"Oh man," I whispered, peaking out into the audience. The rows were quickly filling up with way more people than I had expected. Usually when Vice Principal Nero had his concerts, the students would fill most of the seats but then the first three rows would always stay empty, partly because of the racket that the poorly tuned violin caused, partly because Nero had a tendency to spit when he got really into the music. On all levels except physical, Vice Principal Nero was a llama.

But tonight the auditorium was full, with more and more parents and siblings and guests coming in to take the back row as well as two more rows of canteen chairs, that had been set up at the last minute behind the rest of the static seats.

Klaus stepped around me to look out from the wings before shrugging slightly, "It's not too bad."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "What do you mean? Have you seen how many people will be watching us, watching you...and Carmelita..."

"It's fine," said Klaus, nodding along as he did so, as if he was trying to convince himself as well as me, "It's fine, I've got a plan."

"And what would that plan be?"

"Don't worry about it," Klaus said dismissively.

I wasn't sure what he was up to but he didn't seem confident about it. If he was so sure that he had a way of getting out of things, wouldn't he be more relaxed? And why couldn't he tell me the plan? Maybe I could help?

But despite my thoughts, I stayed silent. There was a reason he was keeping things quiet and I wanted to respect that. The last thing I wanted to do was stress him out right before he had to go on stage. Pretending to be Carmelita's lover was stressful enough without me interfering.

We perched on a couple of wooden crates while we were waiting for the show to begin. With about three minutes to go before the curtains would open, Carmelita skipped over, marshmallow pink dress bouncing. She puckered her over-glossed lips before blowing a kiss to us both.

"Are you guys excited?" she squealed, dancing and flouncing about. Klaus and I shared a look but didn't respond, so Carmelita continued, "Well I'm extremely excited! Oh! You know what would turn that frown upside down Isabelle?"

I didn't bother correcting her, "What?"

Carmelita giggled to herself before announcing: "A new dress!"

I glanced down at my bin bag (which I'd remembered to double layer this time) and then back up to the toothache of an outfit that Carmelita was flaunting.

"No thanks," I replied. What was she up to?

She feigned innocence, "No, no, I'm serious! Go to the changing room and see for yourself."

I frowned at her but did what she said anyway. What was the worst that could happen? If she put an awful outfit in there for me, I didn't have to put it on. And if she had one of her cronies in there waiting to lock the door behind me then so be it. She would ruin her play by having a character missing and Klaus would be fine, he had his plan. If Carmelita was trying to get rid of me to avoid me interfering, she had another thing coming. Klaus would sort everything out whether I was on stage or not.

I approached the changing room, which looked suspiciously normal and suspiciously empty. Then again, everyone else was waiting in the wings, waiting to go on stage, so it made sense that it would be deserted. There would be no witnesses to whatever Carmelita had planned.

I shrugged before pushing open the door, it was now or never.

At some point when I was opening the door I had closed my eyes, nervous as to what I was about to see. But since the room was in silence and nothing had been thrown at me, no one had jumped out at me and no one had pushed me into the room and locked it, I slowly opened my eyes to see a dress. A singular black dress was hung on a rail in the middle of the room with a piece of paper stapled to the collar.

Confused, I pulled the paper off and turned it over to reveal a short message written in pink, sparkly gel pen.

My mum said that my play wouldn't be professional if you didn't have a costume and the last thing I would want is people feeling BAD for you, cakesniffer. This dress will probably look awful on you but I'm giving it to you anyway because I'm the kindest girl in the whole entire world! From the gorgeous Carmelita AKA the kindest girl in the whole entire world!

The ink had smudged badly in places and, after inspection, I noticed that some of the glitter had transferred onto the dress. I shrugged and put it on anyway, wincing slightly when the staple in the collar scraped against my skin. I tried to pull it out to no avail, before just leaving it in place.

Looking in the mirror, I evaluated my new attire. The dress wasn't flattering at all. It was maybe three sizes too big, the neckline was crooked and the hemline fell at an awkward length. The only good thing about this abomination, the silver lining to this heap of cotton, was that it was comfortable, at least compared to wearing a bin bag.

I tried to smile at the girl in the mirror. In a couple hours this will all be over and forgotten about, I kept telling myself. A quick twirl told me that the back of the dress looked just as bad as the front, but I had expected that so I shrugged it off and left the changing room and my bin liners behind.

Once I was back in the wings I realised I had made a mistake. The show had started while I was gone, Klaus was on stage and I hadn't wished him good luck. Or maybe I should've planned to say "break a leg", although if Carmelita overheard me she probably wouldn't hesitate to make it a reality. But it didn't matter what I had planned to say, I hadn't said anything at all. I felt bad but there was nothing I could do but sit back on the crates that Klaus and I had been waiting on only minutes before, and watch from the sidelines.

Other students rushed on and off stage between scenes but despite their eye-catching and flamboyant costumes, there was only one person I was watching. Klaus was doing well to remember his lines but every time he had to move around the stage, his legs began to tremble. Other than that and an impromptu voice break, he seemed to be holding up okay. At least, that's what I thought.

During intermission, which was a five minute break where the kids complained about the lack of popcorn (I had caught Nero eating it all earlier) and the parents slated the acting abilities of every child except their own, Klaus returned to our crates sheepishly.

"It's horrible out there," he sighed as he slumped down next to me.

"What happened to Mr Confident?" I joked, earning a small smile from Klaus, "I thought you had a plan."

"I do, I just didn't expect to find it so hard to... you know..."

"Be on stage?" I guessed.

"...act like I actually like Carmelita."

I laughed, "I mean it can't be that hard if her cronies do it all day everyday."

Klaus snickered but still, his eyes were glued to the floor.

Intermission ended but Klaus wasn't needed again until the penultimate scene so I tried my best to distract him and we ended up having a laugh. We joked about how bad the pretend cakes looked in the scene were Carmelita was wedding cake shopping, the extremely sparkly performance that featured Carmelita and her "friends" in the wedding dress shop, and the surprisingly dramatic ballad that Carmelita belted out about how expensive wedding planning was. It ended up being a really enjoyable time, even if the final scene loomed over us both in the foreseeable future.

Time seemed to catch up with us and suddenly it was almost time for Klaus to return to the stage. I straightened out his tie and offered him a reassuring smile before we both moved to stand by the curtain. Then, the stage became dark and there was a round of applause as everyone from the last scene rushed off and others went on to change the props.

In a burst of confidence, I whispered "good luck" and quickly pecked Klaus' cheek before pushing him towards the stage. Flustered, he turned back to me as if to protest but then smiled, all red faced and blushing.

I shook my head to myself, why did you do that Isadora? But before I'd even asked the question, I already knew the answer: because I wanted to. There was nothing else to it.

After a short scene of Klaus talking to the "best man" about the wedding, the stage went black again and it was time for the last scene. My heart plummeted even though I knew it was coming, and I tried my best to ignore it as I stepped on the stage and found my place. Despite the lack of light, I knew that Klaus was in front of me, in position, as well as the students who were posing as wedding guests. Then the lights popped on at once and I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the drastic change.

There was no time to complain about the lighting though, as the audience applauded and Nero began to play a wedding march, terribly might I add, on a rickety old organ. Carmelita strutted out, not bothering to be in time to the beat, in a fluffy white dress that dragged across the floor. Girls in floral jumpsuits walked behind her, attempting to hold the back of her dress but instead ended up just tripping over it a few times. Then the organ was abruptly cut off and I knew that it was now or never.

I cleared my throat and tried to project my voice as much as I could, "We are gathered here today t-"

Carmelita cut me off by aggressively turning the pages of my book, which had my script on, until it reached the end, where there was only three lines left for me to say. I looked at her, confused, before she sent me a pointed look and gestured that I continue.

"Carmelita Spats, do you take Klaus Baudelaire to be your lawfully w-"

"I do!" Carmelita interrupted me again to squeal her response and I gave her a weird look. Why was she purposely rushing her play? I figured it was purely to disrupt what I was saying and annoy me but you could never be sure when it came to Carmelita.

I rolled my eyes at her smug face and continued, "Klaus Baudelaire, do you take Carmelita Spats to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Silence fell over the auditorium as Klaus gulped and took a deep breath.

"I- I don't."

A collective gasp rang out amongst the audience and the stage alike, Carmelita adding to the dramatic reaction. Her face instantly flooded red and if this had been a cartoon I could imagine steam pouring out of her ears. However, it seemed she didn't want to ruin her performance so instead of freaking out, she closed her eyes tight and then smiled forcefully.

"And why is that?" She asked through gritted teeth, her eyes wild.

Klaus seemed to relax as he looked her in the eye and said, "Because I like someone else."

And before I could comprehend what was going on, he took my hand and gave me the most endearing smile I'd ever seen. The audience responded with another dramatic gasp.

Carmelita seemed to give up on her play in that moment and screamed, "WHAT?!" before having a tantrum on the stage, stamping her feet and shouting random strings of words at full volume.

Klaus quickly pulled me off stage and back into the wings while everyone tried to calm Carmelita down. We ran out into the connecting hallway, laughing in disbelief at what had happened. All of our stresses were over, all thanks to Carmelita's short temper.

Once we were far enough away from the hall, we slowed, hands still connected. Klaus glanced at me, still smiling.

"I meant it, you know," he said quietly. I didn't need to ask him what he meant. Instead, I pulled him into a hug, my arms wrapping around his neck.

"I know," I whispered, "and I like you too."

Klaus laughed slightly, "I know."

We stayed like that for a few more seconds before Klaus moved away slightly, just enough so he could tilt my head up slightly and softly pull me into a kiss. It was brief and shy but it was perfect and I knew, in that moment, it wouldn't be the last.

It's true, I thought to myself as the two of us kept going down the hallway together, one kiss really can change everything. And it did.

The End

Thank you so much for reading The Kiss! It was a blast to write and I hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you for all the votes and comments and the extra followers that joined along the way, it's been great interacting with you all and seeing your reactions to each chapter.

This was actually meant to be posted like half an hour ago but I changed a bunch of stuff at the last minute so I hope this doesn't suck lol.

Anyways, although this is the end of The Kiss, that doesn't mean it has to be the end of our time together (ew talk about cringe). I have other A Series Of Unfortunate Event fanfictions that you can check out if you want and I have all my socials in my profile if you want to keep up with me for some reason.

I'll be working on The Diary Project next so be sure to check that out for some more Kladora. I'm not sure what day I'll be updating on yet but I'll put out an announcement when I've decided.

Anyway, I'll stop waffling now. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day!

-heytherebro12 :)