Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. All of the rights belong to Nickelodean and the creators of the show.
MODERN! This starts off with Kataang, but gradually Taang. Being single on Valentine's Day sucks.
Another day, yet another year of that fricken holiday. I don't see what the purpose of it is - to make more money from people buying flowers, chocolate, and who knows what else? After so long, I'm starting to think that they're just trying to make the single people look like idiots. I mean, I'm almost fifteen years old and I still haven't had a Valentine before! I keep telling my friends that I don't want one, but that's not true at all. I actually like someone, and I've had my eyes set on him for a while - and I can't even see.
But, you know how it goes. The good ones are always taken. This time, it's even worse, though. He's dating one of my best friends.
That's how I met him, was through Katara. She came up to me one day last year at the park (I was only there to get some fresh air. It's only down the road, so I snuck out of my house and went there myself.) and said that she got a boyfriend when she never even told me that she liked someone. Then, out of nowhere, he jumps right into the conversation and introduces himself to me. I would've heard him coming, cause that's what I rely on for sight (sometimes I can tell where people are with vibrations), but he has the softest footsteps in the world, I sware! I've never had anyone else sneek up on me like that.
"Hi! You must be Toph, Katara's told me about you. I'm Aang."
"Yeah, I know who you are."
Over the past year, we've really started becoming close. My first impression on him on that day was totally legit. He's actually a really nice guy. He would include me in anything, even if Katara was with him. He wouldn't pretend like I wasn't there. When he wasn't with Katara, he would still come up and talk to me. He wasn't one of those guys that just acted nice around me just because I was his girlfriend's best friend, or just because I'm blind. He has a good head on his shoulders, I know that for sure.
About a month after I met him, I started feeling weird whenever we were together. It was mainly a turny-feeling in my stomach, but sometimes it would spread all over and send a shiver up my spine. It was so strange. I've never felt like that with anyone before.
I denied it at all costs to say that I liked him. It just sounded so wrong. I made up excuses to myself all the time that it was nothing. One day, though - a good few months later, there was this one day that changed everything. I remember that day like it was yesterday. . .
The original plan was to have Katara over on the weekend to help me study for school. No, I didn't go to a public school, and I absalutely refused to go to an all-blind school. I have a tutor come over every day to teach me for 3-5 hours (depends on how caught up we are). I have a terrible time with math. It's near impossible to teach a blind girl how to work with numbers. Of course, I'm never going to know how to do algebra, triginometry, geometry, calculus, or any other complicated kind of math. So my parents have had me at the basics level ever since I started school. They don't think I can handle anything beyond that with any subject.
Katara and I set the whole thing up after she got back home from school, but then she called me the next morning to arrange a change of plans.
"Hey, Toph. About me coming over today. . ."
"Yeah. You'll be here at one, right?"
"Well. . . I was wondering if I could bring Aang with me."
The way she said it sounded like I was going to throw a fit just because she suggested something new. I thought it was a pretty good idea for my own selfish reasons, but what's even better is Aang is a straight-A student in math.
"Oh, okay, that'll be fine."
"Okay, but I only want to bring him because I can't stay all day like I said. I have plans at around five to go visit Gran-Gran with Sokka."
"Oh," a tingling feeling started up from the tips of my toes. "How long will Aang be staying for?"
I waited a few seconds. There wasn't an immediate response.
"He said that eight is the latest."
"Okay." I didn't even want to bother asking my parents if it was okay with them. I live in a mansion, and I barely see them all day, so I was pretty sure that they wouldn't notice. "I'll see you guys in a little bit then."
We said our goodbyes and I was left standing there in the middle of my bedroom. I almost dropped the phone after a moment. That was the que to snap out of it and get ready. They called at such a short notice. I only had a half hour, or so, to get ready. That was the first time I ever wanted to dress up for anyone. I mean, when do I ever get ready? This is the only circumstance that I'll actually make an effort to look descent for somebody - when I won't even know how I'll look. But I hear people talking about looks all of the time, so it has to be important, right?
I knelt down next to my dresser and opened the very bottom drawer. I pulled out to what felt to be like jeans. I barely ever wear jeans. You'll usually always catch me in sweats when my parents aren't around.
Surprisingly, they fit pretty well. They finally got the size right, for once. Yeah, they were alittle long for me, but that's like that with all of my pants. I'm not the tallest person in the world.
Next, was to find a shirt. It's twice as hard for me to find a shirt because it's harder to know what I'm really wearing. It might seem like it's a nice shirt, but it might look like the most ugliest thing in the world. My best bet was to go for something plain. I went for a simple, short sleeved v-neck. I hoped to god that it wasn't weird-looking.
After I got dressed, I realized that I was dressed up enough. I gathered up all of my hair and tied it up in a bun. My over-grew bangs still hung over my face, but that never really concerns me much. And I never used socks or shoes as an option.
I waited about ten minutes in the foyer for them. A couple of the maids walking by asked if I needed assistance. But assistance for what? Do I need help sitting on a bench? I was so close to exploding at both of them, but luckily, I was saved by the doorbell.
I yelled, "I got it!" before anyone could answer it for me. I knew the door was right in front of the bench. They think just because I'm blind, I don't know my way around my own house. It's pretty said, the way their minds work.
Sometimes, there's this awkward moment whenever I answer the door where the person that's at the door and I are totally silent. I don't know who it is when I open the door, and they don't know me either. They have to say hi before I do to avoid the weird pause. ("Uhh. . . hello?" "Who is this?" etc. . .)
Katara knows to say hi when I answer, though. Aang got the hang of it after a while, but this was the first time he came over. Naturally, he was amazed by it.
Katara, Aang and I all went in the office. It was specifically built for me to have my tutoring in there. The first time Katara walked in, she thought it looked just like a real classroom that you would see in school. Aang told me that it's better then the rooms at their school, but I would beg to disagree.
The tutoring lasted for about an hour. They started off with adding and subtracting. After five years of being taught the same simple rules over and over again, you get really tired of it, but you also know it pretty much by heart. We could've been done with it within minutes, but both of them insisted on continuing on for 60 long, boring minutes. I had so many better things to do, but I guess I could say that it was worth the time, being with Aang and all. He had more of an attention-span then Katara did. Katara and I will occasionally get in pointless arguments because we're so much different. There were a few times that she gave up on helping me study completely and refused to do it for a few weeks. But Aang was almost the opposite. He had so much patience with me. If I didn't get a problem right, then he would walk me through it step-by-step.
We took a break that was longer then it should've been. In all of that spare time, I gave Aang a tour of the place (with the help of Katara). I showed him the pool in the backyard, the hot tub enclosed in a screen on the back porch, the many guest rooms, the dining rooms, the kitchens- you name it, I showed it all. After the tour, Aang insisted on playing in the game room, but I told him no. I said it was because we needed to get back to studying, but the real reason was that I didn't want to feel left out because I can't play half the stuff in there. I know Aang is never like that, but I just felt so insecure at the time.
We all went back in the office. This time, we were in there until Katara had to leave. The next lesson was multiplying and dividing. That wasn't my strongest section in math, so it took them a long time just to get some of my times tables memorized. It really pissed Katara off when I would only cooperate with Aang. It was a selfish thing to do so, but I couldn't help it. Now that I look back at it, I feel kind of bad for acting that way towards her. I should've treated them equally. I'm surprised that she didn't suspect anything from me, too. I was acting sort of giddy towards Aang.
When Katara had to leave, we put our anger aside and said our goodbyes. After all, she's the one thats been giving up her time on the weekends to help me out for so many years. I have to give her some credit for that.
I felt like crawling in a hole and dying when she said bye to Aang. They kissed right in front of me. I heard it with my own two ears.
"Are you okay, Toph?"
I probably looked pretty miserable, standing there all alone after she left. It was probably pretty noticable, but I lied about it anyway.
"I'm fine, Twinkle Toes."
That was the nickname I gave him not too long before this day. I told him about his light foosteps and mocked him out about it. It was a joke, of course, even if I did go alittle over the edge about it. To this day, though, I still call him that.
This is where it really gets interesting. When we went back in the office, he became the first one to have me move onto the next chapter. He gave me an oral quiz about the times tables and I got every one right! I could finally move on with my life! Hallelujah!
"You got them all right!" he told me.
"I did?" I asked half-heartedly.
"Yeah, every one!"
I threw my arms in the air, showing how excited I really was. What I didn't see coming, though, was that he threw his arms around me. I couldn't see it coming, so, humiliating enough, I shrieked.
He let go immediately and apologized. "I'm sorry! I just wanted to hug you, I didn't mean to scare you!"
"No, no, it's okay." It was impossible to hide my astonishment and embarrassment. I could feel heat flowing to my cheeks. I was blushing like crazy. It was so extreme that my eyes started to water. I was so helpless that I couldn't even fricken hug somebody without looking like an idiot.
He repeated his apology about a hundred more times, but it just made me feel even more retarted.
I think I shrieked because I was scared of the feeling when he put his arms around me. It was only for a split second, but I knew something was there. I felt electric. It was way more then just the shiver or the tingly feeling. The whole rest of the night, it felt like my stomach was being pulled down constantly. Stangely enough, I loved every minute of it.
And now, here I am, Toph Bei Fong, stuck inside the mansion on Valentine's Day when I know that my biggest and only crush and Katara are out doing something unquestionably romantic on this beautiful night. All I have tonight is me, myself and I, on Valentine's Day. . .
Haha, poor Toph, but she's gonna get Aang soon. (HINT HINT)