Chapter Text
Candace Flynn is not a fan of road trips. Two weeks with the other four members of her family, no privacy what-so-ever, and god forbid if her phone dies on her, there’s nothing but the cornfield they’re usually in when it does to “entertain” her. The one positive, if she can even count it as one, is that Phineas and Ferb tend to limit their inventions to one or two for the time they’re on vacation, though her mom doesn’t see said inventions, as per usual. What’s worse is she must accommodate for the “meat brick.” Every vacation, if they can, they end up taking Perry with them; and it’s the same process as always: Mom tells the boys Perry can’t come along, the boys plead to allow them to take Perry with them, and after ten minutes of whining complaining and coming up with excuses, mainly from Phineas, her parents relent and allow Perry to tag along.
So yeah, there’s no excitement for this trip coming from her anytime soon. It wasn’t so bad before, when it was just her, Phineas, her mom, and their old pet Bucky – heck, Candace remembered times when she was actually looking forward to their yearly road trip. Then, Phineas and her would play games together on the RV’s floor, or at least tried due to the often uneven roads, draw funny pictures, or even read to each other. Well, Candace read most of the time, but when Phineas wanted to try, she’d help him. Now though, with Ferb around, the two did everything together; and with her parents in the front driving the RV, it left her to her lonesome self, not that she minded too much though. If her phone was charged, she could text Stacy and Jeremy to pass the time.
Candace doesn’t hate Ferb, so to say, it’s just when he came into her life, it seemed as if she got shoved aside. It made sense at first though, Ferb was quite reserved – he may be selectively reserved now, but Candace knows he has opened up in his own unique way – when he was introduced to the family, so of course he would need help adjusting. Now, however, it seems no one really hangs with her. Her mom is either running errands or stuck down at the antique store with her father, and the days she doesn’t have either, she’s usually working on chores around the house. Plus, because of the huge age difference between them, the times her mom tries to bond with her, it’s not the smoothest at times. It also doesn’t help that it seems time is slipping away from her. Between school and work, she also has been trying to narrow down what school she’s going to after high school. With not even two years left, there’s been less time for her to hang out with the family.
“You guys ready?” her mom questions, snapping Candace out of her thoughts.
“Yeah mom,” Candace hears Phineas call out from inside the RV.
“This is my favorite time of the year,” Lawrence said, approaching the family. “Two weeks to explore the beauty of the United States!”
“I don’t even know why we do these anymore! We’ve been basically everywhere at this point!” Candace complained, as Lawrence entered the RV.
“Now, Candace, you know we do this so we bond more as a family,” her mom. “Besides, you kids are growing up so fast, and we won’t have the opportunity to do this anymore.”
“But Stacy and I were supposed to go to Venessa's party later this week. Did you know how embarrassing it was to call her and say, “Oh yeah, I’m not going to be able to make it because my family decided it’s time for our stupid fucking road trip!”?”
“Candace, language! You know this time is special for me and your father. It’s the only time when we have the week together. Between you working, the boys dealing with their summer activities, and your father and I running the antique shop, we really only see each other during dinner. Now, I want you to drop that attitude otherwise you're losing driving privileges!”
“What? Mom, you can't do that! I need to be able to drive to work otherwise it's at least an hour walk!"
"Well, if you want to prevent that, I'd suggest you take my ultimatum into consideration. Now, get on. We're already running a little behind because your father and I had to work this morning and make sure the antique shop was tidy before we left."
Begrudgingly, Candace entered the RV. Looking around, it's the same one they rented last year. Nothing spectacular really, it was mainly tan on the inside with a greenish carpet for the flooring. There was a little kitchen area, pullout couch, and a bunk off to the right; a dining area and another pullout couch is off to the left. Phineas and Ferb were sitting across from each other in the dining area enjoying their snack while Perry was napping in his pet bed off to the right of said dining area. After setting her small purse near the right-side pullout couch and taking a seat, Candace grabbed her earbuds from her small bag, opened Spotify, and started playing her playlist while texting Stacy.
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Phineas Flynn didn’t mind the road trips his family took every year. Sure, he and Ferb can’t invent that much as ordering materials while on the move is difficult, but the family time makes up for it. He and Ferb usually pass the time on the road by stockpiling on ideas for future inventions or play with Perry if the platypus was up for it. Phineas, however, mainly enjoyed taking in the sights. Every year, they travel to one national park on the other side of the United States — this year being Yellowstone — and check out local diners in any nearby towns. Plus, he and Ferb usually will come up with an invention inspired by where they stopped.
Glancing up from his phone he was using, Phineas spots Candace passed out on the couch with her earbuds in. Granted, they have been driving for over two hours now, and for as long as he can remember, Candace easily falls asleep during car rides, so it wasn't much of a shock when he sees her in that position. It seems, however, that she's been sleeping a lot more recently. Nothing bad, but still out of the ordinary.
He worries for her, even though he knows he shouldn't. Candace has always been strongly independent, and he knows she'll prosper in the future; he's mainly worried about the fact it seems like she's been shunning the family recently. Don't get him wrong, he understands that Candace has been more busy lately, with it being her senior year in the fall and her job taking up her mornings, but whenever she's at home, she just ends up sitting in her room until either dinner rolls around or one of her friends ends up making plans with her. Sure, if she ends up seeing the daily invention, she tries to bust Ferb and him, but when she gets back from work, the invention is usually gone. It makes Phineas somewhat miss the times her zealous attempts to bust Ferb and him briefly interrupted their daily inventions.
Peeling his eyes away from her, Phineas looks out the window. They're in the middle of the Appalachians currently, so nothing but trees and the occasional rocks whizzing by. It was raining lightly outside, creating streaks of water on the window and quiet, little plinks on the roof of the RV. It's a pretty sight to behold, but after the amount of road trips they've been on, he quickly became accustomed to the sight of the range. They should be stopping soon as his dad usually needs to use the bathroom pretty quickly into the trip. However, it was also nearing dinnertime and he was a little hungry.
Phineas felt eyes on him, but he didn't need to look to see who they belonged to. After nearly 10 years of being Ferb's brother, they practically can have a conversation without even looking at each other. yet Phineas still turned his attention to Ferb.
"You okay?" Ferb implied with his gaze.
"Yeah, I've just been thinking is all. I'm mainly hungry though, do you know how far out we are from the next town?"
"We should be there within the next hour or so, that is, if Dad doesn't take a wrong turn."
"Yeah, I have no clue why he doesn't use the GPS, it's built within the RV."
Ferb stared dumbfoundedly at Phineas. It doesn't require much thinking of the past trips that ended in disaster because Lawrence either incorrectly punched in the destination or ended up off-roading while following it.
"Ok, yeah, that was a dumb statement on my part. Anyways, quick game of 4-D chess?"
Ferb nodded.
"Okay, but this time, no secret algorithms to help you gain an advantage."