Chip-ergarten
About This Story: The Chipmunks start Kindgarten and meet some mysterious new friends, the Chipettes. Some similarities may overlap with "The Squeakquel", only they are in Kindergarten. Warning: some chapters contain some harsher adult(-ish) themes, even though age-wise they are 5. I don't own any part of the Chipmunk franchise, just borrowing them from Nickelodeon, Janice Karman, & Ross Bagdasarian, their family, & their company.
About This Chapter: Rated PG-13, for mentions of events that happened in Chapters 7 and 9, regarding child abuse, drugs, pornographic photos, as well as child abuse (some of it of a sexual nature).
Pairings: Alvin/Brittany, Simon/Jeanette, Theodore/Eleanor
10. Shhh...
The next day at school was a library day for the Kindergarten class. After their orientation to the school library, as well as the tour, the kids broke off in pairs to practice reading aloud in partners. They were also working on practicing their "library voices", which were supposed to be even quieter than their normal "inside voices".
Simon was partnered with Theodore, and the two of them found a spot together in one corner behind several rows of bookshelves. Once they reached this chosen spot, they realized that it had already been claimed by another pair of their classmates - Jeanette and Eleanor.
"Do you mind if we share this corner with you girls?" Simon whispered.
"Not at all." They managed to smile as they shook their heads in unison, and motioned to an empty spot on the floor. They tried to immerse themselves back in the book, but red-eyed Eleanor kept nodding off, and Jeanette seemed skittish, twitching nervously every time she saw movement as she clutched her knees to her chest.
As Simon opened the book to start reading, Theodore asked with concern, "Are you girls OK, by the way? I'm sorry we haven't really had a chance to talk to you today."
"Come to think of it, both of you have seemed more sad and scared than usual." Simon placed a comforting hand on Jeanette's right shoulder. She seemed to flinch at first at his touch, but finally managed to look him in the eye, remembering that he was a friend. Simon continued, "And I apologize if I'm not as good at reading emotional cues as Theodore, but I do care, and I want to help in any way I can."
"Oh, thank you, Simon." She managed a weak smile, despite her red and puffy eyes, as though she spent most of the morning crying.
"Heyyyy!" Alvin jumped with excitement as he rounded the corner, almost breaking the rule about using his "library voice".
"Shhh! Keep it down, Alvin." Brittany slapped a hand over his mouth.
"Sorry." Alvin shrugged as he sat down next to Theodore, completing the third side of a triangle. "Whaddaya know? I guess we can just call this the 'Chipmunk Corner'!" He clapped quietly to himself, still oblivious to the depression that permeated the rest of the group.
"Excuse me a moment, Alvin." Brittany set their book in front of him. "First thing's first." Before sitting down at the empty spot to Alvin's right, she stepped over the open book in front of her sisters and pulled both of them into a hug. "I missed both of you last night, and I'm sorry I didn't get a good chance to hug either of you or show you any love at home."
Jeanette and Eleanor sandwich-hugged her for a few moments, letting the tears freely flow. The sisters exchanged some kisses and some I-love-you's as they continued to quietly cry and hold each other.
Alvin glanced at Theodore. "What's going on? Did I miss something?"
Theodore explained in a whisper, "Before you and Brittany got here, Eleanor and Jeanette seemed upset and scared about something. We just asked them what was wrong, but you got here right before they could tell us anything."
"Oh, now I feel kinda bad..." Alvin sighed.
"Don't be," Simon smiled at him. "I think you and Brittany got here just in time."
Brittany finally stood up and stepped over to rejoin Alvin. "Sorry about that, Alvin, but I love my sisters, and I don't get enough time to show it at home. Especially since last night was pretty rough for all of us, and we had to spend it apart from each other."
"Really?" Alvin asked with concern. "Did someone spend the night in the Punishment Cage?"
Jeanette and Eleanor raised their hands as Jeanette went on to explain, "We both got in trouble because of the note Ms Garcia wrote to Ian about Eleanor's empty lunchbox. And Brittany and I even told him that none of us told a teacher, but that another student noticed and told the teacher."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Simon took Jeanette's right hand and gently held it in his left hand. "I didn't realize you would still get in trouble because I told Ms Garcia. I feel terrible now."
Jeanette reassured him, "I hold nothing against you, Simon. I'm kinda glad you told Ms Garcia. I mean, Ian was probably planning on throwing Ellie and me in the Punishment Cage anyway, after tearing a patch of fur off our tails." She and Eleanor motioned to the fresh scabs in the middle of their tails.
The brothers winced in sympathy as Simon explained, "Yeah, he used to do the same to us. Let me guess...without glasses?" He pointed to Jeanette, while her eyes grew wide and she nodded. He pointed to Eleanor. "...and without supper?"
"Yep." Eleanor patted her growling stomach, then continued. "Well, both of us went without supper. And we both had to air dry after our bath in the sink, which was kinda cold, of course we were also still naked at this point, too."
"And where was Brittany during this time?" Simon asked. "Oh, wait... Did you have to spend the night with that creep Giorgio?"
"I guess," Brittany blinked. "But I wouldn't call him a creep, he's nicer to all of us than Ian."
"What do you mean you 'guess'?" Simon asked. "How could you not know?"
"And we all have plenty of good reasons to feel creeped out by Giorgio." Theodore added as he, Simon, Jeanette, and Eleanor all nodded in agreement.
Jeanette chimed in, "She may not remember, since she was drugged last night before her bath. I heard Ian ask Giorgio for the 'other half of the tablet of Xanax' that he said he gave Alvin earlier that afternoon in the 'little boys' room' before taking some dirty pictures of him and taking his underwear, you know, before he took Brittany home from the nurse's office."
At this revelation, Simon and Theodore looked at Alvin in complete shock - wide-eyes and dropped-open jaws. Simon finally stated, "Well, this does explain a lot. Giorgio gave you Xanax?...! And he took your underwear?...! And he took dirty pictures of you?...! After all this, you still don't think he's a perverted creep?"
Alvin bit his lip and looked down at the floor in total shame. He felt like Simon was accusing him of being an international terrorist or a serial killer. He wanted nothing more than to vanish into thin air.
Before Alvin could start crying, he felt Theodore's hand placed on top of his left hand. "Alvin, you know we should tell Dave about this. He loves you, and he was worried about you last night. I can't believe you didn't even tell Simon and me! Well, you were so out of it, and practically sleep-walking, so you weren't much of a talker last night. Was keeping this secret stressing you out so much that it caused you to wet the bed last night?"
"Theodore!..." A red-faced Alvin shot his little brother a glare as he nudged him to be quiet.
Brittany squeezed Alvin's right hand. "Don't be embarrassed about bed-wetting around us. I mean, one or all three of us usually has that problem every night, either from Uncle Ian yelling at us..."
"...Or Uncle Giorgio handling us down there, which makes us feel so dirty." Eleanor shuddered as Jeanette nodded with her in agreement. She gently nudged Brittany. "And you don't see why the rest of us feel creeped out by him? Even after he made you wear a skimpy nightie, took some dirty pictures of you, and practically made you his 'love-slave' last night?"
Brittany's face grew red, and she glanced over at Jeanette with her mouth agape.
Jeanette just shrugged and said, "Hey, I may have been blind last night without my glasses, but my senses of hearing and smell were heightened. I could hear everything."
"Oh, ladies, would you please excuse us for a few moments, I need to have a quick conference with my brothers." Simon stood up, taking Alvin and Theodore gently by their arms.
The three brothers huddled a few feet away from the girls.
"What?...!" Alvin sounded angry and annoyed, at first thinking he was in trouble.
"Sorry, guys..." Simon sighed, "I can't just sit around and do nothing while these girls are getting abused. They're our friends! But I'm afraid they'll just get in trouble or abused even more if I tell anyone. I had hoped that Ian would have changed for the better, but it looks like he hasn't - and neither has Giorgio."
"Yeah, Giorgio even hurt Alvin yesterday." Theodore looked like he wanted to cry as he glanced sympathetically at his brother. "I don't want to think he or Ian could be hurting the girls in the same way that he hurt our brother."
Alvin tried to shrug off the concern with a roll of his eyes. "Well...I wouldn't say he actually hurt me. I mean, it didn't hurt at all, it kinda felt good. Dave doesn't even touch me like that." Without thinking, he held his left hand over the fly of his shorts and started smiling at the memory of his Uncle Gi-gi's caresses.
Simon snapped him out of his trance-like state by taking hold of his left elbow. "Alvin, believe us when we say that he hurt you. It may not have hurt in the physical sense, but it damaged you...big time."
Alvin bit his lip as he glanced at Simon, while Theodore nodded enthusiastically with wide eyes. "Uh...I don't know what to say, guys." Alvin hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry..." A few tears started rolling down his cheeks.
"It's not your fault, Alvin." Theodore hugged him. "We hold nothing against you for this. But how do you feel now, knowing that Ian and Giorgio may be hurting the girls, or treating them in the same way he treated you? I don't know about you, but I feel like we should fight for them somehow - and you know I'm not the violent, fighting-type."
"I agree, Theodore." Simon nodded. "I'm also not into physical violence. But for some reason, I feel a strong desire - maybe even a deep-rooted need - to protect these girls from harm. It's gotta be some kinda primal male instinct or something. But I want to provide some kind of safe haven for them, even though we've only known them for a few days. I already consider them more than just our friends - they're part of our lives and part of our family now. Any ideas on what we should do about this?"
Alvin took a deep breath as he went into more of a "fight mode". He glanced at his brothers with a determined expression. "I know it's only Wednesday, but I think we should invite the girls over to our place for a sleepover this weekend. I know they'll be safe there, but I just hope they'll be safe enough until then, since Dave may not let us have a sleepover before the weekend. It's not a perfect plan, but it may be a start."
"Hmm..." Simon thought for a moment. "I like that idea, Alvin."
"Me too!" Theodore nodded. "Let's ask the girls!"
"Aaaaand break!" Alvin placed his right hand in the air at shoulder-level but raised it as he spoke as if ending a huddle for a sports team.
The brothers returned to the corner where the girls were sitting, noticing that Eleanor had nodded off to sleep again between her two older sisters. She woke up when the boys sat down on the floor to face the girls.
"We still didn't get much reading done." Jeanette shrugged.
Brittany shook her head. "Did you guys have a good 'huddle', or 'conference', or whatever you called it?"
"We sure did." Simon smiled. "We came up with the idea - well, it was Alvin's idea..." He smiled over at Alvin. "...anyway, how would you girls like to have a sleepover at our place this weekend?"
The girls exchanged glances with lit-up faces. Brittany smiled. "Sounds great! How can we get Ian to agree to it?"
"Well," Simon explained. "Let me clarify something - don't tell them that you're sleeping over with the Chipmunks, or the Sevilles. Instead, tell them the name of some other girl in our class. But it will be our secret that you're at our house."
"OK, Ms Garcia's Kindergarten class, it's time to line up!" A voice interrupted from somewhere else in the middle of the library.
Jeanette smiled back at Simon as the six chipmunk children stood up, "We're in, and hopefully we can talk more about this at lunch."
That day at lunch was the first time that all six of the chipmunks sat together. Theodore, Eleanor, and Brittany were seated on one side of the kiddie picnic table, with Alvin across from Brittany, with Simon to his left, and Jeanette to his left.
Eleanor opened her lunchbox and motioned to its contents. "Well, this is sort of an improvement." In one hand she held up a plastic baggie with a single stick of celery in it, and in the other hand was a juice box of sugar-free vegetable juice. She giggled about it, so the others knew it was OK to laugh about it with her.
"No problem, I've still got plenty to share with you." Theodore shrugged.
"Thanks, Theodore, you've been great." She smiled at him, setting down her lunch and pulling out a hand-written note that was also in her lunchbox. "What's this?" She stared at it for a few seconds before giving up on it. "Ugh, I'm not sure what this says. The words are kinda long and scribbled for me. But I can tell Uncle Ian wrote it, and that he wasn't in a good mood when he scribbled it out."
"I'll try to see if I can still read Ian's chicken-scratch handwriting." Simon volunteered with his palm outstretched. Eleanor handed him the note and he began to read it out loud. "Well, here's something for your lunchbox. Eat your vegetables and lose weight, Fatty! PS - Don't eat this note, or do, I don't care. Maybe the fiber in it will slim you, or you'll choke on it. Either way, have a nice day! ...With a creepy-looking smiley-face at the end." He cringed, along with the others.
"Ouch!" Alvin looked sympathetically over at Eleanor to see if she was OK.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Eleanor." Simon apologized. "I realize I should have read that to myself first and filtered it. At least Jeanette would've been more sensitive about reading a harsh note like that. I just want to say that I don't agree with Ian at all about that, and it was mean of him to say that. I mean, I like all of you girls the way you are." He looked over at Eleanor.
Eleanor patted his hand and started laughing. "Oh, Simon, it's OK. I actually appreciate your blunt honesty in delivering that message. I know it was from Ian, and not from you. Plus, it's not like I don't know by now how Ian really feels about me."
Alvin snatched the note from his brother at that moment and added, "Well, here's what I think about Ian and his stupid note." He then proceeded to blow his nose on the piece of paper, while the others laughed. Rubbing his nose afterward, he added, "Oww...it's not soft enough to be used as a Kleenex. Good thing I didn't try to use it as toilet paper!" The others continued to laugh.
"Thanks, Alvin, that really makes my day!" Eleanor smiled at him. She looked back at Theodore. "As well as sharing lunch with you for three days in a row. Thank you so much for sharing with me. Sorry if I've been a burden."
"You could never be a burden to me, Eleanor." He smiled at her. "I can't eat all of this by myself. Or, maybe I can, but I really don't think I should. You know, if I could read when we lived with Ian, I know he would've written notes like that to me, too. I know by now to ask Dave to pack extra lunch for me so I can share. Besides, sharing a meal with friends is the best way to split the calories!" The others laughed along with him.
Jeanette pointed out, "Theodore's right about that. I've read some health studies that found it was actually better to eat junk food with friends and family than to eat broccoli and other healthy food by yourself."
Simon perked up, "Wow, I think I read that article, too..."
The moment was interrupted by Ms Garcia's approaching footsteps. She stopped behind Eleanor. "Well, Eleanor, did your guardian give you some lunch today, since I gave him that note yesterday?"
Eleanor nodded, "Uh, yes. Thank you for the note, Ms Garcia. He actually put something in my lunchbox today."
"Was it anything you could actually eat or drink?" Ms Garcia asked. "What did he give you? And where is it?"
"We already ate it." Theodore added. "We put our lunches together and shared them, sort-of family-style."
"But here's the juice box he gave me." Eleanor held up the nearly-empty vegetable juice and the baggie that once contained the stick of celery. "And this was the celery he gave me, but as you can see, it's gone now."
Ms Garcia patted Theodore and Eleanor on their backs. "Thank you for sharing your lunch again today, Theodore. Tell your daddy that it's very generous of him to make extra so you can share." She glanced over at Eleanor, "And, Eleanor, I'm glad you are able to find something to eat. But if Theodore ever can't make it to school to share lunch with you, I want you to come tell me, so I can find something for you to eat. It's not good for you to go hungry. You're growing mind and body need fuel in order to work properly, you know."
"Yes, ma'am, thank you again." Eleanor smiled up at her teacher.
Before Ms Garcia left, she asked the others, "How about the rest of you? Are you doing OK? I know I haven't gotten much of a chance to visit with you today. And some of you seemed a little upset earlier this morning. But is everything OK?"
The six of them looked at each other before nodding and smiling. Simon explained, "I think we're doing a lot better now, thank you for asking."
"Sure." Ms Garcia smiled at them. "And if there's anything else we can help you with, please let us know. You can also talk to Nurse Stephens, Principal Matthews, or Counselor Jones. OK?"
The six chipmunks replied after her with a chorus of "OK." And "Thank you, Ms Garcia."
Once the six of them were alone, Simon glanced at the others. "OK, next order of business...so when we go home today, my brothers and I will ask Dave if it's OK to have three friends sleepover this weekend. To be honest, we still haven't told him that we made friends with some girl chipmunks. We thought we should wait until we knew each other better, but we can still let him find out when you meet him - hopefully this weekend."
Brittany chuckled. "I like thinking of it as our own secret we still keep from Ian. We still haven't told him we've made friends with you guys yet. Well, Giorgio knows from yesterday, but he's not telling Ian. Our concert is still two more weekends away from this coming one. I'm sure I could ask Ian if we could sleepover at the home of some girl in our class. He usually won't say no to me."
Alvin's eyes went wide with concern. "Well, Brittany, don't feel like you owe him or Uncle Giorgio any nasty 'favors' or anything."
Brittany patted his hand. "Thanks, Alvin. I appreciate your concern, but I still find it weird that you are OK with Uncle Giorgio drugging you and taking your underwear to sell on the black market, while you seem to have a problem with him doing the same kinda stuff to me."
"That's what we said!" Simon and Theodore simultaneously noted.
"And I said I was sorry about that, guys." Alvin angrily spat at his brothers. He turned back to Brittany and sighed. "Sorry you had to see that. Do you think Ian will let you sleepover - at the home of some girl in our class, of course..." He added a wink. "If you took him more of my underwear to sell on the black market?"
"Well..." Brittany stammered as she considered his proposition.
As Alvin stood up to go to the restroom to remove his boxers, Simon spoke up. "Wait! Hold on a minute, Alvin. What's Dave gonna say when he sees that you've come home after going commando two days in a row? Especially with your little 'accident' in your bed last night? He'll put you back in diapers for sure!"
"I see your point..." Alvin sighed as he sat back down, moving his tail aside as he did so. He then had an idea after looking at his tail. He started tugging on a handful of fur from it.
"What are you doing?" Brittany giggled as she watched him.
Alvin looked back at her and explained, "I thought maybe Ian could sell a clump of fur from my tail on the black market - a small price to pay to let you girls sleepover. But I'm not good at pulling it out by myself, it hurts too much. Will one of you do it for me?"
Brittany giggled again. "That's sweet of you. But I have some scissors back in the classroom. I could just cut some off for you later. I cut my sisters' hair all the time."
Eleanor shook her empty juice box and could hear some liquid shaking around in it. "And there may be a bit of vegetable juice left in here that we could use to look like blood. We just need to make it look like the fur was ripped from your tail. You could also keep it in this baggie that Ian used to keep the celery stick. Hey, I do believe in recycling!"
"Great idea, girls!" Alvin smiled. "It was getting too hard to tear it off anyway. And if I went commando again, Dave would be bound to lecture me about how my 'private parts will get chafed' or something like that."
"Speaking of which..." Theodore began, "Alvin, you really should talk to Dave about what Giorgio did to you yesterday."
Jeanette added, "Or you can tell Ms Garcia, or Nurse Stephens, or Principal Matthews, or Counselor Jones. But please tell someone, and don't try to keep it to yourself."
Alvin shot her a sarcastic look. "I'll tell someone when you tell someone about everything you heard Ian and Giorgio do to Brittany last night..."
Jeanette sighed, "I know, I'm being a hypocrite."
Simon glared at his brother. "Alvin, quit picking on Jeanette. She already feels bad enough about all this. But she's right that you shouldn't keep that sort of thing a secret forever. I mean, we can at least wait until introducing Dave to the girls."
"Sorry, Jeanette." Alvin sincerely apologized to her. "I didn't mean to add more insult to injury."
"We're cool now, Alvin." Jeanette smiled at him.
"Here's the deal, Bro..." Simon patted Alvin on his left shoulder. "Even though I don't believe in lying, Theodore and I will be happy to cover for you at home and let you tell Dave on your own time."
"Really?" Alvin's eyes lit up. "You guys won't tell Dave?"
Theodore shook his head. "Nope."
Simon added with another brotherly pat to Alvin's shoulder, "We won't, but maybe sometime this weekend, after Dave hopefully meets the girls, you should tell him yourself."
A/N: Poor Alvin (and Brittany)! They feel ashamed of what happened to them (or that they were too blind to see what was happening to themselves and their siblings) when it wasn't their fault. (Some countries and cultures do still blame the victim for such crimes, but I hope and pray they will wake up and realize otherwise.) Maybe this will be comforting to other victims of similar crimes.
The study about how it's better to eat junk food with family and friends than to eat broccoli or healthy food alone is something that I heard from my mom, who heard it from some kind of women's Bible study she attended (either a Beth Moore or Priscilla Shirer video-based study). Since I'm hearing it from further down the line, I don't know the original source. But of course if anyone is reading health studies and medical journal articles by Kindergarten, it would be Simon and Jeanette.
I got the idea for Alvin trying to tear out some of his tail fur to give to Ian to sell on the black market from an old storyline that my class used as a "chapel program" (at a Christian school). It may have been 5th grade (?), but we would each stand up and read out part of a story that was on our own posters (like the blown-up pages of a book). I don't remember the name of this particular story, but it was about a squirrel that some mole took advantage of by gradually tearing clumps of fur from the squirrel's tail every day in order to make his nest soft. Toward the end of the story, the squirrel just had a skimpy, bare tail left and had to learn to say no to the mole taking advantage of him. (In some ways, it brings to mind the Nick cartoon episode "The Orb", where Theodore learns to say no.) The chapel program may have been some kind of lesson in standing up for yourself or others. I think the squirrel may have eventually had help from some other animal (possibly a chipmunk?-Go figure!) to stand up to the mole.
If any of the girls might have a tomboyish sense of humor when it comes to things like (fake) blood, it would be Eleanor. And she (and Jeanette) have a "green streak" when it comes to saving the planet (like in Nick episodes "Going Green", "She's Got Style", and "Secret Admirer").