Detention (ASOUE)

Chapter Ten

"Unbelievable," my mother muttered, her eyes turning to daggers. I had hoped she wouldn't spot the Baudelaire family, but it's kind of hard to miss a group of people wearing all black in a room filled with lighter, brighter colours. "The bloody Addams Family is here."

My father peered to have a look at what all the fuss was about, before shrugging and going back to looking through the menu. "Does it matter that they're here?" he asked.

I saw my mother blink angrily. "Are you joking?"

"No, dear."

My mother huffed and caught my eye. "Isadora, stop looking. Make yourself look busy."

I didn't argue, and went back to looking at the menu, although I wasn't really taking anything in. It was so frustrating when my mother freaked out over stupid stuff like this. The Baudelaires were at the same restaurant: so what? It wasn't like they were sitting at the same table as us. Nevertheless, I listened and pretended to be deciding between a salmon and egg salad and an avocado toast, despite not really wanting either of them. I didn't have to pretend for too long, though, because soon enough the dark cloud that had been drifting ever closer to us, stopped at the end of our table.

"Well, fancy seeing the Quagmires here!"

My mother audibly growled under her breath before turning her attention to Mr and Mrs Baudelaire. Her glare flipped into a smile. "It's nice to see you both. Are you here for brunch as well?"

Mrs Baudelaire laughed slightly. "Yes, well, it's actually quite embarrassing. You see, the restaurant double booked. This is our usual table."

"How embarrassing indeed," said my mother, still putting her fake smile to good use, "Hopefully it won't take them long to find you a new one."

"Well, I told them not to bother," said Mrs Baudelaire, "We're all friends aren't we? There's plenty of space for all of us here, is there not?"

My parents shared a look.

"Of course, what a lovely idea," said my mother, although now she couldn't keep the smile up.

She gestured for all of us to move around the oval shaped table, to leave room for the Baudelaires and, as if on cue, restaurant staff arrived to add more chairs, table mats and cutlery. Mr and Mrs Baudelaire sat down and started a somewhat civil conversation with my parents. What caught my attention, though, was the three empty chairs that were positioned to my left, which only meant one thing: Violet, Klaus and their infant sister Sunny were going to be joining us as well.

My brothers seemed to notice that too, because Duncan nudged me and Quigley raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Looks like you'll have a little eye candy while we're here," whispered Quigley, and I glared him down.

I just hoped Klaus would sit in the seat furthest from me so it wouldn't trigger Duncan and Quigley doing or saying anything stupid to try and embarrass me. I didn't know what it was about Klaus and the whole detention situation that made them think I was obsessed with him, but I definitely didn't want them gaining any more material to tease me on. Hence why I also hadn't told them about the pen situation.

Before I had any more time to stress, the people in question arrived and took their seats quietly. Violet arrived to the table first so she sat next to her father. Klaus trailed behind, holding his little sister's hand. They sat down as well, Klaus helping his sister up onto the chair next to me, which I was glad about. That meant Klaus wouldn't be next to me, which also meant my brothers had no table entertainment. Or at least, that's what I thought. Seeing their amused expressions showed me that it didn't matter how close Klaus and I were, the fact we were sat at the same table was enough on it's own to make them giddy. I just pretended not to see them.

A waitress came over to take everyone's orders, which resolved the awkward silence for a little bit. The Baudelaires went first, much to my mother's annoyance, all of them ordering some fancy dish or another. Then my parents and brothers ordered, leaving me last.

"I'll have the belgian waffles, please," I said.

"Ah, no, she'll have the avocado toast," my mother butted in. I gave her a weird look but it was too late to argue and change my order back to what I wanted because the waitress had already walked off.

"Why can't I have-"

My mother scoffed, cutting me off, "You're a lady, Isadora. Act like one."

What the hell? I thought to myself. Usually our parents were strict but in terms of eating and whatnot, they usually let us eat whatever we wanted. We were old enough to decide that on our own, hence why they let us. I was confused as to why she had done that, and so unsubtly too, when I realised it was just one more thing she was doing to try and make us on par with the Baudelaires. All of their kids had picked healthy options, so we had to as well otherwise, to our parents at least, we were one point behind. This wasn't a meal, it was a contest.

After that awkward spell, the two sets of parents were talking again like nothing had happened. I couldn't help but roll my eyes as they started doing the whole, "my kid can do this," thing.

"Violet invented a device that helps elderly people cross the road!"

"Oh is that so? Well Quigley buys supplies and donates them to homeless shelters everyday after school."

"Ah that's interesting. Klaus is so smart that he tutors children who have a hard time studying."

"Really? Well Duncan is the main writer and editor for his school newspaper."

It was just lie after lie after lie. At least on our side. Quigley just played games after school and although Duncan was one of the main writers for the paper, he could never be an editor. His spelling and grammar was kind of appalling, actually.

"Oh, and Isadora-"

Upon hearing my name, my head snapped up. There was nothing I did that could be boasted about. Not even anything that could be exaggerated to make me sound better. Which meant that my mother was probably about to lie. I just prayed she didn't make up something crazy that I would then have to pretend to go along with.

"Isadora is so interested in trying new things that she's just started attending poetry club."

My heart dropped to my stomach and even though I wasn't looking towards them, I could tell that Quigley and Duncan were staring me out.

"She's so dedicated, she goes everyday after school," my mother continued, not realising she was digging me into an even bigger hole.

"Is that so?" Mrs Baudelaire said, frowning, "I've never heard of the poetry club. Did you know about this Violet?" Violet just shrugged. "What about you, Klaus?"

I felt my heart plummet again. If there was anyone who could expose me sat at this table, it was Klaus. He knew exactly where I was everyday after school, and it certainly wasn't poetry club. I saw him glance at me from the corner of my eye but I just stared straight ahead, feeling completely sick.

Klaus laughed slightly. "Are you kidding?"