Wow, I thought I'd never get this far…after this, I only have one more chapter pre-written (although the whole thing's outlined somewhere; I just have to find it)
Review replies are at the end. Thank you so much, all my reviewers! It really makes my day to check my email and see people are reading what I've written…and gives me an idea what people like.
Nothing is mine but Ruki and Andre, and even they have pilfered names.
Two Story Town, Chapter Six: Who Knows, Part Three
Frodo leaned over Eldarion's math homework, watching Eldarion scribble furiously with an air of patient observation. "Carry the negative sign," he said, pointing, then took a bite of his sandwich. "Ugh. Tuna. I told Bilbo no more fish, but he forgets."
"So pack your own lunch. Or buy." Andre crumpled his potato chip bag into a ball and dropped it onto Eldarion's tray.
Ruki grinned. "Yeah. Be like me. Mountain Dew and a chocolate chip cookie. Want a piece?" Frodo shook his curly head. She sighed nonchalantly and crammed the rest of the aforementioned confection into her mouth. "Oh well. Your loss," she said between bites. "Mmm-mm. Cafeterias will have to fall far indeed before they screw up junk food."
"Do you mind!" Eldarion finally burst out, half-annoyed. "I'm trying to concentrate here!"
"Chill," Andre replied simply. Eldarion gave him a blank yet incredulous stare. "I'm a perfectly normal temperature, thank you," he replied. "And I'm not really angry, Ruki," he told Andre's twin. "I just…you don't know what this past week has been like." He was slightly in shock over how much information he'd learned in the little more than a week he'd been in "Endorville." To make up for his lack of pregained knowledge, he and Frodo had undergone a series of heavy-duty tutoring afternoons, culminating in a "Labor Day" (whatever that was) weekend almost completely devoted to studying. Most of the material he now found fascinating, absorbing his history textbook like a sponge and in awe of the discoveries of "Earth Science." Even the "English" wasn't too bad; it was just analysis. But the math…
"Frodo," he said, turning to his tutor and putting down his pencil (mechanical pencils fascinated him to no end; he thought the idea was very clever), "I just don't see the point. My apologies, but who cares what 'x' equals? The fact that someone figured out these rules work is incredible, but that person must have been really bored." Sarcasm was one trait of "American" teenagers he'd almost fully grasped at this point; life with the Stewart siblings did that to a person. He'd seen them almost every day at lunch, which is where they now all were seated, trying to eat and teach him algebra at the same time.
Turin had found somewhere else to sit; Eldarion didn't know where. They hadn't spoken since that first day, and Turin seemed to be consciously avoiding Eldarion, who felt absolutely terrible. Every time he rode the bus he contemplated approaching the black-haired boy and apologizing, but never mustered the courage for shame. Even if he did apologize, there was no way Turin could forgive him. He'd used his knowledge of Turin's life to hurt him, at least partially aware of what he was doing, and such an abuse was inexcusable. He just counted himself lucky Turin hadn't sought revenge; the other boy had probably figured if he sought to hurt Eldarion somehow, Eldarion would bounce right back with more private information.
Whatever the reason, Eldarion was glad Turin wasn't his out-and-out enemy. He was busy enough as it was, and thanked the Valar every night for Frodo Baggins. Frodo was the ideal tutor—thoughtful, patient, an excellent explainer and a loyal friend—not to mention a figure Eldarion had since young boyhood idolized. The hobbit called Frodo had sailed years before Eldarion's birth, but the stories and songs of the Nine-fingered Ring-bearer lived on still in Gondor, a modern legend and a hero for the fledgling Age. To be his pupil, even though he wasn't technically the same Frodo, was to Eldarion both an honor and a privilege, not to mention enjoyable.
It had taken effort on both their parts, however, to get Eldarion as "Earth-savvy" as possible; Frodo was not a miracle worker. Eldarion had worked long and hard with the short boy's undivided attention, and the former thought that doubtlessly the latter's other friends must feel rejected. This suspicion was confirmed with the advent of three new figures to the table.
A skinny, nearly emaciated boy rushed up and pounced on Frodo, hugging him furiously. "We finds him, we finds him, oh yes we does! Sam! Rosie! We is finding the nasty cruel deserter! Where has you been?"
"Tutoring Eldarion here," Frodo replied, laughing but nonetheless prying himself free of the skinny boy's grasp. "Eldarion, this is Smeagol. He was new last year, and…"
"Frodo was our firstest friend here, oh yes precious he was. No one else would talk to us, because we doesn't speak too well and we is always so sick, we has allergies…" As if to prove his point, Smeagol broke off, coughing in a way that sounded strangely like "gollum, gollum." When he'd recovered, he continued speaking. "And the other children is always making fun of us because of our conditionses, picking on poor Smeagol. But not Frodo! Frodo is acting nicely to us, so we is considering Frodo our best friend, we is. Frodo makeses such a good friend…is that a fish sandwich, precious? Smeagol's grandmother forgetses to pack a lunch for poor Smeagol, and he hates nasty cafeteria food."
"Tuna," Frodo replied resignedly. "Chow down." Smeagol nearly attacked it, devouring the sandwich ravenously as two other kids sidled up, both also eating.
"Hello, Sam," Eldarion said without thinking; in protest of the absolute strangeness of the situation, his mind had shut down somewhere in the middle of Smeagol's speech. "Hello, Rosie."
They stared. "Do we know you?" asked Sam, his mouth full of potatoes.
"No," said Eldarion, thinking fast to make up for his earlier slip, "but Frodo's talked so much about his friends I figured you had to be them." Frodo gave him a look but said nothing. Andre was watching Smeagol with something akin to an actual facial expression; it remotely resembled either disgust or what Ruki called "being freaked out."
His explanation satisfied the two newcomers, and they sat down. "Hi Ruki," Sam said. "Hey Andre. You've both met Rosie, right?"
Apparently Ruki hadn't. "Hey. So you're his girl, huh?" The curly-haired girl giggled and nodded. "Sweet."
A commotion at the other end of the cafeteria broke off all conversation (thankfully; Eldarion could think of nothing to say to Smeagol) as Carey Benmir jumped out of his seat and ran out of the lunchroom, blazing right past the teacher on "door duty" who supposedly kept students in. Celegorm and Curufin soon followed; Maglor, it seemed, did not eat this lunch (Eldarion had never seen him either) and neither Maedhros nor the twins were high-schoolers. "Huh?" asked Ruki, standing up. "What? Hey, you! Over there, at Carey's table!"
To Eldarion's dread and despair, Turin responded to her call, walking over. "Yeah?" he asked, his eyes snapping for a split second onto Eldarion and then off again.
Ruki pointed to the door. "Carey. What got into him?"
Turin stuffed his hands into his pockets. "He got a call on his cell phone. Apparently his oldest brother, the one in college, works in this factory with his half-cousin to make some extra money and…there was an accident."
Smeagol's mouth fell open in mid-bite (he had moved on, unbidden, to the rest of Frodo's lunch); Frodo closed it for him. Ruki thumped back down into her seat, the expression of shock on her face mirroring everyone's except her brother's, who merely looked interested. "Oh, no way."
The history lover in Eldarion forced itself past the little inaccuracies and arrived at a likely possible outcome. "He won't die, Ruki, if that's what you're worried about." Gently he touched her shoulder. "He'll lose a hand, though."
Turin looked straight at him. So did Ruki. "Really?" she asked in a shaking voice. "But he'll be…okay otherwise?"
"More or less." Eldarion shrugged. "I suppose people don't really walk around here hanging each other off of mountains, do they?"
"I missed something," Rosie stated flatly as the bell rang and the masses of teenagers seethed out, Eldarion's slightly shell-shocked table joining the throng. As he fought his way to the door, Eldarion found himself next to Turin. "Hi," he said. Turin said nothing, but he did nod in recognition. Eldarion hoped that was progress.
Math class came and went, leaving Eldarion still in the dark as to why anyone would care what 'x' equaled, if Carey's brother was all right, and how he, Eldarion, would survive without committing verbal suicide if Gollum started frequenting his lunch table. Knowing so much about Smeagol, but not knowing how much applied in this world, made the situation extremely awkward and more than a little, to use a Ruki word, "weird."
Soon it was the final period, Eldarion's only class besides History with a son of Feanor, and he wondered if it would be polite to ask Curufin what the situation was. He sat, unsure, as Curufin came in and sat down, the latter reading something on the screen of what Ruki had told Eldarion was called a "cell phone." Text message, he thought, proud that he'd remembered the term.
As Turin entered, Curufin stood up and spoke to him quietly, Turin nodding sporadically. Finally Turin smiled, then came over to Eldarion and sat down facing him. Eldarion gulped audibly.
"Well," said Turin, folding his hands on the table.
"Well," repeated Eldarion, uncertain what this confrontation meant and trying to assemble his apology in his mind properly. He decided to begin with some off-hand Earth jargon. "What's…uh…up?"
Turin spoke quietly but distinctly. "Curufin's brother Maedhros was extracted from the machine by his friend and half-cousin Fingon. His entire body was unharmed except…" he paused "…his right hand was so badly mangled they amputated it at the hospital." His voice grew even softer. "You were right. You were right about him." Softer still. "And you were right about me." Louder. "I guess you are the real deal, huh."
"Look," Eldarion protested, "I really am sorry about that. I wanted to tell you earlier, but—I just hate what I did. And I won't be completely right all the time, either; things aren't completely parallel. Fingon is supposed to cut off Maedhros's hand because it's the only way to free Maedhros from captivity. And you…you aren't supposed to have ever met Nienor….but it's really fortunate you have…anyway, not everything's the same. It's just…similar. I don't know for sure what's going to happen to you. I don't even know what's going to happen to me! What do you think it's like, being trapped in a world you don't understand where nobody is quite right, but similar enough to make you stare? I've been in a pretty bad mood, I'll admit that, but that's no excuse for what I did to you. Please, please believe me when I say I'll do anything to make it up to you. Turin, I really am sorry."
Turin's eyes softened. "I know," he said in the same soft tone. "I've known since that first day, when you kept looking at me. I just couldn't say anything, because—"he looked down, his voice breaking "—because every time I saw you, I thought of Lalaith. I've been trying not to think about that for years, and then…It was just hard."
"Oh, Turin," sighed Eldarion in a sympathetic groan. "I'm really—"
"I heard you the first time," the dark-haired boy said; then as class began, he changed the subject. "So. Are you really, uh…"
"Always this tactless? Regrettably, yes." Eldarion got supplies for both of them, then sat down.
"Idiot," Turin replied, but he was smiling. "I was going to say, are you really half-elf?" He fetched Eldarion's painting when he went to get his own off the drying rack.
Eldarion picked up a brush. "I showed you my ears, didn't I?"
"Oh yeah. Still."
"To answer your question, yes, I'm really half-elf. On my mother's side." He laughed a little. "I used to try to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed."
"What? Why?" Turin spilled his paint. "Drat."
"Elves sleep with their eyes open, so I figured I'd sleep with one eye open and one eye closed."
"Do you?"
Eldarion grinned sheepishly. "No…I sleep with both half-open."
Turin laughed, a real laugh. "Shut up."
"What does that mean?"
"What do you think? Be quiet, or I don't believe you, stuff like that." Turin rolled his eyes, then looked at him, thoughtful. "Hey. Who are you, really?"
It was quite a loaded question and Eldarion had to pause and think before answering. "I'm not really certain. I'm a prince at home, preparing himself to be the servant of the people, but here I'm just another boy."
"No you're not. You're different." Turin looked him in the eyes. "You're something no one but Beleg's been for a long time. You're my friend."
a/n: Yeah, yeah, sappy cheesy, I know I know I know. So sue me. (Speaking of Sues, I hope no one thinks Ruki is one, because I am really trying to avoid that sort of thing, but it's getting harder, especially in the next trilogy of stories…more on that later.)
Review replies:
Romancebookworm4ever: You know, I really don't know about the costume thing; I think it would be fun to go in costume, but I don't want people to think we work for the fair or anything. (this, btw, is in response to your review marked ch. 2)
Mirowood: No, my life has been plain bloody busy! Anyway, we talked last weekend, so that's good…hope this lived up to your expectations…
Crecy: Yep, Frodo…and everything that comes with him! Hopefully you liked this chapter, even though he didn't talk much, he mostly just got hugged and deprived of his lunch…he'll keep popping up to help poor Eldarion adjust.
That's all for now. Join us next time for "American Pie," the third of five chapter trilogies, in which Eldarion discovers his inner headbanger (sort of) and has to deal with his first real crush. Unfortunately, the girl who likes him isn't the girl he likes, and his chosen lady already has a boyfriend…who has several easily provoked brothers and one seriously unstable father...you asked for more of them, you got them. It's fun with the Benmirs in Chapter Seven of "Two Story Town!" See you then!