GUYS! Look, I know it just takes soooo much time to review and say 'Thanks for Updating!' or 'Lovin' it!' or at least tell me what you didn't enjoy about the chapter. Peh.

Thanks to the THREE of you who reviewed. Now, I'd like to draw some attention to the other twenty-some who didn't. Yes! I know there were TWENTY different people that didn't review (there's this nifty little feature that lets me do that...I HAVE been tracking you guys). Yes. I'm a stalker. No. I will not hurt you.

Please...I have very little self-confidence. I need those reviews. So please feed my confidence...if you don't...then I just won't update. (One more note: Anonymous reviews are allowed...so please, there is NO excuse for not reviewing).

AND DON'T FORGET: Sign my petition to let Ross and Janice know that we want to see more of the cartoon Chipmunks (and not just the old episodes either...the Chipmunk Adventure needs to be shown on TV as well as the fact that they need to make more).

Switched

Chapter 4: The Accomodations

"I love you boys," Dave said as he hugged his boys while the girls dragged their stuff out to his car. They Chipmunks had already taken their suitcases into the house and had stuck around to help the girls load everything into Dave's trunk. It was obvious that the girls weren't packing as light as the boys had. Even Eleanor and Jeanette had more stuff than the boys had had. But by far Brittany had the most, as always.

"We love you too," the boys all echoed. There was a camera man getting the whole thing, and Jillian and Andy were there keep an eye on everything. This was one thing they could keep a constant eye on. There were other random hosts in the other states because the families could get split so far apart, but Jillian and Andy were excited to finally both be working on one of their 'Switched' episodes. They were going to be more than just hosts to talk about the clips that were going to be shown or the people that interviewed the kids at the station at the end of their sessions.

"Girls, are you sure you have everything…" Miss Miller started.

"Yes!" Eleanor said, running over to hug the old lady. She didn't want Miss Miller to bring other ideas to her sister's head on things to take to the Seville house. "We'll be fine. It's just fourteen days."

"I'm going to miss you three." She returned Eleanor's hug while reaching out to accept hugs from Jeanette and Brittany.

"I hate to break up the farewell party…" Andy started.

"But you really must be on your way," Jillian finished. It had become apparent to the kids that Jillian was quite a spotlight hog in comparison to Andy. Andy was surprisingly more reserved in person. And he was much more comfortable than Jillian was. While his female co-worker always seemed to have her professional demeanor, when he acted professional it was just a façade. He was really much more relaxed.

"Bye!" they all shouted at one another as the girls piled into the backseat.

"See you at school!" Simon called to the girls.

"You too!" Jeanette called back.

"Remember the rules!" Jillian shouted as Dave drove off. "Well, have fun now."

"Where are you going?" Miss Miller asked.

"We don't have a major part in any of this part of the show, we're just here to talk and enforce the rules. And now we're leaving so you all can get comfortable with each other." The hosts waved as Miss Miller scratched her head. The boys gently pushed her into the house, shutting the door and locking it as soon as she was in. They'd ended up locking the camera man out, and he pounded on the door for a few minute before Miss Miller let him in.

"I'm not going to be constantly hovering," he assured her. "I'm just going to make sure all the hidden cameras are in place and working properly. I'll come by every so often to check the batteries, replace the film, and so on."

"Why do you have a camera with you now then?" Alvin demanded.

"Because I want to film some stuff by hand. It looks better that way." He went around the house and the boy suspected he was showing their audience where all the cameras were.

"Let's…"

"Take your things on up to the girls' room," Miss Miller cut him off. "I'm sorry you'll have to stay there, but it's the only space I have for you three." Alvin glanced after the camera man, wanting desperately to follow, but Simon pulled on the back of his collar to change his mind.

"You'll find them all eventually anyway," Simon reminded him as they all grabbed onto their suitcases and dragged them upstairs. They peeked tentatively into their temporary bedroom, shying away at first in shock. It was so spotless…The second thing they noticed was the color scheme: Eleanor's area was all aquamarine, Brittany's pink, and Jeanette's purple. They all scrunched up their noses as they pulled their things in. What was surprising was that there were still some clothes in the closets. Mostly just fancy dresses and heels, but they'd all been convinced that Brittany had packed the whole room. She had certainly had enough luggage.

"Um…do we unpack now?" Theodore asked.

"And put the clothes where?" Alvin asked as he checked the drawers. Some had been cleaned out; others were brimming with who knew what. Chick stuff. "There's not enough space in any one drawer to keep all our clothes…"

"This is much different than home," Simon whispered. "Have we ever been up here before?" His brothers paused and joined him and glancing around the room. The looked at it from floor to ceiling, trying to think of some time when they'd even been upstairs.

"No."

"Weird. They've been in our room many times, but we've never been up here."

"Well, girls have much more privet lives than boys do," Theodore announced. "We never wanted to invade their privacy and they've never invited us up…we invading their privacy now, are we?"

"Of course not," Alvin assured his little brother. "I'm sure they took all their privet stuff with them. That's why they had so much junk…They had just better not rearrange our room or change anything."

"What's the worst they could do?" Simon asked. "Clean it for us?" He glanced at his suitcase and sighed. "Why don't we just leave our suitcases at the foot of our…beds…" He walked tentatively up to the purple bed. Jeanette's bed. There was lace on the pillow edge.

"This is awful," Alvin whispered as he stared at all the pink, silk, and lace that made up Brittany's bed. He popped open his suitcase and pulled a thin blanket off the top.

"You packed a blanket?"

"I figured Brittany would have a pink bed." He pulled the Chipette's blankets off her bed and just dumped them on the floor as he put his red blanked on.

"You can't just throw them to one side!" Alvin watched as Simon grabbed the blankets and started folding them. He'd known Simon would do that, which is why he'd done what he did. He wasn't going to worry himself with little things when he knew one of his brothers would do it for him without thinking twice. Simon didn't even seem to realize that Alvin had known he'd handle that. So Alvin moved on and pulled a pillow case out and tugged a pillow case off one of Brittany's pillows. He folded that one though, figuring he didn't want to make Simon too frustrated with him. He let that fall to the top of the pile Simon had just made.

"You really came prepared," Theodore said as he stared at Eleanor's bed. It didn't feel right at all to be sleeping in her bed. But both of them jumped when they heard Simon sneeze.

"Simon, you can't get sick," Alvin warned his brother. "Not now that we're on TV…plus we have a concert coming up!"

"I'm not getting sick!" Simon replied. "It was just a simple sneeze. It happens from time to time." Alvin glared, but went on with turning Brittany's bed into a bed he was comfortable with sleeping in. He tucked her remaining pillow underneath his now red pillow, then turned around and flopped down, closing his eyes and pretending he was home. Staying in a girl's bedroom was just so embarrassing.

…X…

"Brittany!" Jeanette scolded as she collected all the cloth that had just been thrown off Alvin's bed. Sheets, pillow-covers, everything. Brittany recovered the bed with her own things, down to her own comforter.

"What did you make your bed with this morning anyway?" Eleanor asked as she and Jeanette started folding Alvin's blankets.

"Just some old stuff I found in the closet. You know, those old blankets that Miss Miller provided when we first moved in, before we got to use what we wanted."

"Brittany, it's not that bad sleeping in Alvin's bed."

"Oh yes it is! I wonder how often he takes a shower? Not enough! He's probably filthy…And you wonder why I brought all my sheets with me. I don't want him messing them up." Her sisters rolled their eyes, going over to their own temporary beds. There was nothing too out of the ordinary, it just didn't feel right. They felt like they were invading the boys' privacy. "Do you two want some too?"

"Want some what?" Jeanette asked.

"Extra sheets! I brought enough for all three beds." The sisters opened their mouths to reprimand their sister, but changed their minds.

"Actually, that doesn't sound too bad," Eleanor said. "Just so long as we make their beds before we leave."

"Oh, don't worry. We'll clean this room too."

"Brittany, you hate cleaning," Jeanette reminded her sister as she started to strip Simon's bed, folding everything as she pulled it off and set it at the foot of the bed. Their suitcases were sitting close to the door where Dave had put them, waiting to be unpacked. So far Dave was being kind, but he was definitely just their friend's dad to them. It was all very awkward.

"I hate cleaning, but I hate living in filth even worse. Remember how we kept the tree house clean? I can't stand living someplace dirty."

"This isn't that bad," Eleanor said on behalf of the boys. "It really could be a lot worse."

"But it's still gross. Our room is cleaner than this." Her younger sisters giggled. "What's so funny?"

"Our room is clean by any standard." Eleanor went over and grabbed the sheets that her sister was setting out for them. "No wonder you had so much luggage. Did you come with everything we own?"

"Except our really fancy dresses and our heels and little stuff like that." Next Brittany went over and popped open a suitcase that was entirely filled with make-up, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and so much more. She peeked into the hall, wondering if Dave would mind if she took over the bathroom. Even if he didn't, she took her things to the bathroom and started setting up in there. Her curling iron was placed as close to an outlet as she could manage while keeping it on the counter, the makeup was set up neatly beside her hairbrush, and she set her shower things by the bathtub. Then she skipped happily back to the boys' room. It wasn't going to be so bad. In fact, it'd be a breeze. Sure, there wasn't going to be much adventure, but there'd be more than enough publicity by the time it was over. The name of the Chipettes was on its way up.

"It's six already," Jeanette said as she started putting her clothes away. She had been the one brave enough to pull open the drawers, and they'd all been ecstatic to find that the boys had mostly emptied them. So the girls went straight to work, Jeanette with the bottom drawer because her clumsiness made it unsafe to have the top one, Brittany with the middle one because she changed outfits so often (even though they all looked the same to everyone but her) that it didn't make sense for her to climb to the top to get clothes every five minutes, and Eleanor took the top because she didn't mind one bit.

As Brittany laid out all her legwarmers and her three scarves on her bed, she couldn't help but turn on Alvin's radio. It surprised her to find that he enjoyed listening to the same 80s music station that she did, but she picked right up with the song that was being played. Lucky for her it was just starting.

"First, when there's nothing but a slow glowing dream
That your fear seems to hide deep inside your mind
All alone I have cried silent tears full of pride
In a world made of steel, made of stone."

Her sisters rolled their eyes, but the giggled and joined in. They all loved 80s music, there was just no getting around it.

"Well I hear the music, close my eyes, feel the rhythm
Wrap around, take a hold of my heart."

Brittany sat down on Alvin's bed, closing her eyes as she finally started to relax with the idea that she'd be sleeping not only in Alvin's house, but in his bed to boot. Sure, she put on the airs that all was fine and dandy, just so long as she had her sheets. But just the idea of spending even a single night in someone else's bed was strange.

"What a feeling, bein's believin'
I can't have it all, now I'm dancin' for my life
Take your passion, and make it happen
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life…"

She opened her eyes and nodded to Jeanette, silently letting her younger sister know that she could have a little solo.

"Now I hear the music, close my eyes, I am rhythm
In a flash it takes hold of my heart."

They all stopped what they were doing (folding clothes or just sitting around) and started moving around together in a natural dance. Dave could hear them all the way downstairs and their door was shut.

"What a feeling, bein's believin'
I can't have it all, now I'm dancin' for my life
Take your passion, and make it happen
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life...

What a feeling…"

They stopped, Eleanor and Jeanette taking their poses beside their sister as they switched to backing up Brittany singing the chorus (rather than all three of them harmonizing).

"What a feeling (I am music now),

Bein's believin' (I am rhythm now)
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life.
What a feeling (I can really have it all),
What a feeling (Pictures come alive when I call),
I can have it all (I can really have it all),
Have it all (Pictures come alive when I call).
(Call, call, call, call, what a feeling) I can have it all.
(Bein's believin') Bein's believin'.
(Take your passion, make it happen) Make it happen…
(What a feeling) what a feeling..."