To Meet Again
Chapter Five: Truth unveiled
"Well, Molly, It's seven o' clock and ten degrees– eight by the water. We have a high today of about twelve. Don'tcha miss them summa days?"
"Please don't sing, Fred. Sure, it's getting a bit cooler now that October's rollin' 'round, but hey, it's the best time to snuggle up with your—"
Yawning, Malon turned off the radio-alarm clock. 'Monday mornings, what a pain.' But then she sighed dreamily. 'Then again, I will see Sheik . . .'
"Mommy, mommy!" A young voice shook her out of her thoughts.
"Hey, you! Good morning," She picked Meredith up and set her beside her. Malon looked her up and down. "Ready for another day of school?"
The little girl nodded vigorously. "Yup, I got ready all by myself!"
She smiled and ran a hand through Meredith's tangled hair. "I see. My baby's growing up so fast . . ."
Meredith made a face. "I'm not a baby."
"I know. Now go get some breakfast, Sweetie. I'll be ready soon."
"Okay."
With that, she left. Malon sighed and got up for another day.
XxXxX
"All right, Meredith, this is your stop." Malon said, slowing to a stop at the school.
"'Kay, Mom! See you later!" Meredith nearly jumped out of the car, when Malon stopped her.
"Hey,hey, what's the rush?" She pouted. "Can't even give your old mommy a hug?"
"Sorry mom!" She hugged her mother and kissed her cheek. "Don't forget; tonight's the . . . the . . con thingy!" Meredith added before finally leaving.
'Tonight. . . gotta remember that!' Malon thought before heading to get some caffeine and some Sheik. (Decipher that as you please)
XxXxX
Sheik leaned on his elbows on the counter and sighed. Only nine in the morning and he was dead tired. "Stupid Mondays" He grumbled to himself. "If another customer comes through that door, I'll blow my top!" He thought for a moment. "Hmm 'blow my top'. . . what a stupid expression!"
"Succumbed to talking to yourself, eh, Sheik?" A voice teased. Malon.
Sheik gazed up and smiled. "Yeah . . . it's the constant caffeination. . . it'll do that to you."
Malon propped up on her elbows leaned in to his face. "Better stick to decaf then . . .if you ever want another person besides yourself talk to you."
He smirked. "Just talk?"
She lightly kissed him before returning to her regular position. "Well, I'll have my regular order please."
"Right away, m'am" He saluted and set off to grind some beans.
Malon laughed and moments later her coffee arrived. She looked at her watch and frowned. "Hm . . . I have to leave now." She smirked then added, "Or else my boss will 'blow his top'"
Sheik laughed and stole a quick kiss. "See you around, Mal."
She nodded then left.'Hm . . . something just doesn't feel right . . . I don't know what it is, but it's a weird feeling . . . almost like what I'm doing is . . . wrong? But what am I doing?' She shook her head as the large building she worked in got closer. 'I should really stop thinking so much . . . or I'll end up as crazy as Ruto.' She shuddered at that thought.
XxXxX
Link sat sighing at his desk. He looked at his watch. 'Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .'
"Hey, Hero. . ." A feminine voice drawled close to his ear.
"Uh. . . h-hi, Zelda." He stammered, not quite looking forward to the girl's daily bullshit.
"Did you have a good time on Friday?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
" . . ." Link stared blankly into space.'Define good.' ". . . Sure."
She spun him around to face her and put her hands on her hips. "Why are you always so . . . so rude?! I've been nothing but nice and even let you go on a date with me!"
He gave her a long look. "Really? Well, you kind of forced and threatened me for the date. And honestly . . . I just don't really like you." He instantly regretted the last bit; what if she pulled the 'daddy' card?
"Hey, show some respect, you jerk!" Zelda exclaimed angrily. "If you're not nicer, I'll make sure Daddy fires your sorry ass."
Link felt his eye twitch. "You know what, Princess? Go ahead. See if I care." Inside, he really did care.
She let out an angry growl. "You are, like, so lucky that I'm nice and will not fire you this time."
They had a glaring contest until the bell rang and she left in an angry huff.
"Geez." He muttered to himself and let his thoughts wander off to a certain fiery redhead. 'Man if I had even the tiniest smidgen of a chance left with her, I totally blew it . . . I wonder if that creepy red eyed punk was her boyfriend? Eh . . . I have a class to teach right now . . . I shall ponder this thought later.'
One by one, the tiny children filed into the classroom. The young teacher smiled when he saw Meredith come in. He really enjoyed her company. 'Er . . . That doesn't make me a pedophile . . . right?' Actually, she kind of reminded him of someone.
"Okay class, so I hope you had a grr-eat weekend!" he paused as cheers erupted. "But now it's time to settle down for another week of school!" Again, he paused, but this time for a series of groans.
"All right, all right, settle down." Link said. "I hoped you remembered that this evening, the conference takes place." The children nodded knowingly.
"Good. So what we should do, is make a portfolio of the things we've done so far. I'll begin by handing back your family portraits. And I'll also be able to do attendance." He took a stack of papers off his desk and began passing them out.
He stopped and frowned when he got to Meredith's. The blonde-haired man look at it the man in the picture closely. He had golden blonde hair and deep red eyes. "That's Uncle Sheik," Meredith's voice ran through his mind. He quickly handed it back to her and moved on.
'He couldn't be . . . yet, he is? That's the same guy I met with Malon! I wonder if Meredith's mom could be . . .' Link shook his head. 'I'll just have to wait and see.'
XxXxX
"Heeeey, Mally, my pally!" Drawled a familiar voice.
'Ruto' Malon rubbed her temples. 'Oh, Sweet Triforce . . . will she never leave me alone?'
Ruto shimmied towards Malon. "So, I heard you and Sheik hit it off" She winked.
The red haired woman's eye twitched. "Where in Din's name do you keep hearing these things?!"
Ruto crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. "I . . . have my sources– don't change the subject!"
'Stalker?' Malon sighed. "Whatever. Anyway, you're right . . . Sheik and I are a couple now."
Ruto pouted. "But I planned on putting my moves on him . . . ah well, I suppose there's other fish in the sea."
"Right . . ."
"So, I suppose you're all over Link now, huh?"
Malon's mind leapt to Friday night, her encounter with Link. She remembered all the fury that burned within her.
"Yes." She said defiantly, and almost convinced herself.
Ruto squealed. "Ooh! Well, I guess that leaves him available!"
"Ruto!" Malon exclaimed.
She laughed. "Calm down, Mally, It's not like I'll ever find him! And I know you still l-o-v-e him."
Malon glowered at her.
"Okay, okay, I'm leaving, sheesh!"
She sighed when Ruto left. 'I hope I never 'find' him again.' She thought. But did she really mean it? 'Who am I kidding? I still–'
Suddenly the phone rang. "Hello?" Malon answered.
Sheik spoke. "Hey, Mal! Was just thinking about you so I thought I'd call . . . I'm not disturbing anything, am I?"
Malon chuckled. "No, it's fine, though, you should have called about five minutes earlier– it was Ruto's ranting time."
"You mean that creepy stalker girl?"
"Ha, ha, yeah."
"So how've you been?"
"Oh, you know, same as usual . . ."
XxXxX
When he'd hung up the phone, Sheik watched as a familiar, yet frazzled young man walked into the shop.
"Hero, buddy, what've you been up to?" He asked.
Link, well, 'Hero', gazed at him nervously. 'Ah, geez. . . did Malon tell him who I really am?!'
But Sheik only gazed at him cheerfully.
'Well, probably not . . . he's still calling me 'Hero' . . .' Link mentally shuddered 'That just reminds me of Zelda.'
"Ah, hey there, Sheik." Link said. 'It's not like I could've told my name was Link . . . for one thing, Malon's probably told him all about me . . . and I thought maybe she'd think I'm someone else . . . but that obviously didn't work . . .'
"You seem stressed, what's buggin' ya?"
Link shrugged. "It's a teacher's life, one stress after another . . . I'm glad I'm just a kindergarten teacher, I only teach in the morning. Actually, I've just finished, so I thought I'd get some coffee."
Sheik started to laugh. "You?! You . . . teach . . . ha, ha . . . Kindergarten?!"
He blinked. 'What does Malon see in this guy?' "Er . . . yeah, why?"
The laughing man quickly composed himself. "Sorry, I guess this is what Mal means when she says that my non-politeness offends people,"
'Mal . . . I used to call her that.'
"Heh, anyway, I just meant that you seem a bit young to be a teacher, and kindergarten . . . I've never heard of a dude that teaches kindergarten."
"Too young? I'm probably older than you by, what, two years? Besides, Teacher courses aren't that long, especially kindergarten. And . . . I just like working with children."
Sheik coughed the word 'pedophile'
Link raised an eyebrow.
"So you work at the school, huh?"
"Yes."
"You know, I'm pretty sure Malon's got a kid that goes there."
Link was interested now. "You don't say . . ."
XxXxX
After he left The Coffee Shop, Link was even more dazed than before. 'She–Malon– Meredith– mother– my– my–' He took a deep breath. This wasn't good. Not good at all!
He feared what would happen at the conference because– because . . .
"Meredith is my daughter."
'Well, that answers a lot of questions. Crap.'
XxXxX
"Here it is, mommy! My classroom!" Meredith said, beaming at her mother.
Malon smiled. "It's great, Dithy! Want to show me the work you've done?"
"Yeah, over here, my desk." She said, pulling Malon toward a nearby desk.
On it was a bright green construction paper-folder. 'Meredith' written on it in bold pink letters.
Malon opened it to reveal various pieces of great artwork, spelling tests, and worksheets. She even saw a composition.
Intrigued, She pulled it out. The title was 'Something Special' Sure, it was full of spelling and grammatical errors, but that wasn't what stood out to her.
i think that something special everbody shud have is a daddy. daddys are awsum. they let you do
things that mommys dont. they take you to fun places like sports games and do fun stuff. my
daddy is always bizy. I don't relly see my daddy but i no hes there and wants to do stuff with me. I hope one day i get to see him and we'll have fun like all my other frends do and tak about all
the time. sumtimes i wunder what its like to have a mommy and daddy.
Tears began to well up in Malon's eyes. She quickly blinked them away. "Dithy . . . do you really feel this way?"
Meredith shrugged uncomfortably. "I dunno, sometimes I wonder, but that doesn't mean I don't love you, mommy."
Malon smiled weakly. "I love you too, Hun. . . now lets go look at the other things and meet your teacher.
XxXxX
'Oh man, oh man, oh man, she's going to come here any minute . . . what do I do?!' A certain teacher thought frantically. He'd successfully been able to avoid Malon, but it was inevitable that she'd see him soon, as he was the teacher.
Most of the crowd had dwindled because they'd come earlier.
'Same old Malon, arriving late . . .'
He sat at his desk, a book in front of his face, pretending to read, when really, any moment now he'd have an anxiety attack.
"Hey, Mr H!" A voice exclaimed. Meredith.
Another voice chuckled. Link gulped . . .he was in for it now
"So, you're the famous 'Mr H' that my daughter never stops talking about." Malon said.
Link chuckled from behind the book.
"Not a man of many words, are you?" Malon joked.
He sighed. He couldn't keep this up any longer.
Link lowered the book from his face and looked down. 'I'm in for it now.'
"Yeah, I'm Mr Hero."
---
Woo, the long awaited chapta five! kind of short and fillerish but, this is just the rising action :D OoOoh climax! What shall happen next? Will Malon:
A)leap into his arms and forgive him
B)Slap him in the face with a rubber chicken
C)Die
D)None of the above
Hehe, what do you think? :)