I accepted a challenge from Metatron the Angel of Ideas.

This is my version of Phineas and Ferb's special episode "Act Your Age", Ferbnessa style. I hope you guys enjoy it and please review!

NOTES: Phineas and Ferb's characters and original transcript belong to Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh.

There were only two weeks left of summer. Their last 104 days of summer together at that beloved backyard, where fun was found at every corner and imagination had no limits, were about to end. The Flynn-Fletcher boys always knew that at some point of their lives, time was going to overtake them, and consequently each of them will have to choose different ways to decide their own future. Although it seemed to be quite simple for Phineas, Ferb never imagined how hard it would be to make the last and possibly most important decision of his life. After being so focus on each step of his life, choosing between very prestigious schools was somehow like walking a tightrope, a one in which making a mistake could haunt him for the rest of his days.

On a regular evening at the Flynn-Fletcher's house, however, the boys were not using their valuable time on one of their crazily amazing ideas. Phineas was lying on his bed while Ferb was sitting on his, in front of him there were a bunch of acceptance letters. He was resting his head on one of his hands, simply staring at them.

"You're running out of time, Ferb. You gotta choose a school." Phineas said, he got up from his bed and walked over the desk. "It's not that hard, do you wanna stay local or go abroad? Business? Engineering?"

Ferb looked up, "Help me make a decision." he said.

The red-haired boy thought for a moment until he snapped his fingers, then took all of the letters from the bed and threw them inside a big crystal box, "Get in the booth."

He raised his eyebrow and walked towards the booth.

"Come on! We're gonna let fate decide this one."

Ferb shrugged and went in. When he closed the door and showed a thumbs up to indicate he was ready, Phineas pressed a button to activate the booth. All of a sudden all the acceptance letters were flying around the British boy, there were so much that he couldn't even see that well through the crystal. He finally jumped to pick one and got out of there.

He read the letter and handed it to his brother, then he went directly to the computer.

"Okay…" Phineas said, "Kjobstaad Academy. Huh, which one was that again?"

"Mm, great physics department…Norway?" he frowned and tipped his chin.

"Ha,ha, are you prepared for those cold winters?"

He sighed and walked back to the booth to try again. He got another letter and came out to hand the letter to his brother.

"Alright! Videogame Design School." Phineas looked at him excited, "Well, bro, if it's fate…"

He looked oddly at the red-haired boy and snatched the letter from his hands, then he turned around and started picking up all his letters from the booth.

Phineas sat on his bed and sighed, "I can definitely say that things seemed a lot easier when we were younger."

They suddenly heard some steps from outside their room and both turned to the door. Within seconds the door opened and they found a familiar face. "Hey guys!" Baljeet said, "Is Ferb still trying to figure out where to go to school?"

"Working on it." Phineas replied.

"I was just giving Buford some pointers on collegiate life. You know, since I've already graduated and been accepted as a professor, I could pull some strings and get him into my school." He turned his head over his shoulder and met the big guy, who was standing right behind him with a sandwich on his hands, "Just think, Buford. You could be my student."

He looked at Baljeet with a careless face, "Don't get too excited, I'm going to film school and I'm concentrating on tragedies." He raised his head and changed his gaze to a very inspirational look. "The story of a struggling orphan's transcendental search for meaning in a post-apocalyptic society."

"It sounds pretentious."

"Thank you." He said and took another bite of his sandwich.

Baljeet rolled his eyes and turned back to the Flynn-Fletcher brothers, "So, Phineas, you are going to Tri-State State?"

"Yeah! I'm actually leaving with Isabella next Monday."

"Ferb," Buford said, "Why don't you just go there?"

"Or why not go where Candace goes to school?" Baljeet added.

"Law school?"

Phineas and Ferb looked at each other. Phineas could tell right away by the displeased look on Ferb's face that he wouldn't like the idea of being in the same school as their sister. "Yeah, I don't know. I don't think Candace's school is the right place for Ferb."

Ferb shook his head and chose two envelopes from his bed, he stared at each of them for a couple of seconds and got lost in his head trying to make a fast decision, which was actually pretty hard. He felt a presence on his side and turned his head to find his brother reading the college's names.

"You're going with your gut, huh? Let's see, Danville U and Camford on Oxbury. Both are really good schools, looks like you have some thinking to do."

Ferb nodded.

"Hey," Buford said in the back, catching Baljeet's attention, "the struggle of and F-shaped headed boy to choose between two schools."

"Pretentious alert."

"And again, thank you."

Over the past years, the relationship between the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N and the OWCA stopped having that rivalry since all the evil scientists from the organization decided to focus on different things. The agents, on the other side, were all retired and enjoying their evenings free from work, acting like regular pets on their own houses. Both organizations even get together occasionally for bowling or poker. The OWCA had its own changes, Francis Monogram left his position as the boss of one of the organization's divisions and decided to live the rest of his life away from everything, leaving Danville to refresh himself in the hot beaches of Bora Bora. As for Carl, he grew up and remained working for the organization, he stopped being an unpaid inter to become the next commander in charge. Under him, there was now Irving Du Bois doing his internship at the OWCA since he graduated from high school.

At the Organization Without a Cool Acronym headquarters, everything seemed to be as normal as usual until Irving noticed a red light blinking on the old Evil-Scientist Alert System. He got closer to the top desk and wiped the dust off the picture below the red light, revealing inator activity from Heinz Doofenshmirtz. He immediately made a phone call to notify Commander Carl about the alert, who responded surprised. When he was still an intern, the OWCA placed Dr. Doofenshmirtz as a high school teacher to encourage him to spread his science knowledge with his students and give up evil, which actually turned out pretty well. The fact that the organization succeeded in turning an evil scientist into a good person made them think they could do it with all the other L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N's members, and so they did.

After retiring from the OWCA, Perry spent most of the time with his owners at home, but given that they were used to see him disappear at some point of the day, he liked to get on the very top of the tree on the Flynn-Fletcher's backyard to lay down and get fresh air. He suddenly received a call from Commander Carl, who ordered him to pause his retirement for that day to find out what Doofenshmirtz was up to. Perry immediately put on his fedora and got on his jet pack to go directly to Doof's house.

Back at the Flynn-Fletcher's house, the boys went to the kitchen and started making some sandwiches.

"So I heard Isabella got you a little something for your one month anniversary." Baljeet said.

Phineas blinked surprised, "Oh, wow, really?" he looked down, "Huh, I haven't thought of what to give her yet, you guys know I'm not an expert on all this dating thing."

"Why do parents buy such weird food?" Buford interrupted, looking at the fridge. "Everything's lite, low, non, free or diet."

"So, Ginger told you?" he asked.

"Yes. Huh, I honestly didn't think Ferb was going to be the single one, remember how much he liked that girl?"

Ferb stopped chewing his chip and widened his eyes, he noticed Baljeet and Buford's looking at him.

"You mean Vanessa?" Phineas added, "Yeah, I also thought he would go after her. I wonder why that never happened."

"Maybe you'll stop wondering if you ask him." Buford said, making Baljeet and Phineas turn their heads in Ferb's direction.

There were a couple of sweat drops on Ferb's forehead while he looked at them. He never imagined he was going to be in a situation like that one, it was like if everyone always knew exactly what he was thinking or feeling even when he didn't have to say it out loud. There was absolutely no way for them to know about his crush with Vanessa, he had never mentioned it in the past and he tried to be as discrete as possible when he was a kid.

"How did-" he mumbled.

"Oh come on!" Buford said, "It was so obvious, you wrote about her on your blog every time you saw her or spent time with her."

"You always got in trance mode whenever she was near to you and you knew exactly when she needed help." Baljeet added.

He looked away without saying anything and continued eating his chips.

Phineas laughed, "I don't think you can escape from this, bro. Now spill it, why didn't you ever ask her out?"

He sighed, "Isn't it obvious? She is and will always be older than me. It is absurd just to think about it."

The guys all looked at each other's confused faces. When Ferb saw them, he knew he was probably missing something but couldn't figure out what for that instance.

"You're kidding, right? You do know she is now the same age as us." Baljeet asked.

He laughed silently and ate one of his chips.

"What's so funny, Einstein?" Buford said, crossing his arms.

He frowned, then he saw his brother walking towards him with his face now showing a worried expression. He tried not to care that much, he knew that what Baljeet said was impossible, but he only wanted to know what Phineas had to add. His brother would never lie to him, especially if it was something serious.

"Ferb…t-they're not joking."

His heart rate started raising out of nowhere as he kept listening.

"Not too long ago, something happened at professor Doofenshmirtz's lab." Phineas continued, "You know how he always talked about his weird inventions and all kinds of stuff in class? Apparently while he was working on one of his projects, he had a discussion with his daughter…"

(Doofenshmirtz hmm-hmm Incorporated)

"Dad, can you please stop what you're doing and listen to me?" Vanessa said, walking in circles behind Doofenshmirtz, who was holding a small device and twisting a screwdriver.

Without looking at her, he replied, "This is important, sweetheart. You see, I-I have to figure out a way to show students an experiment without involving lasers, explosives or corrosive substances a-and I'm still not sure what to make."

She sighed and leaned her arm on a table. "I've been trying to talk to you all day, Dad!"

"O-Okay, how about this? I'll listen to you and work on this at the same time, believe It or not I've become a multitask man." He turned around for a second, "Just do me a favor and stop leaning on that table, it has wheels and it moves pretty easily, I don't even know why I bought it."

"Dad…"

"G-Go ahead, say whatever you have to say. Don't think I'm not paying attention to you just because I'm not looking at you, alright?" he said.

"Um, okay fine. Listen, the company is offering an amazing job, it is actually my dream job but they require a person with a car. I found one and I loved it but I don't have enough money to pay for it, Dad. Could you please help me with the rest?"

"You're asking me for money? Your mother takes everything away from me, why didn't you ask her?"

She crossed her arms, "She's not taking your money since last year."

"Either way, Vanessa," he rolled his eyes, "I don't think you're ready for a car, it's too dangerous out there and you're still too young for that."

Vanessa frowned and clenched her fists while getting close to her dad, "Are you serious!? Do you even know how old I am?"

He turned his head over his shoulder, "What difference does it make? You'll always be my baby girl." He said with a smile on his face.

"Ugh!" she shut her eyes angrily, "You know what? Forget it! I don't know why I even tried."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"For once in my life I expected for you to behave like a normal dad but clearly I was wrong. I'm outta here." She said and walked away from her dad.

His mood changed with her last sentence, he turned around and locked his annoyed look to Vanessa. "Get back here, young lady. Repeat that to my face!"

"You heard me!"

"You can't talk to me like that, I am your fa-"

He wanted to stop her until he missed one step due a to a cable landing on the floor, his foot got tangled with it making him fall to the ground right in front of the movable table he hated so much. It all happened so fast that he could barely think, he accidentally pushed the table, it rolled rapidly all the way to the end of the laboratory and stopped after hitting one of Doof's old inators really hard. All of a sudden the inator, covered with a blanket, started activating and threw a laser in Vanessa's direction. She turned around with the noise of her father falling and didn't even have chance to breathe when the laser hit her.

"Vanessa! NO!" Doof yelled, he got up as fast as he could and ran directly to the inator so he could shut it down. He pulled the blanket off the machine and widened his worried eyes, "Oh no! it's the Babe-inator! That means-"

A crying baby from behind interrupted him. There she was, Vanessa Doofenshmirtz as a little baby girl.

"He spent the rest of the day trying to build something that could get her back to normal until he finally did it, but unfortunately he couldn't make her go back to the age she was."

Ferb choked with the chip he was eating and coughed abruptly after being informed with such surprising news, he stood up and tried to calm himself slightly hitting his chest.

"Whoa, careful buddy. Here, take this." Phineas said and handed him a glass of water.

His heart was pumping so fast that he almost felt a panic attack approaching, but he managed to control himself away from it. He wasn't sure how to feel regarding Vanessa's incident, for so many years he suppressed his feelings for her and told himself to give up, scared from being rejected due to their age difference. However, she being younger changed everything, each and every thought of Ferb's mind were now confusing him more than ever. He turned around and perceived a sense of concern just by looking at his brother's eyes, Phineas was probably thinking he was mad at him. He took a deep breath and finally spoke.

"How come you never mentioned it before?" he asked.

"Well we…thought you already knew."

"Besides, we are guys, we talk about other things." Baljeet said, Buford just shrugged in agreement. The guys looked at each other for a few seconds until he broke the silence of the room, "Did you see the new car Irving got?"

"Can we eat yet?" Buford added, "I'm starving."

Phineas walked over the other side of the kitchen, "Sure, let me put this in the…" he stopped talking when he saw the British boy leaving the kitchen and walking out of the house with a blank expression on his face. "Ferb? Wha-, Where are you going?"

He didn't answer, he simply opened the door and left the house.

"Man, this whole Vanessa thing really affected him. I wish we could do something to make him feel better."

"Maybe we can." Baljeet's eyebrow went up. "You know what I mean?"

Phineas suddenly smiled, "Of course! Let's throw him a party! That'll definitely cheer him up."

Baljeet facepalmed and looked at Buford hoping that he would've understood what he was trying to imply until he spoke. "Yeah, alright."

When he got there, Perry found Heinz working on a big contraption, assuming that he was planning something evil like he used to do in the past. When he noticed Perry the platypus in the room, he explained right away that he didn't mean to set off the inator alert since he wasn't trying to do anything harmful to the city or anything related to that. He mentioned that now that he was much older, he should be behaving like a young man again and trying cool things like getting back together with an old rock band or getting new sports cars, basically having a mid-life crisis like most of his friends, but sadly he was not and wanted to know how it feels to have one. For that reason, he started working on a gold chain that will trigger a mid-life crisis. He pressed a button to shoot the chain with a laser, then he took it and put it around his neck. The chain made short-circuit and all of a sudden, Doofenshmirtz felt energized and with the need of doing something fun and crazy.

Concerned, Perry followed him and waited for the worst.

That same day, Lacie, Birgitte, Heather and Dana decided to hang out at their favorite coffee shop, the Deep Rhythm Café, where they spent most of their evenings over the past years. They were no longer teenagers, all of them already graduated from the respective colleges and had a decent job. They also stopped wearing gothic clothes to look more accurate for their age, which wasn't their favorite thing to do but they got used to it. While waiting for their coffees, Lacie took out her phone and started texting.

"Lacie, are you texting your boyfriend again?" Dana asked.

"Yeah, we're at odds deciding what movie to see later." She said, "He wants to go to the one about robots and I want to see the French one."

She stayed quiet for a couple of seconds waiting for her girlfriends to talk, but it never happened. The three other girls just blinked and kept staring at Lacie without saying anything.

"Aren't you guys going to say something?"

Birgitte crossed her arms, "What do you want us to say? You know you are going to end up seeing his movie."

"That's not true…um…" she bit her lip and looked down.

"It is, Lacie. This always happens to you 'cuz you don't know how to manipulate the situation." Heather added.

"Okay then, how do I do that?"

"How are we supposed to know? You are the one in a relationship, we are not."

Lacie rolled her eyes and put her phone away. Minutes after, a waitress approached to their table with a tray on her hand. Her face looked fresh and young, she had her shiny brown hair tied in a long ponytail and her uniform emphasized her perfect body shape. "Hi, guys!" Vanessa said and placed each cup of coffee in front of them.

The girls received her with a small smile, then she added, "Sorry for taking so long, my boss is driving me crazy. He's keeping me busy to make sure I won't leave early, but meh, this may be the last time I'm seeing him before I'm off to school. Well, enjoy. Let me know if you need anything else."

Birgitte turned her head to Lacie, "So, are you going to the movies or not?"

"Yeah." She said and rested her head on her hand.

"Cool, which one?"

"Robots."

The three girls sighed disappointed. "Where is this guy anyway?" Dana asked.

"He's at a friend's house not too far from here, he told me we can go if we want to but it'd be just the four of us." Lacie said and looked up to set her eyes on Vanessa.

The rest did the same and sighed, "Oh, Vanessa…"

Dana sipped her coffee, "It's too bad she didn't go back to her actual age."

"Yeah, just look at her." Heather pointed to Vanessa's direction, where she was having a conversation with a man on the counter. "Working so hard."

She showed a ticket to the man in front of her, "Look, this is what you ordered, sir. Grilled liver?! What do you think this place is?"

"Could you handle something like that? Just think about it, losing a very important position at a big company to become a waitress."

"Not to mention she has to go back to college." Birgitte added. "Hey, didn't she mention once that she wanted to ask someone for help? You know, one of Candace's brothers."

"You mean Ferb?" Lacie asked.

"Oh yeah, that guy. Hmm, I guess she never got the courage to look for him, you know how embarrassed she was about what happened."

Dana's mouth started forming a smile and looked at all the girls. "Maybe we could do it for her and, see what happens."

They all shared a smile, "Hey Lacie, call Candace and ask her the address." Heather said.

At some spot of Law school, Candace was sitting on a bench with the phone on her hand.

"And then he said, 'Call me if you're free tomorrow.' And I'm like, I don't even know what that means, I mean does he think that after all these years we've been together I'm not paying enough attention to our relationship?!"

"Jeremy knows you're a busy woman, Candace. There's nothing to worry about."

*beep*beep* "Hold on, Stacy. I have another call." She said and pressed a button, "This is Candace…Oh, hi Lacie, it's been a while! What's up?...Um, sure I'll send it to you but why do you need it? Is there a problem?...Ferb?"

The power of Doof's inator making him feel years younger. He didn't want to waste any minute of his day and tried to do as many crazy things as he could. After leaving his lab, he went directly to dye his hair, going from gray to black. Right after that he went to buy a jet ski and spent a few minutes having fun in the ocean accompanied by Perry the Platypus, who was following him all the time in a small motorboat. Doof's fun ended when he crashed with a sailboat that appeared out of nowhere, sinking it with him and his jet ski all together, also removing the black dye of his hair. Instead of feeling upset, he took it as an opportunity to do something crazier. He thought of wrestling alligators, but he remembered that most of the men he knew that were having a mid-life crisis were all getting sports cars. That moment he knew it was now his time to get one.

Ferb decided to take a walk, he felt his brain was somehow broken and needed to think. He kept asking himself how was it possible that he never heard about Vanessa's incident before that evening, if he had known, he would've definitely looked for her to see if she needed his help like he used to do in the past. Every time Vanessa was in some kind of trouble, he never hesitated in helping her, he did it to gain her confidence and sincere friendship even though he felt way more for her. Her face was marked on Ferb's mind since the very first time he saw her, he thought of her like a fallen angel from heaven. He could've been just a kid when they met but he considered her as his first love, and ever since that day he was hoping for at least one chance in the future to date her and make her fall in love with him. Unfortunately, he lost hope every year that passed after realizing that no matter how hard he tried, his age will always be an impediment between him and Vanessa. He convinced himself that his feelings for her were something momentary and hoped to be able to see her like a regular friend, which he thought could work pretty well. Obviously, now knowing that he and Vanessa were the same age, Ferb's mind was lost on her image once again, and he couldn't do anything about it.

While he was walking on the sidewalk, he came out of trance and felt his phone vibrating on his pocket. He blinked twice and sighed, realizing that he was certainly distracted by Vanessa like he did when he was a kid. He took out his phone and saw the picture of his sister on the screen, then he answered the call.

"Ferb? Where are you? I just received a call and I wanted to make sure you were okay." Candace said.

'Phineas' he thought. "I'm alright." He mumbled.

"Okay, umm…" she paused, "Ferb, there's something I need to tell you. I heard something about Vanessa and, since you liked her so much I thought you deserved to know."

"P-Pardon?" he said shyly with his cheeks lightly red.

"Oh come on! Don't try to deny it, your silly face of love snitched you years ago."

"Candace!"

"Whatever, okay? That's not important now, listen to me." She said, her tone raised in a desperate way, "Vanessa is leaving Danville. Like, today."

He paralyzed. His pupils shrank and a knot was formed in his throat, he slowly shook his head as he started to hyperventilate. He could see through his eyes the picture of Vanessa vanishing bit by bit, and every time it did his heart lowered its rate. He couldn't respond, he didn't know what to say or even think, but he knew for sure he didn't want her away. He would not be able to live peacefully in the city knowing that she will no longer be living there, knowing that he wouldn't see her at least from afar, he just wanted to hear from Candace that it was just a bad joke, but deep inside he knew it wasn't.

She heard her brother's breathing and reacted right away, "Ferb, calm down! This is not time for you to freak out. Listen, she works at Deep Rhythm Café. If you have anything you need to say to her, you'd better go over there and say it before it's too late. Her summer's almost over."

He pulled the phone away from his ear to search for the coffee shop's address. When he found out it wasn't far from where he was, his expression changed from worry to bravery. "Thank you" he said on the phone.

"Go get her!"

The boys carried party decoration boxes all the way to the Flynn-Fletcher's backyard and put them on top of a table. Phineas took out his notebook and wrote a check mark on some items from the list he had.

"Alright, we got the boxes. We have to go through the guest list next, then we'll need to think about the food and, huh, obviously decorate this place. Isn't this great? Ferb's gonna love it." he said enthusiastically.

Baljeet was looking at the banners and light from his box and shook his head, then he walked towards the red-haired boy, "Phineas, I don't want to sound like a killjoy but I don't think a party will-"

Buford interrupted him by covering his mouth with his hand, "I won't let you ruin this, nerd. You keep your mouth shut so I can get free food, is that clear?"

"Alright, alright. But at least tell me you agree with me."

"So what if you're right? Look at him, Jeet. Give up, you're not going to make him change his mind."

Phineas kept writing on his notebook, he was busy enough to leave his mind out of the real world, completely ignoring what was happening around him including their conversation. Every time he had an idea, his brain used every second to find a better form to evolve his idea and make it even better than the original, his body worked automatically by writing down all the possible corrections and adjustments to make sure not to forget anything. A sound from the other end of the house got his attention, he went back inside and confirmed that there was someone ringing the doorbell.

He crossed the whole place and made it to the door, when he opened it there were four young ladies standing before him.

"Can I help you, ladies?" he said.

"Hey, you're Phineas, right?" Lacie replied.

"The one and only."

"Hi, I'm Lacie, these are Dana, Heather and Birgitte." She said, the girls behind her simply waved at him. "Look, we're here looking for your brother, Ferb. Can we-"

"Ferb? Oh he's not here, but he'll be back soon. We're actually throwing him sort of a 'Just-Because' Party, and you're welcome to stay if you want."

The girls looked at each other's eyes, then Lacie added, "We'd love to, but-"

Phineas interrupted her by pulling all of them into the house and shutting the door behind them, "I insist, come on! It'll be fun, any friend of Ferb's is well received in this party. Besides, it's always good to have extra hands helping around here."

They all faked a smile and waited in the living room until Dana finally spoke, "This is ridiculous, we have to get out of here."

"This was your idea, remember?" Heather said.

"I know but-"

"Hey," Phineas said, standing out of the backyard's door, "can you guys help us out with the music?"

Dana's eyes popped open, then he turned around and showed him a smiley face, "Music? Are you kidding? Of course!"

They blinked surprised on her sudden change of mind, "What do we do now?" Birgitte asked.

Lacie shrugged, "Well, I guess it won't hurt to stay for a little, you know at least until Ferb gets back."

As the girls walked out of the living room, Baljeet and Buford went back inside and stared at them for a few seconds. "Those girls look older, don't you think?" Baljeet asked.

Buford glanced oddly at him then continue walking, "Don't worry, I won't tell Ginger."

Perry followed Doofenshmirtz until they got to the Sterling Auto Sales. He glanced at every crazy move Doof did so he could take care of him, not only he was old and weak, but he was also being possessed by the chain in his neck. There was absolutely nothing that could make Doof change his mind about wanting to experience a mid-life crisis. The salesman showed him a few cars that would match with the kind of man he was, but they weren't as convincing as the red sports car parked in the center of the place. Doof hopped in and excitedly asked the salesman if the car was ridiculous or irresponsible as it looked and, since he was right, the salesman simply agreed with anything he said and let him give the car a try. As he started the engine and drove at full speed, Perry feared for his nemesis' life as he saw how Doof ended up crashing the car on a big wall. He shamefully looked at the salesman when Doof came back and asked for another car, but much to his surprise the salesman, with a careless look, offered him a similar car but in a different color. He shook his head in disagreement just seeing how thrilled the old man was with the idea of driving a yellow sports car and thinking of it as a real fast Ducky Momo. Yet again, he wasn't going to waste time trying to stop him so he just followed him once again in his adventure. They drove the sports car all through the city not caring about any signs or red lights, they even survived to what could've been a horrible car accident, hitting just a dumpster that attached to the back of the car. To get rid of it, Doof took the next exit and left the dumpster going straight.

At the end of her shift, Vanessa went directly to her mother's house where she had all her stuff packed. She asked Charlene to take her to the airport because she knew her dad would make a scene in front of everyone and she just wanted to get that out of the way. Not that she didn't care, she appreciated it and knew that her dad had been feeling as guilty for the accident as the first day even if she said it was okay. The idea of being younger freaked her out at the beginning, but leaving aside all the bad things that happened to her she learned to live with that. She only lost material things after all. She went to her room and brought her luggage down to the drawing room.

"Are you sure you're not missing anything, honey?" Charlene, who was doing the dishes, asked.

Vanessa checked a list on her hand and walked over to the kitchen, "Don't worry, Mom. I went through everything on the list like three times already."

They both made it to the table and sat down. "How hard was it for your boss to let you go?"

"You have no idea, he was devastated. He didn't even want me to stay for the job, he just wanted me to date his son."

"That doesn't sound bad, you haven't gone out with a boy in a while."

She snorted, "What's the point anyway? I'm leaving this place and never coming back. Forget it."

Charlene sensed the sarcastic tone Vanessa used on her last sentence and knew she was joking, but she didn't laugh. Instead, her eyes began to water as she looked carefully at her beautiful daughter. Vanessa stopped laughing when she noticed it and hurried to hold her mother's hand.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

She wiped off the tears from her eyes, "Oh, sorry dear. It's normal for us 'parents' to feel sad when our kids go to college."

"Well, yeah but you know this is not the first time."

"No, I know." She squeezed Vanessa's hand. "But I'm excited for you. I don't know about you but this seems to be like something you should look forward to. I understand that what happened with you and your father that day at his lab wasn't really on your plans, but maybe it was meant to happen. If you have already forgiven Heinz for the accident and learned how to live like this, then take advantage of the situation. Think about this like an opportunity, there are a lot of boys and girls out there that, believe it or not, would love to have the chance to live their youth once again. You are about to open the door of your future for the second time, think that maybe you can find so many different trails that will possibly make your future even better than before. And I know you were very comfortable with the way things were going in your life, so it is up to you, I'm not going to tell you to listen to me if you don't want to. I just want you to know that whatever you decide, I'll support you. You are my only daughter, Vanessa, I'm very proud of you, and I'll miss you so much."

Vanessa was almost crying, but she held her tears and listened every word her mother said to her. She got closer to Charlene and gave her a big warm hug. "I'll miss you too, Mom. I love you." she said, then they broke the embrace and she continued, "Wow, by telling me all this you made me feel nervous."

"Don't be, everything's all packed and you still have plenty of time before you need to go to the airport."

She stood up, "I think I'll check my admission folder, do you know where it is?"

"Yes, I left it in the car so you wouldn't forget it."

She walked out of the house and got to the car, she sat on the driver's seat and checked one by one every paper inside the folder. She put the folder back to the glove box after she finished and before getting out of the car, she noticed there were a bunch of newspaper pages stuck on the windshield. She thought the wind made them fly over there and quickly got out to take them off. The articles on the papers weren't much of her interest until she saw something that caught her attention. She went back to her home and sat on the couch to check the paper, she recognized the guy in the picture and the title just confirmed it.

'Ferb Fletcher hits position #1 in the Top 10 of USA's Young Entrepreneurs'

Vanessa stared at the picture for a few seconds, then she suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her mom's voice calling her.

"Did you go see your father after work?" Charlene asked.

"Uh, yeah I did but he wasn't home. We did say goodbye yesterday so…"

"What about your friends? Have you said goodbye to all of them yet?"

There was no answer.

"Vanessa?"

Ferb ran as fast as he could to make it to the coffee shop on time. Courage was taking over his body even if he wasn't sure how he was going to handle the situation. What was he going to say? He didn't' even know where to start, but for the first time in his life he trusted on his sister's advice and he wasn't going to look back. A few blocks away from the coffee shop he started feeling his heart go crazy, he wished from the bottom of his heart to find her there, for at least one last chance to see her face before it was too late. He was running out of air when he spotted the place and he decided to slow down for a bit, that's when he saw a person coming out locking the door. When he realized he was probably the manager and that he was closing the establishment, he rushed his steps until he got there.

The man turned his head to Ferb and shook his head, "Sorry boy, we're closing early today."

He didn't answer, he just stared at all the empty chairs and tables from the inside. He let out a big sigh and rested his forehead on the crystal of the window, but before he could get hopelessly sad he tried to think about an alternate solution. The fact of seeing the place closed didn't mean that she had already left. With that in thought he remembered the time where he and Phineas were trying to find Candace's doll and they ended up going to Vanessa's house. Ferb quickly got away from the window and started running to Charlene's, hoping to find her lovely daughter there.

When he got there, he saw the car parked in front of the house, which gave him a little relief. He waited before knocking the door and tried to breathe enough air, he clenched his fists to stop their shakiness, trying to hide how nervous he was. He shut his eyes and finally made the knocking, few seconds later a woman appeared before him.

"Can I he-, Oh!" she smiled and cupped her cheek, "You're Linda's son, Ferb, right? What a pleasant surprise! I was just reading in the newspaper what a remarkable boy you are. Oh, but you're definitely not a boy anymore, you turned out to be a great looking young man."

He tightened his tie and cleared his throat. "Is Vanessa here?" he said calmly.

"Oh no, dear, she's gone."

Ferb's chest started aching, "Gone?" he mumbled.

"Yes, you just missed her, she-" Charlene stopped talking when she heard the phone ringing on the back, "Sorry honey, I need to get that, um…Would you like to come in?"

He shook his head and turned around to walk away, Charlene watched him leave with a sad look on her eyes and closed the door. Ferb took a moment to analyze the situation and the more he thought of it, he felt more defeated and lonely. It was most likely the longest walk on his life, his mind was so disconnected that he didn't care about anything around him. He placed his hands in his pockets and his head bowed in disillusion, every step he gave counted as every second he regretted not having looked for Vanessa when he had the opportunity. 'I wish I had known.' He thought. He regretted the day he decided to give up on his feelings. In his head he imagined a life where he could be walking in the sidewalk just like he was doing at that moment, but his hand was being held by Vanessa's hand. He imagined scenes of them having dinner together, spending time together at the mall and sharing the same milkshake with two straws. He imagined himself opening the door for her, buying her flowers, sharing his umbrella with her, simply doing everything for her. Ferb pictured her as beautiful as he remembered, smiling at him and only him, locking her eyes on his, leaning closer to rest her head on his chest, feeling her heart pumping in rhythm with his heart beat, then vanishing out of nowhere.

He gasped and came back from his thoughts, he gazed to his right and saw no one walking with him, confirming he was just daydreaming. That's when he knew for sure that he needed her in his life more than he ever thought, but it was too late. She was gone.

Phineas crossed his arms, "It looks good, but…it's still missing something"

The girls looked at the decoration from the tree and table and couldn't think of anything else to put there, the backyard looked pretty nice and it really looked like it was going to be a good party. Baljeet then placed on the table a rounded cake with the picture of Ferb's face on it, giving the idea that the decoration was now finished and the party was ready. The guys complimented how good the place looked and the girls nodded in agreement.

"Alright," Phineas said, "Now let's bring him over here." He pulled out his phone and tried to make the call, then he frowned and looked at the screen, "Oh, shoot! No reception."

Buford took his phone out, "I don't have any charge."

"My phone's out in the car." Baljeet added.

The girls all raised their brows, then Lacie started tapping her pockets, "Hold on, I'll take care of it….Wait, where's my phone?"

"Guys, look!" Heather said and made them look up. Within seconds the dumpster from earlier that day went in through the backyard's gate and took the table, the cake, and basically the whole party with it, leaving absolutely nothing but an empty backyard. Their eyes were wide open as they noticed how none of the boys heard the dumpster and completely ignored what just happened. Baljeet glanced at their dropped jaws and dared to turn around.

"Um, guys?" he said.

Phineas and Buford turned their heads and looked at the empty backyard. The red-haired boy scratched his head in confusion, Buford laughed and pointed to the tree, "Haha! Now it's exactly like it was when we were kids!"

In a blink of an eye, Perry the Platypus and Doofenshmirtz got to an airplane and made all the arrangements so they could skydive. So far, skydiving was the most ridiculously dangerous activity of the day, Perry kept thinking that Doof's mid-life crisis was taking it a little too far but he knew the scientist was so insane that he wouldn't care. The first and only time in the day where he needed to step between his weird ideas and him was when chain started making him want to try evil again as part of the crisis. Perry just had to slap Doof in the face to put some sense into him.

After trying to unsuccessfully flirt with the jump instructor, Doof fell from the plane after being pushed by her. Perry thanked and said goodbye to the jump instructor by tipping his fedora before jumping from the airplane, then he quickly reached Doof's parachute and opened it for him knowing that the man would be too scared to do it by himself. He opened his own parachute and finally got music for his ears when Doof started complaining about the experience wasn't as fun as he thought it would be, he finally mentioned he preferred his old boring life then took the chain off of his neck and dropped it.

Ferb continued his way back home with his head down, there was nothing that could possibly cheer him up at that moment. He felt so empty from his heart and at the same time so full of mixed feelings, he almost thought he was going to finish the oxygen for sighing so much. When he got home, he looked at the door and simply shook his head, he didn't feel ready to get in and talk about what he was going through. He sat on the stoop of his house and covered his eyes with one of his hands, forcing himself to let everything go and focus on something else. He heard some steps from a random person walking in the sidewalk, but he didn't pay attention to it until he felt a shadow covering his body from the sunlight. That person stopped at his house and was standing in front of him.

"Hey, how's it goin'?"

His eyes popped open and his heart skipped a beat, he slowly turned his head up and felt like he was trapped on one of his earlier dreams.

"Is this step taken?" she asked grinning.

Ferb didn't blink, he shook his head and raised his hand to let her sit down next to him. As she sat down, his eyes were locked in her beautiful figure. The same long, brown hair, the same bright oceanic eyes, and her smell…with no doubt, the real Vanessa Doofenshmirtz was on his side. He felt like he went back in time right when he saw her for the first time, she looked pretty much the same, only that she looked more radiant to his eyes and also, they were now the same age. He was no longer a kid and she was no longer older, his feelings for her couldn't be consider as a simple crush anymore. He tried so hard to figure out the reason why she was in his house and not taking a flight to leave the city, but the fact that he got to see her one more time was enough to make his day perfect. Vanessa turned her head and met his eyes, she smiled at him then looked back down embarrassed.

"You're probably wondering what I'm doing here." She sighed, "I actually came by to…say goodbye to you. As you may know already, I'm younger than I'm supposed to be and-"

"You are off to school." He mumbled.

She glanced at him surprised, "Yeah, I'm going two weeks early so I can settle in an apartment, check schedules, school activities…To be honest, I considered doing this the first time I left for college but I wasn't really going to be that far from here. Now that I'll be gone for a while, I felt the need to see you one last time."

His heart was beating so hard that it was causing redness in his cheeks.

They stayed in silence for seconds, then she added. "I saw your picture in the newspaper, you're a very successful guy."

Ferb smiled shyly.

"I always knew, though. When you were a kid you acted different than other kids your age. You were so young yet so smart and mature. I was so impressed of your personality, you never said much but I could still sense the kindness of your soul reflected on your eyes, it was…interesting. Even now, only you're much older."

He gulped and remained quiet given that he was so nervous to talk.

Vanessa took a deep breath and sighed in between coy giggles, "Can I tell you a secret?"

He looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

"I never said it out loud, but sometimes I got to think that if I were your age when I met you, I would've surely fallen in love with you."

His head turned completely so he was facing her, his eyes were wide open and his jaw slightly dropped. It was definitely real life but still it was hard for him to believe what she said. Vanessa practically considered him as a prospect capable of owning her heart a long time ago, while he shut himself in the friend zone and thought of giving up for good. He felt it was maybe time for him to say something, he searched for her hand with his eyes and slowly moved his to grab it but before he could, he saw Vanessa turning her head face him. Her face was slightly red, her gaze was begging for him to talk.

"I-" He murmured.

"Don't get me wrong, please." She said placing her hand on her face, "I know I was older than you but, well, I guess I had a little crush on you."

"I had no idea."

"I bet you didn't. I thought of it the very first time we met."

He sighed. "Actually, that's when I started having a thing for you."

Vanessa looked up in sudden realization. She met his eyes and said nothing, neither did he. Her stomach started feeling weird, she could only hear the wind brushing them and her heartbeats increasing their speed. It was something she had not felt in a long time, and for some reason she was okay with it. She never imagined that her thoughts about young Ferb would become something stronger at some point of her life, but somehow it did and it was real. Nevertheless, her joy didn't last long.

"This is unfortunate." She said.

"Is it?"

"Yes, Ferb. I'm off to college today, and soon you will too."

He shut his eyes and sighed sadly. 'True…'

"I was offered to go to England and study there. Have you decided where you're going yet?" she asked.

Ferb blinked surprised and took out his two chosen acceptance letters. He smiled widely and gave her one of the envelopes.

"Huh, Danville U."

He jumped and took the letter from her right away. He teared it in half and gave her the correct letter. When she took it and read the name of the school, she gasped and smiled tenderly at him.

"Well," she took out a pen and wrote her new phone number on the letter, then she handed to him, "Will you call me when you get there?"

"Yes," Ferb grabbed her hand and kissed it, "Yes I will."

"VANESSA!" they heard in the distance, they turned around and saw Lacie, Dana, Heather and Birgitte walking towards them. Vanessa stood up and met them halfway.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.

They grinned, then Lacie spoke, "We've been waiting for Ferb all day."

"We thought he could do something helpful for you." Heather added, "But I guess he already did, didn't he?"

Vanessa laughed and hugged the group, "You guys are the best. I'm going to miss you."

"Take care, okay?" Birgitte said.

"Don't worry," she turned her head and saw Ferb talking with Baljeet and Buford, "I won't be alone."

The girls and the boys turned around and walked away from the couple, leaving them alone. They looked at each other and gave some steps forward to get closer, then the honk from a car pulling over made them jump scared. Vanessa frowned angrily, but her expression changed after seeing it was her mother who was driving.

"Mom? How did you know I was here?"

The lady in the car simply smiled, "I just knew…Hello again, Ferb."

The British boy waved at the woman and returned the smile. He knew it was time for Vanessa to leave, but instead of getting sad, he was excited and eager to go to college. He was no longer worried about her future decisions, he had just made one of the toughest in his life and he was absolutely sure he had chosen right. He waited for her to face him one last time and when she did, he took her hands and rubbed them with his thumbs. She got closer and put her arms around his body, he closed his eyes and hugged her back, it was the first time they shared an embrace and it was just magical. Their smiles slowly faded as she pulled back, their faces where mere inches away from each other's. They both blushed and she just turned around, she walked up to her car and opened the passenger's door.

Vanessa looked at her mother and the car started moving, she turned to Ferb and rolled down the window. "See ya." She said.

He said nothing and watched them driving away. He heard someone walking behind him and placing an arm around his shoulders.

"So, Camford on Oxbury, huh?" Phineas said, grinning at him, "Good choice."

They heard girly music from a car getting closer to them. They turned and saw Isabella driving a pink car and parking right in front of the house. "Hey, Phineas, you ready?"

Phineas walked over to the car and jumped in, then he placed his hands on Isabella's face and pulled her for a kiss. When it ended, she waved at the green-haired boy, "Hi, Ferb! Sorry, but I'm kidnapping your brother."

"I'm taking her out for Ukrainian Food." Phineas said.

"Can we drop you anywhere?"

Ferb grabbed his chin then smiled.

The car stopped at a red light not too far away from the Flynn-Fletcher household, Vanessa was holding her phone with her shoulder while in her hands she had her documents. Suddenly, Charlene saw on her rear-view mirror a pink car reaching hers and pulling up next to them. She recognized the people from the car and chuckled, she then turned to see her daughter, who was very frustrated talking with her dad.

"Dad, I told you I'm not forgetting anything! Yes, I'll miss you too…Dad, I-"

"Vanessa," Charlene said, "Maybe you should look that way, honey."

She followed her mother's finger and looked out the window. Right outside her door, there was Ferb standing in the sidewalk and a flirty look on his face. "Ferb?" she mumbled.

She got out of the car and stood in front of him, "What are you doing?"

Ferb put his arm around his waist and the other one around her neck, caressing her cheek, "This." He whispered.

He placed his lips against hers. She first received Ferb's kiss in a surprised way, but when she felt an electric shock all around her body and her heart received his love vibe, she slowly closed her eyes and kissed him back putting her arms around him. He tightened the embrace and deepened the kiss as she responded to it, he never wanted to taste any other lips but those. It was the perfect way to say goodbye for the moment, at least until they both get to England to live their future experiences together.

Charlene wiped off one little tear from her eye after such beautiful scene.

Phineas and Isabella were both happily staring at the couple, then she spoke, "That is so romantic! I never knew he had a thing for her."

He raised an eyebrow, "Seriously?"

"Of course not! I'm just messing with you," she laughed, "Everyone knew."

Ferb and Vanessa broke the kiss and sighed with their eyes locked in each other's, he tipped her chin, "That was worth the wait." He said.

She giggled, "Yes, yes it was."