Chapter 2: A Call for Concern
With the plan agreed upon, Alvin and Simon departed from each other, both going to their respective classes, neither one saying a word to each other, partly because Simon was so preoccupied with staying focused on his studies. Entering the room where his math class was taking place, Alvin sat down at his seat and removed his things from his backpack and set them on his desk, then laid his head down, waiting for the teacher to enter. He was in no mood whatsoever to speak to anyone. Not to the teacher. Not to his classmates. He just wanted to get the day over and done with, to get through his talk with Simon over and done with. Sadly, that seemed a long way off. The teacher Mrs Lawler walked in the classroom as joyful as ever, much to the irritation of Alvin. How is it possible to be this joyful in the mornings? All he ever wanted was for society to accept him for who he is, but alas that wouldn't happen, not by a long shot. His thoughts were interrupted temporarily by Mrs Lawler giving the class a lesson on fractions.
"Oh great fractions", he muttered as he jotted down the title, not really paying much attention to the lesson.
Mrs Lawler was standing at the board writing some fractional equations with the class quiet and awkward to Alvin, it only made school very taxing.
"Ok class, what do you know about fractions?"
Several students put their hands up, but Alvin looked blankly at the board and sighed softly. He thought "What's the point in learning fractions, decimals, percentages and all that pointless garbage! I wanted to be young, have fun all the time, but no I have to learn all this garbage", his thoughts were again interrupted by Mrs Lawler.
"Alvin, Alvin".
"Huh? Oh yes Mrs Lawler".
"Do you know anything about fractions?"
"Yeah I know something, they're pointless".
"Pointless? No, no Alvin they're not pointless, fractions have functionality in the real world as do percentages and decimals".
"Yeah well they're pointless to me", Alvin crossed his arms and rested his head on them.
"Ok anyone else?"
Meanwhile in Science, Simon's mind is in two halves at the moment; one half is telling him that he should've told Alvin not to be too concerned about his 100% attendance. While the other half is focusing on the science lesson though the percentage of focus is decreasing slowly to allow his mind to drift back to what Alvin said to him, "I want to be young again, the thought of being diapered and babied feels attractive to me".
This was giving him a slight headache; he proceeded to take notes from a textbook to keep himself quiet whilst his teacher lectured the students about the topic of the lesson. He sighed to himself as he took down more notes to make it seem like he is a model student.
Theodore is in cookery class this morning and is oblivious of what's going on with his brothers. Today his class is doing a practical session. The class is given an assignment which they could do individually. The recipe for today's lesson was cheesecake, though basic; the assignment wasn't to just make a cheesecake, it is to make subtle innovations to the cheesecake to make it more exciting and yummier. Theodore decided that instead of a boring old biscuit base of digestive biscuits and butter. His base will consist of brown sugar, oats and unsalted butter as margarine was made purely out of hydrogenated fats which cannot naturally break down in the body. Though he never knew why the biscuits were called 'digestive' in the first place. He deduced after pondering for a couple minutes that it may be to do with the fibre in the wheat in the biscuits. With a shake of his head, he had to get to work on making his innovative base.
'Hmm brown sugar is going to give quite a bit of sweetness and the cheese mixture will have caster sugar, I have to balance it to avoid it being too sickly to eat', Theodore thought. He looked closely at the three tables of ingredients that were in the centre of the room, from which the students could pick from, one table for the base, one for the cheese mixture and the final table for decoration options. After pondering on what to put in it he decided on a citrusy cheese filling with a small amount of decoration on the top. As he was doing this he couldn't help, but wonder what his brothers were up to. He collected his equipment and ingredients that were: a lemon, a lime, an orange, soft cheese and sugar for the cheese mixture. He got to work on that.
Meanwhile in Math, the class were working out of the textbooks, but Alvin wasn't doing anything, he just sat there looking at the same page of questions for 15 minutes. The classmates were starting to wonder what is going through the chipmunks' head as they glance up from their work even Mrs Lawler is concerned now. She went over to him and knelt down.
"You ok Alvin? Do you need some help on anything?"
"No Mrs Lawler, I'm fine", Alvin looked up from the textbook to meet his teachers' unchanged concerned face.
"No Alvin, I don't think you're fine, can I speak to you outside the classroom please?"
"Fine", Alvin walked out the classroom led by Mrs Lawler.
Mrs Lawler closed the door, "Ok Alvin, tell me what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, nothing has been wrong with me, I'm just not motivated".
"Motivated, what to do better?"
Alvin shook his head.
"Then what do you mean Alvin?"
"I mean this school is just well demoralising everything that a child had, freedom, confidence, trust, I don't know anymore".
"Do you want to talk to someone about this?" asked Mrs Lawler as she sensed that there may be something more complex going on.
Alvin shook his head and headed back in the classroom as he sat down and started doing the questions from the textbook.
Simon however is getting on with his notes then he looked up from his notes as his teacher writing their assignment on the board due in the next lesson. Simon knew it was a matter of time before he had to confront Alvin about what he told him. He sighed as he wrote it in his journal and packed his stuff up and left.
Later at lunch Theodore had made a cheesecake and after his class sampled it for analysis, he was allowed to eat the rest, but he couldn't possibly eat the rest of his small cheesecake. He decided that Alvin and Simon should have some.
"Hey guys", said Theodore.
"Uh hi Theodore, what do you have there?" asked Alvin.
"My cheesecake, would you like some?" asked Theodore
"Sure Theodore I'd like some", replied Simon.
"Ok I'll get some forks then", said Theodore.
"Hmm that looks good don't it Alvin?" Simon looked at Alvin blocking any thought in his head as he rubbed it.
"Yeah it does, you ok Simon?" asked Alvin as he noticed Simon rubbing his head.
"Yeah I'm fine, just got bit of a headache that's all", Theodore sat on his stool as he passed round the forks and napkins.
"Ok guys dig in", they dug in, but Alvin was observing Simon between every mouthful.
The next hour after lunch flew by with very little thought process in it as the end of the day draws near with only five minutes to go and the three boys were anxious to come out the school doors towards Dave's car. Simon and Alvin were really secretive and Theodore hasn't got a clue what his brothers were up to. The school bell rang and the kids filed out their final classroom of the day with Simon and Alvin charging towards Dave's car with Theodore distantly looking on in confusion.
"Hey fellas, Alvin you seem to be in a better mood than this morning".
"Uh Dave I was in a good mood, I just needed to walk that's all".
"Ok Alvin so how was school?"
"Fine", replied Alvin.
"Good", replied Simon.
"It was great", replied Theodore.
"Hmm the usual answers", said Dave with a grin on his face as he drove home.
The boys were let in, Theodore rushed in, but Simon and Alvin held back making Theodore stop and look back.
"Guys, are you keeping something from me?"
"No, no we're not keeping anything from you, are we Alvin?"
"Nope", Theodore seemed content with that reply.
"Ok then", he took off towards the TV.
"I hate keeping this from him", said Simon.
"Imagine how I feel?"
"Ok Alvin I'm sorry, shall we talk upstairs then?"
"Yeah let's do that", they headed upstairs to their bedroom.
Alvin knew that Simon is going to ask some awkward questions now, but how to answer them he did not know. He walked into his bedroom followed by Simon and he shut the door behind him. He sat on his bed and he tapped the spot beside him prompting Alvin to join him.
Simon sighed as he began, "Right, Alvin all I'm going to do is ask you about your secret ok, but essentially I want to know from your viewpoint to see if I can understand it ok".
Alvin is fiddling with his hoodie to distract himself from the conversation and was nervously waiting for Simon to ask the first question. Alvin took the initiative to prompt Simon to ask his first question.
"Simon, I know you'll feel uncomfortable, but imagine it in my head, I'm not even sure about why myself".
"It's not the uncomfortable bit I'm worried about, it's the whole concept of growing down rather than growing up, I mean traditionally kids feel excited about growing up as it opens more opportunities, but not you and I'd like to know why?"
Alvin took a deep breath, "W-well I kind of miss some aspects of toddler life, I don't know".
Simon took an interest straight away, "Like what?"
"I-I miss being looked after, bottle-fed and sleeping soundly in a c-crib, those sorts of things".
"You miss those things, ok Alvin that sounds quite peculiar".
"I know, I know, you're thinking that I shouldn't be thinking like this".
"No Alvin, I actually don't think that at all, do you feel insecure in any way?"
"I miss Dave taking care of me".
"But Alvin …" Simon started, but interrupted.
"I mean as a small child maybe toddler age" Alvin clarified.
"Oh right, I get you now, how long have you had these feelings of wanting to be treated like a baby?"
"Ever since I worked at the zoo, I felt so old at the time, you know looking in wanted ads and going into recruitment agencies, I didn't feel like a kid anymore".
"Well you did put yourself in that situation when you wanted that Trans Go-Go Bot Alvin".
"I know, but now I just don't want to be grown up, I want to be small in age terms not appearance, I don't want you to turn my body into a baby with any of your chemistry I just want to be treated like a baby".
"I don't know Alvin; that sounds a bit quirky".
"Quirky? Oh no I'm screwed up in the head", Alvin covered his eyes in shame and Simon quickly noted this and felt bad.
"No you're not Alvin, I mean I may not understand fully of this desire, I'll support it ok".
"Really, you-you mean it?"
"If you wanted me to then, yes".
Alvin breathed a sigh of relief before speaking again, "Ok thank you for supporting me, I can't tell you how hard it was to tell you about this".
"I understand I mean this secret you held in yourself wasn't doing you any favours and letting it out has triggered a relief, hasn't it?"
"Yeah I guess it has brought relief".
"Good I'm glad I could help, but how much research have you done on this?"
"Well only a bit, but there is a community out there with my desires as well".
"Ok, but it's not paedophilia?"
"Oh no, no, no it isn't paedophilia, it's a misconception, whenever 'Adult Baby' or 'Diaper Lover' is mentioned automatically people think paedophile, but it's nothing to do with that".
Alvin paused before asking, "So how far are you willing to go with my desire?"
Simon was shaking visibly, he had to contemplate on whether to give into his desire and be like his fatherly figure or refuse to participate and deeply depress his older brother. After thinking for a split second as depressing his brother is the least of his priorities and he didn't want to do this decided on the former.
"Ok Alvin, I'll be interested in going the extra mile ok, I want to know though, are you uncomfortable with being my baby?"
Alvin eyes went wide at the response and clapped his paws happily and hugged Simon.
"Uh I take that as you're not any bit uncomfortable with the suggestion".
"Nope not at all I like your suggestion".
"Right that's what will happen then".
"Yay I'm going to be a baby, I'm going to be Simon's baby".
"Ok Alvin I'm just going to absorb this in and then give you some guidelines in terms of how to tell the others because they'll need to know ok, if you need my support then I'll be with you ok", said Simon.
"I kinda didn't want the others to know yet".
"Oh Alvin, do you think they'll get slightly suspicious if we wander to the baby aisle in the supermarket and leave with diapers and other baby items?"
"Hmm, good point".
"I suggest we get it over with at dinner, do you think?"
"Well only if you back me up".
"I will Alvin".
"Thanks bro".
"No problem".
They sat in silence once everything was out in the open, Alvin sighed with content that he had Simon on his side on this issue. That was good enough, but just as he opened the door he heard Dave say, "Dinner boys".
He shook visibly as he took his seat next to Simon; Dave looked at him with concern "Are you ok Alvin?"
"I need to talk to you about something".
"Ok, what is it about?"
Alvin took a deep breath as he thought "Ok here I go"…