It was 7th period, the last period of the day, on a very slow Friday. All the kids in Mrs. Judee's English class were listening to a boring speech on the book Macbeth.
"Will Aang, Azula, Katara, Mai, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko please report to Mr. Pakku's office in the guidance area immediately. Thank you that is all." the receptionist from the main office announced. "Well you 5 heard. Go." Judee ordered.
"Oh my god, thank you!" The class laughed at Toph's cheer. Zuko had to slap Sokka awake so he could come. He trailed tiredly behind Katara, and Aang.
"What'd we do this time?" Sokka yawned. "Who knows." Zuko shrugged. "At least we're out of that boring class." Toph said walking with her hands behind her head. "I do have to agree with Toph." Katara said. "Maybe it wasn't us this time. I mean Azula, Mai, and Tylee got called too." Aang said optimistically.
They stopped in front of Pakku's office. They were going to enter but Azula and her crew were standing opposite of them. "Zuzu,." Azula greeted. "Azula." he replied. "What did you and your little brigade do this time?" "Us? I bet it's your fault we're here." This suddenly turned into loud bickering from all of them.
"Will you all be quiet?" In the open doorway was Mr. Pakku fuming.
Everyone was quiet in less than a second. His voiced echoed through the empty halls. "Follow me, now." he demanded. He walked down the hall quickly the 8 following behind. "This feels like a death march." Mai muttered.
"You kids are unbearable. Bad grades, knifes, running in the halls, tardiness, students paralyzed, arson, anger problems, and so much more I have to deal with. Even before you came to high school you've been in my life."
"You can kinda blame yourself." Sokka stated. "What?" "You did marry our gran-gran." Katara agreed. "You also live next door to our grandfather." Azula added. "This has nothing to do with your grandmother, your grandfather, or where I live. This is about you."
"What exactly did we do again?" Aang asked as they were led out into the courtyard. "Oh, never mind…."
Pakku stood in front a wall that was almost entirely covered in graffiti. Red, blue, grey, yellow, black, pink, orange, and green was used to spell the word GARSH. "What does that mean?" Sokka asked. "I think it means gosh or something." Katara answered.
"I need someone to tell me who did this." Pakku said sternly. "What makes you think we did this?" "Well none of you were in class this morning and spray paint can has been found in each of your lockers. Also, there was no one to catch you since none of the classes around the area were in session. So one of you or all you had a chance to do this."
"Or we were framed." Tylee stated. "Just tell me who did this!" Everyone was quiet. "Fine no one's talking? How about this? Since none of you are admitting to this I guess I'm going to have to punish all of you. You all will be baking for every single bake sale that the PTSA holds for the rest of the year." "What?" "No way!" "So totally unfair!" "Ah I see you don't like that. I suggest you get the culprit to fess up or sharpen up on your baking skills."
He began walking away leaving them to decide. "Mr. Pakku…I did it." "You?" he asked turning around, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes." Toph answered. "After I finished I hacked into everyone else's lockers thinking the first person you found a can in they'd be punished, no questions asked." "Well you were wrong. As punishment you will have one month of detention and your parents will be notified." "Ok I totally respect that discussion." " Why are you taking this surprisingly calm?" "Because personally I didn't think I would get away with this." she said truthfully.
"Now all of you are volunteering to clean this wall, because of yesterday's food fight." "You know I actually forgot about that," Sokka stated. "Well I did not."
From out behind a nearby tree, as though it was planned, he pulled out bottles of soap, buckets of water, and sponges. "Now get to it." "Wait! What about class?" Aang asked. The bell for the end of the school day rang. "There's your answer. You may get your things and leave after this wall is spotless." Pakku left without another word.
When it was clear he was gone Katara slapped Toph upside the head. "Geez what the hell Katara? I save all your butts and you slap me? Child abuse!" "First of all that was for taking the fall and what do you mean child abuse? You're only 2 months younger than me!" "2 months too young…"
"We all know you didn't do it. We all know none of us did it." "I don't know those 3 are pretty shifty." Sokka said referring to Azula, Mai, and Tylee. "You idiot, we were all in holding this morning" Azula snapped. "Oh yea…I remember we were almost brought to jail for causing public disturbances."
They began cleaning the wall which went a bit faster since they had 16 hands, yet the whole thing did stretch across whole wall.
"You what I don't get?" Sokka asked scrubbing the H. "What?" "How spray cans get in our lockers. And just our lockers. If I had done this I would've just dumped them all in one locker and scrammed." Everyone looked up noticing the logic in his statement. "I guess I'm just being stupid again." he shrugged. "Actually for once you actually make a good point." Zuko said. "Someone is definitely out to get us." "Well who could that be?" Tylee asked. "I think the real question is why." Aang said.
An hour later they stood back to look at their work. "It's so…white." Mai said. "I've never seen it so clean. Come to think of it I haven't seen any part of the school this clean." Katara stated.
Pakku came out looking at the wall. "What did you call in a cleaning crew?" he said sarcastically. "Hurtful!" "Fine you're free to go." They all kind of just stood there. "Leave before I make you do the other walls." Everyone started moving to go grab their things.
Outside, they met up with Pakku again.
"You're coming over for dinner tonight, right?" Katara asked. "We're having a backyard barbeque." Sokka said rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Yes, your grandmother and I will be making an appearance for dinner." "Cool, see you there." Toph said riding off on her skateboard. "See ya!" Aang waved as he ran behind her. "Uh Katara, what time should we be there again?" Zuko asked. "About 5." she replied. "You're coming too?" Pakku said in a low voice. "Yea. I have to bring Azula too because my mom wants us to have more of a relationship."
"Trust me I did not want to go." Azula commented. "We're going too because Azula doesn't wanna go alone." Tylee said happily. "Yea…" Mai added. "Y-you're all going?" "Unfortunately." Azula said as she, Mai, and Tylee walked away. Zuko followed behind. Pakku walked to his car opening the door and sitting.
"Hey can you give us a ride?" Sokka asked.
The door was shut in his face.