Secrets

Chapter 5

"Do you think we'll find the girl who lost that?" Klaus Baudelaire asked, polishing his glasses as the group of five friends sat down with their trays for dinner.

"I hope so," Duncan Quagmire said, who still had the instrument component that belonged to the mysterious violin player tucked into his backpack. "It looks really expensive and too nice to be lost."

"I'm glad you took the bow Duncan, otherwise Mrs. Bass would have forced us to measure it," Isadora Quagmire said. The young girl who looked rather identical to her brother nodded before taking out the commonplace book from her uniform pocket.

Violet Baudelaire handed a raw carrot to her sister, Sunny Baudelaire for her to bite gleefully on, before speaking. "She was definitely much better than Vice-Principal Nero. In fact, I'd rather spend six hours listening to her than... whatever he plays."

The five friends nodded in agreement.

"I'd rather have my own purely bleached,

Then listen to our principal continuously screech... at the violin that is," Isadora recited a couplet from her commonplace book that she had written.

"She definitely looked like a new student," Duncan added. "She probably won't be hard to spot since she wasn't wearing a uniform yet."

"But she wasn't in our classroom," Violet said to Duncan.

"Nor ours," Klaus stated firmly.

"Well, there are about thirteen classrooms in the building in total. She's probably in one of the other ones," Isadora deduced.

"We should keep our eyes peeled for her in the cafeteria line."

The phrase used here of keeping one's eyes peeled is a merely clever play on words in which a person would keep careful watch for someone or something very specific, instead of peeling something such as an orange or their eyes themselves. The group of friends took turns watching the long line of students receive their food and drink on their trays. Some were not handed silverware as punishment for being in the administration building, and others had no glasses, meaning that they had not been present at breakfast time lunchtime, or dinnertime. Finally, several children had long bits of string with them, which one could assume were meant to tie their hands behind their backs for being late to class.

Eventually, Duncan Quagmire spoke up.

"I think that's her."

Sure enough, all the orphaned siblings at the table stared at a girl who was standing in line, who was not dressed in a uniform. Her mouse-brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail, her vibrant green eyes stared nervously around as she received her food and glass of water. The Baudelaires could definitely tell that she was anxious because of her body language; they knew the girl was new to the school and she was likely feeling nervous about finding a place to sit as she had no friends that she knew. They were not sure if the girl would be nice or unpleasant like Carmelita Spats, the filthy, rude, and violent girl whom they had the unfortunate luck of meeting during their first walk through the cafeteria. The rather snobby red-headed girl had insulted the siblings, calling them 'cakesniffers', a strange and tactless nickname she had for anyone who displeased her, told them they couldn't sit with her and then began banging her cutlery on her tray shouting "Cakesniffing orphans in the Orphan's Shack!" And, much to everyone's dismay, more children, possibly Carmelita's friends joined in, making it a tiresome and loud chant that echoed through the building. It was not until Duncan Quagmire had told the nasty girl off and offered them a seat at their table did the Baudelaires feel safe and more accepted than they had in a long time. This girl, however, seemed rather shy and quiet, not particularly threatening or mean looking in the slightest.