SSBB High School Prologue
Last Moments
In Soren's Eyes
"I'm sorry Soren but this is a better school for me," Ike told me from the other end of the phone line.
"But Ike!" I began to protest but was cut off.
"I have to go. My dad is calling for me; he probably wants me to finish packing," he stated calmly before hanging up.
There has to be something I can do to stay by his side, I thought as I pushed my phone into my jean pocket.
"Mother!" I shouted down the stairs as I turned off my bedroom light.
"What is it?" she shouted back from the kitchen.
"I need to transfer to a different school," I started explaining as I ran down the stairs, "Can I please start attending SSBB high school?"
My pleading only achieved me a misunderstanding scowl from across the kitchen counter.
"Why on earth would you want to go there?" my mother asked as he voice squeaked, "Haven't you heard about the fighting?"
"No, but-" she cut me off like always to explain what her reasons were for her being right and why I was wrong.
"Soren," she started calmly, straining the frustration I gave her so early in the morning, "there are fights every week there, sometimes every day."
"Mother, please," I pleaded again, "Just hear me out."
"Give me one good reason why I should let you go. One reason why I would let you run off to the dangers of the world right after I found you," she told me as she began cutting vegetables for our evening stew.
"Because Ike is moving and that's where he'll be going to high school now," I started explaining. Finally some sympathy shinned in her eyes as she tried finding a reason why her position in my life is more important than Ike's, "He could protect me, and you know how important he is to me."
"Child, please," she sighed heavily as she dropped her chopped carrots into a boiling pot of water, "Just stop this non-sense, you're smarter than this. You're not going to that school and that's final. Even if you did enroll, where would you stay? You and Ike might be best friends but do you really think you can live with them?"
I sighed in slight defeat but then saw my one shot at winning this argument.
"What if I earned the money to rent an apartment?" I asked as I watched her cut up potatoes and broccoli, the nastiest creation on the planet.
"How would you get that much money in time to enroll before the four years are up?" she asked me as she barely missed her fingertip with the knife.
"I could do it," I protested calmly, "That new restaurant down the street is hiring, I could try getting a job there and I could also baby sit some of the neighbors' kids."
She huffed a little then made a sympathetic smile.
"Well you can try, and when you have half the money you'll need, I'll chip in and sign you up for that school."
"Thank you so much mother!" I cheered as I grabbed my bag for school.
"You're welcome," she sighed, "but you better work your butt off for the money or else there's not a chance you're going to get enough."
"That's not a problem at all," I assured her as she looked out the large opened window and spotted the bus on its way.
"How about you start saving money right now and take the bus instead of spending money on gas?" she asked me as I headed out the door.
When I arrived at my current high school, Fire Emblem or FE for short, I began wondering how the others were reacting to Ike leaving and wondered how they would react to my decision.
I looked over to the lockers as I walked through the double doors and saw our group of friends.
Ike had only told them yesterday, at last minute like always, and decided he wouldn't come to school today so that he could do some last minute packing.
"Hey Soren," Titania shouted out, "Did you talk to Ike?"
Her red braided hair was sloppier than usual and her normally bright eyes seemed duel. Out of our little group, she seemed the most upset and obviously wouldn't be over this anytime soon.
"Yes," I answered mournfully, I would have preferred him to stay but I'd follow him to the ends of the earth so I could hopefully repay what he had done for me, "He claims that going to SSBB will be better for him."
"How could he think that school is better? And how could he just leave like this? Doesn't he have a brain? He could have at least told us about it sooner so we could have hung out some more," Rhys cried out.
"He probably thinks that if he had told us sooner we would all be depressed about it so he wanted to see us smiling for the last bit," Oscar tried to explain.
"I don't blame him after that fight with coach Zelgius," Boyd huffed, "he kind of reminds me of the legendary Black Knight from history class."
"You're ridiculous," Mia sighed as she put her palm to her face.
"Well maybe it's just a joke," Ilyana tried to insure in her soft, exhausted voice. I hope she ate a big enough breakfast, Rhys isn't too fond of her passing out from hunger all the time.
"Ike wouldn't joke like that," Titania explained in a desperate tone.
Ilyana looked down at her feet and allowed her light hair to surround her face.
"I'm surprised you don't look worse than Titania, Soren," Rhys pointed out, "You and Ike are so close and you're always by his side, this will probably mess up your whole schedule."
"Well I talked to my mother and she said," I started mumbling the rest as my nerves got into me.
"She said what?" Oscar asked in his soft, tender voice.
"Well it was just a thought and I think it'll be fine…" my rambling was starting to get on my own nerves. Why was it so hard to just tell them?
"Spit it out little miss shadow," Shinon mocked as he came up from behind me with Gatrie.
Miss shadow, oh how I won't miss that drunken moron.
"Hush Shinon," Titania hissed.
As much as I loathed that name, I knew it was coming and if I were to lose that, I would lose my vast knowledge of my surroundings with it. If I were to move schools, I would no longer be able to predict the best course of action to avoid a stressful day.
"Oh so now you're going to be her oh so mighty protector? Poor little girl can't defend herself, seems that she's been hiding under the shadow of the boy for so long she doesn't even know how to speak for herself," he smirked at his self-found 'brilliance'.
"I'm going to get a job and earn the money to move," I finally told them. My sudden sharpness caught them off guard as usual and none of them spoke for a few moments.
"You're leaving two?" Ilyana asked in her soft, tired voice. Everyone knew she was bi and had a small thing for me which made Shinon being over here even worse.
"Yeah, you're going to leave your girlfriend for your boyfriend?" he mocked as Ilyana began to blush deeply.
I finally began to breathe again when the bell rang, forcing Shinon to leave for his class.
"I don't want to wither away here," I breathed out quietly, so that only Titania and Rhys heard me while the others split off to their own classes.
"So what all do you need to earn?" Rhys asked.
"Well I need to earn at least half the money I need to get an apartment to live in while I'm there. But I'm going to see if I can get a job at that new restaurant and I'm going to baby sit," I told him while I struggled to keep me breathing calm as I thought about the possible reasons Ike had decided to leave.
"Hey!" Titania exclaimed in excitement, "If Rhys and I help you, maybe even Oscar, then you'll be able to see Ike even sooner! Oh you two are just too cute!"
After riding the bus for eight hard weeks straight, saving up every penny under the couch cushions, having help from Rhys's dog walking, Titania's lawn mowing, Oscar's chef job, Boyd's help at the gym and my two jobs, I finally had about five-fourths of the money I would need.
"Oh my gosh!" I shouted with relief while we all stood in the park together, "I can't believe we did it! And in only two months! I feel like I should give the extra back to you guys, are you sure you want me to take it?"
"Of course we want you to take it; you need it for food, water, electricity and gas." Titania assured.
"We're going to miss you a lot," Ilyana said sadly.
"I'll come back and visit, I promise. And I'll drag Ike back with me two," I told her while I smiled and hugged her.
"Make sure he's eating right and that he is healthy." Oscar told me while Rhys nodded.
"Good bye Soren, we are all going to miss you so much." Titania told me while wrapping me in a hug.
"Good bye," I said as I walked away.
"Well I'm all packed mother," Soren shouted down the stairs later that day.
I dashed down the stairs with my two bags and went out to my black Porsche. My mother came out of the house and watched me as I put the bags into the back of my small car.
"Promise me you'll be ok," my mother requested.
"I promise mother, I'll be safe," I told her as I went over to hug her.
"Are you sure you don't want to take some food with you? I won't mind one bit if you take anything."
"I guess I'll take a couple of sandwiches so that I'll have something to eat while I'm unpacking."
"What about cereal? Maybe some roman noodles? How about cold pizza?"
"Mother, I'm going to be fine. I have everything I need, I promise."
"What about entertainment?"
"I have a deck of cards, I can play Solitaire."
She pondered for a moment but couldn't think of a thing that she could say that I wouldn't have a solution for.
My mother hugged me one last time.
"Drive safe."
"I will."
I got into my car and waved at her before I backed up out of the drive way and drove away.
In Link's Eyes
"Hey guys, do you see that girl with the black hair?" I asked Roy and Martha.
"Yeah, she's pretty." Martha said while getting on her tip toes to see over people.
Roy started to jump up and down in a sad attempt to see the new girl.
"You don't need to see Roy," Martha told him while putting her hand on his head to stop him from jumping, "Maybe you should go over there and ask her who she is. She's obviously new; she's looking all over the place and looks lost."
"Ok," I said as I crossed the crowd to get beside the black haired girl.
When I finally reached her I tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
"Hey, my name's Link. What's yours?" I asked her while walking beside her.
"Soren," She said quickly.
"That's a nice name. Are you new here?"
"Yes," she answered quickly again.
"You don't talk a lot do you?"
"No."
"I see, well do you know where your class is? You seem lost."
Soren took a heavy breathe before giving me a look of warning.
"No, I don't have any idea where I'm going. I don't even know what my classes are. And I can't even think straight because I'm looking for somebody very important but there's no telling where he is," she confessed.
I looked down at my feet while still walking next to her.
"Well who are you looking for? Maybe I know him," I offered to not seem so awkward.
"Ike, he has blue hair, he's really tall, and he has a light tan."
"Oh! He just got here a few months ago, yeah I know him. He should be here soon and I can help you get your schedule if you want."
"Please and thank you," she said politely.
"No problem," I assured her with a smile before I walked her over to the counselor's office and helped her find out what her classes were.
"Hey look at that! We have most of the same classes. The only difference is that you're in AP science, math, LA and history."
Dang, I thought, she must be some kind of genius.
"Isn't that half the day?" she asked while giving me a strange look.
"So? We have lunch, band, PE, and speech together and our first period is speech."
"I guess. Would you know Ike's schedule by any chance?"
"Yeah, you two have lunch, PE and science together," I told her as I remembered all our meeting spots with our friends "I have an idea! I'll introduce you to Martha and Roy! They're very nice, except Martha can have some anger issues when Roy gets on her nerves."
I led Soren to them through the crowd and held onto Soren's wrist so that she wouldn't be lost in the sea of people.
Soren saw the other two and could probably already tell what they were like; by the way Martha stood still watching Roy as he bounced around and couldn't stay put. Martha is a calm, smart girl while Roy was hyper, talkative, and a pyromaniac. Except the pyro part probably wasn't as easy to guess.
"Hey guys!" I shouted, "This is Soren. She's new here and I'm going to show her around."
"Oh that's nice Link," Martha said calmly as Roy finally stopped bouncing.
As Soren opened her mouth and prepared to say something the bell rung.
"Time for class!" I announced, "Come on Soren, class is down that hall."
I went to hold Soren's wrist and gently pull her to come with me, but as soon as my hand made contact with her wrist there was a small shock which caused Soren to pull away.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to!" I shouted over the noisy crowd.
"It's fine… Let's just get to class." Soren said as she looked over to see that Roy and Martha had already walked away.
In speech the teacher, Mr. Two, had requested that Soren stand in front of the class and give a quick speech about herself and why she had moved to SSBB High.
Soren approached the front of the room shakily and kept her head down. When she had reached the chalk board she turned towards the class after taking a deep breath and held her head high.
"My name is Soren and…I…" her mind must have gone blank when she saw the whole class staring at her.
I started to make a quiet noise to catch her attention and motioned for her to relax and just look at me. Since I was in the middle of the front row she found it easy to keep looking at me without looking awkward.
"I love to read and at my old school my speech class was a lot smaller. I moved here because my mother had a job transfer so we had to move here from FE High."
"Okay, good enough. So does anybody have any questions?" Mr. Two asked the class.
I raised my hand high in the air while everyone else kept their arms planted on the desk or in their laps.
"What does your mom do?" Link asked, "Is she a secret agent? Or maybe an international business woman!"
The class giggled at my silliness while Soren slightly blushed, trying to ignore the others.
"She's a magazine photographer." Soren said quickly and quietly.
"She takes pictures of magazines?" my burnet friend with a fancy hair piece asked.
"Of course not Zelly! That'd be weird!" I shouted back at her, "She obviously takes pictures of the stands that the magazines sit on."
The class started to laugh loudly while Zelly rolled her eyes and giggle.
"Sorry Soren, we couldn't resist," Zelly chuckled.
The purple teacher stood up and walked over to Soren as his long tail swung around in the air.
"You may sit down now, Soren," he said in a deep voice.
Soren walked over to her seat which was beside a blond girl with a pink shirt and skirt, another friend of mine.
I look back to see that she was leaned over to Soren and whispering in her ear; probably the same thing she likes to whisper into every new girl's ear.
"Hi, my name is Peach. I saw how Link motioned at you, I think he likes you but I'd be careful because Zelda might get jealous," She started to laugh quietly, "I'm just kidding, don't worry. He's very sweet and Zelda is over him, she's with Daisy."
"Excuse me? Isn't Daisy a girl name?" Soren asked, very quietly and very confused. I was right and I love having Hylian ears.
"Yep, and Daisy is a girl. Not all girls are into guys," Peach explained to her, no longer in her ear.
Then an orange, fox like boy behind Peach shushed her.
"Peach, would you please be quiet? You just have to talk all the time, don't you?" he asked.
"Yes I do and that's Tails." Peach introduced while pointing over to the boy for Soren.
Tails sighed and rolled his eyes.
After class Peach wrapped her arms around Soren from behind right outside of the class room, strange girl.
"Hi!" Peach shouted.
"Peach, settle down. There's no reason to try to rape the new kid," Zelda said as she walked out of the class room behind me.
"I'm not raping her!" Peach protested.
I laughed and grabbed onto Soren's wrist again, lightly of course.
"Come on! Let's get to PE!" I said happily.
"Yeah!" Peach exclaimed, "She has PE with us too!"
"I don't see why you get all excited about PE…all we get to do today is play want-to-be baseball," Zelda said, extremely board.
"Well maybe it'll rain and we can just walk around the gym. That would be fun," Peach tried to convince, "The weather channel says that there's a 50 percent chance."
"I wish," Zelda said with a sigh.
As we all walked to the gym, Peach decided that she could hold Soren's hand while I had her other hand.
And so another one joins our group of insanity, of course she seems a bit sane.