Lauren found a broom, a dustpan, and a mop for herself and Elizabeta. Lauren commented, "We should sweep before mopping."

"Good idea," Elizabeta commented. As they headed down the hall, Gilbert stalked past them, not glancing at them. Elizabeta huffed, murmuring under her voice, "Douche."

Noticing Lauren's wide-eyed stare, Elizabeta quickly apologized, "Sorry, it's just, we used to be friends."

"That's okay," Lauren said. Really, it didn't bother her-she was sure that a lot of people called him "douche".

They came back to the living room, Roderick playing Beethoven's piece, Symphony Nine. It sounded beautiful. Elizabeta asked Lauren, "Would you like to help with the sweeping?"

Lauren nodded and said, "I will hold the pan."

Getting onto her knees, Lauren kept tilting the pan up and down according to what Elizabeta said, and as they were about halfway done with the living room, Gilbert reappeared. He held a very beautiful violin in one hand, the bow in the other, and he said loudly, "KESESESESE, RODERICK, MY VIOLIN IS MORE AWESOME ZAN YOUR PIANO!"

Roderick's eyes widened, then his eyebrows furrowed in a scowl. He began to play something that Lauren had never heard before, and Gilbert reacted by playing something very fast-paced and dramatic on his violin. Gilbert actually danced to his own beat, Roderick jamming out to his own music. Roderick's music was like a magic spell used to tame a hurricane, while Gilbert's music was like a spell used to slay dragons.

Glancing at the two with an odd look in her eyes, Elizabeta whispered to Lauren, "Just go into ze keetchen to help Mister Ludwig. I vill clean zis up on my own."

Lauren curtly nodded, obeying the older woman. She stood awkwardly to Ludwig's left, saying softly, "I've come to help you with the dishes, sir."

"Zank you," the German said. As Lauren began to rinse what he handed her, she asked, "What is 'thank you' in German?"

Casually, Ludwig said, "Danke means 'thanks'. 'Vielen Dank' means 'Thanks very much'. German is 'Deutsch' und Germany ist 'Deutschland'. 'My' ist 'Mein', 'no' ist 'nein', und 'yes' ist 'ja'. 'Not' ist 'nicht', und 'good' ist 'gut'. You say 'sehr gut' for 'very good'."

He handed her a large plate. Lauren rinsed it thouroughly then proceded to place it in the dish drainer. Ludwig continued, saying, "'Vhat' ist 'was'. 'Is' ist 'ist." (lol, a whole sentence of just one word repeated three times!)

Lauren smiled, saying, "Vielen Dank...Mister Beilschmidt...what is 'Mister'?"

"Herr."

"Vielen Dank, Herr Beilschmidt...so, mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut...?"

Ludwig was surprised at how well she caught on. She had an obvious accent when she spoke, and it was fairly thick and her way of speaking was shy and awkward, yet she remembered the general rules well. Maybe it made sense; she was closely related to Francis, who was Ludwig's neighbor.

When they finished the dishes, Ludwig sent her away to help Elizabeta. Lauren obeyed, thanking him in English, then found some sponges to help Elizabeta with her mopping. She was sure to walk on the dry areas of the floor, and she asked Elizabeta softly, "May I help?"

Gilbert made a very loud, raggedy-sounding note on the violin that reminded Lauren of The Devil Went Down to Georgia, while Roderick countered that with a dramatic sound like the organ music from The Phantom of the Opera. While performing his fiddle-routine, Gilbert did a Spiderman-backflip, leaning backwards so far that the back of his head almost touched the floor.

Elizabeta nodded, pleased that Lauren was so helpful without even being asked, and she said, "Sure, but you can take the mop if you vant, and I can scrub the floor with my hands."

Shaking her head, Lauren said awkwardly, "Um, I can scrub the floor with my hands...I'm closer to the floor, after all."

Laughing, Elizabeta gently rubbed the top of Lauren's head, saying, "You're so cute! Okay, thank you!"

Lauren rolled up her sleeves to her elbows and dipped the sponges into the bucket that Elizabeta used. She headed over to scrub the far end of the floor while Elizabeta took the other end. Gilbert and Roderick finally finished their classical-battle, and Gilbert sighed, saying, "Wow, zat vas a lot of vork. I vore out my awesomeness."

He strolled past Lauren and down the hallway, going to go put his violin up. When he came back, he found Lauren scrubbing visciously at a stain on the floor, on her hands and knees. Now that Gilbert thought about it, didn't he cause that stain somehow? Meh, he didn't really care.

Wait a moment-why was Lauren working her butt off when she lived here? Gilbert could understand if she needed to work to stay in that house, because it kinda made sense. But she lived there, and the others were working for their stay!

"Lowren," Gilbert said, stopping to stand behind Lauren. She jumped in surprise, looking over her shoulder at him. She said, "Oh, yes, sir?"

Gilbert asked her, "Vhy are you cleaning ze floor?"

She just stared at him for a moment, then she asked, "Um, what do you mean?"

"Zat's unawesome," Gilbert explained, grabbing onto her left elbow again. She managed to stop herself from flinching away, and Gilbert continued, saying, "Let zem do zeir own vork. You are just making it easier for zem."

"Yeah," Lauren said. "I want to help..."

Who would want to work? Gilbert shook his head, saying, "Roderick needs to vork if he is going to stay!"

"He is," Lauren said, "because working is more fun with music."

"I can play music!" Gilbert insisted, "Didn't you hear my awesome violin earlier?"

"Yes, I did," Lauren said, Gilbert now pulling her to her feet. He told her, "Come on, let's do somezing awesome!"

Elizabeta noticed this and headed over, holding the mop in an almost defensive way. She would much prefer a frying pan or skillet, but this was good. Sounding cheerily, she decided to save Lauren by asking, "Lauren, do you vant to help me dust some zings?"

Gilbert yanked Lauren to his right side, and she stiffened up slightly, surprised, as Gilbert said, "Come on, mein schatz, ve can do some awesome stuff vithout zese guys!"

The Hungarian's eyes widened, and she asked in disbelief, "'Mein schatz'? Gilbert, let her go. If she doesn't vant to go vith you, zen she doesn't need to."

"She does vant to come vith the awesome me!" Gilbert insisted, looking down at Lauren as he asked, "Right, Lowren?"

Ludwig came marching up, folding his arms over his chest, and he said, "Gilbert, let her go, now. You are making everyzing uncomfortable."

Elizabeta took Lauren's hands in hers, and she pulled her away, managing to keep a cheery mood which made everything feel better as she said, "Come on, Lauren, do you vant to show me your room?"

Lauren curled her fingers around Elizabeta's mop, thinking to herself, If they ask who I want to be with, I'm going to say Monsieur Mop...

Gilbert grabbed Lauren from behind, saying, "KESESESE, YOU'RE COMING VITHZ ME!"

Lauren screeched, ripping the mop out of Elizabeta's hands, and, clenching her eyes shut, swung it around blindly. She heard several harsh things in German that sounded like cuss words, coming from several voices, and Gilbert dropped her. Lauren opened her eyes and saw that she had hit both of the Beilschmidt Brothers, breaking Ludwig's nose and having smacked Gilbert's left eye.

"I'M SO SORRY!" Lauren gasped in surprise, dropping the mop and hugging her knees. She started crying over hitting people, afraid that they would hate her and think that she was some sort of monster. Elizabeta took Lauren into the bathroom to clean up her face from the tears and comfort her, while Gilbert put an ice pack on his eye and Ludwig covered his face with a pile of paper towels. Roderick was huffing in the background, scolding Gilbert for causing this mess.