To say that Legolas was surprised to find a girl in their room would be an understatement. And a pretty young girl like that -- Legolas couldn't have been more astonished.
"This is Legolas, my roommate AND running mate," Gimli said as Legolas leapt across Gimli's mess to set down his music books on his own desk.
Legolas turned and nodded to the girl. "Nice to meet you."
"Same here," the girl replied, nodding and smiling.
"What are you doing back?" Gimli asked.
"It's 5:30," Legolas explained, opening his desk drawer to retrieve his meal card. "I'm going to dinner."
"Five-thirty!" the girl said, panic in her voice. She quickly jumped off of the top bunk, landing right in the middle of Gimli's engine pieces. "Merry's gonna KILL me."
"Is everything okay?" Gimli asked as the girl rushed towards the door, and Legolas could hear real concern in his roommate's voice.
"Yes...no...I don't know. I gotta go." At the door, she turned, saying, "It was so nice to meet you, Gimli. Uh...you too, Legolas. I'll see you around." And she was gone.
"Sorry I scared her off," Legolas said, smoothing the indentation on his bedspread from where the girl had been sitting. "Who is she?"
"Her name's Eowyn -- she's doing a story on the elections for The Palantir." Gimli smiled, adding excitedly, "Speaking of elections, did you see all the signs up today?"
Legolas nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Overnight Gimli and his friends had managed to plaster campus with colorful "Gimli and Legolas: we'll fight for your rights" posters. In fact, all day long Legolas couldn't go into any building without SOMEONE teasing him about it.
But Gimli seemed so excited about the entire thing, Legolas didn't have the heart to tell him that he'd noticed, on the poster in the mailroom, that someone had crossed out the final "s" and added the words "to party". <<He'd be devastated to know that someone had defaced his poster.>>
<<Either that, or he'd suddenly decide that we now have a campaign song.>>
So Legolas merely said, "I'll see you after dinner," leaping gracefully back over the mess.
"Actually, the weather's so nice, my friends and I were planning to go for a ride later."
Legolas skeptically looked down at the engine pieces which were strewn about the floor. "Whatever. Later, then."
****
Frodo was halfway through his plate of mushrooms when Merry and Pippin arrived, looking more than a little disheveled.
"Have a good afternoon?" Frodo teased as the two hobbits took their seats around the circular table.
"Mm-hmm," Pippin said, smiling.
"Busy," Merry added.
"I can see that," Frodo teased. He could only imagine what they'd been busy doing.
"Whah 'bou you?" Pippin asked, his mouth full of the cafeteria's meatloaf.
Frodo shrugged. "I started tutoring Sam in Elvish," he explained.
"Sam's taking Elvish?" Merry asked. "Whatever for?"
"You know Sam," Frodo said. "He loves the elves."
Merry nodded and then turned to Pippin. "I was just thinking about Elvish this afternoon. Remember what fun we had in that class?"
Pippin nodded, grinning. "I think the only thing I still remember is 'Cerich iest treneri ammen i lín gell celu?'"
Merry laughed, adding in his best Professor Halfelven impersonation, "'Ned edhellen!'"
Frodo shook his head -- leave it to Merry and Pippin to remember "Would you like to share with the class what's so funny?" and Elrond's stern follow-up "In Elvish".
Merry continued, "And remember that list we made of all the Elvish swear words?"
Pippin nodded. "I still have that somewhere. We'll have to share it with Sam."
"No," said Frodo. "You're NOT teaching Sam those things." Merry and Pippin grinned evilly at each other, and Frodo added, "I'll WARN him not to listen to anything you two say in Elvish."
"Speaking of," Merry asked, looking around the cafeteria, "where IS Sam?"
Frodo shrugged. "He had to work."
"Again?!" Pippin asked.
Frodo nodded, realizing that Sam was ALWAYS rushing off to work these days. That suddenly reminded him of the petition he'd picked up after Sam had hurried off from his lesson, and Frodo dug it out of his backpack. "Will you guys sign my petition?" he asked, sliding it across the table to the boys.
"No!" Merry said strongly, startling Frodo, who quickly pulled the petition back.
"You don't think I should run for Student Council?" he asked, depressed that his friend had had such a negative reaction.
"Oh no, it's not that," Merry said, reaching for the petition and scrawling his signature across it. "It's just that I've spent all afternoon interviewing candidates, and I don't want to interview any more." He glanced at Pippin and smiled mischievously. "Well, maybe not ALL afternoon."
"But Frodo, why Student Council?" Pippin asked, adding his own signature to the list.
Frodo shrugged. Sam had made such an inspiring speech, but he didn't know how to translate it into terms the boys would understand. "I...I just want to help people."
"Well, why don't you help ME go get more food?" Merry said, having already finished his two plates of meatloaf.
Frodo nodded and walked up with Merry to the serving line.
"Do I want more meatloaf?" Merry asked. "Or maybe some potatoes -- they look good tonight."
"The chicken and sausage gumbo is always good," Frodo pointed out, eager to get some for himself.
"Yeah, that's what I'll get," Merry said. "Some gumbo, please," he said to the hair-netted cafeteria worker.
"Me, too," Frodo said.
But the worker merely stared at the two hobbits. "It's me," he finally said. "It's your Sam."
Merry and Frodo stared at the worker as he added, "Don't you know your Sam?"
"Sam! I didn't even recognize you," Frodo said, amazed.
"Nice hair net," Merry teased.
Frodo elbowed Merry as he said, "I didn't know you were working at the cafeteria."
Sam nodded, scooping large ladlefuls of soup into four bowls. "Only a few nights a week. But every little bit helps," he said, handing the bowls across to Frodo and Merry.
"Then you'll warn us when the cook has a cold, won't you, Sam?" Merry said, placing his two bowls on his tray and moving down the line.
Sam leaned across and whispered to Frodo, "And I get all the leftovers I want. For FREE!"
Frodo smiled. "That's great, Sam."
"Frodo," Merry called impatiently, gesturing for his friend to hurry up.
"I'll catch you later, Sam," Frodo said apologetically as he picked up his tray and scurried over to Merry.
"I think I want ice cream, too," Merry said, grabbing a huge bowl and dispensing soft-serve vanilla into it.
"You sure worked up an appetite this afternoon," Frodo teased.
"The biggest," Merry grinned, grabbing his ice cream and turning to go.
It's a good thing he had a tight hold on his tray, for otherwise Merry's ice cream might've ended up all over Eowyn.
"Twice in one day," Merry said, grinning as he set his tray down and began mopping up the spilt gumbo. "We've gotta to stop 'running into each other' like this."
"Merry, I'm SO sorry," Eowyn said, out-of-breath and clearly out-of-sorts.
"No biggie," Merry said. "I can always get more gumbo."
"No," Eowyn said. "It's not that. I...I have something to tell you."
Frodo could tell that the girl was really upset, but Merry seemed oblivious. "Did you get all those interviews done?" he asked.
"No," she said, "I...I..."
"Well, how many did you do?"
Eowyn looked down at her shod feet as she mumbled, "One."
"ONE?!" Merry yelled, almost dropping his tray again.
"Well, kind of two, since he's running with his roommate."
"I gave you an entire list, Eowyn," Merry said frustratedly, "and you only got through TWO?"
Eowyn nodded, and Frodo suddenly wondered if she was the crying type. "But I got a lot of good information," she said meakly, holding up her notebook.
"Well, a lot of good that's gonna do the rest of the candidates," Merry snapped. "The interviews all need to be done tonight. Radagast is not gonna be happy."
Eowyn just stared at Merry a moment in silence before turning and running off.
Frodo grabbed Merry by the shoulder and spun him around. "What the hell was that about?"
"She was supposed to interview candidates for me," Merry said, clearly frustrated with her.
"FOR you? You mean, it was YOUR assignment?"
"Yeah, but it was too much for one person to do, so I asked her to help." Merry shook his head. "ONE candidate -- a lot of help SHE was."
"I can't believe you, Meriadoc Brandybuck!" Frodo said loudly, furious now that he understood the entire situation. "The girl was off interviewing someone this afternoon while you and Pippin...." Frodo suddenly realized how far his voice was carrying in the small cafeteria and decided not to finish the sentence. Instead he came straight to the point: "You had no right to yell at her."
"Excuse me?" Merry said contentiously, upset that his cousin was scolding him in such a public setting.
"You owe her an apology, Merry. And you best do it NOW, before she decides to never work for the paper."
****
Eowyn was afraid she was going to cry, with Merry standing there yelling at her like that, so she turned and fled. But with every step she got less tearful and more angry.
<<I was doing HIM a favor,>> she realized. <<And I reminded him I wasn't even on the paper, yet he insisted. And he didn't even ask -- he MADE me do it. So if someone's to blame, it's him and not me.>>
<<And he's gonna get a piece of my mind.>>
Eowyn stopped at the door of the cafeteria and wheeled around, determine to go find Merry and chew him out. She didn't have to go far, for he had been chasing after her.
"Eowyn, I...."
"You used me," she burst out before he could even finish his sentence. "Radagast assigned YOU to do the interviews, and...and you forced them on me. I was doing YOU a favor, and I'm not gonna let that affect my chances of getting on the paper. And you had no right to yell at me, just 'cuz...'cuz I didn't do exactly what you wanted 'cuz you weren't even clear WHAT you wanted. You just gave me the list and disappeared and...and...I did the best I could." Eowyn stopped, out of steam.
Merry raised an impudent eyebrow. "Are you finished?"
"And...and you shouldn't have yelled at me in front of everyone," Eowyn said in a final burst of temper.
Merry nodded. "You're right. About everything. And I'm really sorry," he said, putting added weight on the last two words. He then smiled shame-faced up at her. "Can you ever forgive me, Eowyn?"
The anger had now drained from her, and Eowyn was too run-down to do anything more than nod.
Merry's smile spread across his face as he sighed with relief. "And you'll still come write for The Palantir? Even though I was a complete ass?"
Eowyn smiled, nodding. "If Radagast will let me."
"He'll HAVE to let you, especially after you write a giant piece on the roommate running mates." Eowyn stared at Merry in shock, so he added, "You gotta admit, it'll make a great cover story for our elections edition."
"I...I don't know what to say," Eowyn said, completely exhausted by her constantly yo-yoing emotions.
Merry smiled and took her hand. "Then don't say anything. Just come eat with us. They have really good chicken and sausage gumbo tonight."
And Eowyn let him lead her across the cafeteria, chatting her up with college small talk.
"Eowyn's forgiven me," Merry announced as they reached the table of his friends. "And guess what -- she's taking Elvish this semester."
"That's great," Frodo said.
Pippin nodded, smiling evilly at her. "We've got some GREAT phrases to teach you."
"Those'll have to wait till later," Merry said. " As soon as I'm done eating I've gotta go finish interviewing people. And Eowyn has to go write her article on the roommate running mates. Isn't that right?"
Merry smiled meaningfully and Eowyn smiled back, glad that they were friends again. <<Writing an article -- I can't believe it! I'm actually gonna be on the paper!>>
***
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