Hidden Talent
Yeah I'm back! I'm here to write a one-shot that was requested by a friend who's been reading ALL my stories for almost two years now.
The Chipmunks and Chipettes were walking home from school one warm, spring afternoon. Each one was having a nice conversation with their counterpart. Well, in Alvin and Brittany's case, an argument.
"So have you decided what you're going to do for the science fair?" Simon asked Jeanette.
"I may not be doing it this year," Jeanette replied bashfully.
"Really? Why not?"
"I don't think I'll have the time," Jeanette replied, hoping he wouldn't ask for details.
"Oh, how come?"
Jeanette cringed inside.
"Well…um…hey, what time is it anyway?" she asked, trying to change the subject and plus, she really was trying to keep track of time.
"It's almost 3:30," Simon replied, peering down at his watch. "Why?"
"Oh shoot," she said, "I gotta be somewhere. See you guys!"
Jeanette gripped the straps on her backpack and took off running ahead of the others.
"Where's she off to?" Alvin asked, looking at Simon and the other two Chipettes.
Simon, Theodore, and the other two girls shrugged.
"She's been disappearing around this time a lot lately," Eleanor mentioned. "I wonder what she's up to. I hope it's nothing bad."
"Maybe she's getting into something bad; like drugs or alcohol. Maybe she's buying drugs!" Brittany suggested dramatically.
Eleanor scoffed.
"That's absurd Britt," she said. "Jeanette wouldn't do something like that."
"Maybe she met a boy that she likes, but she doesn't want us to know about him," Theodore suggested.
Simon cringed.
"Well I suppose that's more likely than Brittany's suggestion," Eleanor responded, "but I can't think of any reasons why she wouldn't want any of us to know about it."
"Yeah me either," Theodore replied.
"Maybe we should just ask her before we jump to conclusions. That'd make more sense, wouldn't it?" Simon added.
"Simon's right," Eleanor responded. "That would be the best thing to do."
"Suit yourselves," Alvin finally spoke up, "but I think that Jeanette's brain is being controlled by ALIENS."
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"You stick to that logic, Alvin," Simon said sarcastically, "and we'll just ask her about it."
"Okay, but don't come crying to me when the aliens go after your brains too," Alvin retorted.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Brittany and Jeanette walked in their front door and saw Miss Miller washing dishes in the kitchen.
"Hello girls!" she greeted them cheerfully. "Have a good day?"
"Yes Miss Miller," they said in unison.
"By the way," Eleanor spoke up, "is Jeanette around? She rushed off somewhere while we were walking home and we haven't seen her since."
"No," Miss Miller replied. "She's tutoring another student who needs some help catching up in class."
"Oh," Eleanor replied, "that makes sense. We were wondering why she kept disappearing around this time almost everyday lately."
"Yes, it's so thoughtful and selfless of her to give up the science fair this year to help a fellow student," Miss Miller said, grinning.
"Yeah, blah, blah," Brittany said rudely, "so what's for dinner tonight?"
"Tacos!" Miss Miller cheered.
"Yay!"
"Now you ladies go start on your homework and I'll let you know when dinner's ready," Miss Miller said.
"Yes, Miss Miller," they replied, and then ran up the stairs.
"Wow, I never knew I could lie so well," Miss Miller thought aloud as she went back to doing her dishes.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Excellent Jeanette," the guitar instructor said to her with a grin, "you're picking up on this very quickly."
"Thank you," Jeanette said with a timid grin, her purple acoustic guitar in her lap. "I'm trying to get this down enough to where I can play and sing a certain song at our concert next weekend."
"Well I guess that depends on what song you're planning to play."
"This one…" Jeanette pulled out a song that she'd bought and printed out and showed it to her instructor. The instructor looked it over.
"Well if you keep working at this rate, this song will be a snap!"
"You really think so?"
"Oh, absolutely," the instructor assured her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Jeanette returned home around eight o'clock, well after dark.
Miss Miller was just finishing up the dishes from dinner in the kitchen, and other than the sound of water running and dishes lightly banging against the inside of the sink, the house was silent.
"Oh Jeanette, you're home!" Miss Miller greeted her. "How was school today?"
"Um…it was pretty good," she replied.
"That's good deary. Now you hurry upstairs and get your homework done, and don't forget to eat. I put some tacos in the microwave for you."
"Okay, thanks Miss Miller," Jeanette said as she headed up the stairs to her room that she shared with her sisters.
Jeanette entered her room and saw her sisters changing into their pajamas, and getting ready for bed.
"Oh hi Jeanette," Eleanor greeted her, grinning warmly. "How was the tutoring?"
"What?" Jeanette questioned, before realizing what was going on. "Oh…it went pretty well."
"Who are you tutoring anyway?" Brittany asked as she turned from her vanity to look at her sister as she brushed her mid-length auburn hair.
"Um…well…the student wants me to keep it a secret…they're a little embarrassed by it," Jeanette improvised a convincing lie.
"Oh come on, we won't tell," Brittany pried. "Just tell us."
"Don't worry, Jeanette," Eleanor said, "you don't have to tell us. Brittany's just being nosy. Probably best she doesn't know anyways since we all know she CAN'T keep a secret anyway."
"I can too!" Brittany argued as she lay her brush down on her vanity.
"Oh really?" Eleanor argued back. "Name one secret of ours that you haven't blabbed."
Brittany thought for a second.
"Exactly," Eleanor said, fixing to brush off the subject anyway.
Brittany huffed spitefully, knowing she'd just lost the argument and turned back to her vanity mirror.
"I hope you guys don't mind staying up just a bit longer so I can do my homework. This won't take long, I don't have much to do," Jeanette spoke up as she took her math homework and a notebook out of her backpack.
"No it's fine," Ellie said. "We know you're fast at getting work done anyway. You're so smart."
Jeanette blushed.
"Thanks," she said bashfully, "I try."
"Can't you at least tell us if it's boy or a girl?" Brittany pried once more, getting back on the subject.
"Why does it even matter?" Jeanette asked, showing a little fatigue. "I can't tell you who it is, so why do you need to know if it's a guy or a girl?"
"You said you couldn't TELL me, you didn't say you couldn't narrow it down and I could figure it out on my own," Brittany explained.
"I'm not telling you anything Britt," Jeanette replied calmly. "There's no need for you to know so I don't understand why you wanna know so bad."
"Just because I'd like to know," Brittany whined, "what if it's one of my friends?"
"Then maybe they'll tell you on their own, and if not, obviously you weren't meant to know about it, so just drop the subject and let Jeanette finish her homework so she can eat and then get some rest," Eleanor cut in.
Brittany sighed with annoyance.
"Fine," she mumbled.
"And…I'm done," Jeanette announced as she closed her notebook and put it back in her backpack.
"Wow, I think that's a new record!" Eleanor cheered, joking.
Jeanette laughed.
"I don't know," she said, "I don't keep track."
She climbed off of her bed and left the room to go to the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat. She walked down the stairs feeling great. Her homework was done, her plans were going great so far, and now she could eat a meal not having to worry about a thing since for now, everything was out of the way.
She entered the kitchen as Miss Miller was finishing the dishes.
"Done your homework already?" she asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Jeanette replied. "I just had to do math homework tonight."
She opened the microwave and got out the plate that had two hard tacos on it, and sat down at the table.
Miss Miller looked around to make certain the other two Chipettes weren't around.
"So how's the…you know, going?" she asked, her voice somewhat low.
"Very good," Jeanette replied, perking up. "My instructor says if I keep learning at the rate I am, I'll be all set to play that song at our next concert."
"Well that's great to hear," Miss Miller responded, grinning. "So I guess you still want it to be a secret from the others?"
"Yes, I want it to be a surprise."
"That's fine deary. I'm gonna go get ready for bed. Go to bed as soon as you're done eating."
"Yes, Miss Miller," Jeanette responded obediently.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After school the next day, Jeanette had a short guitar class and took her guitar home afterward since she knew her sisters weren't gonna be home. They were going to be staying after school for a few hours to work on a project.
Jeanette began to practice her song that she was going to play at the concert, and attempted to sing along with it. She found it was too hard, so she decided to master the music before she tried adding the vocals.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After a whole hour of practice, Jeanette had the music to the song down almost perfectly. She was very pleased with herself.
"Okay, now to try it with the vocals," she thought aloud, and began playing the song.
"They say, this town the stars stay up all night,
Well I don't know, Can't see em,
For the glow of the neon lights,
And it's a long way,
From here, to the place where the home fires burn,
Well it's two-thousand miles and one left turn,
Dear mom and dad,
Please send money,
I'm so broke that it ain't funny,
Well I don't need much just enough to get me through,
Please don't worry 'cause I'm alright,
See I'm playing here at the bar tonight,
Well this time I'm gonna make our dreams come true,
Well I love you more than anything in the world,
Love, your baby girl,"
"That was awesome!"
Jeanette jumped at the sound of a familiar high pitched voice behind her. She turned around quickly to see Alvin staring back at her, with a look of total shock.
"Alvin! What…what are you doing here?!"
"I had to drop something off to Miss Miller," Alvin explained. "I never knew you could play guitar! You're awesome at it!"
"Thanks…but no one was supposed to know about this! It was supposed to be a secret!"
Alvin looked bewildered.
"Why would you wanna keep such a great talent a secret?"
"Because I wanted to surprise everyone at our next concert," Jeanette explained with disappointment in her voice. "But now I guess the cat's out of the bag."
"Hey, I won't tell anyone…if you play that song for me one more time," Alvin said, nudging her playfully.
"Do you promise?"
"I promise. I won't breathe a word of it," Alvin reassured her.
"Thanks," she said graciously.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Chipmunks and Chipettes finished up their final song for the night, or so they thought.
The host came up to the mic as the curtain closed.
"And now, to wrap up the concert, here's Jeanette Miller singing and playing 'Baby Girl'!"
Jeanette walked up to the mic with her purple guitar and began to play the song she'd been practicing so hard on.
"They say this town, the stars stay up all night,
Well I don't know,
I can't see em,
For the glow of the neon lights,
And it's a long way from here to the place where the home fires burn,
Well it's two-thousand miles and one left turn,
Dear mom and dad,
Please send money,
I'm so broke that it ain't funny,
Well I don't need much,
Just enough to get me through,
Please don't worry 'cause I'm alright,
See I'm playing here at the bar tonight,
Well this time I'm gonna make our dreams come true,
Well I love you more than anything in the world,
Love, your baby girl,
Black top, Blue sky,
Big town full of little white lies,
Well everybody's your friend you can never be sure,
They'll promise fancy cars and diamond rings,
All sorts of shiny things,
But girl you'll remember what your knees are for,
Dear mom and dad,
Please send money,
I'm so broke that it ain't funny,
Well I don't need much,
Just enough to get me through,
Please don't worry 'cause I'm alright,
See I'm playing here at the bar tonight,
Well this time I'm gonna make our dreams come true,
Well I love you more than anything in the world,
Love, your baby girl,
I know that I'm on my way,
Well I can tell every time I play,
And I know it's worth all the dues I pay,
When I can write to you and say…
Dear mom and dad,
I'll send money,
I'm so rich that it ain't funny,
Well it oughta be more than enough to get you through,
Please don't worry 'cause I'm alright,
See I'm staying here at the Ritz tonight,
What do you know we made our dreams come true,
And they're all fancy cars and diamond rings,
But you know that they don't mean a thing,
Well they all add up to nothing compared to you,
Now remember me in ribbons and curls,
I still love you more than anything in the world,
Love, your baby girl,
Oh yeah,"
Jeanette finished playing the ending, took a bow, and exited the stage, feeling extremely accomplished. She'd done what she'd always wanted to do without messing up one time.
"Jeanette!" her sisters called out as they ran up to her excitedly.
"That was amazing!" Ellie cheered.
"Why didn't you tell us you could play guitar?" Brittany asked.
"I wanted to surprise you guys!" Jeanette replied, with the grin she couldn't seem to get rid of, but loved the feeling that made it stay. "That's what I've been doing after school for the past two weeks."
"You mean you weren't actually tutoring?" Eleanor asked.
Jeanette shook her head.
Jeanette had felt more proud of herself than she ever had in her life. She overcame her shyness and accomplished something other than brainwork or reading a book. This was a very new accomplishment for her. Sure, she'd sang on stage by herself before, but she never imagined she would have the skills to sing AND play an instrument at the same time. For that night, life for Jeanette was perfect.
Sorry if it was short, but I couldn't think of much else to put in it.