⇗ Chapter 3

Sabine and the Quagmire triplets lived out their days at Prufrock Prep in a dull routine.

Wake up, eat mushy, tasteless breakfast, go to boring classes where they didn't learn anything at all, mushy lunch, more boring classes, mushy dinner, awful violin recital, go to sleep, repeat. Over and over and over again.

This went on for weeks before something vaguely interesting happened. Vice Principal Nero moved them out of the shack and into a broom closet. Sabine and Isadora didn't know why until they stumbled into Mrs. Bass' math class and Mrs. Bass said, "Students, please welcome our newest orphan."

"Another one?" Sabine mumbled. She turned around to see a brown-haired boy with dark rimmed glasses sitting glumly in the back of the classroom. She gave him a sad smile and a small wave, then glanced over at Isadora. Isadora had smiled at the boy as well, but her cheeks were dusted with light red blush.

Sabine smiled again and tried to hold back her giggles. Isadora gave her a confused look and Sabine quietly sang, "Izzie's got a boyfriend."

"Shut up!" Isadora whispered, her blush deepening. "I don't even know his name."

"This new student's name is Klaus Baudelaire," Mrs. Bass said to the class.

"Now you do," Sabine said to Isadora.

"Not helpful, Mrs. Bass," Isadora sighed, shaking her head.

Sabine giggled quietly and then tried to pay attention to class.

~༄~

The bell rang, signaling the end of class and the beginning of lunch, and Sabine and Isadora raced out of Mrs. Bass' room as fast as they could.

"I'm so hungry I'll even eat the nasty mush they serve here," Sabine groaned as the girls walked to the cafeteria.

"Me too," Isadora nodded.

They met up with Duncan in the hallway again and chatted a bit about the new student. Apparently, there was a new student in Duncan's class too, and she was also an orphan.

"The new girl in my class seems nice," Duncan said shyly. "Mr. Remora said her name is Violet."

"Well, Isadora has a crush on the new boy in our class," Sabine teased, lightly elbowing Isadora's shoulder.

"Shush! I do not!" Isadora defended herself.

"Why are you blushing then?" Sabine giggled, pointing to her friend's red face.

Duncan narrowed his eyes at his sister. "You are blushing."

Isadora groaned and hid her face in her hands. "No, I'm not! Shut up!"

"Just remember, I have to approve of him before you can date him. It's my job to make sure you don't get a lame boyfriend who hurts you."

"Duncan!" Isadora shrieked in despair. "He's not my boyfriend, and I'm not gonna date him! I haven't even talked to him. The only thing that happened was we smiled at each other."

He gave a slow nod that made it clear he didn't believe her, but he dropped the subject, staying silent as they walked to the cafeteria. Isadora and Sabine kept chatting curiously about the new students, wondering if they should try and reach out to them; see if they wanted to be friends.

They entered the dark, gloomy lunchroom, quietly gathering their plates of slightly green mush before sitting at their normal table. Sabine and Isadora chatted some more, and Duncan contributed to the conversation a bit, too.

Right in the middle of them saying they thought the students must be siblings, since they had the same last name, Isadora fell dead silent. Her gaze landed on the lunchline, and Sabine watched as her eyes lit up and a smile graced her lips.

"Izzie?" she asked, waving her hand in front of Isadora's face.

Isadora moved her head away from Sabine's hand and kept staring at the lunchline. Sabine furrowed her brows in confusion and glanced to where her friend was looking.

"Oh, it's just her boyfriend," she informed Duncan after seeing who Isadora was staring at.

"Who? Let me see," he said, glancing toward the lunch line nosily. He caught a glimpse of the girl standing next to Klaus, who Sabine assumed was Violet, and soon Duncan's dark eyes were glowing just like his sister's.

"Look, that's Violet," he pointed out, sounding just a tad breathless.

"Lovely..." Sabine said sarcastically, earning a playful smack on the arm from both Quagmire triplets.

"She/he is lovely," Duncan and Isadora said in unison.

"Jinx!" Isadora called.

"Dang it," Duncan sighed.

Isadora laughed. "Pay up, loser." She held her hand out to him and he popped a piece of candy into her palm. (All three of them had started stashing up all the candy they could find, and often kept at least a handful of their stash on them at all times.)

Sabine shook her head with a quiet giggle. "You two are dorks," she murmured affectionately.

Isadora smiled, but something caught her attention and made her gasp. "Oh, no-"

"What?" Sabine asked.

"Look who they're walking towards," Isadora whispered.

Sabine looked over to the new students and then gasped as well. "No, don't walk towards Carmelita!" She cringed, reaching her hand out to the Baudelaires as if she could snatch them away from the deadly ball of sparkles they were heading for.

"Don't even think of eating around here, you cakesniffers!" Carmelita shouted. The whole cafeteria went silent, so everyone could hear what was happening. "Nobody wants to have lunch with people who live in the Orphans Shack!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Klaus said. "We didn't mean to disturb you."

"Oh my gosh, that voice..." Isadora said dreamily as she gazed at the boy.

Sabine snorted, earning another smack to the arm from Isadora, just as Carmelita started chanting, "Cakesniffing orphans in the Orphans Shack!"

Soon, most of the cafeteria joined in on the horrid chant. Sabine and the Quagmires watched helplessly. They had once been the victims of that very same chant, and they knew how horrible it felt. From the way Klaus and Violet were looking around, like they were lost in the middle of a stormy ocean, all three of them knew they had to do something.

"We've gotta help them," Sabine said, her eyes wide in sympathy.

"I agree." Isadora nodded.

Duncan was the one who took action. He stood up and walked towards the Baudelaires. "Oh, leave them alone Carmelita!" he shouted. "You're the cakesniffer and no one in their right mind would want to eat with you anyway."

The chanting stopped, and Duncan turned to the Baudelaires. "Come on, there's room at our table."

"Thank you very much," the oldest girl, Violet, said with a relieved smile.

They all walked over to the table, and Duncan sat down next to Isadora. The Baudelaires sat on the other side of the table, facing the Quagmires and Sabine, and Sabine noticed for the first time that Violet was holding a baby.

"I'm Violet Baudelaire," Violet said, "and this is my brother Klaus, and our baby sister, Sunny."

"It's nice to meet you," said Duncan with a large smile. "My name is Duncan Quagmire, and this is my sister, Isadora."

"And I'm Sabine Trillian," Sabine said politely.

"And the girl who was yelling at you, I'm sorry to say, was Carmelita Spats," Duncan continued.

"She didn't seem very nice." Klaus laughed nervously.

"That is the understatement of the century," Isadora said. "Carmelita Spats is rude, filthy, and violent, and the less time you spend with her, the happier you will be."

Sabine laughed quietly and nodded her agreement.

"Read the Baudelaires the poem you wrote about her," Duncan gently nudged his sister with his elbow.

"You write poetry?" Klaus asked with a curious smile.

Isadora blushed and said, "Just a little bit. I write poems down in this notebook. It's an interest of mine."

Sunny shrieked something and Klaus explained that she meant she'd be very pleased to hear one of Isadora's poems.

Isadora smiled and opened her notebook. "It's a very short poem," she explained. "Just two rhyming lines."

"That's called a couplet," Klaus said. "I learned that from a book of literary criticism."

"Yes, I know," Isadora said with a soft giggle. The light blush returned to her cheeks as she leaned in close to the Baudelaires and read:

"I'd rather eat a bowl of vampire bats; than spend an hour with Carmelita Spats."

The Baudelaires giggled and covered their mouths so no one would know who they were laughing at.

"That was great," Klaus smiled. "I like the part about the bowl of bats."

Isadora blushed harder and said, "Thanks. I would be interested in reading that book of literary criticism you told me about. Would you let me borrow it?"

Klaus's smile faltered as he looked down. "I can't," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "That book belonged to my father, and it was destroyed in a fire."

Isadora gasped and her eyes grew wide.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Duncan said. "My sister and I have been through a terrible fire, so we know what that's like."

"So have I," Sabine quietly piped in.

"Did your father die in the fire?" Duncan asked.

"Yes he did," Klaus said, still staring at his lap, "and my mother too."

Isadora looked at him with tears in her eyes. Sabine gave her a light shove of encouragement, and Isadora set down her fork and patted Klaus's hand. He looked up and smiled gratefully, his eyes glossy from sadness, but they flicked with the smallest hint of happiness when Isadora smiled back at him.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. Our parents died in a fire as well," she said. "It's awful to miss your parents so much, isn't it?"

Sunny babbled something and nodded.

"For a long time, I was afraid of any kind of fire," Duncan said. "I didn't even like to look at stoves."

Violet smiled at him. "We stayed with a woman for a while, our Aunt Josephine, who was afraid of stoves. She was afraid they might explode."

"Explode!" Duncan laughed. "Even I wasn't as afraid as that. Why aren't you living with her now?"

Violet looked down sadly, and Duncan reached across the table to gently take her hand in both of his.

"She died too," Violet looked up at Duncan and sighed. "To tell you the truth, Duncan, our lives have been very topsy-turvy for quite some time."

"I'm very sorry to hear it," Duncan said, rubbing his thumbs over the top of Violet's hand. She lightly blushed and smiled sadly.

"And I wish I could tell you that things will get better here," he continued. "But between Vice Principal Nero playing the violin, Carmelita Spats teasing us, and the dreadful Orphans Shack, Prufrock Prep is a pretty miserable place."

"Yeah. To sugarcoat it, this place sucks," Sabine admitted.

Klaus chuckled and Sabine gave him a friendly smile. Isadora flexed her jaw in jealousy and looked down at her feet. The Baudelaires and Duncan got in a conversation about the Orphans Shack and Sabine gently kicked Isadora's ankle to get her attention.

"I'm just being nice," she whispered. "You don't have to be jealous."

Isadora sighed. "Sorry."

"It's alright." Sabine smiled softly. She didn't want to make her friend upset, especially since she wasn't actually interested in Klaus. If she was being honest, she'd always had a crush on Quigley. But...

Her smile slowly fell. Now Quigley was gone. She'd never even got to tell him how she felt.

Isadora seemed to know exactly what Sabine was thinking, and gave her hand a squeeze. Sabine rested her head on Isadora's shoulder, grateful that her best friend knew her so well. After a moment, they separated, then returned to their conversation with the Baudelaires.

~༄~

The Baudelaires soon adjusted to the school, and although Carmelita made sure the rest of the students teased them, the Quagmires and Sabine stayed friends with them.

In Mrs. Bass' class, Klaus and Isadora killed their boredom by sticking their tongues out at each other when the teacher wasn't looking.

Sabine, though, had no source of amusement and was forced to actually pay attention to the class, despite how futile it all was.

Every time Mrs. Bass handed her a new object to measure, she was tempted to scream, "No one cares about the metric system this much!" It was quite literally all they learned about. "You're mental, lady!"

One evening, after class was let out, Sabine and the Quagmires sat in the Orphans Shack with the Baudelaires. Violet had glued pieces of metal to some shoes to scare the crabs away, so Sabine didn't have to worry about that anymore.

Sunny was babbling something to her siblings as Sabine drew a map of the school in her purple journal. She hadn't drawn or even seen any maps in a while, so she decided to add a new addition to her journal.

"That's ridiculous!" Violet cried when Sunny finished talking. The sudden loud noise startled Sabine and she jumped out of her skin. Isadora shot her a concerned glance, and Sabine shook her head to show she was okay.

Duncan and Klaus were throwing salt into the fungus on the ceiling in an attempt to get the dripping fungus to shrivel up.

"It certainly is ridiculous," Klaus said, pausing from his salt throwing for a moment. "It's silly enough that Sunny has to be a secretary, but making her own staples? I've never heard of anything so unfair."

Duncan paused his salt throwing as well to take out and flip through his green journal. "I think staples are made in factories," he said. "I don't think people have made staples by hand since the fifteenth century."

"Sunny has to make her own staples?" Sabine asked in bafflement.

"Mhm!" Sunny nodded angrily.

"Well, that's awful! She should be learning how to read, not making office supplies!" Sabine exclaimed.

Sunny babbled something and Violet translated that Sunny agreed with Sabine.

"You know what? I think I have some staples in my backpack," Sabine mumbled, then picked up her worn out white backpack and riffled through it. She finally found a pencil case and smiled when she noticed there was a brand new box of staples inside.

"Aha! Here you go, Sunny." Sabine smiled, handing the staples to the youngest Baudelaire.

"Thanks!" Sunny shrieked.

Sabine smiled again and said, "You're very welcome."

"You're very welcome," a squeaky, mocking Nero said as he stood in the doorway of the shack.

Duncan and Klaus dropped their salt shakers in shock, which were immediately picked up and carried away by the crabs before the horrid Vice Principal could notice.

"The new gym teacher has arrived, and he was interested in meeting our orphan population before my concert began. Apparently orphans have excellent bone structures or something," Nero said. "Isn't that what you said Coach Genghis?"

A tall, skinny man in grimy gym clothes and a dirty turban walked into sight, and Sabine wrinkled her nose in distaste at him and the vile smell that wafted off of him.

"Oh yes," Coach Genghis said. "All orphans have perfect legs for running, and I couldn't wait to see what specimens were waiting for me here in the shack."

Sabine drew her head back in a mixture of confusion and disgust. "We are not specimens," she snarled.

No one acknowledged her, and Nero said, "Children, get up off of your hay and say hello to Coach Genghis."

Duncan and Isadora both stood and shook Coach Genghis' hand with a polite, "Hello, Coach Genghis."

Sabine was a bit more hesitant than the triplets, but stood and shook the Coach's hand. She found with displeasure that the Coach was just as grimy as his uniform, and wished for hand sanitizer. When none appeared, she took to casually wiping her hand off on her skirt. The action left a dirt stain on her clothing and she wrinkled her nose again.

The Baudelaire children were even more hesitant than Sabine had been, but when the Quagmires gave them looks of confusion, Violet seemed to snap to her senses and stood up.

"How do you do, Coach Genghis?" she asked as she shook his hand.

Klaus and Sunny soon followed suit, each saying "How do you do, Coach Genghis?" Or in Sunny's case, saying, "Gefidio!" and shaking the Coach's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Coach Genghis said, and smirked.

Sabine thought he had quite a sinister air to him, but she couldn't quite place her finger on why. Several things about him and his behavior nagged at the back of her head, but she decided to ignore it for the moment.

"What do you think, Coach Genghis?" Vice Principal Nero asked. "Do any of these orphans have the legs you're looking for?"

Coach Genghis scratched his turban and looked down at the children. Sabine could see his eyes gloss over in greed, and that nagged at her as well.

"Oh yes," he said wheezily.

Sabine felt a chill run down her spine at his voice. He was really creeping her out. She took a step farther away from him and closer to her friends. She stationed herself right in front of them, ready to protect them if she needed to, though she was about two inches shorter than all of them, (besides Sunny.)

With his bony hands, Coach Genghis pointed first at Violet, then at Klaus, and lastly at Sunny.

"These three children here are just what I'm looking for, all right. I have no use for these twins or the other one, however," he said.

"Triplets," Sabine quietly corrected, earning a frown from the coach.

"Neither do I," Nero said, not bothering to acknowledge Sabine. He then looked at his watch. "Well, it's time for my concert. Follow me to the auditorium, all of you, unless you are in the mood to buy me a bag of candy."

Sabine certainly was not in the mood to buy Nero candy, she never was, so she did as she was instructed.

~༄~

As the six friends sat in the auditorium, trying to block out the horrible sounds of a person who can not play violin but insisted on doing so anyway, they talked quietly among themselves.

"I don't like Genghis," Sabine said. "He's... gross."

"I thought he was pretty creepy," Isadora shuddered.

"That's for sure," Duncan agreed with a nod. "It's that sneaky look in his eye."

"That sneaky look," Violet said, lowering her voice and cautiously peeking around as if she were afraid someone would overhear, "is because he's not really Coach Genghis. He's not really any coach. He's Count Olaf in disguise."

Sabine gasped. The Baudelaires had told them all about Count Olaf, and how much he'd hurt them just for their fortune.

"I knew you recognized him!" Klaus said in the same hushed tone as his sister.

"Count Olaf?" Duncan asked. "That's horrible! How did he follow you here?"

"Stewak," Sunny said glumly.

"My sister means something like 'He follows us everywhere,'" Violet explained, "and she's right. But it doesn't matter how he found us. The point is that he's here and that he undoubtedly has a scheme to snatch our fortune."

"But why did you pretend not to recognize him?" Klaus asked.

"Yeah," Isadora said. "If you told Vice Principal Nero that he was really Count Olaf, then Nero could throw the cakesniffer out of here, if you'll pardon my language."

Sabine nodded. "I agree. It's not safe to let him stay. You should tell Nero."

"Olaf's too clever for that," Violet replied, with a shake of her head. "I knew that if I tried to tell Nero that he wasn't really a gym teacher, he would manage to wiggle out of it, just as he did with Aunt Josephine and Uncle Monty and everybody else."

"That's good thinking," Klaus admitted.

"Plus, if Olaf thinks that he's fooled us, it might give us some more time to figure out exactly what he's up to." Violet continued.

"Lirt!" Sunny pointed out.

"My sister means that we can see if any of his assistants are around," Violet translated. "That's a good point, Sunny. I hadn't thought of that."

"Count Olaf has assistants?" Isadora asked. "That's not fair. He's bad enough without people helping him."

"His assistants are as bad as he is," Klaus said. "There are two powder-faced women who forced us to be in his play. And there's a hook-handed man who helped Olaf murder our Uncle Monty."

"And the bald man who bossed us around at the lumber mill, don't forget him," Violet added.

"Aeginu!" Sunny said.

"What does 'aeginu' mean?" Duncan asked, taking out his notebook. "I'm going to write down all these details about Olaf and his troupe."

"Why?" Violet asked.

"Why?" Isadora scoffed. "Because we're going to help you, that's why! You don't think we'd just sit here while you tried to escape from Olaf's clutches, would you?"

"But Count Olaf is very dangerous," Klaus said. "If you try and help us, you'll be risking your lives."

"It's not like we have anything better to do," Sabine said with a shrug and a dry chuckle.

"Sabine's right, but never mind that for now," Duncan said. "What we need is a plan. Now, we need to prove to Nero that Coach Genghis is really Count Olaf. How can we do that?"

"Nero has that computer," Violet said thoughtfully. "He showed us a little picture of Olaf on the screen, remember?"

"Yes," Klaus said, shaking his head. "He told us that the advanced computer system would keep Olaf away. So much for computers."

Sunny nodded her head in agreement, and Violet picked her up and put her on her lap. Nero's violin started to shriek like a dying cat, and the children had to lean in closer to each other to hear the conversation.

"If we go and see Nero first thing tomorrow morning," Violet said, "we can talk to him alone, without Olaf butting in. We'll ask him to use the computer. Nero might not believe us, but the computer should be able to convince him to at least investigate Coach Genghis."

"Maybe Nero will make him take off the turban," Isadora said, "revealing Olaf's only eyebrow."

"Or take off those expensive-looking running shoes," Klaus said, "revealing Olaf's tattoo."

"But if you talk to Nero," Duncan said, "then Coach Genghis will know that you're suspicious."

"That's why we'll have to be extra careful," Violet said. "We want Nero to find out about Olaf, without Olaf finding out about us."

"And in the meantime," Duncan said, "Isadora and I will do some investigating ourselves. Perhaps we can spot one of these assistants you've described."

"I can help with that, too," Sabine added. "I'm pretty good with faces."

"That would be nice," Violet said, "if you're sure about wanting to help us."

"Don't worry about it," Duncan said, and patted Violet's hand.

Sabine smirked in amusement as Duncan and Violet's faces turned light pink. Duncan's hand stayed on Violet's for the remainder of Nero's awful recital, and they talked about other awful concerts they had been to back when life was normal for them.

Klaus and Isadora huddled together and happily, but quietly, chatted about Isadora's poems.

Sabine felt like a third wheel, but she was happy to see her friends happy. In an attempt to give Violet and Duncan - or as she liked to refer to them, Dunclet - a little more privacy, she took Sunny from Violet and the two of them had quite a meaningful conversation about which things were fun to bite and which things were not.

Sabine was surrounded by her friends, by people who understood her and understood what she'd been through, but, still, she couldn't help feeling a little lonely. She missed Quigley. She missed him a lot.

She hoped dearly that her troubles would soon end, but unbeknownst to her, her troubles had only just begun.

𝔼𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣