[SSBM] Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys: Year Two [Chapter One PART TWO]

[themartikaminna]

Yeah, it was that long.

- - -

"Why won't Marth be in school for the next two weeks?" Link asked. "Does he have any idea how much school work he'll have to make up?"

Link and Roy were walking to sixth period, which was Intro. to Journalism, two subject notebooks in hand. Opening the door, they walked inside and took their seats.

"Well, Marth said he needed to go back to Altea for personal reasons."

"Well it can't be too bad if he's eventually coming back," Link said, leaning back on the hind legs of the chair.

"But what could have happened in Altea that would cause him to be gone for two weeks?"

Link shrugged.

"No idea, Roy. No idea."

Roy sat back in his chair, trying to balance his pen on his nose.
"Doesn't Marth have a girlfriend or something?" Link asked, looking at the essay-covered wall at the front of the room.
"Last I heard, he was affianced to her."

There was a clang when Link leaned forward in his chair, causing the chair to stand on all four legs.

"...D'you think he could be getting married?"

Roy looked at him.

"Is he even old enough to?"

Link thought for a moment.

"His birthday was before school let out for the summer."

"Didn't he turn eighteen on the eleventh?" Roy asked, looking through his planner.

"Well yeah. And isn't eighteen the age when someone turns legal?"

Roy was still flipping through his planner.

"Here it is. I don't know about Altea, though. And besides, Marth's a prince; he can do whatever he damn well pleases and no one can question him."

The bell rang and Mr. Lombardi walked into the classroom, papers and assorted folders under his wing.

"Yeah yeah, everyone take your seats and look up front."

Link, who was suffering from boredom, opened up his notebook and doodled a mini-comic where the evil Sharpie Thieves stole the Manse's Sharpie supply while asking people to shiver their timbers and give them candy. While that was going on, Mr. Lombardi passed out "Writer's Handbook" textbooks and told them what was expected of them in order to pass the class.

"If you don't like to write, don't take this class. There's gonna be a lot of that going on, so either get used to it or get out. You'll be expected to keep a neat and organised notebook and a writing portfolio. The writing portfolio is worth as much as a test, so make sure it's neat, organised, and up-to-date." He turned around and wrote a few things on the board.

"For tonight's assignment, I want you to write about your home life. 'Home life' means a little about your mother land, your family, friends, excetera. It has to be at least a page and a half, MLA style; typed, double spaced, one inch margins all around, a header that has your last name and page number on the right hand side, and if you quote anything from a book or the internet--which I don't see why you would but you never know--a proper works cited page is a must. You can get started on it right now."

Roy chewed on his pen cap as he thought of his home life. How was he supposed to write about it? It's not like he really did anything at home. There wasn't much to write about family-wise, either--if they wanted to find out about his father, all they needed to do was pick up a book on Lycian rulers (current edition) and his father would be there. He had no siblings, unless you counted Wolt as a sort of "foster brother", and he wasn't going to write sappy things about his girlfriend.

"This assignment's harder than I thought it would be," Roy said, writing the opening paragraph.

"How's it hard for you?" Link asked, staring at the blank page as if the assignment would write itself. "At least you have a family you could write about. What am I gonna put for it, a talking tree and a bunch of millenia old kids?"

"Well, they're like your adopted family--"

"But my father died when I was a baby, as did my mother. And then my 'adoptive father' died when Ganondorf was trying to take Hyrule, my 'adoptive mother' turned out to be the Sage of the Forest and I couldn't see her ever again... I have no one." Link sighed, depressed. "This assignment makes me sad."

Roy was too busy writing to hear half of what Link said.

"...But those Kokiri kid-people were like a family to you, weren't they?" Roy asked.

"Well, yeah."

"Then write about them. They're still apart of your home life, right?"

Link smiled and wrote all about Saria and Mido and the Great Deku Tree.

"....There's nothing to write about," Gary Stu Wesker explained to the teacher, gesturing to the blank sheet of loose-leaf.

"What do you mean there's nothing to write about?"

"Well, I never knew my mother, and my dad's the head of some weird organisation."

"Well then," Mr. Lombardi said, "put that."

"Put what, sir?"

"If your mother's dead, write about your father. He's obviously still alive, right?"

"...Yeah."

"Then write about him."

Mister Falco Lombardi walked away from little Gary and sighed.

"Why did I apply for this job again?" he asked himself. "Why?"

He walked over to where Roy and Link were sitting together; Roy had two pages worth of stuff written, whereas Link had a page and a half.

"Mr. Pherae."

Roy turned around and faced the teacher.

"Yessir?"

"Do you have any problems with this assignment?" Mr. Lombardi asked. "Any questions?"

"Actually," Roy said, picking up his paper, "I wanted to ask you about something."

"Yes?"

Roy pointed to a paragraph on his sheet of loose-leaf.

"Can we talk about people you consider family?"

Mr. Lombardi read the paragraph and cleared his throat.

"If you consider him to be apart of the family..."

While Roy wrote more, Falco Lombardi looked over the boy's shoulder and read what he had written.

"Roy," Falco said, "you've somehow left out your mother."

Roy stopped writing, as did Link, who actually broke his pencil tip.

"I have no mother to write about, Mr. Lombardi."

"Say what?" Falco said. "Everyone has a mother they can write about!"

Link was sharpening his pencil and overheard the conversation.

"I don't! She died shortly after I was born." He blew off the tiny pieces of pencil sharpenings and walked back to his seat.

"...I see. So you, Link, don't remember your mother?"

"Nope."

"Well that sucks. What about you, Roy? Do you remember her?"

Roy stared at his pen.

"Vaguely."

"Well then!" Mr. Lombardi stood up and placed his hands on his hips. "You should write about what you do remember about her. It's the little things that make a story detailed and yours."

Gary Stu Wesker somehow set his paper on fire by erasing too hard and called the teacher over.

"...I hate my job," was all Mr. Lombardi said as he got out the fire extinguisher.

- - -

"I honestly don't think it was his place to be telling you what you should write about your family," Link said as he walked to his locker, which was on the first floor of the new building near the locker rooms. Roy was next to him.

"It's okay."

"I mean, I wrote about my mother."

"...How can you if you've never met her?"

Link opened the locker and placed his bookbag contents in there.

"I just put that I never met her and I was instead raised by a talking tree."

"Oh."

Link shoved his Geometry homework into his bag, along with his English and Journalism homework.

"It's our second day back to school and we've already got homework," Link complained, kicking his locker closed and locked it.

"You were the one who said they were bored during the last month of summer break," Roy retorted, playfully punching Link's arm. "It'll give you something to do."

"Oh I've got stuff to do," Link said and grinned.

"Oh?" Roy said, walking with Link to the locker he and Marth shared. "Link Anaka Mekkai actually has something to do?" Roy gasped in mock-surprise.

"What'd you do to piss Master Hand off this time?"

Link glared at the red head, who chuckled.

"I didn't piss anyone off, thank you." Link crossed his arms.

"I was kidding," Roy said, and pushed open the door leading to the third floor of the new building.

"Yeah well, it didn't sound like it," Link retorted, nearly getting knocked over by a horde of Freshmen.

"Those snots made me late to my counselour's appointment," Link said angrily.

"What snots?"

"The Freshmen."

"Oh."

After the horde of Freshmen were gone, Roy and Link saw Marth sitting by his locker reading a book.

"What took you so long?" Marth asked, not looking up from I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.

Roy saw the locker was unlocked and opened the door. Unzipping his bookbag, he placed his books into the locker and took out his Geometry notebook, his English book, and his Journalism notebook.

"Roy," Marth said, peering into the locker, "your books go on the top shelf. Mine go on the bottom."

"Yeah, okay."

"...Fix it then."

Link stared at Marth funny.

"Marth, they're on the bottom nice and neat. It's not like they're all over--"

"But his shelf is the top," Marth interrupted. "Not the bottom. What do I have to do, label it?"

So Roy picked up his books and placed them, neatly, on the top shelf of the locker.

"Much better," Marth remarked as Roy shut the locker and locked it.

"...Are you really going to label it?" Roy asked

"Of course," Marth replied.

"...Okay then."

Marth marked the page he was on and got up. Brushing himself off, he shouldered his bookbag and wrapped an arm around Roy's shoulder.

"Let's go home. I have a crapload of homework to do and I have to pack."

Roy leaned against Marth, which kind of weirded Link out.
"But who will help me with my Geometry homework if I get stuck?" Roy asked and pouted.
"I'm sure Peach wouldn't mind. After all, she is your Geometry teacher," Marth replied.

Roy and Marth both went down the stairs and through the double doors. By the time Link reached them, they closed right in his face and nearly knocked him backwards. He regained his balance and ran through the doors and down the stairs, tripped and fell over his own feet, went through the other door, and somehow managed to catch up with Marth and Roy.

"I don't think Peach will be able to help Link, though," Roy said as they took a left and went down half a flight of stairs and out the front doors of the building, Link right behind them. "He's not even supposed to be there."
"I can still hear you, Roy," Link said, mock-anger in his voice.
"I know you can and that's why I'm doing it," Roy said, turning around and sticking his tongue out.
"Hey! Marth, he stuck his tongue out at me!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!" Link retorted.
"Did not!" Roy shouted back.
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Both of you!" Marth interjected. "What are you, five?"
"I'm fifteen," Roy and Link said together.
"Then act like it."

Roy pouted at Marth and he laughed, pulling Roy closer.
"You know I love you both," Marth said, and gave Roy a noogie.
"Hey!"
"...Oh, and Link?" Marth said, not turning around, "didn't you have an attaché with you this morning?"Link adjusted the straps on his bookbag and shrugged.
"Yeah, I did, but it was a pain so I shoved it in my locker after third period and switched to my backpack."

Marth's stomach growled on their walk home.
"Sounds like someone's hungry," Link remarked when his stomach growled.
"That's because you didn't have lunch," Roy said.
"Yeah well, when I bumped into Mewtwo this morning, he blew my sandwich up."

Roy stifled a laugh and Marth shook his head.
"It was horrible! Bologna everywhere! There was mustard all over this squirrel, lettuce all over my History stuff, and bread all over the sidewalk that all these pidgeons flocked to!"
Roy and Marth couldn't help but laugh at the poor blond's misfortune.
"I hope the squirrel liked the mustard," Link said, and sighed.