"Rise and shine, boys!"
There was a bustle of movement around Simon. He groaned and snuggled deeper into his pillow. It couldn't be time to get up. He was still so tired.
"Come on, Simon!" Theodore called out. "Get up or you'll be late for school!"
"Its too early." He groaned, throwing off the covers. "Ahh! And too bright!"
"Here, Simon. I have a feeling you're going to need them." Alvin thrust something into his hand along with his cryptic words. It was his glasses.
He had already slid them onto his face when he realized that they weren't his glasses at all, they were sunglasses. And he could see through them. He frowned. I don't HAVE any prescription sunglasses. Taking them off his face, he glanced around the room with squinted eyes. Weird. Everything was still in perfect focus.
Shaking off his confusion, he went to the dresser and slipped into his favorite blue turtleneck. It still seemed like it must be too early, but the clock on the dresser didn't lie, so he went down for breakfast.
"What's with the sunglasses, Simon?" Dave asked as he slid into his chair. He pushed a bowl of cereal towards him. "And what happened to your neck?"
Simon pulled the cereal towards himself. "I, uh, scratched myself." He said, glaring at Alvin. To his surprise, his brother only stared suspiciously at him.
"Well, it doesn't look like it could've been too bad. One of them is falling off, and I can't see any scratch."
Simon reached up in surprise. Pulling off the band-aids, he realized Dave was right – the marks were gone. "I guess not." He said, still a little confused.
He ate some of his cereal in silence. Despite being his favorite, it tasted bad, and he pushed it away. "Ugh."
"Not hungry, Simon?" Alvin asked, that suspicious look still on his face.
"I guess not."
"That's okay, kids, look at the time. You need to get off to school." Dave ushered them off.
As they walked to school, Theodore kept looking at him oddly. Simon could feel his little brother's eyes on him, making the fur on the back of his neck crawl. Finally he couldn't take it anymore, and spun around to face his little brother. "What?"
Theodore yelped and fell backward. "Simon!" Alvin yelled at him, helping the little chipmunk back to his feet. "Don't scare him!"
"I didn't mean to!" Simon said, astonished. "Are you okay, Theodore?"
"Fine." His voice didn't sound it. "Its just – well, you've changed your hair. And you look ...different."
"I do?" He felt the top of his head. Usually he just combed it, half the time - like this morning - without even bothering to look in a mirror.
"Yes. Especially with the glasses. You look kinda..." Theodore paused. "Handsome."
Simon looked at him sourly. Not exactly what he had been expecting. "Thanks, Theodore. And before I was...what?"
"That's not what he meant and you know it, Simon. Just leave him alone." Alvin started to walk towards the school, pulling Theodore along by the hand.
Simon followed silently. That had been weird. Alvin defending Theodore against...himself? They hurried into the school.
Morning classes usually went quickly for Simon, but today he couldn't seem to concentrate. There was some strange noise that kept distracting him, as if someone far off was playing a whole bunch of bass drums. He was relieved when they finally rang the bell for lunch. He was starving.
Moving through the lunch line absentmindedly, he began to run over the strange events of that morning in his head. What was going on here? Could he be going through a growth spurt or something? He was so involved that he didn't notice the girls giggling near him and pointing.
"You can sit at our table, if you want." One of them called out, but Simon didn't hear it and sat at his and the other chipmunks' regular table instead. No one else was there, and he started to eat his lunch mechanically.
"Oh, yuck. What are you eating, Simon?" Brittany's voice sailed over to him as she sat down with Alvin. They must have made up, because they didn't seem to be fighting anymore. The pattern of their relationship was like that. Fight, make up, fight again.
Theodore and the other Chippettes followed suit and sat as well..
"What's wrong with what I'm eat-oh, yuck!" He dropped the hamburger – without even a bun – onto his tray. It was so rare that there was a red puddle surrounding it. "I didn't take that!"
"Well, you must have, because that's all that's on your tray." Alvin said accusingly. Theodore sat down next to him and looked at him worriedly.
"I must have grabbed it by mistake." He tried to explain.
"You certainly looked like you were enjoying it." Jeannette said doubtfully.
"Yes, he did, didn't he." This time it was Simon's turn to glare at Alvin. The funny thing was, she was right – he had been. A thread of worry crept into him.
"Simon?"
"Yes, Theodore?"
"You didn't uh, um, what I mean is..." Theodore started stumbling over his words, and Simon felt an uncharacteristic wave of irritation with his baby brother.
"Oh, for crying out loud, Theodore, just spit it out!"
"Simon!" Jeannette cried. Theodore looked as if he was going to burst into tears.
What was going on with him?! "I'm sorry, Theodore." He said, apologizing for the second time that day to his little brother. "I don't know what got into me. Go ahead."
Theodore looked like he was not going to continue for a moment, then he blurted. "You weren't bitten by a werewolf, were you?"
Simon almost laughed, then looked down at his plate and felt the laughter die. Theodore wasn't joking. "No, Theodore."
"He wasn't bitten by a werewolf." Alvin said pointedly. "But he was bitten."
The older brother looked at him, exasperated. "By a bat, Alvin! Not a werewolf!"
"A vampire bat." Alvin said.
"Alvin! I am not a vampire!"
"Oh no? Then what's with the sunglasses? The new look? The hamburger!" Alvin ticked the things away with his fingers.
"Oh yeah? Then how did I walk to school today...in the sunlight!" Simon yelled back, not noticing that Theodore was shrinking away from him.
Alvin was unmoved. "According to the Monster Book of Monsters, you have to be bitten three times over three nights to become a full vampire. You've only had one bite. With the second bite you'll get closer to becoming one, and with the third-"He paused for dramatic effect, "a real member of the undead."
"Oh!" Theodore gasped.
"I am not becoming a vampire, Alvin!" Simon stood angrily. "I'm fine!" Then he turned and stomped away, oblivious to the people falling back fearfully as he walked through them, leaving the rest of the Chipmunks and the Chippettes sitting in silence.
"Do you really think that he's becoming a, uh, a vampire?" Theodore asked Alvin, a tremor in his voice.
"I don't think it, Theodore." Alvin said grimly. "I know it."