Chapter Thirteen

Jamie's weird dream and the Math Club

Jamie stared uncomprehendingly into Boromir's shocked face. One minute they were talking, and the next minute he looked as though he'd seen a ghost. She squinted her eyes and cocked her head.

"What is it? What- what are you looking at-"

The girl turned around just in time to see Faramir duck back around the corner. Her stomach did a somersault. Please say he didn't say what I think he said . . .

When Jamie had turned to face Boromir again, he was staring at her with his eyes wide. All color drained from her face. A little voice inside her head cried, "Run! Run, while you still can; run for you life!!!!"

She couldn't seem to move, though. She watched in horror as Boromir seemed to be thinking about something, his face the epitome of confusion. Finally he turned back to look at her.

"Is it true?"

She gulped.

"Um, is what true?"

"Is it true that . . . that you like me?"

You know what, being a tomboy wasn't so bad, Jamie realized. She would have preferred it to this humiliation. Of course Boromir didn't like her that way! He still liked Vikki!

She bit her lip. Well, it couldn't get any worse then this. She nodded in consent with the knight's question. Boromir's eyes widened slightly.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

There was a small little girl in the back of Jamie's brain shouting, "Because she's an idiot, that's why!"

She shook her head to clear the image.

"I dunno . . . I guess I didn't think you liked me . . . and since it's obvious you don't I-"

"Who says I don't?" Boromir asked wryly, a mischievous twinkle suddenly appearing in his eyes. Jamie stared.

"What are you saying?"

Boromir smiled and gave her a hug. By the time he pulled away, Jamie was blushing furiously.

"Miri, will you-"

Suddenly the ground shook and screaming erupted from the crowd. Jumping up from their seats, both teens ran to see what was wrong.

"Uh, oh . . ." Jamie whispered.

Sauron had just appeared above the stage in his eye form, lightning crackling around the edges of the apparition. The Maia said something about seeing to the students punishments personally, but neither teen had any idea what that meant since they had not heard Gandalf earlier. He stayed suspended above the throng for a moment, and then vanished. Boromir turned back to Jamie expecting to exchange a look of confusion, but instead he found his friend staring off into space, her eyes pulsing a slight shade of red.

"Miri!" he cried, shaking her, "Miri, snap out of it!" He searched around for someone to help him, but it seemed that others were having the same problem. The knight racked his brain for something he could do . . .

"Sleeping Beauty," he muttered, an idea dawning. Without hesitating, he pulled Jamie into a long deep kiss.

The boys made their way through the quickly vanishing crowd as fast as they could without running over everyone. They soon spotted a frantic-looking Robby, staring at a spot in the ground.

"Oh, no . . ." Mike whispered, "Sauron's got Vikki!"

Nick tried to snap Robby out of the shock he was in.

"Helloooo? Hello? Rob? If you want to save her, we need to leave NOW. . . .IS ANYBODY IN THERE?!?!?!!"

Gimli was about to attack the boy as he had done Aragorn, but Legolas stopped him. The elf cocked a bow and shot it in Rob's general direction, so that it landed right where he was standing.

Robby let out a high-pitched girly scream that showed everyone that he had finally snapped out of it.

"Vikki! Vikki; she just disappeared! We have to find her!!!"

Michael looked on awkwardly at the teen as he began sobbing into his shoulder. He patted Rob on the back, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Um, it'll be ok?" he said with not much enthusiasm.

The elf retrieved his arrow and put it back in his quiver. When he turned to look at the group, they saw that he was serious and stern for once. Suddenly Aragorn realized what Legolas meant.

"Jamie! We still have to find her; hurry!"

Running through the children that had not disappeared, yet, they found Faramir whispering with some of his friends. Aragorn looked over at him and was delighted to find that the boy knew where their friend was.

When they reached the stairwell, however, they were upset to see that, though Jamie was still there and no longer under the ring's spell, she had fainted at Boromir's feet.

"What happened?" Mike asked concerned, "Why did she faint? Why didn't she disappear?"

Boromir blushed and was about to tell them of the kiss, when Gimli suddenly cried, "ORC ATTACK!!!"

Aragorn swung his head around, grabbing his sword from its sheath and bringing it into a defensive position. Gimli had been right; there were orcs appearing in the throng of panicked students. The would-be-king, Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli pushed the others behind them so they couldn't get hurt. Orc fights were never pretty.

"Wait!" cried Nicky, "why do you have to kill them? I was always a bit fond of orcs-"

He was interrupted when Mike slapped a hand over his mouth.

The majority of the student population that had not disappeared had finally made their way out of the courtyard and into the classrooms where there would be relative safety. That left only our small band of heroes and the rather larger band of orcs.

Legolas had gone up the stairs to get a better shot at the creatures with his bow. The other armed classmates were down below, waiting to see what the hosts of All Evil would do.

To their utter astonishment, they did nothing.

The orcs, they suddenly realized, were carrying books in their arms and seemed to be discussing something. They finally acknowledged the others' presence when Legolas so very unceremoniously shot one of them in the head.

The leader turned to look at his fallen comrade, and then turned to look at Legolas. When his view finally panned to Aragorn, he said in a rather nasal voice,

"We have an opening in our study group. Would you like to join?"

The teens looked on at the orcs in utter exasperation. The two unarmed boys had propped up Jamie by the stairs and Michael was making sure she didn't fall or slide somehow and hurt herself even more. Nicky was staring out between the barricade of arms and weapons with a huge smile on his face. Mike called him over.

"Alright," he said, "you know I don't like it when you get that look on your face. What just happened?"

Nick giggled, explaining to his the nature of these particular orcs. Mike was horrified.

"That's disgusting!!!!"

Aragorn and the others were having similar feelings. What in the world happened to these creatures to make them act this way? It had only just dawned on them that the orcs were wearing uniforms . . .

Legolas had come down from the stairwell and sat by Jamie's still unconscious form, reaching into his pouch to find something medicinal to wake her up. Unfortunately, this gave Mike time to get a look at these strange orcs himself.

"What the heck?!?!" he cried when he saw them, "Math nerds are bad enough without being orcs!"

His head jerked around to the faces of his friends.

"Anyone care to explain this?!?!!"

Surprisingly, the orcs did.

"We're foreign exchange students!" one said, puffing out his chest in pride and adjusting his coke-bottle classes, "we're going to start a math club!!!"

Mike looked on in horror and screamed.

Boromir cocked an eyebrow.

"Wait a minute, are you saying all those students disappeared so that you guys could come in their stead?"

The orc smiled . . . if it could be called a smile, it was more along the lines of just bearing his teeth and giggling.

"Yeth! You are correct!" this particular creature seemed to have a lisp. "You theem intelligent; would you like to be in our club?"

The knight looked mortified, but was saved the trouble of answering when Nicky suddenly yelled, "I'll join!!!"

The head orc looked pleased.

"Oh, goody!! Quick! Lathgurb, retrieve the books!"

The creature that was obviously Lathgurb trotted over to the dead orc, the arrow still in its head, and picked up the books and badge that it had dropped. These were all promptly given to Nicky. He looked like Christmas had just come a year early.

While all this had been happening, Legolas had finally found the herbs he was looking for. Crushing them up in his hand, he held the mixture under Jamie's nose.

The girl woke immediately.

Sputtering, she turned a surprised look to Legolas. She rubbed her temples, trying to wear off the effects of the drug.

"I had the weirdest dream . . ."

The elf smiled.

"I have a feeling it's going to get a little weirder," he chuckled.