To all those who reviewed- Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it so far!

Disclaimer: I happen to be the proud owner of a pair of gym shorts. Past that? Not much.

XxXxX

"Yoyo," I said solemnly, setting my meal down next to hers at the dinner table. She looked up. She is one of the older ones, twenty-four or five. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Thatch," she replied.

"I'm here to call in a favor." Yoyo raised that eyebrow again. I momentarily wished I could do that. It looked so cool.

"Since when did I owe you a favor?" I sighed.

"In my head, you were supposed to just go with it! Why can't you be like the good little Yoyo of my delusions?" I asked, exasperatedly. I sat wearily next to her at the long table and stirred my stew pitifully.

"Well, I don't owe you a damn thing, but I like you, Thatch, and I'll humor you. So let's hear what's on your mind," Yoyo said graciously.

"You know what's on my mind. Fair treatment. Separate housing. Good jobs. Debts being repaid. Financial freedom." That eyebrow again! Man, that's cool.

"I'm not into that whole Sue Crusade of yours," she said, a bit annoyed.

"I know you're not. What I need from you is information on Sues in Rivendell. There's go to be plenty, at least as many as there are here." Yoyo looked thoughtful.

"Well, there is the First," she muttered, after a long pause. I dropped my spoon, which had still been stirring my stew idly.

"The First? In Rivendell?" I asked, shocked. I had always thought Yoyo…but that was irrelevant now.

"Yeah. The First, you know, she got her fairytale life, like she was supposed to. None of the rest of us were here yet to mess things up for her." I nodded, slowly. It made perfect sense. "I've heard she was even engaged to Legolas for a while. You know, the way things were supposed to go for all of us. Apparently, she and Legolas broke up, and she went to Rivendell." Yoyo shrugged. "I'd say she's your best bet, my Civil Rights Soul Sista." I raised an eyebrow now. Yoyo was one of a very few black Sues, but seriously? Civil Rights Soul Sista? Now, I was beginning to suspect she was mocking me, a little.

"Umm…right. Thanks, Yoyo. Do you know her name? I know you were one of the earliest here…" Yoyo laughed at this.

"Yup, that'd be me. One of the old-timers. Her name, back home, was Jane, or Janet, or something of the like." Yoyo laughed. "She took a pretty flowery name here, like in the stories. Alatariel." I wrinkled my nose. Elf name? Ew. Nobody took those here in the Barracks. If they did, we just laughed and called them a newbie.

"Yoyo, I would hug you if I didn't know you'd smack me for it." Yoyo, like me, is not fond of hugs, or physical contact in the fluffy sense in general.

"Sista please," Yoyo admonished.

"Okay, you know what? This whole Civil Rights Soul Sista thing is creeping me out a little," I said, hesitantly. It was.

"Yes, well, I'm a black woman, and it's allowed to show every now and then. Besides, you are fighting for Civil Rights. Our Civil Rights." I rolled my eyes.

"No heartfelt speeches please."

"I'll leave those to you, Martin Luther Queen." I groaned.

"Bad, bad, bad Civil Rights pun. Awful, nasty Civil Rights puns! Ten seconds ago you didn't even believe in this!" I shrieked, covering my ears. Yoyo laughed.

"Okay, that one was just to get under your skin." I shuddered.

"Mission accomplished."

"Umm…are you Yoyo?" somebody asked from directly behind me.

"No, I'm Thatch. Yoyo is to my left." I replied, and then whispered, "Newbie," disgustedly under my breath. Honestly, it wasn't very fair of me, because I too was a new here once. I, on the other hand, never mistook Yoyo for anybody. "Who's been showing you around?" I asked. And what sort of teacher were they? I turned around to look at the new girl. She was just a pipsqueak! "And how old are you? Twelve?" At this, she huffed.

"I am thirteen."

"Ah, yes, and that's worlds better, isn't it? So who's showing you around, Newbie?" The kid had the audacity to turn her nose up! At me!

"Nobody. I don't need anybody. And my name is Nienna." Oh, great. One of those.

"Honey, there's some things I think you should know," Yoyo started, but I cut her off.

"Yeah. Like, one, yes, you do need somebody, or you'll never make it around here, which is not an option. Two, you are never going to meet Prince Legolas, and you are certainly never going to marry the guy. Three, nobody here is going to call you Nienna. They'll call you anything but Nienna. The preferred name for newbies who refuse to tell us their real names, insisting on Elvish ones is 'Mildred.' Do you really want that for yourself?" The kid shook her head, her eyes wide with fear. Of which part of my speech, I couldn't be sure.

"Good then. You'll follow me now." I stood and led the newbie away, my burn totally forgotten. "Your real name, if you please."

"Chelsea," it squeaked. Okay, she. Fine. She squeaked.

"Chelsea. See? That wasn't so hard. Where is your bed?" Chelsea seemed to think hard.

"Come on, Newbie, it isn't that difficult…"

"Ummm…over this way, I think," She said, after a long pause.

"The cubby next to it will have your name on it."

"I sort of crossed it out and wrote 'Nienna' on the little paper." I rolled my eyes.

"We can fix that. I'll get the girl who's bed is next to yours to show you around." Chelsea paled a bit.

"You mean…you won't show me around?" she asked, sounding surprised and uncertain. I laughed.

"Seriously, I'm way too busy. I'd never have time for you, and you'd probably end up worse off than when you started. Who're you next to?" I peered at the name card of the bed to the left.

"Geraldine. Cool. Ger's pretty awesome. You'll get along."

"Umm…Thatch?" she asked.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"What am I going to do here?" I sighed. I hate to be the one who tells the kid there's no such thing as Santa Claus.

"Well, you'll be assigned a job. In the morning, we wake up early, and we have to be ready before the sun rises, because that is when work starts, at dawn. Breakfast is in the dining hall, as are lunch and dinner. There's no days off, no paid vacation. When you get paid, it goes straight to Findekáno, and from him to Thranduil. You won't be able to understand what people are saying to you at first, but the other girls at your job will help you out until you can pick up some Sindarin, enough to get by." Chelsea's eyes were wide.

"So…that's it? Work, everyday, all day? Forever?" I sighed, very deeply.

"I'm not sure," I said, regretfully. "I've been doing this for five years, the oldest of us have been doing this for maybe eight. I have no idea what happens in the long run. Ten years from now? When we get old? Who knows?" I shrugged, frustrated. "This is what I've been fighting for. Certainty; certainty and fairness." I stood now, Chelsea almost forgotten. "I'm going to make this right, somehow. You wait here, and when Ger gets here, tell her I said to watch out for you." I stalked off. Just the thought of Chelsea wasting her life away, like I was doing, was enough to bring every bit of my rage to the surface.

It wasn't fair! Chelsea was a bright girl with a future ahead of her! We all were! And now? Maybe, if I was lucky, one day I'd move up to being a serving girl.

I looked back for a moment, and saw Chelsea sitting on her bed, wide eyed, looking around.

We're all just a bunch of scared little girls. How can they treat us this way?

They won't. Not anymore. Tomorrow, I will act. Thranduil had better watch out, because his slave labor system won't be in place much longer.

XxXxX

Sorry it's short, but this seemed like a good place to stop. Yeah, so tomorrow Thatch is going to kick some elf ass. Sounds like a party!

Review please! Self-esteem is a frail thing, and without reviews to feed it, it may just up and die on me, and then what?