And now, I'm an Elf

Home sweet home. NOT

I have always been known as, "That girl who loves LOTR" since 6th grade. I am in love with the books and movies. I have always seen the magic. Just not THIS magic.

It all started at breakfast, when I requested second breakfast from my mum and was turned down for about the hundredth time. I'm used to it by now. As I got up to put TTT in my backpack (I always have a Tolkien novel with me), mum said,"Are you bringing that book again?"

"Which book?" I asked knowing perfectly well what her answer would be.

"The Lord of the Rings."

"Ooh! Of course, Mum! Who do you think your talking to here?"

"Do you want to bring another one?" She asked.

"Nope!" I replied. "Unless you think I should start the Silmarillion."

"In 8th grade?" Mum asked, puzzled.

"Um, ya. That's what grade I'm in."

"Don't you want to read something else for a change?" She asked.

"No." I answered. Here comes the lecture.

"I just want you to know we have plenty of other books."

"None of which compare to Tolkien."

"You don't want to broaden your horizons a bit?" Mum asked.

"Middle-Earth is quite far on the horizon. You need elf eyes to see it."

"Not interested in Harry Potter?"

"Rips off Tolkien."

"How about sci-fi?"

"No"

"What about-"

"Mum! I love you! Going to miss the bus here!"

"What is so great about it anyway?" Mum asked

"MUM! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!?!?" I screamed.

"Because I'm worried about you!"

"About me what? Not fitting in? I'm used to that Mum! I don't care if I'm weird! In fact, I LIKE being weird!"

"You are not weird!" She yelled.

"Mum, I'm weird." I felt like crying. How can she say that to my face?"I like being weird. Would you prefer me to be like a regular 8th grader? Obsessed with boys and One Direction and Justin Beaver?"

"It's Bieber, honey. And no. I love you just the way you are." Mum said.

"Well, apparently you don't because this is who I am. We go through the same argument every day! Can't you accept that this is me?" And I grabbed my backpack and TTT and stormed out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My best friend, Hannah and I always sit at the back of the bus. I tried not to cry as I told her what happened today.

"What am I going to do about her? Why can't she understand me? She's my MUM for crying out loud!"

"You just need to cool off. Don't let her get to you, she's just concerned about your-" Hannah stopped speaking and her cheeks went red.

"My what?" I asked.

"Nothing" said Hannah, her cheeks the color of Bilbo's waistcoat.

"No, you said something." I said angrily.

"You, um, your little, er,"

"Och, spit it out already."

"Obsession." Blurted Hannah.

"Oh," I said, staring at her blue eyes."thank you for being honest"

"Ya," she said. "But, I mean, it's not like I don't have an obsession with Harry Potter!"

I forget Hannah is a Potterhead. I think sometimes I need to appreciate that more.

I laughed as we pulled into the bus loop at school, and told Hannah I'd see her in 5th period, the only class we had together.

I looked down at my favorite shirt. It had a little animated Bilbo, and said, 'Gotta get my second breakfast'. I know I'm obsessed, but for my best friend to tell me that kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had a mountain of homework. At least one assignment from each class. I think teachers get together and plan which days to give kids more homework. But it gave me a chance to sit in my room alone for a while.

When I got home, Mum was cooking dinner. I told her briefly about my huge pile of homework, and she said to get working on it. So I went into my room and started writing an essay for language arts.

My room is like a LOTR shrine. I don't remember what colors the walls are because they are covered with posters, newspaper clippings, calendars, drawings, and pictures of the actors. I had a tough time focusing on my homework, so I grabbed my book, put on my fake elf ears, hit the soundtrack, and started reading. I was at the Entmoot for the thirty-first time (I'm keeping track), and thoroughly enjoying myself (hoom barroom), when Mum called for dinner.

Slightly annoyed, I put my book down and washed up for dinner.

"What would you like to drink?" asked mum as I set the table, which wasn't hard because dad was out of town on a business trip.

"Elven wine" I replied.

"Really."

"Water" I said. That sucks out the fun.

We barley talked through dinner. When we were close to being finished, mum said, "I'm sorry about what I said this morning"

'NOW she's sorry!' I think. "That's okay." I said aloud. "We've got to make that stop."

"I know, baby. Maybe we can come up with an agreement." She recommended.

"Like what?" I asked, in disgust.

"Maybe read Tolkien for one week, something else another, then the ne-"

"No" I said.

"Okay." Mum sighed.

"Still have a ton of homework." I said. "I need to work on that, okay."

"Okay." She said.

I know I really should've done the homework, but I was having a really hard time concentrating. So I put on the extended edition FOTR and got lost in the world of Tolkien.

Then, something weird happened. Bad weird. I felt kinda dizzy. I thought I must've been dehydrated or something because I was really thirsty. And soon, I was fighting to keep conscience-ness. And then I wasn't fighting at all. I was lost in a sea of dark and only remember feeling very scared before I could feel nothing at all.