A/n: Hey guys! I just want to say a few things about this story before I get started. The first thing I have to say is that this story is my first venture into a sort of co-authorship. I am writing this story with my close friend Beka. We are working in a partnership that mostly consists of her and I coming up with ideas together, and me putting them in proper literary form. Therein lies the problem. We think we're funny. You may not. Please don't flame us for that! Again, I cannot take full credit for all the content of this story.
Second, this story is a high story set in modern times. Therefore, Beka and I are basing alot of it on our own experiences in high school, which sadly just recently ended for us. There will be some weird things happening in this story. The sad truth is some of it is real because some of it is too stupid to make up.
Warnings: This story is rated because it includes swearing. It's not like it has "OH MY GOD! HOW COULD THEY SAY THAT?!" swearing, but there still is swearing all the same. I just want to be safe with my ratings. If swearing offends you at all, this is not a good story to read. Also, there are references to things that happen in high school, such as hard partying and the things that come along with it such as alcohol and references to drugs (and not even anything major. only smoking). Again, I just want to be safe. If you object to any of that, don't read. PLEASE NO FLAMES! P.S. There will be phrases such as "gotta" and "kinda" used frequently and on purpose. Don't say that I have bad grammar.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Lord of the rings. I only own Hana and Andune. I don't own "Phantom of the opera" "Rent" or anything of the real world such as Ipod or Broadway.
--
Frodo Baggins sighed with relief as he stepped on the section of sidewalk that divided the local shopping center and the Middle Earth District High school. He had been preparing for this walk for days and the entire time, he pondered to himself "Why the hell didn't they give me a bus?!"
He'd taken a bus for his whole school career. But then, he got to high school. Middle earth high was notorious for basing bus assignments just on geography in relation to the school. So naturally, did they give him a bus? NOOOO! He had to walk! The whole year. He had to walk. However, he thanked god that he wasn't alone. Joining him in his misery were fellow freshmen Samwise Gamgee (aka Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (aka Merry), and Perigrin Took (aka Pippin). The four boys had been friends since kindergarten, as they all lived in the same general area (to be more specific, Frodo lived next door to Sam, who lived across the street from Merry, who lived next door to Pippin, who he just happened to be cousins with.). For all those years, they always did everything together. So now, they had to suffer together. Four years of walking.
As they reached the front steps of the school, Merry and Pippin collapsed onto the steps, gasping for breath and attracting the attention of other students. They could tell that the seemingly endless parade of elves, humans, and other hobbits were laughing at them as they passed by. Frodo could hear them say things like "freshmen" or "pathetic", and he even heard one rather intimidating looking man who looked like he wrestled say "New blood." before going inside, closely followed by a tall blond elf with a cocked eyebrow and wearing what looked like a football jersey. Frodo hesitantly brushed it off his shoulder.
"Oh…my…god! That was a long walk!" gasped merry, in between breathes.
"I know!" Pippin exclaimed "I can't believe we have to do that every day for the next four years."
"Guys, it was only fifteen minutes. It wasn't that bad." said Sam, leaning on the railing.
"Frodo, your uncle drives a Cadillac. Why can't he drive us?" asked Merry. He was referring to the fact that Frodo's uncle Bilbo Baggins, who was Frodo's guardian after the tragic loss of his parents when he was only two, had a rather 'well paying' job and drove a rather large and expensive Cadillac SUV (only made funnier by the fact that he was a hobbit).
"Uncle Bilbo says that when we're faced with certain situations, we have to stand up and face them." Frodo explained.
"But what if it's the middle of winter and the snow comes up to here? asked Sam, bring his hand up to his eyebrows. "That's the only exception. Blizzards, monsoons, hail, stuff like that."
At that moment, Pippin jumped where he sat, before fishing around in his back pocket. "What?" asked Frodo.
" I'm vibrating." Pippin answered, making two passing elf girls laugh. "Huh?" Sam inquired. Pippin pulled out his cell phone. "Oh." said Sam. Pippin picked up.
"Hello?...Hey! What's up?...now?...ok…which one?...right. ok." He hung up.
"Faramir wants us to go to the cafeteria." He said. "Right now?" asked Merry. "Yes." Pippin said as he got up and gestured the other three hobbits to follow him. They walked through the front doors.
--
Middle Earth High was not known for being a large school. It only had about nine hundred students to its name. It wasn't the wealthiest district in the county, because there were other districts that some M-E students would rather be going to just for the sake of having more perks available to them. And to most students, no matter what grade, the worst part about M-E was that they had a reputation for having one of the worst football teams in the county, the Middle Earth Oaks. Their name wasn't intimidating what so ever, which probably explained why they usually won only four games a season and hadn't gone to the district play-offs in probably a decade.
But most students walked away from that school calling it some of the best years of their lives. It was a place where teens from a range of races and backgrounds could come together and have the time of their lives (not during class obviously, much to the dismay of some). It was four years of sports, clubs, friends, parties, and…..well…things that went along with parties. Of course, the latter didn't apply to everyone. It was really only a problem with the trouble makers, who were already subject to the punishments that administration dished out.
Most people had good things to say about the education system at M-E. It had a low dropout rate, high test score averages, and more importantly, a high graduation rate.
Overall, most people liked the fact that M-E was just your average high school with average high school students. Sure, they weren't exactly a resort town, and their football team kind of sucked. But it still left an impact on most of their students and alumni, right down to the parents who graduated many years before and whose children now attended M-E.
--
The four hobbits ventured through the hallway. In addition to the slight grouping together of particular races, they could already see the forming of cliques taking place. The Jocks, the plastics, the nerds, the artists, the Goths, the cheerleaders, the party animals, the emos, the criminals (I'll leave that definition to you), and the cliqueless. Frodo did have to admit to himself that it was a little bit intimidating going through this sea of identities, especially since he had always maintained the fact that he was cliqueless and intended to stay that way. As they walked into the cafeteria, they heard the sound the sound that all four of them had been dreading.
"Well, here they are. The lowly freshmen."
"Oh no!" Frodo thought as he looked to see their friend and fellow freshman Faramir, who was seated at a table with his older brother Boromir.
Since the fourth grade, when they met Faramir, Boromir had always been a source of headaches and great annoyance to the five of them with his constant talk of him being the star quarterback of the football team, and the instant popularity that came along with it. The only thing that it made it worse was that it was Boromir's senior year. As Faramir put it, this made his ego expand to the point of needing its own zip code. They were going to hear way more then they already did, which was already way past the point of driving them all insane.
"Quick, all of you. Schedules." said Faramir.
The five of them took a moment to compare schedules and classes. As predicted, Faramir had no real classes. They were all Advanced Placement, or AP, classes (for Faramir was some kind of freak, he was so smart), although he did share a shop class with Pippin. Frodo, Sam, and Merry all shared a gym class. Frodo and Sam were in the same English class. Merry and Pippin had the same math and science. All the hobbits wound up in the same elvish language class, and all five freshmen had fifth period lunch.
Boromir looked over Faramir's shoulder. "Ooh. You got Gimli for shop? He's a kinda crazy." He commented, calling on his time in the class. But before Faramir could say anything, there was a loud commotion out in the hallway.
"GET BACK HERE!" they heard a security guard yell. "GET HIM!" another one shouted. "oooOOOH SHIT!" someone screamed before running.
"What the hell was that?" asked Merry.
"Ahhhh, Aragorn" Boromir said with a smile.
"Wait just a minute! You know him?!" said Sam.
"Yeah I do." Said Boromir "That happens pretty regularly. Aragorn's like the biggest pothead in the whole school. He always gets in trouble for it. I can't believe he was dumb enough to bring weed on the first day."
"He…smokes pot? And you hang out with him?" asked Frodo.
"He's actually pretty cool when you hang out with him. He makes your day pretty interesting and…..speak of the devil! He got away!"
They turned to see Aragorn walking into the cafeteria. He looked like your typical rocker. Ripped jeans, tight tee shirt, Doc Martins, scruffy beard, and rather unkempt hair. In his hand was a piece of paper, which they guessed was probably his schedule. Before he said anything, he quickly dove under the table. "If anyone asks, I'm not here."
"They find the stash?" asked Boromir. "No. But their still looking for me." Aragorn answered. "Right"
Boromir stood up when some of his football teammates wandered over and did their usual handshake, sat down again, and began to drink out of the small milk carton that had been sitting in front of him. But as he did so, Faramir saw a heavy set (like muscular) human girl along with a bunch of other girls walk in. She was dressed in a pink polo shirt, plaid pink knee length shorts (or as the authoress calls them, grandpa shorts), and had short, curly, dark hair pinned back with a flower pin. She noticed the boys from across the room. Quietly, she crept up behind Boromir, and out of nowhere, slapped him upside the back of the head. This caused Boromir's head to snap forward, which in turn, caused his milk to splash onto his football jersey. Faramir prepared himself for death con one.
"Fuck! I just had this thing washed!"
Faramir let out a sigh of relief.
"Sorry buddy. I didn't mean to do that to you." The girl said. "That's ok. I'm not gonna kill you yet." said Boromir, trying to clean off his precious jersey.
"So, this is your younger brother?" asked the girl, looking at Faramir. "Yep. This is my freak of a brother."
"I've heard a lot about you Faramir." "Thanks?" said Faramir. "I'm Andune." said the girl.
"I have no idea why she hangs out with us. She just kinda follows us around." said Boromir. "More like, she stalks us." Aragorn's voice came from under the table. Andune looked around, and then looked at Boromir, who pointed to under the table. Andune looked down.
"Oh hey!" she said noticing Aragorn. "Hey." He said, looking at his schedule. "And these are Faramir's friends. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin." Boromir said, acknowledging the hobbits. Mutual "Hi"s were exchanged, and Andune sat down.
"So, how many classes do you have to retake? She directed at Aragorn. There was no answer. "Hey!" she said, kicking him.
"He's not here." said Faramir. "What?" asked Andune.
"He's being chased by the security guards." said Frodo
"Oooooooooohhhhhhhhh….I can't believe you brought pot on the first day of your senior year! What are you? Re-ta-ta?"
"I didn't bring pot to school!" Aragorn growled. "Then why the fuck are you hiding under a table?" asked Andune.
Aragorn crawled over to her and peered out. " I SMELLED like pot. They fucking searched me!! And what do they find? An empty bag."
"What happened to your secret stash?"
" I lost it. What do you think? I smoked it all!"
"You just chose to smoke it before you got here." said Merry.
"Exactly." Aragorn said, ducking back under the table. There was a moment of awkward silence.
"FUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!! I GOT GANDALF FOR CHEMISTRY AGAIN!!" they heard from under the table.
"Did you honestly think that they would give you another teacher?" asked Boromir.
"YES!"
"But you didn't tell guidance that he caused you to fail, did you?" asked Andune
"…..no."
"Didn't think so" said Andune.
"You failed his class? Why?" Pippin butted in.
"I couldn't help it" Aragorn whined "I couldn't stay awake in that class because he was so goddamn boring because he's so goddamn old! Sometimes I would cut just so I wouldn't go crazy. Holy shit! I hated that class! And now I gotta take it again?!"
"Take it easy Ari, I got him too" said Andune.
She was about to say something when she noticed a girl walk into the cafeteria. But this was a girl that Andune had never seen at Middle earth High before. She had long, red hair, and was wearing a tight, knit tee shirt, jeans, and flip flops. She sheepishly stood there for a moment, and pushed her hair back behind her ears. Andune could now see that she was in fact elvish, but she thought that this girl seemed a little under stated for an elf. The elvish girls made up most of the plastics and other popular groups with a few ending up in other cliques. This one was obviously cliqueless, and apparently, friendless too. The girl walked over to an empty table and sat down.
"Hey Boromir," said Andune, tapping Boromir on the shoulder and pointing to the girl "That girl over there, do you know who she is?"
"No, I don't. And that's weird considering I know everybody."
"Is she a freshman?"
"We haven't seen her." Said Frodo while the other hobbits and Faramir nodded no.
"Aragorn?"
Aragorn peered out the other side. "Nope. Don't know her."
"She must be new here" Andune concluded.
"She's kinda hot." Said Frodo. "In your dreams!" teased Merry.
"I kinda feel bad that she's by herself." Said Andune "I think I'm gonna go talk to her. Make her feel more comfortable." "That's your prerogative." Boromir said as Andune got up.
Over on her little deserted island, the new elvish girl couldn't help but feel embarrassed, shy, and nervous. She had neglected to bring anything to take her mind off her new situation, that is, except her Ipod. But even that couldn't help the situation. She would just look over her schedule again and again, occasionally looking up and glancing around. She was a little bit disturbed when she looked up to see the blond elf that Frodo saw outside staring at her. He had that same cocked eyebrow, a slight smirk, and she could feel his gaze going up and down her body. He was checking her out. She was about to make an early run for first period, wherever that was, when she became aware that someone else had walked up to the table.
"Hi. Do you mind if I sit here?" Andune cheerfully said.
"Sure, I guess." The other girl quietly said. Andune sat down with no hesitations.
"So, are you new here? I haven't seen you around here before." She asked.
"You sure do get to the point." Said the girl "Yeah, I'm new. I just transferred here from Lincoln High."
" Are you a freshman?"
The girl laughed "No. I'm actually a junior."
"No way! Me too!"
"Really?"
"Yeah." Andune noticed the girl's Ipod. "What are you listening to?" she asked.
"You promise not to laugh?" "Of course." The girl sighed "Phantom of the Opera."
"You like Broadway shows?!"
"Is that a bad thing?" the girl asked.
"Hell no! I totally love Broadway, and 'Phantom' is such a good show."
"Yeah, I know." Said the girl "My old school did the show last year…"
"Oh I know. We did too. I played Carlotta. You guys tried to sabotage our show."
"I had nothing to do with that." reassured the girl "Anyway, I played Madame Giri. I loved the show so much that I had to go see it on Broadway. We had second row seats."
"Oh my god. I hate you."
"Most people do when I tell them that." The two juniors laughed.
"So, what's your name?" asked Andune
"Hananiel. Hananiel Lithonia. Though I don't know why I tell people that. Nobody calls me that."
"What do people call you?"
"Everybody calls me Hana. If you go back to Lincoln, nobody knows what my real name is. Not even the teachers" They laughed again.
"I'm Andune. And let me be the first to welcome you to Middle Earth High." "Thanks." Hana smiled.
"So Hana, do you like men?"
Hana felt slightly violated. "That's a little personal to ask someone you just met."
"No, I mean do you mind hanging out with guys."
"Oh. No. I mean, if they're nice. Why?"
"Because there's a whole bunch of guys over there that are dying to meet you." She pointed to the other table, where all the guys were watching the whole thing. They waved when Hana looked over at them.
"I don't know…"
"Don't worry. They are perfectly harmless." The two girls got up, but Hana stopped.
"Andune, that guy over there," she began " who is he?" She motioned to the cock-browed blond elf.
"Oh, that's Haldir Marchwarden. Linebacker and all around shmuck."
"I thought he was checking me out earlier."
"Chances are that he was. But he does that to every girl. You're probably nothing special."
"Good." Hana sighed "Because the second he cocked that eyebrow, I thought 'there's a motherfucker if I've never seen one.'" Andune squeed on the inside at the fact that Hana apparently wasn't afraid to use language. She was one of them, and she only knew her for three minutes.
When they got back to the table, the boys were laughing. "What's so funny?" wondered Andune.
"Legolas keeps messing with Aragorn via text." Said Boromir. He then noticed Hana, and stood up. "Excuse me Andune, but I think it's rude for you to not introduce your guest." He said, using his deeper, more charming voice.
Hana looked nervously at Andune. " He's just teasing you." She said "Guys, this is Hana. She just moved here from Lincoln."
"Lincoln?" Boromir arched his eyebrow "As in the Lincoln Grizzlies?" Hana nodded. "Oh come on!" Boromir shouted before sitting back down.
" I'll start with you then. Hana, this is Boromir, our head quarterback,"
"Oh, that explains the reaction." Said Hana. Middle Earth high and Lincoln high had a long standing rivalry that mostly took place on the football field.
"Yeah. Any way, he's a senior. That's his brother Faramir and his friends Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, they're all freshmen. And under the table, you'll find Aragorn, he's a senior."
"Charmed, I'm sure." Said Aragorn, popping out from under the table and kissing Hana's hand.
"It's nice to meet all of you." Hana said, pulling her hand away. There was the sound of obnoxious metal music. Aragorn pulled out his sidekick, and read the text that had just come in.
"I hate him so much." He said.
"Legolas again?" asked Faramir.
"Yeah. I wish he could just shut up about that car of his."
" It's new. He's in love with the thing. He's gonna brag about it." Said Boromir.
"Don't mind them. They say that kind of stuff about each other, but they really stick together like glue." Andune added "Speaking of Legolas, where is he?"
"He said something about doing something with AP Bio." Said Aragorn "He said he's not going to come down here for the first couple of days."
"Who's Legolas?" asked Hana.
"He's another one of our crazy friends. You'll probably meet him sometime today or tomorrow." Said Andune.
Almost as if on cue, the five minute bell rang. Everybody got up and began to make their way to class, but Aragorn remained under the table. "Aragorn, I know you have chorus first period. Come on." Said Andune.
"Is it safe?" he asked.
Andune sighed. "YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!" she said.
Aragorn gingerly crawled out from under the table. "So, what do you have first period?" Andune asked Hana.
"Concert choir."
"Oh good. Come with us." They three went out into the hallway to see Frodo looking around.
"You lost, Frodo?" asked Aragorn. "How do you get to the music wing?" asked Frodo.
"Follow us". Aragorn stuffed his schedule in his pocket, but before he could follow the others, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see a security guard.
"YOU CAN FREAKIN' STRIP SEARCH ME! I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING!!"
--
As Andune, Hana, and Frodo walked through the halls leading to the music wing, Hana turned around, looking around. "What happened to Aragorn?" she asked.
"Uh oh. Looks like they got him." Said Andune.
"Who got him for what?"
"The security guards" Frodo said, jumping in. "What for?" asked Hana. "Pot!" said Andune.
"What? Wait…he smokes pot?"
"Excessively. But that, along with the fact that he's not too bright, is his only real flaw." Hana shuttered at this new piece of information.
"He's really not a bad guy. You just have to learn how to deal with the marijuana. Trust me." Hana smiled nervously.
When they reached chorus room, Frodo went right off to find his seat. Hana stuck close by Andune.
"Come on. I just need to drop off my shit in the chorus officers' room. I'm the chorus vice president, so you can come with me."
"I'm allowed in?" asked Hana
"Oh yeah. If you have an officer's permission; which I am, and you do. We can hang out in there until class starts. Then I'll help you figure out where your seat is."
They walked into a little room in the front of the chorus room. There wasn't anything in it except for a couch, a beanbag chair, and a few cubby boxes already with student's books in some. Andune sat on the couch, but Hana stayed standing.
"It's ok. You can sit." Hana reluctantly sat next to her on the couch. "Isn't it comfortable?"
"…..yeah it is." said Hana as she finally relaxed for the first time that day.
--
A ways back, Aragorn was running again. He had somehow managed to escape the security guards, run through the lobby, and now he was running through the language hallway towards the long hallway that the students called the bowling ally. He soon came across a blond elf wearing jeans, a green graphic tee, and black converses. This was Legolas, a fellow senior and Aragorn's best friend of five years. Legolas was also running. Aragorn sprinted to catch up with him.
"Hey dude!" he said, still running, now along side Legolas.
"Hey man. What are you running for...wait, I know that answer. Security guards!" gasped Legolas.
"Yeah. What are you running for….hmm…I know that answer too. You wrote a shit load of essays for your AP classes, had to turn them in, and now you're running to get to chorus."
"Uh huh. So, where are you going?"
"Away."
"On the first day?"
"Yep."
"Where will you go?"
"To the park to buy more pot"
"When will you be back?"
"Eighth period."
"Yeah! I won't be alone."
"I'm turning here. See you later."
"Alright. See ya."
The two boys broke off as Aragorn ran toward the side door. Legolas would have laughed at his friend's cutting school, but he actually couldn't breathe. Once he made it to the chorus room, he wasted no time before going into the chorus officers room and lying down, face first, on the ground in front of the couch, not noticing the two girls sitting on it.
Andune snickered to Hana, who smirked back. Andune began to playfully kick Legolas in the head. "Hey buddy…you dead yet…hey hey…wake up Mr. President."
"Shut up Mrs. Vice president. Leave me alone." said Legolas, into the floor.
"Oh, so I'm married now. Well, didn't you notice that there were two pairs of feet poking you?"
Legolas was confused; he could only feel one pair. But he brushed it off. He must've heard wrong. He stayed motionless. Andune decided to get his attention.
"Actually…I could have gotten married over the summer…" she inquired.
"What?!" Legolas turned his head to see Andune's feet and also a second pair of female feet. "Oh. I get it." He said. Then, he looked up. He froze where he lay when he saw Hana's face.
"Oh" he quietly said.
The room was awkwardly quiet for a while. Then Hana broke the silence. "Um…hi…I'm Hana."
"Hi." said Legolas, still gasping for breath.
"Yeah Hana, this is Legolas. You know the one we were telling you about earlier."
"Oh yeah."
"What did you tell her about me?" asked Legolas.
"Nothing bad. Anyway, Hana just moved here from Lincoln."
"Is that so?" Legolas asked, putting on a slightly more charming voice despite being out of breath. Hana nodded.
"Well, welcome to Middle earth." He smiled. "Thanks." Hana smiled back.
"So, what do you sing?" asked Legolas.
"Soprano. I take it you're the chorus president?" asked Hana
"The one and only."
"He may look out of breath now. But when he's out there…" Andune pointed to the main chorus room "He never runs out."
"You're a good singer?" Hana asked Legolas.
"You're looking at the lead singer of Legolas featuring the Tenors." Hana giggled and Legolas blushed. "It's not like that." He said.
"Oh stop it. It is." said Andune as she looked out the door. People were starting to fill the room.
"Come on Hana. You should meet Mr. Melwasul. He's gonna love you." She said. The two girls got up.
"It was nice meeting you Legolas." Hana said with a smile as she walked out of the officers' room. But before Andune could follow her, Legolas grabbed her by the arm and pulled her aside.
"Hey, where did you find her?! She's gorgeous!" he asked.
"You should have been at the breakfast table. You could have found her yourself." Said Andune.
"Damn it." Legolas leaned in the doorway glancing at Hana, who was patiently waiting for Andune.
"I haven't seen you look at anyone like that in a long time. Could this be love at first sight?" Andune jokingly asked.
"No….but damn. She's really pretty."
"Oh my god! Alert the media! Legolas Greenleaf has finally taken the final step of getting over his ex by admitting interest in another girl! Holy shit!"
"It's not that big a deal." Said Legolas.
"Oh yes it is. I got to tell Aragorn." She pulled out her cell phone and typed out a text to him.
'Legolas is checking out a girl!!'
She looked back up at Legolas. He stood there with a peaceful smile on his face as he watched the red haired elf girl. Andune walked up beside him.
"You likey?" she asked with a grin. "Me likey." Legolas sighed.
"I'm actually curious what you were thinking when you first looked up."
"You really want to know?" asked Legolas.
"For once, yeah."
"Alright. To be completely honest, I wasn't thinking any thing I wasn't thinking much. I was so encapsulated by her beauty."
Andune wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Oooooooookaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy. You're now a potential stalker. But at the same time it's cute. I'm gonna go introduce Hana to Mr. Melwasul."
"See you later."
You could probably guess that what Legolas said was bullshit. And you're right. In that first moment, this is what Legolas was really thinking.
"A second pair of feet and a second pair of great boobs. A little smaller then what I usually go for, but one awesome rack. Wait a minute. That's something Aragorn would say! What am I thinking?! I've been hanging out with him too much!"
He walked out of the officers' room as the first bell of the school year rang.
TBC
A/n: That word "Re-ta-ta" is a word that Beka's ex-boyfriend came up with and she kind of started to use it. It basically means stupid. She told me that we had to use it at least once in at least one chapter. So...there it is. We don't mean to offend anyone with its meaning. It's really just a shout out to Joe.
R&R