The band room was even more decorated than it was that morning, and in the center, a DJ was manning a CD table. All through the room, band nerds were talking, eating at the snack bar and RESTOCKED vending machine, or dancing to the music.

Freda spun off the dance floor and over to Samantha, who was standing by the snack bar. "This party rocks!!!" she exclaimed, a little breathlessly. "Come on, Samantha, ask Rick for a dance.

"Um..." she watched Rick, who was laughing with a group of friends. "I think I'll just have another coke."

"Oh no you don't." Freda shoved her friend straight into Rick, who grabbed her and spun her onto the dance floor. "Muhahaha..."

Meanwhile, Mark and Paul snuck over to Gary's firework pile while he was off setting off crackers by the DJ.

"Come on, let's get this one," Paul whispered, selecting an especially large firework from the pile. Grabbing a match, he lit the wick and threw it on the ground.

"Um...Paul..." Mark read the warning on the box, and eyed the firework on the ground. "It says "Do not use in small spaces."

"Oh...well...it was YOUR idea..."

"Oh please, Paul, it was yours." Mark retorted, rolling his eyes at his cousin. On the ground, the firework was already starting to hiss and smoke.

"Oh-"was all Paul had time to get out until it went off with the biggest bang of flame possible. All the bandos took one look at the huge flame on the bandroom floor, and began screaming and running for the door, the drinks, anything.

Freda looked at her two cousins standing by the firework pile, box in hands, and shook her head. Rolling her eyes, she said, "I'll get the fire extinguisher." Before she reached the fire extinguisher, however, the flame turned blue, and went out by itself, not even leaving a mark on the floor.

Everyone cheered, and order was restored. "That was good," Paul muttered to Mark. "Let's get another." Mark followed his cousin back to the firework pile. Suddenly, someone grabbed them by the shoulders. They spun around to find themselves face to face with Gary, their student mentor.

"Hmmm...Mark and Paul, the two biggest troublemakers of the seventh grade. I should have known."

Five minutes later, Mark and Paul were straightening out the firework pile under the supervision of Gary. Bill got up on the directors podium, and banged on the stand.

"Attention all band nerds!!!" he shouted. The whole room erupted into cheers. "Flutists!!!"

"FLUTES ROCK!!!" Freda and the other flutists screamed.

"Clarinets."

"Oh yeah!!!" the section shouted.

"Trumpets,"

"Go us!!!"

"Trombones, low brass,"

"YEAH!!!"

"Oboes, bass clarinets, saxes, bassoons, percussion,"

"Percussionists!!!" they corrected, indignantly.

"Oh, yeah...right," Bill muttered. Clearing his throat, he said, "Today is my 111th day of band!!!"

"YEAH!!! Go band nerds," everyone cheered ecstatically. Freda grinned; her older brother did always have a way of raising the energy level in the room when he made speeches.

"Unfortunately, 111 days is way too short of a time to spend around such fine musicians. I don't know half of you as well as I'd like and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

"I think I saw that in a text book once," a random student whispered.

Bill began to finger his Pen, in his pocket, eying the crowd nervously. "I, uh, I h-have things to do..." he mumbled. To himself, he muttered, "I've put this off far too long." Bill pulled out the Pen, looked down at the band nerds, and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to say that this is it. Nice knowing you guys, we'll see each other at lunch, I guess. 'Bye guys."

With that, Bill pulled off the Pen cap and vanished without a trace. Everyone gasped in surprise. Gary, however, who was standing near the back of the crowd, narrowed his eyes and slipped off.

Holding back his laughter, Bill padded quietly towards the bandroom and slipped into the storage room, where his locker was. He capped the pen and started laughing, hard.

"Oh man," he exclaimed, cracking up, "that totally ROCKED!!!"

Gary slipped into the bandroom. "Hilarious, I'm sure."

"Dude, did you see the looks on their faces!?!"

"There are very few magical pens in this world," Gary said seriously, "and NONE should be taken lightly."

Bill nodded, "I guess you're right," he grudgingly agreed, "as usual." He grabbed his backpack and instrument case and began heading out the door. "Oh Gary," he remembered, turning around, "You'll keep an eye on Freda, won't you?"

Gary nodded. "Two eyes, homework allowing. Um...Bill...what about that Pen. Aren't you going to give it to Freda?"

"Yeah..." he said distractedly, "it's in her locker." He reached into his pocket, and felt his fingers close on the tube of the Pen. "Wait..." he said, his eyes hardening, "it's here...in my pocket. Weird..."

"Bill," Gary said warningly.

"Well why not." He wondered, "Why shouldn't I keep it."

"You know what; I think you should leave the Pen behind." Gary said firmly. "Is that too hard?"

"Well...no..."Bill started, hesitantly, "And yes. Now it comes to it, I don't feel like parting with it, its mine, I found it, it came to me!"

"Hey, calm down, man!!!"

Bill glared at Gary, even though the honor student was a head taller than him. "Well if I'm angry, it's your fault! It's mine! My own, my PRECIOUS!!!"

"Precious!?!" Gary raised an eyebrow. "It's been called that, but not by you before."

"Stay out of this!!!" Bill shouted, heading towards the door.

"I think you've had hat pen long enough."

"You just want it," Bill shot back.

Gary stepped in front of the door, and by some long-kept secret of the student mentors, he appeared to turn darker and taller. "BILL BAGGINS!!!" he shouted, "Do NOT take me for merely a straight-A student with cool fireworks. I'm not trying to rob you."

Bill's jaw literally dropped open, and Gary's voice softened. "I'm only trying to help you. Really, come on, Bill," he all but pleaded. "All those years we've been friends. Rust me like you used to, man."

"I guess you're right," Bill admitted. Grabbing his backpack, he headed towards the door again. "Okay, now I really should start heading out."

Gary raised an eyebrow. "Um...Bill, the Pen's still in your pocket."

"Oh...heh heh. Right." Bill pulled out his Pen, and looked at it, slowly letting it drop from his hand.

Gary moved forward quickly and caught the Pen. "Well," he said, "Catch ya later, Bill"

"Guess what?" Bill said, walking out the door, "I've got a good ending for my essay. And he lived happily ever after to the end of his junior high days."

"And I'm sure you will," Gary replied.

Bill walked off, singing, "The exam goes on forever more. Down from the heading where it began..." He disappeared down the dark hallway.

"See you later, Bill," Gary said after him.

Gary walked back into the deserted storage room and carefully touched the pen cap, noting the glowing script on the cap.

"Hey, Gary." Freda walked into the band storage room. "Um...where's Bill?" she asked.

"Oh, he left a few minutes ago." Gary stood up, and grabbed his stuff. "Hey, Freda, I've got to go. Catch you later." He walked over to her. "Bill left you this Pen. Keep it somewhere out of sight."

Freda looked at the Pen quizzically, but accepted it, stuffing it into her pocket. "So....you're leaving already?" she asked. "It's only 8:00."

"There are things I must see too. Questions that need answering," he said. "Oh, and I haven't done my homework either."

"Oh...well okay." she said. "See you later, then."

"See you. Keep the Pen secret. Keep it safe."

Review answeres:

Irethancalime3791- It's really cool, cuz you know how I had this posted before before the evil admins took it down? Well, I had already decided to subsitute elvish for spanish, since in my gifted class, a lot of kids take spanish, and we're always annoying everyone else by speaking in spanish to each other.lol...so yeah, I certainly will keep with that tradition, seeing that others like it. :-D Other than that, I'm glad you like this story.It's cool that it fits with your life, since it's based on a lot of my junior high experiences. lol, about the test song, I came up with it in the middle of spanish class when we were taking midterms, which were incrediably long and borring. thanks for reviewing, and have fun in ninth grade...I guess.

Princess of Mirkwood130- lol thanks!!! I'm glad you think it's funny. Even though I know at this point you've probably already started school, good luck anyways. That's funny that you know a boy named Geoffery who does good on scantrons but has bad penmanship. For me, that's most of the boys in my class, wheres I have pretty nice handwriting, even though I think better typing, and I absolutly hate scantrons. I definatly will keep going :-D

blue3ski- Thanks for the compliment. I will update as regularly as possible. God bless you too :)

Earmuffs- thanks! I'm so glad you like Gary's test song...as you know, I came up with it in the middle of taking spanish midterms which were incrediably long, hard, and dull. Hope you liked this chapter.

Alania - Thanks!!! Glad you enjoyed that line...actually describes me really well. Unfortuantly, summer is very far away at the moment... :-D