Next day-lunch break

In the halls by the office, screams could be heard. Geoffrey screamed as he was mercilessly being questioned by the nine football players. He was tied to a chair and being pelted over and over again by footballs.

"MUSIC HALL!!!" he screamed, "BAGGINS!!!"

The doors to the office opened, and the nine football players walked out, heading straight to the music hall.

Meanwhile, Gary logged on to a spare computer in a mini-computer lab. Frowning, he attempted to hack into the school archives. "Where's Grace when you need her?" he muttered, typing in password after password. Finally, he was in. "Finally!" he mumbled to himself. Scrolling down the page, he searched for the tennis team records.

"Found it." Gary clicked on Ian's account, and clicked the print button. Settling back into his chair, he began to read...

Year 2000 of the second semester, here follows an account of Ian S., captain of the school tennis team and the findings of the Pen of power. Well, I found it, so it's going to be a heirloom of the tennis team. All that follow as captain will get the pen for I will risk no hurt to the Pen. It is precious to me, but I buy it with a great pain. The markings on the cap has begun to fade. The writings, which was at first was as clear a teacher's grade on top of some student's paper has disappeared. A secret only the school's lousy heating system can tell...

Gary closed the screen, and grabbing the sheets from the printer, he ran out of the mini-lab.

Back in the music hall, a choir student stepped outside. A football player stepped up to him, and yelled... "MUSIC HALL!!! BAGGINS!!!"

The choir student rolled his eyes. "Okaaay... there are no Baggins in the choir. They're down that way in the band room."

The football player strutted off, and the choir student shook his head, muttering, "football players," as he walked off.

Freda and Samantha walked to their band lockers after practice to put away their instruments. Freda walked into the storage closet, feeling goose bumps crawl up her neck. When she saw her locker, she knew why.

It had been opened, and completely trashed. Freda ran over to it, and tried to straighten it out. "I CAN'T believe someone trashed my locker," Freda muttered, a little more than miffed. A little nervous, she hoped intensely nothing had been taken.

A hand grabbed Freda on the shoulder and she almost screamed. Turning around, she calmed down when she saw it was only Gary.

"Is it secret!?!" He asked worriedly, "Is it safe!?!"

"Oh...the Pen?" she pulled it out from her pocket. "Yeah, but some creep broke into my locker."

Gary took the Pen and threw it on the heater vent against the wall.

"Huh?" Freda said, confused, "what was that for?"

Gary picked it off the vent and handed it to her. "Take it, it's pretty cool. Can you see anything?"

Freda examined the Pen cap, turning it around and around in her palm. Slowly, flame-blue writing began to appear on the cap. "There's some form of short hand....nothing I can read."

"There are few who can. It's written in the Black Speech of the office, which I'd probably be grounded for life if I repeated to a seventh-grader. In modified language, it reads: One Pen to rule them all, One Pen to find them. One Pen to bring them all and in the darkness ...flunk them!!!"

Freda began to eye the Pen warily. Gary continued. "This is the one Pen. Made by the Dark Princaple in the shadows of the office and taken by Ian. S. of the tennis team."

"Wasn't this the pen Bill found in the hallways near Gollum's locker?"

"Yes. For six months the Pen lay quiet with Bill, improving his grades. But not anymore, Freda. Evil is sturing in the office. The Pen is acting up again. It has heard the Principle's call."

"Wait..." she remembered, "wasn't Mr. Sauron fired?"

"He receantly got hired again. His job is bound to the Pen and it survived. Mr.Saroun has returned. His forces has multiplied and his offices remodeled. Mr. Saroun only needs this Pen to enslave the whole school in a shroud of homework and darkness. He's trying to find it and it wants to return to him. They are one, the Pen and the Dark Princaple. Freda, he must never find it."

Freda grabbed the Pen. "Okay," she said decisively, "I'll hide it in my locker, and keep it there. No one knows it's there...do they?" She groaned. "Oh wait...someone broke into my locker."

Gary nodded. "I looked everywhere for the student Geffeory, but the enemy found him first. Through Geoffrey's insane ranting and horrible grammar, they were able to detect the location of your locker."

"But how..."

Gary shrugged, "Mr. Sauron taught them how to break open lockers."

"Wonderful," Freda muttered, "Then you've got to take the Pen."

Gary shook his head. "No way," he protested, "I'd use it for good....and to get good grades...but through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine!!!"

"Well it can't stay in the band room..." Freda said, glancing at her locker.

"No....it can't...." Gary said cryptically, raising an eyebrow and giving her his 'look' the same one he had given her when she put off writing her midterm paper.

Freda nodded. "Okay, point received." She stuffed the Pen in her pocket. "What do I have to do?"

A minute later, she was hurriedly emptying the contents of her band locker into her backpack.

"You must leave this homeroom now, and quickly," the mentor was instructing her. "Make for the cafeteria."

"What about you???" She asked, stuffing her flute into her backpack, along with all her sheet music.

"I'll meet you there, at the furthest table from the lunch line."

"How on earth will the Pen stay safe there," she questioned.

"I don't know. I must go talk to Sheldon, the head of the student mentors. He is both cool and has a perfect GPA. Travel only during break and stay away from the hallways."

Freda zipped her backpack, and turning, faced Gary, even though he was at least two heads taller than her. "I can cut through crowds easy enough," she said.

Gary surprised her by laughing. "Seventh graders are amazing students," he said, "You can learn all about them in the first week but after the first semester, they still continue to suprise you."

"Um...was that a compliment?"

Suddenly, footsteps outside brought the two of them to attention. Gary grabbed Freda and shoved her behind the drumset. "Get down," he hissed urgently. Then, walking over to the door, he threw it open with his binder raised.

Samantha stood outside, completely surprised. "HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING IN!?!" he shouted, pulling her into the storage room.

"Honestly, Gary, I was just walking around outside."

"Fine," said Gary, calm now, after getting over the initial shock. "Well, okay. What did you hear?"

"Something about a Dark Princaple and a Pen and unlimited homework for all students." She eyed his huge binder warily. "Seriously,though, don't hit me with that binder. It's got more in it than most ninth graders have in all three years put together."

"Well...." Gary said, grinning, "I've got a better use for you..."

REVIEWS

Irethancalime3791- Yup, they took down my old fic, accusing it to be "chatroom based and interactive." I swear, their rules are SO unreasonable sometimes!!! I ranted to anyone who would listen for like 3 days straight until I finally calmed down and decided to rewrite this into paragraph form. I'm still not sure which form is better...my old one was close to a 100 reviews, but then again...I only just posted this. Script format was easier to write, but this one lets me describe the way they're saying their 'lines/speeh/whatever it's called. Lol" Don't worry, you don't come off as defending the admins and I'm glad you like it in paragraph format. If you want, I could email you the script format...I was up to council of Elrond on that one. That's so cool that you're a former band nerd!!! GO BAND NERDS!!!

Earmuffs- YAY!!! I'm glad you like the chapter. I was kinda worried that it wouldn't be as good, since there's so much more dialogue than action in this chapter and I wasn't sure how it would come off in story format, but cool!!! My readers like it :-D Thanks for reviewing!!!

Alania- It's so cool (for me at least) how you point out the quotes you like from the chapter. I'm so honored Does Miss America wave...lol. :D Yeah...as I've already mentioned to a few other reviewers, the test song was born in the middle of me taking Spanish Midterms, which was over 50 questions, and extremely hard. I'm glad you like it!!!

The-burglar- I'm glad you like my fic so far!!! As for why I decided to make my Frodo and Sam based characters for two reasons. One- I felt that it would be unrealistic and kinda insulting if a group of guys only were in a group to save the school. I understand why Tolkine kept the Fellowship guys only, but I felt it worked better to add girls to the mix, and both of them were A LOT of fun to write!!! Second reason...when I started writing this in seventh grade last year, I decided that Freda Baggins would be partially modeled after me. Just a little personal thing there :-D

Blue3ski- Thanks! I hope you liked this chapter

Andrew the blood moon- Thanks! I'm glad you like it!!!