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 15 – How not to miss something

"It's decided," she said and dropped her bookbag onto my desk.

I looked up in surprise. She almost smashed a few fingers with all those books she's got in there.

"What?" I asked back.

Around us the classroom was still in motion and the teacher had two more minutes before we had to be in our seats and at full attention. Everyone was making the most of those two minutes.

Zelda was once again late and therefore missed homeroom completely.

"You know you missed the announcement about–" I tried to say.

"Yeah okay," she interrupted and waved her hand dismissively. She wouldn't take her seat right next to me and kept up the serious face. "It's over. My parents are finally getting a divorce," she said calmly, and then took her bag and put it onto her own desk.

"What?" I asked again, this time in disbelief. "But I thought they were going to work things out, started counseling and everything!" I looked at her as she sat down and began pulling out her notebook and textbook.

"Yeah, it's over," she said again.

The finality in her tone didn't scare me as much as the way she seemed to not really care about it. I didn't get to ask if she was okay because as soon as I opened my mouth class began.

I turned away reluctantly, wondering if I should pass a note or something. But soon we were swamped with history notes that rivaled the length of the textbook.

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"Link!" someone called as I was just sitting down at a table in the cafeteria. I looked up as Saria was quickly making her way over to me. I also spotted Mido and Sheik taking their time behind her.

"Hm?" I asked after she reached me and I was chewing on an apple.

Saria was busy trying to catch her breath. "Zelda...she...with..." she panted out.

I perked up at the name. "What?" I questioned after swallowing harshly.

Then she slammed her hand onto the table and said clearly, "Zelda was caught making out with Ganon in the boys bathroom last period!"

My mouth dropped open as the guys sat down across from me. Saria shoved me further down the bench and sat down as well. I was about to protest in disbelief but someone else spoke up.

Sheik shook his head. "It's true. She's with the Dean right now and half the school probably knows."

I stared at him. "With Ganon? Seriously?"

Saria was nodding next to me.

"But...why?" was all I could say.

"We've all been wondering that," Mido spoke up.

We were all quiet a moment.

Before I could stop myself I was muttering, "Ganon? Really?" while staring into the apple I was holding.

The problem wasn't that Ganon wasn't an okay looking guy. We'd all known him, and each other, since elementary school. The surprise was from Zelda giving in.

Ganon had a crush on the girl since we were like twelve and he openly tried to win her over. He started with kind words and poems in her desk and now moved on to random gifts and flowers.

Zelda always made it clear she wasn't interested in him in that way. Even though we used to joke about the whole thing and make fun of him a bit she just shook her head at us. I guess she felt kinda bad for him. Even so, she wouldn't have just changed her mind all of a sudden.

On the walk home – something that Zelda and I had shared since we first started school – I tried to question her about it.

"So...you and Ganon?" I asked, diving right in.

She just shrugged without looking at me.

"I...didn't know you liked him." I tried to make eye contact.

"I don't," she said simply.

I stared blankly. "What? Then why did you–"

Zelda finally turned to me with a smile that usually helped her get away with things. "It was nothing, Link."

"Zelda," I began seriously, "You were caught making out with him in the boy's bathroom. I heard you got sent to the Dean. Do your parents know about it?" I questioned.

She shrugged. "He probably left a message on the machine. I don't know if my dad heard it yet or not. I'll just delete it when I get home," she said nonchalantly.

My mouth fell open again. The good-girl Zelda was breaking rules and lying?

There wasn't much I could say to lecture her. I was only her friend and she wouldn't have listened to me anyway.

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A week later I was trying to cram for a math test with Malon and Sheik in the school library during lunch. I was so busy memorizing formulas I didn't hear when Malon spoke.

"Link?"

I looked up at my name. "Huh?" I quickly glanced back at my notes and scribbled something before giving her my attention.

"Have you seen Zelda today? She was supposed to meet us now. I was going to ask for her help with this chapter in the book," Malon asked worriedly. Her math grade was definitely something to worry about.

I shrugged. "Nah, I haven't had class with her yet."

Sheik put his book down on the table and looked at us. "I didn't see her either. We have gym together but I don't think she was there," he shrugged.

We both went back to studying as Malon kept glancing up at the library doors, waiting for Zelda to rush in and apologize for forgetting or something.

The rest of the period passed and it was time for the exam. Zelda hadn't shown at all so Sheik and I were trying to help Malon as we headed to class.

I managed to finish early and left the room feeling okay about the test. On my way to the vending machines I saw a head of blonde hair that I recognized.

"Zelda!" I called out as I walked closer.

She turned around quickly and smiled at me. "Hey Link, what's up?"

I made a weird face. "Shouldn't you be in class now?" I shook it off and asked another question. "Sheik said he didn't see you in gym earlier, what happened?"

She shrugged. "My parents dragged me with them to see their lawyers. I got to listen as they argued over the car my dad bought two years ago and the priceless portrait we've got in the living room."

"Oh," I said knowingly. "So that's where you've been all morning."

She smiled benignly. "I was just heading to the office with a note." And she held up a paper that obviously had her dad's handwriting.

The sound of a door opening caught my attention and I watched as someone emerged from the girl's bathroom.

It was an upperclassman – Midna was her name.

"You still here Zelda?" she asked with a smile. "Well that was fun. I hope you come out with us again soon," she said before nodding and walking away without giving Zel' a chance to say anything.

I turned my gaze away from Midna walking away to Zelda's carefully blank expression. I raised my brows at her. I didn't wanna have to call her a liar but she didn't seem like she was going to admit it herself.

"You hung out with Midna and her friends?" I asked leisurely.

Zelda shrugged again. "Well Dad dropped me off around lunch time anyway. So I got to talking to her and went out to eat. We just got back." She rolled her eyes at me. "It's not a big deal. We just got food."

Still worried I said, "I didn't know you were good friends with her, that's all."

Then she just shook her head and turned to walk away. "I'll see you later, Link."

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Of course by 'see you later' she probably didn't mean it literally like I thought. I didn't walk home with Zelda for a while after that. Once I got a hold of her in class and asked what happened she just said she got a ride home these days or she went out to see people.

I was trying not to get on her case about anything because, really, I shouldn't be telling her what to do. It's not like we were dating or something either. We were just best friends.

But everyone else seemed to think the title "best friends" meant I was her babysitter or something.

Malon and Saria were always asking where she was while people I only talked to once in a while came up to me with their thoughts on her behavior. What was I supposed to say? 'Oh that's interesting' and 'Sure, I'll get right on it'?

I was already unconsciously watching for her arrivals through my bedroom window, which faced their house directly. I was losing sleep over it because suddenly Zelda was coming home after eleven. Didn't her dad question anything?

One Saturday two months later I was cleaning the living room and kitchen – as per my mom's orders while she took Aryll out shopping. My little sister was only ten years old but I guess it was never too early to bond over clothes and shoes.

When I was done I was too tired to trek back upstairs and so decided to sit outside on the front stoop as the house's shadow provided good shade and the evening breeze was picking up.

I sat and watched the house across the street, remembering a time when the lawn had been covered in furniture like some picture in a magazine. And some crazy little girl came over and started planting outlandish ideas in my head.

I jumped up and decided to see if maybe she was home. By now Zelda rarely hung out with our normal group of friends and we only talked a few times in the halls on the way to class, which meant it was usually shallow conversation.

Instead of going for the doorbell like a normal person I went straight for the knob and tried to open it. Even though I shouldn't have been, I was surprised to find it locked. Like maybe she'd still have that habit of leaving it unlocked for me, her best friend, to come striding in as she was watching TV or in the shower.

So I rang the doorbell and her dad's angry face was what greeted me.

"Hi...I–" I started sheepishly.

But he just motioned for me to come in and turned away. I realized while closing the door that he was on the phone and arguing with someone. I only needed one guess to know who.

"Well you can forget about it you gold-digging–" He cut himself off when he saw me still standing there. "There is no way I'm paying you for breaking this family up. If you needed money so bad you should have..." He went on and walked further into the house so I wouldn't hear.

I didn't get to ask if Zelda was home but then he must've let me inside for a reason.

So I made my way upstairs and to her bedroom door where I could hear she was definitely home. Good, maybe it was time to have that best friend talk and whatever.

Except when I opened the door I found she wasn't home alone.

There I saw my innocent and naïve best friend lying on her bed with some guy on top of her, making out like there was no tomorrow. I flinched and slammed the door closed behind me but it was pretty obvious her dad wasn't going to be up anytime soon.

The guy pulled back slowly and held himself up over her to look at me with a steady gaze. Zelda also looked over, her shirt ridden up and pants dangerously low.

I just stared at them. The guy, whoever he was, made some face like he was just expecting me to leave already. I waited him out.

Zelda hastily wiped the corners of her mouth and gently pushed him away so she could sit up.

"Um, maybe you should go," she told him softly. He was still trying to stare me down but turned to her at those words.

"Alright. I'll see you in school," he said, giving her another lingering kiss before walking towards her bedroom door to leave.

I made a disgusted face as he passed through the doorway. Her father knew she had this guy over and he still left his fifteen year old daughter alone with him?

"That was...Vaati," I said as she stood up and walked to the mirror to adjust her appearance. "Isn't he a senior?"

She shrugged at me through the mirror.

"What the fuck Zelda!" I finally exploded, feeling like her father or something.

She finally whipped around to stare at me with wide eyes. I stomped over, and moved her to sit down on the bed. I stood over in front of her and stared hard. She just looked up at me with innocent eyes.

"Zelda," I whispered and sat down next to her. "What are you doing these days? The gang and I never see you. And suddenly you're like dating a new guy every week. What's going on with you?" I glanced over to see her staring at her lap.

I thought back to her dad screaming into the phone and how she was always casually talking about the divorce.

"Zel', are you okay?" I asked, leaning a little to try and catch her eyes.

She shook her head no but didn't look at me.

"It's about your parents," I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She leaned on me like she used to when we were little and tried to watch movies late at her house and she tried not to fall asleep but always did anyway.

"They just fight a lot Link, nothing to be worried about," she replied in a futile attempt to smooth things over.

"They fight even worse than before they decided on divorce," I said back, making the problem obvious.

She sighed. "Yeah. It's like now there's no pretense of trying to work things out so they're just battling over every petty thing possible." Then she lifted her head to look at me. "But you know what? They never argued over me."

Those simple words hit me hard as she stared at me with only slight confusion and hurt. She was still trying to hide it all.

"But why?" I asked myself, turning away from her gaze. "Why'd you start dating all these random guys and hanging out with upperclassmen like Midna? You weren't doing it for attention..." I thought out loud.

"Maybe I did," I heard her say wistfully.

We were quiet for a moment.

"I didn't mean to act like some out of control teenager," Zelda said, putting her head back on my shoulder. "I guess...I was trying to see if someone – anyone – wanted me. I'm still not sure."

I thought about it all. It should have been obvious – every time she mentioned something about her parents she went out with someone new. To be honest I shuddered thinking about what she was using all those guys for, granted it had only been like four or five of them including Vaati and Ganon.

"Maybe...they didn't want to start fighting over you," I said slowly, trying to get the words as I stared straight ahead into the wall. "Because if they did, someone would have to win and someone would have to lose. And I'm pretty sure neither of them would want to lose that fight."

Zelda pulled away to look up at me but I was too embarrassed at being so sensitive and insightful.

"Why don't you just tell them?" I asked, glancing around her room and removing my arm as she sat up straighter.

She hung her head as if it wasn't an option.

"Zelda there's always going to be someone that wants you." She peered at me cautiously. "Me."

xoxo

Okay, time to post chapter three. Hope you enjoyed. Wanna tell me what you think? I think this one seems kinda rushed, though there is the implied time lapse...

6-13-10

12:28am