Author's note: This is the latest follow up to 2009's "Cold Hard Cash", which was the first story to introduce Roberta. For reference, you can find each of the previous stories in this saga in the links listed below.

-"Cold Hard Cash" (May 17, 2009) s/5067183/1/Cold-Hard-Cash

-"Tina: The Untold Story" (Mar 21, 2010) s/5832803/1/Tina-The-Untold-Story

-"Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward" (Apr 6, 2011) s/6881527/1/Two-Steps-Forward-One-Step-Backward

-"It's Not Over Yet" (May 23, 2013) s/9128470/1/It-s-Not-Over-Yet

-"She's Not That Into You" (June 19, 2016) s/12007890/1/She-s-Not-That-Into-You

Once again, I will not tolerate any flames. Any and all flames will be deleted and you will be blocked.

Rebuilding Roberta Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Roberta Flanagan was a young chipmunk woman who had a bad life. As a little girl, she was adopted into an abusive human family who often neglected and abused her. Her older brother Dennis had all but practically raised Roberta himself, and was just about the only person in the world who showed her any sort of love or affection. Until Jeanette Miller entered her life. When she stared high school, Roberta's family had relocated to the suburbs of Los Angeles, and she attended the same school that was attended by the Chipmunks and the Chipettes. Having known nothing but abuse and neglect in her life, Roberta sought out companionship from anybody, because she always figured there was something wrong with her that automatically made people hate her. This changed when she met the Chipmunks and Chipettes, which started out with Alvin trying to hit on her, as by that time, he had been rejected by almost every girl in school, and with Roberta being new, she was the only one who had not been subjected to his charming ways. You couldn't blame Alvin, though. Roberta had a mystique about her, and coupling that with her outer appearance with her flowing brown hair, brown eyes, black minidress, black boots, and curvy body, it all made her incredibly attractive. The problem was Roberta didn't like boys, and the fact that so many boys would hit on her in such a perverted manner made her hate them all the more. Also, Roberta was gay. Meeting Jeanette was the turning point in her life.

For starters, Jeanette found in Roberta something of a kindred spirit, as much like herself, Roberta was shy and withdrawn, but clearly creative and possessed a love of literature, and as such, the two chipettes did begin to hit things off. Jeanette was so kind and compassion, not to mention that she was incredibly cute and adorable, Roberta quickly fell in love with her. Unfortunately, after just a short time of knowing each other, Jeanette had disappeared from Roberta's life, and it was all Alvin's fault. Alvin had found a box of money left on the doorstep of the house he lived in with his brothers, Simon and Theodore, and their adoptive father and band manager, David Seville. Finding a box of money would be any kid's dream, but as word began to spread of Alvin's newfound wealth, he suckered Jeanette into minding the money for him, because he knew she was easily manipulated into doing favors for others. What Alvin didn't know was the money was drug money, and when the original drug dealers came to look for it after they had paid it to a middle man working for their cartel who tried to cheat them, the money had disappeared. Unbeknownst to anyone, Miss Miller had found the money and intended on turning it in, but not only were the chipmunks and chipettes kidnapped by these drug dealers, since it was revealed that Jeanette had been entrusted with guarding the money, they singled her out in paying off her debt. What happened to Jeanette afterwards was three years of her life that had been lost, and three years of her life that she tried so hard and so long to completely forget about. She had been sold into prostitution. She hated it. She resisted and fought back so much that her customers were abusive towards her, which often left her hurt and broken. Her superiors eventually brainwashed her into loving her new profession, and once she was able to break off on her own and no longer work at and live in the whorehouse that she was sent to, by sheer serendipity, her older sister, Brittany, recognized her, brought her home, and had her sent to a psychiatrist who was able to reverse the brainwashing to return Jeanette to her original state of mind and body.

By that point, Jeanette was an adult, and attempted to carry on with her life, but it was incredibly difficult for her. She dropped out of college, and ended up finding work in a book store, where more serendipity happened, as Roberta worked at this same book store. The reunion was bittersweet for the two friends, and as they continued to work together and grow closer to one another, Roberta's heart continued to swell in love for her best friend. You couldn't blame Jeanette, though. She was kind, compassionate, and generous to a fault. As far as Roberta thought, God had sent her an angel in the form of Jeanette. Eventually, Jeanette caved into Roberta's advances, and the two moved in together and began a romantic relationship, which made Roberta incredibly happy. Unfortunately, far TOO happy. Sadly for Jeanette, Roberta had become a yandere in the making, and as such, she became incredibly possessive and obsessive over Jeanette - to the point that when she felt like Jeanette was losing interest in her, she became desperate to respark their romantic relationship. The problem was, Jeanette never loved Roberta more than a friend, so their's was very much a one-sided relationship, and Jeanette eventually came to realize the mistake she made in leading Roberta to believe that their relationship was more than just friendship. It also didn't help that Jeanette was growing and thriving in her life, while Roberta was stuck in a rut. Jeanette eventually left the book store and found work as a photographer and videographer for a local news station, while Roberta remained working at the library. After years of working and living side by side, the ever growing distance between them lead Roberta to a psychotic breakdown, which prompt Jeanette to flee for her own safety, and she had to convince Roberta to seek therapy for herself. Roberta, meanwhile, only agreed to therapy on the condition that Jeanette sought therapy too, but couples therapy for both of them. Jeanette reluctantly agreed. However, it was clear to their therapist that Roberta had become far too obsessive and possessive of Jeanette to the point that their's had become an unhealthy relationship. The therapist also recognized Jeanette was just as much at fault for giving into Roberta's advances when she clearly did not return Roberta's feelings, and it was her professional opinion that the two of them go their separate ways. Roberta was devastated, but she loved Jeanette so much that she could not bear to continue to be a burden to her life with her clinginess and neediness any longer.

Alot of time had passed since Jeanette moved out of the apartment she shared with Roberta, and Roberta still tried her hardest to cope with the absence of her best friend in her life. She routinely mentally reminded herself that this was the best thing for Jeanette, but no longer having her in her life still hurt her deeply. She missed coming home from work to Jeanette, even though Jeanette's irregular hours with the news station didn't always guarantee that she'd come home at the same time everyday. And the sex. Roberta missed the sex more than anything. Those years Jeanette spent as a brainwashed prostitute certainly helped her go far in bed, and having sex with Jeanette made Roberta feel so incredibly alive. Without Jeanette working with her, living with her, or having sex with her, Roberta's life had felt as empty and meaningless as it did before she first met Jeanette in high school.

Other things had eventually changed in Roberta's life as well. By now, she no longer worked at the book store, as it had gone out of business, but her experience in retail was able to get her another job working in a supermarket. Doing what, you ask? Well just about everything. On any given day, she would sweep floors, stock shelves, bag groceries, ring up customers' purchases, deliver orders to customers' vehicles, retrieve shopping carts, and it didn't even matter, because whatever job she did, she still got paid the same amount of money irregardless of the task she had been assigned. One thing that was also different about this job compared to the book store was that Roberta had actually finally begun to establish connections with some of her co-workers. If there was one thing about Jeanette's influence that rubbed off on Roberta was that she allowed the walls she had protected herself with to come down and allow other people into her life, rather than automatically assume that anyone she comes into contact with will hate her. In short, Roberta had actual friends now. That gave her something meaningful to fill the void left behind by Jeanette... but truth be told, Roberta still missed Jeanette greatly, and even clung to an insignificant sliver of hope that maybe one day, she would see Jeanette again, perhaps as a customer. The supermarket had its share of regular shoppers and customers, some of whom Roberta was eventually to get to know on a first name basis - how she wished that maybe Jeanette would be one of these customers.

So yeah, Roberta's not entirely there yet, but she's getting there.