#aksdjfkasdhfkajsdk i can't believe i'm posting this

[authenticcadence18]

Can’t Help Falling in Love Ch. 1

so uhhhhhhhhhhh.......i’m writing a Phinabella fic 😬

AO3

...

Phineas and Isabella are assigned the same song for their final project in their music appreciation class, and they have to work together to deliver a presentation based on it. They've been collaborating on projects together for their entire lives, so it should be easy, right?

Well. There's just one teeeeeeeeny problem. Their song is a love song.

This is a problem for Isabella because, despite her best efforts, she hasn't been able to let go of her feelings for Phineas.

And this is a problem for Phineas because he can barely be around Isabella without blushing and thinking about how wonderful she is.

Alas....the show must go on.

...

(story below the cut! also this fic is canon divergent and takes place a few months before “Act Your Age” would have. so...yeah!) 

Wise men say, only fools rush in.

But I can’t help falling in love with you.

...

“Alright, class!!! As you know, summer is fast approaching...and for some of you, it will be your last summer before moving on to the next chapters of your lives! To finish off the year, I thought I’d make your final project fun! ...you know, before we go into ‘state-mandated final exam preparation’ mode.”

Ms. Chase--Danville High’s resident teacher of all things musical--looked around the classroom at her students, most of whom didn’t look too convinced at said final project being “fun” at all.

“You’re all going to be given a song to deliver a performance of! This performance can be live or recorded, and you can make a visual interpretation of the song if you’d rather not sing or play in front of the class. The most important part of the project is that you demonstrate an understanding of the meaning of the piece you are assigned.

“And also, there’s a short essay involved.”

The entire class groaned at that.

“Hey now, I’m just following orders from upper management!” Ms. Chase insisted. “And besides! You won’t have to write the essays by yourself, you’ll all have a partner to help you!

“....oh, did I fail to mention that this is a group project? Because THIS IS A GROUP PROJECT!!!”

This elicited another groan from the students.

“Oh come on! You get to pick your partners!”

She gestured to two buckets on either side of the classroom.

“Well….sort of. There are 24 of you, and each bucket contains twelve songs. I’ll divide you in half, everyone will pick a song, and then you’ll go around the classroom to find who has the same song as you. They’ll be your partner!!”

A student raised her hand.

“Yes, Adyson?”

“No offense, Ms. Chase, but isn’t this entire process unnecessarily complicated? We’re already divided into groups of two. Why can’t we just choose a song we’ve covered over the semester and do the project with our desk partners?”

Ms. Chase smiled at her student. “Excellent question, Adyson! Normally I would let you choose your own songs and partners...but this time around, I want to take all of you out of your comfort zones. You’re about to enter the real world as adults!! Hopefully, this little project helps you learn it can be fun to think outside the box and collaborate with people you wouldn’t normally.”

She considered these words for a moment before shrugging and continuing, “Or, you might learn that sometimes you have to work with people you don’t like to succeed in life. That’s a valid lesson too.”

A few students chuckled at that.

“Alright, left side of the room, over here! Right side, over there! Choose your songs and find your partners!!!” Ms. Chase gestured to buckets on either side of the room. “And once you find them, find a table and have a seat!! They’ll be your new desk partners for the rest of the semester.”

...

“Well, at least I tried…” Adyson muttered as she stood from the table she and Isabella shared. “Sorry we don’t get to work together.”

“It was a good effort!” Isabella replied encouragingly as they crossed the classroom. “But you know how Ms. Chase is...once she gets an idea, no matter how elaborate or wild it may seem, she has to see it through!”

“Sounds familiar,” Adyson noted with a smirk and a pointed glance at a certain boy standing across the room near the opposite bucket.

Isabella followed Adyson’s gaze. The gears in her head whirred for a second, and then the meaning of her statement sunk in.  “...shut up, Adyson….” she grumbled with a frown, face flushing against her will.

...oh gosh. Was he looking at her?? Was he waving at her????

….why did he have to be so CUTE.

Isabella offered a forced smile in his direction and willed her heart to slow down as she looked away and continued after Adyson.

Upon reaching the bucket, Adyson dug around for a bit before withdrawing a sheet of paper. “Hey, I got ‘I’m Lindana and I Wanna Have Fun’’!! I love this song!!” she exclaimed happily as Isabella picked her own. “What did you get, Isabella?”

Isabella unfolded the slip of paper she’d taken from the hat...and her stomach dropped.

“...you’ve got to be kidding me.”

...

“So what songs do you think we’ll get, Phineas?”

“I’m not sure, Irving! We’ll just have to draw our songs and find out, huh?”

The bespectacled boy at Phineas’s side let out a dejected sigh. “Yeah….I wish WE could be partners….”

Though he’d never admit it, Phineas himself was rather relieved for the parameters of this particular project’s partner selection system. He liked Irving well enough, but after spending an entire semester sitting next to him in this music appreciation class (and several summers hanging out with him on occasion), he was more than ready for a bit of space from this particular friend.

Besides, there was someone else Phineas would rather be paired with instead…

His gaze subconsciously flickered across the room to a certain girl with a bow in her hair.

For a second, their eyes met because SHE WAS ALREADY LOOKING AT HIM.

Phineas managed to wave awkwardly in her direction without falling over.

She smiled back. Also awkwardly.

Adorably awkwardly.

“Whatcha lookin at?” Irving asked, glancing over Phineas’s shoulder.

“NOTHING!!!” Phineas blurted out, sharply turning his head the other way and willing his face to PLEASE STOP BLUSHING BEFORE ISABELLA NOTICED because WHAT IF SHE WAS STILL LOOKING AT HIM??  “I’m not looking at...nothing!!! Let’s just, uh…”

He flew at the bucket and thrust his hand in, pulling out the first song he grasped.

“Let’s just pick our songs!!!!”

Phineas unfolded the piece of paper in his hands, ready for the sense of relief that would swirl around him once he had a song and a creative vision in his mind.

….but the song he’d chosen didn’t bring any relief. If anything, it made the amount of butterflies currently fluttering around in his stomach increase tenfold.

“......oh boy.”

...

“Let me see!! Let me see!!!”

Isabella passed the scrap of paper to Adyson without a word, face blank. Adyson squinted at it before bursting into laughter.

“Adyson!!!!” Isabella hissed. “This isn’t funny!!! I don’t want to sing a love song!! Not in front of the whole class!! And certainly not in front of…”

She bit her lip.

“...well, you know!!!”

Adyson just rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Isabella. It isn’t as if you haven’t sung love songs in front of him in the past!!”

“...that’s the problem…” Isabella muttered, putting out a facade of irritability to hide the very real hurt growing in her chest.

Isabella had spent literal YEARS distancing her heart from her feelings for Phineas. Liking him and trying day in and day out to communicate her feelings to him with no success eventually became too painful to bear. Thus, she’d boarded up all those messy emotions and poured her efforts into school and work instead. She even intentionally went out of her way to avoid listening to any songs with romantic connotations (happy or sad), because they always reminded her of HIM.

So how was she supposed to stand in front of a classroom and deliver an authentic performance of a love song while he watched without thinking about him and the feelings she still harbored for him despite everything and how wonderful he was and….

“...maybe my partner will want to make a video instead…” she muttered quietly.

Adyson glanced at her friend and blanched when she noticed her downtrodden expression. “Oh gosh, please don’t get sad!!” she said quickly, placing a hand on Isabella’s shoulder. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have teased you. ...do you want to trade songs?”

Isabella sniffled and shook her head. “No, no, it’s okay...I need to do this. Maybe it will be therapeutic, in a way.

“And I don’t want to take your song away from you. You go have fun, girl!”

...

“What song did you get?” Irving asked, trying to sneak a peek at Phineas’s paper.

“Oh, just an Elvis song!” Phineas replied quickly.

He wasn’t particularly eager to discuss his song with Irving. Irving liked to talk.

More specifically, Irving liked to talk about HIM.

And Phineas didn’t want him discussing the fact that he was singing a love song to a class full of people that seemed to be all too aware of his own unrequited feelings for a certain classmate among them.

“What about you?” Phineas asked, eager to change the subject. “What song did you get?”

“I don’t know!!” Irving grasped a song from the bucket and unfolded it. His eyebrows furrowed. “...‘I’m Lindana and I Wanna Have Fun’? I think my MOM likes this song.”

“Hey, that’s a great song!!” Phineas said with a smile. He looked to the left and the right, feigning secrecy, before whispering,  “...MY mom IS Lindana, you know….”

Irving’s eyes widened. “WHAT????? ...HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT???”

Phineas let out an inaudible sigh of relief as Irving’s gleeful smile grew wider and wider.

He suspected his own song was far from Irving’s thoughts at the moment.

“Well, I’m gonna go figure out who my partner is,” Phineas said. “Have fun! And if you want to talk to my mom about being Lindana at any point, I’m sure she’d love to chat with you and your partner!”

He left Irving hyperventilating excitedly in the corner.

Now to unpack the thoughts swirling around in his own head.

Phineas had to present a love song to the class.

And not just any love song.

A love song that hit a little too close to home concerning Phineas’s own love life…or lack thereof.

...it wasn’t like he’d WANTED to realize the fluttery, weightless way Isabella had always made him feel was in fact NOT normal and NOT how everyone felt around her.

Especially right before they started high school.

He didn’t ASK to turn into a blushing, stuttering mess whenever he saw her or even thought about her from that point on (which wasn’t as often as he would have liked...they’d seemed to drift apart JUST as he figured out his own feelings for her).

But Phineas couldn’t help it.

Isabella was just...so amazing.

How could he NOT be in love with her?

...and more pressingly, how was he supposed to discuss such a song with whoever his partner ended up being AND sing said song in front of their classmates without thinking of Isabella and dissolving into a blushy mess?

...

“...what song did you get, Ginger?”

“‘Chop Away At My Heart!’ I’m kinda surprised Ms. Chase even assigned this song, since it’s way more modern than what I was expecting. I’m not complaining though! Baljeet is obsessed with it, so I already know all the words!”

“That’s good!!”

“What song did you get?”

“Oh uh…..you know what, why don’t you just read the title for yourself?”

“....oh wow......have fun with that.”

...

“Hey, Phineas, what song are you doing?”

“Oh, it’s an Elvis song.”

“Nice! I have a Love Handel song.”

“Oh cool! Those guys are awesome.”

“Oh yeah, you’ve met them before, right?”

“Yup!! My siblings and I got them back together for our parents anniversary when we were kids. It was pretty cool. And then one time we helped them out by finding Klimpaloon to prove one of their songs was factual…”

“So awesome!! You know, I can’t wait to see your presentation! I’m sure it will be amazing, just like everything else you’ve made!”

“Oh, uh, yeah… I’m sure it’ll be great. I can’t wait to see yours!”

...

Gradually, pairs of students began forming as they matched songs with one another and took their seats to start brainstorming for their projects.

It eventually got to the point where only a few students remained searching for their partners.

Two of said students were, of course, Phineas and Isabella.

For the past ten minutes or so, they’d both done a remarkably effective job of avoiding one another. Isabella wanted to prolong the inevitable reality of presenting a love song in front of Phineas for as long as she dared, and Phineas didn’t trust himself to be able to casually discuss his song with Isabella without blushing as red as his hair.

They’d been so busy avoiding each other, in fact, that they didn’t realize neither of them had partners yet...until suddenly they were the only students left standing.

Isabella hadn’t considered this scenario. There were 23 other students in the class, and 11 other students besides Phineas choosing out of the other bucket. Statistically speaking, she’d had a pretty low chance of being partnered with him.

And EMOTIONALLY speaking, her brain had apparently refused to consider this scenario...the one where Phineas was the only student left standing...the one where Phineas clutched his piece of paper tightly to his chest, as if he didn’t want anyone else to see it...the one where he looked at her with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher but nonetheless made her head spin a little…

...the one where Isabella would almost CERTAINLY be forced to confront her feelings head-on for the first time in years.

In retrospect, she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised.

Isabella had always had interesting luck when it came to Phineas.

Phineas couldn’t move. Isabella was the only other student still standing, still looking for her partner, and he couldn’t move. His feet were stuck to the ground, as if he’d worn his heavy-duty steel-tipped sneakers by mistake today.

But he hadn’t worn his heavy-duty steel-tipped sneakers by mistake today.

The only thing keeping him glued to the ground was fear. And nervousness. And disbelief. And maybe a little bit of awe because was Isabella wearing a new bow today? It was pretty. She was pretty.

….Ok. So more than just fear was keeping him glued to the ground.

The thoughts in Phineas’s head were loud, far louder than any discussions his classmates might have been having with one another.

He was going to have to sing a love song with Isabella. He was going to have to discuss said song’s inherent romantic themes with Isabella. He was going to have to spend a lot of time in the next few weeks hanging out with Isabella.

A spark of clarity, of longing, emerged from that last thought.

He was going to get to spend a lot of time in the next few weeks hanging out with Isabella.

….he missed spending time with Isabella.

This realization gave Phineas the strength to finally lift his feet from the ground and walk towards his partner. She didn’t move as he approached: rather, she just gazed at him with an expression he couldn’t quite decipher.

If Phineas hadn’t known any better, he would’ve thought she was stuck just like he had been. He might have even let his heart flutter a bit.  

(But Phineas knew better. Isabella had no reason to be stuck. He was the lovestruck one here. Not her.)

“So uh...I guess we’re partners, huh?” Phineas voiced as he came to a stop at Isabella’s side. “ Keep it cool ,” he thought sternly. “ Isabella is your friend and you want to spend time with her and need to discuss the project with her. That’s it. No blushing. No stammering. Don’t think about how cute she looks. Don’t think about the lyrics of the song you’re presenting together. You’re just hanging out. Keep it together .”

Isabella managed a dry chuckle. “It appears so,” she replied. “Should we check our songs, just in case?”

Maybe there’d been some sort of mix up?

“Uh...yeah, I guess so,” Phineas replied hesitantly. He suddenly didn’t want to show her the scrap of paper clutched in his hands...though he knew it was irrational, he felt that showing her would be as revealing as a confession of his feelings, as if she could read his mind just by reading the title of the song he’d--no, they’d--been assigned.

“ It’s just a song… ” he assured himself as he opened his hands to reveal the paper inside.

...but it wasn’t really just a song.

“Here.” Isabella held her scrap out to Phineas as she accepted his.

Deep down, before they even confirmed the fact, they both knew there hadn’t been a mix-up with the papers. There were no other students standing, so there was no reason for them not to have been assigned the same song.

(And obviously they’d been assigned the same song...because if they hadn’t, this wouldn’t be much of a story, would it?)

“Ah, I see Isabella and Phineas are our last pair of partners!” Ms. Chase exclaimed, causing both of them to start. “What song did you guys get?”

Phineas and Isabella’s eyes met, and though there was no way, NO WAY, the other understood how they were feeling in this moment, there was a sense of solidarity...and maybe something more...in their gazes.

They could do this.

“....we got ‘‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’.”

...

Thank you sm for reading!!! This is probably the most self-indulgent thing I've ever posted, so the fact that you are reading it at all means the world to me🥰. (Writing Phinabella fic is how I got started writing fanfiction, but this is the first one I've ever posted so...it's a little nerve-wracking, haha!)

I will be posting more soon!!! I have the gist of the story planned out (and parts of a later scene already written 😶), now I just need to write it!

Also THANK YOU @youruinedmylifebynotbeingreal for being my beta, even though you don’t know much about this fandom, and for being so encouraging!!! :))))