A Misunderstanding {completed}

Chapter 4 - Impossible.

Tuesday, and another day of school.
Another whole day of pretending not to know roughly what someone was going to say to them. Another day of drones from a snappy teacher who despised he, Alvin.

And another day of trying to stick to the original past..

***

"Alvin? Alvin!? ALVINNNN!!!"

"Huh, what's going on-"

Alvin was positive he was skillfully riding his skateboard in front of a group of particularly chosen girls just a few seconds ago.

But Miss Smith didn't think so.

"Care to repeat what I just said?" demanded an annoyed Miss Smith, angrily adjusting her hot-pink rimmed glasses.

"What I just said." cheeked Alvin, cleverly examining the fingernails in his left hand in what he evidently considered a dignified way when it actually seemed quite the opposite.

"Ugh, this student drives me insane." muttered the teacher to herself.

Theodore looked up from his own trance. He was  previously doodling on the back of his notebook - brilliant pictures of cakes, ice cream, sweets, almost every sugary treat that you could imagine.

The green clad thought while peering  up at Alvin. He didn't know and couldn't figure out why his  elder brother would choose to be the way he was - egotistical with lack of interest in studies - when he actually had heaps of potential. Theodore was glad that he had followed and looked up to Simon more than Alvin. However, he didn't always complete his homework and didn't like to mention this to the eldest; imagining the scandalised look on his face was enough to make him feel like digging up a floorboard, hide under it, and melt with shame. Simon precisely had a piercing stare for this.

Speaking of Simon, he had just gone back to reading ahead of the book they were exploring that term. He somehow possessed an uncanny talent to easily take his mind almost fully off one thing and focus it on another. He had loads of practice while being an inventor and scientist.

***

Alvin had eventually decided that getting his game console from upstairs at a different hour or different time wouldn't make a difference. Seriously - it was a gaming console - Simon was just over-paranoid. 'He always is, bossing us about as if he were saving our lives' thought Alvin spitefully. But deep down, he knew he didn't mean it. Simon was just helping ensure their safety.

He headed upstairs on his way to the bedroom, wondering where Simon actually was. Fixing the time machine? As soon as he reached the door, he heard.. whispering?

He pressed his ear up against the door, the feeling of hard wood adjusting to it. He couldn't guarantee who was behind the door, but if he had a fair guess, it sounded a lot like.. Simon. And a girl's voice, awfully familiar. High pitched. Sounding slightly sentimental this time.

Wait- this time? The thought popped into his head without even being processed. As if it was meant to be there, a lone clue, as if he knew it all along. Does that mean- could it be?-

Brittany?

Simon and Brittany? What were they whispering about? The hushed and slightly solemn tone of their voices snatched Alvin's curiosity, snatched right before the jaws of the 'right' way. But what Simon had told Alvin had seeped out of his brain without he, Alvin, realising or caring about it.

Alvin's mind was now working quickly, his brain rushing to process an appropriate 'plan', swiftly cancelling out ignorant formulas. He grabbed a stool from the bathroom(which the chipmunks used so they could reach the bathroom sink) and pushed it against the door. He peered through the cold keyhole, which seemed to be blocked. Blocked by.. His sweater? Oh, he accidentally left it hanging on the doorknob earlier. Crap. Why did most of his wrongdoings -  however small they may be - always came back to haunt him? He'd never been one with much luck. Instead, Alvin pushed his ear up against the keyhole. Knocking the sweater off its perch would be too obvious.

"So.." Brittany sounded nervous. "I don't know how I never had realised it from the start. Oh my gosh, I'm so ignorant!" her words rose slightly with emotion.

Simon, however, remained silent.

"We were- m-meant to be..its love, right?" (y'all this isn't a brimon story you'll find out in the end)

At these words, felt numb. Cold. Hurt. An unpleasant experience he hadn't felt before. Like he was angry, angry at everything. He attempted to understand the feeling.

Simon Seville and Brittany Miller?

'No' was Alvin's first thought. He tried to think of reasons against this, but his brain was point-blank refusing to work. Instead, his feelings dominated him, even though they were undetectable. But he knew they weren't happiness. They were the kind that forcefully twisted your insides and brain, and strained you. You couldn't think straight. You don't know why, unless you forced a thin path through the painful haze and dug deep for determined answers, motivated by the reason this feeling washed harshly over you. You can't control it. You want to know.

So that's what Alvin worked at. He locked himself in the bathroom, sat down, and began to contemplate what he had just seen.

Why did he..putting it simply- not want Brittany and Simon together?

Well, they definitely weren't for each other. Maybe he didn't want this for his brother..or maybe he loved Brittany.

Of all those dates he'd gotten with girls from his school, all those times he'd ask Amber or Jenny or Samantha or Vannessa or someone like that to the dance.. He'd never considered Brittany. To him, she had always been a close friend. A close enemy. Maybe it was an encounter like this that was supposed to change his point of view. Maybe he was too late.

Wait- he loved Brittany? He often described the small lurches in his stomach as..hate? He often categorised the nervousness around her the urge not to say something lame.. because- because she was one of the most popular girls in her grade! She could crush his reputation with one pinkie. He hated other people insulting her, because he considered her like..like a particularly annoying sibling?

Or were these all excuses?

"Thanks Simon!!" Brittany's voice rang out, cutting through the bathroom door. Alvin heard her perfectly.

Brittany sounded.. Cheerful. Happy. With Simon.

"It's alright." his brother replied. He sounded slightly nervous, but overall fine. Okay. With Brittany.

They sounded okay - more than okay - after that secret conversation.