Zelda didn't see Link at all for the rest of the day.

In fourth and fifth period though, even at home, she was completely in shock, she could barely talk herself. She was annoyed at herself though. Of course the rumours about him not talking for 10 years were rubbish. She thought that maybe Link was trying to talk the whole time, but no one would listen.

The rest of the day was completely normal. Zelda refrained from telling anyone that he spoke, it would only cause problems for him.

She wondered if there was a chance she could befriend him, properly. She absolutely hated seeing him seem so unhappy. But when she saw him talk and smile, he seemed so at ease, not nervous at all.

It made her really think about what she was doing. She felt bad for being so intrigued in this boy's life, she knew full well that it had nothing to do with her.

Once she went to school the next day, she tried to act as normal as possible. It didn't really work though, as her friends pointed out how weird she was acting from the get-go.

"Zelda, what in Hyrule is wrong with you?" One of them pointed out, her eyes squinting as she looked at Zelda.

"Nothing. What's wrong with you?" She asked back, repeating her actions.

"Nothing. Anyway, have you heard about the upcoming speaking assessment in English?" She asked.

"Speaking assessment?" Zelda gasped, almost choking on her apple juice.

"Yeah. Someone from the other half told me. Apparently it's being assigned to us today" She replied.

Zelda's first thought was about Link. They'd done speaking assessments in the past, but Link had always managed to sneak away from them and avoid doing it. However, this was GCSE so he couldn't get out without getting an automatic fail.

"It's a new format that they're introducing. It's worth, like, 20% of our language grade, or something like that" Her friend said, breaking the somewhat awkward silence that had occurred since the subject got brought up.

"I really don't want to do this. It's unnecessary" Zelda huffed.

"I'm more excited to see what Link will do! He probably won't try to leave this time"

"Oh my goddess. Leave him alone, will you?!" Zelda stood up from the canteen table and started walking to her next lesson, English. It was fifth period, so the last of the day.

If what Zelda's friend said was right, they were going to be assigned a speaking assessment for 20% of their English language GCSE. She was already nervous for herself, she didn't even want to imagine what Link would be feeling once they were told. Zelda sat rather far away from Link, but his face was in her clear eye shot.

As she walked into the room and sat down, she scanned the room to look for Link. Strange, he wasn't there. He was always the first into the room. But not until it was 10 minutes into the lesson did he walk in. There was no mention of a speaking assessment yet, however.

"Link, why were you late?" The teacher asked, pausing whatever she was ranting about. As expected, Link just walked to his seat, acting like he would when normally walking into a classroom.

"She asked you a question. Aren't you going to reply?" Someone taunted. And as expected, the teacher didn't say anything and carried on with what she was saying before.

It was almost like Link couldn't hear the teacher or anyone that made snarky remarks at him. It was always like that though.

The teacher continued to talk, but was back on the topic she was talking about before Link walked in. She knew that she'd make no progress talking to Link and trying to get a response out of him was pointlesd.

The little bit of laughter that came from the cocky classmates of Zelda and Link slowly died down, leaving the lesson to be on the track it was normally on. Zelda was relieved that there was no mention of any assessment. Not yet, anyway.

"So that concludes today's lesson" The teacher said as she turned off her board projector.

"But there's still ten minutes left" Someone commented.

"I know. These last few minutes are going to be dedicated to an upcoming exam" The majority of the classroom groaned. "So in a few weeks, you'll be doing an assessment that will go towards your future qualifications. It'll be a spoken assessment to the rest of your class and I, on a topic of your choice. You'll be marked with a fail, a pass, a merit or a distinction. Number or letter grades aren't used. Has anyone got any questions?" She spoke quickly, acting like she couldn't be bothered with it herself.

Everyone looked bummed out and frustrated, they were all thinking the same thing. Other than Link, who just swallowed hard with the same expression that he seemingly always had.

"Actually Miss, I have a question" Some guy said as he put his hand up.

"What is it, Mido?"

"What if... Say, someone refuses to do it. What then?" He stared rather intensely at Link, clearly aiming his 'question' at him.

"Then they'd get an automatic fail. You have one chance. I'm going to be honest, I don't want to do this either. But it's required, so just get working on it. We'll be doing it in lessons as well up until the date, which we don't have yet" The bell rang for the end of the period, and since it was fifth, it was the end of the day, and home time. "Now pack up and get out"

Zelda wasn't in a hurry to get home and she noticed Link packing up rather slowly, so she mirrored his pace and went slowly as well. Because of this, they were still in the room whilst everyone else other than the teacher and each other had gone.

"Link, Zelda, please hurry up. I've got things to do"

Link walked quickly up to the teacher, his posture tall and stiff, his eyes closed. He took a deep breath and stood silently for a few seconds.

"Is there anyway that I can-"

"Well look who's literally talking. I'm sorry Link, but you can't get out of this"

"Miss, even if I can't get out of it, I physically won't be able to unless it's only in front of one or two people I'm comfortable with" His voice started shaking, he clearly had to think before speaking, much more than a normal person. Not that he wasn't normal.

"Link, don't come to me with your rubbish. Talking isn't exactly hard, and you can definitely do it. You don't need to be comfortable to talk"

"You see, the thing is-" He acted desperate, trying to rush out his words.

"That's enough, Link! Go home. Your parents will get worried" The teacher shouted, wafting her hand to dismiss him. He did as he was told as he walked out of the classroom.

Zelda kept a low profile throughout their conversation, it felt like she was listening to something that she shouldn't have been listening to, although it was clear that neither Link nor the teacher cared at all.

She was actually really shocked, hearing Link talk for an extended amount of time. He seemed so nervous beforehand, but once he started he quickly got used to it. Zelda rushed out of the classroom behind him so she was only a few footsteps away. It seemed that they didn't live too close to each other though, as they went separate ways as soon as they were out of the school gates.