[ part one of two ]
packing my bags and giving the academy a rain check
Sharp beeping-noise filled the dark room, and about three seconds later, his eyes flew open. His body curled up in a ball under all these covers and blankets his mother had brought upstairs yesterday evening, to make sure that he wouldn’t freeze over the night or something.
Link sat up, turning off the alarm, before it could wake up the rest of the household. 6 AM. Technically, it wasn’t too early, but just because he decided to get up, it didn’t mean that everyone else had to do the same. Even if it was his last day.
Yawning, he looked around the room, noticing in the darkness how oddly empty it seemed. Many of the posters were gone, his laptop and camera weren’t on the weirdly neat desk anymore and even his movie collection had disappeared, leaving the shelf empty and almost sad-looking. And then there were these suitcases. Two, rather big ones and a rucksack stood against one of the walls, and looking at them instantly made the morning a tad depressing. But hey, the nice European family wasn’t going to keep him under their roof for eternity. It was only a year. And a year shouldn’t really be a big deal, right? Especially if he wasn’t even going alone.
He quickly got ready and with Jessie’s old handbag swung over his shoulder he left the house before anyone could even wake up, and walked straight to school, on his way tempted to phone Izzy, but since half of this was her plan, he figured that she wouldn’t let him down and was probably already waiting in front of the building or something.
Wednesday was supposed to be the last day. Thursday was just to cool off and say goodbye. Friday was the last day in Evanston. At least for now. But, they weren’t leaving until later that day, and they couldn’t just let themselves disappear without any finale.
And so, when the bell rang and everyone disappeared behind the classroom door, they took the matters into own hands. The goodbye wasn’t a heartfelt poem, not an announcement, not anything that was meant to be sad. When no one was around, not even some random janitor who was probably only supposed to stand there to look intimidating and growl at people, they managed to leave a bag of sweets in every locker, fill the halls with foam and smear paint all over the floor. And then they were gone, running down the street, cackling like two maniacs, though at the same time probably preparing themselves for the sadder goodbye-for-now-family part that was yet to come.
