I do not own the Chipmunks, Chipettes, Miss Miller or David Seville. Bagdasarian Productions owns them.

Chapter 9

It was 2 A. M. on Monday morning, and Simon was having a troubled sleep. Ever since his matter compacter had been broken, the pressure of him fixing it had been eating him up inside. His thoughts were torturing him now.

"I don't know how I am going to get it fixed. Alvin and Brittany will be stuck like that forever, and they'll hate me! I got all the parts and followed the instructions that I wrote down in my notebook exactly. Why won't it work? What went wrong? Maybe I should tell Dave the truth now, before we leave for the concert. But Miss Miller and the Chipettes are really looking forward to going. What should I do?"

Suddenly, Simon sat upright in his bed, like he had just woken up from a nightmare. He had a revelation! Grabbing his glasses off the bedpost and slowly creeping out of bed, he used a flashlight to walk to the basement that was now safe to work in. He skimmed some pages in his notebook.

"Ah-ha! That's it! I forgot to write down that I changed that. Now I have to remove the top and switch out that gear…"

Simon rapidly scribbled in his notebook. He estimated that he would be able to have them switched back by dinner!

As soon as the Chipmunks got home from school, Simon went to his basement. He told no one about how close he was to fixing his matter transporter, just in case he couldn't fix it. No one seemed to notice his absence. Dave was calling the airport, hotel, and concert hall to make sure he had their reservations correct. Brittany was texting Tiffany from her phone that Alvin had temporarily returned, and Theodore was researching which bakeries would be the best to buy from.

Rodney seemed a little nervous. He would sniff the suitcases, pace about them, and whine. Simon had suspected his previous owners had moved away, and Rodney was afraid they would leave him too. Otherwise, the house was quite tranquil. Simon broke that silence with his exuberant utterance.

"Eureka!!!! Alvin, get Brittany!!"

It didn't occur to Brittany what Simon was so excited about, until Alvin's hat dropped over her eyes as she stood up.

"Yes!!! I'm coming home!"

She rushed downstairs and ran right into her house without knocking. Einstein was the only one taken by surprise. The door hit her and sent her airborne for a couple feet. She was unharmed, just irritated that she couldn't get any peace around here.

"Alvin!" she gasped as she reached her bedroom. "Simon fixed the machine!"

"Alright!"

Thankfully, no one else had been in the bedroom. They both raced each other back to Simon's basement, leaving their families wondering what had come over them.

"Simon, we're here! Change us back!" Brittany yelled. Alvin already grabbed one of the hoses and stuck it on his head.

"Wait, Alvin. I'll do it."

Simon gingerly arranged the hoses on their heads and adjusted some controls on his invention. They heard the same whirring noise that they had heard before. Then there was a tingled sensation that started at their heads and pulsed through their entire bodies. Twenty seconds later, the hoses lost their grip, and Simon removed them.

"It worked!" Brittany cried. "I'm myself again!!"

"After almost 2 weeks, I'm finally back! Thanks so much, Simon!"

Alvin hugged Simon, but just for a moment.

"Alvin, let this be a lesson. Please don't touch my inventions again."

"Believe me, I won't! At least, not for a while."

Simon huffed in response.

"I feel so fat!" Brittany exclaimed. "Alvin, you were picking at my cuticles, and I don't think you brushed my hair 100 times like I told you to."

But Alvin wasn't listening. He went upstairs and gave Dave and Theodore huge hugs. Then, he burst into the music room, picked up his guitar, and started to practice the new song Dave wrote. Oh, how wonderful it was to sing with his own voice again!

Brittany went home to fix her hair up and told Jeanette that Simon fixed his invention.

"Oh, Brittany, I'm so happy! Now Alvin can perform his concert himself!"

After 20 minutes of doing what they wanted, Alvin met Brittany outside her house, with Rodney happily following him. He had done a doggie double take when he smelled Alvin was back to himself again. Now, Alvin wasn't leaving his sight.

"So, how's it feel to be back?" Alvin asked.

"Heavenly! Thanks for taking fair care of my body."

"Same here."

"Alvin? Let's never do this again."

"Agreed!"

Alvin and Brittany slept peacefully that night in their own beds. They agreed not to tell anyone else about what happened to them. It would be their little secret. Now, they could look forward to their trip to Paris in their own bodies. Alvin knew it would be his best concert yet.

Alvin and Brittany learned some valuable lessons over those two weeks. They had a better understanding of each other, since they had spent some time in each other's shoes. Having no fans had humbled Alvin, and he treated Brittany nicer. He paid more attention to her and less to his fans. Most of them were annoying anyways. This made Brittany very happy. She didn't have to be so mad at Alvin now that she wasn't jealous of so many girls. The experience made Brittany realize that she liked her life the way it was. She still wished she was rich and had some more fans, but if she had to deal with as many fans as Alvin, she'd go crazy. All things considered, this mess they had gotten themselves into had actually helped them, not harmed. Their relationship was never better. However, it didn't fix the flaws in their personalities completely. Every now and then, they still had some fights, but none that they could never resolve.