"Hng..." Link groaned as he blinked open his eyes sleepily. He yawned and stretched, lying in his bed for awhile longer. He was about to close his eyes and fall asleep again when the knock that had sounded on his door earlier that had woken him up knocked again. "What?" Link shouted at the person on the other side of the door.

"It's time for practice." The deep voice boomed. "Get your lazy ass out of bed and let's move!" Feet shuffled outside Links door before the sound of a heavy man walking down a hall sounded.

Practice...? Link thought. He looked over at his alarm clock. It's red numbers read 9:08 am. Link stared at it for a minute longer. Practice! He thought, jumping out of bed and falling on his face as his feet became tangled up in his black blanket. Groaning and rubbing his face, the blonde boy rushed over to his closet, trying to decide what to wear to practice.

"No. No. No. No. No." Link repeated as he shuffled through his closet. Not finding what he wanted to wear, he ran over to his basket of un-hung clothes and riffled through that. "Ah hah!" the boy exclaimed as he pulled out a blue button up shirt and black suit pants. Rushing to his bathroom, Link quickly threw off his Pokémon pajamas and tossed on his clothes.

Swinging the bathroom door open, Link rushed back into his room, looking at his clock. 9:28. "Oh no." Link groaned. "Coach is going to be pissed." The blonde boy ran a hand through his hair, feeling as though he had forgotten something. He looked around his room and found what he was looking for underneath a pile of books.

Grabbing the satchel, he dashed out of his room and ran to where his practice was.

•~•~•~•

"You're late, Link." A small voice said from behind the blonde boy as he was tuning up his instrument. Link turned around to see a frail looking girl with brown hair and warm brown eyes. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair.

"Always fashionably so, though, Sarah." he told her. He jumped as a deep voice responded in front of him.

"And what will you say tomorrow during our show?" The voice said. Link looked up to see a tall male with black hair and a scruffy face and green eyes. "What will you tell our audience after you show up an hour late to the show? Huh?"

Link hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry, coach." He apologized. "Honestly. I am. It's just... My alarm never goes off, and I always seem to misplace my instrument." The blonde boy held up his flute that was scratched up from all the times that he had dropped it.

"Sorry ain't gonna cut it, boy." The coach growled before turning to the other seven kids in the room. "We start in five! Tune up your instruments and be ready by then!" He told them before walking off to another room where his desk was at.

Shamefully, Link began to clean his flute from last weeks practice when he had spilled fruit punch on it during break. He scrubbed at the metal surface, trying to get as much of the stick off of it before they played. Sarah sat down next to him with her cello and he listened to her as she tuned it.

"You really need to be more careful. We don't want to miss our first big show." Sarah told Link.

The blonde sighed. "I know. I just try so hard, but my mind wanders elsewhere."

Sarah gave the boy a sympathetic look before she closed her eyes and sighed. Taking in a deep breath, she began to play Ludwig Van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Symphony III on her cello. Link listened as he scrubbed off the last bit of the fruit punch on his flute before he joined her with his freestyle, creating a soft melody with the fast paced song.

Three minutes later, coach came back out of his office and cleared his throat. Sarah and Link stopped playing along with the other kids in the group as they waited for coach to talk. "Alright, ladies." Coach said. "It's time to get playing!"

•~•~•~•

Flopping onto his couch, Link let out a long yawn. His musical group had practiced for five hours until the coach had decided that the group of kids had sounded their most absolute best before he sent them home to rest for the day. The blonde boy laid there, thinking about the big show tomorrow. Our first performance. he thought. Coach must think us to be real good at playing if he's going to risk possible public humiliation. Sighing, Link rolled over and stared up at the ceiling.

I hope we do good tomorrow. I'm going to play my best and please the coach. Make him happy as much as I can before it's too late.

Link got up and walked over to his left wall, looking at the pictures on it. He's as close to a father as I'll ever have. Link thought as he looked at one from seven years ago, when he was six. He was on the shoulders of a friendlier looking coach that was slimmer and less scruffy than he is now. Both of them were smiling as Link held up a stuffed bear to show the camera the prize that the coach had just won him at a booth at the carnival that the picture was taken at.

Smiling, Link ran a finger along the picture frame, picking up dust off of it and making the frame more prominent looking. Wrinkling his nose at the gray particles on his finger, the boy walked to his table and wiped it off on a paper towel. Looking around at his orphanage home room, Link sighed at the small size of it. I'm never going to get adopted. he thought sadly. Fifteen years in the system, and I haven't been adopted once. And nobody wants a teenager, and a teenage boy at that.

Sighing again, the blonde fifteen year old boy walked over to his bunk bed, top empty because his roommate was adopted eight months ago. He remembered how shocked his friend had looked, and yet happy at the same time. Two years younger than Link, the lucky thirteen year old boy was adopted into a rich, nice family, who gave him everything that he could ever possibly want. Envious and distraught that Link had still not been adopted, the blonde boy went into seclusion for six days until he finally decided to look on the bright side of things.

Without a family, the only person that I will ever need to be responsible for is myself. He had told himself on the seventh day of seclusion. A week after that, he had talked to coach and asked him if there was anything that he had going that Link could join. The coach had thought for awhile, before telling Link that he had was teaching a group of kids how to play instruments, and that they still had a couple spots left open if Link wanted to join.

Saying yes, Link agreed to it, and was surprised to see that he severely enjoyed playing his flute with the other kids in the mixed instrumental group. Making many friends, Link became happy again, always looking on the bright side of things and never looking down when another boy got adopted out of the orphanage.

Remembering that time came sudden to Link as he stared around his room. It brought back many feelings, mostly negative, but he clung to the happy one as he opened up his satchel and pulled out his flute. He looked out his window as he began to freestyle, playing a harmonious tune without even meaning to.

He played for hours until exhaust finally dragged on to him and Link had no choice but to put his flute away and call it a night. Turning off his room light and curling up into bed, Link stared up at the bottom of the top bunk and smiled. "Goodnight, world." he whispered. A tree branch from outside tapped on his window as the wind blew it, and he let out a short, tired laugh before his eye lids drooped down and he fell fast asleep.

...

My first ever Zelda fic! What'd you guys think? Did you like it? :D

~Trinity