The Unexpected

Chapter 5

XOXOXOXOXO

Author's Note: Phew, this one was a bit tricky to write. But I'm glad I was able to get it done!

Now it's time to introduce some more conflict for Theo!

Enjoy and thanks for the reviews, as always. I'm so happy to be close to wrapping this up.

XOXOXOXOXO

"Oh come on, Theo! You said you'd tell us about your date!" Alvin whined.

"Sorry, Alvin," Theodore said, shrugging. "It's personal."

"What? It is? Can't you just give me a little hint?" Alvin pleaded, unable to stand something being held secret from him. "Come on, did you guys kiss? Or... oh man! Did something more happen?"

Simon gave him an exasperated look. "Oh please, Alvin. I'm sure nothing like that happened. Right, Theodore?"

Theodore wasn't quite sure what "that" was, but he shook his head. "Yeah, nothing like that."

"Phew," Alvin said. "That's a relief. You're still my little brother, after all. But tell us! We won't tell, promise!"

"Nope," Theodore snickered, somewhat enjoying Alvin's tortured expression. "It's a secret. Something between me and Ellie only."

"Oh! You called her by her nickname. Something must have went on!" Alvin said, grinning. "You go, Theo!"

Simon stopped at his Literature class before turning to them. "It's almost time for class, guys. I'll see you two later!"

"Oh, wait!" Theodore said, stepping forward. "Remember you and Alvin's promise to let me come to the gym with you this afternoon, okay?"

"Of course," Simon said.

"Yeah, we won't forget," Alvin said, giving Theodore a noogie. "Stop being such a worry-wart, butterball!"

"I'm just making sure!" Theodore grinned, playfully pushing him away. "I'll meet you guys in front of the house before dinner."

"Sounds good," Alvin said, turning to head for his class. "Catch you later!"

Theodore waved goodbye to the red-clad chipmunk before running to make it to his own class. On the way, he noticed Eleanor was struggling to catch up, her books spilling from her arms. Theodore immediately went to her side to help her, offering to carry most of her books.

"Thanks!" Eleanor said gratefully. "I thought I was going to be late."

"No problem," Theodore said, running with her. Thankfully, they made it to Julie's class seconds before the bell rang.

Ms. Ortega closed the door behind her students before taking her place in the front of the class.

"Alright, guys," she said, erasing her board. "We're not doing anything new today, but you should take advantage of your time and finish up your sculptures. We can't spend too much time on them, so work efficiently."

Eleanor and Theodore retrieved their sculptures from the cupboard. They had already finished the basic shape and had them fired up in the kiln beforehand, so all that was left to do was to give them a fresh coat of paint.

Ms. Ortega set a selection of paint beside them, along with paintbrushes.

"Thank you," Eleanor said, looking over her two cupcake sculptures. "I think I should paint one mostly pink, and the other mostly purple. To match them, you know? What do you think?"

"I think that's a good idea," Theodore nodded, mixing his paintbrush in the yellow paint. "It'll match all of their clothes and stuff. Can you paint a toaster waffle red or blue?"

Eleanor giggled. "Not unless their radioactive!"

"Point taken," Theodore smirked, painting both of them yellow. "How about little red and blue streaks?"

"Oh, I like that!" Eleanor said, watching him make quick dashes of paint along the both of them. "I'm sure they'll love it!"

"I hope so," Theodore said, carefully setting them on a napkin. "Hopefully these will dry before I get home. We're all going to the gym this afternoon."

"Oh, that sounds great!" Eleanor said, bouncing. "The gym's loads of fun. Be sure to have them spot you, though."

"Spot?"

"Mm!" Eleanor said, walking over to him. "Like when you're doing weights. Someone should always be there ready to help you just in case it's too heavy for you, or you lose your grip!"

"Oh, I never knew that," Theodore mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "That sounds awfully dangerous."

"Oh, it's not," Eleanor assured him. "You just have to be careful, that's all!"

"I think I'd feel better if you came," Theodore chuckled. "Would you like to join us?"

"I'd love to!" Eleanor said excitedly. However, she quickly faltered. "Well, actually... no."

"No?" Theodore said, slightly hurt.

"Oh, don't get me wrong," Eleanor said quickly. "I just don't want to take you away from your brothers, or anything like that."

"Oh, I see," Theodore said, laughing. "You could never do that. But I guess I see your point. You probably have other things to do anyway, huh?"

"That doesn't mean I wouldn't like more time with you," Eleanor said, smiling. Theodore blushed and looked away shyly. "If that's okay with you, I'd like to go to the movies sometime. My treat."

"That sounds fun, Ellie," Theodore said, wringing his hands. "I'd like that. We should do it sometime this weekend?"

"Oh, you know it," Eleanor said. She looked over their projects, lightly touching them. "Oh! I think they're dry!"

"Really?" Theodore said, testing them. "You're right! Good, now I can give them to Alvin and Simon."

"I hope Britt and Jean like theirs," Eleanor said, fretting over the clay cupcakes.

"I'm sure they will," Theodore said firmly. "They have to."

Julie graded their projects early and allowed them take it home with them. Theodore and Eleanor made sure to carefully wrap them up in napkins so they wouldn't break and said goodbye to each other as they headed for their second period class.

Theodore hummed cheerfully throughout the rest of the day. Things couldn't be any better: things were going well with his family, his grades were all good, his relationship with Eleanor was blossoming, and he was doing really well on his diet! In a way, it was almost too good to be true!

XOXOXOXOXO

The bell for class dismissal finally rang. Theodore packed his backpack and hurriedly made his way towards the front of the school. Dave was, no doubt, waiting outside to take them home.

Unexpectedly, Claire was sitting beside him inside the car as well! It had been a while since Theodore had seen Dave's girlfriend, since the both of them had always been so busy with their careers.

"Hi, Claire!" Theodore said, waving.

"Theodore! How are you?" Claire smiled. "It's been ages! You've looked like you've grown up a lot since last time."

Theodore blushed. "Thank you."

"Where are your brothers and the Chipettes?" Dave asked, turning down the volume on the radio. He turned to Claire. "You'll love meeting the girls."

"They're not here?" Theodore asked, looking around. "The Chipettes should be here soon. I'm not sure where Alvin and Simon are..."

"They'd better hurry," Dave grumbled, looking at his watch. "We have a small rehearsal this evening."

Claire opened the door for Theodore and he jumped into the backseat. He smiled up at her as she buckled the large seat belt over him.

"Don't worry, Dad," Theodore said. "I'm sure they'll be here soon."

Soon enough, the three girls joined them after waving goodbye to their classmates. Dave waited a few more minutes before Simon finally came running out of the front doors, screeching to a halt on the side of the car.

"Come on, Simon, get in," Dave said. "Let's go home. Where's your brother?"

"Sorry," Simon panted, hands on his knees. "I forgot! I have to stay behind for Chemistry Club, and Alvin has football practice today. We'll walk home after."

"Ah, that's right," Dave said, snapping his fingers. "Alright, make sure to come straight home after you finish."

"Okay," Simon said, preparing to head back.

"But what about the gym?" Theodore interjected.

"Don't worry, we'll make it there," Simon reassured him. "I promise."

Simon waved goodbye to them before quickly heading back inside. Dave revved up the engine and the group made their way back home. Theodore was slightly worried that they wouldn't have time to go to the gym that day like they had planned.

Well, even if we don't, that's okay, Theodore thought. We can always reschedule.

XOXOXOXOXO

A whole three hours had gone by now. Theodore had waited on the porch the whole time. He knew it would take a while for their extra-curricular activities to end, but he had never known it to go for this long.

Maybe something happened and they had to stay back a while longer, Theodore reasoned, not wanting to suspect that they had forgotten about him. Yeah! I'm sure that's what happened.

Twenty more minutes went by. As time passed, he became more and more agitated.

"Where the heck are they?" he grumbled, balling his fists in frustration.

The front door creaked open behind him. He looked up to see the Chipettes peering out at him, concern etched on their faces.

He immediately shook himself out of his brooding thoughts. "Hi, guys! What's up?"

"We were worried about you," Eleanor said, waking over to him. "You didn't come in for snack time..."

"Oh," Theodore said. "I wasn't hungry."

In all honesty, he had completely forgotten about having a snack hours ago. Now that they mentioned it, he was starving! But he refused to budge from the spot, feeling that at any moment his brothers would come running up the driveway to take him to the gym.

"Alvin and Simon still aren't back yet?" Brittany asked, folding her arms. "That's not like them. It's getting late!"

"What time is it?" Theodore asked.

"It's five o'clock," Jeanette said, taking out the purple ribbon holding up her hair so she could brush it out. "It's almost dinner time, actually."

"What?" Theodore snapped. "It is? But they promised – oh! There they are!"

Sure enough, a red jeep was riding down their street. In it was about five jocks from their school, one of them obviously Ryan. Theodore was never one to hold a grudge, but he was still a bit wary around the boy. Although he expected Alvin to be with them, he was shocked to see Simon amongst the group.

"Bye guys!" one of them said as Simon and Alvin hopped out of the car. "See you at school next week!"

"Catch you later!" Alvin said, waving.

"Thanks for the ride," Simon said.

Theodore waited until the group drove off before running over to meet them. Though slightly annoyed, he was sure they had a good reason for not being able to keep their promise...

"Hey, guys? It's late," Theodore said, walking with the two of them as they made their way for the front of the house. "Did club activities go on too late?"

"Hm?" Simon said, looking down at him. "No, why do you ask?"

Theodore paused before looking at Alvin. "Did practice go over longer than you thought?"

"No," Alvin said. "What's up? Did you have something planned?"

"Yes. Yes, I did have something planned," Theodore said icily, steadily losing his patience.

Alvin and Simon winced at his surprisingly cold tone.

"What's wrong with you today?" Alvin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You completely forgot, didn't you?" Theodore said, rolling his eyes. "Both of you promised that we would all go to the gym together this afternoon. You promised me just this morning! How could you possibly forget in a couple of hours?"

Simon frowned. "We... we did?"

"Yes!" Theodore said, nearly shouting now. He couldn't help it. How many times had he brought this up? "You guys said we'd work out and hang out at the gym! Don't pretend like you forgot that quickly. I can't believe you guys!"

"Dang, um..." Alvin rubbed the back of his head, looking away. "Look, we're sorry. Something came up. We were just going to come home and Ryan offered to hang out with us at the movies, so- "

"You put me off for Ryan?" Theodore said incredulously, disgust evident on his face. "What the hell's up with that!"

"Theodore! Language!" Simon scolded. "There's no need for all that. We didn't put anyone over you. Something just came up and distracted us."

"You did!" Theodore yelled, balling up his fists furiously. "I've been reminding you guys of this for days, and he comes along and offers once and you guys totally forgot about me!"

"You're blowing this totally out of proportion," Alvin said, placing a paw on his shoulder. "Take a chill pill, Theo. We have lives, you know. Sometimes we want to hang out with friends. You understand how that is, right?"

"No," Theodore said, snatching away from him. "I don't mind you having friends, but don't flake out on me and make me think we're going to go out when we're not! I sat out here all afternoon waiting for you two, and you were out having fun."

"Theodore, please!" Simon hissed, glancing at the Chipettes, who were watching a little ways off. "You're making a scene."

"Shut up," Theodore shot back. "You're supposed to keep promises."

"Grow up," Alvin said, his own patience growing thin. "So we broke a little promise! We said we were sorry."

"Don't give me that," Theodore said, narrowing his eyes. "This isn't the first time you've left us hanging, Alvin. And you too, Simon. I'm always the one who tries to hold us all together, and you know what?"

He reached into his pocket and took out his two sculptures. They were meant to be presents for his brothers, who he had always respected. Even though they could sometimes get on his nerves, he was always willing to keep the trio together. But now... something was different. Why was it that he always worked the hardest to keep the family bond strong, when they did everything to undo it...?

Crash!

He threw the two clay sculptures onto the pavement, watching with small, morbid satisfaction as they shattered into several pieces. Simon and Alvin's eyes flew wide open in alarm as they stepped back. Brittany and Jeanette gasped, while Eleanor covered her mouth in shock.

"I should have never wasted my time on those," Theodore said, turning to return to go back inside. "And I should have never wasted my time on you two either."

Theodore stomped past his brothers and the Chipettes and went back inside the house. Brittany and Jeanette glanced at each other, not quite sure what to do. Simon gently picked up one of the pieces as Alvin made a move to follow Theodore.

Eleanor quickly recovered and glared at Alvin and Simon before they could make a move to follow Theodore.

"Don't. I'll talk to him."

XOXOXOXOXO

Author's Note: Aw, it seems even poor, sweet Theodore has his limits. I guess Alvin and Simon sometimes take his patience for granted.

One more chapter to go! While brainstorming, however, I think I'll make one extra chapter.

Thanks for reading, as always!