It's the weekend again! Let's see what happens this time around!

SATURDAY

BRITTANY'S POV

Dear, Diary,

Only one day left until Anita's party! I am so excited I can't stand it! What should I wear? What sort of games will we play? Maybe Simon will be there. I mean, uh, I don't care if Simon's there or not. Why would I care? My life revolves around me, not Simon. I'm going to stop myself from thinking about Simon if it's the last thing I do!

Of course, I wasn't all that good at stopping myself from thinking about him today. I thought about him during breakfast. I thought about him after breakfast while I was picking my outfit for the day. He also wound up on my mind as I practiced ballet, re-organized my room, and

then again at lunchtime when Eleanor asked if I wanted to visit the boys. Our mom, Miss. Miller was babysitting Alvin today because he's grounded again for who knows what. I debated for a while whether going over to the boys' house was a good idea. I had humiliated myself in front of Simon yesterday. I thought maybe I could make up for it by acting natural today.

I tried to act natural, I really did. I watched some TV, but there wasn't anything good on. I don't even remember what I watched. All I know is that it made me bored and restless and annoyed. I hate commercials too. Why do shows have to be mostly commercials these days? The runtime for the show itself is like 18 minutes! That's barely enough time for a plot. 2 minutes of commercials at a time is enough if you ask me. That's why there's billboards and magazine ads. They serve literally the SAME purpose.

I did my best to avoid talking to Simon too much, for fear of slipping up and acting foolish again. He sat down next to me and I swear I almost exploded with nervous energy. My crush on Alvin wasn't this bad! Did Simon have me under some sort of love spell? Had I unknowingly drank a potion that caused these weird feelings? I can NOT be in love with Simon! I can't! I JUST CAN'T! IT'S SIMON!

I ran upstairs and looked for something to distract me from my urges. Urgh! The boys' house is so boring! There's nothing to do! There weren't even any games around because Alvin wasn't allowed to play them today. I would talk to Alvin, but he wasn't around either because he ran off with Eleanor to a "classified" location. Honestly, if my sister says "classified" one more time, I will punt her across the football field.

I rummaged through their craft drawer and pulled out an origami instruction manual. Theodore noticed me and scampered over to join me. He let me know how upset he was always being used as a distraction for Miss. Miller so Alvin could sneak around. He said he placed Jeanette on distraction duty instead.

Theodore showed me how to make a dozen little origami animals, including a swan…well, he calls it a crane, but it looks more like a swan to me. Unfortunately, Simon also came to join us and my palms started sweating. I couldn't stop staring at him! His bright blue eyes, his chestnut colored hair, his impressive build…Wait, are his arms thicker than Alvin's?

I made a little small talk and then excused myself from the table, racing back home to sob underneath my covers because I could no longer deny it. I have a crush on Simon Seville. What is my life coming to!?

I'm going back to thinking about the party, because I don't want to face the fact that I am LOSING IT! Time to brush up on my football facts so I don't look like a fool there. It's a Super Bowl party and I don't want people to think of me as some brainless cheerleader. I actually LIKE football, even if I don't understand all the techniques. I bet I'd be good at playing football. The super strength that I find so annoying for delicate tasks would be really helpful for football. Plus, then Simon and I can both be an athletic dream team. DANG IT! NO! STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM!

I'm feeling tired so I'm going to stop writing now. I need to be careful. Next thing you know, I'll be having dreams about Simon.

JEANETTE'S POV

Dear, Diary,

I woke up to a text from Alvin. Well, I didn't realize it was Alvin at first because the text came from Simon's phone. See, the thing is, Alvin got blamed for something he may or may not have done and Dave grounded him until further notice. He took away all of Alvin's electronics and told him he's not allowed to leave the house all weekend. That's so sad, because I know he's really been looking forward to the weekend.

He asked me if I could bring over my Nintendo DS so he could play whatever games I had on it. I agreed and ziplined over secretly to deliver the entertainment system. I wasn't sure what he would think of my game selection. I had Pampered Pets, Tinkerbell, Club House Games, and Animal Crossing.

To my surprise, he said the selection was fine and it would suffice. He chose to play Club House games first and beat the computer players in darts, bowling, battleship, and chess. I almost got caught in his room, but I hid under the bed when Dave came in. Dave informed Alvin that Miss. Miller would be looking after him while Dave was at an important work meeting. He goes to those a lot.

I returned to the treehouse for a little bit because I was in need of some social cooldown time. I like interacting with other people, but it can quickly become overwhelming. I worked a little more on my science project with Pippi's help and then I read through a book on the secrets of the Fae Realm. It was very interesting.

After lunch, I returned to the Seville house along with my mom and my sisters. I wanted to hang out with Alvin a little more, but he went with Eleanor off on a mission, leaving me without much to do. I wish I could have helped them on their mission.

I decided to practice my ukulele to pass the time. I played a couple of my favorite songs, one of them being "Knock Me Down" and the other being "I Belong." I was having a grand time for sure. Music is so healing. I think more people should try music therapy.

After performing my melodies for an invisible audience, I took a small cat nap. It was a good thing I did because Theodore woke me up and told me I was next on Miss. Miller distraction duty. He said, and I quote "I don't want to do this anymore." I respect that. He's used as a distraction way too much. It must be very hard for him to live his own life when he's always being pressured into helping with schemes and other things of that nature.

I went outside with Miss. Miller and we watered all the plants around Dave's house. Now they'll be sure to grow nice and healthy. After that, I showed her a cute movie called A Bug's Life. It had a group of ants as the main characters, but it also had a bunch of other bugs too. We were both in tears by the end of it. Disney movies tend to have that effect on people.

Miss. Miller fell asleep after the film, so I took the opportunity to join in making origami animals with Theo and Simon. Theodore mentioned Brittany was acting weird. I wonder why. Anyway, I made an origami koala and a kangaroo. Australian animals are just so fascinating, you know?

When it was finally time to go home, Alvin and Eleanor returned from whatever rabbit hole they'd been in all day and I kissed Alvin on the cheek. He handed me back my Nintendo and I returned home to spend the whole night playing my Tinkerbell game. Boy, that thing sure is addicting.

It's been a great weekend so far, Diary. I sure hope tomorrow is just as great! I know I'm not technically invited to Anita's party, but hearing Eleanor and Brittany talk about it so much has me intrigued. I know Anita wouldn't mind if I showed up, so maybe I will go and check it out. I hope there aren't tons of people. There probably will be. High school parties are normally like that. Maybe I shouldn't go. Ohhh, I'll make a pros and cons list tomorrow and decide. Yeah! I like that idea.

ELEANOR'S POV

This is the private journal of Eleanor Nichole Miller. Anyone caught touching this will be SORRY!

Today, I was hoping to gather more info on the green bean caper. That didn't happen. I wound up sucked into another mystery, much closer to home. Do I regret it? Nope. The other mystery was a lot of fun, even though it got me in trouble. I should probably explain, right?

This morning started with my usual routine of making breakfast for my sisters. Three different breakfasts. One that had nothing green in it, one that was vegan safe, and one that was made of things I like to eat. Brittany was acting weird at breakfast again. I think reading my journal has really been getting to her, even though she didn't get my note. We talked a little about the Super Bowl party and she asked me if Simon would be there. I told her probably not. He's not much of a football fan. Britt is so spaced out that someone could mistake her for Jeanette. It's kind of funny. I bet she'll come clean and admit she read my journal any day now.

Speaking of Jeanette, she was being a sneaky sneak today too. I followed her to find out what she was up to and saw her delivering videogames to Alvin. Here's where the day really took a turn. Alvin begged me to help him find out why Dave grounded him because apparently he didn't remember. I'm talking BEGGED. He was on his knees crying. I agreed to help because, well, it's not like I had anything better to do. The only thing on my schedule was relax until the SuperBowl party.

While Theo distracted Miss. Miller, since she was looking after Alvin, I climbed up into the attic with Alvin. I started asking him a bunch of questions to try and gather clues, but that was a bust. I suggested we retrace his steps. He said all he did yesterday was go to school and then play mini golf. That wasn't much information to go on. Maybe Dave really DID blame him for something he had nothing to do with. I told Alvin that we needed to eliminate the most likely options to narrow down our choices.

The two of us went into the basement to check and see if any of Simon's inventions were broken. They weren't and neither were the washer or dryer. I asked him if bad grades were likely to be the cause of him being grounded. He scoffed at me. I guess the answer was no. None of the kitchen appliances were broken, nor the vacuum. Time for the next idea.

I decided there must have been a chore Dave asked about left unaccomplished. Alvin said he swore he finished all his chores. I told him to double check, so we ran through the list and surprisingly, all the chores on the list were finished.

We went into Dave's home office and checked the computer. No glitches, no viruses, nothing downloaded that wasn't meant to be. I told Alvin to just ask what he did to get grounded. He said he already tried that. How puzzling.

When we hurried past the kitchen and living room, I saw Miss. Miller with Jeanette and Brittany with Simon and Theo doing origami. A quick look at the clock told me Dave would be home soon. I decided to go outside and poke around for possible clues out there. Alvin followed me and we ruled out damage to the outside of the house. There were lots of tree branches down. Were those from the storm last night?

Dave's car came into the driveway and we darted back inside. Before I did, I noticed one of the headlights on Dave's car was smashed. AHA! That was the answer! Dave blamed the smashed headlight, probably damage caused by the storm, on Alvin! I cracked the case. I asked Alvin for a high five, but he was too busy returning Jeanette's nintendo before Dave found out he had it.

I had to go home before I could see if Dave believed Alvin about the storm messing up his car. I'm pretty sure he didn't though. He would have believed me if I had been there, but I needed to get home and sleep so I wouldn't be tired at the party tomorrow. Now, if only Jeanette would turn off her stupid game and let me SLEEP!

THEODORE'S POV

Dear, Diary

I had eggo waffles for breakfast today. They were extremely delicious! It's a good thing they gave me lots of energy, because I really needed it. The day started with Dave yelling at Alvin. I think that happens way too much. That was followed by Dave telling me and Simon to make sure Alvin didn't leave the house or play any videogames. I politely told Dave that he should be the one watching Alvin, since he's the one that punished him. Dave explained he had work and he could only watch Alvin half the day. I suggested inviting over Miss. Miller to watch him the other half and Dave said that was a great idea, which made me feel good. I like when people listen to my ideas because they tend to get overshadowed by Simon and Alvin's ideas a lot. My ideas usually have a lot less risk involved too, just sayin'.

I spent my morning reviewing my test notes and quizzing Talking Teddy about them. He didn't do as well as I did. Then, I drew a picture of our whole family and hung it on the wall in the bedroom.

When it was time for lunch, I helped Miss. Miller make cheese quesadillas with rice and avocado. Eleanor and Alvin told me I needed to distract her while they went on a classified mission. I didn't really WANT to do that, but I couldn't say no to Eleanor. I really like her. She's my best friend in the world. I worry about her though. I'm still a little upset she lied to everyone about a thug giving her a black eye when I was the one who did it. I sure hoped Alvin and Eleanor going snooping around the house wouldn't get them in more trouble.

I played a memory game with Miss. Miller and she wasn't very good at it. Then, we tried to play Uno but she didn't see the colors very well so she kept confusing blue for green. After a while, I got tired of being a distraction. I don't understand why I'm always the distraction. I don't even like it. I feel bad knowing I'm purposely stopping them from noticing stuff that they really should notice.

I found Jeanette and asked her to please be the distraction for me. She was happy to take over. I could finally have a break! Now, I just needed to choose something else to do with my time. Arts and crafts sounded fun, so I asked Simon and Britt if they wanted to make origami animals with me. I made a cute frog and a rabbit. Both of them were green. It made sense for the frog, but I've never seen a green rabbit. Have you?

Brittany was acting weird. She kept staring over at me like those people on romantic shows do. I don't think Brittany has a crush on me. Maybe she was thinking about Alvin…err…Alvin classic or whatever we use to describe old Alvin. Alvin is confusing. I'm good at understanding people and I can't even figure him out.

Dave came home and yelled at Alvin some more. I ran outside to get away from all the noise. I went to Warbie's birdhouse to see if he was home. He was, so we chatted a bit about life and how hard it can be sometimes. I asked him if he knew what Alvin did that got him grounded and Warbie said he didn't know. I guess maybe we'll never know.

When Dave was finished grounding Alvin more, we ate some veggie tacos for dinner. I made them, because I'm the go to chef around here. I like making meals. Food has the power to bring people together. And if I make dinner, I don't have to eat yucky brussels.

That was pretty much all the highlights and lowlights of the day. I think. As I am writing this, I just got a text from Eleanor inviting me to Anita's SuperBowl party. I don't really play football, but she said they have great food. Maybe I could make some football shaped cookies for everyone! Should I go? Hmm. I guess there's no reason not to. Yeah! I think I will go. It'll be fun. Weekend parties are usually lots of fun.

Goodnight, diary. I hope I have the best dreams! Maybe Eleanor will be in them. I missed hanging out with her today.

SIMON'S POV

This Journal is Property of Simon Oliver Seville

DO NOT TOUCH: ESPECIALLY YOU, ALVIN!

Full disclosure: I may have overestimated my capabilities. As it turns out, balancing basketball with AP classes, mathletes, chess club, my safety inspector job, and prepping for the science fair is not as easy as I assumed it would be. Historically, I have never had the issues budgeting my time that have plagued by brothers, yet I feel completely overwhelmed by all my current responsibilities.

Basketball is, admittedly, a bit more of a commitment than I was ready for. I can't quit though! I'm having too much fun! I've never felt as comfortable somewhere as I do on the basketball team! Now that no one is bullying me, it's become my safe haven. I even scored an invite to a party! I have no idea what the party is or whether I'll actually wind up going. Just scoring the invite fills me with a sense of belonging unlike any I have previously experienced.

The Science Fair is counting on me too though. I already signed up. Had I not signed up, it would be easy to not finish my invention and bail. Once your name is on the sign up sheet, you are obligated to deliver something. It could be the worst invention known to mankind, (Which I'm sure Alvin will create) but it has to be at least SOMETHING!

As I tightened the screws on my top secret invention, I heard Dave and Theo call me to breakfast. I expected to get back to the invention afterward, but other things came up.

The day started like most others. Dave got angry at Alvin for something, Alvin denied that he did the something, and then Dave grounded him the entire weekend. Alvin moped around because his games were taken away and now he can't attend Anita's SuperBowl party. Oh, I wonder if that's the party I've been asked to attend. I shall check the invite again in the morning.

I spent the time before lunch, going over flash cards with Geizmo to increase his emotional intelligence. We do this a lot, and I am not sure it's helping. I don't want to just let Jeanette parent MY child though. It is so strange that I, a child myself, have my own child. I could reprogram Geizmo, but something about that feels…wrong. You can't just reprogram a problem child. It's like cheating. It's not fair to the child and it robs you of the experience of becoming a better parent.

Things got even more interesting when Miss. Miller was called in to babysit Alvin. All the Chipettes came to visit as well. I found myself watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory with Brittany. We channel surfed for a while and then she handed me the remote. She seemed just as flustered as yesterday. I thought she might be running a fever, so I used extra disinfectant after touching the TV remote she had touched. I do not want to get sick and miss my first basketball game.

Following that, we both joined up with Theo and made some origami animals. Theodore showed Brittany how to make a perfectly formed paper crane. My paper crane wound up looking like a crumpled blob. I suppose I work best with modeling clay. Any other form of art is like pulling teeth. Very unpleasant. Except leaf collages. Those are quite pleasant actually. Maybe my inner artist just needs more poking and prodding before it'll come out to play.

Brittany stared a lot at Theo and I. She was off with her head in the clouds. I don't think I've ever seen her act so loopy. I asked her if she was feeling okay and she didn't even answer. It honestly creeped me out a little. She got up and left the table in a rush and I could have sworn I heard her crying as she ran home. Very peculiar. I'll keep an eye on her. Maybe she's experiencing heightened anxiety or depression. I wonder if the storm last night kept her awake. That could be contributing to her insanity too.

Dave returned home and he and Alvin fought again. I noticed them both exchanging annoyed glares as we ate our tacos. Alvin blamed the broken headlight on Dave's car on the storm last night and Dave refused to listen. When dinner was finished, I told Alvin I believed him. He asked me why I wouldn't tell Dave and I didn't have a good answer.

You see, Dave was in one of his moods and I know better than to poke the bear when he's in a mood. I could wind up accused of helping Alvin cover things up. I assured Alvin that Dave would eventually come to his senses, which only made Alvin mad. He stomped off and refused to talk to me the rest of the night. That was unfortunate because I had things I wanted to talk to him about.

I really wanted to ask him how he manages such a packed schedule and what tips I may be overlooking. I guess I'll have to figure things out on my own. I will NOT quit the basketball team, no matter what. If it came down to a brutal choice, I would drop the science fair and let Alvin enter my invention so that he wouldn't embarrass himself with whatever trainwreck he cooked up.

I'm feeling very sleepy, so I don't have much more to say tonight. Monday is my first basketball game. A very strange day for a basketball game, if you ask me. Friday is another football game, so I suppose maybe it's not so strange after all. Time for this overachiever to get some shut eye.

ALVIN 2.0'S POV

"I try hard to make it. I just wanna make you proud. I'm never gonna be good enough for you. Can't stand another fight. Nothing's alright. Cuz we lost it all. Nothing lasts forever. I'm sorry, I can't be perfect." —Simple Plan "Perfect"

Dear, glitter covered book of my feelings,

Here we go again! HERE WE MUNKIN' GO AGAIN! I woke up from a nightmare about messin' up the science fair with a defective invention. That was bad enough, but my day had to go and get so much worse! I go downstairs and the very first thing Dave says to me is "Alvin, you're grounded." Why!? What happened to "good morning, Alvin?" "How did you sleep, Alvin?" I swear every time I start to make progress with my dad, he goes and wrecks it! Like, dude, I get it. You had a bad day. DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON YOUR SON!

Anyway, I was all like "what did I do?" Dave goes "Oh come on now, you know very well what you did." No, I don't! That's why I asked! He said he didn't have time for my childish games. I got super mad and screamed "READ MY LIPS, DAVE! Are you with me? I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID!" He was all like "How can you not know?" And I said "Because you haven't told me!" He stormed away and mentioned that he didn't have time for this. He barely ever has time for me.

So that's it. I'm grounded the whole weekend for something I KNOW I didn't even do. Why is this my life? Why can't I go back in time and prevent myself from getting such a cruddy reputation? I am doomed to pay for mistakes from 5 years ago! 5!

I was NOT going to take this. Using my unique and creative genius, I wrote a note to Jeanette and asked her if she could bring over her videogames. They weren't the best games ever, but they helped pass the time. I hid them every time Dave came into my room to check on me. I pretended to be studying for a test. He fell for it. Haha, what a sucker.

The mystery of what thing Dave blamed me for kept nagging at me. When Miss. Miller and the other two Chipettes came over, I decided to ask Ellie to help me solve the case. She's got her own detective business. Plus, ever since her aptitude test results came back, she's been 10 times as obsessed as usual.

Eleanor took me up to the attic and questioned me about stuff. We didn't make much progress. I know I didn't do anything wrong. I couldn't have. I was out playing mini golf after school and then I ate candy. Was I grounded for eating too much candy? Wouldn't put it past Dave to ground me for that. Sad, isn't it?

Ellie and I checked all the appliances to make sure nothing that Dave used was broken or compromised. When everything seemed fine, she asked me if I was getting bad grades. ARE YOU KIDDING!? I have EXTREMELY good grades! I've even brought my Literature grade up since failing the book report. There's NO WAY I would be grounded over my high Cs and average Bs. I'm even maintaining an A in my advanced placement class. Yes, you heard that correctly. A for Alvin!

Since grades were out, Ellie asked me about the chores list. I fetched the list and showed her that every one of the chores had been checked off. For once in my life, I was on top of things…not that it mattered, because I was still banned from going to Anita's party.

We knew that time was running out and soon Dave would come home and I would be in even more trouble because he would know that I asked Theo to distract Miss. Miller, even though it was totally Eleanor who convinced Theo! Ellie and I ran outside and found a bunch of fallen tree branches, but surprisingly no damage to the outside of the house. I guess I must have slept through the big storm last night.

Wait a sec! Maybe Dave did too. We heard Dave's car coming and I noticed that his one headlight was smashed. Once we were back inside the house, Ellie and I realized that we solved the mystery. Dave blamed me for the smashed up headlight. BUT IT REALLY WASN'T ME! It was storm debris blowing around that had smashed it!

Unfortunately, before Ellie could explain things to Dave, she had to get home. Her sisters did too, which sucked because I wanted to talk more to Jeanette. At least I got a chance to return her nintendo. Now there would be no evidence I had played any videogames earlier.

I was on my own to try and convince Dave that I didn't deserve to be grounded. He accused me of making excuses and threatened to send me to bed without dinner. I pointed outside and told him. "LOOK! There's tree branches everywhere! Ya gotta believe me! It was the storm!" Nope. Nada. Nothin'.

After dinner, to add insult to injury, Simon said he heard the storm and believed me. I was so mad at him for not tellin' Dave and saving me from this unjust punishment that I didn't talk to him at all the rest of the night. I'm sick of being the only player in The Blame Game. Pass the blame around! Please! Or, you know, better yet, blame the weather!

I've HAD IT! I'm not going to miss that party! I don't CARE if I'm grounded. It's unjust grounding, which means I am fully within my RIGHTS to sneak out to Anita's house. The SuperBowl only happens once a year! I NEED to be there! I've been looking forward to it for so long. It's settled. Sorry, Dave. The good kid in me knows I should just accept everything and try harder next time, but the rebel in me is awake and he's not going down without a fight. Ohoho. I missed my rebellious spirit. It has the power to set me free!

I'm gonna regret this, aren't I? No! That's the nerd brain talking. Step aside, 2.0. You can come back on Monday. And now, to hide this journal where Dave can't read my plans. MWAHAHAHAHA!

Oh no. Classic Alvin has returned….mostly.

In case it wasn't clear, Anita's party will be the main theme of the next chapter. What kind of mischief will Alvin cause? Will Brittany reveal her crush? Is Eleanor slowly going insane? How far can Theo be pushed? How will Simon balance his extracurriculars? How will Jeanette spend her Sunday since large parties aren't really her style? All these questions and more will be answered in the next exciting chapter of CHRONICLES OF SANTA BARBARA HIGH!