I had to sharply turn to the right to avoid the fiery comet that whizzed past her face mere inches from my blue eyes.
"Do the words 'Shoulders and below, and play nicely' mean anything to you?" I remarked. Our team was assigned to the fields outside of our school's gate. There was an abundance of lush grass and wild flowers, who seemed to dance in the subtle wind. Toph and Aang were facing off to my right, while Suki and Sokka were fighting to my left. 'While I'm stuck with -'
"Well maybe I actually want to win, I'm playing to win, not to playing nicely." Zuko said competitively. "Deal with it. Let's just fight", he said while already walking towards me. I stayed where I was but drew water from the bucket next to me and sent a blast toward his torso. He dodged it easily.
'Crap.' He then proceeded to send two fireballs at my feet, which inevitably caused me to stumble. I caught myself with a supporting water stand, out of anger I guided a water stream over to my team mate, which curled around his left leg (the one which I noticed he uses the most to balance himself while bending) and froze, locking him to the ground. I had a small feeling of triumph as I walked over to struggling Zuko. "How do you like losing?" I said with a smug smile on my sweaty face. He looked at me quite sanguinely and confidently for the current situation.
"Who said I was losing?" I looked at his hands, which were behind his back. Unfreezing the ice. He looked hard at my face and saw that I found out. With one swift kick he broke out of the thawed ice and knocked me down at the ankles. He strolled over to me, after brushing off the left-over ice nonchalantly. I couldn't see much, a lot of black dots and some funny colourful blurs. But when I regained my sight I saw Zuko was standing over me, his hand holding a fireball dangerously. "How do you like losing?" He said in a mocking tone, I hated it. I rolled my eyes, regaining my breath that I had lost from the hard impact. I finally sat up, but I was only vertical for a few seconds before I flopped back onto the soft grass. My head hurt like hell, and I was sure my body was bruised in many different places. Zuko looked curiously down at me.
"Aww, is Princess Katara hurt" he said in an innocent voice, but I could tell it was very much sarcastic. It made me boil with rage, enough to get me on my feet and stay on them.
"Actually, she is perfectly fine. Now, you can go crawl back into the dark hole you came from." I said with a sweet voice.
"Well I would but my mom's dead", he said sharply. I instantly screwed up my face in disgust.
"Eww, Zuko that's gross. Like disgusting gross. Just, ewww." I gaged for a minute, but I looked to his hanging head and remembered what he said. 'But my mom's dead'. Realization dawned on me, my facials sunk, and apologetic look upon my face appeared.
"Zuko, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- ", I began, an apology on the tip of my tongue.
"No. Just, forget about it." He said coldly, he clearly didn't mean to share that with me, we barely know each other. With that he spun on his heels and stalked off toward the school. I had the urge to comfort him, but I knew it wasn't my place. I decided to go with the rest of the team to lunch. Iroh told us to sit together, but I knew that Zuko wouldn't be joining us. We sat in a circle on the grassy field in the school grounds. It was if we had become celebrities overnight. All the people who aren't fighting in the Competition looked at us in awe. We are required to wear tags so the teachers that we are participating in the competition, and the other students definitely noticed, being a part of the Competition earned a lot of respect from other students. We eat in silence for half of lunch, but a competition was later started by Toph.
"Hi bin!" Sokka managed to say, while holding nine grapes in his mouth, I managed to translate that in to "I win". He shot his arms into the air with a happy smile on his face. Toph sat next to him with eight grapes in her mouth and looked like she had been slapped. She clearly had not expected for Sokka to beat her at her own game. Well if it's one thing I learned while living with Sokka, it's never start any sort of food competition. Whether it's a 'who eats the fastest' or a 'who can fit the most grapes in their mouth', you just don't do it. Because you will lose. Suki and Aang looked horrified, because the look Toph was giving Sokka looked like she was imagining all the ways to kill him. But instead, Toph shot the grapes out of her mouth straight at Sokka. When they made impact, Sokka looked quite shocked. He had never met a girl who would do such a thing. But unlike most boys, who would probably run for their lives, Sokka took this as a challenge and shot his grapes at her as well. This only angered Toph more, as she threw a handful of grapes at Sokka. A few moments later we were all chucking grapes at the others. It made me realise how much fun I could have during this Competition.
After lunch we were to go to the field for more training, but I decided to go to my locker first to get some extra math sheets, I didn't want to fall to far behind in class. I quickly ran to the lockers which were on the third floor. I had just arrived at the third floor when I heard angry voices. They seemed to belong to girls, I wasn't sure of the situation, so I hid behind a pillar and peaked around the corner to see who was speaking. I was surprised to see Leva, she looked my different now though, with her hair falling out of her bun, and tears running down her face. I was about to go and comfort her, but another person's back came in to view. I saw short black hair and pale skin, she had a lean figure and seemed to be about my age. The two didn't seem to be friends. Leva was backed against a row of lockers, and slowly sunk to the ground curling in to a ball. The other girl seemed to be the more powerful one in this situation, as she was towering over Leva. The mysterious girl finally spoke, she was the one I heard yelling down the hall, I could tell because she had the same evil voice I heard before.
"Do you think you can embarrass me like that, and get away with it?" She seethed. I seemed to have walked in to a much more complicated interaction than I originally thought. "Our team will be the joke of the school. And that will be all thanks to you." The girl said. After what seemed like twenty minutes the girl finally moved and turned so I could see her face. She was very pretty, with piercing golden eyes, and I instantly recognized her. Princess Azula. I ducked behind the safety of the pillar. Unsure now of what I should do, I really didn't want to get on Azula's bad side, she could put in a bad word about me to the Headmaster, their families were close friends. I decided to watch for a bit longer, so I could suss out the situation, so I slowly stuck my head out from behind the pillar. When I looked back, Leva was now on her feet. She had puffy eyes, but other than that there was no evidence of her crying. She looked timid, but also had a look of defiance in her eyes, and finally spoke up.
"Listen, I'm just as good a fighter as you are a bender. And just because I'm the only non-bender on the team, doesn't mean we will lose. I bet I'm better than half the other people on the team!" Leva said. Azula stood silent for a moment, before bursting out laughing, and turning to face her sister.
"Ha! You think you're as good a fight as I am a bender. But sweetheart, comparing you to me, is like comparing a mouse to a dragon", Azula paused and looked Leva up and down. I couldn't see her face, but I could imagine the look of disgust upon her face. "You're pathetic", she finished, and stalked down the hall. There was a minute of Leva standing there, she didn't move, she just stood there staring at the floor. I wanted to comfort her, but I also didn't want her to know I was watching the whole time, so I just stayed where I was. She eventually looked up, wiped her eye's, it didn't look like she had shed a tear, she must have practiced it, then she finally headed the down same hallway that Azula had left through. When I was sure she had left, I came out from behind the pillar, I kept replaying the encounter in my mind, but didn't want to keep Iroh waiting so I grabbed my scrolls and headed back to the field.
I sat on the field picking flowers, bored to death. I have already been waiting for ten minutes for the Girl, who I couldn't start without. My black hair was being tousled in the wind, I could fix it, but I knew it wouldn't make a difference when it got tangled again in the next few seconds. I was left to my thought for the next few minutes, before the Girl finally showed up. She seemed to walk slower than normal, probably some girl drama. When she finally reached me, she just grabbed her water bucket and walk to her side in the silence which was usually filled with smack talk. We got in to fighting stance, I could tell she had something on her mind, and that would be her downfall.
In just a few short seconds I had her on her back before she even had a chance to defend, if she preformed this way during the Competition, we would lose. I stormed over to her, filled with an anger that somehow felt misdirected.
"What was that!" I fumed, "If you fight like that when it's the real thing we will lose! You need to get of your sorry ass and fight like you mean it!" I didn't shout, but she definitely knew just how angry I was. Before she had a chance to reply I walked back my spot and stood in my fighting position and didn't move until she was also ready.
This time it took 30 seconds to get her on the ground. I didn't walk over to her I just grunted angrily, then walked to Uncle Iroh. I came up to him, smoke practically coming out of my ears.
"I- ", I started before I was interrupted by my Uncle.
"Okay everyone! Team meeting!" He called out to the rest of the team. I was still fuming from before but sat on the ground when Uncle signalled to do so. We all sat on the grass waiting for what Uncle was about to say. "Okay, so does everyone know how the actual Competition works", he said with a raised eyebrow while pouring himself a cup of tea which he brought with a folding chair and table. Sokka and I were the only people to raise their hand, 'Unbelievable'.
"I seeā¦let me explain" He sat on his seat and began his description of the Competition. "The team is split into three groups, a group of three, a group of two, and one solo fighter. First the group of three will verse the other teams group of three, then two verses two, then one v one. The arena is a circle ten meters above a deep pool, so if you fall of, you're going to get wet. Once the bell sound you can move anywhere on the platform. The elements will be provided for you, with buckets of water and discs made of compacted dirt. The aim of each round is to get all members of the opposite group off the platform and in to the water, each round gives you one minute to do so. Except for the one v one battle, which goes until someone is knocked out of the ring. The rules go like this: Let's say Sokka, Zuko, and Toph are competing in the three v three round, If Sokka is knocked out of the ring, then Zuko gets knocked out, but the one-minute mark is up and Toph is still in the ring, she will play in the last, fourth round. Now let's say Aang and Suki play in the second round, and they both get knocked out, then Katara competes in the one on one match and wins. Because she won the one v one game she can bring in one of the lost players, who are, Zuko, Sokka, Aang, and Suki, to play in the last match, which is all remaining players from both teams fighting against each other. Then which ever team gets all players knocked out loses, and the other team wins. So, let's say she brings in Zuko, and they win the fourth match, that means we win the game, it doesn't matter how many people are left on each side, it only matters who is the last standing in the last match. Say, if Katara lost the third, one v one match, then the other team could pick one player to come and play in the last match, putting us at a great disadvantage, so the third match is one of the most important." There was a moment of silence while, everyone slowly processed the rules of the game. "So, do you all understand". Uncle said with a raised eyebrow, we all nodded our heads. "Okay then, back to your practice", he said and waved us off, and looked hungrily at his tea. I stood and walked over to Uncle, a little less angry than before. I started to speak but as once again interrupted by my uncle. "I know what you wish to talk about", he said as he put his cup down, "It's Katara isn't it?" I nodded, about to rant about her laziness, and not being committed and dedicated to the team, but of course I was stopped. "I know, I saw what was going on. I think you should talk to her, she clearly has something on her mind, and she probably just needs a friend." I just stared at him, 'he must have eaten some sort of forest berry' I thought.
"Uncle, in case you haven't noticed, we are not friends." I said sharply." I just want to win this Competition, not have a heart to heart with her". He said nothing and simply shrugged his shoulders. I angrily growled, and stormed back to my section, with no intention of talking with Katara. She was sitting on the ground making a flower chain. I briskly walked past her, only saying, "get up". She jumped up, clearly more motivated than before, finally. And once we were both ready I made the first move and shot a fireball at her torso.
Well...sorry that was a long break between episodes, I had a LOT of school tests I had to study for and just didn't get around to writing. Sorry there wasn't much Zutara in this episode, yeah it was pretty rushed( but I also don't want to rush the whole Zutara thing). Well I HOPE that next weeks episode will be updated sooner and better written.
