Hello everybody! After years away I am back with chapter 5 of My Treasure! I hope this story finds a new audience with the update.

We're going to be primarily following Jeanette for a little bit. Hopefully soon you will understand why.

As always, please take a minute to review or PM me your thoughts, positive or negative.

Without further ado…

Chapter 5: Time for Some Campaigning

Flashback*

It was safe to say that Jeanette had not anticipated the reaction she got from a simple post. She stared at her phone screen, shuttering at the blowback pouring her way. Every second there was a "ding" sound, prompting a notification of an additional 12 to 17 engagements with the thread. Her account had only just over eight thousand followers. She had not received anywhere near this much attention since she had retired from music over six years ago.

In comparison to the other five members of her group, Jeanette had by far remained the most out of the public eye. Simon took a chance on a starring role in a scientifically educational Amazon Prime show for kids, and it paid off with millions of dollars, four seasons (with a recent renewal for a fifth), and renewed fame. Theodore carved out one of the most watched cooking shows in the United States. America fell in love with the bubbly personality of the youngest chipmunk bouncing off screen as he created art in the kitchen. Eleanor bought the WFA, a women's tackle football league. Through genius marketing and leniant contract negotiations with a few major television networks, as well as Netlflix, the WFA had become the fifth most watched sport in the United States. Brittany had had a brief stint as a world-famous runway model before her pregnancy with Laney. After she gave birth she tried to get back into it but was mostly unable to find profitable work. She settled down as a stay-at-home mom with Alvin bringing home the bacon, who held out the longest in the music business. He had only just recently hung up his microphone to take up a job at, of all places, Jett Records as a talent scout. Jeanette didn't hear from them much but what she had heard was luke warm at best regarding how Alvin's new job was going.

Jeanette, on the other hand, public very different route. She became a political campaign manager. None of the others besides Simon had even the faintest clue that she had earned her political science degree through online college while they were still touring as musicians. She didn't want them to assume that it would negatively affect her commitment to the group. Her original plan was to use the degree as a stepping stool to a law degree, which she wanted to pursue whenever they retired. But as she studied political science, she came realize that she had not only a talent for it but a passion for it. It took her a long time to understand why; she fell in love with the idea of directing and navigating men and women who had such a great ability to persuade and seduce people into larger coalitions. The practice of analyzing data centered around people's thoughts and emotions, and using that data to sway candidates, people of charisma and power, to do her bidding from behind the scenes. She understood people. She understood what motivated them, what made them tick, what drove them to be passionate activists… but she herself did not possess nearly the confidence or personality to bring these qualities out of people herself. She knew what had to be done or said at all times but did not have the ability to perform. Her masterful work behind the scenes led a near-perfect twenty-one out of twenty-two candidate victories under her watch. She worked with Republicans, Democrats, and independants alike with no discrimination between them in quality of service. She had now become the most sought after campaign manager in Southern California, and she managed to do so without the fame or publicity that often came with it.

She continued to quiver as she, sitting in her living room past 1am with all of the lights off, stared at her phone, still buzzing with activity. She had only planned to catch up on the news, just as she had planned when she conducted her now regretted post.

Her post was a response to one of the two Senators from California, Gary Martin. A direct response with an " " sign. Mr. Martin had posted an article from the Los Angeles Times titled "Former Barnes Staffer Who Alleged the Congressman Raped Her Before Firing Her: 'He paid for the abortion'".

Martin added his own comments to the reposted article: "Congressman Barnes remains silent on this matter. Innocence is presumed until proven guilty… however the circumstances of Miss Flynn's firing are very suspicious. America deserves a statement from the Congressman on this issue."

Jeanette was Barnes' campaign manager when he first ran for office. He had a special place in her heart both because he was her first job and because of the genuine kindness he had always shown his staff, including her. She knew the circumstances of Jody Flynn's firing. Flynn was equally as lazy as she was incompetent as an event scheduler. There were at least two occasions that Jeanette was aware of where she accidentally double-booked campaign events. The first time this happened it was only discovered when Jeanette started getting phone calls from the old folks home that was supposed to be getting an appearance by Mr. Barnes. The second time it happened, it was caught by the purple clad chipette who had learned her lesson about fully trusting staffers. The final straw for Flynn's employment was when she booked an event at a private auditorium that was supposedly going to be full of Joseph Barnes' donors. This thank you speech happened to be on a day where Jeanette had taken off for her anniversary dinner with Simon, and Mrs. Barnes had to take their son to a basketball tournament. However, Simon had to postpone the dinner to do an emergency re-shoot of a scene for his television show, so Jeanette decided to show up early to the donor speech. This obviously surprised Flynn, and not in a good way. And things started to become very awkward between the three of them when no donors actually showed up. Jeanette did digging in the aftermath of all of this and discovered no invites were actually sent to any of the campaign donors. After Mr. and Mrs. Barnes were informed of this, Flynn's employment Was terminated by the end of the next day. Almost six months later, she files her sexual assault case.

Jeanette re-read her public response post to Senator Martin, which was born purely out of an impulse to defend a man who she considered a friend, which read: "The circumstances of Miss Flynn's firing are quite the opposite of mysterious. She was a defective employee. Nothing more, nothing less. Also, having been involved personally with both her and Barnes for several months, I can tell you there are several parts of her story that simply don't add up."

Jeanette grimaced. That was definitely more strongly worded and direct than it had sounded in her head. And now, it was getting the reception that she should have expected. Thousands of more reactions, hundreds of more comments, dozens more reposts. The people responding to her did so in such a variety of ways; "bitch", "bravo", "victim blamer", "I believe you", "traitor", "well said", "slut". Jeanette sighed and slumped into her couch. This isn't what she wanted. The last thing she wished for in this life was to go viral, to be thrust into the spotlight.

One additional notification made her eyes wide from fear. "Gary Martin replied to your comment". She almost dropped her phone from her hand shaking, her heart was pumping so hard and so fast.

His response was: "You no longer work for Mr. Barnes. You no longer have to blindly defend every single one of his actions, especially not the morally reprehensible ones. I suggest you go back to doing what you do best: working silently in the shadow like a snake. Women and young girls are watching, and they dont't need to see you defending their abusers."

Yep, Jean thought to herself, that's about what I would have told him to say to me. She rubbed her temples as reactions, comments and reposts began to pour onto his attack post against her. "Got her", "Senator's got burns", "she doesn't have the brains to follow your advice", "you sir are a piece of shit", "lol snake… nailed it".

Jeanette didn't know what to do. She could think of a few decent rebuttals, but what she wanted more than anything was for this to die down. She sighed once more, got off the couch, went upstairs, and collapsed onto her bed next to her snoring husband, hoping all of it would blow over by the morning.

…

She woke up to the smell of bacon. Drowsilly, she picked her head up, looked around her bedroom, noticed it was lighter than normal, checked her alarm clock. It was past 11am. She groaned and picked herself all the way up, still wearing her night gown. The blue in her eyes began to gave way as she made her way out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. Simon, her loving husband, was at the stove frying bacon and cooking scrambled her eggs while wearing her cow-spot-patterned apron.

"Morning, dear," he said to her chuckling.

She smiled at him. "Mmm… morning."

"Why'd you come to bed so late last night?" Simon asked her, not looking up from the eggs.

Jeanette's heart sank as she suddenly remembered the social media fiasco. "Nothing… just catching up on some current events."

Simon, who prided himself on being able to read Jeannie like a book, looked up at her from the stove.

"Speaking of which," she said, attempting to distract him as she picked up the remote, "politics is twenty-four/seven." She turned on the flat-screen TV mounted on the wall near their fridge. It came alive tuning straight into CNN.

What they saw made their jaws drop. It was a shady-looking picture of her with sunglasses on, pointing somewhere off in the distance while speaking to Congressman Barnes. The news caption underneath read: "SEN. MARTIN AND JEANETTE SEVILLE GET INTO IT ON X OVER BARNES ASSAULT".

Jake tapper opined on screen, "I just don't understand why she did it. There's just no reasonable explanation why someone with such a following and passionately nostalgic fan base would put her reputation on the line to take a stand on either side of this case."

"This was clearly an impulse tweet," Dana Loesch chipped in. "She was Barnes' campaign manager, she worked directly with both of them, there were reports of tension between the four of them… four of them being, of course, including Mr Barnes' wife. She has yet to respond further to the Senator which is probably in her own best interest. If you take a look at the stocks of every single one of the businesses that the Seville family is involved with…" a new graphic faded onto the screen, illustrating what Loesch was about to say, "Jett Records, down twelve percent. Rabbit Ears Productions, the production company that owns 'Science Munk', down nine percent, IW Productions owner of 'Cheesing With Theo', only five percent so far. But look at this! WFA down thirty-eight - almost fourty percent - just so far today."

Jake Tapper "hmm'ed" in agreement before adding, "it's important to note that Mrs. Seville has not only declined to respond to Senator Martin but has also not responded to our requests for her comment."

"Oh God!" Jeanette exclaimed as she picked up her phone in a panic and checked the notifications. Thirty-six missed calls, some of them from unknown numbers, some of them from saved numbers including the local ABC, CBS, CNN, and FOX News affiliates, and some of them from her family and Dave. She slapped her forehead in more stress than she could ever remember experiencing in her life as Simon carefully began approaching her from around the counter.

"This is what Jody Flynn had to say in response to Mrs. Seville's comments:"

The screen cut to Flynn, making a statement in front of a large number of reporters. "My heart is heavy after reading what Jeanette Seville had to say about the sexual assault that I endured while working on the Joseph Barnes campaign under her leadership," she said with a shaky voice. "I do not know why she chose to enter her opinion into this, but I also cannot say that it surprises me. Her and Joseph were very close before I went public about… what he did to me. My experience is unfortunately not unique. And it unfortunate that many little girls who used to look up to Jeanette Seville had to watch as she took a woman who is at her lowest point and attempt to tear her down even further for the sake of political and career gain. When women speak up, we need to defend - not attack - each other. But no matter how hard she tries, she can never-"

The TV went black and silent as Simon shut it down. "Don't stress too much over this Jeannie," he told her in an attempt to be comforting. "This is just a slow news day. Something will happen by tomorrow to make everyone forget about this. As a matter of fact, don't even respond to those assholes with a comment."

…

Jeanette waited in anticipation as her phone rang. Simon sat next to her. Both of them darted their eyes from her screen to the living room TV, which had MSNBC'S Rachel Maddow grinning down at them. "Joining us now on the line is Jeanette Seville, who finally responded to our requests for her comment by agreeing to phone in."

The phone call finally connected with a beep.

"Mrs. Seville, thanks for joining us tonight," Rachel's voice came through the cell phones in a fuzz.

"Thank you for having me, Rachel," Jean responded.

Maddow straightened her notes on the desk in front of her. "Now, I was hoping you could clarify your intentions behind your attack against Jody Flynn and Senator Martin."

"They weren't meant to be attacks on either of them," Jeanette softly and nervously defended herself. "I have a great deal of respect for Gary Martin, as well as what Miss Flynn must be going through. My response to Senator Martin's post was merely intending to remind people to wait for facts about the case to become public before conceiving opinions on what happened."

"Forgive me, but in your response to him you called Miss Flynn a quote…" she trailed as she checked her notes… "'defective employee. Nothing more, nothing less.' You go on to say that there are many parts of her story that 'don't add up'. At best, you are implying that she may he lying about the assault and you are adding insult to injury by publicly criticizing her abilities as a staffer. How was none of this meant to be an attack?"

Jeanette pursed her lips and struggled to think of the correct response. When watching the debates of any of the candidates she managed from behind the curtain, she always instantly knew the best rebuttals. But now, on live national television, she was freezing up.

"Mrs. Seville?" Rachel pressed her.

"I…"

"As a matter of fact," the professional journalist intercepted her, "Senator Martin, in that very same post you responded to, said 'innocence is assumed until proven guilty'. So was there really any need to chime in to remind people to keep a level head?"

This was getting out of hand. Maddow had successfully attacked her on two different fronts, and Jeanette sat there, considering which front to defend. "That's simply not fair," she said, "by sharing the Los Angeles Times article and making the comments that he did - erm… the ones surrounding the phrase that you just quoted, that is - he was very clearly attempting to reflect guilt onto Congressman Barnes for the sake of attacking the opposing political party. Rather than for the sake of the truth."

"That is a very charged accusations on your part," Maddow retorted. "Fortunately, Senator Martin will have the chance right now to clarify his own intentions in this conflict right now as he is calling in on the other line."

Jeanette winced and gritted her teeth. She was not warned by MSNBC that this would be happening. But she could not hang up the phone now.

Rachel continued, "thank you for joining us tonight Senator."

There was a pause due to the phone line delay. "Rachel, thank you so much for having me," he said to her in a confident tone.

"Senator, can you offer us any insight as to why you chose to state your opinion on the Congressman Barnes sexual assault case, and why you chose to do it in the way you did?" Maddow questioned him.

He let out an emphatic but light sigh that sounded like little more than static. "Yes of course. You know and the people back home know I would never say or do anything to imply guilt against anybody that has not had their day in a fair court." You could hear him shrugging innocently through the phone. "My only intent was to try to call on Congressman Barnes to defend himself in the public eye."

Rachel "hmm'ed" in agreement before turning her attention to Jeanette. "Mrs. Seville, your response?"

"If that's the case, senator, then why did you care to comment on the circumstances surrounding Jody's - I mean Miss Flynn's employment termination?" It had become clear to Jeanette that her best strategy would be to do Rachel's job for her and actually grill Gary Martin herself. "That section of your post was the main focus of my response. If you had simply told your followers to hold reservations until we know more… none of this nonsense between us would have happened."

Maddow put on a look of shock and asked her, "are you insinuating that discussions about the alleged rape of a young woman is 'nonsense' Mrs. Seville?"

"No! I-I-"

"No, Rachel, that's not what she was trying to say," Martin defended Jean against the interrogation in a move that surprised everyone else involved. "She was simply trying to say that us arguing over it before we have all of the facts is nonsense. I know Jeanette, I've met her on multiple occasions. She's a brilliant campaign manager and I have all of the respect in the world for her. She's successfully led half a dozen candidates that I personally campaigned for to victory. She really is one of the best in the business. But she's not used to the public eye, and I really do think that's where this whole misunderstanding stems from. She underestimated the passion that this sort of an issue brings out in people, and I don't blame her for that. I'm sure even now that she'd admit that she probably should have worded her tweet a little differently."

There was a pause. A long one. Jeanette was breathing so heavily she was practically panting. Sweat was dripping down her eyebrows. She had no idea what to say. She looked around her living room, at Simon, at her TV, as if one of them would have an answer. Simon bit his lips as he watched her, then widened his eyes at her as if to say, "say something".

"Mrs. Seville?" Rachel said with a confused expression.

Nothing but silence. Finally, Jeanette shook her head as if breaking out of a trance and muttered, "thank you for having me on Rachel. Have a nice night Senator Martin." She then frantically hung up the phone and kept her eyes peeled to the television screen.

"Mrs. Seville?" Rachel asked again. No answer. Just silence. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems Jeanette Seville has disconnected from us so that is unfortunately where we will end the interview. Senator Martin thank you as always for joining us tonight."

"It's been a pleasure, Rachel. Thank you."

Simon flipped the channel, but accidentally did so to ABC, who it seemed had been simulcasting the interview. David Muir suavely said from behind his own desk, "ok that once again was an MSNBC interview with Rachel Maddow and a blatantly poor attempt at self-representation by Jeanette Seville."

Simon finally turned off the TV. But he was at a loss of words as Jeanette clutched her hair tightly in frustration. There was no attempt on his part to be comforting that would even come close to worth the effort.

…

"You're absolutely sure you want to do this?" Simon asked his wife bluntly just over a week after her shaky performance on MSNBC. They were sitting across from each other in their kitchen, sipping coffee at 10pm.

"I'm sure," she insisted. "But only if you support the decision."

He sighed. "Jeanette… I've known you for years. You are the single most intelligent person - er, or chipette - that I have ever met."

"Get to the point Simon," she demanded.

Simon gritted his teeth, clearly stepping around egg shells. "You're also naturally shy and nervous. Politics is your calling, it's your battlefield. But are you really sure your place on that field is the front lines?"

"So… you don't think I can do it?" She asked, clunking, letting her eyes sag to the ground.

"I didn't say that, I just, I don't know, I want you to be sure."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to get another campaign manager job again, Simon. Not after that night on the news."

"You don't need to," he said, reassuringly reaching over and grabbing her hand. "I still have my TV show. We have plenty of money."

"It's not about the money, Simon. It's the game I'm going to miss. The relentless mind games. The attacks, the dodges, it's a sport to me. I'd feel half empty without it, just watching everything unfold on the TV. But that's not the only reason I want to do this. It's deeper than that. It's this feeling that I can't just let that guy… no, let all of them do this to me. I have strike back in self defense. They embarrassed me on national television. I won't be able to live with myself just letting that be the last word without at least trying to get the last laugh. And honestly, you should feel more passionately about that than I do."

Simon slicked his hair back roughly in deep consideration. Suddenly, a smile creeped onto his face. "Ok Jeannie. I say do it."

"Ok," she said giggling, looking more joyful than she had in almost two weeks.

"As a matter of fact," Simon continued, "I'll be your campaign manager."

Jeanette's eyes widened. "No, you can't. You're too busy with your show, you won't have enough time to do the job."

"Then I'll quit," he confidently responded.

"You can't do that. Not for me. You love teaching kids science. It's what you were born for. They love you."

He got up from his seat, walked over, and kneeled next to her so that his face was close to hers. "If you're going to do this, we are going to do this. I can't support this unless I am by your side the entire way, for better or worse."

She smiled and then suddenly leaned in and locked him into a long, loving kiss.

…

It was a small, local theater outside of the borders or Los Angeles. Dozens of reporters, some of them carrying video cameras for news organizations, and almost one hundred excited residents of California. Jeanette was hiding behind the curtain at stage right, peering at all of the anxiously. Simon placed a hand on her shoulder, making her jump.

"It's ok," he whispered in her ear. "You hear that?"

Jeanette focused on what her ears were receiving, which was the bustling and anticipation of the crowd. The excitement of the men and women in the theatre. They were talking about her, they were ready for her.

"They're waiting for you," Simon continued, "they want you. They want to see you. To hear you speak. They want to experience your passion and believe in you."

She turned to face him with a grateful smile.

"Give them what they want," he concluded before walking onto the stage to the sound of erupting applause. He grinned slightly at them as he walked toward the podium at center stage. Once he had jumped onto a stool directly behind the podium, he lowered the microphone to his lips. "Thank you. Thank you to everybody here today. This will be a historic and momentous event. One that I know for a fact that… Mrs. Seville is so very excited to share with all of you. Without further ado, I would now like to introduce Jeanette Seville!"

The crowd rumbled into even more of a frenzy than before, preceeding Jeanette's walking onto the stage in front of them. Her supporters waved campaign signs with her name on them and American flags. They cheered for her as she gave them a massive genuine smile and waved at them. Her confidence regenerated, she hopped onto the stool, landing inches away from Simon. She embraced him in a hug, just warm enough to look real, but not too passionate, for the sake of appearances. They broke apart, nodded at each other. Simon hopped down onto the stage and began his exit. Jeanette turned back to the crowd.

"Thank you. Thank you all. Over the last several years I have helped many smart, honest, hard working men and women get elected into government. But I have also witnessed many get elected who did not have their constituents best interests at heart."

She was about to continue, but she was interrupted by a spontaneous booing of the crowd. She had seen this happen many times before in moments exactly like this while others were giving speeches. But it still took her by surprise. There was a split second where she thought to herself, what do I do now? They're booing the corrupt people I just brought up. This was quickly followed by just let them do their thing. She nodded at them as they booed, expertly, as she had seen so many trained professionals do before. She waited for the crowd's reaction to die down before continuing with an adlib. "Yes, it's true unfortunately." She seamlessly transitioned back into her speech. "And what has been the result? Of men and women who are only interested in themselves and their power taking advantage of the people of this great state? What has been the result of our people sending corrupt politicians to represent us in Washington D.C.? The highest unemployment rate in the country!" The crowd once again booed. "Record inflation creading difficulties for even the upper middle class families to support themselves!" More booes. "And… perhaps most importantly of all… the complete and total erosion of public trust in our government." Jeanette paused again, expecting another crowd reaction, but there was not really one to speak of. She stepped back into her prepared lines, making good eye contact with the audience the whole way. "These are the consequences of electing peoole like Gary Martin. Yes, it is time for a brand new direction. A new vision, focused not on partisanship but on doing what's best for the people of California at all times. A new perspective." She gigled. "Perspectives don't get much more unique than mine," she said holding her hand flat up just above her head. The crowd reacted with strong laughter. "All of this is why I am excited to announce… that I am running to represent California in the United States Senate. Thank you."

The entire theatre nearly shook down from the cheers for the Chipette, who dropped from the stool with a grin on her face before exiting the stage towards a proud looking Simon behind the curtain, waiting with his arms open to give her a truly excited embrace.

That was a long one. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

For anyone asking "isn't this story about Alvin and Brittany?" Yes it is. But every character is going to get the development they need and deserve. I am sure that many fans of the chipmunks who read the chapters before this one probably felt that running for Senate was quite OOC for Jeanette. Hopefully it is beginning to make some sense on how she got to that point.

As always please take the time to give me your thoughts, whether it be praise or constructive criticism, in a review or PM.

Until next time.