The next day, we got permission from our first-period teacher, Mrs. Hildebrandt, to go see VP Nero.

We walked right on into his office. As far as I knew, the sleeping pill was in Izzy's pocket.

We parked ourselves in chairs. Nero glared at us. "I know what you're about to say," he said crossly. "The answer is still no."

"We know," Isadora said. "We just wanted to apologize for our immature behavior yesterday afternoon. We're very sorry, Vice-Principal Nero."

"Sure we are," Klaus mumbled. Nero stared at him. "What was that, Baudelaire?"

"I said, we sure are, VP Nero," he said. Isadora looked at his coffee mug. "Your mug's empty. How's 'bout I go filling it up for you?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Nero said. "I was just heading over there."

"Nonsense!" Izzy's voice was urgent, but maybe a little too urgent. I didn't know, but something told me he was getting a bit suspicious.

Izzy took his mug and went outside. I heard the sound of pouring, and she came back into the room.

She handed the mug to Nero, grinning widely. Nero looked down at the dark coffee, and then at Isadora, who tossed him a couple packets of Splenda. "In case you want it sweet," she told him.

Nero kept looking at her, then at the coffee, and started laughing.

Quigley looked at him. "What's so funny, sir?" he asked.

"You kids!" he chuckled wildly. "You're putting a sleeping pill in my coffee, so I drink it and black out! Then you just go on to Town Hall!"

He reached his hand broadly into the coffee, and brought out a small pill. It wasn't so white anymore.

"I have to admit, though," he said. "You kids are pretty good. I mean, I myself, even I might not have thought of that! You kids get back to class! Was this some kind of joke to make me laugh? Well, we'll see whose laughing. I'll call in the secretary as soon as I finish my coffee."

Quigley, Violet, Klaus, Sunny and I groaned. Isadora looked natural.

Nero put his lips to the mug and started chugging the coffee down.

I stared at Isadora. "Our plan just blew," I exclaimed. "And you don't even look sad!"

She shrugged and kept smiling, watching Nero chug down the coffee.

When he was done, he staggered upward. "Wh-what's going on?" he panicked. "Wh-what happened? I'm getting weaker and tired-oh no!"

"Now!" Izzy cried. For some reason, Quigley and I knew to jump up and knock Nero out. He fell back into his chair, his arms hanging to the sides of his chair.

We all stared at Isadora. "What'd you do?" we asked. "He took the sleeping pill out!"

"I put two sleeping pills in," she said triumphantly. "I figured he'd probably find one, so why not have an extra just in case?"

"Am I glad you thought of that!" Klaus said. We used Nero's hand to sign the note, and on the way out, Violet said, "Wait! What if an office attendant comes into his office? She'll just find him asleep."

"I have an idea," Quigley said. He took a pair of dark sunglasses out of his pocket, and set them on Nero's nose. He pushed them up to cover his eyes.

Then he took a sticky-note off Nero's desk and wrote, I'm going for the record of staring into space longest. Don't bother me for ANYTHING!

We all read it. "Interesting," Isadora said, after five minutes. "Well, we better hurry. It's ten o' three and I ordered for a taxi to wait for us outside campus at ten. C'mon!"

We showed the note to the secretary; she nodded, and agreed to call our teachers to notify them.

We sprinted to the taxi and the driver said, "You're five minutes late. You the kids holding the voting at Town Hall?"

"Yes," Isadora said. "We told you that's where we're going, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," the driver said. "Don't sass me. Hurry up and get in."

We piled in, and after we arrived at Town Hall, Violet nudged Klaus and Isadora nudged me at the exact same time.

"What?" Klaus and I said in unison.

"Pay the driver!" they said simultaneously.

"It's Quigley's turn," Klaus and I said at the same time.

"Okay, gang up on me," Quigley said, scooting towards the window.

"One o' ya'll better pay or I'm takin' you all back!" the driver screeched.

"All right, I'll pay," Klaus said. He paid the driver and we got out.

After going up the steps we went inside. There was a huge crowd of people, for a reason I knew not of.

"Hey, what's going on?" I shouted. "Why are there a lot of people here?"

"Where're the people holding the voting?" a chubby man asked.

I was shocked. "You're all voters?" I cried.

"Yes," they all said simultaneously.

"All right," Quigley said. "We'll have a good day."

It took six to eight hours. Approximately seven hundred people voted.

When they were all done, I said, "Violet, Isadora, what are the results?"

With microphones, provided by the news crews present, they announced, "The scores have been added up. The vote of: no, Carmelita goes to prison-three-hundred thirty."

We were all silent. It was the big finale we'd been waiting for all along.

In fact, and I swear this is true, I saw Carmelita, standing, guarded by two policemen. She was bound in shackles, though there was a look of hope in her eyes; as if she could snap the chains like rubber bands.

"The vote of yes-Carmelita is freed-four-hundred fifty-seven!"

Everyone cheered, and Carmelita started jumping up and down. The news crews got set up, and started announcing the joyous news.

Then, Harlan and Edna Spats ran in. They ordered the police to un-handcuff her.

Then, the main door slammed open.

Guess who should be standing there but Vice-Principal Nero.

He barged over to us and yelled, "WHO'S IDEA WAS IT TO COME, HUH? WHO?"

"Calm down, Nero," Harlan Spats said. "They had the right intentions."

"Shut up, Spats!" Nero yelled. "They knocked me out with a powerful sleeping pill, used my own hand to sign a paper, and set it up so no one would wake me up!"

He turned back to me. "Who's idea was it first of all, to hold voting?" He poked Violet. "Was it you?"

He poked Klaus. "How 'bout you? Or you? Or you?"

He then switched to Sunny, Isadora, and Quigley.

"It was you, wasn't it?" he yelled. He snatched Quigley up.

"Put him down, Nero!" a security guard yelled.

"I won't listen to you! I won't!" Nero shouted. He pulled out a revolver and aimed it at the security guards, who were reaching for their guns.

"Boys, leave 'em right where they are!" he screamed. Then he aimed the revolver at Quigley. "Was it you?" he screamed. "WAS IT YOU!"

Quigley said nothing. He was too terrified. His eyes were bulging out of his head.

Nero whacked Quigley in the head with the barrel and Quigley fell to the ground. He aimed at him. "WAS IT YOU?"

His fingers were wrapped tightly around the trigger. I couldn't tell him it was me, but I couldn't let him kill Quigley. It was Quigley or I.

All the time it had been Carmelita or us, as he had said. But now things were different. Things weren't just about Carmelita anymore. It was saving Quigley…or saving myself.

Then I grabbed Nero's hand. "IT WAS ALL MY IDEA, OKAY? IT WAS MY IDEA! TOUCH ANY OF THEM AND ALL THE BULLETS IN THAT GUN WON'T STOP ME FROM RIPPING THAT BIG HEAD OFF YOUR SHOULDERS!"

He switched targets to me. "Duncan, get out of the way!" Violet cried. Isadora yelled, "Police! SHOOT HIM!"

No one moved. Then there was the sound of a gun clicking. Carmelita's.

Apparently she had taken a gun from a police officer and aimed it at Nero.

"Don't even try it, Nero," she warned. "You shoot him and I'll shoot you. I don't care how many years I'll stay in prison; you ruined my life. And you know what, people? Guess who gave me the bag of gray-colored powdered sugar, hmm? Anyone want to guess? You got it. Nero."

Everyone gasped. "So we wrongly imprisoned an innocent minor?" a police officer asked. "This won't look good on my record."

Carmelita continued, "I'd never seen cocaine before, so I didn't know what it was. But Nero told me it was powdered sugar that was a bit gray."

"Shut up, Carmelita," Nero warned.

"I had done some errands for him, and he said it was a reward," she said, as if she hadn't heard Nero. "I think the whole time; he'd gotten it somewhere and planned to get rid of it."

"I'm warning you, Carmelita Jacqueline Spats," Nero said impatiently. "One more word, and I'll put a bullet in your front."

"Carmelita," Edna Spats said reluctantly. "Don't speak. He has a gun."

"So does me," Carmelita said bravely. "I'll shout to the world that Nero Tyrannous is the cause of my imprisonment-"

Then, Nero whirled. "DUCK!" Harlan Spats yelled. Everyone ducked but Carmelita.

She was bulleted right in the torso. She fell back, a hole in her shirt.

"CARMELITA!" The Spats parents cried out in unison.

That fired me up. I'm not kidding. I was fuming; steam was coming out my ears.

Others persuaded me not to, but I leapt and grabbed onto Nero. I wrapped my arm tightly around his throat and he bit down on my arm.

I yelped and started punching his chest. Then I began to kick his knees and shins. What I didn't notice was the revolver making its way up to me. Then I was blasted in the arm. I fell off of him and lay in a heap. My sleeve was covered in blood.

Violet and Isadora screamed. Klaus and Quigley yelled curses at Nero. Sunny started crying.

Everyone turned their attention to me. The last thing I saw was a very blurry image of Violet Baudelaire bent over me, crying.

Pretty violent chapter, huh? Well, I promise no one dies. I promise.