(I'm trying an usual style of writing for all you smart Phineas and Ferb fans. I hope it's not too weird, but I have a good reason for doing it this way, as you'll find out near the end.)

Oblivious, and He Knows It

Baljeet spoke up. "Two steps forward, one step back."

Everyone let out their breath all at once. From the looks on their faces, most of them were unsatisfied with his answer. "What?"

Again, Phineas had that odd feeling that everyone was looking at him and holding their breath, so he thought carefully about her comment before admitting, "Yeah…among other things."

"Oh, you mean when you're adorably and yet frustratingly naive about certain social conventions like dating and romance?"

"We were just talking about how there are times when I'm apparently unaware of the deeper meaning behind certain comments."

"Hi, Phineas. Whatcha dooin'?" She smiled cutely at him, and he smiled back.

He turned around to see his friend standing by the fence gate. "Oh, hi, Isabella."

There was an awkward silence, as everyone looked at each other and then back at him. "Well," came a familiar cheery voice from behind him, "that's progress."

"Well, yeah." Phineas answered his big sister with his habitual agreeableness, then hesitated. "Like now, for instance. I'm not sure, but I think you might have been speaking sarcastically just now."

"No, ya think?" said Candace.

Everyone rolled their eyes toward the fence.

"I want to be more like him," Phineas continued. "There are times I can be, you know, a little oblivious."

"Yeah," Buford agreed, and everyone nodded their heads. "That is kinda cool."

"Well, he's got that whole Zen awareness thing going on, where it's like he can see patterns in everything and everybody, and that helps him be totally in tune with his surroundings. I mean, I meditate with him every morning, but he's so good at it he can just zone out at any time, sense the patterns and still follow what's going on in the physical world."

"What do you mean?" asked Baljeet.

"You know, I really admire Ferb," Phineas commented one morning as he waited in the backyard with Baljeet, Buford and Candace while Ferb was inside using the bathroom.

"Ferb, I've even tried reverse-engineering that conversation and I still can't figure out what was going on."

His brother smiled slightly. "Well, Phineas, just the fact that you knew something was happening outside the context of the conversation is a good sign."

"Oh, so you mean someday I'll grow out of my obliviousness?"

"…In all honesty, Phineas, I hope you never do."

Phineas set his hands on his hips, half perplexed, half irritated. "Now what does that mean?"

Ferb just smiled.

I'm sorry if I bewildered people as much as Phineas, but I thought this would be a fun way to use the concept of reverse-engineering in a story. Now you can read it again, from bottom to top, to get the proper sequence of events.

Did you catch just when Isabella arrived?

Yes, I know the title is an oxymoron. Sorry-I couldn't resist! ^_^

I'm sure fans of Phineas have the same attitude as mine. We all want him to get a clue and realize Isabella's in love with him, but that would mean a loss of innocence, and one of the things we love most about Phineas is that adorable openness that characterizes childhood innocence, that sense of anything being possible, with no restrictions or set attitudes about how things 'should be'. It makes him wonderfully accepting of almost anything. Best of all, it seems to spread to everyone who meets him, including us, making us feel that the world really does have more possibilities than we let ourselves consider.