The teachers at the Academy only picked the hottest days for outdoors gym time. Or at least it seemed that way. Azula guessed that the teachers just liked to see all the students sweat.
Azula's class was being put together with another one of the same year. The teachers had spent most of the day assembling an obstacle course out on the field. The two classes would run through and be timed on their performance. Even though the teachers insisted that this was just an exercise, Azula saw through the lie. It was a race and she was going to win it.
The young princess scanned the field, running through the obstacle course in her mind. From the starting line there was a sprint of 20 or so meters and then a wall climb of 2 meters and right after that, another climb of the same height. Monkey bars, a few hurdles and one more sprint of 30 meters to the finish line.
It was a little more intense than the class's usual affair of volleyball and her classmates groaned at the sight of the course. Azula smiled though, she could do this. It would be tough and all the weaklings would flop back to the ground before the very first wall. But Azula would vault over that wall and the next and blaze through the rest of the course. She was going to be the best as she always was.
The teacher called for everyone to get to the starting line and Azula was the first to reach it. The losers took their time.
A girl stepped up to the starting line next to Azula. For some odd reason, the girl turned towards Azula and gave her a big toothy grin, "Good luck."
A suspicious stare was all the response Azula gave.
"Again, kids," The teacher said loudly as she put her whistle to her lips, "This is not a race! Just finish the course as best you can and we'll take note!"
Stupid, Azula thought, the very fact that they were recording the times made it a race. Anyone who didn't realize that was an idiot.
"On my mark!"
Azula bent low, her legs ready to spring and her hands down on the ground to keep her balanced. She took a glance at her competition and noted with satisfaction that all the other girls were just lazing about. With one exception. The girl next to her. The brown-haired girl took a stance similar to hers and took a long steadying breath.
It didn't matter, Azula would win even if the girl copied her starting position.
"Get set!"
...
"Go!"
She launched off the floor like a fireball and flew towards the first wall.
There was something wrong though, Azula realized immediately. It was a nagging in the back of her head, that although her start had been perfect and she'd be at the wall in just a moment... something was not right.
The path from the starting line to the wall should have been clear of obstacles, it should have been a straight run across. But there was something else, a dark red blur (the same color of the Academy uniform) with a... brown mop of hair.
Azula was staring at the back of a girl. The very same girl who wished her good luck.
The princess almost ran into the wall before she woke up from her shock. The brown haired girl had just started climbing. This had never happened before, Azula thought to herself as she pulled the wall's rope into her hands, no one was faster than her. No one.
She gritted her teeth and hoisted herself up onto the wall. One hand over another until she reached the top. She chanced a glance at the other girl and saw that the other girl was having trouble climbing, only in the middle of scaling the wall. Azula was ahead, not as much as she would've liked, but it would have to do. Azula jumped down the wall, ignoring the rope that the babies would need to ease their way down. She made for the next wall and climbed it with the same fury as the first one. When she reached the top, she took another glance for the girl and grinned this time. The other girl was only just now starting the second wall.
Azula moved onto the monkey bars. And then the hurdles. She didn't bother looking off behind her or to the side might've been the faintest bob of brown in the corner of her eye, but Azula just pushed herself harder until there was nothing but the course in front of her.
Finally, it was the last stretch of the race. The seven year old princess could already feel the exhaustion all over her body. Her arms and legs had seen more action in the last five minutes than they normally did in a whole day and they screamed at her for rest. Azula grimaced and shook off that brief feeling of weakness and threw her legs into motion.
She was nearly there, Azula knew, it was only a little further and she'd win. But again, that horrible feeling of uncertainty crept up on her. Azula had already seen that girl run and as much as she hated (loathed) to admit it, the girl was a faster runner. Not just by a little, but a lot.
So she had to look, she had to see. Azula, still running as hard as she could, looked behind herself.
No! No! Nononono! The girl had caught up, she was only a few steps behind. She was as tired as Azula, but still she ran faster. It wasn't fair, Azula wanted to cry out, she had done better on the wall and nearly everything else, didn't that mean anything? The princess could hear the girl's feet hitting the ground now. The sound rained down on her, so much quicker and precise than her plodding feet. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair.
The girl's brown hair came bouncing into view, slowly but surely and that's when Azula knew that if she wanted to win, she'd have to do something fast. It was a split second decision, the first idea that seemed good enough to put her back in the race and Azula went with it.
The princess threw her whole body into one huge step, it was the last spurt of energy you put into crossing the finish line, except this time she wasn't trying to cross the line, she was crossing in front of the other girl.
They collided at catastrophic speeds. Azula felt herself spinning head over heels and the ground seemed to be coming at her from all angles. She pulled herself into a ball in the nick of time and felt her arms hit the ground hard, the shock arcing through her entire body and she bounced in the air. Her back rolled across the ground next and finally her feet were on the ground. Still rolling, Azula managed to find her footing and sprang back up, it only took her another second to judge where she had to run and then she did.
Azula crossed the finish line and smirked as she saw that she was first. She turned to ask the teacher what her time had been, but the muscular woman was gone. It took a moment, but Azula finally spotted the teacher helping the other girl to her feet from where she had fallen face-first. The girl was bleeding freely from both nostrils and she stumbled, only standing because the teacher had a firm grip on her.
The teacher and the girl slowly walked over to where Azula was. The teacher was frantic as she spoke, "Azula, are you all right?"
"I'm fine." Azula said flatly. She couldn't stop looking at how much blood was coming out of the other girl's face.
"Azula, look at your arms."
She did. "Oh." That was a lot of blood, too. Azula looked up at the teacher, "It doesn't hurt or anything."
"Hopefully it's just a scrape. Still, better get you to the nurse." The teacher took Azula's hand and began to walk the two injured girls back into the Academy building.
AN: Poor Azula. It sucks not being the best at everything ever.
Heh.
