Honolulu Hassle Part 1

The New Adventures of Alvin and the Chipmunks
Episode 3:  Honolulu Hassle

It was another peaceful morning at the office, the work load was light and the sun was shining.  Dave couldn’t have asked for a better day to be up in his 80th floor office, the huge glass windows that sat behind him as he worked let in so much light that he could turn the overhead lights off and still be able to write his music without a problem.  Today he was working on a new song for the boys, all his other work being done either early this morning or yesterday.  Yes sir when it came to song writing, there was no one better for the job than Dave Seville.
  
The lyrics for his latest song had come to him in the middle of the night last night, the fast approaching summer tour schedule deeply seated in the back of Dave’s mind was his inspiration.  And a few notes that Theodore had been humming to himself while he was drawing the night before,  fit with the lyrics so perfectly, it was like they had been meant to go together.  This song was going down on paper so easily, it was getting Dave all excited.  He wanted to finish the rough draft today so he could take it home and show it to the boys.

“Oh this song is going to be so great,” Dave said to himself with glee, “I just know the boys are going to love it.”

As Dave worked, the excitement of the song rushing through him, he couldn’t help but get tunnel vision.  He even managed to forget about the parent teacher meeting he had later in the afternoon, which was very odd considering Dave always remembered those sorts of things.  Not letting any stray thoughts distracting him, Dave kept on working, while miles away the boys were also deep in thought over work of their own.

Alvin gripped his pencil tightly as he focused on the math problem before him, it was long division, and Alvin hated long division.  Much like his father was doing at that very same moment, Alvin tried not to let any stray thoughts distract him from the task at hand.  The test they were taking was one of the state mandated tests that would permanently leave a mark on ones personal record.  And Alvin could not afford to slip up here, he had already failed two other math tests this semester, and just barely passed the others.  And Dave had told him sternly that if he failed another test, he would be doing double chores until his grades improved.

A bead of sweat dripping from the tip of his nose, Alvin strained to do the problem in his head and on a piece of scratch paper.  But no matter how hard he tried, he would get stuck mid way through and have to start all over again.

“Oh I give up,” Alvin said to himself as he hit his head against the desk, “This stuff is just to hard for me.”

As he lay there, mentally exhausted from the test.  Alvin could see the chores piling up in his mind, doing dishes twice a week instead of just once.  Taking the garbage out every night, cleaning his room every weekend...and worst of all...vacuuming.

“This sucks,” Alvin groaned with his face planted against his desk top.

Without warning a small crumpled up piece of paper lightly bounced off the top of Alvin’s head and landed on the edge of his desk.  Tilting his head just ever so slightly, Alvin made eye contact with the crumpled piece of paper.  Picking it up, he unfolded it and tried to flatten it out the best he could.  The number 103 written messily in the center of the paper, and underneath it read “Thank me with an ice cream.”

“An ice cream?”  Alvin asked himself as he sat up.  

Alvin turned his head around and looked behind him were the rouge paper had flew from.  Everyone had their heads down, focusing on their tests.  That was except for Brittany, who slowly lifted her head up and winked at Alvin.  Smiling, Alvin understood what the numbers meant.  Quickly turning back to his paper, Alvin rote down 103 by the problem he was stuck on.  And as if the big man upstairs himself decided to show Alvin pity, when he turned to the next page there were no more math problems in sight.

“Hallelujah!”  Alvin shouted as he raised up his arms.

“Mr Seville?”  The teacher at the front of the room said as he lowered the news paper he was reading, “I understand tests can be an enlightening experience, but if you could keep your enthusiastic outbursts to yourself until after the test I would appreciate it.”

“Hehehe, yes Mr Lutheran,” Alvin chuckled.

The teacher eyeballed Alvin for a second before he shook his news paper and raised it back up.  Smiling, Alvin went back to working on his test, the hard part behind him now.  The rest should be an absolute breeze.

The halls of Thomas Edison Elementary School were quite, not a single student in sight.  The only soul out was the janitor, who was cleaning up what everyone assumed was spilt chocolate milk, but knowing this school no one made any bets to that affect.  Of course like it always was, that pristine quiet was shattered with the sound of doors bursting open and students clamoring to get out of class.  And the empty halls were quickly filled to the brim as students filed out, complaining about the tests the entire way.  Alvin was particularly happy to get out of that classroom, giving the door that blocked his freedom into the hallways a good kick to open it.

“Thank god!”  Alvin shouted as he ran out into the filling hallway.

“You can say that again,” Theodore said as he fallowed out behind Alvin, Eleanor at his side, “That test was brutal.”

“I don’t know guys, it wasn’t that bad,” Simon said as he and Jeanette walked out.

“Yeah, I actually found the science and math portions to be quite enjoyable,” Jeanette added with a few nods.

“Only you could find math enjoyable Jeanette,” Brittany said as she pushed her way out into the hall and next to Alvin.

“I find math enjoyable,” Simon said looking from Jeanette to Brittany.

“Correction, only people who wear glasses ten times to big for their face enjoy math,” Brittany said as she leaned up against Alvin, almost knocking him over.

Both Simon and Jeanette looked at each other, then reached up and took their glasses off to look at them.  Theodore and Eleanor giggled as they started to walk off down the hallway, Alvin and Brittany in tail.

“Hey Simon, hurry up already,” Alvin yelled to Simon as they walked off.

“Coming!”  Simon shouted back as he and Jeanette threw their glasses back on.

Waiting for only a second until the two stragglers caught up, the entire posse started to make its way to their lockers.  The six of them had become something of a common sight in the hallways of the small LA County Middle School, it was almost like they had formed their own chipmunk pack.  Laughing and talking amongst each other the whole way, nothing usually stopped their advance.

“Alvin Seville!”  The exception to the rule shouted through the hallways.

Alvin stopped dead in his tracks, his brothers and their companions doing the same when they heard the principal shout.  Turning around, Alvin was quite confused, to his knowledge he hadn’t done anything to warrant a scolding from the principal yet.  The older man that had called after Alvin,  marched his way through the mass of students.

“Oh great,” Alvin mumbled to himself.

“Alvin what did you do?”  Simon whispered to his brother.

“I didn’t do anything,” Alvin said as he leaned closer to Simon, “I don’t know why he’s already yelling at me.”

Simon, not exactly believing his brother, just rolled his eyes and watched as the flustered principal wove through morning hallway traffic.

“Alvin I have to speak with you about something,” The principal said as he finally reached them.

“What about Mr Talbot,” Alvin said with a sigh.

“About this!”  The principal said as he held out an iPod in front of Alvin.

“Hey my iPod!”  Alvin said as he quickly snatched it from the principal, “Where did you find it?”

“Under my desk, it must have fallen from your pocket and slid under there the last time you were in my office,” The principal said with a smile, “I knew it was yours right away when I saw the color.”

Alvin flicked the red iPod on, it still had plenty of juice left.  This couldn’t have come at a better time, Alvin had been hiding the fact he lost his iPod from Dave for the past week.  He knew his father was becoming suspicious when he caught him with Theodore’s the other day.

“Thanks a bunch Mr. T,” Alvin said as he stuck one of the earphones over his left ear.

“Not a problem Alvin,” Mr Talbot said as he watched the group walk off, “Just make sure the next time your in my office you hold onto that thing!”

“You got it!”  Alvin shouted back waiving a hand.

Things seemed to be turning around for Alvin today, he had gotten through that test, got his iPod back and had managed to stay out of trouble all morning.  Yup, it was an unusually good day.  Being that the Chipmunks and the Chipettes lockers were in different places, the boys made sure to walk the Chipettes to their lockers before they headed for their own.  Simon was quick to open Jeanette’s locker and let her switch out books, and then shutting it for her.  He also grabbed a piece of paper and slid it into Jeanette’s bag, that had become something of a daily tradition for the two.

“Cya at lunch time Jeanette,” Simon said as he started to walk off.
“Bye Simon,” Jeanette said as she swung her backpack over her shoulder.

Theodore, being the gentlemen he was helped Eleanor open up her locker.  It had been broken since the start of the school year.  Lifting up on the latch, Theodore raised his foot and gave the locker a good kick.  That was enough to jar the broken lock and the door shook open, standing to the side Theodore opened it all the way.

“Thanks Theodore,” Eleanor said as she opened her book bag to trade books.

Theodore just smiled as he walked off and waived back.  The last two to part ways was Alvin and Brittany, since her locker was on the second level, and Alvin was just a smudge higher than Brittany.  It was his job to reach up and trade books for her, almost every time her stupid math book would fall out.  Often times clunking Alvin on the head, and even though he hated having to do it, he never argued much and just did it.

“Thanks Alvin,” Brittany said as Alvin handed her a Science book.

“Yeah, no problem,” Alvin said as he turned and closed the locker door.

Adjusting his back pack, Alvin waived and started to walk off to catch up with his brothers.  But didn’t exactly get very far.

“Hold on there buddy,” Brittany said grabbing the back of his sweatshirt and pulling him back.

“Hey watch the digs,” Alvin said as he caught his balance, “I just got them dry cleaned.”

“Ha, sure you did,” Brittany said as she tore the small piece of paper off of Alvin’s back, “Your laundry maid must have left this note for you then.”

Snatching the note, Alvin turned it over and looked at it.  A big ‘Stupid’ written in the center in block letters, crumpling it up Alvin spun back around.  Theodore and Simon were crouching behind a trash can a small distance away, both of them snickering.

“You guys are dead!”  Alvin shouted as he threw the crumpled note down and started to run after them.

“You’ll have to catch us first,” Theodore yelled as him and Simon bolted.
Alvin started to weave through other students, but lost his balance and slipped, landing hard on the tile floor and sliding along for a bit.  Theodore and Simon witnessed the fall, they both stopped to laugh as Alvin slowly got to his feet.

“Your gonna pay for that,” Alvin said as he started after them again.

The trio quickly ran around a corner, Alvin hot on his brothers heels as he intended to unmercifully beat on them.  The girls however just sighed and picked up their things.

“Boys,” Brittany sighed as she turned and walked off.

Science class was a little better than testing, that Alvin could even admit.  Though he didn’t like Science either, it was just the lesser of two evils for him.  The teacher was up writing on the chalk board while the students bobbed their heads up and down.  Making sure the notes they had just taken down were correct before they started on the next.  Alvin was sitting directly behind Simon, who was as per usual , writing down his notes at an ungodly pace.  It almost seemed as if he was writing down the notes before the teacher could even put them up on the board.

Alvin, doing a quick check around the room, reached into his sweater pocket and dug around.  Pulling out a rubber band, Alvin then proceeded to take a paper wasp he had made in English the other day.  This was to be its maiden voyage, and its target was the back of his brothers head.  Putting the rubber band between his two fingers and pulling back on the band with the wasp in the center, Alvin made sure to check that the teacher had his back to him still.  Everything was in the clear, nobody was looking and he had the perfect shot.

“Target locked,” Alvin whispered to himself as he steadied his aim, “And...Fox 1.”

Letting the paper wasp go, his miniature pulp missile flew through the air, tracking its target perfectly.  And with pin point accuracy, hit Simon directly in the back of the head.  Feeling the sting, Simon reached his hand back.

“Owe!  What was that!”  Simon shouted as he held the back of his head, the rest of the classroom picking their heads up to look at Simon.

“Excuse me Simon,” The tall skinny teacher said as he turned away from his chalkboard, “But is there something you would like to share with the class?”

“Ah, no sir,” Simon said as he lowered his hand back down.

“Good,” The teacher said as he turned back to his notes on the board.

Alvin was ready to burst out laughing, but the most he could do was sit at his seat and hold his mouth shut.  That was perfect, Simons reaction couldn’t have been any better.  The only thing that could top that, was if he could pull it off again without getting caught.  Reaching back into his pocket, he pulled out another wasp and loaded it up.  Taking careful aim, Alvin targeted the same spot as the first time.

“Locked on and...Fox 2...”

Alvin let the wasp go, and again it tracked perfectly, and just like the first one hit Simon square in the back of the head.

“Gah!  That’s it Alvin!”  Simon shouted as she stood up and spun around to look at Alvin.

Alvin quickly put his hands into his pockets, hiding the rubber band from sight.  Once again, the teacher turned around and looked at Simon.

“Mr Seville, I’ve had quite enough of your outbursts,” he said as he lowered the note pad he was copying his notes from.

“But but...”

“No buts Simon, now take your seat,” The irrate teacher said peering at Simon over the top of his reading glasses.

“Yes Mr Crashcup,” Simon said with a sigh as he took his seat again.

As Simon rubbed the back of his head, a large bruise where the two wasps had hit quite apparent.  Alvin just couldn’t hold it much longer, letting out a quite snort as he laughed, lightly slamming his hand onto the desk as he tried to hold it all in.  This truly was the perfect day, two consecutive paper wasp hits to the back of his brothers head, and still he didn’t get in trouble.  Theodore, who had witnessed both attacks, watched as Alvin struggled to keep quite, and Simon rubbed the back of his head.

“Psst!  Alvin, cut that out,” Theodore whispered in an attempt to get his brother to focus back on his school work.

Alvin heard Theodore, but he didn’t want to respond, he knew if he so much as cracked open his mouth he would just start laughing out loud.  Waiving his brother off, Alvin tried to calm down a little.  Picking his pencil up again, Alvin looked up at the board in an attempt to find where he left off with his notes.  But it was kinda hard to see the board with all the tears in his eyes blurring his vision.  Wiping away the tears, Alvin finally got a hold of himself and let out an exasperated sigh.

“Oh that was so awesome,” Alvin said to himself quietly as he began writing again.

Dave sat still working on his new song, he had just completed the lyrics and was starting to work on the melody on his office piano.  The song had gone together so smoothly so far it was almost scary, but Dave didn’t want to loose his mojo this early in the game.  He figured if he just kept on working all day, never stopping, he would get this song down on paper and ready to sing.  Of course, it was easy to think that way, but the human body isn’t exactly always kinda to what the mind may think.  Taking his headphones off, Dave reached down and looked at his stomach, the sound of it growling distracting him form his work.

“Man I’m hungry,” Dave said to himself as he held his belly, “I guess breakfast didn’t fill me up all that much this morning.”

Thinking back, Dave suddenly remembered that with all the ruckus this morning, he had never had breakfast.  His usual morning slices of toast were put on a permanent hold after Alvin shorted out the toaster and caught it on fire this morning.  Dave never thought that when he became a single parent, he would have to explain why a toaster is not the appropriate device to dry a bagel that you spilt your water on.

“Well I suppose I could stop for just a minute to go grab a bite to eat,” Dave said as he got up from his piano.

Walking over to his desk, Dave grabbed his jacket and started towards the door, making sure to dodge the pieces of rejected sheet music that Dave had scattered on the floor.  With one arm in his jacket, his keys in the other Dave opened his door and walked out.

The secretary that sat out front his office looked up from her work when Dave came out, locking his office door behind him.

“Heading out Mr Seville?”  The secretary asked with a smile.

“Yup, I think maybe I could use a break anyways,” Dave said as he tossed his keys into the air and walked towards the elevator.

“That sounds like a good idea, you were in there so long I was starting to get worried,” The secretary said as she looked back at her computer.

“Yeah well, you loose track of time when you get into that zone,” Dave said as he waited for the elevator door to open.

“You surly do,” The young girl replied with a nod.

Dave smiled and waited for the elevator, he watched as the small dial at the top slowly moved towards the 80th floor.  Finally it reached his floor, and the doors opened with a ring.

“Well, I’ll be back in a few Kelly,” Dave said as he stepped inside.

“Okay Mr Seville,” The secretary said not looking up, “Good luck at your parent teacher conference.”

Dave smiled and nodded as the elevator doors started to close, but with barely a couple of inches left before they shut, Dave’s arm stuck through the crack and the door automatically opened back up.

“Parent teacher conference?”  Dave asked confused.

“Yeah, you remember,” Kelly said looking up, “You asked me this morning to remind you about it if you didn’t come out of your office on time.”

“Ohhhh crap!”  Dave said as he slapped himself in the forehead, “I completely forgot about that!”

“Well, when your in that zone,” Kelly said with a grin as she went back to typing.

“What time did I say they were at?”  Dave asked as he exited the elevator and walked up to her desk.

“The first one starts at 1:00PM sharp in Mr Crashcup’s Science room,” Kelly said without even having to look at her schedule book.

Dave turned to look at the clock on the wall, it read 11:57.  He breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn’t missed the meetings.  But with those meetings now, he wasn’t going to be able to complete his new song today.

“Phew, thought I was in trouble there for a second,” Dave said breathing a sigh of relief, “What would I do without you Kelly?”

“I try not to think about it Mr Seville,” Kelly said as she went back to work.

Dave laughed and turned back to the elevator, now with these meetings to go too, and the fact he was still hungry, Dave figured he may as well just leave for the day and finish up tomorrow.  Walking back into the elevator, Dave hit the lobby button and the doors closed, he waived to Kelly quickly before she disappeared behind the two stainless steel doors.  The young secretary quickly got back on focus, she had a lot of work to catch up on today.  Cracking her knuckles, she focused on her computer screen.


“Okay students, next we are going to cover differences in heat transfer,” The science teacher said as he pointed at the chalk board with a laser pointer, “Now there are three types of heat transfer, each one achieving its goal in a different manner.  Can anyone tell me what the three different types of heat transfer are?”

All the students in the classroom had a pretty dumbfounded look on their faces, though covered in last nights homework, the concept hadn’t quite sunk in for everyone.  Unless of course your name was Simon Seville, who had his hand up when he was sure no one else was going to answer.

“Yes, Simon,” Mr Crashcup said pointing to his star pupil.

“The three types of heat transfer are Radiation, Conduction and Convection,” Simon said from his first row seat.

“Very good Simon, that is correct,” Mr Crashcup said happily as he turned to write it up on the board.

Simon, feeling good that he had got another question right, made sure to scribble down the answers one more time to make sure he would remember them.  Alvin watched closely from behind, his high from nailing Simon twice in the back of the head had faded some, and he was feeling the need for another strike.  But before he could even get the rubber band from his pocket, the bell for lunch sounded, and like lightening the class began to pick up their things so they could get out and too lunch.

“Now remember to read pages 214 and 215 in your text books tonight class!”  Mr Crashcup yelled over the noise of the students trying to exit, “Also don’t forget today is a half day, if you don’t have a parent teacher conference scheduled for today the buses will be waiting for you at 1 o’clock sharp!  For those of you who do, I will be seeing you later on.”

Alvin was trying to get out of the classroom as quickly as he could, not even waiting for his brothers, but the mass of other students blocked his way.  Theodore quickly joined Alvin, but Simon was as always lagging behind as he slowly put his text books back into his back pack.  Finally the doorway opened up and Alvin and Theodore squeezed through into the hallway, out there they waited for Simon.

“You know Simon is still going to be mad you kept hitting him with those things,” Theodore mentioned to Alvin who was twirling the ruber band on his index finger.

“Come one Theodore, he doesn’t have any evidence to support any such claims,” Alvin said as he leaned against a water fountain.

Like clockwork, Simon slunk out of the classroom and held up one of the wasps that Alvin had hit him in the back of the head with.  Alvin’s name written in small letters on the paper projectile.

“No evidence huh?”  Simon said with a smirk.

“Hehehe, sorry Simon,” Alvin said rubbing the back of his head, “They must have just slipped.”

“I’m sure,” Simon said as he tossed the paper wasp and walked passed his brother.

Not wanting to be left behind, Alvin ducked and went underneath the water fountain and caught up with Simon.  Theodore in trail, they headed towards the lunch room to grab a bite to eat before they had their host of meetings with their teachers and Dave.  Not even stopping at their lockers, the boys headed into the cafeteria and to the line.  Today’s special was spaghetti and meat balls, but it was more like old mop strings and ping pong balls in tomato sauce than anything else.

“You’d think that after all this time they would hire a new chef,” Alvin said as he poked at one of the meet balls with his fork, “I don’t think you can even classify this as food anymore.”

“They don’t even have a chef, they just take tubs of it and stick it in the microwave,” Simon said as he reached for a skim milk in the back of the stainless steel tray.

“Well then they need to get a new microwave,” Alvin said as he went for the Chocolate milk.

“I dunno guys, its not all that bad,” Theodore said as he piled up 3 pieces of garlic bread onto his tray.

“Not that bad if you enjoy prison food,” Alvin said sticking his tongue out as they passed by the off colored green beans.

Shuffling their way down the line, picking through the ever more sorry excuses for school food, Alvin’s nose picked up on something that smelled a heck of a lot better than the slop he had on his tray. He looked around to find the source of this smell, finally finding it at the end of the line in a big glass case.  A litter of 5 giant pretzels spun slowly above the heating lamps, the salt on their surface glittering.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Alvin said as he licked his lips.

“Yeah, just look at the size of those things,” Theodore said as he peered around Alvin.

“I bet you those taste a heck of a lot better than this...stuff,” Alvin said looking back down at his food tray.

“Yeah, and they only cost $2.00 extra,” Simon said as he rolled his eyes.
Alvin was stumped there, he didn’t have an extra $2.00 on him.  The food on his tray was pre-paid for by Dave at the beginning of the year, and the school wouldn’t let you trade it for anything else.  Alvin suddenly regretted spending his last $45.00 of allowance money on that new video game they other day.

“Drats,” Alvin moaned as they reached the end of the line.

“Lucky me I guess,” Simon said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out $5.00.

“Hey!  Where did you get that!?”  Alvin shouted as he almost tackled Simon to get a better look at the money.

“Well Alvin, for starters I actually save my allowance,” Simon said as he readjusted his glasses after Alvin’s lunge knocked them loose.

“Hehehe, yeah me too,” Theodore said as he pulled a couple dolor’s from his pocket as well.

Alvin’s jaw nearly fell to the floor when he saw Theodore counting up the money he had in his pocket.  How on earth did they have more money than he did, it just didn’t make any sense!?  Simon took out the ID card the school issued every student at the beginning of the year, one of its functions being to charge lunch to the pre-paid account.  He handed it to the lady at the register who took it and swiped it in her machine.

“And I’ll take one of those pretzels too,” Simon said as he held out his money.

“Sure sweetie,” The elderly lunch lady said as she took the money from Simon.

It wasn’t long before the lunch lady handed Simon a steaming warm pretzel, the smell was almost intoxicating.  Alvin’s mouth watered as he watched Simon set the pretzel on his tray and then started to walk over to their usual table.  Pouting, Alvin dug out his ID card and handed it to the lunch lady.

“I don’t suppose there is a chance I could get one of those pretzels too?”  Alvin asked looking innocently up at the lunch lady.

“Well sure there is,” She said with a big smile, “They’re only $2.00.”

“Wow now that’s a bargain,” Alvin said as he took his ID card back, “But you see, I’m kinda short on money.  I just recently made a donation to the uhh...the uhh...the national foundation for uhh...tilted people!  And I don’t exactly have $2.00 on me today.”

“Oh I see, well that was very kind of you,” The lunch lady said as she folded her arms and continued to smile.

“Well I do what I can,” Alvin said rocking on his heels.

“I’m sure you do.”

“So, how about an IOU on the pretzel then?”  Alvin asked innocently.

Alvin threw his food tray down in front of Simon, some of the tomato sauce on Alvin’s plate spilling over and splattering on Simons glasses.  In a huff, Alvin threw his back pack under the table then sat down with his arms folded.

“Let me guess,” Simon said as he cleaned his glasses off, “She didn’t buy it?”

“No,” Alvin said as he reached for his fork, “Old bird didn’t believe me for a second.”

“So which one was it today,” Simon asked as he twirled his spaghetti, “The Zimbabwean Classical Art Foundation, or maybe the Association of the Feeling impaired.”

Alvin didn’t answer, he just started to chow down on his food.  Simon grinned as he went to take a bite of his own, Theodore joined them soon there after and they all enjoyed their lunch in relative peace.  What was funny was that the girls, who usually joined them for lunch, were absent for the first 15 minutes of lunch.  They along with about 25 other students wondered in the lunch room, each one of them with a rather sour look on their face.  Looking up and past Alvin, Simon watched as the girls headed for the lunch line.

“Uh oh,” Simon said as he nudged Theodore in the side and pointed, “Looks like Mrs Smitz was having another bad day.”

Alvin turned when he heard Simon mention the name of probably the worst teacher in the entire school district, maybe even the state.  Mrs Smitz was notoriously known as the sit and wait teacher.  She had kept one of her Science classes in her room for an entire day once, her only justification was that someone had stolen a pencil from her desk.  Which she found a day later wedged in the back of her massive hair due, she had put it there herself and had forgotten about it.  The boys counted their blessings everyday they were reminded they didn’t have to deal with Mrs Smitz.

“I wonder what it was this time,” Alvin said as he chewed on a piece of garlic bread.

“Whatever it was, the girls sure do look upset about it,” Theodore said as he watched the girls, Eleanor mostly as they shuffled through the lunch line.

“She probably accused one of them of steeling a hair pin or something like that,” Alvin said as he wiped his mouth, “Old hag would send you to detention for sneezing.”

“Or for coughing,” Simon added, “She tried to pin that one on me last year before the school play.”

“Whatever did happen with that?”  Theodore asked as he set his milk down.

“Dave came in and set things strait, that and it helps when you have a spotless school record,” Simon said proudly.

“Almost perfect,” Alvin added picking up a banana that was on his tray, “That one detention after we had after that whole statue thing, that counts you know.”

“I’m perfectly aware of that Alvin,” Simon said getting flustered, “But if I recall correctly...”

“You don’t,” Alvin said before Simon could finish.

“What’s that suppose to mean?”  Simon asked glaring at Alvin.

“You don’t recall correctly,” Alvin said as he took a bite from his banana, “I’ve figured your logic is flawless Simon, so the only way to win with you is to interject my own logic and cut you off before you have a chance to be right.”

“Interject?  Do you even know what that means?” Simon asked hard pressed to believe his brother even knew what he meant.

“Do you?”  Alvin asked flatly as he pointed his banana at Simon.

Simon was about to get up and really lay down some logic on Alvin, but he was cut off again by the arrival of their irrate female counterparts.  Jeanette set her tray down and sat to Simons right, pouting as she starred at her food.  Eleanor sat to Theodore’s left, quickly stuffing a fork full of spaghetti into her mouth.  And finally Brittany took her place next to Alvin, setting her tray down so hard that a spray of tomato sauce splattered onto Simons glasses...again.  Not a one of them spoke a word as they went about either starring at or devouring their food.  Alvin looked around at the three girls carefully, then to Brittany as she poked at one of the beef ping pong balls on her plate.

“Let me guess, either something to do with her hair, or a writing utensil?”  Alvin asked as he looked at the pouting Chipette.

“No,” Brittany said as she stabbed the meatball.

“It was the eraser for the chalk board,” Jeanette said as she just looked at her food, “It had fallen under her desk and she accused Brittany of steeling it.”

“Dang, so close,” Alvin said with a snap of a finger.

It was obvious that none of the girls felt like talking, so without another word they all just went back to eating.  The remaining 15 minutes of lunch was rather awkward, no one really saying anything to each other.  Simon, feeling kinda uncomfortable, tried to find something to keep him from breaking the silence, that was probably keeping everything from falling apart into some kind of chaos.  Looking at his almost empty plate, Simon took notice to the pretzel he had purchased.  It was still warm to the touch, and it did look really good, so without hesitation Simon bit into the delicious looking bread.

“Awww, yuck!”  Simon said after just the first bite, “Its still all cold and frozen inside.”

Everyone looked up as Simon tossed down the pretzel, its frosty insides clearly exposed by the bite.  Alvin raised an eyebrow, suddenly thinking to himself that maybe things do happen for a reason.

“Oh wow, they really are still frozen inside,” Theodore said as he started to tear into his, the rock solid center cracking as he did.

“Well that was a waste,” Simon said after he took a big chug of milk.

Alvin watched as they both tossed their Pretzels to the side, a ray of sunshine quickly broke through the cloud cover that was Alvin’s mood.  Quickly reaching across the table Alvin snatched up both of the pretzels.

“Alvin what are you doing?  They are still all frozen,” Simon said watching his brother as he got up from the table.

“That they are, but that doesn’t mean they have to stay that way,” Alvin said walking off.

Simon watched Alvin for a moment before he got to his feet, he wasn’t about to let Alvin run off like that without an explanation.  Taking one last sip of his milk, Simon grabbed his back pack and quickly ran after Alvin.

“Where the heck are those two going?”  Brittany asked still just poking at her food.

“Beats me,” Theodore said shrugging.

Alvin slowly walked up to the lunch counters, both the lunch ladies were at the other end talking while the majority of the student body was eating.  Seeing that he had an opening, Alvin started to slink his way behind the counters and into the kitchen area.

“Hold on a second Alvin,” Simon said as he grabbed the back of Alvin’s shirt, “Where the heck do you think your going?”

“In the kitchen,” Alvin said as he pointed to his destination.

“I can see that, but what do you plan on doing in there?”  Simon asked releasing him.

“I’m going to warm up these pretzels,” Alvin said holding them up.

“That’s all well and good Alvin, but your not allowed back there.  Its against the rules,”  Simon pointed out as he tried to snatch the pretzels away from Alvin.

“Its only against the rules if you get caught,” Alvin said as he darted forward into the kitchen.

Simon tried to grab Alvin again, but missed, he quickly gained his balance and ran in after him.  But as he entered the stainless steel room, Alvin was already placing the two pretzels inside the giant industrial microwave that just minutes ago he was complaining about.

“Alvin,” Simon whispered, “Don’t touch that.”

“Oh calm down Simon,” Alvin said as he started to punch the time in, “What could possibly go wrong.”


Dave sipped from his soda as he slowly rolled down the street, his belly full he was ready to face the boys teachers.  These meetings always made him nervous, especially when it came to talking about Alvin.  Dave always learned something new about him every time he went, and most of it was never good.  Making a turn, Dave quickly noticed red flashing lights in front of him.  He had been down this street many times, and he knew the Fire Station was right up ahead.  Looking carefully as he came up on the station, he saw the trucks sitting on the ramp getting ready to leave.  And being the guy he was, Dave hit the breaks and stopped to let them pull out.

“Hmm, I wonder where they are going?”  Dave asked himself as the first truck, an SUV, pulled out into the road.

He watched as two other trucks, an engine and a ladder, pulled out behind the SUV, sirens blaring.  That was a sound that Dave had come accustomed too, one of their favorite routes was right past the house.  He had often times been woken by the sound of early morning sirens.  Shrugging it off, Dave went to turn the corner past the fire station, but was met with something rather disconcerting.

“Oh dang it,” Dave grumbled when he saw the roads ahead of him.

Dave was stuck in traffic, cars clogged the busy streets ahead of him as he impatiently tapped the steering wheel and checked his watch.  It was 12:45 now, if this traffic didn’t get moving quick than he was going to be late.  Sighing he looked around a few times before settling on the radio, he turned up the volume to hear what was on.  Ironically enough, the radio station was playing one of the boys old songs.

“Witch Doctor?”  Dave said to himself, “Now there’s a song I haven’t heard on the radio in some time.”

The song was enough to bring Dave back to the days when he first starting writing for the boys, this was their first big hit.  It almost seemed like forever ago that the boys were still in diapers, and to think even singing at that age.  The three Grammy’s this song won sat up on the mantle at the house along side the 2 others.  Dave laughed when he remembered the day Alvin asked him what a Grammy award was, it was just after they had won the award for Alvin's Harmonica.

“Those days were so simple,” Dave said to himself as he smiled warmly, “Its too bad that things can’t still be that way today, but I suppose times do change, as does the music that goes with those times.”

Dave took a deep breath, thinking about all the songs he had wrote for the boys from the start of their career until now.  They changed so much, there was almost no place for songs like Witch Doctor or Alvin’s Harmonica anymore.  Everything was all electronic and digitally enhanced, good lyrics didn’t mean a thing anymore if you didn’t have the booming bass behind it.  The only way his old songs had a chance in this new world was to completely re-write them, people just wouldn’t listen to the old songs anymore if they weren’t...Dave suddenly picked his head up, the gears up top cranking as an idea slowly formed.

“Revamped, they all need to be revamped,” Dave said to himself as he looked a the radio that continued to play the old song, “If I could just give them a modern twist, than maybe?”

Dave had it!  All this time he was so busy trying to write new songs to fit the modern style, that he forgot he already had them all along.  Dave’s thought process was quickly interrupted when the scream of a siren blared behind him, spinning his head around he saw the two fire trucks behind him.

“Oh man more of them?”  Dave said as he looked for a place to pull off the road.

Dave looked around but there was no empty lanes for him to change too, looking back he wasn’t quite sure what the trucks were going to do.  But being the kind of guys they were, the crews of Engine 30 and Ladder 30 hopped out into the opposite lane of traffic.  With the lighter traffic in the opposite lane swerving to get out of the way, the trucks sirens blasted even louder as they passed by Dave and through the intersection, the air horns adding to the racket.

“Geez, they are in a hurry,” Dave said as he rubbed his ear.

As the two trucks got through the intersection, the sound of even more sirens echoed through the cross roads again.  Dave counted each of the 4 trucks as they screamed through, turning to fallow the trucks that had just passed Dave.

“What on earth is going on?”

Dave watched them carefully as they drove off through traffic, as he fallowed them with his eyes, he soon saw the source of all the commotion.  A dark black plume of smoke was rising up into the sky, the sounds of sirens comming from almost every direction it seems as they rushed to the blaze.

“My god, that’s huge,” Dave said as he looked at the plume of smoke and flame, “I wonder what’s burning?  It almost looks like its coming from the..”

Dave stopped and blinked quickly, the feeling of a bomb being dropped into his gullet, “The school!”


The heat coming from the inferno was intense, the teachers had to take the students all the way across the street and a field to keep them from getting burnt from the radiant heat.  The entire east wing it seemed was involved in the furry of flame, as it spread even quicker to other class rooms and through the hallway.  The faculty were scrambling to make sure they had every last one of the students out of the school, clipboards in hand they called everyone’s name over and over again.  The sounds of the sirens got closer and closer every second as fire crews from all over the area rushed to the scene, the plum of smoke visible from miles away.

Alvin raised up his nicely warmed pretzel and took a bite out of it as he watched, his two brothers and the Chipettes standing close by.  They looked on to what was probably the most incredible thing that had ever happened to them, or any other of the students.  Many of them had wished for it before, like on those days they were told they failed a test, or had a detention.  Wanting the school to just burn to the ground was something every kid sarcastically wished at one point in their life, but never did they ever want for it to happen.

“Wow...Do you guys realize that this is like...epic!”  Alvin said as he turned to look behind him.

“That’s hardly the word I would choose for it Alvin, I mean just look at it,” Simon said in despair as he watched the science wing burn to the ground, “Our school is on fire!  All those memories...not to mention my science project I left in the classroom!”

“And all our lockers!”  Brittany groaned, “I had just bought a new make up kit, and I stuck it in there this morning.”

“Its okay Brittany, I’m sure Mrs Miller will buy you a new one,” Jeanette said as Brittany began to sob on her shoulder.

“But it wont be the same!”  Brittany balled, “That one had my name in crystals across the top!  How can someone replace that!?”

Before anyone could say anything more to try and calm the crushed young Brittany, a small explosion rocked the ground they stood on.  Sending a fireball into the air, all the students look on in amazement.  The fire had finally reached the propane lines that fed into the science rooms.  But with the explosion also brought the cavalry, the first fire trucks started to pull up in front of the school.  Battalion 48, from station 48 no more than a few miles down the road, came to a screeching halt. The man behind the wheel jumping out quickly with his radio in hand.  The Ladder truck was next to pull in, its crew jumping out and running to grab their tools.  While the Ladder got set up, the Engine that came in behind it stopped at the closest hydrant and one crew member grabbed the supply hose of the back and wrapped it around the hydrant so the truck could pull forward.

BattalionChief O’Brian, a crusty old man in his late 50's, ran over to the group of students and teachers as quickly as he could, he needed to know if everyone had gotten out of the building safely.  The fire was worse than anyone could have imagined, the Chief striking a 3rd alarm when they turned the final corner and saw the school.

“Is everyone out!?”  He yelled.

“Yes!  All the students and faculty are out, there is no one in the building,” Principal Talbot shouted back to the Chief.

Stopping in mid stride, the Chief turned and started to run back to his truck.  Reaching for his radio mic that was pinned to his coats chest, he radioed in that the school was empty.  Just as he got back to his truck, the Engine pulled up in front of the school and the crew jumped out.  One of the firefighters grabbing a hose line off the side and running towards the main entrance.  The fire crews scrambled to get inside to start dowsing the flames before they spread to the rest of the school, luckily only a few of the science rooms were burning.  But it wouldn’t take much for the rest of the school to catch if nothing was done, and quickly.

Alvin made quick work of his pretzel, licking the salt off his fingers when he was done.

“I wonder what they’re going to do about school now?”  Theodore asked.

“They’ll probably just send us all to another school until they fix ours,” Jeanette stated looked over at Theodore.

“Or maybe they will just give us a vacation,” Alvin said as he patted Theodore on the shoulder.

“Sure Alvin, like that’ll ever happen,” Simon said rolling his eyes.

“Can’t blame me for dreaming,” Alvin grumbled.

Dave was talking on the phone while the boys sat in front of the TV at home, it was nearly 6:30pm and they had only just gotten home.  After the Fire Department was able to douse most of the flames, they had the students moved to a neighboring school where their parents could come and pick them up.  It took hours for everything to get sorted out, but finally Dave was able to pick them up and take them home.

Now relaxing after a rather stressful day, the boys were watching the news coverage on the fire.  There was no word yet on what had caused it, only that it started in one of the science rooms and spread through the halls and into other rooms.  There was also no news on what the school was going to do with all the students now that the school was unusable.  Dave was on the phone with Mrs Miller, she had picked the girls up at about the same time Dave got the boys.  They were both discussing the fire, and what they were going to do if the kids had to stay home for awhile with both of them having to work.

“I just don’t know Mrs Miller, from what I understand it started in the Science room and spread from there,” Dave said as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

“You don’t suppose one of the students could have started it, do you?”  Mrs Miller asked as she too sat in her kitchen, the girls at the counter washing up after dinner.

“I seriously hope not,” Dave said with a sigh, “But we can’t rule out that possibility just yet.”

“Well I do hope they figure it out soon, the girls are pretty upset about it,” Mrs Miller said as she looked at her three girls, “I think seeing all that and knowing it could have been a classmate has really shaken them up.”

“I know what you mean, the boys have been glued to the TV since we got home,” Dave said peering around the corner and into the living room, “I think they want to know what happened more than we do.”

“Hopefully they find out soon, and they get things back to normal,” Mrs Miller said.

“Agreed,” Dave said with a nod, “Well Mrs Miller its about time I get going, I’ve got to talk to the boys and get them ready for bed.”

“Same here, it was nice talking with you David,” Mrs Miller said as she got up from her seat at the kitchen table.

“Talk to you later, bye Mrs Miller.”

Dave hung the phone up, he reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose.  This day had nearly drained all the life out of him, and to think it all started out so peacefully.  After hearing that the school was on fire, Dave practically hyperventilated until he saw that they boys were okay.  Walking from the kitchen to the living room, Dave decided he would join the boys on the couch and watch some tv.  Just to try and calm his nerves, he would try and find something funny to watch.

“Hey guys, scootch over a bit,” Dave said to the boys as he went to sit down, the boys all sprawled out on the couch.

They all shifted and sat up as little as possible to give Dave some room to sit, their eyes glued to the news as they watched the aerial shots of their burning school over and over again.  Not a one of them said a word, and that was enough to irritate Dave at this point.  Grabbing the remote, Dave changed the TV to the guide channel.

“Hey!  We were watching that!”  Alvin shouted when the picture changed.

“Yeah Dave, we wanted to see what they said caused the fire,” Theodore pouted as he sat all the way up.

“I know you guys want to see it, but I think we’ve all had enough of that for one day,” Dave said as he held the remote away from a grabbing Alvin, “Besides it will be in the paper tomorrow morning, you can read all about it then.”

“But Dave!?  That’s not until tomorrow morning!?”  Alvin complained.

“That’s the point Alvin, now be quite and lets watch okay?”  Dave said as he flipped through the channels.

Dave moved through the channels quickly, looking for something even the least bit uplifting.  Finally he stumbled across a channel that was airing an old episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos, that was sure to cheer him and the boys up.

“Here we go guys, how about this,” Dave said with a smile as he set the remote down.

None of the boys really seemed interested, they were still so focused on today’s events that even their favorite show wasn’t enough to snap them out of it.  Dave sighed, he didn’t know what to do, maybe the best thing was to put them to bed early and figure it all out in the morning.  He knew that the school was probably scrambling to find a place to stick the displaced students, and word may not come for quite some time.  That meant that Dave would have to start bringing the boys to work, as much of a pain as it would be to try and keep them from destroying his office while they were there.  It was better than leaving them home unattended where they could get into even more trouble.

As Dave pondered his choices, a knock at the door came.  Picking his head up, Dave was about to get up and go answer it.  But Alvin beat him too it, kicking his brothers and he scrambled for the door.

“I’ll get it!”  Alvin shouted as he tried to keep his footing as he ran in his socks.

Alvin slid up to the door and grabbed the handle, nearly falling over Alvin opened the door and let it swing open as he used the handle to catch himself.  Behind the door, Mr Talbot stood waiting, a brow lifted as he watched Alvin struggle with the door.

“Having trouble are we Alvin?”  Mr Talbot asked as he held the door open so it wouldn’t shut under Alvin’s weight.

“Nope, every things under control,” Alvin said as he pulled himself up.

“Mr Talbot?  What brings you here?”  Dave asked as he, Simon and Theodore walked up to the door.

“Yeah, shouldn’t you still be at the school?” Theodore added as he stood behind Dave’s leg.

“Well I actually just returned from the school Theodore,” Mr Talbot said as Alvin opened the door all the way.

“Oh, well would you care to come in?”  Dave offered with a smile.

“Yes please, there are a few things I would like to discus with you anyways,” Mr Talbot said as he slowly walked inside.