Chapter 2: The Chipettes' lesson

The chipette's lesson at that period was Maths and Eleanor is very good at Maths and the teacher helps the students with their work and therefore is a great teacher. Her name is Miss Reed and she is very nice.

They had her for Maths which was across the room from Mr Herrington's classroom, whilst the lesson was going on and Eleanor was engrossed in her work to notice what happened in Mr Herrington's classroom. Brittany however was distracted by the rest of the class and then she looked out the classroom door and saw Theodore leave in tears.

"Uh Eleanor, I just saw Theodore leave in tears, something might have happened in Mr Herrington's classroom", whispered Brittany.

"What Theodore's upset?" whispered Eleanor.

Brittany nodded, Eleanor wanted to ask Theodore what happened in the lesson, but she wasn't allowed to leave the classroom without a valid reason. Jeanette thought it was uncharacteristic of Theodore to walk out a lesson, something bad must have happened. Miss Reed saw that Brittany was distracted and thought she had done all of the questions on the board.

"Brittany, have you finished your questions?" asked Miss Reed.

"No, Miss Reed", replied Brittany.

"Do you need me to help you?" asked Miss Reed.

"No thank you Miss Reed", replied Brittany.

"Ok just ask if you need my help ok", said Miss Reed.

Jeanette wanted the lesson to be over then she saw that Alvin walked out the classroom and half of Mr Herrington's class.

"Hey Brittany look half of Mr Herrington's class has walked out including Alvin and Simon", whispered Jeanette.

"Simon? Are you sure? It's not like Simon to do that", whispered Brittany in surprise.

After 15 more minutes the school bell rang for break and Eleanor can go to the canteen for a snack to put her on until lunch and she wanted to see if Theodore was ok. When she walked in to buy a doughnut, she saw Theodore on his own and she quickly paid for the doughnut and hopped over to Theodore.

"Hi Theodore", greeted Eleanor.

"Hi", said Theodore in a sullen tone.

"What's wrong Theodore?" asked Eleanor.

"It's nothing for you to worry about Eleanor", sighed Theodore.

"Theodore, you know you can tell me anything", said Eleanor worriedly.

"I just don't think it's important", said Theodore.

Theodore hopped off to his next lesson in a hurry; leaving Eleanor sat at the table eating her doughnut alone, after she finished she sighed to herself and thought to herself, "I know that something is bothering him, but I just don't know what it is".

Jeanette hopped over to Eleanor and she knows exactly what happened.

"Did you find out anything?" asked Jeanette.

"No I didn't, he's never gotten up and hopped off without saying bye before", replied Eleanor.

"Something is bothering him maybe try at lunch", said Jeanette.

"Ok, I will try that, I'm worried about him", said Eleanor concerned.

"I know you are, just try again at lunch ok", said Jeanette.

Eleanor just nodded and Jeanette left her to her thoughts, Jeanette walked gracefully to English, she was very distracted and she tried to concentrate on the lesson, but was no use. Eleanor couldn't concentrate on her work and felt that the lesson wasn't interesting.

"Mr Lawler, may I go to the bathroom?" asked Eleanor politely.

"Sure", replied Mr Lawler.

Eleanor didn't really need to go to the bathroom, she only wanted to sit and think of how to approach Theodore at lunch. She hopped out and went to Mr Herrington's room, after seeing that he was helping all the other pupils with their work so she didn't think that he had caused the problem. She went in the bathroom to blow off some lesson time. She sat in there for a good 5 minutes and she got her mind right and returned to English. She managed to write half a page in the lesson and made a note of the homework assignment due the following Tuesday.

The bell went and they went to their cooking lesson which was all theory and they learnt about what Carbohydrates are and why they're important, Eleanor knew that Theodore liked cooking, but was in a different class to her, Eleanor sighed and muttered "there's always next year when we may get put in cooking together", her thoughts were interrupted by Miss Nichols.

"Eleanor, are you paying attention?" asked Miss Nichols.

"Yeah, I am sorry Miss", replied Eleanor.

"Ok", said Miss Nichols and she carried on with the rest of the lesson.

Thankfully, this is the last period before lunch so Eleanor could get the chance to talk to Theodore again and hopefully getting him to tell her what's wrong with him. When the lesson was over and Eleanor pondered around for a while so that Theodore would have a chance to get to the cafeteria before she did, but after 10 minutes of doing this, Theodore hadn't come in the cafeteria yet. 5 minutes later Theodore walked in and took a tray then asked for less than he usually has and didn't even look at the desserts on offer. He paid for his food and took the tray to an isolated table on his own.

Eleanor sensed that it was something much worse as he usually eats with the chipmunks, but he even isn't talking to them. She reluctantly hopped over to Theodore and sat with him and Theodore didn't acknowledge that she was sitting with him. He ate silently for a few minutes and felt that Eleanor was sitting next to him.

"Oh Ellie I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there", said Theodore.

"It's ok Theodore, I wanted to ask you if you're ok", replied Eleanor.

"Well … I… I'm sorry", Theodore began, but got up and ran off.

"Theo", said Eleanor.

Theodore kept running out of the cafeteria leaving Eleanor sighing.