Saving Private Jeanette - Chapter One "Bossy Brittney, Soothing Simon"

"Come on, Brittney!" Jeanette yelled upstairs.

"We're going to be late for school!" Eleanor added.

"Keep your skirts on!" Brittney shouted from their bedroom, upstairs. "I'll be down in a sec!"

"Why does it always take her so long to get ready for school?" Eleanor asked her older sister with a sigh.

"Beats me," Jeanette responded, "but if she doesn't hurry, we're going to be late, again!" Jeanette called upstairs again, "Brittney! Come on!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Brittney hollered as she ran downstairs.

Of course, things weren't too different at the Seville house either...

"Shake a leg, Alvin!" Simon shouted at his older brother upstairs.

"Yeah, if we're late one more time, we'll have detention!" Theodore cried.

"Hold you thoraxes," Alvin responded, "I'm coming as fast as I can!"

Ten seconds later, Alvin finally came racing downstairs, and out the front door.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Theodore cried after Alvin as he soon followed, as did Simon.

Once the chipmunks made it to the sidewalk in front of their house, next door, the chipettes made it to the sidewalk as well.

"By my calculations," Simon started as he raced down the sidewalk for school, followed closely by the rest of the group, "if we keep up the current rate we're running, and don't stop for anything, we should make it to school, and be in our classroom with about ten seconds to spare!"

"Then let's pick up the pace!" Alvin shouted, sounding like a little drill sergeant. "Hup-two-three-four! Hup-two-three-four! Hup-two-three-four!"

"Alvin!" The others barked.

The chipmunks and chipettes kept running, and running, and running, as fast as they could, none of them stopping for anything, just like Simon suggested. Dragging up the rear was Jeanette, and unfortunately, her shoelaces were untied, and she ended up tripping over them, falling flat on her face.

"Hey, wait for me!" Jeanette cried out, as she picked herself up to tie her shoes, though the rest of the gang was so determined to get to school on time, they didn't even notice she tripped, her heard her cry out for them.

Jeanette sighed and shook her head as she tied her shoe. "Great," she mumbled to herself, "now I'll be stuck in detention..."

As Jeanette stood up, she suddenly had a sickening feeling take over her body. A feeling that she was being watched by somebody. She figured she was probably being paranoid about the teacher giving her detention for being late again. So, Jeanette had her shoes tied, just as her sisters and friends made it to school, with about fifteen seconds to spare, instead of ten.

"Wow," Simon said, as he caught his breath, "we made incredible time!"

"I'll say," said their teacher, with a slight tone of sarcasm in her voice, "where's Jeanette?"

The chipmunks and the chipettes looked around.

"She was right behind us..." Alvin said, just as the bell rang.

"Never mind," said the teacher, "just take your seats..."

Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Brittney, and Eleanor all took their seats, and they were all wondering what happened to Jeanette.

"Wasn't she right behind you?" Simon asked in a whisper to Eleanor.

"I thought she was," she responded, also in a whisper, "I don't know what happened to her..."

"Now then, would you all stand for the Pledge of Alligence, please?" Asked the teacher, as the class stood up from their desks, and placed their right hands over their hearts.

"I pledge alligence to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all." The class recited as they were instructed to take their seats, just as Jeanette walked in.

"Miss Miller, I see your late again." The teacher pointed out, slightly annoyed.

"I apologize for that ma'am," Jeanette said in a timid voice, "I... uh... I tripped and fell on my way here, and had to tie my shoes..."

The rest of the class, save for her friends and sisters, all laughed at their clumsiest classmate.

"Alright class," the teacher barked, "that's enough! Jeanette? I'm afraid I have no other choice, but to give you detention. This is the sixth time this month you've been late, you've been given warnings, now you must face the consequences."

Jeanette hung her head in shame, and embarrassment, as she heard a few kids quietly through "oooh"s at her. "I understand." She replied sadly.

"And, of course, you realize if this keeps up further, it goes on your permanent record?"

"Yes, ma'am." Jeanette sighed as she took her seat.

"Ma'am?" Simon asked as he raised his hand for permission to speak.

"Yes, Simon?" she asked.

"Ma'am, can't you make an exception just this once?" Simon asked in defense of his girlfriend, "Jeanette obviously didn't realize her shoes were untied, and couldn't help but trip and fall."

"Yeah, we made the extra effort to make it to school on time today," Eleanor added to back up her sister, "it could have happened to anybody."

The teacher smiled. "Okay. I shouldn't do this, but I agree, it was an accident that could have happened to anybody. Jeanette? You're off the hook this time, but next time, it's detention."

"Thank you." Jeanette said shyly, as she notice both Simon and Eleanor winking at her.

A couple of hours later, the teacher was assigning a project to the class.

"What you will be doing is constructing an eco-system in a box," the teacher related to the class, "you can choose from a temperate climate, prairie, desert, even oceanic. You will all be working in groups of three..."

The class quietly expressed their excitement.

"... that I will be choosing for you..." the teacher added.

The class quietly expressed their disappointment. Very rarely does a kid end up in a decent group, and even rarer is if that kid ends up in the same group more than once. The last time a class project was done, the highest graded project went to the group comprised of Simon, Jeanette, and Eleanor. Each of them quietly wished and hoped they could end up in that exact same group again. Another two hours later at lunch...

"I can put up being in a group with Jeanette, she is my sister after all," Brittney whined, "but having to be in the same group with Simon? Please!"

Brittney wasn't exactly fond of "Mr. Know-It-All", meanwhile, Simon could easily live without "Little Miss Diva".

"I'm no more disappointed with this group arrangment as you are, Brittney," Simon told her, "but all we can do is grin and bear it."

"Can't you two just learn to get along?" Jeanette asked sincerely.

"I'd love to," Simon responded, "but Brittney's attitude can really annoy me at times."

"My attitude?!" Brittney snapped. "Look who's talking!"

"Excuse me, Brittney, but I don't have an attitude problem."

"Oh come on! Just because the rest of us aren't as smart as you, doesn't make none of us stupid!"

"I believe you mean, 'that doesn't make any of us stupid'."

"See?"

"Pardon me."

"I can't, you're unpardonable."

"That isn't even a word."

After school, Simon met Jeanette at her locker.

"Well, save for Brittney," he told her, "I do believe we will, once again, have the best project in class."

"I agree," Jeanette told him, "I just wish the two of you could set aside your differences and get along."

"It would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry you're caught in the middle of our feud here."

"It's quite alright, I should be used to Brittney's attitude by now."

"I'm also sorry we didn't realize you had tripped on your shoelaces this morning."

"That's okay... thanks to busting me out of detetion, though".

"Anything for you, Jeanette." Simon told her as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and gave her a little hug. She smiled. She loved it when he hugged her.

Later that afternoon in the chipettes' bedroom.

"Jeanette!" Brittney barked.

"Yes, Brittney?"

"Get your nose out of that dumb book and help me out here, will you?"

Jeanette sighed, as she bookmarked her place, slipped off her bed, and walked over to wear Brittney was standing in front of her mirror.

"What seems to be the problem, Brittney?" Jeanette asked patiently.

"Sometimes you're pretty good at color co-ordinating," Brittney said coldly, "which of these scarves do you think goes best with my new outfit, the blue or the red?"

"Hmm... hard to say... the both look very nice... but I think... maybe... the blue offers a nice opposite to the pink in your outfit, while at the same time, it brings out your lovely eyes."

"It does, doesn't it?" Brittney asked, as she bats her eyes in the mirror.

"But, on the other hand," Jeanette added, "don't you also have a purple scarf, somewhere?"

"Purple?! Please! I'm not wearing purple!"

"But, purple's such a beauitful color, Brittney."

"Thpt! I hate purple! Nobody in their right mind likes purple!"

Jeanette hung her head, and mumbled to herself, quietly, "I like purple..."

"Some help you are! 'Purple'... blah! I'm wearing the blue one!"

Jeanette crawled back onto her bed, to resume her book, but...

"What do you think you're doing?" Brittney asked.

"Um, I was just..." Jeanette began.

"We're not through, here!" Brittney barked as she grabbed her thickest text book, and a notebook, and dropped them carelessly on Jeanette's bed.

"Remember, we've been assigned pages fifty-two through fifty-four!" Brittney told her, as she forced Jeanette to do her math homework for her.

"Brittney?"

"Yeah?" Brittney began to brush her hair.

"May I tell you something? Not as a sister, but as a friend?"

"Oh, whatever..."

"Brittney? You won't learn any of this, unless you try to do it yourself."

"Hey, as long as I've got a brainy, second banana like you, why do I need to learn this stuff? Like I'm gonna use long division when I grow up..."

"You'd be surprised." Jeanette said with a sigh, as their baby sister walked in.

"How's it going?" Eleanor asked them.

"I think it's time I got myself a new lacky," Brittney said, hurting Jeanette's feelings, "Jeanette's slipping!"

"Brittney!" Eleanor snapped. "Jeanette's not your lacky, she's your sister!"

"Same difference!" Brittney boasted.

Eleanor looked over at Jeanette, and felt bad seeing her do Brittney's homework for her, obviously, having had her feelings hurt by Brittney's work. Eleanor prepared to speak up, but then the phone rang, being the closest to it, Brittney answered it.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Brittney spoke into the phone.

"Brittney!" Eleanor snapped.

"Hold on..." Brittney tossed the phone over to Jeanette, "here, it's your special boy-toy!"

"Hello?" Jeanette spoke into the phone, "Simon! What's up? Really? Okay, cool, see you in a minute! Bye" Jeanette hung up, and leapt off her bed.

"Where do you think you're going?" Brittney asked.

"Simon invited us over to his house to discuss our class project!" Jeanette exclaimed.

"Ah, you go ahead, I'm not done brushing my hair!" Brittney told her.

"Um, Brittney?" Eleanor asked, "shouldn't you accept Simon's invitation? After all, you're a part of his group too, you know?"

"Why bother?" Brittney responded, "knowing Simon and Jeanette, they'll do all the work anyway... after all, I might touch something a ruin it..." Brittney said in a mocking tone.

"Fine," Jeanette said, feeling exasperated, "I'm going..." Jeanette left the room.

"You really ought to be nicer to Jeanette, Brittney," Eleanor told her oldest sister, "she is your sister after all, and she is a person, not a machine."

"At least she works like a machine," Brittney said confidentally.

Moments later, Jeanette knocked on the door of the Seville house. Dave answered.

"Hi, Jeanette." Dave greeted her in a friendly tone.

"Hey, Dave!" Jeanette squeaked.

"Simon's waiting for you in the basement."

"Thanks, Dave!"

And so, within a matter of seconds...

"Well, I'm here!" Jeanette exclaimed, as she made it down the wooden staircase into the Sevilles' basement, which Simon used as his laboratory.

Simon walked over to his favorite girl, and embraced her, as she sighed.

"Something the matter?" He asked her in concern.

"Oh," Jeanette explained, "just another typical night with my big sister, slash, master..."

"Why do you let Brittney treat you that way?" Simon asked her, "you're not her slave, you're her little sister!"

"What else can I do?" Jeanette asked.

"You need to stand up to her," Simon suggested, "you can't be a victim all your life, Jeanette, you have to let people know you're not a pushover."

"Well, I don't know..." Jeanette said sadly, "one thing I've learned over the years... if Brittney's happy, everybody's happy..."

"Where is Brittney, anyway?"

"She didn't want to come."

"Oh well, we'll get so much more done tonight with just the two of us," Simon assured her, "besides, I like spending one-on-one time with you."

Jeanette smiled.

"So, what are your thoughts on our project?" Simon asked her. "Which kind of eco-system would you like to do?"

"Well..." Jeanette started, not used to be asked for her opinion in this manner, "I thought maybe the ocean..."

"We can do that," Simon said, "let's see what we can get planned..."