Hey it's PM and GUESS WHAT? It's WINTER BREAK, well at least for us high schoolers. I'm sooo excited that i can FINALLY do some MORE writing :D Anyywayyyysss this is a one-shot and probably one of the longest ones you will ever face in your entire life :P it's also seperated into different parts so it may seem multi-chapter but it's really not. So I hope you enjoy it (:
In case you did not understand my description, this story is about these four kids who have the power to change the futures, but it all depends whether they want to or not. Yes i know. It sounds VERY cliche and not to mention BAD buuut i had this idea like 20000 million years ago. It's kinda like power rangers but not really if you know what i mean: Teen saving world whatever... except i don't have bad acting......random screams.......annd the usual. The kids' powers are very supernatural. Of course one has the ability to manipulate the Greek's four "most" important element: fire, earth, water and air. And in case you have never read my works before, I like to have footnotes--but only for one-shots so have fun and i'll see you at the bottom (:.
Concentrated Power of Will:
[this is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will, five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain, and a hundred percent reason to remember the name]- Fort Minor
The auditorium was getting filled as she sat in her seat, waiting.
Grade by grade, from the little sixth graders to the graduating seniors, the whole entire student body entered in cliques and trampled into the large room like animals. In these kinds of situations, it always made Katara think of how fast life passed on. Even though she was a sophomore in high school, she knew that she would approach junior year soon, and then she would be getting for college. Katara was planning to attend Stanford--she was sure she was smart enoug to get in-- and during her years at Stanford, she would meet the future husband. Married after graduating college, she would have a boy then a girl, and quitting her job when the boy was old enough to support his family. (1) Katara knew her goal would change around, but they were normal goals, many kids probably have similar dreams too. But… how could she be normal when she knew there was something wrong with her? Even though, it was just a quick memory, she would play it in her head over and over again, making sure she had not imagined any of it up.
It really wasn't that long ago. Sixth grade, right after Star became a female dog. They had been best friends in elementary school and no matter how cliché it sounded; they stopped being friends when Star joined the cheer leading team in their new school. (2) Katara could see Star now; she was a few rows ahead of her laughing at the principal. He was frustrated, with the amount of kids in the largely populated area of Manhattan Private Academy; they kept coming by the dozens.
But anyways… it was March 11, 2006, and they were in art class. She remembered the teacher telling them to paint a portrait of themselves, it didn't matter how good or bad the drawing was, it all determined on how well the work was getting accomplished. After three weeks of painting, Katara was finally done and she looked down at her painting, filled with pride. She wouldn't call herself an excellent artist but it was definitely well done. As she was walking to the teacher, smiling, she felt herself being knocked down by something.
It was heavy and it hurt a lot.
"Oh my God, I'm sooosorry," the voice came, filled with so much guilt that Katara would've believed it was her fault.
Katara looked up and it took her a second to realize that her smock was covered in black paint, her sleeves of her shirt were covered in it as well, and her painting was ruined. The picture didn't look like her wonderful self but a blob of black coat. It was just an accident, she told herself, anyone could have accidentally walked into someone with an amazing painting.
"Katara!" Ms. Kwan came up next to her, yelling, "What happened?" Ms. Kwan wasn't the art teacher and she couldn't believe her luck—Ms. Kwan just so happened to be the sub for the day. (3)
"I-I'm so sorry, Ms. Kwan, It's my fault," some other girl had stepped in, stuttering, "I had to bring Star some black paint and I was asking Star a question at the same time and I just accidentally knocked over—"
The teacher ignored her, not wanting to hear her rant about unimportant subjects, "You had to bring a whole bucket (4) of opened paint?" Ms. Kwan accused Yue, but she just looked down.
It was then Katara knew Star had set it up the entire time. Anger built up inside of her—the lava would soon erupt from the volcano. She got up slowly form the ground, her arms were sticky, and her clothes were filled with the black paint and she reeked of paint but she didn't care. I am so ready to kill Star, she thought. It's her fault that my painting is ruined, of course it's not an accident.
Ignoring the laughs she gotten from her classmates, Katara started heading towards the sink. Washing her hands, she was thinking of ways to get back at her formal best friend. She knew what she could do: show a picture of Star when she was in fourth grade. Katara's grandma had taken the picture of her when she was in a disheveled state, coming right from playing with mud. Katara laughed on the inside, but would the picture be embarrassing enough? Before Katara could think of something else, she heard the voice sneering to her friend, "I think she looks cute, like the time you put on a sweater on your pet poodle." (5) Star went over to the sink to pull paper towels from the dispenser, "But now because of your flipping mistake we have to clean up for you. Consider yourself avenged."
Katara stared right past them, she wasn't even sure if she heard right. Eyeing the puddle of black paint where Yue had spilled on her, Katara watched them neatly bend down to clean up their mistake. She could hear Star complain, "Come on Ms. Kwan, this is so not my day, I'm wearing a white skirt and I have my period." Suck it up, Katara thought and continued applying soap on her clothes. It failed so she just stopped. Sighing, Katara turned the running water off and looked back at the entire class cleaning up Star's mistake.
Suddenly, Katara had the perfect idea. Next to the pond of black paint, a table held a can of opened red paint. She could just see it, someone miraculously spilling it on top of Star to make it look like her period had escaped her pad.
Katara laughed on the inside. The wish she had wished for burned incredibly, she could feel her heart on fire. She stared at the bucket of paint, and tuned out her classmates' complaints so it was just a low buzz. She hoped it will tilt to the side. She stared it for two-three-four seconds.
Nothing happened and soon the bell rang.
There's no hope, Katara sighed. No hope??? The other side of her argued, Of course there is no hope. Are you crazy or something? What makes you think an inanimate object could MOVE?
"Class, calm down," Ms. Kwan's voice commanded, "we're not going anywhere until the paint is gone, you can thank Katara and Yue for that. I'll give you all passes once you're done," and with that, she left the room, probably instructing the next class on what to do .
The class groaned and sneered Katara's name, like it was not okay for someone to hit her with a bucket of paint. Ignoring the comments, she walked to the smock closet to put hers away, and decided to leave. After all, she hadn't done any harm—harm was done to her. As she was collecting her books near the messy floor, she saw the red paint again. Not wanting to let it go, Katara acted without thinking and walked over to the mess.
"Katara, freak, what are you doing?" Star asked, "Go away, no one loves you." Katara didn't say anything but just stared at Star with an unfathomable expression. "What, do you have a problem freako?" Star stood up, glaring at Katara but Katara could see it in Star's eyes that she was just gloating around and happy because she's won another battle. What was with her anyways? Students around her started looking up.
Katara eyed the red paint behind her, how would she do it? The paint was filled to the top, no one was using it, and she just needed someone to push it on her. God, how was it so difficult? (6)
And soon, as if the world read her mind, her heart stopped and her eyes widened. Earth was moving slowly and she could feel and see every small and slow motion, like the movies. Katara could hear Star yell at her and calling every word there was, but Katara wasn't listening or gawking at her slow moving mouth. The red paint behind Star was moving on its accord. It first sloshed around, and it suddenly shot out behind Star. (7)
All of a sudden, the world spun fast again and Ms. Kwan rushed back in.
"Quiet!!!" Ms. Kwan yelled, "What's the matter with you Star? Has your mother ever taught you not to speak like that in school??! Detention with me tomorrow morning, 6:30 sharp!" Ms. Kwan had determined Star's faith before she could even say a word.
A burst of laughter from a student soon interupted the silence. Star was confused but she shook her head, "I'm leaving. Ms. Kwan, please write me a pass."
The annoyed teacher went over to her desk to pull out something while the entire class watched Star. She felt a sense of pride. Of course everyone was watching her, she had the best face in the world and plus, she had just embarrassed Katara. Life was going good and who cared if she had detention tomorrow morning? Star grabbed the pass from Ms. Kwan and read it with an audience to please.
"What?" She exclaimed, "Why are you taking me to the nurse? I have history after this."
Katara tried to hide her sly smile. So Ms. Kwan had noticed it too...
...and the rest of the class when they burst into laughter. The students outside, standing in the hallway waiting for Period 3 to get out, looked inside the art door as well to see Star and her leaked period. Star froze, what is going on with the world?
Star's circle of friends gasped out loud, snickered, and mouthed the words to her.
It took Star about five miliseconds to understand what they were talking about. Star's face flushed blood red and ran out of the classroom, showing her red-stained white skirt to everyone.
It made Katara's day.
Star's friends, her exs and even students who adored her from afar, laughed at her as she ran to nurse's office. Katara just stood there, though, with her mouth opened. Of course she wanted to laugh but she couldn't. There was nothing to be said. It just happened. It was impossible, she knew that, but she caught it all and remembered it all. She did it. She was a witch of some sort, hurting people out of her desire.
"Excuse me," the principal's voice rang out from the microphone. Katara recoiled (8) and realized that she was back in the huge auditorium. Every seat was filled and the principal began to launch into his speech.
"Class of 2010, Class of 2011, Class of 2012 and Class of 2013, as well as the oncoming graduates, we have news for you. We felt this subject was too important to be ignored, but of course you have heard of the H1N1 flu? (9)People are dying, and we feel the need to protect everyone. So now, everyone is required to wear these"–he held out a mask, like what doctors wore. It was supposed to be cover the nose and mouth in case of bad germs or something.
Katara stared at it, but then let it go. If everyone wore it, then it wouldn't really matter. Plus, she really didn't want to get sick. Many other students though, murmured while others laughed in disbelief. Katara rolled her eyes, and thought about the past again as the principal tried to calm everyone down. Ever since that night, she knew that there was something wrong with her. Of course, she'd never mentioned it, not even to Sokka. Ever since that accident, she knew there was something wrong with her. Even Star, who loved humiliating Katara, ignored her. The incident was just random and weird... but since she had started thinking about it, shouldn't Star realize that it wasn't her period? What had Star been thinking when she went to the nurse's office?
A thought occurred to Katara just then, four years later since the incident. She held her breath.
It was like she made paint move.
With her mind.
Or with her eyes? Hands? Heart? Toes? What else mystical was there about her life?
As if her life wasn't weirder enough, she saw Principal Mitchell stop talking. Katara looked up and flinched. He didn't stop talking.
He froze. Principal Mitchell was looking straight ahead to the audience, and Katara turned around curiously. It seemed that people had stopped talking too. She let out a small scream when she realized that everyone else was frozen too.
Except for her.
"What the hell..."she whispered and shut her eyes, maybe it was a bad dream.
Quietly, a faint echo of an old man singing some old hymn was heard by her. She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from but it was benevolent and warm. I am dreaming, she thought, but her eyes managed to stay closed. She couldn't recognize the tune or words but the rhythm made her fall into a deep slumber and into a dark hole.
More Author's Notes
Ages of Main Characters: in case anyone was wondering of course.
Katara (14-15) 9th grade
Zuko (16-17) 11th grade
Aang (12-13) 7th grade
Toph (12-13) 7th grade
So those four will be the ones. I feel bad for Zuko he's stuck with little kids but you'll see :P So how do you guys like it? Is it bad and werid? Review please, they really do make my day :). And I feel like Katara is SOO out of character, I'm sorry. I should've made Katara more outspoken in a way.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING. MANHATTAN PRIVATE ACADEMY IS NOT A REAL SCHOOL. THIS SONG IS ALSO NOT MINE
Footnotes:
(1) Kinda like Shikamaru from Naruto if you know what I mean xD
(2) Remember that era in which every single movie and book was like this? Haha I'm sorry i just had to use it :D
(3) Ms. Kwan was that teacher in the Fire Nation. I"m sorry I forgot which episode it was. I decided NOT to make footnote with Star becuase I assume you know her? She's the girl from Tales of Ba Sing Se, the really pretty and rich one. Lol i think pretty, I remembered taht I didn't really like her makeup
(4) Hmm so I was imagining it as a bucket of paint like what you paint walls with...but this is a bucket of school paint. So just imagine it was a school paint please :D I know I suck at writing.
(5) Direct quote from Tales of Ba Sing Se. Remember I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING. EVEN MPA (Manhattan Private Academy) IS NOT A REAL SCHOOL. HOPEFULLY. IF IT IS, I AM TERRBLY SORRY AND THAT I DIDN'T KNOW IT EXISTED. IT WAS NOT INTENDED!!
(6) So i hope that 6th graders aren't like this. Maybe it's too high school? But I think Katara's so strong for standing up for Star's shit.
(7) Lol bad description, I'm sorry.
(8) Is recoiled the right word? Lol I'm in desperate need of an editor....and a better vocabulary dictionary.
(9) Does that sound really stupid? Don't worry, there's meaning behind it.
Hmm well thanks for reading this. I hope I didn't waste your time and bore you out. And i'm sorry if some of the grammatical errors were obvious becuase i have no sense in grammar. It sucks a lot.
About the next part, actually, it will switch perspectives gradually xD
-PM