Aang focused as he sat down in the middle of the spiritual forest. He brought forth his past lives and said, "I think I might be the worst avatar ever. Do any of you agree?"

All but one of his past lives disappeared. A boy dressed in all red stepped forward. "I don't think you're the worst avatar, I think I probably was when I was alive. I'm Ye-Jun."

"How old were you?" Aang asked.

"I was 12 when I died," he explained, "I never even got a chance to find out that I was the avatar. That probably makes me the worst by default."

Aang asked, "What happened to you?"

Ye-Jun warned, "It's a sad story, but I think it needs to be told."

I lived in a small fire nation town on a small island about 1,500 years ago. My father was a famous and powerful man in that area and time, so I lived in one of the biggest houses. He was mostly well known for being an amazing and talented fire bender, meanwhile my mom wasn't a bender at all.

Back then, an announcement ceremony would happen when you turned 16 to tell the whole village if you were a fire bender or not. That information would be brought to the Firelord at that time as well. The whole area was quite bias for fire bending, but nothing bad happened if you found you were a non-bender.

One day, like usual, my dad was training me in the back courtyard. "You need a harder stance, that way you can go in low, like this," he explained, and lunged forward as he produced a huge fireball.

"Do I really have to be a bender?" I asked, "Can't we just lie and say I'm a non-bender when I'm 16?"

He said, "Ye-Jun, this isn't about the ceremony. Bending is an ancient artform you need to perfect for a lifetime."

"Ye-Jun," my mother called from inside, "your friend Hui is here. Come on, enough with the lessons already." She gave my dad a disapprovingly look.

"Go on already," he said.

I ran off and said, "Thanks! I'll be back later! I promise!"

Hui was my best friend. His father was also well known in the village, only because he was the town mayor. "Hey, there's a storytime play happening in town in a few minutes, want to see it?" he asked as I met him at the front door.

"Okay!" I replied, "Race you there!"

Aang asked, "Was Hui a bender too?"

"I didn't know at the time," Ye-Jun replied, "but yes, he was. Like I said, that kind of thing was kept a secret until you were deemed mature enough to handle your bending abilities. There were quite a few accidents before that law was put into place, at least, that's what they told us."

The play we sat and watched was just like every other story I had ever heard. A girl, usually a princess or some other high ranking official, was trapped and needed rescuing by her true love. A hero would come and rescue her and they lived happily ever after.

We both left the crowd once the whole thing was over. "Well that was boring," I said.

He replied, "Yeah, I don't get why everyone likes this princess stuff. I don't want to rescue a girl."

"I don't either," I confessed, "I'd rather by rescued by a prince or someone really strong and tough."

"Really?" Hui asked, "I was just about to say that I'd rather rescue a boy. Girls are too annoying and afraid of everything." We laughed at the mere thought of it, a hero rescuing a prince, what a rediculous thought, right?

"You boys are back already?" my mom asked as we walked in the front door.

I said, "The storytime play was just the same as always."

"Yeah," Hui said, "some girl whining, 'Help me! Please! Will anyone save me?' and the hero says, 'I will!' It's over." He dramatically played out the final scene in front of us.

My mom said, "I know when I was your age those stories started getting a bit childish to me too. Have fun but don't bother your sisters, I'm trying to get them to learn more sewing before sundown." She walked by them with some wet laundry and headed outside.

Hui asked me, "So what about being rescued is appealing to you?"

I walked through the house and said, "I don't know, it's not like it's ever going to happen." I stopped at my parents room and came up with an idea. "Hey, girls might not be that appealing but their clothes kind of are. Come on." I ran into the room and opened my mother's wardrobe.

He asked, "What are you doing?"

"Playing dress up," I replied as I pulled out a dress.

"Okay," he said, "put it on."

Once I was fully dressed, I grabbed a fan and pretended to be a woman, and laughed as Hui stared at me. I asked, "How does my mom walk in this stuff?"

"I don't know," he said, "and you're not even wearing the weird shoes they wear sometimes. So, what are you going to do now, milady?"

We laughed. I asked, "Should we go into town like this?"

"Sure, I'll be your escort," he replied, "but you need a girly name to go with this. What about your mom's?"

"No way," I said as I turned around in the dress, "what about Xue?"