"TWENTY THOUGHTS"

WISDOMMONKEY

~ Important Note: This is the second installment in my twenty challenge story. This chapter is not tied into the previous one in any means. In this chapter, the chipmunks are just hitting their teen years, each being aged at thirteen. I'm very happy to report that I got a lot of positive feedback on the first chapter. Seeing your reviews has really motivated me to really apply myself to this and give it the best shot that I can! It was a very pleasant surprise to log on to such lovely words! ~

(Theme description—Choose a moral dilemma (for example, you see someone pocket several items at a CVS; you're in a car at night, with people you don't know well, and the driver hits a dog that ran into the road; you learn that a friend is having unprotected sex, etc.) and explain what you would do. More importantly, explain why you would do it. What do you know about yourself that accounts for such a decision?)

CHAPTER TWO

Dilemmas, Dilemmas

Simon strolled along an aisle of books in the local mall. They were all so tempting, practically screaming "read me, Simon!" as he passed them. He ran his furry fingertips against their spines as he browsed, continuing on his way to the end of the aisle.

This was one of many of the thirteen-year-old chipmunk's favorite places. In fact, it ranked right up there with the library (which was Simon's home away from home). He felt like he could spend the rest of his life here, scoping through the many aisles and book bins. He was determined to remain in this happy place until his heart was content... or until the store closed, that is.

"Simon!"

Sadly, his hopes for sticking around the bookstore were cut short by the sound of his name being called from across the room. He turned his attention to the shout, noticing that it was his younger brother, Theodore.

"Oh," the bespectacled teenager happily chirped, shrugging off his disappointment. "Hello, Teddy. Where's Dave and Alvin?"

"They're just outside the store. They sent me in here to get you," the younger boy explained, as his stomach growled to explain what he was going to say next. "We're going to the food court; Dave said you had to come with us."

Simon smiled in understanding, heading out of the store without purchasing anything. He placed a hand on Theodore's back as they walked, making sure he wouldn't get distracted and wander off as he sometimes did. Dave and Alvin stood from the wooden bench that they sat on, waiting for the other two teens to exit the store.

"Okay, Fellas!" Dave cheerfully reported, beginning to head to the food court by following the map in his hands. His sons followed closely behind, not really paying much attention to the words their father was saying. "What are you in the mood for? I could go for some Chinese food, myself."

The triplets mumbled in unison, agreeing with the statement that they were only half listening to.

Alvin was more concerned about wanting to tour the new music store that had opened over the weekend. Theodore was just wanting to try the three new ice cream flavors the ice cream vendors in the mall were serving – all three of them at once. And, Simon was wanting to head back to the bookstore to purchase a novel that he hadn't read yet. Consumed in their thoughts, they absentmindedly followed Dave until they had reached the food court.

The four men stood in a moving line, sliding their trays along a metal bar as they walked. The women behind the counter happily served them and placed the food they had ordered onto the trays, pointing them to the register.

After Dave had paid for himself and his three kids, they sat at one of the few empty tables, ready to enjoy a family lunch.

~ Dilemmas, Dilemmas ~

The lunch had past after half an hour or so, leaving the family to once again tour the mall.

"Uh... D-Dave?" Theodore, his jade eyes shining with innocence, asked with a sweet voice. He tapped on his father's arm to better gain his attention, pointing to a nearby poster. "It says there's a magic show being held in the magic shop. Can we go see it? Please?!"

"Oh, I don't know, Theo," Dave began with a skeptical tone, giving a slight glare to Alvin. "After last time, I don't think we should bring Alvin into another thing like that."

"Please, Dave?!"

The pout on the youngest teen's fluffy face melted Dave's heart, forcing him to reconsider the decision. He was still standing strong on the thought that Alvin would possibly get them banned from the mall all together, but he didn't want to disappoint Theodore because of Alvin's mistakes.

"Aw, I don't want to go to any stinkin' magic show, anyway!" Alvin boasted, pushing himself between his dad and his younger brother. "Hey! Crazy idea... How about I go with Simon to that new music store while you and Teddy go see the show? I'm sure Simon won't mind... Right, Si?"

Alvin's tone of voice suggested that, even though he was asking, Simon didn't have a choice. The blue-sweater-wearing chipmunk sighed reluctantly, but decided to give in to his brother's wishes. He adjusted his glasses into their proper placement, moving to stand next to the boy with the red baseball cap.

"Alvin's right. You two go and have fun," Simon responded, gesturing to the poster. "Besides, I might find some interesting sheet music to study up on."

"Well, if you're sure."

"Dave, Dave, Dave," the eldest chipmunk chuckled coolly, patting the brunette man's shoulder as he stood on his tiptoes. "Everything will be fiiiine. You can trust me."

Dave gave the mischievous chipmunk a suspicious and sharp glare. With a heavy heave of air and Theodore tugging on his arm sleeve, the raven-haired man finally consented to the idea.

"Okay, I guess it would be alright," he huffed, his son dressed in the green sweater tugging him toward the magic shop. "Simon, keep an eye on him!"

"Naturally," Simon called back to fill the distance, turning to face Alvin.

The capped teen held an almost evil smirk on his face, wringing his hands together as he plotted. The only thing that removed this twisted grin was feeling his brother's hand heavily resting on his shoulder. He looked up to the taller adolescent, the smirk morphing into an innocent smile.

~ Dilemmas, Dilemmas ~

"Holy smokes!" Alvin squeakily cried, darting into the music store. "Look at all this stuff!"

The chipper thirteen-year-old scrambled back and forth across every corner of the store, finally calming himself enough to truly browse the items. While he plundered through the guitar picks, Simon was right on his heels. His brow heavily furrowed as he turned to face his brother, signaling his annoyance through a sour expression.

"Oh, don't mind me," Simon said, chortling from the enjoyment he got from his position of being in charge. "I'm simply doing what Dave said and keeping an eye on you."

"More like four eyes..." Alvin hurtfully grumbled under his breath, mocking the glasses on Simon's face.

He was preparing to rant about how Simon was cramping his "cool guy" style. That, of course, was before a glimmer of gold caught his eye. An over-dramatic gasp of glee escaped his throat as he darted to the source of the golden sheen. These sudden actions piqued the more-intelligent of the brothers' interest. He followed behind his older brother, who was still fumbling through a vast assortment of guitar picks until he found the one he had been searching for.

"Alvin, you have tons of guitar picks. Why are you so intrigued by this one?"

"Are you nuts?!" Alvin screeched, plucking the golden guitar pick from the bunch after moments of digging. "Look at it! Simon, do you know what this is?!"

Simon gave a bored glance to the guitar pick, straightening his glasses to better examine it from a distance. He squinted his eyes, trying to see anything special about the instrument's aide.

"No, no! Don't tell me! It's a guitar pick, right?" He sarcastically stated the obvious, smirking with satisfaction.

Alvin scoffed, sinking back to lean against Simon. He slumped his arm across the younger male's shoulders, holding the guitar pick in front of them. He admired it with hungry eyes, determined to claim it as his own.

"Simon! This is the golden guitar pick that that stupid birdbrains, Tommy Finkle, said I could never get! His dad bought him one for his birthday; they're so expensive that there's no way any other kid could get one in a million years!"

"Tommy Finkle's dad is a millionaire, Alvin," Simon pointed out, leaning down to view the price tag on the shelf where the guitar pick was from. His baby-blue eyes grew to twice their normal size as the outrageous price was revealed. "Nine-hundred dollars for a little guitar pick like that?! That's outrageous!"

"I've gotta have it!" The troublemaker shouted to himself in a whisper.

Alvin watched as his brother observed the price tag, comparing them to the many others on other guitar picks. This gave him a chance to carefully pocket the guitar pick into the small pocket sewn to his sweater. He took great care in avoiding the security cameras and Simon as he performed this swift, illegal act.

"Oh, Alvin, let's just get out of here. We can't afford anything; these prices are way too high."

After a silent agreement, the two exited the store. Alvin chortled sneakily, relishing the fact that his younger brother was oblivious to his thievery ways.

~ Dilemmas, Dilemmas ~

"Ah," Dave sighed with contentment as he pushed open the front door of his home. "It's good to be home. Did you boys have fun today?"

"Sure did, Dave!" Theodore shouted, slurping some soda from the cup the magician gave to him. "I really liked how they gave us free popcorn and soda before the magic show!"

Dave laughed, patting his more-naive son on the head. He slipped his shoes off at the door before heading to rest in his recliner. He picked up the newspaper from a small table and scanned through the local news.

"How about you, Alvin?" Dave questioned, setting his newspaper aside for a moment. An unusual silence greeted him. "Alvin?... Allllvvviiiinnn?!"

"He went upstairs, Dave," Simon interrupted, hearing their bedroom door being slammed from upstairs. "I think he's a little upset. He found something at the music store that he really wanted, but it was far out of his price range."

The brunette father-figure gave a sympathetic gesture, once again turning to his newspaper.

"Gee, that's too bad. But, this could be a good lesson for him. You can't always get what you want in life."

~ Dilemmas, Dilemmas ~

That night, as two of the triplets prepared for bed, a sharp twang of a guitar pierced the air. The sound rudely interrupted the calmness of the night.

"That's weird," Teddy muttered through the toothpaste fluff in his mouth, spitting before continuing. "Alvin hasn't practiced his guitar in weeks. He was too upset to after Tommy made those mean jokes about him."

"Yes," Simon distrustfully droned, narrowing his eyes. He placed his glasses onto his face after thoroughly washing it. "I wonder why... Theodore, why don't you downstairs and see if Dave needs help cleaning the kitchen."

Theodore shrugged, naively heading downstairs.

After excusing his younger brother, Simon scurried to the bedroom that they all shared. He cautiously pushed the door open, not wanting to disrupt Alvin's practicing. Not that he was worried about the actual practicing, he was more concerned with testing the hypothesis that he feared. Upon entering the room, his fears were confirmed, causing his stomach to lurch.

"I knew it!" He strained, harshly pointing his finger at his shocked brother.

Alvin dropped his guitar onto his bed, tossing away the stolen pick. He knew he had already be caught, but he fully intended to lie his way through this quandary.

"Knew what?" He cooed with a sickeningly-sweet voice. "I mean, you're just so smart. I bet you know a lot of things."

"Don't pull that innocent act with me, Alvin," Simon spat, pushing his finger into his brother's chest. "You stole that guitar pick! The only thing I don't understand is how you got passed the security sensors in the door."

"Oh, that's just a little trick I learned," Alvin obliviously stated, eyes bulging when he caught his mistakes. "Uh! I mean..."

"You've done this before?!" The taller teen raged. "Oh, you are unbelievable! Just wait until Dave hears about this."

"No! Y-you can't tell Dave!" Alvin pleaded, covering his sibling's mouth with his hand. "If he finds out, he'll never trust me again."

There was a slight struggle between the siblings before Simon managed to free himself from the grasp. He huffed heavily as he sat on his bed, patting the space next to him, gesturing for Alvin to sit. Reluctantly, he did.

"Fine, I won't tell Dave," Simon unwillingly replied, kicking himself for this decision. "On one condition."

"What condition?" The guitarist puffed, placing his chin in his hands.

"You tell Dave."

Panic crashed over the thirteen-year-old thief. His fuzzy face paled a little as he violently shook his head. What kind of "condition" was this? Weren't "conditions" supposed to help people out of jams?

"No way! No way! He'll make me give back the guitar pick. J-just let me keep it until I can show it off at school. I wanna give that Tommy a taste of his own medicine!"

"No, Alvin!"

Alvin, guilt finally starting to nip at him, let his eyes fall on the floor the room. He sighed anxiously, his hair falling in front of his face.

"Look, I know what I did was stupid... but I just wanted to show it off a little. I would have taken it back to the store... eventually."

"Right. Just like you took the other things you stole back to the store?" Simon asked, only now noticing the many things around the room that Alvin must have stolen. How he hadn't noticed them before was a mystery, considering that most of them still had the anti-theft objects pinned to them. "You do realize you could get into a lot of trouble for this, and not just with Dave."

The red-pajama-wearing boy nodded, still not wanting to admit to his faults. He stood up from the bed, picking the gold-plated guitar pick up from the floor. He brushed off the dust and placed it onto the nightstand, staring at it with mixed feelings. The thing that he had desired for was now mocking him.

"Simon?"

"What?"

"Do you think I could go to jail for this?"

Simon removed his glasses, setting them on the nightstand as he settled into his bed. He looked at the blurred figure that was his older brother and sighed.

"Well," he started, that matter-of-fact tone he so often had filling his voice. "You're only thirteen, so I doubt they would send you to prison. But, they could put you in juvenile detention or give you some type of community service, considering this isn't your first offense and the item was pretty pricey. It really just depends on what is decided when you get caught. Or, you could just tell Dave and take the stuff back to the stores. They're usually understanding with that sort of thing."

Another somber nod. Maybe he should tell Dave?

Before the conversation to continue, Theodore had returned and Simon had already fallen to sleep. This left Alvin to lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark, trying to think of ways to break the news to Dave. He didn't know what he hated worse – himself or the thought of how Dave would handle the truth.

~ Dilemmas, Dilemmas ~

"I am very disappointed in you, Alvin," the chipmunk's adoptive father woefully said, pointing up the stairs. "Now, go to your room and think about what you've done."

"Yes, Dave." Alvin depressingly obeyed. He wasn't so much angry at Dave, but he was disappointed in himself. He began to make his way up to his room before looking down at his dad from the staircase. "By the way, I'm really sorry."

Dave simply shook his head, setting the empty box they had used to return many stolen items on the ground.

"Sometimes sorry just isn't enough, Alvin. Room, now."

The cap-wearing rodent entered his bedroom, his facial expression physically showing his letdown. Simon and Theodore quickly noticed this as their brother slumped over to his bed, falling face-first into his pillow. The two younger siblings exchanged a glance before Simon decided to speak.

"H-how did everything go?"

An unintelligible mutter.

"Is Dave mad at you?" Theodore, who had finally been informed of the situation, sweetly chimed in, sitting on the end of Alvin's bed. He, too, got an unintelligible mutter as a response.

The smarter of the three patted Theodore's shoulder gently, gesturing to the door.

"Teddy, you go check on Dave. I want to talk to Alvin."

"B-but -"

"Please?" Simon insisted sternly.

After an unwilling acceptance, Theodore trotted down the stairs to accompany his father in the den, leaving his older brothers alone. Once the room filled with tense silence, Simon sat next to his sulking relative. He placed a hand on Alvin's back, sharing a rare brotherly moment. The touch caused Alvin to perk up a little, titling his head to view his brother.

"Dave's really disappointed in me. He lectured me the entire time we were returning everything. I'm so stupid; I always get myself into these messes. Why is it always me that gets into trouble?"

"I thought you liked being the troublemaker?" Simon retorted with confusion, trying to do the impossible task of counting all the times Alvin had tested Dave's temper.

"I like getting attention, not getting in trouble," Alvin confessed, pulling the brim of his cap over his face. His eyes were somewhat glazing over with tears, but he refused to let Simon know that. "I don't think Dave will ever stop being mad at me for this one."

"I'm sure he will."

"No, he won't. Not ever."

"Yes, he will."

"Nope."

"Yes, he will, Alvin!" Simon shouted, causing shock to shoot through the other teen. He tousled his hair a little, surprised that he had snapped in such a fashion.

He was instantly questioning himself on whether he should reveal such a secret about himself. He had never told anybody his dark secret; only he and Dave knew about it. He bit his lip anxiously, deeply thinking over the situation at hand. Finally, for the sake of his brother, Simon decided to make his confession.

"Alvin, I know Dave will forgive you for this... from experience."

Sniffling, the crying male looked at his brother with confusion. His posture changed as the mood took a turn from depressing to shocking.

"Y-you've stolen before? But, you got so mad at me for doing it!"

As a look of anger crossed Alvin's features, Simon raised a hand to him as if to say "don't get ahead of me".

"I've never stolen anything. B-but, there was a time that I really tested Dave's trust in me," the nervous teen stuttered, trying not to make eye contact. "Do you remember that party at Miss Miller's house a couple of months ago?"

"You mean the one where I stuck that frog in Brittnay's punch glass?"

Simon shamefully bowed his head, letting Alvin know that he had hit the nail on the head.

"W-well, while Dave was busy yelling at you, I got bored and decided to go outside for some air. Unfortunately, the only air I could get was filled with smoke," the glasses-bound teenager responded, cursing softly as he thought back to that night. "It was Brittnay's boyfriend. Heaven knows what she finds attractive in a guy like that."

"Pfft, she's just all gaga over older dudes," Alvin added, a hint of jealously lacing his remark. He hated that sixteen-year-old guy for many reasons, but saying that dating Brittany wasn't one of them would be a lie. After stewing in the jealous thoughts for a moment, his thoughts returned to him and a realization dawned hit him. "Wait a minute... you didn't smoke, did you?"

Simon once again shamefully dipped his head, covering his face with his hands. Even he couldn't come to terms with the spur of the moment party decision.

"I regret it now.. to be honest, I regretted then, too. But, I had been stressed that week, especially after losing the science fair to that charlatan, Betty-Sue. I just gave in when he asked me if I wanted a puff."

"Oh, yeah. I'd forgot about that," the older boy explained, remembering the night of the science fair. He was still trying to grasp the fact that Simon of all people would have succumbed to peer pressure. "How did Dave find out?"

"Well, after you got back to partying, I guess Dave needed some fresh air, too. He walked outside and caught me putting it out in one of Miss Miller's potted plants. Boy, was he ever mad!"

Alvin slid closer to Simon with interest, resembling a child being read a bedtime story. His eyes pressed the taller boy for more details.

"And?"

Simon sighed, not wanting to continue to expose his past.

"And... he stayed sore at me for a few days. He gave me the same look that he gave you this morning when you told him about the stealing. I thought he'd never forgive me for doing something so irresponsible, but he did. It took him some time, mind you."

"S-so, you really think he'll forget about this whole "my son's an underhanded thief" thing?"

"I know so."

The mood instantly lightened as the brothers shared an awkward moment of laughter. They both sat on the bed in silence for a minute, letting the confessions between them set in a bit. Eventually, Alvin broke the silence, standing up from the bed.

"Hey! How's about you, me, and Theo go get some ice cream? My treat."

Simon grinned swiftly. He, too, stood from the bed and followed Alvin out of the room.

"That depends. Are you going to buy the ice cream?"

"Only if you promise not to get cigarette ashes in it."

The two chipmunks shared another round of laughter as they exited their room in search for the youngest of their trio.

"It's a deal."

~ I think I've overused the word 'nodded' and 'sighed' in this chapter; I need to work on that. Other than that, I'm actually quite fond of the plot. It came to me while I was talking to my good friend, Tiff. I asked her what she thought of the theme and her idea was brilliant. She reminded me of the time that we were at the mall and she stole a pair of earrings. She told me that it was my advice to her (after I found out that is) that convinced her to tell her mom and take them back to the store. Now that we're adults ourselves and she's a new mommy, she's thankful for the lesson she learned and hopes to pass it onto her daughter one day. Thanks for your input, Tiff. ~