| abstract
| - "Did you hear?" Phineas asks me as we walk down his street. I'm on one side of him and Ferb is on the other. "No," I say. "We're getting a new kid today." "Boy or girl?" Ferb asks. "Boy," Phineas says. "His name starts with a J... it's an odd name, though." "Hmm," I say as we walk in to class. "You're late," smiles Ms. Tarchi. I swear she's half-dolphin or something, because she never stops smiling. She's standing next to a boy wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans with black hair and blue eyes. He's actually kind of cute. "This is Jhonen Rodriguez, class," Ms. Tarchi says, patting him on the head like he's her pet or something. He scowls slightly. "I hope you will all welcome him. Jhonen, you can take a seat next to Isabella." She points to the empty desk next to me. Jhonen sits down, cringing at Ms. Tarchi's creepy smile the whole way. Jhonen, I think. Where have I heard that name before? A dark-haired girl follows him in. She's thin and wearing thick eyeliner and a tank top that says "Z?" on it. Ms. Tarchi says, "Oh, hello, Karlie. Come have a seat." She ignores Ms. Tarchi and takes a seat way in the back, in the corner opposite Lyn. We have gotten way too many creepy new kids this year it's not even funny. "So anyway," Ms. Tarchi says, continuing with her speech about density. A couple hours of torture later we're released into lunch. Trying to be nice, I ask Jhonen to sit with us. "Sure," he says, "but can Karlie come too? Mom told me not to leave her behind on our first day." "Okay," I say. Then the end of his sentence sinks in. "Mom?" "Karlie's my little sister," Jhonen says as we sit at Phineas and Ferb's regular table. It's packed like it normally is; the list of people sitting there is pretty long. We have...
* Buford and Baljeet
* Irving
* The Fireside Girls
* Occasionally Isabelle, if she's in a "I-wanna-smother-Phineas" kind of mood
* Honey and Emily
* Blythe ...not to mention Phineas, Ferb, and I. Adding Jhonen and Karlie would stretch us to sixteen, because Isabelle is sitting with Isabel and Kenzie. But I'm not about to deny Jhonen and Karlie a place to sit, especially since it is their first day. So I let Karlie take my spot next to Phineas (I guess I can deal without him for a day) and go to sit with Jhonen. The first thing I learn about Jhonen is that he totally likes to talk. A lot. We get to know each other, and he seems like a nice kid. He tells me about how he's in a band with his sister, about his dog, Padfoot (apparently he's a Harry Potter fan), and loads of other stuff. In return, I tell him about Pinky and Phineas and Ferb building things every day during the summer. "Is that really all true?" he asks as I finish recounting the events of the summer solstice. "One hundred percent," I tell him. "Even the part with the bathing suit?" "Yep." "I don't believe you," he says, smiling and poking me in the arm. "It's true," I say. "His name's Klimpaloon." "That is too funny," he says, taking a bite of his sandwich. The bell rings and the kids begin pouring outside for recess. "Is it time to leave?" Jhonen asks. "No," I say. "It's time for recess." "You still have that?" "Yeah. Why wouldn't we?" "My old school didn't have recess," he says as we walk outside. "They stopped giving us recess a long time ago." "Weird," I say, shivering slightly. It's been getting colder and colder out lately, and I forgot to bring a jacket. Jhonen notices this and says, "Do you want to borrow my hoodie, Isabella?" I think for a split second what Phineas would think if he saw me in Jhonen's sweatshirt; then the cold overtakes me and I accept it gratefully from him. "Thanks," I say. "No problem." We join Phineas, Ferb, and the twelve other people we always hang out with. Phineas looks at me oddly for a minute, then shakes his head and starts talking to everyone like usual. Recess flies by, and before I know it it's time to go home. Phineas and Ferb leave early and so I can't catch them on their way out. My only option is to walk home alone. Cue the sad music. I start my walk home (alone) and Jhonen runs up to me. "Hey, Isabella!" "Hey, Jhonen." "Where're Phineas and Ferb?" he asks me. "They left early," I said. "I'm walking home alone." "You shouldn't walk these streets alone," he says. "Lots of bad guys out there. Scratchy-voiced German-accented bad guys." I giggle. "Okay, yeah, you can walk me home. I get it." We start the walk back to Maple Drive. It turns out he lives on Black Brook Road (along with almost everyone else I know) and so he's right down the street. I stop in front of my house. "Well, this is my house." "Don't say that," he warns jokingly. "I'll have to stalk you." I smile. "See you tomorrow, Jhonen." It's not until I get in the house and begin my homework when my mom asks me where I got the black sweatshirt and I realize I never gave Jhonen back his sweatshirt. She begins to question me. "Whose sweatshirt is that?" "Jhonen's." "Johnny who?" "Jhonen, Mama. He's just a boy at school." "Mhm, 'just a boy'," my mother says, barely supressing her grin. "Whatever you say." This irks me beyond belief. Does she think I like Jhonen? Do I like Jhonen? I thought I liked Phineas. Is it possible to like two boys at once? I'm still pondering this the next day when I start walking to school. Phineas looks at me oddly again. "So did you buy a new sweatshirt or something?" I look down and see I'm wearing Jhonen's sweatshirt. I don't even really remember putting it on. Must have been a force of habit. "Oh, no, it's Jhonen's," I say, trying to make sure I don't sound guilty. I'm not guilty. I'm not. "Okay," Phineas says, and I swear I catch a hint of jealousy in his voice. Jealousy? Since when is Phineas jealous? This isn't like him. It's just so out of character. We get to school and the day passes normally. It's a bit warmer today, and I give Jhonen back his sweatshirt. Must make it up to Phineas. I spend the day practically glued to his side and half expect him to ask me why I'm being so clingy. But he doesn't; he actually seems to enjoy the attention. Boys are strange creatures. I walk home with Phineas for the rest of the week. Just Phineas. Ferb is off with Emily or something. On Friday he hugs me goodbye. That's right. He hugged me! I float on air for most of Saturday until a call drops me back to earth. I look at the caller ID. Rodriguez, Carlos. It must be Jhonen. "Hello?" "Isabella?" Jhonen's voice says. "Hi, Jhonen." "Yeah... look, Karlie told me that we have a project coming up on Monday, and Ms. Tarchi is letting us pick our own partners —" "How does Karlie know this?" I ask. "She has her ways," Jhonen says mysteriously. "Anyway, I was wondering... do you want to be partners?" I don't respond for a minute. Images of Phineas and Jhonen are rushing through my mind. Phineas or Jhonen? It's like asking whether I want to survive on only food or only water; I need both. "Can I call you back?" I ask. "Oh, yeah, sure," he says hastily. "Fine." I hear a click and I place the phone on the bed. Just then, Isabelle and Honey appear in front of me. "Hey! I'm your conscience!" Honey says. "Let me guess. Isabelle's my bad conscience, and you're my good?" "You bet," says Isabelle. "Look, I say go with this Jhonen kid. He's hot." "But you should be with Phineas," says Honey. "You're destined to be together." "Nuh-uh!" says Isabelle. "Jhonen!" "Phineas!" "Jhonen!" "Phineas!" "Would you two be quiet?" I ask. "You're so confusing. Go away, please." It doesn't sound as harsh as it does written out. They disappear and I pick up the phone and dial Jhonen again. "Sure, I'd love to work on that project together." "Well, uh, great," he says, and I can hear him smiling over the phone. It sounds weird, but it is possible to tell from someone's voice when they're smiling. "Sounds great." "Sounds great," I echo, hanging up. I hug Pinky to my chest and can't wait for Monday to roll around. It does, and with it comes zero awkwardness. Phineas pairs off with Ferb for the project, and so I can go with Jhonen without feeling guilty. I love not feeling guilty. Unfortunately, the project requires a lot of work. It's a choose-your-own project, but with a huge, gigantic, ginormous report afterward. Ms. Tarchi guides us through the lab we're doing today in class step-by-step, so stupidly as if we were kindergarteners. "Pick up your first. Graduated. Cylinder," she says. "Now pour 1. mL. Of water. Into the. Cylinder." "My goodness, can she go any slower?" I mutter. "No, she'd be going backward," says Jhonen. That strikes me as funny, and I spill the water everywhere. "Oh my gosh!" I cry, turning red and causing most of the class's heads to turn towards me. I hear Lyn murmur, "Stupid humans," as I hurriedly attempt to wipe up the water. Jhonen smiles, takes the rag from me, and cleans up the mess really fast. "Sorry," says Jhonen, grinning. "I won't tell jokes when we're working with liquids, okay?" "It's in the instruction manual," I say. "You should have read it." Ms. Tarchi dismisses us to go home. I am never, ever, ever going to be able to finish this report unless I work every day on it. Jhonen is apparently thinking the same thing, and says, "Would you like to come to my house to work on the report?" "Sure," I say, relieved that I don't have to do it alone. "We can share it over Google Docs and proofread it." "Oh, no, not Google Docs," Jhonen says, putting up his hands as we get to my house. "The school spelled my name wrong when they made my account and it's now 'johnen.rodriguez'. Please don't make me go through that." "Okay," I say, walking up my porch stairs and dropping my bag on the porch. "Let me just get my laptop and I'll be over." He waits outside while I yell for my mom and tell her I'm going to Jhonen's to work on the report. She replies, "That better be the only thing you do!" I blush and hope that Jhonen didn't hear that. Lately I've really been thinking about Phineas. And... you know... kissing him. I grab my laptop and walk outside, slinging my bag over my shoulder and looking up at the dark gray sky. "Let's go." Mrs. Rodriguez is a round, smiling black-haired woman with a thick Spanish accent who greets us at the door with an hola and a snack. "She can barely speak English," Jhonen explains, then turns to his mother and says in Spanish that we're going to work on our reports. She smiles, kisses him on the forehead, and waves us upstairs. As we walk up the stairs, Jhonen is red-faced and rubbing his forehead. "I can't believe she kissed me on the forehead." "I think it's sweet that you let your mom kiss you on the forehead." I immediately think that this is what Phineas does too, but then I push it out of my mind. Must. Finish. Science. Report. I flip open my laptop and begin typing my report. After about twenty minutes Jhonen asks to proofread. "You've finished your rough draft?" I ask. "I've only typed my name." He laughs. "Real funny." I look at him. "No, seriously." "Really?" he asks. "Let me see." He comes and sits next to me, and he's wearing the same sweatshirt he let me borrow, and he smells nice, like... EEK! Think of Phineas, think of Phineas! Once he sees that I honestly have only written my name, he says, "Well, we'll perform a little experiment of our own." He picks up the empty Dr. Pepper that he had been drinking and motions for me to follow him. "Come on." I follow him out of his room and down into his kitchen, where he pours a little water into the can and puts it on a hot plate. He then gathers a lot of ice, puts it in a bowl, and fills the bowl with water. I start to hear a rattling from the can as he's getting pinchers from a drawer. "Uh, Jhonen?" "Yes?" "Is it supposed to be doing that?" "Yes," he says. "It's the water boiling." He puts his hand over the can, testing the heat, then picks up the pinchers, grips the can, and flips it into the bowl of ice water. The can crushes in on itself. "See that?" he asks, then begins to explain why the can crushed in on itself. By the time he's done I understand so much more! I follow him back upstairs and pick up my laptop. I finish the report in under five minutes and show it to Jhonen. "Isabella, this is awesome," he says, scrolling back up to the top of the document. "Totally awesome." I hear a rattling against the window. It has begun to rain out. Perfect, I'll get soaked walking back home. And this isn't just any misty drizzle, I'm talking full-on hurricane weather. Lightning flashes, followed by a thunderclap. "That sounds ominous," Jhonen says. "I bet Karlie's out in it right now, taking pictures of herself. She likes the way the water makes her eyeliner run. She says it looks dramatic. I say she looks like a raccoon." I can't help but agree with Jhonen. Just then, Mrs. Rodriguez's voice floats up the stairs. "Jhonen, have you seen Karlie?" "Check outside," he calls back. I hear her footsteps walk away, and look out the window. "I'm going to look like I jumped in a pool by the time I get home." When we get downstairs, a sopping wet Karlie is sitting in the living room, looking over the pictures she took in the rain. Jhonen tells his mom that he's going to walk me home and take the umbrella, but she shushes him. "You can't take the umbrella," she says. "What if lightning strikes it? It's metal." "Abuelo got struck by lightning and survived," Jhonen points out. "You're not Abuelo," his mom says, turning away. "Now walk your novia home and be done with it." "Mom, she speaks Spanish too," Jhonen says through gritted teeth, but I smile a little, even though I know how aggravating mothers can be sometimes. I say goodbye to them and Jhonen and I walk out the door. I shiver violently as the wind whips my face with little needles of rain. Jhonen unzips his sweatshirt and hugs me to his side, shielding me partially from the rain, and partially is better than nothing. The sky flashes followed by a large thunderclap. I try to wipe the rain off my face and out of my eyes so I can see where I'm going. After a few more minutes, we make it to in front of my house. The wind whips my hair around and as I reach to push it out of my face, the weirdest thing happens. I duck out from under Jhonen's sweatshirt so as to make a run for the door. Jhonen catches me by the arm, pushes a lock of wet hair out of my face, and kisses me. No, no, no! the Honey in my brain screams. You like Phineas! Phineas! Not Jhonen! I win, Brit chick! the Isabelle taunts. Jhonen pulls back, and as I look at him, I don't see the creepy new kid I saw on his first day of school. I see an actual friend — un novio? — underneath the black hair. We stand there, staring at each other for a minute, then I hug him and hurry into my house, soaking wet. I run up into my room, change into my pajamas, and look out the rain-splattered window, where I see the black blurry smudge that is Jhonen, running through the storm to get home. I lie back on my bed and think of him, the look in his eyes right after he kissed me. And then I imagine Phineas's face, and fear hits me. Did Phineas see that? He does live across the street, you know. He could have seen from a window. Oh, no. The thing is, I don't know if he did see me with Jhonen. The next day at school, where it's still rainy as ever, I'm jumpy around Phineas and — dare I say it? — kind of giggly around Jhonen. And every time Phineas goes to ask me a question, I immediately get scared. Yeah, he's starting to get a bit suspicious. I seriously need to sort out my feelings for Phineas and Jhonen. So I do. When I get home, I pull up a Word document and begin to type. Why do I like Phineas? -He's nice. Nice boys are hard to come by these days. -He's Phineas. There's no other way to explain it. This isn't working out as well as I had hoped. I can't exactly list much for Phineas, but I could keep going on with my list for Jhonen for ages. I'm completely serious, too. As soon as my head hits the pillow that night, I begin to think about Jhonen. Jhonen, Jhonen, Jhonen. I can't stop replaying yesterday afternoon. The rain pounds against the window as I toss and turn, my mind occupied by thoughts of Phineas and Jhonen. The next morning I wake up from the bizarrest dream in which I kissed Phineas, who morphed into Jhonen, who flipped a soda can into a bowl of ice water. Confused? Me too. The rain has finally stopped and is down to a light mist. I walk to school alone. I'm afraid that if I walk with Phineas, I'll blurt out the fact that I kissed Jhonen. Speaking of Jhonen, he comes running down the hill, his black hair flying, and my heart flips over. "Hey," he says when he catches up to me. "What's up?" "Coldness," I say, shivering. I misplaced my stupid jacket again. And then I wonder, did I do it purposely so that I could use Jhonen's sweatshirt? "Ah, of course." He takes off the sweatshirt and hands it to me. It's still warm and it still smells like him. I zip it up and we walk to school together. We don't say anything. We don't need to. When we get to school, my Phineas radar kicks in — but nothing's coming up. I find Ferb and ask him where he is. "He's sick," Ferb says. "The other day when it was raining, he stayed out too long and got a cold." "Oh, that's too bad," I say. "Did he see me?" "Not that I know of." "Well, good." I walk inside the school and sit at my desk. I'm way too early, but I don't really care. I'm confused. I'm concerned about Phineas, but I also kindasorta don't care that much. Does that make me a bad person? The rest of the class files in about five minutes later, and that's when I remember I sit next to Jhonen. He 'drops' his pencil and tosses a note onto the floor while picking it up. Do you want to go out? it reads. Well, I think, you've already kissed me and let me borrow your sweatshirt. Uh, duh! I take out a pen and scribble a reply. Sure. My pen hovers over what I've just written, and for a moment I consider just tearing up the note and not giving it to him, because of Phineas and everything. And then, before I can get even deeper into indescision, I toss my pen nonchalantly onto the floor and wait for him to pick up the note. He smiles and looks at me, and I should be happy too. But I'm also kind of unsure because of, of course, Phineas. And then I think that Jhonen and I act like we're going out, so we might as well. And then I think — "Isabella and Jhonen, are you passing notes?" Jhonen hastily crumples the piece of paper. "No." "It sure seems like it," Ms. Tarchi says. "I know you two love each other, but please pay attention. You both have a warning." Jhonen writes something on the inside of his notebook and tilts it slightly toward me. Sorry, it says. His handwriting is almost as neat as Phineas's, and I feel a pang of regret/sadness. No problem, I write on my notebook. Ms. Tarchi gives me a look and continues on with her lesson. Later in class, Ms. Tarchi announces that we're going to have a talent show thing. She also says that it's mandatory for everyone and she's pairing us up together. You can probably guess what happens next: she pairs me with Phineas. The next day Phineas is back, but he's looking a little pale. "Are you okay?" I ask him. "Yeah," he says, rubbing his eyes and smiling weakly. "Just tired." We begin planning to somehow talk Candace into coming in and singing with us. As I'm seriously doubting she's going to do this, Phineas asks me a question out of nowhere. "Do you like Jhonen?" It takes me aback. "Well — yeah... but he's not the only person I like." "Oh, really?" he says, looking at me, smiling, and wiggling his eyebrows. "Yeah." "Then who is this other person? Do I know him?" "Possibly." "Is this going to be a game of twenty questions?" "Yes." "Okay." He puts his hand to his chin. "Um... what's his name start with?" "P." His eyes widen, and I nod. "Yep." Just then, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and see Jhonen. "Hey, Isabella," he says. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" "Sure," I say, getting up and following him. "Isabella..." he starts. "Yeah?" "Do you think we could be just friends?" Coming from anyone else, this would have broken my heart. In the whole "your-dog's-dead-but-you-can-keep-it" kind of way. But I can tell from the look in his eyes that he seriously does want to stay friends, and we can put the past behind us. "It's just — I got paired up with this girl in the other class, Devi," he says, "and she's really nice. Isabella, I think I like her." "Go for her," I say. "I'll survive." "You sure?" he jokes. "Yep." I sit back down at the table, and Phineas looks at me. "So things are done with Jhonen?" "Yep," I say, pulling out my cell phone. "Now let's see if Candace wants to come sing with us."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)