PnF_Embarrassing Video

Two figures entered the house from the biting cold, one boy and one girl.  Though none would guess it from his height and mannerisms, the young man was much younger than his female companion.  After firmly closing the door behind them, the lad assisted his more than friend out of her black coat.

“Thanks for letting me come over, Ferb,” the woman smiled gratefully as the aforementioned man hung both of their coats on the coat rack.  She then let her hair out of her black beanie, revealing her long brown hair.  It seemed to be unfazed by the cold weather outside.  “That blizzard came out of no where…”

Ferb rose his finger to speak—a habit he’d formed over the years—when a new voice unintentionally interrupted him.

“Ferb, bro!  You home?” a hyper voice called from upstairs.  In a matter of half a second, the new voice was accompanied by the sound of rushed footsteps.  “Isabella and I were working on a new invention, but it has some glitches.  Think maybe you could—oh, hi, Vanessa!” Phineas Flynn stopped his excited plea when he saw the couple standing in the doorway, cold, apparently snowed on, and clearly in the middle of something.

But when does Phineas Flynn ever recognize that?

“So I was saying that Izzy and I—” Phineas was cut off by Ferb’s stare.  The red head almost gulped, but remained persistent.  “It won’t take long, I promise!”

Ferb looked from his love to his brother and back again.  He heaved an extremely small sigh as he reached for her hand.  Realizing the gesture, Vanessa offered a small smile in return.

“It’s okay, I can wait.  I’ll just sit on the couch, okay?” Vanessa offered.  She could see the deep sense of relief and conflict in her boyfriend’s eyes as he brought her hand to his lips and offered the most polite of kisses upon her hand.

No matter how many times he does that, I always feel goose bumps, the girl thought as she watched her boyfriend ascend the stairs with his rapidly talking brother.  Figuring there was nothing better to do, Vanessa made her way to the Flynn-Fletcher living room.  She’d expected maybe Candace, or even Perry—who had finished with her father a short time ago—on the couch.  She did not expect to see Lawrence Fletcher.

“Hello,” Lawrence smiled at her.  Vanessa smiled back.  There was an awful lot of that in this household, but she didn’t mind.  In fact, she liked the homey atmosphere of her boyfriend’s home, and felt privileged to be a part of it.  “I hope you don’t mind that we stole your boyfriend away for a few moments.”

“You planned that?” Vanessa laughed as she walked over and sat on the couch adjacent to where Lawrence was sitting.  He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, an often occurrence when he was up to something or simply had no idea what was going on.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Lawrence answered as he got up and walked over to the television.  He turned it and the VCR player (how many of you remember what those are???) on.  He popped in a tape and grabbed the remote control before retreating back to his chair.  “I’m not sure he’d be taken with me showing you this, but I simply cannot understand why he’d want to hide it.  And given that the holidays are coming up soon, I thought that now would be as splendid a time as any to watch it.”

“What is it?” Vanessa asked, her curiosity peaked.  She wondered what on earth Ferb wouldn’t want her to see.  But if it were his father showing her this, then it couldn’t be too bad, right?  Lawrence chuckled slightly.

“When Ferb was a lad and we were back in England, I signed him up for a talent show,” Lawrence reminisced.  Vanessa’s curiosity nearly doubled as the tape continued to be rewound.  She was barely listening to the one-sided conversation. “…so I had to pick out a song for him to sing and—oh!  Looks like it’s ready.”

Lawrence hit the play button and a shaky frame appeared on the screen.  A younger version of his voice came through the speakers.

“Soon, Franklin Earl Robert Benjamin Fletcher is going to come on the stage…” the tape continued, but Vanessa couldn’t hear it.  Did she just hear that right?

“So, ‘Ferb’s just an acronym?” Vanessa asked Lawrence as the tape continued.  It didn’t look like the show would start soon and the man was already searching for the fast forward button.

“Ah, yes.  He always did enjoy acronyms…  Though I do agree with him that Ferb is probably the coolest acronym of all…” Lawrence finally found the button and pressed it, speeding through about two minutes worth of chatter.  Vanessa silently agreed with the man.  F.E.R.B. was defiantly a much better acronym than O.W.C.A.

“Here we go,” Lawrence announced as he hit the play button once more.  Vanessa sat back and enjoyed the show.

On the screen, a set of red curtains drew back to reveal a three year old Ferb, who looked completely uncomfortable with a bright light shining on just him on the stage.  The three year old had on a suit and green bowtie that matched his slicked back hair perfectly.  His cheeks were red—probably from embarrassment—as some playful music began to start.

(www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK06Sg…   link to song)

Little Ferb’s mouth opened up wide and he began to sing.  As he was singing, the camera zoomed in on his face.  Vanessa noticed he had a tooth missing.

I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are mad
I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas
'Cause I ain't been nuttin' but bad

Vanessa chuckled at this.  She, for the life of her, could not picture Ferb being bad once in his life.  He probably didn’t know how.

I broke my bat on Johnny's head
Somebody snitched on me
I hid a frog in sister's bed
Somebody snitched on me

I spilled some ink on Mommy's rug
I made Tommy eat a bug
Bought some gum with a penny slug
Somebody snitched on me, oh

By now, Vanessa wasn’t sure if she could contain her laughter.  She laughed softly at the cute little song.  By now, the Ferb on screen had begun to do some kind of small three-year-old dance.  It was terribly cute.

I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are mad
I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas
'Cause I ain't been nuttin' but bad

I put a tack on teacher's chair
Somebody snitched on me
I tied a knot in Susie's hair
Somebody snitched on me

I did a dance on Mommy's plants
Climbed a tree and tore my pants
Filled that sugar bowl with ants
Somebody snitched on me

Vanessa watched as three year old Ferb began to hop up and down in time with the song.  When the dancing on the plants came, he got up on his tip toes and danced a cute made up jig on stage.  She giggled at the sweet scene.

I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are mad
I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas
'Cause I ain't been nuttin' but bad

Then, out of no where, four men came out from behind the small Ferb and sang a brief part.

So you better be good, whatever you do
'Cause if you're bad, I'm warning you

Ferb then continued to sing as if he’d never been interrupted.

You'll get nuttin' for Christmas

With a sophisticated three year old turn, Ferb faced the audience with a huge smile on his face.  The audience responded with more than just clapping.  The three year old managed to obtain a standing ovation from the crowd.  The child beamed brightly.

Vanessa giggled and finally peeled her eyes away from the screen.  The sight that awaited her wiped the smile off her face.

Ferb was at the bottom of the stairs, pale-faced and eyes opened in shock.  He wasn’t staring at her, but at the television, where his three year old self was currently taking bows.  She hurriedly stood up, but that attracted his attention.  He turned to her.  His face immediately flushed.

Vanessa walked over to him and gave him a hug, which he gladly returned.  His face was still redder than a tomato.

“It seems as though both of our fathers wish to humiliate us, doesn’t it Vanessa?” Ferb asked quietly.  Vanessa chuckled.

“Yeah…” she agreed, neither of them noticing that Lawrence had turned of the television and had exited the room.  The continued like that for a sweet moment until Vanessa realized something.

“Wait a minute…  what did my dad show you?"  Vanessa asked as she pulled out of the hug.  Ferb shrugged.

“It was a recital you did when you were seven,” Ferb said, obviously thinking nothing of it.  Vanessa blanched.

“He is so busted…” she whispered as Ferb chuckled.  He drew her into another embrace.  As she melted, the thought of busting her father for showing her boyfriend the most embarrassing recital of all time slowly slipped away.

…/…/…/…/

“I can’t believe we were able to keep him pinned for three minutes!” Phineas laughed alongside his best friend.  They relived their moments of keeping the Britt pinned in the room and laughed all the harder.

“What was so bad that he had to get out of here?” Isabella asked between regaining her breath.  She held her side from how hard she’d been laughing.

“Just a talent show that happened back in England,” Phineas waved it off as Isabella’s phone vibrated.  Without missing a beat, she picked it up and read the incoming text.

To:  Isabella
From:  Linda
Hey, Isabella.  Found some old videos of Phineas going thru the store.  Mind watching them w/me?  

“Who was that from?” Phineas asked as he tried to peek over Isabella’s shoulder.  Isabella, feeling a twisted form of irony, answered the text while replying to her friend.

“It was nothing,” Isabella answered smoothly as she pocketed her phone.  She smiled at her sent message.  Tomorrow was going to be a fun day.