fleets: Some new character sheets are up on devart

disclaimer: green day, burger king, whoppers, dervish, stephenie myer, legend of zelda etc belong to respective companies and I own nothing but the story line and modern character concepts Gale Engst and Link Petrov.

Chapter 2: The End of Normality

"I think you're cute. Care to talk over coffee at Starbucks? From your secret admirer :)"

Gale stared at the piece of paper that he had found inside his locker. "Why thank you," he said aloud. He looked around, and when he made sure no one was looking, he stuck the message into the locker that was next to his. He forgot whose it was, but he smiled mischievously when he remembered what he had made poor Justin go through last year. He'd made Justin experience many awkward moments by sticking all of the "I like you" notes from his locker into the one next to his; Justin's. The eager teen had arrived to many different dates, not aware that the girls hadn't been waiting for him but had been waiting for Gale. Gale thought he'd actually done the oaf a favor, since one of the girls had actually become Justin's girlfriend in the end.

Gale was attractive and he knew it, and ever since the vampire fad had grown to ridiculous heights with the ridiculous book by Stephenie Meyer about sparkling vamps, his popularity seemed to have increased. Being a pale, stoic douche bag seemed to be the new "it," these days, and Gale fit the description without even trying.

It wasn't that he didn't like the girls back. He was a teenage guy – of course he'd be interested even if it was just on the level of friends with benefits, though most girls opposed that idea sooner or later. The thing was, after Gale had discovered he could just do nothing and still have girls following him (even stalking him), he had lost interest. It was too easy. He used to flirt a little with the ones who didn't chase him for fun, but he'd gotten a reputation of being a player so those smart girls began to avoid him.

Still, there seemed to be waves. A few months he would be the guy with all the secret fan clubs, and then the next few months he would be the class A jerk and enemy of all females in the world. He could make a function of his popularity over time and it would come out as a neat sine curve. It was amusing and funny.

It was also a way to make good money. He tutored students in chemistry to make cash, and for some reason everyone he tutored were girls. Some of them didn't even need help in chemistry, but Gale wasn't complaining if he could take numbers and earn cash at the same time. His address book of attractive ladies in Ariko, NJ, had become so impressive that he had considered selling it off for a good sum of money.

Gale closed his locker and took out his dervish. Once outside, he took a few steps and hopped onto his board to make his way to Burger King to buy lunch. He'd survived half a day of school – all he had was half a day more. What he didn't know was that today was going to be the last day of normality for him.

XXXXXXXXXX

The first thing Gale noticed when he arrived at Burger King was a teenager with dirty blond hair that was sitting at one of the tables. He looked to be around Gale's age, and the pale teen wondered why he hadn't seen him before. Perhaps he was home schooled? He was wearing a high collared sleeveless green jacket with a grey undershirt, and he was also wearing fingerless black gloves with gold triangles emblazoned on them. His shocking blue eyes darted over to Gale in an expression of bewilderment. There was something odd about him, and the pale teen had taken an immediate dislike to him. For one thing, the blond wouldn't stop staring at him, which annoyed Gale. He was used to people glancing at him and pretending not to see his unusual features, but this creepy staring was absurd.

Gale tried his best to ignore the blond teen and placed his order.

"I would like to have a Whopper with a medium soda please."

"Is that all?"

"Ye-"

"Ssslurrrp"

Several people flinched from the loud slurping sound the odd blond teen had made from drinking his soda. Apparently he had been so entranced by the appearance of the albino that he had forgotten to stop sucking the straw after he had drunk all the soda.

Gale started again. "Yes please."

"That will be $4.97."

The whole time Gale stood waiting for his hamburger he was conscious of those steel blue eyes staring at him. His back felt twitchy just from knowing that dastardly blond was watching him shamelessly. He considered a few times to go up to the kid and ask him what his problem was, but he thought it wasn't worth the trouble. Once he had his Whopper he was going to leave, and never see that freak again.

The cashier returned with his order. "Have a nice day!"

"Finally." Gale swiped the paper bag and turned his heel, eager to leave the place. Most days he would have chosen to loiter around, but today he wanted to go back to school as soon as he could. On his way out, he made the mistake of glancing at the blond teen.

As soon as he made eye contact, the blond perked up noticeably and waved excitedly. Spooked, Gale shot a nasty look and hurried away. God damn it, he's probably gay.

Gale made a note to himself that he wasn't going back to Burger King for a while.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Late again, Gale?"

"Mmmmf." Gale banged against a few desks as he ran over a couple of knees in his attempt to get to his back row seat. He stepped onto some toes as well, since his Burger King trip had left him feeling sour.

Mr. Faroly, the small, balding precalculus teacher, followed Gale's noisy trail to his seat with disapproval. "Do you have your assignment with you?"

Gale wordlessly stuck out a crinkled sheet of notebook paper with some problems on it. Mr. Faroly crinkled his nose as he took the messy assignment before he stuck it in a folder.

"Gale, why are you always late?"

The pale teen plopped into his desk, stretched his legs, and slouched. "I was out buying lunch."

"What happened to the cafeteria?"

"I went to Burger King. Even with their greasy burgers I think they have better food than the stuff they serve here at school."

"I was under the impression that students weren't allowed to leave campus during school hours?"

"Is this a prison?"

"Don't act smart with me mister."

"Funny, I thought schools were supposed to reward the smart."

"See me after school, Gale."

Gale shrugged. He didn't really care because he didn't have anything better to do. He supposed he could show bald Mr. Faroly a thing or two about him. Gale estimated it was going to take about two weeks before the teacher realized it was no use keeping him after school. Most teachers found out it was a waste of their precious time after all was said and done, and soon enough they just ignored him. He laughed at the students in the front row shaking their heads sadly at him. Losers.

"So where were we again? Ah, right. Trigonometry. We'll review a little bit of trig before we move on. Let me know if you need me to slow down, because this stuff will be very important later in the quarter."

XXXXXXXXX

Late that afternoon, Gale whistled cheerfully as he skated back home. He'd managed to corner Mr. Faroly into admitting he was on top of all the concepts, and that he was doing well in class with the exception of participation. Another win for Gale! At the end of their talk, Mr. Faroly had become smaller and smaller, and had appeared to want to end the conversation and send Gale on his way. Sometimes Gale marveled at his own persuasive abilities and awesome charisma.

The teen flipped his earphones from his pockets and stuck them in his ears. He absentmindedly twiddled his iPod around for a random song. His mood had improved considerably since the incident with the blond.

"I walk a lonely road
the only one that I have ever known
don't know where it goes
but it's home to me and I walk alone"

He tapped his finger lazily as Green Day began to play. Boulevard of Broken Dreams was one of the only songs he liked from them; it was decent.

"I walk this empty street
on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone"

Gramps didn't like it when Gale skated around while listening to music. He said it was distracting and made him less aware of his surroundings, making it dangerous. Gramps didn't like a lot of things Gale did.

"I walk alone
I walk al –"

"SHIT!"

Gale's dervish violently scraped the pavement as he swerved to avoid crashing into the person that had suddenly jumped in front of his path. He felt the worn out Otang wheels hit a crack, and Gale skidded on the asphalt when he lost his balance. He winced when his dervish rolled to the other side and hit the side of the road with a loud crack.

"My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beati – CLICK"

Gale muttered, turning off the music and stuffing his earphones back into his pocket. Why did Grandpa Loze have to be right about things? He quickly jumped onto his feet and hopped onto the sidewalk to get out of the road. He looked around for his dervish.

"Hey, this is yours, right?"

Gale turned and readjusted his polarized sunglasses back onto his nose. His red eyes narrowed when he took in whom the speaker was.

It was the strange blond who had been staring at him at Burger King. He was holding Gale's longboard and was smiling amicably.

Gale snatched his longboard out of the boy's hands and glared. "Did you follow me?"

"I need to speak with you."

"You fucking followed me." Gale snapped, trying to see if he could recognize the blond teen's unusual accent. "You were that guy who was staring at me the entire time I was at Burger King. What's your problem man?"

The blond seemed taken aback by Gale's hostile attitude, and for several seconds he didn't say anything. Then, he held out open hands in a gesture of peace. "Sorry, I was trying to see if you were who I thought you were. Yeah, I followed you because I needed to speak to you about something important."

Gale frowned, and then sighed, leaning against his dervish as he did so. "Fine. What did you hear about me? If you just stopped me for something unimportant like asking for directions, I'm going to punch you in the face."

"You are Vaati, the Sorcerer of Winds. I need your help to prevent world disaster."

Gale was silent for a long time and he stared at the other teen with a flat expression. He tried to see if the teen was serious, and hoped to god that the blond was joking. Much to his disappointment, all he saw was a completely serious face with a heavy gravity in those ice blue eyes. This guy is completely nuts.

Gale smiled a thin smile and beckoned the blond to come closer. When the odd teen leaned forward, Gale asked him to repeat what he had just said. "I don't think I heard you quite right. You said you had something important to tell me?"

"Your real name is Vaati. If you don't help me the world is going to - "

Wham!

While the blond tottered in a daze from having been punched unexpectedly in the face by Gale, the angry albino sped away from his stalker. The last thing Gale needed was some guy from the insane asylum following him to his house. He took several detours around the neighborhood before he made his way back home at full speed, only slightly confident that the stalker wouldn't follow him here. After all, one could never underestimate what a lunatic would do.

Midna Hytwilian: I can tell already that Skull Kid is going to be one of my favorites in this story :D Lol Loze - yeah, I couldn't really think of anything better for gramps. XD Sometimes I wish I had the nerve and jerkness to do what Gale can do. Then again, he really doesn't care about what happens to his future, irresponsible prick.

Peka The Corsair: Don't we all? I don't think I could ever be as much of an asshat as he is though O.o Thanks!

DarkLinkvsRaineSagefan101: You understood Opal's equation... wow. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to understand Schrodinger's scary numberless equation of horrors. I remember someone was trying to explain to me and all I got out of it was a bunch of h's with hats. I might go back and color that one some day. XD Gale is SO arrogant

drydrydesert: I have too much fun with Gale's dialogues X) Oooh thank you so much!

Shadow Blues: Oooh which one was that? I don't think I've seen that one yet - is it on ? (wants to read)

Reily96: PIZZERIA! oh em gee I completely forgot what they called the places that sold pizzas. I knew something didn't look right when I was writing the chapter (thankyousomuch!)

Astral S. Kepeire: Did you ever put it up for the public to see? I don't think I ever saw it :( (I like modern Zelda stories...) I know, I'm so sneaky with names *smacked*
I'm beginning to think that I won't be able to avoid putting Opal again in another chapter, so she might have one more appearance. But yeah... she's not a major character this time :/

Death-Note-Zelda-Kitty: Aw, I hope you're feeling better! Happy to hear the beginning was good :)

Darkwind: Her equations make me go into mental paralysis too... lol Gale does all the teacher battles I wish I could've waged XD

marium: Thank you :D