Alice Tuckfield, also known as Pup, walked up the stairs to the house where the choir boys stayed. She pushed open the heavy wooden door which led to the kitchen and was greeted with cheers from the boys cleaning the kitchen. One of the boys dropped the dish he was drying. It shattered on the cold stone floor, but he took no notice of it as he ran to Alice to greet her. "Geoffrey Fisher," Alice said exasperatedly but laughing, "I had hoped you would have outgrown getting into trouble by now."

"It's only been a few months since you had to leave," Orlando handed Geoffrey a broom which Geoffrey took unwillingly. "Clean up the plate before the Dame comes down and punishes us all."

Alice watched as Geoffrey tried to sweep up the broken plate. He was failing miserably. "Here, I'll do it," she said to him taking the broom and expertly sweeping it into a pile.

Nathaniel handed a dustpan to Geoffrey. "Put it into the dustpan, now that Pup has so kindly swept it for you. Or can you not do that either?" In reply, Geoffrey hit Nate on the head with the dustpan.

Alice took the dish towel from Geoffrey and began drying the dishes. "Randall, you are washing dishes too fast. Poor Geoffrey will never be able to keep up." In response, Randall splashed dishwater onto Alice. The water hit not only Alice, but the floor and Geoffrey putting the smashed plate into the dustpan.

Geoffrey, in response to being soaked in dirty dishwater, stood and shook his finger at Randall in an imitation of Dame Agnes. "Now Randall," he began in a stuffy tone, "whatever were you thinking? Splashing dirty dishwater everywhere like a… a confused toad. And you are the best behaved one! Imagine what the others would do if they saw you behaving in this manner! Why, they would all go mad!"

All the boys and Alice began laughing. "Confused toad?" Alice choked out. "Where did you get that?"

"I don't know. It just popped into my head." Geoffrey jumped onto the table and began acting like a toad. Then he stood up and began doing something resembling a tap dance.

"Geoffrey, if you don't get down, the Dame might catch you," Alice warned.

"The Dame's out for another half an hour. Would you care to dance?"

"All right, then." Alice jumped up onto the table.

"I will teach you a move I call the Dancing Rabbit." Geoffrey did a complicated move and Alice tried to copy it.

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at dancing," Alice said after losing her balance and then sitting on the table. "I'm much better at drying dishes, a task you obviously cannot do."

"I can dry dishes just as well as you can," Geoffrey replied. He jumped off the table and in the process knocked several pots off the table. Everyone winced at the sound of the pots clanging on the stone floor.

The door slammed open. "What was that?" Dame Agnes entered the room with a scowl on her face. "Pup!" The scowl lessened slightly. "When did you get here?" Nate quickly picked up the broken plate before the Dame saw it.

"Just a few minutes ago, Dame Agnes. I was helping the boys finish the dishes."

Dame Agnes's eyebrows rose. "While sitting on the table? Hmmm."

Alice jumped off the table, took the dish towel, and began drying the dishes again. She glanced around to Geoffrey who was standing idly next to the table. She grabbed his elbow and dragged him over to the ever-growing pile of dishes. "Help me finish," she said handing him her dishtowel and finding another for herself. Alice looked up to see the Dame disappear back through the door.

"So why are you here, Pup?" Randall asked Alice.

"I got permission from Lady Jenny to stay here for a week if I sleep in that large cupboard on the third floor. The Dame already knows."

"So you'll be singing at rehearsals for a while?" Orlando asked.

"Yes, but I'm only trying it. Just for a week. Then I'm going back to stay with Lady Jenny and we will try to see if I can at least sing in the choir if not stay here. Lady Jenny is terribly nice, by the way. She's not at all the stuffy old lady I thought she was going to be."

Randall put the last cup he had just washed on the pile of clean dishes and then began to clean the table. He then noticed that Nate was sitting on a chair with his feet on the table doing nothing. "Nate, get over here and clean the table."

Nate grumbled in response, but got up and began washing the table. Alice put away the last dish and wiped her hands on the towel before hanging it up to dry.

After the kitchen was clean, the boys followed Alice to her cupboard on the third floor. They nervously bumped into each other when she stopped at the door. "Well…" Alice trailed off, wondering how she could tactfully say they all couldn't fit into her room.

Thankfully, Randall said it for her. "Come on. We can't just stand here while Pup settles in."

As he led the boys away, Alice sighed and peeked into the doorway. It was almost just as she had remembered. Even her old bed was there.

"Are you going to be ok?"

Alice whipped around to see Geoffrey standing behind her. She snorted. "Since when have you been so kind and caring?"

He grinned. "Since never."

"Shoo!" She told him, waving her hands away from her. "I'll be around shortly. I don't have much to unpack."

She watched him leave and suddenly a feeling of loneliness crept into her. And then the grief slammed into her and she sat down, hard, on her bed, put her head in her arms, and sobbed.

What did you think? Should I write more? Please leave a review and let me know :)

-FlatFox