Disclaimer: Ok, so I don't own Lord of the Rings. Never have. Never will. Got that? I only own my characters (even then I'm not sure about that!)
Part I
The day started out like any other ordinary day. I woke at five in the bloody morning, got dressed, ate, got on the bus, and headed off to school. It was my home away from home. Ok, so only two classes were that. Newspaper and Art 3 were my life. They were at the end of the day, which was perfect because I had time to wind down. Everything was going great. My partner and I had gotten our articles done and were discussing our favourite topic, a. k. a. Lord of the Rings.
It is funny, really, mainly because we are the only two LOTR nuts in the class, which had eleven people in it. We were waiting for our teacher to come back and announce that it was time for our field trip, a luncheon. We were looking forward to it, chicken salad; the usual.
Well, this doesn't really seem that interesting. We didn't think so either. Just as our dear Mr. Bennett comes in, poof! There stands the Fellowship, minus one Gandalf, and poor, egotistical (and rather pissed off) Haldir. Woo, must have gotten them at Lorien. Well, my dear friend, Cathy, just about screeched. I had to hold her back from doing what I feared she would do, pinch poor Frodo's cheeks.
The first to talk was me, of course. "Excuse me, but I think that Caras Galadon is that way," I said, pointing at Cathy's copy of Fellowship of the Ring. Aragorn looked confused when I mentioned their destination was in a book. "Might you explain that?" he inquired.
This time Cathy blurted out. "You guys are from a book, a fantasy! I never thought I, I mean we, would end up meeting you guys." I nudged her, for Frodo's eyes were drawn to our necks, where of course, we wore our Ring of Doom. Okay, Cathy's was real gold, mine came from a bookmark. I quickly shoved mine under my shirt. "The One Ring doesn't mean anything evil here," I remarked. "It usually means you read way too much."
Frodo didn't seem too relieved at my words. "I wish to have everything explained in full," Haldir put in. He was just as cute as I had imagined, and not as prissy as the movie had played him out to be. He actually seemed approachable. I was just about to speak when Gimli put in a word. "I hate to be so blunt, but you wouldn't happen to have any food around here, would you?" I had expected one of the hobbits to make that statement; just goes to show how much I know about dwarfs.
"We were actually going to a luncheon, and school food is for iron stomachs only." The Fellowship murmured amongst themselves. I dreaded the thought that they were going to ask to come with us. That is exactly what they asked.
Cathy was giddy with excitement. I was too, but worried of how we were going to get that many people in two little cars. I had a comical vision of the clowns in the cars. Sorry, but elves and hobbits having to cram into cars wasn't exactly very funny. I had a feeling most of the other students didn't want to have to ride with them (elves, dwarves, hobbits, and men who have not washed for days aren't appealing). We decided to have them stay in the room until we came back with food. I finally convinced them to let Frodo come along. He was at least cleaner and the poor hobbit was wounded because of the spear the orc had thrown at him. They reluctantly agreed.
I am not quite sure what Frodo first thought of the SUV that Mr. Bennett brought around to the front of the school. Cathy climbed in, me behind her, followed by Frodo. It didn't him long to figure out how to buckle himself in. I decided to get him in some conversation. I figured he was talkative if you got to know him. And I hoped to get him to sing the Hey Diddle Diddle song.
"Where exactly are you from, Mr. Baggins?" I asked, trying to be as polite as possible. He smiled; a warm, friendly smile. "Frodo. Please, call me Frodo. I'm not that old!" He chuckled. "I was born in Buckland, in the eastern part of the Shire, the country where I'm from. I used to live in Bag End, but I sold it to the Sackville-Bagginses. They are a distant relation to us Bagginses. Right now, I have a house in Crickhollow. It is beautiful, really."
The hobbit's face became drawn, sad even. "I really miss the Shire. It is so beautiful." I decided to change the subject. "You have a girl there?" I asked.
He shook his head, brown curls moving. "No, I don't." I shifted slightly in my seat. "I think you might like the food they will be serving. I am not quite sure what the meeting is about, but they are bound to have something good."
Cathy spoke up. "I hear there will be fireworks at the game tonight. Won't that be fun?!" Her enthusiasm did not go unnoticed. "Cat," I whispered, "don't you realize that they just lost Gandalf? Wait, fireworks? Cool." I sat back, making sure that Frodo and Cathy were still apart. She had a weird obsession with his character, ever since she had seen Rankin and Basses version of both The Hobbit and The Return of the King. She probably had the same obsession with elves ever since she had seen them in the movies wearing loincloths and having blue skin.
Mr. Bennett drove into the parking lot and dropped us off. I took Frodo's hand and led him inside the Marriott hotel. I asked the clerk where the KTO meeting was and he kindly pointed the way. We went up the elevator to the second floor. I led the way to one of the ballrooms and found a seat. There was already a large number of people there. I suddenly felt nervous. We had a hobbit with us, still in traveling clothes. For once, I wished we had an elf to draw attention away from him.
We spent the next hour in complete boredom. Not that the speaker wasn't interesting, oh no, but he talked longer than we had anticipated. I am sure that all of us were glad to get back to school. I convinced Cathy to "divee" up the Fellowship and decide who was going to take who home. I chose Haldir, Legolas, Frodo, and Sam. Cathy got stuck with the rest. She didn't mind though.
Part II