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There's an unusual boy in year 11.

He always seems so disconnected from reality.

For years now, no one's ever heard him mutter a single word.

Rumors say that he hasn't spoken in 10 whole years.

How do we know that he can even understand the English language?

"Guys! Grow up" Zelda said, taking the piece of paper that her friends were writing those words on and throwing it in the bin. "He's not just fuel for your English assessments, you know!"

"Don't be a buzzkill, Zelda! Besides, don't act like you're not curious about him yourself" One of them answered back, pulling out another piece of paper.

"He clearly gets picked on enough. You guys really need to keep your noses in your own business" Zelda replied, getting rather defensive.

She was ignored as she was the only who felt that this was cruel.

They were talking about a boy who Zelda had been going to the same schools as for years. Funnily enough, they never talked. That wasn't a special case though, she'd never heard him talk, and doubted that he talked to his own parents that much. People managed to catch on eventually, and started calling him out on it. Zelda didn't really blame him for not wanting to interact with those sad people, and felt some form of empathy for him. In all of her years knowing of his existence, she'd never once seen him smile. He didn't communicate in any way. He didn't use any form of sign language or write things down, the only time he wrote things down were in lessons, and that was always in a non-communicational way.

For the 3 years they'd been in high school, he didn't even say a word in drama. At the start of school he got sent to remove and almost got suspended for not communicating, but that seemed to have gotten cleared up. It's not like he needed help anyway, he always just got his head down and whizzed through whatever he had to do.

Zelda would be lying if she said she wasn't curious, but she didn't want to overwhelm him and come off as too much. There could have been so many different reasons why he didn't speak. He seemed to be the only one to know the answer. It could've been voluntary, but it also could've been completely involuntary as well. No one knew.

He really was just an enigma.

Zelda seemed to secretly look out for him. After some classes she'd purposefully leave a little bit after he did, just so she could watch his back. He always got quite a bit of crap from other kids in the middle of some classes and the teachers never stuck up for him, so Zelda was scared to think about what might've happened if he was caught off guard.

"But don't you think it's wonderful?" Another girl asked, her attention mostly on the new piece of paper.

"Think what's wonderful? That a teenage boy doesn't feel comfortable enough to even answer the register because people around him are constantly harassing him? No, I don't think that it's wonderful. Seriously, he's a human too, grow up!" Zelda shouted.

She stood up from the table and decided to go to the library, where she wouldn't have to try and deal with people that didn't think twice before speaking.

To her surprise, she saw Link there. He was alone, but that was normal for him. Zelda sat at a table that was rather close to his, pulling out her maths revision guide and her notebook. She snook some not-so-discreet looks at him as he seemed to be doing maths revision also. She really wanted to walk up to him and ask him if he needed help, but she didn't want to scare him and make him afraid of her.

He sighed a lot and scratched his head, clearly frustrated by the work.

Once the bell had gone for fourth period, Zelda packed her things up and stood up after Link. They didn't have fourth together but she felt the need to walk him there. She was so concerned about someone she never spoke to.

As she was walking behind Link, he tripped over a door stopper and dropped his notebook.

Zelda instinctively ran up to where he were and picked up the book before he got the chance to realize. She slowly looked up at him, making sure to smile. She wanted to come off as friendly, and not like everyone else.

He looked shocked at first, but his lips broke into a small but noticeable smile as he received the book.

Zelda began to walk to her own lesson in the opposite direction. She didn't want to remain for too long and come off as too much.

As she began to slowly walk, she heard a big exhale from behind her. She looked back, to see Link looking directly at her.

"Thank you" He said quietly. Zelda did not expect a response at all.

A massive smile had spread across her face, her eyes smiling with her.

"You're welcome" She replied as they both headed their separate ways.