A Series of Unfortunate Events One Shots

Those First Eleven Days Part 1

What were those days like at Prufrock before Olaf came? This is in canon with How It Should Have Been. Multipart short story! Begin!

Universe*

~Violet's POV

Mr. Poe had dropped us off at a boarding school this time. Thank goodness we were out of those awful work uniforms from the Lucky Smells Lumber Mill. If I never see sawdust again it'll be too soon, and I think my siblings would agree with me on that. These Prufrock school uniforms were much nicer and actually a bit comfortable, to be honest. The three of us were sitting on a bench outside the administrator's office; the door read Vice Principal Nero. We were supposedly waiting for someone to call us inside, but no one ever did. It felt like we had been sitting here for an eternity. From inside the office, we heard the screechy noises of a violin that the player clearly didn't know how to play. Occasionally, we would hear two soft voices talking behind us on the other side of the bench, but we ignored them. It had been a while since we were around other kids our age, and we couldn't help being a bit shy about meeting our peers. Hopefully, we'll find some nice people at this school. After we lost our parents, other kids our age stopped talking to us entirely, including people who were once our friends.

Mr. Poe's sons, Edgar and Albert, seemed to believe that we had burned down our own house and killed our parents. I suppose other kids believed the same thing since the news was all over the Daily Punctilio when it happened. We had the perfect alibi too since we were at Briny Beach. To everyone else it seemed to be fact, but we knew the truth. After some time, we finally saw another person arrive. A girl who was significantly shorter than Klaus and I, but she was also most likely 12 or 13. (Mr. Poe had mentioned that this was a school for students 11 and up.) She wasn't wearing a uniform, and instead wore a frilly pink skirt, pink blouse, white leggings, and a ruby broach on her blouse, and was clearly wearing tap shoes based on how loud she walked. Ugh, I hate pink, and this girl gave me a headache just looking at her. She also had curled bright red hair and blue eyes; on her shoulder hung a small pink purse. She smiled at us, but I could tell it was a fake gesture; she looked stuck up as all Hell.

"Hello, cakesniffers," She said with her false smile beaming.

Klaus and I stood up to greet her politely as we had been taught by our parents. What on Earth did "cakesniffer" mean?

"Hello, uh..." I started, but I realized she hadn't introduced herself yet.

"Uh, um, what? Are you a blithering idiot? Everyone knows I'm Carmelita Spats! I'm the prettiest, nicest, smartest, most adorable, and the most popular girl in the whole school! I don't even have to wear a uniform because Vice Principal Nero likes me best! He's a genius! And he told me to give you a tour."

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

"Whatever, cakesniffers," Carmelita said, "Now let's get going, I don't have all day!"

"Prettiest, nicest, smartest, but she's definitely not modest," I inwardly chuckled as I picked up Sunny and the three of us followed the girl down the hall.

Klaus leaned over to me and whispered, "What does cakesniffer mean?"

"I don't know, but I don't think it's a compliment," I replied quietly.

As Carmelita led us around the school, she kept vaguely pointing out which rooms were what without any extra details. "That's the nurse's office, there's the broom closet, that building is the dormitory, there's the cafeteria," and so on. Other students were now bustling about the halls at their lockers, and staring at us as we passed by.

"Why is everyone looking at us," I asked.

"Maybe it's because we're new," Klaus said.

"It's because your home was destroyed in a fire," Carmelita said with another smile.