Down By The Lake

"Isa!" my mother calls. "Come see this!" "What?" I ask, coming down the stairs. She's holding a brightly-colored brochure in her hand. "We've won a trip to a lake!" At first, my mind is like, ''Yuck. Pond scum. And then I think, Maybe it's worth a try!'' "Just us?" I ask. "Nope. We can invite four other people. Do you want to invite your friends?" "Sure," I say, halfway out the door. "I'll be asking around for people if you need me!" "Bye, Isa," my mother calls. I walk across the street and over to Phineas's house. "Whatcha doin'?" I ask. "Not much," Phineas replies, bent over a microscope. He sees my questioning look and says, "Microscopic zoo." "Ah," I say, like it makes so much sense. "Well, my mother and I won a trip to a lake, and we can invite four other people. So I was thinking maybe you, Ferb, Emily, and Honey could come?" "Honey can't come," says Emily, who's sitting next to Ferb and looking at some blueprints. "She's in England, visiting her grandparents." We all go silent. "Well, who else could come?" asks Phineas. "Forgive me for saying this," says Ferb, "but perhaps... Isabelle?" Everyone shudders. "I guess," I say. I'm no big fan of the boyfriend-stealing brown-haired beast. "I mean, it's everyone or bust..." Just then, Candace pokes her head out the sliding glass door. "Phineas, Ferb, if I catch you up to anything, Mom will know in less than five seconds! Like, two seconds. No, one second. Well, you know what I mean." The door slides shut and we all shrug. "So," I say. "Anyone up for a trip to Isabelle's?" "No," Phineas, Ferb, and Emily chorus. I sigh. The last time I was at Isabelle's house, she locked me in a closet. Not cool. "Come on," I say. "She might lock me in a closet again." Slowly, Phineas, Ferb, and Emily get up and start to walk out of the gate. Isabelle lives in a big powder-blue mansion, far away from Maple Drive. (Which is good, because if Isabelle knew where I lived, I'd be toast.) When we reach her long, swirly, cobblestone walkway up to the front door, we all kind of slow down. "Whoa," says Emily. "She lives here?" "Yep," I reply. Striding up to the door, I rap smartly on the door. It opens and Isabelle appears. "What do you want?" she asks. "Alright, so, my mother won this trip &mdash;" "Oh, cool, I'll go," Isabelle interrupts. That was easy. "Well, pack your stuff, and be quick about it." Isabelle turns inside to her house and returns five seconds later clutching a duffel bag. It's unzipped slightly, and I see maroon dresses and bows poking out. "Let's go!" We walk back to Phineas and Ferb's house, then to Emily's, all recruiting belongings. My stuff is already packed, apparently. When we reach my house (Isabelle knows where I live now. Crud.) the door opens and my mother smiles down at all of us. "Well, hello!" she says, particularly to Isabelle. "Who are you?" "Isabelle Garcio-Shapira," Isabelle says, sticking out her hand and smiling. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro." My mother looks at me. "Oh, my little bobo has such polite friends! Come in, come in..." Soon enough, we've loaded our bags into the back of my mom's car. My mother turns to us. "Now, I know you'd all like to sit together, but since my car can only fit three in the back and three in the front, you're going to have to split up." "I'll go in front," Emily offers. "You want to sit with me, Ferb?" Ferb nods. "Good," my mother says. "That way you can be in back with Isabelle, Isa." I lower my voice and turn to Phineas. "Take the window seat, I'll sit in the middle so you don't have to be near her." Phineas nods. "Okay." We all climb into our respective spots in the car, and that's when my mother turns on the radio and starts singing to herself. Ferb and Emily twist around in their seats to look at us, Emily fussing with the seatbelt so she doesn't choke on it. "How long is this ride going to be?" whines Isabelle. "Very long," I say, nudging Phineas in a play-along-with-it kind of way. "Hours." "Days," says Phineas, concealing a grin. "Years," says Emily. "Eons," chimes in Ferb. Isabelle sighs. "You guys are so juvenile." "We're all juvenile here," I say, quoting Alice in Wonderland. "I'm juvenile, you're juvenile..." "IT'S TIME FOR TEA!" screams Emily with a wicked grin on her face. Well that was out of character. But hey, it is Alice in Wonderland. We drive on and on, over highways and along back roads. Finally, finally, finally we reach the house. "Oh, cool!" I exclaim, leaving my stuff in the car and going to explore the house. It's fairly small, but when you go out back there's a hammock and a gazebo. Gazebo. I love that word. I go down to the dock, where there are lots of pieces of equipment sitting around, canoes and kayaks and fishing poles. The others follow behind me, in awe at it all. "I know!" squeals Emily. "We should go canoeing!" "Ooh, that does sound fun!" exclaims Phineas. We run and get our bathing suits, then buckle ourselves into life jackets. We're about to head out when I hear a shriek. "My hair's caught in my buckle!" squeals Isabelle. "Ohmigosh, helphelphelphelphelp..." Phineas rolls his eyes but goes to help her. In a few seconds, Isabelle is back to batting her eyelashes at Phineas. "Thanks, Phineas." "Now how are we going to split up?" I ask. Someone's got to be stuck with Isabelle. Emily edges over to me. "Hey, Isabella, can we talk in private?" "Sure," I say, going behind a few bushes and trees. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Do you think, pleasepleaseplease, that you could take Isabelle in your canoe? Because, uh..." Her voice trails off and she turns bright red. "I was thinking of... you know..." "Wait &mdash; ohmigosh, I know. You want to kiss Ferb, don't you?" Emily nods sheepishly. "Yeah, and you know Isabelle..." I nod. "Oh, she is such a pain. Okay, we'll take her. I'm sure she'll love it." I sound like I don't care, but it's kind of killing me inside. To think that if only Honey wasn't in England with her grandparents, this wouldn't matter and then maybe I could get my wish fufilled too, which is the same as Emily's. Except, with Phineas of course. We go back to the others, and I look at Isabelle. "Okay, you pain," I say. "You're coming with me and Phineas. And if you tip us purposely..." I draw my hand across my neck. Isabelle rolls her eyes. Getting into the canoes is a trip. Isabelle, who is such a city girl it's not even funny, flails around everywhere. Finally, we get her into the canoe and begin rowing. Since Isabelle is "delicate" (yeah right), she sits in the middle while Phineas and I are on the front and back, respectively. Isabelle fans herself with her hand and throws sweet glances at Phineas but daggers in my direction as we paddle across the lake. Coming to a stop, Emily calls to us, "Where do you fancy going?" "How about to that island?" I call back. Emily nods and begins paddling like mad. The island that I'm referring to is fairly large, large enough for us to get lost in, but not large enough to really be an official island. When we reach it, tired from all the rowing, we tie the canoes to a few trees close to shore and adventure into the jungle-esque depths. The trees block out most of the sun, and, I realize, they are arranged like a maze. I grab Phineas's hand and run as far away from Isabelle as possible. I hear the cracking of twigs and the thump of footsteps and assume that Ferb and Emily are doing the same. When we reach a stopping point, we sit there, underneath the gold and green light coming from the trees. "This is so cool," says Phineas. "Why haven't I thought of this before?" "Who knows?" I reply. "With that big brain of yours in there, you should have." Phineas blushes and moves a little closer to me. My imagination goes into overdrive until Isabelle finds us and sits herself right down with us. "Come on," she complains. "Let's go back, I'm getting sunburnt." Phineas sighs. "Fine." We almost get back when Isabelle spots a horsefly on herself and freaks out. This time I can't really blame her for freaking out, because those little buggers hurt. But my sympathy is limited. She flails around and turns the canoe over. I come up, sopping wet, and shoot a dirty look at Isabelle. "Thanks, Isabelle." "What?" she says. "Not my fault I don't like horseflies." Ferb and Emily spot us and start rowing over. Lucky Emily, she probably got her dream come true while I'm stuck with Isabelle. Just my luck. After a satisfying lunch of mac and cheese, we decide to try our hand at fishing. My mother comes out of the house and looks us straight in the eye. "Now, I don't want to hear of any injuries," she says. "Those hooks are barbed; once they go in, good luck getting them out." There's a twinkle in her eye as she says, "Have fun!" Phineas, Ferb, Emily, and I all cast our lines fine, but Isabelle gets hers caught in a tree. Once that's untangled, we all sit down and don't talk. The silence stretches on and on, until predictably, Isabelle breaks it by catching a fish. "Whoa!" she cries, reeling it in. The thing is huge. It's flipping and flopping around, like all fish do when they get out of water. Instead of putting it back in the water, Isabelle swings around in terror and smacks most of us with the scaly beast. "Hey, hey, hey!" Phineas cries as the fish swings over his head. "Isabelle!" He grabs her fishing pole and puts the poor fish back in the water. It swims away and purposely splashes Isabelle with its tail. Emily giggles. Just then, my mother sticks her head out the window. "My little bobos, it's getting dark, you might want to come in," she calls. Sure enough, the sky is yellow with purply clouds. We walk our way up the path and into the house. Heading into our bedroom, we see that there are Ferris beds &mdash; and one single bed. "Oh, cool!" Emily says, looking at the Ferris bed. She hops on the bottom one and starts swinging around. I hop on the other empty bed and we sit there, revolving. Phineas and Ferb do the same with the other Ferris bed while Isabelle just stands there, then flops onto the single. "Fine," she says, her voice muffled by the pillow. That night, while we're in our revolving beds, a piece of paper flutters down onto my face. I pick it up and read it. It's written in turquoise gel pen, and I realize it's from Emily. Today was a bust, it reads. I grab my pink gel pen and begin to write back. Did Isabelle interrupt you too? ''Yeah. I swear, we were so close, and then she comes and complains about being sunburnt. Sunburnt my foot, we were in shade. What a third wheel. So what happened between you and Phineas?'' ''Nothing. But that gazebo looks inviting. ;) It takes a moment for Emily to write back. When I get the paper back, there's a drawing of her with her eyebrows raised. Next to it, it says Ooh. We need a plan. Yes, we do. I call dibs on the gazebo. You can have the hammock.  Urgh! Do you know how hard those are to get in and out of?  Yes, I do. I'll videotape it. You and Ferb, going in for a smooch, then bam, the thing flips over and you fall out...  Real kind, Isabella. In that case, you and Phineas can be in your cute little gazebo fantasy and I'll come barging in, all, "Hey guys!" Sound like a plan? ;)'' I draw a giraffe. Okay. What's with the giraffe?!

So Emily didn't get her wish. Neither did I, but it makes me feel better to know that she hasn't gotten there either. Not that it's a race or anything, because it's not. The next day dawns bright and sunny, and Isabelle decides she wants us to go on the back of a boat. Like, the little raft things that tow you behind. I half want to go and half don't. My first half gets the better of me and I go. "Awright!" calls the man driving the boat. He's got a wicked Boston accent, but it makes him sound really cool. "Yeh gonnah cling to that raft, okay? If yeh fall off, just yell, okay? We're gonnah go round here and come back. "Now yeh gottah go in twos, so who's first?" He looks at us all. Phineas looks at me. "You want to go?" "Sure," I say. Phineas raises his voice. "We'll go, sir." "Okay!" says the man, pushing the raft with us on it off the end of the boat. I look around at the deep water and shudder slightly. Phineas pats my arm awkwardly. "It's okay," he says. The man revs up the boat and we're off. It's not that bad until we hit a wave and I go flying. "Isabella!" I hear Phineas yell. Now he's talking to the driver. "Hey!" he shouts, then a wave hits him in the mouth and he splutters. "Phineas!" I choke. Through blurred eyes I see Emily tap the driver hard on the shoulder. He stops the boat and turns around. "Are yeh awright there?" Phineas scrabbles onto the raft, then gives me a hand up. "We're okay," he calls. "Well hold on, then," says the driver, amused. "I'll pull yeh in." When we're pulled back in, clinging to the raft, the driver turns to Ferb and Emily. "Would yeh like to go?" Ferb looks absolutely petrified, and Emily says, "Uh &mdash; no thanks..." "Well, awright then," says the driver. "I'll take yeh's back ta shore." Under his breath I hear him mutter, "Wimps." My mother is standing on the dock to greet us when the man pulls up. "How did it go, my little bobos?" "We fell off," I say as the man drives away. "It definitely wasn't fun." "Oh, well, that's too bad. I heard that a man on the other side of the lake shoots off fireworks, so would you like to watch those tonight?" "Sounds like fun, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro," says Isabelle. Suck-up. The sky quickly darkens and we all sit on the big rock near the shore, waiting for the man to shoot off the fireworks. It's silent, completely, dead silent, until a loud bang breaks the silence. Isabelle lets out a little shriek and falls off the rock into the water. I look to my right and see Phineas trying to hold in his laughter. Isabelle climbs on the dock, sopping wet. "Stop laughing," she snaps at Phineas. We sit and watch the fireworks. Eventually the man stops them, but another man a little further down starts shooting his own fireworks off. Phineas stands up and takes my hand, leading me away from Ferb and Emily, who are in their own little world. "Come on," he whispers. I follow him blindly; Phineas by far has better night vision than me. It's not until I see a large figure in our way that I realize we're going to the gazebo. My heart starts pounding a million miles an hour. From here, we have a clear view of the fireworks. The night sky is empty, until a flash of bright blue lights up the night. A screaming firework whizzes upward and explodes into a million little specks of light. Phineas looks at me and then &mdash; ''Crack. Rustle.'' Isabelle appears. "Hey, what's up?"

Isabelle. I can't stand her. Every time, every time, she just has to interrupt. Phineas and I were canoeing one day, leaving the other three on shore, or at least so we thought. Phineas went for it and then Isabelle jumped off the floating dock and sprayed me and Phineas with lake water. "What was that for?" demanded Phineas, wiping his eyes. Another time, Phineas and I were watching one of the spectacular shows that the fireworks man was putting on. (The man &mdash; his name is Mr. Jones &mdash; it transpires, shoots them off every night of the summer. It must be expensive.) Once again, Phineas tried to kiss me and Isabelle came and plopped her stupid self down next to us. She continues to interrupt me and Phineas until our last afternoon. Phineas and I are the last ones in the bedroom; Ferb, Emily, Isabelle, and my mother are all out packing the car. I'm just finishing putting some of my belongings into my bag when I hear Phineas walk over to the door. I expect him to walk out, until I hear a click. He's locked the door. "What are you locking the door for?" I ask. "We're almost leaving." "I know," he says, with one of his cute Phineas smiles. I melt inside. "I just don't want to be interrupted." "That sounds so creepy," I say. But his eyebrows are raised. I sit on my bed to zipper my suitcase and make to get up when he sits on the bed and kisses me. He gets up again, blushes, and hurries out of the room. Finally. Before I walk out the door, I stop in the bathroom and splash water on my face. I can't go outside looking like a tomato. I pat my face dry with a towel, shut off the light, run out the door and lock it. The others are already in the car, waiting for me. "Sorry," I say. "Just had a problem with my zipper, it kept &mdash; sticking." The others nod, but Phineas wiggles his eyebrows and it's all I can do to keep from bursting out giggling. I catch my mother's eyes in the rearview mirror and see what looks like a knowing look. "So," my mother begins as we pull down the rocky drive, "what did you guys think? Did you have fun?" "Yes," Emily squeaks, and Ferb nods, his face magenta. "Yeah, I had a lot of fun," I said, making sure my voice was even. "Thanks, Mom." "Thank you, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro," chorus my friends. I smile and look out the front window. When I get back to my house, it'll be the same old routine again &mdash; get up, eat breakfast, go to Phineas and Ferb's. But since Phineas and Ferb's is in that schedule, I'm confident that that will get me out of my rut. They make every day of summer count.