Right. Thank you for being patient. I have not given up!

Thanks once again the the amazing Crackers for reading this over and...fixing it and all that :)

Chapter 2:

Archet bounded up the staircase, feeling both nervous giddy at the same time, if that was even possible. Maedhros trailed behind her, carrying the cardboard box full of his currently-made-of-plush kin. She led him into her brother's room, sat down on the bed clenching the stack of the paper from the box, knees to her chest, and stared at the elf as he carefully placed his cargo down on the carpeted floor. The box did not move, which was honestly rather to be expected.

"Um," said Archet quietly (yes, you would've thought that an author had a better vocabulary than that.) "Um, what do we do now?"

Maedhros didn't answer, seemingly preoccupied with studying the features of the room. It was nothing special. A bed, desk, large chair, chest of drawers. The floor was that greyish carpet colour which Archet so despised. A closet door was situated in the corner. Pale blue walls reflected the dying light that filtered in through the window. A couple of photographs were pinned to a corkboard hanging on the wall. Nothing special, really.

"Are we to live here?" asked the elf.

"I dunno", mumbled Archet, suddenly feeling rather awkward. "I guess so."

"This is your brother's room, I take it?"

"He's at college. It's a guestroom now. Anyways, I think I'm going to get ready to sleep. I still have some English homework left to finish for tomorrow".

Maedhros watched the girl gracelessly trip off the bed and exit through the door, closing it behind her. He listened for the familiar click of a lock. None appeared.

"Oh, good. You're all up. I was worried."

Finrod opened his eyes blearily and instantly shut them again, "Please turn off the Sun. I cannot see with it glaring in my eyes."

Archet guiltily turned off her flashlight, turning on the overhead light instead. The elves, half awake, cowered before the brightness. Dior tried to cram himself under the low-lying bed. It was a rather funny sight.

The girl stared at all the elves, taking in their appearances. Finrod and Celegorm both had blond hair, which she made note of immediately. Dior's hair was pitch-black, while Maedhros's was, of course, very red. They looked more or less exactly as she had imagined them, except taller.

"Good morning," Archet said a little louder. "I need you guys to listen to me for a second. I need to leave for school".

"What?" mumbled Finrod.

"School?" Maedhros said.

"The sun has barely risen," muttered Dior.

Celegorm smirked. "Thank you for the obvious." He aimed a pillow at the not-exactly-a-real-elf's head.

Which begged the question of why exactly he was there in the first place?

Unfortunately, Archet had not yet realized that one of her elves wasn't even really an elf, being rather preoccupied with the fact that none of them were even real in the first place.

"Right. I'm leaving for school. Stay. In. Here. I'll be back by lunchtime."

"What about food?" asked Finrod, who had sat up to squint at the girl.

"We'll be fine," said Maedhros quickly, with a death glare towards his younger cousin (not that age mattered that much to these guys).

"No, we won't," muttered Finrod, lying back down on the comforter he had pulled off the bed, "But we will comply."

Archet shut the door on the four elves and guiltily got ready for school. She felt kind of bad about treating the four more-or-less-elven-princes like pets, but she was rather overwhelmed by the whole stupid thing anyways.

She instead filled her mind with the depressing fact that band rehearsal had unfortunately been scheduled for Friday morning. (Because teachers think we all love to get up early.)

As the sun came up around 7:30, Archet quietly pulled on her boots and coat, then slipped out the door. Feeling the freezing wind on her cheeks, she had a moment's sympathy for her parents, who had to leave even before this time. Then she remembered her parents had cars and didn't feel quite so bad.

Twenty minutes later...

Archet slumped dejectedly into her plastic chair as people started trickling into the music room, most of them carrying assorted black cases. Archet herself played violin, mainly because she had thought back in fourth grade that it sounded pretty. It likely hadn'that been worth all the trouble, though.

"Hey!" exclaimed a stubborn male voice, as a smaller girl dodged out of the way of a chair. "Sorry," she said cheerfully, noticing Archet looking over and flashing a grin. Our Favourite Tolkien Hero attempted to smile back, as the girl pulled a chair over.

"Mrs Karr is here," she announced, then noticed Archet's rather unhappy expression, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Archet said quickly. "I mean, something. A big something. But I don't know-"

"Is it a gu-"

"NO!" Archet exclaimed before the girl could even finish the sentence. A few people looked over, but most were busy chatting with their own friends before the teacher came in and made them shut up.

"Pity," sniggered the girl, "I thought you were finally growing up."

"Whatever, Tijana."

"Don't you 'whatever' me, young lady. It's my business to know-" Tijana abruptly shut up as Mrs Karr entered the room, precisely on time (as usual), and with a scowl on her face (as usual).

"Great," muttered Archet. "Just great."

"What is that?" whispered a voice.

"That," Finrod Felagund, Elf Supreme, sniffed the 'that'. "That is a, um..."

"Yes?" said Dior.

"I have no idea!" Finrod cried.

"Be quiet. You're going to wake the others."

"So? There's no blasted food in this house anyways. They deserve to be woken up."

"I'm pretty sure that's an apple," said Dior, pointing at an apple, "but it's oddly shiny."

"It'll do," declared Finrod and bravely took a bite of the shiny apple. "It's an apple."

Alright, so perhaps Maedhros and Celegorm could go 18+ hours without food, but honestly, it's a Fëanorian thing only. Eventually the other two elves had cracked. So they had decided to raid the kitchen (not after Dior had discovered permanent markers and drew all over Celegorm's sleeping face). And it hadn't been until at least half-hour after they started exploring the room to get out that Dior had realized they weren't actually locked in. It was a very cranky pair of elves who had climbed down the stairs to be met with the prospect of so-called 'organic apples'.

"It's 10:00," warned Finrod some time after they had figured out how to turn on the TV and watch National Geographic, lounging in the spotless living room.

The Elf turned around to stare at Dior, who was sitting dignified-like on the sofa, all upright and proper. Embarrassed, Finrod realized he had somehow gotten into a slumped position on the shaggy white carpet. He nervously sat up straighter, not wanting to risk any sort of how-to-behave lecture, much less from someone to whom he was considerably superior (in his own eyes, at least).

"What time did Archet say she'd be home?"

"Noon. Well, lunch. Which is likely noon."

"Let us go, then." Dior said.

The two had started to quietly head towards the back door when the doorbell rang ominously. Dior literally jumped a foot in the air out of surprise.

"Should we answer it?" he hissed.

"I don't see why not."

"Right. Come, Finrod; let us answer the door."

And so the two elves made the rash (and mildly stupid) decision to open the door to a stranger...