Finding Dad (Chapter 5)



~Isabella~

We step off the plane into a gate that looked a lot like the one we got in from. Since we have no luggage to collect, we head to see if we can get a ride to the Quarter. New Orleans is a beautiful city, the lights are all on, and the city itself seems to be awake. We step outside the airport, which isn't terribly big. "From here, it's about a 20 minute drive to the French Quarter," Phineas tells me. And he would know, he's been here before. We chance across a bus outside of the airport and board. The driver is much less disgusting than the one before, and smiles at us and says, "I reckon you wanna go to the Quarter," he says. "Of course we do!" I cheerfully respond. "Gimme 16 and we got a deal," Phineas hands him $16 and we board the bus. The bus is sorta shady looking, so once we sit down, I lean into him some because I'm a little scared. Strangely, there aren't many people on the bus. There is a creepy looking old man sitting towards the back, though, and I can almost feel his eyes in the back of my head. "Phineas," I whisper, "that old guy back there is creeping me out." Phineas casually looks back at the guy. He says, "Like I said before, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." The bus starts moving, and the roads here are really bumpy. At home, I never notice the bumps in the road, but here the road bumps every 2 seconds. The creepy guy has somehow moved to the seat beside Phineas and I. Phineas puts his arm around me and whispers, "I won't let him hurt you, I won't let him hurt you." I suddenly remembered what Ferb told me before we left, that tweenage girls alone in big cities don't get along. Without Phineas, and it scares me to think about this possibility, but I probably would have been raped, or kissed against my will. My first kiss is gonna be with Phineas, and no one is gonna change that! And speaking of Phineas, he is amazing on this trip. He is just calm, putting up with my spastic fears and creepy stalkers I've managed to pick up. I truly believe him when he says he's not gonna let anyone hurt me. "Thank you, Phineas," I tell him. "For what?" he asks. "Everything." He blushes. "No problem, Izzy." I just remembered that I should text Mom, because the plane landed and all. I turn on my phone, and I actually have two texts: one from Mom that says, "Okay niña, have a safe flight!" and one from Ferb of all people saying, "Be careful, Isabella. Don't do anything that calls too much attention to you. Trust Phineas, he won't let anything happen to you." Ferb is so sweet! So first, I send a text to Ferb that says, "Phineas is great. And you were right, I'll be careful. I'll tell you about it when we get home. I miss you." Then I text Mom, "We landed and we're fine. We're in the city, and we'll begin searching the Quarter. I love and miss you." Before he can say anything, I take his phone from him. He has 30 missed calls. "What?" he says. "Nothing, just that your mom calls a lot." The bus stops and I see a beautiful garden in front of me. "Jackson Square," Phineas explains. "First, we should probably try to secure a hotel, and then we can just hit the Quarter. It's something I've always wanted to do with you and Ferb. Well, Ferb's not here, but you get the point," he says. The Quarter is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Everywhere you look, there's someone playing the saxophone, or a forty-story building, or a restaurant that cooks local food. Phineas leads me towards one of the huge buildings, a Sheraton on Canal Street. The lobby is just huge. Gold paint covers every inch of the wall, there are escalators and elevators, and even bellhops! I've never been in a place as nice as this. We walk up to the check-in counter. "Can this lovely lady and I get a room for the next three nights?" Phineas asks, trying to be smooth. But, when he realizes what he said, his face goes bright red. "NO! THAT'S NOT AT ALL WHAT I MEANT!!" he blurts. I can't help it, I double over laughing. Seriously, for the next five minutes, I'm crying I'm laughing so hard. By the time I finish, Phineas and the check-in lady are laughing about it, too. "We do have a room for you two, with two beds," she says, which makes me start laughing all over again. "I think we'll be okay with that," Phineas says through laughter. The lady smiles and says, "That'll be $285, for all three nights." Phineas hands her the money, and the lady hands Phineas the key. I see that the room number is 3617, meaning we're on the 36th floor! I hope my fear of heights doesn't kick in!

~Phineas~

This sounds ridiculous, but the way the elevators here work amazes me. I've never seen any one of these kinds before! Instead of going up to an elevator and pressing the arrow, you go up to this keypad and type in the floor number, and it assigns a letter-coded elevator! "Isabella, would you do the honors?" I ask. She giggles and types in 36. Almost instantly, an elevator appears in front of us. We step inside and the doors close. And first of all, I noticed it only has the emergency call, open, and close buttons! It's one of those elevators that you can see the outside on, which I love! However, I remember that I'm with Isabella, who is afraid of heights. I say, "Just close your eyes, and it won't feel like we're so high up." She closes her eyes and instantly relaxes. How do I always know what to say to calm her down? I, on the other hand, am really enjoying the view. You can see everything from here! We reach our floor and find our room. Good Lord, it's a nice room. Isabella runs towards the bed closest to the door and flops on it. "Mine!" she calls, her voice slightly muffled from her face being buried in the bed. "Fine with me," I say. Then I notice it. "Izzy! Look!" I say, and she looks up. We're looking at a 60 inch HDTV. We just stare at it. "This is ours?" Izzy says doubtfully. "Has to be, unless they're just messing with us," I respond. "A room's a room," I continue, "but let's go check out the Quarter!" We head back to the lobby and out the door. We act like complete tourists. We go to Café du Monde, where we eat beignets and get in a powdered sugar fight. Then, we try to get other kids in the café involved, but we're just kicked out by the Vietnamese workers. We just take that in stride, and go back to Jackson Square, where we arrived. There are many statues in the park, and we crack each other up by posing like them. We keep heading down the street to Hard Rock Café, where we don't eat; we just sit at a table and enjoy the atmosphere. Hard Rock is an awesome place to anyone who likes music. Dishes are named after rock legends, whose pictures are all over the walls. "Just to think, we could be on this wall. After all, we were one hit wonders!" Isabella points out. I just look at her and our eyes widen. At the same time, we get up and decide to look for us on the walls. "You take that way, I'll take this way. We'll text each other if we see anything!" I say. After a few minutes, I feel my phone vibrate. Without even reading the message, I go to where Isabella headed. She sees me and waves me over. "Phineas! It's us!" she screams. Sure enough, there is a picture of Phineas and the Ferb Tones, along with the Ferbettes, and a paragraph about our one hit wonder. "You're Phineas? Of Phineas and the Ferb Tones?" a waitress asks us. "You tell me," I respond. She looks at the picture and back to me, then squeals. "You are! And this must be the girl you wrote your song about!" Isabella just blushes. "Could be," I say. This causes her to smile like an idiot. "I'm Isabella, and I was a Ferbette," she explains to the waitress. "Your dinner is on me!" she exclaims. Free dinner? I'll take it! Dinner goes by like a blur. I said things, Isabella said things, the waitress appeared periodically and says things. All I can think about is how wonderful it is to be here, with Isabella. She says, "Phineas, it's really cold in here." Without thinking, I move to her side of the table and put my arm around her. I'm not exactly sure how much it helps, but this works for me. I think about how I didn't notice how I felt until now, and I conclude that it was because I was always busy with something. I was so busy every day, that I couldn't even recognize my own feelings. I always was a little nervous around Isabella, but I concluded that to the fact that she was a girl in general, and I always want to make sure I don't accidentally insult her or something. I never really thought that I liked her. But I do. Having her against me now, and the way it makes me feel all… happy inside, for lack of a better word; it just confirms that I like her. "Phineas?" Isabella asks. "You okay there? You seem…lost in your thoughts." "I was, but I'm fine now," I stutter quickly. Since the fangirl waitress paid for our dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel. Words cannot describe how tired I am, and it just hits me now, as we enter the room. I literally just crash on the bed. "Izzy, I think imma go to sleep," I mumble. "That's cool, Phineas. I'm gonna get a shower and attempt to wash my clothes. I feel so gross; it's been like two days!" "Okay, Izzy," I say, and then I'm out.