Beatrice Baudelaire II

Chapter the Sixth

Over the next few days, Sunny, Evan, Flynn and I became inseparable. The first week went by before we knew it. On Friday morning, Sunny and I went down to the auditorium because there was an assembly announced the previous day. We saved seats for the boys, who came a few minutes later.

Once everyone was there, Larry and Jacquelyn went on the stage. "As we said yesterday, Larry and I have an announcement. You all know that Volunteers never know whenever they have to go on a mission, and therefore they should always be ready. That is why we have made these different subjects for you. Now, we are going to make things more interesting. Larry, continue."

Larry cleared his throat. "Every two weekends, we will arrange a practice mission for you. You first have to divide into groups of three or four. Then, come up to the stage and go to one of the teachers. They will tell you your mission and you must work together using your skills you've learnt in the past two weeks. Remember that you should not tell anyone apart from your group about your mission. On the next assembly, you will have completed your mission and come up to the stage for a new one. This is part of your education. Any questions?"

"What if you haven't completed your mission by the next assembly?" Flynn asked. "You will have to work on that mission during the next weeks, until you are done," said Jacquelyn.

"Can we pick our group members?" the blonde girl asked. "Yes, you may," said Larry.

After all the questions, we had to pick our members. "Sunny, me, Flynn, Evan," I stated. 

Then we went up to the stage, where almost every teacher was busy telling other students, except Fernald. "What's our mission?" asked Evan. 

Fernald leaned forward. "Listen carefully," he said. "You know the many identical buildings near the school?" "Yes..." said Sunny slowly. "In one of the buildings, there is a single ruby. Your job is to find the ruby and bring it to one of us."

"Easy," said Flynn, when we walked out of the auditorium a few minutes later. "All we have to do is find a ruby. What's hard in that?"

"There has to be a catch in this," said Sunny, who was very used to these things. "Like, maybe there would be a guard or something. It can't be this easy."

Jacquelyn had said that we could start our mission after Friday classes, we had the whole weekend, and after classes from Monday to Friday. She also said that the time for the missions will become less and less as we learn more.

After classes, Sunny, Evan, Flynn and I met up in the break room. "How about we try to find the ruby now?" asked Evan. "Good idea," said Sunny. The four of us headed out of the building and on the fresh green ground. "Ooh, look, a dandelion!" I exclaimed. "Focus, Bee," said Flynn. "Fine."

We first went in the nearest building. We opened the door, revealing a very dark, black room. I felt blind because everything was black. The door closed behind us with a loud, slow creak. There was a case in the middle of the room, which was the only thing we could see. 

"The ruby might be in there," Evan whispered. I made to stride casually, but Sunny stopped me. "Careful," she warned. "Anything could be in here."

I nodded and slowly walked towards the case, my friends following. So far, so good. Then, Evan yelped. "I touched something!" He exclaimed. We turned towards him. Evan touched it again and there was a flash and a ping! sound. 

The whole room was blocked with lasers.

"Woah," whispered Flynn. Then, without thinking, we ran until we were out of the room.

***

"Oh gods," said Sunny, catching her breath. "Told you there was something fishy there."

"How would we know?" demanded Flynn. "You're the only one here who went on proper missions!"

"I wouldn't say proper..." said Sunny. "More like, running for our lives from an evil count."

"How are we gonna stop the lasers?" I asked.

"I read something in the school library," said Evan. "About deflecting light."

"What did you read?" Sunny asked at once.

Evan scrunched up his eyebrows, trying to remember. "I forgot."

"Then let's go to the library now," I said.

We went back inside the school and across the hallway, passing other people who were working on their missions, and into the library. We went over to the Science section. "Ok," said Flynn, the Klaus in our friend group. "Look for anything saying 'lasers' or 'light' in the index."

I took out three books from their shelves and flipped to the index on the back of the page. Sunny however went to the Table of Contents. "The index would take too long," she explained. "This is something Klaus would do."

"How do you know?" I asked. 

"I saw Violet doing the same thing at Lucky Smells. She said that Klaus would do that too."

"Your memory is really good," complimented Evan.

I flipped to the Table of Contents too and murmured, "Simple Machines, Simple Biology, Simple Math, wait what? Simple Physics, I don't understand anything." I turned to Evan, the eldest in our group. "Which of these chapters would light be in?"

Although he was ten, he still knew more about science than a certain grown up I could think of. Looking right at you, Mr. Poe.

"Simple Physics," he said finally. I flipped to that page and before I could look, Flynn said, "Found it!"

"Shhhhhhhh," said everyone around us. "Found it," Flynn whispered.

He whispered, "It says here that we can use a mirror or anything reflecting light to make the light bounce back to another surface."

"Anyone has any mirrors?" Everyone looked at me. "What?" I said weakly.

"You're the only one who cares about how you look," said Flynn. "Give us the mirror."

"Fine," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a small circular mirror I always carried around. After all, Violet had given me that mirror.

I tilted the mirror, so that it was facing the library light on the desk. The light went back, facing the wall. "Like this?" I asked.

"Exactly," my sister replied.

"Then this is what we'll use!"