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

[themartikaminna]

Title: "Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys: Year Two
Author: sailorvfan10
Summary: Melee Academy is like any other all boys' school. Marth, Roy, and Link are three friends who go there, and though their principal fell off his rocker and can't quite get back up, it's as normal as can be. At least, they think it is.
Word Count: 6027 words
Fandom: Super Smash Brothers Melee
Pairing(s): Some implied Marth/Roy, Marth/Sheeda, Roy/Lilina, Link/Zelda
Genre(s): General/Romance
Fic Type: Work in Progress
Warning(s): None.
Disclaimer: Super Smash Brothers Melee is not mine. It belongs to Hal Laboratories/Nintendo.
Notes: These chapters take so long.

"Marth, wake up."
The blue haired prince turned away from the voice, pulled the sheets over his head, and went back to sleep.
"Marth..."
The sheets were pulled away, exposing Marth's white t-shirt and blue pajama pants. Marth covered his eyes with his forearm and groaned. It was too early to wake up, and it was only Wednesday...

The person waking him up turned on their cell phone, set it to the loudest possible volume, placed it by his ear, and played a heavy metal song.
"Well that woke you up," the boy said when Marth nearly fell off the bed.
"Roy!" Marth shouted, his heart beating at a hundred miles a minute. "That was uncalled for!"
Roy did nothing but smirk and pocket the phone. He walked over to the other side of the bed and picked up the black dress pants on the floor.
"You overslept," Roy said, "and I've been trying to get you up for the past half hour." Roy dropped the pants onto the bed; Marth took them, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and changed his pants.

"Has anyone seen my shirt?" Link asked, poking his head into the room. Roy was brushing his hair.
"'S probably in the laundry room," Roy answered, placing the brush down onto the top of the dresser.
"That's where it was yesterday." Marth was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and didn't hear the question.
"I already checked there, and it wasn't there," the blond stated, leaning against the door way.
"Just wear one of mine," the red head said, trying to tie his tie.

- - -

"Breakfast was half an hour ago," Peach said when Marth came down the stairs. He went into the pantry and took the last poptart.
"So I heard," the prince replied, opening the foil packaging. He took out a piece of the blueberry poptart and munched on it.
"I have your lunches," Peach said, placing a Super Mario Bros. lunch box, a Sponge Bob lunch box, and a brown paper bag on the counter top. Roy and Link came down the stairs at that moment, bookbags over their shoulders, papers in hand, pencils in their mouths.
"What was the answer to number ten?" Link asked, looking over the Pheraean's shoulder. "I didn't get number ten."
"Of course you didn't," Roy said. "You failed Algebra. You shouldn't be in Geometry."

Link huffed and wrote down "42" as his answer, because forty-two was the answer to life, the universe, and everything else. Or so Link thought.
"I don't need no stinking Geometry," Link said, staring blankly at the sheet of paper.
"Too bad your homework can't do itself," Roy retorted, and stuffed the math homework into his notebook before Link could copy any further. The blond pouted.
"You copied off of me last year and you still failed."

Link did nothing except pout some more and grab his Sponge Bob lunch box off of the counter.
"That's because you purposely put the wrong answer on the sheet and then erased it and put the right one on there afterwards!" Link shouted. "That's not right!"
"Cheating period isn't right," Marth butted in, grabbing the brown paper bag. "You won't learn anything if you keep doing that. No wonder you failed."
"I resent that!" Link shouted as he walked out the door. Roy and Marth looked at each other, shrugged, and left. Roy then remembered that he left his lunch on the counter and went back to retrieve it.

- - -

"So we have an Administrative Station today," Roy said as he glanced at the bulletin on the outside wall by the entrance.
"What about?" Link asked, paper up against the wall as he was trying to write the last remaining sentences to his essay.
"...I think it's about homecoming," Roy answered. "It doesn't really say anything."
Link sighed as he shoved the blue-inked paper into his bookbag.
"We have to present those, you know," Roy reminded him, and Link groaned.
"Is it the weekend yet?"
"No," Roy replied, and crossed his arms. "Should Marth be taking this lo--hey, who's the girl?"

Link and Roy stuck their heads out of the door way to see a girl with long hair and what appeared to be a foreign school uniform talking to Marth.
"They're laughing," Link gruffily said, his patience wearing thin.
"So?" Roy questioned, "they're laughing. There's nothing wrong with--" Roy was cut off by a jab in the ribs and Link frantically pointing at the couple across the way.
"Okay," Roy said, rubbing his ribs, "they're kissing. So what?"
"That's the whole problem!" Link shouted, still staring. "They're kissing!"
Roy rolled his eyes.
"Well duh, that's his girlfriend."
"Fiancée," Link corrected.
"Whatever."
"And anyway," Link went on, "that doesn't look like Sheeda."
"Yes it does," Roy replied, going back to look at the bulletin.

Roy and Link both shut up when Marth showed up next to them, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
"What?" Marth asked, not understanding why Link was looking at him strangely.
"Who was she?" Link asked as they entered through the door and into the warm hallway.
"Who?" Marth asked, opening the door that led to the stairs to go to the third floor of the new building.
"You know who," Link replied, getting closer to Marth. The prince moved a few inches away from the Hylian, wanting his personal space.
"No," Marth said, holding the door open for his companions. "I'm not a mind reader, you know."
Link opened the other door while Roy went through after Marth.
"What is with you, Link?"

Marth put in the combination and, with a clatter, his locker opened.
"I wanna know who that girl was! Don't you already have a girlfriend? You're cheating on her! Wait until I write a letter to her and--"
Marth stopped paying attention and stared blankly into his locker for a few moments.
"...Roy said it was Sheeda but I said it looked nothing like her and wait until I tell everyone!"
Marth dropped his books on the bottom shelf, turned towards Link, and got right in his face.
"For your information, Mr. Gossip, that girl was Sheeda, my girlfriend."
That shut Link up. Roy wordlessly moved past Marth and placed his books on the top shelf.

"So, uh...Marth? What's that in your bookbag?" Roy asked in an attempt to change the subject. Marth looked at the object Roy was pointing to and replied, "A label maker."
Roy leaned against the adjacent locker and quirked an eyebrow.
"A label maker?"
"Yes," Marth answered. "So then you won't forget where your books go." The prince took it out, spelled M-A-R-T-H, and pressed a button. A few seconds later, a label appeared out of the end, which Marth ripped off, and stuck it to the bottom shelf of the locker. He did the same thing with Roy's shelf.
"Sheesh, neat freak much?" Link asked, his arms crossed. Marth shrugged.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting organisation, you know." The prince grabbed the books he needed up until lunch and placed them in his bookbag according to period number. Roy and Link wordlessly watched as Marth went through his daily ritual of neatness and organisation. Afterwards, Roy grabbed his books for the first three periods of his day, shoved them in his bag without a care in the world about their order, and closed and locked the locker.

"I dunno, Marth," Link said as the three started walking down the hall, "being that neat and organised is...not normal."
Marth shrugged. "I'm a very neat person."
"Yeah, but there's a fine line between 'organised' and 'obsessively organised'," Link stated, adjusting the straps of his bookbag.
"There's probably a mental disorder for obsessive neatness somewhere," Link muttered, "and I will find it." Roy looked at Link as he muttered to himself, looked to Marth (who looked back and whispered, "I think Link's gone crazy,") and watched as Link nearly knocked into the 6'3" quarterback walking down the hallway.

- - -

"Will everyone please report to their administrative stations?"
Though the announcement repeated several times, half of the school was still loitering in the hallways, talking to friends, stopping by their lockers...whatever they could find or think of to prolong their trip to their administrative stations. Marth left the group half-way through the first time the announcement was uttered, his excuse being, "it's better to be early than late". So Roy and Link wandered the halls, enjoying the sound of their footfalls echoing off of the walls. The hallways were near empty, and the hall monitors were off wherever getting ready for the day.
"Maybe we should go to our homerooms," Roy said, peering into all of the second floor rooms. "The bell's gonna ring at any moment."

Link and Roy took to the stairs, and at the third floor entrance they parted ways. Roy ran like the wind up the stairs to the third floor of the new building and went straight down the halls. Papers on the floor kicked up behind him from the wind he was creating. He turned the corner and went down the back stairway to the second floor of the new building and made his way to 218N, where his homeroom was. Panting, he made his way inside. His homeroom was scarce, as most of the people in it were in the gifted classes, and because the homerooms were sorted by what level classes you took, he wasn't surprised, and he went to the back of the room to sit. The bell rang, and his homeroom teacher rambled on about homecoming and how one shouldn't drop out of school. What that had to do with anything, no one knew. The teacher, Mr. Garnef, took attendance, stopping at Roy's name.

"I'm probably going to butcher it but...is Roy...Fur-ay? Fear-ay...Far-ay...?" Everyone turned around to see the red head's reaction. Roy shrugged; he was used to teachers mispronouncing his last name (not that it was hard to pronounce).
"Feh-ray," Roy said, correcting the teacher, Mr. Garnef.
"Okay then. Roy Pherae."
"Here," Roy answered, tapping his pen against the desk.

Meanwhile, in room 304, the teacher named Mr. Schuldig was having problems pronouncing Link's last name.
"Meh-key?"
"No," Link said, "Mehk-kah-ee."
"Okay, whatever. Meleki. Now moving onward, before I have to smack someone..." Link just threw his hands in the air and gave up. Of course, it didn't help that people were snickering and that Gary Stu Wesker was in his class trying to be the patron saint of holiness or whatever. He sighed and took out his math homework.
"Does anyone have Ms. Toadstool for Geometry?" Link shouted, holding up his homework. No one answered, and Link fake-sobbed. Of course, his homeroom teacher threatened to throw him out the window and step on his remains over and over if he shouted again, so Link nearly choked on his water at that comment.

It wasn't any better in room 203, where Marth was stuck with the most obnoxious guy in the whole universe, at least in Marth's opinion. His name was Shawn Toal. He thought he was hot crap because his father was a high school music teacher. Big deal, Marth always thought. Big freaking deal. And so, Marth was drumming his fingers on his desk and pondering why the heck there was an administrative station to begin with.
"We have a student named 'Prince'?" the teacher, Ms. Gilbert muttered to herself. Everyone 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed until they realised that, no Ms. Gilbert, there isn't a student whose first name is 'Prince' because that's his title. No one said that out loud, of course.
"Strange middle name, though. And how am I supposed to pronounce his last name? Low-ull? Is that like the 'Joel' in 'Billy Joel'? Hmm..."

Marth knew the teacher was muttering about him and stared at her the whole time.
"Is there a Prince Marth...Low...something...here?"
Marth raised his hand and said, "Marth's my given name, and it's Low-ell for the last name." The students laughed at her and Ms. Gilbert blushed.
"...Very well then. Ahem. This administrative station is for homecoming! You will get to decide who will be the king and who will be the queen!...as soon as I find the slips you're supposed to fill out." While she shuffled things on her desk around, Marth stared out the window. There were three trees outside it, their leaves a multitude of colours. Fall was definitely on its way, he noted, and watched as the breeze shook some leaves off their branches.

"Here they are!"
Ms. Gilbert passed the papers out to each person individually, and Marth noticed that his homeroom teacher was flirting with him. Marth, being the dignified prince he was raised to be, ignored it and filled out his paper. Marth had never seen any of the names before, but that didn't stop him from selecting Joe Costello and Nicholas Strasto as the king and queen. Which brought up the question as to why there was even a queen to begin with, but Marth ignored it and decided it was best not to question Mr. Crazy L. Hand's authority.

After everyone finished filling out the paper, the teacher collected it, made sure they were facing the correct way, and placed them in the manila envelope labeled "Homecoming Votes". As soon as she placed it in the "Things to Go Down to the Office" bin on her desk, the bell rang, signaling the administrative station was over. Marth collected his things and got up from his desk, stretched, and walked out as quick as he could so as to avoid Ms. Gilbert and her advances.

- - -

"So let me get this straight," Nicholas muttered to himself, "we have first, third, fourth, sixth, and eighth periods?"
Mewtwo felt a headache coming on and searched through his desk drawer for some asprin.
"Yes," the psychic pokémon said, floating in the air. "It's on the board, isn't it? I don't write things on the board for the fun of it, Mr. Pickell."
Stephen was too immersed in his game of Uno for the Game Boy Color to hear a word they were saying. He turned the brightness setting on his Game Boy Advance up so he could see the colour of the cards better and went back to playing. Gary was sitting with his hands folded neatly, still trying to be the patron saint of holiness or whatever.

"Nice of you to join us," Mewtwo said, gesturing to the new student. Kweenetra bowed at the door and then walked into the classroom.
"Sit in the back somewhere," the pokemon said, drinking coffee from his "Please Donate to the LMOA Foundation" mug. Kweenetra did as she was told and got out her Nintenpod.
"Hey," Nicholas said, turning to his left to face the newcomer, "aren't you a girl?"
Kweenetra stared at him and went, "...Yeah, I am."
"Well then why the hell are you here?" Stephen asked, still focusing on his game. "This is an all boys school."
Kweenetra shrugged.
"My parents put me here, so if you're gonna yell at someone, yell at them," she replied, getting her notebook out.

"I wouldn't talk if I were you," Gary Stu Wesker said, turning to face Stephen, "you were Stephenie at one point."
Stephen looked up from his game and glared.
"Yeah. When I was a freshman. I was the only girl, and then Mr. Hand told my parents that in order for me to stay, I had to have a sex change operation," Stephen said in a nonchalant way. "But that's all behind me. I'm Stephen now. And Mr. Hand'll probably tell your parents the same thing he told mine, Kweenetra. So you'll become...Kweenetro or something."
Kweenetra sighed.
"You can just call me 'Kwee'. Kweenetra's a mouthful, I know."

"I am not late!" Link shouted with joy as he walked casually over to his desk. Mewtwo threw the strategy guide for Pokémon Emerald at the teen, who fell over. He got up, picked the guide up and placed it on his desk.
"Thanks, Mr. Mewtwo, I need this in order to beat Roxanne."
Mewtwo rolled his eyes.
"Wow, Link," Roy said as he and Marth walked into the classroom, "you're not late! Elimine has performed a miracle!"
Link looked at Roy funny.
"Who's Elimine?" Link asked. Roy, by this time, had taken his seat and gotten his books out.
"Saint Elimine's the one who founded Elibe's religion," Roy explained.
Link nodded and said, "I figured that."

Marth opened his book to the page the homework was on and opened his notebook. Gary, who looked up to Marth because he was so neat and organised and perfect, did the exact same thing. Marth leaned back in his chair and relaxed.
"Did the bell ring?" Stephen asked, turning the Game Boy Advance off and stashing it in his pants pocket.
"No, it did not," Mewtwo replied, "but I'm starting the lesson anyway. Kiritsu!"
"Kiritsu!" the class answered, standing up. Kweenetra almost fell over because the desk was attached to the chair. She inwardly cursed.
"Ohayo gozaimasu," Mewtwo greeted as unenthusiastically as possible.
"Ohayo gozaimasu," the class replied.
"Rei." Mewtwo bowed, and the class followed suit.
"Suwatte kudasai," Mewtwo said, telling them to sit down. Kweenetra awkwardly sat down, almost missing the seat.
"Goddammit!" she cursed, and Mewtwo pretended to not hear her.

"Your assignment," Mewtwo said, "is on the board." With a wave of his hand, a piece of chalk began writing on the board what page the assignment was. Kweenetra, who was not used to this, commented, "Awesome! It's just like Harry Potter!"
Mewtwo, who did not appreciate having his psychic powers confused with magic, also added, "Kweenetra Smythe, detention after school in the library." When Kweenetra protested, Mewtwo added, "Make that two." So Kweenetra pouted, Stephen snickered, Nicholas threw a pencil at him, and Mewtwo wondered what possessed him to think teaching was a good idea.

- - -

Marth went up to the third floor to room 320, History II 21. While Marth certainly looked like the typical history geek, he had a dirty little secret in his closet: he actually hated history. Marth remembered a time when he was younger when he would constantly fall asleep to the sound of his tutor babbling away about Akaneia's history and how Altea came into being and Marth, one day, decided he didn't care. Marth's hatred of history, of course, made it so that Marth couldn't become number one in his class, but he didn't care so long as he was passing. And since Marth was passing with a B plus average, he decided that was fine with him. So he entered the history room and was greeted with various historical figures from different places. He recognised none of them, decided he could care less, and sat down in his seat near the back. The others in his class hadn't arrived yet, so he stared out the window and watched the cars go by.

Meanwhile, Roy and Link made it to the locker room just in time, otherwise they faced being locked out and receiving a zero for the day. Link couldn't afford having another one and Roy didn't want his perfect record tarnished. Link went to locker N26; Roy went to locker E82. The other guys looked Link up and down and made cat calls, and Link decided he would change in a bathroom stall instead. Roy, however, had no problems and changed right by his locker, ignoring the stares he received.
After changing into their gym uniforms, they made their way outside and over to where Ms. Aran was waiting. She looked impatiently at her watch and said, "Next time, hurry up." Roy and Link grinned sheepishly at her and sat down on the fake grass. Gary shrieked when a butterfly landed on his nose, scaring the poor insect off, and received a glare from Ms. Aran.
"Butterflies should be the least of your problems," she said. "Try fighting alien lifeforms and then we'll talk about scary." She took attendance and threw the grade book onto the turf.

"Here's what we're doing today. Because I know most of you are lazy and think physical education is the easiest thing in the world, I'm going to have you run four laps around the track. For those of you who are math-illiterate, that's exactly one mile. Just make sure to pace yourself so you don't burn out all of your energy and can only run half a lap. Half a lap is not acceptable. One lap isn't acceptable. I want at least two and a half before you even think about walking to catch your breath. Any questions?" The blonde looked into the eyes of each and every student and saw no hands raised.
"Alright then, get going!" She clapped three times and the class walked onto the track.
"Let's go!" Ms. Aran shouted, gesturing to the people standing on the track. "What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?"
"Yeah!" one kid replied, and everyone quickly moved away from him.
"Alright then," Ms. Aran said, crossing her arms. "You are cordially invited to run exactly one mile around the track for Ms. Samus Aran's gym class." Everyone laughed at the kid and began running; Link and Roy, however, decided it would be best to jog so as to conserve energy.

After the first two laps, most of the class was half dead, the cool air doing nothing to stop them from sweating profusely.
"And that," Roy said as three people collasped on the field, "is why they should've started out jogging." The Pheraean looked to his right and saw Link was having difficulty keeping up.
"Link? Are you alright?" Roy asked, concerned.
Link said nothing as he was huffing and puffing too much to talk.
"Can't...go...on..." was all Link said before he stopped. Roy kept on going, and by the time he and Link were reunited, they were pretty much the only ones left.

Meanwhile, Marth was practically bored to death. Learning the histories of different worlds in Nintendo Land should be exciting, right? That's what Marth figured, which was why he took the class. But now, he realised, it was the most boring thing in the world.
'How can Zelda think Hylian lore and history is exciting?' the prince thought as he copied down yet another ruler and another accomplishment in his binder. He looked out the window again and saw two boys kicking what looked like a freshman. Of course, since this was the Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys ('And juvenile deliquents,' Marth mentally added), no one was around when the abuse was taking place. Mr. Hand didn't care enough about anyone to have some sort of security on the premise, waving it away and remarking that they had Smashers in the school that could keep the school safe and what not.

Seventeen Smashers were in Melee Academy. Out of twenty five, that might seem like a lot. However, weapons and magic were not allowed to be brought or preformed in on the campus, so in the end, only the Smashers that did hand-to-hand combat could defend the school. And even then, what if the attacker was armed? Mewtwo kept up with his psychic abilities because of tenure so he could basically do whatever he wanted. But what about the others...?

Marth's head began to hurt and Mr. Dragmire was short of throwing a textbook at the prince when he snapped out of his thoughts.
"Yes sir?" Marth asked.
"Answer the question already, Marth," the Gerudo responded, placing the textbook on the desk.
"...Which was what, sir?"
Mr. Dragmire rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and sighed in aggravation.
"Who is the current ruler of Hyrule?"
Marth mentally hit his head against his desk.
"Princess Zelda...?"
"No!" Mr. Dragmire shouted and slammed his fists on the desk in front of him. The sudden rumble of the floor made Marth's fellow classmates shriek and shout about earthquakes.
"...No, sir?" Marth asked, remaining calm.
"No, of course not! I am the current ruler of Hyrule! Me!"
Marth sighed.
"Yes, sir."

Meanwhile, outside on the track, Link was coming up on his third lap, Roy beside him.
"Ugh," Link said in between his panting, "I...I don't feel very good."
Roy looked at him with concern.
"Wanna stop?"
"No!" Link shouted and regretted it when his throat began to ache more. "I will not give up! I am the Hero of Time! I cannot lose!"
Roy looked around and saw everyone else passed out on the track.
"Link? I don't think it's possible to lose at this point."

Suddenly, Link dropped to his knees and fell over. Roy skidded to a halt, ran back to where Link was, and knelt beside him.
"Link?" Roy tapped Link on the face. "Link." Roy slapped his cheek lightly.
"Well this doesn't look good," Roy said, standing up. He grabbed Link and made an attempt to carry him, but Link was too heavy for him.
"Dammit," Roy shouted, laying Link down gently. The Pheraean ran over to Ms. Aran and explained the situation.
"Alright, I'll call the V.P. and get an ambulance," Ms. Aran said, and ran up the stairs as fast as she could.

The bell rang, and Roy had no idea whether to stay with Link or go up to the locker room and change.

- - -

"Hey, did you hear? Some sophomore passed out doing the mile lap!"
Marth ignored the gossip around him about the Sophomore Who Passed Out During Gym and took his usual seat in Chorus class. Zelda was in her office on the phone with someone, her face a mask of worry and concern.
Marth got his lunch out, figuring it was okay to eat his lunch then since his lunch period was cut out. He thought it was odd that Roy wasn't there, but shrugged and figured he was late.

Zelda pressed a button on her cell phone and flipped the cover closed.
"So I assume you've heard about the Sophomore Who Passed Out During Gym, Zelda?" Marth asked as he peeled the crust off the top part of the bread.
"Yeah," she replied. "Do you know who it was?"
Marth shook his head.
"No one ever mentions a name. Just that he was a sophomore."
Zelda sighed.
"It was Link."

Marth nearly choked on his sandwich.
"What?"
"That's what I said," Zelda replied. "Heat exhaustion, according to the young man who stayed with him the whole time. That and dehydration."
Marth didn't know what to say except, "Where's Roy?"
Zelda sat down on the top of the piano.
"With Link at the hospital. He's the one who stayed with him while Samus went to get help."

"Are we doing anything today?" someone asked, mouth half-full with food.
"No," Zelda answered, sliding off the top of the piano. "I'm not in the mood today."
Marth wanted to know why the hell Samus had her gym class run outside when it was about eighty five degrees without the heat index.

- - -

Link and Roy returned to school in time for sixth period. The blond was a bit shaky, but otherwise he was perfectly fine (and Zelda practically cried when he returned).

"Alright class! Today you're presenting those stories we've been working on for the past two days. I told you to write a page telling me about one person in your life who you look up to. Tissues are on the window sill, if and when someone needs them," Mr. Lombardi said, and sat in one of the back row seats.
"Who wants to go first?"
No one raised their hand.
"Hmm. Let's see. Link, you go first."
Link nearly jumped when his name was called, and so he went searching for his paper in the Bookbag of No Return, aptly named because he could never find anything in it.

After several minutes of throwing books and other objects out of his bag, he found his wrinkled and slightly torn paper, pushed his chair back, walked up to the front of the room, and waited.
"You can start when you're ready, Link."
'But what if you're not ready?' Link thought, and read the first line. 'Oh, this is terrible.'
"Ahem. The one person in my life who I look up to would have to be..."
Link was not good at speaking in front of an audience and envied anyone who could. He tried to keep his hands from shaking too much and tried to focus on the words.
"Saria, my foster mother."

Mr. Lombardi gestured for Link to continue.
"Alright. Well, Saria was always patient, and nothing ever bothered her, whereas I was always the exact opposite. She told me that there was nothing wrong with being different, because you can't exactly help it." And so Link went on and on about Saria and how she was a role model.

When Link was finished, he walked to the back of the room amidst a few claps, and handed Mr. Lombardi his paper.
"We have about twenty minutes left, so who wants to go next?"
Again, no one raised their hand.
"Cecil, you go."
Cecil grumbled before he finally got up and went to the front of the room.
"My person thing is my best buddy, Ross," he began, and Link envied him for not flinching.

- - -

"I can't believe I have to go first tomorrow!" Roy shouted, walking up the two flights of stairs to get to the fourth floor.
"Well at least you didn't have to go first today," Link replied, Biology books in hand. "And we so need elevators."
Roy and Link walked past the alcove where the elevator was.
"Uh, Link? We already have elevators."
"Oh. Well, in that case, we need escalators."
"...Why?"
"So then we don't have to walk up the stairs."

They rounded the corner and picked up the pace, the halls becoming more and more deserted.
"Watch'll kill us if we're late again!" Link cried as he broke into a run.
"Us?" Roy shouted after the blond, "you mean you. I've never been late to class ever!"
Roy and Link just made it into the classroom when the bell struck "late". Two people showed up after it rang and received tardies.

"Alright class!" Mr. Game and Watch said. "It's time for notes!" The class groaned as Roy took his seat up front while Link sat all the way in the back.
"Today we are going to be learning about real biology."
"As opposed to fake biology?" someone from the middle asked.
"No. As opposed to chemistry and stuff," Mr. Game and Watch answered, taking the question seriously. Link just shook his head and Roy sighed.

Meanwhile in the Band room, Marth was sorting out stuff in his cubbie hole, going through manuscripts and tossing out what he didn't need.
"Shouldn't you be practising?" Kevin asked the prince as he retrieved his saxophone.
"I'm getting to that," Marth replied, and took out what he needed. "Now I need a music stand..."

After hunting a music stand down, he balanced his flute in one hand, manuscript under his arm, the stand in the other hand, and a pencil in his mouth. Going over to an empty chair, he sat down, adjusted the stand so it was the correct height, and placed the music onto it.
"Are you like, OCD or something?" Kevin asked, cleaning his sax.
Marth was about to play his piece when he replied, "No, I just like to be organised."
Kevin said, "Whatever," and any further speaking was drowned out by Marth playing. Kelly hit a wrong note on his clarinet and Marth cursed due to the bad note making him mess up as well. Marth's ears were sensitive when it came to music, and one wrong note could mess him up pretty badly.

Back in Academic Biology, Roy and Link were taking notes on more stuff they wouldn't need to know later on in life. It wasn't like Roy had to have a career, and it wasn't like Link was going to become a scientist. Besides, Link already had a job and all it required was knowledge on combat with a sword and various other weapons. And the best way to kill enemies with a horse. Everyone else in the class would end up flipping burgers for their meaningless existence, and you really don't want to know the chemical make up of the food at the local Mickey D's anyway.

After twenty minutes of taking notes that meant nothing to anyone, the announcements finally came on.
"...S.A.D.D. will be hosting the annual Battle of the Bands competition. All are welcome to sign up for try-outs. Grand prize is a trophy, ten dollars, and a box of Cheez-its. JV Tennis versus West Field home tonight at five o'clock. Attention all E.R.A.S.E. members...."

Marth began playing some impromptu songs simply because he was bored and the announcements were on. Some songs were from Zelda, others were random ones he made up on the spot. Kevin was playing some Jazz, while Kelly was working on his clarinet solo.
"We should form a band and sign up for Battle of the Bands!" Kevin exclaimed, throwing his sax up in the air. He caught it, did some nifty tricks, and placed it over his shoulder.
"Like that would work," Kelly said, writing corrections on his sheet music. "A band where the instruments are a flute, a saxophone, and a clarinet. That sounds beautiful."
"And besides," Marth butted in, "I'm sure my friend Link's going to come up with a band idea I'll be dragged into, so I'd better leave myself open."

- - -

Roy and Link were waiting on the steps outside the school for their third companion when the girl from that morning nervously stood by the gate.
"Hey, that's Marth's girlfriend," Link said, looking up from his Geometry homework. "What's her name again?"
"Sheeda," Roy said, putting his writing notebook away. "I guess she's waiting for Marth, too."
"What the heck's taking him so long, anyway?" Link wondered, juggling his sandwich and his books at the same time.
"Probably the usual," Roy replied. "He's gotta make sure his flute is placed back just so and that the manuscripts are placed back neatly on top of the flute case and--"
"What's this about a flute case?" a voice behind them asked. They turned around and saw the aforementioned prince standing in the doorway, flute case under his arm.
"Nothing," Link said, nudging Roy in the arm. "Right, Roy?"
"Uh...yeah."

"Oh, and before I forget," Marth said as he dug around in his pocket. "Give this to Master Hand for me, will you?" He handed the note to Roy, who took it and looked at it.
"What is it?"
"It's my leave of absence notice. I'll be gone for about two weeks starting tomorrow." The trio walked down the stairs and met the girl at the gate.
"...Why are you leaving for two weeks, anyway?" Link asked. "Isn't that kind of long?"
Marth shrugged.
"It's not long."
"But why?"
"I'm... I'm getting married."

Link was dumbfounded.
"Married?"
Marth nodded.
"There's nothing wrong with that or anything...last I checked."
"But you're too young!" Link shouted. "You're only eighteen!"
"And according to Altean law, that's the age I have to be married by."
"...So you're getting married?" Link asked again when he calmed down.
"Yes. Oh, and before I forget, I guess I should introduce you two to Sheeda."

The girl waved.
Link had no words.
"And that is why I didn't tell you until now," Marth said as he glanced at Link's expression. "Now let's go home. I'm tired and I've got a ton of packing to do."

So Link, Marth, Roy, and Sheeda walked back to the Manse, Marth trying to explain the whole situation to Link the whole time.