Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
"Earth to Sugar Queen!" Toph yells at me while poking my head. "Is someone in there?"
I can't believe it. The price to get into BSSU is way to much. I would never be able to pull out that kind of money. I wasn't poor, but I certainly wasn't rich or had tons of money to spare. I did have a college fund, but I used that for OMS.
"It's too much," I say to Toph, shooing her hand away from my head. "I can't pay for it. It's way more money than I have."
She contemplates that for a moment. "Well," she says, "you could always borrow some from me."
I glare at her. "What?" she says. "I'm loaded!"
"No, your parents are loaded. There's a difference. Plus, you already did me a huge favor by getting the application. Maybe I'll get another job."
Toph's parents were some of the richest people in the Earth Kingdom. I've never met them, but she told me that they were very protective of her, being their only child. She finally felt free when she was old enough to move out and start a life on her own, much to their disappointment. I'm really proud of her for sticking up for herself and leaving.
She gives me a "hmph" and turns away.
I actually don't think that getting another job would be that bad. At the moment, I work at an orphanage. I started out as just a volunteer, but the owners decided that they were going to pay me for my hard work. I usually buy food and cook for the kids because the orphanage doesn't have the best budget. Once and awhile I get to play with the kids. They're so polite and kind. It breaks my heart to see them without a family. I wish I could do more for them.
After watching the news a little while longer, I yawn and realize just how tired I am. I turn to Toph, about to bid her a goodnight, but she's already asleep.
I walk down the hallway into the bathroom. I brush my teeth, take out my contacts, and brush my hair, not bothering to look at my reflection in the mirror. I've been doing that a lot lately.
I sluggishly walk to my room. My familiar blue walls greet me as I crawl into bed. I intended to fall asleep quickly, but my mind had other ideas. What am I going to do? I'll never be able to get the money. I might as well give up on being a doctor and become a waitress. No fancy college classes needed for that.
If only my mom was here. She would know exactly what to say. Why mom? Why did it have to go? Can't you see how much I need you?
Sleep envelops me then, before I can wipe away the tear rolling down my cheek.
I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing. I groan and try hard to ignore it, but it keeps ringing nonstop for five minutes. In the end, the phone won and I picked it up.
"Hello?" I said groggily.
"Jeez sis, you could answer your phone once in awhile," a familiar voice says.
I instantly perk up. "Sokka!" I say loudly.
"The one and only," he replies.
"How are you? Hows Suki? Was your trip-" I start, but then I hear a knock on the door. "Sokka hold on a moment there's someone at the door."
I walk to the door, open it, and find my brother standing at the door, holding his phone up to his ear. "It's fine," he says. "I can wait."
"Sokka!" I yell again, this time louder. I run out the door and hug him. Well, more like tackle him. My outburst causes him to drop his phone onto the hardwood floor.
"Shit"
"Sokka," I scold, "don't swear"
He shrugs and enters my apartment. It's then that I notice the second person in the doorway.
"Suki!" I greet her. "How are you?
The auburn haired girl smiles and pulls me in for a hug. "I'm great!" she says enthusiastically.
We pull away and walk into the apartment. I look down at myself and cringe when I realize that I'm still in my clothes from yesterday. I excuse myself quickly and run to my room. I change into jeans and a T-shirt, and brush my hair. Smoothing out my shirt and hoping that I look presentable, I join my everyone else in the living room. When I get there, they are already sitting down, conversing. They look up as I enter the room.
"So how was the trip?" I asked my brother and his girlfriend while sitting down on the couch next to Toph.
They had left about a month ago to go and visit Suki's parents. They lived on a small island called Kyoshi, where Suki grew up. I was very surprised to see them here. They weren't supposed be back for another week. They usually try to spend as much time as they can there. Kyoshi is pretty far away from Ba Sing Sae, so she rarely gets to see them anymore.
"Fabulous" Sokka says sarcastically. "I really hit it off with Suki's parents this time."
"What did you do, Snoozles?" Toph asks. This should be good.
"It was an accident" he says, frowning. "Suki's dad and I went fishing, and he got a fish hook stuck in his thumb. So I used another one to try and get it out, but it got stuck. Then, I tried to pull them both out at the same time, but he just ended up bleeding all over me."
We all burst out laughing as he finished his story, but he was still frowning. "I'm positive they hate me now," he says holding his head between his hands..
"No, Honey, they love you. Who wouldn't?" says Suki, kissing him on the cheek. Toph and I look at each other, making gagging faces.
"Anyway," Sokka says, turning to Toph, "I need to talk to you. Privately."
Toph raises an eyebrow but says nothing. They both get up and Toph directs him to the hallway. Leaving me alone in the room with Suki. I wonder what he needs to talk to her about.
I turn to Suki. "How are your parents?" I ask.
"They're good. They really do like Sokka, even though he can be an...idiot at sometimes," she replies.
I remain silent. Awkward silence begins to set in. "You seem really happy," I say to her quietly.
"I am," she replies.
The awkwardness is back again. I get up and start towards the kitchen. "You want anything?" I ask my brother's girlfriend, who was looking uninterestedly out the window. "Just a water, please," she says.
I pass the hallway on my walk to the kitchen. I hear little snippets of my brother and best friend's conversations.
"...telling you...he's back..."
"Is...coming here?"
"...think so..."
"...can't tell Katara!"
My heart is racing as I keep walking towards the kitchen. I glance back at the hallway suspiciously. Who's back? And why can't they tell me? I grab Suki's water and walk back out. Toph and Sokka are back in the living room, sitting down. They eye me nervously as I sit down, like I found out about a huge secret. We sit in silence.
From the corner of my eye I could see Toph studying me, no doubt to try and see if I might be behaving differently. I try to look as normal as possible. Normal for me, anyways.
Toph studies body language and other non verbal communication. I think that when she finishes school she wants to work for the police department and interrogate criminals. Definitely something she would want to do. She does all of the little things, like seeing where your eyes go when you talk or if your voice changes. She's very good at it. The downside is that she can also tell if you are lying. That's not the bad part, though. The bad part is when she calls you out on it. It makes you feel very stupid.
"Anything you want to tell me?" I ask Sokka,breaking the silence.. He gets all flustered and starts to blush. He quickly glances at Toph and I swear I saw her shake her head. He opens his mouth but say nothing. I raise an eyebrow.
"Nope. Not at all," he says quickly. I know he's lying. He always gets this stupid look on his face when he's hiding something.
Toph then changes the subject. "Did Katara tell you she's gonna go to BSSU?" she asks Sokka and Suki.
"Katara," Sokka starts, "that's great! When did you-"
"I'm not officially in," I interrupt, "Toph just got me a registration form. Which I still have no idea how she managed to get."
Sokka smirks. "I bet she got it from Teo," he says.
"Teo?" I say. "Who's Teo?" I am very confused at the moment.
"Oh?" Sokka says. "She didn't tell you about her dear Teo? He waggles his eyebrows.
"What the hell, Sokka," Toph says angrily. I think she's actually blushing too. "I thought we made an agreement-"
"Would someone please tell me who he is?" I say angrily, and quite loudly. I hate feeling out of the loop.
"Just some guy I met," Toph mumbles.
"Not just some guy," my brother says. "I saw them in a club, having a very...intimate moment. So I looked him up. Has a lot of connections, that guy. Pretty wealthy. You scored a good one there Toph," he says, grinning.
Toph is fuming by now. I've never seen her so angry in my life. She's clenching her hands so tight, I think the might break the skin with her nails. I don't know why she is so mad. This guy doesn't sound so bad. Good for her if she got herself a boyfriend.
I touch her arm. "Calm down, Toph," I say in a soothing voice. "He was just joking."
"I know," she say, putting on a devilish grin. "I can't wait for my revenge."
I laugh as I glance at Sokka. I've never seen him so scared in my life.
We sit in my apartment, catching up and joking with each other for a long time. It was really great. I miss those days when my family was together. We could spend hours just sitting in silence, enjoying each other company. My brother and I would play cards while our parents sat there, watching us. It was like we didn't have a care in the world. Then things changed, and all I'm left to do is reminisce them.
I knew I was lucky when I was little. I had a roof over my head and a family who loved and cared for me. We didn't always have a lot, but we still had each other.
"Isn't that right Katara?" I hear Sokka say, breaking me from my thoughts.
"Huh?" I say, dazed.
"Exactly." He starts laughing. "She's always doing that," he directs at the others.
Pretty soon they're all laughing again, this time at me. Before I say something stupid and embarrass myself, the door bell rings. I get up to go answer it wondering if I'll got any other surprise visitors today. As I open the door and look at the person standing there, I'm rendered speechless.
There, in the hallway, is Aang.
So this is what Sokka wanted to be a surprise.
I'm going to kill him.
A/N: Eh, not my favorite chapter. These first ones are just mainly Katara's life. Th Zutara comes a bit later on.
I changed the rating to T, just for some language.
Before I forget (Which i will) here are the ages.
Aang/Toph- 21 Katara- 22 Sokka/Suki- 24 Zuko/ Jet- 25
Oh, and if some of you didn't catch this, Toph is not blind!
