It looks like there is nothing shorter to call the Males of Middle-Earthen Extraction than Middle-Earthlings, or MElings, as I think I'll type it. Chibi Chingo suggested "guys", but although that's fine for dialogue, it sounds kind of funny in narrative. theycallmemary suggested ME's. So MElings it is! You have been warned. :) On to the story!

Legolas was woken the next morning by a strange, repetitive noise. He sat up and looked around, momentarily disoriented.

There was a groan from the other side of the room, and Megan sat up as well and touched a device by the bed. Immediately, the noise ceased.

"Seven o'clock, Kate. Get up," she said, nudging her roommate.

Katie groaned. "Stupid eight o'clock classes," she muttered.

"What are you complaining about?" Megan growled. "You don't have class until nine."

"Heh. Sucks to be you." Megan hit her with a pillow. "Ouch! Besides, you always wake me up when you get up anyway, so I don't know what the difference is," she added as Megan trudged out of the room, grabbing some things from her closet as she went.

The MElings stood and stretched, exchanging a few words. Katie took some of the clothing they had bought last night and handed it to them. "I'm gonna go change; you guys should put these on. I'll be right back." She left the room and shut the door firmly behind her.

Elladan looked doubtfully at the clothes he held. "I do not know if I want to look like a Pennsylvanian," he said as Elrohir took off his tunic and pulled on the "t-shirt" Katie had supplied him with. Megan had chosen it; it was dark blue with a stylized white cat's head over the left breast. Megan had called it "the Nittany Lion".

"Oh, it isn't so bad," Elrohir answered. "They seem to have some interesting heraldic devices here."

In a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door, and they let Katie back in. She looked them over appraisingly. "You three need to pull your hair back," she said to the elves. "Estel's will pass, but yours is really long." She passed Legolas a brush and a hair band, and showed him how she wanted them to do their hair—in what she called a "low ponytail".

By the time Megan came back, a bit more awake and her hair all wet, the elves all had their hair in low ponytails. "Wow," she said, glancing over them. "You might actually pull this off!"

"Breakfast time," Katie said, pulling out one of the drawers and handing them each a small, bright pink object.

"What are these?" Estel asked as they examined the things they had given them. Legolas scrutinized his own. It was some strange kind of envelope, of a shiny, flexible material that made a crackling noise. In large silver letters it read, "Nutri-Grain". What was inside, he couldn't even begin to imagine.

"They're food," Katie explained. "Here." She took Estel's and demonstrated how to open the package.

The elves opened their own and looked at the food inside a little apprehensively. Elladan took the lead and took a hesitant bite. He chewed and swallowed it while the other three and the girls watched. "It is not terrible," he said finally. "A little bland, but not bad."

The others ate in silence, and Katie did as well. Megan, meanwhile, did something to the large black device on her desk, which began to hum. A picture suddenly appeared on the black glass. Legolas moved nearer to examine it. There was a magnificently realistic painting of a flower, with tiny stylized pictures and words on it. Megan sat down in front of the device and pulled out a wide, shallow drawer over her lap.

Inside was a black tray of small squares with letters and characters written on them in white, and beside it a dark blue and silvery thing which Megan rested her hand on and moved around a bit. In tandem, a white arrow moved across the screen. The arrow came to rest over one of the small pictures, and there was a clicking noise. Instantly, something appeared behind the glass. With a few more clicks, a small black panel began to display changing abstract patterns of bright colors. Simultaneously, the sound of music sprang up from the direction of the device. The other three MElings hovered over Megan, staring at he psychedelic display.

"What is this?" Elladan asked, indicating the black box.

"It's a computer," Megan answered. "It's a very powerful and useful machine."

"Where is the music coming from?" Legolas asked, gingerly touching the glass panel. A man's voice, singing, could be heard. "Are the musicians in the next room?"

Katie laughed. "No, the music is recorded, just like the woman's voice in the computer last night. The sound comes out of the speakers." She pointed to two black boxes on either side of the larger box.

Katie and Megan explained in very broad terms about the parts of the computer and what they did. Megan got up and began putting books in a bag while Katie demonstrated "typing". Her fingers danced rapidly over the keys, throwing up a sentence on the screen.

"You are quite quick," Elrohir commented admiringly.

"Fingers of Fury, that's her," Megan said with a laugh.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Megan called, and as he was the nearest to the door, Legolas opened it as the person on the other side began to do so.

"Whoop!" the visitor said as it startled her. For a moment, she stared up at him in complete surprise.

She had dark brown, curly hair pulled back in a large, loose knot on the back of her head, and very pretty dark eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles. She wore a light gray hoodie and a pair of jeans, and her shoes were what Katie had called "sneakers".

"Hello," she said, a little dazed.

"Good morning," Legolas answered courteously, stepping back a little farther to let her into the room.

"Hey, Liz," Megan said casually.

Liz took a step inside and tore her gaze away from Legolas, only to be confronted with the sight of the other three very good-looking guys. "Hey," she said, a little uncertainly. "You ready to go to psych?"

"Yeah. Guys, this is Liz," Megan said, beginning the introductions.

"Hey," she repeated weakly.

"And this is Dan, Ron, uh, Lee and Eric," Katie continued, thinking fast. All four of the guys made an identical gesture, bowing their heads and touching their hearts with their right hands. Liz just stared.

"C'mon, let's go," Megan said quickly, grabbing her arm and bustling her out of the room. She threw a speaking glance over her shoulder at Katie as she shut the door firmly behind them.

"Whew," Katie said. "I thought for a second we were goners."

"Eric?" Estel asked incredulously.

"Hey, it's the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment. And you'd better learn those names, too. Hopefully Megan can come up with a reason why you're here. Oh, and the next time you meet someone, if it's someone my age, just say, "Hey" or "Hello" or "Pleased to meet you" or something. Don't bow. Nobody does that here. If it's an adult, you might shake their hand. That's it."

Elrohir smiled. "Are you telling us to be less courteous?" he teased.

"Yes! Be less courteous!" Katie agreed, laughing.

Legolas asked a question that had been bothering him since he had woken up. "What was that strange noise this morning?"

"What strange noise?"

"It was a repetitive sound, and Megan sat up and touched that device, and it stopped," he clarified.

"Oh, that! It was the alarm clock." She explained digital clocks to them, as well as the light switch.

"And what is this?" Elrohir asked, indicating an off-white object on one of the dressers.

"That's a phone—a telephone," Katie explained. "We use them to talk to other people across wide distances. See you pick up the receiver," she demonstrated, "and you dial the phone number by pressing buttons. Each specific seven-digit phone number will connect you with another phone somewhere in the world. It rings, and the other person picks up, and then you can talk to each other You speak into his end and listen through this." Her visitors looked skeptical. "Alright, I'll show you. This," she said, digging through her back and producing a small silver object, "is another kind of phone: a cellular, or cell phone. I'll go out in the hall, call the room phone, and you pick it up and we'll talk."

She went out into the hall and shut the door behind her. In a moment, the phone rang. Elladan picked it up and held the receiver gingerly to his ear as she had demonstrated. A look of surprise crossed his face. "Hello," he said. "Yes, I do. One moment." He passed the receiver to Elrohir, who also said a few words, and then on to Estel, who finally passed it to Legolas.

"Hello?" he said uncertainly.

"Hello, Legolas!" He heard Katie's voice, a trifle distorted, through the receiver. "So what do you think of the phone?"

"It is a marvelous device," he said admiringly. "How far away can you be and still speak to others through it?"

"Anywhere there are phone lines," Katie answered. "You can talk to someone on the other side of the world. Alright, I'm going to hang up, now. Put the receiver back on the other part of the phone."

Legolas complied, and in a minute Katie came back into the room. "Oh, man, look at the time!" she said, glancing at the clock. "I have to get to class." She began putting books in a large bag, just as Megan had. "I'm sorry to abandon you like this, but you need to stay in this room until either Megan or I return. You can read something if you like." She gestured to the bookshelves. "I'll be back in two hours!" She left the room.

The four remaining looked at one another. Now what?

000

All four of them made an expedition to the bathroom. Legolas was glad that Megan had demonstrated the zippers on their jeans at the store before they tried them on so that they didn't have to ask her how they worked. Legolas just happened to press a lever on the side of the chamber pot, and jumped back when the water swirled and disappeared, the bowl refilling with clean water. He told the other how it worked, and they returned to Katie and Megan's room.

They each took a seat someplace in the room and looked about them.

"What do you think?" Estel asked in Elvish. "Of our situation, I mean?"

Elladan shook his head. "I don't know what to think. Presumably, we are here to achieve something for Eru that would not have happened otherwise, and then we will be returned to Imladris."

"And we do not know how long that may take," Legolas stated flatly.

"It may not be long," Estel said hopefully. "Katie was only in Middle Earth for a little over a week."
"We must hope we are only here for that long. But we must remember that it could be a very long time," Elrohir reminded him. They all fell silent for a minute. Without speaking, thy all realized how very thankful they were that they had each other and were not alone here.

"I think I know how Katie must have felt," Legolas said quietly. "She laughed so much because she wanted to forget that feeling of helplessness."

Elladan shook himself. "Well, we must remember that we all have a purpose in the future of Middle Earth," he said bracingly. "We will return sooner or later."

By the time Megan returned to the room, the four MElings were sitting in various positions around the room, reading Katie's books. Estel was reading Hamlet, Legolas had his nose in Macbeth, and the twins were engrossed in The Chronicles of Narnia. Megan herself settled down to her homework for another hour until Katie came in. When she saw what their visitors were reading, she laughed.

"Enjoying yourselves?" she asked, dropping her bag on the floor.

"Yes, and you?" Estel looked up from his book and smiled.

"Well, math class is never enjoyable." Katie shrugged. "What do you think of the play?"

"I do not like the Prince of Denmark much," Estel admitted. "He vacillates and does not kill his uncle when he knows he needs to."

Katie laughed. "I agree. Hamlet drove me nuts. Good play, though." She moved to her desk and flipped a switch, starting up her computer.

After awhile, someone knocked on the door. "Come in," Megan and Katie called in unison.

"Hey, guys, you want some lunch?" It was Liz and another girl—quite tall, with dark hair in a ponytail and dark eyes. She wore the ubiquitous t-shirt and jeans.

"Yeah." Megan closed her book and stood. "Dana, this is Dan, Ron, Lee and Eric. Dan, Ron and Eric are Katie's cousins, and Lee's Eric's friend. This is Dana."

"Hey," Dana said casually.

"Hey," the MElings all answered, as instructed.

All eight of them trooped out into the hall. Legolas found himself next to Dana, and was surprised to find that she was nearly six feet tall, the height of an elven female, while Megan, on his other side, was not quite five feet tall, only about a foot and a half over hobbit-size.

By the main stairwell, Liz paused and pressed a button on the wall, which lit up. "Bummer," she said, and they all went down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairwell, they entered a large room with wall-to-wall carpeting and a number of comfortable-looking chairs and couches about the room, and green plants and end tables. It was cheerful and well-lit, with large windows. They went through another door, and Megan, Dana and Liz held up something on their keys to a person sitting at a table by the door. "We'll save a table," Liz told Katie.

Katie paid for her guests' meals, and then took them into what must have been the dining hall. It was a very large room, even larger than the one they had just come through, with a wooden floor and about thirty large, round tables surrounded by chairs. On two sides were very high windows, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling.

The tables were full of girls, mostly dressed the same way as their hosts. Almost all of them had hair just past their shoulders or shorter. As Katie led them toward the kitchens, the tables they passed fell silent and stared after them. Legolas, with his acute elven hearing, could catch some of the things they said.

"Woo! Where'd she pick them up?"

"Oh my God. They're not from frat row!"

Someone whistled, and several of them laughed good-naturedly and went back to their meal. But one girl called after them, "Katie! Who're your friends?"

Katie ignored them, blushing furiously. They soon reached the relative safety of the kitchen. Katie turned back to her guests. They each had an identical look of shock on their faces.

"Welcome to women's college," she stated flatly.

TBC

AN: This is really hard to write. It takes forever just to describe them getting in the car, or Megan starting up the computer! I hope you don't find it tedious.

BabeBunny: Thanks! Always happy to see new faces. :)

Ravens Destiny: That's what my roommate said. She thinks elves are girly. I've been trying to change her mind. :) Ooh, that sounded like it hurt! Poor Elladan! —runs to him and hugs him— Did the mean ole' reviewer hurt you? Here, let me kiss it and make it better! lol It'd be fun to be co-authors with someone. I oughta collaborate with someone sometime.

EresseElrondiel: —imagines Legolas in a dress, and Katie (much shorter than him) introducing him as her little sister— Heh.

ALMENEL: Wow, I didn't think girl's schools were all that prevalent. Chibi Chingo also said she went to an all-girl's high school. They're not very common around here!

Darkened Dreams: —sings— When we walked down the brae, not a word did we say, it was (beat) almost like bein' in love!

Thanks also to ChibiChingo, Hermione at Heart, Madd Hatter and theycallmemary! I loved seeing all those reviews in my inbox!

If I get a lot of reviews, I might have Watson College hold a karaoke night! (I know, I know… Bribery is such an ugly word.)