When the Worlds Cross

Co-written by Heather and Jane

Disclaimer: Middle-Earth and its peoples belong to the great J.R.R. Tolkien.  Mia, Rowan, and Randy belong to us.  Any and all similarities to real life events/people are pure coincidence *sighs with relief now that legalities are over*

Summary: (of story as a whole) A perfectly normal school day is disrupted when three unsuspecting teenagers are sucked into Middle Earth.  Why are they there and do they have a purpose?  Surprisingly, they actually find answers to those.

Authors' Notes: co-written between Jane and Heather, two Lord of the Rings fans that are trying to keep true to the story.  First part more movieverse than bookverse, but will soon go to bookverse.  Credit to Heather's father and our friend Wesley as story consultants.

Enjoy!

Prologue

How It All Started

The most ordinary of days became terrible when two hapless girls were grouped with the class 'darling' for an English project.  He was intelligent.  He was popular—both at school and with girls.  He was on the Matheletes team.  (And on a side note, he had to be rich, since he was that type of person.)  Generally, an all American clean cut boy that got on the good sides instanter.

There was just one teensy problem with the assignment—the girls hated him, believing him egotistical and rather rude to his peers.  Or rather, Rowan hated him and Mia wavered between strong dislike and exasperated tolerance.

"You're too tolerant," Rowan informed Mia as they begrudgingly changed seats.  Mia just shrugged.  "And too nice to him."

"I'll be the peacemaker then.  Hi, Randy!" Mia said in a singsong voice, pasting a smile in place.  Rowan didn't even bother saying anything, just gave her friend a look.  "You got any ideas?"

Randy nodded and said, "You betcha.  We're going to do Tolkien for our author study.  All of us work on poster.  You can do biography, I'll do poetry, and, um—"

"Literary comparison," said Rowan, kicking Mia, who actually looked excited.  This made sense, since the other girl had been meaning to do hard-core research in preparation for the upcoming movie and probably had many details about Tolkien's life on file in her brain.  But still—it was RANDY.  "And no monster project that will take months, okay?"

"Oh, why not?"

"Because we don't have the time, that's why!" Rowan snapped.

"We can do it."

Mia rolled her eyes.  "I'm with Rowan on this one.  We can't pull of a super-deluxe overachiever type project in the time given to us."

However, Randy was still adamant about doing something big and over the top, while the girls would have settled for something a little less complex—and were equally adamant about it.

That argument took a while and was still going with a vengeance when the bell rang, with little preparation work actually taking place.  To make matters worse, the argument did not stop there (though Mia had her nose buried in Complete Guide to Middle-Earth and was now happily ignoring them), with Rowan and Randy still bitching at each other while they walked out of the class.

"I don't see why not!" Randy was yelling.  "That kind of project—" Meaning one with a professional looking poster, flawless papers, and a lot of extra goodies that earned extra credit.  "—can be done."

"You want to put in the time for it?  Fine!  Mia and I," Rowan said loudly, missing Mia's sudden trip and fall, "happen to have lives!  And we're interested in keeping up with them!"

That said, she moved past Randy and took her own fall—followed closely by Randy.  Trouble was, they didn't land on the cement.

So much for the most ordinary of days.

~*~*~*~

When Mia came to, oddly lying on her backpack, she decided she felt like a turtle on its back and scrambled to her feet.  First thing she noticed was that she wasn't at school anymore, but in a forest.  And it was closer to night, rather than noon.  "What the H-E double hockey-sticks?" Mia muttered, looking around, and raised her voice slightly.  "Rowan?  Randy?  Hello?"

There was a crashing sound and Rowan ran out, nearly giving her friend a heart attack.  "Hi, Mia.  Glad to see you're alive," she said and got a good look around.  "Where the—"

"Forest," said Randy smugly, making a considerably quieter exit from the foliage.  "Or have you not noticed that yet?"

Rowan glared.  "Oh, shut up, you good for nothing—"

"Good for nothing?  Where do you get that?"

"I notice you're not doing anything to find out why we happen to be here."

"How am I—?"

While yet another bitch fest started, Mia started to put her book away, and then stopped, noticing the eerily familiar landscape.  Can't be, she thought, but wondered anyway.  I guess there's one way to find out.  She opened her book again and flipped the pages until she found a picture.  Stared at it.  Looked up at the view.  Blinked.  "Dudes!" she hissed urgently

"What?" Rowan said, irritated, and saw what Mia was pointing at.  First her gaze fell on the forest around them, and then the book in her hands.  Wondering what that was about, Rowan looked at the page.  And blinked.  "Oh.  No.  Way."  Mia nodded.  "Cool!"

Curious but pretending not to be, Randy took a look.  He snorted, as if this were an every day occurrence, and said, "So we're in Middle-Earth.  So what?"

Mia responded by thwacking him across the head with the book.

To Be Continued.

Liked?  Disliked?  Leave a review to let us know…the real fun starts in Chapter One.  (ooh, was that a poem?  Whups.)