Chip-ergarten
About This Story: The Chipmunks start Kindgarten and meet some mysterious new friends, the Chipettes. Some similarities may overlap with "The Squeakquel", only they are in Kindergarten. Warning: some chapters contain some harsher adult(-ish) themes, even though age-wise they are 5. I don't own any part of the Chipmunk franchise, just borrowing them from Nickelodeon, Janice Karman, & Ross Bagdasarian, their family, & their company.
About This Chapter: Rated G-PG, this chapter is just an intro, setting the stage without anything very remarkable happening. The boy chipmunks and girl chipmunks see each other for the first time, but don't officially meet yet.
Pairings: Alvin/Brittany, Simon/Jeanette, Theodore/Eleanor
1. First Day Of Kindergarten
Miss Garcia gave a warm and friendly smile to welcome her fifteen students for their first day of Kindergarten.
Simon liked her already, and was excited to learn. He was even happy to get started with the first warm-up assignment of drawing a picture including himself as well as his family. He was currently sitting at a plastic picnic table on the front row with his brother Alvin sitting to his left, closer to the front of the classroom. His other brother Theodore was across from them. Their classmates sat at some long tables that were too high for him to reach as a humanoid chipmunk, which was why he shared a small table with his younger brothers.
The three of them were all wearing denim jean shorts, tennis shoes, and socks in their signature colors. They were also wearing polo shirts in their signature colors, with their first initials embroidered on their shirt pockets in golden thread. There were two buttons plunging a few inches below the collar on each boy's shirt. Simon had both of his buttoned, Theodore just had his bottom one buttoned, and Alvin left both of his unbuttoned.
After Ms Garcia spoke with some other adults at the door - perhaps one was a staff member of the school, and the other was a parent - but the kids didn't care, she placed a second plastic picnic table on the front row, right next to the boys' table. "Sorry, I don't want to interrupt anyone right now, just keep drawing." She apologized as she placed the second table right behind Simon and Alvin.
In a few moments, Ms Garcia got the class's attention. "Class, I have an announcement to make. Please clap your hands twice if you can hear me." Once the class complied, she continued. "We have a last-minute change to the class roster, so now we have three new students joining us." She looked towards the door, "Welcome, girls!"
Through the doorway walked - it couldn't be, thought the Chipmunk brothers especially - three girl humanoid chipmunks. They couldn't help but stare in amazement, since they didn't know there were other humanoid chipmunks out there. The boys had thought they were the only three of their kind in existence.
The three girl chipmunks were wearing plaid jumpers with peasant-top short-sleeved blouses in a paler shade than the dominant color on their jumper, with hair-bows and socks to match. They also had on neckties to match their jumpers, and saddle shoes. The girl in the middle had her golden-and-strawberry-blonde hair in a ponytail. Her outfit was mostly pink in color, and the expression on her face seemed to say she was not afraid of anything. She held the hands of the other two girls - her sisters? - and seemed to lead them inside. The girl holding her right hand looked smaller, and had her platinum-blonde hair in pigtails. Her outfit was mostly a minty-green color, and she shyly kept her right thumb in her mouth. Holding the left hand of the girl in pink was a taller girl with darker brown hair pulled into a cutely disheveled and lopsided bun. This one wore mostly purple on her outfit, and had magenta glasses frames. She wasn't even looking up at the class most of the time, and when she did happen to look at them she quickly looked away as if she were afraid of them.
Ms Garcia continued, "Class, these are the Chipette sisters. This is Brittany..." She pointed to the fearless girl in pink, "...Jeanette..." She pointed to the shy girl in purple, "...and Eleanor." She pointed to the one wearing pigtails and minty-green. "Let's all say 'hi' and make them feel welcome."
"Hi!" The class greeted them in unison.
The girls all smiled a little more at this, but the girl in pink continued as though she were the designated speaker of the trio, "Thank you!"
"And you girls can sit right here..." Ms Garcia showed them the other plastic picnic table. She helped them get situated so that Jeanette's back was to Simon's back, Brittany's back was to Alvin's back, and Eleanor was sitting across from them. She and Theodore were facing each other, but they still couldn't see each other over their older siblings. But there was still another gap of about ten feet between the tables. It was Ms Garcia's strategy to ensure they paid better attention in class.
Ms Garcia made her "rounds" walking around the room and checking on the students while they worked, after she explained the assignment to the Chipettes. As she walked by the Chipmunk table, she asked, "So, boys, are these new girls some of your long-lost sisters or cousins?"
Simon spoke up once the three brothers shook their heads, "Sorry, we've never seen them before in our lives. I don't know if we're related to them or not."
"OK, thank you, Simon." Ms Garcia kept walking around. Once she came to the table with the girl chipmunks, she asked, "So, girls, did any of you know the boy chipmunks at the other table? Or do you know if you're cousins to them?"
The girls looked at each other and shook their heads. Brittany shrugged, "We've heard of them as a singing group, since we also sing together, but I don't think we're related to them."
Jeanette muttered, "We've only lived in California for a year. Before that, I think we grew up in North Carolina, but I'm not sure. So I don't think we're related to them, either."
Brittany gently nudged her sister to be quiet, but apologized to their teacher. "Sorry, Jeanette dreams and daydreams so much we're not always sure if her memories are of real life or if she just imagined them."
"But I'd still like to play with them." Eleanor smiled.
Brittany shot her a brief glare, but told Ms Garcia, "Our manager is actually uncomfortable with us hanging around people or meeting people - including other kids - he doesn't know. Some 'professional' reasons or something, I'm not sure why."
"Hmm..." Ms Garcia thought for a moment. "Well, you don't have to play with them, but while you are in my class, I still expect all of my students to be kind and respectful to everyone else in this class. Understand?" She stated firmly but kindly.
"Yes, Ms Garcia." The three of them agreed.
Once the teacher moved on to check on other students, Brittany whispered to her sisters, "I thought we agreed I would do the talking. There is just some information about us that Uncle Ian says we are only to tell on a need-to-know basis, and he said that teachers and other adults do not need to know. And he also said we are not to talk to or play with the Chipmunks. He wants us in the same class only so we can keep tabs on them or spy on them. He says 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.' Remember, they are our enemies, and they are not to be trusted."
"OK..." Her sisters both agreed.
Jeanette asked them, "But the Chipmunks seem harmless enough, and Ms Garcia said we are to be 'kind and respectful' to them. She seems nice. I wanna be able to make her happy by being nice to everyone, but I also wanna keep Ian happy so we don't get locked in the 'Punishment Cage'... By the way, can you tell if the Chipmunks are looking over here at us, Ellie?"
Eleanor glanced through the space between her older sisters. "Not right now, the bigger two have their backs turned, keeping busy drawing their own pictures. I can't see the little one right now, but he seemed friendly and I think he was even smiling at me when we came into the room. What's his name, again? Leopold? Theodore?" She giggled. "He's kinda cute!"
"We'll just have to keep our distance from them." Brittany reminded them. "But something tells me it's gonna be harder than we first thought..."
Meanwhile at the Chipmunks' table, Simon whispered to his brothers, "Guys, I didn't know there were other talking humanoid chipmunks like us in existence. If we ever met more, I especially didn't think they would be our age, or that they would be female."
"They seem nice." Theodore stated without looking up from his work. "I hope we get to meet them and play with them later."
"Dibs on that one in pink!" Alvin giggled. "She's cute!"
"Alvin!" Simon shushed him. "We don't even know them yet! I just think it's odd that we thought we were the only humanoid chipmunks, but now we learn there are three others? And they are females our age, and they joined our very same class at the last minute? Something just seems suspicious about this whole thing. I don't know... Theodore, can you tell what they are doing right now?"
Theodore peeked through the space between his two older brothers. "They seem to be minding their own business. At least the two taller ones are, but I can't see the little one in the pigtails right now. She seemed sweet and friendly..."
Ms Garcia interrupted the Chipmunks' and Chipettes' mutual daydreams to tell the class to stand up, and she led the class in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. When they sat back down in their seats, she introduced the next lesson. It wasn't long before the bell rang for lunch. The students all formed a single-file line with their lunch boxes in hand at the door.
A/N: I didn't want to take too much from "The Squeakquel", especially the "sacred" scene by the lockers, and the interactions that followed. Sure, there is a mutual attraction (if you can call it that), but they are 5 in this story. Of course, being rockstars who get around, I would think they might still be a bit precocious for 5-year-olds. Eleanor confusing Theodore's name is a nod to the Nickelodeon cartoon episode "Carts And Crafts", where Ms Croner does the same thing.