Chapter 7: Coming Home
HOURS LATER, IN AN L.A.
SCHOOL CALLED EDISON HIGH.
(3:15pm. Pacific time.)
Three teenage female chipmunks are standing by their lockers getting ready to go home. Brittany turns to her sister, Eleanor, and starts having a conversation about their boyfriends Alvin and Theodore. Jeanette was listening to the radio on her walk man. It is something that she did whenever her sisters talk about the boys. Suddenly something she heard on the radio made her gasp loudly and drops the remaining books from her hands. She pulls her hands up to her headphones and presses them closer to her ears, just to make sure she was hearing clearly.
"What is it Jeanette?" Brittany asked.
"Shhh!" Jeanette quickly hissed, as she held up her hand to indicate for her sisters to be quiet. As she concentrated on listening to the radio her face had a serous look to it. Then suddenly her eyes blinked wide open and the widest grin grew on her face. She got so excited that she couldn't contain her happiness. Jeanette threw off her headphones and ran up to her sisters and gave them a big hug.
"Oof! Jeanette, what's wrong? Eleanor said as she gasped for air.
"Yea, did we win the lotto or something?" Brittany asked while pulling herself from Jeanette's grip and giving her a hopeful look.
"Better!" Jeanette said almost out of breath.
"What could be better then winning the lottery?" Brittany said, shrugging her shoulders to indicate that the conversation seemed to not interest her any more.
After Jeanette caught her breath she continued, "I have good new, bad news, good news and great news!!"
Brittany and Eleanor gave each other a confused look then both looked back at Jeanette.
"Ah, come again?" Brittany finally asked.
"Well," Jeanette took a deep breath then continued. "The detectives have finally found where the missing kids that disappeared went and who took them. They set out to bring them home and arrest those responsible for the kidnappings." Jeanette face began to frown, "Unfortunately, by the time they got there the crooks managed to destroy most of the evidence including themselves and most of the children."
Both Brittany and Eleanor covered their mouth in shock but then Jeanette's face lit up again. "But the good news, again, is that they found five of the children, chipmunks to be precise, alive! And the great news is that Simon is one of those children…He's coming home! SIMON IS COMING HOME!!!!"
This time all three girls started cheering giving each other hugs and jumping with joy. It didn't matter that other kids were looking at them strangely or not; they were just so happy that their friend Simon was safe and finally coming home.
"We have to tell the boys!" Brittany finally said, "Eleanor, Jeanette you two go find Theodore and I'll go find Alvin. Ooooh, they'll be so happy!!"
Immediately the three girls split in two directions, running as fast as they could.
Brittany never ran so fast before in her life, but she figured that this was too important to keep from Alvin. 'It will be great to finally see him laugh again.' She thought. It wasn't long before she found herself at the schools' football field where the team was practicing. Without hesitation Brittany ran down the field crying out Alvin's name. Alvin had just caught the ball when he noticed Brittany running out to him, that's when some of his teammates tackled him. "Seville!" the coach cried out, "What happened!!"
Brittany came panting to Alvin's side. "I'm sorry, it's my fault!" She said to the coach, and then turned to Alvin. "I need to tell you something, Alvin, it is very important!"
"Couldn't it wait until after practice?" Alvin said, as he took off his helmet and rubbed his sore head.
"No!" Brittany said, barely able to contain herself. She grabbed his shoulders and began to say, "Alvin, they've found your brother! He's alive and coming home! SIMON'S COMING HOME!!!"
Alvin couldn't believe his hears. He waited a long time to hear those words and he was in such shock that he didn't notice that he had just dropped his helmet. "A…Are you sure?" He finally asked he wanted to see if he heard her correctly.
"Yes!" Brittany squealed with excitement.
"My brother?" Alvin said slowly allowing this entire news sink in. "He's coming home!!"
He looked up into his girlfriend eyes, smiled from ear to ear, and gave her the biggest hug ever. As Alvin hugged and spun Brittany around his teammates cheered for his happiness, they understood that Alvin missed his brother and this is a big thing for him to finally see him again.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
TWO DAYS LATER, AT THE L.A. AIRPORT
There were a large group of media from across the States and Canada and from around the world sat patiently by the runway waiting for the plane to arrive. Off to the side Dave, the boys, Miss. Miller, the Chipettes plus two other families of chipmunks awaited even more eagerly.
Alvin started pacing and ranting to himself. "What if we don't recognize him? Or he doesn't recognize us?"
"Alvin!" Dave said, "Settle down, we are all a little nervous about having Simon returning home!"
Jeanette looks up and sees the plane that Simon's on and starts squealing. "There's the plane!!" He's coming!!!"
Everyone had an intense look on his or her face as the plane makes a perfect landing and almost immediately the press ran up to it when it came to a complete stop and waited for everyone to come out.
The runway crew brings out the stairs so the people can make it out of the plane safely. The door opens and the first person that comes out is detective McCormick and then her partner detective Costar. The press starts flooding them with questions and snapping pictures with their cameras.
Both detectives look at each other, finally Costar says, "I dealt with them last time, it's your turn!"
McCormick rolls her eyes back, "Thanks a bunch!" She replied.
"Please stand back and give the children room to come out and greet their families!" She said as she came down the stairs. Costar turned and faced inside the plane and ushered for the three remaining chipmunks to come out.
Alvin held his breath as the first kid comes out. A female chipmunk with red hair comes out and immediately tries to block the cameras' flashing in her face. Simon barely was halfway out the door when Brittany yells, "THERE HE IS!!"
Alvin could not wait for him to come down to them, be begins to run as fast as he can down the runway calling out to Simon, with Theodore not far behind. Dave was about to go after them, but was stopped by Miss. Miller. "Let them have this moment, dear!"
Simon, still wearing his uniform from the Island, couldn't keep his eyes off the press that were constantly taking pictures that he barely heard two familiar voices calling out to him. He turned to see two teenage chipmunks running up to the plane. One was wearing a red sweater with a large yellow letter "A" on the front, blue jeans, and his trademark red cap that had just flown off his head. This apparently did not bother him, the look on his face indicated that there was something more important on his mind. The other chipmunk wore a green sweater and green jogging pants. Simon blinked a couple of times to make sure he was not seeing things. When he saw that the two boys were still there, he finally beamed with excitement and called back at them.
"Alvin? Theodore?" Simon bolted down the stairs and ran up to his brothers with open arms.
All three boys collided into each other and gave each other the biggest and tightest hug ever. Tears began to stream down their faces as the world around them began to fade away. Each of them was afraid to let go just in case if one of them would disappear again.
The press just kept taking pictures as the other two kids reunited with their parents and loved ones. Simon looked up to a familiar human male standing in front of him; he had a few grey hairs, but basically looked the same. "Dave?" Simon said as Alvin and Theodore finally loosened their grip to let Simon greet Dave and to wipe their tears from their face.
Dave fell to his knees and held out arms and without hesitation, Simon leapt into them. Simon couldn't remember the last time he hugged Dave like this, he berried his head in his dad's shoulder and began to cry. Dave started to stroke his son's head to comfort him, "It's alright now, Simon!" he said with tears in his eyes. "Your home…your home!"
Alvin and Theodore walked up to Dave and Simon and put their arms around them both. Once again they were a family. Miss. Miller and the girls looked on with tears running down their faces as well, they never seen the boys so happy.
Still media continued to flash their cameras and tried to interview the detectives on the success of bringing the children home safely. After a while the boys got up and wiped the tears from their faces. With Simon not leaving Dave's side they walked up to Miss. Miller and the girls.
Miss. Miller was the first to kneel down and give Simon a big hug. "Welcome home, dear boy!" She said tearfully. She pushed him back a good look at him. "My, you've been growing like a weed, haven't you?"
Simon began to smile and blush as he turned his head to try to hide the redness in his cheeks. " Yea…I guess?" Was all he could think of saying to her.
"That's not all that has grown!" Brittany said, while walking up to Simon and gently stroked his hair. "Like the new do, Simon!" She said as she gave him a hug.
"Thanks!" he replied shyly.
"How did you get it to grow like that?" She added.
"I, uh," Simon began to say before he sniffs back some tears. "Perfected my hair tonic formula! It's kind of ratty right now, but when I wash and comb it out it looks quit nice!" He finished proudly.
"Wow!" Brittany had not been too impressed with Simon's invention in the past, except maybe a few, but she couldn't help to love Simon's new look. 'He'd probably look more handsome then Alvin without the glasses in that new hair style!' She thought.
It was Eleanor's turn to greet Simon. "It's great to see you, again!" She said.
"You too!" As he hugged Eleanor, he looked up and saw Jeanette. The first thing he noticed was how well she had grown from the little girl with the big glasses and baggy sweater to a fine figured teenager. He smiled at her then released Eleanor and walked up to her. "Hi Jeanette!" He said as he rapped his arms around her.
"We'd never had given up hope, Simon! We knew someway you'd come back to us!" Jeanette said emotionally as she held Simon as tightly as she could.
"I've missed you!" Simon whispered, trying not to cry again.
As the two pulled away, Jeanette noticed something dangling from his left ear. "Simon, are wearing an earring?"
Simon went red immediately. "Aahhh…" He was hoping to avoid this conversation until he'd gotten home. Everyone rushed over to have a look. That's when the flood of questions and comments were made at the same time.
"Oh my god!"
"I don't believe it!"
"Is that for real?"
"What possessed you to do something like this?"
"Did it hurt?" Alvin asked when everyone finally pulled away.
"Not as much as I thought it would!" Simon replied nervously.
"Hmm!" Alvin pondered.
"Alvin, you are not getting an earring!" Dave said sternly to his mischievous son.
"But Dave…"
"We'll talk about this later!"
The Chipettes looked at each other knowingly. With a smirk on their faces they began to notice the old Alvin returning, not to mention Dave's quickness to try to prevent Alvin's tendency in getting into trouble.
Soon after all three families left the runway and the media behind. Simon introduced his family to his friends, Tom and Renee, and they introduced their families to him and exchanged phone numbers and placed them carefully with their other friends' Brian and Brenda, the three of them gave each other a big hug.
It even appeared that Simon and his friends didn't want to depart too quickly from each other. The three of them spent fifteen minutes talking and giving each other hugs. It wasn't till each parent came to them and told them it was time to go home. Reluctantly they left from each other's site and went to their separate ways with their families.