One Day You'll Know

Chapter 3- A Long-Expected Party

BOOM!!!

One of Gandalf's spectacular fireworks rang out into the night air, falling onto the hobbits in orange and green sparkles. Noelle hadn't seen Gandalf's fireworks in -she counted on her fingers- five years! She had been gone from Earth for four years, and the year before she had left, Gandalf had again done the fireworks for Noelle's Fourth of July party at home. Not that anyone besides her knew that!

Noelle took a sip of fruit punch. She was sitting at a table in a corner by herself. She didn't know anybody here- plus, she wasn't exactly a party girl.

There was somuch food though. More than she had ever seen in one place. There were roast pigs, chickens, and turkeys; a huge array of fruits and desserts, and barrels upon barrels of ale, which explained why a lot of hobbits were acting drunk. Andthere was Bilbo's cake, which was topped with one-hundred and eleven candles!

Yeah, hobbit birthday parties made Earth weddings look childish.

Noelle got up from her seat in the corner and went to find Gandalf, who was clearly having a good time. He laughed loudly as the hobbit children screamed in delight over his fireworks. He spotted her coming.

"Aren't you enjoying yourself?" he asked, pulling another firework out of the back of his cart.

"Yeah, well, I don't really know anybody here besides you and Bilbo!" Noelle yelled above the lively music in the background.

"You know Frodo!" Gandalf was lighting the firework with his staff. "Watch this! WHOA!"

Noelle jumped back in surprise as the firework shot into the night sky and multiplied into a hundred silver spears. She smiled. "Yeah, that is cool. Where's Bilbo?"

Gandalf pointed in some direction. He was clearly preoccupied with his fireworks. "Over there."

Noelle craned her neck above the people and hobbit-kids. Bilbo was sitting in front of a group of hobbit-children. Noelle decided to go over and listen to whatever crazy story he was probably telling them.

"So there I was, at the mercy of three monstrous trolls!"

Noelle sat down next to Bilbo. "I think I know this story," she said mischievously. "It sounds vaguely familiar- like I was there."

"Oh but you were!" said Bilbo abruptly. He continued his story. "They were all arguing amongst themselves, about how they were going to cookus. Whether it be turned on a spit, or whether they should sit on us one by one, and squash us into jelly!"

Noelle smirked. She did remember the trolls arguing. And she remembered almost getting squashed. She glanced around for Gandalf and noticed him dancing with the hobbits. He sure knew how to have a good time anywhere.

"They spent so much time arguing the whether-tos and the why-fors, that the sun's first light crept over the top of the trees, and... POOF! It turned them all to stone!"

"Uh... I don't think that's how it happened," Noelle said under her breath.

"Oh nonsense! Of course it was!" Bilbo corrected.

Noelle shook her head. I guess sixty years was a bigger difference than four year's time, so Bilbo remembered it differently.

Suddenly, Noelle's vision blackened. She put her hand on her head. Was she passing out or something?

"Execute Order 66," came a sinister voice inside her head.

Noelle's vision returned to normal, and she saw hobbits dancing and laughing to the music. She blinked several times to make sure this was real, and not some incredibly unrealistic dream, from which she would wake and find herself on the front lines with Obi-wan Kenobi.