Full Summary: After a long summer, with Sokka in college, Katara is left to fend for herself at Wan high where rumors about her are still running wild and her new teacher June is out to get her. Sokka also leaves Suki behind when she needs him the most. Aang, newly out of the closet becomes a target for the school jocks. The summer has been cruel to Toph, whose family has lost everything. And it has treated Azula, Zuko, Mai, and TyLee less kindly.

AN: A few of the character's ages have been tweaked to fit the plot frame.

Content Warning: rape mention, abuse, drug abuse, eating & mood disorders, and self-harm.

Katara weaved her way through the crowd. She found herself more nervous than usual. It was her junior year and her first year wandering the halls of Wan High School without Sokka for company. Without Sokka for protection. She took the care to be as quiet as possible, the less attention she received the better especially these days. 06-31-09, at this point in time she knew the combo like the back of her hand and felt as though I would be ingrained in her for years after she graduated. The locker door swung open. She had hoped that summer vacation would be enough to let old problems be forgotten, she truly hoped. That's how these things normally went. "Normally," she muttered to herself as she plucked a sheet of folded paper from her locker. She hadn't even had the time to arrange her books and the notes were already appearing again. With a scowl contorting her face, Katara stomped up to the rubbish bin and ripped the paper to bits. She already knew the basics of what it would read. After all the shreds had drifted to the bottom of the trashcan, her anger subsided and a helping of despair filled its place. Why couldn't they just leave her alone already? It wasn't even true what they were saying. She wrapped her arms around herself, willing herself not to cry.

She wished she had Sokka right now, she could really use his support.

"Hey Kat!" Aang greeted cheerfully. She didn't know how he did it, how he managed to hold his chin up so high with jocks like Chan and Jet pinning him up against the lockers between verbal beatdowns. An activity they part-took in since middle school. And when they moved onto high school, a boy named Hide filled in their shoes for another two years.

"Good morning, Aang." She tried to return the greeting with a smile. But she wasn't in the mood for conversation—much less a smile—with her day starting the way that it had.

"How are you?" He asked.

"Oooh I'm fine." She replied.

"You seem down." He cocked his head. He always did seem very sensitive to others' emotions.

"Just sad that the summer is over, ya know?" She fibbed. "Sokka and I were having an amazing one but now he's at college so I don't get to talk to him much…" Now that wasn't a fib at all. That had been bothering her since Sokka stated that he was moving states away to attend a rather prestigious school. She could only imagine how hard it must be on Suki.

"I'm gonna miss him too. You're brother was a pretty cool guy." He rubbed the back of his head, "not that I'd know much about that, ya know."

"Don't let them get to you Aang, you're a pretty cool guy yourself." She nudged him on the shoulder. "Soon enough guys from all over this school will line up to date you."

"That would be nice."

"Hey, twinkle toes!" Came an energetic shout.

"Who is that?" Katara asked.

"Oh, that's Toph, she's from my soccer team."

"Our team is co-ed?"

"It's not the school team." Aang replied. "I don't think I could handle being here for extra hours."

Now there was something Katara could completely understand. Aang gave a quick wave and a 'talk to you later'. It was nice to see that he had at least one person on his side.

Katara unfolded her schedule. Math with June…what a great start to her morning. She just hoped that Jet wasn't in her class, that would make it at least a little more tolerable. She found herself wishing that she was a year older, that way there would have been a chance that she'd have Suki in her class. Naturally though, everyone she liked was either a year or two younger or a year or two older. And even more naturally everyone who made her time at Wan High difficult were just the right age to earn assigned seats next to her. Katara rummaged through her backpack—a kiddish looking thing, iridescent shimmery teal in color with golden seahorse, starfish, and mermaid patches. It was just another thing people jabbed her for. "You're in high school." She recalled Azula asking with an eyebrow raised and arms folded over her chest.

"Yeah, why do you have a kiddy bag?" TyLee asked with an eye-roll from Mai to annunciate the point.

If Katara had her way she would have had a new backpack something in a sleek and solid metallic blue. They couldn't pick on that. But her mother refused, telling her that getting a new backpack when that one was in perfectly good shape was a waste of money. Sokka didn't help her case either, but at least tried to appeal to her; "Aww but you love that backpack? Are you really going to stop using it because three people don't like it?" He smiled that charming smile and ruffled her hair. So she promised him that she'd keep using it and that she'd text him a few pictures of herself holding it by her locker. She looked to the left and then to the right—no teachers. She snapped a quick photo and sent it off. Hopefully it would make college move-in that much better for him.

She quickly put her phone back in her backpack and continued ruffling through it. Water bottle, check. Summer reading assignment, check. Pencil and highlighter, check. Spare pencil, check. And calculator, check. Katara smiled, never a day unprepared. She slung the backpack over her shoulder and sprinted across the hall, never a day tardy either, she noted to herself. And she planned to keep it that way no many how many jocks and jerks she had to plow through.

"Kiss ass." She heard a girl scoff. She knew she shouldn't have, because it only made them laugh harder to know that they got her attention, but Katara looked back. It was one of Azula's friends. Not Mai nor TyLee, but the one with the pigtails. Katara could never remember her name, Osha or Usha, or something like that. She just knew that the girl was on Azula's volleyball team and was on par with Azula herself in terms of relentless bitchiness. Katara cringed, if her mother caught her saying something like that…

She cringed again harder, realizing that she just winced for something she thought about. It's not like she said it aloud. "No wonder everyone things I'm a dork." This she did vocalize. She looked at the clock, she had about three minutes left to get to homeroom. Deciding that, that wasn't enough time for her to get to class and get settled in, she beelined it.

Wrong move. With an soft oof, she collided with another student. "Hey" Katara greeted awkwardly with a sheepish smile.

"Hey." TyLee returned quietly. So long as the rest of the poms team wasn't there, the girl was actually pretty decent to be around.

"I can pick that up for you." Katara offered, scrambling to pick up a rose gold iPod with a bunny key ring, some stencils, and a scatter of glittery gel pens.

"No, I got it." She muttered. "Don't worry about it."

Katara bit the inside of her lip. Since the beginning of last year the other girl seemed quieter, a lot less bubbly. "Are you sure?"

"The bell is going to ring in one minute. Everyone knows you don't like being late." There was a bitter edge to this refusal that made Katara wonder why she offered to help in the first place.

Katara scooped up her own things and shuffled to class. No sooner than she sat down, did the bell ring. Quickly she splayed her pencils and notebooks over the desk. "And here I thought I'd be giving you your first tardy strike." June remarked.

Katara stammered out an apology, despite not really having anything at all to apologize for. Katara watched those who should have been muttering apologies saunter into the room without a hassle from June save for a half-hearted, "don't be late again." Already, Katara was getting a sense that she and her teacher weren't going to click—this would be a first. For the most part the teachers at Wan high were focused and firm, but easy to talk to. She could already tell that June was going to have a rather laidback manner of teaching. On its own math was a task for her, she feared for her grade now that she would be learning in a style that didn't bode well with her.

"She's fine as hell." Chan remarked, dropping into his seat. Katara closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. At least he wasn't Jet. She could tolerate Chan.

"Alright." June declared, slamming a stack of papers onto her desk. "Here's how this is going to work." She leaned herself against it. "I'm going to teach, you're going to learn. This will be the easiest class you'll ever take, or you'll go home crying every night. I'll let you all decide."

Katara cringed, what a promising start to the class. She had half the mind to shoot her hand up and ask, "aren't you supposed to pass out a syllabus." Instead she remained as quiet as possible, hoping that she wouldn't go home crying every night.

"Let's start out with a little icebreaking activity. I'll tell you all about my tattoo and you'll tell me anything you feel might be worth sharing." Lowering her voice some, she mumbled, "you'd be surprised at how boring you all are."

This drew a few chuckles, apparently June was going to be a hit with the rest of the student body, especially the boys. This time Katara couldn't hold her tongue, "what about attendance?"

Chan sniggered. Turning to one of the guys on his volleyball team, Chu-Leng, he mimicked "what about attendance?"

"Attendance?" June asked.

"Before class starts, especially on the first day, you're supposed to take roll." Katara continued, fighting hard to ignore the snickers from behind.

June shrugged. "You're either here or you aren't, it'll show up on your report card." She moved to sit on her desk. "Besides, I'm a math teacher, I can count. I have a class of twenty-six students, only twenty-five are here."

"Yes!" Katara replied, trying to sound as level as possible. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but shouldn't you know who, is missing?" Frankly, Katara wanted to know who she was supposed to be sitting next to. The only two open seats were the ones next to her.

"Well, since you seem so eager to run the class, how about you start. Introduce yourself and tell the class a little bit about you."

"Big nerd." Chu-Leng remarked.

"Big slut." Chan added, quiet enough for her ears but not June's.

Katara stood and made her way to the front of the class room. "Hi I'm Katara, I love with my mother, father, Gran, and brother…well my brother just moved out to go to college. You all know him though, or most of you do." Why did she have to ramble when she was nervous, it was almost as bad as stuttering. "Anyways, I'm going to try out for the swim team…"

"Of course she is." Chan commented, "has to put her swimsuit pics in the year book."

"…If I don't make the team I'll be running for student council." She didn't know what else to say, she didn't feel as though she was as interesting as Sokka or Suki. The thrill of going back to her seat was overpowered by Chan ramming into her as he made his way up to the front.

"For those of you who don't know, not that there are many of you, I'm Chan. I throw the best parties this school knows…"

Katara felt herself zoning out for the rest of the class, it was all the same year after year and next period she would be in for a different version of the same icebreaker games. She didn't see Suki at lunch either so her spirits dimmed that much darker. Hoping that she wasn't in class, she sent her a quick text, 'when do you have lunch?' She unpacked her lunch as she waited for the reply. She smiled as she drew the note from her lunch bag. It was simple, as it always was; Good luck with your first day. Enjoy lunch. – Love, Mom. She wished that those wishes of luck were more than just that, but she would apricate lunch. Her mom took the care to pack it for her.

Her phone buzzed and the words, 'fourth hour' appeared in the chat bubble.

'Me too. Where are you?' She hit send.

This time the three little dots appeared right away. 'Doctor's.'

Katara bit her lip. 'On the first day? Everything o.k?'

For a while the dots didn't reappear. Katara finished peeling her orange by the time they did.

'Yeah. Everything's fine.'

As fine as they could be, Katara thought, Suki didn't have to say it for her to know. Her fingers hovered above the touch screen as she thought of what to say next. But it was hard to think with the cafeteria chatter and banter.

"Hey! Give that back!"

Katara looked behind her to spy a game of keep away, a classic among Chan's lot. Should Teo or Haru be particularly unlucky, Jet's team would join in too. She always wanted to step in and say something, anything, but as soon as she stood the words left her tongue and her nerves plummeted away. When had she become so…terrified? Back in elementary school she was reprimanded almost daily for throwing crayons and erasers at kids who took them from others. She would give an earful to any playground bully that needed a lecture. But now, when it seemed to matter the most, she sat uncomfortably, her stomach squirming as Teo's lunch sack was tossed from one person to the next. The game only met its end when Chu-Leng fumbled it. "Nice going, dipshit." Chan grumbled.

"Hey, the point is to keep it away. I think we won." He shrugged. "He can lick it off the ground if he wants to eat so bad."

"Can he?" Chan sniggered, giving the boy's wheelchair a good shove.

This time Katara opened her mouth. All she had to do was push it out, a simple, "leave him alone" or a bolder, "eat this" before chucking her own sandwich in his direction. How satisfying would it have been to see a paste of peanut butter smeared all over the jock's face. She balled her fists but by the time she decided that she'd intervene Chan had found his seat and Teo wheeled himself away. Katara slammed her fist on the table, an outburst that was mercifully unnoticed. She hadn't even had a chance to offer him some of her food. If only Sokka were there she would have sprung right into action. Hell, if Suki had been there it would have been the extra boost she need.

If only, if only, if only!

It was driving her crazy.

With her mood more somber than before, Katara worked on finishing her sandwich. Suki had stopped replying to her texts, probably wrapped up in her appointment. For the time, Katara was wholly alone. Aang, Toph, Haru, she had a healthy amount of friends but so typically, none of them shared the same lunch hour with her. She swore that headmaster Roku had to be doing it on purpose, not that he actually kept track of the cliques and dynamic duos of Wan high. So it was that Katara found herself peeping in on various conversations. It wasn't her intent to do so, but with no discussion of her own to uphold she found it unbearably hard to tune everyone else's out. In her defense one boy a few tables over practically screamed, "have you seen Miss June's ass yet!?" Katara's attention left that discussion very fleetingly.

"Is my mascara running?"

"I heard that Long Shot's joining the chess team this year."

"Really, I thought that he was in archery?"

"Can't expect a nerd to keep up with anything cool."

"I think that I should join theater this year…"

It took her awhile to find a voice she recognized. "It's actually disappointing really." This was Usha's slick mutter. Katara assumed she was catching the tail end of the conversation. "But I guess I'm the captain now."

So she found another one to follow. "You know what, Zuko? No, I have my own things to deal with…" The girl paused. "How about this? How about instead of…hold on." She fixed a set of dull eyes on Katara. They were so thickly coated in black eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara it was almost menacing on principle, never mind that the glare was a very pointed one. Katara mouthed a quick apology for eavesdropping. "Whatever." She grumbled and at a much lower volume, she carried on her conversation.

Officially flustered, and rightfully so, Katara decided to curb her curiosity, lunch was almost through anyhow. She began tucking away what remained of her lunch, she never did eat the strawberries. For the remaining minutes spent in the cafeteria, she dutifully went over each and every one of the syllabi—cursing June in particular for having such a vague one when she finally did hand it out. With the bell's ring she slung her backpack on and huffed, she was long overdue for a trip back to her locker. Only three classes in and her textbooks were practically conditioning her for the school wrestling team.

She read over her schedule as she fought her way through a swarm of peers and groaned to herself. She had June for Chemistry too? For the first time in her educational career, Katara thought about taking one from Sokka's book and playing hooky. She fumbled with her locker. "Are you kidding me!?" She tried the combination again and gave it a good pound.

The hall was nearly empty, but it wasn't like anyone would have come leaping to her aid anyhow. "Come on, open. Please." She winced. She looked at the time, two minutes left to get to class. She groaned, looks like June would be giving her, her first tardy after all.

With the hall so nearly vacant the slam of a locker near her own caused her to jolt. She should have ignored it, it was always best to ignore loud sudden noises when on Wan high territory. But she didn't, instead she locked eyes with the only other person in the hall. Straggly locks obscured much of her face, but not enough to spare her an intense furious glare—she wondered just how many of those she'd be on the receiving end of that day. Though these eyes had an exhausted undertone that took the edge off of the anger. She was paler than Katara last remembered and had put on some weight, wearing less makeup than Katara herself. And the makeup that she had bothered with was applied with a degree of carelessness. Overall, she was disheveled, leaving Katara with the impression that she wasn't the only person having a tragic first day. She heaved herself away from the locker she was slumped against, allowing Katara to assess that even her posture was wrong.

Everything was off to the point where Katara almost didn't recognize her.