Chapter Two: I Love Rock and Roll

(Maglor)

Seeing as it's kind of tradition for me to start off with a list, here's this one. It's self-explanatory. Enjoy.

Maglor Feanorion's Rules of Life

1. Losers conform.

2. Don't trust the grown-ups.

3. PLAY IT LOUD.

And that's that. Follow those rules and you'll be happy. You're welcome. Now, back to the show.

Home looked exactly like I remembered it, except for a rather large brown stain on the couch that hadn't been there before. When I asked Maedhros how it happened, he shook his head. "Don't ask, man."

"Aw, come on. Tell me."

"Okay, let's just say it involved tea, Celegorm, and the dog. And Dad being very angry."

I grinned. "I think I can guess what happened. Ah, I've missed it here."

"Yup, home sweet hell."

"No one went in my room, right?" I asked, trying to open the door to said room. The knob always stuck, so you had to wiggle it a little. This didn't happen in any of the other guys' rooms. More proof of how much Dad loved me.

"Are you kidding? You're the only one that can get the door open."

"Yeah, well, that's 'cause I got practice." I gave the knob one sharp twist to the right and the door opened.

Ah…my beautiful mess of a room, strewn (isn't that a cool word?) with paper and clothes all over the floor, with absolutely no rhyme or reason. No half-empty room in Alqualonde could compare to this.

And of course, lying on my bed was my beloved lute, AYN (that stands for As Yet Unnamed, since I couldn't think of a good name), which I'd forgotten to take with me to Aule's house and therefore also hadn't taken to Alqualonde. And damn, had I missed it.

"Hey, AYN!" I said, picking my lute up. "I missed you."

Maedhros snorted. "You love that stupid thing more than you love your own family."

"Well, some members of my family," I agreed. "More than the C's, definitely. And maybe Dad. Probably about the same as the twins. I love you and Mom a little more, if that's any comfort."

"It is, it really is. Now let's go downstairs. I'm hungry."

As soon as we got downstairs I smelled the most wonderful smell in the world (with the possible exception of coffee): Potato soup. Hell yeah. Best food ever. Especially my mom's. Beautiful, creamy, potato-y potato soup. Mmmm.

I wonder if there's something wrong with me. All I ever think about is food or music.

"Ha. Told ya it wasn't steak," I said to Maedhros.

"Whatever. This is good too."

"Hey, you are NOT allowed to start loving potato soup more than all other foods. That's my thing."

"Why do you always say stuff like that, like you own it?"

"Dude, I'm kidding. Obviously you can love potato soup. But just remember that I loved it before it was cool."

"Are ye two hungry?" asked Mom, smiling knowingly as we sat down at the table.

"Mom," I said. "You made potato soup. How could I not be hungry?"

"Mom," said Maedhros. "You made food. I'm always hungry. As I've previously pointed out."

"You're sad," said Caranthir.

"And you're a nerd. Who's better off?" I asked.

"Why do you always defend him?" asked Celegorm.

"Because the nicer I am to him, the more he owes me. And someday I'm going to ask him for a HUGE favor, and he's not going to be able to refuse."

"That's creepy," said Maedhros.

"Which was the point." I started to sit down, but was interrupted by my twin four-year-old brothers, Amrod and Amras, who ran up to me and grabbed my legs.

"Yay! Maglor's home!" they both yelled at the same time.

I love the twins. Have I mentioned that?

"Hey, little dudes," I said. "You been good while I've been gone?"

"Um…no!" laughed Amrod.

"Right on. Fight the power," I said. "Now, can you please let go of me? I'm hungry and I need to sit down and eat."

"Okay?" said Amras letting go of my legs. Amras was turning into an uptalker—one of those people who always talk in questions. I'm sure you know the type. Normally it's girls that are uptalkers, but Amras was definitely a male one. I wasn't sure how this would affect his chances of ever getting a date in future life.

"I'm not havin' ye encourage me children to misbehave, Maglor," Mom said. "Now here. Eat up." She spooned a ton of delicious potato soup into my bowl.

"Mmm…" I said, eating a huge spoonful. "Total FO." (FO stands for Food Orgasm. Try not to use this acronym when children are around)

"What's FO stand for?" asked Amrod.

"Um…I'll tell you when you're older," I said.

"Hey, Mom, where's Curufin and Dad?" asked Maedhros. "Messing around in the forge?"

"Probably," said Mom. "Sure and it figures, they'd prefer to be around metal and jewels than their own family…"

"Cool it, Mom, we're here," said eight-year-old Curufin, sauntering into the room with my dad close behind him. Curufin was my dad's favorite and totally knew it. He used to really piss me off, before I realized that anyone who Dad worshipped that much had to be totally lame.

"Well, look who's back," smirked Curufin when he saw me. "Realize that you suck at music too? You're so pathetic."

He obviously expected me to cuss him out like I usually did (which is something I'm very good at, I'll admit), but I didn't. Instead, I laughed.

"Dude, you've lived with me for eight years, you know I don't suck at music. And as for my being pathetic, I just pulled off a kickass gig and got half the girls in Alqualonde to fall in love with me. When's the last time you did anything like that?"

There was a brief silence, in which I'm sure everyone was thinking that I was nuts.

Finally Curufin whistled and sat down. "Whoa, bro. Have you changed or what!"

"I don't know. Have I?"

"Boys, stop arguing," said Dad, sitting down. "Ah, Nerdanel. I see you've made your wonderful potato soup again."

"Which we had last night," muttered Caranthir.

"Well, I made it again since I know Maglor loves it," said Mom firmly. "Sure and I think the boy deserves a good meal; he probably didn't get any good food in Alqualonde!"

"Actually, I feasted like a king, but who cares about that? Seconds, please," I said, holding out my bowl.

Maedhros laughed. "You're nuts, dude."

"Most awesome people are."

"So anyway, Maglor," said Dad, obviously trying to stop this conversation before it got too random, "tell us more about what happened in Alqualonde."

"You sure you wanna know?" I asked. "Some of it might not be appropriate for the shorter people around here."

"Did you do bad stuff?" asked Amrod.

"Kind of," I said. "Mostly I just went to a couple of wild parties and kissed a few girls. Oh, and I also learned to play the fiddle and the harp. I'm not very good at the latter. Apparently I have too much nervous energy."

"I've noticed that," said Celegorm. "I mean, look at yourself. You've been tapping your fingers on the table for the entire meal and you probably haven't even noticed."

I looked down at my left hand. Sure enough, I was tapping my fingers on the table. "Holy crap. Do I always do that?"

"You do it a lot," said Curufin. "I'm surprised you never noticed before this."

"I'm always too busy noticing the stupid things other people do, I guess. And boy oh boy, do you do a lot of them."

After a lot more arguing and soup, lunch finally ended, and I could escape to my room for some much-needed alone time. When I got to said room, I slammed the door shut, opened my window, and looked down at my beloved home city of Tirion.

Now, I've been a lot of places since I was fifteen. Some of them were cool. Some of them sucked. But I gotta say, when it comes right down to it, Tirion is the best place I've ever lived or ever will. Alqualonde is a very close second, though.

I lived on the North Side, which was basically the rich part of town. My grandpa, King Finwe, lived in the very north-est part of the north side, and my family and all our relatives lived pretty close by. Various other aristocratic families that I tended to avoid lived slightly further down. The further south you lived in the city, the poorer you were, with the very poorest living by the city gates at the very edge of the city. The whole shebang was situated on the great hill of Tuna, which we fondly dubbed Fish Hill.

From my window I could see my uncle Fingolfin's house (where Maedhros' best buddy and sidekick Fingon lived), the North Side park, and what appeared to be a dead squirrel in the street. I could also see the house of some rich family who had a bitchy daughter named Marvana who once hit me when we were, like, five. Ever since then, I had avoided her like the plague.

I have a lot of bad experiences with Noldorin girls, as I'm sure you've figured out.

Anyway, I looked out my window some more, took a breath of fresh air, and grinned.

Screw alone time. I had a city to re-explore.