Summary–AU There are those moments in life where a few words or one sentence changes your entire view on everything you thought you knew. Most often for me they came from my best friend.LinkZelda friendship/romance

Disclaimer–I do not own Legend of Zelda, which belongs to its respective owner(s) and is only being used in a fan-made, fictional story.

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Title–Schooled

By–Moon Prynces

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Age 10 – The difference between girl friends and girlfriends

I was busy pushing a kid, Ganon, to tag him when a new girl stumbled out of the school doors.

It was recess and it was hot outside. Ganon, a few other boys and I argued over what to play before it was decided with rock, paper, scissors.

"Hi!" someone said loudly next to my ear.

I jumped and hit the corner of the wall I was peering around. "Um, hi." I looked over my shoulder to be sure no one saw. Ganon was still chasing Sheik around the playground and there were ten more minutes left to play.

"I'm Ruto!" she smiled at me. "What's your name?"

I stared. "Link."

"Oh, what class are you in? I'm new – my dad just dropped me off." She moved her hands behind her back and rocked on her feet.

"507," I stated blandly. "I've gotta–" I was just turning away to run off where Sheik was now chasing Ganon.

"That's so cool! So am I!" she said happily.

"Uh, yeah."

I turned and ran before she could say something else. There were only seven more minutes left to play.

"Hey Link, where were you?" Sheik asked as he saw me coming and started to chase me instead of Ganon.

"Some girl started bothering me. She's new or something," I shouted back, running around the jungle gym and under some bars.

"Oh, looks like Link has a new girlfriend!" Sheik laughed and a few of the other boys went along with it.

I hopped onto the slide and ran all the way up. He followed and the other boys watched.

"Does that mean he's cheating on Zelda?" someone asked.

I used the fireman's pole and slid down before Sheik could grab my shirt.

"Link is what my dad calls a 'ladies man'," I heard another person say.

I was getting tired and it wasn't fair that Sheik was trying to get just me. But then the bell rang and everyone went 'aww' and we all had to go back inside. Sheik didn't get to catch me and I was wondering what the other boys were talking about.

I had to walk home alone because it was the day Zelda was sick from food poisoning. I also had to bring her the homework she needed for the next day.

Bleh. She was such a goody two-shoes. If I had been absent I wouldn't have done anything but watch TV.

Even though I had seen the new girl in class, we didn't speak and she sat all the way across the room from me. I was fine with it but she waved or smiled whenever I looked in that direction. I usually just pretended I didn't see and looked away fast.

"Hey! Link!"

I cringed when I heard the voice and kept walking.

But then she was running up next to me and smiling.

"Hi Link! I go home this way too!" Ruto exclaimed.

"Yeah," I said without looking at her.

For once since we'd met she was quiet and we walked along. Then I felt her looking at me and acting like she wasn't.

"Link?" she asked quietly.

I turned to her with my most serious face – the one that's even made Aryll cry before.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

My face changed to confusion.

"Uh...the only girl friend I have is Zelda..." I said stupidly. I thought about it. Sure there were other girls in our class and maybe I talked to them sometimes but Zelda was the only friend.

"Who is Zelda?" she said the name carefully.

I rolled my eyes. It wasn't that hard to pronounce.

"She's my neighbor and she's in our class. I've known her since we were five."

Ruto's eyes went wide. "She's been your girlfriend since then?"

"Well, yeah I guess so." I thought about this.

"Um, here's my street. I'll see you in class Link!" Ruto said and made a left turn into the block while I kept going straight. She didn't wait for me to say bye or anything.

I shrugged and went straight to Zelda's front door. As usual, she had left it unlocked for me even though her mom told her not to do that anymore. I grinned and tip-toed inside.

"I'm right here Link," I heard come from my left.

"Darn," I said to myself. "What are you doing downstairs anyway? Shouldn't you be in bed resting?"

Zelda rolled her eyes and then threw herself down on the sofa. It was already covered in a blanket and the TV was on.

"So you weren't studying how to break into the mall to get those shoes your mom won't let you buy?" I asked, walking into the living room.

"Even geniuses like me need a break," she said into the blanket.

"Well, genius, I brought all the assignments you missed today." And I dropped the stack of papers onto the coffee table. I sat down on the only spot on the sofa she wasn't using. My favorite afternoon cartoon already started. If Ruto hadn't bothered me then I would have made it home in time.

Zelda and I sat in silence and watched TV. Then she got up and left the room. I guessed she went to the bathroom. A commercial came on and I heard her opening the refrigerator.

"So what happened in school today?" she asked and came back with two sodas for us.

"Another diorama project for History, I said in irritation. We watched as the commercial break ended.

At the end of the half hour some lame show came on and we ignored it.

"Oh and there was some new girl who wouldn't leave me alone," I shuddered.

I saw Zelda's interest go up. "What did she want?"

I shrugged. "Who cares? I think she's done following me around though. She asked if I had a girl friend and of course I do! I have you and I told her so she got all weird and left."

Zelda turned her head slowly to look at me. I watched her blankly.

"You...WHAT?" she screeched and jumped off the sofa. "Link, are you stupid?"

"Wha– Hey, I'm not stupid!" I said back quickly. "What did I do?" I asked as she glared at me.

"She asked if you had a girlfriend Link!"

"Yeah, I know that! I was there!"

Zelda sighed and closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them she didn't seem upset anymore and she sat back down next to me.

"Link," she said.

"Yeah?" I asked carefully.

"It's no wonder you're barely passing."

I made a face.

"She asked if you had a girlfriend not a girl friend!" Zelda went off again.

"Geez, if I wanted to get yelled at I would have just gone home and drawn on the walls," I rolled my eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"A girlfriend and a girl friend are two completely different things!" She waited as I stared. "You know how people date before they get married?" I nodded. "Well when they're dating they're called 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend'."

I gaped. "That-that's stupid! It's so easy to confuse!"

She shook her head. "No, when people ask about your girlfriend they always mean the person you're dating! If they were just talking about a friend they would just say 'friend'." Zelda eyed me before turning away. "Link, I can't believe you don't know these things." She still looked kind of angry.

"So...what's wrong now? I didn't know before."

She didn't say anything.

"Well?" I asked again and leaned in to try and look at her face.

"Now everyone will think you and I are dating!" she complained.

"No they won't! I only told Ruto. And besides who would she tell? It's only her first day here."

"They'll all think we're dating now Link," she still said firmly, sounding displeased.

"So? What's wrong with dating me?" I asked defensively.

She stared at the TV before answering. "Link, if we were dating it would mean we would have to get married and then we'd have to spend the rest of our lives together! Do you wanna live with me and do all those couple things and kissing with me?" Now she turned to look at me.

"Uh, I mean..." I moved back from her gaze. I never thought about any of these things. I wasn't even sure how people started to date. Were you supposed to just pick the girl or boy you knew and start dating them?

Ugh, now that I think about all the couple things I've seen my parents do I'm not sure I want to think about any of this. Before I could say something Zelda beat me to it.

"Link, I like you but I'm not ready to date you or anyone," she said and reached for the remote.

She found a channel with a rerun of an old show we used to watch. We were quiet for a while.

Zelda pulled her blanket back up around her. "Don't worry Link, if I had to choose out of all the boys to marry I'd choose you. You have such nice eyes."

My head whipped around to look at her but she was too busy with the TV to notice.

xoxo

Too bad there's not many people reading this. Ah well. Hope you enjoyed chapter two.

5-30-10