Paper Love-Chp4

The rest of the day was a riot. She continuously received surprised and amazed gazes from passers-by, especially teenagers, on her way to school. When she reached school, which was known as Titanic Tribute Pre-University Centre, everyone reacted as if a superstar just came in. Well, logically, anyone would when the actor of one of the best selling movies like LOTR show up in real life. Toronto had a hard time coping with them.

“Oh my gosh, look! It’s Orlando Bloom!”

“You mean Legolas? What’s he doing here?”

“He’s with Toronto!”

“Oh my God! No!”

“Yes! There he is!”

“How the hell did he end up with her?”

“It can’t be~~ My dream prince~~!!”

One exclamation after another came pouring down on Toronto and Legolas. She felt so embarrassed.
“Why are these mortals so agitated? Who is this Orlando Bloom?” Legolas asked curiously.

“He’s…uh…he’s a famous pioneer,” Toronto lied, not wanting him to know the truth, “You look kinda like him, that’s all.”

Although quite unapproved, it wasn’t hard for Toronto to persuade her tutors to let Legolas sit in class (especially when she had about 50 other students backing her up). It felt really odd to have a tall, blonde elf sitting among 50 over black-haired Asian students. The Accounting tutor went through the class with a disapproving look on her face that just won’t go away. The Economics tutor was scared out of her wits when Legolas tried to aim his arrows at the projector (which embarrassed Toronto extremely). Only the Business Studies tutor was thrilled to have Legolas in class, as she was also a LOTR fan, much to Toronto’s relief. They received even more stares and were clustered around constantly by admired people when they went to the cafeteria to have lunch. Jealous girls glared unkindly at Toronto and crazed Legolas fans chased them down the corridors asking for autographs. Toronto had to constantly run away to avoid LOTR fan maniacs and drag Legolas everywhere, keeping him by her side so as not to lose him. He marveled at everything in sight, like he was a small child out in the big world (in a way, he was), and Toronto had to bear the embarrassment for the whole day.

Toronto had to lie to everyone that Legolas was her very, very distant cousin who came to visit and he just so happens to have a resemblance of Orlando Bloom, but after school (finally), her story was beginning to wear off.

“Come on, Toronto, be honest,” One of her friends, Sylvia, urged. “Where did you get your hands on him?”

“You must’ve sneaked into the movie-shooting site, kidnapped him, bonked him on the head to let him have amnesia and brainwashed him, haven’t you?” Another friend, Carrie, said long-windedly. She can often come up with such weird theories.

“No, of course not! Even if I told you the truth, you wouldn’t believe it,” Toronto replied, massaging her aching forehead.

“Try us,” Carrie and Sylvia said together.

Toronto explained to them about the whole incident. Legolas confirmed her story. Carrie and slyvia stared at Toronto first, then at Legolas, and then back at Toronto again, their eyes blinking in disbelief.

“So…you’re saying…he’s the original Legolas?” Carrie finally found her voice. Toronto nodded.
All of a sudden Sylvia, who was a bookworm and have read all the three books of LOTR, started pouring out questions after questions about the book, including some from the 3rd book ‘Return of the King’. Legolas was able to answer exactly what was written in the books (except about Frodo, Sam and Gollum’s journey) and knew nothing about what was going on in the 3rd book. It was obvious that his world was still stuck in the 2nd book, about Helms Deep and all.

“Yup, he’s genuine alright,” Sylvia commented at last with a contented sigh. “The real Elf Prince of Mirkwood.”

“Wow! I’m impressed!” Carrie gazed at Legolas in wonder. He averted his eyes away from her, changing his gaze to the long-haired Toronto. He didn’t know why, but he felt more comfortable looking at Toronto than looking at anyone else.

“Hey, school hour’s out! Let’s go get some grub!” Carrie said cheerfully, “We can introduce our elf friend here to some of our delicious gourmets.”

“Let’s go to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves!” Sylvia lit up, grinning eagerly.

“Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves? That place is the bomb! Things are way too expensive there, man!” Toronto exclaimed, checking her wallet to see if she had enough cash.

“I got coupons.”

“Right! Let’s go!”

So, in Sylvia’s car, they drove all the way downtown to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves Beverage Shop. With Sylvia’s coupons, they’ve ordered quite a number of goodies to eat. Toronto got Legolas two kinds of chocolate cake, which he enjoyed very much.

“He really loves chocolate now, doesn’t he?” Carrie stared in amazement at the way Legolas almost wolfed down the whole lot.

“Yup. After having a dose of my Cadbury chocolate bar,” Toronto replied, sipping her hot chocolate. “Where to next after this?”

“I’ve got archery class later,” Carrie said, finishing her café latte. “You guys wanna tag along and watch?”

“Archery? This suits me fine,” Legolas was interested, ignoring the amazed stares from the customers and the workers of the shop since just now.

“Then we can have a contest now, can’t we?”

“It’ll be my pleasure, mortal.”

All of a sudden, a pang of jealousy went through Toronto’s heart. She suddenly felt a little possessive over him. Seeing him having the same interest with Carrie made her kind of left out. She squeezed Legolas’ wrist a little and gave him a don’t-be-too-enthusiastic look.

Legolas stared back at her with his emerald-green eyes and smirked cunningly, giving her that are-you-jealous look. Toronto blushed and looked away.

Nevertheless, the decision has been made. After feeding themselves, they first went to Carrie’s house to get her bow and arrows (which Legolas marveled at compared to his ivory bow and wooden arrows), then went to the Sports Centre to attend the archery class. As usual, Legolas received a lot of amazed shrieks and exclamations and Toronto had to use the cousin story again. Sylvia, Toronto and Legolas sat aside as they watched the others shooting their arrows towards the bull’s eye targets. Legolas snorted when some of them shot out of range. So far, only Carrie was much better than the rest.

Then, Carrie walked towards the coach and was discussing—more to begging, really—with him about something. Then she gestured Legolas to come over. Legolas went with a curious thought in his mind. Toronto and Sylvia followed suite.

“I’ve asked for my coach’s permission to let you give it a try,” Carrie said proudly. “If you please, Legolas.”

“It’ll be my pleasure, mortal. But why don’t you go first?”

“Alright,” Carrie went forward and stood well. She adjusted and aimed her arrow at the target, closed one of her eyes and let go. It didn’t hit the bull’s eye though.

It was Legolas’ turn. He didn’t need to stand well. He didn’t need to aim at the target. And he definitely didn’t need to close an eye. He just went forward, took out his arrow and put it casually on the bow, raised it, pull the string and let go. It hit right on the bull’s eye. He repeated the same motion at ease, as if it’s as easy as drinking water. All his arrows hit directly onto the bull’s eye. Everyone in the archery field gaped for a few seconds before clapping their hands, cheering like mad.

“You really are an elf, man!” Carrie exclaimed, obviously very impressed.

“You’re not yourself, mortal,” Legolas replied modestly.

Toronto almost swooned in admiration, realizing that she was actually in love with the Elf Prince and her love for him has just increased a great deal.