It was a beautiful day outside. From the second floor of the sprawling academy a girl gazed upon the gardens with a faint smile. A gentle breeze was evident in the swaying leaves and flowers down below. The girl by the window focused on the largest tree in the garden as she sketched a quick copy of the twisting branches and knotted trunk onto her parchment.
"Princess Azula! Are you even listening to me?!" Azula sighed in exasperation and turned towards the elderly teacher at the sudden shout.
"No," she said flatly, "I'm not."
"But – I – you –" he spluttered for a moment but Azula cut him off before he could make even more of a fool of himself.
"If you had listened to what I told you at the beginning of this lesson you would have known that I already know how to add and subtract fractions." She paused for a moment to let this sink in. "I already know how to multiply and divide them as well."
The other girls in the room either giggled or tittered at her cheek. Azula remained unconcerned. Her status and title prevented any disciplinary action on his part. She tried to remind herself that it wasn't this man's fault she was stuck learning topics she already knew - it was whoever was in charge of the damned reincarnation system.
Really, it's one thing to die and be reborn; it's another thing entirely to die, be reborn, remember your past life, and recognize your new identity as a cartoon character from your past life…
She could deal with the first three things – it was the last that really got to her. Okay, so maybe she was more aggrieved to find herself reborn as a less than sane antagonist rather than with the fact that she was in a cartoon, but in any case the situation was ridiculous.
"If you are so knowledgeable in this topic then perhaps you'd like to come up to the front and lead this lesson Princess?" Ah, there it was. Pan Ludai would never outright insult or belittle a member of the royal family, but he would certainly try to set her up for humiliation at the hands of her peers.
"Are you certain Master Ludai? I would be willing so long as you approve." Azula made sure to smile disarmingly and tilt her head to the side in the perfect imitation of innocence.
The elderly man grinned smugly, no doubt assuming she had been lying about her knowledge and was counting on him to retract the offer. "By all means Princess, come, show the class what you can do."
Azula shrugged belligerently and stalked to the front. Her usually impassive expression was replaced with a wicked smirk and Ludai paled. She cleared her throat, "When dealing with fractions it's often easiest to imagine a circle divided into equal parts…"
In front of the incredulous stares of her classmates Azula continued the lesson. Some of them began to scramble to take notes as she drew examples on the chalkboard and used real world problems to get her points across. It was probably the most informative lesson to date.
Master Ludai knew his math, but he knew next to nothing about children. Dry lectures that lasted the entire fifty minutes of class were less than effective on girls ten years old and younger.
By the time the lesson ended Ludai was furious. His jaw had clenched and his fists were shaking at his sides. As he was the one to suggest that she lead the lesson, he couldn't do anything to stop her when she didn't make a mistake. No doubt he was just waiting for a slip up for the past three-quarters of an hour so that he could step in and discredit her. By not doing so Azula ensured that is was he who was disgraced by the whole affair – not that the other girls were even aware of the subtle byplay. Unfortunately for Ludai, the fact that the two of them were aware was enough to aggravate him.
"Thank you for your cooperation Princess Azula," he bit out before addressing the room as a whole, "Class is dismissed."
Azula followed the older girls out of the classroom but turned in the opposite direction once out in the hallway. Classes at the academy were arranged by skill level, so while Azula was with mostly older girls in math she was with her age-group when in came to reading and writing.