Crow: Thank you so much! You made my day!!! Enjoy, cuz this one's dedicated to my first reviewer!! YAY!!! .

Chapter Three

Mr. Murphy and a gaggle of students

Getting to their classrooms on time, school went without incident until, that is, lunchtime.

Roland and his friend Andy were sitting down at one of the tables in the lunchroom when the girls walked in, having met each other outside after changing books. Taking Rols aside, they told him how they went to check on Gimli.

"He was just sitting there, staring at a blank spot on the wall." Jamie reaffirmed.

"Yeah," said Vikki, "and when we asked him how he was, he just nodded. I think he's drunk off of that soda we gave him."

Roland rolled his eyes.

"Hey, knowing that guy I wouldn't be surprised."

The three sat back down just as the two boys strode up. Since Rols was closer, he told them what the girls had just said. Nick was pouting.

"Oh, come on. He's drunk off of soda?"

"Who's drunk off of soda?" Andy asked, interested.

"A dwarf." Jamie told him. The others expected a tumult of questions to come out of Andy. Instead he just looked hard at them all.

"You've all cracked."

While this was all taking place, Amy and Jessica, two more acquaintances that weren't in on the secret, were just walking in. When the two sat down, opposite Vikki and Mike and next to Andy, the talking immediately hushed. No one wanted Amy to know about the dwarf; she'd tell the entire school. Either that, or they could just be overreacting and she would respond similarly to Andy. No one wanted to take that chance.

Mike was just about to break the silence with some stupid joke or another, when four small hairy creatures landed on him, Jamie, Vikki, and Rols. Nick was in between Michael and Roland and seemed relieved that whoever it was had not landed on him again.

"What the heck?" Andy asked. The look on Jessica's face was that of a similar question. The others just stared. To their amazement what looked to be four small children had just appeared from nowhere. One was wearing a bright yellow button-up waistcoat; he had landed on Mike's head and only now had proceeded to get off. The two just looked at each other, each with an eyebrow raised. The small person stopped when he saw what he thought was dark ale sitting on a table in front of him.

"No!" Mike cried, a moment too late. "Hey, that was my Coke!"

Next to him sat Vikki, an evilly amused expression on her face. A rather round little boy had landed on her. As soon as he had seen the angry look on her face he had jumped three feet into the air in fright, landing on Jamie, beside him. She, meanwhile, had caught the youngest of all four, a small little boy with big blue eyes and a blonde mob of curly hair. He had tried to crawl out of her lap to reach the girl's soda when Jamie had stopped him.

"Sit still for a sec, will ya?"

"Well, why does Merry get to have some? I want some!"

Jamie clamped her hand over his mouth, smiling nervously.

Meanwhile, on Rol's shoulders had landed the most child-like of the group. The little one had deep brown hair and blue eyes. He just sat on the boy's shoulders, looking upside-down into the annoyed teens eyes.

"Who are you-" the boy began.

"Get off me!" Roland cried, prying the little person off his head.

The others had not spoken at all in the last few seconds. The ones in on who these little people were knew that they had to come up with something. Mike, an amused expression on his face, turned to Jamie.

"Uh, Jamie, you didn't tell us your nephews were coming."

The girl blanched but quickly recovered, smiling, wishing she was somehow closer to Mike so she could punch him.

"Oh, it must have slipped my mind."

Jessica, knocked out of her reverie, started cooing.

"Oh, they're adorable! What are their names?"

Vikki smiled.

"Yes, Jamie, I can't seem to remember the last time you told me about your relatives. What are their names?"

Had the teen in question been in possession of lethal poison she would have given each of them a mouthful. She instead smiled, balancing the two boys she had on her lap.

"Well, this is Paul and Sam." she told them. The one wanting her soda, named Pippen, stood up on her knee.

"No, my name is-"

"And that over there by Rols is Fred." Julie interrupted, sitting Pippen back down.

Merry, half-way through the Coke, raised the bottle into the air.

"And I'm M-"

"Muffin!" Julie cried, glancing around at the table and taking inspiration from Jessica's lunch.

"MUFFIN?!" Merry cried, fuming.

"I'm sorry, Charles; I shouldn't have told them your nickname."

The other three hobbits, for that is what they were, giggled incessantly.

"Muffin?" It was the first time Amy had spoken since the incident. "What a dumb name. I can't believe that's what they call you." The girl was giggling more then the hobbits at this point, because at her remark, which they took quite seriously, they had stopped to glare. Suddenly Pippen was inspired by the charade and joined in.

"Now listen you." he told Amy, shaking a finger. "Don't make fun of my brother, Muffin. I'm sure his name is far better then yours."

"That's it, Paul. You tell her!" cried Frodo, the hobbit now sitting comfortably on Jessica's lap where the girl was completely babying him.

"Well, Mist- uh, Fred," Sam began. "I really think you should tell her first, seein' as how you're the oldest of us brothers."

"You have a point!" Merry cried. "I completely agree with-" he whispered to Mike. "What was his name?"

"Sam! The same it's always been!"

"Oh, right." he cleared his throat.

"I agree with Sam!"

"Well, it's nice to know we're all are so democratic, but I'm afraid we really must leave." Jamie was smiling like a maniac as she picked up Pippen, handing Sam to Roland. Mike picked up Merry, and Vikki retrieved Frodo from Jessica; in less then a minute all were out the door and on their way upstairs to the bathroom.

"Muffin?" Merry asked Jamie.

"Sorry, Merry, I couldn't think of anything else."

The hobbit looked surprised.

"How did you know my name?"

Mike smirked.

"We know a lot more then that- oh, look! Here we are!"

As soon as the group reached the door, Nick went up and slowly opened it. Inside sat Gimli, now quite alert. It seemed as though he was a little too alert, seeing as how he was singing Dwarven bar songs as loud as he could.

"Gimli!" Nicky cried. He tired to get the dwarf's attention but to no avail. Jamie and Vikki exchanged a look.

"Khazad-ai-menu!" the two cried, immediately gaining the dwarf's attention. He spun around, looking for an ax. Unfortunately for him, the nearest one was in the janitor's closet down the hall.

"What! Where? Oh, it's you wizards again." he walked up to them. "Who are the little dwarves?"

"We're not dwarves!" Merry cried out. "We're hobbits!"

"Well, you look like little hairless dwarves, to me." Gimli grumbled. "Oh, well. Are they coming into the cave, too?"

Mike rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, Gimli, they're coming into the cave, too."

Rols leaned over to Jamie.

"Cave?"

"Don't ask."

After situating the four hobbits and the dwarf with another stock of soda, the teens quickly made their way downstairs. They were now completely broke and hungry but couldn't seem to do anything about it since just then the bell for fifth period rang. Rols and Jamie wearily made their way to English class, hoping that the hobbits would stay put. Mike and Nickolas went to Spanish, while Vikki, the only one who'd stayed upstairs, went over to Math.

Inside Ms. Brooks' extremely boring Math room, she surveyed the area, her eyes finding only half-bored flunkies who didn't care about their grades. Sitting down in the middle row, she prepared herself to fall asleep. Robby, the boy sitting to the right of her, was already glazed over and spacing out.

"Ready for another exciting class, Rob?" Vikki asked.

"Oh, yeah. I can hardly wait."

She quietly set her stuff on the empty desk beside her while rummaging through her binder for her homework. Upon finding it, she picked up her things and put them away inside her own desk. It seemed she had wonderful timing since it was then that her teacher turned around to begin class.

Downstairs in the other building, Jamie and Rols were equally prepared for class. Jamie appeared to be one out of only a few of the students able to keep a little of their composure at this time, however. It seemed that Mr. Murphy, a man completely obsessed with Tolkien as well, had lost his glasses and was subjected to wearing an old pair that did hardly anything for his vision. They allowed him to write on the board and to read if he held the book somewhat close to his face. The only thing that permitted him to go on with class was the fact that he was stubborn and that he knew where all his students were positioned in the room, so he didn't nee to see their face to call on them.

"Ms. Stevens," he said, addressing a girl named Shirley who had spurned the jest. "I really should reward you for your comment."

"Oh, come on, Mr. Murphy. It was just a joke." laughed a boy named Clayton.

"You would like one too, Mr. James? All right. I'll admit it would be nice to see the both of you sharing detention together."

Jamie shook her head, glancing back at Rols, who was laughing so hard he was starting to cry. It seemed this would be an interesting class.

For a bizarre reason she seemed, at first, to be wrong. After the Stevens and James incident at the beginning of class, the period continued without anything strange occurring. She was thinking of this when, as all good oxi-morons do, two strange happenings occurred at once. They fell from the ceiling, as a matter of fact, two young men in tunics and boots, landing on the far side of Mr. Murphy's podium. The teacher's eyes went wide as he surveyed the scene before him.

"Excuse me!" he cried. "What exactly do you two gentlemen think you are doing? And where, if I may so ask, are your uniforms?"

Jamie stared in shock at the two teenagers who had appeared before her. One, his shirt trimmed in red and gold, his tunic a dark navy blue, had to be Boromir. The other, wearing a soft blue tunic and leather breaches had to be Aragorn. This was unbelievable! She tried not to faint as she looked at her two favorite characters from the books. Finally it dawned on her, finally sinking in, that these men were real, and that Mr. Murphy would flip if he found out. . .

Khazad-ai-menu: dwarven battle cry: "The Dwarves are upon you!" – hence the reason it attracted Gimli's attention.