Prufrock Pals

Do I Have To Eat This Soup?

"Olaf, don't be stupid!" Kit yelled at him. A lanky boy with wild mousy hair was swinging as high as he could on the playground swingset. He didn't listen, only laughing and swinging higher. Finally he let go of the chains and soared through the air, crashing onto the grass. "Olaf?" Jacques asked, as he and Kit walked over to the crumpled form. But Olaf jumped up, grinning like a madman, though his long crooked nose was bleeding. His pants were torn at the knee and his knee was bleeding too. A big purple bruise was forming on his elbow. "Told you I could do it, Snicket." he said. "You idiot!" Kit chided. "But he succeeded in the dare." Jacques said matter-of-factly, helping his twin bring Olaf to the school nurse. Kit rolled her eyes.

The school nurse was about as much help as most school nurses. "I have bandaids." she said, in her monotone voice "Could we have an ice pack? Or maybe a bigger bandage?" Jacques asked her.

"I have cough drops too." she said unhelpfully. "Right." Jacques said, turning away and walking towards Kit and Olaf with the band aid tin. "I don't need those!" Olaf said, leaning away from the postage-stamp-sized bandaids with disdain. "You do need them." Jacques said, and put three of them over the scrape on the incorrigible boy's knee. "I have an ice pack." the nurse said, shuffling over holding a limp bag full of strange blue slush. Olaf took it and put the lukewarm ice pack on his elbow. "Thanks." he said sarcastically.

After he started feeling better, the trio left the nurse's office at Prufrock Preparatory School. They parted ways at the corner hallway, the twins going to class, Olaf going off somewhere into the school to hide and skip class. "Today class," droned the teacher, "we will be starting our unit on Kafka's works. Kafka was an existentialist who believed that everything was monotonous and pointless..."

"This class is monotonous and pointless," whispered Beatrice. Kit, who was sitting next to her, stifled a laugh. "Shh-" she whispered back.

Finally, the bell rang and class was dismissed. Everyone got their lunch from the cafeteria, but instead of eating there like the other children, the Snickets and their friends stole away to-

"The theater!" Olaf shouted once they got there, his voice echoing around the big empty space. "What are you going to do?" asked Beatrice "The dance break from A Chorus Line? That's gonna be pretty hard without hands." she laughed. "You're right-" he said dramatically. "My hands are tied." and he spun around, to show his friends the rope, tying his wrists together behind his back. The room groaned at his terrible joke. "Maybe they wouldn't be if you didn't skip class every day!" Kit said, ignoring Olaf's punishment and untying his hands so he could eat. "You know he deserves that punishment," Jacques said, handing Olaf his lunch tray once he'd been freed. "I do," Kit said, " but today's lunch is soup, I'm not that cruel!"

"I hate this kind of soup." Lemony complained. The third and youngest Snicket sibling's black coffee hair and gray eyes contrasted with the twins light brown peanut butter colored hair and brown eyes. "What kind of soup is it supposed to be again?" Beatrice asked, tucking her dark chocolate brown hair behind her ear. "I'm- not sure." Lemony said, frowning. The soup was green and lumpy, with gray-brown stringy things floating in it. "Maybe it would be better if you had left my hands tied so I wouldn't have to eat this." Olaf joked.

"There's a meeting today, right? Of the- drama club?" Beatrice asked. Olaf rolled his eyes at the pretense. "Yes- there is." Jacques confirmed. The bell rang again signaling the end of lunch, and so the group left the auditorium, minds whirling and hearts full of excitement for today's after school activities.

The End (currently ish)