Getting to Know You

The Chipmunks and Chipettes story

Part VII

Previously, Britney and Alvin went on their date after getting the third degree from Miss Miller, Miss Miller found out about Theo and Ellie's carnal relationship, and Jeanette was still trying to tell Simon how she felt. Outside their circle, Susan continued to follow Alvin and Britney around and possibly got some footage of them on their date. Now let's zoom in a little bit and see what's happening with Jeanette while her sisters are out of the house the next day…

Jeanette had decided to sleep in this morning, but as usual, she was a creature of habit and couldn't keep her eyes closed for more than a couple hours later than normal. When she finally decided to get out of bed, she padded her way across the carpeting on her floor and across the hall to the bathroom. After her morning routine of a shower, brushing her teeth and hair, and getting dressed in her usual combination of purple skirt and white t-shirt, she headed downstairs to get something.

When she entered the kitchen, she saw a note on the table telling her that her sisters had gone out for the day with their boyfriends and Miss Miller was out of town working with Dave and the kid's agent. It also let her know that Simon was still sick and was now running a fever of 102 and that she was supposed to go over to the Chipmunks house and stay with him until one of his brothers could come and take over.

"Aw, he's still sick," Jeanette said to the empty kitchen as she thought about what she could do with him for a few hours at his house.

After she ate a quick breakfast of toast with jelly and grabbed can of double shot espresso from the fridge, she gathered up her books and headed to her truck to head over to the Chipmunks house. When she arrived, she was surprised to see Simon sitting outside on the porch swing, as she got closer; she saw that he was still in his pajama pants and just a thin shirt on. Not only that, but he was also somehow unconscious. She sighed quietly as she looked at him and saw that even asleep, he maintained that concentrated look of intense scrutiny that had first captured her interest when they were still in grade school.

As she admired his subtle masculinity and the way his chin stood out with a proud air regardless of what others thought of him, she realized that he was probably freezing sitting out here with nothing to keep him protected from the elements, and it was with a slightly heavy heart that she reached over to him and shook him gently awake.

When Simon opened his eyes, he thought he was seeing things, he could have sworn that for a minute he saw Jeanette's beauteous face surrounded by a ring of light, just like an old time stained glass window in a cathedral. Just as he was about to say something that had been on his mind for a while though, he realized that it was not, in fact, a dream. When he figured this out, he felt his face burn as he blushed and he remembered what he was doing outside in the first place.

"Simon…are you ok?" Jeanette asked softly, reaching out to feel his cheek with the back of her hand.

"Uh, yeah, what are you doing here?" he responded, completely at a loss for words.

"Well, Dave and Miss Miller are out of town for a business deal and our siblings are hanging out, so until one or more of them show up, I get to take care of you." She answered smiling at him.

"Okay, well, do you want to come in?" he stammered out, still trying to force his way through the haze after his nap.

"I'd love to." Jeanette said as she helped him up and stood back a little as he unlocked the front door.

"Where are our illustrious siblings anyway?" Simon asked as he sat down on the couch and faced Jeanette as she took a seat in one of the armchairs across from him.

"Well, I can't say for sure where Alvin and Britney went, but I think they may have gone to the studio, as for Theo and Ellie, they're probably at the farmers market, so it looks like we have the morning to ourselves." She said happily, as if this were the best news in the world.

"Well, to be honest," Simon said nervously, he had never been good with talking to girls, especially not ones as beautiful as Jeanette, "I had planned to go to the library today and work on that Psychology project due next week."

"Oh, I see," Jeanette responded sadly, though for the life of him, Simon couldn't figure out why.

"Is something wrong Jeanette?" he asked concerned, "Is there something I can do?"

Jeanette giggled for a second before covering her mouth and looking at Simon in a way that was impossible for him to read. When she saw that he was watching her intensely, she looked in his eyes for all of a second before turning her head and getting up from her spot to pace around the room.

After walking for a few seconds, she turned back to him with the gentle look on her face that he was used to seeing, "You know something Simon?" she asked.

"What?" he answered, starting to feel a little light headed as he tried to stand up slowly.

"You are always so nice, even when I'm supposed to be taking care of you, you always want to make sure that everything is okay with the people you care about." She said in an admiring tone.

Simon had no idea how to respond, partly because what she had said was true and he wasn't sure what one said to a compliment, and partly because he could no longer feel his legs. Suddenly the floor fell out from under him and the last thing he took note of was Jeanette's scent as he fell forward into her embrace as she tried to catch him.

When she saw Simon starting to sway on his feet, Jeanette knew something was up, but it wasn't until he collapsed that she really realized just how fragile he was at the moment. Fortunately for both of them, she was close enough to catch him and he was really light considering how tall he was.

After she shifted his weight so that she could actually support him, she stumbled towards the couch and laid him out as best she could with the dead weight; she put her hand to his forehead and realized that he was still burning up. As she turned around to go down the hall looking for a blanket to keep him warm, she tripped over her shoe laces and fell down on top of him. As she tried to push off of him, his arm reached up and wrapped itself around her frame and held her pinned on top of him. When she looked down she saw that her lips were poised right over his. All she had to do to make her dream come true was lean in. but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It just wouldn't be the same to steal something she had always fantasized about him giving her willingly.

She hated to do it, but she had to get Simon to let go of her so she could take care of him. It took a little effort, but after a few minutes of calling out his name gently and finally resorting to poking him in the side to wake him up, his eyes fluttered open and stared at her incomprehensively as his face grew gradually redder.

After the blackness had engulfed him and his body left him, Simon was overcome by a sudden sense of warmth and a familiar form. Not wanting to be alone, he had reached out with all his strength through the black haze to grab onto the form before it could leave him to the darkness. When he felt the touch of its skin, he knew that whatever it was would not abandon him to the void around him. As he began to relax, he heard someone calling for him, as if in a distant memory, eventually he answered the call of whatever it was and he began to draw closer to a light in the distance. As he came closer to the pinprick of light in the distance, still holding fast to the warmth in his embrace, it grew in intensity and size until he was in the heart of it and began to feel his extremities again gradually, as well as an alien weight on his chest.

As he opened his eyes, he noticed two things, first, that Jeanette was right on top of him, second, that he was holding onto her for dear life. When he realized that he had her pinned down on top of him, he began to blush and try as he might, he couldn't make any coherent words form. When she saw that he was awake though, she didn't seem mad at all about the embrace he still had her in; rather, she seemed almost happy that he was holding her. Even when Simon had released his grip from around her, she didn't get up immediately like he had imagined she would, instead, she shifted her position on top of him and rested her head contentedly on his chest and sighed as she closed her eyes.

"Jeanette?" he asked slowly, still a little groggy from passing out, "Are you alright?"

Jeanette let out a short giggle and looked up into his eyes, "Why do you do that?" she asked.

"Do what?" he asked confusedly.

"You always worry about me even when I'm supposed to be taking care of you. Why do you do that?" she repeated, starting to smile a little at his confusion.

"I…don't know," he answered, thinking hard about the real reason and trying for all he was worth to not tell her the truth; that most secret of secrets had to be guarded lest he lose her friendship totally.

"Oh…" she sighed and put her head back on his chest which was now rising and falling more erratically as his heart rate shot up at an unimaginable pace.

Jeanette had been hoping for a better answer than "I don't know" from the smartest kid in their school. So she was understandably disappointed when that was all she got in response to what she considered obvious flirtations. What did she have to do to get a rise out of him? Did she have to practically do a musical number for him to get it? Then as she rested her head on his chest, she felt his pulse rise and his breathing getting more erratic. She jumped off of him, afraid that he was going to have another fainting spell, but all that she saw was his face turning a bright shade of crimson again. Since she was up though, she figured that she may as well get something to entertain them until lunch.

"What do you want to do today Simon?" she asked the feverish Chipmunk.

"Uh, I don't know, do you want to watch a movie?" he responded, his coloring gradually going back to normal.

"Alright then, let's watch a movie!" she answered excitedly, "But first, you need to take whatever medicine they left you home with." And after she gave him the pills she ran out of the room to try and find a good movie for them to watch.

As she rounded the corner at the top of the steps, she realized that for all the time she had been in their house, she had no idea where they kept their DVD's. She walked back into the living room hanging her head in embarrassment and shyly asked Simon if he could help her find the movies. After laughing for a few seconds, he got up off the couch and led her up the stairs until they stood outside the boy's rooms.

"What are you in the mood for?" he asked probingly, as if he didn't already know.

"Romance of course. You know me well enough to not have to ask Simon Seville." She responded sarcastically.

"Ok then, in that case wait right here while I go get the right ones from my room. Just stay right here okay?" He said as he stepped into his room looking nervously over his shoulder, as if he didn't want her to follow.

After a few minutes of waiting in the hall for Simon to come out of his room, Jeanette heard a crash and rushed in to make sure that he was alright. When she entered his room though, she found him kneeling amidst a pile of plastic cases and looking a little flushed. When Simon noticed that she was standing there, he started to scramble to collect the cases and push them back into his closet.

When she looked in his closet, she found a collage of sorts hanging up on the inside, the whole thing was made up of pictures from the kids lives, and more in particular, she noticed that there were an amazing amount of pictures with Simon and her. She realized a few seconds too late though, that Simon had finished putting the cases back in their spot and was now looking at her as if waiting for a response.

When she finally got up the courage to look him in the eyes, she found herself more than a little surprised. All this time she had thought that he didn't notice her, and here he had a collection of pictures saying just the opposite, she didn't know whether to be mad that he kept this from her, or ecstatic that he felt at least a little of what she felt for him every time she saw him.

Simon looked on in awkward silence as Jeanette scrutinized his private collage. He could only hope at this point that she wouldn't be too mad with him or think he was creepy. That collage was in fact the very reason he never let anyone into his room and he especially didn't want Jeanette to see it, but since she had already found it, she may as well see it all. When she looked at him again, he was surprised to see that she had neither disgust, nor hatred, in her eyes. Instead, he saw something new, or at least, something he had never noticed before. It was an emotion he had only seen when Theo and Ellie or Alvin and Britney looked in each others' eyes. Could this be the same look he had fantasized about whenever he had dreamed about them being more than just friends?

"Are you mad?" he asked, still not exactly sure if he was off the hook or not.

"Mad?" she responded exasperatedly, "Simon, why would I be mad at you?"

Then, creeping over to him slowly, she said softly, her face starting to glow red and her eyes dropping down to the floor as she got closer, "You know what I am though? I'm happy Si, in fact, I think I'm so happy I could kiss you, if that's ok with you…"

His heart skipped a beat as he heard her say those words, and for a second, he thought he had fainted again and this was all a dream, but he felt her breath on his, and he could smell her perfume, and he could see his astonished expression in the depths of her eyes, her beautiful violet eyes. And just as he was about to lean in and kiss her, he stepped back and turned away.

"What's wrong?" Jeanette asked worriedly, "Don't you want to kiss me?"

"No, it's not that, I want to kiss you very much, I just don't want you to get sick. Is there something else I can do to show you how I feel?" he responded groggily, the effects of his medicine starting to kick in.

"Well, you can at least tell me how you feel…" she responded, hoping with all her might that he would say what she had always wanted to hear him say.

"Jeanette," he said slowly, trying to get his courage up to say the words that would make them something more or ruin their friendship forever, "I love you; I always have, ever since I saw you sitting in the hall of our elementary school, and I hope you love me too."

As the words came pouring past his lips, Jeanette found herself on Cloud 9, and she lunged forward as tears of joy spilled from her eyes and she hugged him as though he would vanish if she let go for even an instant. After sitting on the floor for who knows how long, simply holding each other like they were the only people in the world, Simon began to get drowsy and they let go of each other, much as it pained them, and walked downstairs back to the living room.

When they reached the couch, Simon collapsed on top of the cushions like they were the most comfortable things in the world and was almost immediately asleep. Jeanette smiled down on him and walked over to the linen closet to get a blanket to cover him up lest he get more sick. When she had him covered with the blanket, she lay down next to him on the couch and was pleased to feel his arm snake around her waist and hold her as she drifted off to sleep in the arms of the man she loved.

Well, did you enjoy that dear reader? We'll revisit these two next time, but what I want to know is this, do you think I should include little interludes like this every now and then? What do you want to see as far as how their relationship plays out? Of course, it would all be a little much to ask of you if I didn't drop at least a little nugget of information for the next chapter. I will tell you this for certain and for sure, Simon will be better the next time these two get time alone and we'll see where that takes them. Also, I will be showing a date between Theo and Ellie as well later on. Finally, in the next chapter, we'll get to see just where exactly our two other couple went off to when they left Jeanette with Simon. Would you like that reader? Please R&R and thank you for your time. Have a nice day and good luck in your own quest for love in this world. I wish you all the best.

Happy Reading,

Musicalreader

PS- I am a registered Beta reader and am looking for something to critique, so if you think you're the next major internet sensation, please, let me know so I might become your first fan and hopefully a great help to your career.