"It's my eleventy-first birthday!"

"Is he serious?" I whisper to Merry, trying to speak over the chorus of birthday cheers. He shakes his head at me. "He doesn't look a day over sixty." Merry shushes me playfully.

"I have you all here for a purpose; Three purposes, essentially. First to say I'm very pleased to have lived eleventy-one years among such excellent and admirable hobbits." More cheers. I give a little woot as well – I may not be actually related to Bilbo, and I may not know him very well, but surely he was talking about me too.

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

There's a thick silence. I turn to Merry, and mouth to him "Did he insult us?" He replies with another shrug. How helpful.

"Secondly, to celebrate my birthday. Oh! How could I forget? Our birthday! Stand up my boy!" I try to sneak myself a peek at the other birthday boy at the party. I don't really know him either, but I have the most pathetic crush on him. Yeah, I know. It's dumb. I haven't ever even talked to him. Merry always seems to be telling some story of mischief with the young Baggins.

He isn't hard to pick out. He stands, a bright smile on his pretty little face. Valar, he's gorgeous. "Thirty-three years. He's a big boy now." Merry whispers. I giggle.

"You're just jealous that he's older than you." He scrunches his face at my comment. "Or better-looking." I add with a giggle. He just shakes his head.

"The way you speak to your own brother..."

"Together he and I score one gross! Just as many years as there are hobbits, if I may use the term."

Another silence. One hundred and forty-four silently offended hobbits. Gross wasn't exactly the best term to use.

"One gross indeed... What a vulgar expression." Bilbo chuckles. It seems that some of the hobbits are starting to lose interest

"Thirly – and finally- I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT." The final word has a sense of urgency and is much louder than all of the others. Attention is returned back to Bilbo. The hobbit seems to fidget with something, but maybe that's normal. I don't really know anyone here that well. "I regret to announce – this is the end. I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell."

And apparently I wouldn't get to. The strangest thing happens. Bilbo Baggins disappears. Right before our eyes. And then everyone starts panic.

"Merry! What happened?" I poke him in the side frantically. Nobody told me that there would be a magic trick. Quite frankly, it doesn't look like anybody knew there would be a trick.

"There should have been a poof, right?" Merry asks me. I raise my eyebrows at him. This doesn't seem to bother him nearly as much as me. Does he think this is a joke? Probably. Everything's a joke with Merry, which is fine, but can get obnoxious.

"Merry! Did you see that?" And as if Merry alone wasn't bad enough, Peregrin Took runs up, a big smile on his face. "Poof!"

Merry practically spasms with excitement. "That's what I said!"

I vocalize my irritation with a big groan, but the two continue to chatter amongst themselves, so I turn away and start to walk, muttering to myself. "Dumb hobbit. Never listens to anybody."

I don't really want to talk to anybody – especially since I was alone now. I don't know anybody! Everyone is scary. Maybe if I just keep walking, I can find Samwise. The Gamgees used to be friends of my mother, so I'm sure we'd get along.

Before I can find him, I run head-on into another hobbit. Being my klutzy self, I fall right to the ground.

"I'm terribly sorry... Here, let me help you up."

I look up into a pair of absolutely dazzling blue eyes. Frodo Baggins stands over me, holding a hand out to me, looking beautiful as ever close-up. For a moment, I just sit there like an idiot, staring at him.

"Miss?" His eyes flit to one side, then the other, and his brows furrow a bit.

"Oh!" I blush a bit and let him help me up. I look towards the ground, brave enough for only a few glances upwards. Looking people in the eye is difficult. You can't hide much in your eyes. "T-Thank you."

He laughs. A sound that makes my stomach flutter. "Anyone would think you're talking to a dragon! Come sit with me. Have I met you before?"

"Um, no." He leads me to a few vacant chairs. Goodness. What do I do? I don't know! What if I look dumb? That would be so bad! My life would be over.

He smiles. "Care to give me the pleasure?"

"My name is Sapphira. Sapphira Brandybuck."

"Ah, the new Brandybuck. Bilbo told me of you. Must be fun, living with Meriadoc." His voice takes on a bit of a teasing tone.

"Of course. A little piece of fun." I reply, not even thinking it through. Living with the Brandybucks is something that is much different than my life had been before; but it was a good change.

"A little." He agreed happily. "My name is Frodo Baggins – but I guess you probably already knew that."

"Yeah. Let's just say I've heard a lot." I shrug playfully.

He laughs. "Don't let those stories shape my image – I'm a good hobbit sometimes." I laugh along with him.

"So what kind of trick was that? Is Bilbo working with a wizard? I mean, I heard about that dragon incident..." My voice trails off. Hobbits don't speak kindly of that event. Honestly, I thought it was amazing. Someday I'd love to see the world.

"No. I'm not sure. I guess I should probably go check on him. If luck has me well, he'll be waiting for me at Bag End."

I try not to look disappointed as I bid him goodbye. Oh my goodness. He is even more amazing in person. As soon as he's out of sight I check my pulse at my neck. It's pounding way too hard. I think I'm in love. Just wait until I tell Merry!

"Hey! Sapphira, come here lass!" I look up from my gnarled tree trunk to see Samwise Gamgee shouting at me from the other side of the dirt road. I smile over at him.

Since Bilbo had disappeared, Merry and I had stayed back with Frodo to help him with the chaos. There were a lot of hobbits whose biggest concerns were their presents, and we didn't want Frodo to deal with that alone. And I kind of wanted to talk to him more, since I've decided that we're going to get married.

As for Sam, I had finally found him and he is all I hoped he would be. A perfect friend. He's always kind to me and thinking of me – if I didn't know his huge crush on Rosie Cotton I might snag him for myself. He's very loveable.

"Why don't you come hither, Gamgee?" I shout back, smiling impishly, folding a leg over the other obstinately. His face is flushed.

"I've been looking all over Hobbiton to find you." He huffs, but smiles at me anyway. "I think you owe me now... And there a re a few bushes at Bag End that need to be cut tonight..."

"Samwise Gamgee!" I laugh. "I would almost assume you have something better to do. Tell me! What is it?"

His face turns crimson. "Well, actually, I wanted to go to the pub. Maybe say a quick hello to Miss Cotton."

I explode with glee, squealing and laughing. Sam looks surprised at keeps trying to shush me. "Does wittle Sammy wuv Wosie?" I ask, pinching his cheeks.

"Well, I guess you could maybe say that." His blush deepens.

"I will cut those bushes for you, Sam. IN THE NAME OF LOVE!" I smile brightly.

"You really are something else..." Sam shakes his head.

I just smile at him. I hate working. I hate manual labour. I'm lazy. He better get a dance or a kiss for this.

Thanks for clicking onto my story! I hope you enjoyed. If you're reading this for the second time, since I've rewritten this, thanks for caring enough to be dragged through the same story twice. 3

Before you get any farther, I'm going to give you a quick warning - This is not a tenth walker story. Samwise Gamgee will not appear again. Sapphira is replacing Sam as best as she can. I'm sorry if this upsets anyone, I just wanted to try something that I haven't seen before.

I like criticism, but I like it to be constructive. Please try not to flame my story unless you've got a good reason.