Hellosesies, Squiggles here! I'm sorry for my recent lack of updates. To make up for it, here's a huge update for you all!

Disclaimer: I don't own Heart no Kuni No Alice.

As soon as I got to school the next morning, I headed toward the bandroom to inform Gowland of my decision. I was not surprised to find it caught up in a flurry of activity. There were people running in all directions doing all things. After taking one look at all the chaos that can only occur in a band, I sought out Gowland.

As expected, he was sitting in the office with a violin sitting on the desk in front of him. I knocked lightly on the door frame and went inside.

"Good morning, Alice," he said. "Did you decide?"

"Yes, I did," I answered. "I have decided to be in marching band." It will be hard to join this late into it, I thought, but I don't think I can forgive myself if I don't.

"That's wonderful!" Gowland proclaimed, lifting his violin. "Allow me to play you a little tune to celebrate."

I braced myself for the torture that was to come, but before the director could play a single note, a boy with pink hair and ears like a cat barged in. "No need to ruin the new kid's ears before her first practice, old man," he said, saving me. He whisked me out of the office and back to the main part of the room.

"Thanks," I said after we had gotten to safety.

"I couldn't expose you to such awful things at such a young age," he said. "The rest of us have already been corrupted, but you still have a chance at a healthy outlook on music."

"Well, thank you for saving me," I said.

"No problem. I'm Boris Airay by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Boris. I'm Alice Li-" I was going to say add my last name to it, but before I could get the final part out, I was enveloped in a lung-crushing bear hug.

"Oh, Alice, good morning!" gushed Peter. "Is it marching band you are joining?"

"Get off me, you stalker!" I shouted at him and fought my way out of his grasp.

Ignoring him, Boris said, "I'm glad you're doing marching band, Alice."

"Oh that is great! Now we can spend even more time together!" Peter exclaimed.

Peter tried to hug me again, but I side-stepped him and skidded away with Boris following.

"What is with that kid?" I asked him.

"You." Boris responded. "He never acts that happy. He's always sulking and causing fights. The only time I've ever even seen him smile is when he met you yesterday."

I was relieved from coming up with a response to that statement by the sound of frantic footsteps coming from behind us. Boris turned around with a vicious gleam in his eyes.

"What is that I hear?" he asked menacingly.

"Don't eat me, chu!" squeaked a nervous-looking boy with mouse ears.

"I'd run if I were you, rat," Boris told him.

The mouse-boy did as was told and Boris turned back to me.

"That wasn't very nice," I scolded.

Boris shrugged. "He's my brother. What do you expect?"

"Brother?" I asked. Those two didn't share a single trait.

"Well, he's not my real brother, but we've both been living with Gowland for a few years now. So he pretty much is my brother, as much as we hate it," he explained.

"Living with Gowland?" I echoed.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Things weren't good at home, so Gowland took us both in."

"Oh," I said. That was an unexpected act of kindness on our director's part and it explained Boris's easy-going, father-and-son-like attitude toward him.

After that, the mouse-boy came sneaking by us again. "I've got to go," Boris said staring after the boy with a hungry look in his eye.

After Boris went to chase after the mouse-boy, a suave-looking guy with a large top hat placed on his head came up to me.

"Hello," Mr. Top Hat said. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Blood Durpe."

"Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Alice Liddell."

"Pleasure," Blood said.

I was overcome by a feeling of shock when I looked at him. I couldn't believe it. There was no way that this person was the same one that had broken my heart.

I was not sure how to react. I wanted to hold him, cry, and figure out who he was all at the same time.

Blood just stared at me as if waiting for a response.

"I'm sorry," I said noticing how long I had been staring. "Nice to meet you." I took another look at Blood and realized that there was no way it could be him. My ex-boyfriend would never follow me all the way to this new place. He was too busy being happy with my older sister, anyway.

I tried my hardest to get those images out of my head and exchange pleasantries with Blood.

"Do we get the pleasure in meeting the new member, brother?" demanded a purple-haired girl. It was the flute player that kept the band on-beat yesterday. I was pretty sure her name was Vivaldi.

In response, Blood stepped aside.

She turned to me, "Nice to meet you, Alice. We are Vivaldi, your drum major."

"Nice to meet you," I stammered. I wasn't surprised that she was the drum major. She set off this vibe that just screamed 'I am leader!' I could tell that she was going to be really tough on the field.

A few moments later, the bell rang and the bandroom emptied.

The day went by pretty quick. I had a few classes with Boris and the mouse-boy, whose name I figured out to be Peirce, and talked to them most of the time. After sixth period, it was time for break. At Boris and Peirce's urging, I accompanied them to the bandroom.

"Hello, Alice," Gowland greeted. "Can I get you to run an errand for me?"

"Sure," I said taken aback.

"Take this to room 101 for me, please," he said.

"I'm sorry, Gowland. I don't know where that is," I admitted. It was not very surprising as this was only my second day here.

"Why don't you get someone to take you to it, then?" he supposed.

"Okay," I said, taking the paper from him.

As soon as I was out of the office, I was grabbed around the wrist. "Let me escort you, please. Don't be such a tease," Peter White begged.

"I would never go anywhere alone with you!" I hissed trying to pry myself from him.

"Please let me take you," he pleaded.

"No!" I insisted.

"Leave her alone, White," a voice said.

"This is none of your concern, Knight," Peter said, letting me go to give the new person an intimidating look in the eye.

"When I see a woman being mistreated, it is very much my concern, actually," he contradicted.

"Mistreating women? I would never do anything to my Alice that she didn't want me to."

That I highly doubted. "I don't want to go with you!" I shouted, as if that would help.

"Listen to her," the Knight person insisted. "She would be much happier if I were to take her."

"Please," Peter snorted. "If you were to take her, we would be lucky if you all made it back to the bandroom before practice started."

"What do you mean? I have a great sense of direction," Knight grinned.

"That's what you think," the rabbit-boy said.

"That's what I know."

"Stay out of this, you buffoon," Peter demanded.

"Why don't you make me stay out of it, White," the boy threatened.

"My pleasure," Peter said, preparing to brawl.

"No! Please don't!" I begged. "I hate fighting!"

The two stared at me strangely as if they had never heard of such a thing.

Knight broke the silence by saying, "It doesn't matter. Come on, I'll take you!"

"Thank you," I said following the new person out of the bandroom.

"No problem. I'm Ace Knight."

"Alice Liddell," I introduced myself. "What do you play?"

"Baritone," he answered.

I nodded.

After we had walked through the school, making small talk, for a bit, I asked, "So, where is this room 101?"

"It's just up here," Ace promised.

I nodded and continued to follow his lead. It must have been a huge school if it was taking us this much time to get to one classroom.

Soon, I began to notice that we were passing the same landmarks over and over. "Are you sure you know where we're going?" I asked.

"Positive," Ace assured me. "It's just around the corner."

I was starting to doubt that.

After we had went by the gym for the fifth time, I lost all hope and asked, "Ace, do you have any clue where we are?"

He looked around for a second. "I thought I did. I must have lost my way again," he sighed.

"Again? Does this happen often?"

"Not really. It only happens every once in a while."

"How about we try to find a teacher to ask?" I suggested, trying to salvage something out of the situation.

"Everyone will be in class right now."

He was right. The bell signaling the end of break had rang twenty minutes ago. We were stuck in the deserted hallways unless we lucked into meeting up with somebody.

Needless to say, I was getting a little frustrated. "Just great."

"Yes it is," Ace said brightly.

I assumed that he was being sarcastic, so I didn't reply and we kept walking.

"So, what grade are you in?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

"I'm a junior," he responded.

"If you're a junior, then shouldn't you know your own way around the school by now?"

"I do know my way around the school. I just forget where I am on occasion," he admitted.

"How often do these occasions occur?"

"About ten times a day."

I was beginning to think that I would have been better off with having Peter take me. "Doesn't that bother you?" I asked. "Getting lost all the time?"

"Not really," Ace admitted. "Getting lost can be fun. If I didn't lose my way a lot, I would never get to meet all the nice people, like you, that I know."

I was actually beginning to agree with him. Despite our situation, I was having a good time. Ace's personality was so goofy and fun that it was hard not to be happy around him.

"Knight!" Vivaldi shouted, showing up behind us. "What has taken you so long?"

"We got lost," he responded simply.

"We did not think it was possible for even you to get lost between the bandroom and room 101," Vivaldi said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"We will show you." Vivaldi led us back through the school in a smug silence.

After we were almost back to the bandroom, the bell for the end of school rang.

"Five laps for making Alice and yourself miss class!" Vivaldi commanded. It almost seemed like she enjoyed giving the order. That scared me a little.

Ace nodded, knowing better than to complain.

When we had made it back, Vivaldi pointed to the sign over the room next door to the bandroom. "This is room 101."

"Oh, I remember now!" Ace said smacking himself on the forehead.

"It's a little late, Knight," Vivaldi pointed out.

Without another word, Ace headed outside to go do his laps.

"Shouldn't you go out there to make sure he's actually running?" I asked.

"Oh, no," Vivaldi said. "We will go check on him later. He knows that if we don't find him running, the punishment will be much worse. Anyway, be outside by four o'clock, changed and ready for stretches," Vivaldi ordered before walking off.

After I had finally delivered Gowland's paper, I went to the bandroom and found Elliot sitting with Blood and two boys that seemed to be around eleven, both in all red and blue respectively.

"Hello, Alice," Elliot greeted me cheerfully. "Why weren't you in concert band today?"

"I had to run an errand for Gowland and got sidetracked," I explained taking a seat next to him.

"How so?" Blood asked politely.

"Ace volunteered to escort me to Room 101," I told them.

"Well that explains a lot," Elliot said. "You don't ever follow directions from him."

"I figured that out," I laughed.

"Pretty lady," one of the little boys, who had been whispering ever since I had walked into the bandroom, addressed me sweetly. "Would you mind playing a game with us?"

"Sure," I said, not seeing a problem with it.

"Dee, Dum," Elliot warned. "Alice doesn't want to play any games of your sort."

"'Of your sort,'" the other child quoted. "We are not perverts, you stupid bunny! What are you thinking? We're just little children. We would never do whatever it is that you're talking about."

"I wasn't thinking about anything like that!" Elliot exclaimed blushing. "And I'm not a bunny!"

"It's fine, Elliot," I promised. "I have no problem playing with them for a minute."

"We were hoping that you would say that," said the one in red.

"Just close your eyes and we'll give you a surprise," the blue one promised.

A few seconds later, my head was being pounded on by something that felt suspiciously like a drumstick. "Ouch!" I exclaimed.

"Boys!" Elliot snapped. "That is enough!"

"No its not, silly bunny!" one of them defiled.

"Yeah, we're just getting warmed up. Right, brother?"

"That's right, brother!"

"Boys," Blood said coldly. "Leave the lady alone. You must not hurt her."

"Yes, boss," they said in unison regretfully, putting down the drumsticks.

"Alice," came the voice of Vivaldi. "We request your presence in the changing room."

Glad at the excuse to get out of there, I grabbed my practice cloths and followed Vivaldi into the uniform room.

"We apologize for their behavior," she said.

"Why do they all obey everything that Blood tells them to do?" I asked.

"Blood involves himself with our uncle's mafia and the family members of the hare and the twins are our uncle's subordinates. Therefore, they must obey our brother to keep their families' positions."

So far this strange band was made up of street kids that got adopted by the director and future mafia members. I was going to have a very interesting high school experience.

When Vivaldi and I had gotten changed, she announced that it was time to report to stretches. So, we headed outside and waited for the others to show up so my first marching band practice could begin.

You know, I never figured how much fun Vivaldi was to write about until I started this chapter.

I've been thinking about their show theme and I think it would be cool if they did the circus. Let me know what you guys think about this!

As always, if you review, review honestly.

Squiggs :)=