A/N - Okay, here's part four. I want to thank those you who've read these and commented, it's what keeps me writing. I really don't like the last part of this, Brittany is just really hard for me to write for, for some reason. I hope you like it. I'm hard at work on the final part, unless I write an epilogue, lol.
"What sort of reckless person leaves their trash cans in the middle of the road?" Ms. Miller asked, coming to a stop in her driveway. Simon, Alvin and Theodore released their death grips on the seat and relaxed a little. Eleanor and Brittany were used to Ms. Miller's driving, but they had still been gripping the seat, just not as hard as the boys.
"Those were our trashcans, Ms. Miller," Eleanor said from the backseat.
"They were? Well, Brittany must have put them too close to the curb," Ms. Miller said, checking her hair in the rearview mirror.
"What?! They were mmph mm mmph!" Brittany started to say, when Eleanor clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Brittany, you'll just have to be more careful in the future," Eleanor said, giving Brittany a look that said, 'Drop it'. Brittany grimaced and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well don't wait on me. Everyone out," Ms. Miller said, opening her door and climbing out. It was an unspoken rule that you shouldn't exit Ms. Miller's car until she had. You never knew if her hand or foot might slip. Once she was completely out of the car, they all climbed out after her.
"We're sure Jeanette is here?" Brittany asked, slamming the car door behind her.
"If she went home sick, where else would she go?" Simon asked. Theodore looked away, and hoped no one would notice.
"Why don't I go get her?" Theodore said, and started towards the door to Ms. Miller's house.
"I'll get her," Brittany said, and went to the door.
"But…." Theodore started, when Brittany interrupted him.
"You need to go get ready, and I need to put my dress on," Brittany said, unlocking the door.
"Didn't you already bring the dress you wanted to wear over this morning?" Alvin asked, giving her an exasperated look.
"I can't wear that dress now, too many good things have happened today, I need to wear something better. We'll be over soon," she said, waving them away as she walked in and shut the door.
"Come on Theodore, we need to hurry," Simon said, taking Theodore's hand and leading him and the others to the Seville house. Theodore cast an anxious glance over his shoulder….he hoped those two would be okay.
"Jeanette! Jeanette, are you up there?" Brittany called out as she started up the stairs. In their room, Jeanette stirred in her bed. She groaned, and turned to look at the clock…it read 3:30. Why was her sister waking her up so early? Then memories of what had happened that day flooded her thoughts, and her head snapped up.
"Jeanette are you…? Oh good, you're here," Brittany said with a sigh of relief, "How are you feeling? Theodore said you left because you weren't feeling well," she said as she walked to her wardrobe. She pulled the doors opened and started searching through it for the perfect dress. Jeanette watched her sister going through her dresses, unsure what to do. Should she confront her, should she forget she saw what she saw….or maybe what she thought she saw? While debating with herself, Brittany picked a dress and went to her vanity to apply her make-up and fix her hair. She was so lost in her thoughts she completely shut out what her sister was saying, until….
"….I was so happy I kissed Simon, ha ha," Brittany said, moving her hair about to try and make it look its best. Jeanette's mouth dropped open, completely shocked by what her sister had said. She said it like it was nothing, as if she didn't care that she knew how Jeanette felt about Simon. She wanted to scream at her sister, but the words wouldn't come, her mouth kept opening and closing, little gasps coming out each time.
Brittany finally noticed her sister wasn't talking to her, Jeanette always said something, even when Brittany was just talking about herself. She looked past herself in the mirror and saw Jeanette, gaping at her as if she'd just been slapped.
"Jeanette, what's wrong?" Brittany asked, finally deciding her hair would look best down with the dress she had chosen.
"You…you kissed Simon?" Jeanette managed to croak out, trying to fight back sobs.
"Yeah," Brittany said, clearly not understanding her sister's distress. She had been listening, hadn't she? Everyone listened when Brittany Miller talked…well, everyone except Alvin.
"How, how could you?" Jeanette asked, a tear starting to slide down her cheek.
"Jeanette, what are you so upset about? It was a couple of kisses, it didn't mean anything," Brittany said, turning to look at her sister.
"It didn't mean anything? So what, you're just leading him on or something?" Jeanette said, her voice growing hard in anger. She could eventually forgive Brittany for stealing Simon, but to lead him on? That was something she could never forgive.
"Leading him on? Jeanette, have you been listening to me at all?" Brittany asked, looking at her sister like she was clearly insane.
"…No. Why?" Jeanette asked, still confused and angry with her sister.
"Jeanette," Brittany said with a roll of her eyes, "if you'd been listening to me, like you should have, you'd know what happened. I guess I'll just have to repeat myself…."
At five minutes to the end of class Brittany's hand shot up. A nearly frantic look on her face.
"Yes Brittany?" Mr. Arkin asked from the front of the room.
"I have a note from Mrs. Schimmel to let me out early." She said, and got up from her desk, and quickly walked to the front of the class. She dug through her back pack and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. She held it out to Mr. Arkin, who took it and looked at it with a little skepticism. Brittany wouldn't be the first (or last) student to try to sneak out early with a fake note. Seeing Mrs. Schimmel's familiar scrawl, he smiled at Brittany, and handed her the note back.
"Very well, Ms. Miller, you're excused." He went back to writing on the chalkboard, and Brittany hurried from the room. She practically ran down the hall to Mrs. Schimmel's class room. She looked through the window in the door, and saw the students inside working quietly at their desks, finishing the math finals, much as Brittany had been earlier. Mrs. Schimmel was bent over papers on her desk, a frown on her face, and her red correction pen moving furiously over someone's test. Brittany hoped it wasn't hers. She tapped gently on the glass, causing a few students to look at her crossly, as if she had done it simply to interrupt them. Mrs. Schimmel looked at the door and her face took on a neutral expression, and she said something to her students, who immediately went back to their tests. She shuffled through the papers on her desk, and pulled out one from close to the bottom. Brittany gave a small sigh of relief, the paper she'd been grading wasn't hers. Mrs. Schimmel said something else to the class, but Brittany couldn't hear it, and got up from her desk. She still had that unreadable expression on her face as she walked to the door.
Calm down Brittany, after all that work with Simon you have to pass….you have to! Brittany took a deep breath, this was the moment she had been dreading for the past two weeks. If she didn't get at least a B- on this test, she would fail the class, and have to take summer school or be held back. A B- didn't sound like much, but when you made only Fs, Ds, and the rare C during the year, it was like climbing a mountain. Mrs. Schimmel opened the door, and to Brittany it seemed to take an eternity.
"Here Brittany, I hope you're not too disappointed," Mrs. Schimmel said, and handed the paper to her. Brittany's heart sank, and she knew that she was doomed. All that time spent with Simon going over and over problems and equations, and now it had all been for nothing. Simon had been such a good teacher, vary patient with her, calmly explaining to her how and why it all worked the way it did. She had been so sure she finally understood what was going on. She sighed, and turned the paper over….
"A B+? I got a B+!" she screamed, and thought she would simply fall over in shock. Mrs. Schimmel, no longer able to keep a straight face, broke out into a wide grin as a laugh rippled out from her.
"Forgive me Brittany, but even teachers need to have a little fun sometimes," she said, "I want you to know how very proud I am of you. This is the most improvement I've ever seen in a student. I'm going to inform the principal of this, and Simon will most likely be getting another accommodation from the school for his hard work with you. You need to make sure you thank Simon….Brittany, are you crying?"
"I'm just so happy! I thought I would fail, and have to go to summer school, and I'd fail that too, and be held back without Jeanette and Eleanor…" she said, and wiped a tear from her cheek.
"Oh Brittany," Mrs. Schimmel said as knelt down next to Brittany and puller her into a hug, "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Congratulations Brittany, you've passed." As she said that, the bell rang, surprising them both.
"I have to collect their tests! Brittany, congratulations again, and be sure to thank Simon." Mrs. Schimmel said, dashing back into her classroom and quickly collecting tests. Brittany turned and ran down the hall to Simon's locker. His class was right across from it, so he was already there when she got there. Brittany didn't slow down; she hit him head on and wrapped him in a big hug.
"Ooof! Brittany, what…" he started to say, when Brittany's lips hit his cheek. She kissed him over and over again, before it really hit her what she was doing. She immediately let go of Simon and jumped back a little, a blush coming over her face. Simon's face was a combination of shock and embarrassment, and his face was completely red.
"Oh. Simon….I was just…" Brittany trailed off, a little embarrassed at her actions. Simon coughed into his hand to clear his throat. Brittany kissing him was something he'd never expected to happen.
"It's okay Brittany, it was just, um, unexpected," Simon said, the redness beginning to recede from his face, "What has you in such high spirits?"
"Look at this!" Brittany cried, thrusting the paper at Simon. His eyes scanned it quickly, and they widened with surprise.
"A B+! I knew you could do it Brittany, congratulations!" he said to her, and extended his hand for her to shake. Brittany rolled her eyes, and pulled Simon into another hug, only without all the kisses this time.
"Thank you Simon, thank you so much. You don't know how worried I was about failing that class," she said as she hugged him hard, and gave him one final kiss on the cheek. She was worried she would cry again, she was just so relieved. She would never admit it to anyone, but not being able to advance to the next grade with her sisters had scared her more than anything.
"You're welcome Brittany, anything to advance someone's understanding of mathematics," Simon replied with a chuckle, and began to disentangle himself from Brittany. Once he'd separated himself from the excited Chipette, he turned and finished putting his things away in his locker.
"Now, what do you say we find the others and let them know the good news?" Simon asked, turning to find Brittany already on her way down the hall towards the cafeteria. He chuckled to himself and started after her.
This will be an interesting lunch period.
"But of course, when we got to the cafeteria, we only found Eleanor there. We didn't know where you and Theodore had gotten to. Where were you?" Brittany asked. Jeanette didn't really hear Brittany's question, she was still wrapping her head around what had happened, and what hadn't happened.
"When I, I saw you kiss Simon, and I guess I thought that maybe…he and you…" Jeanette started.
"You thought I and Simon were…?" Brittany asked, a look of indignation on her face "Puh-lease Jeanette, I can do soooo much better than Simon. I mean, he's perfect for you, but I need someone more…hunky." She sighed out that last word. While telling her story, Brittany had put on her dress and finished applying her make up. She let her hair down, and was brushing it now, trying to get it looking it's best. She stopped, and shook it back and forth, and stopped to admire herself.
"Perfect," she said, and stood up, "Jeanette, we need to get you ready."
"Ready?" Jeanette asked. She was still a little dazed to realize that Brittany wasn't trying to steal Simon from her…not that Simon was hers, exactly.
"Dave is taking us out to celebrate!" Brittany said excitedly.
"Celebrate? Really?" Jeanette asked, growing excited. With everything that had, and hadn't, happened today, she had completely forgotten how special today was for her.
"Of course he's taking us out. It's not every day that I pass Math, Alvin and Eleanor's team become the county champions, and Simon gets another award, is it?"
"Oh, is that what we're celebrating?" Jeanette asked, her face falling again.
"What else is there?" Brittany asked.
"…nothing, I guess," Jeanette sighed. Why should she expect them to remember something like her birthday, they had already celebrated for Brittany and Eleanor, why should anyone care about her.
"Now let's see," Brittany said, walking to Jeanette's wardrobe. She went through the few dresses Jeanette had, grumbling at the lack of choices.
"Jeanette, we need to get you…Oh, now this," she said, pulling a dark blue dress out, "You should wear this!" Brittany said, and walked over to her sister, holding the dress out to her.
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?" Jeanette asked, looking down at her rumpled sweater and her wrinkled skirt.
"I refuse to let you leave this house for a night out looking like that!" Brittany said, and tossed the dress to her, "Now put that on, I'm going to call the others and let them know we'll be a little while." She said, and left the room. Jeanette sighed, got up and went to her vanity. She held the dress up in front of herself.
I do look good in this, she thought to herself, maybe Simon will like it.
Brittany walked down stairs and went into the kitchen. She took the phone from the wall and dialed the Seville house. She twirled the phone cord around her fingers and waited for someone to answer.
"Seville house, this is Simon." Simon answered.
"Simon, we're going to be a little longer, I'm helping Jeanette get ready. How is Theodore doing?" Brittany asked.
"Thankfully he's a fast learner, he already has it memorized," Simon replied.
"Good, we should only be 15 or 20 minutes, make sure you're all ready."
"Don't worry Brittany, we'll be ready when you get here." Simon replied, he sounded a little nervous.
"Simon, it will be fine, don't worry," Brittany told him, "Now, I need to finish getting Jeanette ready, we'll see you in a bit," and she hung up the phone, cutting off anything Simon might have said. She sighed and walked back upstairs to their room. Jeanette had finished putting the dress on, and was trying to finish zipping it up in the back. She was spinning in a little circle, trying to hold the dress in place while pulling the zipper up, and it was such an odd sight that Brittany couldn't help but laugh.
"Wha?!" was all Jeanette managed to get out before she tripped and went tumbling to the floor. Brittany immediately stopped laughing and went to help her sister up.
"Are you okay Jeanette?" she asked, helping Jeanette to her feet.
"I'm fine." Jeanette said, feeling a little embarrassed. Brittany finished zipping the dress up and stepped away a little to examine her sister.
"There, you look great! Now, let's get some make up on you." Brittany grabbed her sister's arm and lead her to her vanity.
Oh no, Jeanette thought, Brittany's giving me the full treatment. At least it'll be over soon, and then we'll go out to celebrate…everyone else.