Chapter 29: What's the Matter with Kids these days?
Alvin and Brittany live in a suburb near one of the beaches of L.A. It is a beautiful spot, with a great view that is really close to the beach. Unfortunately, that did not seem to impress the kids that much. Their thoughts were still on their parents, and wanting to be with them instead. As they got out of the car, the three siblings pouted all the way in the house.
At first Alvin and Brittany tried to get the kids to play some games with them, but ended up keeping them out from being mischievous little brats. All the kids did was whine, complained, and fought with each other over silly things.
Finally at dinnertime things seemed to have quietened down a bit, but even then the kids had a tough time getting along. Brittany and Alvin looked at each other and silently prayed that the whole week wasn't going to be like this. After dinner, Brittany followed her instructions and took out the prescription bottle for Tom's ear infection.
"I don't want Aunt Brittany to do it." Tom whined to his sister, Mary.
"Why? I'm sure Aunt Brittany could do it ok." Mary said as she stood up for her Aunt.
Brittany herself was standing with the eardrops in her hand waiting impatiently for Tom to go lay on the couch so she could give him his medication.
"She won't do it right...mom does it perfectly." Tom argued some more as he was now practically in tears.
"But 'mom' is not here...I am." Brittany stated. "Why don't you go lay on the couch and I'll put your eardrops in. I promise I'll do my best and not spill the drops on your face." She pleaded.
"NO! I don't want you to put the eardrops in." Tom cried.
"What is the matter with you, Tom?" Brittany was nearly going crazy with Tom's antics.
"Tom is just a whus, Aunt Brittany!" Vincent said as he sat quietly playing his hand-held video game on the living room chair.
"I am not!" Tom screamed at his brother.
"Are too...'Mamma's boy'." Vincent retorted.
"Arrg!" Tom cried out as he launched at Vincent, but then was caught in mid-leap by Brittany.
"E-nough!" Brittany bellowed. "All of you! Tom if you don't get on that couch this minute I'm really going to get mad!"
Reluctantly, Tom finally crawled on the couch and laid there, crying as Brittany struggled with the eardrops.
--------------
AN HOUR AND HALF LATER...
Close to bedtime Alvin was sitting downstairs and watching a scary movie with his nephews, while Brittany walked upstairs to visit Mary-Anne, who was already in her room and ready for bed. Brittany gathered her make-up and hairpins before heading to the door to the spare room where the triplets would be staying in.
"Mary? Can I come in?" Brittany asks as she calmly knocks on the door.
"Yes." Mary's little voice called back.
Brittany opened the door and saw Mary sitting on the spare bed reading a book called, 'Living Spirits'. She pondered, not knowing if Mary should be reading such books at her age. Brittany was going to say something about it, but decided to just let it go. Lecturing her on what to read wasn't what she had come up here to do.
"How about a make over, Mary? I could have you looking like me. What do you say?" Brittany asks the young Chipette.
Mary looks up from her book and towards Brittany.
"No offence, Aunt Brittany, but your sense of style is so last decade." She said, rolling her eyes.
"What?" Brittany whined. The words that Mary said seemed like an arrow piercing her heart. "I thought you enjoyed the last make over I gave you?"
"I was only four years old at the time. I had inquired a sense of style since then." Mary addressed.
"Oh, I see." Brittany said hurt by what her niece had just told her; she slowly began to retreat back into the hallway. "I guess I'll just leave you to your book, then."
"Ok. Goodnight, Aunt Brittany." Mary called out.
"Huh? Oh, goodnight." Brittany responded softly and closed the door behind her then headed to her room.
----------------
TWO HOURS LATER!
Alvin walks into the bedroom after taking the boys up to their room. Without looking at Brittany, who is sitting with a blank sad look on her face, he heads for the bathroom. He hummed a tune as he was doing his nightly routine. He came out after finishing, pulling up the blankets he snuggles in.
"Goodnight Brittany." He mutters.
"Mmm," Brittany muttered back.
Something was bothering Brittany, he knew that, since he recognized the tone in her voice. Letting out an exasperating sigh, Alvin again sits up to face his wife.
"Alright, Brittany. What's wrong?" He groans with a hint of annoyance.
"Alvin, do you think my style is last decade?" Brittany asks with a depressed look.
"What? Where did you get that idea?" Alvin said in a shock.
"From Mary-Anne. She didn't want me to give her a make over, because she said my style was last decade."
"Ah jeez," Alvin cried out as he slapped his hand onto his forehead.
"I always thought I had the up-to-date fashions. Never was I out of the loop and stuck with 'last decade' styles." Brittany began explaining whether or not Alvin was listening to her.
"Look, Brittany, you have to understand that these kids come from Simon and Jeanette's gene pool. So you should expect them to say certain things like that. Heck, I doubt they would even understand fashion sense, only science and technology." Alvin explained.
"Alvin, when I saw Mary-Anne, she was reading a book called 'Living Spirits'." Brittany suddenly spat.
"Er, what?" Alvin asked baffled.
"What kind of kid reads anything like that? I mean does Jeanette even know that her daughter is reading books on Spirits? That is a little too deep for a little girl her age, don't you think?"
"I'm not sure, Brittany." Alvin said then let out a big yawn. "Perhaps you can talk to her about in the morning?"
"Yeah, I guess I could. Goodnight Alvin."
"Goodnight." He responded while snuggling comfortably under his covers.
Brittany reached over to the lamp on table and turned it off. She snuggled underneath her covers and went to sleep.
-------------------------------
THE NEXT MORNING!
The kids woke up early, being that it is Saturday morning, and went into the living room to watch some cartoons on TV. Half way through one of their favourite cartoons, Vince decided to get up and walked to the kitchen. Tom and Mary assumed he went in to get some breakfast.
Moments later they both heard their brother rustling around the kitchen, like he was moving pots and pans. Shortly after they started to smell something cooking. Instantly the smell is recognizable. Tom and Mary look at each other in shock. Without hesitation they get up to investigate. As soon as they run in the kitchen they see Vincent standing on a stool beside the stove. He was performing an experiment that he and Dad were supposed to do next weekend.
"You can't do that! Dad said that you had to wait for him and that we can all do that experiment together." Tom screeched.
"I guess I'm just not as patient as you. Besides, I can do this by myself." Vince retorted.
"Your gonna get in trouble, Vince." Mary warned.
"Why? Are you going to tell on me?" Vincent said as he turned his head from pouring some baking soda into the mixture of chemicals.
"Vincent, watch what you are doing!" Tom panicked.
By the time Vince brought his attention back to he experiment it was too late.
"Take cover! It's gonna explode!" He said with a gasp.
KA-BOOM!
"What was that?" Brittany and Alvin both said as they sat up in bed with a start. The explosion was so loud that they thought there was a war going on outside. Brittany threw on her rob and both of them quickly put their slippers on their feet and ran downstairs to see what the noise was.
Meanwhile, the three chipmunk children managed to crawl out from under the kitchen table covered in the goop Vince created.
"You are such an idiot!" Tom said to his brother as he tried to whip the sticky substance off of his glasses.
"I have to concur, that was a very dumb move, Vince." Mary added.
"What did you kids do in here?" Alvin bellowed as he saw the mess created by Vince's experiment.
"It wasn't us Uncle Alvin, it was Butt-munch over here!" Tom immediately accused and pointing a finger at Vince. Vincent turns and glares at his brother.
"Why you little...!" Vincent was about to attack Tom, when Alvin stepped in.
"Alright, just stop right there." Alvin said.
The three children looked up at their Aunt and Uncle in a sweetly manner. But, this time, both Brittany and Alvin were not about to fall for their innocent stares. They were angry with the mess and are not pleased on how this wonderful week was not turning out as planned.
Alvin was furious to know that Simon was right, as usual. It had not accrued to them on how hard it would be to take the kids for one week.
"Now look. In case you kids hadn't noticed, we had planed to do a bunch of fun stuff today. And now we are going to be stuck here until you kids have this kitchen all cleaned up. Do you hear me?" Alvin bellowed.
"But, Uncle...?" Whined Tom. "Mary and I had nothing to do with this mess..."
"We don't care who made the mess; we just wanted it cleaned up. Like NOW!" Brittany added. She went to one of the drawers and pulled out some rags. She then handed each of the kids one.
The three children groaned and complained as they slaved away at trying to clean the gooey mess off the furniture, floor and walls.
Alvin and Brittany felt lost, like they were doing something wrong. It also accrued to them that this must have been how Dave and Miss. Miller must of felt when they too got into trouble when they themselves were kids.
Usually, they are the 'cool Aunt and Uncle' to the kids, and that this week was going to be great. But why are the kids behaving like this? It was not making much sense. Is this what Simon and Jeanette has to go through everyday? Out of desperation, Alvin decides to call Simon and see what he suggests.
-----------------
MEANWHILE AT THE SEVILLE HOME!
For once the house is quiet and as the first raise of the sun crept in through the curtains it hits Simon on his content face with a warm gentle feeling. Jeanette slept happily, snuggled close to her husband with her left arm stretched over his furry chest. She too had a content look on her face while she slept.
The moment was shattered, however, when the phone rang. The couple began to growl and mentally wished for some piece and quiet for just one Saturday morning. Simon reaches for his glasses and puts them on his face. He then struggles to grab the phone and bring the receiver up to his ear.
"Hello?" Simon said in a groggy and yet cranky tone.
"Oh, hi Alvin!" He yawned. He then sat up with a start. 'There could be only one reason why is Alvin calling this early?' He thought in a panic.
"Alvin! What's wrong? Are the kids all right? They are not hurt, are they?" Simon cried.
He calmed down as he started to listen to what his brother was telling him and suddenly found it hard to keep a straight face. In fact Simon found in hard to stifle a snicker.
"Uh? No I'm not laughing, Alvin. Honest. So you're saying that the kids blew up the kitchen this morning...? Oh, they claim that it was just Vincent..."
Simon peers over to see Jeanette sitting up she had just put on her glasses to see more on what was so funny. Simon placed his hand on the speaking end of the phone and leaned a little closer to Jeanette.
"Alvin should hear himself, he sounds just like Dave." He whispers to her.
Jeanette smiled knowingly and relaxed a little knowing that her children were not hurt. She also had to smile as she wondered how Brittany was handling the kids. Finally their older siblings were getting the taste of responsibility.
"Well, ok Alvin. Just let me talk to Vincent." Simon paused as he waited for Alvin to hand the phone to his son.
"Hi, Dad." Squeaked Vince. He knew that he was about to receive a lecture from his dad on 'why it is important to be patient and not to blow up other people's kitchen'. When Simon had finished his speech, Vince started to try and keep his dad on the phone by talking to him about anything.
"Ok, dad. I'll try. Hey, Dad. Did you know that Dracula can change into a bat, and into a wolf?" Vincent said.
Mary and Tom became suspicious of their brother, as usual, and knew that he was avoiding the clean up. They felt it was unfair that Vincent is getting to talk to their dad and not them.
"Our turn, Vince. We want to talk to Dad too." Whined Mary.
"Yeah, you had your turn long enough." Tom said as he tried to grab the phone out of Vince's hold.
Brittany and Alvin watched as the kids wrestled each other for a chance to talk to their dad. They began to feel their pride being wounded. The couple looked at each other with a lost expression. They had no idea how hard parenting was until they tried out their little experiment. By having the kids over they could see if they were ready for kids of their own, but now they now know what Simon and Jeanette go through on a daily bases. Perhaps now is not the appropriate time for them to raise a family of their own.
"Hi, Daddy!" Chirped Mary as she had finally had gotten her chance to speak to her dad.
Alvin and Brittany let out a sigh and left the room as the kids got to talk to their parents. They figured that they might as well get dressed and get ready for a long week with their niece and nephews.
Alvin and Brittany live in a suburb near one of the beaches of L.A. It is a beautiful spot, with a great view that is really close to the beach. Unfortunately, that did not seem to impress the kids that much. Their thoughts were still on their parents, and wanting to be with them instead. As they got out of the car, the three siblings pouted all the way in the house.
At first Alvin and Brittany tried to get the kids to play some games with them, but ended up keeping them out from being mischievous little brats. All the kids did was whine, complained, and fought with each other over silly things.
Finally at dinnertime things seemed to have quietened down a bit, but even then the kids had a tough time getting along. Brittany and Alvin looked at each other and silently prayed that the whole week wasn't going to be like this. After dinner, Brittany followed her instructions and took out the prescription bottle for Tom's ear infection.
"I don't want Aunt Brittany to do it." Tom whined to his sister, Mary.
"Why? I'm sure Aunt Brittany could do it ok." Mary said as she stood up for her Aunt.
Brittany herself was standing with the eardrops in her hand waiting impatiently for Tom to go lay on the couch so she could give him his medication.
"She won't do it right...mom does it perfectly." Tom argued some more as he was now practically in tears.
"But 'mom' is not here...I am." Brittany stated. "Why don't you go lay on the couch and I'll put your eardrops in. I promise I'll do my best and not spill the drops on your face." She pleaded.
"NO! I don't want you to put the eardrops in." Tom cried.
"What is the matter with you, Tom?" Brittany was nearly going crazy with Tom's antics.
"Tom is just a whus, Aunt Brittany!" Vincent said as he sat quietly playing his hand-held video game on the living room chair.
"I am not!" Tom screamed at his brother.
"Are too...'Mamma's boy'." Vincent retorted.
"Arrg!" Tom cried out as he launched at Vincent, but then was caught in mid-leap by Brittany.
"E-nough!" Brittany bellowed. "All of you! Tom if you don't get on that couch this minute I'm really going to get mad!"
Reluctantly, Tom finally crawled on the couch and laid there, crying as Brittany struggled with the eardrops.
--------------
AN HOUR AND HALF LATER...
Close to bedtime Alvin was sitting downstairs and watching a scary movie with his nephews, while Brittany walked upstairs to visit Mary-Anne, who was already in her room and ready for bed. Brittany gathered her make-up and hairpins before heading to the door to the spare room where the triplets would be staying in.
"Mary? Can I come in?" Brittany asks as she calmly knocks on the door.
"Yes." Mary's little voice called back.
Brittany opened the door and saw Mary sitting on the spare bed reading a book called, 'Living Spirits'. She pondered, not knowing if Mary should be reading such books at her age. Brittany was going to say something about it, but decided to just let it go. Lecturing her on what to read wasn't what she had come up here to do.
"How about a make over, Mary? I could have you looking like me. What do you say?" Brittany asks the young Chipette.
Mary looks up from her book and towards Brittany.
"No offence, Aunt Brittany, but your sense of style is so last decade." She said, rolling her eyes.
"What?" Brittany whined. The words that Mary said seemed like an arrow piercing her heart. "I thought you enjoyed the last make over I gave you?"
"I was only four years old at the time. I had inquired a sense of style since then." Mary addressed.
"Oh, I see." Brittany said hurt by what her niece had just told her; she slowly began to retreat back into the hallway. "I guess I'll just leave you to your book, then."
"Ok. Goodnight, Aunt Brittany." Mary called out.
"Huh? Oh, goodnight." Brittany responded softly and closed the door behind her then headed to her room.
----------------
TWO HOURS LATER!
Alvin walks into the bedroom after taking the boys up to their room. Without looking at Brittany, who is sitting with a blank sad look on her face, he heads for the bathroom. He hummed a tune as he was doing his nightly routine. He came out after finishing, pulling up the blankets he snuggles in.
"Goodnight Brittany." He mutters.
"Mmm," Brittany muttered back.
Something was bothering Brittany, he knew that, since he recognized the tone in her voice. Letting out an exasperating sigh, Alvin again sits up to face his wife.
"Alright, Brittany. What's wrong?" He groans with a hint of annoyance.
"Alvin, do you think my style is last decade?" Brittany asks with a depressed look.
"What? Where did you get that idea?" Alvin said in a shock.
"From Mary-Anne. She didn't want me to give her a make over, because she said my style was last decade."
"Ah jeez," Alvin cried out as he slapped his hand onto his forehead.
"I always thought I had the up-to-date fashions. Never was I out of the loop and stuck with 'last decade' styles." Brittany began explaining whether or not Alvin was listening to her.
"Look, Brittany, you have to understand that these kids come from Simon and Jeanette's gene pool. So you should expect them to say certain things like that. Heck, I doubt they would even understand fashion sense, only science and technology." Alvin explained.
"Alvin, when I saw Mary-Anne, she was reading a book called 'Living Spirits'." Brittany suddenly spat.
"Er, what?" Alvin asked baffled.
"What kind of kid reads anything like that? I mean does Jeanette even know that her daughter is reading books on Spirits? That is a little too deep for a little girl her age, don't you think?"
"I'm not sure, Brittany." Alvin said then let out a big yawn. "Perhaps you can talk to her about in the morning?"
"Yeah, I guess I could. Goodnight Alvin."
"Goodnight." He responded while snuggling comfortably under his covers.
Brittany reached over to the lamp on table and turned it off. She snuggled underneath her covers and went to sleep.
-------------------------------
THE NEXT MORNING!
The kids woke up early, being that it is Saturday morning, and went into the living room to watch some cartoons on TV. Half way through one of their favourite cartoons, Vince decided to get up and walked to the kitchen. Tom and Mary assumed he went in to get some breakfast.
Moments later they both heard their brother rustling around the kitchen, like he was moving pots and pans. Shortly after they started to smell something cooking. Instantly the smell is recognizable. Tom and Mary look at each other in shock. Without hesitation they get up to investigate. As soon as they run in the kitchen they see Vincent standing on a stool beside the stove. He was performing an experiment that he and Dad were supposed to do next weekend.
"You can't do that! Dad said that you had to wait for him and that we can all do that experiment together." Tom screeched.
"I guess I'm just not as patient as you. Besides, I can do this by myself." Vince retorted.
"Your gonna get in trouble, Vince." Mary warned.
"Why? Are you going to tell on me?" Vincent said as he turned his head from pouring some baking soda into the mixture of chemicals.
"Vincent, watch what you are doing!" Tom panicked.
By the time Vince brought his attention back to he experiment it was too late.
"Take cover! It's gonna explode!" He said with a gasp.
KA-BOOM!
"What was that?" Brittany and Alvin both said as they sat up in bed with a start. The explosion was so loud that they thought there was a war going on outside. Brittany threw on her rob and both of them quickly put their slippers on their feet and ran downstairs to see what the noise was.
Meanwhile, the three chipmunk children managed to crawl out from under the kitchen table covered in the goop Vince created.
"You are such an idiot!" Tom said to his brother as he tried to whip the sticky substance off of his glasses.
"I have to concur, that was a very dumb move, Vince." Mary added.
"What did you kids do in here?" Alvin bellowed as he saw the mess created by Vince's experiment.
"It wasn't us Uncle Alvin, it was Butt-munch over here!" Tom immediately accused and pointing a finger at Vince. Vincent turns and glares at his brother.
"Why you little...!" Vincent was about to attack Tom, when Alvin stepped in.
"Alright, just stop right there." Alvin said.
The three children looked up at their Aunt and Uncle in a sweetly manner. But, this time, both Brittany and Alvin were not about to fall for their innocent stares. They were angry with the mess and are not pleased on how this wonderful week was not turning out as planned.
Alvin was furious to know that Simon was right, as usual. It had not accrued to them on how hard it would be to take the kids for one week.
"Now look. In case you kids hadn't noticed, we had planed to do a bunch of fun stuff today. And now we are going to be stuck here until you kids have this kitchen all cleaned up. Do you hear me?" Alvin bellowed.
"But, Uncle...?" Whined Tom. "Mary and I had nothing to do with this mess..."
"We don't care who made the mess; we just wanted it cleaned up. Like NOW!" Brittany added. She went to one of the drawers and pulled out some rags. She then handed each of the kids one.
The three children groaned and complained as they slaved away at trying to clean the gooey mess off the furniture, floor and walls.
Alvin and Brittany felt lost, like they were doing something wrong. It also accrued to them that this must have been how Dave and Miss. Miller must of felt when they too got into trouble when they themselves were kids.
Usually, they are the 'cool Aunt and Uncle' to the kids, and that this week was going to be great. But why are the kids behaving like this? It was not making much sense. Is this what Simon and Jeanette has to go through everyday? Out of desperation, Alvin decides to call Simon and see what he suggests.
-----------------
MEANWHILE AT THE SEVILLE HOME!
For once the house is quiet and as the first raise of the sun crept in through the curtains it hits Simon on his content face with a warm gentle feeling. Jeanette slept happily, snuggled close to her husband with her left arm stretched over his furry chest. She too had a content look on her face while she slept.
The moment was shattered, however, when the phone rang. The couple began to growl and mentally wished for some piece and quiet for just one Saturday morning. Simon reaches for his glasses and puts them on his face. He then struggles to grab the phone and bring the receiver up to his ear.
"Hello?" Simon said in a groggy and yet cranky tone.
"Oh, hi Alvin!" He yawned. He then sat up with a start. 'There could be only one reason why is Alvin calling this early?' He thought in a panic.
"Alvin! What's wrong? Are the kids all right? They are not hurt, are they?" Simon cried.
He calmed down as he started to listen to what his brother was telling him and suddenly found it hard to keep a straight face. In fact Simon found in hard to stifle a snicker.
"Uh? No I'm not laughing, Alvin. Honest. So you're saying that the kids blew up the kitchen this morning...? Oh, they claim that it was just Vincent..."
Simon peers over to see Jeanette sitting up she had just put on her glasses to see more on what was so funny. Simon placed his hand on the speaking end of the phone and leaned a little closer to Jeanette.
"Alvin should hear himself, he sounds just like Dave." He whispers to her.
Jeanette smiled knowingly and relaxed a little knowing that her children were not hurt. She also had to smile as she wondered how Brittany was handling the kids. Finally their older siblings were getting the taste of responsibility.
"Well, ok Alvin. Just let me talk to Vincent." Simon paused as he waited for Alvin to hand the phone to his son.
"Hi, Dad." Squeaked Vince. He knew that he was about to receive a lecture from his dad on 'why it is important to be patient and not to blow up other people's kitchen'. When Simon had finished his speech, Vince started to try and keep his dad on the phone by talking to him about anything.
"Ok, dad. I'll try. Hey, Dad. Did you know that Dracula can change into a bat, and into a wolf?" Vincent said.
Mary and Tom became suspicious of their brother, as usual, and knew that he was avoiding the clean up. They felt it was unfair that Vincent is getting to talk to their dad and not them.
"Our turn, Vince. We want to talk to Dad too." Whined Mary.
"Yeah, you had your turn long enough." Tom said as he tried to grab the phone out of Vince's hold.
Brittany and Alvin watched as the kids wrestled each other for a chance to talk to their dad. They began to feel their pride being wounded. The couple looked at each other with a lost expression. They had no idea how hard parenting was until they tried out their little experiment. By having the kids over they could see if they were ready for kids of their own, but now they now know what Simon and Jeanette go through on a daily bases. Perhaps now is not the appropriate time for them to raise a family of their own.
"Hi, Daddy!" Chirped Mary as she had finally had gotten her chance to speak to her dad.
Alvin and Brittany let out a sigh and left the room as the kids got to talk to their parents. They figured that they might as well get dressed and get ready for a long week with their niece and nephews.