The Fourth Quagmire

Chapter 3

I figured it had been a few weeks since I'd met my siblings. I'd finally found friends, and I figured they were happier as well. We'd been meeting together in the library during the 10 minutes it was open, then I'd usually spend the night in The Orphan's Shack. Every five days I stayed in the dorm, just so Carmelita couldn't torture me as well. Duncan and Isadora still got teased, but I always stood up for them. I was past patiently waiting for Carmelita to stop. 

Nothing too interesting happened for a while. It was the same old breakfast, class, lunch, class, dinner, library, shack. Classes had us doing more varied measuring, but nothing else really changed. Until. Until that day. It started at lunch, as most things do.

Carmelita called out, and I guess I listened to her, then I got confused, so I paid attention. Then it evolved into, well... here's how it went down:

"Oh, Baudelaires, there's a seat open at my table! But... I'm afraid it's a cakesniffer-free zone. Cakesniffing orphans in the Orphan's Shack! Cakesniffing orphan's in the Orphan's Shack!" Carmelita yelled. I didn't know who the Baudelaires were, but I wasn't going to let Carmelita win. 

"Leave them alone Carmelita," Duncan said to her.

"Yeah, you're the cakesniffer, and nobody in their right mind would want to eat with you anyway." I picked up.

Isadora said to the three children, "Come sit with us." We led them to our table and sat down.

There were three of them. The oldest seemed to be a girl with long, brown hair. The middle one was a boy with glasses. Then there was the youngest. She looked like she was only a few years old. "I'm Duncan Quagmire, and these are my sisters: Charlotte and Isadora." I snapped out of whatever was making me so weird, and finished by saying,

"We're the Quagmire quadruplets." Yeah, bit of a mouthful I know. But that was really the only way to describe us.

The girl introduced her siblings, "I'm Violet Baudelaire and this is my brother Klaus, and my sister Sunny." then she and Duncan just kind of stared at each other until Sunny said something in her baby babble.

"You said 'quadruplets'. That's four people born at the same time. But you're only three people." Klaus pointed out. Even though I never knew our parents and other brother, I still inexplicably felt a rush of grief.

"We lost our parents in a fire. And our brother, Quigley." Isadora said. I heard what sounded like tapping, and then I saw Carmelita close by. 

"We should go to the Shack. Armelita-Cay is ehind us-bay." We all dumped our trays and went to the Orphan's Shack. That's where I made my somewhat surprising revelation, "Actually, I grew up with someone else. I didn't know these two until a few weeks ago."

"You were separated at birth?" Violet asked. 

"Amerig?" Sunny asked.

"Yes and, what did she say?" I answered/asked.

"She said 'Why?' I have the same question, actually." Klaus translated.

"We don't know why. The best we can figure is that she, and she alone was in some kind of danger." Duncan said.

"We'll help you try to figure out why, but we're kind of in the middle of our own mystery." Klaus said.

"A man named Count Olaf is chasing after us, trying to get our fortune. He's chased us through multiple guardians and murdered most of them." Violet said.

"Sosates!" Sunny piped up.

"Oh yes, he has many associates in his 'theater troupe': There's the man with hooks for hands, the bald man with the long nose, the two women with white powder on their faces, and the one who looks like neither a man nor a woman." Klaus explained.

"That sounds awful. Well what-" I got cut off when the door the the Shack opened. Nero and a man with a turban and expensive-looking running shoes stood in the doorway.

"This is Coach Genghis. He'll be your new gym teacher. He says he has a special opportunity for our orphans." Nero said in that squeaky voice. I saw the Baudelaire's eyes going wide.

"Well hello, hello, hello orphans." Coach Genghis said. His shiny eyes looked suspicious, but Klaus mouthed something to us, and I could instantly see it. Knowing then, and knowing forever, the man who was in the doorway that day, was Count Olaf.