Violet Baudelaire, it seemed, had finally grown tired of learning. No, not about inventions or her family or the many, many books the bookshelf had given her about Nikola Tesla (although she did wonder how much she could actually learn without being able to read German, as the books were largely things she already knew). No, Violet Baudelaire had ( Read more... )

There was makeshift canopy stretched out over the grass by the playground. Beneath it were some chairs for grown ups. There were a lot of fruit tarts and crispy, fried rice-things and then, of course, there was one larger cake. It had a dragon on it. Not a real one, though, Errol had surprisingly little interest in cake given his intense ( Read more... )

It was now or never ( Read more... )

Twenty seven.

On the night of her twenty-seventh birthday, Charlie had had dinner with her fiance. She hadn't wanted a party, not with the wedding as close as it was. They'd enjoyed their evening alone. On the day after her birthday, her twenty seventh birthday, Charlie was down in the Hidden Hamlet, red hair wrapped up in a scarf with gypsy ( Read more... )

Illy is happy for the first time in a long time, and not just content. Illy's so happy she feels likely to burst at any moment. Right before her birthday, the day she was remembering all the bad that had happened to her [even if it wasn't an actual anniversary, it was still the day it'd all happened]-- he came back, and sure he needed to go to ( Read more... )

"'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); 'now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off)." Coraline said, reading her ( Read more... )

The significance of the date was not lost on Charlotte Charles, whose fondness for pie and other round dishes (as well as waxing mathematical) came out in full force. Having resisted the urge to wake up at 3:14am, she had doubled the number (2π) and scrambled out of bed at 6:28am instead ( Read more... )

If only because she could not escape the dual ghosts of her mother and the Queen of France taking her to task for ignoring an event, Anne had put on a lovely green dress and stopped by the Mardi Gras party. No mask, so that her presence could be noted by anyone who wished to, and then she left, for she could not abide any more of that foolish ( Read more... )

By the time the first tent had been successfully pitched, Shawn was ready to crawl into it, curl up and call it a day. Too bad there were only about a million other things to do before the show got on the road. Okay, so maybe it was less than that, but it sure felt like it was somewhere in the vicinity of a million ( Read more... )

( I'll be the first to admit I've lost my touch. )