Here's your chapter two- good, clean, and fresh from the can! Yummy.
When the name Sunny Baudelaire comes to a person's mind most people think of a cute, talking baby who likes to cook and bite things. There are few people in this world who think of the person I am today. I am not a baby. Ironic, that was one of my first sentences. And I don't doubt I will be saying it for the rest of my life. I said it when I started preschool and Violet got all teary-eyed, I said it when I convinced Klaus to take the training wheels off my bike, I screamed it on my tenth birthday, and I argued it when Klaus decided started disagreeing with Violet about the fact that I was dating Evan. He still hasn't changed his mind on the subject.
He anger and over-protectiveness got really out of hand on the second day of school. Ellie had a dance class directly after school and Evan and I went back to the mansion where we were supposed to be doing homework (another surprising thing about seventh grade) in the library. We had our books and everything we just hadn't really gotten around to actually finishing the work. Sooner or later, Klaus walked in on us kissing behind a bookshelf.
"Sunny Baudelaire!" he shouted and Evan and I broke apart.
I stood there, waiting, not knowing whether to defend myself or run. The old fight or flight, the instant animal instinct, like a crow being pursued by an eagle.
"What are doing?" Klaus hissed, his face beat red
I froze.
"I- we were-" I stuttered then my confidence rose, "can't you tell what we were doing?"
Klaus stared at me for an intense moment.
"What are you freaking out for?" I asked angrily
"You shouldn't be doing that!" he shot back
"I don't see a problem, Evan is my boyfriend! And since when do you tell me what I should and shouldn't do?"
"Since the judge acknowledged me as your legal guardian"
"Not exactly," I retorted, "You're nothing but a secondary guardian. And for the last time, I'm not a baby!"
I pushed past Klaus, dragging Evan by the wrist with me.
"Violet!" I shouted over the top of the stairs, "Klaus is being paranoid!
"What?" Violet called back from her workshop
"Klaus is being paranoid!" I repeated as Klaus came from the library
I rushed down the spiral staircase, still gripping Evan's wrist in my hand. I stopped at Violet.
"Klaus is all mad for no reason," I said to Violet
"Violet, if you would have seen the pair of them," Klaus said
"Wait, slow down," Violet said calmly, "what happened?"
"I was with Evan in the library and Klaus comes barging in and starts screaming at me!" I said all in one breath
"What do you mean with Evan?" Violet asked as Klaus opened his mouth to whine about it.
"Well, we were, you know, kissing," I said hastily as my face burned, "But that's not the point, it's none of Klaus's business to come shrieking at us!"
"Violet, if you would have seen them, I'm not lying," Klaus griped
"Evan, why don't you head home, we'll see you another time," Violet said gently
"Uh, then, um, bye Sunny, see you tomorrow" Evan said uneasily
Once Evan had left Violet turned to Klaus.
"Klaus, I think you're overreacting a bit," Violet reasoned
"That's the understatement of the century," I muttered
"You shush," She said turning to me, "you're overreacting almost as much as he is."
Violet settled things as usual but Klaus was careful to keep watch over Evan and I from then on.
The nice thing about the first week of school was that it was only two days long, because the first day of school fell on a Thursday. So that Saturday night Ellie and Evan came over to the mansion. We stayed in and sat on the floor of one of the three bonus rooms, as Ellie and I tried to get Evan to let us give him a mohawk. But, he wouldn't, so we gave him pigtails instead. We tied two purple ribbons in his hair so that two tufts of dark brown hair stuck up on each side of his head. Ellie and I stood back and admired our work, then rolled on the floor, laughing hysterically.
"You look- pretty!" Ellie gasped, weak from laughing
"You wait," Evan warned, trying not to laugh himself.
"Sorry, Evan, but you don't look that threatening!" I chortled, trying to stop laughing to take a breath. Evan cracked a smile.
When the laughing finally died, it was silent.
"I should've gone for the mohawk." Evan murmured.
My face was hot and sore from smiling. Evan still had the ribbons in his hair. I leaned over, undid them, and kissed him.
"Oh, please," Ellie groaned, "It was so funny and you two have to make it gross."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said sarcastically, "I forgot that you have a very strict P.D.A. rule."
"P.D.A.?" Evan asked
"Public Display of Affection," Ellie said briskly, "but no, I don't mind you snogging in my face, go ahead."
I was about to get angry, but I already had enough on my mind, and the last thing I needed was a fight with Ellie. Besides, she did have a point.
"Fine," I said mockingly, "Darn you, Evan, no more making-out in public!"
This sent the three of us into another fit of laughter.
"Sorry, Ellie," I said seriously, "can't help it."
"She can't," agreed Evan with a grin, "I'm irresistible."
"You're both weird," Ellie said, but she was grinning as well.
"Anybody want desert?" a voice said. Isadora poked her head into the room.
We turned and nodded with a chorus of "Yeah,"
Everyone, the Quagmires, and my siblings, Violet who was twenty-five, and Klaus who was twenty-three, greeted Evan and Ellie and we sat for a bowl of strawberry ice cream. The two family dogs, Francis and Harry, stood close to the kitchen table, hoping that some dessert would come their way.
Klaus kept eying Evan and I, making sure we didn't start randomly kissing in between bites. Trust me, I wasn't thinking anything of the sort. The thing about Klaus was that he was extremely overprotective of his sisters, probably because he never actually had a real girlfriend. Violet was much more lenient on the matter- more proof: she was currently going out with Quigley Quagmire, and had been since she was about fifteen. Their ten year anniversary was on October something-or-other, all I knew is that it was somewhere near my thirteenth birthday, which was on October 18th.
Duncan Quagmire was another triplet and the most annoying one out of the three. Duncan reached over the table for the ice cream, but Isadora slapped his hand away.
"What?" he whined
"That's, like, your fifth helping," Isadora said
"So," Duncan said, pushing her hand out of the way, "we practically live here, and since when do I have to listen to you?"
Isadora stared at him and raised her eyebrows. Duncan retreated with a sigh.
"You seriously need to grow up," Quigley said
"Very unlikely," I mumbled and Duncan narrowed his eyes, but kept quiet.
I woke up on Sunday morning with Francis sound asleep at the foot of my bed. I climbed out of bed.
"Francis," I whispered but she didn't budge, "Francie,"
One eye opened and she looked shot me an annoyed look but heaved herself off the bed. She followed close behind as I tiptoed down the stairs, careful not to wake anyone so early. I walked into the kitchen and passed the living room on the way. Violet was asleep on the sofa with her head on Quigley's shoulder and Harry snoring at her feet. They had apparently been watching something rather interesting on TV, because, usually, Violet is a very light sleeper and prefers her own bed. But what do I know? Violet has also been known to change herself for Quigley. Just like, she had told me this about a billion times, how she turned down her friend Ben when he asked her out when she was thirteen, because she was too busy for boys.
"I'd have had no time to do anything between school, inventing, and Ben," she always says, "I don't want you getting too caught up in dating…"
Maybe she just started dating Quigley because she was older then, but she has made other changes for him. Not that that's bad or anything. She really loves him, and she'll do anything to keep him. Not that he'd ever leave her, he's about as crazy for her as she is for him. I take great interest in other people's business.
Apparently, all three Quagmires had stayed the night. Isadora was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea clutched between her hands.
"Hey," I said casually, "did you sleep over?"
"Stupid question, Sunny," she said, then pausing to take a sip of her dark tea, "but I wouldn't say I actually slept for more than an hour."
"You didn't sleep good?" I asked pouring myself a bowl of cereal.
"Eh, no," she shrugged, "just thinking about…things."
"Oh," it was quiet for a few minutes as I searched the refrigerator, "No milk?"
"Behind the orange juice," Isadora said smartly
I grabbed the milk, "You're here too often."
"Yeah, well you're coming over to my place for a change," she said picking a few pieces of cereal from the box, "you are having dinner at Le House of Quagmire."
"You're gonna cook?" I asked doubtingly
"No," Isadora scoffed, "I can't make anything for the life of me. We're probably gonna order pizza or something."
"Lovely," I said as Violet walked into the kitchen, "because I heard, when it comes to cooking you Le suck…"
Isadora and I stared as Violet sat at the table with a weird grin on her face.
"What?" Isadora asked
"What?" Violet said as her grin faded
"Why are you so happy?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Violet glanced over at me, then her smile reappeared as if she couldn't resist telling, "Ok, you know how Quigley and I are having our ten year anniversary,"
Isadora and I nodded
"That's ten years," Violet continued
Isadora and I nodded again.
"A decade,"
"Just tell us," Isadora said eagerly
"I think he's going to…propose." Violet said hurriedly
"Really?" I said
"Yes, I was going to ask him last night, that's why I agreed to staying downstairs to watch some boring movie with him," Violet explained "but we both ended up falling asleep, so I gave up on that idea…"
Duncan walked into the kitchen and Violet trailed off. He yawned groggily and helped himself to breakfast. He sat down across from us wordlessly.
"Ahem," Isadora coughed and Duncan looked up from his breakfast.
"Oh," he mumbled, "hi, ladies…and Sunny." He said the last part under his breath so only I could hear him.
I glared and kicked him under the table. He then attempted to say either a comeback or "ow" but he gagged on his cornflakes instead.
Soon Quigley and Klaus came to breakfast. The rest of the day went on slowly, like it normally does on Sundays. We had a healthy dinner of Le pizza at the Quagmire mansion and came home late. I was surprisingly looking forward to the next day at school. I had a feeling that something good might happen, that could change the entire year.
Is Sunny right about the coming Monday? Maybe. You gonna have to wait- unless of course you're reading this a long time away from now, then yay for you! And yay for book the twelfth! Keep those reviews coming! More apologies for taking forever to write this! Yeah, funny, because nothing really important happens in this chapter, but it's still only the second one, which counts as the beginning. right?
