So…here's the second chapter of my new story, Journey to High School. I hope you enjoy! (BTW the random letters are borderlines because my Word is messed up and won't use borderlines)

Kate :)

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Ilia opened her eyes sluggishly when her alarm clock blared at her. It read 6:45. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then pulled the covers off of her and climbed out of bed in her snowflake covered green pajama pants and black T-shirt. She went into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. Her hair looked like a rat's nest. She tried to brush it but ended up getting the brush stuck. After she finally, and quite painfully, dissected it, she turned the hot water in the shower on full blast and climbed in, adding some cold water as she got in to the now boiling H2O. After she took a quick and refreshing 5 minute shower, she clambered out and dried off. Then she pulled on some ripped jeans, a green and white striped Henley, and put on some matching green and white striped socks. She ran downstairs, ate a bowl of Lucky Charms (They're magically delicious!) and brushed her teeth. Since her hair was dry now, she pulled it up into a messy bun, then slipped on her Drexlite Sherry clogs and ran out the door, grabbing her bag and cell phone on the way.

When Ilia was walking to school that morning when she heard a sound, like a sneeze. She whipped around and saw Link standing behind her, one arm over his nose and mouth from when he sneezed. He had one leg that was up with his foot pointing downward, like he was doing the weird Grinch thing when he crept up on people. He had a look of a child who was just caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar, and he was frozen in place. Ilia waited there looking at him until he finally lost his balance and fell to the ground. She smirked.

"Nice one, Link." She told him. He got up, wiped himself off, and grinned, flipping the hair out of his eyes.

"I know. It was absolutely brilliant. I was walking behind you for like 2 miles, but then I had to sneeze really, really bad. I was hoping you wouldn't hear me, but no such luck."

"You know that's not possible. You sound like a one-man fanfare when you sneeze. Or a stampede of elephants." He rolled his eyes at her.

"At least I don't sound like Pikachu when he says his name. Peek-a-choo!" he imitated. Ilia slapped him on the arm.

"Shut up." She berated. He beamed at her.

"You started it." She put her hands on her hips and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"You're acting like a five year old." She turned and started to walk away.

"I know." He cracked another grin and trotted after her. He was like a little lost puppy. "So, what classes do you have today?" He asked.

"I have AP Chemistry for 1st period, Biology for second, Algebra for third, Language Arts for fourth, and World Geography as fifth and sixth. With Home Economics and Phys. Ed as specials. Fun." She said sarcastically.

"Wow…how do you memorize that? Anyway…I share Biology, Language Arts, World Geography, and both specials with you. Hooray! We annoy the crap out of Mr. Johnson together! That'd be fun…" his faced blanked out and he got a dreamy look in his eyes. Ilia slapped him on the arm. Their World Geography teacher was this old guy with a badly styled toupee and a pudgy, blotchy face. It was so much fun to pick on him.

"Link…you know we shouldn't be too harsh on him. You know what happened last time." She cautioned playfully. His face turned to pure amusement.

"Yep. You got me detention." He smiled ruefully.

"Hey, you deserved it. You've gotten me detention like 30 times." She pointed out to him.

"True…but it was only 29!" he protested jokingly. She lightly punched him in the arm.

"Whatever. We're going to be late." She voiced to him, but he just shook his head.

"Nah…we're about five minutes away." She looked up, and realized he was right. She could she the shape of the school in the distance. It was only a couple of miles, at most. They didn't talk the rest of the way to school, just walked side by side.

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Ilia nearly jumped for joy when the bell rang, ending first period. Mr. Lutyens had droned on and on about the melting point of palladium. Seriously, how many things can you think up for one little subject? She grabbed her books and agenda and headed towards her locker. Link was there, waiting for her.

"You take forever." He told her when she got there. She just rolled her eyes and opened her locker. She stuffed her books in and grabbed everything she needed for Biology. Link opened his locker really quick and grabbed some extra paper.

"What's that for?" she asked, indicating to the paper. He shrugged.

"I'm going to be writing a lot of notes to you." He explained simply.

"You know we're lab partners, right? We can use this amazing ability formed by the human species called speech. Amazing, huh?" she said sarcastically. But his eyes widened at the first part.

"We're lab partners?" he asked.

"Yeah…remember? Mrs. Long told us in class yesterday. That one Marissa girl who's in love with you about died from jealousy." She reminded him. His face looked confused for a moment and then it cleared up.

"That was the day I pretended I had explosive diarrhea to get out of Algebra so I missed that class." He recalled. A look of realization dawned on her face.

"Oh yeah. You paid me 10 bucks to come up with something that could get you out of class. I would've done it without the money though. It was hilarious." A grim smile came over his face.

"Yeah, I remember that. You said I was farting and it smelled like your dad when you're stuck with him in an enclosed space after he just ate fried cuccoo with gravy and potato chips. You mentioned that it was a sign of a very painful disease commonly caused by the school cafeteria food." He recollected. "Very convincing. I think it was just because Ms. Burns just didn't want to smell it, even though it wasn't real. But she can't take the risk of ruining her lovely burnt ladybug scent."

"That she can't." Ilia agreed. She slammed her locker shut and stuck out her free arm. "Shall we?" He nodded, hooked his arm with hers, and they headed towards class.

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Link squealed and covered his face with his hands. He was crouched up in his chair, as far away from the table as possible. He moved one finger to look at Ilia.

"You get the liver! I'm not touching that thing!" he yelled in a shrill voice. Ilia rolled her eyes at him. They were dissecting a frog that week and Link was absolutely terrified of it.

"You sound like a little girl. Just get it! I got the heart and kidney out." He squealed again and shook his head.

"No! It's gross!" he squawked. Ilia grabbed his neck from behind and shoved his head towards it. He shrieked and struggled to get away, but to no avail. He closed his eyes, turned his head, and held his breath.

"You've fought things worse than a dead frog. Get the f*** over it." She commanded. He pulled away and picked up the tweezers. He then closed his eyes, reached towards the liver, lifted it, and discarded it quickly on the sheet that held other various amphibian body parts.

"See?" she told him. "Not that hard." He nodded and took a long breath.

"Okay. It won't hurt me. But it's still disgusting." He gave it a revolting look and pretended to gag.

"Link, grow up and be a man." Link sniffed disdainfully at this and stuck his nose up in the air.

"I'm more manly than you." He declared to her.

"That's because you're male and I'm female. Technically, I can't be a man." She explained to him. "But I'm starting to doubt that. If you were a man then you wouldn't be making noises that sound like Minnie Mouse and you wouldn't be shaking in fright from a dead frog." He stuck his tongue out at her. She smacked him over the head. "Just fill out the paper for goddesses sake." He gave her a cheeky grin and started working on the report. Ilia sighed and shook her head in amusement. Some things never changed.

The rest of the day passed pretty much uneventfully. Link threw a few wads of paper at Mr. Johnson in World Geography, but other than that, they didn't get in too much trouble. Though Ilia did almost get caught tackling Link in a game of basketball during Phys. Ed. After they had finished changing back into their jeans, Ilia and Link met outside of the school. As they were about to head off towards home a very curvy brunette wearing a short skirt, low cut shirt, and high heels ran over to them. She glanced at Ilia in disgust and then smiled sweetly at Link.

"You wanna go out with me?" she asked in a sugarcoated voice. Link's face turned red as he tried to think of a way to let her down gently.

"I…uh…I don't…" he started to stutter but she cut him off.

"Okay! I'll see you tomorrow night at 7:30 at that romantic outside restaurant in Castle Town. You know Hylian Wonders? Okay, see ya then!" she smiled brightly, winked and skipped off. Link stared at her, his jaw dropped, until she finally went out of sight.

"I am not going out with her!" he cried indignantly as he stuck his hands on his hips. He puffed out a short, disgruntled breath. "I won't go." He declared stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. Ilia laughed at the sight.

"Come on, Link, it's not polite to ditch your date, you know." She pointed out to him.

"But I didn't agree to go out with her! She just assumed!" he exclaimed huffily.

"I don't know, she's pretty. I could see you two together." She pretended to ponder it. "Yeah, definitely. It could work."

"No it couldn't. One, I don't like brunettes. Two, I don't like fat people. Three, I don't like sluts. Four, I don't like bimbos. Five—"

"Link, you know that's not nice. And she's not fat, she's…fluffy. And just because she dresses like a prostitute it doesn't make her a slut. And the bimbo part…I might have to agree with you there." She admitted reluctantly. Personally, she hated that girl, but it was funny to see Link angry like this.

"I don't even know her name!" he tried again to find a good excuse.

"It's Marissa." She told him.

"Well…I…fine! I'll go out with her! Gods…" he muttered darkly to himself. Ilia couldn't help but laugh. "Shut up!" he growled. He stalked away from her moodily. She snickered again and ran to catch up with him.

"I was just messing with you. If you want to escape your mother you can come over to my house and join us for dinner tonight. My dad misses." She offered. He shrugged her off like he was still angry at her but then he turned around and gave a sigh of relief.

"Thank gods. I don't think I could stand my foster mom any longer even if I tried. She's so…ugh." He shivered in disgust.

"I think I got your point."

"Yeah. But I don't think my mom will care if I go. She loves you. She thinks you're like her lost daughter or something. I'll ask her. Hey, wanna race? I bet I'll beat you this time." He challenged. She grinned evilly.

"Bring it on. But if you lose, you have to go and tell my dad that you had sex with me." Link's eyes almost popped out of his head at this dare.

"Okay. But if you lose, you have to tell my mom that you think she's an uptight female dog. But the other word for it." He gave a devious smile.

"You're on. Okay, on your mark, get set, GO!" she screamed and they both took off a breakneck paces. Link soon tired and fell a little behind. Sensing this weakness, Ilia gave one last burst of speed and reached her house in just under 7 minutes. Link caught up to her in a couple of seconds.

"I'm," he started, but had to catch his breath. Finally, after half a minute he finished. "screwed." Ilia grinned. This was going to be a show.

"Okay. Go ask your mom if you can come over. If she says yes, you have to tell my dad at dinner tonight. If she says no, you have to sneak outside somehow, come over to my house, and tell my dad. So you're dead either way." He glared at her, then sighed in defeat.

"Fine." He trudged home slowly. He asked his mom, and she said yes. He then walked even slower back to Ilia's house. She smiled widely when she saw him. She held her arm out to the door.

"After you, my doomed friend." He gave a wry smile and walked inside. Ilia shut the door and locked it behind her. He finally dragged himself over to where Mayor Bo was standing.

"Hey, Mayor, I need to tell you something. I…" he started, but faltered. Ilia came up behind him and put a hand comfortingly on his arm.

"Link, it's okay. He needs to know." She encouraged solemnly. Inside, though, she was dying of laughter.

"Bo…I slept with your daughter." He finally uttered out. He braced himself for whatever was coming but instead he just heard Bo give a long, booming laugh. He clapped a hand on Link's shoulder.

"Finally! I didn't think you had to the guts to get her done! I guess I was wrong!" Ilia's once smug face was now written over with shock and horror. Link's looked the same as hers.

"Uh…Bo…I was joking. I wouldn't really have sex with Ilia." Bo's once laughing face turned solemn as he realized what he had said. "It was a stupid prank."

"Oh. Well, that's good. I would've beaten the living…something…out of you if you had. Don't ever think about touching my little girl." He tried to be fierce but the effect was ruined by his faltering voice and beet red face.

"Okay. Can we do something now? Ilia invited me over." Bo's face cracked into a smile when Link said that.

"Of course, my boy! Where've you been anyway? I haven't seen you in a while." Bo's expression turned into suspicion.

"Uh…busy." Link lied. He felt bad that he hadn't come over in a while.

"Oh…okay. Want to sumo wrestle? We haven't done that since I told you the secret. But you can't use the secret, of course. It wouldn't be fair. And Ilia hasn't seen us wrestle yet." Bo suggested. Ilia grimaced.

"Yeah…dad, I really don't want to see you guys in thongs you know." She pointed out to him.

"Oh yeah. I'll wear my shorts and Link wouldn't ever wear a thong, so you don't have to worry about that. But let's get ready!" he clapped his hands together in excitement and ushered Link over to his room to get ready for the match. Ilia sighed in defeat and walked down the ring. She sat down on one of the bleachers. She waited for a couple of minutes and then her dad walked in, wearing only his brown leather shorts. He got in position on the ring. Ilia waited to see Link walk in, and when she did, she gasped. He wasn't wearing a shirt and all he had on was his baggy brown Capri type pants. He looked…hot. She had always thought him good-looking and she had loved him forever, but just as a good friend. Never in that way. She shook her head. No, Ilia, he's your best friend. Nothing else, and he never will be. Don't even think about thinking about that. It would be weird. But she couldn't help thinking about it when he walked in. His arms and chest were incredibly toned. Not bulky, just slender and muscular. No, you will not think about this! She commanded herself sternly. Her mind snapped back to attention as she saw them begin. Her father lifted his foot high, then stomped, making a loud thud. Link copied him, but his thud wasn't quite as tremendous. Then they fought. Bo tried to punch at Link, but Link ducked, sidestepped, and grabbed him, shoving him almost to the edge of the ring. Link tried to grab him, but Bo was ready and hit him in the face, stunning him. He grabbed him and brought him a few steps back. Then Link sidestepped twice, with Bo matching perfectly. But Link was ready. As Bo reached for him he hit him in the face and grabbed him, shoving out of the arena. Link smirked and wiped off his hands clenching his fists. Then he relaxed and climbed down to help Bo up.

"Still can't beat you, my boy. Ah well. I'm going to go change. You should freshen up a bit, too." He advised. Link shrugged and headed out the door towards the spring. Ilia walked along with him.

"So you beat my dad at sumo wrestling. I'm surprised. No offense, though. I'm just saying that my dad weighs about 3 times as much as you." Ilia said, impressed.

"Yeah, that's just because I'm super buff." He flexed his arms, and it made all of his muscles ripple.

"That's kind of creepy and oddly disturbing that you can do that." She told him. And attractive a voice said in her head. Shut up! She told it. But her conscience kept having mind battles with itself. Link looked at her in concern. Her petite little nose was scrunched up in frustration, her eyebrows were knitted together, and her mouth was scrunched up in a frown.

"Hey, Ills? You alive in there?" he waved his hand in front of her face and she snapped back to reality.

"Sorry. I just blanked out there for a moment." She tried to explain. He just looked confused when she did.

"Okay…well, anyway, how is it creepy that I can do that?"

"I don't know. It just is." She said simply. He just shrugged and then stretched, yawning.

"Sorry about that. Just wanted to show off some more of my awesome buffness." He bragged. Ilia rolled her eyes.

"Is this half-naked thing a new style for you?" she asked. He pretended to wipe some dust off of his chest and acted like he was checking himself out in a mirror.

"I don't know. I kind of like it. You think it looks good on me?" he asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows. "I think it'd look pretty good on you, too, if you tried it out."

"Link…" she started dangerously. "Remember that talk we had the other day about inappropriate comments? I think this is one of those situations." She smiled sweetly at him. His grin faded and he skittered out of her kicking range. She reached over and patted his arm. "Good boy." They arrived at the spring and Link went over and started splashing some water on his face. When he wasn't looking, Ilia crept over and dunked his head in the water. He got up quickly and turned to face her. He glared at her angrily. She grinned. Then he pretended to give up, and he slumped his shoulders.

"Since you didn't kick me, I guess I'll let it pass." He sighed. Ilia smiled widely and relaxed. He wasn't going to do anything to her. She let her guard down to look at some flowers that were still in fully bloom. This was Link's chance. He ran over to her silently and grabbed her. She let out an earsplitting screech but it didn't deter him. He slung her over his shoulder and deposited her in the water. She crossed her arms over her chest and glowered at him, soaking wet. He couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm going to get you!" she yelled. She scrambled up and chased after him. He dodged her when she lunged but she was still too quick. She went up behind him and jumped on his back, trying to push him down. She gave him a noogie and he grabbed her legs behind her knees and leaned back, making her fall backwards, but he held her so that she didn't completely topple off of him. She regained her balance and grabbed his shoulders, pulling herself up. They were laughing now, and they didn't hear the click of a camera coming from the woods. Link finally fell over into the water, Ilia going down with him. They just lay there for a few minutes, laughing.

"Ah… I missed that." Link sighed contentedly. "We haven't had a good old-fashioned water fight in years."

"Yeah. That was fun." Ilia agreed. "We should probably get going to dinner before my dad gets worried. I can't believe how that dare turned out, though. I was waiting for him to pound you within an inch of your life, but he just laughed. What kind of father does that?" Link shrugged.

"Yours, I guess."

"Whatever. Let's get going." She heaved herself up and walked back to her house, Link in tow.

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Ilia sighed in pure joy as she wrapped her arms around Link's bare shoulders. He told her those three words, then leaned closer, and closer, and finally…

Ilia woke up in a sweat. No! You are not going to dream about him like that! She yelled at herself consciously. But it didn't matter what she said. Oh goddesses. I have a crush on my best friend.