Jeanette's POV

I spent all of Sunday relaxing with good books and listening to happy tunes. I needed the break after the stressful first date. Being out in public always causes me to doubt myself and my actions. Plus, there was enormous social pressure on me to "do the date right," when I didn't even know what was considered right and wrong. Maybe I'll check out a book on tips for making romance blossom sometime. I could certainly use a ton of pointers.

Alvin's short temper still bothered me slightly, but I was coming to terms with it. He's been through a lot and he was short tempered even before that. Both my sisters have short fuses as well, so it's something I have to get used to.

The most exciting thing I did on Sunday was check the reviews my anonymously posted story had received. There were a couple, but one was a sleeping Z emoji and the other just said "cool." Cool? It was a positive review, at least. I was hoping the reviews would have a little more substance. I poured my heart and soul into this firefly story! Oh well, at least it beats negative reviews. Yes, I choose to ignore the snoring emoji. I like to think positive.

When school rolled around on Monday I was not prepared to see Alvin again so soon. It was odd. Now that we were dating, I felt like every interaction with him had to go smoothly. There was little room for error if I wanted to sustain this lovely emotional bond we had formed.

I scampered along to class, hoping he would get there late and I wouldn't have to talk to him until around lunchtime or between class periods. That's when I crashed straight into Simon.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there." I squeaked nervously. I quickly checked to make sure I was wearing my glasses. Yeah, they were there. I guess my mind was wandering again.

"It's quite alright." Simon said curtly as he picked up our things from the floor. "How was your weekend?"

Did he want to know about the date? Or just how my weekend was in general? Would he be interested in knowing all the books I read and songs I listened to? Would he like to know fun facts about the authors and singers? What did he want from me? What should I say?

"Fine." I was as quiet as an adorable mouse. "It was fine."

"Good fine? Or bad fine?" He asked.

I wrinkled my twitchy pink nose in confusion. There's different types of FINE!? Panic! I was panicking!

"You know, like….Fine fine." I took a sharp breath and sucked in too much air. Now I needed to cough, but I couldn't cough in Simon's face!

"Let me rephrase that." Oh no. He knew that I didn't understand. I started looking for the nearest place to run and hide. "How did the date go? Was my brother a gentleman or an imbecile?"

I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about the date. Especially not with Simon! What if Simon liked me the way Britt liked Alvin? What if he was jealous of us? Then again, maybe he was only curious. I liked that idea, so that was what I told myself.

I looked at Simon's inquisitive face. "He tried his best to be a gentleman." I answered.

"Will there be more dates in the future?" He leaned against his locker.

"Most…..likely." I wished he would let me be. I just wanted to get to class!

"Cool." His words brought to mind that one word review my story received. Could Simon have been the one behind the review? Maybe I'm looking too much into it. A lot of people say things like "fun" and "cool" and "whatevs." That last one drives me simply batty. Whatever. It's whatever. It doesn't sound cooler when you shorten it.

"Yes." I repeated. "Cool."

Simon sighed. "I'm making this awkward. Aren't I?"

"Uhhh….Sorta." I smiled. He was definitely catching onto the way I was feeling.

"My apologies." He opened his locker to grab his textbooks. "I was simply curious as to how serious things are between you. I already got Alvin's side of the story. I thought maybe I could get yours so that I have two perspectives."

Serious? This relationship was in the starting stages. It was like a tiny baby bird that couldn't even fly yet.

I cracked a tiny half smile. "It's….still in the experimental stages."

"I see. I wish you both the best of luck." He hesitated. "Jeanette," he began, I guessed he wanted to say something serious. Simon's usually a very serious person. "We're still going to be friends, right? Even if you do continue dating my brother?"

I nodded. "I will always be your friend." I told him earnestly. "I promise."

"I'm glad." He walked with me to class. "I wasn't completely doubting it, I just needed verbal confirmation. Hey, it'll sure be nice getting those record executives who try and make us a couple off our backs."

I nodded again, tired of speaking.

Being a Seville, Simon continued talking. "And, you'll always have someone to go to school dances and homecomings with. Plus, you'll be able to go on double dates with me whenever I manage to find a girlfriend. IF….I manage."

I broke my vow of silence and perpetual nods to tell him I was sure he'd find a girlfriend someday.

We took our seats and I looked at Brittany. She appeared quite glum. I wasn't sure why. She had convinced me to accept Alvin's imperfections. I thought that giving her sister romance advice would bring feelings of joy. I turned my head to the right to look at Eleanor. My younger sister was hard at work on her history assignment. I fetched mine out of my backpack and waited patiently for my chance to turn it in.

My mysterious boyfriend arrived about 3 minutes before the bell. He waltzed over to my desk with his tail swishing and his feet bouncing up off the floor. In his hand, he held three plastic purplish pink roses. He dropped them on my desk and winked at me as he took his seat. Was this an apology? A sign that he knew I was having doubts because of his actions? Or was it a simple romantic gesture? Alvin is well known for going overboard on the romance. Without a confirmation, I tucked the roses into my backpack and returned his romantic gesture by making a heart shape with my hands and showing it to him. I gave myself a mental pat on the back. I was getting so much better at this thing called romance.

ALVIN 2.0'S POV

You do NOT want to know what I spent all of Sunday doing. It was HOMEWORK. I lost a full day to all those fracking asinine assignments! I shouldn't have left all the big projects until the last minute. I know this. However, I just CAN'T convince my mind to focus on them UNTIL the last minute. It's the worst! So, yeah, Sunday was totally ruined.

I woke up on Monday feeling like an entirely new person, much to my dismay. I've grown increasingly exhausted of my constant flip flopping. It usually feels like there's a light switch in my brain that's flicked on and off at random. Or, or, maybe it's more like….sliding scale and I keep sliding up and down it. The point is, I was like a 45% on the genius nerd scale on Friday and Saturday and a 20% on Sunday. Today, I was at a whopping 98%. Why couldn't I have been at 98% YESTERDAY when I needed to do my dang homework!?

Because of my total plunge off the deep end into almost total nerddom, I was feeling excited about school! Yeah! Hard to believe, isn't it? I got dressed for school in my longest and largest T shirt and my baggiest jeans. Was I purposefully dressing this way because some bully said I looked like a chick in my bubble vest and tight galaxy trousers? No…..Maybe. Don't judge me. Or, you know what, go ahead….cuz everyone else does.

I finished breakfast, grabbed my backpack, and was out the door before Dave could ask me if I slept okay or if I did my homework. Pretty sure he never even noticed I spent all of yesterday buried under a stack of assignments. Oh, but he ALWAYS notices whenever I do something he feels is "wrong." Wonder what he'd think about me karate kicking Ray Ray to the curb. He probably would have me taken out of karate classes. Then, I'd tattle to Officer Dangus and Officer D would tell Daverino to let me take the classes again. I don't wish to go through that hassle, so I'll never mention the incident to Dave.

I entered the school and saw a giant bouquet of assorted plastic roses decorating the entrance. Ah yes, I had forgotten that Britt was in charge of planning the annual Spring Fling dance. She tends to overdo it with the decor. An idea exploded into my mind when I saw the roses. This was the perfect way to show Jeanette that I value our relationship even if I make careless mistakes sometimes. I pawed around in the bouquet, fishing out three roses in varying shades of Jeanette's favorite color. She's gonna LOVE them!

Making sure no one saw me, I darted through the auditorium and the home ec class. It's my secret shortcut. It helps me cut down on the risk of being trampled by roughly 200 pairs of shoes in the hallways.

I strolled into class and dropped the roses on Jeanette's desk, giving her my most suave wink yet. She returned the gesture by making a heart symbol with both her hands. I wished I could snap a photo of her like that. It was super duper adorable. Ohoho! My relationship was SAVED! She wasn't mad at me!

The lesson began and of course it was another boring history lesson. Get me out of here and into Chem. My supercharged brain was really kicking today. It'd be a shame to waste it, so I decided to think up a game plan for my next date. Dinner at a fancy restaurant? No. Too much that can go wrong. Maybe we could have a nice picnic in the park? Scratch that idea. I'm not in the mood to pick ants from my fur. 20 ideas later, I came up with the perfect one! Then, I raced through today's history assignment and turned it in just as the bell was about to ring.

"I am so good at this." I thought to myself proudly.

Math went by in the blink of an eye, mostly because I finished my classwork and the chapters in my math book early. I spent the rest of the time cultivating new invention ideas. There's too many to name, but once again, I'll give you a taste. I thought up a self flipping pancake pan, robotic hands that can wash dishes for you, and a device that instead of converting text to speech...can plug into your head and convert your THOUGHTS to text! That last one may be a reach. I'll probably need Simon's help to make it a reality.

Gym class was next, or Physical Education for all you sophisticated folks. I couldn't wait to play some sports! There was a small nagging thought in the back of my mind that bothered me though. What if I couldn't play sports today? As Simon has predicted, my knees were pretty bruised and tender. Totally black and blue. My toe was all red and swollen from where I dropped the stack of books on it in the library. My legs, usually my best asset, might be nearly useless today. It wouldn't be a problem, except that I know Britt would use it as proof that I'm losing my ability to play sports and letting the Simon-ness take full control. She's so dumb! Like dude, I can be sorta geeky without letting "Simon-ness" dominate all my other interests.

"Hey, nerd!"

Someone yelled in my direction. I ignored them and continued to walk toward the gym, feeling a pang of sadness for whichever one of my poor friends they were picking on. I wanted to help, to stand up for them, but I also didn't want to be late for the kajillionth time this semester.

"Do you hear me, loser? Talking to you!"

Wait a minute! I turned to face the bully, looking surprised.

"Me?"

I questioned. Oh, right. I'm technically a nerd now. I forget that a lot. I'm new at this. Haven't yet got the feel for my new status as "underdog."

"Yes, you. Heard you signed up for the trivia contest."

I knew that was a mistake. Simon had mentioned it and said it was fun and that they needed another teammate for the Physics Bowl. And, I….know physics inside and out.

My fur bristled and my tail puffed out to twice its size.

"And so what if I did?" I told the bully. "I'm allowed to be well rounded." I didn't know this guy's name, and frankly now I didn't care to learn it. Not after the way he was treating me.

"Dude, what is wrong with you?"

He wasn't going to stop. Clearly.

"Nothing! There's nothing wrong with me! And stop calling me a loser!"

"But you ARE a loser."

I clutched my books tighter to keep from leaping on him and scratching his stupid face. I'm not a loser. Never will be. And I'm NOT a nerd, I mean, I am….but not in the way he's thinking.

"Guess what, buster! I'm cooler than you." I stood my ground. I couldn't do anything else to defend myself. I had to rely on stance and words.

"You don't get to decide if you're cool or not. Everyone else does. You THINK you're cool, but you're really just pathetic and annoying."

I silently made a plea for the Principal to come by and hear these horrific insults that were assaulting my ears. She had to be around here somewhere.

"If you people would give me a CHANCE, you'd see I'm not a nerd! Really! I wear glasses and have a healthy appreciation for science and tech. It's the modern world. Who doesn't love science and tech?" Now, I was reduced to shouting out whatever words popped into my head. The accusation of being uncool had made my genius meter plummet to 20% again. My 2.0-ness was currently lacking.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. I recognized the style. It was the same devious smirk that I used to wear almost all the time. I recognized it, yet I ignored it. It was a stupid decision.

"Hey, you're Alvin. I gotta believe you still have some cool kid mojo left in you. I'll tell ya what, if you meet up with me and my friends after school tomorrow, we'll give you some challenges and you can prove you're cool."

"Tomorrow?" I so wanted to accept the offer! This was my shot! I could prove I was cool and regain the status I lost, while still being a genius and getting good grades! There was a problem though. "Tomorrow is the art show." It was after school, and Jeanette would be there. If I was a no show, she wouldn't have the confidence to show off her work.

"You'd rather do a fruity little art show, be my guest. This is your ONLY shot at ever being popular again." He wasn't going to accommodate me. Too bad I couldn't be in two places at once. Technically, I can, but it would require Simon's weird personality splitting laser and both Alvins created only would have half a personality. There had to be SOME way I could manage both.

"I'll be there." I said firmly, instantly regretting my decision. It was too late though, the bully had left and I was alone in the hall.

"What is wrong with me?" I cried inside my head. "I shouldn't want to be popular." While it was true that I didn't usually miss the old Alvin and wanted to remain 2.0 forever, I did really miss being popular. I missed the perks. I missed the power. It's superficial, I know. It was such a big part of me though.

As I entered the gym, I wondered what Jeanette would think of my decision to try and regain my popularity. She would be against it. But, she was against karate too, and revenge. We both had two very different outlooks in life. Opinions. That's what they were. What's morally wrong for some people is just a normal everyday thing for someone else. I was sure I made the right decision….then. I know better now. Have I mentioned I'm a DOOFUS genius?