It was weird how fate brought friends to a person like me because for a long time, I didn't have friends. I was born into a fire nation family who were the descendants of a great general who fought in the hundred year war...as you can see, this poses as a problem. My father held a grudge against the other elemental benders and he was determined to make his daughter the same way. Like a normal child, I was sent to the closest fire nation school. Although there were other elemental benders there, my father made sure that I did not associated with any of them.

Unfortunately, all the non-benders and firebenders were friends with the other elemental benders. I was doomed to be an outcast. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.

At the age of two, my parents discovered that I was a firebender; I sneezed and accidentally sent the living room on fire. My father was pleased, surprisingly, and decided to capitalize on his "prodigy". He hired a firebending master to train me. Unfortunately I was too young to be disciplined in the ways of firebending and the master was let go. Instead, I was allowed to roam in the family garden. This became my place of peace and I became a dreamer. As a child, I played in the garden and tried my best to make my dreams a reality. I imagined traveling around the world, meeting different benders, finding a dragon, eating water tribe dishes, riding on a sky bison...but school quickly pulled all these dreams down the drain, courtesy of my father.

Like the other children, I began attending school at the age of 6. I did well in my first year, I understood the lessons. I liked learning so much that I didn't mind not having friends. During my second year, my dreams slowly returned and I began to look around me. I notice that I was all alone. I attempted to make a friend, I approached the first girl I saw during recess. It went well until I discovered that she was a waterbender. I later made the mistake of telling my father exactly who my new friend was. Enraged, he ordered me to break off the friendship immediately. Foolishly, I obeyed. I broke off the friendship with no real reason and it was then that everything went downhill.

The waterbender girl told every girl she knew that I was a horrible friend. The girls told the boys and girls they knew and soon the whole school knew. I was officially the "loner" at the school and I hated it.
But hope shined through the darkness like a flame in the night. My dreams came rushing back during my 3rd year of school. And all I did was dream. I continued to do my school work but I couldn't help but draw dragons within the margins of the papers. My teachers complained to my father about this. He scolded me for lack of discipline. My mother, however, managed to convince him to buy me a sketch book.

He had one rule for me: "Kimura, you may sketch in this book as long as all your school work has been completed." I complied to his rule and my teachers never complained about my dragon drawings again. My third year of school was finished in peace.

The fourth year of school was when the administration divided the students for one period, benders and non-benders were divided and the benders were further divided based on elements. Being a firebender, I was assigned to a firebending class. The first day wasn't so bad. We met the master in charge and were asked to demonstrate how much firebending we could perform. According to the teacher, I did well but lacked the proper discipline of a firebender. Of course the whole world had been telling me this ever since I was little so it didn't bother me any.

At home, my father asked: "How was your firebending class, Kimura?"

"It was ok. I kinda like it." was my reply.

"That's good. I am glad you like it." he said and that was the end of our dinner conversation.

A week went by without any problems. I continued to do well in my studies and firebending and I passed the leftover time I had sketching dragons into my family's garden (not literally of course). But a problem arose in the second week. We were now going to practice the stances of firebending. As I imitated the master's movements, I found that I did not enjoy those rigid and aggressive poses. And I thought: "if this is firebending, it's no wonder we lost the hundred year war." Of course I was only mocking father's complaints about losing the war and I wasn't indicating that I wish we had. Several weeks passed and I found myself slacking in my firebending warm ups. One day while I was in the garden sketching, my father found me and questioned me on his rule:

"Kimura? Have you completed all of your school work?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you been practicing your firebending? It doesn't come naturally, you know."

"Yes, sir. I have been practicing." I lied. As he walked away, I pondered his last statement and I asked myself: "If firebending doesn't come naturally, how come I can firebend?"
But the word that touched my heart the most was "naturally". What was preventing firebending from being as natural as creation? Why couldn't it be performed naturally? At that moment, I was determined to prove to the world that firebending was as natural as living. There was only one problem..."How?"

At school I pondered this thought greatly up until my 6th year of school. Everyone of my peers noticed this. They stared at me, curious at what I was doing. Some asked if I was okay. I always replied with a nod and waved a hand to make them go away. They did not like this very much and began to tease me about thinking too much. At first I ignored them but during my 7th year they began to perform physical attacks on me. At first, they would just throw objects at me or push me while I walked through the halls. But again, I prevailed by ignoring them.

One day, in the middle of my 7th year, I was running late to my firebending class and I passed by a non-bending class who was learning music. I paused and silently enjoyed the sweet symphony for a small moment. I danced a little and spun around once, absentmindedly producing a swirl of flames around me. I gasped and quickly extinguished the flames. Awakening. I had found my way of firebending naturally; through dancing.

Later that day, when I got home, I practiced my new technique in my room. As I played music on our family's old record player, I began to dance in my room, letting the music go through me. Flames instantly flowed from my fingertips and I managed to tame not only the fiery tongues, but also my restless spirit.

In my 8th year, I faced a new problem. We lived on an isolated plot of land closer to the countryside than the actual city. My family had always been wealthy so I never suffered from want. However, I was tortured by an exaggerated wardrobe. My mother obsessed over dresses and coats and heels and hair. Everyday I went to school primped and pretty enough to go to the theatre. I had the look of a countryside rich girl. This made the rumors worse. Everyone said I was too vain and arrogant to be friends with anyone. To make matters worse, my firebending master was always at my throat.

"You must be disciplined. That is the only way you tame your fire." he said to me one day during training.

All I did was roll my eyes; I had already learned how to tame the fire.

That year I was promoted to Secondary school and I began my ninth year with high hopes and even bigger dreams. During the summer, I had traveled to small towns with my family. While my father was busy with "duties" and my mother shopped, I wandered the towns and watched other benders at work. I learned from their different bending styles. I explored libraries, and found ancient bending scrolls. I copied down the stances and tried them at home.

Now that I was going to start in a new school, I planned to make my mark. My mother finally let me work out my own wardrobe. I was pleased, and hoped that jeans, skirts, leggings, and shirts would somehow show everyone that I was a normal girl. Unfortunately, they realized it only too quickly.

My second day of school was ended by a fight in firebending class. Another girl saw me training alone and decided to "show me who's the boss". I won, but paid the price by being expelled.
My wealthy father stepped in, giving the school a "generous donation". I was readmitted but lost all hope of ever getting friends. I was relabeled as the rich girl. As her way of keeping her little girl safe, my mother took over my wardrobe once again.

All throughout my last three year years, I found that I left plenty of marks...all in the wrong places. I did academically well. However, I was a social disaster. Every week someone new was after me. The phrase, "there will always be someone better than you" did not apply. No one cared about how good I was, all they wanted to do was get the rich girl out for good.
I accepted their demands for a fight. After school, it was the first thing on my agenda. As soon as all the fighting was over, I went straight to a healer and was cured of all, if any, bruises. When I got home, I was freed from interrogation by saying that I was participating in additional firebending training. Naturally, this pleased my father.

Occasionally he would demand that I should him "a new move". Because of my summers of studying bending styles and positions, I was able to satisfy him by showing him one I had already known. Neither of my parents knew of the fights. Nor did they know of my poor discipline in firebending class. Until my final to graduate the class came along.

After four years of secondary school, all students have to take an exit final. I did well on my academic tests. However, my firebending final was a challenge. The new master stressed discipline as much as the previous.
He said: "Each student will duel each other and I shall determine whether you have the skills to receive your diploma."

The finals began. Students fought and fought well. It was not about winning, it was about skill and the level of mastery. I figured that I would pass easily.

My turn came and I put everything I had into my flames, my heart and soul poured into them. I fought my opponent, avoiding most of his attacks and hitting him where it hurt most. One may have thought that it was more of a show; I danced about on the mat, using multiple-colored flames.

Unfortunately, I made a horrible mistake.

As the master gave the pass or fail to the students who tested that day, he turned to me. His stare killed me. His words buried me.

"You have no right to be a firebender. You have no discipline, no order. You are a disgrace! You make a show out of something that has built its reputation for centuries! You shall not receive your diploma!"

My world fell apart at that very moment. My hopes of ever making my father proud were shattered. My dreams of convincing my parents that I was an able young woman were sucked down the drain. Even worse was the ridicule I received from my peers. They never let me rest from being called a "disgrace". They talked behind my back. Someone even said, "The Great Fire Lord Zuko would have been ashamed of her."

I pondered the historical leader. Would he really be ashamed of me? After all, he too was a disgrace to his country. His reason was far nobler than mine however; he joined avatar Aang. As for me, I was disgrace for not being disciplined and not "taking firebending seriously".

I could not bring myself up to tell my parents what had happened. For the rest of the school day, I planned how I was going to run away. I am Kimura and this is my story.