Melee Academy of Higher Learning for Boys

Year Two

- One -

"It's freezing out," Roy said as he pulled his jacket closer, his bookbag hanging from his arm causing the red head to lean over lopsided due to the weight.

"Yeah, it's kind of brisk out," Link replied, carrying a plastic bag in one hand, briefcase in another.

"Why do you have a briefcase?" Roy questioned, staring at the brown leather attaché Link was carrying.

"Because it's not as bulky as a bookbag," Link replied, stretching and nearly clobbering himself in the head with the aforementioned attaché.

Roy and Link heard someone clear their throat and proceed to cough up a lung.

"That guy sounds like he's about to die at any minute," Link remarked, buttoning up his jacket.

"Thanks for caring so much you guys," the guy said sarcastically, coming up next to them.

"Marth? Is that you?" Roy asked, his arms now hugging his body. He shivered violently for a brief second and Link thought he was having a seizure.

"Of course it's me!" Marth shouted, his voice higher pitched than normal. He cleared his throat again. "Who else would it be?"

"Some paedophile," Link replied, unzipping his briefcase and filtering through its contents. "Oh darn, I forgot my math homework!"

Running towards the mansion, Link shouted behind him, "I'll catch up! Don't wait for me!" When Link looked forward again, he ended up crashing right into Mewtwo, knocking the psychic Pokémon over.

"Ooh," Roy said as he watched it happen. He turned around and ran to try to catch up with Marth, who ignored the current situation and kept on walking.

"So what's up with you, Marth?" the red head asked, crossing his arms now.

"Nothing much, aside from the fact that I have a cold," the prince answered.

"...The cold doesn't faze you much, does it?" Roy shouted over the roar of a garbage truck passing by.

"Not particularly," Marth replied. "This kind of weather is normal in Altea."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Altea's near the mountains, so it gets really cold."

"...Pherae's near mountains and it's not cold."

"But Pherae's also a port city."

Birds were chirping from a tree at the corner of King Street and Devon Street. In the distance, they heard shouting, laughing, and people slapping one another with their cell phones. Crossing the street and nearly getting run over (moreso Marth than Roy), they saw two kids slapping each other with cell phones, a group smoking by the "No Smoking on the Campus" sign that everyone obviously ignored, and Nicholas in a heated argument with Stephen.

"I SAID PHOENIX WRIGHT IS BETTER THAN STUPID FIRE EMBLEM," Nicholas said, flailing his stubby little arms. He ignored the glares he got from most of the people outside. Nicholas obviously forgot that most of Melee Academy liked Fire Emblem.

"And I'm saying that Fire Emblem owns Phoenix Wright," Stephen said, arms crossed and brows furrowed. Marth swore there was background music playing somewhere, and realised that it was due to someone playing the radio in their car.

"Will you two shut up?" Gary asked. "Can't we all just get along? There's no need to have to fight!"

Both Nicholas and Stephen looked at him like he had nine heads.

"What are you, an idealistic freak or something? You died twice and yet you're here!" Nicholas shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Gary Stu.

"Do you even know who my father is?" Gary shouted back, getting up in Nicholas's face.

"No, I don't know who your stinkin' father is," Nicholas replied, "and I really don't give a flying fart in space."

By this time, a small crowd of onlookers had formed around the group of three.

"My father happens to be Alfred--"

"Ashford?" one of the anonymous onlookers asked.

"No," Gary replied, shooting a quizzical look at the anonymous person in the crowd. "Wesker."

Silence.

"...But Wesker's first name is Albert."

"He goes by either or," Gary said, covering up the fact that he didn't know his own father's first name.

"Yeah, okay, whatever." Liar, Nicholas thought.

Marth and Roy managed to pry their eyes away from the fight and trudged onward to their usual entrance.

"How is Gary an idealist?" Marth wondered out loud, his fingers fiddling with his tie.

"I guess he believed everyone should get along and put aside their differences," Roy replied.

"But wouldn't that make him a pacifist?"

"No," Roy answered, opening the door and relishing the warm air that greeted him. "A pacifist is someone who opposes violence. Kind of like my dad." Together, the two took a sharp right and went up the stairs to the third floor of the new building.

"But your father sent you to fight in a war," Marth remarked, walking over to the locker they shared. Roy followed and leaned against the other lockers.

"Yeah, and?"

"That's not very pacifistic."

"'If one or more Lycian territories are attacked by an outside force, all will join in and help defend Lycia'."

"Huh. What's that?"

"The oath the marquess of a Lycian territory pledges to uphold when they take over as ruler," Roy replied.

Marth opened the locker after putting the combination in, the door slamming against the locker opposite and rattling. Marth opened his bookbag and placed his first three subjects into it, carrying his fourth period stuff in his hand due to lack of room. He moved aside so Roy could get his stuff.

"You know," Marth said, shouldering the bag, "I really don't know much about you."

Roy looked at him as he retrieved his stuff needed, jamming it all into his bookbag and slamming the locker shut.

"Well, what do you want to know about me?"

Marth shrugged.

"Whatever you want to tell me."

They came to the end of the corridor.

"Like what?"

"Well, stuff about your family, I suppose. You talk all the time about your father and Pherae. It must be nice."

"...What's nice?" Roy asked.

"Err, to have a family."

After being almost knocked over, Roy and Marth continued walking down the hall, through the door separating the current floor from the stair well, and down a flight of stairs before going through another door.

"I suppose it's nice," Roy replied, walking straight ahead, arms folded behind his head. "Though I suppose Father's a bit lonely since I'm not there."

"Lonely?" Marth questioned. "Where's your mother?"

Not looking at Marth, he replied, "My mother passed away several years ago."

In an attempt to change the subject, Marth said, "I wonder if sensei's going to be in today. After all, Link did kind of knock him over."

Roy laughed.

"I've heard that Mewtwo fails his students if they bump into him. I mean, he's kind of hard to miss, being a floating purple Pokemon and everything."

Marth stood in the doorway of the classroom and bowed before entering. Roy followed suit, and the two stood slack jawed.

"We got new desks?" Marth asked, looking them over. They were shiny and the desk was attached to the chair.

"This is an outrage!" Roy said, scrutinising them. "We didn't need new desks! How the hell are we supposed to stand up and bow with these?" After that, Marth had no idea what Roy was saying short of that it was in Pheraean and some of them were dirty words.

-x-

"Kiritsu!" Mewtwo said, standing at the front of the room in front of his podium.

"Kiritsu," the class replied, standing up, hands at their sides.

"Ohayo gozaimasu!" Mewtwo said in the most uncheerful voice ever to the point where the class sometimes placed bets on whether he'd quit or not.

"Ohayo gozaimasu," the class replied cheerfully.

"Rei!" Mewtwo shouted, and bowed. The class followed suit, bowing slightly more than their teacher. Except for Gary Stu Wesker, who had an inferiority complex. He bowed higher than Mewtwo. No one noticed except for Nicholas.

Coming up from the bow, the students took their seats and Mewtwo went up to the chalkboard.

"Alright, class. Today we will be learning about nationalities," the pokemon said, writing it on the board.

"Hopefully someone remembers one or two from the previous year." Gary, being a show-off, raised his hand and waved it in the air frantically, as if his life depended on it.

"Stu-kun, hai."

"AMERICAN."

Nicholas tried not to laugh, while Stephen disguised it by means of coughing. Everyone else turned around in their seats to see one very oblivious pupil.

"What?" Gary asked, not understanding that in Japanese class, you answer things in Japanese.

"Chigaimasu," Mewtwo said. "Hai, Stephen-kun."

"Amerikajin," Stephen said, putting his hand down.

"Sou desu."

Gary Stu-Wesker was very embarrassed, as he realised his mistake.

"You mean this isn't a French class?"

Mewtwo mentally headdesked, Nicholas snorted the water he was drinking, Stephen facepalmed, and Roy stared at Marth.

"It's quite obvious Gary isn't playing with a full deck of cards," Roy whispered.

"He's not even missing a few cards. He's missing half the deck," Marth whispered back. Mewtwo overheard the conversation and ignored it.

"Everyone listen up, I need to take attendance and if I mark you absent, tough luck." Mewtwo took out the attendance sheet from its plastic holder, cleared his throat, and telekinetically took a pencil from his desk.

"Stephen Alvarez-san."

"Hai!" Stephen shouted, hand in the air. Someone had too much caffeine that morning.

"Marth Lowell-san."

"Hai," Marth said, raising a finger into the air. Mewtwo marked him in.

"Link Mekkai-san."

There was no reply.

"Link Mekkai?" Mewtwo called again, scanning the row of desks and finding his usual seat empty.

"Link wa keseki desu ka?" Mewtwo questioned, asking if Link was absent.

"That's odd," Roy said, "he said he'd catch up to us."

Marth shrugged. "Maybe he forgot to do his homework and decided he'd stay home and do it or something. This is Link we're talking about--he's rather odd."

"Keseki desu," Nicholas replied, and Mewtwo marked him absent.

"Sou desu ka? Ja...Nicholas Pickell-san."

"Hai!" Nicholas said, holding up his pencil.

"Eliwood Pherae-san."

"...Who?" Gary asked, looking around for someone named Eliwood.

"Um, Mewtwo-sensei, you said the wrong name," Roy corrected, blushing slightly.

"Ah, I see. Roy Pherae-san."

"Hai."

Marth shifted in his seat; the chairs on these new desks weren't the most comfortable he had ever sat in. "I didn't know your middle name was Eliwood."

Roy turned a slightly darker shade of red.

"Yeah, well now you know."

Mewtwo almost put the attendance sheet away when Gary shouted, "You forgot me, Sensei!"

Mewtwo, without calling out his name, marked "Gary Stu Wesker" absent.

"Alright now. Who can tell me how one says 'Chinese'?"

The door creaked open and slammed against the wall outside. In the doorway stood a rather red faced blond. Bowing, he said, "Osokunarimashite shitsureshimasu," excusing his lateness. He held out the "Class Admit" slip and bowed again. Mewtwo telekinetically took it and said, "So nice of you to join us, Link-kun."

With only twenty minutes left in class, Mewtwo looked through his lesson planner and said, "Peji hachi-ju-san made hachi-ju-kyuu o yomimasu." Everyone got their textbooks out, turned to page eighty-three, and started reading.

"Then do activities three and four in your notebooks and be prepared to hand it in tomorrow." Link sat down then, behind Roy and Marth, and got his textbook out, turned to the wrong page, and was confused when everyone else was talking about different nationalities and his book discussed different animals.

-x-

Link, Roy, and Marth walked from the second floor all the way to the far right door that led to the corridor with the gymnasium. Marth parted ways and went through the door, was nearly knocked in the face by someone flying around the corner with their gym clothes in hand, and went into the gym to sit in the bleachers and do nothing--that's what always happened on the first week of school starting up again, it seemed. But that was fine with him. After finding out where Mr. Falcon's gym class sat (section P of the bleachers), he sat on the bottom seat and pulled out a book titled I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. Books about mental hospitals seemed to fascinate Marth. He blamed it on the fact that he wanted to major in Psychology.

The bleachers around him quickly filled up, and though it was loud in the gym, Marth seemed to have blocked out all the shouting and screaming and talking and concentrated on reading his book.

"Marth Lowell!"

Marth jolted out of the realm of books and into the sad reality he lived in to the sound of Mr. Falcon's voice.

"Here!" Marth yelled over the riot-level noise. Mr. Falcon marked him in and called for an "Usef Grebinar". Falcon didn't have his attendance list in any particular order.

The blue headed senior returned to his book and gradually forgot his surroundings.

Meanwhile, Roy went to Geometry 21, room 123. Taking his leisurely time, he walked down the nearly deserted hallway. The late bell was going to ring any minute now, and his class was about a yard away. Entering the classroom, he sat down in the desk nearest to the door and tapped his pencil against the desk.

"At least this class has chairs separate from the desk," Roy muttered to no one in particular. He got his notebook out, opened it, and began doodling in the margins. Cows fighting chickens while people threw quarters and fodder was the epic picture that took up a whole page.

"Marth would like this 'cause the chickens won," Roy said to himself, something he always did whenever he was working on something. Roy turned the page and drew a huge chicken with hair and a tiara.

"A Marth chicken," Roy said proudly. Roy had no idea why Marth's favourite animal was a chicken but it was.

"Listen up class," Ms. Toadstool said as the bell rang. Link managed to sneak in the class without Ms. Toadstool noticing.

"Today I'll be handing out textbooks. I'll also be passing around a sheet. You are to put your full name, ID number, and book number on it. I'll start it over here. Row One, please grab a textbook and fill out the sheet."

Roy stifled a yawn and Link poked Roy in the arm with the eraser end of his pencil.

"Mmm?" Roy voiced, turning towards the blond. "What's up?"

"I lost my ID on my way here," Link said, his eyes shifting from side to side. "And I don't know my ID number."

Roy gave him a look that said, "Are you stupid?" and shook his head.

"We've had our IDs since Freshman year and you haven't memorised your number?" Link shook his head.

"Row Three," Ms. Toadstool said, and gestured to the pile of books on her desk. Roy and Link rose along with the rest in their row and grabbed a textbook; they filled the sheet out as they passed by the clipboard in her hands.

"So what'd you put?" Roy asked when they sat down and Row Four got up to get their books.

"078147. Why?"

"You dolt!" Roy said, "that's not your number!"

"I know, I know!" Link said, and waved his hands. "But I didn't know what else to put!"

"You could've asked the teacher! She has to have a record of our ID numbers."

"...I don't even know who has number 078147," Link said, "but somehow I remembered it."

Roy looked at him blankly.

"What?"

"You know that number because it's Marth's."

"...Oops."

"'Oops' doesn't even begin to cover it, Link. When the teacher checks the paper and goes to match the numbers, it's going to contradict and then you'll be in a whole crapload of trouble."

Link sighed.

"So what would happen to me?"

"You'd be asked to show your ID, which is something you don't have. Just go tell the teacher you lost yours so you can get a new one."

"...So then what would they do with the number I put down?" Link asked, playing with his empty ID holder.

"They'd look it up in the computer database and find out who it belongs to, I guess."

"I'm screwed." Link remarked, and placed his head in his hands.

"...It's not the end of the world or anything. But still."

Ms. Toadstool asked for everyone's attention.

"There appears to be an error on this sheet," Ms. Toadstool said. "Someone put the wrong ID number on the sheet, and they need to come up here and fix it."

Link laid his head down on the desk.

"Doomed," Link cried. "Doomed."

"...Isn't your ID 101348?"

Link sat up, went to the front of the room, put in 101348 as his ID number, and sat back down.

"That's better," Ms. Toadstool said, and put the sheet away.

"Now if you'll all pay attention for just one second, I want to go over what you have to do for homework." Collective groans were heard throughout the room.

"It's a worksheet," the blonde haired teacher said, and held it up. "It's ten problems, easy. Mostly Algebra, so you should all have no problems with it."

But that was the problem: Link failed Algebra.

"Hey, didn't you fail Algebra One as a Freshman?" Roy whispered to Link.

"Yeah."

"Well then you're not supposed to be here."

"Shut up."

"So you're gonna cheat the system, huh?"

"'S what I plan on doing, yeah."

"Ha. You know, they'll probably find out and switch you out of here."

"Probably."

They received their worksheet and while Roy had no problem completing any of the questions, Link was stuck on number one.

-x-

Roy made his way to his fourth period class; Melee Academy decided periods three, five, and eight would be omitted for the day.

He opened the outer door to his Chorus class, walked through the little passageway, and opened the door that led into the classroom. Inside, his Chorus teacher, Ms. Harkinian, was playing a song on the piano and lightly singing.

"Hey Zel," Roy said, walking past the piano and over to his seat directly behind it.

"Hey Roy. How are you?" the blonde haired Hylian said, closing the music manuscript and placing it on the side of the top of the piano. She turned around on the bench and leaned back against the covered keyboard.

"Tired and bored," Roy replied, opening the Mario Bros. lunch box and taking out his sandwich.

"The first week usually is since you really don't do much." Zelda cringed when the door slammed shut--it didn't close all the way due to it being broken--and in came another faceless student.

"I have so much to do," Zelda said, looking through yet another manuscript. "I have to pick out the music for the Christmas Concert--" One of the new students to Chorus cocked an eyebrow. "--and yes, we'll be singing Jingle Bells and the like in September. I hate it myself. And then I have to pick out music for the M-Birds...speaking of M-Birds..." Zelda went into her office briefly in search of a legal pad. Coming back out, she wrote "M-Bird Auditions" in the margin on top.

"If you want to try out for it, please sign up using this paper." Zelda took a sip of green tea and sat back in her chair.

"Seems like everyone and their uncle's signed up for this class," Roy remarked, sipping at his iced tea.

"Yeah. I think I have about forty students just for this period. Half of them will drop it by the beginning of next week, but even so." The door slammed again and Zelda sighed.

"It'd be nice if they finally got around to fixing that darned door. I've gone to Mr. Crazy Hand but he said he'd look into it whenever." She closed her eyes.

"Can't the janitor put something on the door frame so that it won't slam?" Roy asked.

"Possibly. I'll have to ask Mr. Six." Mr. Six was a male Wire Frame.

The door opened, but the blue haired student put out his arm to stop it from slamming shut.

"Morning Zelda," Marth said as he walked over to where his red headed companion was.

"Good morning, Marth," Zelda answered, looking through a copy of "The First Noel".

"Hey Roy."

"Marth."

Marth sat down next to him and rubbed his temples.

"Something wrong?" Roy asked, finishing his drink.

"Yeah, some sophomore tried to impersonate me," Marth answered. "Gave my ID instead of his, they said. But they didn't tell me who it was."

Roy shrugged, said, "That's odd," got up, threw his garbage out, and came back to his seat. Sitting down, he found Marth staring at him.

"What?"

"I have something to tell you," Marth said, head leaning against his hand.

-x-

"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.

-x-

"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.

"I'm sure he did, Link. I'm sure he did."