Hours had passed. The skies grew darker. Both Brittney and Eleanor were worried. Miss Miller had a curfew for the girls. Brittney, Jeanette, and Eleanor were to all be inside the house for the night by no later than nine o'clock. It was now fifteen minutes till nine, and Jeanette was not inside the house, highly unusual for her, especially considering Jeanette rarely goes outside anyway.
"I'm getting really worried..." Brittney said hesitantly, as she check their bedroom alarm clock for the sixtieth time this minute.
"What do you care?" Eleanor asked, slightly sarcastically, but mostly sternly.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Brittney asked, insulted. "Jeanette's my sister too, you know?"
"Oh really? I thought she was more like your slave..."
"Oh, will you get off that?"
"How can I? You hurt Jeanette's feelings so much, she probably ran away from home! She's probably out there now... cold... lonely... lost..."
"I'm calling the boys, see if they've seen her..." Brittney walked over to her phone, and dialed the number for the Seville house. "I sure hope they've seen her... hello? Alvin? No, this isn't an obscene phone call, you perv! Listen, have you boys seen Jeanette, lately? Well, I mean, it's nearly nine, and she's been gone now for a couple of hours!"
"It's been almost four and a half!" Eleanor barked.
"No?" Brittney asked Alvin over the phone. "Oh... this is serious... okay, bye..." Brittney hung up the phone. "The boys haven't seen her, either..."
"I hope she isn't in any kind of trouble..." Eleanor said with concern.
Alvin walked up to the bedroom he shared with his brothers, and decided to tease Simon.
"Hey Simon?" Alvin asked.
"What is it, Alvin?" Simon responded.
"I think Jeanette just eloped without you!"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Brittney called, Jeanette's gone! What'd you do?"
"What do you mean what did I do? What do you mean Jeanette's gone?!"
"Brittney said Jeanette hasn't come home, and she's been gone for hours."
Simon slipped off his bed, and ran over to the window, surveying all of the neighborhood.
"Jeanette's missing? Jeanette is missing?" Simon asked himself, as he peered through his telescope, trying to snoop out his missing girlfriend.
"Gee, you don't think Jeanette ran away or something, do you?" Asked Theodore, full of concern.
"Aw, why would Jeanette run away from home?" Alvin asked.
"She wouldn't!" Simon insisted, still trying to spot Jeanette. "Something must have happened to her..."
"Like what?" Alvin asked, now feeling a little concerned as well.
"I..." Simon began, "I don't want to assume the worst... but..."
"But what?" Asked Theodore.
"Maybe she's been abducted, or something?" Simon said, not seeing Jeanette anywhere.
"What does that mean?" Asked Alvin.
"In layman's terms," Simon responded, "someone might have possibly kidnapped her!"
"But who would kidnap Jeanette?" Theodore asked.
"I have no clue," Simon replied, "but that's the only explanation for Jeanette's disappearance..."
Simon continued staring out the window, hoping that he would be proven wrong, all the while, Brittney and Eleanor sadly trudge downstairs, to where Miss Miller is asleep in her easy chair.
"Go ahead, Eleanor," Brittney whispered, "wake her up..."
"Me?!" Eleanor whispered back. "It's probably your fault Jeanette's missing."
"Oh, so again we're playing the blame game, eh?"
"At least I always treat Jeanette with respect!"
"Hey, I respect Jeanette as much as the next sister!"
"Bull!"
"Are you calling me a liar?"
"Not exactly!"
Miss Miller slowly woke up to the sounds of her daughters arguing.
"Brittney? Eleanor?" She asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "What's all the commotion about?"
"Go ahead," Brittney said, shoving Eleanor closer to Miss Miller, "tell her!"
"Oh, fine," Eleanor snapped back at her big sister's ridiculous behavior, "coward!"
"What's going on?" Asked Miss Miller.
"Well," Eleanor began, "Jeanette's missing..."
"What do you mean?" Miss Miller asked, turning pale.
"We're not sure," Eleanor responded, "she's just... gone..."
Miss Miller looked over at the clock on top of the mantle, and saw it was now ten minutes after nine.
"How long has she been gone?!" Miss Miller asked with panic in her voice.
"About... four and a half hours?"
"Where did she go?!"
"I don't know, I just remember coming home, and her running out of the bedroom, and out the front door, crying."
"Crying?! Why was Jeanette crying?!"
Eleanor didn't answer her mother that time, she just simply turned to Brittney, with a sour look on her face.
"Brittney?" Miss Miller asked. "Do you have anything to do with this?"
"Aw," Brittney began, "I just had to get her back in line a bit, and she got all sensitive about it."
"And just what do you mean by having to 'get her back in line'?" Miss Miller asked, but before Brittney could respond...
"Brittney's been treating Jeanette like a slave!" Eleanor told her.
"I have not!" Brittney argued.
"You have to! Everyday, all I hear out of your mouth is 'Jeanette do this', 'Jeanette do that', 'Jeanette get me this', 'Jeanette grab me that'..."
"I'm just asking her for favors is all!"
"You boss her around, like a lacky!"
"She doesn't have to do anything for me if she doesn't want to, and she wants to!"
"She doesn't want to displease you Brittney, because if she does, you scold her, like she's a trouble-making child!"
"I don't scold her!"
"You just called her 'useless', that's why she ran out of the house crying, you hurt her feelings!"
"Girls, girls, girls!" Miss Miller hollered. "That's about enough! If Jeanette's out there, we need to find her, and when we do, I'm sitting her down for a talk... and you Brittney!"
"Why me?!" Brittney asked.
"I've never known Eleanor to lie!" Miss Miller snapped at Brittney.
Brittney didn't respond.
Moments later, Dave and Miss Miller were both combing the streets of their neighborhood, each carrying a flashlight, and each of them calling out Jeanette's name as loud as they could, and listening very carefully for any kind of response. Brittney and Eleanor waited back at Dave's house with the boys, as Simon related his theory to the sisters.
"I'm not sure," he told them, "but I'm positive Jeanette's been abducted."
"Oh my God," Eleanor responded, "you really think so?"
"Would Jeanette ever runaway from home?" He asked her.
"No, she wouldn't!" Eleanor responded.
"And she's been gone all this time?"
"Yes!"
"What other explanation is there?"
"Oh, I'm sure there are others!" Brittney snapped as Simon. "How dare you think such a thing about my little sister!"
"Alright, then what's your explanation, Brittney?" Simon asked.
Brittney didn't respond.
"Well?!" He snapped.
"Well, give me a minute!" Brittney snapped back.
"Stop it!" Eleanor snapped at both of them. "Our sister, your girlfriend, is missing, who knows where she is, or who might have her, and you two are still at each other's throats! Why can't the two of you just set aside your differences for once?"
Neither Simon, nor Brittney responded. About another hour had passed, before Dave and Miss Miller returned to Dave's house, with no luck.
"Find her?" Dave asked.
"No..." Miss Miller responded, on the verge of tears, "where can be little girl be?"
"I don't know... we'll find her, though, I'm sure of it..."
"Oh David, I hope you're right..."
"We better file a report, so we can get a search started for her..."
Later that night, everybody tried to sleep, but it was difficult for them, especially Simon and Miss Miller. And Brittney. Brittney tossed and turned in her bed, having flashbacks of what happened between her and Jeanette earlier that afternoon. She remembered how she yelled at her fragile little sister, telling her, repeatedly, how useless she is, and Jeanette running out of the room, on the verge of having a mental, and emotional breakdown. Brittney woke up.
"It is my fault!" She cried, waking up Eleanor.
"Brittney?" Eleanor asked.
"You're right, Eleanor... it's all my fault Jeanette's missing... I suck..."
"Brittney?"
"I have been treating her like she's a slave... I have been treating her badly... I hurt her feelings... now she's missing, and it's because of me!"
Eleanor slipped out of her own bed, walked over to Brittney's bed, and sat next to her, as Brittney silently cried in her hands.
"You know..." Brittney said, through her tears, "... if we ever find Jeanette... the first thing... the first thing I'm going to do is apologize to her..."
Eleanor nodded. "That's good, Brittney." She said softly.
"No more slavery," Brittney said, "from now on, Jeanette doesn't have to do a single thing for me!"
"That's good, Brittney." Eleanor said.
"And I'm going to find her!" Brittney said, a little over confident.
"Say what?" Eleanor responded.
"It's my fault Jeanette's missing, therefore, I'm going to find her!"
"But you don't know where she is, where to look..."
"I'm finding her, and that's final!"
Eleanor paused for a moment.
"Then I'm coming with yoU!" Eleanor insisted.
"It could be dangerous, Eleanor..." Brittney told her.
"I'll take my chances..."
"Fine..."
Moments later, the boys were trying to sleep, but they were awake enough to hear something being thrown against their bedroom window.
"Did you hear that?" Simon asked, as he grabbed his glasses.
"Yeah, I heard it..." Alvin responded, as he stood up on the front of his bed, and opened the window.
"Down here!" Brittney called up.
"What is it?" Alvin asked.
"Come down here, and we'll explain!" Brittney called back.
So a very short time later, the chipmunks were dressed in their regular outfits, and met the girls in their yard.
"What is this all about?" Simon asked.
"Simon?" Brittney began. "I know you and I never get along together, but we need you boys to help us find Jeanette."
"Are you crazy?" Simon asked her. "This could cause nothing but trouble if all of us turn up missing!"
"Look, Simon," Brittney continued, "you're... you're very good at solving mysteries... I'm sure you can find clues that could lead us to where Jeanette is..."
Simon sighed.
"Please, Simon?" Brittney pleaded. "I don't want to fight with you... I want to work with you this time... I want to find my little sister, and I know you want to find your girlfriend... neither of us can do it alone, we need to work together."
Simon nodded. "For once I agree with you, Brittney."
"Thank you, Simon... and I apologize for my rotten attitude towards you..."
"Allow me to apologize to you as well for my attitude towards you."
"Apology accepted."
"And I accept your apology as well."
"So," Alvin butted in, "where do we start?"
