Holy sh*t, time flys. I was planning on writing this chapter by the seventh, and then I look at my homework for five minutes, and it's February! Sorry for such a long wait.
Review Responses:
JVP:
Thanks, for both the review and the idea. I will fit that in a little later, but currently they're basically stuck inside, so Veronica's idea is up first.
Veronica:
Like I said, I have chosen to write your idea today. I definitely wanted the "Very Lovely Indeed" moment, and this is perfect.
Ms. Anonymous:
(VLI)
First of all thanks for reviewing! I really appreciate it. Secondly, thanks so much! I'd love to know what are some of your other favorites, always looking for recs.
(FSE)
When I saw you mention me on FSE, I pretty much lost it, in a good way. Just to know for next time, feel free to P.M. me anytime. You need an account, but that takes about 2 seconds to make, and 'Ms. Anonymous' makes a pretty cool username. Also, if you P.M. me, it sends me an email notification, so I'm more likely to see it.
itsNorthOfSomewhere:
Thanks for commenting, random Reddit user. Hope you're in a better mood!
Despite what my chaperone says , "Don't repeat yourself. It's not only repetitive, it's redundant, and people have heard it before.", I must ask for more ideas. Writing this has helped more ideas come, but not enough to crank out a chapter as often as I may like. Don't feel like you need to give one but if you're mumbling to yourself "Man, this story would be so great if …" please let me know what "..." is.
It appears this blizzard isn't planning on stopping anytime soon and we haven't had any customers since the Baudelaires and the Quagmires since the blizzard started, do you kids mind if Beatrice and I run over to Partial Foods to grab some extra groceries for the week. I'll lock up and set the store alarm, so don't go outside while we're gone.
Nicky and Sunny came back from the kitchen, armed with as many baskets of appetizers a toddler and 14 year old could carry. "Where's mom and dad? And where's Sunny's mom?"
"Your father went to pick our sister Violet and our father,"
"And mom and Sunny's mother went to get some groceries for the week." Dawn said, staring off into space.
"Mom put me in charge." Ricky said, standing up.
"That's funny, I don't seem to recall them putting anyone in charge."
I will spare you the details of the cat fight that followed. When Dawn had Ricky pinned to the floor, Sunny shrieked "Sulta! Stor." While this probably meant something along the lines of 'Stop! Let the oldest person be in charge," it just got everyone except Nicky to stop what they were doing to say
"huh?" Klaus, usually able to understand her, was confused for two reasons, first, she wasn't using Italian words, and the Latin he did know, didn't seem to be helping. Everyone else was just confused about what she meant. Nicky, catching on to Sunny shrieked, said "The oldest should be in charge. How old are all of you, Ricky will be fifteen in February."
"That beat's all of us."
"Some besides me or Dawn needs to be in charge, remember the dog party incident?"
Fine, Ricky, just don't check your voicemail box for about a week. Who is the oldest out of you guys?"
Duncan, Quigley, Klaus and Sunny all pointed in Isadora's direction. "Then it's settled. Isadora is in charge."
"Who's that?" Dicky said, looking up from his phone for the first time the whole conversation.
After the fries were finished, everyone went their separate ways, Nicky and Sunny to the kitchen, Dicky hadn't moved, Ricky and Klaus went somewhere to read Quigley was working on his map, Isadora and Duncan we're playing a game of "Beethoven," and Dawn was nowhere to be seen.
In an attempt to get a aerial view of the first floor for his map, Quigley climbed up to the top of the rock wall. The platform at the top was bigger than you might've though, but it wasn't quite big enough for the two people currently sharing it. If these two people sit close enough they can make it work.
"Why are you up here?"
"Making a map of the store, you?"
"Ever since mom took away my blender, I like to come up here to clear my thoughts."
They sat in silence for a bit.
"Even though it's keeping us inside, the snow looks very lovely from up here."
Quigley turned to look at Dawn, "Very lovely indeed."
Many things have been taken from both Quigley and Dawn in their lives. Quigley's mother and father, Dawn's best friend Mae, Quigley's love for exploring, Dawn's privacy from her brothers, Quigley's privacy of his own room, this list goes on. So, as Dawn and Quigley rest for a few minutes more on a ledge atop a sports store rock wall, I will take this opportunity to give them a bit of privacy, by not writing down anything more of what happened between these two friends on that chilly afternoon.
"Hey kids, we're back!" Beatrice said, receiving a nice hello from every Baudelaire and Quagmire within earshot.
"Is anyone hurt? What did you break? How many dogs are in the store? Answer me!" Anne was talking as fast as she could, doing the usual protocol for coming back after leaving the quads home alone. For the first time, she had a child respond to this set of questions, or any questions for that matter, the first time she asked them. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't any of the quads who responded, but instead one of the triplets, Duncan. I have an entire report written out here in my notebook, and the most tragic thing was when Nicky burnt the fries because he was too busy playing with Sunny.
"Thank God. We need to have you guys around more to keep the quads in line."
Not five minutes later, Tom, Bertrand and Violet walked through the front door, wearing the coats Tom brought them. "Hey guys, We made it. What'd I miss Duncan?" Violet said, walking towards Duncan
"Well, Ricky, the blond boy, and Klaus read the whole time, Dicky, the one with hair like Q, has been on his phone, Dawn, the blond girl, and Q, have been up on the rock wall, Izzy and I played Beethoven, then wrote for a bit, and Nicky, the one in the striped shirt, made some lunch in the cafe kitchen with the help of Sunny."
"Speaking of lunch, I'm starving. Let's Eat!" It doesn't much matter who said this, because everyone was feeling it.
After everyone ate their Orecchiette al Pesto, which Sunny learned to make from Duncan's friend Maya's mother, Moxie, and her husband, Keller Haines. After the two family's got to know each other more, and the Harper's offered for the Baudelaire-Quagmire family to stay with them for the time being, instead of trying to find a last minute hotel for 8.
When it was finally time to close up the store for the night, the only "customers" all day being the Baudelaire-Quagmire family, Tom drove everyone to the house, taking three trips with the minivan, only able to hold 6, including himself. When everyone was at the house, Dawn showed Isadora and Violet the room they would be sharing, Ricky showed Klaus Dawn's old lower bund, where he would sleep, Duncan and Quigley were told that they got the pull out couch, and Beatrice and Bertrand would use the spare bedroom. Sunny doesn't sleep much, but when she did her plan was to climb up with Nicky, both of them were earlier risers so neither would be annoyed when the other woke up at the crack of dawn.
It wasn't the best set up, but nobody really had much of a choice. The house was warmer than the RV, but not by much. The space was cramped, it may have normally been fine, but with 14 people, it was getting to be too full.
After a wonderful dinner, courtesy of Sunny and Nicky, and a quick card game, everyone decided to turn in for the night. Klaus grabbed his book, Caviar: Salty Jewel of the Tasty Sea, from his duffel bag, and headed up to the boys room. Much to Nicky, Ricky and Dicky's annoyment, Klaus proceeded to read said book with Dawn's old, extremely bright, bedside light for over an hour. Over in the girls room, Isadora was out cold on the giant bean bag before Dawn and Violet were upstairs.
Early next morning, Nicky, who was always first up in the Harper house, was surprised to find that Sunny had beat him down and was already looking for his perfectly seasoned cast iron skillet to make gas house eggs for breakfast. Usually, she would make something a bit fancier, but the Harper's kitchen didn't have quite the variety of ingredients and tools as the kitchen her father had specially built just for her, back in California. No surprise to Sunny, Isadora was down next, already coming up with couplets in her note book. Everyone else started to stagger down about half an hour later, so Nicky started cranking out gas house eggs for everyone.
After breakfast, Dicky made a point to start hitting on the new girls. He gave up on Isadora the second he looked over to see her holding hands with Klaus. After telling Violet the same compliments he told every girl he saw, Violet said "Don't get any ideas Dicky. I'm ace, and besides, you're not my kind of boy."
"Ace of what, diamonds… I thought we finished playing cards last night?" Dicky tilted his head, clearly confused.
"No, ace as in asexual, like, I don't date boys, or girls for that matter, unless I really like them, and even then, I have no interest in having sex," Violet said, annoyed with Dicky's stupidity and ignorance, but not showing it.
[This part doesn't sound quite right] Other than the snow lighting up, but not quite melting(meaning the new snow from last night was still blocking all 14 of them in the house) it was a pretty uneventful day.] Dawn FaceTimed Mae to introduce Violet and Isadora, Nicky and Sunny made some Puttanesca sauce for dinner, according to Sunny's recipe, and Quigley put pen to paper, using the drawing skills one picks up after drawing maps for years on end, to draw a very nice portrait of Dawn, who he couldn't seem to get of his mind ever since the moment they shared atop the rock wall, Klaus and Ricky sat somewhere and read all day, and Dicky just actively did nothing. After they finished the sauce, Nicky decided to give Malou, his girlfriend, a call
"Hey Nic,"
"Hey Malou, you'll never believe this girl I met yesterday. She's just, well, wonderful. She is a great chef, has a good sense of humor, a bright and cheery personality, speaks Italian, and makes the best Pasta Puttanesca I've ever tasted."
"She sounds wonderful" Malou remarked sarcastically, clearly jealous of this new girl, "Where's she from?"
Nicky shrugged. "I think they said that they were from California."
What do you mean they?"
"There's eight of them, Sunny, Isadora, Violet, Klaus, Duncan, Quigley, and the parents Beatrice and Bertrand. Isadora, Duncan, and Quigley's parents went missing back in May, so they have been staying with the Baudelaires ever since."
"So which one of them is so great?" Now, Malou wasn't even making an attempt to hide her jealousy of Nickys 'new' girl.
"Sunny, and it's not like you think. We're just friends."
"Sure." Malou hung up the phone abruptly, not even saying goodbye to Nicky.
Sorry if the formatting is weird, I'm doing this from my phone, as I don't have access to my PC. Also, from now on I will be posting Sunday at midnight, MST(8am Monday for you Vilda).
