"Are you kidding me?" I complained aloud, half wanting to throw myself on the floor in despair.
I had reached the cafeteria in record time, only for it to be locked and the door to be marked with a sign saying something about unforeseen circumstances. Of course it would be my luck that this would happen on an already stressful day. And the worst part was, as I was slumping up the stairs to class, I realised I probably could've squeezed in a shower instead of feeling both gross and hungry. Life sucks, I thought to myself whilst dragging myself down the hall and towards room 202.
When I finally got over my morning frustrations, I realised that the halls were now empty, apart from the odd student ducking into some of the other rooms. A glance at my watch told me I was still early so I tried not to think about it and pushed through my classroom door. But what I saw shocked me.
"Oh, Miss Quagmire, so nice of you to finally join us," Miss Bass drawled, following it up with a crack of her favourite wooden ruler against the chalkboard. The sound went straight through me but I almost didn't notice it through the ocean of questions flooding my brain and threatening to drown me. And to top it off, a closer inspection of my watch told me that it had stopped working. Of course that would happen this morning.
Wordlessly, I made my way to my seat at the back of the room and started measuring some of the items that had piled up on my desk. I noted down their measurements but didn't really take any of it in. What was going on this morning? Why was everything going wrong? And how was I late? I'm never late.
"Good morning," a voice whispered and, despite it being so quiet, I flinched harder than if you'd smashed a cymbal next to my head.
My eyes met those of Klaus Baudelaire who had turned around in his seat to greet me. His choice of words, although a common greeting between two people, made my mind race back to this morning, or more so last night, and I couldn't help the blood that rushed to my entire face, making me look more tomato than person.
Those are dangerous words, I thought to myself.
"Hello?"
"Hello," I repeated, almost robotically, trying my best not to look suspicious.
Klaus' raised eyebrow told me I was failing, "Are you okay?"
"Yes," I said almost too quick, "are you?"
"Y-yes," Klaus responded, giving me a weird look.
He turned back around and I resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief. This dream had set up such a strange day and suddenly I felt like I didn't know how to act, not just in front of Klaus but in general. How do normal people get over dreams like this?
I somehow made it through the lesson, making sure to focus 110% of my attention on measuring. That way no other thoughts or distractions could get through. But as soon as the class finished, Klaus got up and held out his hand.
I stared at it for a second, "What are you doing?"
Did he want me to take his hand?
"Your ruler," was his explanation, and I fumbled to grab it off the desk and hand it over. He didn't seem to notice the slight shake in my fingers as I gave it to him and he went and placed it on Miss Bass' desk with all of the others.
Why did he take my ruler for me? Does he not think I can carry a ruler myself or something?
I realised I was lost in my thoughts again when I noticed him waiting for me at the door and I quickly made my way over before he thought I was being weird again. We fell into step together, like we usually do, but today I seemed to notice it more than usual. Could everyone else see how we walked at the same speed, our feet stepping in sync? What if it was obvious? I shook my head slightly. If what was obvious? There was nothing going on here.
"So what happened this morning?"
The question seemed to catch me off guard. Was he talking about the dream?
"What do you mean?"
Klaus laughed, "You were late. You're never late. What was that about?"
I smiled slightly in relief, "Just missed my alarm, nothing special."
"Nothing special? May I repeat the fact that Isadora Quagmire is never late?" Klaus adjusted his glasses as we entered the cafeteria, which was luckily open now, "Did a bad dream keep you asleep or something?"
My eyes flickered to him, "A dream?"
He took a seat on one side of a table and I sat opposite, "Yeah, you know, one of those things where you go to sleep and suddenly all your wishes and deepest desires become a reality. Well, a subconscious reality, if that even makes sense. I should probably put dreams on my list of topics to read more about considering I-"
Klaus rambled on but I stopped listening halfway through. Deepest desires become a reality? Since when was it my deepest desire to kiss my best friend? Even thinking about the k word made my face heat up and I tried to hide it by jumping up and grabbing a tray of whatever gloop they were serving today.
I must've leapt up while Klaus was still talking because I heard him interrupt himself to ask me where I was going, but I kept walking. I snatched two bowls of what seemed to be mushroom soup and put them on a tray before heading back to the table at lightning speed, grabbing a spoon on the way.
"Sorry, I was super hungry," I tried to explain as I plonked the tray between us on the table.
Klaus gave a small laugh, "You seem awfully excited to eat this liquified abomination. What's got into you?"
But before I could answer, Klaus sniggered again and said, "So excited, in fact, that you forgot my spoon. Or are we just sharing today?"
I half choked on the spoon of soup in my mouth and shook my head, "Sorry, I-"
"HEY!"
I jumped out of my skin as my idiot brother decided to scream in my ear. He chuckled as he sat next to me while Violet just tutted at him, taking the seat opposite.
"You wouldn't know he'd been sick this morning by the way he is now," said Violet and my eyes widened in surprise.
"You were sick?"
Duncan laughed, "I bet Violet that I could eat eight bowls of oatmeal. I could not."
"Yeah no surprise there," Violet rolled her eyes.
"It was pretty epic though, they evacuated the whole cafeteria."
So that's why I couldn't get breakfast this morning, I thought to myself. I made a mental note to get him back at a later date.
I was about to take the opportunity to call him an idiot but instead, Duncan cut me off with a scoff.
"Are we interrupting something?" he said with a raise of his eyebrow. I gave him a weird look and he elaborated, "You two are sharing both a tray and a spoon. Might as well just share a bowl, to be quite honest." Violet must have kicked him under the table because he flinched before continuing, "What? I said I was being honest. I mean, mushroom soup was never on my list of favourable date foods but I guess I could reconsider depending on how this little rendezvous goes."
Klaus laughed, "You're creative, Duncan, but that's definitely not what's going on here. Why would we be on a date?"
I don't know why but that phrase hit me like a ton of bricks. Was I not good enough to go on a date with or something? I realised I was being stupid, as usual. This whole dream had me paranoid about things I wouldn't have second guessed yesterday. I rolled my eyes as I caught Duncan suggestively raising his eyebrows at Klaus and I and decided I needed some time alone, where I couldn't possibly embarrass myself more than I already had today.
"I'm going to the library," I announced as I got up from the table. But of course it seemed like no one would get the message today, because Klaus also got up.
"I'll come too," he said with an innocent smile, "I did say I should read up on dreams a bit more."
I didn't bother replying and instead decided that the best option would be to just leave before Duncan could comment on the situation any more. But even as I rushed out, my uncomfortable feeling clearly painted across my face, I could still hear his "oooooh, Klaus and Isadora going somewhere alone".
I would definitely have to get him back.
