"Hey, Chanse," Link mumbled groggily, finally picking up his phone.

"Sorry, I'll call back later when you're alive," Chanson joked on the other line. "But seriously, are you ready for early practice today? Apparently coach has something to talk to us about."

"Oh shoot, that was today?" Link responded frantically. "I just woke up!"

"Tough luck."

"Chanson!"

"I'll tell coach you might be late," Chanson said, laughing. "You're the best player anyway, I doubt he'll care."

"Not true. Talk to you later," Link responded, throwing random practice clothes into his backpack and running down the hall.

"Talk to you later, liar."

Link chuckled quietly as he put his phone into his back pocket. Chanson and the guys on his basketball team always said he was the best player, but he refused to believe it. He and Chanse were the team captains of course, so there were many reasons the team might think that Link was the best player, but he didn't care. There was no way he'd take that title.

He went past his Laelyn's room and stopped, hearing her and her best friend, Alyrica, talking. Alyrica. There was always something about her that made Link want to stick around, even if nothing was happening.

"What're we talking about today?" he asked, turning into his sister's room.

"Nothing!" Alyrica and Laelyn answered together. Odd. They seemed to be deep in conversation before, Link thought.

"I know it was something. You can't keep anything away from me, Lyn," he said, looking at them pointedly and furrowing his eyebrows in concentration.

"If you really want to know, Link," Laelyn began, "We were talking about how funny it is that you haven't figured out that your shoe is untied."

Link looked down in panic. I'm not even wearing shoes! He thought irritably.

"Ha ha, very funny," he said sarcastically, stomping off downstairs. He heard the girls giggle and return to their conversation.

What am I going to eat? Link wondered fleetingly. He began mumbling his options to himself. "Well, a granola bar is easy, I could eat it on the way... But Laelyn did make cookies yesterday..." he trailed off. If I'm quick, maybe I could steal some before she notices! He thought. He opened the container on the counter as quietly as possible and stuffed a cookie in his mouth. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, he quickly shoved another cookie in his mouth and shut the container, turning quickly to get out of the kitchen before Laelyn entered - but he was too late.

"Link!" she reprimanded, turning the corner and gasping at him. "Those were supposed to be for the bake sale on Friday!"

Link turned to her with a guilty expression and chewed slowly before swallowing and finally answering. "I couldn't stare at them for two more days!" he said, widening his eyes so that maybe, just maybe, Laelyn would let him have more.

"Now I have to make them all over again!" she said, exasperated. "Do you know how long those took me?"

"Two hours and 12 minutes," Link answered. He looked over to where Alyrica stood behind Laelyn, and his spirits fell when she saw her disappointed look. I guess they had spent a long time making them...

"Wait, what?" Laelyn exclaimed. Right, that's probably weird.

"I had to live with the smell of chocolate chip cookies without the promise of cookies later, I think I know how long it was," he said matter-of-factly.

"Alrighty then..." Laelyn trailed off. Link shrugged and went to grab his backpack, which he had stupidly forgotten upstairs. By the time he got outside to walk to school, the girls were quite a ways ahead of him, and he had to jog to catch up.

"Hey guys! What's the topic this morning?" he asked, smiling. Laelyn rolled her eyes, sharing a look with Alyrica.

"How incredibly annoying you are," she responded shortly.

"He isn't that bad," Alyrica said. Link smiled wider, happy with the compliment.

"Yeah, I'm not that bad!" he said. Wait, what? He thought. Was that a compliment or a backhanded insult? "Wait, not that bad? What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, trying to fake offense to mask the confusion underneath.

"It means you're annoying, but we keep you around," Lyn laughed.

"Hey!" Link shouted, hitting Laelyn on the shoulder, and she hit him back twice as hard.

"You guys are so mean to each other," Alyrica said.

"Nah, she loves me," Link replied, wrapping his arm around Laelyn's neck and pulling her into a headlock. She got out of it easily and punched him in the arm again.

"Sure. Love you, bro." Lyn rolled her eyes. They really did love each other, but they were like best friends, and joked around with each other so much it was hard to stop.

"Why do you guys mess around so much?" Alyrica asked. "Someone who didn't know you would think you hate each other."

"That's not entirely false," Link said, laughing.

"That's something we can agree on," Lyn added.

"You guys are awful!" Alyrica giggled.

"And he's gonna be late to practice," Lyn reminded. Link checked his watch frantically.

"Crap, you're right!" he realized, bolting off ahead of the girls.

"Tell Chanson that Laelyn said hi!" Alyrica called. That's odd. Does she still have a crush on him?

Link shrugged and kept running towards the school, knowing he'd be even later than he planned. Whatever, Chanse is right, he thought. There's no way coach will be mad.

Guys I'm baaaack! So this is a little something I've been talking about with Ash (Eiffel_Tower46) for a very long time, and finally decided to begin writing! I'm so so sooo excited about this one. Link's view on the characters and the situation is so much different than Laelyn's, and I think this is going to be really interesting. I hope you guys love it as much as I do! Love you guys!

Savy