Chapter 2

Zelda stretched out her arms and yawned heavily as the bright light of the sun poured into the car. After rubbing her eyes and looking around a bit, she noticed that Serj was driving, while her father was asleep in the passenger seat. She furled her brow a little.

"What's up?" she asked in a groggy voice.

"Oh, hey. Sleep well?" the blonde haired boy asked.

"Yeah… What's going on?" she asked as she found it odd that he was driving.

"Dad didn't want to stop last night, so he just had me take over and drive on through. Wanted to get into San Demas as early as possible, just like us," Serj finished explaining.

Zelda nodded a sarcastic nod and rolled her eyes. No duh they wanted to get there! They never wanted to leave in the first place, although she was put at ease a little bit with the fact that they would be there sooner than expected. It only made her more delighted as they passed the mile marker: San Demas-74 miles. With a sigh of relief, Zelda leaned back and absorbed more of the air-conditioning.

Link didn't away until about 1 in the afternoon. He knew that his buddies either didn't come home, or they were sprawled out in apartment somewhere with a horrid hangover. Rubbing at his eyes and shuffling his messy sand-blonde hair, he dazedly stumbled into the living room. Nobody had returned, to his strange relief.

He had less than a week left now before school started back up; maybe it was time to do something with what little time he had left? Wasting no time more on that thought, he jumped into the shower to clean off his worn body. God only knows had badly he needed it.

Throwing in the "Signals" album from Rush into his expensive thousand dollar sound system, he cranked up the volume before letting the warm wash over him. He absorbed both the music and the warm water that soaked into his naked skin. Closing his eyes, he put his face directly under the water spout and let the beads of water hit him softly.

It soothed him as the water cleansed his eyes and shoulders. After scrubbing his messy blonde hair with shampoo and conditioner (and of course after using the soap on his body), he stepped out and grabbed a towel from the cabinet just in front of him. Drying off his body, he headed into his room for a clean change of clothes.

Link was a tall young 18 year old, about 6 feet in height or so, give or take. His blonde hair hung into his face and draped onto his back a bit; his body perfectly built and toned (much to his surprise, considering the fact that he had never set foot in a gym). He guessed he got his physique from all the manual labor he while he was growing up, not to mention how much all of his bands equipment weighed. He was the epitome of stud.

He slipped on a pair of torn, faded blue jeans and slid black belt through the loops of his old pants. Not bothering with the shirt, he headed for the kitchen; his two rock/metal style necklaces swinging about on his neck. With much displeasure, he began to scrub each and every pot and dish that was in the kitchen, grunting all the while as he had to search the apartment for any other dishes that were scattered about the wreckage.

Although not much got him down, so long as he had his music. The "Signals" album was finished almost by the time he finished the kitchen, causing the CD player to switch over to the infamous Police. Grooving on the old Ska/Reggae band, he finished the kitchen and on to the next laborious task that was sure not to be too hard to find.

Zelda's family pulled into San Demas when it was close to 2 in the afternoon. Serj had switched back to snoozing away in the passenger seat and her dad was driving again. It had been the most exhausting car ride she had ever experienced, and she was glad it was over.

They passed through was seemed like another days worth of unwanted traffic before they were finally on a small street that headed down to some cheap houses. Zelda wasn't happy about her father's selection, as you may expect. She had never seen the house, but by the looks of the neighborhood, she wasn't going to care much for it.

Her dad had told her that the new company he was working for gave it to him for minimal rent, only 100 dollars a month. Though that price was rather unbeatable, it didn't change the fact that Zelda wasn't thrilled about living in a dump.

However, when they passed through the crud ridden neighborhood, Zelda was rather surprised. It didn't take her long to realize after they pulled up in front of a house the size of a mansion that her smugness was for no reason. The place was huge!

It had to be at least three stories high, with a fine white paint finish. It was in perfect condition and more than enough room for what they needed it for. Zelda's appetite for this new house when she realized the back yard was made of sand and beyond the sand was the ocean. It was her dream house.

"I told you it wouldn't be all that bad," Zelda's father told her when he saw the girl's face beam with delight.

"Wow… The company practically gave this to us?" she stuttered.

"Yeah, they did! I was surprised myself, but like I said before, this company was owned by my grandfather some time ago. It's almost like a written law to be good to me, ha! Well, shall we go inside?" he inquired.

Zelda excitedly lunged out of the car with such disgrace that she jolted the seat in front of her, waking her brother up in an irritated state. Zelda couldn't help but just gaze at the massive mansion in disbelief. Was this really her house?

Zelda beamed and hurried through the front oaken doors that towered a good ten feet taller than her. A huge staircase and foyer lay before her; the staircase branching off in two different directions. It was as though she had just stepped into Wayne Manor from Batman!

"Pick whichever you room you like, there's plenty of them," her father encouraged.

Both she and Serj were feeling much better already. As the two teens made their way up the steps, their father watched in happiness. He hadn't seen them this happy in years. Now he could finally give them what they wanted…

Link's CD player had switched over to Avenged Sevenfold and was blaring "Beast and the Harlot" to beat all. He had just about cleaned up the entire place; the kitchen was lemon clean, the bathrooms neatened and scrubbed… he even had the common decency to do everyone's laundry and clean their rooms, not to mention vacuum as well. He was just finishing vacuuming the living room when his roommates walked in the door.

They stared in amazement as he went about his business with his music going and the vacuum buzzing. Charlie seemed to be blinded by how clean it was, and Eric though that he still had a severe hangover.

"Dude, is it just me, or did Link clean this place up?" Eric spoke.

"Link, man, are you on something?" Charlie asked after Link shut off the vacuum.

"Guys, this place has looked like shit for weeks. Somebody had to clean it, and I knew the two of you sure as hell weren't going to," he smirked.

"Damn dude, you're the best."

"I know," Link said with a roll of his eyes.

He sadly had to tell the two of them that the parties had to stop. It was the last week, time to sober up and get used to waking up early. Link was no goody good, having his share of the drugs, booze, and the sex among other things, but he was responsible at the same time; a rare quality around San Demas it seemed.

The three guys chilled out and just threw in a few movies to pass the time. Link didn't know how it was he was able to live with Charlie and Eric, but he did. He figured the word "co-exist" was the more proper usage. He loved the two guys to death, but they were very different from him. They were all about the drugs, parties, girls, and the usual. Link had no problem with this, and would occasionally join them, but… he loved music, and he had passion. Two things the two other guys would never know.

Zelda popped open the top of her suitcase and exasperated upon looking at all of her clothes. It had taken them a few hours to get all of their things in, beds and furniture included. Luckily, they didn't really have all that much: a bed and a dresser plus nightstand is all she had. She diligently pulled out her neatly folded clothes and placed them in the proper drawers.

Zelda was so worn that she could barely even keep her eyes open. It was surprising how a car drive could drain the life out of you so easily. She yawned several times as she unpacked, obviously very unenthused with things. Yes, the house was nice, but that didn't change the fact that she had to start a new school next week and had to make a ton of new friends. Her brother had noticed a music shop on the way to the house and seemed very eager to visit it the next day. Serj himself was a guitar player and never passed up a chance to check out new gear. With Zelda having nothing better to do, she decided to go with him. It was the start of the most challenging year of her life…

So what do you guys think so far? The plot is slowly starting to form, though it may not seem that way, hahaha. But anyways, R&R quickly please. Thanx again guyz

Geddy