As the Days Go By | Legend of Zelda AU (ONGOING)

3. May Flowers

A month passed since my stay here and it admittedly wasn't all that bad. Much to my misfortune, my newfound "friends" kept dragging me around everywhere, but I think I'm starting to not mind hanging out with them just by the tiniest bit.

The April showers passed and May flowers were brought to life. Okay, yeah, I can agree that was horrendously cliche.

Here we were, grades split into four different groups covering different "sectors" of the park partaking in what our school called a "spring cleaning" event. Perhaps a bit too late for that with summer creeping around the corner, but that's just me.

Honestly, I wasn't on board with this and would very much rather be home doing nothing but listening to music. Oh wait, no surprise there. We were forced here because ghosting the event would count as an absence, but at least I was allowed my music. It made what was a tedious day ever so slightly bearable. The best part about this stupid event was the fact we could head straight home right after.

"Take this!"

I heard somebody gaudily crying out and violently stabbing a poor, innocent aluminum can. That poor aluminum can—whoever littered it here was the real piece of trash. That's beside the point. Whoever stabbed it was cheered triumphantly at his successful pillaging of the can. That person was... Groose...

Of all the redheads I've met in my life this was the most atrociously distasteful person I've met. This Groose person transferred here, like I did, earlier this month. Since then, he has made such an impact on everyone's lives.

Okay, maybe that's saying a bit much, but not at all inaccurate. Hylia? What the hell are you doing bringing all these loud, obnoxious people into my life?

Quickly scanning the area, I checked to see if there was any trash left on the ground. There was none much to my relief, so I moved on to another area. Far away from that dumb-pompadour-ass. Hearing his voice and doing manual labor was giving me a migraine.

"Oh, Link! Friend!"

Oh, heavens yes. I'd very much gladly take Sidon over Groose. Frankly, I found myself speaking to him according to my own volition. Speaking of whom, I found out he led the school's swim team to a national level which was pretty cool.

Not normally a thing I'd be interested in, but I was interested nevertheless. And that interest took me to the school's tennis team. Too bad tryouts have since long gone earlier that spring. Maybe when autumn comes around.

"Hey, what's up?" I said. I removed my earbuds, letting them hang around my neck.

"I'd like to invite you to have lunch with me once this is all said and done. How about it?"

"As long as you're paying," I said with a chuckle.

"Of course!" he said way too cheerfully as usual.

I just stared blankly at him because I was just joking about him paying. Oh well, free food I guess. Who in their right mind turns down free food?

We were finally let go a quarter to one and I went to look for Sidon. Though, he ended up finding me first. It was like he has a radar for all his friends... Yeah, that sounded about right. I couldn't help but feel slightly perturbed, but not for the fact I stated. It's just that— as cliche as it sounds —I never explicitly considered people my friends.

That's what life does to you. Well, my life to be exact. Being constantly passed around by relatives and other family all around the country makes it so you can't make long-lasting relationships.

Still, even I found that to be a strange reason to feel so disturbed.

Enough with that anyways. Sidon led us to a supposedly spectacular diner not too far away from the park. By us, I don't mean just me and Sidon. Someone else tagged along with us, another transfer student. Was spring the season of transfer students or something?

Sidon introduced him to me as Neji, a kid who's just a grade our junior. He's a pretty small kid, just up to my chin, and let me tell you I'm not that tall; 5'7". He had snow-white hair with purple highlights at the tips and equally purple eyes. Seriously, what is it with people and eccentric hair colors? It could've been dyed for all I knew, but they didn't allow that in school.

Weird. People are weird. Maybe I'm weird.

Hylia, I am sincerely sorry for what I said earlier because damn Neji was almost as energetic as Sidon. I thought it wasn't possible, but I guess the world showed me.

The diner was pretty quaint, very retro. It had a nice aesthetic, and it was devoid of customers. In fact, the three of us were the only ones there.

Neji gasped and I curiously eyed him. He dashed to the counter and launched himself atop one of the stools. The force and impact of his landing spun the chair and him along with it. Did I say he's almost as energetic as Sidon? Yeah, the latter is just energetic as in overly optimistic. It was still the same energy to me.

A kindly girl about our age, Romani her name tag said, took our orders. I opted for a BLT, Sidon a gyro wrap, and Neji a bacon cheeseburger with "double bacon and cheese, extra fries, and extra coleslaw" as he put it. I swore, if he ate like this on a regular basis then he must have an absolutely ludicrous metabolism or he must be an athlete of some kind. The kid was so damn slender.

I'll admit, when our orders came back to us I never thought a simple BLT could look so damn good. The toasted bread was perfectly golden brown and the bacon looked so damn crispy. Not to mention the lettuce looked so crisp and refreshing. Never thought I'd obsess over lettuce, but here we are. I swear, I must've been admiring it for a moment too long because Neji tapped my arm.

"Dude, you gonna eat that or what?" he asked earnestly, looking me dead in the eye. I just blinked at him and said, "what?"

"Can I have the pickle at least?"

I stared back at my plate. I wasn't a huge fan of pickles, so I nudged my plate slightly towards him and watched as he eagerly snatched the pickle and gobbled it almost instantaneously.

As we ate our meal, I listened to Sidon and Neji talking to each other jovially. Occasionally, they'd try to bring me into the conversation, or I'd sometimes chime in on my own whim.

For some reason... This felt so right.

A/N: If you recognize good boy Neji then good for you. Courtesy of CapricornSiren, thanks for letting me use him. I hope as I continue to use him, I'm doing the source material justice, of course, with my own spin on him