Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 2: Introductions

*Violet's POV*

In the early hours of our second day at the Poe household, we were woken up and fed breakfast so Mr. Poe could drop us off at our new home before the banking day began. The past two days had been extremely rough on my siblings and me. Sunny was too upset to bite anything, Klaus was too depressed to read a single word of a book, and my mind was filled with disconsolate thoughts rather than the typical gears and pulleys. None of us could believe it was really gone, and the Poes weren't considerate of our feelings at all. Mother would have never let anyone say someone didn't care about our opinion the way Mrs. Poe or Albert did at dinner. Dad would have scooped us right out of there when Edgar tried to insist WE were the reason the house was burnt down. They would have never let anyone treat us that way.

"I'm sure you will find comfort, happiness, and safety with your new guardian," Mr. Poe said as he drove us, "I sure hope at least a fraction of your unhappiness will turn to excitement when you meet him! I know he's certainly eager to have you in his care, and he's employed as an actor, so you know his excitement is genuine. His name is Count Olaf and he lives here in the city."

"Our parents never mentioned anyone by that name." I said. I would have much rather spaced out, like Klaus was doing with the dial-y piece from the broken thing he had found, but since he was too focused and Sunny wasn't exactly understandable to most, I had to be the one to speak, while under normal circumstances I liked being chatty. "If he lives in the city, how come our parents never invited him over?"

"Possibly because he's a busy man. I'm often busy myself, as a banker, which is why I had to wake you up so early. Which I'm sorry about, by the way; Beatrice once mentioned you like sleeping in."

"It's fine, Mr. Poe." I told him, although it felt like I didn't get much sleep at all. The rest of the car ride— past the horse drawn carriages and motorcycles on Doldrum Drive, and past the elaborately carved Fickle Fountain, and past the mound of dirt where the Royal Gardens once was plotted— was almost entirely silent, other than Mr. Poe's almost constant coughing... Before too long, the banker had driven onto a neighborhood street lined with houses made of pale brick and stopped halfway down the block.

"Here we are!!" Poe said, in a voice undoubtedly meant to be cheerful, "Your new home!!" The three of us looked out and saw the prettiest house on the block. The bricks were well cleaned,and the windows were wide and open, with well groomed plants visible from the outside. 'We're living here?' I thought, looking at the inviting home. A smartly dressed woman stood in the driveway holding a bag of groceries and smiling at us.

"Hello there!" She called out. "Salutations! Shalom! You must be the Baudelaire Children!!"

"Yes, I'm Violet Baudelaire," I introduced with a smile, "and this is my brother, Klaus, and my sister, Sunny. And this is Mr. Poe. He's been arranging things for us."

"Mulctuary Money Management," he said proudly, producing a business card.

"I am Justice Strauss, of the High Court. Forgive me for not shaking hands, but as you can see, I am just a mountain of parcels!" She apologized, "I just bought a new toolkit because my food processor broke, although, I don't know who I'm kidding, because I have no inventive or mechanical skills whatsoever. Then I treated myself to new file cards for my private library, and I was going to ask a neighbor for help with that, but she may be busy with housework. And then to top it all off, I forgot to buy a new bread knife!" My brother and I gave each other excited looks, which made it even better to know we were still able to feel a sense of excitement for something despite our misfortune. "It means," Justice Strauss continued, "that I have no possible way of cutting up this baguette into bite sized pieces, which is really unfortunate because I was going to pair it with a white bean hummus-"