Wild Surprise
Page 4
“Wait a minute!” she exclaimed as an idea popped into her head. Why hadn’t she thought of this before? “I can still give Mom the one thing that the boys can’t. The gift of music. Played on my friend, the bass.”
She grabbed her trusty bass guitar and began playing the song she’d written for her mother. But before she got out the second note, Dr. D’s shrinking ray penetrated her house and hit her bass guitar.
That’s bass. An instrument that starts with b.
It shrank down to a speck and disappeared.
Candace looked down at her empty hands in confusion. “Oh, well.” She shrugged and grabbed another instrument from her collection. “It’s a good thing I play the banjo!”
As she touched it, so did the shrinking ray—it disappeared.
Candace grabbed for another instrument. “It’s a good thing I play the bassoon.”
That disappeared, too.
“It’s a good thing I play the bugle!”
It vanished into thin air.
“It’s a good thing I play the bongos!”
Gone.
“It’s a good thing I play the balalaika!” Candace was getting desperate. She held tight . . . but not tight enough.
“It’s a good thing I play the bagpipes—”
They were gone before she even got the words out. And that was her very last instrument. Candace felt like a popped balloon: totally deflated. She sighed. “I should’ve manned the omelet station.”
* * *
Dr. Doofenshmirtz leaped onto the top of the sphere, but Perry was hot on his tail. They chased each other around and around, but it was no use. They were too evenly matched.
Suddenly, they heard a familiar robotic voice. “A house divided cannot stand.” It was the robot Abraham Lincoln. He was back—and he wasn’t alone!
“Yeah, what he said,” robot George Washington agreed.
The heat had melted the wax, but when it cooled the two robots had fused into one. Now there was one angry robot with two very angry heads.
The two-headed robot climbed into the cherry-picker bucket and raised itself level with Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry.
Dr. Doofenshmirtz cackled with glee. “Oh, Perry the Platypus, you melted their wax, but you can never melt what’s inside: pure evil.”
The robot jumped onto the sphere—and crashed through the thin metal surface. It plummeted down, smashing the power source at the heart of the device.
KABOOOOOOM!
The Shrink Spheria exploded!
Perry and Dr. Doofenshmirtz shot straight up into the air, blown sky-high by the force of the explosion. “I should’ve seen that coming,” Dr. Doofenshmirtz groaned.
Perry, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and the two-headed robot rocketed up and up and up. But what goes up must come down—and they were all going to come down hard.
All of them, that is, except for Perry. He tugged a cord and released his hidden parachute, waving good-bye as he gently floated away from Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his evil robot.
“Curse you, Perry the Platypus!” the madman shouted as he plummeted toward the earth.
Perry smirked. Mission accomplished.
Chapter 6
The birthday breakfast had gone splat.
The card had been torn into a million pieces.
The cute little sundress was moth food.
And the birthday song was a total bust.
Candace realized it was over. She was out of ideas and out of options. There was nothing left to do but give up.
She forced herself to go back outside. The fashion show was over. But there was still a crowd of people sitting in the grass, staring up at the huge, blank screen that hung over the empty stage.
“Candace, honey, come join us,” Linda urged. She was kneeling on a picnic blanket with Phineas and Ferb. “The boys have put together a little video.”
Candace trudged over to join her brothers. She had to admit it: Phineas and Ferb had given their mom the greatest birthday ever.
“Here, you can do the honors.” Phineas handed her a remote control.
“Fine. Whatever.” Candace hit PLAY.
The giant screen flickered to life. “Happy birthday, Mom,” Phineas’s voice-over said. “From birth to young adult to mid-sized adult, from the ’80s to the ’90s, Mom enchants everyone she meets.” Even Candace couldn’t help smiling at the photos—there was Mom as a baby, Mom in ’80s workout gear, Mom in ’90s grunge. It was so weird to see Mom as anything but . . . well, Mom.
“But who is this person we call Mom?” the voice-over asked. “A true testament to what a great mom you are is that your daughter would take the time to write . . . this song.”
What? Candace’s eyes widened. That was her up on the screen, singing the song she’d written. Phineas and Ferb must have filmed her that morning while she was rehearsing.
“Mom, it’s your birthday,” the on-screen Candace sang.
“Nice song, Sis,” Phineas murmured.
Candace blushed. But she had to admit she sounded pretty good.
“Thanks for all the care and love you give.
Not to mention the meals.
Sometimes I get kinda nervous,
And forget to tell you how I feel.”
“Come on,” Phineas said, tugging his sister toward the stage.
Candace felt a little weird singing in front of all those people—but after all, this was her song. Her birthday surprise. She grabbed a microphone and started singing along with herself.
And it felt great.
“‘I’m a little high-strung,’” she sang.
“‘It’s just because I’m young.
“‘Mom, I adore ya,
“‘And I’ll do anything for ya.’”
Phineas had set up his DJ equipment at the edge of the stage. He sat down at his console and began scratching some records along with the music, while Ferb took over on drums. Even Isabella’s Fireside Girls left the audience to climb onstage and get in the act as backup singers.
“‘Although my brothers make me frantic,’” Candace sang, throwing everything she had into the music.
“‘With every single crazy antic.
And when I’m bouncing off the walls,
You’re the one who stays calm.’”
“‘You’re the one who stays calm,’” Phineas and Ferb chimed in.
“‘Because you love me for who I am,’” Candace finished, “‘I’ll always love you, Mom.’”
They got a standing ovation. And, for once, Candace didn’t mind sharing the spotlight. She finally understood that it didn’t matter whose present was the best, as long as their mom was happy.
And Linda had never looked happier. “What a beautiful song, honey,” Linda said, wiping away a tear.
Candace beamed. “Well, I really wanted you to have a happy birth—”
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Phineas cut in. He grabbed his mom and tugged her toward a big-screen TV sitting at the other end of the yard. “We set up a satellite uplink with Dad.”
“Ooh, a satellite uplink!” she squealed.
Candace was forgotten all over again. But this time, she didn’t mind. Because Candace just wanted her mom to have the best birthday ever, and that meant getting to spend time with the whole family. She just wished that she had thought of the satellite hookup.
But since she hadn’t, she was glad that Phineas and Ferb had. Candace hated to admit it, but sometimes her brothers were actually kind of useful to have around.
Candace’s stepdad appeared on the screen. “Hello, love,” he said, waving at his wife. “Happy birthday.”
“Hi, honey,” she said eagerly. “I miss you. And you’re missing the festivities. The boys threw me the greatest party, and Candace wrote me this really amazing song. Can you hear me?”
As Candace watched her mother chatter away about all the birthday excitement, Perry the Platypus came up to join her.
“Oh, hey, Perry. Where’ve you been?” She was in such a good mood that s
he was almost glad to see him. “You missed all the fun.”
Of course, Perry didn’t say anything. Agent P was back in disguise as a dumb pet platypus. And he would stay that way . . . until the next time he was needed to save the world.
Or at least the tri-state area.
Don’t miss the fun in the next
Phineas & Ferb book . . .
Adapted by Kitty Richards
Based on the series created by Dan Povenmire & Jeff “Swampy” Marsh
Candace sat in her pink bedroom, a banana to her ear, as she pretended to call her not-so-secret crush, Jeremy Johnson. “Hello,” she began, “is this the Johnson residence? I’d like to speak to Jeremy Johnson.” She smiled. “This is Candace Flynn. Why am I calling, you ask?” She referred to her open notebook, which listed several reasons for calling. She chose one. “Because I have a question about our algebra assignment. Thank you, I’ll hold.” She frantically flipped through her notebook. Okay, okay. Let’s see . . . opening jokes, opening jokes . . . “Hey-ah, Jeremy. This is Candace Flynn. So, what do you get when you cross a yak and a Martian?”
Just then, her bedroom door opened with a squeak. “Honey,” said a voice, “could I interrupt for just a sec?”
“Why, Jeremy Johnson,” Candace said in a teasing voice, “did you just call me honey?” Suddenly her eyes widened in surprise. She realized that her mom was standing in her doorway!
“No, Candace,” answered her mother, “I just wanted to tell you I’m off to my book club. I left a phone number on the fridge in case of an emergency. And, Candace, honey?”
“Yes, Mom?” asked Candace.
“I hope you’re not planning on talking to that banana all afternoon,” her mom said with a smile as she headed out the door.