Alrighty, as I said in the first chapter, go check out my petition, sign it and spread the word. Look up 'Remember the Chipmunks' on youtube to find my video for the petition and share that with as many people as you can.
Grr. Only four? Come on guys. I'm really not feeling the love anymore...Anyway, like before, check out my page for links (for songs, my petition, AND MY MESSAGE BOARD...sorry that's in caps and bolded...I want people to notice that thoug. It's very lonely with only two members besides myself). As for this chapter, it's short, but a lot happens. OH! For anyone that reads this, do you think my writing is good enough to pull off a story about a modern-day roller skater? (You know how they used to skate with those regular skates, not in-line skates, and how they used to do all sorts of ice skating tricks on those? I got an idea when I found an old pair up at the local sports store and my mom started telling me about how my grandpa almost went PROFESSIONAL with his skills on them...of course, naturally, the young girl in my story would have a grandpa that had almost gone professional and she'll have a talent for them too...so to prove to the world that she's just just another weird-o, she signs up for the local Queens contest (that has a talent portion) and uses a roller skating routine to wow everyone). Think it's possible for me? I hate chicky stories, so it'll probably end up being less of a chick-book than it sounds like it's gonna be.
Oh, and to answer a question someone asked me (I'm not sure who at the moment or how long ago it was), yes, I'm going to be writing an out-right romance for these guys. But right now, they're nine. In my next story, they're ten. I think that's a little too young for a full-out romance. That's why the third installment of this is for them when they're Seniors in high school. K? That's where the real romance is gonna set in. Until then, it's just friendships and crushes that they won't admit to at best.
Thanks for your time guys. Remember, spread the word! Things won't change if no one knows about my petition. Tell people you wouldn't expect to sign too. I did. I took my petition to my church and got live signatures from EVERYONE, old, middle-age, and young (they mostly signed it because they want to see family-quality cartoons back on TV, but it's still signatures). Believe me, good changes happen, but only if we fight for the change we want. Now, without further ranting, Chapter 21:
The Lessons they Teach
Chapter 21
The show was going great, and when they'd left for lunch break the crowds had gone wild. They'd started to head for the nearby soup kitchen they'd been eating at recently, but Dave pulled them to the café instead. He knew they'd have enough money to pay all the bills again soon, so it was ok to treat all seven kids. And Koda's eyes got so huge when she saw the food Theodore ordered for her (she'd set aside the menu and asked the expert to pick for her). She started to back away with the 'I can't accept this' but the chipmunks convinced her otherwise.
Now the sun was starting to set, but the crowd was as thick as ever. Fellow students, the school faculty, and even the people from the hospital (Nate and his cousin included) were there now. Even the crabby old teacher was there with her granddaughter, and they gave a donation of a hundred dollars.
"Koda, I'm so proud of you," Nate said as he scooped the bat-girl into his arms. "You even sang on stage today."
"I have a number all to myself right before Simon." They jumped as Simon bolted on stage, being completely rude for once and pushing Alvin out of the way.
"Sophie! Hold on a minute!" he shouted. "Bring the director over here; I want to talk to him." When everyone looked, they calmed down because Sophie was leading the director of the Christmas musical out. At least Simon had a reason to his madness.
"Can we sing now?" Brittany said in her usual stuck-up voice.
"Yeah, sure." Simon jumped off the stage, glad that most of the media had gotten bored and they weren't being played live anymore on most of the news channels. They got the breaks before and after commercials, and there had been a break when some news crews had interviewed them, but other than that the paparazzi had had to move on to other news or lose their jobs. But the fans were back, that was what counted.
"You're first." Brittany pushed Alvin forward, but for the first time that day he backed away. So far he'd only sung with his brothers, a solo here and there, but they were still with him. It was during his last solo with Brittany that he had lost his voice. He shook his head to clear out any fear. "We're waiting for you, Alvin."
"I'm getting there!" Alvin snapped back. "Give me a minute!"
"Touch-ey!" He glared, but pulled his hat off his head to smooth back his hair. "You don't have to be perfect you know."
"Since when? I thought you always wanted me to look my best."
"Not on stage!" Theodore cried.
"You do look your best," Brittany snapped, ignoring Theodore. "I was just so caught up that I never took the time to really see you." Alvin cocked his eyebrow. "And I'm s-s-so…Oh, you know what I mean." Alvin smiled, happy that he'd made the high and mighty Royal Brittany come even that close to saying 'sorry.'
"Music!" Koda called as she squirmed from Nate's arms.
"There's a place in your heart
And I know that it is love
And this place could be much
Brighter than tomorrow.
And if you really try
You'll find there's no need to cry
In this place you'll feel
There's no hurt or sorrow.
There are ways to get there
If you care enough for the living
Make a little space, make a better place."
Brittany, for once in her life, didn't just shove Alvin out of the way to get to center stage. She just calmly stepped up and took her place beside him.
"Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make a better place for
You and for me."
Brittany smiled as Alvin pulled his has off and went to the edge of the stage to collect donations while she sang her solo.
"If you want to know why
There's a love that cannot lie
Love is strong
It only cares for joyful giving.
If we try we shall see
In this bliss we cannot feel
Fear or dread
We stop existing and start living
Then it feels that always
Love's enough for us growing
Make a better world, make a better world."
Alvin stepped back as the chorus rolled around again, accidentally brushing shoulders with Brittany. They glanced at each other as the song continued.
"Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race.
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make a better place for
You and for me."
The rest of the kids jumped up to sit on the edge of the stage, humming a pretty back-up as Alvin and Brittany sang the next part of the song.
"And the dream we would conceived in
Will reveal a joyful face
And the world we once believed in
Will shine again in grace
Then why do we keep strangling life
Wound this earth, crucify it's soul
Though it's plain to see, this world is heavenly
Be God's glow."
Alvin gave Brittany a friendly push, letting her sing the first half of the last verse, even though they'd rehearsed it for him to sing it.
"We could fly so high
Let our spirits never die
In my heart I feel
You are all my brothers."
With a nod and a smile, he joined in with her.
"Create a world with no fear
Together we'll cry happy tears
See the nations turn
Their swords into plowshares
We could really get there
If you cared enough for the living
Make a little space to make a better place.
Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living.
Make a better place for you and for me."
Everyone else decided to join in to give the rest of the song more emphasis, to try to make sure everyone heard their meaning and ignored who'd originally sung it. They sung the chorus two more times before continuing with the finale of the song.
"There are people dying if you care enough for the living
Make a better place for you and for me.
There are people dying if you care enough for the living
Make a better place for you and for me."
They took the repeating lines and left Alvin and Brittany to sing over top of them.
"Make a better place (you and for me),
Make a better place (you and for me),
Make a better place (you and for me).
Heal the world we live in (you and for me),
Save it for our children (you and for me).
Heal the world we live in (you and for me),
Save it for our children (you and for me).
Heal the world we live in (you and for me),
Save it for our children (you and for me).
Heal the world we live in (you and for me),
Save it for our children (you and for me).
Heal the world we live in (you and for me, you and for me)…"
"Save it for our children."
"You two were great," the teacher's grand-daughter complimented as they stepped off the stage. "You're my favorite."
"So I've heard," Alvin laughed back. "The teacher really picks on us because we're famous…and me because she said something about me being your favorite?"
"Granny's weird like that. She likes you too, she just learned to be meaner to the people she likes the most…I guess it's the way she was raised. She's nice to me and my mom though, so she's not all bad. Bye." The little girl ran off, grabbing the teacher's hand to leave.
"Your turn Koda," Brittany said, dragging the girl towards center-stage. "You promised, and now it's your turn! Come on."
"You're not welcome here!" they all heard Sophie shouting. With a glance towards the entrance, they saw most of the homeless that had stuck around all day trying to hold off about five people, each of them with tranquilizer guns slung over their shoulders.
"Out of the way, missy," one of them demanded, pushing her aside and pulling out his gun. "Now, this may not be a real bullet, but I guarantee that it still hurts. Back away now." No one obeyed.
"The likes of you aren't welcome here. Koda isn't just some piece of property."
"I beg to differ." Koda glanced around, upset to find that they were coming through her little home too. That left only one alternative. Up and over the bleachers.
"This way," she hissed at all the chipmunks. "The grown-ups can follow, but they're not going to do anything rash enough to get us out of here."
"With good reason!" Simon hissed back. "No one wants to get shot."
"It's just a tranquilizer. Besides, the only person they'll actually capture is me. They won't hurt anyone else aside from knocking them out…at least, they never have before."
"How many times have they caught you?" Theodore asked.
"Never. But they've found me plenty. From England to Ireland to Broadway to now…But I won't ever let them catch me. They're heartless."
"Then just fly," Brittany spat.
"They'll shoot me down like I was just some duck! What I need is a riot, of sorts. Will you help me?"
"I will," Alvin said. "I owe you plenty more than just this."
"Anyone else?"
"Alvin's nothing without us," Simon sighed, glancing at Theodore (who nodded timidly).
"And I can't let anything happen to Theodore," Eleanor said sweetly, wrapping her arm comfortingly around the boy.
"I'm in," Jeanette said quietly. "If we don't do something, they just might turn to violence. If they've been chasing you so far for so long, they've got to be frustrated and fed up by now."
"I don't want to be left behind!" Brittany finally exclaimed, a little too loudly. She yelped as she heard a shot in her direction. It planted in the ground at her feet because the white-coats didn't have a good chance to aim, but it was too close.
"Now!" Koda shouted, taking off running, leaping up the bleachers with all the chipmunks in tow. Dave and Nate were shouting for them to stop, that they were crazy and they were going to get hurt, but so far Koda had proved to have plenty of wisdom (the sort that didn't seem wise until it actually worked out just how she'd planned…kind of like Alvin's weird sort of wisdom).
The mad scientists were shooting their tranquillizers at will, but the randomized zig-zagging gave the kids the advantage. They were small, quick (for the most part), and well-equipped to get out of there. And once they were out of there, they followed Koda to the nearest fire escape. She got them up and through some open window, through that building, and out the other side in some other alley.
"What now?" Jeanette asked.
"Now…now I'm afraid to say we split up. Alvin, you take a group to the police station. We have to get these guys arrested. You do remember the way to the police station, right?" He nodded. "As for my group…I only need two people, and we're going to be setting up traps."
"Math and science involved?" Simon asked.
"Only some calculations that I'd probably need you and Jeanette for."
"So I get everyone else?" Alvin asked, glancing at his youngest brother and the other two Chipettes.
"Hurry." Koda latched onto Jeanette's arm to keep her from falling over as they ran one way and Alvin took his bunch the other way.
"You really learned how to navigate the streets, didn't you?" Brittany tried to joke as Alvin led her through what was the smelliest place she could ever remember being in. And that included everywhere they went when they went around the world.
"You don't spend a month out here without learning where the important buildings are. Especially if you've become one of Koda's special projects. That girl is so strange. You know what? I think her forcing me to stop writing down what I wanted to say did me good."
"How'd she force you?" Theodore asked.
"She'd never read a word of it. She always either ignored it or brushed me off or made some excuse about bad eyes. And her eyes aren't bad, especially with those glasses. She can see things like a hawk…Of course, take those glasses off and she can't go two feet without running into something."
"She is a bat," Eleanor reminded him. "Bats are known for the fact that they're more or less blind. That's why people say 'blind as a bat' all the time."
"But she's a bat that has glasses. Here, this is our stop."
"I didn't think it'd be that close," Brittany gasped as Alvin pulled her to the corner of the street. People paused to stare a bit, but generally kept on moving. They were used to seeing stars out around town here. Of course, any tourists around were stopping and taking pictures. Alvin was actually grateful for once to run across the street and get away. Fans were great, but not when you're on a life or death mission (life or death for everyone you care about that is).
"Yes?" the police officer started, pausing to look up from her papers. "May I help you?" She was obviously interested in the fact that it was Alvin and his friends, but she had to keep her professional persona up.
"There's some nutcases that are out trying to shoot our friend!" Theodore blurted.
"Make it sound so much nicer than it really is," Brittany scolded. "There are these mad scientists that are trying to tranquilize our friend so they can take her back to their secret lab to perform strange genetic tests on her for the rest of her life as though she were just some plant or something that didn't have feelings. I don't care if you call it child abuse or animal abuse, but it's still abuse!"
"That's quite a story kids…" the officer started, but Alvin turned on the nearest TV, turning it up so she could hear it. The news was covering the entire story about the interruption of the concert by guys with guns, threatening anyone that got in their way.
"Those guys," he stated flatly. "You have to catch them before they hurt her."
"You don't have to tell me twice." She was amazed that no other cops had been called to attention. Probably because it was the bat-girl that was in question. No one stood up when it came to that kid. She was just way to scary and threatening looking.