Finally! I have finished! Enjoy the second year of the Fellowship! This is the sequel to the Fellowship of the German Students, so please read that first.
Disclaimer: I don't own the people or anything Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.
And my appologies to Senior Oman, Mr. Smith, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Hoppis and anyone else I may have insulted.
Celina und der Lehers Stein
By Kari "Celina"
Finally! It was the first day of school! Celina had been waiting all summer to get back to school. Yes, she really had gone insane.
As soon as she had gotten to school, Celina had found Christel and Elisabeth. To the German Room they walked.
Sadly, Herr Beck was not in the room when they got there. The members of the Fellowship were greeted by a group of eighth graders.
"Ahh! What are you doing here? And what have you done with Herr Beck!" Christel sobbed.
The new first years only looked around at each other nervously.
"Hey…some of you don't look like German students to me…" Elisabeth said evilly. "Maybe we should 'sort' them…" And with that, she pulled out a very beaten wizard hat from Halloweens past. She then placed it on a stool, and stood there, watching. "Why won't you sing!" she yelled at it.
Celina and Christel looked to each other. "Someone's been reading a bit too much Harry Potter lately…" Celina whispered.
Elisabeth had given up on the singing and just started sorting. She placed the dead hat on the head of a shaky new German student. After letting it sit on his head for a few moments, Elisabeth finally came to a verdict. "Gryffindor!"
"Um…Elisabeth…we don't have a Gryffindor wing…" Celina mentioned.
Elisabeth just glared. "Gryffindor, German, same thing."
So Elisabeth went down the line of new students. "Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff (non-German student), Gryffindor… Slytherin! GET OUT!" she screamed at the poor Spanish student that came to hang out with his friends.
"Maybe we should just leave for now. We'll get to see Herr Beck during class..." Christel suggested, eyeing the steaming Elisabeth.
"Oh! But we need to do something to annoy him!" Celina complained. Then she spotted the white board. "Yay! Chalk board! Let us leave a message for dear Herr Beck..." She picked up a large stone that she believed to be a rather lumpy piece of chalk.
"Celina…the chalk boards have been changed…that's a white-" Elisabeth got cut off by the screeching of rock against white board.
"Die…Pinguine…werden…die Welt…" Celina spoke slowly as she wrote. "…regier-"
But before Celina could finish her lovely sentence (the penguins will rule the world), Herr Beck walked through the door, mumbling to himself about Snapple. Then he looked up and spotted what was in Celina's hand. "Der Lehers Stein!" he yelled, launching himself across the classroom.
Celina squeaked and jumped out of the way.
"Give me that stone!" Herr Beck demanded as soon as he had pulled himself from the floor.
"What stone?" Celina asked.
"What you have in your hand!"
"No this is chalk. And it's mine. Mein einzige…mein kostbar…(my only, my precious)" Celina started petting the stone and gave everyone in the room a Gollum-ish glare.
"Fine, keep it, but be warned. The dark principal-" Herr Beck started to warn Celina, but was cut off by Elisabeth.
"Could it be the dark wizard?"
Herr Beck sighed. "Let me guess, Harry Potter?" All three nodded. "Whatever. Mr. Smith wants the stone."
"But wasn't Mr. Smith fired last year? You know, after that incident with the paperclip?" asked Elisabeth.
"Some say he was fired. Hogwash, I say. He isn't human enough to be fired. I reckon he's out there somewhere, waiting for his chance for power again," Herr Beck whispered to the three second years.
"He really didn't have that much power anyway! He was just the stupid principal!" Christel yelled.
"Quiet! We don't want to scare off the first years!" Herr Beck chided.
"Uh, right..." Celina mumbled, looking at the first years cowering in the corner. "Anyway, shouldn't Mr. Smith be like Dumbledoor or something?"
"No, he's far too evil."
"What? We don't have a Dumbledoor! We're doomed! Doomed!" screamed Elisabeth.
"This really isn't making much sense..." Celina pointed out.
"Neither did the Fellowship of the German Students, but that didn't stop you. I need to get more Snapple from the teachers' lounge." And with that, Herr Beck left the German students.
"But why would anyone want a stone?" Christel asked.
All eyes turned to Celina.
"But she's insane, she doesn't count."
"Hey! I think I'm the most sane one here at the moment!" But everyone ignored her.
Elisabeth stole the rock from Celina and the three girls gathered around it.
"Maybe it has special powers, like eternal life!" Elisabeth said.
"Or maybe it lets you speak German really well!" Christel suggested.
Der Lehers Stein was handed back to Celina.
"Try it!" Elisabeth prompted. "Say something!"
"Etwas (something)," Celina said simply.
The three of the Former Fellowship of the German Students started cheering. The new first years stared in awe for a moment then stampeded over SgM Beyers, who had just come into the room to ask Herr Beck for some white out, to carry Celina and friends like sports heroes.
During their ninth lap being carried around the German portable in hero fashion, the bell rang. Quickly dropping the three friends, the first year German students rushed back inside.
After saying goodbye, Celina headed off to marching band. Christel and Elisabeth headed off to, well, no one really knows where they disappeared to for the four and a half hours between first and "fifth" periods. (it's really fourth! THEY just want to screw up all the ninth graders this year and changed it to fifth. Reading is NOT a period!)
Finally, Celina escaped from her "fourth" period class. She could hardly tolerate all the new eighth graders in JROTC. At least Mini-Kris, whose older brother had previously tried to kill her, would make a good Gryffendor once he would come of age to join the language classes (or rather just signed up for them…).
But now, now was the class she had been waiting for all day. Deutsch II. Quickly, while none of her classmates in JROTC were watching, Celina slipped through the door into Portable A. One of the first to arrive, Celina could choose to sit where ever she wanted, not that it would matter much as the new seating chart would be enforced as soon as class began.
Celina strode over to her old desk of the last tri of her first year. With a loud thunk, Celina's backpack landed on the rickety desk. From there, Celina patiently watched as her fellow Second Years came in.
Soon Chistel joined her, and then Elisabeth. She soon recognized Bodo from last year. Many students came that she did not recognize as German Students, but recognized them from the hallways.
As she waited and observed, Celina figured out that this was a class of only Freshmen. The other High School German II students must have been in another class. That explained why Sonja, Volker, and company were not there, but others were missing. Soon Eva appeared in the doorway, leaving only one of the Broken Fellowship of the German Students.
The bell rang but Celina continued to stare at the door. Adrianna would come, she knew it! Maybe she got confused by the new schedule. Maybe she was attacked by some orc-upgraded-to-Uruk-hai (a now eighth grader). What ever happened, Adrianna HAD to come.
After a few moments, Herr Beck started the seating chart. Somehow Bodo and Günther had ended up together and right next to Celina. At least Eva sat in front of her.
Celina kept careful track of the seats of absent students. But Herr Beck came to the last row, and Adrianna's name was not called.
Celina's arm shot into the air. "Herr Beck!"
Herr Beck turned to her. "Celina? Hast du eine Frage?" (Do you have a question?)
"Ja, ich habe eine Frage. Wo ist Adrianna? Hey, that rhymed." (Yes, I have a question. Where is Adrianna? Hey, that rhymed.)
Herr Beck looked at his binder, shuffled a few papers, looked up at the class and then down at his papers. "Nicht in das Klasse. (Not in this class)"
Celina stood up dramatically and cried out, "NEIN! (NOOOOO!)"
After an uncomfortable silence and no acknowledgement that it had happened from Herr Beck, Celina sat down.
After shuffling even more papers around, Herr Beck handed out a half sheet of blue paper and two index cards with instructions in German. The review/race-with-the-other-class started.
After what seemed like forever of various people standing up and staring at the index card stupidly, or not even realizing that their event had been triggered by another classmate, the review was over. Fifth period had beat second period by about 2 minutes.
"Yes! Take that …other Gryffindors… Wow, they're Gryffindors, too. That completely ruins the victory…" Celina mumbled to Eva.
Eva stared back at her without a clue about what Celina had said. She had not been told of the Harry Potter theme for the year.
The blue question sheets were collected and a pile of paperwork handed out. Everyone groaned at their backpacks being filled with even more papers to have signed and returned.
Soon the bell rang and everyone headed to…uh…whatever last period was.
Celina was now in Language Arts in a room of people she had never met before. The only familiar face was that of Isabel, the Spanish student. She made her way over to Isabel and sat in the desk to her left.
Isabel looked over at her nervous classmate. "Scared, Copeland?"
Celina straightened and pulled her pencil out, holding it like a wand in Isabel's face. "You wish."
"Seriously! You're visibly shaking!" Isabel whispered somewhat loudly, backing away from the pencil in her face.
"Oh." Celina lowered her pencil.
Their new teacher introduced herself and gave them a new seating chart arranged by cards. After a "ice breaker" activity, Celina still felt as alone as before, just now she knew the favorite CDs of people she still didn't know.
While Mrs. Schefter told the ancient Greek creation story, Celina looked around the room.
It was then that an oddly familiar looking red head mumbled, "I thought this was supposed to be a Language Arts class, not Greek Mythology."
Celina recognized the voice from the cheering first years this morning. She turned to the red head and whispered, "Are you by chance a German Student? First period?"
"Yeah, my name's (blank)."
Celina stared at her with a blank face. "I am never going to remember that."
"Yeah, even I have problems remembering it. My real name is Jessica."
Someone then pointed out how disgusting and incest-ic the Greek creation story was. Mrs. Schefter took the rest of the period to point out how the Christian creation story was just as "gross" in those regards.
Celina was glad when the bell rang and the day was over.
The next day came, not greeted with as much enthusiasm as the first. Marching band was rather painful with the sun constantly in Celina's eyes (dang the position of clarinetists!). Next period, Celina was again sitting on the hard ground of the gym for reading. Math and then lunch passed quickly enough, but JROTC could not have gone more slowly.
Finally it was time for German.
The blue review papers were passed back. There was one very, VERY common mistake that Herr Beck took the time to point out and make fun of the subject.
"Was Farbe ist das Kreuz? (What colour is the cross?)" Herr Beck quoted the blue sheet. The day before, during the review, Celina had drawn a cross on an overhead.
Many people looked down to their papers to find 'Celina' written in that blank.
Herr Beck continued. "Ja, ja, eine Farbe... Rot, blau, grün, CELINA...(Yeah, yeah, a colour... Red, blue, green, CELINA...)"
Many students smacked their heads for their stupid mistakes, including Celina. Then something occurred to her. "Ich bin eine Farbe jeztz! (I'm a colour now!)"
The rest of the class period continued normally, until, as Celina was about to sprint across campus to get to her Language Arts class on time, Herr Beck pulled her aside.
"You should leave der Lehers Stein with me," he told her.
"But this thing comes in handy!" she protested, throwing it at the back of Bodo's head as he left the classroom. The stone hit its mark and promptly came back to Celina's waiting hand. "See?"
Herr Beck raised his ten fingers in that oh-so-familiar-but-never-used-on-Celina threat. Slowly he lowered one finger.
"Fine!" Celina yelled, panicking and shoving der Lehers Stein into Herr Beck's hands. She had never lost a point on her Green Card (an odd system of daily behavior points), and she did not wish to.
Though five of his fingers were now closed around the troublesome rock, the one he had lowered sprung back up. "You still have ten points, and by the way, it's after class, so that wouldn't have actually counted." Herr Beck walked smiling to behind his desk, opened the door to dem Achtenschrank (the large, mysterious closet behind his desk), and chucked the stone in rather carelessly.
At this time, Celina realized that she had little time to get to her Greek Mythology/Language Arts class. Celina sprinted down the hallway, knocking people out of her way with her clarinet, calling out apologies as she did so. By some miracle, Celina was in class and in her seat by the time the bell rang.
The next couple of weeks passed rather normally for Celina and her friends.
Except for once, during the lunch that Celina, Elisabeth and Christel came in to torture Herr Beck, he was gone and the Achtenschrank was open. Celina took this moment to try to find der Lehers Stein. Herr Beck lost Das deutsche Lehrbuch des Übels for who knows how long, maybe he would figure the same had happened to the stone…
Before Celina had much of a chance to rummage around the closet, a rather large, apparently three-headed, rat scurried out and attempted to gnaw off Celina's left arm. The three girls ran from the room quickly.
Also, there was that one time, when someone in the Language Arts corridor pulled the fire alarm.
Celina was in German class at the time and had to stand around outside, wasting precious class minutes. Staring at the main building in hopes of fire, Celina instead noticed Senior Oman running to the portables. Through the open back door, she also saw him go into the German portable.
The next day, when sent to find Isabel for marching band (for she had been in the bathroom far too long) Celina passed Senior Oman's room and noticed that his left arm was wrapped in many bandages.
Okay, so a lot did happen in those few weeks, but what happened the next day was far more important.
The Broken Fellowship of the German Students was just getting up from their lunch table when Mr. Hoppis, the janitor, caught them. "Stop! You all have detention!"
Celina stopped at once without warning to the rest of the Fellowship, who had been following her and who also ran into her, creating the ever amusing domino effect. "Wha-What'd we do?" asked Celina, quivering. Never before had she gotten detention. True, she probably deserved it a few times, but she had never been caught. She wondered if this might have anything to do with accidentally putting holes in the field during marching band or perhaps the "accidental" stealing and hiding of all the school garbage cans.
"'Wha-what'd we do?'" Mr. Hoppis mimicked. "You have left a huge mess at the lunch table every day this week! How the heck did you come by twenty lunch trays, anyway!"
"But it's Monday," Eva mumbled.
"And except those two, all of us bring our own lunches!" Celina exclaimed, pointing behind herself, only to find that Kelly and Christel had fled during the confusion of the domino effect. "Dang…"
"So you three will get detentions and have to clean the lunch room for a week."
"But Dad…how could we have done all that?" Celina asked, pointing at the huge pile of lunch trays and school 'food' that was at the table.
"Why did you call me that?" Mr. Hoppis asked, very startled.
"Well, actually it would be 'father-in-law' or something like that," Celina started to explain. She still got a blank look from Mr. Hoppis as well as Eva and Elisabeth. "Remember that group of idiots last year who always called you Dad? Well, since I'm dating one I'm kind of in the family…" Celina batted her eyelashes.
"Okay, I won't give you detention if you forget all that 'lunchroom family' stuff ever happened," Mr. Hoppis bargained. He had hoped that it would be forgotten after those freaks from the back of the lunchroom had gone to the high school.
As Mr. Hoppis was having flashbacks of the previous year, Celina, Elisabeth and Eva were celebrating.
"However," Mr. Hoppis interrupted the girls, "You will have to stay after school and help me find the wounded rat in the gym locker rooms."
What little was left of the Fellowship stopped cheering at once. "Ew…as in going INTO the guys' locker room? You can't do that to us! And why the hell do we have to look for a wounded rat?"
"Because we can't have a rat getting blood all over the school. And yes I can do that to you. Of course, I could give you detention instead…"
The three girls looked around glumly at each other. "Fine."
At 2:40, Celina, Elisabeth and Eva met Mr. Hoppis in front of the gym. They noticed right away that he had a crossbow.
"Okay, you three go into the boys' lockers and I'll go into the girls' locker room. If you find the rat, I don't know, make a lot of noise," Mr. Hoppis ordered.
"Why do we have to go into the male locker room? And why do you have a crossbow with you?" Elisabeth asked.
"In case I run into whatever has been killing rats."
All three girls thought about this for a moment.
Then Celina spoke. "No! What if it's just a cat! You can't kill a poor kitty!"
Eva and Elisabeth were thinking of their own safety. "But what if we run into it! What are we supposed to do!"
Mr. Hoppis darted into the girls' locker room before he had to answer. So the Fellowship did likewise, except into the guys' locker room.
They wandered in the dark and winding path that was the male locker room for only a few seconds before Celina slipped and nearly cracked her skull open.
Celina picked herself up quickly, growling furiously, "What was that? And why the hell aren't the lights on in here!" Then she noticed what she had slipped on. "Hey, is that rat blood?"
Eva noticed the blood and nearly puked.
Elisabeth on the other hand crouched down to get a better look at the red pool. "No, it's human."
"How can you tell?" Celina asked, also bending to inspect the oddly large puddle.
Elisabeth grinned evilly. "I've been watching a lot of vampire movies lately." She waited for Celina to look surprised and for Eva to quell another wave of nausea. "And also, THAT is rat blood." She pointed to the black trail that they had overlooked when Celina slipped.
Following the trail of black blood, the Fellowship wandered through the twists and turns of the male locker room for what seemed like forever. Or at least long enough for Celina to start complaining of the design and the stench.
"Ugh! It smells horrible in here!" she moaned.
"What do you expect? It's the MALE locker room," Elisabeth choked out.
"At least no one's left a dead cow in the ventilation system yet," Eva mumbled quietly.
Celina froze. Somehow she just knew it would happen all too soon.
"Um, Celina, I was just joking. Come on."
Finally they reached the main open area, their dead rat, and something they didn't expect.
Hunched over the carcass of the two foot long rat was a cloaked figure. The Fellowship was absolutely silent…except for Celina.
"Wow, now that is an R.O.U.S (rodent of unusual size) if I've ever seen one!" Celina whistled appreciatively.
The figure looked up at the Fellowship, shining blood dripping from his mouth.
Celina screamed, Eva nearly fainted, and Elisabeth yelled. "GET HIM!"
The cloaked figure sprinted from the locker room, nearly knocking Herr Beck over as he entered. Herr Beck then notice the three girls. "What are you doing in here!"
"Mr. Hoppis had us looking for the injured rat instead of doing detention, and when we got here we found that freak drinking it's blood!" Celina spoke rapidly with over-exaggerated hand motions.
It was then that Herr Beck managed to look past the girls to see the rat. "To drink rat's blood, it must have been desperate. Once the blood touches your lips you're cursed to a half life."
"Why?" asked Elisabeth.
"Because it's just so disgusting."
"Oh."
"Now, if you don't mind, could you please leave?" Herr Beck asked.
The girls darted out of there as quickly as possible.
"It was Senior Oman! I just know it!" Celina told Eva and Elisabeth as they walked to Christel's house.
"You didn't see his face; how could you possibly know?" Elisabeth asked.
Celina turned and started walking backward in order to have eye contact with Eva and Elisabeth. "Remember how I told you I saw him running into the German portable during the fire drill? Well, the next day I saw him and his left arm was all bandaged up! He was trying to get the stone!" She ran into the Doughertys' mail box seconds after explaining her theory.
"But why would he want to be able to speak German well?" Eva asked.
"Maybe so he could make fun of Herr Beck in his own language?" Elisabeth suggested.
Celina picked herself off the ground and continued to walk backwards. "No, I don't think so. You see, at first I thought he wanted it for himself, but after what happened in the lockers today-" Elisabeth pulled Celina out of the way of an angry driver. "Thanks. Anyway, after what happened today, I'm sure that he wants it for Mr. Smith!"
"But Mr. Smith's gone. And why would he want to speak German anyway?" Elisabeth asked, pulling Celina out of the road again.
"I don't know. But I'm absolutely sure that Mr. Smith has something to do with it and Senior Oman's helping him!"
"Maybe the stone really grants eternal life, like in the real books," Eva suggested.
Celina and Elisabeth stared at her for a moment and then burst out laughing.
The next morning Celina was wandering the halls with her friend Kris of the idiots who still didn't take German. It was a few minutes before marching band would begin, and Kris had since apologized for trying to (but failing miserably at) kill Celina the previous year.
As they passed the Spanish room Isabel stormed out carrying a large piñata-like object. "I can't believe there's a stupid sub! I need to turn this in TODAY!" she yelled at no one.
"But...I saw him in the hall just a minute ago...why would he have a sub?" Celina asked no one, though Kris thought she was speaking to him.
"Because maybe he has something planned for today and he just came in to check that the sub has everything ready."
"Of course! He'd going to steal der Lehrers Stein today!" Celina yelled.
"What?" Kris was clueless as usual.
"Tell Dr. G I'll be a bit late for band today!" she yelled at him as she ran towards the portables. "Not that he'll care, I'm just a double..."
When she burst into the German portable she was rather displeased to find Herr Beck wasn't there. So she went next door to the other teacher she could trust.
"Sgm! Senior Oman is going to try to steal der Lehrers Stein! He had bites on his arm from that stupid three headed rat! He tried to steal it during the fire drill!" It was then that she noticed the piñata-like object hanging in the corner by his desk. "Where'd you get that piñata?"
"That's ridiculous! Senior Oman is one of the teachers protecting the stone, why would he try to steal it? He probably just went to make sure it was safe and Fluffy just got a little over excited."
"Fluffy? You named the rat Fluffy?" Celina asked in disbelief.
"Yes. He's actually really fluffy when you wash his fur. All you have to do is play a little music and he'll go right to sleep. Then it's really easy to give him a bath. I shouldn't have told you that."
"Did you by chance let that slip to anyone else? Such as Senior Oman? Was anyone particularly interested in the rat? Such as Senior Oman?" Celina asked.
"Well, there was someone in a black cloak in the teachers' lounge that was really interested in Fluffy. But how often do you find a giant three headed rat? And he had that there piñata with him, and you know how I've been wanting a piñata lately, so he and I played a card game and..."
Celina couldn't believe her ears. Not everyone carried a piñata around since the anti-piñata laws had been passed six years previous and not everyone was interested in a three headed rat that seemed to only attack left arms. And very few wore black cloaks into the teachers' lounge. "Did you by chance tell this cloaked bloke much about the rat? Such as how to get past it?"
"I can't remember."
Celina cursed his old age, but she was certain that the man with the piñata had been Senior Oman and that he now knew how to get past Fluffy.
Elisabeth just happened to walk into the room moments before Celina would have to speak again, providing a good escape. As soon as Elisabeth walked in she was drug back out by Celina.
"He's going to try to get the stone tonight! Sgm told him how to get past Fluffy!" Celina shouted at the near-zombie in front of her.
Elisabeth rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Who's doing what to Sgm and what's a Fluffy?"
"You haven't had your morning Starbuck's, have you?"
Elisabeth shook her head.
Celina sighed. "Fun, I get to explain elaborate plans for junior high domination to a zombie. A bunch of teachers have put defenses on the Achtenschrank, but Senior Oman must have figured out how to get past them already. The only thing that was stopping him was that stupid three headed rat that tried to rip my left arm off, but he tricked Sgm into-"
"The rat tricked Sgm?" Elisabeth started to giggle. "And what's that have to do with a fluffy pillow?"
"There is no fluffy pillow! The rat's name is Fluffy and Senior Oman tricked Sgm! So now he knows how to get past the rat. He'll try to get the stone today, I know it!" She looked at her sleepwalking partner. "If I get you a Mountain Dew will you wake up?"
After Celina was one dollar poorer and Elisabeth one can of liquid caffeine more awake, finally a plan began to form. A really simple plan, but a plan none the less.
"We'll have to steal it first."
Eva and Krystal had been informed of the heist during Reading period and had just met Celina and Elisabeth in front of the German portable. Lunch had began five minutes ago, but that was as soon as the Remainder of the Fellowship could escape.
Unfortunately, Chelsea had just walked out of the JROTC room. "Hey! Ka-" she started.
"NEVER SPEAK MY TRUE NAME!" Celina screamed before the last syllable could be heard.
Chelsea blinked and attempted speaking again. "Um, okay, Arki." Celina's left eye twitched involuntarily, though Chelsea did not seem to notice. "Be-" She did, however, notice Elisabeth's glare at her true name. "Okay, I don't know what to call you then. But what are you guys doing? Can I come?"
The Remainder of the Fellowship glanced around among each other. "Um, it's just some German student business. Really, it's nothing important, just go on to lunch."
"Oh, but I'll be a German student soon! Can I come?" Chelsea asked.
"But you're not. You wouldn't understand. Just go to lunch, we'll be there in a bit," Celina said quietly, both eyes twitching, though alternating now.
Put off by Celina denying her the title of German student, Chelsea finally went to lunch. By this time, Celina's twitch had extended to her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Christel asked.
"Not…really," Celina answered, her fingers now jerking violently.
Eva decided that they needed to continue, before Senior Oman arrived. She opened the door.
As the German students entered they heard the odd but slightly amusing lyrics of "Warum hast du das getan," the song they had been translating in class recently. And the closet door was open.
"That's a bad sign, isn't it?" Elisabeth pointed at the open door.
Celina nodded, or maybe the muscles in the neck just contracted to make it appear that she nodded.
The Remainder of the Fellowship cautiously edged toward the Achtenschrank until they could see the contents. Fluffy was already fast asleep.
Celina growled. "Now I won't get to use William!" Her shoulder muscled jerked in such a manner that Christel was nearly hit in the head with Celina's cased clarinet a.k.a. William.
Eva decided there was enough delay in this stupid little story and plowed into the closet, past the frilly shirts a.k.a. second year torture devices.
The remainder of the Remainder of the Fellowship stared. They could hardly believe that she had taken the initiative to push the plan onward. So they followed. As Celina brushed past the red frilly shirt she had the horrible image of herself and her classmate Konrad having to pose for a picture in the horrible shirts.
Celina and friends quickly found that there was in fact no back to the closet. Soon they found themselves in a fairly large room filled with potted plants. Celina was sure it was the kind that she had seen in Mrs. Ginitolli's room on the few occasions when she had visited Christel in her first period class.
Christel confirmed this suspision with wide-eyed horror. "These are the kind of plant in Mrs. Ginitolli's room!"
No sooner than Christel finished her sentence did the potted plant nearest to the door cover the opening with vines. The one near the only other exit did the same. The rest of the pots sprouted tentacle-like vines and waved them around in a threatening manner.
Very calmly, Celina pulled a lighter from her pocket and made her way towards the other side of the chamber, scorching any vine that so much as dared to wave in her direction. Upon reaching the door to the next room, Celina started applying flame to any bit of plant she saw blocking the way.
Elisabeth, Eva and Christel followed in her blackened footsteps.
"Celina, there was already a clear path over there," Christel pointed to the other blackened path along the edge of the room.
Celina grumbled about being near out of lighter fluid but continued to work on opening the door. The door of which Elisabeth foolishly grabbed the knob of soon after Celina had cleared the vines away with flame. Elisabeth was not happy about the second degree burns on her palm.
Christel opened the door after a few moments and the Fellowship continued on.
In the next chamber were winged rats with keys on their tails. In the corner were three broomsticks.
Eva stared at the sight. "You have GOT to be kidding."
Elisabeth walked to the next door and examined the lock. "Well, by the lock here I'd say it would be a-"
But Celina didn't listen. She was already in a bad temperament from nearly using up her lighter. Picking a broom out of the corner, Celina appeared to be about to mount it when she instead swung it in the air and clobbered a winged rat. She grabbed the critter roughly and just as roughly jammed the key on it's tail into the lock. It didn't turn.
Celina growled and threw the useless rat into the previous room, wondering vaguely if the plants ate rats and if that was perhaps a bit too cruel. Then she decided she didn't care and whopped another rat from the air.
This process continued until there was only one rat in the air or even in the room. It already had a bent wing. Its key also fit the lock and the girls continued.
Three doors and a table waited for the Fellowship in the next chamber. On the table sat a paper, written in a language other than English.
Eva picked it up and studied it for a moment then said, "I can't read it; it's in Spanish."
Celina ripped the paper from Eva's hands and glared at it. Then she crumpled it and sentenced the paper to the same fate as the plants before it. "We'll just have to pick one," she said to her friends.
Celina strode confidently into the door on the right and slammed it behind herself. From inside came a loud FWOOSH and a scream nearly identical to the one in the Fellowship of the Ring when Aragorn set the Wraiths on fire. A moment later Celina walked out of the room grumbling about how she really was out of lighter fluid this time.
Without a word to the rest of the Fellowship, Celina entered the door on the left. Outside of it could be heard a loud howl of pain, as though a werewolf had been kicking in the shin and then beaten upon the ground, which was more or less what happened.
Celina stormed out of the room and ripped her cased William the Clarinet from Elisabeth's hands, where he had been since Celina dropped him to burn vines.
With clarinet in hand, Celina marched right through the middle door, which slammed and locked right behind her.
The rest of the Fellowship looked around among each other as if to say, "What now?"
"Well, I've got a deck of cards…" Elisabeth suggested.
Celina was surprised by what she found in the room. There was not a large mirror as she had expected, but a small shelf really high up. Der Lehers Stein was just sitting there, completely unprotected by anything other than the shelf's height. Below the shelf was a rather short cloaked man, presumably the same that had drank the rat's blood.
Celina grinned evily. "Ha! I have caught you trying to steal the stone, Senior Oman!"
The man turned around.
"Mr. Ferguson!" Celina's jaw dropped. Chelsea's favorite teacher and Celina's future teacher (somehow she just knew) was the one trying to steal the stone.
She heard a voice that was certainly not Mr. Ferguson's come from his general area. "This (beep) wig is so itchy! At least let me breath!"
Mr. Ferguson didn't speak but removed his hair. Celina was so shocked about the wig that she didn't even notice the evil face of Mr. Smith on the back of Mr. Ferguson's head, at least not for a while.
Then Mr. Smith spoke. "She has seen me! She must be destroyed!"
Mr. Ferguson was still somewhat a kind teacher. "But sir, she has a clean record and perfect grades! We can't get rid of a good student! And I've heard Mrs. Sheffter praise her writing."
Celina silently thanked Mrs. Sheffter for speaking loudly.
"That is true…maybe she could be of some use to us," Mr. Smith spoke slowly.
"Ka-" Mr. Ferguson began.
"CELINA!" she interjected.
"Okay, Celina, I happen to know that you'll be in my class next trimester. How about helping your teacher get the stone up there," Mr. Ferguson said kindly.
"Okay," Celina agreed.
"What! That easy! Are you sure she's so smart?" Mr. Smith asked incredulously.
Celina pretended not to hear that, but knelt so Mr. Ferguson could use her back as a step. She gripped William's case tightly.
Mr. Ferguson stepped down. "I've got it! I've really got it!" he yelled excitedly.
"You mean I've got it," Mr. Smith said in a threatening tone.
Standing up slowly as to not draw attention to herself, Celina then drew much attention as she connected her clarinet case to Mr. Ferguson's head. She then took the stone from the crumpled man's hand. "No, you mean I've got it," she said quietly to the teacher. "And I am in fact rather intelligent."
Whistling happily, Celina strode to the locked door. Quickly pocketing the rock, she pulled out her pocketspoon and knocked down the door.
"Hah! I win again! Now you owe me ten bucks!" Eva cried gleefully, laying down her cards. Then she noticed that a door had just been knocked down behind her. "Hi, Celina. Dif you get the stone from Senior Oman?"
Celina pulled the stone out of her pocket. "Nope, it was Mr. Ferguson."
"Hm, well that's an odd twist," Eva mumbled, staring at her new hand of cards.
Celina sat down to play a round of BS. "Yes, yes it is."
