Alright, I think it's about time to get the show on the road! As I stated in the Author's Preface... or at least I think I said in the Author's Preface anyways- the songs start immediately in this chapter. I'm doing things differently this time around in terms of songs, and that is all of the songs are on one playlist. So now instead of having to click a dozen links every time I come to a chapter with a song, you have it in one convenient place. So when you first go to the playlist to listen to the song in this chapter, please remember to bookmark it/add it to your favorites. It will be much easier in the long run, so you don't have to hit back every time I say "Watch out, there's a song in this chapter." ;)

There are instructions on the playlist link itself, right at the top in a big gray box. Please read them, it will make your life a little easier. The link to the playlist is on my FFN profile.

I won't delay you guys any longer. Enjoy the first chapter! :)

Cheers,
-Narf :)


Chapter 1
A Summer to Almost Look Forward To

"Fritzie, get up," a voice called to me, shaking me lightly. I growled.

"Unggghhhh," I mumbled. Can't people see I'm sleeping?

"Fine, I'll just go tell Dave to go on ahead and pick the boys up," the annoying voice said, leaving the room. I licked the roof of my mouth and snuggled myself right against the pillow again.

Then it hit me. I overslept!

"Whoa! Wait a second! Hold up!" I yelled out, frantically throwing off the light blanket that was on me and the pillow across my new room in the process and ran to catch up with Tal, my older brother, out in the hallway.

Tal spun around to look at me and stuck his tongue out at me; his medium long brown hair in every which direction in the late morning light. "Why should I?" he said playfully. I scoffed.

"Hmm," I said, putting one of my 'fingers' to my chin, "what kind of sarcastic answer can I cook up this time?"

"Act like a smartass and I'll just tell Dave to go on without you anyway," Tal said, sulking a little bit with a frustrated look on his face.

"Hey, you asked for it 'brudder,'" I said, playfully jabbing at him in the side. He winced, causing me look at my paws. Woops, forgot to retract my claws. My brother's eyes started twitching at me as I began to rub my shaggy calico fur uneasily.

"Eep! Sorry Tal, forgot to retract my claws," I said apologetically, looking at the offending appendages stupidly. Tal looked like he was still pouting at me though. "What? I apologized!"

He gave me a disgruntled sigh and headed towards the back den, where the computer and second living room was. I rolled my eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked half sarcastically. I thought that he wouldn't act this way anymore, not since he got out of his fast food job three or so weeks ago but I see that didn't change.

"I'm just a little stressed out," He said, sliding into his chair and began calling up a website on the computer.

"'Stressed out?' Tal, come on. We don't live at home anymore, and you have a much better job. How could you possibly be stressed out?" I asked with a bitter and flat tone in my voice.

"And that must mean that my life is easy and completely carefree?" Tal snapped as if I was retarded or something. "Just remember, I'm raising you now without the help of mom, it's not as easy as you think."

"I'm not all stress free either, dude," I pointed out. "Just chill out."

Tal spun around in his chair. "Well if you're stressed out, you shouldn't have broken that car window."

"It's not that!" I said defensively, and then groaned in exasperation. "Look, I'll talk to you about that later, okay? I got to go catch Dave before he leaves," I said, running towards my room to go looking for something more suitable to wear than the wrinkled clothes I slept in.

As I ran for my room, Tal had a grin on his face. I looked back to see the grin and his cobalt colored eyes pierce right through me, causing me to tilt my head a little bit. Was he just testing me?

Whatever, I don't have time to think about it. I got to change my clothes!

I took my shirt and jeans off and went into my brand new closet with a few new shirts in it. I quickly grabbed a baby blue shirt and a nice pair of navy blue jeans that was in a neatly folded pile and put them on.


KEY SONG: ZZ TOP - CHEAP SUNGLASSES

I wasn't quite satisfied with my attire though. It was missing a certain flair for the first day of summer.


When you wake up in the morning and the light has hurt your head,
The first thing you do when you get up out of bed...
I
s hit that streets a-running and try to meet the masses,

But where was it though? I ran over to my dresser and promptly began throwing everything out of them trying to find something.


And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses.

Then at the bottom of the drawer, I found a pair of sunglasses Tal bought me a few days after we moved in.


Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!

Since I didn't have human ears, they had springs in the 'arms' to keep them to the side of my head. I threw them on and bolted out the door across the street, and greeted Dave just in time to jump into the car.

Spiny little thang and I followed her all night
In a funky pair of Levi's and her sweater is kind of tight
She had a west coast struttin' that was sweet as molasses
But what really knocked me out was the cheap sunglasses!

At school, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were standing out in the school parking lot, signature filled yearbooks in hand. Edgy to leave school for a few months, they were waiting patiently for Dave to arrive.

Just as Alvin sighed in boredom, Dave pulled up in front of them and I jumped out of the car before the car fully rolled to a stop.

"Fritzie!" the three of them chorused as I stood in front of them, the sun backlighting me as I stood over them.


Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!

"Ready for a kick-tail summer?" I asked loudly.

"Hell yeah!" Alvin blurted out obnoxiously.

"Alvin!" Dave yelled out.

[Solo]

Alvin looked sheepishly over at Dave. "Sorry."

The boys piled into the car, Theodore being careful as he was still on crutches and in a cast from his broken leg, and we began to drive home.

"It feels so good to be out of that place," Alvin said, relaxing his head in the back of his arms, treating school as if it was already a thing of the past.

"I concur," Simon said, rubbing his glasses with the hem of his turtleneck, "I could use a little time to relax."

"Yeah! I can't wait until I can finally run around again with you guys," Theodore added, sounding a little forlorn through his excitement. I picked up on it, but I've gotten used to it. I don't think Theodore would really get over it until he can start cooking again.

"Heh, I'm glad I don't ever have to go to that place. I hear so many bad things about it; I don't ever want to go there. And I don't think Tal will make me. I'm technically an adult by the US Government" I added smugly.

"That's not fair!" Alvin said wide-eyed. "You're younger than us!"


Now go out and get yourself with some thick black frames
With the glass so dark that they won't even know your name
Now the choice is up to you because they come in two classes:
Rock on shades or cheap sunglasses

"Are you actually serious about that statement, Fritzie?" Dave asked. I flinched wildly in my seat. In my imagination, I could see that eyebrow of his reaching his hairline.

"Yeah. My species is new, they don't know how to approach it, so I'm an adult according to Tal."

"According to Tal or not, you're particularly lucky that nobody gave you a background check because you could have been arrested for that stint a month ago."

Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!

I just rest the back of my head on my arms and let the cool breeze of the open air overtake me, trying real hard to not actually show how scared I was of that statement. I could have been arrested? Whoa. I never thought of it that way. Guess I have to be careful now.

"Man, why do the Chipettes get to go on a vacation for a few weeks?" Alvin complained. "Brittany gets everything she wants."

"They're going on vacation?" I asked a little puzzled.

"Yep, they're going to San Francisco for two weeks. Miss Miller wanted to visit some relatives and the girls wanted to come along," Simon said drearily. "They're leaving later tonight." I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," I said, not sure what to say next. At least with the Chipettes around, I had someone to help me keep the brothers from souring too much, especially Eleanor. I began to feel disappointed as we turned onto our block.

When we got back home, Alvin and I didn't even wait for the car to stop the both of us jumped out of the car and ran into the house, while Simon stayed behind to help Theodore out of the car.

When Alvin and I got upstairs, he began looking around the room for something to play with, that lingering little thought about what Dave said on the way home wouldn't just go away. I had to set that thought aside though, because I had to prepare for playing referee for the boys. It might look like things are normal around here, but looks can be deceiving, and it was only a matter of time before something went sour today, like has happened almost every day the last two weeks.


"What!?" Alvin yelled out, furiously mashing buttons on his Xbox controller. "How in the…what the? Who?!"

I couldn't help but start laughing, it was just too funny. Alvin shot a dirty look at me.

"I'm just too good," I said smugly.

"Nuh-uh! Even Brittany is better than you," Alvin said, immaturely shuddering when he said 'Brittany.'

"Would you two pipe down?!" Simon yelled edgily from the top of the stairs. "I'm trying to do some vital research!"

I sighed and put down the controller. "Sorry Simon," I said, but Alvin wasn't so quick to let it go.

"Trying to do vital research? When are you not trying to do your quote unquote 'vital' research?" Alvin said in defense, jumping up from the couch with the controller still in his hands.

"Oh wonderful, here we go again," I muttered to myself. I looked up to get eye contact with Simon though. "Alvin has a point there Simon. Why don't you just chill, or get some headphones?"

"Or hell, for once in your dreary monotonogulous life and play a video game!" Alvin called out.

Simon sighed and looked at the ground as if he wasn't impressed. "Alvin, it's monotonous. And no thanks; I have more important things to do than just look at colorful eye candy." And just as I'd opened my mouth to reply, Simon walked back into the door. Instead, I crossed my arms.

"Humph, maybe if he took a break from whatever he's so closely safeguarding and unwind a little bit he wouldn't be so stressed out," I said, not impressed with how early the fights were starting up today. I was expecting this, but that doesn't mean I accept it either, and today they didn't wait for the tensions to take over.

I suppose at least this time Theodore isn't here to make matters worse. After Dave dropped all of us off back at home after a half day's school for them, we had lunch before he took Theodore in for his four week evaluation for his broken leg. Doc Harris wants to know how Theodore's leg is coming along to make a judgment on when to remove the cast.

Until then, I can only hope that the boys don't get worse with their fights. See, ever since I came into the picture the boys progressively been getting more and more violent towards each other. And even though Dave insists it's not, I can't help it but feel I'm partly to blame for it. I try, but I have no idea what's going on in the boys' minds.

Allow me to elaborate.

I'll start with Alvin. To the untrained eye, Alvin's pretty much the same. He's still his cocky, vain and arrogant self, full of impulsive comebacks and of course misguided schemes. But from my eyes, I hang out with the three boys religiously; I often get to see a different side of Alvin.

Remarkably, Alvin's the only one of the three that's actually been making any sense. Alvin's starting to give more intelligent comebacks to Simon's provocations as time goes on, and it often surprises me. Either Alvin's maturing a little, Simon's changing for a worse status, or most likely, a little bit of both. Plus, not to mention that Alvin's been a little more apt to say how he really feels about things, but it's only ever so subtle.

Simon actually has changed the most, on the contrary to his brothers. When I first met Simon, he actually had quite an attractive charisma about him. It was really quite charming. He was very sympathetic towards my plight, helped Theodore keep his cool, and even helped cook up that crazy scheme back during that first night I was here.

But ever since that first week though...Simon's become more aloof and secretive. Sure, in public he's quite normal (though there's a different look in his eye, like he actually has no interest being out at all). Lately, he's just sitting in front of the computer day in and day out, only popping out to grab a light snack or a drink and check on Theodore as if it were a doctor-patient relationship. And if someone other than Dave or occasionally Tal calls him out of his drone like trance, he snaps at all of us like Alvin would the first time I stole his hat from him. Even Theodore would draw a negative, though less severe reaction out of him.

Which brings me to Theodore. He's also much different than when I first came around. Sure, he's still quite adorable, but to my own surprise, I actually have been relating to Alvin better, despite our competitive natures.

See, lately, Theodore has been kind of aloof as well. I can understand feeling a bit forlorn since he can't actively play with Alvin and I, but there's something more to it. Theodore is just too quiet. He won't talk to anybody, even me, about how he's feeling. It makes me a bit worried, because when I first came along, he didn't seem like the type to hold secrets very well.

There is something else though. Theodore acts totally different around Simon than he does around the rest of us. I can feel a huge amount of pent up tension in Theodore whenever Simon is relatively close to him, and it scares me just a little bit. I don't even think Simon's aware of it at all; because Theodore doesn't make it completely obvious, but he doesn't exactly hide the fact either. I think Simon's too wound up with whatever he's researching to even bother to connect to the world surrounding him and pay attention to his brother's needs.

The boys keep themselves relatively separate from each other was well. Alvin will hang out with Theodore sometimes, but the only time Simon really interacts with any of his brothers are during meals and as I'm going to label it, 'check-ups.'

So one can see my concern. I just know that eventually, something's going to crack between the boys. There's about two and a half weeks left before Theodore will be fully functional again and return to a more normal mind frame, but the damage will be done. Sometimes, it gets so bad that I don't even want to hang out with the boys anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love all three of them to death. They're just the friends I needed all these years. But sometimes, I wonder to myself if I just force myself to go there just to moderate. There was an incident like that only a few days ago that I'd rather not go in-depth with, but I've never seen anyone argue so much about something as simple as having the lights on or off.

"Yeah right," Alvin said, rolling his eyes before heading towards the front door, "this isn't the first time he's gone into one of these binges. Let's go outside."

I nodded. Going outside sounded like a great idea.

"So that Simon can research in peace and quiet!" Alvin yelled back into the house mockingly. Almost on cue, a shoe hit Alvin in the back of the head with an audible clunk. I looked up the stairs to see an almost enraged Simon standing at the top of the steps, breathing heavily to keep himself from snapping.

Alvin grabbed the shoe and looked up at Simon, before putting the shoe down abruptly. Then he flattened his face a little bit and walked outside. I followed behind and closed the door quietly.

"Did he actually throw a shoe at you?" I said in disbelief. Alvin took his cap off and began rubbing the back of his head.

"Frickin' jerk," Alvin said through clenched teeth. Sounded like it hurt, I stood there for a second and waited for Alvin to stop rubbing his head so furiously.

"I can't believe he threw a shoe at-wait a second...I'm in more disbelief that you didn't throw it back at him?" I said in an obviously disbelieving tone. I had to start rubbing my temples. "Are you two going off the deep end?"

"I should snitch on him right now for that!" Alvin complained, stamping his feet into the ground. "That really hurt!"

Wait...Alvin choosing snitching over throwing the shoe back? This is definitely not normal.

"Alvin," I cut in, rubbing Alvin's shoulders- something I don't often do, "let it go. If you tell Dave about it-" I began saying before cutting myself off. Something was seriously mixed up with that statement. Alvin stopped rubbing his head and turned to face me abruptly, his eyes watering both from pain and anger.

"If I do, what? Is that a threat?" Alvin growled warningly. I took a step back and waved my hands in front of my face.

"No no nononono. Alvin, that's not why I cut myself off, chill!" I said apologetically. Alvin loosened up a little bit and sulked. "There's an awkward ring to what I was going to say."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I was going to say, Simon will probably resent you for it," I finished, but then made eye contact with Alvin. "Don't you get it Alvin? You two are changing into each other!"

Alvin looked at me in disbelief. "What?!"

"Think about it Alvin! Simon getting overly aggressive, and quite selfish? You making witty comebacks and considering snitching over throwing the shoe back at him? Don't you get it?!" I exclaimed. "You two are switching roles!"

Alvin looked at his hands almost in horror. "Me? A n-n-nerd?" If the situation were even a little different, it would have been funny.

I slapped my forehead, making a satisfying 'd'oh' noise. "No!" I yelled out, then groaned in frustration and sat down on the front steps. "You're maturing a little bit, while Simon's regressing. He's throwing tantrums! Simon doesn't throw tantrums!"

"I guess you got me there," Alvin commented.

"And not just that, I mean, you didn't throw a shoe back at Simon? I was expecting you to throw it at something whether it was at Simon or the refrigerator."

Alvin blinked. "Whoa, I didn't did I?"

I got back up again. "I don't like the direction these fights are starting to go. Though telling Dave might be a good thing I don't think it's going to help," I said, looking back at Alvin's house. "There's got to be a way to fix these problems."

"Well, we could wait until Theodore's better," Alvin suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"That's not going to work either," I said, putting a paw to my chin. Sure, it would effectively bring Theodore back to being capable of moderating Alvin and Simon's quirks. But...it's just not good enough. "There has to be a way to solve this before one of you three explodes. I don't think you guys will be able to take it much longer."

Alvin began to think as well. I could smell a scheme coming.

"Maybe we could somehow bring Simon into line..." Alvin said with a slight mischievous tinge.

"No, Alvin, don't. Whatever you're thinking, don't do it," I said with a serious, direct quality that strangely reminded me of Dave.

"And why not?" Alvin said, rubbing his hands together. I again slapped my head at his stupidity.

"All you'll do is make Simon pissed. You want this fighting to stop, right?" I directed. Alvin nodded, deciding to at least try to go along with what I had to say.

"Well then, if you want the fighting to end, you're just going to need to let him walk all over you for a couple of days," I said as a matter of fact.

"What?!?" Alvin screamed out at me, causing me to promptly cover my ears. My hearing is four times as good as a human's, he doesn't need to just scream at me.

"I know you don't like the i-"

"Don't like it?! You're insane! Me, letting him walk all over me?! Fritzie, that's like me telling you to stop acting like a dog!" Alvin complained. I had to wince at the dog analogy.

"What do you think I'm going through right now Alvin. Tal's trying to get me to stop acting like a dog, do you think I like it?" I let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, if you can push your ego aside for just a few days, Simon might come to his senses and realize that he's acting completely out of character! Don't you get it?"

Alvin growled and folded his arms. "I can't just stand here and let him boss me around, and that's that."

I sighed and sulked. So much for that idea. Understand me now? I'm not having the easiest time in the world keeping them in check. "Fine, if that's how you're going to deal with it, then you're just going to be miserable for the next few weeks," I concluded. Alvin growled in frustration.

"Besides Alvin, it's not Simon I'm the most worried about breaking first."

"Oh? And who might that be?" Alvin said defensively, just as Dave was readying himself to pull into the driveway.

"Theodore," I said, walking back into the house. Better to be distracted by a game than to be arguing with Alvin. At least with Dave back, everyone gets yelled at if we have a gaming adrenaline outburst.

Alvin looked at the car kind of funny, as though to think about it for a second. Then he followed me inside.


So, what'cha think? Find the first chapter cool? Intrigued by the brother's chemical imballance? I'd definitely love to know how you felt about the first chapter, so leave me a review and tell me what you think. I see that quite a few people have read the prologue over the last few days and only two people have to say something for it, which saddens me a little bit, although I will let it slide. It's only the Prologue after all.

However, this time the story is going to be released more based on reviews. Come on, I know there's quite a few of you that come here now. I see plenty of stories with tons and tons of reviews, so there's no reason for anybody to not be able to leave a comment on how they feel or if there's anything I could improve on a little bit. Reviews are the lifeline of the author, your feedback really does matter to me.

Will be uploading Chapter 2 sometime soon!