I don't own Avatar!

Manners:

Katara was pacing. The master waterbender was nervous. There was a massive political dinner the next day, and every single member of the Gaang was required to attend… Besides Appa and Momo, of course.

The Hundred Years war had just been won two days ago, and already the world was beginning to heal. Zuko, the newly crowned Fire Lord, was holding this dinner to gather all the important people of the four nations to discuss various things.

This was not the problem Katara was facing. The issue she was dealing with was that a few certain members of the Gaang had no idea how to act at one of these functions. At all.

"Ok guys," Katara said, clapping her hands for extra emphasis. "I called you all here…"

"To bore us to death?" Toph interrupted. The blind earthbender was sprawled in Zuko's bed (they had decided to hold the meeting in his room, since it was the largest) and she was playing with her meteorite bracelet.

"No," Katara said, holding back a scathing retort. "Now as I'm sure you all know, there is a large banquet being held a day from now…" she paused to let Zuko groan from the corner he was slumped in, and then continued. "I have decided so that you won't shame yourself in front of the most important people of the world, I shall teach you manners!"

"No offense, Katara," Sokka said. "But we are kind of important people, too. I mean, Zuko's the Fire Lord, and Aang's the Avatar."

"And we're not just random rabble off the street either, Sugar Queen," Toph informed her, almost sarcastically. "One of the many boring classes I took when I was just a weak blind girl was manners."

"I took manners classes too," Zuko said from his corner.

"Well that's just great," Katara said. "Toph, do you remember anything from these alleged classes?"

"Uh…" was the only answer the waterbender received.

"That's what I thought. And Zuko, you must've taken these classes over two years ago, do you remember anything?"

"Please and thank you?" the Fire Lord supplied unhelpfully from the corner.

"We have a lot of work to do."

"Great," Sokka groaned.

An hour later and every single person in the room were ready to strangle Katara, except for maybe Aang. She was teaching them seemingly useless information, such as which fork to use to eat stewed sea prunes, which Zuko, Aang and Toph weren't planning on consuming anyway.

"This spoon is used for stirring alcohol," Katara said, holding up a tiny gold spoon.

"Um, Teacher Katara?" Sokka said, raising his hand. Katara looked pointedly at him. "We won't be drinking any alcohol anyway, so why would we need to know which spoon is used for stirring it?"

"Uh…" Katara couldn't think of an explanation, so she just let the question hang. "The next thing we need to go over is correct napkin placement…"

Katara's lesson was finally over. Sokka burst out of the room, quickly followed by Zuko, Toph and Aang.

"What, you don't want to learn how to greet an Earth Kingdom general?" Katara yelled after their retreating backs.

"Sorry Katara," Aang yelled back. "But I'll just avoid them!" The waterbender sighed and dropped her head in her hands. This banquet was going to be a complete and total disaster, she could feel it.

Sokka's eyes widened. He was sitting at his place in between Toph and Aang, and there were about one hundred different utensils set before him. He glanced over at Katara, who was staring smugly at him from across the table.

Zuko was inwardly groaning, wishing he had paid better attention to the mind-numbing lessons of the waterbender. He was sitting at the head of the table, Aang at his right side and Iroh at his left, and everybody was looking at him.

Toph could feel everyone looking at Zuko, and she smirked. The firebender sure had his hands full this time. He was fine in a fight, but when it came to manners…Well… Let's just say he fell short.

"Uh…" the newly crowned Fire Lord stuttered. "Uh… Miss Bei Fong!" All eyes turned to the blind earthbender.

"I'm gonna kill him," she muttered under her breath. "Sokka of the Northern Water Tribe!" she said out loud, and everyone shifted their gaze to the warrior.

Sokka blushed a ferocious red, and Katara could do nothing because she was so busy trying not to laugh.

I have no idea what to do! He thought frantically. He glanced at Katara for help but she just shrugged. "Uh…" he tried to buy time. "Momo, the courageous lemur!" he said, making a theatrical gesture at Momo. All eyes were still on him. "Well then... Katara, my sister!" The waterbender graciously stood up.

"Thank you everyone for coming to this fine meal, hosted by our new Fire Lord," she said with a pointed glance at Zuko who was still sitting with a confused look on his face. "And now, will you please enjoy your food." Servants came out, bearing platters of steaming food, and Katara sat down.

"And that is how you start a banquet," she said smugly.

"Thank you Katara," Zuko said. "I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you." The others murmured their apologies and Katara grinned.

"I'm still confused," Sokka said. "How did you learn all this stuff anyway?"

"Oh, a girl has her ways," she said, shooting a thankful glance at Iroh, who had been sitting back contentedly this whole time.

Thanks for reading! But now, it's time for reviewing! Constructive criticism is welcome, but please no flames!