Fourteen: I'd Rather Be A Tree
She awoke in bed the next morning, wrapped in her clean white sheets with a familiarly unfamiliar smell drifting around her. She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, reveling in the soft, clean scent of the one person she most wanted, the one person she couldn't have, then opened her eyes, confused.
Wait a second.
She furrowed her brows in thought. She couldn't remember what had happened last night- she remembered the party, oh yes, and she recalled Link calling her wonderful, amazing...
Her cheeks tinted red at the memory and she smiled to herself, then furrowed her brows again, thinking once more.
She'd gotten in the car, yes, but that didn't explain the smell of Link all around her. So she was in the car, on top of the amp, and Malon had said... Malon had said...
"You can rest for now if you want. Lulu may take a while."
Yes, that was right! And she'd fallen asleep... Link must have seen her falling asleep and gotten in with her, and held her. That would make sense. And then when they'd gotten home, he'd probably carried her up to her room, and maybe stayed with her for a while. Yes, that would make sense, and besides, it would be a completely Link sort of thing to do.
Relaxing now that she had figured out the puzzle, Zelda snuggled into her pillow, looping her arms around the soft, plush cushion and holding it as intimately as though it were a person.
It was another fifteen minutes before she realized how thirsty she was, how starch her tongue was against the inside of her mouth. Sighing and resolving to return to her bed as soon as she could that night, she stood, sheets sliding off of her slightly-rumpled Halloween costume- or what was left of it, anyway. Link had removed everything except the pink base from her body, and she couldn't help but smile at his consideration. Sweet boy.
She stumbled into the bathroom, shedding the last of her dress and grabbing a glass from the counter, filling it with water and gulping it down as she took in the rose-colored chamber, leaning heavily against the white marble counter. Sighing with content and wiping her mouth with the back of her arm, Zelda set down the plastic cup with a loud click and made her way out of the bathroom, pulling her scarlet bathrobe around her bare shoulders and slipping her feet into her bunny slippers as she left her bedroom, on a mission for breakfast.
"Yum," she said to herself, picturing the glory of Impa making pancakes or waffles or just even cereal. Even though she'd only been living with them for five months, Zelda had grown quite accustomed to life with the Tudors, and was both happy and content.
In fact, Zelda was the best she'd ever been.
With a slightly unhappy jolt to the stomach, Zelda realized that her life really was too good to be true, when compared to her ugly past. Yes, she expected misery to rear its head sometime soon... in fact, it was rather shocking that she'd been able to get along so well the past few months. True, there was the stalker thing, and the little incident with Khail at lunch the other day, and the infrequent but horrible fights she had with Link, but this wasn't enough. No, Zelda thought, fate surely had something terrible in stock for her sometime soon.
She was absolutely right.
Trying to put these thoughts out of her mind, however, she padded into the kitchen and plopped down at the table next to Jayda, who was delicately eating a bowl of oatmeal. Saria was sitting atop the fridge, dumping liberal amounts of sugar, butter, and maple syrup into her own concoction. Haft was sitting at the head of the table reading the morning newspaper, and shot a grin up at Zelda.
"Good morning," he greeted.
"'morning," she replied easily, eyeing the paper. "Catching up on world events?"
"The funnies," he replied nonchalantly, showing her the colorful comics. "How was the party?"
"It was good. The band got a good response."
"Would you like some oatmeal, Zelda?" Impa asked from the stove.
"Yes, please," she replied eagerly.
"It's good to hear that the band is doing well. What did you call it again?"
"Volvagia," Zelda replied, stifling a yawn. "It's a mythical subterranean lava dragon that I read about... somewhere."
"It was told of some in my cult," Impa replied, plopping a steaming bowl of oat meal in front of Zelda. "Rather, my mother learned of it in the Sheikah cult and relayed it to me, in a strictly non-cultish way." Impa cracked a grin, and continued. "Supposedly, it was this great flaming snake-lizardy-dragon beast thing that ate the rock people that lived in a volcano back in the Sheikah home lands and was under the control of an evil king, however, the rock-people were saved by a hero who could craft the sands of time to obey his will, and using these powers he defeated the dragon in a mighty battle that took place underneath a volcano in a lava pit."
"Sounds pretty far fetched." Zelda blew on her spoonful of oatmeal before shoving it happily into her mouth.
"Yeah, well, supposedly the Sheikah were pretty nutty," Impa acknowledged with a nod. "They worshipped a goddess of darkness, their image of the devil was a giant invisible Cyclops that beat on a giant drum strung with the skin of its human victims, and they claimed that the shadows were from where they came and where they were to return. Note, though, that they said that shadows were nothing to be feared, only to be explored and understood, and that's one cult teaching that I do agree with. The rest is nonsense." She shook her head. "Crazy bloodthirsty bunch of knowledge freaks, let me tell you. My mother said they all spoke in riddles."
"Disgusting." Zelda downed another spoonful of delicious oatmeal.
"You'd think I'd be used to your strange cult stories by now," said Haft over his newspaper, shaking his head, "but I'm not."
"Pity you." Impa's mouth twisted in a wry grin, and then she whisked her husband's finished bowl of oatmeal from the table, muttering about 'lazy men'.
"Some of the stuff isn't so far-fetched," Saria piped up from atop the fridge. "I mean, I've had weirder dreams."
"Oh?" Impa stood with her hands on her hips, looking up at her green-haired daughter in amusement. "And what was that?"
"Well, once I dreamt that there was a talking tree," Saria replied. "And I was in a village with all children who never grew up, and Link was there and he was just a little boy, and people accused him of killing the tree, so I gave him a flute-thingy and then he ran away." Saria paused for a moment, thinking, and then continued. "And then all of a sudden evil bushes started popping up everywhere, and a shadow monster took me into a temple. The temple was my hiding place, you see, but the monster, which was actually a replica of an evil guy and his horse, locked me up in a room where I couldn't use my magical powers."
Jayda's little mouth twisted in a grimace of disgust, which she shot at her twin. "Magical powers? That's the stupidest thing I ever heard."
"Jayda, don't interrupt and don't say mean things. Let Saria finish her dream," Haft chastised, looking amused as he watched his other daughter.
"Well, anyway, a long time passed and I was just stuck in the room, and just as I started to go crazy Link burst in and saved me! Only he wasn't a little kid anymore, but he was all grown up even though supposedly he was a magic child like me and could never grow up. And it turned out I was a priestess or a nun or a tree or something like that. A willow or a mulberry or something like that. And then Link went and saved the world and I helped him with my magic powers. Oh, and Zelda was in it too. She was a princess that had cross-dressed as a boy in blue spandex but got kidnapped anyway by the evil king. It was weird."
There was silence for a moment, and Haft coughed politely to cover up his laugh.
"That's very nice, sweetie," he said, and went back to the funnies.
"You should be a writer someday, Saria," Impa told her daughter. "You could make stories out of your dreams."
"I'd rather be a tree," she said, and hopped down from the fridge, sauntering away.
Something Saria had said struck a cord deep in Zelda- she'd had a dream like that too once, it seemed, a long, long time ago... but she shook it off. Just a coincidence. What little girl didn't dream of being a princess at one point? Still unsettled lightly, Zelda was rinsing off her bowl of oatmeal when the phone rang. Impa picked it up.
"Hello? Yes... yes, this is Impa... oh, hello! No, she... what was that? Yes... no..." Impa laughed, her eyes flitting over to Zelda. "She's doing fine. Do you want to talk to her?"
For some reason, Zelda's blood ran cold.
"Okay, I'll pass the phone... yes... thank you for calling... no, don't mind at all... okay..." Impa looked up and passed Zelda the silver and black cordless phone. "Here, Zelda. It's your father."
"My what?" she asked faintly, and then took the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello Zelda. Why didn't you ever call me?" He had always been rather blunt.
"I left messages. You never returned them." Zelda was still rinsing her already-spotless bowl.
"Ah. Hrm." It was definitely her father- booming deep voice, the same booming deep voice that commanded authority over thousands of employees. "Are you enjoying yourself?"
"Yes, very much so," she said with as little chill in her voice as she could manage, though she just wanted to hang up. "This is probably the best thing you've ever done for me." Hey, Zelda could be blunt too, if she tried.
"Now Zelda, you know I tried..."
"I know." She gave a sigh, and shook her head. "So why did you call?"
"Your cousin Alexandria is having a wedding just before Christmas. I don't know if you got the invitations in the mail, but you're invited, as is the whole Tudor family. After all, it's what's expected. Can't invite you and shrug off your boarders."
"Am I allowed to bring friends?"
"Only if they can cope. There's going to be quite a large number of the press at the wedding itself, and then at the reception. Do you have anybody I know in mind?"
"You know the singer Lulu Bay? She was lead of the Indigo Go-Go's in the late sixties and early seventies? She's got a daughter I'm quite close to..."
"Lulu Bay's daughter? That would be excellent for publicity, most excellent... how about we invite the entire Bay family to the wedding? I'm sure that they would love the wedding, as we will have a number of influential celebrities at the ceremony... perhaps we could even convince Miss Bay to sing..."
"Um. I'll ask them."
"Excellent. How are your studies going?"
"Fine."
"Are you well liked?"
"Sure."
"Are you making a good and respectable name for yourself? Are you admired?"
Zelda's temper was dangerously close to snapping.
"Yeah, I'm very well respected and admired. I'm a member of a very influential school community." Well, it wasn't a total lie.
"Good. It's good to hear that you are upholding my reputation properly."
She could have screamed.
"Don't you have work to be doing?" Her tone was icy cold.
"As a matter of fact, I do. You're expected at the house a week before the ceremony and are expected to remain for a week after. I'll pull strings with your school if you need me to."
"Um. Thanks. We'll be there."
There was a moment of silence in which Zelda fumed and her father was quiet. Finally, "Zelda?"
"Yes?"
"I miss you."
For a moment, she was stunned, then her anger softened.
"I miss you too, Dad."
"I have to go now. Work to be done." And he hung up. Zelda hit the "talk" button and set the phone down, numb.
"Zelda?" Impa was peering at her with concern, Haft was unmoving behind his newspaper, and the two little girls were staring.
"We're expected to be at the house first day of winter holiday. My father will pull strings with the school if he has to. Ex... excuse me," she said, and stumbled out of the room, blinded by a thousand emotions.
It was the first time she'd talked to her father in five months and the conversation hadn't lasted five minutes. Sure, he'd tried, but she was just so angry with him... he'd sent her away, pushed her away, had time for his bimbos but not for her. For that, she hated him.
She walked up to her room, still fuming, still upset, and collapsed onto her bed, not even bothering to close the door as she buried her face in the pillow. With a meow, Valoo hopped up onto the bed and curled up in the small of her back, and at the feeling of the purring creature with her, she sighed, unwinding.
"Oh, Valoo..." she rolled over, causing the furry creature to fall off her, and before he could run away she clutched him to her chest. "Why can't life be good? I woke up feeling so nice, too..."
-
It was dinner on that Thursday night, three weeks before Thanksgiving break, and Impa and Haft had just made a very special announcement to the family plus Zelda.
"We're getting a hot tub?" Link asked, a silly lopsided grin on his face. "Are you serious?"
"Absolutely. Those swimsuits of ours are getting dusty in their drawers, and besides, your father just got a raise."
"Woooooo!" Saria let up a cheer, and little Jayda smiled.
"What type of tub?" Zelda asked, spinning her fork in her hand.
"It's an underground tub," Haft clarified. "Kind of like the ones in swimming pools. We're getting it installed in about a week. It's very nice... you'll all like it, I'm sure."
"Where're you putting it?" Jayda was trying to twirl her fork in her hand like Zelda was, and was failing. Miserably.
"Just below the willow tree, out by the porch."
"Cooooool." It was shocking how much Saria could sound like Link sometimes.
"I can't believe it." Link was grinning like a Cheshire cat across the table at Zelda, a grin that quickly turned into a pout. "Why'd you have to get a hot tub NOW? I only graduate in a year and a half! You should have gotten one years ago! Or something."
"Link?" Impa looked at her son with fake shock and then shook her head in amused disbelief, crystal teardrop earrings sending rainbows of light across the kitchen walls. "Shut up, my boy."
"You got served," Jayda said seriously through a mouth of broccoli. "Very, very served."
-
Zelda and Link were sitting in her room studying- Link was cross legged on the floor staring at his history spiral with furrowed brows, Zelda lying stomach down on her bed reading The Scarlet Letter for AP English III.
"I don't get it," she finally stated, looking down at Link, who was mumbling slightly under his breath.
"Get what?" His eyes remained focused on the spiral.
"This Chillingworth guy terrorizes this preacher dude called Dimmesdale who had a love child with Chillingworth's wife Hester, and Dimmesdale hasn't talked to Hester in seven years, and even though both guys treat poor Hester like total scum she doesn't tell the community that Dimmesdale is a dickhead and Chillingworth is a murderer because she promised."
"Hawthorne must have been drunk," said Link. "I haven't even read it yet. Just been spark-noting it."
"But it doesn't make sense!" Zelda slammed the book onto her bed, growling. "I mean, they don't even throw in a good sex scene! It's all boring puritan babble. I mean, listen to this!" Zelda picked up the book again, flipping through the multicolor high-lighted pages, and stopped. "Okay, keep in mind that this is small children saying this:
'Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!'
"Have you ever even used the word 'verily' before? I haven't," Zelda ranted. "What does verily even mean?"
"Truthfully or certainly or something like that." Link squeezed the skin on the bridge of his nose, then laid back on the soft white carpet, draping his history spiral over his face like a roof.
"I just don't get it." Zelda sighed, dropping her book off the edge of the bed. "I mean, Thanksgiving break is in a bit more than three weeks and we still have to read 'Death of a Salesman' before winter holiday kicks in three weeks after thanksgiving, and one week of that is for finals and another week is dead week prepping for finals. It's icky!" She tumbled off the bed and flopped down next to Link, flinging her arms dramatically above her head. "Our school is run by slave drivers."
"Yup." His response was muffled, and, giggling, Zelda sat up and pushed the spiral off Link's face, meeting his blue eyes with her own. He blew a few strands of his wheat hair out of his face, and failed miserably as they only came back down. Sighing and shaking her head, Zelda plopped back down next to Link, curling into his side.
"Link?"
"Pfffff... yes?"
There was silence for a moment, then Zelda snuggled closer to him.
"Thank you for being my friend and accepting me and not judging me, even though I make stupid mistakes." It was all a long sigh, and Link peered down at her, smiling to see her dark lashes resting on her pale cheeks. They laid like that for a moment, and slowly, Link lowered his head back to the carpet.
"Zelda?"
"Mm?"
"You're welcome."
-
uploaded 10:27 PM
February 5, 2005
A/N: Kind of a dead chapter, I know, but if I get far enough ahead in reading and editing and whatnot (and I keep my grades up, not very easy) then there should be another update on WEDNESDAY! HURRAH! Everybody do a little dance. I know that this chapter seems rather empty, but I promise, more fluffy full chapters are coming along!
Thank you all so much for your reviews- this story wouldn't happen without them. DANK'OO! I'll see you this time next week (at the very latest!)