<<Some days I just shouldn't get out of bed,>> Legolas thought as he skated his way across campus towards the science building. <<And today was definitely one of them.>>
Of course, staying in bed would've meant listening to Gimli blaring their "campaign song" out the window for hours upon end, so perhaps getting up was better.
<<And I should look on the bright side,>> Legolas thought, trying to cheer himself up. <<At least the article wasn't on the front page.>>
<<And it was well-written.>>
<<And Gimli doesn't know me well enough to expose any of my deep, dark secrets.>>
<<And regardless, it'll all be over by tomorrow.>>
Unless, of course, he and Gimli were actually elected. Then he could look forward to an entire year of constant ribbing from his fellow elves. "Legolas the dwarf-lover." Ew! It made him shudder at the mere suggestion.
And if they did win, then Gimli would be proven right. He'd been correct so far about the "name recognition" thing -- everyone on campus seemed to now know who they were -- so maybe his idea of "combining votes" would work as well.
<<And he's insufferable when he's wrong -- I can't even IMAGINE what he'll be like if he's right!>>
So Legolas hurried on towards chem lab, looking forward to being locked away inside Orthanc Tower for three whole hours. <<And Aragorn's in my lab section so I can commiserate with him.>>
But Aragorn wasn't in the commiserating mood.
"The 'running roommates' got a big article, I see?" he teased, holding up the school paper as Legolas joined him at the lab bench.
"Don't even start," Legolas said, propping his skateboard against the cabinets and dropping onto one of the high stools.
Aragorn grinned. "Nice photo, too. What's with the hair?"
"What'd I just say, man?" Legolas was particularly sensitive on this point since they had printed a photo of him from last year's Mirror, back when he was still growing his hair out from the Rangers. His hair had been an awkward length, and the photo had obviously been taken on a bad-hair day. <<But at least it wasn't an old high school photo,>> he reminded himself, thinking of all the incriminating photos from his old yearbooks that would've been infinitely worse.
Aragorn laughed and squeezed his shoulder. "It's okay, man. It's good exposure -- you're a shoe-in to win now."
"Don't remind me," Legolas sighed.
"Don't you WANT to win?"
"Not at such a high cost."
Aragorn smiled, shaking his head. "Don't worry. In a few days, no one will even remember."
But in the distance, a pounding bass could be heard. As it got closer, Legolas recognized the song. "Noooo...." he said despairingly, putting his head down on the lab bench as Gimli and his boombox entered the lab.
****
"Hey, Pippin," Boromir said as he approached the low lab bench where the giggling hobbit was sitting with a friend. "I heard about you making concertmaster. Congratulations."
"Thanks," said Pippin, grinning broadly as his friend teasingly elbowed him.
"And you're only a sophomore, too," Boromir continued. "That's amazing."
"I'm the youngest one they've ever had," Pippin said, puffing out his chest proudly.
"Well, you deserve it. I heard you practicing the other day in the music building -- beautiful stuff." Boromir had been there for horn ensemble and heard the hobbit's violin music pouring from a practice room, filling the hallway with its haunting melodies. "What piece were you working on? Was it Hillenbrand?"
"Nope. Took."
"Really?" Boromir said, his eyes wide with amazement. "I'm impressed."
"Thanks." Pippin grinned, clearly pleased with himself even though his friend glowered at him.
Boromir suddenly recognized who the friend was. "Hey, you're Merry, right? From The Palantir? You interviewed me the other day." Merry looked at him blankly, so he explained, "I'm Boromir -- I'm running for sophomore class president."
"Oh, a frat boy, right?" Merry asked, and Pippin glared and elbowed him.
"Yeah, I'm a Mu Epsilon Nu. You know, I was really impressed with your piece on the candidates -- it was very balanced reporting."
Merry smiled. "Thanks."
Boromir was about to say something more when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Professor Gandalf suddenly sweep into the room.
"Welcome everyone to your first day in chem lab," Gandalf announced. "We have a THRILLING day ahead of us."
"Do we get to blow anything up?" Pippin asked excitedly, obviously not catching the sarcasm that dripped from Gandalf's tone.
"Not today, Master Took," Gandalf said. "Today we'll be checking out the lab equipment as well as reviewing basic lab safety. In the past, I've always allowed people to pick their own lab partners." Boromir saw Merry and Pippin excitedly grasp hands, clearly claiming each other as partners, as Gandalf continued, "But due to budget cutbacks and lack of equipment, this year we're forced to have lab threesomes."
****
Gimli smiled at Aragorn. "Great. Then I guess you can join us," he said, inviting the man to work with him and Legolas.
Legolas opened his mouth to say something but Aragorn spoke first. "That sounds like fun," Aragorn said, smiling. "I'd love to join your threesome."
"TRIPLET!!" Legolas said emphatically, almost shouting. "Not threesome!! Triplet!! Lab triplet!!"
Gimli rolled his eyes -- he didn't understand why Legolas was making such a big deal about the semantics.
<<He's probably just nervous about the election so he's stressing out about stupid stuff. But the election will be over tomorrow, and after we win he'll mellow out.>>
<<I hope.>>
Gimli turned his attention back to Gandalf, who was explaining the procedure for checking out the lab drawers. "Each threesome will be responsible for all the equipment in their drawer. Go through the list provided and confirm that you have all the glassware. If anything's missing, go to the counter and get what you need. After today, any item that goes missing from your drawer will be charged to your accounts, so make sure you have everything today."
"Let's see," Gimli said, opening up the drawer and pulling out the list. "I guess the easiest way to do this is just to pull everything out and check off what we have. Then, if we need anything, Legolas can run get it."
He began pulling the glassware out of the drawer as Aragorn started arranging it on the lab bench and Legolas scowled nearby.
****
"One 500 mil Elerosse flask," Boromir said, reading off the list.
Merry rummaged through the drawer until he found the flat-bottomed conical-shaped flask. "Check," he said, placing it on the lab bench.
"Okay," Boromir said, checking it off his list. "Three 500 mil beakers."
Merry pulled two beakers out of the drawer. "We only have two. Pip, why don't you go to the counter and get us one?"
"Wouldn't it be easier to figure out everything we need and just go once?" Boromir asked, but Merry shook his head. Pippin was clearly bored, and Merry knew that a bored Pippin spelled trouble, so giving him simple tasks to keep him occupied was the best answer.
Pippin disappeared across the room, only to return a moment later asking, "What size beaker did we need again?"
"500 mil," Merry said patiently.
"And we also need a funnel," Boromir said.
Pippin sighed and disappeared again.
****
"It looks like we're missing the 50 mil graduated cylinder," Gimli said, lining up the glassware by size order.
"I'll go get one," Legolas said quickly and started off towards the counter.
"It'd make more sense to wait," Aragorn pointed out, but Legolas ignored him. It DID make more sense to wait till they were finished inventorying and then make one trip. But Legolas thought his head would explode if he stayed there one more minute, and this made for a good excuse to leave.
<<It's bad enough that we're roommates. And that we're gonna be on student council together. But lab partners, too? Why me?!>>
After collecting the graduated cylinder, he turned from the counter and almost collided with Pippin.
"Hey, Pippin. I didn't know you were in this lab," Legolas said.
"Yep. I'm here. But my partners keep sending me over to pick up the stuff," he sighed.
Legolas smiled. "Me, too." He thought of his own partners and asked of Pippin, "Do you at least LIKE your lab partners?"
Pippin grinned. "Oh yes. I'm with my best friend Merry and a guy from horn ensemble."
"That reminds me -- congratulations on making concertmaster. I can't believe they gave it to a sophomore." Legolas realized how that might've sounded and quickly added, "But you totally deserve it."
Pippin swelled with pride. "Thanks!"
Legolas saw Aragorn gesturing for him from across the room, so he said, "Well, I'd best get back to my group. See you later."
Pippin nodded and turned back to the counter as Legolas hurried over to his partners.
****
"What was I supposed to get again?" Pippin asked, sighing. Talking to Legolas had completely erased his task from his mind.
"Pippin!" Merry said in that annoyed tone that made the hair on Pippin's feet stand on end.
"I'll write it down for you," Boromir said helpfully, scribbling down the growing list onto a piece of notebook paper and ripping it off for him.
Pippin took the note and headed back towards the counter. He was kind of upset with Merry -- everyone else seemed to see what a big deal this concertmaster thing was, yet Merry hadn't said one word to him about it all day. <<Of course, we did do quite a bit of celebrating last night when we got home,>> Pippin thought, smiling at the memory and thinking how nice the word "concertmaster" sounded upon Merry's lips.
For what seemed like the umpteenth time that afternoon Pippin passed the strange metal contraption that looked like a multilayer drinking fountain, and this time he stopped to take a closer look. A long metal bar hung down from a spigot that was suspended high above, the end of the bar bent into a large triangle. There were two metal bowls, one being almost above his head whilst the other was just above his waist. On the side of each metal bowl was an oddly shaped nozzle next to a square lever with an icon depicting a hand.
****
"Fool of a Took!"
The entire class looked up at Professor Gandalf's cry. He was standing next to the emergency shower in several inches of water.
"The eye wash is only to be used in case of emergency!" Gandalf lectured to the cowering hobbit that Aragorn recognized as one of Frodo's friends.
"But why isn't the water draining?" another hobbit asked as he hurried over to Pippin's side. "Isn't that what the drains in the floor are for?"
"The drains in the floor don't work," Gandalf explained, somewhat calmer. "There are safety issues about flushing the chemicals we use in this lab down the pipes."
Aragorn shook his head at the absurdity of it all. "But isn't it MORE dangerous to have us stand around in water that has those chemicals in it?" he asked.
Gandalf turned towards Aragorn and nodded. "I completely agree." He shrugged, indicating it was out of his hands, as he explained, "But I don't work for OSHA."
"So how do we clean this up?" Pippin's friend asked matter-of-factly.
Gandalf pointed to the counter. "You can get some towels from in there."
The hobbit nodded and led Pippin over to get the towels as Gandalf turned to the rest of the class. "Actually, that brings us to the next item we need to cover today -- safety issues."
Aragorn and Legolas shared an amused look, impressed at Gandalf's clever segue, as the professor began to lecture to the students about the location of fire exits and the PROPER use of safety showers.
***
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