[A/N:] Welcome back, my precious readers!
On the menu today: Some more input to what I presume is just another SSB Highschool AU that nobody needs… :-P
A mighty sigh echoed through the hallway and would have probably raised a few questions from the students nearby, had they not been so preoccupied with themselves and the very urgent copying of notes before classes would start in approximately three and a half minutes.
So Zelda was left to her own devices until she reached her locker. A weary smile lit up her features as she spotted her best friend and partner in crime, Peach, leaning against her own locker just next to hers. The quirky girl cracked a grin and nearly sent them both careening to the floor as she went in for a hug, "Zelda! You're late, where have you been?!"
She squeezed the brunette's shoulder, "For a moment here I thought you might have gotten kidnapped and sold into slavery." Zelda chuckled at the exaggeration, "I don't believe it's possible to get kidnapped on the way from the dorms over here."
But Peach tutted and leaned in conspiringly, "You never know." She winked and made off with her grin back in place, "I gotta go! See you at lunch!" Zelda waved after her and turned to retrieve her books from her locker. The worn pictures on the inside of the door fluttered merrily.
There was a shout from down the hallway that grabbed her attention and she turned just in time to witness the champs of the school strutting down the corridor. The other students made way and fell into chanting, "Zebes KILL!", as Zelda pressed herself against the lockers to stay out of their way. It wasn't the entirety of the football team but a few of the boys, led by Anthony.
He was talking excitedly, "And then I threw the ball right into her arms and she barreled her way straight down the middle." Beside him, Lyle raised his hands to his mouth, "Choo-choo!" They passed by her without an incident and Zelda released a breath.
She hadn't been present at the game yesterday, but heard from friends that it had been a curb stomp. Samus, the quarterback and leader of the team, had pretty much single-handedly won the match and ended it with a touchdown, earning them another six points advantage. She chewed on her lip; she wasn't a fan of football per se — though it was quite entertaining sometimes to watch two teams tackling the living crap out of each other — but it was pretty much revered as a royal sport or something by so many people.
Plus, Peach was part of the cheerleaders which made Zelda a supporter by implication anyways. It was also strangely inspiring to know that the single best player on the team was, in fact, a girl and not a boy. She shook her head, Not one of those ripped, one-track-minded jocks who think they can do whatever they want and the world bows to their every whim. Well, most of them think so anyways. A few of them are actually okay, according to Peach…
With the school bell signaling the start of classes, Zelda slapped her locker closed and was off to find her classroom. It didn't take long for Peach to start bombarding her with text messages, complaining that "history is so boooooring pls make it stop :( " and that she could be working on the new choreography for the cheerleader team.
Zelda suppressed a sympathetic sigh in favor of not arousing the attention of her teacher and replied with a quick "you got this, peach! hang in there :) " instead. She added a picture of a cute kitten from her gallery, for good measure. It was promptly answered, " :) you know how to make a girl smile."
The day continued like this; with a whining Peach and cute, furry animal pictures from Zelda to counter her friend's boredom. They eventually met up for lunch in the cafeteria. Peach managed to line-jump so she was standing next to Zelda while they waited for their turn.
She winked at the two guys who just let her go first. Zelda smirked; either you belonged to the football team to be first in line, or you be one of their cheerleaders. It was always the same procedure, and high school hierarchy has never been different in the last three-hundred years or so.
After they got their serving, Zelda scanned the cafeteria. The different groups of students had their regular spots and while Peach had the luxury of choosing whether she wanted to sit with her cheerleader team or her friends (read: Zelda and the others), the brunette herself could only ever rely on the quirky science geek named Link.
The blonde boy, a brilliant one who sometimes seemed to suffer from ADHD, was already joyfully waving at her from their usual spot. She smiled at him and followed Peach back to their table. Link jumped from his seat in a greeting, "Hi Zelda!"
She nodded to him, "Hey Link." Peach playfully rolled her eyes at him behind his back; the huge crush he had on Zelda was visible from space. She didn't comment on how he, rudely but unintentionally, apparently forgot to greet her — or that she existed in the first place. Link took the seat across from Zelda, with Peach sitting at the head of the small table. She would often tease her best friend about how cute they would be together, and Zelda was honestly considering dating him. He was a sweet guy after all, and he cared about her.
Link was animatedly talking to the brunette about this uber-cool chlorine dioxide experiment they did in their science class today. Zelda humored him because, Boys and their toys, but her attention was actually drawn towards the football team's table across the cafeteria.
The team was currently engaged in enthusiastic retells of the match the day before and, also typical, the cheerleaders were all over them. Many of them were girlfriends to the famous boys, and all of them basked in the glory of their success.
Sometimes, Zelda wondered what it would be like to be one of the cool kids. Like, one of the really cool kids. She bit her lip as her eyes wandered over to Samus who was sitting there just eating her lunch, Maybe even as cool as… But the thought was lost on her the second it emerged and she was once more back with Link and his fire-spitting custom robots.
Peach gasped at something he said — presumably about razor blades tearing his friend's robot apart — and Zelda indulged in her lunch while giving input whenever it was required of her. She's never been an extrovert and her friends understood that, and maybe that was why she didn't belong to the famous students. Because Peach constantly told her that she was actually super pretty and could very well make it on the cheerleader team if she wanted to. Oh well, my self-confidence isn't on that level yet.
Lunch was over much quicker than anticipated and all three of them parted ways for their last few classes before the day could officially begin.
The sun was glaring down at the city and the asphalt looked like it would melt any second. Samus heaved an annoyed grunt at the unpredictable weather and shielded her eyes as she drove down the street on her motorcycle.
The remnants of yesterday's cloudburst had entirely dissipated in the tropical heat which had promptly led Samus to leave her jacket hanging in the locker at school. She squinted through her fingers as she pulled over and walked up to the house on the side of the street.
An elderly woman greeted her on the door and she looked a bit confused for half a second before realization dawned on her face. "Hi ma'am. My name is Samus Aran and I'm working for the Running Mile. I have a delivery for…" she turned the package in her arms around and read the name of the consignee, "…Mrs. Miller?"
"Yes, yes, that would be me! Thank you so much, dear." She accepted the small packet with a kind smile and gave her digital signature, "Can I get you a glass of water maybe? It's so hot outside today." Samus managed a smile in return but raised her hands in a declining gesture, "No, thank you. I need to be on my way." Mrs. Miller nodded, "Take care then."
She walked back to her motorcycle, the word GUNSHIP lovingly written in bold letters across its bright yellow body kit, and made her way back. The latest delivery had been the last one for her today and she was mercifully released from her duty as courier. Samus drove a hand through blonde tresses, feeling the summer breeze on her bare arms and through her hair.
The city was nearly deserted at these temperatures, most of the people had probably taken out their swimwear and sun lotion and made off to the beach. Samus took a left turn and grunted angrily at a driver who apparently paid more attention to his phone than the street.
She threw him a glare when he finally acknowledged the nearly-driven over highschool student and made a blank face. She shook her head, Moron, and looked ahead of her—
—but suddenly there was another car.
Her breath got stuck in her throat as she saw the van rapidly approaching from her right, the man behind the steering wheel too busy arguing with his co-driver to notice her. The young man beside him jerked around, hand flying out and mouth agape as all three of them watched — watched as Samus crashed into the flank of the van.
The man hit the brakes and the axle screeched out under a kind of pressure it was definitely not used to. Samus, all wide eyes and clear shock on her face, tried jumping off the motorcycle before impact, but the centrifugal force pulled her along. She smashed into the car, her bones giving a sickening crack and she screamed before falling down again. Pain flared up in her leg, and she bounced off of the white surface of the vehicle before her.
There were shouts, faces appeared around her blurry vision but all she could concentrate on was the hot asphalt pressing into her cheek and her leg, and Samus struggled to keep conscious. The van, formerly white and unremarkable, was now decorated with a huge dent. Luckily no blood. Her eyes flickered, taking in the state of her motorcycle, and she groaned.
Hands were grabbing at her and then there was a break in which she couldn't remember what happened, but then flashing lights and blaring sirens filtered into her consciousness before everything finally went dark.
The news spread like a wildfire. Come morning after the accident, the entire school was informed that Samus Aran had been hit by a car the day before. The mood was accordingly; Anthony had so far been the only one allowed to see her in the hospital and he seemed grim, obviously.
Zelda, Peach, and Impa were currently sitting outside on campus, under the shady trees leading to the nearby park. Link had reluctantly excused himself after one of his buddies had urgently called him. Peach whispered ominously, "I heard she needs a wheelchair now. Can you believe that?" She looked genuinely worried, but Impa just sighed.
"Please. I talked to Anthony earlier. He says she's pretty much okay and will be back tomorrow if she herself feels fine." She slurped her smoothie, "Apparently she was really lucky the other guy wasn't driving with eighty mph over it. But he's sure as hell getting sued by her uncle though."
Peach grimaced, "Yea sure, but how can he be so certain? He's no physician." Impa, a senior and classmate of Samus and Anthony, just rolled her eyes. "Peach, he has that info from the doctors. They said she'll be fine. It's just a minor concussion and as long as she doesn't see everything threefold then all's well."
Zelda observed her friends argue about the validity of Anthony's claims while taking a sip from her juice box. She hadn't heard anything from her classmates, so Peach and Impa were the best sources of information she was going to get for that matter.
She was a little surprised over her own thoughts; why was she so curious anyways? It wasn't as if she had any kind of personal interest in Samus' wellbeing. Zelda internally smiled to herself, Guess that's just how I am… Caring about people I don't even know.
It was only in her last class when Peach virtually nudged her friend with a quick text that Zelda's thoughts returned to Samus and the accident. She checked her phone, seeing the message from the blonde, "are you coming to the stadium tomorrow? impa said samus would come to school again and shell probs be there."
Zelda felt her attention grabbed; there was another football match scheduled for tomorrow. The accident was obviously nothing anyone had foreseen and Zelda wondered what the team was going to do. She doubted Samus would be allowed to play football for a while and it somewhat saddened her; she knew it sucked not being able to do what you loved.
The rest of the day went by quite unspectacularly. Zelda and Peach had met up after classes and soon went back to the dorms. Peach shared a room with Impa, both being seniors, while Zelda shared hers with a girl named Lydia. She was mostly never present in their quarters though so Zelda hadn't really bothered to become friends with her.
She felt a bit bad about it, but Impa always told her you couldn't be friends with everyone. Impa herself was the best example of that lifestyle; she didn't have many friends because she tended to be, well, grumpy, but the few she kept close were those she could always count on.
They enjoyed a few hours of respite and watched trashy TV in Peach and Impa's room — having been able to do so because Impa apparently had something better to do, which ground on Peach a bit — before Zelda made her way back to her own dorm.
She was halfway over the campus when she noticed a purple motorcycle pulling up towards the parking lot nearby. The engine was purring lowly, the headlight throwing a bright cone of light on the asphalt. She stopped and looked over, curious as to who was still out and about this late in the evening. Goosebumps rising up on her arms, her eyes widened when she recognized none other than Samus Aran herself shutting off the engine and making her way over to what would very likely be her dorm.
Zelda swallowed; despite Peach's message earlier she hadn't expected Samus to return quite so quickly — considering she just got out of a car crash the other day. She watched, suddenly self-conscious, as Samus straightened her ponytail and walked a rather brisk pace.
Other than that, she couldn't see anything different about the blonde footballer. She was still in once piece, that leather jacket was the one she usually wore, and there was most certainly no wheelchair involved. Zelda bit her lip and waited with bated breath until Samus was gone. Then, she quietly went back to her own dorm, contemplating what she just witnessed. Thoughts racing, she wondered if the star quarterback would be on the field tomorrow.
[A/N:] I hope you enjoyed reading. Feel free to express your opinions, expectations, hatred, and whatnot in a review for me to shift through! I always look forward to feedback :-)