LOL I love you guys. You're so good at reviewing! But I'm mad. Our school (mine and Nicole's) lost to Kelsey's school after 3 overtimes...and only by 4 or 5 points! What a Friday...But now it's Halloween! Yay! I'm not going trick-or-treating, but I'm watching movies with friends! YAY! Reviwers...

Isaac--Haha...not funny. Okay, actually it was. : P Here's a cookie.

Waterstar2.5--Aw, what the heck. Have another cookie. Personally, mocha frapes make me hyper, but that's another story...

Elondra--YAY! New reviewer! You get a...uh oh. We're out of cookies. ::runs downstairs and comes back 30 minutes later:: Got them! Here's a snickerdoodle!

BlackRoseOrchid-Poison--Ahem...he's mine! Don't whacky my Elfy!

Gina--Actually, Nickel does that more. Remember Friday night? With me 'n' Isaac? Yeah...Nickel wasn't nice...

Iceprincess141414--YAY! No more rain::does a happy dance:: And it's flippin' cold outside! Houston's starting to get nicer all of a sudden...

JustMe--A detention? From reading our story in class? Wow...that's pretty awesome...in a weird kinda way. Here's your chappy so we don't have to go to detention! YAY! No detention for Mandy::does another happy dance:: ...sorry. (Kelsey: That ain't cool in my book!! Don't get into any more trouble 'cause of us!!...But we still want you to read...yeah...)

Okay, I'm feeling nice, mainly 'cause now I have this large batch of cookies and I only gave three away. Everybody gets a cookie today! YAY! Happy Halloween!

Disclaimer--I'm running out of good disclaimers. Sorry, still don't own it.

The Weapon Check

Ernie's PoV

"Hey, Nicole?" I called, sword in hand. Nicole turned from her spot in front of Gandalf. "Ya know, I think today's supposed to be Halloween!" She gave me a look.

"What's Halloween?" Legolas asked. Nicole scowled and flipped her hair in a Mandy-like style.

"Ernie, here, it is March 2," she began. "So that means--"

"But back where we're from it's October 31!" I argued, pulling out my cell phone. "See? It says it's October 31!" And with that, the screen went blank. I hit the phone with my hand, but nothing happened. Then I hit the side of my leg with it. Still nothing. "Drat. My phone's dead. Anybody got a charger?"

"Ernie, those don't exist here and neither does Halloween, which we celebrated months ago," Nicole pointed out. "Besides, it's not like you could dress-up as Dracula or whatever for a day here without getting shot." I could feel my eyes bug out, and I jumped up and down in the saddle, which is an amazingly hard thing to do.

"OH! Could I Nicole?!" I begged.

"What is Dracula?" Legolas asked from behind me.

"Geez, couldn't this guy keep his nose out of a conversation for a minute?"

"No," Nicole retorted. I stared.

"I said that out loud?"

"Yes."

"...Oh." I was quiet for a moment. "Can I please dress up as Dracula?"

Mandy's PoV

"Nicole?"

"Yes?"

"Um..." I scratched my head. "What is Ernie doing? We stopped for him to take a restroom break not that long ago and he has to go again?" At that moment, Ernie emerged. My jaw dropped.

"Oh Illuvatar..." Kelsey breathed behind me. "Murder me before everybody in Rohan chases us out with pitchforks." Ernie let out a laugh. He was robed in a long, black cloak with a collar that stood up to hide half his face. A pair of plastic, fake fangs were stuffed into his mouth and he had spiked his hair. His face was extremely pale, but his lips were bright red and his ears were pointed so that they were taller than his head.

Gandalf and the others looked over at Ernie and their jaws dropped at the sight of him.

"What is he doing?" My-oh-so-hawt Elf cried.

"Sir," Gandalf ordered. "Take off that this instant!" Ernie shook his head wildly.

"Mwahaha! Now I am Ernie-friend, the vampire-lord of the world!" he laughed, then held out a rather familiar looking object.

"Hey!" I shouted, pointing at the pumpkin-shaped Halloween bag. "I want one!"

"Mandy," Nicole said, barely keeping her voice steady. No need to tell you she was really annoyed, is there? "No one else is going to get anything from my bag, including a stupid pumpkin. Do I make myself clear?"

"But--"

"No buts." Ernie laughed in that kinda odd way that Dracula laughs.

"Trick-or-treat!" He held out his bag to Nicole. Who screamed. Loudly.

"I don't think that was loud enough," I sniggered.

"Yeah, people in Mordor probably couldn't hear you," Kelsey added. Nicole glared at us, but before she could retort Ernie leaped onto the horse he was sharing with Aragorn and gave a loud whoop.

"Time to go and get candy!"

Kelsey's PoV

"Hey look! It's—"

"A bird! A plane! A—"

"It's Edoras," I interrupted Mandy.

"No, it's a flag. See?" Mandy pointed at a large piece of cloth rolling along the ground. "Mandy thinks it's pretty…"

"Mandy," I warned as she slid off the horse to pick up the cloth. Suddenly, Mandy jumped up and pushed Gimli off the horse he was riding with Legolas.

"HAHA!" she cried, leaping onto the horse and throwing her arms around Legolas's waist. "I'm victorious! Mandy wins again! Whoo hoo!" I rolled my eyes.

"Mandy!" I snapped, interrupting her victory dance. I grabbed her arm and forced her onto our horse. Then I punched Legolas.

"Hey, what was that for?" Mandy demanded as thought she had been the one I had hit. I punched Legolas again, but this time in the jaw.

"That was for not talking in 3rd person, as you should be doing," I reprimanded her as we rode into Edoras. "The previous one was for an extremely bad attempt to jump Legolas."

"But I wasn't trying to jump—"

"Third person!" I called triumphantly, slugging Legolas on the shoulder.

"OW!"

"LEGGY!" I punched him again. Mandy opened her mouth to protest, then shut it, thinking. "Mandy thinks that Kelsey is being mean and should stop hurting Leggy."

"I love you too Mandy," I retorted, dismounting from our horse at the gate. "Now come on. It's time to see the King."

"I—" I raised my arm threateningly. "Mandy thinks that she doesn't want to see the King. Mandy thinks the King is ugly."

"So?" Nicole cut in. "You get to kick butt in the throne room, 'cause everybody's beating everybody else up. Not that you could, though…"

"We get to kick some butt?!" Ernie shouted, raising his sword. "All right!"

"Ernie! Sword down!" Nicole ordered. Ernie started to protest. "Now! Besides, Dracula doesn't own a sword." Ernie sheathed it, grumbling. "And be quiet." Mandy rolled her eyes and stomped up the stairs, thoroughly peeved after being made fun of, and purposefully moved to stand next to Legolas. I gave him a look that I figured meant, "touch her and die". He, though, didn't seem to get the message.

Annoyed, I climbed the stairs, all the while listening to Nicole yelling at Ernie to ""take off the stupid costume" until Hama appeared before the doors.

"I cannot allow you to enter so heavily armed, Gandalf Greyhame," he stated, looking us over.

Honestly, besides Ernie, I don't see what he thought was so dangerous about an ax-wielding dwarf, sharp-shooter elf, swordsmen who could probably kill anything, a wizard who could blast you into smithereens, and three, perfectly helpless looking teenage girls. Okay…maybe I could. After all, hormones are a major, mean issue in teen girls these days.

And then, of course, there was the wizard apprentice (Nicole) busily trying to restrain some cloaked guy with plastic, too-white-to-be-real fangs (Ernie). Oh, if only I could read the thoughts that were going through Hama's head…

Gandalf gave Hama a look.

"By order of…Grima Wormtongue," Hama answered the unasked question distastefully. Realization it up everyone's faces…I tell you, it was great watching that little lightbulb just turn on above everybody's head…

"Whatever." Nicole wrestled the sword from Ernie with little success.

"NO! MY SWORD!" Ernie yelped and started to run down the stairs. But Nicole, once again, was faster and stuck out her staff, tripping him. The guards looked pointedly at Nicole as she tossed Ernie's sword over to them.

"Yeah yeah. Here you go." Nicole flung her staff at the guards, who caught it warily. "And don't break it." Next, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli all handed over their respected weapons (although, Aragorn did put up a bit of a fight . . . you can't blame the poor guy!). After reviewing them, the guards turned to Mandy.

"Don't bother," I told them. "She can't use a weapon to save her life."

"But she must have something!" The guards insisted. "Especially if she has traveled across these dangerous lands with you! How did she defend herself against creatures of Sauron?" I turned to Mandy and looked her up and down, trying to come to some answer.

"She didn't fight," I concluded. "She just hid behind Legolas at every chance she got."

"It's cause she thinks he has a nice—"

"That's enough, Nickel!" Mandy huffed at her, flushing a bright red as she reached behind her. "Here." Mandy handed the guards an object that I couldn't see. The guards looked at her in disbelief.

"A hair clip?"

"Hey, you have your choice of weapon, and I have mine," Mandy retorted, pulling another hair clip out of her bag and re-clipping her hair into a small ponytail. "Besides the…ends are sharp! They could poke your eye out! Or—"

"Mandy, quit while you're ahead," I advised, handing my sword to the guards. "You're hopeless." I then handed the guards my bow, quiver, and bag, the last visible items I had on myself.

"All right. You may pass—"

"Wait!" I pulled out my can of pepper spray, two daggers out of each boot, and pulled out my belt, where I made a show of displaying the two daggers I had placed there.

"Well, now you may pass into—"

"OH!" I slapped my forehead. "I almost forgot!" I pulled out three more daggers that had been sewn into my skirt. Out of the lining of my tunic and skirt, I pulled out about ten more daggers. Hama glared at me impatiently.

"Now—"

"WAIT! I—" I pulled out my hair band, letting my hair loose and noticing, impressed, that my hair had grown at least an inch or two from it's original shoulder-length.

"I believe you should go in—"

"Wa—" Everybody groaned and Mandy clapped a hand over my mouth.

"Kelsey doesn't have anything else," she assured the guards quickly. I pulled away from Mandy's grasp.

"Actually," I began, but this time Aragorn put his hand over my mouth. Hama rolled his eyes at us.

"Please proceed," he directed. Aragorn grabbed my wrist and dragged me through the doors, but I resisted.

"I still have weapons!" I screamed. "See my nails?! They're sharp! Very sharp!"

"Kelsey, you just filed your nails last night," Mandy reminded me.

"Then how about my shoelaces? They could be used as whips!"

"Kelsey, are you seriously going to use your laces as whips?" Mandy asked.

"Um…no, but I still have—"

"Kelsey just…just stop," I advised. Ernie looked from us to the guards. Then he held out his pumpkin bag and grinned, his plastic fangs lopsided.

"Trick-or-treat!"

Whoo hoo! Writing is so much fun! YAY! LOL y'all have a fun Halloween!!!! I'm going to be watching movies!!!! R&R please!

Hope y'all enjoyed it! I seem like a bit of an idiot at the end...but that's what fanfics are all about, right? Anyway, R&R! --The Editor

Hehehehe!!! I'm like, Mandy's younger sister. She asked me to review so...hehehe! hi!

Good STORY!!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
And, FYI, I was the one who gave Ernie the name Ernie Friend. Mwahahahahaha!!!!