Disclaimer: yada yada yada, you know the drill, I don't own anything but my own characters…

Chapter 4: Before Grad

-still Laura's POV-

I told him! I frigging told him! I'm screaming inside! I'm so sure he thinks I'm an idiot or worthless. Must…tell…diary…argh! I dropped it under my bed again… As I bent down to reach for it someone knocked on my door. "I'll be right there!" I have a feeling it's Legolas but I doubt it. More likely my "maid" ugh.

I finally was able to pull out my diary when my door just opened. Standing there was someone I didn't really feel like talking to. Legolas. That mother f--I don't really feel like talking to him. After all the embarrassment I went through today…ugh completely not worth it. "I thought I said I'll be right there." I was hiding my face. I felt his blue bright eyes burning holes in the back of my head so I slowly turned around. Lifting up my head I showed him all my anger, I hate being embarrassed, makes me feel like a fool. Ruins my image.

"Why are you angry?" he carefully asked.

Glare.

"Tell me"

Glare.

"Oh c'mon enough of this just frigging tell me!"

"Oh, Mr. Princey wants to know huh? How do you think he would feel after being embarrassed in front of Saana and all her little fuckers in a very delicate moment? Everyone turning heads and laughing at me? You tell me, prince, how should I react?"

No answer.

"Fine, now that you are here just tell me you don't like me back, break my little heart, hear all the sobs, agree to be my friend, then leave proud of yourself."

"I'd rather not do that…"

"Then why are you here!" He's pissing me off. Clueless kid.

"To ask you if you would like to go to the graduation dance with me. It's in 5 days."

I can't believe what I'm hearing. Did he just say he wants to go to the dance with me! I guess by the look of my face he answered for me.

"Meet you 2 hours before the dance. Be ready. I'm teaching you how to dance."

He left in long strides and stopped at the door. "Oh and by the way, you're a cool elleth. I'd love to get to know you better." He did a small smile and left. So what if he left me in a melted puddle on the floor? By Manwe, I'm going to look my best. I'm so excited!

Remembering the diary in my hand I quickly snatched a pen and began writing frantically. This was me every night til grad.

For an entire month I've been going out with him. He's so adorable. And yes I admit…very handsome. He always takes me for walks through the forest and we talk and laugh together. He's so sweet. I will always remember when he asked me to hug him for the first time…and when he asked for my hand for the first time. For an entire hour he never let go as if I was going to disappear as soon as he did. He never kissed me yet, but I don't think I'm ready for one yet. It would be my first kiss and I want to give it to someone very special. Legolas is special but I want to spend more time with him…I want to get to know him better.

One morning, I woke up to hard knocking at my door. "It's not dawn yet!" I rolled over and put a pillow over my head. He stepped inside and softly said, "Better yet then? No one will see us get out of the palace. I heard watching the sunrise is quite beautiful." I flipped over staring eye-to-eye at Legolas. Wow, he's eyes are ever so blue…so bright and…and…sparkly?

-Legolas POV-

Wow her eyes are so…purple? Very dark purple because I never really seen them so close before. Whoa, snap out of it. Gotta get her out of here before the sun rises! "C'mon get out of bed!" She groans and slowly rolls out and onto the floor. It's like talking to a zombie. She is not the morning person. Maybe sunset is better. "You know what, I'll just come back later and we'll see the sunset instead…" "Hell no!" At a speed that seemed incapable of her in this state she ran into the bathroom and came out changed and ready in a dark green tunic, black breeches, and her wide belt around her waist. "So, we going or not?" she inquired. Snapping out of my little moment of astonishment I grabbed her hand and shot out of the room. Sneaking into the kitchen for a little bundle we made it out of the palace without anyone seeing us.

Taking a little walk in the forest we finally reached our destination. Well…my destination. The sun was just poking out into the sky. "Hurry! It's already starting!" I pulled her along and sat at the edge of the riverbank. Watching the sun rise was really a magical moment. She asked me, "Why did you bring me here? A special reason?" "What other reason could be better than to spend some time with the one who stole my heart away?" Can't believe that came out of my mouth but hey, it's true. I am getting really attached to her. Last night all I could see her face, smiling, laughing, glaring at me. Although she doesn't dress like Saana she's pretty good looking and intelligent…and she challenges my archery capabilities. Now that is somewhat frightening.

This seems like a dream. I never thought it would be this way…My thoughts are really drifting away this morning. What? Did she just say something? I turned my head with a "Huh?" and was answered with, "When will you teach me how to dance?" Hmm…I wonder. Maybe now might be a good time to start. That's going to be interesting. She danced pretty well at my birthday (I can't believe I still remember that!). Well, I must check to see how much she knows and make sure she doesn't destroy my feet like she did last time.

So, I stood up and extended my hand to her, "Stop staring at me dumbly and take my hand." and so she did. As I helped her get up I began speaking, "Lesson one: Be careful where you place those feet. They can cause serious pain and damage to your partner's, in this case my, feet." As if countering she said, "Let me look down then." I suppose that's a good idea. I let her and guided her through steps. The whole time she would be looking down between us trying to match her steps with mine, she seemed very concentrated.

"You enjoying this?" I asked.

"Yeah more or less…I think I'm going to be looking at your feet til the end of time!"

"Don't worry you'll get used to it…do you know what? Look at me."

"Why?"

"I want you to try without looking down."

Reluctantly she raised her head and shone her violet eyes on my face. Oh what lovely eyes…

"You have big teeth."

What a way to ruin the moment.

"Am I really that tall?"

"Yes."

Simple and straight to the point; another thing to add to what I like about her. Ouch! Crap she stepped on my toe! Stifling a sound she grinned at me and said, "I told you." Unconsciously I began to move her closer to me. As I began to lean closer to her she pushed me away. "I'm not ready." If she says so. Girls are always ready. Well she is the black sheep in the flock so I can't base anything on stereotypes…and I admit sometimes that sucks and sometimes it's exciting. You never know what she'll do next.

Holy shit, what time is it? Frantically I looked up for the sun to try and determine the time. The school bell is going to ring in little, so we better start heading back. She noticed too when she copied me and looked up, although she seemed to have reacted faster than me. Quickly she moved away and grabbed my hand. "C'mon we got to go." Without a word I followed her back up to the palace.

All it took were a few seconds before we reached the doors and came face-to-face with her parents. They didn't look very happy.

"Hello Prince Legolas." said her father.

"Good morning." I replied.

"What might you two be doing at this time in the morning?"

"I was teaching her some tricks in archery. She is very good you know."

"And with what bow were you showing her with?"

Damn it…he's going to catch me. What can I say? I have a treehouse filled to the top with bows and arrows? No no…should I just tell the truth? I looked over to her and she was busy staring at the ground. I've got an idea.

"Alright, so I wasn't teaching her bow tricks…someone asked her to the grad dance and she asked me to teach her how to dance."

"Really? And who is the special one that asked her?"

"She wouldn't tell me."

"Ever to typical of her. Keeps everything to herself. Anyways we just came to give her her backpack for school. Oh, and Laura…don't sleep in your contacts. It's bad for your eyes. Elrond told you. I put your glasses' case in your bag. Now both of you; off to school!"

Without a word she took her bag and ran down the trail. Swiftly I followed. Once I caught up to her she didn't want to talk to me. She wouldn't say a word to me. For 15 minutes we walked silently until I had enough. I made her face me and said:

"Laurelin, please! What's going on? Tell me something…I've been waiting for –"

"Ok! You want me to tell right? Well it's a bit long…"

"We have a bit of a while until we arrive to school. I'm listening."

"Ok well, you see, when I finish school I wanted to go to a knight's school. It's a passion of mine to help people in trouble when I get older. I love to fight, and as you said I have skill with the bow. I had little fiction stories in my head about taking on over 10 orcs at once and rise up victorious…"

"Not bad of a dream future…but how can something like that make you angry?"

"I'm not done yet. I don't get along very well with my brother and every argument ends with me smacking him and my parents putting all the blame on me. Usually he starts it anyways! So they said that if I do something like that once more they'll send me to Rivendell to become a Healer. They had that future planned for me for years. Remember the night that I had to sleep in your room? Well the morning my brother was laughing at me and I got really angry. I smacked him and ditched him. My parents didn't like that at all so they decided that next year I'm going to be seeing Elrond and learn the 'art' of healing. I'm sure they will very well follow through with that. So, I'm angry because I can't pursue my dream…"

"I see…well then enjoy your last days here to the fullest."

"That's all you have to say? You don't offer a solution?"

"I wish I had one…I wish you didn't have to leave!"

"I have 3 questions to ask you. Just random ones that popped in days ago."

"Alright."

"Answer yes or no. Ok, question one: If I said I loved you, would you love me back?"

"Well…no…very close to loving but no."

"Ok….question two: Do you think you're ready for a relationship?"

"Not really."

"And the last one…If I got wounded and I needed one of your kidneys, would you give me one?"

"Yes, to save life and because…I like you."

"Ok...thanks. Look we're at school I need to go to class or Mr. Lipless of the Great History is going to kill me!"

-Laura's POV-

Valar, please, help me. Don't let me cry. Please don't. I don't want him to see. I don't want Laerien to see, neither any of my other friends. I love Legolas so much, but he doesn't love me. Why was I so blind? And I'm moving away too. More to add to my misery…

"Hey Laura!" called out Laerien.

"Hey…" I whispered back.

"How are you two lovebirds doing? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Let's go to class."

Reluctantly she followed me into the school. Legolas was saluting some of his friends so I took the chance. He won't see me go away. I quickly sat in my seat and started reviewing my notes. I need to do something to get my mind off him. That obviously didn't work because Legolas walked in and sat across from me.

Our seats are two-by-two and arranged in 3 columns from the teacher's desk. Laerien and I were on the left side and as usual she took the window seat. He stole a piece of paper from someone's desk and wrote me a note. (I guess he finally realized he didn't have his book bag).

Laurelin, you ok?
Yeah I'm fine…
Don't worry, I'll try to work something out.
About what…?
Your knighthood dream obviously! You'll be the best one on the force!
Thanks for you optimism.
You're welcome. Oh and I just had some sort of break-through…
Really? What is it?
I'll tell you later. Class is about to start.

t b c... alright people, what do you think? I actually forced myself to write this time lol. I got exams coming up so I might not be able to continue for another week...bad luck really...anyways I hope you enjoyed and ...

R&R! ...) please?