The Boy in Green
It was an unusually sunny day that summer. In some places it might have seemed normal, but not where they lived. It was usually wet and cold and cloudy, but that day was just... sunny. Sunny and dry and warm. Maybe that was a sign of what was to come or maybe it was just a coincidence, but it was on that sunny day that something miraculous happened.
Someone moved into the house next door.
There was no warning for it. No one told them or came by to see the house. The first they heard of new neighbors was the sound of a moving truck backing up, the piercing BEEP-BEEP-BEEP making Tetra slip off the rock she had been climbing on and scrape her leg. She didn't cry, just whipped her head around and stared wide-eyed at the biggest car she had ever seen in her life.
And the greenest boy she had ever seen, too. All decked out in tones of lime and olive as if he were a little leaf. Or one of those midget forest fairies in Zelda's books.
"Zelda! Zelda!" she ran over to her own house and started to shriek at the upstairs window, jumping up and down and flailing her arms above her head. It took a while, but the the pane slowly creaked open and she saw her sister's head poke outside sleepily, her precious hair resembling that mouse nest Tetra had found in the field last week. Of course she was still asleep. It was barely eight, though Tetra had been out since six.
"Why are you screaming?" Zelda asked her wearily, before noticing the blood dribbling down her leg. She sat up straight and leaned out the window.
"You're bleeding!" she cried, all sleep gone from her voice. Tetra crossed her arms and glanced down at the scrape to humor her, staring at the small river of red in disinterest.
"Wow. So I am. Ouch," she intoned, dry and sarcastic.
"NOW GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE! IT'S IMPORTANT!"
"You don't have to yell." Zelda frowned and closed the window with a snap. Tetra sighed impatiently, knowing that she'd take a while brushing her hair and teeth. Bah. Who needed her anyway. She could figure out that fairy boy by herself. Not bothering to go inside and wipe off her leg, she hopped the adjoining fence that separated their yards and strutted up to the house, straight-backed and proud.
"Hey, you," she jerked her chin up once in greeting and put her hands on her hips, staring down the shorter boy in an attempt to intimidate him. It worked at school, even the older boys didn't dare mess with her.
It didn't work on him. He just stared at her blankly. Right in the eye, too. She took a step back, slightly shaken before she gathered her nerves and stood tall again. Another car came up to the house, a truck this time towing an old horse carrier behind it. She looked at the boy and then back at the carrier again, one eyebrow raised in amusement.
"You some kinda hick, kid?" she asked with a sneer, snorting derisively. He followed her line of eyesight wordlessly. No reply.
It was frustrating.
"Hey, you dumb or something? Can you at least nod or shake your head, or is that too hard?" Tetra demanded, obviously unnerved by the silence. She shifted her weight to her other foot as he seemed to think it over seriously.
"You at least got a name?" she asked finally when he still didn't answer, sounding desperate and exasperated. The boy gave her a small smile and pulled down his green hoodie. Blond hair, like hers.
"Link." Tetra grinned back, feeling triumphant that she got him to speak.
"I'm Tetra," she boasted, jabbing her thumb to her chest as if her very name itself were some kind of important title.
"I don't take crap from no one so you better learn it now, kid." Link nodded and smiled a little wider, but it was a secret kind of smile, as if he knew something Tetra didn't. She didn't like it one bit and told him so.
"What's with that stupid look on your face? You got something to say? Just remember that I-"
She didn't get to finish, because Zelda leaned out the window again and started screaming for her to stop leaving her underwear all over the floor. She flushed bright red and Link glanced down at her leg in mild concern.
"You're bleedin'," he commented bluntly.
Tetra ran home to tend to it that very moment.
