Chapter 7
First Car Ride
Ruby Pool
Morgan was daydreaming as she walked out the school doors, her insanely heavy backpack, hoisted over her shoulders when she totally ran headfirst into the kid in front of her, and the two of them came crashing to the ground.
"I'm so sorry!" She gasped, as she looked up into the eyes of a startled Samwise Gamgee. "That was completely my fault. I don't know what I was thinking!"
"It's perfectly fine. You didn't hurt me, just startled me a little." He said smiling shyly at her, as he scrambled to help her to their feet. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, no harm done, except to my pride. Thanks." She replied blushing with embarrassment.
"For what?" Pippin asked curiously, as he and the rest of the group turned to look at the two. "What are you thanking him for?"
"For checking if I was alright even after I totally barreled into him and knocked him to the ground." She stumbled, turning even brighter red.
"Sam!" Rosie breathed as she went immediately to his side, taking his hand into hers as if to check after him, make sure he wasn't hurt.
"Seriously, I'm fine. Don't even worry about it, Morgan." Sam insisted, starting to blush a little himself at all the attention.
"Yeah, Sam's tough. He's faced far worse things over the past year." Frodo joined in, smiling at his best friend with a mix of amusement and pride.
"Really? Like what?" Morgan asked gazing curiously back and forth between the boys.
"Nothing, Mr. Frodo just likes to talk." Sam insisted shooting Frodo a soft glare. They couldn't tell her about all of their adventures over the last year, she wouldn't believe them. Not yet anyway. Besides even if they could, he was far to humble to want to brag about any of his accomplishments. After all, in his mind, Frodo had always been the true and rightful hero. Emphasis on 'in his mind'. "So, are you walking home as well?"
"Yes, actually. My house is a couple blocks from here, so it only takes me a couple of minutes to get there. How about you?"
"Same. We live on 7956 Periwinkle Circle." Pippin replied not wanting to be completely left out of the conversation.
"Really? That's actually not too far from where I live, you guys want to walk together?"
"Of course." Rosie agreed, and grinning the entire group headed out the front doors.
"So, I know how Rosie's and Pippin's last period went but how about the rest of you?"
"Good. I don't know why your friend Samantha insists on getting my name wrong though." Merry spoke up, looking miffed about the whole situation.
"Oh, that's just her way of flirting. Don't worry, she does it with pretty much every cute boy she meets. You'll get used to it." Morgan assured him while trying to hold back a smirk.
"Wait a minute, she's teasing him because she thinks he's cute? That doesn't make any sense." Pippin protested clearly confused by the statement. "I'm the cute one!"
"You wish Pip!" Merry snorted good naturedly. "Everyone knows that I'm the attractive one, and you're the weird one."
"No way!"
"You two are impossible." Sam huffed rolling his eyes, as the two boys began to argue about who was the most attractive. "What does it matter anyway?"
"It matters a great deal to me!" Pippin insisted. "Morgan, Rosie, you're both girls. Which one of us do you guys think is more handsome?"
"Sorry, but I've never really looked at either of you boys like that. Besides which, I'm kind of already taken so…. Yeah." Rosie said, squeezing Sam's hand which was still grasped tightly in her own. "The attractive one is here." Sam blushed.
"Fine then, I guess it's up to Morgan. What do you think?" Merry asked, and suddenly she found all eyes focused on her, right as they were nearing the crosswalk. Her eyes widened, and her whole face burned with embarrassment as she stared dumbfounded at the two boys.
"Um… I…"
"Hey Morgan!" Josh called from over by his car at the edge of the parking lot not far from where they were walking, and she thanked her lucky stars for the interruption. "Do you want a ride?"
"Yeah! That'd be great. Can these guys get a ride too?" She asked in relief, as she gestured at the group. Josh frowned as he saw them, his eyes narrowing as they landed on Pippin in particular.
"Sure, Cheerios and his friends can get a ride. They'll just have to squish in the backseat if that's alright." He agreed reluctantly.
"Yes, thank you." Frodo and Rosie were saying, at the same moment Sam and Merry were saying "No thank you." And Pippin simply exclaimed "Cheerios?!"
"Come on Sam, it's a nice offer, and we need to learn more about this world." Rosie whispered over to him, while both Morgan and Josh stared at them queerly for their reaction.
"It could also be extremely dangerous! Have you seen how fast those things go?" Sam whisper shouted his eyes wide at the thought.
"Besides, he already doesn't like Pippin. He might just crash and try to kill us all." Merry continued. "I mean didn't he just call him Cheerios? And I highly doubt this one is flirting." That earned him a small slug on the back from Pippin.
"No, he wouldn't." Frodo insisted patiently. "He likes Morgan; besides, I rather doubt he'd mess up his nice carriage over something as small as a disagreement with Pippin."
"Fine, but if anything goes wrong don't say I didn't warn you." Sam reluctantly agreed while Merry slowly nodded his head. Pip didn't know what to do he was still reeling from being so openly insulted.
"So, are you coming or not?" Josh asked impatiently. After all it wasn't his idea to give these strangers a ride in the first place, and if it wasn't for Morgan, he never would have offered.
"Yes, of course. Thank you so very much." Rosie spoke for all five of them, flashing Josh one of her irresistibly sunny smiles. This caught him completely off guard and he found himself grinning in return.
"Okay, you guys hop into the back. Morgan you can have shot gun." They all scrambled into the carriage that moved without horses. Josh had been right. The back seat was crowded, and the hobbits were all practically sitting on top of each other to even try and fit. They gazed at one another in slight alarm, especially when the car started moving and they couldn't figure out what the straps surrounding them were for.
"So how was your day?" Josh asked Morgan completely ignoring his other guests as he began the drive to her house, after already having received the hobbits address from Frodo.
"Okay." She said shrugging nonchalantly. "It was school. How do you think it went?"
"Good point." He laughed, catching her eye, and winking just as they were turning out of the school parking lot. Sam nearly screamed as all the hobbits lurched forward, barely missing the seats in front of them, although Rosie whimpered, and Pippin let out a short shrill squeal. But Josh ignored this too. "So, are you excited for Chamber tomorrow? We get to find out our positions. Ten bucks says your first chair first violinist."
"Yeah right!" Morgan scoffed rolling her eyes at the comment. "Mrs. Bea only puts the best violinist as Concert Master, for good reason, which means it'll probably be Cassidy Trenton again."
"But she also likes to give all of her seniors a shining moment, so you never know." He argued.
"Josh..." Sam began hesitantly feeling bad for butting into their conversation but feeling nervous at the way he kept glancing at Morgan when his eyes should have been focused on the road.
"I highly doubt it. Mrs. Bea wouldn't sacrifice our school's chance for getting into State just so she can give me a 'senior' moment." She pointed out.
"Josh…" Sam a little louder this time, beginning to move his arms as if to direct him in his driving. Frodo would have laughed if he hadn't been so scared for his life.
"She wouldn't be sacrificing them. If anything, we'd sound better."
"I don't know if you've ever heard me play or not, but I kind of stink. I have no idea how I even made it into Chamber."
"I do. Because I have heard you play." He turned to look her straight in the eye. "You're amazing." She didn't know what to do or say, his eyes were simply full of sincerity, of admiration, of… What? She'd never had a boy look quite at her like this before. Not even Tommy or Nico…
"JOSH!" Sam screamed this time waving his hands to get the boys attention.
"WHAT?" Josh snapped, finally turning back to look at the annoying boy in exasperation.
"Look out!" Both Morgan and Sam yelped this time and Josh jerked his head forward, his eyes widening as he realized the car in front of him had come to an abrupt stop. He quickly veered to the right, nearly crashing into the curb rather than colliding with the car in front. All five of the hobbits let out a shriek as they tumbled to the floor of the car.
"What on earth is wrong with you?" Josh yelled at them, trying to calm down himself.
"Are you guys alright?" Morgan asked simultaneously, before turning to glare slightly at Josh for his rudeness.
"What's wrong with us? What's wrong with you? You nearly crashed us!" Sam demanded just as angrily after his fright.
"He has a point." Morgan commented shyly, earning her a surprised look from Josh.
"I did not!" He defended. "I had everything under control. I knew the car was turning, and I saw the ridiculous stop sign. I've driven in your neighborhood before Morgan I know what I'm doing. Until some kid had to yell and scare me half to death!"
"You should've been watching where you were going." Both Morgan and Sam blurted at the same time, causing the rest of the car to glance at them curiously for a moment.
"You can't blame Sam for this little mess."
"Well, it's not my fault if they have a death wish, now, is it? They didn't even buckle their seat belts."
"So that's what these things are." Merry whispered to Pippin, and they turned to look at the strange straps again as well as the way Morgan had made hers wrap around her and stick into something, thus strapping her into her seat. "Doesn't look very comfortable."
"Well neither is this." Was Pippin's only reply.
"How do you expect them to buckle up? They don't have enough room, all squished in the back!"
"I told them it'd be crowded."
"I know, but you still can't blame us. We've never been in a carriage before." Pippin defended his friends.
"A carriage?" Josh asked.
"At least not one that moves without horses." He clarified, just as Merry flicked him in the arm seeing the extremely confused looks on both Morgan and Josh's face.
"Do you mean car?" She asked, trying to clarify for the strange group of teenagers in the back who seemed to become stranger as the day wore on.
"Um… yes." Frodo agreed, before Pippin could say another word and make things worse. "They don't have any back in the Shire. It's a really small town in the countryside, where people mostly walk everywhere they need to go."
"Or ride in small carts or carriages drawn by a small pony." Rosie chipped in. "But nothing like this. It's very… different."
"I didn't know there were still places in the U.K. that didn't have cars." Morgan commented. "That's interesting. Guess you'd better take things a little more carefully Josh. In fact, why don't we all just be quiet for the rest of the drive so you can focus?"
"Fine." He muttered extremely unhappily, before putting the car into drive and continuing slower than before. When they arrived at Morgan's house, she quickly hopped out of the car, but not before turning to look Josh right in the eye.
"Be careful with them. Don't do anything stupid." She warned.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine. I'm Iron Man remember. I'll take great care of them." He replied laughing and giving her a quick wink before he pulled out of her driveway and began to drive away.
"That's what I'm worried about." She sighed to herself as she watched them drive away, and then turned to go into her house and do her homework.
When she went to bed that night the dream returned. The same one she had remembered earlier that day, only this time it was clearer than she could ever remember it being before. She saw the vivid green rolling hills, dotted with lovely trees, bushes and flowers of every color and type. She could hear the water rushing, almost singing a merry song as it flowed along its way down the valley. The curious thing was this time she also thought she glimpsed little houses built straight into the hills, with little round doors and windows poking out, and a chimney at the top. It was the most beautiful and lovely place she'd ever observed in her life, and what's more it seemed to be calling out to her. Promising love, comfort and…. Something else she couldn't name.
She woke up the next morning whispering, "The Shire."
The really strange thing, however, was Sam had the exact same dream.