The Journal Thief {read desc}

Chapter 11 - The Journal Thief.

Everyone stared at Theodore. He was laughing outwardly at the looks on their faces.

"Y-you.. You did this?!" Alvin finally managed to say after the shock.

Theodore tried to speak, but was in no condition to, considering his tears of laughter. Her just merely nodded.

Alvin resumed his shocked silence like everyone else present. Theodore tried to cease his laughter, but burst out again.

".. Explain." Simon said, despite the shocking blow of discovery.

"O-ok-" Theodore spluttered.

He was laughing so much that it was a huge achievement for him to say anything at all.

After he had finished laughing (which took about 10 minutes), he finally decided to explain everything.

"So.." he started awkwardly, "uhm, I took your journals."

He lamely indicated the stack of books that nobody had noticed during to the sudden shock.

Simon squinted slightly. There were 7 books; not 6. The 7th one was a dark blue - slightly darker than his own journal - with black market markings over the spine. It looked oddly familiar.

"Yeah, we gathered that." said Alvin sharply.

"Yeah- yeah." agreed Theodore, seeming fazed my Alvin's sharp tone. "So.. Remember at our concert, wh-when we had t-that party?"

"That was months ago." said Jeanette softly.

"Yeah. It was obvious, you all had crushes on each other." blurted Theodore, his stutter miraculously evaporating at a fast level.

"W-"

"So anyway," pressed on Theodore loudly, drowning out Alvin's words of protest, once again commandeering the chipmunks and chipettes attention and shock, "I just had to do something. None of you would. Dave brought us those journals about a week after that concert, and at that time I was reading your comic, Alvin. Issue 18. The ring got stolen, remember? Stolen. That's where the idea to steal your journals and get you closer together comes in. You have everything to lose by denying your crushes."

"B-but how and where did you learn about morse code and everything like that?" asked Simon.

Theodore smiled. "You. Well, more like your notebook from 3 years ago."

"What?"

Theodore pulled the dark blue book with black markings off the stack and put it under his eldest brother's eyes.

That's when it occurred to Simon.

"I wrote down all means of secret codes and communications in that, then lost it!! Where did you-"

"Under Alvin's bed when I was tidying up for him." said Theodore, smirking.

Despite the conditions and current environment, Simon shot Alvin a dirty look. If glares could kill, Alvin would have been dead by around the age of 3.

"But," continued Simon, ending his glare, "why did you only use notes and mainly morse code? I put a lot in there."

"Your handwriting was barely decipherable, it was a wonder you could read through your own notes yourself."

Theodore opened a page and displayed the atrocious handwriting to the stunned audience.

"I didn't. I never used to." admitted Simon defensively.

"Oh."

"You did this to get us closer together?" questioned Brittany.

".. Yeah."