Before you begin reading i would like to point out this is a sequel to 'Afraid to take a Chance' and I'd Advise you read that before reading this. You don;t have to but the story will make more sense if you do.

Apart from that please read, review and enjoy

It was a quiet day in the Seville household. Too quiet in fact, when you consider it was a lovely summer's day, and a school holiday to boot. It was in fact the Last day of the summer holidays, a day to be cherished.

Dave had gone to work early, as he usually did at this time of year, hoping to avoid the heavy traffic associated with holidays and everyone left in the house was fast asleep.

Well actually only Alvin and Theodore were truly asleep. Simon was out of bed but he wasn't yet in a state that could be classed as completely awake; In fact, he was in much the same 'zombified' state Alvin was every Monday morning.

With a loud yawn and prolonged stretch, he crossed the living room making for the kitchen and breakfast. He gave the ample pile of mail that lay by the front door only a fleeting glimpse, deciding to ignore it for the moment and concentrate on getting breakfast ready before Alvin and Theodore woke up.

Two short jumps propelled him first onto the table then onto the breakfast bar. To his surprise, he found that Breakfast already taken care of. Three toaster waffles sat on a plate, still warm from the toaster, with a hastily scrawled note sitting beside them.

"Gone to work, be back about six, Dave" Simon mumbled, fiddling with his glasses to get the writing into focus. It was far too early in the morning to be reading, even for him.

With another yawn, he pulled a waffle of the top of the pile, keeping it tucked under one arm as he descended back down to the floor. Since Dave had taken care of breakfast for them, he supposed he should sort the mail.

He took a bite from the waffle as he crossed over to the front door. Six letters lay in the unorganized pile. He noticed there were no parcels, so his order still had not arrived.

Slightly irritated, his parcel was now four days late, he tucked the waffle back under his arm allowing him to pick up the letters and quickly flip through them, making mental notes as to which letter was for whom.

The vast majority appeared to be fan mail, as usual. Alvin, Alvin, Alvin, Theodore, Theodore and a Bank statement for Dave.

Simon sighed deeply, stuffing the letters under his arm allowing him to take another bite out of his waffle.

He hardly ever got fan mail he thought gloomily as he walked back towards his bedroom; it just did not seem fair. He did as much work as the other guys, he put in just as much effort but Alvin and Theodore seemed to get all the attention whilst he seemed to be ignored. He guessed that was one of the curses of being a 'Nerd' as Alvin had put it.

As he headed back to his room Simon realised that the peace and quiet he'd so far enjoyed was about to end. Alvin was awake.

Not totally, mind you. Currently he was shuffling sleepily out of his room, yawning, even more widely than Simon had, and rubbing at his eyes "Morning Simon", he groaned through his yawn

Simon neatly tossed the three letters in his brother's direction causing Alvin's face to quickly light up with greatly exaggerated surprise and excitement "Pour Moi" he gasped in that atrocious French accent of his as he scooped up the three letters lying in front of him "Oh Se-mon you shouldn't have"

Simon rolled his eyes, trying his best to ignore him. He placed the other two letters by Theodore's door, who he assumed, was still sleeping peacefully "Dave's gone to work, Breakfast is in the kitchen"

Alvin shook his head, still yawning as he spoke "I don't see how anyone can work at a time like this" he flicked through the letters in his paws, trying to decide which to open first.

Finally; however, he noticed the more-than-slightly gloomy expression on his brother's face. Simon had appeared gloomy for quite a while, about a week or so, but Alvin had not really paid much attention to it, until now "Hey bro why the long face?" he glanced down at the letters in front of him and the two for Theodore, noticing that yet again Simon had none. "No mail again?"

Simon lip seemed to tighten, as if he had bitten it, whilst he shook his head. In truth the fan mail thing didn't really bother him anymore, he had gotten used to it. No it was something else entirely that was bothering him. It was a rather disturbing event; an event that had raised some very disturbing questions in his mind, questions that he couldn't answer.

It was a rare event indeed when Simon found himself unable to answer a question, at school he usually knew the answer before the teacher had even asked the questions, but these were not the sort of questions he was used to.

At the moment, he felt like he couldn't be sure about anything, except of course, that it would be a cold day in hell before he talked to Alvin about it.

Besides, how could he possibly make Alvin understand when he didn't even understand it himself?

No, there was no way he could talk to Alvin about it, in fact there was no one who could truly trust enough to talk about it. Theodore was too young, Alvin was too immature and Dave would just overreact.

There was always Scott and Jeanette, his best friend and his not so secret crush, but they had already betrayed him. How could he ever trust them again after what they'd done?

No he was on his own for this one.

Regardless of what his younger brother may have thought of him Alvin had none the less learned to read Simon pretty well, over the years. He could tell when something was bothering him, and if it was something serious, well it had to be as it took a lot to bother Simon.

As Alvin kept looking at Simon he realised that this was no ordinary depressed spell, this was something serious. Simon was not the sort to be miserable over a few letters. He had never really cared before, so what was it?

Was it possible he was still hung up about Scott and Jeanette?

"Is something the matter Si?" It surprised Simon, and at the same time made him feel worse, when he heard the genuine concern in Alvin's voice "If something's wrong you can tell me"

What could he do? Saying something like 'its personal' or 'I'd rather not talk about it' wouldn't help at all, if anything all it would do is pour fuel on the fire of Alvin's curiosity.

In the end, it turned out he did not have to say anything. A cheeky grin spread across Alvin's face as he gave his brother a friendly nudge "come on, tell me. Is she blonde or brunette?"

Simon couldn't help but smile at his brother's truly awful attempt to try to help. It seemed that Alvin's was still incapable of taking anything seriously, and he loved him for that. He was still the same old clueless yet lovable knucklehead he had always been

"You know Alvin," he said with a smirk, "If you ever give up music you might want to consider going into psychiatry. I can sense you'd be a natural at it"

Theodore had always had a tendency to sleep in, not usually as bad as Alvin mind you, but still he liked his sleep and he didn't see anything wrong with that. He hadn't let it interfere with school, he was always up on weekdays but on holidays he saw nothing wrong with having a few extra winks.

It was probably around 10 before he got up. Quickly deciding that today would be a lazy day, it was looking lovely outside the window and the house was surprisingly quiet.

He guessed that must mean Alvin and Simon were keeping each other at arms length again.

OK so that wasn't really a new development, there had always been buckets of tension between his two brothers, they argued on an almost daily basis, usually about the most trivial things. Very occasionally, he would admit, they did argue about serious things, like when Simon stood on Alvin's skateboard and almost fell down the stairs.

Of course, Alvin had refused to take the blame, almost laughing the whole thing off. It was safe to say that Simon failed to find anything funny about it and Theodore could hardly blame him for that.

That feud that had gone on longer than most; in fact, as far as Theodore was aware, it was the current record holder.

Now however, Simon wasn't arguing, in fact he wasn't saying much at all.

Even though his brothers thought he was a bit slow, Theodore could guess with a fair amount of certainty that Simon's current problems were to do with Jeanette.

Almost the entire school had been shocked when they'd heard the Jeanette had turned Simon down, more surprise was to follow when she started dating Scott Williams only a few weeks later. Sure Scott and Simon had a lot in common, almost more than Simon had with his two brothers. He was a relatively popular guy who near enough everybody liked. He was kind, thoughtful and intelligent, but despite all this, no one could shake the feeling that he didn't fit with Jeanette, like two jigsaw pieces that had been forced together they just didn't seem to sit right.

Theodore for one had never been a great believer in destiny, it had always seemed a bit far-fetched to him and he'd always like to believe that people were in charge of their own lives, but he could also safely say the Simon and Jeanette were destined to be together. He just couldn't understand why they were both denying it.

It always made him feel sad when someone else was feeling upset, especially when it was one of his brothers.

Simon slumped across his bed, tapping half-heartedly at the keys on his laptop. With a loud sigh of exhaustion and boredom he rolled onto his back, gazing up at the plain ceiling above him.

It was best not to think about it, that's what he kept telling himself. That's what he trying to convince himself. The problem was he couldn't stop thinking about it.

That boy in the store, why had he felt the way he did? What was so special about him?

Was there something his subconscious was trying to tell him?

Could it be he was…

No he couldn't be, he wasn't.

But how could he be sure? How could he be sure of anything?

Don't think about it. There's nothing you can do about it so don't think about it. You'll only make things worse. No matter how much staring and soul searching you do you'll never find the answer, so just think of something else.

Why? What's the problem in thinking about it? If I'm… like that, then I shouldn't be afraid of it. There's nothing wrong with it.

I know that and you know that, but you also know that what you and I think doesn't matter. It's what others think that's important.

That's bull; I don't care what other people think of me. I'm proud of who I am.

Is that why you let Scott take your girl without a word?

She's not my girl; she doesn't belong to anyone. Besides it's her choice to make, I can't force her to feel the same way that I do

So you don't care that she's seeing your best friend?

Of course I care, but she said no. I have to respect that

Ha, and you claim to love her. You're pathetic

Shut up. Scott is my friend, Jeanette is my friend So long as their happy that's all that matters

He swallowed hard. That's all that matters.

But was it?

He let out another sigh slid off the bed, crossing his, as always, impeccably tidy room to his desk. It was only a cheap desk, made of veneered MDF, but it was still his desk. The place where all his ideas were written down, where all his work was done the place he spent most of his time.

The desk itself was cover in neatly organised piles of paper, a few books and a single unfinished model, but none of this held his attention. He only had eyes for one thing. A single framed photograph, sitting pride of place above all the papers and books.

He reached out a paw and gently lifted it off desk, careful to keep his fingers from smudging the glass.

Even feeling the way he was, he couldn't help but smile at the picture.

It was a photo of them just after their first joint concert with the Chipettes. That had been a great day, in one evening he had regained his faith in his brother (if only partially), He'd made three new friends and they'd saved the music department.

They were all there, Theodore and Eleanor were hugging and Brittany was sporting a very impressive set of Bunny ears kindly donated by Alvin, whilst Simon himself had one arm around Jeanette. Everyone was smiling, Everyone was happy.

What had happened to that magic?

She had seemed so happy with him. He had been so sure that they had been meant to be together. They had seemed like a perfect couple, they had so much in common. Eleanor and Theodore were together, even if not officially yet, and Brittany and Alvin were dating but he and Jeanette were 'just friends'.

Those Three words 'just be friends' he had never imagined that words could hurt that much. They'd pierced him like an ice pick right to the heart.

Why had she said? Why? What was it that Scott had that he didn't? Even after all this time, he was still unable to come up with an answer.

Things had been so perfect between them. From the moment he'd met her he'd known she was 'the one', he'd known he'd wanted to be more than friends with her. Maybe his reaction to the guy in the store was just a way of forcing himself to admit that Jeanette was gone. They were just friends, he had to accept that, even if he didn't like it.

He slid the photo back into it's place on the desk, face down.

She was with someone else now. His best friend. He had to move on, no matter how painful it was.

He had to.

Theodore fiddled with the warm, and rather slippery taps until the gentle flow of warm water stopped. Grabbing the towel that he'd strategically placed near the shower he stepped out, rubbing his fur a vigorously as he could with the dry towel.

It may have been the holidays, a time for relaxing but Theodore couldn't help but think about tomorrow, After all tomorrow was the big day, back to school day.

Normally he wasn't too happy at the prospect of going 'back to school', seriously who did? Nevertheless, back to school time meant that he would get to see Eleanor again. He had hardly seen her at all during the summer holidays and he missed her, he missed her so much.

Carefully wrapping the towel around his middle, he walked over to the bathroom mirror. He wanted to make sure he looked his best for Eleanor. She had said that he always looked fine, but it never hurt to put a little extra effort in for the girl you loved.

Yes, he admitted it he loved her, it was no secret. He was in love, and tomorrow would be the day he told her, of that you could be sure.

With one paw holding the towel in place, he skilfully used the other to rearrange his hair. He ran his paw through his hair making it stick up in rough spikes, then flattened it all down, then he tried slicking it all back, pausing for a few seconds after each styling before deciding that it didn't really suit him. Eventually, and somewhat predictably, he decided to leave his hair the way it had been.

He opened his mouth as wide as he could and probed at each of his white teeth in turn with his tongue. He could still taste the strong mint toothpaste from earlier and the disgusting mouthwash he'd used and vowed never to touch again. He wondered why it was that nobody had ever made a toothpaste that wasn't mint flavoured, just who had decided that all toothpastes must be minty? What was so special about mint?

Deciding as usual not to dwell on it, he closed his mouth and smiled at his reflection. He was feeling confident, which was not something he got to say a lot.

He found his eyes wandering around the bathroom before focusing on the array of bottle arranged on the bathroom shelf. The bottles where clustered into little groups according to owner; there was his, Simon's, Dave's and, by far the largest, Alvin's.

Suddenly curious to see just why Alvin needed so many bottles Theodore plucked one at random from the Alvin group, and almost collapsed with laughter as he read the label.

It was a medium sized green glass bottle with 'Brut' written on it in big letters.

That was Alvin for you.

Suddenly feeling curious, Theodore unscrewed the lid and walked back over to the mirror.

What the hell, he thought, what was the worst that could happen?

He tipped the bottle up, splashing a small amount onto his right paw and began rubbing it on his cheeks. If it worked for Alvin the it should have some effect on Eleanor shouldn't it?

As he continued to beautify himself for tomorrow he noticed something in the mirror that made him stop. Very quickly his smile faded and icy fear began to work it's way up his back.

Was that a spot?

Putting down the bottle, he began desperately parting his fur in the suspected area. This couldn't be happening, not now, not today, Could Chipmunks even get Acne?

Before he could investigate, further there was a knocking at the door "Are you going to be much longer?" It was Alvin sounding rather impatient, as most people wanting the bathroom do "There's a queue forming out here"

Quickly deciding that his possible spot could wait, Theo rapidly fixed the lid back on the brut and shoved it back onto Alvin's shelf. He only jus made it out the door in time. Alvin rolled his eyes as he moved past Theodore but didn't say anything.

All the way back to his room, Theodore found himself rubbing his cheek where his suspected spot was. It just had to be today didn't it!

Considering it was the last day of summer, the last day before school started up again, the day seemed to crawl by with almost agonisingly slow speed.

Simon was lying on his bed again, once more looking up at the ceiling. He wondered just what it was about his ceiling that had captivated him so. What was it that had made him stare at it almost all day?

He knew the answer already, it was a rhetorical question really.

The simple truth was he felt hollow, incomplete, as if a part of him was missing and he didn't know why. He didn't know why he was feeling this way.

Was it Jeanette? Was he still upset for her saying no all those weeks ago or was it the stranger from the shop? The boy that had made him feel so… good.

Was it really possible that he could be pining over someone he didn't even know? If so then why had it been a guy?

No matter how many times he asked himself those questions he could not seem to get an answer, and that annoyed him.

When it had been Jeanette, it had been so simple. He was a boy, she was a girl and they both seemed to like each other. Then she had rejected him and everything had fallen apart. He had hoped this was just part of dating, she was playing hard to get or something. That theory had been instantly dismissed, Jeanette just wasn't like that. Then again, it was becoming obvious that he didn't really know as much about her as he had thought.

He'd finally got his answer when she started going out with Scott. That had also been the final betrayal. She had rejected him after all they had been through and now she was going out with his best friend.

The simple truth was that nothing was simple anymore.

The door to his room slowly crept open, so slowly and softly that, lost in thought as he was, he did not notice.

"Simon" a timid voice sounding incredibly loud in the quiet room asked.

He managed to peel his eyes from the ceiling, to see his little brother standing in the doorway. "Oh, hello Theo. Something I can do for you?"

Theodore, shuffling slowly into the room, his eyes noticing the photo lying face down on the desk and knowing full well why "Actually" Theo responded, one tow tracing circles on Simon's floor "I was wondering if there was anything I could do for you?" Those big innocent eye's looked up at Simon in a silent plea "You don't seem to be yourself nowadays"

He had known Simon all his life and yet he had never seen him act this way before. He seemed, upset and if there was one thing Theodore could not stand it was when people were upset, especially his brothers.

Yet feeling you should help and knowing what to do where two very different things. In the past, the roles had always been reversed, with Theodore being the one who was upset and Simon successfully cheering him up. He figured that after all these years It was the least he could do to try and return the favour.

Simon managed to force a smile, which he hoped looked convincing as he lay back onto the bed "It's nothing, Theo honestly. I've just had a few things to think about" he reached out a paw and patted Theodore's shoulder "But thanks anyway"

"Is it Jeanette?" Theodore asked. Instantly he felt sorry, why had he asked that? He was pushing now. Besides you don't mention fire to someone who's recently been burned

Simon seemed to shuffle on the bed slightly, his smile vanishing in an instant "Kind of" It wasn't a lie, it was just a bit of exaggeration "To be honest Theo, I think I'm just tired" He hoped that would be enough

Theodore gave his brother an accepting nod, Simon had always known what was best and he'd given Theo no reason to doubt him now. If Simon said he was alright then that was good enough for him

"Where the hell did he come from?" Alvin's roar echoed all the way from the front room. Evidently thing's were not going well in his new game. Theo could not help but let out a short giggle and Simons forced smile quickly became genuine "It's nice to know I can talk to at least one of my brothers" suddenly Simon's face became serious and his nose began twitching.

Theodore looked up to him, slightly perturbed "What is it?"

Simon glanced back at his brother, looking slightly surprised "Theo, are… Are you wearing cologne?"