The wall was made of paper. It was a natural tan color, same as wood, completely unbleached or dyed. Perhaps… Daeshim smacked his lips and shook his head. It'd been a long, unproductive day and the hard wooden desk he'd been in for hours was growing more uncomfortable by the heart beat.

His family had moved to the Fire Nation and they hadn't been burned alive as his little sister Cinba had feared. They'd barely been noticed. The merchant they'd travelled with had shown them their new house, been paid, and had been on his way. There had been a lot of Air Nomads around them, nobody from the Fire Nation to speak of. The neighborhood was nicer than that in Gaipan, the houses larger the streets cleaner, but it still looked like a hovel compared with the rest of the city.

Father had sent him here. To school. A place where he was to learn grammar, which was utterly obvious to anyone who'd ever read a book, politics, which he'd have no say in whatsoever, logic, which was self evident to any dimwit, and a weird language called mathematics and some strange philosophy called science. He'd taken half the classes already and the teachers were all imbeciles. They taught every class so slowly, taking circuitous routes to arrive at blatantly predictable points. That was when they didn't say something that was obviously wrong.

"Which was when the Fire Nation squashed the Air Nomad's third attempt to assassinate Fire Lord Roku. Their radical beliefs, most central of all the idea of martyrdom- that you go to an eternal paradise when you sacrifice your life to destroy the non-believers- coupled with the fact that they were indoctrinating the Avatar himself, is why we were forced to do what we had to," said the teacher gravely. He was a short man with golden eyes and sweat dripping off his second chin.

"You're wrong!" Cried a pretty girl with gray eyes and a long braided ponytail. Another Air Nomad. Daeshim thought he recognized her. She must've been from his neighborhood. "The Air Nomad religion is peaceful! It teaches us- them- that it's always wrong to hurt another living being. They were vegetarians for karma's sake. They'd never try to assassinate anyone!"

The teacher's smile went all the way to his eyes. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"Yes," said the unbelievably stupid girl.

The teacher showed his teeth, and gave the girl some rope to hang herself with. "But why else would the Fire Nation bother attacking the Air Temples then?"

"Because you were afraid of the Ava-"

"Because they had access to a weapon of mass destruction," Daeshim interrupted. "The Air Nomads were powerless on their own. They didn't have the technology of the Fire Nation, their people were weak, lazy, and prone to 'bouts of violence. An inferior people. But seeing the wealth of the Fire Nation, they'd grown jealous, and their normally peaceful religion fell to more radicalized beliefs. You can see that they'd been training assassins in the attacks. Some of my people still hold those beliefs, and sing stories of the warrior monk Gyatso, who managed to take down a platoon of soldiers by himself. How could he have done that if the Temples were just a place to find enlightenment? The truth is that they were military bases. You're right Lee, the Fire Nation was afraid of the Avatar. As they should have been. Our people had been training him to overthrow the Fire Nation, so we could steal their wealth for ourselves. You've got to get over your bitterness. Our people lost. We weren't as good as the Fire Nation. But the truth is when the Fire Nation wins, when the Fire Nation is allowed to rule, life is better for everybody. Look at us. We're no longer starving. We're educated. We're living a much better life than we would have if our people still had independence."

"You? You're a?" The pretty girl's face turned as red as an overripe tomato. "Traitor! I'm telling everyone in the neighborhood about how you're not a true Air Nomad!"

And she ran out of the classroom, probably to go home and make good on her threats. They'd believe her. He'd lived with Air Nomads his entire life and most of them were as dumb as a pile of rocks, just as stupid as those from the Earth Kingdom, and if these classes were any indication, the Fire Nation too. But when he went home and explained to his parents what had happened, Father would be proud of him. He'd saved that girl from commiting treason and in the process saved her life. Daeshim sighed. It wasn't worth it. He should've let her hang herself. Maybe he was a bad person, but he cared what people thought of him. He wanted to be liked. Reputation was more important than integrity.

"What's your name son?" Asked the teacher, staring at Daeshim.

"It's Daeshim sir."

The teacher shook his head and tut-tutted. "We'll have to get you a proper Fire Nation name Daeshim. I don't want your heritage holding you back. I have no doubt that you're the most intelligent student in this room. Your rhetoric is outstanding. Much better than anyone here. Don't you agree?"

Daeshim froze. All eyes on him. If he agreed he'd offend the other students. If he denied he'd be disagreeing with the teacher. An authority figure. "Of course sir. Thank you sir."

The teacher gave him a nasty grin, and whispered, "Which question do you think those retards assume you answered?"

"It depends on where they're from sir."

The teacher laughed and dismissed the class.

During lunch he was avoided by both the Air Nomads and Fire Nation children. All alone. In a foreign country. Surrounded on all sides by enemies. When the bell finally rang, and the students were herded into another prison cell, Daeshim couldn't wait to get home, and explain to his parents why he simply couldn't return to such a horrible place.

No.

It wouldn't work. Father didn't care about him anymore. That's what Wangpo had told him right, that his father wanted another son? That's why Daeshim had been sent here. Father was no fool. He knew the Fire Nation was prejudiced. He'd known what a nightmare it would be for Daeshim. He just didn't care. Nobody did.

A tall stern woman dressed in Fire Nation red swept into the room. She had a joyless look, with big dark bags under her eyes. "What is x?" She wrote an equation on the blackboard: 4x-8=12.

"Five," Daeshim said bitterly. "And if you don't mind me asking, what does this have to do with anything?"

"You're new here?" The teacher asked, blushing. "I'm sorry but I don't recognize you."

"Yes Ma'am."

"So you've gone over this in your old school? Maybe we can send you to a more advanced class-" the teacher frowned. "How'd you solve it?"

"Isn't it obvious? If you plug five in for x,the equation works."

"Oh I see, you're really smart but you don't know anything." She wrote another equation on the blackboard: 2x+10=5x+8.

"X is three halves," Daeshim said, bored. Mathematics was a waste of time. At least it had numbers, but it was still obvious and dull.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "Where you from dude?"

"Um, Ember Island," Daeshim lied. He really hoped she didn't ask him any questions about the place. If it got out he was from the Earth Kingdom that would be the end of him and all his family.

"I see," said the teacher. "See me after class. I gotta talk to you about something, but for now solve this problem." She wrote another equation down: 5-8=?

And Daeshim realized he couldn't. Why couldn't he? It was an easy question, he could tell.

The other students started to giggle.

The teacher drew a line on the blackboard, and explained the concept of negative numbers.

It was quite simply the most beautiful thing in the world.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter.