All right, I lied. This is the last chapter, but it IS long. There most likely will be more within a month or two. I'm only taking a BREAK. Enjoy this last long chapter. XoXo.

11th graders no more

[Last day of school, 7:30]

"Emma, guess what?" Elise almost screams with excitement.

"What?" I ask, gripping the phone tighter, feeling excitement rise within myself.

"Change of plans! We WILL be able to make it to the 'end-of-the-school party!" she says.

"WHOOP!" I yell. "That's AWESOME! This is gonna be the best...but saddest day for all of us. I'm so glad you guys will be here! But Ah, I got to go, school starts in thirty minutes and I'm not ready."

"Okay, well, see you this afternoon!"

"Later, babe," I say and hang up.

"Talim, the band is gonna be here for the party! It's gonna be sooo fun!" I yell.

"YAY!" Talim yells from the bathroom. "This is gonna be the biggest party of the year!"

"Yea, too bad it's the last day we're all together," I say.

"Don't wear any eyeliner tonight, cause otherwise we'll be dripping all over the place. I'm gonna be crying by the end of the night."

"Me too," I admit. And I probably will be. I don't want to be away from Legolas a whole summer, nor the rest of my friends. "Arwen and I will be left alone in Rivendell, all summer, missing the rest of our friends."



"Hi Emma," Eowyn says, walking by me in the hall.

"Hi Eowyn," I answer. We stop and just embrace each other. "I can't believe the year is almost over," she sniffs.

"I know," I say. "But at least we have next year to look forward too. I've never dreaded a summer before."

"Neither have I. Everything changed for the better in this school when you came along. Don't change schools next year," she says, pulling away.

"I won't," I answer.

The first bell rang. "Well, got to get to class," she says quietly. "See you tonight."



I swear, this whole day has been so sad. During lunch Legolas cuddled next to me and I could tell he was about to cry. Everyone at our table talks halfheartedly about what his or her plans for the summer are when Leanna comes up.

"Hopefully most of you wont come next year. Cause your not wanted," she smirks.

We all start laughing. "If we're so 'unwanted' Leanna, then how come hardly anyone voted for us to get expelled besides you and your friends?"

She glares at me. "Oh, you think your so smooth, Emma Goldring, but let me tell you something. You're a bitch and I have millions of reasons to hate you. You'll be sorry next year when I have time to deal with you," she says.

She quickly turns on her heel and knocks a tray of spaghetti out of a student's hand. Of course, it spills all over her dress. She gasps. "You pig! You poured spaghetti all over my Missy Lothlorien Designer dress!!" she cries and stomps away.

We start doubling over, laughing. "Oh, my Missy Lothlorien Dress that my daddy bought me! How DARE you get something on it!" Eomer says in a high- pitched voice.

"One thing I'll miss over the summer is watching that whore constantly making a fool out of her drunk self!" Arwen says.

"Right on!" Legolas says, giving Arwen a high-five.

"Hey, what's up guys?" Ryson asks as him and Tony sit down.

"Nothing, just watching Leanna make an idiot of herself," Faramir says with a smile.

Tony laughs. "Yea, we saw her just a moment ago."

"So, you guys excited for the party tonight?" Legolas asks.

"I'm excited...but I don't know if I'm ready for it all to be over," I say sadly.

Legolas looks at me and nods. "At least it'll be one more great memory with all of us together."

"If only I'd been around to enjoy these 'great memories' all of you guys have shared together," Ryson says.

"Don't worry," Talim says. "There will be plenty of time for that next school year."



I stare at myself blankly in my full mirror. I tried my best to look good for tonight. I'm in my favorite red dress and my hair is all curled. I feel so empty though. I'm afraid for tonight to end. What would I do over the summer with Arwen? I couldn't hang or do anything with my old friends at my old school. It would feel too weird.

If only I didn't have to say bye to Legolas first thing in the morning when I had to leave. I know Arwen and me will be crying by then. Why is this a big deal to me? I don't know why.

Talim looks at me. "You okay?"

I shake my head, trying to clear out the depressing thoughts. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Thinking about leaving?"

"Yea," I mumble. She hugs me and I hug her back, desperately trying not to cry. I remember the day I met Talim so well. It was such an important time in my life. "Only three months," I say. "No big deal."

We pull away and she's frowning. "Then we have just as much time together as this year." We both smile.

"We'll have just as many memories next year as we did this year," I say, actually believing it.

"Well, we can't just stand here any longer. We better finish getting ready. The party starts in twenty minutes," Talim says.



I stand alone kinda uncomfortable as everyone starts dancing and talking. Where could Legolas be? And even more importantly, where is Pandemonium? Talim is off with Eomer, Eowyn is off with Faramir, and so on. "EMMA!"

I twirl around on my heel to meet Elise face to face. "Elise!" I cry, giving her a big hug.

"Aw, I always miss you so much, every time you're away from us!" Elise says.

She pulls away and I look at Rome. He gives me a big hug, twirling me around. So how have you been?"

"Fine...till today. I'm gonna hate being away all summer. Now I'll be way too far to visit," I say. He nods. "It's all right, it's only a few months. It'll go by quickly and then when we all see you again, it'll be twice as awesome!"

"Yea," I agree.

"Don't leave me out!" Edoran pushes through the crowd to embrace me and kiss my cheek. "How's my Bubbles doing?"

I smile. "Fine... wanna dance so we can just talk?"

He nods nervously. "Sure, but I'll warn you, I'm not a great dancer. Your feet might go sore before we're done with one song."

I laugh and take his hand. "Oh, it doesn't matter, come on."

We go to the dance floor and kinda dance. When I mean kinda, I mean, we hardly move at all, just kinda sway a little. "So, what are your plans for the summer?" I ask. "Anything exciting?"

"Well, we have two concerts going on. That should be fun. And um, working on the CD some more...and visiting you and the folks of course," he says, with a twinkle in his eyes.

"AHH!!" I say, leaping into him. "Are you serious?"

He laughs and wraps his arms around me. "Of course I'm serious. I've made up my mind, but if they don't want to see me then we'll just have to go take a brother-sister date to the mall and hang for a while. Cool?"

"Cool," I nod, pulling away. "I'm glad you made up your mind."

"You were right. I have nothing to lose. I want to do it for you anyways."

"OUCH!" I say, pulling my foot from under Edoran's foot.

He laughs. "Sorry, you should probably go dance with Legolas now before I wear you out. He's over there, watching us."

"All right, catch you later, Edoran."

I walk over to Legolas. He smiles at me. He looks so cute in his tie and nicer clothes. He takes my hand and leads me to the dance floor. "I love you," I whisper as we walk.

He stops and we get into a dancing position, my arms around his neck and his arms around my waist. "I love you more," he says.

I shake my head. "I don't know about THAT."

"Exactly, cause no one could know how much I love you. Impossible to measure," he says. I lean against him. "Legolas, don't ever leave me," I whimper, fighting the tears.

"Tomorrow, we both have to leave," he says sadly.

"No, I mean, don't ever LEAVE me," I say.

He kisses my forehead. "I'll love you forever, Emma," he whispers. "But I can't promise that forever we'll love each other THIS way, you know?"

Those words surprised me. "What? Are you thinking about breaking up with me?" I ask, pulling away.

"NO!" he says. "It's just that we're not old enough to make a full-time commitment to each other..."

"But, by the end of next year we could..."

"Get married?" he finished for me. "Are we really old enough to even be thinking about that?"

I was crushed. "Obviously you were wrong. I do love you more than you love me," I say, turning away. "Correction: I DID love you more." I couldn't help it. The tears that had been waiting to fall all day, finally do come. I run from the Ball Hall, past Pandemonium.

"Emma?" Rome calls after me, but I keep on running with no actual destination. I'm going the opposite way from my dorm. I stop to sit on a bench where I lay down to cry. What happened? How was I supposed to face Legolas next year? This could never be settled over the summer with us away from each other and it couldn't be fixed within one night.

Legolas meant what he said, didn't he? He didn't love me enough to make a real commitment to me, even though we dated almost all year. What happened to my sweet Legolas? He said he felt like I was the only girl he could ever connect with in this way!

"Hey, are you okay?" I open my eyes to see Rome.

"Hi," I sniff. "I'm not really okay."

"Wanna talk about it?"

I nod. "Legolas says 'he'd always love me but he's not sure we'd always love each other 'THIS' way'," I whimper.

I sit up and wipe my face. "It's a horrible way to end this school year."

He sits next to me and puts his arm across my shoulders. "You know guys. They always screw up. I'm sure he didn't mean it like that. He still loves you...he's just scared to say forever," Rome says.

"Yea, I know that's it," I say. "But I don't understand why he can't be as sure as me. How could he not be sure? We've been going out almost all year!"

Rome shrugs. "I don't know. But remember the time where he paid me to go outside and play the guitar so he could sing for you in his PJs? I'm sure he was embarrassed, but ya know, he did it for you. He would do that again if he had to," he says.

I laugh at the memory. "Yea...it's no big deal, I guess."

"So what do you say, you go into the bathroom and get fixed up and we'll go back in together, okay? If anything else happens wrong, come to me and I'll be here. It's not like I really want to talk to anyone else. We came here mostly to see you."

I smile. "Thanks, Rome. You're the greatest."



Legolas POV

I seriously want to mentally kick myself. How could I be so stupid? There are just some things you can't tell some people. I see her come in with Rome and I decide I should apologize. I walk towards her and Rome slips away. I can tell she's nervous.

"Hey," I say softly. "I'm sorry."

"I know you are," she answers, looking down at her feet for a moment, but then returning my gaze. "I was foolish. Sorry, you know me, I just dream too much. I think maybe for now while we're away we should...have a break."

I gulp. "A break?"

"Not go out for now. We'll see about next year though, okay?"

I'm totally stunned. I blink, staring blankly. "Uh...if that's what you want, but I don't want to break it off..."

"Neither do I," she says. "But you know if we start hanging out next year we'll go out again. Long distant relationships suck."

"Yea," I say. "Just wondering though...do you expect for us to never go out again?"

"Unless you don't want to go out with me next year, I plan to go out with you again," she says.

I sigh. "Good...now can we just dance one more time?"

She smiles. "Sure."



Emma POV

The next morning, I wake up with the sunrise. Talim had already gone last night and we had made the good-byes really quick. I found out yesterday how much she hates good-byes.

I look at Arwen as these guys load our stuff into a moving van. "Here it goes," I say.

"Yea," she answers. "Time to say our good-byes, huh?"

Legolas and Aragorn come up. Legolas comes up to me, looking nervous. "I know we're not going out anymore, but can I kiss you good-bye?"

I nod and we wrap our arms around each other and kiss one last [long] time. We both pull away at the same time. "I love you, Emma," he says. "I'll call you all right?"

"Please do," I whisper.

"I have to go," he says slowly, but doesn't move.

"Okay."

"...I have yo go," he says again. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye..." I say. I realize how dumb 'good'bye is. Bye's are not GOOD!! It feels horrible, especially now.

Aragorn comes up to me and we hug each other REALLY tight. I start crying. "Does it have to end?" I whimper.

"I'm afraid so," he says. He pulls back, tears going down his face. "I might not be able to come back next year," he says. "Mom wants me to go to a school in Rohan..."

"Oh no!" I cry. "You can't." Now I really feel the tears falling.

"But I have to go and so do you," he says, combing my hair with his right hand and closely looking my in the eyes. With his left hand he wipes my tears and then wipes his own. "Best friends," he says and then kisses my cheeks. I nod and then feel tears streaming down my eyes again.

"Best friends," I agree.

He then turns away, without looking back. I look towards Arwen. She too has tears in her eyes. We walk together, arms linked, to our cab. We sob as we walk, knowing how less great next year will be if Aragorn goes to another school.

I hug Arwen as she sobs and as the cab drives away. But I take one last look at Gondor High, my home for the school year, and another tear falls down my eye. "So long," I whisper, Legolas in my mind.



*tear* I should have my new story up today or tomorrow. It'll be called 'Lost in Mirkwood'. Bye-bye!! REVIEW!!