It was terrible. It was disgusting. And it was scary. It was the return to the Orphan Shack!
After lunch we all went back to the Orphans Shack. Ugh. The fungus was dripping like mad; the bales of hay were rough and lumpy. And there were even more crabs.
We sat down on a pile of hay and talked. "What do we do?" Violet asked. "Sunny has to make one thousand homemade staples and we have tests on Mr. Remora's stories and Mrs. Bass's measurements."
"Well," Isadora said, "Maybe Duncan and I could help." "Yeah," I said. "First, let's get started on the staples."
Klaus said, "I wonder how we could make one thousand homemade staples." "Well, what about the crabs?" I asked. "We could hold something out that would attract them, and right before they snap, we replace it with one of those metal pieces."
"Smarmin!" Sunny shrieked, which Klaus translated to be, "Great idea, Duncan!" I smiled.
"What could attract crabs so much that they come after it?" Isadora asked. "Well," Violet said, "It could like a finger or toe or something like that."
"How about a potato?" Klaus asked. "Potatoes do look like toes, kind of." "Good idea, Klaus!" Isadora said.
So we walked back to the cafeteria. Every worker was in the kitchen, cleaning up. We saw a bag of potatoes lying nearby, but the workers were around.
Isadora and I started running around with scissors. The lunch workers hollered and ran after us. Meanwhile, the Baudelaires sneakily got the bag and left.
When we came back, crabs were everywhere, and we had to be careful not to step on them.
So we started holding out potatoes and switching them with metal pieces right before they snapped. It was pretty tiring, but we finished.
"Ow!" Violet exclaimed, after a crab snapped at her and scurried away. "When the crabs aren't helping us, they can be pretty annoying."
"Well, if there was some way to scare them away," Klaus said, "they wouldn't be around as much."
"There are a lot of metal scraps left. Maybe if we attached them to the bottoms of our shoes, when we walked around, it would make loud noises. That might scare them away," Violet suggested.
I smiled. Violet was great at inventing.
So we got to work, pasting the metal chunks to their shoes. It really made a lot of noise.
"We still have tests tonight," Klaus said. "I copied down the measurements for all the objects we measured, Klaus," Isadora said. "Really? Thank you so much!" Klaus said as they walked to a different hay bale.
"I copied down all of Remora's stories, Violet," I said. "Oh, thank you, Duncan!" Violet exclaimed. I blushed a little as we sat down.
The Baudelaires studied their heads to death, and then they asked us to quiz them. They did great.
"Sprinorphan," Sunny said, which Violet and Klaus translated to be, "We still have S.O.R.E. again tonight."
We were quiet a while, until I got a sudden brain-blast.
"Hey, what if we ran laps for you?" I suggested. Violet and Klaus looked at me, Sunny stared at the floor.
"But he'd recognize you," Klaus said. "Well, not really," I said.
"If I took your glasses, Klaus, I'd look kind of like you. And if Isadora took Violet's hair ribbon, she'd kind of look like Violet."
"But you're not wearing the same clothes as us," Violet said.
"We could meet him out there early," Isadora said. "It should be pretty dark.
"What about Sunny?" Klaus asked. "There's only two of you and three of us."
"If we could find something about her size, like a bag of flour, we would be okay. We could tie her ribbon to the handles and draw a face on the front."
"But how would it get around the circle?" Klaus asked.
Violet walked over to me and moved her hand around my shirt until she came to a loose thread. She pulled it all the way out and tied one end to my pants, and the other to the handles.
"Capturisk," Sunny said, and Violet translated it to be, "This is a very risky plan."
"It is," I admitted, "but we can't let Count Olaf catch you."
We wished the Baudelaires good luck on their tests and promised that nothing would happen, but something happened, and not something good.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, there it is. Thanks to everyone who submitted a review. Keep them coming. Keep in mind I won't always update on weekends, but I almost always will update on weekends.
