Check Mate

Sitting on his blue checkered bed was Simon, studying hard for his upcoming Semester test. He was sure he was going to ace them all, but he couldn't get too cocky now, or else he might swallow the elephant and choke on the tail.

His nose was deep in the book for a good few hours, refusing to go outside or even eat. He wanted to memorize all the kinds of problems a fourth grader might see on a test which was worth over half his grade in the classes. Simon was so busy in his thoughts, he didn't even hear Alvin walk in the room, dribbling a basketball. When Alvin tossed the ball at Simon and hit him in the back of the head, knocking his round, blue glasses from his face, Simon jumped and dropped his book. He spun on his bed to see who the intruder was, though he already knew. Even with his blurred vision since he was without his glasses, Simon knew it was his red-clad brother, Alvin.

Simon rolled his grey eyes. "Alvin, can't you go play outside? I'm trying to study here." Simon said with exasperation. Alvin grinned evilly.

"Make me." He taunted and grabbed the basketball again. This time, Simon dodged it and watched it sail over his shoulder and hit the wall with a clunk. Simon turned back to Alvin and crossed his arms before climbing off the bed and feeling around the floor for his glasses. Once he grabbed them and put them where they belonged on his face, Simon said to Alvin, "Please go outside, Alvin. I know you don't care about your grades, but I do, so please just leave me alone."

Alvin made a face. "Nah, it's more fun to bug you. Hey, can you come out to play?"

"To play?"

"Yeah, like basketball or something. Play with me; Theo's at the Chipette's house with Eleanor; they're working on a Cooking assignment, and Dave is busy with a new song. I'm bored!"

By now, Alvin was leaning against Simon's bed on his chest, his hands folded in front of him, begging Simon to play something with him. Simon looked at the pitiful sight before sighing. "Alright, Alvin, I'll play with you. But only if I can pick the game, okay?"

Alvin's face brightened. "Okay! What do you want to play?"

"Chess."

Alvin's grin dropped for a second before he smiled again, but not as big like last time. He knew how to play chess because Dave taught all the Chipmunks how to play when they were little, but Alvin rarely played after that. Simon, however, played almost every other day with his friends during lunch. Alvin just wanted to do something with his brother, so he agreed and went to get the chess board.

Simon divided the pieces and chose to be the black, or licorice, as he called it, and Alvin was white, or marshmallow. Marshmallow, or white, always went first, so Alvin pushed his pawn out a few spaces. Then Simon blocked him with his own licorice pawn. Alvin sighed. It was going to be a long game.

After a while, Alvin's pieces began to disappear one by one as the licorice would "eat" them. However, Alvin's marshmallow pieces weren't doing so bad. Alvin was knocking out all of Simon's pieces. Before they knew it, both Alvin and Simon only had their king, queen, and two pawns apiece. Alvin was getting fairly excited; he might actually beat his brother in a game of chess!

Alvin was getting very serious about his moves. He wasn't in a battle of chess; he was in a battle of the minds with his brainiac brother. Simon seemed calm and collected, even when Alvin would take a piece from him. Simon would just counter by taking one for his own.

Alvin slowly began to emerge his king, the most prized piece. He figured since there weren't any more pieces which were a big threat to him, he might as well take out Simon's king. He began to move the large piece across the board for every turn, but he was so focused on the king, the prize, he didn't see Simon's pawns had cornered his king until Simon placed his pawn in front of his king and said the dreaded words.

"Check mate."