G 4 life productions presents:
Big Brother Max.
Tags: Alternate Universe (AU), drama, romance
Rating: Teen
Plot: When you're adopted, your family isn't always normal. When you're black and your three sisters are the self- proclaimed "Girls of Rock and Roll", as well as chipmunks, nothing is normal.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Chipmunks series, if I did, I wouldn't be typing this.
A/N: This is my first POV story, so be gentle with it. No flames please.
Chapter 1
Oh Brother
Stepping out of LAX into the early-summer sun, I take a in a breath and smile. My name is Max Miller, and you wouldn't know it, but I'm the oldest son of the Miller family.
"Let's start from the top: Mrs. Miller, who I call Grannie M or Grandma Miller, depending on which I remember, is my foster mother. I grew up as part of a High-Middle class African American family, living in suburban L.A. My biological parents, being business people, where gone a lot, so I stayed with Grannie .M When My parents plane went missing in Australia, she took me in as her own.
And that's when things got interesting.
When I turned ten, the Chippetes, then age 5, showed up from Australia.
Brittany the first born, lead singer, and all-around drama queen; who always seems to take potshots at me and her sisters from time to time, but I still love her anyway. She's also protective of them (sometimes), If there's one flaw that I can't stand, it's the valley girl attitude problem she has. That gets annoying.
Jeanette, second oldest (by second I mean born 10 minutes after Brittany), guitarist, and intelligent klutz; She always seems to trip over herself like a drunk person after A New Years Eve party. Of course if she paid as much attention to her shoelaces as she did her books, she'd spend a lot less time face down on the floor.
Lastly, there's Eleanor (aka Ellie), Drummer, and youngest of the group. Ellie seems to be the most level headed one. She also one to speak her mind when needed. The only issue with her is that she is a bit self-conscious when it comes to her weight A habit I'm trying to break her out of. Other than music, her passions include baking and soccer. We seemed to attract as siblings the quickest, probably because we have the same personality.
Anyway, we (me and Granny M) discovered they're musical talents very early, and me being interested in the music industry, built a recording studio in our basement and became the band's manager and producer. The rest is history.
I'm Eighteen now, the girls are thirteen. I have my own place and run Seville-Miller records. I still handle the Chippetes personally, but I've also taken on their counterparts and boyfriends, the chipmunks, lead by Alvin Seville. I just came from a two week trip in New York City to iron-out some details for the kids July 4th concert on NBC's the Today show. Now I'm home, and exhausted. I catch a Taxi to my home, drop off my bags, and ride to the Miller home. After paying the fare, I go inside, finding Jeanette asleep in the girl's room and a note on the kitchen table in barely-legible writing
Max:
Glad to have you back big brother. Mrs. Miller had to go out for a little while and she'll be back sometime this evening.
Brittany
As usual, Brittany leaves me a note with half of the information I need to know. Anyway, since it's quiet, and since Jeanette is cranky when she's woken up early, I decided to take a nap on the sofa and work of some of the jetlag that I'll be enduring for the next couple of days. I tune my ipod to the Dragonforce CD and close my eyes, sleep enveloping me.
Twenty minutes later
A thump louder than the music wakes me up. I take off my headphones in time to here a series of bangs and a crash coming from the stairs. I run to the stairwell to see Jeanette face down on the floor.
"Jeanette Are you ok?!" I ask in a panicked tone.
Jeanette responds by moaning what I believe was "Ow" before raising her head to look at me.
"Hi." Jeanette says sheepishly.
"Are you ok? That looked like it hurt." I say.
"It did." Jeanette says, rising to her feet.
"Well, you wouldn't get hurt if you tied your shoes." I say, looking at her feet. "Anyway, why where you in here by yourself?" I ask.
"Because I have a key" She says.
"How was your trip?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing." I say with a chuckle. She gives me the "Not funny look" and picks up her glasses.
"Seriously, how was New York?" she asks.
"Ugh, busy, busy, busy. I barely had any time to relax and take in the sites, but I did get everything straight with NBC, you guys are going to perform on the Today show's summer concert series." I say with a smile.
"Excellent!" Jeanette exclaims, smiling.
"Umm, where are Ellie and Brittany?" I ask.
"The soccer team is having and end of the school year party tomorrow and Eleanor is helping them set up." Jeanette spits out.
"And Brittany?"
"Little miss drama queen is on a date with Alvin." She says, chuckling.
"You just stole my line, you realize that right?" I ask her. She simply nods and smiles.
"Great to have you home big brother." Jeanette says, hugging me.
"Great to be back sis." I respond, hugging her back.
"Ok, I'm going to lie down, try not to break anything, including bones, while I'm sleep ok?" Jeanette nods and walks away, probably going to study. I walk up the stairs to my room, which is still well kept seeing as I still stay here from time to time, and fall asleep on the bed.
I get up around 4:30 and stroll downstairs, finding Eleanor in the living room watching the Dodgers-Brewers game. Wanting to surprise her, I go back around the corner and txt her on my personal cell phone (I have one for personal calls and one for business), asking what the score is.
I peek around the corner and watch as she picks up her phone. As she texts back, I put my phone on silent. 5 minutes later I get her reply
2-0 Dodgers; when does your flight land big brother?
-Ellie-
I text back "Come to the foyer and find out."
I peek out again, seeing a look of bewilderment on her face. However, she obeys, and walks towards me. I duck back in a stand straight, fighting back laughter. When she walks around the corner, she stops and stares at me.
"Hi." I say.
"Max!" she, squeals. She runs up and wraps me in a tight hug.
"Hi sis." I say, half way out of breath. "You mind letting me breathe?"
"Oh, sorry." She says, releasing me. We walk back to the living room and sit on the sofa, watching the game.
"So how have things been since I left?" I ask.
"It's been fun." She says, leaning against my arm
"Has Brittany been behaving? I ask sternly.
"Brittany and behaving are words that don't belong in the same sentence." Eleanor says.
I chuckle. "You have a point there. Seriously though, how has she been?"
"She's been good, she actually misses you." Eleanor says.
"Really?" I ask.
"I think so." Eleanor says
"Oh." I muse. Sometimes I think Brittany wouldn't care if I die, but it's hard to read her sometimes. She has that "Valley girl" routine down to a science.
"How are the boys?" I ask.
"They're doing fine." Eleanor says, blushing as red as a raspberry.
"Oh really; anything special happen while I was away?" I ask, not hinting at anything.
"Theodore gave me this." She says proudly, showing me a gold necklace with their initials in a heart shaped pendant on it.
"That was nice of him." I say. Theo is a nice kid, he takes good care of Eleanor. They where the second of the three to hook up, which surprised me; personally I think they have the best staying power of the group, but I keep stuff like that a secret.
Eleanor groans as she watches the Dodgers let up a three run home run in the top of the 6th
"That sucks." I say.
"I swear it happens every game, they get the lead and then they blow it." Ellie says.
"That's why I'm a Yankees fan." I snicker.
"Hmph." She says.
"I'm joking, I'm joking." I respond.
"Hey, why don't we go outside and kick the soccer ball around for a while?" I ask as Milwaukee goes up two more runs.
"Sure." Eleanor says, beaming.
So me and Eleanor go out back and practice passing. Eleanor is a great sports player, but she's subconscious about her weight, I try to tell her that because of all the sports she plays, her weight is not an issue. I can't tell if it's working or not. We stay out there for a while, kicking the ball around, enjoying the nice weather, when Brittany finally finds her way home.
"Hi Max." She says, hugging me.
"Hey, how's my oldest little sister doing?" I ask, humoring her.
"Just fine." She says.
"Good, want to play a little soccer with us?" I ask.
"Sure, I could use a break from perfecting my, I mean, me and Alvin's new song." She says, striking a pose.
"You really like doing duets with Alvin." I say.
"Only because I get to show how superior my talents are to his." She says, smiling.
"Riiiiiight." I whisper to Eleanor, who chuckles. "I hope you'll be ready to record on Friday."
"I'm always ready." Brittany shoots back.
I roll my eyes as my business phone rings, temporarily breaking my attention from the game. The person calling is Samuel Jones, best friend and partner-in-crime at Seville-Miller records.
"Hey Max, How was your trip?" Samuel asks
"Everything went great; I'm going to tell everyone the good news at the same time on Friday." I say triumphantly.
"Good, good. Hey, NBC just called, they want to do a live interview next Tuesday morning for a story they're doing on the success of the Chipmunks and the Chippetes." Samuel says.
"Does that mean I gotta get up at half past the graveyard hour?" I ask. I planned to catch up on my sleep, but it seems that won't be happening.
"I'm afraid so." Sam says.
"Tell them I'll think about it." I tell him.
"10-4. Hey, check your email when you get a chance, I sent you a copy of the cover art for the girl's cd." He says.
"Yeah, I'll take a look at it." I say, kicking the ball to Jeanette, who's just joined us in the backyard.
"Alright man, get some rest. I'll call you later." Sam says.
"I will bye." I reply, hanging up. I take a seat in a lawn chair and watch the girls kick the soccer ball around as the sun begins to set. I remember it was on an evening like this that Mrs. Miller brought them home. Since then, life's been looking up for me. I mean, I never really got over my parents disappearance, and it was starting to affect me a lot as I was getting older. But when Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor entered my life, I finally remembered what it means to be a family. No matter how you come together, your family is your family, and you can never change that.
End Chapter 1.