Note: It's a little late for Zutara week, I know. I'm not sure if I'll add the other five days or not. My ideas for the rest are a kinda... bleh.

Sort of modern setting, but Katara still lives in the South Pole. Ages are a little skewed here to make them work with what's going to happen. At the end, Katara is sixteen and Zuko is around seventeen and a half.

Day Three: Social Networking

"Okay, class, tonight you start your newest project," Professor Hama said. It was almost the end of the school day. Katara Liu was sitting in the back of the room, drawing idly in her homework planner. "Everyone write this down. I've already said that you need Facebook for this, so I assume you all have one by now. In a minute you will reach into this hat and pull out a name, but first, these are your instructions: You will make friends with someone from somewhere else in the world. In a few weeks you'll write a paper. We'll go into more detail on that then. Yes?"

Someone in the front row had raised his hand. "This is like pen pals, except on Facebook," he stated.

"Something like that, yes," said Professor Hama. Without adding anything else, she passed around the hat of names. Because she sat in the back corner Katara got the last slip of paper.

"Zuko Hou—Fire Nation, Caldera City," she read quietly.

"Now, these other students are expecting messages from you all today, so don't forget." Professor Hama looked at the clock just as the final school bell rang. "Time is up for today. Have a good afternoon. I'll see you all Monday."

"I thought you didn't want a Facebook," Katara's brother Sokka said, looking at the computer screen from behind her. "You said it was stupid."

Katara sighed. "It's for school. Note that I have zero friends on here. It's gone as soon as this assignment is through." It hadn't been easy to find Zuko on the site. It seemed that there were a lot of boys with that name in the Fire Nation, but only one in Caldera City. She'd sent him a note explaining why he had to accept her as a friend. After she figured out how.

Katara sat back to wait for an answer. She decided that she needed to work on her math homework until he replied.

"Zuko Hou?" Katara hadn't even finished the first problem before her dad Hakoda walked up. "You're online with someone you don't know and there isn't even a picture of him?"

"I don't have a picture either, Dad. Anyway, it's a school project." She shut her book. The little chat box had appeared on the screen. "That was quick."

Hakoda looked a bit skeptical. "What kind of school project has you talking to boys you don't know?"

"Didn't you have a pen pal when you were in school?" Katara demanded. She was growing impatient with the twenty questions. "This is just like that, except faster. Technology has evolved since you were my age."

Having run out of protests, Hakoda left. Katara looked at the message.

Zuko: Hey. I guess I'm Zuko.

Katara: Yeah, I guess you are.

Zuko: This project is stupid.

Katara: Yeah. Well, I have a list of things I'm supposed to ask you.

Zuko: Ask away.

Katara dug the list from her backpack, shaking her head. She couldn't believe she had to do this.

Katara: The first one is: What do you look like?

Zuko: I'll put a picture up if you do. And we should take turns asking questions. I've got a list too.

Katara: OK. Give me a sec to figure out how to.

Zuko: Done

Katara: Ah ha. Got it

Zuko: Hey, you're kinda pretty. Better looking than most of the girls around here anyway

Katara: Thanks. You aren't ugly either.

That was true. Even with the scar that covered a good portion of his face, the Fire Nation boy really was kind of cute.

Zuko: No need to lie I know what I look like.

Katara: I'm not lying. Ask your question.

Zuko: OK Favorite color?

Katara: Light blue Yours?

Zuko: Red. Next question.

Katara: Uh... What's your favorite food? It also says I should ask if you're a vegetarian or anything like that.

Zuko: I like fire flakes and, uhm, no. I eat meat and vegetables.

Katara: We eat a lot of sea prunes here. I'm the same. My brother is almost the opposite of a vegetarian. He does eat vegetables, but he likes meat a lot.

Zuko: How old are you and how many people do you have in your family?

Katara: I'll be sixteen pretty soon. My brother just turned seventeen and we live with my dad and grandmother.

"My partner was Zuko and he's from the Fire Nation. This is a picture of him." Katara held up a picture for her class. "He lives with his sister and his dad. His mom died in a fire that gave him the scar over his eye." A few girls gasped and whispered to each other in the back.

"Good, Katara," Professor Hama said. "Did you learn anything interesting about him?"

Katara bit her lip. "He misses his mom a lot and he doesn't really get along with his dad or sister. He and my brother Sokka talked a bit when I wasn't home and they're pretty good friends now too."

"All right, you may sit now."

A couple months after the project ended Katara no longer had the Facebook. She still talked to Zuko through texts and e-mail. The morning of her birthday she was doing the former while walking home from the store.

Katara: Dad's throwing me a surprise party. They tried to keep it a secret, but I overheard them talking about it one day.

Zuko: Ha. Do surprises bother you?

Katara: No. And thankfully I've known everyone they invited since preschool.

Zuko: Everyone?

Katara: Yeah. Small town. I've gotta go pretend to be surprised. Text you later.

Katara walked in the front door of her house, shaking snow from her hair and tucking her phone into her boot.

"Surprise!" Katara put on her best startled face. As she knew they would be, her family and all her friends were there. She even saw people she rarely talked to and could hardly be considered her friends. A banner on the opposite wall said "Happy Sweet Sixteen!"

She took her parka off and carried to the kitchen and put on a party hat when someone handed it to her.

"Okay, little sister, the party was the main surprise, but we've got another one for you," Sokka said. Katara raised an eyebrow and he took her elbow, guiding her through the crowd of people. "We were talking and he said that he could come here for the weekend, since it's your birthday and all. Dad and I thought you'd like to meet him in person."

And there he was, her pen pal. He looked just like his picture, from the scar to the smile. Zuko had come for her birthday.