The next morning, Pippin got onto the bus, ready for the new day. What he hadn't anticipated, however, was that EVERYBODY stared at him the second that he got on as if his shirt was on backwards. He looked himself over real quick, trying to guess as to why he was being stared down. Had he said something?

He tried to ignore the stares that were burning into the back of his head as he walked to his seat, and he slumped down and put his knees on the back of the seat in front of him, as always. It was pretty relaxing, he had to admit, even though he could sense the tension coming from the bus as a whole. The bus stopped at the bus stop in the countryside, and Frodo, Legolas, and Sam got onto the bus. Sam was steadily glaring at Frodo, and Frodo was flinching from time to time. He noticed the way that everybody stared at Legolas with the same firey intensity that they had stared at him with. He had to wonder…was this all about what had happened on the soccer field yesterday?

The bus eventually stopped at the bus port, where they all got off of the bus and headed to Mr. Gandalf's class. Frodo, once again, had both hands in his hoodie with his head bowed, as if he was texting once more.

"Frodo..", he hissed, "Mr.Gandalf will see you!"

"Student prayer hour.", he muttered under his breath with a grin, "Nobody ever said anything about student prayer hour."

Pippin rolled his eyes. Okay, one of these days Frodo would get what was coming to him, and then he would be very sorry. In fact, Pippin had started to think that they let frodo get away with texting during class BECAUSE of his edgy urban nature!

"Fine.", he huffed, going to catch up with Merry. Merry and him had gotten over the whole fiasco ysterday when Pippin's nose had gotten broken.

"Hey Pippin.", Merry said as Pippin walked alongside him, "There's a really nasty rumor going about, you know. I just heard it from another student."

"What is it?", he asked Merry, hoping that it didn't have anything to do with them.

"They say that Boromir is emo.", he said, whispering the last word as if it was a deadly curse, "I wonder why. I'm going to see if I can get a better look at his wrists the first chance I get this morning."

"His wrists?", Pippin asked, bewildered, "Why would you look at his wrists to determine if he's an emo??"

"Ah, poor, naive Pippin.", Merry said with a smile, "Don't ya know that emo people cut their wrists?"

"No.", he said, "And what's so bad about emo people?", he asked.

"Nothing is bad about being emo, Pippin.", Merry said, "It's just something a guy wants to know when he's talking to another person."

"Ah.", Pippin said as the two walked into the classroom. What was with all of this hating emo people? Were they like, evil or somthing...No, he thought, Merry is and always had been afraid of people that have dark hair and have even the slightest differences.

He sat down in his normal spot, and the other three sat down in theirs.

"Psst!", he heard Sam hiss to a dwarf, "Pass this to Rosie."

Oh, for the love of god. GET UP AND DO IT YOURSELF, SAM.

"OKAY, CLASS HAS STARTED!!", the teacher growled under his breath as he walked up to the front of the room.

He glanced at Frodo, who continued texting, as always.

"Frodo.", he hissed, "Code red…"

"Right.", his friend muttered, putting up his cell phone, "Thanks for warning me…"

"No problem."

"Okay, today we have pleasure reading, as you all know, so pl;ease get out your pleasure reading books. Does anybody not have their book?", he challenged, looking around the classroom.

Nobody answered.

"Okay, good. No talking.", he told them.

With that, he headed back to his desk and began to sort the papers that had accumulated on it.

"Wonder if we can pay him to put beads in his beard.", he heard Merry mutter to Frodo.

"Nah, I don't think that he would do something like that. PC might, though."

Pippin couldn't help but laugh under his breath. PC would do ANYTHING if they asked him to. Anything.

He got out his book, a murder novel by one of his favorite authors, and opened it up to the page where he last left off.

Grace ran, her shoes clicking on the linoleum tile flooring as she clutched the cook in her arms… She had to get there, and fast, before the coup started—

WHAM!!

"What on earth was that??", he heard a student demand. Pippin looked around the room for the source of the noise, and saw Sam lying on the floor along with his chair.

"What happened?", the teacher asked, "I've told you guys a million times not to put your chair on only two legs!"

"I was just stretching!!", he protested, "I swear, I only stretched!"

By now, the whole class was laughing as Sam got up sheepishly, setting his chair back on the ground and continuing to read his book.

The bell eventually rang, dismissing them all to history class. He picked up his books, carrying them with him as he walked through the halls.

"Dude, that was awesome!!", Merry said as he walked alongside him, "did you see him? He was stretching, and then all of a sudden, BAM!!"

"That was comical.",Sam admitted as he approached them, "Embarrassing if nothing else, though."

"Yeah, I feel for you, man.", Frodo said, his voice void of expression as he texted.

Dear god! Was texting all Frodo was capable of doing??

They walked into History, where they were greeted by the frigid temperatures that Mr. Saruman kept it at and, to his surprise, cardboard, construction paper, and art materials.

"What the--??", one kid said, raising an eyebrow, "What's all of this about?"

"you're going to be making your own country.", he told them, his hands folded as he sat at his desk, "I will be giving you a rubric momentarily."

They sat down, and students immediatyely started to murmur about what they would call theirs.

Pippin felt excirtemnt rise inside of him. He loved these creative projects, as they were definitely hios strength.

The teacher got up, passing out rubrics to them and then walking to the front of the room.

"You will design your own country.", he said, "Starting with drawing a map. You will find everything that you need in the front. You may begin."

A bunch of students immediately got up, going and getting some white paper. As he got it, he felt that sense of excitement rise inside of him again. Oh, the possibilities of this assignment.

"Hey, Merry.", he said to his friend, "What are you going to name your country?"

"I don't know yet.", he said, "You?"

"Don't know yet."

As they got to work drawing, he could hear many complaints from students saying that they 'could not draw'. He sighed.

He looked over to see what sam had named his country. The country was a square, with three states named Sam State, Big State, and State.

"Jeez, Sam.", he said, "What's next, Cry Me A River River and Build Me A Bridge Bridge?"

"Thanks for the great idea!", his friend said.

He turned his attention to the window. He knew he should really be starting on his project, but he WOULD have all week to do it... He yawned, feeling quite tired. He hadn't really gotten any sleep last night because he had been up late, thinking about what had happened that day.

And that was when he heard the hushed whispers from the other students.

"Oh yeah, I heard he beat the crap out of him?", one whispered.

"Why?"

"I don't know. I wouldn't want to mess with him, though."

"Yeah, that's for sure! Did you see all of that blood when he got on the bus?"

"There was never any blood, liar."

"Oh yes there was."

"No there wasn't!"

And that was when it struck him. He had been stared at because they thought Legolas had beat him up yesterday. Anger and worriedness burned inside of him at the same time. How far had this rumor spread? Had it gotten to the office yet? What would happen to him?

And then he heard it.

"Can I please have Legolas and Pippin to the front office for a moment?"

The two locked eyes, and he could sense the anxiety burning off of both of them.

"Ooohhh, " some of the students in the class whispered.