Link started as the bell rang, indicating the start of class. He groaned. Last night had been one of those nights. He had gone to bed at his usual time, but had nightmares all night and woke up in the morning feeling like he hadn't slept at all.

It was just then that the teacher strode in, "good morning, class. We have three new students today, so give them your utmost attention as they introduce themselves."

In came three blonde heads. One was a boy with sharp features and red eyes. The other two were girls, obviously sisters, maybe even twins. Both of them had blue eyes. One of them had her hair pulled into a bun on her head, while the other let her hair hang loose, only parts of it were pulled back with pink barrettes just above her pointy ears. She was the first to introduce herself, "I'm Zelda." Her voice was happy and light, but with a sense of responsibility lingering in the words.

The other girl spoke next. "I'm Tetra," she said in a bored voice, while examining her nails with her arms crossed across her chest.

The boy spoke last. His introduction was so short that Link spent a few seconds afterwards wondering if he had only imagined it, "Sheik."

Zelda was looking cheerily around the room at all the faces. Suddenly, time seemed to slow down as Link and Zelda's eyes met. A flash of recognition lit hers, and Link thought he had seen her before, though he didn't know where…

A sharp jab to Link's ribs pulled him back to reality, "hey, lover boy. Stop staring into space!" His best friend, Saria giggled.

Link liked Saria, but only as a friend. Besides, Saria had her eyes on someone else.

"Thank you," the teacher said, "now, Zelda, why don't you take that empty seat there, Tetra, you can sit there, and Sheik…I guess the only other seat is the one in the back. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not," Sheik replied politely and all three of them took their seats.

Link's heart skipped a beat when he realized that Zelda had been assigned the seat next to him. She turned to him when she realized he was staring and smiled. He shook himself and felt his ears burn as he began taking notes. He heard Zelda giggle and the heat in his face grew.

The classes flew by, especially the ones that Link had with Zelda, and soon it was time for lunch. Tetra had already found herself a band of leaderless boys and had quickly assumed the position, so she ate with them. Zelda seemed to want to spend as much time with Link as possible, even though they barely knew each other, and Sheik seemed reluctant to leave Zelda's side. Saria asked them if they wanted to eat with her and Link. They agreed and sat down at one of the tables.

They were soon joined by Link and Saria's other friends: Malon, another close friend of Link's, Gannondorf, Link's closest guy friend, Ruto, the captain of the swim team, Anju, the school diva, Nabooru, Gannondorf's girlfriend, and Kafei, Anju's boyfriend.

This was the group that Link usually ate with, and they got along well with Zelda and Sheik. Link thoroughly enjoyed himself, too. Link sat next to Zelda and both opened up to each other. Link learned that they had a lot in common and that she, Sheik and Tetra were triplets. Sheik was quieter than Zelda, but he still opened up a little once he felt safe with the people he was surrounded by, though he spoke mostly only to Link and Saria and a little to Malon.

When the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, everyone left to go to their lockers. Link reached the edge of the lunchroom when a voice behind him stopped him, "hey, Link?" He turned to see Zelda standing there, "you said that your next class was history. That's my next class, too, but I have no clue where it is. Can you help me?"

"Sure, no problem," Link replied. Link and Zelda had all the same afternoon classes, as well. They used the time they had together to get to know each other and by the end of the day, they felt quite comfortable around each other. Every time he was walking in the halls with Zelda and Saria passed by, she would wink at him, making him blush, but Zelda never mentioned it, which he was happy about.

After school, Link asked if he could walk Zelda him, but she politely declined, "besides," she said, "Sheik will protect me."

Link turned, somewhat sadly, and headed back toward the dorm he stayed in. As he passed by the gym teacher's office and saw the gym teacher, Impa, talking to Sheik. He thought it was weird that Zelda would say Sheik would protect her and then leave without him, but Link figured that she had just been joking. Maybe she was concerned about rumors. He shrugged it off and continued on his way.

Link had been a street kid for as long as he could remember. He had had nightmares for as long as he could remember, too. But he had never felt sorry for himself or been afraid of what would happen to him. He had always been lucky, and when the headmaster of the school found him, he considered himself luckiest of all. The school had a program for homeless kids and teens. They would be taken in and educated for free, if they wanted it. At first, Link had been put into a class that would bring him up to the level at which he should have been at his age, but he had caught up quickly, and was moved into normal classes. It took very little time for him to excel at those classes, too, however, and he was soon acing every advanced placement class the school had to offer. He knew that he could have graduated his 10th grade year, but chose to stay because he had made so many friends.

It was then that Link realized that Zelda had been in almost all his classes. That meant he had been in almost all advanced placement classes, too. He shrugged to himself and made a mental note to ask Zelda about it tomorrow.

Tetra sat on her bed, leaning against the headrest, working on her homework. The three teens shared a room, as their legal guardian didn't have enough space for them to have separate rooms. Regardless, the room was more than big enough for the three of them; they had stayed in worse.

Tetra had been the first home. It took her very little time to finish all her homework; as all of them were very bright, but even so, Zelda and Sheik were home by the time she finished.

"So you found a group of pirates to be the captain of, huh, Tet?" Zelda teased, "remind me to buy you a parrot for your next birthday."

The comment was meant to be lighthearted, but Tetra was in a bad mood, "leave me alone, Zel."

"I was just joking around," Zelda defended.

"Well, it wasn't funny."

"What is your problem today?"

"You are."

"Well, maybe you should leave."

"I. Can't."

"And why not?"

Tetra looked up angrily, "Because, Zelda, unlike you, my life isn't perfect-happy-go-lucky-land! My life-"

"Stop!" Sheik cut in, "Zelda, leave Tetra alone for now. Tetra, be nice to Zelda." Both girls were quiet in an instant, "now, we all have had rough lives. Recent…events give us more than enough license to be in a bad mood," Sheik looked at Tetra, "But none of us are going to do that because we were lucky enough to find Aunt Telma and she was kind enough to take us in. It could have been a lot worse, and don't forget that!" He sat down casually cross-legged on his bed, "how was your day, Zel?" he asked in a light tone, as if nothing had happened.

"Fine." Zelda answered grudgingly. She went over to her bed and plopped down, pulling out her homework.