Halley slammed her specially-sized locker shut and started down the
hallway. She was a hobbit, still in her tweens. The school she went to had
separate halls, desks, and other such things for all of the various peoples
in her home of Middle Earth.
In the Shire-reckoning, it was the year 2002. She went into her history class and looked up at a wall. There above the green chalkboard was pictures of the four most famous hobbits in history: Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Samwise Gamgee, and last but not least in all accounts, Frodo Baggins.
"Miss Brandybuck," said the teacher, Mr. Proudfoot. "You're late."
"You misunderstand, Sir. I am never late nor early, I arrive exactly when I mean to," Halley said. This stirred up laughs from her classmates.
"Sit down young lady! This happens again you'll be paying a visit to the principal!"
Halley did so and looked over to one of her best friends, Elanor, with a giggle. She laughed as well.
"Today, we start Chapter 20: The War of the Ring. This is very involved but since this is Shire history, we will just be covering its effects here at home. Next year, when you get into Middle Earth history, it will be covered in much more detail. Open your books to page 237..." said the teacher as he started the lesson for the day.
Halley leaned over to Elanor again. "This chapter is going to be so easy for us! I have the perfect idea for a group project like he so loves to assign."
"Really? Great! We can talk to Daisy about it later."
"Ladies, since you seem to feel that you have no need to pay attention to today's lesson, maybe you could give me the names of the Hobbits that left the Shire on the first leg of the journey?" Mr. Proudfoot said as he leaned over Haley's desk.
"Of course!" she stood up. "There would be Meriadoc Brandybuck, my grandfather, many times removed of course, also known as Merry; Peregrin "Pippin" Took, Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins." She pointed to each of the pictures on the wall as she spoke.
"Wrong! Merry went to Crickhollow beforehand. It was just Frodo, Sam and Pippin that left Bag End that night. Now sit down before I send you to the office!" the teacher scolded.
'It's hard to believe that they actually gave people in their tweens any respect,' she thought as she sat down.
Elanor had become a Gamgee name and it had gone down through the generations to most of the girls. Halley's friend Elanor was a direct descendent of the stoic hobbit. They also had a friend named Daisy Took who was a direct descendent of the third in the historic group, Pippin Took. They had all made it a point to become close friends because of their mutual history.
Near the end of class, Mr. Proudfoot turned from the chalkboard. "I almost forgot, we have a new student with us today. Everyone, meet Morwen. She has moved here from Mirkwood. Do make her feel at home." He pointed to an Elf girl sitting in the corner. While the school was mostly hobbits, the doors were open to other races of the land and Elves, people of Rohan and Gondor, and Dwarves were in abundance.
The rest of the day was uneventful and the three girls, Elanor, Daisy, and Halley, were all at their lockers which were right near each other. "How surprising, Proudfoot gave us a project to go with this chapter," Daisy said as she stuffed her books in her backpack.
"I've got the perfect idea!" Halley said. She shut her locker and slung her bag up on her shoulder. "You guys come on over to my hole and I'll tell you all about it. It's something that only we can do and it's a guaranteed 'A'. That is, if we pull it off."
The other two girls grinned and ran off with her.
"Halley! wait up!" a guy called after her once they were outside.
She stopped and looked up at him. "What do you want, Bill?"
The man looked at her. She was tall for a hobbit but he still had a couple feet on her. "Do you have a date for the dance next week?"
"Even if I didn't, I wouldn't go with you," she said.
"Why?"
She looked at her two friends with a mischeivous glint in her eye. She turned back to him. "Let's see, you're a loser, you can't dance your way out of a wet paper bag, and besides, I have a date." She and the other two turned to leave.
"Who?"
"That's for me to know and you to fid out, that is, if anyone will go with you."
Once the girls were out of earshot, Daisy asked Halley, "So who's your date?"
"Psh, you kidding me? You actually think I'm going to go to that lame dance? Hah! I'm going to Buckland High's dance. That's going to be a lot more fun than good old Hobbiton's." He said the last bit with a lot of sarcasm. The other girl aughed in agreement and then started talking about what to wear.
By the time they reached Halley's hole, they had decided to go shopping the following weekend to get something special for the dance. They went into Halley's bedroom and made themselves at home.
"So what's your idea for the project?" Elanor asked while she reached into a bag of cheese curls.
Halley sat up from where she had been lying on her stomache on her bed. "We re-enact the journey, all the way to Minas Tirith!"
"Are you crazy?! One, we only have a week and two, we won't make it back in time for the Baggins' day dance!" Daisy said.
"I'm not done yet! We ask Old Proudfoot if we could have a special extension for the time it'll take for us to go. We'll leave after the dance on Bilbo and Frodo's birthdays, just like they did then!"
"The farthest my parents have ever let me go is Bree," Daisy said. "And that was only with my big brother there. They'll never let me go."
"If you explain that it's a school project they will. Besides, we won't be walking. I'll talk to Fred and see if we can't borrow a car for the trip. We'll take a camcorder and do a little schpeel about what happened at each site. Crickhollow, the Old Forest, Barrow-downs, maybe we can find Tom Bombadil!"
"The Old Forest?" Elanor shouted. "You've gotta be kidding! That place was creepy then, I can't imagine what it's like now."
"The Buckland gate still works by most accounts."
Daisy shook her head. "That has to be the scariest part of the whole journey, that is, before Mordor." She paused and then perked up again. "Did you hear? They're starting to develop that land into a place where someone could actually live. It took a few hundred years for all that rankness to go away."
"All the more reason to hurry. We want to get there when it's in as true of condition as possible."
"Are we going to find other people to go with us? There were nine in the original group," Daisy said while crunching some chips.
"You're disgusting, Daisy," Elanor laughed.
Daisy threw a pillow at her. "Shut it, Gamgee."
"We'll definately need to find someone here in town to go with us, as close to a Baggins relation as possible. Too bad Frodo didn't make a family here before he went to the Havens."
The girls thought a moment. They all looked at each other at the same time with excitement. "Drogo!!!" they all said at the same time.
"Girls! Dinner!" Halley's mother called. The girls raced out of the room and into the dining room.
After dinner, they went out. They went to a hangout area and found a lot of people from school. "Hey guys! Let me see some of that Southfarthing fruit!" Halley said. "Southfarthing fruit" was Halley's phrase for pipe- weed. You couldn't smoke until you were "of age" but she had some friends that were and gave it to her. The shirrifs didn't do anything except make you put it out if you got caught.
Someone gave her some and she blew a couple rings. "Hah! Eat your heart out, Drogo!" she said to a friend who prided himself on his rings. He was a Baggins but he didn't like to admit it due to its history. He knew that there were bad people out there that would hate him for simply that reason.
"Yeah, whatever," Drogo said as he leaned against the lone mallorn tree. It was nearing fall so its leaves were turning a beautiful shade of gold.
"We've got a plan to pass Proudfoot's class with flying colors, Drogo, and we need you." Daisy said.
"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Drogo said after letting out a couple rings.
"Because you don't trust us! Come on!" The three girls led him out to another area of the Party Field which was starting to be turned into a carnival ground. The whole week before Baggins' day there was a carnival in the very field that the Eleventy-first birthday party was held in.
They told him their plan and he had a similar reaction that Daisy did. They talked him into it and made plans to gather their parents into one room and attempt the same with them.
In the Shire-reckoning, it was the year 2002. She went into her history class and looked up at a wall. There above the green chalkboard was pictures of the four most famous hobbits in history: Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Samwise Gamgee, and last but not least in all accounts, Frodo Baggins.
"Miss Brandybuck," said the teacher, Mr. Proudfoot. "You're late."
"You misunderstand, Sir. I am never late nor early, I arrive exactly when I mean to," Halley said. This stirred up laughs from her classmates.
"Sit down young lady! This happens again you'll be paying a visit to the principal!"
Halley did so and looked over to one of her best friends, Elanor, with a giggle. She laughed as well.
"Today, we start Chapter 20: The War of the Ring. This is very involved but since this is Shire history, we will just be covering its effects here at home. Next year, when you get into Middle Earth history, it will be covered in much more detail. Open your books to page 237..." said the teacher as he started the lesson for the day.
Halley leaned over to Elanor again. "This chapter is going to be so easy for us! I have the perfect idea for a group project like he so loves to assign."
"Really? Great! We can talk to Daisy about it later."
"Ladies, since you seem to feel that you have no need to pay attention to today's lesson, maybe you could give me the names of the Hobbits that left the Shire on the first leg of the journey?" Mr. Proudfoot said as he leaned over Haley's desk.
"Of course!" she stood up. "There would be Meriadoc Brandybuck, my grandfather, many times removed of course, also known as Merry; Peregrin "Pippin" Took, Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins." She pointed to each of the pictures on the wall as she spoke.
"Wrong! Merry went to Crickhollow beforehand. It was just Frodo, Sam and Pippin that left Bag End that night. Now sit down before I send you to the office!" the teacher scolded.
'It's hard to believe that they actually gave people in their tweens any respect,' she thought as she sat down.
Elanor had become a Gamgee name and it had gone down through the generations to most of the girls. Halley's friend Elanor was a direct descendent of the stoic hobbit. They also had a friend named Daisy Took who was a direct descendent of the third in the historic group, Pippin Took. They had all made it a point to become close friends because of their mutual history.
Near the end of class, Mr. Proudfoot turned from the chalkboard. "I almost forgot, we have a new student with us today. Everyone, meet Morwen. She has moved here from Mirkwood. Do make her feel at home." He pointed to an Elf girl sitting in the corner. While the school was mostly hobbits, the doors were open to other races of the land and Elves, people of Rohan and Gondor, and Dwarves were in abundance.
The rest of the day was uneventful and the three girls, Elanor, Daisy, and Halley, were all at their lockers which were right near each other. "How surprising, Proudfoot gave us a project to go with this chapter," Daisy said as she stuffed her books in her backpack.
"I've got the perfect idea!" Halley said. She shut her locker and slung her bag up on her shoulder. "You guys come on over to my hole and I'll tell you all about it. It's something that only we can do and it's a guaranteed 'A'. That is, if we pull it off."
The other two girls grinned and ran off with her.
"Halley! wait up!" a guy called after her once they were outside.
She stopped and looked up at him. "What do you want, Bill?"
The man looked at her. She was tall for a hobbit but he still had a couple feet on her. "Do you have a date for the dance next week?"
"Even if I didn't, I wouldn't go with you," she said.
"Why?"
She looked at her two friends with a mischeivous glint in her eye. She turned back to him. "Let's see, you're a loser, you can't dance your way out of a wet paper bag, and besides, I have a date." She and the other two turned to leave.
"Who?"
"That's for me to know and you to fid out, that is, if anyone will go with you."
Once the girls were out of earshot, Daisy asked Halley, "So who's your date?"
"Psh, you kidding me? You actually think I'm going to go to that lame dance? Hah! I'm going to Buckland High's dance. That's going to be a lot more fun than good old Hobbiton's." He said the last bit with a lot of sarcasm. The other girl aughed in agreement and then started talking about what to wear.
By the time they reached Halley's hole, they had decided to go shopping the following weekend to get something special for the dance. They went into Halley's bedroom and made themselves at home.
"So what's your idea for the project?" Elanor asked while she reached into a bag of cheese curls.
Halley sat up from where she had been lying on her stomache on her bed. "We re-enact the journey, all the way to Minas Tirith!"
"Are you crazy?! One, we only have a week and two, we won't make it back in time for the Baggins' day dance!" Daisy said.
"I'm not done yet! We ask Old Proudfoot if we could have a special extension for the time it'll take for us to go. We'll leave after the dance on Bilbo and Frodo's birthdays, just like they did then!"
"The farthest my parents have ever let me go is Bree," Daisy said. "And that was only with my big brother there. They'll never let me go."
"If you explain that it's a school project they will. Besides, we won't be walking. I'll talk to Fred and see if we can't borrow a car for the trip. We'll take a camcorder and do a little schpeel about what happened at each site. Crickhollow, the Old Forest, Barrow-downs, maybe we can find Tom Bombadil!"
"The Old Forest?" Elanor shouted. "You've gotta be kidding! That place was creepy then, I can't imagine what it's like now."
"The Buckland gate still works by most accounts."
Daisy shook her head. "That has to be the scariest part of the whole journey, that is, before Mordor." She paused and then perked up again. "Did you hear? They're starting to develop that land into a place where someone could actually live. It took a few hundred years for all that rankness to go away."
"All the more reason to hurry. We want to get there when it's in as true of condition as possible."
"Are we going to find other people to go with us? There were nine in the original group," Daisy said while crunching some chips.
"You're disgusting, Daisy," Elanor laughed.
Daisy threw a pillow at her. "Shut it, Gamgee."
"We'll definately need to find someone here in town to go with us, as close to a Baggins relation as possible. Too bad Frodo didn't make a family here before he went to the Havens."
The girls thought a moment. They all looked at each other at the same time with excitement. "Drogo!!!" they all said at the same time.
"Girls! Dinner!" Halley's mother called. The girls raced out of the room and into the dining room.
After dinner, they went out. They went to a hangout area and found a lot of people from school. "Hey guys! Let me see some of that Southfarthing fruit!" Halley said. "Southfarthing fruit" was Halley's phrase for pipe- weed. You couldn't smoke until you were "of age" but she had some friends that were and gave it to her. The shirrifs didn't do anything except make you put it out if you got caught.
Someone gave her some and she blew a couple rings. "Hah! Eat your heart out, Drogo!" she said to a friend who prided himself on his rings. He was a Baggins but he didn't like to admit it due to its history. He knew that there were bad people out there that would hate him for simply that reason.
"Yeah, whatever," Drogo said as he leaned against the lone mallorn tree. It was nearing fall so its leaves were turning a beautiful shade of gold.
"We've got a plan to pass Proudfoot's class with flying colors, Drogo, and we need you." Daisy said.
"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Drogo said after letting out a couple rings.
"Because you don't trust us! Come on!" The three girls led him out to another area of the Party Field which was starting to be turned into a carnival ground. The whole week before Baggins' day there was a carnival in the very field that the Eleventy-first birthday party was held in.
They told him their plan and he had a similar reaction that Daisy did. They talked him into it and made plans to gather their parents into one room and attempt the same with them.