AN: Hello all! A few friends and I decided to do a mini Secret Santa amongst ourselves, the person I had to write a story for was mggrubb85. I kept getting writers block, but still ended up being the first in our group to finish my story. xD
Hope you enjoy, Michael! And anyone else who is reading! :D
It was Christmas morning in the Seville house, and wrapping paper and ribbons were flying everywhere. There was a warm holiday glow, despite the chaos, and if an outsider were to look upon the family, they would be able to tell how happy they were to be spending Christmas with one another. The outsider might think that perhaps this family didn't care about the gifts as much as they did the feeling of being together and being thankful that they had each other.
All but one chipmunk, that is. Alvin Seville had a large grin on his face as he tore into each of the gifts that were wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper, signifying that they were his. Normally he didn't bother to look at the labels to see who they were from, and he didn't care much. As long as he got plenty of gifts, he didn't care who put the effort into getting them for him. This year, however, he happened to take small glances at the little labels and noticed something rather..odd. He had one less gift this year.
Simon hadn't gotten him a gift. Alvin stood up amidst the array of paper and toys, walking over to his slightly younger brother, who now sat on the couch reading a new book that he had gotten for Christmas.
"Siiimooon..." Alvin's anger bubbled up even more when he was ignored. He hated being ignored. "Simon!" The red-capped chipmunk stomped his foot on the ground angrily. "I'm talking to you!" Simon didn't look up from his book.
"I heard you the first time, Alvin. I just chose not to acknowledge your presence." He flipped the page, jumping slightly when a hand suddenly covered the majority of the words. He finally looked up at Alvin, narrowing his eyes. "What is it?"
"You didn't get me a present this year!" Alvin flung his arms in the air dramatically. "The one year I actually get you a gift and you don't get me one?! What kind of a brother are you?!" Simon rolled his eyes.
"Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'It's better to give than to receive.'?"
"Yeah, but I was planning to give and receive! That's something, right?"
"For you, that's a miraculous achievement."
"I can't achieve that if you don't give me a gift." Alvin crossed his arms and rolled his own eyes.
"I never said I didn't get you a gift, Alvin." Now that his book was no longer covered up, Simon went back to reading. Alvin's eyes narrowed.
"Then where is this gift?"
"You have to find it." The shorter brother raised an eyebrow.
"You're sending me on a scavenger hunt?" Simon looked up at him with a smirk that was almost devious enough to match the ones Alvin wore almost daily.
"You want your gift, don't you?"
"Duh!" Simon's smirk turned into a mere smile as he looked back down at his book.
"Look under the coffee table."
Alvin's eyes shifted downwards to the small table Simon's feet were resting on. He reached underneath and found a small piece of paper taped to the bottom. He pulled it off and read it to himself.
'The best gifts come from the heart.'
A look of pure confusion plastered itself onto the eldest chipmunk's face. He looked up at his brother. "What kind of clue is this?"
"Think about it, Alvin." With that, Simon stood and walked up the stairs to the boys' bedroom, bringing his new book with him.
Alvin stood in silence for a few moments. It didn't take him long to realize that Simon's 'gift' was merely an attempt to outwit him. Simon may be smarter, but Alvin's determination could get him through this...he knew it could.
He glanced down at the sliver of paper once more, the curves and curls of Simon's neat handwriting blurring together the longer he stared. Was this some kind of riddle?
"Alvin, I made some cookies!" A voice called from the kitchen. Alvin's eyes widened. He got it. He glanced over to the pile of trash he had mad around the Christmas tree, eyeing the presents that were scattered amongst it. He saw Theodore's gift to him. It was a new baseball glove. Alvin smirked and reached inside of it.
He pulled out another note. He read the message scrawled onto the sliver of paper after unfolding it.
'Christmas is the day that holds all time together.'
Alvin grinned. "You gotta be able to come up with something harder than that, Si." He turned on his heel and walked over to the fireplace, reaching up for the clock that sat on the mantle. He found himself blushing when he discovered he had to pull up a chair to be able to reach. Within a couple of minutes he had the clock down and the note inside of it in his hands.
'The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.'
Alvin glanced over to where the family Christmas tree stood, a small frown appearing on his young face when he realized that everyone had left the room after opening their gifts. He got an idea and his own frown turned upside down.
Alvin ran into the kitchen. "Theodore, come into the living room!" Before he could get an answer he ran upstairs and peeked into the bedroom he and his brothers shared. "Simon, get downstairs, now!" He then ran back downstairs and into the room where Dave kept his piano.
His father was looking over the new sheet music that the boys had gotten him for Christmas. "Dave, Dave!" Alvin ran over, grabbing Dave's hand. "Come into the living room!" He dragged the man by his hand over to the Christmas tree, where Simon and Theodore stood, the latter looking a bit confused.
Alvin spoke to them as he walked over and pulled a camera with a tripod . "We haven't taken a family picture this year." As his back was turned, he didn't see that Simon was smirking.
Alvin set up the camera and walked back over to his family. The four of them posed for a picture in front of the tree before parting and each going their separate ways. Simon, however, stayed standing next to Alvin. He glanced down at his slightly shorter old brother, slipping a piece of paper into his hand.
"Good job, Alvin." Was all he said before walking away. Alvin smirked and unfolded the slip of paper.
'Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.'
Alvin already knew what that meant. Simon wanted him to do somebody a favor. The underlying message Simon was trying to give him was 'You're selfish. So something for somebody else.' Yeah, Alvin could read between the lines. He was sick of this. He didn't feel like going through all this trouble for one measly little gift. The red-clad chipmunk sighed and fell back onto the couch and unwillingly drifted off into a deep sleep.
He awoke to his bespectacled brother inches from his face. "You'll never get your Christmas present lazing around like that, Alvin." Simon said, leaning on the armrest next to where Alvin sat on the sofa, a smirk on his face.
"Leave me alone." Alvin grumpily looked away from his brother, who rolled his eyes. They sat in silence before Alvin glanced back in Simon's direction. "Well, what do you want me to do? Become your slave or something?"
"Oh, I don't want you to do anything for me. I want you to do something for Dave."
"Dave?" Alvin raised an eyebrow.
"Do you know how much we -you, in particular- put him through on a daily basis? He's lucky he doesn't have grey hair."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Simon rolled his eyes.
"Alvin, as much as I'd like to argue against the fact, you're not stupid. Figure something out." With that, Simon walked back upstairs to shut himself in the boys' bedroom once more, leaving Alvin to figure out what to do for his Dave all on his own.
He slowly walked over to the entrance to Dave's music room, peeking in on his frustrated father. Dave appeared to be hard at work, despite the fact he shouldn't have to worry about working on Christmas day.
Alvin slunk into the room, quiet as a mouse, as to not disturb the man. He stood and listened to Dave attempt and create a tune by pressing down on various piano keys. Nothing sounded right to either of them.
After a moment, Alvin made is presence known. The red-clad boy walked over to the piano and played a series of notes before looking up at his father, smiling. Dave seemed to have a look of excitement and realization come over his face, so Alvin sensed that he liked it.
Alvin walked out of the room after a quick "You're welcome.", his head held high. When he entered the living room once more there was an envelope on the couch. It had 'Alvin' scrawled in that same fancy lettering as all the little notes that Simon had left him.
He tore into the envelope, not knowing what he'd find inside. Inside there was a piece of paper slightly bigger than all the others.
'Love so easily understands what you can see is the smallest part; you don't need Christmas in your hands when you have Christmas in your heart.
Merry Christmas, Alvin.'
Alvin blinked. His face grew red with anger as the realization that this was his Christmas present dawned on him. He crumpled up the paper in his hands and threw it on the floor.
Alvin glanced out the window at the snow falling slowly to the ground. A devious smirk became ever-present on his face as he walked out the door, clad only in his everyday clothing, and proceeded to gather a huge lump of snow and carry it back inside with him.
He made his way up the stairs to the room he shared with his younger brothers, and opened the door. There on the blue bed in the corner of the room, Simon sat with his nose buried in that new book of his. He didn't even hear or see Alvin walk in. That was just what Alvin wanted.
Without a word he dropped the big lump of wet, cold snow all over Simon, causing the other chipmunk to let out a loud yelp.
"Alvin!" Alvin burst into laughter.
"That's what you get for giving me such a dumb gift!" Simon's eyes narrowed.
"You ruined my new book! I was trying to give you a gift that you could use for the rest of your life, but you're too hardheaded to even realize that!" Simon leaped off of his bed and onto Alvin, knocking him to the floor and pinning him down. "So much for trying to teach you a lesson!"
"How do you expect me to learn anything if I don't get rewarded for it?!" Droplets of snow dripped off of Simon and onto Alvin's face, causing him to close one eye and flip their positions, now pinning Simon to the floor and starting an all-out wrestling match.
This continued for some time, with the two brothers rolling around throwing various insults at one another and making a mess of the carpet by covering it with melted snow.
"Ow! What the heck? You bit me!" Simon rolled off of his brother and cradled his hand, glaring at Alvin. Alvin stuck his tongue out and crossed his arms, not moving from his position on the floor.
Simon sighed. Another of his attempts to get Alvin to be less selfish had failed...oh well, there was always next year.
So that was a lot shorter than I wanted, and didn't have nearly as much detail. But I'm overall satisfied. Thank you for reading, and have a Merry Christmas!