AN: I'm so sorry for the extremely long delay in updating this. I am a literal trash goblin. Also, it was challenging trying to figure out how to move forward with this plot.
While one couldn't say that the school was a pleasant place to be, the teachers seemed to be cutting Annabelle a little bit of slack since her heat stroke the week before. She knew better than to expect it to last. Allison hadn't gotten any mail since then, not that that was any surprise. Annabelle tried to throw herself into her studies, but she could never make herself be the bookish type. She desperately wished that Rutherford would allow her to have her guitar so she'd have something even remotely pleasurable to pass the time. If it was possible, she actually missed that stuffy Catholic school.
"I didn't think you of all people would be into children's books," Allison said walking into the dorm room making Annabelle jump.
"I'm not into any books. Why?" Annabelle replied quizzically.
"Oh, I think you might change your mind. I got an early birthday present from Aunt Simone…six months early-"
Annabelle leapt out of bed and snatched a small book and letter out of Allison's hand and glared at her for having opened it.
"What did you want me to do? Megan and Shelly wouldn't leave me alone until I opened it, and Mrs. Arbor was lurking in the mailroom," Allison said frantically.
"It's fine. I'm just glad she's actually talking to me," Annabelle replied.
"The letter doesn't make any sense. Maybe you can figure out what it means," said Allison sitting at one of the barren desks and starting on her homework.
"'Dear Allyson,
Are you studying your arithnetec? School iz alwayz something that has been important to mi. I don't want yoo to fall behind. You are too smart foe tha. You're too yung to waste yor potetial like that. I'm goin to tell yo lik I told your mother: Let the bredges your bur light the way. He sometames din't listin very mich but none of that hatters now. I sind my best regards.
-Love,
Aunt Simone '"
"I'm not a grammar snob, but isn't she supposed to be an English teacher? Maybe one too many prison beatings has her"- Allison cut herself off as Annabelle's angry eyes dared her to finish that sentence. "But what about the book?"
"'A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window'…There's gotta be a connection," Annabelle though aloud.
"Happy reading," said Allison returning to her calculous homework.
It didn't take long for Annabelle to finish the book. The story wasn't even that bad, but it did take her skimming back over the pages a few times to realize why Simone had sent it. Lights out had been called hours ago, so it was a little more challenging to read by moonlight.
"It's a secret code!" Annabelle blurted out causing Allison to groan and cover her head with her pillow.
"I just have to find the correct letter from each misspelled word…Simone, that's genius!" Annabelle said much more quietly.
Annabelle pulled a notebook and pencil out of her backpack and scanned the letter for its various spelling mistakes. She wrote down the message and grinned mischievously as she read it to herself over and over again in disbelief: I miss your tongue inside me. Simone would have usually gotten flustered by that sort of language, something Annabelle frequently had fun with during the time they spent at Simone's beach house. Then again, they say that prison changes people…