Meg came home that evening in complete and utter tears. Suddenly, Lois walked up in an attempt to comfort her.

"Meg, honey, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Why do you care?" asked Meg. "For someone who's supposed to comfort me, you're such a witch to me!"

"Well, looks like you're in need of a WITCH DOCTOR!" said a squeaky voice.

"Seriously guys, not now!" snapped Meg.

"Sorry," said Alvin.

"Let me guess," said Lois. "It's about those singing chipmunks, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah," said Meg.

"What were they doing now?" asked Lois.

"Honestly, I don't want to talk about it," said Meg. "Okay, they performed at a school carnival and I made a total ass of myself because I didn't want them embarrassing me. But

"I know this sounds kind of selfish, but I honestly wish that I never met them!"

"Now, that's no way to talk about your little friends," Lois said, trying to comfort her daughter. "Even if they are kind of annoying."

"How would you know, Mom?" snapped Meg. "You can't even raise your own daughter right!"

"Hey, Meg?" said a squeaky little voice.

"Who the hell was that?" asked Meg.

"It's me, Theodore," said Theodore. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," said Meg.

"Wait a minute," said Simon. "According to my studies, if any girl says she's fine, she's lying. Period. In fact, "I'm fine," clearly means "I'm a hot mess.""

"What's a hot mess?" asked Theodore.

"You don't want to know," said Simon. "But, anyways, Meg, you're still upset about what happened, aren't you?"

"Well, surely things can't possibly get any worse," said Meg.

"Hey, Meg, the toilet's flooding," said Peter. "This isn't because of your new friends, is it?"

Meg said nothing, but merely stared at them in pure disgust, appalled at their reaction.

Why would singing chipmunks flood the toilet, anyway? she thought to herself.

"Maybe we could sing a song about it!" said Alvin. "And a one, and a two, and a three-Oh, the toilet's flooding here, the toilet's flooding hereeee..."

"Uh- no," said Simon.

"Sorry," said Alvin.

"Still, she doesn't look very happy," said Theodore. "Maybe we could make her a song to cheer her up?"

"Also no," said Simon. "Seriously though, we've only been here for three days, and already we've been terrible guests. I mean-"

"Not on purpose!" snapped Alvin.

"Still," said Simon. "We should probably distance ourselves from...this girl for a few days."

"Okay..." shrugged Alvin. As much as he loved his brother, he could be a real pain sometime.

"But-," said Theodore. "She's our new mom. Shouldn't we be nice to her?"

"We can be nice to her by not annoying her all the time," said Simon. "And perhaps ignoring her."

"Fine," said Alvin. "But only for a week."

"Fair enough," said Simon.

"Wait a minute," said Theodore. "Who will take care of us?"

"It's simple," said Alvin. "We can take care of ourselves. We can feed ourselves, brush our own teeth, take a bath on our own-"

"So why are we here?" asked Theodore.

"Because...we snuck into her bag to avoid Ian Hawke that other day," said Alvin. "He wanted to kidnap us to make us music stars, and well-"

Before he knew it, Meg had found them arguing out.

"Hey, guys," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"The question is, what are you doing here?" Alvin asked her.

"I guess I felt kind of bad about treating you that way," she told him. "I mean, all things considered, you guys have been the first people around who have been nice to me."

"Wait," said Theodore. "No one else here is nice to you? That's just sad."

"I'm afraid so," said Meg. "Like, one of my dad's favorite hobbies is farting in my face."

Suddenly, Alvin started to crack up.

"That's not funny," said Meg. "He's a real jerk."

"Yeah, we can see that," said Alvin. "Our dad would never think of treating us that way."

"Lucky you," said Meg sadly.

"You know," said Simon. "That's why we've made an effort to cheer you up. No one deserves to live this way, let alone you."

"You really mean that?" asked Meg.

"Meg, would we lie to you?" asked Alvin.

"No, I guess not," said Meg, starting to smile. "After all, you guys are kind of like my younger brothers."

"Meg...you're smiling," said Simon.

"Yeah, and?" said Meg.

"We've never seen you smile here before!" said Simon.

"Oh, I see," said Meg. "Guess I finally have a reason to smile."

Meg grabbed her new "brothers," giving them a hug. Finally, there were those out there who cared for her, truly cared.

No sooner than that happened than Peter called out for her.

"Hey, Meg? We're getting an exterminator to take out our little rodent problem here," she said. "I just dialed the guy. Hope you don't mind."

"What rodent problem?" asked Meg.

"Oh wait- he's on leave for three months. Looks like we'll have to wait."

It suddenly occurred to Meg that the "rodent problem" he was referring to was, in fact, her new brothers, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. She started to freak, but kept her composure.

"Dad, you can't do that! They're my friends," she told him.

"Meg, they're annoying," he said. "And what kind of chipmunks sing for god's sake?"

"Dad, please!" she shrieked. "They're like little boys. You can't do this!"

"Meg, anyone who spends that much time around you is an annoying little pest," he told her. "Seriously, Meg, stop giving me reasons to call this guy again."

"You just don't want me happy, do you?" she told him. "I knew it."