THREE - meet the other orphans

Robyn hadn't had time to talk to the Quagmires since she had toured them the rigorous academy, which means extremely strict and definitely awful. She had sat with Carmelita and her friends while the Quagmires had sat alone. She had occasionally waved to them when Carmelita wasn't looking, especially at Duncan. Duncan was skeptical at first when meeting Robyn, but he had gotten used to her. He thought her hair was really pretty, and just her hair, right?

Carmelita, Robyn, and another one of their close friends, Marigold, sat at the cafeteria with decent food unlike the other kids. They got a piece of candy along with their meals. All they did was talk about boys and the new orphans who had arrived. In Mr. Remora's class, a brunette girl had sat in the back. She was super pretty and seemed very genuine. But, unfortunately, her friends had a string desire to make the Baudelaires' life miserable.

"Baudelaires, there's some open seats at my table, but I'm afraid it's a cake-sniffer free zone," Carmelita expressed, clicking her tap shoes on the floor. Robyn sighed heavily and noticed the Baudelaire children looking at her and Marigold. It was Robyn's choice if she wanted to defend the orphans or not.

"Cake-sniffing orphans in the orphan shack!" Marigold and Carmelita cheered in unison. The rest of the school children cheered along with the horrible harassment thrown towards to the three orphans.

"Whatever Carmelita, you're the cake-sniffer, and no one in their right mind would want to eat with you," Duncan argued, standing up to Robyn, Marigold, and Carmelita. Carmelita rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, cake-sniffing-"

"Carm, Goldie, just let them be. Or else I'll sit with them," Robyn threatened, although it wasn't necessarily a threat. Robyn wanted to sit with them.

"Fine, go sit with those losers, we'll always love you though," Marigold spoke, eating a piece of candy. Robyn stood up with her tray of food and approached the 5 orphans, thrilled that more seemingly decent people around her age.

"Did I miss anything important?" Robyn questioned the triplets, sitting next to Duncan across from a little, blond baby. The triplets shook their heads. "Oh my word, you have to forgive Carmelita. She's so awful, Ms. Bass is considering a life of crime." A brunette with bangs smiled at Robyn's humor.

"Why are you friends with her, then?" A boy with glasses questioned, pushing his food to the middle of the table.

"It's a long story, indeed," Robyn explained.

"Well, are stories are good when they are long," Duncan expressed. "My sister wrote a poem about Carmelita."

"I would rather eat a bowl of vampire bats than spend and hour with Carmelita Spats," Isadora read from memory, which is pretty impressive.

"That's a couplet. Ogden Nash uses them," the boy with glasses remarked.

"I know. I've read all of his work." Isadora and the mysterious boy smiled at each other. "I'm Isadors Quagmire, and this is my brother Duncan. This is Robyn, one of the nicest people we've met at the school so far, especially considering that she hangs out with Carmelita."

"I'm Violet Baudelaire, and this is Klaus and Sunny," Violet introduced.

"Nice to meet you guys," Duncan replied kindly, smiling at the three other orphans.

"We should warn you, the apples here taste like horseradish," Robyn said, offering a piece of candy to everyone at her table, including Sunny.

"Everything seems distasteful in this place," Klaus grumbled.

"Gosh, I hope you three are surviving the Orphan Shack. Duncan tells me all the time about how awful it was for them," Robyn sympathized.

"You guys are orphans, too?" Klaus asked the two triplets. There was a slight break of pure silence from the six children.

"We lost our parents in a terrible fire. And our brother, Quigley."

"We were triplets." Duncan took a slow breath, and Robyn pat his back slowly. She wasn't the best at comforting, but she was trying. She didn't know what it felt like to lose your family permanently, but she has lost hers.

"We're very sorry to hear that," Violet responded.

"We lost our parents in a fire as well," Klaus added. The five turned to me.

"My mom sent me here since she didn't know how to put me up for adoption," Robyn lied, thinking of a random storyline. "She had to pay for my dormitory since I'm not technically an orphan yet." Sunny babbled something that Robyn couldn't understand.

"It's not fair. One minute, you're safe and happy and...home, and the next-"

"You're in a shack full of crabs," Isadora finished.

"At least we can do something about the crabs. How did you guys deal with them?" Violet questioned.

"We taped metal to the bottoms of our shoes to be extra noisy," Isadora said.

"It scared the crabs, but it was exhausting having to tap dance all the time," Duncan added.

"It was like having two extra Carmelitas, but just way nicer," Robyn explained, finishing her water.

"Nobody likes tap dancing." Of course at the specific moment, Carmelita came by the children's table and started tap dancing. Oh, and singing that awful chant again that I do not want to repeat. Robyn huffed and motioned for Carmelita to go away, which she eventually did.

"She's been even worse since Vice Principal Nero got her those tap shoes," Isadora groaned. "You have some willpower to deal with clicking sounds on the daily, Robyn." Isadora and Robyn laughed before pulling themselves together to reconnect with the group. Violet had mentioned that she could build something less annoying than tap shoes. She had requested everyone to empty their pockets, for which they did. Robyn had numerous things in her pockets: another piece of candy, her journal, a pen, a bracelet with KS and RS written out through black beads, and a half of a mysterious spyglass her mom handed to her before Robyn had departed. At the same time, Klaus Baudelaire and Isadora Quagmire had pulled out halves of a spyglass. Violet paused from tying her hair up, and Duncan stopped searching his pocket. Robyn carefully watched as the bookworm and poet connected their spyglasses together. They fit, perfectly.

"Where did you get that?" The two said in unison as Robyn laid her half in the middle of the table.

"From the ruins of our parents' homes," Violet replied.

"A drawer stashed in my mother's room," Robyn fibbed as Duncan turned to pay attention to her.

"I think we need to talk."