REVIEWS!!! YAY!!!

Laura V. Bleediote: I'm so honored! Thank you!

Visualpurple: Well, then, I'm glad you don't mind. Anyway, the unhappy ending won't be for a while yet!

Ophelia Russell: There! I'm updating now!

Bellatrix Lestrange9: Yes, I have the game for game boy, but I'm a little stuck right now so if anyone has it and can help me, I'd appreciate it! And when I showed this review to my friend, CC, she said that I didn't have anything for you to chop off with the goldfish sword… She's so mean to me!

Chapter 20 – An Uninvited Guest

For the next few days, Lemony mainly just rested a bit. His siblings tended to his wounds, and he often had visits from the Baudelaire and Quagmire parents, who distracted him with pleasant conversation. They talked a lot about their kids and gave him wallet-sized photos of them. In one picture was a young girl with a ribbon in her hair standing next to a slightly younger boy with large glasses.

"See?" said Sarah, pointing to the photo. "There's Violet on the left and Klaus on the right. Violet is quite the inventor; she always wears that ribbon when she's thinking of an invention. She recently won an inventing contest!

"Klaus takes after you, Lemony. He loves to read. I think he uses the library more than we do!"

Samantha sat at the other side of Lemony and showed him her small family portrait. "Here," she said. "There's Isadora, our little poet, and our sons Duncan and Quigley. Duncan has recently discovered Journalism and Quigley is now interested in cartography."

Kit then walked in carrying some stuff for their tea and a copy of the latest Volunteer Factual Dispatch. "I thought you'd enjoy a snack and something warm to drink," she said unsteadily as she pushed open the door with her shoulder, nearly dropping everything on the platter. She continued as she set up the impromptu tea party and glanced at the newspaper. "Hey," she commented. "Look at this. This says that the latest volunteer project has been stolen. They were investigating a substance that would fire-proof objects."

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that," said Samantha off-handedly.

"So what exactly was stolen?" Lemony asked, grabbing a tea biscuit off the tray.

"The article says it was some sort of sugar bowl," read Kit.

"Sugar bowl?" That was the last thing Lemony expected.

"Yep," confirmed Kit. "A white sugar bowl with the V.F.D. insignia on it. Apparently it's very valuable to the organization since it's already been fireproofed. "She closed her and asked for some more tea, and with that, the topic of the missing sugar bowl was nearly forgotten.

After a few minutes of pleasant chatting, Lemony asked about Beatrice and if she was coming. Kit looked suddenly nervous and quickly offered Lemony some tea. He took it, but continued to ask about Beatrice. They glanced, somewhat nervously, around the meager shed, which was now furnished with an additional space heater and several more blankets in order to ward off the approaching autumn cold, looking for a way to change the subject. One was found, but it wasn't Lemony who found it.

He cocked his head to one, not unlike a dog, rabbit, or any sort of animal that perks its ears at a sound. "What was that?"

The girls, relieved that they could now change the subject, tried to hear what Lemony was hearing. Samantha heard it first.

"Were those footsteps?" she asked.

"It's too early for Jacques," said Sarah nervously. "And Dorian and Daniel are gone watching the kids."

"But no one should be around here! We made sure that nobody else would be around when Lemony was here!" Kit ran over to the wall and pressed her ear against it. Sarah joined her.

"Well," Sarah announced. "Someone's definitely coming this way." They looked around at each other, searching for a way to stay undiscovered. But it was too late. Soon a young woman walked into the shed.

She was dressed in a ridiculous dress with different colorful layers. Many of the layers did not go together, and the rhinestones that were placed sporadically on her dress and huge earrings made her look garish. This strange woman was an acquaintance of Kit's, and Kit knew who the woman was even before she saw her face.

"Hi Esme," she murmured resignedly.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah almost yelled.

Esme's expression had turned from complete surprise to a grin that a child would wear after discovering money on the sidewalk. She spoke up in an almost haughty tone. "So, Kit, is this your brother? I thought he'd be in jail by now."

Lemony just stared up at her, at a loss of what to say. Sarah and Samantha, however, had plenty to say to that uninvited guest. "You're not supposed to be here!" exclaimed Samantha. Sarah continued, saying, "You have to leave!" It was obvious that they were panicking.

Esme let out a sigh that was as fake as the giant ruby on her ring. "I guess I should leave," she said with a smile. "After all, I have some friends who'd LOVE to hear about this." She glanced once more around the shed ad spied the tea tray. "Ohh!" she exclaimed. "A tea party! How in!"

Lemony realized that as soon as Esme left, she would tell people about his hideout. He had nearly recovered, but he knew he wouldn't be able to outrun all the volunteers who would pursue him once Esme left, so he decided to try and stall.

"Join us, Esme," he said as he feebly sat up and gave his friends a purposeful look to let them know that he was only stalling. "We have plenty of tea for you."

Esme, ignoring the fact that she was being very impolite, sat down on one of the meager cushions and snatched a teacup. Without even a thank-you, she grabbed a biscuit and began munching on it. She started talking with her mouth full, which is also very rude.

"Not bad," she muttered, spraying a few crumbs from her mouth.

Kit, feigning politeness, offered her some tea. Esme snatched the tea from her and Lemony noticed that Sarah had put some sort of a powder in Esme's teacup. Lemony had recognized it, since it had been used to help him sleep before but Esme either didn't see it, or she mistook it for sugar. Despite all my research, I still do not know if she noticed the whitish powder in her drink, but it doesn't really matter because, as you will soon see, she didn't drink the tea.

"Yuck!" Esme yelled as she spit out the tea.

Sarah and Kit looked at each other and asked Esme what was the matter. They couldn't tell if she had swallowed any of her tea.

"It's so bitter," she complained, fishing around in her purse. "I need some sugar,"

"Here." Kit offered her their small sugar bowl, but Esme ignored her and continued to look through her large purse. She mumbled a bit and eventually smiled and pulled something triumphantly out of her purse and slam it on the table.

"This is so much better than that terrible unfashionable bowl of yours," she declared and moved her hand, which was covered in ugly and colorful rings, uncovering something completely unexpected.

When something unexpected happens is the tendency of people to have one of two reactions. When something like that happens, many things spring to mind so fast that people don't know how to react. Some try to blurt out everything that comes to mind at the same time, which often does not make any sense. Some other people are simply overcome with all the thoughts and questions that they don't know what to say. Both of these reactions were used by the friends when they saw Esme raise her hand from the table and uncover the missing sugar bowl.

:at this point, my friend Sarah intercepted my notebook and, only reading the sentence before it, wrote the following to complete the sentence: "was still quite ill, so he threw up on the carpet after eating some more catnip and curled up in a ball and died." It was really funny!

Yesterday was my birthday!!!!!!!! I'm sixteen! Yee-haw!!!