Hi to all my wonderful readers and reviewers!
Diana: Who are you?
Me: I'm the author.
Diana: ...
Me: The author of this story.
Diana: Ohhh... I haven't seen you in, let me see, a MONTH!
Me: I was busy.
Diana: You were lazy.
Me: Stop sounding like my conscience.
This is a bit late for Thanksgiving, so pretend it happens sometime in the Holiday Season.
"Hi, Diana!" some random girl squealed at me. "Why do you have a hairbrush in your pocket?"
I took a step back. "Who are you?"
She laughed "You're kidding, right?"
"Actually, this is one of the few times I'm being serious."
"I'm Annie."
She shook my hand.
I still didn't remember her.
"You know, your cousin Annise?"
"Oh." I said. Suddenly it clicked into place. "Oh! I didn't recognize you, with your hair braided over your shoulder like that. And did you get a tan?"
She nodded.
"Cool. And how's Rose?"
"Annoying as ever. You're lucky you're an only child. Little sisters make life like the place with the flames and pitchforks."
"Tartarus." I corrected automatically.
"What?"
I blinked "Huh?"
"You just randomly said tartar sauce."
"Tartarus," I explained. "It's a horrible place, trust me."
"As bad as The Hunger Games?"
It was my turn to be confused.
"You know, where they send tributes to die?"
"Um…."
A little boy about seven or eight poked his head out the door "As bad as," he shivered. "…Mordor?"
"Sammy? Is that you?"
The dark shaggy head nodded, reminding me of Nico.
Annie rolled her eyes. "Sammy believes in Middle Earth."
He made a face at her "You believe in Panem."
"That's different."
"Is not."
"Is too. Middle Earth is as real as your ring is genuine."
"You mean it's not real?" I asked, even more confused.
He clutched the golden circle hanging from his neck "No, duh. The real ring kills you from the inside. It destroys your spirit. Anyway, the real ring was destroyed a long time ago by Frodo in Mordor. That's the whole point of the Lord of the Rings. And if it was real, Sauron and Saruman would be after me, along with Nazguls and Orcs and stuff. The One Ring is super powerful. Mine's just a copy. It does have the elven inscription: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. It's even only shows up when you heat it, just like the real one. Even if there was a real one, I wouldn't take it anyway. It killed Bilbo, and Frodo, and Gollum. Smeagol, I mean."
Annie's eyes were glazed over by the end of his speech.
"So, um," I said, trying to break the awkward silence "What do we do until everyone else arrives?"
She shook herself out of her trance. "C'mon up to my room. And Sammy, leave us alone."
I checked each room I passed for monsters. You just never know when they'll pop up.
One of the rooms was, in a word, pink. Hot pink, carnation pink, light pink, sparkly pink, fuzzy pink, soft pink, etc.
Annie caught me staring. "Rose's room. She's going through a Disney princess phase."
"Oh."
I never noticed how obsessed all my relatives were.
Review if you understood Sammy's Lord of the Rings rant, and review if you didn't. Heck, review if you didn't even read it.
Translation: Everyone should review.
P.S. To my fellow obsessed fans:
Annie is named after Annie Cresta. I modeled her looks after Katniss, though. I'll throw in Annie's boyfriend later, a guy named Nick (after Finnick Odair).
Rose is named after Prim (Primrose) or Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty).
Sammy is named after Samwise Gamgee.