Series of Unfortunate Events One-shots, What-ifs, and Drabbles

Imagine: Sunny

Imagine Sunny Baudelaire, just six years old. It was November when she and her siblings arrived back on the mainland, December by the time their name was fully cleared and Violet had inherited their fortune, and halfway through that month when Sunny and Klaus went to school.

Sunny started school at the end of Winter Break. Which meant, of course, that she was already an outsider at school. It also didn't help that she possessed an unnaturally keen intellect for six years old, a set of especially large and sharp teeth for a person of any age, and absolutely no affinity to running around a play area like a madman. She preferred to read, which set her even farther apart from her peers than she otherwise would be.

Still, Sunny would've liked if maybe someone approached her. Or talked to her at all, aside from asking for her help on quizzes.

In short, Sunny Baudelaire was lonely. The only friend she had anywhere near her age was Beatrice Snicket, who was more of a sister than a friend. Of course, her blood siblings were close to her too- closer to her than anyone could be, ever, even the Quagmires. And all five of those young adults were 10-12 years older than she was.

She wished she could connect with her peers. She wished she wasn't so strange. After all, if anyone asked why nobody talked to her, she had one very good reason- she was the class weirdo. And she could point any skeptics to any number of anecdotes.

Like the time there was a lockdown at her school, and her teacher turned off the lights in her classroom and they all had to huddle under tables, crammed in six by six. And quite a few kids in her class began to cry after five minutes of teacher enforced silence when the insistent thumping on the classroom door started. But Sunny was the only one who was still crying under the desk two hours later. She couldn't get the image of the claustrophobic birdcage out of her head. And every time the police officers banged on the classroom doors, she thought of Olaf and his theatre troupe coming to kill her. Of course, the name 'crybaby' was thrown around.

And when she sat on a wall during after-school recess and puzzled through a book of Shakespeare's sonnets, the other kids stopped their play and stared at her. "Can she actually read that?" A girl wondered while another child said, "I bet she can't. I bet she's just trying to look cool." The kids laughed. A boy said "I heard she's like, really rich. I bet her parents hate her and never give her any attention, and that's why she's so weird." Sunny's blood ran cold. She set her jaw and closed her eyes. She closed her book and stood up. She leveled her piercing gaze at the group of her classmates that had gathered around her. 

"My parents died in a terrible fire that destroyed our home when I was two years old," She said to the boy who mocked her parents. She stared at the two others who had spoken. "And my siblings taught me how to read when I was quite young." She neglected to mention that they had been shipwrecked on an island far, far away at the time. Why give them more ammunition? 

She spotted Klaus and made her way towards him. He was picking her up from school. Violet must be busy. As she walked away, she heard her classmates say "She's such a drama queen," and laugh. "Her parents died in a fire?" One asked nervously, but another voice crowed, "She's lying, 'course she is."

Klaus also heard the taunts aimed at his sister and ran to meet her. "Hi, Sunny! How was your day at school?"

Sunny swallowed. "Fine," she started to say, but she burst into tears, rendering the statement unbelievable. 

Klaus hugged his sister tightly. "Oh, Sunny, I'm so sorry. I love you, okay? Don't worry about what they say. You're fantastic."

Sunny looked up at her brother. "Klaus, I'm so lonely." She pressed her face into his chest. "Let's just leave," she sobbed, the sound slightly muffled.

Klaus glared at the group of bullies still jeering at his sister. He took her hand and squeezed it. "Just a second, Sunny. I'll be right back." He let go of her hand and walked up to her bullies. He said nothing, but just stared at each of them in turn, looking into their eyes until they looked away. 

Finally he said, "Don't ever, ever talk to anyone like that again. If my sister wants to sit and read Shakespeare, she'll sit and read Shakespeare. I think she has that right. If you were thinking correctly, maybe you'd want her to teach you how."

Then he walked back to his tearful sister. "Come on, Sun. Let's go home."

She put her hand in his, then said, quietly. "Thank you, Klaus."

She didn't think it would help. In fact, it would probably make things worse. But at least she knew that if she could get through the school day, she had a brother to make everything better.