Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 1: Miserable News

*Violet's POV*

If you like cheerful stories, I'm sorry to say you've come to the wrong place... This is the story of the Baudelaire Children, and their lives weren't cheerful. They were fun-filled, merry, and nearly perfect: far past "cheerful."

My siblings and I watched the scene of the city roll by from the trolley. Houses, cars, and firetrucks passed by us. It was a normal day, but a nice day at that! It may have been grey and cloudy, but my brother, sister, and I were going on a picnic via Mother and Father's suggestion and I love spending time with my siblings no matter what the weather outside is like... Where are my manners? Let me introduce myself.

I'm Violet Baudelaire. I'm the eldest (fourteen to be exact) of three brilliant children. My younger brother, Klaus, is the middle child at twelve years old, and only boy. He held onto the picnic basket as I held onto our baby sister Sunny, who was scarcely larger than a boot. My siblings and I are quite charming and resourceful and have pleasant facial features we've inherited from our parents. Klaus wore glasses that made him look very intelligent, which he was, and had a never-ending love for literature of all kinds. Sunny, who was only an infant, wasn't exactly fluent in English, but if you knew her well enough you could get around to understanding her way of talking, which was mainly a series of unintelligible shrieks and babbles. She had great conversational skills despite this though. While Klaus loved to read and I had a knack for inventing unusual yet impressive machines, Sunny's thing was biting. She had four teeth so sharp that they could cut metal.

"I wonder why Mother and Father didn't want to come with us..." Klaus thought aloud as the trolley stopped at Briney Beach and we walked towards the front.

"Maybe they don't like this rickety trolley!" I smiled, stepping onto the platform.

"Hey, kids!" The driver called to get our attention. We turned around. "Aren't you going to the Festive Fun Fair, with all the jolly rides and games and snacks? 'Festive' means 'fun'!"

"We know what 'festive' means." Klaus informed the man.

"Thank you, but it's a perfect morning for the beach!" I replied with a smile.

The driver looked at us with a confused grin. "It's... Grey and cloudy...?"

"That's what makes it perfect."

The trolley left and my siblings and I settled on where to put the blanket. They didn't like the blanket to be too close to the water but I wanted to be close to the water to skip rocks and test my invention. On cloudy days there was rarely anyone at the beach, unlike hot days with plenty of sun, so we had plenty of space to pick and settled on a good four feet from where the tide currently was. He set down Sunny on the blanket and smoothed out his red sweater as I crouched next to the picnic basket containing my current invention. Last time I went to the beach, I had an incredible idea! So you skip a rock and it's fun for twelve seconds tops and then what? You don't have a rock anymore that's what! I thought "What if I could make a machine that retrieves the rock for you to throw again and again and again?" And so I did make one! Now was the perfect time to test it.

"Do you think this will be as good as the mailbox?" I asked my brother.

Klaus gave me a supportive smile. "I think this will be even better than the mailbox." He answered. I smiled brightly, grabbing my hair ribbon from my pocket and tying my long hair back and out of my face, asking Klaus about the prevailing currents. He answered me, also telling me that we still needed the right projectile. I inspected some nearby rocks, picking one up. "Would this make a good rock for skipping, Sunny?" I asked.

"Nosan?" She asked, meaning "Can you find a rock that's not sandstone?" I nodded and found a better one, dusting it off and handing it to my baby sister. She immediately got to work, turning the rock into a nice flat disk. My brother and I chuckled as it was passed back to me.