Chapter Four

The next day I found myself jobless and irritated. I had returned to the store to pick up the bike only to find the boss waiting for me. Of course I tried to explain that someone was getting jumped on our property, but he didn't really care. Shocker.

And, of course, it was pouring rain.

I wasn't really sure why, but I actually kind of wanted to go to school today. Maybe it was the lack of anything really productive to do, or the tantalizing aspect of a warm and dry place to hang out. Although, then again, maybe I just wanted to see how Zelda was.

Which was stupid, of course, it's not like I'm her dad or anything.

Either way, I walked into the school sodden and grumpy and took a seat in my first hour class. As the teacher took roll call she skipped right over my name. I cleared my throat and raised my hand.

"Uh, yes?" the teacher said uncertainly.

"You didn't call my name," I explained slowly.

She looked back at her clipboard. "I'm sorry, are you new?" Several kids snickered.

"Uh, no," I answered even more uncertainly. Was this some kind of practical joke?

"Well, you're not on my roster, so why don't you head down to the principal's office and work this out?" she suggested with an overly kind smile. "Here, I'll write you a pass."

I slunk up to her desk, feeling a bit embarrassed. Bad enough classrooms made me nervous, now I'm the center of attention as well. I snapped up the pass she offered and jetted out of the cursed room.

Marching down the hallway to the main office I couldn't do much more than stare at my feet. Coming today had been a bad idea; I don't know what I was thinking.

This is why I hated school so much. Everyone was so judgmental and everything had to be in perfect order all the time. Why couldn't she just scratch my name in at the bottom of roll and call it good? What about detracting from the learning environment? I sighed out loud. They didn't care; they've never cared, just like the rest of the world.

So distracted by my negative thoughts, I didn't notice the person walking towards me until I ran headlong into her, causing her papers to go flying everywhere.

"Shit sorry!" I exclaimed, totally broken from my trance as I scrambled to pick up the papers.

To my surprise she laughed. "Oh it's no problem." I looked up to find myself face-to-face with a pretty redheaded girl, obviously another student.

In a daze I offered up the papers I had collected. We both stood up simultaneously and she blushed a bit at me, causing my face to go red as well.

"Sorry again," I muttered.

"Really, it's no problem," she reassured with a giggle. "We all get distracted sometimes."

"Uh, yeah," I answered, the tips of my ears still red.

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, I had best be on my way then!"

She started to walk past me, but I called out, "Hey, I didn't catch your name!"

Stopping in mild surprise, she turned, smiled, and answered, "Malon. You?"

"Link."

She smiled again. "Well see you around Link!"

"See you," I mumbled watching her walk on down the hallway. Hmm. Well that was weird. Shaking my head I continued on towards the office, noticing the retreating figure of Zelda at the far end of the hallway.

"Crap," I sighed.

Oh well, nothing to do about it now. Maybe she got the wrong idea, maybe not, but what did I care at this point? Not like I came because of her anyways.

I arrived at the office, and considering what a morning it had been so far, I don't know why I was surprised to find it in utter chaos. Secretaries were running back and forth, dropping papers into various drawers and hustling groups in and out of different rooms.

Standing in the middle, feeling like a sore thumb, I wondered what in the world could be going on that had everyone in such a flurry. Finally one of the secretaries noticed me.

"Oh hello darling! What can I do for you?" she asked in that motherly voice secretaries had. Actually the voice kind of freaked me out. I always wondered if they went through training or if the voice was just natural and came with the territory.

"Uh for some reason I'm not on the roster for a class that I've been in all semester," I explained, handing over the pass that had taken a bit of a beating along the way.

"Hmm. Well that's no good," she muttered. Sitting down at her computer she asked, "What's your name?"

"Link."

She looked back up at me questioningly.

"Come on how many kids in this school are named Link?" I asked sarcastically. She gave a little huff and typed furiously at her keyboard.

"Hmm. This is odd. You're not on the list at all. It's L-i-n-k right?" she asked, fretting tone giving the illusion of caring.

"Duh," I mumbled.

"What was that?" she glared pointedly at me.

"Yes, that's correct," I answered more clearly.

"Well, let's take you in to see the principal then."

I followed her to yet another room where a self-important man sat fiddling with the pens on his desk. Tax dollars at work.

"Oh! What is it?" he asked irritably. Obviously his pen collection was more important than a student.

"This young man claims to go to school here, but we have no records of him," the secretary explained, totally oblivious of the principals annoyance.

"Well young man take a seat, we'll get to the bottom of this," he answered, looking at me, full-on I'm-the-good-guy mode activated.

"Thanks," I muttered. The secretary flitted out of the office, leaving the principal and I to stare at each other for a moment before he spoke up.

"So what's your name son?" he asked, full of fake joy at my presence.

"Link," I answered once again. I felt stupid repeating my name over and over to all of these idiots.

Suddenly his face paled and his smile slipped into a frown. "Oh. Well. I'm sorry, I suppose you weren't properly informed."

"Informed about what?" I asked, the annoyance bubbling inside me all day starting to show.

"You've been expelled," he explained.

A/N: I'm kind of surprised with the low review count on this story, but regardless, I wanted to mention that information on chapter updates can be found on my profile now if you're ever curious. Till next time!