Dave finished setting out the food for dinner at the table, as the chipmunks grabbed their respective seats.
"Oh boy, lasagna!" Theodore squeaked. "My favorite!"
"Theodore," Alvin started, "every night you say whatever we're having is your favorite."
"I have alot of favorites!" Theodore said.
"That's impossible," Alvin said, "only one thing can be your favorite, nothing else."
"Not true," Theodore said, "I'll prove it... I have two favorite brothers!"
Simon tried not to snicker. "He's got you there, Alvin."
"Okay, okay, you win." Alvin said, as he reached for a dinner roll, while Dave sat down.
"Alvin, wait for someone to pass you the bread bowl." Dave reminded his son.
"Yes Dave." Alvin said.
Dave took a roll, then passed them to Alvin. "So, Miss Miller tells me you have a new girl in your school this semester..."
"Yes, her schedule wasn't finalized, so I let her shadow me today." Simon said.
"Good boy, Simon," Dave said, "what's she like?"
The boys paused.
"Well..." Simon began, "she's kind of... well... you know, she's... kind of... well..."
"Yeah Dave," Alvin added, "she's... well... she's kind of... of... well..."
Theodore chimed in. "If you ask me, she's kind of scary..."
"Scary?" Dave asked. "How so?"
"She just is..." Theodore shivered.
"She's... different..." Simon said. "She's rather shy... not very strong in her social skills..."
"Hmm," Dave said, "Miss Miller didn't speak very highly of her... I understand Brittany and Eleanor had problems with her."
"Boy, you should've seen it Dave..." Alvin began, "Cydra called Eleanor fat, Eleanor stormed off in a tizzy, then Brittany started chewing her out!"
"I see..." Dave said, "well, that doesn't seem nice of this new girl to insult Eleanor like that."
"Well, she didn't come right out and call her 'fat' exactly," Simon said, "but, she could have been a little more careful with her words."
"And Dave? She's a golfer!" Theodore added.
"Oh, does she play golf?" Dave asked.
"No..." Simon corrected, "Theodore means to say that she's... well, goth."
"Yeah," Theodore continued, "she's dressed in all black, and her hair's all black, and blue, and red, and green... and she's got piercings all over her face and everything."
"I see..." Dave said, "well... maybe it might be best if you boys didn't get mixed up with her."
"Oh, she's not a bad person," Simon said, "she's just new and scared... it's hard to adjust to new school, she may work out just fine."
"Well, just be careful you guys." Dave said.
Early the next morning, the gang arrived in homeroom, where Cydra was already sitting at her desk, looking over her new schedule.
"Did they finish your schedule?" Simon asked.
Cydra simply nodded, before she handed her schedule card to Simon.
"Oh... how nice, you're in mine and Jeanette's science class." Simon pointed out.
"Wait a minute, let me see that!" Brittany said, as she swiped the card away from Simon. "Ugh! She's in my reading class!"
"Gee, I hope this isn't an inconveniece for you, Brittany." Simon remarked, sarcastically.
"Of course it is!" Brittany said. "But as long as she stays as far away from me in that class at all times, I should be able to tolerate it just a little more."
Cydra glared at Brittany, her eyes dark and lifeless. She sensed the vibe she was getting from Brittany, but she was letting out a vibe of her own.
"I'm feeling queasy again..." Theodore moaned.
"I hope that flu bug isn't making rounds here," Jeanette said, "it'd be just awful if we ended up sick."
"Not really..." Brittany said, "we'd get to stay home and goof off all day. Ooh."
"What?" Simon asked.
"Nothing..." Brittany said, taking her seat, "I just feel so drained..."
And if Brittany thought she was feeling bad at that moment, she'd feel worse later in the day, when she realized she didn't get her wish.
"Now, to continue our study on social satire," the reading teacher lectured, "we're going to work on satire of our own... now, then, I would to put you students into groups of two, or possibly more, but I understand some of don't work as well with certain others... so each of you may write down the names of students you feel you don't work well with, so we can see about working out decent partnerships for once."
The first name Brittany wrote down on her list was Cydra's. As far as Brittany felt, she'd rather take Alvin up on his bet to publically snog one of her sisters in front of the entire student body, than to work with Cydra on a partner project. Afterwards, Brittany finished jotting down all of the other names of students she preferred not to work with.
"Don't list everyone in the entire class, Miss Miller." The teacher said, as she walked by Brittany's desk, and glanced at her paper.
"I'm not." Brittany insisted, while other students peaked at her paper, seeing it was half-full of names.
Moments later, the teacher was assigning the groups, and Brittany was outraged that she was being partnered with Cydra.
"No way!" Brittany said. "I do not work well with that girl!"
"My assignment is final." The teacher said.
"Then I'm not gonna do it!" Brittany said, folding her arms, and standing her ground.
"Fine," the teacher said, "I'll just see you for an hour after school today for your attitude."
Brittany paused. She knew she'd hear an earful from Miss Miller if she had to stay after school for detention. Brittany sighed, loudly. "Okay... I'll do it..."
Brittany and Cydra sat at the back of the classroom, with their notebooks, ready to work on their project.
"I'm pretty good with satire," Cydra said, "I was thinking perhaps we should write about..."
"Listen, missy," Brittany interrupted, "I'm not risking my already fragile GPA on your lamebrain ideas!"
"You haven't even heard it yet." Cydra said.
"Whatever it is, it's bound to suck." Brittany said.
"Suck?" Cydra asked. "Why do you say suck?"
"Because you suck!" Brittany said.
"Who told you?" Cydra asked.
"I just know it." Brittany said.
"You know too much, then..." Cydra said.
"Huh? What are you babbling about?"
"I don't care for your attitude, Brittany..."
"Attitude? You call my sister fat, deny it, try to act like you're a victim of circumstance, and you say I have an attitude? You need to get your facts straight!"
"You're making me angry..."
"You've already made me angry!"
Cydra stared Brittany dead in the eye. Brittany felt like her energy was being pulled from her body, and she almost felt as if she was going to vomit.
"We'll see about that..." Cydra growled, in an inhuman tone.
At the end of the day, Brittany was packing up her bookbag with her homework, slamming her locker shut, and preparing to leave school with her sisters and friends, but for some reason, she felt like she couldn't move. As she watched the corridor empty of students and certain faculty members, Brittany saw, one-by-one, classroom doors slamming shut. The window at the end of the hall slammed shut as well, a vinyl shade lowered, as the lighting in the hall dimmed.
"What's going on?" Brittany called out, to anybody who might hear her.
"You're going on." A familiar voice responded.
Brittany looked around her. "Who said that?"
"I did..." the familiar voice responded again.
Brittany turned around to her original direction, and saw a figure smoothly glide up to her.
"Who're you?" Brittany asked.
"It's just me." The voice said, before Brittany could tell it was Cydra approaching her.
"What do you want?" Brittany asked.
"Respect." Cydra said. "Simple respect is all I command."
"You command? And just who do you think you are?" Brittany asked.
Cydra went face-to-face with Brittany. "I am your master."
Brittany parted her lips to speak, but her voice was gone. She couldn't speak, she couldn't squeak, she couldn't make any audible noises from her mouth. When she did, it broke up. Cydra reached out, and began to unbutton the sweater jacket Brittany was wearing.
"Wh..." Brittany struggled to say, "wha... you... doin?"
Cydra removed Brittany's jacket, before she took Brittany's left hand, and brought it up. Cydra then began moving her thumb furthur up Brittany's arm, caressing it as she did. "You have great arms, Brittany... so toned... so well toned... and beautiful, flawless flesh..."
"What... what are you talking about?" Brittany struggled to ask. "What kind of pervert are you?"
Cydra looked up into Brittany's eyes, and slowly began breathing in her face. Brittany once again felt her energy draining, so drained was she, that she almost felt like she was about to faint. Cydra returned her attention to Brittany's arm, straightening it out, and applying pressure from her thumb into the bend of her arm. On the busride home, the fact that Brittany was missing didn't escape the rest of the group.
"Where's Brittany?" Alvin asked.
"I don't know... do you?" Jeanette asked Eleanor.
Eleanor shrugged. "I remember she mentioned her reading teacher threatened to put her in detention if she refused to work with Cydra in a group project."
"Figures." Jeanette remarked.
Later that evening, Dave called his boys down to dinner, when the phone started ringing, and he answered it.
"Hello?" Dave answered. "Miss Miller? What's the problem?"
The boys came downstairs for dinner, overhearing Dave's phone conversation.
"No... I haven't seen Brittany today... I'm sure she's around somewhere..." Dave said, "well, I'm sure she'll turn up... alright Miss Miller, I'll call you if I see her... bye..."
"Brittany not home?" Alvin asked.
"No," Dave said, "Miss Miller said Brittany had detention today, but she said it's been hours now, and she still hasn't come home. You boys don't know anything, do you?"
"No." The chipmunks responded.
The skies grew darker outside, it wasn't until nearly after sundown when Brittany came walking through the front door of her house, where Miss Miller stood, with her fists on her hips.
"And just where have you been, young lady?" Miss Miller. "If you think you're trying to avoid speaking to me because you had detention today, it ain't gonna work!"
"I didn't have detention." Brittany responded, in a relatively deadpan voice.
"Then where were you?" Miss Miller demanded to know.
"I lost track of time." Brittany said.
"Well, you better pay more attention to your watch then, it's almost dark out, I was worried sick!" Miss Miller. "Well, go wash up for dinner!"
Brittany did as instructed, but she remained solomn and quiet for the rest of the evening, something that the rest of the family found highly unusual. Even more unusual was Brittany's suddenly friendlier attitude toward Cydra the next day, in addition to what seemed like an even stronger wave of that draining, sickening feeling, and the chills the others seemed to be experiencing. Jeanette and Eleanor were rather concerned about Brittany that day... she seemed so different, yet they couldn't understand why. Eleanor, on the other hand, probably would have figured it out by the end of the day. When Eleanor finished basketball practice after school that day, she spent a longer time in the lockeroom than her teammates. After drinking so much gatorade during practice, she spent most of her time on the toilet, while the other girls showered. Eleanor had the entire shower to herself by the time she was finished, but she didn't mind, since she didn't have to chit-chat with anybody, she'd be done with her shower in no time. Eleanor stripped, wrapping a towel around her body, and grabbing her personal bar of soap, before she stepped into the shower... where someone was already there, waiting for her.
"Hello." Cydra greeted, from where she was sitting, with her arms wrapped around her knees, in the corner of the shower.
Eleanor was so startled, she dropped everything, and nearly screamed, but some kind of force prevented any sort of sounds from coming out.
"Nice of you to join me." Cydra said, without looking at Eleanor.
"How..." Eleanor began, "how... how did you get in here?"
"I have my ways." Cydra said, still not making eye contact.
Before Eleanor had time to question Cydra about her ways, she picked herself up, and to Eleanor's surprise, levitated herself over to her.
"Allow me to apologize for offending you, it certainly wasn't my intention..." Cydra said, as she placed her hands on Eleanor's shoulders.
Eleanor felt like she was being zapped of her energy. Later that evening, Miss Miller was even more upset to see that both Brittany and Eleanor had returned home extremely late.
"I don't know what you girls are getting into, but I expect you to be home after school, not out gallabanting until sundown." Miss Miller said. "I want a permanent stop to this, and if there isn't, then I'm going to drive down to your school and pick you ladies up myself, rather than letting you ride the bus home."
"We're sorry, Miss Miller." Eleanor said, in a deadpan voice.
"We'll try to do better." Brittany said, in the same voice.
"I don't want you girls trying," Miss Miller said, "I want you doing! Is that clear?"
"Crystal." Brittany and Eleanor answered.