Hey, everyone! Okay, I just wanted to say that this chapter is NOT the best. I totally admit it. The next chapters will be a WHOLE lot better. I also wanted to apologize about how short the chapters are. I've gotten better at focusing on detail, but this chapter is basically just to get the story going. R&R! -Katybug
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Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. (Stupid Mike and Bryan. They won't let fans do anything...)
Liz
Chapter One: A Friday To Remember
The hot cement burned her sock-covered feet as Liz walked down her driveway towards her mailbox. I doubt anything's even in there, she thought to herself. The breeze swished her brown hair in front of her face, and Liz blew her bangs out of her eyes, annoyed. She had had a long day at school, and wasn't ready to do all of the homework piled up in her book bag. She'd put it off until Sunday night. It was the weekend, and she wanted to enjoy it.
She came to the black, metal mailbox and opened it up. As she suspected, nothing was waiting for her. Liz closed the small door and started to return to her house. She approached the door, but suddenly heard a loud crash! "What the-?" she yelled, turning around.
Frantic, she ran down her street, forgetting about her hot feet. Liz turned a corner and saw something she never expected. There were four figures-apparently children-attacking a stop sign. She ran towards them, cautiously, not knowing if they were dangerous or not. Two of them were dressed in blue, one in green, and one was dressed in a yellow shirt with orange wind pants. As she got closer, she noticed that two were girls.
Liz slowly finished up her run, treading lightly behind the group. "What are you doing?" she asked. The boy with an arrow on his head jumped, turned around, and, with a huge staff-looking thing, blasted her into a bush. "Ow!" she shouted.
The boy approached her. He didn't look much older than twelve or thirteen. "Who are you?" he asked, acting as if she was dangerous.
"M-My name is L-Liz. Why...No, how did you knock me into Mr. Jefferson's bush?" Liz demanded.
The boy looked confused. His companions walked up behind him. The girl dressed in blue helped Liz up. "Oh, I guess you've never seen an airbender before, huh?" she asked.
"What are you talking about?" Liz was confused. Where did these kids come from? she thought.
"Katara, don't talk to that girl! She might be a Fire Nation spy!" the boy dressed in blue whispered.
"Again, what are you talking about? I've never heard of a country named 'Fire Nation' before!" Liz stated, not knowing what in the world was going on.
The girl replied, "Sokka, she looks harmless. Maybe she can tell us where we are." The girl with looped strands of hair turned to Liz and asked, "Can you please tell us where we are? We fell into a huge hole while we were looking for food, and we landed in this strange place."
"Yeah," said the shorter girl dressed in green. "I've never felt this type of rock before."
"It's called concrete. And you're in Water Spring County," Liz replied, dusting off leaves from her fall.
The girl called Katara became excited. "There's water nearby? Great! I need to refill my canteen."
"No, no. It's just called Water Spring County, and-" The boy in wind pants cut her off.
"Just tell us if we're in Fire Nation territory or not. We were in the woods before we came to the hole." He sounded angry.
"You're in Alabama. Where is this 'Fire Nation'?"
"Stop playing coy!" the boy called Sokka commanded. He pulled out a sharp-looking boomerang from a pack on his back. "Just tell us where we are!"
"Sokka!" Katara shouted. "You're scaring her!" Liz knew Katara could see the worry in her eyes.
"Yeah! She's telling the truth, anyways!" the girl in green said. Liz glanced at her eyes and noticed she was blind. Liz had never met anyone blind before.
"Oh." Sokka put the boomerang back in the case strapped onto him. "Then let's just go back. There's no need to find out where we are."
"Sokka's right," the bald one added. "Sorry I hurt you. I was just frightened."
Liz nodded and said, "Quite alright. But, please, just tell me who you are and where you've come from. I've never seen you around here."
"I'm Katara," the girl in blue said. "And the one with the ponytail is my brother, Sokka."
"I already told you, it's not a ponytail! It's a warrior's-"
"I'm Toph," the girl in green cut in.
"And I'm Aang," said the boy with arrows on his hands as well. Liz smiled happily, knowing they meant no harm. "Can you bend?"
"Bend what? I have joints," Liz said.
"He means are you an earthbender, waterbender, or firebender?" Katara added. "I can't believe you've never heard of any of this." She sighed. "Here, let me show you some waterbending."
Liz's eyes grew as she witnessed Katara moving liquid water in midair with the movement of her wrists. "Oh...my...gosh..." she whispered.
"Toph, earthbend for her," Katara instructed. Toph threw rocks up into the air with brisk hand and feet movements. "And they way Aang blasted you into that bush was airbending."
"So what can Sokka bend?" Liz asked.
"I'm glad you asked..." he began. He pulled out his boomerang. "Boomerang!"
"...That's nice," Liz responded. "But, that's truly amazing. How can you do all that? Are there more of you?"
"You know what?" Katara said. "Why don't you come with us? We could show you around if you want."
"Well, I don't know if my parents would approve..." Liz heard Toph cough. "...But, I do want to do something this weekend. Why not?"
"Great then," Aang said. "Let's get on Appa and get back to the Air Temple. The others must be getting hungry."
"Who's Appa?" Liz asked.
"You'll see..." Toph replied.
The kids walked towards a manhole in the middle of the street. Toph opened it up with earthbending. "What are you doing?" Liz asked, holding her nose.
"This is how we got here," Sokka answered. "I'll climb through it first."
"Oh sick!" Liz said as Sokka put one foot in the mush. Against her better judgement, Liz climbed through the manhole, and fell through a hole onto soft grass.
Rubbing her back, she looked to her right and saw the big, fluffy bison. Liz screamed and ran behind Sokka, who was gathering things from his group's hunt.
"What's wrong?" Aang asked, jumping up to the reigns on the hairy beast.
"Aang, get off of it! It could eat you!" Liz yelled. Sokka moved toward the bison, and Katara helped him put supplies on its saddle.
"Oh. Don't worry," Aang assured her. "This is Appa, and he's super friendly. He'll fly us back to the others."
"Fly?" Liz asked, walking towards Appa, then petting him. He was very soft.
"Yep," Aang said, smiling. "Climb on, and let's get out of here."
Sokka helped Liz, Katara, and Toph up, and soon Liz heard a "Yip yip." As Appa set out, Liz gripped her seat, frightened out of her mind. These kids are nuts! she screamed in her head.