Choir Trip Day!
Your fourth grade choir is the greatest assemblage of pre-pubescent singers in nineteen counties. Which is why you're riding on a bus to Quartermaine Manor in Kensington, where a very wealthy man is about to die.
The blood parasites were found vandalizing the veins and arteries of Sir Remington Quartermaine in late 2004. His condition has deteriorated considerably since then and his staff has been racing to satisfy all of his final wishes while there's still time. One of these wishes was to only be fed what is slaughtered before his eyes, which required the construction in a section of his bedroom of a linoleum-floored Butcher's, surrounding by transparent plexiglass. Another wish was to have every episode of MASH running on a loop on a flat-screen television suspended within his line of sight. And lastly, he would like to be sung to by a fourth grade choir every morning after his wash, in the afternoon around 3 PM when things grow quiet in the air, and in the evening, until he falls to sleep.
Your school's choir competed and rose through the rounds and finally won. Your school was awarded a $35 million grant, and you and your fellow tenors were bused off to live at a rich man's house and sing according to his whimsy. You'll each have a private room, which is a luxury you have yet to enjoy. But the rooms will be large, cold, sparsely furnished spaces with oversized beds in which you can only feel lost and alone. The food will be very rich and ornate when all you'd like is a nice plate of tater tots. And there will be nowhere to play and no toys to play with. You're going to have to change all that.
You'll befriend the staff and show them what kids like to eat, how kids like to play, and you'll use your childish mischief to help two members of the staff fall in love. The stodgiest and most senior on the staff, Mr. Harrington, will appear to not appreciate your presence on the estate in the slightest. Yet in the end it will become apparent that Mr. Harrington understands you all better than any of the softer staffers who enjoy slipping cookies under your doors against regulations.
Things will certainly get better as time goes on. Except for Sir Quartermaine, whose condition deteriorates with every passing hour. Singing him to sleep will be more and more difficult, as the pain in his blood becomes so unbearable that he spends several nights at a time screaming at the sky. You'll be forced to stay there by his bed and sing under the storm of terrifying howls until he finally falls to sleep. If you try to leave, your school will be forced to return the money. At the longest stretch, you'll sing for 91 hours straight.
Happy Choir Trip Day!
