One Mixed Up Mary-Sue

Chapter Eleven

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Emily had nearly finished her "picnic" lunch when Elrond decided to ruin her fun. Just as she'd taken a bite of her second peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the angry elf had started pounding on the cellar door and hollering at her.

"Tell him I'm not here," Emily said, poking Erestor in the side.

"I will not lie for you, Emily," he replied.

"Don't be such an ass! Come on, help me out here, buddy."

"No," Erestor said quickly.

"Emily! I can hear you two arguing! Come up here right now," Elrond hollered from the top of the staircase.

Glorfindel laughed so hard that Welch's grape juice came out of his nose. Lindir joined him in laughter, but managed to avoid the expulsion of food, and Erestor managed an amused smile. However, Glorfindel quickly excused himself to go wash up. Rolling her eyes, Emily followed him up the cellar steps. When Elrond came into view, she crossed her arms.

Elrond cleared his throat before beginning. "Emily, there is no easy way to say this... Well, you are unladylike and look un-presentable. Guests are coming over later and you must look pretty for our company."

"Okay... see, there's a bit of a problem with that. I don't fit into any of the dresses you gave me. Unfortunately, I guess that means that I'll have to skip the fancy dinner. It's really too bad, I was so looking forward to it."

"Do not fret, child," Elrond said, smiling. "I had Susan make you some clothes to wear."

"Damn it," Emily muttered, mentally trying to convince herself that it would be worse to be covered with grape juice.

O-

"You look oh so lovely, Lady Emily!" Susan said, adjusting one of the numerous bows on the intricate dress that Emily was wearing. Emily was quite annoyed, but at least she'd gotten to wash.

"I look horrible Susan," she said flatly. "You tried to curl my hair and it went frizzy, I look like a clown in so much makeup, and the dress seems very... excessive." She picked idly at one of the bows.

"You look lovely," Susan said. "Besides, it's low cut. Trust me, no one will be looking at your face or dress."

Emily frowned, it was rather low cut. She crossed her arms again, trying to make the dress seem more modest, but it really didn't help. With no options coming to mind, Emily could do nothing but stall.

"Susan, I love it all, thank you for everything. Could I have some time alone to get used to it?" Emily smiled a fake smile and waved a polite goodbye to the elf. Once the door was shut, she set to work.

Being careful not to rip the dress itself, Emily removed as many of the decorative bows as she could using only a stitch ripper (Susan had forgotten to take her sewing kit with her.) Afterwards, she untied the bows, so that she had long pieces of ribbon, and used those to close the deep "V" neckline of her dress. Overall, the final product looked like nothing special. It was a simple blue dress with some ribbon on the front.

Someone knocked on the door, and Emily took one last look at the dress. Susan would be upset that she had changed it, but such was life. When Emily stepped into the hallway, she was surprised to see Legolas.

"You're more patient than usual," she observed. "Usually you're shouting and harassing me by now."

"Do you love me for it?"

"Nope," Emily replied.

"Oh," Legolas said shortly. "Let's go to dinner." And, once more, he was smiling.

Emily managed to tune out his pointless chatting as they walked towards their destination. She simply started concentrating on more interesting things, like the floor. As soon as they entered the dining hall, however, things got a bit more interesting. Two hobbits threw themselves at Emily, who fell (rather hard) on her rear.

As she struggled to get them to stop hugging her, Emily noticed a pair of dinner rolls fly by. Merry and Pippin jumped at the rolls, snatching them up and eating them in a matter of seconds. Getting to her feet, Emily noticed a smiling Erestor and nodded before sitting down next to Legolas (it was the only available space.)

"Please, silence!" Elrond said, standing. "I would like to introduce my daughter Emily, as well as propose a toast in her honour." He held his glass out, grinning like a bloody fool. Sinking down into her chair, Emily downed her wine, and flat-out refused to participate in the toast. Luckily the tension was quickly broken.

"Food fight!" Emily looked for the source of the shout, and jumped as Legolas was hit square in the face with a wad of mashed potatoes. As the fighting escaladed, Emily grinned, grabbed another bowl of potatoes, and prepared to dump it on Legolas. Unfortunately, it was at around that moment that Elrond grabbed the two offending hobbits, thus resolving the fight.

"Potatoes anyone?" asked Emily, smiling weakly. Elrond glared at her so she sat her ass down as quickly as she physically could.

"Are you okay?" Legolas asked. "Did they hurt you? How many fingers am I holding up? Please, speak to me!"

"Okay, this is ridiculous. Hello, esteemed guests, nice to meet you." Emily paused and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you can tell that I don't want to be here... so I won't. Peace." Without thinking twice, Emily walked quickly out of the room.

Emily heard her name being called behind her, and turned to see Erestor walking towards her.

"Emily," he said, "I believe that you need to explain to me what is going on here."

"You wouldn't believe me," she said. "It's a pretty good sci-fi story... I'm from a different world."

"I have been there, perhaps I will believe you." Erestor said, and then paused for a moment. "There are many things I would believe now that I would not have some weeks ago."

"Fine, but you're asking for it," Emily replied. As they walked, Emily chatted about her home, about school and work and cars and telephones. By the time she was finished, Erestor looked slightly sceptical, but he was smiling.

"Oh, I am supposed to inform you," Erestor said. "That tomorrow you will begin learning how to fight. For what purpose, I do not know, but that is the message."

"Sounds... interesting," Emily said. "Let's hope whoever gets stuck teaching me goes easy on me... Goodnight, Joe," Emily added with a grin.

Once she was inside her room she frowned; she knew why Elrond wanted her to learn to fight. This would not be fun. Maybe she could convince him to let her stay here, but she doubted it. Sighing, she pushed that worry from her mind and collapsed into bed.