Thanks to Ryol, hylianofthewoods, and thebasementdweller for following, to King of 2211 for favoriting, and to Undertario for favoriting and reviewing! (As a quick note, I'll be responding to all reviews at the top of the chapter.)
Undertario: Thanks for the compliment! It's people like you who inspire me to try to crank out chapters faster. Not that I actually managed that, but... still. :)
DISCLAIMER: If I owned Zelda, why would I be writing fanfic about it?
Chapter II: Enter Zelda
Link's first class was probably his least favorite, out of all of the excruciatingly painful ones to choose from: language arts. It wasn't that he was bad at it, he just... wasn't very good at it.
...In other words, he sucked at it. He just didn't see the point in having to read books that were, by his calculations, about two billion years old, and then having to write essays about them. He suspected that the fact that he didn't actually care about the subject probably contributed to his bad marks in the class. Plus, his limited attention span meant that whenever he actually did have a smidgeon of interest in what was being taught, it was quickly lost in the void that was his troubled, pubescent head. Not to mention, this was the only class he didn't have any of his friends in.
On the other hand, today looked like it might be different than the normal routine, as there was a head he didn't recognize in the confines of the classroom. Its owner, Link assumed, would be introduced as soon as the rowdy class was settled in their assigned seats.
Sure enough, as the bell rang and the chatter slowly but surely died away, the teacher, Mr. Shad, a young man (he'd probably started teaching as soon as he'd gotten out of college) with pale skin and neat, auburn hair, stood up. "Class, before we begin, I would like to introduce Miss Zelda Nohansen."
The new girl turned around, and Link got his first good look at her. She was slightly taller than him, and had straight, bright blonde hair that reached down to her hips. It was held away from her face by a shiny yellow headband adorned with sparkling red gems. Around her neck was a large necklace made of spherical, red objects, which complemented her fair skin and periwinkle-blue eyes nicely, in addition to her lip gloss. She wore a hot pink, sleeveless shirt that wrapped around her neck, and her skirt, which extended to slightly above her knees was lavender, with a blue zigzag pattern near the bottom. Both wrists wore gleaming bracelets, and for a moment Link actually thought they were made of gold. She wore red ballet flats on her feet that were covered in glittering pink rhinestones.
But Link barely noticed all of that, as he was focused on one aspect of her in particular: her ears. Hanging from each were two earrings, which were shaped like miniature wings and had fancy designs etched into them, but he wasn't interested in that, either. He was staring at the shape of her ears: rounded at the bottom, but ending in a wickedly sharp point. Subconsciously, Link's hand went to his own ear.
However, his musings were interrupted as Zelda quickly whipped around and whispered furiously into Mr. Shad's ear. The teacher's eyes darted around the room, and he cleared his throat. "Err... I apologize. What I meant to say was... presenting the lovely Ms. Zelda Harkinian Nohansen XLVIII. We are pleased to be in her service while she stays here in our humble village, and apologize deeply if we are ever unable to provide her with the attention and services she requires. So... I'll just... randomly select an ambassador for..." Zelda shot him a glare. "...Her Majesty...?" Mr. Shad ended his sentence with a pathetic squeak.
Link rolled his eyes, instantly realizing what type of person Zelda was – the spoiled kind that threw a tantrum if even the slightest thing went wrong in their very important life, because if they didn't get what they wanted, the entire world was ending.
...Yeah. She was one of those people. Link sent his deepest condolences to whoever would be unfortunate enough to be her guide for the day – someone with an identical schedule to hers, presumably.
Mr. Shad's voice once again cut through his thoughts. "How about... Link Master?"
Link's eyes widened, and he felt the cold feeling of dread sink into his stomach. This couldn't be happening. Oh, dear Neptune, this couldn't be happening. There was no way that he had just been chosen to be around Zelda for the entire day. He pinched himself, in a futile attempt to wake himself from the nightmare he was surely having. He'd rather have died than experience the torture that this day would surely be.
But it was one hundred percent real, and Link felt a monumental headache come upon him the moment Zelda slid into the empty seat next to him that he's somehow neglected to notice before. But before he could even voice his discomfort, Zelda did for him.
More specifically, she took one quick glance at him, and wrinkled her nose like he'd just slithered out of the slimiest hole of slimy slime in the entire universe. She then sat down in her seat – somehow making that simple action seem graceful, bratty, and disgusted all at the same time.
...This was going to be a long day.
The rest of the class went by rather uneventfully, although when Link tried to introduce her to the work that he was doing, she promptly turned away and started tapping on her phone. Surprisingly, Mr. Shad didn't do anything about it, and it wasn't just because he didn't notice, Link assumed as he saw the rather impressive wad of green paper in the teacher's back pocket. No wonder Zelda wasn't doing anything – she'd probably just paid Shad to give her A's on every assignment.
Soon enough, though, the class was over, and Link was faced with a new challenge: getting Zelda up out of her seat. While everybody else had left long ago, Zelda stubbornly refused to move, continuing to swipe away on her phone.
"Zelda, we have to get to our next class," Link grunted.
No response.
"Come on," Link tried again.
Still nothing.
"We're going to be late if you don't get your butt of of this chair," Link insisted.
Zelda blew back a strand of hair that had escaped her headband, but still didn't reply.
Link huffed in defeat. "You know, I really doubt that she can bribe Coach Ashei to excuse her for being late no matter how much money she offers," he muttered to himself.
Abruptly, Zelda stood up, put her phone away, and stomped towards the doorway. "Fine," she grumbled.
As he passed her in the doorway, Link swore he could feel her glare penetrating his skull. It was not a comfortable feeling.
The next class was gym, coached by a former mountain guide named Ashei. She was tough on her students, to say the least, but Link liked her, even if she'd hated him at first. As Link and Zelda arrived, a thought suddenly occurred to Link.
"Do you have a gym uniform?" he asked the spoiled young girl.
Zelda stared at him, as though it was a surprise to her that Link could say words with more than two syllables. Finally she scoffed, "For your information, I don't need a gym uniform. I have two things that are even better: influence and money."
"Well, I'll be in the boys' locker room," Link told her. "Coach Ashei's in the girls' room, by the way. I doubt you'll be able to weasel your way out of this class." He then ran off with a smug grin on his face, believing every single word he's just said to be true.
Unfortunately, Link was proven wrong once more, as a good five minutes after the bell rang, Zelda and Coach Ashei emerged from the locker room, with Zelda's clothes just as expensive as ever. However, upon closer observation, Link saw that Ashei had no large sums of money, only anger, as her face was redder than a sunburnt beet.
Seeing Link's bewildered expression, Zelda sauntered up to Link, and told him, "Like I said, in addition to money, I also have influence."
Link gritted his teeth. Zelda was getting on his nerves even more than he thought she would.
"Alright, class!" Coach Ashei yelled, getting everyone's attention. "We have a new student today! Her name is Zelda Nohan..." Zelda shot her a cold glare, and pointed menacingly to her phone. The coach took a deep breath, and counted to three. "I mean... presenting the lovely Ms. Zelda Harkinian Nohansen XLVIII. We are eternally grateful to be graced by her presence, so much so that instead of our normal activities, today we will construct a chair for Her Gracefulness to sit in for the rest of the year." At this point, Ashei's face was an entirely new shade of red. It was so red that Link's eyes hurt from looking at it. Without another word, she motioned the class to the supply closet.
As Link passed by Zelda in the crowd of students, she whispered to him, "Influence," before swaggering off.
Right as she left, Link looked around, and located Greenie in the crowd – Melody and Leif had gym in first period, and weren't there.
As soon as Greenie caught sight of Link, he immediately asked the question that Link was sure everybody in the class had: "So... what the heck just happened?"
Link grimaced. "As it turns out," he informed his friend, "Zelda happens to be a rich and snotty brat. I should know, seeing how I have to be her guide."
Greenie nodded empathetically. "I feel so sorry for you. But," he continued, "I'm sure that you can make friends with her if you try hard enough. There's good in everyone, after all!"
Link raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He highly doubted that after meeting Zelda.
The supply closet, for some odd, inexplicable reason, had an entire mountain of wood planks tucked away in one of its considerably large corners, in addition to other random construction materials, which included power drills, nails, hammers, and the like. Grumbling, the class slowly shambled towards the pile, and began hauling the wood outside, until Link, Greenie, and Zelda were the only students left in the room.
Seeing his reluctance to move, Zelda zeroed in on him. "Get to work, Link," she sneered, scrunching her face as she said his name. "After all, that throne is not going to build itself."
Link rolled his eyes, but moved toward the now much smaller pile of wood. Greenie, however, walked confidently to Zelda and held out his hand. "Hi," he greeted. "My name's Greenie. How are you doing today?"
Zelda stared at the elvish boy's hand bemusedly, before gripping it with her own and shaking it firmly. "I am doing well, thank you." She then strode out the door.
Greenie smiled brightly at Link. "Well, that went well!" He proceeded to pick up a smaller piece of wood and heave it out the door, leaving Link to gape at the spot where he had exited.
Second period flew by in a blur, but once Coach Ashei called them back to the locker rooms, Link had about two hundred new splinters and a thousand more cramps. Surprisingly, Greenie had come out of the ordeal completely unscathed, with not a single splinter piercing his much softer skin. In fact, Greenie was probably the reason they had made any progress with Zelda's so-called "throne" at all. Even with the blueprints that Zelda had somehow provided, Greenie was the only one who understood how to work with the rigid wood at all.
Link walked out of the boys' locker room, and found both Zelda and Greenie waiting outside, which was very odd. He whispered to Greenie, "How are you standing next to Zelda without her walking away in disgust?"
Unfortunately, it appeared that Link was not a good whisperer at all, as Zelda instantly snapped at him, "Unlike the other filthy creatures at this school such as yourself, Greenie here actually displays signs of intelligence, and, even better, politeness!"
"Uh, I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not, but I'll accept it anyway!" Greenie exclaimed.
Link rolled his eyes, which he found he was doing a lot today. "Come on, you two. Unlike Zelda here, I do not actually have the ability to get out of being late." He then proceeded to grab both of their wrists (Zelda looked like she was going to be sick), and dragged them to their third period class: science.
There was only one way to describe Dr. Mizumi, the science teacher, and that was completely and utterly horrifying. He back was hunched so much that Link was surprised his face wasn't touching the floor, and his eyes, which seemingly had minds of their own as they moved independently of one another, bulged out of their sockets, which accentuated his disgusting, droopy face and horrid underbite quite grotesquely. If Zelda had looked like she was going to vomit before, she definitely was going to vomit now, as the elderly scientist hobbled over.
...Link didn't blame her.
"Ah, a new student," he screeched in his awful, grating, high-pitched voice. "I assume she is with you, Mr. Master?" Before Link could respond, Dr. Mizumi continued, "Good. I've been meaning to assign you and your group another partner for the lab we're doing today. She can sit next to Miss Rooste."
Link led Zelda to their table, where Melody was already seated, along with a small tank of water and a bunch of weird instruments (one of them actually appeared to be a musical instrument).
"Hello, Link," the petite girl said politely. "Who is that with you?"
"Melody, meet Zelda," Link introduced, resisting the urge to grit his teeth at Zelda's name.. "Zelda, this is Melody."
Melody reached out and shook Zelda's hand sincerely. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Zelda's face lit up with what could be called delight. "Link," she whispered in a way that could almost be considered familiar, but not friendly, "I had no idea that a filthy animal such as yourself could associate with those with any sort of culture." She sat down after that, seeing that Dr. Mizumi was about to start.
The professor cleared his throat, and began his lecture. "As some of you may recall, yesterday we learned about the recent discovery of groups of eggs laid by an unknown creature. These eggs have an unusual property that causes them to react when certain frequencies are played in specific orders. Now, as a patron of the sciences, I went and purchased about a hundred of these eggs for my students to experiment on. Now, I will pour seven eggs into each of your tanks, and the first group to get a reaction out of them will get a candy bar." He held up an oddly-shaped bar of chocolate, labelled "Piece of Heart."
That certainly got everyone's attention, and as Mizumi wove through the chattering students, pouring eggs into every container, Link asked Zelda, "So, how come you aren't bribing and/or threatening this teacher?"
"I have no need to bribe a science teacher," Zelda scoffed. "Not when I can just ride on the coattails of my lab partners," she said, lowering her voice so that Melody and Greenie couldn't hear her.
Link rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut as Dr. Mizumi gave them their eggs, which were even stranger looking than he'd expected. They were a light shade of blue, with cyan patches scattered on the egg. They were also incredibly large, for fish eggs.
"Okay," Melody said, "let's try to figure out what we have to work with."
Link looked at the equipment skeptically. "All I see is a bunch of audio equipment, and a mini-guitar."
"Actually," Greenie corrected, "it's a ukulele."
"Eh, po-tay-to, po-tah-to," Link dismissed. "What matters is which one will help us get that sweet chocolate."
"Well," Zelda interjected, "we can rule out the ukulele, as Dr. Mizumi mentioned 'frequencies,' not 'notes.'" When Link looked at her strangely, she defended, "Do you think that simply because I am well-to-do means that I cannot enjoy chocolate?"
And so, the next half-hour resulted in failure as the group used every single tool at their disposal, except for the ukulele. (Although, they did manage to somehow detonate a floppy disk after Link and Zelda got into a fight.)
"I just don't get it," Melody muttered. "Maybe we haven't been using the right frequencies, or in the right order...?"
Meanwhile, Link had fallen asleep, and Zelda was trying to boil the eggs with her glare. Greenie, on the other hand, was looking with interest at the ukulele, and gingerly picked it up.
"Cool," he said, holding it in his hands. He plucked a few notes, getting a feel for the instrument, and began to improvise a simple tune.
To his surprise, however, the water in their tank began to rumble slightly. He quickly shook Link awake, and the four watched with amazement as the eggs began to uncurl, taking the forms of tadpoles that almost looked like musical notes. Within seconds, they had arranged themselves as though they were written on a piece of sheet music, and Link could have sworn he saw wispy staffs being formed in the water. They then began to release different notes into the water at different times, until eventually they were playing Greenie's improvised song.
At this point, everyone in the class was watching, some in amazement, and others with jealousy. "Well," said Dr. Mizumi, "I think it's clear which group deserves my Pieces of Heart." He tossed them a candy bar each. Just then, the bell rang, and the class rushed outside, eager for lunch, leaving behind Mizumi and the singing tadpoles.
"So," Link informed Zelda, "it's lunchtime now, so feel free to ditch us while we have our peace and quiet."
The girl shook her head. "Now, why would I do that? Sure, if it was just you, I would abandon you without hesitation, but your acquaintances actually do have a smidgeon of culture, and I would not like to go looking around campus for those who are the same."
"Oh, come on, Link," Greenie exclaimed. "Zelda's not even that bad at all!"
"Seriously, people?!" Link protested. "Melody, help me out here!"
Melody softly shrugged her shoulders. "I don't see why she shouldn't join us."
"Why who shouldn't join us?" Leif, who had again arrived without anyone noticing, interjected.
Zelda turned around to face the bespectacled boy. "Ah. I don't believe we have met."
"My name's Leif. What's your's?" he asked, holding out his hand.
"I am Zelda," she replied shortly, gripping his hand. "Your... friend... is guiding me today."
"Oh, so you have math after this?" Leif asked, to which Zelda nodded. "Cool. Link and I have that, too."
"Speaking of math," Link interrupted, "did you study for the test today?"
"Absolutely not," Leif responded. "I just don't see the point in studying when I already can remember all of it. The real question is: did you study, Link?"
"Uh... no," Link murmured, suddenly very interested in a patch of blackened, dried gum on the ground.
"Oh, right," Leif said dryly, "I forgot that you never study because you're too lazy to ever do it."
"What?" Link defended. "Mr. Banker gives me A's in everything besides tests, so it's not like it'll matter!"
"Yeah," Leif countered, "but what will your grandma say when she finds out you bombed the test? Or even worse, what will Aryll say?" When Link didn't respond, Leif took that as a cue to grab him by the arm and start pulling him to their math class.
"Wait," Link cried. "I still need to eat! I'm a growing boy! Greenie! Melody! Zelda! Anyone! HELP ME!"
Greenie and Melody didn't respond, but at least they looked a little guilty about it. Zelda, on the other hand, merely grabbed his other arm and helped Leif in dragging him to the classroom.
"What are you doing? Don't help him!" Link shrieked.
Zelda rolled her eyes and said, "I would like to gauge how much I will have to pay this 'Mr. Banker' for him to excuse me from every single task. Also," she added, "it's very fun to watch you blunder around like the buffoon you refuse to admit you are."
Soon enough, they had arrived at Mr. Banker's class. Mr. Banker was one of the few teachers to let students into his classroom at lunch, but due to his... unfortunate quirks, barely anyone ever showed up. For one thing, Mr. Banker was very outspoken and got angry easily, especially when people messed up at his awful word problems. Not to mention, he made insensitive comments about everything, from people's clothing to their age. He also had two very odd obsessions: bottles and money. In fact, he kept several bottles of money on his desk, and often shook them when he thought no one was listening. It was weird, but Link wasn't judging.
...Oh, wait. He totally was, which he had informed his captors of while he was pulled to the teacher's classroom.
"Hi, Mr. Banker," Leif greeted as they walked through the doorway. "We're going to borrow a textbook, okay?" He then grabbed one without waiting for the teacher's response.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, little guy," Mr. Banker murmured, barely looking up from the cash he'd laid out on his desk. When he did, however, his eyes zeroed in on Zelda. "Heh... who's this pretty little lady with you today? She wouldn't happen to be in my class for the rest of they year, would she?" He leaned in closer to her, and a worrying smile adorned his face.
Zelda looked appalled that her teacher had possibly been hitting on her, but when she looked to the two boys for help, they simply shrugged. That was the way Mr. Banker was: patronizing towards boys, and perverted towards girls. Honestly, Link wasn't sure why he hadn't been fired yet.
Looking sick, Zelda approached the teacher warily, while Leif opened up a textbook to a page about the Pythagorean Theorem or something. Link didn't really care, but Leif still forced him to sit down and listen to him.
Twenty-five minutes later, and Link still had no idea what anything in the textbook meant. At that point, Zelda was also trying to help, as apparently she would rather be actually doing work than have to ever talk to Mr. Banker again, but she was getting no further than Leif had.
"I just don't get it," Link said for the forty-second time (Leif had counted). "How can a2 + b2 = c2, when that doesn't make any sense? Like, if my a equals 3, and my b equals 5, and my c equals 8, that wouldn't work, because 9 plus 25 doesn't equal 64."
Zelda let out an exasperated sigh. "Do you have any knowledge of algebra or geometry at all? You are solving for c. If you already know c, then you will either be solving for a or b."
"For example," Leif interjected, if we do 32 + 52 = c2, then that means that 9 plus 25 equals the square root of 34, or about 5.83."
Link stared at the two of them blankly. "But... 3 plus 5 doesn't equal 5.83..."
Before Zelda could slap him for his ignorance, the bell rang, and a steady crowd of students filed in as Mr. Banker handed out the test. He felt faint as he realized that the test had forty questions, all of which involved the Pythagorean Theorem.
...This was going to be a long afternoon.
Fifty-six minutes later, and Link was walking out of the classroom with several bruises on his forehead from banging it against the table so much. The only positive was that he had managed to copy a decent amount of answers from Leif when he wasn't looking, so he knew he was going to at least get a D. Unfortunately for him, Zelda, who had finished within ten minutes, had caught him, and threatened to rip his test in half if he did it again.
At least, he thought, the rest of the day will be easy. As he, Zelda, and Leif strolled into their fifth period music classroom, he audibly sighed with relief. It was no secret to anyone, really, that music was his favorite class of the day, and it was simple to see why. Due to the fact that they were nearing the due date of their project, the teacher, Mrs. Anjean, a kind old lady who played the pan flute, let the students do whatever they wanted, as long as they practiced their songs. In addition, she let the students play whatever instrument they wanted to, regardless of whether it was a wind instrument or string instrument. It didn't even have to be a traditional symphonic instrument – one of the students played the electric guitar. Of course, that was probably also because the school's budget was too limited to actually have separate band, orchestra, and choir classes.
Link located Melody and Greenie, who had arrived earlier due to the fact that their literature classroom was closer to the music room. "Hi, guys," he greeted as Leif took his seat next to Melody, and Zelda went over to Mrs. Anjean.
"Hey, you two," Greenie replied cheerfully. "Hey, Link. Are you ready to play us your song?"
"Yeah, Link," Melody chimed in. "I'd very much like to hear it."
At that moment, Zelda sat down next to Link. "Oh, yes," she said. "I, too, would like to hear what kind of song someone like you would come up with."
With all of his friends (and his irritating shadow) looking at him expectantly, Link had no choice but to pull out his ocarina and begin his song. He made sure to play it faster than normal, because otherwise he was sure he'd probably collapse from the embarrassment of having to play in front of them in the first place.
However, he made it through, and by the end of the song, he was finally able to gauge each of their reactions. Melody and Greenie, both of whom were more emotional than most, looked close to tears. Leif looked thoroughly blown away, and was applauding slowly. Zelda looked mildly impressed. "It was very good," she conceded, "but it would have sounded much better if it were on the piano, and if it were played at a slower pace." After this, her cheeks reddened as if she'd done something mortifying, and she quickly added, "Not that I'd expect a peasant like you to understand."
Melody, ignoring Zelda's criticism, told Link, "Well, I think that your song was sublime, Link." Greenie and Leif nodded their assent.
"Well," Link said, "if my song is so good, then I'd like to hear you guys's songs."
"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna go first!" Greenie zealously volunteered. No one stopped him, so he quickly grabbed his ocarina, which unlike Link's was sandy brown in color, and began to play right away. His song was childlike, innocent, and whimsical all at the same time, which befitted Greenie's personality perfectly. In addition, Link could have sworn that he saw the potted plants Mrs. Anjean kept in the room swaying in time with Greenie's song, but he must've imagined it.
It was only after Link finished pondering over that phenomenon that he realized that the first three notes of Greenie's song were the same as the first three notes of his song, just in a reversed order. It wouldn't have been that significant, except that in both of their songs, the first three notes were repeated a lot. He voiced this concern to Greenie, who smiled and said, "Wow, it's funny how coincidences like that happen, huh?"
"So," Link told Melody and Leif, "we still have you two to get through. Who wants to go first?"
Leif avidly shook his head, which prompted Melody to mutter, "Well, I guess I'm going first," as she pulled out her lyre. In a more audible voice, she informed them, "Just so you know, I still haven't exactly worked out all of the kinks in my song." Quietly, she murmured, "I suck at 6/8 time, after all."
Taking a deep breath, she began to quietly strum at her instrument. It was an elegant song, but it also felt... powerful, in a way. Link could almost feel the earth rumble beneath his feet as she played. It had a few flaws in its timing, but other than that, Link was quite impressed. He and the rest of the group applauded politely.
"Well, I suppose that leaves me, then," Leif grumbled. He already had his violin, ready to play. "Just so you know, my song's in 6/8 time, too, so don't judge it too badly."
He jumped right into his song, which was fast and upbeat in a way that reminded Link of a folk song. Yet at the same time, it felt powerful in the same way that Melody's song had. Link thought he felt his hair being blown back as if by the wind at points in the song. Like Melody's, it had a couple of timing issues, but it was just as good. Link and the rest applauded once it was done.
Of course, as is often the case, an awkward silence followed after that, with nobody really sure what to do or say. Eventually, it was Greenie who found a proper outlet for conversation, as he turned to Zelda and asked, "Say, Zelda, what's your instrument? I saw you talking to Mrs. Anjean, but she didn't give you one."
Zelda smiled. "Oh, I play the lyre, like you, Melody, but it appears that there are not any left. I would bring my lyre from home, but it is much too expensive for me to do so. So instead, I'm in the vocal program."
Greenie grinned. "Cool! Could you sing something for us?"
Zelda frowned thoughtfully at this. "I do know a few songs, but they all must be accompanied by another instrument, usually the lyre. And I must admit, it has been quite some time since I've performed those songs, so I've forgotten how the lyre part goes."
"Oh, so another time then?" Greenie asked.
"Yes," Zelda agreed. Just then, the bell rang. "Another time."
The five of them walked together (although Link and Zelda still kept their distance) to their last class of the day – history. Along the way, Greenie and Leif assured Zelda that it would be great – after all, almost everyone in the school agreed that the teacher, Mr. Gaebora, was the best instructor in there.
"It is strange, the name Gaebora," Zelda muttered. "I feel as though I've heard it before..."
"I'm sure it's just a coincidence," Melody told her.
As they walked into the class, both Link and Zelda couldn't help but notice something odd about Mr. Gaebora – an elderly, owl-like man – and the way his eyes kept darting toward Zelda every now and then. It wasn't in a perverted way, like with Mr. Banker. Instead, the teacher looked almost... alarmed.
However, that didn't stop him from teaching in his usually wordy but still exciting way, and by the end of the class, and the school day, the five of them left in high spirits. "Well," Zelda said, "today has been fun, but I really must be going. I will see you all tomorrow, right?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Of course!"
"Yup!"
Only Link didn't respond, but he doubted Zelda would mind. After all, in her eyes, he was just a "worthless peasant."
Once she was safely out of earshot, Link confided in his friends, "I'm so glad she's gone. She's been driving me insane all day."
Unfortunately, his friends didn't appear to share in his sentiments. Instead, they seemed offended. "Link!" Melody hissed. "Why would you say something like that?!"
"Well, she has!" cried Link! "She called me several different variations of the phrase 'peasant!'"
"That's just her way of showing affection," Greenie piped up.
"Yeah," Leif agreed, wiggling his eyebrows, "her special, one-on-one way of of showing affection to you, Link... I mean, did you see the way her face reddened when she gave you a genuine compliment?"
"It was quite red," Melody agreed. "Redder than a tomato, even."
"If that's not a sign of a crush, then I don't know what is," Leif continued.
Link's cheeks grew hot. Could Zelda have a crush on him? No, no, that wasn't true. Zelda had treated him like the scum of the earth that day. There was no way she could have a crush on him...
...Could she?
Unbeknownst to all of them, however, they were not alone in their conversation. From behind a house, two wrinkled old women knelt, listening to their every word, and watching them intently. These women were identical in almost every way. They had the same wrinkly green skin, the same long nose, and the same long, black robe. However, the one on the left had flaming orange hair, and a bright red crystal on her forehead, while her twin had icy blue hair, and a deep blue sapphire on her head.
Both of these women were focused on only one part of the passing students: their pointed ears. Once the children had rounded the bend, they both turned to each other excitedly.
"Could it be, Koume? After all of these years?" the blue witch whispered.
The red witch, Koume, nodded discreetly. "It has to be, Kotake. There has never been such a high concentration of Hylians in the world for the past 600 years! We must not waste anymore time. Tell Lord Ganondorf that we, his oldest and most loyal servants, have located the Temple." She let out a quiet evil laugh, before abruptly stopping. "Actually, no. Leave out the part about us being the oldest." She then proceeded to continue her evil laugh.
A/N: So, that's Chapter 2. Yes, I know it was mostly just mindless school fluff, but I had to establish Zelda's relationships with everyone else. And also, while there will be a smidgeon of Zelink, it won't be the main focus. They're twelve, for Nayru's sake.
Also, some stuff for those who might not like how Zelda is kind of a jerk, and were not satisfied by my in-story explanation: she does have a tiny (for now) crush on our not-yet-green-clad elf boy, but she's trying to hide it. Now, part of it is her real personality, but usually she's not that toxic.
(Now, I think I might need to stop writing for awhile. I've literally written for about six hours over the course of the past two days, and somewhere along the line, I went from envisioning Zelda's voice as Pacifica's from Gravity Falls to Rey's from Star Wars Episode VII. Send help.)
~I Am A Toad