A Much Needed Hero

Chapter 3: Hope

[Zelda]

    Zelda slammed the back door of her car closed with her foot, balancing bags of groceries in her arms. After her emotional breakdown she had washed her car and then she had gone to the store and purchased comfort food. The chips, cookies, and ice cream she'd bought should fill the empty void inside her, right?  Plus her dad was preparing for a big case so he wouldn't be home until late tonight. Zelda sighed, she wished her dad would pay more attention to her, but, as a big shot lawyer, he hardly had time to sleep let alone time too spend with his daughter. If only her mom were still alive. Zelda's heart squeezed and fresh tears sprang into her eyes at the thought of her mother. It had been four years since the incident, but the wounds still felt as fresh as they had been on day one.

"Zelda?"

She jumped at her name and whirled around, her pint of ice cream sailing out of the bag. "Oh no!"

"Don't worry, I've got it."

Zelda was about to thank whoever had saved her ice cream's life but her words fell flat as she saw who she was talking to.

Link was standing there holding her ice cream in one hand, a crooked smile spread across his face. Oh man, what must he think of her and all the junk food she was bringing into her house? She hurriedly snatched the ice cream back and hid everything behind her back.

She cleared her throat. "Hey, Link. What are you doing here?"

He smiled, "Did you know we're neighbors?"

"Uh, yeah," Zelda tilted her head. "Did you not know that?"

Link blushed, he was cute when he was flustered. "No, but I'm just super absent minded so-"

Zelda laughed, cutting him off. "You're fine, I was just giving you a hard time."

Link  chuckled awkwardly, "Anyways I was wondering if you could tutor me in math? You see it's Algebra 2 and it just makes no sense to me at all." He rubbed the back of his neck and made frantic gestures with his other hand. "And, I don't know, I thought that maybe- if you want to of course- you could help me out?"

Zelda paused. Why on earth would Link want to hang out with her?

He doesn't want to hang out with you, he wants you to tutor him. 

She shook her head, Link simply wanted her help. No one would ever want to be friends with her, and she was crazy to get her hopes up. She plastered on another fake smile, trying to hide her disappointment. "Of course, I'll help you. Do you want to meet before school tomorrow?"

"Really, you'll help me?" Link beamed. "Tomorrow before school should work."

"I'll see you then." Zelda turned to go inside, feeling another wave of tears moments from bursting through her happy facade.

"Wait," Link blocked her path. "Who painted those mean words on your car earlier today?"

Zelda's ears went red, horrified that he had seen that. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does."

"No it doesn't." Zelda tried to keep the anger out of her voice, but this was a touchy subject and she didn't want to talk about it.

"It does, Zelda. No one should be treated like that."

She let out a frustrated laugh. "Well, why should you care? It's none of your business."

Link sighed. "I care because I don't like watching my friends get bullied."

"We're not friends. You didn't even know I existed until today, did you?"