Hi everyone! This is the first story I've ever written so I'm sorry if the writing seems crappy or the plot is all over the place, so um yeah, this is short idk if im gonna continue this or not but here you go (:
These are all my original characters, but I do not own the world of ATLA and LOK, but I might mention or use a character from it.
CHAPTER ONE: THE SENDOFF
"It's 6:24, why do we have to leave so early?" I complain. "C'mon Elexis quit whining, get ready we leave in 45."
"I set my alarm for 6:35" I say as glare at my older brother "And?" He says, not exactly asking a question, but as telling me that he doesn't care. "That's nearly 15 minutes of sleep, gone! Every second counts!" He rolls his eyes. "You'll get over it, and now that you're awake be ready to leave by 7:10 or we're gonna be late."
I glare at him, still in bed, he looks back looking annoyed standing at my doorway, waiting, taking up most of its space so I can't really see the hallway behind him.
He has dark, reddish skin, just like mine, and he has dark brown, curly hair that sits about one inch away from his scalp. It is shaped to form sort of a wide mohawk that covers the top and a little of the back of his head. It's nearly shaved on the sides and trimmed in the back to form sort of a point.
His eyes are an interesting combination of gray and aqua, weird, but facinating. His eyelashes are long, but somewhat masculine. He has broad sholders and somewhat of a muscular build, though he doesn't work out. He's tall, around six feet, two inches, just like our father.
Though he has the same build as my father, yet he has more facial features similar to my mother. The calm but piercing eyes, flat but a round, wide nose, dimples visible without even smiling, and arched eyebrows. His eyebrows are bushy though, untamed yet even, unlike mother's. He has the same lips, top and bottop, nearly the same size, big, but it fits his face well.
"Fine." I manage to say without adding a sarcastic remark afterwards. I swing my legs over my full sized bed that takes up one corner of my room. My feet touch the soft Teal rug that surrounds the perimiter of my bed.
I walk towards the doorway, Liam still hasn't moved from his current spot, crossing his arms, tilting his head a little. He seems confused. "What?" I ask. "No smart remarks today? You never pass an opportunity to trll a joke, or make a sarcastic remark. Are you really nervous about today?" "What! No, why would I be!?" "Well I dunno, today's the day we find out what school we'll be enrolled into, I mean who isn't nervous today." He replys, letting out a small, nervous chuckle.
"Hmm..I guess, It's a no brainer that you will get chosen to the top 5 academies, you're smart, naturally athletic even, though all you do is sit around and read books and watch our beat up, old TV all day when we get home from school. What should you be worried about?" I ask.
Ever since the cycle of the Avatar had suddenly came to an end, the world has never been the same. Our connection to the spirit world had been almost completly cut off. Only the new generations of Air Nomads still maintained a strong connection. People still believe that the cycle hasn't been broken, but others, they've all lost hope.
Since we couldn't depend on the Avatar to keep balance throughout our world, the High Council decided to advance the schooling systems, to raise and train able leaders in many different paths. Non-benders, and Benders could stand equally amoungst each other, both are trained hard to be the best they can ever be. They believe the the next generations hold the key to our future.
After graduation, you could choose join a faction, mainly working in the military, as a simple soldier, or special ops agent for the Republic Colonies. Special Ops are only for the top students of each academy, or students who are promoted to a certain rank. They usualy join the most elite factions, or carry out solo assignments for the government.
Another option is to work for the Government. The top students can earn a seat in the sub-council. Live their lives in luxury. Thats a popular choice.
The third option is the Technology, Sciences and Intelligence branch. You could work in huge labs and facilities, helping humanity advance in tech, discover ground breaking scientific artifacts, help in the medical advancments, weapon specialist, the whole 9 yards; all while earning tons of cash.
If anyone works hard enough they could choose to work a high postiton in any Branch, or even be eligable for the next seat in the High council.
The better you do in any of these systems, the more fortunate you and your family is.
That's all my brother ever speaks of.
Getting a high rank in the military, getting mother out of our poor neighborhood and into a nice condo in downtown Atlas. She could quit her job, find love even. She wouldn't have to worry about food, money, clothing, anything, ever again.
But I often have to keep reminding my brother that we have to pass the orientation first.
If you fail the first 2 months if orientation, or stay at the bottom ranked during the semesters, you get kicked out. Left to work a factory job, or other lower paying jobs in the city. Forced a life of poverty. Shame. Cuts occur every 2 weeks after the first two months. Students who are cut after the first cut are more fortunate than the ones who are cut before. They get place in a moderate sector. Near but not quite inside a poor sector. Still rough though.
Last year, only 356 students out of 2460 passed the trials. The new coordinator of the trials claims that they truly want the best of the best in the academies, so the orientation's difficulty had been quadrupled. The new success rate was lowerd to 42%
So as you can see, of course theres a lot to be nervous about, but I would never admit that to Liam. Atleast not directly.
"Well I could say the same for you!" exclaimed Liam. "You skipped up two grades! You're one of the youngest ones there, yet some of the smartest, Plus you're also athletic, luckily we adapt to harsh situations such as vigorus training easy, thanks to our genetics, so you can make it past the first 3 weeks of physical evaluation. They love to see muscle, perfection, like they want the perfect soldier inside and out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Liam breifly looks away then looks back at me, as if trying to find something. "You go get ready, I'll go make breakfast"
I shrug. I walk down the hall and enter into the bathroom. Blindly, I search for the light, yet I instinctively know where to find it, I find the switch and light fills the medium sized space. I walk towards the sink and look at my reflection in the mirror.
I'm wearing an oversized yet comfortable purple sweater with shorts. The sweater make my eyes stand out because they match.
I have a dark yet vibrant purple eye color, it's a rare color to have. A rare medical condition that makes my eyesight 2x better than normal, but the side effects are the abnormal coloring in my irises.
Oddly, even though I have rather dark skin, I have natural blonde hair, caused by another rare condition I have, but it's found in my scalp.
Doctors couldn't really explain it themselves, so my family and I have no idea how or why it is that way. Though this is somewhat common throughout the poor sectors of the city. Scientist believe it is because the chemicals and pollution coming out from nearby factories are the cause of these few "mutations".
It matches my eye color and skin very well, so the look doesn't really look bad at all.
I have a flat round nose, and a eyebrows that aren't as intense as my mother and brother's. They are a dark brown color, just like my bother's hair color, like the hair nearest to my scalp, yet they are a bit brighter, and hard to see.
My eyes are big, but not too big, it fits on my face very well. My face is very proportional, the corners of my mouth line up perfectly with the corners of my eyes, and my nose sits perfectly in the middle. The curve of my cheekbones fit nearly perfectly on the sides of my face, the perfect length. Not too high, not abnormally low.
I reach for my toothbrush and run water on it, then I apply toothpaste and run a little more water over it before I begin brushing. A weird habit I guess, but a lot of people do it.
As I brush, I smell the cooking of meat and pancakes. My brother is an excellent cook, and a fast one, but his secret is firebending.
After some test, and experimenting he figured out how to use his fire bending to cook fast, but carefully. I was suprised at the results when I first tried one of his dishes using his bending.
Our father is a fire bender, he worked in smelting and metalworking factories to provide for our family before vanishing.
I was too young to remember him, but there was a picture of him with a younger Liam and my mother, who was then pregnant with me.
My mother said that he was a powerful bender, quick witted, and agile. He apparently had an opportunity to go to Duke, a top academy know for it's outstanding military programs; but he decided to stay with my mother, who unfortunatley failed after the final cuts.
They we're happy together no matter what, until one day my father left for work one day but never returned.
Liam was and and always has been since then, the man of the house. He never really liked to speak of our father, so i stopped asking.
After I finish brushing my teeth I take a quick shower, then exit the bathroom and get ready to head out.
As I come out my room in my uniform, with my book bag in hand, I go over to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat.
"Mom should be home soon, she managed to convince her boss to let her get off early." Liam explains as he puts a plate in front of me. He sits down the chair across from me.
"Is that why you cooked extra breakfast today?" I ask. Liam looked shocked, as if I had just grown a third eye on my forehead.
"How did you know I cooked extra? You never stepped foot in the kitchen this morning." he ask.
"The smell was much stronger than normal, and I could tell you had used more than two pots to cook because the lights in the bathroom flickerd slightly, meaning that you turned on the additional eye on the stove. The only reason why you used a third eye on the stove was because you needed to make more food in the limited amount if time we have...correct?"I replied
"Uh...yeah. Very impressive Elexis, I'm shocked, scared, and proud of you all at the same time." He manages to say.
"Oh, haha..thanks?"
As we finish up, we clean the kitchen and make sure we turn everything off to conserve power. We make sure leave mother's breakfast in a clean container to keep it fresh.
We walk out the house and sit on the steps to wait for her to get home. We only had 5 minutes left before we start to head out to the Irohinan Stadium to take our first Trial.
As we wait, we see kids from all over our sector headed towards down town, most of them walk, others get a ride from their parents or older siblings.
Younger students have to wait for traffic to die down before headed to school, so the Early, Mid, and any Pre Achademy students who are in their 3rd year and under stay home until late morning. Other kids around my age are still sleeping most likely.
I hear a city bus a few yardsa away, I must have detected this before Liam because he turns his head towards the sound a few seconds after I do.
We see our mother emerge from around the corner toward where the bus stopped, she smiles as she sees us, the bags under he eyes lets us know that she must be exausted, yet her eyes still light up as she hurries toward me and my brother.
"Oh look at you two! All grown up, and already headed towards academy. Im so proud you both" exclaimed mother as she pulls us in a big hug.
"Hey mom." Liam an I say in unison.
"I got off early today just to see you two before you head off, sadly they cut 150 notes out of my weekly salary" Mom says, sounding dissapointed.
I feel angry yet saddened by the news. Mother can get the rest she needs, but she'll have to work longer just to keep the lights on and food in the cupboards. Luckily by tommorow my brother and I will leave for our new residences for the orientations, so that will be two less mouths to feed.
"I'm sorry mom, we really appritiate you going out of your way to see us" my brother says witha warm smile.
"Ah Liam, thank you. I really needed that. Now you two go ahead, I'd hate to make you two late to the Trial."
"Alright mom." I say. "We love you, we'll visit anytime we can."
"Goodbye babygirl, and you too, my little soldier boy. You two be the best that you can be." says Mother getting a little teary eyed.
"Yes ma'am" we both say.
After more hugs and tears, Liam and I head off towards the beginning of our futures, towards the place where our destinies will be chosen.