A/N: So. In the last few weeks I have read exactly six stories with rather depressing ends, one of them being my own. And I realized that depressing stories make people depressed, hence my sitting here on the couch at 11:30 reading anything humorous and light hearted that I can. That involves some Mark Twain and some of my early stuff that has yet to be released to the public and probably never shall be. But the point is that… well, there is no point. It's to say that I am starting this story, and I've tried within an inch of my life to make it as Un-Mary-Suish as I can. In its earliest phases it was a tenth walker story with lots of running away, pants-wearing, and Legomancing. Now, however, Legolas is hardly in it, we all wear dresses, and we only run away once. So HA! Anyways. Read it, love it, review it, but DO NOT FLAME ME. I will use them to toast marshmallows. Although I think I could just go outside and do that anyways, it's already 80 degrees here, and it's January. Whatever. Just read.

ZXCVBNM

"I hate school." Kaylin Silvano plopped down rather ungracefully at the breakfast table, a mug of coffee in one hand and Sarah Dessen's latest in the other.

"Have you put that book down yet?" Allie Holling, Kaylin's roommate and one half of the duo that made up her best friends, sat down at the chair across from Kaylin and stared at the back of Kaylin's book.

"Um…" Kaylin thought for a second, then shook her head. "Actually, no." When Allie laughed, Kaylin held up her hands in protest. "I think it's good!"

"Kaylin, you think every book is good." Allie pointed out, joining Kaylin at the table. She paused for a moment. Then, "You read too much!"

"I do not!" Kaylin protested.

When Allie reached for her book, Kaylin jerked it away. A brief scuffle ensued, before a sudden, high-pitched yelp came from the bathroom down the hall, followed by a string of curses that made Allie roll her eyes. "I don't understand why Hannah is the only one who ever has problems with that shower. The rest of us get along just fine."

Kaylin hmphed and rolled her eyes. "I don't. This morning I had to turn it off for ten minutes before it would let me have hot water." She informed Allie, turning the page. "Ugh. I only have one more final before I can go HOME!"

"Yeah, why aren't you studying?" Allie asked, looking at the back cover of Just Listen.

"It's Dance. I don't have to study for Dance. All I have to do is get up, perform the dance I choreographed myself, and then I go get on a plane and fly home!"

"I love Christmas."

"Yeah, yeah." Kaylin sighed. "Ugh. See, now you've gone and made me nervous."

Allie laughed when Hannah yelped again as the water temperature changed without warning.

"You know what?" Kaylin asked, suddenly snapping her book shut. "I think this house is haunted."

"No, it's just old." Allie replied, stirring some sugar into her black coffee. "The pipes are rusty and can't tell the difference between hot and cold water, and that makes us very unhappy in the mornings."

"Yeah it does." Kaylin stood up, leaving her book on the table. "I'm all packed. You?"

"Of course not. What fun would that be?" Allie laughed. "Everyone knows I'm the most disorganized of the group."

Kaylin sighed. "Okay. I'm going to go get out of my pajamas. I feel old."

Allie frowned. "What does wearing pajamas and feeling old have to do with anything?"

"It just… does." Kaylin sighed. "It's Kaylin logic. Don't ask or think. Just accept the beauty that is chaos."

"You got that from Sarah Dessen!" Allie cried, waving Just Listen as an example. "It's in… The Truth About Forever, right?"

"Wrong! This Lullaby! And Just Listen." Hannah walked into the room, one towel wrapped around her torso and another around her head. "Owen says 'Don't ask or think' and Dexter says 'Just accept the beauty that is chaos'. The last one involves French fries and a console. Poor Remy… I'm glad you let us eat in your car."

"Right." Kaylin flashed the girls her famous grin.

"Right." Allie sighed. "Okay. Let's get dressed."

"Why? It's only eight. My exam doesn't start until noon. The plane doesn't leave until eight tonight. It's not like there's much to do." Kaylin asked, leaning against the doorframe and opening her book again.

"We can get dressed and go to IHOP!" Allie suggested.

"No." Hannah shook her head, sending water drops flying everywhere. "The last time I ate at IHOP I was sick for a week. I missed three physics classes and two chem classes. There is no way I'm going to IHOP for breakfast."

"Jeez." Allie rolled her eyes. "You don't even eat breakfast anyways."

"Yes I do. I had two glasses of orange juice this morning." Hannah replied in a thank-you-very-much tone of voice.

"God. If you get any skinnier you're going to shrivel up and blow away." Kaylin sighed. "Right. I'm going to IHOP, then. Anyone else want to come?"

"Yeah, I'll go, I guess." Hannah sighed. "What?" She asked sharply at the rather amused look she received from Kaylin.

"I second that." Allie grinned.

"Okay." Kaylin grabbed her book from the table. "Be ready in ten minutes, mmkay?"

"Okay." The other two girls chorused.

ZXCVBNM

"Quiz me."

"What?"

"Quiz me!" Hannah repeated, thrusting flash cards with various Trig equations written on them at Allie.

"Dude, I'm eating. Make Kaylin quiz you."

Kaylin made a noise of protest and waved her fork at Allie. "I'm eating too!" She said, around a mouthful of hash browns. "Quiz yourself." She said, taking another bite of hash browns.

"I can't. I cheat." Hannah said drily. "Come on. Someone help the stupid girl."

"You're not stupid. Just… less smart." Allie joked.

"Hence my being in trig while you're taking geometry again."

"She's just jealous because you have better grades." Kaylin giggled. "And better boobs."

"Oh, my God. We are NOT talking about boobs at IHOP!" Allie glared at Kaylin. "And fine. Gimme the damn flash cards. I'll quiz you, oh brilliant one!"

"Thank you, Allie!"

Allie sighed and grudgingly took the stack of notecards from Hannah. "Okay. Ummm… What is the area of an arbitrary triangle?" She paused. "And what the hell is an arbitrary triangle?"

Hannah frowned. "A equals one-half a b sin C."

"Do what, now?" Kaylin asked, frowning. "Gah. My brain hurts."

"What is the Law of Cosines?"

"Erm…" Hannah squinted her eyes shut and looked up at the ceiling like she could find the answer somewhere in the rafters. "Right. A squared equals b squared plus c squared minus two times b times c cosine A."

"Gaah. My brain hurts." Kaylin whined, placing her hands over her ears in a hear-no-evil fashion.

"Oh, shut up." Allie playfully stuck her tongue out at Kaylin. "Cosecant definition for a right triangle."

"Uhhh…" Hannah racked her brain. "Ha! Cosecant theta equals hypotenuse over opposite side."

"Why do you need to know this stuff?" Allie asked, looking in confusion from the front of the card to the back with a dismayed expression on her face. "It's ridiculous. And confusing. And stupid. And did I mention boring?"

"Yeah, you don't have to sit through a class on it every single week. It's stupid. I hate it. But I need it for my major."

"Like I have to take Biology even though I'm a journalism major?" Allie asked, raising her eyebrows and grabbing a card off of the stack.

"Well, that's different. You have to be able to know what you write about."

"Yes, but you don't have to know what the intestinal workings of a flatworm are to write!"

Kaylin rolled her eyes and took the flashcard away from Allie. "Point taken. Double Angle Identity." Kaylin stared at the notecard for a second, then frowned. "And then dash sine. Whatever the hell that means."

"Cosine times two theta equals cosine squared theta minus sine squared theta equals two cosine squared theta minus one."

"Wrong!" It's sine times two theta equals two sine theta cosine theta."

"Whatever! I was close enough!"

Allie and Kaylin giggled. "Whatever you say, Hannah." Kaylin agreed, taking a bite of her waffle so she couldn't reply to Hannah's glare.

ZXCVBNM

"I cannot wait for this semester to be over!" Kaylin loudly announced, throwing her purse onto the bed and stalking to the closet. She threw the doors open and began picking shirts off of their hangers, throwing them onto her bed. Every once in a while she'd find a short sleeved shirt, shake her head, and toss it on the bottom of the closet.

"I know it." Allie agreed. She picked up one of the numerous books from the ever-present stack by Kaylin's bed and sighed. "Man, I've read this one before!"

"You've read all of my books!" Kaylin frowned. "You really should buy your own, you know."

"Nah. It's cheaper to borrow yours." Allie picked up a pair of socks from her side of the bed and tossed them into the open suitcase on the floor. "Hey, have you packed your dress yet?"

"No! I should probably do that, huh?" Kaylin back walked to the closet and yanked a dress off a hanger. It was long and flowing and looked somewhat… Elvish. "I can't wait for this semester to be over!"

"We know! You've already told us a thousand times!" Hannah waltzed into the room, one large suitcase trailing behind her. Kaylin and Allie stared at her rather incredulously. "What?" She asked, leaning the suitcase against the wall (it was a bit top heavy and thus had a tendency to topple over). "I'm done. I can't help it if I'm organized!"

"Too organized." Allie muttered. "You're the only college person I know who can make flashcards and keep a straight room."

"Everyone can do that." Kaylin sighed, trying (rather unsuccessfully) to wedge one last pair of socks into her bag. "It's just that most people don't." The socks went in. "Okay. Now the task is to close the bag." With the Kaylin method of packing, this was no small feat. "What is with this bag? What is with this bag?" Kaylin let out a frustrated scream. "Allie, go sit on my bag so I can zip it."

"Um, no." Allie pointed at Hannah. "Make her go instead. The last time I did that you zipped my favorite pants in with it and I had to cut them off!"

"Well, it's not my fault that your leg got in the way of the zipper!"

"That happens when you sit on a suitcase that is being zipped! You should have been more careful!" Allie cried in exasperation. "Jeez. Hannah, you go sit on it."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Fine."

She was almost to the suitcase when Kaylin looked at the clock, swore, and grabbed her purse from the bed. "Crud! I gotta go!" She cried, throwing on a pair of flip flops and rushing out the door. "I'm late!"

"Kaylin worries too much." Allie said, to no one in particular, as the door slammed shut.

"I couldn't agree with you more."

ZXCVBNM

Thirty minutes later, Hannah was sitting in the den on the couch, watching TV. When Allie walked into the room, she saw what was on. "Mythbusters." She groaned. "Great." Allie eyed Hannah, who was crocheting something. "What are you making?"

Hannah frowned at her, trying to listen to Adam and Jamie as they talked about whether or not it was possible for a toilet to explode. "Shoes." She replied.

"Shoes." Allie repeated, staring at Hannah incredulously.

"Shoes. Well, one shoe, actually. It's Kaylin's Christmas present."

"What good's one shoe going to do for her?"

"The other one's in my bedroom. You can go see it if you like."

"And I would want to do that because…"

"Because it's pretty!" Hannah exclaimed, waving the crochet needle at her friend. "Honestly. Do I have to teach you everything?"

Allie thought for a minute. "Pretty much, yeah. But she'll wear them camping and I'll see them then, so what's the big deal?"

"I told you, they're pretty. You might want me to make you a pair."

"I might…" Allie looked at the shoe Hannah was making wistfully. "Yeah. Some green ones."

"Go buy the yarn and I'll make it."

"You mean you're going to make me pay for the yarn?" Allie asked incredulously. "What kind of sick twisted person are you?"

"My services don't come cheap, my friend. I have to make it through college somehow. I'm paying for myself, remember? Scholarships don't cover everything…"

"Yeah, true enough." Allie nodded. "Okay. So can we watch something else?"

"Um…" Hannah looked at the TV. "No. This is interesting."

By this point in the show, the Mythbusters had proved that a toilet could explode and had moved on to proving that eel skin wallets (which are actually made out of hagfish) could erase the information from a credit card. They attempted to do this by holding handfuls of the slimy fish.

Allie looked slightly green. "Ew. That is…" She gagged. "That's disgusting."

"To you. I think it is a marvel of animal evasive maneuvers." Her point was proved as one of the fish fell onto the floor and wriggled around. No one could seem to get it off the floor, as it produced a slime that proved to not only smell, but look rather mean. And it was slippery.

"That's disgusting." Allie said again. "Ew. I think I'm going to be sick."

"Oh, grow up."

"Hey, now." Allie pouted slightly. "I'm not going to be a math teacher."

"Science." Hannah corrected her.

"Well, whatever the hell you're going to be, I'm not. I shall be a writer and be just like Mrs. Johnson! And she was a whimp. Plus, and you have a stronger stomach than me. So there." Allie stuck her tongue out as she collapsed on the couch. "Gaah. That's disgusting." She repeated one more time. "Okay, fine. If you're not going to change the channel, I'm going to class. I'll be the first one there and people will think I'm a nerd and then all the jocks will run me off campus, and…"

"Allie, you're too athletic. You'd outrun them and then come back here." Hannah winked. "Go. Study. Do well. And throw my stuff in the back of the truck, will you?"

Allie grumbled a reply. A few seconds later, the front door opened and shut.

Hannah turned back to the TV. A few seconds later, she decided that she couldn't bear to be alone in the house, and so she marched to her room, got dressed, and left the house. The weather was frigid (try 13 degrees) so some coffee sounded very nice, especially since the stuff at IHOP earlier that morning had been stale and burned. After a quick Starbucks run, Hannah walked into her Trig class, where two other students, a boy and a girl, were sitting, making goo-goo eyes at each other and completely ignoring their notes. Hannah sat down and commenced studying.

When she left the building three hours later, the first thing she did was run back to Starbucks for more coffee—it tended to go through her system rather quickly these days—and then she headed home. Before she even walked through the door, Allie and Kaylin raced past her and jumped in Kaylin's ancient Chevy truck, which looked weather beaten and rusted beyond all recognition. Three suitcases were sitting in the bed of the truck.

"Shotgun!" Allie cried, jumping in the passenger seat.

"Bobby!" Hannah cried loudly, launching herself into the seat behind Allie. Two years ago the girls had gotten tired of yelling 'seat behind the shotgun' and thus named the seat Bobby. The middle seat was Harold and the seat behind the driver was Penelope.

"No! Don't sit back there." Kaylin giggled. "Sit in the middle."

Hannah shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Make Allie sit in the middle. She's skinnier. I'd just suffocate you both."

"You know, technically we all take up the same space. I mean, it doesn't really matter where we sit because Hannah will suffocate us either way." Allie giggled, obviously pleased with herself for providing evidence that she should not have to sit in the middle, where the only heat choices were pointed at your face, your chest, or your toes, none of which were comfortable.

"Don't you go getting all mathematical on us!" Kaylin warned. "I vote that you sit in the middle."

"I agree." Hannah winked.

Allie grumbled again but complied.

From the car cooler, Hannah took out two sodas and a bottle of water. She passed the water to Kaylin, who was Mormon and did not partake of things of the caffeine variety, and one of the sodas to Allie, who was not Mormon and drank enough caffeine for herself and Kaylin both.

As she buckled herself into the seat, Kaylin sighed and raised her water bottle. "Here's to the best Christmas ever."

Best indeed.

A/N: HA! I FINISHED IT!!! I was supposed to post it like last Sunday night and I definitely got lazy. And now, when I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork, I'm writing this instead. Aren't you all proud of me? I would at this point like to point out that I might make a few Mormon jokes, but only because one of my coauthors is Mormon and we're really poking fun at her. Please do not take offense!

Aaaaaaaaaand… To those of you who read this, here's a spoiler.

Glorfindel frowned. A human, and a woman at that, was fast asleep in the snow just outside of Imladris. From the looks of things, she wouldn't be waking up any time soon. Could this day get any more unusual? With a sigh, he nudged Asfaloth closer to the woman's body. And that was when things got very interesting indeed.