Chapter 45: Welcome to Your Lucky Life

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*Violet's POV*

The Quagmires, my siblings, and I sat at one of the tables in the center of the dark dormitory for hours, listening to the music from the record drone on. The dormitory was quite pathetic. Bunk beds lined the walls and windows were drawn in between some of them and the cement floors certainly didn't help me feel at home. There were workers around here and there and all of them were covered in sawdust. At one end of the long room was a small kitchen with an oven, a fridge, and a few cabinets and all the way across the room was the men and women's bathrooms and the door outside. I felt aged a hundred years by the news that Mother, Father, and Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire had done such a thing. Not that I believed it. It was wrong, it had to be.

"Did you hear about the new recruits?" Asked a lady at the other table. "They're Baudelaires and Quagmires."

"I hear their folks were arsonists." A man she was sitting with gossiped.

"I hear they checked out library books and never returned them." Another said.

"I hear they drank blood from the skulls of chupacabras." The lady added.

"You mean they drank from baby skulls like chupacabras." The second man corrected.

I stood up and glared at them. "That's ridiculous. Did any of you even know our parents?"

"I think Jimmy did."

"Norma Rae's been here longer."

"Don't look at me, look at Cesar."

"So that's a no," Isadora concluded. "Do you know anything about what happened to the town?"

"We're not allowed to talk about it," Jimmy said.

"It's too terrible," Norma Rae added.

"Also, we don't know," Cesar said.

"Then you shouldn't be spreading rumors like you're children." She advised.

"I never believed those nasty rumors anyway!" A man said, his arms full. He put the things he was carrying at our table and sat down with us. "I think you should wait to meet a person before forming an opinion on them, with exceptions of course. Where are your parents now?"

"We're orphans..." Klaus answered meekly.

"Lucky you!" The man beamed. "The unsupervised life? No rules, no curfews."

The intercom squealed and a voice came through it. "Lights out. Two Seconds." Followed by the lights going out.

"But it's only six o'clock!" Klaus said.

"Oh boy! More time for dreaming!" The man chuckled. "I'm Phil and I am excited to work with you kids!"

"Thank you," I said. "I'm Violet Baudelaire and these are my siblings, Klaus and Sunny."

"I'm Duncan Quagmire and this is my triplet sister, Isadora."

"I like your teddy bear!" Phil said to Isadora. She smiled and squeezed Bubba.

"Thank you." She said sheepishly.

"Who wants beef casserole?" He asked, handing a welcome packet and a uniform to each of us. "There's just enough left for you guys, and it's almost good!"

"Any food is good enough for me," Duncan joked. "We haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"There you go!" Phil grinned. "Kids, I know it seems dark, but you have to look on the bright side. So your parents might have burned down a town. You don't have to be like your parents! My parents are Olympic athletes and look at me: I work in a lumbermill." He said, wheezing with laughter.

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