As the Quagmire's sat down at their table with the Baudelaire's, Duncan and Isadora gave each other a hopeful look. Duncan then turned to the other three.

"You'll have to forgive Carmelita. She's so awful Mrs. Bass is considering a life of crime" He looked back at Isadora with a smile. "My sister wrote a poem about her"

Isadora leaned forward to the Baudelaire's.

"I would rather eat a bowl of vampire bats, than spend an hour with Carmelita Spats"

She smiled, and noticed Duncan and the oldest Baudelaire girl were too. The Baudelaire boy looked a little different though. He did have a smile, but his eyebrows were slightly turned down, and he seemed to be a little impressed.

"That's a couplet. Ogden Nash uses them"

"I know, I've read all of his work"

Isadora immediately got a rush of happiness inside of her. Most people in this school didn't even know what a couplet was. A second where Isadora and Klaus just looked at each other with admiration and awe followed. Isadora then sat back up.

"I'm Isadora Quagmire, and this is my brother Duncan" She gestured to Duncan as she spoke.

The oldest girl introduced herself as Violet Baudelaire, and the other two as her siblings Klaus and Sunny

"It's nice to meet you" Duncan couldn't hold the smile away looking at the beautiful Violet Baudelaire.

She couldn't seem to take her eyes off him either, and they just looked at each other, admiring the view.

That was interrupted by Sunny making a little noise, which both Violet and Klaus could translate to; "Get a room". The two stopped staring into each others eyes, and looked down, slightly blushing.

Okay, they needed to change the subject.

"We should warn you about the apples; they taste like horseradish" Isadora frowned at the fruit bowl full of wrinkly apples.

She had made the mistake of taking one on her and Duncan's first day. Everyone else turned their heads towards it as well.

"Everything seems distasteful in this place" Klaus said.

"I hope you're surviving the orphan shack" Isadora gave them a sympathetic look.

So did Duncan.

"It's pretty awful. We were living there until yesterday"

"You're orphans too?" Klaus leaned his elbows on the table.

Duncan nodded, and looked down at his feet, while Isadora took a deep breath.

"We lost our parents in a terrible fire... And our brother Quigley"

"We were triplets" Duncan looked back up.

"I'm very sorry to hear that"

Neither Violet, Klaus nor Sunny could imagine what it would have been like losing one of them. Isadora and Duncan had been looking at Violet's empathetic face, and so not noticing the confused and concerned look Klaus had.

"We lost our parents in a fire as well" He looked down at the table, avoiding eye contact; He knew he would just get far too sad. "It's not fair; One minute you're safe... and happy and... home. And the next-"

"You're in a shack full of crabs" Isadora interrupted.

"At least we can do something about the crabs. How did you guys deal with them?" Violet asked.

"We taped metal to the bottom of of shoes to be extra noisy"

"It scared the crabs, but it was exhausting having to tap dance all the time" Duncan and Isadora explained.

"Nobody likes tap dancing" Violet sighed, as the clickety-clack of tap shoes approached the table.

"Cakesniffing orphans in the orphan shack" Carmelita began, before tapping more than necessary to her own song. "Cakesniffing orphans in the orphan shack!"

She ended the dance with a dramatic pose. When no one clapped, she gave them an aggressive smile, before tapping away. Isadora leaned forward, making sure Carmelita wouldn't hear what she was about to say (she didn't feel like having a piece of cake thrown at her).

"She's been even worse since vice principal Nero got her those tap shoes"

"I bet I could invent something less exhausting than tap shoes, but I'll need some materials. Can everybody empty their pockets?" Violet asked as she started pulling things out of her pockets.

Everyone followed her request without hesitation. As the Quagmire's quickly put their trays away, the Baudelaire's took old tickets and receipts, little pieces of metal and random things out. Isadora and Duncan took out their commonplace books, erasers, and a little money. When Violet's pockets were empty, she took the ribbon up, and was just about to tie her hair when it happened.

Isadora pulled out the cylinder-formed device out of her pocket, and looked up, only to realise Klaus was holding a nearly identical thing in his hand. All five of them at the table froze, and Violet stopped tying her hair.

Klaus and Isadora got a sudden feeling that there was something they just had to do. They put their two devices together, forming one bigger device. Klaus twisted his side half a lap, and there was a slight sound.

Click.

"Whoa" Sunny voiced, looking at the piece in awe.

Isadora and Klaus looked up at each other.

"Where did you get that?"

"From the ruins of our parents home" Violet answered, looking from Isadora, to Duncan, to Klaus.

"I think we need to talk" Klaus said.

Isadora nodded, and they separated the newly put together device. They really had to go down the rabbit hole with this, and find out exactly what was going on.


Five minutes later, the newfound friends sat together in the little orphan shack, discussing the matter.

"Where did you guys find it?" Violet stood up on one of the hay bales, a light bulb in her hand.

"We found it in the ashes. We'd never seen it before" Duncan answered.

Violet started turning the light bulb into place on the ceiling.

"Can't be a coincidence. Two fires, two halves of a spyglass"

She looked down at her siblings and friends on the other hay bale. Klaus was holding the device, the spyglass, inspecting the shape, and engravings on the bottom of one piece.

"I think it's more than a spyglass" The Quagmire's turned their heads towards him as he put the pieces together. "See, there are dials. Similar to ones I read about for cracking codes"

Isadora looked up at Violet.

"Why would our parents have a device for cracking codes?"

"And why would our parents have the same device?" Klaus asked.

Violet handed a tin can to Sunny, who started biting shapes of sea animals into it. A light bulb went on inside Violet's head.

"They must have known each other"

"Then why don't we know each other?" Duncan looked up at her.

He wished they would have known each other before. He could see nothing wrong with being friends with such a beautiful, intelligent and kind inventor.

"It's like they were hiding all this stuff"

"Thanks Sunny" Violet took the can from her sister as she handed it to her.

She reached up to the light bulb, and fastened the can to the device she had invented.

"Maybe they were gonna tell us, they just.. never got the chance"

"Maybe they were hiding it for a reason" Klaus added.

Duncan and Isadora looked at each other. What reason would they have to keep their children away from each other. Karen and Quentin never told them anything about their past friends. Isadora certainly couldn't think of any reason they would keep her from this handsome, noble and kind researcher. Only in case they were rivals...

"You mean because it's dangerous?" She turned her head to Klaus.

"Maybe. You're sure you've never heard of Count Olaf?"

"I'm sure" She nodded.

On their way to the shack, the Baudelaire's had told them about this Count Olaf who was after them, and their fortune. About his one eyebrow, tattoo, various disguises and schemes.

"But, since we lost our parents, we've seen a lot of things we can't explain" She added.

"Us too" Violet stated, as she attached some more pieces to the invention. "It has to be connected"

She went down, and pressed the new light switch. The light, and shadows of the animal shapes started playing around in the room. The crabs ran away in under the so called furniture, and Duncan made a comment on how good it was. But even this happy moment, had to be broken, so they could continue their research.

"At aunt Josephine's house we found a book, that looked like it might contain some answers" Klaus said.

That set off an immediate instinct in Duncan, and his hands almost flew to his pocket, and he pulled out his notebook. He had seen a book, just like what Klaus just explained. While Klaus also explained that they lost it in a hurricane, Duncan flipped though the pages, until he found the one he was looking for;
The page with a drawing of The Incomplete History of Secret Organisations.

"Did it look like this book" He interrupted Klaus, showing the page in his commonplace book.

"Our last guardian locked it in a safe after she lost her wife" Isadora explained.

She thought about it almost daily. The horrific sight of Brielle slowly passing haunted both her and Duncan.

"If we all saw the same book, then it has to be more copies" Violet sat down opposite the others.

"Then how can we find one?" Duncan asked.

Klaus was quick to ask about the library, but Isadora had to break the tragic news that it was only open for ten minutes a day. But that didn't matter right now. They had to see that book, or they knew they might never get the answers to their questions...


The walk to the library wasn't long, but it felt like an eternity when they walked down the hall, anxious to see if they made it in time. They reached the library just to find Olivia Caliban, the librarian, forcing Carmelita out through the doors. It seemed Carmelita had literally killed some mocking birds, which Olivia now insisted should get a proper burial. Carmelita just ignored her, and started sniffing the air. She turned around.

"I smell people who lost their parents in fires" She cruelly said, before walking off, laughing.

Olivia though, seemed happy to see them. She took a relieved breath.

"Quagmire's. And the Baudelaire's. Lovely to see you; and together I might add"

"Are you still open?" Isadora asked hopefully.

Olivia sighed, and explained she was just locking up, and that they should wait.

"We can't wait until tomorrow"

"We're trying to find a book"

"An important book"

"We think it might have the answers to all of our questions"

"What's the title?" Olivia asked, hoping she could help.

"The incomplete history of secret organisations"

"Let me see what I can do" Olivia replied, with a secretive tone and smile.

She took them inside, and quickly looked through the documents of all the books in the library. To her and everyone else's disappointment, she didn't have the book. And as if that wasn't enough, just when they were about to leave, Nero entered, seemingly very mad that they were in the library after hours (or minutes).

Although that time was a disappointment, both the Baudelaire's and Quagmire's knew that they could come back tomorrow, and everyday after that, and that sometime soon, they would have that book.