Disclaimer: I am Jaina Solo, Jedi, star fighter pilot, ace mechanic, and daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo! But am I Gail Carson Levine? No. Then did I write Ella Enchanted? No. Thank you. (sorry, I just have so much fun writing up dumb disclaimers, heehee!) Lord of the Rings (the greatest book ever) belongs to JRR Tolkien and will forever and ever! (even though he's dead now) The movies (which, alas, could not include all the best parts of the book, although the extended editions come close) belong to New Line Cinema.
A/N: Thank you to EllaFreak for pointing out that I'd given Val a younger sister. I'd completely forgotten about that. Whew! Okay, good, now I won't mess up. Thank you to all my eagle eyed reviewers! For this chapter, if you could add a little snippet onto your review to let me know how you think the characters are developing, that would be so great! Thanks so much!
Chapter Nine: Movies and MoreThat Saturday, I was downstairs at the bar counter eating my cereal when Shean suddenly said, "Hey, Val."
I jumped and splashed the Cheerios and the milk on my all over my face and my clothes. He had come up so quietly that he'd scared me good.
"Shean!" I yelled, glaring at him as he ran to get me a damp washcloth before I whacked him a good one over the head. He got it to me just before I decided to smack him and saved himself.
I mopped at all the wet spots a few times before giving up.
"Oh, thanks, now I have to go change again!" As I turned to run upstairs, I saw his mouth open, but I didn't bother to wait for whatever he was going to say.
I came downstairs a few minutes later in a new pair of tan zip-off pants and a sky blue shirt. Now Shean was the one eating his breakfast. I had been almost done and he had cleared my bowl for me. I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and waited for him to notice me. He finally did.
"Oh, hi, Val," he said around a big mouthful of Mini Wheats. I looked up at the ceiling.
"Shean, we really don't like seeing your chewed up food."
He glanced down at his bowl as he swallowed, looking embarrassed. "Sorry," he said when his mouth was empty.
"It's fine. Now what had you been going to say when you startled all that milk onto my shirt?"
He looked over at me and looked like he was trying to smother laughter. I raised my eyebrows warningly at him and he regained his composure.
"Oh, uh, I was going to remind you that today's the One Ring to bring them all to the theaters, including you and me."
I jumped up and clapped my hands. "Oh, yeah! Woohoo!" I yelled (but not too loudly) and did a jig step around the kitchen. Shean grinned.
"I didn't think you'd mind it so much after I reminded you."
I shook my head happily, still doing a sink and grind to finish the jig step.
"So when is the showing?" I asked, still panting slightly from my jig.
"At 11:15. You have a couple hours to get ready before Mum drives us to the theater." I nodded. He knew I'd bring a book light to read by and about 3 books to read snippets from during the ten minutes of previews and the time we'd wait for the previews to start. I don't know why I do that, but I do.
For once, skate lessons couldn't end soon enough for me. When they were finally over, Shean and I rushed out to the car, threw our suitcases that we kept our skates in into the trunk, and hopped into the car. Kaetlin, on the other hand just walked at her usual pace out to the car.
"Come on, Kaet!" Shean yelled out the window. "We don't want to be late!"
"Oh, shove off, Shean!" She replied in a disgusted voice, throwing her suitcase in the trunk. "The theater is, what, two blocks away? It's forty-five minutes till the movie starts, for cryin' out loud!"
"Well, there – there might be lines," Shean said, trying to sound sure of himself. I knew he was just as excited as I was. We all (Kaet included) liked fantasy a bit too much.
Sylva dropped us off at the front and we both climbed out and waved goodbye. Then I noticed that Shean was carrying something.
"Shean, why do you need a bag?" I asked curiously.
"I – I brought some books, too." Wow, he'd been stammering a lot today. (well, twice was a lot for him) But then again, he'd made me spill milk on myself, too, so maybe stammering wasn't out of the ordinary for the day. I decided to forget about it.
We stood in line to get our tickets and it wasn't too bad... considering it was a Saturday. But we still got in ten minutes too early (we didn't get any popcorn or anything) and I got out my books and started reading. I half expected Shean to do the same, since he'd said he had brought some books, but he didn't. The previews finally started and a bunch of teenagers started yelling 'We want the Ring! We want the Ring!', so Shean and I joined in. To our surprise, they skipped the previews! I snuggled back into my uncomfortably hard seat and got 'comfy' for my soon-to-be-favorite three-plus hours long movie.
When the movie (sadly) ended and we left the theater, I was pretty literally bouncing in circles.
"Ooh, that was the best movie ever! Doncha think? Huh, huh, huh?" I asked Shean, bouncing in circles around him like Keegan. He nodded enthusiastically.
"The best! And wait till you see the next one! Hold on, I'm gonna call Mum, then we can wait on the curb for her to pick us up." I nodded, only half hearing what he'd said because I was pretending to be Frodo and Sam at the same time, fleeing the Shire and meeting elves (who I still thought were weird, especially since Elrond wore a dress).
Then I felt someone tap me on my leg and I snapped out of it. Shean motioned for me to sit down on the curb next to him. I did and we sat in silence before I finally asked a question that had been nagging me for a while.
"Hey, Shean, why aren't there any girls in Lord of the Rings? I mean, other than Arwen, who doesn't really count 'cause she's almost always... well... you know..."
"Kissing Aragorn?" Shean asked. There was a pause, and then we both made identical revolted expressions at the same time. We laughed.
"She does it 'cause she's sick," Shean laughed. "But I've got something that'll answer all." He reached into the bag and pulled out a little gift wrapped box. I eyed him.
"This isn't some trick, is it? Something like in Peter Pan where Hook tried to kill Peter?" Shean laughed.
"No way. Go on, open it, open it!"
I quickly peeled back the paper and squealed out loud when I opened the box. I reached over and gave Shean a big hug and a little peck on the cheek. He blushed as red as I've ever seen a guy blush.
"Ooh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!" I squealed, bouncing up and down while sitting on the curb. He had given me the full set of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit. Then I noticed a little bookmark with Frodo and Sam and a tassel hanging off it with a little One Ring replica on it. I could put the Ring on a chain like Frodo and use the bookmark separately!
"Thank you!" I cried, hugging him again quickly, then holding the box to me and bouncing some more. I glanced over. He was still blushing, even if it was just a little pink, not red anymore.
He'd known I had made myself promise not to read the book (I refer to the whole trilogy as 'the book' because that's how Tolkien wrote it, and I refer to the movies as 'the movie') until I'd seen the movie. I looked on the back of one of the books and saw a little picture of Legolas. I flicked him.
"Ugh, he's ugly," I said. The other girls at school had been raving about him ever since the movie came out for some reason. I didn't see what was so 'hot' about him, as they so mildly put it.
Shean looked up, almost looking elated. "You don't like him?"
I shook my head and wrinkled my nose at him. "You kidding? He looks like a lemon, complete with the big, visible pores, and he probably tastes just about as good."
Shean gave a little tiny whoop and hugged me quickly. When he let go, I leaned away from him and scooted to the side in mock horror. I could feel my face turning a light shade of red-pink, too.
"What was that for?"
"I finally met a girl who doesn't think that Elf is 'hot'!" He said the last bit so sarcastically that I had to laugh.
"Hey, he's not, trust me. Geez, anyone's hotter than him, even you!"
Shean almost looked hurt, then grinned. "That was a compliment, and so, of course, not true!" I raised an eyebrow again.
"Translation?"
"Oh, just something Merry said."
"Where? I didn't hear him say that? I heard him say he broke something and a lot of other dumb stuff, but not anything about a compliment."
Shean shook his head. "No, it's in the book of the Fellowship. Here, let me show you."
I already had the book out, so he reached around me and flipped some pages to page 42.
"There, see?" I nodded. "Read them in order, but Éowyn doesn't show up until Two Towers."
"Who?"
"Your soon-to-be-favorite character." I raised an eyebrow skeptically. He laughed. "Trust me, she will be! Oh, there's Mum. Pack it up and let's go." He handed me the bag and I slipped all of my books in and we stood up. The car drove over to us and we climbed in.
A few weeks later, I was in my room playing 'Foxhunter' on my Irish penny whistle when Shean knocked on the door.
"Come in," I called in between my breath and the second half of the first verse.
He opened the door and waited for me to finish the song before he spoke.
"Nice and crisp," he said.
I stared at him. "You came in here to say that?" I asked incredulously.
He shook his head. "You know the school dance?"
I snorted. "Uh, ye-ah! We're playing some sets, remember?" It was getting close to the end of May, which was when our school ended. There was always an all-grades school dance on the last night of school. We were taking the first shift of playing the music, then another couple of bands would take their own turns.
He shifted his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Come on, Shean, spit it out!"
He put his hand up to his mouth and spit something into it. "Here." He held out his gum. I rolled my eyes.
"Oh, brother. Quit it and talk!"
"Okay. Hi, my name is Shean O'Connor and your name is Princess Avalla and my sister's name is Kaetlin and that's Keegan and-"
"Shean!" I yelled and gave him a little slap. Hey, that had been fun! "Hurry up and get it over with!" Why was he being so weird and what was with the dance?
"Will-you-go-with-me-to-the-dance?" He said it so fast that it sounded like one word. I stared at him, struggling not to laugh.
"You want me to go to the dance with you?" I couldn't help but let out a little burst of laughter. He nodded. "Why?"
"Well, the guys dared me to and all the other girls have dates already," he replied awkwardly. I nodded.
"Good, that's what I thought. Um... well, I guess so. But you already know how I dance!"
Shean laughed. "Yeah: about as well as I do."
I gasped. "Shean! I do believe that's an insult!" I winked to let him know I was joking. He grinned.
"Thanks. The other guys were going to make me color my hair blue or something if I didn't get a date." I raised an eyebrow.
"Then why didn't you ask someone who is actually pretty?"
Shean shrugged. "I already told you, they all have dates and besides, they just want to talk about makeup and 'how romantic this is'. And if I mention Lord of the Rings, they start saying 'cute' Orlando Bloom and Legolas are when I had wanted to talk about the Silmarillion and the mythology of Middle-earth and stuff."
I laughed. "Oh well, I said I'll go and I guess I will, even if that's the only reason."
He flashed a quick grin. "Thanks! You saved my hair!" He added as he left.
"Uh... yeah." I shook my head and went back to my penny whistle.
A/N: Do you think you know what happens next? Tell me! Since I write this freehand (no outline), I don't know what's going to happen next either. So if you think that so-and-so's going to do this, or this-and-such is going to happen, post it in your review or email me. There's a good enough chance I might put it into the story!