I only own my own OCs. This is inspired by my friend dragonlady98's story, Lost Ones, so if you like this, check out hers, and see if you can spot me! Read the bottom for a special bonus. Now, READ!

~Leira's POV~

If there's one thing worse than high school reunions, it's being forced to go to one by your friends, even though you didn't go there. That is the story of my life. Dragged everywhere, been every boring place in the tiny town of Porta, with a population of two-hundred. In case your wondering, Porta, means "Gateway to." That's just how sad this town is. No one, not even old Gina, the hundred year old lady, knows what the rest used to be. Gabe, Zack, and Alex were driving in from D.C. to the miniature town where we'd all grown up, attended "school" (group homeschooling by Alex's mom), and ditched to be out of Dustdevil town, stuck in the middle of Nevada. Dust, hard dirt, and cacti were all that you'd find in Porta.

And yet, I'd given in to Summer's constant pleading. The only thing I wanted to do with Porta, was see a wrecking ball demolish the place. I pulled up to the old, rustic house, and Summer asked, "Isn't it nice that Mrs. Gregor called us to see this place?" I groaned, "No. It isn't." She punched my arm and glared. "I don't like Porta any more than you do, but don't we owe it to the Gregors?" I rolled my eyes; Summer couldn't really get angry at me. She was just pretending. I sighed and said, "Let's just get this over with, alright?" Summer nodded, and reminded me, "Just be nice to Gabe. I know you two still don't get along, but just be cool about it." I huffed. This wasn't worth it. Even if Summer gave me "the Look," I still would just stay in the car. When she slid out and I stayed in my seat, it came out. The Look. Her eyes grayish and sad, lip quivering, she stared at me for five minutes straight before I finally caved. "Fine! Fine, I'm coming."

She immediately perked up, and rushed for the house. Once I'd left the safety of the car, I noticed the house looked the same as always; faded brown, worn, and close to collapse. Before I could take a step though, I got tackled from behind. "Leira! It's been so long!" I pulled out of Alex's death grip and said, "Yeah, it really has. I'm surprised you're here, though. Shouldn't you be in Hollywood? I thought you had another movie coming out." Alex waved away the question and said, "Even superstars get time off." I grinned slyly and said, "I think superstar's overdoing it." Alex chuckled, "Hey! How many magazine covers are you on, huh?" I put my hands up in surrender and said, "Fine. But let's get in before he-" "Whoo, baby! Great to be home!" I shook my head and moaned, "Speak of the devil."

A rusty Chevy pickup pulled up, a brown-haired boy and a blonde girl with glasses on inside. Alex called, "Gabe, this is a high school reunion, not a party!" Gabe replied, "Anywhere me and my baby Lizzy are, that's where the party's at!" Lizzy whooped, her glasses falling off, and Gina stuck her head out from her window across the road, yelling, "I liked it better when you left, you little piece of s***!" Lizzy yelled, "Hey, don't you call my Gabe-i-poo that!" She threw a Mountain Dew can at the old lady and hit the ground two feet from the pickup. She must have been completely blind without them on, because she yelled, "Take that, you old hag!" Gina yelled a large range of strong insults before she finally yelled, "Alright, this is all my old heart can take! I'm calling sheriff Martins!"

Gabe got out of the truck and said, "Go on back to Salt Lake, babe. Try not to hit anything, cause I don't want my baby hurt." She blushed, crawled into the driver's seat, and drove off. "She'd better take good care of my baby. I paid a month's worth of jokes at the Comedy Center to pay for that truck." Alex and I exchanged glances; Gabe hadn't changed a bit. He looked at us, confused, and said, "Um... where are the welcoming faces?" I smirked, and said, "In the bed of that hunk of junk you call your 'baby.'" Gabe shook his head and said, "Still holding a grudge, are you?" I glared and said, "I was being chased by a rabid dog and you told me to try petting it to calm it down!" I showed my hand, which still had a large white area where I'd been bitten. He shrugged and said, "Hey, we were ten. One mistake and I'm evil?" I rolled up my sleeve where a long, pale cut ran up and down my forearm. "You convinced me to play cops and robbers, the jail being a roll of barbed wire, when we were 8." Before I could go on, Summer rushed out, Zack on her heels. She was clutching a piece of yellowing paper, and Zack tried to slip it out of her grip, grabbing her blue shawl to slow her down.

She got to us first, though, and said, "Guys! You know that old waterfall we used to mess around at? Well... I found the map there!" She showed off the paper as Zack complained, "I found it though!" "You pulled a book off a shelf, that's about it! But do your remember when we lost this, and couldn't find the waterfall?" I nodded. Alex had been trusted to guard the map to our nearly impossible to find hideout, but it had disappeared. "And look at this! Mrs. Gregor thinks the book it had been next to pressed some of the ink on our map!" She pointed to some weird shaped runes.

I asked, "What does it mean?" Summer shrugged and said, "I don't know. Mrs. Gregor couldn't translate them either. Just said that you could find tons of stuff in her library, but who cares? We can find the old waterfall!" I frowned; I recognized these runes. They were from the Hobbit. The map had been pressed against the Hobbit since I'd moved away, which was weird since I'd borrow the Hobbit from Mrs. Gregor all the time. But we were headed for the old hideout! Maybe this trip wouldn't be as bad as I'd thought it would be.

Guess what? I was wrong! Again. This was as bad as I'd thought it would be. The hideout behind the waterfall was too small for us now, unless we wanted to jump in the water and swim into the cave. And again, Summer convinced me to swim in with her, and everyone else did, too. That's the thing with Summer; she can get almost anyone to do nearly anything. Proof: me swimming under a waterfall with enough water to pound me to a pulp. Once I'd gotten to an area where the light didn't shine on the water, I resurfaced, and I quickly noticed one thing about the cave. It wasn't ours. We'd spray-painted the walls with our names, and old couch cushions had been our beds when we camped out. This cave was completely different. This cave was completely empty except for a crevice of light. Summer and Zack splashed up, and Summer wiped the hair from her face and said, "Alex is dragging Gabe in. He 'didn't want to ruin his hair,' so she pushed him in and- What the crap?" She stared, open-mouthed at the cave, and Zack complained, "Did someone else find the hideout?" Gabe and Alex gasped for air, and Gabe immediately started cussing about two hours of hair gel appliance wasted. I slapped him and said, "Shut up. Look at the cave." Alex slapped the back of his head for good measure, and they examined the cave.

I was fricking confused when Summer said, "I say we check this out. It isn't the same shape, but maybe water eroded and shaped it. It could have dragged off our cushions, and washed away the paint." It sounded logical, but something felt different. Wrong, even. But I wasn't about to let Summer go alone. We dragged ourselves onto the rocks, and got semi-dry before exploring. We checked every corner, but everything looked completely different. Though Summer's theory had been right, the water never rose higher than two or three feet. I was looking behind some rocks, and I noticed a deep slash mark in the stone. Before I could look closer, Alex called, "Hey, guys... I think you'll want to see this." I assumed the "slash" had been a shadow, and I walked over to Alex. She was looking out the crack in the cave wall, and stepped back, and she looked shaky. "I don't believe my eyes." I frowned; Alex was a world famous actor. What could rattle her? I stuck my head out the crack, the light too blinding to see anything at first. Then, I saw a long, winding river that we lined, a range of mountains, and a small town. I stepped out of the cave, everyone on my heels. Gabe's eyes widened, and he asked, "What the hell?" And for once, I agreed with Gabriel Graves. What. The. Hell.

Hello! I'm having a little contest; whoever is my thirtieth follower, will be added as a new character in my fan fiction! So, if you have a friend, tell them to follow me, because I'm allowing them to bring a friend with into Middle Earth! Good luck, and "may the Force be with you!"