OK guys. You love the cartoon chipmunks, right? Well, go to my profile and sign (or at least LOOK AT) my petition to save them and the morals they had. The live-action was funny and cute, but it WASN'T the Chipmunks I wanted to see. I want to see our Chipmunks, so help me tell Ross Jr. and Janice that Ross Sr. would NOT be proud of that movie (it goes against the morals that the Chipmunks were created on) and that the new Chipmunks, while they are up-to-date, are not the Chipmunks anymore. They're something unrecognizable and we can help show Ross and Janice how to make them up-to-date without killing who they are. And now, without further ranting, my fanfic-novel:

The Lessons they Teach

Chapter 1

Alvin pulled the blankets up over his head as the sun came up. Another day of school, another day of annoying bullies, another day of crazy teachers, another day of homework. The bullies didn't bother him, except to try to beat his lunch out of him. It was that the bullies always went after Theodore and Simon, and that got to him. For once he wished he didn't have to look after his brothers. He loved them, but he wanted them to learn how to fight back on their own.

Then there was the crazy teacher (the kind that treated Simon like he was retarded because he was smarter than everyone else) that gave out more homework than they'd ever seen before. She had a personal grudge against Alvin. Something about her granddaughter having a crush on him because he was the cutest of the Chipmunks and him not noticing…and the fact that the teacher just didn't like modern musicians. For just one day he wished he could stay home.

Alvin peeked out, noticing that Simon and Theodore had gone down for breakfast. He had to work fast, or else Dave would come up and catch him. He poked around Simon's stuff, wondering what his brother had kept up in their room. There was a formula that Simon was making to find a way to heat things up without a microwave, and it said that it was non-toxic but side-effects if ingested were unknown. Oh well. If it could give him a fake fever, Alvin was all for it.

"Alvin?" Dave called through the door. "Are you coming down for breakfast?" Alvin scrambled for a hiding place for the bottle, making himself dizzy. "Alvin?"

"Coming!" he called back, his voice cracking a bit as he started coughing. That potion wasn't agreeing with him much. Good.

"Are you ok?" Dave opened the door, finding Alvin sitting on his bed as he coughed. All of a sudden Alvin felt his body heating up, but his skin was feeling colder than usual. That couldn't be good.

"I…think…" He put on his most innocent look, just going with it. "I think I might be sick…" Dave's hand rested on his forehead for a moment.

"You don't feel warm…is it just a cough?"

"Apparently…But…" He started coughing again. It was more his throat than anything. Had the potion somehow gotten stuck? That wouldn't make any sense…it was a drink…

"Come downstairs and get something to drink. Maybe that will help."

"Sure…" When was it going to raise his temperature? He wanted a fever (a small one that would get him out of school but not actually make him sick).

"Are you ok?" Theodore asked as his brother was led into the kitchen. "You looked better ten minutes ago…"

"I was asleep ten minutes ago." He drank the water Dave gave him and instantly felt better. It was ice cold, comforting to his burning insides. Still, he looked terrible from the small ordeal…maybe he could get out of school.

"Better?" Dave asked, watching Alvin closely. The chipmunk let out a small cough, but it wasn't genuine. He sat down, resting his head on the table. Again, Dave checked for a temperature, and again there was nothing. "You feel cold, actually…Well, the temperature is going down. Are you two cold at all?"

"Not really," Simon said. "I actually got a little over heated last night."

"Hm…" Alvin looked up hopefully. "Alvin, are you sure you don't feel good?"

"I feel sick," was the hesitated reply. Simon left the table quietly as Dave sat down.

"Tell me exactly how you feel."

"Well…there was the coughing…and I'm a bit diz…"

"Wait!" Simon said as he ran back in.

"What?" Simon stuck a sticker to Alvin's forehead. "What's that?"

"Just talk. Are you sick?"

"Yes…" Something started beeping.

"Sick or just trying to skip school?"

"Sick." The beeping continued. "What is that?"

"My portable lie detector." Alvin growled a bit.

"I don't feel very good though…" The beeping kept up. "But I was coughing really bad…" No beeping. "See? I am sick." The beeping picked back up, getting more growls out of Alvin. He really didn't feel good on the inside, but it was more nervousness now.

"You were probably just coughing because you needed a drink." While Simon felt bad ratting out his brother like that, he couldn't stand going to school without Alvin these days. He was starting to get a bit fearful of the bully. Alvin glanced to his other side, shrinking away a bit at Dave's glare. Without a word, Dave got up and served the three their breakfasts.

"Thanks," Alvin hissed quietly to his brother.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Alvin," Dave called after school. He'd told the oldest chipmunk that morning to give him the day to think about what had just happened, and now Alvin was home and his brothers were upstairs. Time to talk. "Is there any particular reason you didn't want to go to school today?"

"It's been to long since we've had a day off."

"You get weekends off. And I let you fellas skip a day if a concert or recording session got too late into the night. How is that too long?"

"With a teacher like ours, two days a week would be too long. She's nuts! Just ask Simon. He'd agree with me." Dave sighed and shook his head a bit.

"Alvin, you can't skip school for anything, except your health. Weather you like it or not, you're going to have that teacher all year, so you might as well get used to her. I agree she's a little…out of the ordinary, but that's just something you to learn to live with."

"But Dave, we've been hoping to get the other teacher since we first heard about her! And that was in first grade! Kids have told horror stories from being in her class."

"Probably to scare the kids that were coming into the grade. I bet she's a really nice teacher if you give her a chance. Now, no more trying to skip school, ok?" Alvin crossed his arms, glaring a bit. "Alvin…"

"Fine. But that doesn't change how I feel about Miss Montgomery."

"Don't expect it to. Go get your homework done." Alvin was relieved to run off ungrounded.

"Alvin!" Simon complained as he reached their room. "Have you seen my latest…?"

"Potion?" Alvin interrupted. "No. Not since you were working on it last night."

"I just had this huge idea about how it could be better used to…"

"Simon, I really don't care right now…Well, it's not that I don't care, it's that I probably won't understand whatever you say anyway." Alvin dropped his bag on the floor, jumping up onto his bed. Suddenly he really didn't feel so good.

"Are you sick now?" Theodore asked, climbing up beside his brother on the bed. "You look even worse than when you came down for breakfast." This time it was the youngest chipmunk that was checking for a fever.

"Don't bother. I don't have one." He buried his face in his pillow. "I'm just so sick of school."

"We've only been in school for two months."

"I know…this year is just so…" He rolled over, tugging at his hair a bit. "Gah! I just can't stand it. We didn't do anything last summer…we've never not done anything."

"You'd figure after we went around the world in a hot air balloon that would be enough excitement for one childhood," Simon mumbled as he looked under his bed.

"That was fun, yeah…but last summer was so boring in comparison."

"Anything would be boring in comparison. Alvin, we saw half the world in just over a month…and then we were kidnapped by diamond smugglers!"

"Heh. Only for about ten minutes before Ms. Miller ran them off the road."

"We lost all our souvenirs," Theodore sighed. "Well, except the clothes the natives gave us."

"If those can count as clothes," Simon laughed as he stood up. "Where is it? Alvin, are you sure you haven't seen it?"

"I'm positive," Alvin groaned. He wasn't going to tell Simon he drank the thing. It was crazy enough drinking it. Now Simon was saying it was something else all together…Alvin just hoped he hadn't just poisoned himself to death. It said non-toxic. His head hurt. "I think I'm going to sleep some…"

"Take a nap?"

"Taking naps are for babies. I'm just going to sleep a little bit." Alvin kicked off his shoes, crawled under his blankets, and almost instantly falling asleep.