Chapter 7...

The Final Frontier!

But really, this is the last chapter...

Get reading!!!

"Um, is Brittany there?" Alvin asked over the phone to Eleanor.

"Oh, sure!" Eleanor responded, giddy for her sister about the big play that night. "I'll get her!"

"Cool."

There was rustling and someone (likely Eleanor) saying, "It's your boyfriend on the phone." Then another voice (likely Brittany) saying, "Shut up and get dressed."

Finally, "Hello?" came through the receiver. Alvin grinned.

"Hey, Brittany?" Alvin said, "Can you come over for a bit? We've got a few hours before we have to be at school."

"Sure, Alvin!" Brittany said, excited as she always was when he invited her over. "I'll be there in just a minute....Bye!"

"Oh, uh, bye," Alvin stammered, surprised by her quick farewell. He put the phone back on it's hook.

"Oooh, Brittany's coming over again?" Simon asked from the stairs. He winked at Alvin.

"You don't needa know," Alvin grumbled.

"I already do."

"I dislike your insides."

"I know," Simon said, ending the conversation and returning upstairs. The doorbell rang. Alvin sped to it and opened it wide.

"Brittany!" he greeted, looked her up and down, and said, "Brittany...," in a fake-flirty voice. She laughed with him and came inside.

"I wanted to get into my costume early, because, well, I'm really nervous." Her costume was a beautiful yellow dress that swayed perfectly when she walked. Her hair was all done up in a bun at the top, a few graceful locks of hair loose. A little like Jeanette's usual hair. She twirled around once for Alvin, and asked, "So, where's your costume?"

"Oh, that," Alvin said, scratching the back of his head, "I don't want to wear it right now. It's kind of...ridiculous."

"Come on," Brittany pushed, "It can't be that bad."

"Oh, but it is."

"I won't laugh; I promise."

Alvin sighed. "Okay. But only because I trust you."

----

Eight minuted of grunts and struggling noises coming from the bathroom made Brittany even more excited to see the result. Alvin eventually stepped out of the bathroom in a bear costume with a circle cut out for the face. Brittany couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

"Stooop," Alvin said, "It isn't funny!"

"Yes...yes, it is!" Brittany managed to say between bursts of laughter. Simon came downstairs again and witnessed Brittany rolling around on the floor. He laughed and pointed at Alvin for a little bit, but only until Alvin told him he needed a life and Simon said he did have a life and then Brittany stopped laughing and joined the argument and then Theodore popped up and asked where the heck Eleanor was and when the play was starting because he wouldn't go without her, and then they were all saying something different when Dave came in and broke them all up.

The Chipettes along with Mrs. Miller arrived at the Chipmunks' house around 5:30. Dave drove them all down to the school and let Alvin and Brittany run up ahead so they could sneak backstage and prepare for the play.

"Is everybody ready?" Mrs. Nering asked, hardly waiting for anyone to say anything before she said, "Good. Lacey, where's Alvin and Brittany?! Oh there they are. Okay you two," she said, kneeling down so she was eye to eye with them. She looked super young close up, but she hardly wore make-up. "You two--do you know what you're going to have to do differently than the rehearsals?" They shook their heads. "You're going to have to kiss."

That almost insignificicant little detail had completely slipped their minds until now.

Mrs. Nering left them standing motionless.

Eventually, Alvin felt he needed to say something to make them feel less awkward. "Brittany, I need to tell you something," he began. "I...talked to Mrs. Nering and Theodore, and, well...." He scratched the back of his head and looked away. "I don't want to kiss you."

Looking into her eyes, he couldn't tell if Brittany was shocked or relieved or what. She said, "I don't want to kiss you either, Alvin."

They didn't have to tell each other that they both wanted to remain friends, nothing else. Alvin smiled."And...when we go out there tonight to kiss...well...Theo told me to imagine you as something I like more than you. So--"

Brittany cut him off. "He told you that, too? He told me that!" She smiled and blushed. "I actually talked to Mrs. Nering and Theodore, too. Remember when we went to see Avatar toward the beginning of the semester? I was talking to him about how I didn't want to ruin what a great friendship we had, and he told me to imagine you as something that I liked more than you, too. Except...I had a hard time with that." She looked away, blushing deeply.

Alvin laughed. "Same here. So...I'm going to imagine you as a football."

"I'm going to imagine you as my Taylor Lautner poster."

"Deal," Alvin said, and they shook hands.

Brittany went off to wardrobe to get her lucky earrings on. Alvin hadto sneak a peek out at the audience. He could see Johnny (giving him a thumbs up), Dave, Simon, Mrs. Miller, Jeanette and Eleanor sitting four rows from the front, but where was Theodore? Things had gotten so out of hand with him, Alvin decided that he shouldn't worry too much about him.

As he closed the curtain, he heard the faint sound of Brittany singing the song about the sun coming out tomorrow. As much as he'd heard her practice this as her vocal warm-up, he still didn't get it. Of course the sun would come out tomorrow! When wouldn't it?

"PEOPLE!" Mrs. Nering bellowed, loud enough to be heard over all the actors practicing their lines one last time. Everyone went silent. Well, she wasn't an Advanced Drama teacher for nothing, either. "Get into POSITIONS! NOW! Curtain in 5 MINUTES!"

Alvin didn't have to sing much; the Beast wasn't much of a singer. And he'd lost the joy in locking Brittany up in a tower on week two of the rehearsals, so it would be hard to do so now. He was an actor, though. And the kiss would be just acting....He hoped.

He had his costume on, now hot and sweaty and itchy, but he was too nervous to care. He did some stretches and breathed deeply.

Mrs. Nering called out a few final orders, and the cast came together. Something that Mrs. Nering said she always did with classes she taught was they'd get into a circle and put their hands in, and then each person in turn would say their favorite line from the play.

Mrs. Nering said, "Action!"

The next kid in line said, "Take that, foul Beast!"

The next kid said, "How lovely!" with a southern drawl. Everyone laughed a little.

"True love always comes first."

"You dare say that to me?!"

And so on and so forth, until it came to Alvin. "Fear not, for I shall live," he said. It was the line he said before Brittany kissed him. Now it was Brittany's turn.

"I love you," she said, looking at him.

Alvin was shocked at first, then he realized that was one of her lines. He laughed at himself and then Mrs. Nering said, "One, two, three, GO TEAM!" And they ran to their positions.

And the curtains opened.

-----

"No, BEAST! NO!" Brittany yelled, running to Alvin's supposedly dead body. At this part he'd always had trouble not laughing, but this time he knew he'd have to be serious. Brittany started fake crying. "No, no...Beast I...I love you...." She wept tears that were not there, and after ten seconds (Alvin counted), he lifted himself up groggily and then, with precise timing, the lights went off for two seconds flat, in which Alvin pulled off his upper-layer bear costume and exposed his regular 18th-century outfitting. He tossed his upper-layer backstage and went back to looking groggy.

"Beast...is that..you?" Brittany asked, wiping away invisible tears.

Alvin said, "Yes, 'tis me. Fear not, for I shall live." Football, football, football, Alvin thought, waiting for her to run up to him a kiss him, and hug him and end the play. But she didn't.

Her eyes got really wide. She began to sweat. The crowd murmured. Mrs. Nering sat frozen behind the scenes when she didn't hear any applauding or "awww"ing or anything.

Brittany didn't know what to do. She panicked. She didn't want to kiss him, but she was an actor. She had to. So she did the only thing she could....

Alvin was shocked beyond words when he opened the eyes he didn't know he'd closed to find Brittany singing the song about the sun coming out tomorrow!!! At a time like this?!

Alvin didn't know what to do, so he just stood awkwardly and shuffled his feet so she could finish the song. When she did, the crowd went wild, stomping their feet, giving them a standing ovation. Brittany smiled big, and the rest of the cast came out and gave their bows.

Once they were back behind the curtain, Alvin grabbed Brittany's hand and kissed her cheek. "That's for earlier," he explained. They smiled, then released each others hands.

"Friends," the both said, answering each other's unspoken questions.

And as if everything wasn't mixed up enough, three guesses who was backstage.

"Theodore?!" Alvin and Brittany chorused in confusion. "What are you doing here?!"

Surprisingly, Theodore was dressed from head to toe in his usual green sweatshirt. He giggled his signature giggle. "Silly! You couldn't tell? Mrs. Nering, they couldn't tell!" He laughed again.

"Huh!?" Alvin said loudly in hysteria. "Tell what?!"

Mrs. Nering came over and said, "Oh, nothing. But...you couldn't tell Theodore was faking this whole time!" She laughed with Theodore.

"I repeat, tell what?!" Brittany was silent. Then something clicked in Alvin's brain.

"You mean...the whole gangster get-up was all a fake?!"

"That's exactly what we're saying!" Mrs. Nering said. "You see, Theodore's coming into sixth grade next year, and he saw how much fun you were having in Drama. So, he asked me if he could audition early, because if he waited any longer, his nerves would get the best of him." She paused to sweetly look at a blushing Theodore. "The problem was, lots of kids had auditioned early, and the only boy part I had available was a bully. So, Theodore tried out for him...and failed!"

"Big time!" Theodore put in good-naturedly.

"So I told him that he would have to live the part. At least until he was ready. And that challenge I gave you two," she said, looking from Alvin to Brittany, "was his final test. If he could give advice he wouldn't normally give and if the recipient believed it, he was ready." She tussled Theodore's hair. "And now he is!"

"Yeah...," Theodore said modestly.

"Then what about the bad guys in the park?" Brittany accused.

"Oh, them? They were some of the soon-to-be-sixth graders that were going to be my posse in the play," Theodore explained. "They're actually really nice."

"Wow," Alvin said, gaping. "Just...wow."

Just then, Johnny, the Seville family, and the Miller family came backstage they gave hugs and high fives.

Then they headed home.

-----

"It was really nice, that play," Alvin remarked once he and Brittany were alone on her porch.

"Yeah," Brittany agreed. "I liked the part when I sang randomly." They laughed.

"I liked that part too." He summoned up all his courage and said, "I also liked this part." Then he kissed her cheek again.

Brittany felt where he'd kissed her and tears welled up in her eyes. "You're the best friend in the whole wide world, Alvin Seville," she said.

Alvin lifted his chin a little. "I know," he said. She giggled.

"I'll, uh, see you tomorrow, Alvin."

"Yeah," Alvin said, nodding and smiling. "You will."

She went inside her house and Alvin started back to his own house, thinking about all that had happened in one semester, and looked up at the stars twinkling in the navy blue sky alongside the Full Moon, shining with all the confidence in the world.

:)