"I want the sopranos and altos to stay after class for a few minutes so that we can finish auditioning the freshman girls," Tom said, nodding towards the tenors and basses. "But the boys are free to go."
The boys all got up from their chairs and headed towards the shelves to put their music away. Legolas saw Pippin, who looked on the verge of passing out, and teased, "I guess you can go take care of that growling stomach of yours now."
"Choir is going to KILL me," Pippin said melodramatically. "Why does it have be every day during elevensies? I'm gonna STARVE!" And the hobbit threw his music into his cubby and hurried out the door.
Legolas smiled after the retreating hobbit and then took his time to neatly put his music away as the girls started singing again. The elf smiled at the sound, glad to be back at school surrounded by music again, and then grabbed his skateboard and headed out the door with the other male choir members.
It took him a moment to recognize the figure standing in the shadows across the hall.
"Aragorn!" Legolas said, hurrying over to his friend's side and giving him a welcoming squeeze on the shoulder.
"Legolas," Aragorn said, clearly distracted and looking around, confused. "Where's Arwen?"
"The girls had to stay after class a few minutes," the elf explained. "She'll be out shortly."
Aragorn nodded and then turned his attention back to his friend, smiling. "It's good to see you, Legolas. How was your summer?"
"It was good. You should've been there -- we could've used a Ranger like you. I mean, we made some real headway this summer, but it's gonna take a long time to get Mirkwood back to how it used to be."
Aragorn nodded. "Maybe I'll join you again next summer."
Legolas smiled. "That'd be great! But what about you -- what'd YOU do all summer?"
Aragorn shrugged. "I traveled around....Saw Middle Earth...Experienced things....Wrote some of it down."
"I'd love to read it."
Legolas could've sworn he saw a blush creeping in under the stubble as Aragorn looked down, mumbling, "A lot of it was...personal."
Legolas suddenly remembered Aragorn asking his advice last year when his Elvish poem "Ode to Arwen" was rejected by the campus literary magazine -- that must be the sort of thing Aragorn meant by "personal".
"So I heard you had dinner with Arwen and Professor Elrond -- how did that go?" Legolas asked, grinning.
Aragorn smiled meaningfully, but before he could say anything the choir doors swung open and a gaggle of chatting girls emerged.
"I'll tell you later," Aragorn mumbled briefly before he was suddenly embraced by Arwen. As the couple separated, she gave him a shy kiss before turning to her elf friend. "Leggy, you will join us for lunch, won't you?"
Legolas nodded, and the three of them headed towards the cafeteria as Arwen chattered on about choir.
"...and we're gonna do Elehil's Requiem, which has the most BEAUTIFUL tenor solo in it -- Leggy, you should definitely audition because your voice has the correct range for it -- and we're also doing some hobbit motets, which aren't actually that bad, which is a total surprise because usually hobbit music is so...."
Arwen gasped, and the trio stopped mid-campus as she stared at the giant banner hanging from the library proclaiming "STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS THIS FRIDAY".
"Student Council elections!!" Arwen said, her eyes glimmering with quiet excitement. "Council is going to be SO exciting this year. I've decided to run for class treasurer -- the treasurer has all the REAL power anyway!" She turned to Aragorn, taking his hand in both of hers and smiling meaningfully at him. "And you should run for office, too. Then we could go to meetings together -- the pair of us could really get things accomplished."
Aragorn shook his head, retrieving his hand from hers. "I don't think so."
"Why not? You're a natural-born leader -- you should be our class president. And then you'd have the power to change things here on campus."
"I do not want that power. I have never wanted it."
"Why not?" Arwen asked, clearly not understanding where Aragorn was coming from, but he refused to explain. Legolas knew that Arwen was used to always getting her own way, so he felt a slight chill run down his spine as she suddenly turned her attention to him. "Well how about YOU, Leggy? Are you going to run for something?"
Legolas shrugged, picking his skateboard up for a moment as he seriously considered it. This summer he had actually kicked around the idea of running for class office, but he hadn't come to any sort of decision yet. "Maybe," he said non-committally.
"Oh, you SHOULD! You'd be very good at it. Especially class secretary. Your class notes are always excellent, so taking minutes at meetings would come naturally to you. And you being on Council would give the Environment and Nature Team a real VOICE in student government, so the E.N.T. concerns would finally be heard and addressed. You should SO do it."
Legolas had never found it easy to say no to Arwen -- she clearly knew how to be persuasive. "You really think I should?"
"Definitely! After lunch, we'll go pick up our petitions together. Getting fifty signatures won't be hard, especially with all the people we both know on campus. This is going to be fun!" she said smugly, taking Aragorn's hand again and leaning against him happily as they continued on towards the cafeteria.
****
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