Yay! Chapter one time! Remember to review! I still don't own anything you recognize (no references in this chapter though)!
I was always living on the streets, ever since I was a kid. My father had been a prideful man (maybe sensitive due to his inability to bend) and when his honor was offended, he challenged the person who'd insulted him to a fight. One day, he picked a Republic City metalbender and was promptly arrested on the spot. A few other metalbenders came to my home to inform his family, me and my mother. That's when they found me, malnourished and neglected by my earthbending mother who had better things to do than care for her 1 and a half year old child, namely drinking.
It only took them seconds to transfer me to the orphanage. It took me weeks to learn that my mom had died of alcohol poisoning.
"Avatar Aang Memorial Orphanage" wasn't a bad place. The monks took care of us and kept us fed, but we weren't allowed to bend. Anyone caught bending would be on the monks' "stink-eye list", as the older kids called it. Maybe they had that same sensitivity that my father had.
When I thought about it that way, the less I liked the place. Everything began to remind me of my father. That's why I was happy when I was finally adopted when I was around 4.
The Wans were so nice when they adopted me, always asking how I was and if I liked this or that. When I found that I was an earthbender, they were genuinely happy for me. I knew them as "Mom" and "Dad", and I loved them wholeheartedly. My new Mom, a nonbender, worked for Cabbage Corp and my new Dad, a waterbender, a fisherman. We lived happy simple lives and they taught me how to fish (albeit poorly), bargain, and what it was like to be loved.
Being loved as a child feels like soft wet mud on your feet and between your toes. It feels like sand from the beach that somehow got under your shirt. Like lying next to the window like a bear-cat so that the sun warms your whole soul. Sometimes it was irritating, but mostly it's a pleasing feeling.
At least, until it's gone.
You see, around the time I was 6, Mrs. Sato died. All of a sudden, Satomobiles weren't being invented and improved. The economy went down and my parents, who weren't making much money in the first place, were being paid even less. We were officially dirt poor.
One day, Mom and Dad came to me with sad looks on their faces. Mom looked ready to break and Dad seemed to be on the verge of tears himself. Or maybe my memory serves only to try and flatter me. No matter how they looked though, it didn't change what they said.
"Skooch, you know times are hard now." my adopted mother began.
"We can barely afford food and we both think you deserve so much better." Dad jumped in.
"Please," Mom begged. "You have to know we have no other choice and that we love you as if you were our own son!"
I was shaking by now and could only look them in the eyes just enough to see my suddenly ex-father bending back his tears.
"Goodbye son."
I was left with some of my belongings, the others I told them to pawn, at the door step to a new orphanage. This one was nothing at all like the first. I was fed, but only enough to keep me alive, I was "too old" to need caring for, and bending was encouraged when punishing other children. I stayed for a little over a month until a particularly harsh beating for "eating too fast" made me crack. I bended pieces of the orphanage's off-white brick wall at the floor around my tormentor to create a blinding dust cloud and a hole large enough to escape out of.
After that, I vowed no more orphanages. I also met Shady Shin, but that can wait until next chapter.
