SuperBleh11
No Worries
Chapter 2
Permission
-
1His feet shuffled nervously against the beige carpet as he peered around the doorframe. Katara's hand grazed his shoulder, causing him to jump slightly as his shifty blue eyes focused upon the calm figure of Hakoda peacefully turning the pages of a paperback novel. He eased backwards and glanced at his sister, hoping to find some sort of mercy in her gaze, but her face was focused and determined, cutting his hope of a reprieve off at the stem.
"Just do it!" she whispered, "Don't you want to go on the trip?"
"Of course I do!" he snapped, gesturing angrily to overcome the softness of his voice, "But you're going, too! Why can't youask him? You're the daughter! He has to listen to you!"
"Man up, Sokka!" she spat condescendingly, pushing him lightly on the shoulder, "What would Toph say, if she saw you whining about it like this?"
Now it was Sokka's turn to furrow his brows. A cursory snort escaped his nostrils, casting the hot perfume of his previous meal into her face. It was a cheap shot, and they both knew it, but the matter was at hand and Sokka knew he had to act.
A deep, cooling breath flowed through Sokka's lungs as he prepped himself for the dive. His tanned hand ran through his hair as he nervously rounded the corner, walking quickly so as to make his entrance nonchalant A pang of irritation crossed him as he realized that Katara was planning on remaining hidden; his arm shot outwards and gripped her hand instantaneously, pulling her out with him. She resisted initially, but as the artificial light of the ceiling fan struck her body, she relaxed.
The ruffling sound of their tennis shoes dragging on the carpet caught Hakoda's attention, pulling his eyes from the taciturn black text of the page onto the nervous faces of his children. A dark brown eyebrow raised upwards smoothly; not a gesture of indifference or confusion, but rather the inquisitorial act of a wary authoritarian. Sokka's Adam's apple leapt upwards as he swallowed, exposing his fear and his trepidation as he summoned up the dregs of his courage into his speech.
"Dad," he started, opening his hands up and clasping them together, "I...that is, me and Katara, have to ask you something."
"Ok," Hakoda began warily, setting the book down. With a shuffle of cloth, his arms folded over his chest, as he stared predatorily at his children. Sokka's speech faltered under the impenetrable gaze of his father, sparking out like a dying match; Katara kick-started him with an elbow to the ribs.
"We...me and Katara," he qualified quickly, "were wondering if we could...maybe, go on an RV trip this summer...with some friends of ours." His eyes flicked back and forth from the deep brown leather of the couch to the piercing blue of his father's gaze, as he anxiously awaited the response.
"An RV trip?" Hakoda asked, genuinely surprised, "Like what kind of an RV trip?"
"Umm... a cross-country RV trip," Sokka explained cautiously, carefully wording his sentences to avoid negativity, "Zuko has one...and he invited us to go along with him. He wants to wind down south, and explore the country a little bit."
Hakoda's chin came to rest upon his fist thoughtfully, as he leaned forward. His fingers scratched up against the thick black hair of his beard, giving him a nearly wolfish appearance as he mulled the issue over in his head.
"Mm," he grunted. "And how long would you be gone?"
"Umm...a month," Sokka squeaked. The edges of his mouth raised up worriedly, exposing glimmers of white teeth. Hakoda began to open his mouth to speak; a gesture that took forever, but an unlikely interruption in the form of Katara's small voice sliced through his thoughts.
"Iroh's chaperoning."
Only sheer force of will prevented Sokka's eyes from darting sideways at his sister's dangerous lie. He held Hakoda's gaze as it shifted over to the careful form of Katara, standing nervously to the left of him. The tension seeped into the room like a poisonous gas, eating away at their ability to think and their ability to speak, as they worked tersely to avoid unnecessary movement.
Suddenly, Hakoda's laughter rang out through the room, melting the silence away. His eyes glinted jovially, bringing an uncharacteristic youthfulness to his cragged, worn face. He slapped his hand down against his knee and leaned forward even more, causing his children to start and back away.
"You know, kids," he began warmly, "I've always thought you could use a little adventure in your lives. When I was your age...well, that's another story. But I think this is a great idea. When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow," Katara piped in optimistically; Sokka grimaced, but their father just laughed all the more.
"Hah, fine then! Tomorrow it is!" he smirked. Sokka smiled warily, but he couldn't help but feel that Hakoda's gaze held some secret maturity, some enigmatic knowledge of the adventuring life that came solely from experience. It sent a chill down his spine.
The headlights of his car traced circles through the air as he pulled into the parking lot, deserted and empty. The warm summer dawn greeted the group as they pried themselves out of the cramped hatchback, struggling through the foul moods of an early morning to wave happily at the ecstatic form of Zuko.
Toph Bei Fong stretched languidly as her feet hit the ground. A drawn-out yawn escaped her lips as she planted her hands in the small of her back, pushing her chest forward with several loud, organic pops. The pale green duffel bag lurched out of the back seat with the characteristic whine of vinyl as she turned her head and spat lazily.
The clear pool of saliva glistened upon the faded black pavement, catching Aang's eyes just in time to prevent him stepping in it. He cast a nervous smile at Toph before he carefully edged his elevated foot around the stained ground.
"Great to see you're so excited," Sokka ribbed sarcastically, as he slammed the trunk shut and walked over to her. Her ears tingled slightly at the dull scraping noise of his feet passing over the gritty asphalt; a mischievous smirk adorned her small face as she leaned up against the cold metal of his car.
"Hey, Sokka," she began, listening carefully for the disappearing steps of their friends. He raised an eyebrow at her tone; her voice seemed smaller and a little more worried.
"What's up?" he responded, as he reached downward and adjusted his bag over his shoulder. Katara's sugary voice echoed across the parking lot, filled with pleasantries and greetings.
"Listen, don't say anything," she began warily, "but the quicker we can get out of the province, the better. We might not want to dawdle too much."
Sokka's bags hit the ground with a loud, dull thump as a thrill of fear shot up his spine. His eyes widened dramatically as he said, "Toph, what did you do?"
"Shh!" she hissed at him, scooping a bag off the ground, "It's not so much what I did as what I didn't do. I knew my parents wouldn't let me go on this trip...so I didn't exactly tell them."
The thrill of fear turned into an edge of panic as his jaw flung open. Weird, cursory stutters came out of his mouth as he struggled to find the words to say, but it seemed that this new information had completely shut his brain down.
"What...you did what?" was all that he could work out.
"Look, they're already at work, so it'll probably take them until about six or seven to notice I'm gone," she reasoned, "If we can get out of the province by then, I'll just call them and tell them what's going on, and they won't call the cops or anything. Probably."
"Toph!" Sokka snapped, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand, "Do you realize how much trouble you're going to get in to! They'll call all our parents! We barely got our dad to agree to this as it is!"
"They won't call your parents if I don't tell them whose going," she pointed out, grinning evilly, "See? Don't worry about it, I've thought this whole thing out."
"You.." Sokka began incredulously, but Aang's loud voice carrying over the parking lot cut them off.
"Are you guys coming?"
"Yeah, we'll be right there!" Toph hollered, and before Sokka could say anything, she walked to the monolithic RV, standing out against the flat horizon of the school like a huge white monument.
"Your shirt is awesome," Zuko noted as she approached. Aang peered around his massive backpack to get a better look.
"What does BAMF mean?" he asked.
"You'll find out Twinkle Toes," she punched him in the shoulder, "You'll find out."
A/N:
And so goes my feeble attempt at writing in the past tense! Lol, this is why I usually stick to my nice comfortable first person present, but hey, I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks mucho to TwilightRose2 for coming up with the ideas on this story!
Just to refresh everyone's memory, this is completely open for ANY writer to join in and write a chapter! If you're interested, please, just shoot TwilightRose2 or myself a PM, and we'll get you in! We're looking for both Zutarians and Kataangers, because it'll make for some awesome ship warfare in this story, so please, help your ship out, ha-ha! There are a couple of little rules we have, but they're pretty simple. Basically, it's just that you can't write anything definitive for any ship (other than Tokka), which means no kissing, no admissions of love, or anything like that. Hinting is what it's all about!
And even if you're not into the whole shipping thing, feel free to help out and write a chapter! The more the merrier in this thing and we'd love to see it take off!
Phew, that was a lot! Well, TwilightRose2 has the next chapter, and I've got the one after that, but after that point, we're really hoping to have some more of you talented authors in rotation. It looks to be a fun/hilarious adventure so far! Keep reading!
Superbleh11