People say that I have no direction, that I can't do anything unless it involves waiting tables for the rest of my life.

There's only one thing wrong with that...

I'm only a freshman, and that whole "job" thing doesn't matter to me yet.

Thank God I still had one more week before I'm a real freshman and that my parent let me go on vacation... to California.

About four days before I had to be back at school, I decided to walk around in the residential districts. One of the windows happened to be open, and I heard somebody yelling.

I decided to take a look.

It was beautiful inside, but I couldn't see anyone. Suddenly, I saw a guitar being thrown, about the size of a couple of quarters.

Who has a guitar that small? I thought, but my attention was now focused on the room in front of me when I saw three small figures jump onto one of the tables.

The little one in the red hoodie was being an ass. There was no two ways about it. It always got on my nerves when someone acted like the "big boss".

One of the others growled at him. "Why do you always have to be the lead?" he hissed at him.

"Because I'm the better singer!" the one in the red yelled back, pointing to himself.

The youngest one, dressed in green, came in between the both of them. "Well, you have to give us a chance, Alvin," he chimed in.

Alvin seemed to honestly be thinking about what he had said.

This is good, I thought, but I can just tell that this comes with a catch.

Alvin turned back to them. "Alright, I'll give you guys one more chance. I'll let you guys have more solos if you admit that I'm the awesomest one out of the three of us."

Of course, I thought. There's always a catch.

"Fine, Alvin," the green one told him, giving in too quickly to the red one's schemes.

Alvin seemed ready to boast. "Okay, Theo. You're in!"

Wait a second, I thought. CHIPMUNKS? How is that humanly possible?

My thoughts were interrupted when the chipmunk in red asked "Simon?"

The little chipmunk in blue, whom I assumed was Simon, crossed his arms, looking genuinely upset. "Absolutely not," he replied. "I refuse to do such a thing for something like that."

"Then I guess you go without solos, then."

A familiar face walked into the room. "Boys, dinner!"

Crap, I thought. There goes my view.

Suddenly, my cell phone rang. It was Samantha Chang (or Sammie for short), my best friend since fourth grade.

I answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ally," she answered. "I've got some horrible news."

I kinda heard her panicking through the phone." Well, what's wrong?"

She calmed down so she could talk to me. "It's your parents. They were on their way to pick up some groceries at the MegaCenter, but just before they got to the parking lot, some bastard slammed your parents into City Hall!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Are they okay?"

"Well, that's the worst part." She paused, and I could hear her begin to cry. "They're gone, Ally... I'm sorry."

Trying to move past the tears, I thanked her for telling me as soon as she could. "Is there a plate I should be watching for?"

"I don't know... I don't think so, but just look for anything suspicious." She stopped to take a breath. "Oh, by the way, I sent that job application for that secretary job in New Jersey."

Smiling, I told her, "You didn't have to do it, but I'm glad you did."

I could hear her laughing on the other end. "I know."

My incoming call beeper rang. "Sorry, Sammie. My pager's going off."

"That's okay. Um... wait. Before you take that call, your stuff's getting moved to Hilary's condo building. Her ma's gonna pay the rent for you, me and Tracy to each have a condo."

"Cool. Now, I gotta go. Incoming call, remember?"

"Oh, right. See ya at the airport."

"Bye."

I hung up to take my next call. The number on the caller ID looked kinda familiar.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is David Seville, the father of your pen pal, Simon."

"Oh, hi there, Mr. Seville."

"It seems Simon's changed his mind about staying here. He wants to stay with you for a while."

I grinned. "That's great. Where do you want me to pick him up? I'm in California right now."

"Are you in central California?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you can probably walk here. My address is 1958 Hollywood Drive."

I went over to the front of the house to see where I was. All of a sudden, I hung up on him and rushed to the house's front door.

1958 Hollywood Drive was the house with the chipmunks in it.

The door opened up. "Who are you?"

"I'm Allycia LeGardo, your son's pen pal."

He stood there amazed. "How did you get here so fast?"

"I was on the next street over, and I didn't realize how close I was to you," I lied. "Plus, I was so excited to meet you and your son."

Dave turned around. "Simon, your friend is here!"

"Well, it's about time," a squeaky voice said. "Get him outta here."

"Alvin, it's impolite to talk about your brother like that."

"I'm sorry, Dave. Sorry that I'm related to him."

"Alvin, that's enough. You're grounded if you keep going... Excuse my oldest son, Allycia."

"It's alright. And please, just call me Ally."

"Well, here he is."

I looked at him because I didn't see anyone next to him.

"Down there."

Looking down, I saw the same blue clad chipmunk I saw getting abused by his brother (well, not abused persay, but you get the point).

Cool, I thought, this is gonna be easy.