Do you ever get the feeling that nothing ever goes the way you've planned? I certainly have. Most of my life has been that way, in fact. Starting with that one fateful day about eight years ago when Katara and I found a strange little boy trapped inside an iceberg. Ever since then, my life has been full of unexpected twists and turns. I've come to live with it, though: having things go wrong is almost the norm. Although, that still doesn't make my most recent fiasco any less bizarre…
Chapter one: Breaking Free
"Stand back!" I heard Toph shout from the other side of the wall. I did as I was told.
"Hurry!" I called back to her. If she and the others would get caught, they'd be chucked into hail alongside me. And without Aang around to use his position to get us out of trouble, things could turn ugly.
There was a loud rumbling sound as the wall of the cell began to shake, and with one blow from the Earth Bender on the other side, it collapsed into a heap of ruble. I was left standing in a cloud of dust, blinking in the scene before me:
Toph stood in the middle of the group, her hands still raised from having just demolished half the town jail. On her left stood my very pregnant younger sister looking worried and nervous. And on Toph's right…
"Why is he here?" I asked, nodding my head toward Zuko as I climbed over the pile of broken bricks out into the night.
"Nice to see you, too," he replied dryly. Even though we'd worked together to win the war, I've never felt particularly fond of the man.
"The Fire Lord," Katara said pointedly, waddling over to brush off my dusty clothes, "Was here for a visit when we found out you'd been arrested."
"Okay, we can catch up later. But right now, we'd better get out of here before someone catches us busting Sokka out of jail," Toph suggested.
Eager to do so, we began making our way away from the jail and toward Toph's parents' house where we were currently staying. You see, Aang was off working with the Earth King on the Ba Sing Se reconstruction project, and he didn't feel it appropriate for his nine-month-pregnant wife to travel across the continent on a flying bison. I can't say I blame him, although Katara wasn't too happy to have been left behind. But eventually, she agreed to come and stay with Toph and I at the Bei Fong's house. Which was where we were located because of Toph's mother's persistent requests that her daughter stay at home in the week before her wedding. Which was the main reason they had to come free me in the first place- because a wedding doesn't go so well if the groom is locked up in jail. Get it? Yeah, me neither.
"We have to sneak around back," Toph told us as we neared the estate.
"Why? This is your house!" Katara exclaimed.
"Yeah, but my parents don't know that we left, and I don't think they'd appreciate it if they found out my fiancée was sent to jail," Toph clarified.
"Why were you arrested in the first place?" Zuko asked me.
"It's a long story," I told him. Even in the dark, I could see the amusement in his eyes. "Come on, Katara, I'll give you a hand," I told her, trying to change the subject. She allowed me to hoist her up onto the wall, and the rest of us followed. As soon as we were in the garden, we began to hastily make for the house. If we got into our rooms without any disturbances, we would be able to wake up like usual, and no one would suspect a thing. At least, not until the police realized I was missing and came to retrieve me.
"Yeah, well, we'll deal with that in the morning," Toph said when I voiced this concern, "Goodnight."
She pulled me to her and kissed me briefly before tiptoeing off to her room. Oh yeah, did I mention that her parents still won't let us sleep together?
"Goodnight Sokka, goodnight Zuko," Katara whispered, following Toph down the hall towards their rooms.
"So why-?" Zuko started to ask again when the women had gone.
"Goodnight," I said, too loudly, stopping that conversation before it began. Then I left for my room.
Fortunately that night, no police came to arrest me. However, something was bound to go haywire, and so it was only natural for a cry to be heard down the hall, waking all the occupants of the house.
"What's the matter?" I asked, still half asleep as I dashed out of my room. Zuko was emerging at the same time as I, and we both ran down the hall toward the source of the shout.
As I approached the hall where the scream had issued from, Toph sprinted from Katara's room looking frantic. Her parents and a few sleepy looking servants were running up behind us. Afraid that someone had attacked the house, I instinctively reached for my boomerang- then remembered that it had been confiscated after, well, when I was put into jail.
"What's the matter?" Toph's mother repeated my question.
"It's Katara!" Toph exclaimed, "She says the baby's coming!"