The next morning, Theodore was making odd requests of meat to Dave to eat, though he was a vegetarian now. Patrick and Emily were concerned when Atticus started to act the same way.
"Are you two feeling okay?" Jessica asked.
"Just starvin'." Theodore said as he picked at the food he ate that wasn't meat based.
"If you guys want, I can drive you to school today," Emily offered to the Chipmunks and Darla since they went to the same school. "It'll be on my way to the grocery store."
Atticus ate the same food and their reactions were looking like they disliked it. Yuck!" he said after the taste.
"I don't think this is normal." Dave whispered to Patrick.
Patrick shrugged honestly. "It's probably a phase."
Darla kept eating, then wiped her mouth politely. "I may not know much about boys, but this can't be normal for teenage or chipmunk boys."
"I think you're right, Darla." Alvin said.
"Oh, by the way, we wanna thank you." Simon said to her.
Darla went to put her bowl in the sink. "For what?"
"We know it ruined your career, but we wanted to thank you for that disaster at Mammoth Pictures after your movie premiere," Simon explained. "People didn't think we could sing either."
"Oh, well, you're welcome... I'm actually kind of glad to not be famous anymore myself." Darla smiled back gently.
"Yeah, because then, you wouldn't have been adopted by us and be part of the family." Jessica said.
"My own family..." Darla fluttered her eyes, smiling. "I miss my old family of course, but I don't think they'd want to see me sad like this... I wonder what they would've thought of me these days."
Emily checked the time. "Come on, let's get you guys to school."
Dave handed the sack lunches. "Here you go, Alvin, no tomatoes."
Alvin smiled as he took his lunch.
"And Theodore-" Dave handed the bag to the youngest chipmunk.
"Steak sandwich?" Theodore looked excited.
"Theodore, you don't eat meat." Dave reminded him.
"I don't?"
"No, you don't."
"Weird." Atticus said.
Emily went to drive Darla, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore to school. Jessica took Atticus to the bus. Cherry was shown in a seat by herself with her backpack up with her headphones on and she was bobbing her head to the beat of her music, humming some of the tunes to herself. She wasn't really asleep, but she always did this on a bus ride to just relax before she would get to school.
"Cherry?" Atticus asked.
Cherry opened an eye, then removed her headphones to reveal classical music was playing. "Oh, hey."
"Hey, Cherry." Atticus said.
Cherry yawned a bit. "What's up?" she rubbed her tired eyes.
"Well, I gave Mo the necklace as a present." Atticus said.
Cherry smirked. "Why don't you marry her already?"
"Ha-Ha, very funny." Atticus said, sounding confident, sitting down.
"You seem different somehow..." Cherry grew shifty eyes. "Like your blood's been effected..."
"Well, I guess I am a little different," Atticus said, sitting down. "But I'm still me."
"I dunno..." Cherry looked suspicious. "I still think something seems odd about you..." she then put her headphones back on, lying back to continue her relaxation before first period. She was right and where she would find out soon.
After school, like always, Cherry and Atticus met at the elementary school to help with the play. Today would be the first day with Theodore as Mr. Hyde. Alvin was mouthing the lines Simon made as Dr. Henry Jekyll as he took the formula, when he was supposed to make thunder sound effects.
"Oh, no, I'm changing!" Simon cried, ducking behind the prop table.
Theodore jumped out, having a wicked evil laugh, not seeming like himself, it was enough to scare the Chipettes, Eleanor was even too nervous to go out and do her lines with him now.
"Go on, you're on." Atticus encouraged the youngest chipette.
Eleanor gulped and came out on stage. "Henry? Henry, are you here?" she asked, practicing an old-fashioned accent to fit the theme of the play. She then gasped as she saw Theodore. "Henry?"
"No, my dear," Theodore looked evil. "I'm not Henry, I am Edward Hyde!"
"I-I don't know you..."
"No, but you will... Gaze upon this face, for it is the face of evil!"
Theodore laughed evilly again, nearly scaring everyone in the auditorium, Alvin and Brittany were huddled together in fear. Atticus was the only one that wasn't scared, he looked like he was impressed with Theodore's acting.
"How was that?" Theodore asked in his normal innocent way.
Rochelle was in Principal Miniklin's lap, holding onto her in fear.
"Well, he seems to be shaping up nicely." the principal smiled nervously.
Rochelle nodded while smiling nervously.
Theodore smirked and walked by backstage. "Hey, guys."
Alvin and Brittany realized they were holding each other and now got away from each other.
"Alvin, you're bending my twigs!" Brittany snapped, swatting him with one of the twigs in her hands.
"You did great, Theodore." Atticus said.
"Oh, Theodore, that was incredible!" Eleanor gushed.
Theodore looked a little uninterested in her for some reason, but did smile. "Gee, thanks, Eleanor."
Nathan was also surprised, he even seemed to now have a respect for Theodore instead of bullying him now. Atticus even began to ruffle the top of Theodore's head. Throughout the day, Atticus and Theodore had been acting strange.
Cherry got off the bus and came in her home, then saw her parents with Forte. "Ugh, what does he want now?" she mumbled to herself.
"Cherry, we have a city council meeting, Maestro Forte's going to look after you." Michelle said as she stood up with her husband to get ready to go.
Forte said goodbye to them and shut the door after them.
"Is tonight a full moon?" Cherry asked, annoyed.
"Yes, so be very careful." Forte said.
"Yeah..." Cherry said, then went to her room, trying to shut the door on him. "No boys allowed!"
"Did something happen at school?" Forte asked from outside her door.
"Atticus and Theodore have been acting funny..." Cherry lay on her bed, getting out her laptop, trying to get an internet connection so she could be away from him. "Atticus is often strong ever since we brought Hercules back to Mount Olympus... But, it's been different... Plus Theodore's been wanting to eat meat a lot, but he became a vegetarian not too long ago."
"Really? Huh, strange... When did they start acting strange?" Forte asked.
"I guess during class, I dunno for sure," Cherry shrugged. "They said they had to go give presents Eleanor and Mo."
"Please don't tell that they did this at night." Forte said.
"I think they did, I was studying..." Cherry then smiled as she got an internet connection. "YES!" she then went to her laptop to play with the unlimited WiFi her house had to offer.
"Oh, no, this is bad." Forte said.
Cherry wasn't listening anymore, due to the WiFi connection, she was now focused on her technology. Forte groaned as he saw this, he snuck off outside to the cable box, he still needed her attention, so he flicked off the internet, then came back inside her bedroom.
"Work, you stupid thing!" Cherry slammed the top of her mobile computer with her fist in sudden anger and irritation. She then went to find out what the problem was. Forte smirked to her.
"Heeey..." Cherry glared at him.
"You need to focus on what I assigned you to do." Forte told her.
Cherry folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "Fine... Go on..."
Forte smiled, knowing that she was now going to listen.
Cherry listened and looked bored again. "Why do I have to do this? Am I the new Buffy or something?" she scoffed, she had to do a lot of supernatural things for him ever since they came back into contact with each other.
"This is serious." Forte said.
Cherry leaned back on her bed, tapping at her iPhone that he gave her. "It's not my problem..."
"They will become vicious, meat-eating monsters!" Forte exclaimed.
Cherry sighed as she put her phone down. "Okay... I'll help... When I feel like it..." she turned over.
"I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this..." Forte sighed, then took out his hand, waving his spidery fingers.
Cherry looked over and saw what he was doing and actually looked panicked as his eyes flashed green. "Aw, come on, no, don't make me do this, I hate it when you-" she then went to a zombie like trance as her eyes now looked green like his. "Yes, Maestro?"
He really did not like doing this to Cherry, but she left him no choice. "You will help me find evidence and save you and your friends and if you don't, I'll tell your parents you disobeyed them." Forte told her.
"Yes, Maestro..." Cherry said, she then blinked and shook her head, looking angry with him. "I hate it when you do that!"
"Well, you left me no choice." Forte said.
Cherry growled at him.
Meanwhile at the Chipmunks' house... Theodore was telling everyone about how school was and he was the first to climb the rope in gym class.
"Sounds like you had quite a day." Dave said.
"Yeah, I really did." Theodore said.
"That's terrific, Theodore, I'm really proud of you." Dave smiled.
"Sounds exciting, and you were first in the sprint?" Patrick asked, listening attentively to the chipmunk's story about school.
"Yep, he sure was." Atticus said.