This Crazy Little Thing - Chapter 7

Disclaimer: All characters of Phineas and Ferb are the property of Dan, Jeff, and Swampy.

Chapter 7 – The Meeting of the Minds

"Baljeet, are you all right? You have barely touched any of your food."

The Indian boy had spent the last ten minutes poking at his curry, lost in his thoughts. "I am fine, Mother."

"Please do not lie to me. Curry is not usually the kind of thing you ignore."

"I have had a lot on my mind."

"What else is new?"

Baljeet shot a look at his mother, who merely shrugged at his response. "Oh come on, Baljeet. You usually enjoy my futile attempts at parent humor."

He didn't immediately respond, instead turning his attention back to his uneaten dinner. His mother sighed. "Baljeet, you do not have to eat it if you do not wish to. I can reheat it for later."

"Yes, please."

She took the plate away to the kitchen, ready to put it in the fridge for safekeeping...

"Have you ever done something and known that it is not the right thing to do, and yet you do it anyway?"

She turned back toward her son, befuddled by the question. "Baljeet, you are not making any sense. As usual. Did something happen at school?"

"You could say that?"

"...Did you get a B on something?"

"No!" Baljeet retorted. "Something much worse than that."

"A C?"

"Mother, it has nothing to do with a test. I-"

The doorbell cut into their back-and-forth. She straightened up, wiping her hands on her apron. "I did not think we were expecting anybody tonight. Baljeet, can you answer the door?"

"Yes, Mother."

Relieved to get away from the conversation, Baljeet went over to the door and opened it.

...Needless to say, he was not expecting her to show up.

"Ginger, what are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you."

Baljeet nervously glanced around before answering. "I do not think this is the best time for me to talk. Can it wait?"

Ginger looked up at him, and he could see her bloodshot eyes almost tearing into him.

"No. It can't."

He stared at her for a long moment. Sighing, he hooked his head into the house. "Mother, may I be excused for a moment?"

"Yes, dear," came the reply. "Do not stay out too long, though."

Baljeet shut the door behind him and crossed his arms. "I thought that you were ignoring me."

"I...wasn't. Not really, anyway. I just needed some time to think."

"...By ignoring me."

Ginger's expression soured. "Baljeet, what was I suppose to do? I basically had all of my stuff aired out to you in the worst way possible. I was embarrassed."

"I wish I did not have to deal with Holly."

"You and me both," she joked. "She was all ready to throttle you. I had to talk her out of it."

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment before Ginger continued in a softer tone. "Look, Baljeet, I came here to apologize to you. It was wrong of me to do what I did. I didn't mean to hurt you. I thought that if I could change a few things, I would be able to make you like me. And in a way...you finding out was probably for the best. It forced me to think all of the stuff I did."

She felt his hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Baljeet's concerned face. She reflexively blushed with the sudden contact.

"Ginger...I know that you did not do any of that to purposefully hurt me. I do not that you are even capable of doing that. I should not have shouted at you at school. That was uncalled for and unnecessary."

She smiled.

"But..."

And there it went.

"Do you understand why I was upset, though? All you had to do was come talk to me."

"That wasn't really an option. It's...sort of difficult for me to talk to you."

Baljeet smiled slightly. "I have started to notice that."

Another silence came forward, followed quickly by the realization that Baljeet's hands was still on her shoulder. He removed it and cleared his throat.

"Look, Ginger, I think it might be best that we attempt to move forward from this. We do have a project that we need to finish, after all."

The Asian girl gasped. "I completely forgot about that! We were suppose to have it done by now! What are we going to do?"

"I am not exactly sure," Baljeet replied. "We could try to do something tonight, if you wish."

"I can't."

"Hmm?"

Now Ginger was looking sheepish. "I'm...not suppose to be out right now. Stacy's watching me tonight since Mom's working late, and she only gave me a little bit of time to come over and talk to you." She looked down again at her feet. "Sorry."

"It is all right. I am sure we can find another solution."

A sudden text tone interrupted their conversation. Ginger pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the screen, her face scrunching up in irritation. "Man, she sure picks a good time to give me bad news."

"What is it?"

"No one's going to be able to watch me tomorrow. I have to go to the ceremony with Mom and Stacy."

Baljeet was momentarily confused. "It sounded like you wanted to go when we talked about it on the bus at the beginning of the week."

"I know. It's..." Ginger trailed off. "I'm just...not in the mood. Normally, I would be all for it, but this week's been...well, you know. But the babysitter's out of town, and she doesn't want me staying home by herself."

Baljeet smiled slightly. "Also, the clientele is not exactly the troop at the lunch table talking about boys."

"That too."

His mind was starting to gear forward again.

"Shadowing my mom and sister all night long doesn't sound like a very good time, anyway."

And his mouth was opening.

"I could come with you."

Aaaand there it was.

Ginger's head snapped up, her eyes wide with surprise. "I'm...sorry, what?"

"I can accompany you to the banquet."

Her eyes narrowed at him. "It's a really formal event. Do you even have a suit?"

Ginger rolled her eyes. "What am I saying? Of course you have a suit."

"I am not a stranger to these sorts of things," Baljeet replied. "I have had to go with my mother to multiple formal events."

She blinked a few times, not quite believing what she was hearing. "Are you really serious?"

"Of course I am serious."

Ginger was still giving him a confused look. "Why are you doing this?"

Baljeet thought for a moment before responding. "Because we both need to go out and relax a little bit. I said it earlier; we need to move forward. And what better way to do that than attend an awards ceremony with a bunch of...adults?" He came to a stop as Ginger giggled at his realization. "That sounded better in my head."

She thought for a moment. "Well, the banquet's at eight. Do you want to meet up at my house? Since...well, we never got to go there before?"

"I can have my mother drive me over there."

Ginger nervously shuffled her feet. "You know, when I was coming over here tonight, I wasn't even expecting an apology. I just wanted to salvage something from this project. But now I have a..." She stopped short, not wanted to say the word she was thinking.

But thankfully Baljeet was there to back her up. "A mutual outing between two respected associates?"

"Yeah, we'll call it that."

No amount of advanced vocabulary was enough to lessen the amount of awkwardness that was now ensuing. Luckily, Baljeet was able to use the advantage to make his way back toward the door.

"So, I will be over at around seven thirty?"

"Sounds good to me. Call me if you need directions."

He gave a small wave as Ginger turned off of the porch, closing the door behind him. Now that he was back in the safety of his house, he now had the proper time to reflect on his exchange.

"...What in the world did I just agree to?"

"Well, if you were to ask me..."

Crud.

"I would imagine you are taking her out on something that normal human beings call a 'date'," his mom interjected, a towel in her hand.

"Mother, it is not a date. You never heard that word in our conversation. You know, the one that you were not suppose to be listening to."

She gave a large smile to her son. "You are too busy being agitated at me and not busy enough getting your suit ready."

Baljeet sighed. Tomorrow was definitely going to be interesting.

"I can't believe you actually got him to come with you."

"Stacy, for the last time, I did not do anything. He was the one who suggested it."

The older Asian girl put her hands on her hips. "So when I open your notebook, I'm not going to see anything about some master plan about Mom's award ceremony?"

"No. No, you're not."

She swiveled in her vanity chair, still not entirely convinced. "And what do you exactly want me to do again?"

"I want you to pick something out for me."

"So you want me to doll you up for Baljeet?"

"Look." Ginger grabbed the chair, looking up at Stacy. "If I'm going to be going to this thing, I at least want to look good for him."

The older Hirano started to smile maniacally, clasping her hands together. "You are going to regret saying that, sis."

Ginger gulped. This...was definitely going to be interesting.

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