Chapter Text
The helped wanted sign slammed in their faces as Brittany wrapped an arm around Eleanor and hugged her.
“It would have ruined your diet anyway,” she assured, patting her back.
“What do we do now?” Jeanette wondered, putting her hands in her face in defeat.
“Beg until we find someone willing to take us in I guess,” Eleanor frowned, getting up to her feet. “All those stories Olivia told us are a big, fat lie!”
“Now Ellie don’t give up so easily. America may not be what she told us it was but we don’t need her anyway,” Brittany muttered, grabbing her stick bundle. “In fact, we don’t need anyone.”
The babies continued to walk among the cold grounds of New York as Jeanette, not seeing where she was going, bumped into a man, causing the papers he’d been carrying to fall at her feet.
“What else could go wrong?” The man sighed, hurrying to collect the scattered papers.
“Sorry,” Jeanette frowned, the leftover gum attaching itself to one of the papers. “If it makes you feel any better mister, we’re not having a good day either.”
“We?”
“My sisters and me. We’re looking for a job but it’s not going so good.”
The man frowned, picking up the paper as Jeanette giggled at the unexpected ride.
She stared at him closely. Tired blue eyes, messy raven hair, and an expression that said he’d experienced a lot more than they did in the last couple hours.
“You’re too young for a job. My name is Dave and I’m a songwriter or rather an ex one if I don’t have anything by next week,” He sighed, stroking her hair with his thumb. “I shouldn’t be bothering you with my problems when we only just met.”
Jeanette shook her head, calling her sisters as Brittany’s body began to tense at the sight of another human.
After what Olivia did to them, trusting anyone else was a death sentence for her.
“This is Dave!” Jeanette introduced as Dave got her foot off the paper and gently placed her on the ground.
“You got us a job?” Eleanor grinned, her face lightening up with hope.
“Well no but I got a home and food you can eat,” Dave offered, kneeling to their level as Eleanor and Jeanette climbed on his shoulders.
“We can take care of ourselves, thank you !” Brittany grumbled, crossing her arms.
“Brittany!” Her sisters scolded.
“Eleanor, Jeanette, this Dave person looks very nice but I don’t know…”
“You won’t have to sleep out here. Nights here can get below freezing and I’d blame myself if anything happens to you three. Plus you’ll be warm and have a full meal,” Dave smiled, offering his hand.
Home? Food?
With trembling legs, Brittany ran into his open plan and smiled for the first time that day.
…
A two bedroom apartment didn’t seem like much to some but for three little girls who had nothing but the shirts on their backs, it felt like a palace.
Putting their things into the bottom drawer of the guest room, Eleanor turned to her sisters and smiled.
“Guess Olivia was right when she said America had an opportunity just around the corner!” She giggled, taking off her hood.
“I wish you’d stop bringing her up,” Brittany grumbled, kicking her feet.
“But she’s our best friend Brittany! We can’t just forget about her!” Jeanette pouted, her lower lip quivering.
“Was our best friend Jeanette. What kinda best friend leaves us alone when a lady who wanted to make money off us and without saying goodbye?”
Jeanette began to cry as Eleanor glared at her older sister.
“Can we have one day without you making her cry?” She grumbled. Sniffing the air, she smiled. “Food!”
She ran into the kitchen, the smell of bacon reaching her nostrils as she climbed up a table leg and smiled at the plate in front of her.
“No no this is mine. You and your sisters have food over there,” Dave said, pointing to three small bowls.
Eleanor frowned, staring blankly at the lackluster nuts and berries. “This is food?”
“I thought chipmunks like nuts and berries.”
“I’d rather have your food. What is it anyway?”
“Bacon and toast,” Dave replied, smiling softly as Brittany and Jeanette walked in the room.
“Is it good?” Eleanor asked, her mouth drooling over the idea of trying one of them.
“Yes.”
“Then may we trade food with you please?”
Dave shook his head as Eleanor stared at the piece of toast longingly with glittering eyes
Not wanting to make her cry, he sighed, cutting the piece of toast in half before cutting their half into smaller, bite size pieces.
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt three baby chipmunks to try at least one piece of human food.
As the day went on, he started to slowly bond with the girls. While he still called them E, J and B because of their bibs, the girls didn’t mind.
They had a warm bed and plenty of places to sleep in unlike the shoebox back in Australia.
“Come on ladies, time for bed,” Dave smiled, carrying them in his hands as they walked inside the guest room.
“Five more minutes!” Brittany pleaded.
“But I’m not sleepy!” Jeanette yawned, rubbing her eyes.
“Yeah not sleepy!” Eleanor echoed, releasing a smile yawn.
Dave chuckled, placing on the pillow. “Sleepy voices say otherwise.” He kissed their foreheads one by one, stroking their hair. “Sweet dreams girls.”
(Beginning of nightmare)
“So you thought you could escape me that easily? Did you you bloody ankle biters?!”
The girls froze, trembling as they spotted Miss Gudge from across the street.
She had that stupid, money hungry grin on her face they recalled seeing before they were tied up as Brittany shielded her sisters.
“B-But we got away from you!” Brittany cried, too paralyzed to move any further.
Miss Grudge knelt down to their level, dangling a silver cage with a brass locke attached to it.
“I’m afraid Olivia was too bloody dumb to tell you that in America, you don’t escape from your past like you thought you did,” She sneered, reaching for Jeanette. “Especially when you have Little Miss Clumsy here to mess things up or was it you Little Miss Bug Mouth that caused all your pain and suffering?”
“I am not a big mouth!”
“Oh sure you aren’t!” Eva tainted, holding her jewelry box. “If you had just let me have that bracelet, we wouldn’t be doing this!”
Brittany paled as she watched her sisters begin shoved inside the cage while Eva lifted her up by her hair and closed the jewelry box with a slam.
(End of nightmare)
“I want Dave!” Jeanette wailed as she crawled off the blanket.
“Me too,” Eleanor sniffled, following behind her.
Brittany sighed, reluctantly following them to Dave’s room. As the mature one the group, going to him felt luscious but as an older sister, their comfort mattered more than herself.
The door to his room creaked as Dave sat up on bed, noticing their presence.
“Girls? What’s going on?” Dave yawned, turning his bedside lamp.
“We had a nightmare. Can we sleep with you?” Eleanor requested, climbing on the bed.
“A nightmare huh?”
The girls nodded as Dave picked them up, placing them on the pillow beside him.
“You may sleep with me if you wish but you can’t make noise during the middle of the night,” he explained, having Jeanette glance at him curiously.
“Why?” She asked.
“I’m already on edge with my landlord about my rent, the last thing I need are noise complaints.”
“What’s a landlord?” Brittany asked, her eyes gleaming. “Someone familiar?”
“No, they collect money from people who live in apartments,” Dave yawned, turning to the side.
“Why would they do that?” Eleanor questioned, frowning slightly. “That doesn’t seem very fair.”
“They have to become it’s their job. Like it’s your job to stop asking me questions and go nighty night.”
The girls yawned and went to sleep as Dave went to turn off the bedside lamp but stop himself.
Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to leave it on for one night