Ted's Teepee

About This Story: Theodore shares his teepee retreat with Eleanor while feeling left-out of other family activities. Age-wise they are 9. I don't own any part of the Chipmunk franchise, just borrowing them from Nickelodeon, Janice Karman, & Ross Bagdasarian, their family, & their company.

About This Chapter: Rated PG, some fart jokes continued, some mention of starvation abuse by Ian

Pairings: Theodore/Eleanor

What's In A Name?

Theodore tried to remember, "But how did we get to talking about this..."

"Oh, yeah," Eleanor remembered. "I think you were about to tell me your brothers' middle names."

Theodore took one more peek outside the tent to ensure they were alone. "Alvin's middle name is Michael, named for Dave's mother's father, I think." His eyes seemed to roll to the back of his head while concentrating to remember this information. "And since Simon is the oldest, he shares Dave's middle name, which was also Dave's father's name, Ross."

Eleanor nodded as she put it all together, counting with her fingers. "So, there's Alvin Michael Seville, Simon Ross Seville, David Ross Seville, and you are Theodore Jameson Seville. Got it."

"Yep. You got it." He nodded, then asked her, "Do you, or any of your sisters have middle names?"

"We actually do." She replied. "About the time Dave got custody of us from Ian, we had a Chipette conference and decided we 'needed' middle names for our Kindergarten graduation program. So we came up with our own middle names. Like you, I don't even remember who named me 'Eleanor', it's just always been my name. Our middle names also rhyme with each other's, which some may call 'sad' or 'weird', but we kinda think it's fun and it shows how close we are."

"So, you got to pick your own middle name?" He asked. "I'm a little bit jealous."

"Well, you got some of Dave's family names. So that makes me a bit jealous." She smiled. "Anyways, when 'researching' some middle name ideas, Jeanette figured since I share a first name with a famous First Lady, who was married to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she was thinking about derivatives of 'Franklin' for my middle name. And I was watching reruns of that nineties TV show, 'The Nanny', with Fran Drescher. Somehow from that, we got set on 'Francine' for my middle name."

"Ah," Theodore nodded, "So, it's Eleanor Francine..."

"Chipette." She finished. "Since we still aren't officially Sevilles. And we introduce ourselves as 'The Chipettes'... Brittany wanted to keep that as our last name, just so people don't think we're sisters to you guys. Maybe she hopes to someday hyphenate it as her maiden name once she gets married to one of you poor guys."

Theodore chuckled, "But you just know that her firstborn will be named 'Alvin Michael Seville, Junior'."

"And she will probably be trouble, just like her dad!" Eleanor added, causing them to both laugh hysterically at the thought of Alvin's namesake being female. "She may even run away from home. But the good news is, there would be a pretty picture of her on a milk carton..."

"Yeah..." Theodore nodded. "We may also need to put her picture on packages of gluten-free items if she takes after her mom."

At this, Eleanor covered her mouth to muffle her laughter. "Oh, Theo, please don't tell Britt that I told you that story. OK?"

"Deal." Theodore shook her hand. "But you still haven't told me Brittany's or Jeanette's middle names."

"Right." She nodded. "Brittany used to like the name 'Charlotte', as in 'Charlotte's Web'. But since my middle name was picked first as 'Francine', Jeanette asked her, 'How do you feel about the name 'Charlene'?' And after a few seconds of thinking about it, Britt said, 'Yeah, I like it - Brittany Charlene Chipette.' And originally, Jeanette was telling us she wanted her own middle name to be 'Jeanine'. And Britt and I were like, 'Eww, really? 'Jeanette Jeanine Chipette'?' I mean, I already feel bad for her, getting the short end of the stick with 'Jeanette Chipette'. But we thought 'Jeanette Jeanine' sounded a little redundant, so we talked her out of 'Jeanine' for her middle name. I think Britt asked her, 'Well, what about 'Marlene'? Like Marlene Dietrich, the movie actress from the nineteen-twenties and thirties?' You know how Britt used to like - and still likes - Shirley Temple and those other vintage movies from that era. And Jeanette was like, 'Hmm...Jeanette Marlene Chipette, I like that.' I think it does add a nice break from the fact that her first and last names rhyme."

"Those are beautiful names." Theodore smiled. "You guys sure picked good ones. I don't think I would trust my brothers with naming ourselves, like that. I'm even a little worried about my brothers naming my future nieces and nephews. After that story, I'll let you and your sisters name any of our future kids, you know, if any."

"Hmm...that reminds me of a joke I heard." Eleanor chuckled. "There was a family expecting twin boys, but they were having such a hard time coming up with names for them. They finally made the decision to let the boys grow up and pick their own names. And now that the twins are in second grade, 'Spiderman' and 'Chewbacca' are the most popular kids in their class!"

"Ha! That's funny!" Theodore giggled. "Now I'm pretty sure my brothers weren't the ones who named me - or the ones who named themselves. That would've been a nightmare!" He paused and looked questioningly at her, "For some reason there was a time I thought your middle name was 'Belle" or maybe even "Isabelle" or "Annabelle", since I sometimes call you 'Ellie-Belle'. Do you remember how that got started?"

"Wow...I like it when you call me 'Ellie-Belle'." She smiled as she tried to remember. "But come to think of it, you're the only person who calls me that. It's like your own personal nickname for me. I remember about the same time, that I noticed Alvin was the only person who called you 'Teddy-Boy'. It just didn't mean the same when I tried calling you that. It even felt kinda wrong, like I was stealing Alvin's personal nickname for you. Remember that time in Kindergarten when my sisters and I first started sleeping over at your house? Well, I left a small teddy bear at your place, more on purpose, as an excuse to come back for more sleepovers. That, and I felt like he was safer and better off with you than at Ian's penthouse apartment, as were we all. Ian used to make fun of me for having a teddy bear in the first place, the big meanie."

Theodore nodded in agreement, smiling about the memory. "I thought of you every time I cuddled to sleep with that teddy bear, since you were the friend who gave him to me."

She continued. "Well...Ian actually assumed for weeks that we were sleeping over at the home of some other girl from our class, and we had been keeping our friendship with you and your brothers a secret from him. I complained to Ian that I just couldn't sleep without my 'Teddy Bear' so that he would let me sleep over again at our friend's home. Even though I could actually sleep better knowing you were giving that teddy bear a good home, I knew in my heart that I wasn't lying to Ian, since you were actually the 'Teddy Bear' I couldn't sleep without. For a while 'Teddy Bear' was my nickname for you, but it still didn't feel original enough. So one day I remember thinking it would make you sound 'cooler' while preserving your sweet nature to shorten it to 'T-Bear'. Maybe after that, I convinced myself that your middle name was 'Bear', or something like that."

He chuckled, "Theodore Bear Seville?"

"You're right, that sounds funny. I don't know how I convinced myself of that." She laughed before continuing. "And about the same time I started calling you 'T-Bear', Ian would often send me to school without a lunch as his way of 'punishing' me for..." She paused, lowering her voice to more of a whisper and patting her belly. "You know, not being as tall or as 'lean' as he wanted me to be."

Theodore winced and added a very sympathetic nod, patting his own belly. "He did the same with me, I don't think he cared if anything happened to me or to Simon. Alvin was the only one of us who really mattered to him. Simon told me later that Ian's favoritism of Alvin was ironically as bad for Alvin as it was for us to be ignored. I mean, I was happy the way I was, Simon and Alvin loved me as I was, and Dave loved me as I was. Why couldn't Ian just accept me as I was?"

"Come to think of it," Eleanor interrupted, "He didn't really have much room to talk!"

A hint of a satisfied smirk crossed Theodore's face as he threw his hands up. "Amen! Preach on, Sista' Ellie-Belle!"

She giggled, "But even though I would often go to school hungry, you and everyone else would share food with me. I think you even made up a little song about it back then, 'Ellie, Ellie, we'll fill your belly.' Then I would thank you by hugging you, and you would sing in the same tune, 'Ellie, Ellie, please rub my belly'."

"Oh yeah..." He smiled as the memory came back to him, "I would've called you 'Ellie-Belly', since it rhymed, but that nickname wasn't very flattering, so I shortened it to 'Ellie-Belle', since it highlights the princess that you are." He added a shy wink.

"Awww, Theo..." She beamed. "Even though the whole 'princess attitude' is more Brittany's thing than mine...you are so sweet!" She squeezed his hand.

"Also," he continued, "Since you like to cook, and you are very hospitable, showing people that good old-fashioned 'Southern Hospitality', it kinda makes me think of a 'Southern Belle' or something like that. 'Ellie-Belle' fits you in more ways than one."

"It sure does." She smiled. "I like having personal nicknames for each other like 'T-Bear' and 'Ellie-Belle'. I think it's so...would I be too cheesy if I said 'special'?"

"Not at all." Theodore put his right arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "You are special to me, and this teepee is a 'judgement-free zone'. Simon calls it the 'Cone Of Silence' - which makes me think of ice cream, so I'm not complaining. He even said that 'What happens in the teepee stays in the teepee.' You know, except for Alvin's deadly gas leaks, which were not silent and they did not stay in the teepee, but filled the entire room."

Eleanor giggled, "Theo, it's funny how only you can talk about gas humor while hugging me, and it still somehow makes me want to hug you back even more." She returned the one-armed hug by placing her left arm across his shoulders.

A/N: Some credits for this chapter: "Cone Of Silence" is from the 1970s TV series "Get Smart" (I think). Jameson is Theodore's middle name, mentioned in the 2015 Nick cartoon series episodes "Lil' T" & "Dog Days". I'm going out on a limb with everyone else's middle names, as well as origins for them, but of course the names are from Ross Bagdasarian (Sr & Jr) & Michael Bagdasarian (son of Ross Jr & Janice Karman). My sister Molly told me the "Spiderman & Chewbacca" joke, & I loved it! Them meeting in "Kindergarten"? An origin-type story that I still have yet to write (going out on a limb, again, but with some similarities to "The Squeakquel"). And also going out on a limb with Brittany's gluten sensitivity. Brittany's middle name being Charlene is from a character I've heard about from an earlier Chipmunk cartoon series, but I still have yet to see that episode, I just heard via the "chip-vine" that she was a "prototype" of the character for Brittany. And she started out wanting her middle name to be Charlotte from "Charlotte's Web", since she would've been too young to get into "Sex And The City". And I've been going by the Nick cartoon series "universe" that the girls' last name is "Chipette". I know it's traditionally been "Miller" in the 1980s cartoon series, but they aren't officially Sevilles & they don't live with Miss Miller (yet?), so I compromised. I like their personal nicknames for each other "T-Bear" & "Ellie-Belle", another limb for me. And I know there have been many questions & much controversy regarding the "age-order" of the Chipmunks & Chipettes. I went by the numbers on their soccer jerseys in the Nick cartoon episode "Mutiny" (1. Simon, 2. Jeanette, 3. Brittany, 4. Alvin, 5. Theodore, 6. Eleanor), since it seemed like the logical explanation as to why Alvin was #4 instead of #1. In the Nick cartoon episode "The Sub", there is more "confirmation" of age-order (at least that Simon is older than Alvin) when Alvin, in "teacher mode" is having a parent-teacher conference with Dave, & he says, "I see you have 3 kids, & you are not very nice to the middle one..."