Disclaimer:We, the Sisters Elladan and Elrohir, hereby admit to owning absolutely nothing, except Briar Crest High itself, and then just the building, not the people in it. Starbucks is not ours either. Dur.
A Year At Briar Crest High
Chapter 2: Tempers Flare
OR
In Which Pippin is told to Pay Attention
"Put x2 + 4x + 12 in vertex form." Merry groaned. He was trying to finish his math homework at the last minute—literally the last minute, because it was 60, no, 58 seconds before the beginning of homeroom. X2 + 4x as a perfect square would be… 50 seconds. X2 + 4x + 4. And to make 4 equal 12 you have to subtract 8, which simplified is... 40 seconds. Is… He scribbled the problem on the margin of his paper. 20 seconds… (x + 2)2 - 8.
The bell rang. Merry shoved the math sheet into the far reaches of his backpack, where the likelihood he would ever find it again was very slim. He looked up at the teacher. Professor Glorfindel had begun to explain the day's class, some kind of get-to-know-you thing. They were supposed to get into partner groups with someone of the opposite gender and in a different year and ask him or her a set of preplanned questions. The whole class groaned, but began to separate into groups. Merry rolled his eyes. He hadn't done anything this stupid since Get-To-Know-You Bingo in the 6th grade. Pippin walked over to him and together they began looking for partners.
"'What's your name?'" Merry recited, looking first at the questions on his assignment sheet and then expectantly at his partner; a tall, blonde girl in sophomore year. Professor Glorfindel had gotten so tired of people taking forever to pick a partner that he ended up pairing everyone up himself. Merry glanced over at Pippin, who had been partnered with a dark-haired senior, and was obviously nervous about being paired with a girl who was 3 years older than him, and at least a head taller to boot. Frodo had been paired with Diamond, who was trying desperately to get him to abandon his teenage angst and smile.
"Hmm?" asked Merry's partner. She looked extremely bored.
"I said, 'what's your name?'"
"Eowyn, she said, "Yours?"
"Merry." Eowyn nodded and went back to doodling on her paper. Merry turned in his chair and mouthed at Pippin "This is so boring." Pippin looked confused. "This--is--so--boring," Merry mouthed again. Pippin furrowed his eyebrows. Merry sighed, tore a piece of paper out of his binder and scribbled on it:
What is was trying to tell you is that this is really boring. I mean, the people who made this thing up must have plotted so that all of the questions are things we really don't care about. "What's your favorite pet's name?" What are they trying to do, kill us?
Eowyn watched with a look of slight interest as Merry crumpled up the note. He put it on the floor and kicked it to Frodo, who passed it to Pippin. Pippin read it and wrote a reply, crumpled it up, passed it to Frodo, who kicked it to Merry. He unfolded the paper and read Pippin's response.
Help! I can't even write this note without my partner getting on my case about paying attention! As for the questions, "What's your greatest ambition?" How about making it 'till lunch…
She's telling you to pay attention? What does she have, some kind of disease? And how about this question: "If you were a color, what color would you be, and why?" What are they going to ask next, what's you favorite kind of CHEESE??
Merry watched Pippin laugh at the note, before writing a reply and passing it to Frodo. Frodo kicked it to Merry, but before it reached him it was stopped by a large black leather combat boot. Angmar picked up the note and threw it nonchalantly into the trashcan, before walking over to where Eowyn was sitting.
"Hanging out with freshmen now, are we?" he asked, placing his hand on the front of her desk.
"No one invited you over here, Angmar," Eowyn said coldly.
"I don't need to be invited by anyone, least of all you."
"Why don't you just leave her alone!" Merry said. "She hasn't done anything to you!" Angmar turned to glare daggers at Merry and he immediately regretted saying anything at all.
"Oh, so now she needs some freshman boy to protect her." He sneered. "Or maybe it's the other way around? She can't protect you, she's just a wimpy little girl."
Merry stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over. By now half the class was watching.
"Oh…" Angmar smiled evilly, "You just can't stand it if I insult her, can you? What would you do…" he leaned closer, "If I said she was a sophomore weakling who could only ever get anywhere near a soccer field by associating with a cheerleader, and she has to be defended by a stupid freshman who's sense of righteousness is so distorted that he actually believes he has to be every girl's white knight."
Merry lunged forward, but Eowyn threw out her arm to stop him. "Your chivalry is much appreciated, but only trying to hurt him won't solve anything. However--"
"See? She's just as softhearted and weak as I said she was," Angmar smirked.
"--Actually hurting him will," Eowyn said, taking a step forward, and sunk her fist into Angmar's face.
-----------------------
"You broke his nose!?" Arwen stared at her newest friend with a look of mingled disbelief and horror. "What will everyone say? It's only the second day of school and I've already fallen in with delinquents and hoodlums and I can't believe you broke his nose!"
"Well, detention made it slightly less satisfying, but still…" Eowyn trailed off and went back to mangling the frog she was supposed to be dissecting, every now and then looking at Angmar and then attacking the poor amphibian with renewed vigor. Arwen was writing an essay on the purpose of each section of a frog's anatomy, since she refused to dissect any kind of animal. Essay writing was a common occurrence in this class for Arwen, since Science always seemed to involve some sort of animal cruelty.
"Will you stop shredding that frog?" Arwen rounded on Eowyn, "I mean, look at it!" she pointed to the mangled heap, "You can't even tell where the head is anymore! You're as bad as him." She pointed at Angmar, who was humming a mournful dirge as he slowly cremated his frog with a cigarette lighter.
"Fine." Eowyn pushed the remains of her frog to the other side of the table. Arwen put down her essay, finished in record time, and looked around at Aragorn. His brow was furrowed as he carefully dissected his frog. He looked so... cute. Wait a minute, she thought. She was not going to fall for someone without knowing more about him. She had thought Boromir was cute, but noooooo, he couldn't give up the Starbucks thing, could he?
"Um... excuse me…" It was Aragorn. He had walked up to her table when she wasn't looking.
"Oh. Hi," she said. He really was cute.
"Um... could I borrow that scalpel?" He pointed to the shiny metal implement lying next to the remains of Eowyn's frog. "Y'know, to...um...dissect my... um.…" He mumbled and gestured meaninglessly at the table where he had been sitting.
"Sure." She picked it up, her fingers brushing his palm as she handed it to him. He smiled and walked back to his table, placing the scalpel next to the one already sitting on his desk.
-----------------------
Faramir munched his sandwich thoughtfully, trying to ignore Eowyn. For the last fifteen minutes she had used every possible opportunity to call him Fari. He didn't really mind that much, but he was afraid someone would hear. Eowyn, however, was so busy thinking of things to say that had 'Fari' in them that she didn't notice when Legolas and Gimli walked over. Faramir frantically signaled her to be quiet, but it was of no avail. "Hey, Fari--"
"Fari? Oh, look, now he has a girlfriend who calls him stupid baby names. Or is that something your mother calls you?" Legolas drawled as Gimli laughed.
"You have to stand up to them!" Eowyn hissed in Faramir's ear, "You can't just let them walk all over you! If you don't stand up to them now they'll keep treating you like a door mat!"
But Faramir wasn't listening to Eowyn, or Legolas' ongoing teasing. He simply looked at the floor, jaw clenched. Called me, he thought miserably, it was something she called me.
"Are you just going to let them do this to you?" Eowyn continued, "There are a lot of effective ways to get people to stop teasing you--trust me, I know--and being comatose is not one of them! Arwen says these guys tortured you all last year, and you haven't done anything! Do you want them to tease you?"
"No."
"Then do something!"
Meanwhile, Legolas was continuing his tirade, unaware of how effective his insults had really been. Eowyn, unable to motivate Faramir, muttered "I bet you brother would stand up to these guys." And that was enough.
"Look, just shut the hell up!" Legolas and Gimli fell were silent instantly. "I am sick and tired of you insulting me all the time! You think picking on other people will make you feel better about yourselves, but you know what? It doesn't, and it never will, so why don't you just… piss off and leave me and my friends alone!" The whole lunchroom stared. A curly haired freshman at another table finally broke the silence.
"Damn, you got served!" He grinned, and the freshmen at his table laughed. Legolas and Gimli stormed back to their table, but not before slamming the poor freshman's head face first into his plate of turkey tetrazinni.
-----------------------
Pippin lifted his face from his plate of lunch and smiled sheepishly. "Well, that was fun."
"Why do you always have to open your big fat mouth?" Merry shook his head sadly.
"I couldn't help it."
"You never can."
"I won't do it again."
"You--"
"Would you guys just shut up for once?" Rosie interjected, quite unnecessarily. "This 'playful banter' crap does get annoying, you know." She sighed and turned to Pippin, whose face still had bits of turkey stuck to it, "Let's go get you cleaned up."
Merry stared at Rosie, who was walking out of the lunchroom. "What was that all about?"
"I think she's mad at you."
"Well, that's obvious!"
Pippin followed Rosie out into the hall. Merry ran after him, aware of the dark stares of Rosie's friends. "What?" Merry shouted over his shoulder as he walked toward the lunchroom door.
Pippin turned around, just in time to see one of Rosie's friends grab the back of Merry's jacket, nearly pulling him over backwards.
"You know perfectly well what!" It was Estella, the tall one with the short strawberry blond hair. Diamond was standing behind her, tugging on one of the red streaks in her curly black hair and staring boredly into space.
"Um... I don't know what you're talking about." Merry said, thoroughly confused. Estella laughed humorlessly. "No, honestly! What's the problem?"
"What's the problem?" Estella scoffed, "You're the problem!"
"Me?"
"Yes, you!"
Pippin watched as Estella began ranting, waving her spork like a weapon. Pippin thought it was rather funny, as long as he wasn't involved. Diamond smiled at Pippin.
"You! It's only the second day of school and you're flirting with that Eowyn girl!"
"What!"
"Everyone knows it, I'm just saying it. And Rosie's upset."
Rosie did not look at all upset but watch with a look of slight satisfaction as Estella waved her spork menacingly close to Merry's nose. She raged on, "¾You're just like Legolas, you two-timing, cheating, son of a¾"
Pippin turned to Rosie. "I think you'd better stop your friend before she spears my cousin with a spork."
"I'm not stopping her."
"Are you condemning your own boyfriend to death by spork?" Rosie said nothing. Pippin sighed and walked over to Merry, who was still being verbally assaulted by the spork-wielding Estella. He tapped Merry on the shoulder and whispered, "Those who fight and run away live to fight another day."
"In English please," Merry sighed exasperatedly.
"I say we flee."
"Ooookay…" He turned to Estella. "Um... it was lovely to chat, anytime, but...um... I'll just go and… uh... Arrange to take Rosie out somewhere nice to make up for the... er... Misunderstanding." Estella lowered her spork warily, and Merry and Pippin walked away as quickly as possible.
"A date?" Pippin hissed, "Where are you going to take her?"
"Oh, I dunno…" Merry grinned roguishly. "How 'bout the Space Needle?"
-----------------------
If someone had broken her nose, Eowyn would have argued that cleaning graffiti off the bathroom walls was not nearly adequate punishment. She would have demanded that they scrub the school toilets with their own toothbrush, pay for her doctor bill, and she probably would have socked them in return. However, since Angmar wasn't exactly the type to relate the incident to his family (if he even had one), and since he told Principal Celeborn that his nose was bruised, not broken (all though everyone knew the truth anyway), the most the school could do was give her detention for a week.
After art, Eowyn borrowed Arwen's cell phone to call her brother Eomer and tell him why she wouldn't get home until 4ish. After his initial reaction ("Eowyn! You shouldn't have!"), he dropped the whole facade and agreed that Angmar was a rotten bastard who deserved it. Eowyn didn't bother to question why he knew that. From there the conversation drifted to people who deserved to have their noses broken, until Arwen grabbed the pink, fuzzy phone away, demanding that she had to go or she would be too late to judge the cheerleading tryouts.
"Cheerleading tryouts?" Eowyn had asked Arwen, astonished. "If our poor, deprived school doesn't have enough money for proper sports, why the hell do we have cheerleaders? What would they cheer during, the geography bee?" She laughed meanly. "I mean, honestly…"
Arwen silenced her with a scathing look. "I got Daddy to sponsor them, since I wanted to cheer so bad," she explained, stuffing her cell phone back into her backpack. "We just cheer for the Bandits." And with that, she sprinted down the corridor toward the gym, clearly affronted by Eowyn's lack of school spirit.
So Eowyn, along with Merry and, unfortunately, Angmar, was stuck listening to Principal Celeborn rant for twenty whole minutes about the evils of fighting at school.
She pushed open the door to the girl's bathroom, which smelled strongly of mildew, and put her bucket on the floor. Her first order of business was obviously to get the large "I wuz here" scrawled in flowery writing on the back wall. It was written in ballpoint pen, and came of easily under the highly astringent and lemony fresh soap in the bucket.
"Once a yak, a yak 4 ever" was written on the inside of a stall, along with varied initials of long gone students. Hidden behind a toilet paper holder, someone had written, "Prof. Glory is a wanker." Underneath that, people had elaborated to the extreme; the last one contained the words "goat" and "his ex mother-in-law" flooded in a tide of swear words.
It was hard work. Eowyn's arms ached as she scrubbed "Thanx 2 whoeva cleans this filthy bathroom" from where it was written behind a toilet. She continued to work, and by 10 after 4:00 she had cleaned it all up. She was standing back to admire her work when she saw it, written under the sink in heavy black Sharpie. Inside a large heart someone had written "I LOVE LEGGY!" Eowyn narrowed her eyes and began to scrub at it with a vengeance. No matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn't come off. Legolas didn't deserve to have nice things written about him on a wall, after all the things he did to Faramir! But, apparently, it was permanently written there. At a loss, she took a pen out of her backpack and scribbled "You sick freak" underneath it, and walked out of the bathroom.
---------------------------
A/N: REVIEW!!
NEXT: Aragorn makes a bad bet and a prank is played.