It was eleven thirty. Mr. Remora's class was the boringest class on earth. All he did was eat bananas while he told completely useless stories.

I just copied them into my commonplace book. It was jammed with information on V.F.D.-and Remora's stories.

My sister, Isadora, is in Mrs. Bass's class.

All Mrs. Bass does is force her class to measure things. We're triplets. Our mansion burned down a while back, taking our parents and our brother, Quigley.

Finally it got to be lunchtime. We ran to the cafeteria. Prufrock's cafeteria food is gigantic. I think it's because they don't want us coming back for seconds.

Isadora and I sat down at a solitary table. We cut our huge lasagna into bites big enough to fit into our mouths. Suddenly, everyone in the cafeteria started banging their silverware on the tables and yelled, "Cakesniffing orphans in the Orphan Shack!"

Ugh. Don't remind me. Isadora and I had to live there for three semesters. There was dripping fungus on the ceiling and there were crabs everywhere. Worst of all, all we had to sleep on were bales of hay.

"Look!" Isadora said, pointing to the middle of the cafeteria. Three kids were standing, holding their trays, and looking nervous. There was a girl who looked about a year older than me. We Quagmire triplets are thirteen, so she was probably about fourteen. There was a boy, who was probably twelve. And there was a baby.

I knew Carmelita Spats had started it. She always called Isadora and I "cakesniffers" and orphans. "QUIET!" I hollered, and everyone instantly stopped yelling and banging their silverware.

Everyone was staring at me, including the three kids. I stood up and walked to Carmelita's table.

"Why don't you just leave them alone, Carmelita?!" I said fiercely. "Just because they're not ugly like you doesn't mean you should treat them like dirt!"

Everyone oohed. Carmelita turned red, and said, "Shut up, cakesniffer! This situation has nothing to do with you."

"The situation's gonna have lasagna all over her if she doesn't back off!" I told her. Angrily, she sat back down, and I motioned for the kids to follow me.

"Thank you," said the girl. "Very much," added the boy. "She's a very complicated person, and it was getting pretty rocky back there."

"Don't mention it," I told them. "She does that to us all the time. Isadora had her eyes hooked on the boy.

The boy wore a black suit, black shorts, black glasses, and black shoes. The girl wore a yellow blouse, black shoes, and a ribbon in her hair. They all had black hair. Except for the baby, who had very sharp teeth and wore a white gown.

The girl was Violet Baudelaire, the boy was Klaus, and the baby was Sunny.

"So what led you to Prufrock?" I asked. "Well," said Violet, "Our home burnt down, killing our parents, we've been through a number of terrible places, and an evil villain named Count Olaf is bent on finding us, stealing our family fortune, and killing us."

I never gave the name Count Olaf much thought, but it seemed familiar, and I knew he had something to do with V.F.D.