Hi guys!

So this one-shot is a scene I separated from my story "(Please) Don't Read This Journal" which is in journal format, so if you want to read more about what happens between Isabella and Phineas following this incident or about what they're thinking about, feel free to read my latest update!

***However, if you haven't been reading that story, don't fret! You'll be able to follow along just the same!

***As a set up note, both Isabella and Phineas are 15 years old in this.

Reviews are appreciated, but please be civil!

Hope you like!

-Blythe

*Disclaimer: I'm not awesome enough to own Phineas and Ferb.

"Um...Isabella? Why are you naked?"

Even without stating the obvious, it came as no surprise to either of them that this situation was an awkward one - the kind that definitely wouldn't be forgotten by the time it was over. Not to mention a circumstance neither of them would've expected happening so early in the morning...

...Or at all, for that matter.

"I...it's..." the girl covered herself with as much as of her own skin as she could amid the prickly discomfort of the shrubbery she had tried to cloak herself with, "it's... a long story."

For now, this answer would have to do; it would be troublesome trying to explain the reason why she was sitting in a shrubbery at the northern end of Danville park, almost completely naked except for a pair of cotton panties, which were likely stained by now from the colored garden mulch beneath her. Her hands were occupied by her upper half, shielding her more feminine features with achy, frost-bitten fingers in an effort to protect what she might have already revealed to the public at some point in her outdoor stay, and her raven black hair felt as if it was doused in age-old molasses and reeked of seven-hour old cracked eggs. She was in one of the most familiar places in town, yet she was failing to comprehend the traumatic events that had taken place hours earlier that had put her there.

To summarize modestly, Friday night had been a tough one for the fifteen year-old. It was a night she would try to forget, but most likely wouldn't.

And to make matters ultimately worse, staring down at her was none other than the one person in the world she'd hoped wouldn't see her like this; Phineas Flynn, the love of her life. With rapidly building anxiety, Isabella struggled for words she could say to explain the reason for her nudity, coming up with quaking bits and pieces of words instead.

Phineas, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what to make of the spectacle before him. All he knew was that he was suddenly uncomfortable, his thoughts at a standstill as he averted his eyes away from her nakedness. Sure, as any fifteen year-old boy, he had subconsciously pictured what it would be like to see Isabella without clothing; those kinds of instinctual musings visited him in his sleep when he had no more control over them than his other involuntary reflexes. (Goodness knows adolescence was merciless, even to him!) But he certainly never expected to see her naked on one of his weekly trips to the reservoir!

In that moment he began thinking about how - of all days - he'd chosen today to take his early-morning bike ride through the less-traveled northern path than his normal routine down the south end instead. This week, his usual Saturday leisure would be intercepted by one of the most pathetic scenes he'd ever encountered; his closest childhood friend huddling naked in a shrubbery and...wait, were those eggshell fragments in her hair?!

"Isabella," he began after a prolonged pause, "how long have you been sitting out here, y'know... naked?"

Some might have called this a coincidence; perhaps even funny in a different light. However, this was no joke to him; at a closer glance, he could tell how Isabella's body was reacting to the 29 degree weather. The girl's posture quickly changed from erect to slightly hunched as the realization finally dawned on her. If the paleness and slight blue hue of her skin wasn't obvious enough of her overnight stay in the wilderness, then it was definitely evident by the trembling of her entire body. She gave a weak smile in attempt to absolve the tension, "Uh...just... since midnight..."

The answer struck Phineas, causing his neck to jut forward in disbelief.

"Midnight?!" he exclaimed, nearly falling off of his bike, "you've been alone out here in the cold for six and a half hours with no clothes on?!"

She nodded shamefully, startled by Phineas's sudden outburst.

"What on Earth would possess you to do that?! Do you have any idea how sick you could get from all this?!"

The face Isabella was making was one of shame; pure, unadulterated disgrace. Phineas's attention then turned to the glossy, yet rugged texture of her hair.

"Wh...Why are there eggshells in your hair? Did somebody crack eggs on your scalp?!"

She was not eager to answer, but when she did, it came out in squeaks.

"Well, i-it was part of... I-i mean it was... It was just something I had to-..."

"Wait, wait, wait.. you had to? What do you mean 'you had to?'" demanded Phineas, his voice turning from concerned to bitter within mere moments. He engaged the kick-stand on his bike and began forcefully tugging down the zipper of his sweatshirt, "who's making you do this?"

"Well, they were just-... It's just part of- I mean, I..."

By this time, it didn't matter who had done it or that she was refusing to say who it was. Phineas began to look more convulsed than she'd seen him in a while, and that alone scared her more than the possibility of getting hypothermia. She watched silently as he peeled his orange jacket off of his shoulders and tossed it over to the bush, promptly turning in the opposite direction and crossing his fleece-fitted arms across his chest in distemperment.

"Put it on." he ordered impatiently.

Isabella was hesitant to accept his offering. Her fingers gradually unclenched from their former place on her chest and smoothed over the curves in the sweatshirt's hemlines. She padded the orange striped fabric delicately as if what he had given her was a precious artifact or fragile family heirloom.

"Phineas, this is your sweatshirt. You need it for your bike ride home-"

"Put it on." he repeated in a tone much the same, "you're going to freeze if you don't."

"But Phineas, I don't-"

"I'm not leaving until you put it on."

Isabella decided not to argue further with her crush. She felt the awful sting of embarrassment starting in the corners of her eyes, tears threatening to have their way with her emotions as she pulled the thermal fabric over her chilled porcelain skin. She felt warm already - by him; by his selfless offering. Within seconds, Phineas's sweatshirt reminded Isabella what warmth felt like after an entire night spent without it, and it even seemed more endearing that he'd offered it to her so insistently. If the circumstances weren't so compromising, she might've reveled in the fact he'd been kind enough to offer his coat like a true gentleman. It was a rare occurrence for Isabella, considering the distance the two kept between one another since the summer of last year. However, she reminded herself that this gesture wasn't a romantic one; chances are, she would've done the same had she come across someone else naked outside in the beginning of February.

She quickly zipped up the sweatshirt and tried shifting her weight to her feet in an effort to stand with legs that had been temporarily paralyzed by the cold. Suddenly dizzied, she placed a benumbed hand on a nearby tree and took a moment for the blood to circulate back to her head.

"Phineas..." she whimpered, an abrupt pain shooting up her hamstrings. She stumbled about in an unsteady, infantile fashion until she retreated back to the tree for support, blotches and colors crowding her vision and adding to her lightheadedness.

Phineas turned around at the sound of her call and immediately went to her side. He held her upright and escorted her cautiously over to his bike. His temper had calmed, yet he had become seemingly more worried than before.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to snap at you, but... do you have any idea how dangerous it is to sit in the freezing cold for as long as you did? You could get really sick from this! In fact, I'm surprised you haven't lost consciousness!"

The truth was she had a few hours earlier, but Isabella prefered to keep that detail to herself.

"I'm sorry you had to see this," she murmured, still humiliated enough to burst into tears at any given moment, "I'd understand if you're upset with me."

The boy shook his head at this as he knelt to the ground, preparing the gears on his bike to sustain the weight of two passengers instead of one, "I'm not upset, Isabella. I'm just... I'm surprised. And worried."

Her heart leapt in her chest; he was worried about her?

"R-really?"

"Of course. The fact that you put yourself in harm's way because of being pressured...it just doesn't seem like you."

She gave a solemn nod in agreement. It was true; giving way to peer pressure wasn't in her nature. Even as a child, she had settled into being more confrontational than most other girls were. Some considered it a fault, but she was a leader; being a "follower" just wasn't part of her character.

But what had happened to her last night wasn't the result of peer pressure in her mind; it was part of the Danville Cheer Squad tradition! Initiation was something everyone had to endure before being on the squad...Right?

Phineas dusted off his knees as he stood back up, keeping eye contact with his childhood friend to a minimum. He heaved a sigh before saying one of the worst sentences Isabella would ever hear.

"And...I'm a little disappointed in you, Isabella..."

Suddenly, the ground seem to pull down on Isabella's weight more than it had before: the joints in her arms and legs began to ache, and soon enough, every pain in her body that she'd dismissed in Phineas's presence started to double. Her eyes watered, making her blink and stare up at the morning sky in order to keep herself from revealing how she really felt about hearing that from him. Her pride was being stripped away by the second. She said nothing as he helped her onto his bike and then pushed off, steering their way back to Maple Drive.

"Listen," began Phineas, trying to drawn attention away from the awkwardness between the two of them as he pedaled, "I realize we haven't been speaking a lot recently or hanging out - and I'll take the blame for that - but whoever is making you do this kind of thing... you shouldn't hang out with them. You could've really damaged your body staying out here for so long in this weather. I mean, think about what would've happened if it snowed! What if I hadn't found you? How would you've gotten home?"

It was in that instant Isabella desperately wanted to tell him her reason for her outdoor episode. She wanted to breach the code of the Danville High School Cheer Squad and just tell him that it was part of her initiation on to the team and that she'd only have to go through this torture once. She wanted him to understand how long she'd been wanting to be one of the elite twelve girls and how hard she worked to get where she is.

However, she knew that this would mean Phineas would discourage her from continuing being a member of the squad knowing that that's the way they treated their teammates. He would get the wrong idea and think that life would be like this all the time for Isabella as a Danville High School Cheerleader and think that she'd be subject to hazing on a weekly basis. Her lips would just have to remain sealed for now. Telling him might mean giving up what she'd been reaching for for years, and if being a Fireside Girl had taught her anything, it's that giving up isn't - and should never be - an option.

Oh, but the way her body felt at this moment... it was truly the worst she'd felt in years. The shame, the fatigue, the sensitivity, the bitter cold she was feeling inside and out; that felt so much worse than any other kind of rejection she'd felt in the past. The worst part was that Phineas was around for her to bear it. All she wanted now was to go home and try her hardest to convince herself that this whole ordeal didn't happen to begin with.

"Isabella? Isabella, are you okay?"

The girl sheepishly hugged Phineas's waist as the speed of his bike picked up, allowing strands of her hair that were untouched by egg spoils to mingle in the wind and tangle into the zipper of his jacket. She no longer felt like she had anything to say that would make the situation anything less than what it was; he had found her in a public park almost completely naked, frozen, humiliated, and covered in egg yolk. Tears spilled out of her eyes and stained the shoulder of his T-shirt as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Nothing was worse than this.

"I'm fine. I just want to go home."

Thanks for reading!

So what will it be like between Phineas and Isabella after this incident? If you'd like, you can check out my story "(Please) Don't Read This Journal" to find out!

If not, don't sweat it! I'll be writing more one-shots soon!

Hope you liked my awkward little story! XD

-Blythe