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Chapter Seven; I Hate BallsSara stepped into her room and resisted the urge to let out a huge bout of giggles. They certainly knew how to cheer her up! Maybe she would go to dinner tonight. After all, it is going to be held for them, and she WAS invited. By the very Lord Elrond himself, as if that wasn't enough, it was their birthday party!
'No! Snap out of it Sara, you're not going to go!' she thought, and with a heavy sigh, she plonked herself back down on her bed.
She began fiddling with a piece of hair that fell in front of her face. She sighed again and lied down so that she could see the ceiling. Well, Elrond did tell her to be there, maybe he wants for her to meet people around her age group.
But dinners weren't her scene. Sara would be far happier sitting down with her family that she missed so much and eating a simple meal. Besides, Sara didn't know what they really ate around here at special feasts. She didn't know how formal this was going to be anyway. Sara had no idea how to act in a formal way full stop.
On the other hand, this might be a chance to get to learn how to be around the people of her kind, she was stuck here and there was no point in avoiding the unavoidable. Even if she did go, she could just sit in the shadows and observe the way they moved, ate, walked, talked and acted around each other. Just as long as there was no dancing.
So, Sara decided what to do. She would go, but simply sit in the corner and try to conceal herself, avoiding ALL elves.
Slowly, she sat back up and took a look around the room. What time was the stupid thing starting in the first place? What was the time anyway?
Right on cue, Melian came waltzing into the room from the bathroom with such grace that even a cat would cringe of its own walk.
"You have to go Sara, the king specifically asked you to be there. Just because-" Melian got cut off halfway through her sentence.
"It's OK, I'm going," Sara said, holding her hands up in defeat.
The message hadn't sink in through Melian's thick skull because she was still in 'You SHALL go to the ball,' mode, and started to blabber another reason why Sara should go to the dinner.
"AND you're new friends will be there," Melian said.
"A) I AM going and b) how the hell do you know that I'm the prince's friend?" Sara asked.
"There is a window in the bathroom you know, I could hear you because I opened it to let some air in," Melian said.
"Well, you shouldn't have been listing in to MY conversation," Sara replied coolly.
"Flirting with the prince, eh?" Melian said, with a grin on her face.
Sara blushed but tried to act normally by rolling her eyes.
"Well, if you call saying 'Hello,' and bashing your head against a concrete railing, flirting then, ooh, yes. I was completely out of order there," she said, sarcastically.
"Well, I'm glad you've changed your mind. I was beginning to think that I might have to drag you there!" Melian said, obviously finding this funny herself because she giggled. Sara just looked at her with a 'that just wasn't funny at all' type of look.
"Come on now, no time for all this, we have to get you ready. The celebration starts in an hour!" Melian said, steering Sara in front of the vanity and pushing her down on the little stool.
Reaching over, Melian grabbed a silver brush and began to run it gently through Sara's long hair. It was extremely unusual. She would be the centre on attention tonight. Melian for obvious reasons decided not to tell Sara this. She was already nervous as it is about just turning up.
The maid decided to leave Sara's hair down. People could see the spectacular contrasts of colour then. It also framed her face nicely.
Sara nervously bit her bottom lip. She was wondering how she could sneak out of the dinner if it got too heavy, when Melian patted her on the back and spun her around on the chair.
"OK, you're ready to go now," the maid said to her.
Sara took a gulp of air and shakily stood up.
"Can't I wait a bit longer? You know, and be fashionably late?" Sara pleaded.
Melian shook her head. "No, you have got to be there NOW. Now go quickly, before you really are late," she said.
Sara nodded and headed for the door, when a thought stuck her.
"Aren't you coming?" Sara asked.
To her despair, Melian shook her head and handed her some purple shoes to match her outfit. Sara slipped them on her petite feet.
No, no, no, no. This wasn't happening. She was going to be at the stupid bloody thing on her own? Oh, she WAS up shit creek without a paddle now. How was she supposed to do it alone? She knew nobody there. Well, she had been acquainted with three people. Two were hormonal twins and one was an old geezer called Elrond.
Oh God.
Sara felt like passing out so she could get away with not going. She began to think of excuses to get out of it.
'Do you think a severed head would stop me going? Maybe a snapped bone here or there would suffice. Or MAYBE-'
However, Sara was cut out of her train of thoughts by a shove that pushed her out of the door. She turned around just in time to see a sly expression on Melian's face as she closed the door in Sara's face.
Oh, she was in trouble now.
Sara stood alone in the corridor outside her room with her mouth hanging open. How was she supposed to get to the hall now? Melian had just ditched her! Was the dinner even in the hall? Where was the hall?
'Well, if in doubt, Sara always follow your nose,' she thought, and turned away to walk down toward a random staircase trying to sniff out some food, when right on cue somebody came walking down the very same corridor that she was in.
Sara quickly hid in a shadowy corner and watched that female elf turn another corner. Sara guessed that the other elf was also invited because she was wearing a very classy dress.
Sara tiptoed as noiselessly as she could manage over to where the elf maiden disappeared to and peered around the corner just tin time to see the swish of a dress disappear down a set of white marble steps. Shrugging, Sara also followed her down these steps. She felt so stupid doing this. It wasn't her fault that her useless made chucked her out of her own little apartment thingy. She had no idea as to where the hell she was now. The only reason that she was following this bimbo was because she looked like she had a faint idea of where she was going.
When Sara reached the bottom of the main stairs, she followed the sound of people talking. Sometimes pointed ears were handy. Like when you put you hair behind you ears; you have a guarantee that it won't fall back out of place again.
Sara came to a huge set of double mahogany door about thirty foot in height and twenty in width. They were already open and Sara could see about three hundred elves already in there, sitting down in their seats. There were six long tables that sat about thirty people.
You do the math.
Everybody seemed to actually have a clue of where they had to sit. There wasn't one familiar face, never mind a friendly one.
Argh. Was she meant to sit this one out alone?
As soon as she stepped in the hall, everybody stopped talking and looked at her. She could tell that they didn't like new comers; otherwise they wouldn't have stared like that. But then she remembered. She wasn't just a normal every day elf now, was she? Noo, she was multicoloured.
She had the right mind to just run away screaming. She would have done if it weren't for an arm thrown around her shoulder. Sara panicked. She didn't know anybody well enough for such close contact.
Slowly, she turned and faced who it was. Almost to her relief she saw Elladan.
But her relief soon turned into anger when he motioned to her and spoke some sort of crap in what Sara assumed as elfish. Then everybody broke out into applause. Damn, she would have to learn that language some day.
Whilst everybody was busy applauding, Sara had time to mutter, "What?" under her breath.
"Just play along," Elladan said, with a grin.
"Hi," she heard another masculine voice say from her left.
She turned to face the other male that had just spoken to her, and found another Elladan. If she didn't know better, she would have thought that she was going mad and seeing double, but it was not to be. She felt herself being steered towards a table that was raised up above every other one.
Along the way she spoke to Elrohir.
"So, have you found your voice again?" Sara asked, grinning. She just needed to take her mind off the fact that everybody was still staring at her. He laughed.
"Yeah, sorry about that, allow me to introduce myself," he said, stopping to swoop into a low bow. Sara laughed.
"My name is Elrohir, and I am son of Lord Elrond," he said, taking her hand and placing a small kiss on it. She giggled.
"Really? What is it like having a famous father?" she asked.
"It's not all that bad," Elrohir replied, never taking his eyes off hers.
"What he means is he can have anything he wants," Elladan cut in, laughing.
The hold on her shoulders was released and she looked at where she was. It seemed that they wanted her to sit to the right of the very Lord Elrond himself.
She gulped and sat down in her place. Why weren't his sons sitting next to him?
"So, I see you have met my sons," Elrond said, trying to make conversation. He could tell that she was uncomfortable by the way she was fidgeting in her seat.
"Um. . . yeah, I guess I have," Sara replied, still nervous about what was going to happen next.
So much for a subtle entrance, most of the guys in the hall were still staring at her.
She sighed and turned to look at who had just sat down next to her. She almost kissed who it was when she saw who they were. It was Elladan, and next to him Elrohir. At least there was SOMEONE here who knew her. It was such a relief to have them sit next to her. Not only that, but they were also something pretty to look at while she ate her meal.
Sara tried to listen in on the light din of conversation going on around her, but she couldn't understand a word. She understood one thing though. They were all talking about her. Every now and then, an elf would turn around and glance at her before whispering to the person sitting next to them, and then that person would do the same, and the next, until all of the table would be in an outburst of whispers.
Sara sighed and rolled her speckled eyes sky-wards and tossed her streaked hair out of her face in annoyance. She didn't ask for this. She couldn't even sue Galadriel for doing an unwanted operation thingy. Surely she should have asked for permission before making Sara an elf? Even if it did kill Sara in the processes.
"Are you OK?" Elladan asked her when he began to grow worried at the amount she was fidgeting.
'Surely that is abnormal to squirm so much?' he thought before he asked how she was.
Sara turned her head towards him.
"No," she said simply, and returned to watching her audience. It appeared that she had a fan club.
"Why?" he asked, concern filling his blue eyes.
"Why? You're asking why? Oh-my-god, you really are dim," she answered huffily.
He couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh, so you find this funny, do you?" Sara asked, a menacing glint in her eye.
Elladan immediately shut up with an audible 'gulp'.
"Help me," he muttered to Elrohir out of the corner of his mouth.
"I can hear you," Sara said, smiling a false, sickly sweet smile that she did oh so well. She had practised it for when people were really getting on her nerves.
Elrond had seen the whole scene and had just laughed.
Bad move.
Sara's head swung around in time to see him laugh. Ooh she had never glared so much in her life. Even Elrond was rather intimidated.
He coughed loudly as to get everybody's attention in the hall. As the sort of king of this place, Sara assumed that they all stopped to look at him out of pure respect.
That was when he began to speak in elfish.
And funnily enough, that was precisely when Sara switched off.
'Wow, maybe this whole 'sleep with your eyes open' thing is kind of handy!' she thought to herself, falling into a slumber she never knew she even needed.
"*It is my pleasure to introduce our very special guest, *" Elrond said, and gestured to the person he was talking about for the past few minutes.
He was telling the elves about his son's birthday, and they thanked everybody who gave them presents, as normal, and then he started to talk about Sara. To his complete and utter horror, when he gestured towards her, Elrond found out that she had fallen asleep during his speech!
A murmur ran through the hall as they all talked about how rude their 'special guest' was being at the moment. Elrond heard two audible snorts of laughter coming from Sara's side. He took a glance at his two sons. They obviously found this amusing because they were trying to conceal the hilarity that they found in this situation.
They noticed their father's icy stare.
"Sorry father, but you are rather boring," Elladan said.
This just egged Elrohir's laughter even more, resulting with the same thing happening to his twin.
Elrond just stared at them.
Elladan prodded Sara's side.
"I don't want to go to school," Sara said as she snapped out of her elven sleep.
Only to find the whole bloody hall laughing at her.
She slumped back in her chair and groaned in embarrassment. She put her head in her hands as if nobody would see her anymore if she did this.
Elrond cleared his throat yet again and carried on with his speech, only this time Sara stayed awake to listen to the complete babble, her cheeks burning with shame.
Eventually, the food was brought in by all of the other maids and they began to eat.
Sara's cue to be uncomfortable again.
She didn't have a clue what in Middle Earth was on her plate at the moment. It could've been a dead rat for all she knew!
She looked at the cutlery. She didn't know what she was expecting to see, but to her relief there lay a normal knife and fork.
"Bon appetit!" she whispered to herself in French, before she tucked into her food.
"What did you just say?" Elladan said, looking at her in confusion.
"French," she answered, whist trying not to get her sleeve in her food.
He laughed at her and carried on talking to her.
"I have never told you this, but you have the most peculiar accent I have ever heard," he said, tucking into his own food.
"Yeah, well, I am from a place called Liverpool, in England," she said.
"England?" Elladan asked.
"Yeah, it is, sorry, it WAS the country that I lived in," Sara answered.
"Tell us about your world," Elrohir cut in through a mouthful of food.
"Ha! Well, there is too much to say," Sara said, not wanting herself to be the one talking all night.
She didn't want to bring her family or home up either.
"Awww, please?" Elladan and Elrohir asked at the same time, doing identical puppy dog eyes.
She wasn't strong enough to compete against two of them.
"Fine. There are a lot of people," she said, and went back to her food.
"There are a lot of people," Elrohir said, mimicking her. "Is that it?"
"Yep," she said.
The twins looked at each other and shrugged.
"And most of them are evil," she said obviously exaggerating a lot. But still, nothing like a bit of drama here and there, was there?
"Really?" Elladan asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, just like you two, as a matter of fact," she said.
"That wasn't funny," Elrohir said, sticking out his bottom lip a bit.
Sara laughed.
"I think you'll find it is," she said.
"Oh, you haven't seen us when we're evil," Elladan said, a glint in his eyes.
Sara gulped. What had she just gotten herself into? She sat and finished her food in silence.
When they had all finished his or her food, Elrond stood up again and said something else, whist everybody else laughed at what he had just said. Sara pretended to understand what had just been said and laughed nervously along with the others.
Then, they all suddenly stood up and walked out of the other set of doors that lead to the outside gardens.
"Come on," Elladan said, beckoning for her to follow them.
She trailed behind them until the beautiful gardens came into view. But now it was in the moonlight and starlight, it looked a lot more entrancing. Sara noted that they were now in a part that she had never seen before. There were grey stone slabs that lead up to a circular clearing that was paved and along the edges were matching curved stone benches. All around the outside of the clearing were the gardens that entranced Sara. She looked around for the twins. She found them on the other side of the clearing whispering to each other. She walked over to them.
"Hey," she greeted.
"Oh, there you are!" Elladan said, a little too falsely.
They were up to something.
"You're up to something," Sara said, casting a suspicious glance around her.
"No! Us?" Elrohir asked innocently.
Sara shrugged.
"Well, whatever it is, make sure that is doesn't involve me," she said.
The other two shrugged as well.
"Oh, and I forgot to say, happy birthday for today. Yes, we ALL know that rhymes, but hey! That's just me," Sara said.
"Thank you," they both said at the same time.
Freaky. Must be a twin thing.
That was when it happened. The moment that Sara had been dreading was finally here. She heard the sounds of soft flutes being played and she looked around to find about twelve elves spread out along the edge of the circle playing delicate looking wooden flutes.
'Please don't tell me that this is circle time,' Sara thought as everybody gathered around, forming a circle.
One elf stared to sing. Obviously in elfish so Sara couldn't understand a WORD of what they were saying. For all she knew, they could be saying something like 'Destroy all life forms,' and her life could be at risk. But that was highly unlikely.
Or not.
Well, whatever that person was singing, apparently it had finished. The fact that everybody was clapping at that moment was a bit of a give-away. Sara just played along.
Then Sara realised when the next person next to the one that sang began to do the same that they took it in turns to sing. They were going around the circle.
She desperately checked how many people there were before it was her turn to crash and burn when she had to sing. Only seven. She began to panic. Sara didn't know what the hell they were singing about, never mind trying to keep with the theme of all the songs!
By the time that the second elf finished singing, Sara had formed her plan.
She clapped along politely as if she knew what the hell was going on all around her.
Sara began to get agitated.
Only one thing left to do.
Run.
Run like you've never run before.
So she did this. She didn't care what anybody else thought of her. Sara just needed to get out of there, and away from her fate of singing in public. She fled, not caring which direction she was going in. it was only when she was looking at where she was that she knew what was going on.
Apparently she had run all the way up to the top of some unknown hill to her. She looked over towards the direction she had come from. The view was amazing.
Sara could see all the festive colours of the party that was going on at the bottom of the hill. Lucky for her, she could also see the expressions on the faces of all the elves. They didn't seem to notice that she had even fled for her life before hand. They were all dancing and having fun, because they all had genuine smiles on their faces.
At least some people were enjoying themselves here. She sighed and sat down on the plateau of the hill, still looking at the scenery below her. She began to absent-mindedly pick at the grass, twirling a blade of the green grass between her thumb and forefinger. She couldn't look at all the happy elves anymore. They made her sick with envy. They could belong somewhere, and she couldn't. Sara would always be an outcast, even though she was an elf herself. She looked different from everybody else.
She lay back and looked up at the evening's stars in the clear night. The air was warm and sweet. All the stars seemed to wink at her in the clear night sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight, perfect, just like all the beings around here. Apart from Sara.
For how long she was there, she didn't know. She was lost in thought about her previous life and family.
Was she an outcast in her own world too? Before she had changed species, she would have felt better knowing that she was still like all of her family. Normal. Well, as normal as any human could get. She didn't know why, but she would've felt better if she had stayed human because then she would have been a real outcast. Not just marginally. If she hadn't have changed then she would have still belonged somewhere, even if here wasn't the place she was supposed to be. Now she was stuck in the middle, on the verge of spilling over to one side. And she didn't know which one.
Sara thought of her choices. She could either stay the same (personality and mannerism wise) or be more like them. Like an elf. She didn't like the idea of that, but she would have to face it eventually.
'Eventually is not right now,' Sara thought. 'I have an immortal life of which I can change in. I will never die,' she concluded.
'It's better to get it over and done with, forget about the past and look to the future,' the other side of her mind argued.
'That would be weak and pathetic of me, changing to what other people want me to be isn't the answer. I can be who I like,' she thought.
'You are only young and you have yet to learn about things. Soon, it will be your nature to act like the rest,' disagreed her other thoughts.
She was confused to say the least. Fresh tears spilled out of her eyes. Sara was physically and mentally sick, exhausted and confused.
"I really do not need this, AT ALL," she said aloud, whilst another tear fell. Her voice betrayed her by quivering slightly.
When she felt lonely, she always sang. Now wasn't an exception. She didn't feel alone; she WAS alone. And she didn't like it one little bit. In fact, it scared the hell out of her.
The song reminded her of her home, because it was one she used to sing in her room when it was blaring out of her speakers. It used to make her feel happy because back then it had a different meaning. Back then she couldn't imagine her life without her family. But Sara sang it anyway, hoping it would restore some long lost hope. All it did was remind her of what situation she was in.
"Hold on to me love," she began. Her voices was shaky, so she coughed to clear it out a bit.
"You know I can't stay long,
All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm not afraid,"
She continued, her voice now a bit better. She cleared her throat again, and sang a bit louder, a sad smile on her face from all of her bittersweet memories of her and her friend who used to enjoy this song with her.
"Can you hear me?
Can you feel me in your arms?"
Even more tears flooded out of her eyes, but she sang ever so slightly louder determined not to make her voice shake.
"Holding my last breath,
Safe inside myself,
Are all my thought of you,
Sweet ruptured light, it ends here tonight,"
She dried her yes and continued.
"I'll miss the winter,
A world of fragile things,
Look for me in the white forest hiding in the hollow of a tree,
(Come and find me)," Sara felt like the person in this song. She needed to be found.
"I know you hear me,
I can taste it in your tears,
Holding my last breath,
Safe inside myself,
Are all my thoughts of you,
Sweet ruptured light, it ends here tonight,
Closing your eyes to disappear,
You pray your dreams will leave you here,
But still you wake and know the truth,
No one's there," this WAS Sara.
"Say goodnight, don't be afraid,
Calling me, calling me
As you fade to black,"
Her and her friend always used to sing it for fun, pretending to act out all of the scenes that the song was about, but not seriously. It used to be a laugh. All her and Jenny did was laugh all of the time and make fun of things. Even more tears fell as she thought of her friend, and sub-consciously felt for the cross that Jenny gave her for Christmas that she loved so dearly.
But it was gone. Sara quickly sat up, searching her neck frantically as if it would re-appear because she was looking for it. As if the only thing she had left that reminded her of home would shoot back and fasten itself upon her neck again. This was the last straw for Sara. She couldn't take it anymore, absolutely every single thing that she had done, seen or had was now gone. Forever.
"That was a nice song," a voice came from behind her.
Sara screamed in fright and she twisted her torso around to see whom it was that had just spoken. She saw Elladan and Elrohir standing side by side, with sad and concerned looks etched on their graceful faces.
Sara wiped her wet cheeks on her food-stained sleeve and gave a small, sad smile.
"Thanks," she whispered.
They walked forwards and sat either side of her, but remained silent. They knew all she wanted was her friends to be with her at the moment, and they were the closest that she had to her old friends. The twins had only known her for a little bit, so they weren't sure quite what to say to her. The three sat in silence gazing upwards at the stars.
Sara was the one to speak first, though her voice was slightly rough.
"Thank you," she repeated.
"For what?" Elrohir asked, turning his gaze to Sara. His brother did the same.
Elrohir could see the stars reflected in Sara's watery eyes. They looked so magical. He had never seen anybody look so. . . entrancing in his life.
"For being here at the right time," she said and smiled ever so slightly. But it didn't reach her eyes. "You didn't have to look for me, or sit here with me. You're the closest thing that I have got to a family,"
Elladan put his arms comfortingly around her.
"Yeah, well you're OUR'S now," he said, grinning.
Sara looked at Elladan with her eyebrows raised.
"I hope you mean that I'm your friend 'Ell, otherwise your in deep trouble," Sara said.
"Oh, so her gets a nickname, and I don't?" Elrohir said, crossing his arms over his chest sulkily.
Sara laughed. They defiantly knew how to cheer her up.
"Well," Sara began, "You're name is shorter."
"Gee, it's a good job you said that, otherwise I wouldn't have known," Elrohir replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes skywards.
Silence cloaked upon the trio again. Sara was happy just having someone near her. They all heard roars of laughter in the back round from the party that was happening on at the bottom of the hill. Elladan and Elrohir looked down to see what had happened. They both groaned.
"Dad's been at the wine again," Elrohir said, putting his head in his hands out of embarrassment.
Sara looked down to see what he was talking about. Sure enough, there was the very Lord Elrond himself dancing (if you would call it that) in a drunken state in the middle of the circle. The rest of the elves surrounding him were also looking a bit on the dodgy side by the fact that they were slightly swaying on the spot that they were standing in.
Sara had no idea that Elrond was an alcoholic!
"Ha! Your dad can't take his drink very well, can he?" Sara said.
"Well, he can. The fact that he drinks so much that he is beyond helplessly drunk at dinner parties has to do with it the most," Elladan said.
"Awww, poor you!" Sara said. "It must be so embarrassing for you," she rubbed both of their arms to comfort them in some way. "Why are there two of you? I haven't got enough arms to console you both at the same time!"
They laughed and Sara yawned. Time to go to bed.
"Well, happy birthday to you both. But I have to go to bed now, I am soo tired," Sara said, getting up and stretching.
"You can't go yet," Elladan protested.
"But-" Sara began, who was then cut of by Elrohir.
"Yea, you haven't given us a birthday kiss yet," he said with a cheeky grin.
"Oh, no you don't," Sara said
She ran before they could do anything else. Obviously because Sara was Sara, she had to trip and roll all the way down the hill. When she had stopped rolling around, she looked up to see where she was. All of the people in the clearing had stopped talking and were looking at her with a look of disgust on their faces.
"They can talk! They're the alcoholics," she muttered angrily under her breath, not caring if they could hear her or not. She got up, brushed off her grass stained dress and ran to her room.
So, this made Sara come to one conclusion. She hated balls.
I dunno if that was any good or not. She is kinda depressed, but it will get funnier! I promise!
Review! ! !