Simon's POV
I was feeling pretty confident in my idea. I knew teaching Alvin how to think like me wouldn't be easy. He was much too stubborn. However, I was determined to do whatever it took to make Alvin an asset to the team even if that meant fundamentally changing the way he interprets information. It was a flawed way of thinking, and deep down I realized that, but I was too far in now to give up.
Theodore left the room not long after Alvin had, allowing me time to chat to the other team members without my brothers butting in with their opinions.
"I am going to tune up my brother's recall skills if it's the last thing I do." I vowed.
Kevin looked uncomfortable. "Look, Simon. I don't want to say this, but...maybe it's time we let Alvin go."
"What? No!" I was shocked that the boy in the green T-shirt would consider such a ludicrous thought. We couldn't kick Alvin off the team! The only way Alvin could possibly leave the team was if HE chose to, himself. If we "let him go" as Kevin had phrased it, we would cause him to melt-down and possibly feel like he wasn't even our friend. I know, it sounds like an overreaction. It is. Alvin's known well for his grand overreactions.
"You know how Alvin is!" I shouted at Kevin in exasperation. "That would completely crush him!"
The teen boy tapped his fingers on his desk. "And making him spend 6 days doing nothing but studying won't?" He asked.
"You're the one who told him to "eat, sleep, and breathe physics!" I pointed out, getting more and more annoyed with Kevin by the second.
"Yeah, for one day! Not 6!" The redhead continued. "He's going to be miserable." The boy quieted down, possibly embarrassed he had raised his voice at me.
Cheesy looked at the two of us and frowned. "I don't know what we should do." He moaned.
"I think the pros of letting Alvin leave the team outweigh the cons." Warren added.
I jumped up on the desk. Maybe they'd take me more seriously if they could see me better. A tiny head poking out from a giant human sized desk does not seem like something humans pay much attention to. "No they most certainly do not!"
"Aren't you the one who suggested we get back up in the first place, Simon?" Kevin questioned me. He's always been quite good at debates.
I crossed my arms as I stood in front of my informal debate partner. "The backup was in case HE decided to leave, or didn't show up. Or in case he didn't even try. He's assured me that being on this team means everything to him. He is serious. He is dedicated. And he is staying on this team!" I knew I had won the argument.
Kevin slouched in his chair, looking defeated.
Cheesy patted Kevin's shoulder. "I think he should stay for now. Besides, we don't have anyone else to replace him anyway."
Or at least, we DIDN'T. At that very moment, Eleanor waltzed into the room, gracing us with her presence.
"I have some great news." She said, leaning against the wall and smiling smugly. "I have found you the perfect teammate."
I facepalmed while Kevin, Warren, and Cheesy looked VERY interested.
"Who is it?" Cheesy asked the question we were all thinking before the rest of us could react.
Eleanor ran over and climbed onto a desk near mine. "Mildred. And that's not even the best part!"
"Mildred is good at physics? Since when?" Kevin questioned.
"She dabbles in the study, yeah. It's always interested her. She's got a better memory than Alvin, that's for sure." The pigtailed Chipette informed us.
"A rock has a better memory than Alvin." I heard myself comment bitterly without really thinking it through. It was meant to be a joke to lighten the mood. However, with my deadpan delivery it came out sounding…mean.
Warren stroked his chin thoughtfully. "And she's willing to be in the Physics Bowl? Despite it being a "nerd" thing?"
Eleanor smirked the biggest smirk I've ever seen. "Ohhh yeah. She's crushing hard on one of you."
"Which one?" Kevin, Cheesy, and Warren chorused. I could tell they were all on the metaphorical edge of their seats.
The mysterious girl laughed. "You'll have to find out for yourself. I would tell you, but where's the fun in that? It's better if it's a surprise."
I knew exactly what Eleanor's angle was. "You just don't want her to be mad you told us." I said in an accusing tone.
"Nah." The Chipette was either lying, or being a complete pain in the behind. "I think it'll be more interesting if you guys have to figure it out. It's like a puzzle."
"A brain teaser." Kevin remarked. "Cool!"
"I bet it's Warren!" Cheesy called out. "They both have the same hair color and super pale skin. Hey, maybe she thinks you're goth too." He teased.
Warren waved a hand dismissively at his friend. "I bet it's Kevin. He's a ladies man. He's already got a girlfriend AND he's a DJ for hire! Who wouldn't be into that?"
"Maybe it's Simon." Cheesy suggested. "Jenny sure likes him a lot." Yes. Jenny was a girl who was OBSESSED with me to the point of it being creepy.
I glared at Eleanor as my friends continued to try and puzzle out who was the heartthrob that won Mildred over. "I know what you're doing." I said angrily.
She had come here with the intention of pushing us into an off topic discussion just for laughs. I was getting sick of her antics. I hired her to help and not to hinder our chances of winning the Physics Bowl.
"Relax, Simon. I'm giving them a fun challenge. They're overworked from the way you've been pushing them. They need this." She jumped off the desk and scurried over to the door. "Well, time for me to go shoot some hoops." The irritating girl told us all. "Later!"
I fumed silently as she pranced out the door. Thanks to her, I had to bring my teammates back down to earth.
"...What if she's secretly into Live Action Roleplaying?" I heard Warren ask as my ears tuned back in to their nonsensical conversation.
"That would be AWESOME!" Kevin quipped.
I cleared my throat loudly, hoping to get their attention.
"Simon, Simon, who do you think she's into?" Cheesy asked me.
I scowled. "I don't really know and I don't care. We have more important things to discuss than girls."
"Girls are very important." Both redheads said to me.
I was beyond annoyed at this point. Thank heavens Warren was there to bring everyone back to their senses.
The dark haired boy got up from his chair. "So now that you know you have Mildred at the ready. Are you going to keep Alvin on the team or…?"
Kevin looked at me and I looked at him. It took a few seconds before he spoke. "I still think we should tell Alvin that we believe it's in his best interest to leave the team."
I sighed. "And I still don't agree with that."
"But we have backup now!" Kevin argued.
I shook my head. "No."
"You don't get to decide for the rest of us. Let's put it to a vote. Majority rules." My green clad adversary declared.
Warren looked at his watch. "Oh man. I have to go. Told my mom I wouldn't be home later than four." He left the room before we could stop him. I wondered if he really had to go, or if he wanted to avoid a fight.
Kevin looked irritated that Warren had left, but quickly shrugged it off. "Warren's not going to be at the competition anyway, so his vote doesn't matter."
Both Kevin and I stared at Cheesy, expecting him to answer. He was our swing vote.
"Alright, Cheesy." I said. "Does my brother stay or go?" I hated putting him in such a position.
The boy in the dark blue T-shirt gulped. He got out of his chair and ran toward the door. "Please don't make me choose! I don't know! Okay!? I don't know!"
I gasped, realizing I had once again neglected to take into account Cheesy's tense situation at home.
"What are we doing?" Kevin wondered aloud. "We're letting this Physics Bowl tear us apart." He answered his own question.
"I….I wasn't trying to fight." I explained. "I'm looking out for my brother's best interest."
"So am I." Kevin insisted, even though I clearly knew more about Alvin than he did….or so I thought.
"How about we keep Alvin on the team for three more days. If I can't teach him what he needs to know by then, we can release him from this torture. Agreed?" I proposed a fair compromise.
Kevin reached out and shook my hand. "Agreed." He said with an apologetic smile.
Cheesy came back over to join us. He looked more at ease. "Yeah. I like that plan." He added.
So it was settled. I now had half the time I thought I had to teach Alvin to think more analytically and not get distracted. It was going to take a lot of persistence and it would most likely result in a lot of headaches.
Back at home, I approached Alvin in the music room. He was playing his guitar and coming up with new riffs. It sounded extraordinarily good.
"Are you ready for your training, study buddy?" I asked in a teasing way.
Alvin looked at me with an expression of absolute dread. "Can that start tomorrow?"
"I feel it would be more effective if we start it tonight. We don't have much time." I told him. He had even less time than he realized.
"But I'm tired!" He complained loudly in his high pitched incessant whine.
I tapped my foot impatiently. "You aren't too tired to play guitar."
"Stop nagging me!" He wailed.
"Alvin, come on." I ordered. "We're starting it now. I refuse to have a repeat of the history project."
He set the guitar down. "Will you STOP BRINGING THAT UP!?"
"As soon as you admit that you purposely forgot about it and made me do it all myself." I told him sternly.
"I didn't!" He crossed his arms. I was getting nowhere with him.
"I know you did." I replied, fully convinced I had the moral high ground. "But I'm willing to forgive you."
"Sure you are." He spat angrily. "Because everything I do is automatically wrong! And everything you do is automatically right!"
I frowned. Why did he feel that way? "Alvin, that's not..."
He cut me off. "Maybe some of what I do ISN'T wrong. Maybe it's just different."
"Procrastination is never a good option." I told him in my usual "no nonsense" tone.
A tear trickled down from his eye. "Actually, yeah it is. Sometimes. I've made the best stuff ever after letting the ideas bounce around in my head for days. I didn't mean to forget about the project. Honest. I just have….so much other stuff going on. It's hard to keep track." He continued to whine and throw a tantrum like a child. I guess that's to be expected. Technically, he is a child.
"Alvin." I grumbled loudly. "That's beside the point. Procrastinating on THIS can't help you. We have to train you, which is going to take time and like I said before, we are running out of time."
He sighed. I knew I had won the argument. He knew I was correct. "Can you give me like….ten minutes?" He asked, running out of the music room before I could stop him.
"Fine." I told him. "Ten minutes. No more."
What had I gotten myself into? I was beginning to have doubts in my brilliant idea. Alvin was too stubborn. There's no way he would cooperate without fighting every step of the way. Still, I needed to try. I am a naturally tenacious person and I thought that would help me out in a situation such as this. At least, I hoped it would.
Alvin's POV
I needed to think of a way out of this. I only had ten minutes. I raced upstairs to find Theodore working on a super easy jigsaw puzzle. Baby stuff, but if he likes it, who am I to judge?
"Theodore! You gotta hide me from Simon!" I yelped, opening the toy chest because I considered it a good hiding place. To my dismay, it was much too full for that.
My baby brother raised an eyebrow. "I thought you guys were getting along again. What happened?"
"He wants us to be STUDY BUDDIES!" I shrieked, unaware of how crazy I sounded.
Theodore walked away from his puzzle and over to me. "That's not a bad thing, Alvin. He wants to help you."
He didn't understand my pain. Clearly I needed a more in-depth explanation. "Simon doesn't want to help me! He wants to control me! He wants to turn me into a perfect little replica of himself. He thinks that anyone can learn things his way if they push themselves hard enough, well I CAN'T! I can't study his way! I STUDY MY OWN WAY!" I went off on poor Theodore, shouting and waving my hands wildly. "He's trying to make me even nerdier! I can feel it!"
"Can you even get nerdier?" Theo asked, his brown eyes squinting at me in confusion.
I almost lost it. "YES!" I hollered back.
"Don't you think you're freaking out a little too much?" He asked, still not totally comprehending the conversation. It wasn't his fault. I wasn't exactly making it easy for him to understand. I was too busy panicking uncontrollably.
"I need to freak out!" I gulped. "In 10 minutes Simon's gonna put me through a bunch of rigorous trials and tests and whip every last bit of exciting awesomeness out of me."
My baby brother considered my words and tried to give me helpful advice to calm me down. "Only temporarily though. You'll be fine."
I looked at him sadly. "We all thought the 2.0 thing would be temporary." I reminded him.
Now, he finally understood my plight. "G...G...Good point." He squeaked. "But I dunno where you can hide."
I raced around the room, searching for a place to hide. I spotted the teepee and dashed inside.
"Do not tell him I'm in here!" I told Theo hastily.
Theodore nodded and went back to working on his kiddy jigsaw puzzle.
A few minutes later, Simon entered the room. "Have you seen Alvin?" He asked. "He's scheduled for a study session with me."
Theodore said nothing and continued working on his jigsaw puzzle.
I watched them through the small opening in the side of the teepee.
My brother in blue waved his hands in front of Theo's face. "Hello? I asked, where's Alvin? Have you seen him?"
Theodore swallowed and then shook his head. "Nope. H...Haven't seen him." He lied.
"Are you sure?" Simon asked suspiciously.
"Uh Huh." Theodore sounded really scared. I instantly regretted making him lie for me.
Then, Simon took out his phone and called mine. My hiding spot couldn't protect me as my familiar ringtone music played, letting my brother know my exact location. To add insult to injury, I still could not remember my phone password so I couldn't decline the call quickly to stop the music from playing.
Simon opened the teepee and glared at me. "This foolishness has to stop, Alvin." He ordered.
"Okay, okay." I finally caved. "I'll do the mega nerd stuff….IF you can jailbreak my phone for me and help reset the password to something I can remember better."
He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the teepee. "Deal."
So it was settled, and my fate was sealed. I was still completely and utterly against this, but I had no choice now. I wanted to use my phone again!
The first thing he tried to force me into was chess. I've played it before, but Simon always says I play it wrong. The object of the game is not "distracting your opponent by being an imbecile." Simon's words. Not mine. It's about creating a strategic plan and carefully calculating every possible outcome. In short, it is NOT a game for someone who can't sit still.
No." I said, upon seeing the chess board. "Not this. Anything but this."
"Chess is a brilliant way to sharpen the mind." He started setting up the pieces. He'd even managed to find a chess set with blue and red pieces. It was as if it were made especially for us.
I pouted. "Maybe I don't want my mind sharpened!"
Simon looked at me like I was completely out of my mind. "So you enjoy not being able to remember anything?"
He still didn't get it. I even took him on a trip into my mind, and he STILL thought I was STUPID! "I can remember things!" I corrected him. "I just can't remember them on command!"
"And you've been complaining about it for days." He retorted as he finished setting the pieces on the chess board.
I frowned. "Doesn't mean I wanna use THIS as a solution!"
"And why not?" He challenged me.
How could he possibly not know? Urgh! Fine. I knew I had to explain it to him, yet again. "Because it's...really stereotypical. Defying stereotypes is like...my whole thing."
He rolled his eyes. "Chess isn't nerdy!" He lied.
"Yes it is!" I shouted, my voice growing raspy and worn.
At least he corrected himself and admitted he lied. "Okay, fine. It is. However, in its defense, anything that requires you to use your brain is considered nerdy by the large majority."
Drat! He'd managed to corner me with his mind games! "Aw come on! You're..." I sighed deeply. "...right."
He made me play three rounds of chess. It was torture. I mean, I did manage to win all three games, but I didn't enjoy it.
"How are you doing this!?" Simon groaned as I managed to catch him off guard and corner his king for the 3rd time.
"It's like making a plan. I'm good at making plans. Therefore, I'm good at chess. I HATE chess with a passion, but I'm GOOD at it." I explained.
"Your constant pacing around the table is throwing me off." He said accusingly.
I shrugged my shoulders. "That's your problem, not mine."
"We are going to play one more game and you are going to sit there and not talk the entire time." He told me, resetting the pieces.
I shook my head. "No. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would rather study stuff than play chess."
His blue eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yes." I told him honestly. "This doesn't feel like it's sharpening my mind any."
He left the room and returned with a pile of physics textbooks. "Alright." He dropped the heaviest one on the couch next to me. "I'll ask you a question, you look up the answer. Then, I want you to write down the question and answer in this notebook." He handed me a deep blue notebook and a lighter blue pen. "Then, memorize the list of all 25 questions written there."
I felt my jaw drop. "You want me to memorize 25? Can't we start with like….5? Maybe 10?" I asked.
"Fine. 10. We'll begin with 10. Then move to 15, then 20, then 25. Your ability to recall information should be boosted enough by then." Simon sat down on the couch next to me.
"Another question before we start. Can I get up and move around in between looking for the answers?" I requested. It seemed like it wouldn't be much trouble.
Simon shook his head. "You won't be able to move around at the competition. The most you could get away with is quietly tapping your foot behind a podium."
It really seemed like all those competition rules were purposefully against me. I opened up the book and started flipping through it as I waited for Simon to ask the first question.
"How are mass and acceleration related?" He inquired. "It's in chapter 7." He added, giving me a much needed hint.
I tried my best to pay attention to the textbook, but my mind kept jumping ahead to Simon getting mad at me because I was hopeless and his system of study would never work for me. I knew that was exactly what would happen. I could feel it.
"Have you found it yet?" Simon sounded impatient. "It's an easy one."
I pushed up my glasses as they slid down my tiny nose. "This is gonna sound really dumb." I said, looking at my brother. "I work best when I have music playing in the background to sorta drown out those….other thoughts in my head and keep me from losin' focus."
"Music?" Simon wrinkled his nose in confusion. The concept of music while studying was foreign to him. "You mean, something like a montage?"
I grinned. "YEAH! Exactly!"
"No. No montages. You can't have music at the Physics Bowl." He was firm, but I had more tricks up my sleeve.
"Pleeease? I feel like it'll really help train me to remember stuff more." I clasped my hands together and begged.
He caved and turned on the stereo system, hooking my iPhone to it via Bluetooth. A chipmunkified version of Aretha Franklin's Think! began to play and I fought the urge to sing along to our awesome cover of an awesome song.
"Think, think
Think about what you're tryin' do to me, yeah-ah-ah
Think
Let your mind go, let yourself be free
Let's go back to school, buddy
Let's go way on back when
I didn't even know ya
You weren't even more than 10
I ain't no psychiatrist, no doctor with degree
It don't take too much IQ to see what you're doin' to me, yeah
Think, think
Think about what you're tryin' do to me, yeah-ah-ah
Think, think
Let your mind go, let yourself be free
Oh freedom, freedom, freedom
Oh freedom
freedom, freedom, freedom
Oh freedom!"
Already through the first verse and I had written down everything Simon wanted me to. Now, I just needed to memorize the list. Try as I might, I…..couldn't make myself remember more than 3 answers. Simon slapped his forehead, exhausted by what he considered "my tomfoolery." The music continued to play and I continued to push myself harder.
"There ain't nothing you could ask, I could answer you but I won't
I was gonna change, but I'm not if you keep actin' like I don't
Hey, think about what you're tryin' do to me
Buddy, think, let your mind go, let yourself be free
You can walk around every day playing games and taking score
Tryin' to make other people lose their minds, better be careful you don't lose yours, yeah!
Think, think
Think about what you're tryin' do to me, yeah-ah-ah
Oh yeah, think
Let your mind go, let yourself be free
You need me and I need you
Without each other, there ain't nothing that we can do
Oh yeah
Think about it, buddy, what you tryin' to do to me?
Come on now, think about it right now, yeah
Oh freedom, freedom, freedom
Oh freedom
Now freedom, freedom, freedom
Oh freedom
Freeeeeedooooom!"
Both Simon and I laid down on the floor in the living room.
"How are you not getting this?" He asked me, sounding completely drained of all hope.
I wasn't feeling so hot myself. "I don't know! Maybe because my brain CAN'T work like yours!"
"Maybe because you simply DON'T WANT IT TO." He pulled himself to his feet and then helped me up.
"This is torture!" I screamed. "I can't take it!"
"We'll try again tomorrow." Simon looked defeated. It was getting pretty late. "And after school for the next few days. We WILL make progress. Mark my words."
I grabbed my jailbroken iphone with the new password and turned off the Bluetooth. Simon was scaring me. He insistence on pushing me to my limits was bound to backfire on him. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
I hurried upstairs to my bedroom as I thought about how grueling the next few days would be. Was the Physics Bowl even going to be worth it? How much agony could I take before I snapped? I needed to make Simon realize that I would never be like him….and that it wasn't a bad thing. I made up my mind. At some point within these next days, I was going to have a heart to heart with Simon and reveal...some things I'd never told him before. Things that I had just recently discovered myself. One way or another I would get through to him. Alvins NEVER give up.