I flicked my hair over my ear, covering my face in a curtain of red-brown hair. I scribbled the answers to the math test on my paper. I finished, and turned my paper in. Pulled my phone out of my backpack and put my earphones in. Turing up the volume all the way, I glanced between the hair curtain, looking at the boy that sat next to me. Link had shaggy, dirty blonde hair that framed his clear, sparkling blue eyes. He had a strong jawline, and chisled features. He was wearing a dark green shirt, jeans, and black high tops.
Link squinted at his test, obviously having a hard time. I sighed. Our AP Trig class was definitely a challenge, and with Link being busy with basketball, he barely ever had time to study. Good thing I was there to tutor him. Of course, my specialty is English, but I am good at Math too.
Anyway, back to the subject, Link was a different kind of popular boy. During our tutoring sessions, he was always friendly. We would talk about obscure hipster bands and the newest video games together. When school was in session, he was never mean, but he just didn't talk to me. I was a nerdy girl, he was a popular boy.
The bell rang, and Link huffed in frustration, turning in his text. I packed my things and headed off to my locker. I opened it, and began packing my things, when I witnessed something that I thought I would never see in my life: Link was leaning against my locker, smiling at me.
I turned my head abrubtly when I heard my best friend, Midna, calling out to me.
"Hey, Zelda! Are you ready to g-" She broke off as she saw Link leaning against the locker. She smiled, and giggled at me, as she began to busy herself with packing her things.
"Hi, Link." I said, shyly.
"Hey, Zelda."
"Ummm... What's up?"
"I was wondering if you were tutoring me today, I need some help with Trig." He confessed.
"Well, I am actually auditioning for the musical today." I told him. "But you can come with me to the auditorium, and we can study while I am waiting for my turn. That is... if you aren't to embarrassed."
"Of course I'm not embarrassed!" Link insisted. That put a big smile on my face.
"Okay, I will meet you there." I told him.
Midna shut the locker that we shared, and we began to walk towards the auditorium. We both loved to perform, and were eager to audition for my favorite musical, Hello Dolly. Though I was only a sophomore, I was hoping that I could nab the lead role.
In the auditorium, the drama director, Mr. Tingle, was telling people the order that they would audition in. I was toward the end, as was Midna. We got our places, than went to the back of the room, so that I could help Link study without disturbing the audidtion process.
Link walked through the door, and came to sit by me. He got out his math homework and his book.
"Okay." I said, settling in. "Lets start with number eleven, because you seem to have Tangent down already." He nodded, and started scratching the work down on the paper. I looked over his shoulder at the homework, and saw the problem. "Link, you are still mixing up Sine and Cosine."
"Oh." He said, staring at his paper for a minute before erasing his work, and starting again, using Cosine instead of Sine."
"See?" I said as he found the correct answer.
"Yeah, Thanks Zellie."
"Zellie?" I questioned, giving him a dubious look.
"That's my new nickname for you." Link told me matter of factily.
"...Alright then." I laughed.
"Midna Twili!" We heard Mr. Tingle call. "You're up."
"Wish me luck." Midna said nervously.
"Good luck." I whispered with a reassuring smile.
We watched Midna climb onto stage, introduce herself, and say which song she would be singing. She then launched into Ribbons Down My Back, as she was trying out for Irene. She finished her song, thanked Mr. Tingle, and walked off stage.
"Good job!" I whispered to her excitedly. My name was called next, and I went up to the stage. I looked at Midna for reassurance, and she gives me a thumbs up. I take a deep breath, internally running through my whole routine in a split second.
"Hello. My name is Zelda Harkinian, I am auditioning for the role of Dolly Levi, and I will be singing Call on Dolly. Hit it!" I said with a flourish, gaining confidence with each word I uttered. The pit orchestra began to play, and the words flew from my mouth, like it was second nature. I flowed around stage, with the grace of a dancer. As the song ended, the last note burst from my diaphragm strong and beautiful.
Mr. Tingle gave me a slight smile, and gave me the standard: "Thank you, Zelda." I gave him a slight dip of the head and a small smile, as I walked off stage. I walked over to Link and Midna who were staring at me with purely stunned looks on their faces.
"What?" I asked, half laughing.
"Whaddaya mean,what?" Midna yelled. "Zelda, that was astounding!"
"Really?" I asked, blushing. Midna and Link exchanged a glance, then turned tome and nodded frantically. Link opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a screech from the entrance of the auditorium.
"LINK!" Midna, Link, and I all sighed at the high pitched voice of Link's overly jealous girlfriend, Malon Ranchette. The red headed girl used to complete the quartet made up of me, Midna, Saria, and her. But then, she got mean. She became the typical gum popping cheerleader that you see in the movies. And to top it all off, she was dating the man of my dreams. I wouldn't say that she was the bane of my exsistance, but she got pretty close.
"Hey Mally." Link said in a low voice, in an attempt to calm the worked up girl down.
"Why are you here with her?" she spat.
"She is my tutor, remember." Link said, with quiet exasperation in his voice. "You don't have to be so jealous."
She put on that winning cheerleader smile and said: "Well, I'm sorry if I don't want some little geek to steal my Linky away from me." she grabbed his face and pressed his lips against hers in a kiss. I rolled my eyes and looked away, and Midna did the same. They headed out of the door of the auditorium, and we followed. Outside, we saw that it was raining.
"Ugh." Malon grunted. "I hate the rain."
"I love it." I said. Not to contradict her on purpose, but to get my point across. "It washes everything away so that the world can start anew again."
Link looked back at me with a crooked smile. "That's a really cool way to look at it." Malon turned around and gave me a glare. I just smiled back at her. Link climbed into his car with Malon, and I climbed into Midna's car. I couldn't drive yet, as I hadn't reached my 16th birthday, and Midna had. Her and Saria drove me everywhere.
As soon as we were in the car I slammed my head against the back of the chair with a groan.
"Why does he have to be with her? Her of all people!" I moaned.
"I know Zel, I get it." she sympathized. She started the car and said: "We need to work on our new A Capella piece for the next choir concert."
"I know." I confirmed. "Let's go to Saria's house and brainstorm." She nodded and drove in the direction of our green headed friend's house. We were in our school choir, and every concert, people had the chance to get in their own groups and arrange their own a capella piece to perform between the bigger choir pieces. The arrangements had to contain harmony and be complex enough to stand with the larger pieces that the choirs did. We were going to give it a shot.
Midna pulled into the driveway of our friends house, and we got out, and knocked on the door. Saria opened the door, wearing green and black plaid pajama pants, and a black tank top. Her shoulder length hair hung down, and her bangs skirted her eyes.
"Hey, guys." She said, flashing us her sweet, innocent smile. "Come on in." She led us inside to her house. My eyes widened. Every time I walked into her house, it astounded me to no end. It was simply awe inspiring. It was a simple house, with wooden floors and beige walls. But, it had a tree growing right up through the middle of the floor. The trunk went up through the two stories of the house, and the branches spread over the top of the roof.
Saria led us up to her room, where the thick tree trunk went straight up through the middle. The green topped girl always had a connection to nature, and her room expressed that perfectly. She sat down on her green and gold clad bed. "So what are we gonna do for our special music piece?" She asked.
"I actually have a few ideas bouncing around." I confessed.
"Shoot." Midna said, leaning against the bed and giving me the finger guns.
"Well, we should do something upbeat, so I thought we could do Possession Obsession by John Oates, or Happy by Pharrel Williams, or..." I trailed off.
"What?" Saria questioned.
"Man of Constant Sorrow from O Brother Where Art Thou." Saria and Midna exchanged an excited glance and nodded in synch. "But that might be to easy, so I figured, that we could do that one for fun, and do Happy for the for the concert."
"Good plan." Midna confirmed, and Saria nodded.
"Cool." I said. We spend another our just talking. About boys, clothes, the musical; just regular girl stuff; until me and Midna left. She dropped me off at home, and I went inside my house. "I'm home!" I called, before remembering that nobody was home. My mom was coaching my little sister, Tetra's volleyball team, my dad was at work, and my older brother, Shiek, was at basketball tryouts. He was named after the dwindling race whose blood our family shared.
I went upstairs, and set my backpack down in my room. My room was medium sized, with a loft bed on the left side, and my desk and dresser underneath. My multiple bookshelves were stuffed to the breaking point with books that I loved. In the corner, was a small television where I had my Xbox and GameCube set up.
I breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be in my natural environment again. I plopped down on my gaming chair, and I turned on my Xbox. I was in the middle of a playthrough of Bioshock Infinite, and I just couldn't pull myself away. I had been playing for about thirty minutes, when I heard the front door swing open, and then shut. My brother, Sheik, called from downstairs.
"Anybody home?"
"I am." I called back, knowing he would recognize my voice. I honestly don't understand why he asked if anybody was home, because it was always going to be me. Our parents were the founders a huge law firm, so they were on business trips ninety percent of the time. Sheik and I took care of Tetra, and each other, most of the time.
I heard Shiek bounding up the stairs, and I smiled to myself. For being named after a race known for being sneaky, he sure made a lot of noise. He walked into my room, and I paused my game.
"Bioshock?" He questioned.
"Yup." I answered.
"So, Tetra's spending the night at Romani's, so we won't have to worry about her. And Mom and Dad are heading off to Windfall island for a huge deal for the law firm; their flight leaves in about thirty minutes. They told me to say goodbye to you."
I nodded. It was just like them to leave with little notice.
"So it looks like it's just us for the weekend." I smiled and nodded. I loved spending time with Sheik. We had a stronger bond than most siblings, because we had to take care of each other.
"Does that mean I'm making dinner?" I asked, smirking, as I already knew the answer.
"I mean, if you want to." Sheik said, acting like he was nonchalant about the whole thing. I smiled at him, playfully smacked him on the shoulder, and raced out my room, and downstairs towards the kitchen. Once there, I proceeded to make breakfast burritos. When I was done, I plated everything, and cleaned up. With that done, I could serve our meals.
"SHEIK DINNER'S READY!" I howled at him. It was unnecessary, sure, but he was my brother, an I took every chance I got to mess with him. I heard him stomping down the stairs, and into the kitchen. He sat down at the table, and I joined him, bringing our food.
We dug in, fitting into our normal dinner routine: a few minutes of silence while we ate, followed by a conversation about our day.
"So, how did your audition go?" Sheik asked me, taking another bite of his burrito.
"Really well. Midna and Link said that I was captivating."
Sheik raised an eyebrow and continued chewing. "Who's Link?" He questioned suggestively, around his mouthful of food.
"Just a guy that I tutor in Trigonometry."
"Do you like him?" Sheik inquired.
"No! I replied indignantly. "Besides, he's a junior, and I'm a sophmore."
"Okay." Sheik said disbelievingly.
I rolled my eyes at him and changed the subject.
"So, how did basketball tryouts go today?"
"Really well. I am really excited to go out of high school with a bang, though." Sheik was a senor, and this was his last basketball season of his highschool career, and even though we went to different high schools, I still rooted for his team.
We both finished dinner, and I washed our dishes. Sheik went up to his room, and I cleaned the kitchen. I was scrubbing the counter, when I heard a knock at the door. Who could be coming to my house at ten o' clock on a Friday night? I looked through the peephole to find that Link was standing at my door. I opened the door, curiously; wondering why he was here.
Link's eyes combed me over, obviously surprised to see me in my short Pajama Shorts and a low cut tank top, which I had changed into after dinner.
"Umm... Hey, Link." I sarted, brushing my hair behind my ear. "What are you doing here?"
"Well," He said, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I really wanted to apologize for the way Malon treated you earlier, so I got Midna to give me your address, and I figured that we could play some games together."
I grinned from ear to ear. The guy I like, here, at my house, wanting to play video games with me? It's like a dream come true!
"Come on in." I welcomed, stepping aside to let the blonde boy in. At that moment, I heard Sheik stomping down the stairs saying:
"Zelda, I heard a knock at the door wh-" He broke off when he saw Link.
"Uhh, Sheik, this is Link." I inform him.
"Ah" Sheik says giving me a knowing smile.
"I assume that you are Zellie's brother?" Link said. "I am the aforementioned Link. Nice to meet you. Zellie and I are just gonna chill and play some video games." They shook hands, and Sheik said:
"Alright, but don't try anything."
"You don't have to worry about me, I've got a girlfriend."
"Mmmm hmm." Sheik hummed. And with one last look, he ran back up to his room.
"So..." I drawled. "How did you have Midna's number? And why did she give you my address?"
"I cant answer the second question, but as for the first one, we were paired together on a project on the history of Hyrule. We exchanged numbers to discuss our topic."
"Ah." I said, understanding. "Well, waddaya wanna do?"
"Here." Link said, holding out the bag. I took it from him, and looked through it. Within the bag were various snacks, video games and movies. "Word on the street is your a hardcore gamer."
"That word is correct." I stated. "Ohhh, you brought Smash Brothers Melee! Let's play this. C'mon, the GameCube is upstairs." I started up the stairs, with Link following close behind. As we approached my bedroom door, I hesitated. I had never brought a boy into my room before, and I was nervous. I took a breath and opened my door.
I took the game and put it in the system. Powering it up, I looked back at Link, who was gazing in wonder at my room.
"What are you doing?" I asked, laughing. "You are looking at my room like it is the best fireworks show in the world."
"It's just cool to see your room." He admitted. "It's like I can see the inner workings of your mind." I scoffed at him as I handed him a controller. "So you're telling me that you call yourself a gamer, but you don't have Smash Bros. Melee?"
"I have Brawl and the original!" I told him indignantly. "Sheik and I just never got around to buying Meele." Link laughed at my reaction as we started our first match.
An hour later, we were still glued to our controllers, whaling on each other in an intense Smash Bothers battle.
"Damn it!" I yell, throwing my controller at the ground, while Link smile triumphantly. "Best of seven!" I demand.
"No!" Link laughed. "I won fair and square!"
"Fine!" I admit defeat. "Let's go!" I said, shooting out the door of my room and down the stairs. Link followed me, clearly confused. I plopped down in front of the TV, and rummaged through my copious amounts of games until I found the one I was looking for. I clicked the Smash Bros. Cartridge into the N64. I handed the confused Link a controller, and we began another tournament. Another hour later it was me who came out victorious.
"Ha!" I gloated. "You may have your precious Melee, but I have the original!"
He laughed good naturedly. "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Whaddaya wanna do now?"
I shrugged. "How about a movie?"
He nodded. We both decided on Space Jam. Even though we knew it wasn't that great of a movie at it's core, we both loved it. I made popcorn, and we sat down for an hour and a half of Michael Jordan and Loony Toons. The movie ended, and I looked at my phone, and found that it was one thirty.
"Jeez, Link, look at the time." I said, showing him my phone. "Shouldn't Malon have called you already, asking where you are?"
Link chuckled and told me: "She's over at Ruto's house. She should keep her occupied for a while." We smiled at each other. Ruto was one of those popular girls that understood others. She was nice to everybody, and was just one of those people that everybody liked. The same goes with her sister: Lulu. "Goddesses, sometimes she drives me crazy."
"Is that so?" I asked him wryly. "I could've never guessed." Link laughed sadly.
"Yeah, I guess you would know how it feels even more than me. What's the deal with you guys, anyway?"
"Well," I sighed. "In middle school, Saria, Midna, Malon, and I were inseparable. We were the best of friends. We were all so excited when we found out we were going to the same high school, but when we began freshman year, we noticed that Malon started to act a bit differently. She stopped hanging out with us at lunch and break, and when she did hang out with us, she was distant and cold. This continued until, she just stopped being friends with us all together."
Link nodded thoughtfully. "Same here. I liked the sweet ranch girl that was thoughtful, and really cared about her friends. But when we started dating, she became mean and cruel."
"I just want my friend back." I mourned. Link agreed. His phone buzzed, and from the look on his face, I could tell it was from Malon.
"She just left Ruto's house, and she's wondering where I am." He informed me.
"Maybe you ought to leave, if she finds out you were here, we will both get it."
"Oh, goddesses, I didn't even think about what she would do to you if she found out about this." Link confessed worriedly. "Oh, Jeez, Zellie. I am so sorry. I am so selfish."
"Link, it's okay." I comforted. "I can deal with Malon."
He smiled at me and walked toward the door. I followed, wanting to see him out. He opened the door, and was about to step out, when he stopped, and turned back at me.
"I had a really great time, Zellie." He said. I smiled softly.
"So di-" I broke off as Link abruptly kissed me. My eyes widened, and I pushed him away.