| abstract | - "Honey," my mother calls. "You've a phone call." I pick up the phone that resides in my room. "Hello?" "Hi," says a soft voice on the other end. I know that voice. Ferb. "It's me, Ferb." "What's up?" I ask, sitting by the windowsill. The window is encrusted with frost and snow is swirling around outside like I'm in a snowglobe. I don't notice how cold it is by the window, though, because one thought is running through my mind: Ferb called me! Me, Honey Henson! Before I go any further, I should probably explain. Over the summer, I moved to Danville and met Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella. I took a liking to Phineas, and Isabella didn't particularly like that. However, over the course of the school year, I found myself liking Ferb more... and it wasn't just because Phineas and Isabella were partnered up in every single existing subject, leaving me with Ferb. Anyway, long story short: I like Ferb now. "I was wondering if you'd... um... like to come over to my house. Isabella's here, too. We can hang out — as friends — if you'd like," he says, the words tripping over each other. Probably because he's so quiet, he's not too used to talking. "I'll come!" I say. "Let me just ask my mum. Mum!" I call, covering the mouthpiece of the phone. "Can I go to Ferb's?" "Sure, Honey," says my mother's voice, drifting up the stairway into my yellow-walled room. Yellow is my favourite colour. It reminds me of sunshine. "She says I can come," I say. "I'll see you soon!" "Bye," says Ferb. I hear the click that means he hung up. I place the phone back in the reciever and find my puffy yellow coat and boots. I dash out the door. "Bye, Mum!" "Bye, dear." I run across the street and onto the other side. Snow settles in my dark, curly hair, giving the illusion of bad dandruff. Dandruff that melts, anyway. I shake out my hair and smooth it down as I walk into the backyard, skidding slightly on a bit of black ice. "Oh, wow," I say as I walk into the backyard. Clearly, Isabella has been here for a while, building snowmen with Phineas and Ferb. But the thing is, these aren't ordinary snowmen I'm seeing. They're incredibly detailed. I see what looks like a statue, practically, of Ferb standing all hero-like. There's also a big heart, obviously made by Isabella, and the words Keep moving forward made of snow, presumably made by Phineas. "Hi, Honey!" Isabella says, sliding on a patch of iced-over snow. "Whoa!" she cries, losing her balance and falling backward into Phineas's arms, who runs over and catches her just in time. She turns red. "Isabella," says Ferb. "Wouldn't you know better than to slide on ice without being a professional?" As though to prove his point, he charges forward and skates over a stretch of ice, doing multiple tricks along the way. Phineas smiles. "Fancy footwork, Ferb." Waving in my direction, he says, "Hi, Honey." Okay, I know I said I didn't like Phineas anymore, but honestly, having a name that can also function as a term of endearment can cause problems sometimes. "Hi," I say. I look at the numerous snow sculptures. "These are pretty cool!" "I know!" squeals Isabella. "The reason we invited you over is because we were just about to start on a snow palace of sorts." "Ferb has a way with snow," says Phineas. Ferb nods. "Well!" I say, rubbing my yellow-mittened hands together. "Let's get down to business, shall we?" I pause, seeing the large amount of snow. "This surely isn't natural snow, is it?" "As a matter of fact, it's generated snow," says Phineas. "We broke out the old snowcone machine we used to create S'Winter and used that to create the snow." "S'winter?" I ask, puzzled. Ferb steps over. "It's a unique and logic-defying amalgam of winter and summer." "I see." I grab a bit of snow and begin to work it into a wall shape. The others follow suit. Pretty soon, we have a large igloo, big enough to fit the four of us and Perry comfortably inside — or, at least, that's how it looks from the outside. But from the inside... "Wow!" I gasp as I walk into the final result. Its walls are high and sparkling like diamonds. There's glass-like furniture decorating the place, and I see Perry skid along the floor slightly, chattering angrily as he can't brake and subsequently collides with an icy wall. I giggle and turn to Ferb. "You did amazing here!" He blushes slightly. "Ferb really knows how to maximize interior space," Phineas says, his cheeks red too, but from the cold, not me embarrassing him. "So... now what?" Isabella asks, her voice bouncing off the glittering walls. "I dunno," I say, watching my breath come out in a white puff. Ferb silently takes out four pairs of ice skates in four different colours: pink, yellow, blue, and black. I seize the yellow pair and lace them up, preparing to slide across the smooth, icy floor. I watch as Ferb pulls his on and then begins to skate. And the boy can skate, I tell you that. He spins multiple times in the air and skates figure eights aroung the rest of us, who are struggling to keep up. "Come on," Ferb says quietly enough for only me to hear, and then takes my hand. I don't know if Ferb's a wizard or anything, but after that I was skating like a superstar. My black scarf (what can I say? It's not my fault my choice of colours makes me look like a Hufflepuff) glitters and turns in the air, like a big shadow. "Honey!" calls my mother's voice. "Dinner!" I sigh. "Oh, man! Bye, guys, gotta go!" I cry, taking off my skates and running out the door of the igloo. I think I hear Ferb's voice say, "Honey, wait!" but am too busy running home to realise it. Over dinner, my mum asks what I did at Phineas and Ferb's house. "We built snow sculptures," I say. "Sounds like a lot of fun," says my dad, taking a bite of rice pilaf. I don't like rice. Why is the world so unfair? Um. When I get up to my bedroom, I realise I never felt my scarf around my neck upon leaving Ferb's house. That was probably the "Honey, wait!" I heard. Crud. I open my window and slide down the roof. Hello, stealth ninja mode. Using one of the supports holding up my porch, I slide down and jump silently off the porch, applauding my ability to be quiet and not break my arm. Sneaking across the street, I clink a pebble against Ferb's window. I mean, that's what they do in romance movies, right? The window glides open and I see green hair poke its way out. Seeing me standing there in my pyjamas, he withdraws into the room and throws something black and sparkly out the window, barely visible, shimmering as it falls: my scarf. With the unerring skill of a Hufflepuff Seeker (just kidding) I catch the black scarf. I'm about to say thanks when Ferb does a ninja slide off his roof and lands like a cat right next to me. Wow. He grasps my hand, not the one with the scarf in it, obviously, and says, "I guess you better not walk alone, not in the dark with all this ice." Ohmigosh, he cares about me! We cross the road in silence, and when we get to my door, another person takes over me for a second and I kiss Ferb. He looks slightly shocked, but pleased nonetheless. I giggle. "Bye," I say, waving and shimmying up the support pole. "Bye," he whispers, withdrawing into the darkness. I reach my room and collapse on my bed, the scarf still clutched in my hand, heart throbbing, head spinning. I don't know if the events that just happened, but they probably did, or I wouldn't have this scarf in my hand, right?
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