AnnaAza- I've never been to a school with uniforms but the Catholic school around here has uniforms and all their pants are like really high waisted and their socks/ankles always show LOL
UUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHH SCHOOL STARTS WEDNESDAY WHYYYYY
The rest of the day went too slow for comfort; everyone stared at Katara everywhere she went. Returning to her lunch table was especially awkward. No one knew what to say, until Toph spoke up.
"Nice announcement, Sugar Queen," she had said, and promptly punched Katara in the arm.
Dinner that night was fun too, as Sokka had retold the tale with great enthusiasm in front of their father and grandmother. Katara dreaded going to school the next day, but eventually the next morning came.
"What do you want, Jet?" Katara said as she closed her locker. The other boy had appeared next to her while she was putting her books away.
"I head on the grapevine that you and the new kid are an item," Jet replied smugly, raising his pointy eyebrows suggestively.
"Jet, you're the one who made up that rumor, you heard it from yourself."
"Why would I do that?"
"Probably because you've asked me out every week since 8th grade and I've rejected you every time?" Katara asked sarcastically, shrugging her shoulders. Jet scowled at her. "Don't point your eyebrows at me like that, it's not my fault you've had a criminal record since you were eleven and I don't want to get involved."
"Stealing a candy bar from Walmart is not a criminal record." Jet countered.
"Yeah well selling drugs at the park after school doesn't help your case either." Katara glanced at the clock, "I'm going to be late."
"I'll pick you up tonight at eight."
"You say that like you're kidding but every time you say it I see a car that looks suspiciously like yours' driving past my house right on time," she said, walking away.
When Katara walked into the classroom, Zuko was sitting in his usual spot (duh), staring down at his notebook.
"Hi Zuko," Katara greeted. Zuko grunted in response and scooted his chair farther away from her. She rolled her eyes. Eventually the bell rang, and Mr. Pakku appeared in front of the chalkboard.
"Class, it's time for this year's first project." Zuko sighed. Mr. Pakku looked at him, but continued, "It will be a poster depicting any topic found in our textbooks," Zuko sighed louder. Mr. Pakku looked annoyed, "You will work with your partner, which is the person seated right next to you." Zuko threw his head back and let out a very loud and audible displeased moan. Katara's eye twitched. A couple of kids laughed. Mr. Pakku looked like he was ready to pop, but finished speaking. "It will be due next Wednesday. You have the rest of class to work on it."
"You can do this yourself, right?" Zuko asked, still not turning toward Katara.
"How can you even suggest that? I'm not doing your homework for you!" Katara replied angrily. Zuko leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
"I'm not asking you to do my work, I'm asking you to pretend that I'm not here so you don't have a partner. I don't want to work with you, you're weird."
"I'm weird? I'm not the one who flat out refuses to have any friends at all- speaking of which, I refuse to accept that!"
"I know. The whole school knows after you screamed it at me in the cafeteria, remember? Now I'm associated with you." Zuko said, finally looking at his fuming classmate.
"Well maybe that wouldn't have happened if you had stayed and listened to logic instead of running away like a big dumb baby!" Katara argued, putting her hands on her hips.
"Whatever. When will you be done with the poster?"
"I told you I'm not going to do it by myself, we're working together."
"Yeah, right."
Days and the weekend and some more days rolled by and they still hadn't even started on the project. Both were too stubborn to start the poster themselves, and Zuko refused to give up his lunch or study hall to go work on it with his partner. Eventually it was Tuesday, and the poster was due tomorrow.
Katara approached Zuko at lunch for the first time since her outburst, and leaned over the table. She reached over, pulled Zuko's earbuds out, and spoke.
"Zuko. We haven't started the poster yet," Katara sat down across from him.
"I didn't notice," Zuko said, rolling his eyes.
"What are we going to do? It's due tomorrow. We need to do it after school. Today. I will not have my first Chemistry assignment be late. My grade will drop to an F, and I don't believe in failing grades."
"And my dad said if I ever get an F, he'll stop paying my tuition and I'll have to go back to living with him."
"So…I'll come over after school?" Katara suggested. Zuko sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"I guess so, I'll meet you at your locker after school and I'll drive us to my apartment." Katara's mouth went agape.
"Wait, you think I'll just go into your car with you? You'll probably tie me up and throw me in the trunk and sell my organs on the black market!" she protested, her voice raising to a shout. Zuko stared at her incredulously.
"Whatever, walk then. I live like 20 miles away, good luck." He wrote his address on a piece of paper and put it on the lunch table before getting up and walking away.
"Sokka, I need a ride to Zuko's house," Katara said as she and her brother walked to his big blue van. Sokka opened his mouth to say something, but his little sister cut him off, "For a project. We're making a poster for Chemistry."
"Are you going to be supervised by a trusted adult?"
"How should I know?" Katara asked.
"I don't think you should just go to this guy's house, he seems like a creeper." Sokka shrugged.
"We're just doing homework."
"That's what they all say, then five months later you'll have a bun in the oven and before you know it, little Kataras and baby Zukos will be running around and let me tell you, I will not be the babysitter!" Katara blushed, her eyes wide.
"How can you say that? I would never-"
"Sorry Katara, I don't support this so you'll have to find another way to get to your boyfriend's house." Sokka apologized, shaking his head.
Katara reluctantly searched the parking lot for her science partner, ignoring Jet's whistle and eyebrow-wiggle. Eventually she found who she was looking for; Zuko was in the process of unlocking the door to a beat-up, rusty red car that looked like the seatbelts would be little more than pieces of yarn. Zuko smirked at the approaching girl. Smoke seemed to rise from Katara's ears, her face tomato colored. The nerve of Emo Boy, smiling like he thought he was a real cool guy.
Being in a car with Zuko driving had to be the single most terrifying experience of Katara's young life. If speeding along at 90 miles an hour (in a 25 mile per hour area) wasn't bad enough, Zuko also seemed to have a serious case of road rage. This is including, but not limited to, flipping off an 85 year old woman and screaming obscenities for stopping at a stop sign for too long, screaming "LEARN HOW TO DRIVE YOU DUMB CUNT" at a soccer mom and her two young children for not driving ten miles over the speed limit, and running through stoplights because "THEY'RE NOT MY MOTHER THEY DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO."
Upon arriving in the parking lot for the apartment in which Zuko and his uncle lived, Katara leaped out of the car and fell to her knees, hugging the pavement as if she was a mountain climber who had just reached the summit of Mount Everest. She whirled around at the sound of Zuko closing the car door behind him.
"I'm never getting in a car with you ever again!" Katara screeched.
The two teens entered the apartment and immediately went toward the refrigerator, like normal people do. Zuko noticed the alphabet magnets on the refrigerator door were formed into a message. It said "working late, don't burn the house down (: ," obviously written by Uncle Iroh. Zuko would never put a smiley face or attempt humor or use his childhood refrigerator magnets to write notes instead of just sending his uncle a text.
"Where's the posterboard and markers?" Katara asked suddenly. Oops.
"Uh….."
"You invite me over to make a poster and you have nothing to make it with?"
"I'll just drive to Walmart and get the posterboard and paint, it's just down the street."
"Paint?" Katara raised her eyebrow, "You want to use paint?"
"Uh, yeah, markers are stupid." Zuko rolled his eyes.
"Uh, yeah, no they're not. Paint is too messy," the blue eyed girl argued, putting her hands on her hips.
"Markers are for little kids, I'm not buying markers."
"Markers are more practical than waiting five hours for the paint to dry!"
"I'm getting paint. Just wait here, I'll be back in like ten minutes." Zuko turned to leave, waving her away with his hand/
"No, I'm coming with you to make sure you buy markers instead of paint!" Katara stamped her foot and started to follow. Zuko turned around and held up a hand to say 'stop.'
"Just sit on the couch and watch TV, I'm not letting you ruin my poster!" Zuko said, pointing to the comfy-looking black leather couch in the living room. He turned and started to walk toward the door, but was stopped by a 14 year old girl tackling him from behind.
"I'M COMING WITH, AND WE'RE GETTING MARKERS." Katara demanded, yanking at Zuko's black emo hair.
The drive was surprisingly quiet; Katara just stared out the window, noticing a flashing sign that said, "CAUTION- OUT OF ORDER" above the train-crossing sign. It was quiet, that is, until Zuko made the mistake of speaking again.
"I hope the paint is cheap."
"Markers." Katara corrected.
"I'm not buying markers." Zuko protested, "It's my money."
"The paint is going to warp the paper and it'll be ugly and we'll have a bad grade," Katara countered, "so we're using markers."
"Paint." Zuko looked at her.
"PAINT IS STUPID!" Katara yelled.
"MARKERS ARE CHILDISH!" Zuko yelled back.
Katara glared at him, then glanced at the road after hearing a strangely loud whistling noise, then looked at him again, but did a double take back at the street and wanted to shriek in alarm, but all that came out was, "YOU SUCK AT DRIVING!"
Zuko moaned and made a face that was somewhere between "I'M ABOUT TO DIE OH MY GOD" and "OH MY GOD I JUST PEED MYSELF." This reaction was logical of course, you would do the same thing if you were speeding at 90 miles per hour and about to slam into the side of a train.
LOL There is lots of capslock in this chapter. BD