Detention (ASOUE)

Chapter Eleven

Klaus laughed slightly. "Are you kidding? Why wouldn't we have a poetry club? We have a club for everything else."

"Hmm," said Mrs Baudelaire, frowning. She didn't seem satisfied by the answer but she didn't question it any more, and instead continued to talk about how great her kids were.

I, for one, was extremely satisfied by the answer. I was completely relieved, although I tried not to show it. The last thing I wanted was my parents having a reason to be suspicious and investigate the poetry club. One call to the school and my whole plan would come crumbling down. Luckily, since the headmaster was good friends with the Baudelaire family, it seemed unlikely that they would resort to that unless they really had to. I just had to keep up this plan and everything would be fine.

Our food arrived, along with the avocado toast I really didn't want, and the conversation died down. Surprisingly, the silence wasn't awkward though, which was helped by the hum of chatter that flowed through the restaurant from the other guests. 

As I picked at my food, I zoned out thinking about the whole situation I was in. It was crazy to me that first of all, we were having a meal with the Baudelaires, and second of all that Klaus hadn't turned me in. He was given the perfect opportunity; both families were present. He could've simultaneously embarrassed me and my parents, as well as scoring points with his. It would've ruined my trust with my parents and got me into endless amounts of trouble and, although I didn't know his reasoning, I was deathly grateful that Klaus had lied for me. And so convincingly too. After this whole thing, I wasn't really sure what to think of him anymore. Maybe it was just the nerves talking, but he didn't seem like such a bad guy. Over the past week I had found out a lot about him, mostly from Lily. Sometimes it really paid to have a part-time stalker as your best friend. 

The table jolted slightly, which was enough to throw me back into the real world. I quickly ate the forkful of food that I'd been holding above my plate for who knows how long, and glanced up to see my parents getting up and putting their coats on. Their plates, along with Duncan and Quigley's were clear and their cutlery had been balanced neatly on top. Generally I was a slower eater than them and, since I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts, I had barely touched my meal. 

"Right," said my father, "We best be off. It was nice seeing you all."

My mother gestured for me to get up quickly and I did what I was told. I wouldn't disobey my parents, especially not in front of their biggest competition.

"But your daughter hasn't finished eating!" Mrs Baudelaire exclaimed, gesturing to my plate.

"No, she's finished." My mother grabbed my wrist and pulled me away at lightning speed, barely giving me enough time to get my coat from the back of my chair before we were away from the table entirely. 

My father sorted out the payment and then we were out of door and heading to the car. My brothers and I shared a look but we didn't say anything. There were no words to describe how furious our mother was.

"I can't believe it," she hissed as soon as we were a decent distance from the restaurant, "Why can't we just have a nice, uninterrupted family meal in peace? Why do they always have to show up and make our lives hell?"

My father cleared his throat. "I'm sure it was just a coincidence, dear."

"Coincidence?! They do this on purpose just to annoy us." 

I figured it wasn't a good idea to point out that she was the only one who seemed annoyed. 

My mother's complaints and the bickering between her and my father lasted all the way home. She couldn't stop saying that they had ruined the day, despite it not even being twelve o'clock. I decided to leave them to it and, as soon as we arrived home, I went upstairs and finished the last few bits of homework I had to do. Anything was better than listening to my mother reiterate the same point for hours on end. 

*

The next morning, I realised I had to discuss the events of the previous day. I had successfully ignored my brothers everytime they looked like they wanted to discuss it, but there was no avoiding Lily. No matter how hard to tried to hide things from her, she would always work it out. She was like a sniffer dog for gossip, so it was usually just a lot quicker and easier for everyone involved if I was honest and told her things first time. 

It was in the hallway that she caught me and, despite my attempts to push the conversation onto her and her weekend, she gave me a weird look and said: "What are you hiding?"

I huffed. "I'm not hiding anything. I just had an eventful couple of days."

Lily's eyes lit up. "Oh, spill!"

I recounted what happened for her, how the Baudelaires turned up at our meal, how weirdly my mother was acting and how Klaus had covered my back.

"I just wonder what he's playing at," I said.

Lily frowned. "What do you mean?"

"He must want something. We wouldn't have done that if there wasn't something in it for him."

"You don't know that."

I ignored her comment. "He must want a favour or something. Would you do something like that for nothing?"

Lily snorted. "God, Isadora, it's not like he took a bullet for you. Some people are just natural liars. Or maybe he wasn't paying attention. Or maybe he did what he thought would cause the least drama."

"True," I agreed, "That would make sense. I'm overthinking this."

"Like always," Lily chimed. "Let me take your mind off it!"

At that, Lily dove into a deep, one-sided discussion about a documentary she had watched over the weekend, and I smiled as she told me about it. We spoke until we reached my classroom and then we parted ways and I had no choice but to get into school mode. Despite the drama from the weekend, this was a new week and it was business as usual. So I cleared my mind, sat down at my desk and tried my best to concentrate.