One Kiss Later (K. Baudelaire)

Chapter 9

Candie

"Yes, Klaus?" I say, turning to him. "Ar-are you happy with Duncan?" he asks me. I give him surprised look. I look down in thought. I thought for a moment before looking back up at him. "y-yeah. I am." I stutter. "You hesitated. Tell me the truth." He says looking me in the eye. I must have given him a look because he looked back at me, egging me on to tell him. "I-I mean... what's not to like about Duncan? Kind, attractive, understanding..." I trail off. "But." he says, trying to get the conversation moving. I smile at him. "But... I like him more as a friend. He looked at me as if he understood. "When did you realize?" He asks me. "About a week and a half ago." I say, looking down, smiling to myself. "What makes you think that?" He asks me curiously, "Tell me a story" he joked.

I laughed and sighed, looking back up at him. "It all started when a group of 3 siblings came the Prufrock. Once of which was a boy. He was tall, charming, a bookworm, and there was something about him that made me feel different." I pause. My breath gets heavier. He wraps his arm around my waist. I place a hand of the back of his neck. I stand on my tip-toes. He pulls me closer to him. Our faces inches apart we were about to kiss before I stop us. "I-I'm sorry. It just feels weird, knowing I'm still technically still with Duncan." I say looking down at the floor. "It's okay, when your ready," He says lifting my chin to look at him again. I smile. "I have to go study before our laps." He says letting go of my waist. "Okay."

~Time Skip~

It was sun down. I walked out to my dorm to only find Carmelita passed out on my bed shoes on and a white substance on her mouth and nose. I turn to her bed. Filled with shoes and clothes and random junk.

I smile a bit. She might be incredibly annoying, extremely rude to my friends, but she was still my sister. I take off her shoes and socks, take her dress and put on her pajamas. I brush her hair out the curls in her hair and put curlers in my hairs. I take a rag from the bathroom and run warm water over it. I remove the white substance from her mouth and nose and tuck her into my bed. Kissing my fingers and placing them on her forehead.

I turn to her bed and sigh. I really don't want to clean this up. I walk over and grab a blanket and put it near the door. I walk to the bathroom and change into biker shorts and a t-shirt. I wash my face and brush my teeth.

I walk quietly down the hall of Prufrock Prep and into the library. I walk to the fiction section and pick out my favorite childhood story, Beauty and the Beast. I sit down in the corner of the library and sit and start to read. I prefer the original story over the children version, and plus, it has magic.

I read for a while until I am interrupted. "Isadora? Duncan?" I ask. They put there fingers up to their lips getting me to be quiet. They hide next to me and look through a empty spot in the library cart. I move closer to them and look through the spot. Count Olaf then walks through the door. He tries to turn on the lights, but the lights flicker out and spark. He glances at the 'Goodie, Goodie Library' poster at the entrance and rips it. I frown. "Hey, I drew that." I say without thinking. Luckily Duncan covers my mouth. We duck so he couldn't see us as he walked closer to us. I held breath. He looks over the desk we're sitting against and we could see the top of his turban. "Boss!" Someone says at the entrance. "You scared me." Count Olaf says running out. He apologized and he left.

I sighed. "What are you guys doing here?" I say, still whispering, "Oh, and Isadora, you have something on your forehead." She touched her forehead. "Dry glue." She identifies. "Why do you have glue on your face?" I ask, confused. "Some and Duncan could pretend to be Violet and Klaus so they could study for their exams." She explains, "I had to glue fake bangs on my forehead." I nod my head. I look to my left and do a double take. "We need to warn them." Duncan explains. "We can't go anywhere with him guarding the door.

"Guys.." I say tapping Isadora on the shoulder. She looks as me, then looks where my finger is pointing. We grab the book and open it. We sigh, looking at it. We open to the page of a spyglass. "The spyglass." Isadora says as she picks the two spyglass pieces out of her pocket and puts then together. The dials on the spyglass to turn on a light. We look at each other and smile. "Let's do some studying of our own. "That's how the fire started." Isadora says, turning to another page with a man on it. "We've seen that man before." Duncan says touching the page. He did look familiar. I couldn't tell you where though. "It's all connected." Isadora says. "V.F.D." Duncan says pointing to a highlighted word. "What do you think it could be?" Isadora asks us.

Suddenly we heard the door open. The man with the hooks for hands walked in and started to look around. He walked closer to us, the Quagmires didn't seem to notice. I crawled over to my book, holding it for protection. "What's so important about a sugar bowl?" Isadora wonders. I cringed at how loud she spoke. "SHH!" I shush them, but it was too late. The man grabbed us by our shirts. We screamed.