"Hey, Teddy, could you please pass the popcorn?" Suze asked me. Without looking away from the screen, I lifted the bowl.

I was, of course, only a few inches away from the screen. My best friend Suze and her boyfriend, Benj, were reclining on my couch, his arm around her. Thank God they were polite enough not to make out with me around. Blech.

"Thanks," Suze said, taking the popcorn from me. Her dusty blonde hair fell across her face as she leaned down.

"Shh!" I hissed. "Aragorn is speaking!"

Benjamin snorted. I turned around and stuck out my tongue at him.

"Oh, wow, Teddy," he said, smirking, "no wonder the guys are all over you."

In case anyone is wondering, Teddy is short for Theodora.

My blue-green eyes flashed with both indignation and laughter.

"Seriously, though. Now I have to rewind the whole scene!" I sighed loudly as I picked up the remote, but not as loudly as Suze groaned.

"Please, for God's sake, Teddy, we've been on this scene for seventeen stupid minutes!"

In case anyone is wondering, I love Fellowship of the Ring.

I also know all the Moria scenes by heart.

But I still have to watch them over and over.

"Oh, who cares?" Benj said. "As long as the movie is still going, I'm allowed to stay," (my Mom's pretty lax) "and at this rate, I'll be here till eleven-thirty. Beats helping Dad at the garage."

I scowled: it was only four in the afternoon. He didn't notice, though.

I turned back around again. "They are coming," I mouthed with Gandalf.

Five hours later, I was sitting outside, looking at the stars and thinking. It was a warm, airy September night, the last of the windless ones until next June.

Suze was inside, taking a shower; I was still waiting for my turn.

I guess I was too caught up in my own thoughts, sitting there on the curb with my knees drawn up to my chest, to notice whatever flew by and dropped the little thing. All I know is that when I leaned down to scratch a mosquito bite on my ankle, a little twinkle a few feet away caught my eye.

"Hmm." I stood up and padded over to it on my bare feet.

Thank goodness our house is on a cul-de-sac, or it would surely have gotten run over.

I picked up the object- and gasped.

It was a perfect replica of the Leaf of Lorien broaches from FotR in sterling silver and green enamel! I'd been wanting one for ever, but they were, like, seventy bucks.

And here was one, totally unclaimed, totally untarnished, and totally free, just begging for me to pick it up.

I ran inside and tried pinning it on my brown wool cloak, then realized I was supposed to use it to fasten the cloak. Sometimes the blonde highlights override the overall light brown of my hair. (Thank goodness I don't get artificial highlights and further the damage!)

Then I gathered the waves of hair, which fall to a few inches below my shoulders, and tucked them into the hood. Finally, I pulled the hood up.

I was still admiring my perfect, Dunedain-like appearance in the mirror when Susanna came in, in her pajamas. Her dark brown eyes went wide.

"Whoa, Teddy, where'd you get the Leaf?"

It may seem, from earlier on, that Suze and Benji dislike Lord of the Rings. They don't. It's just that Suze likes Return of the King best, and Benj just doesn't obsess over movies like we do.

"Dude, isn't it awesome? It was just sitting out on the cul-de-sac!"

"No way!"

"Believe it," I said, pulling back my hood and unfastening the broach. "Here." I handed it to her.

"It's beautiful," she said. "I just might have to steal it," she added, grinning slyly.

"Haha, nice try." I snatched it back and fixed up my disguise again.

"I thought you said you had to shower," Suze said, straddling the desk chair.

"Nope. I remembered that I showered just before you guys came over."

"Oh, okay," Suze laughed. "Gosh, Ted, you're almost as blonde as me," she teased.

"Not even close, Slow-Naïve- Stick Girl." I frowned, then grinned as slyly as she had before. "Maybe we should omit the 'Naïve', henceforth."

Suze kicked my ankle.

"Gotcha!" I cried, then grabbed a pillow off my bed and whomped her on the head.

"Hey!" she yelped, grabbing a pillow of her own.

We chased each other around the house for nearly an hour, never getting tired. The moment we sat back down on my bed, however, we were totally beefed. I swear, my heart was going about 70 mph. Suze was wheezing.

"You know what?" I said between gasps. "I want to go to bed now."

Suze nodded, gulping.

It took both of us to fix the pull-out bed.

I was so tired I got in bed just as I was, cloak and socks and all.

Usually when Suze sleeps over, we talk for two hours before falling asleep-- but not that night!