Giving All to Go Your Way

The universe was a strange and unusual place, designed by those who deemed certain things to be the norm, such as random musical numbers, multiple dimensions and even floating baby heads. For Isabella most of these things she could accept with ease but one thing she couldn't stand was the fact that physically, mentally and emotionally girls matured faster than boys. It wasn't the science or evolutionary logic she didn't understand but more the fact that this biological force had thrown her in the deep end with her best friend and honestly, she constantly wished her maturity could have slowed down. At least until a certain red head had caught up.

Isabella Garcia-Shapiro had lived across from the Flynn-Fletcher family from before the hyphenation occurred. But it was only due to the Fletcher family moving in that Isabella met Phineas, something that Ferb likes to remind her of, though never in front of Phineas, not that it would have mattered. This was due to the fact that Phineas before that had never been to any of the group babysitting sessions that the neighbourhood kids had all previously met at, something about it being easier for a single mother to take her kids to work with her, but with the slightly older European boy now a part of the house next door made her mother decide to finally introduce her two-year-old daughter. Honestly she didn't remember meeting Phineas at all, just vague stories of how she was absolutely head over heels for the new boy's strange accent and followed him around for the rest of the night. Which made sense in the small community, shiny new toys and all that.

Her first very specific memory of Phineas was one of the two brothers first inventions that they built together, she couldn't remember what it looked like or what it was supposed to do but she could remember the brothers had seen her trip earlier trying to skip and them somehow deciding that whatever the machine did it would cheer her up. What she did remember in very specific detail was it exploding and the shocked look across Phineas' very black face. She had expected him to start crying and to run away from the broken thing. But instead he laughed look over at her and smiled, charred cheeks contrasting with white teeth, he then commented to Ferb about trying again until it worked because you never stopped with failure. She had been so inspired by him, that she got up and ran back to keep practicing. From that point onwards she was always so in awe of the enthusiasm and perseverance that Phineas had and seemed to inspire in all those around him, that falling in love with him wasn't difficult. He always thought the best of people and most times people became their best while being around him. Whether it was in trying to keep up with him and his craziness or trying to outdo him and his brother, the people around him always gave it their all. Especially those closest to him. Ferb was a silent young boy with a sharp wit and understanding of how everything works, usually in the engineering and mechanical sense but often Isabella wonders, especially in certain social situations, if he just has an unending knowledge about all things, specifically a knowledge of people. Nevertheless, Isabella knows that without the direction that Phineas gave in his outspoken nature, Ferb probably would have settled for a normalcy that would have allowed him to blend in with the crowd, instead she sees how Ferb flits happily, as outwardly happy as Ferb can be, around his brother accepting each challenge Phineas throws his way.

Candace is another example, her dedication to whatever she is currently doing is incredible and solely due to the fact of the many, many failures of trying to catch her brothers out. Isabella notices that as long as Candace is passionate about something she will give it her all. Heart, body, soul and then some. Isabella like to imagine a world where the Flynn-Fletcher children are normal. Where Candace busts her younger brothers tracking mud into the house or trying to create a pillow fort. Where the only things that Phineas and Ferb do is play normal video games and have normal fun outside. It is there she often gives up, because the world is so changed by the boys that it impossible to see any world with them as average.

Mostly of course she thinks of how she has changed, how she became this person she is today. She thinks about how she has become someone who her younger self would have been jealous of. One of the few people to ever gain all the fireside girl patches, leader, soccer player, future valedictorian and so much more. She had given her all to stay caught up with Phineas, to be a needed part of his life and for a long time she was happy to just be where she was in terms of their relationship. Satisfied with the small moments that happen that always seemed to validate all the effort she put into her love. She had always been working to stay caught up with him until he finally caught up with her emotions.

Isabella usually had these thoughts in passing, flittering moments. But today, the last day of summer before she became a sophomore, she sat contemplating what the inhabitants of the house she had lived across from her whole life truly meant to her. She thought about what Phineas meant to her. And there on the steps outside she decided, she would do the one thing she loved Phineas the most for NOT doing. She was going to give up.