"... But I know the same does not apply to you. So I guess that I'll curl up and die too." Zuko sang along to... whatever he was listening to on his iPod.

"What the heck are you listening to?" Katara asked him. Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Suki were too busy looking at their studying materials to hear the question. Well, that's what they looked like they were doing. Studying at the lunch table was not something any of them were accustomed to.

"Music," he snapped back. "It's what I do every year before the finals. It's one of my traditions."

Sokka looked up. "What kind of tradition is listening to emo music?"

"Number one, it's not emo! And secondly... I... i-it... it helps me relieve stress! Duh! And what do you do, other than play with that stupid toy of yours?"

"A BOOMERANG IS NOT A TOY!" Sokka looked ready to explode.

"Sokka, calm down. Just breathe in, breathe out. In, out. Okay?" Aang was the master of relaxation during the finals, and he always managed to get decent grades somehow. But whenever Sokka passed the finals, it was usually by one or two points, probably because he never spent a minute studying.

"Okay... okay... I'm fine. I'm fine." He looked down into his lap and stroked the boomerang. "He didn't mean it, Boomy, he's just jealous because you're cooler than him."

"Actually, Zuko does kinda have a point. Your obsession with that thing is kind of creepy."

Katara replied to Toph, "This coming from the girl who says her feet can see things."

"Shut up, Sugar Queen."

"Hey, guys?" Suki chimed in.

"Yeah?" They all said in unison.

"What if we did something useful to help prepare for the finals, like a study group?"

This set off a light bulb in Katara's mind... which wasn't always a good thing.

"YES!! YES, YOU'RE RIGHT, SUKI! WE NEED A STUDY GROUP!" Katara was yelling at the top of her lungs and cackling maniacally by this point.

Aang looked at his girlfriend. "Uhhh..."

"Really! What else are we supposed to do if we don't want to fail!?"

"Umm..." Everyone was saying it by now. They remembered the last time they had tried to form a study group. That incident was the reason Toph was blind in one eye and Zuko had a scar on the left side of his face.

"We'll start tonight! We'll study like there's no tomorrow! Who's with me?" Katara felt like a queen with her brilliant idea.

"Umm, guys? Where'd you go?"


The day was here. The students called the day "Sozin's Comet" because no one had ever passed Professor Sozin's test. Other popular names included Judgement Day and The Day of the Dead. And Hell.

Katara had studied day and night. She was ready for anything. Aang was well enough prepared. Sokka had spent the weekend watching Spongebob and saying how "that show with the bald kid" was so much better. Suki was the only one who had actually come to Katara's house and studied with her, but she probably didn't get as much actual study time in because she was so scared of Katara and her books, whose pages seemed like razors to her. Zuko... was very afraid.

The first test was relatively easy. The group all were relatively calm during the Math final... except Zuko.

The second test was harder. Sokka breezed through the test, confident that he was getting the answers right. Katara was actually the one who found it hardest. Zuko was crying. Same with Science.

And then the Comet. Professor Sozin taught Physics, and he spared no expense to make sure his students failed the final test. Aang was scared. Katara was scared. Sokka was suprisingly calm. Toph was scared. Suki was scared.

Zuko couldn't take it any more.

The test was placed in front of him. All of a sudden, his vision started blurring. The letters in front of him began slowly moving. Sweat was pouring down from his face. Then...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" His scream could be heard in the hallway. The class across the hall ran in to see Zuko spread out on the floor, twitching uncontrollably, whimpering, "Daddy... Daddy..."

The second day of Judgement had come. The day when they got their scores back. The group stared at their scores that were averaged from all of their tests combined. Katara smirked. A 98.

Aang breathed a sigh of relief. 89.

Zuko. 47.

Suki, 92.

Toph, 80.

Sokka?

100.

He passed the Physics test.

The rest of them hung their mouths open, and asked, still not believing, how he did it.

Sokka shrugged and said, "I figured the sponge would get a 99.


This was for Twilight Rose2's contest. Read the other entries, and you'll see how bad this is in comparison. I threw this together in half an hour, so it's safe to say it sucks. At least you got to the bottom of the page without realizing that.