A/N: Before we start, I'd like to say one thing. That bombshell I dropped last chapter was initially meant to be revealed in the middle of the arc in the planning phase of my story. But as the arc itself is supposed to take several months to a year, I realized that there was no way that our heroes would go over a month while not distracted by death and escaping the country without realizing it. As such, it was a last-minute decision to place it at the start of the arc while they still had a lot of other stuff to do, which is why the characters recover so fast from the shock. Carry on!

Also, I forgot to mention, but Zoras and all other intelligent races do wear clothes. Lol.

Arc 3: Of Heroes and Homework

Chapter 25: Introductions

~Zelda~

The four opened the main door to the school. As Zelda entered, she noticed it was one of the nicest schools she could ever imagine. The center door led into the school's main hall.

The room was circular with openings for hallways on both her left and right side. All around the walls were trophies and medals suspended in glass cases, and there was a circular stairwell leading upwards to what Impa claimed was the Headmaster's office. The floor was a typical school tile, but was polished so well that she could clearly see her own reflection in it.

Zelda gripped Link's hand and began ascending the stairs and arrived at the mahogany door at the top. She knocked on the door a few times.

"Come in!" a male voice said.

Zelda politely opened the door and entered the headmaster's office.

"Have a seat!" he said, gesturing to the four chairs conveniently placed in front of his desk.

The headmaster was this old, bald, plump man with very prominent white eyebrows, mustache, and beard. To be fair, his stature and facial hair made him look somewhat like an owl.

"Welcome to Northeast Symmetry High. I'm the headmaster of this fine school, Kaepora Gaebora. But you can call me Headmaster Gaebora. Or Principal Gaebora. Whatever you fancy."

He stuck his hand out for everyone to give him a handshake. Though, he seemed to stare a bit at Zelda.

"What?" she asked.

Headmaster Gaebora put his hands up in an apology. "Oh, I'm sorry. I could've sworn I've seen you somewhere before. You look familiar."

"Well, this is our first time in Labrynna, ever." Komali said. "It's probably just deja vu. Don't worry about it."

"Well… let this serve you four as a quick makeshift orientation for our school. On the left side of our building are our living quarters. That's where our dorms, laundry rooms, and other facilities are so you can live a comfortable life here. On the right side are our classrooms, labs, and other rooms you would find in a typical school. There are eight floors in total, though the eighth floor is reserved for faculty. We do have a cafeteria as well as some school stores where you could buy groceries, school supplies, electronics, and anything else you want. If something you need isn't there, you could always go back into Symmetry City and buy it there, or you could buy it off the internet. Any questions about the layout?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Feel free to explore later. Our school day runs from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and from 8:00 AM to 2:20 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays."

Headmaster Gaebora typed a few things on his keyboard, and printed out four school schedules for them.

"You will have a total of 7 periods."

Headmaster Gaepora handed them the school schedule handouts.

Monday:

1st Period: 8:00 AM - 8:45 AM

2nd Period: 8:55 AM - 9:40 AM

3rd Period: 9:50 AM - 10:35

4th Period: 10:45 - 11:30

Homeroom: 11:50 AM - 12:10 PM

Lunch: 12:20 AM - 1:15 PM

5th Period: 1:25 PM- 2:10 PM

6th Period: 2:20 PM - 3:05 PM

7th Period: 3:15 PM- 4:00 PM

Tuesday & Thursday:

1st Period: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM

3rd Period: 9:40 AM - 11:10 AM

Lunch: 11:20 AM - 12:40 PM

5th Period: 12:50 PM - 2:20PM

7th Period: 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Wednesday & Friday:

2nd Period: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM

4th Period: 9:40 AM - 11:10 AM

Lunch: 11:20 AM - 12:40 PM

6th Period: 12:50 PM - 2:20PM

"And, here are your individual schedules." Headmaster Gaepora explained, handing each of them an individual schedule. Zelda's said:

Homeroom: Room 136, Kafei Michaels

1st Period: Language Arts, Room 130, Ezlo Capps

2nd Period: Labrynnan History, Room 346, Seres Sage

3rd Period: Algebra 2, Room 421, Darmani Limestone

4th Period: Hyrulean Mythology, Room 723, Jason Bo

5th Period: Chemistry, Room 256, Syrup Magus

6th Period: Geography, Room 321, Kaneli Sparrow

7th Period: Physical Education, Gym, Urbosa Sands

"Your classes start tomorrow," Headmaster Gaepora said. "We want to give you some time to adjust to this place before you dive straight into class."

Zelda nodded.

"We do have several policies that you should be aware of, each of which will result in a strike. First off, our dress code asks that you keep your shoulders covered and all bottoms at or below fingertip's length when your arms are at your sides. No discrimination, that is racism, sexism, or homophobia, and no weapons, of course. You should be off now unless you have any other questions or concerns."

"Thank you, Headmaster." Link said after standing up and pushing his chair in.

"Hang on, Link." Headmaster Gaepora held. He picked up a pen and post-it note, and copied a few things down from his computer. "Your dorm assignments. Sorry, but I wasn't able to group you together with each other."

Gaepora slid each of them a post-it note with their dorm room number, and a key.

"It's almost four, so your roommates should be back soon." Gaebora said. "I'll see you later, nice to meet you. The housing segment of the school is on our right when you leave."

Zelda stood up and waved goodbye to Gaebora, as the rest of them followed out the door and down the spiral stairs.

"I guess we'll see each other… later?" Zelda asked. Everyone nodded and made their way down the hall.

Zelda stared at her key and room number. 235.

As she walked to her room and searched, she noticed how similar it was to her first day in the Aura Complex. She was in a confined, unfamiliar place with many other people her age, most of which she didn't know. Though, unlike the Aura Complex, the hallways were empty due to all the students being in class right now. And, they weren't 'locked' in here. They had the freedom to do whatever they wanted. There were no soldiers here to electrocute those people who didn't follow every minor rule. They had access to go outside. It was like the Aura Complex but actually… good.

After hopping on the ground floor elevator and made her way to the second floor, she walked through the halls and observed her environment. The hall was curved, since the building itself was curved in a U-shape. The floor was nice, carpeted brown, as the walls were stark white. However, unlike the Aura Complex, there was a window at the very end of the hall allowing white light to flow into the hallway.

Zelda was too busy looking at the place she would live that she ran straight into a young Sheikah girl who dropped all the books she was carrying.

"Eh? T-Tetra? I'm sorry!"

"Tetra?" Zelda replied, stopping in her tracks. "I-I'm not who you think I am. I'm new here."

Zelda bent over and collected the books and handed it to the girl.

The girl stood up and walked away with a weird look, constantly looking back at her. She was confused for a second, but she shook it off and looked for room 235 and located it on the left side.

She inserted the key and unlocked the room to see a neatly made but clearly slept-in bed on the left side, along with a desk with a laptop and neatly stacked paper piles and books closer to the door. The right side mirrored the left, though its bed and desk were completely empty and untouched. In the middle of the room was a small couch and a coffee table, right below a large window. In comparison to the Aura Complex, however, was that they seemingly had their own bathrooms instead of sharing one of them for all the girls.

Zelda didn't really have anything to unpack, as everything they carried around prior was survival gear that they didn't really need at a school, so she just hopped into her bed and lied down.

Judging from her roommate's side of the room, she was very much neater than Malon was at the Aura Complex, of which she was thankful for. Sliding open her desk drawer, she noticed a miniature map displaying all the facilities of the school, which once again, was very reminiscent of her experience in the Aura Complex. Reading it, in the Living Quarters, there were common rooms, cafeterias, a kitchen, a gym, a pool, things in a typical hotel.

She was so invested in reading the map that she almost missed the doorknob turning in front of her. Standing in front of her was a girl of a Zora-ish race (She couldn't really tell but looked similar to a Zora) in a light blue dress, who had a confused look on her face when looking at her.

"Tetra?" She asked. "What are you doing here? And why is your hair down?"

"I'm not Tetra! Why is everyone comparing me to this Tetra girl?" Zelda asked in annoyance. She sighed. "Sorry. I'm Zelda."

The woman shook her hand, skeptical. "Mipha."

Zelda stared at her for a bit. This woman looked Zora, but she was very distinct from how Ruto looked. She was afraid to ask, but she decided to risk you.

"Sorry to be a bit abrasive, but what are you?" She asked. "I mean, you look like you could be Zora, but you look different from a Zora I know."

Mipha chuckled. "I am Zora. But us Zoras are classified into Lake Zoras and Sea Zoras. I'm a Lake Zora, but Sea Zoras are typically a solid light blue color and other differences. Same with Island Rito and Mountain Rito. It's just that us Lake Zoras are a bit less common, so I don't really fault you for that"

Wow. Mipha was nice. Most other people would probably get offended at that remark.

"You're a Hyrulean refugee, right?" Mipha asked. Zelda solemnly nodded. "And you have no relation to Tetra or her brother?"

"No, but we must look pretty similar," Zelda said, staring out the window.

"Uncanny," Mipha replied. "So, how did you get here if you're from Hyrule?"

Zelda knew that, no matter how much she trusted Mipha or how close they got, she definitely should not tell her the entire truth. But, she came up with an elaborate white lie.

"Oh, well… I woke up in this brutal prison camp in the north of Hyrule with amnesia. There, I met my friends, you'll see them walking around eventually, but their names are Link, Malon, and Komali."

"You're an amnesiac?" Mipha asked, hand on her chest. "I'm so sorry."

Zelda clasped a hand on her neck. "Don't worry about it. I'm used to it, it's not that big of a deal anymore."

"What did your friends do to get to that camp?"

"T-They did absolutely nothing. If they did do something, then it was something minimal that they didn't even catch onto. They were kidnapped from their homes."

"Ooh. We learn all the time about the conditions of Hyrule, but we've never learned about a prison labor camp."

"Yeah. Labor camp." Zelda lied. It wasn't quite a labor camp, they weren't forced to work to stay alive. But at least this way it was believable and it wasn't completely wrong. "Eventually, we escaped and made our way around the Terminan border and from Termina to here in Labrynna."

"Was it hard?" Mipha asked, eyes sparkling.

"Yeah. We almost died multiple times. Police and government went after us. We just got lucky enough to evade most conflicts and run from the conflicts that we did encounter. They began shooting into a crowd because of us!"

"Wow." Mipha exclaimed. "That's harsh."

Zelda nodded and pulled up her phone, and began to text the group in a way that Mipha could not see.

Z: Okay, everyone. I've come up with a white lie to tell others when they ask about our experiences. Just say it was a prison labor camp, and you were forced to do work, we escaped, and made our way through Termina. Don't mention anything about Auras or the Resistance.

L: Aight.

M: Okie-dokie!

K: Sure.

Zelda put her phone away and turned back to Mipha. "So what's your story? How'd you get into this school?"

"Oh. My brother and I got in through the swim team. We were the top swimmers in our middle school, and together, we won twelve gold medals and twenty silvers."

"Nice!" Zelda said. "I feel like I won't fit in, though. You've got so many smart, strong, talented, competitive people like yourself. Does it feel tense?"

"Not at all! You won't even notice! I have several friends who didn't have top scores or didn't have any talents or weren't famous. You'll be fine. It's shocking now, but you'll get used to it. I have to get done with my homework for now, you just relax before your classes start."

Mipha dropped her green backpack and pulled a few notebooks and textbooks out of it.

"Do you get a lot of homework at this school?"

"Not normally. For me, it's maximum three hours. There are some days we don't even get homework. Most of the teaching and learning is in the classroom."

Zelda nodded. Damn, they've been talking for a while. Then, her stomach growled.

"Uhh… Mipha? Do you recommend the cafeteria, or do you normally eat somewhere in the city? I'm a bit famished."

"In terms of quality, I'd recommend Telma's out on Sapphire Street. But if you're rushed for time or want free food, just head to the cafeteria. It's really your call."

Zelda had plenty of rupees with her, and she knew that the others had even more money. She'd definitely like a good restaurant today.

She booted up her phone once again.

Z: Hey, do you want to go out and eat something? I'm starving.

L: Sure.

M: Where?

Z: My roommate recommended a place called Telma's on Sapphire Street.

K: Let's go then! Let's meet in front of the school.

Zelda had made her way to the ground right in front of the foyer-like room. Komali and Malon arrived within five minutes, but Link arrived around ten minutes after.

"What took so long?" Komali asked.

"Sorry. Got lost." Link replied. Zelda shrugged. Even with half the building essentially shut down, it was still a gigantic building.

"It's alright. Let's go." Zelda said, turning around and beginning to walk down to the street. But just then, a girl ran straight into her at almost the highest speed imaginable .

"Get out of my way!" She shouted, face-aimed-to-the-floor and panting. "No one in this goddamn school knows how to move out of my goddamn way!"

This girl had her blonde hair tied up in a strange swirl and was wearing jogger's shorts and a plaid tee shirt. Wireless earpods blasted music so loud that Zelda could hear it from two feet away.

"Well… you're the one who's running." Zelda retaliated. "Why don't you just watch where you're going?"

The girl looked up and was shocked to see a face that almost one-for-one resembled her own.

"The hell?" the girl asked. Zelda was too shocked to say anything but stutters.

"Y-yo" she stammered, unable to get the words out of her mouth. At least now she knew why these people are confusing them.

Link looked at Zelda's face, then looked at this girl's face. Then her face again.

"What?" Link asked. Malon and Komali shrugged.

"You have my face!" the girl exclaimed.

"Well… I guess we found your doppelganger, Tetra." a voice said from behind her. A messy, blonde-haired, slim boy in a sweatshirt and jeans appeared behind the girl.

"Yeah. I NOTICE." Tetra replied, agitated. "Y'know, Sheik, why aren't you the least bit fazed about this?"

"It happens."

Tetra thrust her hand onto Zelda's neck. "Who are you? Why are you impersonating me?"

"I-IF Y-OU COULD NOT SUFFOCATE ME THAT WOULD BE HELPFUL" she croaked. Tetra dropped her death grip as Zelda dropped to her knees. "I'm not impersonating you," she panted. "I guess we just look the same."

The boy looked at them. "I'm sorry about that. If you couldn't tell, Tetra can be a bit abrasive. I'm her twin brother Sheik."

Zelda awkwardly shook his hand. "I'm Zelda…"

The other three behind her introduced themselves, but Zelda couldn't exactly focus on them with whatever exactly was going on.

"So, who exactly are you? I for certain have not seen a doppelganger around here because I would've noticed." Tetra asked.

"We're refugees from Hyrule. We just came in today." Link explained. Sheik and Tetra nodded.

"Hyrule, huh?" Sheik asked. "Even with this school's status towards refugees, we don't get a lot of them."

"How about you?" Malon asked. "How did you get in?"

"I got in through the track team, and my brother got in for being a nerd." Tetra said. Sheik looked like he was about to slap her.

Zelda changed the subject. "Okay… Well… we're going to go to dinner now. See you tomorrow, maybe."

Sheik waved as he pushed Tetra back into the main hall.

"That was… weird." Malon said. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Let's just go eat. I feel like my stomach is starting to digest itself."

After taking a short taxi ride, the group had arrived at Telma's. It was a large, somewhat busy, formal restaurant with a nice ambience. As the group sat down at a circular table, the waitress gave each of them a menu. After individually ordering their dishes, (Zelda got the blackened cuckoo), the waiter took off with their menu and returned with a platter of bread and butter.

"Did you meet your roommates yet?" Zelda asked.

"Oh, yeah." Link said. "My roommate is this Zora guy named Mikau. He's apparently a well-known musician and has done several concerts. He looked surprised when he learned I've never heard of him, but I used life in Hyrule as an excuse.

Zelda spread a thin line of butter on her bread roll. "Yeah, my roommate is also a Zora. Her name's Mipha. She got in through the swim team. She's probably the nicest person I've met so far."

Malon didn't even touch the bread roll and began licking butter off her knife while the rest of them stared at her in confusion. "My roommate's- what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing," Zelda trailed. "Don't worry about it. Just continue with your story."

Malon put the knife down and cleared her throat. "Alright. My roommate's name is Riju. She's a young Gerudo but I don't really know much about her. She wasn't very chatty."

"Was it because you were spending the entire time talking about yourself?" Komali asked. Malon thought for a bit and nodded.

"I'm rooming with this boy Shad." Komali said. "I didn't ask too much of him, but he sounded like an intellectual. He's not bad, though."

"So, I guess we're in the future?" Link asked, shrugging. "I didn't see any hoverboards or futuristic flying cars or anything. Did you guys discover anything?"

"I've heard Labrynna's outlawed coal and natural gas power plants." Zelda said, finger to her chin. "But that's about all I know. The cities, though, even back in Hyrule were a lot more massive than I anticipated however, though that's probably to be expected if we're in the future."

"Yeah," Komali said. "I've been to Hateno once before, but I never remembered the city being that big. I thought it was just me. Oh, I also looked around the common room for our floor. In the kitchen attached to it, they had this really futuristic toaster that I had no idea how to use. There wasn't a lever to pull the toast down, it was just a huge screen. After I put in a bagel, I didn't have any idea how to take it out and I could tell that it was burning, so I just took it out with a fork. Electricity immunity comes in handy, no?"

"O-Okay?" Zelda asked.

"There was also a television screen in the common room, and it was like, super thin. And I mean thin, as in, thin like paper. I'm pretty sure you could roll that up and store it somewhere."

"My roommate asked me what a newspaper was," Malon said.

The waitress arrived at their table carrying their food. She laid down the plate of blackened salmon in front of Zelda, gave Link some kind of steak, Komali what looked like eggplant parmesan, and Malon mac and cheese.

"Y-" Zelda said, simply beyond belief. "We're at a fancy restaurant and you order mac n' cheese?"

"It was on the menu!" Malon protested.

Zelda facepalmed. "It's on the KIDS menu. Oh my Din I want to scream."

After dinner, Zelda and the others hit the school store to look for supplies, a long but ultimately boring process.

Zelda turned the key in the knob to enter her room.

"How was dinner?" Mipha asked.

"It was great," Zelda replied. "I ran into Tetra while we were leaving. She could totally pass for my twin."

"Now you see?" Mipha asked, chuckling. "Well, it's getting late. I'll head to bed. You should too. You don't want to be late on your first day, right?"

Zelda smiled. "Yeah. I just hope this isn't too much to handle."