A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, I'm still trying to get all the kinks out. After this chapter I'm working in several subplots to work in the other Chipmunks and Chipettes :) Don't forget to review!

"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!"

"Jeanette!" She heard Simon calling her name as she felt his arms around her waist, about where her purple hair ribbon was wrapped, she thought hazily to herself. He pulled her to a sitting position, leaning her back against the lab table as her eyes fluttered opened, her hand reaching for her head.

"No, don't touch anything with your hands," Simon warned her grabbing her wrist. When she opened her eyes completely, the world was a blur around her. The best she could see was the blue in Simon's shirt.

"W...where are my glasses?" She started to fumble beside her seat on the floor when Simon grabbed her other wrist.

"No, Jeanette. Not your hands. Here," he released her for a split second to place her glasses gently on her nose. Then his hands were back on her wrists.

When her vision cleared, she saw his furrowed brow, as well as the Chipmunks and her sisters, along with the rest of the class, peering over at her.

Finally she looked down at her hands to see them splattered with the explosion of acid, her holy gloves lying discarded beside him. One large black oval covered the three fingers of her right hand, which lay cradled in Simon's palm. She watched him treat her wounds carefully before trying to pick the acid out of her fingers.

"Be careful with her, Simon!" Brittany warned, hovering over him like a hawk, pointing out his every move. Simon ignored her, focused on Jeanette's burns.

"I don't feel a thing," Jeanette assured her sister, watching in awe as Simon worked quickly but gently, as if she were of fragile glass.

"Does that hurt, Jean?" He asked her quietly after a few minutes as he looked up from her hand. To her embarrassment, she blushed, looking away at the brown tiles of the lab floor.

"No," she replied. "Doesn't hurt at all. Thanks...you really don't have to do this."

"We learned advanced first aid in the science camp I went to last summer," he answered, turning back to her hand. "Covered stuff like this, chemical burns and all that. The teacher went to go get the nurse. I'm more concerned about your head though," he continued, pulling off one glove and turning her head softly with a hand to her cheek, looking at the back of her head.

Jeanette's cheeks flamed again at the simple gesture, though she couldn't wrap her head around why. Simon was one of her best friends; why was she freaking out every time he looked her way?

"It's just a pretty big goose-egg, but I'd keep an eye on it. Eleanor," he turned to Jeanette's younger sister, who was sitting with Theodore on top of the lab table, "Make sure she doesn't fall asleep at random intervals when you get home today. Tonight she should be fine, but I don't want her falling asleep if she has a concussion. You hit your head pretty hard," he said, turning back to Jeanette's hand as he spoke to her. "That was a pretty nasty explosion. It's all my fault, I must've gotten the ammonia confused with the water solution." He looked up at her, his solemn blue eyes meeting hers. "I'm so sorry, Jeanette."

"No, no, I think I actually added too much salt earlier. It could've been both our faults," she assured him. "Hey, at least we got a reaction, huh?"

He snorted at her remark quietly and nodded as he grabbed a piece of the acid with his tweezers; "I just wish you didn't have to catch the brunt of it. This is gonna hurt just a little," he warned, squeezing her wrist before he pulled off the dead skin. He gritted his teeth as blood began to leak across her palm and pressed a cloth gently to the spot, dabbing peroxide on softly.

She took note of the way he asked several times in a quieter tone if he was hurting her, all of which she answered no to, even if she was starting to feel the tug of the tweezers. She flinched once as he hit a spot between her fingers, and he flew into apologies.

She smiled timidly as she calmed him down, assuring her that she was indeed fine and that he was doing a great job.

As she turned her head, she felt something brush the skin of her neck. She looked down at her chest to find both oversized apron and hair ribbon gone.

"What happened to my...?"

"I put your ribbon back in your hair. I figured you'd be missing it," Simon answered, not looking up from the palm of her hand.

"Thanks," she replied quietly, as she focused her eyes on her glasses sliding down her nose that she couldn't push back into place. Fourteen and still had glasses. Even her classmates from middle school who once had glasses now sported chic new contacts. Jeanette had come to accept the fact that she would never make it past the awkward teenager stage, what with her flat chest, messy complexion, and bespectacled eyes.

She saw a gloved finger touch the bridge of her nose to push them back into place.

"Annoying, huh?" Simon asked her as he went back to work. "I hate my glasses sometimes when my hands are full."

"You wouldn't be you without them though," Jeanette blurted out suddenly, regretting her words instantly.

Simon seemed to ponder them for a second before replying, "Yeah, I guess not. I don't think you would be either though."

The thought warmed Jeanette's heart as she watched Simon pull her hand closer to his face, his brow pulling together and his nose scrunching up. She leaned her head back against the table a little too hard, as she flinched when it came into contact with her bruised head.

Simon flew into apologies again as she explained herself, smiling at his concern.

How lucky was she to have a friend like him?

A/N: I know, short and sweet. But there will probably be another chapter up tonight! R&R!