A/N: I changed the cover art because I got something that actually fits this story! I wish a camp-ish picture of all six of them existed, but it doesn't. So even though this isn't just an Alvin/Brittany centered story, they get to be the stars of the cover art! Which I'm sure they'd love, so it works. I think that's much better than some random picture of a fire anyway, isn't it?
By the way, I've almost gotten 100 reviews on this story! You guys have no idea how happy that makes me. I've never been able to stick with a story long enough to be able to get that many reviews, so I'm really excited about that. Thank you so much to anyone who decides to leave reviews. It means a lot.
Now, enough with the sappy stuff. Enjoy the chapter!
Feeling frustrated wasn't something new for Simon. He was used to it. How could he not be, with all of the things that he had to put up with in his life? It was a feeling that he had learned to cope with and even sometimes ignore.
But this time, it was different. He was completely beyond frustrated.
One would think that it wouldn't be so hard for someone to be able to tell another person something whenever they really wanted to. Simon was a very intelligent young chipmunk, and his thoughts were usually never wrong. So why was it that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to catch a break whenever it came to telling Jeanette how he felt?
In a way, it wasn't necessarily his fault. It wasn't like he choked up and couldn't finish telling her whenever he made his attempts. It was just that every time he did try, something or someone would get in the way.
Simon knew that he could just get it over with and blurt it out once and for all, but he didn't want to do it like that. He didn't want it to be some sloppy, unpracticed confession. He wanted it to be polite. He wanted it to be memorable. He wanted it to be... well... romantic. Jeanette deserved that.
He wanted it to be just right. But whenever he'd think it was the perfect time to tell her, he'd get interrupted and would lose his chance at actually getting to say it.
It was enough to make someone want to bang their head into a wall. And worst of all, not once had one of the interruptions been over something actually important! It was always something that could have been said later on.
Possibly the worst part of it all was the constant reminder that he was failing at something. Simon wasn't like his oldest brother; he wasn't competitive and he didn't mind getting beaten. But whenever it came to things like not being able to complete a certain task or not managing to succeed at something that he knew he could, it drove him absolutely insane.
Telling Jeanette how he felt was one of those things that he knew he could do. For years he'd had his doubts, and even now he still did. But deep down, he knew that he could tell her and that if he didn't do it soon enough then it would eventually be too late. By now it wasn't so much that he was too nervous to tell her, just that no one was letting him! Every time he'd try, something would ruin it.
He unintentionally let out an audible sigh, momentarily forgetting that he was still surrounded by other people despite getting wrapped up in his thoughts.
"W-what is it?" Jeanette asked nervously from beside him, seeming to take notice his sour mood.
Simon forced a smile. "Nothing," he told her shortly, which only caused her to look straight ahead with a frown and grow quiet.
He fell silent again himself, having to force back the urge to sigh again. He was only making things worse, and that was the last thing that he wanted to happen.
"Are we almost there?" Theodore suddenly piped up.
They hadn't been walking for long, but he had already managed to ask that question just about ten times. Simon feared he might strangle him if he did it again.
He wasn't even sure he wanted to go to their planned destination.
Dave had told them about the river that was near and how he figured they might like to go and check it out. Theodore had asked Dave if he'd like to come too, but Dave had said he just wanted to stay back in the van. Simon figured he was trying to give them at least a little space for the trip, which he appreciated. He needed all the space he could get, what with all the interruptions that kept occurring for him. Alvin and Brittany hadn't tagged along with them either, but Simon didn't care enough at the moment to find out why.
"Not yet," Eleanor patted Theodore on the arm comfortingly.
"Okay," Theodore frowned.
Not even a minute later, he asked, "Are we there yet?"
"Do you see a river?" Simon snapped.
Theodore stopped, looked around, then shook his head.
"Then no, we're not there," Simon said.
"Don't worry Theodore, we'll be there soon." Eleanor told him in a much nicer tone of voice. She seemed to be in a better mood than she'd been lately for some reason, and Simon couldn't help but envy her for that.
As they continued walking, Simon glanced over at Jeanette. He saw that she was staring down at her feet while she walked. He quickly looked away.
Perhaps soon he would get a chance to tell her? He hoped so.
Simon had been nervous to tell her how he felt for years. He'd always felt like he couldn't do it. Even whenever they'd been in the van on the way to the camping site, he'd felt anxious about the entire idea that he'd force himself to tell her before the week was over.
But now that he'd actually tried it several times and all of those tries had failed, he was more eager than ever to tell her.
Once he finally got to tell her, all of his frustration would disappear. A huge weight would be lifted off of his shoulders.
Now if only he could get the chance to actually tell her how he felt.
For the past few days, Simon had gotten so caught up in wanting to be able to tell her about his feelings that he had stopped considering what he would do if she didn't return said feelings. But now he was thinking about that too, even. It was like every stressful thought that he'd ever had concerning the matter was now hitting him full force.
He just wanted to be done with it. He wouldn't be able to get any peace until he did!
That was another thing that bothered him greatly. Because he'd been having so much trouble with telling Jeanette that he was in love with her, the task now felt like a chore instead of something that he simply wanted to do.
It was completely annoying... but most of all, it wasn't very fair to Jeanette.
How many times had he told her he needed to talk to her, only to shrug it off and tell her he'd let her know about it later? He knew that she had to be getting curious, maybe even suspicious. He really needed to find a way to tell her somehow.
"Are we there now?" Theodore suddenly started to ask, but Simon quickly shut him up with a glare.
"No, we're not, so please just—"
"We're here!" Eleanor announced, grinning.
Simon frowned, and sure enough, they had arrived at the river. He'd gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed where he was walking.
"It's n-nice," Jeanette spoke up.
Simon figured that she was attempting to get him to talk to her. Normally he'd have no problem with that, but with the way things had been going between them lately, he wasn't even sure what to say. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, his confession would come spilling out in a rushed mess.
"Hey, Theodore, look!" he heard Eleanor say. She bent down next to the river and pointed. "There's a fish right there. See?"
"Wow!" Theodore gasped, looking to see for himself.
The two of them continued to chatter excitedly about the fish that they were spotting while Simon and Jeanette fidgeted nervously beside each other, keeping their eyes on their siblings instead of one another.
Eventually, Simon couldn't take it. He was only further wasting his time. Why wasn't he taking advantage of Eleanor and Theodore getting distracted?
"Hey, Jeanette," he said.
She looked over at him, her green eyes slightly wide. She looked surprised that he'd actually decided to speak up. "Huh?"
Now that she was actually looking at him, he wasn't sure what to do. "Um..." he frowned, allowing his voice to trail off.
Jeanette could only stare at him, patiently waiting for him to continue with what he was going to say.
Of course it was just his luck that he'd choose now to choke up about telling her how he felt.
"Y-you know, i-it can wait if you n-need—" Jeanette started, but he quickly shook his head.
"No!" he cried out, causing her to jump back in shock. He sighed and regained his composure. "I was just..." he looked around, his eyes landing on a flower that wasn't too far off from the river. "I just wanted to show you something."
Jeanette's eyes widened again, this time with interest. "W-what?"
He took her hand and led her over to the flower that he now had set in his sight, ignoring her shocked stutters and the pounding of his own heart. He leaned down and pulled his hand away, beckoning for Jeanette to kneel next to him.
She did so, looking confused.
Before she could say anything, Simon reached forward and picked the flower out of the ground.
He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing or just why he had suddenly made it his mission to grab some silly flower that hadn't even caught his attention moments prior, but it was helping distract him from the nervous feeling that was starting to take over him.
"It's a wildflower," he explained to Jeanette softly, even though he was sure she already knew that. "Did you know they're becoming a little rare here in California?"
She slowly shook her head. She opened her mouth as if she were about to say something, before closing it again.
"They're very lovely flowers," Simon continued, twirling it around in his hand.
"Y-yes, they are," Jeanette seemed to have found her voice again.
Without thinking much of it, he leaned closer towards her. Her cheeks immediately flushed. Then, carefully, he placed the flower in her hair.
"It's not as lovely as you are, however." he finished sincerely, putting his now empty hands behind his back so that he could freely wring them together. He couldn't believe he was actually managing to go through with this whenever he hadn't even actually planned it out to happen the way that it was.
By now Jeanette's face was as red as a tomato. "I-I... t-t-thank you S-Simon..." she sputtered, reaching up with her own hand to carefully touch the flower. "I-is that all you w-wanted to show me?"
"Actually, I didn't just want to show you something. I wanted to tell you something." Simon said, before quickly adding, "Once and for all this time."
Jeanette smiled nervously. "G-go ahead," she nodded.
"I've been trying to think of a way to tell this to you for a very long time now..." Simon started after he took a deep breath, "but I'm afraid I'm just going to have to go right ahead and say it. Jeanette, I'm in l—"
"Theodore!" a screeching voice stopped him from finishing his sentence.
Simon and Jeanette looked over at the river in shock.
Evidently, Theodore had managed to topple over into the river somehow. It was only a matter of seconds before Eleanor was carefully helping him out of the river.
"Are you alright?" Simon heard Eleanor ask him.
"Y-yeah..." Theodore sniffled.
"I told you not to lean too close!" Eleanor waved a stern finger in his face. Then she looked over at Simon and Jeanette and called out, "Are you guys ready to go back to the van? Theodore needs a towel!"
Simon stared straight ahead, not moving.
The extreme frustration that he had felt earlier?
Now it had simply intensified.
"U-um, okay..." Jeanette said once she realized Simon wouldn't be answering Eleanor for them. She stood up and waited for Simon to do the same.
Simon reluctantly stood, following the others away from the river without another word. He didn't say anything the entire walk back. Not to Jeanette, not to Eleanor, and especially not to Theodore, who kept asking if they were back by the van yet in between shivers.
There was nothing that he could say. Not whenever he'd somehow lost his chance at telling Jeanette how he felt not once, not twice, but three times now. Perhaps he really was a... a failure whenever it came to that certain type of thing.
Oh, how he hated that word.
To be honest, I don't like this chapter. It was hard for me to write and I think it just ended up being kind of stupid and rushed... but it's not going to get any better than this, and I need to keep the story going, so yeah.
I'm sorry for this crappy chapter you guys. The next one will be better. :(
