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And a big thank you to genemi the revalion who put me in his sotry! Thanks so much! ^_^
"It may not be particularly wise,
But it's a thrill to be disguised."
It was a few weeks later. 'Coach Genghis' had been making Klaus, and Violet and Sunny, run laps all night so that they kept falling asleep in class. Nero had said he would fail them if they didn't know everything Mr. Remora and Mrs. Bass had taught them. Of course, Duncan and I volunteered to run laps for them.
I grabbed the bag of flour we had chosen to be Sunny and headed out the door. As I left, I smiled at Klaus. Little did I know that would be the last time I smiled at Klaus for a long, long, long time...
After four laps, my breathing became heavy. "Duncan (huff puff) are (huff puff) you (huff puff) as (huff puff) worn out (huff puff) as me?"
"(Huff puff) yeah."
"(Huff puff) Maybe if we talk (huff) it'll go faster. (puff.)"
"Good (huff puff) idea. So, do you (huff) like Klaus?"
"What?"
"Do you like (puff) Kl—"
"No! No! No!" I said too quickly. Suddenly, my rubbery legs found strength and I burst ahead of Duncan. He quickly caught up, however.
"Isadora (puff) we used to tell each other all (huff) our secrets."
"Correction: I told (huff) you and Quigley (puff) stuff, and you guys told me (puff puff) stuff. We used to (huff) not have secrets. (puff.)"
"Isadora—"
"(puff) Leave me alone! (huff huff puff) Stop being so (puff) nosy!"
"(huff) I'm not nosy. (puff) everybody, everybody (puff) knows you like Kla—" I put my hand over his mouth, and he twisted his head away.
"Yeah? Well, (huff huff) Violet said (puffle) that Nero thought you (huff puff) were her (puff) boyfriend!" (A/N: TAA, page 89)
"What'd she say?!" Duncan asked far too quickly.
I smiled to myself. "She (huff huff) said that—"
"(Huff!) Wait! How'd (puff) you know?!"
"(Puff) She told me (puff huff) last night."
"What'd she SAY?!"
"(puff huff huff)"
"TELL ME WHAT VIOLET SAID!"
"She said (huff huff) she didn't tell Nero, but she said she (huff puff puff) thinks you're kind of (puff puff) cute..."
"What did you (puff) say?"
"Thank you (huff)" He smacked me, not hard, though. "(Puff) What?! (Huff) What would you (puff puff) say when somebody told you (huff huff) that your identical brother was (puff huff) cute?!"
Duncan shook his head, but in the dim light, I could see him smiling. I grinned back and we jogged along next to each other in silence.
Finally, the sun painted the sky in pastel colors, softly spilling onto Duncan's face, and mine too, I guess. But I couldn't see my own face. Oh, look. I just screwed up a poetic thought with a pointless observation. Oh, well...
"Go on, orphans," screeched 'Coach Genghis.' We started limping, than running off. It was odd how we still had energy, but we were running back to our friends. Suddenly, the energy quickly melted from my legs as I realized something.
"Jesus, Duncan!"
"What?!"
"The bag. The bag of flour." We turned around, and following us was quote-unquote Coach Genghis. He was carrying a sack of flour.
I think I started screaming. He grabbed us by the elbows, and than the two cafeteria workers came and started dragging us towards the edge of the grounds. We tried to fight back, but all our energy had been lost into trying to help the Baudelaires. I kicked and yelled. I had been trying to help Klaus, but now I would never see him again. Never watch him measure in Room Two with Mrs. Bass. Never watch him concentrate on a book. Never tell him...tell him I...WAIT! Hold up! He had my notebook! He would know! But I'd still die. Oh, well. I gasped.
The women were dragging us towards a long black car. Quote-unquote Coach Genghis was running after us. I struggled against the woman's iron grip.
"Put them in the back seat!" yelled 'Coach Genghis.' "I'll drive! Hurry!"
Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw Violet, Klaus, and Sunny running towards, followed by Nero, Mrs. Bass, Mr. Remora, and some random coughing middle-aged guy.
I thrashed around. Violet had just ripped off you-know-who's turban and Sunny was biting on his shoe. But Klaus was running.
"Klaus! Klaus!" I screamed as he came closer. The woman began to push me into the car. "Help us!"
"Hang on!" he shouted back. He grabbed my ankles and started to drag me out of the car. The woman, who, I noticed, was very pale, leaned over and bit Klaus's wonderful hand. The woman holding Duncan tried to pull the car door closed.
"No!" yelled Klaus. He started pulling the door open.
"Klaus! Listen to me, Klaus!" cried Duncan. "If anything goes wrong—"
"Nothing will go wrong," said Klaus firmly. I wanted to cry. "You'll be out of here in a second!"
"If anything goes wrong," continued Duncan, "there's something you should know. When we were researching the history of Count Olaf, we found out something dreadful!" Ahh. Smart Duncan. Tell the Baudelaires about V.F.D. He always had so many smart thoughts.
Wait. Tell the Baudelaires. "Look in the notebooks!" I yelled hysterically. "The—" the woman put her hand over my mouth. It smelled like baby powder and dish water. I twisted my head away. "The—" She covered my mouth again.
"Hang on!" Klaus called back. "Hang on!"
"Look in the notebooks!" Duncan called. Duncan was telling Klaus about my poems, now. I cringed. How embarrassing. "V.F.D.!" Oh. Smart brother.
"What?" called back Klaus.
"V.F.D!" Duncan's mouth was covered now, too.
In slow-motion I watched Count Olaf run up and pull Klaus's hand off the door. As it shut, Count Olaf kicked Klaus in the stomach and he gave a kind of 'oof' and fell by our notebooks. "No!" I heard him yell faintly, and than the car started to drive away.
I clambered over the powdery lady and started banging on the back window of the car, and Duncan did too. We pounded while the Baudelaires grew smaller and smaller, until they faded away...
"Can you get those orphans to stop pounding?" said an unfamiliar voice faintly.
"Only the boy one is pounding," said another strange voice. "The girl one is asleep."
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Duncan was pounding on the window of the car, still. I gently took his hand and slowly pulled it off. He turned to look at me. "Don't hurt your hands," I said softly. We huddled together.
There was a fat person sitting in the passenger seat of the car. I shook my head slightly, since I was still sleepy, but I couldn't tell if the person was a woman or a man. "It's so gross," said The Fat Person in a genderless voice. "That the girl and the boy look so alike."
I leaned back against the car seat. We were now squished over to one side. The powdery ladies were on the other side, and the fat guy (?) was on the other side. Duncan caught me looking. "That's not all of them," he whispered. "They say we're going to see more of them."
I sighed and sat forward. "You can sleep now," I murmured to Duncan.
"Okay," he hissed back.
He shut his eyes and began to breath evenly. A few minutes later, I tapped his shoulder. He opened his eyes immediately. "It's okay if you can't sleep, too," I whispered. "Just rest is all."
"Okay," he said again. "But you slept."
"I can sleep anywhere," I said. It was true. "In a moving car, on a hay bale, through a fire..."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. We need to rest. Anyway, there was nothing you could do."
"You either," I whispered back. "We need to focus on what we can do now." The car pulled up into what felt like a dark tunnel of a street. It seemed like a lot was happening, and it seemed like there was nothing we could do...
There we go! All done! And I'm posting the sequel today, so don't worry! It's loooonger!