SCAVANGER HUNT

Ziggy's Corner: I've been a fan of the Munks since I was eight and they came on NBC Saturday morning cartoons, back in the eighties. I had long wished to see their movie, but unfortunately I had to have my tonsils taken out when it was in the theater. Well thankfully that's what DVD's are for! Anyway this story is a sequel the Chipmunk Adventure. It takes place eight months after the movie ends, and both Alvin and Brittany have an even bigger prize than one hundred thousand bucks flashed before them, and before you can say, "Are you out of your mind?" they drag their siblings along for the ride, along with four of their classmates.

"Dave, please… I wanna go along," Alvin whined, trailing his father.

David Seville frowned, and turned with a sigh to look at the oldest of his sons. "Let's not go through this again, Alvin. This is another important business trip… and,"

"Its just not feasible for you to take us along," Alvin moaned.

"That's right. Besides, you've been to New York before." David marched into his room, scanning it for any bags he might have left behind. "And I'll only be gone for two weeks."

"But that's practically forever, and I haven't seen all of New York, there are museums, and Broadway and…,"

"Alvin," David said, is tone warning that he had had enough. He grabbed his bags, and hurried toward the front door, this time he was positive he wasn't going to make the taxi late, like he had when he went to Europe.

"Dave, um," Simon examined his father, pushing his glasses back against his face. The young chipmunk blushed and nodded towards his father's legs.

David looked down and gasped, seeing only boxers where his pants should have been, "Oh, uh… thanks, Simon." He dropped his bags, hurried to his room, and quickly put on a pair of pants, and hurried down the stairs, just as the taxi pulled up.

"Okay guys, now look, the babysitter will be here in a few minutes. Until then, Simon you're in charge and…," Dave blinked, looking around the house. "Alvin?" Simon pointed at a buldging suit case, which caused Dave to growl, flipping the case open. There sat Alvin, chuckling nervously, nestled in a pile of his father's underpants. "Out!" David snapped, pointing towards the boys' room. His eldest grumbled and sulked away.

"Don't worry, Dave," Simon said, hurrying his father out of the house. "We'll take care of everything." Simon and Theodore waved at their father, as David got into the taxi, and pulled away. Once the taxi was out of sight, the boys went into the house, and closed the door.

"It is so not fair," Alvin said, storming out of his room, his eyes blazing. "Its not as if we're any trouble, Dave acts as if he doesn't trust us for some reason."

Simon rolled his eyes. "Oh gee, I wonder why?" He didn't bother to stay around to hear a retort. "I'm going to go and study for the test next week." He stopped on the fourth step as the doorbell rang. "Oh, that must be the new babysitter."

"What happened to Ms. Miller?" Theodore asked, taking a big bite of Lucky Charms.

"After the stunt Alvin pulled a few months ago, Dave thought it best to get someone who was really going to keep a sharp eye on him," Simon said, walking to the large white door, and twisting the knob. The door opened, and a tall, beautiful, young woman looked down on him, smiling. Simon felt his pulse race and he began to sweat.

"Well, you must be Simon," she chuckled. She hade short, blonde hair, and soft brown eyes. "I'm Clair, can I come in?" The blue shirted chipmunk gulped and took a step back, smiling oddly and letting the young woman come in.

Once the other boys had seen her, there was a similar reaction from them as well. Alvin completely forgot being left behind by Dave, and rushed forward, introducing himself to her. "You're hot," he said with a big grin.

"Alvin," Simon snapped, blushing. Clair's laugh only made him blush even more, and he turned his back on them.

"Well, thank you," she said. She kissed the chipmunk's cheek, and giggled as he blushed. "Dave asked me to keep an eye you three while he was away. Now I hope you won't be too much trouble, will you?"

"No way," the boys said in unison.

Clair giggled again and looked around the house. It was obviously an all male house. It was kept up neat to a point, but the few tidbits of clothing and newspapers, with some sheet music here and there, showed that there wasn't a woman anywhere here. "Well, I guess I'll unpack my things, and then we can start by picking up the house."

Alvin blinked for a moment, and took a step back, "Um… what?"

"Well, I'm not a servant or a maid. I'm going to need help and this is your house, you have a responsibility to take care of it too." She smiled, and mentally kept an eye on the red clothed chipmunk as he seemed to begin to pout.

"Okay," he grumbled, and turned to the living room.

"But first, I think you guys have homework to do," she said, walking to the small guest room." She slipped through the door, leaving the boys to themselves.

"She's a female Dave," Alvin snapped, waving his arms in the arms. He began to storm around the living room. "A hot, female, Dave! He tricked us!"

"Alvin, keep your voice down," Simon snapped. "Look, let's just do our homework, then we can clean up. Besides, there's a movie playing I'd like to see, maybe Clair will let us go once we're done." He smirked at his older brother's face and shrugged. "Lisa Jasman might be there too," he said walking up to their room his back to Alvin." He grinned as Alvin gasped, knowing his brother's crush on the girl. That should keep him from any hair schemed ideas for a while. And with Clair, at least there's no chance he'll pull the same kind of stunt he did a few months ago.

It was four hours later, and the movie had just ended. Just as he had predicted, Clair was so grateful for having the three boys' help, and the fact that they did their schoolwork without hesitation, that she agreed to drop them off at the movies. And just as he had hoped, Lisa Jasman had indeed come there too. That kept Alvin's attention busy, as he tried to impress the raven haired, brown eyed girl.

Simon sighed, contently. Everything was going right for a change… there was just one thing he'd not counted on, though he should have, and … and she was coming up with her sisters. "Oh great," he muttered, watching Brittany and the Chipettes walking through the lobby. "Please don't let her see him, please don't let her see him," he muttered, eyes turned up to heaven like a puppy dog's.

"Alvin?" the auburn haired chipette asked, stopping in her tracks, a diet soda in her hands.

Fate is a cruel mistress. Simon moaned, and leaned against the wall.

"Oh, hey, Brittany," Lisa said, giving the other female a soft smile. "I didn't know you were here."

"Obviously," Brittany said, her eyes never leaving Alvin. "So, what are you doing here, Alvin? I didn't think you'd ever get off of restriction."

"What about you, Brittany?" Alvin snapped. "Ms. Miller was pretty upset too."

"She got over it, after all, it was all your idea," the chipette said, checking out her nails.

"What was all his idea?" Lisa asked, blinking her eyes.

The theater seemed to crash all around him, its bright white walls, mocking Simon now. He looked over, and saw Jeanette copying his actions. That did make him smile for a minute, which made her smile back at him. People were walking past them ignoring the stint between the two rockers, this was, after all, Los Angeles, and anyone who was anyone was used to seeing the Chipmunks around this area. There were a few autograph hounds from tourists, but mostly the people who worked in the theater, as well as their friends tended to keep them at bay.

"They're at it again, huh?" Adam Wallace asked, walking up to see what was going on. Like Simon, he wore large, thick glasses, and was incredibly intelligent. Unlike the chipmunk, he was a bit stocky, like Theodore was, and had flaming red, curly hair. The ten year old boy looked as Alvin and Brittany stood, staring each other down, and turned his attention to Jeanette, smiling at her, blushing as she returned the smile. Jeanette, a third thing the two ten year olds had in common.

"I'm afraid so," Simon moaned.

"I still want to know what was all his idea," Lisa asked, with a weird smile.

"Their trip around the world," Adam said. "Simon told me all about it."

"That's right, I solved a diamond smuggling case, all by myself," Alvin said with pride beaming in each and every word. He opened his eyes, gleaming as the young human girl gasped and clasped her hands together.

"Oh, please," Simon croaked.

"Get over yourself, Mr. Macho man," Brittany snapped. "We were there too, and in fact, if anyone should get credit for solving the case, it should be me and my sisters, we're the one's who discovered the dolls we were given had diamonds and money in them first. You guys wouldn't have known anything, if we hadn't rescued you from those natives."

Alvin turned on his heels, glaring at the female chipmunk. "We didn't need any saving, we were doing just find before you girls showed up."

"Yeah, I'm sure those nice, native guys would have let us go once the alligator's had eaten the Prince of Plenty guy," Theodore said cheerfully. He and Eleanor were busy finishing off a big bucket of pop corn.

"You were the Prince of Plenty, Theodore," Simon said with a sigh.

"Oh, yeah right!" the youngest of the boys said with a smile.

"Yeah, you were doing great, the bouncing around you were doing, definitely made it easy to attract all those alligators, didn't it? Was that your big plan?" Brittany said with a smile. Alvin blushed and turned away.

The sun was starting to set now, and people began to flow out of the building, like drones walking home to become recharged again. Still, there was no sign of Clair, and she did instruct the boys, that if she wasn't there at a certain time, they should walk home. It wasn't too big a deal, it was only three or four blocks away, and walking in a group made it safer. Of course that meant that there would be more drama too.

"We won anyway," Brittany snapped.

"You did not," Alvin growled.

"Oh? Whose hot air balloon came home, and whose didn't?" she mocked.

"That doesn't mean anything," Alvin growled.

"You guys rode in hot air balloons? That's so cool!" Lisa blinked, watching the two of them. "And solving a crime, wow!"

"You've got her going, it sounds like," Marie Wallace said, finally happy to have found her brother, Adam. Marie also had glasses, was slightly shorter than her brother, despite being one year older than him. She had auburn hairs of curls, and was dressed in a blue gray sweater. "We've got to be getting home though," she said. She looked at her watch and nudged her brother forward.

"We do too," Simon said, pushing himself between Alvin and Brittany.

"We actually do too," Eleanor said. She slunk out of her chair and made her way into the crowd. "Maybe we should all just walk together. We all live near each other."

"Fine by me," Adam said, giving a second glance at Jeanette. His sister elbowed him, bringing him out of his dreams.

Lisa giggled and grabbed her purse. "Sounds like fun. I'll come too."

Twin pairs of eyes watched the kids go. "Those are the brats that brought down Claudia and Claus?" a man asked.

"That's what I read in the papers," a woman said. "It cost the syndicate millions of dollars."

The man glared at the kids. "We'll make up for it, and get some revenge as well." He smiled, a dark, cruel, predatory smile.

Ziggy's Corner: Part one ends. And the kids are going to be in greater adventures as well as greater dangers in the coming chapter. Up next: The Wager!