BRRRRRAAAAAANNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!
"Flaming Agni, what the hell___," grumbled Azula, sitting up in bed. The great, big gong was being sounded in the courtyard outside. Yawning, Azula shot a quick look out of the window from her bed, groaned, then leaned back against the headboard It was practically way before dawn; she wasn't supposed to have any training today, having burned her mentor's tongue for reprimanding her. She fumbled for a moment, before being swallowed up by her train of thoughts.
'Good,' Azula thought, rather sleepily, then smiled evilly as she recalled in her memory the shriek her stupid mentor emitted, 'it'll take quite a while before they found anything that will be forced to teach me,' she thought, then said aloud, "And as for that stupid gong-ringer, I'll see to it that he'll end up as no more than a pile of ashes for disturbing my sle___."
"Goood Mooorning, Azulaa!" Ty Lee burst in a sing-song voice. Azula had not yet finished talking when Ty Lee bounded into her room, tumbling and jumping into her bed in one of her well-practiced routines. "Today's the big day, I can't wait! I hope we'll be able to meet a lot of cute boys," said Ty Lee, fluttering her lashes.
"Ty Lee, what in this chaotic world do you mean?" Azula was puzzled. Big day? Cute boys? She couldn't make any sense in it, not even a single fiber. She was already thinking if her friend was driven insane when a voice broke her from her train of thoughts:
"Hm, rather unusual, you're usually the first one to get finished readying; you're supposed to be bossing us around by now." Azula looked up. Mai was standing by the threshold of her flung-open door, smiling teasingly. Before she could respond, Mai ran over to the foot of her bed and knelt down, bowing her head.
"I beg your pardon, Princess Azula, you might as well punish me for my vile tongue," said Mai reverently, then she looked up, "Just kidding," she laughed, sitting at the edge of Azula's bed.
"Very funny," said Azula, confused, amused, and irritated at the same time. "I appreciate your joke, if that's what it is, but please excuse me for not laughing since it's simply too old," Azula glared at her. She opened her mouth to continue but Mai cut her:
"Don't worry, she's not insane," sensing her thought, "but I'm rather astonished to see you looking clueless, you couldn't possibly forget," continued Mai.
"Whhhhaaaaaaattttt?! That's impossible!" shrieked Ty Lee, but Azula ignored her and turned her attention to Mai.
"First of all, I'm not looking clueless, I am clueless and second, I've racked my brains and I can't get any single thing that's there to forget," scowled Azula. She hated it when she admitted her errors to anybody, especially to her friends; it goes against her impression of being the perfect prodigy to others.
Ty Lee and Mai exchanged a swift look.
"So you did forget, oh my gosh!" Ty Lee looked at her in horror.
Mai's eyebrows rose. "Azula, pull yourself together, today's our first day of school, didn't your father or your uncle tell you?"
Azula thought hard, going through blurry conversations of last night. She remembered that dull Iroh telling her to rise early for school but she had taken the matter as boring and threw it at the back of her mind. She groaned, silently cursing herself, she was about to speak when a movement caught her eye. A very handsome boy leaned against her open door, arms crossed, and with a confident aura: Zuko.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" said Zuko rather gleefully, scrutinizing the three of them, all tumbled in bed. As his eyes rested on her, Azula glared at him. 'Ugh, I hate him, he's so obnoxious! When the right time comes, I'll burn him to crisp. But first, I'll see to it he'll suffer a great deal.' Azula thought.
Suddenly, Zuko laughed. His laugh, Azula observed, gnawed at her. She suddenly had a feeling he was having some joke going on, but what? He's really getting to her nerves.
"Wow, Azula, I never thought I'd live long enough to see you like that!" said Zuko, while unsuccessfully trying to control his laughter. "It never crossed my mind that the Fire Nation's prodigy could ever exist while looking like that."
The prince laughed so hard, his eyes almost brimmed with tears. Mai and Ty Lee looked at Azula, smiling weakly. Then she got it. Her hand flew up to her tangled hair. Zuko had never seen her looking dazed and bedraggled; she was always orderly each time he saw her to imply that she was the only one who possessed perfection, and thus, put Zuko in her shadow. But this time, much as she dreaded in acknowledging the fact of it, it was Zuko who outshined her. He had already bathed, proof to that are the drops of moisture in his skin; a few months ago, he gave up the top knot-do and let his hair grow out, although he kept it short, too short for him to even have bangs, but long enough so as to not to make him look like a monk. And now they stood up wet and shiny, and his clothes are clinging to his body. 'Enough,' thought Azula, 'I'm not going to let that stupid fool get away with this.'
"So speaks the coward who refused to perform the Agni Kai against Father, isn't that right Zuzu?" said Azula menacingly. Zuko, who had now regained his composure, scowled.
"Stop it and stop calling me that," snapped Zuko.
"What's wrong, Zuzu?" Azula ignored him and continued, "Did I hit a soft spot?"
The prince glared daggers at her. Azula smiled wolfishly.
"Oh yes, it was practically three years ago, isn't it? When you begged and cried at Father to spare 'his most loyal servant.' I never really found out what notion came in Father's head that he spared you, looking pathetic and all that," said Azula cruelly.
"I am not pathetic," Zuko shot back through gritted teeth.
"Yes, you are, and to think that Father almost burned your face, and then you would be ugly. Too bad he spared you and let you go unscathed. If he had burned you and had left your stupid face an imprint, then that would have been interesting."
"Shut up!"
"Why Prince Zuzu," Azula said mockingly, "I never thought such an outburst would come from you. I suppose you're a lot more childish than I thought."
"Have it your way," muttered Zuko. The princess, sensing his defeat, felt triumph. 'He started it, now I'll drag his life to complete misery' she thought, satisfied.
Author's Note:
Alright guys, this is the first chap of my first fanfic, which ate up a lot of time for me to get through since it took me a long time to compromise what theme I should use. I won't ask you to go easy on it, you say whatever you want, because for me criticism is best…please review!