Hey guys! Yeah, I know it has basically been forever and a half since I uploaded but what can I say; I finally started college and it is (shockingly) kind of hard. Dealing with adjusting to roommates, more intense classes, papers, tests I inevitably fail, homesickness, the whole college package, I am sorry that this has taken so long to get out. I appreciate everyone's patience and encouragement I have gotten to continue this because I have so much I want to do with this story, I just sometimes lack the time to make everything happen I want to. I wish I could say this chapter is super fantastic, but it is mostly just predecessor to the next big birthday one I am personally very excited to get writing. I hope you all enjoy this and appreciate everyone's love and support-something I have been lacking with roommates who all thought Zelda was "the guy." Stay great, and I look forward to hearing feedback from everyone soon!
Cultural Allusions That Show I Have No Life: Marky Mark (quintessential for every product of the 90's), "ensembelly challenged" (from the cult classic "Clueless"), "It's a Secret to Everybody" (original LoZ game), quote from "You Jump, I Jump Jack" from season 5 of "Gilmore Girls"
Songs that I Like and Think You Should Like Too: "Something to Talk About"-Badly Drawn Boy (from the movie "About a Boy" and used in the beginning driving scene); "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)"-Fergie (from the newer "The Great Gatsby" used at the lake party); "Don't Stop the Party"-Pitbull (also lakeside party scene); "Champagne Supernova"-Oasis (great 90's band I adore, used for after the line break when they are in their English class); "Say Something"-A Great Big World (not the Christina Aguilera version, just the original. For the Dark/Zelda scene, as it is great and cliche); "My Little Corner of the World"-Yo La Tengo (the Malon/Zelda scene as it is cheesy and great); "Define Dancing"-Thomas Newman (yes, this is from the movie "WALL-E." But 1) that is a fantastic movie, and 2) it fits perfectly for the window and end of the chapter scene. Just, trust me, the piece is beautiful and it fits great)
Thanks again and hope you enjoy!
"So, have you ever been to the lake before?"
I turned my head from the spot near the window I had been laying on as I watched the scenery go by and looked at Link quizzically as he kept a steady gaze on the forward road, processing that he had actually spoken to me. He glanced at me expectantly as I gave a small sarcastic laugh, pushing my hair behind my ear as I spoke
"Do I look like the kind of person who's gone to the lake before?"
"Looks don't mean a thing; many people go to the lake all the time."
"Well then do I look like the kind of person then who enjoys going to the lake on a regular basis?"
"Again, many people enjoy going to the lake from time to time."
"Oh yes forgive me; do I look like I have the kind of money to go to the lake all the time?"
"Money isn't that big-"
"-a factor? Please, the only people that can afford to regularly go to the lake are people whose well-off mommy's and daddy's own lots of property and have the expansive funds for luxury houses and therefore make the travel both affordable and enjoyable for said spoiled child," I pointed out as Link shook his head insistently, sneaking a peak at me before he turned back to the road.
"You ask a simple question…" I glared at him as he grinned and shrugged with a semi-frown. "I mean though that it's not only rich people who go to the lake, plenty of us regular folk go all the time too. The rich may own the property but the simple common man can enjoy the scenery." He shrugged as I snorted attractively, shaking my head as I rolled my eyes.
"That may have been one of the cheesiest things I've heard in a while, I'm not going to lie," I giggled as he grinned, shrugging again.
"I just like to keep it real, you know me."
"Yeah, Link Avalon keeping it real since Marky Mark was still relevant," I said as he laughed, rolling his eyes as he glanced at me with a shake of his head that caused his hair to move a bit in his face . I gave a little laugh too at my usually unappreciated hilarity as I looked down then back out the window, my mind immediately getting slightly diverted by watching the way that the sunlight shone through the trees.
"You didn't answer my question you know," Link said after a few minutes pause as I turned back to him, taken out once again from my mental space out. I frowned at him, cocking my head to the side in confusion.
"You weren't necessarily asking a very valid question," I pointed out, confused where he was leading this to.
"I asked if you had ever gone to the lake and you instead gave me a lengthy yet slightly irrelevant speech about why you hate rich people."
"I don't hate-"
"You hate rich people," Malon pointed out from the back as I jumped, having forgotten that she had been there this whole time. Link grinned at me triumphantly as I rolled my eyes, looking down to my hands in exasperation. We were all three on our way to the lake and had already been driving for a bit, making idle talk along the way to pass the time and for a bit there had been a lull in the conversation as Link drove, I stared out the window, and Malon messed around with her phone. However, this certain conversation seemed to be enough to draw her attention away as I turned around to her smug looking face and frowned.
"When have I ever straight up said I hated rich people?" I asked as she shrugged, crossing her long legs as she went back on her phone. I turned back to the front of the car as I noticed Link look at me, obviously trying to hold in laughter. "I don't hate rich people," I muttered irritably as he cracked and laughed a bit and I turned to murderously glare at him.
"Whatever you say," he grinned again as I sighed, slightly frustrated that he wasn't listening to me. He seemed to be able to tell of my annoyance though (no doubt by my very-bad-at-hiding-emotions face) as he sobered up a bit and let it drop, instead asking me, "So would it right to assume then you've never been to the lake?"
"No, I haven't actually. I've been to the Waker Islands though, and I think that should count for something." A brief mental image of a younger me running on the beach of the Waker Islands with my mother and father walking behind me hand-in-hand immediately came to mind as I gave a small simple smile to the dashboard, fondly reminiscing on the fact that I could recall that memory extremely easily. I noticed Link look at me again and I lightly laughed at him with a shake of my head. "Sorry, really old memories."
"Don't apologize, it's not bad to remember things," he said gently with a warm smile as I chuckled, shrugging.
"I suppose whatever you say." I grinned at him again as he laughed and we continued talking a bit to kill the time on the drive. We passed a sign saying the lake was only ten miles away as I suddenly started thinking about Dark and about how I should act around him considering the whole school would be watching us. I knew that obviously the flirting would be minimized, and moreover that he would probably have many girls flirting with him and fighting for his attention which I would of course be okay with. Maybe. Okay probably not very okay with it but regardless if it was or not, I knew I was going to have to learn how to just deal with it and try to not be a crazy overprotective girlfriend, something that I obviously didn't have a lot of practice with.
Girlfriend, that's not exactly what you are though, is it I contemplated to myself as before I knew it we had already reached the lake. The rows of cars all around were daunting as Link drove around, looking for a place to park his nice simple car among the parade of Volvos and Camaros that represented the teen royalty that was the group of people we would be encountering throughout the night. I eyed them all with instant worry, trying to ignore the butterflies and gnawing feeling in my stomach that maybe this really was quite bad idea after all. It's just nerves Zel, you have got to pull yourself together because it is all worth it to see Dark I tried to pep talk myself, still unsure if I was doing a convincing enough job to myself that it was a good idea to willingly be exposed to the stupidity of my peers. I deeply sighed (trying not to panic and hyperventilate) and frowned as Link found a spot and parked, the laughter and cheers of everyone loudly overtaking the low stereo that had been playing. Link put the car into park as we both got out of the car and he walked over to my side as we surveyed the place. I sighed again (trying to be more quiet and less humiliating that I was this freaked out) as he turned to me and before I knew it, gave my hand a reassuring squeeze with the same undeniable warm smile on his face that I was getting very used to because he used it so often with me. My eyes widened a bit but I managed to gain a grip over myself as I squeezed back, smiling as reassuringly as I could.
"Do you guys see Peter?" Malon asked as she got out of the car, scanning the aisles of trucks and cars for a familiar dark head. I glanced around, immediately spotting him leaning against a nearby tree as I used my free hand to point him out for Malon.
"There he is, go get him tiger," I said as she started to walk by, scrunching her face at me in protest though I could tell she was pleased. Her magnificent hair swished behind her as I watched her and Peter greet each other in the slight distance, the cuteness factor of them being nauseatingly adorable even at this distance. I turned back to Link, suddenly aware that our hands were still clasped together as I causally let go of him, running that hand through my hair as we started to walk towards the crowd.
"So, remind me again: why did I think coming here was a good idea?" I asked him, noting there was about an hour until sunset. Though there were at least a hundred people there already, I knew that more were coming and that it was going to be a long but extremely crucial night. We were walking through the car lines as I tried to spot Dark in the crowd as nonchalantly as I could, though achieving no results. I looked back at Link expectantly as he frowned down to me.
"You're the one who was very insistent of wanting us to come here in the first place. We could always make a dash for it now, no one would notice us."
And risk not seeing if any other girl is trying to flirt with Dark. Fat chance. "No," I laughed, trying to play it as casual as I could, "I'm here for the mocking of the social hierarchy. It's just a tad daunting to go into unprepared."
"Well, we could always prepare you a bit," Link suggested as I snorted and he looked down with a grin. "What, you don't believe me?"
"No I believe you fine enough, I just don't think that social interaction can really be prepared for. Or at least, prepared for in a conventional way that one would use other similar preparatory methods for in a parallel situation."
"You never know, some practice and preparation could at least make you a lot less hostile to us rich folk." I gasped in mock offense to him as he grinned again and I smacked his chest lightly with the back of my hand.
"Are you kidding me Link, I am plenty nice to everyone thank you very much. Unless you can somehow prepare me for what to do when everyone here begins to mock me to my face, I think we're good."
He frowned as we neared the beach edge and the large group of people I had seen for the past five years but had never actually talked to. I recognized the football team, cheerleaders, class officers, the swim team, volleyball team, some of the more obnoxious choir girls, a leering Clarke with his arm around his girlfriend (both of who had luckily not noticed me yet), and then, him.
He was of course surrounded by his usual posse of girls and testosterone fueled males, both genders wearing as little clothing as socially acceptable. He was wearing khaki shorts and an unbuttoned grey shirt that I knew would make his stunning green eyes look incredible (which at the current moment were hidden behind a pair of designer and extremely unaffordable sunglasses). I knew that he hadn't seen me yet and was vowing to try and prolong the meeting for at least a little bit to give us both some time to settle into everything and if I was lucky, I was foolishly hoping for maybe a chance to talk to him one-on-one. I glanced down to my plain outfit of jean capris and a shanty red flannel, my long hair pulled in a loose French braid and I realized I probably looked like a complete idiot. At least you know there'll be someone who wants to see you regardless if you look like crap to everyone else because he doesn't care I reminded myself as I smiled up to Link and motioned to a log formation that was somewhat near people but still isolated at the same time. It was there we sat, later joined by Peter and Malon, and enjoyed the nearby bonfire and watching our class act stupid in many ways. We watched a game of beach volleyball full of all the guys that were on my own PE volleyball team, all of them much superior without me to hinder them. It was when we were watching them when suddenly Clarke turned to me, his gaze piercing my soul as my eyes widened and I tried to play it casual and as if his stare had not effect on me when in reality there was a still a small part of me that was terrified of all the horrors he could do to me. After that, I tried my best to not lock eyes with him or really anyone else and avoid all areas that he was altogether just so that I wouldn't have to see him.
At one point the four of us went on a sailboat with one of Link and Malon's ag friend-a nice guy named Fado-who took us around on the lake water for a bit with him and his girlfriend. There were some other people out with their boats as they went tubing and jet skiing, while I even noticed some people who were swimming around or another group of bikini clad girls producing high octane versions of flirting with some steroid-induced, overly muscled guys in the low shores of the lake. At one point, I turned to Link to point them out to mock only to discover that he was staring on shore to someone else who had just arrived. As discreetly as I could, I managed to scrunch my eyes enough to notice that it was Midna and Sheik, which sobered me up considerably as I glanced at Link (who had conveniently distracted himself with something else on the ship), and slouched as we all continued riding.
As we got off the boat, it was near sunset and the lake was glittering with the yellow of setting sun and rise of the moon. A couple of the football players had this giant grill going of hot dogs and hamburgers (All extremely quintessential lakeside party food I thought to myself wryly) and everyone was still gathered in their mini formations. There were a lot more people now, enough to almost cover the entire beach as we began to weave through everyone to try and find a free area as I tried to keep my discrete cover as much as I could, not really wanting to deal with anyone at the present moment.
"Oy, here's good," Malon said to a couple of logs right at the heart of everyone. I stopped and glanced around the area where she was pointing, eyeing it and everyone in the five-foot radius with skepticism.
"Isn't it a bit, claustrophobic?" I pointed out as Malon rolled her eyes and promptly sat down on the nearest log.
"Oh please, stop being so difficult. I know what you're deal is and look, no one is watching us. We are free to sit here, free to eat, and free to be in peace so sit down and enjoy the night." She began to mess with her nails as Peter looked at me and shrugged, immediately sitting down right next to her. I sighed but caved, sitting down near her as Link then sat next to me, the grin barely contained on his face.
"What's wrong with your face?" I crossly probed as Peter and Malon began to heavily flirt again, the sunset providing the perfect romantic atmosphere for the both of them as well as the many other couples scattered on the beach. Malon giggled to something Peter said as I fidgeted uncomfortably to the side, facing Link more than them to not interrupt anything as he laughed again, shaking his head with a complacent face.
"Oh nothing, nothing, it's just amusing to make fun of you."
I scowled and crossed my arms as he continued to laugh at me. "What did I do this time, I haven't even fallen in the water yet so I don't know what else there is to mock."
"It's just humorous to watch you squirm in all of this, it's a whole new side of you to look at," he grinned as I frowned in mystification.
"Okay now I really don't know what you're talking about," I pointed out as he laughed and I started to laugh back in spite of myself as I shook my head as disapprovingly as I could. "You know, you always do this."
"Do what exactly?"
"Make no sense, and then refuse to tell me what you really meant. If I didn't like you so much, I could probably constitute it as annoying."
He looked down, then back up with a faint smile on his face. "So you like me then?" he grinned at me cheekily as I snorted, placing my hand on my heart.
"Oh why yes, yes indeed," I began, channeling my best Southern accent that I felt was only appropriate when feigning extreme attraction to someone. "Why, there's no man alive for me but Link Avalon and I'd just about die if he didn't love me back!"
"Don't I know it," he grinned again as I rolled my eyes, shaking my head as I looked down to the sand. I wiggled my toes in my flip-flops, tapping them to the heavy beat of the current song that was blaring from the obnoxiously big speakers someone had set up twenty minutes previous. I looked back up to Link, giving him a reapproving look.
"Don't let it get to your head though, there's enough ego on this beach as it is," I pointed out as he laughed, giving a quick surveillance of everyone all around us as his gaze suddenly paused towards the lake shore.
"Speaking of ego…" he muttered as I turned around, curious at his stare as I suddenly froze, my eyes trying their best to stay inside their sockets.
It seemed that while we had been on the lake, I hadn't noticed another boat out that was just returning back to shore. It was a nicely furnished white one, with Ombra written on the side in a beautiful shade of maroon. Clarke and Benny were getting out of the boat with an extremely scantily clad Ruto in a skimpy white bikini right behind Benny. However, the greatest sight was Dark, standing majestically on the hull as he tied the sails down completely shirtless. So that's what he looks like under all that, I've definitely been missing out I thought bleakly as I tried to maintain normal thinking processes, unable to tear my eyes away from his extremely toned tan abs as I allowed myself to act like a girl about him just this once. Clarke suddenly looked at me as my eyes widened instinctively and I tore my gaze away, thrusting my head down to try and hide my embarrassment of how easily affected I could be the mere sight of a six-pack. How very human and feminine of you I mused to myself dryly as I looked back up to Link, grateful he didn't seem to have noticed any of it.
"Perfect match, don't you think?" he asked me dryly as I nodded, still looking down.
"Yeah I suppose if Benny really is stupid enough to stoop to the level of Clarke Stone, I guess they basically deserve one another." I wiggled my toes again and looked up to Link, who looked at me in confusion.
"Benny and Clarke, that's way old. I was talking about the other two." He motioned over to them with his head as I opened my mouth in surprise at his assumption that Dark and Ruto was actually a thing. The mere thought made my stomach contract in hurt and anger as I frowned, trying to conceal my unnecessary conflicted emotions.
"Ruto and Dark aren't together," I said extremely quickly as he snorted and looked at me dubiously.
"I'm pretty sure they are."
"Um, I'm pretty sure they're not. It would be all over the school by now if they were." And I would know, since by the way Link I've kind of been dating Dark for the past month and a half, thought probably by this time you'd like to know. I frowned, trying to not give myself away again as Link shrugged, crossing his arms in front of him as he stretched his legs.
"Fine, they're not dating then. Just pointing out though that even if they're not exactly 'dating,' there is at least something else going on there." He shrugged as I slowly turned, taking the scene in with precision. The glow of sunset sparkling on the lake behind where the four of them were sitting, the already impressive array of empty beer cans littering the beach around the two couples, and lastly, the sight of Ruto Stone leaning her head against Dark's chest as he wrapped his arm around her, staring down at her with a smile as my heart froze and pounded, unable to comprehend fully what I was seeing.
"Hey, you all right? You look a little out of it."
I slowly turned my head to Link (whom I was currently sitting next to in my English class) as he stared at me with a raised eyebrow of confusion. I looked down as my loose hair covered my face and I immediately tucked it behind my ears, looking back up to him with a faint smile to try and hide everything I was thinking.
"Of course I'm fine. Just, wondering what the big deal about all this is," I said as I motioned to our normal English class that had been arranged to look like a lecture hall, where all of the desks were facing forward instead of the normal way of all of them facing each other in the middle. I had gotten to class a bit early and had been sitting, thinking about the previous weekend and the bonfire just as I had been doing this entire week when Link had naturally chosen to sit next to me, taking me out of my musing thoughts. We had tried making mindless small talk but my mind had (and still was) preoccupied about overanalyzing the weekend, Dark's face as he looked down to Ruto replaying over and over again in my mind, his somewhat unresponsive mannerisms to me this entire week, and many other things that would inconveniently pop up in my head right when I thought I was done thinking of him. However, apparently it was easy to tell how preoccupied I was as Link continued to look at me dubiously, no doubt not buying my less than convincing lie. Get it together Zelda and fake it for now I commanded myself as I smiled again, looking at Link with as much focus as I could manage. "I mean, do you have a clue? I don't remember him telling us anything about it before."
"No idea," Link said with a shake of his head as I frowned and glanced at the few people who had walked in the front, mentally thinking how familiar they looked. There was an older looking woman in an unflattering pantsuit that particularly stood out as I tilted my head to the side, unable to figure out where exactly I knew her from. I continued to stare at her in slight frustration because I couldn't figure it out as I noticed Link give me a strange look from the corner of my eye, making me hastily shove my face down and glance up to his confused face.
"She just… She looks really familiar I don't know why," I murmured with frown as I took a quick peek back to the front of the class, trying to figure out where I knew the woman from.
"You're used to fraternizing with women of extremely poor fashion sense?" he asked facetiously as I widened my eyes, trying to contain my own laughter as he gave me a cheeky grin.
"Link Avalon come on, it's not that bad," I tried to amend as I looked forward and realized that her outfit kind of was that bad. "Well, if anything, I think she prefers the phrase 'ensembley challenged' to explain it."
He snorted as I grinned and our attention was called to the front. I wiggled my eyebrows at him as we both turned to the front, the rest of the classroom apparently having been filled in during our time of distraction. The visitors in the front had set up a few stands and had what appeared to be multiple pamphlets carefully arranged on the front table as I frowned again, somewhat concerned where all this was going. Our teacher walked in the front of them all, looking around with a pause before he began to speak.
"Good afternoon students. As you can tell, we will not be having our normal class today." He paused for dramatic effect (or maybe the vain hope of objection from anyone) as he cleared his throat and continued. "However, we will still be having a top-notch lesson, given to you by some of our area's most prestigious leaders. As many of you know, this is the time next year that you will all be considering your future paths; whether it is hope of enrolling in the Knight Academy or going to one of the many universities that previous graduates before you have attended, it is these choices that determine what you will be doing for the rest of your life. It is never too early to think about these things, which is why I have asked Captain Eagus," he pointed to a tall and strong looking man that looked like he could easily rip a head off someone, "Professor Marie," a hippy looking woman who looked like she was trying way too hard to look young, "and Madame Aroma," the pantsuit lady "to talk about their respective fields of higher education, and what you should be doing now to prepare. Captain, if you'd like to begin?"
The captain (who looked a bit confused to be there in the first place) stood and walked to the front of the room, taking off his helmet and setting it on the desk right next to him. He was a broad man with scruff and messy dark hair that made him look almost mysterious in a way. However, mysterious was the last thing that he could ever be considered once I recognized him immediately from the many interactions that my family had with the Royal Guard when I was younger. Oh Robert Eagus, last time I saw you you were a dorky looking private barely going through private training. Now you're a captain in the guard I mused, noticing how much the other girls in the room were giving him an appraising look of swooning attraction that usually resulted when a new pair of toned biceps was thrust into their immediate vision. I, however, was not as easily as affected by those sorts of things and tried my best to focus on what he was saying and his life story of how he was promoted to the Royal Guard all because of his previous enlistment in Skyloft, the Knight Academy. Inadvertently as he spoke, I looked around the room to the few guys who looked to be showing interest and was immediately hit with a wave of sadness and fear for them and their desire to be put into that line of field because I knew just how dangerous it was, especially given the last six months. These are the men who would die to save, me I thought bitterly, surprised at my own cynicism and harsh opposition to the idea.
Professor Marie was a representation from the community college in Kakariko Village, and was promoting the lower cost and efficiency of it. Again, I could not help but notice everyone who showed interest, putting cost before quality on a plan to get their GEs taken care of that way. Madame Aroma was representing Hyrule's most prestigious college, Hyrule University, which most everyone who graduated from here went to. She began to talk about the different majors offered there, the different experiences one could have with enrollment, and all the benefits that the university itself offered. Again, as she explained everything I was hit with a wave of sadness that in itself could only be described as, yearning.
I had always known growing up what my life was going to give me. I would grow up with a loving father and mother, remain in the castle and receive my education there from various tutors and private educators. A handsome prince from one of our neighboring countries would come, woo me, and we would marry and live happily ever after, the end. Said education would of course not be needed because as in the typical male oppressive view of the world, educated women were much more dangerous than submissive ones who dutifully did overly perfect actions all the time. As long as I knew simple things such as geography and royal history, I would basically be set for life. Princes could get an education, lead a somewhat regular life in the public schooling system, but for a princess it was almost unheard of. That was how my father met my mother after all; they had both been attending this same Hyrule University and it was just love at first sight for them both. Of course it was a little unorthodox because my mother was a commoner, but she was able to adapt to the pressing royal life with over sufficient grace and was able to become one of the best queens that Hyrule had ever seen.
Of course, her death was unpredicted and somewhat put a wrench into the whole plan. I was sent away and had been publically schooled ever since and had changed a lot. I was brash, brutally honest, sassy, unafraid to state my opinion, and above all, unafraid to be myself and not compromise my standards. My whole life had taken a 180 degree turn from where I was five years ago and in my opinion, it was for the better because I was able to live. I interacted with the common people every day and in a way, I was able to grow and learn more about my kingdom normally instead of the endless curtsying that was mandatory wherever I went in my old lifestyle. I was more real and down to earth and dare I say it, I even had a decent head on me and a certain type of book-smart intelligence that I could guarantee, no princess before me had ever had.
My classmates all began to talk among themselves, planning their wonderful lives to go out and do great things whether it was university or even something as simple as working as I merely sat, knowing it was the life I could never have. I suppose it didn't really matter much anyways as after this year, I would be leaving to reclaim my title on the throne and prepare for marriage to a complete stranger I could not even choose for myself. I could never have the carefree life that everyone else had, the choice to be something other than a submissive princess and wife with no opinion and no ability to make a difference, and as selfish as it was for me, it was heartbreaking.
"So what do you think of all this?" Link asked, taking me out of my pathetically realistic thoughts as I tried to shake away my thoughts and turned to him with a shrug.
"Oh I don't know, I don't think I'll be heading to the University or anything important like that," I tried to say as casually as I could, knowing how heavily prevalent the sadness was in my voice. I looked down to the brochure that Madame Aroma had handed out to each of us and the innocent smiling faces on the front as I bit my lip, desperately hoping he couldn't notice my sadness.
"What do you mean you won't go to University, why would you even say that?" he said, surprising me with the fierce anger of his tone. I looked up in confusion at his fiercely set face, noticing a familiar look in his eyes that if I didn't know him better, could probably frighten me quite a bit.
"Well…. You know that my family doesn't have that much money and University isn't necessarily something I would consider cheap," I frowned again at his stoically set face as he shook his head.
"You can get a scholarship though; you are way too smart to not do something with it."
"I'm not that sm-"
"Please Zelda: you are one of the top people in our class if not the top one, you excel incredibly at every test and assignment thrown your way; you've even been successful at tutoring Clarke Stone, one of the most difficult people at this Academy in one of the toughest subjects and have been effective at it. You are incredibly wise with wisdom."
"'Wise with wisdom?'" I asked with a raise eyebrow, a bit amused but still sad by the thoughts of my depressing future swarming my head.
"I think it'll catch on. The point is," he sighed, looking at me squarely with no hesitation, "you need to do something with your life because you deserve the best. You have this opportunity that none before you have ever had before and you can't waste it because you can just do so much with it. You probably would never believe how much you can do with this, but you can change so much Zelda, you don't even know."
I looked at him in surprise and for some reason, my strong suspicions were alerted. "What do you mean by that?" I asked him carefully, knowing fully well there was no way he could know what I had been thinking about, but that it was a weird point to bring up in his argument.
His face faltered a bit but before I could think anything more of it, he had merely shaken his head and looked back at me. "I just, don't want you to waste your life when you can do so much with it. You are intelligent and should do something more than just work or become something less than fantastic."
There was a slight pause as I stared at him, unable to really say anything else as I suddenly felt the amount of concern Link had for me and how it was almost, loving in a way. I could feel my cheeks warming up as I tried not to blush and so I instead chose to focus on the pamphlet in front of me, staring hard at the frozen faces on the cover.
"You know you are um, quite the guy Link Avalon," I said to him, still unable to look him in the face as I hoped that the color in my cheeks wasn't overly embarrassing. However, I glanced up to him to notice that for some reason he was staring at me intently and was giving me a look almost as if he was noticing me for the first time ever. My eyes widened a bit as I fully lifted my head and stared right back, not really knowing what to do until at once Link grinned at me, leaning back in his chair as he pointed to the pamphlet.
"So then, now that we've established how incredible I am, let's decide your future."
Oh if only Link, if only I thought wryly as I laughed a bit, enjoying his slightly self-important comment. "You've lived with Pipit too long with talk like that, but sure. Let's do this," I grinned, flipping to the other side of the paper to look at possible majors that I knew I would never have anyways but that I could always hope for in my head. We began to look for a while as we laughed, thinking of the many things that I could never do.
"Chemistry… nope. Biochemistry-definitely not, it's like a combination of my two most hated things. Business, only if I want to be miserable the rest of my life…"
"You could major in Croatian," he said casually as I frowned at him with a shake of my head.
"Worst major idea for Zelda. Ever. Why in Hyrule do these all sound so…"
"Intimidating?"
"I was going to say dull." I sighed and looked back at the pamphlet, knowing that I could only humor Link for so long before I got depressed again. Our attention was called back to the front as we gave our speakers a final round of applause, then started to pack up to go to lunch. We left the classroom and started walking to the cafeteria as I turned to Link, a curious thought suddenly entering my mind.
"Link, what do you want to do with your life?" I asked, realizing that we had spent the whole class talking about me and I legitimately didn't know.
"Oh I don't know, save the world one helpless damsel in distress at a time."
I scowled at his cheeky response as I lightly ran my shoulder into him in protest. "No really smart aleck, I honestly don't know and am really curious." He sighed and held onto his bag straps and looked down at the ground with a frown.
"I'd tell you, but I don't think you'd like the idea very much."
"Oh come on, I don't even have an idea what I want to do with my life so it's not like I have room to judge or anything."
He gave a small laugh and looked at me, his piercing blue eyes bright with concern as he spoke. "Fine. My plans after this excellent academy are to attend Skyloft and eventually enter into the Royal Guard."
I immediately froze in place in the middle of the hallway, his words slowly sinking to a chill in my heart. Mental images of the dead guard scattered throughout the land, the many funerals I had attended with my mother and father for the fallen soldiers, the parades of marching young men going off to a battle where only half would return, the letters written to families to say that their son was dead….
And Link wanted that.
I started to heavily breath, unable to control my freak-out as Link gently grabbed my arm and moved me to the side of the hallway. "Zelda, breathe," he said as I looked down, trying to control myself from breaking down in fear for him.
"You, you can't go into the Royal Guard," I managed to say amid the hyperventilation and the loud clamor that was all around us as everyone passed us by completely oblivious.
"Zelda," he began to say as I fiercely shook my head and looked at him pleadingly.
"No, you can do so much more than that. You're super smart too Link you could be like I don't know, an accountant or engineer or something. Anything elsewhere you'd always be safe in."
"But I wouldn't be happy, don't you see that?" He smiled at me kindly but with slight sadness because we both knew that nothing could change his decision. "I need to be out there actually doing something, helping people, helping Hyrule, protecting the royal family, everyone. It's something bigger than just you and I, and it's worth protecting."
"There are better people worth guarding than the royal family, believe me," I said harshly as I looked at the ground, unable to think properly with everything that was going on. I looked back at Link, knowing how incredibly handsome he'd look in the guard's uniforms and that I had no control over him whatsoever, despite my growing concern. He did say he'd protect you at all costs, apparently that's even more literal than even you could ever imagine I thought bitterly again as I sighed and looked at him, giving him a dejected smile.
"There really is no point trying to convince you otherwise, huh?" I asked, trying to mask the sadness in my voice out of realistic concern for his future.
"Not really," he smiled back as I shook my head, motioning over to the cafeteria.
"Well in any case, we can't do much about it now anyways. We still have another year before we think about anything serious and life changing like that. However, lunch is of the present and something that we can focus on because I personally am starving, shall we?" He grinned at me as we started walking again and I tried pushing all thoughts of the frightening future out of mind and out of present concern.
The rest of the day continued with my many thoughts running around in my head, unable to be pinned down because there were just so many of them. Link's announcement to me of his plans for the future were, unexpected to say the least, and all I could think to do was merely try to forget anything had changed at all. He was after all still Link and his plans could honestly change before then and he could go into something much more safe like dental school or… professional cow herder. Something at least where he could help others and make a contribution in the world, which I knew was a top priority for him anyways because he was too nice for his own good. I knew that Link would do great things regardless of where he went and so I was able to put those thoughts aside for now, knowing that as I said earlier, nothing could really be done about it now. However, there were many other things to ponder and plan-such as the fact that tomorrow was my 17th birthday and the Hylian Day festival in the middle of the square and I was going to have to be on my complete guard in order to maintain my safety and anonymity, everywhere was buzzing because it was homecoming and thus everyone was going a little crazy and most importantly and most mind consuming, I hadn't really talked to Dark since Saturday.
Sure, I had seen him around a few places in passing and in our class together, but I hadn't actually seen him with it being just the two of us alone. He had even stopped answering my texts as often so much that I had just stopped texting to not seem as desperate as I knew I could become because despite my better judgment and despite my better planning skills, I had really fallen quite hard for Dark Ombra and I did not know what to do about it.
For years I had mocked his ego, the conceited way he walked around the academy like he owned the place, the flock of ditzy admirers that seemed to congregate everywhere he went, his brawn over brains attitude, and not once ever considered the possibility that I the oh-so-great Zelda Harkinian could ever even fathom romantic feelings for such a man. But here I was, a little over a month getting to know him and I liked him a lot and possibly even… loved him.
True, love as maybe a bit too far but I wasn't going to lie, I had never felt this way about any guy before. The way he smiled at me that made my stomach and heart go crazy, how much fun we had just talking and being simple in a world that made romance so complicated, the wave and feeling of pride and extreme admiration as I watched him at football games and do other public things his social group did for the school, not to mention his overall attractiveness and well-refined physique that could even make a simple geeky girl like me go crazy. Everything added up to me liking (possibly loving) Dark and therefore being unable to handle the distance he was giving me because as far as I knew, I had done nothing wrong. If I read one of those insipid teenage magazines I could probably point all the directions to showing in fact that I was doing a lot of things right even. The only thing I possibly could think I had done was my lack of being able to actually kiss him, but even to that I was completely warming up to the idea, slowly but surely. I had done nothing wrong, so why wouldn't he talk to me?
I mused in these thoughts as I headed back to our dorms after spending some time in the library after school, not being able to do work because I was so distracted with everything else. I have done nothing wrong I repeated again to myself mentally as I sighed, holding the straps on my bag as I frowned at the ground in more thought. I got so caught up in it that amid my distraction I ran into someone that I mumbled a very quick apology to as I looked up into the face of Dark himself. I froze and widened my eyes a bit, not quite knowing what to do as Dark glanced down at me, giving me a slight nod.
"Zelda," he said with a foreign voice almost that took me off guard, as if he was being purposefully aloof and distant. The mere thought almost stopped my heavily pounding heart as I tried to keep my embarrassment and color of my cheeks to a more conservative color, knowing the ball was now in my court.
"Dark, how have you been?" I clichely asked as he shrugged, looking down as my heart sank even lower.
"Fine."
There was awkward silence as I stared at him expectantly, waiting for a question, him to smile, anything to show that he was normal again. I glanced down again and looked at him, giving a faint smile. "So, Saturday was pretty fun, and the rest of the Homecoming activities this week have been great as well."
"Yeah, I guess."
There was more silence as I sighed, giving up on trying to be subtle. "Okay so I might be wrong here, but are you okay? You seem a lot more, quiet than usual."
He shrugged and looked down, lightly kicking the nearby wall with the toe of his shoe. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Right, because you're definitely giving off signs that you're fine with the almost caveman quality unresponsive replies and inability to look at me." Almost immediately he gave a half smile to the wall, but it disappeared quickly as I crossed my arms, not sure what to do. "Just, are you mad at me Dark? Did I do something wrong because if I did, I'd really like to know?"
He sighed and looked at me, our eyes finally meeting. "No, it's not you sorry. Just, have a lot going on up there."
I gave a mini sigh of relief as I once again looked at his face, enjoying the normal breathing because everything was still fine. "You had me worried for a bit, I'm not going to lie," I said with a smile as he gave a small smile back and looked down, shaking his head.
"You didn't do anything, there's just a lot going on sorry."
"Well, anything that I can help with? I'm really good at this stuff remember." I debated whether a flirtatious wink was appropriate, but decided against it as I merely tried to look as helpful and kind as possible. He shook his head again though and lightly kicked the wall again.
"No, nothing you can do. Just go ahead being yourself and I'll see you tomorrow, the festival right?"
"Yeah, I'll be the one in white."
"So you're planning on getting married there too? Who's the lucky guy?" He was smiling again (which I took to be an extremely positive sign) as I shrugged nonchalantly as I glanced down the hallway to make sure no one was coming down it or anything.
"Oh I don't know some extremely secret guy you probably don't know."
He grinned and took a step closer to me as I tried to keep my breathing normal and not spastic-y like it wanted to be. "I could know him you never know, I've got friends in a lot of places."
"Well, he's popular for one," I began as I looked down only to temporarily freeze from the feel of Dark's hand on my cheek. I moved my head to see he was only a foot away now, holding my chin in a gently way.
"Popularity might ring a few bells. Is he likeable?"
"Extremely. All the girls and even a few guys like him."
He grinned again as I struggled to keep a normal breathing pattern that would give away how still very unfamiliar I was with this kind of thing. He began to gently caress my cheek, his touch sending electricity all throughout my body. "So he's good looking then?"
"More so than any other guy on campus." My eyes widened in embarrassment for habit of speaking before thinking as I looked down, unable to look Dark in the eye for fear I had said too much. I felt his hand gently move my head back up to him to find he was closer, much closer from before and that our faces were mere inches away.
"Sounds like quite a guy," he whispered as I merely nodded, unable to say anything else. His face began to inch closer as I braced myself for what was going to happen next when all of a sudden the door at the end of the hallway burst open and Dark dropped my face and took a step away faster than I could have imagined anyone else doing. I looked down at my feet to compose myself, then back up where Ruto and her cronies were strutting towards us, each giving me a varying contemptuous look. I rolled my eyes as they paused, Ruto looking between Dark and I with raised eyebrows.
"Stooping a bit low now, aren't we Dark?" she asked, eyeing my again with that same snobby look I had decided was permanently stuck on her face. I crossed my arms, glaring at her as Dark gave me a similar scornful look.
"Just merely reminding the freak that her kind don't associate with us," he said as I snorted, crossing my arms tighter.
"As if I really wanted to because I know, as much as your whole condescending group likes to think that those of us lesser people have this strange desire to be in the 'in' crowd, most of us don't care and could not want anything less than to even converse with you." I continued to glare at Ruto as her friend (the one with the short hair, Ilia maybe?) gave me a really confused look as she stared at me.
"You use really big words," she sighed as I slowly nodded with little compassion.
"And you really need to sterilize and stay in school for everyone's benefit. But anyways, as pleasant as it is to always see you Ruto, I really must be going." I began to walk away from the four of them, trying not to focus too much on the fact that had she not come in, Dark and I would probably have kissed. When I was further down the hall I turned around to watch them walk away, noting bitterly and with slight surprise that Dark seemed to be holding Ruto's books and their close proximity. It's fine, he likes you and you have no reason to be jealous I thought, wishing that my own words could have some calming control over me. I sighed and continued walking down the hall mulling in my thoughts.
The rest of the day passed in a somewhat less eventful manner considering that I just returned home and continued doing homework as I waited for Malon. Again though, I was distracted by the thought of Dark and the constant replay of our encounter in the hallway that was gripping my thoughts and making me unable to focus on the large amount of chemistry I had due the next day. You can't do anything about that now, but if you fail you'll be a failure forever I tried to motivate myself as I somehow made it through everything that I had to do. Before I knew it, I heard the familiar clicking of the front door being unlocked and Malon came in, walking right past me to do some things in our kitchen area.
"Oh hey," I said casually as I finished up the notorious homework that had taken so long to do. "You're home a little later today, everything all right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, her voice muffled from her purposefully not looking at me which I immediately knew was semi-suspicious. I set my pencil down and turned to her, crossing my arms with a faint smile on my face.
"Okay, what are you hiding?"
"Nothing, why would you assume I'm hiding anything?"
"Because you can't look me in the eyes," I grinned triumphantly, waiting for a response. She glanced at me then back away, pretending to fiddle with something.
"I can make eye contact, you're just paranoid."
I raised an eyebrow as I stood, walking over to her and crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Malon, what's happening?" I asked as she shook her head.
"Can't tell you, it's a secret to everybody."
"Malon, come on!" I frowned, then got a brilliant idea and began to tickle her as we both started to laugh and attack one another as best friends just do. It was an intense fight, resulting in us both laying on the ground and laughing hysterically. I managed to compose myself as I lay there, mindlessly playing with Link's whistle he had given me.
"Honestly, what is it Malon? Is it about tomorrow?" I asked as she sat up and shook her head with a mischievous grin.
"I really can't tell you, trust me. Just a best friend's heads up though, you might want to shower early and not get ready for bed until much later." She grinned again as I frowned, continuing to lay there as I pondered my thoughts (a common theme apparently for the day). I eventually sat up and finished the rest of my homework, took a shower, and got dressed again in comfy jeans and sweater, leaving the adorable duck pajamas off for the present moment.
When I was younger, my mother and I would always watch my favorite movies leading up to my birthday and it was still a time honored tradition of mine. So after my post-shower grooming processes, I sat down on my bed and began to watch some "Jurassic Park," enjoying my day really for the first time and just how nice it was to relax when I was so busy and stressed all the time. It was about 11:30 when I suddenly heard a knock on the window, freezing my heart as I paused my movie.
"Malon, Malon?" I hissed in the dim light as I turned to her bed, realizing she was in the shower. I sighed and set down my laptop as I hesitantly walked to the window, peeking out the side of the curtain to make sure it wasn't some creepy old man and was extremely surprised by what I actually found. I opened the curtains a bit so that I was staring at Link's face that immediately grinned when I came into view.
"What are you doing here?" I asked as I slid open the window and frowned at him dubiously. He shrugged and leaned on the outside windowsill, poking the screen that separated me and him.
"That's not what you should be asking; the better question is what are you not doing out here?"
I squirmed a bit and crossed my arms, looking down at my comfy moccasins. "I am being a good girl and not getting out of my bed out of curfew, something in the school rulebook I think you must've skipped over."
"Nope, read the rulebook plenty of times and I'm still out here, which you need to be as well." He grinned again as I bit my lip to hide my smile, then looked down and back up to him.
"No Link, I just can't, I-"
"Need to live? Yeah you do." He grinned as I gasped in protest, glaring at him.
"Excuse me, I live plenty thank you very much. I just choose to live with respect to guidelines as well so sue me."
"Zelda," he leaned into the screen as I got close to it as well so that our faces were mere inches away. His eyes glittered in the full moon as I stared at him, unable to move because I was so entranced with the moment. "Zelda, you need to live, you need to be free I mean, isn't that the point of being young? People can live a hundred years without really living for a minute; you come with me, it's one less minute you haven't lived. When's the last time you did something crazy, tossed the rulebook out the window and chose to do something just because it actually sounded fun?"
Never. I sighed again and looked down, staring at the collection of dust in the screen. I was about to say 'no' again when suddenly Link had gotten closer to the screen and gently whispered in my ear, "Come on Zelda, trust me."
I looked up into his honest eyes and knew that with him, I'd be safer than anywhere else in Hyrule as my mind immediately shifted 180 degrees in my decision. I grinned and jumped up, grabbed a coat and began to put on my sneakers as I turned to see him easily slide out the window screen. He looked up and innocently beamed at me again as I laughed and shook my head as I went to the window and easily climbed out of it. He grabbed my hand and began to lead me away from the building as I stared around in awe, admiring the moonlight on the world around us.
"So where'd you learn the nifty screen trick, 'How to Break Into Girl's Rooms 101'?" I asked as he chuckled at me, taking me around the corner. He let go of my hand as we stood there and I stared at him expectantly. Before I knew it, he was holding a piece of cloth and had blindfolded me, despite my strong protests.
"It's just some tricks you learn in the trade," he said, though I could tell by his voice he was grinning, no doubt very pleased with himself. I frowned, wanting to take off the blindfold but fighting the urge to do so because I knew he was trying to be somewhat secretive.
"Tricks like this as well?" I asked as he took my hand again and began leading me slowly to wherever it was we were going. I tried honing in my other senses to try and even discern where we were, but unfortunately my deductive skills necessary for that were not very good and led me to be even more confused than I already was. I was walking when I tripped on something (no doubt a small rock or evil tree branch) and fell a bit into Link, who laughed and righted me again with a condescending pat on the head.
"You just learn a lot of things in life and it's all a matter of putting skills used and applying them correctly to the situation."
"So, what you're saying is you break into girl's dorms often?" I frowned again as we started a slight incline and I wondered which of the many hills on campus we were climbing. Link's thumb gently grazed the back of my hand in his clutch as I gave a slight shiver, the mere touch sending unfamiliar electric shots through my body. That was, weird I thought as we started to go more slowly still continuing up the mysterious hill.
"I'm saying that you should've brought another jacket if you're already cold."
"I'm not cold just, it's nothing," I said, grateful for the blindfold to slightly hide my blush. "Are we almost there yet, I can't even imagine where we are right now."
"Yes, stop complaining," he said, the joking tone taking away any possible hostile feelings from the mere statement.
"I'm not complaining, just curious and making sure you actually have a plan and are not just leading me to the woods to kill me."
"Nah, that's next week."
"Oh well, thanks for the warning, I'll make sure to dress my best." He began laughing as I grinned, grateful that Link at least always laughed at my cheesy jokes. We suddenly froze and he let go of my hand and I cautiously stood still. "Can I take this thing off now?"
"Only if you really want to." I scowled a bit and slid off the cloth as my eyes adjusted to the light and I began to look around in bewilderment. We were atop a familiar hill near the observatory where there was nothing but grass for an acre or so, making it able to look at the surrounding field. A fleece blanket was laid on the ground and a small telescope was set up, as well as a picnic basket full of what I was sure to be an interesting assortment of things. Link was already kneeling next to it and opening up as he turned to me, holding something in his hand I couldn't quite distinguish.
"Capri Sun?" he asked casually as I nodded, still unable to take in everything he had done for me.
"I have not had one of these in forever, I swear. This is all so, it's so great Link," I said as I looked at him, the scared pounding in my chest of what this could all possibly mean. It's of course in a very friendly gesture, nothing more I thought as I decided to stop over thinking about it and merely enjoy the moment for what it was. He grinned at me, his boyish grin making me blush again and look down, somehow extremely shy despite my better judgment.
"What is this for though Link, honestly I'm really confused," I pressed as he shrugged and pointed to the telescope. I frowned a bit, but walked over and looked through it carefully to not move it off the point it was focused on. All of a sudden, a shooting star passed by and I looked at Link, speechless that he could have predicted something that spectacular with such accuracy. However, I noticed other shooting stars all around us in the sky, lighting it up with streaks of beauty.
"Come on Ms. Physicist, did you honestly not know there was a meteor shower tonight?" he grinned at me as I shook my head and looked up.
"I've been a little preoccupied this week, it totally skipped my mind." I continued to look up as I sat down on the blanket and laid down, watching the sky and focusing on the different streaks of stars. Link sat next to me and reached into the basket again as I turned to him with a grin, grateful for the teasing opportunity. "Oh come on, what else do you have in there? Some beer, wine, giant cheese…?"
He looked down at me and grinned as I sat up, looking at him with confusion. "Really, what do you have, I'm getting mildly concerned now. Sneaking out is one thing, but anything alcoholic and I'm drawing a line."
Link looked down at his watch then smiled as he revealed from behind his back what looked to be a giant yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting, my absolute favorite. I stared at him wordlessly as he handed it to me and looked up at me, the night sky casting a perfect picture of color and light behind him.
"Happy birthday Zelda," he said with a smile as I grinned back, knowing somehow that this birthday was automatically going to be one of the best I had ever had.
Like I said guys, I'm going to try and get this uploaded again soon and will hopefully be successful *crosses finger to not occur wrath of the fans* but I won't make any false promises. The next one is going to be a great chapter though, and as usual, any thoughts, comments, concerns, panic attacks, anything would be great to hear about!