.
“Yeah, a machine to limit emotions is totally doable, right Ferb?” Phineas’s face was lit up in a way that told Isabella that the question was rhetorical. Even if it had been impossible before he had asked the question, it certainly wasn’t anymore.
Ferb gave Phineas a thumbs up.
“Excellent,” Buford said, rubbing his hands together. “You’re going down,” he added, staring down Isabella.
It had been a while since Isabella had seen Buford so fired up about something. Brigitte had mellowed him out a little over their time together, and he had relished not having to always live up to the tough-guy image of his childhood, but his competitive nature was still a core part of who he was.
But Isabella Garcia-Shapiro had a competitive streak of her own, and she wasn’t about to let anyone push her around.
“You’re on,” she countered.
~ ~ ~
The day had started normally enough, even by non-Phineas and Ferb standards. Isabella had followed the soothing sounds of heavy machinery across the street and into the Flynn-Fletcher garage. Phineas was facing away from her, wearing a wielding helmet, so, sensing an opportunity, she snuck up behind him and kissed him on the cheek. That was new, she had to admit. Even after a few weeks of dating, it still felt a little surreal, like when a friend you’ve known for a long time starts wearing a cowboy hat.
“Whatcha doiiiin?” she whispered in his ear. He turned to her with a smile, and was about to say something when Buford called out from behind them.
“Dinner Bell and Dinner-Bella, right on schedule.”
“They are making up for lost time,” Baljeet agreed, smiling knowingly.
Isabella scowled. This had been happening pretty much the entire time they had been dating. Any time either of them had done anything even remotely romantic, it drew a reaction from everyone around them. No matter where they went together – the park, the Googolplex Mall, even Paul Bunyan’s – there always seemed to be someone they knew who would inevitably stop and tease them. When she had asked him out, when they had kissed for the first time, everyone had been there, so it seemed like everyone felt they had some ownership in their relationship.
To be clear, she was glad that their friends were happy for the two of them – goodness knows that she had needed their support during the Phriend-zone years, and the fact that they had known how badly she wanted it to happen explained why they were so happy for her, which was sweet. But did everyone else have to be as happy as she was about it? Did it make her selfish to want the relationship to just be the two people in the relationship? She sometimes felt like an insect under a microscope, and she could tell by the way that Phineas was tugging on his ear that he was feeling the same way, probably even more than she was.
It made it hard for them to find their footing as a couple when everyone else seemed to have an expectation that it should be a perfect relationship, especially when everyone else had their own version of what a perfect relationship should look like. She found herself making decisions based on what other people would expect them to do, rather than what she or Phineas wanted to do.
So she had maybe responded a little too aggressively to Buford and Baljeet’s playful taunts.
“At least I don’t have the emotional range of a teaspoon,” she responded.
Buford scoffed. “Just like a girl, to get over-emotional about nothing.”
It was all downhill from there.
“Excuse me?” Isabella said. “I’m assuming I just misheard, because I can’t imagine someone would say something so ignorant. If they had, they might be able to see how over-emotional I can be.”
“It’s just science,” Buford said, shrugging.
“Phineas? Ferb?” Isabella called behind her through gritted teeth, making sure not to break eye contact with Buford. “You should probably do something before this gets ugly.”
“Yeah,” Buford agreed. “Why don’t you build some kind of doohickey to prove that girls are more emotional than boys.”
“Umm…” Phineas replied, looking back and forth between Isabella and Buford. His creative side was clearly at war with his empathetic side.
“I’m good with it if he is,” Isabella said.
Phineas was still hesitant, but as he started to work through the problem in his head, it was clear which side of him was going to win. “If we connected the limbic system to a monitor…and then connected that to buzzers…yeah, a machine to limit emotions is totally doable, right Ferb?”
~ ~ ~
A half hour later, six of them were connected to Phineas and Ferb’s latest invention. Once Isabella had explained the situation, Stacy and Candace, who were both home on break from college, had jumped at the chance to put Buford in his place. Candace wanted to put into practice what she had been learning in law school, and Stacy knew as the daughter of a doctor that Buford’s claims were ridiculous, so it hadn’t taken much convincing.
Buford had strong-armed Phineas and Ferb into joining his team, stating that Baljeet had embarrassed him during the F-Games, which was the last time he and Isabella had gone head-to-head. Isabella knew that he was still embarrassed that he had lost, and was confident that the results would be the same this time, especially since it was pretty clear the only reason Phineas and Ferb were going along with it was so they could work on something interesting.
“Here are the rules,” Baljeet announced. He was dressed in the white and black stripes of a referee. “Each of you is connected to one of these sets of four lights. Each light corresponds to a specific emotion – anger, fear, joy, and sadness. When a strong surge of one of those emotions are detected, a buzzer will go off, the light will turn off, and you will no longer be able to feel that emotion for the rest of the day. The last person to have at least one light still on will win the competition for their team. The only allowed locations are the backyard and the garage. If you leave that area, any blocked emotions will return but you will automatically forfeit any buzzers that were still lit. However, anything done within the backyard or garage is fair game. Any questions?”
“Yeah, I got a question. How are you going to feel when I wipe the floor with you?” Buford taunted Isabella.
“Listen, Buford,” Isabella began. “I am going to crush you. And you know what’s going to sting the most? While I’m doing it, I am going to feel. Absolutely. Nothing. I won’t beat you out of revenge, I won’t beat you out of passion. I will beat you simply because I am better than you. That’s how I’m going to feel.”
For once, Buford was absolutely speechless. There was a moment of silence as the six contestants stared each other down.
“Umm, begin, I guess?” Baljeet said, firing a starting gun.
Isabella began on the offensive, fluttering her eyes at Phineas. The poor boy never stood a chance.
“Whatcha–”
The first buzzer went off – Phineas’s joy buzzer. He looked sheepish.
“She didn’t even finish!” Buford exclaimed. Another buzzer went off, this time one of Buford’s, the anger buzzer.
“Oh, that’s some–” he started to say, but the emotion detector kept him from getting any further. Another one of Phineas’s buzzers went off – sadness that he had let down his team.
“Not off to a great start, boys,” Isabella said. Buford did his best to get his emotions under control, which for him apparently meant taking large breaths through his nose like a raging bull.
“Let’s get out of earshot,” he said, pulling Phineas and Ferb to the far side of the yard.
Once they were far enough away, Isabella turned to Stacy and Candace.
“So, what’s our game plan?”
“Whatever it is, we should figure it out quickly. You know the boys are going to build something ridiculous to help them win,” Candace said.
As if in response to her words, they suddenly heard the “Quirky Worky Song” playing faintly from the boys’ side of the yard, accompanied by power tools as they got to work on…something. Isabella had no idea what it might be.
“Honestly, I don’t think Phineas or Buford will be too much of a problem,” Stacy said. “But I have no idea how we’re going to crack Ferb.”
“Actually, I might have a plan for that,” Candace said. “But I’ll need to make a call.”
~ ~ ~
Things turned into a bit of a stalemate as the boys continued to work and Candace returned from her phone call. The two sides cautiously eyed each other, but neither made a move. All eyes whipped over to the gate as Jeremy suddenly walked in.
“Umm…hi guys,” Jeremy said, looking around and noticing the tension. He shook his head, used to the shenanigans of the Flynn-Fletcher household by this point, and looked over at Candace. “Can we…can we talk?”
Candace wouldn’t look him in the eye. From her reaction, Isabella didn’t think that Jeremy was the person she had called – she seemed just as surprised as everyone else to see him.
“Sure,” she said. “Can we take a timeout, guys?” she yelled over to the boys’ side.
Everyone turned to Baljeet.
“I will allow it,” he said, automatically putting his arms in front of his face in preparation for whatever Buford was going to throw at him. But Buford just stood there, calm as the surface of a lake. A smile spread across Baljeet’s face as he remembered that the emotion detector was blocking Buford’s anger.
“And might I add that I enjoy math more than recess. I color-coordinate my candy before I eat it. If it were up to me, every public space would be required to be as quiet as the library.” He was building up steam now. “I eat the same meal for lunch every day. I use a recumbent bike because it’s better for your back. THE FIRST STAR TREK MOVIE IS BETTER THAN THE SECOND.” He finished with a yell, huffing and puffing. He seemed to suddenly remember where he was.
“Um, yes, everyone can take a timeout,” he said sheepishly, pressing the button to turn the emotion detector off. Buford looked too shocked to be angry, even now that he was able.
Candace was the first to recover, and she and Jeremy went into the house to talk. Isabella decided to take the opportunity to have a conversation of her own, crossing the imaginary line between the two teams and following Phineas, who had gone into the garage and was now inspecting the emotion detector.
“Whatcha doiiiin?” she asked him.
“Just checking to make sure that it doesn’t overload and send our emotions back twice as strong as before.”
“Is that…something we should be worried about?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem unless it gets hit by some outside power source that causes its energy level to double.”
“Oh, uh, okay then, I guess that’s good?”
“Yeah, it would be pretty out of the ordinary.” Phineas said, absentmindedly checking the circuits.
It was then that Isabella realized they were, for once, blessedly alone. She sidled up next to Phineas, saying “Your joy buzzer went off pretty quickly. What exactly made you so happy?” she said, batting her eyes in faux innocence.
She had Phineas’s full attention now.
“Oh, um, it was, um, it was nothing,” he said, tugging on his ear.
“Hm. Guess it must have malfunctioned then.”
“No, it’s…um…it’s working perfectly,” he admitted.
“Oh, so what caused it then?” she asked. “Could it have something to do with someone in this room?” She closed the gap between them, so close that they were about as close as they could be without touching.
“No, I definitely attuned it to each person’s emotional state, so I took my own personality into account, so I don’t think I’m the reason it happened.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t someone else in this room?” she asked, looking directly into his eyes. Phineas put his hand out for something to brace himself against and accidentally pressed the button that turned the emotion detector back on. Sensing another opportunity, Isabella wrapped her arms around him and spun them so she was closest to the machine. When she looked back up at Phineas’s face, he looked dazed.
“What’s the matter, Phineas? You didn’t like that hug?”
“I–I–I felt–” The poor boy was visibly frustrated, but, as usual, his invention worked flawlessly.
“I lo–” he tried again. His face was turning an alarming shade of purple from the effort.
“You loathed it? Phineas, how could you? I try to cheer you up, and that’s your response?” Isabella even put her hand up to her mouth to complete the act. She was having a little too much fun – she would have to be careful not to let her own happiness buzzer go off.
Phineas wasn’t about to let her have all of the fun, though. He got a sly look on his face and suddenly dipped her. She could feel her hair touching the floor, but he held the rest of her above the ground. Then, just as suddenly, he pulled her back up and twirled her by one hand, spinning her away from the machine and pressing the button with the other.
“I loved it” he assured her as he pulled her back to him. He said it as if the weight of the world had been resting entirely on his chest, and he could finally breathe again. This time, he initiated the hug.
“When did you learn ballroom dance?” was the only thing she could think to ask, her head pressed close enough to his chest that she could hear the rapid beating of his heart, much less steady than the motor of the machine behind him.
He started to answer, but at that moment, Stacy walked in.
“Candace, are you okay– OH MY GOSH GUYS YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS! THEY’RE SO CUTE!” she yelled, taking a picture of the couple on her phone. The couple disentangled as everyone else came into the garage, oohing and aahing at the picture Stacy had taken.
Isabella exchanged a glance with Phineas, but thankfully they were spared any further embarrassment by the return of Candace. She was clearly shaken, but waved off the questions from Stacy, whispering “later.” Baljeet turned the machine back on, and the teams separated back to their corners of the yard. Isabella noticed Jeremy walk over to the gate and look back at Candace before exiting. Candace was very obviously not looking in his direction.
“Are you okay?” Stacy asked Candace. She had clearly noticed too.
“Not really,” she said. “You know how Jeremy came over yesterday?”
“Yeah?” Stacy replied.
“He…well, he proposed.”
“Candace!” Stacy shrieked. “That’s great!” Immediately her joy buzzer went off. The boys looked over, shrugged, then kept working on their invention.
“Shhh,” Candace said. “Keep it down. No one else knows. And neither of you can tell anyone,” she said, looking at Isabella as well. Isabella pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.
Stacy’s joy had faded, and Isabella didn’t think it was only because of the emotion detector.
“Aren’t you excited?” Stacy asked Candace. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I always thought so. But now, faced with it, it feels so…big.”
Candace’s words were punctuated by the scared buzzer going off.
“Oh, Candace,” Stacy said, giving her a hug. The sadness buzzer for both women went off at the same time.
“What’s going on over there?” Buford called out. “Talking about your feelings?”
“Seriously not the time, Buford,” Isabella yelled back. “We can stop the game,” she said, turning to Candace. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“No, it’s okay. Part of the reason I wanted to do this was because you said the emotion detector would turn off my emotions for a little bit, and that sounded like a nice break, to tell you the truth. I feel a little better now that those emotions are gone. Besides,” she said, sounding more confident. “The least we can do is help you beat that twerp Buford.”
“Okay, but only if you’re sure,” Isabella said. She hoped Candace was, because she definitely wasn’t. But she didn’t have time to question Candace any further, because at that moment Buford called out to them.
“Feast your eyes on this!” he yelled, and pulled away a tarp to reveal…the same machine she had built together with Buford and Baljeet a few weeks before, the one that let you go inside the story of your favorite book. She had to work hard not to smile at the memories it brought back, and decided to focus on the anchovy-related parts so her joy buzzer didn’t go off.
“Ah, I see you recognize this,” Buford said. “But it’s not exactly the same as you remember. Ferb, tell them how we modified it.”
Ferb blinked.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Phineas took over, though his voice was much more deadpan than usual. It broke Isabella’s heart a little to see him less-than-enthusiastic about something he had created, and she felt more than a little guilty. “You see, instead of allowing you to relive another’s story, this will allow you to relive your own story. You pick what emotion you want to feel, and it will take you to a memory that gave you that emotion.”
“Enough nerd talk,” Buford said. “What he means to say is: hasta la vista, baby!” Buford turned the dial to sadness and aimed it at Isabella.
“Buford, wait!” Phineas called out. “You need to let it warm up first!”
Buford pressed the fire button at the same time that Phineas’s fear buzzer went off. The machine backfired, and Buford was bathed in a green light before it groaned and fell to pieces, thankfully missing Buford.
“I’m so sorry I lost you, Biff!” he was saying. “It will never happen again!” His sadness alarm buzzed, and, again, Isabella had to work hard not to let her joy buzzer go off, because even with Candace’s bombshell, they were still in the lead. Isabella still had all four of her buzzers, and Stacy and Candace both had two. Unsurprisingly, Ferb still had all four of his, but Phineas only had his anger buzzer and Buford only had fear and happiness, making the total score 8-7.
That joy was short-lived, however, because at that moment, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher’s car pulled into the driveway. Stacy side-eyed Candace.
“You’re not still trying to bust the boys, right? I mean, you’re a grown adult. Surely you’re over that by now. Right?”
“Pshh, of course,” Candace replied, a little too quickly. “It’s none of my business what they get up to. I don’t even really live here anymore.” One of her eyes started to twitch. “Maybe I’ll just see if mom needs help bringing in groceries or something.”
“Candaaaace,” Stacy said warningly.
“What? I’m just trying to help my dear mother. What’s wrong with that?” She started to walk towards the gate, almost as if her legs were controlling her rather than the other way around. Then the doorknob to the gate turned, and Candace sprinted towards it.
“MOOOOOM! MOM! MOM! MOM! COME QUICK! THE BOYS ARE DOING SOMETHING CRAZY YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT YOU’LL BE SHOCKED THAT YOUR DARLING ANGELS COULD DO SOMETHING SO HEINOUS MOM YOU HAVE TO HURRY!”
“Well hello to you too, Candace,” Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher said, her face covered by the grocery bags she was holding. “I can’t say that I’ve missed this.”
“NO TIME FOR THE DRY BRITISH HUMOR YOU’VE ADOPTED FROM YOUR HUSBAND YOU HAVE TO PUT DOWN THE BAGS AND LOOK!”
“I could put them away faster if I had some help…” she said pointedly.
“I CAN’T LEAVE THE BACKYARD MOM IT’S HARD TO EXPLAIN YOU JUST HAVE TO TRUST ME AND LOOK!”
“Fine,” Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher sighed, putting the bags down.
~ ~ ~
“Ah, Perry the Platypus, you’ve arrived just in time to see my Inhance-inator. By itself it’s not very useful, but use it on one of my other -inators and it instantly makes them twice as powerful as before. I’m so confident in its ability that I haven’t even set a trap for you. And no, me saying it’s not a trap is not a trap, though in hindsight maybe that’s what I should have done. Note to self: trap that isn’t a trap that is a trap. Wait, now I’ve confused myself. Is that too many traps? Or not enough not a tr– Ow! Perry the Platypus, that was very rude. Does Major Monobrow not teach you manners? And now I’ve bumped into the -inator. Just great. You try to treat a guy…or a platypus, with respect, and this is how he repays you. You know, this reminds me of the butcher back in Gimmelshtump. I would try to do the traditional boar dance whenever I would shop at his store, but he would always give me the worst cut of the meat because he said my toes weren’t pointed enough on my pirouette. Roger, of course, could always do it perfectly–”
~ ~ ~
At that moment, a beam of light struck the emotion detector. It shook for a minute before spitting the light back out, directly at Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher. Isabella could have sworn she could hear someone yelling “Curse you, Perry the Platypus” somewhere in the distance, but figured she must have been imagining things, because she hadn’t seen Perry all day. Where was he, anyway?
Her thought process was interrupted by Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher collapsing to the floor and starting to sob.
“What’s wrong mom?” Candace asked.
“I just feel so…sad all of the sudden,” Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher choked out. “Just thinking about all of the puppies that are in that animal shelter I pass by every day. I…have to go and see them. Could you put away the groceries for me?” Without looking back, she got back into the car, tears streaming down her face, and backed out of the driveway.
“You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.” Candace said, her anger buzzer sounding.
Isabella tried not to worry too much. They were still tied-
~ ~ ~
“Maybe if I practice sounding like Isabella, I can infiltrate the backyard,” Irving said, in his empty room to himself. “Here goes. Ahem. Whatcha doiiiin?”
~ ~ ~
Isabella suddenly felt a surge of anger, and could only distantly hear her anger buzzer go off, barely audible over the blood rushing to her head. It was fine, they were only behind by one. She wasn’t worried…or scared… Her fear buzzer going off at least brought an end to that line of thinking. Now she was literally fearless, but unfortunately, that did not change the fact that they were now definitively behind, 7-5
“Let’s regroup before anything else happens,” she said to Candace and Stacy, and the three quickly moved back to the other side of the yard.
Isabella went into Fireside Girls mode, taking stock of the situation. To be honest, everyone looked kind of…well, emotionless. Stacy no longer had her empathy, Candance didn’t have her protective worry over her brothers, Buford had lost his bite…and Phineas. Her ever-smiling Phineas, suddenly out of joy. He hadn’t even really wanted to be a part of the competition, and now here he was, almost lifeless. Why had she even decided to do this in the first place? Now that her anger was gone, it all felt so pointless. At least Ferb seemed to be unaffected, having transcended the need for emotion.
Just as she was about to call off the game, she heard a buzzer go off behind her. She turned to see Buford as terrified as she had ever seen him, pointing stock-still at…Suzy, Jeremy’s sister?
“What did you do to my brother?” she demanded, glaring at Candace.
“Hey, you can’t talk to her like that!” Stacy yelled, ignoring her anger buzzer.
She couldn’t ignore her fear buzzer when Suzy glared at her, however.
“No, it’s fine, Stace. Look, Suzy, it’s…complicated. Can we talk about this somewhere else?”
“No. We’re going to do this now. I’ll ask you again. What did you do to my brother?”
Candace sighed. “I’m…not sure that I want to marry him.” There were some gasps from the backyard.
“Why not?” Suzy demanded.
“I…I’m scared.”
“Why?”
“It’s a big commitment.”
“So is middle school cheer, and you don’t hear me complaining.”
“This is different.”
“Is it?”
“I…I thought so? But now I’m not sure, I mean you seem so confident…Look, the point is, I don’t know if I’m ready to marry your brother, and I need some time to think about it.”
“So why didn’t you tell him that?”
“I…I did.”
“That hesitation tells me you didn’t.”
“You’re right. I didn’t. I mean, I sort of did, but not as clearly as I should have.”
“My boyfriend says that communication is key to any relationship.”
“You have a boyfriend?”
“Of course I have a boyfriend, I’m not eight.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“You’re stalling.”
“You’re right. I’ll go talk to him.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
And with that, Suzy walked back through the gate. No one spoke as Candace followed her, but right before she picked up the groceries Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher had left and exited the backyard, her happiness buzzer went off, speaking for itself.
“Since all my buzzers are off, I’m just gonna go, too, if that’s all right with you guys,” Stacy said, slipping out the gate.
~ ~ ~
“So.” Buford said.
“So.” Isabella responded.
“By my count, the score is 6-2, and you’re all by your lonesome.”
“By my count, you just lost your fear buzzer to a middle school girl.”
“So did Stacy! That girl is scary, man, and I wouldn’t be afraid to admit it even if my fear wasn’t blocked right now. Whatever, I’m getting sidetracked. The point is, you’re going to lose so you might as well give up.”
Isabella hesitated. He did have a point, and it was starting to feel worse and worse to put her friends through this.
“No, Isabella, you can’t give up!” Phineas yelled. He had a fierce look of concentration.
“Phineas, what are you doing? Your face is turning red,” Isabella asked, glad that concern was considered a different emotion than fear by the emotion detector.
“I’m…trying…to…get…mad,” he said, grunting between each word.
Oh, her poor, sweet, Phineas.
“Phineas, stop! I shouldn’t have done this in the first place. You guys aren’t yourselves without your emotion. I’m going to quit.”
“No…it was…important…to you…so you have…to win.”
“Phineas, that can’t be healthy-”
“JUST DO IT!” he yelled, and the buzzer finally responded. Phineas collapsed, and Isabella rushed over to him.
“I’m okay,” he said, taking the hand she offered him to get to his feet. “Sorry I yelled at you,” he said.
“No, it’s…okay,” Isabella could feel herself blushing. She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry you got dragged into it.”
“Just make sure you finish it,” he said. “I’m gonna go get some water.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me. We’ll talk after.”
“That better be a promise, Flynn,”
“Always.” He winked as he walked into the house, and she felt that courage that only the two Flynn-Fletcher boys could summon. The door closed, leaving her, Buford…and Ferb.
Crap. Ferb.
“Any chance you’re willing to pull a Phineas?” she asked him.
Ferb shook his head. Figures. She racked her brain, trying to figure out how on earth she could possibly take out all four of his buzzers. Ferb started to open his mouth, and Isabella closed her eyes, readying herself for a scathing (but eloquent) verbal attack, an attack that would likely mentally destroy her in five words or less.
“Duh…” said Ferb.
She opened her eyes. Duh? What was that supposed to mean? she thought to herself. She followed Ferb’s line of sight to the gate door.
“Hey guys,” Vanessa said. “Candace said that I needed to get here as soon as possible. She said it was urgent, but I was busy doing ev–, um, everything that’s good and definitely not evil, with my dad, and didn’t see her message… Anyway, I’m here now. What’s up?”
All four of Ferb’s lights went off at the same time. Everyone just stared at Vanessa.
“Okay, umm, do you guys know where Candace is?”
No one responded.
“I’m…just…gonna…go,” she said, slowly backing out of the backyard. It wasn’t until the car sped away that anyone reacted.
“What happened, Ferb?” Buford finally asked.
“I…was weak,” Ferb responded, and walked into the house.
~ ~ ~
“So.” Isabella said.
“So.” Buford responded.
“Baljeet, what’s the count?” Isabella asked.
“After Phineas’s sacrifice and Ferb’s…whatever that was, the score is 2-1, in favor of Isabella.”
“Look, I want to apologize,” Isabella said, surprising both herself and Buford. “There’s something I need to tell both of you, and the rest of our friends too, the next time I see them, something I should have said before we started this whole ridiculous thing.”
“And what’s that?” Buford asked.
“For at least a few months, Phineas and I need to have a little space as a couple, so we can actually figure out what we’re like as a couple. We love you guys, but it’s been a little…smothering these last few weeks. I was frustrated about that and took it out on you, Buford.”
“That’s what this was about? That’s an easy fix – you should have told us. We would have understood,” Buford said.
“I know. Like Suzy’s middle school boyfriend says, communication is key in any relationship.”
“Thank you for telling us,” Baljeet said. “We will give you space.”
“Though if the two of you are ever holding hands and blocking the sidewalk in front of me, I will not hesitate to walk directly in-between you,” Buford added.
“I understand. I would expect nothing less,” Isabella said solemnly.
“I…I’m sorry too,” Buford said, though it seemed like the words were choking him as they moved through his throat. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. Brigitte is always telling me not to make assumptions, especially because it doesn’t feel good when people make assumptions about me, like assuming I’m mean and can’t speak French, and have smelly armpits-”
“I think I get the picture,” Isabella interrupted him. “I accept your apology. So what do you say? Friends?” she asked, holding out her hand.
Buford took it. A single tear rolled down his face, and his last buzzer went off, a split second before her sadness buzzer went off. What could she say? His tears had gotten to her.
“No, no, that thing doesn’t know what it’s talking about,” Buford said through sniffles, quickly trying to wipe the tear away.
It took a second for Isabella to realize what had happened – in her desire to patch things up with Buford, she had completely forgotten about the game. Baljeet hadn’t, though.
“The girls win!” he yelled in triumph.
Isabella mentally thanked Candace and Stacy, hoping they could somehow receive it.
“I think that makes me 2-0 against you, Buford,” she said.
“No fair, you just came up with that literal sob story to make me happy that we made up!”
Isabella just rolled her eyes.
“We. Said. We. Would. Give. Them. Space.” Baljeet begged Buford as he did his best to drag Buford out of the backyard. His protests got quieter and quieter as he let himself be pulled out of the backyard towards home.
With the backyard now empty, Isabella made her way over to the tree, laying down with her hands behind her head and closing her eyes. She only had to wait a few minutes before she felt the presence of someone next to her.
“I talked to Buford and Baljeet,” she said, not opening her eyes. “They said they would give us space.”
“Thank you,” Phineas replied. “I’ll talk to Ferb and Candace. Though I’m guessing he already knows and she has more important things to worry about.” Isabella silently wished Candace luck in her conversation with Jeremy, though she had a feeling the two of them would be okay. You didn’t last as long as they had without weathering a few storms.
Phineas slipped something into her hands, and she opened her eyes to see a bunch of flowers picked from Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher’s garden.
“Won’t your mom be upset?” she asked.
“I already planted more seeds and used our growth formula on them.”
She smiled. “I should have known.”
He took one of the flowers and put it in her hair, and she did the same, tucking one behind his ear. She rearranged herself so her head was nestled underneath his, and he wrapped his arms around her. She still wasn’t used to him being taller than her, but she couldn’t deny that it was nice to have his head resting on top of hers. They sat there for a while, listening to the other’s breathing.
“I really am sorry about today,” Isabella said, finally breaking the silence.
“It’s not like it was permanent.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t you. It was scary. Without your joy, it was like you were living half a life.”
He looked down at her. “You know I’m not happy all the time, right? I get sad too, just like anyone else.”
“Yeah, but you put on a brave face, because you know everyone else benefits from the joy you radiate.”
“You make me sound like a superhero or something,” he said, a frown wrinkling his forehead.
“You kind of are,” she admitted. “Which means you need to promise me something.”
“What’s that?”
“It can be dangerous being a superhero, because the people who look out for everyone else don’t always have someone looking out for them. So I need you to promise that on the days where it’s hardest to smile, that you’ll tell me. Not so that you’ll immediately feel better, and not so that you’ll always be happy, because of course that’s unrealistic. But so someone knows that it’s hard, that someone can be there to listen to you and look out for you, the way you listen to and look out for everyone else. I want to be that person, if you’ll let me.”
He sat without responding, but she was happy to wait because she knew that meant he was taking what she had said seriously, that he wouldn’t make a hollow promise.
As he thought, she traced the patterns of sunlight the tree was reflecting onto Phineas’s arms. She thought about how safe she felt with them wrapped around her, and how quickly she had begun to take it for granted. She vowed, then and there, never to take anything good about that kind, thoughtful, passionate, intelligent boy for granted. She vowed that she would pay attention to the ways that he was there for her, in case no one else did.
She felt him stir underneath her, and she looked up at him.
“So, what do you think? Can I be that person for you?” she asked, but she already knew the answer when he gave her that look.
“Always,” he said, leaning down to kiss her.
They jumped as the sound of a buzzer blared.
“My joy buzzer,” Isabella said. “I completely forgot about it.”
“We should probably turn that off,” Phineas said, starting to get up.
“No need,” she said, pulling him back down. “I still feel the happiest I’ve ever felt.”