Opposites Attract?

a 21st Century Zutara AU

Disclaimer: no… I do NOT own ATLA, obviously, but Mike and Bryan DO.

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Water covered Katara's arms. It was a little scary, but extremely cool at the same time. Katara blinked, moving her arms around, testing these tentacle-like things.

"Kataraaa," a voice hissed in her ear.

"MISS. HIRO!"

Katara snapped out of sleep, awoken by her Language Arts teacher. Students snickered and giggled as Jet pulled a pencil off of her face. "Maybe you'd like to take a little nap in the office, instead?"

"No, Mr. Pakku. It won't happen again," Katara muttered. Mr. Pakku raised an eyebrow, but went back to teaching.

"Smooth, Katara. Way to be subtle," Jet rolled his eyes.

"Was it obvious?" Katara asked, yawning again.

"If you call flailing your arms in random directions while muttering some unknown language to be obvious… then yes." Jet spun back around, writing something in his notebook. Katara tried to concentrate on Mr. Pakku's classes, but it was hard when he was discussing grammar.

She glanced around the gloomy class room that looked like every other class at Ba Sing High. The walls were gray, the floor a teal tile with assorted desks placed in rows of five. Basically everyone went to Ba Sign High, since it was the only public school in twenty miles. It also had a unique method when it came to teaching, making it semi-fun.

The high school was divided into four sections- air, water, fire, and earth. You were put into each section based on a personality test you took at the beginning of the year. Every month the groups would get together and have competitions to prove who was superior, getting treated special for that month by a group of your choice. The group who won the most competitions by the end of the year received an extra 10 points in one of the classes for final term.

Katara was part of the water sector which was broken down into two parts: northern and southern (no one could ever figure out why, just tradition, Katara supposed). Katara was southern, with her brother, Sokka, while Sokka's girlfriend, Yue, was in northern. Aang was in the air sector, while Toph was part of the earth sector.

"Hey, Katara!" A bubbly voice sounded behind her, as she was packing up her L.A. things.

"Ty Lee?" Katara asked. Ty Lee never talked to Katara…. Ever. She guessed it was something about wanting to hook up with Sokka, but Katara didn't really care.

"Who else?" She giggled, slapping Katara lightly in the arm. "Want to ha-" Ty Lee stopped short and ran full speed ahead after some guy.

"Weird…" She muttered and walked to lunch.

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Zuko leaned against the cold brick building. Though the ground was freezing, he wasn't cold… Zuko never seemed to be cold. He raised a small brass lighter in his hands, only a few inches away from his face. He looked at the flame and ran his finger quickly across the fire. It didn't hurt… it never did, and Zuko thought it was strange. No matter how slowly he ran his finger across the flame, he felt nothing.

His scar, on the other hand, hurt like hell when his father burned it. Of course- Ozai told him that the fire in the kitchen was an accident, but Zuko knew… Zuko knew that he was a disappointment to his 'dad', and that it probably wasn't an accident at all.

The lighter wasn't for smoking, it was just to remind him of his misery. Normal people wouldn't want to be reminded of their loss and pain, but Zuko knew he couldn't hide from it; he saw no point in trying to cover it up.

"Hey." Zuko knew that monotone voice anywhere. He glanced up and saw none other than Mai, looking at him as if he were the most pathetic human being alive.

"Hi." He said in reply, standing up. "I should be going now." Zuko tried to escape, but Mai clung on to his sleeve, grinning menacingly.

Zuko knew Mai wasn't strong enough compared to him. He jerked his arm away angrily. "I have to go, Mai." Zuko told her, through clenched teeth. He was so sick of her and her twisted mind getting him into trouble. He let go of her and walked away, not looking back.

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Katara walked across the cafeteria with her Sloppy Joe sandwich. She didn't actually eat it, but they were required to buy something, or bring something, because they wanted you to stay healthy. Go figure, right? Katara was focused on not tripping in her skirt. It was the first time she'd ever actually WORN a skirt, and because she lost the bet with Toph on who Sokka was going to go out with, she was in a skirt that was considered too short for her long legs.

All of a sudden, Katara felt someone slam into her, making her drop her lunch all over herself.

"EXCUSE YOU!" Katara yelled, turning around, looking at her slopped body. The boy looked at her with pure hatred burning in his golden eyes. "Are you going to apologize?" Katara crossed her arms over her chest. Bored kids started watching them, awaiting the boy's next move.

"If I was going to say sorry, I would have done it already." He hissed at her, then started walking away.

"Why, are you too proud to, or is it just because you're a jerk?" She tapped her foot.

"You want to see a jerk?" He asked, walking towards her. He grabbed her wrist, and before she knew what was happening, he hooked her arms behind her back knocking her to the ground. Teacher's were running towards them. "Poor little rich girl, with the perfect life…" Katara glared at him, trying to get him off her back. Everyone was too stunned to get any closer to the pair. "Wouldn't your mother be proud." The boy hissed into her ear, arousing Katara, somehow giving her strength.

"No one… talks… about… my… MOTHER!" Katara screamed, jabbing her elbow into his gut. She could tell he was taken by surprise, and had enough vulnerability to lighten up, giving Katara enough time to get him off of her.

Everyone started getting angry, following their lead. The biggest brawl ever to occur at this school was cause by these two mere teenagers, over a simple Sloppy Joe mess. People were punching, screeching, and kicking, not being effected by the teachers attempts to calm them all down.

The principal was notified of this brawl and grabbed a blow horn, yelling into it. "EVERYBODY STOP!" Everybody froze in place, staring up at her. "You two…" he growled, pointing at Katara and the boy. Katara's insides felt nervous, and she let go of his shirt and lowered her fist at the same time that he let go of her hair, "Come with me."

Katara felt everybody's eyes on them as they followed the principal to the office for whatever trouble was doomed to come their way.

So. This is the first chapter, hoped you enjoyed. Yes, I have whooping cough and am on meds woohoo. No, it sucks. Seriously. So hopefully I will be getting better sooner or later, but I'm already writing chapter 2.

Review, please?