Chapter 4: Strutter

"Dude, Rillian's here? And you yelled at her?" asked Maedhros when we were in our room that night. "Why didn't I see her? Did she ask about me?"

I rolled my eyes. "Maedhros, the last time you saw her she dumped you. Do you really want to go through that again? I didn't think so. Yet here you are obsessing over her."

"I can't help it," Maedhros groaned. "She's so hot."

"Plenty of girls are hot. That doesn't mean you should go out with them."

"You're right, you're right. I'll just avoid her as much as possible." He sighed and leaned back on his pillow. "So what'd you say to her, anyway?"

"Basically that she was a biotch and that she had no business here seeing as she broke your heart."

Maedhros sat straight up, looking shocked. "You did not."

"Yes, I did."

"Whoa! I am extremely impressed, Maglor. You never yell. Usually you just mutter curse words under your breath and go back to your lute."

"Well, cursing under one's breath, while a lot of fun, is not very effective, nor does it earn you respect. Besides, I've been ignored for fifteen years now and I'm sick of it. I need to draw more attention to myself."

"Good for you. Hey, what time is it? Dude, it's late. We better get to sleep, or I'm gonna be a total arsehole in the morning."

Aside from the food, there was ONE good thing about Aule's halls. One thing. Guess what it was.

Give up? It's the stair rails. The best freaking stair rails in the world. If I could have spent all my time there sliding down the stair rails, I totally would've. Although I think my rear would have gotten sore eventually. Which was probably more information than you wanted. So the morning after the Yelling At Rillian Incident (YARI), I decided to get up early and get in some quality sliding before Dad dragged me off to try to teach me how to forge stuff while I tried not to fall asleep. Whee.

I glanced at myself in the mirror on the wall before heading over to the stairs. A thin-faced boy with wild, dark red hair and freaky amber eyes scowled back at me. Seriously, I wasn't nearly as hot as Noldorin princes are supposed to be. Now Maedhros, he was good-looking, which was why all the girls were in love with him. I looked like a pissed-off alley cat.

Did that Romenella chick have weird taste in guys, or what?

After I'd finished mentally bashing myself, I proceeded to run to the stairs and slide down the (amazingly long and cool) rail as fast as I could. When I'd been ten, I'd screamed like crazy as I slid, but since it was like seven in the morning and I wasn't in much of a screaming mood, I slid in silence. Contrary to what you'd think, sliding down stair rails is very good for thinking.

As I slid, I thought back to a conversation I'd heard Dad having with Mom the other day about Maedhros (well, all of us kids really, but Maedhros in particular). Dad was saying how Maedhros was planning on getting a job as a messenger or something for Grandpa he'd finished school. He said that it would be good for Maedhros to get a job working for Grandpa, but that he could probably get one with much higher pay.

"Ah, let him get the job that he wants to get," Mom had said. "Sure and he'll be asserting his independence. It's good for a boy to do that."

I had wanted to yell "So Maedhros can assert his independence but I can't? So he can get a low-paying job as a messenger but I can't be a musician? What is wrong with you people? Why am I so inferior to everyone else?"

But I hadn't said that, because I hadn't wanted Mom and Dad to know that I was eavesdropping on them and they wouldn't have given me a good answer anyway.

Having reached the end of the rail, I let go of it and jumped onto the floor, landing a good fifteen feet away from the bottom of the stairs. My best landing yet. I whooped and gave myself a self-high-five.

"Bra-vo," said Maedhros, clapping slowly as he walked down the stairs. "That was impressive. Unfortunately, I still can kick your ass."

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, you can kick my ass at everything."

"Except the obvious."

"Yeah, except that."

"So do you think you'll ever, like, be loud and annoying for a living?"

"You mean, be a professional musician?" I said, raising an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged. "It's the same thing, isn't it?"

"I'm having a really hard time not hitting you right now."

"Why don't you ever hit anyone, anyway? It's a good way to get your anger out."

"I don't get mad," I said, grinning. "I learn people's deepest, darkest secrets so I can blackmail the hell out of them. Way better."

"What do you know about me?" said Maedhros. "Wait, don't answer that. I don't think I want to know."

"Well, all I'm saying is, don't get too comfortable around me. I'm evil through and through."

"I'll say." He stopped, and seemed to remember something. "Hey, just remembered this—that song you were humming on our way up yesterday, you got words to that?"

Maedhros was the only person I ever showed my songs to—partially because he enjoyed 'em, and partially because he knew so little about music that he wasn't going to criticize me. It was kind of a relief to have someone around who knew I rocked and respected me for it.

"Yeah, some," I said. "Haven't had much time to work on it."

"So, are you going to show me what you got?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, why not. Okay, pretend I just rocked a wicked awesome lute solo."

"Okay," said Maedhros, grinning.

I took a deep breath and started singing.

If you call this love I got news for you

Girl you're a far, far cry from a dream come true

Don't even know why I stick with you

Guess I'm just too lazy to move

The thing about me is, I can't write normal songs, like the boring mushy stuff and old ballads and stuff (yeah, that's how cool I am. I'm good at music, which isn't normal for a Noldorin prince, and I'm not even good at music in the normal way). Everything I write seems to be loud, cynical, and unspecific. Know what? It works.

Outta the frying pan, into the fire

We're in hot hot water but I can't deny her…

I trailed off as I saw Dad walking down the hall toward us. While I could sing and act all crazy in front of Maedhros, add Dad into the mix and I'd shut up fast.

"Why'd you stop?" asked Maedhros.

"DA," I hissed, using our code for "Dad Approaching."

"Hello, boys," said Dad, stopping next to Maedhros. "What's going on here?"

Translation: Maglor, why are you jumping around and singing when I brought you to this place so all the creative energy would get sucked out of you?

"Hey, Dad," said Maedhros. "We were just goofing off. Did you need us for something?"

"Not at the moment, no." Dad gave me a confused look and continued on his way down the hall.

Maedhros snorted. "Did you see that look on his face? What was that?"

"He's shocked that I was actually having fun instead of being all sullen like I usually am," I said. "Anyway, that's all I've got of that song so far. Like it?"

"Dude, it's awesome. How do you come up with that stuff?"

"I'm a genius. Also, I have to do something while pretending to work on my arithmetic."

"Ha."

"Yep. Dude, is that…oh, man, pretend you're not here. Rillian's coming."

"Rillian?" said Maedhros, leaning back to look over his shoulder in a way that looked somewhat painful. I rolled my eyes as my brother's evil ex-girlfriend approached us.

"Hey, Maedhros," she said sweetly. "How are you? Ah haven't seen you in what seems like ages, dahling."

"This is certainly our morning for meeting up with evil people, isn't it, Maedhros," I said, hoping to break Rillian's evil spell and get Maedhros to stop staring at her.

"Hey, Rillian," said my supposedly smart older brother, ignoring me. "Yeah, it's been a while—since you broke up with me."

I smiled. Now that was the Maedhros I knew. Good for him.

"Oh, ah can't believe ah did that," said Rillian. "Ah'm so sorry. Ah just didn't think it would work out, you know, us being so fah away from each other. Ah cahn't stay in love with someone when ah never see them!"

Whoa, this girl was good. And if Maedhros got back together with her, I was going to kill them both.

"Well, it's been fun talking to you, dahling, but we've got to go before I vomit all over your obviously expensive dress," I said, grabbing Maedhros' arm and starting to pull him away. "Talk to you later, if we're so unlucky as to run into you again anytime soon."

"Hey!" complained Maedhros when we were out of Rillian's hearing range. "What was that about?"

"Have you been listening to anything I've been telling you?" I hissed furiously. "That girl is nothing but trouble, dude. You realize she probably has another boyfriend back in her hometown and is just messing with you to amuse herself?"

"What do you know about stuff like this? You've never even had a girlfriend."

"Yeah, but I've carefully observed several people who have had girlfriends, including your illustrious self. Dude, just be careful, okay?"

Maedhros rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Fine. But just wait until your hormones start kicking in, then you'll know what I'm going through."

I had to work really hard not to hit him.