Disclaimer: I do not own, though I wish I do, Avatar the last airbender or its characters. Umeko is just my character, and so I own her. Mm, yeah... Pretty much it.
AN: This is my first fanfic and it was something I wanted to do after reading so many great ones. I hope its good and please review, they will make me happy!
Ever since I was young, my grandmother always told me the story of a world where people could control elements at whim. Of course, I don't believe in that now but before I had been so into the story that I use to dream that one day I would be able to meet them. It was an impossible dream anyway, even if they were real, they could control elements for goodness sakes! As I grew older, I just believed that the story was some old tale that was passed along from my father and to me. Anything about my father had my interest because I had never known him. My mother and my grandmother raised me, my father had not been in my life since I was newborn. I don't know what happened to him, my mother never answered when I asked and neither did my grandmother. So I just assumed he left us or maybe he died in a tragic accident that hurt them to speak of it.
Oh, I didn't tell you my name. Excuse me, that was rude of me. My name is Yamamura, Umeko and I am the only child. I am a regular high school student that lives, well used to live, in the city of Kyoto. The reason why I said used to is because I'll be moving this Spring. I will be leaving to Tokyo which is pretty far and it's all because of my mother's promotion. I'll be leaving behind friends and a boy that I had a crush for a while. I was planning to tell him how I felt on the day that the cherry blossoms had first bloomed but I won't be able to do that now… Anyway, I was very reluctant on moving like any other person would. I protested, I cried, and I felt like running away and living with my friend Saki, who had tried to convince me that I should. I mean why should I leave? I had lived here all my life and all my memories are here. There were so many things I planned to do and loved about Kyoto that it was hard and still is hard for me to accept the changes. For the last two days, I decided that I would spend them with my friends and with the boy I had loved. They invited all our classmates for my big going away party and I was deeply touched. We played karaoke, ate cake, and played silly games. Saki, Ayumi, Hiro, and Arata had made everything about that day perfect to me. I loved my friends more than I loved myself, which sounds pretty strange.
Seeing Arata was really hard for me because ever since the first day of high school, when I saw his face, and when he looked at me… I had felt overwhelming warmth inside my heart. In the beginning of high school, I didn't have any friends. Most of my middle school friends had went to this private high school and I had very much liked the public one, I didn't want to make a change and so I went there. I had missed the first two days due to a cold and so by the time I had come back, everyone had formed their cliques and I was left alone. I had no one to blame but myself, that's what I had got for forgetting my umbrella when I had gone to see my grandmother the day before. Still, it had hurt to know that I would be alone like this and people didn't even make an effort to befriend me. It was like they had enough members in their circles. Like I said, that morning I had met Arata but he never said anything to me other than the occasional hello.
How did I become friends with Saki, Ayumi, and Hiro? Well, it was by the brush of fate really. We all were put into a team for the school festival and so we had to spend a lot of time together and that we did. We became close and eventually swapped numbers and talked. Saki and Ayumi have always been overprotective of me. They were friends since elementary school and could read each other like a book, but with me? I was definitely different from them. They would try to dress me in the latest fashions and try to make me wear makeup. I was never a girly girl; I just dressed like an old woman as they would say. After I told them that I had thought Arata was attractive, they had tried to set me up with him since. I eventually became friends with him and that was probably the best thing that could've happened to me even though I felt much more than friendship.
A lot of girls had a crush on him and I never thought I was pretty enough and so I never did try to gain something more. Arata was bright, smart, handsome, and athletic. It was hard to keep your eyes off him once you see him enter the room, move across the field, or when he smiled. He would constantly pet me, ask me things, and talk to me on the phone until I fell asleep. I knew I was falling in love with him but how he felt was unknown to me. The day before I left, after my going away party, it was my last day of school because my mother said that I should at least tell all my teachers goodbye. And so I attended my last day of school and it was also the day that I decided that I would tell Arata my feelings and the mood would be right because it was raining and we could share my umbrella. We always shared my umbrella because he always seems to never check the weather when it was supposed to rain.
And so after school, I had looked for him at the shoe lockers just to see another girl had met with him first. "You forgot your umbrella? Well, I can walk you home with mine. I wouldn't want you to get sick, Arata-kun." I just stood there, frozen. What was I to do? And the way that Arata looked at her… I could tell that he obviously liked her. I mean, why wouldn't he? She was far prettier than me. Her skin was fairer, her hair stylish, and she was one of the popular senior students. He would definitely be happy with someone like her…
I don't know what came over me but I felt like I wanted to cry. This was my last day, the only day I could tell Arata how I felt and it was ruined… My eyes began to water and next thing you know, my legs started moving on their own. I ran through them, Arata reaching out to grab my arm but I just yanked it out of his grasp and tried so hard not to show him my tears. I couldn't talk to him let alone face him. I just ran, where to? I didn't know where I was going but I just wanted run far away from him. Where we lived in Kyoto, there was a bunch of forest areas. And surprisingly enough, that's exactly where I ran to. I ran straight towards the forest, not even caring what exactly would happen to me. I just wanted to run until I couldn't run anymore, until my legs had felt numb. I pushed the branches back and felt some small ones from the large bushes scratch my legs. The pain meant nothing to me at the moment; the only pain I felt was the fact that I had lost Arata forever. If I could've left telling him my feelings, I wouldn't have to deal with "what ifs" and then I could at least know how he felt but Arata didn't like me. Why would he? He was too special and I was such a dull person. He didn't need someone like me in his life.
Soon my legs gave out and I came crashing to the hard ground below. I laid there for a few minutes, crying because that's the only thing I had wanted to do. My eyes just kept pouring and pouring and I felt like they would never stop. I had soon fallen asleep out there, the rain still going on strong. I just felt so tired and I wanted to forget everything about this day.
When I woke up, I was still in this forest. My clothes were dirty, my hair wet and smelled like grass as well as rain. At least the raining had stopped but being out here wasn't much of a reward. I stood up and brushed as much dirt as I could off my uniform and picked up my umbrella and bookbag. I had to find a way out of here, but I figured it would be easy but boy was I wrong. Every tree looked the same and I felt like I was going around in circles. I was lost and I didn't know how I got in here or how I was going to get out. Every time I tried to run through an area where I felt like I didn't run through yet, I found myself in the same position as I was a few minutes ago. This was it, I was lost out here. Nobody would find me, they wouldn't know where to look for me. I was going to be stuck out here forever… I fell down to my knees, feeling myself ready to cry all over again. This had to be the worst day ever, no yesterday or if it was even yesterday was the worst day. I was going to die out here after realizing how I wasn't good enough to be with Arata. How lucky I am…
It was then that I could hear what sounded like a river. I stood up and I ran towards where I heard it and I felt happy that this was a sign. A sign that I wouldn't be stuck out in this forest anymore! I would be able to find my way back to what would be my old home, I would be leaving and it was probably best that I did after what I had did. Arata didn't need to see me and I didn't need to see him. As soon as I reached what I thought at first was a river, I had seen a giant bridge and not just that, was I at a waterfall? I had never seen this before but when have I ever gone out into a forest and got lost? For a while, I stood there and stared at it and was unsure if I wanted to cross it. I didn't remember crossing one yesterday when I ran here and so it probably didn't lead to somewhere I would be able to find my way back home. And it lead sto another thick forest. I sighed, I had turned around but then I thought I heard footsteps. I turned back around and I saw a tall man with thick, unkempt black hair and broad shoulders. He didn't seem real because I could see through him.
He stopped halfway and he turned back and looked at me with a warm smile. I stared at him, frozen and unsure what I was actually seeing before me. I felt the oddest thing, I felt like I wanted to follow him. I wanted to chase him and so as always, my legs were on the move, and I ran across the bridge but I had went right through him and when I touched the other side… Everything had changed. The trees that were dark and not dressed with leaves had suddenly disappeared. The sky that I could not see was a bright blue, and then it felt cold, really cold. Then there was snow all around me, and then when I turned around. I was surrounded by snow and ocean. Just what happened to Japan? My eyes fervently looked around, unsure of what was going on. What is going on? Am I dreaming?
I didn't know how to feel but I felt like I was probably losing my mind. That I had probably not wakened up yet. I dropped my umbrella, I pinched myself, and I picked up my umbrella just to whack myself in the head with it. "What is she doing?" I heard, my eyes going towards where I heard the voice. I had seen two people, standing there and gawking at me. "Do you think she's crazy?" I heard one say, the thing that they were talking to had nodded their head. I held my umbrella close, afraid of what was happening. Okay, so maybe I was dreaming after all but what did this all mean? I just wanted to see my mother! "Hey!" A female voice shouted at me, the two people had gone closer to me. I continued to stare at them but then I could everything growing dark and the voices growing father. Everything had gone black.