Scripturi Te Salutant

 

 

Phineas walked down the hallway as the school day ended, holding Adyson’s hand.

 

“I just need to stop at my locker and drop off books for the night,” she said, then sighed. “I just wish I didn’t have her locker next to mine.”

 

“Whose?” Phineas asked, confused.

 

“Hers,” she replied, nodding her head in the direction of the girl who was just closing the locker next to Adyson’s. “Isabella,” she explained in a bitter voice. “Head of Troop 75309.”

 

Phineas nodded, understanding. Adyson had complained about the girl for years, but he’d never seen her before. She looked…well, not as evil as Adyson described. Long black hair with a bright pink bow in it, and large, dark blue eyes. She was wearing a light pink blouse and patterned skirt, and he suddenly remembered that he’d seen her in English class. She was attractive enough, although he flushed with embarrassment a bit as he realized it. He tried not to pay enough attention to other girls to notice such things; Adyson was his girlfriend, and he didn’t need to keep window-shopping.

 

 

Perry idly strolled into the backyard, his mission for the day complete. Doof had been defeated, and Perry had gotten away scot-free. The Tofu-inator hadn’t even gotten a shot off before Perry had hit the self-destruct. And now, his favorite part of the day…

 

He waited for somebody to say, “Oh, there you are, Perry,” but there was just silence.

 

He looked around. The backyard was empty. That wasn’t right.

 

 

Lawrence looked at the divorce papers that had just been handed to him. Millicent had left, saying, effectively, “You wanted the kid, he’s your problem. I told you I wasn’t ready to be a mother yet.” Now she was making it official, and giving him sole custody.

 

He put the papers down on the table by the front door, and looked over at his toddler son, playing on the floor. He’d gotten his father’s nose, but his mother’s green hair, and the results were striking. The boy looked up at him, his bright eyes inquiring.

 

"Sorry, Ferb. Not your problem. It’s going to be just you and me from now on."

 

Ferb shrugged and picked up his toy truck again.

 

 

“CURSE YOU, PINKY THE CHIHUAHUA!” Professor Poofenplotz shouted as the small dog parachuted away from her lair. With a deep sigh, she looked around the shambles the agent had made. Her latest plan had been torn apart again, and she had to start from scratch. Just another day in the life of an evil scientist.

 

She couldn’t bear to clean yet, so she found herself staring out the window, not really seeing the traffic going by beneath. Why do I even bother? she thought. Upstaged by a chihuahua. Again.

 

A pair of boys shot past her building, flying along on rocket skates. As she watched, they maneuvered and dodged, twirling past buildings and around light poles. Clever boys. Perhaps they’d help me out with…suitable incentive.

 

She smiled. An evil plan had occurred to her. And this time, Pinky the Chihuahua wouldn’t be able to stop her.

 

 

“Okay, Ferb, how do I look?” Phineas asked. She’d dressed up in a light blue blouse and dark blue capri pants. Ferb looked her over, sighed, and gave a thumbs up. “Okay, great. Wish me luck.” Ferb shook his head emphatically.

 

“Hey, you guys, what are you doing?” Candace said, coming out into the back yard. She was enjoying a rare day off from her job at the Googolplex Mall. “Because if it’s bustable, I’m going to tell Mom.” She looked at Phineas for a moment, puzzled, before her eyes suddenly got wide. “You turned yourself into a girl, Phineas? You are so busted!”

 

“And busty,” Ferb noted wryly.

 

“That too,” Candace said, stopping herself from running into the house. “Hey, how did you manage that? Because, I’m 17 and you’ve got me beat there. Did you tweak it to add cup sizes? Because if you did…”

 

Ferb shook his head, and Phineas said, “No, nothing like that. Maybe I got it from Dad’s side of the family.”

 

 

She shook her head, snapping out of Phineasland. She’d tried so hard not to do that. She was thirteen years old now, and that sort of fantasy wasn’t appropriate for her any more. She was a teenager now, not a little girl. She needed to deal with Phineas realistically. He was a good friend. A very good friend. A very, very good friend that she wanted to hug and kiss and cuddle with and...
 

She sighed. It was so hard to deal with this.

 

 

Isabella stood there, looking daggers at him. “Nice of you to make it back for her birthday,” she said bitterly. Behind her and clinging to her leg, a toddler with bright blue eyes and auburn hair looked up at him questioningly.

 

“I’m sorry. I was the biggest idiot in the world. I can’t justify running like that. I just got scared. I know it’s too late to patch things up with you, but…” He nodded to the little girl behind Isabella. “I need to be there for her.”

 

Okay, I’ve been saving this story - Back In Time For Dinner - for a special occasion, and this is it. A year ago today, I was planning my NaNoWriMo story when I got ambushed by what, I later found out, is called a plotbunny. I had been ambushed by another (dirtier) one about a week prior, and had written it out, and now I had the ‘but how did they get to that point?’ thought. And I worked through an idea on how Phineas and Isabella could end up together by getting trapped together in the past.

 

But, I didn’t have time to write it up. I had a Real Story to write, starting the next day. And the next day, I wrote 1528 words of Real Story to start NaNoWriMo. And then, on November 2, I opened the Real Story, took one look at it, closed it, and opened a new file in Drive. Initially I called it “Lost In Time”, but the title changed after somebody else posted a story with that name. On that first day, I wrote 1272 words of it, a first cut of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, up until they get to the river.

 

I waited until my AO3 account invite arrived in mid-December to start releasing it; this gave me time to finish it, then spend a month or so polishing it, and the story is definitely the better for it.

 

As my first released story, I’m obviously very fond of it. Three specific things I love:

 

 

 

He exited the secure area, and there she was. His mother had brought her along. Isabella flung herself into his arms. "You made it back," she said simply into his shoulder as the couple embraced each other tightly.

 

"Missed you so much," he whispered into her hair.

 

From behind Isabella, his mother said, "Aww, that's so sweet. When you two can stand on your own again, we can go pick up Phineas's luggage."

 

Isabella's eyes narrowed. "Phineas? Of Phineas and Ferb? The boys who won the Most Patches award for you four years running? He's your boyfriend now?"
 

Adyson glared at her defensively. "We earned those patches, Isabella, and you know it."
 

"If we'd had someone helping us like that, we'd have blown past you every year. I still say they need to change the rules on how much ‘help’ you can get."
 

"You're just jealous that your troop got second place for four years running," Adyson said, closing her locker.
 

"Because you cheated," Isabella said angrily.